Transcripts
1. Introduction: Do you have a great
idea for a story, but only a fuzzy idea
about how to turn that idea into a
full length novel with twists and
turns and stakes? Do you sit down
to write and find yourself just kind of
meandering all over the place? Trust me, I know the feeling. My name is Kathleen Barber
and I'm a novelist. My debut novel, Truth Be
Told, originally published, is Are You Sleeping, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly
and Library Journal. And was adapted by Reese
Witherspoon's, Hello Sunshine, into a series on Apple TV that ran for three seasons and
starred Octavia Spencer, Aaron, Paul Kate Hudson,
and Gabriel Union. My sophomore novel, Follow Me, was called A Must
Read by bestselling author Wendy Walker
and was named one of Glamor.com best
books in 2020. Both of my novels
start as just an idea, not unlike the idea
that you have right now over the course of
my novel writing career. Through more trial and error
than I would like to admit, I have honed what I think is a pretty effective way
of writing novels. And it all starts with a
log line and a roadmap. In this class, we'll talk
about what a log line and roadmap are and how they can
help you write your novel. By the time you've
completed this class, you will have some
vital components to, in your novel writing journey. Six months. Let's get started.
2. Project: Welcome back. Now we'll be discussing the class project
for get ready to write. In this class, your
project is two fold. You'll be creating a log line and a roadmap for your
novel in progress. Don't worry if you don't
know what a log line or a roadmap are at this point. We'll cover that in class. At this point, all you need
to know is that a log line is a concise one or two
sentence summary of your novel introducing
your protagonist, your hook and your
central conflict, and your roadmap is going to be a few short paragraphs that cover the main plot
points of your novel. Creating a log line and
roadmap are important because they can guide you in your novel writing
process later on. As some of you may already know, once you sit down to actually
start writing a novel, it can be really easy to
get sidetracked by tangents and little subplots and to lose focus of the story that
you're trying to tell. But if you've taken
the time to create a log line and roadmap
at the outset, you've baked in a form of
accountability for yourself, something to pull you back when you start
to get sidetracked. Now, that's not to say
that a log line and roadmap are set in stone.
Quite the opposite. These are living documents that you should feel free to change and edit as you're drafting and discovering more
aspects of your novel. But even as things
might be changing, the login and road map are there to help remind you what's really important in
the story that you're trying to tell for this project. It's the words that are
important, not the form. You have a lot of
latitude to create a final project in a way that is going to best assist
your creativity. If you look at the
example that I uploaded, I use a lot of color. But that's just because
that's what helps me. Don't feel like yours
needs to look like that. You can make yours a
plain word document or you can just type directly into the project description. What I'm going to
be looking for when I review these
projects is that all of the components we've
discussed in class are present. If you notice in the
example that I uploaded, I added brackets to highlight the main
components in the road map. Now if you're creating
a log line and roadmap later on for
your own personal use, you may choose not
to take that step. But for the purposes of this
class, I ask that you do. To recap, you'll be turning in a one or two sentence
log line and a roadmap that is a
few short paragraphs in length and has the
components highlighted. I hope you're as excited
to get started as I am. I'll say in the next
session when we start talking about what
a log line actually is.
3. What Is a Logline?: Welcome to the next class
and get ready to write. What is a log line?
