Anna DeStefano's Blog, page 37

How We Write Wednesday: External Conflict–Lock and Load

Jenni's going to explain the Conflict Box over on her blog today. HoWW is all about plot this month, and it's time to get serious about the external conflict that drives story and our critiques. And unless you lock and load the your protagonist's central goal and what stops him/her from achieving that goal, your plot won't believably propel the protagonist or the reader through the story.

You can tell from Jenni's and my last two posts, that plot isn't my drafting happy place. Character is. But, as I'll be teaching once again this weekend with the Central New York Romance Writers Mini-Con, character IS plot. Your two lead characters (the protagonist and antagonist) must have external goals that are in conflict with each other, in every scene/chapter/act of the story, or you're not crafting characters that will drive each other to grow and change on the page. And, the part I like best, those external goals and conflicts must derive from who these people are as characters BEFORE you create the on-the-page situations and obstacles that get in the characters way.

A hard and fast rule: the protagonist's goal must drive the antagonist's conflict in your story, and vice versa. Think of it in revers–if the antagonist of your novel isn't complicating your protagonist's race to achieve his goal, you don't have much of a story, right? No matter how beautifully drawn your characters are, you won't have the core external conflict that will keep a reader turning pages to see what happens next.

Let me give you a quick example of what "locked and loaded" external conflict lock can look like, then I'm sending you over to Jenni's blog for today's full-on how-to stuff.

Here's the conflict lock in a contemporary romance proposal I'm currently wrapping up for my agent (keep in mind that in a romance, the hero and heroine are each other's antagonist–in the romance arc itself, they must drive the external conflict in the other's world, or the spine of your novel falls apart):

The hero's goal is to quickly take care of the situation that's brought him back his hometown after 10 years, so he can leave again before he gets too attached and once more hurts the people he cares about. His conflict: the situation at home quickly escalates, complicating his plans. Leaving town quickly becomes the fastest way to hurt those he cares about.

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The heroine's goal is to be independent and self-reliant, so she can secure the future her daughter deserves.  Her conflict: her obsession with self-reliance (and her ex-husband's manipulations) cause complications that put her and her daughter's future together at risk.

Sounds pretty simple, right? The protagonist and antagonists (hero and heroine, in this example) can't have what they want, the way the want it, without getting in their own way. Things are getting complicated. But that's not necessarily conflict lock for the story–unless they're getting in EACH OTHER's way. So, let's see:

Is the heroine getting in the way of the hero achieving his goal? He can't take charge of things and get the heck out of dodge quickly, not solving her problems at least, because she's obsessed with being independent and self-reliant and fighting him every step of the way. Sounds like a lock to me. Check!

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Is the hero getting in the way of the heroine achieving her goal? She keeps trying to do for herself and her child, but he keeps adding to the mess her ex is causing, because the hero refuses to sit on the sidelines and watch her go down swinging, and he won't stop and listen to her long enough to understand what she really needs. Another excellent source of escalating, external story conflict. Check. Check!!

Exactly what does all this really mean, and how do you do it for your current/next story? I'm leaving those juicy details to Jenny today. She'll show you a snazzy "conflict box" and use super fun examples from Miss Congeniality. So go on over and tell her how brilliant she is.

Then come back next week, and listen to me whine about what happens when you  DON'T lock and load your external goals and conflict before you start drafting a story. Most likely, I'll get around to talking about how all this helps you draw more deeply defined and realistic charactes, too…

Just to recap or HoWW Plot Journey lessons before today, don't miss our:

Intro to the importance of Narrative Structure: Even the Best Characters Need a Plot
A closer look at how hard this can be for a character-driven writer: Plot THIS…

And the Character (and critique/brainstorming) Posts we spotlighted in February:

Mining for motivation
Layering motivation into plot
The Character Chart
Making characters realistic YOUR way
Character is just the beginning

Remember, How We Write is a series where we spotlight the complexity of writing a novel and the value of quality critiquing, planning and revision. Read between the lines of these and other HoWW posts and see that while this whole novel thing might be harder than you first thought, you CAN do this. Don't give up on your own projects. Don't be disappointed if what you've learned already isn't enough and you need to dig deeper into your process and your story and characters to make your WIP work. Don't forget that we're all learning and trying to make that next story better.

We love to hear your thoughts! Hundreds of you are stopping by each week. When you see something interesting or have a question, leave us a comment and we'll do our best to get you an answer ;o)

Things My Teenager Says: Speaking Wookie

"Wake up," I say to my son from the front passenger seat of our SUV, about 10 hours into a 16-hr drive to New York that we started the night before so we could drive the bulk of it when it's dark outside and there are fewer cars on the road.

This is six or seven years ago. He's stayed up playing video games with the friend who's come with us for the trip, and even though it's eight in the morning he's still out of it.

"Wahgrmphwhmgh," he says, or something like that.

