The Plot Whisperer

I've been a bit remiss in not mentioning this excellent resource earlier. I first learned about The Plotwhisperer when I finished Nanowrimo this fall, and found a link to the Plotwhisper videocast. Plotwhisperer Martha Alderson takes all of us with those hopeless first drafts step by step through the process of redrafting and rethinking. Due to some difficulties, technical and otherwise in the month of December, I kind of lost the plot on this, so to speak, but plan to resume it again in the not too distant future.

My personal aside about all this is that watching the first video, I was struck by how very familiar the
setting felt. I didn't recognize it specifically, as it was someone's backyard, but there was a deeply Santa Cruz feel to it, for reasons that elude me even now. And sure enough, after a few more episodes, it ended up down by the Santa Cruz yacht harbor (fortunately, pre-tsunami), so I then knew it was a local connection.

Last month a couple of women came in and used the bookstore I work in as a setting for a little video they were doing. I had walked past them both several times as they were setting up, and they had some sort of big easel they were using, which for some reason I took to be for Japanese art. So it wasn't until sometime later as I was walking past that I heard the video as it was made and thought 'that's the plotwhisper!" When they had wrapped up and come back to the information desk, I was able to speak witht them both and tell them how much I was enjoying their YouTube series. They were both quite lovely.

Anyway, without further ado, here's a link to the Plot Whisperer which in turn has links to the whole YouTube series. It's really good. (And up through some part of May, there's even a contest!)