Last summer, I bought the YA novel Forbidden, mostly out of curiosity, but then didn’t have the guts to read it:

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen, gorgeous, and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister.

First, there was the Ewwww factor, which made me wonder why I bought the book in the first place. Second, based on the full blurb, I knew there wasn’t going to be a happily-ever-after ending, and those are the ones I prefer.

But last week I decided to finally read the book, and ended up loving it. The problem is I couldn’t stop thinking about it once I was finished. I started to wonder, when I wasn’t sobbing, what made it one of my favorite books, and how could I write such a brilliant story, too. A story that left me an emotional wreck long after I finished reading it. So, I analyzed it with the hopes of applying what I learned to future projects.

Characters You Ache For

This book is told from both the point of view of Lochan and Maya. They are the oldest of five children (the youngest is only five years old). Their father left to be with another woman when Lochan was twelve years old. Their mother turned to alcohol and slowly started to distance herself from their lives. And at one point in the book, she is no longer living with the children. So right away, you empathize with the characters due to the strong backstory.

In addition to raising their siblings, Lochan and Maya do everything possible to ensure social services don’t find out about their situation. If it’s discovered their mother has abandoned them, then their family will be torn apart. This powerful backstory explains why Lochan and Maya never felt like they were siblings, and it provides the motivation behind what happens in the climax. Like the two characters, you don’t see them as sibling, but rather two individuals who fell in love.

Great Writing

But the void yawns open like a cavern inside my chest. I feel so damn lonely all the time. Even though I’m surrounded by pupils, there is this invisible screen between us, and behind the glass wall I am screaming—screaming in my own silence, screaming to be noticed, to be befriended, to be liked.(Lochan’s pov)

The writing in Forbidden is beautiful and the emotion intense. Lochan is extremely shy, to the point that he has anxiety attacks when called on in class. This means he’s treated like the class weirdo. You feel his pain, which makes you want to keep reading.

The writing also helps the reader feel Maya’s and Lochan’s pain as they struggle with their love for each other when they know it’s wrong, and when they make sacrifices to keep their family together, while most of their peers are out having fun and being normal teens. And you feel their pain when their secret is discovered. The writing is rich with symbolism and imagery but is true to who they are as individuals. It’s compelling and makes for a great page turner—even when you’re afraid to turn the next page.

Do you strive to write a book that makes people think about it long after they’ve finished reading it? Have you analyzed a book to see how the author achieved this goal?

Part Two of the post will be go up Wednesday. And then you'll see why the book affected me.

Last week, I watched Sleeping with the Enemyas research for one of my WIPs. In it, “ayoung woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it is impossible to elude her controlling husband”.

During one scene, the abusive husband hits Laura (Julia Roberts) and she falls to the floor. Laura pushes herself up to a sitting position, her long red hair spilling around her shoulders, legs bent to the side. At that moment, she reminds me of Ariel from The Little Mermaid. When Laura tries to stand, after her husband leaves, her legs are shaking so badly, she looks like Ariel after the sea witch turned her into a human, and Ariel takes her first steps into the new world. In Sleeping with the Enemy, this image is symbolic foreshadowing. What her husband doesn’t know is that Laura has been learning to swim, to overcome her fear of the water. She is a mermaid, so to speak. Soon after, she fakes her death in a drowning accident and escapes to a new life.

That evening, after Laura’s husband hits her, he gives her red roses and red lingerie. They are supposed to represent his “love”, but they really symbolize the physical and emotional abuse (blood, danger) she suffers at his hands.

After Laura escapes, she takes a Greyhound bus to a small town in Iowa. As it arrives, we see Laura looking out of the bus window and the reflection of the American flag waving in the breeze. The American flag symbolizes freedom and the home of the brave. A perfect symbol for Laura’s courage and her new life.

Movies are a great place to learn about symbolism, since the director, writers, set designers look for ways to insert it. Most of the time, we don’t notice it at a conscious level. It impacts us subconsciously. But when done well, it adds to the emotional satisfaction we get from watching the movie.

Do you watch for symbolism in movies and books? Do you pay attention to it in your stories?

©Stina Lindenblatt

The purpose of the first draft is to get our story down. It doesn’t matter if the imagery is lame or non-existent. It doesn’t matter if the setting is weak or forgotten. And it doesn’t matter if you told the mood and emotion in the scene instead of showing it. All that matters is that you see the scene for what it is—a wealth of possibilities.

It’s not until we step back and evaluate the potential in the scene (or photo) that we can transform our load of cr*** into something magical, something that speaks to us. When I took the above photo, I had an image in mind for the theme and mood of the picture. Unfortunately, I only had my point & shoot camera with me, and it didn’t share my vision. Not even close. But that’s okay. I converted the JPEG file to RAW (it’s the format professional photographers prefer to use) in Photoshop Elements*, and tweaked the settings to give me the image I had in mind. And voila!