"Hey, man," his friend says. He's actually the son of close family friends. He's like the older brother my son's always wanted. "Wake up. I want waffles."

"I need a Diet Coke," I add. We've been trying to get him up for five minutes. Considering he doesn't need much sleep, it takes nothing short of a nuclear blast to get him up and going in the morning, even now, six years later. "You don't want to be the one who keeps Mom from her Diet Coke, do you?"

"Grryahgghmfph," he mumbles next.

My husband snores from the driver seat next to me. Good thing we're already parked in front of a Waffle House, huh?

"Come on man," our friend says, "no one here speaks Wookie. Wake up!'

I can't hold in my snicker.

"Speaks what?" I ask.

"Wahgrmphwhmgh," our young friend repeats, a dead ringer for the not-quite-awake sounds that have been coming from my kid for the last five minutes. Then he gives us that teenage boy smile that's a preview of how charming our nine-year-old will one day be. "You know–Wookie."

My semi-conscious husband who's been driving for ten hours chokes, then begins to chuckle from the driver's seat.

I'm laughing so hard before long there are tears streaming down my face.

Then my son, who's supposed to be dead to the world, starts giggling–he was still young enough then to giggle, and I wish I'd taken more video of it, it's such an addictive sound.

Our friend shoves my son in the shoulder, still grinning, and before long we're all rolling out of the SUV and into Waffle House, scruffy and crusty and happy instead of annoyed. In short, looking just like everyone else in the place at 8 o'clock on a Saturday morning.

Our next hurdle, getting my then-nine-year-old to order for himself, so he'll actually eat something before we shove him back into the car for the rest of the trip. He won't be groggy and just waking up for long. And we all know he's crankier when he's hungry than I am Diet Coke deprived. The boy needs some food in him, for all our sakes.

But when the waitress gets to him, he's head's propped on his hand and his eyes are closed again.

"What do you want?" I ask.

"Wafflgrhmphszzz…" he says, or something like that.

I look to his friend for translation.

"Waffle?" He shrugs. "That would be my guess."

He's grinning again.

"What language was that?" my husband asks after the waitress leaves to call out our order to the cook manning the grill.

"Cookie monster?" our young friend says, and then we're all laughing again.

 

"Cookieeeee," we say in unison.

My son's head falls off his hand, jerking as he wakes up to the sound of the rest of us embarrassing him in a Waffle House, which I assure you takes some doing since everyone else eating there is still half asleep themselves.

"What's wrong with you people?" he asks, wiping his eyes.

I LOVE road trips!

The Psychic Realm: Good (sort of) vs Evil

A great comment came in last week–that the lead characters in Inception were merely a band of thugs raping people's minds to get what they wanted. The commenter poses an interesting question:  Is doing something wrong ever right, because you believe it's the only viable choice? 

It's the EXACT moral (psychic) delima that was the original idea for my Legacy series.I wanted realistic lead characters facing complex delimas for which there are no easy resloution. Because even good people make bad choices sometimes. I'm not sure Inception's creators were going for the same thing, but there are parallels, nonetheless. 

I've started a conversatin about this very thing, BTW, over on Kindle Boards, so stop by and chat a bit out there, too.

What's your take?Not just about either Inception or the Legacy books–though they offer a great framework for the topic. What are you looking for in a book that explores the epic dynamic of good vs. evil, only the good guys are not all that good and the bad guys are doing what they're doing for causes they find just (they're true believers).

In the Psychic Realm, Dark Legacy and Secret Legacy's world, there are no hard and fast heroes: not even the protagonists of each book, Maddie and Sarah Temple. 

Maddie's a doctor. Her calling is to save people the way she couldn't her family, except she spends the length of the book resisting the "evil" Legacy (the calling) that will psychically enable her to save her psychotic sister, her mother, and the world at large from the scientists manipulating her mind and powers.

Sarah Temple, once she's free of the Center of scientists experimenting on her, is torn between saving a lost child no one else believes the Center has moved on to, and saving the Psychic Realm and the world itself from the child's deadly powers. For both sisters, no matter what they choose, they're risking someone being hurt. Someone will see their actions as wrong. They'll be someone's villain, regardless.

I love crafting "anti-hero" situations because they reveal true character, motivation and flaws as we watch the characters chose and act. But these types of stories don't always satisfy the reader looking for a black and white world.

I could go on and on about the "patriotic" Center scientists who think the psychic "raping" they're experimenting with is essential to maintain the balance of world power. Or the Brotherhood of Watchers observing all this and only intervening when they perceive that a Legacy is becoming a threat to the Psychic Realm. Neither are innocent of the damage done in both Dark Legacy and Secret Legacy. Neither think they're in the wrong.

But I want to more about what you think!

What blows your mind (in both good ways and bad)?

