I recently led a friend of mine through an exercise designed to shape a character, and with her permission, we’re going to discuss that exercise here. We run into this sort of issue pretty frequently: a character has a strong backstory, but that doesn’t quite translate into a strong, solid character. In this case, the character – we’ll call her Ashley – was defined as a woman in her mid-20s whose father is an abusive alcoholic.

That single fact drove most of the character creation, and was the answer to almost every question about this character. What was Ashley’s romantic history? Light and sporadic, because she can’t trust men because her father was an abusive alcoholic. What does she look for in a man? Sobriety. And so on, each question leading back to that single backstory detail. No matter the question, the answer was, “Daddy was a mean drunk.” In fact, here is what my friend offered as a brief character description:

She’s been conditioned that people will always disappoint her. Her father disappoints her by constantly falling off the wagon. Every time she puts any faith in him, he blows it. Her mother (although she has a good relationship with her) disappointed her because she never had the strength to leave Ashley’s dad and give Ahsley a more stable environment.

This is good, as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. My friend, to her credit, knew something was off with this character but was having trouble grasping the smoke. The problem is one of focus. Daddy’s not in this book. The story isn’t about letting go of the original family. This is a straightforward romance novel with a strong external plot that doesn’t involve Ashley’s dad at all. So this means that every time we were talking about the backstory, we were talking about events that occurred outside the scope of this plot. Those events have no relevance OTHER THAN the way they shaped Ashley’s character.

So we had to reframe Ashley’s character. We had to focus on the results (how she behaves in real story time), rather than the cause (Daddy was a mean drunk).

Step one in this exercise was to come up with a list of character traits. I forbid my writing friend from mentioning Ashley’s father at all. I told her to come up with a simple list of character traits to describe Ashley. Each trait should be expressed in a word or two. Here is what she sent:

Suspicious

Controlling

Self-contained

Lonely

Miserly (in that she can pinch a penny until the head pops off. LOL)

Dependable (if she wants it done, she does it herself)

Driven

That’s a sad list, isn’t it? The traits seem overwhelmingly negative. This is a romantic heroine we’re talking about. The reader will want to be able to identify with this character, so that negativity might be a barrier. Also, keep in mind that we’re trying to understand how a formative situation shapes character. Ashley was forged in fire, and these kinds of circumstances can make you hard, but they can also make you strong.

So the next step was to challenge my friend to find a positive way to express these traits. Almost every aspect of character can be positive or negative, depending on how it is expressed in the story. So I asked her to look at her list and think of positive ways these traits might manifest. For example, a suspicious character might be hard to fool, which would be a good trait in a romantic suspense novel, right?

Here is what my friend generated:

Negative                      Positive

Suspicious                   Won’t be fooled

Controlling                  Orderly

Miserly                      Responsible with money

Self-contained             Self-sufficient

Lonely                          Doesn’t need to be entertained

Driven                         Wants to do a good job

Now we understand the different ways that the same basic trait might be expressed in the course of the plot. After getting this far and looking at her list more closely, we realized that Ashley’s core trait is that she’s cautious. This caution is expressed in multiple ways, and almost every trait on the above list, both positive and negative, can be seen as an expression of that cautiousness. Now we’re starting to really understand what drives Ashley, but there’s still one more step.

That final step is figuring out how these traits manifest in the world Ashley inhabits. This is where things get really interesting. Look at that list and think about some aspect of Ashley’s present world and how it might be impacted by each trait. Do you see any potential conflicts? I do. For example, if she’s good with money, but miserly, does she buy an investment property like an apartment building to live in, or a tiny condo with low payments, or something else? If she’s self-contained and entertains herself, does she have a great television system and movie collection, or does her miserliness keep her from spending money on this sort of thing? If she’s put on a work project team with a sexy, smoking hot hero, will she agree to work late and discuss the project over drinks?

By thinking of these kinds of potential issues in the character formation stage, you not only develop a deeper understanding of the character, but you develop a sense of how different aspects of that character are prioritized. Which will she value more, saving money or protecting her privacy? In times of stress, does she hide or does she try to control everything? In the end, when this exercise is complete, you will have a more fully developed character, and you will understand better how to portray her in a deep, complex way.

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RU writers, what’s your process for developing your character?

Join us on Monday with Ollin Morales’ post What Charlie Chaplin Can Teach You About Writing A Great Love Story

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Bio: Theresa Stevens is the Publisher of STAR Guides Publishing, a nonfiction publishing company with the mission to help writers write better books. After earning degrees in creative writing and law, she worked as a literary attorney agent for a boutique firm in Indianapolis where she represented a range of fiction and nonfiction authors. After a nine-year hiatus from the publishing industry to practice law, Theresa worked as chief executive editor for a highly acclaimed small romance press, and her articles on writing and editing have appeared in numerous publications for writers. Visit her blog at http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/ where she and her co-blogger share their knowledge and hardly ever argue about punctuation.

When Arguments Are a Good Thing: Conflict in Dialogue

Most authors and their readers will agree that nothing beats a good bout of dialogue. Witty, poignant, romantic, angry—it’s all good. We all love it when characters open their big mouths and let fly. But creating good dialogue isn’t as easy as saying the first thing that pops to mind. Good dialogue is all about conflict. So how do we harness the conflict in our stories and make it power our dialogue in effective and compelling ways?

