Three Rules for Writing a Novel: A Guide to Story Development

No one is BORN a writer (just as no one is BORN a lawyer). We all have to learn the SAME skills. But no matter where you’re starting…

Even if you have NO story ideas, NO characters, and NO experience, you can finish a complete working plot outline in just SEVEN tiny lessons.

If you have ever labored to come up with a GOOD way to start a story…If you have ever stumbled, lost and frustrated, through the MIDDLE of your book…If you have ever wondered,”How do I find an idea worth writing?“…

Stop Struggling. Help Is Here.

Start with Section One, where I’ll give you each step to creating a quick, professional plot outline. I’ll do a demonstration, and then, because writers write---they don’t just read about writing---you’ll do the exercise in which you’ll take what I’ve demonstrated and use it to start building your working plot outline.

Step by step, you will:

• Figure out your character.
  
  You’ll decide on the few points about him or her that really matter—but enough to give you a place to start your story, and not so much that you get bogged down in background and never get to your writing.
   
• Decide on your central idea.
  
  You’ll figure out what actually counts in your story, so you avoid getting bogged down writing details that don’t.
   
•  Write your opener.
  
  You’ll learn how to give yourself and your readers a GREAT first look at your character doing something fascinating.
   
• Create your ending.
  
  You’ll discover one method of planning out a great conclusion.
   
• And rough in your middle…
  
  You know…all those pages that used to bog you down when you couldn’t figure out what happened next?
  
  Not anymore.

But That’s Just Section One.

My Professional Plot Outline Mini-Course also includes seven sequential plot-and-conflict lessons—to make sure you create a story that is tight, fascinating, compelling…

…And as fun for you to write as it will be for your readers to read.


Lesson One: What Is NOT A Plot

Discover a secret about plots that even most professionals don’t know—a secret that has led way too many writers, including countless full-time novelists, in circles trying to figure out why their story is going wrong.

Lesson Two: Mix ‘N’ Match Conflict

Even if you have no idea what you want to write about, you can build a solid foundation for a good story in just minutes.

Lesson Three: Questions And Answers

Once you have conflict under control, you’ll find out one technique for giving your story and characters depth, and makig your story unbelievably richer and more interesting.

Lesson Four: Candy Bar Scenes

You’ll discover and apply one critical technique for keeping your story flowing and keeping your interest high from beginning, through treacherous story middle, to gripping ending.

Lesson Five: Ordering Scenes For Conflict

Learn how to experiment with structure to discover how you can best present your story to your reader.

Lesson Six: Filling In The Blanks

Now you’ll hunt down empty spaces between your candy bar scenes, and fill them with story that MATTERS—not with pointless wandering, characters who sit around thinking, or dialogues that go nowhere.

Lesson Seven: Plotting As You Go

Stories change as you write them. In your final week of clazz, you’ll learn how to adapt your plot outline to bend with the changes—without breaking your story.

Want to create a workable plot outline for your story, and have fun doing it?

YOU CAN DO THIS.

Create Complex Characters

How do you create a main character readers won't forget? How do you write a book in multiple-third-person point of view without confusing your readers (or yourself)? How do you plant essential information about a character's past into a story?

Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by award-winning author Nancy Kress answers all of these questions and more!

• Choose and execute the best point of view for your story
• Create three-dimensional and believable characters
• Develop your characters' emotions
• Create realistic love, fight, and death scenes
• Use frustration to motivate your characters and drive your story

With dozens of excerpts from some of today's most popular writers, Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint provides you with the techniques you need to create characters and stories sure to linger in the hearts and minds of agents, editors, and readers long after they've finished your book.

Have you been told there's a little too much telling in your novel? Want to remedy it? Then this is the book for you!

In Show & Tell in a Nutshell: Demonstrated Transitions from Telling to Showing you will find sixteen real scenes depicting a variety of situations, emotions, and characteristics which clearly demonstrate how to turn telling into showing. A few short writing prompts are also provided.

Not only is this pocket guide an excellent learning tool for aspiring writers, but it is a  user-friendly and simple solution to honing your craft no matter how broad your writing experience. With the convenient hyper-linked Contents Page, you can toggle backward and forward from different scenes with ease. Use your e-reader's highlighting and note-taking tools to keep notes as you read, and/or record your story ideas, anywhere, anytime.

The author, Jessica Bell, also welcomes questions via email, concerning the content of this book, or about showing vs. telling in general, at showandtellinanutshell@gmail.com