Early on we learn conflict makes a great story. Conflict elicits emotion. Tension is necessary to keep the story flowing and the readers turning pages. In romance, it’s easy to put the hero and heroine in conflict with each other. They are the main players, the key figures on the stage and well, why not have them at opposite goals, fighting, arguing, hating one another. Donald Maass says, “He’s hot, she’s hot, but they can’t stand each other.” Well, true, that does make for a good story. But in our ameturish hands, a fighting hero and heroine can come across snarky, mean, petty and well, too stupid to live. What we need to demonstrate is WHY the hero and heroine belong together. What is it about her that he loves? […]
Read the RestArchive | April, 2010
How to “undress” your character!
I’m on my way to Portland today – going to teach at Chip MacGregor’s Master Seminar on How to Write Best-selling Fiction. So, I’m sitting on a plane. Next to people. They may talk to me. The thing is…sometimes they tell me more than I need to know. Have you ever been on a plane where the seatmate begins to talk to you…and suddenly they are going into their life history, and their recent divorce, and their children’s problems, and the house she’s trying to sell and how she’s on her way to visit their mother who has shingles and…. So, already, I know way too much about her. This is why you want to reveal your character slowly, layer by layer. You don’t […]
Read the RestBuilding the right backstory
We’re trying to help our readers fall in love with our characters this week at MBT….and one way you do this is through “Character Layering” – or slowly revealing the heart of your character—to your other characters in the story and, ultimately, to your reader. But doesn’t my reader need to know about my character in order to love them? I hear this a lot from people who might pour in all the great reasons why our hero and heroine are the way they are – their hurts and their triumphs – onto the first page. Think back—if you knew everything about your spouse or significant other when you met them, would you still go forward? Perhaps it’s best if we fall in love layer by layer. More […]
Read the RestIt’s just a little Kiss
So…you turned in your Frasier entry…feeling tense? Of course – because you’re hoping for a great outcome, but your fears of your manuscript – the frailties you recognize in your writing are shouting at you that you might not succeed. And, the more you continue to write, the more you fall in love with story-crafting, the more you invest into the process, and the more you see the hope of publication. What you have here is….sexual tension! Okay – no, it’s more like Award Tension. Or Publication Tension, but it has the same elements of Sexual Tension. You didn’t know that did you? I bet right now you feel a little weird. It’s okay. You can read this in the privacy of your own home. Maybe ask the kids to […]
Read the Rest
