What lets your characters feel safe? What scares them?
These two questions can be the springboard for a credible plot for your book—no matter what you are writing because fear and the desire for safety are two of the most powerful driving forces for most people.
Think about recent political disputes, for example, and the degree of emotion they arouse. Essentially, the deep divide is about fear and the desire to be safe and the disagreement about what choices are most likely to keep us safe.
Safety and fear might revolve primarily around financial safety or physical safety or emotional safety—or al three. What keeps one person safe might cause another to feel distinctly unsafe. And then you have conflict. The deeper the fears, the greater the conflict—whether between individuals, nations, or any opposing groups.
If one understands this, then it becomes possible to create plots with believable conflict and readers will be able to empathize with the characters—even if the character’s fears are not precisely the same as the reader’s fears. In real life, understanding this concept means that one may have a chance of resolving conflicts and doing so in a way that is win-win for both parties.
Hopes and dreams matter, too, of course, but that’s a subject for another posting on another day.
April
Monday, August 06, 2007
Friday, August 03, 2007
Tips from RWA Dallas on Self-Promotion
I thought I would share with you some of the advice I heard in Dallas at the RWA conference about self-promotion for writers.
1) Whatever you do, do it well or don’t waste your money. Several people commented that book trailers on You Tube are effective—but only if they are well done, preferably with real people.
2) Build personal connections with booksellers and readers.
3) See yourself as part of a team with your publisher and work with them whenever possible.
4) Group blogs can be a way to ensure that there is something new up every day but it isn’t too draining for an individual author.
5) Brand yourself and use it in all promo material you create. Use consistent graphics, fonts, themes, etc.
These are, in a sense, self-evident. I’d go even farther. My own suggestions are:
1) Figure out what works for YOU. What can you imagine having fun doing to promote your work that would energize and not drain you? What are you good at that you enjoy? How much money are you comfortable investing in promotion?
2) No one can or should try to do everything—at least not alone. If you have a team doing much of the work for you, that’s different, but most writers are on a budget and both time and money are limited. Better to do one or two things that really stand out and are unique than to try to mimic everyone else.
3) Think clearly about who your target audience is. What works for booksellers might not be the same as what you want to do for readers. One author’s readers might love what another author’s readers might hate.
4) In the end, we each make choices. We each have our own goals, needs, and talents. I believe that in this as with everything we do, the more fun we’re having, the better we will do whatever it is we are trying to do—including promoting our work. If we absolutely hate it, then what’s the point? There is always another choice we could make that might work just as well that we would enjoy.
April
1) Whatever you do, do it well or don’t waste your money. Several people commented that book trailers on You Tube are effective—but only if they are well done, preferably with real people.
2) Build personal connections with booksellers and readers.
3) See yourself as part of a team with your publisher and work with them whenever possible.
4) Group blogs can be a way to ensure that there is something new up every day but it isn’t too draining for an individual author.
5) Brand yourself and use it in all promo material you create. Use consistent graphics, fonts, themes, etc.
These are, in a sense, self-evident. I’d go even farther. My own suggestions are:
1) Figure out what works for YOU. What can you imagine having fun doing to promote your work that would energize and not drain you? What are you good at that you enjoy? How much money are you comfortable investing in promotion?
2) No one can or should try to do everything—at least not alone. If you have a team doing much of the work for you, that’s different, but most writers are on a budget and both time and money are limited. Better to do one or two things that really stand out and are unique than to try to mimic everyone else.
3) Think clearly about who your target audience is. What works for booksellers might not be the same as what you want to do for readers. One author’s readers might love what another author’s readers might hate.
4) In the end, we each make choices. We each have our own goals, needs, and talents. I believe that in this as with everything we do, the more fun we’re having, the better we will do whatever it is we are trying to do—including promoting our work. If we absolutely hate it, then what’s the point? There is always another choice we could make that might work just as well that we would enjoy.
April
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Updates
As you may have noticed, I’ve updated my photo. The one I used for years was taken by my friend, the one who has been fighting breast cancer. I’m hoping that one of these days she’ll be able to take another. Meanwhile, it really did seem way past time that I put up a photo that more accurately shows me as I am now.
Update on my friend. She had the reconstructive surgery on Friday. She’s doing well and will be home perhaps as early as tomorrow and I find myself thinking yet again what a difference a person’s personality makes at times like this.
