I was talking to a fellow writer who found a tid bit about paragraph structure.  The source was from a teacher of professional writing at the University of Oklahoma, Dwight V. Swain.  I have one book of his called Techniques of the Selling Writer, which is still in print.  I definitely recommend this book.

The tid bit didn’t come from the above mentioned book.  But Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files, definitely used this technique in the first book of the series.  It is:

A fictional paragraph ends on the fact beat, leaving the emotional note for the start of the next paragraph.

Has anyone heard or seen this?

Below is a link to an episode of a side story, just improvisational writing.  There are two versions of it.  One uses the above technique.  The other does not.   Please read the two versions and vote on which one FEELS better.  The claim is that this structure provides emotional connection to the reader.  Thanks.

Episode 1: Graywolf

 Loading ...

New York Times Best selling author Mary Mackey wrote The Notorious Mrs. Winston.  She talked about writing plot summaries, which can be difficult for writers.  As writers we tend to love details.  Makes sense, right?  It’s the turning points that readers devour when reading books.  It’s what were taught.  If you’ve read my  post on Selling Out, you’ll get a glimpse on how I got it done.  I’d hired Michael Hauge, a story consultant, who lives and works in Los Angeles, to help me out.

She reads several examples for her own books that’ll hopeful help you how to write your own plot summaries.  She explains when you’ll need them and who to send them to.  And she has a Q&A.  Please enjoy and feel free to download them.

plot-summary-part-1

plot-summary-part-2

plot-summary-part-3

Update:  Part 3 is up.  I uploaded the wrong one.  Sorry about that.