Writers in the Storm

by Tiffany Lawson Inman

Going through life, we are always in a state of suspense. Mmmmm…yummy, suspense! According to Oxford dictionary: a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

Life moments creating dramatic impact, small and large.

What will happen next?  Is the question on a second to second, minute to minute, day to day loop in our human brain.

I watched my husband play with our baby yesterday.  There was a lot of giggling going on, so I tore myself away from the computer to see what was happening.  She was on the floor and my hubby was sitting at her feet as if she was getting her diaper changed.  Hubby would lift one of her feet and slowly bend over with an open mouth, going in to nibble on her tootsies , but before he got his chompers on her foot, he would put the first foot down and start slowly going for the other foot and so on.

So, why was she giggling if he wasn’t actually biting her foot? Because she didn’t know he wasn’t going to bite. She was prepared for something to happen, but she didn’t know exactly what. She was watching her little story unfold from moment to moment and the anticipation was making her react.  The anticipation was making her sit forward in her baby brain and pay very close attention to what was going to happen next, each second of foot-biting-drama bringing her closer to a the climax.

This is what we live for, the tasty moments surrounding authentic action and reaction.

What will happen next? Is also what drives readers through a novel.  You may not realize it, but suspense flows through ALL GENRES of fiction.  There are small and large levels of suspense in every novel.

• Small  - Your reader goes from one line to the next wondering how your character will react to what is happening.
• Medium – Your reader moves from one scene to the next wondering how your character will handle the conflict and disaster, what conflict will be next, and will the character reach their goals with morals intact, with their lives?

Sounds easy, right?   I mean there are plenty of books on the subject. I’m sure you have read them ALL. Those craft books refer to it as cause/effect, stimulus/response, motivation/reaction, action/reaction or scene/sequel.   Writers should just be able to pick up a copy of Dwight Swain’s, Techniques of a Selling Writer, read it and, POOF! The most compelling fiction on the market will flow into the laptop with a wiggle of your nose.

But it’s not that easy, is it?  Just because a writer knows this pattern exists doesn’t mean they know how important it is in their fiction. And knowing about a key element in fiction certainly doesn’t mean every writer knows how to apply it.

Jack Bickham states in his book, Scene and Structure:

“…you can mess up stimulus-response transactions in three ways:

1. You can show a stimulus and then show no external response (or perhaps one that doesn’t fit or doesn’t make sense);
2. You can show a character response when no stimulus (or no credible one) for it has shown; or
3. You can put so much story time between stimulus and response that the logical relationship between events is no longer evident.”

So, what happens to your reader’s suspense when one or three of the above issues are implemented in your novel? It turns into frustration, confusion, or distrust for the author to provide the story in a compelling way.  Why would anyone want to read in that frame of mind?

Authors aren’t the only writers paying attention to cause and effect. Playwrights and screenwriters live and breathe motivation and reaction.  Why? Because if the audience sees an action that should affect a character and that character doesn’t react, then the story will cease to move forward until a reaction happens.  The audience sticks on why there wasn’t a reaction and will then believe the story to be inauthentic, characters not as real, and mentally they will hit the speed bump and check out.

My point? Stimulation/response is a KEY ELEMENT IN FICTION.

Here is an example of compelling, well written, stimulus/response excerpt from #1 NYT bestselling author, Harlan Coben, in his novel,  Six Years. For the first nine chapters of this story, the main character has been wondering to the point of obsession, the whereabouts of an ex-girlfriend. The love of his life. The reader’s state of suspense has been growing steadily with each new chunk of twisted mystery thrown in his path. And then this happens:

Then I saw the sender’s e-mail address:

RSbyJA@ymail.com

                I stared at it until my eyes watered. There was a rushing in my ears. Everything around me was silent and too still. I kept staring but the letters didn’t change.

                RSbyJA.

                It took me no time to see what those letters meant: Redemption’s Son by Joseph Arthur—the album Natalie and I listened to in the café.

                The subject was empty. My hand found the mouse. I tried to get the cursor over the e-mail so I could open it, but first I had to control my shake. I took a deep breath and willed my hand still. The room remained a hushed quiet, almost expectantly so. I moved the cursor over the e-mail and clicked on it.

                The e-mail stopped my heart.

