May 15, 2022

Pre-Meeting: Virtual Check-In

Speaker: Martha Alderson

Topic: Start Plotting Your Novel from the End

From my experience writing fiction and helping writers with plot, I’ve found that we often obsess over the beginning of our stories, developing detailed backstories and writing, revising and rewriting – and rightly so. Beginnings hook readers. At the same time, endings create fans, though often writers neglect to give their endings the same sort of time and attention either by stalling out before ever reaching the end or by slapping on an ending with the hope it works.

For now, forget the beginning of your story and turn your focus to the end. This approach of plotting from the end allows you to visualize the whole of your story rather than simply juggle a loose collection of its parts or scenes.

Whether you have a firm grasp of what happens at the end of your story to satisfy both the inner plot and the outer plot or simply a vague idea, come prepared to try out some new strategies.

You’ll be given time to experiment with some the foundational skills needed to:

• preform a task analysis of your outer plot
• deconstruct your main characters to satisfy the inner plot

Register for our May meeting.

Learn more about Martha Alderson.