Get Out of My Way: Guest Blogger Tara Taylor Quinn

I’m delighted and honored to welcome my friend and fellow Harlequin author Tara Taylor Quinn to my blog today. Direct on the heels of her new series from MIRA Books, The Chapman Files, Tara is the author of her own story, the first reality-based romance from HCI Books. Rather than say any more, I'll let her tell you all about it...and how to get out of the way and let your characters tell their story.

Get Out of My Way

I’m not sure when in my writing career I learned the lesson that too much of me was not a good thing – but it’s a lesson I’ve had to learn and re-learn through out the writing of my fifty-five books to date. So many times in life we learn lessons that will serve us later, and I think that was supposed to the be the case here.

Unfortunately I’m not that great of a student and the lesson didn’t stick well enough. So, here I am, just coming off from finishing a book (mailed it to my editor at 7:00pm Friday, December 10, 2010.) And on Friday, December 17, 2010 I have revisions due to another editor, another publisher, on another book. An April release that is due to production. Revisions in and of themselves are not a problem for me. I’m pretty good at them. I actually like them because the pressure is off in terms of making a book happen and I get to just take what I’ve done and make it better. A seven day turn around for me with revisions is comfortable enough.

Not this time. I know, technically, what I need to do to make this book better. To clean it and make it pop in every place not just some places. What I can’t seem to do is find the wheres and hows. I’m in the way. I’m not letting the story flow from that deep place inside me to the page. I’m not even getting to the deep place. Half way down, there I am, all over the place, blocking the path.

This is the one time I really needed to be good at getting out of the way. Because this time, I’m not just the writer who has to put my butt in the chair and type until the words start to flow. This time I am also the heroine, who has to tell me her story.

A few months ago I was asked by HCI books (the original publisher of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books among hundreds of other non-fiction bestsellers) to write my own true life love story. Like all of my books, this story has deep life issues, the healing power of true love, and real happiness. The book, It Happened on Maple Street, is out in April, 2011. And while that sounds to me like a long time away, it’s only three and a half months from now!

So here I am, heroine and writer all in one. We have four and a half days to do revisions on an entire manuscript. One of us is in the way. And this time, instead of it being the writer, I think it’s the heroine.

I’m not panicked, though. I’m a seasoned writer. I’ve been at this long enough to know that panic is not going help. I also know there’s no reason to panic. Writing is an art, it’s a spiritual experience. It involves the deepest connection, the deepest communication, and the deepest trust. As a writer, I have to find out what is preventing the deep communication and tend to the problem. In this case, I already know the problem. The heroine isn’t communicating because she doesn’t trust the writer to tell her story.

Parts of this book are hard. Painful. Not the kind of stuff the flows easily. Not the kind of story you trust anyone to tell.

But I have to trust me to tell it. So I have to find a way to tend to my own mistrust. I’m finding it, oddly enough, in the revision letter that started the current stand off.

This is from the beginning of the revision letter: “This is truly a groundbreaking piece of literary work that is shocking in its raw honesty and starkly poignant in its message. What you have created out of the fabric of your life is sexy and sad, unsettling and moving, inspiring and infinitely compelling.”

So, to my heroine self, I say, I’ve only got four days to make this better. Get Out of My Way!

To pre-order a copy of It Happened On Maple Street and receive 20% off the cover price, one of the first editions off the press, a collector, autographed glossy It Happened On Maple Street poster in time for Christmas, click here: http://vows.hcibooks.com/2010/11/21/romance-author-tara-taylor-quinn-true-story-domestic-abuse-write-true-vows-reality-based-romance/.

Or enter to win a Kindle: http://vows.hcibooks.com/vows-giveways/win-a-kindle-reality-romance-giveaway/.

And to have a chance to win an e-copy of The First Wife, Book One in The Chapman File series that is out now, please leave a comment!

The Rules of Engagement...

The Rules of Engagement...

No, I’m not talking about Prince William and his new fiancé, winsome commoner, soon-to-be-royalty, Kate. Or is it now Katharine? Actually, I could talk about the subject at length because I write romance novels and a tale of a Prince and a commoner falling in love and living happily ever after is a great story. But I won’t because you’ll soon hear more than you ever wanted to hear about the royal couple from the media...and because that’s not what I wanted to talk about. Besides, the Pygmalion/opposites attract theme sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? Cinderella, Sabrina, The Way We Were, Pretty Woman, My Fair Lady, Breakfast at Tiffanys, Overboard, The King and I, African Queen and even Shrek are all variations on that theme, so really, it’s been done to death, hasn’t it.