When we create characters in our books, it isn’t just what happens to them that matters. It is how the characters choose to respond to what happens that matters. This is what readers will care about. This is what will draw the reader into the story and if we have done our jobs well as writers, keep them reading to know more.
I wish all of you the courage and determination to face whatever challenges you may have in your own lives and good friends with whom to share both the good and the difficult moments that come your way.
April
Update on my friend. She had the reconstructive surgery on Friday. She’s doing well and will be home perhaps as early as tomorrow and I find myself thinking yet again what a difference a person’s personality makes at times like this.
When we create characters in our books, it isn’t just what happens to them that matters. It is how the characters choose to respond to what happens that matters. This is what readers will care about. This is what will draw the reader into the story and if we have done our jobs well as writers, keep them reading to know more.
I wish all of you the courage and determination to face whatever challenges you may have in your own lives and good friends with whom to share both the good and the difficult moments that come your way.
April
Friday, July 27, 2007
Views of Life
Another key characteristic for our characters—and for ourselves!—is how they/we view life. Do we assume everything happens for a reason? Do we assume that if one thing goes wrong everything will? Do we assume that everything will go right?
How we and/or our characters look at life determines how we act and react when something goes right or wrong. Knowing this for our characters means that we can add depth to our stories by using that knowledge to create a consistent pattern of behavior for them. And if that pattern changes, then it will signal to the reader that growth has happened. (Yes, we and/or our characters can grow and change our views on life.)
I’ve been thinking about that this week as I watched my friend’s roller coaster ride about her breast cancer reconstructive surgery. First it was scheduled for Tuesday, then they found something on her lung scan and cancelled it and said it was possible the cancer had returned, then they said no, it was just scarring and rescheduled the surgery. For today.
Thank you to those who privately emailed me prayers and good thoughts for my friend. She is a gutsy, determined woman who used to wear bright Hawaiian shirts to doctors visits in the middle of winter when she was fighting Hepatitis C. She will find a way to cope with this, too, and be grateful that it isn’t cancer returning after all—just reconstructive surgery to heal from. I hope you will keep her in your thoughts and prayers again today as she has the surgery.
It’s useful to remember that if our view of life doesn’t serve us well, we can change it and that it IS possible to believe that the best might happen. Useful, too, when creating our characters to think about what they might believe and whether it’s something we might want to help them learn to change—through the power of true love, of course, if we’re writing romance!
April
How we and/or our characters look at life determines how we act and react when something goes right or wrong. Knowing this for our characters means that we can add depth to our stories by using that knowledge to create a consistent pattern of behavior for them. And if that pattern changes, then it will signal to the reader that growth has happened. (Yes, we and/or our characters can grow and change our views on life.)
I’ve been thinking about that this week as I watched my friend’s roller coaster ride about her breast cancer reconstructive surgery. First it was scheduled for Tuesday, then they found something on her lung scan and cancelled it and said it was possible the cancer had returned, then they said no, it was just scarring and rescheduled the surgery. For today.
Thank you to those who privately emailed me prayers and good thoughts for my friend. She is a gutsy, determined woman who used to wear bright Hawaiian shirts to doctors visits in the middle of winter when she was fighting Hepatitis C. She will find a way to cope with this, too, and be grateful that it isn’t cancer returning after all—just reconstructive surgery to heal from. I hope you will keep her in your thoughts and prayers again today as she has the surgery.
It’s useful to remember that if our view of life doesn’t serve us well, we can change it and that it IS possible to believe that the best might happen. Useful, too, when creating our characters to think about what they might believe and whether it’s something we might want to help them learn to change—through the power of true love, of course, if we’re writing romance!
April
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Fear Again
When we write, usually, at some point, our characters must confront one or more of their fears. That is, after all, how someone grows—whether it’s us or our characters.
This week, my friend with breast cancer is having to confront her fears. Again. She was supposed to have reconstructive surgery today. Instead, they found a spot on her lungs when they did the body scan beforehand. It could be nothing. It could be a minor infection. It could be the return of cancer.
My friend has to confront her fears. She has to choose what she will focus on and the steps she will take—first to find out what the spot means and second how she will handle whatever the news may be.
It is by confronting their fears that our characters reveal who they are—and who they can become. It is in confronting fear in our own lives that we discover who we can become as well.
