Pull Up a Chair with Mon ~ What Do You Do When Your Characters Refuse to Comply? #AmWriting #WriteTip #Romance #Writers #AHAgrp

 

What Do You Do When Your Characters Refuse to Comply? 

Recently, after coming up with a great idea for a Harlequin Desire, I eagerly planned the story then sat down to write. What should have been an easy task of translating my plan for the story onto paper turned out to be one of the hardest books I've ever attempted. I spent a month fighting with my characters to make them follow my vision for this story, only to finally admit defeat. I hit a Y in the road. Either give up on the story or let my characters take over.

I decided to give the characters a chance to tell me their story. As it turned out, the only thing my characters wanted to change was the way I told their story. I imagined a dark story of heartbreak and unforgiveness. What my hero and heroine are giving me is a flirty story about forgiveness and learning to trust. 

I've heard other authors speak of their characters taking over, but I've never had that experience to this extent. I always put it down to good planning. So when my characters refused to comply, I was stumped. Convinced this story was a lost cause, I was about to scrap the book and start afresh with another idea. Thankfully, before I did that, I handed the reins to my hero and heroine, and I'm delighted I did! Now the story is finally flowing and I can't wait to hear the next candid line my hero shocks the heroine with. 

I have high hopes for this story and can't wait to submit the proposal. I guess it goes to show that no matter how seasoned a writer we are, there's always something new to learn. And from now on, I won't be wasting time duking it out with my character to make them do what I want them to. I'll simply sit back and allow them to guide me in the task of telling their story, no matter how it may contrast with my vision. It makes for less grey hair and frustration.

So, what do you do when your characters refuse to comply?

You step aside and let them have free rein! It might be a sign that the way you're telling the story isn't the way it's meant to be told, and you just might be pleasantly surprised.

Have you, as an author/writer, ever experienced this? I'd like to hear how you deal with uncooperative characters.

Pull Up a Chair With Mon. Let's Talk About: Character Emotion vs Reader Emotion #amwriting #Writetip #blog #writers

CHARACTER EMOTION vs READER EMOTION

“It’s not about what happens to people on a page; it’s about what happens to a reader in his heart and mind.”~Gordon Lish

I agree with Gordon wholeheartedly. While we as readers enjoy reading about people we like to feel something. It is the author’s job to fulfill that longing in his/her reader. Character emotion does not equate to reader emotion.

If a character laughs in a novel I’m reading, it doesn’t make me laugh. It simply points to the fact that the character finds something funny. However, if the character does something that tickles me, I’ll be sure to giggle.

If you are relatively new to writing you might be wondering how do we, as writers, engage our readers emotionally?

I would say visceral reactions are the answer.

Surprise your reader. Make her curious, get her involved enough to become interested in what will happen next. Encourage her to anticipate what the character’s subsequent action might be. Get her excited, make her fear the worse, ramp up the tension, make her laugh, amuse her, make her empathize with your characters, fascinate her, intrigue her, give her hope and make her care.

But most of all entertain her! You do that, and chances are she won’t be able to put down your book. She might even find it unforgettable.

It is not enough to hope that by making your character laugh, cry, get mad, that your reader would experience the same emotion. Because your character is scared doesn’t make the reader scared. To draw the reader’s reaction we must tug at their visceral emotions.

Visceral emotions are the emotions/feelings you wish your reader to experience while reading your story. The ones you experience when reading a good book. The ones I mentioned above.

Ernest Hemingway said something that many new writers don’t realise. “When you have learned to write for the reader, it’s no longer easy to write.”~Ernest Hemingway.

As a teen, I remember when I first started writing, I found it so easy to bash out a story. I had nothing to consider except my own entertainment. Writing seemed effortless and I fell in love with everything I wrote. Then the rejections started flooding in and I soon learned the fundamentals of creating a story. All the rules, techniques, and craft of storytelling. Then it wasn’t so easy to dash off a story anymore. I now had to consider the reader. Examine every word and scene to ensure it comes over smoothly for my reader. That she might experience emotion and entertainment when she reads my book.

The last thing I wanted was to fall prey to the thing Larry Niven warns about: “The reader is entitled to be entertained, instructed, amused, maybe all three. If he quits in the middle feeling his time has been wasted, you’re in violation.”~Larry Niven

Give your characters compelling conflicts, make them change and grow. Use subtext, set up and reveal, back-story (filtered in, not info dumped J), give your characters traits, flaws, motivations, wounds and goals.

