Working the Muddle Out of Your Middle
Cheryl St.John
DATE: February 1-28
COST: $25.
REGISTRATION VIA PAYPAL: http://cheryl-stjohn-workshop.blogspot.com/
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN
CLASS DESCRIPTION:
It happens to everyone at some time or another–that muddle when you reach the middle of a book. Ever lost energy and drive? Ever thought you didn’t have enough story? Ever panicked because you had too much story? Most of us know what it’s like to stall out, but there are steps you can take to keep your story moving forward.
Every writer needs to know that just because a certain scene or chapter or book is difficult to write, your talent has not deserted you. There are techniques that will carry you across that difficult stretch more effectively.
In Cheryl St.John’s workshop, WORKING THE MUDDLE OUT OF YOUR MIDDLE, she will offer suggestions on how to focus during this challenging stage of the story. After over thirty published books, she knows each book will be a different challenge and that not one solution will always help. She’ll show you how to come against destructive self-doubt. Returning to the first love of what excited you about the story is a big part of moving forward, and she will share exercises on how to jump start your creativity. Writers who’ve taken this workshop come away with fresh ideas and inspiration.
Topics addressed:
* frustration and lack of confidence
* defining the middle
* intuition and first love
* plot points
* tension
* focus
INSTRUCTOR BIO:
Among her achievements, which include over thirty-five published books in both contemporary and historical genres, Cheryl St.John has received multiple Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Awards and three RITA nominations. In describing her stories of second chances and redemption, readers and reviewers use words like, “emotional punch, hometown feel, core values, believable characters and real life situations.” She has taught writing on local and national levels, and is in demand as a motivational speaker.
FORMAT:
The class will be conducted via subscription to a private yahoogroup. Two lessons per week, after which you’re encouraged to post questions. Most lessons will include a brief exercise pertaining to the participant’s current work in progress. Entire archived class will be available for one week after the ending date.
I just thought you might be interested to know that SOMEONE FOR SARAH, my January 2011 Love Inspired Historical, is now officially THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE. As I told you in my 1/14 blog, I knew the previous title was going to go. So I submitted several titles to the editors but they didn’t like them. I think the best titles included the word “Yankee” in them, for the hero, a doctor from Maine, but I’m guessing they thought it would sound like a Civil War novel and wanted to stay away from that. I wanted to stay away from titles that would make it sound like a 1950’s medical romance in which the ordinary girl becomes a Cinderella/great success if life simply because she managed to snag herself a doctor to marry. My editors suggested more titles. I didn’t like them, so I came back with a few more. THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE was one of the ones I suggested, and this time they decided they liked it. It does sound a little medical romancy, but not too much. I like the way it plays off the old nursery rhyme, “The Farmer in the Dell”–”the farmer takes a wife, the farmer takes a wife, hi-ho the dairy-o, the farmer takes a wife. (Apologies to those who now have that song stuck in their heads…) It’s a title that’s been used on books before, but not recently. I’d hate having a title that had been used many times before–I remember back in the early days of romance titles when DAWN OF DESIRE was done to death, and the year that there were three–count ‘em three–FORTUNE’S LADY’s.
The sub-genre of Christian vampire novels is a relat ively new one, and as a Christian and a vampire novel fan, I am always looking for more of them to read, so when I was offered the opportunity to review Beth Maze’s RABBIT:CHASING BETH RIDER, I jumped at it. And in reading it I discovered a unique, fascinating world. Beth Rider is a southern novelist who’s written a best seller which brings a message of redemption to the Rakum, a vampire-like race who prey upon humans, making some of them into Rabbits, who are subject to endless torture by their Rakum captors. There are also Cows, who are humans who inexplicably donate their blood freely to their particular Rakum. Beth’s novel brings her to the attention of Jack Dawn, a huge nightmare of a Rakum who threatens her at a booksigning, then assaults her later in a hotel room, making her a Rabbit, then looses her for the delight of other Rakum to hunt down. But Beth is fortunate in that the first Rakum who finds her is Dawn’s proselyte Michael Stone, who falls for her instantly and is sure that his Master erred in making her a Rabbit. Michael knows the fatal cost of trying to protect her, but with the aid of several other Rakum, he risks all to go to her aid. The Rakum who meet Beth are all drawn by her winsome message of light and salvation, and when Beth is captured, they join her in a Hell-like place of Rakum assembly that will pit Beth and her invisible, Heavenly protector against the ancient evil Rakum Fathers. I was cheering at the triumphant conclusion of good over evil, Light over darkness. Big New York publishers won’t often take the chance on a novel like this. It’s too different. As a result, what they publish is often anemic. It is left to small presses and determined authors like Ellen Maze to think outside the box. It could have used a “scosh” more proofeading (but to be honest, so could most New York-published novels these days), and a few fewer characters–I got lost in the panoply of Rakum, Cows and so forth. But that fault may be mine. Brava, Ellen Maze, and thank you for allowing me to review your uniquely entertaining novel!
I got some good news since I last blogged–my November 201o Love Inspired Historical, MAIL ORDER COWBOY, the start of the Simpson Creek Brides series, will be followed in quick succession by the next book in the series in January 2011, when Love Inspired Historicals goes to four books a month! Not only is the increase from two books to four books a month good news for the LIH line, for it indicates a line that is selling well and increasing its readership, but it’s obviously very good to have two books in a series come out together. I’m currently waiting with bated breath–whatever that means–to see which of the title choices I submitted will grace that second book. I had a feeling SOMEONE FOR SARAH was too bland, so I’m not torn that it won’t be kept.
Today was a slog through the mud. Many writing days are like that. You sit down with a heavy feeling of “what on earth am I going to write today in this story?” What needs to happen? Is it too soon? Too late? Too much for this particular story? Not enough? Do I really want to write today?
We’re now fully settled into January. The thermometer is hovering around the single digits at night. The Christmas decorations are finally put away. I’m still waiting on word of a contract as I plunge on into the middle of THE WEDDING TREE.