Plot Twists: What Are They and How to Plot Them

The straight and well-defined line of the Plot Planner is an attempt to control the twistier and often blurry reality of the Universal Story. Plot twists engage readers. Each time the dramatic action twists in an unexpected (and carefully foreshadowed) direction the protagonist is forced to define new goals and perform difficult tasks, pointing the reader in the direction of her true goal.

At each of the 4 Energetic Markers, imagine and list five horrible antagonists that create five most horrible events. Look for people and action that feel the most thematically true to the protagonist's ultimate transformation AND that twists the story in a new (and carefully foreshadowed) direction. The Plot Planner guides the direction and degree of story intensity and provides a place for expansion. Each horrible thing broadens the readers appreciation of the protagonist's sense of self beyond the limitations of what was currently visible in the story.

The New England Horror Writers (NEHW) just today followed me on Twitter, @NEhorrorwriters and RTed one of my tweets to their followers. I followed back with the comment how horror writers penetrate our deepest fears and bring darkness to light.

In real life most of us run from the dark. We're afraid of the unknown and always looking for the light or dulled to an ashy grey. We deny our feelings and our protagonist's their shadows. We attempt to navigate the straight and narrow line of the Plot Planner, afraid of losing control of the story and falling into an abyss.

The braver you are, the bigger your story. Rather than confuse the reader, each plot twist spins the story deeper into the darkness of what haunts the protagonist, urges her to take heart and gather her courage for her next defined test of initiation and, in the end, brings the light and her true personal power.

At each step deeper, name the emotion. Search for the truth in the emotion. Convey that step, that emotion in an active, energetic and meaningful way, fulfilling the three major plot lines:

Character Emotional Development Plot -- emotion
Dramatic Action Plot -- steps taken / resistance met
Thematic Significance Plot -- defines that action / the meaning of her emotion

At each twist and turn and dark thing that happens as she pursues lofty ideals define her next specific short-term goal. Imagine the next horrible thing, obstacle, challenge, demon she meets. Foreshadow and twist the forward action in yet a different direction that affords a new view of her. Show emotions thematically true to her.

Each time an antagonist twists the story in a new direction, the protagonist defines a new goal like an arrow flying in the direction that brings forward her true purpose, releases power and provides her the freedom to conquer her fears and align with the final confrontation in her willingness to transform.

Emotional Elements of Plot: Stories that Last Evoke Emotion

Dramatic action creates the pace of a story and determines the level of story excitement. The thematic significance reveals the meaning of the piece.

An emotional connection is fused between the reader and the story through the character emotional development. Not simply how a character develops and transforms physically and intellectually, outfoxing and out-thinking and out-performing an antagonist, readers feel an emotional connection through the development of a character’s emotional maturity. In other words, how a character develops emotionally and spiritually provides connection, identification and interest.

Emotion and Emotional Development 
How do the following two lists differ and how are they the same?

• Honest
• Courageous
• Deceitful
• Stingy
• Fugal
• Shy

Versus

• Anger
• Frustration
• Pensive
• Apologetic
• Defensive
• Happy

Each of the examples originates in the character. How they differ is one is a list of character traits. The second list is of emotions.

Character emotional development and emotional change are each an essential scene element. They both: sound alike are related are often confused

Character Emotional Development 
Showing how the character’s traits change and/or transform over the course of the entire story defines the character emotional development plot and the development of such is an essential element in every scene. The protagonist’s emotional development takes place over time and culminates at the end of the story in a lasting transformation. The character’s emotional development can be plotted from the beginning to the end of the story.

Emotional Change 
In every scene, the protagonist displays a range of emotion reactions to the dramatic action. How she reacts often is reflective of the burden she carries from her backstory. These emotions, which fluctuate within each scene, are usually transitory and fleeting. Showing your character’s emotions shift and change is an essential element in every scene.

Plot is how the events in a story directly impact the main character. Always, in the best-written stories, characters are emotionally affected by the events of the story. In great stories, the dramatic action transforms characters. This transformation makes a story meaningful. The dramatic action demands a goal. The character emotional development demands growth.

