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Act 2: Scene Flow..Suspense and Romance, what’s the difference?

By on November 14, 2011 in Action and ReAction Scenes, b. Building a Scene, Chapter 7, How to write a Suspense, Limelight – Sample Novel, Managing the Muddle (keeping your story moving!), Susan May Warren, Suspense, Want to see a book in Action? Read the Blog-a-Book Series, Writing High Action Scenes, Writing your Suspense Chapters

Sceneflow:  the difference between a suspense scene and  a romance scene? If you read the last two weeks of posts and chapters about Limelight, you’ll notice that I took a bit more time in those chapters to develop the romance. (Read Chapter 5 & 6 Here Chapter 5 Luke  Chapter 6 Kenzie)  I could have split those chapters into shorter scenes/segments, but I wanted to really cement the romance between them before I launched more into the suspense.  Note they were longer chapters– as the book starts to move faster, I’ll have shorter chapters, or perhaps two or three shorter scenes in a chapter. So, now that I’ve given them their first kiss, we’re about half-way through the story. (For the purposes of teaching, I’m keeping this novella at 12 chapters – […]

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Ten Common Author Mistakes. #8

By on October 6, 2011 in Author Mistakes, Editing Basics, Rachel Hauck, Secondary Characters

My Best Friend’s Wedding Neglecting to create dynamic secondary characters. Definition: Secondary characters are the protagonist, and the author’s best friend. A great story telling tool. They widen the stage, round out the story, spotlight the protagonist. They help tell the story. They add depth. They add conflict. They add humor. They reveal truth. It’s so easy to get caught up in creating our protagonist(s) we often forget to layer and deepen other characters. The end up being placeholders or sound bit machines. Secondary characters need to have a goal. A purpose. A hint at a problem. They can be a bit shallower than the main characters, and a bit two-dimensional, a bit more flippant, a bit more of a hyperbole. Use secondary characters to show the heart and depth […]

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How to Craft the Motivation for a Noble Quest

By on October 4, 2011 in 2. Create Your Story, Editing Basics, How to write a Suspense, Limelight – Sample Novel, Push Pull, Susan May Warren, Suspense, Want to see a book in Action? Read the Blog-a-Book Series, What is the Noble Cause?, Writing your Suspense Chapters

How do you build a powerful Noble Quest for your character, launching him off into his Second Act Journey with enough motivation, yet enough reward waiting at the end?  This section of your story is pivotal because you must have built enough Want  for your character to propel him through all the obstacles and disappointments of Act 2, all the way to the Black Moment.  Often, when we don’t believe in a character, if they seem “too stupid to live,” it’s because we haven’t built enough WANT. This can be solved by using the Push-Pull Technique. I’ve heard them called MRU – Motivation, Reaction Units.  This technique is more about building a solid motivation to convince us of the Reaction and can easily be added to the MRU technique. Again, […]

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How do you build strong motivation for your character? Chapter 3: The Start of the Noble Quest

By on October 3, 2011 in Editing Basics, How to write a Suspense, Limelight – Sample Novel, Push Pull, Suspense, Want to see a book in Action? Read the Blog-a-Book Series, What is the Noble Cause?, Writing your Suspense Chapters

How do you structure your novel?  How many words in a scene, or pages in a chapter? I get that question a lot, because the truth is there is no “rule” and  the answer seems to vary with author. Here’s my formula, and why. I write many different length books for different genres:  Contemporary Romance, Long Historical, Short Romantic Suspense, Novellas… but they all have the same story structure.  (Or, if you follow MBT teaching the same LINDYHOP.  Life, Inciting Incident, Noble Quest, Disappointments, Help!, Overhaul, Perfect Ending).  This means, on average, the First Act (LIN) is 15% of the story, and the Third Act (HOP) is 15-20% of the story.  Poor D, or the Second Act takes up 60-70% of the story. Which is why, of course, you want […]

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