From the archives

cj Sez: “As I have mentioned before—” That’s my sneaky way to introduce a subject I’ve written about before: the story structure authors need to follow to turn their ideas into intriguing novels. 

  

  Today seemed like a good time to resurrect that post since all you NaNoWriMo writers are racing to the end zone and will soon be gearing up for the editing on that raw, 50K-word manuscript. (Hip, Hip, Hurray for thirty days of writing discipline, 50K or no 50K.)

  Eons ago, when I was still working full time, I attended a screenwriting seminar led by author, lecturer, and story consultant Robert McKee. 

  The experience was invaluable in showing me how to create scenes that create a story. 

  Now I envision all of my story ideas as a play or movie, each chapter (act) having a beginning, middle, and an end that, hopefully, makes the reader want to turn the page. And that pattern doesn’t just apply to chapters. Ideally, it applies to scenes as well.

  Then in 2014, I happened across a post titled “Adapting screenplay to novels,” by author James Preston.

  Mr. Preston’s post explained how he reverse-engineered a screenplay into a story. The following is an excerpt from Mr. Preston's post. 

Kurt Vonnegut Graphic

     

“Remember, a story is about somebody who wants something. Something stops them from getting it. They try to get it and either succeed or fail. 

 This is called the Plot Point. It changes the  story, turns it into something unexpected, usually by changing the heroine’s goals.

 

  Since I am talking about adapting this structure to novel writing, I will use page numbers to show locations in the manuscript. Assume a 200-page manuscript.  We’ll see how it works as minutes.

  Let’s talk about the bones, the skeleton that is one way of building your story.

1. Hook. Something interesting happens that grabs the reader’s attention. This is the very beginning of the story and it is important!

2. Twist.The story goes off in a different direction. It’s not what you thought it would be. This can come any time before . . .

3. Plot Point One. About 20% in. For our mythical 200-page books, this is around page 40.

4. Midpoint. A watershed moment. You guessed it. Page 100.

5. Plot Point Two. Everything the heroine did is wrong. Page 160.

6. Climax. The heroine solves the problem, or doesn’t. This is less precise. Say around page 180.

7. Denouement. Loose ends are tied up. Everybody who wasn’t killed and eaten goes home.”

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  cj Sez: I personally liken all of the above to a stairway the character travels to get from the beginning to the end.

  How would my work-in-progress stack up against Mr. Preston’s skeleton, you ask? It needs editing, a lot of editing.

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Books do make great gifts . . . especially multi-story anthologies.

BUY NOW 

  Ebooks available for 99 cents at the time of this post

   Each of these anthologies is a two-fer—you get wonderful stories to read and part of the proceeds will go to benefit a worthwhile charity. (Note: I have a short story in each anthology.)

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  That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. 

cj

  No inflation here: THE DAWGSTAR and DEATH ON THE YAMPA, my fast-paced, exciting suspense/thriller ebooks, are now low-, low-priced at $2.99.

  P.S.  The Haunted Book Shop has signed paperback copies of my books in stock. TO ORDER, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us  

Happy reading!

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 cj Sez:  For all you word warriors: You still have almost half a month to reach your NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words on or before November 30 . . . Keep up the good work…you got this!

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  November 30? Now that I think about it, since I get paid monthly, that means I have only one more payday before Christmas. Aarrgh

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cj’s helpful hints for Holiday gifts that keep on giving …

Pix credit: Carrie Dalby

   Each of the anthologies pictured is a two-fer—you get wonderful stories to read and part of the proceeds will go to benefit a worthwhile charity.

  

  The overall anthology theme might be Christmas, but you’ll find stories with contemporary, historical, and paranormal plot lines. Ergo, the stories are enjoyable reads, all year round.  (Note: I have a short story in each anthology.)

  

FINALLY HOME brings you eight Christmas stories about our four-legged friends in need of rescue and the special people who provide loving homes. From funny to sad to romantic, there’s something in this anthology to tug at everyone’s heart strings. (My short is “Puppy Love”)

  

  

  

HOMETOWN HEROES brings you five Christmas romances that celebrate the everyday heroes in our hometowns. (My short is “Hobbes House Noel.”)

   

 

  

HOMEROOM HEROES brings you seven Christmas romances celebrating our teachers and the compassion and dedication they bring to their classrooms every day. (My short is “The Substitute.”)

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Just a thought: 

   Stephen King has sold more than 350 million books, many of which have been adapted into feature films, miniseries, television series, and comic books. And he has strategies for creating a story that people love to read. One such strategy in his writing is to tell the truth.

  “Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want. Anything at all... as long as you tell the truth... Write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your own personal knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex, and work...What you know makes you unique in some other way. Be brave.”

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  That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for your health and safety.

cj

  No inflation here: THE DAWGSTAR and DEATH ON THE YAMPA, my fast-paced, exciting suspense/thriller ebooks, are now low-, low-priced at $2.99.

P.S.  The Haunted Book Shop has signed paperback copies of my books in stock. TO ORDER, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us  

Happy reading!

➜ Follow me on . . .           

➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page

➜ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

➜ BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson

➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

A short story teaser . . .

cj Sez: The closer it gets to the first Christmas without my son, Mark, the harder it is for me to concentrate on creating new words for this blog. So, in the holiday spirit of “books make great gifts and anthologies an even better option,” here’s an excerpt from my short story, “Ida, Fate, and Mister Leon,” in the Mobile Writers Guild new anthology STORMY PIECES.

