The end is near

Of the book, that is. Do you have trouble wrapping things up? I'm wandering around with my characters in love and engaged looking for that final little thing that says, the end.

Having trouble finding it.

Anyone else have the same problem? What do you do?

Creating Believable Characters

Thanks to Laurie Schnebly Campbell and her wonderful Enneagram book I was able to lick my post Black Moment issue from yesterday. I took her on-line class on Fatal Flaws a couple years ago (grrrreat stuff) and had a bunch of notes on the 9 Enneagrams, but haven't used them lately because I'd been having better luck with Archetypes.

Funny thing about this book, the Archetypes weren't working. However, the Enneagrams are spot on.

When I type "The End" I'm going to spend some time thinking about these two ways of creating characters. They overlap in a lot of places, but have a little different way of looking at character traits, flaws, etc.

So, with a little over 10k to go, I'm off and running again.

This weekend, I'm going to attack my synopsis for a final read through and do some editing on the first 3 chapters. I'd like to have a half way pulled together proposal done by the end of the month. Fingers crossed.

Then I'm going to take my daughter out of town to celebrate with a night in a hotel, a little swimming, and some good food.

Welcome to the black moment

I've hit that all is lost moment in my story.

The heroine has completely screwed up all her relationships thanks to her stubborn need to take care of everything herself.

The hero has yelled at her because of this fact and walked away.

She's staring after him realizing the only man she'll ever love hates her.

And I'm wondering, where the hell do I go from here?

Now, if I was a plotter, I'd have the rest of the book all figured out. In fact, I would have had the entire book laid out scene by scene.

I'm not a plotter. I'm a pantser. Although I will admit I've tried plotting. I suck at it.

Here's how I wrote this book.

Chapter 1. I stared at the blank screen not knowing how to get the hero and heroine together for the first time. See, this is a reunion story. They had a chance meeting five years ago and spent a long weekend whooping it up (if you know what I mean). His father cheated on his mother for 15 or so years and that's my hero's backstory and inner conflict. Naturally, I had to make the heroine married the first time they met. She had left her husband, but it didn't much matter to our hero. He's got issues.

So after no contact for 5 years, how do you get them together? I wasn't going to make it a coincidental meeting. I decided to throw them together because she provides a service he needs. Enter his best friend and an outrageous bet. It popped into my head out of nowhere and actually gave me the idea for the next book about the 3 brothers. There's a wager in the first book so I thought, why not have that tie them all together.

Once I got that much figured out the rest of the book flowed. He doesn't trust her but he never got over her and has unfinished business (i.e. he wants to have lots of sex with her so he can get her out of his system.) She had a miserable marriage and has sworn never to remarry, but she also has unfinished business with him (see above.)

That conflict got me through most of the book, but it wasn't quite enough to carry the entire story so I threw an ex-husband with money problems into the mix to shake things even more. And his parents are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and renewing their vows. Wow, that's got him all stirred up.

Now, I've hit the 3/4 mark. The black moment. And I have to get them back together, but first, they must apply the things they've learned about each other and about themselves so they might overcome the barriers that keep them apart. It's just that next meeting between them that is going to be tough. You have to get them back together without resolving all their issues because they've not completely evolved yet.

Got any advice how to proceed?

Up In The Air

***SPOILER ALERT***

Saw it.

Loved it.

As someone who takes disappointment hard, the movie resonated with me on a lot of levels.

It's hard going through life open to hurt. Taking risks both in your personal and professional life can mean you lose more often than you win.

Trying to find a life partner. Trying to get published. You have to open up and take chances.

Watching Clooney's character take on an protege, find a lover, rediscover his family, I both cheered his growth and held my breath waiting for the axe to fall.

His character fascinated me. He claimed he wanted an empty backpack, nothing pulling at him, yet the care with which he treats the people he's hired to fire shows he has a huge heart. He offers comfort and compassion, but refuses to need it in return.

The theme of the movie was loyalty. It's explored in a number of ways. He was loyal to Hilton, Hertz, and American Airlines. They in turn, had his back. He was firing people who'd been at their jobs for years and years. His protege has trouble with her boyfriend who'd promised a future together. His sister is separating from her husband. His lover is only looking for fun.

