I attended a workshop last year about outline by Elena Johnson. I took some notes and thought I’d share.

–          Books: Save the cat, ch 4 lets beat it out. Save the cat strikes back, ch 3

–          Check out Blakesnider.com

–          Create a beat sheet for your books.

–          Synthesis is at hand.

–          Do a beat sheet after you write the story and you can look at the story with new perspective and see if any section of your book is bloated.

–          Opening image: before snapshot. Who are they and what their perceptions are:

–          Closing image: complete opposite image of opening image. Character is completely different at the end.

–          Set the major turns in the story: break into act 2m mid-point and break into act 2.

–          Act one: thesis: world before

–          Break into 2: moment we learned the old world, must be distinct, hero must decide.

–          Act two is the opposite of act one.

–          Midpoint:

–          When the character breaks from act one to act 2 through their decision it.

–          Has an up or down.

–          Everything looks great (a false high in movies spider man or legally blond). Miss congeniality and Despicable me. Iron man, almost has a kiss with Pepper.

–          False victory or false defeat.

–          Stakes are raised can make pacing faster. No turning point, pace increases.

–          Break into 3:

–          Use B (supporting) characters,

–          Fusion of b story and hero finding solution.

–          http://iwritenetworkning.ning.com/  chat room. (Notevision)

Go to chat. See who is there. You can copy the text. Can also volunteer to sprint.  And maybe post a paragraph.

Have suggestions to add to the list, please put in suggestions in the comment section of this blog.