Whose Story Is It?

What I'm reading: Contest entry #4 of 8; The Affair, by Lee Child.

Remember, there's still plenty of time to comment on both my Monday post and Mike Nettleton's Tuesday post to enter to win books. And another reminder about my POV workshop at Savvy Authors. I'll be giving books away there, too. If you know someone who might benefit from a basic craft workshop, point them that way. (Link in the sidebar)

In the world of romance fiction, reader expectation dictates that you have (at least) two Point of View characters: hero and heroine. They both must have complete story arcs, almost equally weighted.

Key word: "almost". Because it's not really 50-50. It might be as close as 49-51, but the reader is usually left with the feeling that it was a "his" book or a "hers" book.

Not being much of a plotter, I knew who my characters were, and what their conflicts were, but I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to whose book it would turn out to be. It didn't really matter until I needed a title. (That's another thing I rarely come up with in advance.)

Now, this book is part of my Pine Hills Police series. I've got Finding Sarah and Hidden Fire. There's also Finding Fire, but that's a collection of connected short stories. The new book features two totally new characters, Scott and Ashley, but there are still many familiar faces. The title should somehow "fit" with the others, giving potential readers a signal that the books are part of a series. For example, my Blackthorne, Inc. series all have "Danger" in the title.

Changing Tastes

What I'm reading: Second Thoughts, by Bobbie O'Keefe

First -- thanks to Susan for taking us to India yesterday. It was a wonderful trip.

While Susan was handling comments here at Terry's Place, hubby and I played at the 'unemployed/retired' game. Technically, he's got a title, and he hasn't put in for Social Security, so he considers himself unemployed, not retired. However, his plans to drive to the coast to do some acoustical research were put on hold by a bad weather forecast, and so we went to the movies.

On a Tuesday. At 11:20 am (early bird discount). Along with one other person in the theater. But it was a romp, and he laughed enough to deem it acceptable, even if it was too heavy on the romance, not heavy enough on the comedy. (Let's remember this is the guy who put all the Pink Panther movies in our Netflix Queue--his idea of comedy.)

And now … onto the subject of today's post, which really does have a connection -- a loose one, but a connection -- to the movie: Publishing and our changing tastes.

Keep Reading...


A newly re-discovered high school friend recently sent me a book he thought I might enjoy. Being a 'read anything from cereal boxes on up' kind of person, I gave it a shot.

After the cover, which had a vintage feel, I noticed the yellowed pages and tiny type. A quick check of the copyright showed the book was published in 1965. Another thing that jumped out at me was the 'density' of the writing. Almost the entire book was narrative. Lots of introspection. Lots of back story. All the things that agents and editors say are absolute no-no's today. Readers want white space. Short paragraphs. Short chapters. Lots of dialogue. Keep things moving.

I recall an editor who requested a full manuscript from me, who told me to check my pacing. She was kind enough to discuss it on the phone, but one of the things she said was that she could look at the pages and get a feel for the pacing. Not too much narrative, not too much dialogue. This without actually reading the words.

Times have changed. The writing style was definitely something we would consider 'literary' fiction today, although it's a romance. No doubt about it, from the man and woman embracing with a winter castle scene in the background, to the HEA, to the obvious cover tagline, "A spellbinding blend of mystery and romance…"

Today, I have my doubts that it would sell. And yes, I enjoyed the book, and I'm glad he sent it to me, because if I'd seen it in the bookstore, I probably would have dismissed it as having too much eyestrain potential.

Are today's books better than their 1965 counterparts? Or just different? Would an agent look at a manuscript where a page might contain only two or three paragraphs? Would a good story get dismissed simply because it didn't "look right" on the page? Would it ever make it past the editorial assistant (point driven home in the movie, where the assistant says, "In all the years I've worked for you, I've read hundreds of manuscripts, and this is the first one I've asked you to read."

If this book were to be reissued again (it's been reprinted many times), would the editor take the chapters which are subdivided into sections headed with Roman numerals, and make each section a chapter? Would she break the long paragraphs into shorter ones? Would she use a larger font, with more spaces between the lines?

Is it the words, or what they look like on the page that matters? And should it?

On Synopses

What I'm reading: Persuader, by Lee Child

What I'm working on: synopsis polishing.

Distilling a 350+ page novel into under 4 pages is not my favorite writing endeavor. Cover the Who, What, When, Why & Where. Let your voice show through. Use third person, present tense. Be sure to include major turning points, which in an action-adventure-mystery are plentiful. And then, for a romance, you also have to hit the following points as well:

1. The set-up (external plot situation that will throw hero/heroine
together)
2. The First Meet (first time h/h encounter each other)
3. Attraction but Denial of that Attraction
4. First Kiss (how, why, caused by what?)
5. Reaction to the Kiss
7. The First Love Scene and Emotional Reaction to it.
8. Further Complication of External Plot
9. Black Moment
10. Resolution and Happily Ever After.

I must confess even doing the laundry was more appealing. As was balancing the checkbook. And yes, I played way too many different games of solitaire. And watched football. But I have a second draft that's still within the limits my agent imposed.

For me, synopsis writing sits right up there with plotting. How can I know what the book's really going to be about until I write it? The thought of becoming successful enough to have to sell on synopsis is scary. So is writing to a deadline. However, those are demons I'd like to have the chance to deal with.

So…here's the draft of my first paragraph.

Foster (Fozzie) Mayhew, is the communications and intel expert for Blackthorne, Incorporated, a high-end security firm. Put him in a helicopter with his surveillance instruments, and he can spot the fleas on a squirrel's balls from five hundred feet. When someone needs finding, this cocky, arrogant Aussie is the man you want. He and his team pride themselves in being in and out like the wind—but sometimes the wind changes direction. Like when his boss thinks Fozzie's been on too many covert ops missions and assigns him to find Victoria Hamilton, estranged daughter of a rich client. Armed with an outdated high school yearbook photo, he heads to Florida—to follow the only lead he has.
Comments, anyone?

I hope everyone had a nice weekend and enjoyed meeting Detective Mark Hussey. He'll be back. And tomorrow, my guest, Maria Hudgins, will be talking about Faraway Places With Strange Sounding Names.