Writing 2's and 3's

Current Desk Top

I am currently neck deep in the plotting throes for books two and three of my YA Steampunk series, The Blackburn Chronicles.  Having received a green light on the series and a synopsis request for the second and third book, I began to really wrestle with not what to include...but what to take off the table.

Book one, The Tremblers, was such an amazing ride to write. The genre is certainly one in which you can just reach high into the aether for inspiration. From floating cities to underground caverns...it was so much fun!  And the characters were certainly a pleasure to meet and mold.

However...

Book two is both an exhilarating opportunity and a daunting task. Over-arching themes and exploration of deeper personality and psychological issues are easier here because the character is more fleshed-out after an entire arc in the first book.  She is not the debutante she was in chapter one...yet not exactly who she needs to be and therein lies the challenge.

It needs to be larger in scope, more sweeping in consequences, and yet more personal in stakes.

As I go back in my memory over the trilogies I've enjoyed as a reader, I hope to learn as an author how to maintain the fervor and fascination of a first book and yet deliver the meat so essential in a second and third volume.

So...

My question to you readers and authors out there...what do you look for or hope to see in a second and third book?  Continuation of story?  Deeper change in the character? Something else entirely...?

Until next time -- Go Write!

+Raquel Byrnes 

Back On Track...Finally!

Greetings from the mountains!

So today was our first day of school...YAY! I cannot rejoice enough to be on a schedule once again. Normally our summers are completely crazy with camping, family trips, visits and the like. What with my husband home (he's a school teacher) and putting our routine in a blender...I don't get a whole lot of writing done.

To top it off, my poor critique partner, Erin Spock over at Spock Writes Romance, managed to mangle herself at the gym to the point of needing surgery! She is totally in a bad way and if you have a moment pop on over to her blog and show her some love.

She keeps me on schedule. I know I have to deliver chapters to her every two weeks and I never want to disappoint. But...with my poor friend in a bad way...I have totally flaked.

Battling Distraction

But...school is ON!  Many of you know that I home school all 6 of my children.  
This year might be a little tough to balance. Although it is my 13th year and and I have tons of experience. I have a senior and two kindergartners...I KNOW...I'm insane.

All this has only served to tighten my routine. I will definitely be guarding my writing time with a vengeance! So hopefully I will be working more consistently from now on.

With writing comes blogging as I often feel more in the 'Writing Zone' after posting and touching base with other writer buddies. So here's to a new year and new direction!

Until Next time...Go Write!  

Style, Star Trek, and Demons...

Neil Gaiman NOT Tim Burton

Every once in a while I like to go over the favorites on my Twitter account because often I've opted to star more than just Grumpy Cat pics and retweets of stuff Jimmy Falon says. 

Usually I have set aside links to wonderful advice from fellow writers, agents, even other industries...all with the intention of somehow using it to make me a better writer, marketer, editor...

So since I am going on four days straight of nonstop writing and am a bit fried at the moment...I thought I'd see what I've starred and pass on any blogs, articles, or videos I found particularly helpful.

We all know this is just procrastination on my part...but bear with me. There's some good stuff in here.

For one, the most recent, is a post by Agent Rachelle Gardner on How to Create a Style Sheet for Your Manuscript.  I've done this for the past few books and I cannot tell you how helpful it is!

Here is a Tweet from J. Leigh Bailey in which she extols the virtue of The Star Trek Way to Avoid Saggy Middles. The blog is Tara Lain, and is on a restricted setting, but the article itself is actually spot on. If you're having a problem with  floundering mid-story chapters then give this one a read.

Kristen Lamb, of course, always has great writing advice and her post about Driving the Demons to the Surface is amazing. Its all about torturing your characters and bringing about motivations and core personality via action not telling. This is a MUST READ...I'm serious. Go there now.

Rachel Thompson over at @badredheadmedia posted a link to Galley Cat's article on Free Sites to Promote Your eBook.  Its a great list of sites and strategies for all authors, from brick and mortar to
indy digital.  Take a look.

