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Pitch + Premise = Spine

Posted on June 6, 2013 by in Editing Basics

Maybe you first heard of the “story spine” from Stanley Williams’ book, The Moral Premise.

But I actually thought of the concept all by my lonesome the winter of 2011 at the first Deep Thinkers Retreat.

Because it became clear to me we HAVE to know what the story is about in order to develop the character and the plot.

The pitch is that one or two lines, the concept, of the story that you tell editors or agents. Or you friends when they ask, “What’s your story about.”

You must be able to tell it in one or two succinct sentences.

If you ramble or start telling too much, then you’re not nailing the core of your story.

For example, my pitch for Dining with Joy was “It’s about a cooking show host who can’t cook.”

For The Wedding Dress I’d say, “It’s about a hundred year old dress four women wear over a hundred years.”

Beth Vogt’s pitch for Wish You Were Here was “What if kissing the wrong man leads to finding Mr. Right?”

Right away, the hearer gets the concept of the story.

So work on your pitch. What is your story about?

After you nail the pitch, work on the premise. The premise is the pitch expanded. It’s a short blurb.

When Joy Ballard takes over her father’s cooking show after his sudden death, she is completely out of her element. But her prowess in front of the camera makes her a huge success even though she can’t so much as fry an egg. When restaurateur Luke Redmond joins her show, Joy believes she has a way out. But love has other things in mind and carries Joy through the toughest challenge of her life.

The Wedding Dress

Wedding boutique owner Charlotte Malone was fine when fiance Tim calls things off. But when she discovers a hundred year old wedding gown in a battered trunk, she embarks on a journey to find the right bride for the gown and discovers her own rich heritage and the courage to face her future.

Once Upon A Prince

A European Prince falls in love with an American Girl.

Once you fine tune your pitch and premise, you have the spine – the answer to WHAT IS YOUR STORY ABOUT?

It’s high level. There are certainly layers to your premise and spine, but it gives you a plum line on how to develop your story.

While you may work on your character and plotting first, let me recommend you really fine tune your pitch and premise before you finish and polish the book and make sure your story functions off the spine!

****

OUPBest-selling, award-winning author Rachel Hauck loves a great story. She excels in seeing the deeper layers of a story.

With a love for teaching and mentoring, Rachel comes alongside writers to help them craft their novel.

A worship leader, board member of ACFW and popular writing teacher, Rachel is the author of over 15 novels.

She lives in Florida with her husband and her dog, Lola. Contact her at: Rachel@mybooktherapy.com. Her next book, Once Upon A Prince, releases May 7!

Go forth and write!

Do you need help with your story idea, synopsis or proposal? How about some one-on-one craft coaching. Check out our menu of services designed to help you advance your writing dreams.

The Power of the Rewrite A #TBT Repost

Posted on May 30, 2013 by in Book Therapist, Rachel Hauck, Rewriting, Writing

Note: I’m swamped with my own rewrite! So here’s a throw-back-Thursday post from last year.

The Power of A Rewrite

Q: Dear Therapist, I hear that novels are not written they are rewritten. But I edit as I write. Is that considered rewriting?, all I feel I need is a final polish. Why should I spend time with a rewrite? What do I gain?

A: I love this topic. To rewrite or not to rewrite… that is the question. Let’s just say up front, everyone has a different writing process. Fast, slow, edit-as-you-go, write and rewrite. Early risers, late nighters. A thousand words a day. Five thousand words a day.

Writers come in all shapes and mind-sets.

Some writers plot to the minute detail. Others have a loose idea of what they want to do when they sit down to write and let the story come to them day by day.

Some writers mix it up – do a bit of planning while letting the story underneath develop as they write.

You really have to do what works for you as a writer and I advise you to find that routine and stick to it. But with an option clause. Change is often necessary.

That being said, I’m a big fan of the rewrite. Even for the planners and edit-as-you-go authors, I think a rewrite before polish and submission is critical.

