Intensive: Plot Lab

May 2nd, 2025 - May 3rd, 2025

with Damon Suede

Take a deep dive into the seven universal plot points shared across all genres and media. For each plot point, Damon Suede will include an overview, narrative context, a meaty handout, examples from multiple genres, and a dollop of friendly prompting to prime the pump…followed by twenty minutes of Sprint/Pomodoro time so you can get cracking and/or ask any questions that pop up. Think of these writing sprints as mad science, a creative jungle gym, a prompt and a chance to recalibrate your process.

Want to feed the muse and keep story momentum going? Wrestling with a plotting problem? Crave creative accountability? Need a kick in the asterisk? This intensive is for plotters and pantsters excited to experiment, dig in, and write!

Our schedule is roughly 30 minutes of teaching, followed by 20 minutes of writing for each of seven plot points. We'll take a 5 minute bio break halfway through.

We'll cover:

  • Plot Point: Inertia (aka Exposition, The Status Quo, Ordinary World, Opening Image)
  • Plot Point: Offer…(aka the Inciting Incident, the Hook, Call to Adventure, the Catalyst)
  • Plot Point: Leap…(aka the Break into 2, Commitment, Crossing the Threshold, Predicament)
  • Plot Point: Reversal…(aka the Climax, Midpoint, the Inmost Cave, Point of No Return)
  • Plot Point: Failure…(aka All is Lost, Black Moment, Atonement/Apotheosis, Dark Night of the Soul)
  • Plot Point: Success…(aka Catastrophe, Resurrection, Confrontation, Real Solution, Finale)
  • Plot Point: Reward…(aka the Denouement, HEA, Return with Elixir, Aftermath, Comeuppance)


This intensive builds on the live class Damon Suede is teaching April 10th. Register separately here for the 2-hour class "The Genre Plot: Unpacking the Universal Truths of Narrative." If you're not able to attend the April class live, you'll be able to get the replay.

Notes

Who this workshop is for: <p>All levels welcome.</p>

Focus: Adult - Novels - Literary - Adult - Novels - Upmarket - Adult - Novel…

Group size: 40 writers

Submissions: <p>No submissions&nbsp;</p>

Fee

Members: $115; Non-members: $135

About Damon Suede

Bestselling author Damon Suede has earned his crust as a model, a messenger, a promoter, a programmer, a sculptor, a singer, a stripper, a bookkeeper, a bartender, a techie, a teacher, a director… but writing has ever been his bread and butter. Beyond romance fiction, Damon has been a full-time writer for print, stage, comics, and screen for three decades. He has won some awards, but counts his blessings more often: his amazing friends, his demented family, his beautiful husband, his loyal fans, and his silly, stern, seductive Muse who keeps whispering in his ear, year after year.

Schedule:

This is a live, all-day session Friday, May 2nd 10am-4pm Eastern time.