The Protagonist’s Pal
Louise Titchener
Is your protagonist a surly recluse, a man or woman of few words, a guy with a drinking problem and an attitude? That describes a lot of lead characters in mystery novels. Still, like the rest of us, your antisocial hero /heroine needs somebody to talk to.
Invariably, students in my novel writing courses wanted to open their first chapters with detailed biographys and lengthy physical descriptions of their protagonist. It’s tempting. Once you’ve got all...
Fishing for a story
What is creativity? The ancient Greeks believed that artists channeled their music, dance, poetry etc. from the gods. Sometimes it feels that way. Sometimes it feels more like going fishing in an empty pool.
I don’t know the process that musicians, dancers and poets go through to do their work. I do know that writing a novel, at least in the beginning, can be a struggle. Facing that blank first page is daunting.
As I picture the vacant computer screen after I’ve...
What I Learned From Writing Romance
By Louise Titchener (romance written under pen name Maude Wood)
No matter what the genre, a bit of sexual tension can perk up your storytelling. Years ago I wrote romance novels. This is what that experience taught me. Love is a lot more interesting when it’s all about the conflict.
Readers are surprised when I tell them that a romance is a love story. But not all love stories are romances. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a love story. The conflict in that...
Louise Titchener’s Blog-Fun with Trouble in Tampa
For the past year I’ve been researching Florida history in order to write an Oliver Redcastle mystery set in 1885 in the “sunshine state.“ Knowing nothing about the state’s past I wondered if anything interesting was happening during this period. I started reading and what a revelation! Florida is and always has been a most intriguing place—a sort of wild west of the south. Anyhow, I’m learning a lot. I had wondered at first if I my...
More Reflections on Revising Romance
In my last blog, I talked about going back time to re-write a series of romance novels that I authored years ago. It was a trip down memory lane. It was also a shock to realize how much has changed since those books were written. And it’s not just that cell phones have radically transformed our lifestyles and forced me to re-think plot points.
The romantic suspense trilogy I’ve just finished revising (High Stakes, Dark Waters, and Bright Secrets) is called...
How long is my chapter?
By Louise Titchener
Chapters of twenty to thirty pages used to be the adult fiction norm. When I started attempting to write novels, I crafted long chapters—and proud of it.
Guess what—nowadays I’m cutting those long chapters by half, thirds, and sometimes even by quarters.
What changed? I think technology has transformed reading habits. When I was learning to write, transitions were a big deal. Writers were advised never to change a scene, setting, or time period...
First Chapter Blues
By Louise Titchener
Here’s me staring at a blank computer screen. You guessed it. I’m starting the first chapter of a new novel. Since I write historical mystery and this will be the 5th in the series, I know my protagonist well. That puts me a step ahead.
However, since this novel is set in a new locale, I’ll need to do research. The advantage of writing historical fiction is that you get the fun of imagining yourself in a different time and place. The disadvantage—you...
Author For the People
After years of struggle with plot, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s all about people. I know, I know. That sounds simpleminded. But it’s not so simple. Stories that interest human readers spring from two elements: events and personalities. We humans spend our years coping with events and their consequences. Our lives are a series of challenges. Some are small. Some are really big. How we cope and why different people cope in such different ways—or have a meltdown...
Question: Why does your protagonist need to be special? Answer: Because that’s what your reader needs.
Identifying with the struggles of a sympathetic protagonist’ is a prime part of the reading experience. Why do little girls love the story of Cinderella? Why have versions of that story about a vulnerable girl’s triumph been around since ancient Egypt and maybe before? Overcoming adversity is what a lot of life is about. Stories tell us how others do it and teach us how we may emulate their...
My Trip Down Memory Lane
These days I write mystery. Years ago, however,(when my kids were small and I wanted to make some money while being a stay-at-home-mom) I wrote romance under a variety of pseudonyms. Most of my romance books were romantic suspense. For me, a good adventure with an element of danger just always seems to make a story more fun to read.
Now I write mystery, with a special partiality for historical mystery. I thought I’d said goodbye forever to all those romance novels....