Advanced Fiction Writing Blog

I’m at a writing conference this week and will respond to all the comments on Harry Potter soon. (You know how it is at a writing conference — just too fun to spend much time on the computer.)

However, today, August 1, is also the day Allison Bottke’s latest novel launches. As most of you will recall, I’ve done a series of teleseminar interviews with Allison in recent months in which she talks about mission statements, strategic planning, branding, and all that stuff. My life is amazingly better because of Allison’s advice, and many of our listeners have written to me to say how grateful they are for her help.

Allison is amazingly productive. She’s currently turning out several nonfiction books PLUS a novel each year. Her latest novel is launching TODAY, August 1, with a 31-day blog tour. She’s asked me to be the first blogger on her tour. So I’m interviewing her below, AND I’ve talked her into giving you an amazing deal on our teleseminar series, a 24-hour special for anyone who buys her book today on Amazon.com.

Allison writes Christian fiction for women of the Baby Boom generation, “Boomer Babes” as she calls them. I happen to be married to a Boomer Babe, and my wife really liked Allison’s last novel. I sent Allison some interview questions last week, and here’s what she sent back:

Q: People say that you write “women’s fiction with an attitude.” What does that mean?

A: It was my agent who first coined that phrase in reference to my work. He was trying to describe the kind of fiction I write but it’s not your typical romance fiction, and it’s not historical, and it’s not quite chick-lit. My lead characters are all baby boomers, in their 40’s and 50’s. They are all smart, savvy, sophisticated and a bit sassy. He told a publisher that my stories had “attitude,” that my characters had “attitude.” Thus, “women’s fiction with an attitude” was born. So, for the record, it’s my characters and stories that have the attitude, and not me.

Q: You’ve always been somewhat of a trendsetter in the Christian market, encouraging writers to have a strategic business plan and to be on top of marketing and such — now, it appears as though you’ve coined a new genre with your work — “Boomer-Lit.” Tell us about that.

A: Typical “chick-lit” is written for a 20-30 year old target market. The protagonist is usually single, and struggling with her faith, career, family, love-life and things young women often struggle with. In my books, I wanted to approach the issues that baby boomers are dealing with, things like the empty nest syndrome, aging parents, a change in career, retirement, menopause, and other health issues. I wanted to look at women in the prime of their life who were suddenly stepping out in faith to achieve the dreams of their heart. Women who weren’t afraid to take risks — who had the chutzpah to dare to dream big. That’s how “Boomer-Lit” was born.

Q: Your latest novel is ONE LITTLE SECRET, which releases today, August 1. Tell us about this book.

A: I developed ONE LITTLE SECRET first as a screenplay called JUST A HOUSEWIFE. When Bethany House wanted a second novel after A STITCH IN TIME, I immediately thought of this story, realizing that it would make some great Boomer-Lit!

For Ursula Rhoades, her ONE LITTLE SECRET becomes her one big problem! ONE LITTLE SECRET fits seamlessly into a culture obsessed with reality TV and celebrity lives (think American Idol and E! channel). Delving into the life of a fictional rock star, ONE LITTLE SECRET takes readers on a fun-loving ride through Hollywood and the famous GRAMMY awards.

In a land of glitz and glamour, Ursula Rhoades isn’t fazed in the least by the constant parade of Prada. She has a beautiful home, a loving family, and fulfilling volunteer opportunities that leave this fashionable and loving Bel-Air housewife completely content, even if she did have to give up her dreams when she married Don so many years ago. Enter Nikolai Prevelakis, or Nik Prevel to his fans, the hottest young music star in the country. But it isn’t enough. Handsome, famous, and living the life of a rock star, Nik isn’t content. When his path crosses Ursula’s, he sees the opportunity he’s been waiting for. But what seems like a harmless little secret changes their lives forever-and becomes one big secret everyone’s trying to figure out!

ONE LITTLE SECRET is a Hollywood fairy tale with all the pleasures of escapist literature mixed with gentle lessons on using the talents God has given you, the power of sacrifice, self-esteem, and the value of being “just a housewife.”

Q: Did I hear correctly that you’ve developed some sort of Hollywood contest to cast the film version of ONE LITTLE SECRET?

A: Yes sir, you did. We’re actually giving away an all expense paid trip to Hollywood for two in the event the movie gets optioned for a film. Your readers can vote on who they think would make the best Ursula and Nik — from stars like Catherine Zeta Jones and Antonio Banderas. It’s a fun and funky contest, how about you stopping by and voting, okay, Randy? Check out the contest here.

Q: Allison, you made your name writing nonfiction. What prompted you to step into fiction?

