Frustrated

Ok, so I had this great aha! moment and now trying to work with it, I keep running into a brick wall.

I spent a good chunk of time today taking the writing exercises at end of Chapter Five on Conflict in Leigh Michael’s book On Writing Romance. I got a bit closer to figuring out how the conflict might work in Revealed. I think the one with the Duke and Duchess from that story actually works best and I was even able to do a little brainstorming on how to make the Food Critic one work better. However, the one that’s frustrating me is this Flower Queen’s Daughter story.

On one hand, it feels like I’m trying to start the story WAY too early for a romance. On the other hand, it’s just way too hero-centric for a romance. It’s possible I picked a horrible story to try to do this with, but I’m stubborn (if you haven’t figured that out by now). I will make this work.

Brainstorming conflicts that met the criteria Michaels sets forth for workable conflict (related short-term and long-term problems combined with a force that keeps them from walking away in frustration), I came up with the idea that he feels obligated to rescue her or afraid the gypsy will curse him, but perhaps the heroine wasn’t entirely upset by “being kidnapped” in the first place? Maybe she thinks she’s just been invited to stay at their country house for a while? The long-term problems are even fuzzier. Why would these two make the worst match possible on first impression?

It makes so much more sense when I’m looking at this from the outside.

Ker-Snap!

I mentioned in a comment of my previous post on trying to figure out how to structure a new romance story that I’d just purchased two craft books and experienced one of those Aha! moments while reading the first one: On Writing Romance: How to Craft a Novel That Sells by Leigh Michaels.

I shall now go bang my head against my desk.

Ok. Still here? I can’t believe I’ve been sitting here since August and I haven’t read this book yet. To say, “It’s what I’ve been looking for,” is an understatement. Either that, or the time was finally right for me to find it. It’s not a magic formula book by any means, but Chapter Three (Essential Elements) floored me. It wasn’t the following sentence:

A romance novel is the story of a man and a woman who, while they’re solving a problem that threatens to keep them apart, discover that the love they feel for each other is the sort that comes along only once in a lifetime; this discover leads to a permanent commitment and a happy ending.

Leigh Michaels, On Writing Romance, p. 39

No, that was familiar enough and I’ve read it enough times in the last eight months or so. No, what floored me was the diagram on the next page, complete with its cute little heart. Lemme see if I can do it any kind of justice.

HERO <cute little heart> HEROINE

Pulled together by a PROBLEM, which is the story’s conflict.

ONCE-IN-A-
LIFETIME-LOVE develops, but will the conflict permit it to blossom? ACTION (the plot) develops and continues.

The conflict is resolved realistically. The HAPPY ENDING leaves the reader satisfied.

Leigh Michaels, On Writing Romance, p. 40

You’ll have to imagine some lines on your own. One line connects Hero and Heroine to the heart, from there a single line drops to the problem box, then it splits to the Love story and the Action plot to converge again at the Happy Ending. I don’t feel like I’ve done it any justice at all. However, the important thing is that I felt a shift in my thinking. Then as I read through Chapter Five, which is all about the Conflict in a romance novel, I felt things shift again. Getting them up in trees and throwing rocks at them apparently isn’t enough.

Simply giving your characters a problem doesn’t automatically create conflict. Only when the problem involves both of them and creates tension between them do you have conflict.

Leigh Michaels, On Writing Romance, p. 62

The inside of my head must have looked like the bank of paparazzi along the red carpet when a car door opens.

You have to get them up in the SAME tree and it can’t be just any old rocks, they have to be tailor made for them and their internal issues.

No wonder the Snowbound story didn’t really work. It’s also why my masquerade story isn’t quite clicking yet. Barrington cares, but he’s not really affected by her problems. I could go on, but the energy would be better spent fixing the problems.

She goes on to explain about Short Term (External) and Long Term (Internal) Problems that the hero and heroine must face. Pretty standard fare there and made sense as she described how they fit together and gave some strategies for creating them.

Then, I turned the page again and WHAM!

Leigh Michaels deserves a spot on the Jedi Council for her explanation of The Force and how you have to use it in conjunction with the Short Term and Long Term Problems, otherwise your Hero and Heroine, smart and reasonable as you’ve constructed them, will simply walk away. What keeps them together? They have to need each other so badly they don’t want to walk away, one has a good reason for forcing the other into this predicament, or there are outside influences keeping them in close proximity.

