Where working out conflict gets conflicting and very very tricky!!

I have been struggling with this concept for the last week in particular but over the last few years in general with my writing.
I have been doing lots of research on Conflict and Characterisation to get a handle on GMC and how to create it for my characters - or to understand the root of my characters motivation and conflict. And I stumbled on a few gems - or rather the light switch flicked on somethings for me. You may already know all this, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

G = the Hero or Heroine's goal. What they want or want to avoid

M = their motivation. Why or why not they want their goal

C = what makes is so hard for them to meet their goal - the conflict

Valerie Parv in The Art of Romance Writing breaks GMC down to Problem, Solution and Obstacle. In essence at the beginning of a story your hero/ine has a problem they are about to solve when an obstacle arrived in the form of the hero/ine's wants.

On a website called the Publishing Crawl I discovered that after you have worked out your GMC a great way to test that is sound or strong enough, or plausable sounding, try and combine the GMC into one sentence. It will quickly reveal which part or parts of the GMC needs more work:

     MC (main character) wants (G)...because (M).... but (C).

So then I had to work this all out for Secrets and Lies.
I discovered that my story was plot driven. I didn't really understand my characters and their motivations.
But I found on deeper research that i had a more basic problem. I had not pinpointed what the theme of my story was!
Theme is the overarching point of your story. eg, Freedom, Security, Truth.... . Mine was to do with Trust.
Theme leads to your premise - the moral of your story. Lots of notes and pondering revealed mine as 'Trust comes from the heart, not the mind'.

Once you know what your theme is, you need to make sure that every character, every scene meets this theme. - I found this illuminating for the editing process and whether or not scenes or characters were necessary!

With the theme and premise in mind it was easier to pinpoint the real GMC's for my main characters.
At the root of it all I have a heroine who trusts her heart over her mind, and my hero trusts his mind over his heart = instant conflict!

But deeper into conflict there are multiple layers. *groan* It's never easy!
Their are two main types of conflict. External and Internal.

External Conflict is what propels the MC's to do what they do. A cheating partner, death of a loved one, being made penniless....The external conflict propels the MC's together initially - this is the beginning of your story, or where your story opens.
Their Internal Conflict is the struggle of your MC's to overcome their external goals. And of course, their internal conflicts can change as they meet challenges and realise deeper what they really want or need - which may or may not be the hero/ine!

Now, narrowing down the main driving Internal and External conflicts for my MC's has proven frustrating as well as invigorating. By getting to the crux of their issues I can then layer their conflicts further as each meets a challenge, revealing deeper motivations and goals.

For example, my hero's main internal goal is to have his head rule in all decisions and actions. His motivation comes from his past: He followed his heart to his detriment - the heroine up and left him at the altar. He is not going to be made so vulnerable ever again.
A deeper layer goal - he has to know why the heroine left him (this makes him vulnerable, this unmanly insecurity) which leads to a lot more secrets in the story.
His conflict: When the heroine comes back he is finding it very hard to keep his head when his heart and soul screams for the heroine. But, should he trust his head and believe his brother or trust his heart and believe the heroine?
My hero needs to learn that trust will lead him to the truth. This is the goal that he really wants, but doesn't know it yet - He wants the truth but to get it he has to trust the heroine.

My heroine is a bit more complicated and I am still nutting out some nitty gritty bits but essentially she needs to learn that for her truth leads to trust. Likewise she doesn't know yet that at the heart of it all she wants the complete trust of the hero but to get it she must give him the truth.
See how nicely they conflict with each other - each needs to have a goal or conflict that is the opposite to the other to create that lovely tension - who will win in the end??!

See it's all very tricky and layered. And by writing this post I have managed to have a few more lightbulb moments!

Good luck with nutting out your GMC's!
If you have any gems to share, please do!

An Underestimation

My goodness i have totally underestimated how long it would take me to edit Secrets and Lies! I am less than a quarter through the first draft with my edit and it has taken almost 5 months.

