The Black Moment

I’m at that point in my current work in progress and I have to admit, I haven’t been too great at it so far.  So I did a little research.

What exactly is the black moment?

It’s when the hero and heroine reach the peak of the conflict in their relationship (which may or may not be compounded by external conflict).  It’s that darkest moment just before dawn – before the sun breaks through in their lives and will usually precede the deepest moment of intimacy between them because the victory over the black moment means they have overcome the greatest obstacle to their closeness.  It normally features about three-quarters of the way through the book or even closer to the end.

What constitutes an effective black moment?

When the heroine or even both the heroine and hero enter the reality of their greatest fears.  Think what’s the worst thing that can happen to them.  Say your heroine fears that she will never be accepted just the way she is, and the hero pushes her away when he finds a fault in her that he doesn’t think he can bear with.  He runs away.  She feels rejected by the very person she wanted full acceptance from.  She now believes that she will never find true love and gives up on the relationship.

The black moment mustn’t be a new idea but rather something that the characters have struggled with throughout.  There must be a lesson learnt from it.  The characters must come through the other side changed.  Call it epiphany.  Even more so, it should be a moment when they make a decision that forever changes their destiny and who they are as a person.

A good black moment seems hopeless at the time.  There is no way forward for the relationship.  The reader must wonder how they will land up with their happily-ever-after.  But it mustn’t be too dark if your book is a light contemporary.  For example, if your books has been peppered with humorous situations and fluffy romance, don’t nearly kill off the hero in an horrific shootout.  The conflict would be more internal in that kind of romance.

Another suggestion is to make the hero or heroine (or both) do something they wouldn’t normally do.  Maybe they’ve always put their work first and have succeeded every moment but now they have to choose to put the relationship first and risk failure in business.  To make it blacker, you could put the business at serious risk.

So the black moment must be when emotions are lowest and the reader feels the strongest for their characters to succeed.  Let their palms sweat a little.

Now to try to put all this into practice in my own book – that’s the hardest part.

What do you think makes a powerful black moment?

Don’t Take Things Personally

One of the greatest lessons I would teach to a new writer, is “don’t take things personally.”  I have to keep on reminding myself of that.  I don’t take to criticism very well but I’ve learnt that being a writer puts you right in the line of fire for criticism.

After receiving some horrible reviews on the book I self-published on Amazon and then getting some undesirous remarks on another book by an editor, I was feeling like quitting writing altogether.  The feeling didn’t last for long.

After two bad reviews, I decided to keep the book there but after the fourth one, it was time to take the book off before I totally dragged my name through the mud.  I may work on it and put it back on but probably not.  If the plot is slow moving, predictable and blah, blah, blah, there’s probably very little I can do to spice it up.  But, I’ve learnt some things for my future writing.  Maybe the most painful lessons are the most effective.

As far as editor’s changes that you’re not sure you agree with:  a word of advice – let it stew in your mind and subconscious for a while until what they say sinks in.  It will begin to look more and more logical, the more you think about it.  And although you may think that they hate you or think you can’t write a single line of sense, hang in there.  I’m talking to myself here. 

With some desperate prayers, deep thinking, hours of thrashing with the manuscript, I managed to make some changes which enhanced the book (well, I sincerely hope so).  I learnt a little about the first kiss too.  I’d messed that up big time.

If you still don’t agree with your editors changes (not saying that was me – just researched this), try to change it as much as you can to their liking and then bring in your own original bent to the book.  It is after all your book.  But your response depends on how much you want this publishing contract and how much of your original book you still want to hang onto.

Which gets me to my second point:  Don’t get emotionally attached to your book.  When you do, you won’t be able to part with the parts that need to be trashed.  I think that was part of the problem with my book with the bad reviews – I was emotionally attached to it so I didn’t want to listen to the negative thoughts about it, instead of just accepting that it had some serious flaws.  The books I have less of my heart invested in, are probably more likely to succeed.

