Happy Easter!

There will be no hurting of bunnies today.

Unless they happen to be chocolate.

And then, there may be some nibbling of the ears.

There is nothing that I can do about that.

Chocolate...yum!

When to Hurt Your Bunnies

See that cute bunny dancing with a giant carrot? You know you have to hurt him, because otherwise there'd be no story. You also have some ideas on how to do it. But when should you do it?

Often! Whenever you can!

Poor bunny. Happy reader!

Every scene has three parts: goal, conflict, disaster. You can hurt your bunny during the conflict part; that's obvious. he has to fight a bully, scale a mountain, or survive a hurricane. You can also hurt your bunny during the disaster. That, too, is obvious. A bomb goes off, the boogie man jumps out of the closet, he gets a huge pimple on his nose just before his big date with the head cheerleader. Youch!

Every sequel has three parts: reaction, dilemma, decision. You can also hurt your bunny during the dilemma, as he tries to decide what to do. That, again, is obvious. You can make him agonize over what to do. Does he pull the plug on his brain-dead son? Does he confront the bully? Does he run into the burning building to save the child?

You can hurt your bunny as soon as he's made a decision about what to do. How? Make that decision a poor one. Perhaps he's made the choice to have it out, once and for all, with the fellow employee who is always stabbing him in the back. But, perhaps, that choice is the wrong one because he doesn't know yet that he doesn't have all the correct information, and it's the wrong fellow employee being accused. Perhaps the information he's using is out of date, so the choice to not vaccinate his child is based on incorrect data. Perhaps he assumes the head cheerleader won't mind the huge pimple and will like him for who he is inside.

What about hurting your bunny during the goal? Perhaps your bunny in the previous sequel has made a decision about what to do next. His goal now for the next scene is to implement that decision. So how do you hurt him? By allowing him to have the wrong goal. What follows will hurt him. He's decided to confront the bully, which is a good decision, but his goal to do it during lunchtime when the bully's friends are there to help him, is a bad idea.

You get the idea. Hurt your bunny often. Chase him up a tree and throw rocks at him. Remember, though, that your bunny must grow stronger during each time of "hurt." You're hitting him with his weaknesses, his flaws, his fears. As he works out how to survive each onslaught, he gets a little stronger. So, by the end of the book, your bunny has grown as a person, has grown into a stronger, wiser rabbit. What didn't kill him will make him stronger. And at the end he can dance with the giant carrot. Or maybe eat it

How to Hurt Your Bunny

Now that you've decided that it's in the best interest of your story to hurt your bunny, your main character, how do you do it?

1) Physically

This is the most obvious way. You can make your character sick with the flu or pneumonia. You can break his leg or sprain his ankle. You can give him a rash, a bee sting, or allergies.

2) Psychologically

This one can be divided into two closely related illnesses: mental and emotional. I'm not a psychologist, but I've watched one on TV. So, you'll probably have to do some research on these to be sure you're calling the illness the correct name.

a) Mentally

Your bunny could have a mental illness, such as multiple personalities (and since bunnies multiply rapidly, your bunny might have a dozen or so before your story is over) or an eating disorder (too many carrots). Perhaps it's depression or OCD or post traumatic stress disorder.

b) Emotionally

You might have your bunny suffer from a bully who steals his lunch money or has low self-esteem. Perhaps your bunny can't tell the truth and just has to exaggerate everything he says. Your bunny might be a hypochondriac. Maybe he fears small spaces or is afraid of tornadoes.

3) Spiritually

That's right; you can even hurt your bunny spiritually. Things can get so bad for him that he may doubt God...or the conflicts might turn him toward God or toward something else.

Now, when you hurt your bunny, don't do it randomly. Plan on ways to hurt your bunny that will also advance your plot. Before you write, it's a good idea to do a character sketch of your main bunny. Figure out what your bunny's strengths and weaknesses are, what his dreams and fears are. Now you hit him where it hurts: confront him with his weaknesses and his fears, make his dreams appear to evaporate, turn his strengths against him.

Your reader will love you for it!

Why Hurt the Bunnies?

Look at that sweet bunny. Could you really hurt it?

I coined the phrase "hurt the bunnies" after reading so many stories where there was no problem to be solved, no conflict -- nothing happened. It started when I judged a contest and every single entry was a picture book/short story about bunnies...except one that was about groundhogs (and this one actually had a problem to solve). The bunnies basically hopped around all day holding hands, picking flowers, and remarking on what a wonderful world they lived in. I have to admit that after reading dozens of stories like that, I really did have an urge to hurt those bunnies.

But the phrase "hurt the bunnies" actually is for the writers, to remind them that stories aren't interesting unless we can in some way identify with the main character -- or main bunny -- and feel sympathy for him. We have to care what happens to him. If nothing happens, then we feel as if we've wasted the time we invested in that character/bunny. So the writer needs to "hurt" that character/bunny in some way. The "hurt" doesn't have to be physical. It can be a need, a desire, a wish, a goal...but it can also be a physical or emotional "hurt." A "bunny" without a problem is a boring bunny, and no one wants to read about boring bunnies.

