Please, Mind The Gap (In Your Manuscripts, of course!)

For our British readers out there, I must say that one phrase which has stuck with me during the years after my visits to London, is “Please, mind the gap.” For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it is a very literal warning announced in London's underground train system. There is usually a gap between the platform and the train, and you must mind it or else trip up, or slip a leg through the gap.

Oddly enough, the recording that plays repetitively in the tunnels, rang loud in my memory as I went through and polished my recent manuscript.

“Please mind the gap,” the women's British accent pronounced the words as I came upon my own wordy gaps. (Yet another reason polishing is so necessary before the big send off.)

Mind these gaps as you polish, to avoid your reader tripping into the pit of unbelievability:

Physical gaps: These are easy fixes...usually just adding a sentence to bridge the gap. Say your character is sitting in a chair having a conversation. As the dialogue heats up, she suddenly slams the door and rushes down the hall. When did she get up from her chair? Look out for these...even though they are simple, they can contribute to confusion and frustration on the reader's part.


Emotional gaps: This gets a little more tricky. My example is: My heroine lashes out at someone out of jealousy, and although she thinks her way through to resolve, the next encounter with that person (who witnessed the jealous outburst) must address her past behavior in some way, and then SHOW that she has now replaced it with a different emotion (say contentment). This can be done using dialogue and action tags. Basically, you can't just depend on deep pov in one character, to smooth over a bump in her relationship with another character. It must be shown.


Plot gaps: Have you ever read a book where the hero and heroine despise each other and then suddenly they can't take their eyes off each other? Hopefully if you have, there were some plot elements that developed that attraction. One of my biggest pet peeves in Hollywood, is when a movie doesn't fill in the plot gaps, and suddenly the character arc is more like a character pole vault. Plot must work TOWARD character development, if your characters take off and leave plot behind, then you'll have a lot of gaps to fill.

Can you think of any other gaps in the writing process? Would you be willing to give a concrete example from your own wip?

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Angie Dicken first began writing fiction as a creative outlet during the monotonous, mothering days of diapers and temper tantrums. She is passionate to impress God's love on women regardless of their background or belief. This desire serves as a catalyst for Angie's fiction, which weaves salvation and grace themes across historical cultures and social boundaries. Angie is an ACFW member and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency.

3 Unique Ways to Incorporate Holidays Into a Novel

This isn't a time of year when holidays are predominant in our minds. But with last Saturday being St. Patrick's Day, I recently got thinking about all the different holidays we celebrate every month. (August is the only month of the year without a federal holiday.)

And they can play a key role in our novels as well. Here are some ideas to freshen up your story:

1) Turn a holiday into a deadline. We all know how effective the "ticking time bomb" effect can be. Why not ramp it up and pair it with a holiday that holds significance to the characters?

Sure, you could always do the kiss at midnight on New Years Eve. But what about something less obvious, like Ash Wednesday? What if your character is an FBI agent who's chasing down a Ponzi scheme that patterned itself after a popular TV show? But the agent is giving up TV for Lent, which starts in two days, and he needs to unlock the code before Ash Wednesday?

2) Play up the quirks of lesser-known holidays. Remember earlier when I mentioned every month has a federal holiday except August? Chances are extremely high that a holiday will fall during the timeframe of your novel, whether it's a popular day or a lesser-known one.

Anybody seen the movie Leap Year? What if your character's birthday is February 29th and they only get an actual birthday every four years? How can you play this up in your book? Or what about federal holidays when the post office doesn't deliver mail? What if your character mails an important payment, but it arrives a day late because of Presidents Day?

3) Incorporate holidays with wardrobe. Although these may not be major players in your novel, they can add authenticity and quirks that set the stage for conflict and characterization.

We can all think of costume parties where guests' identity are concealed. Or what about a misfit teenager who forgets to wear green on St. Patrick's Day and shows up at school as the outcast? Or what about the family who for 20 years has taken a group portrait on Christmas Day in matching red sweaters, but on Year 21, the "perfect child" shows up in all black?

The idea behind all these points is this: Be mindful of the timeframe of your novel and be aware of the holidays that may take place. Are there ways you can incorporate them into your story to add depth and conflict? You never want it to be forced, but you may just find that missing piece that will make your novel shine.

Let's talk...What sort of holidays have you incorporated into your novels? Have any lesser-known holidays wormed their way into your stories? What fun twists came to mind as you read this post?

*St. Patrick's Day photo from FreeDigitalPhotos.net
**Mail photo by digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Sarah Forgrave is a stay-at-home writer-mom who feels blessed to pursue her calling and passion. She writes contemporary romance for the inspirational market and is a contributor to the webzine Ungrind.

To learn more about Sarah, visit her personal blog at:
http://www.sarahforgrave.com/blog

How Do you Like Your Stakes?

From The Writers Alley Archives:

So how do you? If we’re talking steaks, I’m a medium well kind-of-gal, but when we’re talking about ‘writing’ stakes. The best way to serve those up is well-done.


What is a stake, you ask?

Well, besides the wooden piece that holds down your tent, or heretics are strapped to, or slays certain toothy-undead, it’s also one of the key elements to create a page-turner novel. It’s the reason readers care.