                There, on my screen, were four words. That was all, just four words, but those four words sliced through my chest like a reaper’s scythe, making it nearly impossible to breathe. I collapsed back on the chair, lost, as the four words on the screen stared back at me:

                You made a promise.

****

PRIME example of amplified stimulus/response.  Obviously this is an emotional point in the story. Thick emotional reaction to a sliver of very sharp stimulus.

What did Harlan do to make it apparent to the reader that this was a BIG deal?  He showed each facet of his character’s response.

What does that do for the reader? Their eyes fly over the words, taking in the full picture, reveling in the dramatic impact of what is happening and almost salivating to find out…what happens next.

Keeping in mind this character’s emotional investment in finding out where his ex-girlfriend is throughout the first 9 chapters, what if Harlan wrote this instead:

Then I saw the sender’s e-mail address:

                RSbyJA@ymail.com

                It took me no time to see what those letters meant: Redemption’s Son by Joseph Arthur—the album Natalie and I listened to in the café.

                I moved the cursor over the e-mail and clicked on it.

                The email read:  You made a promise.

****

This is an example of showing a stimulus and then showing no external response.  Skipping it all together. Not a good thing. Harlan’s readers would be screaming, “What just happened? Did Jake hit his head before he read this? An email, from her?! He should be going crazy right now! Man, I’m confused.”

Now, while I’m editing and teaching, more often than not, the issues I see getting in the way of reader suspense have to do with number three on Bickham’s list: “You can put so much story time between stimulus and response that the logical relationship between events is no longer evident.”

What if Harlan wrote it like this:

Then I saw the sender’s e-mail address:

                RSbyJA@ymail.com

                It took me no time to see what those letters meant: Redemption’s Son by Joseph Arthur—the album Natalie and I listened to in the café.

                The café where we first met. She was showing some of her art and sat in the corner with sunglasses on.  I thought that was really a pretentious way to sit in a café, especially when it was dark outside.  But then hours later we sat in the corner table talking, laughing, eating Cookie’s famous scones and listening to music.  Redemption’s Son was the one album that pushed us deeper into each other’s lives.  I think the scones almost tasted better after we listened to that album.  And then there they were, those letters. The abbreviation I wrote on the napkin to remember the name of the album, RSbyJA.  She thought it was cute that I wanted to remember it. 

I stared at the screen until my eyes watered. There was a rushing in my ears. Everything around me was silent and too still. I kept staring but the letters didn’t change.

****

Ack!  His reaction doesn’t matter anymore, does it?  Getting pulled into the mini-story about the café, the reader is forced to imagine different scenarios, forced to try and connect emotionally to another part of the story.  And when we finally get back to the response, the words have lost all dramatic impact.

As Swain says in Chapter Three of Techniques of The Selling Writer, “When you start to sneeze, you snatch for your handkerchief right now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. The same way, think of each stimulus your focal character receives as a demand for immediate action. “

Thinking back to my hubby and baby playing “anticipate the foot munch.”  What would she have done if he picked up her foot leaned in for a nibble and then started a conversation with me. Her game would have been over. The anticipation for her daddy’s next move would have vanished.

Disappointed baby.

When a writer commits that kind of crime in their novel, the same thing happens. Inauthentic drama. Your reader will stop wondering what happens next, and they will stop reading.

Disappointed reader.

Don’t let this happen to you!

One of my biggest pet peeves as an editor is the backwards stimulation response, “I turned my head toward the yard when my brother started screaming.”  And the simultaneous stimulation response, “Margo laughed as I started to take off my shirt.”  Annoying, isn’t it?

I want to thank all the writers at WITS for letting me jump on every month (sometimes twice a month) to blast you with some fiction know-how. I love teaching, and this is a way I get to do a mini-mini-lesson and be social with all of you! Toss me a Hello in the comments.

And no, I didn’t forget! Here is your mini-challenge for this post: Can you think of a backwards or simultaneous stimulation response that you have read lately? Maybe one you found in your own WIP?  EEK! Show it to us! How did you fix it?  

I’ll draw a name from the comments and the winner gets a free slot in one of my upcoming courses:  January’s Action and Fighting in Fiction: Writing Authentic Choreography With Precision and Bite or December’s Madness to Method: Using Acting Techniques to Invigorate Your Writing and Make Each Moment Oscar Worthy.

