Yesterday, I addressed Scene Flow, and how in a romance scene, you might decide to develop it a bit more, making it longer. In a suspense, sometimes it’s nice to develop that before you jumpstart the action again. Today, we’re going to jump back into the suspense, drawing that element forward. Just to make sure I’m on the right track, I want to go back to my synopsis. It’s still my roadmap, even though I’ve been taking a few day trips… Luke wants his sister, who is a giant MacKenzie Grace fan to meet her, and the dinner out at the roadhouse seemed to go without a hitch…maybe no one will recognize her. But what Luke doesn’t know is that someone has recognized Kenzie – the reporter from the […]
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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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