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

by Susan May Warren (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 334 ratings
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The easy, organic, can't-fail way to create compelling characters and plot your best-selling novel!

Are you struggling to build a riveting plot? Layered characters? How about fortify that saggy middle? Create that powerful ending?

You can plot 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 create compelling characters, build the external and internal journey of your characters, create a theme, create story and scene tension, plot your novel organically, and even pitch and market your bestseller. All with one amazing question.

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
    Previous page
    1. Print length
      154 pages
    2. Language
      English
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    4. Publication date
      October 11, 2016
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    1. The best way to reveal a Bio story is to drop breadcrumbs of information in the beginning chapters, or scenes, to stir the hunger of the reader.
      Highlighted by 479 Kindle readers
    2. The power of the Bio story is to compel the reader or movie viewer to be sympathetic toward the POV character just enough to agree with the journey he must take.
      Highlighted by 389 Kindle readers
    3. Your character’s motivation is his Noble Quest, his goal, his purpose for the journey. Remember, the entire point of your character’s journey is to change and grow. The external plot exists to push him forward into that inner growth.
      Highlighted by 333 Kindle readers
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    Editorial Reviews

    About the Author

    Susan May Warren is the RITA and Christy award-winning author of nearly fifty novels with Tyndale, Barbour and Steeple Hill. A seven-time Christy finalist, a three-time RITA Finalist, she's also a multi-winner of the Inspirational Readers Choice award, and the ACFW Carol Award/Book of the Year. A popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation, she's the founder of www.mybooktherapy.com, a premier craft and coaching community for novelists, and the author of Conversations with a Writing Coach.

    Product details

    • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01LWXKLZV
    • Publisher ‏ : ‎ My Book Therapy (October 11, 2016)
    • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 11, 2016
    • Language ‏ : ‎ English
    • File size ‏ : ‎ 4192 KB
    • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
    • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
    • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
    • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
    • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
    • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
    • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
    • Print length ‏ : ‎ 154 pages
    • Customer Reviews:
      4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 334 ratings

    About the author

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    Susan May Warren

    Susan May Warren

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    Although I attended the U of Minnesota, I’m a woodsy girl at heart. Or maybe I’m an adventurer—having lived and traveled all over the world, including Siberia, Russia as a missionary for eight years. That’s why my characters seem to get into one scrape after another—they’re too much like me! I love God, my family, my country, my church, and feel privileged every day to be able to write stories.

    And my 'official' bio:

    With nearly 2 million books sold, critically acclaimed novelist Susan May Warren is the Christy, RITA, and Carol award-winning author of over ninety novels. Known for her compelling plots and unforgettable characters, Susan has penned contemporary and historical romances, romantic suspense, thrillers, rom-coms, and Christmas novellas. With books translated into eight languages, she's a USA Today, ECPA and CBA bestseller, and has received numerous starred Publisher Weekly reviews. Library Journal says, "Warren’s characters are well-developed and she knows how to create a first rate contemporary romance.”

    Susan is a nationally acclaimed writing coach, and winner of the 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers Mentor of the Year. She is the founder of Novel.Academy, author of the popular writing method, The Story Equation, and a founding partner of Sunrise Media Group.

    Customer reviews

    4.5 out of 5 stars
    4.5 out of 5
    334 global ratings
    This step-by-step method of working through a novel is genius.
    5 Stars
    This step-by-step method of working through a novel is genius.
    I had just started writing a book where the protagonist has a dream, but the dream is "up the wrong alley." Throughout the book, he relentlessly follows that dream at the sacrifice of his home and wife. I was planning for him to have a real meltdown when he realized it was the wrong dream, when I discovered this book. I ordered it as soon as I heard about it, and it arrived within days. It was exactly what I needed. She called it his "black moment". I read it until the middle of the night, then finished it up the next morning.I did appreciate the fact that she did not fill her book with a lot of fluff of examples of how not to write. She made her points and moved on to the next one. Everything was laid out logically, simply, and uncluttered. This is a must have for any serious novelist.
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    Top reviews from the United States

    Jd Karavian
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on story craft
    Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    I've read a lot of craft books. This is one of the few I keep coming back to. I'm a discovery writer, not a plotter. When writing into the dark, the SEQ serves as a beacon, ensuring your characters' motivations are cohesive. The SEQ really helps clarify the bigger picture, and helps inject internal conflict into every scene. If you need help clarifying your stories and characters, this might be the book for you.
    One person found this helpful
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    AmazonCustomer
    5.0 out of 5 stars SIMPLE AND CONCISE—AND THE BEST STARTER BOOK EVER!
    Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Susan May Warren is brilliant and gifted and is the only author I know who has deconstructed story writing into such bitesize pieces, that anyone can learn to write a decent, compelling story—if they follow her map.

    If you are frustrated with your own storytelling, tired of not getting to the finals in contests, or not getting asked for your proposal? You might want to take a look at this book. It’s the basics of good story writing and believe me when I say, you will find yourself returning to again and again for solid answers on story construction that gets you noticed.

