Writers in the Storm

by Sarah (Sally) Hamer

Most writers have heard of the Hero’s Journey; a basic structure of how stories have been told from the beginning of storytelling. We always start with a protagonist, whether a hero or a heroine, who has some sort of a quest, and has to learn lessons, gain allies, create enemies, and fight a huge battle at the end.

There are dozens of different folks who teach this process, from Joseph Campbell, who did much of the original research on storytelling in the 1950s, to Christopher Vogler, who was instrumental in  Hollywood’s use of it in the 1990s, to Blake Synder, who popularized it for novel writers.

Each of them (and many more) utilize a different number of stops on the journey, from twelve to one-hundred-twenty, all depending on how deep a writer wants to go.

But what I’ve discovered is that even the best of writers can have glazed eyes by the time we try to use all the information these systems entail.

What if we can make the Hero’s Journey easier?

How about three steps? We really can simplify it by reducing the journey to its core elements: the Inciting Incident, the Reversal, and the Black Moment.

Different people call these three steps different things but they all are found in the story in basically the same three places, which break down into points on a triangle.

Triangles are the strongest structural element in buildings, so why not use them to build our stories?

Go look at any old bridge. Or an old screen doors. Or even the legs on some tables and chairs. Many of them use the shape of a triangle because it provides a solid, stable base. Some of those bridges have been standing for thousands of years.

The strength is in the distribution of weight. We do the same in our books. We need a huge hook at the beginning (the Inciting Incident), a strong, heart-wrenching ah-ha moment in the middle (the Reversal), and a satisfying ending (the Black Moment) in the stories to create great ones.

And, even if you don’t use any of the other nine or one-hundred-seventeen stops, if you can make these three powerful and solid, you have the basis of an amazing story.

The Triangle of Writing Structure

So, let’s break them down in a simple and easy way. (There are thousands of articles and blogs on the internet if you want more information.)

The Inciting Incident is also the “exciting!” incident.

It’s the place where the protagonist (in a character-driven story) figures out there is something missing. Most protagonist goals are centered around something – to find the treasure, to protect the family, to get the job, to have the relationship. So first, we have to decide what the protagonist wants badly enough to do the work. The Inciting Incident is where that realization hits. It changes the direction of the entire story and, ultimately, is determined by the journey itself. (The Inciting Incident is usually about 1/8 of the way into the story – in a 100-page story, it falls around page 12.)

The Reversal is usually almost dead center (page 50 in a 100-page book).

Prior to the Reversal, the protagonist is searching for the treasure, but everything is going wrong. At the Reversal, the protagonist realizes that, without an inner change of attitude, the treasure will never be found. It’s a place of deep thinking and immense soul-searching. But once that understanding has been made, the character now has the ability to go forward with new knowledge.

The Black Moment

Finally, the Black Moment is the place where the conflict escalates, the sacrifice is made, the battle is won. It usually falls in the last 1/8^th of the story, in between page 80 and 90. It can be short – one scene and over – or long, across a dozen scenes. Regardless, it is where the protagonist takes the new knowledge and applies it to the situation. And the original goal is re-evaluated. Was the “treasure” what the protagonist really wanted? Or was it simply a will-of-the-wisp dream and the real desire now is within grasp?

Some Movie Examples

I’m going to show this in a couple of different movies, one old and one new, with the hope that the reader has seen or at least heard of one of them. I also am willing to help with any movie in the comments.

The Wizard of Oz

In The Wizard of OZ, which most have at least heard of, Dorothy’s goal is to save Toto. (No, it’s not “to go home” until later in the story.) So, her Inciting Incident is when Toto is going to be “put down” by the neighborhood witch because Toto snapped at her. Dorothy will do anything to save Toto and runs away. But she doesn’t have the knowledge, experience, or wisdom to save either Toto or herself.

Dorothy is transported to Oz via tornado and accidently kills a witch.

She’s told that all she has to do is “follow the yellow brick road” because the Wizard will send her home. But that’s not what happens. Even after she makes the long, perilous journey, the Wizard demands that she “pay” for his help by bringing him the Wicked Witch’s broom.

Here, in the Reversal (right in the middle of the story), Dorothy realizes that she can’t depend on someone else for her safety; she’ll have to figure it out on her own. (This particular reversal is not the strongest example but more people know the story.)

After more problems, she kills the Wicked Witch by saving Scarecrow and marches back into the Wizard’s great hall to demand her payment – a much different attitude than the last time she was there. The Wizard offers to take her home in his balloon.

Black Moment? Toto jumps out of the basket and chases a cat. This leaves Dorothy in a quandary. She’s done what she had to, she’s learned all her lessons, and she still may not get home.

