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| Incognito me drinking water, bottom center. |
cj Sez: Authors’ showcase events are notorious for resulting
in few book sales for the authors who participate. The big reason I like to attend
is to get my name recognition out to local readers. Home for the Holidays, co-hosted by the
Mobile Writers Guild and the West Regional Branch of the Mobile Public Library,
took place on Nov 22 and attracted a meeting room full of debut and established
writers with decorated tables displaying their books for sale. I really did
have a good time interacting with other writers and happily sold (surprise) three
books: one Choosing
Carter, one Deadly Star, and one of the Christmas through a Child’s Eyes
anthology.
When I look at what books sold, I realize they are all
published by an imprint of F+W Media … in 2015, 2013, and 2008. I’m not sure how
that happened. It was certainly not intentional on my part. I didn’t submit to
F+W media. Those manuscripts were submitted either to Crimson Romance or to Adams Media. It
seems I have a “voice” (i.e., write in a style) that fits their editors’ interests.
That, I think, is one of the keys to writing: Finding your voice, your personal
style.
My first interest was in screenwriting. In 2001, I flew from
Detroit to San Francisco to take a three-day seminar from Robert McKay, who conducted
seminars on screenwriting.
The experience was invaluable because I learned to visualize
my story and how to write in terms of the characters’ action-dialogue-and scenes that show the story. How characters react and
what they don’t say can speak volumes.
I’ve talked with writers who visualize some movie star or
other playing a character in their books. Is that something you do? I can’t do that. I don’t see a specific
person, I visualize the whole characterization—I’ll leave it to Stephen
Spielberg or Francis Ford Coppola (ha ha) to find the best mega-star for the
role.
Most us, and I am very much included in that generalization,
have a wonderful idea on a theme. A lot of writers (me included) also know how
we want the story to end, so that’s all set. It’s the middle that gets
us. It wants to sag. Like an old married couple, sometimes the excitement fades
away. Unless we work at it.
Working at it probably means changing some things around.
For me, changes in the middle almost always mean rewriting the first chapter partially
or entirely more than a few times.
To help me out in this process, I read the dialogue aloud as
I go along. Does it sound natural? Are the sentences too complete and so full
of blah-blah information that they slow the pace of the story? This can happen anywhere, but it very often
happens in the middle part of a story when I’m trying to get the word count I
want/need. Sometimes, I change a character’s name, a story thread, a sentence
structure, or, as was true for Deadly Star, the whole genre (which
went from an action/adventure to a romantic suspense). I also might give the protagonist another
challenge or two (read that, conflict) in order to bring
back/ramp up the thrill.
What do you do to shore up the saggy middle of your story?
And if you don’t ever have one, don’t tell me. I’d feel so inept.
Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do
the same.
cj
PS: Pray for peace;
pray that our leaders.
PPS: I think that picture of me at the library is one of my better shots. %>)
cjpetterson@gmail.com
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