Discovering Your Plot

Summary

What do writers want from plot?

What do writers need from plot?

Are those questions the same? Not really. As wordsmiths, we writers know that want and need are two different words.

·      The want is a circumstance that we writers can control. We want plot specifics to help us craft story and exceed reader expectations.

·      The need is a circumstance of obligations from reader expectations of story. While readers may want the comfort of the genre elements (the tropes), they also wish to have their interest and curiosity piqued.

Can we writers deliver on the expectations and the surprises in order to please our readers? That’s the question that Discovering Your Plot answers.

This guidebook covers plot structure and the necessities of genre expectations so we writers can anticipate what readers want. It explores the six most common plot structures and has a detailed examination of 12 major sections in all novels, no matter the genre.

By the end of Discovering Your Plot¸ writers will have the tools to construct a story as well as diagnose problems with pacing, tension and suspense, and sequencing events.

Discovering Your Plot is Book 6 in the Think like a Pro Writer series and the second of the Discovering set of how-to guidebooks for writers at all skill levels. While the approach is for newbies, every writer can benefit from this fresh look at any novel’s framework.

With her two other pen names, author M.A. Lee has published over 50 titles of fiction and nonfiction.