But has she indeed learned everything she’s supposed to? Which will she choose? To stay in Oz with Toto or to go home without him?

Since her first and most important goal was to save Toto, and she now (because of new understanding of herself and her role in life from the Reversal) has the courage to take charge of her own life, she stays with Toto and is rewarded by the knowledge within to go home.

Do you see how the three points of the triangle all fit together perfectly? Each is directly and intimately connected to the other. Without one, the other two collapse.

Dune, Part 2

The “new” movie is based on an old book and is a part 2 of a series, but it also works well in the triangle.

Paul starts the second movie with revenge in his heart. His Inciting Incident is a series of things – Paul’s father is murdered in the first movie, he and his mother have to escape, leaving everything they had behind.

The Fremen rescue them but Paul has to fight Jamis to prove himself, and he has to admit that he is not the Lisan al-Gaib and ask for training to survive in the desert. Every one of these things could be called the Inciting Incident, so you can pick the one you want, but they all are wrapped around his goal of avenging his father.

His Reversal comes in about the middle when he is basically forced to travel to the South deserts, even though he knows it’s not only dangerous for him but for the woman he loves and his mother. He’s transformed by the Water of Life and then has to make earth-shattering and terrifying decisions that will change his entire world.

The Black Moment is when he knows, even as he’s telling Chani that he’ll “love her as long as he breathes,” that he’ll betray her by marrying the Emperor’s daughter.

This one also hangs together beautifully – Paul never wavers from his desire to avenge his father and every decision, even when he has access to the memories of all the Reverend Mothers of the past, is directed towards killing the perpetrators of the murders and also keeping his family alive.

Final Thought

This is VERY simplified. Of course, there are all of those steps enumerated in the Hero’s Journey that I’ve left out but, at the point of developing or editing the book, they aren’t as important as these three.

I hope you consider the Triangle when you write your next book. Having that journey mapped out, at any level, can help immensely!

Do you have any questions or observations? Want or need any more clarification? Please weigh in and we’ll chat about it more in the comments!

About Sally

Sarah (Sally) Hamer, B.S., MLA, is a lover of books, a teacher of writers, and a believer in a good story. Most of all, she is eternally fascinated by people and how they 'tick'. She’s passionate about helping people tell their own stories, whether through fiction or through memoir. Writing in many genres - mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance, medieval history, non-fiction – she has won awards at both local and national levels, including two Golden Heart finals.

A teacher of memoir, beginning and advanced creative fiction writing, and screenwriting at Louisiana State University in Shreveport for over twenty years, she also teaches online for Margie Lawson at www.margielawson.com and hosts symposiums at www.mindpotential.org. Find her at info@mindpotential.org.

Photo credits:

• Top photo built in Canva by Writers in the Storm
• All others from Sarah Sally Hamer

by Penny Sansevieri

We hear a lot about AI and the issues content creators are facing with duplicate content issues, AI generated books, and now with Amazon’s Virtual Voice – the space is filling up quickly. But, while copyright issues are concerning, AI can be a helpful tool if used to help enhance what you’re already doing. 

Let’s dig into six ways that sites like ChatGPT can help you increase your promotional efforts! 

Helping to Craft Better Book Descriptions

Writing book descriptions is tough, especially if you’re going it alone. One thing I love to do is pop a somewhat lackluster book description in ChatGPT and ask for a rewrite, because I’m always surprised what the system does. Often, it sparks new ideas and while I generally don’t recommend using the rewrite verbatim, with a few solid edits you can absolutely make it your own. In some cases, it may even inspire a complete rewrite. ChatGPT can sort of be a second brain, if you use it correctly. 

Social Media Content Creation

Sometimes coming up with new social media content is hard – this is where an AI can help to spark some new ideas, or new direction. In some cases the system may also be able to recommend hashtags, but you’ll want to always check these to make sure they’re truly viable options. But dropping a request into an AI and asking it to create a series of engaging social media posts is a fun way to brainstorm some new ideas, for sure! 

You’ll want to kick this off by describing your book (and upcoming launch if your book isn’t out yet) and ask it to generate a series of social media posts, including countdowns, quotes, and interesting trivia related to the book.

Social Media Posting Calendar and Ideas

Sometimes coming up with a social media posting plan is hard, and I absolutely get it. Put your objectives into the AI, let the system know if this is a book that’s already live or whether you’re planning a book launch. Be sure to describe your book and your readership and ask the system to generate 30 days (or more) of posting ideas along with pacing of these posts!

