Larry Brooks's Blog, page 18

The New World of Publishing

What’s changed… what hasn’t.

 

Allow me to narrow the lens of that title to focus on what writers of fiction — not David Baldacci or Dan Brown, not Nora Roberts or Jodi Picoult… rather, writers like you and me and everything above, below and in between, published and self–published, bestselling authors and widely published authors you’ve never heard of and a massive community of ambitious writers looking to see their name on a book cover — need to understand:

Everything is different.  Massively different, than it was ten years ago.

And yet, the one single thing that counts most hasn’t changed a bit.  Not even a little.

I won’t talk down to you and assume you don’t already know what’s different.  You do.  For many of you, that is precisely the problem.

Nor will I quote verified statistics or even trends from the mouths of industry experts.  Instead I shall begin with the words of one writer, which have lingered in my mind and brought me to this point of sharing this cautionary tale.

Because if you think or speak the same thought and belief, you are not dealing in the real world, the new world of publishing as it sits today, and how it will look relative to the one single thing that will not change as this chaos continues to evolve, which it will.

As you may know, all of the four basic levels of my story coaching work use a Questionnaire, in response to which the author lays out their story plan.  And in so doing, exposes their fluency and competencies within the realm of fiction writing craft.

Sometimes the problem is the story, and sometimes it is the writer. 

This, in the same way that some airplane crashes are because of the airplane, and some are because of pilot error. The analogy breaks down because we do not allow untrained, unvetted pilots into cockpits… yet anyone can write a book simply by typing out a few hundred pages of “story.”

More apt – sticking with that analogy to show you how absurd the reality of this is – this is what happens when new pilots who have skipped ground school – they decided to try to fly because, heck, they’ve taken a lot of trips back in coach and, well, it just doesn’t seem all that hard –  suddenly find themselves in the left seat of an airliner full of people who have paid to come along.

That’s the goal here, after all.  We write stories to sell those stories.  Which means you are in a commercial venue, it is no longer a hobby when you charge someone to read your story, even if you only charge them 99 cents.

What those pilots (and writers) know, every bit as much as what they think they need to know, or not – if you don’t know what you don’t know, you can’t seek out that specific knowledge, which surely isn’t going to suddenly dawn on you one day as you ponder a blank screen – determine the outcome.

One of those Questionnaires ends with this question:

What do you believe will distinguish your story in a crowded marketplace, setting it apart from and above the competition to attract the attention of agents, editors and readers?

It’s an important question.  Critical, in fact.  And yet, one that very few new writers think to ask of themselves.  Because they have been conned into believing they can write about anything – anything at all – and that someone will pay you 99 cents or more to read it.

Here is an answer representative of too many writers:

Not sure how to answer this because I self-publish, I won’t be seeking agents.

To not understand the question, or how it relates to you, because you self-publish… that’s absolutely terrifying.

Let me bottom-line this for you.

If you are an author seeking to self-publish, and you believe that your story  has a lower bar than that set by agents and editors… if you believe that you can skip all this craft nonsense and just tell the story your way, damn it…

… if that’s you…

… then you are delusional.  Naive.  Clueless.  You are doomed to failure and heartbreak.

Is that clear enough?  Can I say it any other way? 

Maybe.

This is precisely what is WRONG with self-publishing today.  As well as what is different than ten years ago.  Ten years ago there was a vetting system in place that kept stories that were, in fact, reaching for or simply achieving a lower bar out of the marketplace.  It was called a “rejection slip,” and while hurtful and often unfair, it did police the marketplace for fiction to an almost complete extent.

Today, you can publish anything.  And then you can promote anything, using all the usual social media venues, using really schnazzy book cover design and grandiose promotional copy.

More bottom line: that same bar set by agents and editors is the EXACT SAME bar that exists for successful self-published books.  Then and now.  It is no lower and no higher for self-published books.

Which is good news and bad news.

The good news is also what’s different today.  If your book is indeed as good as what’s being published today – better put, as good as what would have been published ten years ago… because today,  more than ever, really fine books and authors are being thrown under the bus at an astounding level — then you have a shot in the digital market.  It’s a smaller shot, and the upside is much more limited than in the old days (10,000 copies of a self-published book is a home run; 10,000 copies of a traditionally published book is a stinker).

Check me on this.  Find a bestseller list, a long one like the USA Today roster, from ten years ago.  Now look up those authors on Amazon.com, and you’ll find a head-turner of a realization: many of them are self-publishing. Or out of the business entirely.

Know this, though: they are not self-publishing because Hal at the writing conference stood up and announced he’s done with all those stuffy agents and is going straight to market, “and hey, it’s a way higher royalty, too!”

Rather, it’s because traditional publishing is shrinking. 

Actually, its dying.

Publishers lose money on new authors and mid-list titles, so they’re avoiding them and sticking to brand name authors who will soon be writing from a rest home.  Check today’s bestseller lists and you’ll see hardly any new break-in authors among them, it’ll be the same old names, book after book.

And so the legend and myth of the break out self-published author was born.  And among them are titles that indeed do sell in the millions — very very few, though — yet you read them and you say, “whoa, this isn’t all that great, I could totally write something that good.”

Thing is – and this, too, is something that hasn’t changed – that was true ten years ago, as well.  It’s true today among those still-present A-list names on the lists.  Some of them are totally mediocre.  Many are terrific.  And the really good ones… they reached the very bar that so-many self-published titles do not.

This isn’t popular thinking among self-publishing enthusiasts.  But the numbers don’t lie: there are few, by orders of magnitude, “bestsellers” in this niche, and the number of copies sold that constitute success are dramatically lower.

Then again, there really is a way to see your name on a book cover, and there’s still a shot at finding an audience if the gods of social media nod in your direction.

So nothing in that regard has changed. 

You absolutely cannot look at breakout self-published bestsellers and rationalize that the bar there is any lower, either than before or compared to today’s traditional publishers.

It isn’t.  But because there are fewer slots for truly quality stories, many of those end up succeeding in the self-published market precisely because they are stellar in every way.

Which validates the whole thing after all.  It’s a matter of scale.  And, relative to this post, the core criteria on either side of the proposition hasn’t changed a bit.

The bar hasn’t lowered.  To assume you don’t need to impress an agent, and thus, don’t need an answer to the aforementioned question, is pure and sad self-delusion.

Here’s what else is true today.

Those breakout, legendary self-published titles you are trying to learn from?  They are, by far, from the romance and fantasy genres.  And why is that?  Because there are, by orders of magnitude, more writers crowding into those niches with the self-publishing intention, and thus they are paying attention to the very social media venues where those titles are visible.

Which leads to this: writers buying books by other writers in their genre.  Not purely because they love to read, but because they want to see what all the noise is about.

I have nearly 200o Facebook friends.  I’d say 1940 of them are romance authors (who are among my Storyfix and writing book consumers).  I get about 20 “new book” Facebook announcements a day.

