Ask the Author: Martha Alderson

“I'd love to hear questions you have about plot and writing.” Martha Alderson

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Hi Martha, Thank you for friending me on Goodreads. My question is, do you know all your plot lines before starting a book, or do you develop them as you write the story? Paul R. Meredith

Martha Alderson Hi Paul, Thank you! I find that creativity and imagination are fluid and come to me like my dreams -- fragmented, heavy with thematic meaning, mixed-up and often tend to explode ideas like fireworks. A Plot Planner -- a visual line that helps tame the confusion -- is a great place to place my ideas when they hit. If I don't know exactly what scenes they'll translate into, I simply place the ideas in the beginning, middle or end. Key scenes that come to me, especially at key moments I call Energetic Markers, I definitely arrange accordingly. I like to do as much pre-plotting as I can before I start writing and then I enjoy the dance of writing and plotting back and forth as I write a rough draft all the way through to the end before going back and assessing what my story is truly all about. Thanks again for your question. Do you know all your plot lines before you start?

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