Writing Help for New Voices

Over on Facebook there is a page for the New Voices Contest  - and it's buzzing. Everyone has questions they want to ask and  they are posting their queries and getting plenty of great answers.

But there are still more and more questions. To help with some of the queries, Nas Dean posted some links to posts I'd done in the past here on this blog - posts on Conflict when I did the Conflict series and Q&A  back in 2010.  That made me think of the other series of posts on writing I've done - All About Alphas for one. And the Writing Q&A  where I answered questions you sent in.

But these are scattered through  my blog, here there and everywhere. So I thought I'd try to make things a bit easier for you and I checked through, collecting up the dates  where I put most of these posts about writing, so that I could list themn for you to go back and find and have a read.

Writing for Presents-   1-4
Basic information about what I think is important if you want to aim for the  Modern Romance/Harlequin Presents line.
All About Alphas  1-22

A long  series of posts on the often vexed topic of  the 'Alpha Male' - love him or hate him, Mills & Boon editorial  have been heard to say that they only ever publish alpha heroes.  But  if you think Alpha means bully and brute, trampling a poor little heroine underfoot, you couldn't be more wrong. Read the contributions from so many successful  published romance writers and find out why there's so much more to this guy than being tal dark and handsome, successful - and snarling!

The link will take you to the first post - after that just scroll further and you'll find all you ever wanted to know about the Alpha hero.

Keep It Simple Dig Deep


Writing Q&A
A series of answers to questions readers sent in

Conflict 1- 21
Another long series of posts following on from the time that I taught a workshop on Conflict at the Romantic Novelists' Association conference  in 2010.  Why conflictr? Well, without conflict you don't have a story - but so many people get themselves in a tangle about internal conflict/external conflict/sustaining conflict/resolving conflict - it's all here. Just  start at post one and read on through.

And over on Sally Quilford's blog, I did a guest post for her  May -  You Write Your Novel  section - you can find that here.

Writing Category Romance

That should keep you quiet for a while - when you've read through all that lot, if you still have questions  - on these topics or anything else, then  come back and post them here and I'll start another Writing Q&A to  post some answers.

And of course, there  is a lot more information and advice in my 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance which is available in paperback or  on KINDLE both in America and the UK.

January Sales and other shopping

If you live in America, did you miss getting your hands on a copy of  The Good Greek Wife? 

If you did then here's your chance  to grab a copy in the eHarlequin January sale  - at 40%  off! I just noticed that over on the eHarlequin web site The Good Greek Wife - and  lots of other books are currently on offer at the great sale price of $2.85   - if I lived in America I'd be tempted myself!

The return of the proud Greek husband...



He was declared missing at sea – but now notorious Zarek Michaelis is back and ready to take control! First he’ll see to his business, and then to his wayward wife...


For two years Penny has struggled to come to terms with Zarek’s disappearance. But enough is enough. It’s time to move on… Her proud Greek husband is still as darkly handsome as ever, and the attraction between them is just as potent. But Penny can’t trust Zarek’s motives – does he just want her body and the fortune he left behind…or to try again?


This is the book that's sold out in the UK over on the M&B site - but I think there are still some copies around on Amazon or the Book Depository  (it's on sale there too - not 40% but still a reduced price)

And talking of shopping - I was out in the January sales at the weekend where I bought - or so I thought - a cuddly soft toy  that you can warm in the microwave to keep you cosy at night for the small daughter of a friend who is having a brithday today (Happy Birthday Kelsey!) .  I also bought 2 pairs of leggings.
When I reached home and checked the receipts it turns out that what I actually bought was  a 'lying hottie' and some 'casual bottoms'.

Which just gave me the perfect example for the point I was trying to make in an interview - that one of the things I have most needed to make sure of during my 25 years of writing  - is that my writing/my language stays contemporary and  doesn't date and age me and my  books.

So as I get back to work  on what I think my be my 60th title (need to check on that!)  that's something I need to keep in mind.   Can't help thinkikng though that theres a story in that 'lying hottie'!

Thank  you all for your comments about possible writing  posts - I will hope to get to them as soon as I can. But for now -
Jane -  you asked for notes on Conflict. Where were you last year when  I did a whole series on it?  Put Conflict into  the search  box on this blog and you should get  loads of  posts that might help.  Around July/August last year.

I have another question to answer - or rather two questions, both from Johanna. But as they're really both parts of the same question and the answers tangle together, I'm going to deal with them together -


Johanna says:




We're told to 'raise the stakes' and create really strong conflicts for our characters, but do you ever worry that they might not be able to overcome their problems in order to find a HEA? (I ask this from the stance of someone who's dug herself into several holes that she couldn't get out of!)

Oh yes I worry that my characters might not overcome their problems and I might not get them out of that hole easily - often- but I really believe that that's when you have created a real 'dig deeper' gut twisting, soul wrenching conflict for yourself - and your characters. One that can create a dynamite story. And one then that can be sustained right through the book, changing, developing, adding more complications until you resolve it at the end. For me that is often the start of a book - and the challenge in writing it - the fact of digging a hole for my characters and chucking them into it and then seeing how the heck I get them out of there.
But you asked about the resolution and that 'how the heck I get them out of there' is very important - vital here.

You see it depends how they got in that hole. Did you decide just to put them in there - or did they dig the hole for themselves?

If that hole your characters are in is purely a plot device - you as the author put them in there because it seems like a great idea. It will make a great scene, create a great conflict, then it may well prove impossible to resolve that particular conflict because it is one that hasn't grown organically from your characters. It hasn't developed from who they are, what they believe in and why they are feeling the way they are right now. But it it's a hole that that they've dug for themselves, by the things they've said, the way they've acted through the story then looking (again) at why they've behaved as they do, asking them questions, how are they feeling, why have they reacted in that way, what could make it worse, what could make it better will usually find a way out of it.