I have read through the whole document on my kindle - so i couldn't tweak as i went! - and highlighted areas that needed deleting, errors, rewording, layering etc.
The process of going back through and editing those notes has taken longer, i know from all the research i have done to set the story in 1144 in the Outer Hebrides.
I am really enjoying this process but it is taking so long! I really fear that my story will not be any where near finished for either sending to publishers or self publishing by year end....

Working 4 days a week and being a busy mum really does take a lot of time and i take my hat off to those published mums out there! this process is taking a long time as i'm only opening my document once or twice a week, but i find i am exhausted from stimulating toddlers all day and then doing mum and housewife stuff when i get home!
While my house is looking very untidy and housework is slipping i find it hard/guilty to sit down and edit.
Does anyone else have this dilemma?

How do you balance writing time with family/housework duties?

Research and Editing

Over the past few weeks i have been doing lots of research for my early medieval period story, Secrets and Lies.
As i am editing this draft and inserting bits of history and solid facts about the place and time, i am finding this story becoming so much richer!
This editing is made easier by the notes i took as i read through it on my kindle. I am moving through this quite fast - though not as fast as i would like (i am not a writer full-time!).

What have you found that has made your editing easier?

World Building

When i write a story i try to write "what i know". But when i've set a story in a city or country that i don't know much about, or have created from scratch!, then it requires some research and building.
For my Princess story i have created an island in the North Sea, close to England. I've researched the surrounding countries's history to get a sense of where they came from, how their culture and buildings etc were formed. I've searched about the sea, trade with these countries... It is endless.

With my Secrets and Lies story, i built a whole new fantasy world. I'd written and drawn maps, worked out seasons etc, researched herbs. But i've now decided to ground this story somewhere real, so have relied on history again. Doing research to find a good historical time to work in with my story. I've researched a place - the Hebrides. Now i have to do more extensive research of this place - seasons, climate, names, people etc.

My writer friend Nicole MacDonald created a world Gar'nyse for her BirthRight Trilogy. The things she's researched is incredible and she created names using a fantasy name generator. Her creatures are created from myths and her own ideas.

Kaily Hart has written a wonderful article about world building, Check it out Here!

How do you create your world for writing? And it doesn't have to be fantasy or historical as Kaily tells us.
Do you keep copious notes about your story? Your world?

Editing, and I need YOU!

So, i am editing my first ever story Secrets & Lies.
I wrote this story in 2008 starting when my daughter was 6 weeks old. It took me a year.
When i finished it my dad printed and bound it. It hadn't been edited, it was very rough. Everyone who read it said it's a great story.
I read back over it about a month after i'd finished and well, it needed a lot of work!
I was really bad with head hopping! one sentence was in the heroines head, the next from the hero's father etc :S
So, five years later i am editing it.

I have started with the first 6 chapters, deleting head hopping, making scenes in one person's POV.
Upping the tension by deleting all the obvious 'hints' to character's backgrounds.
And, i have done research. When i wrote it, i created a fantasy land in an unknown time. It was easier to create my story. Now i want to solidify it, ground it somehow, and i have chosen a place in the Hebrides, in around 1100 AD.
So lots of research, about clothes, food, names, travel etc etc..

So my question for you writers, both published and unpublished. What do you tackle first on your first edit through?
POV?
Inserting place names and history?
Changing some of the plot line? Character motivation?

There seems so much to do, i am a bit overwhelmed where to start!! So your help is greatly appreciated!

Secrets and Lies

I opened up my WIP folder and ended up taking a peek at the first story i wrote 5 years ago. I spent a lovely two hours editing and adding to this story.

I realised i have learned a lot about my writing since then, the biggest thing was point of view. In this story there is rampant head hopping :s. So i went through the first 7 seven chapters and fixed that.

I also discovered i describe way too much so it slows down action - i have to do some more extensive editing on this one, but i still love the story, and i'd love to send it off for publication when finished :)

What have learnt about your craft since you first started?

Get-to-know-Me!

I'm part of the Romantic Suspense group from the Campaign. To tell you the truth i haven't really done much about it, except join in on the challenges (though i somehow missed one!).
I plan to do much more and actually talk with and share writing with these people.
Click here or the picture in the sidebar to find and get to know some of the wonderful people in the writing community!

Well, here is getting to know me!


