Lori Devoti, paranormal romance and urban fantasy author

Wednesdays are one of my long writing days. Meaning I don’t go to the gym. It’s a day I really like to crank out some pages, but today was also my first day going back to my urban fantasy, Amazon Ink.

It has been months since I worked on this story. I started by going through my editor’s suggestions for the first chapter. That was easy enough. Now I’m rereading everything to get back into the world. It’s fun. I love this world. I love my characters.

But as always when I have stepped away from something for a bit, there’s fear. Fear that I won’t be able to do it this time–that those other pages were somehow written by magic, that I wasn’t really involved or that it will feel that way when I start back on it.

I face this every time and I’m pretty sure other writers do too. And every time, I’m amazed that it wasn’t magic, that I am able to pick the story back up and keep going with it.

Hopefully, this time will be no different.

I’ll find out tomorrow. I’m giving myself today to get my head back in the game/story…

I love a man who speaks his mind.

Thought this might interest some of you.

I am officially at the half way point in my vampire novella which is due May 1. It’s scheduled for release in December as half of Nocturne’s Holiday with a Vampire anthology. The other author is Merline Lovelace. I’ve done a couple of proposals with vampires before, but they never made it to the “present to editors” stage. Not because I didn’t like them, just because things changed while I was working on them and I didn’t feel their time was right. I have one I particularly like though set partially in current time and partially in the late 1700’s, kind of a dual timeline thing. At some point I may go back to that one because it still calls to me.

But back to this vampire. :) His name is Drystan and hers is Aimee. I’m calling it my “heartwarming tale of the undead.” Okay, that is kind of a joke, but it is heartwarming–not a single throw someone up against the wall scene yet. Although I may have to add at least one…maybe in the church….

Sorry, left you there for a second. So, I’m at the halfway point, and here is my dilemma. I’ve been taking it easy with this one, writing just a couple pages a day on it and spending my other writing time working on a new idea I have (paranormal, but not like my Nocturnes–kind of a paranormal romantic thriller). But at the halfway point I’m thinking it may be time to knuckle down and push through to the end. Spring break is coming up, as is the Ninc Conference. It would be great to have my rough done before I headed out at least on the latter.

But I hate to leave that other idea completely either…It’s so hard.

For other writers out there, are you one idea workers? Meaning you work on one thing solely until it is done? Or do you bounce between things? Work on mutliple projects in the same day, week, what?

I hit the halfway point in my current WIP today. I’m feeling particularly good about this since it has been a kid-filled week. No school Monday, kid sick on Tuesday, doctors appointments (so no school) Wednesday, and early release today.

I cut back my goal slightly this week and was able to make it, and best of all (remember my little word goal addiction) I marked the weekends off, so any writing I get done then is gravy.

I so love that.

My friend Laura Drewry emailed me today saying she is in writer overload. She has been writing at an incredible pace lately. This just drains you. It’s weird that it does as much as it does, but there you have it. My suggestion was to write out of order. I do not do this very often, but sometimes you get too fixated on what is going to happen next. If you hit a rough spot you can’t get past, skipping ahead to a scene you know you will enjoy writing, or one you have thought out, can really get you rolling again. Another thing that sometimes helps me is changing POV character. This may explain why I have a lot of POV switches at times–or maybe I just feel like I do. Thing is for a scene to be easy to write there has to be tension, something to lose. (This is also what makes a scene worth reading.) If you hit a place where you are having to pull every word out of your brain, it very well may be that the point of contention in the scene has gotten lost–that the person whose brain you are in isn’t the person with the most to lose. So, voila! Switch POV characters. Works for me a lot.

In other news, tomorrow is my local chapter meeting. Our speaker is a tarot card reader who I am really looking forward to hearing. In Wild Hunt I introduce the Norn and one Norn who reads runes. I also assigned a rune to my hero–which is something this woman is going to talk about, except tarot, not runes. If I learn anything fascinating, I’ll post a report.

Then next week is Love is Murder in Chicago. A few people from here are going–my lovely friend and roommate, Kathy Steffen, Harlequin Intrigue author, Ann Voss Peterson and her mom Carol Voss, also a Harlequin author. AND my mom is going to be there. She’s also a writer and a big fan of guest speaker Tess Gerritsen. Three plus days away from laundry, settling TV channel disputes and mixing up juice cups–how will I survive?

