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Professional Plot Outline Mini-Course
No one is BORN a writer (just as no one is BORN a lawyer). We all have to learn the SAME skills. But no matter where you're starting...
Even if you have NO story ideas, NO characters, and NO experience, you can finish a complete working plot outline in just SEVEN tiny lessons.
If you have ever labored to come up with a GOOD way to start a story...
If you have ever stumbled, lost and frustrated, through the MIDDLE of your book...
If you have ever wondered, "How do I find an idea worth writing?"...
Stop Struggling. Help Is Here.
Start with Section One, where I'll give you each step to creating a quick, professional plot outline. I'll do a demonstration, and then, because writers write---they don't just read about writing---you'll do the exercise in which you'll take what I've demonstrated and use it to start building your working plot outline.
Step by step, you
Figure out your character.
You'll decide on the few points about him or her that really matter--but enough to give you a place to start your story, and not so much that you get bogged down in background and never get to your writing.
Decide on your central idea.
You'll figure out what actually counts in your story, so you avoid getting bogged down writing details that don't.
Write your opener.
You'll learn how to give yourself and your readers a GREAT first look at your character doing something fascinating.
Create your ending.
You'll discover one method of planning out a great conclusion.
And rough in your middle...
You know...all those pages that used to bog you down when you couldn't figure out what happened next? Not anymore.
But That's Just Section One.
My Professional Plot Outline Mini-Course also includes seven sequential plot-and-conflict lessons--to make sure you create a story that is tight, fascinating, compelling...
...And as fun for you to write as it will be for your readers to read.
Lesson What Is NOT A Plot
Discover a secret about plots that even most professionals don't know--a secret that has led way too many writers, including countless full-time novelists, in circles trying to figure out why their story is going wrong.
Lesson Mix 'N' Match Conflict
Even if you have no idea what you want to write about, you can build a solid foundation for a good story in just minutes.
Lesson Questions And Answers
Once you have conflict under control, you'll find out one technique for giving your story and characters depth, and makig your story unbelievably richer and more interesting.
Lesson Candy Bar Scenes
You'll discover and apply one critical technique for keeping your story flowing and keeping your interest high from beginning, through treacherous story middle, to gripping ending.
Lesson Ordering Scenes For Conflict
Learn how to experiment with structure to discover how you can best present your story to your reader.
Lesson Filling In The Blanks
Now you'll hunt down empty spaces between your candy bar scenes, and fill them with story that MATTERS--not with pointless wandering, characters who sit around thinking, or dialogues that go nowhere.
Even if you have NO story ideas, NO characters, and NO experience, you can finish a complete working plot outline in just SEVEN tiny lessons.
If you have ever labored to come up with a GOOD way to start a story...
If you have ever stumbled, lost and frustrated, through the MIDDLE of your book...
If you have ever wondered, "How do I find an idea worth writing?"...
Stop Struggling. Help Is Here.
Start with Section One, where I'll give you each step to creating a quick, professional plot outline. I'll do a demonstration, and then, because writers write---they don't just read about writing---you'll do the exercise in which you'll take what I've demonstrated and use it to start building your working plot outline.
Step by step, you
Figure out your character.
You'll decide on the few points about him or her that really matter--but enough to give you a place to start your story, and not so much that you get bogged down in background and never get to your writing.
Decide on your central idea.
You'll figure out what actually counts in your story, so you avoid getting bogged down writing details that don't.
Write your opener.
You'll learn how to give yourself and your readers a GREAT first look at your character doing something fascinating.
Create your ending.
You'll discover one method of planning out a great conclusion.
And rough in your middle...
You know...all those pages that used to bog you down when you couldn't figure out what happened next? Not anymore.
But That's Just Section One.
My Professional Plot Outline Mini-Course also includes seven sequential plot-and-conflict lessons--to make sure you create a story that is tight, fascinating, compelling...
...And as fun for you to write as it will be for your readers to read.
Lesson What Is NOT A Plot
Discover a secret about plots that even most professionals don't know--a secret that has led way too many writers, including countless full-time novelists, in circles trying to figure out why their story is going wrong.
Lesson Mix 'N' Match Conflict
Even if you have no idea what you want to write about, you can build a solid foundation for a good story in just minutes.
Lesson Questions And Answers
Once you have conflict under control, you'll find out one technique for giving your story and characters depth, and makig your story unbelievably richer and more interesting.
Lesson Candy Bar Scenes
You'll discover and apply one critical technique for keeping your story flowing and keeping your interest high from beginning, through treacherous story middle, to gripping ending.
Lesson Ordering Scenes For Conflict
Learn how to experiment with structure to discover how you can best present your story to your reader.
Lesson Filling In The Blanks
Now you'll hunt down empty spaces between your candy bar scenes, and fill them with story that MATTERS--not with pointless wandering, characters who sit around thinking, or dialogues that go nowhere.
