Writer Unleashed

Keeping your story grounded in time balances the pace of your story and helps readers navigate your character’s journey. But how do you show the passage of time in your novel without jarring, or worse, boring your reader?

In this episode, you’ll get clear on the passage of time in your story so you can seamlessly guide the reader as your characters move through time and space.

Episode Website

📚 Get the character-led method to shape your story from start to finish, without the overwhelm, second-guessing, or endless rewriting. Enrollment closes Thursday, October 22, at 7 pm ET. → https://3actstory.me

Well, it's officially gift giving season, and your family and friends might be asking, “What do you want for Christmas?” 

Maybe you have a writer in your life and you want to get something special, and you’re wondering, What would support her? What would help her develop her craft?

Maybe you want to buy a gift for yourself. 

In this episode, I’m sharing 5 great gift ideas for writers. I have 5 categories with my personal recommendations for each.

You'll find links to all these gifts by clicking here and scrolling down to Links Mentioned In This Episode.   

Episode Website

📚 Get the character-led method to shape your story from start to finish, without the overwhelm, second-guessing, or endless rewriting. Enrollment closes Thursday, October 22, at 7 pm ET. → https://3actstory.me

Cause and effect is one of the major tenets of a cohesive plot so everything is knit together to shape your story.

Every cause leads to an effect.

It's often described as a chain reaction. One event leads to another, and another and another.

But when we think of cause and effect solely in what happens, we're missing a big piece of the story.  When taken at face value, cause and effect can lead to relatively shallow stories where things just happen to the characters. The characters feel more like pawns to move the plot forward.

 So what do we mean by cause, and what do we mean by effect? What's the cause? What's the effect?

In today's episode, we'll go deeper so that you can use cause and effect more effectively.

Episode Website

📚 Get the character-led method to shape your story from start to finish, without the overwhelm, second-guessing, or endless rewriting. Enrollment closes Thursday, October 22, at 7 pm ET. → https://3actstory.me

How do you build character into the structure of your story? What's the story beneath the plot?

Structure alone won't create the energy and  momentum a story thrives on. There's the story underneath driving the plot, and that's all about character.

In this episode, I'll reveal 3 secrets about your character that will help you build momentum right into the structure of your story.

Episode Website

📚 Get the character-led method to shape your story from start to finish, without the overwhelm, second-guessing, or endless rewriting. Enrollment closes Thursday, October 22, at 7 pm ET. → https://3actstory.me

Predictability may keep us feeling certain and safe in real life.

But it's fatal in story.
 
You never want the reader to see what's coming next. Once the reader can predict how the plot will unfold -  when there's nothing to wonder about, worry about, guess, or infer - there's no reason to read any further.

So you want to stay one step ahead of your reader, and in most cases, one step ahead of your characters. You know what's going to happen to your characters. You know what the outcome of the story will be. But your characters don't, and neither should your readers. 

So in this episode, you'll learn 4 ways to create and sustain uncertainty in your story and keep readers guessing.

Episode Website

📚 Get the character-led method to shape your story from start to finish, without the overwhelm, second-guessing, or endless rewriting. Enrollment closes Thursday, October 22, at 7 pm ET. → https://3actstory.me

How do you write beyond the stock, archetypical villain? ? How do you make him or her believable and intriguing?

How do you surprise us?

In this episode, I'm sharing 3 ways to make your villain multi-dimensional and complex, even if he or she's downright evil. You'll learn how to write a villain who fascinates.

Episode Website

📚 Get the character-led method to shape your story from start to finish, without the overwhelm, second-guessing, or endless rewriting. Enrollment closes Thursday, October 22, at 7 pm ET. → https://3actstory.me

If I were to ask you what is your story’s central idea, could you sum it up in a few sentences?

A big challenge many writers face is keeping their story focused on one single driving point, let alone articulate it.

When there’s no central focal point, readers get lost, confused, frustrated and bored. They stop reading.

In today’s episode, I’ll give you 5 quick questions to help you get clear and focused on the central idea driving your story. The focal point from which all your story's events revolve.

Episode Website

📚 Get the character-led method to shape your story from start to finish, without the overwhelm, second-guessing, or endless rewriting. Enrollment closes Thursday, October 22, at 7 pm ET. → https://3actstory.me

First-person often feels like the natural choice when writing a story. But first-person comes with its own set of challenges and limitations.

Sometimes first-person characters merely report the action without interesting contrasts between that character's version of the story's events, and what might also be true.

In this episode, I'm sharing 3 tips for writing in first-person. You'll learn how to write a character whose perspective creates gaps the reader is eager to fill, and how that character's arc plays out in the story.

Episode Website

📚 Get the character-led method to shape your story from start to finish, without the overwhelm, second-guessing, or endless rewriting. Enrollment closes Thursday, October 22, at 7 pm ET. → https://3actstory.me

When reading fiction or a memoir, a reader's brain actively simulates the experience of the characters. The reader becomes so absorbed in the story, they experience it as though it's true. They believe in it.

But before a reader can believe in your story, you have to believe in it first.

In this episode, I'm sharing 3 pathways to building belief in your story. So readers believe in it too.

Episode Website

📚 Get the character-led method to shape your story from start to finish, without the overwhelm, second-guessing, or endless rewriting. Enrollment closes Thursday, October 22, at 7 pm ET. → https://3actstory.me

What is an anti-hero and why do they fascinate us? How do they keep us invested in their plight scene after scene, even as they do immoral, criminal, or deplorable things?

In this episode, we'll talk about different anti-heroes from film and fiction, and I'll share 4 ways to write an anti-hero with complexity, magnetism, and unforgettable appeal.

Episode Website

📚 Get the character-led method to shape your story from start to finish, without the overwhelm, second-guessing, or endless rewriting. Enrollment closes Thursday, October 22, at 7 pm ET. → https://3actstory.me