Is your Act 2 slowing down? Do you find it muddling along? Are you running out of content and creating mundane, circular scenes? Here’s a way to fill Act 2 with powerful content. The last scene of Luke and Kenzie’s story was an example of a combo reaction scene to the Romance, and the ramping up of the suspense thread again. I also threw in a piece of the spiritual thread – that idea that relationships are what hold us together and make us better people – which is what Luke is supposed to learn on this journey. Just for a second, I’m going to dive into a discussion about the spiritual journey. Although this is a romantic suspense, every book has some sort of theme, and even deeper, […]
Read the RestTag Archives | How to write a novel
Act 2: Scene Flow..Suspense and Romance, what’s the difference?
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 – […]
Read the RestAct 2: Let’s build the Romance!
In the last chapter I posted, I dipped into a developed, romantic scene with Luke. [Chapter 4 Makenzie scene.] I’m going to turn my attention to Kenzie. Although we’re focusing on suspense this year on the blog, this is a romantic suspense, so occasionally during the story I need to slow it down and allow the romance to take over ever so briefly. During these forays into the romance, I need to make sure I’m utilizing my opportunity, because I don’t have a lot of time – I’ll need to cut back to the suspense soon. Therefore, I’ll be looking toward building in some of those essential elements of a romance, building like values, physical attraction, and the sense that they either complete each other or make each other into better […]
Read the RestA trick to jumpstarting your next chapter
Yesterday, I showed you a little trick I use to keep the momentum going between chapters. Here’s how I’m going to apply that trick! After I interview my character and let him take a little breather to recoup for the next scene, I begin to mull this interview over and take notes. (you do keep a book buddy beside you to help you write your chapters, right?) Here are my loose notes on the next scene: Luke POV. Show that Kenzie is trying to not be a burden, but she’s bored. Maybe he finds her acting out a scene? Keep up with the suspense thread….what is happening with Dark Secret? Does he Google the book? Does she see it? Have her in town, doing something mundane like the […]
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