Your Book Starts Here - Storyboarding for Writers
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 26 янв 2025
- Popular book-writing blogger (HowtoPlanWritea...), award-winning author of 13 published books, and master writing instructor Mary Carroll Moore helps you take your novel, memoir, or nonfiction book from idea to print! She teaches weekly online classes to hundreds of writers around the world, using this method of building a book, via the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis (www.loft.org).
Finally, sound, easy-to-follow advice on:
How a storyboard designs your book's flow of chapters and ideas
How to handle your book's creative tension
-and avoid writer's block
Why you can throw away your outline
-random writing leads to perfectly linked chapters
Mary Carroll Moore, M.A., MFAW, has been writing, teaching, and publishing since the 1970s. Her thirteen published books include award-winner Your Book Starts Here: How to Create, Craft, and Sell Your First Novel, Memoir, or Nonfiction Book (Riverbed Press, 2011), the PEN/Faulkner-nominated novel Qualities of Light (Spinsters Ink, 2009), best-selling memoir/self-help book How to Master Change in Your Life: Sixty-seven Ways to Handle Life's Toughest Moments (Eckankar Publications, 1999), and eight titles in the health and food genres including Cholesterol Cures (Rodale Press) and the IACP/Seagrams (Julia Child Award) winning Healthy Cooking (Ortho Publications).
A former nationally syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, Mary's essays, short stories, articles, and poetry have appeared in literary journals, magazines, and newspapers around the U.S. and have won awards with the McKnight Awards for Creative Prose, Glimmer Train Press, the Loft Mentor Series, and other writing competitions.
Facebook: Mary Carroll Moore
Twitter: @writeabook
Linked In: Mary Carroll Moore
Web site: www.marycarrollmoore.com
Weekly book-writing exercises on her blog: howtoplanwritea...
There are so many needlessly negative comments. Get a crip people. She recorded the video years ago, when camera quality and sound were embryonic. The fact that she made a RUclips video was probably pioneering at the time. Kudos to Ms. Moore. This is excellent information for new writers. We can overlook the audio issues.
I am undertaking a diploma in novel writing and I am also working on my debut novel. I have read many books all offering different ways of outlining a novel and all of them have been very difficult to adapt to the physical process. Your storyboarding process has enlightened me and has perfectly pushed everything I have learnt into one final, excellend concept - which I will definitely be using. Thanks for teaching us Mary!
I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for posting this. I am just beginning my journey as a writer and I have always preferred to be a "fly by the seat of my pants" writer but I found it made staying on target with my novels difficult. I was looking for something that was simple to work with and didn't require a lot of effort to get the story laid out (I abhor outlining) and this seems like a wonderful technique. I will definitely give it a try.
I don't know how to thank you. Within these 12 mins I was actually able to divide my whole book into the 3 acts... You are amazing and your students are lucky to have such an awesome teacher... Thank u...
I have been writing for awhile, taken courses, read LOTS of books, but this is the best explaination I have ever witnessed and put so many things in perspective for me. *Getting to work now!* thanks so much!
I'm 14 and I'm writing a book too! This has really helped!
The middle section (act 2) of my book was dragging, and I went back and rewatched this video. I followed Mary's instructions, and I made up little post its for each scene or narrative section of that second act, and I looked for ways to order them to give rising and falling action, from point 2 to 3 and down to 4. I think it really helped, and my book reads much better now. As I go into final revisions, working on language and little tweaks, I am happier with how it reads. Thanks, Mary
This is exactly what I needed! Thank you for putting this out their for us new writers!
This video contained unbelievably helpful information for me. The "W Storyboard Structure" is an extensive, yet simple enough, way of showing me the structure to a story. Thank you~!
This is the most helpful video regarding novel structuring I could find on RUclips.
I was already familiar with this structure, but I have never seen it presented in such a coherent way.
Thank you!
Although the quality of this video was somewhat poor, this is the best information I have learned during my outlining phase! Thank you SO very much Mary!
im a freshman and my teacher assigned this video for homework. i was surprised at how helpful it was!
