Writers in the Storm

by John Peragine

Last month, I shared seven plot strategies, and received many responses that people had not heard of a number of them. With the beginning of the year fast approaching, many of you will be ready to start your new book for 2021. Here are seven more structures to choose from. There are many more out there, but these seven are a good place to start.

1. Dan Harmon’s Story Circle

Dan Harmon the creator of the television show Community. He has developed a method that is sometimes known as  ‘The Embryo,’ ‘The Dan Harmon Story Circle,’ or just ‘The Story Circle.’  For more information check out this link. It is a variation of the hero’s journey.

1. A character is in a zone of comfort,
2. But they want something.
3. They enter an unfamiliar situation,
4. Adapt to it,
5. Get what they wanted,
6. Pay a heavy price for it,
7. Then return to their familiar situation,
8. Having changed.

2. Gwen Hayes Romancing the Beat

This is a great structure for romance novels. If you want a head start, here is a link to a free template for Scrivener that is detailed.

1. Introduce H1
2. Introduce H2
3. Meet Cute
4. No Way 1
5. Adhesion
6. No Way 2
7. Inkling of Desire
8. Deepening Desire
9. Maybe This Could Work
10. Midpoint of Love
11. Inkling of Doubt
12. Deepening Doubt
13. Retreat Beat
14. Shields Up
15. Break Up
16. Dark Night
17. Wake Up
18. Grand gesture
19. What Whole Hearted Looks Like
20. Epilogue

Plotlines

1. Phase 1: Set Up
2. Phase 2: Falling in Love
3. Phase 3: Retreating From Love
4. Phase 4: Fighting for Love

3. Shonen Battle Manga Formula

Manga is very popular these days and here is a formula to help you write most any plot within this genre. Here is a link to explanations and variations to the Shonen Battle plot.

1. Getting motivated
2. It's easy!
3. Maybe it's not so easy
4. A whole new world
5. A new path
6. The long road
7. Rising competition
8. Social advancement
9. Eye of the tiger
10. Towards the future
11. Story Arcs

4. Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method

This is a great method when you are started with a kernel of an idea and want to build a plot from it. It works with most genres. Here is a good explanation of the Snowflake method.

1. First Disaster
2. Second Disaster
3. Third Disaster

5. Libbie Hawkers’ Take off Your Pants Method

This can be found in Libby’s book of the same name. It begins with a character flaw and adds to it to make the core of your story. Here is a great outline you can use to begin.

1. Opening Scene
2. Inciting Event
3. Character realizes goal
4. Display of flaw
5. Drive for goal
6. Antagonist revealed
7. Goal thwarted
8. Revisiting flaw
9. Repeat the cycle
10. Ally aids
11. Girding the loins
12. Battle
13. Death (of character flaw)
14. Outcome (new world)

6. Victor Piñeiro Screenplay Structure

Victor Piñeiro uses a three-act structure to create screenplays. Here is a Slideshare that explains the structure and elements of his structure.

1. A Day In the Life
2. The Spark
3. Do I Stay or Do I Go?
4. Into the New World
5. What is Love?
6. Melt Their Faces Off
7. Crossing the Rubicon
8. False Victory
9. Long Journey Into Night
10. Rock Bottom
11. From the Ashes
12. Time to Kick Ass

7. W Plot by Kenneth Atchity

This is another three-act structure that is made up of five points. When plotted on a graph, they look like the letter ‘W’. Check it out here.

1. Trigger Event
2. 1st Turning Point
3. 2nd Triggering Event
4. 2nd Turning Point
5. Resolution

Final Thoughts

The great thing about these plot structures is that they are tried and true but, at the same, flexible. You can use these structures to get your story started and then add your own twists and turns as your narrative calls for. These structures are supposed to be supportive rather than confining, so use them any way they make sense to you.

What is your favorite plot structure? Which ones, of the seven that I mentioned, have you tried?

About John

John Peragine has published 14 books and ghostwritten more than 100 others. He is a contributor for HuffPost, Reuters, and The Today Show. He covered the John Edwards trial exclusively for Bloomberg News and The New York Times. He has written for Wine Enthusiast, Grapevine Magazine, Realtor.com, WineMaker magazine, and Writer's Digest.