How to Use Conflict in Dialogue

• Keep it on point. It has to matter to the plot. Random arguments won’t give your story the conflict it needs. Readers only care about conflict between characters insofar as it advances the plot or reveals interesting things about the people.
• Maintain an arc in the conversation. Conflict should rise to a crescendo, then taper into a climactic (semi-)resolution. Likely, you won’t fully resolve the arguments and the issues fueling them until late in the book, but each argument still needs to come to believable conclusion.
• Keep the character arcs in mind. What are the characters’ motivations and goals in having this discussion? People never mindlessly argue. They always have a reason, a goal, an agenda. So what are your characters trying to accomplish? What are they trying to get from each other that’s worth the confrontation?
• Vary the tension. Not all arguments have to be screamers. In fact, they shouldn’t all be screamers. You can utilize subtext to make even a calm chit-chat have dramatic undercurrents of conflict. To keep things interesting, you have to include a variety of tension levels in your dialogue scenes.
• Utilize subtext. Use your conflict to reveal things about your characters. For example, that argument about who forgot to let the cat out could really be about something else entirely—like who’s responsible for their failing relationship.
• Remember the power of the action beat. Sometimes a good action beat can effectively take the place of a whole page of dialogue. Instead of a drawn-out argument, have the angry wife hit her husband with the lobster she’s preparing for dinner.

How Not to Use Conflict in Dialogue

• Don’t let your arguments meander purposelessly. Starting out talking aimlessly about the weather and ending up screaming and cursing is possible, but not probable.
• Don’t leave the dialogue hanging without context. Let the narrating character show us his reactions (which perhaps are entirely different from his words).
• Don’t resolve things too quickly. Jumping from “You’re a boring pig!” to “I love you” isn’t going to work 99.9% of the time. Arguments must have a natural rise and fall, and if you’re going to get readers all worked up, you can’t disappoint them by resolving things too quickly.
• Don’t let your characters fight out of context to their personality. Someone who believes in truth and justice is going to have to fight fair. Someone who’s a bully, on the other hand, is likely to hit as low and as hard as he can. Your character’s fighting style has to be consistent with his personality and his values. If he fights in a way that goes against either of these things, there had better be a good reason.

If you can keep these important dos and don’ts of dialogue in mind as you write your next character conversation, you’ll be able to create arguments that sizzle. Readers won’t be able to stop eavesdropping!

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RU Readers – got questions on how to make an effective argument? Ask away!

Join us on Monday for C.J. Redwine!

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Bio: K.M. Weiland is the author of the historical western A Man Called Outlaw and the medieval epic Behold the Dawn. She enjoys mentoring other authors through her writing tips, her book Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success, and her instructional CD Conquering Writer’s Block and Summoning Inspiration.

When I was younger, every summer my mother would pack me and my three siblings up in her Buick Le Sabre and take us back to the small Iowa towns of her youth.  It was there, amid the corn fields and green pastures, that I first fell in love with small towns.  There was something about the slow, simple pace and warm, friendly people that struck a chord with me.  This innocent charm was why, when I sat down to write my first novel, I placed my characters in a small town in Iowa.  Unfortunately, that book didn’t sell, but years later, another small town book of mine did.  Going Cowboy Crazy became a bestseller and joined the ranks of thousands of bestselling books that are set in small towns.   From Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird to Jill Shalvis’ Lucky Harbor series, this growing list proves that I am not the only one who enjoys the innocent charm of small towns.  So how do you go about effectively writing small town fiction?  Sorry to say, there is no guaranteed formula, but here are a few tips that will help:

1.      Know your town.  It does not matter whether you are writing from personal knowledge or just imagination, in order to make your town believable you need to know as much about it as you do a well-developed character.  And not just what businesses are on Main Street, but what is your town’s principal income, weather, history?  What makes it different from every other small town?  Is there a curse hanging over it?  Are there vampires living in the church bell tower?  Or, as in the case of my town of Bramble, just a bunch of folks who are the worst matchmakers this side of the Pecos?

2.      Pick only a few key townsfolk to represent the town.  No matter how good you are at world building or writing dialogue with numerous characters chatting in one scene, readers can get confused and lose interest.  I like to choose only a few characters to develop and do the majority of the talking.  I mention other people from time to time and tell a little about them (Example: Elmer Tate who sleeps it off in jail when he gets drunk rather than go home to his wife and her mean right hook.)  But, in the scenes with the townsfolk, I keep the conversation to three to four main characters.

3.      Never let your townsfolk overshadow your story.  If you do a good job of writing a small town, readers will come to love the people who inhabit it, but always remember that the townsfolk are only there to enhance the relationship between your hero and heroine.  They can add humor, drama, and advance the external plot.  They should not steal the show.  This is romance we are writing after all, and if you end up with more scenes about the town drunk or the promiscuous waitress than about your heroine and hero, something is wrong!

Last but not least, enjoy your setting and characters.  If you love sitting down at your computer everyday and traveling to your small town, readers are going to love it as well.

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RU Crew – have you written a small town romance before? Do tell…

Join us on Wednesday when we meet new author and coffee addict, Donna Cummings.

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Bio: Katie spends her days at a computer daydreaming, while the rest of the time she enjoys hanging with her family, reading, going to the gym, playing golf, motorcycle riding, traveling, or just snuggling next to her snoring prince. Every moment in life is a happily-ever-after just waiting to be fulfilled. You can visit Katie at her website.

Setting Goals for Your Writing.

The one question I get asked most often is how I can write as much as I do. For me, the answer to the questions is quite simple: I set goals and I meet them. Now, before to go into my goal-setting philosophy, I should tell you that in 2011 I wrote ten novels and as many shorter works, ranging from novellas to a few short stories. I didn’t do that based upon a simple notion or the onset of a particular bout of inspiration. I wrote and consequently sold that many stories because I set a specific series of goals for myself. (I’m going to use my 2011 goals as an example, but the numbers aren’t important. It’s using the process to push yourself that really counts.)