A: I’ve always wanted to write fiction. In fact, when I grow up I’d like to work in the world of film — writing screenplays. I have a deep love for creating those sappy, romantic comedy fairy-tale love stories that women can escape into. However, I had a major life-changing epiphany at the age of 35 that brought me closer to God in a very profound way. As a result of that, I founded an organization called: GOD ALLOWS U-TURNS. A vital aspect of that organization is a compilation book series of true short stories written by people from all around the world. The GOD ALLOWS U-TURNS anthology collection took off with its first volume published in 2001 and today, there are 23 plus books under the recognized GOD ALLOWS U-TURNS “brand.” That said, I was blessed to enter the world of publishing and get my feet wet—more important—I was able to make connections with editors and publishers who were able to see how I conducted my business.

I also began attending writer’s conferences as an instructor, and while there I was able to take classes as a student with some amazing novelists who generously shared their craft in workshop sessions. I soaked up everything I could about how to write fiction — taking notes — buying tapes — listening over and over again to teachers like Angela Hunt, Gayle Roper, Brandilyn Collins, James Scott Bell, Jack Cavanaugh, Lauraine Snelling, and Tracie Peterson. It was after taking a 3-day long intensive workshop with Tracie Peterson that I was able to fine-tune my work-in-progress and submit it with a proposal to Bethany House. The rest, as they say, is history. Bethany House signed me to write two novels and the whirlwind began.

Q: Your first novel, A STITCH IN TIME had some autobiographical elements. Are there any similar elements in ONE LITTLE SECRET?

A: Some? You’re being kind…there was a whole lot of me in “Stitch,” from the weight loss surgery aspect to the career as a professional fundraiser, to living in southern California. It’s been said that debut novels are often the most autobiographical in a novelist’s career. It’s also said that the second novel — the follow-up — is infinitely harder to write because you’ve used up pretty much everything you know in novel number one, and now the rubber meets the road for real creativity. (insert a big smile here.) That said, ONE LITTLE SECRET has far less of my real-life experience, which was a true joy to write! I had so much fun with this book!

Q: You changed POV’s entirely with ONE LITTLE SECRET. Your debut novel, A STITCH IN TIME was first person and ONE LITTLE SECRET is written in third person. Why did you change and which style do you prefer?

A: Like a ga-zillion other women, I first fell in love with the genre of “chick-lit” reading the 1996 release of Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding. The intimate first-person POV allowed us to experience Bridget’s angst-filled journey right along with her. I was too green to know that first person POV is one of the most difficult to pull off. With ONE LITTLE SECRET, I wanted to see if I could get inside the head of a male character — as well as have more freedom of description and story telling that third person allows. I had a blast with this style. I’d have to say that while I enjoy reading first person, I enjoy writing third person more. All three Va Va books will be third person.

Q: I’m glad you brought that up, what about all this “Va Va Va Boom” stuff I’ve been hearing about?

A: You’ve heard about it? How cool is that! I lovingly call it the Va Va project. I’ve just been contracted by David C. Cook Publishers to write three new Boomer-Lit books in a series I’ve called THE VA VA VA BOOM series. All three books will introduce entrepreneurial boomer babes who own their own businesses. Additionally, each woman has a deep dark secret and a deep dream desire. The first book in the series will release in 2008.

Q: Okay, since you mentioned it, what is a Boomer Babe? And how did that come about?

A: Here’s the definition that appears on my web site. “A Boomer Babe was born between 1946 and 1964, we are women who are comfortable enough in our own skin to realize that the mid-life years can be some of the best and most exciting in our entire life. That the hubris of youth is behind us and the wisdom of the years has made us pretty darn attractive — both inside and out. We are Boomer Babes and we’re proud of it!”

For years I’ve been known as the “God Allows U-Turns Poster Girl.” I’ve been blessed with that moniker and it’s always a joy to share with people how my life direction radically changed. Yet over the years, I found myself being drawn to the challenges my fellow baby boomer sisters were experiencing. In late 2006 I woke up one day with the idea to develop a web site separate from www.GodAllowsUTurns.com devoted to boomer women. We launched the new business, www.BoomerBabesRock.com on January 1st of 2007. A cornerstone of the outreach is a monthly electronic e-zine that we call a “Dream-Zine.” It’s called Boomer Babes with Brilliant Dreams and our goal is to empower and encourage baby boomer women to achieve the dreams of their heart.

Q: Do you have a Mission Statement for your new Boomer Babes Rock! site?

A: Sure do! “Boomer Babes Rock, where fun, fashion, food, family, and faith merge to empower and inspire boomer women around the world!”

Q: Where can my readers find out more about Boomer Babes Rock?

A: Your blog readers can find more about what a Boomer Babe is by visiting this page on the Boomer Babes Rock! web site: http://www.boomerbabesrock.com/mission-bbr.html

And, they can sign up to receive our free monthly Dream-Zine by clicking here: http://www.boomerbabesrock.com/dreamzine.html

Q: Thanks for allowing me to launch your International Blog Tour here at Advanced Fiction Writing. Where else will you be this month?

