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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Welcome everyone. We will get started in just a moment if you can see and hear me. Please drop your name and location into the chat, so that I know that everything is working just fine on my end.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Alright. I see Canada, Belgium, Vancouver, Arizona, Ohio, Illinois, Spain. Michelle in Pittsburgh. I'm also Michelle, almost in Pittsburgh. Welcome.

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Rona Gofstein: I am just on New Hampshire that's supposed to me.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Yes, it's so nice to see such an international audience as always

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: it sounds like everything, or looks like everything is working just fine. So I am going to go through just a few housekeeping items as usual. Once again. Welcome to another wonderful fantasy writers. Week session. I'm Michelle from pro writing aid, and we're so happy to have you back with us for our second day.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: So first off replays. We already have a lot of great material up on the hub for you. Today's replay and slides and audio transcript will be found there as well, and you can see everything already posted from Monday's sessions and a few already from today are up. So if you were looking for

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: today's replays. Just know that we do just have a little bit of lag time between zoom processing and Youtube. But we get them up as fast as we can. You will have access to Monday through Thursday's replays until March first, and after that they will be for pro writing aid, premium and premium pro subscribers.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Premium day. Is this Friday. So while Monday, through Thursday are free for everyone to attend, Friday is special for our premium and premium pro subscribers. And those folks will get an email Friday morning to give them instructions for how to join these special sessions. If you would like to join these sessions, and you are not premium or premium pro. Yet we do have a special upgrade offer for you this week for being around

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romance writers. Week attendee. You can get 25 off a yearly subscription for our premium or premium pro plans

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: that link to access that discount can be found on the hub. So go ahead and check that out, and that is available to you until March first. So after March first, that offer will end, and if you were thinking of upgrading. Now's a great time to do so, and while we love doing these sessions for you so much, having folks upgrade is another way to ensure that we can keep these events going. So we really appreciate your support.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: And if you would like to keep the romance writing conversation going, we would love to have you in our private online community. We have a lot of fantastic folks over there, a lot of writers talking about romance writing already in our live event, Chat, you can find the link to join that here on this slide and also on the Hub page. You log in just with your pro rating aid account information. It's very easy, and you can see the conversations already taking place in our live event. Chat. So we'd love to see you over there

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: reminders for this session. If you have a question for Rona, please use the QA. Box, as you can see, the chat moves very quickly. But you are more than welcome to chat with fellow attendees today. You just wanna make sure you are in the next to 2 there's a drop down, menu. Select everyone. Otherwise your messages by default will just come to Rona, and I so make sure that you are chatting with everyone by selecting the right option.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: and I am so happy to introduce our speaker. Her name is Rhona Goffstein. Rhona is a published author and an author accelerator, certified fiction book coach, who loves working with writers of heroin driven fiction. She describes her style as intensive feedback, combined with compassionate enthusiasm because she knows that on this journey. Writers need clarity, support, and encouragement.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: She has spoken on writing craft and business across the country, and is the past president of the New Hampshire, RWA. Chapter and Broad Universe. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and Sons, and misses the 24 h Diners of her home. State of New Jersey, a proud Gen. Xer, who's been published since 2,007. You can learn her pen name if you work together. She's always up for getting coffee, talking about movies and finding great places to eat.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Welcome, Rono. We're so happy to have you with us.

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Rona Gofstein: Hi! It's great to be here. Everybody. Thank you for for coming. I'm glad everybody found parking. Oh, my goodness!

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Rona Gofstein: The chats like blowing up and moving so so slowly! It's incredible!

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Rona Gofstein: Oh, I'm going to just slip into the background and learn with everybody else, and I'll be back later. I'm gonna now switch to sharing my screen. So you're gonna see.

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Rona Gofstein: here we go. Yeah, let me switch to the pretty big version.

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Rona Gofstein: as Michelle said. When you do. Q. And a, please put that in the Q&A section, and I will get to it at the end. But to start with, I

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Rona Gofstein: Michelle, introduced me. I want to see I'm gonna I'm pretty fast readers. So in the chat tell me, I'd like to know

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Rona Gofstein: a little bit about you before we go through this exciting tent poll process. So

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Rona Gofstein: I'd love to see quickly. Where you are in your writing process. Are you drafting? Are you revising? Are you polishing?

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Rona Gofstein: Okay, wow! Everybody's everywhere. Okay, drafting. Alright. There are some in revision just starting to revise. All right, bad at revising. Okay, you are in the right blaze discovering my book.

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Rona Gofstein: Okay, this is this is like reading like flashes. This is wild. Okay, everybody is everywhere. All right. How do you feel about revisions?

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Rona Gofstein: Sorry what how you feel about revisions. Love them, hate them so hard. Whoa, yeah.

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Rona Gofstein: better than I used to. All right. It's like a puzzle. Yep. not my favorite thing exhausting. overwhelming. Yep. I want to get them. Oh, necessary, painful!

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Rona Gofstein: Poking myself in the eye with a stick. Holy cow! Oh, I hope I can find a better thing than that for you.

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Rona Gofstein: My favorite part, Andrea, it's it's one of mine, too, so good can of worms. Yup. Alright!

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Rona Gofstein: Guess what? No wrong answers Yahoo. I was going to ask, as you can see. Is there something in particular you hope to learn today? But I think I'm going to get overwhelmed. If you guys all tell me that.

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Rona Gofstein: Yes, providing aid and grammarly do help, but that they help with a different aspect of editing than what we're revising than what we're going to discuss today. Oh, no, it makes you second guess yourself all right, hopefully. But this will help

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Rona Gofstein: so yes. And how does Vicki wants to know more information, how to streamline her revising. Better organize? Okay. Good.

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Rona Gofstein: Good. This slurred up for me. Thank you. I appreciate that. Alright!

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Rona Gofstein: Okay, terrific. Thank you all so much. Alright.

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Rona Gofstein: Michelle introduced me already, but I will do another quick addition to this, as she said, I am a certified coach with author, accelerator, and as well as a published writer. And really what I love is to be able to see writers staying inspired throughout the entire writing process. Because whether you are brainstorming, drafting, revising, polishing.

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Rona Gofstein: it is hard to keep going. And as a coach, that's one of my big goals as a writer. It's something I know I get support for all the time.

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Rona Gofstein: So I was first published. That's wrong, Rona. It's 2,007. Michelle was right. I have to fix that my first publisher was a Laura's cave, a blessed memory. They are now gone, and now I'm self publishing a contemporary romance series. As you can see from the picture in the bottom line there. Yeah, II need my morning coffee. I sometimes need afternoon coffee.

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Rona Gofstein: I'm currently a member of the International Women's Writers Guild and the Association for Independent Authors. And for those of you who are familiar with Clifton strengths. My top 5 are strategic activator

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Rona Gofstein: input intellectual and restorative. Which basically means I'm very good at seeing problems solving problems and taking action and moving on, which is not only good for coaching, but it's it's really helpful for revisions. 2.

