Too Many Choices – A NYT Author Decides

By Susan Squires

What a crazy, confusing and possibly wonderful world publishing is today. The traditional publishing world is under duress and their business model depends more and more on writers who are already selling a zillion books. While they may still be looking for the next big thing, just like in other mediums, the next big thing must hit quickly or it’s discarded. The continuing niche for a mid-list writer with respectable sales is disappearing. Many traditional publishers are getting into digital publishing to compete with the e-publishers who established themselves while New York wasn’t looking. And it has become really easy to publish yourself. The number of self-published titles is growing exponentially, but many of those books are not of professional quality. Readers are becoming wary of spending money on what I’ve heard one reader call “books only the author could love.”

What all this means is a lot of choices for an author, which should be a good thing. But since when has having a lot of choices made things easier?  In the recent Romance Writers Report, there was an excellent piece by Marliss Melton on the pros and cons of self-publishing. Everyone writer should read it. But I thought I’d put a personal spin on those pros and cons, because just recently I had to make that choice.

I was at an interesting time in my life. I was burned out on writing because I’d had both a hefty day job and deadlines from my publisher for almost twelve years. After seventeen novels, frankly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to write anymore. But I did have an idea I liked for a series (The Children of Merlin) so I sent it in to my lovely editor at St. Martin’s Press. I knew something had to change though. I did the numbers, and found that I could finally retire from the day job.

Here’s where it gets tricky. St. Martin’s passed on my series. My agent thought he could sell it elsewhere, but I told him to hold sending it out. I had to find out whether I still wanted to write. It took a while, but the joy came back. I completed the first novel in the series, DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC? I gave my agent the go ahead to try and sell the series.

But the changes in publishing were becoming more evident. I had writer friend who was doing very well publishing herself, and loved the fact that she could choose her own covers, write her own copy and set her own deadlines. She was producing lots of quirky cozy mysteries that sold well. She encouraged me to strike out on my own. Choose your cover? Write your copy? I found that intimidating. (If you want to check her out, her name is Melanie Jackson and her newest series is Miss Henry Mysteries)

As my proposal ran through the levels at some print houses, and digital first presses expressed immediate interest, I felt like a deer in the headlights. What did I want to do?

The moment of clarity for me came when Angela James, editor at Carina Press, Harlequin’s digital division, spoke at the Orange County Romance Writers of America meeting. She did a great job answering the question, “Why you should write for Carina rather than self-publish?” Here’s my recollection of her checklist:

1) Write for Carina if you aren’t familiar with the editing and publishing process to gain experience.

2) You can get an advance at Carina and some digital presses like it (though not a large one.)

3) You have the backing of a big publisher.

4) Publishing your book in the various formats requires time and skill.

I think that afternoon in January was the point where I truly considered publishing my series myself.

1) I had twelve years of experience publishing with NY and felt I knew the process pretty well. I could hire copy-editing, cover art, and even content editing if I wanted.

2) I was at the time of my life where advances weren’t as important. Would I make more money with a NY contract? Or a small press contract? Unclear. NY gives (usually) 10% royalties and 25% on e-books. Carina gave 40% royalties but didn’t do print. Self-publishing yields 70% royalties, though with very few exceptions you will sell far fewer books. I know authors who are doing financially very well publishing themselves, and authors who aren’t. However, if ever I was going to take the risk, it was when I was no longer dependent on advances.

3) Publishing houses have provided little support for authors for years, except if you happen to be Nora Roberts or Charlaine Harris. You are expected to promote your books, manage contests and websites, etc., for yourself. I had a healthy mailing list, of 37,000 names and was willing to take time to promote the book.

4) I had friends that said that publishing yourself wasn’t that hard. And if I couldn’t do it myself, I could hire it done very cheaply.

So what would I be losing, making a leap to self publishing? Well, I’d be saying goodbye to contest wins. No Rita in my future. My work would not be reviewed by the mainstream press. I wouldn’t be getting the respect of writing for a NY house. And that was the final decider. I actually started to laugh.

Was THAT why I was writing?

For contests and reviews and respect? Or was I writing to give people a good ride, to tell the stories I had inside me, to progress in my craft and have the satisfaction of earning money for my work? Besides, I’d done all that.

Suddenly it was all clear. It was time to take a risk and go into business for myself. So I had my agent retract the work from consideration at both print and digital-first publishers. Publishing my book turned out to be very doable, with a little coaching from my friends who had already figured it out. I published DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC? in April. And I’m two- thirds through writing the second book in the series. Sales are coming in, and I feel good about my decision.

Now, here’s the million-dollar question. Would I have wanted to self-publish if I hadn’t already been published in print by NY houses? No. I have to say I would have tried as hard as I could to get published in traditional print. Here’s why:

1) I think it’s much harder to have significant sales if you are currently unpublished, and I wanted my books to have as wide an audience as possible.

3) I needed an editor, and experience, and time to build that mailing list, and learn how to promote.

4) I needed to demonstrate to myself that I could produce on time, on a deadline, and be sure that I was motivated enough to make writing a career.

5)  Though I hate to admit it, I needed the validation of people telling me that I was writing at a professional level. I’m not especially proud that I needed that, but it’s no use in denying that psychological factor.

