Author. Lady Boss. Geektastic.
Do you plot your novels out before writing them? Do you start writing with just the ideas in your head and see where the stories and characters lead? Are you maybe somewhere in-between plotting only a few scenes ahead, or just the major points and then building the plot by writing between them?
I most often start a story with a cool premise. A concept that comes down to me out of the aether that I am extremely excited about, and a story is born. The characters, however, usually stink. When I was going into my fourth draft of #ODUM I was doing a ton of research on …
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Want an example of how the Save the Cat Beat Sheet is used? Let's go over one of my favorite movies of all time, Big Hero 6! Opening Image: The film opens with the sprawling city of Sanfransokyo, a city that resembles San Francisco blended with Tokyo and other Japanese culture. Set-Up: Hiro Hamada spends …
Continue reading "Save the Cat Beat Sheet – Case Study"
Ever heard of Save the Cat? Ever wonder who the cat even is, and why it needs saving? The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet breaks down three-act screenplay structure into 15 bite-size, manageable sections called beats, each with a specific goal for your overall story. Below is an explanation of each beat. The page numbers are …
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Hello lovelies! This week I am going over the Master Plot Formula Case study. If you aren't familiar with this method, you can read more about it in this post, but to summarize, Lester Dent was born in the early part of the 1900's and wrote 159 Doc Savage novels using this formula he created to …
Continue reading "Master Plot Formula – Case Study"
Hello and welcome back to the blog, lovelies. Today we're going to walk through The Hero's Journey. Also called the Monomyth, this plot method was developed by Joseph Campbell, and if you need a refresher, you can visit my post about it The Hero’s Journey – Plot Theory. In general, you can think of the Monomyth …
Continue reading "The Hero’s Journey – Case Study"
Have you ever heard of the Master Plot Formula? Lester Dent was born in the early part of the 1900's and wrote 159 Doc Savage novels using this formula he created to do so. Meant for 6000 word stories divided into four equal parts, Dent's formula can also be expanded to use in full novels. …
Continue reading "Master Plot Formula – Plot Theory"
Last week we talked about the cool plotting method that I found by author Sarah Cannon of Heart Breathings. Her entire plotting method can be found over on YouTube, starting with this video. I again want to highly recommend checking her out and subscribing to her channel! Go buy all her books. Leave her comments …
Continue reading "Heart Breathings – Case Study"
I'm back this week with another plotting method that I just learned and totally love. This one is from author Sarah Cannon of Heart Breathings and her entire plotting method can be found over on YouTube, starting with this video. So I highly recommend checking her out and subscribing to her channel!
Hello and welcome back to the blog, lovelies. Today we're going to talk about one of the most oft-repeated plot structures out there, which is The Hero's Journey. Also called the Monomyth, this plot method was developed by Joseph Campbell in which a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed or …
Continue reading "The Hero’s Journey – Plot Theory"
