Checklist for Beginning Your Story: Plot Considerations

helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/
/ authorkmweiland
open.spotify.com/show/3TItQzF...
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Welcome! I'm K.M. Weiland, the award-winning and internationally published author of acclaimed writing guides such as Structuring Your Novel and Creating Character Arcs. I mentor authors on story theory, technique, and all the wild and wonderful highs and lows of the writing life!
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Start off right with this checklist for beginning your story. Grab your readers' attention and keep them engaged by establishing the plot.
Read transcript here: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
The First Domino in Your Story's Plot 02:01
Setting Up Your Character's Desire and Goal 03:11
Setting Up the Thing Your Character Wants 04:00
Setting Up the Thing Your Character Needs 06:25
The Structural Job of Your Story's Beginning 08:34
Using the First Chapter to Set Up the First Plot Point 09:43
Techniques to Keep in Mind 15:16
Opening Your Story In Medias Res 17:23
Opening Your Story With Movement 19:11
Opening Your Story With Dialogue 20:11
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Your Ultimate First Chapter Checklist, Pt. 1: Hooking Readers: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Your Ultimate First Chapter Checklist, Pt. 2: Writing the Opening Scene: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Your Ultimate First Chapter Checklist, Pt. 3: Introducing the Story: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
The Thing Your Character Wants vs. The Thing Your Character Needs: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
What Does Your Character Want? Desire vs. Plot Goal vs. Moral Intention vs. Need: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
The Characteristic Moment: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
The Characteristic Moment Belongs at the End of Your Book Too: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
The Link Between Your Story’s Hook and Resolution: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
How to Write Character Arcs: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Book - Structuring Your Novel: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Workbook - Structuring Your Novel Workbook: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Book - Creating Character Arcs: kmweilandstore.com/b/bsmu1
Workbook - Creating Character Arcs Workbook: kmweilandstore.com/b/iClB3
Book - Writing Archetypal Character Arcs: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
The Lie Your Character Believes: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
How the Truth Your Character Believes Defines Your Theme: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
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Video edited by Usvaldo de Leon, Jr.
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Enjoy my content?
Find my books on writing here: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Support my work on Patreon: / kmweiland
Join my mailing list: helpingwritersbecomeauthors.co...
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BOOKS
For more on theme, check out my book Writing Your Story's Theme: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
For more on outlining, check out my book Outlining Your Novel: kmweilandstore.com/b/hl4zm
GUIDED MEDITATIONS
Archetypal Character Guided Meditations (previews): • Archetypal Characters ...
COURSES
Creating Character Arcs Course: kmweilandstore.com/b/mBoHK
Shadow Archetypes: Writing Complex Fictional Characters: kmweilandstore.com/b/shadow-a...
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Want me to answer your question in a future video? Ask it in the comments below!
#CharacterArcs #plot #storystructure #threeactstructure #AmWriting #WritersLife #Writetip #writer #writerscommunity #writers #igwriters #writerslife #instawriters #writersnetwork #igwritersclub #writersblock #instawriter #screenwriter #writerlife #writerscorner #writercommunity #writerssociety #writers_den_ #poetsandwriters #writersociety #womenwriters

[@thorstenharms874]

I; normally dont comment on social platform, no time for it, but felt a need to say THANK YOU! ❤ In the last 7 days i developed a story with beginning, midpoint, end. Wrote an average of 3 pages (250 words each page) so now have 20 of 300 pages off my chest. Developed the habbit of writing at 5 am so days dont get bigged down timewise (got a kife to feed + fsmily), read into about 10 authors i admire, rushed through my old scripting books i accumulated the last 20 years and for the first time got a grip on 'Writing'. The characters start to talk to me, i see them, i am the csmera in their movie, snd whenever i feel i sm about to get stuck, i watch a few of your vids KMWeiland, or refer to your AWESOME books i bought on amazon. So ... Thank you again for laying out structure in a way my brain can work with. I really really apreciate this, so please excuse me now ... my hero has to fight his inner deamons and he better hurry cause the plot is moving snd hechas to keep running 😂

[@KMWeilandAuthor]

That's wonderful! So glad you've found the vids helpful. :)

[@writethepath8354]

Lol 😂 You say roots exactly like one of my characters, and another character even points it out in the scene, so I feel I must do the same 💜

[@heatherhaigh]

This has really helped me to clarify a lot of my planning. Thank you so much. x

[@jeffj4440]

So good! Thank you!

[@ReinhardvonHolst]

Thank you for this. My next (among many) novel is about an 8-year-old girl growing up to adulthood, yet the first chapter is all about her loving mum but criminal father. She is blissfully unaware of what her parents are like. She only begins to find out after her mother is killed by her father a few chapters in. The young girl is not the main character at the start but becomes one. It's tricky to write but I'm enjoying the challenge. Peace and thank you.

[@OlettaLiano]

Starting a story isn't difficult; it revolves around internal conflict. Simply apply Disney's five-minute rule: in successful Disney films, protagonists express their internal struggles, often through a song within the initial five minutes. Disney also introduces backstory early on, illustrating the origins of their internal conflict.

[@bluenetmarketing]

KMW - How do we protect against legal claims from people we have used for technical or other inputs for our research for a novel? Do you always have them sign waivers before meeting with them?

