Fiction Writer's Workshop

I made it through the book! It has a ton of wandering writing exercises, and if that's your thing, you'd love it.

Plot is not the driving force of the story - that tidbit really got me. Plot is the what and where without the why and how, like a football playbook, you can't tell how it will go down without the influence of the other team -- characters.

POV still confuses me. Do the 'rules' really apply? In my prewriting days when I just enjoyed books for their story, I never noticed much. As I learned the craft of writing I noticed every blip and switch. Now, I'm coming off that obsession. I don't have the skill to sxswitch too often without head hopping, but I love when others cast the 'rules' aside for the sake of the story.

The section on scenes was interesting. There are technical terms for the type of scenes (summary, minor, silent, big). This book touched on erotic scenes, advising it better to dazzle the reader with images rather than arousse. Well, um...yeah. No. Personally, I hope to someday earn a bare male torso cover.

Beginnings got a section - again with the technical terms. I was proud to find I'm not in a beginning rut. I've started with character portrait, thoughts, needs, sensation, scene and setting. Endings I don't have quite the range, but then romance shouldn't. I like my guarantee of happiness that comes from a surprise or open ending.

Here's where this book annoyed me. One of the exercises for this chapter was to write the opening of a romance. Fine. But then "if you can't do this with a straight face, do a parody" and then "a formulaic beginning, since most romances start that way."

Oh really, Buster Brown? I've written seven and that hasn't happened yet. I've only doine three where they meet in the opening scene. Puh-leez. Romance reads are voracious, they wouldn't stand for formular, and with all the gems on the shelves they don't have to.

I'm rewarding myself with Mia Zachary's Afternoon Delight. I love her stuff, but I have to say, 100 pages in this is the BEST one she's done. Delicately layered and deeply emotional, vibrating with life and passion and possibility...wait that's good. Better save that for the review :)