Hi, I’m so happy to meet you.
This is Story Waves.
Here is the Definitive Guide: How to Use Story Waves on Substack. This post tells you the ins and outs of the top-tier tools I offer you in my Substack and how I can BEST help support your creative storytelling and screenwriting.
As a free subscriber, you’ll receive posts in your inbox 1-2 x a week. I created Story Waves micro lessons to help you raise your luck quotient with your scripts using scalpel-like writing techniques that will elevate your project’s clarity, commercial appeal, and creative potential so that you can:
create, pitch, and sell your writing
further your writing process and career
establish produced and self-published writing credits
join a loyal readership of creatives to support the writing process
receive advice on your project’s next steps
My Writing Process with Story Waves
Writing a spec TV or film script is a long game. Story Waves helps shorten it.
As I develop each scene—I apply the appropriate Story Waves lesson to make my writing easier.
Lifelong learning is necessary to being a paid storyteller and writer. Studying with a knowledgeable instructor is vital. Getting clear eyes on your writing is paramount. Strategizing with fellow writers in a trusted community is also key. My takeaway from being in the screenwriting game is that self-publishing and adapting scripts to novels are viable options.
I am sharing Story Waves so your writing is concise and manageable.
START HERE: The STORY WAVES WAY
Story Waves writing tools are about precision and FOCUS for screenwriting and storytelling. Where are you in the writing process?
Story Waves helps you avoid scattered edits because:
Story Waves lessons work like scalpels; they focus on and fix specific problems.
You can use the Story Waves micro lessons like the one above in the image. Every story should teach the audience something new and exciting. In your current story, what character teaches something interesting and valuable?
Here are four ways to use the Story Waves lessons:
1. Scroll to a random post, contemplate the Story Waves lesson, and try it.
This is the “hold your nose cause here goes the cold water” method that offers an opportunity to work intuitively. Ask a specific question like, “What aspect of my story needs attention?” Use intuition, like pulling a tarot card, and select a Story Waves lesson. Alternatively, you may pose the question about your story, playfully scroll arbitrarily for six seconds, and stop on a post. A third method allows you to select a particular post, and while reading and studying your inner reactions, ask yourself if the lesson struck a chord. Did it immediately stir your imagination with ideas of where and how to edit or expand a scene to improve it? Ultimately, you’d use this higher guided method because you’re stuck on a current scene, need inspiration for your story, an entertaining distraction, or want to grow your connection to your creative imagination and inner muse. If one lesson doesn’t resonate, keep randomly selecting until one does. This is how intuitive readers effectively read tarot cards, flipping over cards until the “right” one pops.
2. Scan the Story Waves titles, select a lesson you want to master, and work through those edits or expansions, one scene at a time.
I will tag each Story Waves lesson post with the following categories: Concept/Premise, Character, Dialogue, Format, Structure, Tone/Voice, Plot/Conflict, Theme, Pacing, and Catharsis. Other posts will be tagged with Classes and Workshops. You can search for the posts that interest you.
3. Read the 2-3 Story Waves lessons as they roll in weekly. Write in your journal about the ONE lesson that sparks your interest (makes you see and hear a better version of the story in your head). Then work that Story Waves lesson.
I am building and curating the Story Waves posts as an “intuitively” ordered list of the best storytelling techniques (tagged with categories). Each lesson is created from a universal storytelling technique explained from my unique POV or a brand new lesson I source from books I’m reading, films I’m watching, and the synchronistic events in my dreams and life. The specific “order” of the Story Waves posts is intended to have a ripple effect, aligning you to your best creative writing process.
4. Use a Story Waves lesson as an AHA! moment.
In my humble teacher's opinion, one of the best ways to use Story Waves lessons is to have an AHA! moment. This AHA! moment may happen spontaneously when you read one of the posts and soon after recognize the technique used effectively in a book or film you love. You may recognize a persuasive writing technique in a movie and have an AHA! insight, creating your own Story Waves pro writing tool. If you do that, everyone will want to know what it is and how you applied that to your story. As you get familiar with the storytelling techniques, even memorize them—you will simultaneously elevate your art and craft. Your AHA moments will carry you like a big wave and further than you know.
I love helping you master your story. If you’ve peeked at my short bio, you may see I’ve had luck as a creative writer, starting with attending AFI in Los Angeles. I got paid, published, produced, won awards, and recently placed in a big contest while consistently teaching writing. Living in LA for 12 years, I learned the inner workings of Hollywood’s film and TV industry and the expectations of book publishers.
I believe in you and your story. So does this wave and the ocean that made it.
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Thank you so much for reading. I want to hear your story!
Best wishes,
Kelly E. Keough
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