I’ve read most of the rest of the book (there’s some awesome stuff in Section Three: Writing Your Book) but I think I need to go reread the first eighty pages again to make sure it’s imprinted on my brain. There are summary questions at the end of each section that are helpful in illustrating the point. It’s not very workbook-like, but if that’s your thing, you can make it so. Or not. Her use of published examples and off-the-cuff throw-away ideas were extremely helpful to me.

So, it’s back to the drawing board for me, but if you’re finding that what you’re writing isn’t living up to what you’re reading, this book may help provide insight on what’s missing and it doesn’t come down on either side of the whole pantser/plotter debate.

Fitting Pieces Back Together

This is still really rough, but I spent a large chunk of today working on turning my worksheet of scenes with their info and list of beats to be hit into a genuine stab at a blurb and synopsis. I realize that it’s still needs a lot of work and many of the details have either not floated to the surface of my brain or not made it to the page. I’m not particularly tied to the names for the Hero and Heroine, but there is a reason for them.

This step pretty much correlates to writing out all the steps for the big quest in the area or zone if I were designing a game area.

Questions, comments, and critiques all welcome.

The Blurb

When an accommodating miller’s son stops to help a gypsy woman shunned by the rest of his village, he learns the daughter of one noble family has been kidnapped by another and must decide if he can give up the potential riches to be gained by working in the second household to steal away with his newfound love.

The Synopsis

Alex Miller can’t seem to help himself. He always lends a helping hand to those in need around him but his father refuses to see how his son’s altruism will be an advantage when Alex won’t ask for assistance he so readily gives to others.

Returning from the village to replace a broken gear for the mill, Alex comes across a wagon stuck in the ditch. An old Gypsy woman complains no one has bothered to stop all day and rewards Alex’s kindness with news of Anthea’s kidnapping and gives him a magic bell she claims will aid his rescue of this beautiful young debutante. He remains unconvinced of the bell’s usefulness, but unwilling to insult her, he tucks it away before heading home.

His father is furious with how long it has taken Alex to travel to the village, pick up the part and return. They argue over why it matters if Alex takes the time to help others when working the mill is a sure-fire way to get no where fast. His father proclaims he will never amount to much and Alex storms upstairs to pack his bag. He’s got a noblewoman to rescue.

Alex is anxious to complete his quest, but he is unable to ignore the pleas of three young men of consequence when his help and ingenuity is required to get them out of their predicaments. When the four stop for the night at an unsavory tavern, they overhear rumors of a woman being held prisoner on a nearby estate by a wealthy and powerful family. In the morning, Alex slips away, but finds his friends have followed him for lack of better entertainment.

His hopes for proving his worthiness, and the worth of helping others, to his father die when the butler slams the door in their face. They return to the tavern to plot a way into the household in order to rescue Anthea.

One of his friends uses his influence to convince the Matriarch of the family, a nasty, old dragon of a woman to hire Alex as a groom. She is flattered by their false praises for her lost beauty and agrees, placing Alex personally in charge of her eldest son’s prized mare.

The horse proves fractious and escapes from Alex. In desperation, he pulls out the small bell given to him by the gypsy and sounds it. The animal is found by one of his friends and Alex’s position is safe. He denies having any problems and the Matriarch rewards him with new copper-colored finery and invites him to join the family for dinner.

At the ball, he meets the kidnapped noblewoman and learns of her unhappiness. The Matriarch is holding her captive until her eldest son returns from wherever the hell he is hiding. He promises to find a way to rescue her.

The next time he is sent to exercise the mare, she once again escapes. He searches where she was found before to no avail. He gives in and rings the bell. Another of his friends locates and returns the horse, saving Alex’s hide. His reward is silver-colored finery and an invitation to an intimate dinner party hosted by the Matriarch, who then treats him more as a guest than a servant.

One evening, he finds Anthea alone in the garden and she confesses her wish to marry for love not duty, nor political or financial gain. He relates the plans for escape that he and his friends have devised, but she advises him to ask the Matriarch for a useful reward such the mare’s foal instead of accepting cast-off clothing and ignoring how the family laughs at him behind his back.

