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If you are just now joining us on this month-long journey of analyzing the plot and structure of the Dramatic Action, Character Emotional Development, and Thematic Significance of a draft of your screenplay, memoir, or novel, Welcome! 

To gain the most out of this month, please follow along day-by-day, beginning at Day One (scroll down to find Day One and get started).

The Beginning

The work you did yesterday -- Day Thirteen -- creating a Plot Planner for the Beginning (1/4) of your story -- comes in handy today.

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By: Martha Alderson, M.A., on 12/11/2009
Blog: Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  NaNoWriMo, Martha Alderson, plot whisperer, Blockbuster Plots for Writers, prepare for 2nd draft, rewriting tips, revision techniques International Plot Writing Month, Add a tag

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By: Martha Alderson, M.A., on 12/8/2009
Blog: Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Martha Alderson, Blockbuster Plots for Writers, International Plot Writing Month, crafting the End of a story, holiday plot guide for writers, Add a tag

If you are joining us for the first time, please scroll down to Day One. The reason I do not provide a "hot" link to the post is because doing so will only take you to that day's post and you want to work your way through all past seven posts to catch up.

What we are doing here at the 2nd Annual International Plot Writing Month is dry and analytical compared to the magical and mystical process of writing the first draft. However, processing your story through your intellect and analyzing it wipes away befuddlement and leads to clarity of character goals and motivation which in turn helps to create convincing expression and emotion. 

The work we do here, like the plot workshops I teach, is divided between explanation and time for development of the three major plotlines for your individual project. For the sake of convenience, the explanation here gives independent consideration to the dramatic (action), emotional (character development), and thematic aspects of story, but keep in mind that all aspects of a successful writing project must become integrated into the total structure to create its unity, and that achieving this unity is the goal of every writer.

Today is two-pronged:

1) Organize

If you haven't already, print out your manuscript. Do NOT read it. Be sure to include a header on every page with your title in caps / name on the upper left and the page # on the upper right. 

Don't worry about spell checking or chapter breaks. just make sure the pages are numbered.

Insert your project into a binder. [Warning: printing manuscript is a snap compared to hole-punching the pages. However, it's important to have the manuscript bound and in one place.]

Divide the total number of pages in the binder by 4. Stick a post-it note at the 1/4 mark and another one at the 3/4 mark. 

Put the binder away, for now.

Gather all the extraneous notes you may have generated during the writing of the rough draft that you have not yet integrated into the piece and the notes you have generated thus far during PlotWriMo. Divide the notes and stick them into file folders labeled Beginning (1/4), Middle (1/2), End (1/4). Straighten up your desk. Purge everything you can that you accumulated while writing the rough draft. Put things in order.

You're entering a new phase. Time to cleanse and prepare to step into the next draft.

2) Plot the End

Pull out your index cards or paper or whatever works for you. Keep the Beginning and Middle sections of the Plot Planner you drew earlier. Cut off the End. Using an entire index card turned horizontal for the End this time, draw a line that travels from nearly the bottom edge steeply to nearly the top edge of the index card and then down. 

The Plot Planner I create for writers during an On-going Plot Phone Consultations (and encourage all writers to create for on their own for their individual writing project) is simply a line that divides scenes into "above the line" scenes and "below the line scenes."

Characters grow and change based on the Dramatic Action they experience during the story. If the action is simply action with no conflict, tension, or suspense, the story does not move and the character does not grow.

In today's consultation, the writer has a tagline that is so snappy and compelling, it could sell the project alone. I was excited to hear more about her character who, based on the Character Emotional Development Profile, fits my classic definition of a great protagonist = a strong, flawed character unafraid of taking big risks and willing to show a bit of a dark side (This writer's protagonist hasn't shown the dark side yet. When we plot out the 2nd half of the project, I'll be curious to find out whether a dark side emerges... or not.)

The plot for his project works, but the execution scene-by-scene falls short. Too many scenes fall "below the line." The potential for popping them above the line is terrific so long as when he writes the next draft, the writer focuses on writing the scenes from this new point of view = creating conflict, tension, and suspense and /or curiosity in every single scene. Well... I exaggerate. A story benefits from quieter scenes, too, but even those "below the line scenes" create more intensity and depth if they have a pallor of tension, a hint of conflict, a whisper of overarching suspense (Gawd, I can tell I'm tired...).

