cameron jacobs l blog

Scene and Sequel

2009-11-20T21:53:00.000-05:00

In my previous post, I talked about every scene having a goal and a subsequent conflict in your protagonist achieving that goal. That's true--except for the "reaction" scene, or the sequel. Dwight Swain, in his amazing book, Techniques of a Selling Writer, introduces the idea of a sequel to a scene, a time for the characters to react, face their new delimna, and decide how to act. Their decision to act inherently propells forward another scene, following by another sequel...etc.

In the sequel scenes, then, there isn't a need for a particular conflict for the protagonist character. Instead, the decision they make about the new obstacle they face creates the next conflict they will face.

So while sequel scenes don't protray a conflict, they set up the next conflict, and they can also frame the next conflict and connect it back to your overall story/core conflict.

For more info on Scene and Sequel, check out Dwight Swain's book or this site.

Scene conflicts vs. Story conflicts

2009-11-17T08:54:00.000-05:00

There are a myriad of different conflicts going on in a story at any given time. Most of my thinking is about core conflicts, or those conflicts that sustain your entire plot. He's a chef, she's a restaurant critics. Conflict in a romance plot. He's a cop, the villian is a serial killer determined to toy with the cop. Conflict in a thriller. These big conflicts are based on your characters goals and needs.

But as I was reading Jenny Crusie's blog this weekend, I was reminded of the importance of scene conflicts as well.

At a smaller level, each scene should portray a conflict. This is what creates pace and tension. In every scene, a character has a goal, and they either achieve that goal or are somehow obstructed.

Take thrillers for example. The DaVinci Code, despite its flaws, has phenomonal pacing. It's a book you can't set down. In every scene, something is at stake. The character has a goal, and in almost every scene, that goal was obstructed. Which (and here's where pacing happens) left the reader wondering how they would ever acheive that goal.

On Jenny's blog (an amazing resource, by the way), she broke down a scene into its base conflict to see where she'd gone wrong. This is a great exercise during revisions, when you know something is off with a scene.

1. Who is the protagonist? Not of the novel, but of this particular scene. Who has something at stake? Who's POV are we in? (hint: the person with the most at stake should usually be your POV character for the scene)

2. What is their goal? What do they want to achieve? This often isn't going to be a huge goal. Sometimes it's a simple as they want to order take out for dinner. Sometimes they want to prove something to another character. But there has to be something at stake. Some reason for the scene.

3. Who is their antagonist? Again, it may not be the same antagonist for the novel. But someone is blocking their goal. A scene where a character is hungry and so orders take out for dinner isn't all that interesting. Who is standing in the way of your POV character achieving their goal?

3. Do they achieve their goal? What is going to raise tension? What is going to make the reader flip the next page?

Check out Jenny's blog post for a wonderful break down of exactly how she used this to completely revise a scene.

Goals in Conflict

2009-11-15T22:26:00.000-05:00

Debra Dixon is perhaps best well-known for her book, Goals, Motivation and Conflict. Each character has all three: something they want, a reason for wanting it, and an obstacle to getting it.

While Dixon uses conflict to refer only to the obstacles, the whole GMC concept refers to the overall conflict of the novel. In every conflict between characters (i.e., in every plot), there is a goal. Your protagonist wants something, and your antagonist has his own goals.

In conflict theory, the goals, those things we fight over, are divided into three groups: interests, values, and needs. Interests are tangible things, and the things we make clear we want (I want a raise; I want custody in the divorce). Values are beliefs held over right and wrong or ethics which lead to conflicts (the abortion debate, Republicans vs. Democrats). Needs are core, non-negotiable needs, such as survival needs (food, water, shelter), and basic psychological needs (acceptance, love).

In fiction, the conflicts must be intense enough to sustain the entire plot. Just from looking at the three types of goals, it's obvious that conflicts over needs are more intense than conflicts over interests. People generally do not compromise over what they need to survive, or what they believe to be right and wrong. They will compromise on interests.

When developing a conflict for your project, look for conflicts that combine all three: interests, values, and needs. These conflicts become difficult to solve, giving you more room for charactrization and plot development.

Launch of the Conflict in Fiction blog!

2009-11-15T22:07:00.003-05:00

I have an unhealthy addiction to how-to books. My favorites are on an easy-to-reach shelf, full of dog-eared pages and notes jotted in margins. But one topic which doesn't get much attention in how-to books is conflict.

All fiction must have conflict. It's the foundation upon which our characters are built and our plot rests.

But not much study has been done on how to most effectively use conflicts in fiction. The academic study of conflict, referred to sometimes as peace studies, peace and justice, or conflict resolution, can teach writers how to create conflicts which not only support the characters, but drive the plot forward.

I'm back -- and the rule of 20

2009-06-30T12:13:00.002-04:00

Tuesday June 30, 2009

I'm back from a very long week of traveling and school, and am soooo happy to be home. But I also learned a ton, most of which will hopefully make it's way onto my blog over the next couple weeks.

So today's great little tidbit - the rule of 20. This is from an article Debbie Macomber wrote, which was generously passed on to me by a very awesome class-mate.

The rule of 20:

If you're stuck (and this works for anything -- for motivations, conflicts, plots, etc), list 20 possible options.

The first five will be ones we've all seen over and over again in novels

The last five will be too absurd to put in a novel

The middle ten, however, will be bursting with possibilities. And chances are, one of them will set your imagination off and point you in the right direction.

So I gave this a shot. I'm a at a point in my WIP where I knew what had to come next, but not how to get there. So I took a blank sheet of note paper and wrote across the top, "How do Kersey and Naomi get back to the castle." And I numbered it 1-20 down the side of the page (and felt a bit like I was back in school, taking a pop quiz ;)

So I started jotting down options. And you know what? It worked. The first few were plain and boring, and the things that had been floating around in my head that I knew just weren't quite right. The next few were a bit better. But then the ideas started getting more and more creative until BINGO! I got it.

This is my new "How-to-get-unstuck" trick. Hope it helps!

M.I.A.

2009-06-19T12:41:00.003-04:00

Friday, June 19

I will be MIA for the next two weeks -- off to start my second semester in the Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. This semester, I'm taking classes on marketing trends in romance, synopsis writing, showing vs. telling, and conflict & plot.

So I'll have lots of fun stuff to share upon my return!

news from the contest front

2009-06-11T08:34:00.003-04:00

Thursday, June 11, 2009

So I'm finished judging my first ever contest. And you know what? I found myself writing the exact same comments over and over again.

And before you ask, no, it wasn't because I was lazy and just copied and pasted my comments. It was because I kept seeing the same problems over and over again.

I'll bet you can guess what my most-used comment was. Yep, that's right: "Can you show this, instead of telling us?" I can't even explain how many times I wrote that. That was problem number one. Of the five MS I judged, 3 had big-time problems in the "show don't tell" front. The second-most common problem: a shallow POV.

Now, this doesn't surprise me in the least. Mostly because "show don't tell" and "use a deep POV" are probably the hardest pieces of writing advice for new authors to wrap their minds around. It's taken me years to figure them out, and I wouldn't think for a second that I have it "perfected." These are concepts every writer must struggle with and strive for every day. These aren't ones you figure and are suddenly done with.

So no big surprise, that this is where contest entrants fell on my judging scale. I've certainly gotten contest points ripped off for this very thing on numerous occasions.

But the issue I kept running into that really surprised me? Some of these entries were....well...they were boring. I'm not saying this to be mean, I'm really not. But while reading, my mind would wander, I'd skim through page after page of introspection, I'd leave it and come back....in other words, nothing compelled me to keep reading.

There were no questions in my mind I wanted answers to, no suspense to keep me intrigued (and before you say it, I was judging the romantic suspense category, and by 30 pages in, there should be some suspense). You know what I had instead? Pages and pages of each character explained to me. That's right, every single entry used several pages of introspection to introduce each main character. By the time I had finished chapter two, I knew everything about the hero and heroine.

Notice I didn't say I knew the hero or heroine. I knew about them. There's a big difference there, even if the wording is subtle. I could tell you their histories, their past traumas, their desires, their conflict. But you know how in a really good book, you know the characters? You know how they'd react, how they feel, what drives them, etc. I didn't get that feeling.

To be fair, I was only reading 30 pages. But it made me wonder if I do the same thing. If I'm so busy telling my readers about my characters to introduce them, that I forgot to show their characterization. Anybody else have that problem?

paramedic method of revision

2009-06-05T15:12:00.002-04:00

Friday, June 5, 2009

On the pirate ship today, Janga mentioned the Paramedic Method of revision, which piqued my interest. And man, oh man, is it good. A simple, easy concept, but one that I think will make a huge impact on my grammar and sentence structure. Check it out!

in the beginning...

2009-06-01T13:32:00.002-04:00

Monday, June 1st, 2009

So I offered to judge my very first contest. I thought it would be exciting, but alas, it's giving me the same stomach ache that grading papers gives me. Can't I give everyone an "A for effort?" lol!

But one of the first things on my score sheets is the opening hook. Does the opening make you want to keep reading? Does it draw you into the story?

Now, we all know that opening hooks are important. But I don't think I really got how important until judging this. Because I have to say, of the five entries I received, only one opening actually drew me into the story. But you know what? It really drew me in. I read the first sentence, said "ohhhhhh," leaned back in my chair, put up my feet, and was five pages in before I remembered I was supposed to be scoring the opening.

It wasn't a shocker opening, it wasn't graphic or violent or funny. But you know what that very first sentence did? It raised a question in my mind, and damn it, I wanted to know the answer. And of course, the next sentence raised a new question, and the next, and within the first paragraph, I know this was one of those books I wasn't going to set down any time soon. Because now I was invested. I wanted my questions answered. I wanted to know what happened next.

Isn't that the best thing about hearing (or reading) a story? Finding out what happens next? It reminds me of that Friends episode where people kept starting a story and then walking out of the room mid-sentence. And Monica, with this horrified look on her face, throws up her hands and yells, "People have got to start finishing their stories!"

It's the suspense. It's the "don't torture me by keeping me waiting, just tell me what happens next!" feeling. And if you're not writing a suspense novel full of life and death stakes, how do you get that suspense? That desperation in your readers to keep turning the page and finding out what happens next -- questions. To quote one of my lovely professors, "Before you answer a question, make sure you've raised two more." So by the time you get around to answering one question, you've raised so many more with your readers, that they still have to keep reading.

So how do you do it? How do you hook your readers? What makes you desperate to keep reading a good book? Ever been so desperate to know what happens next that you can't concentrate on anything else?

How they write, take 3 -- Nora Roberts

2009-05-29T10:17:00.002-04:00

Friday, May 29, 2009

For our last day of the "How they Write" series, we have the ultimate power house in writing, Ms. Nora Roberts herself. Also from the Crescent Blues e-mag. The whole interview has lots of great info on how romance publishing has changed since she started in the 1980's.

Crescent Blues: Do your characters ever surprise you by turning out very differently from who you thought they would be? Which character (or characters) surprised you the most?

Nora Roberts: My characters always surprise me. Once they've taken on a life in a book, it's wise to let them go their own ways. I can't remember ever having a character turn out precisely as I'd imagined them before I started the book. That's a good thing.

Crescent Blues: What are the differences you find in writing so many different types of books? Do you prepare for them differently? Do they require a different level of research?

Nora Roberts: I don't prepare for the actual writing any differently. Work is work. The research depends on the subject matter, not the type of book. But I have to know if this is a hardcover romantic suspense and craft the idea in that way. If it's a trilogy, what is the common thread, what binds these people together?

Crescent Blues: Where do you start when you write a book or a story? For example, do you start at the beginning and write through? Do you prefer to toy with character or plot?

Nora Roberts: I start at page one chapter one and write straight through, generally a fairly quick and loose first draft. Then I go back and do another draft from the beginning, fixing where I went off, fleshing out the characters (as I'll know them better by this point), seeing if the story holds. It'll take at least one more draft for polishing, maybe two. But I don't edit my work as I go. I like getting the story down first.

Wow, she starts over? I must say, I was surprised by this. As fast as she writes, I just assumed she only did one draft per book. Fascinating! And notice her direct contridiction to Mary Jo Putney's advice yesterday. LOL!

How the write, take 2 -- Mary Jo Putney

2009-05-28T08:06:00.000-04:00

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Up today on our "How they write" series -- Mary Jo Putney. This is from an interview from the website Crescent Blues. The whole interview has tons of good info for anyone who's a fan of her characters!

How she writes:

Crescent Blues: How do you create characters whose strengths and weaknesses complement each other to achieve transformation? (Is it a conscious process, or does one character suggest its own complement?)

Mary Jo Putney: As you suggested, it's usually a matter of developing one character who is the natural complement of the other, so that it will be convincing that these two people are right for each other as no one else could be. Or if I start a book with a plot idea, the characters must be ones who will explore the potentials of that plot as well as suit each other.

Crescent Blues: Which comes first for you: the hero, the heroine or the plot?

Mary Jo Putney: It can be any of the three, though it's more likely to be the hero or the plot than the heroine.

Crescent Blues: How does the story grow from there? (Are you a linear writer, an outliner, a plug-n-play?)

Mary Jo Putney: I'm very linear. I start at the beginning and inch my way through to the end. If I don't know what happens next, I tread water and edit until I figure out how to proceed. I can't even imagine writing in pieces and stringing them together; to me, the writing process is organic, with each section growing out of what happened previously.

Crescent Blues: Do you decide the story's issue in advance or does it develop from your characters?

Mary Jo Putney: It's a combination of both. I suppose that if I start with a plot, I also have a sense of the issue. Whereas if I start with a character, the issue grows out of him.

Crescent Blues: Who's in control, you or your characters?