The next day, he’s sent to exercise the prize mare and he relaxes his guard when she behaves for him. She slips away while he daydreams. He searches the locations in which she was previously found but resorts to ringing the bell in desperation. He returns to the stables only to meet his third friend returning from the river where the mare had been grazing. The Matriarch is impressed he has done so well given the horse’s mischievous streak. Alex boldly requests ownership of the mare’s foal before she can offer him more clothing. She laughs and pleased by his confidence, she gifts him with a splendid outfit of golden finery and invites him to a ball that night as well.

Instead, Alex and the noblewoman sneak off to the stables where she locates the foal – a finely grown gelding. They hide when a groom doing his final round surprises the couple and then flee on horseback to meet up with his trio of allies at the tavern.

Their escape is soon noticed and the family’s younger sons, sent to retrieve the bride the Matriarch had picked out for her eldest son, pursue them across the fields. The brothers’ relentless pursuit means Alex and his friends must rely on the noblewoman’s knowledge of the area and trust her judgment.

After a harrowing night, Anthea guides everyone safely to her mother’s house where Alex’s worth is questioned and she defends his actions and decisions. He admits he requires assistance to defeat the Matriarch’s younger sons and guarantee Anthea’s safety. A few favors are called in and the enemy is routed for good.

Her mother wants to ensure her daughter’s happiness and can’t imagine she’ll be happy as a miller’s son living so far away. Alex assures her that he won’t be continuing in the family business and intends to build a home of his own. Anthea declares she will never love another but they can visit every year during the winter holidays. His father is summoned for the wedding.

Logic Puzzles

I hate the ones like on the SAT where they’re not much more than busy work.

You know. Lots of irrelevant information thrown at you about what the weather was like when Mrs. So-n-So’s 3rd grade class went to this specific zoo and saw a group of monkeys, so many males and so many females all eating fruit with even more irrelevant details thrown in. Then you’re supposed to figure out which monkey’s name, their favorite fruit and where they liked to eat it by the set of clues about their likes and dislikes.

They always involve setting up a table and filling in the blanks given the information in the clues. I hate when the kids bring these types of problems home because they refuse to see the pattern and get stuck in the irrelevant details. It’s all about focus, pattern matching and sifting through the information given to find the useful nuggets.

I feel like I’ve been working on a giant one of these this week. I’ve got a list of 22 scenes (so far) with various columns regarding what should be happening in each one. I’m not sure I have it slimmed down to the relevant info yet, but it’s coming along and seems to flow from one to the next.

The trickiest part has been stepping back and looking at each scene as a collection of beats like in a screenplay and making sure the final action leads to the next scene while at the same time making sure the scenes also progress through a story arc and also allow the hero and heroine to make their romance work. I suspect this one might fall under “with romantic elements” but I think that can be shifted a bit more to the 75% romance instead of 67% that it’s currently at.

Did I mention that I have trouble thinking short and simple?

I have all but the last 5 scenes sketched out. I think I still need to go back and look through them for how the characters are feeling at these points in the story, but once the timeline and what needs to happen is set out, I can get down to the business of writing this thing down.

I’ve tried to stick with a plotline that would be similar to the type I’d done for the game, and it’s interesting to see the parallels as well as where the way I think about it has to diverge from tried and true patterns. I actually have to go through the process of “playing through the quest” and figuring out what makes it interesting to watch from the outside instead of just experience on a personal level. Screw-ups are only interesting if they teach the hero something useful about himself that will eventually affect his overall success.

I still have doubts about the saleability of this idea, but I’m not going to worry about that for now. First, I have to get the first draft down.

I did find an interesting article over on Michelle Willingham’s site about how someone can go from hate to love in 11 steps. Definitely something I’ve seen repeatedly in my reading, but never really thought about as outline points.

So, what do you compare your writing process to? What have you experienced “Aha!” moments over?

Puzzling It Out

So, I’ve been fiddling with a new idea to go with this game-like approach I’ve been thinking about (I haven’t forgotten, Jodi!) while being offline most of last week to spend time with my mom, her friend, and the kids who were out of school.

