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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…