Conflict Revisited

Doesn't the tension just crackle between them? — Doesn't the tension simply crackle between them?

Scriptwriters and directors have it easy compared to novelists. They ask for a charged look to pass between the characters and it happens (Ok, it may need a couple of takes to get the right one!). Audiences must infer from outward reactions between characters to know what they think and feel. We imagine, with a few helpful clues, why they behave the way they do.

The job of the novelist or short story writer is a bit tougher, since they can’t just just TELL you how a character feels but must SHOW you, and they have to use words, not images to do it. Novelists also have to sustain it for a much longer time since most movies condense down to short stories or novella length. (This is why the book is always better than the screen adaptation. 😉 There’s more time and space to get more details in there.)

One of the ideas I keep coming back to is how to go about building sustainable conflict that’s going to last long enough and still reach a satisfying resolution. Pile on some sexual tension! It’s necessary in a romance, but it’s not the most satisfying conflict to resolve for me as a reader. Maybe that’s because so many romance novels have that bit of tension resolved by page 138 or so.

I don’t feel like I’m much closer to figuring this out, but I haven’t given up on trying. I do feel as if my characters are becoming better suited for one another in the sense that they’re arguing more, have goals that appear to be mutually exclusive to them at first and they aren’t just along for the ride.

Now, I just have to go write them. BICHOK.

Exhausted…

Sorry, no fancy image today.

I’ve been so tired this week. It’s crazy. We camped out Saturday night and I didn’t sleep well, as usual. Only it was worse than usual, because my legs ached from hiking to the bathrooms and back several times and they decided to cramp. There was also a lot of standing around or sitting in camp chairs or on the freezing cold cement benches. It was weird because I really didn’t have any responsibilities so I felt at loose ends the entire time.

I’m still fighting with my keyboard. Apple replaced it and it worked fine in the store, but decided to revert to its evil ways as soon as I got it home. It’s going to be a while before I can take it down to the other repair shop that hopefully won’t charge me the price of a new one if it’s the logic board. Luckily, I can use an external USB keyboard with it and it’s fine, except it’s bulky and not very comfortable to type with in my lap. Bleah.

Despite all this, I’m working hard with my mentor trying to build a better road map. It’s a difficult process when you have to kill your darlings or change things around from what you’ve had in your head for over a year or more. I may be losing some of the secondary or lower characters but I’m gaining focus. I’m still having issues on how to weave side plots in and around the romance plot in interesting ways.

I’m still intending to work on the Maass workbook with Revealed, but most of my attention has been going to the mentor program project lately. I’ve been thinking of the questions from the workbook as I rework the plot for that one too.

Working in the evenings has been impossible since I’m trying to get the boy back in the habit of doing homework and that’s about as easy as herding cats. He’s still not caught up from his week out of school. It’s been a nightmare trying to get the current night’s work done starting around 4pm and giving up around 8 or 9 pm to eat or send him to bed. Taking him back to the dr. today for a follow-up on the headaches.

Progress

Awww, c'mon Bria, this guy's named Hubert! — Awww, c’mon Bria,
this guy’s named Hubert!

Another author on Romance Divas was having problems with her hero. Someone suggested calling him Hubert until he gave in and whispered his true name in her ear. Apparently the name didn’t get to him as much as giving him a hobby like woodworking. She finally learned his name was Ethan and he sailed.

Going through similar issues of my own, I adopted Hubert. (Stop giggling, Bria!) Anyway, perhaps to spite me, or maybe even Bria, 569 words later, Hubert he remains.

Oh, did you miss the important part there? 569 words! It has taken forever to start this story and I have a feeling it’s going to take forever to drag it out of me as well. That represents about 3 days worth of work on it.

I showed my basic plot outline to DH and told him what I really wanted out of his feedback was if he thought it was possible to do in my wordcount limit. Ok. So he laughed. Simplicity is obviously not how my brain works.

