Can A First Novel Find a Publisher? 10 Do's and Don'ts to Increase Your Chances by Anne R. Allen

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I went to Atlanta for the SEC Championship to support my LSU Tigers and had a fabulous time. I even was on TV in the crowd on EPSN Gameday, which was so much fun.

Now first before we get to our awesome guest blog, I wanted to let y'all know that I'm being interviewed over at August McLaughlin's blog and am talking about blogging, how I got my book deal, and where the idea of CRASH INTO YOU came from. I'd appreciate it if any of you would like to stop by and say hi. :)

Alright, on to the main event...today I have an awesome treat for you guys. Author and blogger Anne R. Allen is here to talk about how to give your first novel a fighting chance. If you haven't heard of Anne, where the heck have you been? Anne has one of the best blogs for writers out there. Even in my I-don't-have-time-to-read-blogs-like-I-used-to manic state, I still make sure to visit Anne's every week. She always has great nuggets of wisdom to impart.


And though I haven't had the chance to start reading her books yet, I have no doubt her novels are going to be as witty and fun as her blog is. (And her books are about writers so how could we not love that?) So without further ado, here's Anne...



Can a First Novel Find a Publisher? 10 Do’s and Don’tsto Increase your Chances
by Anne R. Allen

It’sa sad truth that most first novels never see print. Editors call them “practicenovels.”

Likeany other profession, writing requires a long learning process, and most of ushave to write two or three or six novels before we get the hang of it.

Butsome writers DO get top agents and Big Six publishing contracts with theirfirst books. I’ve gathered a few tips that might give you a better chance inthe marketplace.

Pleasenote: These aren’t “right and wrong” rules of writing. They are guidelines formaking your book easier to sell.

Mostof us don’t know when we’re starting out that certain things are going tored-flag us as amateurs, and/or turn out to be so difficult, there’s a muchsmaller chance of doing it right. I don’t recommend doing what I did—spendingten years on a saga that was so ambitious, even a pro would have had troublepulling it off.

Theseare a few tips I’ve learned the hard way:

1) DO writein a genre that’s being read. You may have always dreamedof writing a sweeping Micheneresque saga, a Zane Grey western, or astream-of-consciousness Kerouac ramble, but the sad truth is it’s not likely tofind an audience. Publishing has fashion cycles.

I’mnot telling you to follow every hot trend—what’s sizzling now will be over bythe time you’ve got the book finished—but do be aware of what might be a toughsell down the road.

Self-publishinghas opened up a way to reach readers who enjoy older genres, so trend-watchingisn’t as important if you’re not trying to market to New York, but even if youself-publish, you want to be aware of what most readers are going to be lookingfor.

Thetruth is that consumers tend to be sheep, so it’s good to know where the flocksare doing their munching right now. It helps to read book reviews and be awareof what’s out there. Visit your local bookstore and book blogs often and read,read, read.

2) DON’Twrite a novel that imitates a screenplay. If you’re under 65, youprobably have the TV screenplay format seared into your subconscious. Thismeans that when you’re writing a first novel, you have stuff to unlearn. In anovel, we don’t have to rely so heavily on what the characters say. In fact,they often don’t say what they’re feeling at all.

Areader perceives the action from INSIDE the head of the character/s rather thanviewing it from OUTSIDE. In a movie, we’re peeping toms, watching the actionthrough a camera lens; in a novel, we’re experiencing it. A novel is amindscape, not a landscape.

3) DOavoid an omniscient point of view or constant head-hopping. Choose fewerthan three point-of-view characters and you’ll save yourself a ton of grief.Omniscient and multiple points of view aren’t “wrong” but they’re consideredold-fashioned (at least in women’s fiction, mystery, and romance) and are toughto do well. They tend to slow and confuse the reader (and turn off agents,according to a lot of blogs.)

Themost common point of view in contemporary fiction is third person limited. Thatmeans you stay in the head of one character and see the world through his/hereyes for his section or chapter of the book. Even though you use “he/she” insteadof “I” the narrative allows you to see inside the head of that character, justlike first person.

Firstperson is probably most common in YA fiction, and is increasingly popular inadult fiction as well. First person is often good for a first-time novelist,because it keeps the writer from head-hopping or slipping into omniscientviewpoints.

4) DON’Tdepend on a prologue to initiate tension. There’s much debate aboutprologues out here in the blogosphere, but a vast majority of agents andeditors dislike them. Myblogpost on prologues is here. Prologues aren’t wrong. But they maykeep you from getting traditionally published, so if you can put that informationin chapter one, do try that in your final edit.