There are of course thousands of other posts out there to help you no matter what season of writing you are in. From concept to cover reveal, research to revisions...

Hope these links help. Now GO WRITE!

Have You Seen My Man Muse?

So I'm rounding in on the 20,000 word mark on my current WIP. The thing is, its taken me so long to get here! I feel like I've been struggling with this story for so long its knitted to my bones.

Since June, I have clawed and deleted and guzzled cold coffee at one in the morning...only to snarl at the monitor and slash every paragraph I just wrote. 

I don't know why this seems to happen...EVERY time. I start out all bright-eyed and hopeful and then the image I had in my head seems to come out in a twisted, heaving mess on the paper. No worries, I tell myself. Its part of a process, the sculpting and winnowing, and I keep typing until...

Nothing sounds right, the characters betray me at every turn with their dumb dialogue and pointless action beats. The plot, once so clear and brilliant, disintegrates into a muddled, meandering mess. 

Mr. Vicious

Frustrated, I no longer even try to hide the arguments I am having OUT LOUD with the vicious book reviewer that occupies the dank corner of my mind. ----->

I believe I have reached this sanity-questioning point in my "process" for this book.  I'm a plotter and a planner, so most of my three-ring binder is filled with notes and flow charts and diagrams and the detritus of an uptight mind.  

So much so, that I may have planned myself out of inspiration.  Sometimes too much of a good thing is what gives you the dry heaves...right?

Man Muse

I think I may have to resort to some old fashioned free-writing, seat of my pants, stream of consciousness exercises to get my muse to return...that sadistic, fickle, desperately missed mister. 

<-----You know who you are, Man Muse! *sigh* 

What do you do when your story goes off the rails? Any great advice?  Feel free to commiserate in the comments. I feel you.

Photograph by The Shorts and Longs Photo by gdeantownshende

Anti-Heroes 101: Bad Boy with Potential

Last week we kicked off my series on writing anti-heroes with The Mysterious Bad Boy post. 


The Dark Quality:
Today we are touching on...the Bad Boy With Potential.  He's talented and insightful and if it wasn't for the aimless streak, a seriously successful dude. This is the amazing artist, the genius in the rough, or the untapped hero. 


For whatever reason. For instance; a guilty past  where he doesn't feel he deserves success. He is hiding or avoiding his true calling.


The Appeal:
So this is the reverse of the princess in the tower. This is a guy that needs to be rescued from himself. He must be written as a true talent  with an amazing personality that is both humble and noble or he'll just come off as a slacker. 


Whatever is holding him back should appear insurmountable at first. And there has to be a concrete reason why he is without direction. We see this a lot in romantic comedies where there are two potential suitors. One is highly successful, but flawed and the other is the nice guy that hasn't really hit his stride yet.


The Set Up:
Our Bad Boy with Potential is often set up as the hunky room mate or co-worker with the kick back attitude. He is often the confidant to the frazzled heroine as she pursues the wrong guy for her. One that this guy knows will break her heart. He can also be the childhood friend, think Sweet Home Alabama's Josh Lucas.


Overlooking this guy can lead to some great conflict for your heroine. Not understanding her attraction to someone so outside of what she thinks she needs.  He can also harbor an old flame for her and that can cause tension between them when its clear she wants another.  There are a lot a great opportunities for inner conflict with this couple.


Your heroine must have a maternal quality for this recipe to work. Whether its the fact that she's known him forever and therefore knows his heart is noble or her own experience with mothering siblings, she has to have the nurture quality to see the potential.

The Reward:
With every bad boy story line, you need to have that moment of redemption. That scene where all the things he's done or said finally make sense. Usually ten chapters in or so, the time you need to supply the first major disaster.


Show his hidden strength and nobility to the reader. Does he take the high road in a confrontation with his rival, and doesn't take credit for that? Does she see him treating someone who can do nothing for him with honor and respect?  Set up a scenario in which the successful man and he deal with a situation in opposing ways and make your Bad Boy with Potential come out the better man.


