Karen S. Wiesner: Advance Your Career: Writing in Stages, Part 2

Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner 

Advance Your Career:

Writing in Stages, Part 2 

Based on CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plot, and Relationships} 

This is the second of four articles with techniques to advance your writing career. 

In Part 1 of this series, you read about advancing your career by using story folders, and now you've got a solid way of organizing all your story ideas to ensure you have lots of projects growing over a period of (hopefully) years. In the next three parts of this series, we'll talk about writing in stages so you're set up from the start to get the layering necessary to build three-dimensional CPR (Characters, Plots, and Relationships) elements. In the ideal writing situation, a book goes through eleven stages (though the last two are optional, which I’ll explain later), including:

Stage 1: Brainstorming

Stage 2: Researching

Stage 3: Outlining

Stage 4: Setting aside the project

Stage 5: Writing the first draft

Stage 6: Setting aside

Stage 7: Revising

Stage 8: Setting aside

Stage 9: Editing and polishing

Stage 10: Setting aside

Stage 11: Final read-through

Let's go over each of these, discussing the whys and wherefores for each step to ensure the creation of solidly layered stories.

Stage 1: Brainstorming

In Sometimes the Magic Works, Terry Brooks says that dreaming (a term referring to the back-and-forth process of brainstorming in the mind) opens the door to creativity and allows the imagination to invent something wonderful. It happens when your mind drifts to a place you’ve never been--a place you can come back to and tell readers about. This is possibly where writers got such a bad rap from those who see us constantly daydreaming. Little do they realize that, until a writer has brainstormed adequately, he won’t have a story to tell.

Constant brainstorming, or brewing, is the most important part of writing an outline or a book. No writing system, technique, or tool will work for you if you’re not brainstorming constantly during a project, through all the stages. From the beginning of a project--before you even write a word of it--through the outlining, the writing, and revising, and the final edit and polish, brainstorm! It's the second half of the secret to never burning out, never facing writer's block. (Waiting until a story is ripe to begin working on it is the first half.) Start brainstorming days, weeks, months, or even years before you begin working on a story; jot down notes as they come to you and put them into their own folder. If you want specific ideas for ways to brainstorm, the internet and other writing reference titles--including my own--are abundant on this topic.

Brainstorming is the very ambition, focus, and joy necessary to planning and completing a project. Both inspiration and productivity flow from this exercise, and brainstorming should never truly stop after you begin writing. Brainstorming is so often what turns an average story into an extraordinarily memorable one. Dreaming about your story infuses you with the inner resources to write with that coveted magical element that turns work into passion. It’s also the secret to sitting down to a blank screen or paper and immediately beginning to work without agonizing over where to start. Brainstorming has the amazing side effect of forcing a writer to move from Point A to Point B and to continue on from there. Having given you a few sparks, it helps you to connect the dots in order to get those elements to fit together, logically and cohesively.

Without adequate brainstorming, a writer has no motivation for fantasizing about every aspect of the story he'll write. The process of writing will be dry and agonizing, and he’ll likely never make it past chapter three. By brainstorming days, weeks, months, or even years before beginning tangible work on a story, you create the layers for your story over time; this type of planning also produces cohesion in your work. Brainstorm enough, and when you start the project, it’ll be like turning on a movie and writing fast to keep up with everything you see.

Stage 2: Researching

Research is a layer of the story, but it’s also a form of brainstorming. While you’re reading, you’re thinking of ways you plan to use the material you’re researching. Research will give you the knowledge you need to plan a story. It will also give you story ideas. That’s why it’s so important to do your research before you begin a project--not during, if you can help it. This isn’t to say that you won’t need to do some follow-up and/or further narrow your research when you realize your outline or first draft has taken a turn you hadn’t planned for, or needs more than you’ve already acquired. Ideally, you’ll do your research in between other stages in your various projects. Your research may form the basis for character development, an appropriate setting, and much of the plot, fitting them together naturally. You’ll know you’ve done your research well when you can write about everything in your story intelligently, without questioning anything, and when your research naturally becomes an integral part of the book. If you can't do that, you're not done researching yet or you need to rethink whether you want this to be a part of the book at all. Believe me, proper research is so critical to creating a strong story.