Here’s why. Nuance. Those little tie ins, the ping-back, the loop-in where something discovered at the end of the story can be foreshadowed or hinted at in the beginning of the book.

A rewrite allows you to tighten prose, to tweak character. It allows you to punch up dialog. Get rid of trite exchanges like, “Hey, how are you?” “Fine, you?”

A rewrite allows you to dig deep and ponder word choices where a first pass, or edit as you go, may not because you’re still discovering the story.

At the rewrite stage, the story is fully realized. You know where it’s going. You know what works and what doesn’t. Maybe something you thought was going to work in the beginning as a plot point never played out in the end and now you’re free to rewrite and make adjustments.

Take any college football team on a given Saturday. They hit the field with a game plan. But as soon as the first “hut-hut” is called, all the planning is subject to change based on what the opponent brings to the field.

At half time, the players and coaches go into the locker room and make adjustments. This is good news for the fans of the losing team. They pray, hope, believe their team will come out with a winning strategy for the second half.

When my team is losing, I’m so comforted when my husband says, “They’ll go in the locker room and make adjustments.”

Do you have a writing locker room? Are you free to go in and make adjustments?

As authors, we should be intuitive to our own stories. We should know what makes our story ping and sing. But we should also be aware of what needs to be changed. Open to what needs to be changed.

We should be keen to eliminate backstory dumps, slow or no-tension scenes. We should know when we are writing in circles just trying to discover the story.

Many, many times, rewriting is the very thing that shines the “light of truth” on our weaknesses. Not that we don’t need a skilled editor, we do! But learn to recognize where your story is weak and attack it in the rewrite.

Nothing is sacred in the rewrite.

Back to our football team. What if, at half time, they went into the locker room and said, “Coach, we’re getting killed on the short pass out to the flat.”

But coach said, “I spent all week designing that play. I love it. It’s so pretty when it does work. And it works well unless the quarterback is sacked and on his back looking, up at a defender.”

Would that make any sense at all? No! That coach wouldn’t be coaching for long.

Writers, if something isn’t working in your story, if the pace is slowed by your verbose prose, or retelling of the same plot point for three points of view, or from chapter to chapter, over and over, cut it. Time to change the play!

Rewrite gives you an opportunity to take a second look. To pick up the pace. To trim. Or in my case, add emotion and coloring.

Even if you edit as you go, and it works for you, take time to do one last pass through your story with a “rewrite” in mind.

Is every scene effective?

Is it powerful?

Does it move the story forward?

Does it illicit emotion?

Does it reveal something new?

Am I over telling? Over writing?

Is there too much internal dialgo?

Can you add symbolism?

Can you add foreshadowing?

Can you add metaphor?

This my friends, is the power of a rewrite. Embrace it. J

 

Happy Holidays! And keep writing.

***

OUPBest-selling, award-winning author Rachel Hauck loves a great story. She excels in seeing the deeper layers of a story.

With a love for teaching and mentoring, Rachel comes alongside writers to help them craft their novel.

A worship leader, board member of ACFW and popular writing teacher, Rachel is the author of over 15 novels.

She lives in Florida with her husband and her dog, Lola. Contact her at: Rachel@mybooktherapy.com. Her next book, Once Upon A Prince, releases May 7!

Go forth and write!

Do you need help with your story idea, synopsis or proposal? How about some one-on-one craft coaching. Check out our menu of services designed to help you advance your writing dreams.

Fairytales: Taste of Death

Posted on May 16, 2013 by in The Fairytale Code

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http://www.behance.net/gallery/Taste-of-Death/3343937

At some point in every fairytale, there is a taste of death. Sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally.

Cinderella, in the Disney version, was locked away in the tower when the king’s men came looking for the dream girl who wore the slipper.

Snow White bit into the toxic apple prepared by her step monster and fell into a deep sleep that looked very much like death.

The dwarfs laid her out in a casket and mourned.

Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty, also looked to be dead.

Photogen and Nycteris lost their entire worlds when they realized they’d been manipulated and all but imprisoned by the witch, Watho.

