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    The Story Equation: How to Plot and Write a Brilliant Story from One Powerful Question: Brilliant Writer Series
    The Story Equation: How to Plot and Write a Brilliant Story from One Powerful Question: Brilliant Writer Series
    The Story Equation: How to Plot and Write a Brilliant Story from One Powerful Question: Brilliant Writer Series
    Ebook162 pages2 hours

    The Story Equation: How to Plot and Write a Brilliant Story from One Powerful Question: Brilliant Writer Series

    By Susan May Warren

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Discover The Story Equation!

    One question can unlock your entire story! Are you struggling to build a riveting plot? Layered characters? Fortify that saggy middle? Create that powerful ending?

    Build your entire book by asking one powerful question, and then plugging it into an “equation” that makes your plot and characters come to life. You’ll learn how to build the external and internal journey of your characters, create a theme, build story and scene tension, create the character change journey and even pitch and market your story. 

    Learn:

    • The amazing trick to creating unforgettable, compelling characters that epic movies use!
    • How to create riveting tension to keep the story driving from chapter to chapter
    • The easy solution to plotting the middle of your novel
    • The one element every story needs to keep a reader up all night
    • How to craft an ending that makes your reader say to their friends, “Oh, you have to read this book!”

    Using the powerful technique that has created over fifty RITA, Christy and Carol award-winning, best-selling novels, Susan May Warren will show novelists how to utilize The Story Equation to create the best story they’ve ever written.

    “The Story Equation is pure genius.” — Randy Ingermanson, author of Writing Fiction for Dummies

    "In simple yet powerful terms, Susan May Warren lays down the essential crafting elements that make for a gripping tale. This is the stuff we all need to first learn and then constantly keep in mind as we dive into the process of laying the story we see in our minds down on the page. A great benefit to all writers of fiction." Ted Dekker, New York Times best-selling author

    "There have been only two must-have craft books on my shelf for years. Now there is a third. If you write fiction, Susan May Warren's The Story Equation is a book you need to buy. And devour. I could talk in detail about the book's insight, its power to transform your writing, its brilliance, but suffice it to say I predict this will become a classic in the library of how to write bestselling stories." James L. Rubart, Bestselling author of The Long Journey to Jake Palmer.

    “Susan May Warren loves to help novelists outrageously succeed. She does this in a practical way through her insightful book, The Story Equation. I felt like I’d been taken by the hand and mentored by a masterful storyteller!” Mary DeMuth, author of six novels including, The Muir House (Zondervan).

    "Susan May Warren is a terrific teacher and enabler of fiction writers. I wholeheartedly agree with the approach of starting from the character journey and wrapping the plot around it. I think the SEQ can really help lots of authors." Jeff Gerke, national writing instructor and Writer's Digest author of The Irresistible Novel

    "Every novelist who wants to up their game should own a copy of The Story Equation. Susan May Warren has distilled down years of teaching to an understandable, transferable technique — the SEQ — that helps them develop stories that will captivate their readers. I’ve seen Susie teach this method and watched the “before” and “after” affect in writers’ lives — including my own." Beth K. Vogt, 2016 Christy Award-winning author of Crazy Little Thing Called Love

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMy Book Therapy
    Release dateOct 11, 2016
    ISBN9781943935123
    The Story Equation: How to Plot and Write a Brilliant Story from One Powerful Question: Brilliant Writer Series

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      The Story Equation - Susan May Warren

      Praise for The Story Equation

      The Story Equation is pure genius.  Randy Ingermanson, author of Writing Fiction for Dummies

      "In simple yet powerful terms, Susan May Warren lays down the essential crafting elements that make for a gripping tale. This is the stuff we all need to first learn and then constantly keep in mind as we dive into the process of laying the story we see in our minds down on the page. A great benefit to all writers of fiction." Ted Dekker, New York Times best-selling author

      "There have been only two must-have craft books on my shelf for years. Now there is a third. If you write fiction, Susan May Warren’s The Story Equation is a book you need to buy. And devour. I could talk in detail about the book’s insight, its power to transform your writing, its brilliance, but suffice it to say I predict this will become a classic in the library of how to write bestselling stories." James L. Rubart, best-selling author of The Long Journey to Jake Palmer

      "Susan May Warren loves to help novelists outrageously succeed. She does this in a practical way through her insightful book, The Story Equation. I felt like I’d been taken by the hand and mentored by a masterful storyteller!" Mary DeMuth, author of six novels including, The Muir House

      "Susan May Warren is a terrific teacher and enabler of fiction writers. I wholeheartedly agree with the approach of starting from the character journey and wrapping the plot around it. I think the SEQ can really help lots of authors." Jeff Gerke, national writing instructor and Writer’s Digest author of The Irresistible Novel

      The Story Equation

      Susan May Warren

      Minneapolis, Minnesota

      learnhowtowriteanovel.com

      The Story Equation: How to Plot and Write a Brilliant Story with One Powerful Question

      Copyright © 2016 by Susan May Warren. Manufactured in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by My Book Therapy, a division of Susan May Warren Fiction, LLC, 20 Wild Plum Dr., Grand Marais, MN 55604. (218) 370-8395. First Edition.

      Visit our Web site at www.mybooktherapy.com for information on more resources for writers.

      To receive instruction on writing, or further help with writing projects via My Book Therapy's boutique fiction editing services, contact info@mybooktherapy.com

      Dedication:

      For your Glory, Lord . . .

      To everyone who ever attended one of my classes, encouraged me and wanted more from their writing, this is for you.