STORMY PIECES Buy Now

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   When the downpour began to walk up the road in thick sheets, I knew I needed to stop. I pulled in under the county road overpass even if it wasn’t a safe place to be since wind tends to get surly when it rushes through a narrow slot. Thinking that Deena would be terrified if I’m too late, I was thumbing down to re-dial when the passenger door jerked open. A man dressed in an oversized tee shirt and baggy cut-off chinos slid in beside me and pushed long, black dreadlocks away from his face.

   I thought I’d locked that door. “Where’d you come from?”

   “My ride dropped me off down the road. I’ll just sit here ‘til the storm passes.”

   “Yeah, sure,” I said.

   The wind turned horizontal and yowled louder. Branches banged off the sheet metal. The truck bucked and pitched, and my heart thudded into my throat when the heavy rear-end wobbled as though it might lift, tow hook and all. There came a few minutes of peculiar quiet, and then everything started all over again. I exchanged big-eyed glances with my passenger. When Mother Nature’s freight train barreled into the distance, the pine grove across the road was a mess of kindling wood, soaking up a pouring rain.

   “Wow, that was something, wasn’t it?” I said. It’d been my experience that when people survive a common threat, they tend to become something akin to buddies, if only temporarily. He just eyed me. “I’m Roberta Joanna Thibideau. People call me Bobby Jo or BJ.”

   “You the BJ painted on the door?”

   “Yep,” I said, trying to sound humble.

   “I never met a woman who owned a gas station before.”

   “Now you have,” I said and stuck out my hand. “What’s your name?”

   “Leon.” 

   “Nice to meet you, Mister Leon.”  I dropped my hand when he kept his buried under his shirt.  

   “Nice to meet you, too,” he said as he pulled out a handgun and pointed the muzzle at me, head high. 

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Promo courtesy of Carrie Dalby Author

Promo courtesy of http://www.poisedpenpro.com/

Christmas Charity Anthologies Buy Now  

   And when you’ve finished reading an anthology, we all would sure appreciate it if you’d take a few moments to leave a brief review. Please and thank you!

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cj Sez: That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

P.S. TO ORDER a book by any author on-line and support an indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us

   If you’d like me to autograph or personalize one of my stories for you, be sure to tell them, and I’ll run by the shop.

➜ Follow me . . .     

➜ on Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page

➜ on Facebook:  cjpettersonAuthor on Facebook

➜ on BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson

➜ on Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

 

Typing "the end" doesn't mean the manuscript is finished

 cj Sez: Readers, did you ever open a book, read a few chapters (or even a few lines), and then put it down because of errata, i.e.; those typo, grammar, and misspelling gremlins that drive a pedantic like me crazy? One or two gremlins will make me shake my head. If a lot of them, I’ll close the book.

   I used to find that indie books were the worst. They tended to be poorly edited if not poorly written. Now, I’m finding repetitive errors in books by established authors and big publishing houses who should know better. Perhaps it comes down to the time it takes to do a detailed copy edit vs. getting the book to the market.

    The problem with self-published books is that they are so often done on a shoestring (cost-wise) that the author cannot afford to pay for a copy editor. Unfortunately, I’ve come across some authors who simply don’t want to go through the process.

   Speaking from experience, self-edits and beta readers do not, will not, and cannot catch everything that a professional copy editor will. When I was gainfully employed, one of my report/column-writing rules was to get as many people as possible to read the document . . . the more eyes on it the better the end product. That wasn’t easy to do when I was on a deadline of minutes, and my work wasn’t on the top of a co-worker’s list. But the effort was so worth it.

   The same thing is true about an author’s manuscript. I want my manuscript to be the best I can make it. I read the document on the computer screen, and then I print a few pages. Because the text looks different when printed, I have a better chance to find the missing comma, period, or quotation mark that was missed on numerous computer-screen read-throughs. (Chances are there is at least one gremlin in this post.) 

  Sometimes, I make a copy of the printed page and read that. Copying changes the size of the font once again, and I will often find something else to correct. One of the best ways to find those gremlins and discover plot or dialogue problems is to read the manuscript out loud. It’s amazing how much I find.

   Moral of the story: When you’ve come to “The End,” rest assured your manuscript is not finished. It’s probably months away from being ready for publication. YOur MS needs to rest a while before you give it another read-through, and then it needs professional eyes. It’s a personal and financial consideration for each author, but please consider hiring a copy editor if you can afford it. 

   Caveat: Expect that if your manuscript is accepted by a publisher, their punctuation rules may differ from your copy editor’s input, and there could be more changes to be made…be flexible.

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   Books make great gifts, and anthologies may be an even better option...a variety of authors and stories in one book...the gift that keeps on giving.

Promo courtesy of http://www.poisedpenpro.com/

Promo courtesy of Carrie Dalby Author

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cj Sez: That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

§§

P.S. TO ORDER a book by any author on-line and support an indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us

   If you’d like me to autograph or personalize one of my stories for you, be sure to tell them, and I’ll run by the shop.

➜ Follow me . . .     

➜ on Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page

➜ on Facebook:  cjpettersonAuthor on Facebook

➜ on BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson

➜ on Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6