Plotting a Story with Post-it Notes

If there's anything guaranteed to raise a groan in one of my writing workshops it's whenever I mention plotting.

Plotting is hard.

Plotting makes you want to tear your hair out, hit the delete button and boil your head.

In short, trying to find the perfect plot often causes writers to lose the plot.

So much so, that this weekend, I ran an entire workshop on the subject.

And I wanted to share one of the exercises I taught here, as I've found it invaluable when I'm in the early stages of plotting a novel.

All you will need are some post-it notes and a few sheets of A4 paper.

Stick the paper up on your wall, or lay it out on the desk or floor in front of you.

Then, take your post-it notes and start jotting down as many ideas as you can for your new plot - one per post-it note.

Characters
Scenes
Locations
Major plot points
Random lines
Potential twists and turns

Write them all down, one per post-it note, then stick them randomly all over your A4 sheets of paper.

Some 'Post-It Plotting' from Saturday's Workshop

Once you've written down as many ideas as you can think of - and please don't censor yourself; write them all down no matter how 'silly' they might seem - sit or stand back and take a good look at what you've created.

Then start moving the notes round into some kind of chronological order.

Discard any that you feel certain won't work.

Add to any that you feel certain will.

See your plot beginning to take shape.

Don't be afraid to get messy with it.

You're only writing on post-it notes - it doesn't matter if you get something wrong.

Enjoy chopping and changing and sculpting your plot.

And when you are ready, begin to write.


The next Dare to Write workshop is on Tuesday 6th May in Berkhamsted. For more info, step this way...

My Top Tips for Becoming an Indie Author / Publisher

It's been 14 years since I had my first book published and I can honestly say that right here, right now, has never been a more exciting time to be a writer.

Back when I wrote my first book, like every other writer at the time, I was completely dependent on getting an agent and a traditional book deal. 

Back then, there was no other way to launch a career as a writer. But now . . .

Now anyone can publish a book.

Of course, this has the literary snobs in the UK wringing their hands in despair, but for those of us passionate about producing books in our own unique ways, this is great news indeed.

Back in November, I blogged about Daring to Self Publish.

I was just about to launch my own indie publishing imprint Dare to Dream, with the publication of a free e-book for people being bullied called Finding Your Inner Cherokee.

The launch went really well and it has inspired me to publish three further titles this year.

Becoming an indie publisher (and that is what you are when you decide to self publish) has been a steep learning curve.

But I'm lucky in that I've had eight books published traditionally, with another three in the pipeline.

In launching my Dare to Dream imprint, I drew upon all I have learnt from the traditional publishing model, as well as studying other authors who have chosen to go indie.

So, without further ado, here are my top tips for anyone thinking of going indie too:

• Edit, edit, edit: When you have a book traditionally published it goes through three rigorous editing processes. A content edit, a copy edit and a proof read. If you want your books to be taken seriously, you must invest in a content and copy edit at the very least.

• Invest in a professionally designed cover: Nothing screams amateur more than a cover that looks as if it's been designed by your Granny after one too many sherries. (Unless of course, your Granny is a cutting edge designer who needs a tipple to unleash her muse...)

• Create your brand: If you are planning on publishing more than one book, it makes sense to create a recognisable brand. I used the same designer and the same font for all three of my upcoming novels for adults.

• Think thumbnail: If you are publishing e-books (which you should be as this is the fastest growing market in publishing, with the biggest profit margins) then it's vital that your cover designs work well as a thumbnail image. This is the size they will be on Amazon and other online retailers. You need to make sure that the title and author name are clearly visible.

• Make sure your books are correctly formatted: each online retailer requires your manuscript in a specific format. If, like me, you don't know your html from your elbow, invest in a professional formatter. There are loads of them around. I used Jane Dixon-Smith - she comes very highly recommended (and she also designs book covers too).

• Launch more than one book initially: All indie authors seem to be in agreement on this - you don't start to see serious sales until you have more than one book on offer. We all know as readers that if we find a book we love, we immediately want to buy something else from that author. If you leave it years between books the danger is all of the fans you acquired for your first title will have forgotten all about you.

