I have friends who plot extenstively, even down to the POV of each carefully laid out scene. They 'interview' their characters and know exactly what's going to happen from beginning to end before they ever put a word to paper.
Oh, to be so well organized.
There are some in my RWA chapter who 'layer' their work. They start with a powder-keg of a sentence, reducing their premise to its most elemental state. Then they write a 2 parargraph blurb. Then a one page synopsis. Then a 10 page synopsis. Then 50--with each pass they add layers of dialogue and action until after many, many times through the story, they arrive at the desired page count.
Some writers are "puzzlers." Their stories come to them in chunks, out of order and disembodied, like magma rising from the deepest place in their psyches. Once they have all the pieces, they patch them together with connecting material and voila! A manuscript is born. This method is more like magic than any other I've ever heard of, but it has some well-known practitioners, like Diana Gabaldon and my friend Rowena Cherry. I'd try it, but I think it may involve chanting at midnight and killing a chicken.
Then there are the 'pantsers,' as in "writing by the seat of their pants." They get up in the morning and wonder what's going to happen in their story today. I count myself in their number now . . . again.
When I first started writing, I followed my characters around because I didn't know what else to do. That's how I wrote MAIDENSONG, my debut Diana Groe title. Then when circumstances forced me into a 9-5 job, and my writing time was severely cut back, I decided I needed to learn to plot in order to get anything accomplished. As a plotter, I wrote ERINSONG and SILK DREAMS (2 more Diana Groe books) and I first dabbled with my light-hearted Emily Bryan style as a plotter. That's how I wrote DISTRACTING THE DUCHESS, PLEASURING THE PIRATE and VEXING THE VISCOUNT.
Then my editor asked me to contribute to a holiday anthology, A CHRISTMAS BALL. And I decided it might be the perfect time to experiment a bit. I didn't have to submit three chapters and a synopsis. I had a totally blank slate with this contract. So I assembled my cast of characters--Jane Tate, hard-working, deserving scullery maid. Ian Michael MacGregor, hard-muscled, drool-worthy head groom. Spoiled Lady Sybil Sommerville, Jane's well-born half-sister. Her Italian portrait painter lover. Viscount Eddleton, the gentleman to whom Sybil is supposed to become affianced at the Christmas Ball, and grasping Lady Letitia Darvish, a black widow in the hunt for her 5th husband.
I stirred them in my head a bit and brought them all together at the appointed place (the previously described ball at Hartwell House) and the result was MY LADY BELOW STAIRS, my novella in A CHRISTMAS BALL.
'Pantsing' that novella was such a success (as judged by the love my editor professes for the story!), I decided to pants my current WIP, STROKE OF GENIUS, too.
But my 'pantsing' now is much different than it was when I was working on MAIDENSONG. I've been a student of the craft for more years. I understand novel structure and have a basic outline of major plot points in my head. The road map is there. It's just not on paper. So you might call me a closet plotter. And occasionally, I go back in the story, tucking things in that hadn't occured to me on the first pass. You might say I 'layer' a bit.
I still haven't 'puzzled' (can't seem to find the right incantation or a chicken!) but I won't say never. Keeping the process fresh keeps the writing fresh. And I'm game for just about anything to accomplish that.
So how about you? If you're a writer, what's your process? If you're a reader, do you think you can tell how a story was put together by the way it reads?
PS. Today is the last day to enter my CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST contest! Don't miss out on a chance for your choice of my backlist! And if you've already entered, please tell your friends about it. Thanks so much!
That's right. Today at Book Reviews by Bobbie, we're talking about S-E-X! In fiction, of course! I'm sharing my literary "first time."
Come on over and leave a comment or question for a chance to win a VEXING THE VISCOUNT!
PS. Today I'm giving you a "two-fer!" I'll also be on Rowena Cherry's Crazy Tuesday from 10AM to noon EST. I'll be joined by Rowena of course, along with Sara Taney Humphreys, Lillian Cauldwell, Kellyann Zuzulo, Brenna Lyons and Mark Terrence Chapman. And we're talking about heroes! Everybody needs one.
TTYS, Emily
PPS. 2PM Update If you visit Rowena Cherry's Crazy Tuesday you can listen to a recording of our radio broadcast. I read an excerpt from VEXING THE VISCOUNT and you'll learn some fascinating things about the other authors who were with me on the program. A very creative bunch!
The 50day/50blog VEXING THE VISCOUNT tour marches on to Ashley Ladd's Blog.
