Making Structural Choices to Best Serve a Particular Story
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra
4.8 • 733 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2022
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In today's Books with Hooks, Carly and CeCe are joined by Kim and Jessica who submitted their queries for critique. They discuss how to elevate a query so that it matches the quality of the pages, reminding us that the goal of the query letter is to get an agent to read those pages; how to lean into specificity to elevate a query; toeing the line between giving away too much and too little in your query; how to successfully write a multi POV query; and how to balance discussing theme and plot in a query.
After which, Bianca chats with Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Take My Hand, about how not to not ‘hit’ readers over the head with your moral themes; how to make characters who might traditionally be considered to be 'bad' sympathetic; inner and outer conflict; how to conduct extensive research; and defending your structural choices.
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Twitter: @TSNOTYAW @BiancaM_author @carlywatters @ceciliaclyra
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Website: www.biancamarais.com
Dolen can be found at @dolenperkinsvaldez on Instagram, and at www.dolenperkinsvaldez.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's a new year and time to get fresh eyes on your work in progress. |
| 0:04.8 | Are you looking for beta readers, some of whom might potentially become writing group members |
| 0:09.2 | down the line? |
| 0:10.2 | Are you wanting to be matched up with those writing in a similar genre and or time |
| 0:15.0 | zone so they can critique your work as you critique theirs at the same time? |
| 0:19.5 | Your manuscript doesn't have to be complete to sign up |
| 0:22.1 | for this 3,000 word evaluation. This matchup will be open to registrations from now until the |
| 0:28.5 | 2nd of March with the matchup emails going out on the 3rd of March. Always such an exciting day. |
| 0:35.4 | For more information and to register, go to Bianca Moray.com and go to |
| 0:39.7 | the beta reader matchup tab. And please spread the word, even if you aren't joining the matchup this |
| 0:45.7 | time. The more writers we have signed up, the better the matches will be. Hello from CC. |
| 0:52.6 | I'm so excited to announce an all new class called Starting It |
| 0:56.4 | Right, which is all about how to begin your story in the best place and in the best way. Now, |
| 1:01.6 | this is going to be a four-day class, so come prepared to take lots of notes. We'll cover the different |
| 1:06.9 | types of beginnings and how to choose the best one for your story, how to frame your |
| 1:11.6 | inciting incident in a compelling way, common mistakes writers make when starting a story, |
| 1:17.3 | how to balance exposition and mystery, how to make readers connect with your protagonist, and how |
| 1:23.6 | to make the reader want to turn to the next chapter and so much more. |
| 1:28.3 | And guess what? |
| 1:29.3 | For the first time ever, there will be an interactive component to my class. |
| 1:34.3 | Everyone who is registered will have the option of sending in the opening scene of their work |
| 1:40.3 | for a chance to be critiqued during the webinar. |
... |
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