How do you overcome a Sagging Middle in your novel? Throw Grampa Down the Stairs

by Dan Walsh, @DanWalshAuthor

What in the world am I talking about here? Throw Grampa down the stairs? Let me assure you right off, although both my grandfathers passed away years ago (my wife’s grandfathers as well), I would have never done anything to hurt them.

That is, in real life. But in my books? I actually did this very thing (with my wife’s full approval).

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5 Tips for Creating First Dates for Your Characters

by Lisa Jordan @lisajordan

Do you remember your first date? Or maybe your first date with the person who ended up becoming your spouse?

My husband and I had a unique courtship—we met in our hometown while he served in the USMC but had come home on leave. For the next 18 months, we communicated via handwritten letters, phone calls, and infrequent weekend visits.

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Building Your Characters from the Inside - Part 2: Conflict

by Susan May Warren

On the 12th, we talked about sitting down with your character and getting to the bottom of who he thinks he is to discover their values, dreams and fears. (If you missed it you can find it here.)

WHY do we need to know what they value? Because we want to make them SUFFER.

But why do we want suffering? Isn’t that cruel?

Hey – that’s the price of a good story! Lots of angst and suffering. Suffering makes the character uncomfortable, and causes…CONFLICT!

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Make Your Protagonist Lose

Ron Estrada is published in several magazines, including a regular column in Women2Women Michigan. He contributes to the My Book Therapy and Inspire a Fire blogs. He's been writing novels for longer than he cares to admit but is finally releasing his first, Now I Knew You, in March. You can find out what he's up to at RonEstradaBooks.com.

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George Washington lost every battle of the American Revolution until he won the war.

This bit of historical insight would make a good blurb for a novel in which old George was the protagonist. Actually, I think it is a blurb on one of the hundreds of books written about the General. 

Here is something you'll never hear about George: he laid low until Yorktown presented him with a grand opportunity.

That would make for a boring general and lackluster revolution. It also makes for a boring protagonist and story. Here's Ron's lesson of the year: your protagonist always needs to do something.

I know. No kidding, right? But I received some feedback on my first YA novel from a multi-published YA author friend of mine who pointed out that my protagonist did a lot of nothing in an otherwise well-written novel.

"What?" said I. "Look, here he is, umm...avoiding his ex-girlfriend who he still loves. And here again, in chapter 6, he's, wellll...sinking into despair as his ex-girlfriend walks away."

Here's a hint: sinking into despair is not action. Avoiding is not action.

Action is, well, action. Or dialogue that changes the direction of the scene. Easy editing tip: if your character is exactly the same at the end of the scene as she is at the beginning, try the "select all" and "delete" functions of your laptop. There, you've just made a vast improvement to your story.

Does that mean your hero does something heroic in chapter 3? Oh, heck no. George Washington was still losing battles in chapter 3. So should your hero.

So let's go back to my boy in my YA novel. After  making use of my "select all" and "delete" functions, I had him do what any self-respecting teenage boy would do in that situation: grab the first guy he saw talking to his ex-girlfriend and punch him. Perfect. Now he not only has an ex-girlfriend, but an ex-girlfriend that thinks he's an immature louse. Battle lost.

In another scene I yanked him from his car, where he'd been pondering (again, pondering is not action), and had him do the old pebble against the heroines's window to get her attention. Actually, it was a Nerf ball, but same concept. She told him to get lost again and he looked pretty stupid, but at least he made the effort.

After going through every scene in which my protagonist simply surrendered his goal and prompting him to take action, often terrible-choice action, my novel rose from the ashes of the sullen, inactive, hero.

Do this now. Yes, right now. Find a scene in your WIP in which your hero or heroine is denied his or her goal for the scene or story. What is the worst possible choice your character can make here? Have her do it. Hey, you've always got the "select all" and "delete" functions, so what have you got to lose?

Here's to defeat. May your protagonist find it over and over again.

