The Writing and Marketing Show

Plotting Your Book Using Page One Notebooks

February 16, 2022 Wendy H. Jones Episode 109
The Writing and Marketing Show
Plotting Your Book Using Page One Notebooks
Show Notes Transcript

Today I talk about plotting your book and my experience of using Page One Notebooks. If you don't know what they are, you really need to listen to this show. 

Special Offer

Page One have very kindly offered a discount to anyone listening to the Show. From 16th February until 2nd March, anyone who uses the code WENDY10 will get a 10% discount on the notebooks. That is extremely generous. However, one person who orders with the code will be chosen to receive their whole order free and will have the money refunded. 

Wow. What a generous company. 

Wendy Jones:

Hi, and welcome to the writing and marketing show brought to you by author Wendy H. Jones. This show does exactly what it says on the tin. it's jam packed with interviews, advice, hints, tips and news to help you with the business of writing. It's all wrapped up in one lively podcast. So it's time to get on with the show. And welcome to episode 109 of the writing and Marketing Show with author entrepreneur, Wendy H. Jones. And what a wild journey it's been on what a wild journey, it will continue to be here at the writing and Marketing Show. This week, I'm going to do something that I've never done before. And I'm going to be talking about plotting your book, but using an notebook called page one, which is a specific notebook for writers. But we'll get onto that in a moment. What have I been up to this week? Well, I'm really gearing up getting ready for the Scottish association of Writers Conference, I've been for a meeting with the hotel, and I can tell you I'm really looking forward to it. And the hotel are looking forward to us coming. And I have to admit, I'm looking forward to being spending a weekend with some like minded writers and to be able to meet with writers once more. It's been a long, two years. So COVID willing, we're going to be meeting in another four weeks. And that four weeks on Fridays starts. And it's come around so quickly. I'm also been doing some preparatory work for my trip to Antigua, which is four weeks after that. So it's all just coming along amazing speed. And my writing life seems to have taken off again, you know, it feels like COVID never been here, except there are a lot of things you have to do to prepare for these visits because of COVID. And that's all the things that I've been looking up getting myself familiar with, so that everything is in place for both the conference and the trip, for me to be able to have a good trip that will help my writing life, but will allow me to go and do the research I need to do and allow me to go to run and go to a Writers Conference. Before I get on to the product, I would like to say that it's an absolute pleasure to bring you this show every week. I do so willingly. And I love doing it. I love coming up with topics. I love the people I interview. I love helping you on your writing journey. However, it does take time out of my week, and my writing. And it would help if you wanted to support me through Patreon. So you would go to patreon.com forward slash Wendy H Jones. And you can support me for just $3 a week, which is sorry, $3 a week, $3 a month. Hey, I'm trying to get more money out of you here, guys. $3 a month, which is the price of a tear coffee in somewhere like Costa Coffee or Starbucks. And it would help me enormously and it would let me know that you enjoy the show and you want to continue doing it. So what of page one? Well, first of all, I need to start by saying that I have no affiliation to the page to the page one guys are to write gear who actually do page one. I have no interest in their company. I don't get affiliate. They don't know me from Adam. I don't know anybody that works there. All I know is that I bought them notebooks and I'm absolutely blown away by say I bought my notebooks I actually got them for Christmas. And been a bit been a bit ambitious centre pita in my own pocket here because somebody gave me them. And I got three, and I'm blown away by them. And I really, truly it's helping me enormously, especially with the with the books I'm doing about Thomas Graham and my historical ones, as you will see, there's a lot of different things in them. Now you're probably sitting here thinking, what is a notebook? Why are we talking about a notebook? Well, first of all, I'm a Panster. I'm a girl who starts writing and I let their story carried me forward. And I've always done that. And it works. I do a little bit of loose plotting, but not a lot of plotting. I let the story ideas flood in. However, for my Thomas Green books, I do have to plot them out because there are a lot of historical facts that need to go into them. And I need to make sure that I've got things in the right order. So that would happen at that time. And I need to get facts and figures together I need to get characters together. The characters are real. So I can't just make them up out of my brain as I go along. So I need to have a record of what they're doing. When they did it. Why they did it. I have to have all that written down so that I don't go off piste and say that somebody was in Edinburgh when they were actually in America at that point, because they're real people. And so I really do need to get this right. So I thought I would do some plotting for this or plotted out properly, not some plotting, I thought I would do a properly plotted out novel for this one. No, that doesn't say that I can't let story ideas flooding as well. Because although it's based on fact, there is still some fiction in this. Because you can't just do the fact that has to be things that ended the things that were happening around the time. But again, a lot of that will be fact as well. So if I say there was a demonstration in Edinburgh, when he was in Edinburgh, and that demonstration happened two years after he left Edinburgh, I need to make sure I get all of these things in the right sequence throughout the series. So at the moment, I've got three of these notebooks for the first three books. Now, why page one, well, I saw an advert for them on Facebook or somewhere Instagram, I'm not quite sure where, but I saw an advert for them. And I thought, Well, this looks like my type of notebook, I will go and have a look. And I'm so glad I did. Now, the to get a notebook should go to a website called write gear.co.uk. And writers WRI te gear is ge r.co.uk. And they do the page one notebooks. Now, these are basically notebooks that you use, that are made for writers, it's to stop you staring at a blank page. And it's about they say it's about keeping everything together. It's about keeping all your ideas, all your plot ideas, your plot graph everything together, as you'll see in a moment. And what they see on the website is page one is more than just another notebook, it's a place to put down all your ideas for your latest project, with 192 pages divided into seven easy to use sections that will really let you focus on what's important. When you use it, it'll help you to get to the main event, writing your story. Now, I'm going to see how I felt that as I go along, because I'm going to read the bits off their website, then I'm going to tell you what it says in the notebook itself. And I'm going to tell you about how I feel about it. Now, I think it really does help you to get your story down in a sequence that you are able to write it, and it will help you write it. It helps you keep your ideas focused in one place. Now, I'm sure you're saying already. Well, when did I do that already. And it's called a notebook. And I don't have to buy a specific writers notebook for this. But seriously, if you go to their website, and you look at this notebook, you will be blown away by how much it helps you. It is amazing. So it's as I say, it's broken down into seven different areas. Now, the areas they put them in the website are different to the areas that that that happens in the actual book itself. And but it starts with research. This is all your background research about your book, well, it actually starts with the contents to be honest. And the contents pages are broken up into the sections. So you can write things down, you can write the page numbers that are on the page numbers are already there. So if you're looking for characters, for example, if I'm looking for Thomas Graham, I know if I go to page 42 Everything I know about Thomas Graham or not quite everything because Thomas Graham is my main character, and I have piles and piles and piles of files. But everything I know about him as a person at that point can be written in there. Now this will develop as the story moves on into the next book, because he'll be older, he'll be a different person. He's in the Royal Navy. So it's things like that will develop as I go through the series. But I know I need to go to page 42 in the editors setting. I've got some of the setting written down, you know, Apple, Falcon Chatham, things like that. And so all your contents are basically broken down into the sections in the book. So you've got research, characters, plot, setting, scenes, and then you've got something for submissions and ideas. So with the research, what they say is, that is creative reading, as well as creative writing. Now that's a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. And it's true, you have to read in advance, especially if you're doing a historical fiction because you need to do the research behind it. However, even if you're writing a contemporary novel, you're going to have to do some level of research. Unless you're setting it in your own world, then you're going to be having to research streets you're going to have to research. You know, what was happening at that time. What you're going to bring in reading newspapers, reading factual books about the area Things like that. You're going to have to research perhaps the way teenagers talk, how they interact with each other, how they interact with adults, there's always research to be done. And then when you open up the notebook, it's got research, and then it's got a little bit about why you should be worrying about research. And, and it says, we all have good ideas, but research makes them great. And I have to agree with that. It's the little details that can elevate the story in the audience's mind. So for example, what were they wearing? What were young men aren't University wearing? At that time? What did they go out? And do? And what did they drink? What could they afford to drink? Things like that? If it's contemporary? What are the in colours for clothing? What are the, you know, what is everybody wearing? The old wearing mustard? Are they all wearing teal green? Are they all wearing white? You know, because trust me, I have teenage nieces. And they all seem to wear the same things in the same colours, just different variations of it. So the research section is basically to keep everything together. So keep all your interesting facts at hand that you can use to colour your story here. And this is a section where he'll take the notebook with you, something will come to your mind, something will catch your eye, and you will write it down. For example, I might be strolling through Dundee for my contemporary books. And I noticed that there's a new statue being put up. Now this has actually happened recently, in Dundee, we've got a brand new statue in the middle of town. And it's got a polar bear, with a man running after it. And it's so random. And I went to research why that was. Now again of I've written a book, and it's set in 1982, that polar bears not going to be there, but it isn't 2022. So you need to have facts like that. You can just jot it down, give a little bit of colour, you know, your character can stroll past it, they can say to each other. Where did that come from? You know, and the other one could say, Oh, didn't you know we had a polar bear in dandy? You know, you can use it just to give a little local colour in your book. So carry the book around with you jot things down, that are research, and anything you are researching. If you're researching the police, what are the laws at that time. So there are several areas for research and the top the tabulated the tabulated with colours. So I know everything that's yellow is for research. So it's easy for me to find the next part. And the next part is characters. Now, what do they say on the website about that? They say, think about your favourite stories. What do you remember about them? Sure, there was that exciting twist at the end, and that fate seen earlier on. But with any of that have mattered if you didn't care about the people involved. We've created templates. So you can really know what makes your character tick. And it says that they then go on in the notebook itself to say, and there's always a balance to be struck between plot and character. But characters are key to any story. They're the window for the reader into that world. creating realistic three dimensional cut three dimensional characters is a tricky task. But it can lift a story from being okay to being great. And then fall, there's a lot more than that. There's a lot more writing than that. But then it gives you everything that you could need to perhaps know about that character. Now remember, I'm using a real character, so I'm having to do a lot of research so that I get his character, right. So this is where it comes into play for me, because everything I discovered about this character while I'm reading things, while I'm reading his letters, while I'm reading his medical notebooks, the the ideas, the impressions I'm getting about him. For example, I'm reading through his notebooks, his medical notebooks, and I know who his lecturers were, I know what he did in terms of, you know what he was learning. But I also know he was a mischievous young boy, he was 16. Now they were considered a madman. But he was mischievous and easily bored as well like everyone else, because he was drawing caricatures of his lecturers in his notebook. So I can just jot a note down going, mischievous, light drawing caricatures. And I'm getting a feel for his character through that, and I can jot that down in this notebook. Now you can again you can jot it down in any notebook, but this is broken down. First of all, your character, their name, their role, or their central character, or the central character, sidekick, best friend, mortal enemy. Are they the protagonist or the antagonist? You know, where do they fit into it? Occupation? So for mine, he was a medical doctor. In the first book, in later books, he's going to be a ship's surgeon, but he's a medical student. So his occupation, will, will shape who he is, as well will shape his character. Because in the four years that he's at medical school, his character is going to change. And I'm able to put all this down and think about it, it helps me to think about it. So the history of your character. Now, even if you're making the character up yourself, they're going to have a history. They don't come fully fledged leaping onto the first page of your book. And there they are. They've got a history, they've got parents, they've got siblings, perhaps they've whether they're an orphan, where they brought up in foster care, where they brought up on the streets, are they? What background are they from? What ethnic background are they from? How does that shape that character? They've got a history? Where did they come from? Are the immigrants? Are they thinking of emigrating themselves? What are the motivations? Everything like that, and it takes you into the motivations next? What motivates your character? What is driving them to succeed? What is driving them to solve the case of It's a mystery? What is driving them to capture the capture of the planet? If it's a sci fi? Sorry, I don't do sci fi. So I apologise to all sci fi authors out there. What is the motivation? And it makes you think about the motivation of that character in depth, and you're able to write it down the links to the character, you know, have you got links somewhere where you've got notes about them elsewhere? Have you got links to their character, perhaps online, you know, the links to the character, and also notes about them. So this is where I can write down the mischievous part. The fact that my character was brought up by his sister, not his parents, his parents died when he was five, that would shape him that would shape his personality. And the time that he lived in shaped his personality, he was driven his motivation was to be a doctor, I can write all this down, then you can do a sketch of him in writing. The sketch can be things like, has he got blue eyes? Has he got green eyes? Has he got brown eyes? Is this hair long? Is his hair short? You know, what does he wear? What does he look like? Because he got a phenom Jaws he got a weak jaw. Are his ears large? You know, is he six foot tall is he five foot tall, is he returned, as he saw skinny, you can barely see him or her obviously, all this can be writing down, written down. And then there's a little box where if you have to say, if your actual abilities to draw are better than mine, then you can draw a sketch of the character. And I think that's brilliant, I really do. But I won't be doing that. Because honest to goodness, it would look like a stick figure. And thankfully, I have photographs of my my character, even though he's from the early 19th century, I have photographs of him, so I know what it looks like. But I could take a picture of that, and put it on my computer, print it out, and then just cut it out and pop it in there with a little bit of glue will be a pretty stick. And that would mean that I've got him foremost his image front and foremost at me, when I'm shaping his character, then you go on to do that for every single character you've got, including all the lesser characters, the sidekicks, I have to say as you go further along into it, and you've got more, more less sorry, minor characters, less important characters, their minor characters, then you only get one page for it rather than two. But there's room for a lot of characters in there. So how many characters you've got, that will be something there for you trust me, and I love it. I really love that because it's really made me dig deep into my character, and made me think of what it is that I need to do about him. And I think it's going to make a more rounded, more real, more realistic character, and he's going to leap off the page for people. The next section is plot. Now, on the website, they say, Do you know where your story is going? Plot is the spine of your story, your hand your setting, and character strong it. It's the Y of the story. Whether it's an intergalactic science fiction epic, a small town murder mystery, or a slapstick romantic comedy. It must propel your characters on their journey and bring them to the conclusion includes beat sheets and graphs to visualise your story. And trust me it does. It's phenomenal. So when we actually get to the plot section, and it gives you a quote, again, all starts with a quote, this one's from Thomas Hardy. I'm not going to read out all the courts because I've given you the entire notebook away and I don't want to do that. But they say it's a tricky balancing out plot and character. Often the more the seesaw swings in one direction, the lighter touches Didn't the other, think of those high concept complicated plots, the characters are often vessels for the story. But the reverse is true in those character driven dramas you love where often the plot is just a sideshow to spending time with his interesting and complex character. But your story must also serve your characters, you also have to have plot. So the next page goes into and it says a lot more about plot. But then the next page goes into a common approach is to divide the plot into three arcs. And it tells you all about the three act structure, the three arc plot structure, and then it goes on to talk about the five act plot structure, and why it's important and how it helps you, then they give you a beat sheet for each of them. And they also give you a plot arc where it's a graph, where you can write the bits on as they happen, and where they are. So right from the beginning to the end, you'll get everything in there, you'll get your inciting incident, your secondary thoughts, your climax of Act One, your obstacle, your conflict, and more another obstacle, the midpoint of it, your rising action, and more things that are happening, more crises, more disasters, more obstacles in their way, and really helps you drive the action in it. And then it takes you into the falling action in the climax for Act Three. And you can this is your setup, your confrontation and your resolution, it takes you all through that and you can write it out. So then you've got your beat sheet for that. You've got your big picture. So what's your big picture for that one? What's your big picture for act two? What's your big picture for Act Three? You've got your personal, your main character out. So for Act One, act two, act three, opposition, your antagonists? What are they doing to put things in the way? I mean, with my child, it could be that he's struggling at university, his lectures are driving and beyond his, his abilities that he's having to, you know, burn the candle at both ends, literally, because we've been using candles, you know, is he up all night? Is he exhausted? Is he trying to do other things, as well as do his latest studies. So you get that for Act One, act two and act three, then you've got your significant events. And what are the significant events in Act One, act two, act three, and they've got sub things for that as well. And you can write this all down and really dig in deep to where your plot is going to go. And that will make it easier for you to drive the narrative. Even though the characters are leading the story, it's a character driven story, you'll need to fit all this in as well, you can't just write a very pleasant story without any drama, action things in the way. And this will help you fit attend to whatever story you're writing. And as I say, on the next page, you've got your act one, act two, act three graph, and you can write down just little points, there's plenty of space to write more, but you can write down little plots about that, then it goes into the five act version. And you've got the same thing with the beat sheet for the five arts and your big picture, your personal, your opposition, your significant events, and you plot them all out across there. And, again, when you get down to the significant events, which is your opposition, your climax, your you know, your obstacles, it breaks them down into smaller things again, and then you've got your five act, plot structured graph that you can do, but it doesn't just leave you there. It then gives you pages and pages and pages, where you can actually discuss the the plot, you can start to write down your plot and where it's going. And I'm doing that already. Because I need to have a very firm handle on what is happening with my character, because it has historical and because it's a real character, I really need to know where the plot is going. Because it needs to mirror what actually happened and what was actually happening in his life around him in his life, what was being said in the newspapers, etc, etc. What was happening on the world stage that would shape what was happening in Scotland, because even then, we weren't an island. I mean, we're not got the stage where we're now got everything's happening all over the world. And we all know about it instantly. They still want an island even though we were an island, we weren't an island, we would have had things we would have known what was going on on the world stage. And my chart would have been looking at what was happening with the Royal Navy because he wanted to join he knew that. So all of that is happening and I'm writing it down, I'm using this to really dig down into the plot to really detail the plot, so that I know where the story is going. And I know that it's going to be factually correct at the same time. Now, I'm not saying that what you need to do is write everything down in here, and then you just string it all together, you've still got room for your ideas to come in, you've still got room for changes while you're writing it. But it really does help you in terms of and whether your novel is historical, or contemporary. This is really going to help you to plot your book out more fully. Now, I know I've been talking about fiction here. But a lot of this can be important. If you're writing nonfiction, such as memoir, or you're writing, you know, a nonfiction book, you can still use this to plot it out, because there are still things where you need to move things forward and take it further. And it will let you know where you're putting things, why you're putting them where you're putting them, it can still be used. Obviously, it is novel driven. It is fiction driven, but you can still do it. And then it moves on to setting. Now the setting what it says is where and when does your story take place. If you can visualise it, so will your audience and they'll buy into the story much more quickly. Each little bit of throwaway detail will serve to make your setting more real to your readers. We've included line pages to note down your ideas and dotted pages. So you can sketch out locations or maps for your world. So whether you're doing a real location, or whether you're doing world building location, you'll be able to do everything in this. And that what they carry on and sing in the book is set in is more than just naming your starship or sleepy Hamlet. It's the place and time that your characters will call home. And that is absolutely true. It's absolutely true that that's the case, you know, and they're setting pages are brilliant. I love the idea of being able to sketch out maps. As you know, I'm going to Antigua for a couple of weeks to be it to go on to go and do some research. And I'm going to be researching, you know, the distances between the military forts and Nelson's Dockyard, where my character would have been, I'm going to be using it to sketch out things in the island. I might even skip not that I'm any good at shapes as a narcissist, but I might sketch flowers or anything like that would bring my setting to life, you know, and I'm going to be really taking notes now, not in book one, not in my first notebook, because my first notebook is based in Edinburgh, so I'll be using that in Edinburgh. But the notebook that I'll be using for when he was in the West Indies, he was travelling his ship, I'm going to be using that notebook to really dig down into the setting the setting of his ship, what would a ship have been like, and I'm going on ships that he would have been around been on ships that he would have been on, I'm going on ships that he would have been gone, maybe not the original because it doesn't exist anymore, but ones that are exactly like it. And it would have just been the sistership of that. And I am going to really take extensive notes, so that my setting comes to life. But you can do this as well, for your own setting. Now my contemporary books are set and dandy. And I've my books, what I'm