      Acknowledgements

      To Rachel, my story therapist, my teaching partner and the person who said, Hey, what you teach sounds sort of like an equation.

      You are brilliant.

      To David, my amazing assistant for helping me sort out how to write this book, for his thoughtful questions and helping me each week teach these concepts to writers. I would be adrift without you.

      To Beth Vogt, for your friendship and for applying your amazing editing skills to this book. I shudder to think what it would have looked like without you!

      To the My Book Therapy Voices for their encouragement and questions that make me into a better writer and teacher.

      Finally, to Andrew and my family.

      Thank you for feeding me and keeping me sane. I love you guys.

      Foreword

      I’ve been writing partners with Susan May Warren, affectionately called Susie May, for more than a decade.

      Her passion for writing and story is eclipsed only by her passion for teaching and mentoring.

      In 2005, outside a Nashville coffee house, we brainstormed our current books. We found an instant connection and camaraderie. We laughed while challenging each other’s story points and from that moment on, we grew in friendship and craft.

      Over the years, Susie molded everything she learned into acronyms, how-to steps, and what to dos. I watched her heart to teach and mentor explode. Out of that came the multifaceted and brilliant My Book Therapy. 

      The book you hold in your hands, The Story Equation, is the result of ten plus years of writing, teaching, and rewriting, long phone conversations on how to tell a better story.

      The methods and techniques you’ll learn in the book are proven. Susie uses them. I use them. Award-winning authors trained through My Book Therapy use them.

      Here’s the thing, the SEQ is designed to work with your process. It’s not a step-by-step guide like firing up your new computer, but a tool box you can use to build your best possible story.

      The SEQ works for pantsers, plotters, and everyone in between.

      Read this book over and over. Use it as a guide for each story you’ll start. The techniques will become second nature to you. This will be one of the best writing books you’ve ever purchased. 

      Now, read. Then go write something brilliant. 

      Rachel Hauck

      New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal best-selling author

      How can you take your writing to the next level? How do you add those rich layers and create constant tension that have your readers turning pages late at night and losing sleep? Whether you’re published, seeking publication, or bravely navigating the new world of indie publishing, you need the Story Equation.

      Ask yourself one powerful question and find the elements that add up to a compelling story. Fascinating characters, their internal and external journeys, story and scene tension, a riveting romance, and even the perfect ending are all connected components of bestsellers. The Story Equation is something every writer—novice or advanced, outliner or organic—can use.

      Using this powerful technique that has helped me create nearly fifty books, many of which have landed on the bestseller list and won RITA, Carol, or Christy awards, I will ask the one question that leads to the Story Equation, and then show you how to utilize it for the best story you’ve ever written.

      You will discover:

      The amazing trick to creating unforgettable, compelling characters that epic movies use!

      How to create riveting tension to keep the story driving from chapter to chapter

      The easy solution to plotting the middle of your novel

      The one element every story needs to keep a reader up all night

      How to craft an ending that makes your reader say to their friends, Oh, you have to read this book!

      The Job of the Author

      It’s all about story. No, wait. It’s all about characters. Or what about the plot?

      These comments are constantly batted around at writers conferences, in libraries, over mocha-lattes, and in book clubs. What makes a novel powerful, something you want to pass along?

      All of the above. Because theme, plot, and characters all conspire to create the one thing a reader needs in order to enjoy—and pass along—a story.

      The emotional connection.

      Wouldn’t it be nice if you could plot your entire story and create an emotional connection with your reader by asking one question?

      You can.

      Who are you?

      The answer to this question forms the core of the Story Equation, which is divided into two elements:

      Your character’s Identity

      Your character’s Dark Moment Story

      From that Dark Moment Story (DMS) you’re going to pull all your essential ingredients to create your compelling character and riveting plot:

      the character’s Greatest Fear

      his Lie

      his Flaw

      his Competing Values

      his Want

      his Wound

      and the big Why that drives the entire story

      Let me stop here and remind you what fundamental pieces a story needs. A sympathetic character who wants something for a good reason but has something to lose (a.k.a., the problem), who goes on a quest to attain that goal and solve that problem. He faces substantial internal and external obstacles and discovers he must change and grow to overcome them until he finds himself in a better place at the Happily Ever After ending.

      How well your readers connect with and care about this character determines the success of a story. In other words, if they’ve emotionally gone on the journey with the character, suffered with and experienced the joys and triumphs of the character, as well as learned the lessons and truths, only then have you, the author, done your job.

      In short, did you move your readers emotionally—made them laugh, cry, worry—so that they hated to put the book down?

      Because if readers are emotionally invested in a story, they will be glued to the outcome, cheering for the characters, weeping with them when they fail, and ultimately learning the lessons the characters learned in the finale of the journey. And, in this way, your readers will be forever impacted by the story.

      Drawing your reader into the story is accomplished by creating an emotional connection with the reader. If they feel and live the story, then they will like your story. Yes, it’s important to write the words well because glaring grammar and punctuation errors, as well as poorly crafted sentences, pull readers out of a story and distance them. A smoothly written story and a well-crafted plot pull a reader in.

      But ultimately, it’s the universal emotional connection to the story that matters the most.

      And it’s this connection that causes stories to change lives forever—they are carried in the hearts of readers, passed from friend to friend, generation to generation, and ultimately make a mark on the world with the truths held inside.

      Let’s test this.

      What stories have changed you? To Kill a Mockingbird? A Christmas Carol? Little Women? The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Think about the books you loved as a child. Did they empower you? Inspire you? Anger you? How did they shape your view of the world?

      Did you read The Shack? Millions have read this book, and it touched people on a deep

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