©Stina Lindenblatt

Obviously, you can’t try the same trick with your writing. What you can do is identify the theme, mood, emotion of the scene, and brainstorm words that evoke the image you have in mind. Go crazy. Write everything down, then highlight those words that belong to your character’s voice. Now, weave the words into your setting description to create the mood and emotion you’re after. But remember, less is more. A dash adds flavor. Too much and you leave a bitter taste in your reader’s mouth.

What are some tricks you use to make a scene stronger? When you end up with a photo like the first one, do you find ways to make it better, or do you delete it and pretend it never existed?

*Just use ‘Open As’ in Photoshop Elements, and open your JPEG photo as a RAW file. You can then easily adjust for exposure, brightness, clarity, color saturation, etc, to get the image you’re looking for.

Several years ago, I attended a SCBWI workshop with an editor from Harper Collins. She told us to take a book we love and read it three times, consecutively. Great idea, except I hadn’t read a book at that point that I loved enough to use for the assignment. That changed recently when I discovered the YA contemporary novel Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry. This book not only had me bawling as I read it, I cried a few days later when I thought about one specific scene. I knew I had to analyze the book to see what Katie did to make it my favorite book of the year.

First Read Through
Because I first read the book back in July, that didn’t count toward the assignment. It was too long ago. I had to start again. I reread the book without stopping to take notes. And yes, I cried at the same scene that I cried at the first time.

Second Read Through
This time I focused on story structure. Pushing the Limits (PTL) is a dual POV story, alternating between the two main characters: Noah and Echo. Because I love the book Save the Cat (STC) by Blake Synder, I used it to break down PTL according to Blake’s story structure beats. You don’t have to use STC. There are other great books that also discuss story structure. They’re all very similar and can be applied to most stories.

First, I created a table with three columns. This is because I was dealing with two points of view. I assigned ‘Echo’ to the first column, ‘Noah’ to the second one, and the third column was reserved for the STC beats. For example, in PTL the catalyst moment falls under one of Noah’s scenes. I wrote ‘Catalyst’ in the third column in blue ink (for Noah) and described in one sentence the catalyst moment. I used a different color for Echo.

Next, I wrote the GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict) for the POV character of each scene. I also added any notes about plot that I wanted to include. And yes, I cried again at that one emotion-filled scene.

Third Read Through
This time I focused on characterization and the emotional impact of the story. For the main characters (Echo and Noah), I listed:

• Fears

• Key issues (e.g. both have issues of trust and issues with authority, but not in the same way)

• Word to describe them (Noah is self-confident; Echo is insecure)

• Story goal for each

• What Echo and Noah have in common. In other words, the connection that binds them together for the story (since PTL is a romance)

• Wound or fatal flaw

• Identity (how others view them. Their personal armor, so to speak)

• The real them (who they really are when they drop the personal armor).

• Moments that revealed emotion

• Any symbolism used

• Use of the senses

• Small moments with huge impact

• Characterization (for all the characters)

• Hot make out scenes :)

Some of you are no doubt cringing at the amount of time involved for this level of analysis. To me, it was worth it. I learned so much about why I loved the book and how to make my stories (especially my dual POV stories) stronger.

Do you analyze books you love (or dislike)? If so, what do you looked for? How many times do you usually read a book consecutively when you analyze it?

©Stina Lindenblatt

Monday, I posted on how universal theme and the character wound builds emotion in your story. Today, I want to focus on two other ways to develop emotional power in your story.

Showing verses Telling

The first thing you want to avoid when writing emotion is telling.

“Go away,” he said angrily.

In the above sentence, the writer is telling the reader that the character is angry. We don’t get to experience his anger. You can switch ‘said angrily’ for yelled, but there’s a stronger way to show emotion.

He gripped the ends of the armrests and took a long, slow breath. “Go. Away.” The two simple words, meaningless on their own, held a dangerous edge when spoken without his usual warmth. He could only hope that Lydia was smart enough to understand what he was really telling her. She was a b**** and a traitor, and he would rather spend eternity in hell than spend another minute listening to her heartbreaking lies.

In the first example, you learn nothing about the character. By showing the emotion through action, dialogue, inner thoughts, visceral reaction, setting (more about this in a moment), you reveal characterization. One character might scream and hurl breakable objects at the wall when he is angry. Another character might speak in a calm yet deadly tone, and reveal his anger through body language, like in the second example. Same emotion. Two different ways to show it.

Go Deep

Words are powerful, but only if you pick the right ones. Use words in an unexpected way to add emotion to the sentence. These are typically your theme words or scene-related ones (i.e. if your scene deals with death, your power words would be related to death). For example, ‘He watched the light bleed slowly out of day . . . . ‘ (Whispers by Dean Koontz). Notice the difference, emotion wise, between that and ‘He watched the daylight fade . . . .’ The former sentence was created to give you the shivers. Try this trick to add dimension and emotion to your setting.