 

I'm pushing the envelope even more in the new Legacy proposals I'm writing. I'd love to hear what you crave, what you can't stand, where your limits are, and whether or not you can fall for and identify with an anti-hero making tough choices for good reasons and with conviction, even though his/her actions aren't traditionally heroic.

What are your fiction "must haves" when an author poses these types of moral dilemmas?

The Psychic Realm: Dark Inception

I get a lot of emails asking to know more about how my Legacy Series is similar to the popular movie Inception.My first thought when this happens is that Dark Legacy sold and was published long before  the movie–so why isn't everyone asking how Inception is similar to my popular Legacy Series of novels?

Of course I love to hear everyone's thoughts–even those who dig the  movie more ;o) So keep emailing. But it's especially cool to get feedback from those who've seen the movie AND read the first book. I'm dying to know more about what you think about Secret Legacy, which is FINALLY out in May. So, here's a place to leave those comments. Let 'er rip!

I'll give you some highlights to work from–the cool things in both Inception and Dark and Secret Legacy that you're not seeing out there an anything else right now.

Dream Theory

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People can't get enough of the parapsychology and metaphysics behind the movie and my Legacy novels.Including me! I'm currently reading books on particle physics as I work on proposals for new Legacy family (and what I'll be pitching for books 3 – 5). It's technical stuff that a new sci-fi/fantasy audience will dig while others might find it to much. But the thing about Inception and the Legacy series is that everyone who's seen and read them thinks is–Cool! Even people who think the premise of both is too fast paced and complicated, are fascinated with the dream theory and the frantic speed of the the scenes that give us amazing images to explain just our sleeping minds work.

I've done posts on lucid and shared dreaming, so go check them out. These are real phenomenon that scientists research. They're both also things I've personally experienced. I HAD to write about them, much like the creators of Inception.

Though I've never had psychotic psychic experience any more that the movie's writers, I suspect, have found themselves so immersed in dreaming they can't be completely sure whether they've ever made their way out or not. We have no way of knowing if the government is experimenting with psychically altering our minds and waking behavior through our dreams…but isn't it cool (and creepy) to wonder???

Setting

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Inception takes a more linear, architectural approach to dream imagery and symbols. The characters in the movie are also, for the most part, in more control of what they're seeing in their dreams than my Legacy twins. The vividness of the Leagacy series' back drops lends itself more to fantasy–symbolism and imagery, especially dealing with color and animal totems and the common dream paradigms of running and falling and drowning and searching through tunnels and mazes and doors.

I create a puzzle in the novels, a mystery amidst the thrilling, frantic action, that the reader's turning pages to solve no matter how confusing a scene might be. Inception's done the same thing with their setting–using it as almost an additional character that draws viewers in and keeps them riveted, whether they fully understand what's going on in the current dream or not.

The settings are the best parts of both journies, IMHO.

Layers

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Repetition isn't usually something you're looking for in a movie or a book. But in a movie or book about dreaming, it's essential. Because dreams create and recreate themselves and the dreamer's sleeping reality by drilling down through layers of conscious and subconscious thought. They repeat, even if we don't remember them doing it. ESPECIALLY, in the case of the movie and books, because we don't remember them.

In both Inception and the Legacy series, scientists are counting on dreamers NOT remembering their programming. The writers are using actual dream theory to explain why they don't–and why the dream experts infiltrating others' sleep can't always be sure they're in reality, either.

These layers and the repetition of them frustrate someone not looking for as much of a fantasy escape as you get in the movie and books. But for the viewer and reader who want to know more about the cutting edge of a thrilling science that tries to explain the more fantastical, secret parts of our minds… The ride is one of the coolest they've ever taken ;o)

Wow!

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It's totally the WOW! factor for most people who dig this kind of experience. That's what I hear over and over from Legacy Series readers and from Inception fans.

You don't mind being confused, it's part of the fun. You don't mind the race for answers that don't come until the very end, and even then you're still not completely sure what's going to happen next, because you live to hang on the edges of your seats. You are dying for more, even when the movie or books are over, because…Wow!

It's thrilling to see this stuff play out on the screen or in a book. It makes you wonder–could that really happen? It makes you dream up ideas and stories of your own, because your own creativity had been fully engaged in what you've just seen and read. Your imagination's become part of the story, EXACTLY the way it does in your very own dreams…

So, if you're hooked on this kind of stuff, even though others have found the experience frustrating and confusing, you're in good company. And I'm thrilled that there's such a strong audience for the kind of contemporary fantasy I love to write. Yes, my series came before Inception ;o) But so many new fans are finding me now because of the parallels between the movie and my fiction.

If it means a new audience discovers Dark Legacy and Secret Legacy, and that I get to write further into the series as I craft three more books about a new legacy family with even more cool metaphysical gifts… Wow!

