Writing

Okay, so my last few posts were about socks -- which is all well and fine, since "socks" is in the name, but in the past, I've also talked about writing, and that's what I want to bring up today.

I've been doing some research lately on plotting, since I don't usually map out a full plot in my head, and in the end, I actually never get to the end, and well, that's got to stop.  I decided in order to get the time line down for The Senate Race, I needed to write down my major plot points and make sure they were all in order.  To do that, I enlisted the help of the interwebs in order to see what advice other writers had on the subject.  I came across quite a few sites that were helpful and some interesting links on other subjects that I'm going to share with you today.  And if you have any tried and truth methods that you swear by or swear at, even, you can leave me a comment and I'll check them out as well.  Let's get started, shall we?

http://www.diyplanner.com/    I came across this site looking for tips, and lo and behold, they have a little program that installs super fast that allows you to create your own planner with just a few clicks.  It's really simple and I made a few daily, weekly, and monthly so that I can seen everything at once and map out which hobbies I'm going to work on which days so that I can actually get some work done across the board.  For example, my knitting class is on Thursdays, so I can work on my socks on that day and I can scrapbook and work out on Tuesdays, because I know Aaron works out.  It's all there in my planner.

http://www.learner.org/interactives/literature/read/plot1.html  This site wasn't what I was looking for, but it offers some basic information on Plot, Point of View, Elements of Plot, and Characters -- it appears to be a textbook companion and indeed, I seem to recall some of these stories from my high school texts.

http://johnaugust.com/   This guy has a lot of information on screen-writing, but he's also got a pretty in-depth archive covering an exhausting set of topics.  Luckily he has a search box right there in the side bar.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/112552/tips_for_plotting_how_to_create_a_fascinating.html  This is some more basic information about plots, not really the diagrams I was interested in, but some questions to ask yourself when setting up your story.  Since the story I'm working on already has a cast of characters, and I pretty much know how and where everything will play out, I might use this for a later story.

http://www.musik-therapie.at/PederHill/Structure&Plot.htm  -- this site has a lot of diagrams and information on all the parts of the novel.  This particular page is on Structure and Plot and diagramming the elements of your plot.

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/plot-diagram/  This is a cute little flash site with a diagram plot builder.  You just put in headers and a brief (really brief) description of what's happening.  I created one, but the description is so small, I couldn't put half of what I wanted in some places.  I'll have to use a page and separate them one by one.

Pretty much every other site I looked at said the same things these did -- and for those of you to still prefer a paper book, there are a lot of books out there that discuss this at some length.  Here are just a few that I turn to whenever I get the chance:

• Braine, John. How to Write a Novel.
• Brande, Dorthea. Becoming a Writer.
• Brohaugh, William. Write Tight: How to Keep your Prose Sharp, Focused and Concise.
• Burack, Abraham Saul. Techniques of Novel Writing.
• Burnett, Hallie Southgate. Fiction Writer’s Handbook.
• Burroway, Janet. Writing Fiction.
• Edelstein, Scott. The No-Experience-Necessary Writer's Course: A Unique Stress-Free Approach to Writing Fiction and Poetry for Anyone Who Ever Wanted to Put Words on Paper.
• Hubert, Karen M. Teaching and writing popular fiction: horror, adventure, mystery and romance in the American classroom. 
• Lowenkopf, Shelly. Secrets of Successful Fiction Writing: A Guide to Techniques and Approaches the Professionals Take for Granted(Santa Barbara Writer's Conference Sh)
• Saunders, Jean. How to Plot your Novel
• Unknown. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers.
• Unknown. The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life.
• Unknown. The Writer’s Mind: Crafting Fiction.

So if you have any others that you turn to, and I haven't mentioned it, just leave me a comment and I'll check it out.  Or if you've read one of the last three books and have the author's name on them . . .I'd appreciate it.  I couldn't look them up before this post, and I've heard them mentioned a couple of places with out author attributes, and they deserve all the credit for them.   If you have questions or if you want me to look up something to add to the next rant -- just leave me a line.  Until next time blogger-geeks!