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    A DRAMATIST’S TALE: Ramping Up Character Intensity by Sally J. Walker 

    by
    sallyjwalker@cox.net
        Published: May 15th, 2012

    What is the difference in storytelling between boring, so-so and enthralling? I believe it relies on the element of Character Intensity. The common, ordinary person living a microscopically dull and predictable life is NOT interesting because 99.9% of the population lives that life. However, putting an ordinary person in jeopardy and FORCING a change creates an atmosphere the audience can relate to and care about. Why? Because they want variety and challenge in their lives and want to see how someone else deals with all that in theirs. They WANT make-believe. The writer has to be willing to go to extremes to create Character Intensity the audience wants to live vicariously.

    START ORDINARY
    Act One of any story sets up the ordinary world the main character is dealing with. The audience is introduced to the character’s “ordinary” . . . but also has to wiggle a bit with the angst and frustrations of the main character coping with this present world. The PURPOSE of the entire set-up is to show the audience who the character is, the underlying mindset and value system, the potential waiting to burst forth and this character’s most common coping mechanisms at work.
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    A Discussion on Dialogue by Ayla Ruse 

        Published: May 15th, 2012  Views: 92 
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    Dialogue. Webster’s defines dialogue as “a written composition in which two or more characters are represented as conversing.” The definition may sound convoluted (as most are), but how hard can dialogue be, right? I mean, we talk all the time. It shouldn’t be that hard to put what we say onto paper, can it? Sometimes it’s as easy as picking up a pencil. Other times, well, writers can spend endless amounts of time trying to perfect why and how our characters are speaking.

    In my post today, I’m going to share some information about writing dialogue that’s helped me. I know there are always exceptions, but in general, these bits have aided me when putting conversations onto the proverbial paper.

    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    Using the Byronic Hero in Your Writing by April Grey 

        Published: May 15th, 2012  Views: 246 
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    I. Background -- "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know."- Lady Caroline Lamb about Lord Byron

    So much has been written about the Byronic Hero that I wonder if I hadn't gone off the rails in choosing this topic for a blog. But when it comes to writing characters, one can't find a more interesting or complicated model. In a nutshell, Byronic Heroes are nuts (bipolar perhaps?) with brooding, outsider sensibilities for whom the ends justify the means. They have all the markings of a completely brutal villain and yet are redeemed, sometimes only in death, by their unrequited love. While you might not want to write a completely Byronic character, using some of their dark bad boy qualities might spice up one's writing.

    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    HOOKING: A Writer’s Guide to Selling Yourself by Diane Vallere 

        Published: May 14th, 2012  Views: 985 
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    It’s the day –that day—that you agreed to step in front of your reading public to promote your book. Maybe it’s a book fair. Maybe it’s a signing. Maybe it’s a table by the checkout line at the grocery store. Whatever/wherever it is, one thing is for sure. Where you’re going is like another dimension to the writer, it’s the polar opposite of sitting in a chair not speaking, hammering out words on a keyboard, occasionally using words that, if your mother was around, would get your mouth washed out with soap.

    You want to sell your book, and by selling your book, you are selling yourself. Only, your skirt isn’t short enough, you don’t feel good in fishnet stockings, and God bless the bookstore people, but they chose not to set your table up in a red-light district. With so many things stacked against you, what are you going to do?

    Categories:
    1. Industry
    2. Writing Life
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    Savvy Authors Newsletter - May 14, 2012 

        Published: May 14th, 2012  Views: 137 

    Congratulations to all Savvy Authors!

    Our first congratulations this week goes out to Savvy Authors member Cheryl Yeko. Her debut novel, Protecting Rose, Won the 2012 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. Congratulations, Cheryl!

    Mary Hughe's book, Biting Me Softly (Biting Love book 4), is a finalist in the Paranormal/Fantasy/Futuristic catagory in the WisRWA's 2012 Write Touch Readers Award Contest. Congratulations, Mary!