Annual Goal
Set an annual goal. This should be at a high level and in increments that are easily broken down. It should also stretch you, but be attainable in the long run. As an example, my goal for 2011 was 600,000 words.

Hint: This goal should not be anything that’s out of your direct control. This goal should not include something like getting an agent or selling a manuscript. While great things, those are out of your direct control and can lead to failure. You could add to your goal that you will send out a certain number of submissions. But keep your goals to things you can control, that way you’re more likely to succeed.

Break It Down
Now that you have an annual goal, you need to break it down into manageable pieces. First, break it down into a monthly goal that you can track and report to your support group, your best friend, or anyone who will kick you in the butt if you don’t succeed. Based upon my 600,000-word annual goal, that meant a monthly goal of 50,000 words.

With that monthly goal, that meant writing 2,000 words a day for 25 days, or 1,667 words a day for 30 days. So now we’ve gone from a huge annual number to a manageable daily number.
Hint: When I’m setting my daily targets, I consider a month to be 25 days. There is at least one day a week that I don’t write, and other things always come up. Using a 25-day month builds in some time for interruptions.

Find the Time
Writing takes time and dedication, and meeting your daily writing goal requires some planning. You need to determine where you are going to find the time to meet your daily goal. If you feel that writing 2,000 words a day is going to take three hours, then you need to determine where those three hours are going to come from. If that isn’t possible with your schedule, then adjust your monthly and annual goals accordingly. But don’t do that at the drop of a hat. Really look at your daily schedule and figure out where you’re going to find the time to write. (I write during my lunch hour and can usually get 1000 words. That means that by the time I get home, I’m already halfway there.)

Hint: Once you have set your goals, write them down and share them with anyone who will listen. Setting goals is one thing, but having a support group will help you meet those goals. I can’t stress too much the importance of the support group who can kick your butt when you’re not meeting your goals. (I belong to my local chapter of Romance Writers of America, and every month, I have to stand up in front of the group and tell 20 other people whether I made my goal or not. I have stayed up until well after midnight to write that last thousand words so I would make my goal rather than have to report that I didn’t make my goal. Besides, there are goal prizes, and I’ll all about the prizes.)

You can always start at the bottom and work your way up to an annual goal. 1,000 words a day leads to 25,000 words a month and an annual goal of 300,000 words. But the real objective is to push yourself. Set the goal you really want and then figure out how you’re going to achieve it, rather than the other way around.

I understand that this method may not work for everyone, but it’s what I do each year. I just set my writing goal for 2012 and I’m off to a great start. I hope you are as well.

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What is your method to meet your writing goals?  What’s worked for you in the past?  What hasn’t?

Harlequin Special Editions author, Helen Lacey, shares the inspiration for her book on Monday.

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Bio:
Andrew grew up in western Michigan with a father who loved to tell stories and a mother who loved to read them. Since then he has lived throughout the country and traveled throughout the world. He has a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and works in information systems for a large corporation. Andrew’s hobbies include collecting antiques, gardening, and leaving his dirty dishes anywhere but in the sink (particularly when writing) He considers himself blessed with an accepting family, fantastic friends, and the world’s most supportive and loving partner. Andrew currently lives in beautiful, historic Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Andrew’s website

New Year’s Resolutions For Writers

It’s the time of year when many of us make shiny New Year’s Resolutions designed to help us achieve our personal and professional goals. I don’t know what your professional goals are for 2012, but I do know several habits that will help put you on the road to a successful writing career.

1. Don’t query too soon It’s so exciting to type The End. You’ve finished a manuscript. You’re sure this is THE ONE. And you can’t wait to query so you can bring yourself one step closer to publication. Here’s the truth: No manuscript is ready to be viewed by a professional until it’s had some time to marinate. Put it aside for a month. Send it to trusted critique partners. Let the story play around in the back of your mind while you catch up on all the laundry you didn’t do while you were drafting. And then dive back in for a hard-nosed edit. Trust me. You want your manuscript in the best shape possible before you query.

2. Read more: The more we write, the less time we have to read. But reading is important. For one, it helps you remain aware of what’s out there. For another, it feeds your creativity and teaches you craft. I read a book a week. If I’m drafting, I read books that are dissimilar to the one I’m writing. That way, I inspire my creativity without worrying I’ll accidentally allow a book to influence the world I’m building.

3. Eyes on your own test paper: Stop comparing your career to everyone else’s. You can always find someone who seems more successful and someone who hasn’t made it to where you are yet, but what’s the point? To torture yourself because so –and-so got a three book deal and you’re still waiting to hear back on your submissions? Every career is unique. Focus on the things you can control and let go of the rest.

4. Be kind: Support your fellow authors. Cheer others on. Help publicize the books you love. Sow seeds of kindness wherever you go, whether others deserve it or not. No one ever regrets being nice.

5. Push yourself: Let this be the year you dare to do more. Write more. Finish a project. Take on the story you think is too big for you. Bring your voice to the next level. Network with others even though you’d rather hide in a hole. Try new things. Read new things. Write new things. Without risk, there is little reward.

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What resolutions have you made for your writing career for 2012? Do C.J.’s suggestions ring any bells with you?

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On Wednesday, Harlequin Blaze author, Tawny Weber,  shows us  how to brainstorm with the best by asking “what if” and “why”.

