Update December 2014:
Because of several writing contracts, I've decided to step back from doing critiques and coaching for 2015 in order to save my injured wrist and my health for my books.
Worksheets:
Doctor your novel's structure with my Structure/Synopsis worksheet.
Revise and polish your fiction manuscript with my Self-Editing worksheet.
Draw the reader into the mind, body, and soul of your characters through my Deep Point of View worksheet.
Deepen and strengthen your character development with my Characterization worksheet.
Make your story resonate more emotionally with my Heroine's Journey worksheet.
Worksheets
Heroine's Journey Worksheet
I was asked to describe my Heroine’s Journey many times and I even taught several workshops on it at writer’s conferences, and so I decided to write a more detailed worksheet on the subject. I read about the Heroine’s Journey from several books and compiled what I learned here in one place. This is the same worksheet I myself use for my own novels.
Why the Heroine’s Journey? Sometimes the story arc of a female character will differ from the traditional Hero’s Journey because culture and time period will affect the character in accordance with her gender. This will create specific psychological differences in how a male and female character will respond to conflict in a story.
Joseph Campbell’s original book is based on the writings of psychoanalysts and the world myths. The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a psychological analysis of the classical myth formula that breaks down the myths into a basic structure, showing the psychological power of the hero archetype and the Hero’s Journey.
Maureen Murdock took Campbell’s work, her own psychology experience, and other psychoanalytical writings and world myths to develop The Heroine’s Journey for women. This makes it a perfect template for heroines, whether in romances or women’s fiction, because often a heroine’s story arc is more about internal awakening as opposed to the “quest” style of the Hero’s Journey.
This worksheet is based off of one I designed for myself to help me deepen my heroine’s character. I use this worksheet for every heroine I write about, even if it’s a romance where there’s also a hero taking up 50% of the book (I’ll usually do a Hero’s Journey worksheet for him in addition to the Heroine’s Journey worksheet for the heroine).
Using this worksheet enables me to double-check that the events in the story match up with how events should unfold in the Heroine’s Journey, which helps me with story pacing. The worksheet also helps me to structure the heroine’s internal arc so that it’s as deeply emotional as it can be and also psychologically resonant with readers.
I use this as a tool to help me revise my synopsis or my completed manuscript. It’s not meant to replace a synopsis because it doesn’t focus as strongly on the external events and conflicts in the story—it’s more focused on the internal events and internal conflicts of my heroine.
This worksheet consists of the Heroine's Journey explained in detail, questions for you to answer about your heroine, and examples to explain each stage of the Heroine's Journey. This new edition includes extra examples.
This worksheet is now available on:
Camy's website
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo
Nookbook
Self-Editing Worksheet
You've finished your novel! How do you make sure you have a good character arc, strong story structure, good pacing? How can you smooth over rough writing patches, eliminate episodic writing, or increase emotional intensity? My Self-Editing worksheet combines a variety of techniques that I have taught in online workshops into one place, with tips to help you refine and polish your manuscript.
By the end of the worksheet you'll have:
1) A good large-scale view of your story structure and character arc, and knowledge about how to fix any problems in that area
2) Tips for how to revise more emotion into your writing
3) Tools for solving pacing issues
4) A deeper look at technical writing errors to look for in your writing
5) An understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses in terms of critiquing yourself
This 69-page worksheet consists of lessons, homework, and fun exercises for you to do various types of self-editing on your manuscript. You’ll learn lots of simple techniques to help you revise and tighten your manuscript to be the best it can be.
Note: If you've bought my Deep Point of View worksheet, there are some of those Deep POV tips here in this worksheet. However, the Deep POV worksheet goes into more detail and depth whereas the Deep POV tips in this worksheet are not as extensive. If you're on the fence about if you should get the Self-Editing worksheet or the Deep POV worksheet, the Self-Editing worksheet includes about 60% of what's in the Deep POV worksheet as well as my other self-editing lessons.
Update: I forgot to mention that if you've already bought my Characterization worksheet, this Self-Editing worksheet has the majority of what's in that worksheet, in addition to other self-editing lessons and tips. So basically, if you've already bought both my Deep POV and Characterization worksheets, this Self-Editing worksheet will have a lot of the same stuff.
This worksheet is now available on:
Camy's website
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo
Nook
Deep Point of View Worksheet
As a writer, you can provide a richer emotional experience for your reader by utilizing a deeper point of view.
Deep point of view draws the reader into the characters’ heads and can elicit a stronger emotional reader response to the characters’ struggles, decisions, and reactions to external conflict.
