Tag: plot

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Here’s a Good Plot from author Andy Zach–and You

Free Plotting Lessons Second

Here’s a Good Plot from author Andy Zach–and You

“Wait! What do you mean? I just clicked here.”

I mean I have a ‘Developing Your Plot’ class I’m giving this month and I’ll share it with you. Here’s slide 1, below.

Good Plot – The Cast of Characters

 

First, there’s me, the teacher character,  Andy Zach. If you’re not familiar with my biography on this site, you can go to Amazon or to Goodreads and find out about me and my books.

Good Plot slide 1

Then there’s you, one of many student characters. What have you written? Are you writing? What will you write? Please share you plot/novel/work ideas with me and the class by commenting below.

Comment here! I’ll send you my powerpoint class. Or email me at [email protected]

You MUST comment to participate in this class–or I’ll send the zombie turkeys after you!

A crowd of zombie turkeys, on Thanksgiving
A crowd of zombie turkeys, on Thanksgiving. Click to read more!

That’s my big turkey stick. The carrot is, I will give a free ebook of Zombie Turkeys to one of the commenters!

Start commenting – NOW!

Good Plot – Lessons – Where Will You go with Your Idea?

Plotting class slide 2 Good Plot

You’ve got your great idea for your novel. What’s next?

Authors fall into a spectrum of two approaches. First, there are plotters, who plan out the plot of their book and then write to that plan.

Then there are ‘pantsers’, those who sit on their pants and type away until a book emerges–or not.

Then there are endless variations between the two. I’m firmly in the first group. If you want to learn the pantser approach, find another author! I can’t even imagine how I’d write that way, and I’ve got a good imagination.

Let’s take my first novel, Zombie Turkeys. I created a chapter outline of the book on my first day of writing it during NaNoMo in November 2015.

Free Plotting Lessons Good Plot
Click on the Zombie Turkeys book cover to hear Andy read a free excerpt.

Read my Zombie Turkeys chapter outline:

Continue reading Here’s a Good Plot from author Andy Zach–and You
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5 Writing Posts to Make You a Better Author

5 Writing Posts to Make You a Better Author – where am I going with this? I found these great articles teaching writing skills. Then I thought, “Maybe other people can benefit from these. Other authors, poets, non-fiction writers and students can all learn.

So tell me if you like this kind of blog post here.

5 Writing Posts – Your First Lesson

Just kidding! I thought I’d start with a laugh. Here’s the real article next.

Yes, that’s right. This initial post covers everything you should NOT do as a writer. It’s a simple list, but it covers most of the bad things writers can do and do do.

Your Next Lesson

Now you get a video tutorial on how to structure a book.

Various plot structures

The following quickly summarizes :

1. Hero’s Journey
2. Save the Cat – 15 beat story structure
3. The Plot Embryo
4. 27 chapters (3 act structure) Each act into 3 blocks and each block has three chapters.

Do I follow these structures? Not consciously. I seek to start quickly with a tense situation, and build through each chapter. I’ll have ‘relief’ chapters where I surprise the reader with new, interesting characters and conflicts, before returning to the big conflict. The problems build through the book until they’re finally resolved in a big climax. Then I throw in a twist at the end.

I did this for each of my books:

5 Writing Posts
Andy Zach’s novels

5 Writing Posts – Your Third Lesson

Now, let’s tackle that dreaded activity–editing after you’ve written your book.

My quick summary, in time order:

  1. Developmental editing – story structure and organization
  2. Line editing – making each sentence the best it can be.
  3. Copy editing – getting rid of stupid speling misteaks and grammar errorz and punctuation!!!
  4. Proofreading – how does the final copy look on the page? Font size, spacing, paragraphs, page breaks.

I just use items 2-4. I’ve never really had anyone criticize my structure so far. My editor for edit types 1-3 is Dori Harrell at Breakout Editing. She’s worked on Zombie Turkeys, My Undead Mother-in-law, and Paranormal Privateers.

For my latest novel, Secret Supers, just published last March, I tapped Leslie McKie’s expertise.

Aside from professional editing, she’s taught middle school and disabled children. She was perfect to edit my book about seventh-grade disabled superheroes.

5 Writing Posts
Secret Supers Cover

For my layout or proofreading edit, I use Rik Hall at Wild Seas Editing. He’s formatted all my books for print and ebook versions.’

Your Fourth Writing Post

More on plotting! I dislike any structure forcing me to write a particular plot, but I follow everything it says.

Your Last Writing Tip

Naturally, I couldn’t resist publishing another joke first. Your real, last tip comes next.

What can you learn from this lady?

  1. You’re never too old to start writing.
  2. Once you start writing, keep writing
  3. Publish what you write. You may finally catch on.
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Free Plotting Lessons Here from author Andy Zach

Free Plotting Lessons Second

Free Plotting Lessons Here from author Andy Zach

Wow! I just taught a ‘Developing Your Plot’ class at Books to Benefit and I had so much fun. Therefore, I’ll give YOU Free Plotting Lessons right now in this blog post, right from the class.

Free Plotting Lessons – Cast of Characters

First, there’s me, the teacher character,  Andy Zach. If you’re not familiar with my biography on this site, you can go to Amazon or to Goodreads and find out about me and my books.

Then there’s you, one of many student characters. What have you written? Are you writing? What will you write? Please share you plot/novel/work ideas with me and the class by commenting below.

You MUST comment to participate in this class–or I’ll send the zombie turkeys after you!

A crowd of zombie turkeys, on Thanksgiving
A crowd of zombie turkeys, on Thanksgiving. Click to read more!

That’s my big turkey stick. The carrot is, I will give a free ebook of Zombie Turkeys to one of the commenters!

Start commenting – NOW!

Free Plotting Lessons – Where Will You go with Your Idea?

You’ve got your great idea for your novel. What’s next? Authors fall into a spectrum of two approaches. First, there are plotters, who plan out the plot of their book and then write to that plan. Then there are ‘pantsers’, those who sit on their pants and type away until a book emerges–or not. Then there are endless variations between the two. I’m firmly in the first group. If you want to learn the pantser approach, find another author! I can’t even imagine how I’d write that way, and I’ve got a good imagination.

Let’s take my first novel, Zombie Turkeys. I created a chapter outline of the book on my first day of writing it during NaNoMo in November 2015.

Free Plotting Lessons
Click on the Zombie Turkeys book cover to hear Andy read a free excerpt.

Read my Zombie Turkeys chapter outline:

Continue reading Free Plotting Lessons Here from author Andy Zach