Editor Alice Orr on It Takes Two to Tangle: Relationships that Move Your Story @AliceOrrBooks #MFRWauthor #amwriting

It Takes Two to Tangle, in real life and in storytelling. But, whether a fictional connection is romantic or not, the other person in your main character's relationship exists, mainly, for the purpose of moving and intensifying your hero's story.

The second character gives your hero someone to talk to, moves her thoughts into dialogue. Which cuts down on internal monologue that slows the pace of the story. Dialogue appears more active on the page than paragraphs of uninterrupted narrative, and more active to the reader's consciousness also. This dialogue must, of course be interesting and compelling.

How do you make dialogue interesting? First, by creating a complex, fascinating story mate to match your complex, fascinating hero. A mate whose opinions and attitudes differ from those of your main character. They may be mates in general, but they debate, irritate one another, and even openly conflict on occasion.

These conflicts are usually variations in attitude rather than violent disagreements. They force your hero to articulate her feelings and beliefs. This allows your reader to know her better and identify more closely with her, which is critical to hooking the reader into your story.

The second character need not be portrayed as sympathetically as the hero. This mate character may be in the process of evolving, with something major yet to learn in life. He or she may or may not accomplish that goal in this story, unlike your hero who must learn and grow.

You should also contrast these two characters in more external ways. Family and cultural background, life experience, economic and social status, physical appearance. These differences provide potential for fireworks in the relationship, which may be sexual or not. Either way, they enflame reader interest, and that heat serves your storytelling purpose.

In real life, we prefer people to get along, but, in fiction, too much harmony is boring. Conflict in a story relationship makes that story more interesting. However, you, as author, must understand what storytelling conflict is. Banter back and forth between characters, no matter how clever, is not strong enough conflict to create compelling fiction.

There must be a crucial problem between the characters for real conflict to occur. The greater the problem, the more intense the trouble between them becomes, and intense conflict is the heart of strong storytelling. These two characters may basically like, or even love, each other, but if they get along too well for chapter after chapter, they lose the reader's interest.

You must create characters with the potential for legitimate contention between them. Most importantly, create an active hero with the strength to stand up for herself and what she believes, and to defy opposition. She is a person who refuses to remain passive while bad things happen to her, or to those she cares about. This portrayal makes her defiance believable.

Next, create a mate character strong enough to be a worthy adversary. Now, you have a relationship that is a juxtaposition of equals, with potential for true tension between them. Without this tension, conflict that grips your reader will fail to ignite. With this tension, and the sparks it produces, the relationship, and your storytelling, set fire to the page.

For more insights into writing and publishing, visit my blog at www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Alice Orr is author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now writes full-time. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5. Find all of Alice Orr's books at amazon.com and other online retailers. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and lives with her beloved husband Jonathan in New York City.

Author Website www.aliceorrbooks.com

Author Blog www.aliceorrbooks.com

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter

Twitter https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks

Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E

Retweet with fellow members on #MFRWauthor Retweet Day @MFRW_ORG

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics for this one tweet.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. On the tweet, click the heart and then the retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

Share your tweet on #MFRWauthor Retweet Day @MFRW_ORG

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics for this one tweet.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. On the tweet, click the heart and then the retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

All's Well that Ends Well: Endings that Satisfy by Alice Orr @aliceorrbooks #AmWriting #MFRWauthor

How to Write the Ending that Satisfies

How do I make my story ending sell my book? Good question, just not the right question. Why not? Because the ending of your story doesn't sell this book as much as it sells your next one.

Have you ever finished a book and wanted to throw it across the room, or maybe actually did throw it across the room? Very often the book's ending made you do that, and also made certain you wouldn't buy that author's next book.

Your goal as a storyteller is to avoid being thrown across the room, to avoid losing a reader for your next book and the ones after it. To reach that goal, you must create a story ending that does not frustrate. You must create an ending that satisfies.

The end game of your story is a danger zone, partly because you are likely to be tired of these people and their situation by now. In fact, if you are a committed storyteller, your head and heart may already be deep into your next book. Because of that, you must be careful not to write the ending in this rhythm. Gallop, Gallop, Gallop, The End. That ending does not satisfy. That ending lacks the essential Big Bang.

