G’day to you! Here’s today’s Book Therapy Question! “How do I know when it’s time to move on from a story I’ve been working on for so long?” Great question! I worked on my first book for two years. I tell you, it discouraged me because I wondered how I could ever make any kind of living if writing took so long! But it was my learning book and at least half of those two years were spent with me editing the book from a complicated, multi-plot story to a straight up romance. I sent it out and received rejections. It was in the late ‘90s and there weren’t many options, but the doors I knocked on replied, “No thank you.” By then, I was tired of the book. I […]
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Help for an Unlikeable Character
This week’s therapist question deals with refining an unlikeable character. It’s easy to create unlikeable characters even though we are trying for likeable, strong protagonists. Q: What if I have an unlikeable character? How can I fix it? A: No one starts out to create an unlikeable character. But in the course of creating conflict and flaws, add tension and motivation, we often create a narrow, slightly negative heroes and heroines. Sometimes values play a part. For example, I was going to create a character who fathered children he’d never seen. When I talked it over with my brainstorm partner, Susie May, she said, “But we aren’t going to like a man who’s never seen his kids.” But I had reasons for his predicament. I saw and felt the “why” […]
Read the RestPitch + Premise = Spine
Maybe you first heard of the “story spine” from Stanley Williams’ book, The Moral Premise. But I actually thought of the concept all by my lonesome the winter of 2011 at the first Deep Thinkers Retreat. Because it became clear to me we HAVE to know what the story is about in order to develop the character and the plot. The pitch is that one or two lines, the concept, of the story that you tell editors or agents. Or you friends when they ask, “What’s your story about.” You must be able to tell it in one or two succinct sentences. If you ramble or start telling too much, then you’re not nailing the core of your story. For example, my pitch for Dining with Joy was “It’s about a cooking show […]
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