Saturday, August 3, 2019

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


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



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


Saturday, July 6, 2019

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.




Monday, June 10, 2019

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.