A: I’ll be visiting 42 more blogs throughout the USA, Canada and Australia. Your readers can check out my schedule here, and I sure hope they check out some of the blogs on the tour schedule: http://www.allisonbottke.com/mr_blogtours.htm

Q: Any closing thoughts?

A: Randy, the fact I’ve been published at all boggles my mind. I want to encourage your readers who have a desire to write to never give up! I also want them to stop judging themselves against other writers. I’m a high school drop out with a ninth grade education and a GED. I quit school after the 9th grade to run away from home and get married. I was going to live happily ever after in my fairy tale dream.

But that’s NOT what happened. As a teenager, I was looking for love in all the wrong places. As a Boomer Babe, I know a whole lot more about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. I also know a whole lot more about pursuing the dreams of our heart…walking in God’s purpose for our life, and making life-changing U-Turns. Boomer Babes Rock is all about living the great American dream. It’s about deciding today… that THIS is the break-out year when you’re going to make things happen — and happen in a BIG way! And that’s what ONE LITTLE SECRET is about. It’s about a dynamic woman who takes a risk to make her lifelong dream come true.

Randy, writing is not about formal education, or who you know, or how long you’ve been at it. It’s about perseverance and risk and belief in yourself — and knowing that inevitably, God will make a way where there seems to be no way. Thanks, Randy, for hosting me on your blog today. As always, it’s been a joy visiting with you and your readers.

Randy sez: Thanks, Allison, for the interview. I hope your book has a great launch. Once again, I’ll remind readers that Allison and I are doing a 24-hour special on our teleseminar series on August 1, as an incentive for people to buy her book. We’d like to see a flood of sales of the book on Amazon on Day 1. To find out more about that incentive, check out the 24-Hour Special Page.

It’s been a busy weekend. We went over to friends for dinner Saturday evening and got back really late — too late to blog.

I’ve read all the comments everyone made over the weekend and I’m reminded of a recurring question I’ve pondered over the years. If you read the Harry Potter books with a critical eye, you’ll notice that J.K. Rowling regularly breaks certain “rules.” For starters, there’s her constant use of adverbs in dialogue tags. She sometimes uses quite a bit of narrative summary (i.e., telling instead of showing). And often, we’re not in any particular character’s head.

And yet the story works. It works extremely well.

Why is that? What makes the story work? What magic does J.K. Rowling perform to bewitch her readers so effectively?

I have my own ideas on this, but I’d like to hear from you all. If you’re a Potter fan (as I am), why? And if you’ve read at least one Potter book and didn’t find it captivating, why not?

I’m sure there are lessons we can all learn by thinking about these questions.

I’ll be at a writing conference for the next few days, but I will have good internet access and should be able to blog every day.

I’m finally getting back to blogging after two weeks of vacation. The first week was on that Alaskan cruise I told you about. Then when I got back, there was the new Harry Potter book to read and a TON of email to read and answer.

First, about that cruise: It was GREAT! We really had a good time. I’ve never been on a cruise before, but as we were getting off the boat, John Olson and I were already thinking about where we’ll go for the next one.

I suggested the Amazon. John was astounded that anyone would consider cruising a warehouse full of books. But I meant the Amazon River, and Princess Cruises really does do a cruise up the river. In any event, we’re thinking about it.

John and I gave 10 hours of lectures, and each of us did 5 to 10 hours of small-group and individual critiquing. I learned some cool things from John’s lectures. He’s already heard all my lectures, but I hope he picked up SOMETHING new.

Some pluses on the cruise:
1) Food is “free”. Not really of course, because you pay for it up front when you get on the boat. But that does mean it’s competitively priced, because before you get on the boat, you could go with another cruise line.
2) The food is great. OK, I don’t recommend eating the sorry, soggy, excuse for a vegeburger. That should never have happened. But generally, the food was terrific, and the buffet is open 24 hours a day. Can’t beat that.
3) Great people. The crew was very friendly, and the folks who came with us for our writing seminar were an excellent crowd.
4) Alaska! Alaska is cool. I didn’t know there was a rain forest in Alaska. Juneau’s in the middle of it. It gets about 100 inches of rain and about that much snow most years. This year it got about twice that. The trip up the Tracy Arm Fiord was worth the price of the cruise.
5) Eagles, whales, seals, otters, salmon, and other varmints. We saw a LOT of all of the above. We saw too many bald eagles to count in the wild, and a few injured ones in captivity. In Juneau as we were driving back to the boat on the bus, the eagles were as thick as seagulls are in San Diego.
6) Glaciers. Glaciers in the wild are blue. Aqua, actually. Very cool. The ones we saw are in full retreat. Global warming and all that.
7) Desserts. Lots of ‘em. I had intended to eat one desert for each writer in a group I belong to. It has 170 writers. Unfortunately, about halfway through the cruise, it became clear that my goal was far too short-sighted. So I had . . . 2 deserts for each writer friend. They had to roll me off the boat. OK, I exaggerate a little, but I doubled my lifetime intake of cholesterol, I’m sure.

