What is *Discovering Your Plot*?

What do writers want from plot?
What do writers need from plot?

Are those questions the same? Not really.

As wordsmiths, we writers know that want and need are two different words.

• ·         The want is a circumstance that we writers can control. We want plot specifics to help us craft story and exceed reader expectations.
• ·         The need is a circumstance of obligations from reader expectations of story. While readers may want the comfort of the genre elements (the tropes), they also wish to have their interest and curiosity piqued.

Can we writers deliver on the expectations and the surprises in order to please our readers?

That’s the involved question that Discovering Your Plot hopes to answer.

This guidebook covers plot structure and the necessities of genre expectations so we writers can anticipate what readers want.

• ·         It is NOT a list of tropes by genre or even a list of tropes that every novel should have.

It explores the six most common plot structures.

• ·         It is NOT a list of characters for plot or story. It is not a list of the “17 characters your novel needs” or the “characters used by famous authors”, as listed on social media sites.

It is a detailed examination of the major sections of a novel.

• ·         It is NOT a word-based or page-based formula of a novel’s structure.

By the end of Discovering Your Plot¸ writers will have the tools to construct a story as well as diagnose problems with pacing, tension and suspense, and sequencing events.

Track the Secrets of the Author Brand

Read about your author brand here.

Read the first secret here.

And then the second secret.

And third and fourth and more secrets here.

Buy here!

Just Published ~ The Hazard of Secrets

I just published The Hazard of Secrets, book 10 in the Hearts in Hazard series of English Regency mysteries.

This is the book that became ever-expanding, blowing past the original length of 55,000 words, climbing on to 78,000 words, and then achieving 109,000 words.

I kept thinking about dividing it out, but events at the beginning cause events in the middle and connect to events at the end.

Discover more here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XDQTS2N/

Incredible

August is never a month that I love.

It's still summer. I really hate the heat.

It was formerly the start of the school year. I worked as a teacher for 29.88888 years and was imprisoned in a classroom for 12 + 4 then 3 more getting my master's degree.  I really, really didn't want to be there.

About halfway through my teaching career I stumbled upon Alice in Wonderland. Yes, I know.

I had read snippets from Lewis Carroll's famous book for years. I've seen the cute Disney version. (NOT the one ruined by Johnny Depp. Sorry if I have offended his fans. I don't find him aesthetically pleasing.) I did indeed like the cute Disney version.

But I didn't get around to reading it until I was in my 40s.  It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. It was filled with so many truths about life--disguised cleverly.

Here's one that guides me still and certainly for many years of check-box evaluations and students who like me didn't want to be there (and as you read, substitute insane for mad):

"But I don't want to go among mad people," said Alice.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the cat. "We're all mad here."

So here we are, and occasionally I still feel like Alice among the mad people, especially when I'm working my volunteer desk and the phone is ringing off the hook and people are coming in and more people act like they want to talk to me and I don't want to talk and--well. "We're all mad here." I mean, it's madness.  The mountains are 30 minutes away, and I'm sitting behind a desk?

But--.

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." That's Sharon Begley, a former science editor for Newsweek magazine and likely much much more than that, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Because--

The important thing is that the incredible is right before us. It's God. It's all of his creation. It's the miracle of Christ, in his sacrifice and his resurrection. It's the joy of living. It's people.

And people offer the incredible with every word, every smile. Just like the miracles of nature and family that loves you no matter what and babies being born and little dogs with huge hearts and words that come when you think all the ideas have died and oh so very much.

"Something Incredible."

Look for something today. It won't be a "flash-bang" fireworks display. It's the quiet things. Find them, and celebrate.

The Ever-Expanding Novel

I love writing . . . 

Even when the story takes hold and throws my whole schedule off.

I have a schedule, by the way, to give me hope for the next bright shiny thing. (That's an important writing tip!) In my previous existence, I lived for weekends and holidays. Now, every day seems like the weekend and a holiday!

In my writing world, my current novel is consuming many more writing days than planned. That's a great thing for readers who love Regency mysteries. Not so great for writers looking forward to the next great thing.

The Hazard of Secrets, or HoSecrets as I call it, is book 10 in the 12-book Hearts in Hazard series, a loosely-linked series of English Regency mysteries. The plan, way back in Autumn 2015 when I published the first three books, was to finish the series in 2019, publishing three books a year. I planned a skip in 2016 to publish Digging into Death, the first book in the Isabella series.

