Universal Story -- Test Your Story

The next Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? Plot Book Group for Writers has officially begun!

Every Monday we upload a new video with a brief plot discussion, using a new novel, memoir or screenplay selection each month -- this month is Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson.

At the end of each session, you are assigned a task to apply to your own novel, memoir, screenplay. These exercises are designed to give you the opportunity to deepen your relationship to your story's plot and structure, character development and thematic significance.

Click to view the first in the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? Plot Book Group for Writers

For added support regarding each week's plot discussion, you are invited to view a specific video(s) in the 1st Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?

and to follow along in The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

For more 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.

For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, read: The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
and visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Happy plotting,

Martha Alderson

AKA The Plot Whisperer

Evolution of a Book -- Part Three: Working with an Editor

I like to think of them as potter people. People who look like us but are more eccentric, often with a flair of whimsy. They magically appear, complete a task effortlessly and disappear -- the exact right person at the exact right time.

Peter Archer is a bit of a potter person to me. He also exemplifies to me an East Coast intellectual. Granted, my impressions are just that... I have never met the man. He was the editor assigned me for The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master. I admire him greatly.

By the time I met Peter, via email and phone, Cathy and I had begun shooting the final steps of the Plot Series -- Step 22: How Do I Plot the Beginning of the End of a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay .

(As I write this post, I am struck by how the timing of the vlog steps fall into place according the principles of the Universal Story. At the time, if I was consciousness of that at all, it was buried beneath the task at hand -- writing a book worthy of publication.)

Thanks to Peter, the rough draft of The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master turned into an amazing book.

I started the vlog with literary examples of novels, memoirs and screenplays to "show" the concepts covered. Where the vlog leaves off, the Plot Whisperer book expands to even more examples to guide you through the process of writing the story inside of you from beginning to end. Examples come from picture books, middle grade and young adult and adult fiction, mysteries, romance, literary, screenplays, memoirs and more. Visual aides are included throughout the book to help ground the more abstract concepts.

Beneath the surface of both the vlog and the book is the element I am most passionate about -- The Universal Story and how it affects not only stories but our lives, too. Knowledge of the Universal Story allows you to push aside all the words of your story to see the bigger picture both structurally and thematically. In the same was, the Universal Story allows you to stand back from the drama of your own life to see the bigger picture.

The what-I-like-to-call "spiritual guide parts" didn't fully emerge in the Plot Series vlog until Step 21: Developing the Threshold Scene after the Crisis in the Middle but they landed throughout the entire first draft of the book.

Even before I met my agent Jill Corcoran, an editor from my favorite West Coast publisher was reading a proposal for a book I called: The Spiritual Guide for Writers. Though he thought the concept right and me the perfect person to write it, I had not been able to successfully bring the ethereal concepts and fragments of dreams, the half-baked ideas and the inspiration beating in my heart down to earth.

Peter Archer helped me do that in The Plot Whisperer book.

Plot Whispers are specific plot tips and exercises to improve your plotting skills by integrating the concepts into your own individualized story. The Writer's Way is advice about how to expand your writing life.

Peter is outrageously intelligent and in my imagination embodies the East Coast. He lives near Martha's Vineyard or the Hamptons or some other iconic locale. He is a writer and a scholar and may or may not be in real life anything like I imagine him to be. Granted, the East Coast and West Coast are sisters in that we always vote the same. Other than that, I imagine East Coast people as more conservative and straighter than those of us on the West Coast. All that to say, I don't even know where Peter was born -- he could just as easily be from the West Coast but I love imaging him as the iconic gatekeeper of traditional publishing.

He brought out the best in the book and what I like to think of as the best me -- much like Step 16: Rediscovered Skills and Knowledge in the Middle.

The greatest gift Peter gave me was "getting" the spiritual ideas I had tried to articulate in the earlier proposal and failed. He not only "got" them, he allowed them to flourish. Not a full bloom because the concepts are still growing but the promise is there. It's the part of the The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master that I am most anxious to share and what makes waiting for the release date thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

Thanks to Jill and Paula and Peter, the book is complete and eagerly awaiting its debut. I could not have done any of it if not for each of you who read this blog and ask for plot consultations and attend plot workshops and buy my plot books and videos and visit the plot vlog and who continue day in and day out to pursue your dream of publication.

What a ride. The gift of jumping in there, sticking out your neck and sticking to it is standing back and watching magic happen.

Thank you.

The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master released by Adams Media October 2011. Available now for pre-order!

For immediate tips about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visitPlot 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!

Emotional Guide for Writers

Writing is emotional. 

You face obstacles that unleash angst, which leads to procrastination.

My intention in writing

The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master is to shine a light on the spiritual journey writers undertake when writing a novel, memoir, and screenplay. 

Stand back from your story and your own life and acknowledge the bliss you encounter and find the courage to face the difficulties, difficulties that are a reflection of where you are on your own individual Universal Story. Knowing your own strengths and weakness gives you the courage to compensate for your weaknesses and the ability to rely on your strengths. 

Writing (life) isn't about what you should do and could do or need to do. 

Writing is about believing entirely in yourself and the support that surrounds you.

Get through it (the the middle of your novel, memoir, screenplay anyway possible) and get to the other side (the end).Then see what you have.

The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master released by Adams Media October 2011 is now available now for pre-order.

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!

Turning Points

Turning points keep your story moving in surprising and organic directions to more fully engage the reader and audience and satisfy universal expectations.

I spoke about Turning Points in Step #11 of the wacky Plot Series posted on YouTube. 

I move with less resistance and greater joy if I follow the energy. The energy has taken me to presenting the information caught on the video camera rather than post the words here. 

So, rather than read plot tips, stop by and watch them.

Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?

The steps are presented in an organized format from Step One to Step Thirty-Two. We film Step 12 tomorrow.

Feel free to randomly click on any video. The 5 to 8 minute presentation will leave you energizes and with a new sensibility of your story.

This is all new to me. Hope you'll follow me into the great unknown...

Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?

3 Major Plot Lines + 1 in Novels, Memoir, Screenplays

For a story to have meaning, the dramatic action forces the character to grow and change at the least, transform at best.

Each of these threads = dramatic action, character emotional development and thematic significance runs through every great picture book, middle grade fiction, young adult and adult novels whether genre or literary, all memoirs and screenplays. 

All other plot lines are determined by age and type of story. However, one other plot line is in most stories, other than picture books and middle grade fiction = romantic plot line.

The 5th step in the Plot Series of How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? covers this 4th plot line. Hope you'll visit and follow along.