Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
This week I’m honing the middle of my WIP, so it’s time to dust off the Archives and refresh my knowledge on a story’s midpoint… Originally posted on Aug. 4, 2014. Updated and reposted on Sept. 5, 2016. Awhile ago I wrote about Mapping the Mushy Middle of a story. This is a plot-centric approach to …
Continue reading “The Hero’s Emotional Midpoint”
Do a quick search for “elevator pitch” on the Internet, and most of the information will say it is a 60-second pitch of yourself or your product (in the case of writers, your book). But seriously, 60 seconds? What elevator takes that long? Unless you do this: Do NOT do this. Or this: After all, …
Continue reading “Pitching 101: The Elevator Pitch”
This month at WriteOnSisters we’re talking about pitching! A pitch comes in many forms – query, synopsis, one-liner, or book blurb. Anything that “sells” your book to anyone else is a pitch. Usually pitches are written after a novel is complete, because that’s when a writer needs to “sell” their novel to an agent or …
Continue reading “3 Reasons to Write a Pitch Before Finishing Your Novel”
Once upon a time I was working on a revamped novel idea – a fun, scary, action-packed revenge story. It was going to be great. I was feeling especially confident after reading this blog: “Why Revenge is Such a Brilliant Plot for Beginner Writers.” I pictured myself pounding out this simple revenge story while my other …
Continue reading “6 Questions to Make Sure Your Story Has Stakes”
Last November I attempted my first NaNoWriMo, but since I’m a turtle-paced plotter and not a fast-fingered pantser, I approached it like this: A Slow Writer’s Scheme to Win NaNoWriMo. Despite that excellent plan, I didn’t win (see Results of a Slow Writer’s First NaNoWriMo). There were two reasons for that, one of which was …
Continue reading “Camp NaNo & My Escape From The Outlining Outhouse!”
I’ve been reading writing craft books for almost two decades, and it’s gotten to the point where most of them don’t tell me anything I don’t already know. But recently I had a creative crisis that prompted me to look hard for new information, and after a couple misses I came across THE ANATOMY OF STORY …
Continue reading “Character Need: Psychological + Moral”
Starting a new project is always exciting. After I applied to a writers grant with my current WIP this February, I decided to start another novel, or rather resurrect an idea I’d developed a year earlier. I already had character sketches and a beat sheet complete, so I rushed right in to writing a scene-by-scene outline …
Continue reading “A Pre-Writing Checklist”
Welcome back to Masterplots Theater on this the very last day of the A-Z Challenge! Yippee! We made it! And as happens every year, we get to Z and go, “What the heck are we going to write for this letter?” Of course, now that I think of it, we could have picked zombies, but …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: Z is for Zoomorphic”
Welcome back to Masterplots Theater! All month we’ve been talking about writing individual masterplots, but what if you’re deliberately writing a story in two genres? What the heck is that? Well, I’d call that a “mashup”, or for the purposes of the A-Z Challenge, an “X Meets Y” masterplot. But the real question is: should …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: X is for X Meets Y (Genre Mashups)”
Welcome back to Masterplots Theater! Today we’re going to talk vengeance, for all those writers who are just dying to exorcise a past wrong through fiction… Vengeance Plot Notes: The main drive of this masterplot is simple: the protagonist seeks revenge on the antagonist. The antagonist must have done something that warrants the hero’s desire …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: V is for Vengeance”