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WRITING BASICS: ELEMENTS OF CRAFT IN A NUTSHELL

November 9th, 2024Sarah Lovett0 Comments

It’s always handy to have writing basics at your fingertips in a nutshell: Viewpoint – The perspective you choose and use to tell your story. In the simplest terms the choices are 1st person (I), 2nd person (you, rarely used), limited 3rd person (he, she, as in a central character or protagonist), and 3rd person omniscient (sometimes defined as a godlike viewpoint, shifting between and encompassing the viewpoints of multiple characters). Viewpoint a.k.a. POV. Summary – The efficient and active accounting of story events that otherwise are not rendered fully in a scene. Story-telling with the emphasis on the telling versus the …

Building Complex Characters: Actors Teaching Writers

July 15th, 2021Sarah Lovett0 Comments

Actors have secrets to share with writers I studied acting in Los Angeles in my early twenties and I went on to found and serve for five years as creative director of a nonprofit theater. One of my primary motivations was to learn about conflict, pacing and dialogue as actors embodied the words in my plays and the work of other playwrights. At the acting studio where I studied, the teacher drew techniques from the system developed by Konstantin Stanislavsky (also spelled Stanislavski) that gained prominence in America in the 1930s, known as “the method.” The method technique in a …

A Page a Day: Tiny Habits that Get & Keep You Writing Your Stories with Ease & Joy

March 12th, 2021Sarah Lovett0 Comments

zen garden refelction to demonstrate the power of ease

Embarrassing confession: I’ve been putting off writing this post on “Accountability.” Yikes. It feels good to put my failure out there–wait, let’s drop the “F” word “failure.” (We all struggle with resistance.) And let’s drop that “A” word right now, too, deal? This post is about reaching your desired outcomes (or call them goals or aspirations) with joy and ease, no failure, no shame. Action prompts Next confession: I’ve been working on using B.J. Fogg’s Tiny Habits! This confession is awesome because his system is great and makes change so easy. It also reinforces discoveries I’ve made over the years …

Wants, Whys, Lies,& Ghosts: Use these vital story elements to reveal your characters!

February 25th, 2021Sarah Lovett0 Comments

What do characters want?! Spend an hour with other writers or take a writing class and you will hear this advice: Figure out what your protagonist wants! Variations phrased as questions include: What does your hero desire? What does he yearn for? What does she lust for? What is her story goal? Easy Peasy Sounds easy enough, right? Your intelligence operative wants to stop an imminent terrorist attack. Your detective wants to solve the crime. Your au pair wants to fall in love. Your corporate V.P. wants to finally earn the damn promotion! Your archaeologist wants to dig up the treasure after decades of searching! Want something? …

Action-Tracking Outline: Best Writing Tool Ever

December 29th, 2020Sarah Lovett0 Comments

Not your grandmother’s outline Today’s post focuses on what I call the action-tracking outline, an outlining/tracking tool that might change the way you think about the “O” word. I’ve published seven novels with the big houses and I’m the author of two upcoming novels in their final stages of revision and polish–and this tool is one of the best in my writer’s toolbox. Yes, I’m talking the “O” word We’ve all heard the debate about ‘pantzers’ and ‘outliners’ and you can find many wise bloggers waxing on pros and cons of one or the other or both. That’s not what …

The 3rd Person Viewpoint

November 3rd, 2020Sarah Lovett4 Comments

I confess I never stop thinking about the interplay of the macro and micro of story. My goal is always to provide the reader with clarity and meaning. Story development and structure arise out of and along with character development. And the story world connects inextricably to the inner life of each story’s viewpoint character or characters. Simply defined, the viewpoint character refers to the perspective and mind of the character through which the reader experiences the story. You might think of this character as your story’s eyes and ears and thoughts. When you use multiple characters’ viewpoints in a …

Your Characters’ Desires Drive Your Story

July 19th, 2019Sarah Lovett2 Comments

Whether you are writing a novel or a memoir, the most important question you must answer is, What do my characters want? You’ll begin with your primary characters–your protagonist and major antagonist–and work from there to other characters. Little Big “Wants” If “what they want” seems like an easy question to answer in your stories, think again. Sure, a detective in a crime story wants to catch the bad guy and close the case. The lonely widower wants to find love. The superhero wants to save the world or at least her corner of it. Those goals (aka desires aka …

The Beta Review Process

May 21st, 2019Cynde Christie0 Comments

When you complete your first draft and your substantive edit, the next step in the book writing process is the beta review process. What is a beta review? This process involves having a number of people read your manuscript in its draft form. At which point they provide the author and editor with very specific feedback on what worked and what did not work in the manuscript. In short, as I tell my authors, the beta readers find the holes that we can longer see. Preparing for the Beta Review To begin this process, I ask my author to choose …

The Big Nothing, Small Deaths, and How a Dilemma is Vital for Storytellers

February 4th, 2019Sarah Lovett2 Comments

Recently I had a ‘New Year’ conversation with a good friend. Our talk turned to Noam Chomsky and his film, Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?, an animated documentary on the life of the linguist, philosopher, and political activist by French filmmaker Michel Gondry. (It is, btw, a delightful and provocative film.) Chomsky had been an early influence in my friend’s academic life. We touched briefly on Chomsky’s atheism and his belief in (I paraphrase) the “big nothing” that follows death. The topic of what comes after—nothing or something—tugged at me more than usual, due I think, to winter’s dark days and …

Revising Your Novel or Memoir in 2019: 9 Must-Know Tips (Part 2)

January 7th, 2019Sarah Lovett0 Comments

Want to start and finish your first, fifth, or tenth novel in 2019? Read on! In my previous post, I wrote about 1st drafts, and I shared my best suggestions for finishing draft 1 of your novel within 3 to 6 months (without losing your mind). Your 1st draft is the one Anne Lamott aptly dubs the “shitty first draft.” Give yourself permission to work quickly with forward momentum. When your 1st draft is complete: Set it aside for days, weeks, maybe even a month or more. Give yourself time to let it go and separate yourself. When you come back to the …