By Maggie Toussaint

(From the March 2005 issue of the Update.)

Better one or better two?  Anyone who has ever had vision correction will recognize the previous sentence.  During an eye exam, small lenses of differing strengths are placed in your field of vision until the image on the far wall comes into focus.  Through a process of elimination, the correct lens is chosen.  The perfect lens results in a crisp, clear image. 

The perfect lens results in a crisp, clear image.  The more I thought about that profound statement, the more I realized that it was something that could apply to my writing.

Donald Mass, Debra Dixon, Alicia Rasley, and many more fiction-writing experts agree that conflict is an essential element of crafting a quality story.  Maximizing conflict maintains high reader interest in your story.  I had read these words of wisdom in multiple places and thought I had a handle on conflict. 

In my infinite wisdom, I treated conflict as another item on my checklist.  Setting?  Yeah, I got that.  Characters?  Yeah.  Got them.  Conflict?  Yeah.  That’s in there.

It wasn’t until I started dissecting stories by published authors that I realized how restricted my conflict vision was.  Just having conflict in my story wasn’t enough.  Conflict is too big to be relegated to a checklist.  It has to be integrated into the very seams of the story.  Two dogs and one bone.  That’s conflict.  Make it matter.  That’s conflict.  Make it emotional.  That’s conflict. 

I crafted more elaborately detailed plots, invented characters with multiple flaws, and beefed up my settings.  I cut pictures of my characters from catalogs, drew up storyboards with multi-colored tiered charts, and created electronic filing systems for quick recall.  But my rejection letters still featured the same tag line: “I wasn’t captivated by the story.”

Argh.  Nothing worse than an editor thinking your story isn’t captivating. 

So, back to the drawing board.  How to bring conflict into the crispest focus possible?  For any given scene, what is the most compelling way of presenting the conflict?  For this to happen, I had to be open to new possibilities, to new ways of story elements fitting together.

The best way to illustrate this new mindset is to use an example.  Let’s assume we are writing a scene about a woman needing to get her driver’s license renewed.  This is a conflict inherent process involving multiple long lines and a shortage of clerks.  It can easily take three hours to navigate through the bureaucratic process.  Now imagine that our character doesn’t have three hours to spare because she has to pick her handicapped child up at school.  The process will, of course, take three hours.  That feels like conflict.

But is it enough?  Is it captivating?  Probably not.  Let’s sharpen the focus.  If the clerk who finally waits on her is someone our heroine doesn’t want to deal with, that brings in a deeper emotional element to the conflict.  If we show that the handicapped child needs a med change and that it’s critical the mother gets the child to the doctor’s appointment on time, then that adds tension to the conflict.  If the woman’s son’s missing gerbil has been sleeping in her purse but jumps out when she goes to pay and the clerk is experiencing a rodent infestation at home, that’s using the setting to increase the conflict.

Adding additional story layers to the conflict sharpens the focus and makes the reader care.  Next time you create a scene, ask yourself if the conflict is as strong as you can make it.  If not, why not try the “better one, better two” process?  Add power and depth to your writing, and you’ll ensure that your readers are captivated.  Use the perfect lens, and you’ll see the difference in your writing.

~~~~~
Maggie Toussaint is a member of Washington Romance Writers and Mystery Writers of America. 

By Linda Voss

(From the January 2004 issue of the Update.)

Arriving during a brief moment of snow flurries, Candice Poarch and I represented WRW for gift wrapping at the new Barnes and Noble in Clarendon this holiday season. I volunteered thinking of it as another opportunity to interact with booksellers. The bookseller looked at it as an opportunity for volunteer organizations to do some community outreach and collect donations. The experience was a little bit of both and more than that as well.

We were in good company, sandwiched between The Reading Connection and the Friends of the Arlington County Library. Another friend of mine (who had also just published her first book) came by to help with the rush hour, which turned out to be slower than expected. For an afternoon in the middle of the hectic Christmas rush, the three of us provided a service in the interest of others, and $47 will go to combat domestic violence in the name of former WRW member Nancy Richards Akers. Standing at the ready, we heard about some of the other good things people were doing, different ways families were dealing with the holiday idea of giving. We chatted with a father out shopping with his freckle-faced son for Mom’s birthday present. When it came time for the son to pick the wrapping paper, the father explained how the mother would divorce him if they wrapped her birthday present in Christmas wrapping, leaving only one choice of paper. And the father turned down our offer of the plain little cards to go with the gift, informing the son that he’d be making the card. The head of a government-contracting maintenance company stopped by to get his last present wrapped. The only thing he had left to arrange for Christmas was the luncheon he had bought for his workers. He gave us a warm smile and wished us a blessed Christmas as he left.

Yes, we were able to talk about our books. We batted around some ideas with the manager who had arranged the book signing, Melissa Subt, for a book signing in February. Yes, we compared notes between us about promoting our books. Getting the time with Candice and my friend Joanne was a pleasure. (I learned a nifty new wrapping technique from Joanne!) But also, being there in the service of others—whether harried shoppers keeping a watchful eye on the kids, books, literacy, or families suffering from domestic abuse—did something to evoke in some small way the spirit of Christmas.