At the taste of death, the story appears to be over. All is lost.

Hope is gone.

What about our modern love stories?

While You Were Sleeping. Lucy has to confess in front of the family she’s fallen in love with that lied and is in fact not Peter’s fiance. She left her make shift hospital wedding broken and ashamed.

The Proposal. Margaret does the same thing. (Are we noticing a trend with Sandra Bullock movies?) She confesses it’s all a shame and she cannot hurt the family after they’ve been so kind to her.

She leaves knowing when she arrives in NY, her world, her career, are over.

Sweet Home Alabama. Melanie has not signed the divorce papers. But neither has Jake. They battled their feelings and past with each other it until the “taste of death” moment when Jake signs the papers.

When he does, all harboring hope of returning to the marriage is over for Melanie.

You have to bring your hero and heroine to a point of no return. Everything they’ve been striving for, racing toward, comes crashing down on them.

All hope is gone.

The dream is dead.

In some fairytales, the heroine is seemingly dead. Or the hero.

This is why it is so critical for you to know what your story is about in the beginning and know what the character wants.

You can’t have a taste of death from the dream if you don’t know what the dream is!

See how that works. The end helps the beginning. The beginning helps the end.

Think of a book you recently read. Was there a taste of death? Was there a point when all “is lost?”

What about your own work?

Does your story have that dramatic black moment?

If not, get to work. You need it!

But after the taste of death, after the black moment, a light dawns…

There is hope. A new idea sparks.

The prince comes with the magical kiss for Snow White and Aurora.

The supporting cast of animals frees the locked-up heroine where she has the spare glass slipper.

The hero goes after the heroine. The heroine gets her senses about her and hunts down the hero.

In While You Were Sleeping, Lucy confesses she loves Jack, then he comes after her.

Drew chases Margaret all the way to NY to tell her he wants to marry her because “I’d like to date you.” in The Proposal.

Melanie can’t sign the divorce papers! So she leaves her own wedding and finds Jake setting up lightning rods in the rain. She confesses she’s never stopped loving him and the epilogue is of all their happy scenes together.

So, taste of death. All is lost.

But as you craft this part of your “fairytale” remember to keep in mind the glimmer of hope that death will be defeated, and hope restored.

The taste of death can happen to the romance as well as the individual journey of the protagonists.

Let’s say your hero wants to run a big ranch. In doing so, he messes up his relationship with his fiance and the wedding is called off. Meanwhile, she can’t get her old job back and has no place to go. And his ambition caused him to write checks his ranching business can’t cash.

What’s the taste of death?

No girl. No ranch. No future.

It’s a country song.

Same for her.

No man. No job. No future.

The light of hope gleaming through all the darkness is their true feelings for each other, their inner essence, which is who they really are and really want to be.

Next week, we’ll talk about “storming the castle” and the happily ever after.

OUPBest-selling, award-winning author Rachel Hauck loves a great story. She excels in seeing the deeper layers of a story.

With a love for teaching and mentoring, Rachel comes alongside writers to help them craft their novel.

A worship leader, board member of ACFW and popular writing teacher, Rachel is the author of over 15 novels.

She lives in Florida with her husband and her dog, Lola. Contact her at: Rachel@mybooktherapy.com. Her next book, Once Upon A Prince, releases May 7!

Go forth and write!

Do you need help with your story idea, synopsis or proposal? How about some one-on-one craft coaching. Check out our menu of services designed to help you advance your writing dreams.

Craft: The Golden Rule of Fiction

Posted on May 9, 2013 by in a. Character Creation, Story Crafting

Still in a traveling frenzy… off to see my Grandma for her 99th birthday… so I asked author and writing coach Randy Ingermanson if I could share a post from his Advance Writing E-Zine.

He said Yes and offers us a good take on characterization.

Here’s Randy:

About twenty years ago, I was accepted into a small mentoring group led by Sol Stein, a famous novelist, playwright, publisher, and writing teacher.

