Learning how to publish an ebook isn't as painful as it sounds. With kindle direct publishing, Amazon publishing, and other forms of self-publishing at your disposal, it can even be easy - with our help.
Here are 10 tips for hosting a life-giving book launch party.
Learn from these examples of scene trackers for writers how to track the 7 essential elements of plot in the scenes from your novel & improve your writing
As a Kindle book author, you know that your primary job once the book is finished is marketing. Some people love the marketing aspect of being an author, but an equal number dread it. While you may understand intellectually that marketing is necessary, fun does not fit into your definition of ...
This article first began as a September 21, 2007 Romantic Inks writer blog post. As you may or may not know, I own the world’s most extensive variety of sticky notes. They help me story board! Whic…
I feel like Haven is one of those shows that I’m the only person who watched it. But I still find it fairly interesting and it definitely has some valuable ...
I’m reprising a 4-part series from 2012 on The Heroine’s Journey because it’s as relevant today as it was over 6 years ago. In my current 1-week online Core I: Plot class, the second lecture focuses…
Can a character's arc can be a subplot? Consider three different instances of character arcs that might figure better in a subplot than the main plot.
NYT bestseller Gail Carriger's non-fiction book: The Heroine's Journey. Use ancient story structure to understand and crack genre fiction.
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Outline for the first arc of my current WIP Until quite recently, I'd considered myself a loud and proud pantser. I had tried outlining in detail once before, it killed my muse, and I declared that I'd never do it again. Then I started getting writer's block more often than not, and would stare at the page and not know what comes next. I mixed and matched outlining methods and ways to structure story to find the one that suited me that best. Right now, I've come up with the spreadsheet method that's shown on the right, but I promise it isn't as terrifying as it looks. This is by no means the best or only way to outline, but it's my way. Quick things to note: I sort of use the three arc structure. I use the scene/sequel structure (if you don't know what that is, click here and here). My current manuscript is told from a singular first person POV (I'll suggest alternatives for people working with dual/multiple POV further down) I'll be using Pride and Prejudice examples taken from K.M. Weiland's Structuring Your Novel to illustrate everything as I learnt a lot from it. Row = Horizontal, Column = Vertical This post is a little long, so I'll put it underneath a cut. Okay! So let's get started. I open up Excel and start to fill in the top row. If I was outlining Pride and Prejudice, it would look something like this: From left to right, my columns are set as such: Arc - I use this column to track where my Key Points are (more on those later) ✓ - I place a tick there when I finish writing that scene Summary (Protagonist POV) - 1-2 sentence summary of the scene, Place - Where the scene happens Time - When the scene happens One column each for significant supporting characters - A line about what they're doing either behind the scenes (if important) or in the scene. If they're not in the scene, whether doing something important behind the scenes or not, I block it out with grey Scene/Sequel - See linked posts above Goal/Reaction - See linked posts above Conflict/Dilemma - See linked posts above Disaster/Decision - See linked posts above Short-term goal - Not the scene goal, but a very minor goal that takes more than one scene to complete (e.g. to steal enough money to pay the dressmaker) Long-term goal - Big Picture things that are needed to achieve the end goal (e.g. to disguise herself as a noblewoman to enter the palace) Overarching goal - The end goal, what the protagonist wants (e.g. to kill the royal family) While the sheet is still empty (apart from the column labels), I copy it twice so I have three sheets which are exactly the same. I name them Arc One, Arc Two and Arc Three. You could keep it all in one spreadsheet, but because I plot out every scene, it tends to get very long and I'd rather click between tabs than keep scrolling. These are columns are completely flexible, I have some characters don't get their own columns until arc two, and some characters who were significant enough to get their own column in arcs one and two, but ends up dying during the third plot point and no longer needs a column. If you don't think it's important to keep track of the location of the scene, you don't need a location column. If the weather is important, add a weather column. One scene in one row. I fill in all the columns, and if major parts that make up the scene/sequel are . missing, I know that I'll have to seriously rethink about whether or not I need that scene. Potential filler scene avoided before it even began. I can move the scenes