Mary Jo Putney: Me, without question. I think that anyone who says the characters took over really means that they didn't know them well enough at the beginning. Once you know them inside and out, they don't surprise you.

I find this interesting, especially the last part. My characters seem to come alive and take over part way through the book. I'm not sure if it's because I don't know them well enough before I start, or if I just need them on paper to really get a sense of them. What do you think?

How they write, take 1 -- JoAnn Ross

2009-05-27T11:22:00.003-04:00

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Up first this week on our "How they write" series, is JoAnn Ross, who writes romance and romantic suspense. See her whole interview on her website, which includes great info on publishing.

Her writing process:

Since I love writing, while it’s not always easy, it never feels like work. (It’s hard to complain about a job I get to do in my jammies.) I’ve written nearly every day since 1982, approximately eight hours during the week, usually less on weekends. I used to set goals of twenty pages a day for category, ten pages a day for single title. These days, because I tend to keep rewriting as I go along, it can get too demoralizing to set specific goals, so I just keep an eye on the calendar. Also, because I spend all that early time revising, by the last third of a book I pretty much have events set up and have a better idea of where I’m going, so the writing goes much faster.

I did character studies for a couple early books because I read in Writers Digest I was supposed to. They may work for other people, but they didn’t do a thing for me except waste time. I tend to think about my characters for a long time, sometimes years, so by the time I write their stories, I know them well enough to trust them to carry my story for me. Because I’ve often thought it would be nice to have a roadmap, I’ve tried, but simply cannot do outlines, although I usually have an idea of a pivotal scene somewhere toward the middle of a book, and a vague plan for the ending, which can, and usually does change.

I don’t necessarily recommend this method; as with everything else about writing, process is a very unique thing and we all have to find what works for us. My process has changed a lot since I began writing, and can often change during the course of writing a book.

Yesterday revealed a wide range of writing processes. Anybody write like this?

How they write

2009-05-26T12:02:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

There are probably as many ways to write as there are ways to clean a house. Some people like to vacuum every day, some people iron their sheets, some are lucky if the dust balls don't eat them in their sleep. It's all a matter of comfort, preference, skills, ability, time etc.

Writing is the same way. How you write -- what system works best for you -- depends on your goals, your genre/sub-genre, your time constraints, and your financial constraints (contests bills add up, not to mention the maid and personal chef so I have more time to write. A girl can dream, right?). It also depends on your skills and abilities. The more we write, the better we get at spotting what's not working and knowing how to fix it.

Some people like to edit as they go, some need to vomit out the first draft and fix it later. Some plot, plot, plot, some fly by the seat of their pants. Some try to get it all down in one go, others write in layers.

So a short series this week: how to do they write? Lots of published authors talk about their system for writing and what works for them. So this week, I'll post some great interviews from romance authors.

But for today, how do you write? What's your system?

I'm a plotter, and a fairly fanatical one at that. If I don't know exactly where I'm going with each scene, and what the goals are for that scene, I freeze up. I've tried to pants it -- it always backfires for me.

So my system is to plot, plot, plot. Then I forget all about all of that and just write. I don't re-read it, don't fiddle with it, just write. The next day, I'll start my day by reading over yesterday's work, and fiddling with it then. I compare it to my plot - did I go where I meant to go, or just go off on a tangent. Did I show the necessary characterization? Did I show evocative emotions? I'll layer in more emotions, more plot, or a deeper POV. Then I start fresh on the next scene, forget all the rules and plotting, and just write. Tomorrow, I'll go over the stuff I wrote this morning.

But that's just me. Nicole Jordan, in an interview in April's Romance Writer's Report, said "There’s no point in doing scads of plotting or characterization prep unless it actually helps you write the story better and faster. For some writers, too much prep work is actually detrimental."

So what do you do? Are you a plotter or pantster? Do you write every day, or when inspiration strikes? Do you edit as you go, or come back later? Write in layers, or try to get it all down at once?

researching from fiction

2009-05-22T11:51:00.002-04:00

So I managed to pick several ambitious topics for my current WIP, which are going to require a lot of research. International gun running, cooperation between British and US intelligence agencies, the inner workings of terrorist organizations, etc.

I've got tons of books from the library. I have books on illicit smuggling rings, memoirs of CIA agents, books on intelligence gathering. But what I can not find, for the life of me, is good non-fiction books on the IRA, a Northern Irish terrorist organization. I found one book, but it was written in the 1960's. Good for background info, but not so current.

What I did find is three well-written suspense novels revolving around the IRA. So what do you think? In the absence of good info, go for fiction info? One of the authors is actually from N. Ireland, so he seems like he might know what he's talking about. And I'm working off my basic memory of Belfast and Derry from those two weeks I spent in N. Ireland five years ago.

Ever used other fiction novels for research? Do you think it's okay to go with the fiction cannon of something, if no good research exists? I think this happens a lot with historical fiction. Things become commonly accepted in fiction, so we go with it even if it's not quite historically accurate. After all, you don't want readers being pulled out of a story to go double check your facts, even if they are true.

So what do you do for research when you can't find the truth?

has everybody seen this?

2009-05-21T11:14:00.004-04:00

Thursday, May 21, 2009

I'm a bit behind, after being buried in school work for so long (on a side note - I passed my first term! My prof said "Rarely have I seen characters so conflicted in every aspect of their lives" - which I'm pretty sure is a good thing. LOL!).

Brenda Novak is running her 5th annual auction to benefit diabetes research. As I was looking through the items up for auction, I stumbled upon TONS of critiques up for auction.

Here's critiques/readings being offered by acquiring editors. And here's critiques/readings being offered by agents. And finally, critiques/readings being offered by published authors. Also up for auction are writing craft books and classes (and of course, less writerly things like big screen TV's, laptops, etc.).

All very fun, and for a good cause!

whether to use the weather...

2009-05-20T12:53:00.005-04:00

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Ever used the weather to create a scene? I think most of us have, or will. I wrote a scene last week that was going fine until I realized it had no real setting, no mood. It was my hero and heroine taking a hike through a forest.

Uh, boring.

And I realized that I was missing this HUGE opportunity. Here they were, in the middle of a night, in an N. Irish forest, full of spooky noises and obstacles. There would have been drops of water falling from the canopy above them from an earlier rain storm. There'd be some stray, rolling thunder from the storm that had moved out over the ocean. Scurrying noises from little forest-dwelling creatures.

Now, I realize that's not all weather. But my point is that my characters wandering through the woods was boring. My characters picking their way through a spooky forest as thunder rolled above them rain splattered down is much more interesting. All because of the weather.

Ever seen a picture of weather that just put you there?
I stumbled across this picture when researching what kind of storms they get in N. Ireland. And it instantly put me in Belfast. The rain, the lone streetlight, the fence. There's undertones of something sinister in this picture, much like the city itself and (hopefully) my WIP.

Ever had to go back and add more description? More weather? Any types of weather that just put you in a certain mood or take you somewhere?

craft tip of the week

2009-05-16T13:07:00.003-04:00

Saturday, May 16, 2009

So as most of you know, I have an unhealthy obsession with craft books. So I thought I'd start posting tips that have been helpful for me on here, in the hope they become helpful for someone else. If they're straight out of a book, I'll list the info so you can get the book for yourself (if you also have this obsession :)

This week's tip........showing vs. telling

Shocker, I know. Something none of you have ever heard of :) Clearly, we all know that it's important to show things instead of telling our readers. It creates more investment in the story, more empathy for the character, and overall, that brings that elusive dream of hearing a reader say "I just couldn't put it down."

And there are tricks galore for how to do this. But I inadvertently stumbled across a way that seems to be working well for me, so I thought I'd pass it along.

I have a secondary character named Josephine. I love this character, and adore writing her. It's become such a love that I'm toying with the idea of writing her story as a sequel. But because she's a secondary character, very few of my scenes are in her POV. Only one, so far, in 120 pages. And there will only be a couple more, I think.

So because I am never in her head, I don't really have the option to telling my readers anything about her. I'm forced into showing it. I have no thoughts, no internal emotions, nothing. Only her outward dialogue, facial expressions, and actions.

And those reading the MS got it. I was really surprised, but I kept getting comments about how much Josephine loved the main character, or how hardened she is, or how dedicated she is. All these little insights to her character, without me ever telling any of it. And frankly, I'm surprised just how well I've gotten to know Josephine, without ever going into her head.

So this has turned in to a trick for me. If you're having trouble getting to know your character, or showing things about them instead of telling, try writing a few of their scenes from another character's POV. How do they react, what do they say. What are those little, tiny micro-expressions and actions that give away what they're feeling deep down. What are the little things they do when they're trying to hide something?

For instance, I have this scene in my MC's POV. And he says something truly asinine to someone else. Josephine doesn't react, doesn't say anything. But she drops the box of cigars she's holding. And the cigars are rolling across the floor in this moment of sudden quiet after the crash of the box.

And that was it - there was no dialog, no frantic thoughts on Jo's part. Just the cigars. And those reading got it. If I'd been in Jo's POV, I would have been tempted to over explain it, to beat it to death to make sure reader's understood why she reacted the way she did. But because I didn't have that option, I was forced to leave it at just showing, and it worked.

Now clearly, I don't think we should stop writing in deep POV, but if you're struggling, this has been a way that's helped me really force myself to only show. One caveat thought - I will say that reader's interpreted Jo's reason for dropping the cigars very differently. Their view and understanding of Jo influenced what they took from that scene. But you know, those little nuances can be part of the fun of writing.

Anybody ever tried this to work on showing instead of telling? What other tips do you have for forcing yourself not to tell your readers what's happening?

action and reaction

2009-05-07T16:00:00.000-04:00

Thursday, May 7, 2009

In continuing to look at Carolyn Wheat's How to write Killer Fiction, there was one other spot that stood out at me. Action and reaction.

This is a concept I've been thinking about a lot recently, on a kind of scene-by-scene macro scale (as in, who is doing the acting, and who is doing the reacting in this scene).

That doesn't make any sense, so let me explain. In suspense, someone is doing something. Acting. There's a plan, a plot, a conspiracy - someone is actively doing something. In False Move, my current WIP, there's a bad guy who is desperately trying to get his hands on a cache of weapons.

So my bad guy, he's acting, right? He set this whole chain of events into motion with the goal of getting these weapons. Which means my hero is reacting. He's caught in this sucky web of the bad guy. He needs to save himself and his daughter. He does not have the option of sitting by and watching this happen. He must react. So for the beginning, the bad guy is acting and the good guy is reacting.

But that can't sustain a whole novel, right? I mean, we don't want our hero's just signing to the tune of the bad guy. At some point, my hero has to get one step ahead of the bad guy. He needs to become the actor. Which means, at that point, my bad guy needs to react. His plan has been foiled by the hero. He has to salvage things -- react. But then he has to come up with a new plan, and destroy the hero. Once again, he becomes the actor and the hero is forced to react.

This concept has been exceedingly helpful to me in my plotting. Especially in this MS, where I have five characters, all with their own goals and plans and plots. At any given point, someone is acting, which forces others to react. Who's taking over next? Who starts acting? How are the others forced to react? Thinking through it this way makes sure that no one is relegated to the back stage, always reacting. And it keeps the stakes high.

So in Wheat's book (yes, I'm slowly getting back there), she talks about acting and reacting on a micro scale. As in each and every little tiny thing. There's a new show I adore, called Lie to Me, where they talk about micro-expressions. Tiny, half-second expressions that, given the right person noticing and paying attention, reveal what we really feel.

So this is like micro action/reaction. Hero says something. Heroine clenches her fist. Action -- reaction. Heroine refuses to answer or engage, hero gets pissy. Action -- reaction. Again, it goes back and forth. Something always follows from something else. Nothing comes out of the blue -- everything is the result of everything that came before it (karma lesson, anyone? :)

This is also a great way to cut out unnecesary scenes. Is this a reaction? Did it come out of nowhere? Are the right people acting and reacting? If not, chop it. Already, I can think off the top of my head in my last MS where I threw in scenes that weren't really a reaction to anything that came before, mostly because I didn't know what else to write (give me a break, it was my first try at a full novel). Those are the ones I'll be going back to cut.

the suspense genre....

2009-05-06T18:12:00.005-04:00

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

My craft/how-to book for this semester is "How to Write Killer Fiction" by Carolyn Wheat. The book is focused on mystery and suspense novels - the first half focuses on mystery, the second half on suspense.

I found the history of the suspense genre interesting, because it was new information to me. Did anyone else know that Jane Eyre is essentially the first romantic suspense novel? I put Pride and Prejudice on my reading list for this semester; Jane Eyre is definitely going on my list for this coming semester. And if Georgette Heyer's Fredericka brought romance into the modern age, then Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca did the same for romantic suspense. Another book which will be on my reading list next semester.

In looking at the suspense genre as a whole (because I've never looked at it outside the "romantic suspense" sub-genre), the theme I'm seeing is characterization. Wheat's book goes into detail on all the different sub-genres of suspense, and the common thing that stands out to me between all these sub-genres is character (not really a huge surprise there, but still interesting).

"Woman in jeopardy" (or child or man or alien in jeopardy, etc) is a common theme in romantic suspense. According to Wheat, the protagonist is a normal person, required by circumstances outside their control to become somehow stronger, braver, and more heroic then they were at the beginning. It's David and Goliath. As readers, we identify with that, because we want to think that in the same set of circumstances, we would be just as brave, heroic, and strong.

In Spy fiction (what I write - I guess it's more "romantic spy fiction"), Wheat advises being careful of the big, international stakes. It's great the the fate of the free world rests on the hero's shoulders. But as readers, we still need someone to identify with, someone to root for, and someone to blame. Without knowing those characters, it's hard to get invested in the big save-the-world stakes, even if we all, at an intellectual level, want the world to be saved. It's hard to get impassioned about the world - it's easy to get impassioned about a well-drawn character.

