Sharing My GMC Chart. Have You Done Yours?

Missy here. I’ve been thinking a lot about goal, motivation and conflict lately. Deb Dixon, of the popular GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict, will be doing a workshop in Atlanta in April, and I’m signed up to go. She does the best workshops and is a great teacher. For those who may not be familiar with the book, I thought I’d share a GMC chart I did for my upcoming June Steeple Hill Love Inspired, His Forever Love.

Let me say, first, that I do a sort of blend with Carolyn Greene’s Magic Conflict Chart (from her Prescription for Plotting Notebook). I start with a basic GMC from Deb’s book in my head. Then I fill out Carolyn’s chart. Since I have no idea how to actually post a chart here, I’ll just type each section. But please picture it as a chart. :)

First, a little backstory. My hero, Bill, is a brilliant physicist whose parents died when he was a child. He lived with his grandmother, and was always a sort of outcast geek. One person who was kind to him was Lindsay, the heroine. They became best friends and study partners. She was beautiful and popular. And he had a terrible crush on her growing up. When they got in high school, he fell in love. But she was clueless (of course!). And when she got engaged to someone else near graduation, Bill was devastated. He left right after graduation, moved on up to Boston where he was going to go to college, and had no more contact with her. And of course, she was devastated because her best friend left her. And he didn’t even come home after her fiancé left her standing at the alter.

So, here’s the chart for His Forever Love…

Bill—Internal
Need (gut level): 1. Family and a sense of home
2. To be accepted and fit in

Motivation: 1. His parents died, Lindsay fell in love with someone else, and now he’s wrapped up in his job so he has no social life.
2. Was outcast as a child

Obstacles: Work fills his time; the desire to achieve to prove himself; his family is far away in Georgia

Goal (misguided): To keep achieving and to attain the position of department head at the university (he’s accepted in the academic world)

Consider: No amount of success can fill the void for family, love and acceptance

Bill—External
Need (to gain or accomplish): Take care of his family (his grandmother)

Motivation (recent event): Granny fell and is at the hospital

Obstacles: Taking the best care of her would require giving up his career and moving home.

Goal: To bring her to Boston to live with him.

Story Question: Will Bill be able to go to Magnolia, GA, and successfully move Granny to Boston to live with him?


Lindsay—Internal
Need (gut level): To risk loving again (with someone she can depend on)

Motivation: Her mom died when she was a teen, her fiancé dumped her, and Bill (her best friend) deserted her.

Obstacles: She’s made herself so busy caring for others that she doesn’t have time for herself; plus, she’s scared to risk loving again.

Goal (misguided): To make everyone else safe and happy; to be indispensable

Consider: She can’t make everyone happy or always protect them. They may get tired of her interfering, anyway. Plus, she still won’t find the love she needs.

Lindsay—External
Need (to gain or accomplish): To start her new career and get it off the ground (a new community center with a program for kids with senior volunteers)

Motivation (recent event): She loves working with children and seniors. Plus, she enjoys Granny’s company (Bill’s grandmother is like a mother/grandmother to Lindsay)

Obstacles: Bill wants to take Granny away to Boston.

Goal: To convince Bill that Granny is okay on her own in her home.

Story Question: Will Lindsay convince Bill to leave Granny behind so they can launch the new community center program together?


What’s really cool is that you can take the story question from each character and come up with a sort of back cover blurb that can also make a great pitch for an editor or agent appointment. Here’s the one I came up with using my chart:

Will Bill move Granny to his Boston home and find the sense of family he’s been missing? Or will Lindsay persuade him to let Granny stay in Georgia where she and Granny are actively pursuing a community center ministry together?

While the two face off, he might fall in love with Lindsay all over again. But is Lindsay willing to take the risk?

Okay, have you done your GMC chart yet?

If not, here are links to the resources I used (and no, I have no connection and don’t get any of the proceeds!) :)

GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon

Carolyn Greene’s Prescription for Plotting Notebook

And here's a link to a post with the information on Deb's workshop if you're in the Atlanta area:

http://writingbyfaith.blogspot.com/2009/02/deb-dixon-workshop.html

Oh, and if you're interested in seeing how this chart plays out in the book, it's available for pre-order (and yes, I guess I would get a little of those proceeds eventually. :)) His Forever Love.

