Hello! For all you visual learners out there, here’s a chart of the Three Acts summarized. (if you are a Team Member, you can also find this in the Team Member Locker room!) (We call it the Lindy Hop at MBT!) Lindy Hop diagram Or, here it is below, summarized. Act 1 Plotting Diagram LIFE (Home World…their wants, desires) Inciting Incident The Great Debate PUSH/PULL Noble Quest Act 2 Plotting Diagram (Noble Quest) Attempt…and Failure Cost Consideration Desire (Motivation) Reward (taste of what will they get if they continue?) (Disappointments & Y’s in the Road) Training for Battle (1) Bad Y in the Road (2) Badder Y in the Road (3) Baddest Y in the Road Attempt…and Victory (This can occur any time during the Training phase) (HELP!) Black Moment […]
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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
Conversations: Summary of the Three Act Structure of a Novel
“I think I just need to sum up.” Sally sat on the deck of the coffee shop, staring out at the lake, the waves frothy along the shore as it coughs up the debris of winter. A spring fragrance seasons the air, and from the earth around the deck, irises brave the crisp Minnesota air. Any warmer, and we might be out here in our shirtsleeves, so anxious we are for summer. I sit down, lift my face to the sun. “Sum away.” “I just want to make sure I have the Three Acts correct. I know we discussed them all, and then I dove right into my synopsis, but I just need to make sure I understand the overall flow of story structure.” “I’m all ears.” “Okay, in Act […]
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Featured Fiction Friday with James L. Rubart
The Frasier Entries are in! Now all we can do is sit down, cuddle up with our bags of popcorn, and wait for the results. In the meantime though, My Book Therapy will spend Fridays introducing you to the work of our all-powerful judges. This week we are pleased to introduce you to James L. Rubart and his new book: The Chair. Q: Tell us about your Book. A: If someone gave you a chair and said it was made by Jesus Christ, would you believe them? When an elderly lady shows up in Corin Roscoe’s antiques store and gives him a chair she claims was crafted by Jesus, he scoffs. But when a young boy is miraculously healed two days after sitting in the chair, he stops laughing and starts wondering . . […]
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Quick Skills: Tips on Creating that First line
How you hook your reader on the first page? I love this quote by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who won the 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature for 100 years of Solitude. “One of the most difficult things is the first paragraph…in the first paragraph, you solve most of the problems with your book. The theme is defined, the style, the tone. At least in my case, the paragraph is a kind of sample of what the rest of the book is going to be.” By the way, that book sold over 10 million copies. The hook paragraph, your first paragraph just might be the most important paragraph you write in your entire story. Yesterday, I talked about four ways to begin your story. Today, I’m going to share with you my […]
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