There were other sub-genres, which I won't get into. I will say that Wheat's description of romantic suspense was nowhere near accurate. In her description, there is a heroine and two men -- one good, one mean. The good one turns out to be the one trying to kill her and the mean one turns out to the be the hero. I think I have read a Mary Higgins Clark book like that, but it's certainly not indicative of the entire genre. Of course, there are as many types of romantic suspense novels as there are romance and suspense novels, so no one could accurately sum it up in two paragraphs.

I realize that my new and exciting revelation that characterization is important isn't really new information. Every writer knows that. But there are some genres where it's more important than others - for instance, in straight mystery, the plot is often more important than the characters. It's the puzzle the readers invest in (not always, but it can be the case). The Da Vinci Code, as well, had very little characterization. It was about solving the clues.

But Da Vinci Code aside, for suspense, the stakes have to be constantly going up (see my little chart in last week's post :). For that to resonate with the reader, the stakes for the reader have to be going up too. Which brings us back full circle to characterization - that's the reader's stakes.

I'm going in circles here, I realize. But I have a point. Usually, when I write, I think of the romance side as the characterization and the suspense side as the plot. I think of them as almost two separate story arcs. I concentrate on one, then the other. But this is making me realize that characterization is just as important on the suspense side. Maybe they go more hand in hand than I thought.

Unlawful Contact by Pamela Clare

2009-05-05T15:21:00.006-04:00

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

This week, continuing on an analysis of novels, I’m looking at Pamela Clare’s Unlawful Contact, her most recent in the I-Team romantic suspense series. I’ll try not to leave any spoilers, for anyone who hasn’t read it (and if you haven’t, track it down, seriously).

There are two things which stood out to me while reading Unlawful Contact the first time, which I think bear closer examination: POV depth, and external conflict.

Because I don’t know how she achieved that amazing POV depth, I’m going to focus on the external conflict. In most romance novels, we talk about external conflict vs. internal conflict. I only recently realized this was exclusive to romance novels (when I was blabbing to a mystery author and her face got all scrunched up and she looked at me sideways).

But for romance, there are two things holding apart our hero and heroine – the external conflict (jobs, suspense, bad guys, etc) and the internal conflict (fear of intimacy, past trauma, trust issues, etc). And these often (or hopefully) collide all at the same time for the ultimate black moment/conclusion.

And now and then, you stumble upon a novel which breaks the rules. Now, I’m a sucker for internal conflict, as I love angst. I recently read Anna Campbell’s Tempt the Devil, which has almost all internal conflict and little external conflict. Because the focus was entirely internal, the emotional depth and angst was awesome.

In Unlawful Contact, Pamela Clare takes the opposite direction. The external conflict, rather than the internal conflict, is the primary thing holding Marc (our hero) and Sophie (our heroine) apart. Rather than having Sophie not trusting Marc, or Marc being scared of commitment, or any of the other internal issues that keep us all from having perfect relationships, they’re passionately in love.

I found this interesting, because it was the first time I’d seen it. There’s nothing internal holding them apart. They want to be together, they love each other, and they’re desperate to stay together. And yet they know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that they won’t be together beyond the few days they’ve stolen from real life.

The external conflict is so powerful that the readers, as well, are thinking “they’re never going to get out of this. Either Marc dies or goes to prison.” Marc himself says to Sophie, “There’s not going to be a happy ending for us.” There’s no lifetime of bliss in the future, no home and family, no happily ever after. Which makes their love and devotion to each other – that lack of internal conflict – all the sweeter (and of course, since this is romance, and there’s always a happy ending, it just makes the happy ending itself so much sweeter, since I for one, never saw it coming).

This also has interesting implications for the black moment. Usually the best black moments are the collision of the internal and external conflicts, especially in romantic suspense. The hero thinks he’s unworthy of love, so walks away from the heroine, only to have her kidnapped by the bad guy (yes, I’ve used that one – stop laughing now!). Or the heroine, can’t risk another failed relationship, so calls the paramedics to help the injured hero and slips out into the darkness.

But in Unlawful Contact, because there’s not the internal keeping them apart, the black moment is entirely external. And because you *know* how much Sophie loves Marc, you feel her anguish. She’s not holding anything back – and that comes across the reader. She loves him, she knows she’s losing him, and it’s devastating.

Now, I’m not trying to advocate dropping internal conflicts from romance novels. In fact, another book in the I-Team series, Hard Evidence, has phenomenal internal conflict between the hero/heroine.

But for Marc and Sophie, the primarily external plot worked, and worked brilliantly. I think it’s important, as writers, to examine our characters, and really think through conflicts – do these particular characters have primarily an external or internal conflict? Even split? What’s going to make the plot stronger (and the happily-ever-after sweeter)? It won’t be the same with every set of characters.

Any thoughts on the conflicts in Unlawful Contact? Any other books which use primarily internal or external rather than a mix? What do you tend to focus on in your own writing?

The Da Vinci Code - take 2

2009-04-30T11:55:00.001-04:00

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Earlier in the week, I rambled on about the alternating chapter hooks in The Da Vinci Code and how I felt that really made a huge difference in the pace of the novel, and contributed to the suspense.

But besides the hooks (or perhaps leading directly to the amazing ability to create 105 chapter hooks), is the raising stakes in almost every chapter. Every single time I thought things were coming together or falling into place, another wrench was thrown in. On numerous occasions, I thought there was no way they were getting out of this. And of course, they managed it, but over and over again, the stakes went up, the danger got worse, or their chances got slimmer. The characters never had a chance to take a deep breath, and neither did the reader.

Now, I’ve read other books like that before, but I didn’t have the same reaction, and it’s taken me a while, but I think I’ve figured out the difference. Before, when reading books so fast paced, I just set it down and felt exhausted. Every time things got better for the characters, something new happened, and the suspense/fast pace started all over again. My reaction was along the lines of, really? Again? With The Da Vinci Code, there was no pause. There was no moment of relaxation, no thought that everything was finally working.

I’m a visual person, so charts work best for me:

My point is, in The Da Vinci Code, there was no up and down. There was just a steep climb up, and then a hold at uber-suspense while all the seemingly loose pieces came together.

Now, in romance, we usually want that up and down motion. Or at least, I think we do. In a straight romance, we want lulls, times when the relationship seems to be going right, where you can have love scenes and sweet intimate moments to show them falling in love. If the conflict line just went straight up, at a steep angle, you’d miss all the falling in love moments (somebody correct me if you think of romances where the conflict had no lulls).

But I think in suspense, or at least what seemed to work in this book, was the straight, steep climb. Every single scene built on the scene before it. Every piece of new information added to the suspense. And when one question was finally answered, there were already two new ones introduced, so even the answering of questions didn’t create that lull.

I don’t know what this means for romantic suspense. It’s almost as if you need to two charts above in the same novel: suspense that grows and escalates without lulls, but romance that offers just enough lulls in the conflict to develop the relationship. Is that possible?

the Da Vinci Code - take 1

2009-04-28T11:49:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

We choose The Da Vinci Code for my reading this semester for its suspense and pacing. I read a lot of romantic suspense, but hadn’t read any straight suspense, and I was intrigued to see suspense after the romance has been stripped out.

And boy did the Da Vinci Code fulfill that. I had been warned, on multiple occasions, that I wouldn’t be able to set it down. No shocker, they were right. I gobbled this book down, and even after I finished it as fast as possible, couldn’t stop thinking about it. I even had creepy dreams about monks in brown robes and the Mona Lisa. And of course, I read it on vacation, where I don’t have internet access, so I’m still thinking about all the paintings described and desperate to look them up and see if I can spot the symbolism.

My first reaction, when I started reading, was that I hated the writing. I still do. The POV, while limited 3^rd person, was shallow to the point of feeling more like omniscient. There were enough flashbacks to give some character depth, but the shallow POV killed me. And I don’t think there was any showing. At all. Everything was told to me. After finishing it, I was trying to determine if it was more Langdon or Sophie’s story. And I realized that the reason I couldn’t decide was because it was Dan Brown’s story – the one he told me, not the one the characters told me.

So when I first started reading I was dreading to have to read an entire novel told to me and full of things like “What should I do next?” he thought. But within 50 pages, I forgot all my complaints about the writing and just kept reading.

I was reading for suspense and pacing, but the more I read and thought about it, the more I think they go hand in hand. The pace is what created the suspense. And wow, was there some phenomenal pacing going on.

The book is 105 chapters long. And every chapter ended on a hook. Every single one of them. But not only did each chapter end on a hook, but probably about 70-80% of the time, the next chapter was a different POV or setting. So when chapter 42 ends in a hook in Character A’s POV, chapter 43 jumps to Character B’s POV, and their situation/setting. It might be chapter 45 before you get back to the hook that had you gasping at the end of chapter 42. (Clearly, these are mostly 2-5 pg chapters).

So often, with a good chapter hook, whatever questions raised are answered on the facing page, in the first paragraph of the next chapter. I think part of what makes the pacing here so good is that you don’t have that option. You’ve got to read 2 or 3 more chapters, and each of those have a good hook. So now, you finally have the questions at the end of chapter 42 answered, but you’ve got ten more questions burning in your head, so you have to read a few more chapters, and then you’ve got those new questions….you get the idea. There’s nowhere to stop.

At an intellectual level, you always hear how important chapter hooks are. But The Da Vinci Code takes chapter hooks to a whole new level. And really, they could be called scene hooks just as easily as chapter hooks, as the chapters were short. There were very few traditional scene breaks, as almost every new scene was its own chapter. But I think really, the amazing pace came from not only the chapter hooks, but the alternating hooks, if I can make that up as a new phrase.

Tomorrow - my thoughts on how the raising of the stakes created additional suspense.

P&P encore - character flaws

2009-03-03T14:12:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

So today, in continuing my examination of Pride and Prejudice, I'm shamelessly piggy-backing Santa and Janga's comments this morning about character flaws.

I talked last week about the major character changes/arcs that Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy go through. But Santa's post got me thinking about the exact opposite - those characters who did not change over the course of the novel.

With the possible exception of Jane, whose perfection showcased Elizabeth's impulsiveness, all of Austen's characters were flawed. Elder Mrs. Bennett was comical in her small-minded desperation to marry off her daughters; Mr. Bennett had given up caring about anyone except Elizabeth and Jane decades ago.

And then we have Lydia. Oh, Lydia. Has anyone else seen "Fool's Gold"? I think Lydia, if living today, would be a lot like Gemma on "Fool's Gold." I love when Kate Hudson points to all the idiot guys chasing after her and says to Gemma, "You see how dumb they are? They can't help it. You can. The end." Perhaps Lydia would have fared better if someone had said the same to her. Then again, perhaps not.

Opposite Lydia is Mr. Wickham, who starts out nice enough, and quickly takes a down-hill turn. Wickham's flaws seem numerous - deceit, gambling, lies, pretension, vein flattery.... But I think Janga was able to sum it up in one word: weak. Wickham had a weak character - he cared nothing for the other people in his life, yet tried desperately to look good in the eyes of others.

So the question on the ship today was about honor and redeeming our heroes. Could Wickham been redeemed? Could he have changed and become Lydia's hero? Austen purposely does not redeem either Wickham or Lydia, and they're doomed to a marriage much like Mr. and Mrs. Bennett's.

I think I'm going to have to go with Janga here that weakness is difficult, if not impossible, to redeem. Wickham had no honor - there was nothing beneath his flaws. Mr. Darcy, on the other hand, had plenty of flaws himself, yet the cornerstone of his character was his honor and his willingness to do anything for his loved ones.

Even our most flawed heroes (our wonderful "bad boys") must have some moral code of their one, some sense of honor. It's there in the way they treat a stranger, or they're mother, or any other host of places, but you always have that glimmer that something better is deep inside and waiting to come out. Wickham didn't have that glimmer :)

For example, and to piggy back on the next book I'll analyze for this reading journal - Pamela Clare's Unlawful Contact - Marc Hunter is a definite bad boy. The man is serving life without parole for murder and drug trafficking for goodness' sake! So we have plenty of flaws (the whole killing people thing), yet we root for him through the whole book. I kept coming up with justifications for him, to gloss over the fact that he'd committed first-degree murder. Because it all came back to his honor - he did what he felt he had to do to protect someone he loved. For him, that was the end of it. If that meant he had to spend the rest of his life in prison, than that's what it mean.

There are heroes with strong characters (Mr. Darcy, Marc Hunter), and there are men with weak characters (Wickham). For me, those with weak characters, those who manipulate and use those around them and have not even a glimmer of honor beneath, will never become Mr. Darcy or Marc Hunter.

So, can anyone prove me wrong? Do you have heroes who start out as Wickham and turn into Mr. Darcy? A character with no glimmer of honor who is redeemed by the end? Or do you think it's impossible?

Pride and Predjudice

2009-02-22T11:38:00.002-05:00

Sunday, February 22, 2009

As part of my requirements for school, I must read selected texts within the genre, and critically examine them. One of the texts I chose for this semester is Pride and Prejudice because (gasp!) I haven't read it before and I thought the whole "requirement" thing might give me the necessary motivation.

In fact, it did, and of course, I loved every word. Though I must say, by the time Mr. Darcy got around to proposing (again) to Elizabeth, it was subtly buried in a paragraph, and I missed it. When she announced to Jane she was engaged, I had to go back and figure out when that had happened. lol.

So P&P is, of course, classic literature, and reads like classic literature. There was the omniscient narrator, a ton of telling, and adverbs everything. Fortunately, unlike Frederica there was no one ejaculating their words. Thank god.