This biz is about delivering emotion and woe to us who forget that fact!

Here is your mission should you wish to accept it: evoke strong, vivid emotions in your readers! Take them on a roller-coaster ride of emotional ups-and-downs, the pull/push of tension and release. In other words, give her a memorable experience!

I leave you with this quote from Paul O’Neil as inspiration. Like any great piece of writing, it’s very evocative:

“Always grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph, send your thumbs into his windpipe in the second, and hold him against the wall until the tagline.” ~Paul O’Neil

Pull Up A Chair With Mon. Let's Talk About: Deep POV #writetips #writers #amwriting

Let’s Go Deep... POV, that is!

This is a post I wrote for a guest blog visit last year. I think it might be helpful to me readers, so I'm re-posting it here this month. Hope you find it helpful.

~*~

I remember many years ago—when I was a novice writer—a CP from my first online crit group suggested I go Deep Point Of View (POV).

Huh?

I had no idea what she could possibly have meant and, since she didn’t offer any suggestions, I was at a total lost. It took a while for me to figure out what deep point of view was, but once I discovered this deeper way of writing, I haven’t looked back.

So, what exactly is Deep POV?

It’s a technique authors use to get into their characters minds so that the invisible narrator completely disappears. Your stories become more like watching movies than reading novels. The reader forgets she’s reading a book! Without deep pov the reader always has a vague awareness of the narrator, even if the author tries hard to make her/himself invisible. The only way to eliminate this unseen narrator is to go deep pov.

How do you get into Deep pov?

You need to burrow your way into the depths of your character’s mind, and live through them. You need to hear their thoughts, feel their emotions, experience their dreams, and then illustrate this to your reader. When you do that, your reader merges into your story and experiences your character’s life as if it’s hers, which increases her reading pleasure immensely.

If you think of writing in first person, you’ll instantly write differently because you’ll narrow your focus to a single, specific point. What I mean is, once we think in first person we automatically become the character. When we think in the third person, we retell someone else’s tale. I’m not suggesting you write in first person in order to achieve deep pov, I’m simply encouraging you to think that way because it makes a difference to the way you write. 

Why bother?

I’ll tell you why! When you make the effort to write in deep POV, you tighten your story and draw the reader right into the book. You make her live your story. You will also rid yourself of the “show, don’t tell” problem many writers encounter. You know the sort of things I’m referring to—he/she saw, felt, heard, smelled, thought, decided...and the list goes on.

Stick to deep, active POV, and your character will never say things like, she heard the door slam—but rather, somewhere upstairs in the dark, musty house, a door slammed shut.

Here are some quick rules to ensure you are writing in Deep POV.

Your character can’t know anything s/he doesn’t feel, touch, experience, see, taste, smell, hear, sense, and think. She can’t know that her eyes sparked with temper. She can, however, know that the hero makes her want to throw something at him. She can even grab the cool, glass vase from the table next to her and debate whether she could live without the solid family heirloom.

Another example is something like: Jessica fumbled with her keys; she thought she heard footsteps behind her. The keys fell from her nervous fingers. She bent to pick them up, and someone grabbed her from behind.

How about we go deep with something like: Jessica wrapped her coat tighter around her as she strode across the almost deserted car park at the back of her office building. Cold fog had drifted in late afternoon, dragging down the already dank weather and giving the car park an eerie atmosphere that brought out all sorts of creepy sounds and shadows. A sense of unease crept over her, encouraging Jess to up her pace. Each breath she exhaled frosted in front of her as she dug her hands in her jacket pocket and drew out her car keys.

Why hadn’t she parked closer?

Tomorrow, sound diet advice or not, she was parking right next to the building’s front entrance. So what if she didn’t add those extra steps the diet mag promised would help her to shift the five pounds she put on over Christmas? She’d rather be safe that trek across this car park in the dark again.  

An empty bottle clattered on the asphalt somewhere to her left, snapping her out of her thoughts and she glanced toward the sound.

Nothing.

 Not that she could see beyond the sparse circles of dim light floating down from the few lamp poles in the car park. When did it get so dark? Jess glanced around again. A few cars remained in the lot, scattered here and there, but hers was right at the very end where she’d parked in her effort to give herself the greatest calorie-burning walking distance.

