In every romance the key is making your characters fall in love, right? We’ve talked about HOW we fall in love…how we connect to each other’s core values, and how we complement each other and make each other into stronger people. However, how do you actually write that journey, step by step? How do you woo your reader into falling in love with your characters, too? You have to date your reader. Okay, let’s just analyze this for a moment. Remember the last time you fell in love? You saw him or her across the room, and something about their physical appearance intrigued you. It told you something about them—perhaps they were brave, or strong, or creative, or disheveled, or rough-edged. You probably noticed their […]
Read the RestArchive | a. Character Creation RSS feed for this section
The What and Why of Writing: Bookends
If I asked you why you used bookends, what would you say? Envision that long line of books and how those first six books are staying in place … but then the last few stragglers won’t line up. Bookends create order – helping a row of books stand up straight. While we sometimes need a pair of bookends tucked around the outside of a collection of books, have you ever utilized bookends between the book covers your story? What: Bookends are the “mirror elements” of a novel’s 1st and 3rd acts that brings a character back to face the same issue, situation or conflict and reveals the character’s growth Why: The hero and heroine readers meet in chapter one of a novel is not the same (imaginary) person by the […]
Read the Rest
Storytelling vs. Backstory
We’re continuing to blog questions from blog readers and MBT Voices. If you have a question, be sure to email me at Rachel@mybooktherapy.com. So, here’s today’s question. Q: How do I add “storytelling elements” to my novel without dumping backstory? A: The balance between back story and the action on the page is tricky but not hard. Let’s look at a few definitions before we outline some guidelines for weaving back story into a scene. Story telling elements are just those fragments of a characters life, history, wants, goals and desires that are necessary for filling out or understanding a scene. The trick is to deliver just enough emotion and history to intrigue the reader while filling them in on what’s going on. For example, if Sally is not excited […]
Read the RestThe What and Why of Writing: Values
“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” ~Roy Disney (1930-2009), longtime senior executive for The Walt Disney Company Every day we make decisions. And if we stopped and really thought about it, we’d realize we made those choices based on our values – the things that are important to us. Or as Proverbs so aptly puts it: Everyone does what is right in his (or her) own eyes. (Proverbs 21:2) Guess what? The imaginary characters in our books? They have to do the very same thing: make choices based on their values. What: Values Things we desire, whether we have them or not, such as forgiveness, honesty, money, compassion, power and trust Why: We don’t like it when we wander around aimlessly, not sure […]
Read the Rest
