One day our writing flows. The next day we open the exact same manuscript and freeze. A writer under contract has an advantage in this situation over a writer who is not under contract is that the writer who is being paid to write the book cannot surrender to the doubt. She must find a way to push forward or lose the money, her dreams, the contract. Take for instance a writer who has two wildly successful novels out with a third on its way and a three-book deal awaiting his attention. Usually …
The Evolution a Book — Part Two: Finding an Agent
Back in the dark ages, someone I admired advised holding out for an agent who is wild about your work. Not just someone who likes your story or someone who is impressed because of your platform or track-record but choose her because she is enthusiastic about you and your work. In Part One: the Vlog, I write about meeting my agent Jill Corcoran of the Herman Agency. Jill's enthusiasm radiates from her in the words she speaks and the pitches she writes. The day I met her at a weekend writers …
The Evolution a Book — Part One: Creating a Vlog
Thanks I get from writers for the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? is an added gift. I did the vlog (which I later learned means a video blog) on a lark with my friend Cathy Cress , fiction writer and expert on the aging family and sibling warfare. My vlogs are on plot for writers. Cathy's vlogs Mom Loves You Best - Forgiveness are on sibling reconciliation and forgiveness which grew out of her own life, her writing and her lifelong work. While I filmed her, I was struck …
Deconstruct the Protagonist
Fascinating plot consultation today. The writer knows how she wants the story to end -- the Climax -- and needed support to find a way to get there. I have found that writers who know the end of the story early on in the writing of a story often are able to stay on track more easily than writers who have no idea where they are going (though if you're one who has no idea of the end, eventually you'll finish the first draft and know the Climax and thus, have the same advantage as the writer who …
Details, Transformation, and The Universal Story
Often, the writers who excel in conveying just the right details in a scene or depth of emotion through subtle body language during dialogue have a strength in visual perception and visual memory. Judging from the number of writers who have commented on the fact that I wear red (one of the brand colors of BBP) in all the videos on my Plot Series vlog where I address plot issues in the Beginning and the Middle of novels, memoirs, and screenplays, I take heart that their stories resonate with …
Follow Me!