Welcome back. You may have found
yourself wondering what a log line actually is. Well, in this session, we're
going to talk about what a log line is and how one can help you when
you're writing your novel. Some of you may never have
heard of a log line before, or you may have
heard of a log line, but never in the context of
writing a novel. That's okay. Many people have only heard of the log line in the
context of screenwriting. Screenwriters generally have
a very short period of time in which to pitch their
story idea to a producer. Often, they only have the
span of an elevator ride, which is why you may
also have heard this referred to as an
elevator pitch. As you can tell, I'm talking that these
are going to be short. They're going to be
12 sentences at most. Now I know what you're
thinking, you're thinking, but I have this great idea
for a full length novel, and how am I supposed to distill that with all of its
complex characters, and story lines, and
plots, and subplots? How am I supposed
to distill that all down to one or two sentences? And I get it, it sounds
really daunting, but we're going to work
through it together. First, I'm going to
give you some examples from famous stories so
you can see what I mean. The log line for
the Godfather is the aging patriarch of an
organized crime dynasty. Transfers control of his cleanacine empire to
his reluctant son. The log line for Elf
is a Christmas elf, goes to New York City in search
of his biological father, knowing nothing about life
outside of the North Pole. The log line for Back to
the Future is a young man, is transported to the past
where he must reunite with his parents before he and
his future cease to exist. And the log line for Romeo
and Juliet is a young man, falls in love with the daughter of his family's sworn enemy. What you'll notice is that these log lines are
not the tag line. They're not those snappy couple of words
that you're going to see on a movie
poster, for example. The tag line for the Godfather is an offer you can't refuse. See how it's different
than the log line. It's something that's great at piking viewer or
reader interest, but it's not something that's as wonderful at selling
the novel to an agent, or a publisher, or a producer. It's not something
that's going to be explaining why your novel. Okay, you're thinking
that's great, but why do I need to be worried about selling
my novel right now? I haven't even written my novel, and I hear you do. I have found though,
in my experience, by starting with a log line, you're really setting yourself up for success when you write. Once you sit down to write, it is really easy to
start going down on different tangents to find a little character
development here. A little subplot here. I found that if you have
your log line where the elements are really
set up very concisely, it's really easy to look
at it and pull yourself back to the main essential
elements of your story. To recap, your log line is a one or two
sentence summary of your novel that can be used in pitching or to keep you on track during the
writing process. In the next class,
we're going to be discussing the components
of a log line.
4. Logline Components: Welcome to the next
class and get ready to write log line
components. Hello again. In the last session,
we talked about what a log line is and how we can help you in
your novel writing. In this session,
we're going to break the log line down into
its constituent elements. If you recall, a log line is a concise one or two sentence
summary of your novel. The parts of a log line
are the protagonist, the hook, and the
central conflict. In short, your protagonist
is your main character, the ones who's
driving your story. Your protagonist is going
to be your Harry Potter, your Tins, Everdine,
your Nick Carraway. Your hook is going to be the thing that
hooks your reader. It's going to be the
thing that makes your reader want to
pick up the novel. It's going to be the thing
that makes them think, wow, that sounds like a
story I need to read. Your central conflict is going to be precisely what
it sounds like. It's going to be the
main problem that your protagonist faces
throughout the story. To illustrate, let's
look back at some of the examples we discussed
in the last class. If you recall, the log line for the godfather is the
aging patriarch of an organized crime
dynasty transfers control of this clandestine empire
to his reluctant son. Here the protagonist is
the aging patriarch. The hook is that he's the patriarch of an
organized crime dynasty. The central conflict is that control is being transferred
to his reluctant son. The word reluctant
is doing a lot of heavy lifting here in terms
of showing us the conflict. Let's look at another example. In Elf, the log line
is a Christmas elf, goes to New York City in search
of his biological father, knowing nothing about life
outside of the North Pole. The protagonist is obviously
the Christmas elf. The hook is that the
Christmas elf is searching for his
biological father. The central conflict is
that said elf is heading to New York while knowing nothing about life outside
of the North Pole. As these examples show, you don't need to spell
everything out in your log line. In
fact, you shouldn't. You usually keep it as
concise as possible. How do you go about
creating your own? Pretty simply, actually, let's
walk through it together. First, let's talk about
your protagonist. In many cases, it's easy to
identify your protagonist. Like I said earlier,
the protagonist is generally the main
character of your novel. But what if you have
a novel that has multiple point of
view characters or if you're working
with an ensemble cast? Well first, if you think that you have multiple
protagonists, I would encourage
you to really drill down and think about
whether you truly have multiple protagonists or whether one of them is
the primary protagonist. If you think that you truly
have dual protagonists. If for example, you have two protagonists that
have an equal amount of time on the
page and they have equally compelling and
active story lines, then you might want to
go through the work of creating a log line that
heads dual protagonist. It's tricky, but
