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My story:

I love reading – I think all authors should love to read, and I read constantly when I lived overseas, in Russia, while my husband and I served as missionaries. I soon ran out of books. However, without knowing it, I had begun to absorb the elements of a good book. I had also cultivated a desire to write my own stories. So, one snowy day, I sat down with a story in my head and began to write. I really had no idea what I was doing, but I knew in my heart what I HOPED to write, and I just followed my heart. After I finished my story – with was about 150K, I had a James Michener epic, way too long that would be only be used as a highchair for my toddler. However, I HAD finished a book. And in that, I was a success.

From there, I submitted the book to agents and publishers and got good feedback – one agent suggested I write a much smaller book and see if I could publish that first. So I wrote a Heartsong, a story about my grandparents. And after they looked it over a few times, they published it. In the meantime, I kept writing, attending online classes, reading books and keeping a journal. I wrote a novella about an experience I had being trapped in an elevator in Russia, and submitted it to Tyndale. They bought (much to my great surprise) and then asked me what else I had. We’re also going to talk about pressing on, and building up what I call your “bullpen.”

When I finally started selling, I sold about eleven books in one year – many of which were already finished. Which is why, only three years after my first trade book came out, I have 22 books on the market.

I’m very grateful to the Lord for His grace in giving me a heart for writing, and now a ministry writing fiction with a Christian world view. Thank you to you for attending this class and I pray that the Lord would use it to encourage you as you seek to write for Him. God bless you.

Susan May Warren

How to Get your Groove

An introductory course to writing a book

Presented bySusan May Warren

How to get your groove: Intro to writing a book by Susan May Warren

Session OneOne-Two-Cha-Cha-Cha

Where to start? Genre What do you know?

Gustave Flaubert:“We do not choose our subjects. They choose us.”

Elements of a story:

Theme___________________________________________________________

Plot______________________________________________________________

Characters__ _-_____________________________________________________

Setting____________________________________________________________

"You don't write because you want to say something; you write because you've got something to say." -F. Scott

Fitzgerald

Theme Vs. Story Question Theme Story Question

o How do you derive a story question?

Copyright 2006 Susan May Warren


Ask: What is your subject matter: Ask: What are you going to say about it?

Plot

Functions of Storytelling: Entertainment________________________________________

____ Escape________________________________________________

__ Understanding_______________________________________

____

(Appendix 1 – 6 Basic Plots)

Lindy Hop – The PLOT Structure

ACT 1 L – Life I – Inciting Incident N – Noble Quest

ACT 2 D – Disappointments

o Unexpectedness

o Plausibility

Y – Y in the Road ACT 3

H – Help! _ O – Overhaul



P – Perfect Ending

Life Once upon a timeInciting Incident

Something out of the ordinary happens

Noble Quest Causing the protagonist to seek somethingDisappointment

But things don’t go as expected

Y in the Road Forcing the protagonist to make a difficult decisionHelp! Which has consequencesOverhaul The result in which is a change of statusPerfect Ending

And they all lived happily ever after (or didn’t)

Session Two: Cha, Cha, Cha Cont…

DEFINE GMCG: Goals M: Motivation C: Conflict

CharactersTime to WALTZ… WHO am I?

Identity helps us define: 1.__________________________________________________________2.__________________________________________________________3.__________________________________________________________

At all Costs? Let Me do it! Teddy Bear Security

Zone



Your Character’s Journey: Establish his identity as a drifter, and along the way reveal his

motivations. That’s your back-story. Remind us of his noble cause, his purpose in life.

o See him begin to fulfill that purpose he’s set out to accomplish – give him a taste of what that would feel like, and dangle his greatest dream in front of him.

Establish his competence. o It’s important to establish for the reader that he is indeed,

good at what he does. Then continue to chip away at his competence until everything falls apart. (Using Disappointments) Begin to hint at his greatest fears.

Bring us to the black moment when his greatest fears are about to come true, that moment when he has to battle between his inner values, and face the choice of reverting to security mode, or changing.

Show us his epiphany -- that God Aha moment that changes them, makes them able to grow and, hopefully, reminds us that God is at work in our own lives.



