Once again I managed to stumble across a really nice set of lectures on the internet.  This time the subject is writing romantic suspense.  I couldn’t even tell you how I got there, but I bookmarked it and have been back to read and re-read the helpful information within.  Lisa Gardner has a series of lectures, two of them actually.  The first is on the business end and the second is on the practical craft of constructing a romantic suspense novel.  These were well organized, thoughtful lectures that addressed market, synopsis, characters, plots, and the whole spectrum of writing in the rom-suspense sub-genre.

I’ve been working on my current wip for a full year now.  I finished the first draft in November and am workshopping it with Holly Lisle’s How To Revise Your Novel.  The thing I didn’t know I was missing (between all the brilliant techniques delivered in Holly’s lessons) is the genre specific reminders of my target.  There were many things in Lisa Gardner’s lectures that I had forgotten or never really thought about. It came at exactly the right time to toss my thoughts in fresh directions for my revisions.

So if you’re working on a romantic suspense I highly recommend that you take a look at her Lisa Gardner’s website and the tricks of the trade section.

This has been a week of getting things done. Yes I have indulged in a bit of self congratulatory behavior this week. I think I may have even strained my shoulder from patting myself on the back. Not really, but if I had it wouldn’t have been a surprise.

First I turned 29, well add twenty to that and you’re closer. Whether that’s an accomplishment I’m not sure, but it does say something about my endurance. I’m not 50 yet, but I can definitely hit it with a rock from here.

For my next feat of derring do, I completed the first draft of my manuscript. Lone Survivor. This is the second manuscript I’ve written. The first one went to live with the dust bunnies under my bed after I struggled with it for three years. Now to do cleanup and polishing and plot repair required to get it ready to sell and give it a shot. Every bit of work I do I learn from so if this one doesn’t sell, it just gives me more lessons to apply to my next one.

I started Lone Survivor in January 2009 after thinking about it all December and finished the draft November 25th. Just 11 months. Yea me!

My usual book gobbling habit is still working.  First reading Holiday in Death (Nora’s J.D. Robb Series) on my kindle. Eve Dallas and Roarke were fabulous as usual.

And I also read a terrific Shannon K. Butcher book today.

Burning Alive. It’s the first in a series - Paranormal Romance and I was hooked from the first page. Next one out is Finding the Lost by the way.

I had put off reading Burning Alive because I’m a snob about books I get for free and I got it at a book signing at Nationals in DC.

Stupid I know but I have so many free books around here, some even left over from the 2008 RWA Nationals. It’s hard for me to pick them up and get started. I suppose it doesn’t help that I’ve probably also got fifteen books on my Kindle lined up to read. {Sigh} Being a reader is such a burden.

Anyway Burning Alive really delivers on action, romance, and paranormal world building. The hero is a hunk the heroine courageous when it counts, the sex is hot, the supporting characters (mostly hot guys, one hot chick for a future installment no doubt, a couple martyrs, a crotchety yet loveable grandma schoolmarm, and a couple of magical women whose true natures shall be revealed in good time) and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I’ll be buying more in the series for sure. Doesn’t hurt that there’s a shiny hunky guy on the cover with a big sword.  He’s definitely do-able, but alas taken by a woman who would frighten me if met alone in a dark alley.

And finally I got to get my hands dirty today. If you follow the blog you probably know I have a camper.

A few weeks ago when we took it out for the last camping weekend of the season I had all kinds of problems with the water system. The filler hose for the tank was cracked in several places and it took a trip to the hardware store, several buy it by the foot lengths of tubing, hose clamps and a not insubstantial amount of packing tape to get the antifreeze into the tank so I could winterize it.

Here in Kansas City the winters can be very cold and water lines freeze and split if you don’t put propylene glycol in there. It’s the pink stuff and non-toxic not like what you put in your car. Today I swapped out the filler hose (obtained during a second trip to the hardware store and a visit down the buy it by the foot aisle), the filler cap assembly and fashioned a cushion out of tubing scrap to protect the hose from the sharp edges of the bracket that protects the hose from road grit (Fleetwoood’s marginal design). All in all a very satisfying repair. I also broke out the multi-meter and verified that my battery is charging from the 18 watt solar panel I have hooked up. I’ll connect it periodically over the winter to make certain it stays charged. I had to replace the battery at Winfield this year and I’d like to make this one last.