How We Write Wednesdays: Plot THIS…

Jenni's talking process this month, as we teach a blog series on plot. I sharing details from a critique she did for my soon-to-be-released Secret Legacy. She did the narrative structure  tap dance last Wednesday. Today, let's get into what I did when her "I am a plotting maniac" analysis assured me that I had no plot at all…

I just gave a workshop on the importance of planning. For those who are new to HoWW  because you heard my lecture last weekend and thought you'd pop over and see what all the fuss was about, let me fess up. I began writing Secret Legacy before a medical crisis, stopped a month in (for several months) while I dealt with surgery and the fall out, then took up the drafting again mid-recovery (when in fact my health was getting worse, not better). Which is my excuse for having NO PLAN (other than my intuitive understanding of of characters I'd written in Dark Legacy and the overall series and story arc I wanted to tell). I was drafting blind, which is how I know for certain, when I teach, that my students don't ever want to be where I was when I asked Jenni to read the ugly first draft because I knew it was way off. 

I knew my characters and everything about what I wanted them to feel. I was feeling everything with them. I had 300 pages of feeling that was the best, most accessible emotion I've ever put on the page (did I mention I was a mess when I wrote the first draft???). I'd written, I kid you not, the dead-on, most amazing ending I've every pulled together, that resolved issues I'd written about for two books, leaving the door open for a sprawling series I hope to be writing into for years to come.

But, as Jenni pointed out last spring and in her last post, I had absolutely no plot reason for my principle characters to be emoting all over the reader or each other in key places in the book. Which I knew. But my solutions alone were running toward quitting writing all together, because what was the point anymore, blah, blah blah… Which is a good sign it's time to bring in the heavy artillery and own up to your misery with your critique partner.

Sarah Temple and Richard Metting were battling waking nightmares, participating in dangerous reconnaissance missions, experiencing mental breakdowns, and there was lots of yummy relationship drama, plus infighting within the brotherhood of watchers trying to stop a league of government scientists weaponizing daydreams… Great stuff!

But according to Jenni, all these people were, more often than not, wandering around aimlessly with no over-arcing purpose for doing the things they were doing from one scene to the next. And she was right. My story was missing chunks of its external spine.

My book was exactly as I'd envisioned it to that point–all emotion and imagery and not much else. Until Jenni's critique, my brain had been too full of what I'd just been through personally to focus on much else.

My characters where being shortchanged in each scene by my indecision about plot. I was missing the turning points that would convince readers that my characters' behavior and decisions SHOULD spin in the new directions I'd crafted into into key parts of the book. In short, I had my WHY, but I my HOW was way underdeveloped.

I added several very specific changes, all external, that brought these confusing scenes to life for Jenni, my agent and editor, and hopefully the readers that buy Secret Legacy. I'm not giving away any spoilers, but let me try to summarize what I did and why.

Keep in mind that this was a total manuscript rewrite, not a quick fix–so when I suggest to you the next time we're in a workshop that you be brave enough to do the same when necessary, you'll know I feel your pain ;o) :

I added a tangible choice to Sarah's midpoint that propelled her into the next series of scenes, where she and Richard Metting unite as a true team for the first time. I'd missed giving her the specific set up and choice that forces her to own everything she's learned up to the middle of the story, and sets her up to achieve her goal in the second half–or she'll be unable to succeed when faced with the final challenge at the black moment.

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Without this "tent pole" to hold up the middle, everything I'd driven into the momentum of the story before this point doesn't get its pay off. And what takes over beyond the midpoint is either too similar to the earlier scenes, or seems totally out of place (which was Jenni's concern).

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In short, I'd forgotten that a character must chose to be who she's going to be in the second half of the book, or she'll fail on her overall story goal (OR, she never had a real conflict to begin with). And, at the midpoint, she must still be ill-equipped to become the person she chooses to become. The second half of the book is her journey in a new (more clear) direction, taking the breathless reader to the final external conflict that shows all of us that the character has finally, irrevocably, changed.

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I firmed up an overriding need for Richard's story arc, one that could be visibly illustrated by choices he was already making, that at the midpoint and the second turning point in the book becomes the make or break decision he has to make, or he'll not only lose his relationship with Sarah, but he'll lose her for good.

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The relationship between the two, as it stood, was growing. But the conflict wasn't there. It felt forced. And it didn't feel intrinsic to the ending of the story. In other words, I needed another tent pole, this one forcing my two lead characters to actually, consciously, accept their relationship. To own how much they needed each other, and how well matched they were despite their differences, or neither would achieve their story goals.

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I had to firm up that their relationship itself was a central conflict to both their stories. Otherwise, the ensuing drama, as Jenni pointed out, didn't have much point once you looked at it closely.

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I FINALLY locked down the resolution of the black moment. Like I said above, not only did Richard need a more solid relationship arc for his story, it turned out to be essential to Sarah's journey as well.