Yes – here’s something within this example that hasn’t changed – publicity is still everything.  Buzz begets buzz.

And yet, more than ever before, both traditional and self-published authors find themselves completely on their own to generate said buzz.  Using the very same social media venues.

Which – hold on to your chair – for the most part don’t work all that well. 

So, putting on my cynic hat, you can attribute success online to a different skill set than writing a crackling good story — the ability to self promote.

But when it comes to a breakout hit… something more than you needs to happen on the promotional front.  Your only contribution to that will be the quality of the book you’ve written.

 

Facebook and Goodreads are websites clogged with other writers, not avid readers.  And because buzz does occur – almost always because of that high bar… the same bar you rejected as, “well, I don’t need an agent anymore, so what the heck, all criteria and standards are moot” …

… you find that nothing at all has actually changed.  Other than the amount of mediocrity crowding the digital marketplace, the vast bulk of which will sell literally dozens of copies at best.

The best promotion is not self-promotion.

Rather, it is a killer book review from a credible source.

If you’re self-publishing, it is almost impossible to get your novel reviewed in the traditional press.  There are a few websites that review online titles, but they are lightly attended, and again, have a huge preponderance of writers among their readership.

Getting your book reviewed on Amazon… now you’re back in the self-promotion loop… good luck with that.  Quality is what matters, and – especially at first – you need to grind out those reviews, one happy reader at a time.

The golden ring of self-publishing is the same golden ring of ten years ago: you must reach the readers, through reviews or word-of-mouth buzz.

Quality remains the criteria for buzz.

Which means that bar, the one you might be trying to ignore, is still there.

Even then, though, the world is different.  I know this from personal experience.  My first four books were published by Penguin-Putnam, and they received national reviews and bookstore distribution.  One was a minor bestseller, one a Publishers Weekly “Best of…” honoree, and all have garnered really solid reviews, including a starred review from PW.

You’d think buzz would follow.  It hasn’t.

My last two novels – which are all better stories because they are better written – have been published by a smaller press.  But even with that level of quality (check my blurbs, year-end list, awards and reviews if you think this is just me spouting off), without traditional distribution and promotion beyond the reach of the self-published author, they have sold only a fraction of the first four.

This, despite my swing at Goodreads and Twitter and Facebook and those 1940 romance authors who could not care less about my fiction.

So no, I haven’t broken that code. 

Confused?  Frustrated?  Me, too.

What hasn’t changed, and won’t, is the other stuff I write about.  Here, and in my three writing books (the third will be published by Writers Digest in August, 2015).

It’s craft.  The definitions, criteria, benchmarks, examples, exceptions, rationalizations, variations on a theme and physics of which… they’re exactly the same as they’ve ever been.

Craft is the ante-in to the game, no matter which version of it you are playing.  Anything less and you’re kidding yourself.

So don’t kid yourself.  The work we must do, whether self-published or on contract for Random House, begins on the page, which doesn’t care about the other stuff, even if you do.

Let me know if you’re broken the promotional code, I’ll let you tell your story here on Storyfix.  But I’ll bet you the publishers advance you didn’t get that it is the quality of your execution that made it happen, that started you down that path.

And in that I find hope.  I hope you do, as well.  It’s all we have that is eternal, universal and dependable as the ante-in to the publishing lottery itself.

May the odds be with you.  Luck still matters, but craft matters more.

*****

If you’d like to see what else is there on those Questionnaires – including the definitions, criteria, benchmarks and criteria that set the bar for your answers, click HERE for my Story Coaching page to find the level that’s right for you at this time.

The New World of Publishing is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The post The New World of Publishing appeared first on Storyfix.com.

How Are You Going To Succeed As a Writer?

A Guest Post by Cathy Yardley

If you’ve read Larry’s books on story (and if you’re here, I’m assuming you have) then you know he presents the six core competencies of successful writing, and the six essences, the “physics”, behind successful story telling.

Here’s a perspective that will serve you on a career level:

Be your own protagonist.

I’m a die-hard plotter. I’ve discovered that planning a writing career is very similar to creating a story. There are principles that need to be in play if you’re going to achieve any level of success.

In keeping with the theme, here are six components that lay the groundwork for a successful writing career.

1. Objective.

What is your goal? Writers that succeed usually have a clear idea of what they want to accomplish. Many of the writers I work with try to downplay this, saying “oh, I just want to improve my writing” or “I’d just be happy to sell some books!”

While these may be true, a little digging often reveals their fundamental objectives. Some want to write full time. Others want to hit a list. Still others want to sign with a traditional publisher, happy to see their name on a paperback in a bookstore.

No objective is more valid than another: it’s your life. But if you aren’t clear about what you want, then you’re not going to get there. Waffling and pulling your punch isn’t going to get you where you need to go. Being concrete goes a long way towards success. “I want to improve” is too vague. And how many books, exactly, is “some”

The clearer you are, the more likely you are to get there.

2. Motivation.

It’s funny how so often we know more about why our protagonist does something in our stories than we do about why we make our own choices in real life.

This is the place to dig deep, and again, there’s no judgment. Motivation is the fuel in your engine. Ignoring what’s really motivating you might mean creating subconscious resistance down the line.

For example, if you really want to change the world with a radical theme, and you’re offered a publishing contract only on the stipulation that you remove that element to make it something less politically charged, you’ll know not to take the deal.

If you want to make gobs of money, but you continually write weird mash-up niche genre stories that are sterling in quality, but don’t have an audience, then you’re going to need to change tack (or recognize that money isn’t your true motivation).

Find the right fuel, and you’ll move forward more quickly.

3. Location.

This is more metaphorical than literal. Where are you right now in your writing career? Have you completed a novel? Have you submitted work to agents or editors? Have you self-published? Essentially, how far away is your goal?

Being honest with yourself here will help you determine what steps need to be taken in the next few components. For some, this may be painful. You wish you were further along on the path than you are, or maybe you start remembering missed opportunities, episodes of laziness, or personal disasters that impeded your progress.

This isn’t a time for guilt, blame, or resentment. Just assess and move on.

4. Velocity.

Velocity is more than speed. It’s also direction. Which way are you heading, and how much momentum do you have?

For example, if your goal is traditional publication, and you’re currently just pages away from a polished manuscript, you’d think you’re pretty close. But if you’ve been slowing down (going from revising ten pages a day to maybe two a week), accomplishing your goal is going to be harder. If you’re going in the wrong direction (you suddenly decide that you’re going to tear it apart and rewrite the second act from scratch because it doesn’t quite work) then you’re going away from your goal, especially if the culprit is more fear-based than functional.

This is where you look at what’s working – and what’s not.

5. Character.

In this case, “character” refers to your character.

In the Olympics, it takes more than skill – it takes the mental strength to stay committed and disciplined, to not get thrown by competition, obstacles or poor performance.

