Introducing a new level of affordable Story Coaching… and why you should take a look.
You don’t have to spend a couple grand to get your story professionally evaluated and coached. There’s another way to get there, and it’s every bit as thorough and effective at the story level as a full manuscript review… for less than 10 percent of the cost.
You don’t even have to have the manuscript finished… or even started yet.
And now, it’s even better and more focused.
When asked about your core story, what would you say?
There really aren’t enough qualifiers in that question to point you toward the best answer, because your genre and your level of craft-speak (knowledge) become variables in that proposition.
There are three primary candidates when it comes to “core story.”
One is the inherent potential and compelling power of your CONCEPT AND PREMISE… how one feeds into, and off, the other. Without a good answer here your story might be flat before you write a word of it.
Another is the core DRAMATIC ARC of your story, which is a function of genre and structure… and, in every genre, becomes the primary narrative engine of the story. Get it wrong and the story loses steam before the first quartile concludes.
At this point you may be thinking… wait, isn’t the primary engine of my story the sum of my characters (leaving CHARACTER ARC as the third option among the aforementioned three)?
Well… not not so much. In genre fiction in particular (as opposed to “literary fiction”), it is the nature and degree with which you’ve given your characters something to do that drives the story forward.
That “something to do” is your CORE DRAMATIC ARC. Your plot. The source and contextual impact of conflict in the story.
If that doesn’t work, or if it isn’t there at all, your characters won’t matter.
So the question — the key question, because nothing works until you get this right — is this: how IS your core story coming together? What is the level of compelling strength and structural execution of your core dramatic arc”
Does it work? How can it be strengthened?
And then the next question is… how do you find out?
Here’s the new Story Coaching answer to that one.
I’ve developed, and have just launched, a new level of coaching that focuses in on the Core Dramatic Arc of your story, as a facet of your story plan (or of your latest draft if you’ve gone that far). It’s a Questionnaire-driven process, which makes it affordable at only $95.
This program stands alongside my Quick Hit Concept Review ($49) as a specialized evaluation of your story plan. And it is a subset of my Full Story Plan level of analysis (at $245), which looks at your story according to a sequential rendering of your major story beats.
Why add this new level?
Because you can totally nail your Concept and Premise , but the story will still hobble if your Core Dramatic Arc is not optimal.
And you can get to the finish line with a full story plan, only to find that the central driving force of it – the core dramatic arc – is a 4-cylinder putt-putt installed into the body of a gleaming sports car or elegant luxury machine.
In other words, your full story and it’s gleaming new characters may be under-powered.
Here’s what the initial beta user (a writer, just like you) has to say about the new DRAMATIC ARC ANALYSIS:
“Wow, I am BLOWN AWAY by how good this is! I’m about halfway through the “first draft answers” and I’m amazed at the info you’re pulling out of me. Hurts so good! It is the most detailed, but succinct, interactive step-by-step forced look-in-the-mirror that all of us novices need, that I’ve ever seen. (And like most writerly dreamers, I have a large library of writing how-to books, including yours.)
It’s ‘way too cheap, too.”
You can opt in using the proper service level Paypal button from the Home page in the left column…or email me to request direct invoicing if you don’t have a Paypal account.
If you’re a prior client at the Quick-Hit Concept Review level… (already, or you plan to be), your fee for the Dramatic Arc Analysis is only $75. See the drop down menu on the Home page (under Dramatic Arc Analysis), or email me for an invoice; this also means you can start now with the Quick Hit Concept Review and add the Dramatic Arc later at only $75… or you can opt in now for both at $124).
Don’t leave your best intentions stranded at the starting gate, concept in hand, with no takers.
Your story deserves the best developmental effort you can throw at it. Another set of eyes — professional eyes — can save you more drafts and cut months or even years off your story development learning curve.
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Got $2.99… and a hunger for more craft?
Here is one of the new ebooks I’m launching as part of my Storyfix eBookstore, which is soon to be launched (though the books are available now):
Three Men and a Manuscript:
Three Writing “Gurus” Discussing Craft, a Shifting Market and What it Takes to Create Successful Fiction
A dialogue between James Scott Bell, Randy Ingermanson and Larry Brooks on the nature and context of craft and what it means to the creation of successful fiction today.
The closer you listen to the writing conversation, especially when it comes from those who teach craft at workshops and write bestselling books on the topic (in addition to their own critically-acclaimed novels), the more commonality you notice. While it it possible to convey and cloak the basic principles of writing effective fiction with a variety of contexts and tones and approaches, which can sometimes cloud the issues, certain basic truths remain, and they are as universal among genres as they are eternal in their validity.
What’s less evident, but nonetheless true, is that there remains some “wiggle room” within the parameters of those principles, as well as a deep well of subtleties that become the tie-breakers for writers who harness them to create truly remarkable and original fiction.
In this dialogue, three leading voices in the realm of fiction craft seek clarity and precision of those principles, while culling out the subtleties that empower stories and storytellers toward greater heights. The result is, rather than the creation of an ominously higher bar, an illumination of a clear and doable path toward the reaching of that bar, no matter what one’s level of experience or genre of choice.
Click HERE to go to the Amazon.com page to order this ebook.
6 Responses
I’ve just finished the Dramatic Arc Questionnaire. Now I’m trimming my anwers down to the shortness required. This is really an amazing series of questions that forces me to distill the essence of my story and make it stronger. The linked posts from Storyfix.com make it into a full semester course unto itself. I’d say, to the commenter who wanted to jump to the complete story analysis, that this is a valuable step and shouldn’t be skipped. Thanks Larry, from the bottom of my former pantser … uh … heart!
Bill, mind if I ask if you did the Quick Hit Concept before the Dramatic Arc?
@Sue — Yes, I did the Quick Hit Concept first. I wholeheartedly recommend both, in that order. Larry doesn’t just comment on your work; he also brainstorms new avenues you can take or leave. He can’t help it, he’s creative and he shares it, and it’s a great new perspective. I for one, am using some of the ideas he tossed out on the “Cencept” deal.
Just picked up Three Men and a Manuscript. You three (& Syd Field) helped me get this far so it’s a no brainer. Thanks all around!
As you know I just did the Quick Hit Concept — which is worth every penny and so much more — and then my plan is to go with the full story plan. My question is: is Dramatic Arc Analysis a step that’s included in the full story plan or a stepping stone along the way? In other words, should I do the Dramatic Arc Analysis and then continue on to the full story plan, or do you receive the Dramatic Arc within the full story plan?
That was a quick but very informative read, Larry. You three guys have provided me with 90% of my education on the craft. I finally self-published my first book recently and it’s getting great reviews. I credit the great teachers with this early success (okay, after 6 novels that I will never allow anyone to read). Thanks for all that you do. And thanks to Randy and Jim. By the way, I’ve met both those guys. I’d love to have a beer with you one day!