I think that a lot of the answer to this question comes with the answer to another one you asked: after reading a comment Lynn Raye Harris had written on the Pink Heart Society blog, you quoted:


"What the editors had done for me on the continuity was think very long and hard about the internal conflicts of the characters. They gave me a roadmap of events that needed to occur, of course, but the internal conflict was so strong there could be little doubt how my characters would behave when confronted by the external events."



and said : This made me wonder, could you maybe list a few examples of good strong inner conflicts? to help us differentiate between a strong one and a weak one. (Asking this feels a bit like asking you to come up with an idea for a book, so maybe it's too much to ask!) But it was just an idea I had, because I often come up with story ideas, then find halfway through the book that they're too weak on their own, not strong enough to fill a whole book.

I'm not actually going to list what I think are 'good strong inner conflicts' - not because I'm mean or because I don't have the time (I don't really but that's another matter!) but because I want you to look at this problem from a different angle. I'm going to say that if an inner conflict peters out halfway through a book, if it's 'not strong enough to fill a whole book' then probably the problem lies, as it usually does in most conflicts that go wrong, with not knowing your characters enough.




Because the truth is that a conflict that is important enough to your hero or heroine, one that goes deep into their character, their beliefs, their values, is one that they re not going to give up one, concede on very easily.

Take a look again at what I said and then what Anne McAllister says about The Virgin's Proposition in an earlier post: There is the basic conflict that I looked at, Anne's additions - what complicates that orginal conflict and then changes it as her hero and heroine get to know each other - and then there is this important line -

It usually comes down to a question, at the end, of "what one of them wants the most, the other fears the most" for whatever reason. It's real conflict on a gut level that comes from externals (the real world), internals (past experience) and the now which is: are they able to love each other unreservedly and give the other what each of them needs. Love is always a risk. And they have to find the courage to take it.




Because even when the external conflict and some of the internal conflicts are taken away, there is still this one huge emotional conflict - Love is always a risk.

I think in real life, we all find that out anyway. Even with the easiest and most straight forward of romantic relationships, ones where we meet our 'other half' and look forward to happy ever after, there is always that risk - that worry for some, fear for others, doubt, uncertainty that will the other person feel the same? For most of us, thankfully, there is no other conflict complicating that risk, but if you add in the other emotional conflicts that we write into a story then as Anne says, everything combines - externals (the real world), internals (past experience) and the now to create a real conflict on a gut level.

For me the real answer to a sustained lasting, strong conflict is that you know your characters deeply and intimately. You know why they act and feel as they do, why something is a conflict to them - something that may not be a conflict to anyone else. You know why they actually feel that, no matter how fiercely attracted they are to this one person (their hero or heroine) deep down inside they really feel that this person is absolutely the wrong person for them to fall in love with - or they are absolutely the wrong person for that other to fall in love with. Usually this is because they don't know the other person - or themselves - well enough. They think they are acting in one way because it's the only way.



You as their author know that there is another way but they just can't see it. Your job is to create reasons why they just can't see it and why - slowly, perhaps painfully, stumblingly , they come to realise that other way. I say slowly painfully because I have never ever believe in the 'quick conversion' - the 'Road to Damascus' conversion where, say, the hero, having believed that the heroine is a slut and a gold-digger suddenly sees that she is doing all this for her sick mother/father/baby brother . . . and sees the light in a blinding flash. That's the 'rabbit out of a hat' resolution and I can never believe in their happy ever after ending. Happy for now perhaps, but the reasons for the way he thought of her like that are still there - in him. Because they came from him and there hasn't been a fundamental change in him, only someone giving him proof he can't deny. It is that fundamental change that you are looking for. And it comes about purely because he has met this other person and wants to change for them.


But being a fundamental change, people don't do that easily. They resist it, fight it all the way, try to change then fall back into their 'default' position. Each couple of steps forward has a balancing step backward because this thing that they are groping towards - Love - is such a risk.


The initial conflict starts off the story but gradually that story becomes one of resisting the inevitable - so that along with the 'fight' over whatever conflict you have set up you have the emotional conflict which is that person fighting themselves because they don't want to take that blind leap out of the plane and into the unknown when they have no idea whether their parachute (ie the other person's feelings) will even open for them and they might crash to their (emotional) death. Because somewhere through that stumbling journey they have reached a point where there's no turning back . Where they can't walk away, never look back because they will always leave a part of themselves in the hands of (metaphorically) this person. So the original conflict morphs into this particular, very personal, very internal, very emotional conflict - which is the real reason why your reader is reading the book - for the emotional journey.


The way to follow your characters on that journey is to know them as well and as deeply as you can.


And - you knew it was coming - always, always, keep on asking WHY?

To go back to your original question, for me there's a special thrill in knowing that my characters - and I - have got themselves into such a hole it's going to be tough, painful and emotional to get them outof there. But I love that challenge. The challenge of finding out just why they are in this situation, what can help them get out of there - and how - and why that will come about.

It isn't always easy but those challenging 'holes' often create the best stories if you don't let yourself lose your courage and run away from them.

(C)Kate Walker

Conflict - Questions and Answers

Another question - this time from Janet:

I've read romance novels where the hero is opposed to the idea of a lasting relationship because he's been badly hurt in the past, or he's lost his fiancée, or been abandoned by his mother.

You said somewhere that as an internal conflict this doesn't go far enough, that writers must ask themselves not why this man would be wary of any romantic relationship but why would he be wary of a relationship with this particular woman?

