A Story is Feelings

by Sparkle Abbey

One of the many advantages of a writing team is that you always have someone to talk books with. While we tend to read the same types of books, we don’t always read the same authors, so our chats are a great way to discover the-book-you-didn’t-know-you-needed-to-read.

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During one of our hours-long book conversations, the topic of award-winning books came up. There was one book that we had both recently read, that we agreed was really well written, had a great plot, good twist, interesting characters, but left us. . . .unfulfilled. After a deep dive into what we loved about it, we realized that neither of us had become one hundred percent invested in any of the main characters. Anita likes to call that “imprinting.” By that, she means the character whose emotional story is being told is firmly impressed into her mind in a way that she strongly connects with them.

Don’t misunderstand, that bestseller, award-winning book we were discussing it’s NOT a bad book. We’re still talking about it. We’re just talking about the plot twists and the great writing. But for us, it wasn’t a book that either of us devoured, willing to stay up all night to finish knowing we’d be blurry-eyed, and sleep-deprived the next day. So why not?

The conversation turned to an excellent craft book (who doesn’t love a great book on writing?)

by our dear friend, Cheryl St. John, called Writing With Emotion, Tension, and Conflict: Techniques for Crafting an Expressive and Compelling Novel.  If you’re a writer and have not read this book, read it. It will change the way you write. One of the many amazing takeaways from Cheryl’s book is found on the first page of the introduction. Cheryl writes, “Probably the most important concept I’ve taken away from any book on writing is from Dwight V. Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer: A story is feelings.”

So much power in four words. A. Story. Is. Feelings.

Emotions come from the inner conflict, the fight within the characters themselves. When done well, those feeling are strategically woven throughout the story in a way that the reader can “imprint” on the character. As the reader we must know what happens next because we’re emotionally invested in the characters—good, bad, or fatally flawed—and the story those characters are telling.

That’s what we were missing. We didn’t know which character to imprint on, so we didn’t connect to any of the characters on a deeper level. A great lesson for us to apply to our writing. Also, it reminded us that it’s probably time to reread Writing With Emotion, Tension, and Conflict.

If you’ve recently read a book that kept you up all night, tell us about it in the comments. We want to know!

Sparkle Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series. They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. (But don't tell the other neighbors.) 

They love to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook, and Twitter their favorite social media sites. Also, if you want to make sure you get updates, sign up for their newsletter via the SparkleAbbey.com website.

The Top 11 Reasons I Love Telling Stories

By Kimberly Jayne

I am writer. The writer aptitude kicked in only a short five years after birth. Whether by nature or nurture through my father's colorful storytelling, writing is part of my DNA. And now that I've been a writer for many decades, here are my top 11 reasons for loving it.

1. I get to make up stories about people in quirky situations and conversations that make me laugh. And, like Elizabeth Bennett, "I dearly love to laugh."
2. I get to say things through my characters about people's wrongdoings that I wish I had the presence and quickness of mind to say in real life at the very moment the wrongdoing occurs.
3. I get to immerse myself in new adventures and misadventures I might never get the chance to in real life. Who doesn't getting themselves into hot water from time to time? We can't always be good girls, can we? Especially when we can so easily control the outcome.
4. I can go anywhere. The world is my jalapeno popper. With a little research, some great camera shots, or a practiced imagination, I can hop a trundling train to Hungary during World War I or sail the stormy South Pacific with a swashbuckler on a pirate ship. All I need is a story in which to fit my sojourns, and I'm on vacation.
5. I get to form tight bonds of friendships and relationships, and out of that sometimes I even get to fantasize sex scenes. Of course, it's much more clinical when you're writing it—the right arm goes here, the left leg goes there… But the end result is fun.
6. I get the chance to work out life's little complexities, uncovering the right words with the right nuances that give me those revealing "ah-has!" And for some time afterward, I'm happy to tell everyone that I'm quite the smarty-pants.
7. I get to figure out what motivates people to behave in ways others might not understand, and then dole out the reasons bit by bit through my characters' actions, personalities, and deep, dark, haunting secrets.
8. I get to fool people into thinking the story is going one direction and surprise them when I lead them through a door they weren't expecting. BOO!
9. I get to experience every range of my characters' emotions, from titillation to pain, joy to sorrow, excitement to dread. Not surprisingly, I always loved the teeter-totter when I was a kid.
10. I get to be immersed in a new romance: first flirts, first dates, first kisses, and first sex. It's actually my job to kiss and tell.
11. I am in charge. Whether my characters live or die is entirely dependent on me. From a character's appearance to his words and actions, I am the unequivocal Queen of the Universe. This is why you always want to be kind to a writer. You never know when you will end up in her story, dead.

