Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
Welcome back to Masterplots Theater on this the very last day of the A-Z Challenge! Yippee! We made it! And as happens every year, we get to Z and go, “What the heck are we going to write for this letter?” Of course, now that I think of it, we could have picked zombies, but …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: Z is for Zoomorphic”
Welcome to my last Masterplots Theater post. As is so often the case with the last letters of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge (X, Y and Z are so hard), I need to take a few artistic liberties with this post. There are simply no great masterplots for the letter Y. There are, …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: Y is for Yarn”
Welcome back to Masterplots Theater! All month we’ve been talking about writing individual masterplots, but what if you’re deliberately writing a story in two genres? What the heck is that? Well, I’d call that a “mashup”, or for the purposes of the A-Z Challenge, an “X Meets Y” masterplot. But the real question is: should …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: X is for X Meets Y (Genre Mashups)”
Welcome to Masterplots Theater. Does your main character start out fine? The have a fulfilling job, a loving partner, and a family life any one would be envious of? But writing a character with everything is pretty dull. You throw in a few bad events, and during this new stressful time, your hero falls under …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: W is for Wretched Excess”
Welcome back to Masterplots Theater! Is your story about a someone on a mission to stop a murderer? Great! But do you know whether it’s a thriller or a mystery? If you’re like me, you might have answered, “It’s both — a mystery thriller!” Thing is, I’ve discovered that mysteries and thrillers are not the …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: T is for Thriller”
Welcome to Masterplots Theater. Do you crave brave and selfless acts in your stories? The Sacrifice Masterplot requires these, because this hero is facing gut-wrenching decisions. This is a master plot for powerful emotional tales, ones that might leave your keyboard soggy and your readers emotionally devastated, but that’s just another part of the sacrifice. …
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Welcome back to Masterplots Theater! When people hear “Rite of Passage plot” they often think it’s another term for “coming-of-age story.” While youthful tales involving loss of innocence and puberty most definitely fit the Rite of Passage mold, not all ROP stories are about teenagers. Allow me to explain… Rite of Passage Plot Notes: The defining …
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Welcome back to Masterplots Theater! I often see authors describing their stories as quests in their book blurbs. Sadly, many of these books are not quests and that leads to reader disappointment. The Quest might be the most misunderstood of all the masterplots. Just because a story is High / Epic Fantasy, or follows Joseph Campbell’s …
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Welcome back to Masterplots Theater! Today we’re going on a wild ride with the Pursuit masterplot, which is more commonly known as the Chase plot. But hey, this is the A-Z Challenge where coming up with a suitable synonym so one has a post for a tricky letter is fair game. 😉 Pursuit Plot Notes: …
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Welcome back to Masterplots Theater. Do you dream of writing stories with flying carpets, or wishing wells? Or maybe you want to write a story where the bad guy gets taken down by a witch with a sense of humor. Great, because this masterplot takes us to a land of all plots magical. Out Of …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: O is for Out of the Bottle”