Let's Bake A Book

Kait Nolan, awesome cook and up and coming writer, guest blogs.

Note: For the purposes of this discussion, we’re going to talk about baking bread in the conventional way rather than using the revolutionary (and well worth it) method put forth by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois in Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day, which does away with time consuming steps like proofing yeast and kneading. If you love fresh baked bread, try their method. It will be the best bread you ever put into your mouth. End foodie fangirl plug.

On to the meat…or crumb of the post (did you know the soft part inside a loaf of bread is referred to as the crumb? There’s your foodie fact for the day).

Writing a book is like baking bread. At least that’s what I told CJ, and she thought it was a cool idea for a post. I’m not sure I had any idea exactly how writing a book is like baking bread that day. Mostly I was focused on the super awesome loaf of French bread I’d just pulled out of the oven and had bread on the brain. However, on further consideration, I stand by my off the cuff statement.

Let’s review the basic steps of baking a loaf of bread.

1. You add your packet of yeast to the requisite amount of warm water, along with some form of sugar (could be granulated, could be a natural sugar like honey). Then you wait for the yeast to “proof”. Basically, this is waiting 10-15 minutes for the yeast to activate and get kind of foamy and the mixture to get cloudy.

This step is analogous to the initial inspiration for a book. We’ll call your brain the water, your natural creativity the yeast, and whatever the random thing is that’s inspired you is the sugar. In most cases you need a little time to process that inspiration and for ideas to generate and arrange themselves in your head before you start writing. Kind of like how you see, for example, an episode of Deadliest Warrior and think that someone should really write a time travel romance about how a Spartan travels through time to the modern world (which they totally should). You’d need a little time to process what the implications would be and how that would work (whether you are a pantser or plotter).

2. Next, in a separate bowl, you mix your dry ingredients—typically flours of one ilk or other, possibly wheat gluten if you’re making whole wheat bread, etc. Mix well. You will also be adding any additional wet ingredients to the water/yeast/sugar mixture—possibly oil, eggs, etc. Whatever your recipe calls for.

I’m going to compare this to whatever prep work you do before you write. Maybe you do character interviews or character sketches. Maybe you outline. Maybe you just map out the basic story structure. If you don’t do any prep work before you write, then you’re probably making quick bread and this analogy may not apply to you. Just go with it.

3. Next, you mix the wet with the dry and stir until well incorporated. Then you dump it out on a lightly floured surface and you knead it for some period of time. The point of kneading is to develop the gluten that holds the bread together. You know how if you pull on dough it’s kind of got that stringy looking thing going on? That’s gluten.

So clearly this part is the writing of the book. You’re working on all the elements that hold a plot together. Character arc. Goals. Stakes. Conflict. Turning points. Motivation. All of these things (and more) go into a plot that will stand up to cutting once it’s baked.

4. Once you’ve finished kneading, you set the dough aside, covered with a damp cloth, to rise.

I think this clearly compares to the resting period between finishing a first draft and revisions. Whenever I finish my first pass at a WIP, I have to set it aside for some period of time (usually a week) to let things rest and allow my brain to shift over from writing to revising mode. It’s always much easier to approach when things aren’t quite as fresh in my mind.

5. After the first rising, you dump the dough back out onto a lightly floured surface and you punch it down and knead it again.

Punch your book down. Yes, I said it. This is the part where you axe all those tangents and little darlings that don’t add to or advance your story. You’re honing things now. Getting rid of the extra air and kneading the words and the plot until you have a book that’s tight and contained.

6. Then you set the dough aside for a second, briefer rise (perhaps in a pan, perhaps on a pizza peel if you’re making an artisan loaf), during which time you preheat the oven.

You step away one more time from that plot, just to give yourself some clarity and warn your crit partner that you’re about to need her services. Yes, a good crit partner is an invaluable part of the writing process. If you don’t have one, find one.

7. Then you put the bread in the oven to bake. You set the timer and wait.

And you turn the entire revised manuscript over to your crit partner to slaughter (because, yes, a good CP is gonna bring the heat and put your manuscript to the test). And you wait.

8. When the timer goes off, you carefully remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool.

When you get your manuscript back from your CP, you wait for the sting to fade (because of course you have actual work still to do).

9. Once cool, you slice the bread and top with your choice of deliciousness: butter, peanut butter, jam, bruschetta, sandwich makings, etc.

You take your CP’s feedback and incorporate whatever you believe will make your book the best, followed by packaging the story either in a query for an agent or in the appropriate formatting necessary for self-publishing.

10. Then you serve up both your bread and your book and hope everyone enjoys.


Are you as hungry as I am after reading this? Because I don’t have the patience for waiting hours for a traditional yeast based bread like I just described, I’m going to share with you my recipe for one of my favorite quick breads: Herb and Cheddar Beer Bread Muffins (taken from my food blog Pots and Plots).

Now I really love beer bread. My husband is a beer drinker, so we usually have a six pack of something or other that I can rob for bread (I think he’s kind of horrified that every beer I taste I immediately think in terms of how it would taste either as bread or for drunk chicken). What makes this such a fabulous quick bread is that you are using the yeast that’s in the beer as your leavening agent. It interacts with the baking powder to make it rise while in the oven.

Ingredients:
• 1 12 oz. bottle of beer (This particular recipe works best with a sweeter beer like Michelob Honey Lager.)
• 2 cups white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 oz. finely grated sharp cheddar
• 1 tablespoon herbs de Provence

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Combine the sugar, baking powder, salt, flours, cheddar and herbs.
3. Add the beer and mix until just combined.
4. Spray 3 muffin tins with cooking spray.
5. Using well floured hands, pinch off 1 inch sections of dough and form into a ball. Each muffin cup should hold 3 balls of dough.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before eating.
You can certainly make this in loaf form, although if you do that, you should adjust the cooking time to 45 minutes and allow the loaf to rest in the pan for 10 minutes, then cool on a rack for another 10 minutes.