5) DOmake sure your story has one protagonist. There has to be one maincharacter. Equality is ideal in the real world, but in narrative, one personhas to dominate. If another character walks in and tries to take over, tell heryou’ll put her in a short story later. Otherwise, change the focus of yournovel. (Not always a bad idea. Sometimes we start with the wrong point-of-viewcharacter.)

6) DON’Tchoose a protagonist who’s easily satisfied. Your main character hasto want something. Badly. Satisfied people make lovely companions, but assoon as your characters get what they want, your story is over.

7)DO make sure your novel has an antagonist. This isn’t necessarily amustache-twirling villain. It can be a situation, a disease, or societyitself—anything strong enough to thwart your character’s goals. Make sure yourantagonist is powerful enough to provide conflict for the whole narrative—notjust each episode. The wonderful blogger Kristen Lamb has a whole serieson antagonists (she calls them the Big Boss Troublemakers.) It’s amust-read for anybody who has trouble with episodic storytelling (which I didfor years.)

8) DON’Tput something in a novel just “because that’s the way it really happened.” Evenif your story is based on your own experiences, remember real life ismostly boring. That’s why we read fiction.

9)DO activate your inner sadist. Never let your characters get what theyneed. Throw as many obstacles into their path as possible. Hurt them. Maimthem. Give them cruel parents and girlfriends who are preparing to kill themfor alien lizard food. It’s OK. You’ll solve their problems in the end. Thenwon’t you feel good?

10)DON’T rely on flashbacks. Overuse of flashbacks is the mark of a newbie.They stop the forward momentum of your story and make us feel as if we’reslipping backward. Again to quote KristenLamb, “this makes the reader feel as if she is trapped in the car with ateenager learning to drive a stick-shift.” 

Irepeat—none of these “don’ts” are wrong. But they will stand in yourway, especially if you’re going the traditional publishing route. As the late,great Miss Snark used to say: “why shoot yourself in the font?”

(from Roni): Any first novel war stories anyone wants to share? (I know my first novel was dead in the water and is now hanging out with the monsters under my bed.) Have you seen any of these don'ts creeping into your book? Any first novel success stories?


********
Anne R. Allen is the author of five comic mysteries debuting in 2011 with two publishers: Popcorn Press and Mark Williams international Digital Publishing. FOOD OF LOVE (September 2011) THE GATSBY GAME (October 2011) GHOSTWRITERS IN THE SKY (October 2011) and SHERWOOD, LTD (December 2011) and THE BEST REVENGE (December 2011) She is also working on a self-help guide for writers with PAY IT FORWARD author Catherine Ryan Hyde. Anne has a popular blog for writers at http://annerallen.blogspot.com, where she blogs with NYT bestselling author, Ruth Harris.

Her first Camilla Randall mystery (but not her first novel, alas) GHOSTWRITERSIN THE SKY debuted in ebook on October 31st with MWiDP and willbe available in paper from Popcorn Press in January. It’s murder and mayhem ata writer’s conference in the “Sideways” wine-and-cattle country north of SantaBarbara, CA. It’s full of fun insider jokes for writers: there’s the bogusagent who’s really a blackmailer, the pompous poet who hasn’t written in years,and the romance writer who tries to live her own fantasies. Plus a hard-riding,straight-shooting, cross-dressing dominatrix named Marva who turns out to be thesanest person around.

AnneR. Allen Website  
Author page at Amazon.com


"Hot and romantic, with an edge of suspense that will keep you entertained.” --Shayla Black, New York Times Bestselling author of SURRENDER TO ME

CRASH INTO YOU is now available for pre-order!
Read an excerpt here.


All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren 2009-2011 |Copyright Statement|

How Low Can You Go? The Important All Is Lost Moment by Sierra Godfrey

It's guest post Monday! Today the lovely and infinitely wise Sierra Godfrey leads us through that dark black part of our manuscript where we go all sadistic on our characters. Fun times!


Over to you, Sierra...


How Low Can You Go? The Important All Is Lost Moment
by Sierra Godfrey

In women’s fiction, one of the main story features is the transformative journey our main characters usually go through, which ultimately ends in self-realization and a life change by the end of the story. But getting to that resolution first requires our gals to go through some tough times and situations. And it’s our job to put them through the literary wringer.