This is why I get stuck so I wondered if you could expand on this with a few examples.

Well, Janet the first thing I'm going to have to say is that if this is the point at which you get stuck then you can't know your characters well enough. You really need to dig much deeper into their emotions and beliefs and goals to see why they (hero or heroine) should have a problem with a relationship with this particular person (ie each other.)

Let's go back to the start of this question. If your hero has a problem believing in lasting relationships because of a problem with his past fiancée or his mother or some woman in the past, and only that, then the story you are working on is not the emotional journey he makes in the present - in the time of the story - but it's all about his past. And the past is not what a reader wants to know about. She's reading a romance for the story in the present.


Another point - if your hero knows he was hurt in the past and he's still letting it affect his life so much then he can seem immature, that he hasn't got beyond this problem. As one very intelligent editor once said - it your character knows something about themselves, for example, that they have low self-esteem - or that they were hurt in the past . . .then the reader will immediately ask why they are not doing something to change.

But if there is something in the heroine that appears to reinforce that problem - that seems to show that she's the same type of person as his mother/fiancée/past girlfriend then it will reinforce his opinion.

You've done a workshop with me where I point out that a romance is not the story of a hero and heroine who are just made for each other ands recognise it at once and so fall into each others' arms and live happily ever after.

Instead it's the story of a hero and heroine whose conflict - which is what we've been studying for the past weeks - appears to show them that they are the worst possible people to come together in a relationship. It's about initial impressions being badly wrong and the need to dig deeper into what each other is really like to find out the truth. It's not about the hero's mother or his past lover - but about the way that the experiences he had with those people made him the person who sees the heroine in the wrong light and misinterprets the things she is doing and being like the people who treated him wrongly.

I just read Anne McAllister's The Virgin's Proposition. In that Demetrios has been deceived and treated badly by his late wife. That leaves him wanting to avoid the emotional complications of love and feelings in the future. As the blurb on the back of the book says 'his heart is empty and that's the way he likes it.'

When he meets Anny he thinks she is fresh and appealing - and her proposition of one night together makes him feel that she is as uncommitted emotionally as he is. One night is fine. Even if he wants more - physically at least.

When he realises that Anny has not told him the truth about who she is and what her situation is, then that starts to change everything. It makes him look at her in a different light. One that is made worse by the betrayal he had in the past.

And later, when he realises that Anny is much more emotionally involved he wants to hold back on the relationship because he believes he doesn't want to get involved, it's too complicated.

So although the baggage he brings with him from the past affects this relationship, it is what happens between him and Anny, who Anny is and how she behaves, that creates the conflict between the two of them in the present. A conflict that is complicated by his past experiences but not created solely by it.



(c) Kate Walker


I showed my comments above to Anne McAllister and asked if it was a fair assessment of her conflict in The Virgin's Proposition. I think that her response is really helpful and adds to this discussion by showing the way that that one same conflict can become more complicated, have added layers to 'the onion' and so develop into a conflict thyat can carry through a whole book, and create a story rather than just 'Demetrios's conflict with is that he doesn't trust her because he has been badly hurt and let down by her late wife'.




Anne says:


I would add that Anny's day job -- as a princess -- complicates things, too, because it isn't just her he'd be marrying. It's a whole damn country.

And the time they spent together one-on-one on the boat is like a little idyll where none of the outside stuff matters. It makes them think about 'what might have been' if they had only themselves to please. But the fact is, the real world and obligations and suchlike will intrude once they get back on shore -- and they both know it.

Still, love is hard to deny. But once they give in to it, they have to face the question of whether or not they can try to make the relationship work when it's more than just the two of them. And even more important, they have to decide if they are willing to take the risk of trusting the other person. Anny is more willing to do that -- she hasn't been hurt the way he has. But it isn't just his own possible hurt that Demetrios is risking if he tries to have a relationship with Anny. It's worrying if he can be all that she needs, too. He feels emotionally damaged and not sure he can give her what she should have. He has to come to realize that what she needs -- and should have -- is him!

It usually comes down to a question, at the end, of "what one of them wants the most, the other fears the most" for whatever reason. It's real conflict on a gut level that comes from externals (the real world), internals (past experience) and the now which is: are they able to love each other unreservedly and give the other what each of them needs. Love is always a risk. And they have to find the courage to take it.
(c) Anne McAllister



Thank you Anne - The Virgin's Proposition is out in Presents in September. The UK Modern Romance edition was on the shelves in May but is still around on the M&B web site or on Amazon.co.uk

CONFLICT - Questions and Answers

Jackie wrote to me with a question about conflict:

I do have a question about conflict and mine is how NOT to complicate the conflict, I sometimes have too many layers in my onion! What's the best way to keep it simple?

Now I think I'd better make it clear that I use the simile of the onion precisely because I think a conflict needs lots of layers. A conflict that can simply be cleared up with one decent conversation is too simple to sustain through the book.

But by layers of that onion I don't mean adding lots of new details and new complications to the conflict - even worse, I don't mean adding lots of new conflicts. That's adding a whole lot more ingreients - peppers, tomatoes, cucumber etc etc instead of peeling away the layers of your actual central conflict.

I quoted Donna Alward wrting on conflict in her blog earlier this week. Also in that blog she says something very important - and relevant to what you're asking Jackie.

Donna says:

So can you have too much conflict? Surprisingly, yes. Because what you really need is a CORE conflict - and complications that branch off from that. The core conflict is your trunk, the complicatins are the branches. If you have too much conflict, you end up with too many trunks and not enough branches. Not a very pretty tree. . . Think of summarizing your book in a one paragraph pitch, or a back blurb. What do you state? WHO your hero and heroine are, and what the PROBLEM is. ONE problem. Core conflict.