************************************************************************************


Thanks for hanging out in my kitchen today! For those who are interested, my debut paranormal romance novella, Forsaken By Shadow, is available at Scribd, Smashwords, Amazon, and the iBookstore. It is the first in the Mirus series.

Cade Shepherd is on top of the world as this year's Ultimate Fighting Champion. He doesn't even remember his life as Gage Dempsey, a Shadow Walker with the ability to magically transport himself from shadow to shadow. In fact, he can't remember anything before waking up in a cheap motel room ten years ago with mysterious burns on his hands--not even the woman he almost died for.

Embry Hollister has picked up the pieces of her life, learned to control her ability to generate flame, and now works an enforcer for the Council of Races. But when her father is captured by the human military and the Council refuses mount a rescue mission, Embry has no choice but to go rogue. All she has to do is find the man with the new name and new life who was completely wronged by her people, give him back the memories they stole, convince him to join her on what's probably a suicide mission, and hope that after ten years of living as a regular guy he still remembers what her father taught him.

And after that, she just has to leave him. Again.

Guest Blogging

Today, I guest blog at Once Written, Twice Shy about my guidelines for surviving social networking as an introvert. Didn't know I was an introvert? ;) Go check it out.

Shiver - A Twitter Conversation

The fact that I loved Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER is no secret. I loved it so much, I wanted to re-read it the moment I reached The End. I loved it so much, I stalked teenagers in the YA section of my local bookstore and told them that this was the book they just had to buy.

Don't make me stalk you too.

Maggie agreed to guest blog for me so here is SHIVER, as told by three main characters. On Twitter. You know you love it. (For the non-Twitter crowed, Twitter is a continuous stream of conversation. RT stands for "re-tweet". When a character has a hashtag (#) followed by a word/phrase after their tweet, they're filing that tweet under a certain topic. Sometimes the topic actually exists. Often it's simply a way to get your point across or interject humor.)



SHIVER: a Twitter conversation by the characters



GraceBrisbane: Grace Brisbane
EmoWolf90: Sam Roth
TheHottestCulpeper: Isabel Culpeper





GraceBrisbane: we’re supposed to talk about what SHIVER is about. tinyurl

EmoWolf90: i think i like this version RT @ChickLitTeens: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater http://twurl.nl/ovazm5

TheHottestCulpeper: in our words. that’s the whole point. you are supposed to follow instructions. you’re an idiot. #comprehensionFAIL

EmoWolf90: ok, isabel! man oh man. it’s about a yellow-eyed boy who has to become a wolf each winter.

GraceBrisbane: that would be you. and a girl who is attacked by the wolves.

EmoWolf90: a beautiful girl

GraceBrisbane: in case anyone didn’t catch that RT @EmoWolf90 a beautiful girl. that would be me.

TheHottestCulpeper: spare me the sentimentality.

GraceBrisbane: and this girl who is saved from certain death by a yellow-eyed wolf.

EmoWolf90: you should’ve said ‘a BEAUTIFUL yellow-eyed wolf’

GraceBrisbane: all wolves are beautiful. you’re beautiful when you’re a boy. but i don’t know that until a lot later.

EmoWolf90: years later. when i get shot and end up on your doorstep. ‘it was the best of times, it was the worst of times’

TheHottestCulpeper: can we stay on the point here? #getaroom

GraceBrisbane: lol. of course i had to fall in love with you. because you were cute, and a wolf

TheHottestCulpeper: and because he knew a lot of very emo poetry

EmoWolf90: Rilke is not always emo. he’s my favorite. “all angels are terrifying” #rilke

TheHottestCulpeper: right, that’s cheery stuff. #emoboypoetry

GraceBrisbane: i think it’s sweet.

TheHottestCulpeper: moving on . .

EmoWolf90: anyway, we fall in love. actually, grace, i had fallen in love with you a long time before then. i guess it was a crush.

GraceBrisbane: ditto. only you were a wolf. is that creepy?

TheHottestCulpeper: definitely. #toomuchnaturelove

Grace Brisbane: i don’t think you’re using those hash tags right, isabel.

TheHottestCulpeper: trust me, my specialty is rules. there is no right way to use hash tags. unless it’s for something like #americanidol #justintimberlake #obama

EmoWolf90: i think i hate twitter.

GraceBrisbane: twitter is definitely not your thing, sam.. anyway, after we fall in love, i find out that sam becomes a wolf each winter. #wiggingout

EmoWolf90: which i hate. i only want to be human. i have so much i want to do in life.

TheHottestCulpeper: like emoboypoetry.

EmoWolf90: . . .

TheHottestCulpeper: you guys forgot to mention that my brother was bitten by the wolves. & that leads to #angermanagementproblems

GraceBrisbane: i didn’t forget. your brother is a huge problem. but there’s a bigger one. what sam doesn’t tell me right away is that

GraceBrisbane: ...he gets fewer and fewer months every year as a human until one year he will just stay a wolf. and that this is his last year.

EmoWolf90: “I have studied the Science of departures, in night’s sorrows, when a woman’s hair falls down..” #mandelstam

GraceBrisbane: and so now i only have him until the winter steals him from me. and then he’s gone for good.

EmoWolf90: and then i will not only lose grace but everything that she loves about me and everything that makes me sam.

GraceBrisbane: unless we find a cure.

EmoWolf90: i don’t think there is a cure, grace.

