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BLACK DIAMOND RWA CLASS

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS AND REGISTRATION:

October 5-11, 2009

Running in the Dark: Organic Structure for Character-driven Stories

By Jodi Henley

“Character-driven” and “organic” are the new buzzwords, but do you really know what they mean and how they can help your writing? Build characters from the inside out, and write an emotional story that will land your book on the keeper shelf in this hands-on workshop that uses “your” story to get you unstuck and back into the flow.

Highly sought after for her plain-English approach to problem solving, Jodi spends her time dissecting the craft of writing. Her obsessive Myer-Briggs INTJ personality drives her to explain her findings, and she considers herself lucky to have a receptive audience. A long-time blogger, her blog, “Will Work for Noodles”, is a popular writer’s reference for people in fields from play-writing to Christian magazines and newspaper journalism.

Praise for Jodi Henley:

“I’m so glad this story is FINALLY going somewhere! I’ve been working on this thing for like 4-5 years and then Jodi came along with her organic structure and BOOM! I always felt like this story could be something special but I just never felt I was ready to work on it. Jodi is a wealth of information”–Lauren Murphy, author of Cara’s Christmas Fantasy

Jodi excels at simplifying overwhelming situations, breaking them down and providing a logical pathway. She leaves the student with a sense of accomplishment and focus, not just gratitude.–Inez Kelley, author of Jinxed and Myla by Moonlight

Day One:

· What do the terms “character-driven” and “organic” mean?

· Use psychology, environment, and core events to create the people you need and understand what they’ll do. A brief overview of transformational and static character arcs.

· The hero and heroine, two side-by-side arcs.

Day Two:

· Open discussion of your work in progress.

· Trouble-shooting your people.

· Talk about character arcs.

Day Three:

· If you don’t have a firm grip on your characters, we finish hammering out the details.

· Finalize your character arc.

Day Four:

· How organic writing grows your story: a discussion of logical progression, emotion, and plot.

· A discussion of structure and how it works for you. An overview of various forms.

Day Five:

· We explore character’s affect on plot, and discuss individual works in progress. We also explore structure for your story.

Day Six and Seven:

· Putting it all together using your work in progress

Speedy contest!

Super easy, painless, and anyone can win!

SPREAD ME LIKE BUTTER, ALL OVER THE INTERNET!!

Simply Tweet, FB, blog, Myspace, or do your thing mentioning JINXED! Let me know in the comments how you peddled JINXED and you could win. Random winners (plural) will be selected from the commenters!

Obligatory link

Reviews:

***It’s not very often that you see a man work THIS hard to get the girl. It’s refreshing. – T.S. Peters, Just Erotic Romance Review, 4.5 stars***
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***Jinx is the dream man we all want. – Laura J, The Good The Bad and The Unread, B rating***
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***…the perfect steamy read for that weekend at the beach – Water Lily, Long and Short Romance Reviews, 4.5 stars***
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***Ms. Kelley has a wonderful knack for telling a tale. – Teagan S. Boyd, Bookwenches, 4.5 books ***

I am stealing this from another board I love, a non-writing, non-book board. It is a board of women who think.

My friend Beth wrote:
I’m beginning to understand the stigma of romance novels/novelists. It’s akin to sex toy parties, erotica, male/female dynamics, admitting that women need men, etc.

There’s a blushing frailty associated with romance novels, sweeping vistas and grand gestures and traditional strength. When I first started reading these, I thought, well, I was an English major who did her Honors Thesis on Milton’s Paradise Lost, I’ve earned the right to read whatever I want. And I found myself wanting to justify it. And then I began to hate that feeling and thought, I like strong men and hot sex. Why should I be ashamed to admit that.

So, whatcha readin? Vampire Sex. Lots of hot, hot Vampire sex.

While obviously unrealistic in their entirety, I think these books can help a woman understand what she likes, wants in her relationships, sex-life, friendships. I’m amazed at the things I’ve learned about myself and how responsive Mr. B has been to those requests/changes.

I’m a romance convert, and I’ll soon be publishing my thesis on romance novels and the women’s movement. ROFL

I replied:

Seriously, smart women read romance. Smart women write romance.

I hear a few major schools of badmouthing romance.