Stage 3: Outlining

I'm adamant about outlining every single story before I write a word of it. That's my modus operandi without fail, and it's not something I would ever want to stop doing because I truly believe it's the only way to be sure I have a solid story before I commit to writing. I don't see the point of writing (and rewriting again and again) a book that may not be strong enough or good enough to sell, if you're writing to be published. I consider that to be writing a book backwards. My goal is to find out if I have a strong story worth writing first--in my world, by creating a scene-by-scene outline--so I'll never have regrets and almost never have to do any of the steps more than once.

An outline is essentially any guideline a writer uses to create and assemble a story. Whatever form an author chooses to use, it needs to show the details behind the finished product--details that many times are invisible, fitting seamlessly with all the other elements of a story but need to be identified and developed even before writing begins, to ensure proper three-dimensional CPR development.

While unpublished or newer authors might want to just write without boundaries or prerequisites in order to teach themselves the process of crafting a solid story, published and career authors often desire more discipline if they're going to create amazing stories every single time. Unfortunately, the idea of a published author writing a story without some sort of plan is acceptable, even encouraged, and prevalent. Don’t get me wrong, those authors who have been through the process of writing a book many, many times have an outline regardless of whether it’s formally written down or not. Their own experience in the process is guiding them. An author who’s written nothing, or only a few books, and works without a plan to get him started may end up with unstable, disjointed stories of the sort that reviewers rip to shreds. Author Terry Brooks says, “I believe, especially with long fiction, that an outline keeps you organized and focused over the course of the writing. I am not wedded to an outline once it is in place and will change it to suit the progress of the story and to accommodate new and better ideas, but I like having a blueprint to go back to. Also, having an outline forces you to think your story through and work out the kinks and bad spots. I do a lot less editing and rewriting when I take time to do the outline first.” I would emphasize what he said about changing an outline to suit the progress of a story. Most writers don't realize just how incredibly flexible an outline is in that regard. Let's analyze that deeply.

First things first: A story needs the proper foundation, framework, and internal workings to be strong. Choosing the right elements before the first draft is begun will prevent endless rewrites and one dimensional stories. The primary goals in producing an outline are as follows:

•  To encourage your mind to brainstorm a story from start to finish (in my world, that means a summary of every single scene in the book), providing yourself with a strong, rich layer.

•  To allow yourself to see the holes in your story before you start writing the first draft. With a scene-by-scene outline, you have the means to evaluate what still needs work, what needs to be revised and fine-tuned, before you commit it to a full, written draft.

•  To help you stay focused when you start to write the book, keeping you from getting sidetracked by small details. Everything you need is right there in one consolidated document. You won't have to go looking for anything and interrupt your progress, because all the hard work of puzzling out your story was completed in the outlining stage. 

How does all this work in the real world? In mine, I always outline a book scene by scene before I write it. I work chronologically until my outline contains every single scene I’ll have in the book; it's also okay to write an outline in a nonlinear fashion. Sometimes it helps to know the end of the book before you outline the beginning and/or middle, so feel free to outline non-chronologically if the story comes to you in that way. Additionally, you may need to utilize a process I call “outlining and writing in tandem”, which basically means outlining as far as you can go, scene by scene, in the book; then writing the first scene if you stall, going back to the outline, and switching back and forth between these if you need to, always returning to the outlining and staying with it as long as you can. Use that method if you need to, until you get used to the idea and process of outlining a book before you start writing.

Something I want you to notice is that this isn’t simply an outline that you’re creating. When I outline, this is unmistakably the first draft of my book because it is my book…just in condensed form. An outline like this is so complete it contains every single one of my character and relationship developments, along with plot threads unfurled with the good pacing and the necessary hints or seeds of tension from start to logical finish. And, yes, my outlines do include pacing and tension, or at least allusions about where they should be included--it's a mini version of the book, after all. Because it’s an outline, it doesn’t even need to be my best writing.