GraceBrisbane: there has to be a cure.

TheHottestCulpeper: RT @mstiefvater find out if there is a cure. read the book. buy it at amazon http://tinyurl.com/m37rdt or at an indie http://www.indiebound.org/

GraceBrisbane: find out more about the author at http://www.maggiestiefvater.com

Guest Blogger: Author Beth Trissel

Beth, a fellow Pixie, had a busy May with three book releases! Her writing is rich in historical detail and vivid descriptions that transport her readers to another time and place. Daughter of the Wind is already garnering rave reviews and winning contests and I asked Beth to give us a peek into her own rich family history and how that influences her passion for the past.




As Galadriel said to Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, “You are a Ring-bearer, Frodo. To bear a Ring of Power is to be alone.”

To be passionate about history so that you feel it in your very essence and long to commune with the past is often to be alone. One profound way I’ve found to connect with those who’ve gone before me is through my writing.

Years ago, while researching family genealogy, I gained the inspiration to write historical romance novels set in early America. Raw, powerful, the colonial frontier drew me with stirring tales of the French and Indian War, Pontiac and Dunmore’s War. My ancestors had interactions with the most feared tribe of that day, the Shawnee, including family members taken captive. Much of my writing features my early Scot-Irish forebears who settled in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and surrounding mountains.

This communion with the past is my motivation for the novels I create, not the market; I was informed early on by New York editors that I should write other settings, preferably European. I ignored them. And they never published me. J But if I have no urge to visit a particular past, I won’t go there. I suspect this sets me apart from many writers. I’m thankful that at the Wild Rose Press a good story is judged according to its merits and not the perceived popularity of the time period.

So, welcome to the colonial frontier where the men fire muskets and wield tomahawks and the women are wildcats when threatened. Hear the primal howl of a wolf and the liquid spill of a mountain stream. Are those war whoops in the distance? Ever heard of bear walking?

Daughter of the Wind is a light paranormal romance with strong American historical roots. Set among the clannish Scots-Irish in the mist-shrouded Alleghenies, it's a tale of the clash between peoples and young lovers caught in the middle. Ever influenced by my regard for Eastern Woodland Indians, I interwove mystical, Native American elements with 'Daughter.'

Through the Fire is an adventure romance with a Last of the Mohicans flavor and a mystical weave. Some of the most unusual aspects of this story are based on individuals who really lived. A passionate love story set during the French and Indian War, Through the Fire has finaled in more contests than any I've written, including the 2008 Golden Heart®.

Not to neglect my fascination with the Revolutionary War and gracious old homes. Stick around for a wild ride into Carolina Back County and the battle between Patriots and Tories. Our hero is the former and our heroine the latter––hey, it happened.

Enemy of the King, a historical romance with paranormal element, is my version of The Patriot. A big fan of Daphne Du Maurier since my teens, I was also influenced by her mystery/ghost story, Rebecca. Our Virginia home place, circa 1816, and other early homes left deep impressions on me. I've long harbored suspicions that sometimes those who've gone before us are not entirely gone.

All my new releases are available in both digital download and paperback from The Wild Rose Press and all major online booksellers. Local bookstores can order them in.

For more on my work please visit www.bethtrissel.com

Jumpstart Your Creativity

Guest Blogger - Becky Clark

I used to hate any form of exercise, even leisurely walking, unless that leisurely walk took me to the ice cream store or Starbucks. Or both. That was before I started writing. That was before my sweet, angelic baby girl turned into Alien Toddler.

I started writing when my daughter was one year old. I started walking because if I put her in the stroller and gave her a lollipop (I know — bad, bad mommy), she wouldn’t scream or otherwise make my nerves go taut as a violin string for at least 20 minutes. I knew every morning I would have peace and quiet, time to gather my frazzled thoughts. Soon, those walks became addictive. Sometimes, I went for two walks a day. Sometimes even three, depending on whether or not Alien Toddler felt like napping.

I soon learned another benefit of daily walking. It was a great way to work out the kinks in my WIP. Almost like magic, for the scene I was having so much trouble with, the plot point that had me staring at the blinking cursor until I could see it in my sleep, the solution would pop into my head. Oftentimes, my mind would be overflowing with so many great ideas, I’d extend the walk (with more lollipops) until I couldn’t wait to get home and onto the computer (after Alien Toddler was napping, of course).

Creativity guru Julia Cameron urges all of us artsy fartsy types to take regular walks at least once a week to restore our spirit and nourish our creativity. In her book, Walking in this World, she says, “The truth is that walking holds our solutions.” Before the walk, we’re stuck. After the walk, we’re miraculously unstuck.

Walking clears your head and focuses your thinking, it pulls your awareness away from relentless mind chatter to the gentle rhythm of the walk. The repetitiveness of each step after step gradually brings you into an almost meditative, deeper state. And this deeper state is where your creative mind is free to let go, to explore the possibilities and all the “what if’s.” This is when the magic happens.

It’s no secret that exercise and creativity go hand in hand. Stephen King is known to be an avid walker. Henry David Thoreau wrote a book on it. And St. Augustine said, “Solvitur ambulando”—“it is solved by walking.” Great minds, great walkers.

I’m not telling you to go out there and walk as fast as you can until you’re all hot and sweaty and cursing my name. I’m talking slow and leisurely, people. Easy does it. Nourish that inner muse, don’t give it a heart attack.

Next time you’re stuck with your writing, instead of beating the tar out of your computer or scarfing a bag of Hershey’s Kisses, trying going for a walk instead. Your muse — not to mention your waistline — will thank you.

