Ray-Anne Lutener

2008-06-01T09:54:00.006+01:00

This blog has now been closed and transferred to Ray-Anne's new blog.
I would love to meet you at my new house - so please-

Click here to be transferred: http://rayannelutener.wordpress.com/

2008-06-01T09:54:00.004+01:00

Happy 1st June- and it's a special Birthday!

I started this blog for real in June 2007.

On the 11th Jan 2007 I decided to try my hand at this Blogging lark and actually managed one single post of a few lines -before putting it out of my mind.

The next post was on 27th June 2007 - I was gearing up for the RNA conference and my brain turned to the larger world outside my office.

I made so many new friends in the Romance writing community I knew that the Blog was the ideal way to keep connected through our chosen form of creativity.

Since then I have created 200 posts and had over 4000 page hits.

And now it is time to move to a new virtual house/ blogsite.
I do hope that you will pop in and say hello.

http://rayannelutener.wordpress.com/

Thank you all.

All Change.

2008-05-26T07:33:00.004+01:00

Saturday 24th May. 12.20pm outside Kefallinia airport- outside temp. 32oC. Calm, cobalt seas and sky. Warm breeze carrying scent of jasmine and oleander.

Monday 26th May. 7.39am Basingstoke backbedroom - outside temp - well, it is cold, lashing down with rain and the trees are bending over in the wind. Scent of toilet bleach and electricals.

See pics above. I don't really need to add any more to that, do I?

Back here in the real world, and it is all change.

From 1st June I shall be migrating over to a new blog on Wordpress. The address is : http://rayannelutener.wordpress.com/

All of the posts from this blog will be transferred over, and this blog will be kept open for a month or so then archived. You can still make comments on the Wordpress blog as normal from a Blogger account.

Why move?

Wordpress has a lot more features - including the ability to add a lot more layers and background pages similar to a website. I do not currently have a website and am holding back until I have a clear idea of what my PenName is going to be, so Wordpress seems to me like a great stopgap site.

And the new blog will be under my name, making it easier for folks to find me.

I do hope that you will bookmark my new site and come and visit from 1st June.

In the meantime I need to work on the new blog so it is ready for visitors.
See you there soon.

Summer Hols

2008-05-09T14:27:00.003+01:00

Just when the good weather reaches the UK - I am leaving for my hols.

2 weeks in the Ionian should give me the boost I need to finish the thriller revision, and gear up for the next couple of books which will take me over the summer.

Hope the sun shines on you, wherever you are, and see you again soon.

J J Abrams and Amy Tan on Creativity

2008-05-07T10:11:00.002+01:00

Jurgen Wolff * had an excellent blog and several websites for creative people and his daily blog is always interesting.

Through Jurgen I have come to know of the TED Lecture series where leading experts in all fields of modern life are invited to give short presentations.

It is an awesome reference on the mind processes of some of the most inspiring people in the western world today.

This morning I listened to J J Abrams talking on the Mystery Box.

J.J. Abrams traced his love of the unseen mystery -- the heart of Alias, Lost, and the upcoming Cloverfield -- back to its own magical beginnings, which may or may not include an early obsession with magic, the love of a supportive grandfather, or his own
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/205.

Go here to watch on YouTube: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vpjVgF5JDq8

In another genre, Amy Tan spoke at this year's TED Conference.

'Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, journeying through her childhood and family history and into the worlds of physics and chance, looking for hints of where her own creativity comes from. It's a wild ride with a surprise ending.'

Brilliant. Fascinating to learn about the completely different mindset of another writer.
Go here to listen to it - http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/250

* http://www.timetowrite.blogs.com/

Holiday Packing - The Jeff Kitchen Screenwriting Method

2008-05-04T11:41:00.003+01:00

This is the Dilemma.

I am about to start a two week holiday in the Greek Islands [ see picture - this is the view from the kitchen window].

Question: Do I take a complete break from this writing business? Do I go on strike, and refuse to give in to the separation anxiety, angst and general lack of functionality associated with not telling lies on paper on a daily basis.
IN other words. Do I actually take a holiday from writing anything other than postcards?

OR? Do I accept the inevitable and stash enough paper and pens in my hand luggage [ just in case the suitcase goes missing in two airports, you understand] since this greek village has a 'mini-market' where the supply of children's school exercise books and pencils can be very limited. I may, gulp, RUN OUT..

CRISIS.
And what if I am obliged to read fiction written by other authors who, another gulp, are ten times better than I am at holding the reader spellbound on her poolside lounger? Forcing me to face the fact that I am doomed as a thriller/romance writer and my old day job is a much better idea.

DECISION AND ACTION.
Two new A4 pads- squared paper of course, and six ballpoints. No laptops. No palm held.

RESOLUTION.
I feel a lot better now. Thank you for your concern. Nothing else to see here, go about your business folks. All well.

Authors talking

2008-04-30T08:36:00.001+01:00

Borders have a series of Interviews with authors such as Lee Child, John Barrowman, and Freya North which are great – lovely to hear your favourite author live.

The Freya North interview about ‘Pillow Talk’ looks like it was from the RNA Awards lunch this February

http://www.bookzone.tv/

Time Management for Writers

2008-04-29T14:57:00.003+01:00

How do you spend your time? What makes your brain buzz?

Business versus Creativity?

For the sake of discussion, let’s say that I have to divide my working life as a writer of fiction into three basic - and very broad- categories.

1. Organisation of Time. Energy. Money.

*Time Management. Focus
*Developing Skills and Techniques
*Vision and Planning - Goals
*Discipline and Focus on Key Objectives

2. Marketing

*Brand Creation
*Writing Proposals and Query Letters
*Finding an Agent.
*Promotion of Self - Speaking, Blogging, Internet Presence
*Promotion of your work
*Attending Conferences and Meetings

3. Creating

*Story Development
*Building the Outline and Synopsis or Treatment
*Writing the Text
*Editing to Blockbuster quality
*Rewriting and Polishing

For some people, creating the manuscript is the number one priority.
Without a wonderful story to promote, you don’t have anything to sell, but what if you were a beginner - or were being published by small press publishers, who did not have a large budget for promotion and marketing, how would you manage your time to achieve all of these tasks?

You have a book you want to sell.
AND you want to learn your craft.
AND you have a deadline for a bigger, better, more compelling book in your contract.

How do you manage your time? By hours each day? By hours each week?

Talking to other writers, this seems to depend upon :

*what stage you are at in your career. Published authors feel obliged to spend a lot more time on promotion and less of learning craft techniques than unpublished authors.

*the kind of writing you have chosen to specialise in. Graphic novels, mainstream commercial fiction, childrens’ books, romance etc. Each specific genre has their own specialist interest groups and online networks. Other non-genre fiction writers may struggle to compete with that word of mouth connection and persuade reviewers to take their books

*how interested you are in maintaining an online presence. Many writers are not keen on MySpace or FaceBook but are willing to blog a paragraph now and then
the writing.

* Some people love to write flat out for several hours. Others like to write in short bursts of perhaps an hour then break. They use the down time for the other tasks

*being organised and disciplined. Let’s be honest. Not everyone is talented in this direction. And most of use do have lives.

Overall conclusions?
If you imagine a self-employed entrepreneur, who is creating a unique product which they then want to promote and sell to a manufacturer/ investor… would that person not need to work in all three categories?
For example. A person making silver jewellery.
That person would need to work on learning the skills in silver smithing that they would need to create the finest version of their design.
Then find markets for their stunning work.

Time Management. Easy to say, hard to do..

The Opponent

2008-04-28T15:31:00.002+01:00

I am currently working on extra character layers for the Antagonist in my thriller novel, brainstorming on how to make this character as compelling as possible.

First. How do you define the Antagonist?

For me, I have to start with a definition of the Protagonist – the character who owns the story, and whose active pursuit of her goal will drive the plot forward.
The Antagonist is the equally fascinating character who by pushing against the protagonist shapes the story and drives the plot by forcing the protagonist to act.

There a number of key aspects I want to keep in mind;

1. The Antagonist is the character who shapes the plot, the most important person in the conflict, the character who makes the reader worry and keeps her turning the page.
If I have worked hard, my reader will have sympathy and empathy for my heroine. The antagonist is now going to start throwing rocks at her.

2. The antagonist must be strong and active, somebody the reader fears will defeat the protagonist.
My heroine is strong, intelligent and a survivor.
My opponent has to be all of those things and more.

3. Since I am writing a thriller, I want the antagonist to be just as compelling as the protagonist, just as fascinating to read, just as smart, just as funny perhaps, just as good at what he does. In fact, the antagonist should be formidable in every way possible, and stronger than the protagonist – making her work hard and be creative. NOT just REACTIVE but PROACTIVE.
I need to show my antagonist in his ordinary life, doing his job. Even if this is carving the Mona Lisa with a craft knife on the stomach of his victims.

4. But the antagonist is also in need of something. He is pursuing his goal for the same reason that the heroine is pursuing hers: it’s important to his sense of self-worth, his identity. He may not have a character arc as powerful as the protagonist, but he certainly cannot be pulled out of the wings, twirling his moustache, to be the bad guy as in a children’s cartoon. No. He has to have a character profile. His own needs and goals. His own problems.

Why does he love the Mona Lisa? Is he Italian? What is his motivation?

5. The antagonist’s pursuit of his goal must be in direct opposition to the goal of the protagonist – creating ‘ Conflict Lock’ so that the two characters are locked in until one of them wins. It is this key conflict which is going to shape the plot- and shape the action of my hero, since she will be forced to react and act proactively is she intends to be the winner.

What is the Conflict Lock?
This is where the two characters may either both have the same goal – or they have different goals which are in direct opposition.
The best way of seeing this visually is by drawing up a 4 square grid and I tip my hat to Michael Hague and Jennifer Crusie for showing me this technique, which you can use from the Act level right down to individual scenes.

Protagonist GOAL= Dorothy wants to go home to Kansas with Toto.

Protagonist CONFLICT= She has to ask the way home from the Wizard – but the wicked witch of the west is determined to stop her from leaving

Antagonist GOAL = The wicked witch of the west wants her sister’s ruby slippers.
Antagonist CONFLICT = Dorothy is wearing the ruby slippers and cannot take them off. AND she wants to leave town.

The top two boxes of your 2 by 2 square are your protagonist’s goal and conflict (the action that is causing her conflict).The bottom two boxes are your antagonist’s goal and conflict (the action that is causing his conflict).
The idea is that the protagonist’s goal is the one thing that is blocking the Opponent from obtaining HIS goal. And the Opponent’s goal is blocking our Heroine from obtaining HER goal.
You should be able to draw an arrow from Goal Row 1 to Conflict Row 2, and Goal Row 2 to Conflict Row 1.

Result = Conflict Lock.

6. The key turning points of my story should track the building conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. From the start, I want to be able to imagine the Final Fight to the Finish between my hero and the person who has been blocking her all the way. I want to be able to track the fight between these two people all the way from the Inciting Incident – which should be caused directly or indirectly by the Antagonist – to the one to one final fight. Where only one of them wins – and the reader/audience will not know who this until it physically happens.

7. The reader wants to be on the edge of their seat to find out who will win – and it is no contest if the opponent is way superior to our heroine – they should be equally matched. Think of an equally skilled football game.

8. BOTH of these two key characters MUST be actively fighting for their goals – which might be the same goal. Two treasure fighters after the same sacred icon aka Lara Croft or Indiana Jones. Or one corrupt cop trying to keep hold of his million dollars so he can buy his life back, while the less corrupt cop tries to take the money from him as evidence. Or a divorced mother finds that her estranged husband has run off to India with their daughter, vowing never to return. That active fight will force the hero to change, adapt, be smarter, quicker, better.

9. Both of these two key characters will be forced to make decisions and take actions. Leading to character arc for one or both. Or a bullet and a medal.

10. I want to have my protagonist on the page as soon as possible – the first paragraph if possible. And that means I need my antagonist right there – or the result of his actions and decisions, as part of the SCENE ANTAGONIST who is linked to the main antagonist.
Example. Cops going to murder scene- finds the work of the antagonist, with clues.

Now. All I have to do is create this fantastic character. GULP!

2008-04-24T08:41:00.002+01:00

A question.

Why is it that, while re-writing your current epic thriller, you always get a KILLER idea for a NEW book, which is so MAGICAL and AWESOME, and TERRIFIC, that you just want to throw the book you are writing NOW into the back of the wardrobe where it belongs with all of the other discarded items, and start this NEW, better story which is bound to be a bestseller?

This new idea is TOTALLY commercial and High Concept.

You can already SEE the movie for this NEW idea.
You can hear the agents and publishers hammering on your front door, any door, fighting for the chance to carry this NEW book.

And NOT the book you know that you have to finish, and which, until yesterday, you thought was pretty good. It only needs another couple of weeks of 10 hour days of slog, re-structuring and complete change of opponent motivation etc to create a decent second draft.

While, all the time, this new cunning idea- which has amazed even you, goddess of genius, by how clever and unique it is- is lurking on a note card. Tempting you away from the true path of the righteous professional writer.

Sigh...

The Advantages of having a great Publicist

2008-04-22T08:58:00.007+01:00

No doubt you followed the 'Nibbies' book award with zero interest, but sorry to say that J K Rowling was the source of great amusement due to her 'wardrobe malfunction'.

Thank heavens she had her literary publicist Mark Hutchinson standing by to assist.

I think these pictures say it all.

Note to self. WHEN accepting major award, DO NOT chose dress likely to fall down at the front so that you are constantly having to hitch it up.

Second note to self. How did Katie Price manage it???

Go here to see the detail - http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23476497-details/When%20JK%20met%20Jordan%20at%20the%20British%20Book%20Awards%20who%20showed%20more%20than%20they%20meant%20to/article.do

SNARF!

Using a Dilemma to drive your story

2008-04-19T09:49:00.005+01:00

A DILEMMA.

A choice has to be made between two equally bad - or two equally good- alternatives.

Example. Our hero’s brother needs a life or death operation that costs serious money. But all of our hero’s cash is earmarked to finally turn his barely surviving business into a success, and to make a down payment on a new home, thus saving his marriage and removing his kids from a dangerous neighbourhood.

Example. Do you remember that true story where a young man was trapped by the arm in a rock fall in a remote part of US desert and having done everything he could to escape over 5 days, had to decide whether to simply wait until someone found him - which might never happen since nobody knew where he was - or cut off his own arm - and he might bleed to death. Aron Ralston chose the later.

Example. Many marriage of convenience stories or moral dilemmas - Charles Dickens loved them -such as where the pretty heroine innocent has to marry the repellant man to save her sister/aged parent/child from destitution or prison or some other terrible fate. Today it would be the unmarried mother who needs what this man can offer her. Or the person who has to lie in court to save someone they love.

Two equally unacceptable alternatives – two equally [very] painful choices.

Forced to choose between sacrificing himself or sacrificing a loved one, our character finds himself paralysed, unable to make a choice. A dilemma to lose sleep over.

Neither option is good, because each is at odds with the other.

One good central dilemma can be the ENGINE driving the drama.

Once your protagonist is trapped in it, the dilemma can build in intensity until the crisis point forces decision and action – no matter how much the heroine wants to put off making that decision, it has to be done. One way or the other. The dilemma is finally resolved at the point of resolution.

I have come to this point through an excellent book on Screenwriting - 'Writing a Great Movie' by Jeff Kitchen*. Working through this book has given me excellent insights into how I can polish my current WIP thriller and build the conflict.

