The Inside Story

Too often, when we writers sit down to write our stories, we jump to the What Happens. We send our characters running off on a wild adventure, or stumbling into a spooky forest, or falling into a love triangle, and we’re off and running, imagining all the things that will happen.

In other words, we jump to the plot.

 But plot is only half the story. The outer half of the story.

 To write a story that works, you also need the inner half of the story. The Why It Matters.

 The inner half of the story is called the Internal Arc of Change.

A just-right plot is designed to move your protagonist along their internal arc of change.

That means you need to know what you protagonist’s internal arc of change is before you can plot your novel.

And I’ve got just the tool to help you do that.

The Inside Out Synopsis

The Inside Out synopsis is a story development tool that helps you build your story from the inside out. It will help you articulate your vision for your story, uncover the Internal Arc of Change, develop your plot, and keep you on track as you revise. Using the Five Questions, designed to help you uncover the heart of your story, and the Seven Key Elements of Story to help you uncover your story’s spine, the Inside Out Synopsis will help you draw the map that will help you draft and revise your story.

This is not just another plot outline tool that keeps you stuck on the surface of your story, never really getting down to anything real. This isn’t about Excel spreadsheets or lists of scene beats. A synopsis is written in paragraphs. No Roman numerals allowed. And in the process of wrangling your plot and your internal arc of change together into a paragraph, you begin to see how these two elements interact with each other to tell your story.

Are you a Plotter or a Pantser?

If you consider yourself a plotter…you likely love the organization and clarity and control over your story outlines can give you. But too much focus on structured outlines can lead to a story that’s focused too much on the What is happening - the outer plot arc - and not enough on Why It Matters.

If your readers don’t know why what’s happening in the story matters, they aren’t going to keep reading. No matter how exquisitely you craft your plot, it won’t mean anything if there’s no internal arc of change. All you’ll have a collection of things that are happening to your characters.

If you consider yourself a pantser… you likely hate outlines and prefer to discovery your story as you write it. But not taking the time to consider your story’s big picture - what it is you’re trying to say and how you’ll get there - can leave you with an unfocused story that doesn’t know what it wants to be.

The Inside Out Synopsis is the best of both worlds - it helps plotters open up to discovery and helps pantsers envision the big picture.

Grab your Inside Out Synopsis today and start building your story from the inside out.