F Is For Finally

Jennifer talks about reaching The End...

Actually, I’m talking more about reaching milestones in my writing and less about The End.

I tend to work on several manuscripts at the same time. It could be because my attention span, since the advent of social media, rivals a flea (and not in a good way). It could also be because when the ideas race through my head, they’re not always for the same story. Or maybe working on multiple things actually works for me. I’m still not completely sure.

Whatever the reason, I do it and I’ve adapted strategies along the way to help me.

A few years ago, I attended a workshop by Roxanne St. Claire where she spoke about her writing style. A pantser like me, she doesn’t fully know her characters when she starts writing. Therefore, she writes to page one hundred and stops. Then she goes back and edits those pages. Next, she writes to page two hundred and stops. She once again, goes back to the beginning and edits. Finally, she writes to the end.

It was an intriguing concept, because it combined writing and editing, so I decided to try it. I’ve done it for a few books now and it seems to work. But I’ve added my own piece to it.

Every time I stop—at page 100 or 200—I let the manuscript sit for a little and move onto a different one. Sitting and gelling is important before you edit anyway, and this gives me a specific time to do that.

Currently, I have one manuscript sitting at page 200 and “gelling,” I have one that I’m writing up to page 200 and I have one complete one that I’m editing. It’s a little crazy, it requires specific concentration, but it seems to work for me. Because at each milestone, I can congratulate myself on getting there, so I feel productive, and my tasks are divided into smaller bits that are easier to grasp.

It won’t work for everyone. It probably sounds crazy to most (it is!). But if you’re looking for something new to try, you might want to give it a shot.

F is for Franco's GMC

Ana found a tool for developing character GMC

Goals, Motivation and Conflict are the building blocks with which authors create three dimensional characters. Last week I learned about a GMC wizard created by author Shawntelle Madison. It's available on her website.
http://www.shawntellemadison.com/writer-tools/gmc-wizard/

I tried it for my WIP's hero, heroine and villain. It's simple and effective. You answer step by step prompts about one character at a time. External goal, motivation and conflict. Internal goal, motivation and conflict. When you are satisfied, you can print out a grid with your answers. 

My villain is Franco Puissard, M.D., head of the prison hospital where much of my story's action takes place. I entered his data in the GMC wizard and printed out a sleek grid on a single, easy to refer to page.

Franco's Internal Goal is to not let anyone--not his employees, patients or wife--discover the secrets he's hidden since the fateful night the woman he loved disappeared. His motivation? Discovery would ruin his reputation. His conflict is keeping everything under control so he can protect himself.
His External Goal is to keep his former best friend from remembering what happened the night his best friend's wife disappeared. His motivation is he lied under oath at this best friend's trial. His conflict is the heroine (his best friend's tenacious daughter) refuses to accept that  her father is guilty.

Before I entered the data, I had not thought about his lying during the trial. This ups the stakes realistically and immensely. More believable motivation for his actions. A villain has to have solid reasons for the things he does. He has to have a backstory and a goal he'll fight tooth and nail for. He has to be an opponent worthy of the hero or heroine.

Villains can be Nature (a storm or huge mad dog) or society mores. It can be a fear, a paralyzing weakness stemming from a painful experience. These "villains" have personalities, too. Their purpose in the story is to defeat the hero. Assigning them Goals, Motives and Conflict would, I think now, help write the story.

Ms. Madison also has a synopsis wizard tool on her website. I will try that next.

Guest Blogger Chrys Fey

We are so thrilled to have Chrys Fey back with us here at Heroines with Hearts to talk about her latest release. Welcome back, Chrys!

What is Romantic? SEISMIC CRIMES by Chrys Fey

What one person finds romantic another could find weird or nauseating. Some people are extremely uncomfortable with romance and because of that they rarely do anything romantic. Others are so in love with love that they ooze romance 24/7. Beth and Donovan are neither of these. Or, more precisely, they are smack dab in the middle.
Beth didn’t receive much romance in her previous relationships, so she doesn’t exactly know what to do with it. Donovan, who never thought he’d fall in love and want marriage and children, is suddenly finding himself being quite romantic. When these two are romantic, it’s always for a good reason and not because their story requires it.
Their romance can be subtle or a grand gesture. It can be an act of healing, a profession of love, a way of protection, or a moment of bonding. While they both are new to this whole romance deal, they both have their own ideas of what’s romantic.

Beth –
- Cooking a surprise dinner even if all you have is Kool-Aid to drink instead of wine.
- Eating ice cream together in bed.
- Sharing hobbies and special interests to the point of participating in something you’ve never done because you know your partner loves it.

