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Due to popular acclaim,
I'm posting the Construction Zone in
its entirety here on my website. It ended up being much longer than I
originally envisioned, so I'm posting a table of contents.
Feel free to link. All I
ask is that if you're going to quote from it, you use a complete "topic"
(for example, all of Setting, not just a paragraph) without editing it
and please credit me as the author.
1.
Ideas and Basic Characters
2.
Know Your Characters
3. Research
4. Setting
5. Plot
6. Beginnings
7. Voice
8. Pace
9.
Sexual Tension
10. Saggy Middles, aka
Focus
11.
The Little Things
12. The END
13. Editing
14. Queries, Synopses and
Partials
15. What's Next?
16. You're Published!
What to expect
17. Question Period -
clarifications and questions asked and answered throughout the blog
period
Ideas and Basic Characters
I’m jumping
on the bandwagon of the newest trend to blog about how I construct a
book. Nic Marsh and I seem to be on the same page in some regard; we
both agree that the actual planning is the most fun. Everything is fresh
and new. You don’t have to fight with characters who refuse to go along
with your plans. You don’t have to worry about point of view (POV) or
how a particular scene is working. In the planning stage, it’s all about
the possibilities, and I love it.
I just handed in my third Harlequin M&B Romance and I’m waiting for the
verdict, (and yes, it CAN still be rejected, just because I’m pubbed
does NOT mean I’m safe) so this is the perfect time to start planning
the next work.
I sent my editor 2 proposals for 2 more books this year. I haven’t heard
back, but for now we’ll go with the assumption that I’m going to write
the US Marshal story first.
Every writer is asked…where do you come up with your ideas? For me, it’s
usually a pretty sparse idea. Just a what if. I’ve wanted to write
Maggie’s story – Mike’s cousin from Marriage at Circle M – for a while.
I had a basic idea of who she was. I know she’s going to be an older
heroine, and I know she’s widowed. I know she runs a bed and breakfast
in a small town in central Alberta. So then it’s finding the right hero.
And I started that by saying a simple “What if?” What if she’s put in a
situation with the kind of man she’s most afraid of? And the idea was
born.
Once I do that, I cast my characters. Not all people are fans of this
technique, but for me I find it anchors an image, an impression. And
it’s more than just finding the right PERSON. You have to find the right
look. You can have two pictures of the same man or woman, and one will
work and one won’t. The casting pictures are a starting point for me
only. ALWAYS…and I do mean every single time…my characters take on a
life of their own. They have quirks that are all theirs. Body language,
the sound of their voice that you hear as you’re writing dialogue. And
that is how it should be. To be “true” 100% to your casting pictures or
any preconceptions (like an actor in a particular role) runs the risk of
creating one-dimensional characters. And you sure don’t want that!
I’ve cast both my characters for this book that I’ve tentatively titled
“Falling for the Marshal”. I’ll introduce you to Maggie Gardner, 42,
widow and business owner with a talent for making her guests feel
special, and Nate Griffith, US Marshal, her latest lodger…
 
Come back tomorrow for the next step….research!
Janet asked a question in my
comments section on yesterday's post, and because I want to answer, I'm
going to talk about it today and save research for another day.
She asked, Donna, do you do all that goal motivation and conflict
thing (outer and inner charts as advised by Deb Dixon) or do you just
start exploring your characters' situation and see where that takes you?
That's a really good question because Goal, Motivation and Conflict are
what keeps your story going. You can have two characters but not care a
jot about the story if there's no conflict. I don't do charts, in fact I
don't even really sit down and say, "OK, what's the GMC for my
hero/heroine?" I'm more a "explore the character's situation and see
where that takes me."
But it's not that simple, not at all. It's more than a situation. And
that's where I have the most fun. Characters need to be full people to
me, with a past, a present, and a future. If you do the legwork, the GMC
will smack you in the face! Or it should. If you know your characters
inside and out, what makes them tick...then you're going to know what
they want. (Goal) You're going to know WHY they want it (motivation) and
you're going to know exactly what the opposite character is going to do
to get in the way of that (conflict). Delving deeper into conflict, you
might know reasons why what the character wants is in conflict with
their greatest fears (internal conflict). And when you look at your
basic plot, you're going to have other elements that will serve to keep
them apart (external conflict).
So it all comes down, for me anyway, to knowing your characters.
Now, this might not work if you're writing something longer than series
contemporary. Or what if you're writing romantic suspense? Let's face
it. Romance as a line is a character based line. There's not a lot of
room for external plot, and I'll tackle plot on another day. We'll just
leave it now with the recognition that some genres/subgenres are more
reliant on external plot than others. But even so, you STILL need to
know your characters. I recently read The DaVinci Code and Angels and
Demons. I enjoyed both, and probably should have read Angels and Demons
first because I learned a lot more about Robert Langdon in that book.
Still...I felt both books were short on character development.
When you know your characters, you not only know what they want, why,
and what's going to stand in their way, but you know little things.
Perhaps things that they've said, or how they'll react to a certain
situation. Tiny details like their favourite colour or food that aren't
necessarily important but can add that little extra bit of SOMETHING to
your story. Helping it move from ordinary to vivid, rich and personal.
It helps make your characters memorable. And it's important to remember
that even after doing all that work, sometimes your characters will show
you things about themselves that you didn't even know.
For example, in writing the last few chapters of Marriage at Circle M,
my hero, Mike, realized something about the heroine that totally threw
me for a loop - but made perfect sense and added another layer of
conflict that brought SO much together.
So how do I go about meeting my characters? Some people do interviews,
but that's not really worked for me. I start with an image - hence the
casting yesterday - and then I use a worksheet straight from Kate
Walker's 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance. Questions
like What do they have that they value most in the world? What trait do
they most want to keep hidden from the world can be really illuminating.
And many of your answers may never see the light of day in your
manuscript. But YOU know, and if YOU know, it'll come across in your
story. Then as I go along, my critique partner will ask questions. Tough
ones. Each one I think about makes my character more rounded.
Your characters won't just be on the page, but they'll LIVE. And for me,
that's the whole point.
Research
Today's post won't be
super long, because IMO you shouldn't over do research.
Did that get your attention? I hope so. Because research IS necessary.
And it can be annoying and tedious or great fun. Or a blend of both. For
sake of familiarity, I'm going to stick with research for what I write -
contemporary romance. If you are writing suspense, you need to research
things like forensics. Procedure. Possibly even profiling. And ask my
crit partner
Michelle Styles about research for historicals. I for one,
don't know how she does it. But contemporary is different.
The bulk of any research I do is based mostly on two things. 1. Where
the story is taking place, and 2. The professions of the characters. My
theory is you will do all your research and approximately 10% will
actually make it into you story.
