Recent Revelations

Recent revelations:

On Saturday, Oct 19, 2019 I attended my RWASD meeting in which HelenKay Dimon was the speaker.

She’s such a gifted best selling author and brought much food for thought to her lecture on beginnings, which she stressed applies to the whole story. I’ll share a little:

1.      Ground your story with setting, place, and tone, with tone being the most important. A story can start without the other two. The tone is the author’s voice. What are you trying to accomplish in the story. A consistent tone should carry through all the character changes to the very end. This sense of forward movement should also include hooks. Your theme should be felt ideally, subconsciously by the reader.

2.      What’s your book about? Knowing this guides your decisions about what kind of descriptions and dialogue fit.

3.      A hero or heroine should be compelling not necessarily likeable (especially in the beginning).

HelenKay Dimon is the outgoing President of RWA, a lawyer, and prolific novelist. Go to https://helenkaydimon.com for more.

Damon Suede is the president elect for RWA and he tells a similar story in his lectures and books but with his own personal twists. First off, my publisher recommends Verbalize by Damon. But if you prefer first to watch a 45 minute intro of his book and the man go to Damon Suede Creative Pen and click on video. His pops up first.

The video is a wild ride through the artist’s mind, a genius, if you ask me. He’s gifted, loquacious and thought provoking. Get to know this talent. He wants you to use better and transitive verbs as if you were adding spice to a recipe among other points. Take the reader on a consistent journey of unified tone, voice, and theme.

He’s a firm believer in the value of listening to your story via audio aids as a way of validating its strength for the reader and making improvements based on what you hear. This means, he said she said may not be best. This, to me, is radical but I can certainly find ways to diminish the amount of he/she saids. I have ordered the book and will let you know if I got anything wrong and what else I learned. Start with the video.

His next book, Activate is a well crafted thesaurus of transitive verbs useful to any author who likes to spice his or her stories. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1945043059/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Free ebook on writing by Sandra Gerth

Highlights of Show, Don’t Tell by Sandra Gerth, a free ebook that has won awards.

Red flags for telling:

1.      Conclusions

2.      Abstract language

3.      Summaries

4.      Backstory (there’s right place for this in the novel, generally later and spread in small pieces)

5.      Adverbs

6.      Adjectives

7.      Linking verbs (i.e was/were/is/are/felt/appeared/seemed/looked etc.)

8.      Emotion words (angry/surprised/amazement/confusion etc.)

9.      Filters (saw/smelled/heard/felt/watched/noticed/realized/wondered/knew etc)

To turn telling into showing:

1.      Use the five senses

2.      Use strong dynamic verbs

3.      Use concrete nouns

4.      Break activities into smaller parts

5.      Use figurative language

6.      Write in real time

7.      Use dialogue

8.      Use internal monologue

9.      Focus on actions and reactions

Avoid: Redundancies. Telling Backstory (use iceberg theory). Flashbacks/Prologues/character descriptions/feelings (don’t describe your characters all at once)—Reveal the character of a character.

Danger areas are large blocks of description. Make them dynamic. Describe only what your POV character would notice given his/her background, personality, and situation.

Avoid clichés. Naming emotions instead of describing.

ABC Always be clear.

Eight ways to reveal emotion without telling:

1.      Physical responses

2.      Body language

3.      Facial expressions

4.      Dialogue

5.      Internal monologue

6.      Setting descriptions

7.      The five senses in moments of heightened emotion

8.      Figurative language. BE UNIQUE and AVOID AMBIGUITY

Telling in dialogue.

Avoid:

1.      “As you know” dialogue

2.      Creative dialogue tags

3.      Adverbs in dialogue tags

4.      Reported dialogue

Don’t overshow either on a macro or micro level.

Sometimes use telling for unimportant details, transitions, repeated info, repeated events, pacing, context, suspense, first drafts.

Men's brains are just fine, thank you.

I had to stop right there. I read an article that said that most men’s thoughts are driven by what they see. True, men are visual. False, men don’t have abiding agendas and/or worries that influence and predominate their thoughts. Human beings work, have family, friends, interests. To not do these things is self-destructive.

I must admit that the sight of a lovely woman might make a man pack away his preoccupations for a moment. But after he gets over how pretty that stranger is, he’s back to solving his “real” problems, especially if he’s married. If he’s a bachelor then we need add one more item to his agenda, a mate. Still balancing all his concerns means he’ll ask that woman out on a date at some mutually good time for both. Unlike what happens on ABC’s Bachelor franchise where finding a mate consumes every waking moment. Those who go on the show make a conscious decision to shelve their normal lives for a couple months in an effort to accelerate their search for a partner.

Off point, but interesting and heart-warming: Cudos to ABC through Bachelor in Paradise in which the first lesbian couple in the history of the show became engaged.

What is your story about?

Without prejudice by an overbearing author, the belief systems of your characters are the foundation for your story. Without beliefs, even in flux, one doesn’t have a story with any merit. So why would a conservative read about a liberal or why would a Buddhist read about a Catholic? We are all people and our personal struggles speak to our humanity. The reader begins to feel for or become attached to the character.

I watched the finale of Bachelor in Paradise with my two sisters. One is a very conservative Catholic. For the first time on ABC’s hit show, a lesbian couple was presented. My sis, said something like she didn’t have much of a problem with Demi and Christian, she just wouldn’t like to watch two guys. As the show progressed, she said that it was obvious they loved each other. Isn’t that at the core of many belief systems? Love. My sis empathized, relaxed, and enjoyed the show.

In novels, there must be arcs for our main characters. For my sis it was a tiny one. For your characters, they must experience internal and external change in dramatic ways.

