If you can write out these elements of your book or script, you will be in great shape to write A Book By the End of the Year. Which we are all going to do, right?
In my now very long experience working with writers, I’ve found that if I can get a writer to define these ten things about their book or script, they will need much less help with the rest of the book. Setting up these ten elements will almost always clarify a whole lot of what comes after Act I.
I’m not suggesting you don’t plan the rest of your book! But if you are a natural PANTSER - then getting these elements clear in your head means you can pants the rest of the book to your heart’s content but still have that road map keeping you from going too far astray.
And, if you are in the rewrite process, as I am right now - these elements are just as important to revisit. If anything’s not working in your book, you can be pretty sure that you’ve left one of them out, or underdeveloped it.
We meet the HERO/INE in their ORDINARY WORLD.
They have:
A GHOST or WOUND or CORE TRAUMA, something that is haunting them from the past
SPECIAL SKILLS or SUPERPOWERS
And an ANTAGONIST, or several, who will stand in the way of the protagonist getting what they want, and possibly wants exactly the same thing that they want.
A Big Thing (INCITING INCIDENT) happens: the protagonist gets a CALL TO ADVENTURE: a phone call, an invitation, a look from a stranger, that invites them to change their life.
That Inciting Incident crystallizes a specific DESIRE, something that they want very badly.
That impulse may be blocked by a
Threshold Guardian
And/or the ANTAGONIST
And/or the character has INTERNAL CONFLICT; they are reluctant to take the journey.
But they overcome whatever opposition,
Gather a TEAM of ALLIES and maybe the advice of a MENTOR
Formulate a specific PLAN to get what they want
And Cross the Threshold Into a SPECIAL WORLD that is very different from their Ordinary World.
The rest of this very thorough post is far too long and dense for an email - so when you’re ready you can click through to the full post on the Screenwriting Tricks for Authors Substack site.
It’s a lot, but at least now you know where it all is!
In case you’re just joining us, this is about the time of year that I start nudging people to commit to A Book By the End of the Year. Every year people actually do this - six months is a perfect chunk of time to write a really solid first draft.
And the way to do it - is to do it.
But if you would rather read this weekend, I hear you! I love this Bookstack monthly event: Five on 5, where people review and discuss their best reads of the month, with an optional theme - this month it’s Fractured Families.
So what have you been reading?
Aaand….it’s just two and a half weeks now to the launch of The Grapevine, Book 1 in our new road trip thriller series. Craig & I are busy plotting out our road trip book launch.
The Grapevine follows Lou Gomersall, a take-no-prisoners, middle-aged mom who takes the family RV out onto the highways and byways of California to search for her missing teenage daughter.
So we’re going to do a Lou: take an RV out on the road and trace her journey all over California.
We’ll drive to various locations from the book, camping out, shooting videos and taking photos and posting about the trip. We’ll also be hitting a bunch of bookstores along the way, doing signings, visiting with author and reader friends. If your city or town is along or near our route, come out and see us!
You can read more about our tour here, and subscribe to be entered in several contests to win books, audiobooks and gift cards.
There’s also a Goodreads giveaway going on - for US readers only - but both US and UK readers can enter multiple giveaways on this Abby Gomersall is MISSING page.
Hope to see you on the road!
—Alex
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