Keeping Perspective

Have you ever noticed how many times in your writing life things crop up that tempt you to stop or flee from writing or just plain not write at all that day?

Sometimes it's the old... But I'm not sure what to write.
Sometimes it's...I have dishes to do.
Sometimes it's...I don't feel like writing.
Sometimes it's...I need a break. Just today. I swear I'll get back to it tomorrow.

I don't care why you procrastinate or what you call it (like a break) procrastination is procrastination and it ruins careers.

So how do you handle this?

If you're not sure what to write, check your could, might, must and should list. If you wrote down all those scenes and scene possibilities popping around in your head when you first got your idea, there's something on that list that could jumpstart your imagination. If you didn't write a could (happen), might (happen), must (happen) and should (happen) list for your story...do one now. :)

Second, dishes? Really? That would keep you from writing? If you must do dishes then use that time to think about what you'll write when you're done. :)

You just don't feel like writing? Read what you wrote yesterday. Or go back an entire chapter and read your wonderful prose, see your fantastic characters interacting. That usually puts my head in the game again. Once I get into the story, I don't want to come out. I want to write.

Finally... You need a break?  This one I might give you if you can tell me a really good reason you need a break. Maybe you worked twelve hours straight the day before, you edited, you got fifty new pages written and now your brain is empty. If so...take a break.

But if you're just wimping out on me...Forget it! Get your butt into that chair.

I had a chat this morning with someone who set a very tough schedule for herself this year. She said, "Susan, am I insane?" and I said... "No. You want to be somebody someday.  All these books you're doing this year will jumpstart your career and boost your readership." And she smiled.

Because that's the truth. The people who work win.

Wanna win? Then work. Don't procrastinate. Don't be easy on yourself or fluff off the hard days. Get your butt into the chair and keep it there! On Friday when you've accomplished your goals, you will thank me.

Happy Monday

Wedding Weekends

On Saturday my niece Lea got married.  This Saturday coming up, my nephew Brian is getting married. It's been a busy couple of months and the upcoming weeks are going to be even busier.

So what do we want to talk about this morning?

How about people watching? LOL!!!

Seriously... What better place to people watch than at a wedding?

Remember that great scene in Steel Magnolia's where Dolly Parton and Olivia Dukakis were watching people dance at Shelby's wedding. And Olivia told Dolly that one of the women's dancing looked like two pigs wrestling in a blanket? I laugh every time I think about that.

That scene didn't just make us laugh and create one of the funniest lines in recorded history, it set the stage for the fact that these women who started off gossiping would become great, lifelong friends...but also that people were funny.

If you watched that movie, you saw the Southern girls and guys had their stereotypical leanings, but just when you were about to write a character off as a cliché he or she did something to make you think the writers were brilliant!

Because that's the truth about people. At least half of our personalities are ... well, what everybody would expect for our age, size, education...hair color. But each of us has something, some odd, quirky hobby or tic or thought process that makes us unique, fun, wonderful.

And that's what readers are looking for when they read. They like recognizing the kindly grocer with a bald head and round wire glasses, but they want to see something fresh and unique about him. Is he also the town bookie? A closet erotica writer? Or somebody on the World Poker Tour?

Think just a little bit longer, a little bit harder, maybe a little bit outside the box and give readers characters who create a story rich with reality. Because let's face it, everybody's got a quirk, a habit, a hobby...or something that makes us who we are.

Our characters should too.

Happy Monday

susan

Give them something to do

I started a new book last week. I have a fantastic hero and heroine (if I do say so myself). They both have great goals. He wants to buy a big conglomerate. She wants to become successful. They have internal stuff. (I'm not going to tell you what their great internal conflicts are because that'll spoil the book...but trust me. They have great internal stuff.)

I set up a situation...Though she was hired to be an accountant at his company, she's pressed into service to be his assistant. They will see each other EVERY DAY!

Woo-Hoo! I have what looks to be a perfect set up...

Except...

What are they going to do everyday?

I could have them doing bits and pieces of the work required to investigate the purchase of something as big as a conglomerate...Wait. Did I just see you yawn?

Damn it. I did. Because not only is that boring; it also doesn't translate very well to the page.

I felt the same way myself this morning before I tossed my pen to the bed and went to breakfast with my husband. After hearing me whine about something being off with my book, he said, "We could go to church. You get your best ideas in church." True, but I don't think I could persuade the priest to give a sermon on a Monday morning just so I could scribble notes on the back of a church envelope.

