Marshall Plan for Novels

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There is some good stuff in the Marshall Plan, but overall I don’t like canned writing programs. Usually they are also way overpriced. You can take the parts you like from his workbook (pick it up used for $10 amzn.to/c2aW4I on Amazon) and create the templates yourself in Scrivener. I did this with a couple of his scene sheets I liked. Took 5 minutes to create the templates in Scrivener. Cheap, effective, and Scrivener is way more flexible.

It is no help if you are writing a first person (or third person limited) narrative as it assumes the story is being told from multiple pov’s and lays out scenes accordingly. Like many structured approaches to writing it is very restrictive.

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Oh my goodness, I went on that site and clicked on one of the links and got the ‘BookPromotionSissies.pdf’ file.

I nearly spat out my latte when I saw this gem in it:

" To find contact information for many celebrities’ representatives, visit whorepresents.com. "

Hmmm, well I suppose Christmas is approaching, (but what to buy?!) … :open_mouth:

Eddy

Hi Lord Lightning,
Please don’t take my comments personally, I am merely adding to the total sum of knowledge, albeit in a cack-handed and abrupt manner. My judgement about the Marshall Plan software is actually based on my assessment of it after purchase. I communicated with Marshall himself who told me it would be no good for 1st person narrative and gave me a refund on that basis. I found it rigid and formulaic, which I think is the whole point of it. Not for the likes of me, but as you say, could be perfect for others.

As for Truby’s software: is your opinion based on the purchase and use of version 6 for mac? I will stick to his book, which has some useful stuff in it and is a fraction of the price. Again, one can apply within Scrivener without breaking the bank.

Toodlepip

You might find the two templates on this page to be of some use - the novel one and the chronology one:

https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/terrific-the-beta-blows-every-other-app-away/106/1

:slight_smile:

Thanks to Lord Lightning for posting the forms. I took a few moments and created interactive pdfs to make it easier to enter data and advance with tab to new field. For anybody interested. You can add them to your Scrivener file in a Templates folder (as described in the manual), which turns them into templates, then access through the contextual menu or Project tab on top menu.

Action Sheet.pdf (79.2 KB)
Reaction Sheet.pdf (73.9 KB)
Character Fact Sheet.pdf (58.3 KB)

Final template; this one an adaptation of the setting sheet contained in Scrivener novel writing template.

Setting.pdf (70.4 KB)

I don’t know about a template but you can buy a copy of his book in ebook format over at smashwords. It comes in epub, mobi, rtf, lrf,pdb, txt, and pdf formats. Just go to smashwords.com and do a search for Even Marshall.