Plot Like Me: A Guide to Writing Like An Author Who's Already Made All the Mistakes and Learned From Them, #1

By Maria Ann Green

As an international bestselling author I've put together the tricks and tips that can help you avoid making newbie mistakes. I know too, I've made A LOT of them, which is how I learned everything within these pages. There are tips for every aspect of bringing a novel to life, from brainstorming to plotting to writing and editing, and then past it to marketing! Even for the seasoned authors, there are tips inside these pages that can help you optimize the time you have to put words on the page. 

In Plot Like Me you'll find the meathod I've put together on how to plot a novel that has a proven and solid structure that will leave readers rushing through your books as fast as they can. It also includes my outline template that has helped me write faster and with less editing afterward. There are also other worksheets to help you prep every aspect of your novel, which can help speed up drafting. Plot Like Me is one of the most useful books in this series!

In Write Like Me you'll find the tips that I've perfected over years of writing. You will find ways to speed up your writing and how to track that speed too. I'm able to write up to three thousand words an hour, and ten thousand words a day even with limited time to write. I want to help you do this too with Write Like Me!

In Edit Like Me you can find a common list of things to look for - which will help you avoid makign those very mistakes in your next draft as well as cleaning them up in your current one! I also share what I've done wrong a lot, which honestly sometimes it's nice to see what others do wrong and feel better about your own writing. 

In Market Like Me I have a huge list of resources that I find helpful, research I suggest you do to market in ways that work for your genres, and my ideas that I've worked on and tested out over time. I've paid for a ton of things that went nowhere, so I'd love to help you avoid doing the same. Market Like Me is one of the most useful books in this series!

Organize Like Me is a bonus book for those who just like to jump ahead, skipping the explanation, and use the resources I've put together. If you only want worksheets then this is the one for you!

In the full set, Author Like Me, you'll find every tip I have to share - it's all of the single books above put into one, with an extra chapter exlusive to the full book which includes additional tips, writing prompts, and more. 

With this series I want to help you be a faster and better author. Because when you adore writing like I do it's all about maxamizing your time to get more words in, and hopefully making some money on those gorgeous words you've put onto the page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maria Ann Green
• Release date: Jan 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393346395

Maria Ann Green

Maria lives in Minnesota despite the frozen winters. Actually, she prefers snow drifts and icicles over summer and all that sweat running everywhere. She lives with her husband and little family, which includes a couple lazy cats who make great lap warmers. You can usually find her whishing that she lived in a secret cabin in the woods where she could be a hermit reading and writing all of the time. Instead she lives the suburban life where she pretends to her neighbors and the other moms around that she doesn’t swear like a sailor, have hidden tattoos, and love a good glass bottle of wine. She absolutely believes in unicorns and ghosts and hopes vampires and monsters are real too. She's a coffee-in-the-morning and wine-in-the-evening kind of person, preferably with a nap in between. Maria prefers cats over dogs, books over people, and late nights over early mornings. She probably shouldn’t talk to anyone until she’s had her first cup of coffee. And if you ever want to hang out with her, you’ll have to be game for a horror movie or just a quick run to target for two (hundred) little things. Also, you couldn’t pay her to be in her twenties again; Thirties is where it’s at. She's a creative, mouthy, introverted, proud bisexual, highly-sensitive INFJ, Slytherpuff, dork with a sweet-tooth.  Maria devours books, reading mostly in bed or listening to audio books in the car. Writing has been one of her passions for pretty much her whole life. So creativity is a necessity for her, always. After working in the mental health field for almost a decade, she's now living her dream as a stay-at-home writer, kiddo wrangler, professional snuggler, and constantly-tired-person. When it comes to her writing, she specializes in dark and twisted thrillers or gritty, angsty contemporary romances. But no matter the genre, she always prefers writing deeply flawed characters with dysfunctional relationships. She's pretty sure the whole "unlikable character" thing is a conspiracy because every character she loves have been labeled this way. Ridiculous. And because of this, she's pretty much found it impossible to write anything without at least a little mayhem.  Maria will always believe that though not every story is for her, and her stories aren't for everyone, every story has a reader.