How useful. Your storyboarding technique takes my spotty archipelago of plotting ideas and solidifies them into a continent. Thanks.
Thanks so much for all the great comments. Feel free to access the W storyboard from my book Your Book Starts Here. It has a sample diagram that you can photocopy and enlarge.
This can be a fun process when shared but also be a frustrating process when significant gaps are discovered in the plot. It is a technique that improves with practice. I found that perseverance is the key to success with storyboarding.
Thank you Mary for taking the time to do this for all of us. Very informative.
WOW this is incredibly helpful. I used to write a book series back when I was in elementary school to a little bit into middle school. It was definatly a lot of fun, however I was just like what you said towards the end: My islands never formed into continents they were so far apart in fact, that I gave up on my story and never took it back up again. Now that I know a good way to set it up and It works even for far minded people like me, I'll make a new one and hope for the best!
Thanks a lot!
You did a great job teaching a topic that tends to be too convoluted
You are great....thanks, i had some blocks in my book , they are now easy to explain..........i LOVE you.
Thanks MCM.
I am not very disciplined abut my writing. I usually write what comes to my head first, in absolutely no order. Out there somewhere, I know how the entire story will come together. However, I also found out that it takes a longer time to finish my work - sometimes just collating the chapters takes weeks. And forces reviews and edits. Your storyboard sounds very useful. Now, I have to find a way to convince my head that this is the better way to go. Old habits...
Mary Carroll Moore, you have dropped a gem in this video and hopefully, one day, you'll hire a developer and work on doing this as a writing app. Its visual appeal will cater to the younger generation and bring you back into the forefront of Story Development.
This is great. I have never used a storyboard before. What I do to stretch myself is We Writes. It's where I collaborate with other writers, other styles, etc. on a single short story project. This helps me paint pictures in my mind of different ways to express my main plot line through the chronology of a book I am writing. I think I am going to try a storyboard on my next novel.
I agree exactly what I needed right now. Bought 2 story boards. Should have watched until the end and bought 3. For the future for sure if the first two work. Thank you for doing this video!
Thank you so much for the video!!!! I now have a plan to follow to get my ebook written.
This video was very helpful in giving me a framework to use as I begin plotting my writing. I believe this simple structure will prove to be invaluable to me as I write! Thanks very much for sharing.
What a very informative presentation. Thank you very much. This was very helpful.
thanks Mary, have just watched the video twice (and made notes), and am going to play with the storyboard idea for my own novel-on-progress!
Extremely helpful tool . This makes everything more clear.
Anxious to try this. I am all over the place when I write. Thank you!
Thank you for taking the time to share your insights. Very good information.
Thank you! I can finally start writing that novel that I've been putting off....
Can't thank you enugh for this video, I've been using it for years!!!!!
Thank you so much. I have an incredible story to tell, and all my life I have been very creative at telling stories and writing assignments, but never have the structure to map out. Now you have made it like just filling out a frame, which i can certainly do and it changes one huge daunting cloudy challenge to specific tasks. When I make the Book Of The Month, I will certainly credit you.
Thank you for sharing your secrets and knowledge with us. I write little (what I called) snippets of my story and then merge them...now I know they are little islands that connect into continents! Thank you! :D
So helpful, thank you! Concise & clear explanation.
Thank you. Just finished using your W storyboard for my story.
Thanks for the advice. I just went thru my Outline and now it makes sense.
I keep coming back to this video because this one makes the most sense. I have a lot that I need to write so I'm thinking of putting it into separate stories within a book. I really like this video tutorial :) Thank you!
Yes, story boarding is a very practical, helpful idea. Great video!
-Sarah
(Writer, Blogger, Writing Tutorial Maker)
the corners of my mouth are turned up..i enjoyed your lesson
Thank you so much for posting this. I feel rather optimistic as I've been really struggling with a complex story idea for a number of years now and I'm hoping the story board idea will stop me tensing up whenever I think about it.
Without knowing how to construct a book, I've only been making things more complicated and no sooner had you started explaining the process, I realised I've two or three books worth of ideas and not one. I'm hoping that this will ease my anxiety.
