Thanks to a very generous benefactor, we are taking PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month on what appears to be developing into a massive blog tour beginning December 1st through the 5th!
Seven years ago, I began offering the beta version of
PlotWriMo for novelist word drunk from
NaNoWriMo. Over the years I continued refining and perfecting the steps to help writers revise all those words generated in November into a compelling story with a plot (and all other novelists and memoirists and screenwriters alike struggling to create a pleasing form for their readers)
Earlier this year, I partnered with
Jill Corcoran who brought her insight and love of concept and knowledge of the inside of publishing. Together we created an entire video series of the program. The feedback and "ah ha" moments we have received have been enormously rewarding and makes all the time and hard work worthwhile.
Sample of feedback:
"Jill (video 4, I think) explained what agents meant when they say "They didn't connect" and it was like a lightbulb had been screwed in my head-- I failed to meet all of the essential elements of a scene. There was always something about my former MS that I could never pinpoint that felt off, and that was just it! I needed more emotional development, conflict/ tension, dramatic action and clear goals PER scene."
"I watched the Revise Your Novel in a Month videos and really began to understand the difference between crisis and climax and the key ways to develop each part of the plot."
"PlotWriMo is the closest “formula” for structuring a book I’ve ever discovered. It’s like an algebra equation for writing – if you’re missing any of the energetic markers you can’s solve for X."
"It’s helped me re-envision my own work and I can’t stop myself from dissecting every movie and book I’ve read since."
"I've learned a lot through the PlotWriMo series. I've always struggled with revision, but the PlotWriMo series has helped me organize my revision so that I am going deeper than I ever have before at making my story shine."
"Now, what did I learn from the videos? Goodness, what did I not? It's all about the structure. Being a pantser doesn't work when you are revising (Not sure it would work for me - ever), but you have to be clear in your journey. I also learned to forgive myself. To keep writing. And that we can learn from our mistakes and become better writers."
"I watched PlotWriMo and learned about EMs, concept and that the antagonist OWNS the middle."
“Ah, ha” Moment: The exercise of writing down all of the themes, and getting down to the grittier ones. And when I found my darker theme was about loss, and the threat of losing someone you love. I couldn’t believe when I went back and looked at the Energy Markers and found that common theme. I’m working on deepening the scenes with metaphors and thematic significance."
"Don't start drafting until you're happy with the concept and markers."
"As for what I learned, viewing both the crisis and the climax from my antagonist’s point of view gave my story dramatic action and the depth it needed to bind the story and pull in the reader."
"Yet my greatest aha moment came with the challenge of writing the concept, giving my story definition. As a young woman I took my family on some exciting adventures, wounds and all, and the only dream still intact in the end was my passion and desire to be a writer. I couldn’t just throw out my concept because it wasn’t good enough, or my life wouldn’t be either. Crafting my concept, meant validating what I had done and why, all the parts and pieces."
"I really had an "aha moment" when Martha Alderson talked about the end mirroring the beginning."
The icing on the proverbial cake was the news that one writer secured an agent (having the amazing opportunity to chose from 3 offering her contracts). As she writes: "No word of lie - it is absolutely thanks to Jill Corcoran and Martha Alderson! The last round of revisions changed everything! I just thank god I have the videos and future classes for other books! I have worked like a dog on this book, but the videos and Martha's book really changes everything. The advanced workshop kicked my butt in the best way possible and made me really rethink some things and made the work so much better!"
The tour begins December 1st through the 5th so if you'd like to add your blog to the tour, please
sign up ASAP. We're using the opportunity to spread the word about writing and revising stories and about A Path to Publishing in general. Jill and I will visit all the participating blogs, comment and award prizes. (If you'd like to simply follow along on the tour, I'll list the participating blogs during the tour.)
See you soon!
For help about the Energetic Markers to write toward every week of
NaNoWriMo.
The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling StoriesFor plot prompts to move your writing everyday and reach each major turning point:
The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing. To complete write your story in a month, complete 4 prompts everyday. (As one writer proclaims: The PW Book of Prompts is my lighted path…)
For plot help and resources during NaNoWriMo
:
1) The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories2) The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master3) 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
Life spins a bit faster in anticipation of year's end. You intend to finish your novel, memoir, screenplay this year - simply finish. Fall is the time to write fast.
Take October to pre-plot or re-plot your novel, November to finish and December to revise. Sounds simple enough.
Forget the outcome for now. What you write doesn't have to be perfect or brilliant or even very good. In fact, the sloppier the better. For the next month and a half, simply focus on writing fast everyday and moving between writing and standing back to consider your story as a whole all the way to the end.
The more enjoyable the process of writing for you, the more likely you are to write. See a path to writing everyday you can. Write fast.
