What kind of book are the My Book Therapy Voices writing this year?
Romantic Suspense!
Romantic Suspense won with 45.9% of the vote!
Women’s Fiction came in second, with 23.8%
Thriller/Suspense came in third, at 16.7%
And poor straight romance came in last with 14.3%
The good news for all you Thriller/Suspense, and Romance voters is that Romantic Suspense has about 50/50 split of Romance and Suspense…so we’ll be learning not only how to weave those together, but also how each different thread is developed. SO…if you want ot write just a thriller, pay attention to just that thread, and vice versa for the romance readers.
Sorry, Women’s Fiction fans…maybe we can attempt one of those in the future! Thank you for being good sports and voting!
So, where do we go next? How about…our Hero? After all, we need to know what kind of man we are writing about!
I like to start with a profession for my Hero – mostly because I like to start with WHO, and many men define themselves by their profession.
So, who is our hero? (again, because we have to limit our research time, we’ll pick professions we know…) We’ll be talking about why it’s so important to ask this question as we go along this week.
Face the Danger Hero: i.e. Firefighter, EMT, Cop, Search and Rescue
Front Lines Hero (Military): i.e. Green Beret, Navy Seal, Pilot,
Everyday Hero: i.e. Carpenter/Contractor, Rancher/Farmer, Teacher, Businessman
Sports star: i.e. Football, Hockey, Baseball, Skier, Swimmer, Bull rider, Racecar driver
International Adventurer: i.e. Diplomat, Missionary, Translator, Humanitarian Aid worker
Outdoorsy Tough Guy: i.e. Sailor/Ship captain, mountain guide, beach patrol
Celebrity: i.e. Musician, actor, writer, newscaster, Top chef, model
Pick a category, and later this week, we’ll ask you to define it further.
BUT WAIT! Your work isn’t done! We need to also talk about setting. I do this in conjunction with developing a hero because often a setting will determine your hero’s profession. For example, I wanted to set a search and rescue story in Missouri. I did the research and discovered they had a number of caves….so suddenly my hero became a spelunker, and I knew where to start the story (uh, in a cave!).
So, as you consider our hero, also consider the locale of our story. Rachel and I combined our knowledge back of locales and came up with six. (again, to conserve research time).
North Carolina coast
Florida – Sunny Beaches
New York City
Minnesota – North Shore country
Tennessee – Nashville
East Tennessee (mountains)
You can choose in any order – setting first, or hero first, but be sure and vote for both!
Vote! Every Voice counts!
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