If there’s one place my writing skill is weakest, it’s plotting. I’m pretty good at characterization and I’m great at dialogue, but the actual plots of my stories are often thin or full of holes or both. So I’m trying to correct that by reading books with great plots and by listening to Michael Stackpole’s podcasts.

The man is amazing at coming up with original, interesting plots off the top of his head. He’s able to look at his story line analytically and identify what elements are needed for the plot to unfold and what scenes best present those elements. Oh, how I wish my brain worked like that. I know he’s been in the business a long time and probably developed his skill through years of practice, so I have hope that someday I’ll have even a fraction of that skill.

Back in October, I treated myself to his series of articles on plotting and I was not disappointed. So as I develop this latest story idea, I’m going to review those PDFs and try to go about my plotting in a new, more analytic way.