Donovan –
- Bringing your partner to your hometown and showing her places from your childhood.
- Memorizing her body with your hands and lips.
- Holding each other on the beach while looking out at the waves.

EXCERPT:
To some, a meal might be a small thing, but to him, it was a big gesture. “It smells great.” He peered down at her body. “And I can see you raided my closet.”
“I don’t have any clothes here, so I created a makeshift dress out of your shirt and belt. Do you like it?”
Donovan pulled her to him and devoured her lips. Beth reacted instantly, grabbing his shoulders and moaning. He hadn’t meant to get carried away, but feeling her reaction to him exploded whatever control he possessed. Needs clawed at his chest, cravings becoming unbearable. He cupped the back of her head, and his fingers tangled with her maple locks as he deepened the kiss. He doubted the lasagna, as great as it smelled, would taste better than the flavors in her mouth—sweet and strong, hot and addicting.
Donovan pulled back a fraction. “That’s how much I like it,” he said between her parted lips.

BLURB:

An Internal Affairs Investigator was murdered and his brother, Donovan Goldwyn, was framed. Now Donovan is desperate to prove his innocence. And the one person who can do that is the woman who saved him from a deadly hurricane—Beth Kennedy. From the moment their fates intertwined, passion consumed him. He wants her in his arms. More, he wants her by his side in his darkest moments.

Beth Kennedy may not know everything about Donovan, but she can’t deny what she feels for him. It’s her love for him that pushes her to do whatever she has to do to help him get justice, including putting herself in a criminal’s crosshairs.

When a tip reveals the killer's location, they travel to California, but then an earthquake of catastrophic proportions separates them. As aftershocks roll the land, Beth and Donovan have to endure dangerous conditions while trying to find their way back to one another. Will they reunite and find the killer, or will they lose everything?


Digital:
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B01CRJSPIU
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seismic-crimes-chrys-fey/1123508790?ean=2940158028380
KOBO: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/seismic-crimes
The Wild Rose Press:
http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/3804-seismic-crimes.html

Print:
Amazon: http://amzn.com/1509207252
The Wild Rose Press:
http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/paperback-books/3838-seismic-crimes-paperback.html



BIO:

Chrys Fey is the author of Hurricane Crimes, Book One in the Disaster Crimes series, as well as these releases from The Wild Rose Press: 30 Seconds, Ghost of Death, and Witch of Death. She is an administrator for the Insecure Writer's Support Group and creates their monthly newsletter.

Fey lives in Florida and is always on the lookout for hurricanes. She has four adopted cats who keep her entertained with their antics, and three nephews who keep her entertained with their antics. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and through her blog, Write with Fey. She loves to get to know her readers!

AUTHOR LINKS:
Website www.ChrysFey.com
Blog www.writewithfey.blogspot.com
Facebook www.facebook.com/chrysfey
Twitter https://twitter.com/ChrysFey


QUESTION: What do you find romantic?

E is for Ethan Chase

Ethan is the hero in Debra's freebie Mistletoe and Folly.

Right after I signed with TWRP, they came up with a publicity promotion of sorts. Current authors could write short stories that would be offered in their catalog for free. The idea would be to give readers a small sampling in the hopes they'd like your style and buy books that actually cost money. I decided to get on board and pen a short Christmas story. I don't really know if the promotion part was successful in that it led to other sales, but I do know I still 'sell' copies of this story each Christmas...and it was a fun, quick story to write.

The idea came from a Toby Keith Christmas song called "Blame it on the Mistletoe". In the song, the two main characters meet in the checkout line while doing some last minute Christmas shopping. They wind up indulging in a Christmas romance.

I moved my opening scene from the store to a local coffee shop. Friends of friends run into each other again after first meeting at a Christmas party earlier in the season. Other than the details of how they met in a passing sentence, with such a short story (It clocks in at a 'whopping' seven pages.), I don't give much more of their backgrounds.

We know Chase and the other friend went to college together, but we don't know where or what he studied or what he does now.

We don't know anything about his family...are his parents still alive? Does he have any brothers and sisters?

We do know what Chase looks like. Dark hair and eyes. At the coffee house he's wearing a cream colored sweater.

But again, with such a short story, going into explicit, specific detail isn't really necessary. It's meant to be a quick, fun read.

We do get a little peek 'inside' of Ethan at the end of the story. The heroine is having second thoughts about their night together, wondering what he thinks of her. In the morning, Ethan reassures her in this scene.

"Mia." The husky sound of her name on his lips sent a fresh wave of desire through her. "Look at me." He exerted gentle pressure on her shoulders so she had to turn to face him, then placed a finger beneath her chin and tipped her head up until her eyes met his.

