The plot whisperer book of writing prompts : easy exercises to get you writing

274 Pages·2013·0.7 MB·English

by  Alderson

THE
PLOT
WHISPERER
BOOK OF
Writing Prompts
Easy Exercises to Get You Writing
MARTHA ALDERSON
Founder of PlotWriMo
DEDICATION
TO BOBBY RAY ALDERSON
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART I: THE BEGINNING
PART II: THE HALFWAY POINT
PART III: THE CRISIS
PART IV: THE CLIMAX AND RESOLUTION
CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am indebted to my remarkable editor, Peter Archer, and his vision for the Plot
Whisperer series. The moment he suggested this prompt book, I knew it was the
perfect complement to the other two plot books in the trilogy. Thank you to
everyone at Adams Media for making this book come to life in such a short
period of time. Special thanks to my agent Jill Corcoran for “discovering me.”
I’d like to thank the women in my Wise Women group. Your belief in me
drowns out the naysayers in my head. A special thanks to Cathy Cress. Time for
the money chakra dance!
The prompts in this book are inspired by all the novels, memoirs, and
screenplays I’ve analyzed and all the writers I’ve worked with over the years. I
am deeply grateful to the authors of all those novels, memoirs, and screenplays
and to all the writers who willingly have taken a leap of faith and tried the
techniques and methods I put forward in this book. Your feedback and
encouragement, successes and failures have been invaluable and have shaped the
way I view plot and what it takes to write a story from beginning to end.
INTRODUCTION
You’ve got an idea. An idea for a novel, a short story, or perhaps a screenplay.
You’ve thought about it for a long time, turning it over in your mind when
you’re driving to work, walking in the park, or sitting, late at night, watching the
steam rise from a cup of tea.
And now you’ve taken the leap and decided to write. The force of the
Universal Story that flows through you compels you to put pen to paper (or
fingers to keyboard) and write.
But …
But you’re stuck. You can’t seem to get going. And what seemed so easy and
so urgent now appears as a huge obstacle sitting in front of you, blocking your
path to fulfillment.
So you’ve picked up this book.
The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts is written to help you with this
problem—one, I can assure you, that is common to most writers. Be comforted;
you’re not alone. But you do need some help.
This book provides daily plot prompts guaranteed to move you from where
you are in imagining and writing a novel, memoir, or screenplay to writing the
story all the way to the end. The book is divided into four parts, corresponding to
the various parts of your story:
The Beginning
This is where you and your protagonist first come to terms with the world you’re
creating. Here you:
Identify the story’s time and place
Set up the dramatic action and underlying content that will run throughout
the story
Introduce the major characters
Allude to the theme
Introduce the protagonist’s short-term goal and give a hint of her long-term
goal
The Halfway Point
You’re some distance along now, though still early in the story. You’ve
established clearly for the reader the protagonist’s long-term goal, as well as the
antagonist(s) standing in her way. You’ve also discovered a cast of supporting
characters who reflect back to the protagonist the elements she sees in others but
cannot see in herself.