13 Ways and 3 Books to Build Blockbuster Plots

Martha Alderson’s Blockbuster Plots: Pure and Simple (Illusion Press 2004) presents step-by-step strategies to build your story, maximize the impact of scenes and provide depth to the plot. She focuses not on the ordinary plot, but the one that will push you to the top of the pile, make your book a must-read among all others.The difference in simple terms is you must want to write a story that will go viral (maybe make you a lot of money) rather than simply tell a story you feel must be told. I’ve read two other books for would-be writers that address this unique animal:

• Donald Maass’ The Breakout Novelist
• Albert Zuckerman’s Writing the Blockbuster Novel

Alderson explains it differently–less narrative and more a structured approach via what she calls a ‘Scene Tracker’. This handy spreadsheet includes significant elements required for each scene, such as:

• date of scene
• setting
• scene summary
• brief description of character’s emotional development
• the goal of the scene
• dramatic action
• conflict
• change
• theme detail

I won’t include an image for fear it is copyrighted, but you’ll see it in the book.

Here are thirteen takeaways (besides these eleven) I liked:

• “We experience mood swings, albeit fleetingly, in reaction to every conflict. Chart those.”
• “Do not polish. Do not go back and start over. Keep moving forward.”
• “…come up with an authentic detail specific to your story, yet universal, so when it is repeated, it draws the readers in…”
• “A story is the shifting of power back and forth between the protagonist and the antagonist.”
• “Story is about struggle.”
• “As the character prepares to confront the adversity, suspense builds and the reader begins to participate.”
• “Any sort of looming unknown makes it possible for you to slow things down without the fear of losing your readers.”
• “The protagonist must be drawn as a complex individual with both strengths and weaknesses.”
• “The Crisis is the dark night of the soul.”
• “Once you, as the writer, know how the character is going to play the final confrontation, you have all you need to know.”
• “The protagonist demonstrates the transformation s/he underwent in the story by doing something in the Climax s/he was unable to do at the Beginning of the story.”
• “The first draft separates people who write from those who talk about writing.”
• “By using something within the character’s psychology to create tension or conflict, you create a multilayered plotline, one involving character growth directly linked to the action.”

BTW, if you want to purchase any of these from Amazon, click the links below:

Blockbuster Plots: Pure & Simple

The Breakout Novelist: Craft and Strategies for Career Fiction Writers

Writing the Blockbuster Novel

More how-to book reviews for writers:

36 Essential Books for Every Writer

15 Tips From Writing From A to Z

11 Tips to Self-Editing Your Manuscript

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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning. 

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