it's not impossible. Let's look to Julie and
Julia as an example. Here the log line
might be something like a young woman unhappy
with her dead end job, becomes determined to
cook her way through Julia Child's famous
cookbook and blog about it intercut with adventures
for Julia Child's life. If creating a log line like that seems unmanageable to you, it's possible that you really
only have one protagonist. And I would really
encourage you to drill down and identify who your
primary protagonist is. The primary protagonist is
going to be the person who is driving most of the action of the story, who
connects everything. That's going to be
your protagonist. Next we're going to
talk about your hook. The hook is the thing
that hooks your reader. It is the unique aspect of your story that makes
the reader think, I have never read anything like that before, I
need to read that. In my opinion, determining the hook is the hardest part
of this entire process. As an author, you sit back and you look at
the story that you want to tell and you see all the things that
make it unique. For example, when I was working on creating a log line
for truth be Told, I was sitting there
and I was thinking, well, there's a twin. There is this idea of a woman
starting completely over. These are all unique things. But then I figured
out that the hook is actually the true crime podcast. When the book came out and I
saw read a reaction to it, I realized that that
was in fact the hook. When you're doing this work, you might need to sit
down and write out a few things that you
think might be the hook. And really think about the
thing that is going to be the most unique and the most
grabby to a potential reader. That's your hook. Next we're going to determine
your central conflict. Now your novel probably has lots of conflict
in it, right? That's what keeps people
turning the pages. Conflict. But what's your
central conflict? What is the main problem
that your protagonist faces? So think about the thing
that your protagonist wants. And then think about what's
standing in their way. What's preventing them
from getting that? That's your central conflict. Now compile all those things
and you've got a log line. Remember we want
it to be concise, so don't be afraid to keep
revising it until it's snappy. The log line is going to serve as your North Star
when you're writing, but if you've got
a great log line, it's also a great
jumping point later on when you're pitching
agents and publishers. To recap, your log line is a concise one or two
sentence summary of your novel that
includes your protagonist, your hook, and your
central conflict. Next we're going to
be talking about what a roadmap is and why
you should have one.
5. What Is a Roadmap?: Welcome to the
next class and get ready to write
what is a roadmap. Welcome back. In
the last session, we broke down a log line. In this session, we're
going to talk about what a roadmap is and
why you need one. Now, a roadmap is a two or three
paragraph summary of your novel that includes
the major plot points. We'll talk about what
those major plot points are in later sessions, but for right now, just
know that when I say it includes the major plot points,
that's really all I mean. This is not a summary, it's not a synopsis, It's just something that
gives you the tent poles. When you're writing,
you can look back at it now wait a minute. You might be saying,
what if I'm a pancer? If you're a panther or
in other words you're somebody who writes by
the seat of your pants. This might feel like a big
challenge to you and I get it. I'm somebody who used to identify it as a
panther as well, and I wrote most of the truth, usual completely by
the seat of my pants. I then had to completely
rip the novel apart and reorganize it in order to
make the pacing right. Please, I'm begging you,
Learn from my mistakes and at least consider the idea of having a roadmap before
you get started. If you're still what, convinced. Let me give you
three reasons why I think having a roadmap
is really important. One, by forcing you to think about the essential
elements of your story, it gives you a concise summary of what your novel
is truly about. Two, it helps by establishing major plot points before
you start writing. If you know where you're going, it's easier to figure
out how to get there. Three, it helps by keeping
your pacing on point. For example, I know that I personally tend to write
really slow openings. I know that if I've expended
about 20% of my novel, and I haven't even
reached the point where it's going to
be the catalyst yet, I know that I have a problem. Conversely, if you've only
written about 15,000 words, you've already reached what you think is going to
be the endpoint. You've got a different
pacing problem. I have found, in my experience, that identifying the
pacing problems as they go makes them a lot easier to fix than if you try and do
it all after the fact. One thing I want
you to note is that a roadmap is not a
static document. Just because you wrote something down doesn't mean that
you have to adhere to it. You're free to change
this as you go along. If you're a Panther, I hope that makes you feel
a little bit better. Now, in the next few classes, we're going to be
talking about the major plot point in each of the three acts if you're unused to thinking about
your novel in terms of acts. Let me give you a
brief introduction to the three act structure. Act one, which is generally
thought of as the set up, comprises about the
first 20% of your novel. If you're thinking about a
general 80,000 word novel, that's about the
first 16,000 words. Act two, which is the longest act often thought
of as the confrontation. This act starts at the 20% mark, goes to about the 80% mark. It's a big chunk of your novel. It comprises about a
whopping 48,000 words. Then the final act, act three, is often thought of
as the resolution. It's going to take up the
final 20% of your novel. We'll talk about the
plot points that go into each of these acts
in further classes. To recap, roadmap is a short document setting out the major plot points
of your novel. In the next class, we're
going to be discussing act one and the major
plot points therein.