First IT IS FORMULAIC. Girl meets boy, boy and girl get nekkid, boy and girl fight, Happily every after(HEA). *substitute boy meets boy or girl meets girl for growing gay/lesbian romance*

Well duh.

That is kinda life people. How many people get married every year or fall in love? Yeah, love, that emotion that has fueled life since, oh, time began! And I reeeeeeeally want a copy of that formula that people assume is so easy. As for the HEA, does the police drama not have the bad guy getting caught? Sometimes there is a wedding, sometimes it is a ‘We are good for now’. depends on the author and the subgenre but there will always be some closure.

Take Gone with the Wind. Did Rhett leave Scarlet? Sure as hell did, left her sitting in a pile of skirt and tears. She survived. The romance was part of her journey not the crux of the tale. The tale was how Scarlet changed and her manipulations. It is NOT a romance. It is women’s fiction with romantic overtones.

SECOND COMMON BADMOUTH “It is all sex”.

And this is a problem… why?

No, it isn’t. The growing trend for the past decade or more is less and less closed bedroom doors and there are more positions beside vanilla missionary BUT there are some fantastic books with NO SEX in them. Yeah. Shocking.

There is no doubt erotica and romantica (phrase coined by Ellora’s Cave ePublishing) have skyrocketed. You can now buy ‘dirty’ books on line without going to a seedy store and getting condescending looks from a prim bookseller. You can read about anal, BDSM and menages. You do not need to practice these acts to read about them and enjoy it no more than you need to commit or solve a murder to enjoy a Grishom novel.

Major publishing houses are still somewhat publishing shy on gay romance so epublishing found a niche that exploded. Who knew that straight women would enjoy reading about gay men or group sex or whatever? What they enjoy is a good story. Period. And not all GAY stories feature open door sex.

There is sex in Stephen King, the Bible and a slew of other “non romance” genres. maybe not as much or as detailed, but there. Sex is normal. Deal with it.

THIRD COMPLAINT: The men are too perfect and it degrades women.

And Playboy and Penthouse are what, biographies?

Seriously, all books are fantasies in that they strive to take you out of your life and let you live someone else’s journey. Dickens did it. King does it. Picoult does it. So the men are hot. Big Deal. I want a few hours where I can fantasize- Sports Illustrated Swimsuit for women.
Couched in pretty words and stories, today’s romance often gives women –and girls– examples of healthy relationships, gives insights to what they as individuals might not be able to voice in their own minds. It isn’t rocket science. It is knowing it is okay to say ‘Touch me like this’ or ‘I would like to try that’ or even ‘I don’t want this’ and know that there are other women asserting themselves. You don’t have to be butch to say I want more oral but sometimes it is easier to say ‘honey, read this passage then come upstairs’.

FOURTH COMPLAINT: It is not real literature.

So?

Commercial fiction: Divine Secrets of the YA-YA Sisterhood, Water for Elephants, the Notebook, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Davinci Code, The Stephanie Plum Series, etc.

Literary fiction and commercial fiction have different goals from the outset, from the application. It doesn’t benefit anyone to mock the other. There are some damn fine stories in both and some gouge my eyes out with an ice pick in both.

Okay, I have a challenge for you if you have made it through all that drivel on a soap box.

There is one book that springs to mind right now that combines everything I have said above.

~It is commercial fiction but has literary undertones.
~It is a romance but not a traditionally-perceived boy/girl/happy kitty story.
~It is heterosexual(M/F) but explores attitudes and perceptions of homosexuality without actions from the main characters.
~There is loving sex but not melt your panties heat.
~The storyline is universal but something most people will never experience.
~Despite the author being a known talent and major ties with NY Publishing, no house would take a chance on it.
~It topped the lists this summer as being the best Beach Read as an epublication, surpassing huge numbers of print books.
~Reviews have been outstanding.
~It is a fine example of intelligent and emotional storytelling.

Interested? Curious?

BUTTERFLY TATTOO

It ain’t your mama’s romance.

Friend and fellow Diva Jeannie Linn just sold Butterfly Swords to Harlequin Mills & Boon. And I mean JUST. Like an hour ago. Go Jeannie-chi!! I loved this story. Ancient china did bupkis for me but I owed her a BETA read and I like her so I did it and I could not move from the couch. We ordered pizza that night. The book is that different and that engaging.