Stakes increase our empathy, draw us in, capture our hearts, and lead us to the last page. It’s like climbing a hill that keeps getting steeper and steeper until the hiker is clinging to the side of a cliff, barely able to keep from falling down against the jagged rocks below.

You can pick up any great book and see how the stakes for the main character keep increasing until the reader is unsure whether the character will achieve his/her goal at all.

Donald Maas says “high stakes yield high success”

What’s the essence of increasing the stakes? Guiding the readers into as deep a relationship with your characters as you have. Close first person. But that means we have to know our characters intimately – otherwise we cannot describe what we do not know.

So once you know your character what questions should you ask to increase your stakes?

1. What does your character NEED? WANT? Whether it’s to destroy the ring of power, find a husband, an anectdote, or solve a crime – you must know what your character needs most – or wants most.

2. What makes my character freeze with fear? Obviously in the Twilight saga, vampires do not cause Bella to ‘freeze with fear’, but Edward leaving does. So, of course, it has to happen.

3. How can I make my characters needs or wants matter even more to him? (this automatically increases the stakes) For example, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – it is one thing for Indiana to want the Cup of Christ. He’s in the secret cave ready to go and get it. The tension is automatically ramped up when the bad guy shoots Indy’s father and then he HAS to go get the Cup of Christ. First he wants the cup, but the stakes are raised because he needs the cup. Changing the want into a need automatically increases the tension.

4. How can you make your characters suffer? Or place them in danger? (I’m not talking just making them uncomfortable, I mean twist the knife. As sad as it sounds, readers enjoy reading about people suffering to the max…and then overcoming the impossible.)

5. Are there external and internal threats? Your characters have both external and internal goals, therefore they must have conflict in both of those areas too. In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the external threats to Darcy and Elizabeth are Lady Catherine de Burgh, Lizzie’s mother (and sisters’) behavior. Internal threats are Lizzie’s and Darcy’s own personal pride and/or insecurities. Their own assumptions about the other person.

6. Can you write down the stakes in your wip? Do you know what they are?

7. How can you make those stakes higher? How can you make the trouble worse?

8. And even higher? Write it down.

Remember – you must be MEAN to your hero or heroine. Being nice does NOT increase tension. You want to try and push them to the breaking point.

In my wip, my heroine never wants to work in the rural Blue Ridge Mountains again, but as her first job, she’s sent to start a new speech-pathology program at UVA’s satellite campus in the teeny (very rural) town of Wise, VA.

She WANTS to work at UVA, Charlottesville like her dad. (external)

She WANTS to prove to herself she is not like her alcoholic mother, and certainly not dependent on anyone else for her well-being. (internal)

1. She’s in rural Blue Ridge Mountains

2. She makes a wager with her supervisor to turn cattle farmer Reece Mitchell into a high-class, smooth talking gentleman in 6 weeks or her supervisor will present her research at the national convention (which gives her a good boost toward a job in a much better place than Wise, VA) - He's not an easy fixer-upper either. Cute, but far from high-class.

3. She feels an immediate attraction for the cattle farmer – who has no intention of leaving his farm and family to move anywhere else.

4. She has a condescending college Dean who wants to get rid of the satellite program, but the program is the way the heroine (Adelina) will prove herself.

5. By the end, she is almost loses her life because she gets drunk (something her mom would do) and crashed her car into a dam waterway which is filling with water.

6. The final stake is her choice: to stay in Wise with the guys she loves and forego her dream, or give up on this amazing man and go to Charlottesville.

I’m bound to think of more ways to make things worse as I go along, but you get the basic idea.

So what about you? Can you list some of the stakes in your wip? How can you make them worse? And even more worse?

Share – and let us brainstorm a bit with you.

On Finding the "Keeper"

Idea hockey...do you ever play this game?

Check out that chicken scribble in your notebook listing ideas? Shoot them around for a while, but you can never seem to get them to the other end of the field not to mention the goal?

Go to square one. Start plotting again. Get stuck midfield, you're about ready to "pass" on this idea.

I am a computer software plotter. I invested in Dramatica Pro and it was invaluable in plotting as a first-time novel writer.

And this time around I used Dramatica Pro to toss around my ideas and was able to "see" as a result that one of my "great" ideas just wasn't plausible from start to finish.

Whatever method you use to plot, I recommend spending the extra time and perhaps plotting all those ideas you have floating around in there. I have one plotted novel for later, one for now, and one completely implausible story.

So what if you're stuck on the first stage?

Try B-R-A-I-N-S-T-O-R-M-I-N-G as per DiAnn Mills great guidelines. I LOVE this idea about studying the parables of Jesus. Do your stories give meaning and purpose for people's lives? Do they show them tackling a challenging situation?

Brainstorm with a friend. How credible are your ideas? An honest friend will tell you where your plot falls flat and may help you to get out of that place. Rachel Hauck has some great tips for how to get the most out of a brainstorming session.

Picture surfing. When I'm stuck it always helps me to look for the "right" photos to evoke my setting. I also love finding pictures of movie characters that "fit" my character physically (so helpful in writing those descriptions). News stories related to the period of history or topic of my story can have pictures that bring me into the atmosphere of my story.

