Episodes
Wednesday Nov 22, 2023
Stages 5 & 6 / Greatest Plot Structure / Discovering Your Plot / 4:49
Wednesday Nov 22, 2023
Wednesday Nov 22, 2023
For many writers, Openings and Closings aren’t the problem with story. We all have problems with the Messy Middle—or the Saggy Middle—or that long slog between fantastic Opening and stupendous Ending.
It’s the Middle that causes the most groans.
In the Archetypal Story Pattern, the Greatest Plot Structure in the world—that troublesome Middle is Stages 4 to 8. It’s not Stage 4 that creates the problems. It’s not Stage 8 or Stage 7.
Nope, what causes the most angst for writers is our focus in this episode—Stages 5 and 6.
Follow along for clues that will change your approach to Stages 5 and 6 and hopefully keep them from turning into the Messy Middle Mire that causes angst for so many writers.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:47 Stage 5
- 03:30 Thresholds
- 04:47 Four New Things in the Story
- 07:05 Analysis through Example
- 09:16 Crossing the First Threshold
- 10:43 Stage 6
- 12:50 Purpose-Filled Examinations
- 15:50 Thresholds are Tests (and are Try/Fail Sequences)
- 16:47 How Many Tests?
- 19:50 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time:: 21:33
Examples from Patricia Briggs’ The Hob’s Bargain, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
Stages 3 & 4 / Greatest Plot Structure / 4:48
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
This week’s episode continues our deeper and richer analysis of the stages of the Greatest Plot Structure in the World for Writers: the Archetypal Story Pattern.
Stage 3 is the Refusal of the Call, which is just as necessary as the destruction that occurs in Stage 2, Call to Adventure.
Stage 4 presents one of the most intriguing and labyrinthine characters in the story realm: the Mentor.
Got those loins girded? We’re delving ever deeper into ASP.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Introduction
- 01:13 Stage 3 / Only Fools Rush In
- 03:44 Don’t Neglect the Evil
- 04:07 Jobs Not Yet Done
- 05:05 Five Psychological Stages to Maturity
- 08:02 Analysis of ROC through Example
- 11:20 Stage 4 / Wiser Eyes
- 16:47 When Mentors Become More
- 19:22 Initiation and Transformation
- 21:12 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time: 22:53
Examples from Dorothy Johnson’s short story “A Man Called Horse”, the film Taken, the Star Wars canon, the Harry Potter series, and Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
LINKS BELOW
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters series.
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
LINKS
Link to “A Man Called Horse” by Dorothy Johnson (various pdfs are available online. This is a link to the story online.) A Man Called Horse ______ Dorothy M. Johnson – My Favorite Westerns
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
Stages 1 & 2 / Greatest Plot Structure / DiscPLOT / 4:47
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
In this episode, we begin our in-depth analysis of the individual stages of the Archetypal Story Pattern, the greatest plot structure for writers.
Highly adaptable and flexible, the Archetypal Story Pattern, or ASP, allows the creative muse to fly. Our focus is the first two stages: Stage 1 / Ordinary World and Stage 2 / Call to Adventure.
With a deeper and richer analysis of each stage, writers will hopefully gain insights that were never before contemplated.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Introduction
- 01:22 Stage 1 Opening
- 02:28 Start with Duality
- 05:07 Build with the Latin 7
- 09:21 Stage 2 Opening
- 10:35 First Consideration
- 12:26 Second Consideration
- 15:59 Three More Takes
- 18:43 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time :: 20:25
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Wednesday Nov 01, 2023
Writers and Archetypes / Discovering Your Plot / 4:46
Wednesday Nov 01, 2023
Wednesday Nov 01, 2023
Archetypes invaded the world of writing decades ago. Just as an artist has her drawing box and a cook accesses her pantry. new writers—and experienced ones needed a refresher—need the archetypal frameworks in their writing kit.
Explorers will find multiple versions of archetypal charts, for plot and for characters. Social media and webinars abound with them. Numerous videos and blogs cover the basic information.
The Archetypal Story Pattern—ASP—is genius for the 12 stages of essential story scenes. We have many more scenes than these, of course, but the ASP gives up the story guidance so lacking in other types of plot structures.
In this section, we offer an introduction to Archetypal Story Pattern. In the next, we launch into the individual stages.
Gird your loins. The information is becoming intense! After this episode’s overview, we’ll cover each stage in deeper and richer detail in later episodes, all the way into the New Year.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Introduction
- 04:02 Joseph Campbell’s 17 Stages of the Hero’s Journey
- 06:47 Christopher Vogler’s 12 Stages / the Archetypal Story Pattern
- 09:10 Beginning / Middle / End
- 12:28 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time :: 14:11
BOOK LINKS are to Amazon because I’m working quickly. You can also find these at Worldwide Distributors Everywhere.
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey https://www.amazon.com/Writers-Journey-Anniversary-Mythic-Structure/dp/1615933158/
Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a 1,000 Faces https://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Faces-Collected-Joseph-Campbell-ebook/dp/B08MWW2VDL/
Carl Jung :: Gary Bobroff’s Knowledge in a Nutshell: Carl Jung https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Nutshell-psychoanalyst-unconscious-archetypes-ebook/dp/B082VJLVXR/
George Fraser The Golden Bough https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Bough-James-George-Frazer/dp/1692144219/
Links to M.A. Lee’s Discovering Your Plot, ebook format.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
Lead-in to Greatest Ever Plot Structure / Discovering Plot / 4:45
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
In our previous two episodes, we looked at 4 plot structures that are inadequate ~ Basic Beats and Freytag’s Pyramid, both of which are reductions of Aristotle’s Plot Requirements and Shakespeare’s Dramatic Structure. None of those have enough to help writers with their own stories.
