✍️ Tandem Services Coaching and Editing: Your heroine is lying to herself (and that’s good news)
Empowering you to write the stories of your heart and increasing your impact with a book. Hello Reader, Helpful information for your writing career each monthIn this issue:
Yes, there was no Update in August. I had my second hip replacement on August 12, and it turns out recovery is a full-time job. Some of you remember the first one six years ago. I’m on the other side of this one now, easing my way back, and very glad to be writing to you. Now on to the things to help your writing career. Craft: Why your heroine doesn’t want what she thinks she wantsAsk any writer what their heroine wants and you’ll get a quick answer. She wants the promotion. She wants to find her sister. She wants to win the bake-off. That’s her Story Goal. The thing she’s chasing on the page, the thing that keeps the plot moving. And you need it. Without a Story Goal, your book is a nice lady having a nice week. But here’s the part that separates a story readers finish from one they set down. What she wants is almost never what she needs. Underneath the Story Goal sits the Internal Goal. That’s the thing she’d never say out loud. To be enough. To be safe. To be forgiven. She doesn’t know that’s what she’s after. If she did, she’d just go get it and we’d have a very short book. So why doesn’t she know? Because of the Lie. Somewhere back in her past, something hurt her. That’s the Wound. And out of the Wound, she built a Lie to protect herself. “If I’m perfect, nobody can leave me.” “If I don’t need anyone, nobody can hurt me.” The Lie feels like wisdom to her. It’s been working. Up until your inciting incident. Let’s look at Star Wars. I like to use Star Wars because most people have seen it or know the characters well enough to get the idea. Luke’s Story Goal is to get off Tatooine and have an adventure. He says so. Loudly. But what he needs is to trust something bigger than himself. His Lie is that he’s a nobody farm boy stuck in the middle of nowhere. The whole movie is Luke chasing the adventure while the story quietly takes the Lie apart. By the trench run, he switches off the targeting computer and trusts the Force. The adventure was never the point. Now look at your heroine. If she gets her Story Goal in chapter 30 and nothing inside her has changed, your reader will close the book and feel vaguely cheated. She got what she wanted. So what? But if chasing the Story Goal forces her to face the Lie, and facing the Lie gets her the thing she actually needed, that’s the ending readers remember. Don’t worry if you can’t name her Lie yet. Most of my clients can’t on the first pass. It usually shows up around the third draft, when you finally figure out why she keeps making the same dumb choice. Apply it!
Career: Two kinds of 2026Written Word Media surveyed about 580 indie authors at the midpoint of the year, and the results split right down the middle. Roughly a third say this year has been rough. Sales down, ads working less, Amazon’s algorithm change and the ACX royalty shift eating into income that used to be reliable. About half say their business is stable or growing. Same market. Two very different years. So what are the growing authors doing? A few things stood out to me. They own their newsletter and actually use it. They’ve added direct sales or Kickstarter instead of leaning on Amazon alone. And they put their marketing money where they can measure it rather than sprinkling it everywhere. If you’re indie, read the whole report: 2026 Mid-Year Indie Author Survey And since the survey raises the question, here’s one more. KDP Select or wide? This video walks through the trade-offs. Commerce: The book you meant to finish this yearSomewhere around October, a lot of writers look at the calendar and feel it. This was going to be the year. The draft was going to get done, or edited, or published. And it’s not. If that’s you, I have good news and a catch. The good news is there’s still time to make a real move on the book before the year ends, or to line it up so it’s the first thing that happens in 2027. The catch is my calendar. I’m nearly full for the rest of 2026. If you want to work with me this year or in early 2027, the time to book is now, not after the holidays. I’m typically booked about 60 days out, and December fills faster than you’d think. Not sure what kind of help you need? That’s what a strategy session is for. Sixty minutes on Zoom, any question about writing or publishing, and you leave with clear next steps. It’s $295. Click here to get on my calendar. Already know what you need? Just reply to this email and we’ll find you a slot. Kudos!Client Rob Grimm released Fourth Day, faith and science reconciled to solve the distant starlight problem. If you’ve ever wrestled with the tension between faith and science, this one’s for you. If you’re one of my clients who has won an award, finaled in a contest, achieved bestseller status, has a new release, or hit some sales goals, let me know. I’d love to celebrate your wins with you! 📺 Tandem Services has a YouTube page! Check it out at YouTube.com/@TandemServices Want personalized writing advice? Share a writing, editing, or publishing hurdle you have faced or a question you have and I will email you an autographed copy of Eat the Elephant: How to Write (and Finish!) Your Book One Bite at a Time and send you a personalized five-minute video. Click here to find out more. Writing quoteThe secret of getting ahead is getting started. —attributed to Mark Twain Pressing on! Jennifer PS—You should assume any link in this Update is an affiliate link. It costs you nothing more but gives me a few pennies. 🙂 |
The idea that a heroine’s stated desire can differ from what she truly needs is such a useful lens for deepening character arcs. I also appreciated the honest note about recovery being a full-time job—glad you’re easing back into writing after your second hip replacement.