In the HnH series are 3 Game novels (Secrets / Spies / Hearts), the 3 Danger novels, and the 3 Key novels. Now I'm writing the first of the last three, The Hazard of Secrets.

HoSecrets has expanded on me. First, the Cute Meet trope turned into dangerous events with a press gang, human trafficking, and street urchins. Then, the murder mystery turned into a murder with a double attempted murder and a contemplated murder followed by a second actual murder. And none of those are connected to the poisoning!

Originally, the novel was going to be 50,000 words. Breaking a rib slowed me down through June. Then the press gang took over, and the street urchins were snippy little allies. I backed up the publication date to July 15 then July 30 then August 15.

Well, it's not going to publish on August 15. No way, no how, not possible. I'm plugging along, though, really happy with the story, constantly getting ideas from my impish muse (who's currently dancing around a tree), and trying to avoid most distractions. Summer is full of distractions!

As for those 50,000 words ~

I hit the mark of 50,000 words when I started typing chapter 16 on July 26. The rough draft was in chapter 23 at that point, with a best guess-timate of 58,000 words for the word count. (I distinguish between my rough draft and my typing draft, the second much more cleaned-up than the first.)

I typed to 60,000 words on August 6. On Saturday August 10, I closed off the laptop at 68,817 words and chapter 20.

I'm really hoping the book is not going to 85,000 words, but I'm currently drafting chapter 27 with three chapters (or more) still to come. With an expected 30+ chapters, I still have one-third of the manuscript to type. Then it goes to proof-plus before publishing.

This ever-expanding novel happened last year with The Key for Spies, at over 95,000 words, 30,000 more than planned.

My new deadline date for HoSecrets is before Labor Day (I've decided to go vague on projected dates), but who knows? The hero may have to come riding ventre a terre (a lovely French phrase that I first encountered in Jane Aiken Hodges' Watch the Wall, my Darling).

Hearts in Hazard Book 11 ~ The cover for The Hazard for Spies is here. I'm mulling over lawyers and a crime boss and disguises. And spies, of course!

Hearts in Hazard Book 12 ~ The cover for The Hazard with Hearts, the last planned book in the series, is currently at the designer. HwH will be my most vintage gothic. I may even have a ghost! Since I'll probably be writing during October, that's appropriate.

I hope I don't scare myself!

As a writer, am I scared about my schedule and the time taken up by The Hazard of Secrets? Nope. I'm relishing the revealed story.

And that's what matters.

And the future?

2020 will see the finish of the Isabella Into Death series. I hope to turn the Hearts in Hazard e-books into paperbacks, which will make my sister happy.

I'm going to finish off a couple of series under my pseudonyms as well as a craft-writing series. I have another series running under one of those pseudonyms, and I want to play in that world a little bit more with two more novellas.

Before I finish with 2019, I'm looking at upwards 7 books. I'm filled with excitement!

Running Behind and Looking Ahead

Well.  The title of this post is "Running Behind and Looking Ahead.

I'm running behind because my current mystery, The Hazard of Secrets, was supposed to be finished on the last day of June. Here it is 25 days later, and I'm still not finished.

For HoS, I have 5 to 7 more chapters to write. My expected word count was 55,000. I am currently at
50,000-plus.

When I look at the scenes that are necessary to finish the mystery and solve the crime and close the other threads, I think that word count is going to be closer to 70,000 than 65,000.

Throughout July and the tail end of June--the reason that I am running behind--I've only managed two days of creative writing each week. As I am looking ahead to the end of July, I see no time to write on Friday or Saturday or Sunday, and maybe a little time on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  This is the kind of thing that drives me crazy!

I've had tons of disruptions--and have used the time crowded around those disruptions (when the brain won't settle to creativity) to work on revisions--and have been contending with a back injury at the end of May. I just found out that the back injury is actually a broken rib. No wonder I've been hurting and not able to sleep the night through.

12th rib. A floating one. It's the bottom-most rib. Right there at my liver. Yikes!

When I launch into a year, I have a plan, the Yearly Plan, of what I hope to accomplish. For most of my teaching career, I over-scheduled. That helps when you're dealing with teen-agers: Idle hands and the devil's workshop and all that.

So~

Based on my plan at the start of the year, I should be in the middle of my 11th Hearts in Hazard book, The Hazard for Spies. Well, no.

That plan also had me nearly finished with a writing craft book, Discovering Your Characters. I was supposed to be working slowly through that nonfiction book (5th in the Discovering / Think like a Pro Writer series). Nope. I have about 21,000 of an expected 35,000 guidebook. I know what needs to come next. I've got words roughed out, some merely sketched out, and the vaguest of ideas for the rest.