Make who he is and how he truly loves her the most pure and cherishing of the two suitors.  The reward is that he really knows her and loves her despite her flaws. That his is a better, more substantial man. Make his talent or potential somehow relate to her...


Remember in Sweet Home Alabama where she discovers the lightning glass is how he first became successful and that it was something they discovered together in their youth?  That has a deeper connection that will resonate with the heroine and, by extension, your reader.


The Heart's Hope:
There has to be a reason that a successful woman would see something in who at first appears to be a total loser. Sprinkle throughout the first chapters, hints of his success. Whether its seeing him in a mysterious meeting, having him hide something he's working on, or hearing of his success in passing from others...there needs to be evidence that she sees and the reader sees of his potential.


This is where her heart's hope comes into play... This type of woman wants to feel a part of something and her helping him provides a sense of being connected and needed.


Also, if he's an artist and she is his muse, then she is halfway to being hooked because inspiring greatness in someone is a huge ego boost and draw.


***Character Bonus***
Because the Bad Boy with Potential is often already in the heroine's life in the form of a room mate, co-worker, or other peripheral position, this character has the added bonus of knowing how much of a nutter the heroine is and loving her anyway. He's proved his staying power. He loves her despite her flaws. That is always a good thing.


What about you? Can you name your favorite Bad Boy with Potential from movies or books?  


Until next time...Go Write!Publish Post

But I Thought I WAS Normal...?

Me Skyping with my brother.

Okay, so here's the thing. I often do things that I believe are perfectly normal only to have people arch their brows at yet another "strange" thing that I've done. Case in point, this past month my husband and I having discussed the health benefits, humane arguments, and ecological issues, have decided to become vegan.  


Now, this wasn't an arbitrary or random decision. We've been moving towards that for some time...so why did I get all the tongue clicking, head-shaking, slow sighs?  No idea.


My daughter put it succinctly when she said, "The only odd thing left for you guys to do is to become nudists."


Really?  So my husband is Irish and I am Mexican...okay, so bi-racial marriage, but in southern California we are actually the majority. Its common with such a transient community to meet people from all around the world. Throw in the fact that I traveled a lot as a marine kid and it was inevitable that I meet someone from across the country. Not weird...at least to me.


We homeschool. Well...it seemed like the smart thing to do at the time. Eleven years later and we still love it. How can that be weird?


We've adopted four children. Well...we wanted a larger family and this is how we did it. Six kids total doesn't seem like a strange thing to me. Its not like we rate our own reality show. Yes its a little...chaotic. But we are happy and blessed...how can that be odd?

On the Scorpios - researching a book.

I'm an author. Which I didn't realize was considered an "out of the box" profession until I heard my daughter use it as an excuse. "Yes, I'm late for class but...my mom is a writer." The tutor actually nodded knowingly. Huh? Is it really that unusual?




This all brings me to writing. Doesn't it always? I struggled for a long time with 3rd person vs. 1st person. I even wrote a three book series (never published) in third person because that is what the conferences and books told me was the best way to write. It was normal.


After years of rejections and rewrites, I finally decided to write in the voice that came naturally to me. I wrote a romantic suspense in 1st person. Weird to write in that POV? Maybe. Unusual to have a romance in first person? No idea. What I DO know? It ended up being the first book my agent sold.


With so many opinions on how to break into the publishing industry, it can be confusing and downright disillusioning. And the question of voice and POV and genre...Oy Vey!  So many differing opinions. We have the tendency to lose our passion in the face of all those parameters. Whether they are real or not.


Barbara Nicolosi, one of my favorite writer/screen writers once said, "Though we are told to write what we know...we should actually write what our heart knows to be true."


Honor, sacrifice, true love, compassion, courage...these are the things of great stories. And THAT, my fellow lovers of the written word, is what people want.  Write a great story. Write something people can't put down.  That is, after all, how I pick a book. Does it grab me on the first page? Do I NEED to know what happens next?


Write what you'd love to read and you'll be fine. Its not weird...its your unique and valuable style.


Until next time...Go Write!