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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: tricks to write the middle of a story, Most Recent at Top [Help]
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1. 4th Annual Plot Writing Month -- Day Ten

THE END: PART TWO

People who know me are not surprised I start at the End. I've always done things a bit backwards. I have three reasons for beginning this way:

1)
The End never gets the attention the Beginning does. Often by the End, writers are exhausted. The raw emotion having survived the Crisis leaves you drained. Like the protagonist, you are tough enough to go all the way into hell and face your biggest fear or worst ordeal (the Crisis in the Middle). After that, to write about the journey back to share the gift -- not running home crying, -- returning a victor and faces the ultimate antagonist at the Climax, which often turns out to be herself, feels like it's all too much.

Drained from writing an entire draft and having lost energy for the story, the End is vague and underdeveloped.

(Please note: I'm using two different words to mark two different moments of highest intensity respectively:
Crisis , which occurs in the Middle at about the 3/4 mark in the story
AND
Climax, which occurs in the End (1/4) one scene or chapter before the last page of the entire story)

2)
The Climax is the crowning glory of the entire story and, thus, deserves focused attention.

In real life, a person who suffers a Crisis has lost everything. After that, you either triumph over your fear and greatest antagonist at the
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2. 4th Annual Plot Writing Month -- Day Nine

Each of us dreams of being lifting to great heights. So does your protagonist. We imagine our dreams from the safety of our own habits and routines and within a framework of mutually agreed upon rules and customs. Comforted by the known sameness of our lives, we wait for something outside ourselves to lift us up, always waiting...


Not so for the protagonist of your story. She has to move from the ordinary world of the Beginning into the murky Middle. The very definition of the main character of the story as the one most changed by the Dramatic Action. From the great height of the Climax of the book or screenplay, she prevails to lead the way for others to follow.

The Climax is the moment one chapter or scene before the very end of the story when the protagonist does something she could not have done anywhere else in the story because she first had to rediscover and learn the skills needed to shine.

What we are doing here at the
4th Annual International Plot Writing Month is dry compared to the magical and mystical process of writing a first draft. 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.

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.

2 Comments on 4th Annual Plot Writing Month -- Day Nine, last added: 12/9/2011
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3. 4th Annual Plot Writing Month -- Day Eight

Today represents the End of the Beginning of our month-long plot writing endeavor. The past week has been introductory. You're getting to know what is expected of you during PlotWriMo. You've made a few discoveries you hadn't known about your story and experienced a couple of ah, ha moments. Finding the time everyday proves challenging, but you've managed.


The other day I tweeted about how the work you do on your story during PlotWriMo is like cleaning out a cluttered closet. First you have to take everything out (the beginning). This causes quite a mess and before things get better they get way worse as you attempt to assess what to keep and what to toss. You rearrange the shelves and paint. You question your choices. The chaos begins to grate on you. You feel overwhelmed by the task ahead of you. You suffer a crisis and beg to give up (the middle). Out of the ashes of what was, you rise up and methodically restore order (the end).

Today, you decide whether you move forward into the exotic world of the Middle of PlotWriMo or you choose to stop this plot re"vision" work you started.

Whether you actually spend time making lists and filling out templates this month or simply reading the posts everyday, your relationship with your story will deepen. Your relationship with yourself will, too.

Today, take a look at the work you've been doing. Take a look at your calendar. As we move deeper into PlotWriMo, we also move deeper into the holiday season. You can rattle off 10,000 excuses why to turn from your story and devote yourself to your seasonal traditions. Challenge your belief system. Allow yourself to step up and honestly say that for no other reason and no one to blame, you're stopping.

Not you, you say? You game to keep at it? I promise you you won't regret your decision...

Take your time to decide. The Middle is not for the faint-hearted. Hope to see you back tomorrow and the real work begins.

(***Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. Each time a concept

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4. 4th Annual Plot Writing Month -- Day Seven

The Middle poses lots of difficulty for writers for a multitude of reasons, many of which I discuss in The Plot Whisperer book.


One difficulty crops up when, having committed to writing all the way through to the end without going back to the beginning, you stumble across a terrific subplot when writing a first draft. Hopefully you resisted the pull to go back and foreshadow the subplot or introduce the unexpected element. Why? Because, if you do give in and go back, chances are good you'll overdevelop the subplot in the Beginning.

That problem then multiples when you get all attached to what you have created and suddenly are struck with the idea that perhaps you've been writing about the wrong character all along, that the subplot star is, in fact, the protagonist. Before long you're off and writing an entirely new story or become entangled in the first version.

Now that you have successfully written all the way to the end at least one time it is the time to assess the strength of the each subplot, mull over the thematic tie-ins to the primary plot, and make determinations how best to foreshadow important elements without giving the subplot more attention that it deserves and detracting rather than enhance the primary plot.

(***Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. Each time a concept is referenced you are directed to new informatio

6 Comments on 4th Annual Plot Writing Month -- Day Seven, last added: 12/8/2011
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