Become a news junkie. Reading news stories and asking "what if" questions make up the majority of the ideas in my notebook.

Research, research, research. As I start researching new ideas crop up, new characters begin populating my novel, and plot points suddenly begin to converge.

How do you find your ideas? And how do you decide which ones are "keepers"?

Top 5 Tips Writers Can Learn From Reality TV

All right, I have to admit it. I love reality TV. I watch The Bachelor, I watch Project Runway (Allstars is awesome by the way! Anyone see Miss Piggy?). I get caught up sometimes. Not with all of them, but I enjoy these shows.

Maybe you're not a television fan, or at least not reality television, and that's just fine. Because you have ME to tell you writers out there just what it is about reality TV that keeps the fans coming back for more. Or even better, what YOU can take away from reality television and use in your own writing.

Relatable (or Unrelatable) Characters

Yeah, so sometimes I can't really relate to someone who is trying to wow Mr. Bachelor with her stellar flirting skills. But what we weekly watchers can relate to is that these women, or men, on these shows are real people. They're vulnerable. Like when they give you the back story on American Idol and you exclaim, "Oh, man, now I really want Monique to win!" And even we we don't exactly like they way certain people play the game or portray themselves on national television, we still have some sort of emotion toward them. They have feelings, they have aspirations and dreams, and we all know what that's like!

Conflict (or Drama!)

Reality TV is full of drama. Sometimes that's precisely why people DON'T like it. But one thing that's for sure, that's what keeps the ratings up. There's always something in every episode. A family emergency, a new character stepping onto the scene, the past rearing its ugly head in someone's life. Or someone simply showing their vulnerability, having a bit of a break down, and changing the course of the show. We want these things for our stories. We want conflict!

The Unknown

This is also what we want for our books! Reality TV has the penchant to catch us off balance, and that's not a bad thing - particularly not for writing books. There are plenty of times you have no idea what's going to happen and that's a characteristic of a good book. We don't want cliche storylines or settings (which is why I'm seriously going to try hard with my new WIP to NOT write even ONE scene in a coffee shop).

The Unexpected

This kind of goes along with the unknown. This is all about characters. On these reality shows, people have bigger than life personalities, they act in ways we don't expect. Yes, we want our readers to relate to our characters, but we also have to give them insistent personalities. Characters that aren't going to just let life happen to them, but are going to make things happen.

Cliffhangers and Hooks

Oh yeah. Leaving us hanging is a reality (or even regular TV) shows greatest tool. They hook us before commercials and hook us at the end of the show. As someone who isn't fabulous with hooks, I could learn a lot here. Ending chapters or scenes at just the right time, with something for the reader to hang onto, will help keep up pacing and give your readers (like reality television watchers) something to tune in for.

So if you're not a fan of The Bachelor, is this making you want to try it? It's okay if it isn't. We're writers, after all, and we're supposed to be focusing on writing, not TV. After this season is over, however, I'll probably get a LOT more writing done.

What about all you writers out there? Have you learned anything about writing from television, and which tip is easiest or hardest for you in your writing?


***photo courtesy of ABC

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Cindy is a Colorado native, living near the mountains with her husband and three beautiful daughters. She writes contemporary Christian romance, seeking to enrich lives with her stories of faith, love, and a touch of humor.

To learn more about Cindy, visit her at her personal blog, www.cindyrwilson.blogspot.com

What Makes a Scene Magical?

For me, this usually involves a bit of suspense or romance. Gotta love a handsome hero, or a heroine being wooed by that handsome hero. But generally, a scene is made up of a few more basics. A list of elements you want to aim for to make your scene complete and useful to your story as a whole.

Just like your overall plot, scenes need to have a beginning, middle, and end. Here are some elements to incorporate into a scene.

Beginning Hook

Here's our chance to draw the reader into the story or scene with one simple line or paragraph.

Setting

This doesn't have to be extensive, but it's essential to each scene to develop a sense of time and place.

New Revelation, Character and Plot

This is done through revealing new aspects about a character or useful information that helps reveal the plot. As a rule, I try to include one of these (at least one revelation about a character or the plot) in each scene or chapter otherwise I have to evaluate whether or not the scene is necessary to the story as a whole.

Advance Plot

It's our goal as the writer to make our plots fluid and keep up a good sense of pace. Like above, we can do this by revealing information to the reader and make sure that each scene we use is to keep the plot moving for the reader.

Ending Hook

As with the beginning hook, the ending hook is our chance to make the reader want to turn the page and keep reading the next scene or chapter.

Sure, a magical scene has more depth than those basics above. There's dialogue and a good story and that something special that makes you fall in love with the character, but you can't create a full and useful scene without attending to the basic elements.

When you break your story down into scenes, are there specific elements you try to include to make sure that specific scene is useful to your story?

Plot Points from a Pantster

Hi everyone!
Pepper here and I discovered about four months ago that I've been wrong about my...er...pantsterhood. I'm not a pure pantster. Now, there's a lot I still leave up to the 'ride' in writing, but I do have an outline - one I discovered about a year ago and have been using it ever since.

I've blogged about Michael Hauge's The Hero's Journey before, but I wanted to kind of share how that information plays out in my writing life.

