That One Moment…

by Erica Vetsch

Thank you for inviting me to visit today. I have been a longtime reader and fan of Novel Rocket posts.

Last week, I was in ‘Deadline Mode.’ I had a December 1st deadline, and I was sweating finishing the story. For some reason, this novella was not submitting to being written. For some reason, try as I might, I just wasn’t feeling this story. For some reason, I was ready to panic! I spent hours at my local coffee shop typing away, going back and editing, streamlining, and basically pulling my hair out trying to finish this story.

Something was wrong with this plot, the characters were lifeless, the scenes disjointed. Argh! I needed to write like my hair was on fire, but I was slogging through ice-cold molasses instead.

This wasn’t the first time I’d encountered this issue with a story. And I knew I had to work through it. I had keep writing until I reached…

That One Moment.

I was in need of That One Moment in the story when I could visualize the scene where both my reader and I were going to fall in love with my hero.

Romance readers want a hero they can fall in love with, someone who does or says or is the very thing the story and the heroine needs at just the moment she needs him to do or say or be the right thing. They want a swoon-worthy, self-sacrificing or self-revealing action that sweeps them away.

Once I could visualize that scene in this story, woosh! The words just flew and I was able to both finish the first draft, and go back and layer in the foreshadowing of the crucial scene so that when it arrived, it would feel organic to the story.

Every good story needs a pivotal moment. In romance, it’s the moment when the reader falls in love with the hero. In a western, it’s the moment when the hero stands by his ideals, no matter what it will cost him. In a comedy, it’s when the main character lets you peek behind the hilarious façade to see the vulnerable, possibly wounded person behind the clowning.

Can you think of a movie you’ve seen or book you’ve read where That One Moment stands out to you? If you’re a writer, have you ever struggled with writing a story until you hit That One Moment?

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That One Moment… by Erica Vetsch (Click to Tweet)

Every good story needs a pivotal moment~ Erica Vetsch (Click to Tweet)

Author Bio: Erica Vetsch is a transplanted Kansan now residing in Minnesota. She loves history and romance, and is blessed to be able to combine the two by writing historical romances. Whenever she’s not immersed in fictional worlds, she’s the company bookkeeper for the family lumber business, mother of two, wife to a man who is her total opposite and soul-mate, and avid museum patron. Connect with Erica on facebook or sign up for her author newsletter.

Seven Brides for Seven Texans Romance Collection: The Hart Brothers Must Marry or Lose Their Inheritance in 7 Historical Novellas

Meet the seven Hart brothers of the 7-Heart ranch in central Texas. Each man is content in his independent life, without the responsibilities of a wife and children—until their father decides 1874 will be the year his grown sons finally marry, or they will be cut from his will. How will each man who values his freedom respond to the ultimatum? Can love develop on a timeline, or will it be sacrificed for the sake of an inheritance?

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What Comes After “Once Upon A Time?”

By Rachel Hauck 

Well, here it is the middle of November and you’ve been pounding away on your NaNoWriMo novel.

Sometimes, it feels like this picture. Once upon a time…

And you’re out of room.

Out of juice

Out of creativity.

NaNo is supposed to be a grind-it-out month.

No stopping to plan or rework your story or edit.

Just write.

So what do you do if you’re just stuck?

Here are a few tips:

1. Remember what the story is about? What the protagonist want? Have you shown this enough? Have you caused them to move farther and farther from their goal?

2. Write a scene out of sequence. The other day I came home and wrote a scene for the first of the book rather than the beginning of the middle where I’d written to at that point. The scene came to me and I knew it was one I needed so I wrote it.

3. Flip through a magazine. Or page through pictures. Find visual inspiration. I just downloaded a bunch of pictures from think stock.com. Some of them I found inspirational.

4. Do a sit-down with your character. Talk. But write it all down. I’ve made some great discoveries this way.

5. Take a break. Get up from the story. Walk away. But don’t leave for more than 15 minutes. Come write back and see if you don’t see something new or better in the scene you were writing.

Writing is work. But don’t be afraid to be creative and try a different approach.

Happy writing!

TWEETABLES

What Comes After “Once Upon A Time?” by Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

So what do you do if you’re just stuck?~ Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

New York Times & USA Today best-selling, award-winning author Rachel Hauck loves a great story. She is on the Executive Board for American Christian Fiction Writers and leads worship for their annual conference. In 2013 she was named ACFW's Mentor of the Year. She lives in Florida with her husband and ornery cat. Read more about Rachel atwww.rachelhauck.com.

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It's Not Writer's Block - - It's Worse!

When I think of writer's block, I think of someone staring at a page in front of the typewriter with absolutely no ideas of what to put on that page.

Worse than writer's block, methinks, is when you reach that place where you write everyday, but get no where with your story. It’s the equivalent of getting stuck with a stationary bike for Tour de France.

Writing itself isn’t the problem—you’ve written the scene 432 ways, you’ve got conflict, you’ve got tension, you’ve got descriptions, you’ve had 101 ideas. . . . You know the story is heading in this direction, but somehow every scene is just plain wrong.

Twice in my writing life I've entered into that phase where it lasted more than a month--and it’s not a lot of fun. Let me tell you.

So far the only solution I know is to show up every day and write. That’s what we do right? No matter what. Even if we know we’re going to type and type like some half-crazed person pedaling away, trying to get somewhere, but going nowhere.

Eventually, though, something breaks and the story flows again. Usually the solution was so obvious it’s ridiculous. Maybe you get an idea in the middle of the night and you finally nail it.

My experience is that I walk away with a treasure stash of descriptions, conversations, and characterizations. (That, and a bunch of darlings I'll have to murder because I won’t be able to shoe-horn them anywhere else. )

What you about you guys? Am I the only one? Has this ever happened to you? Or worse yet, is it happening right now?

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