Damn, she hated how easily she spooked. Quickening her steps, she huddled further inside her coat. Great, she’d managed to scare herself. She wanted to run, but forced her feet to keep an even pace. Then an empty can bounced on the ground behind her as if someone had kicked it. Her heart leaped and, without a backward glance, she took off. Jess was not a brave woman, and she saw no reason to change that character trait this instant, because there was no way in hell she imagined someone kicking that can!

Her car seemed twice as far as it had been only seconds ago.

Heavy footfalls hammered behind her and she didn’t dare look back.

Heart pounding so hard she could barely breathe, she fumbled with her keys, trying to find the fob. It had a personal alarm button that would set off her car alarm if she could only find it. In her frantic key search and mad dash to the safety of her car, her bag slipped off her shoulder, almost tripping her. She paused, reached for it, wasting crucial seconds, but she needed it. The thing was heavy enough to cause some damage if she used it as a weapon. The footfall closed in and, in a split-second decision, she left the bag and tore across the car park toward her car.

The person behind her must have picked up speed because a large man-shaped shadow overtook her, someone else’s breath besides hers frosted the air, and a blast of stale sweat stench shot up her frozen nostrils. Lungs screaming for mercy, Jess pumped her arms faster. Wasn’t that what you were supposed to do if you wanted to run faster? Or was that pump your legs quicker?  Lord, help me and I promise—

A big leather-gloved hand clamped over her mouth, her keys flew out of her hand, and an enormous arm snaked around her ribcage, crushing the breath out of her as her attacker swung her off her feet.

He clutched her hard against his huge body. “Did you think you would outrun me?” His harsh laugh drilled into her eardrum. 

Do you see the difference? First of all you add a lot more words when you go Deep POV. If you compare these two examples, I hope you’ll notice how much more involved you are in the story. That’s because you now know what is going on in Jess’s head. Moreover, you should get a sense of the type of person she is. That’s characterization, something that doesn’t happen when you write using shallow POV.

Just remember, stick to only what your POV character can touch, taste, see, experience, smell, hear, feel, sense, or think. Remember also to depict each character only through another character’s pov, and use all of your human senses to create a reflection of real-life.

If you do this, you’ll significantly improve you writing skills.

Adding Depth to Your Scenes: It’s all in the Sensory Details #WriteTip #Authors #Writers #amediting

Today I'm guest blogging over at Alicia Dean where I'm talking depth. Every scene you write needs depth, and I'm showing you how to get the scene you pictured onto the page as you imagined it.

Please drop by Alicia's blog and leave a comment for a chance to win one of two autographed digital copies Of Let's Pretend, my new romantic comedy. 

Click on Alicia's name above and the link will take you to my post. Hope to see you there! :)

If I get 50 comments, I'll give away 5 autographed digital copies of Let's Pretend. 

Don't forget to leave your email addy with your comment so I can email you to let you know you won and to get the personalized message you would like in your copy!






With thanks to freedigitalphotos.net

Dialogue vs. Conversation

Dialogue vs. Conversation

Do you know the difference?

 

Have you ever had a critique partner tell you that the communication between your characters is conversation? 

 

Nobody wants to read conversation. Conversation between the pages of a book is boring. Conversation is what happens in real life and while it works perfectly well there, it doesn’t when translated to story form.

 

According to Thesaurus.com, this is the difference between dialogue and conversation

 

Synonyms for Dialogue

Talk, chat, colloquy, communication, confab, confabulation, conference, conversation, converse, dialog, discourse, discussion, duologue, exchange, flap, interlocution, lines, parlance, parley, powwow, rap, rap session, remarks, repartee, script, sides, small talk.

 

Synonyms for Conversation

Dialogue, discourse, chat, colloquy, comment, communication, communion, confab, confabulation, conference, consultation, converse, debate, discussion, exchange, expression, gab, gossip, hearing, intercourse, jive, observation, palaver, parley, pillow talk, powwow, questioning, remark, repartee, speech, talk, talkfest, tète-à-tète, ventilation, visit, yak.

 

On the surface, not a lot of difference. So why am I saying there is? Because we are speaking in terms of creative writing and when we create a story, we want it to SOUND like real life, but if we imitate the way people speak for real, we’ll end up with dialogue which is hard to read.

 

Listen to people having a conversation. I’m sure you’ll notice how they barge into each other’s points, cut across, leave thoughts half said and ramble all over the place. And don’t forget all the what’s its, thingies, and thingamajigs we use to substitute for things we forget the name of.