Book preview

Plot Like Me:

A Guide to Writing Like an Author Who’s Already Made All the Mistakes and Learned from Them

Maria Ann Green

PLOT LIKE ME: A GUIDE TO WRITING LIKE AN AUTHOR WHO’S ALREADY MADE ALL THE MISTAKES AND LEARNED FROM THEM

Copyright © 2020 Maria Ann Green

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, investment, accounting or other professional services. While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional when appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, personal, or other damages.

Cover design by Maria Ann Green

Formatting by Maria Ann Green

Editing by Jackie Hritz

and Carly Green

All rights reserved.

ISBN:

All works by Maria Ann Green

Non-fiction:

Plot Like Me, non-fiction craft book on plotting

Write Like Me, non-fiction craft book on drafting

Edit Like Me, non-fiction craft book on editing

Market Like Me, non-fiction craft book on marketing

Organize Like Me, non-fiction craft book just the worksheets

Author Like Me, non-fiction craft book on writing all-in-one

I Would Never Series:

I Would Never…But If I Did (Companion One), contemporary romance

Crown Series:

Crown of Sins (Book One), dark and steamy romantic suspense

Betting Series:

Betting on Love (Companion One), steamy romantic comedy

Betting on Sin (Companion Two), steamy romantic comedy

Chasing Series:

Chasing Risks (Companion One), steamy romance

Darkness Series:

Nothing but Darkness (Book One), psychological thriller

Deeper into Darkness (Book Two), psychological thriller

Edge of Darkness (Book Three), psychological crime thriller

Darkness Series Omnibus (Books One, Two, and Three), thrillers

Short works:

It Only Hurts When I Breathe

The Masque of Annabel

Young Adult:

In the Rearview, young adult poetry and prose standalone

For all those heroes out there writing stories alongside me. Never stop. You can’t quantify how much you’re helping your readers, and likely yourself.

Plus, you’re stuck with me forever.

Chapter One

An Introduction to Everything Else You’re About to Read

These books are for anyone out there who loves writing. I hope that there are tips for all types of writers and authors, though I’ve especially written these books to help authors who want to make writing their full-time gig (something I’m still working on, by the way).

If you’re a writer, or hope to be a writer someday, my wish is that something—or several somethings—in these pages will help you as much as it’s all helped me. Truly, I hope it all helps you, but I’m not deluded enough to think every point will help every person.

But I do hope that you take what helps and leave the rest. That’s what I’ve always done with craft books on writing anyway. And that’s how I’ve gathered all of this information over the last several years that I’m now sharing with you.

These books are for plotters who need more help with organizing or streamlining their process.

These books are for writers preferring the traditional route, self-publishing, or some combination of the two. I don’t have a section for querying or landing an agent or publisher, because those aren’t things I have perfected. They’re not something I want. But writers in any path can (hopefully) benefit from the tips I’ll be sharing about plotting, drafting, editing, and marketing. Because yes, even you traditional-path authors will need to market yourself as well. The chapters before marketing work for everyone, no matter the path they’re on, too. Because the faster you write, the more books you can pitch to publishers. Or, for those selfies like me, the faster you write, the faster you can get your books out to readers.

Basically, these books are for anyone who enjoys learning from other writers. We all learn from each other, and I just want to share what I’ve learned over the last few years.

But there are a few people this book probably isn’t for. If you expect to skip the hard work and get rich quick, then stop reading now. There are definitely books out on the craft of writing that were written for you. But mine won’t be a good fit.

I’ve found that writing good books takes hard work, and marketing them is even harder. Believe me—even knowing all that I do, all that I’m sharing with you, I’m so far from making what I aim to make. But I’ll never give up or stop writing. So, if you are willing to work and learn then these books are for you.

These books also aren’t for anyone who expects me to have all the answers. I definitely do not. Whenever I answer questions about writing or marketing, I always start with the fact that I’ve made all of the mistakes, and I just hope to help you avoid a few more than I did. It may be an exaggeration, but not a huge one. I’ve done all of the newbie stupid things, and I swear I’ve even found new mistakes to make too. But I’ve learned from it all. I wish I could promise you some magic answer that will guarantee you huge sales or a way to draft a perfect book in a day - but if I was able to do any of that I probably wouldn’t be sharing my secrets anyway.

Kidding.

Mostly.