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I'm somebody who actually likes the revision process.

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Rona Gofstein: I like it, both as a coach and as a writer, because it's when I get to look at the whole story

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Rona Gofstein: and see what it's become. I can see my characters arcs. And now I can start really crafting the story for the reader.

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Rona Gofstein: because that's what a revision gives you the opportunity to do. Terry Pratchett is famous for saying the first draft is me telling the story to myself.

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Rona Gofstein: and so there are all sorts of things you can do in the first drafts that you won't do in later drafts. But you need to tell the whole story

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Rona Gofstein: to yourself first.

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Rona Gofstein:  When the time comes to revise now you start to think about

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Rona Gofstein: reader, who this book is going to be received by so that is that's an important distinction. You have first told it to yourself.

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Rona Gofstein: Now that you're editing, you get to tell the story to the reader

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Rona Gofstein: so little bit about what's going to be covered today we're going to. I'm going to go through all the tedpole scenes that are going to hold up your manuscript.

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Rona Gofstein: I'm going to show them. Show you how to use them to edit your book.

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Rona Gofstein: and how this will help with

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Rona Gofstein: second round of revisions. This is pretty much our first round of revisions. I know there's a lot of rounds of this. It's hard, and there's going to be 2 bonuses, because for me it's great to learn a technique. But if you can use it more than one way. That's even better.

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Rona Gofstein: We're also gonna have a couple of moments where you get to practice a little bit. Well, you're gonna write out some of these points. And so hopefully, before I'm done. Because you've done that, you're gonna start to see how this method will be able to work for you. On the book you're currently working on.

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Rona Gofstein: So

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as we've discussed most

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Rona Gofstein: writer, as you saw from the chat lots and lots of writers don't love the editing process. And most of them start even in a first revision on a page by page basis. You go through the book linearly, and what this tends to cause is you noticing more language issues, missing words, some repeated words and focusing on language over structure, which is, gonna be a problem in a first edit.

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Rona Gofstein: The other thing that happens is because we, as the writer, are so close to our work. we have a tendency to miss the bigger picture of where the book is not holding together.

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And this is a problem I see for a lot of writers I've worked with. It's a little bit about the burden of knowledge.

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Rona Gofstein: We know what's supposed to be there in that scene. We know what's supposed to happen at this point. We know what the character is going through. but we may or may not have actually put it on the page. It's in our heads, and we can see it. But if it's not on the page yet.

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Rona Gofstein: then the reader's not going to get to experience it. When you go through on the linear scene by scene level, we tend not to notice so much what's missing for the reader. So by doing this sort of jump

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Rona Gofstein: that will start to stand out for you.

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Rona Gofstein: And then you frequently get bogged down on the beginning pages and editing the first 2 chapters editing the first 4 chapters, you know, or editing to the middle, and then going back again and not getting to the end. And this method, I hope, will help you to do that. It's gonna get you to the end in a faster way.

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Rona Gofstein: Because you you want to see the whole language phrasing. Those are for later, once the story is really there.

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Rona Gofstein: So how do you make sure the story is really there?

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Rona Gofstein: Okay, the 10 Pole revision process is a way to do a first pass revision, allowing you to get a higher level. Look at your book.

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Rona Gofstein: This is something where, if you've ever sent a book to an editor or worked with a coach, you know, that's an advantage that we have. We didn't write it. We already start from that sort of higher level or perspective you you can't have

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when you're drafting because you are as close as possible

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Rona Gofstein: to the development of your book.

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Rona Gofstein:  you just. You won't be able to to do that. So this is a way to kind of pull back a little, and this detaching allows you to move away from all of your beautiful language, so that you're looking to see if the scenes themselves are holding up

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Rona Gofstein: again detaching from the flow, really looking at the structure, making sure you're hitting if it's beats or moments or turning points. However, you like to to do that.

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Rona Gofstein: And again moving through the full manuscript faster. So you see the potentially bigger issues

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Rona Gofstein: moving through it quickly can be help. You can be helpful. Excuse me as you make a

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Rona Gofstein: why is it doing this to me? Did I stop it? But.

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Rona Gofstein: as you as you make the transition from drafting to editing, because you need to edit with a slightly different perspective a different mindset.

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Rona Gofstein: The draft is for us again. The book is for the reader. So you need to kind of start changing that mindset to the reader's mindset.

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Rona Gofstein: and I will understand if some of you feel. Well, this isn't a real revision, because I'm not going through every scene.

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Rona Gofstein: Trust me, it is.

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Rona Gofstein: There's a lot of power in the scenes we're going to review you.

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Rona Gofstein: and they're the ones holding up your book. They're the ones pulling your reader through. So making sure they're strong is key for the whole book, pulling the reader through, making sure that it's all working together.

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Rona Gofstein: Okay, some disclaimers. I always say this. No one process works for all writers. I wish it would. I wish we could all say, Do this, and it will work. But

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Rona Gofstein: just like, you probably know, outlining doesn't work for everybody backstory. You know history, you know, knowing all that doesn't work for everybody.

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Rona Gofstein: Try this if it works for you. Great. If it doesn't guess what, you will find, a method that does. If you were somebody who edits while you write. I would consider taking the time to stop. When you get to these tent pulse scenes. Use this this process that way.

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Rona Gofstein: A lot of people get stuck. They start editing and editing and editing. So instead of that, try to

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Rona Gofstein: stop and edit. Once you get to attend polling, and of course I'll define those.

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Rona Gofstein: it also helps if you edit while you're right, and you're stuck to possibly look at those.

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Rona Gofstein: So I'm gonna ask you today to take what works for you and

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Rona Gofstein: disregard the rest.

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Rona Gofstein: Some of the first things you're going to need that. I'm going to talk about a lot when we get to the scenes themselves. And you're gonna see 2 books that

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Rona Gofstein: I cannot say enough about. If you don't have them, I highly recommend them. Your character needs a goal, motivation conflict and their stakes. What they want, why they want it, and what is getting in their way

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Rona Gofstein: and what they will lose or fear they will lose if they don't get the goal.

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Rona Gofstein: Of course, ultimately they fear that they're going to lose what's part of their external goal. And the truth is, what's at stake for them is what they will lose if they don't get their internal goal, the Deborah Dixon Book. All motivation conflict has become the Bible of this, but there are lots of places where you can get information.

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Rona Gofstein: On it. All of these things are going to play into the strength of the scenes we're going to see, and they need to be on the page to make your scenes strong, so you may know them about your characters, but they need to be on the on the page.

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Rona Gofstein: I'm a writer who needs to know these things before I start writing this. That's one of the things for me. I'm a discovery writer. And things will change, and sometimes even their goals will change as I continue to write. But if I haven't gotten clear on these before I start drafting, it's really tough for me.