So I'll ask again... have you done your GMC chart yet??

Missy

http://www.missytippens.com/

Time Management - Not for the Faint of Heart

How about if we get this straight, right off the bat – every single other Seeker on this loop is more qualified than me to be offering advice on time management. No kidding. They are all amazing. So that said, let’s get going on How To Write A Novel In Your Spare Time : )

First of all, I can’t tell you how important it is to give God His piece of your time pie. You may have two hours, or you may have twenty minutes to write, it doesn’t matter. When I don’t thank God for the precious moments He’s carved out for me and seek His direction for my writing time, all I end up with is gobble-di-gook. I flit around from topic to topic, from task to task and find at the end of my time, I’ve accomplished nothing.

Nada.

Zilch.

Or at least nothing of my novel I’d care to share with anyone. Then I get frustrated with myself for not thinking things through, for not getting organized – oh wait, Organization is another installment of my Not for the Faint of Heart series, coming to this blog in a couple months, after I’ve found the spreadsheets and colored sticky notes : )

See what I mean? Attention span of a gnat. Definitely a gift of my Attention Deficit Disorder. So, all you ADD-ers, buck up! There is hope! If I can find a way to work in spite of myself, I know you can, too.

Scrap the notebook. I’ve been told to keep a notebook and pencil handy for all the brilliant ideas that pop into my mind at inopportune moments. Good advice for those who remember to take a notebook with them, then can find it when that moment strikes. Instead, I keep an arsenal of pens in my purse at all times and I don’t have to dig deep to find receipts or envelopes in my purse for those precious ah-ha moments. After I spread the ink, I either stuff them back into my purse, or write an email to myself when I get back to work. Works great, especially if I remember to clean out my purse : )

Learn to listen. Make yourself wait for the ideas to brew instead of throwing everything, including the watering trough, into your book. This leads to contrived plots. Just because I thought up this nifty disaster for my characters to overcome doesn’t mean it belongs in this book. I’m currently re-vamping a series that did well in contests, but garnered very little interest from editors. I’m starting at the beginning. I’m praying for guidance. I’m using the same characters and plot, but the methods those characters are using to resolve their problems is vastly different from my original version. God didn’t give you a Writer’s heart only to abandon you. The toughest lesson I’ve learned is to patiently wait on God to guide me. He’s doing an awesome job, too.

It’s okay to have a life. You know the ol’ story about stuffing 10 lbs of crumpled up paper into a single item McDonald’s bag? Story of my life. I was so focused on writing quantity, I lost track of quality. My little pea brain had the hardest time letting go of the notion that if I produce, someone is bound to buy it. I shut the door of my office on my family, my friends, even my dog. But you know what? Life is short. Kids grow up, parents grow old, relationships may whither. Don’t take a chance on it. Again, if God has called you to write, He will make His plans come to fruition in His time. I’m not saying let everything get into your lunch. I’m just saying learn to divvy out the hours of your day. From the time I get home from work through dinner, it’s family time. When everyone is settled in front of the TV, I go into my office, close the door and write for an hour. I’m focused, I’m relaxed, I’m inspired. If I stick to my method, often I creep out of my office in time to watch House. Ahh, life is good : )

These steps may help, or they may not. The important thing is to identify what the time issues are in your life. Quality is the lock; balance is the key. It’s not easy. Even though this system works for me, I still have old habits rearing their ugly heads. Do a GMC on yourself and your writing.

Think. Identify. Conquer.

Time can be your friend when both of you stand on common ground.

Blessing to everyone!
-audra

"Write Well, Write Fast"

Missy here. I recently attended the Moonlight & Magnolias conference in Atlanta, held by my local RWA chapter, Georgia Romance Writers. Two of the best workshops I attended were taught by author Stephanie Bond. One was called Write Well, Write Fast. The other, 5 Things About Your Career to Obsess Over. I thought I’d share a couple of the things she said that really spoke to me.

