Panel: Meet the Romance Author

COME INSIDE AND MEET:

Dyanne Davis

Shelia Goss

J. S. Hawley

Dara Girard

Ayn Hunt

Roberta DeCaprio

Devon Vaughn Archer

Rhonda Jackson Joseph

Andrea Jackson

Panel: Meet the Christian Author

Come Inside and Meet

Marilynn Griffith

Nikki Arana

Michelle Larks

Susan May Warren

Marlo Schalesky

Jill Nelson

Cecelia Dowdy

Linda Beed

Stacy Hawkins Adams

Joanna McGee Bradford

Panel: Meet the Mainstream Author

Come Inside and Meet:

R. Barri Flowers, Bettye Griffin, Marissa Monteilh, Margo Candela, Karen Duvall

Panel: Meet the Erotica Author

Come inside and meet:

Zane, Celine Chatillon, Andrea Blackstone, Deatri King-Bey, Koko Brown

DISCUSSION: What makes you throw a book against the wall?

Discussion: What makes you throw a book against the wall?

Have you ever thrown a book against the wall?

What do you hate to see in a heroine or hero?

Tell us what makes you disappointed in a book?

DISCUSSION: Do you have a site for readers?

Tell us about your site. Leave a link so we can visit.

WORKSHOP: Palibra.com & the Digital Age of Self-Publishing

New Website Set to Revolutionize the Publishing Industry

Palibra.com's innovative approach a hit with writers and readers worldwide!

Los Angeles, CA (June 2007) – The product of a late-night brainstorming session between two childhood friends has sparked the latest revolution in the publishing industry. JCM Entertainment co-founders Edwardo Jackson and Curt Midkiff have recently launched Palibra.com -- a website that many are calling the "iTunes of publishing" as it allows authors to post works immediately for download by interested readers.

According to Jackson, a well-respected author of three widely published novels, "We came up with the concept for Palibra.com in the midst of one of our marathon brainstorming sessions where we asked how can we create a platform where writers and readers can connect online? From there, it all came together in the form of this site which is allowing authors to publish their original works instantly for readers to enjoy!"

Palibra.com is a site where any author can post their work and any reader can download that work for only 99 cents. Each post is called a Narrative, limited to 8,000 words, and is free to post. Readers are also free to join and browse the first 250 words of most Narratives before purchasing to download.

Inspired by our current on-demand society, Palibra is the evolution and a revolution of the publishing industry. As of August 25, 2007, nearly 600 authors have posted 1800-plus Narratives in over 30 different genres for over 1.3 million hits since its debut. Among its posted authors are Essence bestsellers Karen E. Quinones Miller, Lolita Files, and Gloria Mallette, as well as critically acclaimed author Kenji Jasper.

Current marketing includes posts on MySpace, Facebook, Craigslist, and Google AdWords. First time users are allowed to visit Palibra and receive a free Narrative upon registration. An informative three minute Powerpoint presentation detailing Palibra is also available onsite at http://www.palibra.com/how-it-works.

ABOUT JCM Entertainment

Formed in 2001 by Edwardo Jackson & Curtis Midkiff, JCM Entertainment, LLC is an entertainment and promotional marketing company that has specialized in the field of publishing. Under its JCM Books publishing division, JCM Entertainment successfully published and promoted Jackson's third novel I Do? as the imprint's debut offering. Palibra was created out of a desire to further promote Jackson's work to an increasingly Internet-savvy audience.

Join the Revolution!


Palibra

http://www.palibra.com/

a division of JCM Entertainment, LLC

Creative Design: Black Butterfly Consulting (http://black-butterfly.com)

Site Design: Maresca Web Services (http://marescawebservices.com/)

Stop by Palibra and view their presentation, then come back and ask Edwardo a few questions.

WINNERS - DAY TWO

WINNERS

Patricia W
Dyanna
Shoba
Rose
Joylynn
Linda Beed
Sheila Lipsey

Doorprize winners please pick from the list below for your prize. First come first serve, send me three choice just incase first isn't available - sormag@yahoo.com
Please make sure you send the email you registered with to claim prize.

1 one year subscriptions Hope for Women magazine
LaTara Ham-Ying

My Husband's Girlfriend
Cydney Rax

Call It What You Want
Rhonda Jackson Joseph

The Street Life Series
Kevin M. Weeks

Wedding Planner Mysteries
Deborah Donnelly

Donna M. Brown: The Essence Of Innocence...Undeniable Betrayal...Unforgiven Love
Donated by Lee Charles

Can I Get An Amen
Natalie Dunbar

UNDERNEATH IT ALL
Margo Candela

DAY TWO – ADVANCE WRITERS

Welcome to the second day of the conference.

To enter the rooms, click on the links.

Conference Rules (please read first before entering rooms)

How The Conference Works

Did you miss a day?

