The Biggest Mistakes Writers Make (Penny Rader)

http://bit.ly/LKj8xi

This month we’re talking about the biggest mistakes we’ve made in our writing.  

I've made tons of writing goofs, especially with point of view.  I knew nothing about POV when I began writing.  A judge (or five) kindly, uh, suggested I get out of Max's point of view.  Max is the Newfoundland dog in my historical romance Sapphire and Gold.  And he's not a shapeshifter.  

Overall though my two biggest writing mistakes continue to be:

• trying to please everyone 
• not writing, sometimes for months at a time.  

I poked around the Internet for some of the most common writing mistakes.  Here are a few bits and bytes of what I found: 

5 Mistakes of New Fiction Writers (Joanna Penn)

1. Show, Don't Tell
2. Consistent Point of View
3. Deliver on the promise you make the reader
4. Overuse of first names in dialogue
5. Overuse of exclamation points

http://bit.ly/NXq0HP

  

The 10 Biggest Mistakes Fiction Writers Make (Karen Newcomb)

1. Not knowing who their readers are.
2. Not fully understanding the genre.
3. Not developing a believable or likable character.
4. Not understanding viewpoint (point of view).
5. Not understanding the need for emotional tension.
6. Plotting.
7. Not understanding scenes and sequels to the scenes.
8. Not understanding the need for the character to change.
9. Not understanding conflict.
10. Rewriting as they go along. 

The 14 Biggest Mistakes Even Best-Selling Writers Make (courtesy of Joseph Finder) (Lara Wells)   

1. The passive hero.
2. The stick-figure hero.
3. Overwriting.
4. Messing up POV.
5. Prologue overuse.
6. The long wind-up.
7. Weak second act or the “saggy middle.”
8. All plot, no people.
9. Too much action.
10. Predictability.
11. Backstory dump.
12. The lousy ending.
13. Research show-off.
14. Overly explicit dialogue.

  

The Biggest Mistake New Writers Make (Bethany Kent)

http://bit.ly/La34ir

The biggest mistake new writers make is setting a condition on what they will and will not change.

New writers should be willing to make whatever changes necessary to the execution of their story telling to make the story really shine, to draw in readers, and to accomplish what they really want.  New writers have a story to tell and sell.  … It's rarely the story-idea that needs fixing.  It's the presentation element.  It's how the writer is presenting their story, the writing execution, that needs fixing.

Common Mistakes First-Time Writers Make

• The slow start.
• The sagging midsection.
• Uneven pacing.
• The “too nice” protagonist.
• The loathsome antagonist.
• Stilted dialogue.
• All characters speak alike.
• Too much detail.
• Too much research.
• Too many viewpoints.

Dodging the Mistakes Writers Make and Staying "Alive" to Write More (Susie Henderson)

• What’s that you say?
• Where are we?
• When are we?
• The battered manuscript syndrome
• Shhh! I’m plotting!
• Ex-cu-use me!
• Coincidence? I don’t think so!

http://bit.ly/KoQsnO

~~

Care to share your biggest writing mistakes?  Have you overcome them?

Active vs Passive, Passive vs Active - It's Enough to Make a Writer's Head Spin (Penny Rader)

I don't know about you, but the whole active vs passive thing confused me when I was a newbie writer. Sometimes I still get it a bit mixed up. I thought I'd search the 'net and see what I could find. I hope you find these links (and the included snippets from the links) helpful.

Activate Passive Narrative – Most of the Time (Ray Rhamey)

How to turn passive to active:

Search for “to be” verbs: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, and been, then try to turn them around. Passive sentences are constructed like this: object-verb-subject. Take the subject and put it at the front of the sentence, put the object at the end, and change the verb. For example:

Passive: My book is being read by an editor. (book = object, editor = subject)

Active: An editor is reading my book.

…Be wary of combining “to be” verbs with present participles. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that everything with a “was” is passive, but there are sentences that are not. And a present participle — a verb with an “ing” suffix — does not equal passive.

…My advice: search for forms of “to be” in your writing and see if you can activate or de-ing your sentences. If you’re writing in the past tense, “was” and “were” are the primary culprits. In the present tense, search for “is” and “are.”

Active Verbs vs Passive Verbs in Fiction (Sandra Haven)

Passive Structure:
The motor went dead. Sally was scared and her hands were shaking more than ever as she took her hands off the steering wheel. Her mind was racing at a dizzying speed so that all she felt was numb.

This should be a tense scene, but we have 5 passives with only took a possibly visual act – but not too exciting at that. By activating the verbs you create the tension we need:

Active Structure:
The motor died. Sally’s hands shook as she snatched them off the wheel in fear. Her mind raced at a dizzying speed as a cold numbness threatened to steal her breath.

See how much more intense this feels. We can see every action listed. The reader feels dizzy right along with Sally. We have verbs of actions we can see or feel in some way. Readers are suddenly in the story instead of being told about it.


Eliminating Passive Writing (Laura Backes)

I've read entire manuscripts written in passive sentences, which make the story sound like it's about to start, but never takes off. Passive writing tells rather than shows; the author circles the story without ever letting the reader become involved in the action.


Passive Voice (Amy Padgett)

Do not confuse verb tense with passive or active voice. Passive or active are determined strictly by the doer or recipient of the action. And, believe it or not, there are actually times when you should use passive voice.

This is one way that you can make active/passive voice work for you—and help you define your characters. A hero who is uncomfortable with emotions and likes to keep people at a distance, may prefer to say, “A bus hit Nancy.” It’s direct, impersonal, and active. Those may be your hero’s main traits.On the other hand, a hero who is emotionally connected to Nancy and focused on her and her tragedy, may say, “Nancy was hit by a bus this morning.” It reveals his focus on Nancy and the writer can use that to show his emotional “reference.”


Passive Voice Hides Your Characters (Jason Black)

Passive voice hides your characters from view.

It’s really that simple. Novels are about characters doing things. Passive voice shifts the focus of the writing away from the characters and onto the things they’re doing or the tools they're using.

…Passive voice is lazy writing because it lets you skip the hard work of figuring out how characters feel and how those feelings shape their actions. Active voice forces writers to do that work. It forces us to focus on the interesting characters of our stories and the fascinating relationships driving them.

What’s So Bad About Passive Voice? (Carmelo Martino)

…it’s not enough to avoid passive sentence constructions like “The milk was spilled by her.” (You can easily spot these constructions if you use the grammar checker in Microsoft Word.) We also need to avoid verbs that are “in effect” passive, such as forms of the verb “to be”: am, are, is, was, were, have been, had been, etc. Consider the following examples:

The room was crowded.