So when an editor wants you to change something and you’re saying to yourself, “But I loved writing that and it was so cleverly written,” think again.  Do you really want to hang onto something because of how it made you feel when you wrote it, instead of how it will make your reader feel when they read it?

There’s a balance though.  Who wants to write something that bores them to tears when they’re writing it?

How do you, as a writer, find that balance between “your heart in it” and logical detachment?

 

Bookclub Spy

I feel like a spy.   I’ve joined a book club but my reason is three-fold.  Firstly, I want to read books, different books that I don’t usually read.  Secondly, I need to get out the house and spend some time with other people with the same interest, and thirdly, (the one that makes me feel like a spy), is that I like to listen in on the conversations and gauge what books people enjoy but mostly why they enjoy them.  Here are some little gems I’ve learnt so far.  (Some of them are basic writing tips that we all know but it’s great to be reminded of their importance from readers who are the ones we want to please the most.)

1.  You need a hook.  The book should start off with a bang.  Don’t drag in the beginning.   Sometimes a book with a bad beginning can work if the ending is brilliant and makes you really think deeply afterwards.  But why risk it – rather start off good.  Some readers don’t have time to wade through repetitive or dull stuff at the beginning.

2.  If there’s not enough conflict there’s not enough reason to keep on reading.   Make the reader want to get an answer.

3.  The cover is actually important.  Of course, the writer doesn’t always have control over that.

4.  Make the characters deep.

5.  Keep the plot moving throughout.

6.  Humor works.

7.  An unusual setting alone can have great impact.

8.  Easy reading is good.

9.  I think overall, the greatest magnetism came from those books that touched the heart – even if they had a slowish plot or start but if they made the reader think deeply about something or touched their emotions, it worked.

What do you look for in a book?

Breaking Down the Wall

I hate Writer’s Block and it’s something I’ve struggled with frequently lately.  You’re supposed to just write, even if it’s nonsense, just to break through the wall, but that hasn’t worked for me.  Writing junk doesn’t inspire me.

The worst is when you’ve already written about 20,000 words of your new book and then you hit a wall.  That’s where I was for a few weeks, quite recently.  I wanted a book ready for a contest, and had limited time.  The word count was looking positive.

But word count isn’t everything.  The plot was going nowhere.  So I took out some special software I use for planning my books, and planned the rest of the book which I was weary of doing as I’m a pantster, and this was out of character.  Would it work?  Nope, it didn’t.  It only reinforced the wall.

It was time to start something fresh – put the other book down for a while and go down a different path.  I’d read a blog about creating thrilling settings for novels, something that I struggle with, so I thought maybe I should work on something in an unusual setting to make my book more exciting for readers.  So I worked on the plot for a whole new book with an interesting setting, just the sort of setting people would probably go for.  Other people, not me.  I sat down to write the book but there was no affinity with the characters, no excitement for the story.

Back to the drawing board.

It’s similar to the time I wrote a novella just to meet a submission request by a publisher.  I sent it off thinking this time the publisher would want my book because I streamlined it to their specific line.  It didn’t work because the characters and story didn’t bubble up from deep inside.  They were forced upon me from the outside.

Then it came to me, slowly, like water seeping out of a leak, the leak growing, and then the hole breaking through the wall, gushing out into a flow of inspiration.  I found something to write about, and characters that I love - something fun and hard to pull away from.  Although writing isn’t always fun (especially the business side and editing sometimes) it should be fun most of the time.  The passion must be there like a river to break through the wall.  It may start off with a tiny spark of an idea, and then it grows into a whole new story.

And I have to stay a pantster.  If I write the whole plot down, it kills it for me.

Hopefully, I’ve learned a way of conquering writer’s block through all of this.

Does anyone else suffer from writer’s block and what do you do to break through it?