Example of how it Plot and Characterization fit together:

Sally and the DresserLIFEThere once was a girl named Sally who was a Housewife. She and her family had moved home from another country and they didn’t have much money, but they decided to build a house. Now Sally came from a very good family, and her mother had the nicest of houses, and she filled her home with nice things, teaching Sally the importance of taking care of things, and creating a nice home. More than that, Sally was adopted, and more than anything, she wanted her mother to approve of her. She wanted to be like her beautiful, capable mother and provide a nice home, like the Proverbs 31 woman. She also wanted to please her husband, who had her on a terribly thin furniture budget, and be frugal. In the past, Sally had sometimes dealt with frustration through shopping therapy, sometime overspending. Sally’s inner values were now Approval and Frugality. And her dream was creating a beautiful home without much money. Her greatest fear, then was wasting money. Her noble cause was to be the noble wife.

INCITING INCIDENTSally was very competent. She was a creative girl – she watched HG TV, liked Design on a Dime, and had recently created her very own ottoman with an old table, some varnish, foam and old material. So, when she spotted a dresser on sale at a garage sale, and idea formed. She would take it home, strip it, and transform it into a thing of beauty that could house her table linens.

(THE STORY QUESTION – CAN SHE BE THE PROVERBS 31 WOMAN? THE STAKES – HER FRUGAL AND HG TV REPUTATION, HER FAMILY’S BEAUTIUFL HOME)

NOBLE QUEST (ignition)

She wrestled it into the car, feeling some victory. Returning to town before returning home, she purchased what she felt she needed for the project, thrilled with the three hours she had to work on the dresser before she had to take her children to the doctor for their yearly physicals. She arrived home, wrestled the dresser back out of the car, and began her project. Wanting her children to learn and grow from a new experience, she strongly suggested they assist her in



the project. Sally turned on the Christian radio station from her car, and begin to strip the dresser. DISAPPOINTMENT 1Soon fumes and children complaining of getting stain remover on their hands and clothing damped her enthusiasm, but she began to see progress, and the lovely sheen of wood. However, the stripping didn’t proceed as quickly as she’d hoped, and two hours later, she had to pause the process and clean herself and her children up for their doctor’s appointments. Getting into her car with plenty of time to spare, she congratulated herself on a pretty good job so far, but determined that she would finish the project alone when they returned home. Glancing at the darkening sky, she felt foreboding. But not to be deterred, and thankful that she’d not only made the doctor’s appointment months in advance, well in time for school physicals, but that she remembered to take the children, she attempted to start her car. Much to her dismay, the battery had died, with all the radio playing. (unexpected, yet plausible!)

Y (in the Road) 1 (WHAT IF – WILL HER HUSBAND BE ANGRY WITH HER IF SHE CALLS HIM? WILL SHE LOSE HIS RESPECT?)Frustration needled her as she returned inside to call her husband home from work to help jump start the car. Meanwhile, she phoned the less than happy doctor. Her husband was less than pleased with his interruption from work, and said little as he jumped the car. Sally and her children made it into the doctor a half-hour late, but were still able to finish their physicals. Sally returned home, sent the children inside and began to finish her project.

DISAPPOINTMENT 2Running out of materials, she decided she would only refinish the top and the fronts of the drawers, yet she’d revarnish the entire piece. Painting on the varnish, she was horrified when her husband pulled up from work. Time had slipped away, and she hadn’t put dinner on the table!

Y 2 (WHAT IF IT RAINS? What if she puts off his dinner?)Finishing her work quickly, she ran inside to pull together hamburgers.

DISAPPOINTMENT 3Over dinner, her husband expressed concern at the cost of the project. Sally felt further discouraged when she returned outside three hours later and discovered that varnish made excellent glue for dragonfly winds. (unexpected and plausible) Hundreds of dragonflies



lay forever pinned to the surface of her beloved dresser, their legs wiggling in a horrific dance.

Y 3 (What if she can’t get the dragonflies off? What if she has just WASTED all that money?) With that image of torture in her mind, she went to bed.

HELP! Only to hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. With rain pelting the windows, and her project outside, Sally realized that she could do no more. She had failed. She would have to spend more money to fix the disaster she had created. Her husband was angry. Her children’s clothes were ruined, and Sally’s frustration boiled over. Her values competed with each other – did she chose beauty and her mother’s approval, or frugality? Did she surrender the dream of a beautiful masterpiece, and would her greatest fears of wasting money pull her under? Did she turn to the credit card, and her old ways of dealing with problems? At that moment, she wondered, what did God want? Did she belong to group of women who started projects, and never completed them, those would always strive, but never be the proverbs 31 woman, capable of taking care of her home and earning the esteem of others? Or did God want her to belong to him, and in doing so, find her approval in Him?