My risky venture may not pay off. But I’ll never be sorry I tried. I’m just glad that the confluence of burnout, rejection, and a turning point my life combined to help me decide to give it a shot.

So, have you made a choice yet? What did you choose, and why? Your logic may help others in their decision!

Susan Squires is New York Times bestselling author known for breaking the rules of romance writing. She has won multiple contests for published novels and reviewer’s choice awards. Publisher’s Weekly named Body Electric one of the most influential mass market books of 2003 and One with the Shadows, the fifth in her vampire Companion Series, a Best book of 2007.

Susan has a Masters in English literature from UCLA and once toiled as an executive for a Fortune 500 company. Now she lives at the beach in Southern California with her husband, Harry, a writer of supernatural thrillers, and three very active Belgian Sheepdogs, who like to help by putting their chins on the keyboarddddddddddddddddd.

5 Reasons Why I *Heart* Twitter (And Why You Should Too)

By Laura Drake

This was the conversation at crit group last week…

Me: So I was tweeting with Chicken on a Chain last night, and –

Jenny: Chicken WHAT?

Me: He’s a bull. Retired from the PBR, one of the best. You should’ve seen him at the finals in 2009 –

Jenny: You did not just say that you were tweeting with a bull. Hello – no opposed thumbs!

Me: Well I was more worried about his attitude. That dude is politically incorrect.

Hey – they’re no better. They then asked me if he tweeted about his cow girlfriends.

Sheesh. Romance Writers.

This conversation made me realize how entwined Twitter has become in my life. It’s my social media weapon of choice. I love it. Let me count the ways:

1. I found my Peeps

I’ve ‘met’ so many amazing people (and animals – I also follow a tortoise, a horse and an iguana) on Twitter.

I am a bull riding FANatic, and there’s a huge PBR following on Twitter. If an event isn’t televised, someone is bound to be in the stands, tweeting the scores as the rides happen. This must have been what it was like back in the days of radio, listening to a prize fight. Your imagination fills in the blanks, and you actually bond as a group.

2. Entertainment & News

News: Earthquake in New York? Tornados in Texas?  It’s on Twitter, first. And not just a talking head – but people who are experiencing it firsthand. People I ‘know.’

Entertainment: Humor hits – people are so clever! They keep me laughing through my lunch hour (okay, so I pop in now and again through the day too – fire me!)

3. Support

Through responding to tweets and retweeting (RT for short,) I can support my peeps, and they support me. All in 140 characters!  You don’t think that’s enough? Go create an account, gather a couple of friends, and check it out. It’s amazing! It’s a great lesson for writers in ‘write tight!’

4. Research

The other day when I was writing, and had a question about what the PBR calls the ‘roadies’ that set up the arena before an event. I tweeted my bud, Joe Scully, a rodeo announcer, and he got back to me in two minutes with the answer! That’s quicker than Google! I’ve found whatever experts I’ve ever needed on Twitter. Gypsies, bullfighters, goat ropers, mutton busters. People are so giving and helpful!

5. Advertisement & Marketing

Notice this is listed LAST. For a reason. Nothing will make me unfollow faster than someone who does nothing but pimp – themselves or their friends.

Yes, I know – if you’re self-published (or even if you’re not) you have to promote yourself. But people, promote is in a different place in the dictionary than pimp. It also has a slightly different definition – it’s a matter of degree.

You don’t think you have “peeps?” Sure you do. I don’t care how esoteric your subject – someone on Twitter is interested. You may just have to get creative.

I wanted to broaden my scope – to follow peeps who would find my book interesting (I haven’t broken my rule #5 above…my book doesn’t come out for over a year – plenty of time to connect on a personal level with people before I pimp promo.)

So I thought about it. Who else would like to read my PBR novels, besides PBR fans?  How about people who live in the country? Small towns? Western states? Farmers, horse people, dairymen, even truck gardeners! Do you know how many people that is?  Wow.

Find new hashtags to follow. That will help you find where those peeps hang out.  #agchat helped me a lot.

Your turn. How do you use Twitter? How do you find your Peeps there?  Do you follow animals, or is it just me?

Lessons I’ve Learned About Memoir Writing

Photo from http://urbanmoms.ca

by Jenny Hansen

In my wildest dreams, I never imagined I’d write a memoir.

Like most of you, I’ve written as long as I can remember, and from the very first day, I’ve lived solidly in the fiction camp.

Before we get any farther, let’s make sure we’re all speaking the same language.

What is a memoir?

The best definition I’ve found of memoir and how it differs from autobiography can be found here. In case you don’t have time to read that fantastic post by Barbara Doyen, here’s a quick summary:

A memoir is a special kind of autobiography, usually involving a public portion of the author’s life as it relates to a person, historic event, or thing. The text is about the personal knowledge and/or experiences of the author.

It’s my personal opinion that memoir writers are made, not born.

• You need to feel strongly enough about the events in the book that you’re willing to lay them out for the world to see, with none of the anonymous padding that fiction provides.
• You must be well-versed in 3-Act Structure and story mechanics.
• You need the objectivity to slice and dice your experience until it fits neatly into this 3-Act Structure.

What motivated ME to write a memoir?

In 2005, I survived a massive bout with blood clots – two big ones (one in each leg) became a swarm of them in my lungs. They call those pulmonary emboli, but really, they’re all blood clots. 1% of the people who experience what I did live through it.