So this is the hand of a writer, a reader, an RV enthusiast and a woman. Dirt, grime and all…hmmm needs a manicure bad. Oh well, hear me roar.

Those of you who know me well understand that I am a compulsive book buyer.  I buy books and sometimes forget to read them, or at least procrastinate about it.  I think sometimes that osmosis will do the trick and by buying the book that I’ll learn something without even opening it. Talk about magical thinking!

Well, after Thanksgiving I was heading over to Sunny’s for a girls weekend and picked up a couple of those - write a book in 30 days - books.  It’s not as crazy as it sounds.  I don’t really expect to do it in 30 days but maybe glean some technique or insight that will help me with my mondo problem (cue scary organ music here)…PLOTTING. 

Plotting is the classic “how to eat an elephant problem” for me.  The job is so large that I don’t know where to start and once I do there are some parts that when you get it all cut up you just go “eww” I’m not putting that in my mouth, or all spread out over the driveway in big gory hunks it just doesn’t look so much like food anymore. (Sorry about the imagery there.  Note to PETA - Just kidding - No elephants were harmed in the blogging of this topic nor do I condone such behavior).

So I went through the first of the two books and wasn’t really inspired.  I liked the “workbook” aspect of it but I always hate to write in a book like that.  It will somehow ruin it for me the next time I want to use it.  I forgot about the other one until late last week when I was doing an archeology dig in my office and came across it in a bag with a couple of others and some office toys like this Travel Operation game.

(Odd, I’ve never thought of that as a charlie horse hmmm…) 

Unexpectedly it inspired me and I began working through the chapters.   The author provides good examples and the worksheets are exposition prompts, which I prefer over lists (in case you couldn’t tell from my verbose posts here). 

I managed to get an actual outline  draft, brief and concise.  That was a major crazy success and I really feel like I can go forward from here.

The book is called: First Draft in 30 Days by Karen S. Wiesner for those of you who are interested. I thought it was helpful. Still is.  Unfortunately I’m not terribly good at follow through so we’ll see if I get all the way through it.  But I’ve already gained a LOT of insight into my characters and story prompted by her useful format and questions. 

First Draft in 30 Days

So I turned the page and was stunned to see what looked to me like a use case or workflow diagram of sorts. 

What’s that you ask?  Well, at my day job I’m in the software development business.  One thing that people do during the process of collecting requirements and designing software systems is to do all sorts of different charts and diagrams that describe the system and user interaction among other things. 

Basically the user does W the system responds with X which prompts the user to do Y and the system does Z.  In a way it’s like a catechism, address and response, a conversation with the user.

Now apply that to noveling and what have you got?  A roadmap of how you want the reader to experience your book.  I know, sounds crazy. (Admittedly not an original thought but without the visual prompt I didn’t “get” it.)
 

Don’t have a good sense of it yet?  I’ll give you an example:

The idea that you would plan what you want your reader’s reaction to be at a particular point in time was a big light bulb moment for me. 

I have heard people ask “what is the point of this scene?” Now for some reason instead of my answer being “for the nice people to read” I get it.  It’s to elicit a specific response from the reader.  Intellectually I knew that, but emotionally?  Not so much.

Here’s a better example:

Think about it.  Here is about half an episode of Lassie from the time Timmy falls into the well until the HEA.  At each critical point we identify how we want the reader to respond to the material we’re presenting.  Yes, it’s manipulating the reader in the most fundamental way.  The way they want to be manipulated.  Then you actually have a target to shoot for. A scene goal and it didn’t hurt hardly at all.  

So now we have a new concept, we (the imperial we by the way) are selling the reader their own manipulation.  And the suckers want to buy it,  It’s what they crave.  (By the way I’m including myself in the suckers group as an avid reader, so technically that makes it self-deprecating humor and not a slight at the emotional proclivities of my future readership).

