Link dramatic action to emotional development

Examples of Social and Emotional Skills Include:

• Displays self-control.
• Expresses feelings with words.
• Listens and pays attention.
• Pride in accomplishments.
• Has a positive self image.
• Asks for help when needed.
• Shows affection to familiar people.
• Aware of other peoples feelings.

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Try showing the character's emotional growth in linear form on a plot planner that's separate from the dramatic action planner. Then compare both to see how they interact.

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THE BEGINNING (comfort and separation)

1) Introductions (who-what-why)

2) Grounding (when-where)

Beginnings are time of grandiose dreams of escape, success, change and possibilities. Introduce one characrer at the time, beginning with the protagonist. Give the reader a chance to become grounded in the style of the story, become familiar with the setting, and to focus on the main character. Don't overwhelm them.

• Establish the story's time and place
• Setup the dramatic action and underlying conflict that will run throughout the story
• Introduce the major characters, giving an idea of who they are, their emotional makeup and the weight they carry in the story
• Allude to the theme
• Introduce the protagonist's short-term goals and hint on the long-term goals
• What do you promise your readers the story is about?
• Alert to the limitations of your story

Backstories

(Don't tell a character's backstory until the reader had a chance to meet him. Begin by showing the character on his best behavior. Hint at weaknesses and flaws, but leave them at the background. Then, the reader will be more forgiving.)

Consider how curiosity works! The longer you wait to deliver the backstory, the exploration of what in the past made the character who he is today, the greater the impact of the relevation.

Ways: flashback / summary / dumping details in-dialogue. You can inject backstory info through word choices, mood, tone, actions / interactions. In rare cases, infodumps work.

What you leave out is as important as what stays in.

Rather than backstory, show what the character is unable to do due to flawed beliefs. The middle then becomes a journey to relearn / reattain a skill / knowledge lost / forgotten / stolen, necessary to conquer the greatest challenge at the climax.

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MIDDLE (resistance and struggle)

The character is confronted with a strange new world, that's fertile ground for exploration. The old rules and beliefs no longer apply. 

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HALFWAY (the next major turning point)

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THE CRISIS

Often, before the true road appears, failure, brokenness, fear, emptiness, and alienation cause suffering and loss. First, the old must be destroyed. 

The writer's way

Staggering from metaphorical death and pain, you enter a threshold. Choices:

Resist what is and become a victim

Yield to what is and become a victor

Stripped from what everything at the crisis, you clearly see your protagonist's story mirror your own.

END, TRANSFORMATION AND RETURN

After the crisis, the energy of the story turns down briefly and then expands. The pieces of the story begin to form a bigger picture. The end begins when the protagonist takes the final steps necessary for the completion of his long-term goal.

CLIMAX

Reconnect with the ultimate destiny. The promise of transformation is realized and released.

RESOLUTION

The sum of the character's actions. Gives the reader a sense of what the world looks like now that the protagonist's transformed.