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Bio:
C.J. Redwine‘s debut YA fantasy DEFIANCE, the story of a girl who escapes her cloistered city to rescue her father and finds heartbreak, danger, and a new romance, comes out Fall 2012 from Balzer + Bray/Harper Collins. When C.J. isn’t putting her characters in danger or running after her four children, she creates tools designed to help other writers master the craft of synopsis and query writing. For more information on C.J., her books, or her writer’s tools, visit http://cjredwine.blogspot.com.

In light of the abysmal economy and the never-ending flux of the publishing industry, I thought it would be nice to write something uplifting and positive. Part of this blog post I wrote several years ago when I gave a speech at the Pro Retreat in San Francisco, but I stumbled upon it the other day when I was cleaning up some files and it made me smile. It also renewed my own hope, with my own writing career that has hit some bumps along the way.

I’m going to assume since you are reading this at Romance U, we all have the same thing in common: Writing. And because of that commonality, we have all journeyed to this place today.

Writing is also a journey. It can be and usually is, a long, arduous trek. Full of as many twists and turns as a murder mystery. For a few, the journey is a quick jog to the corner grocery store. The long and arduous comes later. Regardless, we are all traveling at our own speed from our own point A’s to our own point B’s. Many of us begin at the same point A, but our subsequent points can vary. They are neither right nor wrong, they are simply ours. If during our journey, we’re too busy looking out the window to where everyone else is going or just came from, we’re going to get a kink in our neck or crash. It’s paramount to our success to keep focused on our goals.

So how do we get to point B and beyond? I could talk about the published path, what to submit, who to submit to and so forth. I could even go into plotting, pacing, sentence structure and grammar. Or talk heroes heroines, and villains. However, none of that information will help you if you do not possess one very important ingredient. An ingredient that is vital to life in general: the belief that you will succeed.

“Don’t Stop Believing,” the signature song of the American rock band Journey, was written 30 years ago. Don’t Stop Believing was the first song I downloaded on my iPod. It’s the one song I actively search for and play each time I sit down to write. Most everyone I know, young and old, have heard the song and know many of the words. It’s timeless. The single most important reason this song has endured through the decades is its message: “Don’t stop believing, hold onto that feeling.”

The minute you stop believing in yourself, your goal or your dreams, you lose something vital. Hope. When you lose hope, you wither up and die. Hope is life. It’s energy. It’s adrenaline. It’s the promise of success, of love, of grabbing the golden ring and hanging on for the wild ride. It’s laughing in the face of every editor, publisher, agent or even loved ones who said you’d never do it, never finish, never be successful.

Hope, defined: to cherish a desire with anticipation; to desire with expectation of obtainment; to expect with confidence.

Believe, defined: to accept as true, genuine, or real; to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something.

When I set upon my publication journey, I knew I was going to sell my book to New York. I knew it as sure as I knew I was born with brown eyes. It was going to happen because I was going to make it happen. While I had my moments of discouragement and wanting to take a break from the writing, I always knew I would come back better than ever, pass Go, and collect my two-hundred dollars.

I refused to stop believing or stop hoping.

Because when hope is gone, the game is lost. The excitement and anticipation dry up. There is no heart, no soul, and no drive. A terrible emptiness can eat you up.

Believing in yourself and hope go hand in hand.

Without the belief that you will overcome and achieve your goals, there is no hope.

Hope and belief, in my opinion, is the fuel that drives our writer engines. You need that engine to power you to your goal, that engine requires huge amounts of emotional fuel to run. If you believe it will happen and hope it will happen, then the engine is running. Now you have to put it into gear and start driving.

With each journey we begin, there is a destination. Sometimes we can wing it and find our way, but to places we have never been, an up-to-date GPS or a map helps, but sometimes even the best-planned trips require taking a detour or unexpected turn. If you get lost, you may have to back track to see where you went wrong. You might even have to ask someone for help with the directions. And then, even when you think you’re back on track, you may come to an obstacle in the middle of the road or the bridge might be out. Even though you can see the other side of the river, you may have to take a very long way around. Sometimes, we just have to change our destination. Detours abound in life, but hope and belief keep us going.

It’s okay to change your mind so long as it’s your decision to make that change. It’s okay to improvise, adapt and overcome when situations change. Finding you way means accepting that there is a roadblock and overcoming it. Sometimes you can plow straight through it. Sometimes you have to build a bridge over it or dig a tunnel to get under it. This usually means delays, more energy spent and recalculating your travel schedule. But sometimes, you find a really cool shortcut.

The writing journey just as any journey requires active participation. You have to make it happen. You cannot throw yourself to the winds of fate and pray good things will come your way. If you do, you’re liable to get swept away as fate can be fickle. You do not want to end up somewhere barren and desolate and out of gas.

I believe that nothing in life worth having comes free. I believe that working hard for something you desire, makes it that much more cherished, valued and difficult for someone to take away. I believe it is the journey that defines us. I believe in the positive and not the negative. I believe that we all have our own paths that only we can travel. I believe in me and I believe in you.

I hope you find your path, your strength and your future. It will be what you make of it. It will be what you hope it to be. It will be what you believe it to be.

So, Don’t Stop Believing in yourself and your goals.

See it, believe it, be it.

Karin*

PS, Id love to hear about some of your writing roadblocks and how you blew through them!

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RU Crew – it’s your lucky day! Karin is giving away one of her backlist books to a commenter today – so get to commenting!