~~~~~
Linda Voss writes historicals under the name Kaitlynn Merlot and has published “The Muse as Puppy,” in the anthology Crumbs in the Keyboard, http://www.crumbsinkeyboard.com (proceeds donated to the Center for Women and Families).

By Dara Girard

(From the February 2005 issue of the Update.)

Valentine’s Day always gets me thinking about being single. How can I help it? I’m bombarded with articles on “How to be Single on Valentine’s Day”, or “Ten Things to do if You’re Single on Valentine’s Day”, or my personal favorite, “Don’t Feel Like a Depressed Loser Because No One Sent You Flowers on Valentine’s Day”. Okay, so the last one I made up, but you get the point. All this unnecessary advice is given as though being single were some sort of disease that needed to be cured or at least effectively treated.

I found this attitude given to singles similar to those given to unpublished writers. To many people, being unpublished is a shameful state. People refer to the efforts of the unpublished as “hobbies”, and they are spoken about in hushed tones of sympathy. Unpublished authors should be proud of the courage they have to follow a dream. They should declare themselves writers without waiting for someone else to tell them they are. I implore the unpublished—both newbie and advanced—to stand tall among the onslaught of rejections, harsh critiques, and well-meaning (but sometimes strange) advice of the published. So, here are seven ways to be unapologetically unpublished.

1) Remember that you don’t need to be published to consider yourself a writer. The act of writing makes you a writer. It’s that simple. You don’t need a partner to be a whole person.

2) Don’t be ashamed of your status. Being unpublished doesn’t mean you’re stupid, lazy, uncreative, or crazy. It just means you’re unpublished—for now. Those currently published were once where you are. Published writers aren’t necessarily better than you; they just found the right fit at the right time. A married or coupled person isn’t better than a single person.

3) Know that being published won’t make you happy. Okay, perhaps for a couple of days or even months, but that’s about it. If your marriage is lousy, your job sucks, you hate your neighbors, or your hairline is receding and your thighs aren’t, publishing won’t change that. Make your life fun now. Don’t wait for life to change for you. Don’t sit around waiting for someone to make you happy; they can’t.

4) Understand that being unpublished isn’t a state of unworthiness. It’s just a phase. Being single doesn’t mean that nobody wants you. It just means that you haven’t found your right match yet.

5) Enjoy the freedom of being unpublished. As an unpublished person, you can write what you want, when you want. You don’t have deadlines to consider, or an editor who tells you to get rid of a beloved character, or a reviewer who is upset that you’ve changed your style. There is an undeniable pleasure in writing something that is completely yours. Something that doesn’t have to answer to anyone.  As a single person, you can do whatever you want and not have to worry about that blasted ‘C’ word—compromise.

6) Remember that “published” or “unpublished” is a transient state. Not all people who have been published stay published; their books go out of print, and they have to hit the pavement again. Those people in that lovely place called coupledom don’t always stay there.