6. Act 1 Plot Points: Welcome to the next class, you get ready to write act one
plot points. Welcome back. Now that we've talked about what our roadmap is in general, it's time to dip into some
of the nitty gritty details. In this class, we're
going to be talking about the major plot
points in act one. As a reminder, act one is the first 20% or so of your novel generally
thought of as the set up. The first plot point we're
going to discuss is stasis. Now, stasis isn't so much
an individual plot point as it is a state of
equilibrium. It is the normal. It is where your reader finds the protagonist and
the other characters that inhabit their world. It shows us what the story is like before the plot happens. Now, Stasis takes up about
the first 10% of your novel. If you're thinking in terms
of like an 80,000 word novel, you wanted to vote about the
first 8,000 words to stasis. When you're thinking about
stasis for your own novel, there are three things
that you want to consider. One, establishing a
baseline for your readers. This is showing them
what's normal and expected for your
characters in the setting. Two, introducing your main
character to the readers. Let them meet your protagonist
and perhaps some of the other main
characters and get a sense of who those
people usually are. Three, contrast the norms with the forthcoming
change or conflict. If, for example, your protagonist is
going to lose their job, show us how the protagonist
is doing in their job. If they're about to lose
their relationship, show us the relationship. If you show the reader
how things are before, it makes the change all
that more impactful. Now again, stasis is not
a single scene beat. It comprises a good
chunk of words. And accordingly,
you might find it difficult to summarize
for your roadmap. I'm going to encourage you to do your best to get it
down to the bare bones. Remember, this is
just to help you. If you want to look
at an example though, here is the stasis beat from my road map.
For truth be told. Now living in Brooklyn
and using the name Joe, Josie Berman has put her
painful pass behind her. You see that gives you
the name and location of my protagonist and shows you that she's working
towards a normal life. The next plot point, arguably one of the most important
plot points in your novel, is the catalyst, also referred to as the
inciting incident. The catalyst is
going to occur at about 10% of the way
through your novel. In other words, right
at the end of stasis, as you might guess, the catalyst interrupts the status quo. It's what ignites the main
conflict of the story, sets your protagonists
off on your journey. For example, in The Lion,
the Which in the Wardrobe, it's when Lucy discovers
narnia in the hunger games. It's when Catinus
volunteers a tribute. When you're thinking
about your own catalyst, here are three things you
might want to consider. One, disruption of
the status quo. You want to be really shaking
up the established order and jolting the protagonists
out of their comfort zone. Two, urgency here, your catalyst needs to
be clear and urgent. It really should be impossible
for your protagonists to just ignore the catalyst and return to their normal life. You're at a point
of no return here. Three, introduction,
the main conflict. You're going to want
your catalyst to be tied closely to the primary
conflict of the story. Either by directly
introducing it or by hinting at larger issues that are going to later become
central to the plot. If you want to look
at my example, the catalyst for
truth be told is when a Hip podcast begins reinvestigating the long
closed murder of her father, her life is thrown
into upheaval. The podcast makes
it impossible for Josie to go back to the life
that she was living before. After you're a catalyst,
the rest of act one is generally referred
to as the debate. It's how your protagonist decides to react
to the catalyst. There are a number of smaller
plot points in there that I'm not going to
get into because they're not part
of your roadmap. To recap, the major
plot points of act one are stasis and catalyst. In the next class, we'll discuss the major plot points in
the first half of act two.
