You Can Create Wonderful Characters, Build Great Worlds, And Plot Like A Fiend, BUT...
"If You Can't Write Page-Turning Scenes, You Don't Have A Book"
You want to keep your readers hanging on your every word, but
every time you relax your vigilance, your characters start lounging
around, talking about the weather, drinking coffee and leaning
against walls.
Or perhaps you get fascinated by your own worldbuilding, and when you look up from writing, you discover what you've done is a twenty-
page infodump.
Maybe your scenes race by so fast that when you read them back,
you find the barest sketch of the picture you had in your head while
you were writing.
Or just maybe you haven't got the hang of doing scenes yet at all.
It's okay.
Every one of us who writes for a living started with all of
those problems and a host of others. And every single problem is
fixable. In this course, you'll write your way from the simplest
of scenes to the most complex. You'll start building with
basic scene blocks, write short, compelling practice scenes, and add
complexity as you go.
You'll learn how to avoid common pitfalls, find the excitement and
conflict in each scene, and write just the important parts.
And you'll have fun working through this.
Which Of These Essentials
Are YOUR Scenes Missing?
- The two critical parts EVERY scene must have? (Page 13)
- The FIVE types of conflict that will make writing your stories easier, and keep your readers hooked? (Page 14)
- The short, simple story PLAN technique that will keep you from writing the wrong book? (page 16)
- The TWO absolutes that apply to every form of conflict and every scene? (page 23)
- The special scene technique that lets you grab your reader's attention and totally mislead him WITHOUT cheating?(page 25)
- The great conflict trick that lets your reader see something go wrong, and know it's gone wrong, and makes him NEED to keep reading to find out why? (page 26)
- Internal conflict that shows your reader your hero's anguish--and that makes him empathize--WITHOUT resorting to a bad replay of Hamlet's monologue? (page 28)
- 28 types of conflict between your characters that AREN'T arguing? (page 33)
- Conflict between characters on the same side of your issue? (page 35)
- The ONE kind of conflict that can provide your entire story and everyone in it with a reason to go on? (page 37)
- The way to know which are good scenes and which are bad scenes BEFORE you write them? (page 43)
- An answer to the problem of TOO MANY ideas. (page 58)
- The easiest way to spread out the good stuff over an entire book, and not show your whole hand in just one scene. (page 60)
- A step-by-step method for getting your hero OUT of the corner you got him stuck in? (page 64)
- Straightforward directions on how to dump your boring scenes while identifying and saving what matters in them? (page 71)
- TWO simple, fun, easy ways to write in "breathers" for your readers that DON'T include letting them put the book down? (page 75)
- Five ways to write scenes that suck readers in even when your story is NOT about life-or-death issues? (page 81)
- TWO types of great transitions that will spice up your pages and let you leap all of time and space (or as much of it as you need to) in two sentences? Just two? (page 86)
- The SIMPLE way to use flashbacks, flashforwards, dream sequences, and other scenes that jump your story through time? (page 91)
- THE FOUR SECRETS to when and how you'll use step-by-step action to make your scene gripping, urgent, and must-read...and when you must NEVER use step-by-step action? (page 92)
- The FIVE STEPS to misdirecting most of your readers most of the time? (Though Abraham Lincoln was right. You CAN'T fool all of the people all the time.) (page 95)
- The FOUR ways to choose the right viewpoint character for every scene? (page 98)
- The HOW, WHEN, and WHY behind introducing and using secondary characters? (page 100)
- SEVEN ways for getting real emotion from your head into the scene? (page 107)
- The dialogue technique that will save you (and your readers) from the dreaded Talking Heads Syndrome? (page 107)
- Description that readers NEED, that creates OPPORTUNITIES for plot twists, and that keeps your story moving without EVER bogging it down? (page 109)
- The FIVE senses--plus any others you can invent--used the right way, at the right time, and for the right reasons? (page 112)
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How To Write Page-Turning Scenes
Contains The Answers to Your Questions
And it includes a short essay with the hard, cold math behind why you NEED to write what you LOVE to write.
But don't take my word for it. The course is brand-new, but six other folks have been through it. Their job was to find everyting I missed, everything I got wrong, and everything I forgot. Everyone finished enthused and excited--but this particular beta tester had more to say.
Holly,
You answered my questions, and even answered questions I hadn't thought to ask. :-) This course really put a lot of things together for me. I could almost hear the 'click' in my head when it all snapped into place.
I am blown away by how much that course showed me in just a few days. Whatever you plan to charge, it is worth more!
I don't mean that any specific thing you said was a surprise to me. Instead, it was the way you put it all together, and showed how to make it work. You covered points I already technically knew, and have been using, but showed me how to use them *right*. The only way I can describe it is that my mind feels like a tool whose edge had been dull and rounded, and the course acted like a sharpening stone and put a nice, keen edge on it so it can get right to work.
Before I started the beta-test, I'd been looking over some old, unfinished novels, trying to decide how to fix them. I had some fumbling, not entirely bad ideas. Then, I sat down and ran through the course, and now I have much better ideas of how to whip them into shape. When I looked them over after I reviewed the course carefully, there was a noticeable difference in how easily I could spot problems and plan solutions.
Ray Beere Johnson II, writer and beta tester |
When This Course Might NOT
Be Right for You
I've designed this course to be simple and straightforward, a step-by-step walkthrough that takes you from never having written a scene (or never having written a scene that's sold) to writing complex, multi-layered scenes that will engage all your reader's senses and keep him glued to his seat and enchanted by your story.
I've skipped theory and fluff in favor of practical application.
I've created short, to-the-point exercises that will give you hands-on experience with every critical technique in the course.
I've used my own experience to present those facets of scene writing that I have found essential to getting and staying published through my 17+ years of doing this full-time and through my 30+ novels sold.
You should not buy this course, though, if:
- You're looking for literary theory, not hands-on writing techniques.
Theory is not what I have to offer. I learned how to write sellable novels by doing it; I didn't go to college for it. I don't USE theory. I just use what works. (My background for writing is my weird childhood, ten years as an RN, and living through some very hard times.)
- You expect to improve your writing by reading about writing, instead of doing the actual work.
It won't happen. The only way to write good, salable words is to write a whole lot of bad, unmarketable ones first, and to learn by doing. If you're hoping to learn to write scenes by osmosis, save your money.
- You want a magic bullet to make your work sell.
It took me seven years and more than a hundred rejections to make my first sale. After that, they came thick and fast, but the closest thing I have to offer you in the way of magic bullets is this advice. "Persist."
If you're willing to put in the work, though, I have given you the very best tools in my writing arsenal to get the job done.
You Can Do This
Whether you're a beginner or you've been toiling away at writing for years, you can begin:
- planning and writing better scenes,
- identifying problems with scenes you've written before,
- and stringing them together into stories that will compel you to keep writing, and your readers to keep reading
in the next five minutes. (This course comes in instantly downloadable e-book form.)
Writing novels is a great job--I'd call it the best job on the planet, but I'm biased because it's my job. Still, if someone can love her work after twenty-two years of doing it--though only actually making a living at it for seventeen--you have to think there must be something special about it.
If this is the job you want, I'm thrilled to do what I can to help you get it.
Holly Lisle
P.S. Yes, I really do know how much most full courses cost on the Internet. And I do know I could package this to sell for $97 without even blinking.
But how many college students could afford it? How many younger writers would be able to convince their parents to buy it for them? How many people on tight budgets could swing that?
Part of paying forward is reaching the people who need the help. This course is intended for (just about) everyone.
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