Tame Your Book!
By Grant Ferguson
Tame Your Book!Dec 29, 2021
Discover Breakthrough Writing Teachers and Resources
Visit https://tameyourbook.com/discover-breakthrough-writing-teachers-and-resources/ to read the latest post.
How to Take Control of Your Story Themes
Visit https://tameyourbook.com/how-to-take-control-of-your-story-themes/ to read this week's post. Learn how to take control of your story themes.
Create and Structure Your Plot with 7-Step Storytelling Tool
Visit https://tameyourbook.com/create-and-structure-your-plot-with-7-step-storytelling-tools/ to read this week's post. Learn how you can create and structure your plot with 7-Step Storytelling tools.
Dare to Create Unique Character Descriptions and Distinct Voices
This week, Grant challenges you to create diverse characters, and gives examples from the popular 1985 movie, Clue. To learn more, visit https://tameyourbook.com/unique-character-descriptions-and-distinct-voices/.
Overcome Busyness and Become a Better Writer
Don't let busyness steal your dream to write a book readers will love. Read the post at https://tameyourbook.com/overcome-busyness-and-become-a-better-writer/.
Premise Guides Your Story
Learn the nine essential steps to create a premise for your story. Write a book readers will love. Visit https://tameyourbook.com/premise-guides-your-story/ to view the post.
What Can Free Checklists for Writers Do for You?
To get the four free checklists for writers, visit https://tameyourbook.com/what-can-free-checklists-for-writers-do-for-you/.
How to Create a Book Trailer with Canva Pro
Visit Tame Your Book and learn how to create a book trailer with Canva Pro. You'll find detailed instructions and a link to a 30-day free trial so you can get hands-on experience at no cost. Read the post at https://tameyourbook.com/create-a-book-trailer/.
Holiday Gifts for Writers
Looking for gift ideas? Learn more at https://tameyourbook.com/holiday-gifts-for-writers/. Click the link in the post to see a dozen gift ideas for writers, perfect for Christmas or a treat-yourself day.
A Story HOOK Example
See the story hook example based on Death of an Heir. Visit https://tameyourbook.com/story-hook/. The post explains the scene beats and reviews four Thanksgiving-themed novellas.
Story Beats: Discover an Easy Way to Write Your Novel's Essential Scenes
In the past, I just wanted to write and skip all the technical stuff, but once I understood how beats pump the narrative blood throughout the story body, my approach to storytelling changed. Learn how you can use Global Story Beats to write your novel’s essential scenes. Visit https://tameyourbook.com/story-beats/.
Plot a Story Using the Story Body Structure
A short trailer about this week's blog, helping your envision your entire narrative using the Story Body format. Read the post at https://tameyourbook.com/plot-a-story-using-the-story-body-structure/, and get your free download of the Story Body example.
Stuck Trying to Turn a Premise into a Plot? Try This Instead!
A short trailer about this week's blog helping you turn your idea into a novel. Read the post at https://tameyourbook.com, and be sure to get your free Character Profile.
How to Create the Ultimate Character Arc and Profile
A short trailer about this week's blog. Visit TameYourBook.com, read the full article, and get the free Character Profile.
3 Traits of Successful Writers
People measure writing success by different yardsticks, such as audience size, money, and fame. What's your benchmark? Explore in this podcast the five behaviors that reveal the top three traits of successful writers. To read the expanded post, visit https://tameyourbook.com/3-traits-of-successful-writers/.
What are Global Story Beats?
A beat describes a unit of action or change, but you might wonder, what are Global Story Beats? Learn more at https://tameyourbook.com/how-to-use-global-story-beats-with-scrivener/.
What Is the Difference between Conflict, Tension, and Suspense?
James Scott Bell, an excellent author and teacher wrote: We start to care about characters when trouble—or the hint of it—comes along. Get the FREE Conflict & Tension Checklist: 60-plus captivating ideas you can use to increase reader engagement. https://tameyourbook.com/what-is-the-difference-between-conflict-tension-and-suspense/
What Is Publisher Rocket?
