Write Scenes Rather Than Reports

Scenes.


They're the anchors for your characters,

allowing them to experience adventures undreamed of. Scenes are the visual elements that, strung together, make navigating your story entertaining and logical.

Scenes are the pulse of your novel. With each successive beat, characters discover more, reveal more, and live more. And readers feel that life. The pulse, the heartbeat of your story, resonates in them, and if the beat is strong enough, it will keep them connected, not wanting to leave. Not wanting to cut off that heartbeat that has become part of them.

We all know what it’s like to be interrupted when we’re at the good part. Make your story pulse with the good part from beginning to end. Give the reader not only a vivid character, but vivid scenes that will echo in his mind and heart. Scenes that will keep him attached to your tale.

Scenes. Not descriptions. Not a reporting of events. Scenes.

Write them. From page one, write them.

They’re what’s vibrant about your story.

They are events happening in a specific place.

Don’t tell us Max did this and Sally did that and Mortimer did a little of both. Don’t give us diary entries or a school report. Don’t even give us a letter to a pen pal. Putyour characters into a specific time, a specific locale, and give them a task.

And once you write your scene, don’t fill pages with delay, describing the route to an event and then the décor once we get there.

Get to the point.

Dump us into action. Event. Happening.

Paint us a picture of someone doing something somewhere.

Think of a series of events, as in a movie. Write those events. Connect them with narrative. And then write more events.

Yes, thinking can be an event. So can dialogue. But events also include someone robbing a house, a teen learning to drive, a woman kissing a man.

Give your readers events and action they can dive into. Give them places they can see, objects they can touch, sounds to hear and wonder over. Write for the senses and the emotions and the mind. And put your characters in a location.

Don’t forget that people move and touch and see while they’re interacting.

If you’re going to use a scene with a lot of thought and/or dialogue—either one person thinking without interaction with another or multiple characters speaking back and forth—make sure the reader knows the where and when of the scene. Don’t write disembodied thoughts for two pages. Put us in a place, show us why the character is having these thoughts, and then go at those thoughts.

Think place. Passage of time. Events happening while the character ruminates or reminisces or cogitates.

Don’t give us only talking heads, existing independently of all else. (When Elsie was young, she always brushed her teeth five times a day. Not six. Not four. She . . . ) If you choose to throw in back story, first show us where the character is and what brought about these deep thoughts of the past. Does the character walk around randomly thinking of the past? Or is there something in the story—related to plot, of course—that drives those reminiscences? Unless your character is naturally crazy, go for something that sets him off. And don’t forget to let us know what’s happening while the character is off remembering. Ground the character—and the reader—in a place and then do your thing with deep thoughts.

Use description in scenes, but don’t only describe. Have your characters interact with their locale, other characters, and their own demons.

Don’t try to narrate scenes—she did this and that and then she cried. Make the story events real. Make the reader live those events, feel those emotions, quiver with pain and gasp with shock.

Scenes are only one element of good fiction; we still need exposition. Stories made up of all scenes without a break would be tiresome and tedious. They’d be flat-out annoying.

Exposition can do in a few words what can take pages for a scene to accomplish.

My point is, however, when you do write scenes—and they should take up most of the page space in a novel—make sure you are actually writing scenes rather than reports.

I read many first manuscripts that have no scenes, especially at the story’s beginning. Think of ways to invite your reader into the story events. Show the reader those events as they unfold.

Don’t recite the events—bring the reader in to experience them for herself.

Some examples: (excerpts)

• What I did on vacation—A school report
• What I did on vacation—Fiction (exposition and scene)
• What I did on vacation—Fiction (exposition and scene, a variation)
• What Tessa did on vacation—Fiction (less exposition, more scene)

~Beth  Hill

The Editor's Blog

A Novel Edit


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FANTASIZING RELAXATION

FYI:  I will be having oral surgery on Thursday and should be be feeling human in a few days so bare with me.

I like to welcome back romance author, Tawny Weber. I love having guests who return with new books. I’ll be the first to tell you that Tawny is an auto buy for me. Why? Because I always feel good after reading them. She makes me laugh and I love the way her characters interact. Her heroines are accomplished women with sassy attitudes and determination to succeed.   

