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A definition of touchstone on thefreedictionary.com says: an excellent quality or example that is used to test the excellence or genuineness of others.
A thematic significance statement becomes a sort of touchstone for writers. A statement that best represents your entire story shines as an excellent example to test the excellence of each scene in relationship to the whole.
Theme Exercise:
1) Write a thematic significance statement you believe best represents the deeper meaning of your story.
2) Ask yourself:
- How does the thematic statement apply to the protagonist's internal and external plot?
- How does it apply to the antagonist?
- What about to the romance plot?
3) Arrange the different themes and ideas that seem the truest to your story into ten thematic statements (use words you often say when attempting to convey to others what your story is really all about).
4) Hone the ten statements down to one that incorporates all the major elements and feels like the truest and best representation of your entire story.
5) Write that statement where you will see it every time you write. Use the thematic significance statement as your touchstone and a continual reminder of the focus of your story. Let the thematic significance statement help guide you.
For more about the importance of theme in stories and for more help and examples and exercises to develop a thematic significance statement of your story, see "More Plot Tips" below.
Coming Soon!The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing is available for pre-order now. Ships 12/12.
More Plot Tips:
Q: Last week I did something I didn't know I'd be able to do though had the drive to do it. It's taken 20 months to do it, but I've completed my first draft- I have a manuscript! Woot woot! So much of your influence pushed me to it, btw!
Anyway, I was wondering how you go about re-writing/editing. Do you do a full read through first? Do you just start with spelling checking? How do you make sure it's fluid from the color of a shirt in one scene to the next, etc.....
A: Congratulations!
See my previous post for an understanding of how I define the difference between a re-write and a re-vision.
During PlotWriMo throughout the month of December, I post daily exercises designed to re-vision the rough draft you've written (as in NaNoWriMo) for the first major re-write. I've published those steps in the Before the Next Draft ebook. The exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories do the exact same thing.
Essentially, I recommend putting aside the manuscript for at least a couple of weeks. During that time, stand back and re-vision the story now that you know the beginning, middle and end.
Don't worry about the specific details until you're confident that the plot and structure are working.
Once the skeleton and foundation are in place, that's the time to concentrate on the essential plot elements in every single scene.
This is a time of taking what you wrote during the generative stage and crafting it into a story. Happy plotting!
More Plot Tips:
Last week at the Bookshop Santa Cruz launch party for The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories I share 5 Plot Tips to Immediately Improve Your Writing. Right after, we give away a free copy of Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple a friend bought and then passed out raffle tickets for it.
The guy who won BBP appears next in a long line of chatty writers awaiting their books to be signed. He tells me how he finished a fantasy novel in 2006 (or 2009 or... I can't remember the details) and then rewrote it once the following year.
As he talks, all around us is total chaos, people eating yummy cake and laughing and talking, buying books, sliding out flyers they take for themselves about the plot webinar I'm doing live this Thursday.
Quickly, the winner is replaced by the next writer in line and I'm left imagining how the trilogy of plot resources under his arm holds the promise of relighting his passion for his story.
Suddenly, he's back again. Now, at the end of the line, he looks crest-fallen, crushed, dazed and has reduced in size and demeanor to about ten years old. I wonder what happened to him between the time I met him and now.
"How do you know when it's time to give-up, to quit writing?"
The croak of a sob escapes his attempt to swallow.
"You just won a raffle for your writing," I say as gently as I can when what I really long to do is grab him by the shoulders and shake him awake. "How much more proof than that do you need that now is not the time to quit? Now is the time to keep writing."
What's New!
Webinar Plot Workshop hosted by Writers Digest:
Secrets of Story Structure Plot
9/13/12
Virtual. Live. One-time only.
Sign-up today
More Plot Tips:
Thanks to Writers' Platform-Building Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan, I have lovely photos to share of both the pre-party and Bookshop Santa Cruz launch party for The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.
Standing room only. Plot Tips shared. Cake devoured. Thanks to all of you who showed up and asked questions and bought books.
I add a few photos here and there and share:
5 Plot Tips to Immediately Improve Your Writing
1) Start from the climax and work your way backward to the beginning.
2) As you're writing, always keep in mind the transformation the protagonist undergoes and the gift she delivers at the end of the story.
3) Continually make clear to the writer the protagonist's goals.
4) Get the 4 Energetic Markers in place first and then fill in the rest of your scenes.
5) Constantly ask yourself what you're really trying to say = what your story is really trying to say (thematic significance plot).
What's New!Webinar Plot Workshop hosted by Writers Digest:
Secrets of Story Structure Plot 9/13/12
Virtual
Sign-up today
More Plot Tips:
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 definition of touchstone on thefreedictionary.com says: an excellent quality or example that is used to test the excellence or genuineness of others. 