I will miss the little snot-noses though…

As a writer I think we “know” a lot of things, and probably do many instinctively (automatically following story structure because we have read so much, etc.), but that is different from really “getting” something.

For some reason, I recently had an epiphany about turning points. I could have told you what a turning point was a long time ago and I put turning points in my books (they’d be near unreadable without them), but I didn’t really “get” them. So, assuming I am not the only slow one wandering around in the world, I thought I’d chat about them a bit.

A turning point is a place in the story where everything changes, where the character is forced to do things differently, where they can’t go back to life as they knew it before. Turning points are essential to entertaining fiction–ESSENTIAL. I’m sure you could have too many and give your reader whiplash, but in general I think writers are far more guilty of writing books that don’t have as many as they need.

Let’s look at some examples.

Stephanie Plum loses her job as a lingerie salesperson (that’s what she did, isn’t it?), she is forced to search for a new job and all she can find is one as a bounty hunter. Turning point–everything changes.

In the current TV series Chuck (which I love BTW), the series has been progressing with the assumption a certain character was dead. Guess what? He isn’t. Everything changes. I particularly love this example because it pushed the series to a new level. Rather than watching Chuck go through the same motions over and over, it mixed things up (at least for a couple of shows). You don’t tend to see that in TV series too much.

Another TV example, in Charmed Phoebe discovers her new love interest is a demon. (And I so miss Cole.) Hello! That changed things didn’t it?

So that’s a turning point, think of it as literally forcing your character to spin on his or her heel, leaving whatever direction they thought they were going behind.

Now why do you need them, and how many. There are very simple answers to these questions–which you have probably already figured out.

You need them because without them you have a linear journey of this happened, then this happened, they they did this and so on and so on. In other words boring–and we have all read books like this. Readers want to be surprised. They want to encounter new challenges. Turning points give them those.

So far as how many, it really varies on the length of the book. I have a friend who writes for Harlequin Intrigue and she plans three in each book–and this is not counting the inciting incident (like the Stephanie Plum example). And you may have turning points for more than one character. In my Nocturnes I do. In Unbound, Kara is approached by Risk, finds out she’s a witch, and then discovers Risk is a hellhound. All turning points for her. Each set her on a slightly new path. Risk found out Kara was a twin witch, discovered he loved her, and discovered he was a father. All changed his goals and direction. Oh, and sex. Sex scenes make great turning points. It’s cliche, but true…sex changes things, if you are writing a romance, use that.

Until later,

Lori

First spam–how annoying is the stuff? And who actually responds to it? Anyway, I’ve been busy battling it–starting at my web site. I added a delete automatically rule–so if you send something to me and I don’t reply…well, post here. I already channel everything through gmail when I can, which has a great spam filter, but I also had to add some new filters to Outlook. Now I am eagerly awaiting some spam that makes it through the first three barriers so I can see how the Outlook thing works out. Weird waiting for spam…but there you have it.

Now for the process thing. I’ve said it before, but every book I’ve written I’ve used a different process. This worked for me until the last book–Wild Hunt. The book was sold and I had lots of time until it was due, so I got lazy. I followed very little process. Big Mistake! I got lost somewhere in the middle. Ugh.

Of course, all is well now. I went through and edited and finished the darn thing, but bottom line, it was much more difficult than it had to be.

I do not want to do that again.

So, I’ve been looking at my process again. I’ve also built a database to keep track of all the characters in my Unbound series–so if I use them in a later book I know what they look like, etc. and so I don’t reuse a name by accident. I’ve also tweaked a map of Yggdrasil to match my version, and nailed down where all the worlds are. I need to know things like that. I’m a tad concrete. Oh, and thanks to my experience revising Wild Hunt, I’ve also worked out a revision checklist I plan on using from now on.

So, I’ve been busy. Oh! And today, I started what will be the fourth in the Unbound series. I still have to nail down some things, but I feel a lot more in control.

I also need to finalize some of the checklists, but that’s next on my list–then I will be prepared for anything. (ha!)

I think I am getting old or something because Unbound got it’s first bleh review yesterday–not a BAD review and some very nice things were said, but definitely not the raves I’ve been a tad spoiled with the last few weeks. Here’s the funny thing…my response? Kind of a shrug. Whatever. Didn’t bother me.

That means I’m getting old, doesn’t it?

Anyway, Jennifer Crusie has a great (practical) article on her blog about dealing with reviews. If you’re a writer and you are taking what someone (or a number of someones) are saying about you and your book to heart, give it a gander.