While her characters’ romantic romps make me laugh, they do face some real conflicts which impacts on their relationship. I love the smooth flow of her scenes, and she does flirting and hot sizzle so well.

I know how incredibly busy authors are with promotion, editing, and trying to write the next book—there isn’t a lot of down time. I was teasing Tawny about what she would do with herself if she had nothing on her schedule except a free weekend…

Ooooh, Sia’s for Over Coffee. One of my favorite places!! I’ll have tea, please, along with a cranberry scone with lemon curd and lots and lots of cream. There’s nothing better to start the morning off than yummy treats, a shot of caffeine and great company!

Sia mentioned in passing the question: what would I do with an entire weekend of pure relaxation, with nothing else on my plate? Well, at first I sat staring off in space for a little bit, baffled as my brain tried to wrap itself around that concept. Then I had this giddy thought! I’d sleep. Lots and lots and lots of sleep. Oh, the glory of sleep. Because, well, I don’t tend to get a lot of it.

But then I realized that would be a horrible waste of a wonderful weekend. And that’s when I fell into full-blown fantasy mode...

The weekend would start with a good night’s sleep (any good fantasy weaves in just enough reality to make it believable, right?). I’d wake up on an island, with the windows thrown open and overlooking the white sands of the sun-drenched beach. On a table outside the sliding doors I’d expect a light, healthy breakfast of fruit and breads, tea and juices. I figure a healthy breakfast gets me geared up for a weekend of relaxation more than a decadent one, right?

I’d spend the weekend on the beach, sometimes under the warmth of the sun, sometimes under a big foofy umbrella that matches the tiny one stuck in my equally foofy alcoholic beverage. I’d read, I’d watch the people I love play in the water or dig a moat in the sand, I’d spend a few tiny moments bemoaning the fact that there is no cell or internet on the island so I can’t check on life outside (because, seriously, the only thing that would make me do no work at all is a complete withdrawal).

That evening, I’d dress up in a slinky sexy little number and a pair of gorgeous heels and go out to a romantic, candlelit dinner with my husband, followed by a moonlit walk on the beach. And the next day, I’d do it all over again.


You know what? Taking the 10 minutes to fantasize about this did more to relax me than the last massage I had! What a wonderful idea.

We should all take a little fantasy relaxation weekend...

Where would you go? And what would you do? And what’s the one thing that would be absolutely necessary to make sure you really, really relaxed?

 

JUST FOR THE NIGHT  Available May, 2011

Things to Do in Blackout…

Power outages happen, and you have to be prepared. After all, you could be trapped somewhere—like in an empty store—with your ex.

Who is still irresistible. And hot.

And who knows how to make the most out of a dark situation…

Checklist for: Larissa Zahn


· Food


· Water


· First aid kit (With condoms. Be prepared. Very, very prepared.)


· Someone you’re still overwhelmingly into (Jason Cantrell, I’m looking at you.)


· Plenty of time in the dark (Read: hot nookie. Lots of it.)


The ability to walk away without regrets in the morning…. (Uh oh!)


24 Hours: Blackout


No lights. No power. And no holding back…excerpt

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, Borders, e-Harlequin

~*~*~*~

Tawny Weber is usually found dreaming up stories in her California home, surrounded by dogs, cats and kids. When she’s not writing hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze, she’s shopping for the perfect pair of boots or drooling over Johnny Depp pictures (when her husband isn’t looking, of course). In

Come by and visit her on the websitr at: http://www.tawnyweber.com/ or her
Blog
 
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Those Special Moments

I’m pleased to have suspense fiction author, Steve O’Brien, as my guest today. He’s written several books, including the award winning Elijah’s Coin.

I’ve been around Thoroughbreds growing up and have had family who has worked with racehorses. My brothers will tell you these are phenomenal horses, intelligent and full of heart and fire, and highly competitive. They want to win. I love animals in general and horses in particular. I have three. When I saw this book, I knew I had to read it. A hint, don’t start reading this just before bedtime unless you don’t care about sleep. :-)  It touches the emotions and I have to tell you, I wanted to hurt these villains, oh so bad.

I finally was able to hunt Steve down, lol! I invited him to visit Over Coffee. I love his topic and with a teen myself, I had to laugh as I read his article. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.  