I give some tongue-in-cheek advice on how to AVOID publication, post another excerpt from VEXING THE VISCOUNT, and Ashley asked me to share some of my fantasies. Hope to see you there!
This intriguing video is from my friend Rowena Cherry's newest release, KNIGHT'S FORK. For those of you who are techno-saavy, Ro has also sent me a way for you to download an mp3 of the prologue and sample chapter.
Transitions of Power, shotgun Royal Weddings, high stakes duels… other set piece events
I watch inaugurations, state funerals, televised inquisitions, and contentious parliamentary proceedings with predatory interest. They are grist for the mills of my imagination.
My novels deal with self-styled gods, double-dealing World leaders, back stabbing, political intrigue, assassination plots, disastrous matings, and more. In Forced Mate, an heir to the throne of an intergalactic superpower abducts a virtuous young woman whom he hopes will be a suitable breeding mate. Her true-hearted fiancé goes to great lengths to rescue her… and so two Kings race to be the first to make a pawn into their Queen.
Of course, Djinni-vera (meaning "true-jinn") is nobody's pawn.
Insufficient Mating Material took up the story, with forced identity-changing surgery on the loser of the climactic duel between the two "Kings" (speaking in chess metaphors) at the end of Forced Mate, and a shotgun Royal wedding intended to saddle the loser with a political liability wife who would make him forever unelectable.
I'm an incorrigible champion of the underdog, so my sympathies were with the liability wife, especially after she was shot down in her ballgown and marooned on a deserted tropical island with an arrogant and angry survivalist.
My first draft of Knight's Fork began with a state funeral… I had "Four weddings and a funeral" in mind as a theme for my series, which concluded with Knight's Fork.
Four? Yes! There was the prequel, Mating Net, only available as an e-book, but which I will shortly be recording as an audio download. An ambitious princess throws out lures and uses underhand tactics to make sure that the Prince of her dreams goes through with an arranged marriage to her, but she is caught in an Emperor's "mating net".
My editor didn't feel that the State Funeral was sufficiently romantic, so I wound the clock back to the scene of a royal murder. The corpse is still awaiting burial… may never be buried! but it is on ice. As is some very dangerous semen. I like to leave a few explosive ingredients lying around, not because I want to tease my readers, but because a writer –like a lawyer—needs a few loopholes.
A great piece of advice I was given was always to start a story at the moment that life changes for either the hero, heroine, or villain. Most funerals aren't life changing events! Being a party to murder probably is.
An Inauguration might be, but arguably, the real life changer is winning the election. I shall have to think about that, because I do have a hero who might achieve high elected office one day.
This excerpt from Knight's Fork was the result of a burst of research which took me from the protocol for State Visits to the White House (with a few excursions into jokes about Presidents with a common touch, Royal guests, and horse drawn carriages) to the workings of the Royal Household at Buckingham Palace, including the Palace's situations vacant advertisements, and job descriptions for the various open positions.
I love research! However, the key to research is to use only what is absolutely necessary. Personally, I prefer to compare the research that shows up in a book to the fin of a shark in the surfline rather than to the tip of an iceberg. Why? In both cases, the observer knows that there's a much greater bulk of research out of sight.
KNIGHT'S FORK
Chapter Eight
The Orb Constellation The Volnoth State Peacemaker Grand Gala Floor
"First, we are not under attack," the Master of the King's Household told his audience. "We have entered Tigron Imperial space with Crown Prince Tarrant-Arragon's permission. Therefore, whether we see them or not, we are being shadowed and observed by two Imperial war-stars.
"We have received word from His Potency that we must react with appropriate humility, owing to an unfortunate misunderstanding in the An'Koori dodecahedron with one of our expeditionary fleets, which is now missing. Therefore, if Imperial fighting craft ping our Bridge screens or viewports, every individual will turn a grayish shade of pink, retract genitalia, face the viewports, and hold up their palms—so!"
He demonstrated the position that displayed the bareness of hands, and hid flat nipples. "Bodies will then be bent from the midsection. Thus.
"Secondly, the Royal Barges have not yet been sighted, but will both be coming from the direction of the Eurydycean dodecahedron. Either or both of Their Potencies may join us at any time.
"We have just over six orbits of spacetime before His Potency, the King, and Her Imperial Highness, the Queen, are scheduled to convene for an extraordinary mating. As you know, we have not hosted an Orgy of State in non-Volnoth space before. Our solemnities have attracted some unwelcome curiosity and interest."
In view of the high visibility and extreme importance of the mating, he had chosen not to say "less than seven orbits." Negativity might encourage panic and frenzy, rather than the desired sense of calm urgency.