Panel: Meet the Editor - Monica Harris - Dorchester African American Romance, Stacy Boyd - Harlequin

Panel Discussion: Networking - LaShaunda C. Hoffman, Dyanne Davis, Shelia Goss, Nikki Arana, Ayn Hunt, Tee C. Royal, Andrea Jackson, L. Martin Johnson Pratt

Workshop: Editing/Revision - Host: Leigh Michaels

Workshop: Deep Point of View

PROMOTION Room

MIX AND MINGLE Room

Prayer Room

PRIZE WINNERS
DAY 1

Don't forget to win a prize you have to leave a comment in one of the rooms. This includes you lurkers, can't win if you don't post.

*I suggest you write your comment in word then cut and paste that way you don't lose it.

If you have any problems, send an email to sormag@yahoo.com

ENJOYING THE CONFERENCE?

WINNERS - FIRST DAY

FIRST DAY WINNERS

First to register -Marti Tucker

Last to register -K-obannon

First to comment - Shani

First panel to comment -LaConnie

Chicki
Rudell
Sandra
Melissa
Ladystorm
LeTessa
Shoba Mano
AK
Bob MedK
Andrea
Trisha
Shopgurl 37
Rae Lindley

Doorprize winners please pick from the list below for your prize. First come first serve, send me two choice just incase first isn't available - sormag@yahoo.com
Please make sure you send the email you registered with to claim prize.


NEW WRITERS – Doorprizes

1 one year subscriptions Hope for Women magazine
LaTara Ham-Ying

NEVER ENOUGH
Angela Winters

The Street Life Series
Kevin M. Weeks

Between the Devil & The Deep Blue Sea – Romantic Suspense
Darline Dorce-Coupet

Roses are thorns, Violets are true
Sheila M. Goss

WHO WILL HEAR MY SCREAMS (2)
Anna Dennis

THE PUREST OF PAIN(2)
Anna Dennis

Special sneak previews of ONCE UPON A PROJECT
Bettye Griffin

Book by
R. Barri Flowers

Prodigal Child in e-book format
Shoba Mano

Book
By Brenda Novak

Where Souls Collide
Stefanie Worth

UNDERNEATH IT ALL
Margo Candela

The Aura of Love
Kathy J Marsh

ebook - Secrets Lies
Sylvia Hubbard

DAY ONE – NEW WRITERS

Welcome to the first day of the conference.

To enter the rooms, click on the links.

Conference Rules (please read first before entering rooms)

How The Conference Works

Panel Discussion: Debut Writers - Roxanne Rustand, J. S. Hawley, Michelle Larks, Jill Nelson, Margo Candela, Carmen Leal, LaConnie Taylor-Jones

Workshop: Basic Writing - Host: Dee Stewart

Workshop: To Plot Or Not To Plot - Host: Barbara Custer

INTRO: Debut Authors

MIX AND MINGLE Room

Prayer Room

Don't forget to win a prize you have to leave a comment in one of the rooms. This includes you lurkers, can't win if you don't post.

*I suggest you write your comment in word then cut and paste that way you don't lose it.

If you have any problems, send an email to sormag@yahoo.com

ENJOYING THE CONFERENCE?

WORKSHOP: Deep Point of View

Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the workshop on Deep Point of View. I trust you’ll come away with a grasp of a skill that takes a step beyond the basic understanding of POV.

First of all, let me introduce myself. I write under my full name: Jill Elizabeth Nelson. My reason is simple, the domain name Jill Nelson was taken. I write romantic suspense for the “inspirational” market. Two books in my To Catch a Thief series—Reluctant Burglar and Reluctant Runaway—have been released through Multnomah Publishers, an imprint of Random House. The third releases in January under the title Reluctant Smuggler. If your curiosity is aroused, your can find out more at http://www.jillelizabethnelson.com/.

I was bitten by the writing bug in the sixth grade, when I penned—er, penciled—my first novel. Well, it was more of a novella, but I did finish it, and that’s a watershed moment for any writer. However, not a word of the manuscript still exists, and the world is grateful. Since then, I’ve worn the hats of poet, essayist, journalist, and short story-teller, but my favorite chapeau is novelist.

Now to begin the workshop. Our first lesson will cover basic POV information, and then we will move on to interactive lessons on Deep POV. Please read through the Lesson One material to help you identify the POV you are using in current WIP (work in progress). Here’s your first assignment: Please introduce yourself by your given name, initials, or Internet name, then tell us the genre book you are currently working on, identify the type of basic POV you are using, and feel free to post a question or make a comment.

I will post a fresh lesson every couple of hours in the comments section. Each segment will contain an opportunity for you to participate in discussion, carry out an assignment, or submit a sample of your writing for evaluation. Let’s dig in and have fun!

LESSON ONE: BASIC POINT OF VIEW

Some stories simply beg to be told in First Person, where the viewpoint character is “I.” A story told in first person requires that nothing can be heard, seen, or experienced except through the eyes of the character telling the story. However, a first person narrative does allow for that viewpoint character to skip ahead in the story, and make a comment like, “If I had known . . .,” because obviously this character survives to the end of the book in order to relay the narrative. An example of superbly handled first person narrative is Moby Dick. In contemporary usage, chic lit is often written in first person because the sassy voice of the central character can be so clearly portrayed. For excellent examples, check out books by Kristin Billerbeck. Many detective novels are also written in first person. Brandt Dodson has a wonderful series out in that vein.

