#NaNoWriMo2015–Get to the Heart of Your Story (writing tip #13)

In my work as a coach and consultant, I read manuscripts on a regular basis. Often, I can identify what’s working–or not–within the first 20 pages. Whether you are aiming to sell to a traditional publishing house, or you are going the independent publishing route, your story must hook your reader (agent, editor, or bookstore browser) on page one. Powerful prose is great–as long as you’re using it to tell a story with an engine. I call that “engine” the story equation, and it represents the cohesion and chemistry of the most important story elements: the story catalyst, the event that hooks the reader; the dilemma (sometimes …

Continue Reading

The Loose Novelist

This advice from Alan Watt’s wise how-two, THE 90-DAY NOVEL: “I didn’t try to figure out the ending, but rather, imagined a sense of my hero at the end of the story. How was he relating differently to his father? What had he come to understand as a result of his journey? How was the dilemma resolved? What was the visual metaphor, the image that captured the essence of my story at the end? As I pondered these questions, ideas came to me, and I realized that they were a goldmine of images for what preceded the ending. Imagining our …

Continue Reading

Deep Problems, Big Story

When it comes to creating a great protagonist, the character with the biggest, deepest problem wins. In my last blog entry–Does Your Story’s “Equation” Add Up?– I touched on the terms “story catalyst” and “deep-story problem”. I want to discuss them both in a bit more depth because they are crucial to the creation of a marketable story. A truly effective story catalyst (also referred to as inciting incident) kicks off the narrative, hooks the reader, and sets the protagonist on a journey (dealing with the deep-story problem) that will end in a life-changing crisis and climax. Because they are …

Continue Reading

Bunny on the Rocks: Story Resolution

The day after we discovered that Pearl’s favorite stuffy Chocolate Bunny was missing–left behind on the rocks near a remote campsite about sixty miles from Taos–Michael put in a call to the forest service office near Tres Piedras. Sure enough, someone special answered: an officer named John. When John heard that a five-year-old girl was grieving her lost bunny he said he’d do what he could to help. News came within hours: Chocolate Bunny was safe, recovered from the rocks, and now awaiting a ride home from Tres Piedras. She should be home by the weekend. Rescued by a “local …

Continue Reading