Soap Operas and Novels - Strange Bed Fellows

I'm  addicted to General Hospital...have been for years.  Watched it from the beginning have suffered the loss of the original cast and enjoyed the addition of new.  One thing that strikes me is the similarity between watching a continuing saga and reading one.  Ever consider how much the writing plays into whether or not you continue to tune in?

I know how difficult it is to write a novel, but I have no idea the stress TV writers must endure in order to keep the plot moving, the interest growing, and coming up with hooks that make you either record the next episode or put aside your daily duties to tune in. I want their secrets.  *laugh*

Each Friday's soap opera episode is a most critical time for a so-called 'cliffhanger'.  Watchers have two whole days to get distracted from the daily routine or mull over what the outcome will be. Soap writers want them to mull, but such is the chore of a author with their novels.  We are charged with having a beginning to our books that HOOK the interest of the reader and make them want to keep turning pages.

I can't count how many times I've heard readers express what they do with a book that bores them from the beginning, and I'm not talking about mine. *smile*  If you don't grab and hold a reader's interest, you've not enhanced the chances they'll even finish what they started.  If I've learned one thing in my years of turning out novels, it's to start each story with a scene that snags interest in the plot and main character(s).

Equally important, ending each chapter with enough intrigue that the reader who reads at night won't want to stop or can't wait to pick the book up the next morning.  Exactly what Soap Opera writer's want to happen.  For me, it's hard enough to decide where to end a chapter, let alone end with  a scene that's a page turner, but it's critical.  Imagine ending a chapter with your heroine being home alone and hearing the creaking of an opening door.  Will the reader stop there, or will he/she be tempted to read on and see what is going to happen?  My bet is that won't be a stopping place.

I'd like to share the opening scene from my "best seller," First Degree Innocence.  See if it hooks you:


“Okay, Lang, strip!” The guard’s bark made Carrie’s stomach roil. She cowered in the corner of the women’s processing area, shivering under the blast of cold air from the ceiling vent.

“I said strip! Don’t make me have to tell you again.” The pudgy, uniformed female slapped a baton against her palm in a constant rhythm. In the empty room, the sound bounced off the depressing gray cement walls and echoed in Carrie’s head. She forced herself to take a faltering step out of her shoes. Her frigid fingers fumbled with the buttons as she struggled to remove her favorite pink cotton blouse. She unfastened her jeans and let them drop to the floor, then gazed through bleary eyes at the other woman, praying she didn't require the removal of anything more.

If this stirred your interest, you can find out more about this novel at Books We Love.  Beginning this month, BWL has expanded availability from the Amazon KDP program to Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, the Reader's Store and All Romance Ebooks.

Let me know your thoughts.  Comments might just motivate me to finish my current WIP which has been sidelined by life issues. I already have a beautiful cover and have made great progress, just need to get myself back on the writer's road.  I'd love to interview a soap opera writer....if you know one, let me know.  *smile*   First thing I'd want to ask is why in the heck did they let Jason go!  I'm heartbroken.  :)

The Casting Couch

Is this how you cast your hero?

Visit my Casting Couch  to discover the different tricks  writers use to find the characters who populate their books. Whether they use magazine advertisements, astrology, or something else entirely, their techniques give a fascinating insight into the writing process and the writers themselves

Today, multi-published writer Janet Lane Walters tells us how she does it

How do writers cast their characters? Mine are usually inspired by a photograph. I see an interesting face and the writer in me begins to weave it into a story. It's very satisfactory because I can make complete strangers into just about anyone I want. Occasionally it isn't a photo but someone in the media although never, so far, anyone from the big screen. And even more occasionally, although I never admit to it, a real live person I meet. What I can't do, however, is start with a list of personality traits and build from there. My character has to have a face before I can begin to know them although I guess that deep down I am probably looking for a face that fits with who I want them to be. Realizing that my take on character development is idiosyncratic to say the least, I began to wonder how other writers find their characters so I decided to ask them to visit my Casting Couch to find out.

Janet Lane Walters is the first visitor to the Casting Couch, and with 35 published novels, 4 non fiction books, 2 ghostwritten non fiction books and ten novellas to say nothing of numerous short stories and poetry, who better to answer my questions.

Hi Janet and thanks for visiting the Casting Couch. Now, assuming you're sitting comfortably, which characters are the hardest for you to develop? Is it the hero, the heroine, the villain, or the secondary characters? 

