What Happens After the Crisis (not to be confused with Climax) of Your Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?

The drama at the Crisis of her coming-of-age historical novel is exciting, life-or-death and edge-of-your-seat external action.
Check.
The action fits thematically with the character emotional development.
Check.
The character suffers at the Crisis.
Check.
In the simultaneous release of energy at the Crisis, the character sees herself and the world around her in a new and transformed way.
Check.

Trouble with the plot begins seconds after the Crisis. Immediately the character acts in a transformed way.
Why is that a plot problem?
Flipping the protagonist from the character she's been throughout the story in one scene to mature and a master over her fear in the next scene dilutes the moment of greatest intensity in the entire story so far.
Facing her fear and winning is her Climax.
She still has another quarter of her story to reach the true Climax of the story.

Plot Tips:
Rather than speed up the effects of the Crisis on the protagonist, allow the energy to subside a bit (the downward line on the Plot Planner).
Give the protagonist time.
Allowing her the time she needs to reflect on what she learns at the Crisis about herself (character emotional development plot) and about the dramatic action plot, too, gives more emphasis and reinforces the impact of the Crisis.
Show what she looks like and what she viscerally experiences as she practices and explores and ponders the deeper meaning of her life and all life in this unusual and unpredictable and capricious time as she stands between who she has always been and who she is becoming.

(Excerpt from The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.)

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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.

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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

Pre-plot for NaNoWriMo

Today's Monday Plot Book Group (click to watch the video) covers thematic significance or the deeper meaning of your story.

It's never too early or too late to begin asking yourself:

What does my story means to say?

Or, if you plan on writing a story during November for NaNoWriMo, what sorts of themes do you find bubbling to the surface?

For step-by-step guidance into pre-plotting your novel, memoir, screenplay, refer to:
The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

For more about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit all the other Monday Plot Book Group in the series (A directory to this 2nd plot series is to the left of this post and scroll down a bit) and visit the first Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?on YouTube. (A directory of all the steps to the 1st plot series is to the right of this post.)
and visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Thematic Significance for Writers

As corny as it sounds, I'm wild about thematic significance. I mean if the Universal Story longs to manifest, what better way than through a story's deeper themes?

There are writers who excel at writing character-driven stories and those who prefer action-driven stories. Also, though I've found rarer, are writers who lean toward theme-driven stories. 

Jodi Picoult in Change of Heart, shows the affects the dramatic action has on the characters' emotional development in order to bring to the fore themes about the life sentence, abuse, loss, redemption and love.

When the Killing's Done by T. S. Boyle is another thematic significance plot driven novel. 

Interestingly, both of the two theme-driven writers, use multiple viewpoint characters, each with their own chapters, with a clear first line for each switch in point-of-view and creates a minimum of confusion. When readers are immediately pulled into the next character’s mind and body, readers they have little reason to feel they will miss the character they just were connected to. And, each character has a very definite point of view about the issues at hand though the protagonist's change overtime to fulfill the role of the protagonist -- the character who changes the most in the story by the dramatic action

In the first quarter of When the Killing’s Done by T.C. Boyle, two characters alternate chapters told from their own points of view. The beginning chapters of the story are Alma’s introduction told through her grandmother’s story. The third chapter focuses on Alma herself and begins by firmly grounding the reader.

"Though Alma is trying her hardest to suppress it, the noise of the freeway is getting to her. She can’t think to slice the cherry tomatoes and dice the baby carrots, can’t clear her head, can barely hear Micah Stroud riding the tide of his emotions through the big speakers in the front room."

These two sentences immediately thrust the reader into the scene. They, showing who is doing what, how the action is emotionally affecting her, and a general idea where she is. and They also offering specific details that define herAlma: living near a noisy freeway, knowing how to cook, listening to music that rides the tide of the singer’s emotions, and a love ofloving music that is strong enough that she owns big speakers.

The next chapter switches to the male character’s point of view. 

"If there is one thing he hates, it’s a runny yolk."

That’s about all the reader needs to read in order to know the main character in this chapter. He’s opinionated and narrow-minded.

By including a reference to the stereo speakers in the female point of view ties these two major viewpoint characters together long before the reader is given any other clues of other connections, one of which Alma prefers stay a secret.

The speakers also foreshadow both character's propensity to want to broadcast, get on a soap box to proclaim their point of view about the right of eradicating invasive species to bring an island back to the balance of the past versus the right of animals to life.

Though the themes that drive you to write play out more subtly in your stories, still the search for the meaning beneath our actions and into a universal truth serves the Universal Story well.

For 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!

Behind the Veil

Personal themes pulse from the belly of the novel, memoir, screenplay you're writing.

One of my own I wrote in the thematic significance section of the up-coming Plot Whisperer book:

Speaking up and speaking out come at a price worth paying.

Now, with the book nearly finished, I find the gem promised in stories waiting there in real life for me.

Speaking up and speaking are not punishable. Silence is.

Speaking out and speaking up are living one's truth, a truth from behind the veil.

Write down a theme of your own and perhaps you'll spot from behind the veil a personal wound you have come here to heal...

Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. Each time a concept is referenced you are directed to new information.

Your Truth is Trying to Reveal Itself to You

Listen to yourself. Write the way that feels right to you.

Often comments from others are more an indication that something needs work. In our zeal to support our fellow writers, we come up with all sorts of solutions. However, what's most important is to know something isn't working and for you to come up with what is the best fit.

I just don't want you to get into trying to please everyone else.

Most important is your relationship to the story.

The story will tell you everything you need to know.

Ask the story what is best and then listen...

Plot Your Story's Theme

The Thematic Significance of your story is the thread that holds your story together. The more clearly you can define your thematic significance statement, the tighter your story. Once you have identified your Thematic Significance statement, your scene choices and word choices throughout your story will follow theme. The theme then serves as your compass, determining what fits and what doesn't.

Writers generally begin a new project writing in their strength:
Dramatic Action
Character Emotional Development
Thematic Significance

The writers who begin with an idea they want to explore or a concept they want to prove through their story are beginning with Thematic Significance. For the rest of us, the theme of our stories bubbles up from the story itself in later drafts. No matter what we write, the process of writing is an exploration into ourselves, our own personal themes.

Either way the theme comes to you, the themes we write about most often originate from our own personal past -- at least for the first several stories this is true. Our own belief system and the themes we live our lives by pop up in our stories when we least expect them. Unless, that is, we are aware of the themes we live by and are on the lookout for them.

HOMEWORK:
Make a list of the themes you find that seem to consistently come up in your writing.

Next post, I'll discuss how to take that list and shape those themes ideas into a Thematic Significance statement for your project.