Blog Chain Blatherskite

Yes boys and girls, it's that time again. My highly intelligent, well educated and overly talented blog chain writer buddies are certainly showing they have a darker side this time around.

I LOVE IT!

This one was the brain-child of recently agented (congrats) Leah Clifford (http://leahclifford.livejournal.com). Elana J was before me (http://elanajohnson.blogspot.com/) and since I am the last link in this chain, start back at the beginning with Leah for her wrap-up!

Here's our question:

What do you do to amp up the conflict? What pins do you stick in the little voodoo dolls? How do you torture your characters?

In some of the previous responses, it seems my writerly friends are much nicer than I. Can you imagine NOT hurting your characters? Well, some did like their characters so much that it was hard to do for them.

Hurting my characters was a problem for me in the beginning, but not in the way you would think. I, uh, was going to kill almost all of my characters, leaving Margaret, the MC alone and miserable. In fact, I even had her death scene at the end planned. I imagined horrible deaths.

*Sword through the gut, but it would take a few hours to die...

*Beaten to a pulp with head bashed in, surprisingly quick death, but really gory scene...

*Horrible death giving birth all alone...

*Father dying slowly, gasping for breath, in excruciating pain from poison...

*Snapping of the neck, that was short and sweet and well deserved...

*Dying alone, old and weak...

My writing teacher told me in no uncertain terms, "You can't kill off all your main characters!"

"Oh yes I can. It's my book, and I can kill anybody I want."

"Then you will not be commercially viable."

"Who cares? I'm writing this for me! And I am killing everyone!!!"

Yeah. How many of you guys laughed? Who the hell doesn't want to be commercially viable? Needless to say, after a while (I don't like to admit when I'm wrong), I had to tell this wonderful teacher that he was right and I was wrong. That wasn't the only thing I had to admit to being wrong about. That poor man got several emails after the class had ended. I may hate to admit I'm wrong, but I will do it.

So, we have established that I do want to be commercially viable. That being said, my historical WIP became a Historical Romance and I did still kill off a few characters (only three). I also learned that I can follow a formula while writing (I had to take out some of my sex scenes...funny thing about fidelity in a romance, a rape scene...he got his neck snapped anyway, and I didn't entirely kill Patrick...he still got stabbed and I still got to write my almost death scene).

Okay, so I have to keep my dark side in check. I call it my "social filter" while functioning as a person in the real world.

How about you? How dark and evil are you really? How's that social filter?

Excerpt from Chapter 5 revisions

Okay, amid the ween and vajayjay comments on the last post, I did actually get chapter 5 done.

I have been rewriting my first half a dozen chapters or so, because they SUCKED. I am almost ready to tie back into what I originally wrote, which will hopefully make revisions go faster.

I decided that I would share an excerpt from this last chapter, so here it is...feel free to be honest if you see something that you think sucks or doesn't sound right.

Copyright 2008 Terri Rainer

Excerpt from The Crichton Heir (first kiss from our hero/heroine):

Stepping forward, Patrick kneeled next to Margaret. As he reached his hand out to feel for any sign of life, he watched her eyes fly open.

Margaret thought she must be dreaming. She knew she had drifted to sleep by the loch. She often dozed in the afternoon sun in her secluded retreat. What a sweet dream she was having. There above her he hovered, his eyes staring intently down at her from his tanned face. His hair was no longer restrained in his queue, but fell around his shoulders in dark waves.

Margaret reached out to stroke his face. She wrapped her hand into his hair and gently pulled him toward her, determined to kiss Sir Patrick Graham.

Patrick was powerless to resist. The feel of Margaret’s soft hand brushing his face and then tangling in his hair completely undid him. His body responded involuntarily. All he could think of was how sweet this angel would taste. Feeling like a man lost in the desert, coming upon an oasis, Patrick leaned down to drink greedily.

The moment their lips touched, Margaret felt her body respond in ways she could never have imagined. His lips were soft. She could feel his ragged breathing. A shock ran down her spine as she felt the warm firmness of his tongue. It slid across her lips, parting them. Tentatively, Margaret relaxed her lips, and moaned into Patrick’s mouth as her tongue twined with his. Patrick pressed his weight onto Margaret and she felt as though her whole body was on fire.

Margaret felt Patrick’s hand burn a path up her side and stop on her breast, slowly kneading it. Her senses had never been this alive before, so alive, that she froze. Her eyes flew open again and she pushed hard against Patrick’s chest, appalled that she had in fact not been dreaming.

When he fell backwards, she sat up and glared at him.
“How dare ye take advantage of me in such a way!” Margaret said, trying to catch her breath.

Patrick stared at her dumbfounded. He felt the heat rise into his face. Trying hard to keep his anger in check, he managed to growl, “I wasna the one who dragged you down on top of me, for the second time today, if ye will recall.”


Terri

Awa' An' Bile Yer Heid

Please don't ask me to pronounce this colorful, yet informative book title!

The good news here is that it is chocked full of some pretty colorful insults. The bad news is out of 178 pages, I'll probably only use a small handful.

That being said, I thought I would share some pretty cool (in my opinion of course) words from the glossary of insulting terms found on page 45 (for those following along).

**Hope I'm not infringing on any copyright laws, if so, it is unintentional!

clag-tail:un-wiped arse (my 12 year old son and his friend like this one the most)

dreik:excrement

numpty:idiot

plookie:pimple-faced

snash:abusive language

sumph:great fool

tumshie:idiot (literally, turnip)


Those are just a few listed, and I am sure I will be referring back to this book for quite some time as I work on revisions, and start on the next few books in the series.

That being said, I have been an absolute slug for three days. I have read 4 books, the afore mentioned insult book being the last.

The first three were a trilogy by Julia London. They, of course, were set in Scotland, although a few decades following my time period. The first two were nominated for a RITA in the historical romance category. As I read them, I found myself wondering just what the RWA looks for while making these nominations.

There was great character development, well defined plot, and sex. Plenty of it! In fact, my husband couldn't believe that I actually COMPLAINED about the amount. I think he thinks that I am some literature-based nympho. If that were the case, I would be reading/writing erotica INSTEAD of what I like to call "serious historical romance" (don't laugh).

I love a book with a good plot, and even some well thought out sub-plots. What I hate is the gratuitous sex that so many writers throw in. I actually start skimming when there are 5-6 page sex scenes, and that speaks volumes when you are as OCD about finishing a book (all of it) as I am. Alright already, I get it, they had hot, sweaty single sex (you remember? the sex we all had BEFORE we got married). It has NOTHING to do with developing the plot, at least after the first time.

So in order to be nominated for a RITA, I wondered, as I read, MUST you have LOTS of explicit sex scenes?

I can't WAIT to see some of the responses to this post!

Terri