Use words to show a shift in emotion and mood in the scene. The scene could start off with words like ‘skip, sunshine, rose-scented’, but as the mood and emotion change, you weave in words like ‘trudge, stench of rotting corpses, spiraling down’. For the most impact, figure out what emotions you want to show in the scene, brainstorm verbs and nouns that best convey them, then slip them in as needed. This is a great way to add imagery to your writing.

Study Study Study

The best way to learn how to put emotion in your story is to study your favorite novels (or short stories, if you write them). Pick ones similar to what you want to write. For example, if you want to write a tear jerker, then that’s what you should study. Rip them apart and examine how the author approached the above elements. Then apply what you learned to your WIP. I’ll be talking more about analyzing stories in an upcoming post.

Do you make sure that your story is rich with emotion before you write the first draft and while editing?

(note: I’ve posted part one and two today on the Querytracker blog).

©Stina Lindenblatt

Story isn’t about plot. It’s about emotion. It’s the element that leaves your body tingling in fear or anticipation for what will happen next, and what readers want from the first page to the end. But how do you bring in emotion to add maximum power to your story?

Universal Theme

Universal theme will help your readers connect to the characters and emotions in the story. These are themes that everyone can relate to, even if they can’t relate to the specific circumstances of the story. For example, how many of you know what it feels like to have the mob kill your family? None of you, I hope. Now, what if you wrote a story about how your protagonist’s best friend tells her uncle, who happens to be the Godfather of the local crime family, that she suspects the friend is the estranged daughter of the family he’s been salivating to kill, after her father turned state evidence on his former boss? Depending on how you set up the story, you can choose to focus on the universal theme of betrayal. At one point in our lives, we’ve all experienced the feeling of being betrayed. Now we can relate to the character and the emotion of the story, even though we have never, thankfully, gone through the same experience.

Character Wounds

Another word for character wound is backstory. This is where you create the most painful past possible for your character, and let it guide your character’s actions. The type and depth of wound will be dependent on genre. The wound then plays a part in determining your character’s fears, and it is the wound and fears that make the character vulnerable. Since he doesn’t want people to know his vulnerability (especially the antagonist), he creates a persona that protects him from being hurt. For example, you could have a character who lost his parents due to an accident and is bounced around the foster care system. He ends up in the worst of homes, where the foster parents only care about the money. He’s neglected and abused. He learns not to trust adults, and because he’s bounced around so much, he learns not to develop attachments to other people. He becomes the bad-boy loner, complete with tattoos. Inside, he’s still the caring individual he was before his parents died, but he refuses to let people get close enough to discover this. That is, until he finds the right girl.

Naturally, you would not dump this information on the first page. Write the backstory down in a separate file, and fit slivers of it into your story. Start with the small stuff, hinting of the possible wound, and as the story progresses, hit your reader with the most emotional, gut wrenching parts of your protagonist’s past. Your reader will keep turning the page, because she wants to find out what really happened X number of years ago. It’s a great way to build emotional suspense.

Have you considered universal theme and character backstory when creating the emotion behind your stories?

Part two will be posted on Wednesday.

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As you know, I love craft books on writing. I’ve decided to showcase some of them by sharing quotes that deals with a particular element. Today I’m focusing on emotion.

<<<3

Emotional Elements: Wind as a sexiness all its own. It can ring the wind chime. It can lift the hem of a filmy skirt. It can comb her long locks in a convertible. It can wave the flag. It can carry rain and drive snow. It can push the curtains aside in a boudoir window. It can dance with autumn leaves. And it can whistle through the high country pines with a song so magical I get goose bumps. And that’s what we want from any of these elements—goose bumps.

Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot by Peter Dunne

Pay special attention to the events leading up to an emotional response. If the plotting feels contrived, the character’s reaction will seem contrived as well.

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi (love love love this resource)

Showing your reader an emotion is far stronger than telling your reader that emotion. You tell the emotion by naming it. You show the emotion by showing the character’s physiological reactions at moments of high tension. Keep asking yourself, “How does my character feel? What does my character feel?” If you can answer those questions with a physiological response, then you have a potent way to give your reader a powerful emotional experience.

Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson (this is where the Emotion Thesaurus is helpful)

Think of each scene as a mini-movie. It must have a beginning, middle, and an end. And it must also have something happen that causes the emotional tone to change drastically.

Save the Cat by Blake Synder

Extended Metaphors: In this technique, you refer to the same metaphor at two, three, or four different points in a single scene; each mention adds another layer of emotion meaning . . . . I you use the extended metaphor to convey emotion in a scene, the guidelines are the same as for a single metaphor: aptness, moderation, and congruity with setting.

Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by Nancy Kress

Weak writing fails to make an impact. Powerful writing grabs your reader’s attention and keeps them reading.

You don’t have to be a super hero to write power words. You just need to know a few tricks.

1. Never use two words when one word is better. Typically, the two-word issue arises when you abuse adverbs. Dash, bolt, sprint are power-loaded words. ‘Runs quickly’ is for wimps.

2. Use words in an unexpected way to add power to the sentence. These are typically your theme words or scene-related words. (e.g. if your scene deals with death, your power words would be related to death).

Example: . . . he watched the light bleedslowly out of day . . . . (Whispersby Dean Koontz)

3. Use words to show a shift in the emotion and mood of the scene.

Example: skip, sunshine, rose-scented, trudge, stench of rotting corpses, spiraling down

4. For the most impact, put your power words at the end of the sentence or paragraph. It’s not always possible, but sometimes all you need to do is rework the sentence.

Before: I’m the one who came home to witness the body bag being wheeled out of the front door, Nate covered in blood, and the flashing of emergency lights lighting up the afternoon sky.
After: I’m the one who came home to witness the flashing of emergency lights lighting up the afternoon sky, the body bag being wheeled out the front door, and Nate covered in blood. (WIP)
Noticed the difference in how I ordered the phrases between the two sentences. In the second one, they go from least important to the one with most impact (Nate covered in blood).

This is also a great trick for emphasising something or hiding information. If you want to emphasize it, place it at the end of the paragraph. If you want the reader to find out about the information, but not realize it’s important, then bury it in the middle of the paragraph. It’s foreshadowing without screaming foreshadowing. Cool, huh?

Do you use consciously use power words in your writing? Do you have any other suggestions?

©Stina Lindenblatt

Normally, when I do a writing/photography post, I can write about one idea and apply it to both crafts. Not this time.

Writers:

Contrasts are a great way to add dimension to your character and increase conflict, both internally and externally. The interplay between the light (good) side and the shadow will make the character unique from the other characters in your story. Maybe she’s smart and witty, but she fears being betrayed by someone emotionally close to her [insert backstory here]. Can you imagine the conflict (both internally and externally) this can cause if she attract the attention of the hero who is turned on by smart and witty?

Do you develop the light and shadow sides of your characters to make them dimensional and add conflict to your stories?

Photography:

The interplay between a dark background and a single light source on your subject makes for great dimensional photos. However, by the nature of the camera design, the picture might not come out as you had intended. Because the light meter in the camera is designed to assume the average gray scale of the scene is 18 % (don’t worry if you don’t know what that means), a scene composed mostly of dark colors will end up looking much lighter than in reality.

There are several ways to avoid this:

• Use an external light meter.

• You can place the palm of your hand between the scene and the camera lens. This only works if the skin on your palm is not dark. I did this method for the above photo because the battery for my external light meter was dead. *face palm*

• If your camera has a spot meter, determine the exposure based on part of the scene that doesn’t fall in the two extremes.

• Adjust the exposure with a photo editing software.

As writers, we’re constantly reminded to read outside our genre(s). Certain genres are character-based while others focus on plot. If you read predominantly plot-based stories, you’re missing out on an opportunity to see how others develop characters readers love to connect with. Romance, young adult, and horror are a few genres that rely heavily on emotions. Thrillers and suspense are perfect examples for solid pacing. By reading other genres, it will help you further develop your craft, plus they might trigger ideas to use within your stories.

But what about craft books on writing? Have you explored books that don’t focus solely on writing novels and short stories?

We’re all familiar with Writer’s Digest. My bookshelves are crammed full of craft books from the publisher (yeah, I have a little addiction issue). But last year, I discovered a publisher most of us aren’t familiar with—unless you’ve read Save the Cat! by Blake Synder. Michael Wiese Production publishes tons of books that focus on TV and film, and many of these deal with topics relevant to novelists.

The following are books that now live on my bookshelf (all which I love):

Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need by Blake Synder (I recently ordered the sequel Save the Cat! Strikes Back: More Trouble for Screenwriters to Get into ... and Out of at Elana Johnson’s recommendation. It's in the mail.)

(Seriously, how can you resist this cover????)

Story Line: Finding Gold in Your Life Story by Jen Grisanti

Writing Subtext: What Lies Beneath by Dr. Linda Seger

Symbols, Images, Codes: The Secret Language of Meaning in Film, TV, Games, and Visual Media by Pamela Jaye Smith

Inner Drives: How to Write & Create Characters Using the Eight Classic Centers of Motivation by Pamela Jaye Smith

Have you read any craft books geared toward screenwriters?

(So what does Brad Pitt have to do with this? Nothing. But it got you to look, right? And maybe if you study these books and take up writing screenplays, you might just meet him when you pen his Oscar winning movie. Hey, you never know.)

