Susan May Warren

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

Self-Therapy: Showing Emotions

Yesterday, in Doctor’s Notes, I talked about connecting the reader to the character by showing the appropriate emotions. But what if you have a tough guy, like my Rafe Noble, who is a bull rider. He doesn’t walk around weeping, that’s for sure. Still, he’s hurting. His best friend has been killed, his life is in shambles, and worses, he’s just gotten his heart broken by beautiful Kat Breckenridge. I didn’t want to show him curling up into a ball in the cab of his truck. But I wanted the losses to pile up on him, and take him down. So, I looked for the thing that mattered the MOST to Rafe, the thing he clung to for safety. If you have taken any of my plotting classes, you know […]

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Dr’s Notes: Sympathy is not enough

By all accounts, I should love the new television show, the Bionic Woman (Jamie Sommers). I enjoy seeing a woman who knows a few self-defense moves, and someone who faces trouble head-on. The creators have even built in “sympathetic” devices — a little sister who Jamie has to deal with, the death of her boyfriend, the loss of her baby, the changes in her body. That should, in theory, make us feel for her. Even, like her. Except, I don’t. As I was watching episode 2 this weekend (had it on TiVo), I realized that the reason I can’t engage in the show is because I don’t believe this character. I am not connecting with her. Why not? I think it’s a lack of realistic emotions. What am I talking […]

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Ask the Doc: How do I decide what scenes to put in the book?

Rachel here: Have you heard “let the action unfold on stage” while studying the craft of writing? If not, you have now. (smile) On stage means “on the page.” As you write your story and plot your scenes a critical choice you face is deciding what must happen on stage, and what can happen “behind the scenes.” I’m starting a new book, “Love Begins with Elle” and am in the place of choosing my on stage scenes. What is important for the reader to invest in? No enough on stage action, and the readers don’t care. Too much, and I’ve bogged down the story with every little detail. The major scenes are easy. Like when the heroine meets the hero, when the heroine is proposed to, when the heroine realizes […]

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Prescriptions: Listen To Me! Ephiphany Week 4

By now, you should have figured out how to make your character suffer, and what his Black Moment is going to look like (and if not, that’s okay – just go back over the past three weeks of prescriptions and dig a little deeper). Today, we’re going to talk EPIPHANY. What is Epiphany? It’s the moment, right at the darkest in the plot when the character wakes up to the truth that has been dogging him the entire book and goes, AHA! (Accompanied by a little hand-to-head thump). It’s the moment when they figure it out, or perhaps the moment when they reach DEEP INSIDE to gather up the strength – physical or emotional that they didn’t know they had, to complete the task. How do we find that? Hint […]

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