Just yesterday a story idea winkled its way into my thoughts. That's how they start. An idea. Yesterday, while I was working on my historical WWI romance, I ran across some cool information. There were three German prisoners on board the ill-fated Lusitania when it left New York Harbor. Now, most people assume they went down with the ship when it sank in less than 20 minutes...but...

what if.....

And, what if a sister of one of the prisoner's was forced to go undercover to try to save her brother...

what if....

I think whether we're pantsters, plotters, or planners - the genesis of a story begins with the 'what if'.

But what happens next?

I usually get a pretty solid beginning and ending in my head, but I don't start writing until I get to know my characters a little. I play scenes in my head, 'chat' with them, add more 'what ifs', long before I start chapter one. I guess I just daydream about them for a little while.

Then.... I take The Hero's Journey.
I try to plot my story out along those lines. Recently I've started typing out internal and external motivation too - so I'll keep it fresh in mind.

So - what does the Hero's Journey look like?
It's a loose outline, which suits my pantster tendencies well, but it gives my ADD brain some nice focus too.

Well, I WAS going to plot out my WIP using the Hero's Journey - but that probably wouldn't be very interesting for you guys - and it would be SUPER long.
So I've just put the outline.
What you do is fill in the outline for your novel and it gives you a basic direction of your plot structure:

Internal Motivation
External Motivation
Moral Premise (if you have one)

Set Up Plot - the regular life of the hero/heroine

Make the Hero's Motivation Clear - what does the hero want? How do you set up from those first few pages to make us 'care' about the hero?

Begin the Hero's Quest - short transition here. Recognition of a change
Change the Hero's Direction (door #1) - The actual change - a decision. Frodo decides to take the ring. Peter, Susan, and Lucy decide to rescue Edmund from the White Witch, Annie Reed decides to research the lonely widower known as Sleepless in Seattle/

Challenge the Hero with Problems - first batch of trouble, gradually becoming more and more difficult to challenge the hero's new choice/direction

Change the Hero's Status (midpoint) - big decision time. Once he/she makes this decision they can never go back to life the way it used to be.

Give the Hero Tougher Problems - more trouble. Bigger troubles.

Let the Hero Suffer Maximum Angst - the BIGGEST trouble. no hope. all is lost. Superman beaten up and weakened by the kryptonite while Lois Lane is dying in an earthquake.

Off the Hero a Transition -  choices become available

Change the Hero's Direction (door #2) Hero makes his/her choice. In the Titanic, Rose must choose whether to live or die with Jack.

Give the Hero New Hope (these next two usually happen pretty close together if not at the same time)
Achieve a Win/Lose Conclusion The choice ends a happy or sad ending. The hero either obtains what htey wanted or don't. In the Titanic, Rose loses Jack but gains her freedom.

Tie Up the Loose Ends - What does the hero's life look like now? How has he/she changed for (we hope) the better?

If you're like me, then I hope this glimpse of the Hero's Journey will give you another guideline to use in your writing plan.
I take this general outline and build from there - usually I let the story take me.

Are you a pantster, plotter, or planner?
Do you have a system/process you use to brainstorm your plot?

Making the Old New: A Family Film Favorite ~ Loving Leah

It’s my mom and dad’s favorite Sunday night movie. It’s such a tradition to the end of their Sunday, my sister has finally quit groaning when she hears Loving Leah is the film of choice.

But aside from just being a really good story, there is masterful characterization and a twist on a tried and true cliché.

I figured many of you would not have heard or seen this movie (it’s a Hallmark Hall of Fame film), but I couldn’t resist hitting a few of the high points that makes this film a favorite.

Breaking a Cliché:

There are many books and movies of convenient marriage. We have most likely become sick of the tried and true Love Comes Softly formula. Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with those stories (they are some of my favorite kind), but HOW you write those stories is what will make you stand out.

Leah Lever is married and then widowed by an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. And now her deceased husband’s brother must marry Leah or his brother’s name will die along with him.

You would EXPECT Jake to forgo his responsibility to his sister-in-law. But his brother was everything to him when he was young. His only option is to marry Leah (aside from the fact he has a serious girlfriend) and they will live like “roommates” until other arrangements can be made.

Already, the screenwriter has changed the normal story of a forced marriage around. By using a religious requirement/restriction we have a different take.

What can be learned? Look for the odd, for the new to make your story unique and different. You can have an old story idea. We all are writing a story that has been written before, it’s depending on how you write it. You’ll probably have to dig, like this writer did with an Orthodox and not so Orthodox Jewish family coming together in marriage, but your story will stick with your reader because it.

Make it complicated

What I love about this movie, is how complicated the emotions become in the story. I’m going to bullet point a few of them.

·         Jake has a steady girlfriend who is just waiting for THE question to be popped.

·         Umm…then he brings home a wife. Not so good for the girlfriend

·         Leah is an Orthodox Jew. Her new husband is not. And Mama does not like this.

·         With pressure from Leah’s mother, Leah and Jake must hold up the façade of their marriage. And that isn’t easy when she comes to visit.

·         Leah is falling in love. With her husband. But Jake is still stuck on the girlfriend.

