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Wendell will lead a discussion about writing fantasy.
KWA is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.Topic: KWA’s March Zoom Meeting
Time: Mar 20, 2021 01:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)Join Zoom Meeting
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Love is in the Air (Imagine Barry White singing…)
Romance is an age-old genre. In fact, none of us would be here without some form of romance. Though I did have a fellow suggest to me once that lust might be enough…
Wikipedia has a lot of info about romance, suggesting that the first romance novels began in ancient Greece. And the stories have been coming ever since. But romance takes many forms. There are YA romances about crushes. Remember your crush in middle school? You might be “going steady” but you never talked to your crush and he never talked to you. You told your best friend what you wanted him to know, and she told his best friend. Then there was high school— And romance at a “mature” age takes on a whole different spin. You compare medication lists and Medicare plans, wondering if he has a nursing home policy.
Suspense, thriller, horror, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, all of these genres can have an element of romance, even if it’s just a hint. Other times, the romance can be a sub-plot.
There are Amish romances, historical romances, sweet romances, erotic romances, hotter than erotic romances. Even other species romance: Lady and the Tramp anyone?
Some reference works suggest there are 7 types of romance subgenres:
Master Class suggests there are 6 subgenres: They rename the genres and leave out erotic romance. Harlequin also details the subgenres.
The Write Life posts a list of Don’ts for romance writing. All of them relate to not making the characters nuanced, flawed, vulnerable. Another don’t is Love at first sight. That only happens in Hallmark movies, and they spend an hour and 45 minutes fighting it.
Ingramspark provides a How to Write Love Scenes, emphasizing that, unless you are writing hardcore porn, it needs to be a LOVE scene, not just a sex scene. The reader should fall in love with the characters as they fall in love with each other. The reader should want to cheer when they work it out. And the love scenes, like every scene in your book, should move the story along. It needs to be essential to the story, not just a gratuitous scene.
Romance Writers of America, a group to promote the writing of romance, has lots of resources available.
But the thing to remember is that romance writing should also be GOOD writing. Make your characters nuanced, flawed, realistic. Give them backstory that comes out as needed. Go into deep POV. Make the plot realistic (even if it’s fantasy or sci-fi. Even Lady and the Tramp works on that level). Above all, create characters that you and your readers can care about, cheer for.
In my romantic suspense, More Than a Point of Honor, the heroine is attracted to the hero but has doubts fed by the antagonist. The hero is attracted to her, but fears she is in league with the antagonist. The hero’s goal/motivation/conflict is initially revenge, but as the attraction to the heroine grows, his GMC changes gradually, until revenge is replaced by the goal of protecting her at all costs.
In my police procedural in process, A Little Shame, hero Scott stumbles into a relationship, while confounded by a romance he witnesses between his mentor, who is Scott’s mother’s age, and a new flame. The romance is a subplot, but it does manage to complicate his getting to the bottom of the mystery.
Resources:
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/common-romance-subgenres-to-guide-your-writing
https://thewritelife.com/romantic-relationships-in-writing/
https://www.ingramspark.com/blog/how-to-write-romance-scenes-ultimate-guide-for-romance-authors
https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-write-a-romance-novel/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_novel
https://www.rwa.org/Online/Romance_Genre/About_Romance_Genre.aspx
https://www.harlequin.com/shop/pages/guide-to-romance-genres.html
From Kathy Pritchett
Here are the details for our zoom meeting on Saturday at 1:30. We will have a special guest joining us to discuss and answer questions about her career as a romance author.
Topic: February KWA Meeting
Time: Feb 20, 2021 01:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 943 1159 8252
Passcode: 498196
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You are walking your dog on a windy day when an unusual tree branch blown to the sidewalk catches your eye. On closer inspection, it’s not a tree branch at all. It’s…a dinosaur bone?
Write an “epistolary novel,” a story told entirely through a letter written to one of the characters.
Write about an event that doesn’t go as planned. Examples of events that might go awry include: New Year’s Eve, the first day of school, or the year 2020.
The bronze statues by Georgia Gerber that line Douglas Avenue in downtown Wichita see a lot of action on any given day. Pick one of them and tell us who they are and how they got there. What does the Barefoot Businessman think about what he’s reading in The Wichita Eagle? What do the mother and little boy see in a window of the Kress building? Is the busker having any luck today?
Write a story that takes place the same year you started kindergarten. What political events and cultural trends happened that year? How was technology different? How will these factors shape the narrative and setting for your characters?
A “macguffin” is defined as an object or device in a work of fiction that furthers the plot. Using the “macguffin” of a sealed shut, featureless cardboard box, tell a story about the box, who is responsible for it and what might be inside it.
Imagine a world where humans hibernated during the winter. Write a mystery story that takes place in this hypothetical universe.
Write a story that takes place in a singular setting; that setting is the last building you went to that wasn’t work, school or home.For horror writers, think of the last time something scared you but it turned out to be completely harmless. Write a story where that harmless thing is the story’s antagonist.Douglas and Oliver, Murdock and Washington – Select a Wichita intersection and develop a story around two characters that take their names from the streets in that intersection.In the tradition of Franz Kafka, write a story where the protagonist goes to sleep a human only to wake up as an animal of your choosing.On January 1, 2021, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald entered the public domain, which means that the novel is no longer protected under copyright. Incorporate elements from The Great Gatsby into your story in the same way other public domain characters (like Sherlock Holmes and Dracula) have appeared in contemporary fiction.
