The Inside Story

I'm reading a FANTASTIC book on writing.  INSIDE STORY: The Power of the Transformational Arc by Dara Marks is written primarily for screenwriters, but everything in it applies to fiction.  Absolutely fanstastic book that's bringing a lot of good information to me in a way my little pea brain can handle. 

She breaks a story--any story--down into bite-sized pieces, explains each piece, and then demonstrates through famous movies exactly how they can be pieced back together.  Even though there's structure, those of us who break out in hives at the very thought of being 'told' how their book 'should' flow can get through this because the structure, as she explains it, is no more than a general frame on which you can hang anything.  Action/adventure, romance, romp, mystery, thriller. . . so long as whatever you're writing has guts, or an inside story, you can go anywhere with the exterior. 

I'm seeing so many ways this book can apply to my writing and make it better. 

Anyone else read this book?  Have you applied the concepts?  What do you think of it?

What Drives You Nuts?

A lively discussion with some writing friends got me to thinking about what makes us love or hate a book, or drives us nutty about the story.  For me, head-hopping will turn the book into a wall-banger very quickly.  If you can't figure out how to tell the story without constantly jumping from head to head, I don't want to invest the effort into trying to follow the storyline. But for other people, that doesn't bother them. 

Weak characterization is another thing that drives me nuts.  Characters who are TSTL (too stupid to live), or who do things with no motivation whatsoever are another bugaboo for me.  But my critique partners and other writing friends have lists of other things like historical mistakes, occasional flaws in the story logic, and other items that they can't forgive while I can. 

On the other hand, strong storylines and characters with deep motivation and strong goals will bring me in every time. 

So the writer in me wants to know. . . what drives you batty when reading fiction? 

Contests--what's in them for you?

I used to be a contest junkie, but haven't entered any writing contest in years.  Now I'm considering the Golden Heart because, well, because I have a completed manuscript that I'm working on.  I think it would give me another reason to keep forging ahead with these edits.  But I'm wondering if it's worth the effort and cost.  It's a non-traditional book, and I'm not sure how much contests have changed over the past several years.  It used to be that non-traditional books not entered in the Fantasy category rarely did well.  However, the rise of e-publishing and a wider variety of stories could bode well--or not. 

Should I throw my $50 into the fray? What do you look to get out of a contest entry?  Fame?  Glory?  An editor's eye?

Did computers change our content?

Bummed about the fact that Steve Jobs died, but that got me thinking.  The personal computer re-defined the way we write.  No more pen to paper for most of us; instead, we sat before an empty screen and blinking cursor.  But since the computer revolution, it seems to me that fiction has changed.  Books are shorter, as are chapters.  I remember when a 20-page chapter was the norm.  I don't think that's the case any more.  The books I'm reading today have shorter chapters, and most open in media reas, in the middle of the action. 


I'm not saying this is better or worse than the way things used to be; just different.  Or am I imagining things?  I think back to the Brontes and even Pat Conroy and the beautiful, lyrical phrases and descriptions they could weave, and I don't think that style of writing is as prevalent today.  Did the computer have anything to do with it?  Are we losing our ability to live in the moment?  For the moment?  Must everything be rapid-fire, goal-oriented, make-every-second-count?  Just because we can do things faster with a computer, must we?

Wine, Women, and Creativity

Having just returned from a lovely dinner out with most of my critique group, I have to say that a) they're the best group around, and b)we got some awesome brainstorming done.

I do need to finish revising the current book.
I do need to finish writing the next book.

But wow, got some awesome plot ideas for the one after that. Perhaps it was the wine (both at the restaurant and then after we got back to the house) but the ideas were really being generated.

What sparks your creativity?  A walk in the woods or through an art museum? Wine? <g>  A critique session?  Observing humans in their natural environment?

I'm wondering how people can get good results from this when they're sober!

Viewpoint

Viewpoint--how important is it to you?  As a reader, does it bother you if the author "head hops"?  Or do you notice it?  If you're an author, how often do you switch viewpoints?  Not that there's any fast rule, but do you tend to move between vps often?  Stay in one vp for an entire scene?  Entire chapter?  Some authors tend to switch fairly quickly, others less so.

Story may dictate this to some extent, but my argument is this is more of a stylistic choice by the author.  However, I want to see a REASON for it.  While I love Nora Roberts' storytelling, I can't read her books because of the vp switches that happen so often I feel like I have mental whiplash.  Yet her storytelling is strong enough that most people don't seem bothered by it. 

Stylistically, books written 75-100 years ago are slower, more deliberate, and tend to be 1st person, which doesn't lend itself to vp switches.  Today's books are much faster paced.  Has the vp switching happened as a result of the demand for "faster" plotlines? 

If you're a vp purist, how much does it bother you when an author head hops?  If you don't particularly care, do you even notice when the vp switches to another character?  Do you think that adds or detracts from the story?

The problem with problems

I'm still storyboarding, and still discovering problems with the book.  Who'd a thunk, eh?

This is the heroine's book, yet I'm finding that the POV is tilted toward the hero.  There are also more sequels than I would like in a book that's supposedly pretty action-oriented (it involves bullfighting, after all).   And the problem with all of these is, well, the day job. 

How does one balance a need to spend hours on the ms to fix all this, when one must work and pay the mortgage?  Add to that the fact that it's finally decided to be nice, weather-wise, here in the Pacific NW, and I'm not motivated in the least to work on this thing. 

So, gentle readers, I need your motivation tips to get my butt inside, out of the garden, and working on the ms.  But only after I eat a few of these green beans. . . .