Writers in the Storm

This Spring I received an email that changed the direction of my career. My friend August McLaughlin sent a note out to her mailing list about Danny Iny's free Online Course Bootcamp, which put words and action to a dream of mine.

I taught corporate computer classes for more than a decade but I stopped when my daughter was born ten years ago. She was my miracle baby and I didn't want to miss a moment of her infancy. Plus, I was tired of traveling all the time.

But I've missed teaching adults (so much!) during all these subsequent years as a business copywriter. And with this pandemic in full swing, and people beating down my door to optimize their LinkedIn profiles, it just seemed like the perfect time to explore teaching my LinkedIn mojo online.

All these months later, I'm still catching my breath.

Danny Iny is an incredible teacher and his classes have opened my world to scores of other people who are also chasing dreams. His community is built around integrity, work-life balance, and the importance of teaching your gift. I warn you...he packs a lot into each of these three trainings. But they are awesome. And FREE.

(When I find a free quality resource for my WITS peeps, I share! And I'm sharing it on an "off day" because it's a bit out of the norm in terms of what we usually post here.)

What does the Bootcamp cover?

First of all, this resource is time-sensitive. All three video recordings are here for you to watch between now and midnight tomorrow. (Feel free to skip around if one day focuses more on what you'd like to learn.) Each "day" of Bootcamp is about 1.5 hours worth of learning.

Bootcamp official synopsis:

Day 1 - The business opportunity in online courses

• Who can succeed at online courses (and how to know if this is right for your business)
• The truth and lies of the "passive income" dream - and how to get the freedom you want without sacrificing income
• Why pricing your course too low won't bring you the students you want, and pricing it too high won't generate more revenue
• How your course will fit into your business model to support everything else you do
• How to create online courses that fit seamlessly into a B2B environment (they aren't only for consumers!)
• What the future of online course business looks like, and how to thrive in a post-COVID-19 landscape

Day 2 - Creating courses people want to pay for

• How to find the right topic for your course (hint: it isn't always what you think it will be)
• Ways to identify the right scope for the very first version of your course, keeping it swift and simple to build
• An answer to the question every course creator faces: How long should your first course be?
• The different modes of delivery that work best for online learning in different contexts
• Exactly how to explain the value of your course so that people "get it" and want to know more
• How to create a high-quality course that delivers a genuine transformation for your students

Day 3 - Attracting and enrolling great students

• How to find plenty of paying students, even if you don't have an email list or a big audience online
• Four different strategies for enrolling your first 50 students (plus advice on which strategy to use when)
• How to have an ethical, non-slimy sales conversation with a future student - no pressure and no hard sell
• How to create a marketing machine that automates the selling process, so you can watch the enrollments come in without lifting a finger
• How to use your first online course to jump-start a high-value coaching business, serving people who want extra guidance
• A zero-effort technique for exposing your course to hundreds of new people each month

Watch all three videos here - they're only available until midnight Pacific time tomorrow night, August 31.

If you have even a small amount of time to spare between now and tomorrow night, I highly recommend these. If you don't have time or aren't interested, that's okay too. But there was no way I wasn't sharing the free replay with all my peeps here at WITS! This information is fabulous.

Happy learning!
Jenny

By Ellen Buikema

A character bible is a document filled with all you need to know about your characters’ motivations, personalities, physical characteristics, and background story, including family.  Not everything in the character bible will find its way into your manuscript, but the information will be easily available for your reference when needed.

Several chapters into writing The Hobo Code, I found myself in “Look, there’s a squirrel” mode. This is never pretty. When I was able to regain focus, I realized I’d written the wrong physical description for one of my main characters. In order to fix this, I reviewed several chapters to find the information I needed to continue the story. At this point, I had not begun a character bible. That incident pushed me to get on that!

How To Make a Character Bible

There is no wrong way to make a character bible.

It can be composed using a notebook, yellow sticky notes on butcher paper, or as a three-ring binder full of loose-leaf paper separated by tabbed dividers in multiple colors. Whatever works best for the writer. This YouTube video shows how to put together a story bible in a binder and includes free templates.

Not everyone likes to use paper methods. Some prefer to use software. Thankfully there are many to choose from for organizing and storing character information.

• One Stop for Writers has a great Character building tool.
• This YouTube video gives a good overview.
• Other possibilities are Scrivener, Plot Factory, OneNote, EverNote, and Microsoft Excel.
• Some writers like to use a combination of software, using Scrivener for writing and OneNote or EverNote for the character bible.