Steps toward Transformation 
Each obstacle and antagonist in the dramatic action plot provides the protagonist with opportunities to learn about herself and thus advance her character emotional development plot. Before she can transform, she first must become conscious of her strengths and weaknesses. Stories show a character changing, at the least, and transforming at the most profound. Often you can accomplish this by creating a flawed character. Eventually, she will have to face that flaw and overcome it in order to achieve her ultimate goal.

Examples of Character Flaws

• Always the victim and unable to take responsibility for actions           
• Control freak
• Argumentative and short-tempered 
• Liar and a cheat 
• Stubborn 
• Always has to be right 
• Perfectionist 
• Procrastinator 
• Sits in judgment

The main character’s flaw establishes the protagonist’s level of emotional maturity and points to the potential for growth or transformation. Her flaw interferes with achieving her goal and riles up her emotions.

How to Use a Character Flaw 
A character flaw is a coping mechanism that arises from the loss of an original state of perfection that occurred in the character’s backstory. The character stores the emotion created by what happened in the backstory. Her flaw is designed to compensate for a perceived vulnerability, sense of insecurity, and feeling threatened.

No matter how confident, every major character demonstrates lessons learned from the wound inflicted in her backstory that now is lodged in her core belief system. In reaction, she often surrenders some or all of the authority over her own life to someone or something else.

Emotion in the Beginning 
The beginning of your story establishes who the character is, flaws and all. Your readers can look back to this portrait and compare it to who she becomes as she undergoes a transformation after the crisis. The portrait also foreshadows who she will be at the climax.

At the beginning of a story, the character’s emotional reactions help identify and introduce her. By the end of the beginning scene at the one-quarter mark of a story, all of the protagonist’s most defining traits, positive and negative have been introduced. This turning point scene reveals the most defining character trait of all.

What emotion does your protagonist communicate about entering the middle of the story?

• eager 
• reluctant 
• resistant 

This choice of hers shows her defining character trait starting out the story:

• courageous 
• timid 
• afraid 

Emotions Intensify in the Middle
The emotions the protagonist managed to keep in check in the beginning of the story begin to unravel in the chaos and uncertainty of the unfamiliar world in the middle of a story. Overwhelmed and fearful, challenged and hurt, the protagonist becomes vulner­able. Most importantly, the middle deepens the audience’s appreciation for the protagonist’s emotional maturity, or lack thereof, by her emotional reactions as the obstacles become more difficult to surmount.

All the outer events, ordeals, successes, and failures of the character constitute the dramatic action of a story and provide the catalyst for change. The farther the protagonist penetrates into the new world of the middle and the more obstacles she confronts, the character’s emotional defenses begin to break down and her emotions turn bleaker and darker. Unable to function at a superficial level any longer, she begins to experience heightened emotions, ones that touch the core of her being. When she is prevented from reaching her goal, her emotional reaction changes subtly over time, flicking back and forth in the scene like a trapped fly.

Emotional Maturity 
One of the defining elements of the final quarter of a story are the number of complications the protagonist is slapped the nearer she moves toward achieving her goal. With each complication, the protagonist suffers some sort of reversal. Yet, unlike the reversals in the middle of the story, the protago­nist no longer loses power even if she is physically, mentally or emotionally restrained or injured. As the character emotional development changes, her emotional expression changes, too. What begins with the display of emotional upheaval transforms into emotional maturity.

At the end of a story, as a result of the action on the page, the character’s transformation is revealed through the change in her choices and in her emotional responses from how she acted in the beginning and in the middle. 

The plot of a story is about a character faced with a series of conflicts and obstacles while in pursuit of a goal, which, over time, inspire her to change her choices. In the end, she is transformed, and her ultimate transformation creates her anew with a different understanding of herself and her existence.
 ~~~~~~~~
For more: Read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers
~~~~~~~~~

Time to rewrite your story? 

• Ready for a massive rewrite? Re-vision first!
• Confused about what you're really trying to convey in your story?
• Lots of action, no character development? Lots of character development and no action?
• Looking for tips to prop up your middle with excitement? 
• Wishing you understood how to show don't tell what your character is feeling? 
• Are even you sometimes bored with your own story?
• Long to form your concept into words? 