Join us tomorrow for Summer of Groupies and Gratitude with Wendy Corsi Staub

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Bio: Award winning author Karin Tabke isn’t just another author with steamy stories to tell, but a cop’s wife who has “seen it all and heard it all.” Some of the hottest stories come from behind the blue wall of law enforcement rather than from in front. Married to a street cop, now retired, Karin is intimate with both and proves it with her sizzling tales of hot cops. Not only are her cops hot, but so are her sexy knights and bad boy lycans. Karin’s Blood Sword Legacy series is a must read for anyone who loves tales of yore when men were men and women were women, and love did conqueror all. Her dark, erotic Blood Moon Rising paranormal trilogy is best described as “Sons of Anarchy meets Rise of Lycans.” Her L.O.S.T. series (w/a Karin Harlow) is paranormal romantic suspense at its “chilling and sizzling” best. You don’t want to miss any of Karin’s deliciously edgy tales of danger and passion!

HOW FABULOUS IS -TOO- FABULOUS?
We all want our romantic heroes to be drop-dead gorgeous and passionately charming and ruggedly virile and possibly even have a couple of endearing flaws from their tortured past.
Yet just how great can they BE before they lose their dazzling appeal?

MAKING MR. PERFECT
It’s tempting to skip the flaws altogether, or make ‘em something completely forgivable — like “he loses his temper when people mistreat animals” or “he can never say no to a beautiful woman.”
And if he’s James Bond, that works fine…because readers don’t CARE that James Bond isn’t especially plausible.
But what about readers who want men they can believe in? What about readers who want heroes to grow and learn and change?
That’s where fatal flaws come in.
(No, of course they’re not truly fatal — it just sounds more dramatic than “pesky but overcome-able flaws.”)

THE FATAL FLAWS
Even so, giving my hero a flaw to overcome is…well, uncomfortable. I don’t want ANY flaws in the man I love!
That’s where it helps to fall back on the classics: the seven deadly sins, plus two more added by enneagram theorists. (Ennea, or ANY-uh, is the Greek word for nine, and these nine personality types were first recognized by the Sufis and are now handy for counselors and HR managers who identify helpful and troublesome traits.)

Everybody is one of the nine types, and we almost all have bits of the others as well, along with a larger amount of two or three specific others. Enneagrams are a great way of finding personality types that have good AND bad sides of the same coin.
So, looking at the flawed as well as the admirable side of each type:
ONE: ANGER
The righteous Perfectionist wants to do right and think right and BE right at all times, setting very high standards for the world (and for himself), which earns him a white hat. However, he gets angry whenever anyone (including himself) doesn’t live up to those high standards…so you can see where trouble might arise there.
TWO: PRIDE
The helpful Nurturer does a fabulous job of looking out for loved ones and anyone else who crosses his path, so he’s great to have on your side. However, he takes such pride in being needed that he might work to make people dependent rather than independent, creating room for conflict.
THREE: DECEPTION
The golden-boy Achiever always looks fabulous / successful / brilliant, and can light up a room just by walking in. (Think movie star or handsome prince.) Thing is, that glittering facade might not be totally accurate in every respect, and he doesn’t know how to reveal anything else.
FOUR: ENVY
The never-afraid-of-emotions Romantic sees great, sweeping visions of how life could be, and his creative passion gives the rest of us something to dream about. But since everyday life rarely measures up to those great visions, he’ll feel envious every time he compares reality to the ideal.
FIVE: AVARICE

The analytical Observer puts thoughts ahead of feelings, focusing on whatever most interests him and staying detached from petty concerns about popularity or money or fame. He’s greedy for privacy to pursue his studies, and that detachment frustrates anyone who wants his attention.
SIX: FEAR
The skeptical Trooper resolutely does his job, but he’s constantly aware of potential dangers and ready for fight or flight (usually bouncing between both options). Keeping security as his top priority can be useful, but such vigilant caution can be taken too far…in either the fight or flight direction.
SEVEN: GLUTTONY
The ready-for-anything Adventurer embraces life in its greatest variety, keeping all his options open in the quest to enjoy every possible new experience, person and place. But since he’d rather not settle for just ONE of anything, anyone expecting some commitment will be in for a long wait.
EIGHT: LUST
The natural Leader has a lust for power, which keeps him in control of every situation he encounters — if he can’t control it, he won’t go there. Whether out in front or working behind the scenes, he wants to protect his soft inner core at all times, which leaves him unable to risk any (yep) vulnerability.
NINE: SLOTH

The easygoing Peacemaker is great at building a consensus, making everyone feel appreciated, keeping the group happy, and going along to get along. He minimizes any potential conflict by never expressing his own wishes, instead relying on whatever’s comfortable — TV, food, you name it.

WHICH TYPE
So. Do any of those sound like characters (or real-life people) you know?
They could be women as well as men…I’m just using men because of that fabulous Romance University tagline: Empower Writers ~ Entertain Readers ~ Understand Men.

DETAILS & PRIZE
For anybody who’d like more information along these lines, you can get it next month in my online class (with always optional homework assignments) on “Creating Your Hero’s Fatal Flaw” link to http://www.oirwa.com/?page_id=63/#WORKSHOP3SEP OR anytime (with 90% different information than the class) in my “Believable Characters: Creating with Enneagrams” book.

Which is the prize for whoever’s comment wins the random-number drawing tonight. And that leads us right back to the question awaiting answers: Which type sounds like someone you know?
Keep in mind that most real-life people have already done a pretty good job of overcoming their flaws. It’s only the fictional characters who need to grow & learn & change…so they’ll come up against all kinds of conflict on their way to the happy ending!

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RU Crew, what’s your hero’s fatal flaw in the book you’re either reading or writing?

Stop by Monday when we chat with Jo Robertson, author of The Watcher!

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Laurie’s Bio: Laurie Schnebly Campbell (www.booklaurie.com) grew up in a family that discussed psychology around the dinner table. With a marriage counselor for a mother, she felt well equipped to get her romance-novel couples to a happy ending…which might be what helped her win “Best Special Edition of the Year” over Nora Roberts.