I found a great resource Folktexts where they have collected a ton of Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts. I spent a lot of time looking at folktales Wikipedia as well. The English Wiz site also has a very cool section on The Etymology of First Names.

So… I decided I wanted to try to write something around “The Flower Queen’s Daughter”. I don’t know how it’ll turn out, but it’ll be an interesting excercise. DH said it sounded long, but that was probably just my mangling of telling him too many details along the way.

So, yesterday while the kids were in martial arts class, I sat down with my clipboard and started planning. I’ve gone over the story several times to get a feel for what all needs to be included, but beyond the plot sequence, I hadn’t done much else with it yet.

If I was truly going to turn this into a section for a game, I’d need to go into much more detail in mapping out where all the different settings were located and deciding what connected them together that could be interesting or at the least useful. Instead, I came up with 8 locations that can be used and reused during the story.

The Flower Queen’s House
The Hero’s House (more likely his father’s)
The Ditch along the Road
The Road where he’s searching (generalized location here)
The Dragon’s House: Salon/Receiving room; Ball Room; Stables; Meadow; Garden

The characters required seems a large and unwieldy list just now. And they’re not going to be literal representations of how they’re referred to in the book. I was thinking of having the animals/flowers/etc represented in their coats of arms/crests and let it be more metaphorical.

Hero – Alexander
Heroine – Anthea
The Flower Queen/Gyspy — Flora, I’m conflating these two characters
The Dragon Mother — Rosalind
King of Eagles — Arnold
King of Foxes — Todd
King of Fishes — Dylan, Marvin, Morgan, or Meredith
The Dragon’s brothers —
The Dragon — Drake
Hero’s Father —

There are also some items that play roles in the story that will need to be mentioned: a bell, a mare and her foal, and three cloaks (copper, silver, and golden).

I’ve already worked out which characters/items/locations are needed for which of the 16 plot points I pulled directly from the synopsis so far. My next plan is to take those note cards and write Dunne’s Story points on the reverse. I think I’ll also need a few more scenes so that this isn’t completely in the hero’s POV. The heroine needs some reason why she’s just going to waltz off with a man she barely knows instead of staying in what appears to be a cushy place.

So my next step is to lay out the plot points on my handy plot diagram and see where they fall and where I still need answers and ideas.

Puzzle Pieces

I’m a sucker for puzzles. Nothing makes me happier than finding a solution. Must. Solve. Puzzle. Nearly any type of puzzle, as long as a bit of challenge exists, will keep me amused for quite a while. The sense of accomplishment is one of the reasons I like learning new things and coding (which involves figuring out how to turn what you want to do into terms the computer can understand and execute).

I was struck the other day by how similar writing is to a jigsaw puzzle. The only problem is instead of getting a box with a photo containing another copy mounted on cardboard cut into interesting little shapes, you construct your own box, draw your own pictures and cut out your own pieces, all while blindfolded and wearing gloves.

Or is that just me?

I may appear to be on a quest to find The Magic Formula<tm>. It’s not that cut and dried. Instead, I prefer to think I’m seeking a magic process. What if you simply made a slight twist and popped out a couple of pieces and switched ’em like when you got super-frustrated with a Rubik’s Cube? Although, that might suit if a scene is misplaced, but unless you started with 6 sides of colored squares you’ll have a big mess.Must. Solve. Puzzle.

First, I need to remember the rules of the game are to be learned. Practice on easier levels should come before trying to master the expert ones. (Yeah, I hated training wheels too.)

So, viewing a story as a puzzle requiring clues, set-ups and pay-offs to get the rewards helps me understand why I came back to writing and why, this time, I’m sticking with it much longer than before when I ignored the mechanics.

The other thing I’ve been ignoring my background of building stories in a radically different medium. I wrote, scripted and coded for a text-MUD for over a decade.

I think if I consider a story to be the equivalent of an area (i.e. a section of the game based on a single theme such as “Arabian Nights” or “Victorian London”). I need to block in the rooms (theme/premise), figure out all quests belong (plot), decide on the list of mobs (characters and their stories) and which kinds of props and window dressing are necessary objects (scenes and sequels).

