Beat it out!! Because it will change your life. Seriously.

I recently got back from an amazing conference where sickness made me a total social recluse, I had to leave early the first day because my son turned thirteen (happy birthday!!), and I had to leave early the second day because I got deathly ill. But amidst all that, I learned something life changing. Now in case you don't know this already, and because I love you guys, I'm going to share it, too. Honestly, I wish I had known this years ago.

Okay. Let's start with the three-word version: READ THIS BOOK.

Now I can't say I've read this book. But I can say that I've ordered it and it's on its way to my house. I went to a class taught by the incredible Elana Johnson (who is as amazing a teacher as she is a person) on how to "Beat out your novel," and it was based on Blake Snyder's SAVE THE CAT. I'm not kidding when I say it was life-changing.

The slightly-longer-than-three-words-to-better-convince-you version: This a book on screenwriting, but it's really all storytelling. He says that every great story hits fifteen "beats." Different moments that need to happen for the story to have a satisfying, complete feel. Those movies that you want to go back and watch over and over? They hit all fifteen every time. Those ones that were good, but after watching once, you're done? They didn't hit all fifteen.

So, basically, your book can be really good even if you don't hit all of them. But if you want it to be GREAT--- if you want it to be a book people feel like they have to tell other people about--- you have to have all fifteen.

The book tells about what each of the fifteen are (or if you were lucky enough to get into Elana's class, she taught about each of the fifteen). Then you can go to Blake Snyder's site (www.blakesnyder.com), print out his Beat Sheet, and fill it out for your novel, to see if you are missing any of the fifteen. Or, when you're plotting a new book (if you're the plotting type), you can use this to help direct you. And, and, AND! If you write a sentence in each of the fifteen about what how your book hits that beat, you can string them all together and voila! You have your synopsis!

Oh, my gosh, guys. I can't even tell you how PERFECT and exactly RIGHT it felt to hear about this. Like it's what I had been searching for all along, but didn't know it existed. Like everything suddenly makes perfect sense. I cannot wait to "beat out" my book 1 before it goes into final revisions to make sure I didn't miss a beat, and to "beat out" book 2.

I kid you not. Yes, it stunk to have to miss so much of the conference, and I didn't get to see half the people I wanted to, but if I had only gone to this one class, it was entirely worth it.

The MOST IMPRESSIVE story idea EVER!

Laying in bed while my rested brain ran fast,
An entire plot formed, without being asked!

Two armies face off as they stand toe to toe
One is intimidating; the other decidedly less so
Both sides are determined to take home the prize
They glance at their resources and let out battle cries

A ghost steps forward, covered in a white sheet
A man-sized bag of jelly beans knows he might be beat
The ghost’s smugness changes when the first foam bean flew
And he realizes his non-corporealness just wasn’t true

A witch steps out next, with warts and a green face
A sumo wrestler lumbers away when she gives chase
When she stabs her broom in his back, things go amiss
His massive girth deflates as air escapes with a hiss.

Dracula steps forward with blood dried on his chin
Faces Justin Bieber; his pointy teeth show through his grin
Mouth to neck, an anguished “Plastic teeth can’t cut!” Dracula cries
A flip of JB’s hair and baby, baby, baby, Dracula got it in the eyes

Classic scaries and dress-up cleverness both collide,
On a battlefield where simple props can turn the tide...

*Stretch. Yawn. Smack, smack.*

Huh.

Okay... it’s entirely possible that plotting just isn’t sane
On Halloween morning, with a post-sugar high brain.

Happy Halloween!                         

P.S. If you would like to join us for NaNoReviMo (where we REVISE for the month of November instead of draft) and you haven't already "signed up," go on over to the Revising? post and let me know.

I've Got a Theory: Walk-n-Plots

So I have a theory that goes like this:

A Brain can't focus on just one thing unless it knows well where it's going.

Which I realize totally goes against the "One track mind" theory, but hear me out.

Have you ever sat down to write, but hadn't worked through your next scene (or where your plot is going) or what your next blog post is going to be about, and you get a little distracted? You sit and stare at the screen and think, Uhhhh.... I think I'm going to make my MC's bff find a note she had actually written to.... um.... Oh! I need to go into my online banking to see if that check cleared! Okay, back to writing. Hm.... So when she finds the note, she's going to THINK that it was really to her and.... Oh, my gosh! I was supposed to check to see if SIL posted those pictures on facebook! I almost forgot!

It's because your brain can't just do one thing, unless it knows VERY WELL what it's doing. If you aren't sure where you're going with a scene, your brain is working that out but at the same time it's working on other non-what-you're-trying-to-work-on things.

So how do you solve this problem? It's really simple, actually. You give your brain a task to work on that it DOES know very well. One it could do with its eyes closed. The dishes. Making dinner. Mowing the lawn. Folding clothes. Vacuuming. Once its tied up doing those jobs, the rest of your brain is free to focus on what you're trying to work out. It stops going all ADD on you.

For me, my favorite way is what I like to call a Walk-n-Plot. I head to a canal near my house that has a dirt pathway to the side of it. Really similar to this picture, actually.

The canal road is perfect because there aren't many people on it. Not many people to see that I talk to myself A LOT when I Walk-n-Plot. This is also where the cell phone voice recorder comes in handy. As I come up with one plot puzzle piece, I can record what I figured out instead of trying to hold it in memory while I work on the next puzzle pieces. Plus, whenever a runner comes by, they can just assume that I'm talking on the phone, instead of to myself.

So, once you've Walked-n-Plotted, cleaned house, showered, or whatever else got your brain working on something else so you could figure things out, then your brain is in that category of knowing exactly where it's going. And once you know where you're going, your brain can focus on it entirely.

(Pantsers, I know you may be thinking my theory is bunk at this juncture, but I've pantsed my way through a few things, and I think the theory still holds. When you sit down to write, don't you find yourself getting easily distracted until you get that spark of where to go? Once you get it, the ideas start flowing, and your brain suddenly KNOWS WHERE IT'S GOING. Then the distractions stop.)

What do you do to keep your brain busy enough to let it focus on figuring things out?

Plotting Drive

Currently, I am in a van, in the middle of a 10 ½ hour car ride. Rest assured that I am in a state of bliss right now, and not conked out against the door, drooling, with the door lock pressed into my cheek, because I stayed up too late last night trying to get to the very end of my To Do Before Vacation list. I would NEVER procrastinate like that.

I *heart* vacations. The uninterrupted family time, the inability to work on a To Do list and therefore a lack of guilt about it. That’s why seven-ish years ago, I managed to talk my hubby into us buying a timeshare so we could be GUARANTEED a vacation every year.

Usually we go somewhere in the state, because I'm the ONLY one who likes long drives. I love them, actually, because plotting while driving is almost as good as plotting while showering! (My family already laments my thirty minute showers— I’m pretty sure I could never get away with a 10 ½ hour shower. Besides, the hot water runs out after 40 minutes, and then there's the whole issue with grandma toes.)

So, 10 ½ hours there and 10 ½ hours back... I’m thinking I could have my entire next book figured out by the time I get home!

Now let’s just hope the next book doesn’t have an “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” theme.