John began writing professionally in 2007, after working 13 years in social work and as the piccolo player for the Western Piedmont Symphony for over 25 years. Peragine is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. You can learn more about his books at JohnPeragineBooks.com. 

His newest book, Max and the Spice Thieves, will be released on April 20, 2021. Click here for a free first chapter. (The new cover is below!)

Today at Writers In The Storm we’re giving thanks for the “writerly” people and things that help us put words on the page. We're also opening the door for our readers! Share your gratitude for writerly things large and small down in the comments!

Ellen Buikema

I am thankful for the patience and support of family, friends, and my many writer buddies—new and not-so-new. From them, I've learned how to be a better listener.

I am over the moon that readers have generously allowed me to share the lives of my characters with them, the wise and the wacky.

I am grateful for the help given by my editor, the late Jean Jenkins, who wanted so much to be a part of "The Hobo Code." She made me a stronger writer. May she dance with the angels and not critique them overly hard

.

Jenny Hansen

2020 has been a difficult year for everybody: parents, kids, singles, marrieds, business owners and workers. I don't know anyone who has remained unscathed. Hardest of all, creatives tend to take on those fears and emotions swirling in the air, which makes it hard to create.

Today I'm thankful to Danny Iny and the Mirasee crew for giving me a piece of advice that saved my sanity for the rest of the year. At the LIFT Conference in August, Danny stopped me cold with these words:

"Gratitude lives in the same part of the brain as fear. You can’t feel both at the same time." (How fascinating is that? Here's an article on the neuroscience of gratitude.)

That conference and his Course Business Masterclass have opened my mind to new ideas, and my life to new people and opportunities. Three days last summer pulled me out of my pandemic doldrums and have sustained me for the rest of this crazy year.

John Peragine

I am thankful for my son, Max, who is always there to get me through the rough spots. His hugs and “I believe in you, Dad” were my great strengths this year.

Writing and publishing a book is hard - real hard. Don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise. Without my son, my wife, and my cats, I would have chucked my manuscript into the recycling bin a number of times.

Without my son, there would be no Max and the Spice Thieves. (Here's the link to Chapter 1 if you want to take a peek!)

Kris Maze

1. My Time. I may be busier than I ever have been, as I now work mostly from home and never get away, but now I use those minutes I spent driving to work or dropping off kids more efficiently. Although my Nano word count may not show it, I am satisfied with my time spent on developing stories and re-crafting parts of my author website. (Be on the lookout in the next month or so for a sneak peek!)
2. My Couch. The multipurpose focal point of our house, this sturdy piece of furniture plays host to writing sprints, Zoom calls, working from home, and heated games of cribbage with my kids.
3. My Writer Support Groups. The writers in my tribe supported me tremendously this year.  It’s been a time of firsts and foiled publishing accomplishments, but within those challenges, they reminded me that writing is only as good as what gets on the page. 

The collective experiences and struggles of my writing community have encouraged me to move forward on my next project. Currently, I look forward to weekly chats and a shared writer journey. I enjoy a first sip of coffee with an early online writer check-in. What writer wouldn’t be grateful for that?

If you're in the States, we hope you had a good Thanksgiving. If you're doing NaNoWriMo, we hope your word count made you happy (or that you at least had fun). And wherever you are on your writing journey, we're thankful that you share your journey with us here at Writers In the Storm!

Many thanks,
Ellen, Jenny, John & Kris

by Lisa Hall-Wilson

Hey Hey my fellow scribes *mittened fist-bump*

Most of the writers who request to join my free Facebook group “Going Deeper With Emotions In Fiction” are looking for tips and help in writing deep point of view. So, I’m always a little confused when every so often someone posts some variation of: so why don’t bestselling authors use deep point of view?

I think these questions are often rooted in frustration. Deep point of view isn’t easy to learn. It’s even more difficult when you think you’re writing in deep POV, but really it’s limited/close third person (or even more distant than that) and you just can’t see the difference.

Psychic Distance

The idea of levels of psychic distance was coined by John Gardner in The Art Of Fiction. This is the idea of how close the reader is to the point of view character’s thoughts/feelings with the gap between them bridged by the writer/narrator voice. These POV styles have been given different names over time, I’ve tried to include a few of the common ones.