7. Act 2, First Half Plot Points: Welcome to the next class and
get ready to write act two, first half plot
points. Welcome back. In the last session, we talked about the major plot
points in act one, and now we're going to
get started talking about the major plot
points in act two. If you recall, act two is the
largest act in your book. It encompasses about the 20%
mark to about the 80% mark. There is a lot of book there. As you might have
guessed, there are also a lot of plot points. I'm going to break
the major plot points in act two up into two sessions. In this first
session, right now, we're going to talk
about the first two plot points in act two. In the next session,
we'll talk about the next two plot
points in act two. The first plot point
you're going to encounter is Break into two. Break into two is the
transition between the set up of act one and the
confrontation of act two. This plot point occurs when
your protagonist takes an action or does something that propels them into the next
section of the narrative. Note that this is an
active plot point. Break into two isn't
something that passively happens to
your protagonist. When you're thinking about
your own break into two point, there are three things
that you want to consider. One decision or commitment. Like I said, your
protagonist has to make a definitive
choice to engage. Here, there's nothing
passive about this plot. 0.2 new world or environment. Often the protagonist enters a different environment
or a world. Act two. This can be literal, like a new city or a
fantastical realm, or it could be metaphorical, like your protagonist
is going into a new situation or
a new relationship. And three raised stakes. As the protagonist
commits to this path, the stakes of the story become clearer and more heightened. The challenges and
complications in Acto are more intense
than those in act one. If you want to think in terms of examples in the
movie The Matrix, the Break into two moment
occurs when Neo decides to take the red pill in
the hunger games. The Break into Two
moment occurs when Catins decides to board the
train to go to the Capitol. If you want to
look at my example from Truth Be Told again, the break into two
moment occurs when, after the unexpected death
of her estranged mother, Josie returns to her midwestern hometown
to confront her past. The break into two point is important because it maintains the narrative momentum and develops the characters further. You want to be sure
that you have got a really sharp break
into two moment. The portion of your novel
that comes after break into two is often called the
funding game section, or the promise of the premise. It includes a number
of plot points that basically live up to
the premise of your novel. These are smaller
plot points though, and so we're not going to
crowd your roadmap with them. Instead, we're going to
move on to the next point, which is the midpoint. As you may expect,
the midpoint occurs about 50% of the way
through your novel. Something needs to change
here at the midpoint. Something needs to swivel, the midpoint is what
it's going to infuse your story with new
direction and new energy. When you're thinking
about your own midpoint, here are three things that
you should think about. One, a major
revelation or a twist. The midpoint often includes a game changing piece
of information or some twist that alters the protagonist understanding of their journey or the conflict
that they're facing. Two, escalation of stakes. The stakes are going to make the protagonist mission
more urgent here. Or it's going to make the
challenge that they're facing more daunting three, false victory or false defeat. Depending on how your story
has been going as far, the midpoint can
either be a moment of triumph or a moment of
despair for the protagonist. But it is false triumph or false despair because your
story isn't over yet. If you want to think in terms of examples in the hunger games, the midpoint occurs when there's the possibility that Tins and Peta are both going to
be declared winners. That really shifts the dynamic between not only
just the characters, but also the entire
bit of the story. If you want to look at my
example from Truth Be Told, the midpoint occurs when
Josie's long term boyfriend, Caleb, makes a surprise trip from Brooklyn to her hometown. And discovers that Josie
has lied to him about every aspect of her life,
including her name. So to recap, the major plot
points in the first half of act two are break into
two and the midpoint. In the next class, we're
going to be talking about the major plot points in
the second half of act two.
