Story Sensei Complete Worksheet Bundle (eBooks)

Description

Unlock the secrets to crafting compelling fiction with Camy Tang’s Story Sensei Worksheets, an indispensable resource for writers at the intermediate level.

Synopsis worksheet

Has your fiction manuscript been rejected by literary agents or traditional publishing houses, and you’re not sure why? Do you feel something’s “off” with your novel, but you don’t know what?

Sometimes the problem isn’t the writing—it’s the characterization or the overall story structure.

If you think this might be a problem with your manuscript, you don’t want to pay for a freelance editor when you could fix those story elements yourself.

The Story Sensei’s Synopsis worksheet was designed as a way for fiction writers to not only write a synopsis, but also doctor their own manuscript by utilizing a large-scale, bird’s eye view of their stories. This different way of looking at your novel can often point out flaws in character arcs, major plot points, and overall story structure.

The exercises in this worksheet will ensure that your story structure has all the vital elements, including:

—character external goal

—internal/spiritual arc

—obstacles

—conflict

—climax

—resolution

This worksheet will guide you through writing your synopsis. Don’t have a completed manuscript? No problem—as long as you’re familiar with the main points of your story, you can still write a synopsis using this worksheet. It may even help you craft your story and fill in missing pieces as you write the synopsis.

Camy uses examples from proposals for her own novels, which garnered her contracts with Christian publishers Zondervan (HarperCollins) and Love Inspired Suspense (Harlequin). There is also a special section on spiritual/internal arcs, since Christian novels tend to have strong spiritual threads in the stories.

Even if your story is not inspirational, the internal arc section will help you outline a strong internal arc for your character or troubleshoot if the internal arc has some weaknesses.

This version of the Synopsis worksheet includes:

—Extra examples

—Tips on trimming synopses

—Exercises on chapter-by-chapter and character synopses

Also in this version is an appendix of extra articles including:

—The 50-word elevator pitch

—Story blurbs, including the ones used in Camy’s original proposal for her Inspirational chick-lit Sushi series, which she submitted to Zondervan

—The basic structure of a proposal

—The example of Camy’s original proposal for her Inspirational romantic suspense Protection for Hire series, which she submitted to Zondervan

Heroine’s Journey worksheet

Make your character’s story arc resonate more emotionally with readers.

What is the Heroine’s Journey?

Joseph Campbell originally wrote about the Hero’s Journey in his book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, as a psychological analysis of the classical myth formula. Maureen Murdock took Campbell’s work, her own psychology experience, and other psychoanalytical writings and world myths to develop The Heroine’s Journey for women.

Often, a male and female character will respond differently to conflict in a story because culture and time period will affect a character differently due to gender. As a result, their internal story arcs will differ according to gender, also.

Whether in romances or women’s fiction, often a heroine’s story arc is more about internal awakening as opposed to the “quest” style of the Hero’s Journey. This makes the Heroine’s Journey a good template for a heroine’s story arc.

If readers comment that there’s “something off” with a character’s story arc, the Heroine’s Journey applied to a heroine will often make her story more psychologically resonant and satisfying for a reader.

This worksheet consists of the Heroine’s Journey explained in detail, questions for you to answer about your heroine, and examples to explain each stage of the Heroine’s Journey. It will guide you in an easy way toward applying the Heroine’s Journey structure for your heroine.

This worksheet will help you:

—Create a more emotionally resonant internal arc for your heroine

—Or change up your hero’s internal journey with one of self-discovery by applying the Heroine’s Journey to his story arc

—Fix and strengthen disjointed character development

—Manipulate and strengthen story pacing

—Keep a character’s internal arc in a forward-moving motion rather than stagnating

—Build the internal arc toward the “Black Moment” crisis

—Draw the internal arc full circle in a way that will satisfy readers

—Use the Heroine’s Journey even in a romance where there’s also a hero taking up 50% of the book

—Double-check that the external events in the story are fueling and forwarding the character’s internal arc

—Revise a synopsis or a completed manuscript

Please note: this tool is not meant to replace a synopsis because it doesn’t focus as strongly on the external events and conflicts in the story—it’s more focused on the internal events and internal conflicts of your heroine.

This worksheet was created by utilizing the compilation of information on the Heroine’s Journey derived not only from Maureen Murdock’s book, but also other psychology writings and an understanding of Joseph Campbell’s original Hero’s Journey. This newly revised edition includes extra examples for each stage of the Heroine’s Journey and more detail on previous examples.