1. Name two [romantic suspense] authors who inspire you
Hmm, that's a tricky one because i have many favourites, and they probably aren't categorised as Romantic Suspense, though they have elements in their writing! The main two with the suspense element in their writing would be Julie Garwood (historical romance) and Karen Marie Moning (paranormal romance). It's funny because i don't write either of those genres!


2. How did you start writing in your genre?
My daughter was 6 weeks old when i began writing my first full length novel, Secrets and Lies (see the page titled Work in Progress or WIPs). It took me a year but i did it. I've always liked stories that have the suspense/intrigue factor, coupled with romance and it's a winner for me! So that's what i wrote. It's a good story, but it needs a LOT of work to make it great!




3. You've landed a meeting with your dream agent. Write a one paragraph pitch to sell your novel to him/her. (No more than four sentences)
Gabrielle Devine left the man of her dreams on the brink of their wedding. 2 years later she comes back with information about the raids and killings that have plagued the country for the past year; information that Wayne is not interested in listening to, especially when it comes from the woman who broke his heart, the woman who betrayed him. Gabrielle is determined to prove she is right, even if it means revealing the truth of why she'd left him. But will Wayne listen and believe before the ultimate deception tears everyone apart?


4. Sabotage or accident- which would put your female lead through and why?
Either works for me, it would depend on the heroine. But instinctively i want to say accident. You can tell so much about a person from how they react to/deal with what's happened. 


5. Plotter or Pantser? Who are you?
Oh, that is the question! The story i described above was done entirely in plotter mode. When i'd finished it, i was bored, 'cos i knew everything that was happening.
So all my subsequent stories are a bit of a mix. I have key plot points that the characters have to reach, but their path to them is completely pantser!


Hope you've enjoyed learning a bit about me. Make sure you check out some of the other suspense writers out there!

A Big Rejection

Well i got my reply from the competition, and as a first rejection goes this one is pretty good:

Thank you for submitting your first chapter to The Harlequin Presents Writing Competition 2009. The winners have now been notified and we’re sorry to say that your entry was not successful.

You may be wondering if you should revise your story? On the whole, we'd advise against this, but instead recommend that you start afresh with something completely new. Of course, we understand that you’ll want to know the reasons why your chapter didn’t make it into our shortlist, but unfortunately we can’t give individual feedback to every entrant. However you may want to take a look at the most common mistakes we saw in this year’s competition entries, which you can find here: http://www.iheartpresents.com/2009/11/contest-update-feedback-from-the-editors/

We appreciate your interest in Harlequin Mills & Boon and wish you all success with your future writing.

Yours sincerely,

Editorial Department

The editorial Department may advise against revising my chapter, but Billie and Cooper still want their story to be written so it will be. It will be my learning piece. I can and will finish their story. I owe it to them, to myself and to those who have read that first chapter and have begged for more!
But you know what? I really don't think the Presents line was for me anyway. It is really fun to read and has been fun to create. I am going to finish this story and Logan's Angel which i started as the first idea for the competition, mostly because i hate to leave anything unfinished.
And because i may find that i do like writing it, after all you can trick yourself into enjoying things when you don't want to do it.
I think my true passion lies in the longer novel but we shall see. I will keep writing and see where 2010 takes me, who knows, Logan's Angel may be a hidden gem that i submit and am successful with? Or it could be my baby, Secrets and Lies.

Not a Winner...but still a pursuer

Well i didn't win the harlequin presents competition or place as a runner up but big congratulations to the 4 ladies who did! Wow what a feeling that must be.
Really looking forward to the feedback - i hope - that is coming by the 18th December.
I really hope i didn't commit the seven sins detailed on the ihearts site:

not enough dialogue - this may have been a problem as i do love internal dialogue!
dire dialogue - stilted and unrealistic? I hope not - i do struggle with it but i did try to make it 'real'
well-worn plots and characters - could very possibly be a sin (sheepishly duck head)
random meetings and meandering action - Billie and Cooper didn't meet at random in chapter one as they already knew each other so i definately didn't commit this one!
inappropriate first kisses sexual premises - mine did not lack emotional underpining so i don't think i committed this one!
unattractive heroes - I think Cooper is hot and he definately isn't nasty or too aggressive, but i'm not a judge.

