Love Yourself Love Your Writing - Hate Yourself Hate Your Writing

I'm calling out for writers to accomplish 2013 writing goals and finish a novel, memoir, screenplay this year.

Fast writing is one way to do that. A tight deadline works to get words on the page because all the gaps in your life are filled with writing rather than the mind-numbing and emotionally-charged stories you tell yourself about yourself and the world around you.

The relationship you have with your writing directly reflects the relationship you have with yourself. Love yourself. Love your writing. Hate yourself. Hate your writing.

I love exploring the effects of backstory not only on characters, on ourselves as writers, too. I’ve worked with writers who have suffered major health problems in the middle of writing a novel or memoir from beginning to end. Were the physical illnesses caused by their relationship with their writing? I’ve experienced my own dark times which are always reflective of how I’m feeling about my writing journey.

In The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master, I support you through what often feels like an emotional roller coaster ride when you’re plotting and writing a story from the beginning to end. I suggest in the book and this blog that this personal writing journey for you often mirrors your protagonist’s development.

Believe you are unworthy and you procrastinate.

For now, let all that go. Use all your creative energy on writing your story. Finish and you'll feel fabulous and eager for 2014.

Why do I care? I want you with me throughout December to re-vision the story you finish between now and December 1st during  PLOTWRIMO .

Need help?

Join me from the comfort of your own home for my live PLOT WORKSHOP Webinar hosted by Writers Digest on Thursday, October 17, 2013 at 1p.m. ET.

Learn more and sign up: How to Pre-Plot and Complete a Novel or Memoir in a Month: The Benefits of Writing a Fast Draft from Beginning to End.

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Take the PLOTWRIMO Pre-Challenge:

You have 1 Months and 4 weeks 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.

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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.

To Those Who Never Make it to the End

My last post was a bit harsh. I take it back. It is not necessary for a writer to have to go through all that.

In my own defense, my purpose here is to support writers achieve their dreams of completing a worthy project. So what about all those half-written stories that end up in the trash bin or at the bottom of a cabinet drawer? Not reaching it, our dreams hound us relentlessly. We never truly forget that which we long for. 

People who have faced death say they do not think about the work they missed at the end but of family and friends. Really? Don't you think for even a moment your story might flash before your face and ask, what if? 

How does a resistant writer make it all the way to the end?

I wish I could say with grace and splendor but my way is messier. Commit to your own hero's journey as your protagonist embarks on hers. 

Learn as much about yourself through the process as you learn about your character. 

Recognize the similarities. 

Invite in the antagonists. 

Ask for answers.

Push yourself.

See what happens.

A Balanced Relationship with Your Writing

One of the most exciting aspects of writing is what we learn about ourselves in the process.

I work primarily with fiction writers, memoirists and screenwriters. I also support non-fiction writers through the process of finishing. Though the writer I post about today is non-fiction, her problem and her solution fit for any writer, fiction and non-fiction.

I've been working with this writer for months. Throughout that entire time, she has had tremendous resistance to actually sitting down and writing her project. Only by checking in weekly for a pep-talk and ongoing help with structure and accountability does she find the strength to continue.

Having never considered herself a writer, she is fraught with uncertainty and insecurity around the act of writing. She is confident when in her role as an expert in her field. When discussing her writing project, her voice turns unsteady and her resolve fragile.  

She refuses to succumb to her fears and doubts and continues to show up for her writing. In the process, she has been transformed. An epiphany hits. With insight into the parts she wants to write and those parts she feels she "should" include, she forms a new relationship with her book. Now that she sees the book in new ways, new energy flows, allowing her to take true ownership of the project, helping her to narrow and refine her focus in her work and thus narrow and redefine the book.

With the relationship in balance -- you being true to who you are and the book reflecting that -- the more effortless the completion...

Writers on the Hero's Journey

Last Saturday I taught the 1st in a series of 3 Plot Intensives in Capitola, CA. I covered plot at the overall story level. This Saturday I teach the 2nd plot workshop to cover plot at the scene level. Next Saturday I teach the 3rd and final workshop; Plot for Meaning at the overall plot level.

Saturday for the first time I asked writers to fill out the Character Emotional Plot Profile for more than just their protagonist and antagonist. This time, they also filled out one for themselves as a writer and another for themselves personally. 

I felt a bit weird about asking for their own personal profile and after glancing at a few, I knew for certain I won't do that again. I don't need to know a person's secrets to help her with plot. However, the writers' profiles were fascinating in their universality.

Everyone wants to write a story and everyone suffers from the same doubt, insecurity, fears which begs the question: if a writer stands back and analyzes where she is on her writing journey, will it help her as much as standing back and looking at the overall plot of her writing story on a Plot Planner?

You tell me.

Where are you on your writing journey? 

