Martha Alderson > Quotes

“Beginning hook readers. Endings create fans.”
― Martha Alderson, The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

“Does rejection ever get any easier? Only if we decide not to invest emotion in the dismissal…”
― Martha Alderson, Blockbuster Plots: Pure & Simple

“Forget how long the path to finishing your story. Address only what you have to write today.”
― Martha Alderson, Before the Next Draft; 26 Plot Steps to Revision Plot eBook

“plot is how the dramatic events (action) in a story change and/or transform the main character (emotion) over time in a meaningful way (theme).”
― Martha Alderson, Writing Deep Scenes: Plotting Your Story Through Action, Emotion, and Theme

“One of the greatest benefits of writing a truly awful, lousy, no good first draft is that it can only get better from there.”
― Martha Alderson, The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

“If you find yourself plagued with writer’s block, chances are you suffer a deeper malady—procrastination. If you find yourself putting off even starting to write, chances are your malady runs deeper still—perfectionism.”
― Martha Alderson, The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

“CHAPTER FOUR DEVELOPING THEMES To produce a mighty book you must choose a mighty theme. —Herman Melville Every story communicates its own unique pattern of themes and ideas: betrayal, loyalty, family, abuse, isolation, romance, failure, injustice, unfairness, poverty, good versus evil, forgiveness, and love. Right-Brain”
― Martha Alderson, The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

“The themes in your story must be worthy enough for you to give up hours of your life to write about them, for the character to go through the struggle of a journey, and for the reader to spend hours reading your story. Do not despair if such thematic significance does not appear immediately. It will. Stories”
― Martha Alderson, The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

“Identify Your Story’s General Themes Many writers scoot as far away as possible from the thematic significance of their stories. I believe, instead, that you should dive right in. That is what the search for meaning feels like—diving into a cool, dark, mysterious pool of water. Draw a large oval on an oversized piece of paper. Create smaller circles that connect to and radiate out from the oval. For now, leave the oval blank. Fill in the smaller “bubbles” with themes in your story.”
― Martha Alderson, The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master