 

Don’t get me wrong, using a smattering of this can add depth to a novel, but too much will kill it.

 

So we’re talking about dialogue vs. conversation. Although the synonyms for both  are pretty much the same. The difference is this: Dialogue does a job. It must provide the reader with information that advances the plot, foreshadow a coming event, add subtext, and show characterization, which makes the reader believe these people could be living right next door to her. It should be crisp and unique to each character.  

 

This is a scene between one of my heroines and a housekeeper, taken from Ty’s Plaything, a full-length romantic comedy/suspense I’m currently working on. 

 

Mia kept her attention on her bowl of fruit. She speared a cube of melon. “What did you say?”

 

“I told him I don’t know. It ain’t none of my business. Mr Manning pays me to look after his house and his guests—nothin’ else.”

 

I think you can notice a difference between these two characters, even with so few words spoken.

 

Conversation is idle chitchat—padding—and if it doesn’t do a job ie make a point, it needs to be removed. For instance, having two of your characters in a coffee shop chatting about the purple-haired woman three tables away is idle, gossipy chat if your only goal is to have your characters yak about something for a bit before you get into why they’re really meeting at the coffee shop. However, if the purple-haired woman is concealing a gun, that’s a completely different deal. Now we have a purpose—besides her shocking hair!—for the characters to notice the woman. I imagine the conversation would switch from why would anyone want to be seen in public looking like that, to why would she be carrying a gun?

 

Just like how you wouldn’t let your character chat about the weather for no reason at all, don’t let them chat about anything for no reason!

 

Do you see what I mean? Make your dialogue worth reading. Be firm with it, give it a job and make it deliver.

 

Dialogue should sound natural. The reader shouldn’t notice you giving information a mile off. Obvious dialogue for the purpose of imparting information is distracting. 

 

Example: “Hey, Rita, remember that time you broke your leg and had to spend all those weeks walking around on crutches?”

 

“Yeah, I remember. It still plays up when the weather changes.”

 

Can you say yaaaawwnnnnnnn? This is idle conversation and obvious information. DON’T DO THIS!

 

If we were writing a disaster weather story, this info would be important—a way of foreshadowing—but even so we'd need to deliver it with a touch more skill.

 

You want your reader to sink into your book and lose herself between its pages, so write dialogue that sounds like conversation, but isn’t idle chitchat.

 

Like scenes, let your characters’ dialogue do double duty.

 

To summarize: dialogue serves a purpose while conversation is idle chitchat, and dialogue without a purpose is conversation.

 

Hope this clarifies the difference. See you at the next Pull Up A Chair With Mon post. Until then, happy writing!

 

 

Let's Talk About: SUBTEXT

Subtext

 

Today, I’m talking about subtext. I’ve just started to plan my new Christian romance, which I’ve decided to use NaNoWriMo to write. I’ve never participated in National Novel Writing Month before and I’d like to give it a go this year. But since I promised to focus on building my blog following with interesting topics, I didn’t want to let the week past without posting this week’s Pull Up A Chair entry. Therefore, I’m going to talk quickly about subtext before I rush back to my planning.  

 

What is Subtext?

 

Subtext is the deeper meaning to anything a character may say or do when they’re using subtext. You can even use objects as symbols of subtext for specific characters.

 

Subtext is one of many (I spoke about Deep POV over at Celeste Jones last week) techniques authors use in order to draw the reader into stories, and it’s a clever way to engage the reader on an emotional level. Subtext is subtle, yet we understand it when we encounter it because it’s everywhere.

 

When using subtext, our characters may act one way when really we know they mean something else. On the other hand, they may say something and mean another thing entirely. 

 

An example of visual and dialogue subtext would be something like this:

 

Your character storms into her flat and slams her stuff on the nearest table. (We kinda suspect she’s mad.) This is visual subtext for “I’m hopping mad about something”. 

 

What if her flatmate ask how her day was and she replies “Great!” This is dialogue subtext because we can discern from her sarcastic tone and actions that her day wasn’t all that great. 

 

Usually if someone is saying one thing and meaning another, there’s a reason. You can be sure your reader also knows this and she’ll keep reading to discover what’s up with your character and why she’s so angry.

