www.marilynbrant.com

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Visiting the Seekers (+ a Giveaway!)

Today, I'm off to Seekerville! I love the wonderful ladies there, and the awesome Tina Radcliffe -- whose debut novel The Rancher's Reunion comes out from Steeple Hill in January! -- was kind enough to invite me back to visit this year. Thanks, Tina ;-).

The topic is one dear to my plot-loving writer's heart: Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet. If I could only use ONE tool for novel-writing structure, it would be this one -- hands down. Come join me HERE as I walk through the 15 steps outlined in the beat sheet using 2 great films as a guide: Bruce Willis at his action-hero best in "Die Hard" and one of my Top 5 all-time favorite romantic comedies "When Harry Met Sally..." I'll also be giving away a couple of advanced reading copies for Friday Mornings at Nine to commenters, so please stop by!

5 comments:

Rain Maiden said...

They are also giving away a copy of Friday Mornings at Nine over at The Knight Agency blog. I already have it pre-ordered...can't wait!

Marilyn Brant said...

Thanks so much for letting me know, Rain!! (And a huge hug for commenting in both places. :)

I truly hope you'll like this new book. I know the points of view and storytelling styles are different between JANE and FRIDAYS, but I'd like to think that a lot of my themes are the same... (My characters always seem to need to learn to be more self aware!)

Brett said...

Your use of Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet to show the steps to plotting out a story is fascinating!! It makes a lot of sense and truly does seem like a very useful tool for developing a story. I especially like that you chose When Harry Met Sally because I LOVE that movie and I've seen it a thousand times over the years! :)

Thanks for sharing the examples of those two movies! Now I'll have the steps in the back of my mind the next time I watch a movie. :)

Tonya said...

I am sooo wanting to get my hands on your newest!!! You quickly became one of my fav authors and I am excited to get your newest!! Congrats...

Marilyn Brant said...

Brett~thanks!! I'm so glad the beat sheet was interesting to you ;). It's really fun to see this stuff in action in a movie! I saw "When Harry Met Sally" for the first time in the theaters with Dawn (!!) and, yeah, about a thousand times since then :). xo

Tonya~ohh, what a lovely thing to say...thank you so much!! I hope you'll like this new one. Theme-wise, there are some parallels to JANE, but it's pretty different in narrative style. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts!