My office is full of books. Some of books I've written. So I should feel confident about writing another but somehow every time I start a new book I meander around through treacle for weeks and can't get the thing off the ground.  

My desk is covered with papers, bits of makeup and other things that shouldn't be there ... usually a cat.

And so I swept it all away and took out my latest addition to my arsenal of WRITING: Your Book Starts Here by Mary Carroll Moore. My friend and fellow writer Heather Dyer was raving about it - we both find plotting tricky - so I bought it too.

I haven't read the whole book yet (and probably never will), but liked the look of the W storyboard structure. I love anything new so I'm trying it out for this book. (I'll try anything to get started).

When starting a book, I always tell my students to begin with THE DAY THAT IS DIFFERENT and Ms Moore agrees; she calls it the 'trigger.' This trigger hurtles the story out of the starting blocks.
But what I like about Ms Moore's advice is this, the W STORYBOARD STRUCTURE.

By arranging each of your highs and lows onto a W shape, you can see the shape of a story more clearly.

I didn't know I was going to upload this image so it comes as it comes...


The Trigger comes at the top left of the W.  It can be anything. In my story it is THE BOTTLE ESCAPES.

Then you slide down the W and as you slide you create more drama and more problems. So here I've written 'They think it's been stolen but it was the legs'.  Yes, well I understand, you might not. Somehow by writing it along the length of the W it makes more sense because it's moving, it's going somewhere, it's leading me to the FIRST TURNING POINT.

Here we have to have a conflict of some sort. Something unexpected must happen. I'm going to have my characters be really thinking The Knave of Hearts has the bottle when he doesn't. The little witch's hopes are dashed when she finds out. SO her plans change and she sets off again to recover from her disappointment. Note to self: That's sounding weak already so I think I need to change it.

I've reached the 2nd conflict point, ie the next RISE in the W. Here we want another conflict or dilemma to happen. This has to be EXCITING. My little witch is going to find the Beanstalk I've written on my storyboard. That doesn't sound exciting yet. Maybe it will be in the way I write it... humm, more work needed.

After the 2nd conflict things get worse as the little witch tries to get hold of the runaway bottle. Where is it? What is it up to?

Next problem is worse because the bottle has messed around with the Wicked Queen and no one should do that. Here we come to the 2nd turning point, at the second bottom of the W.  This is the lowest point of the story where it will seem all is lost and the little witch will never find her bottle. The Little Witch is resourceful though and gets out of trouble. Along the way she helps Snow White and so by being in the right place at the right time, (or something), she finds the bottle and traps it.

I do need a more interesting ending. It looks a bit bland on the W but I've shaped it out more in a synopsis.  I'm still needing a sort of Epiphany moment near the end.

The point is, using this W template has helped me shape something from nothing in just a few moments. Now I've got to flesh it out and work on it. But I'm already somewhere with this book instead of nowhere - or even worse, for me, ten pages written and a brick wall facing me because I don't know what my characters want or how the book is shaping.

It's only a start but a start is better than no start.

Now I'm going to write a detailed synopsis and when I'm happy with that I'll start writing the words.

Happy writing.