. . . I want to share something of my farm roots. When you are pruning a tree (I was brought p on an apple farm) you trim so as to promote what's called a central leader. That's the branch that's going to go right up the centre of the tree and form the structure. If you don't prune for that central leader yu get completing branches. The tree does not grow as well as it is trying to support all the leaders, and you get mayhem in the structure of your tree. Nor will it produce to its potential. The same thing happens with your conflict. Too much conflict competes, creating NOISE as I like to put it. Your structure will be off. And yur story will not reach its true potential because without a central leader - a core conflict - you will lose the heart of your story.

Thank you Donna!

So Jackie - you need to look at your 'complications' and see if they spring from the original, the core conflict. Can you trace them back to that one event/problem/belief and see that they developed from that? If yes then they are part of the core conflict. If not they are complications that will muddy the water, confuse the reader - and worst of all diffuse the emotional tension because the reader doesn't feel connected to the central problem.

I hope that in my post about threading conflict through a book, changing and devloping as you go, that I showed you how you need complications of that one conflict not lots of different confusing ones.

The important quote is KEEP IT SIMPLE. DIG DEEP.

To test for the 'core' conflict of your story - try writing out your conflict . Just your conflict - asking what is this book really about?

For example - The Good Greek Wife? is about a couple who married for very different reasons and have never resolved that problem because fate intervened between them.

The Konstantos Marriage Demand is about two people who were torn apart by the feud between their families. Now they must learn to trust each other again.

Kept For Her Baby is about a couple who married without knowing each other so when a problem hit they couldn't share it.


Blake Snyder listed five questions to 'find the spine' of your story

1. Who is your hero
2. How does this story begin and how does it end. (This is quite simple for a romance - but it should also give you an answer to the core conflict - eg in The Good Greek Wife? to have the happy ending, Zarek and Penny must learn why each married the other initially and whether those reasons still hold true after what they have learned about each other.)
3. What's the problem (and how will it eventually get fixed?)
4. What's the tangible goal and the spiritual goal of your story (ie what do your characters 'want' - but what do they really 'need'?)
5. What is it about? (What's the theme of the story?)


So, basically Jackie I think that when you are tempted to add in another complication to your story you need to make sure that it is connected to your core conflict.

Ask yourself WHY am I putting this in here. If it's because you feel that not enough is happening then perhaps you haven't dug DEEP enough into your character's emotional reasons for behaving as they do. Perhaps you don't know them well enough.

Events are not reasons. They are things for your characters to react to. Too many events can cloud the issue and diffuse the tension

As I said earlier - it's all about the EMOTIONAL JOURNEY

Look again at the idea of writing a synopsis showing only the EMOTIONAL changes and turning points - Keep it simple. dig deep.

And always ask WHY?

(c) Kate Walker

CONFLICT - Sarah Duncan

Another great quote about conflict that I had in my RNA Workshop handout. This time it's from Sarah Duncan - you can find more about Sarah and her writing on her web site.



Thank you to Sarah for letting me use this here.


In real life most of us avoid conflict, but our characters should embrace it. Without conflict there is no drama, and without drama the writing is dull. But because we get brought up to smooth over disagreements there's a tendency to smooth over them in our writing too, even the little conflicts that we hardly notice - who took the last of the milk, where's my pen?
No conflict = boring to read.

So, how to add conflict? First think about the levels of conflict.

Conflict in your head - eg doubts, uncertainty, anxieties, negative personality traits.
Conflict with your body - eg ill health, physical disabilities.
Conflict with your family - eg domineering parents, disobedient children
Conflict with friends - eg rows over actions
Conflict with lovers - eg adultery, desertion, betrayal
Conflict with institutions - eg the tax office, the law
Conflict with individuals in society - eg policeman, traffic warden, doctor
Conflict with the environment - eg floods, cold weather, drought (natural) war, concrete jungle (manmade)

Now think about your main character. Going through the list, how many conflicts could your character potentially have.

Now I'm not suggesting that all these conflicts will have a large place in your writing, but they should be there supplying the grit that will create a beautiful pearl. Make your characters struggle against life, make life hard for them in every way, large or small, you can come up with. Isn't that why characters like Scarlett O'Hara, James Bond and Jane Eyre still resonate today? We follow their struggles and relish seeing them triumph in the end.

(c) SARAH DUNCAN

CONFLICT - Donna Alward

I have another great quote about Conflict this morning. This is from Donna Alward and if you want to read more about Donna and her books, you'll find her web site here. She also did a section on her blog about conflict, which is where this quote is taken from.

There are two kinds of conflict and both SHOULD be present in any story. The balance changes according to the kind of story you are writing. So for me, Harlequin Romance is very internal conflict/character arc driven. For Intrigue, the balance will be different with loads of fast-paced external conflict and a smaller internal conflict arc operating within it. I used the word balance for a reason. If you take a book that needs high external conflict and add in too much internal, what happens? You bog down the action. You kill the pace, filling up crucial moments with introspective narrative. And yet you need SOME, so that the reader cares about the characters making it through.


In Romance, the external conflict is a place to hang your hat, so to speak. It's the hook that brings the two characters together in the same place at the same time, with problems to solve that have nothing to do with each other. A classic hook is the marriage of convenience. The hero needs a wife because....the heroine needs a husband because....and they fit the bill. But guess what - here's where the internal conflict takes over. WHY does the solution to the problem now BECOME the problem? Because of the internal conflict each brings to the table.

(c)DONNA ALWARD

CONFLICT - Layering it through the book - the Onion

Something that seems to give a lot of writers probelms is the idea of 'layering' a conflict, using the same conflict but changing and developing it through a story so that the conflict becomes more complicated - but not the book!