 In plot structure, one of the hardest moments in a character’s transformative process is the All is Lost point—also called the Dark Moment, or the point about ¾ of the way through the story when after everything our girl has been through, she’s lost. She’s defeated, broken, and there’s nothing left. The All is Lost point comes after the midpoint, and is the point at which our girl will fall, and then ultimately gather herself up and head into the finale where she’ll (ideally) take back the day and win. (The All is Lost moment really applies for any genre of fiction--must apply, really--but in women's fic, it's especially important in our heroine's journey.)

In the movie Bridesmaids, the midpoint of the story comes when main character Annie snaps spectacularly at the bridal shower. She throws things, swears a lot, and makes a massive scene--all in public. Her behavior is the culmination of lots of tension, and she lets it all out. After Annie storms out of the shower, her car’s pesky broken taillight (the one she was told to fix repeatedly) causes an accident and she gets stranded (which is bad). Worse, she calls the only person she can think of, the smarmy guy she was dating/sleeping with, who greets her with possibly the most insulting greeting ever—“Hi F- Buddy!” Worse, he does this right in front of the nice Irish cop Annie’s been sort of dating. Oooh. Ouch.

Cop leaves Annie, and Annie has no choice but to go with smarmy F- Buddy guy. He continues to be obnoxious, and she gets out of his car and has to walk home. It’s the movie’s All is Lost point. Annie has lost her friends, her place in the bridal party (let alone maid of honor position), her car, her Irish cop, even her smarmy her F-Buddy. The next few scenes see Annie really take in the despair of this moment by lying on the couch in misery and watching TV.You need this All is Lost point in a story so your heroine can sink as low as she can go before she can rise again. It’s a natural story dip. Your job is to make this moment as low as possible. Take everything away from your character that you can—everything that matters.


Your All is Lost moment should:

  • Feel like the heroine’s lowest emotional point in the whole story—she should die inside a little.
  • Be a huge blow to every goal the heroine’s been trying to achieve.
  • Happen after the character has resisted hard against every obstacle.
  • Take away things from the heroine and leave her bereft.
In general, the lower you go, the better the high of the bounce back up will be, and the more satisfying the story’s conclusion.Let’s look at a few more All is Lost moments:
  • In the movie Tangled, Rapunzel and Flynn finally come together and are sharing a loving moment out on a boat. But then Rapunzel’s evil mother tricks her, and takes Rapunzel back in (in a great display of maternal guilt tripping) and Rapunzel is heartbroken and bitter, and has lost her freedom and her love. Flynn is also captured by the mother’s henchmen and tied up in a boat so palace guards will capture him. For both Rapunzel and Flynn, all they’ve fought for has been lost.
  • In Pride and Prejudice, the All is Lost point can be hard to pick out. It initially looks like the point after Elizabeth hears the news that her naughty sister Lydia ran off with the equally naughty Mr. Wickham, wreaking general disgrace and havoc on the Bennett family. Elizabeth thinks Lydia’s disgrace will cause Elizabeth to end her acquaintance with Mr. Darcy. But in fact the real All is Lost moment comes when Mr. Darcy’s stink-face aunt, Lady Catherine, visit Elizabeth and tells her to renounce Mr. Darcy and that he’s engaged to her own daughter, Anne. Elizabeth goes for a walk, unable to sleep. Of course, she meets Darcy on that walk, but that walk is your moment. (Austen clearly knew about modern plot structure way back in 1813!)
In the story I'm working on now, I just took away my girl's house, fiance, and job--and for good measure, I let her see that someone had been tricking her for most of the book. And I loved doing it.

What are some of the low All is Lost moments you've put your character through?

About Sierra:
Sierra has enjoyed crafting stories for as long as she can remember. She especially likes stories that feature women who grow from the choices they face—and get the guy at the end. She’s a member of RWA and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two little boys, and two annoying cats. In her spare time she works as a freelance graphic designer and technical writer. To the untrained eye she can appear somewhat sassy, but at heart she loves a good story and is really quite sweet, especially when the lighting is right. Visit Sierra at her blog or on Twitter.

Letting Your Character in on the Secret by Ashley March

It's Monday again and time for one of our regular guests--the lovely and insightful Ashley March. Today she's giving us a great idea on how to turn some tropes on their head.


Take it away, Ashley...