We can help you with all of that and so much more! View your story in an entirely new light. Recharge your energy and enthusiasm for your writing.

PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month includes 8 videos  (5.5 hours)  + 30 exercises total

PlotWwiMo: REVISE YOUR NOVEL IN A MONTH

Happy New Year!

I appreciate each of you who showed up for the 6th Annual PlotWriMo. International Plot Writing Month began as plot support for writers coming out of the generative stupor of an intense month-long NaNoWriMo.

We used the Plot Planner as a place to help you balance your intuitive impressions of your story with an equal counterforce: logic. The exercises were intended as pathways to a deepened understanding of your story and all plot levels:

• Thematic Significance 
• Dramatic Action
• Character Emotional Development 
• Cause and Effect 
• Antagonists
• Setting 
• Subplots 
• Secondary Characters 
• Beginning, Middle, End 
• Scene Development
• Tension and Suspense

*****Time is running out to sign-up with literary agent Jill Corcoran and me for the 1st ever online, live Plot Whisperer Workbook Workshops evening chats beginning next Tuesday (1/7/14) from 5:45pm Pacific to 8pm for four weeks in January. A few spaces available in the evening. One left beginning 1/9 in the am.

If you benefit from:
1) being held accountable
2) receiving constructive feedback on your plot and concept
3) learning from other writers
join us and continue to deepen your plot and your understanding of your story concept with a comp analysis -- all ages, all genres, characters.

How to Plot and Write the Climax of Your Story

Knowing how your story ends (in this case, the climax, not the resolution) makes plotting and writing the beginning of a novel, memoir, screenplay easier than if you don't know the climax. Truth is, until you write the end—the climax—you do not have a clear grasp of what comes earlier. Notice I say "write the climax" not merely plot the climax, hence the most compelling of the 7 reasons to write a fast draft all the way through before going back .

Folly, by award-winning mystery writer Laurie R. King , is driven by solving the mystery of who's on the island with her and even more enticing will she or won't she succumb to death. Thus, Folly, is equally a dramatic action and character emotional development story.

For more about how to plot the climax of your story, join me from the comfort of your home for this 1 1/2hour plot webinar hosted by The Writers Store: Writing Strong Crisis and Climax Scenes: The Two Keys to Screenplays That Connect with Audiences (and Hollywood)
  ~~~~~

Take the PLOTWRIMO Pre-Challenge:

You have 1 Month and 4 days to get a draft written in time for PlotWriMo. Beginning December 1st, follow the exercises on the Plot Whisperer blog to re"vision" and redefine the plot arc of your story. PlotWriMo is custom designed to ensure your success even during the busiest time of the year.
Begin 2014 ready for a powerful rewrite.
~~~~~
The following resources support you in your pre-challenge:
1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of

The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
named BEST BOOKS FOR WRITERS by Poets&Writers. The author provides insight on how to create works of fiction with powerful stories and focuses on how to devise a Universal Plot, plot lines and subplots, compelling scenes, and character transformation.
 
3) Refer to The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing

for writing prompts for scene #1 to the very The End, one prompt at a time.

4) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

5) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:

Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)

Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Plot Whisperer on Pinterest 

***** Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts in The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

Today, I write.

It's Going to Take all Your Strength & Your Protagonist's, too, to Lift Your Novel, Memoir, Screenplay to a Climax

A writer who readily admits she struggles with plot and feels pulled to write about characters and relationships did the heavy lifting. She wove together character emotional development with exciting dramatic action and thematic significance.

Trouble arrives after the climax. The story continues... for quite awhile, many scenes, in some of which the protagonist is downright passive. Finally, comes the resolution and true end.

When the writer complains how her subplots carry the same weight as the main plot, she reveals the solution to her problem. Rather than compete with the through-line of the story, subplots serve the primary plot. What is the primary plot? The protagonist's core conflict.