With omniscient POV, the writer/narrator knows everything, at times even the future. Sometimes the narrator is a character in their own right, but mostly it’s the writer/narrator voice telling the story objectively (details, descriptions, thoughts) about any or all of the characters. The reader gets a story about one or many characters from the writer/narrator. (ie. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman)

The next level of psychic distance is known by a few names (Indirect thought, objective third person). The author is still telling a story about the characters, but the narrator tries to communicate emotion to the reader. If you’re aiming to write in limited/close third but are told you’re “telling” -- this is the style you’re slipping into most likely.

In Limited or Close Third Person POV (or direct thought), the author/narrator voice is still telling the story but they’re limited to one character at a time, and that character shares the storytelling role through internal dialogue and some internal sensations. We see internal rhetorical questions come into use. There’s more evoking of emotions and the reader gets to be inside the character’s head some of the time.

In contrast, there is no narrator/writer voice in deep point of view. The character isn’t telling a story, they’re living out the story and the reader is a fly on the wall inside the character’s head. The reader experiences the story vicariously through the character. It’s like a first-person shooter game viewpoint. There’s no psychic distance or gap between the reader and the character (hence why there’s no need for italics for direct thoughts in deep pov). This is a massive mindset shift in how story is told.

Become A True Artist

So, back to the main question – why don’t bestselling writers use deep point of view? First, I would argue they do. Overwhelmingly, deep POV is used in certain genres like romance, but in most genres most bestsellers are dipping into deep POV in a variety of different ways.

The key is to know what psychic distance is and how each POV style uses it to tell a story that keeps the reader turning pages. Each style serves a purpose and creates specific effects, so use them strategically.

Shifting Between Psychic Distance Styles

The blue text is limited/close third person, bolded is deep pov, and orange is objective or indirect point of view. This first one is written in first person, but it’s not all in deep point of view (a lot of people don’t understand that first person is not automatically deep pov).

Do you see how the different styles are blended together as best serves the story and the emotional arc of the chapter? Those last two sentences has the narrator/writer voice creeping in to bridge the gap for readers that (to me) feels a bit more distant than the opening sentences. (You might disagree with me about that. That’s fine.)

Let’s look at another example of the blending the styles:

Those two sentences in orange font are purely a narrator/writer voice stepping in to fill in the gap.

This objective narrator/writer voice is used sparingly but strategically. A few lines above, do you see how the deep POV really pulls the reader into the tensest moment in the chapter? Everything in this chapter has led to this impending conflict.

And just for contrast, here’s one written entirely in deep POV. Just head to the bestseller page on Amazon and click romance. Most of them are going to be in deep POV. Do you see how the narrator/writer voice is missing?

Even stories written entirely in deep POV will make use of the other psychic distance styles for expediency, in ways that serve the story. Rather than create some scenario in which the reader can intuit that Mariah is the point of view character’s daughter (which wouldn’t be wrong), Harlow just tells the reader who Mariah is, and moves back into deep POV.

Learn the rules, learn how to make these point of view styles work FOR YOU, and then break the rules! This is what bestsellers do very well, this use of psychic distance, so well that readers often don’t even notice. Deep point of view is difficult and doesn’t seem intuitive until you really understand this idea of psychic distance. You pair this with the techniques of deep pov aimed at removing psychic distance and creating immediacy, and the differences become very clear. Now you’re ready to use deep POV as you like in any style, because you know how to use each tool to create specific effects for readers.

Do you prefer to write in deep POV, limited/close third person, or some other style? What style do you most prefer to read in? Do you have any questions about writing in deep POV, or examples to share? Tell us about it down in the comments!

About Lisa

Lisa Hall-Wilson is a writing teacher and award-winning writer and author. She’s the author of Method Acting For Writers: Learn Deep Point Of View Using Emotional Layers. Her blog Beyond Basics For Writers explores all facets of the popular writing style deep point of view and offers practical tips for writers. 

She runs the free Facebook group Going Deeper With Emotions where she shares tips and videos on writing in deep point of view.