Once my outline is complete and contains every single scene in the book, I read it over, filling in any gaps or holes, fleshing out the scenes with dialogue, introspection, action, descriptions, whatever. Basically, I revise the outline in the same way I would a first draft. Most authors don’t and won’t spend endless time revising the words and sentence structure in an outline, since they’re the only ones who’ll see it. And this makes for a lot less obsession over every word and sentence, and puts the revision where it should be in the logical order of writing a book--near the end. Revising less than a hundred pages of an outline will certainly be much easier than revising 400 manuscript pages. Incidentally, writing your manuscript based on an outline this complete might almost make you feel guilty, like you’re cheating, because the writing process should be simple at this point because you worked out all the kinks and smoothed out the rough or weak spots while outlining. That's my experience with outlining and I've written whole books about how to do that.

Now, before we go any further in proving the flexibility of an outline, let’s talk about something that most authors who don’t like to use an outline say: They fear using an outline will kill their enthusiasm for writing the book, or that their creativity will be hampered or caged. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve never felt stifled by an outline. Just the opposite, in fact. The outline frees me to explore every aspect of a book--without risk. It allows my ideas (and my characters) to come to life on their own and grow. Use your outline to explore any angle you want. If new characters crop up, wonderful! Include them. If they’re not right for the story, removing them won’t take you much time at all. Explore a new story thread--follow it wherever it takes you. If it’s a logical thread, keep it. If it’s not, delete it. You’ll only lose a little time, and your story will be stronger for it. If you realize halfway through or even all the way through outlining a book that some of your ideas aren’t working, it’s a matter of deleting the offending scenes and starting again in a new direction. This is a change that probably won’t take longer than a few days to make in the much shorter outline (instead of the months or even years it might take to identify and correct a full draft of a book created without an outline). Exploring new angles, characters, and concepts while outlining allows you to avoid spending countless hours laboring only to discover your ideas don't work. That's flexibility of story that can't be denied. A written draft is never so pliable.

Working the problem areas out of a story *within the outline* is ideal productivity, and it’s within every writer’s grasp. The clearer a writer’s vision of the story before writing, the more fleshed out, cohesive, and solid the story will be once it makes it to paper. Remember, your blueprint is just one of many layers of your story. If you’re jumping directly into the writing, you’re missing so many layers that will have to be tacked on awkwardly or laboriously overhauled and reshaped during multiple revisions…revisions that ultimately may not fix the foundational problems your story has.

In the next part, we'll talk about stages 4-7.

Karen S. Wiesner is the author of CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plot, and Relationships}

Volume 6 of the 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html

Happy writing!

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Karen S. Wiesner: Advance Your Career, Part 1: Creating Story Folders

Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner 

Advance Your Career, Part 1:

Creating Story Folders 

Based on CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plot, and Relationships} 

 This is the first of four articles with techniques to advance your writing career.

Writers spin fantasies in their heads, and this is where most of their work is done in conceiving a story. In previous writing reference titles, I’ve likened the process of writing to brewing coffee in a percolator. The stories inside my head are in a creative coffeepot, brewing away. In the percolating stage of the writing process, stories come to life in large or small spurts. This can amount to a sketch of a character or two, setting description, some vague or definite plotline or action scenes, glimmers of specific relationships, and maybe even a few conversations. Most of it wouldn’t make sense to anyone except me. When a story idea is constantly boiling up, it’s time to put it into an outline form and puzzle it out. When it's not quite ready, it sits on the backburner, simmering gently. In this way, over the course of years, I can conceivably come up with everything I need to write without taking my concentration away from the story that I'm currently puzzling out. I have countless stories inside my head at any given time, brewing away gently until the time comes when they're ready to be written. That's why it's so important to have story folders to hold these ideas; they prevent me from forgetting anything that could become a vital piece of the story puzzle.