[@valeriegriffith5409]

I want to write a novel like Neil Gaiman's American Gods or 1001 Arabian Nights. Stories inside of a novel. I'm writing a pseudo "paranormal detective " novel. MC is actually a bounty hunter. I'm trying to incorporate African mythology, African folktales, and African American folktales within the novel. I thought I could use dreams of the MC and a storytelling Gods in the guise of a Ma & Pa owned Soul food restaurant. The way Neil did it was with a character that is Anubis but known as A. Nubis. He's an mortician and runs a funeral home. He's writing a journal about how people who came to American brought their Gods with them. These interludes appeared seamless. How do my I keep my interludes seamless?

[@kjbroadway9557]

Great video! I have a question for a character that goes through a flat arc. So, a character that has a flat arc is the “the truth the character believes in”, but can still change in some ways that doesn’t conflict with that? I feel like characters that have flat arcs still develop in some way. For example, Forest Gump never changes who he is a person and believes in the truth already, but I feel like the experiences he goes through like war and coping with loss(going from his best friend to his mom to his wife) makes him much wiser and toughened as he’s still the same character, but more refined due to his experiences. What I’m saying is that do you agree that a character that has a flat arc can still hypothetically change as long as that change(like a character becoming wiser) builds upon what they believe in?

[@KMWeilandAuthor]

Definitely. Many Flat Arc characters are not static. Doubt is a key aspect of the Flat Arc (in contrast to the outright Lie which is at the heart of the Positive Change Arc): kzbin.info/www/bejne/naOpfZ-rjJmHoKs

[@spacechampi0n]

Change arcs are ultimately about change to their wounded ego (individuating or integrating the ego). Flat arcs are about attachment issues -- to an identity, or to a context / setting, or to particular relationships, but their ego (which protects their identity) does not change, meaning their problem is not associated with how they react to conflict. If they react appropriately to conflict rather than a self-defeating way, their issue is beyond their ego. The Flat Arc protagonist can't win their battle until detaching from their identity or attaching to a new identity, while maintaining their Truth. Possibly this is all due to their Truth not being wrong, but just attached to the wrong thing / context / situation that is not changing by their efforts to do the right thing. To create change in the world the protagonist needs to be willing to walk away from that broken world, or create a new world to invest their energies in. The Lie is in the world / setting / relationship and they need to find a better situation to attach their Truth to. There are plenty of stories to tell outside the wounded ego. We can say the Flat Arc is about the broken psyche, misaligned in attachment to a resistant setting, or detached because they walked away from the resistant setting before the story began. Psyche and ego have to be dealt with differently, and we use Flat and Change arcs due to the difference. That is NOT to say characters in Flat arcs have no ego issues, and characters in Change arcs have no psyche issues. It's just that the author doesn't use those issues to define the major plot points or the resolution of the story. Often you'll see an evolution of psyche also resolve the ego issues, and vice versa.

[@clara2768]

There´s a lot of good info here but it goes by fast, I would recommend using visuals, like lists of the points you´re mentioning. It would helpful for people like me who are more visual than auditive.

[@KMWeilandAuthor]

You can find a full transcript of the episode, which may be helpful: www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/checklist-for-beginning-your-story-plot-considerations/ Transcripts are always linked in the description section.

[@eniloicypela]

Thank you for posting this how do I support your channel financially?

[@KMWeilandAuthor]

Thank you! That's very kind of you. :) You can support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/KMWeiland Or by buying my books: kmweilandstore.com/

[@eniloicypela]

@@KMWeilandAuthor do you do consultations?

[@KMWeilandAuthor]

@@eniloicypela Not at this time.

[@abeardandglasses]

On the audio version that is published, there is a few false takes before it continues into this video. Just thought you may want to know!

[@clara2768]

I feel my novel is a little more complex that this. I has a prolugue of things that will set up the mystery. Are you offereing mentorship or something to that nature?

[@KMWeilandAuthor]

No, not at this time.

[@rokualvin6428]

I've written maybe a million words in my saga. I have gone down more dead-end scenarios than I care to mention. I love reading what I write, and a couple of other people enjoy it as well. But it doesn't have an end point. It is "pantsing" gone to full seed. I have versions of my stuff on my Kindle and go to sleep listening to it being read to me by the text-to-speech function. I love my characters and have even made videos on my KZbin channel where I discuss the loss of my wife with a highly intelligent and very introverted one of them on a planet ten galaxies away in an unfortunately vain attempt to help me deal with the loss of my best friend, soulmate, and wife of 45 years. My story consumes me with purpose, but I am struggling to find an ending. Instead, I find new fun things that the characters do on their alien planet, and some of the conflicts they run into. I am currently reading your book about outlining the novel, which is what I need to do to pull it together, if I ever do. :-) I'm 72 years old, and the one thing that has kept me connected to life on this planet is my story. I miss my soulmate more than words can ever express. But I have my alien planet, my characters, and the story to give me purpose in my final years. I have found that most writing videos are devoid of understanding simple grammar where a plural pronoun is used for a singular antecedent, and I simply can't deal with hearing that over and over again in short videos. In your book, you correctly use a singular pronoun to describe a singular antecedent. I couldn't read your material otherwise. I noticed in this video you failed to do that, but at least it isn't in sentence after sentence in your monologue like most of them do. Them, they, and their do not properly describe a single character in real English. He, his, and him do. Even "he or she" does, but not they or their. This is basic grammar. I do love your content, and I think that your advice may help me pull my book/books together into something the general public might enjoy reading before I die. Thank you for your work!