Tuesday, July 7, 2009

"There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. " - W. Somerset Maugham

Received the new RWR (magazine from Romance Writers of America) in the mail yesterday.

There are always some great articles and I'll share what struck me from two of my favorites:

Who's On Top? Intimacy, Control, and Conflict by Virginia Kantra explains the difference between the
character arc: Protangonist wants to do, accomplish, or change...something and must struggle, learn and grow to acheive it
romantic arc: the development of romance from development through exploration to emotional intimacy and sex
So we must develop all 3 arcs - the hero, the heroine, and the relationship.

Taking Your Writing to the Next Level by Liz Lounsbury
Lounsbury provides several ways to shake up your writing such as:
-Determine what life lesson your character must learn, and then plot backward from this resolution, picking events that will lead them to this end.
-Brainstorm what can happen at each stage of your book as you write.
-Are you using convention rather than feeling your way through the emotions and actions as they are felt by my specific hero and heroine with all their back story and baggage?

On a side note my pitch for the upcoming RWA conference in D.C. is complete.

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