Most books are written in some variation of Third Person, where the viewpoint character is “he,” “she,” or occasionally “it” (if you’re writing sci-fi or fantasy).

One possibility within third person narrative is omniscient point of view. Basically, this is a story told about a cast of characters by an all-knowing narrator. Rarely is this point of view done well, and never by a novice writer. By its very nature, omniscient point of view keeps readers at arms length from the characters, making it difficult for readers to care what happens to the people or creatures in the story. Not a desirable state of affairs for a novelist.

Another possibility within third person narrative is single point of view. This choice requires the author to remain inside the head of one character throughout the book. Single point of view creates an excellent opportunity for readers to identify with the POV character and thus be drawn into the story. A drawback is the limitation in what can be shown “on stage,” so to speak. Events that happen outside the POV character’s experience must either be told to him or her by another character or found out in some other way after the fact.

A more flexible possibility within third person narrative is multiple point of view, or telling the story from the viewpoints of two or more characters. This way, the reader can know more about what’s going on than what can be conveyed through the eyes of one character only.

A novice writer may attempt to use this POV to hop rapid-fire from one character’s head to the next. Thus the term “head-hopping”—in the literary realm, a crime nearly as awful as head-hunting. LOL. This method sows confusion rather than the intended goal of informing the reader of everything that’s going on in the scene. A few—very few—published authors do “hop” from one character’s head to another within the same scene. Even fewer do it effectively. Not a good choice for the unseasoned writer.

Multiple point of view works best if the writer limits the number of point of view characters to two, or at the most, three throughout the book. Any more than that and the writer again risks losing reader identification. Also, the writer does herself a favor if she remains in one character’s head for the duration of a scene or perhaps a whole chapter, depending on the flow of the storyline. A writer should master this technique BEFORE seriously attempting other types of POV.

Craft is a discipline as stern as boot camp. Those who are fluent in the rules are the ones competent to know when and how to break them. For the purposes of this workshop, I will speak as though we are all working in third person point of view, either single or limited multiple. The techniques of Deep Point of View work best in this environment.

Here’s a preview of what’s to come:

Lesson Two – What is Deep POV, and how will it help my writing?

Lesson Three – Examples of Deep POV contrasted with basic POV

Lesson Four – Telltale words or phrases that pinpoint places needing deep POV

Lesson Five – Submit segments of your work for teacher evaluation and class discussion

*These lessons will be posted in the comment section later in the day*

Jill Nelson
http://www.jillelizabethnelson.com

We CAN Promote Our Books! - marketing blog for writers - http://canblog.typepad.com/canbookmarketing/

Reluctant Burglar, Available Now!

Reluctant Runaway, Available Now! - watch a video trailer at http://www.jillelizabethnelson.com/tcatbooks.shtml

Reluctant Smuggler, January 2008Multnomah Publishers

PROMOTION ROOM

This is the room to promote your new book, business or website. Introduce us to you, your product or site.

Feel free to post an excerpt or links.

Panel Discussion: Networking

Panel members, please come in and introduce yourself and give us some great networking tips.

Attendees feel free to ask questions.

PANEL: MEET THE EDITOR

Come inside and meet:

Monica Harris - Dorchester African American

and

Stacy Boyd - Harlequin

WORKSHOP: Editing/Revision

…“It Simply Sounds So Stupid….”
OR,
what to do when you have to critique yourself

One of the great truths about writing is that it’s much easier to see the flaws in someone else’s work than it is to pick them out in our own. That’s why critique groups are so helpful, particularly to the beginning writer.

But sometimes you just have to do it yourself.

How can a writer take a long honest look at her own writing? It’s difficult—because when we go back to read the words we’ve put on the page, we not only read the actual words, but we relive the emotions we felt as we were writing. We see the characters in our minds. We hear them speak. Unfortunately, our reader doesn’t have access to our emotions, our vision, and our inner ear—so she can only read the words on the page. That’s the advantage of a critique group. (At least until the group reaches the point where each member knows the other’s stories so well that it’s just like working on her own.)

So how do we judge whether we’ve truly conveyed the scene to the reader? How can we tell whether the story works?

TWENTY QUESTIONS

If you can, put your story away for a few days—even a few weeks – before you start to revise. When you read it again after a break, you’ll be better able to judge what works and what doesn’t. And you’ll be more likely to see whether the words on the page actually evoke the meaning you intended to share with your reader.

When it’s time to take a look at what you’ve written, to figure out what’s working and what isn’t, and to create a plan of attack for revising, here’s a sort of checklist to use as you reread your work.

This in-depth checklist covers all the main sections of the romance novel, and it will help you spot areas where you’ve lost the thread of your story, told too much too soon, or left out crucial information or steps in the development of the plot or relationship.

You can use this list at any stage in the writing process to help keep you on track, or as a guideline when you’ve finished the manuscript.

The more you can distance yourself from your story and pretend that someone else wrote it, the better this checklist will work for you. Try pretending that you’re a book reviewer and you will have to give not only your reaction to the story but the reasons for your opinions.

1. How does the story start? What do we know about the main character by the end of Chapter One? What do we not know and want to? What do we know that we don’t need or want to?