Using two-pocket folders and tablet paper (or whatever's on hand to jot notes on), write the title of each book on the front, and then transfer all your notes (including any outlining and writing you’ve done on the story--anything that you might need or use) into this folder. You can also do the same thing with a computer file or the memo section of an electronic device for each story idea if you find that easier than just writing something on a scrap of paper and putting it in the folder. In this way, whenever you have a thought about this story, you can write notes and tuck it into the appropriate place.

If you don't currently have notes but the story idea is strong enough, you can create a folder for it, planning to fill it over time. I have a specific folder just for glimmers of ideas. Sometimes a glimmer becomes a full-fledged story that gets its own story folder, so it's useful to keep a folder for any glimmers you may come up with over time.

By the time you’re ready to begin working on a particular story, ideally you’ll have a nice stack of "impending story fruit" to pick from. Again, I can't stress how important it to start each project with a "ripe" idea--one that's ready to go through the initial stages. If you don't have a story folder bursting with ideas, don't take it off the shelf until it's ready to be worked on--unless you have no choice because of an approaching release date. If you start and discover you can't get far--and your deadlines allow it--put it back and work on something that is ready. What you've added will be progress when you are more prepared.

Another reason for creating story folders as soon as you have the first spark of an idea is that, while jumping from project to project may be an effective way to work for some writers, ultimately it can prevent you from making significant progress with any one project. Most writers can’t concentrate on more than one story at a time (while also having a bunch of ideas simmering on the backburner) if they want to move forward steadily. You don't want story ideas to distract you if they’re moving at a frantic pace toward fruition while you're working on another project. When you have deadlines--or even if you don't--it's not a good idea to abandon a project you're working on just because something more exciting shows up at an inopportune time. This is natural though--you want it to happen. But if you’re trying to make headway with one project when another suddenly commands your attention, you need to find a way to set the new ideas aside and refocus your concentration on your current project.

You can do this by writing out notes on the new idea and relegating the idea to its project folder, which you can pick up and review at a more convenient time. Shelving the idea is a quick process with either of these because most of the time the notes you'll write about a growing story at a given time are only enough to fill a scrap note or a single sheet of paper. Occasionally, you may need to take a little more time to purge the abundant ideas from your head so they don't overwhelm you. In that case, find time to write down all the notes that come to you until you're stalled or are temporarily free of it. By shelving the story folder once more, you effectively retain all the ideas but stall "the harvest" until you have more time to focus on the project. Once you've done this, you can concentrate fully on your WIP again.

Finally, in creating story folders, you also give yourself the foundation for years of potential writing material. For career authors, this is so critical to your momentum and your ability to deliver well-crafted stories indefinitely. What will happen if you run out of ideas? Your career will stall and, let's be honest, readers are fickle. If you're not making yourself present and active, your books hitting bookstores often, you may be forgotten sooner or later. Creating story folders allows you to have many, many ideas in different stages of development over time, and that builds momentum. Since working on stories that are ripe is ideal, having story ideas on the backburner (simmering until the day you’re ready to put them into action) is imperative. Your stories written with this process will be better and stronger, especially if you're writing in layers.

Now you've got a solid way of organizing all your story ideas to ensure you have lots of projects growing over a period of (hopefully) years.

In the next three parts of this article, we'll talk about the necessity of writing in stages to advance your writing.

Karen S. Wiesner is the author of CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plot, and Relationships}

Volume 6 of the 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html 

Happy writing!

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 140 titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Karen S. Wiesner: Arrested Development

 Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner 

Arrested Development 

Based on CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plot, and Relationships} by Karen S. Wiesner 

Character Plot Relationship Developmental Signs of Life 

Animated

Evidence of functionality, breathing, heartbeat, the spark of life. 

Living

Not simply existing and going through the motions but possessing fully developed external and internal conflicts. 

Interacting

Dynamic, realistic, and believable relationships. 

Vitality and Voice

Three-dimensional character attributes. 

Engaged

Definable objective and purpose of being along with goals and motivations. 

