I’m so pleased to welcome award-winning author Hank Phillippi Ryan to Romance University. Through sheer good fortune, I met Hank at the RWA conference in Washington D.C. this past summer. She didn’t even blink an eye when I accosted her in the Borders checkout line.

In addition to being a consummate professional and a talented writer, Hank’s generous. Extremely so. She’s giving away four (4) signed ARCs of her Agatha award-winning novel Prime Time! Leave a comment or question for your chance to win.

Okay, Hank–three, two, one–time for your Romance University live shot! Lights, camera–You’re on the air.

After 30 years as a TV journalist—writing only the absolute facts about the real world, how did Hank Phillippi Ryan make the 180 into writing fiction?  She says, at first, she thought it would be difficult. After all, in television news, you can’t make stuff up! But then she realized  in writing novels, you’re still writing the truth—you just have to first create your own “real world.”

And then, she says, she discovered there are a lot more similarities between writing fact and writing fiction. The first one? How to handle deadlines.

DEADLINE SECRETS

I could not believe what my friend the novelist was telling me. And it was all I could do not to burst out laughing. And then, finally I couldn’t resist.

Are you actually saying, I asked between gasps, are you actually saying you asked your editor for three more weeks to finish your book? Asked her to move the deadline three weeks ahead?

My friend, a perfectly lovely and wonderful author, quite successful I might add, looked perplexed. “Well, sure,” she said. “I’m having trouble feeling the muse, and I couldn’t get finished, and so I asked her to move the deadline. I do it all the time.”

Okay, forgive me. As a veteran (okay, old)  reporter, the idea of missing a big deadline is –well, it makes my stomach hurt.

I’ve been in TV for 30 years. And I just shook my head, thinking about her extra three weeks. Can you imagine if I went to my news director and said—you know, could I be on the news at ten after six, instead of six? I’m not really…feeling the muse.

Hey, listen kid, the news director might have said. The news is on a 6 o’clock. That means your story is ready at 6 o’clock. If you can’t do it –I’ll find someone who can.

So it got me to wondering about deadlines. And even the dreaded writer’s block. And how people in TV news deal with that. Sure, there are days when I’m trying to bang out a story for the 6 o’clock news and it’s not quite as wonderful as I hoped. I sit at my desk glowering at the computer monitor, wondering whose idea this stupid story was anyway, and why I ever wanted to be a reporter, and if I could just write the story, maybe, tomorrow, how much better it would be.

Then I look at the clock, and it’s a little after five, and if I’m going to get my video edited and on the air at six—I’d better just go with what I’ve got. And hope it’s good.

In fact,  the phrase “go with what you’ve got” has propelled me into making many a deadline. And the more I think about it, the more the lessons of deadline reporting for television translate to the pressures and deadlines of writing a book. Even if you make the deadlines yourself! It’s just one of the ways writing for television for thirty years has prepared me to face the rigors of writing romantic suspense and mysteries.

Deadline secret number one: If you’re sitting at your desk, brain numb and unable to decide what comes next—say the magic words: “I’ll just go with what I’ve got.” Just—write down what you think might work. Go from there. “What you’ve got” might be the next word or the next line, or the next sentence. You certainly have that. Just put it down. You can always tweak it later.

Another deadline secret that always works: ask yourself: what am I really trying to say here? When I have a complicated investigative story, and I feel I’ve somehow written myself into a corner (have you been in that corner?) I stop. I regroup. I ask myself: where am I in the story, and where do I need to go next? Do I need an action? An explanation? An emotion?  What does the reader need to know, or to understand? And often, the answer will emerge.

Deadline secret number three:  Ask yourself: Why do I care?  The goal of a great TV story, as well as a great novel, is that people arecompelled to hear it. That it’s just—as they used to say in The Front Page—a hell of a story. So if you have a hell of a story—why isthat? Who do you care about, and why? And that can galvanize your thoughts to figure out what has to come next.

And one last secret—remember why you loved your story in the first place.

After working on an big story for maybe months and it’s finally time to write the thing—sometimes I have notebooks and files full of information, and I think—ah, whose idea was this anyway? I hate this story, I can’t think about it for one more minute.  Then I take myself back to that shining moment when I had what I knew was a terrific idea. I remember how I felt about it when it was newly hatched. And always, always, there’s a rush of enthusiasm…and I knew exactly what to say next.

And PS:  If you’re having difficulty with a deadline? Pat yourself on the back. There’s not a writer who doesn’t.  Having a tough moment at the computer? Yay. You’re a writer.

Do you have any deadline secrets?

* * *

Thanks, Hank!

RU Readers, be sure to leave a comment for your chance to win one of four ARCs of Prime Time.

Don’t forget to check back in on Wednesday when Wayne Levine returns to explore all things male.

Hank’s Bio:

Award-winning investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan is currently on the air at Boston’s NBC affiliate, where she’s broken big stories for the past 22 years.  Her stories have resulted in new laws, people sent to prison, homes removed from foreclosure, and millions of dollars in refunds and restitution for consumers.

Along with her 26 EMMYs, Hank’s won also won dozens of other journalism honors. She’s been a legislative aide in the United States Senate (working on the Freedom of Information Act) and at Rolling Stone Magazine (working with Hunter S. Thompson).

Her first romantic-suspense mysteries, PRIME TIME  (which won the prestigious Agatha Award for Best First Novel, was a double RITA nominee for Best First Book and Best Romantic Suspense Novel, and a Reviewers’ Choice Award Winner) and FACE TIME (Book Sense Notable Book), are current best sellers. The newest in the series is the already-bestselling AIR TIME (MIRA Sept. 2009) (Suzanne Brockmann says: “I love this series!”) Watch for DRIVE TIME from MIRA in February 2010–it’s just earned a starred review from Library Journal!