Creating Relationship in Stories

Two common queries when a story starts out too slowly and drags.

"When is something going to happen?"
"When do we get to the good part?"

Something happens and the good part are when the protagonist reacts or acts in relationship to another. Prompt #4 begins the protagonist's relationship with conflict. Prompt #5 begins the romance plot. Something happens and the good part start in the story.

Today, I write.

I'm taking a survey on Twitter and Facebook  (my apologies for not opening the comments section here, too. I get too much spam and don't have the time to monitor the responses).

Fiction Writers Survey
Do you:
1) love
2) like
3) hate to write? (not the rest of a writers life editing, submitting, etc. Simply your relationship with your writing)

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot allows for a lively relationship with your writing. If you falter, wondering what comes next or what to write next in your story, follow the prompts in The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing for that spot in a story with a plot.

Today, I write.

If you're following along and wish to comment or ask questions, please use Twitter and be sure to include @plotwhisperer and #pwprompt to catch my attention.

The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing gives you the inspiration and motivation you need to finish every one of your writing projects. This book guides you through each stage of the writing process, from constructing compelling characters to establishing an unforgettable ending. The book also helps you get into the habit of writing creatively every day, with brand-new imaginative prompts for how to write a novel, memoir, screenplay with a plot. 

Join me here everyday as together we write our stories from page one and through all the prompts to the very end.

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

What Now?

Q: I'm done! Too exhausted to type more. What now?

A: Congratulations! 

I'm so impressed with how you kept your head down and your spirits high throughout the writing of the first draft of your story. You did it in two months. You are amazing!

You're on a high. The best way to protect yourself from a letdown is to know that what goes up must come down and take care of yourself. Sleep, eat well, take long walks  -- preferably to all the locations in your story: the cemetery, the martial arts studio, the school, the church. Wander and sleep and straighten up your writing area, purge and organize notes but whatever you do DO NOT READ your manuscript for at least a week to 10 days. 

I apologize for the caps but I cannot stress the importance of this element enough. You need a bit of distance and objectivity before reading your story.

DO NOT READ your manuscript for at least a week to 10 days.

Oops, there I go again. Just wanting to make sure you understand the importance.

DO NOT READ your manuscript for at least a week to 10 days.

Okay, enough is enough.

Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Feel the accomplishment in the depth of your being. You did it!! You wrote a novel from the beginning to the end. You did that. Feel it. Wallow in the good feelings. Be here now.

In a week, you begin the shift from writing the first draft to preparing for the next one.

For now, you are on safely ensconced on the threshold between two worlds. Revel in the splendor of yourself!!!!

Antagonists in Stories and in Life

We make up stories in our minds about events in our lives. Are the stories real? Real only to us and only as far as our perception is capable of seeing at the time.  The stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world around us have a direct impact on how we react to new events in our lives.

That is the only explanation I have for why one writer is slain by the antagonists that pop up in the middle of her writing journey. While, another writer faced with the exact same problems is able to effortlessly make her way forward. 

Or, perhaps, the answer lies in the understanding one has of the task itself.

The writer who is slain may have heard rumors about the meddlesome, messy, sagging middle but when confronted with the reality of writing her way through the middle, takes the challenge personally, surrenders all her power and gives up (either for the day or for months or even years).

Another writer has researched not only the setting and authentic details needed for her story but also the craft of writing itself enough to understand that the antagonists that arise in the middle are not to be feared or felled by or taken personally but part of the process itself. 

I'm not explaining myself well here and the reason could be because this more informed writer is an anomaly to me. She has only been writing for two years and is well beyond the halfway point to creating a compelling novel. Though slowed down by the antagonists in the middle, rather than create resistance by judging herself as the problem and throwing herself against the wall or curling up in a ball for years before seeking help, she reaches out almost immediately and is now off and flying again.

Replace the story you tell yourself about writing the middle of your novel, memoir, screenplay from one of threat and opposition to a story of strength and determination. Antagonists are self-created and have power over you only so long as you give away your own personal power first.

Fiction Author Reaches Climax of Her Book

In plot consultations with writers, I often see how the writing of a protagonist's transformative journey in a novel, screenplay or memoir mirrors the writer's own personal transformative writing journey.

A few weeks back, I wrote about a client struggling to bring her protagonist to the Climax of her book. My impressions were that perhaps the writer's problem came from not having truly reached the end of her own transformative journey enough to grasp her own personal power in life and thus is having difficulty showing her protagonist in her true power at the end.

This week, I am pleased to report about another writer who after twelve years and lots of incarnations of his story has reached the true authentic ending to his book.

In those twelve years of struggle to find the right balance, the writer often despaired. He would write all the way to the end, send out query letters and sample chapters only to be rejected. Though he always received encouraging words about his writing, he always reacted to the rejection the same. He would beat himself up and, believing himself not worthy of success, quit. Each time, after he pulled himself out of the garbage bin he inevitably threw himself into, he would write another draft and send out more queries. This process repeated itself for years. The toll it took on his spirit and his body was devastating. 

Finally, he undertook his own personal transformative journey. In so doing, he became clear enough to find the true story. In so doing, he found a new depth to his beliefs and his story.

Now, in retrospect, it is clear to see that if his earlier passionate dream to be published had come true, the book he holds today would have been a fraction of what it shows itself to be. 

Perhaps the lesson to take away from this is the belief that until the manifestation of the thread of a dream is right and the story what it is meant to be, do not take things personally. See it as a process. Be patient. Continue to show up and write. And, at the same time, continue to challenge yourself as a person and to grow into who know you are meant to be. Find where you are on the universal story and push yourself deeper. Find your true strength and trust that when you are ready, the ending will appear. 

Honor the process.