In this instance, the core conflict centers around accepting and understanding the gift the protagonist is born with and has denied her entire life. Yes, finding and facing her father is key to the protagonist's successful completion to her goal. The true climax, however, shows the protagonist using her gift consciously. She doesn't have to be successful. Sometimes, failure reveals the true gift is a nice plot twist. Or, as the writer says: sometimes when you look for one thing, you find something else you truly need instead. The protagonist does have to take action showing her embracing her gift.

For more support about the Climax and ending of your story:

1) Chapter 11 and 12 of: The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master 

AND
Chapter 15 of: The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step by Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories 

2) Watch:

• How to Create a Climax
• The Climax using in Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

For more about the Universal Story and writing the end of a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube.

3) Begin writing now to complete an entire draft of your novel, memoir, screenplay in time for PLOTWRIMO, beginning December 1st.

For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:

Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)

Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Plot Whisperer on Pinterest

Use Setting to Deepen Readers' Appreciation Of Your Protagonist's Character Emotional Development

A story is about a character transformed over time by the dramatic action.

To make this character transformation more dramatic, great writers convey who the character is within the safety of a world that is familiar to her before thrusting her into a new world. The ordinary world gives the reader insight into the values, background, and habits of the protagonist (or lack thereof).

Usually the protagonist has a life before the story begins, although some stories such as Ursula Hegi’s Stones of the River begin on or nearly at the protagonist’s birth. The reader, in the first part of the story, gains a sense of the main character’s framework of relationships and the degree to which she’s governed by them. This gives the reader a starting point from which to evaluate the emotional change in the protagonist as she is forced to break away and rely on herself in the middle of the story.

In her usual life, customs, dogma, rules, and regulations come from outside the protagonist. They often form a kind of inner protection for her.

In the middle of the story when this protection is stripped away, she becomes vulnerable.

If we grasp the comfortable, safe, and well-fed environment the protagonist has always known, it’s easier for us to sympathize when she wonders why she left it in pursuit of a solitary, difficult, and dangerous new world.

Exercise:
Cut out a magazine picture that represents the setting of the protagonist’s ordinary world (her house, community, country, planet, depending on the needs of your particular story). If you can’t find something suitable, draw one or use a photo of a place you know that embodies the qualities you envision for your protagonist’s home, neighborhood, community, and so on. Affix this visual representation of your main character’s usual world above the beginning section of your plot planner to stimulate ideas.
(Excerpt from The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master.)

*****SPECIALS*******

1) Track Your Plot at the Scene Level Webinar
Learn to Maximize the 7 essential plot elements in every scene (one of 7 essential plot elements in every scene is CONFLICT) from the comfort of your own home.

*****

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts inThe Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

Today, I write.

To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms used here and in the PW Book of Prompts:
1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter
Plot Whisperer on Pinterest

Internal Goals versus External Goals

Every character wants something. You (and your character) must decide what she is willing to give up to achieve her goal. This begins the character’s emotional development plot.

The specific actions the character takes to realize her goal comprise the dramatic action plot. Tie the character’s private passion to a bigger, more transformative universal subject, and a thematic plot is launched.

When the dramatic action changes the character over time, the story becomes thematically significant. Think of the action, character, and thematic plot lines as parts of the whole. Then separate them and assign each plot a different color sticky note on your Plot Planner.

For now, let’s concentrate on getting the front story going. The plot of a story is about a character faced with a series of conflicts and obstacles while in pursuit of a goal, which, over time, inspire her to change her choices. In the end, she is transformed, and her ultimate transformation creates her anew with a different understanding of herself and her existence.

For you to write about a character pursuing her goal, you first need to know what her goals are. Before you know how her choices will change, you must discover what motivates her choices to begin with. To write about a character’s transformation, you first must appreciate how she views herself and the world around her now, at the beginning of the story.

 The thread that keeps the reader hooked is the tension in not knowing what the protagonist will do (her choices) when confronted with the next impossible scenario. The reader thinks she knows and reads on to learn if she is right or if the story will shift into a new, though foreshadowed, direction.
(Excerpt from The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.)