If you’re going to achieve your goal, it’s going to take writing skills and the right mental attitude to persevere. You’ll also need to recognize your own strengths and weaknesses, doing what you can to showcase the former and support the latter.

6. Strategy.

Once you’ve taken stock of the previous components, you’re ready to put the final piece into place: creating a plan to get from where you are to where you want to go, based on what you have.

If you don’t have a strategy, you’re going to find yourself reacting to whatever shiny object crosses your path. You’ll join some new social media network because someone says it’s going to replace Facebook, or you’ll quickly throw together a proposal because a publisher just put out a sexy new call for submissions, or you’ll find yourself writing for an anthology that has a small audience and doesn’t ultimately get you closer to what you want… muttering that you “may find new readers” when asked why you’re doing so.

Strategy can and should be tracked and adjusted as needed, but without at least a base level plan, you’ll find yourself bouncing in too many directions, affecting your velocity, and making no headway towards your goals.

A devil’s advocate might point out that you can have all these components in place, and still fail. That said, without these components, you are almost guaranteed to do so.

Take stock. Chart your course. Then, armed with these foundational elements, you’ll see how much further in your writing career you can progress.

*****

Cathy Yardley is the author of 18 traditionally published romance, women’s fiction, and urban fantasy novels. She’s also a developmental editor and writing coach at RockYourWriting.com. Sign up for her free e-course Jumpstart Your Writing Career, and receive helpful hints on pinpointing where you might be stuck – and how to get back on track for a successful fiction writing career.

How Are You Going To Succeed As a Writer? is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The post How Are You Going To Succeed As a Writer? appeared first on Storyfix.com.

The Holy Trinity of Character: Goals, Obstacles and Stakes

A guest post by Art Holcomb

These three components – goals, obstacles and stakes – are nothing short of the holy trinity of character.

Nothing – I repeat, NOTHING – is more important to your character than understanding these three points.

• They are the basis of all characterization.

• They keep your character on track throughout the story.

• They make understanding the motivation of the character easier and clearer at every point in the narrative

• Whenever you get lost in the story, turning back to these three points will get you back on track.

Remember: we want our characters to have the power and inner-life of real humans, so as to better connect with our audience.

This begins with each character having a MISSION in your story – a point that Larry makes to you all the time. Every character must have a purpose, a reason behind every action. They must be moved to accomplish something – whether it is to persuade, obstruct, endear, accompany, reflect, emote or act.

It’s such a simple thing, and yet so many writers get caught up in the need to describe what’s happening, that they completely forget that their characters’ actions require a reason – a motivation – make sense of what they do.

That motivation must be clear to the reader.

Especially since most of the time, a well-written character is not consciously aware of their own motivation, a very important fact to consider when you realize that your hero should undergo some kind of emotional change which leads to their growth in most stories (there are exceptions, but probably not as many as you might imagine!)

(In my practice with my private clients and university students, I drive home this trinity as a basic fundamental of all writing. Regardless of the experience of my writers — which runs the gamut from published novelists/produced screenwriters all the way down to beginning and aspiring writers – we never stop honing and perfecting our understanding of this concept.)

Now, for how you can use this concept in your own writing:

It will take just a moment for you to use this form help you develop the motivations of your own characters. The insights you gain from this little exercise, I guarantee, will improve your writing.

So let’s answer some questions about your main characters, taking each one at a time:

 

CHARACTER NAME:

 

(1) Start with a ten (10) word description of the character:

 

(2) What is it that your character WANTS:

 

(3) Now, what do you think this character NEEDS out of life:

 

(4) What is this character’s GREATEST FEAR:

 

(5) Now, re-consider Question 3 above: What do you think this character REALLY NEEDS:

 

(6) Who or what is STANDING IN THE WAY of this character getting what s/he wants?

 

(7) What does this obstacle look like?

 

(8) If these obstacles cannot be overcome, what does this character stand to lose? How will this affect this character in a PROFOUND way? Describe that feeling in the character:

(9) Now, how do these answers affect or change your idea of the character?

 

So . . . Let’s sum up:

Conscious Need:

 

Emotional Need:

 

Primary Obstacle:

 

Real-Life Stakes:

 

If s/he SUCCEEDS, s/he will feel:

 

If s/he FAILS, s/he will feel:

 

Therefore this character’s vital mission is to…

 

Your NEW ten (10) word description of this character is:

Until next time – keep writing.

Art

*****

ART HOLCOMB is a screenwriter, award-winning playwright, fiction writer and comic book creator and is a regular columnist for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, called “The Best Magazine for Screenwriters” by The Los Angeles Times.

He has sold to the STAR TREK television franchise for Paramount Television and worked on projects for Gene Roddenberry and the estates of legendary actors Steve McQueen and Marlon Brando. He has also written for the critically acclaimed animation series SHADOW RAIDERS, as well as consulted for video game companies, film production companies and publishing houses.

His short story, The Perfect Bracket with acclaimed novelist Howard V. Hendrix, will appear in ANALOG Magazine in the spring of 2015. A play by the same name is currently under consideration for production by the National Actor’s Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky. A new science fiction/treasure hunt novel (with co-writer Hendrix) entitled The Strewn is scheduled for completion in 2015.

You can read more of Art’s thoughts on the craft of writing at www.artholcomb.blogspot.com

The Holy Trinity of Character: Goals, Obstacles and Stakes is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The post The Holy Trinity of Character: Goals, Obstacles and Stakes appeared first on Storyfix.com.

Fiction Writers: The Definition and Criteria of Concept

Major content alert: this material can save your story.
It can save you a year of drafting and revising.
It can get you published. 

The following is excerpted from the Welcome Kit for my new $49 Quick-Hit Concept Analysis program.  It’s the tutorial that accompanies the program, and is part of what you pay for.

Consider it my gift to you for the new year.  Because you need to get this before you can go to the next level.

*****

Storyfix2.0

The $49 Quick Hit Concept Analysis

Welcome to what might end up being the most important step in the development of your story. Because right here, at the concept and premise stage, is where many writers come up short.

Most writers begin a draft with a vision for concept and premise in mind. Others don’t, using the draft itself as the search-mechanism to find concept and premise, then retrofitting it into the story in subsequent drafts. The common mistake is to forget to do just that, leaving the story without a clear and compelling concept and premise at its core.

Concept, as it relates to premise, is the vision for the entire story.

If you don’t get this right, if you don’t make it as strong as it can possibly be, then you are already putting your story at risk no matter how well you write it. Concept and premise are the first things agents and editors look for in a story, over and above characterizations and writing voice.

Not every story needs to be “high concept.” But the presence of something conceptual – which is the very essence of concept – adds strength to any story.

Concept and premise are different essences, yet one (concept) feeds into the other (premise). One of the most common shortfalls of rejected stories is when a premise doesn’t promise something conceptual to the story, when it’s all plot with nothing inherently interesting or provocative at its core.