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Unless they both learn how to accept and trust another person as deeply as they eventually do each other, Sarah won't be able to understand the final step she must take at the end of the story–when her true Legacy is revealed and she must take charge of her gifts and integrate her darkest secret into her world. Unless she's fully bonded with someone else for the first time before this point (Richard), she won't have the skills to complete her journey and all hope will be lost.

Like I said, some of this might seem cryptic because I don't want to give away too much for my readers out there.

But I hope you can still follow the key plot changes that came out of Jenni's read for me. I wanted to show you how good plot choices, even after characters are fully drawn, can save a story that's driving you crazy with it's suckiness (as I assure you Secret Legacy once was with me). Like I said, this was a total rewrite. I got to keep a lot of good stuff, but a lot, and I mean A LOT had to be tossed or rewritten or re-crafted in ways that allowed Secret Legacy to thrive.

Jenni and I started this blog series to share How We Write  and critique together. We wanted to illustrate how difficult the creative journey into and through and back out of a full novel can be. It can be tempting to think this is easy stuff for the veterans, or that a simple laundry list of "this is how to write a character…this is how to write the PERFECT plot" is all you need to make a story work. But we know from experience that it's not until you're in the midst of the ugliest draft you've ever written, that you'll fully understand just how little the lists and the quick advice gurus help you.

Crafting story and creativity into a novel that transports readers to a new world they don't want to leave, one they'll return to again and again, is hard work at the best of times. In the darker times, with a more complicated story like Secret Legacy, it can take pass after pass and rewrite after rewrite and the eyes of a skilled critique partner to get it right. And you owe it to your story to always work as hard as you have to, to get it right.

Check back with HoWW next Wednesday, when I suspect Jenni's going to whip out a nifty thing called a conflict box and REALLY make my brain cramp as I read her post and remember yet another story and how she helped me plot my way out of my obsession with character…

Loving the journey…DFWCon 2011

The DFWCon was my first conference trip in over eight months, since the worst of my thyroid symptoms took me off the travelling/teaching/networking in person train once again–just when I thought I was recovering. An amazing group. A great weekend. A great new step in my Revising A Year journey back to who I'm going to be on the other side of my health making all my personal, business, and creative choices for me…

It could have been merely a trying trip up. You know me and kenetic energy when I get stressed, and packing up for a long weekend was more stressful than ever after so much time off. To sum up: something large and heavy tried to kill my indestructible hard-sided luggage and nearly succeeded, leaving behind a dent the size of a dinner plate to remind me WHY I pay so much for hard-sided luggage; something killed my laptop on the trip up, barely scratching the outside case but destroying the monitor screen within, most likely when my bags fell over at some point and the laptop bag hit the handle on my carry on luggage JUST SO; and the screw to my glasses jumped to its death one of the first nights there, so the lens on that side of the frame could pop free and frolic across the bedspread rather than staying put so I could work in my room without feeling the need to scratch my contacts out of my eyes…

Which, I admit, all sounds pretty entertaining in hindsight. Especially since the DFWCon volunteers and staff did such a freaking great job with the event.I've spoken at and even coordinate my share of writing conferences, and I've never met a more professional and yet easy going group. The attendees were excited and eager to learn. Their enthusiasm to learn every craft and industry thing they could was contagious. The other speakers were generous and amazingly qualified. I had a blast.

And to the huge croud who attended my Character Plotting Satruday workshop–you were the best. We were condensing a half-day of material into an hour and a half, and you not only hung in there, you participated and helped make the brief interactive part of the program so much more meaningful than if I'd simply droned on by myself. I meant what I said. Check out the How We Write Wednesday  posts and ask any questions you have. Jenni and I will be back tomorrow (I'm taking the plot lead here on my blog, but she'll be hanging about) talking about our process and yours. We'd love to keep the conversation going.

Finally, speaking of Jenni–I can't leave my DFWCon wrap up without a nod to the ShoeCam (which didn't work as well as I'd wanted, since I didn't have my laptop and couldn't log while there). Jenni's lovely "casual" shoes lead this final look at some of the footwear we encountered. I'd be happy to post more in my next Shoes Are My Heroin post, if you guys want to email me your favorite pics!

Jenni should have worn these all weekend, instead of throwing down with Moi and earning herself a passel of blisters for her efforts ;o)

These beauties are MY idea of day shoes, only they were on someone else's feet! LOVE THEM.

The guys got into it. ROCKING boots, dude!

And these were Best In Show at Saturday Night's cocktail mixer.

 

Say hi to their beautiful owners!

Thanks DFWCon. I had an amazing trip, damaged luggage and laptop and glasses and all ;o)

Shoes Are My Heroin: DFWCon D-Day!!!

There's been some trash talking here about the DFWConnference ShoeCam Grudge-match. You know who (yes, you, Jenni, so don't even think you can hide) has asked her blog faithful to tell her which shoes will grind my lovelies into the dust and win her to glory. It's only fair that I beg for your advice in turn.

