Writing Romance Author:Vanessa Grant "Writing Romance: Creativity Seminars" has been created from the wealth of popular seminars Vanessa Grant has given to writers in Canada and the United States. This 8 tape audiocassette album covers much of the material from which Vanessa wrote her popular classic, "Writing Romance", and contains the following seminars: Writing Womens Fictio... more »n (2 tapes)
How to get best-selling plot ideas from your fears, dreams, and hang-ups. Components of successful women's fiction. Plotting and characterization tricks used by professional writers. Timeless story themes and powerful archetypes. Your home town, an exotic setting? Finding time to write. Getting from idea to finished novel. Characters, motivation, conflict, tension, and plot. Keeping track. What if you get stuck? How to find a mentor. Character Driven Plotting
Vanessa explains the difference between writer driven and character driven plots. Examples of how to create realistic characters, how to develop character relationships and behavior patterns. How to develop backstory. How character personality plus backstory drive plotting for realistic character-driven plots. Conflict for Writers
How to create believable conflict in your fiction. Want/cant have as the conflict driver. The relationship between conflict and emotional intensity. Archetypal situations with inherent conflict. Territory: From Character to Conflict
Knowing your characters is the single most important preparation for writing a good book, but how do you move from character to conflict? Vanessa describes how to develop conflict by discovering when characters will behave irrationally, and when they will instinctively defend territory. Using Vanessas concept of territory, writers can readily determine characters territorial boundaries and predict situations that will create realistic conflict every reader can relate to. Brain Sex - about Men and Women
Do your men talk and act like men? Are your women believable modern women? Drawing from her writing experience, and studies of differences between men and women, Vanessa discusses how to write about the sexes. Pacing to Maintain Tension
Vanessa makes this complex technical subject clear with graphic examples. Topics include: Time and the writer: story time, reader time, and writer time. The simple rule that covers it all. How pacing relates to viewpont and narrative style. From Spark to Finish
This popular lecture describes the process of writing a novel, using Vanessas Yesterdays Vows as an example. Topics include: Original concept or story spark. Development of characterization, backstory, and conflict, with examples of how to move a stuck idea. Development of plot. How to keep track of timelines and continuity details. (Complete book notes for Yesterdays Vows are available in Vanessas book, Writing Romance.)« less