8. Act 2, Second Half Plot Points: Welcome to the next class and
get ready to write act two, second half plot
points. Welcome back. In the last session,
we talked about the first two plot
points in act two. In this session, we're
going to talk about the final two major
plot points in act two. We left off at the midpoint. Now the part of the
story that comes after the midpoint is often called
the bad guys closing. There are bad things
that are happening to your protagonist here
in this section. I'm not going to worry too much about some of the minor
plot points here, and instead we're
just going to move on to the next major plot point, which is the low point. The low point occurs at about three quarters of the
way through your novel, and this is when
things get really bad when you're crafting
your own low point. Here are some things you
might want to consider. One absolute lowest point. This is the lowest emotional
point for protagonist. The challenges that they face
here appear insurmountable, and their goals seem
totally unachievable. Two, isolation. Your protagonists
might be physically or emotionally isolated
from their allies, their friends, their loved ones. That isolation might amplify their sense of
despair, loneliness. Three, reflection
and introspection. Here your protagonists
may reflect on the things that have brought
them to this low point. It's often a very deeply introspective part
of your novel. It can lead to some
profound realizations for your protagonist for
external consequences. Something significant has
usually gone wrong in the external plot that's going to bring your protagonist
to this low point here. An example of a low point occurs in Harry Potter and The
Order of the Phoenix, when serious black dies. An example of the low
point, in truth be told, occurs when Josie's twin
sister line goes missing. And Josie is left wondering what she could have
done differently. The low point is
important in terms of character development
and setting up mistakes. Finally, the last
major plot point of jam packed act two
is Break into three. This occurs at about 80% of
the way through a novel, or about 64,000 words and
an 80,000 word novel. This is the part that is
unsurprisingly going to move us from the confrontation of act two into the
resolution of act three. When you're considering your own break into three section, here are some things that
you might want to consider. One decision or a commitment. Following the lows of the
last part of act two, the protagonist is going to
make a crucial decision. This is typically proactive. It's going to signify their
readiness to face the stories climax to new
information or insight. Often this plot point has some revelation
associated with it. It's something that
changes the protagonists understanding three
emotional turn. Here your protagonists might experience a shift in
their emotional state. Their feelings of
despair that they were just feeling
might turn into determination or hope for
moving toward the climax. Breaking of three is
important because it sets the stage for the
climax of the story. Your protagonist is now on
a clear path to the end. For a couple of
examples in Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back. The breaking of three
point occurs when Luke decides to leave Yoda
to go help his friends. And the break into
three point in the hunger games occurs when
the gamekeepers say no, there's actually only
going to be one winner. If you want to look
at truth be told, The break into three point
occurs when Josie sets aside her own plans in order to look for
her missing sister. To recap, the major
plot points in the second half of act
two are the low point. And breaking into act three. In the next class, we're
going to be discussing act three and the major
plot points therein.
9. Act 3 Plot Points: Welcome to the next class
and get ready to write act three plot
points. Welcome back. Now that we've
finished talking about the major plot
points in act two, we're going to talk
about the major plot points in act three. Act three is once
again your final act. It's going to be your
resolution phase of the novel, and it's going to
encompass about the last 20% of your novel. The first major plot
point that we're going to come across
is the climax. The climax is no
small plot point. It is one of the most important plot points
of your novel. The climax is when the
action comes to a head. It's when the
emotional intensity of your novel really ramps up. Climax is incredibly important. As you might have guessed, the climax is not
a single scene. It is a crescendo of moments that lead to the
final confrontation. If you're familiar with
the save the cat method, it talks about the climax in terms of five separate steps. I'm going to briefly go
over those right now. One, gathering the team, the protagonist and allies prepare for the
final confrontation. Two, executing the plan. Initially things
might go well as the protagonist supposed
to plan of the action. Three High Tower surprise, an unexpected twist forces the protagonists to
change their plan. Four, dig deep down here the protagonist faces
a moment of self doubt. Must really muster
their inner strength. Five, executing the new plan, armed with new insight, the protagonist is
going to confront the antagonists and the
challenge one last time. You might find it
useful to think about those steps when you're
working on your own climax. But whether or not you consider those ones from Save the Cat. Here are a couple of additional things that
I think you should really think about when you're working on your own climax. One, this is the