Our next regular meeting is January 16, at 1:30 p.m. Here is the link to the zoom. Maybe “soon” we can begin again to meet in person. Be prepared to share your goals for the year, what you need us to teach you, what you can teach others, so we can build a program plan for the year. Hope to “see” you all there.
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Passcode: 582453
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Meeting ID: 826 7477 7866
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kesRf4izTb
We will hold a zoom meeting on Saturday, January 16 at 1:30. The link will be sent via email and posted on the website and Facebook pages. Be thinking about your goals for 2021 and what programs you would like to see presented or those you could present yourself or with partners. Let’s hope we can resume meeting in person, though maybe with a Zoom option, soon.
Kathy Pritchett
The monthly KWA meeting by Zoom on December 19th went fairly well, with 17 attendees (I believe). There were a few awkward moments with some members having difficulty connecting. But, hopefully, this will get easier for everyone.
A new slate of officers was nominated and approved by those in attendance. The new board/officers are:
President: Katherine Pritchett
Vice President: Ben Sutherland
Secretary: Wendell Skinner
Treasurer: Angela Largent
Members at Large: Mike Freed and Dustin Boettcher
The members in attendance shared their personal writing news/status on current projects. In addition, Mike Freed provided a poll that members were able to respond to in the meeting. From the poll of those attending members, fiction. writing is the biggest interest.
Due to the continuing issues with the Covid situation and the library being closed, the meetings will be held online via Zoom at least in January and probably in February.
We have a link to the Zoom meeting for Saturday at 1:30. We can go as long as 3 hours for this one:
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 329 397 3396
Passcode: KWA121920
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This will get you into the meeting, but if for some reason this link won’t work for your tech setup, you can use this:
Dial by your location
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 329 397 3396
Passcode: 596571701
We will be voting on a slate of officers for next year. Those who have volunteered:
President: Katherine Pritchett
Vice President: Ben Sutherland
Secretary: Wendell Skinner
Treasurer: Angela Largent
Members at Large: Mike Freed and Dustin Boettcher
If anyone else would like to step up to serve, we can have an election. Otherwise, if the majority of the membership approves, these will be your officers for 2021. If you have tech expertise, you can volunteer to assist with the Zoom or the website and not have to be an officer.
Also, during the meeting, toot your own horns as to what you have accomplished this year. Just surviving a pandemic thus far should be on everyone’s list. Starla has already posted publishing credits on our website, but if you were missed, let us know.
Be thinking of what you want to learn from this group next year. Basics of formatting? How to do deep POV? Dialog? Queries? Plotting? Someone in the group can help with almost anything; is there something you’d like to present? You wouldn’t have to do it alone. We could do a panel presentation or have a partner. Do you have an expert in your hip pocket who would be willing to present a subject? We have greatly benefitted from our County Attorney talks. Who else would you like to hear? What are your goals going to be for 2021? Let’s hear them.
And let’s congratulate our last year’s officers for navigating a whole new world to keep the group going under difficult circumstances: David Heffelfinger, President; Starla Criser, Vice-President; Wendell & Clystia Skinner, Secretary; Chris Davies, Treasurer; and Dustin Boettcher and Nicole Valek, members at large. They need medals for having to deal with the twists and turns of 2020. I suspect 2020 will serve as inspiration for lots of writing to come. Once we are through it. And don’t forget that dues are payable this month or next.
Because of Covid 19 and cold weather (it is winter, for sure), our next KWA meeting will be held via Zoom on December 19 at 1:30. I believe we are restricted to a 45 minute time frame, but we are still working out the details. We will do another email to the entire recorded membership closer to the date when we have the link to the Zoom. We will also post the meeting information on the website and Facebook pages.
The agenda for the meeting will primarily be to elect a slate of officers. We have some volunteers for the slots, but if you want to step up to fill a slot, we will gladly accept it. The positions we need to fill are: President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary and 2 members at large. Wendell has volunteered to remain as secretary unless someone else comes forward. If any of you have tech expertise and would like to serve as advisors to any of the tech-challenged officers, we would appreciate it.
If you have ideas for programs you’d like to see or programs you could present, let us know at the meeting. Or if you have resources for speakers appropriate to writing. Also, a quick rundown of your accomplishments for the year or plans for next. And of course, any sales. Our December meeting is traditionally a celebration of our accomplishments. We’ll all miss the potluck part of it. Hard to taste chocolates via Zoom, no matter how realistic it is.
As I loaded the emails for this message, I found a few missing the @ suffix and a few I questioned as to accuracy. If you notice that I have anyone’s email wrong, please let me know.
We will likely have to continue on zoom for the next few months, depending on whether we can find a meeting room large enough to social distance and cheap enough we can afford it or until the weather allows for outdoor meetings. Meeting under the trees at the library can be pleasant or uncomfortable, depending on the capricious Kansas weather. A covered outdoor shelter might be an alternative. I know there is one in Goddard with water and restrooms and movable walls that can provide shelter from wind and rain. There are probably other suitable ones in Wichita. Let us know if you have any ideas.
Covid 19 has caused all aspects of life to be reimagined and rearranged. But writers are more imaginative and adaptable than regular people, so I am sure we will prevail and come out of this with a stronger, more cohesive organization.
Katherine Pritchett
Currently because of the Covid-19 situation the meetings are on the third Saturday of every month by Zoom at 7 pm. Watch the KWA Facebook page for the URL connection.
Focus: Election of 2021 officers, discussion of KWA future outlook and how to handle the immediate temporary meeting situation
Discussion of Dec 19 Meeting: Party and recognition time – how to handle it and make the Zoom meeting fun
If there is time – Program Topic for discussion: Query letters and synopsis – members’ experience with and suggestions