Letting Your Character in on the Secret 
by Ashley March

Awhile ago I had the pleasure of reading Julie Anne Long’s most recenthistorical, What I Did For a Duke. I say it was a pleasure because not only amI a huge JAL fan (if you haven’t read her work already, please do so—you’remissing out), but also because this was the first book I ever remember readingwhere as soon as I finished I wanted to start over again.
Butthat’s from a reader’s point-of-view. From a writer’s point-of-view, whatreally struck me about this book is that although it could have been a typicalrevenge plot where the hero gets back at the heroine’s brother by breaking theheroine’s heart, (warning! partial spoiler below)

Ms.Long instead surprised me partway through the book by having the heroinerealize that this was the hero’s intention. I admit it, I was stunned. Here Iwas, sure that the hero would succeed in his plans, make the heroine fall inlove with him (while he falls in love with her, of course), and then at the endwhen she finds out what his true intentions were from the beginning, therewould be drama (!) and angst (!). Yet Ms. Long completely turns thatpredictable plot upside down by having the heroine figure out the hero’sintentions before he could break her heart.

Whatdid this do?
1)     Mostimportantly, I was even more excited to continue reading than I had beenbefore, because now I had no idea what to expect.
2)     Itmade me believe that the heroine was an equal match for the hero, which isn’talways the case with plots like this.
3)     Itmade me even more envious of Ms. Long’s genius.
Italso, however, made me wonder why we writers sometimes choose to take the easyway out. Is it because we’ve read certain tropes before and know that they cansucceed, thus we want to emulate their success for ourselves? Or is it becausewhen we brainstorm ideas, we choose something from the first three options,never daring to explore beyond the predictable?
Icould challenge you to copy from Ms. Long by choosing a common plot device andthen turning its on its head to make it unique—and I’m sure each of us couldfind a way to do that without much effort. (Throw in a rabbit here, a redherring there.)
Butinstead, I’m going to challenge you to dig a bit further. Specifically, whatcharacter(s) can you give knowledge to of an event/person/thing, etc. that iscurrently ignorant of that event/person/thing as the story stands? For you see,giving your character knowledge—whether he chooses to reveal it to anyone elseor not—makes him stronger and smarter in the reader’s eye, and it also makesthe story more complex and fresh.
Thinkof the heroine dressing up as a man and becoming the hero’s best friend. Whatif the hero knows the heroine is pretending, instead of questioning why he’ssuddenly experiencing sexual awareness toward a member of the same sex whenhe’s never done so before? (I have to admit, I like my heroes to be smart,too.)
Thinkof two ex-lovers reunited by circumstance. Instead of them both being attractedto each other still and constantly questioning whether the other person lovesthem, have one of the characters confident of their love being reciprocated.What other reason would they have to keep them at a distance?
Theseare just a couple of examples off the top of my head, and I’m sure you can comeup with better ideas when you look at your specific characters. Figure out whatthey currently don’t know (this could be about anything), then change it so thatthey do know. This can deepen notonly your characters and your story, but also create something that might oneday make your readers stand in awe and rave about your incomparable genius.(Here’s to you, Ms. Long. J )
What other book(s) can you think ofwhere a character’s knowledge turned what could have been a predictable plotinto something astounding?
AshleyMarch is a historical romance author who lives in Colorado with her adoring (oris that adorable?) husband, her two young daughters, and their dog. Her latestbook, ROMANCING THE COUNTESS, was released by NAL Penguin in September 2011,and she is currently psychoanalyzing the characters of her next two projects:the story of Joanna and Ethan, two secondary characters from her Victoriandebut; and the first book in a series set in 1920s Long Island.

 

 



“...a sexy, sizzling tale that is sure to have readers begging for more!"
–Jo Davis, author of I SPY A DARK OBSESSION

 

 

CRASH INTO YOU is now available for pre-order!

Read an excerpt here.


All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren 2009-2011 |Copyright Statement|

 

Voice Matters: Does Yours Fit Your Genre? by Ashley March

Hello, all! It's genre Monday and today I have the lovely and talented Ashley March, historical romance author extraordinaire, to talk with us about the ever-important voice.

Take it away, Ashley...

Voice Matters by Ashley March

I recently decided to try to write my first contemporary romance. I had great characters, a great storyline, and I figured it would be as easy to write as my usual Victorian romances. However, I realized very quickly that I had a big problem I never expected: I couldn’t find my contemporary romance voice.