Some minuses:
1) Those wretched vegeburgers. Gack! Vegeburgers should never have potatoes as the main ingredient. This should go without saying.
2) Drinks are not free. The first day on the boat, we learned this when about 9000 crew members offered us a special deal on drinks–a refillable container that could be had for only $31 that would get us all the sodas we could swill for the rest of the cruise. We declined all 9000 times. Then we found out that it was a pretty good deal, because they way overcharge on drinks. A small bottled water cost me a couple bucks. That is not competitive. But hey–once you’re ON the boat, they’ve got a monopoly on drinks. Not a drinking fountain to be seen anywhere. The buffet had orange juice in the morning, and you could get coffee or tea or hot water free. But cold water? Uh-uh.
3) I’ll take one more kick at those vegeburgers, just because there’s not much else to complain about.
4) Well, there is ONE more thing. I had hoped to blog on the cruise. I did have time. But the internet access cost $.50 per minute IF you brought your wireless laptop (I did). If you used their internet cafe and their computers, it was $.75. And the connection was slow and not terribly reliable. At those prices and with that kind of speed, I had to settle for grabbing my 100+ emails per day and only answering those that were true emergencies. Not a chance to blog or do real email.
5) Phone calls on the ship cost about $10 per minute. My wife made one 5-minute call before we discovered this. The rest of the cruise, we only called home to the kids when we were in port and could use our cell phones.

I had a chance to read some. I took along Harry Potter books #5 and #6. I was kind of fuzzy on #5 and could hardly remember anything in #6. I read both books on the boat, in time to pick up #7 the day we got off the ship. Good timing, because my kids would have KILLED me if we’d been still gone on the day Book #7 came out.

I read HP #7 pretty much straight through and finished it last Sunday afternoon. I’m a slow reader and I wanted to savor it. I thought it was GREAT. Fabulous. A worthy end to an epic tale. Now I’m rereading the whole series so I can read all those little bits and pieces in the earlier books and know what they really mean.

Anyone else read HP #7? How’d you like it? DON’T post any spoilers here, but I’d love to hear your reactions in general on the story.

I have not been able to blog the last couple of days because of the last-minute rush to get ready for the Alaska cruise that I’m going on. My buddy John Olson and I are running a writing seminar at sea and will be gone for seven days. John is bringing his whole family. I’m bringing my wife, leaving the kids and cats and dog at home to hold the fort.

The branding tagline for Princess Cruises is “Escape Completely.” I’m not sure if that’s possible. I’ll have internet access. However, as part of that escape, I’ll not blog about writing. If possible, I’ll blog a bit about the cruise and post some pictures. My wife forgot the USB cable for the camera, but we hope to scrounge one so we can transfer pictures to my laptop.

I’ll be getting on the boat in a few hours. Feel free to continue the discussion of writing while I’m gone. I’ll be back the day the next Harry Potter book comes out. See ya then!

OK, let’s deal with some questions on Point of View today:

Karen wrote:

Sell your Honda Civic - why? Don’t you know those things run on wishes for centuries? I just hope it wasn’t a hatchback. There’s a black market on them.

So, how many miles did you bury the thing at?

Randy sez: That’s the most “interesting” question on POV I’ve ever had. The old Honda ran for 185,199 miles. We were sorry to let it go. We brought my younger two daughters home from the hospital in that car after they were born, and they are now 17 and 13, so it’s been in the family a long time. But it was time.

Christophe wrote:

I’ve heard people talk about close third person POV. I was wondering what the different kinds of POV were in terms of “closeness”. I didn’t see this discussed anywhere so far, not even in Sol Stein’s book. Also, are there certain POV things one should never ever do? (pitfalls so to speak)

Randy sez: I don’t know if there are any standard definitions of the various degrees of closeness when writing POV. But you do have choices, at least in third person.

At one extreme, you can put the camera outside your character’s head and watch him without telling us anything of what he’s thinking. At the other extreme, you can get WAY inside and give us a running stream of consciousness.

I like getting well inside the character’s head, but I try to vary the distance from the character to make things interesting. You can control how close you are to the character by the intelligent use of interior monologue.

With interior monologue, you have several options:

1) You can do what I call shallow interior monologue, in which you paraphrase what the character is thinking, but without working hard to make it sound like the character’s actual thoughts.

2) You can get a bit closer and paraphrase the character’s thoughts, but now using words and thought patterns that are very much the way the character thinks.

3) You can go all the way in and show us the character’s verbatim thoughts (usually in italics, but for longer stretches, it’s better to do this in a normal font.)

Let me give some absurd examples of this with a character we’ll call Jim-Bob, a car thief who is right outside in my driveway trying to figure out if he can steal my new car. In each of these examples, I’ll do SOME interior monologue, interspersed with other stuff.

1) Shallow interior monologue:

Jim-Bob crouched behind a tree in the famous author’s front yard. The Honda sat in a pool of darkness, waiting to be stolen. Only an idiot would park a brand new car out in the driveway with the keys in the ignition. Jim-Bob crawled toward the car.

[Sentence #3 is shallow interior monologue.]

2) A bit deeper interior monologue:

Jim-Bob crouched behind a tree in that dad-gum author’s front yard. The Honda was just beggin’ to be took, layin’ there in the shadows. It took some kind of fool to park a hoity-toity new car right out in the driveway with the keys just janglin’ in the ignition. Jim-Bob crawled toward the car.

[Sentences #1, 2, and 3 all use words taken from Jim-Bob’s vocabulary. Sentences #2 and 3 qualify as interior monologue. They are close to Jim-Bob’s verbatim thoughts, but we can’t know for sure if they are.]

3) Deep interior monologue:

Jim-Bob crouched behind a tree in that dad-gum author’s front yard. That Honda is hollerin’ my name. Best go git it before it decides to holler fer somebody else. Jim-Bob crawled toward the car.

[Sentences #2 and 3 have now been sharpened up so they are definitely Jim-Bob’s verbatim thoughts, and we show this by using italics.]

Interior monologue is a powerful tool for varying the degree of closeness to your character.

I had a long weekend away from the computer. We spent a lot of time shopping for a car and finally bought one today. We traded in our ancient Honda Civic (nearly 18 years old) and came home with a brand new Civic with that mysterious new-car smell that everybody wants, even though it’s really rather sickening.

It’s been about 8 years since the last time I bought a car, and a lot has changed since then. The internet has made research far easier. Possibly as a result, the salesmen at the car dealerships seem to be much less aggressive than they used to be. (Or else I just got lucky and didn’t run into any weasels-in-suits.)

I spent some time looking through the comments that accumulated over the weekend, as well as questions that were asked over the last ten days or so. It seemed that there were a few on point of view (POV), so I thought I’d start things off for the week with this question:

Christophe wrote:

I’ve been thinking of using first person POV, because I think that it would work really well for my protagonist. However, this would force me to write a prologue about him in someone else’s third person POV (since the reader should not know straight away he is the protagonist, that should only be clear in the first chapter). Furthermore, I have several story lines, the biggest one being that of the protagonist of course. However, the two other storylines don’t always have him in the scene. Do you think it’s acceptable to switch between first person protagonist POV in one chapter to someone else’s third person POV in the next?

Randy sez: It’s perfectly fine to work with first person in one chapter and third person in another. Or multiple POVs, all in first person. The only rule is that it has to work. Which means you give your reader a Powerful Emotional Experience with each POV character.

For example, in Diana Gabaldon’s ground-breaking time-travel romance series, the second book, DRAGONFLY IN AMBER, was written partly in first person and partly in third person. (The first in the series, OUTLANDER, was all first-person. Her character in the second novel was told in first person, while other characters were written in third person.) It worked very well.

As another example, Sol Stein’s novel, THE BEST REVENGE, was written using several POV characters, all written in first-person. Sol was one of the great editors and also one of the great writing teachers of the twentieth century, and he’s one of the few who is also an outstanding writer. (Often, great editors can’t write fiction, and many excellent teachers are only so-so at writing.)

I’ll be working on my next issue of the e-zine tomorrow. Go ahead and post your questions on POV here and I’ll begin answering them tomorrow (or Wednesday if my brain turns into oatmeal after writing the e-zine tomorrow).

I’ll continue to answer questions today on those pesky Scenes and Sequels.

Christophe wrote:

Somehow I always had it in my head that too much POV switching throughout your novel is bad. But I’ve been checking into my favorite novels and I came to the startling conclusion that even my favorite authors show more than 3 or 4 POV’s. For some reason, I was convinced that the best way to go was to stay in 1 POV, with the occasional slip into another to break the flow.

Is there a rule to this? Besides the fact that you don’t switch POV within a scene?

Randy sez: There’s no hard rule here. Many excellent novels have been written with a single POV. Many others have been written with several. The Godfather seemed to have dozens. It all depends on how many you need.