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This summer, I dragged two of my kids to our Toyota dealer because of an issue with our van. Five years ago, we bought a vehicle that turned out to have a major design flaw. A design flaw Toyota knew about.

Several days after we took our van in for regular maintenance, the door on the driver’s side made a loud cracking sound every time we opened it. We took it back to Toyota and they told us only an auto body shop could fix it. At. Our. Expense. That was a $600 bill. This was when we found out it was a common problem for Toyota vehicles made over five years ago (and of course, our warranty had just expired).

I went back to the dealership and asked: During our regular service appointments did anyone, knowing this was an issue, checked the status of the doors while our van was still under warranty?

The last thing the service guy wanted to do was answer my question. He kept avoiding it. He told me the info I had (printed from their website) only applied to the U.S. (Yeah, right). So I repeated my ‘yes or no’ question. Okay, maybe I’ve watched one too many Law & Order episodes. I was beginning to sound like a lawyer, stressing each time that I was only interested in a yes or no response.

The guy grew agitated and shifted nervously on his feet. I kept asking my question and he kept refusing to answer it since I was taking him away from his script. It was actually quite entertaining, especially when he shot panicked looks at his co-workers and they pretended he didn’t exist.

Subtext enables your reader to see that more is going on than what’s in the text. It enables you to create a richer, more emotion packed story. But remember, subtext is never told. It’s implied (shown) by many things, including your characters’ actions.

Do you enjoy writing subtext? Is it something your focus on when editing a draft?

(Note: I’ll be talking more about subtext next week)

Yeah, yeah, I know. There are more than twelve days till Christmas. But The Twelve Blogging Days of Christmas for Writers (According to Stina’s Schedule) was way too long a title.

Anyhow, I’m going to be blogging about awesome gifts ideas you might want to start hinting heavily for from your significant others, friends, family. Or if they don’t get the hint, then you reward yourself with them.

<<<3

Back in September, members of one chapter of the Romance Writers of America started singing the praises for the online courses by Margie Lawson. Always on the lookout for anything that will take my writing to the next level, I couldn’t wait to check them out.

And I’m so glad I did.

But the best part was I didn’t have to wait until the next course to learn from her brilliance. Her course notes are available, and for much less than the online courses.

The following three I highly recommend to help you write fresh instead of stale or clichéd (the descriptions are from her website):

1. Empowering Characters’ Emotions

Want to add a psychological punch to your writing and editing?

Want to learn how to capture the full range of body language on the page?

Want to turn your work into a page-turner by powering up emotion and hooking the reader viscerally?

(Trust me, you do!!!!)

2. Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist

3. Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More

DEEP EDITING is for the writer who wants to psychologically impact the unconscious of the reader. For the writer who wants to learn fresh editing techniques. For the writer who wants to edit for power. (I blogged about rhetorical devices not long ago on the QueryTracker.net blog. That was nothing compared to what Margie will teach you.)

Her course notes are FILLED with examples from New York Times bestsellers. By the time you’ve finished studying them, you won’t be able to look at your writing the same way again. You’ll cringe every time you write (or read) the same old tired phrases that everyone leans on—except for the bestsellers. If you’re looking for a way to strengthen your voice, these courses will help you as well.

If I were to give them a rating out of five stars, they would definitely be worth six stars.

Is there anything writing related that you would like Santa to bring you this year?

When describing the setting in your scene, you want to avoid mentioning everything found there. Only describe the floral wallpaper if it’s important to the mood, characterization, emotion, or plot. Everything else can be ignored. By doing this, those details that are “shown” will have greater impact.
If you’re like me, your setting will take shape over several drafts as you pile on the details. Then you trim away those parts that aren’t essential, leaving you with a stronger setting. Sometimes you don’t know what those details will be until several drafts later.
The same trick can be used in photography. Turning the background black & white, while the object you want to emphasis is left in its original color, will add emotion to the photo. As you can see in the second picture, the red flowers would have been lost with the red dress as the background. (Sorry, the original photo used to create the first picture has gone awol, but this is the same dress.)

What are some of your favorite tricks for dealing with settings (writing or photography)?

How many of you have beta read for someone and received a thank you from the person even though your suggestions caused her to do massive rewrites? How many of you received, instead, a nasty email telling you how wrong you are?

We’ve all heard the sage advice that you should wait at least three days before responding to a critique. What you don’t want to do is criticize the person who beta reads your book and undermine her opinion. If you don’t agree with it, then simply ignore it.

I recently sent feedback on a novel I was beta reading. For the most part I had been enjoying it, but there were a few clichés and aspects that I felt were cruel or hurtful to certain teen readers. Also, there was a character type I’d seen in the teen movie Easy A (who came off as a cliché/stereotype even in the movie). The similarities between the two were too close for comfort. I emailed the writer to warn her. Unfortunately, the writer felt it necessary to send me a nasty email. Once it became insulting, I stopped reading it, for both our sakes.

