Is Your Worst Audience in Your Head?

Why is some writing so effortless and others so fraught with doubt and anxiety? Of course, if I'm writing for publication, the stakes are high, but what about when I'm working on my book? Why should I hesitate to put words on paper? Until it's finished, I'm my own audience.
Evidently that's the problem! I was rereading Peter Elbow's book, Writing with Power when I hit the chapter on audience. We're used to thinking of audience as the expectations of a genre. Elbow takes it farther. According to Elbow, we can put ourselves through literary scrutiny to rival college entrance exams before we put a single word on paper. Here's my breakdown of his finer points:
Audiences can be either external or internal. (Or non-existent). Each type can be either safe or dangerous to the writer. A "safe" audience is respectful, serious and supportive and the writer responds by writing in an authentic voice with depth and power. A "dangerous" audience is critical, demeaning or judgmental, which often causes the writer to write in a false or overly academic style, write only superficially, or not write at all.

We can't change external audiences: writing classes, publishers and family will be safe or dangerous regardless of our desires. We know who they are. But do you really know your internal audience? Not only does our internal audience have a tremendous effect on whether we succeed as writers, we have the power to control it. Next time you think your writing will never be good enough, or that you'll never succeed, stop and ask yourself--who's telling you that? Is it some lingering voice from childhood? Or maybe a teacher? An ex? Get them out of your head! Writing is hard enough without ghosts. Only allow in thoughts that are on your side.

Five Reasons to Toss That Draft

I love to throw scenes away. (crumple, crumple...Yeah!) But I am also meticulous about saving copies of everything and backing up my hard-drive. That's not a contradiction: I have a system. Here are the criteria I use to decide what I take out of my book and what I keep for a rewrite:

1) You dread writing. That scene has painted you into a corner. Now you're stuck, surrounded by wet, sloppy plot, and writing isn't fun anymore.

2) Your characters are acting out of character. It happens. You need one of them to do something to move the plot along, but it isn't what they'd do naturally. You've forced them and it shows.

3) The scene is gorgeous, witty, intelligent and has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. Admire your handiwork for a few more minutes, then scrap it. Pretty is as pretty does, and if that scene isn't doing anything for your plot, it's ugly.

4) You've rewritten it four times and it still sounds wrong. Give up already!

5)You love it, you love it, you love it---and all your readers hate it. If you've chosen your readers wisely, trust them.

Now what? You're a kind person; you can't just throw your words out on the street. Indeed not. Make a Humane Society for Writing and put them there. I suggest a box. Maybe later, you'll adopt some of those ideas for a different work. Now, go back to your desk with a clean heart.

"Dialog isn't conversation," she screamed.

Let's get one thing straight: dialog is not the same thing as conversation in the real world. There are some important similarities:

1) How someone says something is more important than the words themselves. Imagine your partner, a child, a politician, and a used car salesman (oops, I repeated myself!) all saying the words "I'm sorry." (Obviously, this isn't realistic in the last case. Just try.) Very different meanings, aren't they? This is why the little details of behavior--the smirk, the drumming fingers, the averted eyes are so important. We need to know those nonverbal cues.

2) The speaker determines the meaning of the words as much as the words determine the character of the speaker. In other words, when you first present a character, use the dialog to show their character. Later in the book, how the reader feels about the character will determine the meaning of the words. I know that's true for me in real life. Don't you know someone who if they say "Nice day." to you, you assume they're up to something crooked? And if your sweetie says, "Nice day," well, I blush to even consider what you might think!

There are also some big differences between dialog and conversation:

1) Someone is always listening: the reader. People are, by and large, lousy listeners. We're always thinking about what we're going to say next, what we need to get done or what the other person thinks about us. Readers are waiting for every word. You can use this to your advantage. Characters, because they resemble real people, do not always listen to each other, but the reader always listens. You can put in subtle bits of information that a character might miss for the reader's benefit.

2) Dialog is not just characters talking. It is the writer revealing relationships and information to the reader. While you write, your characters will lapse into small talk. That's natural. But you must prune it down like a topiary. Every word has to have a purpose.

Writing and Crying

Is it a good thing to make someone cry? If it's your reader, it certainly is. I'm not an easy person to make cry, so when I read Steve Erickson's Our Ecstatic Days and cried copiously, I was curious. What what he trying to do to me? And why did it work? And why did I feel so good about feeling so bad?
There are plenty of reasons to cry: pain, anger, humiliation, sadness, mourning, happiness, empathy, or even witnessing noble acts or feeling holy awe. Most of these motivations are not used by writers. I suppose you could write a book so long-winded that the reader would cry from lower back pain when picking it up. I've certainly been made angry by a book, but it's not a long-term relationship so I don't usually cry. Apparently, the further up the scale you go, the more likely it is that a reader will enjoy having a good cry.
A good cry should leave a person feeling "value-added." You've taken them somewhere and shown them something of worth, something that enhanced their human experience. I cried over Our Ecstatic Days because Erickson showed me my worst fears but I didn't have to actually live through it.
Robert Frost said "no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." I guess that means first we suffer for our art and then it's the reader's turn! If you think that's a hard order, just try and make your reader laugh!

Are You Feeling Lazy?

Oh, I knew it would happen. The well runs dry, the couch beckons and I find myself not writing. Though tonight I am lazy, I am still a kind person;I do not want you to fall into sloth as well.

So, to that end, I found two inspiring articles from two of my favorite blogs.

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2008/02/21/16-powerful-tips-to-overcome-laziness/


http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/determine-never-to-be-idle-a-simple-productivity-strategy.html

Yesterday I wandered around the house reciting, "I will not be idle, I will not be idle." over and over. Today, I have no such illusions. If you find yourself in the same predicament despite my attempts to lead you into productivity, just remember you can say that you are "planning" your next twenty pages.
Cheers!

Relationships Rule!

What would life be like without relationships? Relationships, good and bad, are the cause and effect of our lives, and, not surprisingly, the relationships we create between characters creates a majority of our book's plot. Consider these typical character relationships:
1) The main character (M.C. from now on) and the love interest. Who does the M.C. love? Our choices in love are revealing. We choose someone who embodies a part of ourselves that we want or need to explore. However enchanting the beloved is, we are also falling in love with our future selves. Sometimes we attract others who sense parts of us that we thought we had left behind. Not all love is good for us. How can we complicate our M.C.'s life with love?

2) The M.C. and the best friend. Who do we relate to the most? Usually our friends have common values and different skills. We agree on deep levels but complement each other on the surface. In plots, the best friend or side-kick makes up for whatever weakness the M.C. lacks. Is your M.C. always getting lost? Then maybe his sidekick has innate GPS. Sometimes our friends complement our love interest by fulfilling needs that he or she cannot.

3) The M.C. and the antagonist. What do you have in common with the person you most dislike? Probably more than you'd like to think. Our enemies often have the very faults we fear having ourselves. Sometimes our enemies remind us of mistakes we've made, losses we've suffered or childhood figures. Consider why the M.C. hates the antagonist. Play up the that dark mirror. Think of Luke and Darth Vader.

4) Mix and match relationships. You know it's never simple in real-life. Some of our best enemies were once friends, and sometimes the reverse is true. Write your characters' relationships as they develop and change.

One of the great perks of writing a book is that you get to decide how things turn out. So, dig into the archives of your heart and let your characters say those unspoken words.

Is Your Antagonist a Bore?

Okay, so we've unleashed him to thwart the main character at every turn; he's clever, cunning and he'll make the good guys really suffer. But is he interesting? Imagine being trapped in a corner at a party by a dull sociopath. (Wait, didn't that just happen to you a few months ago?) Don't make your reader experience that.
1) Give him a past. Lavish some thought on how he became who he is.

2) Give him a pet. Or a potted plant. Or a penchant for picking up litter. Give him one nice quality to add dimension.

3)Give him a quirk. This will make him seem more real and you can use the detail to build suspense. He likes to eat Skittles? By the end of the book, the reader should break into a cold sweat whenever a Skittles wrapper is seen on the ground.

Assumptions:
1)You know that I don't mean that only guys can be bad guys, right? Women make terrific villains.
2) You know that "bad guy" stands for "romantic rival" if you're writing a romance.
3) You know that the "bad guy" can be a shark, a virus, the government, an addiction, a mental illness or even a concept like greed or pride.
4) It's okay to eat Skittles while typing.

Is Your Antagonist a Dog?

I was reviewing my plot today when something dawned on me. It was a musty, drooly thought. My antagonist was dragging my plot off into the backyard and burying it! Indeed, my antagonist had gone to the dogs. Here's how to tell:

1) Your antagonist chases cars for no reason. If your main character is always on the run, make sure your antagonist has a good reason to be in pursuit, other than the fact he's the bad guy. Give us some plausible and understandable motivation.

2) Your antagonist barks and barks, but you've chained him to a tree. My antagonist makes lots of threats, but he doesn't actually do much of anything other than stand around looking terrifying. Why? Because I am overly fond of my main character and I hate to have him suffer more than a hang-nail. Bad idea. Let the conflict loose.

3) Your antagonist is easily fooled. Fake throwing a stick and a dog will chase after thin air. Repeatedly. We love dogs for their gullibility. But an antagonist needs to be complex and at least as smart as the main character or there will be no satisfaction when the hero prevails.

In short: Give your antagonist good reasons for doing wrong, make them clever and let them do some damage.

Denis Johnson is a Poet

And, yes, he is a novelist too. And that is why I turn to his poetry to show the effects of the sounds of words on meaning. You see, if he were only a poet, you might wonder what these techniques had to do with your fiction writing, right? Anything goes in the quest for a cool scene, so prepare to steal a few riffs from poetry. If Denis Johnson does it, it's got to be good.

Here's the deal: different sounds evoke different emotional or symbolic meanings.
Some hiss and sizzle: s, sh, ch ("hiss" and "sizzle" actually sound like they mean, which is known as onomatopoeia, a great word to use in Scrabble)

Some explode or stop you in your tracks: k, t, p, g

Some are smooth: w, m, n, y

Some are fuzzy: th, v, z

Some are slow and sombre: o, oo, uh, ah

Some are quick and sharp: ih, i, eh, ee

Short words are quicker than long words.

Now for the applications (all Denis Johnson):

"a semi-truck against the bruised roses/of sunset/" from Grocery on Venice Beach. (Notice the vowel sounds: ah, eh, ee, ah, uh, oo, o, uh, uh, eh. That's 3 quick vs. 7 slow. Very sombre.)

"a chilly wind was taking/ small sticks and the like down the block" from All-Night Diners
(Notice all the quick vowels, and notice too that the second line has only one-syllable words adding to that sense of little things blowing down the street)

If you haven't read his poetry, you really should. They are skeletons of novels. Try this one: "Our Sadness"

Then go read the comics. You'll need to.

The End is Only Beginning

Take a look at these endings. Which do you think work best? Notice how different genres have different styles of endings. I'm enjoying tearing books off the shelf and carefully reading the last lines. When I read a book for pleasure I am so immersed in the story, I don't notice how the writer has been leading me along.

1) "Never you mind, honey," she said quietly, reaching under the jacket and carefully straightening out the collar, "Honey, never you mind..." Larry McMurtry, The Last Picture Show.
Listen to the rhythm in that ending! Even if you don't know the characters, their relationship is plain as day. McMurtry is considered "general" fiction, which means essentially, he was writing westerns extremely well, so the "general" public read his books, and he was no longer "genre." Sometimes it's who reads you that defines what genre your book is, not what genre you write!

2) Her hand tightened on his until her finger nails dug into his skin, and she said:
"O.K.,Bert. To hell with her!"
"Goddamn it,that's what I want to hear! Come on, we got each other haven't we? Let's get stinko."
"Yes--let's get stinko."--James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce.
No question that this is one hard-boiled noir mystery, is it? It was written in 1941; hence the slang. I imagine it must have been quite edgy at the time.

3) "As he peered ahead into the great land that stretched before him, the way seemed long. But the sky was bright, and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction." E.B. White, Stuart Little.
I love how the landscape reflects Stuart's optimism. Setting really is a useful tool for conveying character and mood. This ending also is open to further books. (Remember, if you want to write a sequel, don't end like Hamlet. ) Do you remember how the first Harry Potter book ended with Harry considering how much fun he was going to have with Dudley that summer, teasing him with the threat of magic? Sequel-city.

4) "They would listen to each other's voices and they would breathe each other's breath. And they would wait for that power that would pull them like a chain into whatever came next, into that distant world where broken souls were wrenched out of their histories." Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead.
The end really starts a few sentences back, but I didn't want to spoil the plot if haven't read it. Literary fiction, wouldn't you say? You can really hear that omniscient narrator putting in his two cents. If you write literary fiction, you get more latitude to be introspective. Unfortunately, you probably can't have as many car chases or weapons. Ah, the sacrifices of style!

