The Black Moment in your novel is the most important part of your novel. I just had to say that because I see so many manuscripts that pull their punches on the Black Moment. Authors have fallen in love with their characters and they just don’t want to hurt them. But creating a powerful Black Moment is what both the character and the reader need to convince them they must change. So, how do you create a powerful Black Moment? First…let’s just take a look at the Black Moment Flow Chart: Dark Moment of the Past (Greatest Fear + Lie) = Black Moment Event = Black Moment Effect = Epiphany = Character Change. Again, how do we find the Black Moment? We go into our character’s backstory and find a […]
Read the RestArchive | Protagonists: The Basics RSS feed for this section
Conversations: Finding the Black Moment and Epiphany
“Are you ready to finish your book?” Sally laughed as she sat down at the table in the corner. “I just started and already you want me to finish it?” “I’m not asking you to write the end of the book, I just wanted to talk to you today about how knowing the black moment, and the ending actually gives power to your first act. Think of Act 1 and Act 3 as the “bookends” of your novel. They are the before and after pictures of your novel. Even if they begin in a happy place, there is still something that will cause your hero to become a better person through the book and they’ll with that lesson learned. “They learn that lesson by experiencing the Black Moment, having their […]
Read the Rest
What if the HERO was the HEROINE? – Turning Your Story Upside Down
I started reading a great book last week and about a third of the way through a thought hit me: What if THE HEROINE was THE HERO and THE HERO was THE HEROINE? Meaning, what if their rolls were reversed? Suddenly the book became much more interesting and the one on my Kindle seem kind of status quo. Sure, some of the other plot points would be different if SHE was a HE, but it would also raise new, more intriguing plot obstacles. In an historical book, it might be hard to switch rolls. If you were writing about the Alamo, it would be hard to have a man spying on General Santa Anna since the spy was a female prostitute. But, what if you took an historical event, like […]
Read the RestConversations: The basics of writing a romance.
Sally came into the coffee shop with a smile. “My husband gave me the entire weekend to write. I’ve written five chapters since last Monday.” “That’s a good man you have there,” I said. “And a good model of a romantic hero. This week, we’re going to talk about how to craft your romance.” “Oh, I know how to do that. I’ll just make them fall in love.” “That’s of course, the goal, yes. But along the way, we have to doubt that they will, indeed, live Happily Ever After, and we do that by creating obstacles, or what I call, Why Nots – both internal and external — that feel so big that they can’t overcome them.” “Consider this – if you know how much a couple has overcome […]
Read the Rest