Up to this point I had not recognised the fact that my thriller has at least four key dilemmas which drive my heroine, some from her backstory and motivation, some from the plot and action line of the story.

Pulling out the thread of each dilemma has helped me build the scenes which set-up the alternatives she has to choose from and build the conflict as the action progresses.

*http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0823069788/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link

Thriller Writing Challenges

2008-04-16T11:20:00.002+01:00

Among other things, I write Medical Thrillers.

And one of the greatest challenges I find is this: HOW TO MAKE THE CONFLICT PERSONAL?
What do I mean by that?
Imagine you have a medical condition or medical disaster- eg. A virus or a bioweapon perhaps, in your story.
The Bioweapon is not a conflict. There is no implicit emotional element in a virus - it is the EFFECT of the virus on a person which creates the conflict.

This is a tool used by an Antagonist as part of his plan to kill people and cause chaos - or perhaps something more creative, such as he actually wants to kill ONE Person and uses the bioweapon as a cover story.
The character of this opponent and his plan drives the action plot - and that is where the challenge lies.

John Truby* wrote an excellent critique of the movie ‘OUTBREAK‘ ** which explains some of the KEY CHALLENGES inherent in creating screenplay for an ‘Action Thriller’. This film came out in 1995 and stared Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Spacey among others .

1. How do you create an ongoing and a building opposition when your opponent is a virus?
You can’t do it. You can’t have a dramatic fight against an invisible bug. So you have to have a personal opposition.
So, the main opponent doesn’t remain the virus, it is General McClintock.
Let’s look at this opponent for a minute. This guy is clearly a villain. In this movie we’re not going to see any subtlety of opposition between hero and main opponent. They’re not going to have a lot of moral fighting about whatever they might fight about. That’s not what this opponent is all about. He is there to provide as heavy an opposition as we can get for our hero.
This guy does have two really great advantages. One is that he provides the source for the conspiracy, where most of the plot comes from. Without him, we really have no plot. Once we hit those virus beats, we’re going to run out of plot. The other great advantage he gives us is that he escalates the story up to the battle. We can’t get to that battle without him.
There’s a second opponent besides McClintock and he’s an opponent ally. This is General Billy Ford.
As an opponent ally, he is somebody who appears to be a friend to the hero but is actually an enemy. General Ford is an in-between character in this sense. He acts fundamentally as an opponent but he also acts as a friend, especially at the end of the story.
Like McClintock, he is crucial for plot because like any opponent ally, he is hidden. The true nature of his opposition is hidden.

2. How do you get a personal line into a fast action story?
Because that personal line is what’s going to make it pay off emotionally for the audience. It’s very difficult to do because you’re moving so fast that you really don’t want to slow down and take that time.
How did the writers of ‘Outbreak - LAWRENCE DWORET & ROBERT ROY POOL- do it?

There are two storylines in this movie ‘Outbreak’.
The action line for the plot, and the personal line for the protagonist hero detective.
In Outbreak the writers take the time to establish a personal track between the husband and the wife. during the Set-Up initial scenes.
This is a crucial step, and is part of building the empathy of the audience with this hard driven scientist who is totally focused and skilled in his work.
He might be the world expert on this virus - but he is also still in love with his wife who he has just divorced. This Personal line holds steady throughout the story, and it grounds the movie, which goes all over the place, as it deals with the scientific details and action scenes. And it just gives a real solid, personal connection in a story that really needs it.

3. How do you focus all the action in a single arena.

Again, this is especially difficult in a film like “Outbreak” where you’re covering epic action, it covers a huge amount of territory. [The film is set in Zaire and at least four key locations in the US.] How did the writers of ‘Outbreak - do it?
By using a ‘Whirlpool’ effect so that the story starts wide, then gradually circles in to a small town in California, where the key players battle it out.

4. A third big problem is how do you create enough plot?
Although we have a lot of action in action stories, we often don’t have very much plot.
How did the writers of ‘Outbreak - do it?
There is a very strong SINGLE desire line.
We have the added advantage that it is a building desire line.
The overall desire line for the character in this story is to find the agent of this disease and to create an antibody to stop it. That pretty much tracks all the way through. Because this virus is so deadly, we have a time element involved in that we’ve got to solve this problem real fast or not just this town is going to go but it will spread throughout the entire country.
The writers take this spine of a plot line and build it, and build it. Increasing stakes. Adding a ticking clock in two places. Adding two foreshadow sections where where the audience knows the virus has already spread and how - but the hero and victims are ignorant, creating tension and excitement.
Plot comes from hidden information and sudden reveals.

Which leads to a very important point.

If you want a lot of plot, you MUST have a very active but hidden opponent. That’s exactly what we get in this script provided by the virus, and provided by McClintock.

In fact, if you were to break this script down, you would find that there are, depending on how you determine reveals, you would find fourteen to sixteen revelations in this script. That is a tremendous amount of reveals giving us a tremendous amount of plot.

*Go here to read the full article: http://www.truby.com/outbreakbd.html*

*Go here to dowload the screenplay for ‘Outbreak’ which was written by LAWRENCE DWORET & ROBERT ROY POOL. This is the December 1993 Draft: http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Outbreak.pdf

FIND ME A NAME!

2008-04-14T08:54:00.002+01:00

Here’s a useful bookmark: click it and it will generate a first name and last name from the U.S. Census data. Refresh to try again.

So far, I’ve ended up with Charles Hayden, Peter Ratcliff, and Gabriel Fiorini for the heros, and Devon Howard, Lori Smith and Cheryl Morgan for the ladies.

Perfect.

How to exercise while blogging

2008-04-04T07:21:00.005+01:00

Summer is imminent. Which may require exposure of body parts unaccustomed to being seen for several months.. or longer. Without long trousers and sweaters.

There are bikinis in the shops. And shorts.

Since we are disciplined pros, accustomed to planning ahead [ snarf] it may be time to think of..gulp..getting out the summer clothing.

Before the shock turns us to choc and cake. Here are a few ideas to get the muscles working again before they atrophy.

29 Exercises You Can Do At (Or Near) Your Desk

For example; Hands and Arms

*Shadow box. Stand up and take a couple of jabs at the air.
*Arm pump. Pump both of your arms over your head for 30 seconds.
*Shoulder raises. Raise your shoulder to your ear, hold and then relax. Repeat, alternating shoulders. { I have always found this great for releasing tension in the neck from crouching over the keyboard}
*Wrist stretch. Stretch your arm out in front of you with the palm up. With your other hand, grab your fingers and lightly pull them down to stretch your forearm.
*Tricep dips. Put your arms behind your back, resting on your chair and slowly raise and lower your self. { chicken wings. say no more.}
*Elevated pushups. Lean on a sturdy piece of furniture and slowly push your body off of it in a sort of standing push up.
*Hand stretches. Tense and relax the muscles in your hands. Make fists, spread your fingers and bend your fingers.
*Flapping wings. Stretch both of your arms up and back, as far as you can. Bring them forward until they meet and stretch your arms out in front of you. Repeat.
*Water bottle weights. Use a full water bottle as weight to increase the difficulty of your work out. You can do front raises, overhead presses and bicep curls with a water bottle.

There are lots more here... the site also has lots of tips on how to increase productivity etc.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/29-exercises-you-can-do-at-or-near-your-desk.html#more-5455

Well, the thought is there.

And there are only 7 weeks before I hit the Greek Islands. THE HORROR!

Jack Black tells us how to write a Story

2008-04-01T08:13:00.002+01:00

Gather around and get yourself comfy.

Now, has everyone got tea and bikky?

Ready?

Then listen quietly while the Story Wizard tells us how to write a story…

http://currentflavor.blogspot.com/2007/03/who-are-you-to-question-story-structure.html

and there is even more - here: http://acceptable.tv/department/tutorials

Enjoy. Hope the sun is shining in your world.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Josh Groban - Pride and Prejudice film montage. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gND4Y9eYzis&feature=PlayList&p=0D588512042C8805&index=8

Words from the Wise

2008-03-31T10:35:00.003+01:00

J A Konrath has been summarising some of his words of wisdom over on his always stimulating blog *- and several resonated with my few remaining brain cells, crispy as they are.

‘Before you make the key, study the lock.’

‘It’s about what you have to offer, not what you have to sell.’

‘You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than landing a publishing deal. But understanding the market and working to improve your craft can have the same effect as climbing a tree in a thunderstorm, carrying a long iron rod.’

The last quote is particularly relevant in light of the recent interview with Neil Nyron, who said this -‘Whenever I get a new ms, here’s what I want to see:

1) Something different, a situation or character or voice that I haven’t seen hundreds of times before (or if they are familiar types, presented so damn well that I can’t resist them);

2) A sure command from the very first page - I want to feel immediately that the author knows what he or she is doing - if it’s wobbly, I’m just going to move on to another manuscript;

3) Something extra. This is hard to describe, because you only know it when you see it, but for me it’s a special intensity, a fierceness or passion that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

After all that, I’m interested in who the author is, because if the author has something about him or her that’ll help us gain attention for the book, give us a leg up amidst the sea of new fiction pouring out, then that’s helpful.’

Then, later..
‘Action or detail? The answer is both - I want to get swept away, get the adrenalin pumping, and that’s what the best thriller writers do so well. They don’t give you time to hesitate - you have to keep turning the pages. I often think of the writer and the reader at opposite ends of a rope, and the writer is pulling the reader forward, steadily, inexorably, not letting the rope slack or the pace sag, until the reader ends up, exhausted but happy, at the last page.

I also like the thriller writer to create his own universe, if appropriate, and invite the reader into it. That’s always been one of Clancy’s secrets - he brings the reader into his world, makes him feel he’s learning things no one else can tell him, whether it’s about technology or geopolitics or the way institutions think and act. Cussler does the same thing in a different way. He digs deep into history and technology, then transforms them into complicated interlocking what-if storylines and set-pieces.’

Neil S. Nyren is senior vice president, publisher and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons. He came to Putnam in 1984 from Atheneum, where he was Executive Editor. Before that he held editorial positions at Random House and Arbor House. Some of his fiction authors include Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Jack Higgins, W.E.B. Griffin, John Sandford, Dave Barry, Daniel Silva, Ken Follett, Randy Wayne White, Carol O’Connell, James O. Born, Patricia Cornwell and Frederick Forsyth.
At one point in 2007, he was the editor of 4 out of the 10 New York 10 Bestsellers.

For the full interview - go here:
http://murderati.typepad.com/murderati/2007/03/neil_nyren_no_l.html
*http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2008/03/your-daily-inspiration-booster-shot.html#links

You can make your own conclusions from these selected extracts, but they have consolidated my own personal views that to be a professional PUBLISHED working CONTRACTED writer in 2008 you truly need a deep understanding of craft, creativity and business.

In other words. You must become an artisan.

A professional entrepreneur.

Trying to persuade another human being to invest their time and energy and money in the product you are trying to sell.

And sorry if that upsets the ‘artistes’, but that is the reallity of the publishing business as I see it.

From interviews such as this, I take away a range of key challenges and questions for my work.
For now - On with the show.

High Concept Log Line - 'The Abduction'

2008-03-25T11:11:00.003Z

As a follow on from the previous post on the creation of Loglines - I thought it would be kewl to apply the same strategy to a recent thriller novel ‘The Abduction’ from Mark Gimenez and see what I can come up with.

‘High Concept’ Logline for ‘The Abduction’ by Mark Gimenez.
The Main Protagonist = Ben Brice. Who will drive the detective elements of the Action Line.
But - also provides the main Personal Line in the story.

1. The Protagonist’s main character trait that begins his or her transformational arc.

He is an alcoholic living with his dog in a remote cabin. His main trait is the bitter guilt he feels about not being able to save the life of a girl during the Vietnam war = his ghost. Demonstrated by his alcoholism and loss of his family.

2. The Protagonist’s main function in the story.

Ben must become the detective who will never give up the search for his granddaughter, even when the FBI believe that she is probably already dead.

3.The main story conflict and the central question of the story.

Will Ben be able to find Gracie, his granddaughter, safe and well, before time runs out?

4. The Antagonist or forces of antagonism.

Ben has to face the army officers whose career he destroyed when he gave evidence against them for war crimes. Those same men are responsible for the kidnap - and it soon becomes clear that he is indirectly responsible for the crime.
There is a hierarchy of opponents working here.
Ben has to face his own internal demons, the ghost in his past, the FBI and local law enforcement officers who are unwilling to act, and heavily armed men, and take direct bloody action to save his granddaughter.

5. The Protagonist’s goal and transformational arc.

At the end of the story, Ben has saved the life of a child, is reunited with his estranged son and wife, has stopped drinking and the ghost from his past has been removed.

My idea for a simple LogLine for this Thriller would be something like this:
‘When the granddaughter of an alcoholic Vietnam war veteran is kidnapped, he refuses to give up the search and sets out to find her, and in the process becomes reconciled to the trauma of his past mistakes.’

For comparison, the actual Blurb on the website for the book
[ http://www.abductionthebook.com/about.php ] =
‘Is there a Plan to our lives?…or are our lives just a series of random events?

Ben Brice lives alone in a remote cabin outside Taos and drowns his memories of Vietnam in Jim Beam. But when Gracie, his ten-year-old granddaughter, is abducted outside Dallas, Ben puts down the bottle and goes in search of her, afraid that his dark past has come back to haunt her. Or is it just a random coincidence?’

NOTE - this LogLine also includes the Theme of the book - the idea of life having a Plan of sorts.

The One Page Synopsis reads like this -
‘Ben Brice lives alone in the New Mexico wilderness, where he builds furniture and battles memories of Vietnam with oceans of Jim Beam.
Miles away in Texas, his estranged son, John, an Internet geek-turned-billionaire, half-watches his daughter Gracie’s soccer game while on his cell phone.
When her mother, Elizabeth, arrives, the coach reports that her “brother” has already collected Gracie. But she has no brother- the girl was kidnapped.
The FBI gets called, as does Ben Brice.
Though rebuffed by his family as a pathetic drunk, Ben hopes to help save his beloved granddaughter.
With dozens of Feds and cops camped out in the house, the family offers a reward of $25 million.
Then the cops, searching out known sex offenders in the area, find Gracie’s jersey and traces of her blood in the car of Gary Jennings, an employee of John Brice.
They bring Jennings in, the case is closed, and Gracie is presumed dead.
Ben, however, does not believe Gracie is dead, nor does he believe that Jennings is the abductor.
After uncovering an FBI lead that placed two men with a blonde girl in Idaho, Ben and John decide to check it out.
As the race against time continues, family secrets from their past make Gracie’s survival more uncertain than ever.‘

NOTE - the focus is on the Inciting Incident and the role of Ben Brice.

Each line is a Plot Point. A turning point which forces Ben to make decisions and take action.

Conclusions? ‘The Abduction is a 500 page, probably 130, 000 word book. And the author has created an Action Line and Personal Line which can be expressed in a one sentence logline.
Awesome. As my American friends would say.

Loglines.

2008-03-20T16:37:00.002Z

Loglines. Premise. The Story Idea. The Pitch.

For a newbie like myself, these can seem bewildering concepts which are only relevant to screenwriters and of no value to fiction writers.

Wrong.

What do you say when someone who is genuinely interested in you works asks the killer question ‘ What’s the Story about?’ and 10 minutes later you are still giving him the backstory about the villian’s demonic mother in the Ukraine, and your potential agent/publisher/friend is desperately signalling to a colleague to find an excuse to get away from you.