Optimizing Book Titles and Subtitles

While I’m a huge fan of digging into the Amazon algorithm to help determine subtitles, and even book titles (mostly for non-fiction) – it’s also fun to experiment with this in AI, too. And especially if you’re struggling to come up with a book title. Punch in a description, or plot into an AI and see what it comes up with. The fun part about title and subtitle generation is that you can keep asking for more ideas. Start by asking for five and then go from there. But be sure to check these recommendations against the Amazon system to not only check it for the optimization value, but to make sure that you aren’t duplicating a title! 

Creating Better/Unique Images for Their Book Covers

Cover design is important and I’m a huge fan of using a book cover designer, but sometimes it’s hard to come up with ideas and, ideally, you want to give your book cover person as much direction as you can. One thing I suggest is finding other/similar books on Amazon that you can share with your designer in terms of covers you like. But if you’re a fiction author this can be tricky just in terms of cover models. We’ve seen so many covers with the same model, and this is particularly true in romance. But with sites like Leonardo.AI, you can ask the AI to create a model for you – I’ve had a few of my authors do this and it’s pretty amazing what the AI can generate in terms of characters for the covers. 

Get Help for your Elevator Pitches 

This is something that authors so often struggle with, but if you have a really solid book description an AI tool may be able to help you with crafting an elevator pitch. Just plug in your book description and ask the AI to reduce it to a two-sentence blurb and see what it produces. Again you can ask it to keep churning these out till you have something you feel you can work with, and in the majority of cases you probably won’t want to use these verbatim, but they can certainly help give you a solid direction.

Use AI Responsibly

AI can be a fun tool if it’s used responsibly. Using a tool like ChatGPT to help inspire new ideas, or perhaps guide you to a better path with your book description, social media content, or even help you with some creative cover ideas!

One thing to be careful of though is that ChatGPT doesn’t weigh heavily on one side or the other so you’ll definitely want to edit through any suggestions that the AI gives you and make them yours, give them your “voice” – your readers and fans will appreciate it! 

About Penny

Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a bestselling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Self-Publishing for NYU. She was named one of the top influencers of 2019 by New York Metropolitan Magazine.

Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most innovative Amazon visibility campaigns as well offering national media pitching, online book marketing, author events, and other strategies designed to build the author/book visibility.

She is the author of 18 books, including How to Sell Your Books by the Truckload on Amazon, Revise and Re-Release Your Book, 5-Minute Book Marketing for Authors, and From Book to Bestseller. She also hosts the top ranking podcast Book Marketing Tips and Author Success.

AME has had dozens of books on top bestseller lists, including those of the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal.

To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, visit www.amarketingexpert.com. 

Image Credit:

Images purchased from DepositPhotos.

by Eldred Bird

One piece of advice a lot of writers (including me) get tired of hearing is to write what you know. It’s always felt very limiting to me. I’m more of a “do the research and write what you want to know” kind of person.

But there’s another way to look at this piece of advice. Rather than seeing the statement as restricting the scope of your writing, why not view it as a way of breathing life into it?

The one thing we know best is our own lives. We all have knowledge specific to our experiences, be it from jobs, hobbies, or relationships. I think write what you know means to draw on this knowledge to bring more realism to your work and make a deeper connection with the readers, no matter what you’re writing.

How do we accomplish this? Let’s look at a few examples.

Our Jobs

One place we all acquire knowledge that can serve our stories well is from our chosen careers. You need look no further than crime drama and police procedural novels to find authors who have made their work experience pay off in words.

A prime example is former LAPD detective Joseph Wambaugh. His novels The Choirboys, The New Centurions, The Blue Knight, and a whole host of others are stellar examples of an author’s day job taking their writing to a higher level, adding grit, color and realism to the stories and characters. This sets him apart from the average crime writer.

Of course, you don’t have to be a cop to write cop drama. Michael Connelly was a crime reporter before creating the Harry Bosch series. The insight gained from his reporting led him to construct one of the most successful modern detective series on the market today.

Think of your own career path.

What special knowledge and skills have you gained over the years that you can mine for plot points, character traits, and background color that can bring the reader deeper into your stories? Maybe some work-related incident stands out as a possible plot twist to complicate your MC’s journey or offer them a creative solution to a problem.

Our Hobbies

While our jobs can give us a good knowledge base to pull details from, so can our hobbies. Hobbies are something we do by choice and for our own enjoyment so if you’re anything like me, you get even more excited about learning and applying these new skills because it’s something we’ve elected to do.

Our characters are no different.

What they choose to do in their spare time can add dimension and depth. One word of warning — don’t give them an interesting hobby if it isn’t going to come into play down the road. It should either get them into trouble or out of it, depending on how it’s used to further the plot.