So the answer to the questions that introduced this blog post is: Yes! I can hurt that bunny!

Writing Scenes, Part 1

I was working on a scene right now in my I LEFT MY UNDERWEAR IN SAN FRANCISCO and it was causing a bit of trouble for me. It made me go back and review what I was doing, since I know how to write a scene. I learned how from Dwight Swain in his book, TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER, a "must-have" book on writing. In it, you'll learn how to write Scene and Sequel.

Scenes have three parts:
1) Goal
2) Conflict
3) Disaster

Today, we'll discuss "goals.

Every story has a goal.

Your character has an overarching story goal -- the problem he or she has to solve, something he/she wants to achieve. My character, Joetta, wants respect from her family, but she doesn't understand at first that *that* is what she wants. She thinks she wants revenge for all of her twin brothers' pranks. She thinks she wants relief from a younger sister's insistence on imitating her. She thinks she wants her parents to come down heavy-handed on her siblings, while giving her a break. This is what drives her through the story.

Every scene has a goal.

Her brothers continue to prank her, and in the previous scene attacked her with pillows until she screamed for help from her parents, who were unhappy at being awakened. So now she's lying there in the dark in her great-grandmother's home, thinking about how to get them back. She decides to wait until the twins are sound asleep and then write on their foreheads, "dumb" and "dumber." Her goal in this scene is to write on their foreheads without waking up them -- or her parents -- and getting away with it.

Goals create active characters.

Scenes are action. You want your character to be active, not passive. Passive characters react to what happens to them; they seem to allow things to happen. Active characters make things happen, good or bad. They don't wait for something to happen. Not all of their decisions are good, but they do make decisions and ACT. Readers want to read about active characters, because these characters are more interesting, more engaging.

Every scene goal leads eventually to solving the overall story goal.

As your character moves forward, scene by scene, goal by goal, he or she gets closer to solving the problem or achieving a desired outcome. Your character will not only reach the final goal, but will grow in the process. As your character handles each problem presented by each scene, he stretches and grows and is able to make new and better goals.

So give your character a goal in every single scene. It's what moves your story forward.

Tomorrow I'll discuss "Conflict" within each scene.

Dining With Authors on November 11th

DINING WITH AUTHORS BENEFITS YOUNGEST LEARNERS

"Dining With Authors," a festive evening to meet Greenville's local authors will be held at the Embassy Suites on Thursday evening, November 11.

Enjoy great food, and bid at the Book Lover's Silent Auction.

6:00-7:30 Reception and Silent Auction
7:30-9:00 Dinner
Meet and dine with local authors:
Linda Kelly | Ray Blackston | Melinda Long | Tim Davis | Gene Fehler | Michael P. Gibson | Shirley Twiss | Michael Cogdill | Mindy Friddle | Dot Jackson

Ready 4 Reading provides learning resources and books in homes to help families and children develop preschool reading readiness to improve the Upstate's high school graduation rates and grow the literate workforce. The event will add much needed new family reading programs serving parents with preschoolers in poverty. Parents learn how to share books through Family Fun Events and circulating bookbags. For more information contact Ready 4 Reading at 864-250-8868.

Write Every Day

Do you realize that if you wrote only one page every day for a year, you'd have 365 pages. That equals one adult novel, or one and a half YAs, or two middle-grades, or five chapter books, and a crazy number of picture books and short stories!

And if you took off weekends and holidays, you'd still write over 200 pages.

It's so easy NOT to write, though. That toilet just has to be cleaned the minute I sit down to write. The phone rings and demands to be answered. I have to check Facebook and my email. There are blogs to read. And I almost forgot! I have a coupld of tweets to write -- will that count toward my writing time?

It's a lot easier to write if you have a time to write. During that time segment, sit down at your computer and write. DO NOT go on the internet at all. If you have to do any research that would involve going online or getting up from your chair, put xxx in the place in your manuscript where you need it and then keep writing. You can always go back and fill in what you need. Instead, focus on getting the words down. Get the story written.

It's also a lot easier to write if you have a special place. That doesn't mean you have to have a fancy desk. You don't even have to have only one place to write. I have a desk; it's not fancy, but it works. I also have a laptop that I can take with me. So I do! I've started taking it to work and writing on my break. That's what my son does, because he works full-time and wants to be able to play with his 19-month-old daughter when he gets home. I was impressed with how much he gets done on his netbook, so I decided to try it for myself.

You don't even have to sit in front of a computer/laptop/netbook/ipad to write. Carry a notebook or notepad with you and write. Sit in the park or in a coffeehouse and write. Write while you're waiting for the doctor or for an appointment. Write while you're in the car line at school, waiting to pick up your kids.

The point is that you should really try hard to write every day. I know there are days when you're sick or your kids are sick, or both. I know there are days when you are so crazy busy that you don't know which end is up. I know there are days when you'd rather prop up your feet on the coffee table and lose yourself in some mindless TV show or movie. Been there, done all of that. But here's the truth: You're a writer, right? Then you need to write. Every day, if at all possible.