Laini Taylor's Blog, page 7

PLOT -- Part II: Character, Motivation, and Conflict!

[part I of PLOT -- What is Plot? HERE]

I argued last time that your readers' basic needs (akin to food, shelter, and love) are: connection, enjoyment, and satisfaction. So what does this have to do with plot? Well, while you craft your plot, you are trying to meet those needs.

First, let's take connection. For connection, you need, foremost, a character or characters to care about, and better yet: a character who your reader wants to be. I think that the most beloved books are the ones that do ...

PLOT -- my thoughts so far -- Part II: Satisfying Readers' Needs + Character, Motivation, and Conflict!

[part I of PLOT -- my thoughts so far: What is Plot? HERE]

I argued last time that your readers' basic needs (akin to food, shelter, and love) are: connection, enjoyment, and satisfaction. So what does this have to do with plot? Well, while you craft your plot, you are trying to meet those needs.

First, let's take connection. For connection, you need, foremost, a character or characters to care about, and better yet: a character who your reader wants to be. I think that the most beloved books a...

PLOT -- Part I: What is plot?

In the aftermath of the wonderful Western Washington SCBWI conference, I thought I'd share here my notes for the Plotting workshop I gave the other day. Plot is something that people ask me about a lot, and I find it is a hard thing to talk about in the abstract. I mean, you can talk in either the most basic, generic terms, or you can be really specific and talk about plots of particular books, etc. But I wanted to find something in between, a way of discussing plot that would be useful to pe...

PLOT -- my thoughts so far -- Part I: What is plot?

In the aftermath of the wonderful Western Washington SCBWI conference, I thought I'd share here my notes for the Plotting workshop I gave the other day. Plot is something that people ask me about a lot, and I find it is a hard thing to talk about in the abstract. I mean, you can talk in either the most basic, generic terms, or you can be really specific and talk about plots of particular books, etc. But I wanted to find something in between, a way of discussing plot that would be useful to pe...

Back from Seattle!

We're back from Seattle after another amazing SCBWI conference -- this one was certainly a different experience from all the others, since we had Clementine in tow. I couldn't sit in on workshops (though I could still hear the keynote speeches from the hall), and I was busier than usual, since I delivered my first-ever keynote (yeeee! It went well!), plus a workshop on plotting**, plus doing manuscript critiques. I took barely any pictures -- usually I come home with a full camera card, but n...

See you next week!

Off to Seattle tomorrow for SCBWI, yay! I do so love an SCBWI weekend. As always, the night before going somewhere, here I am at 1 am trying to get organized: printing out my speech, wondering what to wear while giving that speech (I'm thinking polka dots), etc. Getting sleepy, though.

Have a wonderful weekend. Maybe I'll see you in Seattle?

(P.S. Check out this cool post on p.o.v. in Blackbringer. Thank you, Allyson. Awesome blog!)

Happy Easter from Little Bunny!

Hope the bunny brings you treats :-) Have a lovely day!

March mini-NaNo, the conclusion!

Youch, Wednesday again! I'll tell you right now: if you finished your zero draft, you can have my cupcake, because I did not! Arg! So many things have come up in the past couple of weeks, the most recent of which is that Jim is sick (poor sweetie!) so I have Clementine right now instead of it being my work time, which means: quick blog post!

If you met your goal, HUGE CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I really really hope a fair number of you made great progress on your goals this month! I did so-so, but am ...

New Art Prints Available!!!

All that painting I've been doing in the wee hours of the night, well, here is the result, a new look for Laini's Ladies, which after five years in the marketplace I thought were ready for an overhaul (though the traditional LL line will remain). The basic idea is the same -- ladies with quotes -- but the look is quite different. They involve a lot more paint and actual hand-making and less digital. Fun! Here are four, and I'm not sure right now what direction they will go in as far as develo...

March mini-NaNo, one week to go!

Oh coffee, oh my coffee, oh I am so tired. Very little sleep had last night. It's not Clementine's fault entirely. I do keep staying up to the wee hours painting, knowing full well a certain baby has no intention of sleeping in in the morning. But I must have those wee hours if I'm going to get anything done. But then I'm a zombie in the morning. A zombie with coffee breath (which, I suppose, is better than a zombie with brain-breath, which is the usual flavor of zombie breath, right?)

So, how...