    Categories:
    1. Craft
    2. Industry
    3. Workshops
    4. Worldbuilding
    5. Savvy U Courses
    6. Writing Life
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    It’s Okay to Be Kooky by Liz Talley 

        Published: May 13th, 2012  Views: 196 
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    First, a huge thank you to Savvy Authors for letting me join them today to talk turkey about books and writing. It’s actually pretty easy to do, considering we’re talking about two of my favorite things, but still, thanksfor having me on.

    Several weekends ago I did something I’d never done – I took a girlfriends’ weekend get-a-way with my high school friends whom I rarely see unless it’s a funeral or a class reunion. But since we were all turning the big 4-oh!this year, we thought it timely and appropriate to ditch our husbands, children and ridiculous stacks of laundry and go to Dallas to shop, eat and reminisce. We were SOOOOO right. It was perfect, but over the course of the weekend, the comment “you’re so weird” came up. Or so-and-so is “kooky” – all in a loving way, of course. Okay, well there was one time itwas not so loving, but there were seven ladies in two rooms with very verbal opinions. Still, it struck me that being kooky is okay. In fact, being different is preferable for balance…and for all us “old” friends to actually enjoy new experiences, new foods, and styles of clothing (we did shop a lot).
    Categories:
    1. Writing Life
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    Living the Dream Is a Balancing Act by Miranda Baker 

        Published: May 12th, 2012  Views: 189 
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    The last time I blogged here at Savvy Authors, I talked about my writing sign posts, the lights that led me down the path to getting published. But guess what? Getting published is only the first part of the journey. The road doesn’t end there – not if you plan to keep writing.

    After you get the CALL, after an editor says YES, after you sign a CONTRACT, you face a new set of challenges. For example, on release day, you will be filled with glee. You might also be filled with fear – which makes you spend the day glued to the computer trolling sales venues, watching your numbers go up and down and feeling your spirits rise and plummet with them. You might wonder: what can I do to help my book succeed? (Notice I didn’t say sell. Somehow it feels far more urgent than just making sales.) And then you might feel compelled to redesign your website according to all the must-have marketing advice, sign up for Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and do everything else all the other authors seem to be doing. Yes, you might even feel like you should blog with terrifying regularity.
    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    Going deep: Three Ways to Deepen POV by Gunnar Grey 

        Published: May 9th, 2012  Views: 129 
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    There are some surprisingly easy ways to deepen your story's point of view (POV). Here are three of them.

    1) Use the main character's name sparingly. How often do you think about your own name, or use it? Most likely, not very often. And if you're taking the viewpoint deep, then your main character shouldn't use her name all that often, either.

    Think about it this way. Every time you use a character's name, the reader pauses to bring that character into his mental focus. ("Remind me: who's Neal?") If your story-people have been sharply drawn and kept before the reader's thoughts, then the pause may last only a moment. And sometimes this pause is useful; if you're re-introducing a character who's been out of the picture for fifty pages or so, you want the reader to pause and reconnect.
    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    To Plot or Not to Plot by Denise Golinowski 

        Published: May 8th, 2012  Views: 77 
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    With apologies to the Bard and his melancholy prince, I offer my latest ponderings on one of writing's eternal questions...

    To plot or not to plot--that is the question:
    Whether tis wiser for the writer to set
    The peaks and valleys of the hero's journey
    Or to allow that journey to unfold free,
    To unravel or bind close. To plot, to pants
    No more--and by plotting to seek to end
    Wasteful distractions and plot holes, great and small,
    That unseen will arise--tis a valiant goal
    Devoutly to be sought. To plot, to pants
    To pants, to wander free. Ay, there's the rub
    For by pantsing, writing becomes journey,
    Without stage direction from the plotter's map,
    A mystery tour. Plot or pants,
    Method matters not if the story's told.


    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    Who’s Your Daddy? Building Characters from the Inside Out by Kay Keppler 

        Published: May 8th, 2012  Views: 112 
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    Every story, no matter how plot-driven it might be, needs empathetic characters. No action, however plausible in the abstract, will engage your readers if they don’t believe in, sympathize with, and root for your characters.