 

We can convey subtext through vehicles like sarcasm, something implied, metaphors, misinterpretations, double entendres, jest, body language, etc. 

 

Sometimes writers don’t trust their readers to “get it” and will turn around and knock them over the head with what the character really meant. Try not to do this; you don’t need to explain the dialogue subtext because it will have the opposite effect of involving the reader in your story. Trust your reader to be as clever as you are. She won’t thank you for treating her like a simpleton. 

 

Subtext creates deeper meaning. It allows us to experience the story rather than simply reading it, so keep an eye out for all the subtext around you and see if you can’t work a little into your scenes this week!

 

Blog Hop: Deep POV

I'm over at Writer Celeste Jones tomorrow talking about Deep Point of View and showing you what I do to achieve deep pov in my books.

Come and join me there, I'd love to hear your thoughts on deep POV. And I'm especially interested in any tips you have to share!

Don't forget, tomorrow Wednesday 17th October at Writer Celeste Jones. Hope to see you there! :) 

Self-Editing: the final step

 

SELF-EDITING: the final step

 

On Wednesday my friend Celeste Jones wrote a blog entry about the perils of Spell Check. So I thought I’d share my method of editing.

One thing I’ve noticed about the Indie publishing world is the stick some of its authors get for bad editing in their books. I can see how this can happen, but let’s not forget that the Big Six also put out books with mistakes! Only last night, while reading a novel from a big-name author—one of my favs—I came across a few mistakes in her book. Things like though when she meant thought and closest when she meant closet. There was another one, but it slips my mind at present. The point is, nobody is perfect, and whilst we would all like to put out pristine books, that often isn’t the case.

 

However, we can do a few things to ensure we put out the very best final draft we can.  As Indie authors, we have to work harder because unfortunately, we have something to prove. After all, some people think only writers who can’t get book contracts go ahead and settle for the Indie route. When, in actuality, the smart authors take this option.

 

The very fact that tons of traditionally published authors—of which I’m one—now publish their own work is solid proof that this is the way of the future. Much like when we moved from vinyl to CDs, from VHS to DVDs & from print books to eBooks. The world is going digital and we’d be stupid not to grab a slice of the pie while we can.

 

I suspect that publishers will soon wise up and include some kind of clause in their author contracts, preventing signed authors from Indie publishing any of their work—whether under a different name or not—while under contract with that publishing house. I’m thinking they will come up with some way to tie contracted authors hands, and hem them in with longer contract years. Or traditional publishing will be outdated in no time.

 

I digress.

 

Let’s get back to editing.

 

First, I’m going to suggest you hook up with at least a couple of good, eagle-eyed critique partners (CPs). I can’t stress how important this is for any writer who is thinking of taking the Indie publishing route. Even big-named authors have several CPs!

 

Then I’m going to presume you already know the fundamentals of writing and editing. Things like looking for repeated words and repetition, coincidences, too many speech tags, info dumps, point of view (POV) slips, tense slips, too much telling—some telling is necessary and adds to the story, but too much distances the reader.

 

Okay, you’ve edited for structure, style, grammar and spelling, pacing, goal, motivation & conflict (GMC),character/story arc and all the rest. You’ve read and re-read the MS until you know every word. You’ve even printed it off, and read it from hard copy, because you realised that your mind has played a little trick on you and made you think you saw exactly what you expected to see on those pages. Every line of your pristine MS says precisely what you intended it to say, right?

 

You now consider your book to be ready.

 

But wait, there’s one thing you forgot.

 

You forgot to read it aloud.

 

Oh, you did that too? Sorry, I meant to say, you forgot to have it read aloud to you!

 

I learned this trick long ago. You can read your MS aloud and still miss problems. I’ve found that when you get your computer/laptop to read your story aloud, you are far more likely to catch problems with the story. Anything from misused words, to sentences that go nowhere, to story and sentence structure.

 

When we listen, we engage the left hemisphere of our brains, which is the same part we use when editing. The right hemisphere is our creative side and the left is our logical, analytical side. With our analytical minds engaged, we are able to take a step back from our work and judge it with a critical eye. Enabling better editing.

 

The excellent bit is, if you own one of the Kindle series that has the text-to-speech function, all you need to do is email your Word doc to your Kindle email addy, and it’ll be sent directly to your Kindle.

 

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

 

Now all you have to do is make yourself a hot drink, and listen with a critical ear. You now get to hear how your book sounds to the reader.