We’ve all heard that each author has their own voice, but I believe that each author also has their own genre/sub-genre voice. Authors who write both romance and YA aren’t going to have the same voice, and the same is true for authors who write both historical and contemporary romance. As I struggled with finding my voice for contemporary romance, I realized that this is something I don’t often hear writers talking about. But the truth is this: voice matters not only as a means of making you stand out from among the crowd, but also as a means of putting you in the right crowd.

I’m a writer who believes in giving back to other writers and the writing community, and one of the ways I do this is by sometimes critiquing partials or fulls of pre-published writers. Often one of the comments that I have to make time and time again is that the writer’s voice sounds anachronistic. They’re using words that wouldn’t have been used in a certain period, or sometimes, even if those words were used, the phrasing simply sounds modern. As someone who pays a lot of attention to words—not only which words are chosen, but the rhythm of words, or how they sound when read—I know there’s a difference that can be seen in the voice of historical romance authors versus the voice of other romance sub-genres, and this difference is important. Not only can the right voice for a genre/sub-genre help the story feel more authentic, it can also help draw your reader more quickly into your story.

I thought this point would best be made through examples.

Here is a contemporary excerpt  (from Teresa Medeiros’ GOODNIGHT, TWEETHEART):

According to the page that popped up, Abby was now Abby_Donovan and she already had seventeen Followers. Having "Followers" made her feel like some sort of kooky religious cult leader. An empty box invited her to answer one simple question—"What's happening?"
Her fingers hovered over the keys, torn between typing, "None of your business" and "I'm sipping Cristal on the beach at St. Tropez with Brad Pitt."
Sighing, she finally settled on the truth: "I'm feeling sorry for myself." She hit the Update button and waited.

Here is a historical excerpt (from Teresa Medeiros’ THE DEVIL WEARS PLAID):

For the first time since he'd muscled his way into the abbey, the stranger's mocking gaze flicked toward her. Even that brief glance was enough to bring a flush stinging to Emma's fair cheeks. Especially since his words held the undeniable and damning ring of truth.
This time it was almost a relief when Ian Hepburn once again sought to impose himself between them. "You may mock us and pretend to be avenging your ancestors as you always do," he said, a sneer curling his upper lip, "but everyone on this mountain knows that the Sinclairs have never been anything more than common cutthroats and thieves. If you and your ruffians have come to divest my uncle's guests of their jewels and purses, then why don't you bloody well get on with it and stop wasting your breath and our time?"

*** 

            I specifically chose one author who writes different sub-genres because I don’t believe showing excerpts from two authors writing different sub-genres would be fair for our analysis. We need a real-world example of how an author uses voice to draw a reader into the specific genre/sub-genre she’s writing.

            As you can see above, Teresa Medeiros’ contemporary voice is far different from her historical voice. If I were going to describe her contemporary voice, I would call it light-hearted in comparison to her historical voice. The change can be seen in the way the sentences are structured as well as the words chosen and, I would also say, the way the author engages the reader. The contemporary makes me feel as if the heroine could be my best friend, while the historical invites me to be the heroine that could make such a hero fall deeply in love. One is light and flirtatious; the other denser and more dramatic. If we were comparing movies, I would say that it’s the difference between You’ve Got Mail and Jane Eyre. This doesn’t mean that all contemporaries are light—because they’re not—and it doesn’t mean that all historicals are comparatively darker—because they’re not.

            What it does mean, however, is that writing a historical isn’t as simple as researching a certain place during a certain time and writing the story that goes along with it. You must find your historical voice, and you must know your readers’ expectations for what a historical voice sounds like.

            The following are recommendations for several historical romance authors with very strong voices. You’re not supposed to try to model your voice after theirs, but you should read them. Analyze what is different about their voices and what is the same. Reading in your genre/sub-genre is always important to know your market, but with the historical romance sub-genre in particular, part of the escape into the historical world is having a historical voice. If you want to write historical romance, I would say that developing a historical voice is equally as important as doing research in terms of bringing a feeling of authenticity to your writing. Don’t be fooled into thinking you don’t need one.

Recommendations for historical authors with strong voices:

Sherry Thomas (tryPrivate Arrangements or Not Quite a Husband)

Julie Anne Long (try What I Did for a Duke or The Perils of Pleasure)

Anne Mallory (try Three Nights of Sin or Seven Secrets of Seduction)

Lisa Kleypas (try Dreaming of You or Devil in Winter)

Meredith Duran (try Wicked Becomes You or A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal)

Julia Quinn (try The Duke and I or Romancing Mr. Bridgerton)

This month’s must-read recommendation for both strong voice and for being a nearly perfect historical romance is Joanna Bourne’s

THE FORBIDDEN ROSE

A glittering French aristocrat is on the run, disguised as a British governess. England's top spy has a score to settle with her family. But as they're drawn inexorably into the intrigue and madness of Revolutionary Paris, they gamble on a love to which neither of them will admit.

