Alderson Martha - Writing Deep Scenes: Plotting Your Story Through Action, Emotion, and Theme

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WRITING DEEP SCENES. Copyright 2015 by Martha Alderson and Jordan Rosenfeld. Manufactured in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by Writers Digest Books, an imprint of F+W Media, Inc., 10151 Carver Road, Suite # 200, Blue Ash, OH 45242. (800) 289-0963. First edition.

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Martha

To my husband

Jordan

To Erik and Ben, always

We are grateful to the forces that drew us together, particularly that sun-drenched first meeting by the water, suggested by our friend Susanne Lakin (and for several more inspiring meetings with like minds Nina Amir and Frances Caballo). We knew the moment we met that creativity was alive between us and good things would come into being. We also thank the writers who have taken part in our Writer Path retreatsyour adventurous spirits helped us test and flesh out some of the material that went into this book. Of course, we are deeply grateful to Phil Sexton for his belief in our work, and to the most competent and gifted editor, Rachel Randall. Lastly, to our families, who stand by when our writers minds are busy constructing new worlds.

Martha Alderson is known as the Plot Whisperer for her books on plot: The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master, The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories, The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing, and Writing Blockbuster Plots, and for the award-winning blog she manages, The Plot Whisperer, which has been awarded top honors by Writers Digest from 2009 to 2015.

Martha has been exploring and writing about the Universal Story for the past twenty years as part of the plot support she offers to writers. More recently, she has expanded her work to include helping writers transform their creative lives.

She is currently filming two new video programs: The 27-Step Tutorial: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? and A Spiritual Guide for Writers: Secrets of Personal Transformation.

She and Jordan co-lead Writer Path retreats: www.writerpath.com. Visit her website: marthaalderson.com

Jordan Rosenfeld is the author of three novels, most recently Women in Red, and several writing guides, including A Writers Guide to Persistence, Make a Scene, and Write Free. Her essays and articles have appeared in such publications as AlterNet, Bustle, Creative Live, Family Fun, Mom.me, The New York Times, The Rumpus, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Weeklings, Writers Digest, and many more. Her book commentaries have appeared on The California Report, produced by NPR affiliate KQED radio. She created and hosted the literary radio program Word by Word: Conversations with Writers on KRCB, which won an NEA Chairmans grant in 2004. Visit her website: www.jordanrosenfeld.net.

Over the decades, in our work teaching plot and scene, we have come to see that writers are easily overwhelmed by the process of story making. Where do I start? What happens next? How do I know which scenes go where? What does my character do now? These are just a handful of the questions posed by the writers weve worked with. Writing Deep Scenes is designed to answer these questions (and many, many more) in two ways: at the scene level and at the plot level. In addition, this book also explains how plot and scene elements intertwine.

Writing Deep Scenes draws upon Marthas expertise in teaching plot (in her books in the Plot Whisperer series) and Jordans expertise in teaching scenes (as evidenced in her book Make a Scene). It presents a multilayered, truly deep, and, we believe, new approach that explores the intersection of plot and scene, the most essential elements of the craft of writing. Scenesin which you take characters on a moment-by-moment trek of transformationare what make all stories vivid and memorable. But scenes must fit within a framework of meaning and tension so that your story doesnt run off the rails or get mired down. This is where plot design comes in.

You can either read this book from start to finish or pick the area you need to strengthen. We recommend you start with the first three chapters, which serve as refreshers on plot and scene, no matter your ultimate goal.

In , "Scene Types," well discuss the various kinds of scene types you can use to achieve different goals.

After the refresher chapters, Writing Deep Scenes scrutinizes both plot and scene at the micro level.

First, we discuss the three key layers at the root of plot and scene: action, emotion, and theme. Every strong story is dependent upon these layers. Simply put, action is what happens, emotion is how characters and readers feel throughout the journey, and theme is the meaning produced in the process.

Additionally, well show you how to explore the shadow and light sides of your characters journeysfrom less self-awareness to full awareness and emotional maturityas they progress through their stories and through the stages of their emotional, spiritual, and/or physical integration. Shadow, as it pertains to the character, is best explained by Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. He defined shadow as an aspect of a characters personality to which she is oblivious. The shadow side of her includes everything outside the light of her consciousness, both positive and negative. As Jung explained: Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individuals conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. In deconstructing the plots and scenes of successful stories, we find the shadow side everywhere: in all action where the protagonist is not in control; in settings under the antagonists rule; in turning points that twist the character into unfamiliar territory, forcing her to confront both her hidden sides, both flaws and skills; and in the imagery that describes these events. To the untrained eye, scenes appear to be unified and whole; by teasing apart the hidden layers, we shine a light on the shadow sidethe subconscious, symbolic, and subtextual elements of storiesto reveal aspects writers can consciously integrate into their own scenes to create more exciting, dynamic plots.

Writing Deep Scenes will also teach you:

• how to recognize each layer of action, emotion, and theme individually, and how each contributes to the whole plot and plays at the scene level.