I will still have to find the tipping point between construction of the plan and construction of the book.  How do I determine exactly how far to take the plot before I reach the point where the cost exceeds it’s value.  But that’s a blog post for another day.

So now I have a goal, delivery of first class manipulation.  That’s what I’m going to give them.   

Well, one can hope…

Now there is one diagram you don’t want to see.  I’ve used it below as an example of the action/reaction you don’t want.

Lucky for me your computer is too expensive for you to throw against the wall.

This month I’ve been taking an online class on serial killers with Katherine Ramsland.  One of her goals in this course is to educate authors on the realities of serial killers and the criminal justice professionals who hunt them so that they are portrayed more accurately.   I can see how inaccurate portrayals would annoy someone in the know.  I get that way when I hear people waxing poetic about Krispy Kreme donuts - As someone who has worked in the donut “biz”- it’s my opinion that their whole philosophy is wrong.  

I had submitted the scenario I’m currently working on to Ms. Ramsland, to see if it was “flawed” per her comments.  She responded that she didn’t want to get into analyzing characters but… then she had some comments for me that gave me serious pause about my characters and their motivations vis-a-vis reality.  Which is why I took the class in the first place - to get her expert insight.  

So then I made a squinchy face and despaired for a moment over how adopting her suggestions would impact my current plot.  Admittedly I am not an expert on serial killers and she certainly is.  This resulted in another squinchy face and considerable grumbling.  Then I had an epiphany, I didn’t owe her anything.  I didn’t have to make any changes at all.  It’s fiction after all. Intellectually I know that you can choose whether or not to adopt the recommendations of a critiquer but emotionally when someone tells me that my stuff is “wrong” I feel compelled to fix it. It’s a character flaw I have. Hello, my name is Gretchen and I’m a “fixer”.  

That got me wondering, what exactly is the responsibility of the author to represent characters realistically?

My initial thoughts were that it is necessary for the characters to be minimally plausible in their behaviors and attitudes.  If they aren’t the book is subject to wall banging and that can’t be good.  So I thought I’d ask a few authors I’m acquainted with to see what they thought their responsibility was to portray reality in fiction. 

When I asked the question “Exactly what does creative license entitle you to do?” here’s what I found.

Fiction is a little bit like magic.  We use “slight of hand” in an attempt to fashion characters that are believable, interesting, and that readers can identify with.  In the case of serial killers, or  certain other “villains” this is particularly difficult.  Most real life fiends are motivated by emotions and chemical elements that the “non-fiend” never experiences.  The average reader just does not have the biology to understand how these twisted individuals think and justify their actions.  So in an attempt to align our characters with our readers experience in a way they can appreciate, we take liberties with behavior, motivations and goals. 

The downside is that you run the risk of alienating those people who do have experience with the type of villain or victim in real life.  I think it takes a really skilled author to pull off something that reflects real life and isn’t a boring rehash of historical events or clinical facts.  It may be easier and more plausible to grossly exaggerate reality beyond the experience of the typical reader.  For example, I never heard  anyone say Stephen King’s villain in his novel Misery, was too over the top. Readers loved it.  Probably his experience in light of his celebrity made that character all too plausible to him.  I can imagine that William Shatner would have had much the same reaction to King’s book given the legendary enthusiasm of Star Trek fans.  If the author believes in the character’s villainy and has the skills to tell the tale, in all likelihood the reader will accept the premise.  Even if the characters are way outside the bounds of reality.

It’s difficult to account for the variety of experience and the individual tastes of the reader.  One published author I know worked on a young adult paranormal.  She had teenagers read an advance copy to vet her realism.  Some of the feedback she got was that the character’s dialog was not realistic.  She has a teen daughter, and the dialog and language she used reflected the language she heard from her kid and the kid’s friends.  Whether her text reflected an adults perspective of what kids are like, or whether the advance readers had a skewed perception of their own language and behavior is an open question.  Perhaps she didn’t ask kids who read a lot of paranormal.  I suspect experienced readers are better at the suspension of disbelief required to truly enjoy another person’s writing.  Regardless, there probably wasn’t anything she could have done to achieve a different outcome.  Sometimes you’re just stuck with feedback that indicates too much change is needed to satisfy the critiquer.  Like it or not the decision to fix or not to fix is left up to you.  Then you have to live with your decision.