The advantage building an area had over writing a story was the interactive and emergent aspects which covered a multitude of sins. I’m also unsure of my ability to work in a non-linear fashion. Thinking of the process in familiar terms might help, but I suspect the pieces aren’t lined up in quite the correct order yet.

Hmmm. Perhaps I should try writing a story set within one of the areas I designed. I could also take one of my characters and try to write their quest steps. Can’t hurt, right?

Must. Solve. Puzzle.

Cheese with my whine?

So, I began this writer’s journey in earnest a little over seven months ago. I’m not counting any previous false starts (they never lasted long before) or tangential experiences (we’re talking stringing sentences together, but more interactive and emergent stuff or related non-fiction). What I mean is a serious focus on craft and honest attempts to tell a story from beginning through the middle to the end and come up with something that appeals to others.

DH lends help and support, when I ask. The Divas are simply amazing. Their tolerance for dumb queries and unconditional backing is unbelievable. Jodi manages to ask all the right questions or drop little bombshells of wisdom to make me think about what I’m doing. MamaDivine certainly learned from her! Bria and CC are enthusiastic cheerleaders.

So, what’s my problem?

Why am I still spinning my wheels and going in circles? Is it a lack of “pre-writing” and not knowing my characters enough to deal with their reactions to situations? I suspect the issue remains in my actual plots and structure. The hardest thing for me to do is step back and puzzle out the big picture for my own writing. Gathering the characters I want to throw together and stockpiling rocks to chuck at them seems easier. Often, I can visualize the closing scene/image.

Now, I’m probably whining, but I’m frustrated. I may have made too few attempts to speak with any authority, but I find everything falls apart when I try to go from point A to B and then head for C. My conflicts and dilemmas never seem to be sufficient or the details refuse to come together so things float around in limbo.

Several different approaches caught my eye or were suggested: Snowflake method, Emotional Structure, Hero’s Journey, and even breaking individual scenes down into notes for Meeting, Purpose, Encounter, Final Action, and Sequel/Aftermath. Each one taught me something about this process, but I’m still not satisfied with the results.

Analytical and highly focused on theory are now attached to my name. I think people are using nicer words than “anal” and “perfectionist”. Complements (and thanks to those who have made them!) must compete with the voices in my head, which are louder and more critical. I realized this would be a problem when I started, but it’s just another thing I wanted to learn about and overcome.

The Romance Divas are doing a free read promotion for Valentine’s Day. I’ve tried not to think about it much, but I may try to come up with something in the next two weeks. That’s scary! What am I thinking? Maybe, I should try a new spin on a familiar story so the plot and framework are a given. I don’t know.

We’ll see.

——

Wow, I think I just realized what the problem is. I’ve been editing. Too much critical thinking and not enough brainstorming and/or just writing. I’ve been skimping on my journal entries lately too. Not a good thing. Need to keep the words flowing, despite my cranky, persnickety, internal editor.

UPDATE: MJ’s written an awesome post on the subject of internal editors. Go read it!

The Plot Thickens…?

I’m stuffing the rewrite of Revealed back into a “drawer” again. I want to wait until a couple people have read it and commented more thoroughly on it before tearing it apart again and just sitting here second-guessing myself. I still don’t have a lot of ideas on how I’m going to fix the hero’s arc, but instead of beating my head against that wall, I decided to do something proactive.

I’m going back to the previous WIP where the pesky fellow was only a secondary character. I’ve been taking my spreadsheet that I based on the diagrams in Dunne’s Emotional Structure and Vogler’s Writer’s Journey. I’ve added a lot of notes to it from various other sources as well, and I hope I have something I can work with to guide my thinking into a workable and interesting story.

The main problem is that I have 25k words written in this WIP already. Trying to determine if the already written scenes need to stay or just move is giving me a headache. I suspect I’m also having similar issues with the GMC of the characters not being defined well enough to propel the plot along in a meaningful fashion.

I’ve also been chasing down a lot of rabbit trails lately. I’ve found a lot of interest in the world of screenwriting. Setups and payoffs, ideas about laying out things to fix in the characters life to make the story pay off, and generally more information to take up space in my brain. I hope they’re worth it as I have been trying to think about how these little tidbits relate to the stories I’m trying to tell.