Camille wrote:

I have a scene that I’m wondering if it works: Some of the G/C/D elements are shown in recollections of the POV char instead of in a forward flow of time.

The scene starts with POV char looking forward to a trip (goal), relieved that things have finally worked out. A brief mental recollection about a friend shows us his reason for wanting to make the trip, giving us sympathy for him (?) The Conflict and Disaster that may have prevented the trip are shown next in his recollections, along with how it was resolved. This portion of scene ends with his current, doubtful but humorous view of the solution.

Randy sez: I’m not sure what it means that they “may have prevented the trip.” It sounds like this is all being told in flashback. That can work, but you should always ask when using a flashback why you need the flashback. It’s hard for me to say whether this works without actually reading the scene.

Diane wrote:

In further speculation of the scene in which I feared the disaster was for the wrong character, I realized that I may actually have a full scene, plus abbreviated sequel in one POV scene. The POV character is not faced with a huge disaster, but a slight bump on the road to the goal that is immediately reacted to and a decision is made in relation to it. The greater disaster, which is impending for the antagonist is actually a major plot of the book, so while it is a main part of the scene it isn’t actually the scene’s disaster. I’m beginning to realize that these aspects of scene/sequel can actually be quite subtle. So is it OK to have all those elements in one scene rather than breaking them up?

Randy sez: It’s quite OK to have a Scene and Sequel run together in one big glop. The reader won’t know or care. Your fellow authors will know, but they won’t care either, as long as it works. If it doesn’t work, the reader will put the book down and your fellow authors will mock you secretly behind your back. So make sure it works.

It looks like we’re running out of steam on Scenes and Sequels, so I’m going to go back to the list of questions that you all asked about a week ago and find a new topic.

Hi everyone, I’m back after taking a couple of days off. I realized Tuesday that Wednesday was going to be the Fourth of July, and it just didn’t make sense to put out my e-zine or write a blog post when a high percentage of my readers would be doing exactly what I was doing on the Fourth–vegging out.

In fact, I’ve decided that it’s probably best to wait till next week to send out my e-zine. With the holiday right smack in the middle of the week, there doesn’t seem to be a good day to release it.

We’ve been discussing Scenes and Sequels in fiction lately, and how to use them to create that all-important Powerful Emotional Experience. (It has often been speculated that I chose this phrase for it’s amazingly cool three-letter acronym. I wish I was that clever and bold, but in fact I didn’t.)

A number of questions and comments came up while I was vegging out:

Camille wrote:

At what stage of planning or writing do Scene/Sequel begin to take shape? Is it in the early plotting, so that you’re sure to include the 3 elements of Scene or Sequel before you ever write?

Is it after you’ve laid out a basic storyline? Or is it while you write & flesh out the story?

Randy sez: It’s up to you. I recommend that you develop your story first without thinking too much about the rules. But then when you go to write a Scene or Sequel, it just makes sense to ask first what’s the Goal-Conflict-Disaster sequence (or the Reaction-Dilemma-Decision) sequence.

That way you don’t waste time putting your precious pearls of perfect prose on paper, only to discover that the whole thing was ill-structured to begin with.

That’s like building a new room on the house and THEN asking what the room is going to be used for. (Oh darn! We really wanted a bathroom, but we built it with three huge windows, no doors, and no toilet! Dang!)

Diane asked:

I have some questions. I’m just starting to get my head around this scene/sequel thing. However, taking it to my WIP, I can see that I’m either misinterpreting how this works in my own work or I’m doing it all wrong. My prologue seems to be more a sequel then a scene (can that work?). And then I have a chapter in which the POV character has a goal and a conflict, but the disaster isn’t really a disaster for the POV heroine but for her antagonist. Does it have to be the character with the goal that has the disaster?

Randy sez: A prologue can be either a Scene or a Sequel (though most writers would do it as a Scene). However, it should be one or the other; it should not be a mix of both.

As for Disasters that fail to disast, well you can do that once in a while. Remember, all these rules are rules of thumb. Like the Pirate’s Code, they’re guidelines, not infallible laws. But if you have a scene that ends in a disaster for a non-POV character, you should immediately ask yourself if it wouldn’t be more effective to change the POV to the character who has the disaster. A lot of times, you’ll decide that yeah, you should have used a different POV character.

Many writing teachers will tell you to choose the POV character based on “who has most at stake” or on “who has the most to lose.” Both of these guidelines are essentially the same as mine.

By the way, I just finished reading a recent NY Times bestselling literary novel which violated a LOT of the “rules.” (I’ve been studying it with a mentee of mine.) I went through about three stages in reading this book. First, I found the violation of the “rules” rather obtrusive. Then, I found it charming, because the writing was strong and I felt that in some cases, breaking the rules “worked.”

As I got further into the book, I found myself getting more and more bored with the story. I wanted to like it, because it had an interesting premise. But at a certain point, I stopped caring about most of the characters. And I think the reason for that was the continuous failure to put me inside the skin of any character.

I’m not going to tell you the title of this book (unless you ply me with large quantities of chocolate–we all have our price)–because I don’t like to slam a fellow author in public. Authors get slammed enough from book reviewers. I mention it because it reminded me pretty forcefully that those rules have a reason, and we violate them at our own risk.

For those of you just joining us, we’ve been discussing the fine points of Scenes and Sequels for the last few days. I have covered the basics in my article on Writing the Perfect Scene, but a number of questions have come up that need answering.

As an amusing side note, try Googling the phrase “Scenes and Sequels” and see what you come up with.

Vennessa wrote:

Just one request, if possible. Could you please show us an example from one of your books where you deal with one character’s Scene and another character’s Sequel at the same time? I’m a visual learner; I like examples I can study rather than just instruction.

Randy sez: Yes, I’ll be happy to do that. I’ll choose one of my books at random, DOUBLE VISION. I’ll analyze Chapter two, which has two Scenes and one Sequel.

Let me give you a little backstory. Chapter one starts out with our heroine, Keryn, being summoned to work on a Saturday for an emergency meeting. Keryn is CFO of the company and is romantically interested in one of the engineers at work, our hero Dillon, who is a very nice guy, a technical genius, but not socially adept. Keryn and Dillon had their first date last night, and it went OK but he and she have very different ideas of their relationship at this point. (Keryn has high hopes; Dillon is blissfully unaware that they even HAVE a relationship.) When Keryn arrives at work, she finds Dillon talking with the company CEO and with a hot young blonde airhead who appears to be overly interested in Dillon.

With that background, we analyze the next two scenes, both of which are Scenes, but told from different POVs.

Scene 1, from Keryn’s POV: This is a short Scene. Keryn’s Goal is to find out who this airhead is and get her to back off from Dillon. There is a short bit of Conflict in which Keryn learns that the airhead is a new employee for the company. Keryn is miffed at this, because the company is in financial straits and it’s her job to keep the books balanced. Why the heck has a new employee been hired without her permission? The Disaster comes when the CEO tells Keryn that the airhead is no airhead at all–she’s a brilliant biophysicist who has made a remarkable discovery. Clearly, she is just the kind of genius who might be able to interest Dillon in a way that Keryn never can.

Scene 2, from Dillon’s POV: This is a much longer Scene that follows immediately. Dillon knows that the company is having problems; his Goal is to solve the problem. The Conflict comes when the CEO reveals that one of their customers is backing out of a recent sale. The Disaster is that the company’s “angel investors” have set specific sales requirements for the company, and now those requirements have not been met. This means that the investors will refuse to continue pumping money into the company and it is almost certain to go broke. They are facing bankruptcy and layoffs.

This scene is at the same time a Sequel for Keryn, who is sitting next to Dillon not saying much. The reader knows that Keryn is dying to know who this blonde is. However, we’re in Dillon’s head, who is blissfully unaware of Keryn’s Reaction (jealousy) and her Dilemma (what to do about the blonde). So the content of Keryn’s Sequel is left for the reader to guess at, mostly. This is fair, because Keryn’s love life is NOT the main story of the book.

Scene 3 of the chapter continues in Dillon’s POV and it’s a Sequel. The Reaction in the group is fear at the possibility of layoffs. However, there is a possible way out. The blonde “airhead” is a recent Caltech Ph.D. named Rachel, and she has just developed the heart of a quantum computer that could save the companie’s cookies–once it can be shown to work. But Rachel needs help to complete the project, and Dillon has exactly the skills and the technical brilliance to do the job. The Dilemma is whether to tell the truth to the other employees (who will almost certainly start sending out resumes the instant they hear the company is in trouble) or whether to keep quiet and try to get the new device built before the next payroll comes due (at which point all hell will break loose when the company can’t meet payroll). The Decision is that Dillon will work around the clock with Rachel at a secret off-site location to see if possibly they can solve the problem before the whole company comes unglued.

Note that the above Sequel would be a Scene if it were shown from Keryn’s POV, since it’s a Disaster for her romantic hopes to have Dillon working so closely with hot-to-trot Rachel for the next few weeks.

Why did I write this as a Sequel (in Dillon’s POV) rather than as a Scene (in Keryn’s POV)? Simply because the main storyline is about the quantum computer. Keryn’s love life is a subplot. This early in the book, I felt it better to work the main storyline, even in Sequel, rather than Keryn’s subplot in Scene.

A side note: I used to work in a small high-tech company not too unlike the one in this story. I actually set the location of the fictional company right next door to the one I worked at. If my storyline shows some antipathy for “angel investors,” it may be because I don’t think they’re all angels.