Setting: This can be fun or an utter drag. And since I'm going to tackle
setting in a future post, I'll give you the lowdown on what you need to
know. If you're creating your own town, you need to model it after
something in the nearby area. If you're setting your book on the US East
Coast, things are going to look a little different than they do in, say,
the midwest. Once you have the basics, though, you can create whatever
you want to go in your town or city.
If you're basing your story in a real place, however, you need to be a
little more accurate. My first 2 Romances are set in and around the town
of Sundre in Alberta. I know much more about Sundre than ever makes it
into the book. But little details...for example, the main drag is
actually Main Avenue and not Main Street - those all add authenticity.
And researching the town was fun. It's about an hour and a half away, so
I made a few visits, visited the museum, talked to a lady at the town
office, and took my kids on a picnic. :-) I also visited the town
website and googled Sundre, looking for interesting pictures and
happenings. I kept my description of the rodeo vague, but there IS a
pro-rodeo there every June. Those are researched details that made it
in.
The bulk of my research is professions. Being a farm girl, the ranch
thing wasn't too difficult. But with the book I just handed in, my hero
was a former sniper in the Canadian Military. And this is where the
internet community comes in really handy. I had questions ranging from
uniforms to rank to equipment...and after putting out a call on
e-harlequin, was contacted by a WONDERFUL resource who answered all my
questions. In fact, I wasn't completely sure how the book was going to
end until I brainstormed with Doug. But I ran into a problem. I really
wanted to get the details right, so I read several articles on Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder. I read a book on Peace Keeping and another on
the Friendly Fire incident a few years back in Afghanistan. Plus all my
e-mails back and forth to Doug and his wife. And there were times that
the details simply just started to take over.
The whole idea was so fascinating to me that I got carried away, and
I simply had to stop, cut some things, rediscover my focus.
The good news is that I learned a lot from the draft of Home Fires.
Mostly about what NOT to do. Just ask my CP, I worked her like a dog.
Now, I'm starting a new story and this one is a US Marshal. I have a
research source again - a friend who is a Marshal in the States. But
while getting the information is wonderful and frankly really
interesting, I know I have to use a much lighter hand in the new book.
And that leads into the topic of focus, which we'll discuss once we get
into the actual writing and the meat of the thing.
On a side note....I don't have time to find my ticker thingy but I lost
4 lbs in January. Slow, but steady I guess. At least it's going in the
right direction.
I've read lots and heard many
writers talk about setting at length. And you know what? It doesn't
really intrigue me. That sounds awful, I know. But I don't let setting
have too much power. For me, the focus needs to be on my protagonists
and the rest need to support that. Supporting role ONLY.
We'll talk about Hired By The Cowboy and
Marriage at Circle M first, as they are my first 2 Harlequin
Romances and are set in the same place.
When Connor and Alex meet, it's in the city, and they are strangers.
It's a very different world from the ranch, and when Alex first goes to
Windover Ranch, Connor suddenly seems to make sense. The pace is
different. The space is wide open and isolated. The setting for the book
isn't so much Sundre, but Windover. And the house itself serves not only
as a setting but as a symbol to Alex. It symbolizes a life she's never
had before, a life she wants but one that is still just beyond her
reach.
Use your settings to enhance your characters and storyline.
I used the same setting for Marriage at Circle M, but
the feel is different. For one thing, Mike is building his OWN house on
Windover land. There is a little more of the small town.
Choosing the right spot for your story to take place, and getting little
details right to enhance your story, adds another vivid layer and will
contribute to making your book come alive. Yet there's one aspect of
setting we haven't talked about yet, and that's WHEN your story takes
place.
This is even more important to me, I think. Choosing what time of year
my story takes place is central. Could you write the same story in
another season? Think about it. If you did, would it be the same story?
What is it about the season you've chosen that makes it the RIGHT time?
I set HBTC in early summer. The timing was perfect,
IMO. Spring was over, the days were unseasonally warm (as often happens
here in May/June). Things were blooming to life...the hay, the garden,
Alex's baby was growing inside her...their feelings were blooming too.
Then, the rodeo is always late June, so May/June/July were the perfect
months for the story to take place.
Marriage at Circle M, on the other hand, wasn't about
blooming. It was about wooing and healing, and I used the mellow, golden
warmth of autumn. Lazy sunny days and cool nights. It also fell over
Thanksgiving (Canadian, which is early October) which added another
element. Could I have set it in spring, or winter? Maybe. But I honestly
don't think those seasons would have blended with the characters and
their development the same way that using the fall did. In fact,
I'd wager that if I wrote the same book over, using the same characters
and setting but changing the season to late winter, I'd actually have a
different book.
Think about books you've read, written or the one you're currently
writing. Is the setting in the foreground or background? Is it subtly
working over time? Which season are you in...and how does that enhance
the plot/character development? For me, working on setting is as easy as
being aware of it. If I work too hard at it, it takes over. If I'm
merely aware of how it SHOULD function, it seems to find its proper
place in the balance of the book. I use the 90/10 rule like I do with
research. 90% of what I know stays out. The other 10% goes in and does
its job.
I wasn't going to talk about plot at
all, but I will touch on it briefly since it will tie in to my next
topic, which is going to be BEGINNINGS.
For Harlequin Romance, (and I emphasize this because as I
stated before, other types of writing demand heavier plots)this is my
rule: External conflict: BAAAAAD. Internal conflict: GOOOOOD. The book I
sent them BEFORE Hired By The Cowboy sold, came back as
relying to heavily on external elements. It's what I guess you'd call
"contrived situations". Don't throw external monkey wrenches in and have
your characters react. Let the conflict come from within.
Of course, not all external conflict is bad. You DO need to have a plot.
But you know, plot is minimal. In thinking of the Bella Brides
series, each book has the underlying plot of the Valentine
restaurants "directing" things. And each book has its own hook that gets
the ball rolling. But is that the focus of the book? Nuh uh. First and
foremost, as always, the characters and their internal conflict drive
the book.
Even is there is an external element, it all comes down to the STORY
being about how the characters deal with it. For example, in
Hired By The Cowboy, Connor is about to lose the family ranch.
The reason why is external. How he deals with that information, though,
forms the crux of his conflict. Alex is pregnant and alone. She is
running out of options. External. But how she chooses to deal with that,
the way her character thinks and feels as she goes on her own journey
through the book, is what carries her character.
I think I'll summarize my thoughts on plot with this...WHAT happens in
the book is simply a platform for the characters to fall in love, to
grow, to get to their HEA.
Beginnings
are one of the hardest things to get right. I bet if I surveyed a pretty
wide swath of romance authors, they'd say that they spend more time on
those first three chapters than at any other point in the book. They
will probably also admit that those three change more than any other
section as well.