I had two questions about this that I'll deal with over the next couple of posts but the first one is from Racael who simply said:

I'd like to learn more about layering the conflict through a story.


So let's take a look at:

Adding layers to a conflict

Very few reasons for conflict, however powerful, can actually last through the whole of a book without changing, adapting, developing, or just varying in tone and emphasis. The best sorts of conflicts are those that have layers and layers of involvement, and as each one is dealt with and peeled away, it reveals another complication, another aspect of the same problem, or a different development of it, going deeper and deeper until finally the central core of the problem is exposed, ready for you characters to tackle it.

That's why I use the image of an onion for a conflict because the real 'heart' of the story, the real core of the conflict is not revealed until you have stripped away so much of the outer lyers.

This pacing and staging of the revelations that make up the conflict adds to the suspense and the tension that keeps the reader turning the page. It also has the bonus of increasing and building on the sexual tension between the hero and heroine as they want more and more to be together but feel more and more that it will be a mistake/a danger/a disaster.

I tend to start out with a main character - either the hero or the heroine and a situation that they are in -

Okay - classic secret baby conflict (overused - but it's quick and easy and I have a book of my own kin mind to be able to use to list the stages of development of the conflict. Also, it's surprising hgow often I read this one when the writer simply thinks that it's the baby that is the cause of conflict. And it's so much more than that.)

So she has a baby - So the first question you need to ask is what happened in the past?

Obviously the H&h had a relationship - an intimate relatinship but now it's over so -
Why didn't she stay with the father/tell him about the child ?

The answers to that will give me some more idea of what the conflict issues will be -
- In my story she left him because she knew he never wanted children and she feared he would force her to choose between the baby and him and she knew she could never have a termination

Next - What is going to bring the two together

He comes back into her life

Why?
Has he been looking for her - or is it by accident?


Each of these will have a different effect, different tension, different initial conflict

The answer to that will give me an idea of how he's feeling and so how he's going to react when they meet again.


Then putting the two together creates the initial conflict.


And if you want to split it up - the

External Conflict is that her ex lover and the father of her child has come to stay in a cottage on the farm where she now lives and works

and the
Internal Conflict is all the rest!

Short term conflict - She doesn't want him to know about the baby He believes she walked out on him for someone else because this is what she told him to protect herself from him trying to keep her with him

Long term conflict - the unresolved problem of the fact that he doesn't want children and she does and he thinks she has a new man in her life. Also her fear of how he will react when he knows about the baby - and what he will then want to do (claim the child? Reject the baby? Reject her totally?)

So - the first conflict we see is that she hides the child's existence That's stage one
But they still share the sexual passsion they had before


But she can't give in to that because of her secret

Stage two: - But then he sees her with the child - doesn't realise it's hers - a different conflict - should she tell him or not?
Especially as he is clearly taken with the child


But she is fears his reaction when he discovers that she lied

Stage three : Her friend gives away the fact that the baby is hers

He now knows about the baby - but thinks it is younger than it really is - so the conflict shifts again He thinks the baby is with her new man and that's why she left. Same original conflict - but it's changing and reshaping with additional information

- He gets to know the child - thinking it's someone else's.


- But the 'other man' isnt in her life - so maybe they can be together - because he still wants her sexually so very much

Stage Four Then he finds out the truth - the age of the babyand the fact that there is no other man - makes it clear that she is his

A new slant on this stage - how will he react to the realisation that he's been deceived?

He also has to face the fact that it was his own refusal to have children that made her hide the child in the first place

He also needs to come to trust her enough to tell her the reason WHY he doesn't want children
His emotinal development/internal conflict is vital at this point.

Stage Five: He comes to love the child - but does he love the heroine?

Stage Six : He explains why he didn't want children Which adds another complication.

They are building peace in order to care for the child but is there any more to it?

Stage Seven: Black Moment He has fallen in love with his baby and insists that he wants more than just access - he wants the child in his life The heroine sees this as a demand to take the child from her - that he wants the baby not her

So you see, this all started from the original conflict of him not wanting children but not saying why

Which leads her to react in one way

And he reacts to that - which changes the situation

And she reacts to the changed situation . . . .
Very little else is brought into the story but the characters and their inner conflicts

So the way to develop a deep, emotional conflict is to work from the inside - to go with the characters' feelings and the way they react to each stage of the developing conflict (Keep it simple - dig deep) That reaction will spark off an answering reaction in the other person - emotional reactions, not conflicts created by outside forces.

And because the reactions, the emotions and so the conflicts come from deep inside the characters' hearts, the conflict in the book will have the emotional punch that editors are looking for.
(c) Kate Walker

If you want to see these changes in action - the book is HIS MIRACLE BABY (Presents Feb 02)

CONFLICT - GMC -Black Moment and HEA

A lot of people find the 'Goal Motivation, Conflict' analysis a help when working on the conflict between their characters.I discussed the sort of goals characters can have earlier -


GOAL

– Something to strive for, for which he/she must prove himself worthy.

-Goals should not be easily obtained, but earned through choices under pressure and through changes in the character.


-The goal your character starts out with may not be the same by the end of the story

MOTIVATION

- Your character must have logical, believable, in character reasons for wanting that goal so badly they’ll do anything to achieve it

– under the circumstances they are in


CONFLICT

- a seemingly insurmountable ‘something’ that will hinder your character from achieving that goal

- something that will force him/her to make difficult choices.

External forces of GMC manifest themselves in a physical way

Internal forces come from inside the character, from their beliefs and emotions


To get a handle on your characters’ GMC –do this test

WANTS - BECAUSE - BUT

He/she WANTS – what?