A look of warm contentment graced the brown orbs. But doubts assailed her. Words spilled out before she could stop them. "I never do this. I mean I don't usually sleep with someone on the first date, and we didn't even really have a date, and I--"

He pressed a finger to her lips. "What exactly do you think happened here last night?"

"We slept together."

He shook his head. "No," he whispered. He smiled, a lazy slow smile full of love and shared intimacies. "It was much more than that."

Her breath caught.

"I don't believe in one night stands," he said softly. The promise of forever shone in his eyes.

A glimmer of hope started deep inside her heart, chasing away the doubts. Could it really be that easy? Could love happen just like that? "What do you believe in?"

He drew her close. "Happily ever after."

So, even though we don't know a lot about Ethan, we know the most important thing. He's not a cad looking for an easy score. He's a guy who believes in commitment and forever.

If you're in the mood to think about Christmas in the middle of summer, Mistletoe and Folly is available for FREE from The Wild Rose Press.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

E is for Empathy

Paula thinks about how readers empathise with characters. 

Empathy is defined as ‘the ability to understand and share the feelings of another’, and this is exactly how we want our readers to react to the characters in our stories. We want them to engage with the characters, experience their emotions, and as a result, care about what happens to them.

How do we achieve this? Unless we empathise with our characters, we can’t expect the reader to do so. We need to know them, put ourselves in their shoes, and live the story with them. If we let ourselves feel everything that a character feels, then our readers will feel it too. It goes without saying that those feelings must be shown, and not simply ‘told’ to the reader. If a character is angry, don’t simply say ‘she was furious’. Think about a time when you were angry. How did you feel? What did you do? Now show what your character does and feels, while keeping them ‘in character’, of course.

What about the times your character is experiencing something you’ve never encountered? Imagination is always good. In Irish Inheritance, my hero and heroine are in a large Victorian house at night during a power cut. They hear a loud crash from downstairs and make their way down the stairs with only a small flashlight. Now that’s never happened to me, but in my imagination I lived the whole scene with them. It was late at night when I was writing it, and my heart was thumping like mad. I even found myself glancing nervously over my shoulder a couple of times.

There are, of course, many ‘universal emotions’ which we’ve all felt at some time in our lives – fear, sadness, anger, even jealousy or loneliness, and hopefully happiness, excitement, anticipation etc. Therefore, even if you have never experienced a specific event, you probably have another experience you can relate it to. If, for example, the heroine is nervously waiting to audition for a TV drama, think about a time when you were nervously waiting for something e.g. an interview for a job. Harness the memory of your own emotions, and project them to your character and their situation.

Showing the characters’ reactions in a realistic way helps readers to empathise with them and relate the emotions to their own experiences.

E Is For Esther

Jennifer talks about titles...

Normally, I try to talk about what I think I’ve done well. This time, I’m going to talk about a mistake I think I’ve made. Specifically, regarding a title.

My titles are suggested by me and so far, I haven’t had an editor who’s asked for a title change. That could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it, but in this specific case, with The Seduction of Esther, I think it’s bad.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the title. However, it’s misleading on a couple of levels. First of all “Esther” is not the name of the heroine. I can’t tell you the number of times people have made that mistake and at this point, I have to admit that the mistake is my own. I came up with the title because my story incorporates the Jewish holiday of Purim. The heroine of THAT story is Esther. I wanted to convey the Judaic piece of the story, so I gave it that name.

The second mistake with the title is that it sounds erotic. My book has sex in it, but it’s not erotic. That mistake may be less of a problem as I think it does make more people take a look at it, but all the same, you don’t get a feel for my book by the title.

I’ve tried to learn from my mistake and in the future, my titles will be much more appropriate for the entire story, rather than just a piece of it. But maybe titles don’t matter to readers?

What do you think?

Writers as purveyors of Emotion

Ana muses about writing emotion:

As writers, we want to stir emotional reactions in our readers and take them on an emotional journey. We also strive to convey the emotions that our characters are experiencing as they journey through the story lines we create.

Emotion has been defined as "any relatively brief conscious experience characterized by intense mental activity and a high degree of pleasure or displeasure."

The online Oxford Dictionary defines "emotive" as arousing or able to arouse intense feeling. Synonyms: controversial, contentious, inflammatory, sensitive, delicate, difficult, problematic, touchy, awkward, prickly, ticklish.

When we write, we can choose descriptive verbs and adjectives to convey emotion, but most important, I feel, is vivid dialogue. The words our characters speak are the best way to engage the reader in the emotion of our stories. I tend to "visualize" dialogue like a film -- minus the ever helpful musical score. 

Creating a similar intensity is my job as a writer and is a skill I am still learning.