Crack the Code: Craft Your Novel Using Story, Scenes and Words

By susan meier

Unlock the secrets to writing a great book.

Bestselling author, Susan Meier, has taught hundreds of writers how to create compelling, highly memorable novels that will leave readers wanting more. She shares her secrets in Crack the Code: Craft Your Novel Using Story, Scenes, and Words.

Crack the Code is full of strategies for writing the best book possible. Learn where to start your story, how to fix a book that's gone off track, and how to sharpen your prose to make each word matter.

Using tools like one-paragraph story summaries, action/reaction/decisions trains, and nine scene enhancers, Susan makes novel writing an organized, happy process. The concepts are simple. The tools are easy to use.

If you're struggling with cracking the code of the mechanics of executing your great idea, this how-to is for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: susan meier
• Release date: May 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201723491

susan meier

The author of over seventy books and twenty writing workshops, Susan Meier has been married to her husband Mike for over forty years. She is the mother of three wonderful children and slave to one spoiled cat who thinks she's human.

Book preview

Crack the Code

Crack the Code

Craft Your Novel Using Story, Scenes, and Words

Susan Meier

Contents

WORKSHOP 1 - KNOW YOUR STORY

Introduction

Lesson 1: What Is Story?

Lesson 2: Log Line

Lesson 3: Core Story Question

Lesson 4: The Back-Cover Blurb

Lesson 5: The Growth Paragraph

Lesson 6: The Mini Synopsis

Lesson 7: Wrap Up

WORKSHOP 2 EXECUTION: WORKING WITH PLOT AND SCENES

Introduction

Lesson 1 :Executing Your Idea

Lesson 2 What’s A Scene Supposed To Do?

Lesson 3: What If Your Action/Reaction/Decision Train Stalls?

Lesson 4: Using Journey Steps To Finesse Your Plot

Lesson 5: Tool #1: Setting

Lesson 6: Tool #2: Descriptions

Lesson 7: Tool #3: Point Of View (Pov)

Lesson 8: Tool #4: Convey Mood And Tone

Lesson 9: Tool #5: Conveying Character Emotion

Lesson 10: Tools #6&7: Backstory And Dialogue

Lesson 11: Tool #8: Foreshadowing

Lesson 12: Tool #9: Hooks And Humor

Lesson 13: Final Thoughts On Execution

Workshop 3 Can This Manuscript Be Saved?

Introduction

Lesson 1: Seven Deadly Sins

Lesson 2: Story, Scene And Word— Fixing Story Problems Part I

Lesson 3: All The Possibilities—Story Problems Part Ii

Lesson 4: Scene Problems—Action, Reaction, Decision: The Magic Formula For Plotting

Lesson 5: Scenes Again!

Lesson 6: The Importance Of One Word (Characterization 101)

Lesson 7: Cut To The Chase Six Tools Published Authors Use To Save Time And Come Up With Better Stories

Lesson 8: Pulling It All Together

Afterword

CITATIONS

About the Author

Copyright 2021 Linda Susan Meier

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the author.

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Cover Design: Ecila Media Group

Editing: Donna Alward, Words Between Pages

ISBN 978-0-9993384-4-5

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WORKSHOP 1 - KNOW YOUR STORY

Introduction

Hi, I’m Susan Meier, author of close to eighty books. My road to publication and continued publication wasn’t an easy one. In fact, some years, it was downright rocky. That’s bad news for me, but good news for you. Those rocky years showed me that no matter how much talent I had, I had to learn the craft. The tricks and tools I created to strengthen my own writing ultimately became twenty workshops.

But cracking the code to create those tricks and tools wasn’t as simple as those few lines make it sound. Without the resources budding authors currently have at their disposal—how-to-write books, the internet with its plethora of writing workshops, and even entire conferences on YouTube—my only option was trial and error.