The only thing she loves more than writing romance is working with other writers, which is why she now teaches an online class every month and has written a book for novelists who want to create believable characters with built-in fatal (or not quite fatal) flaws.

Some of the best writing advice I ever got came from the news editor at the paper where I landed my first job.

Don’t write from your chair.

Huh? Most writers I know are very fond of their chairs. We like to sit in them for hours at a time crafting beautiful prose, or conducting fascinating research, or checking out shoe sales on Zappos.com.

But unfortunately, spending all your time in your chair will not give you some of the key things you need to write a compelling story.

Details.

Details are those magical ingredients that you sprinkle into your prose to make it come to life. How do you get these magical story ingredients? The answer is simple: research.

A lot of writers feel at ease with any research that involves books or the Internet. What’s not to like about sitting in the comfort of your office and learning everything you need to know about eighteenth-century undergarments? Books, Web sites, and other reading materials can be helpful sources of information. For example, many of my stories are set in Texas, so I keep a “Guide to Texas Trees and Wildflowers” on my desk so that I have plant names at my fingertips when I’m describing a setting or trying to come up with a street name.

But if you really want to get the good stuff for your story, you need to go beyond thumbing through reference books and surfing the Net. You need the face-to-face interview.

As a reporter, I discovered over and over that while is possible to write an article by getting a few quotes over the phone, that article is infinitely better if the writer goes out and actually meets the people affected by a news event.

Is your main character a cop? A veterinarian? A sous chef? No matter what you’re writing about, that story could be improved by a little research–the more hands-on, the better. Some of the most fun I’ve had as a writer was touring the FBI Academy at Quantico and shooting a Glock on their firing range. You may not have access to the FBI, but if you’re writing about gun-toting tough guys, you can go to a gun shop and handle some firearms. Or set up a ride-along with your local police department and get a glimpse of what they do.

My upcoming novel Snapped opens with a sniper scene on a college campus. The book’s hero is a former military sniper who now serves on the SWAT team called to confront the shooter. Having never stormed a building and taken down a gunman, I decided to do a little research on this topic. The police sniper I interviewed helped me understand the inner workings of a SWAT team and gave me details that allowed me to cram the maximum amount of tension into my opening pages.

Maybe you’re not writing about cops and bad guys, but more ordinary folk. One of my books features a heroine who is a hairstylist at an upscale salon. When I began the story, I knew next to nothing about this job. So I got my hands on one of the best resources for any writer The Complete Idiot’s Guide to (fill in the blank). Whatever profession or hobby your character has, there is probably an Idiots or Dummies book out there that covers it in detail.

After getting a grasp of the basic tasks and jargon related to haircutting, I found a high-end salon in my community and set up an interview with a hairstylist. Over coffee (my treat) during her lunch break, she told me about the ins and outs of her job and gave me a tour of her workplace. There, I picked up the sights and smells of her day-to-day life. I learned about what makes her love her work, and also her pet peeves. (Always ask about pet peeves, by the way. People love to talk about them and it gives you some great details to use when fleshing out a character.)

But what if you are writing about, say, a medical examiner and you don’t know any? Or a countess in regency England? Again, be resourceful. If you’re writing historical fiction, find a historian who specializes in the time period. Many experts, including forensic scientists, write books or journal articles about their field. Read them. Then track down the author’s email address through their university or their Web site and ask for an interview. When you mention that you enjoyed his or her book, the person will probably be happy to talk to you. If you sense reluctance, offer to email a few questions (so the person can take more time answering and not feel put on the spot).

Don’t be afraid to interview anyone around you who has an interesting job, because you never know what could spark a story idea. Practically everyone is an expert in something, and you might be surprised by how willing they are to share their knowledge. Many people find it flattering to be interviewed by someone who has a genuine interest in what they do.

As writers, we are competing for an ever-shrinking sliver of people’s leisure time. You need to hook your reader in quickly. You need to immediately let the reader see the world through your character’s eyes. They key to doing this? Good details. They key to good details? Good research.

And the key to good research? It’s all about getting out of your chair.

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How much time do YOU spend on research? Have you ever interviewed anyone to strengthen your story?

Join us tomorrow for Laurie Schnebly Campbell for her post on your hero – How Fabulous is TOO Fabulous?

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Bio:

Let’s give a big RU welcome to bestselling author Brenda Novak.

Boundaries

 I’ve never been good at setting boundaries. “Pleasers” usually aren’t. They are trained—or programmed from the beginning, maybe—to give others what they want and expect, no matter how difficult or time-consuming. So I spent a good portion of my life living for the praise of my parents, my teachers, my siblings, my husband, even my children.

And then something happened. I started to write romance and that evoked some…gasp… disapproval from certain people, several of which were very close to me.

As silly as it may sound to those who have always been assertive, weathering that disapproval without succumbing to the pressure to quit was a difficult exercise for me. It required a lot of soul-searching. But I’m glad for the challenge it presented. I feel as if it was necessary to my growth as a person. I finally learned how to break out of that childish “pleaser” mold, if only a little, and do what I thought I should be doing regardless of whether anyone else agreed with it or not. Once I took a stand, I felt empowered. It was the first time I had ever really set any boundaries, the first time I put those in my life on notice that I was going to live according to the dictates of my own conscience.