I’ve already used 7% of the allotted words on it already. I haven’t even finished the first scene yet. Eeek! I think part of why this one is so difficult is the known constraints on it. I should probably just ignore it and write it as it comes, but I find I’m being super picky about what I’m letting myself put down on the page.

I’m still shady on many of the details, but Hubert’s life is slowly unfolding. The real problem with the way I write is I like to have a good idea of where I’m going, but allow the characters to fill in a lot of the blanks and sort of find the journey as we go. Combine that with known restrictions and every word is like pulling teeth again.

Anyway, things will be quiet around here this weekend as we’re off to LA tomorrow so DH can give a speech at a convention and the kids and I are tagging along just to get out of town. We figured we could make better use of the pool and amenities than he would by himself. Dana Belfry and Sabrina Brayden are also going to come visit with me… yay!

We have no plans for Sunday yet, but we’ll play it by ear.

Back On Track…

Well, I gave in and wiped the harddrive on the laptop after trying just about every method known to man to try to get any files off it. The file system was completely hosed.

Reinstalling the OS and upgrading to Leopard and then reinstalling Office and Adobe’s Creative Suite took way too long. I’m still missing some stuff, but luckily I had registration codes written down for everything except one and I think I lost the email for that one in the wipe.

Fortunately, I only lost about 5 days worth of edits and journal entries that weren’t backed up on my desktop machine. I’m giving what used to be called .mac or iDisk and is now known as MobileMe a trial. For $99 a year, they’ll back up all the preferences and data from my Apple-centric software. Sadly, I don’t like Mail, Safari, iCal, or Address Book and prefer Entourage. So, if I want that stuff backed up, I have to do a bunch of picky hand-setting of what I want archived. Add to this, if I don’t want to give up my two free month trial, I can pay my money now and upload more than 100mb at a time.

Do you know how small 100mb is?! Sheesh.

So on the whole, I’m not TOO depressed about having to wipe it, but I am feeling a distinct sting where all my contacts, emails and stuff that wasn’t backed up have been ripped from me. Yes, for a digital packrat, this sucks. Oh well, life goes on and more will be accumulated over time.

So the plans this week are to jump back in at the deep end and keep going. At least the writing stuff lost wasn’t new pages, just some edits. It could have been so much worse than having to resummarize the scenes in Revealed, but I’m looking at them closely in terms of subplots and what I can do to expand on Barrington’s story line. I also printed out the whole beast so I can work on the edits from that and know which pages have been revised for sure. Yup, list of pages revised went poof too.

So that’s how my week wrapped up. Dr. Horrible was definitely a bright spot. Joss Whedon is pure EVIL!

Oops!

I'm in the doghouse... — I’m in the doghouse…

I messed up. I thought DD’s day camp started TODAY. Good thing I checked the information packet before driving off to drop her off this morning. It’s only 4 days this year and starts tomorrow. DOH!

So the kids are upset with me for getting them up so early for no good reason and getting her all excited for nothing. Yeah, well I’ve been up since 6 am and we’ve still got a Cub Scout thing to do today. So only part of my day is easier.

So, in line with Diana Peterfreund>‘s AOTM Workshop this week on RD about Subplots & her plotboarding techniques, I’m taking my found hour and working on a scene list and summary for Revealed and looking for subplots and ways to pull the main plot out into focus. SUBPLOTS must serve the ROMANCE plot in some fashion: amplify/mirror/deepen/move it along. They can’t serve as the MAIN plot and I think that’s where I’ve been missing my target.

Writing time is going to be light this week, but I’m still making slow and steady progress. Sometimes it feels like it’s several steps backwards, but it’s all moving along that learning curve, so it’s all good.

Conflict Again

Compromise isn't easy! — Compromise isn’t easy!

It’s time to talk and think about conflict again. I just noticed the last time I touched on this topic was March. I should have paid more attention to it then and maybe I wouldn’t be such a tight corner now.

