The Truth Journey (or Inner Journey, or Spiritual Journey) for your character Part 3 Okay, I’m just going to say it, and I’m using my Mom tone. The Black Moment is the POINT of your story. Because without the Black Moment, there is no epiphany and no character change, and if you are writing a romance, it is Absolutely Required. If you don’t have a black moment in your story, then you don’t have a story. Sorry if that hurts…BUT, we’re going to fix it, right? Last week, I talked about building the black moment. Today, let’s revisit that a moment, and talk about how to weave in the lie for effective character change! Step Five: The Black Moment In this step, the lie rears its […]
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I have a lie, really?
The Truth Journey (or Inner Journey, or Spiritual Journey) for your character Part 2 Yesterday we started our charcter’s spirutal journey by asking: What lie do they believe? (by the way, I often use this when chatting with children, or eve myself when confronted with behaviors that might not be healthy…it’s a good exercise!) Anyway…Armed with the lie, the first thing you want to do on the journey, probably in that first scene is PROVE IT. Step Two: Confirmation of the Lie – Proof What can you do to convince the hero that his lie is true? You want to do something at the beginning of the book that will cement him into this lie – of course, it needs to be something that only pushes him deeper in […]
Read the RestWhat Lie do you believe?
The Truth Journey (or Inner Journey, or Spiritual Journey) for your character Part 1 I recently read the Kite Runner. GREAT story. Loved the writing. And, although it was a secular book, it still contained themes of redemption, forgiveness, grace….everything that makes a book resonant…however, I couldn’t help but think, what if he’d added the spiritual perspective — the understanding that God had given him a second chance. As a reader, I don’t want the spiritual plot to be so thick that it strangles me – and as a writer, I don’t want to strangle my reader. I want the story to intrigue, to draw my reader deeper, to allow them to look at the issues and wrestle with them without feeling as though they are told what […]
Read the RestLive vs. Truth = Spiritual Epiphany
Does my hero HAVE to believe in a lie? We get this question sometimes when we’re working with clients in a Book Therapy session. Clients have done so much work creating the character, trying to figure out who he is, and it just seems like another mindless question. It’s not. In fact, I build my characters on just a few key questions, the most important ones that comprise our lives. You’ve seen some of them in this process…greatest fears, greatest dreams, values, motivations. The Lie They Believe is one of the essential questions that threads throughout the entire book. Without the lie, you don’t know what the truth is you’re aiming for. Without the lie, you don’t know how he/she builds their lives, what their view on […]
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