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Spiritual Conflict in The Romance Novel by Laurie Alice Eakes

“Eakes has a charming way of making her novels come to life without being over the top,” writes Romantic times of  bestselling, award-winning author Laurie Alice Eakes. Since she lay in bed as a child telling herself stories, she has fulfilled her dream of becoming a published author with a dozen books and novellas in print and more on the way. A graduate of Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction graduate program, she also teaches writing and gives inspirational talks to women’s groups. She lives in Texas with her husband, dogs, and cats.

Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurieAEakes

Read excerpts from her books at: http://www.lauriealiceeakes.com

Spiritual Conflict in the Romance Novel

"Why do you read romance novels?" I've been asked more times than I can count on fingers
and toes with my nose and ears tossed into the mix. "You know how it's going to end. The  hero and heroine always get together."

"Ah, yes," I respond, "But it's HOW they get together, how they resolve their conflicts that makes the story worth reading." 

Conflict is essential to a romance novel. Without a believable and compelling reason for the hero and heroine to stay apart for 200-400 pages, the point of the story is completely lost. In fact, if boy meets girl and they fall in love and have a friction-free courtship, no one would want to read the story because it is probably unrealistic. It is what non-romance readers think that romance novels are.

Conflict, contrary to what many believe, is not 200-400 pages of hero and heroine sniping at one another until they realize they’re in love. That would be ludicrous and tiresome to read.

The hero and heroine must have some kind of personal issues that keep them from diving head first into the relationship and staying their. This is internal conflict. One can also have external conflict. This is some outside force that keeps the protagonists apart—war, an interfering parent, whatever the writer’s imagination comes up with. Internal and external conflict have been the mainstay of romance novels since romance novels have existed—Mr. Darcy is arrogant, Mr. Rochester had another wife already, Emma needs to grow up. . .

Now, enter the inspirational romance novel and one more layer—spiritual conflict.

Inspirational romances are written from a “Christian world view”. Again, this does not mean their world is friction free. It means the Christian characters incorporate their faith into the decisions they make, the actions they take, the viewpoints about the issue they hold—at least they are supposed to. At least they know they are supposed to do so. When they do not consider their faith, or if their faith is in crisis, you have spiritual conflict.

In my recent release from Baker/Revell, A Flight of Fancy, my heroine, Cassandra, and hero, Geoffrey, Lord Whittaker, hold a great deal of guilt because of their past behavior with one another. They allow this guilt to stand between themselves and god, and then between one another. When a tragic accident befalls Cassandra, she thinks God is punishing her and thus backs away from her faith altogether. Until Cassandra and Whittaker can resolve their spiritual conflict, they cannot resolve their romantic conflict either.

On the other end of the spiritual conflict spectrum, in my upcoming Heartsong, The Carpenter’s Inheritance, my hero and heroine hold their faith and hold it fairly strongly throughout the story. The conflict rises from them questioning god’s purpose for their lives, as they try to work out which direction they should take as godly men and women. Their decisions in this direction make a difference in the romance outcome also.

Unlike with romantic conflict, an inspirational romance does not specifically need spiritual conflict; however, it makes for a deeper and richer story if that extra layer of internal issues exists. In addition, when the characters need to get their hearts right with the Lord before they can get their hearts right with one another, it sends the reader a stronger message of how accepting God’s love and redemption impacts all aspects of our lives, especially our relationships with one another.

Her head is in the clouds. His feet are planted firmly on the ground. Can love cover the distance?
Cassandra Bainbridge may be a bit of a bluestocking, but when Geoffrey Giles is near, love seems a fine alternative to passion for Greek and the physics of flight. With his dashing good looks and undying devotion to her, the earl of Whittaker sets Cassandra's heart racing with his very presence. It seems his only flaw is his distaste for ballooning, the obsession that consumes so much of her thoughts.

When a terrible accident compels her to end her betrothal, Cassandra heads for the country to recover from both her injuries and her broken heart. With time on her hands and good friends to help her, she pursues her love for ballooning and envisions a future for herself as a daring aeronaut. But when Lord Whittaker slips back into her life, will she have to choose between him and her dream?

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