#plotofgold Challenge

Are you a pantser or a plotter?

I’m a rabid and undeniable pantser.  I know my limits.  Revising and editing a manuscript without a plan is like … I’m not sure.  It hurt and I cried often.  I made it to chapter four, got writer’s block,  and decided to make a better outline, this time with more detail.  Of course, I procrastinated that with research on how to make an outline.

from prowritingaid.com

That’s how I found the #plotofgold challenge on Pinterest. I read about it, I instantly said: “nope too hard”.  it was exactly what I needed.

The prizes are free subscriptions to ProWritingAid and  Beemgee.  the contest ends on November 15th,2017, so you sill have time to complete the 30-day challenge.

So far I have done the first 4 assignments.  The first one left me in tears.  (Note: I cry a lot.)  Not because it was too hard, but it made me write out things about my characters that are extremely personal for me.  Assignment 2 was to work out what drives the people.  Easy peasy.  Assignments 3 and 4 were about character trasformation, but more from a plot point of view.  I know what their growth will be, but trying to assign an actual event that triggers the transfomation?  Not so easy.

I’m a very character driven writer. I have written this story about 6 times and know the characters inside out.  It took almost a day to realize that I needed to treat my antagonist as a main character.  I did what any good writer would.  I stared at pictures of beautiful people on Pinterest until I built a new antagonist.  I found this article by KM Weiland and went back to step one to change up someone who was underutilized in the first draft.  Assignment 6 is about archetypes, and i need to do more reserch on those today.  

Overall, I’m  happy with the progress I am making.

 The only thing I wish I could change is the frequency.  I would like to get the next assignment when I complete the last one early.  I understand the constraints of technology might make this hard.

I encourage you to at least try this out.  Since the assignments are auto sent, you can only get them every 3 days, so you can’t start after the 16th of October and expect to finish.

Have you gone out of your comfort zone to work through rough spots?  Tell me how. As always, if you have written about it on your blog, please share the link.