When my treatment was done (after 4 months in bed and 9 months on blood thinners), I found out I have a blood clotting disorder called Factor V Leiden. Many things about my daily living habits had to change to accommodate this disorder.

Was the experience memoir-worthy? I don’t think so. It simply wasn’t universal or compelling enough. I lived and I was thankful, and I had to make some lifestyle changes. End of story.

But what about when I threw pregnancy into the mix?

The four main causes of a blood clot are cancer, obesity, a previous blood clot and a genetic disorder. Obviously, I fit several of these risk criteria. I couldn’t just decide to have a baby, I had to visit the high risk OB and ask permission just to try.

Pregnant women gain four pounds of blood, which increases the risk of forming a blood clot by 8 times. Yowza.

From http://riverroadcommunications.com

My pregnancy journey was rocky, to put it mildly – infertility, shots in the stomach twice a day, worries about late-term miscarriage and fetal demise.

Was the pregnancy itself a big enough theme to support the frame of a memoir? By itself, probably not.

Memoirs must have themes that speak to a wide audience.

These aren’t how-to books, and they’re not autobiographies. As Barbara Doyen says in the “what is memoir” post I reference above:

A memoir does not contain everything from this particular slice of the author’s life, but rather, events are selected and examined for meaning relative to the purpose of the book.

The author has questioned what happened and come to some kind of new understanding or lesson learned by it. The author shows us how he or she was affected by this experience, how it has profoundly changed the way he sees the world.

And by extension, reading the book will change the way the reader sees the world.

I worried about whether I could make my book universally compelling.

All the writers here at WITS will tell you, I spend a lot of time and effort on theme, whether it’s their books or mine.

To me, a book works like this:

• Plot is the train that drives your book.
• Theme is the track the plot runs on.
• Characters are the ones who populate the train and make things interesting.

One of the reasons why memoirs are so tough is that your plot and characters are already in place. All you have left to work with is theme. Your theme (or themes if you’re lucky) are what really hold a memoir together and make it a journey worth taking.

A deep soul-search for themes in my memoir yielded more than I thought:

• Survival: What if I showed how the lessons learned with the blood clot scare helped save the day during my pregnancy?
• Self-worth: What if I discussed the guilt and depression that women feel when they can’t conceive?
• Fear: What if there were things that I knew that could help other women, and their family members, have an easier time through their own rocky journey?

This last is at the heart of why I would put my fiction aside.

I was compelled to write about high-risk/high-worry pregnancy because these women feel so terrified and alone. They’re not experiencing the joyous, “fluffy cloud” type of pregnancy so many of their friends and family tell them about. Worst of all, the end-game isn’t guaranteed and they’re scared.

High-risk mommies have all the information overload of “regular” mommies, but there’s a whole lot more. Shots, bed rest, miscarriages, endless doctor appointments. These women spend some or all of their pregnancies wondering things like: “Will I get to keep this baby?” and “Will I die?”

I spent my entire pregnancy wondering, “Where’s the book for THIS kind of pregnancy?!” I simply could not rest until I wrote one.

In my opinion, this sort of compulsion is the only thing that will sustain you through the hassle of fact-checking, research and structuring of ANY book. But the memoir factor adds an extra dollop of a pain. It’s hard to figure out how to break a true story into 3-Act structure – we simply can’t see our own lives clearly. Still, you MUST do it, the same as you would any other novel.

A quick note on 3-Act structure:

Many, many writers don’t have a clear concept of it. I know I didn’t until I saw Stephen Cannell (creator of the Rockford Files and like 40 other TV shows) give a talk. If you want to read an entire post on this topic, click here. In the meantime, here’s a quick summary of 3-Act Structure using Stephen Cannell’s words – feel free to skip this if you’re a 3-Act Pro:

“When I ask young writers what 3-Act Structure is, they say it has a beginning, middle and an end. This is not the answer. A lunch line has a beginning, middle and an end. The Three-Act structure is critical to good dramatic writing, and each act has specific story moves.”

Take the movie, “When Harry Met Sally.”

The First Act is all about the hook, or the premise. In this case, it’s that “men and women cannot be friends.” So you’ve got the set-up where they meet and then decide they’re not going to be friends.

Act Two opens with Harry and Sally meeting up again in the bookstore and slowly becoming friends. Their friendship becomes the single most important thing in their lives and the worst thing in the world would be to lose it.

The scene in the wedding is the dark moment climax of Act 2 because it is the end of their friendship as we know it. The curtain closes on Act 2 because the WORST thing has happened…the two of them are no longer friends.

Act Three is the “clean up” act, the resolution to your story. In this case, it’s all about Harry trying to get back into Sally’s good graces so the two of them can be friends again, just as they were. Sally’s having none of it.

Finally, on New Year’s Eve, Harry has his turning point and we get the final scene of the movie where he runs through New York City to get to Sally before midnight. When he sees her at the party, he gives his now famous I-Love-You speech.

When I heard this talk, the light bulb turned on for me. Hopefully, it did the same for any of you that were iffy about why there’s such a time disparity in the three acts.

Just remember the 25-50-25 rule:

• Act 1: First 25% of your story – the hook
• Act 2: Next 50% of your story – ends with the black moment
• Act 3: Last 25% of your story – the resolution of the black moment, leaving your main character with a new understanding.