In earlier articles, I used the film classic Casablanca to illustrate the Dramatic Opening and the Middle that Moves. Casablanca is an example of the Ending that Satisfies, too. Rick and Ilsa's story is especially rich in this respect because it has two narrative threads, an action suspense thread and an emotional suspense thread, and both are tied up with a Big Bang at the end.

The action climax is an actual, audible bang when arch villain German Major Strasser is shot dead. The emotional climax is more drawn out, and that slightly slowed down pace is part of what gives it impact. Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, tells Ilsa, played by Ingrid Bergman, why she must take the plane to Lisbon and safety, not with him, but with her husband, Nazi hunter Victor Laszlo.

The plane engine rumbles to life in the background. A single tear trembles on Ilsa's perfect cheek. And Bogie says some of the most memorable lines of his career.

Rick: Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.

Ilsa: But what about us?

Rick: We'll always have Paris.

Rick walks off then with Vichy Captain Louis Renault, who has finally discovered his inner good guy. But the Big Bang really happens in that moment with Ilsa, when brooding cynic Rick finds his own true heroic nature and sacrifices his heart for the good of the world and his soul.

We could hardly be more satisfied, and it all looks smooth and easy. But don't be fooled. To carry off an ending that works this well, there has to be a plan. To create a Big Bang Ending for your story, you must also have a plan. You must plan your climactic scene in detail. Don't write a word until that plan is perfect. Here are some specific suggestions for planning your Big Bang Ending.

Plan:

·         ...mostly action and dialogue, very little narrative.

·         ...keep all of this action on stage, in the immediate present.

·         ...dialogue that is spare, to the point and memorable.

·         ...on intensifying the pace, faster than what has gone before.

·         ...lots of physical movement in the scene.

·         ...lots of intense sensation – sight, sound, smell, texture and more.

·         ...plunge your protagonist into peril.

·         ...one more obstacle to arise for your protagonist. Make it formidable.

·         ...a confrontation between your protagonist and antagonist.

·         ...on milking that confrontation, while keeping up the intense pace.

·         ...for your protagonist to cause action, not merely be overtaken by it.

·         ...communicate your protagonist's feelings, with impact, to the reader.

·         ...on incorporating fear, even terror, among those emotions.

·         ...the presence of real danger to your protagonist in this scene.

·         ...an outcome in the balance.

·         ...that outcome as crucial to your protagonist.

·         ...for your protagonist to be nearly vanquished in this scene.

·         ...for your protagonist to be racing against time.

·         ...for your protagonist to triumph in the last possible moment.

·         ...for your protagonist to triumph by the narrowest of margins.

·         ...for this triumph to be uplifting and inspiring.

The purpose of a Big Bang Ending is to reverberate after the last page is turned, to lodge in the psyche of the reader and be remembered, all the way to the bookstore, or the Buy Now button, and the purchase of your next title. Stage your final scene the way a choreographer stages a dance. The result will be a powerful Dramatic Ending at full circle from your Dramatic Opening, and equally or even more thrilling.

Now you must recognize that your story is over. You and your protagonist have exploded out of the explosive situation you exploded into on page one. You must resist the temptation to hang around a while longer. You have taken your reader on an unforgettable ride. Leave before she has a chance to catch her breath. Leave before he has had enough. Leave them wanting more. No Epilogues, Please.

When you have accomplished all of that – Here's looking at you, kid.

ALICE ORR is the author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now lives her dream as a full-time writer. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving: Riverton Road Romantic Suspense - Book 5. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and resides with her husband Jonathan in New York City.
Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E

Retweet Day for #MFRWorg Come share your tweet! @MFRW_ORG

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics for this one tweet.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. On the tweet, click the heart and then the retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

Building a Hero with Stature and What Not to Do by Alice Orr @AliceOrrBooks #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Building a Hero with Stature – What Not to Do

If your storytelling goal is wide audience appeal, build an admirable hero. A hero the reader will look up to, and remember that when I use the term hero, I'm referring to main characters of all genders.

I base my admirable hero assertion on two things. First, the bestseller lists. Most fiction titles you find there tell stories of admirable protagonists confronting great obstacles in admirable ways. Second, my experience as editor and literary agent, which too often illustrated what an admirable hero is not. Here are some examples, with names changed for discretion's sake.

Caroline is the hero of a Regency romance set in early nineteenth century England. We're told she's a woman of spotless character, which would be an appropriate portrayal. Most readers of this genre prefer their heroines intelligent, wise and, above all, dignified. An author seeking wide reader appeal would be wise herself to honor these preferences.