72 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2012
About the author
Holly Lisle
109 books456 followersHolly Lisle has been writing fiction professionally since 1991, when she sold FIRE IN THE MIST, the novel that won her the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. She has to date published more than thirty novels and several comprehensive writing courses. She has just published WARPAINT, the second stand-alone novel in her Cadence Drake series.
Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer…which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:
“So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we’d tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children’s Home, where we lived.
“My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.
“It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, “That’s a bear footprint. From the size of it, it’s a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear’s still around.”
“Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.
” ‘I don’t have the gun with me that will kill a bear,’ he told me. ‘I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I’m going to shoot him so he’ll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.’
“The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I’m sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.
“We were not eaten by a bear that night…but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I’ll ever forget.
“I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I’m putting on paper isn’t at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn’t make my cut.”
You can find Holly on her personal site:
Hollylisle.com
You can find Cadence Drake, Holly's currently in-progress series, on her site:
CadenceDrake.com
You can find Holly's books, courses, writing workshops, and so on here:
The HowToThinkSideways.com Shop, as well as on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in a number of bookstores in the US and around the world.
Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer…which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:
“So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we’d tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children’s Home, where we lived.
“My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.
“It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, “That’s a bear footprint. From the size of it, it’s a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear’s still around.”
“Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.
” ‘I don’t have the gun with me that will kill a bear,’ he told me. ‘I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I’m going to shoot him so he’ll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.’
“The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I’m sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.
“We were not eaten by a bear that night…but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I’ll ever forget.
“I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I’m putting on paper isn’t at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn’t make my cut.”
You can find Holly on her personal site:
Hollylisle.com
You can find Cadence Drake, Holly's currently in-progress series, on her site:
CadenceDrake.com
You can find Holly's books, courses, writing workshops, and so on here:
The HowToThinkSideways.com Shop, as well as on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in a number of bookstores in the US and around the world.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 4, 2015
Need to kno whow to think about plotting. This is your key. Holly Lisle has written a few dozen novels, and she has a middle of the road style of planning that is not all outline or all pantzing. I've found her work very helpful in my own writing, and highly recommend this course, as well as her other courses.
October 24, 2012
I love Holly's down-to-earth style and sense of humor while imparting her knowledge to others. This was quick, easy to follow, and the worksheets you can download from the link she provides were really helpful! I foresee this being a useful tool for my future novel planning. I'll probably be taking some of her other courses as well.
My favorite part is when she explains that if someone who knows what they're doing can teach someone else to be a surgeon, then someone who knows what they're doing can certainly teach someone else how to write. The only caveat I'd add here is: Yes, anyone can be taught to write. Writing, in itself, is a technical skill. But I do believe that the actual ability to come up with a unique and creative story is "you have it or you don't". Anyone can be taught to write a technical manual, but not everyone who writes technical manuals are able to create fiction. Creativity is not a skill; the ability to express it is.
My favorite part is when she explains that if someone who knows what they're doing can teach someone else to be a surgeon, then someone who knows what they're doing can certainly teach someone else how to write. The only caveat I'd add here is: Yes, anyone can be taught to write. Writing, in itself, is a technical skill. But I do believe that the actual ability to come up with a unique and creative story is "you have it or you don't". Anyone can be taught to write a technical manual, but not everyone who writes technical manuals are able to create fiction. Creativity is not a skill; the ability to express it is.
October 24, 2012
I adore the down-to-earth approach to writing, and it did genuinely make me look at the whole process in a much brighter way: this IS something you can learn, not purely innate talent that you do/don't have, or dependent on a visit from the muse.
However, I was just a little disappointed by the not just advertising for her other books (which is fair enough, at this price this is very much a taster book) but the way that several of the exercises almost required that other text - just a bit too pushy.
Still, for 72p on the kindle, it's actually a nice little start for people trying to flex the story-telling muscle for the first time/in a while!
However, I was just a little disappointed by the not just advertising for her other books (which is fair enough, at this price this is very much a taster book) but the way that several of the exercises almost required that other text - just a bit too pushy.
Still, for 72p on the kindle, it's actually a nice little start for people trying to flex the story-telling muscle for the first time/in a while!
July 14, 2012
This book was an easy read. I took copious notes so that when I get ready to outline November's NaNoWriMo I will be able to follow through. Though a lot of it feels like other books I have read on the subject, Holly Lisle's personality shows through.
Ms. Lisle left plenty of examples off the top of her head. Because instruction given in other books don't have examples, I find when I try what they present, it turns out to be quite a mess. Needless to say, I will not delete the book. I want it to be easy to refer back to in the next couple months.