around, insert new rows if I need a scene to go in-between, and easily get rid of scenes that I no longer want. Then I add another sheet called "Key Points." Pride and Prejudice would have one that looked something like this: In column A, I write down in each row: Hook Inciting Incident Key Event First Plot Point First Pinch Point Midpoint Second Pinch Point Third Plot Point Climax If you have no idea what any (or some) of these points here, click here. In column B, I write down the scene(s) involved involved in that plot structure point. I edit and add to this as I outline-- usually it goes from a vague idea (e.g. Elizabeth rejects Mr Darcy), to an more concrete idea (e.g. Elizabeth rejects Mr Darcy in the rain after he acts like an asshole and insults her entire family before declaring his love). This really helps me keep track of where the story is going. I usually set up empty spreadsheets for all of my significant characters, and everything and anything that suddenly comes to me goes there. Pictures, dialogue, "what-ifs," all the ideas I get during outlining that I'm not quite sure where to put. Same goes for a worldbuilding and locations. Quick Tips: Freeze the top row. Colour is your friend. Colour code everything. Wrapping the text will save you. If something no longer works, change it. If you suddenly feel the need to revamp everything, click Save As and save it as a new file before going on a deleting spree. If you have more than one POV character then one way of adapting it would be to repeat the scene summary column for as many POV characters you have, and add a POV column. Indicate which POV is being used (through colour or column) and keep notes about what your other POV character is doing during that time in their columns. Hopefully, all of this made sense and didn't confuse anyone too much. If you have any questions or want me to expand on something, feel free to leave a comment!
An examination of the five act structure in Shakespeare's plays. As long ago as 350 BC Aristotle famously wrote that a play must have a beginning, a middle, and an end, which is the beginning of structure...
Okay, I promised some blogs about my plotboard. Now, I can’t claim to have invented the idea – far from it – but I’ve been tweaking my own ...
How I self-published my first book and got over 10,000 downloads, even though I had virtually ZERO audience. It all came down to book launch strategy!
I feel like Haven is one of those shows that I’m the only person who watched it. But I still find it fairly interesting and it definitely has some valuable ...
Gavin and Peter Watts Paskale outline the core principles of telling powerful stories in every presentation you make. It’s one of our ‘Must-Reads for Every Presentation Professional‘ that we think should be required reading for every presentation designer, speaker and coach if they want to shine in this industry. Gavin McMahon is a senior partner and co-founder […]
Cards and drafts I thought I’d mention a bit about how I use the cards and Post-Its on my plotboard before I get into detail about the different sections of the board. First draft The keyword for this stage is: messy. This is the ideas stage, after all. Flashes of inspiration. Nothing neat about those. In this stage I tend to scribble ideas down on any bit of paper I can find and pin them to the board where I think they’ll be most relevant. Don’t care about what colour or what shape the ideas are written on, as long as they go on the board. Some of them may be thrown away later and some of them may prove to be some kick-butt ideas to take my story forward. No way to know which until I start to write, so everything stays until I’ve finished the first draft. If I don’t use an idea, I keep the bit of paper anyway. For the last book that came in very handy, because ideas that I’d discarded in the first draft helped me revise the book after my editor had seen it and asked for changes. As I write, I use half an index card (cut vertically) and put the bare plot point of the element on the top of the card. For example, some card headings from the previous book were: “Zoe and Damien dance” or “Zoe and Damien reach a truce” or “Zoe goes back home”. At the moment I’m using white cards. I was using yellow, but I discovered I kept running out of yellow index cards and was drowning in the other colours from the multi-coloured packs you can buy. At least I can get white index cards easily in one pack on their own. As I complete a scene, I add an index card to the board. For the previous book I also stuck a small Post-It to the card indicating the goal of the POV character for that scene. Always good to remind yourself what your characters want (and what’s thwarting their progress). In this part of the process, I find myself returning to my board constantly to remind myself of what good ideas I’ve forgotten and to remind myself of where I want to go. It can be hard to hold all of that information in your head. Sometimes, when I’m focussed on a particular part of the story, I forget all about the flashes of inspiration I’ve had about a different