Why?

Because you are boring, rambling, and worse, you have not answered the question. Or, even worse, you are just getting into your stride on all of the research you completed on the causes of the Franco=Prussian War and - wait for it - there is no story because you are still looking for characters who can postulate your theory.
And in doing so you have just demonstrated that you are anything else EXCEPT a professional author.

AHHH! Career alert!

So. What is your Story About?

To me, I have to be able to give a simple answer like this -
My story is about someone [ your protagonist]….who strives for [goal]… and this stands in his way [ forces of opposition and antagonism].

WHO he is, WHAT he wants, and WHAT he is going to have to overcome to get it.

Examples?

For a short story it could be;

‘ Little Sarah, aged 4 and a half, is promised by her mother that she can have a chocolate ice cream, but first she has to eat her dinner vegetables. And they are ALL GREEN. Can she survive such horror?'
For a movie, how about;
‘Set in West Texas, a man on the run with a suitcase full of money is pursued by a number of individuals.’
Or ‘ When an attorney gets zapped by his son’s birthday wish, he learns that he can no longer tell a lie even when he tries, so he must now win the biggest case of his career by being honest.’

One sentence. A logline.

This is a SELLING TOOL for your work. The 30 second elevator pitch.

But what if you want a logline to keep YOU, the writer, on track during the writing and editing and re-writing. The paragraph you have taped to your PC monitor to remind you that this is what you are meant to be writing about?

For me, that is when the Logline becomes the Story Line. And it has to serve different functions.

Clearly states The Main Desire line for your hero which will drive the story from start to finish. This is the spine and passionate force in your story. Even for ice cream.
Sets up the Story Question. We know the tale is over when the Goal set out in the Desire line is achieved and the reader turns the last page.
Sets up the Character Arc for the protagonist.

The Unknown Screenwriter calls this his ‘COMPASS LOGLINE’ and provides this list of essential elements for an ‘High Concept’ Compass Logline:

The Protagonist’s main character trait that begins his or her transformational arc.

The Protagonist’s main function in the story.

The main story conflict and the central question of the story.

The Antagonist or forces of antagonism.

The Protagonist’s goal and transformational arc.

Go here to find out more about each element=

http://www.unknownscreenwriter.com/category/screenwriting-secrets/

What do I need to know BEFORE I can create a compelling, and hopefully High Concept Compass Logline/Story Line for my latest bestseller?

I need to know who my Protagonist is.

What is she like? What are the character traits which make her unique and interesting. Her backstory and, most importantly, what motivates her to make the decisions she is taking in her ‘ordinary life’.

I need to know how my Protagonist will change by the end of the story- and why. I can then use this to focus on key aspects of my heroine’s character.

I need to know what the Inciting Incident is, and how this will create a compelling GOAL for my Protagonist which becomes the Story Question which will be answered by the end of the story.

What will she have to ENDURE on this journey?

Who or What is going to block my heroine from achieving her goal?

For me, I have to complete at least a first draft OUTLINE of my novel BEFORE I can answer these questions. The key turning points. A character bio for hero and her antagonist.
In some cases I have to write the first draft before I can answer these questions, since my ideas were still fluid at the Story Idea point.
I did not know HOW the character arc would be complete until my heroine took me there.
But I did have a basic Story Line from Day One.
I THEN use the extended logline to help during the revisions and editing.

PLUS I can use this one paragraph outline to create the perfect Back Cover Blurb for the book, and the extended selling material. Not a word wasted.

No one said this was easy…but, sheesh.

Word Salad

2008-03-19T09:15:00.004Z

Stuck for the right word?

I believe it was Robert Southey who said, "It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.

"Project Gutenberg has available (free to all) Greenville Kleiser's classic reference book, "15,000 Useful Phrases: A Practical Handbook Of Pertinent Expressions, Striking Similes, Literary, Commercial, Conversational, And Oratorical Terms, For The Embellishment Of Speech And Literature, And The Improvement Of The Vocabulary Of Those Persons Who Read, Write, And Speak English."

This is a great tool for aspiring writers, because action lines really are about the mastery of condensed phrases.

To give you a taste, here are some of the phrases under the "A" category.

It's the almost contradictory phrases that excite me, such as, "adorable vanity, adulated stranger, artificial suavity, and agreeable frankness."

abandoned hope

abated pride

abbreviated visit

abhorred thraldom [thraldom = enslaved or in bondage]

abiding romance

abject submission

abjured ambitionable strategist

abnormal talents

abominably perverse

abounding happiness

abridged statement

abrogated law

abrupt transition

absolutely irrevocable

absorbed reverie

abstemious diet [abstemious = eating and drinking in moderation]

abstract character

abstruse reasoning

absurdly dangerous

abundant opportunity

abusive epithet

abysmally apologetic

academic rigor

accelerated progress

accentuated playfulness

accepted littleness

accessible pleasures...

And who does not love 'Accessible Pleasures?'

Snarf.

And now back from procrastination to hammer this synopsis into shape. With a bent spoon, wearing a blindfold, at the moment.

Back to the Business

2008-03-18T11:14:00.002Z

I believe it was the crime writer Barry Eisler* who made the comparison between a writer looking for a literary agent, and a self-employed entrepreneur looking for a venture capitalist, who will be willing to invest in their product and their business. i.e. You. The writer.

Why should this venture capitalist invest their time and money in you as opposed to the 1000s of other writers out there?

Which publisher IS going to buy this book?

Who IS going to hand over their hard earned cash to buy this book you have create? What are the target demographics? How does it compare to other books already on the market?

Why should they take a risk with YOUR book? What have YOU got to offer them which is unique = and commercial? In marketing terms - What is your Unique Selling Point?

I personally find this a useful analogy. Even if it does offend the 'artistes', but then again, I WANT to be published and my work read and enjoyed by other folk.

I am the writer as entrepreneur. Self-employed. On my own.

I have created a ‘protype' if you will, of my work.

Now I have to convince another person that, if they take the risk and invest in my work, then I will give them a return on their investment.

So. What answers do we have to these questions?

Over the next few days I will be working on the synopsis for my crime thriller and attempting to condense this into a compelling premise, which can be used to pitch to a literary agent.

Wish me luck - I am going in. Gulp.

*http://www.barryeisler.com/writers_marketing.php

Character Development - 5 Stages of Grief

2008-03-16T13:04:00.004Z

In 1969, based on her years of working with terminal cancer patients, psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced what became known as the “five stages of grief.”

While these stages represented the feelings of people who were themselves facing death, many people now apply them to experiencing other negative life changes (a break-up, loss of a job) and to people facing death or experiencing the death of loved ones.

Kübler-Ross proposed these Five Stages of Grief:

Denial: “This can’t be happening to me.”
Anger: “Why is this happening? Who is to blame?”
Bargaining: “Make this not happen, and in return I will ____.”
Depression: “I’m too sad to do anything.”
Acceptance: “I’m at peace with what is going to happen/has happened.”

Prior to the cycle, you have a normal-functioning person… Then, something happens that throws their world out of whack… They now begin the cycle:

Stage 1: Shock and Denial

Avoidance

Confusion

Fear

Numbness

Blame

Stage 2: Anger

Frustration

Anxiety

Irritation

Embarrassment

Shame

Stage 3: Depression and Detachment

Overwhelmed

Blahs

Lack of energy

Helplessness

Stage 4: Dialogue and Bargaining

Reaching out to others

Desire to tell one’s story

Struggle to find meaning for what has happened

Stage 5: Acceptance

Exploring options

A new plan in place

With the cycle now complete, this person returns to a meaningful life having been TRANSFORMED and experiences the following:

Empowerment

Security

Self-esteem

Meaning

However, Kübler-Ross herself never intended for these stages to be a rigid framework that applies to everyone who mourns.

In her last book before her death in 2004, she said of the five stages, “They were never meant to help tuck messy emotions into neat packages. They are responses to loss that many people have, but there is not a typical response to loss, as there is no typical loss. Our grieving is as individual as our lives.”

You could ALMOST structure an entire story based on these 5 stages and while I’m not advocating exactly that, I’m almost positive that by learning just a little more about this model, you’ll go a long way toward creating believable characters and have your Protagonist TRANSFORMED by the end of your story…

Could be an interesting way to look at the character's journey.

Where you get your Ideas from

2008-03-12T06:55:00.002Z

How about this handy little gizmo -

http://www.tdbspecialprojects.com/

Just spin the dials aka ‘Da Vinci Code’ and lo, a special premise line shall appear.

Here are 3 fun ideas it has just generated for me:

* Erotic Coffee Cafe [ perfect waitress opportunity, undercover?]

* Dramatic Nuclear Restaurant [ what do nuclear power scientists talk about over their pizza and fries in the nuclear power plant staff canteen? ]

* Jewel-encrusted Modular Furniture [ Ikea should not have all the fun ]

Go here and create some for yourself.
If nothing else it will make you smile. Or kick start the little grey cells. Or both.

Sophie Kinsella

2008-03-10T08:04:00.004Z

The weather here in Hampshire is so appalling, I am pleased that I do not have to venture far from home today, so best of luck to anyone who is out driving!

In the meantime, back at the slave pit, Sophie Kinsella has created a series of Podcasts [ she calls them VodCasts] about the creation of the 'Shop' books

http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/kinsella/vodcast/#002637

Here is one about her writing process -

http://a1018.g.akamai.net/f/1018/19022/1d/randomhouse1.download.akamai.com/19022/video/kinsella/kinsellapodcast_episode3.m4v

I think we can all relate to the concept that we are 'acting' out the part when we visualise the action and transfer it to the page.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? A gorgeous italian ad, for the water "Levissima".Song: How Long by Roberto Cacciapaglia, extract from his record "Incontri con l'anima" .

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=94H91cDV-gQ&feature=related

Now why don’t we have adverts like this in the UK?

Playing the Numbers Game

2008-03-08T07:35:00.003Z

Using Screenplay Outlines to help Edit your Story.

Is YOUR story hitting the beats?

Most writers create broad outlines for their work at the Story Development Stage.

Or second draft stage if they write blind and sculpt a story backwards.

Screenwriters would have you believe that they track the Action Line for a story much more rigorously.

There any SO many examples of how a story should track - from a Basic 3 Act to a 22 point revelation sequence and everything in between.

Blake Snyder has summarised the key stages in a typical Hollywood movie in a useful flow chart in his book ‘Save the Cat’ - which is available here: http://www.blakesnyder.com/tools

It goes something like this: there are 15 steps in the screenplay format and each one corresponds to approx. position in the manuscript, so that the entire story is completed in 110 pages = 110 minutes on the screen for a movie.

THE BLAKE SNYDER BEAT SHEET

1. Opening Image (1):

2. Theme Stated (5):

3. Set-Up (1-10):

4. Catalyst (12):

5. Debate (12-25):

6. Break into Two (25)

7. B Story (30):

8. Fun and Games (30-55):

9. Midpoint (55):

10. Bad Guys Close In (55-75):

11. All Is Lost (75):

12. Dark Night of the Soul (75-85):

13. Break into Three (85):

14. Finale (85-110):

15. Final Image (110):

This is a classical 4 Act structure- Turning points at about 25% and 50% and 75% of the script with the Black Moment in the last act. But having been through a few examples with recent films, I have to say that this basic structure is still valid.

Somewhere for your treasures/stash

2008-03-05T09:28:00.004Z

Julie Cohen* has been blogging recently about the capacity of available storage space and her rapidly expanding collection of precious books.

Otherwise known in this house as 'The Stash.'

Could this be a possible answer?

To paraphrase Gollum - I wants them, I needs them. My precious.

*http://www.julie-cohen.com/blog

How to write a Great Query Letter

2008-03-03T08:32:00.004Z

'How to Write a Great Query Letter' is available as a Free E-book from the lit agent author Noah Lukeman.

Go here to download it...http://www.lukeman.com/greatquery/download.htm

There are so many resources out there on how to submit, but for the US market, many agents only ask for an inital Query letter= which can be sent by E-mail, so this is could be the only chance you might have to demonstrate your work.

No pressure at all then.

Things we Learnt at the Movies

2008-03-02T08:46:00.004Z

‘THE EVIL OVERLORD DEVISES A PLOT’

Has several lists of key features which should be observed when creating a compelling plot.

For example:

1. If you try hard enough, you can outrun an explosion.

2. Women staying in a haunted house should investigate any strange noises while wearing their most revealing underwear.

3. Women's skin and hair can't be damaged by natural disasters, though their clothing can be shredded -- except for the bits required for minimal decency, which are made from completely indestructible fabric.

4. If a man and a woman are exposed to the same conditions and the same environment, the man will need to wear more clothing than the woman.

5. If a man and a woman meet under circumstances under which any two normal people would instantly hate each other, they will marry before the picture is over.

6. Deadly reptiles will always attack a woman first, even if she's in the presence of thirty men.

7. Women are immortal unless they take off their shirts or they're ugly.

8. If a woman takes a bath, bubbles will cover the naughty bits. If she takes a shower and reveals her naughty bits, she will die.

9. If a blonde and a brunette are in equal peril, the brunette will die.

10. High class strippers with a heart of gold can will, if the plot demands it, turn out to have specialized technical skills and abilities.

For lots, lots more go here: http://www.sff.net/paradise/movies.html and prepare to snigger.

What's playing on my YouTube Right now? Duffy. Mercy. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KE2orthS3TQ&feature=related

Book Covers to Covet

2008-02-28T07:09:00.007Z

One day, WHEN I am published, I shall hold in my hot sticky hands a book containing words in the specific order I created.

And lo, there shall be a cover on this masterpiece. In glorious technicolour. All Praise.

Something to look forward to.

[No photo is going to look good in that position.]

Are you a HACK or an ARTIST?

2008-02-27T08:31:00.003Z

THE "ARE YOU A HACK?" QUIZ

Is commercial success your goal?
Would you ever write a movie or TV novelization?

What's more important: Integrity or making a living as a writer?

Do you rewrite based on editor or agent suggestions even if you don't entirely agree with those suggestions?

Would you ever write an adaptation of a comic book or videogame?

Would you ever change the ending of your book in order to make a sale?

Would you write about something you didn't care about if you got a fat paycheck?

If forced to choose, would you rather have artistic integrity or fame and riches?

Would you rather be Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code, or Marilynne Robinson, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Literature?

Would you rather be known as a genius by hundreds of people, or mediocre by millions of people?

Would you ever write for a character you didn't create?
What's more important: Getting the words right, or getting the words sold?

Would you write in a genre you don't enjoy for a lot of money?

Have you ever submitted something that you know isn't your best work in order to make a deadline?

What is more important: Fans or awards?

Would you rather have a bestseller that is critically panned, or a poor seller that is critically praised?

Would you ever ghost-write another author's series?

Did this quiz amuse you, or annoy you?

------------------------
ANSWERS
Webster defines a hack as: a writer who works on order; also : a writer who aims solely for commercial success.

To grade this test, check your answers with the key below, and keep track of how many times you scored as a "HACK" and how many times you scored as an "ARTIST."

