Monday, March 29, 2010

What To Do With A Weak Heroine


Rewrite her.

Yes, I see a lot of rewriting in my immediate future. I think I may finally be on top of my plot issues (cue hysterical laughter) but what I have now uncovered is that my heroine is coming across as weak. Poor thing.

We're trying to steer clear of martyrdom here (see, proof that I can read my rejection letters and learn... or at least pretend to).

I believe the problem is that I had my heroine in love with the hero from the get go and now she's sucking the passion out of my story with her sad little thoughts so I'm going to have to rewrite what I haven't deleted to give her a bit more fire.

So, after my ankle surgery, since I am currently pretending to cleaned and washed in preparation for voluntarily disabling myself for a few days, I will be tell my heroine to grow a backbone. I suspect this will be more in the form of starting from scratch rather than an actual rewritem but a girl can hope.

How are everyone else's characters going?

It's only fair if they're giving you a hard time too...
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Saturday, March 20, 2010

Plotting Your Way to a Migraine and Beyond


I've never used a marriage of convenience plot before and I have discovered that there is an excellent reason for this.

I am terrible at them.

Really.

Truly.

Terrible.

So I'm about a heartbeat away from tearing up my hero and heroine's marriage certificate. But on my quest to make a plot work (that clearly doesn't) I discovered a few tips that I wanted to share with anyone who is looking to use a MOC plot device in their books.


By making the hero and heroine strangers you can automatically amp up the tension. My hero and heroine lost their tension after their marriage and getting rid of their history did bring it back in a big way but that's not the story I wanted to tell and my characters would have to become different people.


You want to ask your hero why he has entered the marriage of convenience. Does he need money? Is he in love with someone else and no longer cares who he marries? Is he doing the heroine, or someone else, a very big favour?


You need to ask your heroine the same question. Has she married for children, safety, etc. The heroine's motive reflects on the hero, because he must be able to provide the protection, money etc for the heroine.

So now you have your motivations and you're ready to go, right? Alas, if it were only that simple. Here comes the fun part. You need to deconstruct your hero and heroine beyond their rationale. If you're me, say hello migraine.

Whatever their motivations the hero and heroine have married for something other than love. Your heroine may have married for money but if she's a romantic at heart her motive won't match her person and you'll need to dig deeper. For example, perhaps the heroine needs the money for her sister's cancer treatment and has no intention of taking a dollar more than she needs and perhaps is even planning on paying it back. Instead of a scheming gold-digger she becomes a selfless, caring woman and we all like her much better.

It's such a shame my hero and heroine won't cooperate. I can't find a strong enough conflict to drive the story. My hero wants revenge and is blackmailing my heroine into marriage, although he's not the marrying type. The hilarity of this is that it's a double edged sword and the hero is also punishing himself. He's an intelligent man so I can't really justify this stupidity.

I need chocolate.
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Monday, March 1, 2010

Your Friendly Stalker


Did you read “stalker” and automatically think of your next door neighbor, the one who keeps peering at you from over the fence and has you seriously considering topping it with barbwire?

I’m actually talking about me. I quite possibly spend far too much time on all your blogs, but well, it’s not likely to stop anytime soon. So in true stalker fashion I’m going to direct you all to an article and an entry that I loved.

Thanks to Kate Hardy I give you this article. Stuart MacBride has some great tips on writing. My favorite is the “Who Cares?” post it – you’ll see what I mean :).

I’m also going to post a link to Barbara Hannay’s blog for anyone who needs a giggle. She's posted The Washington Post’s winning submissions to its yearly neologism contests, where readers provide alternative meanings for common words. “Coffee” will never be the same again...

A huge thanks to Jes at Prospero’s Cellphone who awarded me the Happy Cupcake Award! And what is happier than a cupcake? The award requires a list of ten things that make me happy so here we go:
1. Cupcakes: is anyone surprised?
2. Chocolate: hmmm again, probably not a surprise.
3. Rainbows: well they're pretty aren't they?
4. Books: for their 100% guaranteed escapism or your money back.
5. Writing: I'm an addict.
6. Signing: which I'm terrible at but that hasn't stopped me... yet.
7. Baby animals: well all animals for that matter, but the little ones are just so cute!
8. Holidays: because they certainly don't make me sob hysterically into my pillow at night.
9. Chatting over coffee and cake: my favorite way to catch up and expand my waist and thighs...
10. Rainy days: especially when I can curl up on the couch with a book.


Ten bloggers who I pass this award onto:
10. Suzanne Jones


The official rules are:
1. Copy the award image into a post
2. List 10 things that make you happy
3. Tag 10 bloggers who brighten your day.
4. Link to their blogs.
5. Notify the award recipients.
6. Award recipients link back to sender’s blog.


On a writing front I’m deleting more than I’m writing and I’m pretty sure my keyboard sighed with depression yesterday... It’s such a shame that inanimate objects don’t eat chocolate...

Is there such thing as a keyboard whisperer?

I hope everyone had a great weekend!
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