Take the
PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month Pre-Challenge:
You have 1 Month and 2 weeks to get a draft written in time for
PlotWriMo. Beginning December 1st, follow the exercises in the
PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month video series and re"vision" and redefine the plot arc of your story.
is custom designed to ensure your success even during the busiest time of the year. (
**NOTE: this is the final weekend to buy
PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month video series for $75. Price goes up on Monday!)
Begin 2015 ready for a powerful rewrite, to submit your work to contests and agents and/or to self-publish your novel.
~~~~~More resources to support you in your pre-challenge:
1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of
2) Read
The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Masternamed BEST BOOKS FOR WRITERS by
Poets&Writers. The author provides insight on how to create works of fiction with powerful stories and focuses on how to devise a Universal Plot, plot lines and subplots, compelling scenes, and character transformation.
*****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 in
The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing. Today, I write.
An amazingly kind and patient woman at GoDaddy helped transfer PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month to its new home on Vimeo. When she understands what I do for a passion, she proceeds to tell me her whole life story -- one of sacrifice and triumph. Both major plot lines come directly from her heart, one through raising an autistic son and the other reconnecting to a long, long, long lost love.
Finding the woman nearly my same age made me think back more than 30 years ago when I did my graduate work with autistic children and how little we understood of autism then. Kids with all sorts of unidentified and unclassified issues were lumped together with kids all over the autism spectrum. Back then, there was no spectrum. Just a throw-away term for all the kids who were impossible to rein into conforming with mainstream educational and societal expectations.
Hearing this one woman's fight for a fair, non-abusive education for her son back then, my refusal alongside others against the use of cattle prods as a form of punishment for bad behavior and fight to remove it makes me appreciate how far we've come and how much parents with autistic children today owe to so many parents and professionals who never stopped and never will stop fighting for equal rights for all children.
As the GoDaddy helper methodically goes through the steps needed to do what I want to do to, I hug myself, giddy that
PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month has a permanent place and is so much better thanks to all
Jill's contributions including concept and voice, every word perfect and revision from an industry insider's point of view.
Giddy must be in the airwaves between us because the helper's voice seems almost to flutter in anticipation of next week meeting again for the first time her first and true love after a more than 40-year separation. Communicating in the myriad of non-same place and same time avenues available today, she and her beloved found that rather than follow the conventional path they'd each chased separated, the unconventional path they'd stumbled upon had made them more of who they were at 17 years old.
Do you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?
Can you imagine living with a sense of freedom and abandon with lessons learned and abilities integrated and minus all that no longer serves you? Minus the shoulds, embracing your highest self.
Today I write!
~~~~~Take the PlotWriMo Pre-Challenge:
~~~~~~~~PLOT WORKSHOPS and RETREATS
A PATH to PUBLISHINGPre-orders now available for an entirely new support system based on
PlotWriMo for writers ready to
Revise Your Novel in a Month.
WRITER PATH PLOT and SCENE RETREATS in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains. May 30 – June 1 Your story deserves to be told. Your writer’s soul needs to be nourished. Learn to identify and write the key scenes that build a page-turning story, master crucial scene types and go deeper into your plot by applying the three key layers that run through all great fiction: action, emotion and theme. Reserve your spot now for the 1st Annual Writer Path Retreat Spring 2014. WriterPath.com
For more: Read my
Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.
Goal setting for your characters determines the character emotional development plot, sets the dramatic action plot and points to the overall meaning of the story.
The goals you set for yourself determine your emotional development and they form an action plan for a meaningful life.
You meet an antagonist -- internal: you wonder why bother, your story sucks, even you're bored by your own story or external: the dog needs to be walked, the mother her medicine, the family demands dinner now, the computer shuts down, the fatigue creeping across your shoulders at the thought of facing your story again -- stop.
Remind yourself of your long-term goal (Finish your draft in 6 days)
Assess what you need to do right now to move toward that goal (A positive plan to clear your path of antagonists)
Quit blaming the antagonist (Hold tight to the vision of what you want: A complete draft written in 6 days)
Assume responsibility for that one thing you can do (Write)
Take positive action toward your goal (Write)
You have six days to finish this draft of your story. You can do this!
Today I write!
~~~~~
~~~~~~~~PLOT WORKSHOPS and RETREATS
A PATH to PUBLISHINGPre-orders now available for an entirely new support system based on
PlotWriMo for writers ready to
Revise Your Novel in a Month.
WRITER PATH PLOT and SCENE RETREATS in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains. May 30 – June 1 Your story deserves to be told. Your writer’s soul needs to be nourished. Learn to identify and write the key scenes that build a page-turning story, master crucial scene types and go deeper into your plot by applying the three key layers that run through all great fiction: action, emotion and theme. Reserve your spot now for the 1st Annual Writer Path Retreat Spring 2014. WriterPath.com
For more: Read my
Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.
