Showing posts with label plotting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plotting. Show all posts

Friday, October 7, 2011

Plotting is Hard and Other Tidbits I'm still Discovering

Happy Friday, all!

October has been my time to start a new book. The very best part of writing in my opinion--second only to "The End". LOL!

I don't know if this happens to you, but every time I start a new story I almost forget what I did to plot for my previous stories and then I get a little nervous.
How do I do this again?
Why isn't this coming together?
Did I do a character sheet before?
I mean, I've written stories, had a few published, and, well, good grief...

YOU'D THINK PLOTTING WOULD GET EASIER!!!!

*sigh* It doesn't. At least not for me. Which is why I am ever so thankful and completely indebted to one of my critique partners for pointing me the way to The Plot Whisperer.

Have you heard of her?

Martha Alderson from Blockbuster Plots for writers has a great series of Youtube Plot Videos breaking down the fine points of plotting and things to consider when plotting. I've gone through a number of them the last few days (up to Step 9 so far) and it's already spun my writing wheels.


Two things that she talked about that really stuck out in my mind are:
1) Character Flaws. Who is your character in the beginning and who is your character at the end?

2) Climax/Ending. What is your character able to do now that they weren't able to do in the beginning of the story?

Concentrating on these things have really worked for me as far as making the story click in my mind and I feel it coming together much clearer.

Maybe these videos will help you, too.
Come prepared with a pencil and paper!

Writers: Is plotting always consistent for you or are you still discovering new writing tidbits? Any good plotting techniques or links you'd like to share?

Friday, January 28, 2011

Book Winner and how I'm spending my day

Wow!! Thanks so much for all the wonderful comments for Patti Lacy's post on Monday!

She's a super lady and it was really fun hosting her!

But enough chit-chat. It's time to announce the winner of Patti's new release, The Rhythm of Secrets.

And that winner is... CAROL KILGORE.


Congrats, Carol!! Please shoot me an email and let me know where you would like the book sent and I'll have Patti send it out to you ASAP. :)



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Whew! I'm exhausted now. No, actually I can't be exhausted. I still have to do my "legs and back" P90x workout to do and then the rest of the day I'm spending...

Plotting. Ugh.


I'm having a terrible time of it. I know my heroine pretty well, but my hero is in sad shape.
So I need to spend some time figuring out what his "issues" are.


And in case you were interested, I'm going to be checking out some articles from Jeannie Campbell--particularly this one on determining your character's motivating need. It looks like something I could use now.

What are you doing today?