 

I would love to hear your final editing step. The one you take just before you hit the upload button! Please share with us by leaving a comment below.

 

Thanks :)

    

 

Fast Writer: Candace Havens

I have another fast writer for you...Candace Havens!

She writes for Harlequin Mills & Boon, Berkley and Entangled Publishing. You would have probably seen the post below where I shared that I was about to take Candy's Fast Draft class. It's amazing! Candy hosts it several times a year and if you are vaguely considering it, I urge you to seriously consider it!

I hope Candy doesn't mind me telling you this, but she recently wrote a book in FOUR AND A HALF days!!! AND got it accepted before she edited it. Is that cool or what?

We like Candy, she's cool beanz ;D Here is her interview.

MONIQUE: Thank you very much for agreeing to be interviewed for my Fast Writers blog series, Candy. First, I’d love to hear about your writing day in a quick snapshot. Do you have a special time to write? Or do you grab moments whenever you can? I guess I’d like to know how structured you are.

CANDY: I write whenever I can. I usually break the day up into non-fiction writing for my day job as a film and TV critic and I write my books later in the day or at night. But I’m never stuck with one way of doing things. I mix it up all the time. 

MONIQUE: What sort of writer are you? Planner or pantser? 

CANDY: I have to write a brief synopsis for my publishers, but for the most part I’m a pantser. I never stick to those synopses.

MONIQUE: Can you tell us a bit about the technique you use to help you to write quickly, and how you developed it?

CANDY: The class I teach is called Fast Draft. It’s a process where you write your first draft in two weeks. People think it’s impossible, but it isn’t. I have certain rules and tools that help you psychologically get into almost a state of hypnosis to write. Your subconscious is a much better writer than you are and that’s what we delve into.

MONIQUE: Did you always write this way? Or is your method something you picked up along the way?

CANDY: I have a crazy life. I’m a film and tv critic and a radio personality. I write three columns/cover stories a week for the TV job. I’m the president of the TV Critics Association. I have kids, who are older now, but were young when I started. I had to write fast or it was never going to get done. I’ve revised the process over the year, but it works every time.

MONIQUE: How many words do you write per hr/writing session? 

CANDY: I try when I’m doing Fast Draft to write 20 pages a day. I sometimes break that up and do 10 pages early in the day and 10 pages at night. I can write between 1000-1700 words an hour. I do a lot of #1k1hr on Twitter, which is a great motivator. It’s just nice to have people going through the same thing you are.

MONIQUE: How many hours per day do you write? And how many days per week?

CANDY: I honestly have no idea on the hours, but I write about six days a week, seven if I’m on a tight deadline, which happens a lot.

MONIQUE: How quickly can/do you finish a book?

CANDY: From first draft to polished book about a month if I have to. I like to let a book sit between first draft and that first set of revisions if I have time.

MONIQUE: Do you know what you're going to write each day before you start your writing sessions? For instance, do you draft the scenes/chapters you’re about to write just before you write them, or do you thoroughly outline before you even start the book (if you’re a planner, that is J)?

CANDY: I don’t plan that much. I just write the next scene I know. Sometimes that might be in chapter three, and sometimes it’s the last chapter. When I finish writing, I leave my self notes about what I just did and where I was thinking about going every time I finish a scene. That way when I pick it back up, I know where I want to go. The great thing about Fast Draft is your continuity is better because you eat, drink and sleep that book.

MONIQUE: How do you prevent your internal editor/critic from interrupting?

CANDY: This is the toughest part of writing for everyone. I tell people to send their internal editor on vacation. Maybe to Fiji or Alaska. Somewhere far away. You have to give yourself permission to write a crappy first draft and you have to write even when you don’t feel like it. I’ve found that when I write when I’m tired, the words are better. That’s because my subconscious takes over.

MONIQUE: Do you have any more tips you’d like to share?

CANDY: The trick is being disciplined. There isn’t a job in the world where you can work for a few hours and then pick it up three weeks later and expect to be successful. Set your hours and goals for the week and stick to them.  

MONIQUE: Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to spend time with us here today. We’d love to hear about your new book, would you tell us a bit about it?