The craft books keep hammering on how you need to have conflict to make your characters work for their goals. Nothing can come too easily for them or it’s just not believable. That’s exactly where I’m stuck. I’m in the last third of FQD and everything’s just falling into place and it’s just not interesting. If I’m not interested, there’s no way anyone else is going to be. I was telling Andi, I’ve got all these loose ends to tie up and she asked if it was really necessary. Well, yeah, if it’s a romance, they have to get together. That’s a pretty big loose end to be flopping in the breeze. There’s lots of smaller things too, like why the heroine was off at this house party in the first place. What if she gets home and her father could care less if she brought what she thought was this big prize for him back home with her? Arrrgh.

Methinks something seriously went awry in the planning of this one. I looked back at my early posts and they focus on the hero. Somehow my working outline only brings through the heroine’s story. What’s REALLY annoying is that this is the same thing that happened with Revealed. I started out with the hero in mind and whoosh, everything ended up flipped upside down on the heroine’s side.

I suspect this happens because in both cases I had an idea of the hero in my head and absolutely none of the heroines when I started working on these stories. Thinking I was in good shape with the heroes, I neglected them to concentrate on what made the heroines interesting both to me and the heroes. Yeah, good, but that’s only HALF the equation. In both cases, there’s very little conflict between the main characters. They’re both on the same side. There’s very little tension either and there’s definitely nothing keeping them apart. There’s nothing grand and passionate or filled with sacrifice or even really a question in anyone’s mind as to why these characters have to work through anything in the end.

Andi’s challenge brought up some interesting ideas for the main character in FQD, but I’m going to have to go back and restructure everything again. I guess it’s a good thing that I’m not satisfied with these two as they are and I want to go back and fix them instead of just abandoning them as would have happened by now in the past.

So what I need to do is come up with some good ways to put my heroes and heroines on a chair like the one pictured. Make it so no one is satisfied and on solid ground until the very end. I think I’m going to have to revisit Leigh Michael’s book again. I’m also going to have to take my time building those conflicts and tensions into the story and not just hope a basic situation is enough. The more facets they have that exist in contrast, the more interesting it will be for me (and the reader) to untangle the knot while still getting them to their Happily Ever After.

Thanks for putting up with me thinking out loud again. 🙂

Arcs & Lenses

Edward Tufte, Spring Arcs, 2002-2004, installed 2004. 4 stainless steel arcs, tilted 12 degrees from the vertical, 6 feet high, base parallelogram 12 by 67 feet, solid stainless steel, weight 12,800 pounds.

Jodi of “Will Work for Noodles” fame posted the other day about one of her papparazzi moments similar to the one I had when I read Leigh Michael’s book On Writing Romance and how the conflict/force thing has to work in order for this arc to occur. Jodi’s post completed the circuit for me. I’ll wait while you click here to go read it.

No really, I’ll wait.

Ok. So she was talking about Virginia Kantra was explaining how the meeting, initial conflict, vulnerability, honesty, and acceptance that your hero and heroine (H/h) go through the story to reach their Happily Ever After (HEA).

This idea combined with MIchael’s take on how you have to have complementary problems for your H/h and a force that’s compelling enough to keep them from just walking away from the frustration that you’re putting them through really made a whole lot of sense to me.

I’ve had this bouncing around my head as I’m writing up the basic scene descriptions that I find it easier to work from as I go through a first draft for the Flower Queen’s Daughter story I’ve been talking about, but haven’t shown much progress on. I’ve been trying to look past it and let it settle in the background of my thoughts, but it’s helped pull out some significant moments in my outline. And yes, they seem to fall where Dunne refers to as points of no return. It’s exciting when things fall into place! Or at least feel like it.