·         So while we see Leah changing and adapting to Jake’s world, Jake is planning a trip to Jamaica with the girlfriend.

Life isn’t easy for either Jake or Leah at this point. But as the other grows closer together and can no longer deny their feelings, new complications arise.

They are now living as husband and wife, but when the news roles around that Leah’s first husband’s headstone is ready to be unveiled, Jake and Leah are faced with new complications. Which ultimately lead to the black moment and the point of seemingly no return.

The many subplots and layers that run through the story all add depth to the overall plot, which is Leah and Jake falling in love within the bounds of holy matrimony.

What can we learn? When we write our stories, we need to look for complications that will not only add depth to our story, but in some way add tension and drama to our overall plot. If you have a secondary layer in your story that never feeds into the main plot, I would strongly suggest cutting it out and finding something different.

What makes this movie such a favorite in my home is I believe this one fact: the triumph of love over any obstacle.

Which if you look closely, is the basis of a lot of plots today. But the triumph has to be equal to the struggles. We have to have a reason to want that love to fight through the battle to reach the other side. And we have to have struggles that will push our characters, that will leave the reader/viewer cheering or groaning and we have to have an ending that completely satisfies every obstacle.

We have to have the promise that none of those obstacles are going to arise again.

We promise a happy ending in fiction when we start writing or reading a book. That no matter what, these characters are going to come out the other side and be completely changed and new.

But you can’t have a satisfying ending unless your obstacles are challenging, resolved and promised that the characters have grown and changed enough that these challenges can never harm them again.

It’s a promise we have to keep and one we expect. Don’t disappoint your reader, especially in this regard!

Do you have a film that you love, that breaks an old cliché or has a challenging obstacle/ satisfying ending? 

Following the Leader

Part of what helped make most of us into the passionate writers we are today are all the stories that have come before ours. All the romances, adventures, mysteries, and so on. And for me, not only have they spurned a passion for writing, but they've also inspired specific stories.

Yes, I have gotten ideas for my own novels from books or even movies that I've read and seen before. We're all aware that certain storylines are done and redone and done again. Cinderella, for example, and all the others that were based off the story. A woman living with step-sisters, working as the maid of the house, transforms for a time to meet the prince and fall in love. Or even a storyline not so specific. Boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl cannot be together, but alas, they find a way and there's a happily ever after.

There are times when I'll see a movie or read a book and think, "Hey, that was my idea!" Of course, someone else just got to it first. If you're in the same boat as me, there are ways to take a familiar idea and transform it into something different, because no matter how original we are, there are always going to be stories that sound like ours in some way or another and it's up to us to stand out.

There are three key elements that make up a story, giving you three categories in which to change certain details to make the story more your own and more unique.

Characters

Occupations - Giving your character a unique job that helps define their personality and who they are is a great way to get a new twist on a familiar story.

Characteristics/Personalities - Examine characteristics and personalities in a familiar story or the story you've already established. What characteristics or personality traits can you give your character to make them stand out?

Backstory and Current Surroundings - This is your opportunity to develop a unique past that shapes who your character is, and their current situation could have them living in an unusual place next to an unusual neighbor that adds more character to the story.

Secondary Characters - Intriguing characters make readers want to continue reading. Make a twist on familiar characters to freshen them up and add more substance.

Plot

This is where the "what if" question comes into play. If you have a similar storyline, stop it at each plot point and ask "what if". If you're going with the same scenario mentioned above and this is the moment when boy meets girl, ask questions that differ from that storyline. If boy and girl are supposed to fall in love, ask "what if" they severely dislike each other at first. Ask "what if" the thing keeping them apart is something the reader hasn't seen before.

Setting

Give your story new life by dropping it in a unique place. Changing or creating a setting is a fun way to give your story a new twist. Let your characters interact with that setting. Let that setting act as another character for the story and give it its own unique characteristics that will charm readers.


Give a familiar storyline a chance for a unique appearance by offering up these twists. Or even take a storyline you have that doesn't feel full enough and write out each plot point, each character, and the setting, and examine them. Find a twist to help make each category unique and then apply it to your story.

Have you ever had a story idea you've found is familiar or resembles another story you've heard or read? Do you continue with that story, and if so, what do you do to make it unique?

Plotting from Scratch

I work for an elementary school and have the most glorious summers off. Last Friday was my first day of summer and my mind began to return to that creative mode where I mulled over questions like, "What if?" or "How could it work if...?"

Needing a refresher on plot, I searched through my old posts on plot and was reminded of James Scott Bell's book, Plot and Structure. What an excellent book!

In particular, Chapter 3 has a wealth of ideas on how to gather up plot ideas. He has a Top 20 list of ways to get plot ideas that just held me enthralled. Here are just a few:

1. Flip a genre. An example of this would be the old TV show,The Wild Wild West. It is just James Bond set in the Old West.
2. Obsessions. You know, money, looks, ego, etc. Ahab obsessed about a whale in Moby Dick. Create a character, given them an obsession and see where they run.
3. Titles. Create a great title, then write a story to go with it.
4. Steal from the best. Yep, you read right. Bell says even Shakespeare took other's plots and weaved his own magic into them. We've all seen movies with similar plots. Take a plot and ramp it up, make it new, let it sing!

