Instructor: Beth Daniels. Game plans. Coaches have them, the things the team or particular players will do when on the field or on the court when up against the plays their opponents make. Writers should have them, too.

You make a grocery list of items that shouldn’t be forgotten at the store, right? Your story needs a list like that.

When going on a trip to a place that is unfamiliar territory, don’t you have a map along to peruse? Your plot wants one as well.

In fact, everything in your story could benefit from a Writing Game Plan. 

The Game Plan either comes before plotting or becomes the plot guideline for a Pantser, in which case it’s what you feed the story seed with to allow it to grow organically for you.

Game Plans don’t need to take quite as long to build as a plot usually, and that’s because they are a check list of necessities, the things that need to be included. This could be backstory, motivations both exterior and interior, characters, scenes, actions, and timeline. Guidance, suggestions, comments, plus questions answered and hurrahs given, will be a daily workshop joy (at least I hope they will be so considered).

We’ll launch into devising the Game Plan for your next WIP, or your current WIP if you wish, during this scant week. Blackboards, white boards, or electronic tablets aren’t necessary, though if you want to draw Xs and circles and lines of movement, it’s okay to do so.

Beth Daniels currently writes as Beth Henderson and J.B. Dane, though she answered to Lisa Dane and Beth Cruise in the past as well. She has worked with editors at Berkley, Zebra, Leisure, Harlequin/Silhouette, and Simon and Schuster's Aladdin Paperbacks, done e-books for a now defunct company (not her fault, she says), and began her writing life with hardcover books slated for library use with a publisher that got out of the romance business (again, not her fault). More recently she’s had a number of articles about writing picked up by e-zines, saw a short story published in a mystery and suspense magazine that turned up its toes the next year (really, really not her fault), and has a story in the MOTHER GOOSE IS DEAD anthology from Dragon Moon Press.

For over a dozen years Beth taught college level composition, both in the classroom and online, and a credit course on Novel Writing. Five of her former Novel class students are now published.

Twenty-six of Beth’s manuscripts have appeared in print or e-book format. These have been historical romantic adventures (6), romantic comedies (10), romantic-suspense (3), and young adult romantic comedy (7). Her titles have appeared in 12 different languages in over 20 countries. At the moment she is working on various manuscripts and collaborated with another RWA member on a contemporary/fantasy/romantic adventure. She also ventured into self-publishing to keep her out-of-print backlist in print.