Can you believe it’s already December? And that we’ve gone through all the elements of a novel this year – me either! But here you are – you’ve written, The End on your novel, after finding the perfect HEA ending, and maybe now you’re wondering what to do. Send it in! Oaky, wait, maybe that was premature. I got a little excited there. Yes, FIRST you need to write a PROPOSAL. Which consists of a Cover or Query Letter (depending on what whomever you are sending it to want to see first, usually outlined on their publisher or agent site), a synopsis, and the first three chapters. I like to write my Cover or Query letter LAST, because, well, by then I know what I’m trying to say. And, you […]
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Jump Jerry Shaw! The makings of a perfect ending
I admit it, I’m a Shia LaBeouf fan. I fell for him in Disturbia, then Transformers, then Indy and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and so I couldn’t wait to see him in Eagle Eye. Besides, the movie just looked great, with high action and an edge-of-your-seat premise. What if you had no control over your life? What would you do? I wasn’t disappointed. Eagle Eye had me on the edge of my seat the entire two hours, some of the time with my hands pressed up against my face (in fact, I think I even made red handprints). Non-stop action, great motivations, incredible conflict…a movie that took my breath away. Sometimes, in thrillers, let just say, uh….any of the Die Hard movies…we have a hero who is […]
Read the RestWhat makes a great black moment?
So, we’re almost to the end of our Heroes’ Journey! We’ve had our character change (and we touched on the Black moment in that discussion) and we’re off to storm the castle in our last battle. He’s been changed by events, and is a new man, and is trying to apply everything he learned…. But, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s go back to that Black moment and just touch on the elements that make it profound. 1. Attack their Greatest Fears – emotionally and physically. Since the beginning of the story, you know what your hero fears the most…and you’ve been slowly pushing him to this place. You know that Frodo fears succumbing to the ring, or worse, his own hobbitness. You know […]
Read the RestWriting a A Not So High Action Scene
So yesterday, we went through a high action scene, working through the details that went beyond structure to words and cadence. “But, Susie, I don’t write a thriller!” you say. Not a problem. You can still write a riveting scene using the basic princicples I laid out yesterday…. First, we: Start with Setting and the Current State of Affairs Then we establish the Goals of the scene And we won’t forget to fortify the Motivations of your characters action/decisions Finally we can write the Action of the scene. And we’re going to pay special mind to the sentence structure and words we use to create mood. This excerpt is from Finding Stefanie – it’s a subplot character named Gideon who wakes up in Stefanie’s house after […]
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