Reading should be the cornerstone activity of all those who proclaim they want to be serious writers. I know this might seem like a “No duh” statement, but sadly we live in a world where even the obvious requires unpacking.

Believe it or not, I love getting comments for more reasons than my own ego (though it is a real boost, not gonna lie).

The main reason I encourage comments is because—believe it or not—I cannot think of everything. I need to know what Y’ALL need to know.

I can’t do that unless you tell me. Mostly because God refuses to let me have mind-reading abilities. Something about blah blah Kristen already drunk with power blah blah humility *rolls eyes*. Then those pesky restraining orders keep me from sneaking in your houses and rifling through your notebooks.

#FunKillers

Today’s post comes thanks to a very thoughtful commenter, Harshi S.

I love all your articles and I think reading them made me a better writer and reader/consumer of fiction (and nonfiction) with dialogue. I would like some advice on how to take notes on books I read and media I consume to learn more about writing before I start writing. Also, is it good to read books primarily from the genre(s) one is interested in writing in to learn those specific techniques after learning general writing skills?

Harshi S. (Commenter)

Excellent questions.

Reading Required to Be a Good Writer

Before we dive into HOW to read, I’m going to unpack what should be the obvious. Feel free to SKIM because (refer to meme above).

Good writers are prolific readers. I can already hear some of you railing at the heavens that I would even devote space to stating this. But, I am pretty sure y’all have not been to nearly as many conferences as I have.

Since 2008, I’ve been very blessed to be a staple speaker and regular keynote at writing conferences all across the United States and abroad. I’ve also attended conferences as a mere writer.

This means I’ve met a lot of new writers who were all (also) hopeful they will be the next (INSERT MEGA SUCCESSFUL AUTHOR HERE).

What never ceases to floor me is how many I’ve met who would openly and often emphatically admit they a) rarely read b) never read c) don’t like reading or d) a, b, and c.

*silent screams*

Would anyone want to go to a brain surgeon who just wanted the fame and lifestyle of a surgeon, but didn’t want to bother taking Gross Anatomy? Who’d never stitched a boo-boo let alone sawed open a skull and removed a tumor?

They just REALLY like brain surgery…”in theory.” Don’t worry! They’ve watched thousands of hours of surgeries, so they just know they’ll be the best (even though they hate needles and the sight of blood renders them unconscious).

Any takers?

Why would we BUY a book to READ from an author, who themselves, declares they don’t like to read?

I hope I’ve made my point.

As an editor of over twenty years, I promise I can tell an avid reader from a non-reader within a few sentences. Yes, it is that obvious. Not fooling me, or an agent, or an actual reader (who you want to spend MONEY on your book).

Reading Makes You Smarter

There’s quite a large body of scientific evidence demonstrating that humans are a story people. From an early stage in life, we have an innate sense of plot, that stories have a beginning (Act I), a middle (Act II), and an ending (Act III).

Don’t believe me? Read a bedtime story to a four-year-old and try to stop short. You will not win. Why? Because said little kid will pester to know how the story ENDS. But, just because this is ingrained in us, doesn’t mean we can’t overthink it all away.

***More on this in a bit.

Everything we do in life impacts our neural pathways. If we envision the brain like a tree that is always growing and changing, wilting and dying, it starts to make more sense.

Neurologists have a saying, “Neurons that fire together wire together.”

The more we use the neural pathways required for reading/storytelling, the stronger those connections (branches) become.

Glial cells, often referred to as the “gardeners of the brain” wander about fertilizing pathways (branches) we use A LOT. Meanwhile, the same glial cells do NOT fertilize branches we fail to use. In fact, they go so far as to completely prune away and discard those “abandoned” pathways (branches).

Don’t believe me? Without googling:

What was the one Roman invention that forever reversed/nullified Carthaginian dominance of the seas?

Convert 190 pounds into kilograms in your head.

Define sobriquet.

We’ll wait…

Or not. Kidding!

Maybe some of you knew these answers but many won’t. Why? We likely knew trivia like this at some point. Thing is, we “learned” it long enough to score well on the test.

Unless, after that point, we stepped into hobbies or professions that would have regularly watered and fertilized these branches of knowledge, the glial cells tossed those factoids into the cerebral mulch pile.

Clearly our Harry Potter Trivia needed fertilizing and the Pythagorean Theorem mixed with a little “What was the theme of Lord of the Flies?” is PERFECT!

Oooh! I’m a Griffendork!

Spirits Wired for Story

I’ve already mentioned how humans have an innate sense of story. This is our READER. They are on the consuming end, not the creating end (which is a WHOLE NEW ball of wax…on fire…that wants to explode and kill you).

We (writers) are the architects, they (readers) are those who use the building. And yes, I am mixing metaphors more than a 90s DJ, so roll with it.

Aestheticism must align with pragmatism. For more on this, I recommend my recent post Pitch Your Story in a Pinch (ONE Sentence).

When we read prolifically, our brains wire for story. We don’t need to think so much about the pieces: Normal World, Inciting Incident, Turning Point Act One, so on and so forth.

Why?

Because it is like learning music by ear. We instinctively sense one part is missing, another part has come too soon, another is taking too long, the work is incomplete, etc.

For the record, READERS (especially voracious readers) sense this. They just don’t always have the vocabulary to say WHAT bothered them. Instead, you’ll hear things like:

The story was too confusing.

I just couldn’t get into it.

It was boring.

The story dragged.

I got confused.

Plotters, Pansters, & Plotsers, Oh MY!

This is why, in my POV, there is really no such thing as a pure pantser. Pantsers don’t outline or plot ahead of time, but that is because they’re the equivalent of a person who’s learned to play an instrument by ear.

They might not need metaphorical “sheet music” (yet the inability to READ sheet music “could” be problematic).

Conversely, those who strictly outline and plot ahead of time are like musicians who embrace formal training and can not only read the sheet music, but write it, improve it, change and modify it.

Neither is better, but I will warn that a little sheet music is good. I am a plotser. Learned by ear, but I’ve learned to make a basic (mutable) plan and scribble the notes as I go.

Pantsers can end up in a sticky wicket during revisions, whereas pure plotters need to be wary of being too rigid. The “boys in the basement” might be trying to send a signal that they’ve come up with something TOTALLY ORIGINAL and better than what you originally planned.

What Reading Does for Writers

Reading will wire your brain for story. Plotting will be easier because you’ll sense when something is wrong. It will hit like a note off-key. Same with grammar. It will sound incorrect.

Writing a novel is HARD. We have to create a structure capable of maintaining interest and momentum over the span of 60K-180K words. To accomplish this, the more tools we have in our toolbox, the easier this will be.

Reading improves your vocabulary, and broadens your literary lexicon. Gemstones aren’t totally BAD, but not entirely unique. Emerald eyes, ruby lips, sapphire skies are literary low-hanging fruit. Are they bad? No. But if any Joe Schmo sitting at the hotel bar can write the same descriptors, and we are supposed to be the wordsmiths?

Just leaving that there.

There are technical aspects of writing that we need to learn to excel at our craft. Things like POV (Point of View). Which one is the best? Why? How does it serve our particular story? What about DEEP POV? Why do readers LOVE it?

What is a scene versus a sequel? This will impact PACING. Can setting be more than a weather report? Yes. The answer is YES.

Why are flashbacks a sign of weak writing, yet many of our favorite stories seem to have “flashbacks”? The reason is these works we love DO NOT have “flashbacks,” rather the author is using time as a literary device (non-linear structure).

We also learn about each genre, how they differ, and what the reader expectations of that genre happen to BE. Genre is going to be CRITICAL when it comes time to either landing an agent or selling/marketing your book. WHO are YOUR readers?

What KIND of Writer Do You Want to BE?

When I finished my first “novel” (the 178,000 word TOME I keep in the garage because it chews on the furniture and refuses to be potty trained), my mom read it. All my friends thought it was the greatest thing ever, but my mom–bluntness also her superpower–simply asked me this:

Kristen, what kind of author do you want to be?

Years later, when I would blog, I’d joke that the rest of her sentence was “…published or unpublished?”

Yet, that simple question changed everything. There are all KINDS of writers. No one genre is better than any other, merely different.

I know the literary people are screaming at the screen, but good luck making a living. If you can live off awards and accolades, be my guest. I WISH I could write cozy romance because Hallmark is always hiring and romance is a multi-BILLION dollar industry.

Reading Helps us EVOLVE

When we read a lot of different types of fiction and voices, we can better figure out where we fit in the larger scheme of things. And this is NOT set in stone.

I’ve run the gambit from NF, to writing feature articles in a major business magazine, to almost 2,000 blogs, to romantic suspense, a romantic-thriller-suspense, and (if all goes to plan) am releasing a horror anthology with Troy Lambert on October 24th.

***It isn’t blood and gore. Think more Hitchcock meets Black Mirror. It is technically action, horror, noir.

***According to statistics I just totally made up, studies show that people who are unusually intelligent, funny, and good-looking pre-order Kristen’s books.

The point I am making, is that, unlike the old publishing paradigm, we no longer have to be married to one genre until death do us part. Our careers can be far more mutable and more elastic than ever before. Which YAY! But also YIKES!

Reading Develops Voice

I believe every teacher, blogger, publishing pundit at one point in time has probably tried to define “voice.” Even ME. In short, no one is going mistake Faulkner for Hemingway, or vice versa.

How they write, the words the choose or leave out, the way they deliver the story is as unique as their fingerprints.

This said. I was in my church choir enough years that I am a passable singer. No one will mistake me for a cat caught in a screen door. This, however, does NOT mean, I am ready for Carnegie Hall and to sing backup for Adele.

Why? I never worked on it or trained.

Harshi asked if it was best to read entirely in our own genre or to read a lot of different genres.

Yes and yes.

If we read a lot to begin with, we’ll have a better understanding of which genre we at least want to begin with. Even if we already know which genre we want to write, we’ll have a deeper reservoir to draw from.

Some of the most groundbreaking musicians were “cross-trained” (Meatloaf was a trained opera singer. Whitney Houston, Justin Timberlake, and John Legend started singing in church). I could go on, but y’all get the gist.

What made many of our most memorable musicians stand apart is how the drew from other kinds of music, weaving elements of Classical, Jazz, Gospel, Soul, Rap, or even…sea shanties.

*Nods to Dropkick Murphys*

Audiences are always looking for the “same but different.” That is going to be easier to do if we’ve curated a rich, broad pallet.

Like how SNL writers married a sappy teen coming-of-age romance with…WAFFLE HOUSE.

WARNING: DO NOT DRINK HOT LIQUIDS WHEN WATCHING!

*giggling*

Go Wide, then Zoom IN

There is no right or wrong way to read (so long as you READ), so this is all my opinion. Once we sample from a bunch of other genres and fill our reservoir, then I recommend reading the genre you want to write. I do both all the time, switching back and forth.

I just finished rereading The Exorcist (horror) and Shutter Island (Psychological Suspense) and am currently reading St. Augustine’s City of God (NF).

Reading all that is in the genre you want to write will help you understand genre expectations.

I cannot count the number of times writers have sent me pages and they were SO FAR OFF what genre it was, I immediately knew they’d never read that genre at all. Because, had they read that genre, they would have (or at least should have) known better.

If you hand me pages to your mystery, it better BEGIN with a crime of some sort or it is NOT—by definition—a mystery.

I once had a writer hire me because she was getting slayed in reviews and didn’t know why. When I read her work, it was well-written, but she had it listed as a ROMANCE. In romance, you better have an HEA (Happily Ever After) or the more contemporary HFN (Happily For Now).

If guy and gal DO NOT end up together in the end…that is Women’s Fiction.

She pulled the title, redid the cover and re-listed in the correct genre and everything changed.

Hallmark is Romance. Lifetime is Women’s Fiction.

When you read as much as you can in your genre, not only will you be able to see what readers are wanting, but you might even spot what they never KNEW they wanted until YOUR story.

For instance, I did this with my romantic-suspense The Devil’s Dance. I wanted to write a book someone would inhale in a day or three, not win a Pulitzer. Additionally, I wanted the humor of a Janet Evanovich with the grittiness of a Dennis LeHane.

Since I was writing about the cartels, that is a rough, terrible and yet timely subject. But it is also DAAARRK. Could I balance out the horrible stuff with a funny, relatable, fish-out-of-water character?

Because I’d read ALL the suspense thrillers I believed I could. I spotted what I felt was a gap…then filled it by writing a book I wanted to read (but that didn’t exist/or I couldn’t find).

Reading and Taking Notes

This is going to be completely up to you. My dear friend and partner in mayhem, Cait Reynolds, tells me I am not allowed to use Excel unless I spread a salt circle first. If California breaks off into the ocean one day…um, sorry about that.

My other close friend, Maria Grace and Queen of the Spreadsheet, once saw all the screenshots on my desktop…and I thought she was going to fling holy water at me.

I keep a notepad on my phone because I listen to a lot of audiobooks en lieu of reading. I’m WAY too ADHD to sit still too long.

When I hear something amazing (a factoid, a new word, a turn of phrase) I pause and type it in the app. But, I also write notes on the backs of junk mail, my HAND, random receipts, and notebooks with only the first five pages used.

I buy audiobooks (awesome royalties to the author) and then buy a used paper copy of the same book (no royalties to the author, but I color, underline and dog-ear it to death).

For the record…I still want my stapler.

Additionally, I study movies and series in film. I literally sat with paper and pen and watched the entire Stranger Things series beginning to end and wrote out every single plot point on the micro-scale and the macro (series as a WHOLE).

But that is ME. You be YOU. Everyone learns, remembers, and processes information differently. There is no one RIGHT way to take notes when reading, so long as you “take notes” when reading (even if those are mental notes).

Learn by DOING…

In the end, we learn by DOING. Yes, I want y’all to read before, during and after a book. Read everything you can. What did you LIKE? If you couldn’t put the book down, HOW did the author hook you?

Everything is valuable!

Yes, even “BAD” books. If a book really frustrated you, WHY did it frustrate you?

Did the author fail to research properly? What did they miss? How can you do better? Were the characters irredeemable? If so, why? Were the characters too dumb to live? If you think so, WHY?

Yet, ultimately, we don’t want to be like the imaginary surgeon I opened with. Theory is good, but we have to put it into PRACTICE. Every amazing author was once a beginner, too. The more we write and apply what we learned via reading the better.

While reading is critical, it can also fall into what I call “productive procrastination.” Ultimately I don’t care HOW y’all do it so long as you do it. Respect the profession/craft/art enough to immerse in it.

Thank you, Harshi S. for such a great question (I will email you something special). And THANK YOU readers for being here and sticking it through, even if you are here for the memes.

I care enough to send steal only the very best xoxoxoxoxo.

What Are Your Thoughts?

What do y’all think about “writers” who brag about not reading? I think they believe ChatGPT is going to save them and make them millionaires, but that is a whole other blog.

How do YOU learn from what you read? What are some tips and tricks for learning, making notes, keeping up with notes? Clearly, I AM NOT the person for this advice.

I LOVE hearing from you! Obviously.

To prove it and show my love, for the month of OCTOBER, everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat.

***I actually have landed agents for people who’ve won this contest. Agents like me because I make their lives easier.

If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice.

What do you win?

The unvarnished truth from yours truly (and maybe even time with an agent).

I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less). People with superlative writing, I (with your permission) have been known to pass you onto an agent.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your comments and your writing!

The post Reading with Intent: Becoming a Better Writer appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

The beginning of any story is, by far, the hardest part. Well, except for that sticky middle pain in the @$$ ACT TWO that goes on FOREVER. Total nightmare not getting stalled there. Then, we need to make sure to knock it out of the park at the END lest readers curse our names for giving them such high hopes only to let them down.

Okay, let’s just say ALL parts of writing a novel are difficult and present unique challenges. Yet, a story beginning is the kindling that starts the fire that (hopefully) makes readers burn through a book like a wildfire through dry field.