Actually not. Those stories are, in a way, exactly what I was planning to talk about. The opposites attract/happily ever after stories, while seeming cliché, are timeless. They win readers’ (or movie fans) hearts. They win hearts because they contain certain elements that appeal to wide audiences. They win hearts because the authors followed The Rules of Engagement…and that is what I wanted to talk about.

Never heard of those rules? Me either, at least not formally. So, I’ll go ahead and create that rule right now. The way to make your story win readers’ hearts is to follow The Rules of Engagement.

Readers choose to buy a book because something about it interests them, be it an evocative title, stunning cover, an enticing back cover blurb or can’t-put-it-down first paragraph. Usually, it’s a combination of all of the above, and when that happens, the reader becomes engaged. But only temporarily. Our job as writers is to continue engaging…and that’s where The Rules come in.

I’m not a fan of rules in any art or craft…other than you have to know them in order to break them, but I absolutely believe certain elements must be present at the beginning of a story in order to engage the reader. Hence ... The Rules of Engagement. Not being a rule lover, I confined my rules to only those I feel are absolutely necessary. In order to engage a reader immediately, your story must have:

1. A sympathetic character the reader can identify with, worry about and root for
2. Empathy – universal emotions that the majority of readers can relate to
3. Emotional urgency – important action that hooks the reader instantly. The reader must know up front what’s at stake...what stands to be lost? In other words, conflict happens immediately.
4. An interesting setting – the setting enhances the emotion and tone of the story.

Notice anything about the above rules? They all involve eliciting emotions from the reader. Feelings are what keeps us engaged. In order to be truly engaged, the reader needs to be actively concerned about a character’s sanity, safety or soul. The reader must be interested in the story outcome. If that doesn’t happen-–if the reader doesn’t care what happens to the character, why read on? When I find myself reading a story I normally wouldn’t read, it’s because I care what happens. My emotions have been engaged. As authors, it’s our job to make the reader care about what happens.

Think about the best books you’ve read recently. Do they have all the elements above in...say...the first three to five pages?

BOOT UP YOUR WRITING CAREER ESSAY CONTEST!

In conjunction with the Scottsdale Fall Library Conference, New York Times bestselling author Christina Skye is sponsoring a contest where the lucky winner will win a 4-course writing package of choice at Bootcamp for Novelists. (see http://bootcampfornovelists.com for details)

To enter, participants must submit a 100 word essay on the question: What will it take to Boot my writing career to the next level? Send entries to ckflynn@cox.net by November 17th. The winner will be announced during Christina Skye's keynote address at the conference and you must be present to win.


THE DESERT ROSE FIFTH ANNUAL FREE FALL WORKSHOP SCOTTSDALE CIVIC CENTER LIBRARY
NOVEMBER 20, 2010 FROM 9:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.

Come see what the buzz is all about and learn from industry professionals.

The stellar line-up includes:
Keynote by New York Times bestselling author Christina Skye
Laurie Schnebly Campbell
Denise Domning
Donna Hatch
Gini Koch
Annette Mahon
Cathy McDavid
Erin Quinn
Vijaya Schartz
Amber Scott
Pamela Tracy
Kris Tualla
Carrie Weaver

Hope to see you there!
* Don't forget to enter the essay contest by November 17th!

Ann Voss Peterson on Pacing...

Guest blogging today is my good friend, award-winning author Ann Voss Peterson, who pens intense, emotional suspense and thrillers for Harlequin Intrigue. With her 23rd nail-biting Intrigue, A COP IN HER STOCKING, now on bookstore shelves, I think it’s safe to say Ann has mastered the art of suspense – and I’m delighted to have her here to chat about one of the most important writing techniques in a writer’s tool kit. Welcome Ann!

Thanks for inviting me, Linda!

Today I’m going to tackle a bit of a thorny topic but one that’s near and dear to my heart. Pacing. It’s one of the last things you master before you can write a book of publishable quality, and for good reason. Pacing can be tough. Is the story too slow? Too fast? What is just right?