About Tiffany

Tiffany Lawson Inman (@NakedEditor) claimed a higher education at Columbia College Chicago. There, she learned to use body and mind together for action scenes, character emotion, and dramatic story development.

She teaches Action, Choreography, Emotional Impact, Violence, and Dialogue for Lawson Writer’s Academy, presents hands-on-action workshops, and will be offering webinars in 2014. As a freelance editor, she provides deep story analysis and dramatic fiction editing services. Stay tuned to WITS to see Tiffany’s upcoming guest blogs, classes, contests, and lecture packets.

Get caught up here and read her most recent WITS blog posts: Emotional Barrier in Fiction: Why is it so important for you to learn how to cross it? (Part One) and Emotional Barrier in Fiction: After You Cross It, What’s Next? (Part Two)

 Today we are honored to host Kathryn Falk, also known as Lady Barrow. She’s hailed as "Queen of Romance" and a "brilliant, phenomenal promoter" by the New York Times. Kathryn is the founder of Romantic Times Magazine, now RT Book Reviews. She and her magazine became the voice for reading fans and professional writers alike when there was none. I have known Kathryn for many years and followed her career, finding her one of the most fascinating women I know. Today, she's here to tell us a bit of her history and how a review magazine works.

Hello to the WITS gang and their readers. It’s really fun being here today.

One of the most fun and interesting times in my life started in 1981 when I founded RT Book Reviews - then called Romantic Times -- the very first Romance review publication.  I believed that if millions of women were buying the new sensual historical novels, they must be like me and want information about the books and authors, the illustrators, cover models, and how-to-write articles.

Of course, people thought I was a little crazy. No one believed romance readers needed or wanted a publication. But I knew the subject, having been a rabid historical reader my whole life, head of the library club in school, and fashioned my life after Angelique, in the French historical series!

 I also knew that the old maxim is true: You need talent and opportunity - then you need luck!

 I was a whiz of a typist and I believed in myself. My new boyfriend (now my husband) was very sweet and supportive. I began working out of a walk-in closet in his 1870 carriage house in Brooklyn Heights where we both still reside - on the 2nd floor above his private antique coin-op museum.

My first issue was tabloid- style, on newsprint. It was supposed to be a newsletter but I couldn't afford glossy white paper. Besides, the low cost meant I could have a 24-page tabloid with room for articles, interviews, illustrators, publishing news, etc. Even astrological signs! I discovered that there were more Sagittarians than any other sign. Which is my sign, too.

 My mother-in-law, an English professor and lecturer on English Classics was my first reviewer. Only about 30 books were covered, since the romance industry was in its infancy. Writer's Digest had been advertising for authors like crazy.

Kathie Robin and the late, great Melinda Helfer wrote, asking to contribute to the publication. And then there were four!

In the early days, no one knew the authors and I needed some credibility for starting a publication, so in 1982 I wrote my first book on that subject. Love's Leading Ladies, containing 65 profiles of romance writers. It was Pinnacle’s first over-sized trade edition.

Among the authors interviewed were: Barbara Cartland, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Bertrice Small, Janet Dailey, Rosemary Rogers, Shirlee Busbee, Jude Deveraux, Victoria Holt,  Patricia Mathews, Janet Louise Roberts, LaVyrle Spencer, Dorothy Garlock, Cynthia Wright, Phyllis Whitney, Jayne ( Castle) Krentz, etc.  My editor was Bonnie Golightly, the muse for "Breakfast at Tiffany" and my former neighbor in Greenwich Village.

We spent a lot of time conceiving our review system. At one point, we added a sensuality rating since many women preferred reading a Sweet book while others wanted to know if a book was Hot.

Our vetting process for reviewers was, and still is a very serious process. We look for long-time readers with favorite genres, who exhibited clarity and intelligence in their review writing. For the first few months, we ask other reviewers to read the books and check out the reviews and ratings of new hires.

As happens in any business, we did have one clunker. Her career with us was very short as she never met a book she didn't like. I also caught her begging free (old) titles from authors. She was finally caught at Amazon posting a dozen or more reviews daily. Unprofessional behavior isn’t tolerated.