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Rona Gofstein: If you're somebody who jumps in just writes them. And now you've got the draft done, I recommend taking some time to get clear about these before you continue so that you are

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Rona Gofstein: so that you're aware of what they are, because to put them on the page you need to

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Rona Gofstein: you need to know what they are, and I'm gonna ask you to do that. So if you've already written them, and you haven't thought about this, take a little time to think about your characters, internal and external

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Rona Gofstein: goal, motivation, conflict and stakes.

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Rona Gofstein: The next thing that's going to be important to know for each of these scenes, and again cannot say enough about the books written by Angela Ackerman and Becca put Lisa

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Rona Gofstein: their wound, their lie. and what they need to learn.

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Rona Gofstein: So the wound is when something terrible happened to your character in their past.

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Rona Gofstein: And it created the false belief it was likely a big part of the reason for their in external goal, and probably a lot part of the reason for their internal goal, whether or not they realize it or not.

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Rona Gofstein: So if the wound, for example, is around. They grew up, not having enough money.

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Rona Gofstein: then they may have an external goal around success, and being self-reliant. they may have an internal goal, however, around self worth and being accepted, and self acceptance, and being seen for

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Rona Gofstein: not the external, but for what's true inside of them.

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Rona Gofstein: Pam. The lie, then, is the false belief that grows out of the wound.

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Rona Gofstein: So in this case the lie could be that you can't trust others to help you out or other people won't make you safe. And then there's there's frequently a moment in their backstory that reinforce the lie. So they grew up without money. And then there was this terrible moment where they wanted to take somebody out on a date, and they didn't have it, and she wouldn't go out with him, reinforcing the lie that money is important. You have to rely on yourself

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Rona Gofstein: and things like that. and then the stuff they need to learn something about the world or themselves that are going to help them get their goals. But

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Rona Gofstein: it's based again. What they have to learn is something that's going to heal that wound so they need to accept support, or that money isn't a right definition for success, that there are other kinds of success. It's it's endless. You can go from

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Rona Gofstein: all sorts of ways to to finding out what it is they need to learn.

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Rona Gofstein: and that's going to make the story richer.

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Rona Gofstein: Alright. You know, these guys, Pixar has 22 rules of storytelling, and I recommend looking them. Look them up. They're actually fun and smart and clever. But this is Number 4,

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Rona Gofstein: and it's basically true, for every story out there ready for the rule store picks our rule number 4. Once upon a time there was

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Rona Gofstein: every day

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Rona Gofstein: one day

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Rona Gofstein: because of that. and because of that. until finally

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Rona Gofstein: and ever since that day. And that's a story

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Rona Gofstein: it follows, and it flows into all of these things, and the best thing about this general rule. And, by the way, your story, when you put it in full length, you have a lot of because of that. Those are. Those will stretch out. But this is sort of those key moments, and if you look, the answers to each of these lines shows you the 10 poll scenes that we're going to discuss.

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Rona Gofstein: So once upon a time there was an opening scene.

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Rona Gofstein: Once upon a time there was a cowboy toy who was a boy's favorite

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opening scene.

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Rona Gofstein: He ran the entire toy nation every day he in this case every day the boy played with a toy.

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Rona Gofstein: and the toy was happy. One day.

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Rona Gofstein: shortly before the boy was supposed to move, he got a new toy. He loved a lot, in fact, almost as much as the cowboy toy, and the cowboy got jealous

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Rona Gofstein: because of that. The cowboy Toy did everything he could to get rid of the new toy.

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Rona Gofstein: and because of that they ended up getting left in a gas station and have to work together to get back home.

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Rona Gofstein: You notice a lot of scenes skipped, but these are the big moments. until finally, on moving day, they are forced to work through a series of near death experiences.

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Rona Gofstein: The rocket, the remote control lighting the rocket, all of that which leads them to land safely into the voice car. and ever since that day they are friends happy to share the boy and be part of the toy community together.

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Rona Gofstein: So there you are.

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Rona Gofstein: It's not every great scene. There are a lot of moments that I just left out of that story. But these are the ones holding everything up.

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Rona Gofstein: And you can see how the story progresses because of these key scenes.

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Rona Gofstein: So there you go.

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Rona Gofstein: our tent pulsings.

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Rona Gofstein: So I'm going to ask you to take a minute going to watch my time here

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Rona Gofstein: to write your own answers to Rule number 4, one or 2 sentences, no more describing

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Rona Gofstein: your 10 pull scenes.

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Rona Gofstein: This will work best if you've obviously got your completed manuscript, or you're close to it, or you've outlined it. Just write what you think fits. There's no wrong answers. There is no tent Pole police.

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Rona Gofstein: I will tell you, though, that if, as you're looking at these and thinking about your manuscript, you're having a really tough time coming up with moments like that would fit these

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Rona Gofstein: that might be giving you some information. You may be realizing that your story can be missing something that it needs.

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Rona Gofstein: So your opening scene, your hook and citing incident. I'm going to go through these individually.

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Rona Gofstein: Your rising action, adhesion, plot. midpoint.

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Rona Gofstein: dark moment. Dark can be gray, by the way, doesn't have to be black.

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Rona Gofstein: and of course we write romance so happy end.

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Rona Gofstein: All right. I'm watching my time. I'm gonna keep going. If you have ideas, keep jotting them down. So, Tada, our tent

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Rona Gofstein: inciting incident, raising action there it is the rules of the storytelling. There are the key scenes that you are going to look at, and the whole thing creates

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Rona Gofstein: your novel.

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Rona Gofstein: and if you looked at the handouts already at the slides, you'll note there was a scene missing. II realize. Yeah, there's 6 scenes.

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Rona Gofstein: I've done this with 5. And I'm like, No, I think 6 is actually have more helpful. So we need to talk about the opening. Not just the inciting incident. So sorry for writing it, folks.

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Rona Gofstein: II kind of miscounted what changed my mind both. I edited it alright. Let's focus on your opening scene.

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Rona Gofstein: What needs to happen? You need to introduce your main character.

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Rona Gofstein: This is the thing that launches you. It makes it. You want to make it as clear and as interesting as you can. We know these first few pages are what you need to draw a reader in.

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Rona Gofstein: or if you're looking for traditional publishing, what you need to draw an agent in what you need to run editor in it is what the reader will see if they click, look inside.

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Rona Gofstein: You need to be starting at the right place. and that's a key thing to notice when reviewing the whole. This, as the first time did you start in the most compelling and interesting place?

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Rona Gofstein: And if you think you didn't, that's okay. A lot of us do that check the next chapter or 2, and see if that's the right place.

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Rona Gofstein: or you may be looking at needing to write. Rewrite your opening, which is not uncommon when you've finally gotten to the end, and now know a better place and a better way to start.