Unfortunately, Caroline is not the highly principled woman we are told she is. Instead, she shows herself to be of low moral character. Specifically, she joins a traveling theatrical company where her performance specialty is as a procurer or, in more forthright terms, a pimp. 

To make matters worse, Caroline lacks acceptable motivation for her choices. She's an unhappily married woman to be sure, but she is also from the landed gentry with ample financial means. She doesn't need to disgrace herself and her family to escape her husband, nor allow herself to be degraded as she does in this author's story.

A Regency era main character may find herself in dire straits. She may act to overcome her trials in many ways, but not at the expense of dignity and self-respect. Otherwise, she becomes too tawdry to qualify as a hero of this genre, and maybe as an admirable hero of any genre, at least for a non-established author. Bestsellers can afford to take chances, sometimes.

As for Sebastian, I wonder if even his author liked him very much. Sebastian is cold, distant and uncaring. His lack of compassion must be counteracted by noble qualities to make him an admirable hero. He could be written as remote on the surface with endearing depths beneath, but, in this portrayal, under his craggy surface beats a heart of unappealing stone.

Kendra has heroic qualities but is never called upon to use them. Her story is meant to be suspenseful. She should be in danger, real danger that, to maximize appeal, threatens her life. She is strong, resourceful and brave. We're eager to see those qualities tested by extreme circumstance. When no truly thrilling challenges arise, our reader expectations are dashed.

Kendra's author could have made stronger storytelling choices. A perilous situation, which Kendra only narrowly escapes. Better still, another character, vulnerable, like a child, faces serious threat, and Kendra risks her life to defy that threat. These scenarios would reveal her heroism in action and intensify the suspense. Instead, Kendra is a heroine waiting to happen, and the author squanders the dramatic potential of her story.

Shattered reader expectations, heartless main characters, dramatic potential squandered. Avoid these like the storytelling plagues they are, unless you're a bestselling author with maybe some room for risk. Build instead a hero with stature we can admire.

For more insights into writing and publishing – Visit my blog at www.aliceorrbooks.com.

About Alice Orr

Alice Orr is the author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now lives her dream as a full-time writer. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving: Riverton Road Romantic Suspense - Book 5. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and resides with her husband Jonathan in New York City.
Author Website www.aliceorrbooks.com
Author Blog www.aliceorrbooks.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Twitter https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E

Tweet with fellow authors on Retweet Day #MFRWauthor and #MFRWorg

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. Click the heart on the tweet and then the retweet symbol and the Retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

Character Triage: Kick Out Your Characters by Alice Orr @AliceOrrBooks #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Join former literary agent and editor Alice Orr, author of No More Rejections, as she offers advice for character triage, kicking out characters who do not work in your story.

Character Triage

Who's In? Who's Out? Every character you start out with in your story may not carry enough storytelling weight to be allowed to stick around. Some will most likely have to go. Which characters do and do not belong in your story? How do you decide? First, let's make a couple of general lists. Then we'll move on to my personal specifics.

Character Triage –Characters Who Should Stay in Your Story

They sparkle with contradiction and controversy.

They enhance the main characters in the story, make them more intriguing.

They aggravate the main characters in the story, make them more conflicted.

They have often dark secrets the main characters would like to know, or should know, but don't.

They have hidden dreams the main characters would like to know, or should know, but don't.

In other words, they generate plot by adding more complications to the story.

Character Triage – Who's Out? Characters Who Should Leave Your Story

They don't make anything happen.

They get along with everyone, neither creating nor enhancing conflict.

We aren't interested in knowing more about them.

They are not connected with either the main characters or their stories.

In other words, they don't generate plot by adding more complications to the story.

Here are some specific character types I especially want to boot out the door.

#1 Exit Candidate: The Lackluster Character

Especially when you are creating the main characters of a series who must be extra unique and compelling. In fact, any continuing character must stand out in order to hold a reader's interest through several stories. Be careful not to focus on thrilling plot at the expense of thrilling characters. This can be fatal to storytelling success.

The Character Who Cloys

Especially as your romance heroine. She's cute enough to kill, and the alleged hero scampers along in her wake for far too long. At first, she may be lovable for the reader as well. Then, we become exasperated with her and, eventually, out and out irritated. She's a distraction from the story and undermines your hero's portrayal too.

The Character Who Fails at His Story Mission

Especially as your mystery-suspense hero. He's the detective who doesn't detect. A murder is committed, and he should be intent on finding the murderer but does too little to further that quest. He avoids real investigative questioning. He lets others to do the legwork. He slows the pace instead of enlivening it. He must thrust himself into danger and battle his way out again.

The Interchangeables

Especially as your secondary characters. For example, three sisters or friends or whoever that would be better as two. The extra sidekick clutters the story. She isn't distinctive enough and her lack of substance drains story vitality. She should be folded into one of the other characters to streamline plot and pacing or rewritten to reveal her individuality.

Character Triage: This is Only the Beginning

I've shared my personal sampling of characters who need to go if you want to write a strong story, and of course you do. Now, you must make your own list, from your own work, but don't be discouraged when you do. There are ways to save these characters from the no-hope heap. Every character, like every human being, has a story. Your job as storyteller is to dig deep, discover that story and give your creation life on the page. In other words, perform character triage. When you do that, all your characters will not just belong in your story, they will be embedded in your reader's heart.

For more insights into writing and publishing,visit my blog at www.aliceorrbooks.com

About Alice Orr

Alice Orr is author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. Hero in the Mirror: How to Write Your Best Story of You is in progress. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now writes full-time. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5. Find all of Alice Orr's books on Amazon. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and lives with her beloved husband Jonathan in New York City.
Author Website www.aliceorrbooks.com
Author Blog www.aliceorrbooks.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Twitter https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E

Share book related tweets on Retweet Day with #MFRWauthor and #MFRWorg

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. Click the heart on the tweet and then the retweet symbol and the Retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

Who's Driving Your Story? Make Sure the Proper Protagonist is at the Wheel by Alice Orr @aliceorrbooks #MFRWauthor #AmWriting

You have gifted yourself with an Idea from Heaven. You've learned to create a story idea that is potentially strong enough to hook your readers as a captive audience for the length of your entire book. Your idea engine is tuned up and ready to roll. Now, you must designate your driver very carefully...

The Proper Protagonist

A protagonist, main character, strong enough to set the hook deeper still. She is the center of your story around which all the rest revolves, from the first page to the last. She must be a person of substance, complex enough to command and hold reader attention from your dramatic opening to your satisfying ending.

She is your hero and the most fascinating person in your story. A passive reactor will not fit this bill. Your hero must decide to act, and do exactly that, thus setting the action of the story in motion. She is the driving principal that keeps the action moving.

Your main character is the person with the most at stake in your story situation. She has the most to lose if things go badly. Often, in a truly gripping story, other people could lose big time to. She must commit herself to preventing that, and this generosity of spirit makes her even more heroic, burying the story hook deeper into your reader's heart.

Your character needs a happy ending more desperately than she's ever needed anything. The crucial intensity of this desire, for others as well as herself, ties the reader more and more inextricably to your character's fate, sinking the story hook deeper yet again.

This is a heavy burden for any character to support. Is your main character equal to the challenge? Can she carry the weight? As this burden mounts with every chapter, bending her nearly to breaking point, will she soldier on? If she does, will your reader believe she is capable of such strength and endurance?

Could someone else in your story carry its burden more convincingly? Is your story most riveting with the main character you have chosen at its center? Or not? The success of your story depends on your honest, accurate answer to this question. No matter how attached you may be to your character, you must strive relentlessly toward this crucial truth.

Is Scarlett O'Hara the proper protagonist for Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind? She escapes burning Atlanta, struggles home, finds her mother dead, her father deranged, Tara in shambles, and not a scrap of food anywhere. Scarlett staggers to the garden, scratches a root from the ground, attempts to eat it and vomits.

This is a black story moment if there ever was one. She might have collapsed into the dust and given up. Instead, she makes this black moment a turning point of her story. Despite exhaustion and despair, she pushes herself up from the dirt, lifts a grimy fist to heaven and cries, "As God is my witness, they're not going to lick me. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."

Do we believe this behavior from this character? She's shown herself to be shallow, uncaring, vain, and selfish. Such traits are not considered character strengths, but she is also stubborn, relentless, and afire with determination. I, for one, don't doubt for an instant she has the grit to drag herself upright and vow to God that nothing will ever deter her again.

Is your hero's heroism equally believable? Would another major character, maybe a Melanie Hamilton, make a better central figure for your story? Critics have been debating that about GWTW for decades. Now, you must debate yourself about your characters. And, whatever Rhett Butler might say, frankly, dear author, for your story's sake, I encourage you to give a damn.

