Writing a Story is Like a Vision Quest

When you give birth to the dream of writing a novel, finishing a screenplay or publishing a memoir, you travel the same journey your protagonist does.

The journey offers the gift of transformation, one that is often deep and profound.

However, along the way to crafting a story and living a writer’s life, it is easy to get detoured. You find yourself wandering aimlessly and meeting one dead-end moment after another.

Whether you're in the flow of writing a story or stalled and blocked, there comes a time in all of our lives when you feel pushed to separate from all you know and wander off alone in search of meaning. People of all ages undergo this powerful journey.

A map comes in handy.

I have that map and I'm eager to share it with you.

Though writing a novel, memoir, screenplay can takes years, on a traditional Native American vision quest, one spends several days and nights alone in nature. This solitary time in nature connects fundamental forces and spiritual energies of creation and self-identity to reveal profound insight about yourself, your story, your purpose and destiny in life and the world around you.

I invite you on a vision quest with the help of the Universal Story. Like most vision quests under the guidance of an elder, I serve in that capacity. I use many of the same ideas I developed to help writers create a compelling plot for their stories to help you reconnect to your intended spiritual and life purpose.

• Are you standing at a turning point uncertain which way to go?
• Is the view around you muddy? 
• Days drag?
• Going through the motions?
• Wondering where you lost your passion?

The wilderness we travel together isn't in a forest or by a secluded lake. Our journey is an inward one taken wherever you feel a sense of safety. You won't be asked to be sleep deprived or shut in a small room to commune with the other side. Simple exercises are designed to take you there in the comfort of your own home. You don't have to fast and wait for a Guardian animal or force of nature to provide you with a vision or dream and give guidance for your life. Rather than stumble about alone, this program guides to fully understand the true power that resides in you and in your stories.

In the end, you'll returns to your old life transformed and with a new direction in life which will cause all those around you to shift and change as well.

COMING SOON!
Special $9.99 
2015 Plot Whisperer Beta-Membership includes BOTH: 

• The Spiritual Guide for Writers Video Program
• 27-Step Tutorial: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay Video Program

Details to follow...

How best to Use the Final hours of NaNoWriMo

Resist the temptation to rush through writing the end just to finish your story. Use wisely the few days that are left to you this month (keep in mind you can continue writing in December to finish your fast draft all the way to the end while at the same time taking part in PlotWriMo).

The beginning quarter of your story informs the end and the end informs the beginning. Forget all you've written of the middle for now. Focus on the how the beginning and the end thematically support  each other, how the beginning foreshadows the end and how the end satisfy the intent you established when writing the beginning of your story.

Examine who the character is portrayed to be in the beginning. What could she not do then and what she must do now at the end? How has who she presented herself to be in the beginning changed or transformed and into what?

See you December 1st and the beginning of PlotWriMo blog tour to re-vision your story.

For plot help and resources throughout the year: 

1)  The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
2)  The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3)  The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.
  ~~~~~~~~
To continue writing and revising (and, lots of writers are finding PlotWriMo the exact right resource to help pre-plot for a powerful first draft. Knowing what to look for in a revision helps create a tighter first draft):

•  
• PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month

 ~~ View your story in an entirely new light. Recharge your energy and enthusiasm for your writing. 8 videos (5.5 hours)+ 30 exercises

Characters in Action-Driven Novels and Those in Character-Driven Stories

Just as some writers excel at creating believable and intriguing characters and others at creating exciting and meaningful action, some characters are better at opening up and showing emotion in stories while others excel at taking action.

With the belief that we write best when we understand our writing strengths and weaknesses, I include how to determine whether you're an action-driven writer or a character-driven writer or a thematically-driven writer or a combination of all of the above in The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master.

In my work with writers, what I find fascinating is that often character-driven writers who love to delve into the characters' internal landscape often write about characters who before moving on when faced with failure / challenges / obstacles in the middle:

• Slow down
• Reflect how they are doing
• Evaluate their behavior and reactions 
• Look at what went wrong from all angles
• Learn from their mistakes

While action-driven writers often develop characters who are more impulsive and when faced with failure / challenges / obstacles in the middle:

• Don't tend to stop to evaluate what went wrong
• Think less
• Act faster 
• Multi-task
• Focus on the achieving the goal

In other words, often writers who excel at goal-setting for their characters and love action seem to create characters who move and act quickly and often impulsively to reach the reward at the end.

Writers who excel at creating characters who feel seem to create characters who think and ponder and evaluate on their way to reaching the reward at the end.

Which sort of writer are you?

Uncertain what to write next in a story with a plot? For plot prompts to move your writing to each major turning point and reach the end: The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing

For plot help and resources during NaNoWriMo: 

1)  The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
2)  The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3)  The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.
  ~~~~~~~~
To continue writing and revising (and, lots of writers are finding PlotWriMo the exact right resource to help pre-plot for a powerful first draft. Knowing what to look for in a revision helps create a tighter first draft):

•  
• PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month

 ~~ View your story in an entirely new light. Recharge your energy and enthusiasm for your writing. 8 videos (5.5 hours)+ 30 exercises

WRITER VERSUS BLOGGER

I never write two posts in one day. I'm lucky if I get in one a week. Rather than do what I should be doing -- getting my free monthly Plot Tips eZine out to awaiting writers -- I procrastinate instead.

My procrastination took the form of reading a couple of writers blogs new to me. In one, a writer hesitantly and respectfully reported he had started a new project, mere sentences -- a tender blade barely broken out of the earth. Still, he was writing.

I congratulated him with enthusiasm. A story of 80,000 words begins with just one.......

I went on to tell him that I usually caution writers not to talk too much about about what you're writing about -- you can talk it to death. Talk all the energy right out of it

Since blogging seems to have replaced verbal communication, it seemed only right that the same must apply to him -- he was blogging about his writing. Granted, not any specifics about his project, but still....

I could be wrong however. Sometimes it seems as if blogging about the process has become the new process. Not the means to the end, but the end itself???

Is that why I'm blogging right now and not working on my WIP? What's your excuse??? Why are you reading this and not working on your work-in-progress???

Mostly It's about Writing

Response:
Mostly it's all about the writing and staying fluid.

But, I, too, find benefit in the movement, the lining things up getting-ready-ritual. I'm sure you're jumping forth between writing and organizing by now.

Keep imagining,
martha

Original email:
Thanks again for all your help. I've printed your scene tracker 20 times, labeled, and laminated back to back (10 laminated sheets) so I can use dry eraser and reuse them from story to story. Watch all this organization throw me into a writer's block. Oh, please say it isn't so.

I've even gone as far as laminating my blank master GMC charts, storyboard, plotline, character, conflict, conflict comparison, pertinent backstory for character GMC, character arc and romantic conflict/connection worksheets so that I can use dry erase on them and reuse them.

Geez, talk about anal, but at least it feels like I'm becoming organized. lol