OVERHAULThe question drove her to her knees. And in the darkness, she

heard God say, “Cast your burdens upon me.” (EPIPHANY)

PERFECT ENDING That morning, as she arose, she discovered that the rain had

washed away the dragonflies. And with leftover varnish remover, she was able to smooth out the drops. She began to see the project with a new eye, and instead of a pristine piece of furniture, the dressed looked quaintly distressed…not quite perfect, but beautiful it it’s own right. Sorta like Sally.

The dresser now sits in her living room, its rustic appearance fitting perfectly into her décor. And without fail, guests comment on its beauty and originality. Sally simply smiles at her dream come true.

Session Three



His hands are sweaty and that’s my toeSetting the Scene

2 Types of Scenes

Scene: Goal

Specific Measurable Proactive

Conflict External or Internal Visible Equal in weight to motivation

Disaster

Don’t achieve goal Don’t tie up conflict Questions to ask:

Sequels: Reaction

Reader Empathy Regroup

Dilemma Decision

Ownership Reasonable Risky

Setting:

How to discover setting: Research Observe People as Props



Mood

How to use Setting to Evoke Emotions: Specific Nouns Focus on Details 5 Senses!

Scenes:

Where to start?

What goes into a Scene?

POV Character Supporting Cast Dialogue

Dialogue: a. Remember Motivationsb. Reveal character/values c. Add new information d. Make it meaningful e. Reveal Emotion f. No Tom Swifts! g. Use Body Language!

Example 1: “I don’t care where you’re going. Stay out all night if you want to. In fact, I hope you have a great time.”

Example 2: “I don’t care where you’re going.” Janice barely looked up from her book as her sister stood by the door, question on her face. “Stay out all night if you want to.” She put a thumb over the paragraph to keep her place. Looked up and smiled, a real smile that filled her chest and made her sister smile back. “In fact, I hope you have a great time.”

Example 3: “I don’t care where you’re going.” Janice dumped the baked potatoes into the garbage. “Stay out all night if you want to.” She flashed him a smile as she threw the casserole pan into the sink, turned on the water full blast. She forced herself not to wince as it splashed her face. “In fact, I hope you



have a great time.” She grabbed the towel and very, very slowly, wiped her face, keeping the towel there until she heard the soft click of the door closing behind her husband.

h. Action behind wordsi. No Names!

(Dialogue Cont.)j. Little Internal Narrative/Introspection

Q: When to use internal dialogue?

A: Rarely. You’re in a character’s pov, so anything they think, if it doesn’t have quotation marks around it, is internal.

ie: I really don’t want her to leave, because if she does leave I’ll be alone and back where I started. Try... He didn’t want her to leave. Not really. Because then

where would he be? He refused to let himself feel the answer.

(This allows the reader to sympathize with him, in fact, the reader knows him better

than he knows himself at this point, which is fun for the reader.)

The same rule applies for He thought, or he wondered. You know who is thinking the thought, so it’s not necessary.

ie: Did he really want her to leave? No, he thought. Try… Did he really want her to leave? No.

(or even better…separate paragraph, for umph)

Did he really want her to leave? No.

Q. What about internal introspection?

A. I sometimes use it during an epiphany, when a character is remembering something he or she said, or something someone said to them, but even then, I keep the memory in italics, and keep the introspection in thoughts.

If you’re writing in third person, just write the character’s thoughts in third person.



ie: He always took a good thing and tore it to pieces, he thought about himself.

Try… He always took a good thing and tore it to pieces.

(And you can give it even more impact by converting interior monologue into a question.)ie: He wondered why he always took a good thing and tore it

to pieces.Try… Why did he always take a good thing and tear it to pieces?

~Dialogue HULA

H U L A

Putting your scene together…Let’s SHIMMY!

Scene or Sequel: wHo Interest Mood Movement You

Session 4: Twirl, throw and dipthe secrets of a best-selling story

Secrets to Story Telling: the Foxtrot



Secret #1: Feel their Pain!

o SUPER SECRET!

Secret #2 (Push them) Out of the Box!

Secret #3 X-cape!

Secret #4 Touch Deep (and ignore your reflexes)

Secret #5 Reason & Passion (the Voices of Secondary Characters)

Secret #6 Ogres are like Onions! (Layer your Characters)

Layers: 1. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

4. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

5. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Secret #7 (Weave in Spiritual) Threads

Editing

Three Phases: 1. Creating



2. Revision Phasea. Idiosyncrasies ____________________________________________b. Preferences ____________________________________________c. Externals _____________________________________________d. Nicknames _____________________________________________

3. Editing Phase

Do the SALSA Scenes that pack a punch Action Likeable characters

Surprise

Art

Mechanics Overview Are there 5 senses in each scene? Replace the Adverbs with strong verbs, the Adjectives with

defined Nouns. Cut all LY- ending adverbs if possible. Be ruthless with passive sentences – was, were are good

clues to a passive sentence. (although sometimes you need them for the purpose of letting the reader rest) Make them into active sentences.