Bell has so many great ideas for generating great and interesting plots. Do you have a favorite way to brainstorm ideas? Do ideas come to you in your normal, everyday life? Or do you sit yourself down and get down to business?

Do You Know What Your Genre Is?

I’ve been thinking about parallels between story-telling and gardening. Both topics are fodder for a multitude of how-to books, workshops and classes. Both writing and gardening can be frustrating sink-holes that eat time and money, or they can reward us with beauty, exhilaration, and maybe even a little monetary gain.







God Himself has dabbled in both endeavors. He’s a God who planted a garden in Eden, and He’s a God who told stories about intriguing characters—the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, the widow who wouldn’t stop pounding on the judge’s door in the middle of the night.






If there’s one lesson I wish I’d known when I first started writing, it’s that it pays to do your homework before you dig in. Part of the homework is discovering your natural bent. Each plot of land has a particular type of soil, a certain exposure to sun and wind, and terrain that’s right for some plants and wrong for others. We wouldn’t plant alpine flowers in a cornfield any more than we would plant corn on a rocky alpine peak.






A writer with a lyrical voice should write in a genre that allows room for lyricism. A writer who enjoys crafting intricate plots should find a genre that supports intricate plots. It’s not that there are right or wrong genres; it’s a matter of finding a good fit. And once you know your genre, you’ll still need to find just the right story to write.






A few years ago, I was e-mailing back and forth with fellow author Sherrie Lord when I was trying to figure out what the Lord wanted me to write next. Sherrie said: “I think He wants you to write what you want to write.”






I love that idea, but there’s also the concept I shared with another friend who was contemplating starting a book. I told her about a fig tree that I grew in a pot in our house in Michigan. For several years, the thing hardly grew, but when we moved to Georgia and I planted it outside, it took off. It even developed an offshoot, so I divided it into two fig trees. (That happens with plots sometimes, too.) The trees were in the perfect location, and they flourished in the sun and the abundant rainfall.






I started getting excited. Finally, after five years in Georgia, I saw the first tiny green figs. My long-awaited harvest began to ripen, and I could hardly wait to taste sweet, delicious figs.






But even when they were fully ripe, they weren’t very sweet. They didn’t have much flavor. They were just . . . okay. No matter what we did to those trees, and no matter how strong and healthy they were, they could only produce bland, semi-sweet figs. All that time, I’d been nurturing the wrong variety of fig tree.






If only I had done my research.






It takes a long time to write a novel. I don’t want to nurture those pages for months or maybe years, and then realize the fruit can never be more than just okay.






Especially when a writer is contemplating a new project, it’s time to think, to pray, to be quiet before the Lord. I still think Sherrie’s right; we have freedom to write what we want to write. God doesn’t dictate our choices, but we need His wisdom to guide our freedom so our fruit will be sweet and full of flavor.

Meg Moseley is still a Californian at heart although she’s lived more than half her life in other states. She formerly wrote human-interest columns for a suburban section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and home schooled for over twenty years. Meg enjoys books, travel, gardening, her three grown children, and motorcycle rides with her husband Jon. They make their home in northern Georgia

The Backstory Backslide

Newton’s Law of motion states, “An object that is in motion will not change its velocity unless an unbalanced force acts upon it.” Let’s not be that force. Let’s not cease the moving flow of our works.

Plot and characters must move forward for a reader’s eyes to do the same.

Some images come to mind when I think of what encountering too much backstory feels like for a reader:

Clogged drain
Dam in a river
Red light when you’re anxious to get somewhere
Kite stuck in a tree
Shot duck

A refresher: Backstory = everything that made your character who he or she is, the tragedies, the triumphs, the lost slipper to kissing the prince. It’s everything that got the MC to the first page of the novel.

The temptation every writer faces is to catch the reader up to speed. Out of kindness we want the reader to be in the know so we squirt an abundance of cheese spray at them. You know what that stuff tastes like—artificial and if we squirt too much we make it so our readers won’t be hungry for more. We Cheez-it.

What’s the fix? One of the best ways to keep fingers flipping pages is to avoid massive dumps of backstory. We need to become intentional about where we splice in the story before the story.

Every time we integrate a character’s history, the psychological or emotional explanation for why they act as they do, we slow the story pace. There’ll be moments to incorporate nuanced complexities of our characters and their motivations, but learning to accomplish this through dialogue, and other nifty tricks will help our novels breathe without the asthmatic frustration of backstory.

In her post about backstory yesterday, Jody Hedlund asked two excellent questions that serve as excellent checkpoints:

Does the information add to the plot?
Will it help move the story along somehow?

Getting in the habit of asking those two questions during the writing and editing process will help move the work along.

And you all know how much I like to move it, move it!

Do you like to move it? And what do you find tricky about backstory? (If you’ve discovered solutions, please share those as well.)

*photo from Flickr

Self-Editing Checklist: Intro and Some Ground Rules

Does the word edit make you shudder like a mom with a pet snake on the loose? Or does the process of moving words around excite you?

It seems like most writers fall into one of two camps: We're either creators or we're editors.