• Play around with pricing plans: Having more than one book on offer also enables you to play around with pricing. This seems to work especially well if you have written a series. Many authors speak of dramatic spikes in sales and royalties after they've offered the first book in a series for 99p.

• Find the sweet spot: Indie authors frequently talk about the 'sweet spot' when it comes to pricing. This currently seems to be around £2.99. Readers see this as being a bargain without it being so cheap that they assume the book must be rubbish.

• Research other indie authors: The best book I've read on indie publishing is The Naked Truth About Self Publishing which features tons of inspiring and informative interviews with indie authors. There are also loads of interviews online if you give it a Google.

• Plan a marketing campaign: Don't wait until your book is out there to start thinking about how you're going to market it. Try to send review copies out around two months prior to launch. Become au fait with social networking sites such as Goodreads. Offer to write guest blogs about your book or the themes it covers. Ask / beg / pay your friends to help whip up a word of mouth buzz. Again, study what other indie authors have done.

As you can probably tell from this blog post, indie publishing does involve a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun.

As someone who has experienced publishing from both sides of the fence, I love the freedom indie publishing gives me.

The freedom to have complete creative control over my covers.

The freedom to set my own prices - and give away books for free if I so desire.

The freedom to have an e-book royalty of 70%.

The freedom to manage my own career as a writer.



The next Dare to Write Workshop will be on Tuesday 1st April, 7.30 - 9.30pm, in the atmospheric tearoom Dar Papillon, High Street, Berkhamsted.

We will be looking at plotting and how to create a good strong opening. Vital, whether you're writing a short story, novel, non-fiction blog post or book. Hope to see you there. More info here.

How to Build a Believable Character

In my humble opinion, flat, insipid characters = flat, insipid story.

It doesn't matter how zingy your plot, if your characters are two dimensional they will weigh the whole thing down.

So, what to do?

How do you build an interesting, believable character - the kind who leaps from the page?

One simple yet effective tool is the Character Questionnaire.

This is a series of random, probing questions that you ask of your character as you are developing them.

On Saturday, I ran a Dare to Write Workshop called Create and Motivate and when we were looking at characterisation, we created a Character Questionnaire together.

The results are below.

Please feel free to copy and paste the questionnaire and use it for your own characters.

Another bonus of using a Character Questionnaire is that, in finding out the answers, you often come up with plot ideas too.

Win. Win.


The Dare to Write Character Questionnaire:

How do they get on with their parents?

What is their worst nightmare?

What is their greatest dream?

What is their least / most favourite trait?

What are they most afraid of losing?

What animal would they be?

What turns them on?

What is their earliest memory?

What is their biggest fear?

What are they hiding from themselves and others?

How would they like to be perceived?

What is their biggest struggle?

What would they consider unforgivable?

What experience would they want to relive?

What is their social / religious background?

How is their relationship with their siblings?

What are their favourite TV shows?

Who are their friends?

Do they sleepwalk?

What's the most shocking thing they've done?

What do they think of children?

What are their views on marriage?

Do they have any secrets?

Are they handy around the house?

Package holiday or back-packer?

What are their desert island discs?

Acts of kindness?

What would they cook for a dinner party?

BBC1 or Channel 5?

Top 3 albums and books?

Childhood hobbies and why did they stop?

Shy or outgoing?

Red or brown sauce on a bacon sandwich (says SO much!)

What would they do if they weren't afraid?

Favourite swear word?

Most and least favourite profession?

What do they think they're good at - and are they?

What are their eating habits?

Which celebs would they like to meet?

What would they eat if no-one was looking?

Who was their first love?

Where do they buy their clothes?

What's their favourite weather?

Which book do they keep in the loo?

What is their physical and mental health like?

Do they have any phobias?

Have they had any traumas?

Are they in love?

Do they believe in life after death?

Most embarrassing experience?

Organised or chaotic?

Do they love or hate their job?

What is their attitude to the opposite sex?

What is their attitude to petty crime?

I'm running another Create and Motivate Workshop on Saturday 22nd March, in this beautiful location (which believe it or not, is in London!)