Many regards, Matt.
I think this is a very useful and informative guide to properly structure a storyline. It reminds the potential author that events have to go this way and not that at a given point in their story.
omgggg!! ur soo smart!! this has helped me soooo much!! i started the idea for my fiction novels years ago...started it 1 year ago and have just wrote little snipets of it and wasnt sure where to go...this has helps me soo much! and it even helped unblock how to make things connect. thank u!
Thank you Mary this information was very helpful. I'm going use it in my memoir and share it with my writers circle.
indeed, a storyboard is very useful and gives a clear vision of the 'flow' of your book... That was a awesome video ;)
This was a great video Mary! Thanks for you help! I was starting to bog down but this has helped immensely!
Simple.Direct.Beautiful. Too good mary..Thank you..
Very good video, A little hard to follow the graph since we can't see it, but I got the general idea
This is a grand rethinking of the traditionally taught "Plot Diagram", with its all too simplistic rising action, climax & unwinding action.I always thought it was too simplistic, given the action movie mindset of most students who expect a lot more story after the supposed climax in schoolbook literature. I'm going to try to find out if other educators have re-thought that diagram, particularly in light of such intriguing writing maps such as yours here. Thank you so much.
+rob dizo ----------- said: This is a grand rethinking of the traditionally taught "Plot Diagram", with its all too simplistic rising action, climax & unwinding action.
Right. Feralt's Triangle:
www.baenebooks.com/chapters/9781614751755/9781614751755___7.htm
So antiquated but still a favorite of our pal, Dave Farland. That's because of the plot DEVICE that he adds to it --- the "Try Fail Cycle." (Also a favorite of Robert McKee and Dan Wells.) It seems to me that Feralt's Triangle is wholly suited just for that plot device --- or one even more simplistic.
Google it and --- by all indications, Feralt and Freytag were the same guy. (They're not.) Freytag's Pyramid --- another antiquated paradigm (circa 1864). By the time Freytag published that paper...Jane Austen had already been successful with the "W" structure, soon to be followed by Lew Wallace (Ben Hur), Robert Lewis Stevenson (Treasure Island), Henry Haggard (She) and in the 20th Century, Edith Wharton (The Age of Innocence).
Definitely useful. Thank you. Now let's start.
OMG . hello , i'am 15 jears old and i live in belgium. i just started to write my first book , i alrady got 2000 words and now i was watching some vids . when i saw your vid i saw i was using the w storyboard alrady in my mind , so i was alrady using this techniek whitout nowing it is a real techniek . i am now at the middle of te first slide down , and you helpt me a bit whit thinking of the rest of the story , thank you .
Hi Mary-
Looking forward to storyboarding with you at the Loft in Minneapolis in March.
Mary Jo Hoffman
I really appreciate you putting this video up. Thanks!
Succinct and crystal clear. Thank you!
My desire is to be a published author of a novel. This has been very helpful!
Thanks for this. It's very digestible and immediately applicable
This is going to help a big deal! Thanks, my fantasy novel will have better story thanks to this... hopefully.
Love this idea! Thanks for sharing. This method definitely appeals to me and my writing process.
this is very helpful, thank you! The center of the W is labeled "Back Story" but it's not covered.
Got it. THANKS
Thanks, Mary! You make it seem so possible.
Recommended 10 years later.
Thank you for this very informative and helpful video! I have hundreds of islands and characters and settings in my 'book' but I need to make them connect and was totally lost about how to do that. This gives me enough structure that I think I can pull it together. Wow, that's scary… :O
Thank you!!! Just what I was looking for!
I really like your sweater & scarf u look very nice in that color.
I recently purchased Plottr and saw your template. I've been looking at most of them because I had already started my novel and was about 26 chapters in. I've been trying to find a template that would help me structure what I have already written and that my loose structure would fit with. Your "w" structure is perfect. I'll need to do some tweaking to my islands, but it looks like I've already followed this basic idea already. Thanks!
That was absolutely excellent!