Don't leave me unprepared.I'm packed (overpacked, actually), but which shoes should I wear? There are a couple of business-y but not too conservative dresses/dress suits in my bag, a skirt with a two different silk blouses that match, and jeans/leggings to wear with funky T-shirts or a tunics. And we'll be in Dallas Fort Worth, so no need to worry about dressing for warmth.

So tell me, SAMH readers–Which of these should I wear to smack Jenni down for the grudge-match count???

The dresses are blue/blueish gray, so naturally I'm thinking of wearing this cool brown Nanette Lepores.

Or, my black platform Cole Haan Mary Janes. These have Niki air soles, believe it or not. Definitely conference wearable, regardless of the heel.

The jeans are flared. Gladiator Nanette's would be great for the casual stuff.

Or these leopard print Stuart Weitzmans. I can't decide

I'm packing a pair of flats, too, and another pair of sandals for the casual skirts. But these are my go-to, grudge-match winners. Except I'm only there for three days. I can't wear them all. Argh, the inhumanity!!!

You be the judge–cast your vote in the comments ;o)

And don't forget–Jenni and I will be  tweeting our and others' footwear fashion all weekend, as well as great conference tips and tidbits. Writing craft, social media buzz, publishing industry updates, etc.

See you at the con!

Publishing Isn't for Sissies: Innovative Marketing and Promotion–NetGalley

My journey deeper into understanding digital publishing, marketing and promotion ramped to another level this week as Secret Legacy was introduced to the sci-fi/fantasy genre as a featured book on NetGalley. 

A site that (from their FAQ page) is a service for people who read and recommend books. Publishers upload their galleys, plus any marketing and promotional information; then invite contacts to view their title on NetGalley. Readers can also find new titles through NetGalley's Public Catalog, and request to review those titles from the publisher.

"Is this just another way to push books that don't have a traditional publishing path ?" you say. Browse the Buzz for NetGalley Titles link on their homepage , like I did. Look at the national media tours and blurbs and reviews of the featured books to see the projects that are generating NetGalley buzz. Traditionally marketed or not, it's pretty impressive stuff.

"But are 'real' publishers using NetGalley?" Check out the Browse Catelog by Publisher link and look for the print publisher of your choice. At first glance, I see Avon, Grand Central, HarperCollins, Penquin, and William Morrow, top print publishers, all, amongst digital and eBook pioneers and leaders.

"How is this going to help you establish my series as sci-fi/fantasy?" Under Browse Catalog by Genre, choose Science Fiction & Fantasy. You'll find Carina Press, Harlequin, Harper Collins, Red Sage (Ooo! Angela Knight, I LOVE her), and, on Page Two, me! There Secret Legacyis, waiting for anyone who loves sci-fi/fantasy to dive into and fall in love with, right next to authors from Hatchette Books, too, and Thomas Nelson, and on and on. Not bad company at all.

To tell us more about what publishers are all about on the site– we have a Dorchester PR specialist with us today, the person who's worked hard behind the scenes to position my Legacy series on NetGalley.

Everyone, welcome Hannah Wolfson to PIFS–

1) I asked Hannah to talk a little about Dorchester's overall goals for partnering with NetGalley. And she said–

Dorchester plans to utilize NetGalley's services to establish an environmentally friendlyand cost effective approach to galley distribution. NetGalley will enable Dorchester to share protected, searchable digital galleys with a significantly wider audience. Previously, our galley distribution was limited by cost, our printer's stamina, and our reviewer list. NetGalleyallows us to improve upon all these aspects.

2) In response to my question about how Dorchester will use this relationship to reach and network with the reviewers and media specialists that can help their releases, Hannah said–

Dorchester titles will get the most significant exposure during our "launch week" (February 22-March 1st). Our covers are visible on NetGalley's homepage , a newsletter/press release was sent out to NetGalley's19,500+ members alerting them to our new partnership and available titles, and our public catalog is up-and-running and receiving piles of review requests daily.

Following launch week, our titles will be accessible through our public catalog (http://bit.ly/fWN5Pr ). Unfortunately members will not be notified every time a new addition is added to our catalog, although this will occasionally be the case if we are featured in NetGalley's newsletter—keep an eye out!

NetGalley is primarily a galley distribution site so promotional opportunities are limited, but it is quickly becoming the go-to resource for reviewers because of the accessibility and exposure it provides new titles—a value in and of itself. 

Let me just interject before continuing (Hi, it's Anna again, interrupting only briefly.) to say how thrilled I am that Dorchester chose my series as one of the books for their NetGalley launch focus. They've been great, working hard behind the scenes for all their authors as the house moves in this new digital direction with as much skill and planning and purpose as humanly possible. That they think enough of Secret Legacy and the world I've built for the first two books in the series to put this kind of push behind it… It means a lot.

