“I’m angry with you!” Sally said as she sat down. She was smiling, so I frowned. “You let me write the first chapter before I was ready.” “Oh, that,” I said. “Yes, I did, knowing you weren’t quite ready. But I knew you had so much story in you that if you didn’t get started you’d only get frustrated. I know why you weren’t ready, but you tell me.” “I didn’t really know what my character wanted, nor how to hint at his greatest fear in the first chapter, so I created exactly the wrong scene.” “You created the scene that helped you jump start your story. You were doing a lot of “Wax On, Wax Off” and getting ansty. So, I told you to simply let your character walk […]
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Let Your Characters Tell the Story
A few years ago Susie and I were writing books with very high concept premises. Or is it premii? She was writing RITA finalist My Foolish Heart. I was writing Dining with Joy. The former was about a radio host for the lovelorn who’d never been on a date. The latter about a cooking show host who couldn’t cook. Great ideas. Great pitch lines. Easy to see and understand. But when we were writing, the premise itself became paralyzing. We dubbed those books the ones with the paralyzing premise. High concept is great. Almost necessary in today’s publishing world. But writing them can be a challenge because you’ll always wonder, “Am I capturing the premise well?” In Dining with Joy, not only did I have to explain how and why […]
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Quick Skills: The Final Battle Breakdown and Flow Chart!
How do you create a triumphant ending? We touched on the why yesterday in “conversations” but today I wanted to put tools to the theory. Just as a reminder: the point of the Final Battle is to convince the reader (and the character) that true character change has taken place by putting it to the test. You are waging an “internal battle” using external elements. I like to use the movie The Patriot because it is an actual battle, but it also clearly illustrates the internal/external final battle of a story. The idea is: armed with the TRUTH, which has caused their epiphany, your character will face their last challenge, that thing they couldn’t do at the beginning of the story that they can no do (or are willing to face) […]
Read the RestConversations with an aspiring author: Building the Triumphant Ending!
“You might be able to write a book in a month, but I’m only on chapter five. I have four kids, you know.” Sally wasn’t wearing makeup today, her blond hair tied back in a ponytail. She looked like she’d lost some weight, her blue eyes a bit tired. “I spent all weekend spring cleaning my house. I haven’t touched my book in a week. My ending is so far out of site, I’ve forgotten what I’m writing about.” “It’s all right, Sally,” I said and nudged my uneaten bran muffin over to her. “You’ve just forgotten what you’re aiming for. See, if you set out on a journey without a destination, you might get lost or even…discouraged.” She tore off a chunk of the muffin. “So, you’re saying that […]
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