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Rona Gofstein: So look at who your character is at the beginning and make sure we see their goal

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Rona Gofstein: or their passion, their desire and their motivation. Maybe a hint at the conflict in their lives, the problem that they're having at this moment, which is frequently why you're starting where you are.

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Rona Gofstein: You want to give the reader a reason to connect with

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Rona Gofstein: and like or understand the main character.

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Rona Gofstein: And, by the way, I put like Slash, understand? Because for those of us who start with grumpy heroes, or if you're writing dark romance. They may not like them, but a reason to latch on to them

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Rona Gofstein: also. Please make sure it's clear where and when we are. This is our opening shot.

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Rona Gofstein: Let us see where we are. Give a reader a chance to see the main character

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Rona Gofstein: in their world.

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Rona Gofstein: Alright.

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Rona Gofstein: moving to the next one. I know this is fast sorry for the drinking out of the fire hydrant scenario here. so

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Rona Gofstein: we're going to put our main character in motion, and you're going to look at their goal, and how it's affected by this action, this inciting incident, this this hook by the way, you'll see at the bottom, it says for Gwen Hayes fans. That's the book romancing the beat

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Rona Gofstein: it's small, which is handy. But I thought I would include that because a lot of people use that when they review or when they write. And so I want to show you kind of where this aligns with some of hers. So for romance, the hook exciting, and the the hook

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Rona Gofstein: or inciting incident is usually the meet cute. If you've already got a hero or heroin who know each other. So if you have friends to lovers and things like that, this is gonna be the potentially be the adhesion platform. You know the thing that sort of puts them in each other's fears a little differently than before.

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Rona Gofstein:  But this is what you want to to look at. This is the the first big thing that gets us going gets the story moving?

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Rona Gofstein: what decision does the main character make because of this moment?

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Rona Gofstein: And how's it going to draw the reader forward always want it to be compelling. And here's a phrase you're going to hate me saying by the end of the time together, is it on the page? Remember, this goes back to that burden of knowledge. We know what's happening inside the character. We know why they're making this decision. It's obvious to us.

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Rona Gofstein: But now it has to be obvious to the reader. So make sure when you're doing this tent, Poll, and all the others make sure that what you want the scene to do is actually on the page.

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Rona Gofstein: A lot of the writers I work with in revision. This is the place they start to notice that while this is also a place, they start to notice that while there may be action on the page.

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Rona Gofstein: there isn't always a motion on the page. So you want to always show how all of these points are changing and affecting the characters internally. What meaning are they making of this moment, you know, it's not just that their high school boyfriend walked into the bookstore where they worked. It's that he arrived at a time when they just broke up or just discovered. They have to pay back their student loan in 2 weeks, or they're feeling very vulnerable, and they don't feel strong enough to face their past.

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Rona Gofstein: So make sure that emotion, not just him walking into the stir, but the emotion of how they're feeling in the moment is on the page, both of those cases. What happens and why it happens like what it's making them feel

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Rona Gofstein: a note for us as romance writers. By the way, these 2 moments the opening scene and the hook inciting incident can happen really close together for some authors. We put our characters together really fast, sometimes some car. Some authors wait. 3, 2, 3 chapters. Some of us have it right up front. So it could all be. Chapter one, if it is no problem. Guess what? Yeah. Fewer scenes to review.

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Rona Gofstein: but not fewer tenth polls. Okay, keep it going. Keep. You keep. Realize that these things that are different about the opening and the insighting still need to to be there.

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Rona Gofstein: All right. Rising action, adhesive adhesion, plot thrust. This is usually like that most important scene before the middle.

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Rona Gofstein: They make an important decision, usually something under their control, and things start to change. So again for the Gwen Hayes fans the adhesion platform. Sometimes the beginning of falling in love.

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Rona Gofstein: This is how what's changing starts to get going just like woody makes the decision to lose buzz. Your characters have to do something that moves the story forward, you know, sadly. You know, books aren't like real life. We don't just the characters don't just go on a date, and then talk about the date and go into another date, and then talk about the date

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Rona Gofstein: we need things to be happening to and for them. So when you're reviewing this 10 poll

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Rona Gofstein: you're going to be looking at is the decision they're making in line with their goal.

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Rona Gofstein: And is it kind of, based on that wound and lie.

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Rona Gofstein: because they still believe that at this point all the decisions they're making either to agree to go out with him or to be his fake fiance, or to work with him in the competition.

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Rona Gofstein: What they're doing is still based in that in that negative space they haven't grown yet so look at, and making sure that on the page the reader can see how this moment is affecting the character both internally and externally.

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Rona Gofstein: and while you don't have to have the goal and the motivation and the conflict in every scene. preferably at least 2, either the internal or the external. should be there.

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Rona Gofstein: and you want to check is the decision that the main character is made. Something that's going to keep the reader turning pages make it compelling, make it feel

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Rona Gofstein: risky or vulnerable to them. So maybe it actually is brushing up against the wound they're like, Oh, my God! I don't believe that this can happen, but I'm going to have to do it anyway.

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Rona Gofstein: And as oh! And as always, make sure the emotion is on the page. I'll use woody and buzz again. Woody is kind of a little horrified by himself that he's done this to buzz like he. He didn't realize he would stoop so low he kind of thought he was a good guy. And look what he did so

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Rona Gofstein: at this point. He's not better than that. He will grow to be yay wonderful terrific notice where your character is and how they're feeling, and make sure that's on the page.

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Rona Gofstein: Alright! A quick stop after each of these 10 polls. You're gonna want to take a minute to think back to that Pixar story telling model and 3 key words

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Rona Gofstein: because of that when you're thinking about these themes they have to

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Rona Gofstein: next

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Rona Gofstein: they don't have. Yes, there's scenes in between them. Remember, I read you sort of really vague

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Rona Gofstein: synopsis of toy story. You knew they were scenes missing, but it still kind of makes sense.

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Rona Gofstein: So make sure that when you are looking from your rising action, your adhesion, your rising action. Blah blah! When you're looking between your hook.

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Rona Gofstein: inciting incidency and your rising action. Adhesion process. Make sure you can see how they go together like they're in line. They shouldn't be night and day. And with the story of your own in the back of your head, you should know that. Okay, these do work

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Rona Gofstein: together.

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Rona Gofstein:  if not, this is going to be another place that you will need to revise like you may get to the adhesion platform and realize. Wait! This doesn't go at all with how I

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Rona Gofstein: made the hook. So

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Rona Gofstein: you either go back and alter the hook scene, or you you alter the rising action scene. Now, you know.

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Rona Gofstein: If you can't see a logical connection between them between any of these 10 poles and what's happening and how it's changing the characters.

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Rona Gofstein: That's a place where you're going to need to revise.