    Take your hero. Whether your “hero” is male or female, an alpha type or a beta, a child, an adult, a dog, an alien, or an action figure toy, your story is about someone or something who’sinteresting or special in some way. And it’s your job to persuade your readers that your hero is worthy of their time.

    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    Top Tips for Writing Love Scenes with Emotional Impact by Cheryl Alldredge 

        Published: May 8th, 2012  Views: 263 
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    The thought of writing a love scene often has the power to make a writer moan, and not in a good way. I used to feel that way, but then I took my normal approach to writing problems and studied the heck out of them. I read many, many love scenes—oh how I sacrifice for my art! I also listened to every workshop I could get my hands on. In the end, I came to greatly respect the power of a love scene. Now I look forward to writing them.

    After all that research, the most important thing I learned about love scenes is that, like any scene in your story, they should have a purpose, reveal something about the characters and their motivations or conflicts, and advance the story. Love scenes aren’t an excuse to take a break from the story. In the romance genre, this is especially true. Romance is all about emotion and what could be more emotionally revealing than a love scene?

    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    Characters Leading the Way by Nina Pierce 

        Published: May 7th, 2012  Views: 349 
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    I love romantic suspense stories in all subgenres. It’s what I’ve been reading for too many decades to count. So it was no surprise when I sat down and became serious about my writing that I leaned toward suspense plots. My current WIP is a romantic suspense story involving a serial killer, a heartbroken husband working to save his marriage, an FBI agent and several dead bodies. The identities of the killer and the agent are withheld from the reader even as the threats to the heroine escalate. I like writing complicated plots with turns and red herrings that hopefully keep the reader guessing, leading to an unexpected twist at the end.

    I’ve now published a dozen books, most of them with suspense plots and every single one of them written by the seat of my pants. I start with the “what if” question and let the story unfold organically from there. I’ve always been happy sitting at the computer, letting my hero and heroine stumble into life-threatening situations, naively typing away, letting them roam through the story falling in love and bringing killers to justice.
    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    “Ignite Your Fiction” Concepts of EDNA Await You by Sally J. Walker 

        Published: May 7th, 2012  Views: 189 
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    When learning the fundamentals of English grammar, one memorizes the definitions of “noun” and “verb.” Those two words take on more significance when one becomes a fiction writer. At that point one learns about VIVID nouns and ACTION verbs to write the simplest sentences with the fewest qualifiers possible, sentences that will translate story and characters into mental images for the reader. Those images allow the reader to vicariously LIVE the story events WITH the characters. The entertaining story takes on a credible life that provides moments and even hours of escape from the real world. But there is more to writing than vivid nouns and action verbs.
    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    The Role Contests Played in my Writer’s Journey by Liese Sherwood-Fabre 

        Published: May 7th, 2012  Views: 435 
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    I entered my first contest while I still lived abroad back in the dark ages when you still submitted paper entries. I’d finished a novel, but had no idea how if it was as brilliant as I thought it was. Trolling the Internet, I found a contest that offered not only cash prizes, but also a critique for an extra fee. I entered and paid for the critique, certain I would win and get heaps of praise for my work. When the day passed for finalists to be contacted and I had not received an email, I was crushed. Once the score sheets arrived, the judges’ reviews and comments deflated me even more. Had they not realized they were holding the next Pulitzer Prize winner in their hands?
    Categories:
    1. Craft
    2. Industry
    3. Writing Life
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    Do You Bio? by W. Lynn Chantale 

        Published: May 6th, 2012  Views: 304 
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    I do. I can see the confusion, no worries, I’ll ask another way. How do you get to know your characters? Do you interview them in a polite and civilized manner or strap them to a chair and subject them to torture methods that would make any military proud?

    Me, I prefer a gentler method, I bio.