Readers who have read a passage in deep point of view often talk about how the characters seemed more vivid, how the story and prose riveted them to the page.
It is very easy for a writer to learn ways to draw the reader into the mind, body, and soul of your characters through deep point of view techniques.
By the end of the worksheet you’ll have:
1) A basic understanding of different points of view so you can decide if deep or shallow point of view is best for your story
2) Ways to strengthen the emotional writing and draw the reader deeper into the character’s point of view
3) An understanding of the structural elements of a scene to help you know when and how to add deep-POV emotions
4) Tips for how to tweak wording in order to deepen point of view on a minute level, which contributes to a richer point of view for the manuscript as a whole
5) A finely honed radar for spotting “Telling” and shallow POV through exercises
This worksheet consists of lessons, homework, and fun exercises for you to see lots of deep and shallow POV examples. You’ll learn lots of simple techniques to help you deepen your character’s point of view.
This worksheet is now available on:
Camy's website
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo
Nook
Characterization Worksheet
I got several requests for another worksheet like my Synopsis worksheet, so I have put together a .pdf worksheet that combines all the lessons from my Characterization class.
If you've already taken my Characterization class, this worksheet is exactly the same as the lessons you got, just without any feedback from me on your homework, naturally. :)
This 35-page worksheet will help you develop your story characters. By the end of this worksheet, you will have:
1) a solid grasp of who your character is—and I’m not talking just favorite ice cream flavor
2) your character’s flaws and heroic qualities to make him/her truly sympathetic to the reader
3) the character’s unique qualities to make him/her stand out from all the other characters on the Barnes and Noble shelves.
4) your character’s desire and external goal (you’d be amazed at how this can change from your original ideas about your character as you dig deeper and discover who your character is!)
5) the motivation behind your character’s actions—and not something done over and over again, but something really juicy and unique that shapes your protagonist to make him/her a richer, deeper character
6) conflict and obstacles that directly impact your character’s external goal
7) the riveting climax of the story—both external events and also internal arc
This worksheet contains everything I teach in my online and in-person workshops.
This worksheet is now available on:
Camy's website
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo Nookbook
Structure/Synopsis Worksheet
Has your fiction manuscript been rejected by literary agents or traditional publishing houses, and you're not sure why? Do you feel something's "off" with your novel, but you don't know what?
Sometimes the problem isn't the writing—it's the characterization or the overall story structure.
If you think this might be a problem with your manuscript, you don't want to pay for a freelance editor when you could fix those story elements yourself.
The Story Sensei’s Synopsis worksheet was designed as a way for fiction writers to not only write a synopsis, but also doctor their own manuscript by utilizing a large-scale, bird’s eye view of their stories. This different way of looking at your novel can often point out flaws in character arcs, major plot points, and overall story structure.
The exercises in this worksheet will ensure that your story structure has all the vital elements, including:
- character external goal
- internal/spiritual arc
- obstacles
- conflict
- climax
- resolution
This worksheet will guide you through writing your synopsis. Don’t have a completed manuscript? No problem—as long as you’re familiar with the main points of your story, you can still write a synopsis using this worksheet. It may even help you craft your story and fill in missing pieces as you write the synopsis.
Camy uses examples from proposals for her own novels, which garnered her contracts with Christian publishers Zondervan (HarperCollins) and Love Inspired Suspense (Harlequin). There is also a special section on spiritual/internal arcs, since Christian novels tend to have strong spiritual threads in the stories.
Even if your story is not inspirational, the internal arc section will help you outline a strong internal arc for your character or troubleshoot if the internal arc has some weaknesses.
This version of the Synopsis worksheet includes:
- Extra examples
- Tips on trimming synopses
- Exercises on chapter-by-chapter and character synopses
Also in this version is an appendix of extra articles including:
- The 50-word elevator pitch
- Story blurbs, including the ones used in Camy’s original proposal for her Inspirational chick-lit Sushi series, which she submitted to Zondervan
- The basic structure of a proposal
- The example of Camy’s original proposal for her Inspirational romantic suspense Protection for Hire series, which she submitted to Zondervan
This worksheet is now available on:
Camy's website
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo
Nookbook
Articles
I've written several articles on the craft of writing that can help beginning and intermediate writers. They are all posted on this blog--the list of articles is on the sidebar.
I also post short writing tips on this Story Sensei blog.
For beginning writers, I'd like to suggest you start with Articles from Swain, a series of articles based on the classic writing book Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain.
I also have two articles:
"I want to write a novel and I have no clue what to do!"
"I've written a novel and I have no clue what to do next!"