"I misjudged you. You're not a moron. You're only a case of arrested development." ~Harvey to Cohn in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 

In the field of medicine and psychology, the term "arrested development" means a premature stoppage of physical or psychological development, or the cessation of one or more phases of the developmental process resulting in a lack of completion that may produce potential anomalies. Arrested development can be applied to many situations, including writing. It's something that happens often in fiction with the three core elements of every story--Characters, Plots, and Relationships (CPR)--becoming arrested in their development.

We live in a publishing era that can easily be viewed with growing concern given that the absolute requirement of developing CPR in a story is being sorely neglected in books made available for purchase. In the ideal, a reader wants to immerse himself in a glorious story that pulls him into a fictional world so realistic and populated with three-dimensional characters, plots, and relationships he never wants to leave. He's paid for that, after all, so why shouldn't he get it? Instead, he's saddled with a story that starts bad and only seems to be getting worse. Why would anyone keep reading? The author obviously didn't care to do it right. Despite the time and money invested in this endeavor, it's just easier to walk away. Whether subpar writing is done out of laziness, a lack of skill in crafting, or simple ignorance, having a reader drop a bad book and never come back to it (or to the creator) is the last thing an author should want or allow.

USING CPR {DEVELOPMENT} ON DEAD OR LIFELESS FICTION 

Deep, multifaceted development of characters, plots, and relationships can only be achieved through three-dimensional writing, something I've written in-depth about in my writing reference Three-Dimensional Fiction Writing (formerly titled Bring Your Fiction to Life: Crafting Three-Dimensional Stories with Depth and Complexity). All of those concepts are crucial to character, plot, and relationship (which I'll call CPR often from this point on) development.

What makes a person alive? According to WebMD, the three organs that are so crucial to life that you'll die if they stop working are the lungs (breath), heart (blood and oxygen), and brain (functionality). The three work together and without them (or life support), a person is either comatose or deceased.

I would add a fourth component that may not bring around true death to live without: A person needs a soul to live and do more than simply exist--and that means there's an objective or purpose in being. Arguably, a lack of soul can steal all the joy out of living and/or never provide the "spark" that exemplifies life.

If you noticed the CPR Signs of Life Acronym Chart I included at the beginning of this article, we can certainly say that it's possible to see the animation in a character that provides evidence of functionality, breathing, heartbeat, and the spark of life. To truly be living, characters aren't simply existing and going through the motions. They possess fully developed external and internal conflicts. They're interacting in dynamic, realistic, and believable relationships. They have three-dimensional character attributes that give them both vitality and voice. Finally, they're engaged in what makes life worthwhile with definable goals and motivations.

Characters, plots, and relationships need to be breathing, blood and oxygen flowing through their veins in order to function, or they're in a vegetative state or just plain dead. The soul of the character is what turns an ordinary paper doll into a vibrant, memorable personality.

In fiction, the potential for zombies is only too common, and I don't simply mean zombie characters. Plots and relationships can be just as zombie-like. Who wants to read about something that's alive (i.e., not dead) but not really living either? Even in books about zombies, it's the heart-beating, breathing, functional characters, plots, and relationships that make the story come to life. (By the way, if your zombie is living--as in iZombie style--and not simply alive, it's not a true zombie by definition.) As we said, a soul--providing unforgettable character traits, conflicts, and interactions with a very definite "life spark" that makes a reader care and immerse himself in a story--is imperative to make the characters, plots, and relationships compelling.

CPR development is a two-step process:

1) Establishing: Foundation begins in plotting and planting the seeds of development for the CPR process right from the very first scene in a book. You wouldn't just plunk down a plant you want to flourish in an area where it won't get sun, rain, or the nutrients it needs to survive, would you? Plotting and planting are all about properly setting up before setting out, anchoring and orienting readers before leading them with purpose through your story landscape. That's something that needs to be done in every single scene of a book with the basic grasp of setup. The longer it takes for a reader to figure out where he is and what he's doing there, the less chance he'll engage with the story and agree to go along for the journey.