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Rona Gofstein: And again, now you're revising these big, powerful scenes, and that's going to allow you to

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Rona Gofstein: alter and revise the other scenes when you return with sort of a different level of clarity.

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Rona Gofstein: All right. In the center of it all is the mirror moment, the midpoint moment.

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Rona Gofstein: One of the great books on this, by the way, is writing from the middle. If that's something that you struggle with.

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Rona Gofstein: This is the big change in direction. Things are going well, and now they're not. Things are going according to plan, and something gets in the way, and they haven't learned everything yet.

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Rona Gofstein: So they're still gonna kind of struggle with it. You may want to make that you can choose. You can make this a huge high

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Rona Gofstein: that afterwards, if things are going to fall apart a bit, making it more dramatic, or it can be A low! And then you're going to go back up.

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Rona Gofstein: This is a moment where they look at what they've been doing and realize is not working. It's time for a change. One of my favorite mirror moments is is illegally blond. She's in the Bunny outfit.

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Rona Gofstein: She makes the decision to be serious.

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Rona Gofstein: She's still doing it with kind of misinformation, but she makes a big change.

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Rona Gofstein: And she has pressed up against her goal and her motivation. So that's what you want for these characters make sure if they've been fumbling and muddling through. All right, they're gonna make a decision.

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Rona Gofstein: something has gone wrong for me in one of my books. My hero, who's been uniformed on getting back to his work in New York, forgot a meeting and

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Rona Gofstein: his, The lovin, his love interest, went to go take the meeting, and she's in a car accident, and he realizes everything he's doing is not working for those of you who have love scenes on the page, open door. Romance. This can be the moment that comes, either just before the decision to sleep together. It could be that first love scene, sex at 50 or 6 at 60

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Rona Gofstein: is a pretty common place. So if you're looking for your mirror moment, not only open the book to the middle, but maybe look at where your first love scene is.

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Rona Gofstein: and see where that's falling. Is this the moment just before this is the moment just after it cause let's face it. Sex can be a very motivating, changing, emotional thing. And as always, make sure when you're reviewing this moment, you've got that emotion on the page for the reader. This is

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Rona Gofstein: this is a big one for them. This is at this moment. They're not even sure. I mean, they know how you're gonna end the book. We write romance, but they're hanging on on this one.

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Rona Gofstein: Okay.

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Rona Gofstein: now you're gonna jump forward to your dark moment and I'm using that phrase. I know a lot of people don't like to get. You don't have to have a third act breakup. I don't think that's required.

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Rona Gofstein: but this is that

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Rona Gofstein: thanks. The emotional character is about to lose everything moment. So this is where everything they needed to learn, and everything is at stake for them is on the page because it is in their faces as intense as you want it to be, is it when you're reading the scene? Is it as intense as you want it to be. How do you push your characters to their most emotional point?

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Rona Gofstein: This is a place for digging into all of those pieces we talked about at the beginning, their goal, motivation, conflict, are they up against that internal internal goal? Is what they most desire at odds with their external. And what are they facing? What do they have to do to really get this lesson?

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Rona Gofstein: Because it's not going to be easy. If they could have learned this lesson before the book started, they would have.

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Rona Gofstein: So as you're revising these scenes, put them through this, make them earn the learning, make them learn the lesson

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Rona Gofstein: and give us all the good juicy emotions

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Rona Gofstein:  and make sure you feel like as you're reading this, that the motivation that they've had is strong enough to get them through this. This is why you want a strong goal, because you're going to put them through. It

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Rona Gofstein: has what's been getting in the way really gotten in the way. I know a lot of people don't like the miscommunication one. Because if you just talk guys, you know, so this is that dark night of the soul for Gwen Hayes fans. It's just before the wake up, catharsis.

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Rona Gofstein: This is a point where they had just. But they were about to fall back on old patterns.

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Rona Gofstein: They don't believe what what they've learned or what they have found is is worth it. Not so. But let me rephrase that. It's not that they don't think it's worth it. They just. They're not quite sure if they deserve it. Can they really have

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Rona Gofstein: what they thought they wanted. Everything that's coming at stake is coming in. The lie is coming up big for them. That that noise in the back of their heads, you know, their father telling them they were terrible, their mother telling them they would never amount to anything. This is this is all this. This is all the yummy goodness.

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Rona Gofstein: So make sure what needs to happen, which is the character learning about to lose. Everything is on the page along with the emotion of what this is doing to them.

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Rona Gofstein: Alright, of course, they're still making mistakes, and they're still learning. But all the reasons have to be there. Some some of us fumble in our dark nights of the soul they like.

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Rona Gofstein: but they we get there, they get there

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Rona Gofstein: alright yay! And they lived happily ever after.

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Rona Gofstein: We're lucky. We kind of know what our final scenes. I think this one for some of us may be the easiest, but again you have to make sure you wrapped everything up, not just the happy ending I love you. This is wonderful, but making sure that internal goal.

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Rona Gofstein: what the character most desired has really been achieved, and you've got it on the page. This is the payoff, you know. Your readers knew they were getting a happy ending, but they want the emotional payoff.

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Rona Gofstein: So have you shown that the lesson is learned, and how and the wound is healing? The lie is released.

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Rona Gofstein: show us how the future looks bright, whether this is happily for now, or happily, ever after.

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Rona Gofstein: do you? Can you see how these 2 people are going to manage together, or do they even know that? Yes, I know you're going to screw up again. But I'm still going to love you because

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Rona Gofstein: and altogether now isn't on the page. Make sure that

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Rona Gofstein: that dark night. So think about that that because of remember from the dark night of soul to because of that they lived happily ever after is what's happening in that dark moment, connecting well, to how this whole

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Rona Gofstein: thing got resolved.

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Rona Gofstein: Alright, I apologize. If you're following along on the the slide screen. I switch 2 of them. But I want to put it all together. So here we go again. Here's that. Here's your novel

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Rona Gofstein: and its tenth pulse seams. So if you were doing the revision. if you had just gone through all of those scenes, you would now know how these scenes work in your book.

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Rona Gofstein: You have made them strong.

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Rona Gofstein: You will have given them impact by putting both action and emotion on the page and by action I don't mean big blowy up things that can be small.

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Rona Gofstein: And by emotion I don't necessarily mean deep angst. Some people don't write Angsty books, but the emotion that your readers want, the motion you want to give them is on the page carrying them through.

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Rona Gofstein: Okay, you're going to be able to see how these scenes work together in a logical order

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Rona Gofstein: that builds to that dark moment in climax and to the happy ending your reader wants. I hope you can see how these key moments are kind of holding up your novel

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Rona Gofstein: and how they're showing your character's arc. Unfold on the page.

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Rona Gofstein: So what happens next.

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Rona Gofstein: Sorry, here's another round of revisions.

