I finally blew up the middle of the contemporary this morning. I’ve been pacing and fretting and not making any progress on the story all week. I know this point of a book very well. It’s the point where I go back and re-read the whole thing to make certain I really have a story. And then I go back and revise everything I’ve written because the story still isn’t moving, so I’ve obviously screwed up something. And then I send it to half a dozen friends so they can tell me there really is a story. And then I fret and pace some more.
Maybe it’s just Mercury retrograde, but I think I ought to just learn to plot in a scene that says “blow everything to heck up” before I even start the book. Granted, I’ve read Vogler and Maass and all that ilk and they pretty much confirm SOMETHING has to happen in the middle, but this is romance, folks. You can’t continually kill people in the middle of a romance. Well, at this point, I gladly would, but my editor would have a heart attack if I killed the hero, and the heroine ended up alone. None of this “almost kill” business for me. I want him dead right now.
So today I just brought all the guilty parties together and let them have it. Conflict, tension, tears, kids upchucking, the works. Painful. I hate conflict. That’s why I resist middles. They require painful conflict.
Maybe Vogler has it right after all. Just kill the hero. So much simpler.
Friday, August 12, 2005
Monday, August 08, 2005
Promotions-R-Us
I had half a dozen craft questions and quibbles running around inside my head earlier as I worked over a friend’s final draft, but they got blown out by a series of e-mails relating to book promotion that I just opened.
My personality is not oriented toward self promotion. I’ve hired someone to send postcards and ARCs, and someone else monitors my website. I answer email and spend a few minutes when I have time to jot this blog because I enjoy talking to readers. I love writing. I detest waving my name in people’s faces and saying “I wrote this book, look at me!”
But the fact is, someone has to do it. There are probably a thousand new books published every month. Publishers do their thing with the distributors and retailers, but they can’t reach the readers who go into the store to pick up the books. That’s supposed to be my job. Sitting here all by myself in my little office, I am supposed to come up with some campaign to wave my books and my name in readers’ faces so they’ll remember them.
It’s been suggested that I find on-line reader lists and introduce myself. Have you ever walked into a room full of strangers and started shaking hands and introducing yourself? If you have, want to be me for a while?
Sigh, guess now instead of sitting here quietly talking to myself, I’ll have to go out and find reader groups. If anyone has suggestions, please feel free to comment! I don’t bite, although I do occasionally growl.
My personality is not oriented toward self promotion. I’ve hired someone to send postcards and ARCs, and someone else monitors my website. I answer email and spend a few minutes when I have time to jot this blog because I enjoy talking to readers. I love writing. I detest waving my name in people’s faces and saying “I wrote this book, look at me!”
But the fact is, someone has to do it. There are probably a thousand new books published every month. Publishers do their thing with the distributors and retailers, but they can’t reach the readers who go into the store to pick up the books. That’s supposed to be my job. Sitting here all by myself in my little office, I am supposed to come up with some campaign to wave my books and my name in readers’ faces so they’ll remember them.
It’s been suggested that I find on-line reader lists and introduce myself. Have you ever walked into a room full of strangers and started shaking hands and introducing yourself? If you have, want to be me for a while?
Sigh, guess now instead of sitting here quietly talking to myself, I’ll have to go out and find reader groups. If anyone has suggestions, please feel free to comment! I don’t bite, although I do occasionally growl.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