Put Some Ribbons On

We bought my daughter a hamster about a month ago.  He’s so cute and keeps my kids busy for hours sometimes.  Yesterday, they designed an elevator for him made of lego and meccano.  I don’t think he particularly enjoyed going up and down in this tiny cubicle but he didn’t complain or bite.  Hamsters are nocturnal and come to life at night.  They love to run inside a wheel or through tubes for hours.  That reminds me of the life of many writers nowadays.  Many of us have day jobs and come alive at night.  I do most of my writing at night or in those spare snippets of time during the day.

But last night, I decided to climb off the hamster wheel.  Sometimes you know when your own dream takes presidence over your own family and they’re feeling neglected.  So I stood in a dusty garage watching my husband saw, measure and rearrange pieces of wood.  He’s a part-time cupboard and kitchen designer and maker.  That’s his hamster wheel for now.  At the end, when I had to go back inside to send the kids to bed, he said “Aah, I enjoy your company!”  That was music to my ears.  (I mean what’s the point of writing romance novels if you can’t get it right at home with your own romance?)  Then I read the kids a bedtime story.  It’s actually rare.  Sometimes I’m very self-focused and writing-focused and it’s bad!

One of the things I’ve learnt lately is that writing is hard!  It’s the mixture of free-spirited creativity and serious planning and critical thinking that makes me think it’s one of the hardest professions in the world.  Yet, I love it.  I’ve also learnt that sometimes it’s the time to just write and write and forget all the rules.  Most of the rules have entered your subconscious anyway and when you’re writing they’re coming through.  Other times, serious editing has to take over.

I wrote a book called “Valentine Fate” for Nano 2010 and sent it to a publisher.  They showed some interest and asked me to make some changes which I did.  I even asked some friends with writing and editing experience to edit it for me which helped a little although they didn’t have time to finish.  Then I resent it.  It was rejected.  I put the book on the shelf, deciding it must be seriously flawed.

A few weeks back, I received an email informing me about the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.  I wanted to enter that – it offers so many opportunities.  I didn’t have time to write a whole book so I had to find one of my older books and edit it quickly to enter.  I started reading “Valentine Fate” and actually enjoyed it.  I didn’t think it was seriously flawed, just a little rough around the edges.  I was able to do some solid, objective editing because I’d put the book down for a year and was no longer in love with it and inside of it.  Then on impulse, I decided to self-publish it on Amazon.  Once it was out there, my whole feelings changed.  I hated the book!  I saw all its faults and thought it was a bag of rubbish.  That’s what always happens when one of my books is published.

But I’ve learnt something.  As a writer, you don’t always feel confident about yourself and your creations.  In fact, sometimes you are your worst critic.  I remember when I gave my first novel to the local bookstore here and how the owner told me that I had to believe in my book and promote it.  That was the hardest thing to do and I didn’t.  It was quite amateurish and I didn’t follow any of the rules for that book because I didn’t know any of them yet.  But strangely enough, so many people have read it and enjoyed it thoroughly.  That’s all we need – the joy of giving a reader pleasure.

So get off your hamster wheel for a moment and smother yourself in ribbons and get some love from the people who mean the most to you.  You deserve it!  You’re making the world a better place.  Even if your books aren’t perfect, they will bring someone pleasure somewhere in the world, just like Smokey does for my kids.

Deep Point of View

I sent my latest book to a publisher and they requested for me to make some revisions and resubmit it if I chose to.  One of the things they suggested I do is give a deeper point of view to my hero and heroine.  I had an inkling of what that meant but I wasn’t a hundred precent sure so I did some research on google.  Aah, the benefit of so much information at my fingertips.

Deep point of view means several things.

Firstly, as a fiction writer, you need to get into the head and heart of your main characters.  Pretend you are them.  See the whole story through their eyes.  One way of doing that is to first write the story in the first person and then later change it to the third person.  Not something I would do because I’m too lazy to make all the changes later and I would be scared I would miss one of them.   But that gives a good idea about how close and personal you need to get.  It’s suggested that you read their speech out loud to hear it.  Or picture where they are and feel what they’re feeling.  Which moves onto the next point – add all the senses in the scene – sight, sound, scent and sensation (if possible).