There is a huge on-line conference with workshops and prizes happening for those writers NOT in DC at RWA right now. Come check it out.

Just Erotic Romance Review (JERR) gave JINXED 4.5 Stars!! I was surprised they even reviewed this one because it ISN’T an erotic. So Yeah, I full claim my vanilla sex. Vanilla can be spicy without being erotic ROFLMAO

Tomorrow I am guest blogging at Romantic Ink and giving a copy of JINXED away, so come say hi.

So what is up with you?

Romance Divas is hosting their annual NGTCC (Not Going To Conference Conference) and it’s going to be fun-filled. Already they’ve got great guest spots lined up, including: Josh Lanyon, Rowan Mcbride, Jet Mykles and Shayla Kersten, Carrie Jones, Marley Gibson, Linnea Sinclair, Patti O’Shea, Ona Russel, Steve Hockingsmith, Joey W. Hill and Sasha White.

There will be workshops for just about every genre, from Young Adult to Erotic to Historical. Plus, a workshop on Deep POV, one on going from e-publishing to NY, and a Q&A on how avoid and deal with burnout. And there’s bound to be a few surprises, too. icon_wink.gif

The NGTCC kicks off July 14th and runs until July 18th. If you’re not already a member of Romance Divas, all you have to do is go to the website and register! Best of all–it’s FREE!”

There is Crap out there and pleasebabyjesus don’t let me be writing that.

There is Crack out there and I hope I am writing Coke but I will take Crack.

Crap is the stuff where there are land-mine size plot hole, flimsy character development, flat dialogue and generally the most blah thing besides chewing cotton balls. It often times has shoddy editing, dismal sentence structure and an over worked main story that reads like a Brady Bunch script. You know what is coming. The devices and things that occur are so ridiculous it is unbelievable. Many many times,they are an insult to the common salt shaker’s intelligence.  Crap makes you snarl and curl your lip and go flip the TV on after you stare at the page in absolute horror thinking “I spent money on this shit when I could have gone to Starbucks?”

CRAP is deceptive, make no mistake. They often have lovely covers and even come from  decent writers or well known publishers. Crap oozes though and it slips in unnoticed. An example of CRAP HERE

Crack, now crack is a different duck altogether. Crack is… not high brow cocaine. But it still takes you on that high, that jittery adrenalin ride that, while you are there, is like WHOA, LOOK, DUDE, PINK HORNETS SCREWING IN A VW BUG, COOL!! You like it. It is interesting and engaging and you want more!! And then you finish the story and get this creepy crawling feeling on your skin. Man, how could have enjoyed that?

It’s like sex with the class bozo. You didn’t think about anything while you were having that FIFTH screaming orgasm (Yes, 5th as in OMG he did it right and over and over and over). It was good.You already want to do it(Him) again. You check your calendar when the next installment comes out.

It is only afterward that you feel ashamed (the class clown, the one who wore the buttafuckwho? Teeshirt). You don’t talk about your dirty little guilty pleasure. We understand. We all have those vices, those dark urges we indulge in secret. Here’s mine.

Then we have the cream of the crop…Cocaine. Now not everyone graduates to coke, either in usage or writing. Cocaine is the story that all others are measured against. There are many many examples in the classics: Pride and Prejudice, Last of the Mohicans, Woodwiss’ Flame and the Flower and anything by Loretta Chase.

Where do you get cocaine today? Carrie Lofty is one coke pusher, Lisa Kelypas another, Kathleen O’Reilly another. You want a few fresh names you may not have heard of?

*Looks around secretively then whispers ‘Come here’ while opening her trenchcoat*.

Check out these. Sweet rush followed by heaven. But be careful, you’ll get hooked. Any of these ladies, Kate Pearce, Stephanie Draven and hopefully, one day, ME. I am an aspiring coke dealer. I want to join those ranks. Let me find an open street corner and I am so there.

Into every writer’s life a little galley must fall. It is as inevitable as death and taxes, and just about as much fun. Now, if you are really lucky, you’ll get more than one shot at fixing all those boo-boos that were missed during the editing process, or formatting mistakes that happened during those pesky file conversions. It really is a very necessary part of the writing to production process. But that doesn’t mean we have to like it.

Think abou it.

