“I’m so sorry,” Sally said, sitting down and unwrapping her scarf from her neck. Outside, ice glazed the puddles, the sky a slate gray. The first hint of snow hung in the air, the world of northern Minnesota in crisp expectation. It was a perfect day to teach Sally about how to understand Turning Points in a novel. I love the change of seasons. I blew on my candy cane mint mocha. “Why?” “Our high school football season is over,” she said. “I know how you love to go to the games.” I do. I live for the Friday night lights. “It was a tough game. A number of game-changing turning points that could have turned the game our way. Our boys fought a tough fight.” “I heard that on […]
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Idea Sparking: Brainstorming Conflict in your Novel!
At MBT we’re all about trying to give you the best tools to create powerful stories. That’s why I asked our MBT Brainstorming Coach Michelle Lim to write a book about brainstorming techniques that help a writer create conflict in their stories. I’ve discovered that many authors just get stuck while brainstorming, and their stories lack spark or twists. Michelle’s book is a powerful tool to help an author think outside the box and create powerful twists and turns in their story. I’ve asked her here to today to chat with us about her new book: Idea Sparking: Brainstorming Conflict into your Novel. What prompted the idea for this book? Since I was a teenager I loved plot. If the story kept me turning pages by flashlight after bedtime, […]
Read the RestConversations: Dark Moment Plotting and how to build a story outline
“My hero lost his best friend in the war, in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He also lost part of his leg.” My aspiring writer, Sally, slapped down the open page of a spiral notebook onto the table at the coffee shop, and slid into her chair, unwinding her scarf. Outside, the sun shone bright in a cloudless sky, adding heat to an otherwise arctic day. I picked up her notebook. “I see you’ve done your homework and discovered a dark moment in your character’s past, and then journalled about it.” “I did that. It was fun – I did the research and saw Pearl Harbor through his eyes. In his own words, he told me everything about the attack, and how his buddy died protecting him, and how he […]
Read the RestThe Plotting Roadmap…or scribbles about how I put a book together
The Plotting Roadmap Now that we have three chapters written of our story, I wanted to flesh out the plot to the end so you could see where we want to go. One of the voices asked me – do you always write a story by “the Seat of your Pants?” Uh, NO. I hate that, actually, because it gets me all blocked and wandering the house in a fog. I like having a plan, a roadmap. In my workbook: From the Inside/Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you, I have a plotting roadmap template – and of course explanations of each step in the journey and how to determine them. If you want deeper explanations, you can either pick up the book, or search […]
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