Why? My opinion is that it's because those beginnings are the foundation
upon which your book is built. Weak foundation...boy, are you going to
be doing a lot of patch-up work later. But you make your opening
chapters solid, and even when things go wrong, you have a solid
foundation to go back to.
Already I am having to backtrack - and I just finished the draft of
chapter one. And you know what? This is another reason why KNOWING YOUR
CHARACTERS is so important. Chapter one was flat. I knew it, my CP
confirmed it. Motivations are missing, especially for my heroine.
Now...I thought for a while, considered a suggestion she made, and it
started taking shape in my mind. My heroine now has a whole other level
of backstory. Boys and girls, I was only 14 pages in and already I'd
made a pretty big mistake.
But this is what opening chapters are for. You learn right away whether
or not your conflict will be sustainable. You gather more insight into
motivations as you "meet" your characters, not only in your background
work but as they interact with EACH OTHER. You get the foundation down.
Then after the whole book is drafted, and I do the layering, I know a
lot more than I did at the beginning. So most of my layering happens in
the front end - I'd guess probably chapters 1-6.
Laying a strong foundation isn't easy. You need to introduce your
characters. You need to have them TOGETHER. You need to show them
feeling attraction and also introduce your conflict. You have to add in
elements of backstory. But it's early days. So you have to do all of
this carefully...while keeping the PACE going. It's one huge balancing
act and that's probably why we spend so much bloody time on it.
I send my partial mss to my editor now with a caveat: "Here it is, but
I'm sure it'll change by the end." I don't mean rewritten, but layers
will be added. As I go through, there will be more depth. Sending the
partial means if there are any gaping holes or serious flaws, they are
brought to light right away. So far I haven't had that happen, thank
goodness. I credit most of that to my CP, who has a great eye and points
out those things right away. Like she did this morning. So now I'm off
to revise my chapter and move forward into chapter two, knowing that
first building block is a lot more solid.
At this point you've started your
book. You know who your characters are, you know your basic plot, and
you've begun crafting those annoying opening chapters that need to work
SO very hard.
You will probably want to shoot me for saying it all doesn't matter at
all without voice.
I should be working on revisions right now - they came yesterday - but I
am writing this partially because of them, not
in spite of. My revisions are fairly substantial, perhaps a
little more than I expected, in some ways harder and in others, not so
much. But even though I understand and even expected the comments made,
it does not mean they are easy fixes. They make sense, but they are not
changes I can make in a day or two.
Then, last night, I went to my local RWA chapter meeting and the topic
was on voice.
What a difficult topic! How do you define it? The speaker read pieces
that several writers had sent her. And each perspective was as different
as, well, that person's voice! LOL. But perhaps the simplest definition
I can give you is this...voice is YOUR personality, ON THE PAGE.
This doesn't mean your heroine is a copy of you. But it is a blend of
many things. It's the way you see the world, your personality, the
language you use, the rhythm of your language all rolled up into one
package that is as individual as you are. When you read an author with a
strong voice, you will recognize that voice over and over again. Some
think that you need to let go of all the rules in order to let your
voice shine through. Others think that you need to know craft before
your voice can find the proper place in your writing. It's all very
confusing.
I'll tell you what I think, and how it worked for me.
I think voice happens when you turn off your internal editor and you
immerse yourself in your characters. I think you sometimes need to stop
thinking so much about HOW to write the story, what the rules are, and
just write it. That being said, I think you need to know
the rules, be comfortable with the rules, and the boundaries so that
unconsciously you can let your voice free without
causing complete anarchy. :-) Your book is your child. Children thrive
on structure...because then they are secure enough to take chances,
explore freedoms. Interesting, isn't it!
In order for this to happen, you have to write, and write a lot. And you
might not understand voice very much until you find it and have that
"aha!" moment! Now, just like there are some people who sell their first
book, some people find their voice right away. But I think for the
majority of writers this takes some time and practice. For me it was
book 4. Now pay attention: my first sale was I believe, book 8. I hit a
groove with book 4 and it was the first book that got a full request.
The other thing that happened with book 4 is that I knew where I needed
to be targeting my work - Harlequin Romance. I recognized the
boundaries, the rules, and the style of my writing enough to clue in to
where it probably belonged. It was also at the point in my life where I
think I finally grew up enough to be comfortable with myself, and that
confidence spilled over into my writing I think.
That book is cringeworthy now, IMO, but it served a huge purpose. My
voice kept developing as my craft evolved and I wrote, wrote, wrote -
until I got to a point where I was writing publishable material.
Let's put this in present tense now. I took some big risks with Home
Fires. First of all, I picked a topic that's not so easy. Then I gave
myself a difficult hero, very different from my first two cowboy heroes.
I struggled with this ms from pretty much day one. And when revisions
came, they were not unexpected, but they ARE fairly heavy.
I asked my editor a question about the ending which will be changing,
and then proposed a new take on it. Her response was thanking me for
running with the idea and making it my own. And she
also said everything was totally fixable.
Which brings me back to something I said last night - You can fix
everything, but you can't fix voice. Making it my own means making
changes in my own individual way and it's something I'm learning I'm
fairly good at. Thank goodness! The mechanics of the story can be fixed.
The most important thing is to fix them in your own voice, with your own
stamp of individuality so you don't edit that spark right out of your
story.
As you're writing your current project, read it out loud. Does the
dialogue sound comfortable to you? Do your words flow off your tongue,
or have you used vocabulary you THINK you should, rather than what comes
naturally? All that is part of your voice.
My editor's note, combined with last night's meeting made me feel so
much more confident about making these changes. Because the changes are
just mechanics. Who I am on the page? That's just fine. :-)
The problem with so many
elements to consider is that they are so intrinsically blended it is
hard to talk about one without discussing another. When I think of
pacing, it’s impossible to isolate it from things like plot, conflict
and voice. Or even setting, POV, backstory or character development.
Because pacing is the “speed” of your manuscript as a whole.
With pacing, the important thing to remember is that you want to
maintain what we call “PTQ”, or Page Turning Quality. If you’ve ever
read a story where you’ve found yourself skipping over chunks of print,
you know that you’ve found a spot where the pacing has slipped and needs
to pick up. Chances are this is not dialogue. Or if it is, it’s a
circular type discussion where the characters seem to go around and
around and don’t move on.
More likely it is narrative that is bogging things down. Long
paragraphs, description without action, a backstory dump. Those things
do happen. And when authors hear the term “cutting for pace” we know
that most likely this is what we’ve done.
How do you avoid lags in pacing? There are several ways I think and
we’ll touch on a few briefly.
