I love the TV show Gilmore Girls. The writers created such a fantastic story world with Stars Hollow and powered it all with quirky, fast-talking, beautiful Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. But the writers fell into a characterization hole, IMHO, when Rory became too-perfect-to-live. Too good to be true. Every man and his brother, every girl and her sister loved Rory. All who met her believed she hung the moon, stars and visited the Sombrero galaxy while stirring brownie mix for pale-skinned orphans. She was smart. She was beautiful. She was quick and engaging, a repartee’s repartee. She was kind and giving, her mother’s best friend. The girl next door, the one to take home to mom, and dad. She couldn’t golf or run fast, but who cared? What an endearing […]
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Book Two Starring… Book One’s Secondary Character!
We all love the sequel don’t we? Rocky 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… Oceans 11, 12 and 13. Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum. Personal favorites of mine. Jason Bourne just rocks. But I love Back to the Future 1 and 3. Two, not so much. Yet all of these sequels star the same recurring characters. What would happen if Rocky 7 became Son of Rocky and Sylvester Stallone played a secondary role, if any role at all, and some new guy, say Jesse Metcalf, played Rocky’s son. For all practical purposes you have a brand new story and it must be treated as such. You can’t rely on the old Rocky standards of hit movie making. You can’t just promote Rocky’s son into his father’s place. He […]
Read the RestHow to set up and deliver the Suspense Black Moment.
Yesterday, we talked about the substance of the Black Moment and how to craft it, making it Personal, Plausible and it leads up to the Epiphany of the novel. But, how do you deliver such a Black Moment? First, you need to start with…The Hint… At the beginning of every great novel, or movie, there is a hint at what a character’s greatest fears might be. It can be something they experience and never want to repeat. It can be something a friend has gone through. It can be something they witness…but we need to see if (even if we don’t recognize it as the hint…although now you will!) Because it will give us that dark foreboding we need to make the fear seem…well, dark. One of my favorite hints […]
Read the RestI ain’t afraid of nuthin! (Creating the Perfect Suspense Heroine Day 2)
Yesterday, we talked about how to make the plot personal for your heroine so that she’ll leave her life and jump into the world of the suspense. That personal element is what will keep your heroine running forward, despite the looming fears before her. Case in point – I hate caves, especially a submerged cave. Never would I ever enter a cave under water. However, if my child was trapped inside, you betchya. Just a simple illustration, but if you were using me as your suspense heroine, this would be a great fear to dangle before me to ramp up the stakes. I’d have to reach deep inside and find the courage to fit myself through one of those dark, slimy crevasses. Which leads me to […]
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