2. How many pages into the book does the plot action begin? When do we meet the second main character?

3. What forces the hero and/or heroine to stay in the situation? If being around each other makes them unhappy, why doesn’t one of them just go away?

4. What keeps the hero and heroine apart? Could their disagreement be solved if they sat down for a real conversation?

5. Is the conflict personal? Concrete? Sympathetic? Important to both characters and to the reader? Can the reader picture herself or someone she loves caught up in a similar difficulty?

6. Is the disagreement between them strong enough to keep them apart despite their attraction?

7. How much does the reader know about what both hero and heroine are thinking? At what point in the story does the reader know that the heroine is seriously interested in the hero? At what point in the story does the reader know that the hero is seriously interested in the heroine? After this point, is the excitement level in the story maintained, or does it drop off?

8. Does the reader get to savor the excitement? Listen to the arguments? Watch the action? Or is the dramatic potential of the story summarized?

9. By the halfway point of the book, have we met all the major characters? If they haven’t actually come on stage, have we been told about them?

10. How many secondary characters are there? Can some of them be eliminated or combined? Can some of them be reduced to labels—the waitress, the receptionist—instead of names and descriptions? How much do we know about secondary characters, and is this information important to the story?

11. Are the main characters’ actions and words consistent with their personalities, their professions, their upbringing, and their previous experiences?

12. Is the point of view consistent throughout the story? If a second or third point of view is used, does it appear early and with some regularity throughout the story? Does the point of view of secondary characters creep in where it shouldn’t?

13. Does each scene and each chapter begin by setting up the location and time frame, identifying the viewpoint character, and creating an interesting hook? Does each scene and each chapter end at a point of interest where the reader will find it difficult to stop reading?

14. Of the total number of pages in the manuscript, how many show the hero and heroine interacting together? How many show them in the same room but not interacting?
What is the longest time (in page count) that the hero and heroine are separated?

15. Does the reader see a relationship developing between hero and heroine? How much time—how many pages—do they spend kissing/flirting/making love? fighting? just talking? Do the hero and heroine get cozy too quickly?

16. Are the love scenes appropriate to the type of romance? To the personalities of the characters? To their circumstances (for instance, the amount of privacy the couple has)?

17. Is sexual tension maintained throughout the story? When do we see attraction between the characters? Is the sexual tension diminished or increased by the love scenes?

18. Do the main characters themselves bring about the ending without the interference or manipulation of other characters? How do they do so?

19. Is the ending satisfying? Are the good guys rewarded and the bad guys punished? Are all the loose ends tied up and all the puzzles solved?

20. Will the reader care what happens to these characters?

WHY HAS MY PROJECT BOGGED DOWN?

Every time I’ve had a project bog down (and after eighty books I’ve had plenty of experience in the swamp), it has been for one of five simple reasons. Furthermore, in every unsuccessful, unpublished romance novel I’ve read in contests or classes, at least one of the Big Five has poked up its head.

So if you’re having doubts, or your story doesn’t seem to be working, take a look at these five possible causes.

-1-

There isn’t really a conflict, or the conflict between the main characters is a misunderstanding rather than real disagreement about substantial issues.

The romance is not the plot—and so a story which features two people who are fighting an overwhelming attraction to each other, but doing nothing else, is unlikely to hold up for the necessary number of chapters.

Real conflict involves important issues. What’s at stake? What do both hero and heroine want, but only one can have? What do they both want so badly they have to work together to get it?
When you have real conflict, your characters have lots to talk about. When you don’t, they may argue till doomsday but their conversation doesn’t lead anywhere.

Symptoms of this malady include:

Circular argument. A real discussion will develop, and the characters’ convictions will waver and change as the antagonists explain their positions. (If it’s only a misunderstanding, explaining their positions would solve the problem in chapter one.)

Characters who argue but don’t simply talk to each other.

Coincidental interruptions. Just as hero and heroine are about to get to the truth, the phone rings or someone comes to the door or another character happens to say something that perpetuates the wrong impression—so the misunderstanding lives on for another day. While it’s a common plot device, if you’re using it regularly, the underlying conflict is probably too weak to support the story.

Not enough at stake. The characters’ goals aren’t important enough to make the reader believe that they deserve a story. I know women who get bent out of shape about their husbands’ shirts and ties not matching, but I don’t want to read about them.

Unrelated disasters. Throwing in earthquakes, car accidents, and broken bones fills space but seldom develops conflict or advances the plot. Does every incident move the story forward?

-2-

The hero and heroine aren’t realistic and sympathetic characters, or they aren’t behaving in realistic ways.

If the heroine’s past experience with the other woman has shown that the other woman is a liar, but the heroine believes her anyway, we have a main character who is not only illogical but downright aggravating. If a character is a cop who, when he’s off-duty, doesn’t observer his surroundings, he’s acting unrealistically. If hero and heroine act on their very first meeting as if they’ve known and hated each other for years, they’re not believable characters. If they behave badly toward each other throughout the story, especially without adequate reason, they’re not sympathetic. If they show nothing but distaste for each other until they fall into each other’s arms on the last page, they’re neither sympathetic nor believable.