First, keep things moving. Instead of describing things in paragraphs of
lovely imagery, why not let your characters do it for you? In HIRED BY
THE COWBOY, I don’t TELL you what Windover Ranch looks like. You see it
through Alex’s eyes as she arrives for the first time. This method works
double time – not only are you not putting in a huge chunk of
description, but the way your character sees it also tells you something
about THEM.
Also, use active verbs. That puts the reader into the immediate present
and what’s going on, instead of being separated by degrees by passive
language.
Avoid long sections of introspection. In character driven novels, there
is introspection everywhere you turn. But it needs to be within an
active scene. It doesn’t work to make your heroine have an hour long cup
of tea to sit and think about things. Those thoughts should be in direct
action/reaction to whatever else is going on….in your plot and conflict.
Of course, there is an ebb and flow to writing. Some writers run at a
breakneck pace and hardly pause for breath. I remember reading The
DaVinci Code and feeling that way and it really worked. Oddly enough I
thought the pacing was the biggest flaw in the prequel, Angels and
Demons. Suspense novels probably have tighter pacing to keep you on the
edge of your seat. But even then, there are usually spots where the
protagonists slow down and sleep, or have a beer, or order a pizza. If
I’ve had a particularly active scene, the next one might slow things
down a little. And as you write more, you’ll discover that you have your
own rhythm to how you structure your novel, your chapters, your scenes
and even your paragraphs (this is how voice ties in).
The other thing I’ve found in writing for the Romance line is that while
most people are told to pick up the pace, as I’m writing I need to slow
down. I always add 5-10k to the first draft through layering and
revisions. In the romance line, this equals 10 – 20% of the total word
count. That’s significant. And while many times the urge is to get
through THIS scene so I can move on to the next, I need to take it like
a several course meal. Stop and enjoy the course I’m in. Savour it, if
you will. Explore the nuances of flavours throughout. Revel in it. Then,
cleanse my palette and move on to the next course.
Now I’m hungry. So I think that will wrap things about with PACE as this
has gone on much longer than I anticipated. I’m going to make something
to eat! Isn’t the power of suggestion great?
Ah, sexual tension. A huge
contributor to PTQ and what we all wait for with breathless
anticipation. Those moments where your stomach lifts and your heart
pounds as the hero and heroine discover each other.
Sexual tension can have very little to do with actual sex. I'm writing
for the Romance line, which means the bedroom door is closed at all
times. But that doesn't mean my characters aren't attracted. It doesn't
mean they don't WANT each other. Of course they do!
Sometimes this is easy to accomplish and sometimes much more difficult.
It depends on your characters and their situation, when all is said and
done. If I look at my characters in Marriage at Circle M, it was a snap.
Grace and Mike already knew each other. They'd even dated as teens.
She'd always had a thing for him, so it was no problem injecting
tension. Besides, Mike is hot. LOL. Mike will be a favorite hero of mine
for a long time to come, I think.
If you look at my current WIP, though, it's different. Nate and Maggie
have never met before page one. They are complete strangers. So not only
do I have to do the "getting to know you" stuff, I have to also be
thinking of their romance right away. It's proving to be a bit tricky
when all is said and done.
Sexual tension can be words said, looks exchanged, meaningless touches
that are suddenly meaningful. I read Barb Hannay's "Claiming the
Cattleman's Heart" on the weekend and I'm going to give you an example:
The pads of his thumbs touched the bare skin of her collarbone, and
every cell in her strained for more.
"Your hands are beautiful, Daniel," she told him in a heated, husky
whisper. "And I want them. I want them all over me."
Whooooeeeee! For a non-sex series, this really says it all, doesn't it!
Sexual tension is also seeing your characters through the other
character's eyes. I'm thinking of a section of Hired By The Cowboy,
where Connor is annoying the living hell out of Alex. She's pregnant and
alone and trying to do what's best for her baby, and he's come back to
find her because he wants to discuss "something." She doesn't want
another complication...
"When his eyes met hers across the hazy room she knew she was right.
He smiled, a lazy, melting smile, and she braced herself. Men who smiled
like that were deadly. And the last thing she needed was a distraction
as lethal as Connor Madsen."
Bear in mind these examples are from the first 1/3 of the book...when my
characters hardly really know each other. Before it even makes sense,
they are attracted to each other. And it's a complication (isn't it
always??? :-) ) Take a scene from a chapter later:
"Maybe we'll drive each other crazy and you'll be glad to be rid of
me." She tried a cocky smile, but faltered at the look in his eyes as
they stopped at the edge of the dirt road.
He turned to face her, his warm gaze delving into hers, drawing her
in and making her thoughts drift away on the evening breeze. His hand
lifted to her cheek. "I think there's a very good chance you're going to
drive me crazy," he murmured, his thumb stroking her cheek tenderly.
She stepped back in alarm, her face burning from the intimate touch
and the clear meaning of his words. She left his hand hanging in thin
air. A truck approached and spun past them, stirring up loose gravel and
clouds of dust.
When the air cleared they said nothing, but crossed the road and
made their way up the lane.
One other thing to note while writing sexual tension. Look at the words
used. Depending on the tone of the book, they might be more direct
(explicit books will sound different than ones with a less-explicit
tone) but I think most of the time you'll notice words like warm, hot,
soft, lazy, silky, urgent...seduction is warm. Even if "cold" type words
are used I'd be willing to bet that they are in juxtaposition to hot
ones.
And lastly, don't be shy with using it. Even in a line like Romance, I
try to have some level of sexual tension on every page. Whether it's my
heroine's reaction to his voice on the answering machine or they way he
looks at her; the way they are thrown together and her lips are close
enough to kiss...the accidental brushing of their fingertips as they
reach for the remote at the same time...if these things sound cliche,
they probably are. But cliches do happen for a reason. Think back to
when you first started dating your significant other. Looks and touches,
all amplified by the newness of discovering each other.
What are some of your favorite books, and how did that author develop
the sexual tension?
Oh, the dreaded Saggy Middle. And
I'm not talking about the one at your waist, despite yesterday's PHS
blog. :-) I'm talking about those middle chapters of your book, where
everything either seems to go flat and you fight for every word.
Part of the problem is that at least for me, I see what I've done with
the partial, I see the end, and I worry that how they get there will
leave me 20k short of my 50-55k novel. It's getting a little better, as
now I am perfectly fine with finishing a first draft of 42-43 k. I
always add a good 5k in layering, and then my editor's revisions tend to
add a few more thousand - even though I am always amazed since I cut as
well as add.
But that pressure is still there. Do I have enough conflict to maintain
the pace?
The only way to defeat the saggy middle is to write your way through it.
And the key to this is focus.