They were outside.

Her hair is beautiful.

Now notice how the movie in your mind changes if, instead of: The room was crowded.

We write: Patients filled the waiting room.

Or: The line of waiting passengers snaked outside the station entrance.

What if, instead of: They were outside.

We write: They paced on the front porch.

Or: They sat in the grass.

And if, instead of: Her hair is beautiful.

We write: Her auburn hair fell past her shoulders.

Or: Her golden hair glowed in the afternoon sun.

Of course, I’ve done more than change the verbs in these examples – I’ve added details to help readers visualize the scene. These details increase the probability that the movie playing in readers’ minds will match the one I saw while writing. And if the neuroscientists are right, readers won’t just “watch” the movie, they’ll live it.

~~

I hope you'll share what you know and/or have learned about Active vs Passive. If you know of additional resources, I'd love to hear about them.

Past and Present Tense (Rox)

There are so many things we learn as we move along the path of writing.  Along with making sure our writing remains as active as possible, there's also POV, which we've covered, along with the choice of first or third person and past or present tense.  It's enough to make a new writer's head spin!

Romance novels are more likely to be written in third person past tense, with the POV in the heroine's or the heroine and hero's POV.  A third POV sometimes is seen in romantic suspense.  Past tense is very often chosen for most fiction, although not always. 

What is Past and Present tense and what's the difference?  Tense refers to the way in which verbs are used. 

• I walk to the store to buy a dress. (present)
• I walked to the store to buy a dress. (past)

I've almost always written in past tense, and most of what I read is past tense, also.  But lately I've been reading out of genre and have come across some present tense writing.  I recently attempted to read a YA novel that was written in first person present tense.  (As a side note, the majority of YAs are written in first person, as well as past tense.  The focus is on the teen in the story and his/her reaction to people and events going on around him/her, not on the why's or the emotions of others.)  I didn't get far into the book before I put it aside.  I suspected it was the first person present tense that put me off.

But was it?  I just finished the adult novel Summer Sisters by Judy Blume.  (I'm sure most everyone recognizes that author!)  I was well into it when I noticed that at least two different writing styles were being used.  When I'd finished, I took a closer look at how the book was written.  The prologue is written in first person present tense.  I hadn't even noticed it.  The rest of the book appears to be written in third person past tense, with short portions (a page or less) written in first person present tense of other characters.

Confused?  I never was, which shows how well written the book is.  And I've learned a few lessons.  First, I may go back and try that YA book I put down.  Second, it pays to read outside of my genre.  Third, I'm blown away by the talent of Judy Blume and so many others and am grateful to them for their wonderfully written stories.

If you're interested in reading more about verb tense and writing present and past tense, check out these links:

Precise Edit (blog post)


Purdue Owl One of my favorite writing resources for grammar and punctuation.

University of Richmond Writing Center, Writer's Web: Verbs: Past Tense? Present?

Solving the Mystery of the Male POV

The first part of my series on POV covered the basics of Point of View. If you missed it, you can find it here. The second part covered Deep POV, which you can find here.

Today we'll explore that deep, dark, often scary area known as the Male POV. No, that’s not the Male Power of Veto (you’ll find that on CBS’ show Big Brother). Instead, we’ll look at writing the Male Point of View, which may not be all that easy since most writers of romance are women. Here are a few links and snippets of articles I found online that I hope you'll find helpful and maybe a bit enlightening:

Anatomy of the Male Mind: Women Writing in the Male POV (Milton Grasle)

In my opinion, a woman would need to find out all she could about how men react to certain situations and explore the male process of reasoning. She might read what she considers to be accomplished men and women who write in male POV. I believe the biggest trap that a woman might fall into is… not remembering that most romance is not only written by women but read by women also.

Can Women Write from a Male POV? (Juanita McConnachie)

… you can edit your writing into a male POV. I think that with a little research, and a bit of help, I should be able to make my male POV, sound more... well... male. Keep in mind, I am not writing for a male audience (specifically). Nevertheless, an authentic male 'tone' is necessary for these chapters.


Make POV Work for You: Writing the Male POV (Kaye Dacus)

But one of the most important things to know about men is that they say what they mean and mean what they say. They don’t mince words, they don’t beat around the bush, they don’t drop hints and hope someone else will catch on and understand what they’re not saying. Now that doesn’t mean that they say everything that’s on their mind—they can be very judicious with the words they choose to let loose, which gives lots of opportunity for subtexting. But he’s not only not going to try to wheedle and hint his way into something, he’s going to get extremely frustrated by a woman who does.

Male POV (Keri Arthur)

When I first told my husband I was doing an article on writing from a male point of view, he said, why bother? According to him, men are easy. There’s one layer, nothing fancy. What you see is what you get. What they say is what they mean. Unlike woman. He reckons we’re the ones that should come with a manual, and even then, he doubts if males will ever have a chance of understanding us.

Man Up: Writing Male POV (Roni Griffin)

(Note from Penny: Be sure to check out the illustration at the top of this blog post!)

I personally find male characters fun and almost easier to write than my female characters. But that may be because in life, I've always been more comfortable around guys (well, when it comes to being friends, once I was romantically interested in a guy, I turned into an awkward mess). So, I've spent a lot of time with groups of guy friends, have seen how they interact, and of course, I'm married to one, so that helps. :)


Virginia’s Guide to Guy-Speak (Virginia Kantra)

Critics have argued that the romance genre portrays men not as they are but as women wish they would be. … To illustrate how gender impacts characterization, point of view, action, and dialogue - okay, pretty much everything - I offer this guide to guy-speak.

Write Like a Man! (Anita Mae Draper)

Some things are the same for both genders, like wanting to be loved, safe, happy, respected, honored and successful.But as writers who want to write using a male point of view (POV), we need to observe and listen to males in action.

Note from Penny: Wanna chuckle? Check out this video, Men’s Brains vs Women’s Brains

Writing from a Male Point of View (L. Diane Wolfe)

I read dozens of relationship books, seeking to comprehend the distinct qualities of the male gender. The books that provided me with the most insight were Men Are From Mars, Women From Venus and the Connecting With Your Husband/Wife series. Men and women really do view the world through different eyes!

Writing the Male from the Female Sensibility (Marnee)

(Note from Penny: Be sure to read the comments following the post!)