For the record, this post IS a bit long BECAUSE I am including examples toward the end. Feel FREE to skim as needed. Just, in the comments, make sure to write how you LOVED every last word for bonus points in the contest.

Yes, I am shameless. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Moving on…

In the Beginning….

Other than a smashing cover, the opening lines of a book are among our strongest selling tools. We WANT potential readers to skim those sample pages or open the front of the book and be rendered helpless.

They simply MUST know what happens next!

Before we begin…

Beginning a new project, novel, story is a lot of fun, but it’s also where too many writers find themselves stuck. This is because, as I just mentioned, we are keenly aware just how important that opening is. It’s also because it can fall under what I call “productive procrastination.”

We keep going back over our opening until it’s perfect, but that is the lie. First, there is no such thing as a perfect beginning. We simply cannot please everyone.

Secondly, we can end up stuck in the quicksand of our opening because we really don’t know what our story is about, so we don’t know what logically should happen next.

Thirdly, maybe we do have a solid idea of what our story is about, but we are afraid of success. If we never finish, we can never fail.

I’ve been writing professionally for over twenty years and have edited literally thousands of works by other authors. Authors of all levels from pre-published newbies to internationally best-selling household names (yes, they need help sometimes, too).

I will grant you, there is a lot of pressure to nail the beginning, but here is a tip from an old pro that might help you loosen up that death grip.

Accept that 99% of the time, your beginning will change.

We can spend valuable writing time camping out on the one section of the book that is most likely to be cut, moved or rewritten altogether. OR we can do more productive activities, like actually finishing.

Now, if you are already churning out polished novels with no problem and your process works like a well-oiled machine? Feel free to ignore me.

If, however, you keep getting in a jam? Try something different and maybe take my advice.

Once you get started, keep moving. Relax and just continue writing until THE END.

What is the worst that can happen? You will have another method that doesn’t work. Big deal. But what if my advice DOES work?

Yes, I know you’re probably going to at least think your beginning sucks. That’s fine. Just envision it as a place-saver. Resist the urge to go make major changes. If you understand story structure, have a good sense of what your story is ABOUT, then press forward. It is a lot harder to revise what doesn’t EXIST.

Perfect is the enemy of the good, and it is also the enemy of the FINISHED.

As I’ve said countless times on this blog, no half-finished “perfect” book has ever been a runaway global phenomenon, but plenty of “‘terrible’ but finished books have.”

When we keep moving our prose around, expounding, compressing, adding, removing, we can very literally edit all the life out of a perfectly good story. We also can develop a bad habit for the rest of the book, where we’re condemning ourselves to Revision Hell before we’ve even finished.

With all that out of the way, what are some key elements to excellent openings?

Begin in the Action

If you’ve been writing any amount of time, you might have heard the term in medias res. This can be a bit confusing, because many instructors/editors will also toss around phrases like, “Start in the action.”

This confused me for YEARS when I was a n00b.

Okay, so I added in terrorist and a bomb and a car chase, which is kinda weird since I’m writing a Women’s Fiction…

When we say to “begin in the action,” we mean dramatic action. When it comes to a modern audience, I would venture to say we have ONE minute to capture attention. We have about three sentences, a paragraph MAX.

Yes, we (readers) have the attention span of an ADHD goldfish with a closed head injury. But there is a lot more than we are some spoiled generation who can choose from a billion titles.

Not much more, but at least a little.

In Medias Res & Dramatic Action

First, there is a difference between “bad things happening” and “dramatic action.” When I teach I give this example.

Let’s say I drive down I-20 (interstate that runs east and west in Texas and across the U.S.). Traffic slows. A car accident. Like everyone else, I look to see what happened. Oh no, a fatality. There are emergency vehicles everywhere and a minivan on its side and there is an American flag sticker and a family of stick people on the back window.

And there are tarps. One adult-sized form, two little forms and a tiny form are all laid out under blue tarps. Judging by the sticker, Dad and the dog are about to have the worst day of their lives.

Am I saddened? Unless I am a total psychopath, sure.

Now…

I am at the grocery story and there is a frazzled woman in front of me. She has two young kids and a toddler, and she is rushing because her husband is coming home from deployment and she’s throwing a surprise party.

I chit-chat while making goofy faces at the littlest. Maybe I creatively distract the other two from the candy so she can check out. I tell her to take her time and breathe. Since I only have a couple things, it takes only a minute and I see her in the parking lot juggling the kids and the basket which I offer to return for her.

On the way to return HER basket, I remember that, in all the chit-chat, I forgot one of my bags. So, I run inside and wave good-bye as her mini-van pulls out of the parking lot.

Fifteen minutes or so passes and I am now on I-20.

Same backup…but is it the SAME ACCIDENT?

I ONLY spent a handful of minutes with this woman and her three kids, but I KNOW that mini-van, and recognize the American flag bumper sticker and the little family of stick figures.

I am not only affected, I am possibly inconsolable.

THIS is the magic that “Normal World” can create for your story. We “hook” with a problem. In my made-up scenario, the woman is in a hurry. Her PROBLEM (action) is she WANTS to be setting up the party BUT she has too much to do and is running late. And, if I (the author) am introducing her, then readers are trained to sense something BAD is likely to happen.

***Psst, this is called “dramatic tension.”

I might not even give the names of this mom and her little ones, but they matter far more (emotionally) than had I started too soon in the action (on the highway). Yes, I needed to get close (the store) but not too close. I began in dramatic action.

When we take too long, we risk boring readers and fail to hook them enough for a sale, let alone a read (or review). If we go too quickly, then there is no chance for the reader to CARE. We’re imbibing in dramatic action’s inbred third cousin, melodrama.

Be careful with melodrama. Invite it in and, before you know it, it drinks all the good whiskey and falls into a coma…only for its identical twin to move in, fake a pregnancy, and plan on stealing your romantic partner.

Be Creative with Your Beginnings

For the record, I HAVE been new. I’m still learning all the time and it’s easy for me to fall into old habits. It is natural for us to start a story in a place where we begin every day.

Waking up.

Someone being awoken from sleep in the beginning of a novel is not per se forbidden. It’s just low-hanging fruit. Figure out WHAT your story is ABOUT then get as close to the problem as possible.

I strongly recommend all authors have a log-line. HERE is how to create one. In a log-line, you will be able to tell anyone WHAT YOUR BOOK IS ABOUT IN ONE SENTENCE. Have that and WAY easier to write the synopsis. It is also much easier to figure out where in medias res actually is.

We can talk about log-lines more another time.

WHAT Should a Beginning Accomplish?

Other than hooking the reader and hopefully landing a sale? Well, now we have to keep ON HOOKING! And people laugh when I say writers (storytellers) are the TRUE oldest profession *rolling eyes*

An excellent story is WOVEN. Have you ever seen a crocheted blanket where someone has missed a stitch? MORE than one stitch? Stitches ALL OVER? If not, feel free to visit me in Texas. I have loads.

It’s OBVIOUS whenever you drop a stitch.

Same in any textile. Look at fabric for a shirt and we can INSTANTLY spot where a stitch went wonky. Or for a sofa or a decorative pillow.

Same in stories.

We need to hook each and every line to the next and next and next until the reader runs out of pages and suddenly realizes, with a sinking heart…they are finished and out of BOOK.

Oh nooooooo!

BUT, to do this we need to know what are some ideals in the beginning.

• Hook the Reader’s Interest
• Present WHO the MC is (or in certain genres like mystery or thriller, who the OPPOSITION is). Some genres begin with a prologue (check out The Seven Deadly Sins of Prologues), and often the opposition is mentioned in a prologue. By CHAPTER ONE, however, we need to be introduced to the MC.
• Introduce the Big Boss Troublemaker (also known as the CORE antagonist responsible for creating the story problem that will be resolved by Act III).
• Establish what POV the author is writing in (first person, first-close, third person, third-shifting, omniscient, etc.)
• Give us a sense of time and place.
• Set the stakes.
• Offer a sense of the author’s STYLE.
• Render all readers helpless to put our book down…

By now you might be thinking, “That’s all?” while others of you are thinking “THAT is ALL? Why not go for world peace while I am at it, Kristen?”

Yes, that is all (for now) and world peace would make a terribly boring novel.

The Beginning “To Do” EXAMPLE

Since I give a lot of the same examples, we’ll do one that is a little different. One of my ALL-TIME most beloved books is William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist. Why? It beautifully demonstrates all the elements of a superlative beginning.

I also wanted to use it because horror can get a bad rap, especially when Hollywood gets involved. Because learning that a movie that is infamous for shock value actually is a book that begins with many layers of nuance? Mind…BLOWN.

In fact, nothing particularly “shocking” happens until a third of the way into the novel and yet Blatty is RIVETING.

Prologue Opening:

Northern Iraq

The blaze of sun wrung pops of sweat from the old man’s brow, yet he cupped his hands around the glass of hot sweet tee as if to warm them. He could not shake the premonition. It clung to his back, like chill, wet leaves.

If this beginning doesn’t hook at least those who love a good scary story, unsure what will. At this point, there is no gore, no pea soup, no spinning heads…only a sense of impending dread.

WHY? WHAT IS CAUSING THIS FEELING?

The reader will (likely) keep reading because we are inherently nosey and we DO WANT TO KNOW.

Priest and archaeologist, Father Lankaster Merrin (who is AN MC, but not THE MC) will reenter the book later. The reason Merrin is in the prologue (again, check out that blog of how and when to use a prologue) is because Blatty wants us to know Merrin has fought this enemy before (INTRODUCES an MC, the BBT, also gives us a clue about the core story problem).

Merrin’s dread is that he senses his old foe (the demon, Pazuzu, has regathered his strength and wants another go at him). Pazuzu is first hinted at via premonition, then when Merrin picks up an ancient amulet of Pazuzu’s head, and finally (notice it is in threes) when he goes out the the dig site and sees the statue of Pazuzu (Demon of the Southwest wind, Ruler of Sickness and Disease).

When Blatty closes out the prologue, a chill wind suddenly kicks up and Merrin notes the wind is from the southwest.

His final sentence in the prologue is:

“He hastened toward Mosul and his train, his heart encased in the icy conviction that soon he would be hunted by an ancient enemy whose face he had never seen, but he knew his name.”

Just WOW! I’m not speaking to those who’d rather play in traffic than read horror (I can’t please everyone). But for everyone else, maybe even people on the fence about the IDEA of reading The Exorcist, you have to admit that is a KNOCK OUT hook!

More Blatty Beginning Beauties

Within two pages, it is clear that Blatty is writing in omniscient POV (GOD has the camera), which is a nightmare of a POV to write without devolving into confusing head-hopping. BUT, Blatty nails it.

Sense of time and place:

The fragrance of licorice plant and tamarisk tugged his gaze to poppied hills, to reeded plains, to the ragged, rock-strewn balsa road that flung itself headlong into dread.

I think he not only paints a stunning picture of a roadside in Northern Iraq, but notice, he STILL puts in that hook.

…to the ragged, rock-strewn balsa road that flung itself headlong into dread.

Using some anthropomorphism with the road, we get even MORE clues signaling DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

We sense the stakes are not only life and death, but might just extend beyond THS life.

A big thing here, however, is to notice how we get a REALLY clear sense of Blatty’s STYLE right in his beginning. I am a crow when it comes to words and gorgeous prose. Cannot get enough of it. Yet, just because this is what I like, doesn’t mean everyone likes it.

The Old Man & the Sea Beginning

If I could think of any author who might be the furthest from Blatty, immediately Hemingway comes to mind.

Opening Sentence:

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days, a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week.

What do we learn in this beginning?

Immediately, there is a PROBLEM. Eighty-four days without catching a fish when one makes a living fishing is, in a word, a PROBLEM. We also see the POV is third-person and can take note that Hemingway is not big on a lot of description.

For readers who aren’t keen on a lot of decoration, Hemingway might be a better fit.

We “get” that the BBT causing the CORE story problem is salao (the worst form of bad luck). Bad luck is represented via a PROXY in the form of…NO FISH.

If the old man catches a fish, he’s no longer salao and would possibly be welcomed back into the small community that has cast him out.

But note just HOW MUCH information we get without all the glittery prose.

The reader is TOLD that the old man wasn’t always alone. He HAD a young boy to help. How long?

Forty days.

For those who might not know, forty is a biblical number that can either represent testing (Jesus fasting in the wilderness before beginning His public ministry) OR it can represent judgement. According to the book of Genesis, when God first judged the Earth, it rained for forty days.

Thus, when it comes to The Old Man and the Sea, within just a little bit of text, we get a LOT. Is the old man in a time of testing OR is he (like his neighbors believe) facing supernatural judgement?

We wonder because when the boy left the old man’s boat, he immediately caught THREE (another biblical number/symbol of the triune nature of God) fish (another symbol of Christianity).

And maybe Hemingway inserted those Biblical symbols and references into the text. OR maybe he left the prose just spare enough so that the book would read differently for every reader.

Maybe another reader with another background would get something totally different, because Hemingway doesn’t strictly spell out what he meant (the way Blatty often did).

For instance, the Chinese have major issues with the number four. It’s often considered unlucky, possibly because it sounds so much like the Cantonese word for death. Between forty, and eighty-four, and ways to divide eighty-four? A LOT OF FOURS. Meaning an Asian reader (not some blonde from the Buckle of the Bible Belt) might get the same sense of dread, but for a wholly different reason.

Begin a Study in Beginnings

T.S. Eliot once said, “Good writers borrow, but great writers steal.” Now this is NOT and invitation to plagiarize, but there IS good news. The wheel works. It has already been invented, so guess what? No need to reinvent the wheel!

There are countless fabulous beginnings, so no need to totally reimagine beginnings as we know them.

Read your favorite beginnings. What hooked you? How? Why? What kept you turning pages? STUDY IT. Then take your favorite elements and create your own. Practice! Remember that attention spans are getting shorter by the day and it is harder than ever to stand apart.

Could I take your opening three sentences and COMPEL a sale?

Would readers be helpless wanting to know more? Cool thing about only three sentences (like the one-sentence log-line) is you can test them on people. Most people are much cooler with hearing an opening 3-5 sentences than committing 12-15 hours to a whole novel.

And you might make a sale!

Did my beginning hook them? Why? Why not?

For the record, I am here to offer guidance, not a straight-jacket. This is a list of the IDEAL elements we’d introduce so y’all have a better understanding of what exactly you need to accomplish in a beginning.

The best writers/stories all check off almost all of that list within at least five pages of the beginning.

We can also do the obverse of this. What beginnings totally STALLED? WHY? Can you fix the opening? What went wrong? Why did you lose interest?

Thoughts on Beginnings?

What are some of your favorite beginnings? Why? Have you noticed a pattern among your favorite beginnings? Maybe a pattern among books you left unread?

I LOVE COMMENTS!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of JUNE, everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat.

I actually have landed agents for people who’ve won this contest. Agents like me because I make their lives easier.

If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win?

The unvarnished truth from yours truly (and maybe even time with an agent).

I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less). People with superlative writing, I (with your permission) have been known to pass you onto an agent.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your comments and your writing!

MAY WINNERS:

Pamela Reece, Lisa Brooks, and Anthony Butler. Since I had a delay (taking care of Mom after her shoulder surgery), I am feeling super generous since y’all were SO GENEROUS with ME!

Please send the first 20 pages (5000 words) to kristen at authorkristenlamb dot com. Put in a Word document, Times New Roman, 12 point font, one-inch margins. Feel free to go a little over if you need to finish a thought, paragraph, chapter. I can always STOP reading. Just don’t get crazy.

The post Set a Story ON FIRE from Beginning to End appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Guilt is a tricky bugger, even in real life. What is guilt? Why does it have so much power? How can we use guilt in story and why would we? Before we unpack this sticky subject let’s begin, at least, with a definition.

