Secrets in a Book

Maisey Yates has a great post here where she talks about character's secrets in a story and how they can either mask weak internal conflict or be the master of the story. Or having no secrets and laying it all out in front and watching how the layers peel back to reveal the core of the character.
She also gives some great advice, in the form of questions, to help you work out if you secret is good or bad for your story.
Go and have a read!

Conflict or GMC

GMC?
I've heard this acronym a few times during my blog hopping.
Briefly it means Goal Motivation Conflict.

All our characters come to the story with their own backgrounds, battle scars and inner conflict.
Well, they should do anyway, to make your story and characters believable to your readers.

Kate Walker in her 12 point guide to Writing Romance (excellent book!) tells us that the most important element of conflict is internal, the stuff that goes on in the character's head, the stuff that gives reason to their thoughts and actions. As a writer we must use this internal conflict so show character growth, how they change in order to achieve their HEA.
Kate explains (p 43) that the emotions involved in the characters internal conflict, affect the character's thinking, but they are unaware of them.
The internal conflict comes out when the Hero and Heroine meet and clash, this forces them to each face their own fears or inner demons.

I realised after writing a good 5k of my Status Quo story that i didn't really have a good handle on my characters conflicts.
So using what i've picked up during my blog hopping i tried to break them down.

Goal: What the hero/ine wants
Motivation: Why they want it
Conflict: If the hero/ine wins the other loses.

For me (and i could be very, very wrong!), on examining my characters and some of the books i love, i've found two sets of GMC for each character. (I think this was brought about by the character questionnaire on Nicola Marsh's website!)
The first set is the clear goal and reason that we are given right at the beginning of the story - should be within the first few pages of meeting each of them.
Then as we read, we discover a deeper Goal and motivation - which to me is stemmed from the conflict of the first, but at a deeper layer.
Have i lost you?

Okay, a bit of behind the scenes look to hopefully help explain this!

So in my story Emma wants Matt. They have been best friends for ever and she has been in love with him for just about the same amount of time. But when they kissed on New Years, it was made plain to her that they were made for each other. He stirred her blood in a way no other man had come close to. And that's what she wants.
So Emma's initial GMC is
G: To have Matt,
M: She loves him and he stirs a passion in her she wants for life.
C: they are best friends and she could lose him by insisting on this.

Then as the story develops we learn that deep down Emma's goal is to love and be loved with a passion and foreverness otherwise missing in her life. Her motivation is from  how she felt in Matt's arms, how they are together doing mundane things. Her conflict, is that she may just not be good enough for the type of love and passion she desperately craves, after all her parents seemed to forget about her once they started their separate lives.

So, tell me. Do you think i've completely missed the point, or overcomplicated it?
How do you work out your characters conflict and motivations?

Conflicted about Conflict?

Internal conflict, External conflict, conflict, conflict, conflict!
Are you confused about what to use when and how much is too much?

Kate Walker is doing a really fab short course on her blog and is giving some golden tips to help sort out your muddle! You can even ask her questions and she may address them for you on her blog!

Luckily the chapter i was up to in the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance coincided with her course - Conflict!

In the book - and on the blog - she talks about adding layers, like an onion, not more conflict, like a car crash, then a burglary or a secret love child, then a suscpicious other woman, but more like deeper conflict. Something that adds to the conflict you already have for your characters. SOmething that heightens the tension.
The story should move in a W, with the characters solving the first part of their conflict only to discover another layer, or deeper problem they hadn't realised, then resolving that or it builds to the ultimate conflict the Black Moment!
And, you have to combine both the internal and the external conflict for this to be a truly compelling story!
And a little recap or lesson, in case you needed it.
Internal Conflict is the conflict that is happening inside the character - their emotions and reactions to situations (the External conflict).

Conflict workshop

Kate Walker is currently doing a mini Conflict workshop over on her blog

Some fantastic pointers to help us out! Check it out.

Today i learnt something i'd never considered before:

External conflict can bring your H and h together. I've always thought of it as driving them apart! Imagine that! It has opened up so many more possibilities....

Finished Synopsis

Oh my goodness, i can't tell you how pleased i am to finally have finished the synopsis. I've pruned it, plumped it, clarified and refined and polished it to an inch of it's life while trying to retain a feel of my voice and the ebb and flow of the characters' conflict.
Whew.
Double spacing, as Harlequin want it, makes it just a little over 2 pages, so i hope they don't mind that i have made it 1.5 spacing to fit on 2 pages. I couldn't cut anything else out of the story!
Now i just have to work on a flash back and polishing the first chapter and hopefully on October 29 i can hit the save and send button.
Then the real fun will begin. Thankfully i'll have a few distractions and projects to keep me sane while i await the results of the competition.
Well back to it before the kids wake up!

That Darn Synopsis

Well, i've finally tackled the synopsis for my comp sub.

It's three pages long and they require too pages. I've tried to cut out lots but what i've got is essential, so obviously i need another opinion on it, someone else will see what i've missed; make sure i've only focused on conflict driven by the characters and not plot.

I've read all i have found on synopsis's and still it's really hard to write. I just have to have all i have written in it, sigh.
Maybe i should just change the margin sizes to make sure it all fits :)
I don't think that will be right so i'll just have to keep tackling it. Maybe i just need to have a bag of marshmellows or chocolate on hand.

Conflict, conflict, conflict

Last week ended being called away to Wellington for a funeral so i had an enforced break from the writing again. sigh.
However i did discover a few bags of Sexy mills and boon (the Modern equivalent in NZ) and did a bit of reading. Now i have a few more examples of what HM&B are looking for.
I think my conflict for my hero (above modelled by Jensen Ackles) is not as deep or as developed as it should be. Luckily i can hint at conflict in the first chapter and i can work on the conflict deeper for the rest of the book, after i have submitted that chapter for the competition.
It is really hard to layer the conflict. From what i have read there seems to be three phases of conflict in the books, and i think so far i only have two and hot that strong.
I will definately be working on this deeper and who knows - i may even get feedback from the editors which would help me!