So I tried to apply what I know of men in an observational capacity. No overtalking. Check. Not as skilled at communicating as a woman, at least as a general. Check. A fix-it mentality about everything from broken toasters to complex life issues. Check.

That’s probably a pretty good start. But then I have to worry about getting said “male characterization” across for a generally female audience. Because in a romance, we don’t want the average beer-swilling, thinking-about-sex guy. We want the Prince Charmings. Believable Prince Charmings.

What we have is the complexity of writing the male character to appeal to the female fantasy. No easy task indeed.

~~~

In your own work, do you write in the male POV? Have any tips to share? Do you like to read stories featuring the male POV?

If you’re a guy and you’re reading this blog, do you have anything extra to share? Any opinions on the links I’ve shared?

Going Deep...Deep POV, That Is (Penny Rader)

The first part of my series on POV covered the basics of Point of View. If you missed it, you can find it here. Today we'll explore Deep POV using links and snippets of articles I found online.


Deep Point of View (Camy Tang)

Camy has an excellent eleven-part series on Deep POV. Don’t panic. Each part is short and easy to digest. You can find links to the next part at the end of each article. Here are short bits from the first three:

Part One

It’s not that it’s wrong to name the emotion—in fact, sometimes it makes the sentence more powerful—but many times, when you rewrite the sentence without naming the emotion, the vision evoked in the reader’s mind is more emotionally impactful.

Part Two

“Telling” verbs tend to distance the reader from the character, and if you’re striving to stick the reader in the character’s skin, you want to be judicious with your words and ensure a tight point of view.

Part Three

Show immediate emotional reactions in physical, thought, dialogue, action.

Deep Point of View (Karen Kelley)

Picture this: You’re not writing about the character, you’ve now become the character. Say your heroine is running down a dark hallway, she knows a serial killer is after her. Instead of moving her down the hallway become your heroine. What do you see? Close your eyes for a moment and visualize it. Do you see the hallway? What are you feeling? Fear? Yes, but describe it. Is your heart pounding? Are you sweating? What emotions are going through you? As the heroine, what will you leave behind if the killer catches you?

Deep Point of View: Using It Effectively (Keelia Greer)

When using deep penetration POV you see the scene through the character's eyes. You never leave his/her thoughts. Deep penetration is similar to first person giving the motivation behind an action. The character's attitude, at that moment is shown, not a memory of his/her feelings as they look back on what happened.

Deep POV (Wendy Marcus)

Deep POV … takes you deep inside your character, showing not only what he feels in response to a situation, but why he feels that way. It adds a depth of emotion to a scene. In order to achieve deep POV a writer must dig deep into their characters' personalities and motivations.

Deep POV, Anybody? (Joylene Nowell Butler)

Choosing the right point of view is like learning to ride a bicycle; once you learn, you never forget. Too many good writers struggle over POV because they make it more complicated than it needs to be. In simplest terms, it’s about first learning what choices you have, then trusting your instincts in choosing the right one for your story. Deep POV is just one more choice.

Deep POV Is Not Right for Every Story (Alicia Rasley)

Deep POV is a variety of single POV, where an entire scene (or chapter, or book) is told through the perspective (or point of view) of one of the characters in the scene. Deep POV takes this further—the narration is done not just in the perspective but in the voice of the POV character. It’s meant to establish almost no distance between the narrator and the reader—rather like a first-person feel with third-person pronouns.

…you shouldn’t feel you have to force yourself to write deep POV if every word feels wrong.

Deep POV Means (Angi Morgan)

People think in specifics. Letting characters think in specifics brings us closer to that character and WHY they’re thinking what they’re thinking at that exact moment. When you’re deep in a character’s POV, that character doesn’t keep secrets from himself (a Suzanne Brockmann tip).

Digging Deep and Writing Backstory, While Keeping Up the Pace (Karin Harlow)

When writing in your character’s deep POV, you have to dig into their past. To the events that shaped them, the things that angered them, made them love, made them hate and made them smile. As their storyteller, you have to be them, and convey their thoughts, actions and most importantly, their emotions to the page.

The Importance of Emotional Depth: Part 4 – Deep Point of View (Lisa Chaplin)

Deep POV is an art, because it's putting yourself so totally into the character you basically don't appear (and by this, I mean what is commonly known as "author intrusion"); it's all the character. What also disappears in deep POV to a great extent is "tags"—the "he said, she thought/ pondered/ wondered" that jerk readers out of the character's head, reminding them that they are not the hero or heroine—and that's what we, as writers, don't want!

Note from Penny: I highly recommend Lisa’s entire series of articles on Emotional Depth. http://www.melissajames.net/Article_Main.htm

Some Deep Point of View Tips (Camy Tang)

Readers don’t fully feel the emotion when they simply read the words anxiety, anger, fear, etc.They feel the emotion when they’re in the character’s body and head, feeling the physical sensations, acting with the character, thinking their thoughts, speaking their words.

~~

What are your feelings about Deep POV?

What the Heck IS Point of View Anyway? (Penny Rader)

When I first began writing I had never heard of POV (point of view), so I suppose it's not surprising that I received many comments about POV from contest judges. Including those telling me to get out of my dog's POV. :D

I poked around online and found a wealth of information covering all aspects of POV. I hope you don't mind that I'm sharing the links with you as well as snippets from the articles that I hope will tempt you to click and read.

Basic Point of View (Cami Tang)
Cami has a fabulous series about Basic Point of View, which begins here.

Emotion is Physical (Alicia Rasley)

I want to discuss how using the action/perception levels of point of view, rather than the thinking and emotion levels, can actually let the readers FEEL the feeling, by putting them into the physical experience of emotion.

Establishing the Right Point of View: How to Avoid "Stepping Out of Character" (by Marg Gilks)

Every scene should have only one POV character, and everything must be filtered through that POV character's perceptions. Only the POV character can know what he or she is thinking -- he can't know what anyone else is thinking, so the reader can't, either. The POV character can't see what's going on behind her or what the person on the other end of the phone line is doing while they are talking, so the reader can't know what's going on in those places, either. Keep that in mind -- stay firmly inside your POV character's head -- and you'll rarely have trouble with point of view.

An Explanation of Point of View (Emily Hanlon)

One of the best ways to experience the power of point of view is to write an emotionally strong scene between two people who, when they tell their story, have very different versions of the experience.

First Person (Keri Arthur)

In first person writing, you need a character with a really strong voice, so distinctive that the reader will know you couldn’t tell the story any other way. Attitude is what first-person is all about. The first-person narrator can be sassy or angry or contemplative or ironic or even insane. But they can NEVER be boring. The narrative has to interesting and it has to reflect the narrator’s attitudes and personality.

How to Avoid Viewpoint Slips (Marg McAlister)

ANGER. In deep POV: your chest feels as though it might burst with fury; you breathe in short gasps; you want to punch or hurt someone; you feel like bursting into tears of rage; you feel the blood rush to your head. The onlooker sees: eyes glaring; a red face; lips thinning, words uttered in haste or a shout; a punch being thrown, objects being tossed aside; an aggressive stance (hands on hips).”

How to Write a Romance Novel – POV (Gabi Stevens)

In the course of writing you will also hear the term “head-hopping.” Head hopping is jumping from one character’s POV into another’s at a rapid pace. Most readers don’t know enough about POV to realize when it happens, but they might feel some dissatisfaction with a scene or a book because of it. They won’t feel as drawn to the characters; this is because they haven’t had a chance to live in the character’s head for long enough to identify with him or her. Staying in one character’s POV gives the reader the chance to know and understand the hero or heroine.

Narrowing in Your Point of View (Alicia Rasley)

You can add texture and intensity, not to mention character dimension, to a scene by focusing tightly on the internal and sensory experience of the point of view character. You’ll want to experiment, because different situations call for different approaches.

One requirement of more personal POV is to think about those perceptions that a person actually there in the scene would have.

Point of View (Lisa Binion)

Point of view (POV) is whose eyes the story is told through. There are four different POVs - first person, second person, third person, omniscient.

No matter what your story is about, realize that which point of view you choose to write in determines how your story will be told.

Point of View (Annie Grace)

POV is all about knowing and not knowing. Readers gain an intimacy with a POV character, an understanding not only of what they are seeing and thinking, but also how they are feeling. They learn most about the POV character and if it's done well, they'll bond emotionally with the character. When you can see what a person's doing and hear what they're saying but you don't know what they're thinking -- this creates a tension.

It is like light and shadow in a painting. The light reveals: in the shadows lie the mysteries. Use POV to reveal some aspects of character and also to hint at mystery.

POV: Rules of Thumb (Nan Jacobs)

The dramatic effect of a scene is heightened if experienced through the viewpoint of the character with the most at stake. Consider your characters' goals, motivations, and conflicts to determine who has more to win or lose. If a scene plays out flat, try changing the viewpoint character.

Point of View -- Whose Story Is This? (Kaye Dacus)

How do we decide whose story it is?
Determine who the stakeholders in the story are
Who has the most to learn/the most potential for growth?
Which characters are most compelling?

POV Advantages and Pitfalls (Roni Griffin)

When I started my first novel, I didn’t give POV much thought. I was going to write in first person. Why? I dunno…seemed obvious. I wanted my readers to feel close to my character. And that’s the best way to do it, right?

Well, maybe, but not necessarily. First person came with a lot of restrictions and forced me to tell the story from one character’s perspective. So making sure she “saw” everything that needed to be seen was a challenge. At the time, I didn’t even realize I had another option at my disposal.

POV: Yours, Mine, His, Hers (Janet Corcoran)

Point of view is the foundation of your novel, how your imaginative story is told to the reader. It can keep your ideas focused or, if used incorrectly, can clutter and confuse the plotline, pacing, and goals. If you want the reader to actively take part in your story, you need to give POV your undivided attention.

Who’s on First? (Alison Kent)

I do not care how lyrical an author's prose, how taut the suspense, how intense the dramatic moments, how hot the sex, if she changes viewpoint within a scene she loses me. If she head-hops, she loses me. If she throws in a line of omniscient narrative, she loses me. All because of the way I read. Oh, sure. I can go back, pick up where I lost my train of thought, and rejoin the story already in progress. I can even thoroughly enjoy the story. But I will never regain the same relationship I had with these characters. From that moment on, I will notice and subconsciously bookmark every viewpoint change. Nothing the author does will prevent this from happening, no matter her skill, her sales records, her reviews. This is the nature of my thought process.

