Adventures in Writing

(Back story) High-powered defense attorney Lauton O’Brien hires Gard Gardner to protect his daughter Desta if one of the organized crime lords or killers he defends decides to go after him or his family.

(Book plot) Lauton realizes one of his clients is out to kill him. He sends Desta and information about who is out to kill him to Gard, and he disappears. Desta comes by boat to Gard’s lake home. The boat blows up with the information, but Gard saves Desta.

Desta and Gard go on the run with hired killers hot on their trail.

At first glance, the plot sounded great. Lots of action, adrenaline, scary bad guys, and a perfect situation for two people very suited to each other to find love and a happily-ever-after.

Then I realized the plot had a fatal flaw. The two main characters spend the whole novel reacting to what others are doing to them. Reaction is passive, and passive creates less than stellar main characters and a much weaker book.

I needed to give the characters a goal which is active.

I wanted to keep the hired killers hot on their trail, but I decided that Gard and Desta weren’t running away, they were working toward their goal -- following clues to find Lauton so they can figure out who is trying to kill them then stopping that person so they can have a life together.

When you are creating your main plot, you also need to be sure that your main character or characters have an active goal instead of being swept along by circumstances or by someone’s actions against them.

Make them heroes, not victims.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Links of Interest

HOW TO WRITE THE FIVE STAGES OF GRIEF:

http://thewritepractice.com/writing-grief

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR BETA READERS:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/06/questions-for-your-beta-readers-and-to.html

CONFLICT VERSUS TENSION:

http://www.thewritersalleyblog.com/2015/06/conflict-vs-tension-guest-post-by.html

SHORT STORY MARKET, MAINLY FLASH:

https://horrifiedpress.wordpress.com/open-for-submissions/

MICROREVISION:

http://howtoplanwriteanddevelopabook.blogspot.com/2015/06/micro-revision-working-from-small.html

POV ERRORS, ANOTHER CHARACTER’S THOUGHTS:

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/most-common-writing-mistakes-pt-41/

HOW ACTIONS DETERMINE CHARACTER AND ARC:

http://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/06/how-actions-determine-character-and-arc/

TWITTER SECRETS FOR WRITERS:

http://positivewriter.com/twitter-secrets-for-writers/

THE PERIL OF EMPTY DIALOGUE:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/06/talking-on-empty-perils-of-empty-dialog.html

PROTECTING YOUR LAPTOP OR TABLET AND YOUR WORK:

http://www.publishingcrawl.com/2015/06/08/writing-insecurities/

MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN WRITING ABOUT THE MILITARY:

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2015/06/08/7-mistakes-to-avoid-when-writing-about-the-military

A SEARCH ENGINE THAT IDENTIFIES IMAGES:

https://www.imageidentify.com

TURNING OFF YOUR INNER EDITOR:

http://www.thewritersalleyblog.com/2015/06/tips-for-turning-off-your-internal.html

CREATING AN AUTHOR NEWSLETTER:

http://janefriedman.com/2015/06/09/email-newsletters-for-authors/

CONFLICT 101:

http://thewritepractice.com/conflict-101

DEEP POV, WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO DO IT:

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/deep-p-o-v-part-one-what-is-it-how-do-we-do-it/

FINDING THE RIGHT CRITIQUE GROUP OR PARTNER:

http://janefriedman.com/2015/06/10/find-the-right-critique-group/

HOW TO SPOT THE BAD BOOK AWARDS CONTESTS:

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2015/06/awards-profiteers-how-writers-can.html

THREE LITERARY DEVICES FOR STRONG WRITING:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/06/three-fun-literary-devices-to-make-your.html

WHAT TO SHOW AND WHAT TO TELL:

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2015/06/10/show-dont-tell-what-to-show-and-what-to-tell

Monday, June 8, 2015

The Problem with Avoiding Formula

One of the pluses mentioned by authors who self-publish is that the author isn’t trapped by the formula insisted upon by the big publishers.

Unfortunately, many don’t realize that this formula is more related to what the reader wants than what the publisher demands.

I’ve been reading a bunch of self-published books, and I’m seeing this problem with surprising frequency.

For example, I started a paranormal cozy mystery series. The heroine sees ghosts and solves their murders so they can rest in peace. A cozy mystery tends to be laid back with an amateur sleuth who uses nosiness and intelligence to figure out the murder. Violence and the gross elements (the dead body, blood, etc.) are usually off page until the very end when the amateur sleuth faces the killer but prevails.

