The HEA Cafe

Well, here I am, 3/4 of the way through the book that was due back on January 3rd (which I have until the 15th to complete now. Whew!) and it’s just now occurred to me that that there really isn’t much romantic conflict between the H/h. Oh, there’s plenty of action, lots of external tension, and I’ve got the lust going just fine. But these characters don’t feel, in my head, particularly angsty. They’re just normal folk (despite having magic abilities) and their individual jobs are really important to them, so there’s never been much time for romance. It’s not that they’re ANTI-romance, it’s just never occurred to them. But now they see each other and they like each other and they want to start something—despite the weird and scary things happening around them.

But is that enough conflict? Is there room on the shelf for a pair of well-adjusted people falling in love without crazy ex-boyfriends and materialistic current girlfriends picking at them? Is there space for people who don’t fret about the past, and look forward to the future and aren’t bothered by society’s image of their looks, hair color or current dress size? Sigh…

Cie tells me that well-adjusted families are . . . well, boring, even though an awful lot of people have them. Disfunctional families give book spice, so do I go back to chapter 1 and give the heroine a crack-addicted mother who abandoned them, so she feels properly abandoned and doesn’t want to love anyone who will leave her again? Do I make the hero someone who always chooses women who take advantage of him (whether emotionally or cleaning out his bank account?)

Three-fourths done, and now it feels completely UNDONE. Sure, they’re fixes that can be made in editing, and maybe that’s what I should do. Send it in, pick a few random “angst-nesses” and send them along for the ride—letting the editor pick her favorite.

The trouble is, I LIKE them this way, so it feels like it’s not fair that the book could suffer. They’re nice people. They’re sort of half-Beta, with kick-butt Alpha moments. They’re tough, but can bend. They’re reasonable and nice but are strong leaders that people will follow because they believe in them. Magically powerful but with a strong sense of ethics.

So where do I go from here? I hate to change the direction this late because it’s going to effectively change HOW they deal with the villain. It’ll change their entire approach to the problem and the plot is swimming along quite nicely, thank you. Sigh, a second time.

But, this is our first stand alone novel, and I want it to ROCK. The plot does, but is a romance somehow lacking without angst? There’s no second book to fix the mistakes, like in a series. No way to say, “Oops! Yeah, about that conflict…” to the reader.

I’m open to thoughts about how any of the rest of you have handled this, or if I’m unique in this problem. Thanks for listening to my rant. Guess I’ll get back to the keyboard and try to get it done as I envision it now.

Hi from Lyn.

I’m beginning the new year and beginning a new book. This will be the second in my upcoming “Texas, Star of Destiny” series for Avon Inspire.

I’m a part plotter and a part pantster. I plan out the broad outline of my plot and go deep into my two main characters, all their conflicts and then I start writing. (That’s the plotter me.) The rest–secondary characters and plots–come as needed. (That’s the pantster me.)
But man, are those first few chapters HARD. I’ve found a good rundown of all the ways to start a book in a chapter in PLOT AND STRUCTURE by James Scott Bell. And I’ll often reread it as I did Sunday afternoon to perk up all those little gray cells.
Then I just keep trying different launching points until one finally clicks. So Beginnings are my sore point. I sometimes feel like a scientist trying to get a rocket launched and all it does is topple off the launch pad.

This time I think it only took me one 5 page false start to stumble onto the right launching point. On Monday, I had to drive my daughter to get her drivers license renewed (she waited till it lapsed) and then to a doctor’s appointment. We had a long wait and I talked over why I was unhappy with the beginning of my new ms. It really helped me to talk it over with her.

The next day I was able to write 8 almost sensible pages. Lift off!

What a great feeling.

I’d really like to hear what any others of you do to make starting easier. Please?

Lyn

Psst, come here.  Come closer.  I’m about to tell you the secret to success.  Do this one thing and all your dreams will come true.  Well, maybe not, but I bet they will more times than not.
What’s the secret?  Believe in yourself.
Too easy?  Just look at the best selling book, The Secret.  According to it, your positive thoughts can attract money, health and happiness.  Do I necessarily buy into the theories presented in this book?  No, but I do believe that a lack of self-confidence can keep you from having the successful writing career you want.
The most common result from doubting your own ability is that no one ever gets to see your work.  If you don’t believe that you are a good writer, you’ll never send that story to that contest, that agent, that editor who could read it and realize you are the next great thing.  A less common, but just as debilitating, result is that you don’t trust in your talent enough to push harder, dig deeper.  Your story won’t be as strong because you just don’t have the faith in yourself that you can write it and write it well.
I’m the first one to raise my hand and say that I’m guilty.  I don’t always believe in myself the way I should.  I think, at some time, every writer goes through a period of doubt, but you have to work through it, you have to believe in yourself, you have to remind yourself of all the work, all the sacrifices you’ve made so far.  Do you really want to give up and have that all mean nothing?  Even the bible says, “as a man thinketh, so is he” (Prov 23:7).  Think of yourself as a successful writer.  See your dreams, your goals, coming true.
Keep believing, keep reaching and, most importantly, keep writing.