2) Progressing: The one thing a story can't and should never be is static. Development isn't something that stops with the foundational introduction or establishment of threads. Development keeps happening throughout a story. Every single scene that follows the first must show a strong purpose in developing, revealing and advancing characters, plots and relationships in a wide variety of facets. Progress must be made to push past the point of plotting and planting seeds to cultivating the core element "blooms" that pop up into the landscape in every scene. The only way to achieve three-dimensional development of characters, plots, and relationships is to actively take each opportunity to establish and advance the elements that--if properly sketched--should appear in an organic way along the path to telling the story. 

If your characters, plots, and relationships that make up each scene in your story are truly three-dimensional and properly developed and advanced, your book will be so vivid, readers will be haunted by the unforgettable, vibrant world conveyed through your words even after they finish reading.

Karen S. Wiesner is the author of CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plot, and Relationships}

Volume 6 of the 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html 

Happy writing!

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Karen S. Wiesner: Deep, Multi-Faceted Development and Progression of Romantic Relationships

 Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner 

Deep, Multi-Faceted Development and Progression of Romantic Relationships

Based on CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plot, and Relationships}  

"Character is not created in isolation or repose; it’s forged through interaction with others and the world." ~The Art of Character: Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV by David Corbett 

Human beings tend to live in groups, whether because one person has the limited ability to live by himself or because we like to be dependent on each other--and of course we like and care about each other as well. This is how societies, communities, and relationships are born.           

All relationships must have purpose in the story or there’s no reason to include them and, quite frankly, what's the purpose in even writing a story without relationships? While there are interesting stories about hermits, survivalists or loners who have little or no contact with other human beings (Island of the Blue Dolphins, Hatchet, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!), most characters are social people in some degree--and that's where things get really interesting because there are rules in in a society that simply don't exist in isolation. People need people more often than not, and nearly all stories need incredible relationships that are completely cohesive with the characters and conflicts. What purpose do the relationships have in light of the plot?

Writing a Romantic Relationship 

Writing a romance story is the hardest category that exists. Nothing can convince me otherwise. Let me tell you why. First, I'm not a romantic in any sense of the word. That's true, and I'd be the first person to tell you that. But I do write deep, rich, realistic love stories. Realism is the most important thing to me as a writer. If it doesn't feel real, like I could step into someone's lives with these characters and their relationship, it doesn’t interest me. I want the down-and-dirty, gritty, excruciating pain and joy that could be actually lead to blood flow or shouts of exhilaration, the so-deep-I-can-feel-and-hear-the-heartbeat, so intense I can't breathe and my hands are actually shaking, I can't gulp because I'm paralyzed waiting restlessly for the next move. That's romance at its best, most ideal. That's what I want with every story that categorizes itself as a romance. 

I'm a strong believer that the things two people who become lovers go through together right from the start to the bitter end need to develop unbreakable affection and commonality, one step after the other, leading to an iron bond. I call them links in the chain of romantic relationships. Especially in a romance story, you can't rush ahead, skipping links, without leaving the reader behind, wondering what's going on and just not feeling anything between the two people you want to bring together romantically. 

Unless she's extremely talented, most romance writers can't hurtle from a couple's first meeting or meeting again (where they may already seem to be falling in love instead of simply being attracted to each other) to the middle of what's generally considered a romance (in which expectations are already in place and both want and need each other--too much, too soon). This forces a romance to never feel quite well setup enough to come off as justified, warranted, believable, and realistic. It also assumes the supernatural is in control, which is sappy and silly. Build each link in the chain steadily, providing the proper setup for every development. Readers won't accept anything forced or unprecedented. 

Mystical developments in a fictional relationship are nothing more than cheating. Basically, nothing has been set up in advance to produce a compelling reason for the characters to feel the way they suddenly (i.e., one minute it doesn't exist, the next it's there and in spades) do about each other, but they'll go from barely knowing each other to feeling strong affection or love in the course of two back-to-back scenes. Maybe some people believe that something magical happens when two people who are destined to fall in love and spend the rest of their lives together meet (those are the kinds of romance novels that make me and those with strong aversions to the genre as a whole want to puke!) but in fiction and I believe in real life, something has to warrant development in a relationship (any relationship--romance or otherwise and if you take the sexual component out of it, the chain of romantic relationship development links can be used for any relationship in your story) to make it authentic and believable. Usually, this amounts to a steady progression of things that help the two people to get to know each other better and actually develop strong feelings for each other. Again, links in the chain. Without steady development of one link after the other, the reader might never be brought to the place where she feels ready for anything overt that happens between a couple, or she'll feel frustrated and even disgusted, maybe even actively hoping they'll break up.

