Million Dollar Emotional Appeal for the Right Audience - Personal Preference vs. Objectivity

David Farland gave a nice webinar talk for the recent IndieReCon workshop, titled "Million Dollar Ideas". He expounded on the following main points: 1) A great setting, 2) The right protagonist, 3) Emotional appeal, 4) Keeping your audience surprised and intrigued, and 5) Using the best distribution plan for the type of book. All good stuff.

A segment from the Emotional Appeal section took me in a different direction. Farland asked the question, "What does the audience love?" He explained that this is influenced by gender, and changes as we get older. Children love wonder. Girls start to like romance. Boys want adventure. Adults like mystery and or drama. Later on, we might want something more intellectual. These generalities affect how we write and how we view the work of others.

It hit me that our likes and dislikes, because of age and sex, enter into our comments to a critique group or as a beta reader. One step further would be why book reviews get varied responses. Are we being objective enough or do we let our personal emotional appeal tastes get in the way?

In my critique group we have a Middle Grade writer of horror and adventure, a Young Adult fantasy writer, a Contemporary Sweet Romance writer, and me--Historical Romance based on the Book of Mormon. All are females, but I am half a generation older than the other three. Does this mean I might enjoy submissions by the romance writer more than the other two? Most likely, but not by a large degree. Any writing done well can be enjoyable. 

This means we should be just as competent critiquing any writing as with our favorites. Writing elements such as clarity, pacing, or sentence structure are similar across all genres. Whether or not you love it is personal. Of personal preferences versus objectivity, should one rule or should we strive for a balance as a critique group member, beta reader, or book reviewer? 

Tips Gained at Writers Conference, Part 2

Studying a Contract
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Two of the classes I took at the LDStorymakers 2014 Conference are hard to pass along tips. One was a Scrivener writing program demonstration that caught my interest. It could be helpful for you to know that they have a free 30-day trial and half price to Nanowrimo winners. The other was a timely subject for me--Contracts. I'll not bore you with various clauses. However, I highly recommend getting help understanding what a potential contract contains or should contain but might not, before signing one.

My main focus this time was help with plot because the sequel I am writing has me stuck in a few spots. How do I keep the emotion in events and the stakes high for the people of Ammon who are happy and righteous? The following tips are from a combination of plot classes.
1. Each character needs a goal. There should also be a scene goal and overall story goal. Once in a while a character can get what they want if it furthers the story, but most of the time you keep them from their goal with conflict and disasters.
2. Stephanie Black taught that scenes are real-time action with conflict, and sequels are the connectors between them. Take notice of the amount of each so that we are neither bored nor out of breath. Reader need short pauses where characters take time to think and decide. Then get moving again. Make things happen for a reason.
3. Jordan McCollum showed a scene chart spreadsheet to visually see such things as length, who the point of view character is, their goal, the source of tension or conflict, the setting, mode (set-up, response, attack, resolution), etc. Is there smoothness into the next scene or a hole? What does the story shape look like? This could be a helpful tool for me.
4. Rachelle Christensen spoke about the power of outlining, whether strict or loose. Start with knowing your beginning, middle, and end points. Make a timeline, draw a map, or write a scene list. Use beats, point systems or other plot methods you like. Fill in the holes by discovering why, what are your characters' motivations? Anything can be changed. Never put a scene in that you don't love.
5. In Kris Chandler's Emotional Pacing class, she described that the physical plot is separate from the emotional plot. If you overlapped the ups and downs of the two, they may correlate or separate but should come closely together with a punch at the end. The story of the Three Little Pigs is plot-strong. It would scare children if the emotional pacing matched it. Toned down with cute words (like chinney chin chin) and rhyme, the emotional plotline makes it bearable. Identify the primary emotion you want the reader to feel in each scene.

Now let's get writing!

Tips Gained at Writers Conference, Part 1

Progress, or at least consistency, has been made. 
In passing the 200th post mark with this article, I found that learning some fresh ideas for blogging to be a timely topic for me. I gleaned some goodness from the Blogging class taught by DeNae Handy at the LDStorymakers Conference 2014. It's never the same as being there and hearing the fun stories accompanying one's notes, but here are some tips anyway. Enjoy!
Blogging: The Writer's Workroom
1. Everything is searchable and public. You cannot use published blog posts for profit elsewhere, so save your special ones for your memoir.
2. Blogging helps the writer: become a better observer, be creative, learn to be concise/brief (as opposed to writing a novel), develop subplots (as we meander into a different subject than when we began), connect with readers (verses the isolation of a novelist), tell engaging stories, expand your readership, lets you practice, discover, and more.
3. Go back and reread a few old posts to see how far you've come and to refreshen your voice.
Great tips, DeNae. Find her blog with funny stories at http://www.thebackorderedlife.com/ It's the new-to-me blog of the week.

I decided I better sit in on a Romance Genre class since my upcoming novel is being called a Book of Mormon Romance. Here's some of the pointers Krista Jensen shared:
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
1. Never let the hero and heroine be separated for more than ten pages. (Yeah. I broke that one until the climax. But then my story is more about Karlinah's self-discovery journey with romance as a subplot until the end.)
2. Show them in a variety of settings. (Check.)
3. Put them in a setting where they can't escape each other and must deal with one another. (Check.)
4. Romances have happy endings. (Double check.)