Special moments accompany the lives of authors. Undoubtedly, the first is holding the finished product in your hands. Heck, it could even be an ARC copy, but there is a distinct feeling of satisfaction and completion at that moment.

Another special moment is receiving that first review. Somebody read it, liked it, and wanted to tell others about it.

Other special moments could be receiving a literary award, seeing the book on Amazon and BN.com or doing book signings.

I experienced a few other unique author moments, with unexpected twists however.

Recently, I was browsing through a nearby Barnes and Noble store. My wife tells me I spend way too much time in bookstores. I can’t help it. I’m a serial browser. As I cruised past the “new fiction” section, an image caught my eye.

My book!!!!   In the new fiction section!!!

A rush of emotion overtook me. I wanted to scream out “hey, everybody! My book is here in the new fiction section!”

With great restraint I was able to avoid making a scene. But I felt compelled to pull out my i-phone and snap a picture of my book and its placement. (I did have to ask a customer to move slightly to the left, so I could get the pic. She, of course, figured I had recently escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane, and quickly moved over a section or two).

Months and months of work, edits and re-edits, nights pounding on the keyboard, my book was finally getting equal billing with mega authors like James Patterson and Jodi Picoult. I was breathless. (Okay, they will still outsell me a billion to one, but there I was).

I did not have to walk from the store, as my feet were nowhere near touching the ground.

When I got home, I was nearly bursting with excitement. I was just waiting to pounce on that stock question “anything interesting happen today?” But I couldn’t wait. I whipped out my I-phone and showed my wife. As she was viewing it our sixteen year old daughter walked into the kitchen. I handed her my phone and casually said, “do you recognize anything in this photo?”

She grabbed the phone with both hands and in an instant was awe struck. “Oh, my gosh.” I could feel my chest puffing out slightly and a smile crept across my face. “Oh, my gosh,” she gasped. So cool that she will be able to tell all her friends, I thought.

She looked at me and exclaimed, “Snooki’s book is out!”

Snooki’s book is out?

In a nanosecond, my zeppelin sized ego, came crashing down in flames. I had to point and say “No, honey, don’t you see? Two rows above (gulp) Snooki’s book, is my book?”

“Oh, yeah. Cool.” She handed back my phone and walked out of the kitchen.

Okay, maybe I deserved that. My raging sense of significance needed to be checked. No one can dampen that self absorbed emotion faster than one’s own teenager.

At least I could take comfort that she didn’t reply “whatever.”

Now, to be fair to my daughter, she has been a huge advocate of my writing. (I guess the Snooki book sighting was just too much for her to pass up). My all time favorite text message was not even sent to me. It was sent to my daughter.

Last summer we were relaxing at home and her phone buzzed. It was a text from one of her classmates.

The message read. “Dude, your dad’s book is number three on I-Books.”

Greater words were never written. (Truth be told, the book was number three in the Children and Teens category, but hey number three is still number three).

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect my favorite text message to start with the word “dude.” But it does.

So, for today’s Over Coffee blog, tell me about your special moment, either as a writer or in any occupation. Then tell me about a time your ego was cut down to size. It’s okay, we’re all friends.


-#-#-

Bullet Work Cover Blurb

When facing our darkest fear, one question remains.

Are we willing to bet everything?

Behind the glamorous exterior of horseracing lies the gritty reality of the backside. Within this fiercely competitive world of owners, trainers, vets, and jockeys something has gone terribly wrong. As opening day approaches, one racehorse is poisoned, another has her leg crushed by a lead pipe and a third mysteriously disappears. Shock and horror grip the racing community.

Then it all makes sense. Greed.

The extortion demands are revealed. Stables are forced to pay protection money to ensure the safety of their horses. Despite all security efforts, the brutal killings continue. For Dan Morgan it becomes personal when his precocious two-year-old filly is targeted. Dan befriends AJ Kaine, a lonely, “horse whispering” young man. AJ is a hotwalker, the lowest of jobs in the backside food chain. But AJ has a secret–perhaps a secret that can corner a killer. With AJ’s help, Dan must crack the extortion scheme or risk becoming the next victim. Excerpt

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, Indiebound

--#--#--#--

Steve O’Brien is a lawyer and fiction writer. His first novel, Elijah’s Coin was the recipient of nine literary awards including the Next Generation Indie Book Award for Best Novella and Best Young Adult Fiction by the National Best Book Awards. His second novel, Bullet Work was released March 22, 2011. O’Brien lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two children.