The other thing that’s been running through my mind today was Andi, the unhinged one’s question to Jodi and me if it was possible to stuff too much craft into one’s head or at least too many different styles of approach. I think I’ve decided that since we’re fairly visually oriented people, that I want to describe the different approaches as different lenses. I’m easily distracted, ooh, shiny? Niiice…

Oh yes. Sorry, back now. Different lenses. My brain bounces around a lot. Focus is frequently an issue for me, so all this craft stuff bounces in and out of focus on me as well. This means I don’t always realize what needs to happen just because Dunne says around this point you should be thinking about having New Dangers Defeat Old Weapons and Emotional Defeat or Vogler says you have to show Tests, Allies, & Enemies and others just call the Mid Point. BUT, if I have them lined up in my handy spreadsheet and can see them all side by side, I can flip through the available lenses and use the one that makes the most sense at the moment.

Now, the other thing I’ve been thinking about is form vs formula. This is Robert McKee’s fault. I go back and forth on my reliance on my spreadsheet. I think at this point I’m allowed a crutch, though. You see, I haven’t internalized things enough to push the vague formula into organic form yet. I need reminders.

Andi also mentioned that she needed to learn through trial by fire or learning by doing. I agree with this to a point. Things click when I read them, but it seems to take me at least two iterations for them to click on the page.

I was going to ask a pithy and thought-provoking question here at the end, but my brain’s on overload from all I managed to get done today. I’m planning on going into May with a solid plan in hand and just writing all month for RD’s RoDiWriMo. Eep, one more day left and 9 scenes to capture the details on!

Work In Progress!

Work In Progress

My WIP saw actual progress over the last two days. It’s Spring Break here for the kids and they were already crying they were bored by lunchtime yesterday. Today, I further taxed their powers of self-entertainment by taking them with me to get the tires on the van looked at. The guy told me, “I don’t usually say this to customers, but that’s a really dangerous tire to be driving on. Good thing you came in when you did.” Yeah, duly chastised and a thousand bucks poorer thanks to extended warranties, new shocks & struts and there better be some gold plating under there too! Noted. I’ll be back every 3-5 months to get them rotated and aligned now. Aye-aye.

Anyway, I managed to fill out my outline spreadsheet based on Dunne’s Emotional Structure and Vogler’s take on the Hero’s Journey, as well as a few other things I’ve tossed in by now. I finished Act I and Act II’s outline yesterday and finished up Act III today at the tire place. If they’d had a decent table to work on and I hadn’t had the kids, I might have been REALLY productive during the three hours we were there.

I also worked a bit brainstorming on names for characters and the like that I’ll need before I can really sit down and write this thing, but I’m so close that I’m starting to feel annoyed when I can’t take a chunk of time and devote to it and get it out of my system. This is a good thing. There’s a sense of urgency that I need to work on this and get the story told. I’d missed that feeling lately.

All I have to do now is strap myself into my chair and get writing! I’m sure I’ll become a regular feature in the RD chat room again. (Sorry Bria, no nifty anaolgies today. I’m too braindead from smelling the rubber in the showroom/waiting room and a FOXNEWS overload.)

Thanks and Possible Breakthrough

First off, I want to thank everyone for their birthday wishes yesterday!

I had a great day and we went out for Japanese for dinner for something different that the kids and I’d never had before: Shabu Shabu, which is named for the “swish” sound the meat makes when you drag it through the boiling water.

So what’s this have to do with a breakthrough? Not much, really. Except that I’ve been looking at this story as a single big chunk of meat plopped down on the counter. Wrong. It needs to be sliced thinly to bring out the marbling, the texture and flavor. It needs a variety of veggies on the side to season it. And most importantly, it needs that pot of boiling water to steep in, to meld everything together into something tasty and new.

Dare I hope that by forcing myself to face this story head-on this week (see boiling pot reference), I’ve managed to push through past the stale synopsis on Wikipedia to something interesting, fun, and that will qualify as a romance (see the something tasty and new reference)?

