Designing characters

 Flicking through one of my notebooks this morning and found this:

Bad storytelling: 

lack of progression; false motivation; redundant characters; empty subtext .

They all result in bland, boring text. So says Robert McKee in his book STORY published in 1999 and I wouldn't dare disagree with him. Why would I? what he says is true.

Designing a story: 75% of the work goes into deciding who are the characters; what do they want; how do they go about getting it; what stops them; what are the consequences. 

I don't spend long enough on designing. I'm always so keen to get going, to start writing my characters and get into the story. Maybe I should have spent longer on the  consequences of ignoring good advice.

Romantic problems

Still the arguments rage over romance and its literary worthiness. For anyone who wants to follow it up, here's the link. Academic conferences are discussing it now!

I think it is damned difficult to write an interesting and well motivated romance. I keep changing my hero's motivation, or rather the childhood influences that have made him what he is and subconsciously guide his choices as an adult. Some things work, some things don't. When I first started this book on holiday in France about four years ago, I thought of it as a fun exercise, but now I think it is going to prove one of those "difficult" books. I wanted ghosts racketing around the old mill, but I didn't want frightening ghosts since it was primarily to be a romance. But if ghosts aren't frightening, what are they?

You see my problem? I have now - at last - constructed a scenario of conflict and I shall stick to it. No more deviations or this story goes out of the window. I'm starting to get just a tiny bit bored with it, so either it "works" in the next few sessions or that's it - over and onto the next, fresh story. I wonder what it will be?

All work and no play

All work and no play at the moment, so I'm a very dull person.

I am working hard on editing KT and doing it carefully so as to increase pace. Some subtle plot twists are going in too, minor things, but important. Motivation, where it is lacking, I am firming up. It takes a lot of concentration. Writing first drafts is so much easier!

A kind friend loaned me a copy of Writing Romance by Vanessa Grant and I wish I'd read this before I tried to write for Mills & Boon! So much became clear as I huffed and puffed my way through. My reading was full of little light bulb moments as things I thought I'd understood became clear at last. It explained pacing, too.

I want to get this draft finished and sent off before Easter, and I should manage that. If I work hard and concentrate.

The picture is of All Saints church on Akenside Hill, taken from the Quayside. The body of the church is circular in shape, which is rather unusual. It was built 1786-96 to replace a medieval church on the site which dated from the 1200s. Deconsecrated in 1961 it was converted to offices and auditorium in 1983-84. I don't know what is happening to it at the moment, but it had scaffording around it not so long ago. I can sense another walk in the offing...