*****SPECIALS*******

1) Track Your Plot at the Scene Level Webinar
Learn to Maximize the 7 essential plot elements in every scene (one of 7 essential plot elements in every scene is CONFLICT) from the comfort of your own home.

*****

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts inThe Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

Today, I write.

To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms used here and in the PW Book of Prompts:
1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter
Plot Whisperer on Pinterest

How Character Emotional Development Merges with Thematic Significance

A character's belief system directly influences the choices she makes.

The following are three different reactions to the same experience based on three different belief systems or three different character emotional developments. Each example offers its own thematic significance or deeper meaning.

The protagonist is a single mother. With children to feed, she is grateful to be hired on as a night watchman. Once on the job, the woman hears screams and pleads come from the warehouse on the property she is responsible for.

She witnesses the boss zap the workers with a cattle prod. Workers beg for mercy as they are held against their will. The boss instructs the woman to throw the switch to electrical fence if any of the workers try to escape over barbed wire. They will be electrocuted. The boss leaves.

Up until this point, the woman has shown disbelief on her face and discomfort in her body language. Even so, she does as she is told. With the electric fence in play, the character must make a decision when the workers plead for mercy as they try to escape.

3 Different Emotional Development Reflecting 3 Different Meanings to the Story
The workers pleads with her:
1) If the protagonist believes that to keep your job, you do what you are told, no matter how inhumane you believe it is, she throws the switch.

2) If protagonist believes that when someone is down kick him, she not only throws switch, she also kicks the workers as they wither on the ground in panic and pain.

3) If the theme of the story is that there comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to take a stand, the protagonist refuses to throw the switch and restrains the boss from using the cattle prod, frees the workers and quits the job.

In each segment, the protagonist’s emotional development based on her belief system and developed directly from her backstory wound, plays directly into the deeper meaning of your story.

(Excerpt taken from:  Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple: Take the Panic Out of Plot.)

For an in-depth resource to all the questions to ask about conflict when writing a novel, memoir, screeplay, refer to  The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.

*****SPECIALS*******

1) Track Your Plot at the Scene Level Webinar
Learn to Maximize the 7 essential plot elements in every scene (one of 7 essential plot elements in every scene is CONFLICT) from the comfort of your own home.

*****

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot allows for a more loving relationship with your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts inThe Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing

Today, I write.

To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms used here and in the PW Book of Prompts:

1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Writing the End of a Story

As you write to the end, keep in mind where your character is going, what she believes she needs to confront in order to be complete or to make up for what happened at the crisis, and that one thing she’s been waiting to do her entire life. Identify the special skills and knowledge she needs to succeed at the climax.

SPECIAL NOTE:

Next month is PlotWriMo when I guide you through re"vision"ing your plot arc for a major rewrite in the new year.

While awaiting December 1st, I offer plot tips via Twitter and Facebook to ensure your success in achieving your writing goals during NaNoWriMo and thus have a rough draft to revision throughout December.

I hope to periodically extend more in-depth plot support on this blog during November, though I'm mostly saving my energy for next month when I'll blog about each new revision step everyday for the entire month.

Of course, you can always create plot while you write during NaNoWriMo with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.

Coming Soon! 
The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing. Available for pre-order now. Ships 12/12.

More Plot Tips: 

1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of

The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

2) For plot concepts and insight into the roller-coaster ride writing a novel, memoir, screenplay can be, read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

3) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

4) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

For additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Plot-lines All in A Knot

The story you're writing and the audience you're writing it for help determine the exact right number of plots and subplots the story requires.

The complexity and number of plots differ for a storybook as compared to a middle-grade novel versus an epic historical or character-driven women's fiction that feature relationship plot-lines between several main characters.

No matter how many or how few plots your genre demands, every great tale separates out at least three major plot-lines:

A character transforms (character emotional development plot) 

in a meaningful way (thematic significance plot) 

by what happens in the story (dramatic action plot). 

Coming Soon!
The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing is available for pre-order now. Ships 12/12.