The thing that really stood out to me the most in the novel is the character arcs. Both characters went through major changes from over the course of the book. Mr. Darcy was as proud and haughty as Elizabeth was accusing him of being, and by the end of the book, he had seen the error of his ways. He told Elizabeth about his change of heart, but even more importantly, it was shown through his subsequent actions. He put up with her mother, who he had previously dismissed as a liability, he spoke to her "trade class" aunt and uncle with the utmost manners. And most importantly for Elizabeth, he ended his interference between Jane and Mr. Bingly.

And Elizabeth changes as well, though it wasn't quite the complete reversal of Mr. Darcy's change. Elizabeth made snap judgments, and believed Mr. Wickham's account of Mr. Darcy's behavior, all of which she was forced to read after Mr. Darcy explained all in his letter. Not only did she have to change her own mind, she then had to admit her bad judgment to Jane, whom Elizabeth had previously convinced of Mr. Darcy's wicked ways.

Even though there were other characters in and out of the story - Lydia with Mr. Wickham; Jane and Mr. Bingly - but it's Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy who have such wonderful changes throughout the story.

Tips for writng fast

2009-02-10T22:02:00.003-05:00

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

So at Barnes and Noble last week, I came across the Book in a Month guide. I'm not sure I could - or would want to - write a book in a month, but this had some great tips for writing fast. (It also had some great charts and workshops downloadable from the author's website without buying the book.)

Two great tips have really stuck out to me. The first is writing "as-if." I often find myself making fairly significant changes to character or plot, esp at the beginning, which forces me to go back and change everything coming before it. The author's tip: jot a note as to the change, and continue writing "as-if" you did make that change already. Mark down the page # where you started writing with the change, so that you can easily go back and fix it.

Another idea was about research. This is the one that's really saved me time. Instead of researching things as you go, jot a note as to what you need to research, and keep writing. So as I was writing along last week and realized I needed a Palestinian name for a character. So I googled "common Palestinian male names" and then spent an hour on Wikipedia learning how Arabic names are structured, all the different types of names they have (no easy first, middle, last in Arabic!), and which names are religious vs. secular.

Instead, had I been following these tips, I could have just jotted down, "Check Palestinian names, chapter 2, scene 1" and spent that hour writing another page or two. But then again, I wouldn't know that the Ism usually has a religious prefix, and comes before the Kunya name, which you only receive after the birth of your first-born. Wow.

"he grinned at her...."

2009-02-06T15:55:00.004-05:00

Saturday, February 7th

So in one of my critiques at school, I received a very interesting remark I didn't expect. A very contentious reader wrote on my page: "You use the words 'smile' and 'grin' a lot. Those are lazy words and you write better than that."

This had never occurred to me before, how often I use the phrase "he smiled" or "she grinned," and how little such a phrase actually conveys. There are a gazillion different smiles. Happy smiles and fake smiles and sexy smiles and nervous smiles....big grins that light up your face and little ones that show sheer, unadulterated amusement.

I've recently started watching a TV show. This is a big deal for me, as there are only two shoes on television I'll watch regularly. I now have a third, and I have (in two episodes) fallen deeply, deeply, in love. "Lie to Me' on Fox on Wednesday nights (or even better, here). The show is about a man who has spent his career researching facial expressions, and can spot any lie. A human lie detector. His firm is contracted by the FBI, various law enforcement agencies, politicians, etc, to find out if people are lying or telling the truth.

The nuances they can spot are phenomenal. What the slightest furrow in the eyebrows might mean. The slightest tilt of the lips. A change in breathing. A change in speech patterns (apparently, if you stop using contractions mid-way through a conversation, it's a big red flag).

So this has gotten me thinking more about what you can do with facial expressions, and all the nuances you can use. The small little subtitles that can show emotion in a way that "He grinned at her" cannot.

So, any words or phrases you use lazily without thinking about it? Anybody else overuse smile or grin? Anybody else hooked on this show?

Frederica and the twenty first century

2009-01-25T23:34:00.004-05:00

Monday, January 26th

So one part of my upcoming classes is to critically examine other books within the genre. Last week I read Frederica, and while it wasn't technically on my list of books to examine, there were bits which intrigued me.

So Frederica was published by Gerogette Heyer in 1965, and kicked off the modern romance genre. It reads much like classical literature, rather than books which are published by today's standards. For instance, every instance of dialog was followed by an exclamation point.

Don't pick on the dog, Felix! I won't, Frederica!

And then there were the dialog tags. Oh, the dialog tags. Not only were there explanations and adverbs, Heyer didn't follow the "said and said only" rule. Not even close.

"You don't say!" exclaimed the Duke. "Oh yes!" shouted Frederica.

And then it got worse. On four occasions - four! - the dialog tag was......wait for it......ejaculated. That's right, the Duke ejaculated his praise. "My Lord!" ejaculated the Duke. Seriously. He ejaculated.

So there were things about this book which clearly, would not be acceptable by today's standards. And Heyer broke other cardinal rules too. She wrote entirely in omniscient pov, and switched between people's heads as fast as she changed paragraphs. Hell, she even dipped into the dog's pov once!

And there was no showing going on in this novel - only telling.

So here's the weird thing. There was no pov depth, and I was told everything instead of shown. And there was a lot of words being ejaculated. But still, I could not put down this book. I loved it. The agnst was phenomonal, and my heart broke over and over for these characters, only to be perfectly taped back together.

I have no idea how Heyer accomplished this, as it's been drilled into my head that they only way to convey emotion is to show it, with the necessary deep pov. But she accomplished it. I guess it goes to show that in the hands of a very talented author, any rule can be broken. And telling, while not as strong or effective as showing, can work if used correctly.

Anybody else have a book that broke all the rules, but you loved it anyway?

I'm back!

2009-01-15T20:12:00.002-05:00

Thursday, January 15th

I'm back, from an amazing week of learning all about writing and more writing and more writing, and frankly, I'm freakin exhausted. But I learned a lot, much of which I will hopefully be sharing in the months to come.

So for now, the story of my return trip home from Pittsburgh:

I'd planned to leave Wednesday, after the end of our last class, but with winter storm advisories, inches of slushy, dirty snow, and ice everywhere, I decided that perhaps, a six hour drive home in the dark, through the mountains, might not be my brightest plan.

So I stayed overnight, and decided to attempt my journey during daylight hours. And thank every deity I could possibly get myself prone enough to bow to that I did!

My windshield wiper fluid decided it wasn't necessary, and stopped working. Which meant that every truck on the interstate (and there were a lot!) sprayed slush, salt, and ice on my windshield. Which I couldn't clear off. Or see though. You know, the little things. So every half mile or so, I had to role down my window (it was 7 degrees, by the way), reach as far out the window as I could, and pour bottled water on my windshield so I could run the wipers. Of course, half the water sprayed back into the car, as I was going 60 mph, which instantly iced over.

So it takes me an hour and a half to go twenty miles, I have ice all over my arm, and I'm on the freakin Pennsylvania Turnpike (for those of you not from PA, it's often a good 20 or 30 miles before they bother to give you another exit).

Not fun.

So finally I get home, throw my bags in the house, greet the puppy who missed me terribly, and see a beautiful bouquet of flowers the hubby got me. So I think, "Oh, I'll run over to work and say thank you!."

Not a good plan.

I race out of the house, without necessary things like my wallet or my phone. But hell, it's only two miles, what could go wrong?

The car breaks down.

And I mean, this POS breaks down. It's making a horrible thunking noise, I can smell burning oil, lights are coming on all over the dashboard, alarms bells are clanging - this car is done. So I crank the wheel and land in a pharmacy parking lot. I have no phone, no money. I scrounge for nickles and dimes, feed them into a payphone (I could barely remember how!) and called work.

Of course, Rob had just left. Ironically, as he was calling my phone over and over, trying to find me, and getting horribly pissed off, he drove past me. Just didn't see me stranded in the pharmacy parking lot.

It took another dollar worth of scrounged up nickles, two phone calls, multiple incidents of screaming and cursing, and me hanging up on him twice (hence the extra necessary nickles - I should have thought that part through), for us to get on the same page about what I needed (i.e., a freakin ride!).

So the moral of the story is.....okay, I can't think of one. But the car's now at the shop, I don't even what to know what went wrong, and I definitely don't want to know what it's going to cost to fix it. But at least it happened a mile from home and not on the PA turnpike.

adios!

2009-01-08T11:15:00.004-05:00

So tomorrow morning, I'm making the drive to Pittsburgh, where I will begin an intensive week of course work and critique groups. I'm filled with a mix of excitement and dread. Excitement for all the cool things I'm going to learn, dread that Marn will pass me up in our JanNaNo while I'm gone.

Oh, wait. She already passed me? Well then....

But really, I'm a bit nervous. Mostly about the critique groups. What if I'm too harsh? What if people hate mine? And I'm nervous about meeting new people - I don't generally do well in situations where I have to meet new people. I stutter and stammer and look down at my shoes. So to boost my confidence, I bought these amazing new shoes. That way, when I duck my head to hide, I'll see the phenomenal shoes, be bolstered with confidence, and suddenly start making spell-binding small talk. (true story - I actually spent weeks searching for the perfect shoes to bolster my confidence).

But on a better note to bolster my confidence levels, I just got handed a book, part of which I wrote!! It's scholarly, not fiction, so not quite as exciting, but still! It's an edited book, and I co-wrote one chapter. So I excitedly flipped to our chapter (not missing the wonderful new-book smell and crisp, bound pages) and found the four pages of the chapter that I wrote all by myself. Hot damn! It's hideously boring, about how post-WWII mathematical research was used to study the feasibility of global peace, but still - I wrote it!!

Okay, so between those two things, I should have my confidence up, right? I'm ready to go. And when I get back next Thursday, hopefully I will have tons of materials for blog posts about writing and craft and will blow your socks off.

Adios!

(oh, and in the mean time, check out Jessica Faust's blog today - I liked to it on your right, called "Agent's tastes." Excellent info on the agent-editor-author relationship)

countertransference and schizophrenia

2009-01-04T01:13:00.005-05:00

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Countertransference is the dirty word of therapy. Professors during undergrad would throw it around as a threat. According to Wikipedia (dear god I'm quoting wikipedia), it can include a therapist transferring their emotions to the patient, or worse, "cases where the therapist literally takes on the suffering of his/her patient. In the most extreme of cases, it can result in the therapist taking on the neurosis or psychosis of the patient, such as bouts of paranoia or psychotic intervals, illustrated by Jung in the case of schizophrenia."

I think we need a word in writing for countertransference. Or maybe there is one and I just don't know it yet.

The reason I've come to this conclusion? Because over the course of one week working on my new MS, I've become desperate to become a pilot.

That's right, I, who gets ill every time I'm in a plane that lands (so, all planes....thank god), have decided that in my "spare time," I should take flying lessons and buy myself a Cessna 172 Skyhawk.

I was a bit startled by this revelation (I mean, wow, I've uncovered a secret, deep-set desire to defy the laws of gravity and soar into the sunset) until I remembered that while writing my last MS, I was tempted to throw it all away to become an investigative journalist.

Anyone else noticing a theme here? It seems that I like to take on the characteristics of my heroine. I mean, I know we all inadvertanly transfer our own emotions, values, nuerosis, etc. onto our characters, but I'm managing to take on their characteristics?? They're not real!! I made them up!

So far it's only my heroines, and only their career options, so maybe I'm safe from becoming a scizhophrenic like poor Jung up there. And I wonder if it's only the heroine's because I can relate better to women, or because all of my hero's so far have obscure job titles like "super-secret uber bad-ass," the likes of which, I am clearly not. Though I will admit to making plans with a friend to go to a firing range and take "learn all about handguns" class. But that's just good research. Right?

I even went so far in my "countertransference" to check how much, exactly, flying lessons would cost me. Not as much, actually, as you might think. I might even be able to swing a lesson or two.

Oh god, somebody stop me now. In my next book, the heroine's going to be a secretary.

Anybody else have this problem? Or am I clearly on the road to schizophrenia and still in denail? Any tips for picking normal jobs for your characters? Anybody else walking the fine line between research and crazy?

happy new year!

2009-01-01T16:23:00.002-05:00

I love New Year's. It's a clean, fresh start. I feel like I have a fresh start writing too. My first MS behind me, and I'm ready to start again, with everything I've learned. Hopefully I won't make all the same mistakes this time around (like ending up with so many plot holes I have to rewrite 60% of the darn thing).

So in the vein of fresh starts, I have been researching, researching, researching. To admit to my geekiness, I love this stage. I love scrounging for little known facts and being able to throw out at a party, "You know, the per barrel cost of Brazilian deep-sea oil from the Tupi field is $33."

So in my plotting, I got all excited yesterday about an idea - campaign financing! The plot all comes back to scandalous campaign donations. So I googled "campaign finance" and in about five minutes, I realized this is not, in fact, the direction I want to go. Yikes! Could I have picked a more convoluted subject?

So, I'm still trying to figure out what the big final conspiracy is. I'd like to get the suspense side of the book plotted before I start writing. The relationships/emotional side I try to just let happen. But it's much easier to write when you know who the bad guy is and what they want!

But for this particular story, I have one topic to research which is turning out to be really fun. My heroine is a pilot. I'm pretty sure this says a lot about her -- her attention to detail, her independence, her love for routine.

But the cool part - she crashes her plane (on purpose). So I have to figure out how exactly one goes about crashing a plane and surviving it. So my first thought: taking flying lessons! Uh, a bit out of my price range. Second idea: flight simulator!