To see Stephen Cannell’s “official description” of 3-Act Structure click here – he does a fantastic breakdown of the movie, Love Story.

I’m going to turn the floor over to you now…

Are you attracted to memoirs, either as a reader or a writer? What interests you the most about this genre? What do you dislike about it? Feel free to ask any questions or share any insights you have in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!

Jenny

About Jenny Hansen

Jenny fills her nights with humor: writing memoir, women’s fiction, chick lit, short stories (and chasing after her toddler Baby Girl). By day, she provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. After 15 years as a corporate software trainer, she’s digging this sit down and write thing.

When she’s not at her blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter at jhansenwrites or here at Writers In The Storm. Every Saturday, she writes the Risky Baby Business posts at More Cowbell, a series that focuses on babies, new parents and high-risk pregnancy.

Smart Writers Expand Time – From Margie Lawson!

By Margie Lawson

A BIG THANK YOU to Mega-Talented Laura Drake for inviting me to be her guest blogger today!

Writers are all powerful. Well, in their fictional worlds they are all powerful.

Two of the 74,386 story dynamics that writers control are expanding time and compressing time. Today we’ll focus on the most fun of the two, and the one writer’s sometimes neglect, expanding time.

When would you want to expand story time?

When scene events justify zooming in on the POV character’s experience, minute by minute, or second by second.

Maybe even picosecond by picosecond.

You’ve got to love that word. A picosecond is one trillionth of a second.

In real life, people can send and receive up to 10,000 nonverbal cues in less than one minute.

Yes. That’s a true statement.

We can process up to 10,000 nonverbal cues in less than a minute. Such a shocking number, and cool too.

When what’s happening in your scene is critical or crucial, decisive or dangerous, life-changing or life-threatening, you want to expand time, big time. Don’t hold back. I recommend writing it bigger than you normally would, then rein it back in until it’s just right.

I’ll share two examples of expanding time, and a few examples just for fun. All examples in this blog are from Margie Grads.

My first example is from Joan Swan’s debut paranormal romantic suspense, FEVER, released in March.

Joan has taken all my writing craft classes online, and she finished her second four-day intensive Immersion Master Class with me in Colorado on Monday.

The Set Up: Alyssa, a radiologist, just completed a scan on a prisoner named Creek.

Joan Swan, FEVER, Excerpt from Chapter 1

The hair on her neck barely had time to lift before heat washed her back.  Creek’s hard body closed around her.  What the hell?  A cool chain cut across her throat.  No.  She sucked air.  No. Her fingers clawed at the metal.  No!

“Don’t make a sound.”  He spoke soft and slow, his chin on her shoulder as he bent over her and pressed his cheek against hers from behind.

Her brain finally came back online.  Air wisped into her lungs and fed the new baseline of fear.  When Creek straightened, he rose ten inches above her.  And she now registered not only his size, but the sheer strength in all that corded muscle she’d been admiring.  His movements controlled, purposeful, almost zen-like in confidence.

“You idiot…”  She barely breathed the words, the metal and pressure restricting her vocal chords.  “Let go—“

The chain jerked once, cutting into her trachea.  “Shut.  Up.”

Pain cut off all thoughts but sheer survival.  Air.  Breath.  Air.

She wedged her skull against his collarbone to allow a fraction of relief on her airway.  Oxygen wisped through the stricture.  In. Out. In. Out. Her gray matter slugged back to work, edged with hot, sharp panic that threatened to invade every crevice and drive her insane.

The officers’ boots were still visible beneath the curtain where they stood in the hall, but she couldn’t draw enough air to speak let alone scream.  And the links of metal weren’t cool anymore.  They burned, as if Creek’s body heat streamed through the metal.

I SKIPPED A FEW PARAGRAPHS:

• THE GUARDS CHATTER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CURTAIN
• CREEK GOT SCISSORS OFF HER DESK

Jesus.  “Put…those down.” A spurt of terror gushed up her chest. Her fingers searched for a millimeter of leverage between the chain and her skin.  “You’re…burning…me.”

Creek’s head tilted down, his whisker-roughened chin scraping her cheek. “Fuck.”

The pressure eased and Alyssa ran her cool fingers over raw skin, choking in blessed air.  Her relief was short-lived as the rasp of metal on metal sounded in her ear.  A hard blade pressed against her neck.  Her eyes squeezed shut.

“Not another sound,” Creek whispered, “or I’ll cut your throat.”

“All right.”  The older guard sounded relaxed and jovial as he swooshed the curtain aside.  “Are we all done in—?”

The room went completely still.  The extended, shocked moment expanded, taking on weight and mass and volume like one of the cancers Alyssa fought so hard to find and fight in her patients.

Kudos to Joan Swan!

What techniques did she use to make expanded time work?

1.    Visceral Responses – hair on neck lifted,  spurt of terror gushed up her chest

2.    Specificity – One of dozens of examples: She wedged her skull against his collarbone to allow a fraction of relief on her airway.