I re-adjusted by Yearly Plan at the start of June. I knew I was running behind on HoSecrets; I figured I would start H4Spies around July 20. I knew I was running behind on DiscChar; I figured I would finish it around July 30.

That ain't going to happen.

I may not have any words or even a tagline,
but I've got the H4S COVER!

Yes, I said ain't.

Now my whole Yearly Plan is thrown off. Gee whillikers.

Mysteries ~ 

Hazard of Secrets, new deadline: August 15.

Hazard for Spies, new deadline: October 15.

Hazard with Hearts, new deadline: December!

That will finish the 12-book Hearts in Hazard series. I've enjoyed Regency mysteries. I've discovered that I'm really not happy writing "suspense" and "scary" and that I prefer mysteries and vintage gothics a la Mary Stewart and Phyllis A. Whitney and Victoria Holt.

One of the things that I have wanted to do for this series is to turn them into real paperbacks. Holding the book (rather than the electronic device), flipping the pages, dipping in and out--that's a reader's true joy. So, converting the manuscripts to paperback is the plan for 2020.

As for the Rest of my Writing Year

Writing Craft Books ~

Discovering Your Characters, new deadline: August 15 (half-a-month behind)

Discovering Your Plot, new deadline, September 30 (30 days behind). 50% is already roughly written; the rest has notes and ideas and sketched points that should speed along.

Discovering Your Author Brand, new deadline ??? About 15% is roughly written. The rest will have to come from scratch.

Discovering Sentence Craft, new deadline ~ ??? May not make 2019, so early in 2020.

Fantasy ~ Me as Remi Black and Me as Edie Roones (Oooh, two for one).

I have two fantasy novellas that I want to write. I really, really enjoyed the one that I published in early May. Writing To Wield the Wind was inspired and inspiring. I'm going to enjoy returning to this world with parts 2 and 3 of this Enclave World series under my pseudonym of Remi Black.

I want to finish this series over the winter, so I'm hoping for the first in December and the second at the end of February.

These two novellas to finish the series will happen, even if it means the Writing Craft books are pushed back into 2020. That's okay. I want to bundle all five of the Discovering / Think like a Pro Writer books as ebooks as well as put them into paperback form. The paperback form wasn't going to be possible until 2020, so I'll just combine those projects into one big focus.

Poor Edie Roones is just sitting there, hanging out, waiting for her turn. I have the Sansward four-part series to finish, with Spring Magicks. I have ideas but nothing written. That's on schedule for 2020 as well.

2019 Becomes 2020

I need to finish the Isabella Into Death series with Portrait with Death. That's M.A. Lee. Maybe it will happen in 2020, maybe not.

M.A. Lee has 14 novels (as well as 4 nonfiction books) under that pseudonym. Finishing the Into Death series will put that number at 15. Ideas are popping up for the next series already. Geez, brain, slow down a little.

I need to devote more writing time to Remi Black and Edie Roones. I have two novellas under Remi Black that I am desperate to write as well as the last 3 Alstera / Enclave books. I have more ideas for the Edie Roones pseudonym, remaining focused on Medieval--fantasy and mystery as separate lines.

When I look at 2020, I see so much that I want to write already, and this is not even an official plan!

Heavens, LIFE IS GOOD!

What I'm Reading Now: Essie Summers . . . Again

Season of Forgetfulness

I kept Essie Summers on my shelves when I trashed a lot of other Harlequins and HPresents and Mira and other similar books.

Summers inspired in me a desire to see New Zealand. She writes strong honorable heroes and spunky joyful heroines who have classic misunderstandings or hidden secrets or black sheep relatives who taint reputations far and wide (as Lizzie Bennett realizes her little sister has done in Pride and Prejudice).

The humor arises from situation, as it does in life. I can guarantee at least one good cry per book.  If you read a lot of Summers, the stories can get repetitive and some of the early editions had errors that can drop you out of the story. However, I recommend any of her books.

This is one of a broken heart healed, and Summers does that best.

Besides this I recommend ~ 
Not By Appointment
House on Gregor's Brae
Beyond the Foothills
One More River to Cross

If you tire of sex for no reason, a h/h you know won't stay together very long, long titles with babies or supposedly exotic heroes who are only arrogant spoiled brats, and a heroine who is a doormat because one event in a 24 hour day controls who she is, then Essie Summers is for you.

Here's a link:  it's not an affiliate link.