First off, I took the Write Well, Write Fast because, well, I don’t write fast, and when I do try to write anywhere close to fast, it doesn’t turn out very well. LOL

What I learned is that to write fast you have to spend the time to write a good synopsis. You have to plan ahead! (I know the pantsters out there are now throwing rotten tomatoes and are saying “boo hiss.”) Of course, I’ve always planned my characters and had at least scene ideas before starting to write. I usually work through Alicia Rasley’s The Story Within workbook and also fill out Carolyn Greene’s Magic Conflict Chart beforehand. But Stephanie’s workshop reinforced what I’ve been learning (selling on proposal, now), that I have to come up with a good synopsis beforehand, too. Key word: GOOD.

Bleck! I hate writing a synopsis!! I’m terrible at doing it before the book is written. (NO COMMENTS, RUTHY!)

[As a side note, to illustrate how close we Seekers are, I wish you should see the email Ruthy sent telling me, very tactfully, how awful my synopsis was—the one I had just sent to my editor! :)]

Okay, back on topic…Stephanie’s other workshop. 5 Things About Your Career To Obsess Over. (As opposed to all the things you can't control so should not obsess over.) I won’t share all the things she talked about, but I want to mention two that I think are related. 1. You can control who’s in your support system. 2. You can control your attitude.

I think positivity (It’s a word. I looked it up! :)) is important in both. Our support systems should be positive—not full of toxic, draining relationships. And we have to keep positive attitudes. Be the eternal optimist!

A Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote I love is:

In its essence, optimism is not an outlook on the present situation. Rather, it is a life-force, the power of hope when others give up, the power to hold one’s head high when everything appears to be falling apart, the power to endure setbacks, the power that never gives the future over to one’s opponent but lays claim to it.

Of course, we’re not faced with imprisonment and execution like Bonhoeffer. But we are faced with rejection and setbacks in our writing. We're faced with difficult times in our life that affect our writing. And I hope we can be optimists in the way we live our lives and run our writing careers.

Are you an optimist? What do you obsess over? Do you write fast? Do you write a synopsis beforehand?? :)

******
Stephanie is one of the most generous, business-savvy writers I know. And she's been a huge help to me. Here’s a link to her website page for writers: http://stephaniebond.com/writers'_articles.htm

Good news and what I learned from it

Camy here, with some great news! I just got another 3 book contract with Zondervan!

The books are not a series—they’re 3 stand alone titles. The first book is slated to release May 2010 and is tentatively titled The Year of the Dog (they’ll probably change it). It’s a women’s contemporary novel. Here’s the back cover blurb from my proposal:

Tessa Ota, a professional dog trainer, is having a bad year.

While moving ahead with renovation plans for her new dog kenneling and training facility, Tessa needs to move in with her disapproving mother and her antagonist sister. She convinces her ex-boyfriend to take her dog for a few months … but discovers that his brother is the irate engineer whose car she rammed a few weeks earlier.

Charles Bretton has enough problems. His mama has just shown up on his doorstep all the way from Louisiana, and his brother has to move in with him after being kicked out of his apartment—with a dog in tow. And guess who the dog’s owner is?

His brother’s slovenliness, Mama’s diabetic bouts with low blood sugar, and the dog’s bad behavior are all distracting Charles from his wedding plans with a woman whose family connections will help Charles in his career. But he can’t help being attracted to the dog trainer whose sunny smile masks her bitterness at hypocritical Christians, and he starts to wonder about his own professed faith.

Will Tessa’s disjointed family and Charles’s disruptive home prevent both of them from discovering what’s really important?

But my post today is not about my good news (although I hope you are all setting your calendars with a “buy Camy’s book” reminder in May of 2010!).

After I finished writing Single Sashimi in Fall of 2007, I asked my editor at Zondervan, “What do you want me to write next?”

She said, “I want a contemporary romance with a dog in it.”

Did I say, “No, I don’t want to write romance, I like writing chick lit.” or “No, I don’t feel like it”?

Of COURSE I’d write what she wanted. I’m not STUPID.

But here’s my point: Your muse is a myth. Get over it and write what you should write.

I am not saying to write to the trends, because they come and go too fast.

And I’m not saying to write what you don’t feel comfortable writing.

But I am saying that for writers to cling to their “muse” and what the “muse” is telling them to write is just plain dumb. And bad business practices.