The Definition of Concept

A concept is the presence of something conceptual at the heart of the story’s essence.

A concept is a central idea or notion that creates context for a story – often for a number of stories, not just your story – built from it.

A concept becomes a contextual framework for a story, without defining the story itself.

It is an arena, a landscape, a stage upon which a story will unfold.

It can be a proposition, a notion, a situation or a condition.

It can be a time or place, or a culture or a speculative imagining.

It can even be a character, if even before the premise itself surfaces there is something conceptual about that character.

Concepts are a matter of degree.  Every story has a concept, the issue then becoming this: how does it contribute toward the reading experience?

The Criteria for Concept

It is inherently, before character or plot, interesting, fascinating, provocative, challenging, engaging, even terrifying.

High concepts depart from the norm, they exist at the extreme edge of imagination and possibility.

Not all stories are high concept. Stories about real people in real situations also benefit from something that creates a compelling context for the story.

Concepts promise a vicarious ride for the reader. Taking them somewhere, or placing them into situations that are not possible, realistic or something tense or horrific, something they would not choose to experience in real life.  But will love experiencing vicariously in your story.

A concept can define the story world itself, create its rules and boundaries and physics, thus becoming a story landscape. (Example: a story set on the moon… that’s conceptual in it’s own right.)

In summary, a concept is simply the compelling contextual heart of the story built from it. It imbues the story atmosphere with a given presence.

It does not include a hero… unless the hero is, by definition, a conceptual creation (examples: Superman, Sherlock Holmes, a ghost, someone born with certain powers or gifts, a real person from history, etc.). A story is then built around that hero leveraging the hero’s conceptual nature.

It might be helpful to consider what a story without a vivid concept would sound like in a pitch: two people fall in love after their divorce. Period. End of pitch.

And the agent says, “next!”

It’s not a bad story if you can pull it off – the writer of such a story would intend to plumb the depths of characters on both sides of the divorce proposition – but there’s nothing unique or provocative beyond the notion of divorce itself. Which is all too familiar, and therefore not all that strong a concept. If you could bring something contextually fresh to it – like, two people who both want to murder their ex fall in love – then the story has even more upside.

When we read that agents and editors are looking for something fresh and new, concept is what they mean.

When a concept is familiar and proven – which is the case in romance and mystery genres especially – then fresh and new becomes the job of premise and character, as well as voice and narrative strategy.

Concept is genre-driven.

Literary fiction and some romance and mysteries aren’t necessarily driven by concept (however, the sub-genres of romance – paranormal, historical, time travel, erotica, etc. – are totally concept-dependent). Other genres, such as fantasy and science fiction and historical, are totally driven by and dependent upon concept.

If your concept is weak or too familiar within these genres, you have substantially handicapped your story already.

Examples of Criteria-Compliant Concepts

“Snakes on a plane.” (a proposition)

“The world will end in three days.” (a situation/proposition)

“Two morticians fall in love.” (an arena)

“What if you could go back in time and find your true love?” (a proposition)

“What if the world’s largest spiritual belief system is based upon a lie, one that its church has been protecting for 2000 years?” (a speculative proposition)

“What if a child is sent to earth from another planet, is raised by human parents and grows up with extraordinary super powers?” (a proposition)

“What if a jealous lover returned from the dead to prevent his surviving lover from moving on with her life?” (a situation)

“What if a paranormally gifted child is sent to a secret school for children just like him?” (a paranormal proposition)

“A story set in Germany as the wall falls.” (a historical landscape)

“A story set in the deep South in the sixties focusing on racial tensions and norms.”  (a cultural arena)

These cover a breadth of genres, a few of them from iconic modern classics in their own right.

Notice than NONE of these are plots. Each is a framework for a plot. For any number of plots, in fact. The are conceptual.

Just remember: concept is not premise.

Rather, it is the reason why your premise will compel readers. Because it is compelling. Fascinating. Intellectually engaging. Emotionally rich. Imbued with dramatic potential. It infuses the premise with something contextually rich, even before you add characters and a plot.

*****

If you’d like to have your concept analyzed and in context to your premise, click HERE to learn more about my Quick Hit Concept Analysis program.

It’s only $49.  As an investment in your story and your career, you won’t find a higher ROI or a better story-jacking opportunity than this.  That’s a guarantee.

Fiction Writers: The Definition and Criteria of Concept is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The post Fiction Writers: The Definition and Criteria of Concept appeared first on Storyfix.com.

Storyfix 2.0 – Welcome to the Relaunch!

A killer new design.
Enhanced Story Coaching programs.
Bigger, better, career-making content.

Welcome to my little Open House.  Sorry about the cookies and punch, couldn’t find a way to get them into WordPress without consulting a magician.

Read on for a few juicy discounts on story coaching to help ring in the new year with the new Storyfix.

If you’re new here, you may not notice or appreciate how different things look.  A spanking new banner that changes every few seconds.  A clean layout that separates my services and my books into sidebars, with a more robust center layout for posts.

Many thanks to Joel and Jeremy at Spinhead Web Design for their genius, skill, commitment and generous spirit.  Free story coaching for life, guys!

About those posts… expect deeper content, more author interviews, strategic guest posts (including more from Art Holcomb, resident professor and friend) even more story deconstructions, an easier-to-find Search bar (also upper right), as well as reviews of all things writerly we should be paying attention to.

One of my goals is to expand the readership this year, so if you’re a regular and would like to help, please point your writer friends here.  They can sign up by clicking the Feedburner logo (upper right) to receive these posts via email.

What’s new in the Story Coaching corner?

Plenty.  I’ve overhauled my story coaching programs to deliver even more value for the dollar.  Three levels of service are available to help you meet your specific needs, no matter where you are in the story development process.

Introducing the $49 Quick Hit Concept Review. Your story’ s concept and how it folds into your premise is the most empowering thing you can do in the development of a story.  I’d say over half of the manuscripts-in-development that I see suffer from deal-killing compromise at the concept/premise level.  The whole storytelling ballgame depends on getting this right… and you can see where you are for less money than a couple orders of nachos and a few beers.

The Newly Enhanced Full Story Plan Analysis, now $245. The Questionnaire that drives this is more focused and cuts deeper, with criteria given for your answers that become, in effect, a writing workshop in their own right.  Make sure you’ve nailed the Six Core Competencies and that your Story Physics are strong… this program will tell you.

You can add First Quartile pages, too.  If the setup of your story doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter how well you’ve written the rest.  The combination of the Story Plan Analysis (which is included) and an evaluation of your Part 1/Act 1 pages ensures you’re in the hunt for publishing deal and/or readers for your self-published project. (See the drop-down menu for pricing with this option, in the left sidebar.)

The Full Manuscript Analysis… which includes the Story Plan Analysis.  Still priced at an eye-popping $1800, a fee I urge you to shop around, because I know you’ll return to see how your story aligns with the principles of the Six Core Competencies and the six Realms of Story Physics, and how the whole thing plays within your narrative strategy.