So what happens when an author complains about an Interview? We “always” respond to the author and investigate the issue by asking our editors to read the book. Then we compare notes. RT has longtime reviewers who are fair-minded. Over the years, they have read the best and the worst. And of course they have a gauge for their ratings. A book may have many good qualities, which the reviews explain to our readers, but it's not a top pick if it isn't in the same league with the greats.

Some of the reviewers are very picky - in the past we have received complaints that our reviews were "soft" so we came up with a stiffer criteria for judging.

We have a responsibility as a Bookseller's and Reader's Buying Guide. Many women have budgets for their books, so we hope our reviewers help them find books they want.

Is our system perfect? It can't be. Reading is personal. Each reviewer has a criteria and personal taste.

Besides its reviews, RT has become known for its fantastic conventions. In 1982, I organized the first Romantic Times Booklovers Convention. Held in New York City, the one-day event at the St. Regis Hotel attracted mostly aspiring authors and the newly-published. We honored the top authors -- Rosemary Rogers, Anya Seton, Tom Huff aka Jennifer Wilde, Elsie Lee, and book packager Lyle Kenton Engel.

I promoted this event in RT by inviting publishers and agents to hold court in various hotel suites, giving attendees the opportunity to discuss their manuscripts. We crammed in a lot in that one day, the awards ceremony, a "date with a prince" (the late Prince Kedker), seminars and a book fair.

Later that year, I was approached by Crown Books and wrote How to Write a Romance and Get It Published. A few years later, NAL published an up-dated paperback. It sold over 100,000 copies.

Our second convention presented the Romance business in full glory at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. I sponsored a Love Train that went from California to New York, picking up readers and writers along the way. My roommate was Elsie Washington, author of the first black romance, published by Ecstasy's editor Vivian Stephen, who founded RWA.

Women dressed in pink waited for us at every station. George Csisery and his film crew were on board and made a movie called "Where the Heart Roams."

Over the years we've developed new ways to attract readers including 20 Mr. Romance Pageants with my discovery, Fabio. After 5 conventions in NY, we took our conventions around the country, a practice that still continues.

As readers and writers expanded from category romance and historicals to many other genres we changed the name of the publication to RT Book Reviews, and we are now also in digital format.

We work hard on our internet presence, the RTBookReviews.com web site has blogs, videos, banner ads, and archives -- some 40,00 reviews. Thousands of authors can be discovered there.

Our goal has always been to have cutting-edge information. We were the first to recognize erotic books, in the days when one publisher asked, "why are you promoting dirty books?" That same publisher, a few years later stood up and said, "our bestselling books are erotica." And he whispered to me, "Hush!"

We persuaded Walter Zacharius to publish black romances. And we supported the very first women who saw the future of e-books. Publishers called me about that, too. I said, "it's new blood." I’ve always known business doesn't stay static. Books, to my mind, are like fashion -- "They change every year. If you don't keep up, you become a dinosaur.”

Carol Stacy, our publisher, has been a big promoter of YA. She created the first Saturday YA program which has attracted mothers and daughters from around the country. She also created Fan-tastic day which meant we had no more time or space for the Mr. Romance Pageant - which many readers sorely miss. We do have a Reunion party, and the cover models add a lot of testosterone to our events.

My favorite part of our May 2013 Conference – our 30^th -- was a reunion of a dozen of the original Historical Romance authors from the 1970s and 80s. A surprise attendee at the convention was E.L. James.

Next year, in New Orleans, we expect our biggest convention turn-out yet. Our agenda is easily 45 pages.

Although I'm retired, I still keep in touch from my organic farm in Texas. Occasionally I have time to visit my village of Barrow in England, my Alpine house in Austria, and my restored house in the ancient city of Badolatoin Calabria.

My husband is now President of RT -- I tell everyone he slept his way to the top! Engaged 29 years and married almost 4 years, it seems to be working. He commutes from Texas to Brooklyn, where he's working on a book devoted to cigar vending machines.

I'm so glad I was a romance reader and that our books and RT magazine mean the world to readers.

By Susan Spann

Last month, my guest blog here at Writers in the Storm looked at some of the duties a literary executor performs [But What Does a Literary Trustee DO? (Part 1)] in the course of his or her duties. Today, we’ll finish up with a look at the executor (or trustee)’s other duties: long-term estate administration, distribution to beneficiaries and heirs, and resolution of estate-based conflicts.