~~~

What do you think? Find anything helpful? Want to share any tips?

I hope you'll come back on August 26 for Deep POV and on August 31 for Male POV.

POV and More (Rox Delaney)

This is the third start I've made on this blog post, not sure exactly what I want to blog about today.  POV is actually our 'topic for the month,' but we don't always stick to the topic.  Hey, we're individuals!

If you're struggling with POV, Joan Vincent has two fantastic blog posts on the subject that can put you on the path to understand.  Check them out!

Recently I've been reading YA novels.  Why?  Well, writing for middle readers (ages 10-12) and young adults is where I began my journey.  My oldest daughter, who is still a voracious reader, was inhaling Babysitters Club books at the time, and I decided I wanted to give it a try.  But instead of sticking with Babysitters Club type books, I searched for other books and authors.  I found some fantastic ones.  Mary Downing Hahn (who I actually met!), Cynthia Voigt, Norma Fox Mazer, Paula Danziger, Lois Duncan, Louis Sachar, and Jerry Spinelli (who I also met).  And that's a partial list, which is growing, now that I've begun reading YAs again.  I already have a favorite new author and am reading my way through her list.

So what does all that have to do with POV?  Books for children and teens are written primarily in one POV.  Not all, just the majority.  It's been quite a shift from romance to YA, but I'm enjoying this newest journey.  I can't think of once that I've wanted to know what one of the other characters is thinking or feeling, even when romance is involved.  If written well, I can guess.

Modern romance novels (especially series romance) also began with one POV--the heroine's.  We often had to wait until the end of the book for the hero's motivations and true emotions to be revealed.  Since that time, romance novels have evolved and now offer both the heroine's and hero's POV.  The hero has become a full and complete character, and we see him as we do the heroine, warts and all.  Suspense books often include brief glimpses into the villains POV.

Outside of romance, there are books that go into the POV of multiple characters.  These are usually books that have more than two main characters, each with their own POV.  Stephen King's The Stand is a popular example, where POV changes occur at chapter changes.  Because his characterization is so thorough and well done, with each character having his or her own distinct 'voice,' there's no question of who the new POV character is at the beginning of a new chapter.

If you're having problems understanding POV, there are tricks you can use to help.  Marking character POV with different color highlighters, as Joan did in her example, will help you see POV switches.  Another way is to write a scene in first person (I and my, instead of she and her), then change it to third person.  While reading published books, try being more aware of the POV of the characters.  Many authors switch characters only at a scene change and never within a scene, while others switch only by chapter.  Others, who have mastered POV switching, can do it within a scene, but most don't do it often.

