Hey, everyone. In order to help you more on your writing journey, we’re going to focus this Thursday blog on your questions and Book Therapist related ideas and tips. So, if you have a question about writing, craft, the industry, be sure to send it your therapist, me! Rachel@mybooktherapy.com Here’s a couple of questions for today’s blog: Q: What’s the difference between a rough draft and a fast draft? A: Great question. A rough draft can be several things. It could be a fast draft that you’ve rewritten and cleaned up. Or the first draft of your novel from beginning to end. Even if you’ve edited and rewritten along the way, it probably needs one more pass through to get everything tight and prettied up. You might have more telling […]
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Pitch + 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 […]
Read the RestBrainstorming Strategy #6: Highlighting Opposites
No writer wants to hear that their characters are “vanilla” or too much alike. We all want our characters to pop so our readers love them as much as we do. Trouble is, that it is easier said then done. How can brainstorming help you to deepen your story and make those characters fly off the page and into a reader’s heart? By highlighting opposites in your novel. I’m not talking about the hero or heroine always being opposites. Rather, the Hero and his sidekick or the heroine and her sidekick. When characters are too much alike, we run into the whole BORING problem. Create characters that are different in habits and personality. This causes natural tension and added interest to your characters. Let’s try this idea out to see […]
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TEE’s What and Why: The Ds
Ah, the fun of writing a novel. You, the writer, get to wreak havoc on your characters – all the while ignoring any and all havoc in your life. (At least for a little while. You must return to reality at some point.) Wreaking havoc – that’s just another term for “the Ds”: the events that distance your hero or heroine from their goals. Let me be more specific: What: The Ds Think Distancing, Denial, Disappointments and Devastation. Yes, there are Dreams and Delights too – even a dream-come-true, like your heroine getting offered that job she’s always wanted – can wreak havoc in her life. Ds distance a character from what they want, deny them something – a relationship, maybe – and create a Y in the road, forcing […]
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