In the movie, his goal is to reach ten million miles. It will make him only the seventh person to achieve this. He considers the plane his home. It's the place where he belongs. But as the movie progresses and travel is threatened, it's then that he reaches out to the people in his life. He starts to reassess what's truly important. Only to suffer a grave disappointment.

I found it interesting that he started and ended the movie in the same place psychologically even though he goes through a lot of perspective altering growth.

This was a complex, character driven movie that I want to see again. And I'm going to read the book because I have the feeling that it would be a very rich, thought provoking story.

Have you seen it? If so, what did you take away?

Half way point

I'm rolling right along with the WIP. And I've learned a little something. If I've got good external conflict to frame the story and clear internal conflict to keep the characters agitated, the book flows right along.

I'm not exactly sure why the writing is going better these days. I don't know if it's because I'm concentrating on hammering out the first draft without going back to fix stuff.

Or if I've stopped entering contests which means I'm not getting a bunch of different opinions on what I'm doing.

Or if it's because I've got a better handle on how conflict is supposed to work.

It could be that I've been meditating to calm and focus my mind.

It could be the wonderful Save The Cat beats I use, complements of Blake Synder, that let me know exactly what needs to be happening in the book when.

Or, it could be all of the above.

Whatever the answer, I've been cranking out the words. Time will tell if they actually form up to tell a story.

Anyone else feeling restless?

It's January.

It's cold.

I'm in the middle of my WIP, right before the lovescene.

Christmas is past. No winter vacation or any vacation to look forward to.

I've got a book out on submission.

Did I mention it's winter in Minnesota. Everything is white or gray. Yuck.

Any of these things could account for me having trouble staying focused.

But like I did in November, I just keep pounding away, 1471 words at a time.

How's everyone else doing? Going stir crazy? If not, what's your secret?

How are you coping?

Why is writing every book different?

Four years ago I was preparing an entry for the 2007 Golden Heart. I'd started the thing in October to get it ready for the deadline in the beginning of December. The book ended up being about 46k when I sent it off. It was one of two. It did really well in chapter contests, but got hammered in the GH. That story is at Harlequin at the moment after going through many changes and getting some editorial feedback through contests. I expect it will sit there for at least another 6 months before I will hear anything.

The reason I bring up this book is because of how fast I wrote it. The characters came alive beneath my keystrokes. I could visualize scenes and knew how to show what issues characters were struggling with. Of course, it then spent 2 years being edited because it was my second book and I had no idea what I was doing. But what remains is most of what I wrote in those early days.

Last night I had a scene in my head. The last two books I started I had no idea how to begin. I had the main conflict, but couldn't figure out how to get them there. I couldn't find a cute scene to start them off or a dramatic one. Then along comes last night and half a chapter just magically appeared. No work. No gnashing of teeth. Just fully formed from my little brain. I love it when writing happens like that.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled WIP.

How about you? Do you start fast and furious or do beginnings bog you down?

Why am I bored?

In my resolution to read more, I'm trying to devote some part of my evenings to my rather large and daunting TBR pile. Last night I picked up a Prsents and began to read. The prose was strong. The hero, alpha and sexy. The heroine heartwarmingly troubled. Their conflict solid.

So, why was I bored?

After thinking about it for a bit, I came to the conclusion that although there was conflict in the story, the characters didn't have the sort of push and pull chemistry that I find interesting. The hero kept being alpha. The heroine protested, but then let him have his way. At no point did I wonder if they were going to get together because the hero got whatever he wanted from the heroine. Where's the tension in that for the reader? What compels me to keep reading?

How about you? Run into any books that left you flat? What does it teach you about your own writing?

New beginnings

Don't you love a shiny new year? It's as if all the negative stuff that happened the year before is swept out the door and the space that remains is all clean and sparkly.

I'm feeling optimistic for 2010. This year is going to be different than last. I'm determined to be more focused. Fewer contests. Less internet. More writing. More reading.

This last is where I need to focus the most. As many books as I read last year, I want to read 25% more.

How about you? What's one area you're going to concentrate on improving?