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Rona Gofstein: and I know, because I saw the comments earlier that some of you're going to groan.

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Rona Gofstein: But if you look at the picture, you'll see that the 10 poles are connected. Okay? And we saw that from the beginning they're not standing there alone. Everything in between the scenes leading up to each one of those can now be revised, and I'll tell you how you can do this

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Rona Gofstein: if you like doing things linearly. Now is the time. Start at the beginning, and go through chapter by chapter.

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Rona Gofstein: You're going to start from your powerful, opening, compelling scene. knowing what is there in the inciting incident.

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Rona Gofstein: and you'll you can now revise your scenes from the opening to the inciting make, because you know what's there. You know what's in the opening, and you know what's in the inciting. You know what you need in between. So revise it so that they

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Rona Gofstein: get you to that next point.

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Rona Gofstein: Now you revise from the inciting to the rising incident, making sure that you're kind of writing from and to you can see, like the the the tenth kind of goes away, and then to the next one. So you're going to write from one and to the next.

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and each time

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Rona Gofstein: you'll make sure that the right amount of emotion is there to get you to that next one?

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Rona Gofstein: Now, if you aren't a you know, if linear still feels too big for you. I know there are some writers who bef. I have worked with writers who, before they look at the whole thing. They look at the scenes before and after each tent poll

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Rona Gofstein: before looking at the whole. So this makes helps them to just kind of like. Strengthen those polls a little bit, and then they look at the bigger picture.

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Rona Gofstein:  and one of the reasons you might need to do this is my my bad news slide. Because we're romance writers.

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Rona Gofstein: We have arcs for more than one character most of the time some people are writing a single point of view view arcs, and and that one will make it potentially a little easier.

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Rona Gofstein: but if you're writing dual Pov, and really strong

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Rona Gofstein: character arcs for 2 characters, you may choose to do this for main character one and main character 2. Now, sometimes they'll be the same scene. The dark moments may only have 1 point of view.

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Rona Gofstein: but it may be 2 scenes, or it may be 2 chapters. So

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Rona Gofstein: yeah, bad news. Your 5 scenes may become 10. So it's a little more work potentially on this first pass.

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Rona Gofstein: but you were going to be looking at those, anyway, so it's not going to take longer in the overall, but it will take a little longer on this first pass, because you want to make sure both arcs are holding together.

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Rona Gofstein: Alright! Breathe with me. watching my time. I want to give you time for questions.

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Rona Gofstein: Alright, bonus, I, as I said earlier, I am a big fan. That anything we learn to do, especially if it's a challenge. We make it work harder for us. So 2 things you can do with this method in addition to it. Alright! First of all, it will help you write a synopsis.

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Rona Gofstein: I know people dread this, dread, this dread this, but if you want to do traditional publishing, you will need one. If you write a paragraph that describes what I did sort of in that in the the Pixar Rule number 4, a paragraph for your opening scenes, inciting incident, rising action midpoint, dark point ending.

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Rona Gofstein: And, by the way, synopsis is the one place where you could tell, not show. You will have

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Rona Gofstein: a really strong first draft of your synopsis just by using these

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Rona Gofstein: also, if you are somebody who likes a general outline

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Rona Gofstein: before you start writing as opposed, if you're I they used to call it a plan, sir, or a plot, sir. You kind of plan, and you kind of discover you kind of do a little bit of both. This can help you with that. So if you're stuck and you're not sure how to start. See if you can't nail down these 6 moments before you start writing. It will give you 10 pulls to draft to.

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Rona Gofstein: which is very handy. but I also find it's very helpful when you're stuck.

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Rona Gofstein: It's been helpful for me. It's been helpful for clients of mine. If you're not sure how to move forward. Go back and look at the last 10 post scene. You wrote and write the words because of that.

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Rona Gofstein: What would be the most logical thing to happen because of that

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Rona Gofstein: or brainstorm?

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Rona Gofstein: In other words, you could come up with a few ideas. Well, because of that, this could happen. This could happen, this could happen. This could happen. And now we're off again to races. Also look at the emotion of your character at that ten-pole scene. What decisions would they make

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Rona Gofstein: because of those feelings, and because of the wound and life brainstorm. From there.

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Rona Gofstein: if you like, thinking forward. If that works better for you, think about what your next 10 poll scene would be so. Maybe you are kind of stuck in, you know, not quite at the middle yet, but, you know, think in terms of what would you want to that middle moment to be? What would you put them through? Brainstorm? A few ideas for that? And if one of those clicks now you can write to that tempo. So

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Rona Gofstein: again, thinking, always goal, motivation, conflict, wound, lie, and learn what would make that midpoint moment fun to write and awesome for the reader, and then write to it.

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Rona Gofstein: Alright. you know I'm almost afraid to just kind of peek at the chat and think all right. How many of you are. Feel like you were drinking out of a water fountain. And how many of you look like the woman who's like, Yeah.

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Rona Gofstein: I know this is a book.

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Rona Gofstein: It's overwhelming, but the cheering is there, and I'm one of the reasons I love my writer friends. I love coaching. It's it's the cheering alright.

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Rona Gofstein: I'm gonna have a time now for questions. But before you do that I want you to know a couple of things here, you can email me. Please stay in touch. This is this is what I do. This is what I love. So you can email me at Rona Ronagi. You can schedule a free discovery. Call through my website. You can sign up for my newsletter with 5 things to check when revising your full

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Rona Gofstein: little more guide, little more help. You can follow me, you can reach out. Oh, my gosh! Somebody who does her discovery draft this way. Yes, hopping to your tent polls. Wonderful! Terrific! You know. The truth is, this isn't easy.

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Rona Gofstein: but it's learnable. Okay, you wrote a book. If you can learn to write a book, you can learn to revise it. I totally totally totally believe that. So

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Rona Gofstein: oh, we'll go back to questions. Oh, and thank you. I'm so glad you're all here, and I now have about 15 min for questions. So

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Rona Gofstein: you know what I'm gonna drop the slides. Let me just stop sharing.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Thank you so much, Rona. We have a lot of great feedback in the chat. Everyone loved your presentation.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: and we do have, as of now, 16 questions, so we will get through. Unfortunately, I'm a Jersey girl who can talk really fast.

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Rona Gofstein: Okay, kicking it off with Valerie. Would you recommend Gmc. For screenwriters, poets, and journalists, too? I do write long form, but mostly more of the above.

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Rona Gofstein: I cannot answer that for journalists, probably poets, probably poets, internal internal goal, motivation conflict. You have so few words to work with screenwriters. Oh, God, yeah, all the best stuff that I've ever seen or watch. I will pull out. There, there.

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Rona Gofstein: I will watch movies that I don't normally watch death race. Okay, not one of my favorite films, but he is so brilliantly motivated. Okay, he has got a goal. He has got a motivation. He's got a serious ass conflict, and I love it if he stays true to it for the whole movie. So yes, definitely for screenwr.