Deep point of view means showing verses telling.  For years as a writer, I didn’t even know about this.  I used to say that my character was angry or scared or excited instead of showing it by how they acted or felt e.g. she clenched her teeth; he backed away, his face pale or she jumped up and down like a kid at Christmas.

Deep point of view can also mean showing the character’s inner world and the past factors that influenced their present pain.  I’m not talking about flashbacks which should always be kept minimal but rather them thinking through their issues.  I was nervous to do this after I learnt that good fiction writing is dialogue driven.  But too much dialogue can take your story out of balance.  There needs to be dialogue and action to drive the story but there also need to be interludes of thinking, deciding and desiring.  When I read the Mills and Boon New Voices Entries, I realised how much the romance writers go into the internal feeling of their heroine, especially when it’s connected to her attraction to the hero.

The last point is try to show deep point of view in the dialogue.  Let your characters pour their hearts out when they talk to each other.  Show their emotions by the way they communicate. 

Here’s an example:  “Get out!  I never want to see you again!” 

If you want to show their past hurt and how it brought them to the issues that they’re facing at the present, a good way is to let them talk about it.

The Eating Contest

Have you ever watching an eating contest?  Piles of food are laid out on tables and the contestants stand poised, their mouths half-open.  The audience is waiting for people to scoff their faces with as much food as possible in the allotted time.  Maybe it’s hamburgers, or pizzas or pies.  Or possibly pancakes or cake.  The whistle blows or the controller shouts, “Start!”.   There’s a mad flurry as arms grasp for food and mandables are frantically making the particles partially digestable.  Stomachs are trying to control the onslaught.  Cheers rise up from the crowd as one of the contestant’s pile diminishes faster than the others.  Pieces of food fly to the ground, some landing at the feet of the laughing audience.  Contestant three swallows his last mouthful and raises his arms in victory.  He appears a little green.

Whenever they choose a meal I enjoy for their contest, I wonder how much they actually tasted the food.  What a waste of good food!  It’s like spending R150 on a favourite meal and having to stuff it down in 5 minutes.

Sometimes quitting works.  I’m quitting Nano this year.  Yes, I know, I’m a hypocrite.  I tried to make it work for me this year.  I was enthusiastic in the beginning.  The whole togetherness of Nano is so exciting.  It’s like running a race.  I jog from time to time to keep healthy and I’ve run 5 and 10km races before.  That feeling of running together in a crowd, all reaching for the same goal and each competing with the other, adds to the excitement and makes one run much faster.  So Nano motivates and inspires. 

But not for me this year.  I’ve kept my word count but I’m struggling.  I’m struggling to feel in touch with the book and my characters.  I’m scoffing and making a mess.  Words are scattered all over the floor.  I’m scared of the mess afterwards.  I’m starting to feel nauseous.  I don’t want a book that needs too much editing.  I don’t want to do it just for the experience of shutting off the inner critic because that inner critic has become my friend.  He’s grown the past year and he’s becoming my quality control and my foundation.  I hate not having time to go back and reread my work to get a feel for the next step.  I’m losing control over the story.

Besides those reasons, there are too many other things happening in my head and in my life at the moment.

Here’s to hoping your Nano doesn’t spring a leak.  May it take you to exotic places.

Out to Sea

Well the ship has left the harbour and is rising and falling on the waves of Nano.

I’m truly enjoying shutting up the inner critic.  I’m just writing and the words are coming fast and furious, when other matters of life aren’t taking over.  How are my fellow Nanoites doing?  Are you out on the wide blue ocean, the sting of salt in your eyes and the fresh breeze cooling your brow?  The sting is the pressure to get that word count out.  The breeze is the refreshing freedom to allow the creative part of your brain free reign.