More Plot Tips: 

1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories 

2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

3) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

4) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

For additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Deconstruct the Protagonist

Fascinating plot consultation today. The writer knows how she wants the story to end -- the Climax -- and needed support to find a way to get there. 

I have found that writers who know the end of the story early on in the writing of a story often are able to stay on track more easily than writers who have no idea where they are going (though if you're one who has no idea of the end, eventually you'll finish the first draft and know the Climax and thus, have the same advantage as the writer who knows the Climax before starting out). 

Either way, knowledge of the climax determines so many of the earlier decisions you need to make. 

The action the protagonist takes at the climax reveals what traits, knowledge, and skills are necessary for her to prevail. Thus, these necessary skills will be missing at the beginning and she will need relearn or rediscover them throughout the middle. Some skills she will be learning for the first time, but the true skills necessary for success at the climax are rediscovered after having been lost or buried due to her backstory. This is a backward approach to developing a character, deconstructing the end character to determine who she is at the beginning.

Most writers write with a forward approach to developing a character. You fill in a flaw, a strength, and five other character traits on the character profile. Either you begin writing first and the character reveals these traits to you, or you decide upon the character traits first and then construct a character using those traits. However, today was the writer who represent those who write from the climax back to the beginning.

What kind of writer are you?

All of this information and will be found in:
The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master released by Adams Media October 2011. Order NOW and receive it in time to pre-plot for NaNoWriMo in November!

For immediate tips about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

A Personal Glimpse into Character Emotional Development

Steeped in nature and beauty, surrounded by writers willing to take a risk, for five days, I went through the process of creating and analyzing plot at both the scene and the overall story level.

Several writers at last week's plot retreat were local. The rest flew in from Nevada, Colorado, Mississippi and handful from southern California. Some of the writers knew me from plot consultations and previous workshops and retreats. Others were familiar only through my book and/or other plot tools and YouTube Plot Series.

The focus on Character Emotional Development plot brings up opportunities to use the writing life as examples writers can relate to along with classic novels, memoirs, and screenplays. 

It was an incredible five days. Thanks to each of you for taking time out of your busy lives and attending. You touched my heart in deep and wondrous ways.

Fill in the Character Profile below for your protagonist (the character who is most changed by the dramatic action), any other major viewpoint characters and, if there is one, the character who represents the major antagonist for the protagonist. If you decide to do it for yourself as a writer, too, I'd love to learn your answers. You do not have to include your name.

1. What is this character's goal?

2. What stands in the way of the character achieving his/her goal?

3. What does the character stand to lose if he/she does not achieve his/her goal?

4. What is the character's flaw or greatest fault?

5. What is the character's greatest strength?

6. What does the character hate?

7. What does the character love?

8. What is the character's greatest fear?

9. What is the character's dream?

10. What is the character's secret?

Character Emotions

Someone asked after reading Return of the Sacred Feminine what the Sacred Feminine actually is. 

I'm not an expert by any means. If fact, I'm not really sure I know the answer well enough to respond. What I do know, or at least, feel is that with all the war and upheaval going on there is an imbalance. 

I found on the internet that the Sacred Feminine is associated with the qualities of wisdom, justice, beauty, and compassion. The Sacred Feminine destroys old forms and brings new ones into being (which certainly seems to be occurring now). The Sacred Feminine connects us to our instincts, our feelings, and the imagination of the heart.

The last two qualities point to two critical elements writers employ when writing novels, memoirs, and screenplays:

1. destruction of the character's old personality to bring about character transformation 
   
2. showing character's emotions and the expression of emotion, not through internal monologue but through actions, reactions, non-verbal communication, and what comes through the body not the mind.

More plot posts on:

#1 Character Transformation

Plot versus Character

Meaning of Crisis and Climax

Character Transformation

#2 Character Emotion

Character Emotion

Character Emotion cont.

