Elements of a Good Story

Recently, a client asked me, "What makes a good book?" Of course, this client is writing a book and she was wondering what elements to include to make sure her book will be a really good read; a page turner. Don't we all want that! My one suggestion was simply to tell a good story.

Click to hear the 6 Elements to include in your story.

Telling a good story is the basis for a good book, no matter what genre you're writing in, whether nonfiction -- where you're teaching how to do something -- self-help, memoir, autobiography, and of course fiction. You can always tell a great story to help readers connect with the content in your book. A good story helps you capture the attention of your readers, engage them, and give them something they can connect with.

Here are six elements you should include when crafting your great story. Think about these elements as a reporter considers a good news story. After all, with a journalism background, I often approach storytelling from this perspective.  

Who = Characters: Even in nonfiction books, there are characters. Perhaps your main character is the narrator, which is most likely you. There might be other characters, such as experts or clients you include in your case studies or examples.

 What = Situation: What actually happens in your book? Set up a situation that your characters are connected to and that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

When = Timeframe: When does the action happen? What time of year or what time in history does your story take place? How long does the situation take to unfold?  

Where = Setting: Does the situation happen in a hospital? Does the action happen in the board room? Does it happen in someone's kitchen? The setting should be very well defined and it should draw readers in so they feel that they are right there in the midst of the action.

 Why = Motivation: There should always be motivation in your story, either for a main character, for the narrator, or even for your experts. Motivation is the reason characters do what they do, so make it interesting and realistic.  

How = Outcome: This is the result or the final "goody," the takeaway, or result of your story. How did everything turn out? What should your readers know now that they've read your book? How should they think or feel, and what should they do with this new knowledge? Those are six elements to include when telling a great story, which helps make your book a page turner. Happy writing!
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Anita Paul, known as The Author's Midwife, coaches aspiring authors to write a phenomenal book and helps current authors use their existing books to leverage their business. She is the author of the-book Write Your Life: Create Your Ideal Life and The Book You've Been Wanting to Write, and is the creator of the Write Your Life program, through which she has created a dynamic system to Write Your Book in 90 Days or Less. She has owned The Write Image for 15 years, and has had her freelance articles featured in over 25 publications in the U.S. and Canada. Anita is also the host of "Book Your Success".
Facebook: Write Your Life Coaching Program
Twitter: @AnitaRPaul
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/anitapaul/

Top 6 Reasons to Publish a Collaborative Book

Have you ever moved? It can be a massive amount of work—packing, moving, and getting settled after the fact. You can do it on your own (mostly), but the process is faster and easier when you share the necessary tasks with family and friends.

Publishing a book can be even more daunting—especially if you’re researching, writing, publishing, and marketing it primarily by yourself.

A collaborative book may be the perfect introduction to becoming a published author or as an avenue to rapidly add another title to your publishing credentials.

Consider these 6 reasons for creating a collaborative book:

• Get Published Faster. Each of my collaborative books has taken three to six months to complete—from concept to published book. In contrast, I have clients who have been working on their manuscripts five to seven YEARS before they contract with me for their book cover design and interior formatting. It’s simple math that thirty authors writing 1,000 words each will create a 30,000 word manuscript faster than one author can alone.
• Provide a Broader Viewpoint. We each have a unique combination of experience, knowledge and expertise. The written perspective of six to thirty authors provides a wider view on a topic than a single person can contribute alone.
• Share Ideas. A quote often credited to George Bernard Shaw says, “If you have an apple and I have an apple, and we swap apples—we each end up with only one apple. But if you and I have an idea and we swap ideas—we each end up with two ideas.” Writing books in collaboration with others is an excellent way to share ideas.
• Reduce Upfront Expenses. To self-publish, an author pays upfront for editing, cover design, interior formatting, proofreading, and publishing expenses like an ISBN number and a printed proof. Your ideal book cover design may require a stock photo (with an extended license), an original illustration, or a custom photo shoot. After you’ve completed your manuscript, expenses can easily run $5,000 - $10,000 before you’re ready to print. Self-publishing in collaboration, the expenses are divided among the co-authors.
• Expand Your Marketing Reach. Before social media made it so easy to connect, it was said that most people had about 250 in their network of contacts. Now it’s common for someone to have 500 – 1,000 contacts. The reach of one person with a 1,000-person list of contacts is a drop in the bucket compared to the reach of ten co-authors with 1,000 contacts each. Each co-author benefits from the exposure of all their co-authors’ contacts. This is especially effective for publishing a book as a strategy for marketing your business.
• Build Stronger Relationships. People like to do business with people they know and trust. One key to building stronger relationships is to do what you say you’ll do. A collaborative book is a short-term project that highlights your knowledge and creativity while demonstrating your ability to follow-through on a commitment—with the added benefit of a book to sell at completion.

