Day 4: Mega-PWWorkbook Giveaway

Welcome back. If you took part in yesterday's Twitter PWWorkbook Giveaway, I'll announce the winner later today or tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Today, I am proud and excited to announce we're being hosted by Sandra Lee Smith and her blog partners at Seekerville where I posted about "Finding the Strongest Climax".

I meet Sandra and Glynna Kaye at the RWA Desert Rose Writers Conference last April where I gave a plot workshop and the last day's keynote and final workshop. Sandra and I dreamed up today way back then and here it is today.

Mega-giveaway. Merely comment to throw you name in the hat for a free copy of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.

What's New!
You're invited to the book launch party TONIGHT -- the PWWorkbook coming out party. Bookshop Santa Cruz 7:30p.m.

Webinar Plot Workshop:
Secrets of Story Structure Plot 9/13/12
Virtual
Sign-up today

Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2)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

3) 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 additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Day 3: Mega-PWWorkbook Giveaway

Today, in place of a host blog for our Mega-PWWorkbook Giveway, I'm trying something new. Something I've never done before. Something I really know little about. I plan to use Twitter as my host today.

Every time you RT one of my plot tip tweets today and include #PWWorkbookgiveaway, you're in the running for a free The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.

You can enter as many times as you like to increase your chance of winning. At the end of the day, I'll randomly pick winners.

I'm at @plotwhisperer on Twitter.

Let's see how this rolls. It should be fun and lots of plot tips will hopefully wander into writers' lives (perhaps yours?) at just the right time.

What's New!
You're invited to the book launch party on 8/28 -- the PWWorkbook coming out party. Bookshop Santa Cruz 7:30p.m.

Webinar Plot Workshop:
Secrets of Story Structure Plot 9/13/12
Virtual
Sign-up today

Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2)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

3) 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 additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Day 2: Mega-PWWorkbook Giveaway

Excited about celebrating the official release of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories, I find myself procrastinating setting up a blog tour, something that worked so well for The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master.

I contact only a few friends and blame dragging my feet on how much time and attention a blog tour demands.

On the official release date of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories, my editor asks me write another book... in three weeks. I balk until I hear his brilliant idea.

I'm hooked... and writing like mad. I'm so happy that I followed the energy and set up a mini-blog tour with a Mega-PWWorkbook Giveaway.

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are keeping their doors open for us for another day. Come hang out. I'll take breaks from writing every second to meet my deadline on Monday. You comment for a chance to win a free copy of the workbook.

The Bookshelf Muse. 

Check-in here every morning for an update where to travel for the next leg of the blog tour.

What's New!
You're invited to the book launch party on 8/28 -- the PWWorkbook coming out party. Bookshop Santa Cruz 7:30p.m.

Another mega-workbook give-away, using FaceBook and Twitter coming soon. More later...

Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2) Virtual plot workshop hosted by Writers Digest. Secrets of Story Structure & Plot Sept. 13th 1p.m. EDT

3) 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

4) 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 additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Mega-Plot Whisperer Workbook Giveaway

Last October we celebrated the official release of The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
on a mega-blog tour. This year, we're celebrating the official release of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories, on a mini-blog tour with a mega-PWWorkbook giveaway.

Thank you, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi for kicking off the tour today at The Bookshelf Muse. Angela and Becca run the blog together and "Dedicate themselves to helping writers via descriptive tools, knowledge sharing, and support." They are co-authors of the wildly successful, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression.

Leave a comment on The Bookshelf Muse and you're automatically in the running for a free workbook -- several are being given away.

I'll be there all day, answering questions and commenting on comments. Actually, I'm there right now...

Check-in here every morning for an update where to travel for the next leg of the blog tour.

What's New!
You're invited to the book launch party on 8/28 -- the PWWorkbook coming out party. Bookshop Santa Cruz 7:30p.m.

Another mega-workbook give-away, using FaceBook and Twitter coming soon. More later...

Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2) Virtual plot workshop hosted by Writers Digest. Secrets of Story Structure & Plot Sept. 13th 1p.m. EDT

3) 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

4) 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 additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Keeping an Eye on the Big Picture

What's everyone chasing, doing, after? What's all the action about? 

