Mom? Mom! MOM, CAN YOU HEAR ME? Sadly, I’m not standing across the room. I’m sitting at the dinner table, supposedly in conversation with my family. But they’ve said something, a snippet of dialogue or an event, a question – something that has jolted me out of conversation, and caused what my children call my Thought Blanket to sneak up and grab me. It pulls me under, and pretty soon I’m caught in a story. I feel like there should be a Calvin and Hobbes comic about a Blanket that sneaks up on Calvin and grabs him, pulls him under, because that’s what it’s like, isn’t it? One second you’re perfectly well engaged in the world, the next you’re caught in a scene, wondering if you’ve given your child permission […]
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About Susan May Warren
Former Russian Missionary Susan May Warren is the best-selling author of more than 40 novels and novellas with Tyndale, Barbour and Steeple Hill, and Summerside. A Christy award and RITA winner, and multiple finalist for the RITA, Christy and winner of Inspirational Readers Choice contest, Susan currently has over a million books in print. A seasoned women’s events speaker and writing teacher, she is the founder of http://www.mybooktherapy.com an online community for writers, and runs a fiction editing service teaching writers how to tell a great story. Visit her online at: http://www.susanmaywarren.com.Author Archive | Susan May Warren
Ask the Doc: Contest!
“Ask the Doc!” We at Book Therapy care about your WIP, and its problems… We know that getting along with your characters can be a challenge. They’re moody, or introverted, or maybe they simply don’t want to cooperate with your plot. Worse, sometimes they refuse to come out and play! We understand…and want to help!! Here’s your chance to get real advice from book doctors trained to help you fix your fiction. What is your MOST VEXING issue in your current wip? Go to the Ask the Doc entry form, write your answer, and be eligible to win a copy of NOAH LUKEMAN’s THE PLOT THICKENS — 8 WAYS TO BRING FICTION TO LIFE~ ! A fascinating book about CHARACTERIZATION and how to create juicy conflict. A MUST HAVE for […]
Read the RestBook Therapist Picks: White Space Reading
Take the day off. Oh, how I love those words. When you’re an author, or anyone who works at home, is there such a thing as a day off? Really? Because there is always SOMETHING for me to do – more promotion, answer another letter, maybe read more about craft, hone another page in my current book. A day off? What’s that? But, the truth is, to create, you need what I call WHITE SPACE. Space to think. To let your mind relax. And for many of us, relaxing isn’t just taking a walk…it’s reading. No—it’s reading without ANAYZING. It’s reading without having to dissect every scene, every sentence, every nuance of characterization. It’s reading for enjoyment. (Yeah, you FORGOT how to do that, didn’t you?) Every once in a […]
Read the RestPrescriptions: Breaking through Writer’s Block Week 1
Most writer’s blocks, and problems with story have to do with motivation, lack of greatest fears and greatest dreams of the main character. You’ve got a great idea – a great character, a great problem, a incredible theme…but you’re half-way through the book and suddenly, you don’t know where to go. Your scene seems boring, flat, and suddenly you’re looking at the entire book wondering how you got into this mess. This happened to me on my second contracted book Tying the Knot. It was the early days, and I still hadn’t figured out how to structure a novel, how to break past my writer’s block. I was home, on furlough, doing a lot of traveling, and somehow I had to fit in writing. However, I was just blank. I […]
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