Yes - HACK. No - ARTIST
Yes - HACK. No - ARTIST
Making a living - HACK. Integrity - ARTIST
Yes - HACK. No - ARTIST
Yes - HACK. No - ARTIST
Yes - HACK. No - ARTIST
Yes - HACK. No - ARTIST
Fame & riches - HACK. Integrity - ARTIST
Dan Brown - HACK. Marylinne Robineson - ARTIST
Medicore - HACK. Genius - ARTIST
Yes - HACK. No - ARTIST
Words sold - HACK. Words right - ARTIST
Yes - HACK. No - ARTIST
Yes - HACK. No - ARTIST
Fans - HACK. Awards - ARTIST
Critically panned bestseller - HACK. Critically acclaimed poor seller - ARTIST
Yes - HACK. No - ARTIST
Doesn't count.
------------------------
SCORING
0-1 HACK answers: you are an ARTIST whose integrity is solid.
2-3 HACK answers: you are an ARTIST who realizes that publishing is a business
4-5 HACK answers: you have some artistic integrity, but you'd rather make a living
6-14 HACK answers: you are a hack, but may have some integrity left

15-17 HACK answers: welcome to hacksville, population: you

______________________________________________________________

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Soundtrack to 'A Beautiful Mind'

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LHhxgRvgCxs&feature=PlayList&p=C3806BD6CA509E43&index=16

You earn HOW MUCH?

2008-02-24T10:43:00.004Z

In December last year, R J Ellory posted on the reality of the Fiction Publishing Business and how much most authors earn from their hard work and emotional investment.
http://rjellory.blogspot.com/2007/12/some-surprising-facts-and-figures.html

It is not for the faint-hearted. Some key take-aways?

*Only 2 out of 10 books published make a profit for the publisher

*In 2004, 950,000 titles out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen Bookscan sold fewer than 99 copies.

*The average book in America sells about 500 copies. In the UK it is significantly less.

*The average income of a published author is in the region of £7,000 per year.

For Romance authors some of this data is already familiar through the online communities and sites such as this: http://www.brendahiatt.com/id2.html

The harsh reality is that the ability of an author to support themselves through their writing truly does depend on both;

*their productivity [ more titles = more potential income as their brand becomes established] and

*their ability to stick their heads out, above the 1000s of the other titles published and get noticed. Quality. Content. Visibility. Presence.

In other words, hard work. And then harder work. Day after day.

But you already knew that. Because you are a professional.

Erasmus

2008-02-23T08:59:00.004Z

I have a new character in my thriller - his first name is Erasmus.

There is something about that name ..... I love it and all of the connotations that come with it. And to me, it is spot on for a detective.

The best known Erasmus, was Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1466 – 1536, a Dutch humanist and theologian, whose portrait was painted by both Holbein, as below, and Durer, but there was also Erasmus Darwin and other luminaries.

Sourced Quotes from Erasmus of Rotterdam-

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

Un-sourced Quotes

I consider as lovers of books, not those who keep their books hidden in their store-chests and never handle them, but those who, by nightly as well as daily use, thumb them, batter them, wear them out, who fill out all the margins with annotations of many kinds, and who prefer the marks of a fault they have erased to a neat copy full of faults.

It is the friendship of books that has made me perfectly happy.

Got to love that.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Empire of the Sun soundtrack -http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qNonF2n4qdE&feature=related

Writing the Commercial Bestseller

2008-02-22T07:23:00.002Z

Crime and former Romance author Tess Gerritsen was interviewed recently by Sandra Rutton in SpineTingler Magazine http://spinetinglermagazine.blogspot.com/2008/01/interview-tess-gerritsen-switching.html about the very real and personal decisions writers take when framing their story.

For example;
‘Sandra Rutton : Recently, there was an exhaustive discussion about whether or not the mystery genre is stagnate. You stated:“If you write something different, REALLY different, you get punished for it in reader confusion and poor sales.

The vast majority of readers want the same thing, over and over again. If you give them something they’re not expecting, the chances are, only a minority will truly appreciate what you’ve done.“So your sales suffer. And that begins the downward spiral of your sales, a spiral that could well turn into a death spiral from which your sales may not recover. And then you can’t sell ANY books, and that’s where being truly creative got you.

“Some years ago, I wrote what I think of as my best book, GRAVITY. A thriller without any villains. A thriller set in orbit. It got the best reviews of my life and yet it sold the fewest copies. And it took me years for my career to recover from that disastrous experience.“Some of us long to write the truly creative, truly off-beat book. But we must do so with the full realization that for the most part, the reading public wants plain old-fashioned vanilla. “How hard do you find it to balance the scales between the idea calling to you, the thing you’d love to try, and the idea you know can sell?

Tess Gerritsen: Oh, it’s really hard! When you take on a risky and starkly different project, you’ll face resistance from just about everyone.

Publishers want you to repeat your past successes again and again. Booksellers may not know where to shelve your new book.

Cruelest of all are the readers, who may simply pass by your daring new book and reach for someone else, someone predictable.
I’d like to believe that my readers are open-minded enough to stay with me, to follow me in a new and different direction, but I know many of them won’t. T

hey certainly didn’t reach for GRAVITY. When a book I love does poorly, I’m most disappointed in my readers.
I think the only way one can survive as both an artist and a working writer is to limit the number of risks you take.

You have to give the readers what they crave, the books they’ve come to expect from you.

But every so often, just for yourself, write a book you need to write.Otherwise you’ll get to the end of your career and look back with regret on all the projects you didn’t write, but dearly wanted to.’

For me this interview frames the very real decision making dilemma writers face;
there are storylines and fiction scenarios which the author is passionate about and wants to communicate to the readers;

*she has to frame those stories into a format and tell them the best way she can
*she has studied the market and recognised the framework of crime fiction tropes which seem to be common to the bestselling work by popular authors - but they may not be in the style she writes in.
*she want to be a contracted, working, professional author. She also wants to express her personal voice.
*she knows that literary agents and publishers run a business to make money and to do that they need to sell consumers something they need and want/ or will want.

Time to bite the bullet and get down to create a product [ a single title book] which can appeal to a wide audience and will make itself irresistable to the market which is totally crowded - and STILL retain a unique and special voice.

Better get to work.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Soundtrack music to inspire from Thomas Newman - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LfuTBFemn0Q&feature=PlayList&p=C3806BD6CA509E43&index=3

Words from the Past

2008-02-20T07:22:00.004Z

Came across these words of wisdom from Ian Fleming written in 1962.
And still spot on. I especially like his advice not to look back on the work from day to day unless you want to horrify yourself.
The amazing thing? These books were typed on a type-writer!
I think it was Earnest Hemingway who used to type using only half the page because he knew he would hate it all and cut most of his work later and rewrite. And then there was the hard work of page nos and formatting.

How soon we forget what it was like before cut and paste and Microsoft Word! And what about Spellcheck? Manual typing made you work harder.

Enjoy. the extract. Go here for the full piece : http://pjparrish.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-to-write-thriller.html

HOW TO WRITE A THRILLER By Ian Fleming [ selected extracts]

People often ask me, “How do you manage to think of that? What an extraordinary (or sometimes extraordinarily dirty) mind you must have.”

I certainly have got vivid powers of imagination, but I don’t think there is anything very odd about that.

We are all fed fairy stories and adventure stories and ghost stories for the first 20 years of our lives, and the only difference between me and perhaps you is that my imagination earns me money. But, to revert to my first book, Casino Royale, there are strong incidents in the book which are all based on fact. I extracted themf rom my wartime memories of the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty, dolled them up, attached a hero, a villain and a heroine, and there was the book....

We thus come to the final and supreme hurdle in the writing of a thriller.

You must know thrilling things before you can write about them.

Imagination alone isn’t enough, but stories you hear from friends or read in the papers can be built up by a fertile imagination and a certain amount of research and documentation into incidents that will also ring true in fiction.
Having assimilated all this encouraging advice, your heart will nevertheless quail at the physical effort involved in writing even a thriller.

I warmly sympathise with you. I too, am lazy. My heart sinks when I contemplate the two or three hundred virgin sheets of foolscap I have to besmirch with more or less well chosen words in order to produce a 60,000 word book.

One of the essentials is to create a vacuum in my life which can only be satisfactorily filled by some form of creative work - whether it be writing, painting, sculpting, composing or just building a boat - I was about to get married - a prospect which filled me with terror and mental fidget.

To give my hands something to do, and as an antibody to my qualms about the marriage state after 43 years as a bachelor, I decided one day to damned well sit down and write a book.

The therapy was successful. And while I still do a certain amount of writing in the midst of my London Life, it is on my annual visits to Jamaica that all my books have been written.

But, failing a hideaway such as I possess, I can recommend hotel bedrooms as far removed from your usual “life” as possible. Your anonymity in these drab surroundings and your lack of friends and distractions will create a vacuum which should force you into a writing mood and, if your pocket is shallow, into a mood which will also make you write fast and with application.

I do it all on thetypewriter, using six fingers. The act of typing is far less exhausting than the act of writing, and you end up with a more or less clean manuscript The next essential is to keep strictly to a routine.

I write for about three hours in the morning - from about 9:30 till 12:30 and I do another hour’s work between six and seven in the evening. At the end of this I reward myself by numbering the pages and putting them away in a spring-back folder. The whole of this four hours of daily work is devoted to writing narrative.

I never correct anything and I never go back to what I have written, except to the foot of the last page to see where I have got to.

If you once look back, you are lost.

How could you have written this drivel?

How could you have used “terrible” six times on one page? And so forth.

If you interrupt the writing of fast narrative with too much introspection and self-criticism, you will be lucky if you write 500 words a day and you will be disgusted with them into the bargain.

By following my formula, you write 2,000 words a day and you aren’t disgusted with them until the book is finished, which will be in about six weeks.

I don’t even pause from writing to choose the right word or to verify spelling or a fact. All this can be done when your book is finished.

When my book is completed I spend about a week going through it and correcting the most glaring errors and rewriting passages. I then have it properly typed with chapter headings and all the rest of the trimmings. I then go through it again, have the worst pages retyped and send it off to my publisher....

Then the book is published and you start getting letters from people saying that Vent Vert is made by Balmain and not by Dior, that the Orient Express has vacuum and not hydraulic brakes, and that you have mousseline sauce and not Bearnaise with asparagus.

Such mistakes are really nobody’s fault except the author’s, and they make him blush furiously when he sees them in print. But the majority of the public does not mind them or, worse, does not even notice them, and it is a dig at the author’s vanity to realise how quickly the reader’s eye skips across the words which it has taken him so many months to try to arrange in the right sequence.
But what, after all these labours, are the rewards of writing and, in my case, of writing thrillers?
First of all, they are financial. You don’t make a great deal of money from royalties and translation rights and so forth and, unless you are very industrious and successful, you could only just about live on these profits, but if you sell the serial rights and the film rights, you do very well. Above all, being a successful writer is a good life. You don’t have to work at it all the time and you carry your office around in your head. And you are far more aware of the world aroundyou.
Writing makes you more alive to your surroundings and, since the main ingredient of living, though you might not think so to look at most human beings, is to be alive, this is quite a worthwhile by-product of writing.

pic from Marvin Kover/Corbis

EarWorms

2008-02-18T07:26:00.003Z

Jenny Cruise has been blogging about the curious nature of EARWORMS.

http://www.arghink.com/

No, not crawly multilegged beasties - EARWORMS are the annoying songs that you cannot get out of replay in your brain.

It turns out the reason you can’t dump them is that your brain pays more attention to unfinished things. According to Bill Thompson at the University of Toronto, the key culprits are simplicity, repetition and circularity, and the worst of these is circularity; a song with a circular structure (verse/chorus/verse/chorus) will just cycle in your head endlessly eating its own tail while your brain tries to find the place that it ends.

And evidently almost all brains do it.

It is well possible that the reason that some babies cry and cannot sleep all night long is that the earworms are repeating bits and pieces of the latest Christina Aguilera song in their heads.

Which songs are the worst offenders? YMCA? The theme tune from your fav TV ad? Movie? Something you just caught a snatch from the radio?

Ah - that is up to you!

What's playing on my YouTube right now? 'In the Deep'- North and South. [Perfect match of lyrics and video.] http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DnJLgyonhNA

Finding your Perfect Niche

2008-02-16T13:21:00.002Z

Oui the frog sits on a miniature motorcycle in the eastern beach town of Pattaya.

Oui's owner Tongsai Bamrungthai says Oui enjoys playing with human toys and posing for photographs.

Vroom, Vroom. It is just one of those days

http://www.time.com/time/picturesoftheweek/0,29409,1713439_1534780,00.html

pic from Chaiwat Subprasom / Reuters

Category Crime

2008-02-15T09:43:00.003Z

I noticed this item in the Bookseller Mag from last week -

Mills & Boon plots serial crime wave

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/52815-mills--boon-plots-serial-crime-wave.html

'Mills & Boon is to launch a crime and thriller series in its first venture beyond romance publishing since it was founded 100 years ago.

Black Star Crime kicks off in August with five titles, and will initially publish five titles every two months.

The heavily-branded short novels will be priced at £3.99.'

“Since 2001, crime and thriller sales have increased by 70%,” said M&B marketing manager Oliver Rhodes. “There were two ways for us to go. We could either do what everyone else is doing, and do it better, or carve out our own niche and try to create a unique proposition. The idea is that if people find something they like they can go back and find something similar. It is a brand promise.”

Black Star Crime will include a range of genres, from cosy mysteries to hard-core thrillers, with authors to include new names as well as more established writers.

M&B has liaised with Working Partners to generate some of the concepts, as well as acquiring titles itself, and is adamant the quality of the stories is paramount.

Launch titles include Runaway Minister by Nick Curtis, Streetwise by Chris Freeman, A Narrow Escape by Faith Martin and Murder Plot by Lance Elliott.
"This brings the best of our experience together,” Rhodes said. “We have been very successful with Mira crime authors such as Alex Kava and Paul Johnston. Also we are the only publishers with the know-how to make a fiction series work. We think this has massive potential.”

M&B will spend around £100,000 on its launch marketing campaign, and is due to start presenting the series to retailers this month. The company is keen that the brand is not tarred with the M&B brush, and that it is kept as far as possible from its romance publishing.
“This has to get dedicated space in store or we’re wasting our time,” said m.d. Guy Hallowes. “It’s important that the books are racked together, with enough space to make impact.”

Two things come to mind.

1. They are aiming to create a NEW brand of crime book supported by the Harlequin Brand but kept separate from it. A category crime book.

2. They have used an outside company to source material. From what I understand, Working Partners is a marriage broker between agents with authors who can write in the genre, and the client who needs a book written to a specific brief.

With this in mind, I suspect they will not be interested in un-agented submissions, but I will certainly be following up on that one.

Out of the Box

2008-02-13T10:04:00.003Z

BMW has a short ad featuring the work of an amazing engineer and sculptor -Theo Jansen.

You can see it here -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Ny5BYc-Fs&eurl=http://www.timetowrite.blogs.com/

Lesson? If they give you ruled paper to write on - turn it sideways.

Love life. Live life. Enjoy life. Be fearless.

Thinking like a Company Director

2008-02-12T08:48:00.000Z

The fiction writer is the CEO of their own company. So why not think like a business owner? Here are some helpful job roles to which I have assigned tasks.

Departments - each with their own palatial office. Snarf.

Finance and Investment. Yes, please, I would love a new desk/laptop/software for my birthday instead of bling and chocs

Leadership. No. I have already told you. No sweets until you have photocopied that article on ‘How to write a Bestseller’, then there is all that filing of Rejection Slips to do.