CANDY: I have a new series debuting in October 2012. The first book is Iron Demon. It’s a southern steampunk. Professor Maisy Clark is a female version of Sherlock Holmes who hunts down paranormal creatures. She has a trusty sidekick, a Scotsman named Barnes. And there is a hot cowboy involved. Oh, and there is a hot U.S. Marshal involved with Maisy. And I have a new Blaze novella with Lori Wilde and Kathleen O’Reilly called “All I Want for Christmas…” and my story in that is “One Hot December Night.”

Thanks for letting me hang out. It was fun.

MONIQUE: It was fantastic having you here with us, Candy!

Author Bio:

Bestselling author Candace Havens has written six novels for Berkley including, Charmed & Dangerous, Charmed & Ready, Charmed & Deadly, Like A Charm, The Demon King and I and Dragons Prefer Blondes.

Her new venture is writing for the Blaze line of Harlequin. Those books include Take Me If You Dare, She Who Dares, Wins, Truth and Dare, and The Model Marine. She is also in the anthology Spirited, and the proceeds go to help literacy. And she has a new southern steampunk series debuting October 2012 with Iron Demon. Her books have received nominations for the RITA's, Holt Medallion and Write Touch Reader Awards.

She is the author of the biography Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy and a contributor to several anthologies. She is also one of the nation's leading entertainment journalists and has interviewed countless celebrities including Tom Hanks, Nicolas Cage, Tom Cruise, George Clooney and many more. Her entertainment columns can be read in more than 600 newspapers across the country.

Candace also runs a free online writing workshop for more than 1800 writers, and teaches comprehensive writing class. She does film reviews with the Dorsey Gang on New Country 96.3, and is the President of the Television Critics Association. Her book Model Marine is a 2012 National Readers Choice Finalist.

Applying Story Engineering To Internal Conflict

I've had the privilege to speak with Larry Brooks--love this guy--recently and I asked him a question I've been dying to ask him every since I read his book Story Engineering. I thought you guys might like to read Larry's answer.

Monique: Hi, Larry, 

I’ve read many books on writing and story structuring over the years and I can say, without a doubt, Story Engineering is one of the very best I’ve read. I love the Plot Point/Pitch Point method (Milestones) you teach in your book.

But we all know that category romance is all about strong internal emotional conflict. However, when we think of structuring our stories, we automatically think of all the exciting external conflicts we can write.

Unfortunately, this is not what category romance is about. If we wish to write for this market, we must narrow our focus on our protagonists’ emotional conflicts—all the internal stuff.

Can you show us how to use the Plot Points and Pitch Point Milestones for internal conflict?

Larry:

Let's begin with an assertion: the principles of structure are no different in category romance than in any other genre, romance and otherwise. That said, the very essence of "genre" is a specific emphasis and certain criteria, so in that sense category romance is very much a narrow lane. The issue is APPLYING the principle, not looking to bend it.

The essence of the pinch points and the other milestones (plot points and the mid-point) is the nature of the narrative content. With pinch points, it simply means the story shows us the antagonistic force, thus reminding us of what the hero(ine) is up against. This applies with equal effectiveness to both internal arcs and exterior conflicts. In fact, the former usually depends on and informs the latter... an external story point is the CATALYST for an emotional response. When that response changes the story (evolves it), then it becomes a powerful one-two punch for both pinch points and other milestones.

Let's look at an example. Say the nature of the "conflict/opposition" in a story is age -- the lover/hero is a lot older than the heroine, and her family and friends don't approve. She needs their approval (for whatever reasons)... thus, her emotional journey. Let's say we're at the 38th percentile in the story, the target location for a pinch point. We need to SEE this antagonistic force -- his age, their disapproval -- in full glory at this point.

So... the hero comes to a family gathering with our heroine. Her brothers are all over this guy, treating him as an old fart. A driveway basketball game ensues... and not only does our guy look better with his shirt off than her beer-swilling brothers , he actually challenges them to a two-on-two game, with HER as his teammate. And they win. He's a vastly superior athlete, even though he's twice the age of the brothers. Her affection for him is deepened (hormones tweaked by his physicality, and his grace in victory), and yet, her family is even more resistant simply because the brother's masculinity has been challenged, and defeated.

Okay, maybe not the coolest example, but I hope you see the relationship between exterior conflict and the heroine's inner landscape: both are elemental to the pinch point. Which is as it should be.


Monique: Thank you so much, Larry.


Larry is amazing! You can find out more about him here: Story Fix. To purchase a copy of Story Engineering go to AmazonUK or Amazon.com and where ever else Larry says on him blog!

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