Escape the Plot Forest -- The Plotting Summit

I would also like to learn more from an author who teaches mystery/suspense/thriller genres about how the protagonist often does not “grow” or change/transform as much as in some other genres.

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I suggest uploading it to google drive or dropbox – then sharing the link here!

Jessica Brody would be a good contact, I think, even if she is unavailable. She seems to know others and might be able to offer suggestions herself. I just picked up her new course on Udemy in her Writing Mastery series that is taught by Mary Kole, called Crafting Dynamic Characters.

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Here is a a link to the form on her website for requesting to book her for events. Reaching her directly does seem to be challenging.

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I have two suggestions (not in order):

First: Jane Bettany

I took her course on Udemy on the subject of writing stories with twists and reversals. I learned a few things.


Second: Timothy Hickson, author of On Writing and Worldbuilding Vol I and creator of the YouTube channel Hello Future Me

Contact info for Tim:

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/tim_hickson_hfm

TWITTER https://twitter.com/TimHickson1

EMAIL hellofuturemeyt@gmail.com

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/HelloFutureMe/

POSTAL ADDRESS (if you’re kind enough to send me a letter or something!)
Tim Hickson
PO Box 69062
Lincoln, 7608
Canterbury, New Zealand

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Yay! I’m exciting to be presenting at this conference.

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Welcome, Beth!

Have you decided what topic(s) you will be presenting for the conference yet?

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Thanks, Argent.

Not yet :slight_smile:

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Thank you! I will be honest: my heart sinks when I see a contact form on a website. But I will attempt it :slight_smile:

Damon Suede is engaging and talks about characterization and plot. Also, you could ask him how his long awaited book “Characterization” is coming.

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Great pick — I just asked him! #waiting

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If you are looking for a speaker/presenter geared toward the romance genre, you might try Gwen Hayes. She wrote Romancing the Beat, which is a great overview of plotting and pacing romance novels. It’s one of my favorites. She fun and engaging.

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I understand that feeling completely.

This reminds me that I was going to propose Kris Kennedy at the Romance Writing Lab. I discovered her by being invited to her Romance Writing Summit last year.

Even as a non-romance writer, I learn so much from her newsletter articles. And I filled a good part of a notebook from her summit speakers. She participated as the presenter in several herself, not just as the interviewer. Having run a summit herself, she might also have some advice to help with the process and execution.

Here is the contact information I have from the newsletter:

Email: contact@romancewritinglab.com

Address:
Romance Writing Lab
2950 NW 29th Ave STE A622856, Portland
OR 97210 United States

And, of course, there is the form on her website contact page that I linked above. Sorry, Daniel. I know how much you love those. :white_heart:


She doesn’t send out her newsletter very often but each one is very meaty in content about a writing topic. My favorite among them so far is the one about Thankfulness and Character Arcs. Here is an excerpt:


Thankfulness & Character Arcs

People in the U.S. recently celebrated Thanksgiving. I hope yours was full of goodness with only minor &/or fun family drama.

I thought I’d share a short & sweet strategy (say that five times fast) on how you can use thankfulness to craft or clarify a character arc.

Simply ask this question at two different times in your story, and ensure the answers are different :

What is your protagonist thankful for on Page One?

What are they thankful for on Page ‘The End’?


She goes on to explain what asking this question might look like at those two points and two other points in the story. One of those is the Dark/All is Lost Moment where she suggests this is when the character is put in a position to realize what really matters and what they should really be thankful about.

Edit: Some formatting.

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Gwen Hayes would be great. So far – contact form on website – and it’s the ultimate form – it doesn’t actually accept messages!

But I’ve signed up to her newsletter and will try another way. Keep the recommendations coming!

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Mark Spencer has said yes! Hooray! Thank you for the recommendation! Keep them coming.

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Tim has said yes! Hooray!

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PS If you are curious what the summit will look like when it’s ready, take a look at the previous summit my wife and I hosted:

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Danielw her email address is listed on her Facebook “About” page as gwen@gwenhayes.com.

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Asked! The email is sent.

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