Stories generally have at least two major settings.
Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. Each time a concept is referenced you are directed to new information about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay.
Visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!
Blog: Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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A writer says her story "tanks around page 25" and bores her even to try to rewrite.
I recommend she spend some time standing back from the words of her story and view the inner workings. In other words, analyze the structure before you worry to much about the details and even the words you write.
A Plot Planner is a visual line that represents the invisible energy of the Universal Story. It enables you to assess the significance of your characters and the dramatic action of your story by seeing how all the scenes work together against the backdrop of the entire piece. Such a multilayered attentiveness to your story allows for a unique perspective into the deeper meaning of your story.
A plot planner gives a visual accounting of all the scenes in a story. It helps you compare scenes that heighten conflict and suspense to those quieter scenes that show the character in control. Each scene delivers more tension and conflict than the preceding scene and builds with intensity to the story’s climax. Standing back from all the words and viewing the story as a whole allows you to better determine the causality between scenes and the overall coherence of the story. With such an insight, you are able to turn scenes with emotionally rich characters who are experiencing conflict into the driving force behind an exceptional story.
The plot planner is a visual aid to help you write and finish your project in a way that pleases you and ultimately satisfies your readers, too.
Writers report that when they hit a rough patch and lose energy for their stories, merely a switch from writing to filling in a template stimulates their creative juices. Before writers know it, they are back to writing.
Very nicely compiled here, Martha! Thanks for all your hard work. :)
Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse
very interesting! thanks!
Very helpful way to think about it. I'm currently ghosting a fiction novel, actually just finished a big, fat outline for it. Now comes the fun part of writing.
Your insights are giving me good thoughts for ways to really "turn the screws" as a reason for the main character's transformation. :)