For many who write romance, they have put their feet on the love brakes. Yes, the hero and heroine are physically attracted to each other (usually) and yes they often can’t stand each other. (Cute meets always make me smile. Know any Dems and Pubs like that?* But they find themselves on journeys, often together. They grow, they change, they fall in love.

RWASD Seminar notes by Nikoo & Jim McGoldrick: Consider the creating the three act play using:

1.       The hero’s journey.

2.       The rule of three.

3.       Storyboarding.

Perhaps, you like me, are unfamiliar with the rule of three:

1.       Introduce the problem.

2.       Raise the stakes.

3.       Make a commitment.

Food for thought, right?

Shameless self-promotion. If you are interested in seeing the Dem and Pub running against each other for president fall in love check out my award-winning novel, A More Perfect Union. The link for which, is on the side panel of the blog. And while I’m at it, visit my new website in progress, also linked on the side. There, true love presides.

Research for your novel

Following the rule regarding research that you only present the tip of the iceberg in your story, you should still feel comfortable and fully grasp the research subject. A romance story is about your characters but their environment plays a role. So your hero is sitting on an iceberg and you need to know how long he can survive before help arrives (a female helicopter pilot, perhaps will come to the rescue).

There are many research techniques you can avail yourself of.

1.       Contact specialists.

2.       Go to the library and don’t forget the help desk.

3.       Attend classes.

4.       Use the internet carefully. There is much b.s. on it these days.

5.       Check out the library of Congress and the Smithsonian.

6.       Check out groups or societies. For instance, your character has cancer. A group dedicated to that type of cancer would be useful to contact.

7.       Go to shows or symposiums.

8.       Check in with other authors who have similar struggles.

9.       Review the artwork and poetry of the time and place you are writing about.

10.   Use the Jeopardy! technique as created by James Holzhauer, a huge winner on the show. He studied children’s books on subjects he felt were too difficult to wade through otherwise. He said to the Washington Post, “They are chock full of infographics, pictures and all kinds of stuff to keep the reader engaged… I couldn’t make it through a chapter of an actual Dickens novel without falling asleep.”

There’s a hidden point to 10. Try to not write so densely with all that research you have gathered will allow your reader to fall asleep. Hey, not that Dickens is dense. James wanted to learn in the quickest way. He didn’t want to struggle. Your reader should not struggle to figure out what is going on. Hint: try to construct a sentence with one subject, predicate, and object as often as you can. If you must do otherwise, make doubly sure the sentence is 100% clear. Drop all double (or more) meanings in the words you use or modify the word to clarify it.

The World of Forms

The World of Forms

A short history: Athens Greece 2400 years ago. The philosopher Socrates taught Plato, Plato taught Aristotle. Their impact on the way men think has a predominance in western thought.

One of Plato’s theories that is more controversial says that the senses are illusions and the world of ideas is real. After we die, we wholly become part of the world of ideas, or forms as he called it, and will experience everlasting joy.

Let’s apply this to romance in two ways. Love as an idea has to be at the top of the list of forms because it is perfect, indivisible and the reason for living. Your senses make you aware of a possible mate but the idea of love and the world of your heart are intangible. Senses are fleeting and so is our attractiveness over time. So choosing a partner should take into consideration more than physical beauty. The second application is in writing romance or for that matter any fiction. Your idea becomes a form and that is eternal. So keep contributing to the richness to be found after death!

For romance writers, focusing on love in a story is critical. Focusing on eternal love is a secret of a great philosopher named Plato.

Elizabeth Browning wrote, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways….” Count indeed. Make sure your romance is not shallow. Embrace the world of forms.

I must run now. I have guests from the Philippines to love.

Competitive Man

The competitive man

I’ve been writing about the male POV since 2011. In my Kindle book, 101 Tips, Primarily on Writing Male Characters, I had to use the word ‘primarily’ because I hadn’t collected enough ‘onlys.’ Often a male POV idea can be described as simply human. It’s a matter of degree how much a woman acts like a man and visa versa. Regarding competition, both men and women are competitive. Sometimes in different ways.

Competitiveness in men can be both good and bad. When young men challenge each other to street racing and one drives off a cliff that’s taking it too far. Guys are also more likely to fist fight…

Good can be extracted from a man often in the form of a woman being present. She inspires a man to do better. I’ll offer two recent examples, which came as a surprise to me. I’m in Zumba, and in walks my Bar teacher on a 15 minute break. I danced better without consciously trying. My daughter died of cancer, but before she did, she inspired me to write a better novel and insisted that I try harder to get it published. So I did and yes it will be published.

It is so true that many put their own needs last or accept a certain comfortable way of doing things, instead of struggling to get the best out of themselves. There’s the 80/20 rules. Most of us will complete 80% of the work necessary to ‘finish’ the job. The remaining 20% necessary for greatness is just too much work. Hence, we have the Taylor Swifts of the world. Those whose inner strength, borne of genius, to be sure, press with great energy to use the talents that God gave them to the maximum. It is human nature to take the path of least resistance. What will you say of your life if you cannot reach even one of your goals? No problem. If you analyze and understand your talents and do the best you can with them, you have accomplished the Creator’s goal set for you.

A man dates and marries a woman and wants to make her happy by doing more for her, to work hard at love, to make her feel loved, even adored in a secular way. Some men never leave the honeymoon stage. If they can’t please her, treasure her every day, they’d be disappointed in themselves. Love is the point of life. So make it.

A man left to his own devices may drift. Humans are social creatures, so, at the least, reach out to the community. (Okay, it’s Sunday. It’s preaching I know. Not all men are like this, i.e., striving for excellence in a relationship. This is for the dreamers out there who write books of love. Who deliver inspiration for those who enjoy and sometimes need it.)