Obviously, the story will dictate which definition we use. We might even use all three! Though—as most of us know—one doesn’t have to break any laws to still be crippled by shame, remorse, and regret.

An interesting aspect of guilt is that it may or may not be “valid.” Why do I use “valid”? Because all feelings are “valid” as in we DO FEEL THEM. But, do we deserve to feel them?

I’ve written, previously, on NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder). Narcissists, by definition, do not or can not feel guilt. This is one of the reasons they leave such destruction in their wakes.

Most “normal” people have a conscience. We have this inner moral compass that sounds alarm bells either before or after we’ve crossed a line. Obviously, we’d love to hear the warnings BEFORE crossing a line, but humans are not robots.

We have flaws and emotions. Sadly, when emotions run high, we might say or do something that, at any other time, we’d never even consider. This is where we get “crimes of passion.” But, we also say things when we are angry, sick, exhausted, stressed, etc. and just plunge head-first into “The Stupid Zone.”

Guilt and Remorse

Guilt can drive people mad. Just open up Edgar Alan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart for such a peek. Though Poe’s short story is an extreme sampling, it isn’t terribly far from the truth.

The acute emotions guilt elicits are among the reasons so many criminals get caught. Eventually, the weight of their shame is too much and they cannot go on without confession (to a hotline, a friend, a lover, a spouse, a cellmate, an officer of the law, etc.).

It’s also why people having affairs, or embezzling, or committing some kind of serial “offense” can get sloppy. Guilt underpins their actions. They WANT to be caught because they cannot go on without a reckoning.

***Note: Psychopaths are different in this aspect. Frequently their lack of remorse only feeds their god complex. Arrogance makes them sloppy, not any need for unburdening.

False Guilt

There is a real difference between feeling guilt/shame because we’ve actually wronged someone and need to do our best to make amends/change bad behavior versus phony narratives.

For the record, I am NOT a mental health professional, but I’ve seen my share. I also write because it’s cheaper than therapy. Like many creatives, I draw a lot (though not all) of my inspiration from experience. Just remember this is namely a writing blog, not a mental health blog, though it is really easy to get the two confused.

False shame is particularly insidious. It can destroy all hope, dreams and joy. Why it is uniquely evil? Because we cannot repent for something we didn’t DO. False shame is when we needlessly take on the shame and guilt for others.

If I yell at you and act like a complete jerk, then I DID THAT. I can apologize, make amends, ask for forgiveness, and, if possible, request an opportunity to rebuild a trust I damaged or destroyed.

There is agency.

The False Guilt Narrative

But what about the abuse victim who believes they should have said more, done more, fought harder? What about the person conned out of their life savings? The man or woman who falls for a catphishing scheme/love scam?

One of the reasons so many victims remain silent is because of shame. How could they be so naive? So trusting? Of course, they deserved what happened. A better human being wouldn’t have been damaged, fooled, grifted.

This narrative can come from multiple vectors. It can come from culture/society who shifts blame to the victim. She shouldn’t have dressed that way, drank that much, acted like that. Everyone KNOWS not to click on those links! What idiot gives someone ten grand without a contract? How did you NOT know the “love of your life” wasn’t real? What kind of LOSER falls in love with someone they’ve never even MET?

***For the record, lots of people. Penpals were a thing and sparked a lot of marriages so haters can just shut up.

Also, many abusers either a) groom victims ahead of time or b) target the weak and vulnerable. Like wolves who stalk the perimeter searching for the weak, sick, lame, or lonely, abusers “hunt” in much the same way.

When predators do lure in the prey, they project a false version of events onto the victim to keep their cover. If an old woman conned out of $10,000 for a roof that never happened is too ashamed to go to the police? And feels guilty for being a fool? The con can continue.

Thus, whether it’s being a victim of abuse, a rape, a theft, a con, the one Ace up the abuser’s sleeve will always be “false guilt.”

False guilt almost always guarantees silence. Additionally, the victim will spend years punishing themselves while the offender goes on their merry way committing the same offenses over and over and over.

How “Penance” Manifests

There is penance, and then there is “penance.” When we are in a more emotionally healthy place, it’s easier to discern who should own the guilt and then what to do with that guilt. If we were a victim, then that guilt doesn’t belong to us.

It might take therapy, faith, healing groups, or some other sort of mental health intervention (or a MIRACLE), but the ideal is to finally accurately identify the genuine owner of the guilt, and then leave it for the offender to take or leave.

Remember the main problem with false guilt? Since WE aren’t the actual OFFENDER, then WE can never really do anything about a crime we never committed. If that guilt remains inside, this malignancy goes metastatic into all areas of our lives.

Many people self-medicate. Maybe that’s alcohol or drugs, but it could be shopping, overeating, rescuing people, gossip, gaming, gambling, religion, compulsive exercise, controlling others, or any combination of the above and more.

Energy Must Be RELEASED

Since real guilt and false guilt are potential energy, we feel it inside ourselves building and building until we need to release that energy. More often than not, we generally don’t “release” this emotion in the healthiest of ways. We might numb it with substances or activities until eventually comes roaring out at the most unexpected times.

Years ago, when my grandmother was dying of Alzheimer’s, I was hurting. Badly. I’m a fixer, but that? I couldn’t fix, I couldn’t DO enough. There was no way to help, not really. No way to make her better.

I was a brand new mom with a husband who’d just gotten orders to deploy to Afghanistan and so, when the manager at my local Target intimated I’d stolen a box of baby diapers.

I…went…NUCLEAR.

Was it really about the diapers? Really? Or was that poor manager merely the first target of opportunity where I could vent all my anger, rage, and feelings of worthlessness and helplessness?

Real Penance is Different

When we feel genuine shame, we have agency. Why? Because we DID the thing. We aren’t carrying someone else’s baggage. There are healthy (though definitely NOT easy) avenues to make peace and release our guilt.

The problem with authentic penance is that, while it is great in life, it is STORY DEATH.

Great stories are all about messed up people making really bad decisions until the crucible of the story plucks their heads out of their metaphorical tail ends and gives them what they needed all along…enlightenment.

If they’re abusive, controlling, manipulative, destructive, then the story (over the first two acts) should strip away all their excuses until only THEY remain (Act III). Them and the wasteland of ruined relationships, shattered dreams, and hollow illusions that have been their sustenance.

STRIP IT AWAY!

If we are going to talk about this topic at all, then we need to ask a critical question, “Why do people NEED story?” Because we are HUMAN. From stick figures on cave walls to screenplays and Scrivner, it doesn’t matter.

Humans need and crave story because story is a safe way to hold a mirror to our souls so we can do the honest work. If we are a horrible human being (and I have been one), we aren’t exactly open to friends, family or even a therapist telling us, “Hey, your life sucks because you’re a pretty terrible person. You’re controlling, manipulative, and want grace but never give it.”

OUCH.

BUT, when we SEE a character with those same flaws go from stumbling in the dark over the corpses of dead relationships, failed dreams, and lost jobs, and THAT person gets the AHA! We are there on the journey with them and can learn. There are footsteps we can follow in.

Also, if there is hope for them, there is hope for us. The cycle CAN be broken. We can identify WHAT we’ve done or are doing wrong, then take steps to make it right.

Conversely, if we’re self-medicating, self-harming, believe life isn’t worth living, or we are alone and depressed because we’re carrying guilt that isn’t ours? That’s bad. If we allow people to walk all over us, take advantage, and treat us like a dumping ground for all their toxic waste (I’ve been this person too!), then story—again— holds up a mirror!

We can SEE the “WELCOME” written on our foreheads. No wonder we’re mistaken for doormats! We might even see the demons on our back that we should have never offered to carry in the first place. They didn’t belong to US!

What About Story?

Hopefully, after all this, you might be able to see a bit more clearly. When we create a story problem, what purpose does it serve?

Now, story operates on a minimum of two levels. There is plot arc and character arc. Thus when I ask the story is about, there are TWO answers.

I’ll riff an example.

My story is about a newly released ex-con who must to find the woman who gave her up for adoption in order to save her estranged daughter from a life-threatening genetic disease.

Okay, so we unpack.

Clearly this person had some sort of a substance abuse problem, likely brought upon by her own false or real shame. A problem bad enough to land her doing hard time.

Being given up for adoption can create feelings of being unworthy or abandoned. She has her own child that she then FAILS because of her addictions. Now, free from jail, she wants to make amends but it might be too late.

How do we know if the protagonist WINS?

If at the end of our story, she is still CLEAN, able to find mom (who never wanted to be found) and then convince her to help try and save the daughter/granddaughter?

PLOT PROBLEM is solved.

But, there is also the CHARACTER ARC. Maybe prison was enough to change the protagonist enough to at least begin the Hero’s Journey. Locked away, she got clean, was able to get help, therapy, a support group BUT she has to go back to the real world. There’s a lot of carnage and collateral damage she’ll HAVE to face.

She is going to HAVE to CHANGE in order to successfully arc as a character. This will not (and SHOULD NOT) be easy. Old coping mechanisms are the low-hanging fruit. Our character will try and fail, but (ideally) we’ll root for her to win.

So when we ask what is my story about? My second answer is:

My story is about an addict who faces her demons and conquers them and, in doing so, restores her relationship with her estranged daughter.

Whether daughter lives or dies doesn’t matter. All that matters is the protagonist finds the birth mother and convinces her to TRY to help. And, in doing this great act of courage, repairs enough of the damage to be a story-worthy ending.

Whether the ex-con ends up friends with birth mother, again, is the author’s choice. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn’t. The goal wasn’t to restore the relationship with her MOM, rather to restore it enough to mend fences with her DAUGHTER.

If we take prison, and drugs, and genetic disease out of the picture, we could write that CHARACTER story countless ways.

Guilt and Story

Without pain, suffering, sickness, death, and evil, a protagonist is nothing but some poor schlep without a purpose. Pretty prose does NOT a story make. Audiences are there for the suffering. Why?

Because THEY are suffering and they want a story to show them that good can win, love can conquer all, there really is light is the end of the tunnel, that life has meaning, and there are some things worth fighting and YES, maybe even DYING for.

Even if you don’t write those kinds of “happily-ever-after” stories, then audiences should walk away rattled out of their apathy, shaken from their indifference. Some stories should offend, shock, and horrify because the human response is to DO SOMETHING. Stories make the world a better place.

Regardless of what kind of stories you write, the purpose is always the same. Stories speak to the souls of the audience. There is resonance. They might not see ALL of themselves in the characters, but there should be at least enough that the reader (audience) is willing to endure the ride and all the trials and tribulations along the way.

Guilt, shame, regret, pain, hopelessness, helplessness, rage, all have their counterpart (which is a clear compass for your ending).

So before you write, think, “What is my story about (plot/character)?” and “How does my story END?”

If we identify the pain, then intuitively, we know the cure.

What are Your Thoughts?

First, a reminder. MAKE SURE to scroll down, check out all the new classes and get your spot! Writing is NOT easy, and we are here to help! All classes come with a FREE recording.

Are you being too easy on your characters? Making them “too perfect?” When trouble rears its head, do you hold back? Or could you do a better job of torturing your characters?

What are some of your favorite movies, series, books, plays, etc. that really NAILED guilt, shame and suffering?

For those who follow my blog, you already know I LOVE The Joy Luck Club (movie and book), Fried Green Tomatoes, Steele Magnolias, Luckiest Girl Alive, Heart-Shaped Box, Girl on a Train, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (movie and book), Sharp Edges, and so many more.

Series? I love Ozark, American Horror Story (Seasons 1-4, and the first half of Season 10), Vikings, The Last Kingdom, Stranger Things, and all of these could be BOOKS about technique in and of themselves.

What about you guys?

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September 27, 2022 (7:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M EST)

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The Story Bible: Keeping Track of the Voices in Your Head…and More

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The post Guilt: How Shame, Regret & Guilt Shape Story appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Characters are critical for stories that resonate. Why? Because characters are the conduit that connects the reader and vests them in the story problem. They’re the emotional touchstone that allows for catharsis, because—when written well—it doesn’t matter if the character is a space alien or a federal agent, we (readers) can relate to them in some way.

We can’t empathize with technology, spaceships, magic, or nuclear submarines. Humans can’t bond emotionally to a place (without the characters as the connection).

For instance, we CARE about Lord of the Rings’ Middle Earth because we care about Frodo, Samwise and Gandalf. And, because Frodo, Samwise and Gandalf care deeply for Middle Earth and the Shire…we do as well.

Story is like the wall socket that’s connected a tremendous power source. But, how useful would those wall sockets be if all the gadgets in everyday life didn’t have plugs? How useful would a bunch of dead gadgets be?

We cannot have story without characters and can’t, conversely, have characters (DIMENSIONAL characters) without story.

Readers read stories, but great stories read the readers.

***I know we’ve talked about all this before, but since I am pathologically honest, I feel the need to tell on myself. I cracked a back tooth and had major dental work last week. With all the drugs? I actually have a completely new post almost finished, but it’s been like pulling teeth…bada bump snare.

*cries*

So please forgive the refresher.

Moving on…

Great Characters are What They DO

One of my mantras in life and in fiction is, ‘Talk is cheap.’ Probably the single largest mistake I see in newbie fiction is the writer insists on telling us a character is this or that instead of showing the character being this or that (then allowing us to be the judge).

Now, I do understand that we cannot write a book that is all showing. We do need some telling lest the book be a half million words long and unreadable. As authors, however, we are wise to hold back a little. Use restraint.

Let the audience do some of the work .

This allows readers to join in the experience, and metaphorically ‘complete the circuit.’

Remember, readers bond to characters via their own baggage and their own worldview. Well-written stories are a different experience for every reader, because we (humans) see the characters through infinitely varied lenses.

Ideally, audiences should see our characters through themselves.

This is how we can have a series like Game of Thrones (or A Song of Ice and Fire if we’re talking about the books) and fans have vastly different opinions about the characters.

Some fans LOVED Daenerys Targaryen. I couldn’t stand her. I actually liked Cersei Lannister, even though plenty of folks hated her.

Suffice to say that, whether it’s Harry Potter, Star Wars, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Friends, Marvel, DC, or Big Bang Theory, success can be largely attributed to fan-devotion to favorite characters.

How can characters hold so much power?

If we (the writer) assign moral judgement and TELL an audience this character is good and this one bad and this one a liar and this one a hero, we close that emotional expanse where imagination and empathy lead to bonding.

Half the POWER the characters wield is their baggage, the other half being the READER’S baggage.

We’re wise to leave room in the story for the audience to park their overpacked emotional U-Hauls.

Readers Imbue Emotional Energy

If we can learn to write characters in a way that they act out of their own wants, desires, wounds, blindspots, and shame, then we open the seam between fiction and reality.

Widen this seam enough, and the audience can fall into our story and become part of our world.

Great characters should have baggage, the more the better. They should also be acting out of this baggage. And, if we (Author God) will refrain from assigning any value judgement (telling) the characters will, as a result, become more complex.

Right now maybe you’re all saying, ‘Great, Kristen! Um, huh?’

When WE (the author) assign a value judgement, we are doing this based off OUR experiences, psychological makeups, wounds, etc. This limits how much the reader can participate by forming their own opinions.

If, however, we can practice restraint, the READERS will formulate their own assessments based off their wholly unique and infinitely varied experiences. In fact, that is a HUGE part of the fun.

It’s why we (fans) take The Sorting Hat Quiz over at Pottermore, or Facebook quizzes to tell us which Avenger we are or which character from Firefly we resemble most.

Back to Game of Thrones, though. Why did I ‘like’ Cersei Lannister despite her being a fairly horrible person?

Because of MY background.

‘Noble’ Qualities’

How audiences loved to hate Cersei. Yet, why did she resonate for me? Why did her character strike such a visceral chord? What made her dimensional and real instead of a paper doll/mustache-twirling caricature?