Change management. Well, yes, I could switch from Regency to Paranormal Erotica. I suppose. And graphic World War comics are always popular.

Executive education. I’ll take a copy of Heat, Woman’s Weekly and News of the World please.

Marketing. I can write a few words for the local free paper if you like.

Insurance and Pensions. [ What’s that?]

Health economics. I do NOT have writer’s bum!

Strategic Management. Maybe I should buy a diary – they are a bit cheaper in February

Human Resources - See under leadership.

Operations Management. How many words? By when?

Managing Technology. Yes, I know PRECISELY where to put that Memory Stick. And Vista means View doesn’t it?

Real Estate. But you said I could use the old coal cellar as a writing space – not a wine cellar. I don't mind having no light or heat. really.

There are of course, many more, but I think you get the idea.

Now please excuse me while I polish my candlesticks and chose which diamond necklace to wear today.

What's playing on myYouTube right now? Shayne Ward - Breathless. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=j6OKCVQQv9s&feature=dir

February Sunshine

2008-02-11T07:25:00.000Z

Here in Hampshire it has been a lovely sunny weekend with morning hard frosts and glorious star filled nights drifting into warm bright sunshine. Snowdrops, early primroses and daffodils. A taste of spring.

The early salads have germinated in the unheated greenhouse [ which reached 19C yesterday according to the greenhouse thermometer] and the first of the Spring insect life has emerged in my garden.

Red Admiral and Brimstone butterflys. A bumble bee - probably a queen from overwinter.

I can only hope they survive on the few flowering plants and early ornamental cherry blossom.

Of course once you are in the garden you start to notice the huge amount of clearing and clipping that needs to be done before the real Spring push starts. And did I mention the ground Elder?

I am always amazed the difference a little sunshine can make to the world- both external, and internal? We are stoking the fires of new energy and drive.

Jazzed up about YOUR work yet?

Triumph of the Unconscious?

2008-02-10T10:04:00.000Z

Billie Mernit - author of 'Writing the Romantic Comedy' and blogger extraordinaire, also teaches screenwriting.

His blog today http://www.livingromcom.typepad.com/ is linked to a course he is running with guest of honour Nick Kazan -

'Perseverance was a theme in our discourse: working sometimes for years on a story to get it right, with the particular kind of stubborn will-power that's central to the modern storyteller's craft and career survival.

Simultaneously what struck me as a through-line in our conversation, surfacing in different contexts as we discussed how a story takes shape and develops on the page, was how much of the screenwriter's method is intuitive.
When he starts to write a scene, Nick favors literally closing his eyes and letting the images flow.

"Just watch what happens in the scene, don't try to force it," he said, "then write down what you see.

Then close your eyes again.

You're tickling the unconscious... If you let the movie happen, let the characters speak, then what you get is more visual and cinematic."

And we talked about how film operates like a dream.'

I have heard romance authors speaking about how they work in a similar way.

Maybe it is something I should try for myself? Give the girls in the basement something to work on during the night? Could be...

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Guys from Roswell to Toxic. [Yes, I know, I have no time to watch TV shows like Roswell.]
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KqDFWKCeYHs&feature=PlayList&p=CB2A008B473B9A92&index=8

Know your Brand

2008-02-08T08:34:00.000Z

CJ Lyons is a new Medical Thriller Writer to me, and there are some interesting articles on her website http://cjlyons.net/articles.shtml .

One in particular struck home - in 'Birth of a Book' she writes;

' You already know what kind of book you wrote and what kind of books you want to write. Now you need to consolidate that into a brand.

A brand is a subliminal promise to your readers—that any book written under this
author's name will promise this type of emotional experience.

For example.... every book I write has a theme central to my life: they're all about
making a difference, trying to change the world. For me, once I realized this fact, the tagline came easily: No One is Immune to Danger
Note that is an emotional concept, not a promise of specifics.'

This is a familiar concept to writers of Romantic Fiction, and most authors have a form of Tagline on their websites and promotional material.

But this article did make me consider one aspect which was new to me.

In ALL of the books I have ever written. Ever. Was there one common theme?

Was there one common element which was important to me and central to my life?

One common Tagline which has been there for the last 10 years and will see me through the next?

Well, working that one out should keep me busy for a while.

Second Item - I am thrilled to have been presented with a Blog award by both Liz Fenwick and Debs - thank you so much ladies. It makes me feel that this is not only a fine form of procrastination. http://www.lizfenwick.blogspot.com/,

http://debcarrs-daydreams.blogspot.com/.

What's Playing on my YouTube today? Power Wake-up Music. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1260qaj1Hc8&feature=PlayList&p=5505018970D42764&index=8&playnext=4&playnext_from=PL

Off to a Fast Start

2008-02-07T08:01:00.000Z

Down to the Starting Blocks

I have now cut three full chapters - about 7000 words - from the start of my Romantic Suspense in order to increase the pace and get to the inciting starting point earlier.

Totally scary. I admit it. Better for the story and for the reader, but oh boy, does it hurt. THIS IS GOOD STUFF I AM CUTTING OUT HERE!!

Yes, I have kept it in another file, but now, all I have to do is weave all of the plot and character details from the cut chapters into the remaining text. Seamlessly.

Sigh.

Shoulders back, head high. Beaker of tea at the ready.

I am going in. And I may be some time.

No YouTube this morning. Listening to Harpsichord music on BBC Radio 3.

An Overnight success

2008-02-06T07:52:00.000Z

David Baldacci has created some fantastic thrillers over the years - although my favourite is still 'Absolute Power' - but I came across this article in the New Statesman which reflects his humility, and amazement at the way fiction writers are perceived.

http://www.newstatesman.com/199905100048

'Most sane people don't believe they can play basketball like Michael Jordan or wear the Yankees' pinstripes like Babe Ruth did, or paint like da Vinci or Pollock, or sing like Kathleen Battle or Celine Dion, or act like Olivier or De Niro. Yet most people, sane or mad, believe they can write fiction. Writing is probably the one creative endeavour that everyone believes they could do, if they just had the time.'

Very apt considering the recent press on Category Romance.

What's Playing on my YouTube at the moment? Madeleine Peyroux -I'm all right. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YfJrwLJJp3A&feature=PlayList&p=10960FB742FA50ED&index=40

Spring Clean with a new broom

2008-02-05T08:28:00.000Z

Checklist:

1. Submit Short Category Romance and prepare to be patient. DONE

2. Clear desks. Back up work onto DVDs and hard drive. Clean up files on PC and Internet Favourites. DONE.

3. Attend RNA lunch and meet pals new and old, and chat for hours AND see Kate Hardy be presented with her award. DONE with a wide grin. Fabulous!

4. Start new romance story. Or not.

I have been working for the last 12-18 months on a number of short category romance titles, reading and writing exclusively in that genre, and have come to the conclusion that it is now time to step back, and spend the next few months reading and writing other fiction which I enjoy and love to write.

Medical Thrillers and Romantic Suspense.

Time to get the 'girls in the basement' into fitness training and fired up on something fresh.

So. Two new items to be added to the list.

a. Read and revise as necessary the synopsis and first 3 chapters of the Romantic Suspense novel I wrote 3 yrs ago. This was the one which had a second read on the RNA New Writers Scheme and had terrific feedback. It was originally marketed at the Silhouette Bombshell series and includes exploding yachts, motorcycle chases, handsome Greek coastguards and a deeply wounded heroine. Who can kick ass when she needs. In designer clothing.

b. Submit Romantic Suspense to selected agents and editors.

THEN back to my Medical Thriller. Tune in later.

Away from the desk

2008-02-01T15:06:00.000Z

Since Mr Ray-Anne has a few days holiday, we took ourselves off to London yesterday for a spot of lunch – French Bistro – and an art gallery where we could both enjoy Victorian painting.

Shame about the lashing rain and howling wind, but it was worth it.

We have seen the fine examples in the Tate, but there are a number of places in London where you can see Pre-Raphaelites, and I have never been to the Guildhall in the City and the area around St Paul’s Cathedral and Bank of England.

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/trlout_gfx_en/TRA18181.html

Although the Guildhall does charge £2.50 for non London residents, the Victorian collection is well worth going to see. Especially the Alma Tademas, and original photographs of Victorian artists at work, including a very handsome Burne-Jones.

Added bonus? They found the remains of a Roman amphitheatre when excavating the extension and you can go to the basement and see it.
The building is clean, very well lit and quiet. Almost like having your own art gallery.

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/leisure_heritage/libraries_archives_museums_galleries/guildhall_art_gallery/

We finished the day off with a trip to see the refurbished St Pancras Station before heading back to the sticks.

I had forgotten how tiring walking around the city for 5 hours can be! Even in trainers. I suspect the tube and black cabs will be much in use on Monday for the RNA lunch.

Finding your tribe

2008-01-30T09:46:00.000Z

Belonging. The odd woman out. Finding your tribe.

Let’s say that, er, I have a FRIEND – who LOVES to read contemporary romance – AND contemporary commercial crime and thrillers.

She likes a mixed healthy diet and comes back to one, then the other, hungry for more.

Then let’s say that … my, er, FRIEND… has made up stories and people in her head and then written about them on paper.
And, if this FRIEND had to find a place on a shelf in a bookshop, some of these stories might be called Romance.
And some of these stories would DEFINITELY be called CRIME/thrillers/detective – starts with dead gruesomeness and gore etc. although they MIGHT include an element of romantic relationship for the female protagonist detective as subplot.

Then this FRIEND feels that she needs to meet some other folks of a similar predilection. Preferably before her imaginary friends start talking back.

Which tribe does she choose to spend her time with?
Romance Fiction Tribe? OR Mystery Fiction Tribe?

Each tribe has its benefits. And colourful costumes, national dress and endearing habits. Even their own unique language and special sayings! They meet up in social events and have conferences etc.
Each tribe wants her to come and stay with them and eat their food and drink their wine and sing their songs and dance their special dances.

Each tribe has its own online and real live communities where my FRIEND has met great people who have become her friends.

CAN SHE BE IN TWO TRIBES?
She has heard of nomads who spend their summer with one tribe, then move south to spend the winter with the other tribe.

To avoid confusion they use different names so the passport always stays the same.

One name for the Romance Tribe.
One name for the Mystery Tribe.

While keeping their real name for their true-self tribe.

Then, for extra madness, this madwoman actually wants to become a WORKING, CONTRACTED AUTHOR!!!

Two career plans? Two publishers?
Two brand name platforms to create? Two blogs? Two websites?

What literary agent in their right mind would take on this woman?

Is this the path to madness?

Could be.
Maybe she should go where her true heart dictates and where the ‘girls in the basement’ take her, and not be ruled by other people’s expectations.

Cinematic Storytelling

2008-01-28T11:06:00.000Z

Billie Mernit is the author of 'Writing the Romantic Comedy' and reads movie scripts for his day job. I always learn something from his blog *- and todays missive is no exception.

'Cinematic storytelling -- the term that's come to define this particular approach to screenwriting -- involves a kind of three-step process (though these steps are often enacted simultaneously):

1) you conceive your story in filmic terms,

2) you see the movie in your head, and

3) you write the story in a language that vividly communicates that movie's sounds and images.'

I wonder how many writers use this very visual and sensory approach to pre-screening the scenes of the fiction before writing them down?

Romance - certainly.

Suspense - almost certainly. In my case, yes. It is a key part of my work.

Perhaps this is the fundamental appeal of genre fiction as opposed to MOST literary fiction - the reader is invited into a fully realised world.

Part of creating the 'fictive dream' is surely to provide a fully engrossing and vicarious experience?

Interesting. I have learnt a lot from screenwriting techniques over the years - and am still learning. Thank goodness.

*http://www.livingromcom.typepad.com/

Writing Resources - Vicki Hinze

2008-01-27T08:43:00.001Z

Opening your eyes to technology - does not mean reinventing the wheel. These pigeons truly did take aerial photos in war times before spy planes and remote drones.

Someone much cleverer than I, said that the Internet was like having a Library at your fingertips. A huge and always expanding library which is SO easy to get lost in for days on end.

So, when I find a resource which focuses on what I need to know, I jump on it.

I first came to Vicki Hinze through the Silhouette Bombshell series and personal recommendations through the net/online communities.

I only recently discovered that Vicki Hinze has an archive of free articles on the whole world of writing, which are available through her website and blog.

The current Feature Article for example, is about Character, and well worth reading.

Although they focus on Romance and Suspense Fiction there are technical articles which could relate to any aspect of publishing.

They are listed alphabetically in the 'Writers' Library' Tab, and you can find them here: http://www.vickihinze.com/

Be sure to look back through the archive articles too.

pic from National Geographic.

Centre of my universe

2008-01-26T14:52:00.001Z

As a follow on from my post re:other writer's work space -here is MY 'room of my own' where I spent most of my day.

Yes, the door can close, although it rarely does. I have a laser printer, un-interruptable power supply and wireless broadband. There is a blackout blind, since the room is south facing, and a daylight bulb if needed.

The wall behind me has one watercolour seascape, but is otherwise blank.

If there was room, I would probably sleep there too.

Books are in other rooms around the house - far too distracting otherwise.

Each box file = one story. There are others, which even I find scary.

PS. This is the current state this morning, post submission. When I am jazzed on the next story, it does tend to look rather less tidy.

New words

2008-01-25T08:29:00.000Z

NEW WORDS for your education and delight.

OPRAHCTUALIZED: Self actualized in an Oprah kind of way.
This is meant as a compliment.

“The Girls In the Basement,” - comes from a Stephen King phrase about the “guys in the basement” who take care of all the creativity and then send up the completed pages to be typed.
Our job is to take care of them, give them what they need, so they can get the job done.

{ I think mine are in need of chocolate and three weeks in Barbados }

POW – Not Prisoner of War – but Predatory Older Woman
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/03/2006_47_tue.shtml

Writing spaces

2008-01-24T08:42:00.000Z

Where do you write?

Liz Fenwick http://www.lizfenwick.blogspot.com/ recently posted about her new writing space, and it reminded me of a fascinating collection of the work places of well known writers here: http://books.guardian.co.uk/writersrooms

Which only goes to prove one thing - every writer is unique.

Those are post-it stickers on the wall of Will Self's office.

Girl or Bloke? You guess.

Julie Myerson's cat has her own bed to distract from the monitor and keyboard. Not sure about the glass table though.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Frank Sinatra. Once Upon a Time. [Just in case you thought romance was only at the end of our fingertips.] http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IkeW-jUfiJU

Tagged

2008-01-23T07:18:00.000Z

I've been tagged by Nell Dixon -http://nelldixonrw.blogspot.com/

Rules-Link to the person that tagged you. Post the rules on your blog.

Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself

Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs and Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website. [ I am not doing this bit since the folks I know are on deadlines or mid-winter miserable, and would not thank me. Sorry Nell.]

Six random things/ quirks - hmm

1. I have a serious book habit. Every room in my house has books in it, and the first thing I notice in other people's houses is whether they have books or not. My family find it very amusing that I file them by genre - then alphabetically by author. Did I mention that I had considered becoming a librarian?

2. I like Trance and Techno dance music. My brother had a mobile disco when we were teenagers and I was the disco dancing queen whose job it was to encourage other teenagers to strut their funky stuff - I still can't hear Abba without some hip swinging.

3. My dad was a coal miner and we had fireplaces in just about every room in the house growing up - part of his wages was in coal. So I love to have a real fire and collect wood for kindling etc.