For more information click here, and to book a place please email:

contact[AT]siobhancurham[DOT]co[DOT]uk


Praise for the Create and Motivate Workshop:

"An amazing, interesting and inspiring creative writing workshop in a lovely Manor Farm House . . . I must get working on my manuscript!"

"Great workshop. Inspiring."

"Great session and really valuable in getting focus and inspiration."

"Thanks for an excellent day."

"An amazing day daring to dream."

"I loved it! Am definitely coming back!"

"I finally feel like writing again."

It's Okay to Write CRAP!

If I had to pick one sentence that made my writing instantly and infinitely better, it would be this: 
It's okay to write crap!

This one simple sentence has made such a positive difference to my writing that it's one of the first things I teach students at my workshops.

It's okay to write crap.

When I started out as a writer, I thought that everything I wrote needed to be perfect.

I would spend hours labouring over each paragraph, each sentence, each word.

I would get so bogged down in all of the polishing, preening, and editing that I wrote at a snail's pace - an arthritic snail's pace. 

But what I wrote never ended up being perfect.

More often than not, it felt laboured and clunky.

And then one day, when I became so sick of the pressure to be perfect, I decided to try an experiment.

I asked myself, what would writing feel like if it was okay to write crap?

The answer, I soon discovered, was that it felt frickin' great!

No more picking over every perfectly placed adjective.

No more polishing every last full stop.

I wrote wildly and freely.

I let the words pour on to the page.

And if the 'perfect' words didn't come, I wrote down substitutes instead - knowing that I'd have plenty of time later to replace them.

And the best thing I discovered about allowing myself to write crap, was that what I wrote turned out to not be crap at all.

My words had a raw energy to them.

My ideas were quirky and off the wall.

My true voice rang through.

Try it for yourself and see.

Next time you sit down to write, say to yourself first, it's okay to write crap, and just see what happens.

I dare you!


The Dare to Write Workshop tour is now in full swing, with monthly workshops, Create and Motivate days and One Day Retreats all lined up. To find out more, step this way. Hope to see you at one of them soon . . .

Dare to Write: the Workshop

This year, one of my writing resolutions is to start running regular writing workshops again.

From 2004 - 2010, I ran weekly writing workshops for two London councils.

It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my writing career.

Week in, week out, people from all walks of life would walk into the libraries we met in and sit down and write.

Week in, week out, I would come up with ever more ingenious ways of exploring character and plot, poetry and prose, self publishing and traditional publishing, writing for radio, stage and screen.

In teaching others, I learnt so much. 

And so did everyone else.

Plays that began life as a simple writing exercise were staged.

Novels that began life as a simple writing prompt were published.

Poems that began life as a single scribbled couplet grew to entire collections.

Competitions were won.

Short stories were sold.

And over the years many lasting friendships were formed.

I would throw parties at my house, filled with these writers.

It was a wonderful time.

And then I moved away.

And I got really busy with my own writing and work in the publishing industry, so my workshops took a back seat.

But I've missed them so much that last year I made the executive decision to cut back on my publishing consultancy work and run more workshops instead.

For the past few months I've been working away behind the scenes, developing Dare to Write workshops for a variety of different audiences.

Dare to Write ~ Online

Dare to Write ~ Young Adult Fiction

Dare to Write ~ Children's Fiction

Dare to Write ~ in Business

Dare to Write ~ the Novel

and my flagship workshop:

Dare to Write ~ for all

I even made a trailer about them:

I'm delighted to kick things off with a monthly Dare to Write workshop for all writers, which will be taking place on the first Tuesday of each month, beginning on Tuesday 4th February, from 7.30 - 9.30 pm - in a wonderfully atmospheric Moroccan tearoom!

Motivation, inspiration, expert feedback and teas galore - what more could you ask for?!

Each workshop will feature written exercises, tips, advice - and the opportunity to read and receive feedback on any work in progress.

The venue is Dar Papillon, 360-364 Berkhamsted High Street, HP4 1HU.

And the price for each workshop is £10 - or you can block book six workshops for £50.

For more info, please email me at:

contact[AT]siobhancurham[DOT]co[DOT]uk

I'm also currently looking for venues for the Dare to Write Workshop Tour, so if you would like me to come and run a workshop for your organisation or at your venue, please get in touch.