How important is voice to you as a reader and as a writer? If you’ve written in different genres/sub-genres, what tips and tricks do you use for changing your voice appropriately?

Ashley March is a baby-induced sleep-deprived romance author who lives in Colorado with her husband and two young daughters. Her newest Victorian historical romance, ROMANCING THE COUNTESS, is a love story about an earl and his best friend’s wife who are drawn together after their spouses—who were having an affair—die in a carriage accident. Her approach to the romance genre and the books she writes can be seen in the tagline on her website:

Choose love. Hope in love. Believe in love

www.ashleymarch.com

And Ashley has a new book out this month--

Romancing the Countess (Signet Eclipse)

! Go let her know how thankful we are for her sharing her insight with us by buying her super fabulous books!

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“...a sexy, sizzling tale that is sure to have readers begging for more!"

–Jo Davis, author of I SPY A DARK OBSESSION

 

Save the Pantser! A Solution for Pantsers with Plotter Envy

Today I'm a guest over at Janice Hardy's awesome writing blog, The Other Side of the Story. I would love for y'all to stop by and say hi.

 



“...a sexy, sizzling tale that is sure to have readers begging for more!" –Jo Davis, author of I SPY A DARK OBSESSION

 

 

CRASH INTO YOU is now available for pre-order!

Read an excerpt here.


All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren 2009-2011 |Copyright Statement|

 

Wait For It...Waaaait For It: The Nuance of Suspense by Joan Swan

Welcome to genre specialist Monday! :) Today I'm excited to introduce you to one of our new regular columnists--Joan Swan, who is a romantic suspense author who debuts in February 2012! Today she's going to talk to us about...

The Nuance of Suspense by Joan Swan

 

Wait for it... Waaaaait foooor it...

The whole point to suspense is drama development within a story. To have suspenseful drama, you must have:

  • Stakes--what will the character win or lose in the situation
  • Character--do I connect enough with this person to care whether they win or lose
  • Conflict--someone must want one thing while another (even if that is an natural force) wants another. 

And these elements must be utilized in a delicate balance.

Suspense is about proposing a story question, then making the reader wait for the answer. How long? It depends...usually on the question itself.  Some are big, some are small, but regardless of the size (or relative importance) every time an answer is revealed, another continues to linger. Like that childhood game leapfrog, some question that the reader needs answered is always in place, which creates a need-to-know atmosphere: hence, suspense.  When done well, the story skips along, with answers coming at intervals and new questions popping up.

Timing is everything, and it's a skill I believe develops on a gut level.  There are "rules of thumb" that can be applied, but in my opinion the development of your sixth sense is more valuable. If you're bored...the reader will be bored. If the scenario feels off to you...it will feel off to the reader. If your attention is scattered between three different story lines...the reader will also be distracted. And if you allow the suspense to linger, making the reader wait too long for answers, they will get exasperated and put the book down. 

There are different types of suspense a writer can employ to keep the pace moving in creative, thought-provoking ways:  the dark, slowly-twining-around-your-throat suspense, the emotional, life-altering-twisting-your-stomach suspense, and the well-known and loved physical-threat-to life-and-limb suspense.  And because I write romantic suspense, I'm also twining in the romantic conflict along the way. It's fun and challenging and when it all comes together, the result is priceless.

Joan's recommended read for August:

MARKED, by Elisabeth Naughton
THERON – Dark haired, duty bound and deceptively deadly. He’s the leader of the Argonauts, an elite group of guardians that defends the immortal realm from threats of the Underworld.
From the moment he walked into the club, Casey knew this guy was different. Men like that just didn’t exist in real life—silky shoulder-length hair, chest impossibly broad, and a predatory manner that just screamed dark and dangerous. He was looking for something. Her.

 

She was the one. She had the mark. Casey had to die so his kind could live, and it was Theron’s duty to bring her in. But even as a 200-year-old descendant of Hercules, he wasn’t strong enough to resist the pull in her fathomless eyes, to tear himself away from the heat of her body.