Becky Clark walks almost daily but swears her internal critic is following her. FYI—She survived the Alien Toddler years; said A.T. is now an Alien Teenager. When Becky’s not walking, she writes contemporary romance. Her most recent manuscript is a 2008 Golden Heart finalist.

Penny Drop Moments

Guest Blogger: Tracey O'Hara who just yesterday signed a two book deal with Harlequin Spice Briefs!


I am very honoured to be invited here to guest post on your blog, CJ. Extra Pixie dust for you. =)

I have been writing for just over 4 years and every day I learn something new, whether it is about the craft, my characters or my story. But some of the best have been those “penny drop” moment.

You know the ones. It is when something suddenly becomes clear – something you may have been previously struggling with or something that just occurs to you. I love those moments.

One of my most memorable came about from contest feedback. I’d been struggling with the whole ‘show, don’t tell’ concept. Then one of the judges sent me an article on Deep POV. I realised that I was explaining what the character was doing and feeling. Instead I could ‘show’ what it was like in her head. The opening paragraph of my ms was -

The tropical night air hung thick and humid around Antoinette, as she crept quietly along the dank alley. Her clothes felt sticky against her skin and a tendril of hair, that escaped her braid, clung to the back of her neck. But she was only vaguely aware of these things as her eyes strained into the darkness ahead, searching.

Then I walked in her shoes – imagined what it would be like to creep down a dark alley on a hot and humid night – to feel the thick heavy air slicking hot sweat on my skin, sticking the t-shirt material to my body. And that is what I wrote. It was like being struck by lightning. All of a suddenly it made perfect sense. I got what the contest judges had been telling me. My new paragraph went like this -

The alley stretched ahead, dark and ominous...yet Antoinette moved forward, one deliberate step after another. Perspiration beaded on her upper lip, she ran a hand across her face to wipe it away before the saltiness slipped unwelcome to the corners of her mouth.

Damn this heat.

Sweat trickled down her back, robbing her of more precious moisture and she tugged the damp t-shirt away from her sticky skin. Sucking humid air into her lungs was like trying to breathe through a warm wet blanket.

I’ll be forever thankful to that judge in helping me discover that ‘ah-ha’ moment. I now aspire to help other new writers to have those moments, to give back what someone gave to me. This is my most intense ‘penny drop’ moment.

Reader Question: Do you have a moment like this, where you writing suddenly jumps from level to another as you finally understand?

Tracey O'Hara writes both paranormal and erotica and lives in the land down under. You can learn more about her and writing at her website.

Staying True to your Voice – Writing in Multiple Genres

Guest Blogger: K.B. Wagers (our own wandereringray!)

My bookshelves look like a library threw up on them. You can find anything from a history of Rome, to Shakespeare's plays, Russian literature (sometimes in the original Russian), erotica, urban fantasy, science fiction ... you get the idea.

My insanely varied tastes have had a major impact on my writing style. To date I have finished three science fictions novels, a dark erotica novel, one fantasy, and one urban-fantasy. Waiting in the wings of my brain are a young adult novel and several other crazy ideas.

What I do isn't very common (and we'll have to wait to see if it works *grins*). A lot of people will tell you to find a genre you're good at and stick with it. I don't disagree with this advice and part of the reason is a lot of new writers are still feeling their way around the mechanics of writing. You're trying out different voices, etc. to see what works for you. This is a good thing and you shouldn't ever be afraid to try a new genre, or a new anything for that matter.

Unless you can find really strong voices though, I suggest sticking with what works. Switching genres can be difficult if you don't have unique enough voices to shine through.

There are a number of pitfalls/clichés to avoid as well as ways to come up with some truly unique ideas in different genres.

Fantasy Clichés
· strapping young hero
· quest for magical object
· band of friends, each with one specific talent

It's important to note here that sometimes these things do work, it's just that they've been done – over and over - and that makes it harder to come up with a fresh perspective on things. If you don't have a strong voice, you're not going to catch anyone's attention.

Find characters with depth and switch things up a little. Pair that strapping young hero with an earnest but bumbling princess, or swap it out entirely and make the princess the one who has to deal with an enthusiastic but hopeless older brother. Have the group find the magical object only to discover it's not so magical after all. It's the little things that can make your voice shine through even the most overdone of clichés.

Science Fiction Clichés
· rebel fighters vs. power in universe
· zany crew of misfits jetting around galaxy
· alien invasion

As an amusing note I've written all three of these things at one time or another. The alien invasion was the first book I ever wrote and it will never see the light of day. *grins* My erotic novel is about a rebel leader who's fighting to restore her country to its former glory. And my current WIP has a zany crew of misfits.

How is that helpful at all then? *laughs* I know, I'm crazy that way sometimes. Here's the deal – the first book is crap because it's tired, formulaic and has very little going for it. There's a possible kernel of an idea buried in the muck, but it's going to be a long time before I have the energy to go dig it out.

The other two? Well, obviously this is my opinion, but I think they have enough of a character component to override the initial "obvious cliché" reaction of the base story. In fact, the voices are what carry the stories away from the potential flop.

Writing in multiple genres is tricky. I handle it by trying not to work in them at the exact same time – at the moment I have the luxury to do that. I'll complete a book, give myself a few days to de-stress and then a few more to get into the mind-set for the other genre.

Another trick to pulling this off is to make sure your main characters are nothing like each other. Sometimes we have habits as authors to throw bits of ourselves in there or things we'd really like to see in ourselves. The hazard is you can end up with five different female leads from separate series and yet they are all martial arts masters.

Your readers will notice, so make an effort to give your characters life. I have three main female leads at the moment, and only one knows a martial art. The other two are fighters also, but more brawlers than anything. And of those two, one is inclined to rush head-long into situations without thinking of the consequences, while the other will sit back and plot out all the angles before she moves.