Every time I got a rejection or revision letter, I studied that turkey, looking for what my editor was really saying about my manuscript. I knew the issues she wanted me to fix were the keys to a great book, and I soon realized that her comments fell into one of three groups: problems with the story, problems with the scenes, or problems with the words. Which led me to realize that we write on three levels.

Story, Scenes, and Words.

Think that through. We tell a story through scenes and create scenes with words.

Mastery in each of these disciplines requires a completely different skill set, even as the skills are interdependent. Your scenes are written with words, but you also must have a solid story so your scenes can be strong and relevant. Your story is told through scenes, but if your grasp of language is bad, your sentences will be weak. If your descriptions are lackluster or overblown, your book will lag.

In other words, you can be great at thinking up stories, but if your execution is off, the resulting book can be poor, rather than as wonderful as it should have been. You can come up with fabulous scenes that really tell the story in a robust way, but if you don’t know the basics of using words and punctuation, your book won’t have the power it should have.

I remember, decades ago, discussing my most recent submission with an editor. She said, That was such a great conflict that I expected the story to have a stronger impact, and from that one throwaway line in our phone conversation, I knew that a book that should have been great ended up being only okay because I didn’t execute it well. I didn’t have strong scenes or use words properly.

In the three workshops of this how-to, we’ll examine the specifics of story, scenes, and words. We’ll first explore story, then we’ll move on to execution of that story through scenes, then editing—not so much nitpicking sentences and words but looking at the power of words as we also examine fixing story and scenes when we edit.

So, fasten your seatbelts. It might not be a bumpy ride, but it’s going to be a thorough one.

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Susan Meier

Lesson 1: What Is Story?

Simply put, a story is an account of events for education or entertainment.

Easy, right?

Yeah. Sort of.

That description doesn’t take plot into account.

That vague definition of story also doesn’t mention goals, motivations, or conflicts (both internal and external).

It doesn’t give you any hint about character or emotion or how emotion and needs can drive a plot the same way they can drive a real life.

If you read that definition of story all by itself and used it to write a novel, you could end up with something that reads more like a list of events with very little emotion.

A story is more complicated than a list of events. It has life and vitality, pain and growth. In most stories, the protagonist must grow in order to achieve their goal.

In fact, let’s slide my definition of plot in right here so you can see a bit about what I mean.

In Susan Meier World…

Plot is all the steps your main character(s) takes to get from who they are at the beginning of the book—the inciting incident, the terrible trouble, the day/moment everything changed—to who they are at the satisfying conclusion.

(By the way, most of the definitions in this workshop are mine, created by me, so you can easily understand some fairly complex concepts. If it doesn’t sound like any other definition you’ve heard before, that’s why.)

With the definition of plot in mind, here’s the Susan Meier definition of story:

A story is great characters with internal and external conflicts, both of which are resolved in a plot, told with energy and truth.

Meaning, your story must be interesting, compelling, credible, and consistent.

Interesting, of course, means of interest to readers.

A story is compelling if readers fly through the pages and stay up all night reading. (That’s where the energy part of the story comes in.)

Credible means this could really happen, albeit in your vampire, hospital, or made-up universe. (You make the rules, and you stick to them.)

Consistent means that characters go through the story doing things they really would do based on their goals, motivations, and conflicts—and ultimately their growth.

But how do you know your story will be all that (and a bag of chips)?

Can you figure out some of that before you write, to save time and to make sure your story goes in the right direction from day one? Is there a way to give yourself assurance that you’re writing something that has the potential to be wonderful? A way that keeps you from shaking in your boots or waffling through the entire draft?

Yes. By writing a story summary.

I don’t care if you’re a plotter or a pantser (someone who writes by the seat of their pants), knowing at least the barebones of your story will make writing your story so much easier than just sitting down with an idea and hoping for the best.

For instance…

I know many people who get a scene idea, especially if it’s what they consider the first scene of a book—the scene that opens the story—and they sit down and begin writing, believing the story is so strong it will write itself.