BECAUSE - why does he want it?

BUT – what is stopping them (Conflict)

THE BLACK MOMENT
- at this point the relationship seems doomed- because the characters are unable or unwilling to resolve the core conflicts that are keeping them apart
- Both the characters and the reader can’t see how the problem would be solved.
- In order to reach HEA (happy ever after ending) they need to learn something they didn’t know before
- Events beyond their control make an about-face
- They COME TO REALISE that love is more important than their problems

THE HAPPY ENDING

- The ending must come about from what has already happened

-What your H&h have learned about themselves creates changes in their attitudes, beliefs and personalities that bring them closer together and can resolve the conflict

- NO RABBITS FROM A HAT
- no DEUS EX MACHINA - something that suddenly happens, some new and unforeshadowed startling piece of information changing everythingat a blow

- Your characters should reach the happy ending by CHANGING/LEARNING/GROWING

(c) Kate Walker

CONFLICT - Sustaining and Working it Through

Unsustainable conflicts - conflicts that don't go deep enough, that are based on one small disagreement or that aren't important enough emotionally will run out of steam, leaving you struggling. You will have the dreaded 'sagging middle' or, worse, will run out of story before the book is finished so the novel stops dead, never to be revived.



The answer is to not introduce more conflicts, different conflicts, conflicts from different sources - these will complicate the story, muddling the emotional impact rather than add tension. You need to add complications to the original conflict



You need to make sure that you start your book with a STRONG major conflict

How do you do that?

1. PLOT YOUR STORY OUT
- if you can’t finish the synopsis, it could be a sign that your conflicts are weak
- think through the story again until logic says it will hold together
- write a synopsis based on the internal conflict alone. Write a synopsis, then peel it right back to just the emotional tensions and the emotional turning points. When you strip the story down to just the conflict, it is much easier to see where the holes are.

2. GET TO KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS BETTER
- know their strengths, weaknesses and their goals
- Tailor your conflicts to their personalities.
- Constantly ask yourself - or your characters
- what are you feeling right now?
- Why?
- What does his/her behaviour strike off inside you?
- Why?
-Why do you react so strongly to this?


WORKING CONFLICT THROUGH THE WHOLE BOOK

You need to keep the conflict at the forefront of your characters' - and so your readers' thoughts at all times. Even when they are doing something else, it should be preying on their minds.

1. Keep them together – close proximity gives the characters the opportunity to externalise their internal emotional conflicts.

2. Let conflict complicate your plot – basing key decisions on characters’ emotions and not just on logic.

3. Take two steps forward and one step back
- Follow success with a reversal
- Play the scene from another angle
– H believes he’s making progress – show how the heroine has interpreted it differently
- The closer they get the more they WANT to stay close. The more they taste intimacy and love the worse this step back feels

4. Don’t have a conflict that can be solved with one simple explanation.

5. Sexual tension deepens the conflict- Sexual longing never wanes when a couple is meant to be together- Sexual tension heightens the tension between the to in one way- Sexual fulfilment without emotional fulfilment deepens the problem. Emotional issues separate them

6 Being intimate physically while not being intimate emotionally opens a whole new set of problems. Your characters may think that by 'getting it over with'/'scratching an itch'/not fighting it will mean getting the problem out of the way. In fact it is far more likely to add to and complicate the situation.

7. Create emotional tension by holding off on the words 'I love you'.
WHo is holding off on saying this?
Why?
What is the effect on the other character? Why?

Always WHY?

(c) Kate Walker

CONFLICT - Turning up the heat

The important thing to remember about creating an effective and emotionally affecting conflict is that the key to a conflict that has your reader emotionally involved is to focus on the characters.

With characters that your reader cares about then they will be cheering for your hero and heroine and wanting them to win through, to get together and to reach that happy ever after ending.

Without that emotional involvement, you can create the most violent, intense, tragic conflict and the reader will not feel the emotions you are aiming to create.


An INTERNAL conflict does not need to be over-psychoanalysed to be effective

- You don’t need to over load with deep-seated fears and abusive childhood to make them reluctant to accept love.
- - a couple of serious issues, a cynical outlook, a misguided personal goal can have the same effect

- Explore the subtleties of LESSER PROBLEMS

- To make these work really explore the FEELINGS your characters would feel

- KEEP IT SIMPLE DIG DEEP

TURN UP THE HEAT
No more Ms Nice Writer -you have to treat your characters mean and make those problems get worse

For example -
1. If you have a villain (External) make him a strong one – one that might just overpower the hero

2. Give the hero and heroine conflicting goals

3. Let your hero/heroine inadvertently make things worse by their own actions – maybe the heroine’s honesty hurts the hero’s cause

4. Let outside forces unexpectedly turn the tide against your protagonists – a burning house and the wind changes – a stock market crash

(c) Kate Walker

CONFLICT - Julie Cohen

I'm going to pause for a moment from my personal opinions on Conflict because as I've always said there are no rules.

And equally there isn't only one opinion on any subject for writing.

So when I was planning my talk on Conflict for the RNA, I asked some friends to give me quotes on conflict. I put these on handout for the people at the workshop, and with the permission of the authors I've quoted, I'm posting them here as well for you to see and get the benefit of their expertise.

First, is Julie Cohen:

The heroine's main inner conflict will affect her career, her family, her friendships, her behaviour, her way of dressing, her speech patterns, her reputation, her favourite cuddly toy—in short, everything about this character will be determined, in some way, by her inner conflict, even if this particular aspect might seem contradictory.

Inner conflict doesn't grow out of plot. It's the other way round—plot grows out of the main characters' inner conflict. You can have your chase scenes and your kidnappings and your great one-liners and your brilliant wonderful sex, but if they don't speak directly to your main character's inner feelings, there's no point to them.

