So you have plotted your 3 ACTs of your suspense, understanding the elements of the external and internal journey. But a suspense is different than other novels. It contains elements that guarantee an adrenaline laced rush that drives you through the novel. I have written thirty novels, most of which have elements of suspense. My thriller, In Sheep’s Clothing, was a Christy Award finalist, and won the Inspirational Reader’s Choice award. Recently, I had three Love Inspired Suspense come out – one of them stayed at under 7K in Amazon for three weeks. I love suspense…because a suspense contains what I call…The GLOW. The glow is simply that sense that a reader has when they love a book and can’t wait to tell others. It’s that groggy, “Oh, I stayed […]
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The Final Battle: Wrapping up the Inner Journey for your Hero
We’ve been talking the past two weeks about the Black Moment, and the importance of it in our hero’s and heroine’s journey. Just to reiterate, without the Black Moment, there is no point to the journey of our character, no moment of change. It’s in the Black Moment that they discover why they’ve gone on this journey. If you’ve added in a romantic thread, it’s when they lose the one they love, and realize they can’t live without them. It’s also when they learn they must change in order to get what they want. (or accomplish the goal they’ve set out to at the beginning of the story). Now that our hero has confronted his Black Moment and seen the light, then we’re NEARLY ready to finish our story. But, […]
Read the RestThe Epiphany – the grand finale of the inner journey
We’re revisiting the Black Moment today, but instead of looking at the External Black Moment, driven by the Greatest Fears, we’re going to look at the internal Black Moment…driven by the lie. 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, we talked about Steps 1-4 of the Lie Journey, or the inner journey of the Black Moment. As a recap: Step 1 – Spiritual […]
Read the RestContinuing the Inner Journey…creating tension in the middle of your novel!
Yesterday we started our character’s spiritual 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!) Armed with the lie, the first thing you want to do on the journey, probably in that first scene is PROVE IT to your hero. (a note here – every POV character needs their own lie journey!) Step 2 – 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 […]
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