Screenplays evaluated for $950 (write me directly if this is you… there’s a special Questionnaire for screenwriters).

Let’s celebrate the relaunch with a few discounts!

To kick off the year I’m offering some great deals for writers who want 2015 to be their year.

Like, 25% off of the Full Story Plan through January, limited to the first 20 writers who opt-in (via Payment through Paypal).  Don’t use the Paypal buttons on the site for this (those who don’t read the posts will miss out… but you’re here, so don‘t)… either do the math and process your payment directly through your Paypal account to storyfixer@gmail.com (discount not applicable for the $50 Rush fee), or if math isn’t your thing -hint: it’s $183.75 – ask me to bill you to grab this one (the Paypal buttons on the site reflect the normal fee structure).  Discount applies to the “add 1st Quartile pages” option, as well… you’ll really like that math.

Or, opt-in for a Full Manuscript Analysis now (which secures a spot for you anytime during 2015 – just submit when you’re ready, allowing you time to continue to work on your project… at a 25% discount, or $1350… savings of $450! (Price goes back to $1800 after January 31, 2015.)

Is your completed manuscript ready to submit now?  I will accept the first three projects paid and submitted to me in January at a whopping 33% off, or only $1200!  Use Paypal or email me to request billing.

In a Critique or Writing Group?

Send me five projects and I’ll give you a sixth for free for any level (including pages) except the Full Manuscript Analysis (apply this multiplier for as many projects as you’d like, even if its in the dozens… more math required in that case – example 25 projects would include an additional five at no cost) at the January discounted price.

This 6-for-5 offer remains on the table during the entire year for your group, but at the regular fee structure after January.  Send details via email, including the addresses of your participating writers, at the time of enrollment.

Come February it will be Story Coaching business as usual, so grab your deal now and make this the year you find your story, find your voice (in that order) and find your way toward getting your manuscript into the hunt for an agent, a publisher or a whole bunch of online readers.

Thanks for visiting today.  New context soon, so please check back.  If you have comments on the new site I’m all ears, use the form below.

No go write something amazing!

Larry

 

Storyfix 2.0 – Welcome to the Relaunch! is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The post Storyfix 2.0 – Welcome to the Relaunch! appeared first on Storyfix.com.

Storytelling: The Key to Everything

My New Writing Book – A Preview

In case you hadn’t heard… in case I forgot to bang the drum here… I’m writing another book for Writers Digest Books, this one called:

Story Fixing: The Repair, Resurrection and Redemption of Your Novel or Screenplay.

I’m turning in the manuscript this week.  Don’t have a pub date yet, but I’m guessing late 2015.  This one focus on how to do what the title promises, yet it is completely applicable to new projects nearing the starting gate.

I’d like to share a sample with you today, from Chapter 8, entitled “The Key to Everything.”  It’s about the power of a compelling premise, and how to determine if yours meets that criteria.  You may find it jarring, or illuminating, but in either case here’s a taste of the truth, right in your face.

Adjust your story plan or your manuscript accordingly.

This excerpt is the finale of the chapter, a sort of locker room speech in case one has nodded off earlier.

If you’d like to read the entire chapter, click on this: 8 The Key to Everything .

Here’s the excerpt:

Allow me to bottom line this for you.

You need to know your core story.

Not a bunch of threads leading to something unclear and irresolvable. You need to unspool that story along a core dramatic spine, a linear sequence of setup, twist, response and revelation, more twist, proactive response and yet more revelation, all in the presence of an antagonistic force (usually a villain) seeking to block your hero’s path, then one more major twist, setting the hero toward an inevitable confrontation, perhaps with a final shocking twist in story, allowing the hero to confront the villain and resolve the goal, one way or another.

And here’s the kicker – all of this concerns a singular core story. The one you promised in your premise. The one that met all those criteria for effectiveness. The one empowered by an underlying conceptual context.

No slice of life stories. No “adventures of…” stories. No episodic ramblings. No chronicles of simply being there.  No sagas  that read like biographies.  No plotless character profiles. No life-sucks-then-you-die diaries of miserable people who are simply unhappy and unfilled, without them doing something about it.

If you’re writing in a genre, you need a plot.  That’s non-negotiable.

Your readers want hope. They want to be engaged, they want to be emotionally involved. They want to empathize, to root for something. They want to be scared, they want to root against something. They want a vicarious ride, to feel as if they are in the story. They want to feel the weight of the story’s stakes and the urgency of the pursuit of resolution. They want to relate to it, even if they can’t because it’s not real. They want to feel, to laugh and to cry and to lose themselves. To be entertained, moved, changed, enraged, terrified, turned on and seduced. They want to fall in love again. They want to live within your precious pages.

Does your story do this? Does your premise create a vehicle that can achieve these reader outcomes?

If not, then you aren’t done. You haven’t found your best story.

You need to go deeper, wider, think outside of your box and take some risks. you need to let the principles in.  You need to play within the lines of the genre and the highest criteria of fiction. Which can be boiled down to this: drama and conflict are everything. They are the catalysts that allow character to emerge. They are the forces of story.

Without them your story dies. It’s really that simple.

*****

I’m relaunching the site later this week, with a sizzling new graphic layout and more features.  I’m also over-hauling my story coaching programs, with a deeper level of analysis and more resources across all three levels.

The Concept/Premise evaluation is actually going DOWN in price, to only $49.  Given the critical role concept and premise plays in your novel or screenplay, this becomes hands down the best story mentoring service in the entire industry.  That’s a guarantee.  It can save you a year of work on a draft that may be dead out of the starting gate, simply because the concept and/or premise doesn’t cut the mustard.

The Full Story Plan analysis will see a price bump, but the deliverable value is going up even more.  Full manuscript reads remain available at $1800.

Check back over the weekend, I hope you like what you see.

Storytelling: The Key to Everything is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The post Storytelling: The Key to Everything appeared first on Storyfix.com.

A Follow Up to My Previous Post

In my last post I recommended the film “The Gambler” because of a provocative scene (a monologue, actually) on the challenge and frustrations of the fiction-writing life. 

Several folks have told me they didn’t feel the same.

That it was actually discouraging instead of motivating.  Fair enough.  I get that.  I apologize for not better positioning my perspective within the post.  The last thing I want to be is discouraging, the whole point here is to help you move forward.

Below are some clarifying thoughts on this, some of a highly personal and reflective nature.  (To paraphrase the song… it’s my blog and I’ll wax philosophical if I want to.)

If you haven’t read the post and would like to before reading my response below, click HERE to read it, then come back if you’ like to engage with my response.

*****

I think Wahlberg’s classroom monologue spoke to me because it’s true: in that entire room, at that school, on that day, nobody will be good enough.

You can’t sit-in on the aspiration to write good fiction. Bang out a story between classes. It’s too hard for that to work.