They are all separate entities though, with unique personalities and distinct behaviors. You wouldn’t read one book after the other and think "oh that's just like X but in space" and toss the book aside.

So pay attention to this! *grins* We harp on voice a lot, and I know it gets tedious at times, but it really is your single biggest ally. You can write a book that's completely out of the "hot zone" of publishing at the moment, but if your voice rocks? You'll get snapped up in a heartbeat.

K.B. Wagers hears voices in her head. Thankfully not the kind that tell her to do horrible things, unless it involves getting up at 2am to scribble down a very important scene that can't wait until sunrise. The good news is the voices are responsible for five completed novels - three of which are out on submission. When she's not writing she's getting into fights or jumping off buildings. Come read more about her insane life and the stories that follow at www.kalishonor.net

What Theater Taught Me About Dialogue

Guest Blogger: Amy Atwell

I'm so pleased C.J. invited me to discuss dialogue today. Dialogue is possibly the most valued tool in your writer's kit. Some writers are intimidated by dialogue—how can they possibly get the people inside their heads to have voices of their own and say things that are interesting, while they convey important information and move the story forward?

I've had dialogue in my manuscripts described as "crisp" and that it "zings." But one contest judge summed it all up: "I could hear the twangs and sounds of the secondary characters without being overwhelmed, while providing everyone with their own voice." Jackpot—dialogue that reveals character but doesn't call overt attention to itself.

Dialogue doesn't scare me. I revel in it. It's the natural result of working fifteen years in educational and professional theater. I've analyzed scripts and helped bring them to the stage as an actor, stage manager, director, even playwright. From Shakespeare to Neil Simon to my own work, I've learned heaps about dialogue. But translating those lessons to narrative fiction took some practice. Here are some challenges I faced with my early attempts at dialogue, and how I applied what I'd learned in theater to help me conquer them.


Challenge: My early dialogue was clever, witty, a little sarcastic—the problem was all the characters sounded alike, they all sounded stilted, and they all sounded a little like ME.

Solution: Review your character sketches. Characters are individuals and, as such, have unique qualities to their speech. Gender, age, education, lifestyle, income--these and many other factors come across in how they speak. Guard against writing all dialogue the way YOU speak and think. Feel free to use imperfect grammar, incomplete sentences, and creative punctuation to make your characters' spoken words SOUND like they would say them.


Challenge: My dialogue sounded natural and realistic, but it tended to meander, and scenes went on forever.

Solution: Sacrifice some of that realism. No one needs to read half a page of your hero ordering breakfast from the punk waitress with the nose-ring (unless, she's the heroine). Cut extraneous words that sound so natural: Well, um, yes and no (they're often implied through action or the rest of the line the character speaks), so, then, now, and characters calling each other by their proper names. Dialogue needs to reveal character, convey pertinent information, heighten conflict and progress the story.


Challenge: My dialogue tags were obtrusive. Characters chortled, wheezed, laughed, shouted, and so much more.

Solution: Follow the example of play scripts. They rarely suggest to the actor how to say a line. The dialogue and punctuation is usually self-explanatory. Trust the reader to interpret the character's words. "Hush," she shushed, is redundant. "Hey!" he shouted, is redundant. The simple tag "said" is the least obtrusive—for most readers it's invisible.


Challenge: My dialogue scenes were filled with characters looking up, down, across, and over, nodding, smiling, blinking, breathing (sometimes not breathing), staring, gazing, standing, sitting—it was BORING.

Solution: Many play scripts are 99% dialogue, with very few suggestions as to action, except where it becomes vital to the plot of the play. Directors and actors spend weeks working out the "stage business" or "blocking" of what the characters do while they talk. Often, we get so caught up writing the dialogue, the internal thoughts, the emotions, we forget that our characters aren't in a bubble. Let them interact with their surroundings.

Extra tip: Many actors use "props" (short for properties—any item the actor handles onstage) to help convey their character to the audience. This can be as simple as a pair of sunglasses for your hero (does he rest them on his head, lower them down his nose to peer over them at the heroine, hide behind them, readjust them at a key moment in the dialogue).


Challenge: My characters made speeches. You know, those lengthy paragraphs of monologue.

Solution: Monologues work in plays—if your character is alone onstage. If there are two characters, the playwright uses the second character to interject comments and break up that big speech. This is a good opportunity to reveal more about both characters and increase conflict—your scene has conflict, right?


Challenge: Important bits of information got buried within my dialogue scenes. I wanted to find a way emphasize it that felt natural to the reader.

Solution: In staging a play, directors have actors "point" certain moments. You can point a bit of dialogue or point an action. In narrative fiction, you can use this same technique. First and last sentences of paragraphs tend to carry more emphasis to the reader. If you're combining dialogue with a narrative action, whichever you put last will tend to carry more emphasis.
"Dialogue" + Action will point the action, while Action + "Dialogue" will point the dialogue.


One of the best self-teaching tools I implemented was to review my dialogue scenes by reading the narrative parts and tags silently, but reading the dialogue out loud. It gave me a physical illustration of how the reader's brain had to switch gears while reading. Another way of doing this is to highlight the dialogue—just the spoken words. You may even want to use different colors for different characters (this comes in extra handy if you fear your characters are all starting to sound alike).

Do you have blocks of pure dialogue? This can be a good thing, especially if there are only two characters in the scene. Once the reader gets into the flow of the conversation, it's unnecessary—and disruptive—to tag every line.

