Scenes From...

by Allison Pang

Okay - first off, I get to mention that the Carniepunk anthology dropped this week, so huzzah! Yours truly has a short Abby Sinclair story included ,entitled "A Duet with Darkness" - so if you've ever wanted to know how Melanie ended up with that magic violin and a soul that quite possibly belongs to the Devil, this is where you'll find out. :) Check it out here. (Note that it's also available on Audible.com if you'd prefer that version instead. I've got a copy, but I haven't quite managed to get myself to listen to it yet - I have a really hard time listening to my own words... >_<)

Anyway,  I'm afraid I probably won't be much help on this week's subject. Judging by a lot of what I've read as to what you should or shouldn't do (e.g. "never put your characters to bed at the end of the chapter because your readers will go to bed too!")  - I'm probably a complete failure.

I put my characters to bed at the end of chapters all the time. (At least in the first drafts. I can always tell when I was tired when I was writing because there's usually a sudden influx in blankets somewhere in the scene.)

But really, I am not good at dissecting paragraphs. I took a workshop several years ago dealing with "Scenes and Sequels" and it was all about using beats and that sort of thing...and I bailed out of it about three lessons in. It's not that it wasn't interesting - it was. I just couldn't wrap my head around it for my own writing - it became far too much work and sucked all the joy out of creating.

So, I guess I just do scenes by instinct these days. I mostly write in 1st, so cutting up scenes for different pov isn't as big of a deal. It's more about making sure the story moves forward at the pace it needs to be told.

That being said, because I panster my way through things, it can become fairly evident when my scenes aren't going where they need to. I know it because my characters end up becoming "fidgety." Lots of head cocking and fingers thrusting through hair or random small talk dialogue that goes no-where. Fine for a first draft, but that sort of excess can really bog a scene down, so I tend to strip most of that out when I go back for revisions.

(Funny, too - those extra bits become a slog to write as well, usually because the scene is floundering. Once I get back on the right track - presto! Everyone suddenly gets far more interested in what's supposed to be happening.)

Now, as far as resources go for this type of writing, I've heard a number of people swear by "Save the

Cat" - there are several books and workshops based off this series. It's actually more for writing screenplays, but when it comes to scenes and beats, the concept is very similar.

Yes, I own it.

No, I haven't been able to read past the first chapter. (I did try, though. Someone else is going to have to save the kitties.)

Sequels and Series

by Allison Pang

I find myself in much the same boat as some of my fellow Word Whores this week, but for slightly different reasons.

Back in the early days of aspiring authorhood, I wrote my first Abby Sinclar story. In those days it looped the contest circuit as Shadow of the Incubus and was more of a paranormal romance. It even won a few of those contests- and I pitched it to several editors/agents at one of the RT or RWA cons.

And the thing is, agents and the like will tell you that you shouldn't pitch a series (at least aspiring writers, anyway.) You need to pitch or query a one-off book...with series potential. It's a rather frustrating line to walk sometimes. As writers, we have *plans*, dammit.

I had originally planned on seven books for Abby's series. Her Contract with Moria was supposed to be for seven years, and I figured that was a nice number to work with - but I only ever pitched it that way once or twice. Watching an editor's eyes glaze over made me realize it wasn't a selling point and I needed to change how I phrased things.

So I revamped it as more of a stand alone - it had an ending, but left the doors wide open for additional stories. I was already part-way through writing the second book when I sold the first...and two more.

This is where things got tricky. Like Jeffe mentioned in her post - having a series pre-written and be an awesome way to get things moving along, but you often don't know what the editor is going to have you change. In my case, the changes were substantial enough I had to scrap most of the 40k I'd already written and rework it entirely.

On top of that I had to come up with outlines for those next two mostly unwritten books for editorial approval. Making that first sale is a heady time - I was so incredibly grateful I'd sold anything, but for a panster like myself, the idea of having to actually plan out what I was going to do was very stressful.

But I'm a practical sort. My book deal was only for three books - and although I was excited about it, there was still a niggle in my brain going "What if they don't want any more after that?"

So I reworked the concept to fit into three books.  I supposed on one hand it's short-sighted - you like to think that what you're writing is worth something. But on the other, I didn't want to leave things unfinished. (And all this was before self-pubbing had taken off - I might have done things very differently these days. But back then, there weren't really many options.)

So, my three books were written and published, and I did come up with a concept for an option books/continuation of the Abby series (mostly focused on Melanie.). And the publisher decided to pass on that. (Which I suspected they would.)

Now, I do get a few emails a week asking if there are any more books coming - like Linda, I'm not quite done playing in this particular sandbox. There are still stories I want to tell and characters that need a chance to shine - and now I have far more options than I did years ago. I'm taking a little break from Abby now and working on something new, but I left the last book with a slightly ambiguous ending. I've seen various opinions from people on just who she ended up with or who the father of her baby was, and that's actually pretty cool with me.  (I had thought it was subtly obvious, but perhaps not.)

There's a good chance I'll self-pub those Melanie books - but if I don't, I like that people can decide for themselves how things worked out for that semi-happily ever after.

In the meantime, speaking of Melanie - the Carniepunk anthology drops on the 23rd (next week, huzzah!). For those of you missing Abby's world, you'll get a bit of a prequel to the series, involving Melanie and just how she got that magic violin of her. (Along with a cameo of a certain incubus and fallen angel, might I add.)

Holidays. Plot Device or Prop?

by Allison Pang

For the record, I'm really of two minds about stories using the holidays as plot devices. Actually, I'm not even sure if this actually applies to just holidays or not, but here goes.

If whatever it is - holiday, character type, sex scene, violence...whatever...if it adds to the story, great. If it's just there as a placeholder...then, not so much.

I'm not sure I even explained that right -but let's take that lovely picture up there and see if I can make it more clear. If the story requires, say, Christmas, as a relevant part of the plot, go for it. If it's just there so you can have hotties blowing candy canes...eh. Get my point? (You could replace that candy cane with something else, and it's probably not going to have any impact whatsover on what's going to happen next, I'm guessing.)

So I guess that's what I mean. If you can tell the same story in a different setting, then the holiday doesn't really mean much.  (Sorta like those Santa Buddy movies I was ranting about on KAK's post the other day. My kids love those movies. I want to pour salt in my eyes every time a puppy starts talking about its bling. The holiday themes here are just excuses to make a buck on using pretty much the same exact plot - just with different bad guys or whatever. That drives me a little crazy. Although you'd think in that case, I'd hate classics like the Charlie Brown specials too, but maybe it's all about presentation. That can go a long way, I suspect. There's really no comparison between dogs that say "Dawg" and watching the Peanuts gang dance.)



To be honest, I don't usually ever pick up theme books (I guess you see those mostly  in contemporary romance though, I think - and I don't read contemporary at all, so I'm not particularly interested in book about secret santa babies and the like.)

Actually - I *do* pick up anthologies, so that's not entirely true. Sometimes it's nice to know what you're getting and to see your favorite authors put an interesting spin on an old trope. (I have to admit to being a tad disappointed in the last few I bought - you'd think that Halloween and vampires would make for some great stories. A few were...but a few were definitely nothing more than plot devices to push some well loved characters through the motions, so there you go...and here's a shameless plug for my own anthology - Carniepunk will be available July 30th, 2013. Hypocrite? Yeah, maybe. *shifty eyes*)