Tag Archive - Online courses

Master Your Novel’s 10 Key Scenes

I never planned to write books on novel structure. Nor create online video courses to help teach writers how to craft a solid story.

But after years of blogging on novel writing, producing hundreds of blog posts on the topic, and editing hundreds of manuscripts, I realized writers needed more. Though there were (and are) hundreds of books teaching how to write a novel, I kept wondering why writers were having such a hard time crafting a solid story.

Sometimes too much information is just too much. You know what I mean? There is so much great info on the internet. There are so many terrific online courses and super helpful writing craft books. I hear from writers about their extensive libraries of books designed to teach them how to be great writers.

That’s all good. I have a huge library too, and I buy books all the time. It makes me think of the Scripture in Ecclesiastes: “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh” (12:12 NKJV). Continue Reading…

Nailing Your One-Sentence Story Concept

I’m launching my new online video course this month, so we’ve been taking a look at key elements novelists need to nail in order to construct a solid story. Whether you “pants it” or plot (see my recent post on that), your story concept has to be terrific to be worth not only your time (writing it) but also your reader’s time (reading it).

How can you expect anyone to devote ten or more of their precious hours to reading your novel if the concept is blah? Not a nice thing to subject anyone to. I, for my part, don’t want to waste anyone’s time, and I certainly don’t want my novels used to help put people to sleep (I’ve watched that malaise befall my husband many a night, but, thankfully, never when reading my novels).

I’m going to pull from a blog post I wrote a couple of years ago, when I was first gathering material for my upcoming (now published and very popular) book Layer Your Novel. I’m hoping you’ll see the value of taking the time to work on your story concept to ensure it’s a terrific one.

Be sure to check out my online course, too, if you want to master novel structure. Layering, starting with the ten key scenes, is the ticket. Believe me, I’ve seen many a novelist use this method to great success (and I hear a lot of praise for it week in and week out). Continue Reading…

Nail Your Ten Key Scenes ~ Half Off My New Online Course!

Writing a terrific novel is a complex endeavor. And while there are hundreds of books, podcasts, and blog posts that teach aspiring authors how to structure scenes and plot out a solid story, none implement the most intuitive and effective method for success.

Novels are made up of dozens of scenes, and regardless of genre, time-tested structure dictates what key scenes are needed and where. Most writers are familiar with some of those scenes: the Inciting Incident, the Midpoint, and the Climax, to name a few.

But novelists need more than a few landmarks to find their way across the tricky terrain of novel plotting.

They need a surefire method to organizing all their scenes.

In my new video course, you’ll be introduced to an innovative, intuitive method for arranging your scenes and crafting a beautifully structured story. Nearly every great story, whether a novel, a play, or a movie, follows this time-tested structure. And it isn’t all that hard! Continue Reading…

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