7) Lastly, don’t be desperate. This is a hard one, I know. Being published has a mystique I can’t eradicate and wouldn’t want to. Dreams are precious things. I won’t deny that it’s fun, but it’s not the end all. Don’t sign any contract offered just because it means publication. Dating a guy or girl with the IQ of a slug and the manners of a second grader to end your dry spell is a definite ‘no, no’. You will regret it. Focus on the work; polish it then make sure to find it a place that will appreciate it.

In essence, realize that you’re enough just the way you are. Wonderful, intelligent, and embarking on a journey that takes gumption, risk, and imagination. You’re a writer. To me, that’s pretty cool.

~~~~~
Dara Girard is a member of WRW. Her third novel, Carefree (BET Books) will hit stores May 2005.

By Michelle Monkou

(From the January 2005 issue of the Update.)

“TOUGH LOVE for Authors” is the bimonthly article that tells it like it is!  So far, I’ve spent more years as an aspiring author than as a published author.  The two points of view give me a unique perspective that I want to share in the hopes that many more aspiring authors can gain the title—published, while also providing insight for the newly published authors.

The New Year rolled in with fireworks and champagne popping.  Resolutions, goals, selling of souls were thrown out to the universe with quiet desperation.  Despite the high percentage of dropouts from this bunch by the first quarter of the year, we undergo the experience without fail at the beginning of the year.

My resolutions, for the most part, begin as wishes.  The other day I caught myself wishing for so many things.  I wished that I could write faster.  I wished that I had more time to write.  I wished that I had a quiet place in my house to write.  I wished that I was fabulously wealthy so that I could hire a nanny, housekeeper, chauffeur, and whatever personnel I needed so that I could write my gazillion novels.  And on and on it went, until I wished that I had a house in the Hamptons, especially dedicated to escape for writing.  Okay, that last one came from the movie—Something’s Gotta Give.

My wish list is impressively huge, but a waste of time.  Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy making my wishes.  Yet, if I do nothing with them, they become the breeding ground for envy, frustration, and emotional baggage.  To avoid being unpleasant company, I had to quit playing a wishing tree and refocus my energy on what works for me—Dreaming. 

Dare to dream! 

I perform high level dreaming or, if you prefer the professional term, visioning.  I don’t have a degree or professional certification to discuss visioning, so I will stick to using my term—dreaming, along with my homebred experience.

I have not dreamed about my writing and career since 2002 when I got published.  Leading up to that moment, I wrote everyday, stayed focused, and didn’t edit my work to death.  I must give credit toward my spiritual practice and meditative process.  My daily ritual made me stronger to handle the doubts, the physical aspect of sitting for an hour or more to write, and actually mailing the manuscript.

Each morning and evening, when I could afford some quiet time, I followed a dream sequence that featured me writing the novel, finishing it, and sending it to the NY publisher.  I even pictured the publisher reading and setting it aside because the story touched her.  Then I imagined the call and what I would say.  This wasn’t a lengthy procedure that had me staring into space for an hour.  It lasted about fifteen minutes. 

It is similar to what I’ve taught my daughter to do before and during a gymnastics meet.  Think about executing the skill successfully, think about how your body moves to complete the skill, think about how you would land at the end. 

This doesn’t mean that she may not take a fall or land incorrectly, but she realizes that if her frame of mind isn’t positive from the beginning, then her fears are powerful enough to control her body and its actions.  Negative thinking will result in negative action. 

Once I had accomplished my goal to be published, I stopped the ritual of dreaming.  I got wrapped up in the deadlines, learning the business, and the multitude of things that go along with such a career.  In other words, I got comfortable with status.  I handed over my destiny to others, to my environment.  Instead of falling into the wishing well, I am taking back control.  In addition to getting off my duff to write, I am returning to what worked for me—the Mind, Body, and Soul connection.

As I step into 2005, I look forward to dreaming through to my next accomplishment.  What will be your dream?

~~~~~
Creating a special mix of a cowboy, city girl, stalker, and Kwanzaa, Michelle Monkou’s fourth title, Making Promises, a BET Books Holiday feature, hit shelves in October 2004.