You need to focus hard on a few things. First of all, a romance
is the character's journey, so let them take that journey. As I
mentioned before in pacing, I need to savour scenes rather than let them
play out too fast. If you've done your character work at the beginning,
your characters are so deep that you may actually discover little bits
of inner conflict coming out that you didn't even expect.
You also need to focus on the romance. You need to ask
yourself...does this scene forward the romance (or deepen the conflict
keeping them apart)? Don't lose sight of what you need to be doing.
And keep your scenes active. Nothing kills a pace
faster, or sets up saggy-middle-alarms like endless cups of tea in the
kitchen. Don't worry about not having enough by the time you get to the
end. You will. And this is a first draft so after you're done, you can
go back and insert scenes that you know you need and layer. I used to
think - no way. I can't add in that much. But I can and do.
My CP is a great one for e-mailing me and saying, Chapter so and so
needs to be 2 chapters and I need to insert a scene. My only regret is
often I don't get to see those scenes until I get the published book.
:-) But you know, I did it in my last book too. I'd jumped too far
ahead...I needed to go back and add a few bits that helped a nice, slow
build of the romance.
And most of all, remember, once you get through the middle you can race
for the end. And once you reach the end, well, there's a saying that
hindsight is 20/20. You'll see what you've missed and you can fix it.
Just write it and focus and don't let the fact that it's the middle
paralyze you.
I'm going to pause for a
moment for a less structured topic and one that will take more thought
on your part and less on mine. I've titled it "The Little
Things", but what I really want you to do is think of little
things in books you've read that have particularly grabbed your
attention - good and bad.
I was thinking about this as I was walking home from the school run
today. There was a woman crossing the street in the skinniest heels I'd
ever seen, and she didn't make her way over the grass to the sidewalk. I
can only assume this was because her heels would have stuck into the
ground.
I was reminded of a beginning of a LaVyrle Spencer book where the
heroine has attended her husband's funeral and she is aware of the
sensation of her heels sinking into the soft earth.
I don't remember everything from that book, but I remember that image. I
am like that with a lot of books. Little things that stand out as
really, really memorable. It could be a line of dialogue, an image, a
feeling.
And the reverse can happen too. I can read a book and find something
that really turns me off. Thankfully this doesn't happen as often as the
lovely aha! moments.
So here's where you come in. Take some time and think about books you've
read. What is memorable, good and bad, and why?
Then look at your own writing. Try your best to be objective. What do
you do well? Not so well?
Play to your strengths and work on your
weaknesses.
Knowing what you
do well - and exploiting it - is what might pull you out of the slush
pile for another look. And improving on your weak spots might mean
STAYING out of the slush pile - for good.
The END
You're
reaching the last third of your book and you think everything should
just fall into place. So why isn't it?
I said in the beginning, all three areas have their own challenges. And
endings are no different. You're getting close to that happily ever
after and some of the most exciting parts of the book are imminent. But
somehow...it's not any easier.
THE BLACK MOMENT. Where this falls depends on
your characters and their journey. Perhaps the black moment,
that space in time where all is lost, happens for both your characters
at the same time. Perhaps the heroine has hers and the hero has his at
different times (which is often how I work). Regardless, you have to get
it right. You have to plug it FULL of emotion so it's leaking out the
sides. You have to devastate your characters. If you split your Black
Moments, one might happen closer to the middle and the other within the
last couple of chapters.
In Hired By The Cowboy, the character's black moments happen not in the
same scene but in consecutive scenes, so pretty much at the same time.
In Marriage At Circle M, though, Mike's black moment is different from
Grace's and it was very right for the characters and the situation. The
same thing with book three- the hero's black moment comes first, then
the heroine's.
But it doesn't matter when it happens as long as it's in the right place
and is properly devastating.
Then...then you have to put it all back together again. The ending has
to be satisfying, so you need to ask yourself a few questions and allow
yourself to have a few passes at it to get it complete.
1. Look at your character's conflict. Has it been
resolved? And here's the biggie - has it been resolved by the
growth of BOTH characters?
I mention this particularly because I had to revise the ending of my
latest because the hero hadn't shown enough personal growth. My editor
was absolutely right and I saw that as soon as I started "fixing" it.
2. Have you tied up loose ends? There are always little
plot points that you weave throughout your story, after all that's
what's given it great depth so far. Make sure you don't leave
any of these dangling. If you are writing a series it is
different. I read Blood Secrets lately which is the first of three "Valorian
Chronicles". The characters got their HEA - but the external plot feeds
through all the books, so it was a great blend of satisfying ending and
OMG I need to buy the next to find out what happens.
3. The HEA - this scene is what we've been waiting for
the whole book. The part where we know all is well. That together they
are stronger than apart. That they are meant to be and confess all.
Don't scrimp on it. Infuse it with emotion and passion
and commitment.
Then, write THE END and go out and celebrate! You did it! You finished
your story. All that's left is prettying it up - or is it?
Editing
Now you've finished your first
draft, and you're incredibly relieved. The bones of your story are down.
You've reached the end.
Now it's time to fix and polish so it's ready to send.
The way I used to edit is very different from the way I edit now.
Honestly I think it's a skill that's developed over time. The more you
write, the better you become, the more you can tell what's working and
what's not. What I used to consider "edits" is now more of a polishing
stage.
When I edit, I get to the end and if there are scenes that need to be
added, I go back and add them where I think they need to be. Once I've
done that, I start at the beginning and work my way through. I look for
certain things...is my hero strong. Is my conflict solid. I layer a lot.
This means I add physical and emotional beats. By the end of the story,
I usually have a handful of motivation and conflict layers that I didn't
exploit enough in the first half, so the bulk of my layering goes there.
This is where my dialogue gets fleshed out so that the scene is fully
set.
When I finish a book now, I'm usually a good 4-7k off for word count.
During edits and layering, I add 3-5k. I've learned that I send a book
in a little short and once my editor is finished with it, I feel like
it's tighter and I've cut a bunch of stuff and I end up solidly in the
middle of the 5k spread for word count - right on the money.
Once you've gone through and fixed what needs fixing - keeping focus on
the romance, making sure the pace is fluid and keeps moving, and that
your characters have behaved in the appropriate way for their character
and arc, you do a polishing round.
When you polish, you should be looking for repetitive words, repetitive
actions, grammar and spelling mistakes, the odd sentence that just seems
to fit. This is about prettying up your ms, because now all the heavy
work is done.
The best advice I can give is DON'T BE AFRAID TO EDIT. Don't let the
delete key scare you. Be brave and do what needs to be done. If you get
to a point where you're thoroughly sick of the manuscript or just can't
see anymore what needs to be changed, it's time to let an editor have a
go.