4. I hate nail varnish of any description.

5. I can't swim, despite years of lessons at school and the local learners pool a few years back. I know what to do and how the physics work, but the cunning brain kicks in and reminds me about my healthy respect for water.

6. I don't like sport - either watching or participating. Same as Nell. Both my brothers played Rugby and occasionally I was obliged to stand and watch two teams of massive hunky men [ usually local farmers] smash eachother into the freezing mud, followed by a visit to the local Accident and Emergency. Lovely.

However, I DO love to walk for pleasure and regularly go on walking hols in Europe.

I think that it enough for you to get the picture. Snarf.

Blast from the Past

2008-01-22T11:36:00.000Z

Mills & Boon moves into greetings cards

According to the Bookseller, Mills & Boon, the romance publisher, has teamed up with greetings card producer The Greetings Factory to create a range of cards which will launch in February.

'The move is part of a range of non-book product and retro-style publishing lined up to celebrate its centenary ...year.
The cards use backlist titles from the 1920s onwards and feature quotes—possibly including "Lipstick and Lies: Barry dreamt that one day the world would accept him as Barbara" and "Dress To Kill: Phyllis and Audrey had killed before and they knew they would kill again!"

It is also working with puzzle maker Ravensburger on a collection of "adult" puzzles using retro jackets. The puzzles will be launched this December.

The centenary publishing programme will see a collection of 24 short stories (two each month) published with iconic '80s-style -covers.

The books, which will include Assignment: Seduction and Promised to the Sheikh, are priced at £1.49 and are by top Mills & Boon authors.

"We've got some great new photos featuring couples in a clinch, and we've got a mix of our best themes of the boss, the tycoon, the wedding and the sheikh," said retail marketing and sales director Clare Somerville.

All series romances will feature centenary logos on their covers, and M&B will release a 2-in-1 "collectable" centenary series title each month.

05.10.07 Alison Flood http://www.thebookseller.com/news/46159-mills--boon-moves-into-greeting-cards.html

Random acts of non-writing. Monday

2008-01-21T08:40:00.000Z

Just in case I become bored, working through my huge File of Cunning Ideas, I could always try this...

HOW TO MAKE A DICTIONARY WALL

Methinks some folks have WAY too much spare time on their hands.

Now old movie posters- or Maps. THAT I can understand.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/how-to/how-to-make-a-dictionary-etc-wall-040423

Calm before the storm

2008-01-19T10:23:00.000Z

“Some day after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we will harness the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Time to clear the desk, and decide which of my ideas is the most exciting and energising before launching into the next storyline.

Options -

1. Old partials I have already worked on but did not fit anywhere at the time? The character work and basic storylines are there. Maybe a couple of chapters.

2. New ideas where there is only a sketch idea and a few hero and heroine photos.

I am going for about 60K so I can plan the time, but still remain flexible.

And be a bad, bad girl, and catch up with some of the 2B Read pile.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Final Read Through

2008-01-18T07:49:00.000Z

Procrastination

2008-01-17T08:28:00.000Z

Tomorrow morning I am going to print out my WIP, take it to the Post Office and mail it to the lovely editor who 'suggested' that I should avoid 'over-editing.'

Drat. BUSTED!

Does there EVER come a point where you think the text is truly finished and perfect?

I suspect not.

And of course, you will ALWAYS think of some wonderful plot twist or revelation AFTER you have sent it in, and you know your package is sitting in the stack for the next X months impatiently waiting its turn.

So. Time to bit the bullet and mail it.

Or maybe wait until next week? When I am jazzed about the next story?

Abnormal brain kicking in again.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Madeline Peyroux. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl-cVgAU8K8&feature=PlayList&p=4F1D642A6F9D7B46&index=59

* pic of the brilliant Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein, ex Corbis

A different approach to Story Structure

2008-01-16T08:08:00.001Z

Robert Browne has been taking a different slant on story structure, and I pick out a few salient points for my education and delight.

THE GENTLE ART OF LOVEMAKING

We're often reminded in how-to books that the typical story is broken into three acts:

Set-up, Confrontation, and Resolution.

But what if we were to refer to the three acts in this way: Seduction, Foreplay, and Climax.

We want to create a successful story with a satisfying ending -- one that keeps our partners wanting more -- we must pay careful attention to these three words.

SEDUCTION

The beginning of a story, any story, cannot and should not be referred to as anything other than a seduction.

It is our job to make our audience want us.

We must create characters that our audience won't mind, figuratively speaking, getting into bed with. Particularly the lead.

Is he or she someone we find attractive?

Does he have a problem or flaws we can relate to?

Are his life circumstances universal yet unique enough to pique our interest?

Mystery. Every story should be a mystery. Remember the girl in college the guys all wanted but knew so little about?

A big part of her allure was that hint of mystery she carried.

No matter what genre you're writing in, you should never, never, never put all of your cards on the table at the beginning of the game.

Instead you must reveal them one at a time, each new card offering a clue to the mystery of our characters and their stories.

The third and most important element of seduction is giving your characters a goal.

And not just your lead.

Every single character you write should have a goal of some kind. Put two characters with opposing goals in a room and you have drama.

But the goal of your hero must be compelling enough to intrigue us and hold our interest.

In The Fugitive, Harrison Ford is wrongly convicted of killing his wife, escapes to find her killer, and soon discovers he's being hunted by a relentless cop who doesn't care whether or not Ford is guilty. All three elements of seduction are satisfied and guess what?

We're hooked.

For thoughts on Foreplay and Climax go here; http://www.bksp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=127&Itemid=1

'Every time you sit down to write, you must remember that your audience is your partner, your lover, and in order to make them happy you must seduce, thrill and, most importantly, satisfy.'

Interesting.

What's playing on my YouTube at the moment? Goldfrapp. [The video is mad. ]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5VPyso87fZU&feature=user

The One Song

2008-01-15T13:01:00.000Z

'And, of course, that is what all of this is - all of this: the one song, ever changing, ever reincarnated, that speaks somehow from and to and for that which is ineffable within us and without us, that is both prayer and deliverance, folly and wisdom, that inspires us to dance or smile or simply to go on, senselessly, incomprehensibly, beatifically, in the face of mortality and the truth that our lives are more ill-writ, ill-rhymed and fleeting than any song, except perhaps those songs - that song, endlesly reincarnated - born of that truth, be it the moon and June of that truth, or the wordless blue moan, or the rotgut or the elegant poetry of it.
That nameless black-hulled ship of Ulysses, that long black train, that Terraplane, that mystery train, that Rocket '88', that Buick 6 - same journey, same miracle, same end and endlessness."--

Nick Tosches, Where Dead Voices Gather

[And I thought I wrote long sentences.]

Still Editing

2008-01-14T08:16:00.000Z

Overused words.

Everyone does it, and if you like me, don't realise that you are doing it until someone else reads the pages.

I use this cheatsheet * using the 'FIND' function in Word -then run the spellcheck on the text, which hopefully will pick up any horrors. Search and replace is a killer.

Some might be valid of course, but at least I have decided to keep them.

*and - but (can indicate run-on sentences)
*that (unnecessary in most sentences) instead of which, and vice versa
*that (when you mean "who")
*just
*very
*nearly - almost
*really
*seem - appear
*felt - feel
*begin - began
*would - should - could
*quite
*few
*rather
*thing
*stuff
*anyway
*because
"*ly" adverbs
*so
*then
*even
*only
*down - up (as in sit down, stand up - can be redundant)
*got - get

So you see, that is why I need all the help I can get!

http://www.inkalicious.com/cheatsheets.php#editing

Undiscovered Stars

2008-01-13T10:08:00.000Z

What are agents looking for in new authors?

Well one agent actually tells you what he dreams of finding in the slush pile.

As you know, Donald Maass is a literary agent in the US who wrote a brilliant book on story telling. He still has an agency - and each month they produce a list of work they would love to see coming into their Submissions Dept. Such as this -

'December, 2007 - Romances We'd Like to Read

We are speaking here of single title romance. That means excellent writing, strong characters, high personal stakes, layered plotting and more.

As usual, this is not all we’re looking for. Our intention is not to suggest paint-by-numbers plotting or to limit authors’ scope. We do hope to promote discussion of what would be fresh and exciting in romantic fiction.

*An inspirational paranormal.

*An Asian or Latina paranormal, not using Euro-centric mythology.

*An historical military romance; e.g., special forces in the Middle Ages, a la “Sharpe’s Rifles”.

*A literary romance like The French Lieutenant’s Woman: manners, morals, aching hearts, a heroine who belongs to another.

*A triple-generation romance: three generations of women in one family all find love, and conflict, at the same time.

*A stylish romance featuring an elusive free-spirit, a contemporary Holly Golightly.

*A serious romance about a soccer mom with a secret life.

*An ex-CIA agent who plans her wedding and struggles to keep her engagement intact while taking down her arch nemesis.

*A marriage of convenience in reverse: A Regency man and woman must do everything in their power not to marry.

*A time travel romance in which both protagonists travel through the ages—and never meet. '

This list certainly made my head spin with lateral thinking. I do have one partial which would work with a twist on the CIA premise, but there are 10 ideas here.

What do you think?

http://www.maassagency.com/thismonth.html

Writing Motivation

2008-01-12T10:15:00.001Z

Jurgen Wolff has posted today on Motivation. *

Some people find visual symbols a powerful means of motivation - for example-

Do you have a 'fat picture' of yourself on the fridge door?

Or have you stuck a photo of your own head on the body of a supermodel/hunk and stuck that on the fridge?

'If you’re more motivated by fear of the negative, find an image or a phrase that encapsulates what you’ll feel/look/sound like this time next year if you don’t steadily pursue your writing goals. Put it where you’ll see it every day.

If you’re more motivated by the draw of the positive, find an image or phrase that encapsulates what you’ll feel/look/sound like this time next year if you do steadily pursue your writing goals. Put it where you’ll see it every day.'

Interesting thought.

Linked to the Visualisation techniques used by motivational coaches in business.

If you have a clear vision of who would be be, and what your life would be like if you had achieved your goals, the evidence suggests that you are more likely to be motivated to achieve them. No matter what those goals are.

For me it has to be positive. Fat pictures would only re-inforce negative thoughts. Not going there thank you.

What type of motivation suits you? Positive or negative?

*http://www.timetowrite.blogs.com/

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Darren Hayes. On the verge of something wonderful/ http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QCEDG9kvRtE&feature=PlayList&p=AD563AB40FF75834&index=4

More Distractions Friday

2008-01-11T09:03:00.000Z

Tim Dowling has mused on the procrastination opportunities of a writer. * I could not have put it better myself - here is an extract.

'Writing a novel must be one of the easiest things to avoid doing in the world - chances are no one has asked you to do it, and no one will care if you don't.

As soon as you start, almost every other activity in the world seems preferable. Distractions come in every shape, but these are, to my mind, the top five.

Food.

Try to arrange things so that there are several flights of stairs between you and anything remotely worth eating. ...once I am in the kitchen the prospect of going all the way back up again means that making several dozen profiteroles shaped like swans suddenly seems a better use of my time.

Family Life

In many novels you will find an Acknowledgments page in which friends are thanked for the use of cottages, beach houses or flats in exotic locations...Most of us, however, will not have such options: we have to write even while we continue parenting, walking the dog and executing urgent DIY projects in a distracted and half-assed manner.

The Internet

This is the biggest distraction faced by the modern novelist.

Everything Within Reach of Your Desk

When you don't want to write, you will do anything to avoid it. If there is an old, broken cassette nearby, you will unscrew it, repair it with tape and wind it back up with a ball point pen. If there is a banjo to hand, you will teach yourself to play it, in both the three-fingered bluegrass and old-fashioned clawhammer styles.

The only way to maintain focus is to clear the immediate area of anything which you could be considered mildly interesting, or, failing that, cover everything in several layers of yellowing newspaper.

The Terrifying Enormity Of What You Are Trying To Do

Writing a novel is, in my experience, a bit like swimming across a huge, dark lake. Starting off is easy and finishing is both a relief and a triumph, but there's a long stretch in the middle where you can't see either shore and you're not even sure you're heading the right way.

This is the point where you may prefer banging your head against the desk all morning to writing a single sentence.

The best way to keep swimming is to remind yourself that it's no good staying where you are because it's 200 feet down, although I'm not sure the lake analogy really extends that far.

To be honest I'm finding it very difficult to concentrate and tune this banjo at the same time.'

* http://www.jointhemediacircus.com/mediacircus/2007/08/the-5-biggest-d.html

Reality Check Thursday

2008-01-10T08:59:00.000Z

Kate Hardy* reminded me on her post today of something which is crucial as to why I am still knocking my head against the writing wall every day.

And yet so easy to loose track of.

Writers of Romance Fiction have the power to put some sparkle into people’s lives.

We write happy endings that make people smile and feel good.

Now that. Is worth fighting for.

I am still not happy with the black moment scene. So today I am going to fight and fix it so that, one day, someone else may read the story and smile.
Thank you Kate.

*http://katehardy.blogspot.com/

Black Moment Scene, Wednesday

2008-01-09T09:04:00.000Z

Danger/Black Moment; where the inner conflicts clash in a devastating way, driven by an external event. The whole book has been moving toward this moment, the darkest hour when all seems lost.

This is the scene when the Plan Fails. Some major revelation through the external conflict threatens their relationship, which directly challenges the internal conflict and fears of one of them. Or both.

John Truby* teaches screenwriting, but the story structure is very similar to that described by Jenny Crusie** and other story coaches. With perhaps one exception.

John advises that the author look VERY hard at the battle and self-revelation storylines and THEN look backwards to see how the writer has built up the detail on the internal conflict so that this scene is the most powerful in the book.

In effect, creating the storyline from the self-revelation moment.

So today I am focusing on what I want this scene/chapter to achieve, before working my way backwards to see if the turning points support the conflicts and this scene is both inevitable and necessary.

My heroine has been through the grinder. Time for her to break through and find happiness with the man who has come to love her.

Then all I have to do is revise the scene to make it the most powerful and fundamental life changeing event in her life.

That's all... Sigh. I need Josh.

**http://www.crusiemayer.com/workshop/the-central-question-and-the-conflict-box/jenny/

*http://www.truby.com/

No YouTube today - Mozart on Radio 3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/breakfast/pip/i75iy/

Point of View Tuesday

2008-01-08T08:13:00.000Z

Headhopping.
Changing point of view from the hero[ Him ] to the heroine [Her] and back again.

I have 14 pages in my revised first chapter. The only POV are the hero's and heroine's - this is a short contemporary and I want to focus on the two main characters.

The POV shifts are as follows;

Her. 1,2,3 - main intro. sets out her external and internal conflicts. location one

Him. 4,5,6,7.5 - main intro. external, hints at internal conflict. location two

First meeting. Page 6.

Her. 7.5,8 - first meet reaction- location one

Him. 9,10 - impact to him of first meeting

Her. 11, 12,13,14- her story takes off from here - ends with the first plot point - action starts.

There are space breaks and scene breaks between the POV changes, but I am now wondering if I should revise again to make this a single POV after they first meet.

Thoughts?

What's playing on my YouTube right now? North and South- Mr Armitage. In the Deep. Never saw it coming. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DnJLgyonhNA

Revision Monday

2008-01-07T07:41:00.000Z

As I noted in October, Kyle Kerr *has this comment on his blog:

'During the Maui Writers Retreat, John Lescroart made a really great speech…

He says that, during the writing process, there are two different modes an author goes into.