In this episode, we’re close, so close, with the Complex Plot Structure … but it’s still not the greatest.
We end with a strong hint of the Best and tell you the reason it’s the best … and always will be.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening
- 1:41 Complex Plot Structure
- 9:55 Plot Structure for Writers
- 15:5 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time: 17:00
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Links for the Ebook of Discovering Your Plot
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer for DiscPlot https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
A Common Pyramid and Shakespeare for Plot / Discovering Plot / 4:44
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
In this episode, The Write Focus examines the plot structure taught to everyone. It’s basic. It’s common. It’s great for students. That’s all it is. Not good for writers. Nope. We only bring it up because everyone starts here. It actually is a reduction of Shakespeare’s dramatic structure.
Yeah, that old dude. Another old dude. Let’s move beyond, and get started.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening
- 1:07 Freytag’s Pyramid
- 6:45 Shakespeare’s Dramatic Structure
- 18:48 Last Words and Closing
Total Running Time: 20:29
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
Basic Beats, Meet Aristotle / Discovering Plot / 4:43
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
As long as writers have been trying to tell successful stories, we’ve been sharing that information with other writers ~ for years, centuries, millenia!
These classifications have entered “the mainstream”, for some are taught in seminars and in courses as if these are the way to write stories. These are NOT the way to write stories; they are ways to examine the art of story-telling using common terms.
One of the famous methods for structuring a plot is the so-called Basic Beats, also known as the 3-Act or 4-Act Structure. As with anything, flaws exist.
We can overcome those flaws when we add in lessons from a source thousands of years old: Aristotle. Our stories are deeper, richer, and much more satisfying.
Don’t worry that the info is too difficult or arcane. We’ve broken down for all writers in understandable terms.
Basic Beats, Meet Aristotle!
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening Words
- 1:09 Plot Necessity
- 4:25 Basic Beats
- 7:28 Aristotle’s Plot Requirements
- 14:36 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time: 16:18
LINKS
Old Geeky Greeks by M.A. Lee
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082T3YVMK
Worldwide https://books2read.com/u/mgGWNR
Links for the Ebook of Discovering Your Plot
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer for DiscPlot https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Special Approaches to Plot / Discovering Your Plot / 4:42
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Any presentation of a story’s plot can be straightforward, with scenes / sequels moving in progression from beginning to end, “as events occur”.
Few plots are simply straightforward.
In this episode, we examine foreshadowing and flashback, a non-linear plot structure, the frame story, and the allegory.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Opening Words
- 1:07 Foreshadowing & Flashback
- 3:38 Non-Linear Plot Structure
- 6:37 Frame Stories
- 8:32 Allegories
- 13:07 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time: 14:52
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Essentials / Discovering Your Plot / 4:41
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Every plot has a beginning / middle / end. Tensions and suspense drive each of these sections.
Plotting prose? Poetry? That choice doesn’t matter in narrative. Telling a story is the focus, and all stories are formed through a series of scenes and sequels, which bridge between scenes.
Two things control the main plot and each subplot. These are the heart and the brain that will drive every scene and its sequel. The heart is the theme which is the key to unlock the brain, our conflict that controls the plot.
These are the four plotting essentials. Theme. Conflict. Scene. Sequel.
Timing
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Opening Words
- 01:31 Theme
- 06:32 Conflict
- 12:36 Scene & Sequel
- 20:00 Last Words and Closing
Link to Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/
Link to Think like a Pro: 7 Lessons for Writers by the host M.A. Lee https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd or
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DYJDY5S/
Links to the Ebook Discovering Your Plot
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Hate and Love for Genre Tropes / Discovering Plot / 4:40
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Tropes are those genre category-specific details, characters, and events that readers relish and anticipate: a magic sword, the hard-nosed detective who drinks on the job, and the corpse found and lost in a cozy mystery. Some tropes—such as the Golden Child—transcend a single genre and can be found in all major genres.
Genre tropes can build a plot, but tropes are not plot. They are tools. Not every screwdriver in your tool box is used every time you need to screw in a screw. If you do use every tropes to build a plot, well, as a writer, you are S.C.R.E.W.E.D.
I won’t list genre tropes in this episode. Those are easy to find. I will explain the reason we writers are screwed when we depend on tropes for our plot and characters.
Yet we can use tropes ... just don't let them use you!
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening Words
- 01:54 Genre Tropes
- 03:31 Folk Ballad Tropes
- 06:08 Commedia dell’ Arte Tropes
- 08:05 Epic Hero Tropes
- 12:13 Writing Fast with Stock Spinners / Story Wheels
- 15:24 Pulp Writers and Preventing Trope Repetition
- 17:48 Last Words
- 18:31 Closing
Total Run Time: 19:31
LINKS
Karen Woodward: “NaNoWriMo, Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason, and Plot Wheels” – https://blog.karenwoodward.org/2013/10/nanowrimo-erle-stanley-gardner-perry-mason-plot-wheels.html
Lester Dent’s Plot Formula, as a pdf, is at multiple places on the Internet.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk