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Plottinator: A Fiction-Writing Course + Freebies

Suzannah Windsor Freeman

Note: This course and bonus offer are only available from November 1–6, 2021, after which the cart will not reopen until spring 2022. Early-bird deals are available November 1st–3rd!

Alex Limberg, a fellow blogger and past contributor to Write It Sideways (read his guest articles here and here), contacted me a while back to say he had a new self-paced, online fiction-writing course in the works. What made me interested in learning more about this course—Plottinator—is its focus on designing a plot for one’s novel.

Plotting is a serious weakness of mine. I can outline an essay, an article, a blog post—but outlining fiction is an entirely different animal. I’ve outlined fiction in the past and had some initial success with it, but without a strong plotting approach to draw from, I often fell back to pantsing when it all became too hard. Because this is one area I really can’t offer you meaningful advice on, I was keen to dig into Alex’s course and see if it’d be a good match for readers at Write It Sideways.

Alex Limberg teaches fiction writing at his popular blog, Ride the Pen. His background as a professional copywriter at a Hamburg agency gave him a solid foundation in what it means to grab your audience with an idea and a mini-plot. Later, Alex’s passion for writing led him to study in Hollywood, where he learned about screenplay, directing, and storytelling from a visual perspective. He has worked on feature films, shorts and commercials in Spain and in his home country, Austria, and now he’s funnelled all that life experience into this course.

After working my way through the Plottinator material, I’m confident it will be super helpful for those of you looking for some serious help with outlining fiction and understanding story structure. Alex’s detailed video lessons and printable worksheets helped me make a breakthrough with my own novel-in-progress, even though I was working through the material to review the course, rather than consciously applying it to my own work!

What Is Plottinator?

Plottinator is a four-module, self-study online course that coaches you through developing a complete plot. It’s a step-by-step program that includes:

Here’s a peek at the online classroom and just some of what’s included in each of the four main modules:

Plottinator lets you work with your own writing style and personal preferences. You can start your plot from a character you have in mind, from a specific scene you’ve envisioned, from an ending, or even from a theme. You can use the three-act structure or do your own thing without it.

Here’s What Other People Are Saying

Writers who’ve already greatly benefited from Alex’s course are sharing their experiences with others:

Dick Berman of DickBerman.com says:

I am a pantser who was halfway through my third action novel, not knowing quite where I was going to take it. I bought Alex’s course because I realized I needed to have some sort of structure to move forward. It worked. I will never write by the seat of my pants again. In my opinion, using the tools the course gave me is the only way to go.

Hazel Davies from Devon, UK says:

I did a university creative writing course as part of my degree. I got practice and feedback, but I never felt I learned how to write better stories. I’ve got books on creative writing but still had not much idea how to start, develop my characters, deal with the intricacies of the plot and incorporate twists, etc.

I saw your course, and the sample pages convinced me it was worth looking into. The course is so organised, straight forward and flexible. Before, I had no idea how to organise my work, and with this course I can do that and produce well-thought-out stories without having to keep going back because I’ve forgotten something or I need to redevelop the history of the story. I am so glad I bought this course. I believe it’s the best thing ever.

Carol Scribner and Larry Decker of Arizona say:

With Plottinator, Alex created the most straightforward, organized guidelines, and its templates are pure magic! Plottinator was a huge hit with us and helped my husband and I finish our now published novel, ‘Juliette’s Van Gogh’.

Peggy Insula of Florida says;

Your tutorials are clear, well-illustrated with examples, and warmly encouraging. Outlining, usually a nightmare, is evolving into a doable, even exciting activity using your methods. I have downloaded and printed all of the templates and ‘cheat sheets’ that go with each lesson and will use them like the holy book of plotting.

Each of these writers found that Alex’s course helped them overcome their plotting weaknesses. If you’d like to join them, the 30-day money-back guarantee ensures there’s no risk on your end.

And Now, the Free Stuff

First, you’ll want to click here to download your free ‘My First Scene’ worksheet. This is just one of 36 similar printable templates included in the full course.

Second, click here to learn more about the Plottinator course and see if it’s a good fit for your needs. If so, I want to encourage you to get the most out of your investment by offering you a free 2500-word critique of your first chapter or scene, when you complete it. To redeem this offer, you’ll need to:

  1. Click through to the Plottinator sales page. (The links in this post are affiliate links. Affiliate commissions help keep the lights on at Write It Sideways.)
  2. Purchase the course after clicking through to the sales page directly from one of the links in this article.
  3. Come back to Write It Sideways and shoot me a note via my contact page to let me know you’ve purchased the course. Once I’ve verified your purchase, I’ll send you guidelines on how to send me your 2500 words, whenever you’re ready. (This offer is void if you request a refund on the course after purchasing.)

Remember, Plottinator is only available for purchase from November 1–6, 2021, and is not expected to be available again until spring 2022. 

For many of us, plotting fiction is the most difficult part of the writing process. I encourage you to check out this course and see if it might help you overcome whatever hurdles are preventing you from moving forward with your writing!

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