As writers, when we create these scenes in our stories, we have the chance to let others know they are not alone in how they feel and show the range of possibilities for how someone might cope. We can let those who have never faced such fears know what it feels like.
They say that to understand all is to forgive all. By writing our stories and letting readers into worlds they might otherwise not know, we have a chance to let readers understand what they otherwise might not.
I hope you will keep my friend Wanda in your thoughts and prayers. I hope that whatever fears you are confronting in your own lives will turn out better than you thought they could. And if you are a writer, I hope you always know that the stories we tell matter.
April
This week, my friend with breast cancer is having to confront her fears. Again. She was supposed to have reconstructive surgery today. Instead, they found a spot on her lungs when they did the body scan beforehand. It could be nothing. It could be a minor infection. It could be the return of cancer.
My friend has to confront her fears. She has to choose what she will focus on and the steps she will take—first to find out what the spot means and second how she will handle whatever the news may be.
It is by confronting their fears that our characters reveal who they are—and who they can become. It is in confronting fear in our own lives that we discover who we can become as well.
As writers, when we create these scenes in our stories, we have the chance to let others know they are not alone in how they feel and show the range of possibilities for how someone might cope. We can let those who have never faced such fears know what it feels like.
They say that to understand all is to forgive all. By writing our stories and letting readers into worlds they might otherwise not know, we have a chance to let readers understand what they otherwise might not.
I hope you will keep my friend Wanda in your thoughts and prayers. I hope that whatever fears you are confronting in your own lives will turn out better than you thought they could. And if you are a writer, I hope you always know that the stories we tell matter.
April
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Joys of Cyberhood
It started out with an email. One that promised a smile—or at least a lovely ecard. Until I clicked and something started downloading and I turned off my computer because I hadn’t yet had that extra cup of coffee that would have allowed me to wake up enough to realize all I had to do was pull out the DSL plug.
That began the adventure. Turned my computer back on to discover the screen that said Unmountable__Boot__Volume and strings of code. It suggested trying to start in safe mode. 5 attempts later, I had to concede that no matter what I did, I was going to end up at that same appalling screen.
Called my favorite computer guru friend. Heard the scary news it was probably my hard drive. Thanked him and called Dell. Okay, I know people have complained lately about Dell service but I have to say I loved the guy I dealt with. He was patient. He took me through it step by step. He saved my computer! Yes, that’s right, he ran me through what needed to be done and it’s working again. Sort of. For the moment. But with the knowledge that odds are the hard drive is going to go REAL SOON. Seems that when your computer takes a looooong time (30 minutes) to boot up, it could be the hard drive and given today’s problem and a couple of other little things I've noticed....
But for the moment it’s working. I did have critical stuff backed up to a week ago Monday and you can be sure I’m backing up again today. And beginning the computer replacement hunt.
I love Dell computers. Had two in a row and they were wonderful and so was tech support on the rare occasions I needed them. But....Vista. What can I say? I think Microsoft made a big mistake with the way they rolled it out. Maybe in a year it will actually be ready and worth getting but....now? There’s Mac but....I dunno.
I’m probably going to regret this, but anyone want to weigh in with opinions on new laptops? (Or, to be more specific, has anyone ever switched to a Mac and then regretted it? Did you feel the extra cost was worth having fewer technical headaches? DID you have fewer technical headaches?)
Meanwhile, at least now you know—without having to go through it yourself—never turn off the computer while the hard drive is going, looooong boot ups could signal hard drive problems and ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR STUFF!
(Okay, so I actually learned that last rule years ago when I was frantically rewriting a manuscript to meet a deadline and at the last minute (two days before we were leaving on a trip to Hawaii) my computer scrambled the floppy that held the manuscript and I had to retype it from the most recent hardcopy!)
April (Thinking I really should have laid in that whiskey after my adventures in Demented Parenting but who knew I’d need it so soon?)
That began the adventure. Turned my computer back on to discover the screen that said Unmountable__Boot__Volume and strings of code. It suggested trying to start in safe mode. 5 attempts later, I had to concede that no matter what I did, I was going to end up at that same appalling screen.
Called my favorite computer guru friend. Heard the scary news it was probably my hard drive. Thanked him and called Dell. Okay, I know people have complained lately about Dell service but I have to say I loved the guy I dealt with. He was patient. He took me through it step by step. He saved my computer! Yes, that’s right, he ran me through what needed to be done and it’s working again. Sort of. For the moment. But with the knowledge that odds are the hard drive is going to go REAL SOON. Seems that when your computer takes a looooong time (30 minutes) to boot up, it could be the hard drive and given today’s problem and a couple of other little things I've noticed....
