Lori Devoti, paranormal romance and urban fantasy author

Or more accurately, the pig.

I got my copy edits for Love is All You Need (working title Pig in a Poke) last Saturday. They have been sitting on my kitchen table staring at me ever since.

Thing is, I was expecting revisions, but there weren’t any, and I haven’t looked at this book in a full year. That’s right a full year. When I was writing it, I LOVED it. Was just down right tickled with myself. But a year later? How would the thing read?

Well, I’m happy to report I finally broke down and started reading last night. I got through the first three chapters and not only do I still love it, but I even got a good copy editor–a major gift as any author will tell you.

So, happy days. I can read on without cringing.

Wishing all of you light copy edits and easy reads. :)

Lori

Karen Tabke. She’ll be speaking on plotting parties–sounds fun! If you want to join us, leave a comment and I’ll send you an invitation to join the group. :)
Lori

(the below written by Karin)
Let’s have a party!

A funny thing happened to this pantser after she sold. She couldn’t write. She was frozen, stumped, migraines became a daily visitor. She choked.

For all of the years I strived for publication, I wrote regularly, but on my terms. I began a story with a germ of an idea, my characters fairly fleshed out and a few good scenes burning to be written. Usually, I began my story in the wrong place and by the sagging middle, I could, without pressure, mull my way to The End. This method usually required heavy rewriting. My stories generally meandered and well, while there were some really good scenes, these stories usually needed to be cut by 20-30 K words. Writing 20-30 K words in my life now equals time, my very valuable writing time, time I don’t have to waste on one single word, much less thousands.

I learned quickly that deadlines don’t bode well for casual mulling. Deadlines don’t bode well for beginning your story in the wrong place with leisure time to dabble, tweak and rewrite multiple times. Rewrites that ultimately dilute your story.

After weeks of staring blankly at my computer screen, and the beginnings of an ulcer due to massive does of aspirin, I knew what I had to do. Plot. ( I don’t cringe when I type it or say it out loud anymore.) Plotting does not come naturally to this pantser, but thanks to Shelley Bates, I discovered the kewlest thing.

A plotting party. Here’s what you’ll need.

A day with no outside interferences, a couple of really smart writer minds, a few specific office supplies, munchies, and most of all: enthusiasm coupled with the will to plot the next NY Times best seller!

Stick around and find out how to utilize this sure fire plan of not only plotting your story, but developing your characters GMC’s along the way.

Karin’s Bio:
Hot cops you say? I say, write what you know.

Karin Tabke writes hot cops; who while they live, lust and love they take time from their personal passions for their other passion: Justice. Not always by the book justice. Sometimes her hot cops walk the very thin line between good and naughty, but in the end, the bad guy is caught, the lust finds love and life is good.

How does Karin know so much about hot cops? Naturally, she married one. ;)

So it’s no wonder Karin is one of the launch authors for Kensington Publishing’s new erotic romance line, Aphrodisia. Her hot cops fit right in. THE HARD STUFF will be released January 2006. Her second and third sales were to Pocket/Simon & Schuster. Doing what she does best, her hot cops lust, love and fight the bad guy from page one to The End. GOOD GIRL GONE BAD, an erotic suspense, will be released in September 2006 and SKIN (working title), February 2007.
Karin is also a member of Romance Writers of America National, and two local RWA chapters. The Heart of the Bay San Francisco, and the Black Diamonds of the East Bay. She is also a member of several on line RWA chapters, most having to do with murder.

Karin has also joined four indomitable multi published writers (Jennifer Apodaca, Natalie R Collins, Deborah LeBlanc, and Allison Brennan) as part of the Murder She Writes blog site. All five authors have one thing in common. Dead bodies abound in their books. For a sidesplitting laugh or the raucous discussion of how to kill someone and get away with it, visit the ladies at www.murdershewrites.comKarin is part of the Crime in Mind trio, www.Crimeinmind.com, comprised of Dr. Cynthia Lea Clark, forensic psychologist, and Rae Monet, former FBI agent and current Private Investigator. CiM presents workshops and guest speaking appearances. Karin’s part in the group is discussing the life, love and trials of cop family life and also basic CST information. Karin is currently enrolled in The American Institute of Applied Science’s CST program.
Karin is also CEO of her own company.