Symptoms of this malady include:

A heroine you wouldn’t want to befriend. If she isn’t someone you’d want to know, odds are your reader won’t either.

A hero you wouldn’t want to be married to. (Notice that I didn’t say a hero you wouldn’t fall in love with. Being attracted to someone is one thing, but he has to be more than handsome and sexy to have lasting appeal.)

Characters who are out of balance. If the hero is aggressive and the heroine weak, or the heroine is pushy and the hero passive, the story is apt to trail off. In a good pairing of characters, the hero and heroine will be roughly equal in strength and assertiveness.

Telling the reader about the characters instead of showing them in action. If they’re not realistic, sympathetic, and believable, it will be difficult to bring them to life—and thus easier to write about them rather than show them interacting.

Unmotivated opposition. The hero shouldn’t try to prevent the heroine from getting what she wants (or vice-versa) simply to be nasty. Both characters are more sympathetic if there’s a good reason for their opposition to one another.

Wandering or unclear viewpoint. It’s hard to identify with more than one character at a time, especially if it isn’t clear whose head we’re supposed to be in, and the result is often a lack of sympathy for all the characters.

Too much internalization. We hear all about the character’s thoughts—more than we want to know—but we don’t have any reason to care.

Cutting sarcasm, or arguments which are filled with anger to the exclusion of opinions and logic. When name-calling takes place, it’s hard to like any of the people who are involved.

-3-

There isn’t anything forcing the main characters to stay in the situation.

If he dislikes her (even though he thinks she has a great body), and she detests him (even though he’s quite a hunk), why doesn’t one or the other of them just walk away? In real life, when we encounter people we don’t like, we tend to avoid them unless we’re forced by such things as business or family ties to deal with them. The same is true of heroes and heroines.
What makes it necessary for the hero and heroine to stay in contact long enough to discover their attraction? If you can’t state in one sentence why your hero and heroine need each other, perhaps the force needs redefining.

Symptoms of this malady include:

Hero and heroine who have little to say to each other. If they’re talking about nothing, maybe they need more of a reason to be together.

Characters who are motivated to oppose each other by petty irritation rather than by real issues. Are they just sniping at each other rather than discussing a substantial problem?
Characters who are too cozy and comfortable together. If they get along so well, what’s keeping them from solving the main problem?

Hero and heroine are often separated. If they’re not in the same physical space, they’re not forced to interact. If the hero and heroine are apart, thinking about each other rather than being actively involved, how can their feelings for each other develop?

-4-

The romance is not kept at the heart of the book.

The other parts of the novel—the mystery of the missing money, the child in need, the past history of hero or heroine, the sub-plot involving secondary characters—are sometimes more fun and are often easier to write than the real-time interaction between the main characters. But the reader wants to see a developing relationship—fondness, trust, liking—between the characters. The rest of the story, crucial as it is, serves as the background for the romance.

Symptoms of this malady include:

Main characters who don’t seem to have anything to talk about, or who argue rather than ever just talking.

Hero and heroine are often separated by the circumstances of the plot.

The plot is over-complex. Too many events or too much space spent explaining the details of the missing money or the child in need means less time for developing the relationship.

There are too many people in scenes. Even in a packed auditorium, you can isolate your two main characters by moving them off to a corner or letting them carry on a whispered private exchange. If they aren’t alone together, it’s more difficult for feelings to develop.

Getting off the track. Side issues become more important than the main story, and everybody—author, characters, and reader—forgets what the goal of the scene was. Or we get the family history and in-depth views of secondary characters, distracting us from the main story.

Interference by other characters. Whether this is intended to create trouble between the hero and heroine or to bring them together, it takes the focus off the main relationship. The hero and heroine should solve their own problems.

-5-

The story isn’t well-told.

The author hasn’t been able to put words on the page in a spellbinding way. The actual words on the paper do not convey to the reader the images which the author saw as she wrote.

She may be summarizing her story, telling it instead of showing it. Or the sentences may simply not be clear, so the reader has to deduce what the author meant. Or she’s left out details necessary for the reader’s understanding. Or the action may be shown in the wrong order, leading to reader confusion.

Symptoms of this malady include:

Slow starts. The first chapter might consist of the heroine reflecting on her past and what has brought her to this stage in her life. Often this is valuable information, but it’s in the wrong place. By starting with action instead, you give the reader a reason to care about the character, and then she’ll sit still to hear about the roots of the problem.

Peaceful endings. Chapters or scenes which end with the heroine drifting off to sleep without a care are a wonderful place for the reader to do the same thing.

Rushed dramatic action. Watch out for clues like “later”, “after a few minutes”, “when she’d had a chance to think it over” and other indications that the reader is being told rather than shown what happened.

Wandering viewpoint. The POV shifts back and forth for no good reason, or it’s difficult even to figure out who the viewpoint characters is.

Random dialogue. Instead of giving important information, the dialogue focuses on everyday detail (lots of “Hello” and “Goodbye” and “How do you like your coffee?”)

Below-standard grammar and mechanics. Anything which takes the reader’s attention off the story and forces her to figure out what the author really meant makes it easier for her to put the book down.

