In the spirit of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), here are a couple of interesting posts on story lines and plotting. (If you know of others, please let us know about them in the comments.)
The first, from Roz Morris of Nail Your Novel, talks about how most stories can be broken into four parts, even if there are only three acts. (Hint: the second act has two parts.) This can be a useful device for both plot planning during the writing phase and for plot analysis during the editing phase.
The second, by Bill Boyd, The Literacy Advisor, is essentially a summary of Christopher Booker’s The Seven Basic Plots, which looks at plot from the reader’s point of view. Since our audience is pretty much made up of readers, this can be a great way to think about our writing. It could help some of us get past those stuck places we all seem to run up against from time to time and might even inspire some to venture down a different road in the next story.
Whether you’re engaged in the madcap frenzy of NaNoWriMo or churning along at your own pace, what kind of resources or tools do you use to plot and frame your stories?