Her website www.karintabke.com offers Cop Talk, a very popular resource to garner basic cop lingo, procedures, miscellaneous information, and even a few funnies. There are also several links for more detailed cop information.

Karin resides in a quiet little town east of San Francisco with her husband, three of her four children, three over indulged dogs, one very naughty cat, a mouthy African gray and numerous koi.

Her other passion is watching her two sons kick ass on the football field.

Have any of you seen this movie? I watched it the other night. It sounded good–a classic romantic comedy. And it had all the elements. In fact it would be the perfect movie to dissect in an explanation of GMC, but somehow it missed the mark for me.

Made me start thinking about how there is a lot more to writing a good book than using all the tools we have created for ourselves. I know we all KNOW that, but it is still interesting to see it laid out for you.

So what made Bounce miss it for me? I’m not sure. I think the characters were probably lacking something. They were likable, but I didn’t love them. They weren’t really funny or really sad. You know? And their conflict seemed a bit contrived.

Here are the basics–hero gets another man to take his seat home on a plane. The plane crashes. Hero freaks out, winds up at AA and decides needs to make up for his wrongs. He searches out the wife of the man who took his seat (heroine). She doesn’t know why her husband took that plane, and the hero doesn’t tell her–doesn’t even tell her he knew her husband. So, there’s the conflict–the big secret, his guilt, and her sorrow.

Just didn’t work for me.

So, anyone else think this was a great movie? Did the conflict work for you? How about the characters? Did they make the movie for you? Did I miss something?

Lori

I recently discovered something about myself. I used to think I wrote 20 page chapters–give or take. But recently when I was working on proposals and really pushing myself to crank out pages, they were shorter–like 12 or 15. Now I’m working on a new project, something I’m taking my time with, and yep, I’m back to long chapters.

How long are your chapters? Do they seem to always fall about the same place? And how do you know when it is time to start a new chapter? I usually have an event or line in mind that I am working toward. For example, in the book I’m working on now I planned on introducing two rather important characters, and ending the chapter after the second one. I was doing this because the second one will come with an important revelation. The first one has one too, but the reader won’t know it for quite some time. However, I’m getting close to 20 pages and still haven’t introduced either character–that’s what got me to thinking about this. I absolutely don’t want my chapters to be longer than say 22 pages, so I’m going to probably have to think of a new ending.

How much planning do you do for this? Do you plan your whole book by chapters, or just wing it?

Till next time!

Lori

Remember to “fall back” tonight!

A new writing book! Anyone read this one? Sounds different and kind of intriguing.

Lori

As some of you may know, I have a yahoo group called PlotSpot. It isn’t a real active loop, but every now and then we have some interesting and useful conversations. To encourage more of those, I’m lining up guest speakers. :) Our first speaker is going to be Karen Wiesner author of First Draft in 30 Days. Membership in Plotspot is free–so if you are interested in joining just follow the instructions in the annoucement below.

October 25, 2005 (all day), Karen Wiesner www.karenwiesner.com and
www.firstdraftin30days.com will be providing a workshop based on her
bestselling writing reference FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS on the PlotSpot
listserv, the place to bounce plot, GMC, archetype, and other story ideas
off other genre writers. Only members of the list will be allowed to
participate. To subscribe to the list, send a request to
plotspot-owner@yahoogroups.com/. You must include a note, stating that you
want to subscribe to the Plotspot group. For more information about the
group, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/plotspot/.

To coincide with Karen’s Plotspot appearance on October 25th, she’ll be
giving away an autographed copy of FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS as well as
winner’s choice of any of her current releases. Winner must be a member
(set to receive mail) of Plotspot. Prize winner will be chosen by the
listowner at the conclusion of Karen’s workshop.

Oh, if there is anyone out there who would like to do a guest appearance let me know!!

Lori

It has been so busy around here–birthdays, back to school, family visits, my hubby getting a new job (so insurance/doctor changes), writing. Yeah, I’ve even been writing. Thursday I wrote 21 pages on a paranormal hen lit proposal. Friday 15 pages. I had to take Saturday basically off because we had company, so only 3 pages and then Sunday, I finished the first three chapters. Exhausting.