Do you have a dialogue paragraph where the character speaks, has an action, speaks, has a tag, speaks, has another action? These can be hard on the reader, because every time the writer interrupts the flow of the dialogue, your reader has to shift gears. It's not necessarily wrong, but I recommend using it minimally and for specific effect.


Playwright George Bernard Shaw summed up the importance of the spoken word in his immortal play, Pygmalion, later adapted to the award-winning musical, My Fair Lady. Below, a brief line sung by linguist Professor Henry Higgins:

An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him,
The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.
Use proper English, you're regarded as a freak.
Oh why can't the English learn to speak?
—My Fair Lady's "Why Can't the English," lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner

The movie offers a great research opportunity to study dialogue. Its London setting provides characters with different dialects, different social classes, different economic and educational backgrounds. The scenes are dialogue-heavy, because it was originally a stage play, and that dialogue is designed to reinforce character, illustrate the conflicts, and move the plot forward. Plus they're celebrating the importance of language throughout.

If you're familiar with the movie, but don't have three hours to watch it, pop by this site and skim through George Bernard Shaw's original play script.

Best wishes to you all on your writing. If you have other tips on dialogue, please leave a comment here. I'm always looking to add to my bag of tricks!


Former theater professional Amy Atwell realized her love of plays stemmed from the stories they brought to life and launched her quest to tell the stories in her head, first as play scripts, then as novels. Her Golden Heart® Finalist manuscript, Public Relations, features a soap opera hunk and a Broadway wanna-be finding love in the heart of Manhattan. Read more about her at www.amyatwell.com.

Balancing POV

Guest Blogger: Rachel Grant

Thanks so much for sharing your readers with me, C.J.! I love to talk about craft, and my husband gets tired of hearing me ramble on, so it’s probably better if I redirect my random musings to people who actually care about the subject.

Although I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer, I spent a decade of my life pursuing something else entirely, which has given me great fodder for my writing. I think I first decided to major in archaeology because it sounded cool. Of course, this Calvin and Hobbs cartoon sums up the profession nicely and is required to be posted in every archaeologist’s office. Actually, the work really was cool, but strangely enough, unlike the way archaeology is portrayed in books and movies, there was a decided lack of mysteries to solve, and treasure hunting is pretty much taboo. Fortunately for me, I have an active imagination and to make the job even more fun, I spent some of the more mundane hours thinking up story ideas.

Later, when I became a stay at home mom, I finally had a chance to write some of those stories down. My Golden Heart finaling manuscript, Murder in Situ, was my first attempt at writing a book, and I’ve learned so much from the process, starting with the fact that it is perfectly okay to write a really, really lousy first draft. Critiques are a gift, and revision is a wonderful thing.

So, on to what I’ve learned about point of view during the revision process....

Choosing the Right POV for the scene and Balancing POV

A while ago I was instructed (challenged, ordered — any of these verbs will do) to use only one point of view (POV) per scene. I didn’t head hop, but I did change POV usually once or twice in a scene, and I was told this was giving too much away, and therefore killing the tension in my scenes. I was also told by the same person to alternate POV with each scene for balance and pacing.

I decided to give this directive a try because the command came from Jill Barnett, a New York Times bestselling author who has devoted twenty-plus years to studying craft, and I have the highest respect for her writing and her skill at zeroing in on the problems in a story. But changing to one POV per scene meant that I had to rewrite my entire masterpiece —I mean manuscript— and decide which POV was most important for every scene.

As a starting point, Jill gave me these three tips for selecting POV:

1) Ask yourself who has the most at stake.

2) Ask yourself what information you want to reveal.

3) Ask yourself what information you don’t want to reveal and why..

I added more to the list:

4) Which character is on scene first? Is that the ideal character to use for POV?

5) Do I need to change the scene opening to use a different and stronger POV?

One stumbling block I had when making this switch was losing the incredibly brilliant internal dialogue of the character whose POV I was no longer using. So I implemented a rule:

Rule #1) Put incredibly brilliant internal dialogue into actual dialogue.

Now my characters were saying the wonderful things they’d only been thinking before, and I had a whole new dynamic that was so much better. Making them say their thoughts made the tension between them active and exciting. Now they had chemistry in a way that had been missing in earlier drafts.

Most scenes were relatively easy, as the character identified in tip #4 gave me my POV character. But sometimes it wasn’t so easy. I made a road map of my story, making sure I alternated POV wherever possible. I discovered that some parts of the story were POV heavy for my heroine, where she was at work and the hero was nowhere to be found.

First I created new scenes for the hero and inserted him and his investigations (he’s a cop) between the heroine-heavy sections of the book. His investigation became more important, instead of just the heroine’s work (she’s an archaeologist) as the driver for the mystery. But I couldn’t do that everywhere, putting him in some of her work scenes would not serve the story.

What to do? Well, I chose to elevate a secondary character to POV character. But wait, her only purpose was to be the heroine’s best friend and sounding board. Now that I’m giving her a POV she has to have something relevant to add. She needs to tell the reader something new, some piece of the mystery that only she knows about. She needs to be another force that drives the mystery.

Bam! My secondary best friend now had her own goal, motivation, and conflict (GMC) and a pivotal role in the story. The story got a new layer, and the sequel I had planned for the best friend gained urgency. Plus I’d learned a new rule:

Rule #2) All POV characters need to have something important to add to the story, their own GMC, and information not available without using their POV.

Okay, so now I had the whole book revised, one POV per scene. I’d maintained some great lines by making them dialogue and improved story pacing and balance by elevating a secondary character to POV character and alternating POV in every scene.

All done, right? Not exactly. I’m a draft writer, and for me, now it was time to revise and polish. Time to tighten those scenes and make the prose sing. This is where I discovered I’d made the wrong choice in POV character in a few scenes.