It's fun to discover the likes and dislikes of other readers (and writers!)  So here are some questions:

In a romance novel, whose POV do you enjoy reading the most?  The hero's?  Or the heroine's? 

Which one do you enjoy writing the most?

Ready for More GMC? (Penny Rader)

I found so much information for my July 21st post, which you can find here, that I split it into two parts. I hope you find something in this post useful.

Need a blank GMC chart?

Want to take a GMC workshop? This just popped into my inbox: “Goal, Motivation and Conflict: Character is Key,” presented by Stacey Kade. You’ll need to hurry though! It begins tomorrow, August 1.

Goal, Motivation and Conflict (Karyn Good)

Conflict is the clash between wants and needs. Ask yourself: What stops a character from doing what he/she must versus what he/she wants? Another important question to ask is this: Why is loving this person the worst thing this character can do at this moment?

Goals, Motivation and Conflict (Mary Timmer) pp 13-16

There is a tricky balance between conflict and motivation. If a character’s goals aren’t important enough to him or her, a tough conflict could easily thwart them from pursuing the goal. The motivation behind the goal has to be strong enough to withstand the challenge of the conflicts you put in the character’s path. Does your character want to save the kitten in the tree? Really? Why? If the tree is covered in poison ivy, will he still be willing to climb up and save the kitten? What if there are killer hornets nesting in the tree and the hero can’t withstand a common bee sting? What would make him climb that tree then? He might climb that tree if a large reward was being offered for that kitten’s safe return. He might be even more likely if he needed the money to pay for his son’s medication – especially if the son might die without the medication. But if the hero’s goal is to buy a 1968 Corvette Stingray and he can get the money in other ways, he might decide that death by hornet isn’t worth the reward.

Goals, Motivation and Conflict (Shelley Munro)

If I can answer the following five questions about my characters, then I know my story is workable, and I’m ready to start.

1. What do my characters want?

2. Why do they want it?

3. How do they plan to get it?

4. What’s standing in their way?

5. What will happen if they don’t get it?

Goals, Motivation & Conflict: Giving Life to Characters (Hamish Grayson)

Strong motivating factors:

1. Guilt: his/her carelessness/neglect/absence/ presence/mistake/etc. caused something bad to happen that the character carries around with them (emotional baggage)

2. Need: his/her survival, or the survival of someone they love or are responsible for depends on character acting in certain ways

3. Protection: someone else will be affected by their actions

4. Defense: they must hide behind an exterior persona, act in certain ways, to keep from being hurt

5. Danger: consequences of action may be disastrous if the character makes the slightest mistake

6. Revenge: character must get even for wrongs done in the past (revenge is good against either primary or secondary characters)

7. Any other emotionally strong factor that can be used dramatically

Got Character Goals? (Laurin Witting)
What your character needs and wants drives what happens in the story — aka, your plot. If your character needs to learn to trust in order to be happy again (an internal goal), then your story better put that character in positions where she has to learn how to trust, and that trust must be tested, hard, so the character learns the lesson deep in her bones.

Increase Character Conflict (Camy Tang)
Once you’ve determined the character’s fear, then hit him/her with it with all the strength you’ve got in your pen. Be ruthless. This is not the time to be squeamish. This will guarantee an exciting movement to your story, and your readers will be anxious to find out how the character handles the stress.”

Low Fat Goal, Motivation and Conflict (Debra Twardowski)

Start conflict at the beginning. There is a reason they will be called to adventure. They have to go themselves.

Scene Conflicts (Alicia Rasley)

Think of the motivation and conflict as pullers and pushers. The motivation pulls her towards the goal, but the conflict is shoving her from behind or shoving her back or shoving her in another direction. How is that going to play out in this scene?

Sharing My GMC Chart. Have You Done Yours? (Missy Tippens)

Missy shares her GMC chart for her Love Inspired book, His Forever Love.

Understanding Goal, Motivation and Conflict (our own Starla Kaye)

All main characters in a story must have a definite long-term goal, must be strongly motivated to obtain the goal, and face numerous obstacles trying to reach the goal. Villains also need these things. And to make the story most enjoyable for the reader, make the characters have opposing goals.

What Do You Mean My Hero Needed More Conflict? (Mary Beth Lee)

Conflicts are important to the story. Not FIGHTS. Fights are external. They serve a purpose to a point, but the romance reader needs and wants more than one squabble after another. They want to know and love the characters in a book. They want to root for the man and woman involved in the story. They want to laugh and cry with them. And even though it might seem like it, they DO NOT want the road to everlasting love to be easy.

What Is Conflict? (Caro Clarke)

