Sally came into the coffee shop with a smile. “My husband gave me the entire weekend to write. I’ve written five chapters since last Monday.” “That’s a good man you have there,” I said. “And a good model of a romantic hero. This week, we’re going to talk about how to craft your romance.” “Oh, I know how to do that. I’ll just make them fall in love.” “That’s of course, the goal, yes. But along the way, we have to doubt that they will, indeed, live Happily Ever After, and we do that by creating obstacles, or what I call, Why Nots – both internal and external — that feel so big that they can’t overcome them.” “Consider this – if you know how much a couple has overcome […]
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March’s Writer’s Challenge and A Vision in a Kiss
Congratulations to Michelle Weidenbenner who won the February writer’s Challenge with her delicious story “A Vision in a Kiss”: Mom and Dad could peek at Trae and me from the kitchen window of our new home, but we didn’t have anything to hide. Yet. We were taking a break from unloading moving boxes—my parents had insisted. I couldn’t believe our permanent home would be a few blocks from Trae’s. He sat across from me at the wooden picnic table the movers had placed in the shade under the maple tree in the backyard. The humid summer air clung to our skin and made Trae’s tan glisten in the fading sunlight. He blew up at his wavy, tousled blond hair that had fallen out of his cap and onto the […]
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Quick Skills: Act 2 Plotting
Act 2 plotting in 5 easy questions! I always get the Chapter Seven Blues. I know it’s inevitable, but I seem to forget that it happens, and often I’ll find myself down in the kitchen, moping (and looking for chocolate) and my husband will say… “You’re at Chapter 7, aren’t you?” I’ll turn, stare at him, and nod. “How did you know that?” “Because the excitement of the story has gotten you through chapter 3, and Act 1, and the momentum carried you into chapters 4-6, but now the steam has died in the middle of Act 2, and you’re down here hunting for inspiration.” (This is usually accompanied by him taking the bag of chocolate chips out of my hand.) He’s dead right. I’m smack in the middle of the […]
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Conversations: Plotting Act 2
“I hope you brought your calculator,” I said to Sally as I slid into the chair at the coffee shop. Presidents Day meant no school, and I noticed her two children playing in the reading nook in the corner. “I didn’t realize I needed to know math to write a novel,” she said, but pulled out a notebook. “That may be a deal killer.” I laughed. “I know I said we’d talk about heroes and heroines this week, but I thought it might help to fill in the gaps of Act 2. See, last week we talked about storyflow, and I taught you how to put together what I call the bookends – Act 1 and Act 3. But these two acts comprise only 30-40% of your story. For example, for […]
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