More on Emotion and Plot

More on Emotion and Plot

Following the in-depth article Emotion Makes the Character with tips for creating emotion in your characters, I offer the following:

Use of the following behaviors, which impede effective communication, create conflict and tension and reveal character:

Walking away
Sarcasm
Blame
Short Temper
Withdrawal
Not listening
Talking over
Looking away
Shouting
Anger
Criticism
Intellectualizing
Debating the complaint
Threatening to leave
Counter-complaints

(List is thanks to my dear friend, Teresa LeYung Ryan, and Emillo Escudero. Thanks!)

Gotta run. More later....

Blah Protagonist

Character makes the story. Character draws us into the story. The reader and the audience have to like the characters before they will commit to the story.

A blah protagonist, passive, and pretty quiet (like writers often tend to be) makes for a blah, passive, quiet story.

To spice up the protagonist, give her a goal. The goal has to be specific and quantifiable. Gets her moving. Gets the story moving.

Give her something to do.

Start the story with a dramatic question:

Is she going to... or not? Will he.... or not? Did they... or not?

She takes steps necessary to answer the question.

A concrete goal gives protagonist action so the reader can react to what the character does rather than merely follow her internal monologue.

Get her moving. Let her actions define her.

Cut all flashbacks.

For more on goal setting:

• read my article in the March '10 issue of The Writer (on book stands mid-Feb.)

• Dreams versus Goals 
  

The Importance of Character

A dear, dear friend asked me what I thought of an editor's comments regarding her latest book. Having been told that the book did not have a wide enough appeal to a general audience but rather more valued by family and friends who could fill in the gaps, my friend turned to me. 

First let me say that my friend has had / is having an amazing life and that she is a terrific writer -- she has a wonderful way with words and, though this latest book comes closer to a true memoir than her first book -- a collection of non-fiction vignettes-- I agree with the editor. 

Without having dropped the veil on her own personal story and the deeper story of her relationships, the reader never has a chance to see how she is changed by the journey she undertakes in the story. Instead of more closely concentrating on her inner evolution, she focused on the outside. And, by keeping herself at a distance, the reader in the end is robbed of the true joy of reading -- identification. 

Universal appeal comes through the character -- the inner plot, not though the dramatic action -- the outer plot. The protagonist (in a memoir, that means you, the author) drives the story and the allows for an emotional involvement on the part of the reader. 

Yes, my friend wrote herself in such a way that she comes across strong and both empathetic and sympathetic. However, without a clear goal and an clearly identified inner problem that gets solved, the reader is left to fill in the gaps.

Key elements in the character inner plot:

1) The protagonist must grow throughout the story in a believable and meaningful way. 

2) Protagonist goal = must be specific. The goal is what motivates the character and is what allows the reader to gauge when the character comes closer to goal and when she is thrust further away. What does the character want and why?

2) The character must reveal themselves to the reader. This can be accomplished through dialogue and descriptions, and through the actions she takes. In whichever way the writer finds to "show" the character, the character's emotion must be included = Character Emotional Development. 

3) The secondary and minor characters act as real people who offer comparisons and contrasts to the main character, thus expanding the readers' understanding of the protagonist and of the overall theme itself.

4) Is the character struggling against herself and an external antagonist? Whether an inner demon or flaw and / or an external antagonist, we must understand the obstacles in the way of the protagonist achieving her goal to more fully appreciate the growth she ultimately makes.

For a simple questionnaire to help develop your protagonist's inner and outer plot, fill out the Character Emotional Development Profile.

How Much Plot is Too Much Plot?

Question: 

I know the entire story. I'm just not sure how much to tell.

Answer:

Tell only the parts that show more about: 

1) the character emotional development -- this info should come in stages, revealing deeper and deeper layers, the deeper and deeper the reader reads

2) the theme -- as the plot advances, the thematic significance of the story deepens

3) the dramatic action -- action becomes dramatic when filled with conflict, tension, suspense, and / or curiosity -- the sense of threat is both internally and externally driven

4) the details that make up with world the characters live in -- use only authentic and specific details and go for as much symbolism as possible

Tell nothing more. Show nothing less.

Character Transformation

The moment the protagonist is hit with the decision whether to change or remain the same either comes at the:

• 1/2 way point (based on the page or scene count) or
• 3/4 mark or the Crisis 

In some stories, the character emotional development plot line (CED) "wake-up call" occurs at the 1/2 way point. 

