Tag Archives: plot

DO THE TWIST

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Do the Twist

Once upon a time a handsome prince came to a faraway castle and met a beautiful princess. They fell in love instantly. Her father, the king, saw immediately how much the prince and princess loved each other and arranged for the two to marry at once. And they lived happily ever after.

Ho hum. We have to find some way to make this story more interesting.  Luckily I took a writing class about a year ago and I know exactly what this story needs. This drab little tale must have some twists and turns.

Every plot must have a character with a goal and lots of problems ranging from very serious to very minor. And there is a very nifty way to create these obstacles.

I learned in the writing class that if you write down everything you assume is true about a character and/or a situation, then change one of those things, you have a nice little twist. So in the story above, what do we assume?

Well, we assume the prince and princess are young unmarried lovers. We assume they are sweet and charming. We assume their courtship is smooth and romantic. We assume they are earthlings and that they are human beings. And we assume the time is long ago.

Which one of those assumptions would you change, and how does it affect the story?

Congratulations.  You have just received a post card from the muse.
Nandy Ekle

FACING YOUR FEARS

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Facing Your Fears

As the giant spider crawled across the floor, my legs involuntarily drew up under me on the bed while my arms crossed themselves to protect my vital organs from the monster. As much as I hated looking at the hairy thing, I couldn’t take my eyes away. My lungs pulled in a gulp of air and pushed out a piercing scream.

Is that fear? How about this . . .

I watched him open the door of the car and toss his bags into the backseat. His last words stung my face as if they had needles and stuck in the air. I couldn’t believe he would leave me like this, that the years we spent together were over and he now hated me. I had no idea what I would do without him. My tears ran openly as I screamed for him to come back.

Fear is a huge part of every plot, whether it’s very obvious, as in the case of a character running for their life from a monster, or whether it’s disguised with another emotion, such as anger. Even a romance story has an element of fear: fear of commitment, fear of intimacy, fear of losing someone.

If you take the fear and amplify it to a phobia, you have a nice big glowering obstacle for your character to overcome. There are hundreds of well-known phobias; it’s the unusual phobias that make a story interesting.

Congratulations. You have just received a post card from the muse.

Nandy Ekle

WIP? Do Tell!

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WIP? Do Tell!

By Natalie Bright

Do you talk about your WIP (work in progress)?

Some writers feel it takes away the momentum of their story. They don’t breathe a word about the characters and scenes mulling around in their head.  Ask me about my stories, and I’ll talk your ear off.

The first niggling of an idea works itself out in my brain, and as I ponder the possibilities a character, a place and usually their problems begin to evolve. Once I have the ending in my head, I like to verbalize the story idea. When I talk about my characters, it makes them even more real to me. Their personalities and quirks come to life. The whys and reasons and obstacles begin to make sense. And thank goodness, I have a critique group that listens.

Our meetings usually run long. We delve into much more than commas and sentence structure.  Since we’ve been meeting together for several years, we are familiar with each others projects. We dig deep and talk character motivation and plot structure, and it’s wonderful.

What about you; do you spill about your WIP?

Natalie Bright