Which leads into my final question for Hannah, about–

3) Whether Dorchester had specific plans for the Legacy series on NetGalley–that is, did she think a single book or author could benefit from the kind of placement they're offering several authors on their spring schedule: And she said–

I wanted to ensure that Dark Legacy and Secret Legacy were prominently featured during our NetGalley "launch week." The Legacy series has amazing cross-genre appeal and NetGalley allows us to reach multiple audiences in great numbers.  Not only are both titles part of our first public catalog of 11 titles, the covers are featured in a feed on NetGalley's homepage and the title information was included in a newsletter sent out to all NetGalley's users. We've already received a huge influx of requests for both titles—NetGalley will certainly assist in generating reviews and exposure for the Legacy series.

Thanks, Hannah, for all your hard work for me and the other Dorchester authors, and for sharing your insight with Publishing Isn't For Sissies…

****Everyone, Heather will be back once or twice throughout the day to answer questions.****

Let us know in the comments what you think and what you want to know more about.

And finally, to sum up the possibilities for innovative digital marketing on a seemingly non-promotion site like NetGalley–

Take a look around the site at how many authors and publishers are taking advantage of the paper-free galley opportunity.
Check out at the press releases and reviews and genres and total volume of books being seen digitally, on-line, on NetGalley, in immediate, easily downloaded ways that make them more accessible to industry partners than ever before.
For those considering asking their publishers to investigate a similar solution, remember that timing is everything. The initial release of a "partnership" with NetGalley seems to garner the largest direct impact on a book or author's industry exposure.
Remember that as a growing, go-to resource for reviewers and media specialists, even after that initial push, NetGalley placement is fast becoming a significant asset for authors and publishers.
Scroll back to Heather's note about how Dorchester is driving reviewer and media interest across several genres to titles that otherwise wouldn't receive this degree of exposure.

What that will mean for their NetGalley launch book remains to be seen.

But NegGalley is something new. Something innovative to talk about. Something powerful building momentum amongst us that might help our chaotic publishing market gain more digital traction than ever before. And Dorchester and other publishers investing in it is the sort of thing that gives hope to those of us in the trenches, watching the landscape flicker and change around the stories we're writing.

We're in this together, my friends. You, me, Dorchester, and every other author and publisher who's working with the same crazy set of variables.

Let's figure this out together…

Next week on Publishing Isn't For Sissies, I'll be back from the DFWCon, after spending the weekend networking and wargaming with savvy publishing professionals about this and other  digital avenues through which an eBook (or print published) author can gain online momentum.

See you then …

How We Write Wednesdays: Okay, Okay, Let's Talk Plot

Jenni's talking plot today over on her blog. Or, more to the point, she's sharing how often I have no plot when I first start writing because I spend so much time researching my characters (which you can hear more than you ever wanted to about, in our last month of  HoWW posts).

She's being gentle, pointing her "YOU NEED HELP WITH YOUR STORY, GIRL" finger at me–for now. I suspect that won't last as we get deeper into things in March. You thought our shoe confrontations got aggressive–just WAIT until we start bantering turning points, and I'm not allowed to use internal character motivation or emotion in my debate…

Seriously, it's a great post. You should all dive in, contemplate her sage advice and experience, ignore any pot shots she takes at sick little me (cough, cough, sniffle), and come back next Wednesday when I take my revenge turn at the story structure wheel.

Oh, and tomorrow. Come back here tomorrow, when I'll kick off a Publishing Isn't For Sissies series on online/digital/viral promotion,beginning with an in depth look at NetGalley , where Dorchester's just launched their presence, including a feature of my to-be-released-in-May Secret Legacy.

Take a look at the link–Dark Legacy and Secret Legacy are both up there, in all their new sci-fi/fantasy glory, which is really cool, since I'm starting brand new in that genre and we need reviews and industry exposure to draw a whole new segment of readers to my metaphysical/parapsychological/psychic world ;o) Come back tomorrow and the next few Thursdays to hear more.

As for me, I'm taking my coughing self back to bed the rest of this morning, so I've got a shot at kicking this flu's ass before I fly out Friday to teach and network and wear amazing shoes at the DFWcon in Fort Worth. I can't wait to meet many of you there!

Take it away, Jenni!

Waterfall Challenge: Becky Branch's Steep Climb

You know a few things at the beginning of a challenge.You learn a few more as you immerse yourself in the day-to-day. Like when Brian Boyd in his Waterfalls Book says, "turn at the Days Inn from Clayton," you better hope the Days Inn is still there, but he's serious about his landmarks ;o)

The problem with working from a 20-year-old guide book is that some things just are where they used to be. Luckily, the North Georgia Mountains is still enough of a tourist destination certain times of the year, I found my right-hand turn onto "Warwoman" Rd (you better believe I double-checked that name to make sure I wasn't misreading it), because without the Inn to show me my way I'd have been a bird dog without a scent to track–there's NO STREET SIGN at the intersection, because it's a funky little fork off HWY 441 (that perhaps they added FOR the Days Inn), and you don't really hook up with Warwoman until a few hundred yards further.