Fortunately, I’m not a vindictive person. If her book is published, I’ll still buy it to support the author. But not everyone is like me. What would happen if her book was published one day, and it had been someone else who received the nasty email? Remember, what happens in Los Vegas doesn’t always stay in Lost Vegas. You don’t want your unprofessional attitude to someone’s feedback to hurt you down the line.

The other problem is that if you keep berating your beta readers you disagree with, you’re setting yourself up for learned behaviors that are inappropriate when you are published. You’re more likely to respond to negative reviews in a non-professional manner, which is something you want to avoid at all costs.

So remember, if you want your beta readers to only gush about your book, great. Just warn them first. And if you don’t like what they have to say, then just thank them and ignore it. Don’t justify why you did something a certain way, unless you’re hoping for additional feedback.

Has anyone else had a similar situation?

Why do readers of romance keeping turning the page instead of rushing off to clean the toilet? (I mean, other than the obvious reason.) It’s because they want to know what happens between the hero and heroine. This is true regardless if you’re writing YA novels, romantic suspense, paranormal romances.

But it’s not enough to give the two characters a happily-ever-after from page one (save that for the ending). You need to create tension and conflict between them, which is maintained throughout the story.

According to Leslie Waigner (Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies) this can be achieved by creating an emotional conflict (one that grows from the heart) between the two characters that has nothing to with the plot. After that, you can throw all kinds of complications at them.

However, don’t confuse emotional conflict with intellectual conflict. Intellectual conflict comes from the head, such as opinions.

Remember, at the end of the day, the reader cares more about what’s in the hero’s and heroine’s hearts than what’s in their heads. (Okay, you know what I mean.)

Even if the romance is only a subplot, you still want to keep these things in mind when you write this aspect of the story.

What keeps you turning the pages of a novel (and it doesn’t have to be about romance)?

One of the workshops I attended during the RWA (Romance Writers of America) national conference dealt with adding emotion to your story.

Author Jennifer Greene explained that not all conflicts will give you an emotional story. When you create conflict, make sure it’s not one your character can escape or walk away from, and make your character as miserable as possible. Only then will your conflict have the greatest emotional impact.

For example, a tornado isn’t a conflict if your characters can hide in a tornado shelter. In the movie Where the Heart Is, a severe storm rapidly approaches Natalie Portman’s home. She and her three-year-old daughter rush over to the neighbor’s house to hide in the storm cellar. However, Natalie’s friend (the woman who took Natalie and her newborn baby in when they had no place to go) left a short while ago to deliver soup to a sick friend. Natalie’s frantic and stays above ground, waiting for Stockard Channing to return. And then the worst happens: a tornado develops. Natalie waits for as long as she can before she has to seek cover. But as she climbs down the stairs, before she has a chance to close the storm door, the wind tries to suck her away. Natalie is left clinging to the railing.

Scared and upset at what’s happening to her mom, Natalie’s daughter tries to go to her, despite the neighbor’s attempt to stop her. The strong wind catches her and pulls her out of the storm cellar. Her mom manages to grab hold of her at the last second. Fortunately, the door then slams shut, saving them both.

But that’s not the end of the heart pounding moment. Stockard Channing is still missing. Unfortunately, the news is not good. She doesn’t survive. The emotional moment is brought to its climax with Natalie taking photos of her daughter holding onto the skinny trunk of the (symbolic) buckeye tree while surveying the devastation. The award winning photo is a heartbreaking reminder of what was lost that day.

Now, that’s emotional conflict.

(And yes, I cry every time I watch the move.)

How about your story? Can your protagonist escape/walk away from the story problem or conflict? If so, maybe now’s the time to brainstorm ways so she can’t.

I’d like to introduce you to my new best friend.

That’s right. My new best friend is a corkboard, and it’s become my savior when it came to restructuring my WIP. I love it so much, I’m going to use it this summer to plot out my next novel.
This is how it works:
· Each index card represents a scene.
· On one side of the card, write a sentence or two about the scene.
· On the bottom, indicate what emotional change(s) your POV character goes through during the scene.
· On the back, write the GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict) for your POV character. If you want, you can write them for all the characters in the scene, too, though you might have to do this on additional index cards and pile them underneath the main one.
Now comes the fun part:
· Pin the index cards in the order you think the scenes should go.
· Play around with them, and see if there’s a better way to sequence the scenes to make your story stronger.
· Don’t be afraid to toss away scenes that aren’t working the way you first envisioned.
Obviously, this is ideally done BEFORE you write your first draft. But even if you’ve written your first draft (or your third or fifth draft), you can still use this tool. When Laura Pauling (the queen of story structure) told me I should move a few scenes around in my WIP, I thought she was insane brilliant. But after playing around with the corkboard, I not only moved those scenes around, I moved several others and tossed a few in the recycle bin (but this is only because my story problem/goal had changed).
While moving a scene might sound daunting if you’ve already written the first draft, after plotting things out on the corkboard, it’s not so scary after all. You can see how much better the story will be, and the rewrites won’t be so painful (at least that’s what I keep telling myself).
You can’t see it in this picture, but the cards are organized according to Act, and the key element of the act (e.g Catalyst, Debate, or Dark Moment*) are indicated on the appropriate card.
Have any of you used a corkboard (or the software equivalent) for plotting out your story (either before the first draft (plotters) or afterwards (pansters)? And if so, do you have any other tips to share?
(* refers to the elements in Save the Cat by Blake Synder)
<<<3

