You’ve (hopefully) worked out the beginning, climax, and ending of your new book by now and you’ve adjusted to make sure that these all work together well—at least so far as the outline is written to date. Don’t fret if you discover that you have to keep adjusting your plot as you go along. It … Read more
We’ve talked about the inciting incident, and the climax in our plotting process. Now it’s time to consider the ending. Endings can be tricky. Endings should be gratifying and fulfilling for your reader. After all, the reader has invested their time into reading your ENTIRE book and unhappy readers are not good for writers. Make … Read more
Last time, we talked about the inciting incident— a great place to start thinking about the plot of your novel. This time I’d like you to think about the climax, which is the next plot point I think you should consider. The climax is that point in the narrative where the conflict or tension reaches … Read more
When you think of your story’s plot, it is helpful to think of a story’s parts to help you see the big picture and help you to begin to work out your story’s plot. All stories have beginnings, middles, and endings. They also have inciting incidents, midpoints, and climaxes. Regardless of the genre of book … Read more
As mentioned last time, plot is the significant events and incidents that happen in a story and how these events relate to each other. But how do you create a plot? Can’t you just string some events together for your character to muddle through? You could do that, but that story structure generally results in … Read more
I was recently at Colorado Gold, which is a conference geared toward writers wanting to improve their craft and writing skill. It was a great conference attended by 300+ writers. While there, I chatted with people and I noticed that for some of them, the concept of plot seemed to be an afterthought. These were … Read more
Sometimes when I am reading the slush pile (my submission inbox for Literary Wanderlust), I come across a really good story idea but the story winds up being boring. Usually, it’s because the story does not contain any plot twists to pique my interest. What is a plot twist? A plot twist is an unexpected, … Read more
I was contacted recently by a friend of a friend. You know how that works. Somebody tells somebody else that they are writing a novel, and somebody says, “Oh, I know an editor. You should contact them to help you with…” Fill that in as you like. Now, I don’t at all mind helping writers … Read more