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.
I can build tension… but I can’t seem to sustain to a novel length. I get bored. LOL So, the short story might be more my thing for the moment. I have about a dozen chapters of a Regency done and sitting in pdf files on my server because a friend was reading them. I didn’t exactly hit a wall with it, but I hit something. I decided I didn’t like my conflict. I didn’t think it was strong enough. So there it sits. 12 whole chapters. Maybe I need to read that craft book…
K!
What do I have to do to earn a spot on the Jedi Counsel? Seriously??? The need a future Morelli there – anyway.
Great post/review – I forwarded it on to some people in hopes that your paparazzi moment helps us all!
bria
Winter,
I’ve got a couple of those and that’s pretty much the problem I have. The conflict wasn’t strong enough or suited to the main characters and I had no real game plan at the time. Just the notion that I wanted to tell this story…
Thanks, Bria!
It’s depressing in a way, because now I realize I have so much more work to do, but at the same time, it’s also very exciting.
I think I’m going to spend the time during DD’s Girl Scout meeting with a notebook and explore some better conflict for this folktale and for Barrington and Marcia in Revealed. Amusingly, I think the one about the Duke is better off in this respect.
I also look at the folktale “plotline” now and realize that a lot of what’s currently there can be backstory instead of starting with “And there was light…” I need to know all that info to write it, but where to START it needs to be somewhere else entirely.
see, that’s the thing about craft books. What works for me, might not work for you. Everyone is different, but the “right” book is out there (like Mulder says). You just have to keep looking. Sounds like you and Michaels connected. So….does this mean you’re going to finish next week this time? (LOL!!! just kidding….)
Ah, yeah, about finishing anything by next Friday. Very doubtful. My weekend is already blown with kids’ martial arts belt tests and two fun-filled days of the Pinewood derby for cub scouts. Guess we should, like, build a car or something today. =P
It’s funny, Jodi. As I was reading this particular book, I kept thinking that THIS is what you talking about when you pointed me in the direction of Dunne’s Emotional Structure. I think you gave me a bit more credit than I deserved at the time. Dunne seems a step ahead of where I was at the time, good info to have, I just needed some other basic structure in there too. You can’t build with just rebar, right? Ah, but hindsight is always 20/20. 😉
Kaige,
Thank you for sharing this resource and your A-HA! moment. I love when I have those and can’t resist from shouting them out to anyone who will listen – they’re just too good not to share, and I appreciate it when other people take the time to do it, too. I’ll have to check out the book!
-Jessica
I seem to get writer’s block when I sit down to write. Hope you have a great weekend!
BTW, I tagged you in a meme. Come by and check it out
http://katskrackerbox.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/8-from-me/
Maybe we should swap stories… then both could get finished. Mine’s called… Ruined. LOL
Thanks, Jessica, glad you enjoyed the post. I love reading about those types of aha! moments too. It’s one of the reason I decided I wanted to blog about this journey from the beginning.
Ok, Kat, I’ll see about finding 8 minutes or so this weekend (may be more than I have free) to get something up in the meme. *peers around looking for vict*ahem* friends to tag.
Winter, I wouldn’t mind taking a look if you want. Bria still has mine (and no this isn’t whining at you to get with it, Bria! No rush, I have PLENTY to do.) and I want to see her reaction before I do anything else with it. Honestly, after reading this book, I wished I could fly up to her place, knock on the door and ask her to delete it from her laptop while I watched. I bravely resisted the urge to delete it from my own. It was tempting there for a bit though. 😉
I’m a horrible perfectionist, so the fact that 3 other people have already had it in their hot little hands is amazing in itself. But this really made me go, ok. Must redo everything and jack it up to the next level. I suppose it’s a good thing I want to rework stuff instead of just letting it languish in a pile of lonely 1’s and 0’s in a forgotten folder on a harddrive for 10-15 years like the first attempt. Man, is that thing unreadable to me now. LOL
OMG Kaige… this is too funny. I just bought this book (along with some others) and was debating which I should start with. I guess this is moving up the list now because it seems like you and I tend to be kindred spirits with our struggles… Hugs!