But really there isn’t a simple answer or a perfect strategy. We all just try our hardest to write the best books we can and get them out to as many readers as possible.

And I’m hoping to share what I’ve learned over the last few years in these pages so that you have an easier time doing the part you love, and spend less time on the stuff you don’t love but know you have to do anyway.

I’m not going to spend a ton of time telling you about me. I sort of hate the fluff parts of craft books on writing, so I want to skip that here. I just want to get to the reasons you bought this book.

All you really need to know is that I have nine fiction books out as of the time I’m writing this, and I’ve been self-publishing them all since 2017. I don’t make as much money as I’d like yet, but I’ve had significant growth since starting a few years ago. And I hope to keep improving, like we all do.

I’ve also spent the last few years creating all of these resources for myself to make everything about writing easier for me.

Though, that being said, I will plug my services a few times. Feel free to ignore them, but I’d be silly to not include them in these pages.

I provide several services to other authors who are interested in hiring me. I create book covers, I have a promo image service, I format books, I do developmental editing and graphic design, and I’m an author coach.

Almost all of this can be found on the pages of my website. https://mariaanngreenauthor.weebly.com

But I’m one of many people who offer similar services. So do your research first and decide on who you want to hire, if anyone, for services like these. If after reading this book you want more help from me or to utilize my services, head over to my website or shoot me an email.

But that’s about all the space I want to give to the topic of me.

That’s it.

Now, let’s get to the fun stuff!

Chapter Two

Plotting…Keep Those Pants On, At Least A Little

I’m a firm believer in plotting.

Now, don’t start chasing me with weapons yet, you beautiful pantsers. I used to be just like you, seriously. I was hardcore about my lack of outlining, and I would just shake my head at anyone who tried to tell me about how they plot.

Plot? Plan?

Were they totally crazy?

What the hell was that going to do other than stifle my creativity?

Or worse yet, waste my time, considering I’d never follow the outline and all the time I spent outlining would have been for nothing then.

I would shudder when anyone tried to explain how they outlined their books, backing away slowly without really taking in any of the information.

How stubborn I was.

And how I’ve grown since.

But, and here’s what changed my mind about it, I realized I hated huge developmental editing overhauls even more than plotting. Doing that was torture for me.

So I found a way of plotting that works for me, and I’ve never looked back.

I know this isn’t enough convincing yet, but I’m hoping that after seeing examples, you will get there like I did.

Now I create an outline, and you’ll get to see a couple examples here so you know how extensive they are. And I read over it a few times before jumping into my first draft. Then, when I think it’s ready, I have a few critique partners read my outline and try to look for plot holes or issues, anything they’d point out in my draft as needing some editing. Only now they’re finding the mistakes before I actually make them. It goes so much smoother and faster.

If someone finds something I need to overhaul, a big issue with my outline; it’s a whole lot easier to edit 10,000 words rather than five or even ten times that. Plus, it’s easier to see how little changes affect the rest of the plot in outline form than it is in a full draft.

It works great for me. Because now I usually edit far less after my first draft, so the time tradeoff has been worth it.

What I didn’t realize is that it’s about as exciting for me to put together an outline as it is to draft the first time. I’m not stifling my creativity; instead, I’m utilizing it to put all of my ideas onto the page. I’m still able to come up with ideas, but it’s faster, so I feel like I have even more creative freedom, actually.

And when I’m drafting if I think of something I want to add I can still do that. Plus, I can quickly go through the outline and tweak future chapters to fit with these changes, if needed. I can also highlight any later sections that will need editing to fit with the edits I’ve made in the earlier chapters.

It just makes everything a whole lot more pleasant for me.

Now, I totally understand if you think a 10,000-or-more-word-outline sounds intimidating. Every time I start a new one, I feel that way too. But then I start anyway, and it gets a lot easier.

You may not want to use my whole process—and, if not, just take what works for you, if that’s just the beginning, just the structure part, just the chapters, or some combination.

I call these outlines my half drafts.

They’re so extensive, I feel like they need to be called something. But they aren’t the first draft either. So, call them whatever you want, but I call them half drafts.

I’ve done a lot of research on structure, which I’ve worked into my outlines. And I’ve sort of mashed up everything I’ve learned and changed it and reordered and basically made it fit with what