Like Wahlberg’s character (like me, a teacher of fiction writing), I don’t think I ever was, am, or will be “good enough.”

The business itself is a jungle, completely dismantled, for the most part the traditional publishing proposition is a cross between a dream and a lie.  What I heard from Wahlberg’s character is that you have to strive for that genius level, which is always someone else’s opinion.

He didn’t exactly say that.

In fact, he’d written it off as impossible. I haven’t. What’s left is one and only one choice: get better.

There’s only one way to do that, one ticket in (because we sure as hell aren’t born that way) – and that’s craft. Findable, reliable, practiceable… and still, only rarely seized. It’s the science and physics of genius. The principles are so powerful and pervasive that, when you embrace them until they embrace you back, “genius” becomes an achievable goal.

He’s right about one thing: genius is required. Define genius as you may, but for me it means hitching a ride on the power of the genius principles that are available to us. That’s what I write about here.

And so, I was moved when I heard this spoken this eloquently.

I found myself motivated to work harder, go deeper (because that’s where genius lives and suffers), to see if it’s really there or not. Most of us don’t go that deep, we don’t realize that we must. I felt the movie challenged us to have the balls to see what we can really do once you’re all-in, knowing the bar is that f-ing high.

I loved his passion.  I related to that. 

The business had broken his heart.  I relate to that, too.  But unlike him, in sort of a reverse modeling fashion – I haven’t given up.  I’m here, with you, doing battle with these demons, fueling myself – and you – with craft.

Then again, I may be full of complete crap on this, simply hearing what I wanted to hear. But isn’t that what good writing does, putting us in the interpreter’s seat? I just thought it was profound, and the profound always moves me in strange ways.

It makes me want to write.

I wasn’t discouraged.  It didn’t make we want to gamble my life away like the Wahlberg character is doing. But realizing that I already have – I’ve gambled everything in choosing to write for a living – here I am with my meager chips and there’s still a game going on.

Ain’t broke yet, still hoping for the ace to land in front of me, praying I know what to do with it when it happens.

Until that happens, I’m all-in.

All my chips. And as I sit here watching the cards being dealt, I am constantly looking for a strategic edge. So far I’ve only found one thing – craft.

Craft never lies. It never cares, either… it just is. The choice is ours.

I hope this clarifies.

Be bold. Study harder. Write more. Write smarter.

Choose stronger stories. That’s massively important.  Think bigger.

Don’t listen to your characters (they don’t understand the game they’re in) and don’t wait for a Muse to tap your shoulder.

That’s all bullshit. It really is. It’s like trying to attach angel wings to a jet fighter. You have a mission, and it’s on you.   Nobody will rescue you. The only assistance you’ll ever get is principle-driven (as opposed to sense-driven) craft, however it reaches out to you, whoever is dealing those cards.

Storytelling sense, when it works, is nothing other than the principles of craft internalized.

Discover the genius within you. You do that by losing yourself in the work, in the principles that are the actual grist of genius after all.

*****

Thanks Art, for the nudge.

*****

A quick update – my little ebook, “Warm Hugs for Writers,” has been reduced to $2.99.  It’s all in the title, and sometimes that’s just what we need.

A Follow Up to My Previous Post is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The post A Follow Up to My Previous Post appeared first on Storyfix.com.

Novelists: A Risky Bet that Just Might Be a Sure Thing… For You

I’m about to recommend a movie to you.  That alone is a risky bet, but there is rationale behind my madness.

I’m talking about “The Gambler,” starring Mark Wahlberg, one of the major holiday releases out now.  Critics are not hating it, but to be honest they’re comparing it to Applebees on a street full of fine steak houses.

I get that.  It’s not a perfect movie.  But I found it perfectly entertaining, and, as a novelist and especially as someone who is in touch with thousands of  other novelists (via this site), it’s my job to alert you to this opportunity.

See it for the script. 

See it for an in-your-face wake-up call.

The elegant, rapturous, too-true dialogue in this film could only come from the mind of a true writer – writing about writing – as spoken by an actor who embellishes it with the grit and emotion and angst that writing fiction with professional ambitions culls from us.

He speaks the truth.  And he nails it better than anything I’ve ever heard.

If you want to know why so many writing teachers (present company included) seem grumpy and impatient, go see this movie… if nothing else than for the second scene, in which Wahlberg gives his students a stark lesson in writing reality.

The hero – Wahlberg – is one of us. 

His day job is teaching “the modern novel” at a major Los Angeles university, with a well reviewed and under-achieving “first novel” under his belt.

Maybe now you understand why I related to this guy.

He has an attitude and a point of view on it all.  And that‘s why you should see this.  It just might shift you into a higher writing gear.

Like an alcoholic driven to drink to drown out his anxieties, Wahlberg is driven into the dark world of high stakes gambling (where the odds are significantly better than trying to crack the bestseller code), populated with organized crime factions and loan sharks who make the horrifying stakes abundantly clear.

The film is inspired by the 1962 classic of the same name starring James Caan, which was written by the legendary James Toback (who also wrote “The Player,” which you should rent tonight if you’ve never seen it).

That’s part of the problem for the reviewers who aren’t loving it, it doesn’t compare in terms of overall cinematic art (not all of the risks the director takes pay off).  But there is much here to enjoy, and much to learn in terms of character arc, structure, story world and all things visual (stunningly artful).  John Goodman, in particular, gives the performance of his life as a loan shark who could go monologue for monologue with Aaron Sorkin .

Here’s a link to the Rotten Tomatoes page for this film, where you can read the critics bashes and also see the trailer.

If you write fiction, the first twenty minutes are worth every dime and every minute of your time.  The opening shows Wahlberg behaving recklessly in an underground gambling club, but it’s that second scene – Walhberg lecturing to a room full of wide-eyed, terrified college writing students – that just might give you the wake-up call you need.

I frequently tell writers who come to be for coaching that they’re not thinking big enough, deep enough, and artfully enough.  If you’re one of them and aren’t quite sure what that even means… here’s a film that will explain it better and more powerfully than I could ever hope to achieve.

Novelists: A Risky Bet that Just Might Be a Sure Thing… For You is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

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Learning – and Proving – the Principles of Story Structure using “Gone Girl” as a Laboratory

You’ve heard of the novel and you’re aware there’s a major film out there based upon it. You may or may not know that the author of the novel, Gillian Flynn, also wrote the screenplay for the film.

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Six million hard covers were sold. Millions more in paperback.

There is much to learn – especially relative to the reinforcement of storytelling principles, including structure – from this novel.

Some writers resist the principles. Some writing gurus even advise us to reject them in the mistaken belief that our “instincts” are enough. And yet, time and time again those structural principles show themselves in stories that explode into the market.

Coincidence? I think not.

In many cases this resistance actually pertains to structure. It’s a “nobody is going to tell me how to write a book or what it should look like” attitude, which is fine if your fundamental experience and talents lead you to a workable story without using the principles themselves – which will be there in that story once it works – as guiding beacons.