Ms. Lisle left plenty of examples off the top of her head. Because instruction given in other books don't have examples, I find when I try what they present, it turns out to be quite a mess. Needless to say, I will not delete the book. I want it to be easy to refer back to in the next couple months.
January 20, 2019
Useful and practical method for plotting story. The author lays out an easy to follow way to lay down the bones of your story. She starts with the most important issues (beginning and ending) then takes you through big “candy bar” scenes then to the transitions that take you from one scene to another. A brilliant presentation. She also makes a good case to purchase and read her other method books. Very well worth your time if you have trouble plotting your book before you write it.
March 26, 2019
Brief, concise, and useful. A good place to start if you want to see if Holly Lisle's other writing ebooks would work for you. Follow the steps, trust your creativity, and you'll have the basics of the story you're trying to write - and a somewhat-sparse-but-workable outline of an entirely new story. I have to admit I felt kind of accomplished at having written a full outline for something totally new in less than 24 hours, even though I don't think I'll actually pursue that story anytime soon.
There were quite a few references to Lisle's other books, but I didn't really mind that. I mean, most 99 cent books in the Kindle store are basically teasers for other books.
I do think I'm going to have to go through the Create a Plot Clinic, since I bought this book hoping to use it to work on something specific, and most of this book's exercises were focused on entirely new books. (I know I could apply the same exercises to that specific book, but I also want to go into more depth with it.)
One issue: this book contains broken links, and also many references to "worksheets" which you need to sign up to the author's website to access, and which I could not find anywhere on the site even after signing up - I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that I bought the book from Amazon and not from the author's website, but yeah, I just had to ignore any mention of worksheets. I mean, I think my exercises turned out fine anyway, but it was a bit frustrating and confusing.
There were quite a few references to Lisle's other books, but I didn't really mind that. I mean, most 99 cent books in the Kindle store are basically teasers for other books.
I do think I'm going to have to go through the Create a Plot Clinic, since I bought this book hoping to use it to work on something specific, and most of this book's exercises were focused on entirely new books. (I know I could apply the same exercises to that specific book, but I also want to go into more depth with it.)
One issue: this book contains broken links, and also many references to "worksheets" which you need to sign up to the author's website to access, and which I could not find anywhere on the site even after signing up - I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that I bought the book from Amazon and not from the author's website, but yeah, I just had to ignore any mention of worksheets. I mean, I think my exercises turned out fine anyway, but it was a bit frustrating and confusing.
May 20, 2013
As the title suggests: 'Professional', which means that if you have just come across this book without knowing any of Holly's other short courses and exercises, you might find this a bit daunting in the beginning.
Even if you do not purchase the other books suggested, this little mini-course is excellant for editing that novel that has been collecting cobwebs on your shelf.
Even if you do not purchase the other books suggested, this little mini-course is excellant for editing that novel that has been collecting cobwebs on your shelf.
February 23, 2016
A quick and dirty guide to plotting, with work sheets. The author does reference a more extensive book she wrote on plotting--but I didn't mind that advertising. Heck, I liked this one enough to read the more extensive version.
December 28, 2017
She makes a few good points, but mostly she sells her other books and classes.
August 3, 2018
Some helpful information
January 18, 2021
Maikli lang ang librong ito. Hindi nya masyado pinalawig ang daloy ng kanyang proseso ngunit pwede na kung nais mo lang balikan ang mga natutunan mo na noon. Mainam itong pang review o di kanya madaliang sulyap sa kasagutan kung nawawala ka ng saglit o naghahanap ng preskong pagtingin sa sinusulat mo.
Hindi ito pang baguhan kaya kailangang may sapat nang kaalaman sa structure at character, culture, at world development.
Hindi ito pang baguhan kaya kailangang may sapat nang kaalaman sa structure at character, culture, at world development.
September 11, 2012
Great starter tool for beginning writers who need to learn to let their creativity flow.
January 19, 2013
Probably the most useful book on plotting I've read so far!
February 21, 2015
A good summation of quick plotting but you might need her Build A Plot Clinic, too.
January 29, 2019
This is on the workbook end of the "writing advice" spectrum. Lots of questions to help you work out a plot quickly rather than waiting around for your subconscious to drop the ideas in your lap. This was kind of like The Busy Writer's One Hour Plot for people who really mean it.
You shouldn't need this book. It's not like I'd never heard of this sort of brainstorming before. I know doing this sort of thing could speed up the process. But then, I also know I should floss every day too, and guess what?
I liked it enough to buy Holly Lisle's Create A Plot Clinic which I gather is kind of an extended version of this with some extra techniques.
You shouldn't need this book. It's not like I'd never heard of this sort of brainstorming before. I know doing this sort of thing could speed up the process. But then, I also know I should floss every day too, and guess what?
I liked it enough to buy Holly Lisle's Create A Plot Clinic which I gather is kind of an extended version of this with some extra techniques.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews