Necessity of Nipping.

This photo is on a tin sheet nailed to our bathroom door!

I have my beginning, and I have a fair idea of my ending so, what's my problem? It's always the MIDDLE.

We always strive for enough great lines to capture our readers in the beginning. And without a doubt the final pages need to have a very satisfactory ending. But that vexatious middle always gives me a headache.

I suppose it's because I want to reach my predicted
word count that instead of a nice, neat nipped in middle, it gains far too much weight.

Incidentally, in the Victorian Era, the ridiculous ideal for a woman's figure caused many deluded darlings to go under the surgeon's knife to remove two of their lower ribs. Then again who's to say we are any wiser in the twenty-first century with many a young woman happy to go for cosmetic surgery for the addition of silicone pads to enlarge their perceived small breasts?

Back to my writing. Nip and tuck it is.

• Must have nice description but only where needed. All right cut down here  and slash away there. Does it still read with sense? Yes. Then why did I have it in the first place? 
•  Must get to the point in the dialogue. Our characters should always sound better than our actual speech. And we get to have them say what we wished we could have said in certain situations. I guess we've all experienced what we should have said at one time or another.
• Too much convoluted thinking here. Leave it out. Mustn't confuse readers.
• Beware of too many characters, or those with similar names.

Hey, I think I've got it, by George I've got it! My novel now has a nice slim middle.

Any other writers out there struggling with overweight middles? (In their novels.)

Indie Publisher, Rita Galieh, has written a trilogy of historical novels & also contributed to several US anthologies. She is now completing a third historical romance series. Besides her weekly blog, she can be found on Facebook and www.ritastellapress.com  

Rita studied art at the National Art School then joined the family ceramics studio. After their marriage, she and her husband attended Emmaus Bible College, and currently co-presents Vantage Point, an Australia-wide Christian FM radio program. She enjoys giving her fun-filled presentations of ‘Etiquette of the Victorian Era’ in costume.

Getting Under Your Skin by Rita Stella Galieh

Another bill to pay.

I recently finished reading a great historical romance
where everything was going wrong for the heroine.
One thing after another seemed to weigh her down.

Now was this enough to turn me off? Somehow the author had managed to draw me in so that I was experiencing all the angst of this poor young woman. As in all good plot lines, conflict followed upon conflict

She had weak parents who ignored her, instead favouring the son and heir, a ne'er-do-well and an inveterate gambler. They willingly paid one debts after another by purloining monies their daughter had saved to pay household bills. They left her to worry over everything. With a poor excuse for a father who spent his whole life, to the detriment of his family, collecting bird's eggs and a helpless mother who spent all her time making yards of unsaleable.lace, their daughter surprisingly developed as a responsible and very sympathetic character. Not an annoying goody-goody but a genuinely nice person.

The author wrote in such a way I found myself feeling as frustrated as if I was in the heroine's skin.  Then when things began to go her way in the form of a bequest, my spirits rose. I had to remind myself I was reading a novel, for goodness sake! That is what good writing is all about, my friends, totally identifying with the character.

Writing as a Christian

This is also a challenge as we want our characters to have that inner struggle that Paul spoke about. eg. The things she wants to do she doesn't and the things she does, she knows she shouldn't. Oh yes, Christians have certain moral boundaries and struggle against temptations. So how will your character react when faced with these? 

In the story I am presently writing, I am constantly asking myself how would I feel if this or that happened to me? Besides figuring out your character's goals, questioning your own emotions or attitudes helps give that character flesh and bones. It's also challenging if one of your main characters is a real nasty piece of work, but dredging up memories of certain real life people from your own experiences helps. Especially if you've been treated poorly. No, that is not a type of 'author's revenge', it's simply writing true-to-life to reveal the depths of a mean character,not forgetting to include what happened in that character's past to make them that way.(Yes, even a villain needs to evoke some sympathy.)

Without naming the title, have you recently read a story where you felt the main character did not have realistic feelings? And did it leave you disappointed?

Indie Publisher, Rita Galieh, has written a trilogy of historical novels & also contributed to several US anthologies. She is now completing a third historical romance series. Besides her blog, she can be found on Facebook and www.ritastellapress.com   Rita studied art at the National Art School then joined the family ceramics studio. After their marriage, she and her husband attended Emmaus Bible College, and were also involved with Christian Television on Sydney’s Channel Nine. Currently she co-presents Vantage Point, an Australia-wide Christian FM radio program. She enjoys giving her fun-filled presentations of ‘Etiquette of the Victorian Era’ in costume.
                                              

Is There Such Thing As a Bad Plot?

Photo by Greg Westfall, used under
Creative Commons licence.

Why did they do that?

You want to throw the book across the room.

Your heroine has just put herself in danger for no reason. The hero has lost his temper over something trivial and broken up with the heroine. These characters make no sense.

You decide life is too short and turn on Netflix.

When dissecting a disappointing novel or movie, it’s easy to blame a poor story on bad plot, characterization or dialogue.

But, I suggest, these may only be symptoms of a single problem: the author was unable to convince you of ‘why’.

Why did the heroine throw herself in danger? Why did the hero really leave?

If the author can convince you that the path chosen was the only one that made sense to the character, then you aren’t going to be bothered that the heroine just jumped from a plane without a parachute. It was her only option! Her country/sense of identity/loved one/integrity was at stake.

If you believe the character’s motivations, you’re empathizing with them, and wondering whether they’ll ever reach their goal or not.

But if you’re frustrated with what seems to be a silly decision, you won’t care that the dialogue is witty or the description is poetic.

I believe there are few bad story ideas, just under-developed character motivations.

Even good books can be made great by strengthening the reasons why characters made the decisions they did.

Read the last scene you wrote. Find a decision a character made. Can you make that decision the only logical path, given the position you’ve put them in? What is at risk if they follow any other course of action? Can you increase those risks?

The more we understand why, the louder we’ll cheer as the character achieves their goal.

Jessica Kate is an Australian writer. She prefers the term 'writer' because it's too hard to say 'training developer, aspiring author and former journalist' in one mouthful.

She loves reading anything by Jenny B Jones, watching The Proposal, and writing Christian contemporary fiction full of romance and drama. 

Her manuscript, Hating Jeremy Walters, was a finalist in the 2015 Frasier Awards and she's currently working on her second novel.

 She loves connecting with reader and writers at Facebook, Instagram, and her website.

One Question to Boost the Conflict in Your Fiction

Are you looking for a way to inject more drama or conflict into your fiction?

If so, answer this one question for each of your characters:

What does this person value more than what is right?

In other words, what thing would they put above their ethics, beliefs, even loved ones? Once you’ve established this, just throw in a problem that makes them confront their priorities, and—bingo!—drama galore.

The most effective example I’ve ever seen of this is the TV show Suits.

Suits is a drama about corporate lawyers who, for the most part, are okay people. Except for one thing: one of them is a fraud.

The premise itself is full of conflict, and the weekly legal cases are always high-drama. But what makes this show really shine is its characters.

First you have Harvey Specter, the legal golden boy. He’s charming, smart, and always wins. He loves to win so much, that when he finds legal genius Mike Ross, he hires him as an associate lawyer—despite knowing that Mike has never actually been to law school.

Now we have two major conflicts—Harvey will push the boundaries to be the best, and now he’s covering for Mike’s fraud. But as much as he loves winning (and boy, does he love winning), he cares even more for his long-time friend and secretary, Donna.

So any time, say, an opposing legal firm tries to attack him via Donna, there’s nothing he won’t do to save her. Donna is equally loyal to Harvey, so when he’s unjustly accused of shady legal deals, she’ll even destroy evidence to protect him.

Meanwhile, Harvey’s colleague and frenemy Louis Litt desperately craves people’s approval, especially Harvey’s. So even though he loves the law and their legal firm, when an accidental screw-up has Louis on the verge of losing all Harvey’s respect, he’ll do anything to avoid being exposed.

Their boss, Jessica Pearson, loves her boyfriend, but she loves their legal firm more. So when Mike’s fraud is in danger of coming out, she’ll lie to the man she loves, rather than confide in him.

And just like that, four professional people, each with one or two misplaced priorities, will suddenly be put in situations they never dreamed of because of the choices they made.

And all that drama is just from the characters—we haven’t even discussed a single legal case yet!

Sometimes this can feel hard to pull off in Christian fiction, where most characters are expected to love God and have a strong moral compass.

Christian romantic comedy author Jenny B Jones does this well in her novel Save the Date.