THE SELF-CRITIQUER’S TOOL KIT

When it’s time to actually do the work of revising, here are some techniques to try.
Give yourself a break. Don’t try to write and edit in the same session. The two jobs are very different, and trying to switch back and forth can drive you crazy and make you think that there’s something wrong with a section that in fact is perfectly fine.

Give it a rest. Let your writing sit for a few days, if you can—without looking at it—before you try to decide what’s good and not-so-good about it. The more distance from the writing, the more able you’ll be to forget the wonderful things you were thinking while you wrote it and look at it from the reader’s perspective.

Use hard copy. A few rare people can edit efficiently on the computer screen, but for most of us the words have more reality when they’re printed on paper. It’s more final and more important—and difficulties (not only typos but story problems) stand out more clearly in a hard copy.

Read it fast. When in doubt about whether a story is working, lock up your pens and just read it straight through. You’re trying to absorb the whole story so that inconsistencies and plot holes can’t elude you. I often take the manuscript onto the treadmill—since I can’t make notes while I’m walking, I’m forced to just read, without fiddling and getting distracted by details.

Read it onto tape. The act of reading a section aloud will tell you whether your dialogue is natural (if it isn’t, you’ll find yourself changing the words, or else you’ll feel stiff). Listening to the tape will help you tell if the story pacing is good, if the characters are likeable, and if the point of view is straight. If you were listening to this tale as you drove across country, would it keep you on your toes or put you to sleep?

Get out your colored markers. The more the merrier. Highlight dialogue with one color, introspection with another, narrative with a third, attributions with a fourth, description with a fifth. You’ll quickly see whether you’ve overdone the story-telling, internalization, attribution, or description, and whether the proportions of the manuscript are right. If there’s a lot of dialogue in the first half but less in the last half, you may have shifted from showing your story to telling it.

State your conflict in one sentence. What exactly do your hero and heroine disagree about? If you can’t state their major reason for opposition succinctly, you may have a lack of conflict or a misunderstanding instead of a real conflict.

State your force in one sentence. What’s keeping them from walking out on each other? Why do they need each other?

Keep a time sheet. The longer I work on a section of the story, the more boring it seems. But sometimes it’s not the action that’s getting tired, it’s just me getting tired of the action because it’s been taking up so much of my time. By keeping track of the actual time I spend on each scene, I can keep myself from getting discouraged when the story doesn’t move along as fast as I’d like.

Leigh Michaels is the author of 80 contemporary romances published by Harlequin Books and is a six-time RITA finalist in Best Traditional. She is also the author of On Writing Romance (Writers Digest Books, 2007) from which this workshop is adapted. She teaches romance writing classes on the Internet through Gotham Writers’ Workshop, www.writingclasses.com.

Did You Miss A Day?

If you missed a day and still have questions. Post them here. I can't promise they will be answered, but if the panel member is still participating, maybe they'll take a moment to answer your questions.

PANEL: Debut Writers

Panel Discussion: Debut Writers - Roxanne Rustand, J. S. Hawley, Michelle Larks, Jill Nelson, Margo Candela, Carmen Leal, LaConnie Taylor-Jones,

What to expect when you get the call?

What happens after the book hits the shelf?

What you wished you knew before becoming published?

Panel Members, please introduce yourself and tell us what it feels like to be a debut writer.

Attendees, please leave a question in the comment section.

INTRO: Debut Authors

Are you a debut author for 2007?

Please take a moment to tell us about your new book.

Leave a blurb and your website in the comments.

WORKSHOP: To Plot Or Not To Plot

Introduction:

First, I would like to thank you for having me on your panel. My name is Barbara Custer, and I ask that everyone call me Barbara. The Mrs. business makes me feel old. On the forums, my friends know me as Popple. The people whose submissions I've rejected may call me something else, but that's another matter (smile). Overall, I find that the writers, poets, and illustrators that I work with are very nice people. Night to Dawn Magazine features dark fantasy short stories, usually with the vampire theme. Some of the stories are actually horror, but in today's parlance, you can't say the word "horror." Most publishers prefer “dark fantasy” instead. That said, most of the elements in this workshop can be used for other genre and mainstream fiction.

If you asked your buddy to describe his favorite story, the description may boil down to one sentence like, "it's about a guy who stumbles out of the bar and finds a sickly beggar in the alley, only the beggar is an alien who feeds on people. The guy wants to run for help, but he had one drink too many, and the creature goes after him with a plasma gun..." Your friend is describing the story's plot, the character's movement from point A to point B., and finally the resolution. Your story, whether it's a short story or novel, will begin with the premise that says "what if?"

Having an idea:

Let us say that your story's idea came from an article that you read in a newspaper. Perhaps someone has stumbled upon a mangled body in an alley behind a bar. The police failed to turn up any suspects. Was it a mob hit? Did something other than human get to that person? Was it a strange animal or even something from outer space? The writer has to fill in the details. Have the victim's friends noticed any strange visitors? Have they observed odd behavior among their drinking buddies? Perhaps the creature had been hiding underground for a while until a human shot its mother on sight. Perhaps its food supply was running low. Now this alien wants to seek revenge by cannibalizing humans...

