The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

238 Pages·2011·1.41 MB·English

by  Martha Alderson

THE

PLOT

WHISPERER

Secrets of Story Structure

Any Writer Can Master

MARTHA ALDERSON, Founder of PlotWrMo

Copyright © 2011 by Martha Alderson.

All rights reserved.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any
form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are

made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

Published by

Adams Media, a division of F+W Media, Inc.
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322. U.S.A.

www.adamsmedia.com

ISBN 10: 1-4405-2588-9

ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-2588-9

eISBN 10: 1-4405-2847-0

eISBN 13: 978-1-44052847-7

Printed in the United States of America.

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Dedication

To my mother Gertrud Inga Maria Svensson Stockton
For encouraging my imagination and always inspiring me

Acknowledgments

For your enthusiastic belief in me, Jill Corcoran, I thank you. To
Ronnie Herman, thank you for your expertise. To everyone at
Adams Media and especially Paula Munier for your vision for this
book and, for your tireless help and coaxing, Peter Archer, I am
forever grateful.

I would not be the Plot Whisperer if not for all my writing

buddies, especially Luisa Adams and Teresa LeYung Ryan, and
everyone who showed up for my plot workshops and retreats and
requested plot consultations from all over the world, and for all the
writers who blogged and Tweeted and Facebooked about my work,
and commented on my blog and YouTube channel, as well as
everyone who extended me a forum in which to teach plot. A
special thanks goes out to the University of California Santa Cruz for
inviting me to teach plot through its extension program.

I have learned from every writer I have ever met and I could not

have written this book without you. Thank you.

To my husband, Bob, for his endless patience and belief in me, I

love you now and forever.

A special thanks to Luisa Adams for sharing her passion about the

two sides of the brain and her visceral aversion to all things plot,
except for me.

And lastly, thank you Rosie, Milo, Mara, Jodie, and George for

pulling aside the veil and revealing to me the other side …

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE SITTING DOWN TO WRITE

PART I: THE OUTLINE OF THE PLOT: STARTING IS HALF THE
BATTLE

CHAPTER TWO THE UNIVERSAL STORY

CHAPTER THREE THE BASICS OF PLOTTING

CHAPTER FOUR DEVELOPING THEMES

PART II: CREATE THE CHARACTERS AND SETTING: WHO’S PART
OF THIS WORLD AND WHY?
CHAPTER FIVE WHO INHABITS THE PLOT?

CHAPTER SIX WHO OPPOSES THE PROTAGONIST?

CHAPTER SEVEN THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS

PART III: THE JOURNEY

CHAPTER EIGHT OPENING THE DOOR
CHAPTER NINE THE MIDDLE OF THE JOURNEY

CHAPTER TEN TRANSFORMATION
CHAPTER ELEVEN THE CLIMAX

CHAPTER TWELVE DENOUEMENT: THE END AND A NEW
BEGINNING
CHAPTER THIRTEEN SOME PARTING ADVICE

CHAPTER FOURTEEN SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
INDEX

INTRODUCTION
THE PLOT WHISPERER

It takes a lot of energy and a lot of neurosis to write a novel. If you were
really sensible, you’d do something else.

—Laurence Durrell

Something urges you to pick up this book. A story in your
imagination will not let you go. The characters are speaking to you,
and they’re demanding answers, asking you what to do with them.
Perhaps a scene haunts your dreams. Interweaving themes run
through your mind, vibrating with excitement. You feel an
uncontrollable compulsion to get the story down on paper.

So far, so good. But now you want to know where to begin a story

and how get off to a good start. Slowly it becomes clear to you that
you’re held back by fear—fear of a painful trial that will expose
your inner self to others.

Maybe you already write, have been published multiple times,

and understand writing is more complicated than simply putting
words on a page. Still, plot bewilders you. You are eager—perhaps,
desperate—to unlock the mystery of good story structure. You ask:
How do I create a memorable novel, memoir, or screenplay? You
want a more fulfilling relationship with your story and your writing
life.

If I’ve just described you, then you have come to the right place.

My name is Martha Alderson. I am the Plot Whisperer.
My intention in writing this book is to share the insights I have

gained about plot and character, structure and form, thanks to years
of teaching and consulting with writers from five years old to 102. I
conduct plot workshops for writers of all genres who are intent on
creating a worthy project. In one-on-one plot consultations, I listen

to writers from all over the world recount scenes and visions for
their stories. Throughout the process, I suggest plot parameters,
offer tips on theme and character, and recommend tricks for
layering and pacing.

The more writers I interact with, the more keenly I feel the

universality and interconnectedness of our shared journeys through
life together, especially those of us stubborn enough to pluck words
from our imaginations and offer them to the world.

Anyone who wants to write or is in the process of writing a novel,

short story, memoir, or screenplay faces the daunting task of
creating several plots and multiple scenes. This book will guide you
through the process of writing the story inside of you. Along the
way I include Plot Whisper tips and exercises to improve your
plotting skills, and The Writer’s Way advice about how to expand
your writing life.