ultimate confrontation. The climax usually involves a final, decisive confrontation. It's the culmination of all the tensions and conflicts
that have been building up throughout your story
to highest stakes, what is at stake here is clearer than ever
and it is intense. Three character arc culmination. Your protagonists
internal journey is going to reach its peak
here during the climax. The things that
they have learned throughout the course of
the novel are going to be tested and they're going to be solidified for pivotal choices. Your climax often
is going to involve a crucial decision that your
protagonists must take. This is not only going to determine the outcome
of the story, but it's also going to reveal things about
your character, such as how far they've come over the course
of the novel. Five, intense emotion. The climax is usually the most emotionally
charged part of the story. As you can see, there is a lot going on here in the climax. I know it can feel a
little daunting to sit down and write that
out for your road map, but remember the road
map is just for you. You only need a couple
of sentences that are going to tell you how things
are going to wind up. The final plot point
that we're going to talk about is the dinument. This is what comes
after the climax. It's what ties up all
of the loose ends. It's what's going to provide
a sense of resolution for your reader when you're thinking about
crafting your own. Here are a few things
that you can think about. One, return to normalcy or a new normal after the
upheaval of applied. This section often depicts a return to the state
of equilibrium. Although that state of equilibrium might be
different than the one that we saw in the stasis
to character pads. The dinument shows where the characters end
up after the climax. It's going to give
us some insight into the final situations or
their transformation. Three, reflection
and understanding your characters may reflect upon the events of the story or their personal growth or maybe lessons that
they've learned. This introspection can offer deeper thematic insights to your reader for
resolution of subplots, even though your main plot might have been
resolved in the climax. This section can wrap up your secondary story
lines or characters. Anything else that you think
needs to be wrapped up in order to have a happy
reader at the end of the book. And five, you might want to set the stage for sequels
if you're planning any. If you're writing a series
or something like that. The dinument might include hints or set up for
future installments. The dinuments important to your reader because
it gives them emotional closure of this novel that they've invested so
much of their time in. It's also important
for you in terms of your roadmap because
knowing where you're going can help you
figure out how to get there. To recap, the major
plot points in act three are the climax
and the denument. Now I hope you'll join me in the next class where
we can talk about how we're going to bring
it all together and create your logline
and your roadmap.
10. Conclusion: Welcome to the final class
and get ready to write. Putting It All Together. Hi, I hope you've enjoyed everything that we've talked
about together. In this final class, we're going to talk about how to take everything that
you've learned and put it together for
your final project. We'll start with the log line
and move on to the roadmap. First, let's revisit
your log line. As a reminder, your log line is a concise one or
two sent summary that's going to include
your protagonist, your hook, and your
central conflict. Now as you did the
work of thinking about the major plot
points for your road map, your idea about what some of those elements are
might have changed. That's okay. Remember, none of these are static documents, but once you've got
this settled down, then you can start to pull it all together into a log line. You might want to
go back and look at some of the examples from when we discussed log lines
to help guide your own. Now, your log line is not going to be perfect on
your first attempt. It's not going to be perfect
on your second attempt, or maybe your third attempt, or maybe even your fourth attempt. But if you keep at
it, you'll eventually refine it down to a really nice, concise little summary
of your novel there. It's going to be
something that, yes, you could use to pitch to
an Asian or a publisher. Importantly, it's going to be something that's
going to be there for you when you're stuck
in the weeds in your novel. Now let's discuss how to
create your road map. Think back to the eight major plot points that we discussed. As a reminder, those are stasis catalyst break
into two, midpoint, low point break
into three climax and Newman write one or two
sentences for each of them. The more concise the better. And group them together
into a document. I personally like to
break my road map up into four paragraphs so
that I can see act one, the two halves of act two and
act three really clearly. Again, you don't need to
have a lot of details here. This is just to help you as
you're writing your novel. Once you have your log line
and roadmap completed, again for your roadmap, please remember to
highlight the components. Then just upload them to the project gallery in
whatever manner you choose. Thanks for joining me
in this class and I can't wait to see what you've
done with the information. Please be sure to leave
me a review and let me know how this class has helped
you get ready to write.
Kathleen Barber, novelist & fiction consultant