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Loving The Drama!

My guest is contemporary fiction author, Lisa Dale. She says about herself, "My fiancé and I are getting married this July 2 in New Jersey. Between the new books and the wedding, I’m insanely busy. And that’s just how I like it! Writing is a great excuse for me to follow my fascinations, so you’ll find lots of interesting little factoids scattered through my work. What I want... is to tell romantic stories that challenge, inspire, astonish, and enchant." 

Lisa's one of those New Jersey larger than life residents--in her books--but in life?

If you were to make a reality TV show out of this writer’s life, here’s what you’d see. 

• Scene of me sitting in my pajamas, bleary-eyed but intensely writing.
• Scene of me getting up for a glass of water.
• Scene of me getting up to hug my fiancé when he comes home.
• Scene of me knitting, talking with friends. 

Yep—exciting stuff! TV producers like to do shows about us New Jersey folks because they think we’re larger than life, over the top, good entertainment.

But in the opinion of this Jersey girl, drama is meant for novels. Not real life!

The other day, a reporter asked me if the characters in my new book, Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier, were based on real people or real-life situations. I told her: Thank God, no!

You see, even though I don’t believe that we’re put on this earth to make trouble for each other, I LOVE a book that puts it all on the line. I love when characters risk everything important to them for love. My characters have to work for their happy endings.

By the time a reader gets to the end of one of my books, I want her to be breathless with anticipation of an HEA—absolutely invested in the action. And for me, half-measures don’t cut it. I push my characters to their limits before they find a way to transcend their own tragic flaws, overcome deadlocked and impossible problems, and find their happily ever afters.

So you would think, in my real life, that I’m the kind of person who likes a little drama. That my characters, as the reporter implied, are born of real life events.

But in fact, I’m a very quiet person. I have a few close friends whom I love dearly. I have a wonderful family, a fiancé who warms my heart. I like knitting, reading, and evenings filled with laughter and intimate conversation. When the occasional bit of real-life drama happens, I try to let it roll off my back. Real life is precious, and I think we’re put here on earth to be peacemakers for each other.

But in my stories…look out! All bets are off. Drama reigns! As a writer, if you’re gonna do drama—you’ve got to make it as intense as can be, because that’s what makes for a big, emotional payoff in the end. It’s go big or go home!

In my new novel, Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier, the heroine is the owner of a Newport, RI, coffee shop (coffee is absolutely fascinating! And each chapter behind with a little interesting history about the seed/bean that is so easy to take for granted!).

There are actually two loves stories in one—two stories that run parallel with each other. The first story is about when the characters fell in love with each other for the first time in high school—a head-over-heels, wild kind of love.

But then, weaving in and out of that story, there’s the story of the present. The characters are no longer in love (something really bad happened between them, I won’t say what). In fact, the hero outright hates the heroine when the book opens.

But as echoes of that first love begin to resurface, his feelings change. Their loves story as adults parallels, contradicts, and overlaps with their love story from when they were teenagers. I wanted to explore the similarities and differences between adult love and young love—and I also wanted to give readers a LOT of bang for their buck. You don’t just get one love story here. You get two.

So far—it’s paid off. Slow Dancing is a TOP PICK for both Barnes & Noble and BookPage magazine. Can I even begin to tell you how cool it is to see my book on a page with some of the bestsellers that I’ve been admiring for years? Kinda surreal.

As for my own real-life romance, I’m getting married in July (the Saturday after RWA national!). My sweetheart and I have been together for a long time now. It’s been a lot of fun planning the wedding! We’ve got most of the big things done.

And luckily, my real-life wedding planning has been mostly drama-free.

• Question: When real-life drama starts to get to you, what do you do? Take a long bath? Grab some chocolate? Or read a book?
• Does this work? 

~*~*~

 Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier 

Thea Celik has devoted herself to running her Newport coffee shop, to parenting her daughter, and to being a meaningful part of her in-law’s loving family. Her life is mild but satisfying—she’s sure of her place in the community and in her family. But when her childhood friend and husband Jonathan uncharacteristically cheats on her, her certainty about her role in the world is shaken.