Good, I thought, as I and Warwoman got better acquainted, the first challenge was behind me on my way to Becky Branch falls. I'm now on the lookout for the Warwoman Dell Recreation Area, 2.4 miles down the road. 2.4, mind you. And I was tracking that mileage carefully, given that the directions were so exact. Turns out mileage is something Mr. Boyd played a bit more fast and loose with. That .4 can come sooner in some directions, take you further in others. At some point, you have to throw the guide book onto the passenger seat, slow your speed to a crawl and scan the farmland outside your window, often for several passes, until you find the obscure entrance into a local park that everyone who lives there can locate blindfolded.

Once you do pull through the overgrown entrance at the WDRA, you're supposed to part HERE. Keep in mind, there's a trail where you can drive further into the park, two parking areas by a stream (a good sign, since I'm hunting a falls), and numerous more natural places to park all over the place. So, finding HERE is an adventure all its own. But I'm good with sticking to the intent if not the letter of Boyd's directions and park near the one building I find–an outlook with a vista over the stream. Near it (after wandering in circles for a while) I find a sign that says "this way" and points across the rustic road, sending me to another overgrown path that's a continuation of Bartram Trail.

Excellent, Bartram Trail is a landmark in my water search. Actually, according to the hiking trail guide I also bring with me on each walk, it's a meandering trail that begins near the North Carolina border and roughly follows the boundary of the 14k acre Warwoman Wildlife Management Area. I make a note to hike more of this beautiful area with my husband and move on (there's actually another falls I'll later decide to visit along this same path I'm following, once I actually do find Becky Branch). But I digress–which is easy for me (and clearly Mr. Boys at times) once I'm out of the car and into nature and loving the feel and smell and silent sounds and textures of this world I need in my life more every day.

Remember that some directions are the same year-in and year-out, and some have to be tossed aside for the new. I'm told to follow Bartram Trail north. I reason that that's a pretty solid indicator, so I figure out which way's north and follow. I'll pass back over the road I came in on. Interesting, I didn't see a path marker as I drove through. Well, THAT's because where you pass back over the state road (heavily travelled with speeding commercial trucks, it seems) is at the hairpin portion of a corkscrew turn–you know, where the driver's more interested in not running off the road than observing his or her surroundings–or whomever might be hiking across the road to find water. Excellent.I wave politely at the trucker who almost makes road kill out of me and blows his horn in frustration, then continue into the woods on the other side.

At which point I'm told I'll find a "steep" several hundred yard walk. But how steep could it be, if the waterfall's only .25 miles from where I began, and at least .2 of those miles are behind me? That is, if you can go by Mr. Boyd's .2 indication here any better than you can while you're driving. Turns out, when you're hiking, the man's notations are right on. When he says steep, he means steep. When the descriptor for the walk lists "moderate" he means "not for beginner hikers."

My knees are in great shape. I'm running/biking 4-5 miles a day so my legs are plenty fresh, even though this is my third waterfall of the day. But my ankles… They gave out on me back in high school basketball. I'd worn my stabilizers, thankfully, to keep my wheels on as I step over things in the woods. If I hadn't, the VERY steep climb to the hill ahead wouldn't have been possible. Mostly because I know coming back down is my problem, more than going up. My ankles tend to turn on a steep downhill. And I'm hiking alone today. I wouldn't have been able to keep going if I hadn't been prepared by Mr. Boyd's excellent description of the trail. For others who follow me, I recommend sturdy shoes and a stick if you're prone to losing your balance.

I finally find the bridge he mentions. I finally find the breeze that always accompanies falling water. I CAN actually reach out and touch the water of this tiny little falls, while my calves un-cramp themselves.

There's not much water here, and I didn't expect much. Boyd's ever dependable at describing the water, if nothing else at times. It's a lovely place, regardless.

 And what I thought, while I contemplated the ankle-cracking hike back to the death-pin turn in the road and my car beyond, is that  when you're hunting water, much like when you're hunting your next book contract, the old roadsigns and landmarks aren't always your friends. You have to pay close attention to your both them and your surroundings to find your way. You have to be prepared, but also be ready to find your own way if need be.

Some landmarks and road signs stay the same. Others don't. Creativity is in order when tradition stops working and hiking ahead on your own is your only course of action. You have to be willing to double back and start over sometimes, and you have to watch those oncoming obstacles trying to run you down, always keeping your eye on which direction the water (or your industry, to continue the analogy) is flowing so you don't get lost as you react to the crisis at hand.

Beyond Becky Branch falls, and beyond this place in my writing career, is a hike of wonderful adventure I'm ready to take, dated directions and unforeseen hazards and all. Whenever there's water, and writing, involved, especially when it's a challenging climb, that's where you'll find me.