In other stories, the CED plot hits simultaneously with the dramatic action (DA) plot line at the 3/4 mark or the Crisis, the moment of greatest energetic impact in the story so far .

Either way, after the Crisis, the character is left to decide whether to take the hit to heart or not.

If the character understands the part she plays in her inability to achieve her long term goals and is willing to change, thus begins her conscious move toward transformation.

Keep in mind this forward movement is not smooth.

The best way I can explain how this path unfolds is to use an example from my life before I started writing and helping other writers develop the plot and structure of their stories. 

Years ago I had a clinic for kids with speech, language, and learning disabilities. When working with kids to master a new skill, I found they generally pass through three distinct stages:

1) Emergence -- in other words, the "new" behavior reveals itself only intermittently and when the child is consciously aware and trying. However, in play and when the child is not concentrating, the predominate behavior continues to be the "old" way.

This is also true of the protagonist after they decide to banish their inappropriate behavior or try to change a deeply entrenched negative habit. 

2) Regression -- in most cases, when the "new" behavior becomes more and more habituated, the time come when the child slides back to the "old" behavior. This set-back can be caused by stress or change. However, often, it is merely a time when the "old" behavior gives one last great gasp in its attempt to hold the child back. 

If the CED plot line Crisis hits at the 1/2 way point, then the regression or set-back takes place at the 3/4 mark and usually has a direct influence on the DA Crisis. If the CED plot line crisis hits at the Crisis at the 3/4 mark then the regression will come closer to the Climax at the end.

3) Mastery -- most of us do not come to mastery over an old habit without some struggle. Eventually, if effort is put forth and the "new" behavior is consciously worked on, mastery will come. Parents do not always understand this. They expect that with consciousness of how to perform the "new" behavior mastery is automatic. In the classroom, I often found that teachers shared the same expectations. Kids are tested on the information at a mastery level rather than as an emerging behavior 1st and mastery over time.

Lots of writers I work with operate under the same assumption. The Crisis hits. The protagonist's eyes are open as to how their flaw interferes with them attaining their life goal. Automatic mastery. Wrong!

This is almost never the case in real life or in stories. Try it yourself. Decide to change a behavior that has been habituated over time. See how many mistakes you make and revert back to the "old" behavior before you find yourself at a mastery level.

Mastery for the protagonist is shown in all its glory at the Climax at the end of the book where the character shows their true and ultimate transformation.

One Plot Strand Stronger than Another

As an addendum to Plot or No Plot, I'd like to clarify the Plotless...

When I say literary novels are plotless, what I mean is that the Character Emotional Development plot-line is at the fore and drives the story. Dramatic Action is present, though generally as a prop more than a plot. Thematic Significance makes the entire story worth reading. And... the Universal Story Form is always flawlessly present.

No-plot, Really No Problem??

I recently received the following:

"I've a topic for you. What about the no-plot novel? I've always argued that a novel doesn't need a plot as long as it has a point, also there's the whole "character is plot" argument. The plots in my books are neither here nor there, just things to get my characters to do while I write about them."

I'm not certain what he's getting at here. "...as long as it has a point." I assume this refers to the deeper meaning of the piece or the Thematic Significance. "....character is the plot." I assume this refers to the Character Emotional Development. "...just things to get my characters to do while I write about them." This, I assume, is the crux of his query -- no dramatic action? Perhaps. If the "things" involve conflict that the character then has the opportunity to respond or react to emotionally, I'd say he is writing a novel with plot.

Again, I define plot as a series of scenes deliberately arranged by cause and effect to create dramatic action filled with conflict in order to further the character's emotional development and provide thematic significance. In other words, when the dramatic action causes the character to be changed at depth over time the story means something.

What do you think??? Is he writing with plot or no-plot? Perhaps I'm reading too much into what he's written because I dread thinking he's writing with no conflict involved. Don't get me wrong, I believe character carries the story. Still, even with beautiful language, internal conflict without any external conflict, could end up a slow, boring, flat read indeed.....