When she’s writing the first draft, the author is in “Genius Mode,” where everything she writes is flecked with gold and diamonds.

Then, when it comes time for editing and revision, she enters “Idiot Mode,” where the author realizes that what she had first taken for gold and diamonds is actually pyrite and kitty litter.

It’s the worst thing she’s ever seen, let alone written herself.'

Guess which mode I am in right now?

Hint - cat litter does not even come close.

*Go here for Kyle's website http://www.kylewkerr.com/

No YouTube today - the visuals are too distracting for my fractured brain cell. Listening to CD of Vaughn Williams and Elgar.

Distractions

2008-01-05T09:52:00.000Z

The Lutener household has several compost bins which benefit from the large quantities of veggie peelings and shredded paper which we generate in a week.

Last week, one of these bins had a tunnel in it. A round tunnel. At an angle.

Result:

1. A humane rodent catcher cage. Bait goes inside cage and door locks behind critter.

2. Cold night Thursday. Compost bin tunnel destroyed. Cage baited with dry cure bacon.

3. Yesterday morning. Live rat in cage.

At this point Mr Ray-Anne has to go to London so Ray-Anne given responsibility for regular checking of long, sleek, not-too-happy, rat which is trying to gnaw it's way out of cage.

IT IS A BIG RAT.

4. Cage loaded into plastic storage box with lid. Box loaded into car boot.

5. Car driven to local woodland a few miles away. Box out. Cage out.

6. 3 attempts to open fancy secure latch on cage with thick gardening gloves before door open.

7. rodent leaps and bounds into forest.

8. Realisation that rodent probably has a family group nearby and we shall have to do the whole thing again. Several times.

Distractions.

The Truth can hurt

2008-01-04T08:57:00.000Z

Ten Things People Say When They Meet Writers (and what we're really thinking while we're politely smiling)

1. Are you really a writer, or was he joking?

He was joking; I'm a retired porn film producer. Say hi to your husband for me.

2. Authors make big money, don't they?

Of course we do. I'm just putting these canapes in my purse for the dog.

3. Books put me to sleep.

Sounding out all those words must be pretty exhausting.

4. Can you write like Stephen King?

No, but I bet you could give him ideas for his next book.

5. Do you have a real job?

Yes, I beat the c*** out of people who think writing isn't a real job. Can I talk to you outside for a minute?

6. Have I read anything you've written?

Oh, my God. You can read?

7. I never go into bookstores. I can't find anything I like.

Hey, maybe someday Barnes & Noble will carry pork rinds and personal massage units.

8. I have this great idea for a book. Would you write it for me?

Sure. Just as soon as I write the books for the forty thousand other people with great ideas that I met before you.

9. My sister/wife/mother reads all your romance novels.

Don't worry, Big Guy, your secret is safe with me.

10. You don't look like a famous writer.

While you, on the other hand, look exactly like a jackass.

Posted by Lynn Viehl. http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/

Ps. In the UK. I would add, ‘Do you earn as much as JK Rowling?’

Sunshine ahead

2008-01-03T09:26:00.000Z

Holiday photos from the Greek Islands.

Hot sunshine. Blue skies. Warm winds. Lapping waves. Star filled night skies.

Just the thing for a cold January morning.

Hope your day is warm and cosy.

No YouTube at the moment. Radio 3.

The hidden power of the words we use

2008-01-01T17:37:00.000Z

The English language must be one of the most mangled, derivative languages in the world, and I sincerely admire the many people who have to learn English as a second language and become so fluent.

Take for example, the historical basis for the names we use to describe the basic calendar.

All pagan, all ancient, and linked to the simplest of planetary and astronomical observations.

There is a world of history behind WHY we have twelve months and seven week days, which many cultures do not share.

January. From the god Janus.

In Roman mythology, Janus (or Ianus) was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings.

His most apparent remnants in modern culture are his namesakes, the month of January, and the caretaker of doors and halls: Janitor.
Janus is usually depicted in sculpture and text as having two faces, one looking backwards, one looking forward.

Janus was also thought to represent beginnings. This belief comes from the idea that one must emerge through a gate or door before entering a new place.

Wednesday: This name comes from the Old English Wodnesdæg meaning the day of the Germanic god Woden or Wodan, more commonly known as Odin, who was the highest god in Norse mythology, and a prominent god of the Anglo-Saxons (and other places) in England until about the seventh century.

In Old Norse myth, Odin, like Mercury, is associated with poetic and musical inspiration.

Two words with a cultural heritage which we take for granted, even as writers.

My twisted brain cell finds that quite fascinating.

Now on with using other words to create my made-up world and people.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Cuban music from the past. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wFCG2TIEAjY&eurl=http://doyouspeakenglishradio.blogspot.com/

What I am NOT going to do in 2008

2007-12-31T07:15:00.000Z

Inside my head it is still October, but since so many worthy and successful authors have blogs today on what they have on their To-Do-List for the coming year, I have spent time over the weekend to work on the objectives.

There is a master list of some ten key projects. Plus some lifestye goals.

Here is a snippet from the writing section.

1. I will no longer be satisfied with substandard touch typing. Right first time. Speed and accuracy. I have the Mavis Beacon DVD. I used to be better than this. Not good enough.

2. Output. I have so many story ideas there is a box file full to bursting. Time to create those tales and get them onto paper. No matter if they are not sold tomorrow - they will be one day and in the meantime I have lived in the story moment. Write fast. Write passionately.

With one, single, HUGE condition before any new file is opened.

3. I have to work more FUN into the writing process. I want to laugh out loud every day. If the writing is not enjoyable, I have to be brave enough to recognise that it is not working, and fix it or shelve it and move on to something which does give me pleasure - and hopefully will give a reader pleasure.

I love to get up every day excited and enthusiastic about what I am working on that day - and still be excited and dreaming about that story late into the night. It is a fantastic feeling.

Rather like being in love in fact.

Hold that thought.

Because I do know one thing.

Unless I want it enough, it simply will not happen. And I have the boredom threshold of a toddler in an empty room.

I know what excites and interests me. What I love to read and write.

2008 is the year when I focus on what makes me happy.

And if that sounds self-indulgent, then so be it. My life, my choices.

Now. All I have to do is identify the barriers between where I am now, and where I want to be, work out how to trample down/jump over those barriers, and make those objectives happen.

And there is only one person who can do that.

On with the show.

No YouTube at the moment. Listening to the soundtrack from the movie 'Amelie' on my PC.

Trivia

2007-12-29T10:00:00.000Z

Thought that would get your attention.

No. Alex Romano is not my secret hero. But...A piece of trivia for you.

I have owned and ridden a series of motorbikes over the years.

The first bike was a student's dream - a Honda 90 called Wendy.
She did 120 miles a gallon and was useful to getting home about late sessions at the university. I actually drove from Yorkshire to the Dorset coast and back on that bike!
Wendy was stolen in Bradford and I received more back on the insurance that the bike cost to buy.

Now there is a Triumph Trophy 1200 in our garage - but I am definitely the pillion.

So there you have it - Ray-Anne has been a biker girl. There are photos but you are all too young and sensitive for that kind of horror.

And I never, ever, had a plastic skull between the handlebars.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Bad to the Bone with Jensen Ackles http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iCOoiFP69_s

Back to Work

2007-12-27T14:06:00.000Z

Here we are again. Full of Yule Tide spirit [ Tawny 20 yr old Port] and Chocolate trufflalicious.

And on with the show.

Before I return to my revisions, I have taken time out today to:

* go to the shops for more post-Christmas writer's trousers. [ Baggy bottom, wide leg, elastic waistband. Say no more.]

* catch up on a few sites I have neglected for a while. One of these was J A Konrath+ who has been musing on Resolutions for Writers - past and current. He has some excellent suggestions, and one of these stuck with me.

'I Will Feed My Addiction.
Life is busy.
There are always things you can and should be doing, and your writing career often comes second. So make it come first. Right now, you're reading A Newbie's Guide to Publishing. Not A Newbie's Guide to Leading a Content and Balanced Life.
You want to get published and stay published?
That means making writing a priority. That means making
sacrifices.
A sacrifice involves choosing one thing over another.
If you can't devote the time, energy, and money it takes to
pursue this career, go do something else.'

He is right. There will ALWAYS be something easier to do with your time than create a career, a business if you will, from your writing.

Of course, if this was some type of PROPER Sole-Trader business, eg. shop owner or tradesman, then yes, surely you would expect to work all of the hours to get it up and runnning so that your customers obtain precisely the product they need ahead of schedule.

So why do we not always look at our writing in this way?

I find that very interesting.

+ http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

No YouTube today. Radio playing in the background.

Hibernation

2007-12-22T07:16:00.000Z

This is the fireplace in my living room.

It comes complete with a sofa, and a coffee table straining to hold up the To Be Read Pile.

All I have to do is nip outside for more coal and logs now and then.

Tea and mince pies are optional extras.

Signing off now until after the holiday.

I hope you have everything you wish for. Health and happiness. Love and laughter.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blatherings. Ray-Anne

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Darren Hayes. 'Words' http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1bXPuyAESG0&feature=PlayList&p=AD563AB40FF75834&index=1&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL

Digital Metaphors

2007-12-21T15:52:00.000Z

I was looking through some holiday photos from September in Austria, and came across a series which seem to capture the journey of a pre-published author perfectly.

* It all looks lovely from up here

* This map must be wrong - been wandering around here for ages and no clear path ahead

* That gorge is HOW deep? And this is the only way across?

* Holding on for dear life and shuffling forward one step at a time.

Anyone reading this post is more than capable of adding clever captions.

Any suggestions??

PS. Yes I know I look daft in that outfit. And somewhat bewildered.

Word Stew

2007-12-20T09:58:00.000Z

Nicola Marsh has an excellent post today on the merits of allowing your work to 'stew' so you can return to it with fresh eyes before submitting. http://www.nicolamarsh.blogspot.com/

I find this a very hard thing to do, but my current WIP needs it.

I can already see gaps in the hero's internal conflict and one section needs work on pacing - it seems flat. The opening chapters need more angst. Everyone is too 'nice' to eachother.

So the whole file, notes, print-outs, post-it stickers, everything, is now inside the box file.

Sitting there.

On my desk.

Taunting me.

Calling me a wimp for not soldiering on.

I shall now punish it by storing on the top shelf of the bookcase for a week before going back to it.

This work needs to be submitted. I need to feel it is the best work I can create.

In the meantime...there are one or two other things to do around the place this week.

Excuse me while I look for a roasting tin large enough for a brace of wild rabbits.

Whilst stirring the home-made tangerine marmalade.

And sorting out the contents of the freezer which seems to have a lot of smoked fish. And preparing a shopping list for tomorrow's supermarket dash.

And glancing longingly at the TBR pile. A week may not be long enough.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Silje. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mEW2aEazNCQ&feature=PlayList&p=9E78A195607312A8&index=1

Multi-Media Options

2007-12-19T07:43:00.000Z

Because Santa is so busy, Mr Ray-Anne has my new Darren Hayes CD to wrap. I have his 5 disc [ yes, I did say 5] special edition Bladerunner DVD set. There are probably 10 films and shows recorded from the TV waiting to be watched. Plus DVDs of the latest blockbusters from Amazon.

The TV guide for the holidays is sitting on the breakfast table and we idly flick through and circle a few things. For every day. Including some most excellent BBC radio programmes.

The local Cinema is showing 'Enchanted.'

I was struck this morning by how much technology has changed the way we celebrate the Christmas holiday and approach our leisure time - in our culture at least.

Cable Tv. DVDs. Cds. Radio. Video. Home Cinema. Big Screen out with the popcorn sitting with other people cinema. The theatre. Live concerts. Your local Pantomime.

Is anyone besides myself exhausted yet?

I can imagine folks arguing about what, when, how it can all be fitted in. Then cross words when they miss it, or, perish the thought, someone wants to watch the other channel!

Except of course, you probably have more than one TV, and the children watch their own progs and talk to their friends on cell phones in their own rooms. Away from the family who are so BORING.

They might have a point.

No YouTube today. In the spirit of this post, I am going to work away from the PC and study story structure.

My WIP is at what I call the 'Reasonable' Draft Stage. 52k. 12 chapters. Now it's time to challenge myself and my characters. Time to dig even deeper.

Miner's helmet on. Ice axe in hand. I'm going in.

Hero Archetype- The Chief

2007-12-17T08:32:00.000Z

The Chief: a dynamic leader, he has time for nothing but work.

He might have been born to lead, or perhaps he conquered his way to the top, but either way, he’s tough, decisive, goal-oriented. That means he is also a bit overbearing and inflexible.

The bad news is - this hero is going to have a lot of backstory conflict to overcome. And with that comes all of the Alpha Male characteristics as a top layer.

The good news is - who doesn't love a boss and secretary story? The self-made billionaire who is looking for the right woman to break his heart and his lonely existence? The prince. The sheik. All have responsibilities and accountabilities.

And potential for great heros.

Got to love the chiefs.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Wake-up POWER music. Matrix/Stargate Sci-fi action comp. LOUD!! with brilliant graphics.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1260qaj1Hc8&feature=PlayList&p=5505018970D42764&index=7

Petition

2007-12-16T10:41:00.000Z

Literacy is everything.

The Times newspaper here in the UK had a report yesterday on the petition handed into our Prime Minister at No 10 Downing Street pleading for more government action on helping our children to read before they leave school.

How is it that some British children cannot read before they are sent to High School? Or, worse, they leave school and face the adult world not able to function with the written word which dominates it.

I cannot imagine NOT being able to read the label on a tin of food, or the gas bill, or being embarrassed to fill in a job application or operate a computer, or write a Christmas card. It is something else I simply take for granted.

As for the cultural and educational impact? Horrific.

Well shame on me.

The petition was signed by more than 500 well known authors, including many familiar names from the world of Romance Fiction such as: Joanna Trollope, Katie Fforde, Sophie Kinsella, Rosamunde Pilcher, Adele Parks, Marion Keyes, Fiona Loakes and Michelle Styles.

The full article is here: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3050957.ece

and the campaign continues here:

http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/L/lost_for_words/aim.html

Let's hope that the momentum continues.

No YouTube at the moment. My Sunday morning treat - Radio 4. Desert Island Discs. Paul Weller today.

New Year Resolutions?

2007-12-14T09:42:00.000Z

I am still reeling from the recognition that it is now DECEMBER and I have no clue what happened to November. Some folk are already thinking about their plans for 2008.

Michael Angier (http://www.successnet.org/) has a list of 101 best end of year questions and 101 best new year questions.

They include:
• If I had this year to do over, what would I have done more of?/ Less of?

• What would make my life more enjoyable?/meaningful?/comfortable?/challenging?

• how much am I willing to invest in my personal and professional growth this (coming) year? Where and how will I make this investment in myself?

• In what ways can I have more passion in my life?

• To whom do I need to express my thanks and appreciation?

If you want a copy of his questions, go here: SuccessNet.org/files/B-101Quest.htm

Jurgen Wolff [ http://www.timetowrite.blogs.com/] has used these challenges to come up with (and answer) some similar questions specifically about writing.

For example:
* What single thing did I do this year that most advanced my writing?

* Who or what inspired me the most?

* What is my writing goal for next year?

* What is the single thing that is most likely to help me achieve that goal?

