Sue Campbell

"It really doesn't matter where you are on your author journey — there will be someone here who can help you, and there will be others who you will help and inspire!" — Sue Dockstader

At the heart of the Happily Ever Author Club is our community where we advise and inspire each other. Members have a weekly goal check-in to help keep us accountable for our writing and marketing goals. Join today and find out what you can achieve. Learn more at www.storypath.me/new

“Go back two years in your social media timelines and recycle those posts!”

Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. Now she has content while she recharges her batteries.

MARKETING MOMENT Burned Out on Creating Social Media Content? What to do when the well runs dry.

A writer in our Happily Ever Author Club who’s been online for years was feeling some burnout around coming up with new social media content, so I gave her the best hack I know for those who’ve developed a lot of content over the years.

Overwhelmed to Organized A 6-Day Challenge Free event starts March 16

If your manuscript ideas and drafts live in stacks, tabs, sticky notes and half-finished docs, this event is for you. Join us for a FREE six-day challenge starting Monday, March 6 and finally go from overwhelmed to organized. Save your spot at www.pagesandplatforms.com/adhd-challen...

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Free Live Class Motivation for ADHD Writers An Interest-Based Approach Hosted by Rachelle Ramirez & Sue Campbell Monday, March 9 11 am PT / 2 pm ET

Join us today at 11 am Pacific for a free live class where we'll discuss the ADHD writer’s experience of motivation and what it takes to get your butt in the chair, your fingers moving, and your brain focused on your writing—without beating yourself up.

The traffic light turning red foils your character’s pursuit of the suspect and forces them to take a right turn instead. An incoming email requires immediate action. Running into an old acquaintance on the street sets a new friendship in motion.

But remember, an inciting incident at the scene-by-scene level doesn’t have to be a tornado or the death of a parent. The alarm clock going off sets your character in motion from sleep to waking.

If your character is just coasting along on the momentum of a previous inciting incident, it’s not a new scene, it's just a scene that needs some cutting.

MANUSCRIPT MOMENT Do I Really Need to Create a New Inciting Incident for Every Scene? Not every inciting incident needs to be dramatic.

From Anne Hawley, developmental editor:

Yes, you really do need to create a new inciting incident for every scene. Every scene requires change, and every change must be incited by something that flows from the previous scene.

Free Live Class Motivation for ADHD Writers An Interest-Based Approach Hosted by Rachelle Ramirez & Sue Campbell Monday, March 9 11 am PT / 2 pm ET

Get ready to reframe your so-called lack of motivation! Join us on Monday for a free live class where you‘ll learn why the model for motivating neurotypical writers doesn’t work for your ADHD brain — and what will work. Save your spot at www.pagesandplatforms.com/adhd-motivat...

But a scene is still a scene, complete with all five essential elements, beginning with the inciting incident, regardless of where you decide to put a chapter break.

So a “chapter” can contain more than one short scene. And it can contain a partial scene and end on a cliffhanger, to keep the reader turning pages.

In the heyday of serial novels published in periodicals, the chapter was the weekly installment. The serial chapter often ended on a cliffhanger—at the crisis or climax of a scene—so that readers would eagerly buy next week’s magazine.

A chapter is really more of a typographical convention than an actual unit of story. It was designed to break up what would be a massive wall of text, to give the reader a place to start and stop.

MANUSCRIPT MOMENT Can the Inciting Incident Carry Over from the Previous Chapter? How do you feel about cliffhangers?

From Anne Hawley, developmental editor:

Sure, the inciting incident can carry over from the previous chapter. A chapter isn’t necessarily a scene.

Overwhelmed to Organized A 6-Day Challenge Free Event starts March 16

Hey writers, are you ready to go from overwhelmed to organized? Join us for a free six-day challenge. Sign up at www.pagesandplatforms.com/adhd-challenge

Generally, though, something has caused the character to move, and you should make it clear to the reader what that something—that inciting incident—is.

Let’s say you have a character driving towards an unsuspected roadblock on their way home. That character’s decision to get in the car and head home might be seen as the inciting incident that made encountering the roadblock possible.

MANUSCRIPT MOMENT Does the Inciting Incident Have to Be on the Page? Sometimes important things can take place out of view.

From Anne Hawley, developmental editor:

You might be wondering if the inciting incident has to take place on the page. Oddly enough, no, it doesn’t. There are cases where it can be implied, or in subtext.

YOU'RE INVITED: ADHD Writer Webinar! — Pages & Platforms Join 25,000+ other writers and get FREE WRITING & MARKETING RESOURCES for authors when you subscribe.

We'll be sending a replay link to everyone who registers. Save your spot at www.pagesandplatforms.com/adhd-motivat...

✅ Why getting started with a writing session requires specific strategies not found in most productivity books.
✅ How to create writing challenges and get engaged with your writing.
✅ And more.

✅ How the challenges of ADHD writers compare to those of neurotypical writers and how the needed solutions are quite different.
✅ Why Chad’s rewards and consequences model for motivating neurotypical writers doesn’t work for your ADHD brain.

Free Live Class Motivation for ADHD Writers An Interest-Based Approach Hosted by Rachelle Ramirez & Sue Campbell Monday, March 9 11 am PT / 2 pm ET

WRITERS WITH ADHD: Join me and ADHD writing coach Rachelle Ramirez on Monday for a free live class! Get ready to reframe your so-called lack of motivation. You‘ll learn why the model for motivating neurotypical writers doesn’t work for your ADHD brain and what will work for you. We'll cover:

But “before long” (a unit of measure that’s going to vary with your style, your story type, and where we are within the story), the inciting incident must happen.

You may need a sentence or two—even a paragraph or two—to set up the inciting incident. You may need a transition from the previous scene, especially if time has elapsed or the setting has changed.

MANUSCRIPT MOMENT Does the Inciting Incident Have to Be the Very First Thing in the Scene? Don't let your scenes go on for too long without it!

From Anne Hawley, developmental editor:

No, the inciting incident does not have to be the first thing in a scene. In fact, if every scene you write opens on an inciting incident, it will be monotonous or tiring to the reader.

Well, it turns out that what’s true at the level of the whole, global story is also true for every scene. Every scene is a mini-story, with an identifiable beginning, middle, and end. Every scene causes a character to shift and change.

And that means every scene needs an inciting incident.

If the global pandemic doesn’t cancel your conference, you aren’t forced to learn more about video, and you never become that huge surprise influencer.

Either way, if there’s no change, there’s no story. If the tornado doesn’t touch down in Kansas, Dorothy won’t be forced to deal with getting home from Oz. If George Bailey’s dad doesn’t have that fatal stroke, George will never stay in Bedford Falls and learn that, indeed, it’s a wonderful life.