There are a lot of articles out there featuring lists of tips and tricks for speeding up novel’s pace. If the story slows, kill someone. Add a ticking clock. Keep a secret. But I believe it’s more important to understand the WHY behind something than to just stick in a trick here and there. So in trying to understand pacing, I wanted to know why some prose feels fast and some feels slow. And this is what I came up with.

Pacing isn’t about speed.

That’s right. Pacing doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with how fast the action unfolds on the page. Think about it. We’ve all slogged through novels that felt either slow or sketchy and undeveloped. And it has little to do with genre. There are plenty of frantic thriller novels that feel as if they’re moving as fast as a glacier, just as there are literary novels or family dramas which don’t have a lot of exterior “stuff” happening, yet leave us breathless. So if a novel’s pace isn’t about speed, what IS it about?

The secret to pacing your novel is making the reader NEED to turn the page.

Well, I just happen to be a reader. I’ll bet you are, too. So in my quest to understand pacing, I asked myself what makes ME want to turn the page, and here are the four things I found.

1. Sequence: I turn the page to uncover what happens next. Stimulus and response.

2. Conflict: I turn the page to discover who wins.

3. Delayed Gratification: I turn the page to learn the answers to my questions.

4. Escalation: I turn the page to see how on earth the protagonist gets out of this mess!

That’s it. The secret to pacing. Those four concepts. Don’t believe it could be that simple? Think about the tips and tricks I mentioned above. If done right, killing someone is going to provide conflict. It’s also going to give those story stakes a boost (escalation). That’s why it can make a slow area feel faster paced. But it only works if the murder does those two things. If it doesn’t effect the stakes or if it doesn’t increase the conflict, it’s going to muddy your story instead of making the reader need to turn that page.

How about the other two tricks? The ticking clock is an example of escalation. The characters had to do something in your story (right?), and now they have to do it in a very short time span. Keeping a secret is an example of delayed gratification. The reader has to race through those pages to find out what the secret is or to see it revealed to another character. And of course, the character’s reaction to that secret is her response to a stimulus...sequence!

I give a workshop on how to use each of these things to improve the pace of your story in everything from the construction of sentences to the structure of the entire novel. Obviously that would make for an overly long blog post. :) So instead of me telling you ways to use these concepts to make your prose and your story FEEL fast, you tell me.

What makes you NEED to turn the page in books you read? Are any of these tips and tricks examples of sequence, conflict, delayed gratification or escalation?

To catch an example of the way Ann paces her novels, pick up her 23rd published novel, A COP IN HER STOCKING, a Harlequin Intrigue in stores this October. Also check out Ann's website at www.annvosspeterson.com

The Case for Older Heroes...

Older heroes? First it’s Bruce Willis who at 55 plans to take out the bad guys in his next Die Hard movie. Yes, number 5 is in the making. Hmm. Maybe Willis is trying to prove that old guys actually do die harder? Then there’s Sylvester Stallone, 64, and some other …uh, shall we say, more mature, compadres who seem to have heard the call. The Expendables recently hit the screen, featuring none other than Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Stratham, Jet Li, Willis and the Arnold himself--all a bit older than the usual action star. Willis and Schwartzenager only had cameo parts, but it’s still a well-rounded cast of aging action heroes. As a writer longing to feature heroes who are a tad older than my sons, I have to ask, are readers willing to get involved in stories with older men as the heroes? If the box office is any gauge, then the answer looks like a big “yes.”

And the guys above are not alone. Red, another movie with “older” action heroes will soon be released. The movie also stars Bruce Willis...along with several other mature actors. Now, I can suspend my disbelief long enough for a laugh as an aging Willis takes out a helicopter with a car (Die Hard IV), but I don’t know if I’m ready for a barrage of geriatric action heroes. Maybe it’s a case of denial…or the fact that all the older heroes seem to be presented as funny. I don’t know. Anyway, I had to check it out.

The movie Red is a parody of over-the-hill- action heroes based on the cult DC comic’s graphic novels about a team of geriatric ex-CIA Agents. Red stars not only Willis, 55, but also Helen Mirren, 65, Morgan Freeman, 73, John Malkovich, 56, Richard Dryfus, 62, and Ernest Borgnine, 93. Really? I mean…really? Okay—the success of the novels alone is enough to make me curious...and after seeing the movie trailer, I have to say, I can’t wait to see it!