So with my little flight simulator computer game, I am learning to fly -- and crash -- a plane. I've so far learned to take off, make turns, and climb and descend. Next, I need to figure out how to land the sucker. Then, I'll crash it :)

So my goals for the new year are, in no particular order:
-- learn how to crash a plane
-- write another MS
-- query for an agent

And today starts Marn and I's mini-nano! I'm at 3,211 right now, and my goal is 28,211 by January 31st. Anybody else in?

secrets and plotting

2008-12-26T22:10:00.005-05:00

Friday, December 26th, 2008

So as I'm plotting my next novel (how fun is that to say? I finally finished one!), I'm reading, reading, reading. And this week, I came across a book that has really made me think.

I liked it - I liked it a lot - until I got to the last chapter. All the way through the book, it was clear the heroine had a secret. A big one. Something that created huge amounts of guilt in the heroine. And that guilt permeated every inch of her life - how she formed relationships, why she never put down roots but instead moved from town to town, why she no longer spoke to her father, why she'd dedicated her life now to helping others.

In most cases, this works - it's the classic search for redemption. I used this myself - Cole's entire life is built on guilt over his father's death. It affects every decision he makes, how he treats the people around him.

The problem, though, is the secret. I'm realizing that it has to be the kind of secret that would make your average reader feel that same level of guilt. Or at least understand why the character feels that guilt. Cole didn't actually kill his father (obviously), but he was in charge of the security, and he made one poor decision, and his father died. Happens all the time in security, and maybe some people wouldn't feel guilty, but in theory, readers could understand why Cole did.

The point (I promise there is one), is that in this book I read, once the heroine's "big secret" was revealed, I didn't get it. I still don't. The big secret was that she had taken the SAT's for her not-so-bright but uber-rich cousin. In return, the cousin paid the heroine's tuition.

Okay, maybe I'm more of a dishonest person that I previously thought, but I still don't get it. Sure it was a dumb thing to do. It might even have been criminal of the cousin. And I understand feeling guilty enough that when the college offered her a distinguished alumni award she didn't accept it. I don't understand feeling so guilty you walk away from a man who loves you because you think you don't deserve him because of this terrible thing you did. I don't understand that when someone unknowingly calls you a "fake," you panic so badly about someone finding you out that you go on the run for weeks.

So I guess that's my "what I've learned this week" message. If you're going to build an entire character around one trait, like guilt, the readers have to feel it too. Or at least understand it. I mean no offense to this particular author, but as a reader, it really bothered me that this character how I "got" for the first 20 chapters, I suddenly didn't understand anymore. And it really makes me hope that in my case, readers feel, or at least empathize, with Cole's guilt (and if you're reading it, and you don't, let me know!!)

GMC

2008-12-06T23:06:00.002-05:00

Saturday, December 6th, 2008

And no, I'm not referring to GMC cars, though everything I read on both sides of the bail out debate depresses me, but rather the lovely Goals, Motivations, and Conflicts of our characters.

Somehow, even though I made lists about this and did character sketches, this must have gone straight over my head. The contest comments I got back this week? All three judges agreed on one thing (always a bad sign, when they agree!).

The heroine's character had no discernible conflict.

Uh, can I just say opps? I thought, "yes she does!" and kept thinking it through and realized, uh, no, she doesn't. It wasn't just that I forgot to make it clear in the synopsis what her internal conflict is, I forgot it all together!!

So I started thinking about Shae and all the wacky things she does over the course of the manuscript, and suddenly, her internal conflict was clear.

She has trust issues.

Now, I realize this is a new, exciting, and unique internal conflict. Uh, not. It's cliche. But it works. And not only does it work, but as soon as that crystallized in my head, the ending fixed itself. Literally. I'd been trying to figure out what to do about the end, because I don't particularly like it as it is now, and the new ending just appeared. And it's perfect.

Anybody else forget something so simple, that when it's pointed out, it fixes everything? Anybody have any pesky characters who are hiding what their internal conflict is?

I lost my first contest!!

2008-12-04T10:25:00.003-05:00

December 4th, 2008

So over the past few months, I've entered four contests. The two earlier ones went in with the same version, then I made major changes (Thanks Marnee!) and submitted to two more.

The results from the first are back, and I'm not in the finalist round. Regardless, I'm so freakin excited I can't even stand it.

It was the Susannah Contest (Nola Stars - North Louisiana RWA chapter). Published and unpublished authors are in the same contest, and there is no distinction between sub-genres. They're goal is to make to provide similar competition as an editor's/agent's slush pile - everything all mixed up, and you're competing against everyone.

The top ten percent go on to the final round. And while I didn't make the finalist round, they sent out the average scores, and I was firmly in the top 20%. How exciting is that?

And the judges comments - wow! They really liked it!

And the best part? All those changes the judges said it needed to really shine, are all the changes I made!! (you freakin rock, Marn!!)

Okay, enough gushing from me!

When do you give up?

2008-11-22T11:21:00.005-05:00

Saturday, November 22, 2008

I'm entered into Golden Heart. I paid my fifty hard earned dollars (I chauffeured the local news anchor and his family to a wedding at the beach and back to earn the money - after listening to him, completely smashed, singing Kanye West's Soldier Boy at the top of his lungs the entire 45 minute drive home, I will never again be able to watch the news with a straight face. Every time he comes on, I want to shout Superman and do the arm wave.). Anyway, I earned the money, I entered the contest.

And in nine days, I have to overnight them my completed manuscript.

After working 16 hours days every day this week, I'm exhausted. I knew November was going to be a bad month, but I didn't quite expect this. I run a lecture series on my campus, and between my boss skipping town to spend 6 weeks in Kathmandu and me almost losing my job Monday because the stupid bitch in the TV office on campus decided she hates me, I'm ready for a break.

So I have today, tomorrow, and Thanksgiving break to frantically write, edit, and polish my manuscript.

That's not enough time.

So when do I decide to give up and try again next year? I know the first 55 pages are good, but the rest simply doesn't live up to the start. Do I send it in since I'm already entered, and hope I don't final, since the last 350 pages suck? Do I send it in, hope I do final, and hope an agent/editor sees enough potential that they don't write me off? Do I just forfeit my hard earned fifty bucks and wait for next year?

Anyone have any advice? Anyone else having the same panic I'm having? Anybody wanna swap those first all-important first 50 pages?

smokin' in the boy's room

2008-11-11T09:45:00.003-05:00

Nov. 11th, 2008

I never actually got caught smoking in school -- I was too much of a good girl back then to dare do anything like that. *g* But I digress. The point of this blog is....

I'm going back to school!

I just found I was accepted this week, and am sooooo excited. It's a two-year, MA in Writing Popular Fiction, and I start January 4th.

I just finished picking my classes for the spring semester. I'm taking: "Empowering the Female Heroine" (doesn't that one just sound awesome?), "Maintaining Narrative Tension," and "How to Make a Living Writing Romance Novels," taught by writer Stephanie Bond.

I have one more class to choose, and I'm stumped. I can choose a class on POV, or "Plotting for Mysteries." The POV class is required, but will be offered two more semesters. The Plotting class may or may not be. But I write suspense, not mystery, so it may not be 100% applicable. And if I take the POV class, it's one more required class out of the way, and hence room for cool electives next semester. But the suspense side of the plotting has always been difficult for me (people always figure out the mystery, like 5 chapters before they're supposed to!), so it could be useful.

Can you tell I'm over thinking this, just a tad?

So, since my decision making prowess has always been a bit questionable, I'm doing some polling (that would be you). Which would you pick - POV or Mystery plotting?

endings and epilogues

2008-11-05T23:41:00.011-05:00

Nov. 5th, 2008

So I have a secret. After last week's posts, I'm sure this is no longer a secret to anyone else. But here it is. I hate epilogues. Blame it on the mini-feminist living in me, but the assumption that a HEA must include marriage, babies, and sex at regular intervals makes me want to jump out of my skin. And frankly, most epilogues take a satisfying happy ending and turn it into a sap-fest.

So this week, I found a new RS author - Annie Solomon who was the 2007 RITA winner in the Romantic Suspense category. I loved every word of her book, but most of all, I loved her ending. At no point did either the hero or heroine say 'I love you,' or have the classic 'Oh no, I realize now I'm in love with her' moment of internal dialog. There was no discussion of marriage or a long-term future commitment, and only a cursory mention of babies in a "lets practice since we've got the routine down" sort of way.

And yet, there was not a doubt in my mind, when I set down the book, that they were madly in love and would live happily ever after. And all without the normal sap overload of an epilogue. Personally, I found this thrilling, and I'm sure I'm going to re-read and re-read to figure out how she manged to do this so I can do it too!

the subjective success of best sellers

2008-11-01T10:15:00.007-04:00

So I've been looking for new authors in the romantic suspense genre. Seeing as how I write romantic suspense, I've been trying all sorts of new authors, new directions, seeing what's out there and what I like and what I don't.

There's one particular best-selling RS author several people have recommended to me. Just the sheer quantity of books on the shelves says she's popular (and no, it's not Nora!). So I give it a shot a few weeks back. At page 136, when the hero and heroine still haven't met, and I've read 14 different analogies about the exact shade of blue in her eyes, I chucked the book at the wall.

Last night I was too tired to write, so I thought I'd give this author one more shot. One more book, just in case I happened to pick up a dud the first time.

Nope.

I made it to page 91 this time, and went through an insane number of descriptions of his "golden eyes" (whatever that means) and the exact scent of a Chinese cigarette. Now, I love detail as much as the next girl, but give me a break! I don't need every puff of 3 cigarettes from the chain smoker in chapter 1 described to me in great detail. Or even better, if you love that much description, find something else to describe! It's a cigarette - we get it. There's smoke. There's ash. Time to move on.

And for goodness sake, can you pick a head and stay there? In each paragraph, the same thing was described from a different character's point of view. For example: "He rubbed her hands up and down her arms, reveling at the smooth feel of her skin. She shivered as she felt his hands rub up and down her arms, comforting her....." Yeah, we got it the first time. There were hands, there were arms, they were rubbed. Great. (can you tell this book hit the wall with a satisfying thud as well?).

I will say, after giving up reading straight through, I jumped around in the book for a while, and there was a phenomenal sex scene (though I'm glad I didn't waste 200 pages waiting for it) filled with deep emotion, and a very satisfying happy ending.

At some level, I can see why she's popular. Hot sex, deep emotions, cool characters. But it's not for me. So as I add to my little list of "what I like and what I hate," we're adding head-hopping to the hate side (it was already there, just adding it again for emphasis) and endless description of the same item/acts to the hate side.

Anybody found a new author recently they love? One that's just not for them even though everyone else loves them? Anyone else awed (and terrified) by the sheer subjective-ness of the publishing businesses?

everything I love about pretty woman....

2008-10-27T10:02:00.005-04:00

So I got new curtains, which of course meant hours standing in front of an ironing board to get rid of all the creases from the packaging. To occupy my mind, I started flipping through channels, and came across Pretty Woman.

Now I know a lot of people hate Pretty Woman, since it's a hooker being rescued by a rich man, blah, blah, blah, but I have always loved this movie.

I think for me, it's the characterization. You can't help (well, I can't help) but fall in love with these characters. Edward is the classic tortured alpha. You can just feel his desperation for something to change in his life. And in the end, because of her presence in his life, he makes those changes.

And Vivian! She's so unpretentious, so genuine, that you can't help but root for her. She's spunky! I was watching close this time, and I noticed something. At the beginning, Richard Gere's feelings for her shift around a lot. When she's just being herself (driving the Lotus, watching I Love Lucy), he likes her. You can see it in the way he looks at her and smiles at her. When she's acting like a prostitute (a defense mechanism, I would guess), he's instantly annoyed and put off by her.

One other thing I noticed this time (probably because I watched it out of order. I turned it on a third of the way through, watched to the end, then TNT politely started it over for me so I could see the first third :). Anyway, one thing I noticed is how much Edward's character changes. In the opening scene, he's on the phone with his girlfriend, and she's clearly on the brink of leaving him. He orders her to come to LA, when she refuses and threatens to leave, he says fine. He absolutely refuses to even ask her to stay, much less apologize.

However, when Vivian starts to leave (after the Polo game, when she gathers up her stuff and marches to the elevator), he responds completely differently. He chases her, makes himself emotionally vulnerable, and practically begs her to stay.

Interestingly, at no point does Edward tell her he loves her. But you see it, through every action and through the way his character changes. Even without any internal thoughts, you can watch the relationship develop through their actions.

I find this interesting for writing. While it's fine to use internal dialog and verbal dialog to show the changes in their relationship, we also have to make sure the characters themselves reflect it. Each of their actions should be influenced by the growing romantic relationship. One of the things readers demand is that they know, by the end of the book, that this relationship will last. So often, authors use an epilogue to tell readers that. (Yep, look, ten years later and they're still having regular sex, even with three kids. They must have a perfect relationship). My hatred for epilogues is a whole separate post, but the point here is that we can show that, through character changes and development. In Pretty Woman, you know Edward and Vivian will last because they're both different people by the end, and their relationship is based on that

So that's my thought for the day - sorry it's so rambling *g*

p.s. - I'm half tempted to post a picture of the curtains. They freakin rock.

obituaries

2008-10-21T11:14:00.004-04:00

How's this for weird? In my WIP, the heroine google's the hero's name in an attempt to figure out more information about him. The first hit on google (in the story), is an obituary, which of course, raises a whole host of new questions (no, he's not a ghost :).

So I'm sitting here trying to figure out how much information she would get and how quickly. Would the headline say where he was supposedly killed (a key piece of information)? Or by whom (another important bit). Would she have to click on the article or just read the snippet on the search page.....