Conflict grows and changes as your character grows and changes. Although the seeds of the problem should be right there on page 1, by the end of the book, the heroine shouldn't be solving exactly the same problem as she faced on page 1. It should be related to her initial problem, but it should be deeper, more complex, developed by the events of the middle.

A very wise author (called ahem—Kate Walker) told me once, "Don't be afraid to put conflict on the page." Make the conflict the centre of your story. Don't hold back.

(c)JULIE COHEN

CONFLICT - Goals

I said yesterday that goals, particularly goals that oppose each other can generate intense conflict,

Here are some possible GOALS that either of your characters might aspire to:

Romantic love
Internal – We form strong emotional bonds which makes us vulnerable
- we fear being hurt, not being lovable enough

- External – differences between your h&H affect their goal of emotional love. How they show their feelings which causes pain and anger to the other

Keeping or winning possessions
- house
- car
- job
- business
- heirloom
Internal – character worries about getting or keeping the desired possession
External – Character A makes it difficult for B to get it or threatens to take it – so B must fight or retreat

Keeping secrets
Internal – struggle between the moral desire for truthfulness and fear of consequences of revealing secret
External - Character A knows Character B’s secret or does something that B fears will reveal secret. The more drastic the consequences of exposure, the harder the struggle

Gaining achievement

Inner conflict – our sense of self-worth is tied up in our ability to achieve goals.

External – when people around interfere with those goals, block them, deride them



Territory

Internal - territory is our home, children our self-respect, our money. We worry about what we’ll do is someone takes it
External – when territory is attacked or we defend it against real or imagined invasions
Two people with incompatible territory will always experience conflict.

Your characters’ goals must be very clear so that it will be clear to the reader when those goals are thwarted

And they should pose a SERIOUS THREAT – physical or emotional. The more it seems that one character's goal will destroy/ruin/make impossible the other character's equally important goal, the more the resulting tension will create an internal and emotional conflict that comes between them

Conflicts can be small or huge – ideally a mix of both .

What matters is not how huge a goal is but how important it is to your character. If the 'possession' your character desperately wants to get hold of is tiny, perhaps valueless to anyone else, but vital emotionally and personally to them then it ill be a huge driving force out of all proportion to its size or financial vaule.

Because, as with everything else in a romance,with conflict you must always begin and end with the CHARACTERS.

And the conflict should force your characters to MAKE DECISIONS and TAKE DECISIVE ACTION

(c) Kate Walker 2010

CONFLICT Q&A

Coming back to the Q&A on Conflict, having covered the basics of External and Internal conflict, it's time to look at one of the questions I've been asked about it -

Lacey said:

I really struggle with balancing internal and external conflicts and I tend to lean toward external. While I understand the principles of letting the internal drive the external I'm still not getting it right. I'm sure I'm missing something... Where's the magic formula ;)

My simple answer is - Don’t balance them!

The 'magic formula' is this -Internal conflict must always be the most important.

INTERNAL =INSIDE = EMOTIONS
INTERNAL EMOTIONS/EMOTIONAL CONFLICT drive the plot.


In other words, the external conflict must create the internal conflict and combine with it – and then the internal conflict (the feelings) must drive everything.

People act on emotions. On what they feel inside.There may be external conflict but it’s what they FEEL about it that motivates them and drives them into conflict.

EXTERNAL can add to/ make an internal conflict worse but the INTERNAL must be there and must be the dominant driving force.

And EXTERNAL can only make it worse if they let it (ie if the INTERNAL) lets it.


Let's recap on Romeo and Juliet
There is a feud between the families - which is EXTERNAL

Romeo and Juliet are from those different families which is EXTERNAL

But when they meet what they feel (which is INTERNAL) makes them want each other more than this feud.

But they believe their families will hold them back/punish them/ opposite family might even kill them(INTERNAL) They fear they can never be together.

If they didn’t give a damn about their families/feelings/thought they could persuade them – the EXTERNAL conflict wouldn’t push them into doing what they do. It's those INTERNAL feelings and conflicts that do that.

How does it worsen ?

When Romeo sees Tybalt fight Mercutio – his INTERNAL conflict makes this EXTERNAL one worse – and the INTERNAL conflict makes his feeling at having fought the enemy - and killed Tybalt - worse

Juliet’s INTERNAL conflict is made worse because Romeo – who she loves - has killed her cousin – so she should hate him. But her feelings for him (INTERNAL) make her INTERNAL conflict worse.

Then her father insists she marries Paris. EXTERNAL. Her feelings for Romeo (INTERNAL) and the fact she is already married (EXTERNAL) are affected/made worse by her INTERNAL conflict which drives her to the fake death plot.

EMOTIONAL/INTERNAL conflict should underlie everything that’s happening. It should always be in the characters’ and in the readers’ minds. It is the INTERNAL conflct that makes your hero and heroine react, that motivates them, that drives everything they do.

So Lacey, if you tend to lean towards the external, you are getting the balance all wrong. You need to focus on the internal conflict and let that dominate.

We'll look at ways of getting this balance right later.

(c) Kate Walker 2010

Conflict Q&A 3 - EXTERNAL

One of the questions that I was asked over and over again when I said I was going to do a workshop on conflict was:

How do you define the difference between Internal and External conflict ?

As Susan said: I would love an idiot's guide to external and internal conflict

So today I'm going to define the first of those types of conflict:

EXTERNAL CONFLICT


EXTERNAL CONFLICT is what happens to your characters, the obstacles outside themselves which they have to overcome to get their happy-ever-after.

External conflict is also called PLOT.

EXTERNAL CONFLICT comes from the plot and circumstances or is created by other characters.

EXTERNAL conflict is the struggle between people over opposing goals. It is out in the open. It is visible to witnesses

EXTERNAL is SITUATIONAL – it arises from the place and the plot. It can create the SITUATION that forces the H&h together so they have to deal with emotional issues – eg snowed in together etc.


SITUATIONAL can work with the EMOTIONAL issue
But

SITUATIONAL can never substitute for EMOTIONAL

External Conflict can be

- visible - a wildfire, a villain

- Situational - a situation that will cause turmoil for your character - eg working with their former husband/lover

- should be tailor-made for your characters, no matter how big or how small, it should truly affect them in more than a passing way

- should be directly tied to the essence of your characters, perhaps stemming from and adding to their internal conflict.

To quote Trish Morey -

The external conflict brings your characters together (to solve a problem, deal with a crisis, resolve an issue. . . )

The internal conflict then drives them apart.

So more on internal conflict tomorrow

(c) Kate Walker 2010

Conflict Q&A 2 - Why Conflict?

So why have conflict at all?

You are writing a romance. Surely it's more romantic when a couple take one look at each other, fall head over heels in love . . . and live happily ever after?

While a lack of conflict might be a nice goal in life, unfortunately it’s very bad for a story.

Without sufficient conflict there is no story at all, simply a long drawn-out visit with some nice people


It's all about the EMOTIONAL JOURNEY

Your characters begin with flaws or wounds or beliefs that prevent them from finding, giving, accepting love in their ordinary world.

The growth they need is frightening and painful, something most humans resist unless forced into it

YOUR JOB IS TO PROVIDE THAT FORCE THROUGH THE UNFOLDING PLOT.

Unless the plot’s events cause your protagonists physical or emotional suffering/distress they will never find the strength to overcome the challenges that would destroy their unimproved selves / and that create a different one

THE HARDER YOU MAKE YOUR h&H WORK FOR – AND SO DESERVE THEIR HAPPY ENDING – THE MORE READERS WILL ENJOY AND CHEER FOR THEIR VICTORY

There will be more emotional satisfaction for the reader as a result.

Who a character really is becomes defined by their response UNDER PRESSURE

Conflict is a struggle that exerts that pressure.

A compelling romance is one where there is enough conflict to raise that important question:
How will these two ever manage to overcome their differences and make it to the altar/registry office/commitment ?

Without conflict it will be the shortest story ever told
Conflict makes the sparks fly between your hero and heroine

If Romeo and Juliet’s parents said ‘OK get married’ the sexual, tension between them would vanish

And I'm not just talking about sex

Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester barely even kiss – but there is a huge charge between them. One that is remembered by readers for years after they read the story. One that has lasted for centuries since the book was written.

Romance is about the SIZZLE and the sizzle comes from conflict.

(c) Kate Walker 2010

CONFLICT Q&A1 Definition

Things aren't getting any less busy - and the computer is dying on its feet - or whatever computers stand on. So I'm going to get into the Conflict Q&A in the hope it will give you something interesting to read while I'm preparing for Caerleon and travelling there.

So let's start with a dictionary definition:

CONFLICT


· A state of open, often prolonged fighting; a battle or war.

· A state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideas, or interests; a clash.

· Psychology. A psychic struggle, often unconscious, resulting from the opposition or simultaneous functioning of mutually exclusive impulses, desires, or tendencies.

· Opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially opposition that motivates or shapes the action of the plot

Obviously for the purpose of the writer, thenh last definition is the most important. And the importan thing to note about that definition is the last few words - "motivates or shapes the action of the plot"

Because Conflict has to move things, change things. It is that 'problem' or belief or whatever thathas to come between the hero and the heroine and to stop them - or a seem to prevent them - from reaching their happy ending. But it is also something that creates changes in both the characters and their lives, altering them and devloping them so that they are ready and worthy of that happy ending.

So it isn't just something static, a block, a barrier. It's a force for change and by living through it the hero and heroine will become different people from the ones who appeared on the fist page of the book.

As a result they will reach the happy ending ready to really love and be in love and to go into a future that the reader believes be not just a happy ending but a 'happy ever after' ending.

(c) Kate Walker 2010

If you're going to the RNA Conference . . .

. . . or even if you're not. I wonder if you'd like to help me.

I need to know about how to stir up conflict.

Not an actual conflict at the conference - manuscripts at dawn or book wars over breakfast . . .

But on Saturday 10th July at 11.45 I am doing a workshop on Conflict - and I have an hour - just an hour - in which to, hopefully, educate, enlighten and entertain everyone there on the subject of Conflict. What it means, how it works, how you develop it . . .

Last time I heard there were 60+ eager (well, I hope they'll be eager) students signed up to come and hear me ramble on an the subject. 60+ eeek!

So I was wondering if you'd help me.

If you're coming to the RNA and if you're going to be in my workshop . . .or even if you're not, but you're interested in writing - and in finding out more about Conflict. About creating it, writing it, developing it.

Are you confuzzled by internal and external conflict?

Do you want to know how much is too much and how much is not enough?

Would you like to know why I describe conflict as being like the layers of an onion ?

Is there any question that you'd really really like me to try and answer on this subject?

If so please let me know. Post your question or you comment in the comments section. or email me privately at the address below.

Authors, if you want to say what you think is important about conflict then that would be welcome too - all contributions welcome.

I'll try to address every query raised in my workshop. And if you're not coming to the conference, then please still ask any questions you have and I'll hope to tackle them when I get back and maybe we can have a Conflict Q&A here on the blog as well.

Over to you . . . And thank you in advance