I will add to her advice of not contacting the reviewer. Good review–send a thank you. Bad review–keep your mouth shut. And this means do not respond–not even with a thank you for taking the time. I know people who have done that–it lead no where good. Suddenly the reviewer who didn’t “get” your book thinks you appreciate and want more of their “guidance”. You don’t–you know you don’t. I don’t care how well your momma raised you DO NOT REPLY.

Another little game I enjoy playing–check other’s reviews. This is not for mean reasons–it is for sanity-saving reasons. Pick one of your favorite authors some one you respect and want to emulate–have a name in mind? Okay, now trot over to whatever site or magazine gave you a bad review and look up said author. OMG!!! They gave (fill in the blank with name) a (2/D/1 bleeding heart/whatever). What were they thinking!!

Feel better? You bet you do!

Okay, now go read what Jennifer Crusie has to say. :)

Every book I’ve written I’ve approached differently. Like a yo-yo dieter, I try every plot-quick gimmick that comes along. But now, as I get ready to start the heavy lifting on my second Nocturne–I think I have settled into a method. It scares me.

Here’s how it works.

1. Come up with an idea–usually for me this involves characters, then something that happens to them
2. Start writing cold–as in no pre-plotting really except the bit in my head. I have to get at least the first scene out (although this may not stay as the first scene), but no more than three chapters (even that is pushing it or I will be looking at major revisions).
3. Write a synopsis. Scary, I know, but I approach it like I’m telling a story. I just make up what happens, then what happens next and so on.
4. Revise horrible synopsis–cause it is going to stink up Denmark.
5. Revise again, and so on, and so on.
6. At some point when I think the synopsis is a little less ripe, I do the plot point check. I take a highlighter and highlight turning points–making sure there are enough to keep the book moving–you know that something continues to happen past that first scene.
7. Revise synopsis again–cause I’m going to find something that just doesn’t work. On my latest synopsis this amounted to about 10–that’s right 10 pages. Yanked them and put in all new “happenings”.
8. Finally, sit down in front of my writing program (Write Way) and work out an outline. Write Way let’s you make a place for chapters and scenes that you can title, move around later, etc. So, I figure I’m going to write however many chapters I think are appropriate for the type of book, break them into Acts (based on turning points) and then add scene titles. The scenes match my synopsis. I even copy the scene descriptions from the synopsis into “note cards” in the program. This way when I get ready to write that scene I already have a brief sketch to follow.
9. Right the darn thing. Scenes may change–they may be split between chapters, but I have a good solid direction to go. I also have a good idea if I have enough “happenings” to carry the book.

So, there’s my method. It works for me–maybe it will for you too. :)

Lori

I am in the process of reading Scene and Structure by Jack Bickham. I really recommend it, if you haven’t read it yet. It takes a lot of information from Swain’s book and makes them much easier (at least for me) to digest.

Anyway, Bickham talks a lot about the story question. Reading what he has to say made me realize that has been the problem with a number of books I’ve tried to read (and given up on) lately. The writing was fine–nothing wrong with how the sentences were crafted or the balance of dialogue to description, but as I was reading I’d think–what is the point?

Now I realize these authors hadn’t clearly laid out the story question for me (the reader). And not having done that in the first place, made it pretty much impossible for the scenes to pull me through the story. Yes, perhaps the POV character had a goal in each scene, but since it didn’t really tie back to an overall story question–why should I care?

This also gave me cause to think about the story question/questions in my own work. My upcoming Nocturne release (Unbound) had three main plot lines–the hero’s, the heroine’s, and the romance. There is a story question for each of these. His: Will he escape his bond to the immortal witch who has owned him for 500 years? Hers: Will she find and save her sister? Romance: Will they get and stay together? With three strong story questions it made writing the book a lot easier. Also by knowing the story questions in your work, it makes it a lot easier to know whether a scene should stay or go.

Conventional wisdom is that a scene should have at least three purposes, that it should start with a goal, involve action toward that goal, and end with some form of a disaster. I’m going to add to that that the scene’s goal should also, in some way, tie back to one of the story questions. It is not enough that the POV character has a goal for that scene, if that goal will not take him/her closer to answering the question laid out in the beginning.

So, that’s my take on it–and what I want from a book. Anyone else see it differently? Anyone else read a book lately that didn’t seem to have a clear cut (or at least clearly defined) story question?

Lori