Queries, Synopses and
Partials
There is a ton of information out
there about submitting your manuscript, yet one of the most frequently
asked questions are regarding how to submit once your ms is ready.
THE QUERY LETTER
This is a business letter so you want it to be professional. No funky
fonts, or off the wall paper choices, that sort of thing. You want it to
have a personal flavour so there's some sense of who you are, but mainly
you are introducing yourself and your work so you want it to remain
professional.
Format it like a business letter. The way I always formatted it was with
an introductory paragraph: my name, the title of the book (either
underlined or in all caps), the target (either audience or line,
depending on what you write)and the approximate word count.
My next paragraph would be a hook-y type blurb about the book.
The third paragraph contained background information on me. This would
include publishing credits or other pertinent information. Even
something like "My job as a doctor inspired me to write this medical
about xyz" or whatever.
Again, you're selling your ms but also yourself.
Queries should be no longer than one page.
THE SYNOPSIS
Depending on where you're sending your ms, a very general rule of thumb
would be 2 pages single spaced for most category length novels. If you
write single title or longer (75k +) series, you could probably expand
that. Right now, my editor gets a one-page synopsis. Condensing it down
is hard, so here's what you need.
You need to hit the main points only. You need to give a feeling for
your characters, the conflict, their motivations and a brief roadmap of
how they get there. You also need to include the resolution - how they
reach their happy ending. DON'T LEAVE THIS OUT. The editor is going to
want to know how you wound this up. Please don't put "to see how it
ends, you'll need to read the rest of the story!" Editors don't have
time for that. They need to see at a glance that what you've done works.
PARTIALS
Some agents/publishers/lines will allow you to send a sample of your
work - usually 3 chapters or what we call a "partial". Another one of
the most-oft asked questions is about formatting.
Clear, good sized font. So TNR 12 or Courier New 12 seem to be the two
standards. I know one of my publishers uses Bookman Old Style a lot, but
I don't use it in my every day work or sending to my editor at
Harlequin. DOUBLE SPACE. If an editor is going to the time and effort to
read your work, don't give her an eye-strain headache. Number your pages
in the top right and have a header at the top with the ms title and your
name. You should also have a cover page, with the ms title and your name
front and centre. When I send mine, to the bottom left I have my contact
information - mailing address, e-mail and phone number - and on the
right I put who it's going to and the approximate word count.
With a partial you can clip it together. Do NOT staple. If you get a
request to see all the work, hold it together with elastic bands.
If you go to www.eharlequin.com/learntowrite you should be able to find
examples of the above, or heck do a google search. There are lots of
resources out there.
What's
Next?
I’m going
to shoot straight from the hip and give you the basic, unvarnished
truth.
You’ve
submitted. You’ll likely get a rejection. That’s just the numbers, and
I’m sorry but it’s true. That doesn’t mean you give up. It means you
get determined.
Wait times
vary. But in all honesty, don’t expect anything back for 3-4 months.
MINIMUM. On a query, you should certainly hear within this time frame,
and partials too for the most part. On a partial, if you haven’t heard
anything by the six month mark, send and e-mail if you have a contact or
make a polite, short phone call to make sure your ms is still there.
If you’re
blessed to get feedback with rejections, pay attention because editors
don’t waste time giving feedback unless they see something promising in
your writing. If it sounds like a form letter, it probably is, so don’t
dissect it and angst over it. File it and move on.
If you’re
lucky enough to get a request for the full manuscript, make another
short cover letter referring to the request, and all pertinent
information about the submission. My cover letters for fulls were
usually one simple paragraph. “Please find enclosed my manuscript
whatever as requested in your letter of….” MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALL YOUR
CONTACT INFORMATION included. Print out your ms on regular paper,
complete with cover page, bind it with an elastic, and my recommendation
is to send it in tyvek envelopes. Unless you’re writing Single Titles
in which case a document box might work best. Make sure that you put in
SASE’s too – in queries as well as fulls. If it is going to another
country, you can buy IRC’s – International Reply Coupons – at the post
office. Most places don’t send back the ms unless you request – notice
I said MOST not ALL – so one should be sufficient to reply. CHECK THE
PUBLISHERS GUIDELINES BEFORE SENDING ANYTHING. Different publishers
want different things, and while my advice is rule of thumb sort of
things, not everyone is the same.
I’ve had
wait times on fulls from 2 weeks to 18 months, but again after 6 months
I think it’s ok to follow up, unless they’ve said otherwise.
Now…what
happens?
-
You could get a form
rejection
-
You could get a rejection
with feedback (solid gold, people. Listen up.)
-
You could get revisions
-
You could sell, this is
highly unlikely without going through (3) first.
If you get
revisions, don’t panic. Read the letter, file it, take it out and read
it again, don’t panic, and give yourself time to absorb what the editor
is asking of you. At first it might seem like a HUGE job. But remember
– you only have to revise one page at a time. And be flexible. Editors
know what they are doing. You need to trust that editor and give her
what she wants using your own unique voice. And you only need to fix
one page at a time. It’s okay. You’ll get through it. It’s natural to
worry you haven’t done it right but revisions are a great learning
experience, and look, it’s SO helpful when someone tells you exactly
what needs fixing.
My other
recommendation is to do your revisions in a timely manner. You don’t
need to turn them around in 24 hours, but unless it’s a rewrite, you
shouldn’t need more than a week, two tops. Even with my last ms, which
had substantial revisions, I had it back to her in 8 days. Opportunity
is knocking. Don’t waste time!
Then send
your revisions back – whichever way the editor has asked (and most
likely will be through e-mail). Revision wait times can vary SO much.
In three books with Harlequin, I’ve waited as short as 24 hours and
currently I’m at just over 4 weeks with my last. It all depends on
where you are in your editor’s schedule.
If you
don’t get asked for revisions, or if you have sent your revisions and
are waiting, what do you do now?
Well, you
think about the next book. You do up a proposal…even if you aren’t at
the proposal sending stage yet, this is a good idea. You outline a
basic premise and characters for a story, or two, or three. Then you
pick one (after you’ve sold, your editor might do the picking FOR you)
and you start all over again. The best cure for waiting – bar none – is
working on another project. Think about it. You wait 4 months for a
rejection on a partial, but maybe you got some positive comments and a
line like “we see promise in your writing and feel free to submit
something else to us.” Wouldn’t it be nice to have a new partial all
ready to go? Having one in the hopper is NOT to be underestimated.
With HIRED BY THE COWBOY, I was waiting to submit it while waiting to
hear on THE GIRL MOST LIKELY. When that full was rejected, but with
feedback, I already had another ms ready to go and it sold.
You're
Published - What To Expect
I recently
did an article for my local RWA chapter on “You Got the Call. Now What?”