sections. That’s where my board comes in handy. It holds all that information for me until I’m ready for it. The plotboard is also useful to remind myself of things I need to go back and change as I get further on in the writing process. I added notes while writing my previous book to change the style of the bride’s wedding ring in the opening scenes and to set up my hero as being a little more stiff and structured. Subsequent drafts/revisions Quite often, after you’ve finished a book, you’re far too close to it to see where the problems lie. I often return to my plotboard, strip it bare of everything but the white cards and look at the story in a more tidy, analytical way. First draft was where I let my creative right brain play. Revisions and editing are much more about the logical left brain. Last time round (after reading Dara Mark’s fabulous book Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc) I decided to look at my book in three threads: What Dara calls the A story – on other words the plot. It’s very easy in a character-led book to slip into classifying internal decisions as plot, but I try and save that for the other threads. The A story is all about the physical action: what are the characters doing? What are the working towards? Where are they going? I used yellow Post-Its. For some reason yellow means plot to me. Dunno why. Sometimes, if the scene heading on the top of the card was enough description on its own, I highlighted that text yellow and didn't bother with the Post-It. Then we have the B story: the character arc. In a romance, you normally have two character arcs or journeys – one for the hero and one for the heroine. I chose green from my pack of Post-Its for this (because green makes me think of growth). On these stickers I noted my characters’ internal journeys – what they started out like, what their character flaws and fears were, what they need to learn. Also, when they had moments of breakthrough and changed, how they faced challenges and either resorted on their armour to keep themselves safe or did something new and brave. At the end of the board it's all about making sure those flaws and fears you mentioned at the beginning have been dealt with. I read through each chapter, saw what I’d already brought out and then I crystalised it into a sentence or two on a Post-It and stuck it on the index card. Quite often it helped me define the character’s growth at that point and I could start to see if I’d brought out the right things or if there was something missing. Then there’s the C story. Dara says there’s always a C story. It’s the relationship that changes the protagonist. Quite often it's through interaction with another person or thing that the protagonist discovers the error of their ways. In a romance, this will be the developing love story. I noted down on pink Post-Its (the only colour I had left - I’m really not anal about what colour goes where) how the hero and heroine were feeling about each other, what the romantic conflict was, and where the milestones were e.g first kiss, first meeting, declarations of love. Again, it helped me check each scene was moving the relationship on in a believable and emotionally logical manner. The odd thing is about this part of the process that I hardly ever look back to see what I’ve put on the board in great detail. Unlike the first draft, when I need reminders, the second draft (or whatever) seems to be much more about the process of plotboarding. As I write it all down it somehow solidifies the story in my head, keeps the threads woven tight together so I can see where things need changing or developing as I work. More detail on each section of the board soon...
Gavin and Peter Watts Paskale outline the core principles of telling powerful stories in every presentation you make. It’s one of our ‘Must-Reads for Every Presentation Professional‘ that we think should be required reading for every presentation designer, speaker and coach if they want to shine in this industry. Gavin McMahon is a senior partner and co-founder […]
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Do you have a book launch plan for your book? Is your launch team ready to help? We'll teach you how to launch a book like a pro and sell more books.
Three simple strategies that will help launch your amazing book into the world…
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Plan a Successful Book Launch – Book Release Template // Planning to publish a book this year? If you’ve ever wanted guidance on how to plan a book release, then The Book Launch Planner will be your new favorite tool! This planner was designed for authors, by authors to help you plan your book release. …
Learn how to do a book launch campaign. Get book launch ideas for hosting a successful book launch event. Create buzz around your book launch party.
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Begin Self-Publishing Episode 43 : How NOT to Launch a Book
Introducing Kelly Notaras' personal guide to having a successful book launch. Consider this post a one-stop-shop for launching your book!