First, she possessed what I BELIEVED to be noble qualities. Cersei LOVED her family (her brother perhaps a bit too much for my comfort, but whatever).

I’ve always been deeply dedicated to family. Also, as a mother, I understood her motivations. She would do anything for her children. She’d stop at nothing to assist, promote, protect or even AVENGE them.

Literally.

She was fiercely devoted to her children (even a child as terrifying as Joffrey) and heaven help anyone who messed with her cubs. She’d melt you with wildfire…then drop a city on you.

For reals. She did it.

*Cersei drops mic then half of Westeros*

As a mom, I fully appreciate how vulnerable our children can make us. How blinded we can be to the faults of our kids.

Also, Cercei’s personality is a lot like mine. I don’t do anything in half-measures and neither did Cersei Lannister.

She Had a Sympathetic Viewpoint

Because of MY background, I felt Cersie possessed a highly sympathetic viewpoint. She was a woman in a man’s world, overlooked even in her own family.

Of all the Lannister children, SHE was the only one who paid attention, and who outpaced her brothers by a million miles regarding Rule with an Iron Fist/On an Iron Throne 101.

SHE was the Lannister most qualified to rule, but instead, her father handed her off like chattel to marry a fat, sloppy, philandering joke of a leader, King Robert Baratheon who openly disrespected her.

And it was that pervasive powerlessness—generated by the world she had no choice being born into—that pissed her off more than a little (and rightfully so).

I understood her frustrations.

Her one brother, Jaime, had more interest in prancing around the country playing ’emotionally wounded knight’ than protecting the realms, and the other brother, Tyrion–in the beginning at least–was a drunken, hard-partying cad who cared only about himself.

Men more ‘qualified’ to rule from the Iron Throne surrounded her—and by ‘more qualified’ I mean they had man parts.

The lion’s share of Cersei’s insane desire to gain the throne for one of her sons could be largely attributed to the fact that she believed she could rule vicariously through her sons who had the requisite ‘man parts.’

She believed that, if she could secure the Iron Throne, she could maintain the security they’d fought so hard and lost so much to win in the wars against The Mad King.

Of course after Season Six she was there to blow $#!& up and was all out of children. She made the High Sparrow into a smoking crater glowing hotter than a Chernobyl Ferris Wheel.

And that ‘Rule by Man Part Mandate’? She melted that, too…

A Character to Act Out MY Feelings

I knew what it felt like to live in a world where a woman wasn’t supposed to ‘outdo’ the men. I’ve been lectured plenty of times about ‘not knowing my place.’

Male family members constantly insinuated I couldn’t understand business even though I’d earned a degree in International Economics.

When I took the ASVAB for the Air Force, I scored 100% in mechanics and aced anything math-related. I’d just completed Honors Physics, because I had a strong interest in engineering.

Alas, the recruiters laughed when I asked about avionics because, ‘Didn’t I want to be a nurse?’

*sighs*

I spent most of my life in trouble with someone because I didn’t act a certain way. Like Cersei, I didn’t fit in, didn’t say the right things, act the right way, or have the right interests.

I didn’t understand WHY I was supposed to let ‘the men be in charge’ even when ‘the men’ weren’t competent.

That cost me a job…or four.

Characters: Mirror, Mirror on the Page

Great characters will act as a mirror for readers via the story problem(s) and how the characters interact with/respond to the world around them.

All stories are human stories, whether in space or in a magical realm. Characters (should) endure the same trauma and challenges that audiences do in life. This mirroring gives us (readers) a safe place to feel and process our emotions.

Going back to Cersei Lannister.

Cersei mirrored a lot of the frustrations I’d faced throughout my life, and this created a kinship that made me love her and forgive her even though she was utterly horrible.

I KNEW what it was like to be the best qualified person for the job, yet not even considered. I understood how frustrating it was to not be able to simply ASK for what I wanted or needed, to have to hint, suggest and ‘wheedle’ so I didn’t step on toes.

Manipulation is the tool/lever/weapon of those too weak to simply ask for/go after what they want.

Despite all this, I’m a very blunt person.

*shock face*

I know.

What you see is what you get. I suck at taking hints, so I don’t like hinting to others. If you need something? Ask. I’m aging here, and I don’t like wasting time guessing. If I hurt your feelings? Please just tell me so I can apologize, because I probably didn’t even mean to. That and I can make certain not to tromp on you again.

I despise manipulation. Yet, there was a time I had to learn how to ‘suggest’ and ‘hint’ if I wanted to get anything accomplished.

On top of all this? Like Cersie, I, too, have endured terrible consequences due to incompetent leadership, and been powerless to do anything about it for ONE REASON.

I was a female.

Characters & The Audience

This said, plenty of people loathed Cersie from the get-go. Ironically, I HATED her for the first three seasons or so. But, once I had enough story and context? *shrugs* She started to grow on me. I never agreed with her behavior, but I DID at least empathize with her motivations.

Just as I hated Robert Baratheon from the onset, because he reminded me of people who’ve caused me tremendous pain, Cersei Lannister could remind someone else of some tormentor in their life.

OR, it could be they didn’t share much in common.

THEIR life experiences, baggage, wounds, personalities made them bond to a different character that told ‘their story’ instead.

The skilled writer understands human narcissism. We are a self-absorbed bunch.

That’s why we long for stories where we can see a bit of ourselves reflected back. This is the danger with creating one-dimensional characters.

Newer writers, not yet skilled in the art of mischief and mayhem, tend to gravitate to the extremes. We have super-perfect characters pitted against utterly horrible villains.

Unfortunately, black-and-white is boring and predictable.

Superman Syndrome

Superman, in my POV, is a Mary Sue. He has all these superpowers—strength, speed, he can fly, possesses x-ray vision, etc. Superman is also handsome, noble, kind, wholesome, and dedicated to his family. His ONLY weakness is Kryptonite.

And THIS is why he’s utterly boring.

Perfect characters with no weaknesses aren’t relatable. Conversely, ‘perfect’ villains who are wholly evil—with no redeeming qualities or sympathetic motivations—are caricatures.

Life isn’t black-and-white and neither are people. Good fiction appreciates this reality and understands audiences gravitate to the gray, because that’s where they live.

Black and white, good and bad make for predictable fiction. Audiences LOVE when stories (and characters) surprise them.

When we leave room for a ‘good guy’ to fall from grace, or a ‘bad guy’ to finally do the right thing, it keeps readers vested wondering what will happen next. Adding gray areas is what prevents writing from being ‘formulaic.’

When the audience can’t predict how the characters will act/react, they can’t predict what will happen next in the story, let alone know how it will end.

If you think back to the movies, books and series you’ve loved the most, I promise you’ll see that psychological wiggle room that allowed you to ‘slip into’ the story by forming your own opinions.

If you want to learn how to open that psychological seam, I recommend going back and rereading or rewatching the stories that hooked you the hardest and this time, take notes.

Read/or watch intentionally. Writing is NOT easy and great writing demands practice, study and TRAINING.

I LOVE Hearing From You!

HOW have your favorite stories (books, movies, or television series) hooked you? When? What drew you in?

I know over the past week and a half, while on ‘vacation’ due to major dental work, I’ve discovered some new favorites on Audible. I’ve also gone back to watch older series from the aughts that I only was able to watch in bits and pieces because I was too broke for cable.

I’m watching Criminal Minds and NCIS and I find it so fascinating how much I have fallen in love with the characters. They MAKE the series. NCIS wouldn’t be NCIS without Gibbs, Abby, Ducky, DiNozzo, etc. I have really enjoyed watching them arc as ‘people.’ And, while I’ll never be a federal agent (in large part to age and search history), I can relate to love, friendship, loss, betrayal, grief, and all the in between.

What about y’all? What characters have ‘spoken’ to you the most? Why?

The post Characters: The Emotional Touchstone Readers Crave appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Evil fascinates us, and has since the dawn of human consciousness. I continually emphasize that humans are story creatures, which is good news for writers, since we’re in the story business.

Though not all stories face off evil directly, all stories must include conflict to be considered a story. Conflict isn’t, per se, evil, but great storytellers paint with words and black is only the farthest extreme. Some stories might demand a LOT of black, but others will likely run along the spectrum of “evil.”

No, the department’s budget cuts that force your MC (Main Character) to lay off twenty hardworking people she cares about isn’t, per se, evil at work, but maybe it is. For your MC? It sure feels close to it in the moment. Especially when the cowards higher up force her to wield the ax hand out the pink slips…a week before Christmas.

***Quick question. Does anyone know what jerk made the official note you have NO JOB…pink? I could google it but I bet y’all have WAY better “answers” (place in comments, please) #PlotBunnyAlert.

Moving on…

Writers Must Embrace “Evil”

No, I don’t mean sacrificing your kid’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups that you took as a Halloween “Candy Tax” to the Dark Lord to become best-selling authors. I mean that one of the reasons writers freak out ‘normal people’ is guess what, Kiddies?

Y’all ain’t normal.

Sorry. Maybe I should have led into that. Prepped y’all better. Eased you into it.

Alas, sadly (or awesomely) The Normal Ship sailed away long ago while we were all looking at new journals many of us will never write in #TooPretty.

Now that we’ve settled that you’re not normal, it’s okay because normal is highly overrated and frankly doesn’t exist…aside from being a setting on the dryer.

BUT, just because y’all might be ‘Abby Normal,’ doesn’t mean you (we) don’t need to grow *stern face* .

Why authors, particularly really amazing authors, fascinate regular people is that they have the capacity to torture their characters.

In fact, the mere existence of SO MUCH angst, drama, upheaval, and inner and outer turmoil in REAL life is precisely WHY audiences love to read the same stuff in amplified form in books or watch it in movies or television series.

Authors like J.K. Rowling, George R.R. Martin, J.D. Robb, Isaac Asimov and other legends (too many to name) have learned not to pull any punches and to keep going for the T.K.O. until the bitter end.

“Evil” Lite

I’m not picking on anyone in particular, because I did the same thing when I was a new writer. Ironically, the very quality we absolutely must possess ‘to DO’ our craft can be actually be our undoing.

We LOVE…words. Often, too much.

In my early attempts at writing stories, everything was amazing, each detail finely and intricately crafted down to the tiniest detail. The problem, however? Everything was awesome.

*hums song from The Lego Movie*

I wrote ‘scenes’ of lazy days in bookstores, fun-filled shopping sprees, dancing in Paris, traveling The Med, on and on. I used words to paint worlds I never could visit in real life, and never wanted to leave. That, however, was not fiction.

Much to my dismay.

Fiction, is an escape…but in a very different way. It isn’t a cruise ship, it’s catharsis. When we strip away all the evil, take away the troubles, flaws, trauma, setbacks, and dirty deeds done dirt cheap, we’re handing our readers a shill.

Or a shell. There’s no STORY.

“Evil” is Essential

See, the entire POINT of story is there is a lot of crap in life we struggle with. Life is messy, chaotic, unfair, unjust, cruel, and sometimes downright terrifying.

We see evil in all its many shades wending through our lives, the lives of others, and often we feel powerless and hopeless. Life is wonderful and precious and beautiful, but those attributes can only be fully experienced when cast against the backdrop of loss, frailty, hardship, pain, and suffering.

The point of all this isn’t to depress you, dear writer, rather it is to clarify your mission. There are hurting people out there living in a world where the rules are patently unfair. STORIES, however, allow them an escape where the rules work in their favor for a change.

Even those stories where everything isn’t neatly wrapped up with a bow at the end, the story itself brings order to chaos, which offers the tormented soul a respite.

Good stories make us think, talk, question, examine, and reexamine not because the writer wrote a glorious description of a moonlit night, but because the writer posed questions not easily answered.

For instance, Josh Malerman’s Bird Box, is a terrifying story just by genre. I’ll grant that.

Beautifully written novel. Yet, what grabbed me more than the prose was the story, the people and how they all reacted so differently to the same problem. What still staggers me is how many questions this story engendered, questions that I can’t easily answer.

Exactly what were people seeing that made them react that way? Were the crazy people really immune or simply crazy? If my survival rested on moving silently without use of my primary sense (sight), could I?

*crinkles bag of chips while pondering*

Nope. Strong nope there. Okay, ONE easy answer.

Chaos & Clarity

This blog covers many genres and forms of writing. Maybe you aren’t writing horror, dystopian, thriller, or science fiction. It doesn’t matter. Think about some of the most successful ‘book empires,’ for lack of a better term.

Debbie Macomber has written more books than I care to count. Her Cedar Cove series was adapted into a television series of the same name. No serial killers, doomed spirits, warlords, exorcisms, or fallen gods visiting Earth through a rip in space-time.

Nope.

Just humans, doing very human things, making very human choices/mistakes and having very human flaws and failings.

But why was a series like Cedar Cove so incredibly popular? Because, first of all, her world became a character (that’s for another post). Also?

She was brave enough to be honest.

Granted, my personal preferences are far more gritty (which is likely why I probably creep people out WAY more than a meeting with the lovely Debbie Macomber).

But, the first book in the Cedar Cove series, 16 Lighthouse Road, is about a woman who falls in love with a Navy submariner just after New Year’s Eve, gets pregnant, then complicates her life even further by marrying him. Complicates, as in she’s ill-prepared for the nomadic and lonely aspects of military life.

While her husband is at sea, their daughter is born premature and with a heart issue. Celia is forced to make life-and-death decisions by herself. Then, her daughter dies and Celia must bury her baby alone. Her mother tried to be there, but a storm delayed her flight. And her father? He’s is emotionally unavailable, and only good for a hastily written sympathy card, and little more.

Though Celia had sent message after message to her husband, Ian, about the problems with their infant, she never received a single reply. Her husband was on a nuclear sub under the polar ice caps at the time. The Navy limited all messages to 50-word “family grams.”

To make matters worse, Ian’s commanding officer decided to withhold the messages until he completed his ten-week tour. Not that it mattered much. Even if he’d known, what could he have done? Or said?

By the time her husband returns, he’s a wreck, but no explanations or apologies are enough.

She wants out. The only answer is divorce.

Or is it?

“Evil” Has Layers and Hues

The reason books like those in the Cedar Cove series resonate is they are LIFE in distillate. All of us (whether we read this genre or not) can relate to some aspect of all the story contains. Sometimes life hands us a no-win situation. We might not make a bad choice, only choose the least crappy of all way crappier choices.

We understand anger, rash decisions, disease, death, heartbreak, others who fail us when we need them most, or even judging people too harshly because we’re trapped in our own shame and guilt.

When people think “EVIL” or even about “CONFLICT” they immediately conjure spy movies, thrillers, horror or dystopian, but didn’t your guts just twist with that little bit of description of a HALLMARK STORY? Did anyone do anything particularly evil or even WRONG? Yet what a MESS! How many of us understand messes like these all too well?

So I ask you. When it comes to storytelling, how many of us are holding back?

We fashion our worlds or characters as if they’re blown glass, when they shouldn’t be.

Blown glass characters are good for sitting on a shelf…much like boring, unread books.

Characters and stories worth reading (and then worth reading again and again) are forged in the fires and furnaces of literal or personal HELL. They are pounded, forged, hammered, reshaped, tossed back into the forge again and again until they finally emerge as something magnificent.

Bad Decisions Make Great Fiction

Villains are incredibly interesting characters, though not exactly the same as what I call the Big Boss Troublemaker (core antagonist). Not all stories have villains, but all stories must have a core antagonist that creates the main problem in need of resolution by Act Three.

Yet, though the antagonist creates the problem, it’s actually the MC and his/her allies who generate a lot of the page-turning tension. It’s their human failings, weaknesses and bad or at least less-than-perfect decisions that make the story interesting.

Readers love stories for many reasons. It’s comforting to know that even people who make dumb (or horrible) decisions can turn out to be heroes. We like to know we’re not alone, and stories allow us to experience emotions in a sort of ‘safe space’ through imaginary people in a made up world.

