It's About Conflict and Tension 3

Thanks to Phoebe for sharing her thoughts on brainstorming. I could use a good brainstorming partner right now as I'm dealing with a new WIP. And remember: leave a comment on her post for a chance at her giveaway. You have until Friday.

Conflict: the word conjures up images of people fighting. But, as I pointed out in last week's posts on microtension, conflict encompasses a much broader scope.

When Jay Boyar of Orlando magazine reviewed 4 romance novels, including my FINDING SARAH, he pointed out that in my book, unlike the others, “Sarah and Randy don’t, for some strange reason, immediately hate each other.”

Having hero and heroine not like each other definitely increases conflict and tension. But it’s not necessary to take that approach. (Confession: when I started writing FINDING SARAH, I’d never read a romance, so I didn’t know about this “hate each other” convention.) Hero and heroine can have a common goal, but with different motivations, and conflict can grow from that.

Example: In FINDING SARAH, both Randy & Sarah want to solve the crime, “Who robbed Sarah’s shop?” Randy wants to do it because he’s a cop, and that’s what he does. Also, the robber seems to be someone he failed to catch on another spree, so his professional pride is at stake. For Sarah, it’s a matter of saving her business—her livelihood. As the case progresses, Randy has a new problem: he’s violating his own code by taking a personal interest in Sarah. And Sarah is violating her internal promise to be independent and not rely on anyone. But there’s no real reason for them to dislike each other.

It's About Conflict and Tension 2

What I'm reading: Sweet Nothings, by Catherine Anderson

Yesterday, I showed how I attempted to keep the reader interested in my first scene of DANGER IN DEER RIDGE. I'm continuing that today with some analysis of the second scene, where we get to go inside Grinch's head. By having 2 POV characters, you have more opportunities for tension, as the reader begins to see more than either character can. I normally limit myself to only 2 POV characters, but in this book I actually added a third--the villain, which can also increase tension as neither hero or heroine knows what's going on in his head.

In this section, rather than snip and just leave the paragraphs I explained, I decided to leave everything there so you can follow the flow of the scene.

Grinch peeked through the passenger window of his pickup, reassuring himself that Dylan would stay asleep for the few moments it would take to get the gas flowing. The bumpy ride down the steep, pothole-filled driveway would have woken him up for sure. Besides, Chester was with him, and nobody would approach the truck with that mutt standing guard. He gave the window a soft pat, then headed toward the house. We can't have TSTL heroes. This paragraph shows Grinch dealing with his immediate conflict—getting the gas turned on for Elizabeth while his young son is with him. (And in order to make it work, I had to stick in the dog, which became yet another character to keep track of! But it turned out he was a welcome addition.)

It had been obvious that he'd frightened the Parker woman, and not by showing up unannounced. She had that trapped-animal demeanor. What's her story? He wandered around her car. Layers of road dirt. California plates. Tires in decent shape, but if this was her only vehicle, she was going to have some trouble once the snows hit. Sooner if she didn't get the driveway repaired and graded. Glimpse into Grinch's character. He cares about people.

It's About Conflict and Tension

Thanks to Lilian Stewart Carl for sharing all that information about kilts yesterday. I learned a lot. If you didn't read her post, you definitely need to scroll down.

When I wrote Monday's post, on why I decided to go indie with DANGER IN DEER RIDGE, I had several people email me asking me why I didn't put up more about the book itself.

Interesting question. First, although I definitely want people to buy my books, I've kind of had this "no self-promotion" rule about this blog. I did include links to my website for blurb and first chapter, as well as buy links, so that the information was available for those who wanted to look. And if you missed it, you can find it here.

More in keeping with the focus of this blog, I thought I'd provide a little more of a behind the scenes peek at the writing process. Donald Maass suggests there be tension on every page, and microtension in every paragraph. Characters have to want something, and there need to be reasons why they can't have it. There needs to be conflict.

Under the broad umbrella of all romance sub-genres, one critical element is the first meet between hero and heroine. So, I thought I'd share some of the first meet scene from DANGER IN DEER RIDGE with you, and mark it up with how I tried to create tension and conflict. In this scene, the heroine has a clear goal: start her new life. She's just arrived at her new home with her eight-year-old son. Making sure he's safe is her top priority.

She filled the pot with water, then set it on the burner. Checking the unfamiliar gas range, she matched the knob with the appropriate burner and twisted it. Nothing. She waited. Tried again. Was she supposed to light the burner with a match? Where was the instruction book? She yanked open drawers hoping to find one. Nothing. Conflict: without gas, she can't cook.

Tools of the Trade

What I'm reading: Love is Murder, by Allison Brennan

A couple of weeks ago, my printer died. Then, last week, my keyboard decided that hitting a key would produce a random response. No telling what you'd get, if anything.

Both of those tools are critical for my work. I have backups—there's another printer in Hubster's office, although it's not a color printer. I have a laptop, and we have an old keyboard. Although I wasn't dead in the water, working wasn't the same.