Conflict can be more subtle, more complex, more interesting than "she says tomayto, he says tomahto." Conflict is opposing desires, mismatches, uncertainty, deadlines, pressures, incompatible goals, uneasiness, tension. We are all caught up in some of these conflicts every day. And so should your characters. A convincing story has many conflicts built into it, layered and connected. The first layer is inside your characters. Once you know what these are, you can use them to make the conflicts between the characters more convincing and interesting.

~~~

Did you find any of these links helpful? Can you recommend additional resources? If you’d like to share GMCs from your own work, I’d love to see them.

Give Me a G! Give Me an M! Give Me a C! (Penny Rader)

Put them all together and what do you have?

Goal, Motivation, and Conflict.

This is a follow up to my earlier post What Is GMC? I thought I’d share links (with snippets from each article to whet your appetite!) that can help explain these building blocks far better than I ever could. I found so much great stuff to share that I’m dividing it into two parts. The second half will be posted on July 31st.

Character Conflict: Creating Romantic Tension in Christian Love Stories (Laura Briggs)

A tried and true method that often makes an old story concept seem fresh is to reverse the hero and heroine’s roles. Usually this involves swapping the character’s jobs or lifestyles in order to create a more interesting and unlikely match. … If the writer stereotypes a character based on their career or social status, than the effect of the role reversal will certainly be canceled out. Instead, the writer needs to present the character’s differences in a positive light. As the story progresses, the hero and heroine can learn to appreciate each other for their unique qualities. And by the end of the book, they should both come to realize that they are not complete without each other’s distinct traits and abilities.

Character Motivation (Mindy Hardwick)

Finding character motivation can be a bit like a treasure hunt. Some stories are lucky and it pops right out. But most of the time…finding character motive takes a lot of digging around in a character’s back story and drafting and drafting and drafting!

Character Motivation (Alicia Rasley)

Motivation is the past.
Goal is the future.
Conflict is the present.

Characters in Conflict (Lisa Tuttle)

If your characters all share the same goals, then you can probably begin and end your story on the same page because without conflict, there is no story—at least not one that will keep readers turning pages. When one character’s goals and ambitions conflict with another character’s agenda, the story becomes interesting. Examine the goals and motivations you’ve established for each character and find ways to make them clash with one another.

Conflict Grid, Tool for Success (Lyn Cote)

If you don’t have conflict, you don’t have a story. With Kathy Jacobson’s CONFLICT GRID,* you can uncover every possible conflict inherent that keep your hero and heroine apart.

Conflict of Values (Melinda Evaul)

Examine the internal goals of a character you’re creating. Insert something that will challenge their core value. Choose something that forces him or her to make a hard choice. Some people don’t change when the conflicts come. They remain the same and never grow. And there could be a time when their core value is correct and the conflicts they face confirm this.

Creating Emotional Conflict and Tension in a Romance Novel (Leslie Wainger)

You can't build every plot completely around the emotional conflict, but every plot needs to highlight that conflict whenever possible. The more complicated your plot is, the more threads you have going on at once; however, emotional tension should underlie everything that's happening. The emotional conflict should always be in the characters' and the readers' minds.

Deeper Character Motivation: Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for Character Development (Jennifer Jensen)

It is important to note, however, that just because a writer knows the character’s deepest needs does not mean that the character realizes it. A woman who was shoved to the background for years while her sister dealt with cancer won’t connect that experience with her need for belonging and her desire to be the life of the party now. But you as a writer know that, and you can let that understanding come out in other ways.

Developing Conflict…Before You Write (Sherry Davis)

So ask yourself, what is your character afraid of? What gives him/her the cold sweats? What makes them hide in the closet? Make sure you've chosen an opposing character who forces the character to face their internal conflict, either overtly or covertly.

Digging for Goals (Melinda Evaul)

Dig deeper and discover the ‘internal goals’ in your characters. What is she honestly seeking in life? What is her greatest fear? Are there things in her life she needs to change? What keeps her from reaching the external goal? Is her goal what is best for her and those she loves? Is she hiding secrets? Do these affect her or her loved ones? Example: Tracy may say she wants to sell her paintings. What she truly wants is acceptance, because she believes she isn’t worthy of love.

Dissecting the G, M and C (Robyn DeHart)

…motivation gives the reader a reason to care for the characters. It is one of the greatest tools we have as writers to make our imperfect characters, that we love, loveable to our readers. Developing strong motivation forces you to think, to dig deep into your characters, and in the end it can be the difference between someone finishing your book, or putting it back on the shelves.

Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Writing (Emily McKay)

You don’t need to be subtle about GMC. You don’t need to be sparing either. The audience needs to know what’s at stake for your characters. They need to know what your characters want and why they want it. If you don’t let your audience know what’s at stake, the audience won’t get to enjoy anticipating everything that could go wrong.

~~

Do you have any tips about developing your characters’ goals, motivations, and/or conflicts? Or specific examples from your own work that you’d like to share with us?

I hope you'll check back on the 31st for more GMC links.

Resources for Settings and World Building, Part 2 (Penny Rader)

If you missed the first part of this resource list, you can find it here .

Make Your “Where” Memorable (Katrina Stonoff)
“… I attended a Fire in Fiction workshop given by über-agent Donald Maass, and Maass brought setting home to me for the first time. ‘World development is context, not description,’ he said. ‘Emotions are what pull the reader in, not details. Not plot. Not description. Emotion.’”

Medieval Demographics Made Easy (S. John Wright)

Among the topics covered: how many in that kingdom; town and city population; merchants and services (handy chart to determine how many shoemakers or carpenters or even butchers a village might have depending on population).

Partly Cloudy, Scattered Showers: Setting the Scene with Weather (Larissa Ione)

“Used properly and creatively, weather can have a tremendous impact on your story. Weather happens twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week in the real world, and so it should in the world of fiction. …Use it to create setting, to highlight emotion, and to pull the reader in with something to which everyone can relate.” The second half of the article gives ten tips to avoid common mistakes writers make.

The Power of Setting (Barbara Samuel)

“…I strongly believe that a novel cannot be great without a powerful setting. Get setting in place, and all the rest falls together. Setting is about detail, about weather and landscape and the personalities spawned by those places.”

Setting (Keith Gray)

“…setting can be the conflict in your story. …adds to the atmosphere and mood of the story. … can add to what you’re trying to say about your character. … a slice of virtual reality.”

Setting (Lori Handeland)

“…have you ever considered a setting can influence your entire novel and the readers' response to that novel? If you get it right--if you describe the setting so brilliantly the reader can picture it without ever having been there--poof! Magic occurs. The reader is in the midst of your setting and therefore in the midst of your story. But if you get it wrong--oh, oh--the reader's suspension of disbelief is lost.”

Setting as Character: An Interactive Approach (Jade Lee/Kathy Lyons)

"Just keep in mind that each setting needs to reflect its owner. ... And then ... the POV character needs to see it per his/her own peculiar precepts."

Setting: Creating the Flavor (Sylvia Dickey Smith)

