Plotting A Course

I picked up a variety of books at Borders yesterday. They had a small in the writer’s reference section, but I found a couple that were on my list to check out.

20 Master Plots and how to build them by Ronald B. Tobias. I read this one yesterday. “Plot is a process, not an object.” It was definitely worth the money for that statement alone. The writing in it is very straightforward and the examples are helpful in illustrating the type of plot used.

Scene & Structure by Jack M. Bickham which is part of “The Elements of Fiction Writing” series from Writer’s Digest Books. It looked like where I was feeling unprepared.

Chapter after Chapter by Heather Sellers. This one was recommended on the RD forums. They didn’t have
Page After Page, or I probably would have picked that up as well.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray, Ph.D. I figured I needed a look at how men and women communicate and a little less jaded look at how men think.

I did sit and skim through the “No Plot, No Problem!” book by the NaNoWriMo guy, and I decided it probably had some useful things in it, but it wasn’t something I wanted to distract myself with right now. I’m interested in learning the ropes, not just dashing things down until something clicks. I want to understand why something clicks or not so I can improve the next try, or be able to do it again.

I also went to Staples and bought a bunch of post-its and index cards and a big foam board to play with. So not much actual writing this past week, but I’m soaking up stuff like a sponge.