So I thought of my last book. I had a little girl who didn't speak out loud, a kid who was failing sixth grade, a big goofy dog and a heroine who was supposed to be teaching the kid and babysitting the little girl.

They needed breakfast. They needed lunch. They needed school supplies and Christmas decorations. They had to eat supper. Somebody had to clean up. The little girl didn't have any clips for her hair. The little boy wanted to go to school in town to meet friends. All as they decorated for Christmas.

These people had a lot to do. I had absolutely no problems coming up with stuff for them to do. Yet this morning I couldn't think of a darned thing for my new H and H to do.

So I created a list of twenty. What are twenty things these two can do? Big things, important things that don't just give them busy work but also illustrate those great internal conflicts I told you about above.

And finally I found something. I won't tell you what it is. But trust me, it doesn't just give them work and movement it also reflects back on the internal conflicts and makes the hero and heroine talk.

I call all that a vehicle. There has to be something that gets your characters moving...and interestingly. Something that gets your characters to interact. It can be the things that lead them to their goals...what I picked to get my people moving is something that has to do with buying that conglomerate. LOL But it's something that illustrates or shines a light on their internal conflicts even as it requires motion and interaction.

In other words, I'll be giving my people something to do. :)

Take a look at your own book. Are the H and H always going to the diner? Are you creating scenes around getting up and going to bed (alone...if they're having sex...carry on)? Do your chapters ALWAYS start with things like "The next morning..."

Maybe you need to give your characters something to do...a vehicle, if you will, that gets them talking and moving and interacting.

Happy Monday

susan meier

FREE READ!

The first chapter of my story MOM FOR THE CEO'S DAUGHTER is up on eHarlequin!

Very excited! I loved this story!

http://www.harlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=1811&chapter=1&utm_campaign=onlineread&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter_HQ&utm_content=onlineread&utm_term=

Authors looking for the Monday morning writing lesson, scroll down. :)

susan

Points of No Return

I have about ten or twelve subjects I teach, but sometimes while teaching a class something strikes me as being "too big" to be part of a workshop and I think maybe it needs its own workshop. This happened in the JOURNEY STEPS class I was teaching to the local Sisters in Crime group this month. I got to the end of the workshop where I talk about cool things you can do to "raise the stakes" of your novel and I sort of paused.

We toss around that phrase "raise the stakes" as if it's a given that we all understand what that means. But do we?

Do we know that there are a billion different ways stakes can be raised, depending upon your starting point and your book's purpose? For instance, in a category romance, the second a boss kisses his secretary, their relationship changes...they can't go back to who they were, or to the relationship they had before the kiss.

That's a point of no return. Inherent in a point of no return is risk. The boss above didn't kiss his secretary her first day of work because he knew there were consequences to kissing her. And what are consequences? Usually they are things your character can or will lose, things he doesn't want to lose!

So once our boss kisses the secretary, he doesn't merely change their relationship. He also faces consequences. Will she report him to Human Resources? Will she like it enough that they start a relationship? Will she like it too much and become a stalker? If someone saw, will he lose his job? Will his secretary be fired? (And btw this happened all the time back in the "olden days" before workplaces became as progressive as they are now. A secretary was easily replaced. LOL An executive was not.)  
 
That guy did not kiss his secretary the very second he realized he was attracted to her because kissing her meant putting things at stake. Potential losses. He has to be motivated to kiss her and then, after he does, he has to be prepared for consequences.

And what does that cause? Tension. And what makes a book and edge-of-the-seat read? Tension.

When you begin to think of your characters' actions in terms of points of no return, suddenly all kinds of opportunities for tension pop up in your story.

Will he kiss her? Should he kiss her?
Will he touch her? Should he touch her?
Will he start a relationship with her? Is he just toying with her?
Does he even know what he wants?

Of course, points of no return, potential losses and tension don't just pertain to romance and/or kissing. LOL Depending upon the type of book you are writing, all kinds of things can be points of no return. Especially when you realize that a point of no return is something...anything...that changes your character's life or takes it in a new direction, whether anticipated or not.

i.e.