I'll share one more class for today, but look for more tips next week. Jeff Scott Savage gave examples and let the class 'fix' them in The Art of Creating Stronger Stories Through Subtlety. He showed us how to step things up and try something different.
1. Write in ways that 'show-don't tell'. Avoid thought verbs, using SO (She was so angry that...), and shortcuts. They 'tell'.
2. Keep foreshadowing subtle enough that readers don't know it's there until later.
3. Use misdirecton. Reader is lead to think a certain thing will happen but changes instead.
4. Avoid the obvious by not writing the first thing that comes to mind. What are the options?

Good stuff, eh? 

How to Worry Over the First Scene

  Writers talk about how essential that first sentence, first paragraph is in hooking your reader. Does it have to be full blown action-packed? Elana Johnson and James Scott Bell both say no. Let’s find out what it does need.

  At the LDStorymaker Conference I recently attended, Elana presented the beats of a novel as adapted from Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat books. The first beat is the opening scene. “You show your main character in the ordinary world in which they live,” Elana stated. Speaking of the opening scene for Possession, she adds, “Mine was a walk in the park.”

  James writes that people read to worry. Put your character in some kind of discomfort or danger, big or little. This is a disturbance, not high levels of action. The reader will side with someone in trouble and their connection to the character begins. The faster we worry, the faster we bond.

  So, while Elana shows the opening image of Vi’s normal world—a park, she also hints that trouble will follow her as she breaks the rules and that it will be recorded by the government. We have an immediate disturbance and our curiosity is peaked.

  Go back to that first page of the book you are reading or the novel you are writing. Does it have a disturbance by the end of the first paragraph? Do we have someone starting a new school, losing their job, or worried about an exam? Hopefully yes. Is there tense action already? Will the building suddenly explode or is the heroine tied to the railroad tracks? Probably not.

  Events will soon build, but first we want an intriguing disturbance in the character’s world. Happy worrying.

  
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Top: Local friends Me, Angela Milsap, Brenda Sills
Middle: My Roomies Angela and Emily
Bottom: My door prize win - With Karen Hoover who signed her book,
Misadventures of a Teenage Wizard. I also won Possession and Texting Through Time.



Passion and Motivation - Not Just Luck

  There's no luck of the Irish when it comes to writing. It takes hard work. But (luckily and happily) there are some helps. Find one below to work on or share another favorite in a comment.
  A couple of writer friends spoke with me about their struggle to write. One doesn’t crank out pages like she used to, with busier-than-ever circumstances that pushed writing into the background. The other has been distracted, maybe even disconnected to her story. Each time they sit down to write, they have to reread to figure out where they left off, remember what was to come next, and get into the mood of the scene to seamlessly flow back into the story. A difficult task that wastes precious time, makes the writer feel almost like a beginner again, and who knows if the muse will show up? Where’s the fun in that?
Today'sTips:
1. Passion. Work out your plot or character ideas to the point that you love what’s going on in your story. Fix or delete whatever you don’t like. Believe in it; find passion for it and the work turns into fun.
2. Time. Think about what time can do for you instead of against you. Prioritize and cut out the unnecessary. Short but regular frequency increases your ‘jump right back in’ abilities more than farther-spaced chunks of time. Be flexible. Remember that other things sometimes must come before writing and deal with it. Set aside a time slot and stick to it unless an interruption must take priority. Don’t get frustrated. You can always reschedule your writing time and try again. Recognize that success will probably take much more time than you wanted, but your best work is worth it.
3. Non-time. Use dead non-writing time. Thinking/imagining/planning time when you can’t write can sometimes be dovetailed with other less brain-intensive activities (like when captured in a car, waiting in lines, gardening). Keep a notebook to jot down you’re a-ha moments until you can get to the computer. Watch the people around you to dream up new characters or mannerisms and to get inspired.
4. Support Group. Let others know how important your writing time is. The son who must practice the piano or work his pitching arm so he doesn’t look like a fool can understand that you need some practice time too. Have someone to report to, who asks you how your goals are going or gives constructive, knowledgeable critiques.

  What helps you to keep writing?

Simple Fixes → Big Improvements

The right word choice can tighten up your writing and make it flow. A recent reminder of this struck me as I went through some rewrites. Using more words than needed is a common mistake—but also an easy fix. Here are some examples:

Food started to sound good to me. → Food sounded good to me.
I pretended to look at something else. → I looked elsewhere.
She was going to be next. → She would be next.
I didn’t want to risk being seen. → I couldn’t risk being seen.

Each of these examples has something in common besides being shortened. The little word “to” following the first verb weakens the next verb that I’d rather emphasize. I don’t want a character to merely “begin to" do something. I want her to do it. This improves the drama and pacing of the writing. Make use of your Find and Replace Box to catch these simple errors. Type a space before and after ( to ) so you don't get every word containing those two letters. Beleive me, there will be enough of them without finding things you don't want.