In a romance novel, romantic/sexual tension is essential, although novels in other genres may also develop the same tension between romantic interests. It’s like cake and frosting. Take away one, and what’s the point? This kind of tension refers to anything that brings the romance to the fever pitch of anticipation for the reader. It’s also been described as an exaggerated awareness between the hero and the heroine. You want to start this tension as early in the story as you possibly can. If you don’t start the suspense promptly and keep it intense, the reader will be disappointed--or worse, embarrassed--during moments she should be temporarily relieved or exalted. Just as with plot tension, a romance novel without romantic/sexual tension leaves the reader uninvolved and unemotional toward the focal relationship happening.

A romance story has to have a specific chain of development that can't be rushed, and it doesn’t matter in the least what genre of romance it is. The steady progression of sexual tension, emotional culmination, and physical demonstration is required to bring the couple to the place where they've believably fall in love and can justify declarations of monogamous love, sex, along with a commitment of forever. Even in a Christian or "clean" romance, sexual tension and physical romantic development are required and vital to making the romance genuine and believable. In the sweet romances, how strong or sensual the tension and romantic developments are may be somewhat muted with any heavy intimacy taking place off-screen.

What your characters are experiencing is what your reader should experience. But if the characters are chagrined or want to escape, that's what your reader will want to do, too. The point of writing a romance is to make the reader fall in love (an emotional and physical reaction) with your characters one scene to the next, escalating into the payoff you've promised, and experiencing bliss and joy at the culmination. Readers may even shed tears. I'll tell you this, if you've gotten a reader to weep, she'll never forget the story, the characters and their romance for as long as she lives, and she'll read that story over and over again in her lifetime. A romance author wants that scenario. Otherwise, what's the point of writing a romance story? No point. And that's why I believe writing romance is the hardest genre on the planet. Because, if you write a bad romance, it's not worth having told the story at all. It's failed on all levels instead of simply on one.

Only with the steady establishment and buildup of sexual tension and romance development--fully meshed with a logical resolution--will allow your reader be left satisfied and smiling upon closing the book.

Karen S. Wiesner is the author of CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plot, and Relationships}

Volume 6 of the 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html 

Happy writing! 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Karen S. Wiesner: Brainstorming: The Cure for Writer's Block (Writer's Craft Article)

Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner

Brainstorming: The Cure for Writer's Block

Is writer's block an actual thing, or just plain laziness? Or, do you sometimes get to the middle of a project and find the process isn't working as well as it was or should be anymore? Is that writer's block, and if it is, what can you do to get moving again? I think I've found the cure for whatever it is that blocks or stalls writers, makes them hem and haw and avoid sitting down to write, or sends their brain on the fritz at the sight of a blank page.

Brainstorming is what turns an average story into an extraordinary one. It’s the magical element every writer marvels about in the process of completing a book. In Sometimes the Magic Works, fantasy author Terry Brook says that dreaming (a term referring to the back-and-forth process of brainstorming in the mind) opens the door to creativity and allows the imagination to invent something wonderful. It happens when your mind drifts to take you to a place you’ve never been so you can come back and tell readers about it. Possibly this is where writers got such a bad rap with those who see us as drooling zombies who are daydreaming constantly. Little do they realize that, until a writer has brainstormed adequately, she won’t have a story to tell.

Something every author covets is the ability to sit down to a blank screen or page and begin to work immediately. The secret to doing that is brainstorming! When you brainstorm constantly and productively during both the outlining and writing processes, you’ll always be fully prepared to begin writing without agonizing over the starting sentences or paragraph.