Are you unsure why your heroine’s emotional story doesn’t strike the right chord with readers? This worksheet will help set you on the right track.

Deep Point of View worksheet

As a writer, you can provide a richer emotional experience for your reader by utilizing a deeper point of view.

Deep point of view draws the reader into the characters’ heads and can elicit a stronger emotional reader response to the characters’ struggles, decisions, and reactions to external conflict.

Readers who have read a passage in deep point of view often talk about how the characters seemed more vivid, how the story and prose riveted them to the page.

It is very easy for a writer to learn ways to draw the reader into the mind, body, and soul of your characters through deep point of view techniques.

By the end of the worksheet you’ll have:

1) A basic understanding of different points of view so you can decide if deep or shallow point of view is best for your story

2) Ways to strengthen the emotional writing and draw the reader deeper into the character’s point of view

3) An understanding of the structural elements of a scene to help you know when and how to add deep-POV emotions

4) Tips for how to tweak wording in order to deepen point of view on a minute level, which contributes to a richer point of view for the manuscript as a whole

5) A finely honed radar for spotting “Telling” and shallow POV through exercises

This worksheet consists of lessons, homework, and fun exercises for you to see lots of deep and shallow POV examples. You’ll learn lots of simple techniques to help you deepen your character’s point of view.

Characterization worksheet

Whether your story is plot-driven or character-driven, characterization is important. Your readers identify and/or empathize with your characters, and that’s what keeps them on the edge of their seats, wanting to know what happens next to your characters.

When your reader is apathetic about your character, they are more likely to put your book down. They simply aren’t as invested in the character and are not as interested in the conflict surrounding them.

A three-dimensional character with flaws and strengths usually doesn’t just jump out of a writer’s head. Typically, writers spend a great deal of time embellishing and digging deeper into a character, whether before the book is written or as they’re editing. Three-dimensional characterization is usually a deliberate, concentrated effort.

Also, sometimes when a writer has hit a wall when writing their novel, it could be that the writer just doesn’t know the character well enough.

This worksheet will help you develop your story characters. By the end of this worksheet, you will have:

1) a solid grasp of who your character is—and I’m not talking just favorite ice cream flavor

2) your character’s flaws and heroic qualities to make him/her truly sympathetic to the reader

3) the character’s unique qualities to make him/her stand out from all the other characters on the Barnes and Noble shelves.

4) your character’s desire and external goal (you’d be amazed at how this can change from your original ideas about your character as you dig deeper and discover who your character is!)

5) the motivation behind your character’s actions—and not something done over and over again, but something really juicy and unique that shapes your protagonist to make him/her a richer, deeper character

6) conflict and obstacles that directly impact your character’s external goal

7) the riveting climax of the story—both external events and also internal arc

This worksheet will guide you through several steps and questions that will help you delve deeper into your characters to make them realistic, heroic, and memorable.

Self-Editing worksheet

You’ve finished your novel! How do you make sure you have a good character arc, strong story structure, good pacing? How can you smooth over rough writing patches, eliminate episodic writing, or increase emotional intensity?

My Self-Editing worksheet combines a variety of techniques that I have taught in online workshops into one place, with tips to help you refine and polish your manuscript.

By the end of the worksheet you’ll have:

1) A good large-scale view of your story structure and character arc, and knowledge about how to fix any problems in that area

2) Tips for how to revise more emotion into your writing

3) Tools for solving pacing issues

4) A deeper look at technical writing errors to look for in your writing

5) An understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses in terms of critiquing yourself

This 69-page worksheet consists of lessons, homework, and fun exercises for you to apply various types of self-editing on your manuscript. You’ll learn lots of simple techniques to help you revise and tighten your manuscript to be the best it can be.

Note: I made this worksheet originally for a class I was asked to teach. This is essentially the shortened versions of both my Deep Point of View worksheet and my Characterization worksheet.

This contains about 60% of what’s in my Deep POV worksheet, and about 70% of what’s in my Characterization worksheet.

Both of those worksheets go into more depth about Deep POV and Characterization, so if they both interest you, you’ll get more information and instruction if you buy those two separately.

However, if you want more bang for your buck, this worksheet is like the abridged versions of those two worksheets combined into one worksheet. Just be aware that this will contain much of the same stuff rather than being all-new material.