3.    Body Language – throughout

4.    Dialogue Cues

• He spoke soft and slow
• The older guard sounded relaxed and jovial

5.    Power Internalizations – throughout

6.    Power Words –  cut, fear, strength, muscle, confidence, restricted (airway), pain, survival, air, breath, oxygen, hot, sharp, panic, invade, insane, skull, airway, screamed, burned, terror, pressure, raw, choking, blade, cut your throat, shocked, cancers

7.    Backloading – Power words at the end of sentences.

8.    Cadence, cadence, cadence!

Rhetorical Devices: 

1.    Asyndeton – His movements controlled, purposeful, almost zen-like in confidence.

2.    Polysyndeton –  . . . taking on weight and mass and volume . . .

3.    Simile –  . . . like one of the cancers . . .

4.    Onomatopoeia – whooshed, wisped, rasped

5.    Alliteration – throughout

Wow! Look how Joan powered up her expanded time passage.

FYI:  The Kindle version of FEVER is on sale for $3.99 through May.

Our second example of expanding time is from Writer’s in the Storm’s Laura Drake. Laura is a multi-multi-multi-Margie-Grad, and an Immersion Grad too.

FYI:  In case you don’t know Laura Drake’s publishing news, in January, she landed a 3-book deal with Grand Central for her series set in the world of professional bull riding. And last week, she picked up another contract for a Superromance!  Congratulations Laura!

Laura wrote this zoomed in version of expanding time after Immersion class. It’s from a Woman’s Fiction tentatively titled, A Day Made of Glass.

The Set Up:   Harlie saves a Pomeranian from being pummeled by a bull.

Yipping in triumph, the dog shot like a flaxen arrow to the center of the arena and faced Patrice with a panting grin.

The bull stood in front of the gates, snorted, threw his head up and with white rimmed, rolling eyes, regarded the irritant. Harlie watched, frozen. The bull strutted, looking around, deciding.  It might have walked to the open exit gate if the Pomeranian hadn’t challenged it with a cascade of furious yapping.

The bull wheeled to the center of the arena, dropped its head, and with a heavy snort, charged. The dog held his ground, barking at the charging one-ton animal like a drunk with little-man syndrome.

Why isn’t anyone doing anything? Besides Patrice, who shrieked from the bleachers.  Harlie’s hands jerked from the pole fence. The dog was a pain in the ass, but it was about to be pummelled to a bloody rag under the bull’s hooves.

She didn’t think. Ducking between the poles, she judged the bull’s trajectory and ran on a diagonal that would allow her to scoop up the dog without getting stomped.

Maybe.

She barely heard the shouts of the onlookers. Instead, she focused on the speed of the bull, gaining, gaining.

No way she’d make it to the fence.

The sweet rush of adrenaline hit her like a heroin-mainlining junkie. Just as strong, just as welcome. It sang through her veins, lifting her, making her impervious — superhuman. She sped up, heart thundering in her ears — or maybe that was bull’s hooves.

Everything seemed to slow. Details stood out in perfect focus: the shine of spit on the dog’s bared teeth, the whorl of hair at the center of the bull’s forehead, a small scar next to its white-filled eye.

In full stride, Harlie reached the center of the arena, snatched the now cowering fur ball by the nape, and kept moving. The ground shook with pounding hooves. She tensed her muscles for impact, but felt only a sliding rub of horn on her butt and the rush of air at her back as the bull passed. Clutching the suicidal mutt in a death grip, Harlie sprinted for the fence.

She’d only taken a couple of steps when the panicked yells of the onlookers penetrated the swelling chorus of the adrenaline song in her head. Harlie didn’t have to look. She knew bulls. The animal had wheeled, and from the vibrations in the soles of her fancy cowgirl boots, was bearing down to gore her.

No time. She heaved the dog toward the open-mouthed, red-faced men on the opposite side of the fence.  Harlie’s brain registered a stop-action photo of the little dog, hair blown back, flying through the air, mouth open. She hadn’t known that dogs had an expression for terrified, but this one sure did. It hit the ground running and streaked for the line of boots at the fence.

Harlie spun on her heel. The bull was farther away than she’d guessed, but closing fast. She shot a glance to the fence. It seemed as if she were seeing it through the wrong end of a telescope. A bull will beat a human in a race, every time. She’d never make it.

No choice.

Tension zinged through her. The timing had to be just right. Failure would come in the form of lunging horns and bone-snapping hooves. Head down, the bull came on.

Decision made, the fear in Harlie’s chest lay down before a rising exaltation of knowing. Crouched in a marathon runner’s stance, she shook the jitters out of her hands and gauged the bull’s closing speed.

One more step –

Harlie exploded, launching herself straight at the bull.

She took two long-jumper strides.

The bull charged in, lowering its head to hook her.

On the third stride, perfectly timed, her foot came down in the center of the bull’s broad forehead. He threw his head up and she was launched, flying over the beast’s back

It seemed she rose forever, her stomach dropping, shooting the sparkly fireworks of a roller coaster’s first hill. A quiet, high-pitched sound escaped her lips. It might have been a giggle.

When the arc finally began its downward tail, Harlie looked for a place to land.

Wow. Pacing. Pizzazz. Passion. Power.

That’s the kind of writing that earns contracts.

Kudos to Laura Drake.

Blog Guests: What did Laura Drake do to make her expanded time piece work?

Hint: Review my deep editing points for Joan Swan’s passage – and fill in content from Laura’s excerpt.