They give us tools to handle life and see it through many different lenses to enjoy it more fully. We forgive ourselves or others, feel empathy, compassion, see life through perspectives other than our own. All this makes us more fully…human.

Stories aren’t there to offer spa music, unobstructed vistas, massage chairs and endless buffets of treats.

That’s an oasis, not an odyssey.

In the end, be bold! Forget blown glass worlds, blown glass stories peopled with blown glass figurines. They’re pretty to behold, but can’t withstand pressure required to deliver a heart-pounding story guaranteed to keep readers up way past bedtime wanting to know how it all works out.

A Little More “Evil“

Here are some other posts that might help you on this topic that I’ve pulled from the archives.

The Brain Behind the Story: The Big Boss Troublemaker (BBT)

The Evil Has Landed: Villains Could Be Much Like You…or Even Me

Bring on the BINGE! Creating Villains Audiences Can’t Get Enough Of

How to Create Legendary Villains

Enemy Without a Face: When Dealing With a Different Sort of ‘Villain’

I hope this all helps you guys with your writing journey!

What Are Your Thoughts? I LOVE Hearing From You!

And I am NOT googling who made pink slips pink. Though I am TOTALLY open for the best conspiracy theories in the comments! The wilder and weirder the better. Come on, we all need a good laugh right now.

Did this help clarify what might be missing in your writing? Are you coddling your characters too much? Maybe being too heavy handed with BLACK instead of layering in some pearl grays here and there? Can you see areas where you might be able to make your characters work that much harder?

We (readers) LOVE that! Who wants to watch any sports match where the score is like 120 to ZIP? BORING! We want characters (heroes) to suffer! To work for it! Yes, we will scream and shout and call you names, but we’ll love you in the end after we forgive you for keeping us up until 4:00 a.m. #PinkiePromise

So let’s chat!

The post EVIL: Our Love-Hate Relationship With Mischief, Mayhem & Destruction appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

The story-worthy problem is the beating heart of all superlative fiction. Unfortunately, creating this central core can often be overlooked. This is particularly true for writers relying on school training.

English teachers didn’t mind we used twenty-five metaphors on one page because their goal was to teach us how to properly use a metaphor…not how to write successful commercial fiction.

Creating the core problem and then—possibly (depending on genre)—the many overlapping layers and misdirections, is tough mental work.

Story as Structure

Like any structure, a story demands a strong foundation and sturdy frame. Without structure, it’s easy for author (and audience) to become lost.

Without those elements? The story caves in. But, foundations and framing aren’t nearly as fun as picking out paint, furniture, or drapes.

Face it, for most of us, decorating a house is much more fun than building one. This can be the same for stories. Crafting the perfect sentence, poring over descriptions, tinkering with dialogue is fun.

Alas, like our ‘building’ everything has a certain order. The story-worthy problem is critical.

It will be this problem (requiring a satisfactory resolution) that holds the structure together and gives meaning to the existence of all the players on the field (characters).

Lack of a Story-Worthy Problem

I began this craft series not only for those who want to write at a professional level, but also for those who might find themselves stuck. Writer’s block has often been attributed to laziness, but I don’t wholly agree.

I believe—for those stuck—your subconscious begins by pumping the brakes. This is the warning something is missing.

You start off writing and the word count soars. Usually this lasts about 10,000 words. Then, your pace steadily slows. Finally, around the 25,000 to 32,000 word mark everything begins to collapse.

By this point, it can feel you’re trying to drag a boulder through a swamp.

My opinion? This is your subconscious now slamming the brakes. Something is missing. What?

The reason for the story.

Finally? You set your hard work aside, frustrated. This is why most writers keep going back and reworking the beginning, which makes sense. It was the only time the words came easily.

We long to revisit that carefree flow. Description is easier.

Why Are We All Here?

The story-worthy problem is why we’re all here. It’s the sole reason for the MC (main character) to even exist. The story-worthy problem is the sole reason for any and all characters to exist.

Without that core problem, everything is fluff and window-dressing.

Notice I keep using the term ‘story-worthy’ problem. Not all problems are created equal.

We have to ask, ‘Why are we here?’ ‘What is the point?’ ‘Why would an audience CARE?’

We live in a world with innumerable other distractions and ways to be entertained. This said, WHY would a reader choose to dedicate 10-15 hours (average time to read a novel) to your book?

Frequently, when I edit, the lack of the core problem is the single largest reason writers either can’t seem to finish. Or, if they do finish, sales are lackluster.

They’ve not defined that compelling reason an audience would choose reading over social media, video games, or another episode of The Bachelor.

Audiences MUST CARE

I know this seems simple. But guess what? A basic soufflé is very simple, yet one of the most challenging dishes to successfully create. Simple doesn’t mean easy.

Compelling story problems actually begin very simple. How much is then layered onto this is a matter of genre and taste. Yet, the problem is the hook.

Even a work as soaring as Game of Thrones has a simple goal—secure The Iron Throne, stabilize the realms before winter arrives. Granted, this ‘simple’ story-worthy problem evolves into a vastly complex web of lies, betrayal, and intrigue.

But, the core goal is simple—secure The World’s Most Uncomfortable Chair.

Elementary, My Dear Watson…

In a mystery, the story-worthy problem is frequently the crime. It might be a murder, a burglary, a forgery, a stolen identity, whatever. The point of the mystery is to solve the crime and deliver justice.

During quarantine, I’ve been watching the fabulous and binge-worthy BBC Sherlock series. I’ve simultaneously been inhaling The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock is presented with a case and how do we know the story has ended?

The great detective has not only solved the case and identified the what, how, where, and who, but the perpetrator is exposed and apprehended.

That is the point of a mystery. Same can be said for detective and crime novels (eg. Harry Bosch series).

Genre & the Story-Worthy Problem

Genre acts as a useful guide to answering WHY we (the audience) are there. Thrillers usually involve beginning with an initial taste of the far larger plan the MC needs to stop.

In thrillers, there are BIG consequences (e.g. stopping a terrorist attack on The Palace of Westminster). Say a seemingly random bombing in the tube is anything but.

This initial act ignites the story-worthy problem. It’s no random bombing, rather a race against time to stop the larger and TRUE goal…a much larger bomb attack when the House of Lords and House of Commons meet to pass a certain piece of legislation.

Story-Worthy Problems: Thriller or Suspense?

Suspense differs in that the consequences are more personal. Many serial killer books are a good example. For instance, Red Dragon follows Thomas Harris’s hero Will Graham who nearly died apprehending Hannibal Lecter.

In Red Dragon, however, Graham is on the trail of a killer known as The Tooth Fairy who’s infamous for wiping out entire families indiscriminately (or so they believe).

Graham’s goal is to figure out the pattern that will reveal the identity of the killer and then stop him.

But, notice the difference between thrillers and suspense. The collateral damage differs in scope and scale.

Save future families from extermination (suspense) versus a plot to implode the Western political system (thriller).

For more on details on genre (and the many variations), I recommend my older posts Fizzle or Sizzle? How Genre is Fundamental for Story Success and Choosing a Genre: Anatomy of a Best-Selling Story.

What’s Missing?

Why am I talking about the story-worthy problem? First it follows as a natural progression from our initial discussions of The Big Boss Troublemaker.

The core problem can be simple for a short story as well as for a sweeping and layered space opera. The only difference is in plot and how much is layered on top of that strong core problem.

The Story-Worthy Problem MUST Exist

Sadly, as an editor, what I see too often is writers believe they have a novel, when in truth, they have 80,000 words of ‘bad things happening.’

Me: What is your story about?

Writer: My main character wants to find out about her past.

Me: Why?

Writer: Because she does.

Me: Why? What happens if she fails? What is so important about her finding out about her past?

Writer: *blank stare*

Most audiences aren’t interested in the literary equivalent of watching over the shoulder of a stranger reconstructing a family tree for no purpose other than ‘to know.‘

This isn’t a story-worthy problem.

Yet, this is a ‘story’ I’ve been presented with more times than I care to count. But look at what’s missing. There are no stakes, no burning reasons to learn about this character’s past that can engage an audience.

It’s like being trapped on an airplane with the passenger next to you relaying her nasty divorce. Not only do we not care…we probably would resort to feigning air sickness to escape.

But with some minor changes, it’s EASY to change this ‘bad situation’ and ‘non-story’ into something interesting. We add in the story-worthy problem…the WHY.

Everything is in THE WHY

The WHY influences the stakes, the ‘what will happen if the MC fails.’ So our MC wants to find out about her past. WHY?

What if she discovers she is adopted right after becoming newly married? Shocking enough, but then, during a routine medical exam, she finds out she has a very rare disease even the best specialists can’t figure out.

They only can surmise it’s a congenital illness and fatal. If she can find her birth parents, she might find the cure.

But, to make matters worse (raising the stakes) the same routine examination reveals she’s pregnant. Now her life isn’t the only one on the line.

She (and the physicians) don’t know how much longer she’ll be able to carry the baby without terrible consequences.

Now, it is a matter of life and death to find out about her past if she hopes to live, if she hopes to save her child. The stakes are about as high as they can get.

Additionally, the clock is very much ticking because her health is failing and two lives are on the line. Or, if you’re feeling froggy, raise the stakes and on the second sonogram she realizes it’s TWINS!

WHY Impacts & Guides Genre

My made-up example above can easily become a suspense.

When our imaginary MC begins looking into her past, someone tries to burn down her house. Her new husband is attacked. On and on.

The reason she was put up for adoption was to keep her safe. She was the daughter of a powerful and dangerous mob boss/drug lord/sadist of your choice. The irony is she must search out the person thought likely to kill her for the very key to her survival.

NOW we have a story-worthy problem.

Add in that it maybe isn’t a disease, it’s magic manifesting in her and now we have Urban Fantasy.

What I am hoping to make clear is the WHY inexorably leads us to a far more fascinating journey than ‘she wants to find out about her past and who she is.’

A ‘Simple’ Story-Worthy Problem

This next section is a spoiler alert if you haven’t seen the movie. Usually, I try to use movies that were also books and that followed closely to the books. That is a hard task.

Don’t always have this luxury.

I tend to shy away from action films, not only because the gun scenes and fight choreography are enough to give me apoplexy most of the time, but so many lack enough meat to the story I grow bored within fifteen minutes or less.

***If I am not screaming at the screen about magazine changes.

Action films devolve usually into mostly shooting, fighting, car chases and explosions….wash, rinse, repeat.

Yet, recently, I watched a fantastic Netflix-produced action film Extraction, starring Chris Hemsworth, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda.

This is the premise:

A hardened mercenary’s mission becomes a soul-searching race to survive when he’s sent into Bangladesh to rescue a drug lord’s kidnapped son.

If you’ve followed this blog long enough, I often lecture that ‘surviving’ is not an active goal. Be careful using this as a plot.

But the Netflix log-line might be a tad misleading. While this is an action film that rivals John Wick in fight choreography, in my POV, there is a VERY deep story to this that might not be obvious.

The ‘Not So Simple‘ Story-Worthy Problem

The biggest drug lord in Bangladesh (Amir) kidnaps the biggest drug lord in India’s son as a way to shame his rival. The one drug lord, Amir, knows Ovi Mahajan Sr. is imprisoned and his assets frozen.

When Amir kidnaps Ovi Jr. right from under Saju—the father’s head of security—Amir does this to humiliate his competition. He knows Ovi Sr. cannot afford the ransom nor afford to send anyone in to get back his son.

Ovi Sr. is therefore imprisoned and seemingly impotent with only the knowledge of the horrible fate of his son to think about.

Enter in our mercenary hero, Tyler Rake. This is clearly a man battling personal demons with an obvious death wish. Why? We don’t yet know.

It’s clear he carries a guilt he can’t deal with other than by immersing himself in painkillers, booze or wet work.

In fact, the entire reason he takes the job is it is, for all intents and purposes…a suicide mission. But, the private firm he works for believes they’ve landed ‘a whale’ (code for a client willing to pay millions).

Tyler goes in with the team and the extraction initially goes off without a hitch.

But then the money never comes through.

They’ve been played.

Saju, the head of security who lost the boy, used the team to lead him to the boy and plans to steal him away and deliver him safely home himself (to save his own son from the drug lord’s threats against HIS family).

Now Tyler is waging a multi-front battle (with no money to show for his pain). Every authority in Dhaka is in Amir’s pocket and the city locked down.

Saju is former special operations and hunting him. The city is a deadly labyrinth teeming with child gangs and informants ready spring on them at any time.

Tyler’s company orders him to leave the boy. It would be easy for him to slip out of the city and live. THIS is the critical turning point.

Story-Worthy Problem? A Shadow

In a rare moment of respite, Tyler bonds with the boy who opens up about what it is like to be the son of a man like Ovi Muhajan Sr. In doing this, he coaxes out the ghosts inside of Tyler.

Tyler’s son died of lymphoma at age six and he wasn’t there. He wasn’t there when his son died. His shame? He volunteered to be away because he was too much of a coward to watch his only son die.

Despite back-stabbing, treachery, and the instinct to survive telling Tyler that his best course is to leave Ovi Jr. and look out for himself, he can’t do it.

Until this point, his life or death had no meaning. BUT, in this final act…he can face his shame and be brave for one boy when he couldn’t be brave for his own.

Yes, it is a shoot-em up movie. Some might think there was little plot. But I actually saw a very rich depth to the story. It was a story of one man stepping off the road to perdition and choosing the path to redemption.

Yes, Tyler’s job? Save a notorious drug lord’s son, but fate had other plans. Saving the boy translated into his own salvation…a twist he could never have foreseen.

Ovi Jr. couldn’t help how his drug lord father failed him any more than Tyler’s son could help how his mercenary father wasn’t there when he was needed them most.

Tyler sees in Ovi Jr. a chance the boy might one day be different than his father. I believe the kidnapping changed both Tyler and Ovi Muhajan Jr.

Story-Worthy Problem? Shame

Story-worthy problems usually include story-worthy shame. I’ve blogged before on the power of shame.

I feel, when the screenwriters added in this thread of shame turned sacrifice? It elevated the entire movie from what might have otherwise been just another BANG BANG BOOM movie.

Simple…but far from simple. Ultimately, VERY intriguing a fascinating story-worthy problem.

I included the trailer (below) because I feel it’s a very good movie to study. Perhaps my ‘spoiler alerts’ might make you watch the movie with different eyes.

In the end, though, I get it’s not everyone’s taste. BUT if an action movie—a genre notorious for almost zero story and the emotional depth of a puddle—can make me think this much? I believe Netflix did a stellar job.

Some Lockdown Love

Speaking of the story-worthy problem. We are all living in some strange times, indeed. I haven’t merely been watching shoot-em up movies.

I’ve also been doing an incredible amount of studying so as to bring YOU GUYS—my fave peeps in the world—new and fresh classes.

Now that I’ve finally stopped coughing up a lung (or both) #FunWithCOVID…or not. I had to stop teaching for a while since it has been a LONG road and unpredictable road to feeling healthy again.

In the meantime, I’ve been reading…a LOT. Loads of audio books, paper books, and ebooks.

I’m finally finished Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Complete Sherlock Holme’s Heirloom Edition (58+ hours), the history of the Pinkerton Agency. Toss in some H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker’s Imajica (*groans*) and almost every book by Anthony Horowitz and we have a fair fruit salad of fiction there.

Puzzles are my passion. What could make a better story-worthy problem than murder or crime? But that’s me.

But I hope this blog has helped y’all understand the difference between a simple bad situation and the vastly different creature…the story-worthy problem. It may only be a simple tweaking, but the devil IS in the details.

Speaking of devils. As promised, I have three new classes and three ON DEMAND CLASSES I’m listing below.

Two commenters from the previous blogs get a free ON DEMAND class. I am also—inspired by my feverish readings—offering a SUPER brand new class…The Unreliable Narrator: Turning the Reader’s World Upside Down.

