Comments on: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE STUCK ON PLOTTING?

By: Michelle Diener

Michelle Diener — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:23:20 +0000

Great blog post, Joyce, thank you. And may I add that there is a list of online workshops and conferences right here on this website every Wednesday?

I’ve done a couple of writing exercises where I’ve turned things around for my characters, made them the one in the wrong, or made them do something they would never do. Funny how those scenes are always keepers.

By: Joyce Wells

Joyce Wells — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:02:13 +0000

And I see that I need a correction to my post. It was Todd Stone’s Novelist’s BOOT Camp, not book camp. I also call myself an editor, but …

By: Joyce Wells

Joyce Wells — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:59:11 +0000

Hi Edie, I’ve been doing some brainstorming myself. I’m starting a new book, with the same heroine, and I’m wondering “what next.” How could I possibly make her more miserable (among her happiness)? I know I’ll find something. I’m already having pinpoints of ideas.

By: Joyce Wells

Joyce Wells — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:57:33 +0000

Thanks, Laura, Therese and Diane. It’s great to hear from all of you.

By: Joyce Wells

Joyce Wells — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:56:17 +0000

Hi Sandra, I couldn’t agree more. In my sequel to the Peace Seekers, I killed her lover. Oh, I’m still not certain that was the best thing, but it did make my heroine miserable!

By: Edie Ramer

Edie Ramer — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:08:58 +0000

Thanks, Joyce. I scratched a scene today and am rewriting it. I decided to take my hero out of his comfort zone and do something he normally would not do. It took me all day to figure that out. Now I wish I’d read this first!

By: Diana Layne

Diana Layne — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:31:00 +0000

These are some wonderful ideas, thank you, Joyce!

By: Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:55:09 +0000

I’ll be mulling over some of these questions this afternoon. Thanks for a great post, Joyce!

By: Laura Drake

Laura Drake — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:48:42 +0000

Thanks Joyce, the concept of “What your heroine would never do” has helped me already! I realized that this is what has happened in my favorite novels…

Wonderful advice!
Laura

By: Sandra Elzie

Sandra Elzie — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:46:01 +0000

Like you, I’m a “pantser”. I agree about the three plot turns. I took a course put on by Dianna Love and Mary Buckham a couple years ago entitled Break Into Fiction and she said to make life suck for your heroine. Get her into a bad situation and then when the reader thinks everything will work out, make it suckier. Who does she think she can’t live without? Kill them. Ouch!

Thanks for the great article. It’s always good to read something to remind us of the basics.

Sandy Elzie