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| Is your conflict big enough? Know what readers hate? When somebody uses a stupid argument as the conflict in a story, and the solution was as simply as talking to the other person. Here’s an example: A woman thinks her partner cheated, but they were at the hospital with their sick mother. UGH…big letdown. All they had to do was ask, but instead, they brew inside and blow it up into nothing. It’s a cheap way to toss lukewarm tension in your story, but that’s not big enough to be story’s conflict. Unless this argument goes much, much deeper… -Maybe there’s a pattern of their partner disappearing. -And their trust has been broken in the past. -And they were just starting to trust again. -But instead it triggers a response due to the fact that their father left when she was a child. -So she runs away to avoid the rejection she thinks is happening. -She can’t ask, she can’t start that conversation because she’s terrified that she’s unlovable. Oh… yeah, see, now it makes more sense. Notice how we made this a three-dimensional situation, rather than a fight that really does nothing but toss a small firecracker in a scene that fizzles out, much like a sparkler on the 4th of July. We gave the character depth and built stronger, more believable conflict. It’s an internal wound she’s trying to recover from. Her external reaction is to strike out emotionally and run. But without something ‘more’ or ‘deeper’ your conflict will be a letdown. Here’s an important tip: Choose both an internal conflict (emotional wound they have to overcome) and an external conflict (with another source, whether a person, a goal, nature, etc…) The story will wrap around the external goal (what they think they WANT), and growth will come from solving the internal conflict (what they NEED). |
| What is K-lytics, and why should you care? K-lytics takes the guesswork out of what’s selling in given genres. It saves you time with fast, reliable data. This means…You can get busy writing, rather than spend your time trying to figure out what’s trending, what type of cover should I get, and so on…very cool. They offer a free report here. I also wrote an article about them, so you can learn more about the why and how they help you. Read it here. |
| Did you know…– Reading 20 minutes a day = approximately 2 million words a year!*- The most expensive book ever sold? Leonardo da Vinci’s diary. It sold for over 30 million dollars.**(source) |