In addition to strengthening relationships with your co-authors, publishing frequently is a powerful way to build relationships with potential and existing customers. Becoming a published author elevates you to the status of an expert and can be the starting point for a foundation of trust.

Publishing a book is a lot of work, but sharing the load of writing, publishing, and marketing is like having a group of friends help you move. You’re tired at the finish line, but you’ve laughed and created memories along the way. 

Listen to these Write Here, Write Now radio archives for more on collaboratively publishing:

·       http://writeherewritenow.businessradiox.com/2013/02/20/february-26-publishing-collaboratively/

·       http://writeherewritenow.businessradiox.com/2011/12/08/december-13th-publishing-as-a-marketing-strategy/

Contact Vanessa to discuss the possibility of being a co-author in one of her upcoming collaborative projects.

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Vanessa Lowry is a marketing consultant, graphic designer, author, radio host and speaker. She leverages nearly 30 years of design and marketing expertise to support book authors who are self publishing. Her books, including The 28-Day Thought Diet, are available on Amazon. www.connect4leverage.com

Write Forward, Not Backward

You’re ready to sit down with your computer for another exciting adventure of writing your book. But first, you scroll back a few pages to re-read what you wrote during your last writing session, just to make sure that what you’re about to write will flow well with the previous text. You find several misplaced commas, a few dangling participles, and an entire section that needs to be rewritten. So, you fix, rewrite, and re-read what you corrected. By now, two hours have passed and you haven’t written any new content to move your story

forward. You’re frustrated ... again!

If you have experienced this scenario, you’re not unlike many authors who write backward, instead of writing forward. It is very easy to get caught in review mode when you’re creating your manuscript. You want every word to be the right word and every sentence to flow seamlessly into the next. You want to be completely satisfied with your last paragraph before you create the next one. But that method is a surefire way to remain stuck and never get your book finished. This self-editing is a form of perfectionism that you must keep at bay if you plan to complete your manuscript during this lifetime.

Put a stop to your backward writing by trying this approach:

As much as possible, set a start and end time for each writing session. Arrive at your “writing cave” well fed, well rested, well hydrated, and well focused. During your writing session, write with reckless abandon. At the close of your writing session, resist the urge to review what you’ve written. Trust that you’re on the right track (a detailed outline will help immensely with this, but that’s another post altogether). Instead, on a separate page from the text you just created, jot down several bullet points for what should come next in your story. This will be your guide for the next writing session. With these bullet points visible and on a completely different page, you should be able to pick up at the next session where you left off at the last, without reviewing what you’ve already written. This will save you time and frustration, and help you get to “The End” much sooner than your previous attempts.

By the time you reach the end of your book, you should have covered everything in your outline. Only then are you ready to review what you’ve written and begin the self-editing process. Start this process too soon and you’re sure to remain stuck there. Remember that you will enlist critiquers, reviewers, and editors to help sharpen your manuscript, so don’t stress over fixing everything while you write. You are creating a masterpiece; this takes time and process. So create, then fix. Write forward, not backward, and experience the joy of completing a manuscript you’ll be proud of.

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Anita Paul, known as The Author's Midwife, coaches aspiring authors to write a phenomenal book and helps current authors use their existing books to leverage their business. She is the author of the-book Write Your Life: Create Your Ideal Life and The Book You've Been Wanting to Write, and is the creator of the Write Your Life program, through which she has created a dynamic system to Write Your Book in 90 Days or Less. She has owned The Write Image for 15 years, and has had her freelance articles featured in over 25 publications in the U.S. and Canada. Anita is also the host of "Book Your Success".
Facebook: Write Your Life Coaching Program
Twitter: @AnitaRPaul
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/anitapaul/