This video provides a recap and explanation of Catalysts in relation to a three-act structure, and then goes through examples of plot catalysts from:  Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (SPOILERS) Stranger Things Season 1 (The Will Byers plot thread) (SPOILERS) Mad Max Fury Road (Furiosa's arc) (SPOILERS) Nyad (SPOILERS) Need help?  Make planning (and writing) your novel easy.  Grab The Novel Approach Planning Worksheet  for just $9 (AU).  Visit my free Facebook group  The Novel Approach for Aspiring Authors . Or get direct advice from me when you join one of my Novel Planning Intensives. You’ll work on your plan before and/or during the session. Every participant will get a chance to ask for advice on any part of their story where they are feeling stuck, or ask questions in general. Observer tickets are also available. Observers will get to see an overview of the Blueprint and how it works, but will leave the call before participants begin sharing. I...

Are you torn between the possibility of writing a bestselling genre series and the desire to create something wholly original? On one hand, you could follow an established formula, giving readers exactly what they want, or you could take the risk of writing something you feel is new and exciting and trying to find an agent who’ll take it on, or realising you’ll have to self-publish it and find an audience for it after the fact.  Finding the perfect balance is a challenge many writers face. By visualizing plot points as a framework, you can create a story that resonates with readers, while drawing unique characters each with their own individual journey that keeps your work fresh and exciting. Need help?  Make planning (and writing) your novel easy.  Grab The Novel Approach Planning Worksheet  for just $9 (AU).  Or join my free Facebook group  The Novel Approach for Aspiring Authors . I’m also running a Novel Planning Intensive every Wednesday in May. You’...

We continue with our story seed featuring Dick, love interest Sally, bossy Jane, jealous Ted, and the meteor streaking toward earth. If we select the Thriller and Suspense skeleton, the overall story problem becomes the catastrophic danger that must be averted: the meteor. If we choose the Psychological Thriller, there is a cat and mouse battle between Dick and Ted or Jane. Dick isn’t certain who the enemy is, but if he can’t identify him/her in time, the meteor strike erases the possibility, along with the entire cast. Sally's life could be threatened by the antagonist. Alternatively, Dick is forced to solve the mystery of the meteor strike location. Was it a space rock or something more nefarious? Can he prove it? If we choose the Religious Thriller, Dick could be a priest or religious scholar. The plot involves a religious prophecy or the meteor is somehow tied to biblical history. Perhaps Dick finds the Arc of the Covenant actually contained a piece of meteor that bestows...

We continue with our story seed featuring Dick, love interest Sally, bossy Jane, jealous Ted, and the meteor streaking toward earth. If we select the Thriller and Suspense skeleton, the overall story problem becomes the catastrophic danger that must be averted: the meteor. Dick’s rivalry with Ted, pressure from Jane, and relationship with Sally create interpersonal and antagonistic obstacles to solving the overall story problem of the meteor. The meteor itself is not an effective antagonist. A member of the cast, perhaps Ted or Jane, serves  as the person standing in the way of Dick’s successful resolution. If we choose the Conspiracy Thriller, Dick fears there is a powerful group behind the meteor strike. Dick navigates the maze of conflicting information until he ends the threat to his world. Meanwhile, Ted and Jane make this difficult while Sally either helps or hinders. If we choose the Crime Thriller, there is an element of mystery that Dick must solve. There is a ...

Genre is the promise you make to your reader to give them the kind of story they want without annoying them by giving them information they don’t want. So what happens when your premise, that brilliant story seed that came to you in a dream or while pacing your kitchen at 3:00 a.m. on a sleepless night, doesn’t fit neatly into one of those broad categories? What if the term genre makes you feel slightly nauseated or makes you fear you’ll have to kill too many darlings?  The answer lies in the story skeleton you select and how you layer the conflicts. Let’s say you have a brilliant story idea about a scientist named Dick trying to win the heart of Sally, the girl of his dreams. Meanwhile, Jane asks him to solve the problem of a meteor streaking toward earth. In addition, Dick really hates Ted because Ted is eager to replace him as head of the space defense department. You want to cram all of this into one story. But what kind of story is it?  That depends on h...

