by Angela Ruth Strong, @AngelaRStrong
I’d planned to simply list my favorite ten quotes for you here, but apparently, I often remember a quote differently than how it was stated. So instead, I’ll give you the quotes and what they mean to me.
- The villain and the hero are both wounded. The villain hides their wounds with evil while the hero finds healing through self-sacrifice. -How to Write a D@mn Good Suspense Novel
I quote this one the most to writers (and to anyone trying to figure out their own life). As I checked this book out from the library years ago, I couldn’t double check to be sure I got the words exact or not. But I believe this one truth can color in every single story that’s written.
- The darker your black moment, the more powerful your resolution. -Unknown
This is my second most quoted line about writing, though I don’t remember where it came from. I did learn from agent Donald Maass that whatever is happening in your story, you must make it worse. And then you make it even worse. The stories that do this well are the ones I love the most. I remind myself of this when black moments are happening to me and I’m hating life.
- For the proof of your vision is not in how well you can assert your Controlling Idea, but it’s victory over the enormously powerful forces that you array against it. -Story
This book has given new meaning to my message, though I mistakenly remembered the quote like this: “For your message to have impact, it must overcome the most powerful argument against it.” You can’t brush off the other side. You can’t make life trite.
- Whenever possible, tell the entire story of the novel in the first sentence. -John Irving
As a writer who obsesses over first and last lines and often sends my manuscript to editors with notes that “the last line is crap” so they can prepare to help me brainstorm something better, this piece of advice delights me. And thus, I have the first line of my next novel ready to hit the page before I’ve even finished plotting it.
- The key to all good endings is to give the audience what it wants, but not in the way it expects. -William Goldman
As a romance writer, I LOVE this. Because though the reader already knows my book is going to end happily-ever-after, I still want it to be full of surprises. That’s one of the things I loved about You’ve Got Mail. Kathleen Kelly unexpectedly lost her book shop, but her life could still be happy.
- The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon. -Brandon Sanderson
These are the stories I can’t forget because I’m stewing over them for days afterwards. And that’s what I want to be able to do for my audience. I want them to so put themselves into the character’s shoes that they are forced to grow, as well.
- Your protagonist wants two things, which he’s about to find out are mutually exclusive: to achieve his desire and to remain true to his misbelief. -Story Genius
The character and the audience both grow because they are forced to face their misbeliefs in pursuit of their goals.
- It’s not “write what you know.” It’s “know what you write.” -Unknown
I might be remembering this one wrong also, because I couldn’t figure out who to attribute it to, but it makes sense to me. If I only wrote what I knew, my books would get pretty repetitive after a while. Instead, I can research history or create new worlds or travel our world or take classes. Writing is an invitation to live a life as meaningful as my characters’.
- If your scenes are linked by the words “and then,” you have something pretty boring. What should follow every beat is either “therefore” or “but.” So you come up with an idea and it’s like, “this happens…and then this happens.” No, no, no! It should be “this happens…and therefore this happens.” “This happens…but then this happens.” -Trey Parker
I like this quote because it’s simple, brilliant, and the director just showed up in a college film class one day to offer up his wisdom. I’m kinda bummed my son is going through film school during Covid, so he won’t get to meet any directors personally, and therefore I will have to have one of my books produced as a film so I can take him to the set. 😊
- Life isn’t fair. That’s why we need stories—to figure out how to deal with all those unfair things that happen, so we can have the strength and wisdom to be fair ourselves. -Story Genius
I feel like with Covid and the rough start of 2021, this is a good quote to leave you with. Now go write your stories to help us all become heroes through self-sacrifice.
In a world full of happily-ever-after love, Meri Newberg feels like the last young woman on the planet to be single, at least in her Christian friend group. So when she’s handed a strange present at the latest wedding–a 1950s magazine article of “ways to get a husband”–she decides there’s nothing to lose by trying out its advice. After all, she can’t get any more single, can she?
Her brother’s roommate sees the whole thing as a great opportunity. Not to fall in love–Kai Kamaka has no interest in the effort a serious relationship takes. No, this is a career jump start. He talks Meri into letting him film every silly husband-catching attempt for a new online show. If it goes viral, his career as a cameraman will be made.
When Meri Me debuts, it’s an instant hit. People love watching her lasso men on street corners, drop handkerchiefs for unsuspecting potential beaus, and otherwise embarrass herself in pursuit of true love. But the longer this game goes on, the less sure Kai is that he wants Meri to snag anyone but him. The only problem is that he may not be the kind of husband material she’s looking for . . .
Angela Ruth Strong sold her first Christian romance novel in 2009 then quit writing romance when her husband left her. Ten years later, God has shown her the true meaning of love, and there’s nothing else she’d rather write about. Her books have since earned TOP PICK in Romantic Times, been optioned for film, won the Cascade Award, and been Amazon best-sellers. She also writes non-fiction for SpiritLed Woman. To help aspiring authors, she started IDAhope Writers where she lives in Idaho, and she teaches as an expert online at WRITE THAT BOOK.