The answers to these questions may feel murky to you, even in the second and third drafts. Every time you stand back from the words and ask yourself these big picture questions, the clearer your story becomes to you. The clearer your story is to you, the more clearly you can convey the story to your readers.

The writer is writing a geo-political thriller from three points of view. Each point-of-view character represents the sensibilities of his/her own country of origin. When the end of the beginning scene explodes from a bomb, the reader is shown the carnage and impressions of the dastardly deed from each point of view, providing individual insight into the three different customs, beliefs, rules and regulations, politics, and reactions based on the influence of each individual country on each character.

Because of this presentation, the nations and politics take on characteristics of actual characters in the story and contributes to the bigger picture coming into view.

Giving input from different points of view allows for a much broader sense of a much bigger picture beyond the moment-by-moment scene and links the scenes beyond the actual setting into the psyche of the world around the characters. This adds a depth and richness to the piece and is, of course, vitally important to this particular writer and her geo-political thriller story.

What's New!
You're invited to the book launch party on 8/28 -- the PWWorkbook coming out party. Bookshop Santa Cruz 7:30p.m.

Blog tour with a mega-book giveaway. Tour the week of August 20th with us and travel to some awesome sites. Juicy plot posts.

Another mega-workbook give-away, using FaceBook and Twitter coming soon. More later...

Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2) 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

3) 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 additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Plot a Book Party

The Summer issue of the San Francisco Writers Conference Newsletter arrived today. Thank you, Barb, for so generously announcing the book launch party for the PWWorkbook with a link to this blog for more information.

You're Invited!
Book Launch Party for  The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
Bookshop Santa Cruz
1520 Pacific Avenue
Santa Cruz
831-423-0900
7:30 p.m.

 ***Come for the cake. Leave with 5 Easy Plot Tips To Immediately Improve Your Novel, Memoir, Screenplay***

The PWWorkbook's official release date is 8/18.

The book launch party on 8/28 is the workbook's coming out party.

Sandwiched between those 2 dates is a blog tour with a mega-book giveaway. Come tour with us the week of August 20th. We're traveling to some pretty awesome sites. I'll keep the plot posts juicy in as many compelling and lively ways as I can make up. Though this year's blog tour is smaller, the workbook giveaway qualifies as mega.

NOTE: I'm scheming up a bigger workbook give-away around the same time, using FaceBook and Twitter. More later...

Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2) 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

3) 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 additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

A Tale of Two Cities Plot Review

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens has remained in print for more than 150 years.

Dickens brings alive an important turning point in world history when the poor and disenfranchised prevailed against the status quo not only through his incredible gift with words, he succeeds by showing the reader the times through the characters' relationships with one another.

Through these relationships, he provides incredible plot twists and, throughout it all, the story resonates because it, too, stays true to the Universal Story.

The character who is most transformed by the dramatic action in this story -- though mostly by his love of Lucie -- is Sydney Carton.

1st Energetic Marker 
The End of the Beginning scene hits at the 1/4 mark (off by 8 pages of my softcover book) when because of Carton's help, Charles Darnay is acquitted by the jury (NOTE: that Charles is first introduced during the trial is fitting and serves as terrific foreshadowing for the more intense trials he is subjected to much later in the story). At this point in the story all the major elements are established: major characters introduced, the theme established, and every single major scene to come foreshadowed.

2nd Energetic Marker 
Carton's recommitment scene could easily be considered the moment when after Darnay and Lucie marry, Carton declares his undying devotion to Lucie, thereby setting up the Climax at the end of the book and recommits to her even though she belongs to another. (This scene happens 14 pages off of the exact halfway point in the softcover book I'm using for my analysis).

3rd Energetic Marker 
The Crisis (at exactly the 3/4 mark) is when Darnay is, for the second time, again taken as a prisoner of the Republic and Doctor Manette has been stripped of all influence to get him released. At this point, Carton takes center stage in the story and consciously begins the profound transformation he had unconsciously been undergoing since his recommitment scene.

