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A Word From Your Book Therapist: It’s All About Craft, Baby!

By on November 1, 2012 in 1. Discover your story, 2. Create Your Story, Action and ReAction Scenes, Author Mistakes, How do I get started?, Rachel Hauck

If you’ve hung around My Book Therapy for any length of time, you know we focus a lot on crafting a novel. If you’re new to MBT, we are about crafting a novel. Dictionary.com defines craft as: an art, trade, or occupation requiring special skill, especially manual skill: the craft of a mason. skill; dexterity: The silversmith worked with great craft. Let’s tailor the definition a bit. The writer must possess a special skill to ply his trade. The writer worked with great craft. The statistic is 80% of all people believe they  have a book in them. How many do you suppose actually write that book? My guess is less than 20%. Why? Time, heart, passion, skill, talent. Resistance and procrastination. Above all, lack of knowledge which means lack of craft. Recently I started taking piano lessons. My teacher is starting off with music theory. I find myself […]

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Quick Skills: NaNoWriMo Scene Starter Infographic

By on October 30, 2012 in 1. Discover your story, 2. Create Your Story, 4. Writer’s Life, Inspiration and Life Coaching, Action and ReAction Scenes, b. Building a Scene, Encourage Me!, How do I start my Scene?, Quick Skills, Story Crafting, Susan May Warren

Sally asked me for a Scene Starter Graphic to help her as she builds her scenes for NaNoWriMo.  If you haven’t joined the MBT WriMo Celebration yet, sign up for the fun, support and prizes at: http://www.mybooktherapy.com/mbt-wrimo-2012/! Hope the Infographic helps! (Right click on link below to download the graphic) Infographic Page 1 Page 2 Page 3                                                                    

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Conversations: Preparing for NaNoWriMo

By on October 29, 2012 in 1. Discover your story, 4. Writer’s Life, Inspiration and Life Coaching, 7. Search by Author:, b. Building a Scene, Brainstorming Strategies and Tips, Susan May Warren, Truth or Dare: Conversations with an aspiring novelist

“NaNoWriMo?  National Novel Writing Month?  Oh please, don’t ask me to write a novel in a month. I’m sorry, it’s just too overwhelming.” Sally took a sip of her mint dark chocolate cocoa, looking at me as if I’d asked her to run Grandma’s marathon. Tomorrow.  “No.  Forget it.” “You’re about half-way in, right?  And overwhelmed?  And you’ve learned so much. What about setting this book aside and simply jumping in with a new one with all you’ve learned.  Or maybe, just committing to finishing this one. Technically, NaNoWriMo is about finishing a new story, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take the principles and apply it to a current story and finish it. I’ll even help you prepare for it.” “55 thousand words in a month…?”  She took another, […]

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Storytelling vs. Backstory

By on October 25, 2012 in 1. Discover your story, Action and ReAction Scenes, Author Mistakes, Backstory, Creating Story Layers and Subplots, How do I get started?, Rachel Hauck

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 […]

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