My solutions? A refurbished printer just like my old one is on its way (I have almost new cartridges of toner, and this way, I'm not out the mega-bucks they cost.) I found a new keyboard. It's not quite the same. It was a trade-off of getting one that worked immediately, or driving all the way down to the Springs to see if there was a better selection at Office Depot. Or going on line and ordering something that might not be what I wanted, or would take too long to get here. There's a bit of adjusting to the new keyboard, beyond simply the feel of the keys. The function keys aren't all the same, and the mouse doesn't have all the same hot buttons. Some of the extra keys aren't where they were on the old keyboard.

But I can work.

What about your characters? They all have their own tools. What happens when you take some (or all) of them away? How do they cope? Do they give up? Go get new ones? Make do with something else?

Only Trouble is Interesting

Thanks to Molly for yesterday's post (even if my books didn't make her list!). There's some good reading material there.

One of the first lessons I learned when writing was "Only Trouble is Interesting."

Conflict doesn't have to be earth-shattering, in-your-face, knock down drag-em-out. In fact, sometimes the best conflicts are the everyday events. They may not be "exciting" in terms of things like car crashes or explosions, but readers can relate to them. And these sorts of things can keep the tension going in between the big stuff. And too much of that 'big stuff' can either exhaust the reader, or get boring..

Recently, All Romance eBooks opened its doors to individual publishers, so I decided that I'd upload my two books, What's in a Name? and When Danger Calls to their online store. I'd already uploaded them to the Kindle Store and Smashwords, so I figured it would be simple enough.

Nope. First, there's no formatting provided. If you want to put your book on their site, you have to provide it in the formats they offer. Although I can handle PDF and HTML easily enough (those are simply "save as" options in Word), I was clueless about things like lit, PRC, mobi, and epub.

More Choices

What I'm reading: The Black Cat, by Martha Grimes

Thanks, J.L. for your post yesterday. A lot of those authors are on my Keeper Shelf as well.

Today, as well as being here, I'm at the Single Titles blog, discussing multi-layered characters.

Since Monday's blog on Choices seemed to generate some interest, I thought I'd take it a little further with some examples.

Writing professionals much more knowledgeable than I have stressed that your characters must want something in every scene, even if it's only a glass of water.

For any "want" there are three possible outcomes: Yes, No, or Yes, but.

Let's see what happens with each.

Choices

What I’m reading: The Executor, by Jesse Kellerman

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If you’re writing, you’re told to put some kind of conflict on every page. These conflicts don’t have to be life-threatening, or even fear-inducing for your characters. Sometimes they can be ordinary. The important thing to remember is that the character must make a choice.

A simple, real-life example. Saturday afternoon, the Rocky Mountain chapter of Mystery Writers of America had a summer pot-luck social. At the same time, our homeowners’ association had a summer pot-luck social. Given they happened at the same time, trying to attend both wasn’t an option. Conflict.

Confronting the Unexpected

What I'm reading: Rain Fall, by Barry Eisler

Thanks to Marie Nicole for sharing her story. There's still time to leave a comment on her post to enter the contest for a copy of her book. Scroll down. I'll still be here.

What's been going on in Florida started me thinking about disruptions, and how we deal with them. We spend a lot of time getting to know our characters so we'll know how they'll respond in any situation we subject them to. Or will we?

It's just as important to know how your character will behave when confronted with the unexpected. And, as authors, we need to keep the unexpected happening. After all, "Only Trouble is Interesting."

For example, here in Florida, we've had the longest cold snap on record. And it's been cold. Ice on the cars and rooftops in the morning. Some days, the temperatures never hit 40. True, if you're from Minnesota, you're probably laughing, but I've lived in Orlando for 22 years, and we've never had the heat running 12 days straight. Heck, most years, we don't have the heat running twelve HOURS, period. Now, it's been chugging along, eating up more kilowatt hours than our a/c does.

Some of the local power companies have been overburdened, and have had to cut power here and there. We have a nifty (usually) gizmo on our electrical system that allows the power company to shut down power to our heat or a/c units for brief periods of time when demands are too great. For this, we get a small rebate on our electric bill each month. In 22 years, it's been turned on exactly three times. Two of them this week.

It's All About Conflict

What I'm reading: The Prairie Grass Murders by Patricia Stoltey

On Saturday, I went to our RWA chapter meeting, where Betina Krahn was our speaker. Her topic was conflict, and I thought I'd share my notes.

She began by giving us the three most common reasons a writer gets stuck.

1. The characters aren't developed enough.
(I can relate to this one, as my detective more or less hijacked my WIP, and I need to know a lot more about him, so I know how he'll respond in any situation I throw at him.)

2. The scene is in the wrong Point of View.
The character has to have something to lose or gain in the scene. Or maybe you have to reveal some critical point, and you're in the wrong head to do it.

3. Lack of Conflict.

All fiction revolves around conflict. Without conflict, there isn't a story (well, maybe some "literary" fiction exceptions, but we're talking commercial fiction for the most part). Conflict doesn't have to be physical, 'head butting' confrontation.