As authors we also have to contend with issues of creativity and originality.  In order for our work to not be derivative it is sometimes necessary for us to take a walk on the wild side and use ideas that dangle from the edge of a cliff in order to surprise the reader.  We all want to do that even in a comedy or a non-mystery plot.  To give that element of suspense we take risks with our characters and have them do things that are unexpected, original.  How can an author do that if not by creating characters with motivations that are outside the norm and everyday experience, yet remain relatable to our readers, or ourselves?  

Everyone I asked seemed to agree that there are limits to creative license.  Characters need to be plausible, believable, and have motivations that the reader can at least accept.  Certainly that is the “happy path” to publication (notice I didn’t say easy).  To that end most writers do at least some research into the topics they address in their fiction.  Their efforts are focused on the goal of being true to the subject matter.  Honoring it in effect.  Like the author writing about a character who was an adult survivor of child sexual abuse.  Her concern with “getting it right” showed a sincere appreciation of the problem and a forthright attempt to avoid demeaning the victims of abuse while telling a compelling story.  The story is not about survivors of sexual abuse, it’s about vampires, human beings, werewolves, or other creatures and what makes them tick.  The sexual abuse thread was simply one facet of the character’s construction.  Much like the case of the adult survivor in the real world.  The sexual abuse does not define their identity even if it contributes to aspects of their character. I’m not terribly worried about insulting serial killers, though maybe I should be?  Let’s hope not.  

Those among us who take risks by choosing not to exhaustively research may focus their stories on other elements.  They may use the un-researched aspects as an underlying theme rather than a focal point of their fiction.  They concentrate the reader’s attention on the emotional impact of the interaction between the main characters and de-emphasize the events that put the characters in peril.  

An alternate approach is to produce such lively and outrageous stories that the reader is distracted from being critical of the details.  Whether it’s likely that a character would sit still long enough to be killed in a particular manner is inconsequential if the other details around the murder are so flamboyant as to deflect doubt about the character’s actions. When Claire fell through the stones in Outlander no one cared if the laws of physics supported the premise of her journey. They were focused on the character’s problem of being a modern woman in a 18th century world.   That slight of hand takes considerable skill to achieve.

So to answer the question, Yes, you can pretty much count on being ticketed for reckless driving when using creative license.  But that shouldn’t keep parked at the curb.  Risk is part of the business of writing fiction.  Exactly how much risk are you able to tolerate and how well you execute the maneuver will determine your success.    Yet it still falls under the category of you can’t please all of the people all of the time no matter how carefully you pull out into traffic.

I love reading romantic suspense. Today I’m reading “Naked Truth” by Amy J. Fetzer. Her books are great and she’s a hoot personally. Genita Low, YOUCH some of her stories are so hot that my fingers get singed. Carla Cassidy worries me that she’s getting awfully good at planning and executing murders in her NAL books. When I read the ARC for her September Release “Broken Pieces”, I kept cringing on behalf of the heroine for whom things just kept getting worse. There’s a whole list of others that keep me perched on the edge of my Barcalounger.

I said I’d reveal why I’ll probably never write like these babes and it’s simple. I think it would just be too damned funny to put a team of former navy seals as the owners of a donut shop. The strong silent cowboy bodyguards reduced to running a pony ride at the state fair. What about a bunch of CIA black ops guys working the shake out table at the diaper service. I mean really. With ideas like that, I’ve frankly got nowhere to go with my Romantic Suspense plots.

Please don’t think I’m dissing the fabulous women who write in that genre. I dearly love all that bulging muscled, hunka firepower packing, rescuer of black ops/NOC ladies in distress. But coming up with those complex stories myself? And keep a straight face? I think perhaps not.