"Crown Prince Tarrant-Arragon has threatened to send an observer."
Just behind the Master, with his skin covered in somber hues and subdued starry effects, stood the Continuum Marshal of Stars, Astronomer Royal. To his side, similarly patterned, were the King's astrologer and the Queen's astrologer.
The more pageantry and rigid, unquestioning adherence to The Way It Is Done, the greater likelihood there was of ridicule and rational skepticism in All The Communicating Worlds, if the mating did not go well.
"As the Astronomer Royal has explained," the Master resumed, in case his audience of pages, ushers, grooms, and bed makers had not paid sufficient attention, "the Astrologer to the King and the Astrologer to the Queen, in consultation with the Apothecary to the Queen, have revealed that the Constellation of Orb has the most propitious cosmic influences for fecundity."
He inclined his upper body respectfully to the star-seers.
"The Apothecary in attendance on Her Imperial Highness, the Queen, has reported that, with absolute correctitude, the Queen will conceive."
With absolute correctitude was a caveat. Even jumble-mumble had to have a back door. Three hundred documented informal matings had not worked. Five Orgies of State had not achieved "absolute correctitude." Thus, Their Majesties' advisors had decided that fertility was a question of "location, location, location."
Either that, or Her free-roving Highness, the Queen, couldn't get back to Volnoth in time—and therefore, the Court, representative Members of the government, the gentlepersons of the news media, His Potency the King, and the Household were obliged to put a very good face on meeting her halfway.
Courtiers would not put a good face on being extraordinarily inconvenienced for very much longer. Fond as His Potency the King was of his Queen, sooner or later he would have to see that an accident to the Queen's Barge would be a relief.
The Master of the Household felt a warm glow of pleasure-coloration begin to spread across the vertical folds of his throat. The concept of an Orgy of State was calculated to put pressure on the King.
"An extra refinement has been added to the performance," he warned, so the courtiers would have plenty of time to get over their shock and disgust before either the King's Stargoer or the Queen's Barge docked with the ponderous Peacemaker of State. "The female orgasm artists will wear false hairy pieces on their heads, so the Queen is better able to identify with them. They have also been selected for their ability to voluntarily color-darken their groins with streaks and swirls to mimic the Queen's alien appearance.
"Questions?" he asked, anticipating none. "No? Excellent!"
He ignored the one young thing who had not yet learned to subdue her signals of dissent and go with the tidalflow. It suited the Queen's enemies to stress her alienness. Fortunately, no one of importance had the poor taste to admit that they'd noticed the Queen's groin recently.
****
Thank you. I'd love to answer questions about research, my books, my videos, or what I like about Facebook… or anything else.
Carpe Scrotum. Seize life by the testicles! The Queen needs a sperm donor. "Helen of Troy" in deep space.
"If you've made up your mind to impale someone, do it with conviction." ~Rhett, Knight’s Fork
"I think Rowena's true skill is that she weaves this intricate world of aliens and sex just the same way J.K. Rowling weaves th e world of Wizards."~Des DiFabio, bookclubqueen Buy-KnightsFork
Thanks for stopping by Ro. Please leave your comments or questions for Rowena. I'm sure she'd love to hear from YOU!
I'm visiting at Rowena Cherry's blog today (Yes, that is her REAL name! No romance writer jokes, please!). The topic is ebooks vs print, and I'd love your imput on which e-reader you prefer if you've tried one.
This is a timely topic for writers and readers alike. The economy is forcing print publishers to rethink their business model. Dorchester, my publisher, just announced that all their 2008 releases will be available in e-format as well as print. And as much of their backlist as they have e-rights for, will be released electronically.
It's a sign of the times and I'd love to hear what YOU think. Please join me at Rowena Cherry's Blog
What fun! Tammie King of NightOwl Romance just gave me an "I love your blog" award! Now the fun part of this award is that I get to pay it forward. It's my turn to nominate 7 of my favorite blogs. So in no particular order, here are some blogs I enjoy and frequently visit.
1. http://www.romanticreads.net This is Leah Hultenschmidt's blog. She's my fabulous editor at Dorchester Publishing. You'll want to bookmark this one. She shares what she's working on, what snags her interest, and gives you a unique peek into the mind of one of the sharpest editors around.
2. http://boxingoctopus.blogspot.com This blog belongs to my friends Colleen Thompson and Joni Rodgers. Always thought-provoking, always timely, they don't shy away from any subject that relates to writing.
3. http://killerfictionwriters.blogspot.com/ An absolutely hysterical collection of writers-Kathleen Bacus, Jana DeLeon, Leslie Langtry, Christie Craig and Gemma Halliday. This blog is always a guaranteed hoot!
4. http://www.kelliestes.com/blog/ Kelli Estes and I joined Eastside RWA on the same night. Even though I'm now a continent away, I still keep my membership current with that terrific group of women. "Platform" is the new publishing buzzword and generally means "How many people will care enough to buy your book if we should decide to publish you?" Kelli's blog is a perfect example of what a pre-published author's site should be like. When she sells, I'll be at the bookstore with my wallet out.
5. http://www.rowenacherry.blogspot.com/ Rowena Cherry writes funny futuristics with sly chess references. She also blogs, has the most fantastic newsletter, and regularly lets me join her for her Crazy Tuesday Internet Radio shows.
6. http://bookreviewsbybobbie.wordpress.com/ This blog belongs to my Canadian friend, Bobbie Crawford-McCoy. It's a neat, well-run site that features book reviews, interviews and book give-aways!
7. http://www.nightowlromanceblog.blogspot.com Last but not least, Tammie King at NightOwl Romance. I receive the daily digest from NightOwl's yahoo group, have visited the site countless times, but never realized she had a blog. Clunk! That was me, having a V-8 moment! Now that I know, I'll be back!
Now, I need to share that this will be my last post till November 17th. I'm running away with my husband to the Caribbean (just in time for a late season hurricane, but I refuse to be daunted by Palumbo or whatever they're calling him). Will return with pics, a sunburn and more extra pounds than I want to contemplate, but hey! I'm on vacation and I've saved CL Wilson's King of Sword and Sky for my lounging pleasure! In the meantime, through the magic of technology, I will be posting almost live next Friday on The Chatelaines, the hot new historical/paranormal group blog. Please pop by and comment. I will check when I return from the Bermuda Triangle . . .
This morning I'm joining Rowena Cherry, Jade Lee and Melanie Jackson on http://www.internetvoicesradio.com/. We're talking about shoes and feet in fiction and it so happens, I do have a little tie-in to that topic with my current Work in Progress, VEXING THE VISCOUNT. My heroine, Daisy Drake is getting dressed to attend a masquerade as the French courtesan, Blanche La Tour. Part of her disguise is a cunning pair of Venetian platform-style shoes that elevate her 6 inches. (Real 18th century platforms might lift a woman up by as much as 22 inches. Contemporary diaries describe Venetian women of the day as 'giantesses' tottering about on stilts. A law was finally passed limiting the height of a shoe to 11 inches!) Here's a short excerpt of Daisy finishing her toilette for the masked ball.
~~~
“Are you certain this is the way it’s supposed to be worn?” Daisy eyed herself doubtfully in the long looking-glass. The stays built into the red tulle gown cinched her waist so tight, she could scarcely breathe.
That wasn’t so bad. She’d been laced snugly before, but this gown also seemed designed to shove her breasts up, presenting them squeezed together like a baby’s behind. Thanks to a hot bath and determined scrubbing, Daisy succeeded in removing the ink stain, but now her skin was flushed. Not only that, her nipples peeped above the scooped neckline, two little pink eyes peering uncertainly into the world.
“Bien sur,” Nanette assured her. “Oh, la! I forgot the rouge.”
The lady’s maid dipped her thumb in a paintpot and then brushed Daisy’s nipples with the garish color. Now they were two little red eyes, tight and terrified. Daisy consoled herself that at least they matched the gown now. Then Nanette spritzed a liberal dose of jasmine perfume over Daisy.
“There,” Nanette said. “Much better, so?”
“If you say so,” Daisy said, coughing at the strong scent. She’d never worn anything stronger than a dash of rose water.
Daisy slipped on the plumed mask that covered half of her face. The slanted slits tilted her eyes up at the outer corner, making her seem almost feline, despite the feathers. With the top-heavy powdered wig, a black heart-shaped beauty mark affixed near one corner of her mouth, the mask and the deep décolletage, when she looked back into the mirror again, Daisy stared at a stranger.
An exotic, stunning stranger. A creature of night and passion and dangerous allure.
Daisy had never considered herself more than mildly presentable on a good day. The woman in the mirror was decadently gorgeous. “Oh, my!”
“You are lovely, oui?” Nanette said, obviously pleased with her final product. “The soreness, she is gone?”
“Mostly.” When Isabella had ordered the full toilette of a courtesan for her, Daisy had no idea that entailed the removal of all the small hairs from her body.
Even in her most intimate places.