Repeating sentences – if two sentences say the same thing, cut one.

Two adjectives together weaken both – use the strongest one. Read through dialogue – do you need tags? Do you have

enough action between words? Do you repeat names? Do you need to delete tags to make it faster? Is there enough white space between chunks of dialogue?

Do you have a list of overused words – do a word search and fix/delete those!

Strengthening a scene is discovering the emotional significance to the scene, the way it will affect the overall book, and milking it for the reader. Using setting and dialogue and body langue and disappointment, and WORDS to cut to the heart of a character.



Do you want to dance?

"Writing is not a profession, occupation or job; it is not a way of life: it is a comprehensive response to life."

Gregory McDonald

Hints to Managing the writing life:

1. Spend time with God everyday

2. Involve your Family

3. Keep a notebook handy

4. Write Consistently

5. Do your pre-work

6. Schedule “Craft” Days

7. Balance

Career Planning:

Q: There are so many kinds of books out there, and it seems each publisher wants a different thing – where to start?

Q: I have many types of books in my heart – what do I write?

Others?:



Appendix 1

6 Basic Plots

Like in dancing, with the various basics – the two-step, the waltz, the tango, everything is a variation off that. Through all the storytelling in the world, a handful of basic plots reoccur, so much so that every story can be boiled down to one of these seven, with variations, of course, on setting, characters and even endings. If you’ve already developed a plot, see where yours fits into this:

1. Overcoming the Monster – Jaws, Star Wars, James Bond – a hero on behalf of a greater good sets out to take on and slay some evil, deadly foe. We see this in movies like Erin Brokovich, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, even one of my favs – Ferris Bueller’s Day off is this – he’s overcoming the school principle.

2. Rags to Riches – Cinderella, My Fair Lady, Pretty Woman, -- She faces external obstacles of society or personal opposition, and the story ends with her finding the real “riches” within herself, and in the end, getting her dreams.

3. The Quest - Raiders of the Lost Ark, National Treasure, Saving Private Ryan – even the Amazing Race – it’s about the journey, and the friends they make along the journey, and how they band together to accomplish the task, win the treasure, or the war.

4. Voyage and Return – Wizard of Oz, Sweet Home Alabama – stories about people leaving the world they know, being changed by the experience, then taking those changes home and adapting them to their world.

5. Rebirth – Snow White, The Sound of Music, The Mighty Ducks, Gladiator – about a person forced to go into a “prison” of some kind, and they are finally redeemed either by an outside liberator, or a sort of personal enlightenment. A Tragedy is a take off of this without the happy ending – Macbeth, or A Beautiful Mind – shows what happens when we’re sucked into a spell of darkness, the power of the ego. They initially might enjoy a dreamlike success, but in the end the dream turns to nightmare and they are destroyed.

6. Change of Perspective – Devil Wears Prada, Return to Me, Chasing Liberty --- the stories about people who are forced to re-examine who they are, or are in the middle of a misunderstanding, and it takes a new perspective to come through it and see the light.



These basic plots connect with us in a way that holds our attention, and the BEST stories, the epics, sometimes contain elements of all six plots, ending as most of them do, with the hero and heroine brought together in perfect love and triumph of goal, the true happy ending.



**Bonus!**Susie May’s formula for excellent stories:

1. Explosive 2-3 chapter opening event (50 pages) 2. Multifaceted characters with humorous and endearing quirks,

inciting favorite foods, music, saying, hobbies, pet names and mannerisms.

3. Realistic plot with a make-it-worse them on all levels – physical, spiritual, emotional (and a happy ending)

4. Description that makes you feel the scene and sense the mood5. Back story in small pieces, culminating to the final scene.6. Details that make the story and characters realistic. 7. 30 pages action and suspense home run ending8. Spiritual message that touches the heart of believers and non-

believers.

Bibliographyand

books every writer should have:

Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell Getting into Character by Brandilyn CollinsWriting the Breakout Novel by Donald MaasStein on Writing by Sol SteinHow to Grow a Novel by Sol SteinTechniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight SwainSelf-Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne & King

AND: Be sure and stop by www.MyBookTherapy.com for writing tips and a community of fellow writers to help you discover the writer in you!


http://www.MyBookTherapy.com/

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