Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 94
July 15, 2021
This is a Good Book Thursday, July 15, 2021
Last week when the internet went out (shudder) I was forced to read books printed on paper. Since the books on paper I kept were the ones I couldn’t get digitally, I found a lot of old favorites: Gilbert’s The Long Journey Home, Haskell’s Green as Spring, and a lot of my old Emma Lathen’s including Murder Without Icing. Yes, I know the Lathen books are on Amazon, but the new editions have somebody else’s name on them besides the Lathens (economic analyst Mary Jane Latsis and attorney Martha Henissart), so I just don’t. Bank Vice President John Putnam Thatcher never disappoints, even though his mass market paperbacks are all the color of weak tea now. (Latsis said, ““We decided on a banker because there is nothing on God’s earth a banker can’t get into” which is chilling but helpful if you need access to a lot of different crimes.)
What did you read this week?

July 14, 2021
Working Wednesday, July 14,2021
This week, I threw things out. Many, many things. I was Marie Kondo, Terminator. Once I got into it, it wasn’t hard, I just had to break through the “Won’t this be useful some day?” barrier and toss with gleeful abandon. Well, with abandon. Also worked on a Loki essay, an essay on expectation, and a crochet scarf, but the big news is ten garbage bags by the curb (three in the little dumpster) and more to come.
What did you work on this week?

July 13, 2021
How to Write a Synopsis and Rewrite a Plot
A friend of mine is in the same situation I am–stuck on a book–and she said what she really needed was an outline. So I revamped my old synopsis-writing outline, and now I’m thinking maybe I should try that on Nita again–believe me, I’ve outlined Nita’s discovery draft several times already–and maybe apply it to Anna, Nadine, and Alice. And since I’ve been neglecting Argh … do you want to write an outline? (I saw Frozen last night for the first time and the earworms are constant.)
Please remember, YOU ANALYZE AFTER THE DISCOVERY DRAFT, NOT BEFORE. Thank you.
OUTLINING FOR PLOT
Please note, I do this after the Discovery Draft is done or at least almost done.
PART ONE:
1. Who’s your protagonist?
2. What is her/his/their goal? (Must be specific and concrete, external, not internal.)
3. Who’s your antagonist?
4. What is her/his/ their goal? (Must be specific and concrete, external, not internal.)
PART TWO:
First Turning Point: CONFLICT STARTS, STABLE WORLD DESTROYED. What happens to the protagonist that destroys/interrupts the protagonist’s stable world and spurs her/him/them into action? (Doesn’t have to be a good stability, just something that the protagonist was coping with, and then THIS happens and propels her/him/them into the conflict/story.)
First Act (Leave this blank for now.)
Second Turning Point: STAKES RISE, CONFLICT GETS WORSE. An event/action that changes everything for the protagonist, points the story in a new direction. Also arcs character for protagonist, increases motivation for protagonist and antagonist.
Second Act (Leave this blank for now.)
Mid Turning Point: POINT OF NO RETURN. An event/action that changes everything for the protagonist again, this time radically, and points the story in a new direction. Arcs character for protagonist to the point where even if she/he/they tried to go back to where they were at the beginning, they couldn’t, they’ve changed too much, increases motivation for protagonist and antagonist.
Third Act: (Leave blank for now.)
Crisis Turning Point: EVERYTHING IS LOST. An event/action that is so devastating to the protagonist it should be a defeat, except that the protagonist cannot quit. Points the story in a new direction and arcs character for protagonist (trial by fire), increases motivation for protagonist and antagonist.
Fourth Act (Leave this blank for now.)
Climax Turning Point: FINAL BATTLE, aka Obligatory Scene. Protagonist and antagonist meet to settle conflict once and for all.
Denouement: NEW STABLE WORLD, Not the same stable world as in the beginning. Not an epilogue and no babies; just a short sigh space at the end to reassure the reader that everything is settled for the protagonist and answered.
PART THREE:
Now go back and write a one paragraph summary for the acts, which are the big blocks of content between the turning points. Each act description should begin “The protagonist does this,” probably in reaction to the turning point. Acts should almost be stories on their own since the turning points change the story, turning it in a new direction. Sometimes helpful: Title each act.
PART FOUR:
Now go back and read the outline from the beginning, smoothing it out into a two-page synopsis (or not, if you don’t need a synopsis). There’s your story map. Feel free to change it.
Divide your manuscript into four documents, ending in turning points (except for the first one which begins and ends with turning points and the last one which ends with the denouement), labeling them [Title] Act One, etc. (Example Nita Act One, Nita Act Two, Nita Act Three, Nita Act Four.).
For escalation purposes, each act doc should get shorter ao that the turning points come closer together and your pacing speeds up. Also, each turning point should be more dire, increasing the pressure on the protagonist and antagonist, raising the stakes. (I use roughly 33K/28K/24K/15K, but those are really rough numbers.)
Key thing to remember: The protagonist is always the subject of the first sentence in each of the ten parts of the synopsis.

July 12, 2021
Admin: Reply to Comment Notification
Salpy said she was no longer getting notified when someone replied to her comments. I’ve asked Mollie to look into it, and she wants to know when the notifications stopped; Salpy’s post was on the 10th. Did it start near the time the new post e-mails started?

July 11, 2021
Happiness is an Internet Miracle
I had a very bad Tuesday. And Wednesday. Thursday wasn’t great, either. There was a major storm (and one of my trees toppled into my neighbor’s driveway), my internet went out (but thank god my power didn’t), when I was in the storeroom trying to restart my modem and router, I heard dripping water in the kitchen and went to try to find the leak which was in none of the obvious places (thank god, I still had power), and then just as I was getting ready to crawl under the sink and find the damn leak so I could go fix the internet, the power went out. I gave up and went to bed, where Emily leaped up and meaning to sink her claws into the comforter to pull herself in, got my foot instead.
Twenty-six hours later, the power came back on (most of northern NJ had gone dark, so it took awhile, thank you very much line workers), my foot had stopped bleeding, and my neighbor said no problem he’d take care of the tree, but the internet was still out. Fixable, said my provider, just go to this website and follow the instructions. (There may have been swearing and shrieking at this point.). I spend all of Thursday driving to free WiFi (that would be MacDonald’s) and struggling with the website until I finally gave up at 9PM and just went to bed. At 2AM Friday I woke up, and I had internet.
It was a freaking miracle. (It’s 2:30 AM Friday as I type this, even though it’s going to post on Sunday. This is what I’m happiest about this week, that’s why.). OMG, I have internet again. Did you know you can’t get most of your Kindle books without internet? Yes, of course, that makes sense, but I never thought about it before. And those random questions that pop up during the day that you can just google for? Not to mention banking and posting blog content and comments and e-mail. It was a damn wasteland here.
But now I have internet. And I’m so happy.
What made you happy this week?

July 9, 2021
Catching Up
I’ve been without internet for about three days (yes, it was hell) so I’m trying to catch up now.
Mollie changed a provider we had, so anybody who signed up to get notifications of new posts, they’ll look different.
I am very far behind in the comments–THREE DAYS, PEOPLE–so if you had a question that didn’t get answered while I was at MacDonald’s scarfing their Wifi, please ask again.
I just realized one of my favorite romances used smirked incorrectly. Damn it. Still one of my faves, though.
I am contemplating potstickers from my freezer. The power was out for twenty-six hours, so technically I should throw everything in there out. If you don’t hear from me again, it was the potstickers.
Edited to Add at 5:30AM: TWELVE PAGES OF COMMENTS. And still no potstickers. Life is harsh.

July 8, 2021
This is a Good Book Thursday, June 8, 2021
Remember how some of you said you didn’t like it that Nita was drunk in the first scene? I think you were right. I just read a book where the protagonist kept getting drunk and doing something stupid and it was a DNR, although part of that was because the hero was an asshat. I flipped to the end to see if they got any better and there were TWO babies. Just no. On the other hand, Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On was interesting, high school magic fantasy with interesting characters, and Rowell is a good writer who knows what the words she uses mean, so it was fun to read. It had too many points of view . . . yes, that’s another mistake I’ve made in the past . . . but good story. And I reread Network Effect because it’s such a palette palate cleanser after too many sentences like “What . . . allows you to depict who I can and can’t have in my bed?” I mean, what the hell?
Grumble. Grumble. Get off of my lawn.
What did you read this week?

July 7, 2021
Working Wednesday, June 7, 2021
I’ve been reading a lot of BookBub romances, trying to figure out how romance has changed in the last ten years. If you think that’s not work, you haven’t read a lot of romance lately. (Oh, wait, look who I’m talking to. Of course you’ve read a lot of romance lately.). I’ve found some really good authors, but I’ve also found some (that shall not be named) who use words they don’t know the meaning of (like smart. Or depict) which is just sloppy as all hell. It’s like a carpenter who keeps trying to hammer in screws. Learn the tools of your trade. And then there are all the green eyes. Blue eyes must be so twentieth century. What is it with eye color anyway? I’ve known Krissie for thirty years and I’m not sure what color her eyes are. Blue? I think my daughter’s are hazel. The only person whose eye color I ever noticed was Paul Newman, but I think his glowed in the dark. Where was I? Right, I’ve been researching twenty-first century romance novels.
What did you do this week?

July 4, 2021
Happiness is Not Living in an Oven
Temps are going up again next week–but only briefly into the 90s, so there’s that–but for right now, it’s wonderful. Rainy but wonderful. The dogs have stopped panting, I’ve turned the fan off, and life is good.
Also, Americans, please stop setting off those damn firecrackers. Did the Founding Fathers have firecrackers on July 4? No, no they did not. The damn things are bad for animals, humans, insects, and life in general. If you must light something, try a sparkler, but for god’s sake don’t drop it. (In case you can’t tell, the American Fourth is not my favorite holiday. I like Halloween. And the Day of the Dead. The day after Valentine’s Day often makes me happy, too: candy sales. Otherwise, no.)
Bah humbug.
What made you happy this week?

July 1, 2021
This is a Good Book Thursday, July 1, 2021
I’ve been re-reading The Book of Firsts, trying to figure out what makes it such a good romance and not erotica despite the nearly sixty sex scenes (by the author’s count).
What did you read this week?
