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August 16, 2019

Writing/Romance: Scene Structure: Beats

August 16, 2019 6 Comments

 

A beat is a unit of conflict.

Actually, there are many definitions of “beats” in writing fiction, but for the purposes of this series, beats are a unit of conflict, analgous to the acts in a story. They’re a tool for finding out what’s wrong with a scene, for strengthening a scene, but probably not for writing one. If you’ve written a scene you think is great, don’t bother with beats. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if a scene isn’t working, then looking for beats is an excellent way to tighten and focus it.

 

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Admin Note: Writing/Romance

August 16, 2019 11 Comments

A while back (a long while back), I did a series of writing posts on another blog that I called Writing/Romance.  I took that blog offline for admin reasons, and an Argher just asked for the conflict box post back, so I think what I’m going to do is keep the old blog defunct and just do a. Writing/Romance category here.   So the Conflict Box post is back up here.

Let me know what other stuff you want me to move front and center in the reposting job; eventually everything but the old Cherry. Saturdays and Happiness Sundays and general admin posts will go back up, but there are hundreds of the suckers and it’s taking me awhile.

Writing/Romance: The Conflict Box

August 16, 2019 10 Comments



The key to a great conflict is that neither the protagonist nor the antagonist can resign from the action. They must keep fighting each other to the bitter end because they need their goals and because they cannot escape each other’s actions. One way to analyze the strength of your story conflict is with a conflict box.

 

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Questionable: What’s the difference between “Protagonist” and “Point of View Character”?

August 16, 2019 No Comments

CarolC wrote:
So many romances show the story from two points of view (and many readers complain when there is only one) that I was under the impression that romances at least were better with two protagonists. Obviously, I was mistaken in assuming two points of view, even if given equal time, meant two protagonists, but I was curious why you felt the story should belong to one protagonist, even if some scenes were in the other point of view.

Let’s start with the first question (the one I put. in the title) which is what’s the difference between a protagonist and a point of view character?

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About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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