And thus, you have your story's premise.

How then, can you get a good idea? Entirely new ideas are as rare as precious gems. Literary submissions are rife with clichés: the injured person who finds out he was made on another planet, mirror stories, malicious machines, abused women who mutilate men, weak, helpless heroines, the house that's for sale too cheaply, the secret attic, and so on. Reading different varieties of fiction, including those outside your genre, will lend flavor to your work and show you what has already been done to death. If you must write about stock characters (the police officer, nurse, etc.), add qualities that will make them unique. If you don't involve yourself with your characters, the readers probably won't either.

Another way of capturing original ideas is by writing down your dreams... or nightmares, depending on your genre. One time, I had a killer nightmare, and I wrote it out in longhand. The idea went on to become a published tale.

The curtain call:

Your story should open up with a great narrative hook. When I read a magazine submission, the opening paragraph will give me a strong idea as to whether or not I will accept a story. And for a short story, the conflict had better start on page 1. With a novel, you have more leeway. Perhaps you could introduce your character in the first chapter. Perhaps your protagonist had the granddaddy of all fights with his wife, lost his job, and decided to get away from his troubles at the local bar. Of course he was distracted when he went to the alley. He could've been thinking about his wife, or wondering about the night's baseball scores. Perhaps he had an interest in weapons, science fiction, or some other interest that would make his reaction to the alien believable. But when it comes to getting published, a compelling first sentence means the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Examples of some great narrative hooks:

"Moans and wails echoed through the upper floor of the old two-story house. Ear-piercing shrieks punctuated the bedlam." Valerie Hoffman.

"On the night that I was born, my paternal grandfather, Josef Tock, made ten predictions that shaped my life. Then he died in the very minute that my mother gave birth to me." Dean Koontz

"Today I watched a man die." Tess Gerritsen

"The sky was an immense, inverted bowl of gray clouds that arched from one flat horizon to the other." Robin Cook

"The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years—if it ever did end—began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper, floating down a gutter swollen with rain." Stephen King

Example of a bad first opening: "It was a dark and stormy night..." or any variation of the same sentence.

Oh, that sagging middle…

So what comes next? It's not enough to have a killer beginning only to saddle a reader with a drab middle and end. Think about what your protagonist would logically do. Even if your hero is cockeyed drunk, his actions have to make sense. Will he sober up and try to defend himself? Will he even believe that the visitor is a real alien? And let's suppose that the alien is merely frightened? What then? If your protagonist runs and starts screaming like a ninny, you don't have much of a story to tell. You need to be able to weave his reaction (and the alien's) into what needs to happen to advance the story to its climax.

Any event, no matter how extraordinary, may not be so compelling if it happens to John Q. Public, but it will certainly grab our attention if it happens to someone whose life is most likely to be affected. So set the stakes high. Let's say that our protagonist discovers that his teenaged daughter snuck out on a date at that same bar. She stands in the alley, getting air, and never knowing that she’s directly in the path of the invading alien. There you have it. You've given your protagonist the motivation to fight that alien, drunk or no. But the alien has telekinetic powers, and he’s moving fast. Will our protagonist make it to his daughter in time to pull her from harm’s way? Or will the hostile alien block his exit? No matter how the conflict turns out, the protagonist's life will be changed forever. He may later decide he wants to give up drinking. He may make peace with his wife. He may estrange himself from his family and join a monastery.

But suppose our protagonist is a borderline nutcase, driven to drink by his shrew of a wife. Perhaps she cheats on him and demeans him every chance she gets. Perhaps she turns up at that same bar and steps out into the alley for a smoke. Now that alien might become a tool rather than a threat. If the protagonist does nothing to intervene, the alien might fry his wife with his disintegrator. No one would be the wiser; the police would assume that the wife was another victim, and our protagonist would get off free.

This particular choice will decide what will happen between beginning and the end. Perhaps your protagonist could lure his wife out for a couple of drinks. Will he get her there in time for him to push her out into the alley and escape without being fried himself? Your readers may root for this woman or hope that she fries, but they will definitely want to know what happens.

Finding your characters:

Before you decide which way to plot, or how the story will end, create your character first. Stereotyped characters make a dull plot. So start with your basic idea: a guy stumbles out of the bar and finds a hostile alien disguised as a sickly beggar. Before you go any further, get to know your characters.

Let's take "the bad guy", for instance. That is the alien. What is his goal? Does he want to seek revenge for his mother's death? Who will be the most likely opponent for this alien? If the initial meeting takes place in a crowded city, your choice for a hero will be a lot different than it would be if it took place at a watering hole in a rural setting. If the story took place on another planet, then we’re talking astronauts and space shuttles. So now, you know where the hero lives, you know what he does for a living. But you’re not ready to plot yet. First, you’re going to become best friends with your hero.

It may cross your mind to construct a character from someone you know really well, like a coworker or relative. At best, you could cause hard feelings, and at worst, you’d have a libel suit. If you’re going to do this, use a different name and incorporate character traits from other people into your character. From my experience with Twilight Healer, I will say that the temptation to draw from people you know is strong. I did my best to pull traits from other people, but some of my friends did say, “Oh, you wrote about so and so.” I'm happy to say that I didn't cause any hard feelings.

