How to use this Page

1) Question:
What is a good percentage mix of Dialogue, Introspection and Narrative? Is there a good mix, or is it just what fits the story? Suspense romance writer -Florida

Answer
A story unfolds in scene, of course. And, scene is usually made up of dialogue and always action. But the dialogue I'm talking about is dialogue that advances the plot, NOT dialogue that is mere information dumping.

Introspection can give insight into the inner workings of the character, but is inherently flat and thus slows the plot. Therefore introspection should be used sparingly. This also goes for narrative. Telling--summary--puts distance between the reader and the story. Showing--in scene--draws the reader deeper into the story. Use "telling" sparingly.


2) Question:
I noticed that on page 189 which is Appendix 5, you plotted the beginning Summary in the "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest J. Gaines Plot Planner example.

Why is that so? I thought we were not suppose to plot summaries? Is it because this is the very first opening sequence which introduces the inciting incident which happens to be a Summary and not a Scene? You note on this page that "this story begins with Summary, establishing the overarching conflict". I'm confused. Your clarification would help. -New York

Answer
You're right -- you are not suppose to plot summaries for the reason stated above.
The Plot Planner is a device meant to give you a visual picture of your story. I stress scene over summary primarily because the #1 problem I see many writers make is "telling" the story rather than "showing" the story. Summary may introduce vital information and thus is helpful to have available on your "visual plot map." However, I would indicate on the Plot Planner, if/when you include a summary. That way you can assess the frequency with which you use telling in place of showing for pivotal scenes.

3) Question:
I'm presently working on my plot planner and was reviewing your book again and was curious again about a few things you mentioned about summaries and would like some clarification please. -New York

On page 74, why do you ask to "determine if there is conflict in the scene or summary you are analyzing" if we are only to analyze and track scenes?

Answer
You're right!! Drat! Thanks for catching the discrepancy. I'll delete summary in that statement in the next printing of the book. Thank you.

4) Question:
Also, on page 67, you noted that "if your story begins with a summary there may not be any real action to indicate on the scene tracker. Summary is telling and so it does not usually involve real action." So are you saying that if you start your story with a summary and it has some action that we should track it on the plot planner (and this would be the only scenario to track summaries?)?? I'm only asking this as you noted that summary does not "usually" involve real action. So when a summary does involve real action, is it still a "summary" or a "scene"??

Answer
Hmmmm, does summary ever involve real action? Summary "tells" about action that has happened. What is important in a story is the action that is happening moment-by-moment on the page. True action is the step the character takes right now at this moment in story time. Again, I think you have picked up an oversight in the editing of the book. I apologize for any confusion this has caused you and will change the wording in the next printing. Thanks again for your help!


***Any of you writers out there have any comments or help to offer??? Thank you in advance.

According to the Hero's Cycle, heroes need to pass through obstacles that guardians place before them in order to prove the heroes' worthiness to enter into the special world where the story will unfold. Guardians can be other characters, circumstances, or objects (locked windows). I feel that Bill and I are passing through our share of these guardians. To be cliched (as I am using Joseph Campbell's ideas here), we're "following our bliss" in our preparations to move to Chile. Daily we're coming up against a variety of guardians, but somehow a mixture of sheer willpower and serendipity are helping to dissolve them.
Some of these have been:

Reducing a household to four suitcases and a dufflebag full of bedding.
Luckily, we're not horders and have less to get rid of than most people. We're leaving some things: photos, some books, a few of my winter clothes as we'll be living in late summer in just a few days. It feels wonderful to let go. There are no family things on my side and only a few on Bill's, so this has been a blessing.

Dogs
The hardest part has been deciding what to do with our dogs. We can't take them now because we don't really know if this is going to work. Will we stay in Chile a few months or the rest of our lives?

We were going to have Lily, our 90 percent Ausie and 10 percent mystery dog, be our Chile dog at first. Then, we decided not to bring any of them. Then all of them. Then . . . We found a wonderful organization called We Care Animal Rescue in St. Helena, California. Through them, Lily found a home with a wonderful couple in the Sacramento area. As traumatic as it was for us to say good bye, Lily was won over by a chicken sandwich. She hopped in her new mom's car and off she went. She's happy. Got her teeth cleaned. Playing lots of fetch and going on oodles of walks.

Lily was a thirty pound whirlwind that kept Dazie wound up and puppy-like for six years. There was an amazing transformation from the very first day. Dazie came into her own and wasn't as fidgety, not even wiggling when I tried to brush her. So . . . we said, "Let's keep Wiley and her!" Friends tried her out on a sleepover to see how she'd do until we figured out how to do this, but on a walk in the hills above Upper Lake she got away.

