Welcome:
Our second mini-class from my Bones series was a huge success. Our big takeaways, plus next weeks guidelines, are here.
Let’s go.
Takeaway 1: The tool dilemma every writer faces
Plot, like a rototiller, is complex, intimidating, and avoided until absolutely necessary. But when you treat plot as a familiar tool rather than a scary power device, everything changes.
Rebecca, a Simon & Schuster bestselling author with an MFA, put it perfectly: "I almost need my hand held the whole way because my brain just doesn't do that."
With that guidance in this class, Rebecca discovered that her story naturally fits three different plot structures—Rags to Riches, Voyage and Return, and Comedy. She’s now equipped with three possibilities she didn’t have before we met.
Takeaway 2: Plot doesn’t make the writer “comfortable.”
Plot, like evolution, demands growth regardless of pain or preference. The plot that challenges you may actually be the one you are currently writing. When you watch the video teaching, you’ll see how this principle applies to your own resistance patterns and why the story you think you're writing might not be the one trying to emerge.
✍️Monday's Final Class
We all have one more chance to experience these vital structural insights before the series concludes. This Monday, Sept. 15th, at 10 a.m. PST, we dive into the forces of antagonism. Force(s) = many because your story has internal and external conflicts working in layers most writers never see.
Please sign up to get your prep video and handouts now, and start thinking about your protagonist's psychological downfalls: Do they drink? Avoid confrontation? Sabotage relationships? These internal forces often create more tension than any external villain.
Hope to see you there, Jennifer
PS: Ready to go deeper?
If these mini-classes have illuminated gaps in your structural knowledge, you're invited to join the fall Bones of Storytelling series. This is a once-a-year intensive that takes you far beyond these introductory concepts into the complete framework that transforms intuitive writers into conscious craftspeople.
Navigate by knowledge instead of hope alone. The difference is the distance between endless revision and finished books that work.