    I write a biography for each of my important characters, hero, heroine and any best friends or villains. This is something I had always done and believe it or not, thought it was silly, because one, no one else I knew did this and two, no one was going to see the H/h’s family history, whether or not they liked school or if they were bullied on the playground. When I stopped this practice a few years ago, my characters suffered. They didn’t seem as realistic as before.

    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    Writing Short Stories by Liv Rancourt 

        Published: May 5th, 2012  Views: 316 
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    In January of 2011, Amazon opened its Kindle Singles store. Since then, they’ve sold more than two million singles*, or shorter stories between 5,000 and 30,000 words. Singles sell for between $0.99 to $4.99, and, as you can see, they are selling like crazy. This isn’t meant to be an ad for Amazon or the Kindle, but to give an example of why this is a good time to consider writing short stories.

    One of the best reasons to write short stories is that it helps you develop your technique. It’s also been suggested that getting a few short story publishing credits can help you land an agent &/or a publishing contract. The latter may still be true, although the dramatic changes that are happening, like the Kindle Single phenomenon and the growth of indie publishing, may make the strategy less important. The sale of short stories may become an end in itself, and their creation definitely helps you become a better writer, so it’s worth taking a look at how to do it well.

    Categories:
    1. Craft
    2. Industry
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    Spotlight On...SavvyAuthors Volunteer and YA Author Lucy D. Briand 

    by
    Ria Boulay
        Published: May 4th, 2012  Views: 289 
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    Join us every Friday as we spotlight various members in the Savvy Authors Community. We'll introduce you to volunteers, members active in the Savvy writing community, recently published authors from Our Authors, as well as editors and agents.

    Today we are talking to Savvy volunteer and YA author Lucy D. Briand about her visit to this year’s RT Convention. She came back with stories, swag and tons of valuable information for those who have yet to attend. Grab a really big cup of coffee as we get an insider look at one of the biggest events of the writer’s year.

    Welcome back Lucy! You decided to attend Pre-Con, two days of convention prep for new attendees. What was it like and does it make a difference for convention virgins?
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    Three Things I Want to Tell Authors When I’m Reading/Editing Their Work by Alicia Rasley & Lynn Kerstan 

        Published: May 4th, 2012  Views: 578 
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    You may be guiltless. We hope so. Only word count for the blog limits us to three topics apiece. In some future blog, you may find yourself on our next What Not to Do list. But we hope not.

    Lynn’s List

    Dashes— and Ellipses… Gone Wild. Yes, they can be useful little critters, but they should also be rare. Just short of the endangered punctuation list. Punctuation is never supposed to be intrusive. Its job is to gently guide traffic, like white lines on the sides of a road, visible but not distracting. These days, I often see two or three dashes on a page, and even more ellipses. Some authors are practically writing in Morse code.

    Categories:
    1. Craft
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    Good Website Design Starts With Learning What Not To Do by Catherine Chant 

        Published: May 4th, 2012  Views: 344 
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    In my workshop The Principles of Good Website Design for Writers (May 7-19, 2012 at Savvy Authors) we'll be focusing on what makes a website "good." In an effort not to repeat things I'll be covering in class, I thought I'd make this blog post about things that make a website look "bad," because if you know what not to do, that's one step closer designing a "good" website.

    To see some examples of truly hideous website designs, check out some of the monthly winners at Worst of the Web.
    Categories:
    1. Industry
    2. Marketing and Promo
    3. Writing Life
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    Naming Historical Characters by Juliana Ross 

        Published: May 3rd, 2012  Views: 315 
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    As a reader, there aren’t a lot of deal-breakers for me.

    I don’t mind a recycled plot. I actually like most of the common tropes (hello, Cold-Hearted Guardian Who Secretly Loves His Ward.) And I can even tolerate a smallish degree of historical inaccuracy. The occasional anachronistic word, a heroine wearing underpants instead of drawers, a fork in the medieval pantry—none of these drive me absolutely crazy.

    But when a character’s name is wrong for the period, I see red.
    Categories:
    1. Craft
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