Now as Thea strives to rediscover herself and remain close with the only family she knows, Jonathan’s brother Garret vows to exile her from their lives once and for all. Garret has never forgotten his history with Thea, and he hopes Jonathan’s divorce from her will mean he can reconnect with his brother at last. But his increasingly frequent encounters with Thea—and his unresolved feelings for her—threaten his relationship with his family now more than ever before.

SLOW DANCING ON PRICE’S PIER is the story of one woman’s determination to rediscover a new life while trying to maintain the old. When the bonds of friendship, family, and love are tested, how long will they hold? Excerpt

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound

A lifelong bookworm, Lisa Dale is a firm believer that there are few things in life better than curling up with a novel and a cup of tea. Lisa Dale grew up in rural Northwestern New Jersey before attending McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. She worked briefly in publishing before going back to school to get an MFA in fiction at Fairleigh Dickinson University. A nominee for Best New American Voices and the Pushcart Prize, her writing appears in many literary magazines, such as The Writer, Fourth Genre, Flyway, Fugue, Sou’wester, The Southeast Review, The MacGuffin, Many Mountains Moving, and more.


Lisa's: Website, Blog


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Monday Musings: Understanding Villains

For your story to be believable you need good characters, and you need to understand what makes them tick. Characters have to act and react in realistic ways. Their actions drive the plot forward. We spend a lot of time on our main characters, their motives, and goals, internal and external conflicts that get in the way of your satisfying denouement.


But, what about the villains?

We get that they’re bad guys. Fine, but why are they bad guys? What is their motivation and goals? To make the story realistic, we have to have those things lined up for our villain, otherwise he’s merely a cardboard figure the main characters bounce against. Cardboard figures steal tension and drama from your story. It steals the final punch of the denouement.

Oh, villains can just be evil just because. Or they can have what they perceive as honorable intentions, a reason for their actions. Sometimes the rationale can become corrupted and make them unpredictable or even create a god like persona.



Think about the brilliant, but cold-blooded commander, Colonel Tavington, in The Patriot. Originally, his motivation is putting down what he perceives as treason. A noble goal, but he also has another motivation for serving—his father has left him penniless. And Cornwallis has promised him land in exchange for his services. So recouping money and his prestige is also an underlying motive. Tavington also believes in ‘total warfare’, meaning civilians helping the enemy are also the enemy. So this justifies his often-brutal treatment of civilians. Even though he is reprimanded for his atrocities he still feels right is on his side. Tavington comes to look at Benjamin Martin, as an obstacle in the way of what perceives as his right, plus Martin makes a fool of Tavington. So now we also have personal conflict.

 

Tavington: You! So you're the ghost, are you? I remember you! On that farm! That stupid little boy! Did he die? You know it's an ugly business, doing one's duty. Just occasionally it's a real pleasure.


Martin: Before this war is over, I'm going to kill you.

Tavington: Why wait?

Martin: Soon.

Colonel Tavington engages the emotions of the reader/viewer as much as the hero, Benjamin Martin. The battle of wits between the two keep you engaged and builds the story tension.

You’ve taken sides. You want to see this villain die for his atrocities. The conclusion has more impact because the villain was well depicted and it leaves the reader/viewer satisfied.
The writers understood their villain. He was real.

I recently realized I had a good story premise. I had a good reason for the hero and heroine to fight to save a species, but I also realized my villain and his organization didn’t have a good motivation for being evil. Why was he hunting the hero? Why did it matter if the heroine remembered the fire? What did the villain have to lose or gain? What motivated his actions? Until I could figure that out the story stalled and took power away from the actions of my two main characters. Sort of another ah-ha moment for me.


How much time do you spend on creating a believable bad guy? Do you understand why does what he does? His motivations and goals?

• Let’s talk villains. Who are some of your favorites? Why?

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Why, Scotland?

I’m happy to have Elaine Coffman as my guest today. Elaine is a third generation Texan, claims she is a cross between champagne and apple pie, and feels taking risks is good for you.


She is a woman who has worn many hats in her life and says about herself: “...I worked as a lifeguard. Later on I raised Quarter Horses and Brahman cattle. That was when I owned ranches. And I've drilled oil wells, taught elementary school, and during all this, I miraculously managed to raise three well-adjusted children.”