I'll admit I've got a little bit of both in me. But when I'm creating, I usually have to smack my internal editor back into hiding. It's always itching to come out and spruce up the drivel I've created.

Like any good writer, I started out my first self-editing venture using the awesome book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. I opened it up and went to the end of each chapter, using the questions to guide me through my edits.

The problem with this approach was that I kept learning new things on blogs, in books, and in classes that I wanted to add to the list. My solution? Create my own self-editing checklist. Over the next several posts, I'll share with you my 4-page checklist, piece by piece.
First, a couple ground rules.

1) This checklist gets down to the nitty-gritty details of your manuscript. Before you apply these points, I suggest you give your work a read-through and make sure you've hammered as much of your plot and characterization as possible.

2) I don't claim to be the originator of the content I'll be sharing with you. I want to give credit where credit is due. And I'll also urge you to follow up on the resources I share to get the full reasoning behind the points I mention. In fact, I'll purposely keep some things more generic for copyrighted materials so I don't get sued. :) There are some amazing teachers out there who can provide more a-ha moments than I can, and they deserve the money behind their price tags.

With all that said, here's your homework for the next two weeks. What? Did I just say homework? Okay, okay. It's homework if you choose to accept it.

If you have a completed draft that needs self-editing, read through it with an eye solely for the story. Whether you're a plotter or a pantser, make sure you're working with a story that doesn't require complete rewrites. Of course, sometimes self-editing reveals an issue that requires rewrites...That's okay. But our goal is to work with a solid story that's ready for a micro edit.

Got it? Okay. Go!

Where do you put yourself on the creator/editor spectrum? How do you currently approach the self-editing process?

Come back in two weeks for the first official piece of the self-editing checklist!

*Camp photo from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

**Checklist photo by Rawich / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Bell's Pyramid of Plot

I've been reading Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell and it is an excellent resource. Not only does he give you ways to ways to generate plot ideas. He shows you want to do with them. You've got to narrow them down and the way to do it is with the Bell Pyramid.

There are three layers to the Bell Pyramid. We'll start at the base and work to the top.

Passion: A novel takes a long time to write, so you must be passionate about the plot you choose to write about. Rejections abound in the publishing world and many times it is because the work presented is "cookie cutter" work. Writers will follow the crowd and write what is selling instead of writing the book in their heart. You must feel passion about your plot to sustain your writing through the lenth of time it takes to write it.

Potential: You have to consider the possible reach of your plot idea to an audience. The way to do that is to put yourself in the shoes of an invester. Would you want to invest thousands of dollars in a book about cleaning a fish? Hhhmmm. You don't need to write to the largest possible audience, but you do need to focus on a specific audience and write a passionate story to that audience. You want to write romance? What kind? Historical, suspence, contemporary, etc... It is not a rule, but a guideline as you write what you are really passionate about.

Precision: You've found what your passionate about and think the potential is there for a readership following. Now you must trim away anything that is not in line with that potential. If you are writing for suspense, don't get distracted from that focus. You don't want anything to distract from the potential.

How do you decide which idea is the one you run with?

Let It Stew

If you’re anything like me, a fresh idea for a story has the power to sweep you away. I’m all for spontaneous bursts of creativity and I lean toward being more of a pantser than a plotter, but it’s worth it to give a new novel idea time. In the same way a stew grows more flavorful as hours pass, a novel that’s been given time to marinate leaves a lasting taste with readers.

Five Reasons Why it’s Important to Let Your New Idea Stew:

Test your charactersJust as some foods don’t improve the quality of their taste over time, you may find after a month or two of plotting, certain characters aren’t strong enough or exceptional enough to survive in one of your novels. Or you might even decide if they’re grating on you after only one month, if it’s worth it to keep with them through the long publication process.

Measure the plotWhen you cook you pay attention to what you add to a recipe. A plot needs time to develop. This is not to say you need to wait to begin writing until the entire plot is organized. Wonderful new twists have come to me as I’m working on a novel. But, it’s essential to evaluate before you type the first word if you have enough conflict and a compelling idea.

Sift out clichésI took copious notes on two novels I grew increasingly ecstatic about. That is until I reexamined the story lines and saw them for what they were—cliché. I scratched both ideas. The publishing industry is slow moving. Concepts must be unique to make it.

Spice and flavor develops over timeThere are particular nuances when allotted the time to simmer create a beautiful and unexpected blend. In stews and in novels.

One ingredient can’t compare to the deliciousness of an assembled stewTake rice for example, rice by itself is well, it’s okay. But rice in a meaty stew adds to the texture and the flavor. All the ingredients matter in a stew. Time creates that mouth-watering goodness. You might think of a power character, but have you provided him or her with a knock-out story to engage readers?

The next time a novel bubbles and you’re chomping at your gums (I play) to get to it, I say let it stew.

Can you think of other benefits of letting novel ideas stew?

*photos from Flickr

Secondary Characters – Side-Kicks, Friends/Family, and Recipes for Conflict Part II

Welcome to Friday everyone! I want to continue talking about secondary characters today, and discuss what they can do for your novels. In Part I of this post, I explained the four types of secondary characters and their importance to stories. Today, I'm going to review the categories and give a few movie examples of the categories to show the kind of dimension they can add to fiction.