You’ve gone over the same manuscript at least three or four times before you ever sent it off in a submission. Then you read it over again a couple of times during the editing and line-editing process. By the time the book gets to you in galley format, you really don’t give two-shits what happens to your own characters.

And then there are the other times…

Like when you start reading a galley to a book you’ve already started the sequel to, but had put it away to work on something else. Suddenly, you want nothing more than to take that sequel out of the “My Documents” mothballs and dust it off and start working on it again.

This happened to me this past weekend.

I was reading over the second galley of one of my books and started chomping at the bit to start working again on book two. I already have so many projects on deck that the thought of adding just one more is kind of daunting- even if I’m already well into the meat of the narrative. Visions of a hero, thwarted in love in book one, is dancing in my head. I want to see him get his happy ending. He’s a nice guy. And a hunk to boot. The heroine has been the focus of his unrequited love for years. Finally, it seems as if it is time for them to finally fall in love – but of course the nasty forces of novel conflict have conspired against them. Too bad they will just all have to wait until I clear my wip plate.

Oh, who am I kidding? I’m probably going to start working on it as soon as I can get my next book out the door.

-Kate

Alcohol. Hemingway the great(drunk), so to speak. Many writers do have alcohol dependency issues, I am sure. Pain makes for a wonderful story and it is my favorite actually. THere is nothing so compelling as a person stripped bare and showing the world the scars. To do that, many writers dig into their own soul, bare their personal low points and do it with such vivid honesty that it takes your breath away. It is exhausting and leaves one…vulnerable. The whole game of write like mad, breathe your story and then WAITWAITWAITWAIT forever and a day to hear from editors, agents, the publisher, etc. can be grueling.

I don’t drink.  Oh, I HAVE and I am sure there are more than a few embarrassing photos floating around out there to prove that. There may be a story or two of the 5-point seatbelt that would not let go of me or the huge-ass doberman who charged me one New Year’s Eve and made me pee my pantyhose when a voice from the darkness yelled SATAN, STOP!! (try that while drunk, it will scare the piss out of ANYONE!!)

But I don’t drink NOW! ALthough I am not opposed to the occassional beverage, I have not had one in… You know, I was going to say 6 years. And two months ago, that would have been correct. But last month, Big G and I went to a fabulous dinner and I had a Whiskey Sour. I thoroughly enjoyed it. One. A month ago.

CHOCOLATE. Smooth, rich, decadent, sinful and produces chemicals in the brain similar to falling in love. What better crutch could a romance writer turn to?

I like it. Don’t LOVE it. Like it. I prefer caramel.

Sex. I write smut book, right? My bedroom must be a huge place of silks and sexual freedoms. maybe a chest full of toys, a swing, certainly the heady scent of passionate coupling lingers in the air, permanently baked into the drywall.

Poor Big G is laughing his ass off right now. I have three kids.I have deadlines. He leaves for work at 4AM.  Yeah, I had a sex life. It is kinda like that alcohol bit above. I like sex, am quite good at it according to my husband but yeah, three kids, deadlines and that pile of laundry I have been doing battle with for a month all seem to take precedence at times.

Food. Writers live wild exotic celebrity lives where we wine and dine with stars.

Excuse me, it is time to start the chicken in the crockpot. BRB.

Now where was I? Oh yes, food. Uhm, I love to cook. I like good food. I hate clean up and really, I have been cooking 2-3 meals daily for so long, take out pizza works for me right now.

THE COMPUTER. Okay, you got me. I am here far too much. I live on the computer. I twitter, blog, research, write, socialize, chitchat, play games, etc. I am my computer. if my house caught fire, I would throw my kids out enroute to running for my hard drive and flashdrives. Screw the pictures and wedding dress. This little box comes with me or you will pry the melted, scorched heap from my dry, charred bones.

So maybe I am not stereotypical in your view but there it is. Me. And I am still a writer. So, do YOU fit any of the writer stereotypes?

Yup, That is me. I had my first release yesterday(sqeee)and I have been making blog rounds, promo’ing, chatting and generally showing off and saying LOOK AT ME, BUY THIS!!

By the way… GO BUY JINXED!!

Back on track here…

Through the miracle of modern technology, I’ve received some emails, twitter tweets, Yahoo IMs, blog comments, etc from some who did buy JINXED and actually read it already.