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Rona Gofstein: It's what holds the the viewer. In that case. But the reader on it we're here for I'm here for that character. Arc ride.

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Rona Gofstein: Patty asks, why do you prefer self publishing over traditional publishing. Oh, that is, thank you.

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Rona Gofstein: honey, that's a

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Rona Gofstein: great question. I have discovered that I like a little more the control I didn't care for I was working with small publishers 90 of the Big 5. So I prefer being able to have. I didn't care for how they ended me. I didn't think it was good enough. I wasn't a fan of their pricing. I couldn't. I would tend no control over my cover.

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Rona Gofstein: I knew the industry in some ways better, and could respond quicker than they could. So I have enjoyed, and releasing on my own schedule and things like that.

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Rona Gofstein: I hope that, answered that

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Courtney asks, can the opening scene also be the inciting incident?

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Rona Gofstein: Yes, some things happen that fast. You know

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Rona Gofstein: the Wizard of Oz cause. If you know me for any length of time you will, you will get to. I will quote the Wizard of Oz at you, and if you go to my website. You'll see it. But you know she manages. We got 13 min. I timed it. She manages to sing one of the most iconic songs in all of movie history, and then 13 min. It's in technicolor. So yes, you can have them pretty close.

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Rona Gofstein: it's and romance. I think we sometimes do do it a lot. We just they walk into each other. They something happens really fast, so it can be close. Make sure that if they are you've got. You've really got to make sure you're clear on that goal. And the motivation and stuff like that, because otherwise it just

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Rona Gofstein: feels like a lot of action and and stuff swirling around the reader as opposed to pulling them in.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Lucy asks, would it be fair to say, these can be used for other genres. My current WIP. Is a mystery with a romantic subplot. I'm considering the best place in the story to introduce the love interest any advice

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Rona Gofstein: the the best point to introduce the loved interest is when it makes the her, when the most uncomfortable. Just mess with them. Mess with your characters. Yeah, with the best place to introduce the love interest is the worst possible place for her. And yes, this does work in other genres for mystery. You're going to love Samantha skulls?

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Rona Gofstein: presentation, which is on romantic suspense, and that's a great area for her. But yes, these 10 poles are.

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Rona Gofstein: They? Hold up every genre in one way, shape or form. I added. Our romance beats because of our my audience here with you today. But these are the moments that hold us up that we we reach. For even as a reader, without realizing, like reading, to get to the inciting incident, and how it gets bigger and how it changes, and how it falls apart. So yes.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Esther asks, can I make my inciting incident slash, meet cute a situation where the Fmc. Meets the Mmc. For the first time and hates him because he offended her like an enemies to lovers. Trope absolutely. We love the enemies to lovers, trope, but make it real. Don't bear like

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Rona Gofstein: again. Think about who she was

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Rona Gofstein: literally in that moment before she met him. All the stuff that happened in her life. Maybe he, the reason he offends her is cause. He reminds her of her ex father, mother, the brother brother who always put her down and never let her be strong.

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Rona Gofstein: give her a really good reason to be offended by him. Reader's going to be there for that

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: an anonymous attendee asks, could these change when you're writing a book that leaves off on a cliffhanger?

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Rona Gofstein: Okay, that's a very good question. And the answer, you're gonna love my answer. And boy as a coach, I say this a lot. Well, yes and no. The 10 polls are still there.

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Rona Gofstein: They're just going to be potentially over 3 books. So that middle Point moment is probably going to be the end of your if it's a duology, I'm not sure where I would split it on a trio. But yes, you're gonna you're gonna end on that biggest of midpoint moments, and it will be the cliffhanger. However, if you look back, if you look at your favorite duologies, you will still see those 5 10 polls in mini version sort of, and then you'll see them in another mini version. It's a little like, if you look at a big overarching series.

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Rona Gofstein: You will actually like, if you have a 7 book series. Book 4 is the middle moment of the whole series, and it should hold up like that. But

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Rona Gofstein: all these other tadpoles are in there too. So look for them. My guess is you're going to see them even with the Cliff anger.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: We have another anonymous attendee who asks, Can a book end with a sad ending, especially a book that is part of a series.

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Rona Gofstein: Okay, if the last book in the series can't not for romance, the rule is happily for now, or happily ever after for the central characters. And I say that now, because we have these, why choose and wonderful combinations? And there's so many more than 2. Sometimes. You can be living, I would say, especially if you're doing duology or trilogy. You're gonna

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Rona Gofstein: and on a intense moment an emotional moment. Potentially an all is lost moment, you know one of, or both of the characters think you know what this is not going to work as long as the reader knows that there's another book coming that will give them their happy ending.

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Rona Gofstein: Then they're willing to keep going with you.

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Rona Gofstein: We have bernadette asks if the midpoint is, is the eternal internal low because of the external low is coming. Is that okay? Yes.

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Rona Gofstein: yes, that's that's a good one. Yeah, the the that internal low. Because and then I mean, how many of us have made really bad decisions based on an internal low. I mean? That's that's real. I think that's something a reader will connect to. So yeah, hmm, if that's what's coming. And you know, that's what's coming. Make that internal load just really good. Just

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Rona Gofstein: drop all the bricks on them, you know. Just make them feel it and make them, and and put it on the page.

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Rona Gofstein: I hope I pronounce this correctly. Anu says, would tent poll scenes this are, would they be the same things as an outline, or are they 2 different things. They can be some people. I happen to like this for an outline form, because I pre. As a discovery writer, I need something a little general, and something I can happily throw away. Later, when, at the midpoint, my heroine says something that I really didn't.

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Rona Gofstein: didn't think I saw coming, but she'd been thinking it about it for a long time. Some folks prefer to do a really specific outline, so they will use the save the cab, beat sheet and

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Rona Gofstein: outlined to everyone of those beats. Well, they'll use Gwen Hayes book and outline to every one of those beats. There is no one way to do an outline. The best way is the one that supports you and keeps you writing forward, because for some people an outline kills their creativity. It just makes them feel all locked in, and they can't do anything with. It's the fastest way to get them to stop writing us and tell them to outline so it can be if it works for you and supports you.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Megan says I'm writing a dual timeline novel. Do you think all of the tent poll scenes happen in the present, timeline, or can some happen in the past?

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Rona Gofstein: Alright, I would. Oh, boy Megan, please be in touch. I would need to see that one little bit more the tempest scenes in the present. No, they could be in both. It just has to do. And you actually may remember how I said that if you have.