 I’ve now been published for eleven years and have been fortunate enough to hit The New York Times. I love what I do and am far more confident in it than I was during

 those early years. And yet…I am faced with another challenge regarding boundaries. Slowly but surely, as I’ve built my career, I’ve lost control of my time. I have a steady stream of people–wonderful people so this is nothing against them–writing to ask if I’ll tell them how to get published, read their manuscript, critique their query letter, introduce them to my agent/editor, donate to their cause, visit their blog, meet their daughter/wife/mother, speak at their event, etc. The attention is exciting. So are all the opportunities. And I sometimes need favors myself, right? Look at all the people who donate to my diabetes auction! I owe thousands!

 But agreeing to do it ALL means there’s no time for my family, no time for my writing, no time for my fundraising, no time to replenish the well from which I create my stories.

So how do I reclaim my life while still doing all I can to help others and take advantage of the great opportunities that come my way? How do I achieve the right balance? Is it possible to set boundaries without offending?

Whether it is or not, I fear saving my sanity will mean using a word I’ve never felt comfortable with—No.

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RU Crew, how do you set boundaries in your own life?  We’d love to hear from you.

A special thanks to Brenda Novak for being with us today. After all, she could have chosen now to say no and we are so glad she didn’t. Please join us tomorrow when Jeannie Ruesch of Will Design for Chocolate will offer advice on what unpubbed writers need to establish a web presence and why they need it.
 

Please take a moment to read the following note from Brenda regarding her annual auction to benefit diabetes research. This is a wonderful event and the auction items are amazing (be sure to check out the RU basket.).  Once again, here’s Brenda:

I started this fundraiser in 2005 and have made it an annual event in an attempt to help my thirteen-year-old son (diagnosed at 5) and the many, many others who struggle with diabetes. The need is there. Anyone who lives with a diabetic will tell you about the constant fingertip pricks, the shots, the pump insertions, the danger that comes with blood sugars that are too high or too low or swinging wildly from one side to the other. It’s almost impossible to avoid the fluctuations, no matter how hard you try. But you rarely hear about that, or about the tragic side affects. Diabetes affects every part of the body—the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the skin, the nerves, the eyes, everything. But thanks to my many, many generous donors–and shoppers–we’re doing what we can to help!

Last year we managed to raise over $280,000, which brings us to over three-quarters of a million so far. In 2010, we should break the $1 million mark! Judging by the increase in donations and web traffic, I think we’ll get there. Not only do I offer fabulous items like original paintings, handmade quilts, trips and stays and autographed books and baskets from Big Name authors, I offer fabulous opportunities for readers and writers. How would you like to have lunch with one of your favorite authors—authors like Barry Eisler, Diana Gabaldon, Linda Howard, Beverly Barton or Catherine Coulter? John Lescroart and Christine Feehan are offering you an opportunity to name a character in one of their novels. Jane Porter is offering a fabulous trip to Hawaii. Heather Graham has donated a trip to New Orleans, which includes her Writers For New Orleans Conference. Nora Roberts is offering a stay at her inn. Hank has donated a whole category of wonderful items, including a visit to your book club. And Anna DeStefano has put up a whole category of Coach purses. For aspiring writers, we have more agent and editor evaluations and author critiques than ever before. There are too many items to list here, so hop over and check it out.

For those of you who have never participated in an online auction, don’t worry–it’s easy. This auction runs just like E-Bay. You shop the entire month of May (there are also one-day auctions so be sure to check the schedule), bid on whatever you like and pay for what you win via  credit card or Paypal when it’s all over, at which point it will be shipped to you (in most cases, the shipping is free). The person who places the highest number of bids each week will be awarded a fabulous prize (the first week it’s an iPad as well as an Advanced Reading Copy of my new book, WHITE HEAT, due out July 27^th). There will also be lots of other prizes given away via random drawings.

And we have something new this year for aspiring writers. It’s a writing contest that will be judged by New York Times Bestselling Authors. The winner will receive a 6-month mentoring package from me and guaranteed reads from my agent and editor. One other thing I should mention. To help promote the auction, I’m currently holding a drawing for a fabulous Trip for 2 to Curacao. This trip includes airfare and hotel stay at the Hyatt Regency. To enter, visit brendanovak.com and click on the Contest link.

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 Brenda’s bio: New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Brenda Novak has three novels coming out this summer—WHITE HEAT, BODY HEAT & KILLER HEAT. She also runs an annual on-line auction for diabetes research every May at www.brendanovak.com. To date, she’s raised over $770,000 and is hoping to break $1 million this year. Brenda considers herself lucky to be a mother of five and married to the love of her life.  

—2008 RWA® Golden Heart® finalist Amy Atwell has won awards in several contests including The Maggie, The Sheila and The Daphne, The Beacon and others.  A member of Romance Writers of America for nine years, she hosts WritingGIAM, where goal-oriented writers share support and track progress.  A professional theater veteran, she’s written non-fiction projects for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The National Park Service, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Shakespeare Festival.  Learn more about Amy at http://www.amyatwell.com

Now, you would think with that bio, Amy would be published by now, but she’s not.  I asked Amy to share her thoughts on making career adjustments while trying to become a published author.

Here’s Amy!

It’s such a pleasure to join Romance University as a guest today.  And to talk about Crafting Your Career?  I’m all over it.

 You see, I’ve been writing fiction with an eye toward publication for ten years. 

 Did you wince when you read that?

 Don’t apologize.  Frankly, I cringed a bit writing it.  Oh, I could give you a litany of reasons why I’ve never sold.  It’s a tough world out there.  Ever changing markets.  A suffering world economy.  Technology blurring the traditional landscape of publishing.  Sure, I’d like to blame my lack of publication on all these factors. 