So, for inspiration, I googled the hero's name. What do you know, the first hit on google is an obituary, of a Marine on leave from Iraq (the hero is a former Marine, "killed" in Iraq). I don't want to make light of someone's death, but how weird is that?

shout outs

2008-10-20T18:23:00.014-04:00

Today, the pirates were discussing all the people that make us who we are as writers - teachers and critique partners and community groups and the romance community in general. And as I was thinking through all the people I need to thank in my journey so far (there are a lot! And I'm sure many many more to come), I realized I left one item off the list.

Not to be a corporate whore or anything, but I have to give a shout-out to the writing software I use, because otherwise, I'd still be a disorganized mess of scenes and chapters and notes and character sketches. As a non-linear writer, organization is a must, and this little baby keeps me organized.

For anyone unfamiliar with the deity that is Power Writer, here are a couple screen shots of what it looks like.

The center portion - the word processor - has the same functions as Word. It doesn't have every feature, but it's got the important ones (like formatting options and copy/paste and a thesaurus most importantly, spell check)

To the left you have your outline. In my opinion, the outline feature alone is worth the price of the software (which, by the way, is right around a hundred bucks). The outline to the left sorts your novel by scene, chapter, and act (yes, this was originally developed for screenplays - I use the acts to separate beginning, middle and end, so I can collapse the outline for whatever section I'm not working on).

Now here's the really hand-dandy part about the outline. Ready? You can drag and drop!!!!!!! (all the exclamation points are the equivalent of me doing a cheerleader squeal over this feature) Select a scene title, and drag and drop it into a new chapter! Wanna re-arrange your chapters? Drag and drop! Move act 3 to the beginning? No problem! This is where being a non-linear writer works - I can rearrange anything!

The scenes are also automatically separated and labeled in the document itself, but the scene titles will be removed when you export the document as an RTF to send it to agents and editors.

Also, you can label your scene titles in the outline - I mark them in pink for heroine's pov, blue for hero's, gray for villain's, etc. You can also put a little icon beside - I use a checkmark for when I'm finished, and exclamation point if I need to come back to something, etc.

And the final feature is the bar across the bottom. This is where you can store notes, character sketches, etc. They have a section for each character allowing for tons of info (along with a name generator), notes for each scene, each chapter, each act, and a general section for research.

Also, you can embed notes in the text - highlight a portion of text, attach a note to it, and later when you scroll over with the mouse, your note pops up in a little box. Freakin genius, man!

So anyway, that's my rambling shoutout to Power Writer. If you're looking for reasonably priced writing software, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. I did have some snags switching from XP to Vista with it, but their support staff is great. And hey, Christmas is coming up, and you just know your mother-in-law is dying to splurge on something useful this year, right?

Thanks, Jessie, for reminding me I haven't posted in a while - hopefully soon I'll come up with something actually writing related to talk about! But in the meantime, hey, I've been productive (two more chapters revised!) so at least I'm keeping up on something!

growth and change

2008-10-07T17:57:00.004-04:00

As I'm revising Nowhere to Run, I'm putting together all these images of characters and thoughts in my mind for my next story. There's been talk on the blogs this week of characters - what type are they? What archetype? What personality type?

So I've been filtering all this through my mind as I think about Naomi and my next, nameless hero (I'm thinking Jameson, but I'm not set yet :) And what I'm realizing is that I've set myself up with an odd situation.

Naomi and "Jameson" were married once upon a time. High school sweethearts, passionate young love, and all that jazz. They were viciously ripped apart by "bad guy" (still need a name for him too :) In the ten years since, they've both changed. Fueled by anger and the bitter belief that his wife betrayed him, "Jameson" has turned inward, focused his entire existence on his job (under cover military intelligence) and perfected the perfect bad-boy lifestyle where he can set aside any emotion to get the job done. Naomi, in a desperate attempt to get revenge for her husband, whom she has thought dead all these years, has gone from the perky, girl next door cheerleader to a cold, calculating woman hell-bent on revenge.

So this is my conundrum: I need to know their characteristics as they stand now, when they meet again after all these years. How do they react? What do they do in the face of danger (there will be a lot). But I also need to know how they used to be, before "bad guy" came along, because there will have to be chapters set in the past to deal with how they were ripped apart. And even more importantly, I need to know how they will change as the story goes on. Once "Jameson" realizes Naomi did not betray him, does he revert back to his witty, charming, open high-school self? Does Naomi turn back into the perky cheerleader after 10 years of living with revenge? I can't imagine either of them would.

So how will they change? I'm guessing they re-gain some of their former characteristics (i.e. Naomi allows herself to feel emotion again, and "Jameson" will be a bit more open with Naomi, at least). So I need to be careful, over the course of the novel, to watch not only if things are "in-character" at the moment, but how that character grows and changes based on the emotional developments.

Hmmm, I'm starting to think I've gotten in over my head :) Anybody else have major personality changes for their character? Have any advice for me? Think I'm insane?

wow!!

2008-10-03T11:54:00.005-04:00

Today's blog post from Jessica Faust at Bookends Agency is chock full of phenomenal advice of how to get (and more importantly, keep!) an agent's attention. So beef up the end of chapter three and chapter four of your manuscript!

contests, contests, contests

2008-10-02T15:19:00.004-04:00

It's official. I have jumped onto the contest bandwagon. Three contests, just this week! In my defense, they'll be the only ones this year - they just happened to fall on the same week.

So I (holding my breath and crossing my fingers) sent in submissions to the Suzannah contest (North Louisiana RWA chapter), the Beacon Unpublished contest (First Coast RWA chapter), and signed up for Golden Heart.

I figured signing up now for Golden Heart would accomplish two things: keep me from getting blocked out if they hit their cap of 1,200 entries, and force me to finish my revisions. I paid my fifty dollars, so you better believe something is getting sent in by Dec. 2nd! How's that for motivation?

For anyone else currently trying to navigate contests, Stephie Smith has a brilliant and up-to-date chart of all contests, their rules, and dates, and their judges here.

Also, the Beacon contest deadline was extended (I really wish I'd known that last night when I frantically turned in my submission at 11:46 pm - lol) until the 7th. They're looking for more inspirational, erotic, and short/series contep if anyone's got them. It looks like a pretty good list of final round judges!

Anyone else submitting to contests - Golden Heart or smaller ones? Do you have any specific strategy for picking from among the pletorha of contests that exist (cause really, you could go broke fast entering too many of them!).

I made myself an excel chart of the contests I'm interested in, complete with final-round judge info, and a ranking system for msyelf of which I'm most interested in (yes, I'm a complete geek!). My strategy has been to look at who's judging the final round - if it's an agent or publisher I'm intersted in, then I go for it. If it's not, I pass.

Anyone else have a strategy?

Weeping heros

2008-08-20T11:03:00.005-04:00

So as I put off revisions, I've been reading like a fiend. And thanks to the recommendations of several friends, I am happy to report that I've found two new authors that I adore: Lisa Kleypas, and Julia Quinn (yes, I'm horribly late on both of these bandwagons).

But one thing I noticed as I sucked down three novels this weekend, was that in each, the hero cried. Wept, even, in two of the three.

I must say, (and all of my feminist friends can cringe in unison as I admit to this), I am not a big fan of men crying. In fact, I only know one real-life man who cries easily. In the past five years, I've seen my husband's eyes turn a bit red once, when a family member died suddenly. But no weeping. I've never seen my father cry.

And usually, in books, when an alpha male starts crying, I put the book down. There's just something about an alpha and tears that don't work for me.

However, in each of these three books this weekend, the tears made total sense, and made me even more sympathetic to the hero. In each case, it was something worthy of crying over. And never, in any of the books, were the tears in the presence of the heroine. (in two books he cried with his mother, in the third, it was a flashback with his former fiance)

I wonder, if he was weeping on the shoulder of the heroine, I would feel different. Or if it were described more. In each case, it was a simple: "and he wept." And in each case, I was already crying for him.

So here's my question for anyone reading. Do weeping alpha's bother you? Are there instances when it's okay? Not okay? Have you ever written weeping alpha male? Have you ever written a scene or scenario worthy of tears?

And that's all she wrote.........

2008-07-31T09:19:00.004-04:00

It's official.....

I have a first draft.

Woo hoo!!!!!! I was running around my house squealing last night when I finished. My husband, who does try his best to be supportive but really doesn't get it, says "Oh good, you're all the way done?" (he's been a little bummed by me completely ignoring him for the past week). And I stop squealing and spinning and say, "No, this was just the first draft. Now I have to start at the beginning and re-write most of it." So he sighs, pastes on a big fake smile and tells me congratulations.

The end still ins't quite how I want it, and most of the beginning needs to be scrapped and re-written. And there are three or four major plot changes I made along the way that created huge inconsistencies.

I think I'll make a list of everything that needs to be changed as they come to me, and next week (cause I need some time off - whew!) I'll get back to it and get this baby polished and shining.

In the mean time.......I have a first draft!!!!!!!

binge writing

2008-07-28T00:47:00.005-04:00

So I turned off my email when I got home Friday, sent the hubby to his parents house, and cloistered myself in a room. At one am on Sunday night/Monday morning, I am finally emerging.

My legs and back are sore from sitting on a futon, I've drank 3 two-liters of diet coke and eaten I don't know how many frozen pizzas, and have inadvertently called my dog by my heroine's name on multiple occasions.

All this to say that in 56 hours, I wrote 15,564 words.

Hot damn!

Does this happen to anyone else? I call it binge writing. Once I get the end firmly in sight, I can't stop. My house is a mess, I'm out of clean clothes and groceries, and yet I can't stop. Concentrating at work tomorrow will be impossible, mostly because I know if I just had one more day, I'd finish. Finish!!

Ideas and sentences and sights and words are spinning around in my head at an alarming rate. I just have to ride out the binge until I have a first draft. Than I'll close the laptop, give a big sigh of relief, scrub my house and do some laundry, and finally come back to start over on the re-writes. *Sigh*. I can't wait :)

Progress report

2008-07-18T23:20:00.003-04:00

Though "frustration report" would probably be a better title than "progress." After almost a month of writing only one single, tiny, lone little paragraph, I am finally back on track. I think. I wrote 5,000 words this week, so I'm at least moving in the correct direction, if not perfectly.

I'm finding myself stymied on the suspense side of the romantic suspense plot. The romance side I have done. In fact, the suspense side has kind of faltered, and they're just spending a lot of time in bed, waiting for the bad guy to show up and cause a ruckus. Not the best plot device, but they seem to be enjoying themselves.

So I decided to make a list of all the possible things that could happen on the suspense side. Of course some of them are ridiculous, like the bad guy could blow up the apartment building where she lives and poof - that would be that. Or Cole could capture the bad guy, tie him to a chair, and torture him until he talks. Interesting, but not really going to fill 30,000 words unless I want to get really gory.

But having a list of options seems to be helping. Getting the creative juices flowing, so to speak. So let's see if I can make it to the end. I'm offically at the 2/3 mark, which is exciting. Not as exciting as Marnee finishing and winning our little contest (yay!!!), but still progress!

family dinner....

2008-07-18T23:16:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I posted an excerpt, so I thought I'd stick one up here. In this scene, Cole going to visit his former mother-in-law, Maura, and his ex-wife shows up. Needless to say, Shae's snarky side comes out in full force

..............

“I still can’t believe you let him in this house,” Adrianna said to Maura.

He dropped the knife and slid his arm along the back of Shae’s chair. “Here it comes,” he said under his breath.

“And there’s the matter of alimony that I didn’t receive this month.”

Shae blinked, seemed to come back around. “Who gets alimony anymore?” she whispered.

He grinned at her before turning back to Adrianna. “I’ve been declared dead, Aid. You cash a check from my account right now and you’ll find your pretty little butt in jail.” He feigned reaching for his wallet. “I’m more than happy to write you one. See what happens.”

She huffed, scooped up a serving of Pad Thai and plunked it on her plate. “You’re a jerk.”

“Yeah, I’ve got names for you too.”

“All right, children,” Maura said, passing the bowl of pasta to Shae. “Can we eat now, or do we have to listen to more of this?”

Adrianna rolled her eyes and started eating. Thank god she couldn’t talk and chew at the same time. She must have perfected that shrill voice, practiced until it was just the right decibel to drill into his skull. He took another swig of his beer. He nudged Shae under the table with his knee and raised an eyebrow.

She smiled around a mouthful and swallowed. “It’s good. I don’t know why you’ve had me cooking this whole time.”

“You were more heating than cooking.”

“True. Oh!” She turned to Maura. “The food you left in Cole’s cabin is great. Way better than anything he or I could have come up with.”

Adrianna froze with her fork halfway to her mouth. “You’ve been in the cabin?”

Shae nodded and smiled politely. Shit. He knew what was coming.

“Who are you?”

“Uh...” Shae glanced toward him.

Before he could help, Adrianna said, “Are you sleeping with him?”

“Adrianna!” Maura said. “Can someone in this family pretend to have table manners?”

“Oh, it’s okay,” Shae said. She turned to Adrianna with a smile would have terrified Cole had it been directed at him. “No, I’m not sleeping with him. I’m his prisoner. He keeps me chained in the cabin and trots me out for family dinners.”

Silence. Adrianna’s face flushed red with outrage. Shae kept that smile in place - one that showed too many teeth to be sincere - and took another bite. Maura muttered something and rose to get the bottle of Bourbon kept on the sideboard. She poured it into her glass and took a swig.

He squeezed Shae’s knee under the table for being a good sport, scooped the rest of the Pad Thai onto his plate, and finally started eating.

Adrianna was still sputtering. She threw her fork down on the table. “I’m not putting up with this.”

Maura poured more Bourbon. He wondered how drunk she’d have to get to be okay with him killing Adrianna. If he could just get his hands around her neck....he sighed and pushed aside the fantasy. For now. “Put up with what? I’m working on a case. She’s in my custody until I finish it.”