I can usually nail the hero and heroine, though sometimes they give me trouble, and I have little problem with the villains. It's the secondary characters that sometimes give me fits. Unless I’m writing an ensemble piece where all the characters have a significant role in a story, my secondary characters try to take over, and that isn’t their role. When I was writing A Double Opposition, characters like the twins, Pop and Megan, wanted to take on a larger role. I spent a lot of time looking at their parts of the story and toning them down.

I’ve also read stories where the secondary characters seemed more important than the major ones. It always disappoints me to learn that the story isn’t theirs. That’s what I must keep reminding myself.

I really identify with that Janet,  and I know I've made that mistake in my own books too...but back to the casting couch. When an idea strikes, do you work through the plot first and then cast the characters, or is it characters first? Or does it vary? Perhaps you develop the plot and the characters together.

I admit to all of the above. When I began writing Code Blue the villain arrived full of himself and of his plans for revenge. The other characters changed as I wrote the book. Julie was to be the heroine but that didn’t make the story move along. Once the heroine changed to Susan, a perfect foil for the villain, the story took off. I guess in this case the characters came first and last.

Can you give examples from the stories you’ve written?

When I began the Affinity series, published under my alter ego, J. L. Walters, the characters came first. They remained essentially unchanged since they were based on my grandchildren at the time. The plot came later and turned from a single book to four.

The plot for The Temple of Fyre came before the characters. I told the entire story in my head with no names and no personalities except for good woman, bad woman, good man, as I outlined the plot. No names until I sat down and decided what kind of people would take on these roles and what their natures would be, and gave them their Astrological signs.

That is so interesting. I've heard of writers who use Tarot or Astrology but never met one before. 

Yes, I always use Astrology to cast my characters. I’ve been involved in it for years. I used to do charts for people and then interpret them, so using it to develop my characters seems a natural thing to do.

I don’t go as far as some people and cast an entire chart though, and I only do it for the major characters. What I do is look at the Sun, Moon, and Rising Sign. This gives me three facets of the character’s nature and it also provides me with clues as to their goals and the motives behind their desires. The Sun is their inner nature. It’s what they are inside. The Moon gives me their emotions and tells me how they react to situations. The Rising Sign gives me the face they show the world. Conflicts can arise in any of these areas of course, and so can their desires and the reasons for this.

So Astrology tells you who your characters are but surely you still have to discover how they look. Do you use magazine pictures, base them on someone you know, or do you just rely on an active imagination?

I rather envy writers who can look at movie stars or magazine pictures and say that’s just what their characters look like. I don’t even use my friends, neighbors or acquaintances when I am deciding how my hero or heroine looks. For me, it’s imagination and writing the words down, though I will say my heroes usually fit a type. Most of them are tall, with broad-shoulders and trim bodies. Hair and eye color will vary. My heroines can be different and unusual but they are always beautiful to the hero, even if they are plain.

All characters have goals. Can you sum up your characters' goals in a word or two or are they multi-layered? Do they change as you write the book? 

I usually have at least one goal for each of the main characters and also for some of the secondary ones, especially if their goal is in opposition to those of the main characters. Sometimes they will have the kind of goals that make them think if I gain this, then I’ll reach for this.

Can you give an example from one of your published books?

When I was writing A Double Opposition, my heroine’s goal was to find a way to remove her twin sons from the bad influences they had found in the city. Her second goal was to do a good job on a hospital unit where there was trouble. She wasn’t thinking about finding love or marriage. Her final goal comes after her sons go missing and the hero helps her find them. It is then that she realizes there is a chance for a second love and for a family.

Motives drive a character. How do you discover why your characters have specific goals? Is this all based on back story or do other elements influence their motives?

I often don’t know what my characters’ back stories are when I begin to write. That usually comes after a draft or two when suddenly I know what is happening. The book I am writing at the moment, Lines of Fire, begins with the hero at his father’s deathbed. The scene began before the story was plotted or the character developed. I didn’t even know the hero’s name but the deathbed scene gave me his motivations and these remained throughout the book, although with some slight changes as other characters impacted on his life. In this case the back story played an important part.

In other stories the ‘why’ doesn’t occur until I have at least a rough draft of the story. Then there’s an ‘aha’ moment as I learn what drives them toward a goal that may, or may not be, attainable.

Listening to how you cast your characters has been very interesting Janet, but there's still one more.  Do you like them? Are they people you would want to spend time with? And, as I'm assuming they are not just a paper exercise, which of your characters would you most like to meet, and why?

 Do I like my characters? Absolutely and while I write I live with them. They’re always in my head. As to which one I’d most like to meet, I have met some of them already. They’re my grandchildren but that’s not a fair answer to this question.

