Just finished reading an interesting book for a book review column I write each month for a writing ezine.
While I had to read it twice for it to stick, there's lots of good advice in it for thinking of your plots and scenes in a different way. I always think reading books on plotting will help my plotting--and they would, if only I would finish writing the damn story in the first place.
The book is Martha Alderson's Blockbuster Plots: Pure & Simple. She gives two charts for us visual learners out there--a scene tracker and a plot planner. The plot planner is pretty similar to the "W" plotting chart, something I'm intimately familiar with thanks to my Serious Writing friend (and now Golden Heart winner--WOOOO HOOOO!!) Donna, so I didn't figure I"d learn much.
Of course I did. I learn more when I think I don't have anything to learn. Weird how that works.
Anyway, the scene tracker is a really cool tool I'm thinking of trying on the first scene of the third draft of the last short story I finished. Starting little is nothing to sneeze at when some people can't start at all :) If so, I'll let you know how it goes.
Not sure I want to venture back into ficiton, anyway. Still debating the merits of sticking to nonfiction for a while. Found two new, really cool freelance markets yesterday and already have two articles outlined. Starting back to school this afternoon, so I'm trying to not load up the plate **too** much.
Oh, and if you're interested, I'll post the review link when it comes out (for Blockbuster Plots). It's the writer2writer.com ezine--good stuff Cheryl puts out each month--sign up for free on her site.
Back to writing....
Beth
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