“I’m stuck.” Sally said as I hung my purse on the chair and shucked off my jacket. Outside, the last remnants of a late-season snow clung to the ground. I’d had to dig out my Uggs for a trip to town for our weekly chat. “Good,” I said. “What do you mean, good? I thought you were rooting for me!” “I am. But let me guess – you’re in chapter six or seven and the thrill of the first act has worn off, and now you’re slogging through the middle, wondering what to do next.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “How do you know that?” “I’ve written thirty-five books. I know what happens around chapter seven.” I smiled at her and sipped my coffee. A raspberry white chocolate indulgence. […]
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Quick Skills: The Final Battle Breakdown and Flow Chart!
How do you create a triumphant ending? We touched on the why yesterday in “conversations” but today I wanted to put tools to the theory. Just as a reminder: the point of the Final Battle is to convince the reader (and the character) that true character change has taken place by putting it to the test. You are waging an “internal battle” using external elements. I like to use the movie The Patriot because it is an actual battle, but it also clearly illustrates the internal/external final battle of a story. The idea is: armed with the TRUTH, which has caused their epiphany, your character will face their last challenge, that thing they couldn’t do at the beginning of the story that they can no do (or are willing to face) […]
Read the RestConversations with an aspiring author: Building the Triumphant Ending!
“You might be able to write a book in a month, but I’m only on chapter five. I have four kids, you know.” Sally wasn’t wearing makeup today, her blond hair tied back in a ponytail. She looked like she’d lost some weight, her blue eyes a bit tired. “I spent all weekend spring cleaning my house. I haven’t touched my book in a week. My ending is so far out of site, I’ve forgotten what I’m writing about.” “It’s all right, Sally,” I said and nudged my uneaten bran muffin over to her. “You’ve just forgotten what you’re aiming for. See, if you set out on a journey without a destination, you might get lost or even…discouraged.” She tore off a chunk of the muffin. “So, you’re saying that […]
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Three Steps to Being a Voice, Not an Echo
Writing in the Christian market pushes us to go beyond the realm of this life to find meaning and purpose for our characters. While we are not writing sermons and devotionals set in fictional places with fictional characters, we are imitating life. For the Christian author, Jesus is very much a part of our every day life. We want to express Him in some way in our stories, through the lives of our characters. But often our stories sound hokey, canned, full of Christianese. How we talk in the foyer at church, or in Sunday school class does not translate into fiction. Remember, our goal is to write great stories about great characters. Our goal is not agenda fiction where we pound the pulpit so to speak about some error of […]
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