4th Energetic Marker 
I am not going to reveal the Climax in hopes that those of you who have never read Tale of Two Cities or read it so long ago you've forgotten the nuances that make the story truly great will read or reread it now and be as delighted as I was by the twists and turns and ultimate crowning glory.


Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2) 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 Plot Series on Youtube

3) 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 additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Directory of Plot Series on YouTube

How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? was met with such an enthusiastic response that we continued filming, creating new plot series to reinforce and build on the first one. Overtime, we found that each new series seemed to bury the old ones until all the plot series became a muddled mess.

Now, having mastered the concept of Playlists on Youtube, we have organized the different series for your viewing enjoyment and to help you pick and choose the videos that will best support your writing needs no matter where you are in writing your novel, memoir, screenplay.

The Different Playlists are listed below with links to each. Also, for future reference, please find the Directory for the Plot Series on Youtube on the left sidebar of the blog.

How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?
Quick Plot Tips
Monday Morning Plot Book Group
Glossary of Plot and Writing Terms
Plot the Thematic Significance of Your Story
Plot the Beginning of Your Story
Plot the Middle of Your Story
Plot the End of Your Story
PlotWriMo
Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2) 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

3) 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 additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Subplots Fall Into Place

A fantastic subplot -- both riveting and taking place in an exotic locale -- spans from the beginning of the Middle to nearly the Crisis toward the end of the Middle. Based on the proposed length of the book, she has nearly 7,000 words left to write to reach the beginning of the End.

The writer begins to integrate a minor subplot that has wandered from draft to draft without a firm place in the historical novel the writer envisions and without any real purpose. Still, the writer clutches fast and hopes this is the right place for the minor subplot.

As she writes, all the energy she's created through the fantastic subplot fades and the impact of that subplot is diminished. Yes, the minor subplot foreshadows what occurs at the Crisis. Yet, to pull the story to the Crisis with the minor subplot becomes an impossibility and deflates all the work she's already written.

In our plot consultation, I jump to the Climax and press the writer for her thoughts and ideas about protagonist's ultimate transformation in the scene she envisions at the crowning glory of her story.

Before long, the exact right place for the minor subplot reveals itself and, for the first time, the writer understands the significance of the subplot to the primary plot and its influence on the character emotional development transformation.

To begin the Middle with the minor subplot allows the writer the scenes to prepare the reader and build the energy to the fantastic subplot and also to foreshadow and inform the Crisis to come.

The writer's delight that this minor subplot has suddenly found its place in her story is evident even over the airways all the way from Shanghai. It's almost as if the minor subplot pulls off the mask it's been hiding behind and reveals its true nature and ultimate power to the overall story.

"I can't believe it takes understanding the end of the story to truly understand what comes before," she exclaims.

The End defines the Beginning and the subplots in the Middle and just about every other important aspect of any great novel, memoir, screenplay.

Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2) 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

3) 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 additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Interwoven Plot Lines

A writer has developed a complex dramatic action plot with terrific pacing and lots of excitement.

Often he struggles when asked why the protagonist does what he does. He becomes especially flummoxed when the probing deepens. Yes, the protagonist takes the action he takes to advance the dramatic action. What in the protagonist's character emotional development makes that action real to him and him alone?

The particular writer I mention here is a male writer writing a dramatic action-driven story and seems to be suffering what many dramatic action-driven writers and any writer does when attempting to impose action on the story.

Dramatic action for dramatic action's sole sake sin't enough.

Character emotional development for character emotional development's sole sake isn't enough. Nor is a profound meaning for meaning's sake alone.

The protagonist's pursuit of what the she wants and is having a heck of a time getting, reflects an intelligent impulse to evolve through self-awareness and points to that part of herself that struggles to transform.

The protagonist's unique actions and reactions, beliefs and thoughts point to the flawed part in her, the part that holds the key to the deeper meaning of her struggle.

The specific details of the protagonist's backstory are not nearly as important as the limitations left as a result of her backstory wound and are wrapped up in the mystery that translates into the meaning of her life and thus, all of our lives.

Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2) 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

3) 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 additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter