A Romance Writer's Take on the Plot Embryo / Story Circle Tool (not just for plotters!)

today I want to talk about plot and how I use it because I am not really a plotter and maybe you aren't too maybe that's a term you've been resistant to but plot itself is something that even Panthers or quilters I quite like filter that is how I write I am somebody who collects little snippets I write little chunks about characters over a long time I use Scrivener an in Scrivener the way that snippets are organized it's called a binder and so over a couple of years I'll collect little excerpts in a binder in Scrivener before a project becomes my main work in progress and once it's my main work in progress I like to think that I work linearly but I don't really I jump around particularly because of these snippets aren't written necessarily necessarily in a linear fashion so what I tend to do once I have a chunk of words somewhere between ten and thirty thousand words is I organize my chunks in a linear fashion this is how I've always done that I've been writing genre fiction now for eight years nine years now almost eight years anyway and and so this is how I've always done it I've picked up beats that I've internalized along the way I get about 50% mark I write romance so and I you know that's how I tend to think and about my own books but at the 50% mark for me my own personal beat is that they become the protagonist they become aware of their real feelings probably for the first time sometimes this is in a love seam sometimes it's another kind of intimacy but it's a moment of true intimacy that changes everything is that the 50% mark roughly somewhere in there the other beat that I've really internalized is somewhere around the 25% mark I call this well I call it because she calls it the Elizabeth wait I see you and if anyone has seen Elizabeth Hoyt who was a wonderful historical romance author do a presentation at a conference you know that there is a expletive inserted there when one character against their better judgment takes a good hard look at the other character behind the mask that they have been presenting to the world and they see them for who they truly are and they like them usually it's the heroine if she wrecked as she writes male-female historical romance and usually it's the heroine who up to this point has not liked the hero because frankly he's an but then it's somewhere around the 25-30 percent mark she sees him for who he truly is and deep down inside underneath that mask he's a good guy and she is so enraged that now she has to clearly go on this adventure with somebody who is deep down inside a good guy and how awful is that only because he's not a good guy on the outside right like you get it you get it right this is a big turning point big turning point so for me I I like to make sure that these points are really strong in my book and of course at the end of our book if we're writing a romance there's an hea so for a long time for a very long time I have taken my chapters mate or really chapters there excerpts I've taken my excerpts and I've made sure that they plot along here and in order to make it a bit more three-dimensional I have mapped it on the three-act structure right so we have the first step we have the big middle act which is really nothing but rising tension up and down wins and losses they get what they want and then it's taken away from them by the cruel writer I love this and then of course the third act which is like the big boss level right everything the moment of death or feels like literal death all of that followed by a denouement and a very satisfying HEA at the end and so what I literally would do is I would go in and I would write you know thinks he's an better than that Thanks he's an bullet point it's reinforced that he's a big old jerk but then uh-oh she sees him and then everything changes and now they're on their journey and then there's another big turning point into the third act somewhere also around here I like to introduce new conflict like the conflict that's in the first act doesn't sustain them over the entire book if it's a full-length novel you they they have to think that's the problem but then they realize oh no there's actually a much completely different bigger problem and that is the actual journey they're gonna go on and it gets introduced somewhere around here I have all these little tiny beats in my head and then a couple of weeks ago was it only a couple of weeks ago it feels truly life-changing my friend Susan Hayes sent me well no she sent my co-writer C Haller a link to a video by Rachel Stephen about plot embryo and story circles so imagine if instead let's see whether or not I did this like if I'm gonna be able to pull this paper out properly or if I'm just gonna make a big mess so we'll see imagine if instead of me planning it like this done front door ah it was a circle did that work I think that worked I can't see mechanics okay so if you think of your story as a starting here and ending here with the HEA right there and your protagonist being mmm how do we want to describe it at the start vaguely unsettled and it could be not fake right they could have just been fired they could have just broken up with their you know longtime fiancee he just never really did it for them definitely didn't go down on her you know the standard in romance um something is wrong and then you and then you meet somebody somewhere in here is a meet-cute and then at about the 25 percent mark we have the moment which propels you on a journey with this person or of course if you don't write to people in a romance these people I'll try not to be too restrictive there and how I describe this so what was my other beat that I know the real feelings true intimacy and this is important um this is just like my contribution to the YouTube discussion on story circle so uh this is not gonna be nearly as detailed as Rachel Stevens out link to her video as well because she goes into all sorts of stuff I just want to show you how my own way of thinking about plot could be applied to the story circle idea so real feelings true intimacy so this is I'm not changing how I think about story at all and remember I have a Scrivener binder full of chunks all right this is my story nothing has changed and how I'm writing the book the only thing that has changed is almost like an administrative tool to help me be a little bit more organized I'm about to show you how so the story circle which is full credit this is based on Dan Harmon who writes the TV show community who wrote the TV show community it's his plot embryo and I heard about it through a couple of writer friends who watch Rachel Stevens video okay if you think about story instead of as one linear line but as a linear line that bends I think it's cosmic shadow a linear line that bends back to itself because isn't life nothing but a constant set of cycles where we start here and we go through an experience and we come back to ourself come back to rest come back to home either literally or figuratively it's a really interesting way to think about all journeys so we can divide a story circle or a plot embryo by two meridians the first one divides the first half of the book from the second half of the book dividing it into ignorance and the second half which means that the first half of your book you want your character to be moving from a place of being vaguely unsettled towards understanding their true real feelings uh-huh see how my beat was already there and then heading with this newfound knowledge back to a happy place of rest a happy ever after in a romance through that enlightenment gaining a true enlightenment okay the other Meridian goes the other way and this is the familiar and the unfamiliar so when we are at the start of the book we are in our familiar place or in homework a regular routine that's a really good you know that's just a good craft point are you showing your your character in the world that they are about to depart from right that's often the very first little wedge of the story show one protagonist then you show the other protagonist then they meet standard structure and you can mess with it but you get the idea you start in a familiar place all of our journeys before we are thrust into an adventure we start in a familiar place we are where we are then the adventure happens we meet somebody we don't like them they're a big old jerk but then we see them for who they truly are the their real self that they never show anybody and we are thrust into an unfamiliar journey one that doesn't feel anything like anything we've ever done before because it's not because it's with this person even if and I don't believe that you know there's only one love story for each person you know forever in time but even if a character has had a satisfying loving relationship before this one will be different and unfamiliar and new and exciting and terrifying and so we begin the process of falling in love and through here we are of course in denial because we are still in the ignorance phase and before you stop and you go no no no that's not how I think of it story you don't need to think about story like this I'm just explaining like the actual cycle that most people go through and the reason why we write stories is so that most people can relate to them or at least some people so you might be an exceptional person who's never felt like they've gone on this journey but you know most people have so it's good to make your characters relatable in that regard so then at about the 50% mark of the book roughly give or take your character has processed through their ignorance they've they've been shown over and over again come on buddy this is not how it really is and they move from ignorance into enlightenment now they know they have real feelings they can't hide they can't hide from that intimacy although they might try but somewhere in here boy they're gonna be shown that there's no point in hiding because that true intimacy is the key to their happy ever after returning to rest at the end of the story and so they move out of the unfamiliar and the and this true feelings this the true intimacy in these real feelings become a part of their happy familiar home and through that you know there's some sort of like big bad battle maybe they also save the world so why I love the story circle it's not because it has changed how I write it has just made it a little bit less fraught for me to figure out the order of these snippets some of these snippets before when it was a vertical or when it was a horizontal line and I go oh I think this goes here and this goes here this one goes here but do they go there if you think about these meridians and these quadrants you can also do it like this you know it's the same as a for act structure or a three-act structure if you think about the middle - is being act to a and act to be which is such a interesting way to do it as opposed to anyway I don't know I don't really care that much about structure but I find it a fascinating and and helpful tool - a sign or reevaluate where these snippets should go do I have a seam kind of hot because I honestly this is how I think of it I do think about it in a vertical line because I think about it as my Scribner binder is this scene in you know that I currently have in the second order is that character way too self-aware at that point should maybe that self-awareness but down so that it's past the 50% mark because I want it to be when they're moving into enlightenment do I have you know you know I think that this character doth protest too much way at the end and then that doesn't make any sense right that should be up at least before the 50% mark by the 50% mark you want the protestations to really dial back and that's it that's how I think the story circle with a plot embryo applies to me and I would love to hear in the comments about how things apply to you

Channel: Zoe York

Views: 6,151

Keywords:

Id: H41zQi52nsY

Length: 15min 28sec (928 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 17 2020