You’ve logged the miles and now it’s time to write the journey. Writing a memoir is your opportunity to share a transformational story or collection of stories from your life’s journey. You’ve logged the miles, and, along the way, you’ve faced challenges, taken risks, failed, given up, risked again; until, finally, you emerged transformed in some way. You’ve reached a crest where you can see 365 degrees around you, and you pick out the faint trail of your passage all the way back to your beginning. You know you have a story to share with others. Where do you begin? Begin at the …
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Here’s the thing, being human isn’t easy. We are human and we are animal—savage and tender, mindful and thoughtless, loving and cruel, base and divine—and then toss our heart and spirit into the mix and try telling our story. Wait, shhhh, hear that existential scream? Yup, understanding the complexities of human nature is an ongoing challenge. If you have any desire to try, and if you are a writer, painter, musician, actor, creative seeker of any stripe, you are a storyteller and you are on the journey toward transformation and this is a gift. When it comes to story, transformation …
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Personalized Writer’s Workshops With Sarah Lovett Get results with an affordable package of one-on-one or group sessions! Whether you are preparing to write a book, are in mid-process, or have completed a first, second, or third draft of a full-length work, there are many ways we can work together. I offer several packages that will suit your budget and also allow you to accomplish your goals. Get Back to Writing: Powerful, Yet Simple Techniques to Get You (and Keep You) Writing With Ease Are you overwhelmed by too many ideas? Do you feel stuck? Frustrated by a pile of unfinished …
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Help Writing Your Novel or Memoir With Sarah Lovett Author Coaching: Do you need an experienced ally to help you move forward with your writing goals? Would you like to fast-track the first draft of your novel or memoir? Have you hit a wall, lost confidence, and need help getting back in the flow with your writing and your book? These are all good issues to bring to a writing coach. As your coach and ally, I offer insights and guidance and I work with you to keep you on track and accountable with your writing at any stage of your …
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Gift your characters and their worlds and their journeys of dilemma, conflict, and transformation generously. Emphasis on transformation. Of course well-told stories have the power to simply entertain us. But the best stories also have the power to transform by offering new vision, new insight and awareness. They wake us up. And yes that is a tall order. I watched two films at the Regal 14 with my ten-year-old daughter this summer. Both were major studio productions with big budgets. The first, a very recent box office hit—a save-the-universe archetypal saga—featured a reluctant, off-beat hero and his vagabond “knights”, one …
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If you started writing your novel on November 1st, you are fast approaching your final week! Kudos for those of you who pushed the edge of the envelope (and filled the pages) this month. If fear kept you from beginning, continuing, completing your first draft, acknowledge your fear and sit with the feelings. Take a few minutes to free write to see if you can focus in on the nature of your fears: Are you afraid of failure? Afraid of writing total crap? Afraid of actually finishing? Afraid of success? Afraid of attention? Afraid of being seen? Afraid of not …
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Get to the heart of your story: character arc transformation This simple exercise provides you with a powerful tool whether you are just beginning to understand your story, you’ve written a full draft, or you are somewhere in between. Take a picture Imagine your protagonist at the beginning of the story, just as it opens. Take a virtual photo of her/him–and carefully observe and study the details: expression, posture, clothing, surroundings. Is she alone? Is she surrounded by others? Is she smiling? Is she looking away from the camera? If so, what is she seeing? What is she hearing? Is she holding something in …
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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 …
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It’s National Novel Writing Month and many writers around the world are in gear and cranking out pages! Yesterday, my tip was about writing in drafts–and the quick (and shitty) first draft aligns with getting your novel done in 30 days (although even when I’m fast, I’m not that fast!). Today my tip is for those moments when you feel you might be veering off track, stumbling into deep water, and all the other cliches that basically mean you feel lost and disconnected from your story. Don’t panic, this counts as a normal part of first-drafting. When you feel you …
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Get to the heart of your story-it lives inside your hero: know what she wants, what drives her, and why. Give her a goal that matters. Know her deepest wound. Show us her fight to reach her goal and make sure that the forces of opposition might destroy her. Give her a friend who can make her laugh and let us readers catch our breath. Know that her fight is always a fight to the ‘death’-she will face a dilemma between what she wants and what she needs. She can’t have both. She must surrender her old view and be …
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