I was taking Wiley to Petaluma for a potential foster mom to meet him when another guardian came my way. My wallet was stolen before I got there, so I had to return home to cancel things out. I got the message about Dazie. I left Wiley with some food because I hadn't fed him that morning (he gets car sick)and drove the hour to Upper Lake. We spent hours looking for her. She'd run off the road up a hill that was full of chemise, coyotes who'd come out at night, and that led into a wilderness area. I called and called her name at the spot she disappeared. She didn't answer. She could have been anywhere in rugged terrain. Bill was stuck in an elevator during this time (did someone say Mercury Retrograde?) and when he got home, he brought Wiley who only had to bark once for Dazie to answer. She was at the same spot I had yelled for her, but dog-to-dog communication won her over. Bill and Kenn then had to climb the mountain, though, and Kenn had to use all his forest service training to get through the brush. She wouldn't budge when he found her. She weighs 60 pounds and he dragged her through about ten feet of the chemise with her pissing and . . . you get the picture. Once she saw Wiley, she got up and trotted down the mountain with him.

We contacted We Care again for Dazie because we decided the move would be too much for her. The next day heard from a wonderful woman in Yountville (Napa Valley). We took Dazie to her house yesterday. She now lives on a 48 acre vineyard in a 5,000 square foot house full of comfy pillows and gourmet food cooked just for her. She'll eat plenty of fruits, vegetable, New York steak cut just right, and gourmet doggy biscuits. She'll also be taken out to a restaurant that gives the diners plates for their dogs, and back at home has a bidet for her very own to be able to drink fresh flowing water. I'd have felt guilty NOT to let her live there. I've always thought that our dogs had it nice. It's been boot camp for them in comparison! Though she did break our hearts. The two nights she was with us, she climbed into a suitcase to sleep.

What is wonderful is that both of the new families will let us know how Dazie and Lily are doing. We even have an invitation to stay in Dazie's paradise when we're in northern California. And through Dazie's little adventure, the people who were going to take her are now taking Wiley until we can figure out things. He is now the official Chile dog in residence.

However, contacting airline customer service to figure this out has turned out to be the most formidable of the guards at the "gate". I ended up screaming I WANT TO TALK TO SOMEONE HUMAN! When we got the humans, it was still difficult. We're still not sure what to do.

Car
No one wanted a Corolla with a stick shift even though we were offering under blue book. What about gas economy????? We were amazed. We dropped the price to way under blue book, and a woman from Willits called us. She was thrilled that our car even had old fashioned roll up windows. We've sold it at the last minute.

House in Cobb
The first people to look at our house are making an offer. HOWEVER, whether their offer is something we'll accept is another matter. We're free here, though, because through a conversation at the Mountain High Coffee Shop, serendipity allowed us to find a renter we can trust if the house hasn't sold by the time the listing runs out.

Home in Chile
Another conversation, at the Cafe Vasquez in Lakeport this time, has given us a fully furnished house to rent (with washer and dryer) in Vina Del Mar, twenty minutes by bus from where I'll work at St. Margaret's.

Work Visa
Last hurdle. By the time we got the documents we need, it was too late to process the visa up here. It will take the FBI four months to process my "rap sheet." Ah, let's see . . . there was a ticket on my way to church a few years ago for going a few miles over the speed limit. That must be what is holding things up. So, we're hoping we can process what we need to do once we're in Santiago. I only have a few days before I begin work, but not being anxious about this is a good lesson for me. If it doesn't happen, our journey may take off on a different path as happens in many good stories.

HUNGRY
Sales have been "quiet" according to my editor. Which means if things remain the same, the book I'm halfway through writing won't be wanted. I worry about the effect of being in Chile will have on my writing career. A friend suggested I blog on my webpage as Deborah in Chile, which I think is brilliant . . . the country's name allowing for a lot of puns with eating. I just hope I have time to do this. Anyway, I just have to believe that bliss and prayer and as much attention as I can put into promoting the book from down south will work.

I haved managed to sneak in a couple school visits through all of this: Lu Sutton School in Novato, where I saw again how much kids connect with the book. Also, another presentation on the Mendocino Coast at Horicon School in Annapolis, and the Four-Eyed Frog Book Store in Gualala. Grandmother Pig's Butt, my alter ego, is still training recruits for the great invasion of Earth, complete with an alien make over of a very brave volunteer. I hope she can somehow keep the training going in Chile.