It was 2001 and I’d been a dance critic for eighteen years, paid for my writing all the while. I had this writing thing in the bag. I just needed an agent to get my recently drafted novel out into the world. (Experienced authors: I hear you. Quit laughing.) Today, however, in this new series that will count down to the publication of my traditionally published debut novel late next year, I will not tell you how I got my agent. Because representation is never the beginning of a novelist’s story. Yet in search of that holy grail I went to my first meeting of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group , nearby in southeastern PA, to learn from other seekers. I got there early. The preceding board meeting hadn’t broken up yet, and the agent/editor chair for the upcoming conference was talking about which agents she’d contacted and whom she might yet approach, tossing names around like she knew these people. I wondered if any of those agents would think my manuscript was good? I fel...

Form is everything in a successful story. Everything? True, we have to flesh out characters, engage the reader in a compelling theme, get our language right and do a dozen other things. But without form, a story’s dead. People read - and tell - stories to discover the form that their lives, afflicted by random events, might otherwise lack. Why else has storytelling been a feature of human life since records began? Bards have always found an audience among unhappy folk, hungering to invest their lives with meaning. Simply to perceive form is to create meaning. We have only to look at the patterns of stars in a night sky to speculate upon their meaning. A cluster of random dots becomes a horse, a plough, a shield ... humans are a pattern-forming species. Is that why a great story lasts forever? The enduring myths of Cinderella, the Sleeping Beauty, the Ugly Duckling, to name but a few, can be found in every culture. Each has a strong, simple form. The form implies...

In her wonderful cross-genre book The Creative Habit , choreographer Twyla Tharp calls a work’s organizing principal its “spine.” She writes: The spine is the statement you make to yourself outlining your intentions for the work. You intend to tell this story. You intend to explore this theme. You intend to use this structure. The audience may infer it or not. But if you stick to your spine, the piece will work. I am such a student of the way structure can support meaning in literature that I had Tharp's notion tucked away in my consciousness while reading my book club’s recent pick, Colum McCann ’s 2009 National Book Award winner, Let the Great World Spin . The book begins with the description of a disparate crowd of onlookers brought together by a 1974 public spectacle—specifically, Philippe Petit’s infamous 110-story walk between the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Because the thread connecting the interrelated stories comprising McCann's novel is as tenuous as Petit...

Dr. Rudolph Flesch, a staunch advocate of writing with purpose, advised in his best-selling How to Write Better that “the main thing to consider is your purpose in writing: Why are you sitting down to write?” To which E.B. White tartly answered, “Because, sir, it is more comfortable than standing up.” ~Mitchell Ivers, The Random House Guide to Good Writing Yesterday I suggested you move forward through your paragraph, scene, and story structure in a purposeful way. Yet we all know that writing is also an act of discovery. What if you’ve completed your first draft and you still aren’t sure what you’re trying to say? I believe in the power of first draft writing, so here’s a technique to let it speak to you. (You’ll want to apply this to a short work or the opening to a longer one.) This may seem laborious, but with your word processor’s cut and paste feature, it doesn’t take as long as you might think. First, remove your sentences from their paragraphs and list them—out of context, you...

This is the magic of a well-written piece: for a few precious moments, you, as writer, hold the reader in the palm of your hand. Word choice, syntax, structure—all the elements of craft you spent so much time applying—fall away and your reader enters the world of story. Your story. Now come close, so I can whisper the secret behind the magic: the structure can only fall away if it existed in the first place. Yes, you need a great story idea and enough imagination to bring it to fruition—that’s its muscle. But to hold the reader in the palm of your hand, you also need some bones. Bones give structure to a living thing the way lumber defines a house. Imagine the first draft writer allowing his inner seven-year-old to build his first tree fort with wood, hammer, and nails. Now that he’s done, step back and let your adult self take a look at it. You decide it is…inventive. It flows nicely. Boards angle every which way, mimicking the branches on the tree. You climb the tree, eager to explor...