Because of several writing contracts, I've decided to step back from doing critiques and coaching for 2015 in order to save my injured wrist and my health for my books.
Worksheets:
Doctor your novel's structure with my Structure/Synopsis worksheet.
Revise and polish your fiction manuscript with my Self-Editing worksheet.
Draw the reader into the mind, body, and soul of your characters through my Deep Point of View worksheet.
Deepen and strengthen your character development with my Characterization worksheet.
Make your story resonate more emotionally with my Heroine's Journey worksheet.
Worksheets
Heroine's Journey Worksheet
I was asked to describe my Heroine’s Journey many times and I even taught several workshops on it at writer’s conferences, and so I decided to write a more detailed worksheet on the subject. I read about the Heroine’s Journey from several books and compiled what I learned here in one place. This is the same worksheet I myself use for my own novels.
Why the Heroine’s Journey? Sometimes the story arc of a female character will differ from the traditional Hero’s Journey because culture and time period will affect the character in accordance with her gender. This will create specific psychological differences in how a male and female character will respond to conflict in a story.
Joseph Campbell’s original book is based on the writings of psychoanalysts and the world myths. The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a psychological analysis of the classical myth formula that breaks down the myths into a basic structure, showing the psychological power of the hero archetype and the Hero’s Journey.
Maureen Murdock took Campbell’s work, her own psychology experience, and other psychoanalytical writings and world myths to develop The Heroine’s Journey for women. This makes it a perfect template for heroines, whether in romances or women’s fiction, because often a heroine’s story arc is more about internal awakening as opposed to the “quest” style of the Hero’s Journey.
This worksheet is based off of one I designed for myself to help me deepen my heroine’s character. I use this worksheet for every heroine I write about, even if it’s a romance where there’s also a hero taking up 50% of the book (I’ll usually do a Hero’s Journey worksheet for him in addition to the Heroine’s Journey worksheet for the heroine).
Using this worksheet enables me to double-check that the events in the story match up with how events should unfold in the Heroine’s Journey, which helps me with story pacing. The worksheet also helps me to structure the heroine’s internal arc so that it’s as deeply emotional as it can be and also psychologically resonant with readers.
I use this as a tool to help me revise my synopsis or my completed manuscript. It’s not meant to replace a synopsis because it doesn’t focus as strongly on the external events and conflicts in the story—it’s more focused on the internal events and internal conflicts of my heroine.
This worksheet consists of the Heroine's Journey explained in detail, questions for you to answer about your heroine, and examples to explain each stage of the Heroine's Journey. This new edition includes extra examples.
This worksheet is now available on:
Camy's website
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo
Nookbook
Self-Editing Worksheet
You've finished your novel! How do you make sure you have a good character arc, strong story structure, good pacing? How can you smooth over rough writing patches, eliminate episodic writing, or increase emotional intensity? My Self-Editing worksheet combines a variety of techniques that I have taught in online workshops into one place, with tips to help you refine and polish your manuscript.
By the end of the worksheet you'll have:
1) A good large-scale view of your story structure and character arc, and knowledge about how to fix any problems in that area
2) Tips for how to revise more emotion into your writing
3) Tools for solving pacing issues
4) A deeper look at technical writing errors to look for in your writing
5) An understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses in terms of critiquing yourself
This 69-page worksheet consists of lessons, homework, and fun exercises for you to do various types of self-editing on your manuscript. You’ll learn lots of simple techniques to help you revise and tighten your manuscript to be the best it can be.
Note: If you've bought my Deep Point of View worksheet, there are some of those Deep POV tips here in this worksheet. However, the Deep POV worksheet goes into more detail and depth whereas the Deep POV tips in this worksheet are not as extensive. If you're on the fence about if you should get the Self-Editing worksheet or the Deep POV worksheet, the Self-Editing worksheet includes about 60% of what's in the Deep POV worksheet as well as my other self-editing lessons.
Update: I forgot to mention that if you've already bought my Characterization worksheet, this Self-Editing worksheet has the majority of what's in that worksheet, in addition to other self-editing lessons and tips. So basically, if you've already bought both my Deep POV and Characterization worksheets, this Self-Editing worksheet will have a lot of the same stuff.
This worksheet is now available on:
Camy's website
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo
Nook
Deep Point of View Worksheet
As a writer, you can provide a richer emotional experience for your reader by utilizing a deeper point of view.
Deep point of view draws the reader into the characters’ heads and can elicit a stronger emotional reader response to the characters’ struggles, decisions, and reactions to external conflict.
