J is for Job

Margaret talks about jobs

 

Would you call writing a job?

Or more of a pleasure?

I think, for published authors, it’s both, because if we didn’t enjoy writing we wouldn’t do it. Admittedly there are times when I want to throw away everything I’ve written and start all over again, but fortunately they are few and far between. I like making up characters, creating their story, helping them work their way through their problems.

Imagine a life without writing, without letting your imagination run riot. I guess the next best thing to writing is reading, but someone has to write the books we read, and that someone has to enjoy what they do.

Being an avid reader helps, although there is nothing quite like creating your own story. You let it build up in your mind first, you get to know the characters you’re going to write about, you learn all their foibles and interests as well as their back story. They’re your friends – all you’re doing is writing their story as they tell it to you.

It sounds easy, doesn’t it? And sometimes the writing flows. But there are other times when writer’s block sets in. When we’re not sure where that twist is going, where that turn will end. We thrash it around in our mind – it could be for days – until suddenly everything clicks back into place and the story takes over again.

Oh, the joy of writing!

 

 

 

 

 

J is for Jack-O-Lantern

A peek at Debra's upcoming Halloween at The Corral.

Kelly, our heroine, is dismayed to learn Dan, our hero, has never carved a jack-o-lantern. And even though she's having trouble figuring him out, one thing she's sure of. No one should miss out on one of Halloween's most classic traditions.

Dan opened the door to the biggest pumpkin he’d ever seen. From behind the massive gourd came Kelly’s voice. “Want to give me a hand here?”

He took a brief moment to appreciate her long, slim legs covered in faded denim before taking the pumpkin from her arms.

“Thanks. Take that inside. The kitchen table should work. I’ll be right back with the rest.”

“The rest?” But she was already halfway down the sidewalk.

A heavy weight, present since he’d walked away from her in The Corral’s parking lot last night, lifted from his chest. He placed the enormous pumpkin on the kitchen table. Finding her on his doorstep was a pleasant, if unexpected, surprise.

The front door opened, then closed. Booted footsteps thunked on the hardwood in the hall. Kelly appeared in the doorway with a cardboard carton in her arms. She set the box down. “Whew. I’m glad you have
a ranch.” She nodded toward the pumpkin. “Good. You have a table. I wasn’t sure if you had a galley kitchen. That would have made things tricky.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, because I’m glad to see you, but what are you doing here?”

She flashed him a grin that was at once impish and sexy. “We’re going to carve a pumpkin.” She brandished a wicked looking knife from the box.

His breath caught. His light-as-air heart beat faster. She’d listened. He swallowed the lump in his throat. "That sounds like fun."

Halloween at The Corral makes its worldwide debut on October 5.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

J is for Journeys

Paula thinks about different kind of journeys.  

At the moment, I am writing a scene in which my characters are making a long but necessary journey to the south west of Ireland in appalling weather conditions with torrential rain and gale force winds. I think I am as tense and exhausted as my heroine must be!

It’s made me think of other journeys my characters have taken, and I’ve realised they do tend to travel around quite a lot. In His Leading Lady Jess goes up to Scotland, in a private jet, no less; in Fragrance of Violets, Abbey eventually makes the decision to go to Paris to meet with Jack. In Changing the Future, Lisa and Paul both travel to New York (and have a luxury yacht cruise around Manhattan), and Paul later flies out to Iceland. In Dream of Paris, that city is the destination for both hero and heroine, and Her Only Option includes several cruises down the Nile and back again. My three Irish books also have the characters travelling to different parts of Ireland.

As well as the physical journeys, of course, there are also the other ‘journeys’ our characters make as we follow them through their stories. Some refer this as the character ‘arc’ but I prefer to think of it as the inner journey they make. I don’t think they necessarily need Scrooge-type ‘transformations’ when, by the end of the story, they have changed their whole outlook.

Instead, I prefer them to grow in their understanding of themselves and each other. Looking at my characters, I can see how one of my heroines develops more confidence in herself, another learns not to judge everyone by a bad experience in the past. One realises that it’s usually better to share a problem than go it alone, and another finds a way to open herself up to love again.

The end of the story doesn’t mean the end of their journey, only that they are more able to continue that journey of discovery because of what they have learned about themselves.

J Is For Junk

Jennifer talks about when writing doesn’t work...

Now that my personal life has settled down some (not a lot), I’m trying really hard to focus on my writing and write every day. I’m also editing other manuscripts and trying to get things into shape for submission.