So, how do you know when you’ve chosen the wrong POV? This is my nine step process:

1. Rewrite the scene for hours and hours, stubbornly stick to the same POV, but fail to see why the brilliant dialogue has fallen apart, the heroine has become whiney and bitter, and the hero has become a groveling wimp. Tell yourself it’s still sexy.

2. Change the dialogue. If the hero doesn’t say the words that trigger the heroine’s internal and external whining, then the hero doesn’t have to grovel.

3. Congratulate yourself on the brilliant fix.

4. Send an email to your mentor, gushing about how you’ve realized that changing the dialogue sequence fixed the tone of the scene, and how you finally get so much of what she’s been trying to teach you.

5. Read Jill’s reply: “The other option is to tell the scene from the other person's POV. Remember the Kinsale quote?”

Here, for your benefit, is the Laura Kinsale quote to which she was referring:

“Sometimes the most impact comes from seeing the scene NOT from the person with the most emotional investment, but instead from the other person. It increases sympathy.”

6. Feel a ton of bricks hit you on the head. When that doesn’t hurt enough, smack yourself.

7. Chant the phrase: “of course the POV is wrong” until your Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man impersonation is perfect.

8. Flip the POV. Discover that you don’t have to show the heroine’s wounded pride, and see how the hero can explain himself without groveling. Notice that the hero no longer even needs to apologize. And now it really is sexy.

9. Or, skip the first steps and just ask Jill Barnett. She can tell you.

Rachel's web site is currently under construction but you can visit her soon at www.booksbyrachelgrant.com.

Discovering Your Voice

Guest blogger: Lynn Raye Harris

You’ve decided to write a romance novel. Or maybe you’ve been writing romance and you’re contemplating a switch in subgenre. You’ve been writing about vampires and want to write a hot historical. Or the hot historical is turning into gritty romantic suspense. Maybe you’re confused and unsure what to write.

How do you know where you belong, where your voice is a natural fit? I don’t have the one-size fits all answer to that, but I’ve learned some things about genre and voice recently that I’d like to share.

But first we have to go back to the beginning. My first romance manuscript was a whopping medieval tome. How did I arrive in the Middle Ages? I think it was the armor. ;)

Seriously, I love history and I was reading widely about British history when this particular time period caught my eye. I became very interested in Edward I and his battle to conquer Wales. A book (a terrible, huge, meandering book) was born.

Next came a Regency historical. The clothes! The manners! The hot dukes and cheeky maidens! After that foray, a time-travel medieval novella was in order. Ahem. Are you getting the picture here? I had no clue what I was doing and wrote whatever sparked my fancy at the moment.

Next, I tried a single-title contemporary. I was finally starting to figure something out – my life revolved around the military and I was very well equipped to write a military hero. Naturally, since my husband was in the Air Force, I chose to write about a Navy guy – something about which I knew nothing at all. :/

Okay, I was getting there, but not quite.

Finally, finally, I realized something. I love romantic suspense. I love military Special Forces teams. I gobbled up these kinds of books, the ones with teams (military or not) and danger. Duh.

This time when I sat down, I tried a military romantic suspense. And my voice blossomed. I finally felt at home with what I was writing. I loved opening this story every day and seeing what happened next. I’m on the third set of revisions, but this manuscript is HOT PURSUIT, my Golden Heart ® Finalist.

This is where I should say goodbye and thanks for having me, right? I found my genre through trial and error and now I’m home.

But wait, I’m not done. Nothing says you aren’t equipped to write in more than one genre, or that your voice isn’t adaptable somewhere you might not have ever considered.

When I was growing up, I read Harlequin Presents by the cartload. I still read them, though not exclusively. I love the Presents alpha male and his glittering, wealthy, international world. I love those heroines who are frequently at a disadvantage with this guy but who still manage to conquer his heart.

So when Harlequin Mills & Boon announced they were looking for new writers and were having a first chapter contest, I decided Why not? I wrote one chapter and a two-page synopsis and sent it off. Then I wrote another one.

On March 20, 2008, at around 1PM Central Time (not that I remember or anything), my cell phone rang. Sally Williamson from Harlequin was calling to tell me that one of my entries (the second one I wrote), THE SPANISH MAGNATE’S REVENGE, was chosen by the editorial team as the winner. I would now be working with Sally to finish my book for the Presents line.

Was I shocked? Oh yeah. And happier than you can believe. I feel like I got The Call but without the contract or check. Apparently, my voice is also very well suited to writing about wealthy alpha heroes and the women who conquer them. Not surprising, really, when I took the time to think about it. Whether he’s a military operative or a Spanish billionaire, my heroes are strong alpha males. At their core, they are hard, protective, thrilling men who would do anything for the women they love.

Maybe that’s the key. You need to figure out who your characters are, what thread they have in common, and then you’ll find your voice and your genre. If you’re writing something that seems forced, or wanting a change, think about your characters and their core beliefs.

In truth, I think voice is more important than genre. I think, if you know your characters and who they are, what they believe, and what they want, the world you set them down in becomes secondary.

But that’s just me, and I know not everyone agrees. Do I seem to be contradicting myself? After all, I tried a medieval, a Regency, a time-travel, and a contemporary before finding a natural fit in romantic suspense and classic romance. But I think if I went back today, knowing my voice now, and tried those other genres, I’d either get it right immediately or realize it didn’t work and move on.

Yeah, so this post is clear as mud, right? Just like figuring out which genre to write in. Write often, try new things, know your characters, and don’t be surprised if you find your home somewhere you never considered before. Happy writing!

Reader Questions:

Where have your genre experiments led you?

Did you find your voice somewhere you least expected it?