I’m sharing a few more examples. SHORT examples.  I want to spotlight examples from unpublished, not-yet-contracted Margie Grads too.

Diane Wied, Immersion Grad – Haunted Memory

“Where would you like for me to start? The part where we ran off the road?   The part where the psycho chased us?  Or the part where I lost a six year old child?”

Diane used anaphora to pick up pace, deepen character, and give the scene a cadence boost.

Alex Ratcliff, Immersion Grad – Undercover

Cooper’s mind skidded to a mental stop. The Sheriff. What was he doing here? Cooper heard the harsh rap of knuckles on the glass over Ella’s head. There was a five second pause that seemed as long as the Jurassic period.

Alex gave the reader a cliché twist, and an uber-fresh pause.

Kimberle Swaak, Immersion Grad – Shadows of Doubt, 

Two fresh dialogue cues, amplified.

1. “Well, laa-tee-daa.” She stretches out her words, loads them up with an extra serving of Tennessee twang. “Don’t that sound fancy.”

2. Her tone takes a serious turn, matching mine, and her voice and vowels soften into the more generic timbre she perfected in college. Less country hick, more Southern belle. Unlike me, Lexi can turn her accent on and off like a faucet.

Note:  Perfect cadence throughout.  

Bronwen Jones, Home to the Lake

NOTE:  The POV character is in her mid-eighties, still lives alone. Lyn, her niece, the old woman’s only relative, shows her a pamphlet.

It’s a pamphlet, and she smooths it out on the table, leans on the back of the chair again. There’s a picture of a smiling silver-haired couple, a woman dressed in a beige jersey frock and pearls, and a man in a knitted cable jumper the colour of the sky on a clear winter’s day. I’m greatly taken with the contentedness that shines in their handsome faces.

I look to Lyn for a hint and am thrown by what I see there. Something akin, I’m sure, to what Jesus saw in Judas. Something dark moves within me and my own expression changes—I feel my face moving—to that of an old bitch who knows she’s to be put down.

Bronwen’s short expanded time excerpt is loaded with power, including description, eponym (what Jesus saw in Judas), a POV character’s changing expression, and a power internalization. And the whole piece is cadence-driven.

BLOG GUESTS:  POST A COMMENT AND YOU MAY WIN a Lecture Packet  or one of my online courses from Lawson Writer’s Academy!

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Online Classes offered by Lawson Writer’s Academy in June:

1. Fang It to Me: Writing Vampires, Fantasy, and the How-to’s of World-Building ~ Instructor: Mario Acevedo

2. Write YOUR Way with Liquid Story Binder ~Instructor: Lisa Norman

3. Fab 30 in 40 Days: Advanced Deep Editing, A Master Class
Instructor: Margie Lawson

4. Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors, Power Punch 1 ~ Instructor: Margie Lawson

Margie Lawson —psychotherapist, editor, and international presenter—developed innovative editing systems and deep editing techniques used by writers, from newbies to NYT Bestsellers. She teaches writers how to edit for psychological power, how to hook the reader viscerally, how to create a page-turner.

Thousands of writers have learned Margie’s psychologically-based deep editing material. In the last seven years, she presented over sixty full day Master Classes for writers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

For more information on Lawson Writer’s Academy, lecture packets, full day master classes, and the 4-day Immersion Master Class sessions offered in her Colorado mountain-top home, visit:  www.MargieLawson.com.

What Does Your Writer Space Say About You?

By the WITS Bloggers

Did you ever wonder, looking at someone, what their house looks like? I have – especially the coworker who leaves her dishes in the office sink overnight. (Yuk.)

A writer’s space is, to us, sacred ground. I have a couple of friends who are going through home remodels right now, so they don’t have an office. Another one I know has her desk set up in the living room, with the TV blaring, kids and dogs running rampant. Both of those scenarios make me shudder. Oh, I know, I’m sure I’d get used to it if I had to. Or maybe there’d be bodies buried in the back yard. Let’s hope we never have to find out.

Well, the WITS bloggers are laying themselves bare to their readers once again . . . this time, we’re sharing what our writer spaces look like. Each of us took photos of the space we write in, and wrote a few descriptors we felt described how we felt about them.

Laura’s Office:

Classical music, organized, quiet, peaceful.

Yes, that IS a bull screensaver.

Meet Harlie. She likes to type.
She’s not good at it.

Memories Board

Fae’s Office:

Comfortable, everything within reach, sunny/light, creative, lucky, fave music, homey, happy, kitty friendly.

Fae’s workdesk

Mitzi has her own mouse pad.

Fae’s view

Jenny’s Office:

In the middle of it all, busy and noisy (so I can tune it out), and always with a view of the world and my flowers.

The portable office, at the dining room table…

When the writing stalls, I go to Starbucks…

When all that fails, I play with Baby Girl for inspiration!

Sharla Rae’s office:

Cozy, Fun, rabbits, expansive, quiet, MINE, inclusive, moods, business, creative, hidey-hole

Historical = Research. Ya think?

We found it fascinating…we all write different genres, and our writing spaces are very different. Coincidence? Hmmm.

Your turn. Describe your genre, your writer space, and a few descriptors about how it makes you feel. We could be onto something here!

10 Tips for a DIY Author Website

By Laura Drake

I am NOT a techie. I don’t know software, I’m not a graphics designer. Heck I can’t even use a camera well!