The plot help in this book is rooted in my long experience and

knowledge of the inner workings of real and imagined stories. I give
all-day plot workshops to writers of children’s books through the
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and at children’s
shelters to children and teens taken from their homes into protective
custody. With them I examine picture books, middle grade, and
young adult fiction. I attend Romance Writers of America chapter
meetings where I plot out love stories in all subgenres of romance
novels. I help authors craft cunning murders in mystery novels; and
I assist memoirists connected with the National Association of
Memoir Writers. At the Writers Store in Los Angeles, I help script
and screenwriters plot movies, television sitcoms, and docudramas.

I have had the honor of working with multipublished, award-

winning, and bestselling novelists across all genres. I have even
addressed a conference of 500 corporate defense lawyers interested
in using plot to create more compelling case presentations and keep
the jury engaged.

The Universal Story

My most important insight is this: All of us face antagonists and

hurdles, hopes and joys, and by meeting these challenges we can
transform our lives. I have come to believe that every scene in every
book is part of a Universal Story that flows throughout our lives,
both in our imaginations and in the reality that surrounds us.

Every story ever told participates in this universal pattern as

words grow and expand into sentences, paragraphs, and chapters.
What is left after the end of the story has the potential to transform
not only the writer but all those who read the story as well.

I teach the Universal Story to writers through plot. Though

difficult to accomplish successfully, plot is critical to stories. As I
continue to teach and write and consult, I gain new insights into
plot … and into writers’ lives.

The transformative qualities of plot and the concept of a Universal

Story were with me even at the beginning of my writing life, though
I could barely recognize them. First, I had to learn how to pull aside
the veil between the seen and the unseen worlds. Before you roll
your eyes, take a deep breath and bear with me.

I have had a lifelong desire to understand energy. I saw that

successful people whom I admired were filled with energy, and I
searched for ways to activate that power in myself. In the 1990s I
sold my learning clinic for children and started writing fiction. At
the same time, I was faced with a personal crisis: a series of dogs
with whom I was hopelessly in love required extensive medical
intervention. Eager to support their healing, I visited an alternative
veterinarian. She taught me how to channel and use energy to heal
others. That is when I first learned of the veil and what is on the
other side.

I separated my life into daily writing sessions and energy work

with my dogs. Later, my writing life focused on teaching plotting
techniques. My energy work moved from my dogs to cancer
patients, hospital-bound children, people facing death, family,
friends, my husband, and me.

Slowly, I became aware that the flow of energy I feel in healing

also moves in my writing. It penetrates the stories I analyze and the
lives of the writers with whom I work; it embraces the lives of those

I love, and it permeates all nature.

In this book, I share with you the Universal Story: where to spot it

and how to use it to create better stories and a better life. Natural-
born storytellers tap into the Universal Story intuitively. Others
must learn how to use the Universal Story to write compelling
stories of their own.

Throughout this book I’ve included plot planners and scene

trackers to show the overall plot of a story and how every element
in it works in each scene to advance the story.

My goal is for you to feel more strongly the link between the

transformative energy in stories and the possibilities available to
you in your own life. I want to open up a new dimension of life you
never before imagined. Thus, this book can be of benefit to artists
and creative people of all types.

You bring to your writing, your art, and your stories a piece of

yourself. In return, the act of creating gives you the possibility of
something even greater: true transformation.

I hope you come away from this book with practical techniques to

integrate the energy of the Universal Story into your story. After
using these ideas, you’ll begin to understand yourself better. You’ll
see your writing in a different light. The ways you interact with
your writing and with the world around you will shift.

Be forewarned, though. Writing a story can expand your everyday

life; it can also destroy the person you are now. I ask you to commit
to your own journey as your protagonist embarks on hers. Explore
your true essence. Whether you emerge from the experience better
or worse is your choice. But I believe the act of writing offers you
the possibility of transformation.

You imagine yourself into being a writer. Your imagination allows

you to see worlds invisible to others. Imagine the Universal Story
into reality and reclaim a miraculous and mysterious way of being.

Figure 1. The Plot Planner: Above and Below

Figure 2. Scene Tracker Template Copyright © 2004, Martha Alderson

CHAPTER ONE
SITTING DOWN TO WRITE

Language is the light of the mind.

—John Stuart Mill

Why is writing important? Because it teaches you about yourself,
expands your horizons, and challenges you to discover new truths.

Whether you’re writing a novel, memoir, or screenplay, you are

writing about a character transformed through the Universal Story.
That character pursues a goal. She faces a series of conflicts and
obstacles, and as a result, her choices change over time. In the end,
she is transformed, and her ultimate transformation creates her
anew with a different understanding of herself and her existence.

As you write, you will begin to see a similar pattern emerge in

your own life as you face conflicts that arise from your writing. In
the end, you, too, will be transformed. In short, there is no better
way to learn about what is and is not true for you than to write.

What Do You Have to Do to Write a Book?

Anyone can write a book. The trick is to write a good book. So long
as you are honest and true to yourself, you have what it takes to
write a good book.

Writing demands that you:

1. Study the craft
2. Give over vast swatches of time and deep emotion to an

endeavor with absolutely no guarantee of success

3. Face a blank page or computer screen
4. Face yourself
5. Challenge yourself