But for the moment it’s working. I did have critical stuff backed up to a week ago Monday and you can be sure I’m backing up again today. And beginning the computer replacement hunt.
I love Dell computers. Had two in a row and they were wonderful and so was tech support on the rare occasions I needed them. But....Vista. What can I say? I think Microsoft made a big mistake with the way they rolled it out. Maybe in a year it will actually be ready and worth getting but....now? There’s Mac but....I dunno.
I’m probably going to regret this, but anyone want to weigh in with opinions on new laptops? (Or, to be more specific, has anyone ever switched to a Mac and then regretted it? Did you feel the extra cost was worth having fewer technical headaches? DID you have fewer technical headaches?)
Meanwhile, at least now you know—without having to go through it yourself—never turn off the computer while the hard drive is going, looooong boot ups could signal hard drive problems and ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR STUFF!
(Okay, so I actually learned that last rule years ago when I was frantically rewriting a manuscript to meet a deadline and at the last minute (two days before we were leaving on a trip to Hawaii) my computer scrambled the floppy that held the manuscript and I had to retype it from the most recent hardcopy!)
April (Thinking I really should have laid in that whiskey after my adventures in Demented Parenting but who knew I’d need it so soon?)
Monday, July 16, 2007
Top Ten Favorite Things About the RWA Conference in Dallas
Here are my ten favorite things about the RWA Conference in:
10) Getting to dress up—including wearing one of my Regency gowns for the Beau Monde soiree.
9) Great parties and a memorable dinner at the Cadillac Bar in Dallas.
8) Finding lots of wonderful books to bring home.
7) Seeing people I like win awards.
6) Making new friends.
5) Seeing old friends.
4) Getting information I know will be useful to my coaching clients.
3) Getting useful information for myself.
2) Hearing good news from booksellers and editors about the state of the market for romance novels.
1) Giving workshops (and doing some impromptu coaching)—and therefore being able to maybe make a difference in someone’s life and/or career.
Something else very special happened. We all got to see Vivian Stephens--the lovely, gracious woman who founded RWA. There wasn't a one of us, I think, who didn't tear up knowing that by founding RWA Vivian Stephens made all of our lives richer. I cannot imagine not having the friends I've met through RWA. I wrote for years before I met another author and I know how much better and easier my life as a writer got once I did. We owe Vivian Stephens--and the other founding members of RWA--a profound debt of gratitude.
I love RWA conferences. The energy there is always amazing and I always meet wonderful people. Thank you to everyone who was kind to me, forgave me when I was brain dead and forgot or mispoke a name, shared with me stories of their first sales, and let me be part of THEIR conference experience. And special thanks to Emily McKay--a very talented writer!--who moderated my workshop on Friday afternoon (Make Every Minute Count).
10) Getting to dress up—including wearing one of my Regency gowns for the Beau Monde soiree.
9) Great parties and a memorable dinner at the Cadillac Bar in Dallas.
8) Finding lots of wonderful books to bring home.
7) Seeing people I like win awards.
6) Making new friends.
5) Seeing old friends.
4) Getting information I know will be useful to my coaching clients.
3) Getting useful information for myself.
2) Hearing good news from booksellers and editors about the state of the market for romance novels.
1) Giving workshops (and doing some impromptu coaching)—and therefore being able to maybe make a difference in someone’s life and/or career.
Something else very special happened. We all got to see Vivian Stephens--the lovely, gracious woman who founded RWA. There wasn't a one of us, I think, who didn't tear up knowing that by founding RWA Vivian Stephens made all of our lives richer. I cannot imagine not having the friends I've met through RWA. I wrote for years before I met another author and I know how much better and easier my life as a writer got once I did. We owe Vivian Stephens--and the other founding members of RWA--a profound debt of gratitude.
I love RWA conferences. The energy there is always amazing and I always meet wonderful people. Thank you to everyone who was kind to me, forgave me when I was brain dead and forgot or mispoke a name, shared with me stories of their first sales, and let me be part of THEIR conference experience. And special thanks to Emily McKay--a very talented writer!--who moderated my workshop on Friday afternoon (Make Every Minute Count).
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