Here’s a question that’s come to My Book Therapy: “What is the difference between Chick LIt and WF, and how can I decide what genre to use for my book?” What a great question. In fact, I answered this during my Lit Continuing Session at the ACFW Conference. Lits, especially Chick Lit, was birthed in 1996 with Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones Diary.” Wilkipedia defines Chick Lit as: the genre covers the breadth of the female experience which deals unconventionally with traditional romantic themes of love and courtship. Lit books usually features hip, stylish female protagonists, usually in their twenties and thirties, in urban settings (usually London or Manhattan), and follows their love lives and struggles for professional success (often in the publishing, advertising, public relations or fashion industry). The books […]
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Prescriptions: Listen To Me! The Black Moment Week 3
Welcome back! I hope you and your character and still talking to each other, now that you know his deepest fears, greatest dreams, and know how to hurt him! Because today, we’re going to talk about how to put all that knowledge together to create THE BLACK MOMENT. What is The Black Moment? The Black Moment is that place in the book where everything hits a crisis – both internally and externally. It’s the point of change in a book and can be the most powerful scene if done right. How do we find that black Moment for your Character? It’s easy…and Hint #3: Find their hiding place. Where do you derive your security? Hopefully, for all of us, it’s in the strength of God and trusting in His love […]
Read the RestSelf Therapy: Simplify and Focus!
Why can’t readers just be inside my brain? That’s the problem, isn’t it? Trying to help the reader grasp a scene without giving them too little information, or also overwhelming them. So often, I have my cast of characters, and I want to throw everybody into the first scene, treating them as old friends (which they are to me), without remembering that my reader hasn’t met them yet. Here’s a scene of my recent book, Reclaiming Nick. I wanted to portray Nick as the hero he is…but with all the players in the scene, it became clunky, and hard for the reader to follow. Let’s take a look. (My comments are in italics) *** When the lanky form of Saul Lovell walked into the Watering Hole Café, dragging with him […]
Read the RestAsk the Doc: Raising Tension by creating Peripheral Stakes
My bad — as I was getting into my cab yesterday on my way home from Dallas, I hollered at my Book Therapy cohort, Rachel, to blog about Dr. Notes, forgetting that Tuesday was Drs. Notes day– and yesterday was Ask the Doc — so, sorry for that switcharoo! I taught four workshops at last weeks American Christian Fiction Writer’s conference, and then spent all day Sunday brainstorming with my crit partners. One of the most common questions that surfaced had to do with keeping tension tight on every page. Someone said, “I have a main plot, with lots of tension, but the story seems to slow in the middle to almost a standstill. How do I keep that tension increasing on each page? Great question. And one solution: Create […]
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