Ask Elnora--About The Seven Deadly Sins--Lenora Worth

Hello, my name is Lenora and I'm a sinner. There, I said it. But thankfully, I write books where I can analyze sin and tweak it a bit. I also write about characters who, gasp, actually don't always act in a Christian kind of way. I try to make my characters human (or at least they are that way by the end of the book.) :)

 

Today, I'll be teaching a workshop at my home chapter of RWA--NOLA Stars. My talk will be about The Seven Deadly Sins verses The Seven Heavenly Virtues. I also throw in The Seven Corporate Virtues and then add seven deadly habits verses seven caring habits. And to add yet another layer, I use seven original plots. This is like playing tic-tac-toe or working a cross-word puzzles. It's a fun way to connect the dots of plotting books. So let's say I take Pride and mix it with Prudence. Then I throw in feeding the hungry. Now I have a contemporary story set in an inner-city neighborhood or a historical story set along a wagon train trail. Or I could take Lust and pit it against Love and throw in a quest or a rebirth and now I have conflict. I might pit Anger against Courage and make it a comedy or a tragedy. Now I have to figure out that happy ending!

 

This is a good way to use Biblical principles to strengthen the threads of a plot. And we all want a strong Biblical thread running through our plots, right?

 

In my workshop, I will use an example of one of my proposals to break this down and show how I matched these elements up to create a plot. Fun stuff! But in the meantime, we can discuss this right here, right now. Do you like this plot technique? Do you hate it? Do you understand it? The way-smart Craftie Ladies here can add their own plot devices! And it's not even Third Friday Writing Day. But since I'm speaking on this subject, might as well share it here, too! What do you think?

 

Ask Elnora--About Writing? About Plot??? Lenora Worth

Hello, my beautiful bloggers. Elnora is so excited about today's blog, she actually researched and wrote this way ahead of schedule!!! It's Third Friday Writing Day!!! It's a day for all writers to come out and play, to ask questions, to find answers, to get inspired to write. Yes, you know who you are. You are among friends here. So, ask away, but today we are going to discuss one of the most important parts of writing a story--the PLOT. P is for Purpose, L is for Logic, O is for Originality, and T is for Talent. You need purpose, logic, originality and talent to write a good story. But you also need this: This book by Debra Dixon (writer and editor at Belle Books) is one of the best "how-to" books around today. It explains what you need to do (or rather what your characters need to do) to have a good story. This is a big part of creating a plot that editors will buy and readers will love. You also need "Techniques of the Selling Writer" by Dwight Swaine. This book showed Elnora exactly what she was doing wrong and how to make it right. It's hard to find these days and used copies can be pricey, but it is worth it! If you've never heard of scene and sequel, this book will explain it. And next, Elnora recommends both "The Hero's Journey" and "The Writer's Journey" by Chris Vogler. These books explain the classic steps each hero or heroine or both must take in order to go on a quest. And let's face it, our books are all about a quest--mostly to find love--but still a quest all the same. These books are based on Joseph Campbell's "The Hero With a Thousand Faces." Confused? Don't be. The rest of us are here to chat about plotting! We know a thing or two, having studied the above books and about a gazillion more. So this is the question of the day. What is plot and how do I get one? Ask away, my little daydreamers!