Marry you are an excellent teacher in writing a nonfiction book, in such short time you have explained so well how to start with W. It is an amazing, I would like to know if you offer any course how to write a book. Thanks.
Agreed. I love getting advice from other writers. It's very inspiring!
-Sarah
(Writer, Blogger, Writing Tutorial Maker)
@ Mary Carroll Moore, I am writing a book about a daring life from a wolf's perspective. They can communicate with each other and I have the whole thing planned out in my head. I started writing, then I thought I should add speech. Then I worried about having too much speech, and the whole idea has come to a halt. I very much appreciate if you could advise me to put not much speech in, a little bit of speech, or quite a bit of speech. Please reply, kind regards, Will.
Very useful!!!. Please make the sound a little more clear in the video. thank you very much
super helpful I can see a clear path in my novel now thanks
This was wonderful, thank you! Do you/anyone have any videos or recommendations about theme, voice, pacing, inner/outer story, and dilemma that you mentioned at the end?
Let's see if this works for my book. Thank You!
Thanks Mary.
Thanks, for letting me learn, from you.
This was very informative, Thank you very much.
Awesome! So informative and clear! Thank you so much!
what about for a series? i already made my first book and planning my second but planning to make a different book next to give out interest.
Thank you very much. Very informative. You did an awesome job!
Thanks Great job in helping us that need it. you are awesome
Great explanation. Thank you.
Clear and to the point! Thank you!
this was incredibly helpful..... THANK YOU very much....
I see a problem here. There is an implication that Act 3 is a point synonymous with the end or final resolution, which seems to short-circuit what should be an accelerated interval of time (as opposed to a point) that begins well before the end and terminates at the resolution. I think the three acts probably are best expressed as three intervals demarcated by points between each one's own start and end rather being points in and of themselves as this 'W" seems to imply. Thoughts?
Thank you, this is very helpful to a beginner.
Go on Amazon and read Creepy Little Things by Parrish Gore. His stories are really suspenseful. I've only found one book by him so I think he is just starting out as well.
Jack W you've inspired me to head on over to Amazon to read the product description. These short stories look right up my street so I've taken the plunge and bought it :) . Thank you.
I have now read the 3 short stories and totally agree about the suspense, especially the last one called The Undying Murder Victim which has a real sting in the tail ending. Again thanks.
I thought so too. Kind of leaves one hanging in a way. I'm waiting on some more of his stuff, that's the only book I have seen so far.
Jack W It's sounds awesome. I'll try and have a look, but I can't guarantee it. Suspense isn't really my thing, I preffer fantasy. But, I smiled at the fact you 'inspired' a person to read this author's books. ;)
Thanks, now I can develop my game's story better.
Very helpful! I've never seen a storyboard done this way before! =)
I believe whatever helps you understand and discover you story and characters is the best method. So do what helps YOU
Thank you for your comments! Very happy this video helped!
Feel free to visit my website to learn more about my classes and workshops--on line and in person--for storyboarding.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience.
this makes sense and is very helpful, thanks
thank you sooo much for this... it's been a great help.
1000&1 Astonishing Random Facts released on Kindle last night. Thnx
This was really helpful thanks
Thank you. Visual learner. Smile.
Thank you for posting these tips!
This a really great informative video. I do have one question. I am on book 2 of a 3 part story. I am at point 4, the situation is terrible and there is a lot of confusion in the mind of the hero. I don't want to go to point 5 and make a happy conclusion. I want the end of the situation to stay terrible so that it leads to book 3. Do I have to follow the three acts so that the end of book 2 has a happy-ish ending? Again, thanks for a great video.
Thanks. This makes sense.
I'm not sure what Islands are... isolated ideas? Continents are connected islands (peninsulas or archipelagos)?
Thank you for the video. I found it very helpful!!
Very helpful, clear advice. Thank you!
"This is as inspiring as that novel you wrote in the mid-90s, M. C. Moore." --Reward Morrison Nangi from Barcelona, Spain.
Brilliant work!
Great material!
Thank you so much for sharing your hard earned secrets. Many writers are better because of you. Bravo :)
You are very interesting to me! This is my first time watching you!