Tag Archives | writing a novel

When an Author’s Backstory Sparks a Story Idea

By on September 18, 2014 in 1. Discover your story, Beth Vogt, Brainstorming Strategies and Tips, How do I get started?

At the very first My Book Therapy (MBT) Storycrafters Retreat in 2010, Susie May Warren had the attendees complete a seemingly simple – and insignificant – exercise on page nine of our workbooks.

I kept that workbook, the one with the working title of my manuscript scribbled inside the front cover: Wish You Were Here. Thanks to that weekend and how it changed my life and my writing, Wish You Were Here became a “real book” in 2012.

And I refer back to that seemingly insignificant exercise on page nine time and time again.

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The Reason We Write

By on July 31, 2014 in 4. Writer’s Life, Inspiration and Life Coaching, Beth Vogt, Editing Basics, How do I write Emotions?, Writer's life

My friend, Lori, posted this quote on my Facebook page last week:

“We write to taste life twice.” ~Anais Nin, author

I think she posted the quote for two reasons:

I love quotes. Love, love, love them.
I am a writer who often wrestles with the why of writing. You know what I mean: Why do we willingly do all of this? The writing. The rewriting. The deadlines.
I think my friend read that quote and thought, “Beth will ‘get’ this.”

And I did.

But I did more than read the quote and think, “Good one.” I pondered the quote for a day or two … until it became this blog post.

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Use FOCUS to craft vivid scenes

By on June 19, 2014 in b. Building a Scene, What is Storyworld, and how do I write it?

I went to my first My Book Therapy (MBT) retreat in 2009 – the first-ever Storycrafters Retreat. I’m four years further along the writing road, on deadline for my fourth novel, and I often review things I learned at back then. One of my favorite MBT techniques is FOCUS, an acronym that helps you craft vivid scene descriptions.
FOCUS stands for:

First Impressions

Observations

Close Up

Simile (or Metaphor)

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Conversations: The journey of a self-pubbed author – part one

By on November 19, 2012 in 1. Discover your story, 4. Writer’s Life, Inspiration and Life Coaching, 5. MBT Interviews and Events, Encourage Me!, Interviews, Truth or Dare: Conversations with an aspiring novelist, Writing Life Coaching

Today, on Conversations, I’m excited to talk to another author  (Sorry Sally – you’ll be back next week) who I was privileged to work with this year.  This is a long interview, so I’ve broken it into two parts (today and tomorrow!) You might not know that a big part of MBT is helping authors through our private coaching program. We work with new authors to multi-published authors, coaching them through their stories.  I’m thrilled that many of them have landed on best-seller lists and won awards.  Often, they are traditionally published stories – but occasionally we work on a self-published story. One of my favorite self-pubbed projects came to me about a year ago. I loved it immediately – a story of a family caught in technology, who needed […]

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