She squinted at Shae. “Aren’t you that reporter?”

“Oh look,” Shae said. “She’s bright too.”

Adrianna gasped and leaned forward, bracing her hands on the table. “Do you want to know why Cole and I split up?”

“He said it was because you’re bad in bed.”

“Oh Lord,” Maura said. She drained her glass, scooted back from the table, and started picking up plates. Cole’s was half full, but he let her take it anyway.

He glanced at Shae out of the corner of his eye. “I said it was because I was bad in bed.”

She grinned and shrugged. “I know.”

“It’s because he killed my father.”

Cole scrubbed his hands over his face. “Great.”

the problem of being a plotter....

2008-06-09T10:35:00.004-04:00

So I think I'm making progress again. After a brainstorming session last week (thanks Christie!) and (literally) filling 11 pages of a legal pad with outlines this weekend, I think I'm back on track.

And even better, I think I have my ending.

It's all coming together. Of course, I've been saying this since April. But I really thought it was coming together then! This time, I feel much more confident. I have questions to be answered for the mystery, the emotional connection of the characters plotted out, and a bad guy who is going to die. I'm on a freakin roll. Now we just have to see how long it lasts.

The research is getting more fun too. For instance, what kind of bugs might be planted in a room, how big are they, and how can you scan for them? If you're wearing a sling on your left arm due to a broken clavicle, what kind of holster will still allow you an easy draw of a Taurus Millenium? Which gangs have a presence in New York and Washington DC, and Rio De Jinero? If you were a leader of the U'wa tribe in the Llanos Basin of Colombia, could you get access to a satellite phone or email?

I don't know how authors did research before the internet. In two hours, I had answer to all of those questions (multi-directional microphones and radio frequency scanners; a canvas holster that hooks to your belt at the small of your back; MS-13; and yes).

One of the batbabes told me this week that she was doing research on Marines, so we went over to the Marine Recruitment office and got all sorts of good info, along with a list of characteristics these marines thought her hero should have (badass being at the top of that list). I was in awe! To have the nerve to just walk in and get first-person answers to your questions! I find this amazing. I'm doubting it's something I could pull off without launching into a full blown panic-attack, but wouldn't it b cool?

Anybody else have research spilling out all over the place? Anyone else brave enough to ask questions? Or do you stick to anonymous websites?

Christie, Marnee Jo - how are those word counts coming?

the walls we build

2008-05-29T20:50:00.004-04:00

So this week I built a wall. It was a pretty thrilling project. Actually, it was a major pain in the ass. But I got to thinking, and I realized that building a wall is a lot like writing a book.

Not so much the whole one stone at a time part, but that too, I guess.

The problem for me was the leveling. I had to dig down a ways to put the bottom stone, and if I didn't get it exactly level, then the stones on top were all kind of skewed.

So I tried to fix my skewed stones by jumping up and on them to beat them into submission (i.e. into being flat and level). That didn't work so much. So I had to remove my top stones, dig down, remove my bottom stones, dig down a bit farther and level everything out with some dirt and sand that got all over my hands.

Then I get to the end, and I have a freakin two inch gap in my circle. I can't fit a stone in a two-inch gap! I can't leave it - the hole will be obvious to everyone! So I either have to move everything around to close off my gap, or I have to widen my curves to make enough room for one more stone.

There was an analogy in here somewhere. Something about plot holes popping up no matter what kind of foundation we lay or how carefully we measure.....er, outline.

So anyway, I'm just full of plot holes this week. I've been researching out the wazoo. Did anyone else know that there are oil pipelines in Colombia being attacked by gurerllia and paramilitary armies? Or that it cots approximately $35 per barrel to drill for ultra-deep sea oil off the coast of Brazil?

Anybody else have a plot full of holes about now? Or is it flowing?

My first rejection letter!

2008-05-19T11:11:00.004-04:00

I am proud to announce that this morning, I received my first rejection letter. I tried my hand at flash fiction (though I had no idea what I was doing), and submitted (on a dare from a friend) to a literary magazine. And as far as rejection letters go, it didn't seem all that bad. In fact, I'm still smiling about it:

------------------------

Thank you for your interest in ----. Our decisions were difficult, but we have decided not to use your submission. We have included below our editors' comments on your work; we hope you find them useful. Please note that we are closed to submissions until June 1, when our Fall issue reading period opens.

fiction
"Threadbare"

Editor 5 Vote: Maybe
Ed. 5 Comments: This starts off very strong but the murder revelation feels like a gimmick. Otherwise written well.

Editor 6 Vote: No
Ed. 6 Comments: Although the writing is good, the first mention of a husband comes too late in the story and as a result, the murder confession seems tacked on for shock value.

-----------------------------------

In the submission explanation on this magazine's website, they warn that all editor's comments are unedited, and often not positive. You need two maybe's or one yes to move on to the final round of editing.

So........not bad, right??? I got a "starts off very strong," "writing is good," and "written well." And I got one maybe. There was no "you suck," no "stop writing now," no "I wanted to poke my eyes out halfway through this and eat them."

I'll take it!

I know it's a rejection, but for some reason, I'm just all smiles and thrilled with myself right now. An actual editor gave me a "maybe"!!!!

After my whole crisis-of-faith this weekend (see voodoo doll below and the clumping of voodoo pins in the balls-region), I'm back to feeling better about myself and my abilities. Even if the encouragement is in the form of a rejection.

Anyone else have rejection letters they're proud of? Or am I just insane?

faith and voodoo

2008-05-16T20:35:00.006-04:00

So today I let a friend.....let's call him Mark....read the first three chapters of my WIP. I'd submitted these chapters to a critique group, gotten good feedback and made revisions, so I was feeling pretty damn good about myself.

Mark felt differently.

I won't repeat everything he said, but the words "sophomoric," "suck," "start over," "implausible," "unpolished," "unbelievable," and "start over" stick out in my mind.

(Notice I really remember the phrase "start over.").

So parts of what he said was very good criticism, and parts of his advice I'll take. Parts of it just pissed me off. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he's right.

And that's okay.

My writing is not perfect. It's not polished. It's not ready for the New York Times Best Seller list. But I started writing 14 short months ago, and it's a hell of a lot more polished now than it was then. And that's what my comparison should be, right? There's a reason 80% of the authors of NYT Best Sellers are in their 60's!

Writing isn't something that happens overnight, or that we're instantly good at. Sure, there are those success stories of people who rocketed to the top of the best seller list with their debut novel at the age of 22, but for the rest of us, it's all about hard work, dedication, and faith.

It's the faith in myself part that I'm running a bit short today. Which sucks, because I was on such a roll before he got started! (halfway - woohoo!)

Anyone else get a figurative (or literal!) knee in the balls this week?

Anyone else use the voodoo doll gadget from Google desktop? (notice where on my Mark doll the voodoo pins are clustered). The doll sits on your screen. You can assign a name and add a little pin every time they piss you off. Very nifty for those pesky co-workers.

jumping in the deep end...

2008-05-07T15:55:00.004-04:00

So I've been thinking about point-of-view.

I thought I was pretty solid on POV - no major slips into the wrong one, no head hopping, none of those pesky "she thought's" or "she said to herself's". Basically, none of those mistakes that I used to make.

But yesterday morning I was re-reading sections of Pamela Clare's Unlawful Contact (I had gone to my neighbor's house to let her puppies out and found her borrowed copy so sat down with it - not to get off-topic or anything). And once again, I was blown away by the depth of her POV. I mean, she gets way down in there. As a reader, you're so far inside those characters head's that it creates an almost visceral reaction.

And what I really want to know is how in the world she does it!

I'm pretty sure a big part of it is knowing your characters so well that you, the author, are that deep in their heads. Because really, if you're not that deep, no reader will be. Right?

I think I'm getting there. But then again, I've been saying that for a month now. On the bright side, I am slowly falling in love with my heroine.

And it's about damn time! I thought I was going to have to kill her again. I've written seven scenes now where she dies. Cole holds a gun to her head and shoots her. She gets hit buy a bus. Their plane crashes (Cole, of course, miraculously survives, because let's face it, he's hot).

I pulled each of these scenes out of my WIP and put them in a file called "SHAE DIES."

It was therapeutic.

But now I'm starting to think that I like her. I'm warming up to her. Now I just have to get further into her head.

Any ideas?

(And Christie.....I'm still ahead of you!)

Read 'em and weep

2008-04-25T22:03:00.005-04:00

I'd like everyone to take a close look at the progress bar to the right. Then click on Christie's blog and take a look at her progress bar.

That's right......I'm ahead of Christie.

I know it won't last, but right now I'm so proud I can't even stand it. Marnee - you're still in the lead, but watch out!

So I read on all these blogs and read such wonderful authors and they're all pansters. It's very rare I come across another plotter.

And pansters always describe it in such romantic, literary terms. They get to watch a story unfold, they get to be surprised, they can let their characters grow and change!

I'm jealous of all this, I must say. So for the past few weeks, I've been working hard not to plot ahead. To just write, and let my characters follow their whim and take me where they will.

I wrote nothing.

Scratch that. I wrote a very odd scene where the hero pulls a gun out of his waistband and shoves it against the heroine's head.

Uh, not quite how I'd imagined their relationship developing.

So yesterday, I gave my students their second exam, which means I sit for an hour and a half and twiddle my thumbs, while watching for anything that might appear like cheating. And during this time, I decided to give in and plot. I had a legal pad and a pen and started writing. I filled four pages, with motivations and developments of all my main characters, including the bad guy who is working behind the scenes. I found ways out of all these out of sticky situations I'd been mired in. I even drew a little chart that used solid lines to connect my plot and dotted lines to connect my themes.

And I got home and started writing and was able to crack out 4,000 words in two evenings.

So, much to my efforts to the contrary, looks like I will remain a plotter.

Anyone else a plotter wishing they were a panster? Or a panster wishing they could plot?

Progress!

2008-04-20T15:33:00.006-04:00

Today, for the first time in over two weeks, I was actually able to write something that was mildly legible! Woohoo! All I managed to write was sex, but hey, that's still writing. Right?

* * * * * * * *
Shae opened the fridge and bent to grab beer bottles from the bottom shelf. The temptation to grab her from behind, push her up against the counter was overpowering. Bury himself inside that sweet body she’d been tempting him with all day and forget everything except her.

She bent farther to push aside the leftover’s from Maura’s lasagna to reach the beer. Without thinking, he stepped up behind her and rested a hand on the back waistband of her jeans.

She gasped and straightened, swung around to stare at him with wide eyes. He didn’t give her time to react or object. He grabbed her around the waist with both hands, pulled her body flush against his own, and took her mouth with his. His tongue slid into the sweet honey of her mouth and everything else ceased to matter.

He could feel the tension draining out of her body, as if she wanted to fight him but couldn’t keep up the ability to do so. Her body softened, sank into his. That was it. He slid his hands lower, to her hips, and pulled her against him. She was so soft, so warm. And that ass. All day he’d found his eyes drifting there and now...he ran his hands around to grab it, lifted her. Walking her backward, he lifted her onto the kitchen counter, stepped between her open thighs.

She moaned and pulled him closer, her fingers closing around his upper arms. She was kissing him back now, her tongue sliding against his. Christ. The intensity of his desire for her blew his mind. It was just like that morning, all he could focus on was the thought of stripping her down, spreading her legs, settling himself right there.

Her legs wound around his waist, pulled him against her, so tight that his cock was pushed against her center, so tight he could feel her heat through her jeans.

“Christ, Shae.” He dropped his mouth to her neck, her throat, raised a hand to cup her breast through her shirt. Nothing was sticking in his mind - there were fragments of thoughts about condoms and consent, but he couldn’t focus on anything except her breast, her lips.. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was husky, her breath coming in gasps. Her fingers found the waistband of his jeans and popped the button.

A loose thought about condoms was still in his mind, but he couldn’t keep his attention there long enough to remember where he had put them. There was a pack somewhere. Bathroom? Bedroom? She pulled his zipper down, her fingertips brushing against his cock. Christ. Why weren't they in the kitchen?

“Come on.” He got his hands under her ass, pulled her off the counter, and carried her toward the bedroom. Her arms were around his neck and she was still kissing him. He caught his hip on the edge of the recliner, spun, kept walking. The feel of her mouth, her tongue...

He pushed her up against the wall between the bathroom and bedroom doors. Where the fuck had he left the condoms? Her hands were busy, pulling his shirt up, trying to get it out of the way. Then she got her own shirt off.

“What’s wrong?” she said.

He yanked down on one bra cup, enough to get access. “Condoms.”

“Under the sink.”

When he dragged his gaze from her breasts to her face, she was grinning, an impish, mischievous smile. “Glad I’m so curious now?”

* * * * * * * * *

Hopefully I can keep up the progress, though that's not a sure thing. Christie, Marnee - how are you guys doing? Anybody else break through this week?

Characterization

2008-04-09T23:00:00.005-04:00

So who is making progress in this race of ours? Because I know it's not me! I got stuck somewhere around Sunday. I sat, staring at my computer, for five hours. In that time, I managed to flip through 800 channels, buy stuff I don't need online, and write exactly one paragraph.

I feel like giving myself a big thumbs down.

So while on this hiatus from any productive form of writing, I decided to take up my husband's hobby of watching TV. There are a couple shows I love, though I rarely end up sitting down to watch. Bones is one of them, and I watched a re-run from season one.

So Agent Booth (otherwise known as David Boreanaz, or Angel, or soooo hot) is stymied on an investigation. And he turns to Bones and says "I'm getting no where on this case. Usually by now I have a sense of the victim. I know what she likes, what motivates her, what she was thinking. I can't figure out who killed her if I don't know her."

(or he said something similar to that...)