For more insights into writing and publishing – Visit my blog at www.aliceorrbooks.com.

About Alice Orr

Alice Orr is author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. Hero in the Mirror: How to Write Your Best Story of You is in progress. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now writes full-time. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5. Find all of Alice Orr's books on Amazon. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and lives with her beloved husband Jonathan in New York City.

Author Website www.aliceorrbooks.com

Author Blog www.aliceorrbooks.com

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter

Twitter https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks

Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E

Time to share tweets -- Retweet Day with #MFRWauthor and #MFRWorg

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. Click the heart on the tweet and then the retweet symbol and the Retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

How to Get an Edit Bird on Your Shoulder @AliceOrrBooks #MFRWauthor #amediting

Writing advice from thriller author and former editor Alice Orr

Every writer I know has endured rejection. If you’ve escaped that fate, you should be writing this, because my work has been rejected many times. On the occasion of my first major rejection, the editor implied, or maybe told me straight out, that I had no idea what I was doing.

My big mistake was agreeing to a sushi lunch. I didn’t know sushi from tsunami, but, to appear cooperative, I replied, “Sure. Sushi’s good.” Had I understood the purpose of the lunch, I’d have made a different response. I didn’t have a clue, though I probably should have.

I was writing my second novel for this editor. The first didn’t set the world afire. The second had dragged through two extensive revisions, and I’d pretty much lost track of what the story was originally about. As I took a wobbly chopstick grip on my third portion of something raw wrapped in seaweed, my editor let me know she felt the same.

“This just doesn’t work for us,” she said. I plunged into shock, but I was also suddenly no longer clueless. I was stone-cold certain. There would be no more revision chances. Novel #2 had gone down the plumbing and months of my work along with it. The sushi slipped from its precarious perch between my chopsticks and plummeted to the edge of my plate.

“You seem to think a little bird sits on your shoulder and tells you how to write,” my editor was saying. “Like you don’t have anything to do with it.” I couldn’t respond. I excused myself, dashed to that upscale restaurant’s upscale ladies’ room, and leaned my clammy forehead against the cool tiles of the black marble stall, struggling to keep my insides under control.

Bird on my shoulder? What was she talking about? I’d never been aware of anything, with or without feathers, telling me how to write a book. What I had always been aware of was my helplessness. Because of the way the publishing world works, I had no control over the destiny of my writing career. Now, I understood how perilous cluelessness can be.

If you’ve ever submitted a manuscript, you know what I mean. You labor over your work, send it out into what feels like a void. then wait for a thumbs up or down on your efforts, your ambitions, your hope. You endure this because you have no idea what else you can do. You are as clueless as I was in that ladies’ room with my forehead pressed against tile as black as I believed my future to be.

A couple of years later, I became an editor myself. That choice had a lot to do with power. I was determined to regain mine, and to share it. As an editor, then a literary agent and teacher, I would be that bird. I’d sit on a writer’s shoulder and whisper in her ear the words she needed to hear to avoid demoralizing rejection scenes of her own. I could do that because my years on the other side of the desk taught me a lot about creating publishable fiction.

Now I write articles and blog posts to share that knowledge. Still, the dread words are out there, “This just doesn’t work for us.” Words that hit their mark hard for any writer. I wish I could guarantee they will never be heard again, but I can’t. What I can offer is my experience and expertise, and to be a bird on the shoulder with an empowering song to sing.

About Alice Orr

Alice Orr is the author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now lives her dream as a full-time writer. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving: Riverton Road Romantic Suspense - Book 5. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and resides with her husband Jonathan in New York City.
Author Website: www.aliceorrbooks.com
Author Blog: www.aliceorrbooks.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E

Tweet about your books on Retweet Day with #MFRWauthor and #MFRWorg

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. Click the heart on the tweet and then the retweet symbol and the Retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

Share book tweets on Retweet Day with #MFRWauthor and #MFRWorg authors

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. Click the heart on the tweet and then the retweet symbol and the Retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

Alice Orr: Nobody Wants a Sagging Middle: How to Avoid Writing a Muddled Story @AliceOrrBooks #MFRWauthor #amwriting

The struggle in your story is the drama of your story. That struggle must begin at your Dramatic Opening and continue forward without letup. The course of the struggle is the course of your plot. The more intense the struggle, the more intense the plot. That is the secret to writing a page-turner story. Escalate the power, the intensity and the drama of your main character's struggle, and you are in the winner's circle. What could screw that up for you? The middle, where you are likely, with unfortunate regularity, to find a muddle. Why? Because the middle is where the story line is likely to sag.

