professional plot outline worksheets

Professional Plot Outline Mini-CourseWorksheets

AUTHOR’S GRANT OF LIMITED REPRODUCTION RIGHTS

I, Holly Lisle, the author of this book, grant you, the owner of a legally distributed copy of Professional Plot Outline Mini-Workshop the following limited rights of reproduction.

You may print (via personal printer) or photocopy as many worksheets from this book as you need for your own personal use, including multiple copies of each worksheet. You may also reproduce copies or for use by members of your immediate family living in your household (spouse or significant other, parent, child) or for members of your (physical, but not virtual) writers’ group.

You may not make copies of any other portion of the book in any format (excluding the limited e-book rights granted below); nor may you make copies of any portion of the book, including worksheets, for roommates, friends, distant relatives, students, or anyone else, without my express written permission; nor may you include these worksheets in any derivative work. Doing so is a violation of copyright law.

If you have the PDF version of this book, I grant you the right to print out a single paper copy of the entire book for your personal use.

If you’re a public or private school teacher and you want to use materials from this workbook with your students, contact me at http://novelwritingschool.com/support and we’ll work out a copying arrangement based on the number of students for whom you wish to copy worksheets.

TAKE THIS PAGE, on which you find the printing permission notice, along with any materials you wish to copy, so the copying center or your local library will know you have my permission to make copies. You’ll save yourself grief by proving that you have the right to copy the worksheets before, rather than after, you’ve made the copies.

! Holly Lisle’s Professional Plot Outline Mini-Workshop

Plot Mini-Course Worksheet © Holly Lisle, http://NovelWritingSchool.com/free-plot . All Rights Reserved. You may duplicate this worksheet for your own personal use. ! 2

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EXERCISE ONE: Figure Out Your Character

Write your own single paragraph in describing what you know about your main character. Keep it short and focus on the most important things—what he values, what he does, what he needs, what he wants, what he fears.

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Holly Lisle’s Professional Plot Outline Mini-Workshop

Plot Mini-Course Worksheet © Holly Lisle, http://howtothinksideways/writing-courses. All Rights Reserved. You may duplicate this worksheet for your own personal use. ! 1

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EXERCISE TWO: Decide on Your Central Idea

Select and list below the points you want to pursue, the ideas that you find fascinating and compelling. Three or four items will be enough.

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EXERCISE THREE: Write Your Opener

Using any ideas you have about your character, put together in the space provided a single paragraph that focuses on the critical parts of your character—what he does, what he needs, and what he fears—that answers the following questions:

• What is the most difficult thing my character is struggling with right now?

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• How does that struggle give him one problem he must solve?

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• Who or what will stand in the way of the solution he seeks?

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EXERCISE FOUR: Create Your Ending

Go back to your opener and figure out in general terms how you want the story to end.

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When you have your list, answer the following questions:

• Does your protagonist succeed or fail in gaining the objective you gave him in your opener?

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• Does your story come to an emotionally satisfying conclusion?

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• Describe yourself in the future after you have written through anywhere from ten pages to seven hundred to get to this ending?

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• Is this where you want to be a week, a month, or a year from now? Why or why not?

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EXERCISE FIVE: Rough-In Your Middle

Your turn. With your beginning and your ending in front of you, sketch in between three and sixty one-line scene ideas. (You'll find twenty tools for making this process much, much easier in Holly Lisle’s Create A Plot Clinic, generally available where you downloaded Professional Plot Outline.)

I suggest coming up with more than you think you're going to need, because from my own experience over the years, about 20% of your ideas will turn out to be unusably bad.

The worksheet is on the next page, and contains printable plot cards. Depending on the size of your project, you can need a couple hundred.

I use index cards, but enough of my students have informed me they don’t have index cards in their part of the world that I’ve included these do-it-yourself versions. Use heavy paper or card stock to print them on if you can find it.







INSERT SCENE CARDS HERE







EXERCISE 6 (Lesson 2): Mix ‘n Match Plot

You can deliberately choose one, two, or all three conflicts, and fill in the remainder with random choices. In my experience, if you use at least ONE random conflict, you'll force yourself to think outside of your usual story box, and generally come up with a deeper and more complex story.

Write down:

Conflict #1 ____________________________________________________________

Conflict #2 ____________________________________________________________

Conflict #3 ____________________________________________________________

What story structure will you be using? (The default is Cliffhanger. If you own Create A Plot Clinic, you can select one of the other options you'll find there.)

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Write down your four questions about the three conflicts you've chosen:

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EXERCISE 7 (LESSON 3): Questions & Answers

Start with one of the seven critical components of character. The default is Work & Play. If you have Create A Character Clinic, you can select a different option.

What element of your protagonist's character is MOST important to him?

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Fill in the following based on p.3 of your lesson, and on your three story conflicts.

What is the character's __________________________ (work, play, or other)?

Now, answer the four questions you wrote down last week. (You can rewrite each here first before answering if you'd like.)

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Now, answer the following question---What price does your character pay, or what consequences does he face, for everything you've discovered about him above? (This will be the climactic scene of your story, the big final conflict right before you reveal your resolution.)

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EXERCISE 8 (LESSON 4): Candy Bar Scenes Resource: Internet Public Library: http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html

Your five conflicts from any of the "7-plot" and up lists. (The 1- and 3-"plot" entries are useless.)

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Now, pick any one of the five conflicts above, and remembering that in a scene, something important changes, write out one short paragraph in which you brainstorm how you can use this conflict in a great scene in your story.

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http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html

http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html





Brainstorm four more scenes you can't wait to write for your story, using a different conflict for each one. Remember that you do not have to develop these scenes in sequential story order.

Conflict #2 Scene

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Conflict #3 Scene

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Conflict #4 Scene

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Conflict #5 Scene

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If you'd like, you can print off multiple copies of the following page to create AT LEAST 15 candy-bar scenes for your story.







Conflict: _______________________________________________________________

Scene Brainstorming:

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Conflict: _______________________________________________________________

Scene Brainstorming:

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EXERCISE 9 (Lesson 5): Ordering Scenes for Conflict

This quick exercise will allow you to compare segments of your plot outline in two different orders. Print out more pages of the worksheet if you want to run your whole project through a scene-by-scene comparison.

Here’s what you do:

Number your scene cards in their original order with pencil.

In the ORIGINAL column, write in the numbers, then answer the question, “How does my conflict in this scene affect the next scene?

Re-order your cards, then repeat the process in the TESTING column.

Compare your results. Choose the order that gives you the strongest conflict from scene to scene.







# ORIGINAL # TESTING







EXERCISE 10 (Lesson 6): Select two candy bar scenes that have a gap in the action between them.

Write down:

Primary Character in Scene A _______________________________________

Primary Character in Scene B _______________________________________

If the primary character different in your chosen scenes, you'll do this exercise twice.

From memory write down a brief description of scene A. (This helps you focus on what really matters in the scene and pare down nonessentials.)

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From memory write down a brief description of scene B.

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Now, directly ask your character four questions about specific details, actions, and meanings in the scenes above. Write down all four questions before filling in any of the answers.







Question 1:

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Question 2:

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Question 3:

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Answer 3:

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Question 4:

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When you've written down all four of your questions, asked directly to your character, go back and let your character answer each of them in his or her own voice.

Remain in first person for each character response.

If you're working between two characters, fill out the sheets above for your SECOND character as well. You can use the same questions, if appropriate, or different ones.

On index cards, write down each new scene you get. (You can use the index card printouts from EXERCISE 5 if you can’t purchase index cards).







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