In Mr Bell’s final chapter (FINAL CHAPTER!!!) the gentleman of plot offers us a peek inside his tool chest. Inside is an assortment of techniques we can use to spruce up a tricky novel. The metaphor, which he offers at the beginning of the chapter to help us understand this […]
So like, it’s crazy. Just this morning I was wondering something about my writing, about my life. Why do I stay away from issues? Why do I avoid conflict? What would it hurt to write characters who say something raw, bias, with zero sense, but with 100,000 degrees of emotion? […]
Isolate a tense scene in your novel, where the conflict is at its highest. Then stretch the tension even more. Use the techniques from the chapter. Then return to it in a few days. Does it need to be cut, or have you added to the reading experience? This […]
Finally! The last exercise from chapter 2 is this third one. Using a structure diagram, map out your current plot. (I plotted my next novel, Awake & Asleep.) Come up with a disturbance scene and events that make up the two doorways of no return. (Done.) Write these down […]
How could I not? I read chapter 2 of Mr Bell’s Plot book through the lens of my last novel. Why? Because I wrote They Lived They Were with plot squarely in mind. At first I wrote freely, as I tend to do. But later, every editing decision, every scene […]
Now we enter chapter 2. It’s the point of no return! The part after the beginning and the part before the end, the “muddle” as the author cites. Lol. The muddle. I’ve always been shy of my muddles. What do I do? I tattoo them with references. I slash them […]
The last exercise from chapter one talks about all the little things that make a story amazing, on top of plot. They key here being writing plot-first doesn’t stifle creativity. Since everything you add on top is you. For example, the recipe for making an omelette is pretty much […]
Today’s exercise calls for four lines, one for each of the LOCK element, on your next novel. Well, well! I do have a next novel idea, which I really (really) want to be plotty. Like I might as well get the thing down pat. Butterflies, remember? Gossamer wings. Plot of […]
This exercise builds off another idea from chapter one of Mr Bell’s simple and clean book on training your plot muscles. Essentially, the structure of our favorite books boils down to this acronym: L.O.C.K. In pieces, Lead, Objective, Confrontation, Knockout. Acronyms are sexy, we must admit, and choice […]
The first book in the semester of Plot will be James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure. With a name like that, how could you go wrong? Not his, although it does reminds me of one of my favorite professors in college, Susan Bell . . . nevertheless, just for bibliography’s […]
Has it ever happened to you where you get the same message three different times, in three different ways? Your stomach growls, you’re hungry. But it’s better to save money, hold off until dinner. And then you see an ad on your computer for ice cream. No, you say. Then […]