The Truth Journey (or Inner Journey, or Spiritual Journey) for your character Part 2 Yesterday we started our charcter’s spirutal journey by asking: What lie do they believe? (by the way, I often use this when chatting with children, or eve myself when confronted with behaviors that might not be healthy…it’s a good exercise!) Anyway…Armed with the lie, the first thing you want to do on the journey, probably in that first scene is PROVE IT. Step Two: Confirmation of the Lie – Proof What can you do to convince the hero that his lie is true? You want to do something at the beginning of the book that will cement him into this lie – of course, it needs to be something that only pushes him deeper in […]
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What Lie do you believe?
The Truth Journey (or Inner Journey, or Spiritual Journey) for your character Part 1 I recently read the Kite Runner. GREAT story. Loved the writing. And, although it was a secular book, it still contained themes of redemption, forgiveness, grace….everything that makes a book resonant…however, I couldn’t help but think, what if he’d added the spiritual perspective — the understanding that God had given him a second chance. As a reader, I don’t want the spiritual plot to be so thick that it strangles me – and as a writer, I don’t want to strangle my reader. I want the story to intrigue, to draw my reader deeper, to allow them to look at the issues and wrestle with them without feeling as though they are told what […]
Read the RestSo, how do you make it BLACK? (Setting up the Black Moment)
Yesterday we talked about the elements of the Black Moment – gathering up the pieces. Today, let’s put them together! First, you need to start with…The Hint… At the beginning of every great novel, or movie, there is a hint at what a character’s greatest fears might be. It can be something they experience and never want to repeat. It can be something a friend has gone through. It can be something they witness…but we need to see if (even if we don’t recognize it as the hint…although now you will!) Because it will give us that dark foreboding we need to make the fear seem…well, dark. One of my favorite hints is in a movie called The Hostage…the hero is negotiating the release of a […]
Read the RestIt’s bad…very very bad. (aka: Crafting the Black Moment!)
I love the black moment in a novel. (or a movie!) I just saw Avatar…(so, spoiler alert!!)) The black moment is when the humans come after the blue people in the tree and take it down despite his efforts to stop it. Of course, he’s lost the girl, he’s lost all hope of getting his legs back, and all hope of being a blue person, too. He’s a nobody. Just like he was when he started. This is a great black moment, and one where we are fully invested to root for him as he tries to save the day. A great black moment is Personal and Overwhelming. It’s also Plausible and sets up the Epiphany of the novel. We’ll talk about the components of the black moment […]
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