    I have read and own every Susan May Warren book on writing she has written and everyone of them is absolutely crammed full of easy to understand direction and samples on how to accomplish each step along your writing journey. I’d give her books more stars if I could.
    2 people found this helpful
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    mswans
    4.0 out of 5 stars A good primer but has its issues
    Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    This book needs to be plotted a little better, imo. While the basics are there and clear enough and it's a helpful idea--plot using the character arc (though by no means the only way to plot), there's something about it that feels a little random in the overall picture. The author repeats her stated process using different terminology here and there, emphasizing certain points seemingly at random, while leaving others out that are mentioned earlier, leaving you wondering "Okay, so is THIS the important thing now, or was it that other thing?"

    The author would probably say it's all important, but unfortunately that's not how it feels when reading. That said, it's short. And you can get the gist. I will say I was not at all pleased with the football analogy...I am not into sports at all and thought that was really misguided, given that most artists and creatives I know aren't into sports either--though apparently this author is.

    I would guess by her mentioning of her own writings, too, that her work is fairly mediocre. She describes her child's messy room in a way that's heavy handed, and her discovery of a need to paint a room in her house is as boring as the paint drying.

    Can you find something useful from this? Probably. Do you need it to write a novel, probably not, if you have other resources at your fingertips for story structure, etc.
    3 people found this helpful
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    Denise A. Barker
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and Genius Approach Using Character-Driven Concept
    Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    As serendipity would have it, I read yesterday (all in one sitting) this wonderful book by Susan May Warren, which confirms my own thoughts as to my character-driven mind-set when it comes to storytelling. So I abhor those articles and books and such that say I must answer a one-hundred-question form as to each main character's (trivial) backstory, including high school attended and pet's name. Rubbish! And what a waste of time. [I read a Kaizen book two days ago, so I'm even more into efficiency, plus loving this main principle of Kaizen: DO NOT PRODUCE, TRANSMIT OR ACCEPT WASTE].

    As Susan explains in her book, her process, dubbed the SEQ (shorthand for the book's title), is about emotions and values, more intrinsic descriptions that define our heroes and heroines.

    Amen!

    Plus, once we have the main plot points drafted (via her special brainstorming timeline), she teaches us about a unique concept: starting from the end and working backward. That way we know what to foreshadow, and we stay on track with our main plot, the character's growth, the theme of our story. She actually has a separate step where we focus on the conflict, making sure we escalate the three try/fail cycles and also give our hero(ine) enough motivation for his/her journey.

    I highly recommend this book. Can be read in about two hours and fifteen minutes. Take notes!
    105 people found this helpful
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    N. Kern
    3.0 out of 5 stars Good for character depth, suffers from poor reference material
    Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    This book was so frustrating. One on hand, Warren digs deep into characters and helps a writer get at deeper motivations for why they do things. I picked up this book well into working on my novel and while I have good info on my characters I was able to pull out so much more from them using the Dark Moment Story diagram.
    However, and this was a HUGE minus for me, much of the book references other books or films which were either unknown to me or uninteresting. The author references much of her own work (okay fine, I get that even if I don’t read her books) and uses a popular film alongside it sometimes. There’s a clear bias for Mel Gibson here so if you’re cool with him, fine. This book probably won’t annoy you.
    I even understood her football analogy for plot and I’m not a sports person at all.
    But constant references to movies I will never watch because they star a raging antisemite are a big strike against the book for me
    So okay, maybe I’m not this author’s target audience. She’s a Christian, open about her beliefs, writing cozy sounding romance thrillers. I’m an atheist refugee from fundamentalism writing space opera. But—if you want your how-to book to really be effective, you need it to be relatable to more people.
    So many use the Harry Potter series. Ugh I’m sick of Harry Potter. I’m glad she didn’t use it. I don’t care what her reasons were.
    But one entire chapter in this book was practically useless because I didn’t know the author’s references.
    SO—imagine my surprise when slogging through the last stage of reading this boo, Warren uses the movie The Princess Bride as an example.
    A popular, well-loved movie, meme’d all over so that everyone knows it and everyone I know who has any interest in storytelling can quote lines from. A highly relatable example! Why not just use it?? Why??
    High marks for character analysis tools
    Low marks for unrelatable material in a book that would be more effective if the references were well known.
    3 stars
    11 people found this helpful
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    Top reviews from other countries

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    k84
    5.0 out of 5 stars わかりやすく、単純で使いやすい
    Reviewed in Japan on October 9, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    「100も質問に答えないといけない小説マニュアル本を持っているなら、今すぐ削除しなさい、後悔はさせないから」と最初に書いてある。

    最近、小説の書き方の本をまとめて読んでいるが、複雑なものが多い。きちんと作られているが、実用的かどうか、自分の能力と合わせて考えると、怪しいものもある。その点、この本は簡単だった。たった一つの質問「Why?」を繰り返すのがポイントだ。

    まず、キャラクターにインタビューする。ノートか何か用意して、質問を書き、キャラクターになったつもりで答える（よく考えると多重人格的だが、気にしないように！と書いてある）。「Who are you?」と最初に聞いたら、あとは返ってきた答えの気になるところに「なんで○○なの？」と聞き続けるだけ。これで、キャラクター本人が気にしている過去の思い出にたどり着く。あとは、その思い出（心の傷）から物語を組み立てていく。

    物語のステップ（神話の法則的な）を繰り返しで何回もかけて深めていく時に、段々と関係性がわからなくなっていくところがあるので、最後にわかりやすいフローチャートか何かがあればなおのこと良かった。どうせこういうのを読む人間は他にも本を持っているから、他の本で組み立ててもいいだろうが。
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