Zoë Marriott's Blog, page 63

TURNING IDEAS INTO PLOTS: Part Three

Hello, my lovelies. It is now time to launch into the third part of the Turning Ideas into Plots workshop.

You have your basic diagram, like so:

 

(For more information on what this means, flick back to yesterday). 
You have enough solid story events now fixed in your head to be able to fill in two or three of the points on the diagram, which means you're on your way. You have, effectively, the skeleton of a plot. Possibly when people ask what you're writing about, you can give them a brief summi...

TURNING IDEAS INTO PLOTS: Part Two

Hello, dear readers! I'm very sorry for not posting on Monday like normal. I spent the whole day in London and didn't get back until quite late, after which I zonked out completely. So I bring you my Monday post on a Tuesday instead, and hope you don't mind too much: Part Two of my plotting workshop, which I hope will be useful to everyone (like me) who ever had an amazing idea - and no clue what to do with it.

So you've had this idea. Chances are the idea is incomplete and actually has a few ...

TURNING IDEAS INTO PLOTS: Part One

All right my lovelies, I've had a look at my previous post about plots, and it occurred to me that, while it might be interesting to a writer who's already completed a few stories or books (like me) who needs some advice about a fine-tuning technique for pacing and structure (like me), it probably wouldn't be terribly helpful to someone who's still trying to work out what a plot actually IS. So, for those of you who are not me, and were actually hoping for something useful? I apologise.

When I...

TURNING STORIES INTO PLOTS: Part One

All right my lovelies, I've had a look at my previous post about plots, and it occurred to me that, while it might be interesting to a writer who's already completed a few stories or books (like me) who needs some advice about a fine-tuning technique for pacing and structure (like me), it probably wouldn't be terribly helpful to someone who's still trying to work out what a plot actually IS. So, for those of you who are not me, and were actually hoping for something useful? I apologise.

When I...

SHADOWS ON THE MOON TEASER

After my big fat emotional post on Monday and your fantastic response, I decided you blog readers deserve a reward. Since I'm running low on chocolate brownies and sparkly puppies, I thought I'd provide an All New, exclusive, never-been-seen-before snippet of Shadows on the Moon. Follow the cut to read it.
I hope you enjoy this teaser! Let me know your thoughts, everyone.One of the household men walked beside me, not touching, but ready to catch me if I looked likely to tip off either edge of...

INSECURITY: I HAZ IT

And just in case the blog title didn't clue you in to what I'm talking about today, here's a lolarious poster.


Okay, so on Friday I was reading the Road Trip posts on YA Highway when I came across this section:

Hannah Moskowitz wrote a thought-provoking post: "Has the internet community changed YA?" Amy Lukavits responded directly with some arguments for both sides. Natalie Whipple and Ally Carter posted on similar topics, both saying you can worry about the online YA community all you...

THE BIGTIME FIVE

I saw a vlog by a writing hero of mine called Jackson Pearce a little while ago. In it, she pondered the question:

If my books hit the bigtime and I became one of those NYT Bestselling authors....what would I do?

This, I'm sure you'll agree, is an intriguing subject. I mean, yeah, in my case it's about as likely to happen as getting struck my lightning. Five times. On a Tuesday. While wearing yellow. But still, it's fun to imagine, right? So here is my illustrated list of the Five Things I Woul...

PLOTTING: AN EVOLUTION

So, further to my post the other day, where I revealed how very much I suck at creating non-standalone stories, I spent much of Tuesday making an extremely detailed, colour-coded and highlighted 'Plot Shape' for FrostFire. Because I now know that I HAVE to fit all the story's events into one book (which I would very much like to complete in less than 100,000 words), it became imperative to compress the story where I could and cut anything that didn't seem completely necessary.

My Plot Shape so...

THE BEST LAID PLANS...

How it feels in my heart right now...


Ah, how foolish we are, both mice and men...

Loyal blog readers may remember my Superspecialawesome Plan about how I was going to turn the sequel to Daughter of the Flames (tentatively titled FrostFire) into two books and make it all the Sacred Flame Trilogy or something like that?

Superspecialawesome Plan = fail. My lovely, lovely editor emailed me today to tell me (in the kindest possible way, with lots of praise to cushion the blow) that the first book of...

BUILD YOUR VERY OWN CHARACTER

Today, by popular request, I'm going to show you the stages I go through to get to know a character. I - like many writers - sometimes have this weird feeling that all my characters actually already exist out there in some alternate dimension, and that I'm not so much inventing them as, through the process of writing about them, gradually tuning in my aerial until I can see/hear clearly who they already are. And if anyone here is secretly thinking 'Is this the B*tsh*t Crazy Lady thing she was...