In this book, former pro football player Alex Sinclair is running for Congress, and to save his

plunging approval rating, his campaign team decides he needs a fiancé. Lucy Wiltshire runs a residential program for teenage girls with bad home situations, but it’s on the brink of going broke. When Alex offers to save her girls’ home in exchange for five months as his fake fiancé, Lucy takes the deal—and hilarity ensures.

Both of these characters are Christians who genuinely love God. So how can they lie to their family, friends, and the world? Though misplaced priorities and a lack of trust in God.

These mistakes pave the way for a strong internal journey for both characters as they realise their wrongdoing and deal with the consequences of their actions.

Consider your characters’ strengths and weaknesses. Is there room for them to mistrust God, or place their pride first? Take that and run with it.

You’ll have enough drama to fill a library.

THREE ACTS

Most good movies, plays, and fiction are written in three acts. As writers we understand that each of those three acts push the story along.
To simplify:

 1. The First Act is the set-up, where we introduce our characters and what they want most.
2. The Second Act  consists of conflicts from without and inner struggles all of which make it almost impossible for them to reach their goals.
3. The Third Act is the climax and conclusion where all ends are tied and we discover whether they lose, or get what they most want.... or something better.

In essence that is your life. It's my life. It's everyone's life.

I was amazed to discover that our Bibles have also been written that way. This is not biblical scholarship by any means, but I'm just looking at the big picture.

The set-up: God brings Adam a beautiful mate from a rib near his heart.
So the union of male and female still stands as God's definition of marriage, despite the outcry from those demanding to change it.
The First Act: Despite having the pick of every luscious fruit in Eden, they believed they were missing out on the one thing forbidden to them. They were smart enough to make their own decisions. Why shouldn't they be able to run their own lives without God's interference? And from that first wilful act and failure of one simple test, chaos came into our world.

And we're no different. Soon after we're born we discover we also have a strong will, and as we grow we find it difficult to accept God's plan for our lives. Yet He knows and understands us better than we even understand ourselves. He was there when we were being formed in the womb. Psalm139.

The Second Act: Things rapidly happened in the human sphere. The whole human race, except for a few faithful followers, sinned with abandon and the Old Testament records this. But God wrote HOPE in His book and promised a Saviour.

As writers we're told to SHOW and not TELL.  God did both. He gave His guidelines, The Ten Commandments  to TELL  us how to live. But when people tried to follow those rules and failed, God SHOWED them how to live by sending His own Son, Jesus. His life, death and resurrection became the focal point of history. Everything that had gone before now made sense.

The Third Act:  Every book has a conclusion. And the climax of God's story is coming soon.
Every life comes to an end. Yet God writes the name of everyone who trusts in and follows Jesus in His Book of Life. We have no idea what a year, a month, a week, or even a day might bring. Life is unpredictable. But we can know this: Nothing ever takes God by surprise. He knows the end from the beginning. His book begins with His Plan for us. And it ends that way.

Besides her daily radio ministry with her husband, Indie Publisher,
Rita Stella Galieh's three published books in her Victoriana Series are now online as ebooks. If you like the Historical Romance genre and TV series such as Downton Abbey etc. you'll enjoy these.
See: 

http://www.ritastellapress.com/buy-novels.html  

and scroll down to the ebook widgets.

or Click

<https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/24011>

Costumed as a governess, Rita shares a fun presentation on The Etiquette of the Victorian Era, at ladies, seniors groups, coffee mornings and dinners, then finishes with the above message. 
contact:  ritagal @ optusnet  dot  com dot  au.

You Know More Than You Think

A couple of years ago our family went on holidays to the US and Canada for two months. We felt blessed beyond measure, and soaked up every experiences like the small Australian sponges that we were, as if every memory, every airport and Starbucks ham-and-cheese sandwich, every street, every hanging traffic light and unfamiliar scene needed to be permanently emblazoned on our memories. We took photos, millions of them, and we came back home with a strange sense of having been altered, but not knowing exactly how; of feeling the weight of importance of everything that happened, but also not knowing exactly, what it was that was so important, or how it had affected us.
I'd felt the call of God to go, but on coming back I questioned Him. Why, God? I mean, Thank you! We had so much fun, we met wonderful people, had extraordinary adventures, did things with our kids we'd never dreamed were possible in this life...but surely God, surely it was about more than having fun, and making some great memories? Surely I need to...respond...somehow, in a way that benefits the Kingdom...? Surely, God?