In one book in this series, the amateur sleuth is heading to a Western ghost town which is now a restored tourist destination. She falls asleep and dreams about a ghost taking her to the local town where she meets the sheriff and discovers that a little girl and her family have disappeared, probably trapped in a mine or lost in the desert, and the little girl is in deadly danger.

After the amateur sleuth wakes up, she arrives in town and discovers her dream was accurate. The hotel is exactly as she dreamed, and the sheriff is the person she dreamed about. People know the family she dreamed about were there, but no one realizes that the family is in trouble.

At this point, you’d expect the amateur sleuth to tell the sheriff about the little girl in danger and to do everything in her power to find her. She does not. Instead, she acts like this is her standard cozy mystery and begins a very slow and casual investigation while enjoying her vacation.

Later, she meets the owner of the hotel who knew the family had expressed interest in exploring dangerous mines in search of treasure. The hotel owner finally realizes the family may be in trouble but won’t tell the sheriff. The amateur sleuth then gives her three days to tell the sheriff or she will. All this while the young family may be trapped in a gold mine or the desert without food or water.

I was screaming at the main character at this point as well as the writer who took a thriller plot and inserted it into a cozy then failed to follow through with the changes. Needless to say, I haven’t bought any of her other books.

Another novel with a weird mix of amateur sleuth and thriller had the amateur sleuth trying to solve a crime while the police and FBI were attacking it from another angle so its plot resembled a regular deck of cards with a UNO deck shuffled in. The frustrating mix not only destroyed whatever tension and mystery existed by giving away too much information, but it alienated readers who prefer thrillers or amateur sleuth mysteries.

Romances with other elements like a mystery or the paranormal often lose sight of the romance and let the other genre drive the plot. Part of this problem is poor branding or a misunderstanding of what a romance is.

If you want to break the rules of a genre, you must understand them first as well as the audience’s expectations and then, very carefully, make your changes so that they make sense within the genre or genres. Then you must brand the book as the correct genre or genre cross-mix so you find the right readers for your book.

Those rules about formula are there for a very good reason.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Links of Interest

THE PROBLEM WITH HAVING A REALLY LONG MANUSCRIPT:

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/word-count-woe-what-should-you-do-with-your-very-long-manuscript/

LINKING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:

http://www.thewritersalleyblog.com/2015/05/linking-your-social-media-platforms.html

BE FLEXIBLE AS YOU PLOT:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2010/03/be-flexible.html

SEVEN MAJOR WORLD-BUILDING GOOFS:

http://mythcreants.com/blog/the-seven-worldbuilding-sins-of-storytellers/

POV EXPLAINED:

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2015/06/01/choosing-a-p-o-v-what-is-best-for-your-story-structure-part-9/

WRITING SUBTEXT:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/06/a-trick-for-writing-subtext.html

REACTIVE VERSUS THE PASSIVE PROTAGONIST:

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/passive-protagonist/

CREATING AN AUTHOR WEBSITE:

http://writerunboxed.com/2015/05/31/how-to-create-a-website-as-a-writer-without-it-costing-you-both-one-arm-and-one-leg

CREATING GREAT VILLAINS:

http://www.tor.com/2015/06/01/bea-villainous-tropes-writing-panel-recap/

CREATING A CHARACTER PORTRAIT:

http://thewritepractice.com/character-portrait

DEVELOPING POV AS VOICE:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/06/developing-pov-to-develop-voice.html

TIPS ON DESIGNING A BOOK COVER:

http://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/06/designing-a-book-cover-that-tells/

HOW TO SHOW THE STORY INSTEAD OF TELLING IT:

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2015/06/03/how-writers-can-be-storyshowers-instead-of-storytellers

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST CYBER BULLIES:

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/brave-new-bullying-how-to-protect-yourself-from-cyberbullying/

Monday, June 1, 2015

Commas Save Lives

I’ve been reading lots of self-pubbed authors recently, and one of the biggest comma errors I’ve seen, even in those works that have an “editor,” is a missing comma when someone addresses another in dialogue.

For example:

RIGHT: “John, where are the apples?”

WRONG: “John where are the apples?”

A humorous example that recently has been circling the grammar and writing sites is

RIGHT: “Let’s eat, Grandma.”

WRONG: “Let’s eat Grandma.”

These sentences not only are funny, but they are also a good way to remind yourself to put in that pesky comma when you are writing dialogue.