It was a great group and I enjoyed hanging out with so many talented novelists.

Sol had a recent book out, THE BEST REVENGE, and most of us in the group bought a copy.

Sol, knowing that I’m a physicist, autographed mine as follows:

“Physics = facts; Fiction = truth”

I’ve often thought of that over the years. A fair number of people think that fiction is the opposite of truth — it’s just something made-up that doesn’t mean anything.

But Sol was right. Fiction is truth. Good fiction, anyway. It’s the truth about people.

My only quibble with Sol was with the first half of his formula. Physics isn’t really about facts. Physics is about what lies behind the facts.

Physics is truth, too. It’s a different kind of truth than fiction, but it’s truth.

The hardest part of fiction is telling the truth.

It’s very easy to misrepresent your characters. To fail to tell the whole truth about them. To reduce them to a caricature. But as a novelist, you can’t afford to do that.

The problem is that you don’t always realize you’re doing it. It’s one of those things that you don’t know that you don’t know.

It’s easier to see a caricature when you’re the one being caricatured. Because when somebody misrepresents YOU, you get angry.

Some examples from the usual fault lines will make this clear:

If you’re a Democrat, then you get irritated when Republicans call you a big-spending, soft-on-crime panderer to the poor.

If you’re a Republican, then you get irritated when Democrats call you a militaristic, greed-driven pawn of the big corporations.

When somebody uses simplistic terms to misrepresent you, it makes you angry. You know good and well that you aren’t that way. You know that things are more complicated than that.

Now here’s the Golden Rule of Fiction:

Treat your characters the way you want to be treated.

You don’t want people misrepresenting you. Don’t do it to your characters.

If you intend to tell the truth about your characters, then you have to dive deep into them. You can’t settle for a cartoon level understanding. When a character disagrees with you on some deeply held position, you have to play fair with him.

That’s hard.

When your character is WRONG about something, when you know he’s wrong, when it’s plain as day he’s wrong, when you just want to shake him and show him how wrong he is — that’s when you’re in the most danger of not playing fair.

It’s your job to understand your character. Even when he’s wrong.

It’s your job to become your character. To be wrong when you’re inside his skin. To believe (if only for a moment) that he’s right.

That’s treating your character the way you want to be treated. It’s playing fair.

Remember that only YOU are obligated to play fair. None of your characters have to. In fact, most of the time they won’t. Most of the time they’ll misunderstand each other. Most of the time, they’ll misrepresent each other. Most of the time, they’ll caricature each other.

That creates conflict, and conflict is good.

But when it’s just you and your character, alone on the page, then you have to do your utmost to put yourself inside her shoes. To see the world from her point of view, not yours.

Even if she’s wrong.

I think that’s part of what Sol meant when he said that fiction is truth.

***
Randy_500x500 Randy Ingermanson is the author of six novels and the bestselling book WRITING FICTION FOR DUMMIES. He is known around the world as “the Snowflake Guy” in honor of his wildly popular Snowflake method of designing a novel. Randy has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of California at Berkeley and still works half-time as a scientist for a biotechnology company in San Diego. He publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with over 32,000 subscribers and sits on the advisory board of American Christian Fiction Writers. Randy lives in southern Washington state with his wife and daughters and three surly cats. Visit his web site at http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com

This article is reprinted by permission of the author.

One Thing Marketing—Why You Need a Marketing Budget…or Two—Part 1

Posted on May 7, 2013 by in Melissa Tagg, One Thing Marketing

ideasparking

stock-photo-4945253-business-success-concept If you’re going to get serious about stepping up your author marketing and platform-building strategies—whether pre-pubbed or pubbed—then the savvy thing to do is budget.

Now I’m no Dave Ramsey, so this is not a post on the specifics of budgeting. Really, if you want hard core budget help, you should go to someone who is better at saving receipts than I am.

BUT I have come up with a writing budget that works well for me, and as I’ve moved along on the road to publication, marketing has begun to take up a bigger chunk of that budget. Nothing astronomical, for sure, but it’s still good to plan for and track marketing expenses.