My apologies for the delays in blogs. Between trying to regain my strength, after having COVID-19, was late in the game filing taxes. Alas, life has been FUN…not. But…I…am…*gasps*…still…here. Taxes FILED! *happy dance*

I Love Hearing From You!

Does the idea of ‘bad things happening’ as opposed to a centralized CORE story-worthy problem make more sense now? If not, more blogs to come. Also, as promised, I’ve loaded a few remaining On Demand classes we’d not deleted from the server before I fell ill.

I’d expected to start teaching right away after the new year, but the relentless cough and wanting to DIE kind of got in the way of that.

But we’re getting BACK on schedule with some more Bad Lamb Goodness…or would that be Baaahhdness?

*bada bump snare*

For those who participated in my comments contest, I have not forgotten you….

Winner #1 Roger L Nay

Winner #2 Ruth Molenaar

See? Participation pays off! Just email me at kristen at wana intl dot com. Scroll down and let me know which On Demand Class interests you and it’s yours!

I’ll have some more new classes soon, but for now….

Trouble with Story-Worth Problems? NEW CLASSES to HELP!

There and Back Again: From Good Idea to Successful Novel

Class is May 26th, 2020 from 7:00-9:00 P.M. and a recording (as always) is provided with class purchase. Price is $50 but use lockdown15 for $15 off.

The Unreliable Narrator: Turning the Reader’s World Upside Down

Class is June 4, 2020 from 7:00-9-00 P.M. and a recording (as always) is provided with class purchase. Price of the class is $50 but use lockdown15 for $15 off.

For those who want BOTH classes PLUS a BONUS class as well as an EXCLUSIVE and PRIVATE workshop? I offer you…

The Deep Dive Bundle: Two Classes & EXCLUSIVE Log-Line Workshop

Almost nine hours of training! This also includes working one-on-one in a private workshop with moi! Workshop ONLY available to bundle participants. No discount codes because the discount built into the pricing. Recordings included.

Can’t wait to see y’all in class!

On Demand Classes

Ah, very few remaining On Demand classes we’ve not yet purged from the servers so take advantage while they remain.

On Demand: Dark Arts, Building Your Villain

$50 but use lockdown15 for $15 off ($35)

The Edge: How to Write Mystery, Suspense, & Thriller

$50 and use lockdown15 for $15 off ($35)

Tick Tock: How to Write a Mystery Suspense Series

$50 and use lockdown15 for $15 off ($35)

The post Creating a Story-Worthy Problem That Will Captivate an Audience appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Every story begins with ideas. Alas, stories can only be created when at least two vastly different ideas collide. The place where these ideas meet is the BOOM, much like the weather.

Storms erupt because two very different bodies of air meet…and don’t get along.

Only one idea, however, can win. In the meantime, lots of metaphorical rain, lightning strikes and maybe some tornadoes. After the powerful storms, the landscape is altered, lives are changed, some even lost.

It’s the same with powerful stories. Yet, instead of weather fronts colliding, differing ideas are colliding.

It’s wonderful to have a great story idea. Alas, an idea alone is not enough. It’s a solid start but that’s all. Loads of people have ‘great ideas’ and that and five bucks will get them a half-foam latte at Starbucks…one day when it reopens.

Ideas are everywhere…especially now *sighs*

What differentiates the author from the amateur is taking the time to understand—fundamentally—how to take that idea and craft it, piece by piece, into a great story readers love.

Rolling It BACK

I’ve not been blogging for a while because I had pneumonia that—for whatever reason—would NOT GO AWAY and finally has after four months of being bedridden…just in time for a global pandemic.

Oh-kay.

Everyone is now learning social distancing. As a professional writer for almost twenty years… welcome to my life. So *waves*

For everyone who’s said this to me (or another author), “I’ve always wanted to write a book, if only I could find the time.” Here you ARE! No time like the present.

And I’m here to help you out. I am back posting. There is no sense talking about industry stuff and I want a break from doom and gloom. We are going to get back to the craft essentials and have a good time.

So for all y’all (yes, I am a Texan) who’ve ever had a GREAT IDEA and no friggin’ clue how to turn that sucker into a story?

We begin our adventure here. Fiction, stories are essentially a clash of ideas….

Building Ideas into Stories

To have a story we must have what I call a BBT (Big Boss Troublemaker), since the word ‘antagonist’ confused the bejeezus out of me. We will discuss this concept more on another post.

Suffice to say for now, the BBT is the core idea/person/entity that creates the central problem that must be resolved by the end of your story,

Whenever we discuss the BBT, however, I show how all BBTs are an IDEA. This IDEA might manifest as a villain or as a core antagonist. 

The core antagonist is only different from a villain in that this person’s goal is not inherently destructive, evil or nefarious. 

Their idea(s) simply conflicts with what the protagonist’s idea(s) and what the MC believes he/she desires.

This antagonist generates a core story problem BIG enough to shove the protagonist out of the comfort zone and into the crucible.

This pressure (problems) creates heat which is the catalyst that creates the cascading internal reaction which will fundamentally alter the protagonist.

These internal changes are necessary for victory over the story problem via external action (choices/decisions). The MC cannot morph into a hero/heroine carrying emotional baggage, false beliefs, or character flaws present in the beginning. Why?

Because these elements are precisely WHY the MC would fail if forced to battle the BBT head-on in the opening of the story.

The story problem, and what it creates, is like a chemical reaction. Our protagonist, by Act Three should transform into something intrinsically different…a hero/heroine (a shining star instead of a nebulous body of gas).

The problem should be big enough that only a hero/heroine is capable of victory.

Villains as BBT

Villains are fantastic and make some of the most memorable characters in fiction whether on the page, stage or screen (Joker, Buffalo Bill, IT, Dr. Moriarty, Cersie Lannister, etc.).

A common misperception, however, is villains are ‘easy’ to write. No, mustache-twirling caricatures are easy to write. But villains, villains that get under our skin, who poke and prod at tender places take a lot of preparation and skill.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter is extremely dimensional. We, the audience, are conflicted because he’s horrible, grotesque, cruel… and suddenly we find ourselves rooting for him.

That seriously messes with our heads.

Dr. Lecter has an IDEA of polite society. Act like a proper human and be treated like one. His IDEA of what a human is entails all that separates us from animals, namely manners and self-control. Act like a beast, and beasts–>food.

This cannot help but conflict with any FBI agent’s duty to protect all lives (deserving or not), and help mete out justice in all homicides (even of those horrible folks we’re all secretly happy Hannibal made into a rump roast).

Hannibal also challenges the almost universal taboo against cannibalism, the idea that humans are not food.

All I can think is thank GOD Lecter is fictional or these jack@$$es hoarding TP might be in serious trouble right now.

…just sayin’.

Anyway….

Black & White is BORING FICTION

Superb characters are never black and white, wholly right or wrong because that’s an inaccurate reflection of humanity.

We (the audience) sense the falseness of such a simplistic character, and, while one-dimensional characters (villains included) can be amusing for a time, they’re not the sort of character that can capture an audience’s attention in a glutted market. Forget withstanding the test of time.

Caricatures don’t possess enough substance/dimension/gray areas to elicit heated debate and discussion among fans for years to come. Moriarty, Dracula, Frankenstein, Cercei Lannister, Joker, Darth Vader, Lestat, every serial killer EVER will continue to inspire debate until the meteor strike simply because there are no simple answers with any of them.

But villains are not ideal for all stories or all genres.

Core Antagonist as BBT

There are what people call character-driven stories which don’t require a villain. I twitch when I hear the term ‘character-driven’ because too many mistake this as a pass for having to plot. NOPE. We still need a plot ;).

Plot is what will drive the character change.

I’ve used the examples Steel Magnolias and Joy Luck Club in other posts so we’ll pick a different one today. The Mirror Has Two Faces is one of my favorite examples.

***And now y’all are stuck at home and can actually have time to watch this old movie .

The BBT in this story is the IDEA that physical beauty is bad. This IDEA is manifested in the story problem, which is created by Professor Gregory Larkin. He believes he knows why he’s always been unlucky in love.

Being an analytical Mathematics teacher at Columbia he gets a bright idea. He believes superficial attraction and sex is what has ruined all his relationships (and is partially correct).

He theorizes that physical attractiveness always undermines authentic intimacy. Thus, he postulates a solution. Find and date a woman he finds completely physically unappealing. Then he’ll find true love (Story Problem).

Enter in Professor Rose Morgan, a shy, plain, middle-aged professor who teaches literature also at Columbia. Ah, but Rose also happens to have a stunning older sister and a mother who was model-gorgeous in her heyday, a mother who always has to be the center of attention.

Gregory Larkin has the IDEA he can only find love so long as physical beauty is not part of the equation. Physical attraction only leads to a bad ending.

Close, but No Cigar

Rose Morgan also has her own idea about beauty, though is not actively aware of it initially. Her mother’s obsession with her own beauty has propelled Rose to demur and become a wallflower. She dresses in frumpy clothes, wears no makeup, doesn’t exercise and does nothing with her hair.

Namely, she doesn’t want to compete with Mom. Mom’s distorted overvaluation of physical beauty has created an equally distorted devaluation of physical beauty in Rose.

When Larkin asks Rose out and the relationship blooms enough for them to marry, it seems his theory is sound. Rose wants to believe she’s okay with this. That she is okay that she was picked because she was utterly unattractive on the outside.

Sure, it stings, but in the end, does it matter? They are close, share similar interests, enjoy each other’s company and she’s no longer terminally single.

Only once married, does Rose realize she’s sold herself short in a big way.

She didn’t believe she longed for Puccini and romance and lust and for a man (her husband) to want her. That was for ‘pretty girls’ and she was lucky to even be picked at all. Right?

Right?

Wrong

One night, Rose presses Gregory for sexual intimacy and he freaks out. He rejects her advances, and is angry at her for upsetting his tidy formula for lasting love.

This crushes Rose.

Rose believes she repulses him, but is very wrong. He did want her, probably more than any woman ever before. Yet, he still clings to his false IDEA. He remains undeterred that physical attraction/relations will ruin true love. He leaves right after this disastrous night for a lengthy lecture tour.

Rose finally faces her fear of being pretty and her false beliefs and ideas that she a) is not pretty and b) does not deserve to be pretty. She cleans up her diet, gets her hair done, changes her wardrobe and wears makeup. She feels differently and notes others treat her differently, too.

Gregory also does some soul-searching and starts pondering his IDEA might be wrong. Maybe outer beauty does not instantly negate inner beauty. Perhaps beauty, physical attraction, lust wasn’t the problem. He was.

Maybe.

Idea Showdown

Gregory returns to NYC and sees Rose has bloomed. She’s a very different wife inside and out. Not only is she stunning, but she’s now confident and knows what she wants, what she deserves.

She apologizes for her part in the problem. Confesses she never should have agreed to a passionless marriage. Rose thanks him for helping her see her own cowardice, but in truth she wants passion and Puccini, love and sex and more than marriage melba toast.

Gregory is dumped…again.

This forces him to take a hard look at himself and his ‘theory.’ He’s forced to choose between his ‘flawless theory of perfect love’ or Rose.

Will he let Rose dump him and go in search of an even more physically unattractive female? Or will he ditch his theory and woo Rose back?

Ideas as Weather Fronts

What happens when a cold front meets with a hot front? A STORM! Same in stories. This is why it’s critical to understand the BBT’s idea and the proxy carrying out the idea. It’s why it’s just as vital to understand the protagonist and his or her IDEA to be challenged.

Like in weather the colder and drier the cold front and the hotter and moister the hot front, the bigger the BOOM.

Thus once you’ve selected the IDEAS that will clash and what sort of characters will serve as the delivery mechanisms, make sure to choose who will suffer/change the most. The higher the stakes the better the story.

Also ask (for both sides):

What does he/she want? Why does he/she want it? Why now? What happens if he/she fails to get what they want?

When we articulate these and craft these ahead of time, we can make sure to pack as much punch into the plot as possible. No reader wants to invest 12-15 hours into a story where there are low stakes or no stakes. Where no one changes. ZZZZZZ.

Y’all might laugh, but I’ve edited many a work with no stakes. When I asked the writer, ‘What happens if she doesn’t find out the secret?’ Usually, I got, ‘She um…just doesn’t?’

Nope. That isn’t a story, it’s a sedative.

So write like the wind! The world has gone bonkers and remember, in fiction, it’s legal to kill the people who take all the toilet paper.

Lots of love and see you next time

The post Ideas Collide: Powerful Storms are the Center of All Great Stories appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

When it comes to being successful in anything, one personal quality decimates everything else. Success doesn’t necessarily go to the rich, the talented, or even the super smart. The truly committed are who dominate the highest levels in…well, everything.

In my experience, ‘winning’ seems to have two camps.

There are those who believe in blind luck (who soon find out how fickle Lady Luck can be and wash out). Then, there are those those who appreciate that the harder/smarter they work, the luckier they’ll get.

I’ve been part of the writing world for almost two decades. Over the years, I’ve learned countless simple, yet difficult lessons and today I’ll share one of the most pivotal.

A smart person learns from his/her mistakes, but a wise person learns from the mistakes of others . And, since I’ve done all the dumb $#!@ so you don’t have to?

Let’s roll!

A Tale of Too Dumb to Live

When I was a bright-eyed neophyte, I had a lot of very strong opinions about publishing (and everything else, too).

Idiots usually do.

To be brutally honest, I was full of myself and an unteachable @$$clown. I’d grown up in a family that punished/shamed failure. If I wasn’t the ‘best,’ I’d quit. For me, it was better to drop a project, hobby or a class than to be average or—GASP—to fail.

I was so terrified of failure, I never fully committed…to anything. I’d put off papers to the last minute because, then, if I made a bad grade (a B)? I could blame my poor performance on my procrastination and super-short timeline.

If I got a job and wasn’t immediately the star performer? I’d get all butt-hurt and quit, then claim that the job wasn’t ‘right for me.’ If I started a new hobby and wasn’t an expert within the month week? I grew bored and started something ‘better.’

I was addicted to the highs of the NEW, and believed in the Santa Claus of the creative community… ‘The Muse.’ So long as my ‘new’ novel was fresh and fun and all unicorns and rainbows? I was fine.

The moment it felt like work? Hard work? That my novel de jour might even be a mess I’d have to work hard and long to fix?

#PeaceOut

Half-finished books, partially completed cross-stitch/sewing/macrame projects, unopened watercolor sets, barely used golf clubs, etc. riddled my apartment.

My closet was where hobbies and dreams went to die.

Suffice to say, I rarely committed to anything long enough to get good, let alone become an expert. I was a professional amateur.

But, don’t worry. Back then, I wasn’t one to let total ignorance stand in the way of forming super strong opinions .

Why Writers Failed

When I started out as an author, I had more than my fair share of good reasons writers (why I) failed…and time, experience and maturity have shown me how wrong I was.

This said, we still hear these good reasons writers fail to break out, and—like tales of Sasquatch or UFO abductions—far too many people believe them.

These good reasons are a distraction. They leave writers chasing windmills, which can feel like progress and meaningful action, but really add up to a lot of nothing.

Unfortunately, these writers never get to see what they might have been able to accomplish with just a sound dose of intellectual honesty.

Before we get to the gritty stuff, I need to torch some windmills. So here goes. Might wanna stand back and watch your shoes…

People Just Don’t READ Anymore

We’ve all heard this familiar lament, but how does it stand up against facts and basic logic? For most of human history the average person was completely illiterate.

Reading, like fox-hunting, polo, and wearing giant wigs in the shape of a ship was a privilege reserved for nobility and the very wealthy.

It wasn’t really until the 20th century that regular everyday people had the education, time and disposable income to read books. Before the Industrial Revolution? Books were absurdly expensive and extremely rare.

If we fast-forward to modern times, it’s easy to give this excuse for why our books aren’t selling. What with Fortnite, Netflix, The Real Housewives of Boca Raton all competing for our audiences’ attention.

