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Plotting Act 2: 23 Ways to Defeat the Sagging Middle!
I am plotting Act 2, and the terror of the empty page is hitting, take two. So, I’m going back to some previous posts about plotting to see what they will tell me about plot, especially the middle of this novel. In 9 Ways of Looking at Plot, I looked at various ways to plot; […]
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PLOT: You MUST be Brutal
The biggest problem I have in planning a plot–still, after all these years–is that I am too nice to my characters. I can’t imagine the horrible things that need to happen, without a big struggle. Listen up: What is the worst thing that could happen to your character? It MUST happen at the climax of […]
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2 Questions to Develop Plot: What If? and What Next?
While I am struggling with plot, the main question I am asking is “What if?”, closely followed by “What next?” What if? Creative plots focus on an unexpected combination of events that somehow manage to mesh together at the end when all is revealed. Plots can be about vengeance, catastrophe, love & hate, chase, grief […]
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15 Minute Writing Tasks
Besides writing, my passion is making quilts. Now, this is a complex undertaking and takes time. I’ve learned to break the tasks into small chunks, something doable in only 15 minutes. For example, I cut one fabric one day, another fabric the next. I might sew quilt pieces together one day, and the next day […]