This is the simplest aspect of plotting. And one, oddly, I have great difficulty with.

Essentially, the elements are (for romance):
1. Hero
2. Heroine
3. A scenario that puts them together, that also drives them apart.
4. Goals, conflict and motivation -- which is not relevant to what I'm trying to talk about right now.

Let's look at a simple plot. Because I want to expand on this while I talk about the other two plotting aspects, I'm going to go with a paranormal plot.

So. Let's create our characters.

1. Our heroine is a thrill-seeker, but has absolutely no belief in anything paranormal.
2. Our hero is a ghost, killed in the victorian era by his wife.

And our setting: A group of friends have dared our heroine to join them in an attempt to stay in a haunted house overnight.

And the little details necessary to accomplish the storyline:
a. Our heroine has been having dreams about a handsome man who -- let's just say he has a body and knows how to use it.
b. Our hero has major trust issues (obviously) with women. But he wants to escape his damnation and confinement to this house where he died.

So. The simple plot is:
Our heroine must overcome her disbelief in the supernatural. Our hero must overcome his trust issues. When they can do this, and they admit to being in love, he will have his freedom -- to live again. Thus our Happy Ever After, a necessary romance element.

Simple. All one has to do is craft encounters in the haunted house and walah! The simple plot is achieved.

There are authors (like me) who find the simple plot far too boring to go that route. So tomorrow, we'll complicate it a bit.

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

I know I said we'd discuss heroines, but... well... that was a month ago. Much to my chagrin, I have been otherwise engaged. Namely in exploring and developing a plot line.

And that is where my brain is tonight.

As I wrapped up the last of a new paranormal romance, (very yummy), it occured to me I was short words. Which put me back into the scope of developing a sub-plot, only I have a resistance right now to extensive sub-plotting.

Don't get me wrong, I love sub-plots. But, I've been engrossed in completing a fantasy series with an epic sub-plot/plot and the last book is killing me. Not the romance part, but here's the part where the series ends. Therefore all the outstanding issues MUST be resolved. And they are so specific, that there's not a lot of room for letting the muse take over and just "going with the flow".

So, confronted with the need for words that didn't exist, I delved back into plotting. Plot-lines are tricky little buggers. You can't just insert things as you feel the need. In this case, I needed four additional scenes, but didn't want to get into anything that left too much hanging. Something mild is what I was after. But how?

Well, I discovered a nifty little trick that I -- the woman who gets out Excel spreadsheets and plots down to minute details -- am fascinated with. :Gasp: A sub-plot does not have to be complex!

It just has to exist.

Which means, when one is short on words, as long as the overall scope is touched on, there doesn't have to be significant name-dropping. Just enough "curiosity".

Which also led to my first attempt at creating a sub-plot that didn't particularly look like a sub-plot. Meaning, its entirely possible to create a sub-plot that no one knows about, adds character to the story, opens the possibility there may be more, but doesn't cement the book into later sequels.

For this week, I'm going to delve into this more. My plans are to cover basic plot approach, simple sub-plot, and complex sub-plot.

Come and join in on the fun! If you have comments or questions, I'd love to hear them.

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

What makes a heroine likeable?

We spend so much time developing heroes, taking classes on developing heroes, making sure our heroes are not just likeable, but loveable, that it often seems the heroine is secondary to the story-writing process.

I think in many ways this is because the majority of romance authors are women, and we all have a set of predetermined ideals of what we, as women, would like to be. A utopian vision, so to speak.

This isn't to say that every one of our heroine's is some great metamorphasis of what we see ourselves as, or how we'd like to see ourselves. It can be aspects of our personalities.

For instance. There are days I wish I had the grace and poise of Miss Melly from Gone With the Wind. Normally when I recognize I'm on a particularly Scarlett day.

Other days I'd like to have the drive and determination of Renee Zelwiger's (oh I can't spell her name) character from Cold Mountain.

On still other days I'd like to have the hardened, "I can handle anything", approach of Diva from NCIS.

And every once in a while I'd like to possess the sultry attitude and mannerisms of Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment.

It's fairly easy to look at these characters and see where we, the author, lack those personality types. Because we don't have to change our total way of thinking, writing female characters often comes easier. If you are a natural Miss Melly, you know how you need to react to be Diva. If you're Bridget Jones, you know what you'd need to do to become Rose from Titanic. If the author is a natural Elizabeth (Queen), perhaps the author has even, at some point in life, wished "Man, I wish I could come up with witty things to say on the fly like that gal in Cold Mountain but my position forbids it."

Where one might get tongue-tied and or held up by propriety or circumstance in the real world, on paper you can take as many hours as you want to come up with the right, witty comment. You don't have 2 seconds to have a natural smart retort. If you're inclined the opposite way, on paper you can take days to temper your character into a Miss Melly when you think your hero has cheated.

Anyway... this is a start. We'll look at heroine's this week, and we'll start with the Miss Melly personality -- what makes her a success, how her faults can be detrimental to a plot, and how to overcome what many might say are weaknesses, to make her a loveable, unforgettable, character.

~Claire

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Book trailer now available for Seduction's Stakes.



~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Well, so far this year, I have accomplished:

a. Release date for Seduction's Stakes
b. Wrote and Sold All I Want For Christmas... Is Big Blue Eyes
c. Finished book5 in my Fantasy Series, which I don't tend to mention much as it is not a sold series yet, but it too shall be soon. I just need to choose which way to pursue it.

d. Critiques. Critiques. Critiques.

Anyway, I came in here tonight to discuss said Fantasy book that I've labored over this month.

For the first time since I can remember, I chose to write about a virginal heroine in this book. And let me tell you... I never realized they could be so much FUN! Combine that with a completely alpha male, and whoo-boy. Sparks were flying from the get go. While I struggled with this book, because of some personal things, I had a blast writing it. However, I have to wonder if I can recreate the "atmosphere" in a contemporary work. Largely because, in the fantasy setting it's historical and my alpha hero can get away with some things that a modern man couldn't, or wouldn't choose to do when faced with certain circumstances.

As I move forward, in March I start my next contemporary. I am going to have to give this some thought, because some of those interactions were things that really impressed me. I need to see if I can work through some of these things and incorporate it in my contemporary writing too.

Anyway -- hence the silence. I realized I was running behind schedule and dropped all things to finish up the book.

Claire

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Drifting away from heros for a moment, I'm feeling introspective and sentimental tonight. I'd like to offer a quote from The Trailer Choir's What Would You Say?

"What if the moment came and
you knew your life was down to minutes
ladders flame was all you had to see
and you found a pen and torn up piece of paper
and a note was all you could leave"

"What would you say
in the lines on a page from the life that you made
could you write it with no regrets
would you know in yourself you gave somebody else
all the love that you had inside
right down to your last prayer"

As authors, our jobs are to make impacts on our readers. When I read these stanzas, I'm left with a significant emotional impact. It's not the words, it's the implication behind them. I know how I would answer, I know how each of my characters would answer -- both before the story begins, and when the story concludes. I know who has the "better" response too.

But if 2 verses from a song can leave a listener with an emotional impact, when a reader closes your book after that last sentence, have you left them with the same feeling? Have you made your story unforgettable? Do you know what they would say if they listened to this song? Did they give all the love they have inside? Would they die without regrets?

Make sure, when you type in that last chapter, you leave your reader with an unforgettable, emotional experience and a love that no one could ever feel regret over.

And so I turn the question to you...

What would you say?

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com