~One woman told me she was going to reread it today because she was sure she missed something because she was laughing too hard.

~I got one tweet that just said “DOG TURD TURBAN!! OMG ROFLMAO!!” (you have to read the book to get it)

~One emailer told me she had some bladder issues while reading. Mmmmmmmkay…er…sorry??

~One woman thanked me for making her cry and laugh, said she needed it. My pleasure.

~I got a tweet telling me the sex was hot! (cool)

~I have had a few comments on how bubbly and funny I must be in real life. People, I am boring!  I am! Like dead starfish on a hot boardwalk for three days boring.

~Apparently some of my free reads were also read (Yay!) and a person asked me why the comedy is toning down in them. Am I funnied-out?

No.

But as in life, relationships are not all laughs. Yes, you have to laugh through your tears but tears do come eventually. The laughter returns, always in my work, but no one wants to overdose on comedy. You need to balance the funny with the real, too. In Beauty and the Badge (freebie read series), Jace is not the comedic point pf view, Dayna is. So Dayna is where you will get your comedy.

JINXED has this also. As many laughs that are in it, and I do hope you laugh, there is a real story there, one that I hope touches your heart. Jinx and Frannie have real issues- Issues you can’t just slap a clown nose on and forget about. Comedy is one aspect of that story, a big one but the bones of the tale are those of human frailty and trust, something I hope everyone can identify with.

So day two of published author status and all is good. I am going to go check out the Naughty Girls Next Door. I guest blogged there way early this mrning. I hope I made sense. Stop by and leave me a comment there for a chance to win a free copy of JINXED!

Hey All! I’m squeezing in here today to share a little buff yumminess in the way of my new erotic-paranormal story Hotter Than Hell available now from TWRP-Scarlet Rose. Here’s some blurbage for your reading pleasure.

Fallen angels never have it easy. So it is with Damon Serif, who’s just landed the most difficult assignment possible—protecting his sexy neighbor, Ivy Hawthorne, from a hoard of water demons bent on making her their queen. Though keeping the smoking-hot costume designer out of evil’s clutches is something he’s trained centuries for, Damon knows the real challenge is having her close without tasting her charms and indulging in her rather unique perspectives.

Ivy’s luck is finally changing. After years of designing costumes for off-Broadway plays, she’s finally got a shot at the brass ring. But now, her sizzling neighbor is following her around the city, insisting she’s the target of a demonic conspiracy. What’s more, his mere touch causes her body to climax with an intensity of which she’d only dreamed.

When Damon and Ivy connect, even the demons feel the heat, because together they are…Hotter Than Hell.

******* how about a little sample?*******

Excerpt:

Damon gave her a lazy smile then sat down beside her. “I got the message.”

What message was that? How badly she wanted to undress him and then slather him in cream cheese and eat him like her morning bagel?

“Yes. Well, sorry. I’m not normally so rude.” Or so orgasmic. Should she apologize for that, too? No, better to write that off as an anomaly.

Damon flashed perfect white teeth at her. “It’s all right. I took you off guard.”

Not nearly as much as with the full court nipple-press he’d put on her.

She took another sip of the wine. This one more of a gulp. At the rate she drank, she’d need him to walk her back to her door.

Time to bring the conversation back around to its original point. “What answers do you need from me?”

He set his wineglass on the end table, then turned to fully face her. He rested his arm on the back of the sofa, brushing the ends of her hair with his fingers. “Do you normally hang out in bars infected with darkness?”

There he went into that demon thing again. “By that I’m assuming you mean the marids and not the fact Daggers caters to the whole low lighting motif.”

“You know what I mean.” The back of his hand stroked her cheek. Intense desire curled around her heart.

“Yes. And I’m not so sure they were after me. Looked more like they were chasing you.”

He gave her a smile one would use to indulge an idiot child. “Normally humans can’t see them. That’s what makes them such a danger to you.”

“So why did we see them tonight?”

“I don’t know the answer to that yet, but I intend to find out. Until I do, promise me you’ll not venture in there.”

“I go to Daggers all the time and never have a problem. It’s where my contacts hang out and I network.”

“Even your contacts are dangerous. Believe me when I say your friend tonight had less than your best interests at heart.”

“And who are you, my guardian angel?”

“Yes.”

-Enjoy!! – Kate