Nobody Wants a Sagging Middle: How to Avoid Writing a Muddled Story

When your story loses momentum in the middle you must make these crucial assumptions. You need to know more about your characters. And, therefore, you need to ask yourself three crucial questions.

• What hidden relationships could there be between my characters?
• What further conflict lies beneath the surface of their relationships?
• What further secrets do they have, and why have they kept them from me?

In my contribution to the MFRW magazine's February issue, "Well Begun is Well Done," an article on the Dramatic Opening, I used the classic film Casablanca as a story example. Let's continue with that example here of how to create the story middle that avoids a muddle.

At the Dramatic Opening of Casablanca we found Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, bitter and disillusioned, but we are well into the story before we learn the source of his bitterness. At the opening, there are hints at the problems in Rick's history, but we still don't understand what's up with him. Then beautiful Ilsa arrives, played by Ingrid Bergman, and Rick reacts. We might say he overreacts because we still don't know what's really going on between them. Ilsa is with her husband Victor when we first encounter her, so we don't get an explanation until she returns later to the closed café where Rick is alone. Now we find out about Paris and the past love affair between Rick and Ilsa that sent him soaring then smashed him back to earth.

At this point, we are truly hooked because what began as a suspense plot, has turned into a love story as well. We are hooked in the heart by the love story even more deeply than our adrenaline was pumped by the danger of the suspense story. We are also at the middle of the story, and there's not a sign of a sag anywhere. Why? Because we have learned more about the characters. Because the story situation has begun to satisfy those three crucial questions I mentioned, with a hidden relationship, a deep conflict and a significant secret that had been kept from us concerning the main character. Your story situation can do the same.

To add even more anti-muddle momentum to your story middle, all you have to do is make two more crucial assumptions. First, the hot water you have dumped your characters into needs to get hotter, much hotter. And, second, for that to happen, you must ask yourself three more crucial questions.

• What additional misfortunes can happen to my characters?
• What powerful dangers surround my characters?
• What can happen that will jolt my main character?

In Casablanca, we find the motherlode of misfortune and danger, World War II and Nazis. We also have a powerful villain in the German Major Strasser. Nothing accelerates story tension better than a truly evil bad guy. There are high stakes too. Ilsa's husband Victor must be smuggled to neutral territory or he will be captured and tortured and his patriotic anti-Nazi work will end. Meanwhile, the jolt to main character Rick comes in the form of Letters of Transit. They are what Alfred Hitchcock called the Macguffin. The Macguffin is the thing everybody in the story wants, either for good or evil reasons, depending on who they are. Rick has these letters. They will decide Victor's fate. They will also decide the fate of Rick and Ilsa's rekindled passion. Da Da Da Dum!

Drama. High stakes. An uncertain outcome.

The middle of Casablanca provides all of this and more, and you can re-imagine your story middle to do the same. Simply re-imagine your characters. Dig beneath the surface of the way you see them now by answering the first three crucial questions. Dig beneath the surface of the way you now see your story by answering the second three questions. Do all of that, and you will excavate your own motherlode of page-turner storytelling. It is there already, beneath the surface you have already written. When you unearth that treasure, you will have banished your sagging middle forever.

Where to buy A Time of Fear and Loving

Publisher. Alice Orr Books
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Time-Fear-Loving-Riverton-Road-ebook/dp/B075FHBNK2

About Alice Orr

Alice Orr is the author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now lives her dream as a full-time writer. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving: Riverton Road Romantic Suspense - Book 5. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and resides with her husband Jonathan in New York City.
Author Website: www.aliceorrbooks.com
Author Blog: www.aliceorrbooks.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E

Share your tweets on Retweet Day with #MFRWauthor and #MFRWorg

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. Click the heart on the tweet and then the retweet symbol and the Retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

Come share tweets with another #MFRWauthor

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. Click the heart on the tweet and then the retweet symbol and the Retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

Share tweets with fellow authors @MFRW_ORG #MFRWauthor

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. Click the heart on the tweet and then the retweet symbol and the Retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com