What I’m finding is I’ve got a lot of junk in my manuscripts—things I’ve written that sound awful or are just sloppy writing. Plot bunnies that go off in a million different directions and never find their way home. Blurry motivation. Conflicts that don’t actually show conflict.

In other words, I need to do a lot of rewriting!

On the one hand, it’s good because it keeps me humble. J On the other hand, on bad days, it makes me doubt everything I’m doing and wonder if I shouldn’t just quit. But then I take a deep breath and start editing and outlining (which I do in the editing stage) and plotting and somehow start to pull everything together.

My critique partners—all four of them—are fabulous and help me solve plot issues, conflict issues and all the other issues I have that I didn’t know I had in the first place.

Some of it, I’m able to fix on my own, although I have to say, I may never, EVER let anyone see my very first draft of anything! Currently, my WIP is 40,000 words and I think I’ve switched major issues about three times within the story. Since I’m not going back to the beginning yet, I’m leaving notes or highlights throughout, reminding me what to fix or why something is changed—for example, my hero and heroine started out in a roller rink, but are ending up ice skating outdoors (doesn’t sound like a big problem, and it isn’t, but it will require me to go back and make sure the beginning of the scene and the end actually match up).

The point I’m trying to make is not that I’m a bad writer (at least I hope not!), but that the process of getting from the germ of an idea to a workable manuscript and ultimately to a publishable book is far from easy. There are pitfalls and rewrites and lots and lots of deleting.

Ultimately, I hope it will be something I’m proud of. In the meantime, I’m getting rid of a lot of junk.

J is for Jump Cut

Ana muses about a technique for opening stories

In his great little book, Hooked, Les Egerton discusses techniques for hooking a reader on page one and never letting them go.

In the early 1900s, silent films adopted the techniques used in novels. Novels were expected to have lyrical transitions that explained the next scene would be set, so "Meanwhile, Back On The Ranch..." appeared on the big screen explaining where the next scene would be set.

In 1960, French film director Jean-Luc Goddard changed everything about how films and novels were structured. He invented the Jump Cut out of financial necessity. He'd shot eight thousand meters of film, and his producers allowed only five thousand meters. He had to drastically cut the film or it would not be financially viable, so he and his editor cut the transition scenes.

Some critics hated it, but some loved it, and love prevailed.

We know now to open stories with action, close as possible to the Inciting Incident. Television and movies have trained readers to expect action, not descriptions, on the first page. Backstory is to be doled out through the story, not be the opening chapter.

All because a director had more footage than allowed.

I is for Intensity

Margaret talks about intensity in writing

Thomas Edison said genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration. This can be said about writing as well. Personally, as I’ve said before, I start out with the germ of an idea, hopefully an inspired idea, and simply take it from there. It’s not as easy as it sounds because there is still a lot of thinking and plotting and planning to do. The initial inspiration has probably gone, as well as the first writing surge, but if I’ve succeeded in immersing myself in my characters then the intensity of their fears and hopes become my fears and hopes too. I dig into their psyche, read their thoughts, transfer them to myself, and then put those thoughts down on paper.

If only it were that easy!

But it is imperative for writers to engage with their characters and let readers know what is going on in their minds. (Well, most of them – readers do like some surprises) What we basically want, though, is for the people who read our books to feel the same things that we do, to love or hate the people we have created. Only in this way have we reached our goal.

 

 

I is for Islands

Debra has an idea for a new series set in the Caribbean.

I had a lot of fun using the cruise my hubby and I took on our honeymoon for the setting of Wild Wedding Weekend. As I basked in the sun on this year's cruise in March, I thought it would be even more fun to create a series about a cruise line. In the last four years we've discovered a plethora of new Caribbean islands that we love. And writing about places I've actually visited is so much easier. Plus I have about a million pictures to fill in any gaps in my memory. I even started making notes (including plots and characters) on the books I'd like to write for the series. I have the name of the cruise line and the names of the ships for each story. Characters I plan to use are the line's owner's daughter, a personal tour guide, a chef, a real estate agent, and various passengers. (This is FAR more planning than I ever do ahead of time, especially for multiple books.)

Some of the islands/countries I plan on featuring in the series are:

St. Thomas

St. Kitts

St. Maarten

Tortola

Honduras

Belize

Cozumel

Puerto Rico

The Bahamas

Now with all of these ducks in a row, I just need to find time to write!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com