Two years ago today, I was sitting in a completely empty house. We'd just moved into our new house in Colorado, and the trek to get here was EPIC.
(There is a whole story I've never told, ๐ฐ which I have dubbed The Breakdown At Battle Mountain, and that name alone sums up just how stressful the move was.)
After a multi-day cross-country drive in a Jeep that nearly died on the road, we finally made it to our home... just to find out that our furniture would not be here for another month.
So there we were in an empty house we'd fought so hard to buy, ready to finally relax, with only camp chairs and an air mattress. ๐ญ
That's โ๏ธ kinda how I've felt about the Story Snapshot Method workshop this last year.
SSM was the first technique I developed that uses what is now a major part of my teaching process: ๐ the fill-in-the-blank Line Libโข.
And the original Story Snapshotยฎ became the foundation ๐ง that I built all my other workshops on top of.
But, the more techniques I created and taught, the more *I* learned about the subtle nuances of romantic fiction storytelling, and the more I realized that something was missing from the Story Snapshot line lib.
The entire middle part of the original Story Snapshot was empty. ๐๐
Back in 2023, I didn't know how to fill it in. Because I was trying to teach in the wide fiction genre. I hadn't yet niched down into ๐ romance specifically.
So at the end of the workshop, I just said, "Fill in the middle with your genre's beats."
And that worked okay. ๐ But I've always thought I could do better, that I could guide you through a COMPLETE snapshot if I just kept working at that midstory tangle.
๐ก So as I developed programs like The 8-Scene Story Setup and The Root Fear Factorโand more recently, micro-exercises inside of Enemies To ExpertsโI realized that the middle IS the genre.
The midstory, the part that often ends up muddy or saggy, is intimately connected to ๐ the romance beats of your unique style of storytelling.
๐คฏ And romance beats are heavily tied to TROPE expectations. โฃ๏ธ
THAT โ๏ธ was the Aha! Moment I needed to fill in that missing middle of my Story Snapshot Method.
So I completely reworked ๐ฐ the entire 4-hour workshop.
Nobody has seen this new version. And it is, like, WOAH.
I honestly don't know when I will present this workshop again. My focus right now is on completing the E2E curriculum, and that's going to take another 6 months.
๐ So if you are an experienced romance writer who wants a fill-in-the-blanks tool to help you map out and troubleshoot your hero's story arc, this is a DO NOT MISS workshop.
โ๏ธ๐คฏ
โ As a quick reminder (from my last email), this is NOT a beginner workshop. Even intermediate writers might find it challenging.
๐ฅ The new Story Snapshot Method is beefy.
Here's what you must be comfortable knowing and doing before you buy this ticket: ๐
โ
You can draft a complete romantic fiction manuscript
โ
You're familiar with romance tropes and understand the role they play in a story
โ
You understand what a hero's journey looks like in each act of your manuscript
โ
You're comfortable working quickly and making story decisions on the fly during writing sprints
โ
You know the value of planning out your entire hero's growth arc and can think ahead in your story, beyond what is already on the page.
๐
I know that's a big list. And if you're a pure discovery writer, who must discover the story as you write it, this workshop may stress you out.
But if you already have a manuscript you want to edit, the โจ new, improved Story Snapshot Method will:
๐ฅ Reveal gaps in your manuscript's scene flow
๐ฅ Spotlight how much work your tropes are doing (or slacking on)
๐ฅ Challenge you to think critically about that ultra-important midstory (where problems tend to pile up)
๐ฅ Reinforce why you're writing this story, so you can make edits to refine that message
๐ฅ Lay out a start-to-end growth path for your hero to follow, using key moments from the romance and plot story layers
โก๐คโ
๐ So if all of that gets you excited to work on your story (and maybe even a little nervous about the scope of it all), this workshop ๐ is for you.
๐ When: Saturday, October 3rd from 11am through 4pm Mountain time (with a one-hour break in the middle)
๐ Where: Online, in the Zoom room for the Emerald City Romance Writers
๐ซ Cost: $55 USD
๐ป Replay: Included for 30 days after
โก Takeaway: A whole new way to plan and edit your romance book!
๐ Quick heads up!
You're already enrolled in the 2023 version of my Story Snapshot Method course. That means you'll eventually get the new version of this workshop in that same course portal. ๐ฅฐ I would love to see you at this special event where I'm debuting the upgraded SSM process and line lib. But you are also absolutely welcome to just wait for the new version in your existing course portal. But I don't know how long it will take, likely not until at least this time next year. So if you don't wanna wait, go ahead and get a ticket and join me live on October 3rd.
Hope to see you there!
๐ P.S. There are two ticketing options. One for ECRW members and the other for standalone tickets. You can save $1 by joining ECRW, then purchasing your ticket as a member. And if you're looking for an online romance writers group to join, I recommend doing that. You'll get a new group to connect with and this limited-time workshop for just about the same cost.
Hit reply if you have any questions!