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Rona Gofstein: if you really, you may want to do 10 scenes and do the 10 pole scenes for your for one main character, and then again, for a second main character. You may want to 10 pull the present in the past

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Rona Gofstein: and then make sure they're aligning and that they're both pulling the reader through. I think that may give you some of the support you want. This is, makes me think of. All I can think of is when I read the time. Travelers, wife, I'm like how the heck to keep track of, who was going where and what everybody was feeling because

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Rona Gofstein: I did. I just picture post it notes in her room everywhere. Cause. I'm a perfect yeah, like, kind of like, la la land. And I just saw that in the comments. Yeah, try it that way. Try the 10 pulse for for all the present scenes and all the past scenes. See what you see

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Rona Gofstein: and see if it shows you what you need, and see if it's telling the story you want to tell ultimately. That's what's most important.

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Rona Gofstein: Alice asks any advice to people who start off doing structural edits, but then find themselves accidentally bogged down by line edits. How do we pull ourselves out of that cycle. That's what I'm kind of hoping that this will will do for you is pull you out of that line. Edits like I can't. I can't fully turn off that editor like if I see the word. Oh, my gosh! One of my horrible overused words! About 4 times in a sense II will fix it then.

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Rona Gofstein: It's it's if you're getting bogged down.

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Rona Gofstein: Oh, I have an idea. If you're getting bogged down. If you're really getting bogged down, go backwards.

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Rona Gofstein: start, start with your concluding scene. See if all the emotion you wanted to to end with was there. Go backwards.

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Rona Gofstein: II can't see. Yeah, I just saw somebody post the Ocd line gets out of head. Yeah, I know. I wish I could like, get parts of my brain drunk and like turn them off like, here's a cookie. Go sit over there, but I haven't found a way to do that yet, so my! My guess like trying to mix it up. See if that

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Rona Gofstein: helps

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Rona Gofstein: era, says Hi, I'm writing a dual pov. I need to fit in each arc in each 10 pool. Could you explain this a bit more? Thank you for the great info. Oh, Tara, you're welcome. Okay. So each character is going to go through a lot of these. But the inciting incident.

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Rona Gofstein: you know, you may want to do the inside if you've written black

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Rona Gofstein: English is my first language, but the caffeine's wearing off. Okay.

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Rona Gofstein: this every scene happens generally in the point of view of the character who has the most stake or the biggest reaction. However, a lot of us when we write romance do, for example, and then the meet queue in both points of view. We do it first one and then we see we see her. I'm going to go traditional. We see her meeting him, and then we see him meeting her, and what they thought. So you will do do both. If for some reason, your midpoint you, you're clearly know your midpoint, and it's only in his pov, then just do the one.

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Rona Gofstein: But if mit Ctl and afterwards you may also want to look at the scene right after. So the reaction scene like, how is she taking in what happened to him

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Rona Gofstein: in in that.

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Rona Gofstein: I hope that helped. If it didn't at Ronagustine Com, I will try to answer it better.

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Rona Gofstein: Marissa asks, can you use this to plot first, then right, and use it as a guideline to revise. Absolutely, absolutely like I said, I love things. I love tools that are multiple. But this is the the you know what? I'm gonna start putting a Swiss army knife picture by that that

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Rona Gofstein: that slide. Yes, you can absolutely use this first, I think sometimes, since I noticed it, having it in the back of my head has been a huge help when I write, even if I don't write them out in advance. Kind of know

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Rona Gofstein: I need to get to here, and I need to get to here, and I need to get to here. So yes, it absolutely can.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: yalamed, asks, what can you recommend that can help me write a strong mood and emotion into the page?

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Rona Gofstein: Okay.

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Rona Gofstein: that was Chardonnay. Some bubble bath. No, actually, those might not hurt. But I if you like books, if you're a book person like me, I do recommend any of the the books from the sort Thesaurus series. Wow! That's hard to say. The emotional wound, the source, the positive trait to source, because guess what all of our positive traits have negative traits. When you're developing a character. And you're like they're a terrible.

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Rona Gofstein: she's very organized. Guess what? There's a negative trait that goes along with that, you know, there is. So some of those are great. There's a conflict for us negative trade, positive trade, emotional wound. So yeah, looking at some of those they weave in. They're a great resource for weaving in who we are and how we are. The other thing is, I would say, Take some time knowing

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Rona Gofstein: II love doing this. I love knowing who my character was before page one.

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Rona Gofstein: What are all the things that got them into the situation they're in now, so that they have this goal gap. Why haven't they been able to get it before now?

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Okay, I think we have time to squeeze in one last question. If you haven't gone to your question, please. She's got my email and all my stuff in there and stuff like that, and and my website and stuff. So, yes, I want to answer your question. So so send them to me.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Okay, Madison asks, how do flashbacks play into structuring plot, slash events. How do we tell the past and the present, and still keep things clear for the reader?

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Rona Gofstein: The past is, unless you're doing a dual timeline book, if it's just sort of them thinking. It plays into the fact that everything we do

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Rona Gofstein: after about like what 4 or 5. Our choices are based on who we are in that moment, which is based on what happened to us. So I may be somebody who always waits to order until everybody else orders, because I don't like standing out. And I don't wanna order the most expensive thing. And that happened because of something, and that happened to me in the past. So if you have a scene where your character is

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Rona Gofstein: sitting around and everybody's ordering, what you would do is, you wouldn't do a flashback, but you would see her internal struggle as she tries to wait and order last so she can order something that's in line with everybody else. The the what we happen in the past plays into structuring events because it changes, how we act, react, decide, and respond.

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Rona Gofstein: Keep the read, unless you're doing dual timelines. Keep the reader in the present, but show how the past is making them feel in the present.

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Rona Gofstein: I hope that made sense.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: It looks like a couple folks are wondering about the thesaurus that you mentioned, and we're I don't have it right next to me. I have them over there.

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Rona Gofstein: Angela Ackerman and Becca Poglisi. Oh, my God! Let me! I'll pop it in the chat. Angela Ackerman.

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Rona Gofstein: Becca you'll see the emotional wound thesaurus on on the slides when you go to look at that they are phenomenal.

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Rona Gofstein: and they're great. In fact, they don't just have the sources of You know somebody who has a wound of childhood abandonment. They also will list Will, and these are the positive traits that could grow out of that. These, the negative traits that could grow out of it. These are the things that would trigger, that these are the things that would.

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Rona Gofstein: It will get your brain swirling and dancing. It's wonderful. And the beginning of those books also have wonderful craft knowledge so

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: alright. Well, thank you so much. I know we still have questions left, but we are out of time. But thank you so much for being with us, Rhona. This was such a great information packed. I'm so glad I know fire, hose, fire, hose. Please be in touch. I'm happy to answer the questions.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Alright, everybody! You can check out the replay and all of the resources on the Hub page later today, and we will see you in just less than an hour for our next session. So we'll see you then, and until then

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Rona Gofstein: thank you again for everybody for coming. And thanks, Rona. Thanks everybody.