• Still in the introductory mode (Beginning - 1/4) and mostly talking about writing, how you're not writing, what you want to write about, thinking about writing, wanting to write but don't very often? 

• Stepped over into the land of the exotic and solitary world of writing filled with antagonists of every kind (Middle - 1/2)?

• Clawing your way to the Climax (End - 1/4)
  

Does your answer surprise you? 

Does the understanding of where you are on the Universal Story form or your life's journey give you a deeper understanding of you are in relationship with your writing?

Does it give you a deeper understanding of the journey your protagonist is on, too?

WRITERS TRAVEL TWO JOURNEYS

The act of writing is not a linear movement from the Beginning, through the Middle and to the End. The act of writing is circuitous and indirect as a reflection of the writer’s own personal strengths and flaws, loves and fears. The writer’s life spirals up and plummets down as characters break through the surface of the imagined world and dive into the murky depths.

The journey the protagonist undertakes mirrors that of the writer’s. A Plot Planner is a visual picture of the plot as a reflection of Dramatic Action, Character Emotional Development and Thematic Significance. The Planner reflects the writer’s journey, too.

The universal story form helps writers hold up their scenes and characters against a backdrop of the whole story. A Plot Planner and a Scene Tracker allows writers to stand back from the words and gain access to a larger context. An entire world emerges along with a better understanding of the significance of each of its parts.


IN THE BEGINNING

Plot Tips
Introduce the familiar: characters, habits, setting, thought patterns. Do not confuse introduction with passivity. The opening of the project either draws in the reader or the moviegoer or it doesn’t. Dramatic Action calls for conflict, tension, suspense and/or curiosity.

The scenes in the opening 1/4 of the project cause a Separation, a Shift, a Fracture. The effect? The protagonist leaves everything behind. At the end of the Beginning, there is no turning back. The protagonist crosses into the Middle.

Tips for Writers
When you step away from talking about writing a book or a screenplay, your memoir or a children’s book into actually doing it, you join your destiny. Once you begin, there is no turning back. You can stop writing, but the act of writing changes you. The transformation has already begun.

Endure the fear of appearing foolish. The fear is justified. In the Beginning, a writer is awkward, gets lost, and makes mistakes. A Plot Planner helps keep you on track.


THE MIDDLE

Plot Tips
The protagonist leaves behind the life he or she knows for the unknown. New and challenging situations arise. Self-doubts and uncertainty confront the character. She discovers strengths and struggles with shortcomings. The character becomes more and more conscious of her thoughts, feelings, actions and life as she has always known it.

A band of antagonists control the Middle: other people, nature, society, machines, and the character herself. Scenes pop above the line on the Plot Planner. The antagonists’ rhythmic waves of assault spur the protagonist’s vertical ascent. An unordinary world unfolds. A transformation begins on an inner level of the character long before anything observable appears.

Physical, psychological and spiritual crisis ensue. Greater awareness and sensitivity open up. The protagonist perceives and experiences self and the world in a new way.


Tips for Writers
You find yourself unable to drop your characters in the crucible, allow them to appear foolish, lonely, tedious, or ordinary. Until a character experiences failure, brokenness, fear, emptiness and alienation, rigorous change cannot occur.

Just as you kill your story if you are over-protective of your characters, so do you prevent yourself from growing and changing, too. Traveling the path of the writer is meant to feel like being lost, abandoned, alone and stretched beyond one’s limits.

For writers brave enough to dare the underbrush, be aware of antagonists lurking behind every tree in your own life. As you find yourself with no way out of the seemingly endless wanderings, dead-end detours, and a frustrating sense of being lost, stop and jot it on a Plot Planner. When you bargain with yourself to go back and start over again, force yourself to go deeper into the unknown. Use the Plot Planner as a guide.

Trust yourself. The quality of straightforwardness exposes themes and patterns underlying surface attitudes and actions. The better you come to know yourself, the better you will come to know your story.


THE END

Plot Tips
The character struggles to take full ownership of her newly discovered consciousness. What started as a twinge at first, in the quick build-up to the Climax, the protagonist more and more recognizes quite painfully each time her actions or speech do not align with her new understanding of herself and the world around her.

The healing of this schism shows itself in the Climax.

The Beginning sets up the scene of highest intensity in the story so far ~ the end of the Beginning. This scene shows the shift or reversal outside the character that sends her into the heart of the story world.

The middle sets up the scene of the highest intensity in the story so far ~ the Crisis. This scene shows the character’s consciousness of the shift or reversal inside her.

The End sets up the crowning glory of the entire story ~ the Climax. This scene shows the character fully united with her new self-knowledge, new understanding of the world, new sense of responsibility through her actions and her words.


Tips for Writers
Writers benefit from fostering perseverance to offset the uncertainty. Success is not always immediate or even obvious at first. Just as the characters in the story are on a journey, so are you.