Let’s talk setting. I mentioned in my notes yesterday about setting taking on a voice. It’s important for your book to have a setting that is alive, and contribures to the mood of the scene and book. But what if your setting, like Marshall University, doesn’t have a voice? What if it doesn’t need to function like a character, changing and growing. It still needs personality. In this scene from Reclaiming Nick, the Montana setting places a significant role in the story as a healer. Every character is, in some way, affected by the landscape. Maggy, one of the main characters, loves her life as a rancher. I wanted the land to act almost as an antagonist in the story, working against her. And to deepen its impact, I had […]
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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
Doctor’s Notes: Giving Place a Voice
I watched We are Marshall last night. Great movie – loved it, and even down to the outright frightening 1970’s styles. It a nutshell, it’s the story of Marshall University and their fight to find hope again after the death of their entire football team in a terrible plane crash. The movie is narrated by a cheerleader who loses her fiancé in the crash. Usually a football movie is about the coach, or one of the players (think: Friday Night Lights, or Rudy). In this movie, however, the main character is the TOWN. Yes, it features two coaches – Matthew Fox and Matthew McConaughey (two very good reasons to watch this movie), and a football player named Nate, but really, it’s about how a town moved from grief to hope. […]
Read the RestBook Therapist Picks: Leaper
I haven’t laughed out loud on an airplane for a long time. Seriously — I know it’s scary when the person next to you on a plane bursts into hysterical laughter. So, I try and avoid it. It helped that I was mostly sitting next to my husband on our recent trip home from Cancun when I was reading Geoffery Wood’s first time novel Leaper, but still, I know that my sudden hiccups of hilarity made a few people wonder just what, if anything, I picked up from Mexico. Fear not, I’m a good girl, I am. But I do love a funny book, and when it is rife with great dialogue, I can’t help it but read out. Which I did. On the plane. Basically, Leaper is a Urban […]
Read the RestPrescriptions: Listen To Me! The Black Moment Week 3
Welcome back! I hope you and your character and still talking to each other, now that you know his deepest fears, greatest dreams, and know how to hurt him! Because today, we’re going to talk about how to put all that knowledge together to create THE BLACK MOMENT. What is The Black Moment? The Black Moment is that place in the book where everything hits a crisis – both internally and externally. It’s the point of change in a book and can be the most powerful scene if done right. How do we find that black Moment for your Character? It’s easy…and Hint #3: Find their hiding place. Where do you derive your security? Hopefully, for all of us, it’s in the strength of God and trusting in His love […]
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