Good luck with that. Out of every 1000 writers you’ve never heard of writing and submitting manuscripts for publication – this is an unofficial statistic, based on my own significant database of stories submitted to me for coaching – only about 10 demonstrate the requisite storytelling instincts.

Not ten percent, but ten total manuscripts out of 1000.

That leaves 990 stories, a large percentage of which were written using the author’s instinct alone, wondering what went wrong.

About half the time what went wrong was the story idea itself. The confluence of concept and premise. Coming up with a truly compelling story proposition is as much a product of instinct (also known as story sensibility) as anything else relative to craft, and like structure it, too, has principles and benchmarks to help us accurate predict if others will like the idea as much as you (the writer of it) will.

The other half, some of which do propose an inherently compelling story idea, fumble the execution. Which is almost always connected to structural weakness within the story.

Gillian Flynn, the author of Gone Girl, has a story sensibility residing at the top of the class. I have no idea what she thinks about the principles of structure or how she leverages them in her work – for all I know she may stare into a pile of tea leaves for inspiration– but we don’t need to know.

Her work speaks for itself, which means her instincts are to be reckoned with.

Both versions of Gone Girl – novel and screenplay – are models for classic story architecture. You know, the very principles that those nay-saying writing gurus tell you to beware of. Whether instinct or referencing a structure poster tacked to her wall… doesn’t matter. It’s there.

If you want to write a story as solid and compelling as those Gillian Flynn writes, then you either have to be at her level, or you’ll need to tap into the power of those principles.

For all we know that’s precisely what she does.

Story Architecture

Some argue that novels and screenplays have very different structures. But the truth is, at the core of both forms resides a structure that is very much alike. While it’s true that many writers can’t write their own screenplays, its truer that studios won’t let them. Because there aren’t any structure nay-sayers in that business, everybody who knows anything at all about storytelling for the screen depends on these principles to get it right.

Gillian Flynn, though, didn’t have to worry about that. Because her Gone Girl screenplay tracks almost identically, beat for beat – and in perfect alignment with the very structural principles I’m discussing here – with the novel she wrote, which happened long before she was asked to do the screenplay.

Translation: she use the same structure in both projects. No difference.

Another coincidence? Absolutely not.

Here’s a distinction, one you should thumbtack to your forehead: it wasn’t her instinct that made the story work, it was the principles of story architecture. Which, for her and some writers, are precisely what they instinctually understand.

This is true for almost every novel, in any genre, that ends up working well.

Gone Girl… the Milestone Placement Targets

In the section below we will look at the three critical story milestones that separate the four sequential contextual parts of a well-told story… novel or screenplay. Separating the four quartiles, those transitions have a targeted (optimal) location (in reality there is ample wiggle room to accommodate the needs of the narrative) as follows.

The novel: 414 total pages

FPP target: 20 – 25th percentile (p. 83 – 104)

Midpoint target: p. 207

2nd PP target: p. 312

The film: 137 minutes running time

FPP target: 27th to 35th minute

Midpoint target: 69th minute

2nd PP target: 103rd minute

Now let’s see where they actually show up in the story.

Prepare to be blown away.

The First Plot Point in Gone Girl

Sometimes the milestones that reveal and propel structure are hard to spot, especially for writers who are new to these principles, because the narrative approach tends to mask them in terms of expositional content. Gone Girl is no exception.

But once you know what Gone Girl’s major story milestones are, you’ll find they reside very near to where the principles say they should (optimally) be found.

For the third time… this is not a coincidence.

The First Plot Point within this complex narrative is when Amy (the wife) confesses from within her diary that she believes Nick, (her husband) may be capable of – indeed, intending to – kill her. This concludes a setup quartile in which the police, and the readers, have been led to believe he is somehow involved with her disappearance.

Amy herself seems to be confirming this to be the case. It happens on p. 102 (the 24th percentile mark), at the very end of Amy’s narrative chapter (one of many; she alternates with Nick’s narrative throughout the novel), when she says, “I feel like I could disappear.”

And she does. And clearly, if all the evidence it to be believe, it is Nick’s doing.

What the reader senses – and is right when they do – is that Amy’s diary will soon surface as part of the evidence exposing Nick’s complicity. In writing this, in telling us about it at precisely this point, she is defining and launching the hero’s story quest (the definition of the role of the FPP), because Nick is about to get nailed for his wife’s disappearance and, presumably, her death.

That’s the core story. That’s what this FPP launches. And it’s right in the sweet spot of the First Plot Point’s mission within the structure.

In the film this happens at about the 35th minute in… spot on at the 25th percentile, capping a First Quartile full of crazy inciting incidents and pace.

Again… coincidence? I think not.

Of course, nothing is as it seems in this story, which brings us to the Midpoint.

The Midpoint in Gone Girl

If you are even the slightest bit confused about what the Midpoint milestone is intended to do within a story, Gone Girl is the best clinic you’ll ever find.

The mission of the Midpoint, generically, is to shift the context of the story and spin it in a new direction, thus giving the hero (heretofore less than fully informed) something to either go on, shoot for, or unwittingly pursue. Everything increases as a result: dramatic tension, pace, reader empathy, and the proactive intentions of the protagonist and the antagonist (the villain).

When the Midpoint of Gone Girl arrives you can’t miss it. It’s like someone bringing a shotgun to a wedding and shooting up the place… literally changing everything. What it does to the story is astounding: it explodes the entire story into something you weren’t expecting, completely transforming it through revelatory context-shifting.

Amy has planned the whole thing to frame Nick for what will not only be her disappearance, but her murder. Because she intends to kill herself as the grand crown jewel of her frame-up scheme, which she also explains (in direct voiceover) to the viewer, piece by diabolical piece.

It happens in a new Amy-narrated chapter beginning on p. 203 – which is the 49th percentile. Spot on target, and perfectly executed.

In the film that occurs at 67 minutes in – also the 49th percentile mark (48.9, actually).

If this was a trail, the jury would be coming back into he room. This is not a coincidence. This how it is done. This is how story structure works.

Prior to the Midpoint in Gone Girl we’ve only heard from Ally via her diaries, written long before her disappearance. But here at the Midpoint, we actually meet her. We see her. She tells us – literally – the truth about everything we’ve been led to believe thus far.

In effect, the story transforms from a mystery (discovering what really happened) to a thriller (sticking around to see what will happen).

Remember, the core story here is the hero’s, not the villains. Which in this case, now that we know which is which, is clearly now Nick’s story. He’s being framed. He needs to get out from under this. And we’re hooked because we want to see how he does it, and what happens to her at that point.

It’s genius, really. So much of it is her instinct on what will work, implemented according to principles that will never let us down.