I have no idea how my book is going to turn out.  But I have hope.  Hope that it may produce something worth editing and working with.  I’m feeling what my characters are feeling so that’s one step in the right direction.  The plot is haphazard but the emotions are pretty predictable.  Until of course, I hit a snag in the plot.  I have hit a few of those so far but nothing serious yet.  Having to keep going, I can’t hit a block.  No iceburgs please.

And the sea air is making me tired.  There’s less sleep at night and extra effort to ward off distractions.

It will be all worth it in the end (I hope).  Even if it’s not a step further towards my writing dreams, it’s a fun adventure to enjoy with other people in the ‘same boat’.

New Voices Top 21 Vote

Phew!  Imagine being an editor of a top publishing house?  What a job!  I’ve been spending every spare moment this weekend reading the top 21 entries into the Mills and Boon New Voices competition so I can vote for my favourite.  I’ve read 12 of the 21 entries.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to choose a favourite.  There are about four that I think are top class, several more that are excellent and about three that I didn’t finish reading because they didn’t cut it for me.  Imagine an editor having to choose between all the manuscripts that get sent to them on a daily basis with their finances being limited to only publishing a couple of them.  Now I understand why I keep on getting those wretched rejection letters.  And the quality of work that I’ve been reading way surpasses mine.  Sigh!  Will I ever get there?

There has been a benefit to all this reading – it’s inspiring me to higher heights and giving me a feel for what the editors are looking for.  There were several things that the top story writers did that I wouldn’t do but they got away with it because the romance and conflict was there from the start.  Something about the way the characters (when brought together) created a chemistry and the immensity of the obstacles they have to overcome for it to turn into love, just hooked me in.  I loved the stories where the characters were involved in an interesting plot which pulled them together, most times unwillingly.  Many times, I was put off a good entry because the hero didn’t appeal to me.  He was too bad or too unkind.  I suppose that’s a personal choice but I like a hero who is essentially good inside.  There’s nothing sexy about meanness.

Thanks Mills and Boon Voices for an education and a wonderful experience.

NaNoWriMo

Anyone heard of National Novel Writing Month?  www.nanowrimo.org

November is the month.  If you’re unsure, it’s one month to write 50 000 words in any genre you want and to upload it to their site.  Once you have achieved the goal, you receive a badge and a feeling of shared victory with other writers.  Nanowrimo is about to start in 12 days.  They’ve revamped their website which should run smoother this year and the forums are easier to use.  There are some top-class writers who will be offering writing tips.

I’ve been so unsure whether to do Nano this year because it’s been a busy year and I’m working on editing a book to send for publication.  It’s my first secular book which I’m excited about as it should be a little easier to get into mainline publishing.  Plus my husband will be finally finished his correspondence degree by the 2nd of November which means he is freer than he’s been in four and a half years.  I’m keen to spend some relaxation moments with him without a deadline over my head.

But bolstered by a quick look at their website, I’ve decided to give it a go.  What could it harm to shut off the very loud self-editor voice inside of me which has grown louder and louder with each book I’ve written?  The more I learn about the craft, the more critical I become of my own work.  Yet, it’s good.

But, just for one month, let me ride the wave of my creative juices and let rip.

I’ve been brainstorming on what topic to write on.  Nothing has come to mind.  I’ve had an idea which has fallen flat and am busy stewing on a new idea.  Nothing concrete yet.  That is part of the fun – coming up with an idea that thrills and pulls at the heart strings.  That’s something I’ll learn from last year’s Nano.  Don’t necessarily choose a plot that’s seems interesting or sensational to the reader.  Choose a plot that you feel – where you live in your characters and feel their pain or their joy.

Writers and friends ahoy!  Aboard the Nano cruise for the whole month of November.  Let it take you to destinations you never dreamed of.  Maybe the new lands you discover will hold treasures of talent that will enrich your life.