“A writer can start with their setting, and then develop the characters and the plot. Or they can begin with the setting and the characters, and then develop the plot. There is no one ‘right way’ to begin. Develop your … novel in a way that works for you. The key ingredient is that you are in love (or hate) with your setting whether it is a real place, or it is one you create in your mind, or a mixture of both.”

Setting Exercises and Setting Worksheet (Sherry Wilson)

“Practice your powers of observation throughout the day… Sharpen your visual memory… After you’ve written a scene, get some colored pencils or highlighters and attach one color to each of the five senses--yellow for sight, red for sound, green for touch, orange for smell, and blue for taste, for example. Now go through your scene and underline or highlight any descriptive passages according to which sense they appeal to. Try to make your pages look like a rainbow, rather than mostly yellow.”

Setting Isn’t Just Time and Place (Janet Dean)

“Use the details of your setting to enrich your story. Setting should advance and strengthen your plot. Setting can heighten emotion, reveal character, emphasize mood and conflict. By using setting as a character to interact with your characters, you’re showing instead of telling. And you’re increasing the emotional impact for the reader.”

Setting – The Backbone of Your Story (Janet Corcoran)

“The 5 basic elements of setting, besides time period, are physical locale, customs and manners, lifestyles, and historical events.”

Setting Thesaurus (Angela Ackerman)

After reading this post, check the lists on the far right side of the blog. Scroll down until you get to the Setting Description Thesaurus and you’ll see 70+ settings to click on, ranging from abandoned mines to haunted house to old pick-up truck to zoo.

Using Your Setting Lists (Theresa)

“…a setting list can help break things loose by letting you approach scene construction from the most-overlooked angle.”

Wherefore Art Thou? (Connie Sampson)

“Setting is much more than a place to hang a story. Well done, setting will immediately draw the reader into the place and mood of the story, making him part of it.”

World-Building 101 (Hayley Lavik)

“Every world needs to ring true and fulfill its contribution to the story. Fantastic, historic, and yes, modern settings all need to maintain their authenticity and sincerity. That's where the world-building comes in, to build tone, mood, facts, and details that combine into a whole, thriving setting that feels alive even when the reader closes the book -- all the more reason to keep that book open.”

World-Building 201: How to eliminate the info dump (Hayley Lavik)

“The same as spelling out every detail of a character's appearance can alienate a reader from identifying with them, laying down every nuance of a world, or a backstory, removes the reader's chance to interpret for themselves. Show us what we absolutely need to know, and let us draw the pattern of things according to our own preferences.”

Writing Dynamic Settings (Kimberly Appelcline)

“…when creating the setting for a story, make it as dynamic as possible. ... Rather, use setting consciously to communicate specific information to achieve a particular effect on your audience. … You can also use setting to enable plot – especially through encouraging movement and raising audience questions and expectations – and develop character…”

I hope these resources have been helpful. Please share any that I may have missed.

Resources for Settings and World Building, Part 1 (Penny Rader)

We’ve had several great posts this month about how our members create their story settings and build their story worlds. I thought I’d share some of the resources I’ve come across.

Writer’s Guide to Places by Don Prues was recommended during one of last summer’s RWA national conference workshops.

This book features all fifty states, ten Canadian provinces, and fifty-one North American cities. It provides information such as basics that shape your character (state motto, major industries, prevalent religions, ethnic makeup, etc.), significant events your character might think about, facts your character might know, food & drink, myths & misconceptions, interesting places to set a scene, places where your character might live, etc. (Warning: Many of the reviews on Amazon say this book has errors and out-of-date info, so while it may be useful as a starting point, you will definitely need to do deeper research.)

The Petit Fours and Hot Tamales blog has a section titled Travel with Us. http://petitfoursandhottamales.com/travel-with-us/

The posts give info about why visit this place, favorite places to eat, what is this place known for that is not stereotypical, general population, must see/can’t miss, etc. They plan to have a new post each month.

I found a wonderful array of articles online about creating settings and world-building. I hope you’ll find them helpful:

The Art of Description: Eight Tips to Help You Bring Your Settings to Life (Anne Marble)
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/description.shtml

“Avoid huge lumps of description…Make description an active part of the story…Describe what your characters would notice…Use strong, active, concrete writing words…Use all the senses…Don't let description hang you up during a first draft…”

Blueprints: Building a Home for Your Characters (Elizabeth Chayne)
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/blueprints.shtml

“The immediate advantage about drawing a house plan for your characters is that it can give you a fairly concrete idea of what sort of house your hero lives in. Of course, it's never going to be the same as actually standing in a real house, but if you don't have a substantial bank account to buy a real-life model, house plans are the next best option.”

Character and Setting Interactions (Alicia Rasley)
http://www.sff.net/people/alicia/artset.htm

“…a quick exercise to help you explore your protagonist's relationship with the setting.”

Collect Settings, the More Unusual the Better (Angela Booth)
http://www.angelabooth.biz/2007/03/fiction_collect.html

“Create a ‘Settings’ section of your writers' journal. Pretend you’re a location scout for a movie. For the next two weeks, wherever you go, write a short entry in your journal describing the key points of your location.”

Creating a Realistic Fantasy World (Penny Ehrenkranz)
http://www.writing-world.com/sf/world.shtml

“Creating your fantasy world means building a world based upon reality and making sure that your reader knows the rules of that world. Your characters must remain true to those rules throughout your story. For your readers to accept and continue reading your story, they have to believe in your world and accept what is happening to your characters.”

Creating a Setting (Taylor Lindstrom)
http://menwithpens.ca/fiction-writing-creating-a-setting

“Creating a setting is easier than creating a character. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t require some serious thought and attention.”

Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds (Michael James Liljenberg)
http://www.elfwood.com/farp/thewriting/liljenbergworlds/index.html

Covers creating your story world’s theology/spirituality, physics, weather, geography, astronomy, zoology, and anthropology.

Developing the Fictional World through Mapping (Holly Lisle)
http://hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/maps-workshop.html

“Most of the books I've written have started with a map. Not with an idea, or a character, or a theme. With a hand-drawn map, doodled out first while I was sitting and keeping someone else company, or while I was on break, or when I couldn't think of what to write and had no ideas to speak of and knew that if I drew a map something would come to me.”

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions (Patricia Wrede)
http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/

Topics: The world; Physical & historical features; Magic & magicians; Peoples & customs; Social organization; Commerce, trade, & public life; Daily life.

Four Ways to Bring Setting to Life (Moira Allen)
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/settings.shtml

“Reveal setting through motion… Reveal setting through a character's level of experience… Reveal setting through the mood of your character... Reveal setting through the senses…”

Historical Fiction Settings: Details to Make Your Story World Real (Jennifer Jensen)
http://writing-genre-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/historical_fiction_settings

“Your reader should be able to tell when and where the story is set from the details you give. More than that, your story should not be able to happen anywhere or anytime else.”

Houses are People Too: The Structure of a Literary Device (Geoff Hart)
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/house.shtml