Being involved in an automobile accident
Buying a house
Getting a mortgage
Joining the military (They don't let you take that one back!)
Having a child who joins the military
Having a child who goes to college
Having a drug dealer move in next door
Witnessing a crime
Discovering your friend is your best suspect in the murder you're investigating
Shooting someone (Hello, Thelma and Louise)
Being raped
Getting divorced
Discovering your spouse was cheating
Discovering your spouse has a double life
Having a child who is bullied
Getting a dog (Which can be returned to the pound, but really, Dude? Are you that cruel?)
Having sex
Discovering you have cancer
Losing weight (Of course you can gain it all back if you don't like your new life...but for a while you'll be in a land you don't recognize, a land you have to learn how to navigate.)

While some of those are "surprises" that happen in a person's life, they nonetheless change that person's life. It will never be the same after an automobile accident, a bout with a life-threatening illness, a fight for a child.

Others on that list come with tension before the decision and tension after.

Others are ways authors begin books. We call them inciting incidents. We use them to begin books because we know the character's life will never be the same after that "incident."

So...because we're running out of space and time...Let's bring this down to one line...or two. A point of no return begins a book and creates tension, unknowns, and comes with decisions that have to be made. Other people can screw up a perfectly good plan, causing tension, unknowns, and forcing decisions that have to be made.

Your character is on a journey to be, have, or do something. If the road is smooth, your story won't be very exciting. So ruffle up the road. Put him smack dab against decisions with consequences he doesn't want or doesn't expect, things he could lose. Big things like his self-respect. And you will find you have raised the stakes. :)

Happy Monday

susan

Organization

A few weeks ago, I was so far behind that I was ready to nail the door shut on my office and never go in again. But I took a Friday and got everything caught up and was happy -- for a weekend.

On Monday morning, the requests to speak and to give online workshops and to send books and to buy ads all started again. Add that to art fact sheets, titles, facebook, twitter, blogs, registering for conferences, sending books out for review, ad creation, book giveaways, my poor, nearly forgotten newsletter, goodreads, my website, books I want to read, books I get asked to read...I'm shuddering.

I have a rule that writing comes first and it has served me well. But it doesn't get the minutia done. And small though some of that stuff may seem, it all has to get done.

So on that Monday morning when my clean desk began to get cluttered again, I did something smart. I created a file. I wrote "Do this on Friday afternoon" on the file and printed every email that was a request to speak, request for an ad, request for info about an ad I'd already bought, art fact sheets,  etc. etc. etc. and I put these emails into that file. On Friday afternoon I handled them all and once again I had a peaceful weekend.

Why am I telling you this?

Because we all have our own personal organizational bugaboo. If you don't get it straightened out it will steal the focus and concentration you should be giving your books.

So create a Friday afternoon file for the little things. :)
Create a file for each of your projects and slide all your research notes, your could, might, must and should list, your editor emails and everything else that pertains to that book into that file.
Put your receipts into an envelope.
Have a  file folder for new ideas.
Create a file folder for new blog ideas.
Put all your passwords in the same place. (I have a notebook.)
Actually create a calendar and keep it updated.
Create a to-do list. (I do one for each week and one for each individual day. That's a real time saver!)

Get all this little stuff off your brain and free it to write!

Happy Monday -- Oh, btw, it's my birthday! And the best gift I gave myself this year was to get organized. LOL (That and four new pair of shoes... :) )

susan

Falling in love is a risk.

When I write a book, it's always my goal to make you love my characters so much that you can't stand the possibility of their getting hurt. I want you to realize fairly early on in the book that my hero and heroine belong together. But I also want you to see that there's a very real, very good reason they cannot be together.

Even as every scene is marching them toward the realization that they belong together and that they could potentially make each other happy, I have an equal and opposite subtext or conflict reminder that proves to them that they can't be together because of that something, that very good reason they cannot be together.

That reason comes with "stakes" attached. If I fall in love with you, give you my heart, you could hurt me. Or, I can't fall in love with you...I have a secret. And once you hear my secret you're going to hate me...and you'll leave. There's a risk involved.

At some point the stakes flip. I now love you so much that it's going to hurt more to live without you. So my characters try to pretend that very real, very good reason they can't be together doesn't exist, but...well, that never works.

They have to face that very real, very good reason they cannot be together. They have to face their demons. They have to find their courage. They have to suck it up. Pull themselves up by their bootstraps and change. Because, you know what?  Change or growth isn't about becoming taller or coloring your hair or moving from Montana to Manhattan...It's about suddenly realizing that you are the master of your destiny. You can compromise. You can risk being hurt because the reward is worth it.

And isn't that really the heart of falling in love? It's the realization that the hero or heroine you've found really is worth the risk of making a commitment.

Happy Monday

susan