going to do is I can I do this anyway, I actually bought the place where it took place, and I will walk the streets. So if I want to, you know something happens in I don't know Brook Street Broughty Ferry, I will walk along Brooks Street so that I know what it's like, I know what the houses are like, I know what it smells like, I know what the you know, people are doing, how many cars go along? Is it busy? Is it quiet? Is there any shops on there, I will know all of that. Now that might not come into my book, but some of it will to give you a flavour of the setting. It will tell you about it. And so whether you're world building, or whether you're actually doing it in a real place, then you this will come in useful. The setting is brilliant and the pages are outstanding. So the next area it goes into his scenes. And it says on the website whether you prefer writing on a laptop or paper sometimes it serves the story well to plot out and draft the key scenes in your story. Use these pages to get to the heart of your story. And they really do help you to knuckle down and to get into the very heart of what your sins are. If you know what you're seeing Are, then you're going to bring them to life more fully. So it says in the book, it says, We know, we know you have your masterpiece on your laptop at home. But sometimes you need to step away from the screen, or you just can't get it when inspiration strikes. And you can carry this around with, you might not be able to carry your laptop around, but you can't carry your phone around. But you can carry this around. So every page, or every two pages can be used to plot out a scene to actually knuckle down, dig down, really focus on what that scene looks like in your head, and help to bring it to life. And again, there are loads and loads and loads of pages on scenes that will help you move that forward. And it's it's phenomenal, I love it, you can probably hear me turning the pages as we speak. It's a fabulous notebook, then it takes it further this is where it really does take it further. If you're actually going to submit this, you're going to submit it to agents, you're going to submit it to publishers, then there's pages that will help you keep a track of what you're doing. Now, I know you can do this in an Excel spreadsheet. But it's brilliant. If it's absolutely in the notebook that you used to bring this to life in the first place. Because it's there, you know where it is you've got the name of the book on the front of it, or just inside the cover. They're all different colours. By the way, I've got a red one, a blue one and a yellow one. So you know, I can go to my yellow notebook. And it's Thomas Graham, book one. I think that's my title at the moment, the word there's the working title, because I have no clue what it's going to be called yet. But I'm going to be submitting to publishers. So I can then go and see what I've done. So what they say is finishing your story is only half the battle. Now you need to get it out there and find an agent to help sell it to the world. We have carefully crafted these pages so that you can keep track of where and when you sent your story out. And who has come back to offer you that great deal. So what it is, it's not just the submissions, it's got different lines. So there's a pale pink line, I think it's pale pink or lilac or something. And then it's white, the shaded line, white line shaded line and in it you right across it. So agent, the agents say that with the contact details, the date you submitted them, the date you nudge them, if you have to remember you have to wait a certain time, the date you nudge them again, and then any notes and in your notes you could either put never heard back, or you can put tongue down, this is why or they've given me advice they want me to resubmit, you can write all that sort of thing down. And there's lots and lots of pages and areas for that. Then and I love this, I have to say I absolutely love the last bit, which is ideas. Now ideas for me, honest to goodness, I have ideas on bits of paper, I have ideas on my phone, I have a and then I'll be writing something. And I think oh, I'm only got this notebook. But at the end of it, you can write ideas for other things or ideas for this book, you might say as they say, sometimes you will try to solve a plot hole in your great present project when a brand new and great idea pops into your head, don't lose it, use these pages to note it down so that you can get back to completing the current masterpiece. And that's what they're about writing notes down. So I might suddenly come across something when I'm researching the end, but a part of this that says, Oh, this is what is going to shape him when he goes to Antigua. So I'm going to write that at the back of here. And then I can transfer it to the other idea. And I can just write it down, write it straight down. And then I can get back to plotting the novel again. And it's all there, nothing gets lost bits of paper are not going to get lost. And there's not as many pages as usual, but there's still quite a few. And you can write the ideas down. So even if I'm doing it in Edinburgh, and I go actually I've had a brilliant idea. This is what would happen later in the story. But I don't want to lose it. I'll just write it down. Yeah. And keep it by your bed and write it down if you're waking up in the middle of the night as well because that's the other thing. Yeah. So everything is in one place. That's what I love about