Have breakfast with your character, find out his favorite color, his idiosyncrasies, his family ties, his faults, and his secret thoughts.

Capture a description, that is, the scar on your character's cheek, the mole on his chin, the greenish hue in the eyes. One way to do this is by cutting out magazine pictures and using them to give your character’s features. After you’ve got your face, move onto the basic personality type: temperamental, joker, lovesick, romantic, power-hungry, and so on. The name will tell you a lot about the character, and you will want to make your choice count. I would like to recommend Writer’s Digest Character Naming Sourcebook, which will give you the literal meaning behind names in different languages. There are also websites available that does this. You could give your character a nickname without using it.

The character’s physical traits will tell us a lot about how he will handle that alien. If he's wiry and athletic, he will probably be able to run for his life and make it. If he's only 4 feet tall, he may have a decent chance at hiding. If he’s heavy, the weight will slow him down, and you can use that to tweak up the tension. Does our character find another way to escape, or does he try to fight the alien? Does he die trying?

Speaking of getting around, what does your character use for transportation? The choice of transportation will tell you a lot about him. Does he drive, bike, or take a bus? Does he drive a brand-new Rolls Royce or a beat up ’90 Chevy? Is it clean or messy? Clothing: new, used, expensive, cheap, clean, dirty, or tattered? How about his family history? Does he get along with his relatives? If he's tight with his relatives, he may worry about their safety and be motivated to fight. Who is his best friend? Where did he grow up?

Does he live in a one-room apartment, a condominium, shack, on the street, or in a mansion? What are his political thoughts? If he favors free use of guns, he will likely be carrying one and use it to defend himself. What are his hobbies and talents? (He doesn’t necessarily have to be good at his hobby.) Does he enjoy his job? If not, and his boss frequents that bar, perhaps he might push his boss in the alien’s way. What are his favorite foods? Does he watch his calories and carbs, or is he a sweets / junk food addict? Is he health-conscious? Does he smoke and drink? How much? What does he do when he’s upset? Does he play music, shop, talk to friends, go for a walk, go to a counselor, etc?

You’ll want to give your hero a lot of flaws. Is he rude to people? Does he lose things? What tension there would be if the alien was at his heels, and he lost his keys to his getaway car! What is his worst habit? Does he curse or act uncouth? What does he do that offends others?

You should be running up to a two or three page characters sketch for your main protagonists. You must be wondering if you're going to use all this information? Of course not. What you're trying to do is to get to know your character well, so you can easily plot your story. Getting to know your character will give you an idea of how he will react to the invading alien. By now, your character should be talking to you and telling you what he's going to do to get out of Dodge. You'll want to do similar things for your villain too. Your alien may be the monster in the story, but maybe somewhere along the line he has a soft quality. Perhaps he sees a sickly child, and he's moved to pity enough to help the child. That would definitely color the flavor of your story, especially if the child became a central character. You will want to keep your character sketch handy so you can refer to it as you go on plotting your middle.

Cluttering the plot:

The middle section can get awfully dicey. I'm struggling with the middle section on a book that I'm writing now, and I said more bad words over it than I care to remember. There's a temptation to introduce a lot of subplots, little conflicts, so I can keep the story going. Yes, the alien in the alley is real, he's carrying a plasma gun, and he means to kill. But there is a werewolf attacking a bunch of people inside the bar. Well, unless the werewolf is connected with the alien somehow, and also in the resolution in the story, he has no place at the bar, the alley, or even the story. Short stories will deal with one major conflict, best started on page 1. The alien is angry; our protagonist has to get out of the alley and somehow manage not to get shot. In the novel, you have room to develop the character a little bit more. For example, what motivated his decision to run or fight? But bringing anything outside the scope of your premise, like werewolves, zombies, prostitutes, or anything else will only serve to unravel your plot, and wreck your suspension of disbelief.

When you wrap it up, you decide the ending. Does the protagonist live or die? Does he lure his wife to her death? Whatever you decide, the ending has to come out of the conflict. You're cheating the reader if you have an "it was all just a dream" ending. Every now and then, I get submissions with this kind of ending. Another way of cheating the reader: our protagonist snatches his daughter to safety. There's little time left, and it turns out that she isn’t his daughter after all; she's an impostor who is actually an alien. Another way of cheating the reader: our protagonists in the alley and the alien…you know. And then suddenly your protagonist whips out his own plasma gun. See, he's an alien disguised as human. Get it? The end.

Endings like these will only ruin your suspension of disbelief and discourage the chances of getting your story published. And when you're wrapping up the story, you need to tie up the subplots as well. In a short story, the climax happens when our protagonist survives his confrontation with the alien—or not. Perhaps our alien has no resistance to human bacteria and our hero use that against him. Perhaps the shooting sets the bar on fire. Will our hero survive? In a novel, you will see with your hero's life will be like afterwards. Your character should have gone through a change of some sort. In a short story, though, you only see your character walk away from the wreckage of the bar to whatever adventures lie ahead of him. Although, probably next time, he will want to do his drinking at home and avoid back alleys.