I’m an accountant. That translates to: I’m cheap. Too cheap to pay someone to build a website for me.

Besides, I have to admit, turning my website over to someone I didn’t know felt kind of like having a new hairdresser with a mohawk say, “Oh, trust me – I have a great idea!” Besides, how could I convey my vision, when I didn’t know it myself?

Desperation pushes you places you wouldn’t normally go. I jumped in.

CAVEAT: I learned one microscopic ort of what is out there in cyberspace. I only learned what I needed, to get what I wanted. I have no doubt there’s better ways to do things; the purpose of this blog is not to tout my method – it’s only to prove that you CAN do it yourself.

10 TIPS for a DIY Website:

1. Find out what “feel” you want.

I looked at a ton of author websites. Best one stop shop is to go to a large literary agency website. They list their clients, with links to their websites. Odds are, they’ll have authors that write all genres.

Your website should be a reflection of what you write. A paranormal, historical, and inspirational author website will look very different. The website of an author with a comedic voice should look much different than a literary one. Your visitors should get a feel for your books the minute your splash page opens.

I wanted a emotional feel, with photos of people enjoying a Western lifestyle. My settings are western, and my current series is about Pro Bull Riding – so it had to be featured prominently as well.

2. Do not get intimidated.

Most platforms have “templates” you can choose from to start, then you can customize from there.

3. Platform.

You’re going to need a company to host your website, and supply the shell for you to work in (described above.) There are quite a few of them out there.

The two I heard the most about, that were easy and fairly inexpensive, were WordPress and Network Solutions. I chose the latter. I think it cost me $220 for two years, and it included email (you’ll want people to email you there, so you’re not broadcasting your personal email address.)

4. Photos.

This was my favorite part. I can spend hours, choosing just the right photo to convey the feeling I want. Google Images is great for browsing. Write “Beach” novels? Maybe a close-up of a weathered boardwalk in the sand. Fantasy? Maybe a clipart fairy. Let your creativity soar!

5. Pay for the photos you put on your website.

We want to be paid for our novels, so it’s only fair we compensate the photographers. But remember, I’m cheap. I used Big Stock Photos.com. Most photos were $5 apiece, and they had  a quadzillion of them — all you do is type in a term (ex: bull riding.) There are other inexpensive sites as well.

6. Decide what ‘pages’ you want.

While you’re perusing author websites, notice what pages they have. Do you want a blog? A calendar? Book review page? Excerpts and teasers from your books?

Besides your splash screen, at a minimum, I think you need a Bio, and a way for readers to contact you. Oh, and don’t forget, even if you haven’t finished a novel, you need to at least tell visitors about what you write — after all, isn’t that the reason for a website?

7. This is going to take longer than you think it will. 

A lot longer. Plan on it. Begin waaaaay before you need it!

8. This is addicting.

I set up a simple site. Then I saw a website with “flash” – photos that fade in and fade out. Ohhhhh, I want that! So I bought a piece of software that would create this (Coffee Cup Firestarter, for like $40.) It took awhile to figure it out, but I’m SO happy with the result.

9. You’ll never be done.

You’ll need fresh content every once in awhile (monthly updates are recommended). Besides, I found I love to tinker with it to try to make it better. I take ideas I see other places and adapt them.

10. Have fun with it.

Once I got over being intimidated, I realized this was another outlet for my creativity. When I got stuck in my WIP, I’d work on the website. I was still being productive, and it used a different part of my brain while the writer part rested.

This has nothing to do with a website, but I saw it and had to share!

Your website has a feel. Think about when you visit someone’s house for the first time. Doesn’t it tell you a lot about them? Does it look like a movie set created by an interior designer? Or is it one of those rare houses that you feel at home in, the minute you walk in?

I’m not saying I’ve built the best, or the most beautiful website (you can see it here.) But I like it.

By doing it myself, I ended up with one that looks like me, and I think, gives potential readers a feel for my books. Isn’t that what a website it supposed to do?

And guess what?  I found I loved doing it!

Have you built a website, or are you thinking about one? What lessons have you learned? Are there any tips you want to share?

Plot Fixer – Part 2: How To Fix A Weak Opening

Writers In The Storm welcomes back Kara Lennox, a.k.a. Karen Leabo for some more plot-fixing magic.

Kara is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than sixty novels of romance and romantic suspense for Harlequin and Random House.

OMG, excuse the interruption, but I just realized we hadn’t posted Kara’s BIG news!  She is NOT just a 2012 RITA Finalist – she’s a DOUBLE RITA Finalist!

So listen up, Peeps, she knows what she’s talking about!

You can read Kara’s blogs here at WITS on the first Friday of each month.  Don’t miss out, stop by every month and get your plot fix.

By Kara Lennox

Are you ready to fix your plot?

This is the second in a series of blogs based on my “Plot Fixer” workshop. I’m attacking the seventeen most common problems—based on my years of rejections, contest judging, and critiquing. Last month, we discussed Plot Problem #1: Your Premise Isn’t Compelling

Plot Problem #2: A cute meet does not a plot make.

It’s essential to have a riveting opening scene. Whether it’s the scene where your hero and heroine meet, or another scene involving your central character in some kind of trouble, you must present at least one problem.