I think 21 pages is about a record for me. Actually, it is kind of enlightening how easy it is to do if you do two things. 1.) turn off the editor. This is something we all talk about, but it is hard to do. And 2.) have the book plotted out and clear in your head. The better you have things thought out, the easier it is to just sit down and write.

Okay, but is it decent? I think so. I will admit it took more tweaking than things I written at a slower pace, but overall it was still faster to write it quick and then tweak more.

So, are there any power writers out there? NaNo Writers? Does it work for you?

So a friend and I have been batting around the whole “high concept” idea for a couple days. This certainly isn’t a new topic. When I first discovered the online community of writers a couple years ago, plenty of them were discussing it then. Many of them confident they not only understood it, but had completely conquered it. I think most of them are still confused.

The classic example of high concept is Jurassic Park. Man opens amusement park with real, live cloned dinosaurs. Short and sweet it tells you what the book is about AND that it is something new and different. This is where I think most writers get lost. Having a high concept book doesn’t just mean you can boil it down to 25 words or less. High concept ideas are hard–at least for most of us. They have to be something that grabs you. Something that when you hear it, you think, Gee, I wish I thought of that. That’s brilliant.

So, if you want to write high concept–and more and more that’s all agents and editors want to see–or if you want to test to see if your book is high concept, here’s a link for you. I think it explains it better than about any article I’ve read to date.

Nothing like a little Barney serenade to start your day, is there? Seemed appropriate though. I’m feeling very in control for some demented reason. :)

So, I’m trying the pre-writing thing from Karen Wiesner’s presentation. I think it may work for me. My deal has always been that I have to think a bit ahead before I can write the next scene. Usually some epiphany hits me right before I go to sleep or in the shower or on the eliptical trainer, etc. But today, I just sat down and started writing. I opened a new file titled “name of WIP OUTLINE” and set up a few styles. I did it so both the chapter/scene number and a short (one sentence) descriptor of the scene will appear in the master document window. This should make it easy to flip back and forth between scenes. I’m going to try Karen’s alternative suggestion and pre-write just a chapter or two ahead of where I am in the actual draft. So far, so good. :)

In other news, have you checked out the auction for Marianne Mancusi? It is in full swing at ebay–go here. Looks like a number of editors and agents have again stepped up with manuscript critiques. I think that is pretty cool of them. They did it for the Diabetes auction too. A lot of authors have too. Personally, I wouldn’t do it just because of the embarassment factor when my critique got a sum total of $3.52 in bids. My ego is plenty in check as it is, thank you very much. :) Anyway, check it out–you might see something you need, and you will be helping someone else–always a good thing.

Lori

I woke up yesterday and realized summer was almost over. School starts back here in a little over two weeks! I am determined to be less stressed this year. To that end, I have worked out a schedule to make sure we aren’t all running around at bedtime every night realizing we haven’t finished something we had to do that day. Also, took my daughter clothing shopping yesterday. Today is school supplies. :)

On writing, yesterday at my local RWA meeting Karen Wiesner, author of First Draft in 30 Days spoke. Like I told Karen, I really wasn’t buying this idea until I heard her explain it. I am not a big fill-out-the-forms kind of writer, but I do write a synopsis first. This is a recent development for me, but it really helps me with the process. Kind of gives me a map of where I am going.

Anyway, Karen’s “first draft” is a lot like a really long/scene-by-scene synopsis. I’m not sure I will use her method in its entirety, but I
definitely got some good ideas from her talk. The first was a scene form. I don’t know why this never occured to me before, but why not write out a little description of major scenes, floor plans, whatever and keep them for reference? I just describe the scene as my characters enter them. Sometimes I know in advance what the scene looks like, but this would really simplify things for me.

The other thing was using idea folders. I have this type of thing set up on my computer, and have a notebook I keep notes in, but this is to simply buy a two-pocket folder for each idea and stuff notes, etc. in it as time goes by. When you have enough “cooked” to start the “first draft” you do.

I’m still not convinced writing the “first draft”/scene-by-scene synopsis would save me time. How about you guys? I know some of you have read the book? Have you tried it? Is the technique working for you?

Lori