Next week, I’m going to NYC for the RWA conference (and family vacation). Since I have a gazillion things to do before I leave, this will be my last post until July 11th. After that, I’ll be posting Mondays and Wednesdays until September 5th.

I miss you all already. :)

XOX

This post is a continuation of Monday’s. I’m going to list the elements that make up each section of the act, and illustrate them with examples from the movie Tangled. Laura Pauling is also continuing her post on structure and Tangled.

(Warning: there are spoilers in this post)

Act Two—continued

(This is part two of the second act)

Pages 55 to 65:

• Emotional defeat

• Loss of faith

• Most vulnerable

• Bonding with co-protagonist (commitment)

• Emotional union

• Changes begin

• Growth is painful


With each conflict, Rapunzel and Flynn find out more about each other. For example, Flynn reveals his real name, and Rapunzel tells him her hair has magical properties (perfect timing for this revelation, which ends up saving their lives).

Each conflict supports the notion that the world is a scary place, just like “Mother” said.

Rapunzel realizes her growing feelings for Flynn. But Mother finds Rapunzel and tells her that he’s only interested in the crown (which Rapunzel has hidden). Once he gets it back, he’ll turn his back on her. Because Rapunzel and Flynn have revealed a lot about themselves to each other, they are both at their most vulnerable.

When Rapunzel refuses to go back home with her, Mother challenges Rapunzel to test Flynn’s feelings for her by giving him the crown and seeing if he sticks around.

Rapunzel and Flynn spend the afternoon together and their feelings for each other deepen. They go out on the water to watch the lanterns being released into the sky (naturally there’s a love song at this point to emphasize this).

Seeing the lanterns makes Rapunzel realize that the world is not how she originally thought. She isn’t scared anymore, and both her and Flynn realize their new dream—a life together.

Pages 65 to 70


• Deepest fears are tested

• Emotional set back

• Break up and give up

• Willing to lose

Rapunzel gives Flynn the crown. He leaves her for a moment to give it to the bad guys. He’s no longer interested in it. He wants to be with Rapunzel.

Flynn doesn’t return. Instead, the bad guys go over to where Rapunzel is waiting and point to him floating away on a sail boat. It looks like he’s leaving, when in reality, he’s tied up and unconscious.

Rapunzel believes he betrayed her trust in him, and returns with Mother to the tower, thus giving up her dream.

Pages 70 to 80

• Rebuild or die

• Higher purpose

• Alone again but aloneness is sad—no longer a comfort

Alone again, Rapunzel knows she can no longer be happy knowing about the beauty and good that’s out in the world.

She realizes that she’s the missing princess. She also realizes that she spent her life hiding from people who would use her for her power, when it was her “Mother” she should have been hiding from.

Pages 80 to 85

• Facing death

• Commit to love

• Faith defeat fear

• Climax

Flynn realizes Rapunzel is in danger. With the help of his ruffian friends, he escapes from prison (where he had ended up when he was captured by the palace guards) and races to the tower, only to find Rapunzel tied up. Mother stabs him as he climbs through the window.

Rapunzel makes a deal with her mother. If her mother lets Rapunzel save Flynn, she’s stop fighting against her and won’t try to get away.

Act Three: “Life as it was” (Pages 85 to 110)

• The climax

• Victory over the antagonist

• Physical euphoria

• The resolution

• Letting go of old self completely

• Embracing co-protagonist

• The emotional battle is finally won

• Honestly facing feelings

• Honesty creates trust

• Trust creates love

• Boy gets girl

Flynn cuts Rapunzel’s hair, knowing it means he’ll die. Anything to save Rapunzel. With her hair cut, the power will die.

With the restorative powers of the hair gone, Mother turns into an old hag (because she was hundreds of years old, as told in the prologue). The old hag dies.

Rapunzel attempts to save Flynn. She sings, trying to get her hair to save him, but he dies. But of course, this being a Disney movie, her tears have restorative powers and Flynn lives.

Rapunzel returns to her family—the king and queen—and the kingdom rejoices, and all the loose ends are tied up.