Yet, strangely enough, all these other distractions haven’t stopped J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone from selling well over a hundred million copies.

Fifty Shades of Grey (as of 2015) had sold over a hundred and twenty-five million copies.

People still read. It just takes something really extraordinary (or radical/verboten) to capture their attention.

Publishers Need to Spend More on Marketing

Ads and marketing campaigns don’t sell books. Never have and never will. If you are curious why (in detail), check out THIS POST and THIS ONE or grab a copy of my branding book.

Don’t feel badly, ads and marketing campaigns don’t work well for most businesses. Sales expert Grant Cardone even mentions this in his NYTBS book If You’re Not First You’re Last—Sales Strategies to Dominate Your Market and Beat Your Competition.

Cardone reiterates a point I’ve made in countless blogs—in the current paradigm, marketing campaigns and paid advertising only seem to reinforce brands that are already household names.

We have to appreciate the sheer vastness of cyberspace. If we (writers) solely rely on marketing and ads to sell our books, we’d easily need tens of millions of dollars.

There is simply so much content on-line that to even make a blip is cost-prohibitive. Oh, and a blip isn’t a sale…so don’t get too excited.

Even IF marketing and ads alone could sell books, history has proven no amount of promotion can sell a product people don’t want or like. If massive marketing budgets alone were the key to success?

Then we’d all be drinking New Coke while driving our new 2019 Edsel and scrolling our Facebook Phone.

Writers Don’t Have Enough Training

Back in the Dark Ages (when I started writing) this could seem like a legitimate argument.

Creative writing classes and MFA programs were (are) extremely expensive. These programs seemed better designed for training future MFA professors than successful commercially published authors.

Those who didn’t go the MFA route, defaulted to the DIY plan. I remember tearing articles from issues of Writer’s Digest Magazine, checking out craft books from the library and struggling to piece the information together in a meaningful way.

Then, we had writing conferences. Conferences, though valuable (even to this day), were expensive and only held once a year per location.

Writing retreats costed thousands of dollars, thus for someone subsisting off Wendy’s .99 menu and praying the lights weren’t cut off? Not an option.

And conferences back before 2006 rarely offered classes about the business of the writing business (which was largely why I began blogging).

‘If ONLY writers had easy and affordable access to professional training,’ I lamented.

Yeah, about that.

Along comes the Internet. Though the information was sketchy in the beginning, it didn’t take long for the quality of training to improve exponentially.

Today, the web is JAM-PACKED with blogs about craft, branding, and the publishing business. We (writers) have unprecedented access to craft instruction via paper, digital, audio, video or all of the above.

Many experts offer classes that cost about the same as a Friday night dinner at Applebee’s (I know I do). There are on-line writing groups, NaNoWriMo, etc.

Yet, in spite of all of this?

The overall quality of writing has plummeted.

I’ve seen it myself. I started out as a developmental editor, and the worst samples I encountered in 2004 are easily ten times better than some of the best samples I see today.

Suffice to say, I was ridiculously naive.

Writers didn’t have a staggering failure rate because people weren’t reading, there wasn’t a big enough marketing budget, or because they couldn’t find quality training at an affordable price.

Writers failed and continue to fail because they aren’t fully committed.

Committed to FINISH

I know there are plenty of folks who write simply for a hobby, and that’s wonderful. For the record, not talking to y’all, so relax.

Plenty of writers want to know the secret to selling a ton of books. Lean in close. Want to know how to sell a lot of books?

*whispers* Finish the book.

As far as I know, there has never been a half-finished ‘perfect’ manuscript that sold millions of copies and went on to be made into a half of a ‘perfect’ HBO series.

Ah, but a lot of sucky ‘finished’ books have gone on to sell millions of copies and be made into ‘complete’ HBO seasons.

***Sucky being subjective (mostly).

Plenty of writers claim they want to be mega-authors, because NY is just publishing crap anyway, right? *hair flip*

This said, how many writers get committed? Truly committed? Like ALL IN committed? Committed to start the first book and finish it, regardless how ‘bad’ it is?

The committed understand storytelling has a learning curve. Sure, talent plays a part, but not nearly as much as we like to believe.

Committed to Go Again and Again

It takes an average of three completed manuscripts for a writer to start getting any ‘good’ at writing novels. Like anything in life, the more we practice, the better we become.

I will add in a caveat here, though.

Word count alone isn’t enough. We must be open to critique and to honest reflection. How can we do better? Improve? Repetition alone won’t cut it.

If I swing a golf club ten thousand times, that won’t make me the next Tiger Woods. It will, however, make me a prime candidate for a blown disc or three.

Same with writing. If I keep writing sucky books (and get no feedback as to why my books aren’t selling and have no reviews) then I risk getting really good at writing bad books faster. Speed is the only skill that improves if I’m unwilling to ask the hard questions.

***I do think this is a phenomena unique to the digital age, now that we have the option of self-publishing.

As we’ve talked about over the past few posts, there are a million plus books being self-published every year, and climbing.

Most novels don’t get any reviews. Others? Friends and family chime in as cheerleaders, but that isn’t always helpful for growing our skills.

These days? Claiming discoverability is a nightmare is like saying leprosy is a lot like eczema.

Thus, in the absence of helpful feedback, many writers struggle to know if their work is any good.

Not that this is a good excuse. There are ways to get a sound bead on the quality of a book. Ah, but there are so many ‘other’ reasons for failure that are far more appealing.

Lackluster sales can easily be blamed on too many other reasonable alternatives—-too many other books, algorithm issues, keyword debacles, Amazon is biased, sun spots, Mercury is in retrograde, etc.

To be blunt, most writers lean toward blaming their book’s (or books’) poor performance on anything BUT the quality of the writing.

I’ve received sample pages where the writing was SO bad I wondered if the writer even owned a copy of Strunk & White (for grammar and punctuation alone—forget story).

When I send back the pages, dripping red, what response do I most commonly get?

Oh, I see why you were confused. This sample is the beginning of Book 12 (5, 7, 18, etc.) in my series.

Yep, that was totally it. Had nothing to do with the fact that there were fifteen characters introduced by page three and each had his/her own POV (point of view).

*face palm*

Committed to Learning

When I started out? Sure I saved the articles and bought the craft books. But, I wasn’t committed to studying them and learning to write better books.

I dunno, I guess I thought owning them was enough. Maybe I thought I’d learn via osmosis or some crap.

Regardless, since I was a know-it-all? I couldn’t grow. FYI, you can’t teach a person who already knows everything.

Finally, after enough rejection, I started getting a tiny clue. Maybe I wasn’t as amazing as I believed. Tired of spinning my wheels, I hired a pro to tell me why others couldn’t see my genius what I was doing wrong.

And it went something like this:

For those who’ve been following my blog any length of time, I’ve told the story of my first critique massacre meeting. I literally sat in the parking lot and cried…as in ugly crying.

But, I’d hit a point in my life where I was tired of starting and stopping and living on emotional highs. I wanted to get committed, to see if I really had what it took to succeed…and to even be willing to see if I didn’t have what it took to succeed.

Committed to Do What Others Won’t Do

All this boils down to one core principle. If we’re in it to win it, then we have to be committed to do what others won’t.

This is true in everything. To be successful in anything we must be all in. Amateurs and wannabes try to ‘fit in time’ or ‘find the time’ to do whatever. But that isn’t how it works.

Can you imagine starting a business and ‘fitting in time’ to run that business? You do all the other things—clubs, PTA, housework, book club, yoga, taking kids to and from soccer—then pop by and open the store and hope to make money?

When I give this example, it’s easy to laugh. But wait…

How many writers (myself included) want to be top tier authors? As in household name, make loads of money and the author who gets the movie deals?

Maybe that is too much. I’ll reel it in a bit. How many writers want to sell enough copies of their books to simply write for a living? To give up that day job?

In a marketplace that’s straining to absorb a million plus NEW BOOKS per year, we cannot hope to make a scratch unless we’re all in and totally committed.

Our GOAL must be the center of our universe. Everything else orbits the goal.

When I started seeing a shift was when I stopped playing patty-cake with my goals and decided to go all in. I had to be willing to do what others wouldn’t if I hoped to breakout ahead of the masses (which is why I’ve posted over two thousand blogs, published five books, taught hundreds of classes, and spoken all over the country and now all over the world).

Despite ALL this? I can do better, or rather I must do better. The current climate demands it.

Committed to Climbing Higher

I hate to break the news, but the low-hanging fruit is all gone. Publishing is not special. Everything evolves, grows and improves. We, too, must evolve if we want to remain in the game.

Whether we want to be the best baker, the fastest runner, design the fastest car, build the tallest building, the metrics and demands are always moving up, up, up.

A hundred years ago, if you earned a degree from a university? You were set for life. Now, you’re set for an assistant manager position at Chili’s until you can earn that masters (and even then).

When I was in college, anyone who knew how to turn on a computer, let alone use one proficiently was viewed as some sort of a demigod with special knowledge.

Now? If you can’t use a computer, others want to know what hole you’ve been living in since Beverly Hills 90210 was cool.

This isn’t meant to discourage you, as much as it is to offer an honest assessment of what it takes to ding the universe. If we go into this writing thing committed to do everything it takes, KNOWING it will likely cost much more than we ever imagined or could have possibly anticipated?

Then we stand a better chance of doing well.

We can manage our expectations better and thus stave off crushing depression that might make us prematurely throw in the towel.

Our world dismisses how HARD our job really is, and as backwards as this may seem, that’s actually a compliment. See, great storytellers make what we do appear easy. Those who excel at anything make what they do seem effortless.

Top actors, athletes, salespeople, designers, bakers, artists, musicians, surgeons, illusionists, dancers, IT professionals, chefs, and carpenters ALL make their craft seem like no big deal.

We (onlookers) are merely enjoying the results/fruits from years (even decades) of remaining committed.

Committed to Commit

Why am I talking about commitment at all? Well, last post I blogged about how Amazon has now pretty much taken over publishing. I don’t expect the old paradigm publishers to remain viable for long, not that it matters.

See, the reason they contracted then crumbled was all because of a failure to commit. Or rather, they committed to the wrong things. They committed to keeping things the way they’d always been…but that’s never happened in human history.

Everything changes and evolves and we have to do so as well or end up fossils.

I get that many writers ‘just want to write’ but that’s a ridiculous statement for anyone other than the pure hobbyist. Don’t you think Beyonce might ‘just want to sing’? That Tom Brady might ‘just want to have fun and toss around the pig skin?’

If you get to know the top-earning authors, they work their tails off doing more than ‘just writing.’

Committed to ‘Just Writing’

Let’s take branding, social media, training, and business out of all this for the moment. I cannot count how many times I’ve heard writers lament they ‘just wanted to write’.

Okay…DO THAT. Today. Write five pages a day no matter what.

***For the record, I’m taking this challenge up as well so y’all are not alone.

Stephen King writes roughly six pages every day, except for his birthday. Dean Koontz, initially, wrote at a typewriter sixty hours a week. Isaac Asimov wrote sixteen hours a day. On and on.

From J.K. Rowling to Neil Gaiman to Ray Bradbury we see that, while all these authors have a unique pace and approach, they’re consistent. They write. Day after day they get words on the page. They’re committed.

We can learn a lot from that.

As for Moi?

Now that I’m finishing up here? Going to take my own advice and complete the edits for Dead Line. This was a short mystery-suspense that was published as part of a box set in 2017.

I have rights back and am re-releasing it on my own. I’m also…*shaky breath* committed to finishing the next book in my Romi Lachlan series by December.

I’ve spent far too long putting off what should have been a priority.

See? I struggle with the same stuff! I’ve just learned to be honest with myself. Every day is a chance to do it better. We’re not perfect and never will be. Just live, learn, dust off and do better.

Get committed!

COMING SOON

Dead Line is set in the same town as my mystery-thriller The Devil’s Dance.

What are your thoughts? I LOVE hearing from YOU!

Hey, I KNOW how tough this job is. We ALL struggle, which is why we have to get up DAILY and prioritize what we want out of life. I have to remember that laundry, dishes, organizing my sock drawer are necessary chores…but they aren’t the PRIORITY.

Do you need to get committed to your writing? Have you been more committed to scrolling Facebook and feeling overwhelmed than to simply writing the story DOWN?

Is your brain in knots worrying over how to sell books you haven’t even FINISHED? Mine is. Or was. Hey, we are all works in progress .

A Quick Announcement

For anyone who wants to meet me in person, I’d LOVE to meet YOU (unless you don’t like me and then don’t you need to clean out those closets? #JustSayin).

Now that my parole officer finally agreed to extend the range of my ankle monitor…I’ll be speaking ALL DAY at these two incredible events!

…yes, they DO know it’s me. RIGHT? Anyway…

Y’all can check out Facebook for more details.

Right after Houston, I’ll be zooming to the other side of Texas to keynote for the Permian Basin Writers’ Conference. Come join the fun! We’ll talk shop, play with duct tape and glitter, and maybe get kicked out of a Walmart.

It’ll be FABULOUS! (Note: Bail money not included in conference fee).

The post In It to WIN It: How Committed Are You to Being a Successful Author? appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Many new authors slog out that first book, editing every word to perfection, revising, reworking, redoing. When I used to be a part of critique groups, it was not at all uncommon to find writers who’d been working on the same book two, five, eight and even ten years. 

Still see them at conferences, shopping the same book, getting rejected, then rewriting, rewriting…..

Sigh.

Great, maybe Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help took five years and 62 revisions to get her story published. Awesome for her. And yes, her book was a runaway success, but ‘One Title Wonders’ aren’t the norm.

Trying to hit big with one book is playing Literary Lottery with our careers. In the new publishing paradigm, it can be career suicide.

For most writers, it will be next to impossible to have a long-term successful career if our pace is a book or two a decade.

Go visit a bookstore, new or used and you’ll see my point. Most authors who’ve made it to legend status were (are) all talented/skilled, yes. But many were (are) also prolific. Their books take up entire shelves.

It isn’t a singular title, rather a large body of work that has made them into household names (J.K.Rowling, Debbie Macomber, Stephen King, John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, Isaac Asimov, H.P. Lovecraft, Liane Moriarty, Sandra Brown, etc.).

Does Writing Quickly Produce Inferior Work?

I’m a huge fan of Fast Draft. One of my early mentors, Candy Havens, is an amazing lady as well as a talented and prolific author. She’s who introduced me to this technique. I was initially skeptical—okay, terrified—but I hadn’t managed to ever finish a book. What did I have to lose? I gave it a try and can attest fast-drafting works.

Write your novel in two weeks a month, whatever, but write fast and furious. No looking back. Always forward. You can fix stuff later.

HERE is a post on HOW to balance a smidge of editing for use later.

I’ve heard some writers criticize this method, believing that writing at this increased pace somehow compromises quality. Many writers are afraid that picking up speed will somehow undermine craftsmanship, yet this isn’t necessarily so.

To prove my point, here are some interesting factoids about writing hard and fast, some taken from James Scott Bell’s WONDERFUL book The Art of War for Writers (pages 79-82):

• William Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks.
• Ernest Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises in six weeks.
• After being mocked by a fellow writer that writing so fast created junk, John D. MacDonald wrote The Executioners in a month. Simon & Schuster published it in hardback. It was also serialized in a magazine, selected by a book club, and turned into the movie Cape Fear TWICE.
• Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in nine days on a rented typewriter.
• Isaac Asimov was the author/editor of over 700 books over the course of his career.
• Stephen King writes 1,500 words a day every day of the year except his birthday. He’s published over fifty novels, and I don’t even know how many short stories and novellas. Let’s just say he’s written a LOT. Could he have done this writing a book every three years? Every five?

NO.

While fast-drafting is NOT for everyone, I ask you at least entertain the concept. Stories written at a glacial pace aren’t, by default, superior (most are never finished).

