The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

by Martha Alderson

Slowly it becomes clear to you that you’re held back by fear—fear of a painful trial that will expose your inner self to others.

Natural-born storytellers tap into the Universal Story intuitively. Others must learn how to use the Universal Story to write compelling stories of their own.

You bring to your writing, your art, and your stories a piece of yourself. In return, the act of creating gives you the possibility of something even greater: true transformation.

Be forewarned, though. Writing a story can expand your everyday life; it can also destroy the person you are now. I ask you to commit to your own journey as your protagonist embarks on hers. Explore your true essence.

You imagine yourself into being a writer. Your imagination allows you to see worlds invisible to others.

Writing demands that you: Study the craft Give over vast swatches of time and deep emotion to an endeavor with absolutely no guarantee of success Face a blank page or computer screen Face yourself Challenge yourself

writers’ most prevalent personal flaws operate exactly like the flaws they create in their protagonists.

You have no place to hide, and so, rather than face that blank page and failure, you find other things to do and put off the most important task: your writing.

Left-brained writers approach writing in a linear fashion and see the story in its parts. Action-driven writers like structure. Because they like to pre-plot and create an outline before writing, they often refer to themselves as “plotters.” They have little trouble expressing themselves in words.

Character-driven writers often call themselves “pantsers,” because of their ability to write by the seats of their pants.

Leave the drama on the page and keep writing. All writers feel uncertain. Turning something as vaporous as inspiration into words that add up to something meaningful is not an easy task. You have every right to doubt your abilities.

If you find yourself putting off even starting to write, chances are your malady runs deeper still—perfectionism.

What are you afraid of? That someone will stumble across a rough draft and label you an idiot for the mess? This is not the time to give power to your ego. Writing is a sacred ritual. You act as the messenger for the muse. Let the words flow. Accept imperfection in yourself and you learn to allow for it in others.

Writing a “slop-on-the-page” rough draft is preferable to never writing anything. For a writer to truly call herself a writer, she has to write! She must finish what she starts.

Spending hours of time searching for that elusive perfect starting place is a waste. Start writing whatever words come to you.

The further you put yourself out there with your writing the more vulnerable you feel.

One of the greatest benefits of writing a truly awful, lousy, no good first draft is that it can only get better from there.

I believe that writing is not a gift but a skill—a skill based on self-esteem.