Art0020 Inside Romance Article

Storytelling is as natural as breathing to me. It's something I did verbally before I could write, then it burst out on the written page as a new expression for an old love. Not everyone who can tell a good story can be a great or even good writer, and not every writer is a born storyteller.

It's a blend of the two that creates magic in fiction; a combination of imagination and technique, originality and organization.

Having wonderful ideas isn't going to get your thoughts on the page or in the publisher's hand if you don't know how to focus on the main story you want to tell and then tell it in a way that conveys your own excitement to those who read and, hopefully, want to buy it. To write, you have to plot, and to plot, you have to organize. You have to arrange your story elements so they unfold in a well-ordered and enticing fashion from page one to page end. Think of it this way; would you begin a cross country trip without knowing which direction you were heading? Wouldn't you want to know where all the rest stops are and where those side roads lead before straying down them? Unless you're a confirmed 'Wherever the wind blows me' type of person who has years to amble down dozens of literary deadends only to find yourself back where you started, you want to start with a map in hand, and that map is your outline.

After writing 35 books with 10- and 14-year old boys at home, believe me, I have no time to wander down the wrong road. I want everything laid out for me ahead of time so I don't waste time on wrong turns and I don't find myself saying, "Gee, what's going to happen next?" I like to know where my characters and I are going every day when I sit down at the computer. At 5:00 in the morning, I'm in no mood to go exploring any farther than the coffee pot. I look at my story outline and I know exactly where I am and where I'll be heading.

When I say outline, I'm not talking that Roman Numeral skeleton you dreaded in school. Your working outline is the road your book will take from scene to scene, the overview of how the action and your characters move from beginning to end. It's written in present tense narrative, the way you'd tell the story to your best friend. I get started with an idea in mind; 2 characters and their conflict.

Characters propel your story as strongly as your plot and must be just as well developed. I get to know my characters by making a brief sketch of each major figure, listing name, age, physical description, education, employment etc. so they don't change eye color in the middle of Chapter 7 or have names that sound too much alike and vary in background. Think of your characters as human beings not as stereotypes, make them unique. It's not enough to know that our hero is a smuggler; you need to know why--what motivates him to that profession. Give each character a fictional background that will support their goals--personalize them so that the reader can identify with their reasonings for what they want and what they do. As you answer these questions for yourself, you've made up a convincing backstory for your hero so that he has a believable past to support his reactions during the course of the book.

Give each a goal, something they want to achieve and show how the lack of that achievement brings conflict to the story. I also list how each main character relates to the others around him and also, how they view him to round out the picture. What is each characters self-image? Is this self-concept consistent with the way they view the world and others?

Answering this will give you some clue to personality traits that make each of your characters different; tags you can use so each is unique in voice, action and reaction. These tags such as impatience, impulsiveness, hesitancy, swaggering bravado need to be reinforced during the story in different ways for reader identification but not overdone to the point that he or she becomes 1 dimensional. A good character has a range of emotions and reacts to different stimuli in a variety of way. Your hero may distrust women but loves the honesty of children. Your heroine may show no fear when bracing enemies with a pistol but cowers during storms.

Most importantly, show where and why your character grows during the course of the story; what triggers a sudden maturity, what softens feelings of hatred or inadequacy that's consistent with what you've already shown the reader: i.e Regency rake suddenly becomes unfalteringly faithful to a seventeen-year old twit, or a brute who never changes and yet the heroine buys his claim "because I love you"--I don't think so!! Remember, this is your character blueprint. I refer to it to make sure my characters stay consistent, that their reactions are believable and so I can anticipate how they will respond in any given situation. When you've finished your story, you'll have six areas in which to double check your characters for continuity, individuality and depth. They are:

1-their voice; the things that they say (an illiterate cowboy wouldn't suddenly start spouting poetry to the envy of Lord Byron!)