What I realized is that everything I’ve done so far has been solely for my benefit. The majority of what I’ve cluttered up my brain, blog and hard drive with regarding this story so far will never see the page in the final story. I don’t consider it wasted time at all because I had to know it and work through it to find the story that was hiding underneath.

Unfortunately, what I did realize is that I’ve mostly abandoned the approach I was trying to take. I still think it’s very puzzle-like in trying to determine what goes where, what A means for B, and why C has to happen before D can. But thinking about the “layout” and who and what need to populate the story have been pushed aside in my quest to find the story I want to write itself.

Now that I have an overview of what I want to do (and it might not look like it contains all the same plot points as before, but they’re still bouncing around my head and woven in and around what is there. The original folktale seems to be mostly backstory and supporting details for the hero’s storyline, but the heroine is taking over the show and what the story is about has changed because of the decisions I’ve forced the characters to make and the histories I’ve given them.

So, back to swishing these poor characters around. Mmm… it’s starting to look like soup… I mean a story! What do you think?

Alexander can’t help helping others and when he learns a woman has been kidnapped from the old gypsy woman he rescued from a ditch, things start to go wrong. He finds the woman, but Anthea refuses to leave before she can recover the key to her father’s breeding program that was stolen by her “captives”. Meanwhile, the matriarch plans to force Anthea into marriage with her eldest son because of her own impeccable bloodline. Eventually, Alex figures out that he needs a little outside help in order to help solve Anthea’s problems and that he likes her as she is. Alex and Anthea manage to escape with the key but the family pursues them. Will society’s notions of propriety trap her forever or will true love free her to be her self.

Oh, and you can expect to hear a lot more about a couple of my presents in the future: DH got me Robert McKee’s Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting and my mom got me a copy of Nancy Kress’s Beginnings, Middles & Ends.

Thursday Thirteen: Conflict Building

13 Possible Short-Term Problems

I brainstormed a bit today on putting together short-term problems that would pull the hero and heroine together yes provide some conflict on why they might not be the best match at first glance. I’ll readily admit that many of these were heavily influenced by romance novels I’ve read in the past. It’s all in the details and the execution, right?

Unfortunately, none of these solves the issues I’m having with my problem stories.

He won her family home in a wager and she’s been abandoned by her parent/guardian.
He investigates her family in a matter for the Home Office while she leads a secret life to earn money for her family.
He needs a wife/fiancee to keep the matchmakers at bay and she needs a betrothal to keep the fortune hunters at bay.
In a case of mistaken identity, she cares for the injured lord who has a hold over her family and ends up liking him instead.
In a case of mistaken identity, he infiltrates her gang of smugglers that she’s using for purposes of good, unlike the spies and wreckers he’s been sent to find.
He needs a wife to care for his daughter and would like an heir but the widow believes she can’t have children of her own.
She needs to redeem her father’s scholarly reputation and he needs her evidence to take down the evil relative who is using her father’s work for evil purposes.
She needs to redeem her brother’s good name and he’s investigating her brother’s treasonous behavior.
She makes up a betrothed and he appears to fill the role so he can conveniently spy on her family.
He suffers a terrible battle wound and only she can stand up to him and bring him out of his depression. She’s available to do so, because her strength and shrewish ways have driven away all suitors.
Their families have fought for generations, they’re set up to mend the fences and merge the family lines.
Her father is killed in battle and the hero comes back to serve as her guardian.
The bad boy stands between her and the noble goal of helping some orphans. He’s bored to tears and sets himself the challenge of seducing the proper miss.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 Debbie Mumford	2 damozel	3 Darla
4 Jennifer McKenzie	5 Debora	6 Tempest Knight
7 On a Limb with Claudia	8 Paige Tyler	9 Alice Audrey
10 R.G. Alexander	11 Christina	12 pussreboots
13 Tawny Taylor	14 Kat’s Krackerbox	15 Danica/Dream
16 Susan Helene Gottfried	17 Di	18 Gwen Mitchell
19 Maribeth	20 Unhinged	21

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!