Notice I specified that you should brainstorm productively if you want the writing process to go smoothly and quickly without hiccups. That’s where your scene-by-scene story outline comes in. While creating a blueprint of every scene in your book, you won’t face writer’s block when you sit down to write each day. The day or week before you begin writing, start brainstorming on that scene. I also start brainstorming on upcoming projects sometimes years in advance. If I run into trouble with any book, I can fall back on continuous brainstorming to figure out another "spark" to invigorate the plot and compel it forward again. In desperate times, I set a project aside to allow time to work out the issues on the backburner of my mind with creative and constant brainstorming.

Oh, did you see what I just did here? I took away any excuse an author has not to sit down and immediately start writing. Oops. Make writer's block a thing of the past. Make 2022 the year you beat it by brainstorming constantly.

Karen S. Wiesner is the author of COHESIVE STORY BUILDING:

Do you have any tips for staving off writer's block? Leave a comment to tell me about it!

Happy writing!

Find out more about COHESIVE STORY BUILDING here: 

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html

http://www.writers-exchange.com/cohesive-story-building/

** Exciting announcement:**

I've gotten the rights back to the last three writing reference titles that were originally published by Writer's Digest Books (and later sold at auction to Penguin Random). In 2022, they'll be released in a craft writing collection. Here are the details: 

3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

by award-winning author Karen S. Wiesner

covers the A to Z's of crafting the highest quality fiction including how to:

·       Brainstorm and work productively to ensure that each stage in the writing process from prewriting to polishing produces masterful results the first time around. 

·       Create an outline so complete it actually qualifies as the first draft of your book, allowing your first written draft to be final-draft quality. 

·       Develop realistically three-dimensional and cohesive characters, plots, settings, relationships, and scenes so life-like and memorable your readers will be diehard fans. 

·       Effectively prepare for a series in advance to prevent painted-in-a-corner scenarios in order to keep fans coming back eagerly for each and every installment. 

·       Learn innovative techniques to write a complex sequence of stories that require overarching series arcs and immense world- and character-building. 

·       Craft sizzling back cover, series, and high-concept blurbs for describing, promoting, and selling your books. 

·       Maximize your potential and momentum for becoming a career author indefinitely.

With step-by-step guidelines, instructions, and tips throughout that are flexible and clearly written, imparting a layman's ease of understanding and can-do motivation, this collection may be the only writing craft books you'll ever need. Each volume has a bonus companion booklet available presented in usable digital format or paperback that includes all the aids from the main book that you can use in your own writing--and extras!

The seven volumes and bonus companion booklets in this collection are:

1. First Draft Outline formerly published by Writer's Digest Books as First Draft in 30 Days {A Novel Writer's System for Building a Complete and Cohesive Manuscript}

Bonus Companion Booklet for First Draft Outline

2. Cohesive Story Building formerly published by Writer's Digest Books as From First Draft to Finished Novel {A Writer's Guide to Cohesive Story Building}

Bonus Companion Booklet for Cohesive Story Building

3. Writing the Standalone Series formerly published by Writer's Digest Books as Writing the Fiction Series {The Complete Guide for Novels and Novellas}

Bonus Companion Booklet for Writing the Standalone Series

4. Writing the Overarching Series {or How I Sent a Clumsy Girl into Outer Space}

Bonus Companion Booklet for Writing the Overarching Series

5. Three-Dimensional Fiction Writing formerly published by Writer's Digest Books as Bring Your Fiction to Life {Crafting Three-Dimensional Stories with Depth and Complexity}

Bonus Companion Booklet for Three-Dimensional Fiction Writing Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plots, and Relationships}

6. CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plots, and Relationships}

Bonus Companion Booklet for CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction

7. Writing Blurbs That Sizzle--And Sell!

Bonus Companion Booklet for Writing Blurbs That Sizzle--And Sell!

 

More details about this at  http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 145 titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

https://www.goodreads.com/karenwiesner

http://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/ 

http://www.writers-exchange.com/blog/ 

https://www.amazon.com/author/karenwiesner