My post on Friday drew quite a few comments. I’m going to answer some of the questions that arose from that post:

Pam wrote:

Thanks for all your help! Would you be able to give an example of this type of scene writing. I think I’m doing it right, but I’m not sure. Can you name a few authors that write in this style?

Another question if you have time to consider it:
Alive Communications will not assign you an agent unless you have been published commercially or unless you have a referral by a published author. I haven’t had a novel published yet. This means I need a referral. And how do you do that? Any secrets?

Virtually all modern writers write in Scenes and Sequels. Some of them don’t know they are doing so. Most of them are somewhat aware of the structure of scenes. So, I’ll choose a book at random from my shelf . . .

Very good, PATRIOT GAMES, by Tom Clancy. An oldie but a goodie. Let’s analyze the first scene:

Our hero Jack Ryan is walking through the streets of London to meet his wife and daughter. (That’s the Goal.)

Just after he finds them, there’s an explosion not fifty feet away. Jack turns and sees three terrorists shooting up a Rolls-Royce which has been crippled by an RPG. No cops are in sight, so Jack races into the firefight, chop-tackles one terrorist from behind, grabs his pistol, shoots the terrorist in the hip to disable him, then gets into a gunfight with another. Jack gets shot in the shoulder, but he kills his opponent. The third terrorist speeds away from the scene. About that time, the London cops arrive and are none too sure whether Jack is a good guy or a bad guy. Jack persuades them that he’s a right fine Yank. (All of the above is the Conflict. Notice that the Conflict takes up most of the Scene. It’s supposed to.)

As the Scene closes, Jack suddenly realizes that he’s been shot in the shoulder and he’s bleeding like a pig. His wife, a doctor, takes charge and an ambulance arrives. About then, Jack passes out from the pain, but he is vaguely aware that his body is Seriously Damaged and May Not Survive. (That’s the Disaster.)

Folks, when Tom Clancy is on, he’s really on. This is a very strong scene, and PATRIOT GAMES is one of my faves by Clancy.

Homework: Study the following scene (which is a Sequel) and see how Clancy handles the Reaction, Dilemma, and Decision, if any.

Hmmm, Pam asked a bonus question on how to get an agent. With a top-level agency like Alive Communications, your best bet, if you have no books published, is to take a really, really good proposal with strong sample chapters to a writing conference and make some appointments with good agents. You should do your homework in advance to be sure the agency fits your needs.

Does it work to meet an agent at a writing conference? Of course it does! There is only one reason why major agencies allow their busy agents to take 4 or 5 days out of their life to travel across country to go to a writing conference. It’s not for their health. Good agencies are always looking for good clients, but they can’t ethically go trolling for clients of other agenices. So their #1 option is to meet unagented writers at conferences. If they find a good writer, they typically make decisions very quickly.

Camille asked:

How important is the S&S alternating pattern in the first couple chapters if you’re introducing people and cleverly disguised background info?

I have 2 characters who don’t meet for a while, and the chapters leading up to it ALTERNATE.

Maybe I’ve errantly assumed that a scene or sequel comprise a full chapter, and what I should be asking is: are scenes or sequels bound by chapter, are they combined in a chapter, or are they spread across chapters?

Randy sez: It is not so important to be alternating Scenes and Sequels. It is very important that any scene that you write should be EITHER a Scene OR a Sequel. It is very rare for me to see any scene in a book that isn’t one of those two. It is rarer still to see such a beast that actually works. Scenes work. Sequels work. Hardly anything else does.

I am a little concerned about your mention of “cleverly disguised background info.” This can work, but it needs to be quite subtle. Most writers (including me) believe that we just have to tell all that backstory or our reader won’t understand what’s going on. Well, what’s wrong with the reader not knowing everything? He or she will survive. The only truly fatal mistake you can make is to bore your reader so they set down the book and never pick it up again. When it comes time to edit your story, ask yourself just how much backstory is truly necessary in the early chapters. You may find that it’s a lot less than you imagine.

As for Scenes and Sequels, you can lay them out however you like in a chapter. I typically include 2 or 3 scenes (a “scene” here means either a Scene or a Sequel) per chapter, depending on how long they are. Each one averages 4 or 5 pages. I feel no obligation to put the Sequel in the same chapter with its preceding Scene. I feel no obligation to show all the Sequels. (I do know what they are, but I may choose to not show them.)

The only obligation I feel is to give the reader a Powerful Emotional Experience. That’s the only goal. Whatever choice of Scenes and Sequels I make is designed to do that as well as I can. If I omit Sequels, that’s the reason. If I switch POV characters, that’s the reason. That’s the only criterion.

We’ll talk more about all this tomorrow . . .