I’ve posted on this before, and I like to explain the benefits of fast-drafting using—DUH—Star Trek.

Meet ‘Captain Kirk Brain’ and ‘Spock Brain’

…and fast.

Here’s my explanation of why writing faster than we ‘are comfortable’ can produce fiction just as good (if not better) than a work that’s been written slowly and deliberately. And, since all roads lead back to Star Trek…

When we write quickly, we get into The Zone and pass The Wall. We become part of the world we’re creating. Fatigue wears out the cerebral cortex (the ‘Inner Editor’ which I will call our ‘Spock Brain’).

Fatigue diverts us to the Limbic Brain (also known as the Reptilian or Primal Brain, or for today’s purposes—‘The Captain Kirk Brain’).

The Captain Kirk Brain is emotional, visceral and has no problem kissing hot, green alien women or cheating the Kobayashi Maru. He out-bluffs Klingons, outruns Romulans, starts brawls and throws the rulebook out the window.

He’s pure instinct, raw emotion and all action.

In short, Kirk is the stuff of great stories. No one ever got to the end of a book and said, ‘Wow, that book was riveting. The grammar was PERFECT!’

Captain Kirk Brain can do its job better—write fiction—when Spock Brain isn’t there saying, ‘But Captain, you’re being illogical. It clearly states in Strunk & White….’

The BEST line in the movie, Star Trek: Into Darkness is when the villain of the story (Khan) says to Spock, ‘You can’t even break rules, how can you expect to break bones?’ So, I’m going to apply this to writing.

Are you breaking enough bones?

Many writers hold back emotionally when writing. Why? They aren’t going fast and hard and so Spock takes over and he wants us to use a seatbelt and our blinkers. He isn’t the guy you want in charge if you’re going for the GUTS and breaking bones.

Kirk is Great for Action and Spock is Better for Rules

All garbage. DELETE everything.

Spock Brain is a perfectionist and wants us to take our time, make sure we follow all the rules and put the commas in the right spot. He’s seriously uncomfortable with ‘suspending disbelief’ and he tries to explain everything so others don’t get confused.

The trick is to hop on a cerebral crotch-rocket and outrun Spock. He is seriously uncomfortable with speeding and you can easily lose him in the school zones or the parking lot of Walmart.

Don’t worry, Spock will yell at us later….at the appropriate time which is during revisions.

Thing is, Kirk and Spock make the perfect team, whether on The Enterprise or in our head. They balance each other, but they are also antagonists. Kirk wants to put phasers on KILL, and Spock wants to check and see if the rules for the Oxford Comma allows this.

Blogging & Writing Quickly Helps Us Learn to Shut off The Spock Brain

Blogging helps us ship and get comfortable with going FAST. No maybe every piece isn’t the quality of a New Yorker article, but who cares? It’s a BLOG. We aren’t looking to win the Pulitzer.

We’re looking to get better riding a Cerebral Ducati and ignoring all of Spock’s protests that ‘This isn’t safe’ and ‘Where is our helmet?’ and ‘Clearly the speed limit forbids you going this fast.’

When we get the stories out faster, they’re more visceral. We get more practice with more stories since we aren’t letting Spock nit-pick for the next ten years…which he will do if Kirk doesn’t go running the other way despite Spock’s protests.

FYI, I am teaching a NEW class HOW to fast-draft TONIGHT. Story Master: From Dream to Done. 

Remember, you get the recording for free with purchase *dangles candy*.

What are your thoughts?

Has your inner Vulcan taken over and edited all the life out of your story? Has Kirk been allowed too much sway and now you’ve got to let Spock whip it into structure shape? Does the idea of going faster scare you?

I LOVE hearing from you!

ON DEMAND AWESOMENESS (CLASSES)

On Demand Story Master: From Dream to Done (A.K.A. Fast-Drafting 101) 

On Demand for a limited time. $55 for basic/$349 for GOLD. This teaches what I just covered in the blog above.

ON DEMAND: A Ripple in Time: Mastering Non-Linear Plotting

Taught by Kristen Lamb, $55 Delivered to YOUR computer to enjoy at your leisure.

On Demand Fiction Addiction: Write the Books Readers CRAVE!

On Demand for a limited time. Watch all you like from comfort of home. $55

On Demand: Harnessing Our Writing Power with THE BLOG!

On Demand for a limited time. $55 Basic/$165 for GOLD

The post How Writing Faster Can Vastly Improve Your Storytelling appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Secret-keepers have what it takes to be legendary storytellers. Stories aren’t solely about pretty writing, glorious description, or witty banter. Excellent stories are about one thing and one thing only….CONFLICT.

Want to know the secret ingredient that turns responsible adult readers into reckless maniacs willing to stay up until DAWN to finish a book…on a work day?

TENSION.

Secret-Keepers Resist the Urge to Explain

Secret-keepers learn to resist the urge to explain, which we’ll talk about in a moment. Before any deception even comes into play, we—as authors—must make sure we cast jacked up people in our story. To be blunt, perfectly well-adjusted, responsible people are dull.

We want to deliver a powerful story not a powerful SEDATIVE.

This said, it’s tempting for us to create perfect protagonists and pure evil antagonists, but that’s the stuff of Looney Tunes cartoons and low budget 70s Spaghetti Westerns…not great fiction.

First of all, we want our characters to ‘feel’ real. In order to feel real, they must come with baggage (um, like real people do).

In some genres this baggage may be carry-on only (I.e. cozy mystery). Other genres require a cast with enough baggage to require military aircraft hangars (I.e. literary fiction, certain types of speculative fiction).

Also, remember that life isn’t black and white. We’re wise to appreciate that every strength has an array of corresponding weaknesses and vice-versa. When we understand these soft spots, generating conflict becomes easier. Understanding character arc becomes simpler.

Plotting will fall into place with far less effort.

One element that is critical to understand about legendary storytelling is this:

Everyone Has Secrets

All good stories hinge on secrets.

I have bodies under my porch.

Okay, not all secrets in our fiction need to be THIS huge (again look to genre). Alas, the skilled author understands how powerful secrets can be and hones his/her abilities to be superior secret-keepers.

Skilled writers never part with anything the reader doesn’t work for. 

Real Self vs. Authentic Self

We all have a face we show to the world, what we want others to see. If this weren’t true then my author picture would have me wearing a Star Wars t-shirt, yoga pants and a scrunchee, not a beautifully lighted photograph taken by a pro.

We all have faces we show to certain people, roles we play. We are one person in the workplace, another with family, another with friends and another with strangers.

This isn’t us being deceptive in a bad way, it’s self-protection and it’s us upholding societal norms. This is why when Grandma starts discussing her bathroom routine, we cringe and yell, ‘Grandma! TMI! STOP!’

No one wants to be trapped in a long line at a grocery store with the stranger telling us about her nasty divorce. Yet, if we had a sibling who was suffering, we’d be wounded if she didn’t tell us her marriage was falling apart.

Yet, people keep secrets. Some more than others.

In fact, if we look at The Joy Luck Club the entire book hinges on the fact that the mothers are trying to break the curses of the past by merely changing geography.

Yet, as the daughters grow into women, the mothers see the faces of the same demons wreaking havoc in their daughters’ lives…even though they are all thousands of miles away from the past (China).

The mothers have to reveal their sins, but this will cost them the ‘perfect version of themselves’ they’ve sold the world and their daughters (and frankly, themselves).

The daughters look at their mothers as being different from them. Their mothers are perfect, put-together, and guiltless. It’s this misperception that keeps a wall between them. This wall can only come down if the external facades (the secrets) are exposed.

Secret-Keepers See & Craft the False Face

Characters who seem strong, can, in fact, be scared half to death. Characters who seem to be so caring, can in fact be complete psychopaths using the false face for personal gain/entertainment (great fodder for incredible villains).

Other characters who seem loving, generous and selfless might be acting out of guilt, shame, or as penance, not out of any genuine concern for others. The over-achiever who excels at everything might not be at ALL confident, rather terrified and haunted by feelings of being a fraud.

We all have those fatal weaknesses, and most of us don’t volunteer these blemishes to the world.

The woman whose house looks perfect can be hiding a month’s worth of laundry behind the Martha Stewart shower curtains. Go to her house and watch her squirm if you want to hang your coat in her front closet.

She wants others to think she has her act together, but if anyone opens that coat closet door, the pile of junk will fall out…and her skeletons will be on public display.

Anyone walking toward her closets or asking to take a shower makes her uncomfortable because this threatens her false face.

What is the secret your MC will do ANYTHING to protect? Find that, then expose her.

Secret-Keepers FEAST on False Guilt

Characters can be driven to right a wrong they aren’t even responsible for. In Winter’s Bone Ree Dolly is driven to find her father before the bail bondsman takes the family land and renders all of them homeless.

Ree is old enough to join the Army and walk away from the nightmare, but she doesn’t. She feels a need to take care of the family and right a wrong she didn’t commit. Ree has to dig in and dismantle the family secrets (the crime ring entrenched in her bloodline) to uncover the real secret—What happened to her father?

Dolly has to keep the family secret (otherwise she could just go to the cops) to uncover the greater, and more important secret. She keeps the secret partly out of self-preservation, but also out of guilt and shame.

Paula Hawkin’s The Girl on the Train uses false guilt for max effect. MC Rachel’s entire life is a lie built on a foundation of authentic shame (she’s a raging alcoholic with no job pretending to be functioning) and false shame (her alleged ‘sins’ that have driven her to the bottle). Her desire to right a wrong she has nothing to do with (solve the murder of a total stranger) is, again, propelled by shame.

Be a GOOD Secret-Keeper

Secrets are SO powerful when it comes to storytelling, which is one of the reasons I HATE flashbacks. Oh, but my readers want to know WHY my character is this way or does thus-and-such.

No. No they don’t. They want to be tortured. Just trust me.

And, for the record, flashbacks are not the same as non-linear plotting. Also, the flashbacks I loathe are what I call ‘Training Wheel Flashbacks’ (since the sole reason they exist is to prop up a weak story).

What is a Training Wheel Flashback? It’s when any POV character is ‘thinking back in time’ for the sole purpose of EXPLAINING and diffusing tension. You spot one of these suckers?

CUT!

Before AT LEAST 2/3 of the way through Act Two, any shift back in time should ideally present MORE conflict, questions, unresolved issues. Should you part with any answers, my advice is to replace them with at least two more questions. Otherwise, all that tension bleeds out because the reader is satisfied.

Pro Tip: The ONLY acceptable time for a reader to be satisfied is after the last page and the five-star review they HAVE to give your book.

If we’re ONLY shifting back to explain why Such-And-Such doesn’t trust, acts like an @$$hat, or has an unhealthy obsession with all things Julio Iglesias, we’re diluting our own secret sauce.

We’re dampening that fire that propels our readers want to press on so they can know WHY.

Yes, our readers WANT to know WHY, but we are under no obligation to tell them immediately or…ever (depending on genre or if we have a series). In fact, non-linear plotting is one of THE BEST ways to be an almost SADISTIC secret-keeper, which is why it’s the preferred structure of certain genres.

*nods to The Bird Box* #SheerGenius

***FYI: I am teaching a class on non-linear plotting, and how to properly apply the flashback this Saturday. And, as always a FREE recording included with purchase .

Where was I?

Yes. Here’s the thing, The Spawn wants cookie sprinkles for breakfast. Just because he WANTS something, doesn’t mean it’s the best thing for him. Don’t tell us WHY…even though we beg.

Expert secret-keepers reveal pieces slowly, but remember. Once secrets are out? Tension dissipates. Tension is key to maintaining story momentum. We WANT to know WHY, but it might not be good for us.

The Force was more interesting before it was EXPLAINED.

Everybody LIES

Yes. Yes I do.

They can be small lies, ‘No, I wasn’t crying. Allergies.’ Lies of omission. White lies. They can even be BIG lies, ‘I have no idea what happened to your father. I was playing poker with Jeb.’ Fiction is one of the few places that LIES ARE GOOD. LIES ARE GOLD.

Fiction is like dating. If we tell our date our entire life story on Date #1? Mystery lost and good luck with Date #2.

When it comes to your characters, make them lie (even if it’s only to themselves). Make them hide who they are. They need to slowly be open to seeing their true self, and—like in life and when WE go to therapy—the characters will do everything to defend who they believe they are.

Remember the inciting incident creates a sort of personal extinction. The protagonist will want to return to the old way, even though it isn’t good for them.

Again. Resist the urge to explain. 

Feel free to write backstory/secrets out for your benefit…but then HIDE those babies from the reader. BE SECRET-KEEPERS. Secrets rock. Secrets make FABULOUS fiction.

What are your thoughts? Questions?

What are some great works of fiction that show a myriad of lies from small to catastrophic? Can you think of what your character’s ‘false face’ is? What is the lie that defines him or her?

Can you craft their self-delusion? Is there a weakness or weaknesses that they dare not show (but by not showing it, is ultimately inhibiting growth)?

Also, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your enthusiastic support! Y’all ROCK!

I’ve written  five books, almost 2,000 blogs, millions of words, and it’s all because y’all subscribe HERE, share these posts, and take classes (which keeps me gainfully employed and off the streets so I can write MORE BLOGS for y’all to enjoy).

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the blog (look in the sidebar), share it with your fellow writers via social media, and make sure to sign up for a CLASS! We have a ton of fun and I include a free recording just so you can enjoy the class and go back and review and study at your leisure.

***BTW, CONGRATULATIONS! December’s winner of my comments contest is Kat Kent. Please send your 5000 word WORD doc to kristen at wana intl dot com. Double-spaced, one-inch margins, and Times New Roman Font.

JANUARY & FEBRUARY’S AWESOMENESS (CLASSES)

Self-Publishing for Professionals

Taught by USA Today Best-Selling Author Cait Reynold’s on Friday, January 11th 7-10 PM EST PLUS EXTRA GOODIES ($100 for THREE hours of training plus bonus material). The LIVE class has passed, but the recording and bonus material is available with the BUNDLE.

The Business of Writing

Taught by Kristen Lamb on Saturday, February 2nd 1-3 PM EST ($55)

***GET ALL THREE (Self-Publishing for Professionals Jan. 11th, The Business of Writing Feb. 2nd & Pitch Perfect Feb. 7th) IN THE PUBLISHING TRIPLE THREAT BUNDLE for $155

Story Master: From Dream to Done

Taught by Kristen Lamb, Saturday, January 12th, 1-3 PM EST

Social Schizophrenia: Building a Brand Without Losing Your Mind 

Taught by Kristen Lamb, Thursday, February 21st, 7-9 PM EST ($55 General Admission/ $195 GOLD)

Yes, I will be teaching about Instagram in this class.

A Ripple in Time: Mastering Non-Linear Plotting

Taught by Kristen Lamb, Saturday, January 19th from 1-3 PM EST $55

Harnessing Our Writing Power: The BLOG!

Taught by Kristen Lamb, Thursday, January 24th 7-9 PM EST $55 General Admission/ $195 GOLD

Fiction ADDICTION: The Secret Ingredient to the Books Readers CRAVE

Taught by Kristen Lamb, Saturday, January 26th 1-3 PM EST $55

SALES: For Those Who’d Rather Be Stabbed in the Face

Taught by Kristen Lamb, Thursday, January 31st 7-9 PM EST $65

The Business of Writing

Taught by Kristen Lamb on Saturday, February 2nd 1-3 PM EST ($55)

Pitch Perfect: How to Write a Query Letter & Synopsis that SELLS

Taught by Kristen Lamb on Thursday, February 2nd, 7-9 PM EST ($55)

For those who need help building a platform and keeping it SIMPLE, pick up a copy of my latest social media/branding book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World on AMAZON, iBooks, or Nook. 

The post Secret-Keepers: Generate Page-Turning, Nerve-Shredding Tension appeared first on Kristen Lamb.