Marty Ambrose
From Planning to Product Using the Notebook MethodIf you've ever had a book idea but didn't know where to start or how to proceed writing it, welcome to the club. Conceptualizing, researching, composing, and editing a novel is a daunting task. We often hear about "pantsers" and "plotters," the writers who compose by the seat of their pants or the writers who meticulously outline chapter by chapter. Both ways work. However, there aren't only two approaches to bring a manuscript to completion. There is also "The Notebook Method" created by mystery writer Phyllis Whitney in her Guide to Fiction Writing, which incorporates both approaches by laying out the three phases of writing: planning stage, writing stage, and revision stage, each of which with as little or much detail as the individual writer chooses. You will be led through Whitney's working method and leave with a clear plan of how to set up your notebook (whether hard copy or digital) including tabs on broad areas, such as theme, plot, and conflict, as well as tabs on minor details of research, names, and places. |
Marty Ambrose is the author of a historical mystery trilogy: Claire's Last Secret, A Shadowed Fate, and Forever Past, all set around the Byron/Shelley circle in nineteenth-century Italy. Her novels have been published by Severn House (U.K. and U.S.) and Thomas Schluck (Germany), earning starred reviews in Publisher's Weekly, as well as a gold medal for historical fiction in the Florida Writers Association's Literary Palm Award. Marty's new stand-alone historical mystery with women's fiction elements, A Forsaken Vow, will be published by Crooked Lane Books in Fall, 2023.