Suddenly the hero (clearly it’s Nick, newly positioned as an anti-hero for whom, despite his loutish ways, we are now empathizing with and rooting for) has a different path before him. He doesn’t realize it at first, but we (the reader/viewer) is fully in on it now. The fun of the second half of the story is seeing how he will discover the truth, and what happens to everyone when he does.

And it isn’t pretty. In fact it’s scary as hell.

Those who doubt the veracity of the principles of story structure now have a two-by-four solidly implanted between their eyes.

The Second Plot Point in Gone Girl

If you thought the Midpoint of this story came out of nowhere, wait until you get to the Second Plot Point. I can say with confidence, even though you know so much more about Amy’s dark scheme at this point, that you’ll never see it coming.

On p. 303 (the 73rd percentile mark) Nick is being interviewed on television about the disappearance of his wife. It’s a strategy cooked up by his lawyer, who knows that in the face of all the planted evidence Nick would benefit from some sympathetic public exposure. At the end of this interview he looks directly into the camera, and which the sincerity of a father holding his newborn and promising to take care of her, he tells Amy herself that he loves her. That if she comes home, comes back to him, he will love her forever.

Amy is watching. And everything changes here. The final act, the confluence of all this darkness is at hand.

Nick says he will find her. And he will love her.

This is the husband she never had. Or at least the husband she lost. Not the man who has driven her mad, who has cheated on her, who has made her resort to this unthinkable scheme to take him down… but now she can win. Without killing herself.

If nothing else, if she can find a way back to him she can, in the privacy of their home going forward, find ways to torment and punish him while he loves her forever.

The perfect outcome. She wins.

A few pages later she slits the throat of her lover (an obsessed old boyfriend) to cement a story that has him kidnapping and holding here, until she took advantage of a weak moment and killed him in her escape.

She will return home a hero, a victim, into the arms of her insanely sorry and humbled husband… who has told the world he will love her forever.

All of this is the stuff of the Part 4 resolution, as launched at the Second Plot Point in that moment where she watches him speak directly to her through a television screen.

Nothing about this structure simply happened to show up at the prescribed places according to the principles of story structure.

If it was indeed Gillian Flynn’s genius instinct that caused it to happen, that doesn’t negate he power of the principles. How we get there isn’t the issues, getting there by whatever means – investing years in honing your instinct to understand that this really is how stories are built… or cutting years off that learning curve by internalizing these principles early on – is the whole point.

I’ve often said that seeming story architecture at work – you don’t have to look far to find it, just read a bestseller or go to a feature film.  Those four parts and three major story milestones will be there, almost certainly waiting for you very near to those prescribed points – and there’s no better story, among thousands of good examples, than Gone Girl.

A bonus is there is no much more to learn from this story, as well. Narrative strategy has never been so well-played in a thriller. Her voice, through her characters, is fresh an disturbing and brilliant. In fact, all six core competencies and all six realms of story physics are there for you, showing off from within a story that rewards and disturbs and entertains on the grandest of scales.

*****

If you’re interested in seeing how your story plan measures up to these principles… I’m revising my story coaching programs with an enhanced Questionnaire experience, effective at the first of the year. Four levels, four price points, something for everybody, from the simplest of concept evaluations to a full manuscript analysis. Stay tuned for updates, including a new design for the Storyfix.com website itself… all right after the first of the new year.

If you can’t wait, the existing program levels remain available… use the links directly above this post to learn more.

*****

My newly released novel, a republished edition of The Seventh Thunder, has been hanging around all week among Amazon.com’s top 100 titles in the “supernatural thriller” category. If you like your concepts massively huge and provocative, with a story that is (cliché alert, but it’s apt) ripped from today’s headlines, please consider giving it a shot.

 

Learning – and Proving – the Principles of Story Structure using “Gone Girl” as a Laboratory is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The post Learning – and Proving – the Principles of Story Structure using “Gone Girl” as a Laboratory appeared first on Storyfix.com.

Win a free copy of my new novel… this week only!

Plus a little content for you today.  First, the promotional deal:

My publisher (Turner Publishing) is running a little lottery to give away a few dozen copies of my latest release, “The Seventh Thunder” (click to learn more about the book).  There are no strings, though I’ll add that if you’d like to post a review I’m be most grateful.

Click HERE to enter.  Your odds are good on this one.  (Click HERE for the Amazon page.)

If you run blog and would like a review copy – and you don’t win this time – let me know, I’ll make it happen.

Here’s something to think about in the meantime.

 

Selling a story is like a job interview.

Maybe you’ve never thought of it like this.  Maybe you should, because the parallels are… disturbingly accurate.

Employers have expectations and criteria when they post a job opening.  Or even when they consider walk-ins.  Applicants need to not only qualify for the job according to those criteria, they need to stand out from the other applications.

Writers tend to miss this perspective.  Instead they “write from the heart,” and throw it out there, hoping that their heart is something others will want to read about.  The truth is, readers want more from us, they have expectations and standards when they choose what to read.

So, if your story is a job application, the employer is an agent, an editor or simply a reader shopping for a good book… what are you offering them?

Most importantly, how will your book stand out from the crowd?

The crowd itself is genre-dependent.  If you write sci-fi you aren’t competing with literary fiction or mysteries, the stage is already set for what you must present upon it.

Ask yourself: what sets your story apart?  What makes it worthwhile?  What constitutes an edge, something new and fresh and unexpected and – most importantly – compelling?

As in an interview, you get points for presentation, as well.  How tight is your pitch (query)?  How perfect is your manuscript on the page?  How do you introduce the story using a logline that grabs attention, that differentiates, at a first glance?

From my own database of over 600 analyzed stories in the past three years, I can tell you this with certainty: most writers don’t think this way.  Most of the stories I receive – and have to assume, represent most of the stories circulating out there – are generic, as if they are actually trying to join the crowd (even imitating it), rather than rising above it.

If it sounds like this: “the story is about two brother growing up in rural Iowa during the depression”… good luck with that.  The waiting room is full of applicants with a better story to tell, and you may want to buff up on those criteria before your name is called.

If you want to land the job, make sure you can compete for it.  The criteria is available, and when you compare your story to those principles and benchmarks, you may be surprised at the outcome.

Here’s hoping that outcome gets you hired.

But if you have more work to do… I can help.

I’m redesigning my story coaching programs, effective January 1, 2015.

Check back for details, but here’s a hint: you can get your concept evaluated for under fifty bucks, and the Questionnaires I’ve used are now beefed up to the extent they are more tutorials and interactive exercises you can apply immediately to your story, rather than just a pop quiz that accesses where you are (that’s important and useful, but now you’ll have a strategy).

More information will be posted soon on this, stay tuned.

*****

PRICE REDUCTION on my ebook, “Warm Hugs for Writers.”   Now available for $2.95.

The book was a finalist in the crowed ebook category of the Next Generation Indie Awards, and delivers a combination of craft and comfort, along with a few laughs and shivers.  Hoping you’ll check it out.

 

 

Win a free copy of my new novel… this week only! is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

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