Not that I want to compare my heroine to a murder victim, but it made sense. If I don't know her, more specifically if I don't know what motivates her, I have no idea how she would react in the situation I've shoved her into.

Hence: I'm stuck.

So I spent last night trying to get to know this girl. I've been having this sinking suspicion for the past few weeks that she's really a huge bitch. Turns out I was right. There are things about her that I don't like. I'm already finding myself trying to think of ways to redeem her by the end. I've been trying to convince her to act in a more responsible manner, be a bit nicer, be a bit less selfish. She disappeared and I've written a grand total of 500 words in a week.

So....here comes the bitch. I'm letting her out to play. She wants to save her job, and she has every intention of doing whatever that takes. Even if it means lying to the one man trying to help her, hiding evidence he needs for his investigation, and (inadvertently) putting innocent lives on the line.

Maybe she'll redeem herself, maybe I'll still want to punch her in the jaw in the end. I guess we'll see.

Anybody else have a character they can't control? I feel like I'm trying to discipline a two year old or a small puppy. I put one hand on my hip, point the other to her nose, and say "Young lady, you will start following orders and stop caring so much about your damn job."

She wrinkles up said nose, flips her hair, and next time I see her, she's dancing with some strange guy at Eugene's (or whatever they're calling that club nowadays).

Christie, Marnee Jo, anybody else....how are you guys coming? Christie, I noticed you took down your word counter. Don't make me waggle my finger in front of your nose too! How are you coming?

Chapter 1....take 2

2008-04-09T22:53:00.003-04:00

So in thinking about characterization, I realized I did not know my heroine well enough to continue writing. So I decided to crawl around in her skin for a while, and this is what came out. I'm reading this book called "Setting and Description" (yes! A whole book devoted to how to show, not tell!) and I think I took it to far.

Shae McCrary let her head fall back, closed her eyes, and waited for the beat of the music to seep through her, to fill her until her entire body moved in a timeless rhythm. Strobe lights flashed, their cadence matched to the music, illuminating the backs of her eyelids for a brief second before snatching it back away, as if even her own body lit up from the inside in time with the music. The bass drummed under her feet, pushing her into movement, her hips swaying first left and then right, her arms drawing over her head without any conscious effort on her part.

Sweat cooled on the back of her neck and her chest. Her face felt flushed, though that could have been the exertion or the vodka. Thump, thump, thump. Her body moved and all of it faded: the close press of other bodies, the dull roar of voices straining be heard above the music, the scent that stuck in the back of her throat of someone near her wearing too much perfume.

It was here she could turn her mind off, empty it, let the stress of the day drain out of her in time to the latest pop icon up on the stage. Let the alcohol thicken her blood and dull the reminders of just how badly she had fucked up her life.

It wasn’t working.

Hands skimmed her waist and she opened her eyes. Marc? John? Whatever he had said his name was, he was cute. Flashes of light illuminated surfer hair and green eyes. He smiled and his hands slid to circle her rib cage. Maybe that’s what she needed tonight. He looked like he could get the job done.

Matthew, maybe?

She realized what he was going to do a second before he did it, his head dipping and his lips touching the side of her throat. She sighed, snaked her arms around his neck and let the first languid tendrils of heat slide through her.

But her mind refused to cease its torment. Snippets of words replayed themselves over and over again. One week....salvage your career...facts, not conjuncture....find yourself in Sheboygan writing the local gossip column about who gave Big Bertha the bad perm!

The beat changed, the music shifting into something with Latin undertones. It didn’t matter. She could plunk herself into a vat of vodka, flood her body with music so loud it burst her eardrums or have mindless, anonymous sex with whatever-his-name-was. It wasn’t going to change anything, but pile on more consequences of one stupid decision made after another. She smiled at her date and stood on her toes to yell ‘thanks for the dance’ into his ear.

He made a grab for her hand as she turned and walked away. She dodged him, but it wouldn’t have mattered. The crowd swallowed them each, sweeping them in opposite directions. It propelled her through the mass, past sweaty bodies and waving limbs. Someone’s elbow landed in her ribs - a twenty-something in a tube top who didn’t miss a beat. Shae skirted a bare shoulder and a leather-covered knee before spilling out the door into the chilly, laden air of Manhattan.

A taxi flew past, a yellow blur, shooting a wall of water toward her. She jerked back, one foot in mid-air, and somehow managed to not get sloshed. The air was still heavy under the weight of the storm that had passed through that afternoon, mist clinging to her bare arms, and warm, choking steam puffing up from the subway grates.

She walked West, sticking close to the buildings to avoid the wake caused by taxis taking advantage of the abandoned streets to fly from one red stoplight to the next. Or as abandoned as the streets of Manhattan could be, even at two in the morning.

Her head spun, after effects of the alcohol, as she put one foot in front of the other. A jacket would have been smart, or telling Analise she was leaving, or even getting into a taxi herself. But her apartment was only a few more blocks. She stepped around a group of laughing girls who looked too young to be out on a school night. Jazz music poured from a bar, and patrons still swaying to the beat cluttered the doorway to smoke.

Two more blocks and she was inside. As soon as the door to her building’s foyer locked behind her, she slipped off her heels. She went barefoot up the three flights of stairs and once she made it into her apartment, sank back against the closed door.

If she lost this job...

She straightened up and pushed at the fear trying to clog her throat. That wouldn’t happen. It couldn’t. She dropped her shoes on the floor, pulled her ID and money from her bra and set those on the table bedside the door.

She just need a plan. She stripped her slinky, silver top over her head as she walked to the bedroom and let it fall on the floor. Her jeans followed, then her jewelry. A plan that could salvage both her career and her reputation. She yanked on a pair of men’s boxer shorts and a tank top and piled her hair on top of her head. A plan that wouldn’t send her scurrying back to Wisconsin, her tail tucked between her legs, investigating abandoned jet skis on Lake Michigan.

She flipped on the stereo in the living room and grabbed the plastic bottle of cranberry juice out of the fridge. There was still a bottle of vodka somewhere in the back of her freezer. Bag of peas, pizza, pork chops she had bought on sale in an effort to learn how to cook, French fries, there it was. A half-full bottle of Stoli’s. She poured both into a plastic cup - almost half and half - and took a swig.

A plan...

Bad feng shui, that was the problem. The couch should be under the windows and the TV should definitely be against the far wall. Better lighting there - no glare. She refilled her cup and carried it around while she pushed the couch. The wooden foot caught the edge of the rug. She grunted as her stomach hit the armrest, her body’s momentum continuing despite the couch’s abrupt halt, the contents of her cup sloshing over her hand.

“Stupid rug,” she muttered as she strained to left the edge of the couch. Maybe she just needed a new rug. This one was beige with deep red flowers - she must have been in a much better mood when she bought it then she was now.

It took two more drinks and the armchair against three different walls before she could close her eye without panicking. She crawled into bed and pulled the down comforter to her chin. Tomorrow, she’d come up with a plan.

Description to the point of boredom?

Excerpt.......from chapter 1

2008-03-29T12:52:00.010-04:00

From chapter one - when Cole wakes up from the blast that killed his partner, and first meets Shae.
He had to escape – that much was for certain. He tried to sit up but gentle hands pushed him back down.

“Shhh,” a voice said.

He instantly relaxed. It was an angel’s voice. Smooth and soft and husky. So he was dying . The angel made more comforting noises and brushed cool fingers across his forehead. An icy cloth followed, making him groan aloud with relief.

Death was okay then, if she was how he got there. He slit open one eye to get a look at what god had provided for his last wretched moments on earth.

His angel of mercy didn’t look so hot. In fact, she looked kind of sick. Dark stringy hair was piled on top of her head, her skin was clammy, her eyes were sunken, and on top of it she smelled bad.
But maybe all was not lost. He let his eyes travel down past her neck and shoulders toward the lush body he was sure god granted him in his mercy.

He groaned aloud at what his eyes encountered. “I at least deserve boobs.” From the look that crossed her face, she caught his creaky, barely intelligible words.

“Excuse me?”

“Water.”

She held a bottle of water to his lips, though her look was still wary. He closed his eyes a second, and waited until the room stopped spinning before looking at her again.

His angel had fewer curves than a twelve-year-old Korean boy. She was skinny, with no boobs, no hips, and no…well, he couldn’t see her ass from here. Maybe there was hope for redemption yet. “Do you have an ass at least?”

She flung the washcloth she was holding directly onto his face, so that it covered his eyes. “You’re a pig, Mr. Cole. And I’m going back to bed.”

He managed to get the washcloth off his face in time to see her walking away. Yep. Great ass. “Oh come back,” he said. “I’m bleeding. You can’t leave a bleeding man to his death, can you?”

She turned back to him, her slow movements exaggerated in what he had to assume was a killer hangover from the way she smelled. Her eyes were flashing, making her look a little less hideous than she had a moment ago. “I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to live with my conscience.”

He tilted his lips in a crooked smile that had women all over the world swooning at his feet. “Come back, baby. Be my Florence Nightingale.”

This woman was not impressed. She backed up with a hand over her heart. “Well, that’s just about the nicest thing anybody’s ever said to me.”

She turned back to the door. “Okay, okay,” he said, trying not to laugh. “I'm sorry. My mother should be ashamed of herself for raising such a reprehensible, chauvinistic monster. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m actually bleeding.”

He could see her wavering. She may not be an attractive woman, but he couldn’t help baiting her. It was kind of fun. More importantly, it distracted him from the images that just kept coming: the rubble of the ice cream store, the crater where Caleb’s car had been....

He focused back on her ass. He could only guess at the exact shape under the baggy men’s boxer shorts she was wearing, but from this angle, he’d have to rate it at least at a seven.

She turned back to him. “Are you staring at my ass?”

“Of course not.” Busted. “What kind of man would stare at your ass after that heartfelt of an apology?”

“You, apparently,” she said.

So this is where my internal editor shows up and starts bitching. "It's not original," she says. "It's a cliche. And Cole sounds like a jerk. What kind of man focuses on boobs after watching a little girl get blown to bits?"

I tell her to go away. I'm trying to write fast here. I can't worry about pesky little things like characterizations. And besides, Cole's been in Iraq for six months. The poor guy hasn't been laid in quite a while - of course he's focusing on the boobs!

"But that makes him sound superficial."

At that point, I just punched her.

progress....

2008-03-20T17:20:00.005-04:00

So the race is on...

And I'm losing.

On the bright side, it's motivating me to write faster. The question, of course, is if it's motivating me to write better. At this point, I'm thinking no. Hell, I wrote a sentence that included the word 'armhole' twice. How in the world is that even possible?

But we had this goal of turning off our internal editors until the first draft is done, so I'm trying to forget about the armhole debacle and move forward. Onward and upward, right?

So last night, there was a terrible storm here. Winds coming off the ocean like you wouldn't believe. Did hurricane season strike without anyone noticing? Being from the midwest (and much preferring tornadoes to hurricanes, myself), I decided to enjoy the storm. I wrapped myself in three blankets, trucked my laptop out to the porch, sat on the swing, and cranked out 2,300 words.

That's right, Christie. 2,300 words. Watch out.

The blustery wind was howling, sirens from the fire station down the street were blaring, a car alarm was going off, assorted small animals were skulking between the houses, and the steady creak of the porch swing all created an eerie cacophony around me.

Talk about setting the mood!

Our lovely rum-stealing pirates were talking this week about soundtracks and wandering laptops, both of which I apparently make use of. Anybody else "set the mood" for the type of scene their writing, inadvertently or otherwise?

Christie, Marnee Jo - how are you guys coming? I think Christie is going to take the cake this week with her 11,000 words, but Marn's still got a higher total...

Excerpt.....from chapter 2

2008-03-20T00:06:00.001-04:00

Cole turned to her. “This next part is one of those if-I-tell-you-I have-to-kill-you things.”

“Oh crap. You are a serial killer.”

The corner of his suddenly serious mouth tilted up. “No. But this information doesn’t leave this room. Understand?”

The automatic reply was ‘off the record.’ She stopped herself just in time. “Got it.”

He limped over to the stove and opened it. Curious, she followed and leaned over his shoulder. The bottom of the stove popped out in his hands, revealing a keypad and several other electronic components.

“Holy--” The words died on her lips as he ran his thumb over a metal thing and punched a series of numbers into the keypad. A series of metallic groans and loud clicks filled the room. Shae swung around, looking for the source. The middle of the floor - the exact size covered by a scruffy rug - rose four feet into the air, revealing a complex series of levers and metal arms.

Cole ducked into the opening and started down a flight of stairs. Even from where she stood, she could see that the lower portion of the little shack was a technological feat.

“Oh my god, you’re James Bond.”

He turned on the third step down and grinned at her. “I prefer the Batman analogy myself, but I’ll take whatever gets you naked faster.”

the race......

2008-03-16T19:25:00.004-04:00

In an effort to motivate us, Christie and I have added word count bars to our blogs. Your job is to mock us if we don't hit at least 500-800 words a day during the week, and 3,000 words a day on week ends.

Let's see how fast we can crank out a manuscript. The goal is have a first draft by June/July, rewrite till October, and have it ready for a contest in November.

So far, I've spent most of my time staring at a blank screen, which I call "research." After all, you have to have ideas, right? And then you have to double check those ideas against fact.

That means getting on google, and do you know how many interesting things are on google? Tons and tons of interesting things!

And of course, to write you need music! But all my music is on a different computer. Which means moving it all over. Then the playlists are all organized wrong. So now I have a separate play list for each type of scene I'm going to write. For motivation.

So now I'm ready to write.....but it's been hours, my ass is sore from this chair, and I'm hungry. Tomorrow, I'll be ready to start as soon as I sit down, since now I have all my facts and my playlists.

Yep, tomorrow.