And, I get to leave my desk after a productive writing session with a huge sense of accomplishment, especially after I've been "in flow" and the words pour out of my fingers. I like it so well, I'm going to do it again tomorrow.

__________________________________________

Take My Husband, Please! By Kimberly Jayne

Sophie Camden is trying to impress an exciting new dating prospect when the two of them fall in a lusty embrace on top of her husband who's asleep on the couch. That's the springboard for this hilarious romantic comedy Take My Husband, Please! by author Kimberly Jayne.

Get Take My Husband, Please!

Also by Kimberly Jayne:

Demonesse: Avarus, Episode 1

Demonesse: Avarus, Episode 2

All the Innuendo, Half the Fact: Reflections of a Fragrant Liar

http://readkimberly.com

What the Heck is Scaffolding?

This week, we’re talking about writing process here at the Stiletto Gang and I am fortunate that I get to go on Wednesday, because it gives me a point of comparison to work with, given that Evelyn and Marilyn have written before me. I’ve come to the conclusion that the writers alongside whom I write here are much more organized and have a clearer vision of where they’re going and why in their stories than I do.

As with almost everything in my life, I’m convinced I’m doing it the wrong way.

When I started writing about Alison Bergeron six years ago, I started at the beginning, with the body in the trunk. From there, I jumped around, writing scenes as they popped into my head, going backwards and forward in time, finally reading the whole thing and filling in the blanks. I even had a couple of flashbacks to Alison’s college days, which thankfully, my eagle-eyed agent kindly asked me to remove. For those of you who read the “chicken salad sandwich” scene (and for those of you who haven’t, hopefully that will pique your interest), know that I wrote that shortly after I wrote the first chapter. I let my characters “talk” to me and tell me what they wanted to do and when. I still do this, by the way. I’m so intimately acquainted with Alison that when I write something that she wouldn’t say, she tells me, which keeps me honest. And no, I’m not crazy, even if I do have six or seven pretend people living in my brain talking to me about who they’d like to see murdered and why.

However, when I read my first draft of the manuscript now, I cringe. (See? That’s what a good editor will do for you.) Doing the book this way made more work for me, but it was my writing process and everything turned out fine in the long run. But there were a lot of inconsistencies that I’m glad my editor saw through to what she considered a good story with good characters. Still, I wondered if there was a better way to do this or if indeed, I was doing it correctly. I turned to my old friend (I call him that even though we don’t know each other) and writing teacher Stephen King for guidance.

On Writing was published in 2000 and is basically my writing bible. In it, King talks about his life, leaving nothing—including his bout with substance abuse—out while spinning the tale of how this kid from Maine grew up to become one of the greatest writers of our generation. But the message I took from the book mainly was that whatever your process, if it works, it works. No reason to tinker.

So I gave my process a name. I call it “scaffolding.” As time has gone on and I’ve written more books in the series, I’ve streamlined the process. I do write in order, but I do go back almost every day that I do write and see what I can add, delete, or revise. Do we need a clue? A red herring? A better ending to a chapter? It’s kind of convoluted but it works for me. Thank you, Mr. King, for giving me permission to approach writing as a bass-ackwards process of plot discovery.

And now, Alison and I are going to have lunch. She told me that she's hungry and wants chicken salad. (Just kidding!)

Maggie Barbieri
http://www.maggiebarbieri.com