it. Every single thing is in one place. Now I know you can use other other programmes to do this. I know I use Evernote and I love Evernote. I've got the paid version, but that's just jotting things down. It's not got the whole plot sectioned out so I normally have to go to again, you can't do that. Again. You can't do that and not getting ever not it's absolutely brilliant. But this page one has just blown me away. For the first time, I'm quite excited about plotting. And I really want to get to grips with it. And I take it with me, I go out and sit in coffee shops, I will write ideas down, I will write things down about the character as he's developing. When I'm doing my research, this is going to go all the way to Antigua. With me, one of the new ones, not this one, one of the new ones will go to antiga with me, because that, that I don't want the antiga stuff in this one, because this is for when he was at medical school. So everything I do is I go to Edinburgh, and I do research that goes with me, and I can just pop it in my handbag. It's really easy. On my rucksack, it's really easy to take. And as I say at the beginning, there's the content. So it's really easy to find things in notebooks, I put these little sticky tabs in and I love doing that. I write them in there. And then they fall off. So then I'm hunting through. And then I put titles on that making absolutely no sense to me later on. You know, because I think what did I mean when I said that, so you have to open it up, and you're reading what's through and I went, Oh, that's what I meant. You know, whereas this is all there at your fingertips. Now. They're not cheap. And if you buy more than one you get, you get them, you get them cheaper. And I think that's why my relatives probably bought me three for Christmas. It might have been that they were feeling generous. And but I do believe that they're absolutely fantastic. Fantastic notebooks. Now these guys don't know that I'm doing this. So I hope they don't mind. I really hope they don't mind. But I am waxing lyrical about their book. And I haven't told you everything that you can do with it. And it's I've not read every single thing out that is in the notebook. And because that's not fair on them, because you could just do your own notebook with it. But these are amazing. They're beautiful hardback books. As I say I've got a lovely bright yellow one, I've got a dark navy one, and I've got a red one. There are other colours as well, I'm not sure what they are. And this is the second edition, there was another edition, which I'm led to believe by others wasn't quite as, as useful. But this one has really blown me away. And I think it's worth every penny. Now. I'm Scottish. So let's face it, I like to save a buck or two, I'm not keen on paying a lot of money for something that's not really good. But if it is really good, I will pay out hence the reason I use Mac computers. And hence the reason that I love these page one notebooks and I am going to buy more. So if you're interested in buying them, you go to a place called right gear.co.uk. That's WRITEG e a r.co.uk. I don't know if they have an international shop. And I don't know if they ship internationally, you would have to look into that. But if they do, I would advise you to get them. I really really love these. And I think everybody should have one. Although it's up to you, you may not enjoy notebooks, and you may not want to write a thing in a notebook. And that is up to you. But you may not want to plot you might continue being a Panster. But this has converted me this notebook has converted me because it will keep everything is there. It talks you through it. It's all in a sensible sequence. And it looks good. What more can you ask of a notebook. So I hope you've enjoyed today's I know it's a bit different. And I as I say I have absolutely no affiliation with these guys. I get no money off them. They don't even know I'm doing this. I don't know who they are. I'm saying it because I absolutely love the notebook. But I think I will invite them to be interviewed because they'll give you a more in depth view of what it is. And I would really love to interview them, where the inspiration come from, how it helps them, how it can help writers in more depth. So I'm going to reach out to them. So in a future episode, you may hear that. So today has been about plotting your book but doing it using the page one notebooks. And I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you go and have a look even if you don't buy but I hope you do buy because I think these guys have played a blinder and I personally like to support them because they've done something good for writers. So that's it for this week. I will see you again next week with another episode episode 110 Next week, have a great writing week and I will see you soon. That brings us to the end of another show. It was really good to have you on the show with me today. I'm Wendy H Jones and you can find me at Wendy H jones.com. You can also find me on Patreon where you can support me for As little as $3 a month, which is less than the price of a tea or coffee, you go to patreon.com forward slash Wendy H Jones. I'm also went to H Jones on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Thank you for joining me today and I hope you found it both useful and interesting. Join me next week when I will have another cracking guest for you. Until then, have a good week and keep writing. keep reading and keep learning