It's an unsettling feeling, having emotions you can't understand, and a future you can't fully see. I don't remember ever feeling so full, and so empty, as I did when I returned from that trip, and I denied my emptiness out of a sense of needing to show my gratitude that such a trip had happened.

Eventually I found myself again, threw myself into the relentlessness of day-to-day, started writing again. Moved on with other projects. Finished a novel. Got a new job. Allowed the enormity of our two months away to sink into the obscurity of a handful of funny anecdotes and some beautiful memories.

And then, the other day, I started pulling out thoughts, notes and ideas for a new novel.

"Write what you know!" the experts tell you, and my head hurts at that thought, because what I know is dull, boring in its smallness. And when I search back over the deep emotions that come out of the depth of my soul the things I find are these silly, small stories of rich-white-middle-class-privilege, of being a tourist in another, rich-white-middle-class country. Who cares?!

It's not in a "suddenly" that I get it. The revelation creeps in over time, over months, weeks and days as I gradually allow the emotions to replay on the surface of my mind:

• the sense I had, upon coming home, of not feeling able to acknowledge my emptiness and grief at returning because I had been so blessed and so many had never been, may have been a tiny drop of what my grandmother felt in 1941, bringing home one baby when she'd carried and birthed two. 
• Losing my husband and youngest son for an hour in Disneyland, him carrying my phone, my wallet and my hotel key, with the knowledge that literally the only thing that could connect us again was prayer - that gives me the tiniest glimpse of some of the emotions my refugee friend may have felt when returning to his home village, separated from his parents, and was forced to march into a refugee camp in a neighbouring country.
• Landing in Canada from the US and finding that I couldn't access the funds in my travellers VISA card, and the sickening realisation that the money I had on me was the only money I had - and without access to my VISA I couldn't buy food, a new SIM, or hire a car - that feeling of sudden trappedness gave me a tiny glimpse into what displaced people may feel, of a hardened world bent on going about their daily business without noticing the pain of others around them.
• Not being understood, on my language being "different", and "wrong", and my choice of words leaving me misunderstood and lonely. For an Aussie girl from an Aussie family, whose background has only ever been English-speakers it's given me the first glimpse into what life must be like for those who come and have to learn another language in order to be understood, and who feel like they lose a part of themselves once they're divorced from their own language, their own culture. 

My stories are small stories, and I could never say to a refugee, a migrant, or someone who has lost a child, "oh I know exactly how you feel!" because I don't. But my small stories have given me a tiny germ of insight into what they may be feeling, and that empathy is priceless.

The other thing my small stories have given me is a whole packet of seeds to plant books in the future. Planted in the garden of my imagination, these little seeds can grow into characters and experiences I never could have imagined previously. I'm not sure as yet what shape of garden these seeds will grow into, but right now I'm planting and watering, and praying. And thanking God a million times over for His gift of these empathy-seeds, that I never knew were possible.

What about you? Are there small stories in your life that inspire you to write bigger ones?

Character, Character, Character!

Heard of the movie? I’d read a couple of reviews, watched the trailer, and knew it was sad. So, armed with tissues, five of us toddled off to the local cinema.

Everything seemed normal at first. There were the usual sounds of lolly bags being wrestled open, frozen Cokes hurtling up straws, low-key chatter during the ads and previews. And then, the instant the movie began, a collective ‘Awwwwwww?’ erupted from all around us. Loud, shrill, and very, very female.

I looked at my bestie. She looked at me. I caught my daughter’s eye and then that of her friend. They both raised eyebrows and shrugged, as did my sister-in-law next to me. What was going on?

Teenage girls, that’s what.

The ‘awwww’s just kept on coming – every time Augustus spoke. Every time he smiled. Every time he so much as raised an eyebrow.

And then came the tears. Except they weren’t just tears. They were sobs. Violent ones. So loud in some parts we couldn’t actually hear the movie. The girl in front of me rocked as she cried into a jumper shoved against her mouth. And I kid you not, the girl behind me was curled in a foetal position. And then, when I looked around, I saw there were literally hundreds of them doing it. Yeah, I was a little freaked.