Readers who have read a passage in deep point of view often talk about how the characters seemed more vivid, how the story and prose riveted them to the page.
It is very easy for a writer to learn ways to draw the reader into the mind, body, and soul of your characters through deep point of view techniques.
By the end of the worksheet you’ll have:
1) A basic understanding of different points of view so you can decide if deep or shallow point of view is best for your story
2) Ways to strengthen the emotional writing and draw the reader deeper into the character’s point of view
3) An understanding of the structural elements of a scene to help you know when and how to add deep-POV emotions
4) Tips for how to tweak wording in order to deepen point of view on a minute level, which contributes to a richer point of view for the manuscript as a whole
5) A finely honed radar for spotting “Telling” and shallow POV through exercises
This worksheet consists of lessons, homework, and fun exercises for you to see lots of deep and shallow POV examples. You’ll learn lots of simple techniques to help you deepen your character’s point of view.
This worksheet is now available on:
Camy's website
iBooks
Characterization Worksheet
I got several requests for another worksheet like my Synopsis worksheet, so I have put together a .pdf worksheet that combines all the lessons from my Characterization class.
If you've already taken my Characterization class, this worksheet is exactly the same as the lessons you got, just without any feedback from me on your homework, naturally. :)
This 35-page worksheet will help you develop your story characters. By the end of this worksheet, you will have:
1) a solid grasp of who your character is—and I’m not talking just favorite ice cream flavor
2) your character’s flaws and heroic qualities to make him/her truly sympathetic to the reader
3) the character’s unique qualities to make him/her stand out from all the other characters on the Barnes and Noble shelves.
4) your character’s desire and external goal (you’d be amazed at how this can change from your original ideas about your character as you dig deeper and discover who your character is!)
5) the motivation behind your character’s actions—and not something done over and over again, but something really juicy and unique that shapes your protagonist to make him/her a richer, deeper character
6) conflict and obstacles that directly impact your character’s external goal
7) the riveting climax of the story—both external events and also internal arc
This worksheet contains everything I teach in my online and in-person workshops.
This worksheet is now available on:
Camy's website
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo Nookbook
Structure/Synopsis Worksheet
Has your fiction manuscript been rejected by literary agents or traditional publishing houses, and you're not sure why? Do you feel something's "off" with your novel, but you don't know what?
Sometimes the problem isn't the writing—it's the characterization or the overall story structure.
If you think this might be a problem with your manuscript, you don't want to pay for a freelance editor when you could fix those story elements yourself.
The Story Sensei’s Synopsis worksheet was designed as a way for fiction writers to not only write a synopsis, but also doctor their own manuscript by utilizing a large-scale, bird’s eye view of their stories. This different way of looking at your novel can often point out flaws in character arcs, major plot points, and overall story structure.
The exercises in this worksheet will ensure that your story structure has all the vital elements, including:
- character external goal
- internal/spiritual arc
- obstacles
- conflict
- climax
- resolution
This worksheet will guide you through writing your synopsis. Don’t have a completed manuscript? No problem—as long as you’re familiar with the main points of your story, you can still write a synopsis using this worksheet. It may even help you craft your story and fill in missing pieces as you write the synopsis.
Camy uses examples from proposals for her own novels, which garnered her contracts with Christian publishers Zondervan (HarperCollins) and Love Inspired Suspense (Harlequin). There is also a special section on spiritual/internal arcs, since Christian novels tend to have strong spiritual threads in the stories.
Even if your story is not inspirational, the internal arc section will help you outline a strong internal arc for your character or troubleshoot if the internal arc has some weaknesses.
This version of the Synopsis worksheet includes:
- Extra examples
- Tips on trimming synopses
- Exercises on chapter-by-chapter and character synopses
Also in this version is an appendix of extra articles including:
- The 50-word elevator pitch
- Story blurbs, including the ones used in Camy’s original proposal for her Inspirational chick-lit Sushi series, which she submitted to Zondervan
- The basic structure of a proposal
- The example of Camy’s original proposal for her Inspirational romantic suspense Protection for Hire series, which she submitted to Zondervan
This worksheet is now available on:
Camy's website
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo
Nookbook
Articles
I've written several articles on the craft of writing that can help beginning and intermediate writers. They are all posted on this blog--the list of articles is on the sidebar.
I also post short writing tips on this Story Sensei blog.
For beginning writers, I'd like to suggest you start with Articles from Swain, a series of articles based on the classic writing book Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain.
I also have two articles:
"I want to write a novel and I have no clue what to do!"
"I've written a novel and I have no clue what to do next!"
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