Listen to how Publisher Rocket can help you sell more books. And for an in-depth Publisher Rocket Review, visit https://tameyourbook.com/reviews/publisher-rocket-review/.
What Is Foreshadowing?
By the end of this podcast, you’ll grasp a technique for writing page-turners. After the podcast, visit https://tameyourbook.com/how-to-foreshadow-with-scrivener/, and let me show you step-by-step How to Foreshadow with Scrivener.
Is Scrivener Better Than Word?
Today I’m going to answer a frequently asked question: Is Scrivener better than Word? Visit Tame Your Book and let me show you why Scrivener is the preferred app for writing full-length novels. https://tameyourbook.com/is-scrivener-better-than-word/
Self-edit Your Novel (Part 3)
In this multi-post series, you’ll discover techniques and technology to help you self-edit. Part 3 offers questions to uncover plot problems and opportunities. To read the full post with examples, visit https://tameyourbook.com/self-edit-your-novel-part-3/.
Self-edit Your Novel (Part 2)
In this multi-post series, you’ll discover techniques and technology to help you self-edit. Part 2 offers advice on scene-by-scene editing of characters. To learn more, visit https://tameyourbook.com/self-edit-your-novel-part-2/.
Self-edit Your Novel (Part 1D)
In this multi-post series, you’ll discover techniques and technology to help you self-edit your novel. Today's podcast discusses how you can use Scrivener's Custom Metadata to write and edit using deep point-of-view techniques. For more information, visit https://tameyourbook.com/self-edit-your-novel-part-1d/.
Knowledge Retention Comes One Choice at a Time
Are you drowning in a sea of post-it-notes? You find answers to writing questions, but then must choose how to keep track of them. Knowledge retention comes one choice at a time—decide how you'll use technology to preserve your hard-earned education. To learn more, visit https://tameyourbook.com/knowledge-retention-comes-one-choice-at-a-time/.
Self-edit Your Novel (Part 1C)
In this multi-post series, you’ll discover techniques and technology to help you self-edit your novel. Today I’ll show how Custom Metadata can help you: add, update, and track essential story information, perform a scene-by-scene content review, enhance the bond between readers and characters, and avoid distracting readers with the author’s voice. Visit https://tameyourbook.com/self-edit-your-novel-part-1c/ to view the online post and examples.
Self-edit Your Novel (Part 1B)
In today’s podcast, I’ll cover how ProWritingAid can help you decrease reader frustrations, reduce critical reviews caused by embarrassing errors, improve the writing consistency, and edit Scrivener scenes with no copy and paste. To view the entire post with examples, visit https://tameyourbook.com/self-edit-your-novel-part-1b/.
Self-edit Your Novel (Part 1A)
In this multi-part series, you’ll discover techniques and technology that will help you self-edit your novel. To see the story blueprints and spreadsheet mentioned in this podcast, view this post at https://tameyourbook.com/self-edit-your-novel-part-1a/.
Organize Your Character Profiles
Character descriptions can take on lives of their own. Some writers map out every little detail while others list only the highlights. Regardless of your preference, with a series, you’ll want to organize your character profiles. For more information, visit https://tameyourbook.com/organize-your-character-profiles/.
Add Stakes to the Story Spine
H. R. D’Costa’s book, Story Stakes, shows writers how to increase tension by leveraging the negative consequences of failure. For more information, visit https://tameyourbook.com/add-stakes-to-the-story-spine/.
Build a Story Spine
The Story Spine is a multifaceted writer’s tool, enabling you to improvise a narrative quickly, identify what it’s about, and edit a bloated draft. To view the written post and explore the writing resources, visit https://tameyourbook.com/build-a-story-spine/.
Personify Your Story Settings
Bring your story settings to life. Read the full post at https://tameyourbook.com/personify-your-story-settings/.
What Can Technology Do for You?
To explore how technology can improve your writing, visit https://tameyourbook.com/what-can-technology-do-for-you/.
Villains Are Heroes in Their Stories
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tameyourbook.com/villains-are-heroes-in-their-stories/.