My main character, James, likes playing with new technology, so I used my hobby of flying drones in the third James McCarthy novel, Cold Karma, to add layers not only to the plot, but the main character himself. My fascination with computers and cryptography also came into play in that book.

Consider how your own hobbies might work to add to the characters and plot of your story. Is there a particular skill you’ve developed that could elevate your tale? Even a failed attempt at something new can add dimension and maybe throw a monkey wrench in the works to create tension.

Real World Locations

Where a story takes place can be just as important as the characters and plot. Often location becomes another character, so the better you know it, the better you can integrate it into your novel. This is why I like to use locations I’ve personally been to whenever possible.

My James McCarthy series is based in Arizona because I know the territory intimately. I’ve lived here for 50 years and have explored a great lot of the state. The landscape is diverse with everything from major metropolitan areas to deserts, tall pine forests, and mountains that soar to over 12,000 feet. And the people are just as diverse as the landscapes they inhabit.

While online satellite maps and street views are now available to help research locations, nothing beats experiencing these places yourself. Things like the climate, the people, and the general feel of a location don’t translate well to maps. Firsthand experience gives you a much better chance of bringing the true character of a location to life.

Sometimes you want to fictionalize locations

Having been to a location also gives you a better idea of what not to include in your descriptions. In the second James McCarthy book, Catching Karma, James ventures into the Bradshaw Mountains north of Phoenix.

The location he’s heading into is real only to a point. Beyond that point, I fictionalize his travels. This is for the safety of any readers who might decide to check the area out for themselves. There are a lot of abandoned mines in the area, and I didn’t want to lead anyone into a dangerous situation.

Safety is something to keep in mind when you use real-world locales.

Think of the places you’ve been and how they might impact your characters and their quests. Try to bring your readers into the scene in a way that allows them to share in your own experience with the location.

People We Know

This one almost goes without saying, as most of us already base a lot of our characters on people we know, or even ourselves. Sometimes it’s intentional, other times it comes from somewhere deep in our subconscious mind. Either way, we naturally tend toward the practice.

Most of my characters are an amalgamation of people I’ve met, some long-term acquaintances and others who made a lasting impression as they briefly passed through my airspace. Each of them had some quality that made them stand out from the crowd. Mixing some of those qualities into a single body has the potential to create a memorable, if not familiar character.

One word of caution when basing your characters on real people…

Make sure you don’t make it too obvious. This is especially important when casting your antagonists. Most people won’t like discovering that they are the villain in a story. As for the ones who do like it…well, that’s probably what made them stand out in the first place.

Our Emotional Experiences

Sharing our emotional experiences can be tough. Working them into our writing can be just as hard, as it requires us to relive them. In the end, however, it can be worth it. Using your own emotional experiences as a template for your character’s reactions will lend depth and truth to scenes and draw the reader in.

I used this in Killing Karma, the first James McCarthy novel. The only memory James has of his father is actually the earliest memory I have from my childhood. It’s the only memory I have of my uncle, the late husband of my favorite aunt. I was about two years old at the time.

James recalled his earliest memory in the small, bright living room. It was a memory of his father. He could see a picture in his mind—just a snapshot frozen in time.

He recalled a large, dark haired man reaching down to pick him up. The man appeared so big and imposing, but his warm smile disarmed James and melted away any fears. He remembered the feeling clearer than the face . . . a feeling of warmth, and of love.

Be it a happy memory like this one or something more painful, pulling from your own experiences can add an element of reality that will help the reader connect with the characters on a deeper level and feel what they feel.

Final Thoughts

In the final analysis, maybe write what you know doesn’t mean “restrict your stories to what you’ve personally experienced,” but rather using those experiences as an ingredient to add flavor to your writing.

When we share of ourselves, we invite the reader into a shared experience. After all, isn’t that what being a writer is all about?

How do you bring your life experiences into your writing? Have you ever gifted one of your treasured memories to a character? Please let us know in the comments how you’ve drawn on your own life journey in your stories.

About Bob

Eldred Bird writes contemporary fiction, short stories, and personal essays. He has spent a great deal of time exploring the deserts, forests, and deep canyons inside his home state of Arizona. His James McCarthy adventures, Killing Karma, Catching Karma, and Cold Karma, reflect this love of the Grand Canyon State even as his character solves mysteries amidst danger. Eldred explores the boundaries of short fiction in his stories, The Waking Room, Treble in Paradise: A Tale of Sax and Violins, and The Smell of Fear.

When he’s not writing, Eldred spends time cycling, hiking, and juggling (yes, juggling…bowling balls and 21-inch knives).

His passion for photography allows him to record his travels. He can be found on Twitter or Facebook, or at his website.

Top photo credit: Eldred Bird