Emotional Wounds--How Do Your Heroes and Heroines Cope? By Connie Vines #Emotional Wounds, #Cowboy Romance, #FREE AudibleBook

 Emotional Wounds for Your Protagonists - how to help them learn to cope/accept

      

 

How Do You Discover Your Character's Wound?

When I begin plotting a novel, I have a clear idea of my main characters' likes/dislikes, physical descriptions, and sense of time and place.

However, the motivation is in Blurb form when I begin writing.

The Romantic side of my office 💓🌹

I believe a character's subconscious motivation (emotional wounds) falls into these categories: 

Traumatic Events. These are the ones that most readily come to mind because of their dramatic nature. (This seems to be my traumas of choice in the Westerns I write).

Other choices:

Misplaced Trust and Betrayals.

Childhood Wounds. 

Disillusionment.

Injustice and Hardship. 

Isolation.

Crime and Victimization. 

Disabilities and Disfigurements. 

Failures and Mistakes.

My stories feature the first section on choices in romance novels. 

Crime and Victimization in romantic suspense/mysteries. While Failures and Mistakes are universal issues and would color everyone's reality.

Of course, my YA and Children's stories have elements of mystery and whodunit, and I craft endings with a resolution that ties into the time period. Life does not always end in a happily-ever-after, but it is not my place to introduce that aspect of life in my stories. 

I do delve into the Sci-Fi and paranormal realms. As I mentioned before, I was a dedicated fan of Universal Studios Classic Monster Movies as a child. My paranormal stories have a comic tone (because Connie has nightmares when a dog/horse, or people die in a story).

My Sci-Fi and Paranormal stories have a comedic tone, which is how I cope. After there is too much reality in our daily world. 

I bake, and when my grads were small, I always hosted a 

"Spook-Tacular dinner party. Complete with Dead Man Over Worms (meatloaf), Bloody Fingers (hot dogs), and Bleeding Cemetery Cake.

 And just in time for Halloween!

Paranormal side of my office 👻🔮🎃

Yes, my office is crowded.

Yes, I spend a great deal of time dusting. 

Yes, my family members find me... entertaining.

I've explained how I cope with the emotional intensity of writing.

How do my characters cope? 

Ahhh...that would be telling... 

My characters struggle with subconscious issues. And my characters work through the emotions wound(s) before I type: The End.

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This process is often painful for both my characters and myself. 

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The craft of writing, like acting and music, taps into the emotions of the human creator. This is why we can empathize with the hero/heroine in a novel, cry when listening to "I Dreamed a Dream" by Patti LuPone.

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The blurb must give the reader a hint at the motivation and hint at the emotional wounds without 'telling all.'

🠟

Audio book Release!!!  👀

https://www.audible.com/pd/Lynx-Audiobook/B0FK6K51HF?

With a dangerous reputation for taking chances and tempting fate, rugged cowboy Lynx Maddox had one goal in life--to win the coveted Silver Buckle rodeo championship. But when he sets eyes on lovely Rachel Scott, he becomes determined to capture her as well.

Rachel traveled the circuit with her famous rodeo rider dad until his fatal accident in the arena. Now, she wants nothing to do with that world--or the men who risk their lives for one brief moment of glory. But her attraction to Lynx becomes too powerful to deny...and his unexpected gentleness is too seductive to resist...

Happy Reading,

Connie Vines

 

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My Novel is an Audiobook

 

                                                           Please click this link for author and book information

I view audiobooks as a wave of the present. Many of my friends like them for multi-tasking. They listen to books while driving, exercising, or cleaning the house. Book-lovers who develop eye problems with age find audiobooks a godsend. So I was thrilled when BWL was awarded funding to produce a group of Accessible Audiobooks and chose my novel, Ten Days in Summer, to be part of the group. 

BWL's next step was to find a suitable narrator for Ten Days in Summer. They selected Janice McNally, an Ontario narrator and producer. Janice has visited Calgary and attended the Stampede, which forms the backdrop for my novel. She produced a fifteen minute sample for us to approve. BWL and I agreed she sounded great and spoke clearly. Then Janice got down to work. 

Partway through the process, she contacted BWL with a question about how to pronounce the surname of one of my characters, Cynthia Hawryluk. Janice had looked this up on the internet and found several examples, each with a slightly different pronunciation. I'd taken the name from a doctor I had in Montreal and pronounced it like this: Haw (rhymes with cat’s paw, accent on this syllable) ry (short i sound) luk (luck).

Now I did an internet search and discovered that most websites pronounce Hawryluk similar to this. I don't know if my doctor anglicized his name or if I pronounced it wrong all these years. I gave Cynthia this surname because Alberta, the novel setting, has many Ukrainian residents and I assumed the name was Ukrainian. The internet advised me that Hawryluk is equally or more often Polish. 

The bottom line for me was Cynthia Hawryluk is a secondary character in the novel and her surname is only mentioned a few times. Since I'm not invested in the pronunciation, I advised Janice to go with the common one for readers familiar with the name. 

I was impressed with Janice's and BWL's attention to this detail. When Janice finished her work, BWL asked me to listen to the whole audiobook to check for errors. I've never read any of my novels after they were published and relate to actors who never watch their movies. Ten Days in Summer was released in 2017. Since then, I've moved on to three more novels. I cringed at the prospect at looking back at my writing.              

At first it felt strange and uncomfortable listening to someone else's voice telling my story. But less than a chapter in, I got used to it and felt Janice's voice nailed my Paula narrator. I enjoyed revisiting the story, chuckled at my old jokes, and found minimal errors. Three were different pronunciations for friends' names in the acknowledgments. 

Janice posted her view of the experience from her end.

Listening to my novel five years after its publications gave me a broader perspective on the story. Themes popped out. I'd say Ten Days in Summer might appeal to readers interested in the following:

Whodunnit stories

Psychology and effects of hoarding

The Calgary Stampede - Yahoo!

Ordinary people who murder

Social class 

Family relationships

Mothers and daughters

Trust

How human connection eases the pain

Baby boomers

Grown children and aging parents

Finding love and romance in middle age

I'm currently working on the fourth novel in my Paula Savard Mystery series and was thinking it would be the last. But, to my surprise, listening to Ten Days in Summer, book # 2 in the series, gave me an idea for a new direction for Paula, should she and I choose to take it. 

If you're looking for a Christmas present, here's a bonus offer from audible. 

Happy Holidays and my best wishes for a happy and healthy 2023. 

 

                                                                      I enjoyed a pre-Christmas holiday in Mexico