Story Nerd Melanie Hill, Valerie Francis

We're kicking off a brand new season with two new story concepts. Melanie will be studying female characters and how women are presented in modern stories (her work in this episode is reeeeally interesting!), and I'll be investigating something I learned from Steven Pressfield, which is that we shouldn't introduce anything new after Act 2.

This bonus episode was prompted by a chat I saw on Threads. It started with the question, what excites you most about having an agent? Offline, Melanie and I began to literary agents and what they do. We decided to hit record and share what we know with you. Enjoy! - V.

Left-brained stories (mysteries, crime thrillers, spy stories) are among the highest selling books on the market today. Readers can't get enough of them, and that means the bar for authors is really high because we have to create a puzzle that our readers haven't seen before. Add to this the fact that the fundamentals of storytelling work in a slightly different way than they do with other stories. In this episode, Melanie and I summarize all the lessons we've learned over the past 10 episodes and we share our greatest a-ha moments.

Our study of left-brained stories didn't stop with the podcast though. Offline we've been diving deeply into this genre that we both love. We've gathered up everything the writer of a left-brained story needs to know and we've put it in a webinar coming up on May 2, 2024. Don't miss it! To register, visit www.valeriefrancis.ca/spring2024
- V.

Are you planning to use a twist at the end of your story? Have you ever wondered how M. Night Shyamalan pulled off this famous gotcha ending? If so, this episode is for you! Melanie does a deep dive into story twists and surprises so that you can craft an ending that delights your reader. I focused on the Central Dramatic Question which is a key part of creating Narrative Drive (and you must have brilliant Narrative Drive if your reader is going to get all the way to the end of your novel).
-V.

To be a career author, you must have a breakout book. And, a breakout book is one that contains a story that works. In this episode, I tell you the story of an author who didn't know the difference between a breakout book and words on a page. What happened to him will make your jaw drop.

I just attended a training session with a literary agent who said that failure to write a breakout book is one of the most common mistakes writers make. Well sure, that's fine to say, but (1) what is a breakout book and (2) how do you write one? Well, believe it or not, that's exactly what I'm covering in the How Stories Work webinar on April 9. Maybe I should have called the webinar How to Write a Breakout Book! The important point here is that there's a tried-and-true way to do it, and those who understand how stories work, and who apply the principles, are well on their way to having vibrant writing careers. The How Stories Work webinar is on April 9. Click the link below to register.