However you put it together, the benefit is to have quick access to the details for all your characters, no matter how minor. In The Hobo Code, hobo Spooky Steve is in far fewer scenes than Jack Schmidt, the main protagonist, but I still need to know enough about Spooky to have a well-rounded, relatable character.

Tips for getting the most from your character bible:

Knowing the characters' quirks, fears, likes and dislikes will help deepen dialogue and conflict.

• List all of your characters:  More time will be spent on the main characters, but details for the minor ones will help you remember little things like exactly what kind of tattoo he has and where it’s located.
• Background information:  Details infuse your characters with life. Focus on the characters’ personalities. Do they play well with others? How do they act under pressure? What are their emotional triggers?
• Physical Details: Keep a list of each character’s physical traits. This will help as you sprinkle these details throughout the story. No data dumps! You don’t want to change eye color mid-story unless we’re using contact lenses or magical glamor.

Weird fun fact: People with multiple personality disorder may have differing visual acuities. One may need glasses, another not. People with light-colored eyes sometimes appear to have eye color changes depending upon mood and what they are wearing. This can be used in emotion-filled scenes.

• Mannerisms:  Specific habits and mannerisms make characters realistic and relatable. Walk in your characters’ shoes for a day. Do they have speech patterns or use special phrases? How do they act at the dining room table during a meal? Do they eat standing up? Belch with great gusto to approve of a good meal? Dab with a napkin? Use this role-playing activity for everyday activities of all kinds.
• Interpersonal Communication:  List the characters’ friends, family members, colleagues, and enemies. Do your characters like to gossip? Are they friendly in person but spiteful in reality? Trusting? Naive?
• Stress Response:  You will be hurling conflicts at your characters to create tension and interest. How do your characters respond to stress? Include responses to normal situations and put the characters in positions where their normal response won’t work.
• Backstory:  No one lives in a vacuum, neither do fictional characters. Incidences in their past will determine how and why characters do what they do, and say what they say.  Maybe  characters freak out or crumbles at the sound of enraged voices due to childhood trauma. Perhaps they have specific olfactic memories and the smell of gasoline reminds them of long car rides for summer family vacations. A character’s backstory defines their present behavior and guides their future.

What about a screenwriting bible?

This bible (often called the show bible or series bible) is a reference document used by screenwriters containing all the information on characters including backstories, settings, and various minutiae, such as a character’s food allergies, for the big and small screen.

Movie and television series use bibles. These bibles are continuously updated with anything that airs. This document helps keep the writing consistent within the series.

When a new writer joins a show she is given a copy of the series bible to best understand all aspects of the program.

To pitch a TV series you must have your series bible ready to go along with the plot. Producers want to know where the story is going and if it’s binge-worthy.

The tone of the series should be reflected in the bible.

Here is a portion of the bible for the BBC’s comedy series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, based on the work of Douglas Adams.

“Hi, hello. Welcome. Bonvendu. I believe that’s how they say ‘enter peacefully’ in French,” the introduction starts. “Don’t check that. Don’t fact check that. You’re distracted, stop it, concentrate. My name is Dirk Gently. And you are reading the Series Bible for my television show, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. This show, of course, is the long-awaited follow-up series to HBO’s critically acclaimed No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, which — Oh, it isn’t? I’ve been informed that it isn’t. I should have googled this. I thought we were doing an Avengers thing.”

Quirky series, quirky bible.

Do you use a character bible? Which works better for you, writing software or a paper method for notes? We'd love to hear, down in the comments, how you chose this method!

* * * * *

About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents and a series of chapter books for children with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Work In Progress, The Hobo Code, is YA historical fiction.

Find her at http://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Top Image by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay

by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Ever since Joseph Campbell observed that the world’s great legends all contain 12 steps a hero must take to grow and triumph, writers have enjoyed using that structure as a storytelling tool.

It’s a perfectly good structure for tales of adventure, and Christopher Vogler made it even more useful with The Hero’s Journey. But what happens when a character ISN’T going out to fight dragons, discover lost continents, or battle evil warlords?

What if their growth and triumph happen on a personal level?

That’s the question raised by a lot of authors writing about characters whose story doesn’t require daredevil action as a way of showing tremendous courage.