For more Plot Tips on creating scenes above and below the line, go to:

International-Plot-Writing-Month-Day_26 (NOTE: this is a day from last year's International Plot Writing Month that takes place in December and is designed to support writers who are in the process of creating the rough draft of their stories now in NaNoWriMo)

Second Draft

Elements of Plot

Plot & Subplots

Character Development and Dramatic Action

(NOTE: For more articles about creating conflict, tension, and suspense, go to the top, right corner of this webpage and in the white, rectangular box write tag words for what you're interested learning more.)
(NOTE: Another critical element of a good plot that reveals itself on a Plot Planner is Cause and Effect. For a simplistic definition, visit my Twitter.

Living in the present moment is difficult for most people.

Only while daydreaming or night dreaming, through mediation, under hypnosis, or while in the zone of writing or some other passion and with practice, can we stay mindful or conscious of the present moment for a sustained period of time. Usually our minds are darting into the future, whether the next 10 minutes or 10 years from now, or into the past, what just happened or what happened long ago.

Reading is a mindful activity. When the writing is good and in scene, a reader reads the words, but rather than pay attention to them, becomes engaged with the characters. This keeps the reader in the present moment -- not real time present moment, but story time present moment. Watching a scene unfold on the screen or while reading it on the page, we experience a sense of flow.

A story written in scene creates its own time and a sense that the present moment is all that exists. As we sink into the world of the characters, we surrender even our emotions to the illusion. This strengthens as we come to know the characters and care for them, even to worry about them. Our bodies respond on a visceral level; our hearts beat faster. We laugh and weep, present and involved in the story world itself.

Elements that entice a reader or moviegoer to sink deeper into the dream:

1)      Characters who invoke interest in the reader or movie-goer

2)      Conflict, tension and suspense that sustains excitement

3)      Only enough back story to inform that particular scene and triggers in the reader or movie-goers curiosity and investment in the dream

4)      Clarity into whom and what to root for in the story

5)      Consistency in story pacing versus missteps that can jolt the reader awake

6)      Right sensory details that deepen the overall story (dream) mood

7)      Foreshadowing that offers enticement (flashbacks can create time disorientation).

8)      No hint of the author in the story versus author intrusion

9)      The right balance between Scene and Summary

10)  Payoffs in the dramatic action and the character emotional development at just the right moments.

Once the lights go on in the theater or we put the book down, it takes a moment or two to remember that the people in the story were an illusion. Often, it is necessary to consciously detach from the world on the screen or the page in order to return to real life and regain a sense of real time.

The best stories are when we are with the characters and so in the trance of the moment that there never seems to be a good reason to put the book down or to pause the DVD. Lured deeper and deeper into the dream, we are unable to stop watching or stop reading until we find out if what we fear will happen does indeed happen, or not.

A writer who is "sick of agents" and wants to take back control over her own life considers going the self-publishing route. Following is my "take" on the subject:

Plot as a noun is what happens in a story. More specifically, the plot of a story is the dramatic action that transforms the main character and provides meaning. 

In the 60s, Curtis Mayfield sings of a new world order, a change of mind for the whole human race. Marie Elena Gaspari dances to it in the 90s. The old world order falling away.

One of my favorite writers recently attended at a meet-the-agents day in NYC where she pitched her latest writing project to a slew of agents. She returned home with a headache and a long list of interested agents. Now that the excitement and nervous energy is abated, she's left with burn-out and overwhelm.

Daily, I gain strength from a quote of Goethe's: 

"What you can do or dream you can, begin it

Boldness has genius power and magic in it." 

He also said, 

"It is almost impossible in the present day to find a situation which is thoroughly new. 

Only the matter of looking at it can be new, and the art of treating it and representing it." 

Your unique voice comes from how you: 

• Look at your story
• Treat your story
  
• Choose to represent your story 

Listen for it. 

Hone it. 

Trust the process.

I recently perused the stacks for reading material with several writer friends. One of them picked up a book and exclaimed, "Does it have a plot? I'm not reading one more book without a plot!"