Writing Excuses 10.11: Project in Depth: "Parallel Perspectives"

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Writing Excuses 10.11: Project in Depth: "Parallel Perspectives"

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2015/03/15/writing-excuses-10-11-project-in-depth-parallel-perspectives/

Key Points: Laying out a bonus story starts with how many pages are left. Each page gets an index card. This story, Parallel Perspectives, is structured as a framing story plus four individual perspectives, stories from each character's POV. Telling the same story multiple times from different perspectives. The index cards are used to identify open spreads and page turn reveals. Order of the stories grew out of the awesome moment, and looking at the details of style and story. Shape, then timeline, then details. Bookended framing story. In this case, the structure is used to point out that different people tell stories in different ways, rather than just perceiving the same event in different ways. One lesson: a collaborative story can be a much better story. Another point about structure is that the shifts in visuals, in tone or narrative voice, also support the story. There is also good use of lead ins and outs, with little hooks to guide the changes in who is telling the story.
( Start at the beginning! )

[Brandon] We're also here to give you a writing prompt.
[Howard] Oh, my, yes.
[Mary] So. What we want you to do is... And this is in preparation for moving forward to beginnings.
[Brandon] Beginnings.
[Mary] Which is going to be our next module. What I want you to do is decide on the promises that you want to make to your readers in your story, and outline based on those promises. So if you're promising that you are going to tell a heist story, work on heist stories. If you're... Work on making sure that you got those elements in there. If you're promising that you're going to have someone fall in love with someone else, make sure that you're featuring that in your outline.
[Brandon] Excellent. I think that'll work really well for them. You guys are...

[No doubt the missing audio says, "Out of excuses. Now go write."]