Our first category was The Side-Kick/Loyal Friend. As we established before, these secondary characters are the tag-alongs or the MC's right-hand man. These characters are there for their friend no matter what. They often join the hero in their quest and want to be in the middle of the action. Sometimes these characters can be pets.

For example, D'Artagnan from The Three Musketeers. He's loyal and with the Musketeers no matter what. He won't give up and therefore propels the story with his fearless endeavor to do right.

Also, Marley (the dog) from Marley and Me. Another loyal character that acts as the MC's good friend. Marley's loyalty and penchant for action moves the plot forward and helps to make for a great story.

The Spiritual/Moral Friend (also known as the Self-less Friend) are characters, typically friends or family, who see the good side of things. They see the good in the bad and often make the MC want to persevere. They operate by a spiritual or moral compass that guides them to give the MC advice or encouragement that will benefit them or the greater good. These characters want what's best for the MC and are often willing to sacrifice for the hero or heroine.

Beth in Little Women fits well in this category. She's a strong secondary character that has a great impact on Jo with her optimistic outlook and unwavering friendship.

Also, the MC's good friend and lieutenant in the fire department from the movie Fireproof. He provides crucial spiritual guidance that helps the MC toward the positive outcome of the story.

As far as The Well-Intentioned and Flawed Friend, this character often provides tension release or humor. This character tends to help the hero in ways that gets them into more trouble or elicits more conflict even if they're well-intentioned. Through humor or quirkiness, they endear the reader and the MC but often times they leap before they think.

Two examples of this are the brother, Jonathan, from The Mummy and the MC's friend, Riley, from National Treasure. They're both one of the good guys. One is endlessly causing more trouble for the MC's but he's well-intentioned. The other provides much humor, endears those watching and propels the plot with his knowledge or sometimes lack thereof.

Finally, there's The Antagonist. Sometimes antagonists are secondary characters. When they're used in that capacity, they appeal to readers in some way. This is often by showing some sort of redeeming characteristic or qualities that interest a reader--usually a personality trait such as humor. These characters sometimes redeem themselves or end the story with a selfless act.

For example, Tommy Lee Jones' character from The Fugitive can be considered the antagonist. He's against the protagonist, doesn't care much about who killed the protagonist's wife in the beginning, but he changes throughout the movie.

Another strong antagonist example is Ben Wade, gun-slinger and wanted for murder, from the movie 3:10 to Yuma. He's clearly the bad guy but he has redeeming characteristics, like respectfulness and high esteem for good manners. And by the end, he further redeems himself with a selfless act.

As you can see, these characters might fit into more than one category. But the important thing about them is that they add depth and dimension to a story--something that is important for fiction. They encourage, lend humor or move the MC forward spiritually, even act against the antagonist, in order to progress the plot.

Secondary characters can be powerful additions to your novel and help to present it in a more unique way. Do you give a lot of thought to secondary characters before you add them in your novel? Do any of your secondary characters fit into these categories?

Secondary Characters - Side-Kicks, Friends/Family, and Recipes for Conflict Part I

I love witty or quirky or profound secondary characters. I love secondary characters that move me or make me laugh. Sure, we all want strong wonderful heroes and heroines but most of the time those main characters need a little help to get where they are going.

It wasn't until lately that I realized the importance of secondary characters and just what place they have in taking a book to that next level. Secondary characters fit into so many categories and serve so many purposes. To encourage the hero, to provide moral/spiritual support, to add humor, to help create conflict--secondary characters can sometimes even be antagonists. But all those roles serve a purpose, either to propel the plot, or to provide something for the main character.

So let's take a look at the categories secondary characters fit into.

The Side-Kick/Loyal Friend

These characters are the tag-alongs or the MC's right-hand man. These characters are there for their friend no matter what. They typically join the hero or heroine in their quest and want to be in the middle of the action. They support the hero no matter what their goal. Sometimes these characters can be pets.

The Spiritual/Moral Friend (also known as the Self-less Character)

These are characters, typically close friends or family, who see the good side of things. They see the good in the bad and often make the MC want to persevere. They operate by a spiritual or moral compass that guides them to give the MC advice or encouragement that will benefit them or benefit the greater good. These characters want what's best for the MC and are often willing to sacrifice for the hero or heroine.

The Well-Intentioned and Flawed Character

This character often provides tension release or humor. This character tends to help the hero or heroine in their own way, which can often lead to getting the hero into more trouble. Or it elicits more conflict for the MC, even if the character is well-intentioned. Through humor or quirkiness, they endear the reader and the MC but oftentimes they leap before they think.

The Antagonist

Sometimes antagonists are secondary characters. When they're used in this way, they appeal to readers in some form or another. This if often by showing some sort of redeeming characteristic or qualities that interest a reader--usually a personality trait, such as humor. These characters sometimes redeem themselves or end the story with a self-less act.

Secondary characters can often fit into more than one category and serve more than one purpose. But as long as they're serving a purpose, secondary characters can be a great and beneficial addition to novels. In Part II of this post, I'll be giving some movie examples of these types of characters to get a better feel for the importance of their roles.

How do you feel about secondary characters? Do you use them often and what sort of purpose do they serve?