Elaine has chosen various settings for her books but she keeps coming back to Scotland. She explains what it is about Scotland that draws her so strongly.



I am often asked why I choose Scotland for the setting of most of my books, and I find myself wondering, how I can cram the myriad of reasons flying around in my head, into a few words. I LOVE SCOTLAND—it has a rich, tumultuous history and calls to me in a way that I don’t know how to fully describe. Sometimes, I go so far as to ask, how much time do you have? For it would take more than a wee bit o’ time to tell ye why Scotland always lingers in my mind as a setting.


But the true answer goes much deeper than that, for my reasons are as varied as the land itself, for even the coldest of hearts cannot be moved by Scotland’s tragic past, so full of forlorn causes, thwarted ambitions, heart-wrenching failures, and the ultimate humiliation by England. Yet, in spite of it all, something about Scotland is eternal, for she is Niobe, turned to stone by grief, yet weeping still, the symbol of eternal mourning. Tempered by never ending sorrow, Scotland calls out to me, like echoes from the past . . . secret, mysterious, evocative, and eerily stirring, waiting for me to give them a voice. The call is strong— and I wonder if it is the voices of my own Scots ancestors, or mayhap it goes back even further, to the earliest inhabitants themselves: Pict, Celt, Norse, Dane, Scot, and yes, even the English.


The only thing small about Scotland is the size of the country, for it is a land long on history, with a strong heart, and wrenching sorrow. No other country can match it in sadness, conflict, haunting beauty, poignancy, or the enigmatic loneliness of the land itself. Simple and yet complex, beautiful and dramatic, Scotland rises out of the cold depths of the North Sea like a clenched fist.


Sadness and regret still run strong, and you’ve only to listen to the mournful tunes of a bagpipe to feel it, even now. And when the last notes have faded away, a great silence falls over your soul, while the images are still running around in your head, and you are reminded of all they endured, what they lost, and how much the rest of us were spared. When it comes to woe, Scotland wins, hands down.


In a land ignited by the flame of pageantry that smolders even now, one cannot help but think of Scotland in terms of obelisks and Celtic crosses, the bones of saints, the relics of Vikings, a stone for beheading, the bravery of the Black Douglas, and the heart of Robert the Bruce. You sense that since the first inhabitants arrived they have been haunted by conflict—and you begin to understand how a people could become as hard as Grampian stone; as flinty as the sound of a Highlander’s Gaelic.


Scotland is a haunting song that continues to play on my heartstrings; a tale that should be written with a generous spirit in sparse prose. One cannot help but admire the steadfast strength of a people who have taken the destruction of their clan system, the taking of their land, the eviction and emigration of their families, and the loss of their independence, who can stand upon the wreckage of their lives and build a stronger one where it stood. Yet, through it all, something as fragile and threatened as the genes for red hair and freckles has managed to survive.


And the stones of Callanish still stand near the sea as they have for 6,000 years, eerily reverent…

• What draws you to stories set in Scotland?

#~#~#

THE RETURN OF BLACK DOUGLAS  – IN STORES APRIL 2011

He’ll Help a Woman in Need No Matter Where She Came From…

Alysandir Mackinnon rules his clan with a fair but iron fist. He has not time for softness or, as he sees it, weakness. But when he encounters a bewitching young beauty who may or may not be a dangerous spy, but surely is in mortal danger, he’s compelled to help…

She’s Always Wondered if She Was Born in the Wrong Time…

Thrown back in time to the tumultuous, dangerous Scottish Highlands of the sixteenth century, Isobella Douglas has a lot to learn about her ancestors, herself, and her place in the world. Especially when she encounters a Highland laird who puts modern men to shame…
Each one has secrets to keep, until they begin to strike a chord in each other’s hearts that’s never been touched before… You can read an excerpt of the first chapter on Amazon

Buy: Amazon, Borders, Books a Million,  Indiebound

Since her first publication in 1988, New York Times Bestselling author Elaine Coffman’s books have been on the NYT, USA Today Top 50, and Ingram’s Romance bestsellers lists, and won four nominations for Best Historical Romance of the Year, Reviewers Choice, Best Western Historical, and The Maggie. Elaine lives in Austin, Texas, where she is working on her next book! For more information, please visit http://www.elainecoffman.com/.