As you consider your own marketing budget, here are some factors to take into consideration.

1) Decide which marketing avenues best fit your personality, your schedule, and your available resources. And then ask yourself, which of these avenues is going to require a little mullah. Examples of not-so-free marketing efforts:

• Website design—Your expenses could be all over the board here. You can always set up a free blog site, but even this may come with some costs if, for instance, you decide to purchase your own domain name.
• Networking & Events—In-person marketing is wonderfully effective, but attending writing conferences and book fairs, throwing launch parties, even purchasing prizes or goodies for book signings, it all takes money.
• Headshots and Publicity Photos
• Conference Materials—Business cards, pitch-sheet design and/or printing, etc.
• Advertising—Depending on your publisher, the marketing department may take out ads in print or web publications. But you’ve certainly got the opportunity to take out your own ads in local publications, e-zines, popular writing websites, etc.
• Organization fees—Participating in a writing organization IS a marketing tool. But organizations often have fees or dues.

2) Take a realistic look at your overall budget and figure out how much money you can afford to put into marketing. Here is what has worked well for me:

• I reviewed my monthly income a year or two ago and decided to set a certain amount of money aside each month for “writing.” In the beginning, this money paid for me to attend writing events, but as noted above, now a bigger chunk is going toward marketing efforts.
• When I’ve received extra money on the side—annual bonuses at my day job, tax refunds—I threw all that into my writing pot, as well.
• I received my first book advance check last fall. I’d decided long ago that if I was ever to receive a book contract, I’d put my advance money right back into supporting my writing career.

Now I have a pool of money—not tons, mind you, but it’s something to work with—to support my writing efforts. Personal circumstances will differ from person to person, of course. For instance, I don’t have a family to support so I’m a little freer with my finances. (Although, I also work at a nonprofit, sooo… ☺ )

But whatever situation you’re in, discover what works for you. Don’t stress out if the amount isn’t large. The purpose isn’t to break the bank on marketing, but simply to make the wisest use out of the dollars you’ve got.

3) Now review your list of marketing strategies from above and figure out where to put which dollars and when. The key here is to decide which efforts are going to give you the most bang for your buck. Some tips:

• Ask around. What has worked well for other authors? Do they feel any particular marketing strategies aren’t worth the effort?
• Pool your resources. Is there are way to spread out expenses by shared efforts with other writers? Could you save on dollars by “trading favors” with others? For instance, maybe you’ve got impressive graphic design skills and a fellow writer is also a photographer. Consider offering to design a pitch-sheet or logo in exchange for a photo shoot.
• Distinguish between one-time expenses and ongoing.
• Think ahead. Don’t spend money now on a low-ROI marketing effort if you know you’ve got a big conference or book releasing down the road. Strategize.
• Track your efforts! You won’t know if your marketing dollars are paying off if you don’t track the results of your efforts.

Again, every author’s financial situation when it comes to platform-building is going to be different. The good news is, even if you’re unable to set aside many funds for marketing, there is SO much authors can do marketing-wise today that doesn’t cost anything—social media being at the forefront, of course.

However, free marketing efforts can sometimes be the most time-consuming. (Facebook, anyone?) That’s why it’s important, in addition to budgeting your marketing dollars, to also budget your marketing time. And that’s what we’ll talk about next week!

For now, do you have any questions about budgeting in relation to marketing and platform-building?

***
Tagg_Melissa_028--4Melissa Tagg is a former reporter turned romantic comedy author. Her debut novel, Made to Last, releases from Bethany House in September 2013. In addition to her nonprofit day job, she’s also the marketing/events coordinator for My Book Therapy. Connect with Melissa at www.melissatagg.com and on Facebook and Twitter (@Melissa_Tagg).

10 Commandments for Writers by James Scott Bell

Posted on May 2, 2013 by in Encourage Me!, Writer's life, Writing Life Coaching

I’m on the road at the Romantic Times convention this week so I asked the wise and noble James Scott Bell if he’d fill in for me.