And that’s what brings me to ask...are readers ready for older heroes in a traditional romance novel? I say, given a good story, anything goes. But because of the type of books I write, my heroes are almost always in their early 30s, meaning 31 or 32. The only truly “older” hero I’ve written was in my first book--one of my most successful, btw. The hero turned out to be the little girl’s grandfather. Granted, he was a young grandfather, but he was over 40. I’d like to do a little more of that.

That’s not to say I haven’t read some romance novels with older heroes here and there. I have. But it's not the case in “most” of the romance novels I’ve been reading. And, fact is...I like my heroes well-seasoned. I like them to know what the world is all about. While I don’t see older heroes, say in their 40s and, gasp, 50s, becoming the norm for the traditional romance genre, I like them, and it would be nice to see a few more here and there.

What do you think? Do you like your heroes well-seasoned? In a well written novel, will die- hard readers of traditional romance embrace older heroes? This inquiring mind wants to know.

The Five "Ps" of a Successful Writer

As a young girl growing up in Minnesota, none of my childhood friends shared my dream to someday write a book. They thought I was silly and told me "real people" don't get to be writers. The adults in my life offered great advice, too. Writing wasn't practical, they said. Very few people can actually write a book. Instead, I should learn to be a secretary...or get married and have a family. That's what women did back then. Although I did see the merits of gainful employment and did do some of that over the years, as well as getting married--I never lost my dream. I persevered until I finally made the dream come true.

Now it seems almost everyone I talk to has a dream to someday write a book...and why not? Just living gives us all a lot to write about, and these days, there are more venues than ever to learn how to do it...and to get a book published. So, listen to your inner writer and go for it!

Start with an idea. Start with a goal. Decide what you want to write and then just do it. When I first started writing, I saw a list somewhere called “The Three Ps for Writers. I thought the list was great, but it missed a couple of important points, so I made a P list of my own. The Five Ps of a Successful Writer. I tacked it up by my computer screen and over the years have found it a helpful reminder, not only for writing, but for most things in life.

Since then, I’ve written 17 novels, had 13 published, and another is in the works... and I still keep the list nearby. If you’re thinking about writing, maybe the list can help you.

1. Purpose – successful writers need a purpose. It doesn’t make sense to spend hours and hours of your time writing something that has no purpose. Each of us will have a purpose that’s unique and personal. It might be that you simply want to see your name in print, or maybe you believe you have an important story to tell or, perhaps, you want to share some advice or make a social comment. Maybe your goal is to make the New York Times Bestseller list or, conversely, you simply like to string words together? For most writers, it’s a combination of the above. Whatever your purpose, I firmly believe that defining it can set you on a path to make it happen.

2. Passion – do you know of any successful creative writer out there who isn’t passionate about what they do? Passion is the driving force behind the words we put on paper. A writer’s passion shows in his voice and the authenticity of his prose. Passion is the reason one writer helps another, even though, in essence, we’re training our competition. Passion keeps us going when the words don’t come and the mountain seems insurmountable.

3. Persistence – not one author that I know was born published. And very few published writers I know have ever popped out a book in a weekend and then saw instant publication. Statistics show that in the traditional publishing world, it takes most writers an average of five years of writing and four-to-five completed books before getting “the call.” Persistence is related to more than time, however. To hone your craft, you need to keep writing. You need to persist in all areas whether it’s going to workshops on writing techniques or learning about the industry.

4. Patience - rejection from editors and agents is the norm, and taking it in stride is part of the road to publication. For some, the road is longer and more difficult than others, but few will deny the exhilaration when you reach your destination. And then, of course, it’s only the beginning and more patience than ever is necessary.

5. Pleasure – never forget why you write. You can’t have passion without pleasure and for most writers that pleasure comes from the beauty of the words and phrases we put together to create the story we want to tell. Writing is fun when you’re playing with words and looking for new ways to say the obvious. It’s fun to see our thoughts, ideas, characters and full blown stories come to life…and then give someone else a few moments of pleasure.

Whether you’re writing a story, memoir or non-fiction, it’s putting the words on paper that’s important. When someone else reads it and smiles, that’s the proverbial frosting on the cake.

Linda's Corner: When the Bad Guy is the Good Guy...

Linda's Corner: When the Bad Guy is the Good Guy...: "I recently saw a movie in which the bad guy was the good guy, and I wondered how well they were going to make it work. Aside from a few writ..."