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.NEXT WEEK: Monday Musings, Wednesday, Lisa Dale with SLOW DANCING ON PRICE’S PIER Friday, Steve O'Brien with Bullet Work


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Straddling The Line Between Genres

My guest is Fiction author, Pat Bertram. She has written several books that don't fit neatly into genre but straddle the lines. Pat's not the only author out there writing that way. I've read several books of late that are thriller with an element of paranormal, romances with more of a thriller than suspense element, action/suspense/ with a strong element of romance. Personally, I see nothing wrong with adding those elements.

What about promoting these kinds of stories? Pat discusses what it means to her as an author and the fact that her books are single title and not part of a series.


All the books about writing I ever read stressed the importance of genre. The books recommended choosing a readily recognizable genre and sticking to it. Apparently, readers like to know what kind of book they are reading and don’t take well to authors who hop from one genre to another (and if readers do accept it, agents and editors sure don’t). The books also suggested developing a series character in that specific genre, one who is so compelling people will be waiting for the next book. And readers who come late to the series go back to read earlier books, so sales take on a life of their own, each book helping to sell the others.


Seems simple enough, but I ignored the advice. Each of my books is a stand-alone novel without a series character, and each straddles a shadowy line between genres. Since I didn’t create a series that helps promote my oeuvre, and me; I have to start over each time a new book of mine is published, promoting each book individually, finding a new readership.


I’ve experienced all the setbacks that bedevil authors -- too little support, too many rejections, too much time dedicated to writing-related activities, such as editing and promotion, and not enough time dedicated to writing. But the most disheartening of all is the difficulty of generating momentum with non-genre, non-series books.


And yet . . .


We can only write what we are compelled to write. We each have a vision, and we must be true to that vision, true to ourselves, true to our stories.


Diane Arbus, noted American photographer, said, “I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.” And so it is true with writers. We see things, either in the world or in the world of our imagination, that nobody would see if we didn’t photograph them with our words.


Each of my books shows a particular vision of the world, as I know it. A Spark of Heavenly Fire shows the horror of an all-too-possible pandemic, the even more horrific steps the government is ready to take, and the various ways, both heroic and craven, people might react to such an eventuality. More Deaths Than One shows the unthinkable results of mind control experiments, experiments that have actually been perpetrated without our knowledge. Daughter Am I is a more light-hearted romp, a treasure-hunting tale of finding oneself in a most unlikely way. And Light Bringer, my newest novel, hints at a world where the Sumerian myth of a tenth planet -- a planet of doom -- is fact.


The disheartening aspects of writing without the scaffolding of a genre are more than offset by the joy of having created four unique visions of the world, dozens of characters who would not have life without me, vivid word pictures that exist only in my books. Like my lake of flowers from Light Bringer:


Becka kept running, needing no footpath to lead her to their destination. She could feel the music tugging at her, guiding her, singing her forward.


At first a faint red trumpeting, the music swelled into a full orchestra: orange church bells, yellow bugles, green violins, blue flutes, indigo cellos, violet woodwinds.


Beneath it all, she could hear the grasses murmuring, “Hurry, hurry.”


And then there it was, spread out before her in a shallow thirty-foot bowl. A lake of flowers— chrysanthemums and tulips, daisies and daffodils, lilies and columbines and fuchsia—all blooming brightly, all singing their song of welcome.

• Readers: do you prefer series or stand-alone books?
  
• Writers: what things would people be deprived of seeing if you didn’t photograph them with your words?
   

Light Bringer Blurb:

Becka Johnson had been abandoned on the doorstep of a remote cabin in Chalcedony, Colorado when she was a baby. Now, thirty-seven years later, she has returned to Chalcedony to discover her identity, but she only finds more questions. Who has been looking for her all those years? Why are those same people interested in fellow newcomer Philip Hansen? Who is Philip, and why does her body sing in harmony with his? And what do either of them have to do with a shadow corporation that once operated a secret underground installation in the area? Excerpt

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Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado.

When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book -- character and story driven novels that can't easily be slotted into a genre -- she decided to write her own.

Light Bringer is Bertram's fourth novel. Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire, are all available from Second Wind Publishing.  You can also find Pat: Website, Blog, Facebook

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