In it I used quotes from several other newly-published friends about
what was the hardest thing to adjust to. When you sell, it’s important
to remember, you’re not alone. Others have, and are, going through the
same thing. And I’ll touch on a few of the biggies so you don’t get the
contract and get smacked in the head with reality without SOME warning.
First of all….enjoy the feeling and never lose that sense of excitement.
Then, you should be prepared for being inundated with congratulations,
invitations to join loops, places you “need” to be when you’re added to
the “club”. My advice would be join. Try them out briefly, and decide
which ones are most valuable. I can say right now that the ‘newbie’ loop
that I joined was SO beneficial. Newbies from a few years ago are now
helping out the newest additions and it is a wealth of great
information.
If you don’t have an agent, you need to look at your contract yourself,
and this is also where having friends in the know is good. You’ll know
what you can and can’t negotiate, as well as little things to keep an
eye out for.
Your contract is sent in, so now little things will crop up. You’ll
likely have to send in an author bio, dedications, maybe dear reader
letters…your editor will probably want to see what else you have on the
go, you may get asked to fill out Art Fact Sheets. At this point you
might be feeling quite overwhelmed even though the euphoria of having
sold hasn’t worn off.
You need a website, copy edits arrive for you to do and send back in a
ridiculously short amount of time, and you realize you haven’t written
on a book in a month. People are squawking about self-promotion. The
house looks like a tornado blew through and your kids have miraculously
learned to make their own meals.
And suddenly, you realize you THOUGHT you were good at time management
and you really had no idea.
It happens. It just does. Some handle it better than others, I was a
mess. Not fall-apart-completely a mess, but certainly out of the zone.
And it took about 4 months for me to get it together. It’s an
adjustment, plain and simple. So give it time. Realize it happens, don’t
be too hard on yourself, and let yourself settle into a routine.
The other thing with selling is that you may now have a deadline for
book two. And you are excited until you put CHAPTER ONE at the top of
the page and freeze.
What if you’re not good enough? What if you peaked with your sold book
and you can’t duplicate that success…what if you’re nothing but a fluke?
Again – all part of the process and you simply have to write through it.
It will be fine. Repeat this to yourself as often as needed. Personally
I think my book 2 came out really strong and it’s my favourite I’ve
written to date (like children, we shouldn’t have favourites but we
sometimes do).
After that…get used to worry. I think realizing that nothing is
guaranteed – that we still have to write books to a standard, and keep
improving – keeps us on our toes and makes sure we don’t get lazy. You
can’t assume every book is a done deal. Others will say, “Oh, it’ll
sell, don’t worry, blah blah” but you still have that little bit of “I
hope it’s good enough” in the back of your mind. It’s a pain, but I
think it’s good for the writing.
The last thing….and this really has been the purpose of the whole
Construction Zone series. ASK QUESTIONS. It’s really okay to ask someone
who knows. It might be an editor, an agent, a writer friend, someone
published. I’ve yet to meet an author who minded me asking a question.
And I appreciate it so much (because you NEVER stop having questions)
that I’m happy to return the favour if I can. And if I can’t – I can
probably send you to someone who can.
I hope the series helped you in some way at some point. I know I’ve
enjoyed putting it together and even learned new things along the way.
Question Period
QUESTION: "Spotting unnecessary plot contrivances is quite
difficult. Any thoughts on what questions we could ask about the event
to help us decide if it's a contrivance or not?"
The easy answer is...is the event the direct result of something that's
already happened. If no, look at it again. In other words, is it
something that is happening TO your character causing a REACTION instead
of PROACTION. Reactive characters...ones that react to WHAT is happening
instead of being PROACTIVE (using their motivations) can be the death
knell to your ms finding its way to publication.
Is the event out of the blue? Is everything going on swimmingly and then
BAM! something happens? This is what I call monkey wrench syndrome. If
you don't have enough conflict for your characters, you feel the need to
throw a complication in their way...a monkey wrench into the works. I'm
guilty of it. And these things are spotted a mile away, trust me.
Now..that's not to say you can't have ANY external plot. Something has
got to put these two characters in the same place at the same time. And
you CAN get away with a spot or two. It can add drama. I'll give you a
cryptic sort of example, because I don't want to give away the ending of
Hired By The Cowboy. But I do have an external event
close to the ending and it brings things to a nice emotional pitch, I
think. However, a few chapters earlier, I had to rewrite an entire
scene, because it, added in with the other, made for too much external
conflict. That scene changed so that what happened came from WITHIN my
heroine, not from her REACTING to something else that happened. My
editor was very astute making me change that.
I hope that helped.
QUESTION: Donna, when you slip snippets of character backstory into
chapter to give your writing a contemporary feel is it best to a)show it
in dialogue eg: Character A says to h: 'I really worry about you.
Eveyone one needs to relax every now and then...etc'Or b)have the author
add it in a very short piece of telling: Since splitting up with X, h's
life had been one long round of work. She'd kept telling herself it
wouldn't be forever but somehow...etcOrc) have the character think it eg:
yes, her life was completely dictated by her work. So what? Being a
brain surgeon was a dream come true..etc
Well, Janet, you’re going to hate me for this, but I’m going to say all
three.
After all, if you use only one method, things are going to be kind of
boring, aren’t they? LOL
Part of this answer also depends on your voice. My local rwa chapter is
having a talk on voice next week, so I think I’ll blog about it after
that. Because voice is hard. But I’ll tell you a secret I realized while
drafting Home Fires. My paragraphs have a rhythm. A way that I structure
them, blending dialogue with emotional and physical beats and narrative.
They have, I hope, a balance. That’s not to say in some bits there’s
less of some and more of another…for example, you are naturally going to
have areas that are snappier, heavier on dialogue and others that are
thicker with narrative…that ebb and flow of pacing (ah yes, another
topic!).
Vicki Hinze has a great article on backstory. In it she explains that
you should blend the background with the action, and to choose details
that bring a desired response to your reader, in other words, something
that helps the reader relate to your character and understand their
motivations. So that we know that even if they are doing the wrong
thing, they are doing it for reasons that makes sense to them.
I’ve rustled up an example for you. In looking at it, I realize I use
the dialogue to set the tone between Grace and Mike… from the WAY that
she speaks to him, we realize they have a history. The emotional beats
are her thoughts, and this makes up most of it. Her thoughts are tied to
narrative…because we are firmly in her POV at the beginning.
These are the first few pages of Marriage at Circle M….and I’ve bolded
the spots where I added in backstory. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if I
should bold or not…and I think that’s a good thing because the backstory
should blend in as seamlessly as possible.
When Mike Gardner came walking up the path in just that way, Grace
knew she was in trouble.
