Okay so it looks like I fell off the planet. Promise - I'm still here. The last four years have been ... hard. There's no other word for it. Everything is fine. I'm fine, but I've been the caregiver of my mom who has Dementia. Between her needs, work, etc I seem to have lost control of my time. I am still writing and am trying hard to get back to my blog.

In case you weren't aware Phaze and HSWF which where under the Mundania Umbrella have closed. I was smart enough to get my titles back before all this happened. I'm happy to say the three books I sold to HSWF have been picked up by Melange Books and are available through their Satin Books imprint. I have even sold a new title to them called Magical Quest due out in 2022

I have also been lucky enough to find a publisher for my Vespian Way series. I'm now with Blushing Books under the name of Bethany Drake. I have five titles out with them right now and am close to submitting two more. There's Desire's Destiny, Desire's Duty and Desire's Promise. Then there is two in my werewolf series, Tears of the Queen and Legend of the Tears. I have just finished the rough draft of the third book in the series and have plans for a fourth one the moment I submit it.

I'll probably still be sporadic here on the blog. Unless I win the lottery and can hire someone to help me I can't avoid it, but know I'm still here still working hard in the background and am hoping to do better at keeping my blog alive.

Barb:)



Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Writing Down the Bones: Story Construction and Evaluation The Romance Novel Pt 5 - Scenes

Hi All!

I'm back with another segment of the wonderful handout that I've been working off of. This section on scenes is definitely for the romance genre. I hope you can still glean some good information even if you don't write romance.

This is part of Section II.

Scenes:

1.) Are the hero and heroine together whenever possible? If not can your scene be rewritten so make sure they are?*

"In romances the hero and heroine should meet rather quickly - I remember when I was learning my craft I was told within the first five pages and I have tried to stick to that as much as possible.

2.) Is there enough conflict to carry your scene? If not can you cut it down and put it in a line or two of dialogue?

3.) Does the scene build in tension?

4.) Are you using one point of view throughout the scene? Whose point of view will tell it best? Your Hero's or your heroine's? Which will give your reader the best emotional response?

and here is a few of my own...

5.) Does the scene move the overall plot of your story along? Does it move the relationship of your hero and heroine along? Is this the right time for this scene or would it work better later or earlier in your manuscript?

6.) Does your scene paint a picture that draws your reader in or is a data dump? Can you make it more three dimensional and add movement to the scene to still relay what needs to be given without it coming across as a data dump?

Well, that's it for this week. Next week we'll be talking about chapters...

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