* What can I do TODAY to move even one tiny step to move me toward that goal?

I shall put this to one side until the current WIP is finished, but food for thought, especially when we are running around during the next two weeks.

No Youtube. Radio 3 this morning. JS Bach Double Violin Concerto.

It's all about the Brand

2007-12-12T09:47:00.000Z

Danuta Keen has a very interesting and comprehenisve article on her blog today on the subject of Author Branding.

'If you want a lasting career as an author you need to become a brand. It’s a message on which book trade and advertising professionals are united.'

“The strongest driver for sales of books is word-of-mouth and publishers should be thinking of books as communities more than things that sit on bookshelves. Books can be living things.”

To me, surely this is something readers and authors of romance fiction, and particularly category romance already know and participate in? Bizarre that non-genre books and 'literary fiction' are only now making the connection and looking for readers.

Title? 'It's the Brand, Stupid'.

Worth saving for your quiet moments when you think about your CAREER and not just the amount of stubble on your hero's manly chin.

http://www.danutakean.com/blog/?p=283

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Final Fantasy animation. Bittersweet.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HcBSyB7zUU8&feature=PlayList&p=10960FB742FA50ED&index=0

Almost There

2007-12-11T06:46:00.000Z

Still working on the 'Black Moment' and 'Resolution' chapters, but I was re-reading notes from the Writing Course run online - and free- by Jenny Crusie and Bob Meyer, and one section struck me which I shall take the liberty of paraphrasing here.

'Does the climactic scene show the protag and antag in direct, active conflict, fighting to the real or metaphorical death, delivering on the promise made in the beginning and satsifying the reader through catharsis?
Is the pay-off enough?
Have you run a scene analysis on it to make sure it can stand up to the scrutiny of being the most important scene in the story? Is it followed by a short resolution that returns the protagonist to a stable world?

If not, don’t give up.

But the tighter and more focused you make your narrative, the more clarity you’ll have in your storytelling and the more likely you are to keep your reader.

Remember in the final edit, it’s all about the reader. Not you, not your vision, not your deathless prose, not the stuff you want the reader to know, just the stuff the reader wants to know, the story that’s going to take her to another world and give her the emotional release she craves from a good book.

Cut away everything else. Then send it to your editor.'

For the full article go here: http://www.crusiemayer.com/workshop/she-wrote-story-editing/jenny/
Warning - since there have been lessons every WEEK so far - there is a complete library of useful material for lateral thinking on this course. It is a personal view from two very experienced authors and may not be the way YOU work, but it certainly kick starts my little grey cells, especially when developing a new story idea. http://www.crusiemayer.com/workshop/syllabus

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Jensen Ackles, Bad to the Bone. I know. And it's only 7am. The shame! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iCOoiFP69_s

Hero Archetype - The Charmer

2007-12-09T19:09:00.000Z

The CHARMER: more than a gigolo, he creates fantasies.
He’s fun, irresistible, a smooth operator, yet not too responsible or dependable. He might be a playboy or a rogue, but he's doesn’t commit to a woman easily.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips has captured the Market with Dean Robillard in ‘Natural Born Charmer’ of course, but there are plenty of examples in her other books.

Janet Evanovich and Jenny Crusie tend to focus on Charmers too.

And of course that leaves the movies. Rufus, Hugh and perhaps Jude Law in Alfie and Closer? Bruce Willis? Leonardo di Caprio?

Rather a challenge to pin that man down into a committed long term relationship!

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Darren Hayes - I love his new album. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1bXPuyAESG0&feature=PlayList&p=AD563AB40FF75834&index=1

Jared - bless him

2007-12-08T19:52:00.000Z

Now who would have thought that a charming chap like this would cause me such grief?

I mean, how could he be holding back on a secret like that without blabbing it out to this great girl who has bared her soul to him?

Oh.

Really?

Was it that obvious?

You did?

Well you were right. And now I have to go back and rewrite from the beginning.

Inhale. Slowly, through the nose. Hold for four seconds. Breathe out through the mouth over eight seconds. Repeat as necessary.

Then look at your hero and give him one of your special smiles. And start throwing rocks at him.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Betty Carter. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iemkYXz8UNs&feature=PlayList&p=4F1D642A6F9D7B46&index=29

Still Editing

2007-12-05T10:32:00.000Z

There is a story in here.

I just have to create the right shape. That's all.

I am going out now. I may be some time....

What to do with your old Books

2007-12-04T08:34:00.000Z

Jonathan Callan is an artist who transforms paper and particularly bound books into works of art. Some small and intimate, some huge.

No – that is not a slice of a huge tree, is it an assemblage of coverless books, drilled together.

http://www.mattress.org/index.cfm?event=ShowArtist&eid=50&id=250&c=Past

http://www.houldsworth.co.uk/jonathancallan/work.html

Fantastic!

What's playing on my HeadPhones right now? BBC Radio 3.

Hero Archetype - The Best Friend

2007-12-03T06:14:00.000Z

The BEST FRIEND: sweet and safe, he never lets anyone down.
He's kind, responsible, decent, a regular Mr. Nice Guy.

This man doesn't enjoy confrontation and can sometimes be unassertive because he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But he'll always be there.

Ah – but can a Best Friend become a Lover?

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Soundtrack to Harry Potter - Order of the Phoenix. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tiBTlPFka2Y

To Do List

2007-12-02T08:20:00.000Z

I did have a plan of things I HAD to complete by the end of November.

What happened to November?

It was there one minute, and now... SIGH

The extra time I had allowed for my edited WIP to sit to one side before submission has vanished into the ether.
Send it anyway?
No. That would be not be fair to an editor who already has a workload with PUBLISHED authors. And we are now into December in the publishing industry.
AND it would not be the best possible version of the story I want to create.

So I have to bite the bullet and send it in later than I would have liked.
Not good.
But a learning exercise in just how long it takes me to re-write.

Go here to find out what swallowed up Jenny Crusie's November. I suspect she got the better deal. http://www.arghink.com/2007/11/30/the-dogs-ate-my-november/

and here for fun in the shape of an advert:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kJrO8TijBpU

What's playing on my HeadPhones right now? Darren Hayes. The Tension and the Spark.

Christmas Movies

2007-12-01T10:26:00.000Z

There are two hot Christmas movies this year -

* Enchanted. The Disney re-worked version of Cinderella. Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey star in a clever combination of animation and live action.

* The Golden Compass. The mega blockbuster version of the Philip Pullman book, which we know as 'The Northern Lights'. Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman and top cast with amazing effects to recreate the fictional world.

Both are intended for family audiences. Both have popular stars and both have been written and directed by big names.

Serious money has been spent by the studios.

Except for one thing. You cannot buy MAGIC.

And only a live audience can tell you whether a particular movie has that spark, that touch of delight which will bring a smile to children and adults. Make us watch it twice. Buy the DVD. Jostle for the merchandise for Xmas stockings.

And to me, that does not necessarily have to be expensive CGI polar bears or animated singing animals.

The reviews are already in from professional film critics on both movies.

Time to decide for ourselves.

The trailer for 'Enchanted' is here: http://www2.disney.co.uk/DisneyMovies/enchanted/

The trailer for ' The Golden Compass' is here: http://www.firstshowing.net/2007/10/10/new-full-length-golden-compass-trailer/

It will be my personal duty to report back on the viewing experience for your education and delight. And of course, RESEARCH for creative writing! Nothing like a powerful movie script to get the muse working! See the plucky heroine, hiss at the nasty villain, swoon at the handsome hero. Lights! Action! Camera.

Tag

2007-11-30T08:30:00.000Z

Hide and seek.

Liz tagged me to do this.* So it is all her fault.

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, just make one up...or use the one you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.

4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Well, I don't have a middle name, but my family have always simply called me 'Ray' for as long as I can remember, so I'm going with the second part of my name - Anne.

A. Acting out the role created for me by my place within the class system in the UK. Stuff that. I have always walked my own path and made my own choices. I suspect that my parents often thought that there had been a mix up at the maternity hospital and they had come home with someone else's child.

N. Nuns. I was lucky enough to win a scholarship to a Roman Catholic Convent High School at my 11 plus = swotty child- and I adored every minute of it. Head girl. Sack load of CGSEs. The lot. Forget horror stories of tormenting sisters, these women and the lay teachers were totally brilliant and I owe them more than I can say. And I certainly was not alone. Go Sisters of Mercy.

N. No regrets. Only look forward.

E. Education and Expectations. For many years my goal was to become a University Lecturer, and I worked hard to make that happen. The two years I spent in teaching taught ME a lot, and the students were excellent. I truly believe that without education a person can never realise their potential. Life long learning is real. [One of the reasons I support UNICEF] Education taught me that the only limits are those you set for yourself.

Since I have no friends and am a total recluse, I chose to ignore part 4 of the rules and not impose my tag on anyone else. [ see under A]
Take care world and have a good one.

*http://www.lizfenwick.blogspot.com/

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Snow Patrol http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I7taFtKZEDA&feature=PlayList&p=10960FB742FA50ED&index=26&playnext=5&playnext_from=PL

Locations

2007-11-28T07:24:00.000Z

I find myself struggling with how to describe the dream location for my WIP.

Imagine if you will an Austrian coffee shop. In Vienna for example.

There will be patisserie. Hand made chocolates and cakes galore. At least 10 different types of coffee. And a sunny courtyard. Newspapers and black apron waiters.

Only it has to be in London.

And I don't want to distract from the romance. Or scoff any more cake.

Must write faster. Bye.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Blast from the past - Simple Minds. Don't you forget about me. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UAn8lu3C9IE

Hero Archetype - The Swashbuckler

2007-11-26T08:44:00.000Z

According to Tami Cowden there are 8 main Hero Archetypes in Romantic Fiction.

I thought I would test this theory with a few examples, and today's example is:

Hero Archetype 3: The Swashbuckler

The SWASHBUCKLER: Mr. Excitement, he’s an adventure. This guy is action, action, and more action. He's physical and daring. Fearless, he’s a daredevil, or an explorer. He needs thrills and chills to keep him happy.

It almost makes me want to write an historical. Almost.

Power Songs

2007-11-25T09:17:00.000Z

There are some pieces of music which take me directly to the emotional core of the writing.

This is one Song and Video combination which takes me to that place - the kind of music which is personal and universal at the same time - and what technology was made for.

For me, this is a novel captured in 4 mins 6 seconds.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N3LUc78vbDk

pic = A door to the Fantasy Land by Sakura Juna

Head down, no nonsense, mindless boogie

2007-11-23T06:37:00.000Z

Must write, write like the wind....

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Sam Cooke. A Change is Gonna Come. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l4kMnMM2Fmk&feature=PlayList&p=4F1D642A6F9D7B46&index=46

Loving your characters

2007-11-22T12:00:00.000Z

I want my heroine to be my best friend - she's great.

The hero is so gorgeous that I can't stop peering over the top of the monitor to look at him. Swoon. And did I mention that he is rich, lonely and she will fill the empty space in his heart?

And now I have to throw rocks at them and make them cry and go through the mill.

Yes, I am on chapter 6. mid point. no going back.

See Ray-Anne strapping on her sturdy boots and clutching her Leki Poles. Kendal mint cake is sticking out of her Gore-tex pockets.

Marvel as she shoulders her rucksack loaded with Craft books and print outs from articles which she will probably use to light her fire on the trail.

Wonder at her bright confidence and courage - then Prod her back out of the door and onto the editing trail as she scrambles to get back inside the house so she can drink tea, eat choc and procrastinate JUST A LITTLE LONGER before facing the uphill climb.

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Songs of the Auvergne sung by Kiri Te Kanawa. The movie is 'In My Father's Den' staring Mat MacFadyen which hopefully will be released in the UK next year. Gorgeous.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0KVgTJr173s&feature=PlayList&p=4F1D642A6F9D7B46&index=51

Because sometimes you just need it

2007-11-21T09:01:00.000Z

I have 200 pages of printed paper. Double spaced. 12 Times New Roman. Manuscript format.

Now all I have to do is make sense of it and start editing. Today.

Now where did I hide the Green and Blacks?

pics= Chocolate by TeddyChan, Cholove by Topinka, Stock Photo Image

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Jerry McGuire and Bruce Springsteen - secret garden. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BTl0QEULDA8&feature=PlayList&p=4F1D642A6F9D7B46&index=35

THE FICTIVE DREAM

2007-11-20T06:48:00.000Z

How to Induce the Fictive Dream

Notes from 'How to Write Damn Good Fiction: Advanced Techniques for Dramatic Storytelling,' by James N. Frey

James M. Frey, in How to Write a Damn Good Novel II, says, "As a fiction writer, you're expected to transport a reader. Readers are said to be transported when, while they are reading, they feel that they are actually living in the story world and the real world around them evaporates."

In this altered state of consciousness, the reader can become so absorbed that you must shake him to get his attention.

Absorption is probably the better word: the reader is absorbed/transported into the story world.

This experience is often called the "Fictive Dream," and that is as good a name for it as any. It's like a daydream, except that the reader isn't its author. It occurs at a subconscious level.

How do you induce the Fictive Dream?

1. Use vivid, sensual details to begin the dream state. Let your reader experience the world of the character first-hand, through the character's senses.

2. Gain the reader's sympathy for your character by making the reader feel sorry for the character. Loneliness, lovelessness, repression, embarrassment, humiliation, privation, danger--any situation that brings physical, mental, or spiritual suffering will make your reader sympathize with your character.

3. Engender reader identification with your character. Give your character a noble goal that the reader can support, and the reader will take his side, no matter how much of a slime he is or has been.

4. Create sympathy for your character by providing sensuous details in the character's environment--the sights, sounds, pains, smells, etc., that the character is feeling--that will trigger the reader's emotions.

5. Inner conflict--misgivings, guilt, doubts, remorse, indecision--will lead the reader to side with your character in the decisions he is forced to make--decisions of a moral nature that have grave consequences for the character (such as putting their honor or self-worth at stake).

Inner conflict can be thought of as a battle between two voices within the character: one of reason, the other of passion--or of two conflicting passions. One of a protagonist, the other of a protagonist. (The little devil and angel on the character's shoulder.)

These voices engage in rising conflict that comes to some kind of climax, where a decision is made that leads to action. This debate produces tension and suspense about what the character will decide to do.

This participation in the decision-making process is what transports the reader into the fictive dream state.

A lot of this advice has been stated in other classic work on creating emotive fiction, and especially genre fiction, but I find it interesting that these five elements are being proposed for ALL fiction.

Now all I have to do it make it happen. Sigh.

pic = Dream On by AndreInacu

What's playing on my YouTube right now? Damien Rice The Blower's Daughter. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8ThuXEDvCZk&feature=PlayList&p=4F1D642A6F9D7B46&index=49

Hero Archetype - The BAD BOY

2007-11-19T07:31:00.000Z

According to Tami Cowden there are 8 main Hero Archetypes in Romantic Fiction.

I thought I would test this theory with a few examples, and today's example is:

Hero Archetype 2. THE BAD BOY

'The BAD BOY: dangerous to know, he walks on the wild side. This is the rebel, or the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. He’s bitter and volatile, a crushed idealist, but he's also charismatic and street smart.'

Um, I can think of a few hero candidates that could apply to...

Now. Back to the WIP and creating one of my own.

What's playing on my YouTube today? Annie Lennox. Cold. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tbC3PNH7xY4

ps. apologies for the format of the post - Blogger is playing up.