Usually, they get to about page 100 and call me, weeping. Lost. Not sure what should come next. In worst case scenarios, they might even realize they don’t have a story at all. They thought they did, but once they began writing they found holes, gaps, problems.

Sound familiar?

Knowing your story before you begin writing eliminates most of that kind of trouble.

And no! I’m not saying pantsers are bad. I’m saying that having a story summary, a barebones encapsulation of the story you want to tell, will make your book-writing journey easier and more efficient. Especially for people who love writing by the seat of their pants.

What does a story summary look like?

First off, it’s one line or one paragraph. No more. (Don’t groan. You can do it. I’ll show you how.)

Second, it’s only an encapsulation with very little detail. More like an overview.

Third, it clearly shows enough substance to support an entire novel.

Some people create a story summary before they write a word. (That’s me, by the way. To me there is no point in writing until I come up with a strong story. It must be a story I can say in one line or one paragraph and know there’s sufficient material to support an entire novel.)

Some people get an idea, jot down important things like goals, motivations, and conflicts, then create a story summary using everything they’ve come up with.

Others need to write a few scenes or chapters to get a feel for the story. Those people then take what they’ve written and run it through a story summary to either affirm they are on the right track and have a great story, or to figure out what’s lacking in what they’ve written and organize the idea so they can plug the holes.

Because all books and all writers are different, there isn’t one version of a story summary that works for everyone. I have found five variations—five different versions of story summaries.

Five different ways to:

checkan idea

come up withan idea

or sift a strong story idea from the pages/chapters you’ve already written.

The first one is a log line, or a one-line description of your story. But not everybody can condense an idea to one line. Other versions include:

core story question

one-paragraph mini synopsis

back-cover blurb

growth paragraph.

Any of these can be used to come up with or test an idea. Remember, all you’re looking for is the heart or core of your story.

You don’t want to know every nitpicky detail because you want to be able to see the heart of your story at a glance.

This is why I’m not suggesting you write a synopsis. A synopsis, as you know, can get fairly long, and anytime anything gets long, you can’t really see the whole thing at a glance. Also, you can get so involved in the details or steps of the story that you can’t see the heart, or the core.

The log line, core story question, mini synopsis, back-cover blurb, and growth paragraph are all great tools to show you the heart of the story.

Once you’ve written one for your story, you can look at it and ask…

Is this idea strong enough, interesting enough, compelling enough to sustain an entire novel?

And if it’s not, you also should be able to:

see what’s lacking and add it,

see what’s weak and fix it,

and see what doesn’t work and eliminate it.

That’s a pretty tall order, so we’ll examine all five story summaries to show you how they work. Then you can pick the one that suits you and your story.

Let’s start with the log line—a one-line description of your story.

Lesson 2: Log Line

Lots of people call this the elevator pitch because a log line tells your story in one sentence. Which makes it easy to say when you’re standing in an elevator with an editor or agent, probably at a writer’s conference. But the log line should also be structured in such a way that it blows people away when they hear it or read it.

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In my romantic suspense, the hero and heroine must catch a killer, but she’s already been arrested for the crime, and he’s the DA prosecuting her.

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Now, in the romantic suspense heyday, that story would have sold on that pitch. Especially if the person pitching was already published, and the editor in the elevator with her was desperate for a new book!

Anybody who hears that pitch instantly knows the story.

It’s a romantic suspense, so a specific story structure will be used (and the book will fit a genre and hit a market).

We also know there’ll be danger.

There will be job problems for the DA. He might even lose his job at one point.

There’s a huge conflict for the romance.

The heroine might be facing death since this could be a death-penalty crime.

Lots of great stuff in that story!

That one line will not only get attention, it will also keep you on track as a writer.

Really? Sure! If you have a log line, any time you lose focus as you’re writing, all you have to do is read that one line and it will instantly remind you of the heart or core of the story.

Let’s look at a few more, using stories you might recognize:

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A man meets a woman with no short-term memory and gets her to fall in love with him every