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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 What and Why of Writing: Essence

By on March 6, 2014 in Beth Vogt, Heroes, Heroines, Protagonists: The Basics, Story Crafting

At the beginning of a novel, a character starts out in his identity – who he thinks he is. By the end of the story, if you’ve developed the story correctly, he ends up in his essence – who he really is.

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The What and Why of Writing: Theme

By on August 14, 2013 in Beth Vogt

There are so many vital elements that go into crafting a can’t-put-it-down manuscript: engaging characters, a vivid Storyworld, a strong spiritual thread and knowing what’s at stake in your story. But so often, as we craft these aspects of our story, we overlook a fundamental aspect of our novel – and then we have to back up and figure out something we should have known from the beginning. What: Theme We often shut down when we hear the word “theme” because we recall high school English class and the dreaded “What’s the theme of the book?” question. Theme is the overall idea of a book – what the book is about. As you read, theme is what you’re going to discover about yourself, others and God – and it’s usually […]

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The What and Why of Writing: Noble Cause

By on April 24, 2013 in Beth Vogt, Protagonists: The Basics

Every story starts with an Inciting Incident catapulting the hero and heroine into a journey. They’re either scrambling to get their lives back to normal or hoping to settle into their new life after some amazing “I never knew this could happen to me” experience. Each scene you write is either an Action or re-Action scene. Your characters are doing something or responding to what happened. But the challenge is to write more than just he-said-she-said or he-did-she-did scenes. You want to layer in emotional depth – and one way to do that is to know your character’s Noble Cause. What: The Noble Cause answers the question why? It’s the motivation that moves your character from chapter 1 to “The End.” Think of your protagonist saying something like this: BeCAUSE […]

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