If you're happy with what you're writing, how did you arrive there? Trial and error, or you just knew where you fit?

Is there a genre you'd like to try but aren't sure if you can do it?


Lynn Raye Harris writes steamy suspense and classic romance. After a lifetime of military moves, she lives in Northern Alabama with two spoiled cats and one spoiled husband. She blogs semi-regularly at www.lynnrayeharris.blogspot.com. Her website, which doesn’t yet reflect her dual writing personality, is at www.lynnrayeharris.com.

Help! My Writing Stinks!

Fellow Golden Heart finalist Courtney Milan shares how she turns frustration into inspiration.

What do you write?

The easy answer is that I write historical romances.

The harder answer is I write historical romances set in the interstitial period between the Regency and the Victorian era. Over those few generations, the whole idea of "society" changed from one where people had lived for generation after generation, doing the same inherited jobs for generation after generation, moving in the same social circles for generation after generation . . . . Suddenly, society broke down (especially among the lower classes--but this trickled upwards). People started moving; the industrial age broke out with a vengeance, and the result was a large class of much more mobile workers, instead of a long-rooted rural class.

In the upper classes, this meant that land lost its value as currency. And noble obligation shifted from a system that was almost feudal in terms of its dependency to the far more laissez-faire capitalism that dominated the nineteenth century. People that understood this profited (quite often at the expense of others); those that clung to the old ways did not. It was a time of tremendous social upheaval, and part of what was so upsetting for many is that long-rooted traditions simply disappeared over the course of a decade.

I think there are a number of strong parallels between that time period and ours today. Our grandparents recognize that the world has altered hugely; the children of today, I think, will think that the word "community" means something very different than what they had in their world. I'm not trying to knock either definition; quite the opposite. I think that one of the fundamental human hungers is for community, for a place in society where you fit in and are needed and need others in return. For all that people talk about capitalism and commerce in the news, I think what we most desire is giving. We need to feel like we have something special to give, and we want to receive in return. Love is both the most selfish and the most generous thing in the world.

Romance, in my mind, is ultimately about that hunger. It's about finding the person that grounds you in community. I love writing in an inherently selfish time when the very notion of "community" was in flux, because it means that my hero and my heroine can not only be missing love in their lives, but often are missing that vital connection--and it's one that has been disrupted because the community they would have fallen into twenty years ago no longer really exists in a form that sustains them. So they not only have to grope their way towards love, but they have to invent a place where the future stops being scary.

So the long answer to "what do I write?" is: I write romances where people learn that joining a community--joining the right community--isn't about subsuming themselves into another person or a family, but realizing that love in all its forms makes you into a bigger person.

How long have you been seriously pursuing your writing?

I've been reading longer than I can remember (my mom taught me to read starting as soon as my eyes would focus on a point). I never really stopped. It seemed natural, when I was ten, to want to be an author. I wrote a book. It was not very good, and unfortunately, my self-awareness was a lot better than my ability. I tried again, and again, and again (although I never actually wrote another novel). My honest assessment at that point was that while I was a decent writer, in terms of crafting sentences, I was absolute crap with anything above essay-length.

So I gave up when I was eighteen or so. Mumble-something-years later, I participated in Avon's FanLit contest, and met people who really encouraged me to write seriously. So I did. This was about a year and a half ago--in October of 2006. Luckily, mumble-something years had given me more maturity.

But the honest answer is that I have always been seriously pursuing writing. I've never stopped writing, even though I stopped writing fiction. It's just that my writing took other forms.

Is the Golden Heart your first contest final?

Well.... no. I finaled in two contests somewhat earlier, too--but I have to admit the only reason I entered them was to get feedback for the Golden Heart.

Do you ever doubt yourself as a writer?

My writing moods vary from "I am a genius! Bow before me!" (please someone else admit you have those days too! they're embarrassing to fess up to, but they're SO FUN when they happen) to "I am an idiot--how have I ever managed to convince anyone I am halfway worthwhile? I better delete my book and eat worms."

What do you do with those "eat worms" moments?

I try to use those moments to make lists of things I think I can do to improve. If I did actual editing in the bad moods, I think I could do significant damage. Forcing myself to be really, really specific helps a lot, because it takes all that negativity and makes it constructive.

Can you give an example?

In my last "I am an idiot" mood, I started with the following:

* I am an idiot because my sex scenes are lame and boring.

And then I made myself elaborate:

* My sex scenes are lame because there isn't enough emotion connecting the characters, and they are boring, because they feel like an ordered check list of then-he-touched- that. Yawn.

Which then turned into:

* This scene really shouldn't be about sex; it's all about how my hero doesn't want to say goodbye. And that's what he's trying to communicate the whole time.

* Gee. How do other people who write good sex scenes get around the laundry list? I'm going to go check people who are good at this. Huh--Elizabeth Hoyt uses a lot of actions, but she never lets it feel like a laundry list. Hey--it's because her actions are both specific and reactive. She really slows the crucial moments down and weaves the emotion in, so that every breath is about the underlying conflict in that scene.

So it's all about taking what you don't like and figuring out WHY it isn't working for you?

It's surprising how soon "I am an idiot" can turn into a plan to escape idiocy. So if you're having one of those days . . . run with it! Pick a part of your manuscript and use all that negativity to get specific and constructive. And if you're harping at yourself about something you really can't change, move on and find something that you can do something about.

All you have to do is make sure that if you're saying, "I am a wannabe," you add, "I am a wannabe because . . ." And keep adding that "because" until you've focused in on a specific thing you're doing wrong, and you've identified a way to do it better.



To learn more about Courtney Milan's writing (and what she does in her spare time!), go here.