3-How they look; the type of clothing and accessories they surround themselves with i.e. severe suits over sexy underwear, dry cleaning tags hanging off the backs of their sweaters, nothing in the refrigerator but spring water and organic plant food--little details that tell alot

4-Gestures and body language that shows mood and attitude-esp if its in contrast to what he/she is saying

If you can keep these points consistently in character while showing growth and motivation, you've got characters that will come alive in your book and live beyond it in the reader's mind.

Once I have my characters firmly under control, I flesh out my storyline with research; adding details of fact to fiction until it gels into a tangible plot. Then I'm ready to write it down scene by scene in brief rough draft form; my working outline.

I visualize my story scene to scene as if I were watching a movie. While the end product; my outline is far from perfect literature, it accomplishes several important things; it tells me if I have enough plot to sustain the length of book I'm writing, it helps me pace the action so there are no slow spots, and it lets me evaluate my character's growth to see if they've made consistent and believable changes from beginning to end. When looking over your outline, here are some questions you can ask yourself:

5-Are all the subplots necessary to enrich the main plot or do they confuse it? If the later, consider getting rid of them

8-Have you addressed both the internal and external motivations of the main characters? Have you explained and resolved the internal and external conflicts?

9-Is the sustained conflict believable or could it be easily resolved earlier in the book?

11-Do you have a satisfying ending or is it contrived? "And then a miracle occurs" doesn't leave the reader satisfied. Nor does waking up to find out it's all been a dream!

If you're satisfied that you've done all of these things, then comes the hard part: let someone whose opinion you trust read it. They can spot holes you couldn't see, weaknesses that you'll want to strengthen before an editor gets a hold of it. Be objective, be flexible in taking suggestions.

Your outline is finished. Now's the time it really does its work. It keeps you on track when you're writing. I block off my outline, chapter by chapter, in much the same way a screenwriter does, so I know how long my scene have to be in order to reach the necessary word count. I don't want to get to the end of my story and find out I'm 80 pages short or three chapters long. I know when I sit down with my first cup of coffee that in the next few hours, my hero is going to stumble upon the son he hasn't seen in three years and confront the woman who walked out of his life but never out of his heart. I know that while all he wants to do is grab her up in his arms, his pride and insecurity won't allow him to make the first move.

And when he doesn't, the tone of the next chapter is set up. A quick glance at my road map during the course of my writing day keeps me going in the right direction and makes sure I didn't miss any important points of interest along the way. As I go, I jot down on the margin of my outline any changes or plot developments that come to mind either down the road or in work already written so that when I do my revisions, I can incorporate them into the story.

The other nice thing a working outline does is serve as the basis for your synopsis. That's the word that strikes terror into the heart of most writers; for it's the synopsis that sells your story to an editor. Your editor wants to know several basic facts and if you can present these to his or her satisfaction, you're on your way to a sale. What a synopsis does, in concise, double-spaced pages, is introduce the main characters and their conflict and how they will struggle to fulfill their goals and make the changes necessary to obtain happiness and a resolution. Give only the most important and pivotal details and how they effect the characters, not a blow by blow description of each scene. Keep the writing style crisp and flowing. Give it emotion without making it emotional. You want to create tension and a question of how the difficulties will be overcome then resolve them. Never leave the storyline dangling. You should have tied up any loose ends and answered all the editor's questions to prove that the potential readers will come away content.

I don't want to give you the impression that everything in the outline is carved in stone. Plotting isn't finished until the final revision pleases the editor. I've changed many a scene, devised many a new twist, even come up with a more powerful ending in the middle of writing a book. Writing is an ongoing process, a natural one and so naturally, it's flexible. The farther you get into your story, the more attuned you are to the characters and the more insight you have into their motivations. A direction you mapped out in your outline may no longer be the best route. Constantly check for consistency and forward momentum. You have to let your instinct as a writer guide you, but also have the common sense to evaluate any major detours before you get yourself lost.

A detailed outline can save you from countless hours of blank screen-itus and from an uneven and meandering plot. If your story is a sound one, it should translate well to the written page. If your story is a saleable one, it has to translate well to the editor. Here's where creativity and organization mesh to make a road map toward success.

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