define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); Learn how to write your story - MyBookTherapy

Quick Skills: 5 Essentials of a First Chapter

By on April 10, 2012 in b. Building a Scene, Chapter 1, Editing Basics, From the Inside...Out, How do I Fast Draft?, Limelight – Sample Novel, Quick Skills, Story Crafting, Susan May Warren, The Hero's Journey Simplified

There are a lot of checklists for building a first chapter, and sometimes they can get overwhelming. MBT has an advanced checklist we use to help people build their Frasier Contest Scene (it’s the same checklist I use when building my first chapters!). However, I admit, it can get overwhelming. So, let’s start building that chapter one with 5 essential elements.  In fact, this is step two in your process. As Sally and I talked about yesterday in Conversations, sometimes it just helps the writing process to let your characters walk on the page and wander around a bit. We can hear them, talk to them, discover if we have profiled them correctly.  No, these wanderings probably won’t be the final first chapter, but it gives you a chance to […]

Share this Post...Pin on PinterestShare on Google+Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterEmail this to someone
Read the Rest
Continue Reading • Comments { 1 }

Subscribe / Connect

Sign up to get Susan May's 5 Secrets of a Best-selling novel, and the articles you need to help you Get Published and Stay published!

Conversations: First Chapter Essentials

By on April 9, 2012 in Backstory, Crafting the Inciting Incident, Editing Basics, From the Inside...Out, How do I Fast Draft?, Story Crafting, Susan May Warren, The Hero's Journey Simplified, Truth or Dare: Conversations with an aspiring novelist

“I’m angry with you!”  Sally said as she sat down.  She was smiling, so I frowned.  “You let me write the first chapter before I was ready.” “Oh, that,” I said.  “Yes, I did, knowing you weren’t quite ready. But I knew you had so much story in you that if you didn’t get started you’d only get frustrated.  I know why you weren’t ready, but you tell me.” “I didn’t really know what my character wanted, nor how to hint at his greatest fear in the first chapter, so I created exactly the wrong scene.” “You created the scene that helped you jump start your story. You were doing a lot of “Wax On, Wax Off” and getting ansty.  So, I told you to simply let your character walk […]

Share this Post...Pin on PinterestShare on Google+Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterEmail this to someone
Read the Rest
Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }

Subscribe / Connect

Sign up to get Susan May's 5 Secrets of a Best-selling novel, and the articles you need to help you Get Published and Stay published!

April’s Writer’s Challenge and The Mountain’s Children

By on April 8, 2012 in Editing Basics

Congratulations to Delores Topliff who won the March writer’s Challenge with her delicious story “The Mountain’s Children”  (Challenge: Give us an argument!) “Let her go!” Raymond Young Bear shouted, running forward, fists ready. The scrappy Indian youth had been walking Vancouver, Washington’s Main Street, killing time, past Shumway Junior High, where he should have been enrolled, when he heard the girl’s shrill screams for help. Racing behind the front brick building, he found three white teens pushing a young white girl against a wall, forcing her down, slapping her. She screamed again, eyes pleading, until someone clapped a meaty hand over her mouth. The biggest kid saw Raymond coming. “Scram, Indian. Or you’re next!” They punched the girl’s belly, making her drop, fencing her against the wall with their legs. […]

Share this Post...Pin on PinterestShare on Google+Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterEmail this to someone
Read the Rest
Continue Reading • Comments { 2 }

Subscribe / Connect

Sign up to get Susan May's 5 Secrets of a Best-selling novel, and the articles you need to help you Get Published and Stay published!

Don’t be Fooled, Part One: All That Glitters

By on April 7, 2012 in Encourage Me!, Life Coaching, Nurturing Creativity, Nurturing the Soul, Reba Hoffman

April is notorious for fooling us. It starts out with April Fool’s Day practical jokes and is followed by spring-winter-summer-spring weather. We think it is springtime and summer-like temperatures show up. The weekend after we put all the sweaters away in the attic, it snows. Unpredictable weather shows up in every area of our lives, including our writing journey. Don’t be fooled into not living your dream. This month we’re going to uncover some of the root beliefs and challenges we face and learn ways to overcome them in your writing life. No foolin’! So grab your life and let’s take a walk. We’re naturally drawn to bright, shiny objects. We see something that glitters and we simply must have it. I saw a computer mouse the other day that […]

Share this Post...Pin on PinterestShare on Google+Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterEmail this to someone
Read the Rest
Continue Reading • Comments { 5 }

Subscribe / Connect

Sign up to get Susan May's 5 Secrets of a Best-selling novel, and the articles you need to help you Get Published and Stay published!

MBT Menu