As war with the Underworld nears, someone will have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Pick up MARKED here:

AmazonBarnes & NobleChaptersIndieBoundPowell’s

Joan Swan is a triple RWA® Golden Heart finalist. She writes sexy romantic suspense with a paranormal twist, and her debut novel, FEVER, with Kensington Brava releases February 28, 2012. A second in the series, BLAZE, releases October, 2012. You can find Joan at her blog, One Word At A Time, her website or Twitter.

What do you think creates a suspenseful read?

There Is No Such Thing As Writers' Block by Joseph Selby

Today I have a special guest blogger for you--Joseph Selby. Or as I like to think of him--the guy who doesn't let me get away with anything on Twitter. ;)  He always calls me out the moment I get overly dramatic. And now he's going to call all of us out because I know I'm not the only one who has used the excuse of "writer's block" to explain away why I haven't written.

So Joe's going to give it to us straight and tell us why we might be feeling like we're blocked and will give us some great tips on what we can do about.

So without further ado, take it away Joe...

There Is No Such Thing As Writers' Block by Joseph Selby

Terry Pratchett has a famous quote, "There is no such thing as writer's block. That was invented by people in California that cannot write." I heard something similar when I was a freshman in high school (possibly by Vonnegut but I cannot remember now). It has proven to be the most valuable tip on writing I have ever heard.

Why? Because there is no such thing as writer's block.

There are factors that may inhibit one's writing: excessive stress from finances or health, relationship woes, etc. Stress can grind creativity into meal. But that's not writer's block. That's stress.

The big WB is some invisible curse that hides one's creativity behind a glass wall. You can see your creativity there. You remember it fondly. It waves and tells you to come over and play, but you cannot get to it. Bang all you wish against that glass wall, you cannot shatter it. Your momentum stalls or worse, your entire manuscript is ruined!

But the wall is not glass. It is imaginary. Now you may have encountered the WB a time or two, had a moment where all sense of what happens next deserted you. You were writing and writing and writing and...stopped. Your story looked out into a void and was consumed by the Nothing. Writer's block, you moan! Oh no! I was doing so well but now the Nothing has consumed my ability, and I have no luck dragon to help me escape! So you think I am being unfairly dismissive. Oh no, friend, I am being quite fairly dismissive.

Here's what really happened: You made a mistake. First, let's go down the checklist. Were there no external stressors like your partner leaving you or the bank foreclosing on your house? Are confident enough in your ability as a writer that you did not sabotage your own effort? That leaves writer's block. Or in reality, it leaves your subconscious writer telling your conscious writer that you made a mistake.

Now depending on how you write, you may follow an outline or you may be going along by the seat of your pants. In either case, your first draft is not going to be your final draft. It will require a lot of spit and a lot of polish before it's good and ready. You may edit while you work (like Roni) or you may wait until the draft is finished and then go back to revise (like me). But when writer's block strikes, you have made (and missed) a mistake that your subconscious knows will derail your entire effort later. Enough so that regardless of when you prefer to revise, you need to stop and do it now..

Perhaps it was an action against character or an event that could not happen based on the time and location of characters described in previous chapters. Perhaps you accidentally channeled Darth Vader's redemption scene without knowing it but everyone else in the world will point and mock you for it. Whatever you've done, your subconscious writer is telling you that you cannot go forward until you fix the problem. It turns off the creative switch and chains up your momentum, holding them hostage until you bow to its will.

Since you're stopped anyway, go back and check the previous two chapters. Often, the error is in the chapter you just finished.

Examine these chapters and compare them to the chapters before and the direction in which you want to take the manuscript. Is there something that doesn't sit right with you? Or is there something else that could be a hundred times cooler and you just missed it the first time around? If you do not find the error in these two chapters (you probably will according to Pratchett, and I've found that he's right), continue to work backward until you do. If you do not find an error, examine your plot as a whole. IS there a gaping pit in logic or character motivation? IS there logic or character motivation? IS that character just Darth Vader without a rebreather helmet and a light saber?

You made a mistake and as soon as you fix it, your creativity and momentum will rocket back like Augustus Gloop getting sucked up a liquid chocolate tube.

If you cannot find a mistake and you genuinely think you have writer's block, Sir Terry suggests you move to California.

Joseph L. Selby

is a fantasist seeking representation. From 9:30 to 5:00 he works as a media project manager for an educational publisher, bringing about the epocalypse. He blogs at

josephlselby.com

 and tweets as

@jlselby