“…houses can be as real as any other character in a story. To see how that works, consider the concept of house from three distinct, but strongly interrelated viewpoints: the concrete and physical, the psychological, and the purely symbolic.”

How Do You Research Settings (Joyce Good Henderson)
http://writethat.com/2010/02/04/how-do-you-research-settings/

“Watch people, places, and their interactions with the environment…Walk through a scene as if you are the character…Take your characters to a restaurant…contact the local Chamber of Commerce…Be as accurate as possible...”

The Importance of Setting in Fiction Writing (Joyce Good Henderson)
http://www.helium.com/items/1329241-setting-fiction-novel-writing-character-how-to-author-book-tips

“Setting gives framework for the hero and heroine to interact… creates mood and influences behavior… defines character… adds to conflict… evokes emotional response… adds to the sensuality of the scene… foreshadows and moves the plot along… involves inside and outside, transitions and movement…”

Kathy Carmichael Talks about On-Location Research
http://novelthoughts.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/kathy-carmichael-talks-about-on-location-research/

“We drove the city, visited shops, restaurants, stores, and the local newspaper. We looked for good locations to commit a murder, dump a dead body, and so on. If you’ve never stood on an embankment, looking down at a river, and wondered how you’d get a heavy dead body down that hill, then you may not realize quite how invigorating it is.”

Location, Location, Location (Jim C. Hines)
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/location.shtml

“We're writing stories, not doctorate-level dissertations. ... I've found it helpful to focus on two things: details and differences.”

Part 2 will continue on May 31. I'd love to hear if you've found any of these resources helpful. Please share any resources you think would be helpful to another writer.

The Elusive Conflict—or why can’t they talk it out?

There are many misconceptions about conflict. In our world of writing romance, a classic conflict is considered to be between two people with opposing deep-seated beliefs. The famous character arc is built upon the premise that two people in an impending relationship will change and grow, overcoming their internal beliefs, and cement their relationship at the end as the committed couple we want them to be.

There is a problem with this kind of tunnel thinking.

It leaves out all of the other delicious conflict that flickers between humans.

Delicious conflict?

Yup.

Where? How? No one sent me the memo! (The frustrated writer cries into her….)

Conflict One

The conflict between men and women is as old as the two sexes. THEY DON’T THINK ALIKE. This bypasses the character arc altogether as it has nothing to do with learned issues. Here’s an example: The relationship is new. The guy wants to hold on to the newness and surround the woman. He is enthralled with the wonder of it. He is thinking on the here and now and maybe the next hour. He’s on short time. The woman asks him if she should book her vacation time to match his—three months away. He looks stunned. She immediately asks him if he thinks the relationship is a one night stand. He looks stunned and says something like no. She wanted reassurance that there is a real relationship building and not merely lust or fun—something more. Women think in long time. At the stunned look on his face, they end up in a tiff with her saying something like ‘I’m fine’. However, the tight jaw and clipped words don’t match. Everyone, including him, knows, she ain’t fine. He’s in trouble and with experience with women, he will conclude that is a trap that women set. She will conclude that men are only looking for one thing. Many promising relationships get shot in the head at this stage. This is conflict and it can last between two people for quite a while. Will it carry the entire book? No. But it can be a crucial element adding depth to a story. Friends and family of the character can weigh in on this one too.

Conflict Two

Family. Everyone has some. Some have a lot. A soldier has his buddies. Those are family too. Their needs, wants, desires, and unwelcome interference—sometimes by their mere presence or absence can cause conflict. Babies in books are a popular theme. They too cause conflict. Whose baby is it? When was it made? Is the other person going to cause difficulty? How about a loving interfering mother or as in some popular books, the grandparents causing our character’s grief? Suppose a dad won’t let a daughter become part of the family business—like chasing bail jumpers. She decides to start her own firm. Conflict with family can be loving, annoying, judgmental, violent, or even cold. None of which changes a character’s internal belief, necessarily, but adds dimension and color to a story.

Conflict Three

Money. Everyone has some. Some have much. Some have little. However, the attitudes surrounding money can add conflict. For example, maybe our hero/heroine has been taught all their life to attain a certain position in the family firm. Deviation from the plan means there is no money. Conflict comes as the characters try to figure out how to keep, hold, make, steal, give, or burn money. Money comes in many forms—cash, bonds, stocks, land, machinery, etc. This too has nothing necessarily to do with internal story arcing.

Conflict Four

Job. Everyone has a position in this world. Whether it pays a salary or like a herdsman grows his flock, a job is what a person does. Even volunteering, although payless, is a job. People not only have opinions about those, but also have to do them. Doing isn’t necessarily a part of the character arc, but it offers problems in delivery. A cattleman cannot leave during a snowstorm to attend something. As soon as possible he has to hunt his herd down. Finding all of them, feed and water them, as well as bring them home. It doesn’t matter how he feels about his job. He has to do it. Jobs conflict with people all the time.

Conflict Five

The villain. No character arc there. The villain gets to do or think what he likes to mess up the plans of others.

Conflict Six

Nature. Forest fire. Snow storm. Flood. Desert. Rock falls. Sunburn. Boat sinking. No amount of character arcing is going to affect these little babies one iota. Don’t think this is conflict? How the characters fight and overcome these obstacles is the nature of these conflicts—same as overcoming other issues.

Conflict Seven

Animals. You could consider them nature I guess, but a snake or spider in the right place seems different. Horse stompings, pigs running amok, attack dogs, spitting lamas, you name it, things can be quite a mess. Then there is the dog shelter where twelve dogs need attention. New kittens are found in a guy’s back seat when he left the window down on his corvette overnight. Baby skunks under the house. You haven’t see conflict until you’ve tried to wash honey off a cat in a shower. They can climb tile. Been there, got the scars to prove it.

Conflict Eight

Paperwork. The world runs on records. Suppose your character isn’t who the records say they are. That is another hurtle to face. Suppose the records say your character is two people?

Conflict Nine

Clothes. Tell me you haven’t heard about how she doesn’t think he owns anything without a hole in it. Tell me you haven’t heard about how he thinks that she shouldn’t dress in such see-through blouses now that she’s dating him. Yet clothes and how we feel about them is so basic this one is often overlooked.

Ok, I’m stopping here. There are conflicts all around us. Keep your eyes and ears open. Some of you will think these are plot devices. Conflict is conflict. None of these issues are going to be solved just because the hero and heroine sit down to talk about it. These conflicts aren’t going to go away just because a character took a growth spurt in his character arc. They aren’t large, but can be emotional. Some of these conflicts and how the characters react to them are strong enough to carry a story. Others can be small enough to add flavor or variety to stories, adding interest to those sagging middle pages.

My personal opinion is that there is no such thing as a character arc. Did I hear gasps? I think people do not grow and change. I believe that whatever is in a character or person is there all along and circumstances come along to reveal the hidden parts of a character. These hidden parts are usually hidden from the character. We never know, until we are tested, what is in us. This opinion is not the current norm in writing romances.

More on conflict can be found at Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict

You might like to use this little fun thing to discover your own or your character’s conflict style.

http://e-courses.cerritos.edu/anagao/Conflict_Scale.pdf

Happy conflicting.