There is no such thing as a muse. What there is are writers who target their energies toward writing good books. Period.

“You should write historicals.”
“You have a great historical voice.”
“No other historical writer writes that setting/time period.”
“Your historical books are better than your contemporaries.”

Are you going to listen to your “muse” who says that the “book of your heart” is a contemporary women’s fiction about your traumatic past, and only focus on that, or are you going to listen to peers and professionals who say you have a great historical voice?

Look at Ruthy. Tina dared her to write a non-women’s fiction novel, and it ended up winning the Tara contest.

Did Ruthy say, “No, I don’t write anything except Women’s Fiction”? Heck no. She said, “Sure, I take your dare,” and look what opportunities it opened for her!

The “book of my heart” is a fantasy epic novel hidden under my bed. Did I cling to my “muse” who said that fantasy is my favorite genre and I should only write it?

No. I wrote chick lit because I also like reading that. I wrote romantic suspense because I also like reading that. I stuck the “book of my heart” under my bed to play with the dust bunnies.

Bottom line: Be flexible. You will not survive in this business otherwise.

Contests are a great opportunity to experiment with different genres, different “brands” for yourself.

Be willing to try different things. Be willing to focus your energies on sound business decisions about what to write next.

Be willing to be willing.

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Her novel Single Sashimi is out now, and she runs the Story Sensei critique service. In her spare time, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels every Monday and Thursday, and she ponders frivolous things. Sign up for her newsletter YahooGroup for monthly giveways!

Word Pictures

This is the cover of Buffalo Gal, my sweet contemporary romance set in a buffalo ranch in the South Dakota Black Hills, coming this month from Heartsong Presents.
Find out more in the BOOKS section at http://www.maryconnealy.com/
The cover has nothing to do with this days blog it is just pasted in here as part of a totally shameless plug for my soon to be released sweet contemporary romance set in a buffalo ranch in South Dakota, titled, Buffalo Gals.

I've been playing around with this as an exersize in writing. See what you can do with it.
Take the first sentence (or the last) and shine it up. It actually can take a surprisingly long time, this revision thing, but it is absolutely WORTH IT.
In an action scene, to really make things MOVE it needs to be polished and mangled and reworded, cut, add, cut again.

Comedy may actually take MORE work than action.

This line below, the first one, could go funny, it could go furious, I picked my own way and it kind of surprised me the way I picked.

So go for it, if you've got the time.

1) “It’s my birthday," he said. "You should have brought me a card!”

2)The boy was angry at the mailman. He said, “It’s my birthday. You should have brought me a card!”

3) The ten-year-old boy shook his fist at the disappearing mailman. “It’s my birthday. You should have brought me a card.

4) “It’s my birthday!” The ten year old boy saw the empty mail box. Disappointed, he covered his sadness with anger and turned toward the disappearing pickup. Shaking his fist, he yelled at the mailman, “You should have brought me a card!”

5) Excited as he raced down his sloping front lawn, Jeffrey’s white blonde hair blew across his eyes in the cold fall breeze. He left behind the mouth watering scent of the chocolate birthday cake his mom always baked for him. Leaves scattered and crunched under his ragged white Nikes.
He got to the road only seconds after Mr. Sampson had driven away with the spitting sound of wheels on gravel. Jimmy slapped the front of his new blue jeans and red Cornhusker sweatshirt, now coated with dust. He’d put on his best play clothes because of the special day.
With a sharp creak of its rusty hinges, he pulled open the cold metal door of the mail box that was shaped like a green tractor and peeked in at…nothing…empty…Dad had forgotten…again.
He turned toward the disappearing black pickup. Tears bit at his eyes but he told himself it was the blowing dirt. His big brother would never let him forget it if he cried. Instead he narrowed his eyes and shook his fist at that nice old man.
“It’s my birthday!” His voice faded to a whisper as he walked toward the house, his shoulders slumped, his feet dragging. “You should have brought me a card.”

Describe using the five senses:
Seeing


Hearing


Smelling


Touching


Tasting


Feeling words in body language not in words. 'He was angry' is boring to a reader. Instead, his teeth clamped together and he glared.


Set the scene:
What’s his lawn look like?


His mail box?


What time of year is it?


