I was going to review the other Sara Tasker course that I bought, but a new season of The Insta Retreat just started and there are quite a few changes so I’m going to go through the course again (for at least one or two more weeks) before I review it. Instead, today I’ll be reviewing a course on how to improve your writing – Supercharge Your Story by FFS Media.

What is Supercharge Your Story About?

Supercharge Your Story is a fairly short course, consisting of seven tips that you could use to improve your story. The tips cover:

1. One word theme (and character motivation)
2. Want vs Need
3. Antagonist
4. Humour
5. Tropes
6. Echoes
7. Planting the Evidence (aka the twists aren’t coming out of the left field).

There is one bonus tip and an extra video that analyses the movie Knives Out according to the tip.

With every video, you get questions to help you implement the tips and you can post your answers to a Facebook group to get feedback.

Is it worth getting?

So, I actually got this course because Claire from FFS Media had a promo where you could get the course and a 1-to-1 consult and I really wanted that consult. But I’ve got no regrets because I found this course to be really helpful with revising. I am a “shitty first draft” writer so revision is the most important thing for me. I need to revise before I even send a story to an editor. Claire’s use of the enneagram to identify character motivations was very helpful and I’m using that for all my current WIPs.

By the way, the 1-to-1 consult was very helpful for me too. It helped to have gone through the course before talking to Claire, but I generally found her to be very encouraging and full of great advice. I’d definitely recommend that too.

The only thing about the course is that (perhaps because) it’s so new, the Facebook group isn’t very active. It’s not completely dead – Claire does check in pretty frequently and post announcements, but it’s nothing like the groups for The Insta Retreat or Self-Publishing 101.

Basically, if you’re like me and you struggle to define your character, Claire’s use of the enneagram may be something that helps your writing.

Free resources

If you’re not sure if you want to use the enneagram as a way of character building, you can check out some free videos from FFS media first and see if it’s something your writing style resonates with:

• Dialogue and Enneagram Talk Styles
• Fix your story’s ending with these 3 questions
• 3 ways the Enneagram can make your story better

More generally, FFS Media also has a free five-day course on author alignment, if you’re interested in trying out one of their courses to see their style first.

So next week will be another craft review, this time on a course that focuses specifically on revising your story. Stay tuned!