how to plot a story

In Plotting, Romance Writing, Story Development

An Assortment of Plotting Tips for You (Part Three)

Lynn Johnstonby Lynn Johnston

Some more goodies for you–three more excerpts from the series of live trainings I did in October about plotting methods for both plotters and pantsers (From Premise to Plot: Easy Story Structure for Plotters and Pantsers).

Romance brainstorming questions, illustrated with a romance story’s inciting incident:

Weaving multiple inciting incidents together in a multi-plotline story:

How to turn plot events into specific scenes that move your story forward:

Of course, we covered so much more in From Premise to Plot, which ended up generating more than 9 hours of video training!

If you missed it and would like to learn more about the replays (and how you can get them), go here: http://jvz1.com/c/257231/184347

In Plotting, Romance Writing, Story Development

An Assortment of Plotting Tips for You (Part Two)

Lynn Johnstonby Lynn Johnston

Yesterday, I shared some excerpts from a series of live trainings I did in October about plotting methods for both plotters and pantsers (From Premise to Plot: Easy Story Structure for Plotters and Pantsers).

The result was more than 9 hours of video, covering an array of plotting techniques for all types of writers, both organic writers (pantsers) and outliners who love traditional story structure (plotters).

Here are some more excerpts from this training with you.

A couple of the “rules of thumb” for escalating conflict in fiction (applies to both outliners and intuitive writers, but each of you will use them a little differently):

How understanding power shifts in traditional plot structure can help organic or intuitive writers:

Why romance fiction is so tricky to do well:

Of course, we covered so much more in From Premise to Plot!

If you missed it and would like to learn more about the replays (and how you can get them), go here:  http://jvz1.com/c/257231/184347

In Plotting, Romance Writing, Story Development, Uncategorized

An Assortment of Plotting Tips for You (Part One)

Lynn Johnstonby Lynn Johnston

In October, I taught a series of live trainings on plotting methods for both plotters and pantsers (From Premise to Plot: Easy Story Structure for Plotters and Pantsers).

It was a ton of fun, and so many of you who attended asked great questions that spurred me to add extra content beyond what I’d planned.

The result was more than 9 hours of video, covering an array of plotting techniques for all types of writers, both organic writers (pantsers) and outliners who love traditional story structure (plotters).

I’d like to share some excerpts from this training with you.

Functional definitions of “plot” and “plot point” (it’s not the same ones you learned in your high school English class):

Brainstorming questions for plotting, using the first pinch point as an example:

Plotters vs. pantsers – why you shouldn’t think of it as a “versus”:

Of course, we covered so much more in From Premise to Plot!

If you missed it and would like to learn more about the replays (and how you can get them), go here:  http://jvz1.com/c/257231/184347

In 30 Day Novel, Plotting, Story Development

Must-See Videos If You’re Brainstorming a Novel or Short Story

Lynn Johnstonby Lynn Johnston

Working on your NaNoWriMo plot?  If you haven’t seen it already, you owe it to yourself to check out “How to Write a Story That Rocks,” a workshop by John Brown and Larry Correia.

They teach you how to use more than a dozen techniques for turning a basic scenario into a complex plot full of twists and turns that your readers will love.

Use now, as you prepare to start your novel, but bookmark it and come back if you get stuck in the middle. Your secret weapon for finishing NaNoWriMo!

You’ll need a couple of hours to get through the whole workshop–longer if you stop the video for each exercise and apply it to your work-in-progress, like I do. So you might want to watch 15-20 minutes per day and work through a couple exercises at a time.

John has made a “cheat sheet” for the techniques available on his website here (http://johndbrown.com/writers/), along with a ton of other great articles on the craft of writing.