And when he stopped at the foot of her stepladder, hooked his
thumbs in his jeans pockets and squinted up at her, she gripped her
paintbrush tighter so as not to drop it. Mike was all long, lazy strides
and sexy smiles, and despite her best intentions, she’d
never been able to remain immune to his charm. Not since she’d hit
puberty, anyway.
“Mornin’, Grace,” the words didn’t exactly drawl, but were
drawn out just enough to give that impression.
Grace straightened her shoulders and did her best to look
nonchalant as she swiped another stripe of white paint over the window
trim. “Hello, Mike.”
Great. Now why in the world did those two words come out all
breathless, anyway?
She had to remember that it wasn’t all that long go that
she’d made a fool of herself where Mike was concerned. It had been years
since there had been anything between them. But she’d had a little too
much punch, there’d been a little too much giggling and she’d blurted
out one very ill-thought out sentence. She still felt
the heat of her embarrassment and every time they met now, she did
everything she could to assure him – to assure herself, even, that Mike
Gardner was completely resistible. Lord knew he didn’t need her fawning
over him the way the rest of the female population seemed to. Without
thinking, she tucked an errant strand of blonde hair back behind her
ear, leaving it streaked with paint.
“You’re up with the birds,” he commented, a lazy smile creeping
up his cheek as she chanced a look down at him.
“And you knew I would be, or you wouldn’t be
here so early.” She pointedly checked her watch. “It’s
seven-forty-six.”
“It is?” His chin flattened ever so slightly. “I’m sorry, I
thought it was later.”
“You’ve likely been up and done chores already.”
“Yes.”
Darn him. She couldn’t just stand up on the stepladder like an
idiot, carrying on a conversation that was barely holding its own.
Besides, she was all too aware that his height, paired with her distance
up the ladder put his line of vision right at her backside. She sighed,
put her brush across the top of the paint-smeared can and took a step
down – and her dew-slick sneaker slipped on the metal step.
His hands were there to catch her.
“Whoa, there.”
She shrugged off his touch. It felt far too strong and too good.
“I’m not one of your horses, Mike.”
He laughed. “No ma’am. You sure aren’t.”
It wasn’t fair. She’d had a thing for Mike since
she was fourteen, but he’d always treated her like a kid sister. An
annoying one. For a brief time, when she’d been in high school, they’d
been more. But that seemed a lifetime ago. For him to
flirt now…weeks after she’d made a complete idiot of herself, it was too
much. That one little slip of the lip was the only time
she’d ever come close to telling him how she felt, and at the time he’d
only laughed at her.
She was older…and far wiser now at twenty-seven.
There was no room in her life for schoolgirl crushes.
She planted her hands on her hips and stared him down. “Look, you
obviously didn’t come around for idle chit-chat, so tell me what’s on
your mind so I can get back to work.”
Mike had to turn away to hide his smile. She was good and
irritated, he could tell. And besides that, she looked wonderful this
morning, almost too good. Her blonde hair was tucked into some sort of
strange clip, and little pieces tangled around her ears. Her eyes
flashed at him now, icy blue with annoyance. Looking up that stepladder
at her slim, tanned legs had almost made him forget why he was here. And
steadying her with his arms as she’d slipped had wiped his brain clean
of any other thoughts whatsoever. He liked the feel of his hands on her
skin.
He stepped back, ignoring her jab, instead turning to survey the
small yellow bungalow she called home…(I cut some description because it
got line edited in the final version)
“You’re painting.”
She kept her eyes front as if refusing to look at him. “Your
powers of deduction astound me. What tipped you off?”
He ignored that bit of sarcasm too. She had to be tired, after
all. The drips down the side of her paint can were fresh; she’d
obviously been at it a while before he showed up. And he knew for a fact
that she’d been up late last night, because her lights had been on when
he’d been on his way back from town at nearly one o’clock.
He wished…he wished she didn’t have to work so hard for everything.
But he was the last person who could make things better for her. At
least for right now he was.
“How do you find time to do everything, Grace? Every time I see
you you’re busy at something.”
By getting up at five a.m., she thought. Instead she shoved her
hands in the pockets of her shorts. “It keeps me out of trouble.”
“Then I sure hate to ask what I’m about to.”
Mike was serious, she realized, pushing away the urge to use
sarcasm as a shield against him. Normally he said
nothing at all or what he did say was disarming and funny. But Grace had
known him long enough to know when he was troubled. And
the tone of his voice right now told her something was definitely going
on. When he merely stared at her house longer, she wrinkled her brow and
went to him, gently placing a paint-splattered hand on his forearm.
“What’s wrong?”
I hope that helps, Janet. The odd sentence here and there can keep your
pacing going, give the correct information, and avoid information dumps.
FWIW, I got rid of a few dumps in this story upon revision…not pages and
pages, but trickling it in as beats and thoughts works much better than
a long paragraph of straight narrative. It comes down to showing it
rather than telling us what we need to know.
QUESTION:
When the black moments happen at different
points in the story for the hero and heroine, do you resolve them at
different points as well? Or, does the one that occurred first take
longer to resolve, with both getting resolution near the end?
You know, Patricia, sometimes my black moments aren't all that clear.
Sometimes they are a little series of black moments that culminate into
"how are they going to work this out?"
Now, in Hired By The Cowboy, my characters had their black moments
really at the same time although they were apart. I'll risk spoilery
type information here and scrimp on details, if that's ok. Basically
Connor realises that he's lost everything....and discovers what he
thought was most important to him isn't anymore. Alex has finally
realized she loves him, and thinking him dead, realizes she'll never be
able to tell him.
Marriage at Circle M was different and you'll see how it all has to do
with the conflict. Grace's black moment comes early. She tells Mike her
secret only half way through the book, destroying any hope she has of
being with him as he wants the one thing she can't give him. Mike, on
the other hand, has a black moment much later on, when he discovers he
can't help Grace, that she has to make peace with things on her own. He
has, by his actions, actually contributed to the problem and he feels
completely helpless. He lashes out at her, destroying what is left of
their friendship.
There are so many elements at work in MCM that when you get to the
ending I think it's that much better. I still cry when I get there.
Now, in my latest, the hero's black moment is very clear, and it's
first. He hits rock bottom, and it's only then, when he acknowledges it,
that he can work his way back. The heroine doesn't see any way for them
to work, so it takes some major convincing on Jonas's part.
So I guess my answer is, it depends. If a black moment comes early, it
can be a source of conflict that carries the book through to the second
black moment, and then both will be resolved at the end.
And sometimes, a black moment won't be resolved really at all. There are
several books out there that show how the problem still exists...the
victory is in how the characters deal with it, live with it, choose to
go through it together.
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