If no detailed feedback then i will still finish Billie's and Cooper's story. And i will by no means stop writing. It is my first competition and i have many many ideas still milling around in my head (maybe that's why i have all the headaches? you could be right Karina!)

In fact i am going to put out there right now my writing goals for 2010. So they are written in stone for all to see so i can't change them.

Ten Nights Only will be finished by March 31. and submitted through normal lines.

Logan's Angel will be finished by June 30. and submitted through normal lines

Secrets and Lies will be reworked and edited and finished by December 31st.

Of course any other ideas will be drafted and filed and if they simply must be written then they will be, but the others will not be pushed aside in favour, they will have to wait patiently. yeah right.

Guilty

It occured to me this morning that this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach is guilt.
I've worked really hard the past three months on the idea and then polishing and editing the best chapter i possibly could write for the Harlequin competition and what have i done since hitting the send button?
Nothing.
Nadda.
Vilch.
No writing at all.
I've read a few books. Totally immersed myself preparations for my son's birthday party this weekend and gearing myself up for christmas and myriad crafts and projects i want to finish before December 31st.
But no writing.
And i feel guilty.
If i want to be a writer, a real writer, i should be writing every day.
But i think i owe it to myself, my health and my family to give the rest of the year to them and other things. I will start the new year with writing. Most probably going back to my baby anf first novel Secrets and Lies and doing the major re-work it needs.
Obviously if things come out of the competition then i will work on that.
Really i shouldn't feel guilty. I have other things to do, that must be done.
Do other writers feel this way, or do they just keep writing. Do they ever take a little sabbatical, a mini break to re-charge?

A Reply Letter

I received a letter from HarperCollinsPublishers this week. Based on my critique from Rob Parnell i was expecting a "thanks, but no thanks" and that is what i got.
The letter was very polite and nice:

Thank you for writing to us regarding you manuscript entitled Secrets & Lies. While an interesting idea, i am afraid that this is not suitable for our list, and we would be unable to make an offer of publication.
I am sorry to have to disappoint you, but i wish you every future success with your writing.
Thank you for offering HarperCollinsPublishers the opportunity to assess you proposal.

It took seven weeks from the date i posted my document, so very timely and i was impressed with how sincere they sound.
Better luck next time!

Editing

Edit, edit, edit. I think i have had just about enough of editing. This is my second in-depth edit of S&L and i have only 3 chapters to go.
It is going to be relief to have that finished. How i dread the prospect of possibly having to do another one if i am successful with submissions.

But then there is the added advantage of having a fresh opinion on a turn of phrase or paragraph that i may not have gotten quite right. And those same fresh eyes will see errors that even the most careful edit can't see when it is yours.

Of course there is the point that i do want it perfect in the event it gets to print. There would be nothing worse than picking up a freshly published novel and finding an error greater than a spelling error (You still find those even in your favourite authors new book!). Edit, edit, edit until it is the best it could possibly be.
Remember too, you don't have to take on the opinion or suggestions of an editor, it is your own work and you have final say.

Synopsis of Secrets and Lies

When Gabrielle Devine returns to her home village in Nortia she never expected to find the man she loves so set against her. She is shocked to discover his evil brother has a high position in the village, a position she well knows he has lied to get and continues to deceive those closest to him. After informing Wayne Langtree and his father that Chase Alton is behind the treachery scouring the country she leaves with questions of her absence and secrets burning in the mind of Wayne; the biggest is why she left him suddenly years ago a week before their wedding and why is his own father siding with her? Gabrielle frees a herd of wild horses, fights with and is injured by a scarred man and when she returns to Nortia she is accompanied by a man she seems to be very close to. Wayne discovers Gabrielle has a daughter and he is certain of her betrayal, but who is the father? When Wayne’s father is killed and Wayne is injured and nearly killed by his brother he starts to see the truth to Gabrielle’s words and she in turn has the opportunity to reveal to him the truth. Chase claims her daughter as his but is the dark haired stranger the father? Is their love enough to conquer the past and all its secrets and lies?