Is he inside or outside?


Alone or with someone?

How does he feel? If you do it right, the reader will not only KNOW how he feels, they'll feel it too. They won't just know he's sad, they'll BE sad. --Mary Connealy

Snip-Snip-Trim! :-) Word Count-Bringin' it Down

I have a book due soon and am in the process of hacking four thousand words from it because, as usual, I'm over the word count parameters.

Then I remembered I had to post today. LOL!
So I started making notes as I went along. I'll pull examples from my books that will show ways I was able to drastically trim the text (2300 words in a couple hours) without having to strip threads from the book.

Some people figure the number of pages they have then do the math to see how many sentences per page they need to cut to get within publisher parameters. Sometimes I do that, but this time, I just started chopping.

I cut half the word count by simplifying sentences and cutting every unnecessary word.

Reason I'm posting this is because I know I can't be the only over-writer out there. LOL! Hopefully this will help you other wordy-birds to see ways you can trim text and salvage threads.

Examples of stuff I did:

=============================
Nolan grinned impishly with the giddiness of victory.
BECAME: The imp grinned with giddy victory.
--------
He held back
BECAME: He refrained
--------
She’d jump off the bridge before she would stoop to letting him know how badly he’d rattled her.
BECAME: She’d jump off the bridge before she’d let him know how badly he’d rattled her.
On second pass BECAME: She’d jump off the bridge before she’d broadcast how badly he’d rattled her.

(An example of how one stronger word can replace several weaker ones.) "Broadcast" replaced "let him know" which replaced "stooped to letting him know".
--------
Mooch ran past them across the room and started jumping up against the laundry room door over and over.
BECAME: Mooch bounded past and body slammed the door. Repeatedly. (Mooch is a dog by the way. LOL!)
--------
He stood to his feet. (Uh...as opposed to what? Standing to his elbows?)
BECAME: He stood.
--------
She lifted her arms in the air. (As opposed to where..the ground? LOL!)
Became: She lifted her arms.
Then Became: Her arms rose.
--------
Tears ran from her eyes and down her cheeks. (Or did they run from the room?) Sorry, couldn't resist. :-p
BECAME: Tears erupted.
--------
Nolan unfolded his arms and strode in looking very much like a warrior on a lethal mission.
BECAME: Arms unfolded, Nolan tanked in.

(Plus it gives us a stronger image. Warriors don't stroll. They march. Sneak. tank. Stronger, more defining word. Certainly didn't waltz)
--------
She always used to rub her arms when she’d get nervous or anxious about something.
BECAME: She always rubbed her arms when anxious.
--------
I also omitted nearly every nearly and just cut every just and slayed every so and trimmed every that that I could.

You can almost always nix every:
Nearly
That
So

There are lots of other disposable words.

Feel free to list ones I haven't in the comments so folks will know.
------
Another thing I did was use one strong word in place of two, three or even four weaker ones of the same meaning where I could. It not only shaved word count, it made the writing punchier.

Examples:

She lowered herself to the chair.
BECAME: She sat.
--
Long-held images came rushing back into his mind.
BECAME: Memories surged.
--
"I don't have any idea, Mandy."
BECAME: "No idea."

(See? You can even do this in dialogue to help differentiate characters' voices. Nolan tends to talk no-nonsense, short and clipped. Mandy tends to talk more formal-flowery and in more descriptive sentences.

=====================================

Thank goodness there's diversity in writing because we don't all have the same taste. But what do you do when you're over your word count or an editor or agent asks you to tighten up the writing? What does that mean to you?

Two easy ways are: cut wordiness and omit every unnecessary word. Be brutal! :-)


Those were a few random examples I culled out of a first draft chapter. These are just (<--unnecessary word) simply (<--nix that too!) examples of how you can bring word count down by simplifying sentences. You don't want your work to read like a drone or a robot though so it's good to vary sentence structure.


Now, time to share your trimming secrets. Please comment away.


Cheryl Wyatt



By the way . . . there are some banana bars on the counter. Hope you will help yourself to some.....and be sure to remember to keep your writing as tight as possible......

OR should that "just" be:

Banana bars are on the counter. Help yourself. And Pssst...Write Tight! :-)