Right now I’d like to meet Alric who hasn’t seen print yet. Why? Several reasons. He’s a dueler and that reminds me of the days when I was fencing. He also sees the lines of fire and that fascinates me, even though I made it up. He’s handsome and brave too. But when I’m writing, I always want to meet my heroes and heroines. I’m rather fickle.

Thank you for spending time on the Casting Couch Janet. It's been great to talk to you.

If you would like to learn more about Janet Lane Walters visit her blog at http://wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.co.uk or read more about her on the Books We Love website

Senior Love??

I just finished a wonderful novel by Roseanne Dowell.  Geratric Rebels is what some of we older gals have been looking for.  Although it's nice to read about young love and sex, putting myself into the heroine's POV is difficult because the mirror reminds me every day that I'm past that time in my life.  It's about time someone put a little age and a few wrinkles on the main characters, and Ms. Dowell managed to add all the ingredients to keep me turning pages. I loved it!

Geratric Rebels put life in realistic perspective, showing the reader that a heroine and hero don't have to be young with perky boobs or a  muscular six pack to be still excited about life and one another.  When Mike Powell and Elsa Logan meet in a nursing home that has become their fate, they join forces to make lemonade out of lemons, and enjoy falling for one another while showing the world they're not ready to retire from life.  What can a couple of old fogies do, you ask?  You'll just have to read for yourself, and I'm sure you'll be glad you did.  Of course if you aren't over forty, you might just find it unbelievable.  *smile*  Like the old saying goes, there may be snow on the roof but that doesn't mean you can't stoke a fire in the chimney.

You can find this book on Amazon offered by Books We Love, Ltd.  Kudos to Roseanne Dowell who manages to make all of her books believable and entertaining.

Looking for a spooky Halloween Read? Try the Dark series by Gail Roughton

I'm a big fan of horror books and movies so when this series came out I was excited to delve into it. Before I could get book one, I found out it was being released as a set so of course I snagged the special edition and am I ever glad I did.

Already a Gail Roughton fan (The War N' Wit series is awesome romantic suspense) I figured I'd enjoy this series as much. But this one is a whole different ballgame. 

Spanning generations, the story begins with our black magic antagonist Cain's modern-day resurrection, then goes back to fill in the details as to how he got the way his is today. Powerful stuff, told with page-turning energy. As with her other books, I found it hard to turn off my Kindle when reading this Roughton horror/thriller. 

When I finished the first part I was SO glad I had book two at my fingertips because I just kept right on reading. A truly magical story, perfect to curl up with on a cold autumn evening, this series had just the right blend of spookiness and great storytelling to keep me hanging on every word. And while the author never claimed this was a romance, I found the various love stories within to be equally sweet and heart-wrenching. I rooted for the good guys (simply loved Paul!) and wanted to kick the bad guys in the kneecaps (for starters.) The ending was truly satisfying. It couldn't have wrapped up any other way and been so successful... and frightening! 

"The past, like evil, never dies. It just—waits."

*sigh* Loved it!

Highly recommend this Gail Roughton thriller. 5+ Stars and two thumbs up. Nab it now at Smashwords, B&N, ARe or Amazon. You can get both stories in this special edition for only $4.99. You won't regret it!

Sarah's Heart & Sarah's Passion - Must Reads!

I just finished reading Sarah’s Heart by incredible author, Ginger Simpson.  I love a good western and I love even more when the heroine, Sarah in this case, is saved by a half-breed Indian, Wolf, and they fall helplessly in love. I won’t give the ending away – but this book took me on a journey that stepped right out of the 1800s. It’s believable and very well written. I laughed and cried with Sarah. And Wolf – he’s my kind of hero, strong, honest, and more desirable than he has a right to be.  I loved the ending -  and it left me wanting more!

That’s when I read Sarah’s Passion, the novella following the wonderful Sarah’s Heart.  Ginger Simpson gave me a real surprise when I started reading – finding myself – not in the 1800s as I expected, but right here in today! What? Oh, I can’t say – I hate it when people give plots and endings away.  I love to be surprised – you must read both Sarah’s Heart and then Sarah’s Passion – they are fabulously written . . . and will make you turn those pages almost faster than you can read! Bravo Ginger Simpson – you’ve proven yourself to be one of my favorite authors. It’s a five-star, five coffee cup, five clover leafs, five alleluias if you must!  FABULOUS!

Way to go, Ginger!  Rita Karnopp