This new/old WIP has an external conflict that the H/h should be working to resolve, but it’s not gelling very well with the emotional story arcs that they also need to follow. His lack of responsibility and her overdeveloped sense of protecting her brother are nice opposites. He’s being forced to be respectable and she only sees the worst in his little vices (which compared to the examples that her father and brother have provided her of wastrels are rather pathetic).

So far, I think I have the opening worked out for both the hero and the heroine and the middle worked out for the hero. Her middle is a bit more muddled in my head. And about all I know of the ending for either of them is that the external threat is defeated and they have their Happily Ever After.

I also need to write up reviews for two books I managed to finish recently. I’ll try to get those done sometime here in the near future.

Brute Force Won’t Cut It

Square Peg in a Round Hole When I’m trying to write lately, I feel like nothing fits smoothly. DH says I’m trying too hard and over-thinking everything. I’ve tried to back off and let things ferment, but so far that’s not working either.

I’ve had a week where I was pretty much away from the computer and didn’t even write out my journal entries by hand for 3 days. I feel like I should be bursting with the need to write something down, anything. I have done nothing concrete but think about the critique from the beginning of the month. No, I haven’t been fixated on what people were saying, but more on how I’m going to fix the issues brought up.

I did go look at how I was trying to outline my other WIP, and was chagrined to find that most of what I’d been thinking of as “plot points” that the story must hit along the way, were really emotional points and described in those terms as well. I keep meaning to drop a note to Jodi about this, as I think she’d be amused too. Of course, then she’d whap me upside the head and ask why I hadn’t done it for Revealed yet. *sigh* That’s probably why I keep conveniently forgetting to tell her.

My main problem is that my attention span is about the same as that of a gnat. I know I’m still under a lot of stress, not just from trying to resettle back in after the fires, but also with other commitments that are coming due this week. Stress is not conducive to wanting to write. It may help generate topics for journal entries, but not creative fiction.

The books I’ve been reading lately also haven’t been a source of motivation. The majority of them haven’t even sparked the “I could do that better” energy, that’s how little I liked the premise or how completely derailed I am.

Don’t mind me, I’m just feeling blue and in a funk. I think I’m going to go reread Dorothea Brande’s Becoming a Writer. She’s always good for some inspiration and motivation. If nothing else, she makes me want to be able to write in that easy, free and encouraging voice of hers.

Contrary to Popular Belief…

Ships sailing off the edge of the world -- a flat Earth. I have not fallen off the face of the earth. Real life has intruded and decided to complicate life further. Nothing bad, just I have more than one person should have to do at once. The number of demands on my time, my attention, and my car are quite high this week.

My in-laws are coming this weekend so trying to get the house in shape for that is a Herculean effort. Hey, why can’t they send me a demi-god to take care of all this? I’d be tempted to reroute a river to get rid of the clutter but unfortunately, our stable sits at the top of a hill and I don’t think it would work.

I don’t know why I feel so overwhelmed lately. The weather has changed from sunny and in the low eighties to cloudy/foggy in the mornings and settling in the upper sixties during the day. Usually I thrive in that temperature range.

I think the lack of colorful fall foliage has a lot to do with my fall downturns. I grew up in western Maryland near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Lots of color there. There was a huge red maple at the foot of our driveway. Giant leaves would turn a brilliant golden, shift to a fiery orange and finally turn a flame red. When the calendar claims it should be fall and everyone else is talking about the fall colors and the frost and everything else, for the last dozen years I’ve sat surrounded by people wearing shorts.

I haven’t had time to do more than my daily journals this week. I did pull out a set of index cards and printed off my spreadsheet layout of what are essentially digital index cards to work on adding emotional notes on the back of them. Unfortunately, the kids had other ideas and needed too much help with finishing their homework.

I need to come up with a set for the other two stories that I’ve been working on lately: the food critic and the spinster who’s going to the masquerade ball. I think not knowing the exactly sequence of events and then what emotional state the characters are supposed to be in at those various points along the plotline are making themselves into a convenient excuse not to work on them. If I exhaust every excuse I can come up with, I think I’ll have a better shot at working past all these self-erected obstacles.

Tag: Plot

Frustrated

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Ker-Snap!

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