But the truth is I’m not published yet because I haven’t presented the “right” (marketable, fresh and well-crafted) manuscript to the “right” (loves my concept, loves my voice) editor at the “right” (there’s available budget and room on the publishing schedule) moment.  Call it the holy trinity of publication.  Or, for the more cynical, think of it as a slot machine where all three wheels must match before you win the jackpot.

I’ve had some successes along the way.  Contest wins.  A Golden Heart® final.  Requests for full manuscripts from editors.  Signed with a fabulous agent last year.  Alas, so far, no jackpot. 

I felt really confident about my first agented submission.  This was the manuscript that had garnered so much editorial interest, had won praise from contest judges and beta readers.  People loved the characters—especially Edgar the rabbit—and the quirky treatment of the Las Vegas setting. 

But once we submitted, the responses from the editors surprised me: they loved the idea, and the characters were great, but they didn’t know how to market it.  It was romantic suspense, but it was also a dark comedy.  Too suspense-y to put in their contemporary romance line, but too funny to put in their romantic suspense line.  I was sitting on the fence dividing two popular markets. 

My next submission—a Regency era saga—met with eerily similar feedback.  My story, while well-written, wasn’t sexy and streamlined enough to fit editors’ notions of historical romance, yet it lacked the immersion into that specific world to market it as a mainstream historical.  Again, my manuscript straddled two popular fiction genres, but didn’t clearly fit either. 

I’d written two very different stories, but I’d made the same key mistake in both.  While I was aware of the sub-genres, I hadn’t defined my story to clearly fit into any particular one.  Frankly, marketing the story to the public book buyer hadn’t been on my radar.  I’d just been trying to catch the eye of an editor. 

Well, I caught a lot of their eyes.  A number of editors even commended my work.  But none of them offered me a contract. I realized that in the evolving world of publishing Darwinism, I had to adjust my writing or face possible extinction.

I’m lucky to have a wonderful agent who believes in my voice and my ability to turn out another story.  She suggested I go back and revise my Golden Heart® finalist manuscript from last year.  The problem is I first plotted that story nearly ten years ago.  At the time, it felt new and fresh.  Looking at it a few months ago, the concept felt overdone and, to be honest, dull. Worse I now saw the same mistake I’d made twice before—this story was a romantic comedy but the subplot felt more like women’s fiction.  Again, it was straddling markets.  There wasn’t a lot of sense in spinning my wheels down this same road again.  I mean, if the signs say “Road Closed,” you find an alternative route, right?  So I came to a full stop, reviewed where I’d been, confirmed where I wanted to go, and set a new course.

Remember, my goal was to write fiction with an eye toward publication.  Though I’d come close, I’d missed that target.  To zero in on publication, I knew now I had to look more closely at the market.   

Markets change.  Popular culture changes daily.  Heck, with Twitter, make that hourly. 

Instead of working in a vacuum like I had with my first stories, I spent 45 minutes on the phone with my agent, discussing the market and what editors were seeking (note: this info is about four months old, but…  BIG ST contemporaries, a la Debbie Macomber, more about family than about the romance only; paranormals—but they want something FRESH; sexy historical romances and commercial historical fiction are both being sought; RS is still doing well, though editors aren’t clamoring for it the way they used to).

Based on all that feedback, I sifted through my pile of story ideas.  The work I’d done on my recent historical submission had reinforced for me that while I’d gotten great feedback over the years on my contemporary voice, my first love was historicals.  I had a half finished manuscript I’d always hoped to get back and finish.  It’s a late medieval historical suspense.  I’d sent it to a critique partner a couple of weeks before, asking if she thought I could put a nice “sexy romance” spin on it.

Her feedback stopped me in my tracks.  She suggested I go in the opposite direction—increase the historical context, add some real people from history as characters, and blend it into a commercial historical fiction.  Basically, drop my fictional plot into the midst of real life events and intertwine everything.

My agent loved the idea.  More to the point, she thinks it’s seriously marketable.  When I hung up the phone, I felt this wave of relief.  Not that she’d agreed with me, but that I was going to return to writing what I had first loved reading—big historical fiction stories with the emphasis on the history.  I wasn’t chasing the market, I was finally giving myself permission to write outside the boundaries of romance.  I see now I was trying to pigeonhole myself as a romance writer, but elements of my stories just refused to fit. 

So, what have you learned today from my ten years’ experience?

1.  If you want to write for publication, be aware of the markets.

2.  Don’t chase the markets, but make an honest appraisal of your writing and how it fits—or doesn’t fit—within those markets. 

3.  Don’t give up writing stories you love, but consider how you choose to craft a story to make it a clear fit into one of the many sub-genres of fiction.

4.  Don’t be afraid to change course.  Yes, it’s scary, but you may discover you have a talent or a voice for a particular sub-genre.

5.  If the market isn’t publishing the types of stories you love to write, don’t despair.  Ten years ago, I was told the historical was all but dead.  Now it’s one of the strongest selling sub-genres both as historical romance and mainstream historical fiction.

6.  Read.  Read everything.  Read newspapers and magazines, read romances in your sub-genre, read outside your subgenre.  Read literary classics.  Read non-fiction.  Reading refills your well of ideas.  It energizes yet relaxes your mind.  It keeps you abreast of the markets. 

7.  If you feel like you’re close but you’re not making that sale, don’t lose hope.  Don’t give up.  Slow down, try to identify what’s missing, and change course if needed.   

And finally, if you plan to make writing your career, make sure you’ve stated your goal.  Know what you want out of this career.  Once you’ve got the goal, you can make an active plan on how to achieve it.  Review it often and adapt whenever necessary.

And here’s hoping you all hit the publishing jackpot.

A special thanks to Amy for being here.  She will be checking in today to answer questions so fire away!