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TAPE TALK
by Jen FitzGerald
NTRWA's
Tape Library has approximately 200 titles. Subjects range from POV,
writing Regency romances, characterization, the business of writing, and
many more. If you are struggling with some aspect of writing, there is
probably a tape for you. Peruse our library list (also available on NT's YahooGroups
loop), and see what's there. If you see tapes you'd like to check out,
just
contact
Jen FitzGerald.
The tapes will be waiting for you at the next meeting.
To
check tapes out, a $10 deposit is required. Just drop of a check with
Jen FitzGerald - made payable to NTRWA - at the next meeting and you'll
be good to go. In
order to make our library more accessible to everyone, we will be
transferring some of our more popular titles to CD.
If you have a question, please contact
Jen FitzGerald. The complete list of tapes
is available in two formats for your downloading convenience.
MARCH TAPE
REVIEW
by Juliet Burns
PAGE-TURNING
PACING by Jackie Stephens
Recorded live in NY, 2003
Jackie Stephens says your goal is to pen a story that will
keep readers avidly turning the pages. You do this with pacing. Pacing,
she says, is a tenuous balancing act between fast-paced conflict packed
with action and dialogue, and thoughtful summaries that give deeper
insights to your hero and heroine.
Jackie compares pacing to a 4-pack box of play-doh. Blue is
the hero, with his back-story, goal, motivation and conflict. And Red is
Miss Heroine with her back-story, goal, motivation and conflict. Yellow
is your plot. What’s going to happen. The beginning, middle and end of
your story. And lastly, Green is the details of your story: the
secondary characters, secondary plot, the setting the tone the mood and
the emotions. These are the basics. Your job is to take just the right
amount of play-doh from each color and weave them into a masterpiece of
smooth pacing by revealing the right piece of information at the right
time and keeping the action always moving forward.
She says the building blocks of pacing are Scenes and
Sequels. Scenes and Sequels are the hills and valleys of your story.
Scenes should be fast-paced. They are the hills your character must
climb, and should include excitement and conflict, action, and dialogue.
And each new hill should be higher, steeper. The classic structure of a
scene is goal, conflict, disaster. Scene questions: How is the character
going to react to this? And what is the character going to do to resolve
this conflict?
Sequels are the slower paced moments in your story, the
valleys where you can have thoughtful insights into your characters. A
good example of Sequel is Scarlet standing on the hill with her fist
raised saying, “As God is my witness I’ll never go hungry again.”
Sequels are where your characters will make decisions. The classic
structure for a sequel is Emotion, Thought, Decision, Action. Conflict
and tension, a sense of urgency, and unanswered questions are what is
going to make your reader keep turning the pages. Sequel questions are:
What has the character learned? And how has it made he or she grow and
change? And what decision has been made?
As God is my witness… This is the decision and we want to
see how she’s going to make that happen. There must be some kind of
change at the end of each scene.
Jackie quotes Rita Gallagher: “A good story begins in the
middle, retrieves the past, and continues to the end.” This tape really
helped me understand pacing.
NTRWA Resource Library
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