Remember, we’re looking only at functions of a literary executor or trustee – a general executor (or trustee) will have additional duties (again, consult an attorney to find out more). Also, these functions are common to both executors and trustees, so although there are some differences between them, each will have to perform these duties: trustees when there’s a trust involved and executors when they’re acting on behalf of an author’s probated or non-probated estate.

LONG-TERM ESTATE (or TRUST) ADMINISTRATION

Once the estate is opened or the author’s trust is being administered by the successor Trustee named to act after the author’s death, and after the assets have been collected and a preliminary accounting accomplished, the executor or trustee will need to create a plan of distribution outlining when, and how, each of the author’s literary and intellectual property assets will be managed and, as appropriate, distributed to the beneficiaries named in the author’s will or trust.

In the case of a simple will or trust, the assets are usually distributed fairly quickly so no long-term administration is required.

When the author’s estate plan includes “life estates” (a situation where one person receives the income from an asset for his or her life and someone else receives either the income or ownership of the asset after the “life tenant” dies) or long-term instructions, however, the trustee or executor will need to manage some or all of the assets for an extended period of time. In most states, this means the executor will need to produce regular accountings of the trust assets and reports or other informational statements to tell the beneficiaries about the financial status of the trust (or estate). This usually requires the help of an attorney, and often also an accountant familiar with trust and estate accountings.

Seem confusing? It can be.

Before creating long, complex estate plans, be sure to consider these issues:

1.         Your named executor or trustee will need the business skills to handle long-term management and accounting of your literary assets.

2.         Long term estate or trust administration usually requires the help of an attorney and an accountant, so make sure your estate generates enough income to cover those costs as well as providing income for your beneficiaries.

3.         Most of the time, heirs do better with simple plans that avoid the costs and complexities of long-term estate administration.

DISTRIBUTION TO BENEFICIARIES AND HEIRS

When the will or trust contains instructions for assets to be distributed directly to heirs or beneficiaries, the executor or trustee will follow a three-step process:

1.         Create a distribution plan showing how the individual assets will be distributed or transferred to the named beneficiaries. If necessary, the executor or trustee will have this plan approved by a court, though most trusts don’t require court supervision.

2.         Distribute the assets to the beneficiaries (after court approval, if required) and obtain signed receipts from each beneficiary acknowledging receipt of the proper assets.

3.         Perform a final accounting and close the trust or estate. Sometimes this requires court supervision or approval (particularly in the case of an estate). Sometimes the estate or trust involves both short-term and long-term administration, in which case the executor or trustee will distribute some assets fairly quickly and then manage the rest of the assets over time.

RESOLUTION OF ESTATE-BASED CONFLICTS

Whether the estate involves only short-term administration and distribution, a combination of short and long-term duties, or a long-term administrative obligation, the executor or trustee will need solid conflict-resolution skills.

Sometimes conflicts arise between the various beneficiaries, either with regard to management of the various assets or to the way the assets are divided and distributed.

Sometimes the executor or trustee needs to negotiate deal terms, either with pre-existing publishers or with publishers and others who want to publish the author’s works for the first time after the author’s death.

In either case, the conflict usually resolves more easily, and with better results, if the executor or trustee has the skills to work with people and defuse tensions.

OTHER DUTIES

Literary executors and trustees have other duties, also, which may vary with the scope and contents of an author’s estate or trust. However, the duties we’ve looked at this month and last month give a fairly accurate summary of the standard obligations.

As a rule of thumb, the more complex your estate or trust, the harder your executor or trustee will need to work – so keep that in mind while planning your estate.

Next month, and appropriately as we enter the holiday season, we’ll take a look at the flip side of author estate planning: how to choose who inherits your creative works.

Have questions? Please feel free to ask in the comment section – I’d love to hear from you!

Susan Spann is a publishing attorney and author from Sacramento, California. Her debut mystery novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Thomas Dunne Books, July 2013), is the first in a series featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori. Susan blogs about writing, publishing law and seahorses at http://www.SusanSpann.com. Find her on Twitter @SusanSpann or on Facebook.