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    Write Compelling Plots
    Write Compelling Plots
    Write Compelling Plots
    Ebook83 pages37 minutes

    Write Compelling Plots

    By Amanda Apthorpe

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    About this ebook

    We are enthralled by stories – tales told around the campfire, acted on stage, written down, filmed, painted, danced and sung. Why? Because we want to be entertained, to be inspired, to escape, to enter virtual worlds, to understand and to relate to others like and unlike ourselves.


    It’s said that there are only seven storylines, but those seven have generated an extraordinary number of tales because their creators have told them from their own perspectives, their own point of difference.


    The fourth book in Amanda Apthorpe's Write This Way series, 'Write Compelling Plots’, identifies the difference between plot and story, guides external and internal structural organisation and explains the significance of the narrative arc. You will discover how your central character’s desire, their limitations and their fear entwine to create the conflict that will drive your story. Drawing on the content within these pages, and your own point of difference, you too can create compelling plots.


    In addition, this book explores the elements of setting and description. Part 3: Editing Toolbox identifies and corrects common editing errors in creative writing.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNext Chapter
    Release dateOct 6, 2022
    Write Compelling Plots

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      Book preview

      Write Compelling Plots - Amanda Apthorpe

      INTRODUCTION

      Dear Writer

      Children are great inventors of stories – all that wonderful free-wheeling, imagination and adventure.

      Our family home was located on a very busy road, so my adventures were confined to the mind and were seldom acted out physically. Compare that to my partner who, between you and me, had perhaps too much physical freedom as a child to act out his imaginings, sometimes landing him in hospital.

      On hearing his tales of adventures, I envied that freedom, but I came to appreciate that the life behind my young forehead was vivid and marvellous. I went through a stage when I wanted to be a ‘tomboy’ (I blame George in the Famous Five series), but the best I could do was to climb out of my bedroom window at ground level and into the backyard. Once there, I’d enact some type of tomboyish behaviour, climb back in through the window. Adventure done.

      Later, I became obsessed with horses and imagined myself entering gymkhanas (usually held in the US or UK even though I live in Melbourne, Australia. Again, I blame the books I was reading!). My mother held a great fear of horses, which transferred itself to me, and so my contact with a real horse was very, very limited. When the central character in my favourite book fell from a horse and broke her arm, I went out in sympathy. I hid a makeshift bandage and sling in my school bag and slipped them on as I approached school. My story came undone when a family friend asked me what I had done. Knowing that our families were very likely to socialise at the weekend, I unravelled the sling and bandage and pointed to a freckle the size of a pin prick. As she contorted with laughter, I decided that I needed to keep my fertile imaginings to myself. That was, until much later, I began to write them down, to form worlds and people and scenarios. I could live in the world of my stories after all.

      Can you relate to any of this? I suspect that, if you’re drawn to writing, you have a vivid imagination.

      We are enthralled by stories – the real and the fictional – tales told around campfires, acted on stage, written down, filmed, painted, danced and sung. Why? Because we want to be entertained, to be inspired, to escape, to enter virtual worlds, to understand and to relate to others like and unlike ourselves.

      It’s said that there are only seven storylines. While that might be true, those seven have generated an incredible number of readable, viewable, listenable, playable stories because – and this is the significant point that I want you to remember – the creators have told them from their own perspectives, their own point of difference.

      If you have read or listened to ‘Vol 2: Finding Your Writer’s Voice’, you’ll be familiar with the following exercise. In that volume, the intention is to identify what has contributed, and is still contributing, to your perspective or ‘take’ on life and thus to understand how this has shaped your very individual writing voice. In this volume, you’re going to mine that gold to construct, shape and enrich the showing and telling of your story.

      I’ve provided an abbreviated version of that exercise here that asks questions for you to ponder. Take your time, but if any of the questions prompt unsettling or upsetting thoughts, move on gently.

      WRITING EXERCISE 1

      Pause, Think and Write after each of the questions.

      1. Are you literary, conversational, or colloquial in the way you write?

      Literary writing is precise and focuses on details. While it is a wonderful form of writing, I suggest that you don’t force this style if you’re not comfortable with it as it can lose a lot of its energy. If it’s not how you think and write, the reader will pick up on that.

      Conversational, or perhaps even colloquial, is your most ‘natural’ way of talking. Think of how you might tell a story to a friend. Because it is your most natural voice, you would relate a story with energy and ease, but there is often assumed knowledge between you and the listener. The problem with writing in this voice can be that the assumed knowledge is lost in translation, and you don’t have the benefit of your facial expressions and gesticulations to convey some of the messages to the reader. Keep this in mind if you write in this voice.

      What’s your most natural way of writing?

      2. Are you well read, or not well read?

      It’s important that you answer this honestly. There’s no right or wrong answer; no answer better than another. In ‘Volume 2: Finding Your Writer’s Voice’, I relate the story of how the supervisor

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