Nanette’s hot beeswax had left her skin smooth and sensitive. When Daisy tottered across the room on the tall Venetian-style platform shoes that added a full six inches to her height, the air moving beneath her voluminous skirt caressed her in unexpected places. Strains of the string quartet wafted up to her.
“It seems the masked ball has started,” Daisy said. She thanked Nanette for her unflagging efforts and glided to the door, mastering walking in the tall shoes more gracefully with each step. Even the slight pressure of her own thighs on her freshly denuded sex sent a shimmering tingle through her.
Isabella was right. Her body did possess a power of its own.
“Forewarned is forearmed,” she murmured, determined to ignore the strange warmth in her groin. She drew as deep a breath as her stays allowed and pushed open the door. Thanks to the boning built into the gown, her posture was perfectly erect.
Now if she could only bolster her confidence to match.
She’d wanted an adventure, she reminded herself. Only her own timidity would ruin this one for her. She’d seen other women, perfectly respectable women, sporting a neckline just as low as this one and without the benefit of being masked. Only last week, Lady Lucinda Throckmorton bared her nipples as part of her décolletage at the opera in a daring froth of Parisian lace. It was unthinkable that a courtesan would do less.
And yet, Isabella’s advice echoed in her head. Whatever happened tonight, she would have to wash her own face in the morning. Even courtesans should be allowed modesty when they wished it. Perhaps she could be a courtesan on holiday, not seeking a patron and therefore, not displaying her wares quite so boldly.
Daisy skittered back over to the dressing table and selected a filmy fichu to tuck around her neck and into the deep-cut bodice. Her rouged nipples still showed darkly through the delicate fabric, but the slight additional covering gave her a measure of relief.
She caught Nanette scowling at her in the mirror. “You wish to say something?”
“Only that mademoiselle has ruined the line of the gown,” the lady’s maid said with an injured sniff.
“Perhaps,” Daisy allowed. “But now the line of my conscience remains untroubled. ‘Blanche La Tour’ is not trying to entice a new patron this evening. This is daring enough.”
Uncle Gabriel always said she could have had a career on the stage, if only it weren’t so tawdry an undertaking. She would look upon this evening as if it were a play, Daisy decided. The Venetian shoes lifted her to a new height. The gown was more daring than plain Daisy Drake would ever think of donning. She would speak nothing but French for the rest of the night. Her accent was excellent and the nasal quality of that tongue should effectively disguise her voice, even if she met anyone she knew. No one would penetrate this disguise.
Daisy slipped into the role of Mme. Blanche La Tours, bird of paradise, albeit with a few of her finer feathers discretely tucked. With a lace-gloved hand on the brass railing, she descended slowly to join Lord Wexford’s party already in progress.
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Unfortunately, no one knows what it is. 
Some writers are "puzzlers." Their stories come to them in chunks, out of order and disembodied, like magma rising from the deepest place in their psyches. Once they have all the pieces, they patch them together with connecting material and voila! A manuscript is born. This method is more like magic than any other I've ever heard of, but it has some well-known practitioners, like Diana Gabaldon and my friend Rowena Cherry. I'd try it, but I think it may involve chanting at midnight and killing a chicken. 
When I first started writing, I followed my characters around because I didn't know what else to do. That's how I wrote MAIDENSONG, my debut Diana Groe title. Then when circumstances forced me into a 9-5 job, and my writing time was severely cut back, I decided I needed to learn to plot in order to get anything accomplished. As a plotter, I wrote ERINSONG and SILK DREAMS (2 more Diana Groe books) and I first dabbled with my light-hearted Emily Bryan style as a plotter. That's how I wrote DISTRACTING THE DUCHESS, PLEASURING THE PIRATE and VEXING THE VISCOUNT. 
Then my editor asked me to contribute to a holiday anthology, A CHRISTMAS BALL. And I decided it might be the perfect time to experiment a bit. I didn't have to submit three chapters and a synopsis. I had a totally blank slate with this contract. So I assembled my cast of characters--Jane Tate, hard-working, deserving scullery maid. Ian Michael MacGregor, hard-muscled, drool-worthy head groom. Spoiled Lady Sybil Sommerville, Jane's well-born half-sister. Her Italian portrait painter lover. Viscount Eddleton, the gentleman to whom Sybil is supposed to become affianced at the Christmas Ball, and grasping Lady Letitia Darvish, a black widow in the hunt for her 5th husband.
'Pantsing' that novella was such a success (as judged by the love my editor professes for the story!), I decided to pants my current WIP, STROKE OF GENIUS, too.
