What Are You Best At in Writing Novels?

by June Shaw

All of us have strengths in many areas of our lives and weaknesses in others. I'm so glad life works that way and gives us variety.

One of the areas where writers vary is their talent for creating stories.Some bring the most strength to creating characters. Others gloss over their characters and press on with their plots. Some others show their power to their voices that are unique. The best, of course, do an exceptional job with blending everything, making us really care for the people in their stories and pulling us along at an exciting pace with their plotting. They also have a writing voice we remember.

My main strength, I believe, is creating characters. The books I've always been drawn to make me care about the people in them. I love developing those who will live in my stories. Readers and reviewers often comment about my characters. For instance the main charcter in my mystery series, which Five Star published in hardcover and Untreed Reads will put on as e-books in July, August, and September, is Cealie Gunther. She's a spunky widow who wants to avoid her hunky ex-lover Gil Thurman so she can rediscover herself. But he opens Cajun restaurants wherever she travels -- and she is so bad at avoiding tempting dishes and men.

Lots of people say they love Cealie (and want Gil.) Some want Cealie in their families or as their best friends. She's fun and there's no telling what she'll say or do. That's what made her so much fun for me to be with her to see where she'll take me.

How about you? If you're a writer, what are your strengths? What area would you like to develop more?

www.juneshaw.com

Pantser or Plotter?

By June Shaw

If you write books, short stories, or plays, do you prefer to plot them or write them by the seat of your pants?

There is no right or wrong answer.

Authors do both, often depending on their preference or the stage of writing in which they find themselves. The genre in which they write sometimes makes a difference, too.

In a recent lively discussion between many published and unpublished writers and a popular literary agent, I heard unpublished writers mainly say they wrote without having a plan of where they were going. Most of the published writers, however, said they were pantsers when they first started writing, but then discovered writing a basic plot first helped most.

Our agent in attendance said romance writers were often pantsers but that mystery authors, whom she mainly represents, create a plot first.

One of my major deficiencies is organizing -- almost anything. I wish I didn't have that problem. But one friend I taught with does the opposite -- even her pantry is alphabetized. I'd like to keep parts of me and parts of her and fit about halfway between us with my home. And my writing.

I am plotting more with my novels now than I did when I first started with novels. It's a little easier for me as time passes.

What do you prefer? Sitting at the computer and dashing out words without knowing where you're going? Or having a plan ahead of time and fitting your creative words in their proper places?

Tried and True Plots

By Mark W. Danielson
Good versus evil, the underdog rises, the lost kid comes home. All are popular themes that are sure to win audiences. For lack of a better description, I’ll call them core plots. In movies, core plots are moneymakers. In writing, they usually mean a series. Romance and western writers rarely stray from their core formulas. Doing so ensures longevity, but it can also get boring and predictable.

I recently watched Real Steel, the first CGI movie I’ve seen in a while, and walked away feeling so-so. Compared to The Help, The Debt, Moneyball, Dolphin’s Tale, and Midnight in Paris, Real Steel melted like butter. Still, it’s been a box office smash and its audience has given it high approval ratings because it’s a feel-good movie about a comeback kid. Unfortunately, we’ve seen this plot before. Pair Rocky and The Little Engine That Could and you’re on the right track. (Pun intended.)

Mystery writers cannot get away with wowing readers with on-screen trickery, though. Their readers demand fresh plots with fun twists. The writers for Castle set the bar on how to do this well. Readers should be turning pages thinking, “Wow, I didn’t see that one coming.” If they manage to figure out the plot one third of the way into the story, then the author has failed.

Every mystery author wants their readers to think they know the plot and then Bam! take them in another direction. How you do that depends upon your writing style, but it all has to make sense so it’s believable. Learning to do this well is the real mystery in writing.

It may not hit you that your story isn’t unique until someone else reads it for the first time. Call these readers The Grim Reaper’s helpers. (Others call them editors.) Because murder can come in so many forms, it is difficult not to duplicate. For example, one day my daughter called me up with a great murder plot – use an icicle to kill someone. That way there would be no prints or means of tracing the murder weapon back to you. I told her it was a great idea except it had been done before and went on to explain its limitations. But what the heck, we had a good laugh over what had come to her in a dream. (Just to be clear, my daughter has no aspiration of murdering anyone.) The point here is the cause of death isn’t as important as the story behind the death. Why did the killer commit the act? What steps did they take to conceal their act? What ultimately led to their getting caught? The answers to these questions must be unique in every mystery. So dig a little deeper and make sure you don’t fall into the tired and true category. It may take a little longer, but your audience will thank you for your effort.