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.

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 writerly nits, I thought it worked beautifully. “The Town” co-scripted, directed by, and starring Ben Affleck, worked in every way. Going back to my last blog for just an instant, I could easily feel the authenticity in the story and that’s because Affleck created a story about a place he obviously knows and loves. Everything about the setting, dialogue, and characters rang true.

Okay, back to making the bad guy the good guy. The story involves a bank heist and the kidnapping of one victim. Instantly, in the first scene at the bank where the bad guy touches the victim’s trembling hand as she tries to open the safe and tells her they’re not going to hurt her, he becomes a tad more interesting. Not sympathetic yet, but my interest is sparked. As the story progresses, little by little, small, sympathetic actions are woven in, and with each piece of information, the bad guy becomes more sympathetic. In the end, we know he’s absolutely the bad guy, but we’re rooting for him anyway.

Later, I couldn’t help thinking how we’re called upon to do this all the time in our stories, but many times we miss the mark because we “try” to make the character sympathetic. What I mean is…the character shows no authentic emotion or sympathetic character traits until we decide to toss some in. In order to make our characters real, their emotions must be reflected in all parts of the character’s life, not just when he’s with the heroine…or when the heroine can see him doing something good. We must show the protagonists' relationships, in his emotions, in dialogue, narrative, action and in all points of view.

In the movie, the BG/GG hero had a push/pull relationship with a friend/partner in crime, a guy so tightly wound you could almost hear his nerve endings snap, crackle and pop. This dude was clearly not in control of his anger issues, and when the story showed the protagonist in conflict after his friend killed a guy, my immediate response was to question whether BG/GG really "was" a decent guy underneath in all. I would’ve ratted the bad friend out in a heartbeat. But as the dialogue between the two went on, more and more about their relationship was woven in…until I could easily understand...and empathize with the conflict the BG/GG was going through.

The movie confirmed for me the importance of weaving emotion into all parts of our protagonists' life. When we do that, the emotions feel real and natural. It isn’t only bad good guys that need sympathetic qualities, either. The good guys need them, too. No protagonist is sympathetic just because he/she is the hero of the story. And a great story without a sympathetic protagonist only goes so far. Readers are interested in interesting (sympathetic) people doing interesting things. Whether the protagonist is the good guy or the bad good guy, creating a sympathetic character allows the reader to relate emotionally, which creates empathy for the character and compells the reader turn the next page to see what happens to him. And that's what we as writers should always strive to do.

Interestingly enough.... “Infusing Emotion in Your Story” just happens to be the next class I’m teaching at Bootcamp for Novelists. Yeah, funny how that works, isn't it. :-) Some of the things we’re touching on in this class are:

Infusing your story with emotion
*Purpose
*Necessary Elements
*Know your character’s crucible
*The emotional journey – the character arc
*Emotions – Natural vs Forced.
*Different strokes for different folks.
*Emotion in scene & sequel
Techniques to infuse emotion
*Affective Memory
*Emotion in Dialogue
*Emotion in Narrative & Internal Monologue
*Emotion in Action
Emotional Checklist

I love teaching this class, so come join me and learn how to infuse your story with emotion! Classes begin October 3rd, so check them all out at http://www.bootcampfornovelists.com/.


Connie will be teaching the well-received "Punch Up Your Prose" as well as her exciting new clinic "Surviving Rewrites and Revisions" later in the month. These are classes everyone can benefit from, no matter what stage of your writing career.


And…last but not least, our Author Spotlight features the wonderful and talented guest author, Denise Domning, who will be giving you gobs of information on premise and theme in "How Socrates Can Help You Write a Romance.