Conflict on every page–that’s the mantra of super-agent and writing guru Donald Maass. However, it’s also essential that the first scene suggest what this book is about. That scene has to set the tone and even plant the seeds of future conflict.

A mistake I see often is a hum-dinger of a first scene, complete with conflict, sparkling dialogue and all sorts of problems. But then the story drops off, and the scene seems to have no relation to the rest of the plot. It serves only as a cute way to get the hero and heroine together or otherwise suck the reader into the book.

Example: The hero and heroine are both eager to buy a certain toy for their respective children for Christmas. But the store has only one left, and they both grab it at the same time. Witty banter ensues, but eventually one of them wins.

The hero invites the heroine to dinner. They go to dinner and get to know each other … she has some kind of legal problem and he is a lawyer and offers to help her out … and they work … together … to … solve …. ARE YOU ASLEEP? I am.

A cute meet has to go somewhere.

If you’re going to have a first scene where the hero and heroine are arguing about a toy, make darn sure the overall story has something to do with children and parenting. Maybe the hero is a single dad under fire from child welfare, and the heroine is the social worker who must investigate him. To make the meeting less coincidental, maybe the child somehow motivated both of them to get the toy. Shoot, I’m just making this up on the fly!

For a romance, it’s really best if the hero and heroine are brought together for the first time by something other than a chance meeting. (We’ll talk more about coincidence and chance on another day.)

One more example: HELL WEEK by Rosemary Clement-Moore is a YA paranormal about a girl with psychic powers who must fight the evil that has infiltrated a college sorority (also spun into a successful series). The first scene is a rush party. The author focuses on the snobbery, the pretention, the cruelty, and the blinding white teeth–evil, certainly–but also a hint of the other-worldly evil the heroine will eventually uncover.

A little later, the author writes about the heroine’s reunion with her love interest, which was also filled with conflict and great dialogue, and romance is an integral part of this book. But because this is a book about sororities, she opened–brilliantly–with the rush scene.

Another technique I’ve seen—and I personally don’t like it at all, though I’ve seen it in published books—is to open your novel with the climax. Then you flash back to reveal the story of how the protagonist got him/herself into such a dire situation. It can work, but I think it’s lazy. If the real opening of your story is so dull that you have to mine some other part of it for an exciting first page, rethink your story!

Look at your first scene.

• Does it grab the reader, thrusting the protagonist into some trouble?
• Is there conflict, either obvious, or implied future conflict? If it meets these criteria, analyze farther.
• How does your first scene relate to the rest of the story?
• Does it set the stage, establish the right tone, or hint at what’s to come?

Plot Problem #3: Starting in the Wrong Place

This problem relates back to my previous blog, which talked about boring beginnings. But it is so common it deserves a number all its own.

This is something new writers often do. They start too early.

They want to lay the groundwork, to offer up some backstory, so they start with the heroine in a car, or in the bathtub, THINKING about what has happened in her life and what is about to happen. No, please no. Start in medias res, in the middle of things.

You want to start at the moment of change. Depending on the story, sometimes it is okay to set the scene. The Hero’s Journey (read up on Joseph Campbell if you are unfamiliar with this) requires the hero to be in his normal world at first–think Luke Skywalker on his aunt and uncle’s boring farm, longing for excitement. But in a modern novel, this is usually very short or not there at all.

I once attended a Donald Maass intensive weekend workshop, and he got volunteers to read the opening line of their novel. Then he asked the class if they would keep reading. If the majority said yes, the volunteer read the next line. And again, we were asked if we wanted to continue hearing more of the story. For most of the volunteers, this experience was extremely humbling, as interest dropped off quickly.

Donald Maass says no back-story for the first twenty pages. None. The idea is to give your reader some credit. She will either go along with you, figuring the back-story will eventually be explained, or she will feel challenged to try to figure out what is going on. Either way, it’s all good. So long as you don’t hopelessly confuse the reader, you’re okay.

If you are guilty of extensive scene-setting and back-story-dump, very often you can simply lop off the first chapter and start with chapter two. (My second published book, I had to do this. In my first version, the heroine was on a plane headed for the Virgin Islands, ruminating about what had brought her there. In the second version, she was already in the islands, waiting on the dock for her scuba instructor to show up, when a cold, wet hand comes out of the water and grabs her ankle.)

Whatever was in chapter one that you absolutely must include, you can filter in as needed. Learning to feed in needed facts about back-story and setting is an art. Motivate the reader to read on to find out what the terrible dark secret is in the hero’s past, or the humiliating incident from the heroine’s high school days.

One more time, look at your opening.

• Does it start where conflict begins?
• Does it start with a call to adventure?
• Does it at least start with your protagonist in some kind of trouble?

Now, look at the first sentence of your novel (or come up with one now). If read aloud in a roomful of avid readers, would they want to hear more? Would you want to post it publicly? Post it here, if you want.

Something else you can try: Experiment with starting your book in a different place. Could you move forward or backward in the timeline just a bit, to start at a place of higher conflict?

Next time, we’ll talk about how to advance your plot through your character’s goals.

Don’t miss Kara’s latest book, Outside The Law  (part of the Project Justice series for Harlequin Super Romance) and her soon to be re-released classic Bantam Loveswept novels, written as Karen Leabo.

Kara’s website