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So, there you go, two different take on the movie Tangled, based on two different screenwriting books on story structure.

Emotional Structure also talks about the emotional journey of the story. Using Tangled as an example, I’ll be talking more about it in July.

As some of you know, Laura Pauling loves to analyze novels and movies using the screenwriting book, Save the Cat, by Blake Synder. And as you might also know, in addition to being a fan of STC, I love the screenwriting book, Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot by Peter Dunne. So we decided to analyze the movie Tangled using our fav screenwriting books so you can see the difference and similarities between them, as well as see ways to improve your own stories.

Notes:

1. The breakdown is based on the typical script length of 110 pages. For novels, you have to adjust the numbers based on the length of your manuscript. We have more flexibility than screenwriters do.

2. The points are from the charts in Emotional Structure.

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Act One: “Life as it was” (pages 1-25)

Page 1:

• Meet the protagonist: Rapunzel

• Establish point of view: Even though the movie is predominantly from Rapunzel’s point of view, and it’s mostly her story, the co-protagonist, Flynn Ryder, introduces Rapunzel’s backstory in the prologue.

• Establish emotional state and theme

• Great, gripping opening (no, duh!)

Pages 1-10: State problem. Life is boring with the same daily routine. Rapunzel wonders when life will begin.

Page 10: 1st problem: Rapunzel asks “Mother” if she can go see the floating lights that are released every year on Rapunzel’s birthday. She wants to know what they are. The answer is ‘no’. Mother reminds her that the world is a dangerous and scary place.

Between pages 10-20: Clash with co-protagonist. Thief Flynn Ryder escapes the “bad” guys by climbing into Rapunzel’s tower. She bashes him on the head and he passes out.

He wakes up. Rapunzel panics and knocks him unconscious again.

She wants to show him to Mother, to demonstrate that she’s strong enough to go outside without getting hurt (Apparent solution to 1st problem (page 20)).

Mother gets mad at Rapunzel for suggesting that she wants to go outside. Rapunzel decides not to show Mother unconscious man in closet (Solution disappears).

New Solution: Rapunzel asks Flynn to take her to see the lanterns and then return her home safely. If he does this, then she’ll give him back the satchel with the crown in it (she doesn’t know the crown is stolen).

Pages 20-25: Problem worsens and Major crisis. I was stuck on this one. Maybe it’s when he initially says no.

Goal must be set by mentor: Again, I was stuck on this one. I believe it was when Pasquel, her pet chameleon, wants her to leave the tower (he makes this clear at the very beginning of the movie).

Page 25: Moral Dilemma: As Rapunzel walks away from the tower, she’s tore as to whether she’s doing the right thing or not. Should she go back to the safety of the tower, or should she go against her mother’s wishes and continue her journey.

Act Two: “Life torn apart” (pages 25 to 85)

• Physical action helps create risks and danger

• Emotional resistance

• Fears are revealed and challenged: Flynn takes Rapunzel to a tavern—The Cuddly Duckling—which is filled with a bunch of scary ruffians. Of course after they break out into song and dance about having dreams (’cause this is Disney, you know), Rapunzel realizes not everyone is dangerous. This goes against what Flynn is after. He wants Rapunzel to give up on her dream so that he can get the crown and leave (co-protagonist feud)

• Suffer loss

• Route altered: Palace guards (who are after Flynn because he stole the crown) chase Flynn and Rapunzel. The two bad guys, who were chasing Flynn at the beginning, join forces with Rapunzel’s “mother”.

Page 55: Tent pole Scene. Flynn and Rapunzel escape the guards and ‘bad’ guys, but are trapped and almost drown. (Middle of movie)

Part two of the post (i.e. the second half of the movie) will continue on Wednesday.

Question: do you have any favorite books on story structure, or is this something you haven’t thought about much (like me until a few weeks ago)?

Juxtaposition involves placing objects close together for a contrasting effect. For example: weathered/new, rough/smooth, dark/light. It’s used a lot in photography, and is a great technique for heightening the emotion within a scene of your story.

For example, in my WIP, one scene takes place in the high school hallway on Valentine’s Day. The place is decorated with red and white balloons to symbolize the joyous occasion (for some teens, I guess). As my protagonist and her potential love interest approach his locker (the meaning of the day not lost on them), she notices the principal and a cop standing next to it.

All hell breaks loose and the guy is arrested, further causing my protagonist to question a few things regarding their relationship. I’ve juxtaposed a joyous event with a negative one.

Now, I could have written the same scene, but instead of placing it in the hallway on Valentine’s Day, it could have taken place outside (on a regular school day). In the rain. The protagonist is already grumpy due to the weather. This is your standard cliché setting: bad weather foreshadowing negative event.

Which one do you think will stick out in your reader’s mind? Which one will have the greatest emotional impact?