He graciously accepted. Thanks Jim!

Don't Leave Me - final cover10 Commandments for Writers

When I first started to teach writing in the late 90s, I jotted down what I thought should be the 10 Commandments for Writers. I looked at it again recently and thought, You know what? It still holds up.

I’ve tweaked them a little bit, but they remain essentially the same. Here they are:

1. Thou Shalt write a certain number of words every week

This is the first, and greatest, commandment. If you write to a quota and hold yourself to it, sooner than you think you’ll have a full length novel. (I used to advocate a daily quota, but I changed it to weekly because inevitably you miss days, or life intrudes, and you can run yourself down. I also take one day off a week.) So set a weekly quota, divide it by days, and if you miss one day make it up on the others.

2. Thou Shalt write passionate first drafts

Don’t edit yourself heavily during your first drafts. The writing of it is partly an act of discovering your story, even if you outline. Your plot and characters may want to make twists and turns you didn’t plan. Let them go! Follow along and record what happens. I edit my previous day’s work and then move on. At 20k words I “step back” to see if I have a solid foundation, shore it up if I don’t, then move on to the end.

3. Thou Shalt make trouble for thy Lead

The engine of a good story is fueled by the threat to the Lead character. Keep turning up the heat. Make things harder. Simple three act structure: Get your Lead up a tree, throw things at him, get him down.

4. Thou Shalt put a stronger opposing force in the Lead’s way

The opposition character must be stronger than the Lead. More power, more experience, more resources. Otherwise the reader won’t worry. You want them to worry. Hitchcock always said the strength of his movies came from the strength and cunning of the villains. But note the opposition doesn’t have to be a “bad guy.” Think of Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive.

5. Thou Shalt get thy story running from the first paragraph

Start with a character, in a situation of change or threat or challenge, and grip the reader from the start. This is the opening “disturbance” and that’s what readers respond to immediately. It doesn’t have to be something “big.” Anything that sends a ripple through the “ordinary world.”

6. Thou Shalt create surprises

Avoid the predictable! Always make a list of several avenues your scenes and story might take, then choose something that makes sense but also surprises the reader.

7. Thou Shalt make everything contribute to the story

Don’t go off on tangents that don’t have anything to do with the characters and what they want in the story. Stay as direct as a laser beam.

(JSB: This one seems self-evident now, but at the time I was seeing manuscripts with scenes written for their style, not their substance. Another way to put this is the old advice to be ready to “kill your darlings.”)

8. Thou Shalt cut out all the dull parts

Be ruthless in revision. Cut out anything that slows the story down. No trouble, tension or conflict is dull. At the very least, something tense inside a character.

9. Thou Shalt develop Rhino skin

Don’t take rejection or criticism personally. Learn from criticism and move on. Perseverance is the golden key to a writing career.

10. Thou Shalt never stop learning, growing and writing for the rest of thy life

Writing is growth. We learn about ourselves, we discover more about life, we use our creativity, we gain insights. At the same time, we study. Brain surgeons keep up on the journals, why should writers think they don’t need to stay up on the craft? If I learn just one thing that helps me as a writer, it’s worth it.

Now, I’m not Moses, and this post is not a tablet of stone. But these “commands” have worked for me over the years. I commend them to your service.

***
JSB back yard
JAMES SCOTT BELL is the author of the #1 bestseller for writers, Plot & Structure, and numerous thrillers, including Don’t Leave Me, Try Dying and Watch Your Back.

He was the winner of the first Christy Award (suspense category) and has been a finalist two other times. Under the pen name K. Bennett, he is also the author of the Mallory Caine zombie legal thriller series, which begins with Pay Me in Flesh.

He served as the fiction columnist for Writer’s Digest magazine and has written highly popular craft books for Writer’s Digest Books, including: Revision & Self-Editing for Publication, The Art of War for Writers and Conflict & Suspense. His website is www.jamesscottbell.com.