Over the long weekend of 10-12 August Romance Writers of Australia held its annual Conference in Sydney—All That Glitters.
My resident pedant says the line originates with Shakespeare “all that glisters is not gold”, but perhaps organisers were inspired by Kate Earl’s, All that Glitters with its links to 1930s jazz tones. Doesn’t matter, the conference offered lots of fascinating people, interesting conversations, excellent craft sessions, glittering costumes, and shared laughter.
In my experience, writers can hear the same talk or read the same article twice and have completely different reactions depending on where they are in their writer’s journey. At #RWAUS23 the session by Shannon Curtis: Mining the Back Story for Gems spoke to me. The title didn’t do justice to a session that was both informative and fun—spot on advice delivered by an outstanding teacher/presenter.
Shannon reminded us of the universal truth of romance, that while “neither character is perfect, they’re perfect for each other”. Motivation is “what they think, feel, or why they act the way they do, which is backstory and thus drives action/reaction and decisions and directions”.
We’re looking at—and I’m paraphrasing Shannon here—the emotional shrapnel embedded in our character—the wound; their bedrock belief, which is in fact a misbelief built on flawed, yet convincing logic. And their fear—whether real and well-founded or perceived. This fear changes the character’s behaviour to avoid threats, and thus prevents them finding love.The fun part was Shannon interspersing her talk with questions to the audience to build a character, identify their wound, their misbelief, and their fears to chart their journey/arc from hole-hearted to whole-hearted.
Question 1: Male or female?
A fast thinker from the front of the room—male.
Question 2: Name?
A quiet, considered voice—Arthur, which occasioned much hilarity and apologies to any Arthurs present.
Question 3: Wound?
He was kicked in the head by a horse as a child—not an idea I’d ever have come up with.
Question 4: Triggers to this memory?
Shouts from around the room as participants started rooting for Arthur—the smell of hay, a horse neighing, horse races.
Question 5: Arthur’s reactions to the triggers?
He might freeze, clench his jaw, have a flashback, feel anger, fear or helplessness—you the author get to make these decisions for your personal Arthur.
Question 6: What are Arthur’s defences?
Giggles grew louder—Arthur avoids farms despite working as a farm agent, he works at a horse abattoir, he takes up martial arts or hobbies that require helmets. Like polo? muttered one wit.
Question 7: What are Arthur’s avoidance tactics?
He pretends he’s allergic to horses; he delegates his farm visits to other staff. I will not be writing Arthur’s story.
Have you worked out by now that Arthur must fall in love with a character who raises horses, rides horses, can’t live without a horse in his/her/their life.
Question 8: What’s Arthur’s lightbulb moment?
Shannon’s audience was in full creative flight—Arthur discovers it wasn’t a horse that kicked him in the head, or he learns horses aren’t terrifying by birthing a foal. Right, sticking your arm up a horse’s uterus is going to convert you to loving horses! Then again, Arthur could discover that his father is a shape-shifting stallion. Thus we leapfrog romance genres to shapeshifting romance. Whatever, Arthur emerges feeling strong.
By this time, the bells had started ringing to end Shannon’s session. I didn’t want it to end, and the ideas are still swirling in my head a week later because we left Arthur hanging, with his figurative trial by fire ahead of him. Just how did he move beyond fear to his happily-ever-after?
You can find my books at major booksellers, or through the My Books page on my website.
Taylor’s Law—The Anderson Sisters Book 1 (Second Place—Romance Writers of New Zealand Koru Awards 2023—Best First Book)
Grace Under Fire—The Anderson Sisters Book 2
Planting Hope, a standalone slowburn contemporary romanceLela’s Choice—due out in December 2023
Lela’s Choice—due out in December 2023.
Find me on
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/romanceauthorjen/
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/jenniferrainesauthor
- Goodreads—https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22577889.Jennifer_Raines
- Bookbub – https://www.bookbub.com/search/authors?search=Jennifer%20Raines
- Diana Kathryn Plopa’s Indie Reads Aloud podcast has recordings of me reading Planting Hope (episode 101 – 23 June 2023), The Anderson Sisters (episode 54 Taylor’s Law and 80 Grace Under Fire) http://www.dkpwriter.com/indie-reads-aloud-podcast.html
You can also send me a message via the contact link on this site. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Jennifer Raines 