You’re back! *grin* Okay, fellow writers, then let’s get busy. Today, as we prep for our journey, I want you to start exercising! We’re going to get in shape! Work off the dust of our minds, and tighten the flab of our daily schedules so we can utilize the writing time we have our days. Writing is much like every other discipline. There are four keys to a successful writer’s life: It takes commitment, (after all, as much as we’d like it to happen, those books don’t just download from our brains automatically!), it takes nurturing (did you know that your brain has a well of words for each day, and you need to replenish those words after you use them?), it takes time, (something we’re going to figure out […]
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About Susan May Warren
Former Russian Missionary Susan May Warren is the best-selling author of more than 40 novels and novellas with Tyndale, Barbour and Steeple Hill, and Summerside. A Christy award and RITA winner, and multiple finalist for the RITA, Christy and winner of Inspirational Readers Choice contest, Susan currently has over a million books in print. A seasoned women’s events speaker and writing teacher, she is the founder of http://www.mybooktherapy.com an online community for writers, and runs a fiction editing service teaching writers how to tell a great story. Visit her online at: http://www.susanmaywarren.com.Author Archive | Susan May Warren
Learn to Write a Novel in 2008!
We all have goals, right? Dreams, desires, things that have been niggling at us for years. For writers, it’s the dream of writing a novel. You’re a writer if every time you hear an interesting job description, read a compelling story in the newspaper, you think, hey, that would make an interesting premise for a novel. Well, this is the year to make that happen. Every week on Book Therapy we’ll be studying another aspect in storytelling – taking the “Heroes Journey” and breaking it down into bite-sized pieces for you to chew on and put in your Heroes Journey notebook. When we’re done, you should have the elements of how to write a great novel. Every Friday, we’re going to put those lessons into action by offering exercises—and asking […]
Read the RestSpend a Year with a Hero!
Take the week off, fellow writers! But be sure to stop by on January 1st, when we start our new Year Long event – A Year with a Hero! We’ll be studying The Hero’s Journey, step by painful, exciting, epic step, from premise to characterization, to plotting, to the not-so-saggy middle, the black moment, epiphany and much, much more! We’ll dissect scenes and even help you with your own exhilarating WIP! Take advantage of our weekly exercises, post your excerpts and get feedback to take your novel from everyday to Epic! Look for weekly chats on problem spots and even an occasional podcast! Spend a year with Hero…(After all, who doesn’t need a good man in their life?) See you in the New Year! Happy Holidays from Rachel and Susie, […]
Read the RestPrescriptions: Hooking your Reader wk 5
Welcome back to our HOOKS discussion! We’ve been talking about the elements of a great HOOK – using the acrynom SHARP: S= Stakes (Public or Private) H = Hero Identification (or Sympathy) A stand for ANCHORING! Or, using the journalist inside to create place! I can’t stress how important it is to anchor your reader into the scene. So many books I’ve read recently start out with dialogue or action, and they leave out the where, and when, and even to some extent, the who. You want your reader to know where they stand in a book, what the world is, who the players are, and to some extent, why they’re there. Here’s the novelist’s twist, however: you want to use these elements to anchor your reader in a way […]
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