There’s something lacking in the 12-step structure if, for example, declining Aunt Martha’s offer to host a baby shower, or wearing the red-brimmed hat, or deciding to read that forbidden book DOESN’T equal heroic strength.

That’s why screenwriter Kim Hudson created a 13-step version which even Vogler said is a great parallel to the hero’s journey. It could be called the heroine’s journey, but since it works equally well for young men who haven’t yet experienced a great deal of what life has to offer, she called it The Virgin’s Promise.

Does it matter if you’re not writing about virgins?

Nope. What matters is that, if you’re writing about ANY character who’s going to follow a major internal journey (with possibly some external hurdles along the way), your story can be every bit as compelling as those full of swashbuckling adventure even though it stars a less swashbuckling type of person.

Often the greatest challenges faced by these characters -- let’s call ‘em heroines -- are the kind that real-life people (yes, like us!) face every day.

“My sister keeps joking that I married the wrong man.”

“My boss always says I need to widen my focus.”

“The kids don’t think my writing is important.”

“I’d love to branch out, but where would I ever find the time?”

We’ve all hidden our light, now and then. We’ve gotten used to putting others before ourselves. We’ve given in when we really wanted a different outcome. We’ve let somebody else determine how we behave.

So we understand what such characters might need to overcome, and we’d love to see them do it.

All they need is a path to follow.

A heroine embarking on the 13-step journey is going to emerge as a better, wiser, stronger, happier, and (due to the struggle) also a slightly more dented version of her original self.

She’s going to take risks that yield joyous rewards, and some that result in painful failures. She’s not always going to believe in herself.

Sometimes she’ll falter. Sometimes she’ll crumple. And sometimes she’ll shine.

She’ll inevitably run into barriers -- problems that come not so much from dragons or pirates or brigands as from her friends. Her neighbors. Her family.

They might care for her deeply and wish her all the best, but they’re not seeing her as the complete person she COULD be. All they see is what they want her to be, and if she isn’t living up to those expectations?

The results can be worse than a fire-breathing dragon.

What makes such a heroine all the more impressive is how she copes in the face of these setbacks. It’s hard to move past the dreams and desires of people she cares about, especially when that isn’t something she’s been taught to do throughout her life. Becoming her own best self is often a pretty solitary journey, and not one she undertakes with giddy optimism.

Even if she feels good about whatever journey she’s embarking on, of course she won’t triumph immediately -- otherwise we wouldn’t have much to read about. No, she has to go through trials different from the Hero’s Journey, with her 13 steps including:

• Paying the Price of Conformity
• Balancing her dependent and new Secret World
• Getting Caught Shining
• Seeing the Kingdom in Chaos
• Wandering in the Wilderness before
• choosing her Light and ultimately
• making sure the Kingdom is Brighter.

We see women brightening their kingdom all the time, whether or not they’re starring in a novel. Heck, you’ve probably done it yourself...

Having a wonderful meeting with a publisher and taking mental notes to share with your friend who wanted to be there. Or volunteering for a project that expands in scope but persevering all the way through completion. Or making sure to share credit with those who played a part in some triumph you’ve just achieved.

Women are great at such things.

Men can be wonderfully generous as well, as we’ve seen from many a hero, but women seem to have a more instinctive knack for noticing how other people feel about things and then seeing how they can make things better.

Which is why, all too often, real-life and fictional heroines do such a good job of caring for others that they neglect their own best interests, staying confined within the limits that society or family or friends have set for them. Until they recognize the down-side of such a situation...which is where their story begins.

We'll explore that in more detail next month at my WriterUniv.com class on “The Hero's Journey, For Heroines,” but meanwhile I'd love to hear some real-life examples.

So here’s a prize-drawing question:

If you’ve ever managed to go beyond the limits that other people set for you, could you say what you did? Regardless of the courage involved, whether it involved a quick adjustment or a life-changing event, somebody who comments will win free registration to the September class!

About Laurie

After winning Romantic Times’ “Best Special Edition of the Year” over Nora Roberts, Laurie Schnebly Campbell discovered she loved teaching every bit as much as writing...if not more. Since then she’s taught online and live workshops for writers from London and Los Angeles to New Zealand and New York, and keeps a special section of her bookshelves for people who’ve developed that particular novel in her classes. With 48 titles there so far, she’s always hoping for more.

---

Top Image by Foundry Co from Pixabay.