Once the movie ended (and it was a beautiful story), us twenty-, forty- and fifty-somethings stayed glued in our seats, watching the aftermath with a kind of macabre fascination. Girls sat huddled on the stairs, arms around each other. Group selfies were taken, even videos. After fifteen gobsmacked minutes, we left them to it.

So why did this happen? Why did this movie have such an effect on these girls?

I asked one of them (several had recognised me from their primary school days where I’d been a teacher) and she was more than willing to explain. Between sobs, that is. Yep, she was still crying and shaking twenty minutes after the credits had finished.

She had read the book, she said, over and over. As had all her friends. She was going home to read the book again if she could. She mightn’t because she’d probably get even more upset. She just LOVED the characters. They meant so much to her.

Talk about a smack between the eyes. (Me, I mean, not my young friend J)

These girls would have had the same reaction if Hazel and Augustus had been Medieval peasants rather than contemporary Americans. Why? Because John Green, the author of 'The Fault in Our Stars', had made them so real and engaging, they had leapt off the page and into their hearts.

So, I’m throwing it out there by saying this:

If my characters don’t connect with my readers, I’m wasting my time.

I could have the most beautiful and eloquently described setting; a clever and intriguing plot; godly themes. But if I have wooden rather than resonating characters, my story will be weak and illicit only a small amount of empathy. And that’s the last thing I want.

I’m a visual learner. Therefore, my movie experience was a brilliant, God-given eye-opener. Because I saw the impact on several hundred lives made by excellently crafted characters. And as a writer (and a Christian), I have the potential to do that. It may take a lot of practice, but I’m determined to get there. Anyone want to join me?

About Andrea Grigg

Andrea writes contemporary romance. Her second novel Too Pretty will be released on August 1 by Rhiza Press. Her first novel A Simple Mistake was a finalist in the CALEB Awards 2012

Andrea would love to hear from you via her website or Facebook page:
http://www.andreagrigg.com/
https://www.facebook.com/author.andreagrigg

Flowers anyone?

 

 

 

Nearly everybody I know has a favourite flower. One of mine is orchids, especially moth orchids, which are about the only indoor plant I seem to be able to keep alive.

Another is sweet peas which I adore for the perfume as much as their colours. They are also the perfect size for a small vase of flowers to grace a table. I also love anything that flowers in the blue and purple shades. Plumbago, jacaranda, agapanthus,

blue hydrangea and petunias,

 that’s just to name a few of the blue and purple flowers in my garden.

 

But what about in writing? Have you ever thought about giving your character a favourite flower? People's likes in flowers can reveal so much about them. In Streets on a Map, Laila’s father had a passion for roses, in particular the Mr Lincoln, which I admit I also adore. Though I do not have one growing in this garden, I have in past gardens. In Sandstone Madonna , the novel  I am currently working an autistic boy has a passion for daffodils.

It made me think of a boy I knew years ago. He loved poppies. Why? Who knows? Maybe they were a reminder to him of something someone who loved him had grown? Maybe because they are so fragile. One gust of wind and all the petals are blown off. For a foster child who was shuffled from place to place that could very well describe his life.

Someone else I knew once dug all the yellow daffodils that the previous owner had planted in the lawn out. She replaced them with white daffodils. To me that sounds just the sort of quirk that could be used effectively for a character.  That was something too good to lose.

Another friend of mine likes sunflowers. To her they are big and bright and cheerful. As far as I’m, concerned, sunflower seeds are only good for putting in a muesli mix. To me, sunflowers are bold and brash.

In The Lost Hours, a recent book I read by Karen White, the woman had learned a lot about gardening from a friend. When her granddaughter went blind, this woman created a garden based not by colour but by perfume. What a great idea I thought as I read the book. It revealed something about the character that created the garden as well as the love she had for her granddaughter. I could almost smell that garden  

So next time you’re writing a character ask yourself what is their favourite flower? What else might they have in their garden?

Maybe they like cactus? I’m not a lover of cactus bit I do have one that I inherited from my mum. Isn't it beautiful when it flowers? It’s like it’s made of tapestry.

I’d love to hear about your favourite flower or one you have used effectively in a novel or found that struck you in a book you have been reading. Please share it with us all.

 

Dale writes fiction and poetry. Her latest novel Streets on a Map is currently available as an E book. She has also written children’s books, bible studies, Sunday school material, devotionals, and articles about marriage, home and Christian living. She is currently at work on a new novel, titled Sandstone Madonna.