We all have our own process for writing.  We all have a system of what works and what doesn’t.

And we also all have our own excuses for why we’re NOT writing.

There’s too much noise.
There’s not enough noise.

Too much coffee (it could happen!)
Not enough coffee (it better not happen!)

Too much clutter.
Not enough clutter.

I confess, right now, that the clutter thing is my Achilles heel.  It’s bad enough when the clutter is tangible, when I can see it and feel boxed in by it.  At least I can put on my blinders and do my best to ignore it.  It’s a million times worse when the clutter is inside my head.  Worry about the kids, the DH, the parents, the deadlines, the Christmas chaos, the weight gain, etc etc, is enough to send me into a downward spiral that gets harder and harder to stop with each new spin.

How stupid is that?

We all know the answer is simple:

#1 - put butt in chair
#2 - write

It couldn’t get any simpler.  The problem is that by doing those two simple things, it means I have to put myself and my writing in front of everything - and everyone - else.  A good wife/mother/sister/friend doesn’t do that, does she?

Again, I ask you - how stupid is that?

Is anyone going to die from it if the kids or the DH have to eat Kraft Dinner or Cheerios for supper (again)?  Is the world going to stop turning if the Christmas decorations aren’t up or down by a specific date?  Will life as we know it come to a screeching halt if your mother/MIL points out the layer of dust in your living room?

Oh, puh-lease.  Who gives a rip? 

Put Dominos on speed dial

Leave the tree where it is - it’s pretty, it’s green (maybe brown by now), and it will remind the family that the spirit of Christmas really should be a year-round thing

And leave the Pledge/Tide/vacuum in a conspicuous location for those times when someone comments on the state of your house.  Simply point them in the direction of the cleaning supplies and smile.

You’re a writer, and sometimes you get to - you have to - make that a priority.  Anyone can sort the darks from the delicates; anyone can load/unload the dishwasher; and anyone can run a vacuum.

But no one – NO ONE – can write your book for you.  Only you can do that – and if anyone has a problem with that, remember this: it’s their problem, not yours. 

So stop reading this post and go write.  Now.  Go!  And don’t let me catch you with a dishcloth in your hand or I’ll send out the screaming monkeys.
 

Does writing make you cry?

Not because you’re banging your head against the keyboard in frustration, but because what you’re writing wrenches at you.  It should.  When you’re writing an emotionally draining scene, especially the “black moment”,  you should be feel it.

Remember Joan Wilder at the beginning of “Romancing the Stone”?  She was sobbing her way through a box of tissues while typing the end of her novel, and I laughed, but I totally understood it.  If you’re not affected by your own writing, can you expect your readers to feel the emotion coming off the page?  I was writing a scene yesterday that ended with the hero crying, and by the end of the scene, I was blowing my nose too.

I suspect for some writers it is a purely mechanical process, but I’m pleased by the number of authors who confess that they too have “Joan Wilder” moments.  I always wondered if I was just odd. After all, I’m a sucker for cheap sentimentality.  Hallmark card commercials make my eyes misty.  Give me a scene in a movie with a dying dog and music in a minor key, and I’m plowing through the tissues.

On a totally different note, you might also “feel the burn” when crafting a good sensual scene.  At least, you might feel it before you’re in the 15th reading for edits.  Some writers have to set the mood for themselves with candles, soft lighting, utter isolation.  Others can hammer them out with screaming kids running in asking for snacks.  Every writer’s different, but I know that for me, I have to be feeling something if I want my reader to be feeling something.  I wrote a scene in Captain Sinister’s Lady that still gets to me, where a young man has to leave his adoptive family because racism in his antebellum town make it impossible for him to have a decent life.  It wasn’t easy to write it.  But I took the tissues and got to work, and when I was done, I blew my nose and said, “Hey!  That’s not half bad!”

So when you’re writing those key emotional scenes, ask yourself if you’re investing enough of yourself into it–are you feeling sad over your characters, or aroused, or elated, or happy?  If not, maybe you need to give it a second look.