Make Writing Fiction Fun: Discover The Instant Plotting Strategy

By Angela Booth

Are you a fiction author?

If you're writing fiction, I'm sure you're wondering about the title. What's the "instant plotting" strategy?

Here's the secret to instant plotting: use public domain materials to find a readymade plot. You can use this material freely, and make it your own.

Many bestsellers are written in this way. If you've read one of these novels, chances are that you never suspected.

Even Shakespeare used instant plots.

 

All the plots you'll ever need
The public domain is vast, and it's packed with readymade, "instant" plots and characters.

Canny corporation that it is, Disney recycles public domain stories, as do many other companies and writers. Disney has used materials in the public domain for many years, creating wonderful stories loved my millions.

 

In Make Writing Fiction Fun: Discover The Instant Plotting Strategy, you'll discover not only what comprises the public domain, but also how to use it as a resource for writing  fiction and plotting.

 

This book will help you if you're: 

- Looking for great stories with marvelous plots and characters to make your own.

- A new fiction author and don't know where to start.

- An established author, who wants a new challenge. Many bestselling authors have written books which have their genesis in public domain materials. 

- Looking for readymade audiences. Did you know that there's an entirely new genre, Jane Austen retellings? These books sell, because readers who love Austen want more.

- Keen to learn the craft of fiction. Allow the famous authors who wrote the classics to teach you.

 

In this book I'm NOT suggesting that you use this free-to-use material as-is. (Although there's nothing wrong with that.)

You can use the material in many ways, and we'll look at several.

Have fun with these strategies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Angela Booth
• Release date: Feb 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224644261

Book preview

Make Writing Fiction Fun

Make Writing Fiction Fun

DISCOVER THE INSTANT PLOTTING STRATEGY

ANGELA BOOTH

Angela Booth

Contents

A vast resource of magical stories to make your own

The magic of fairy tales

A process: how to explore PD material for inspiration

Archetypes and tropes: great conflict, great characters

Try a remix: decide on style and tone

Begin: story, characters, and scenes

Books newly in the public domain

Explore the public domain

Appendix 1: an essential plotting tip to use today

Appendix 2: easy fixes for plotting problems

Appendix 3: use subplots to improve your novel

Appendix 4: how to rescue a tired or stalled plot

Appendix 5: use the magic of settings

About Angela Booth

Also by Angela Booth

Make Writing Fiction Fun: Discover The Instant Plotting Strategy

Your plotting woes are over. It’s time to write fabulous fiction the easy way.

By Angela Booth

Copyright © 2024 Angela Booth.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form, anywhere, without prior written permission from the author.

Angela Booth is a copywriter, writing teacher, and author. Her books have been published by major publishers and she loves working with writers.

A vast resource of magical stories to make your own

Are you wondering about the title: instant plotting?

Yes, it exists, and here's the secret to instant plotting: find a readymade plot that you can freely use (without accusations of plagiarism), and make it your own.

Even Shakespeare used instant plots.

Discover the magic of instant plots

I’ve been writing fiction for much longer than I care to think about, and I never finish a novel without thinking that I’ve fallen short in some way. There’s something missing; the novel doesn’t have all the elements of truly great fiction.

If you sometimes feel the same way, or if you have challenges developing your plot and characters, here’s a secret. Why not gather inspiration from an impossibly vast (and free) resource of wonderful stories and characters?

In other words, explore the public domain (PD). It's packed with readymade, instant plots and characters.

Canny corporation that it is, Disney recycles public domain stories, as do many other companies and writers. Disney has used materials in the public domain for many years, creating wonderful stories loved my millions, and making billions of dollars in profits.

EXPLORE STORIES IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, JUST AS MOVIE DEVELOPERS DO

Creative people love the PD because audiences have responded to this material in the past. Retelling popular stories removes uncertainty. Rather than starting from scratch with material which may or may not work, creators can start with a good story and with characters that audiences have already shown that they enjoy.

Disney’s 1991 animated movie Beauty and the Beast is derived from the 1740 fairy tale La Belle et la Bête, by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. This movie is said to have earned upwards of $425 million for Disney. Not bad for something written almost 300 years ago.

That’s the point. Good stories remain good stories. If a story has remained popular for centuries, then today’s audiences will also respond.

All very well, you may think, but you can’t imagine yourself recycling a fairy tale. That’s fine. Beyond fairy tales, many popular authors’ works are in the public domain. These authors include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie (her early novels and short stories), and P.G. Wodehouse (his early novels and short stories).

All Jane Austen’s works are in the public domain, so each decade brings a new iteration of Pride & Prejudice or another of her novels as a book, movie, or a video series. Numerous authors take inspiration from Austen. There’s even an entire genre of Jane Austen retellings.

Jane Austen retellings are popular with new novelists who are self-publishing their own work, as well as with popular novelists. An example: in 2016 the bestselling novelist Alexander McCall Smith released Emma: A Modern Retelling. I haven’t read this new version of Emma, but apparently Emma becomes an interior designer.

WHY IS PUBLIC DOMAIN MATERIAL SO POPULAR?

Great characters and conflict are essential for movies and novels. When Michael Mann developed The Last of the Mohicans (the movie was released in 1992) he started with the characters and conflict from James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel, The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757.

The novel was an instant success when it was first published, and has remained an inspiration for creators. The story was filmed 11 times over the course of the twentieth century.

So what is the public domain, and where do you