I've been giving Romances too little attention, so I think I'll head to the used book store and today and grab a few. From what I hear, they tend to have happy endings. Good. Cynicism is over-rated.

The Second Ending!

I am happy to post this next entry in the Ending Challenge---I'd say this writer is taking it to the literary genre:

The door slammed on the squad car and the thing settled under his
weight. She'd kicked him, once in the ribs as he lay bound and his
body had had no give to it but instead felt rubbery and he'd grinned
but only at the cement floor. The car was gone, now. The neighborhood
felt cold to her, ignorant, and she started to cry knowing, in an
hour, two she would find herself wishing she had done much worse.

The First Submission to the Ending Challenge!

Here's the first rewrite, obviously by a mystery-reader with a sense of humor. Keep 'em coming!


The Evil Villain was out cold. Lisa slammed the door, still panting. She grabbed her cell phone and dialed 911. "I have him! The Evil Villain! Come get him! Now!"

"We'll be right there to pick up the body, M'am"

"Body? No, he's still..." but they had hung up.

She could hear grunts and feet dragging across the floor.

Quickly,she slapped duct tape around the door.

Her gun, smeared with his flesh, blood and hair was on the floor.

Lisa heard the rasp of the duct tape beginning to give way.

She picked up the gun, thoughtfully wiped it on her jeans and stood back from the door.

If she heard a siren, he would be taken alive.

If she heard the duct tape breaking, it would be a body.

The door burst open.

Fix this ending, please!

Sharpen your pencil and find an eraser, (metaphorically speaking, of course, since most of you use a computer). For your edification, I have written an ending in need of work. Lots of work. Imagine you are on the final page of a crime novel. The hero has caught the crook and all the loose ends are resolved. This is what you read:

Lisa dialed the phone.
"I have the Evil Villain tied up in my garage. Could you send a patrol car?" she asked.
"Certainly," the operator replied.
Lisa hung up the phone. She looked around and soon found her gun on the ground. She picked it up and put it away. In a few minutes the police arrived and put the Evil Villain in the back
of the car. The Evil Villain glowered at Lisa. Lisa was glad he was heading to prison.

Hmm, not quite right. Maybe if we could end at a more dramatic moment? Let's try this:

Lisa ripped the duct tape with her teeth and slapped it across the Evil Villain's hairy arm. He struggled wildly, sweat pouring off his forehead, but the tape was industrial grade and Lisa had used most of the roll. She picked up her gun where it had fallen during the scuffle and wiped it off.
"Crime is a dirty business," she said to the scowling Evil Villain, "Now you need to clean up your act."

Well, at least something interesting is happening. Maybe we could compress things a bit and still keep all the necessary information? Let's try again:

The Evil Villain glared at Lisa from the backseat as the patrol car sped away. Lisa smiled as she wiped her gun with her handkerchief and carefully put it back in her purse.

All the information is there, something dramatic is happening, but is that as good as it gets? No way! Now it's your turn to have a go at it. Send me your versions and I'll post them.

No one got them all right!

I must admit I probably wouldn't have either. (I hope someone tests me so I can prove my own literary acumen!) The answers to yesterday's post quiz: 1) William Gibson 2) John Banville 3) Don Delillo, 4) Henry James, 5) Cornelia Funke, 6) James Salter, 7) Willa Cather, 8) Neil Gaiman.

Did you notice any common elements in these endings? I chose a very odd assortment of genres and time periods, so you wouldn't expect too much similarity. This is what I observed:
1) Most of them tell what happened instead of showing it in a drawn-out scene. Most of the time when you are writing, it's best to stay in the moment, right in the thick of the action. That last line is a place where it's okay to compress time a bit.

2) Most of them are dramatic. No one is dawdling around after the excitement is over.

3) Most of them convey a strong emotion or theme. Finally, you get a chance expose the heart of your story so the reader closes the book with the feeling still resonating inside them.

4) Most of them seem to be written with the sound and rhythm of the words in mind. Read the Banville and the Delillo endings aloud. Do you hear it? There's a real difference in rhythm and it isn't accidental. And yes, we'll get into that later.

Next post, I am going to give you a truly awful ending. Naturally, I had to write it myself to be sure it would sink to my low standards.

Can You Guess Who Wrote These Endings?

I can't wait to write the end to my book--mostly because that means I will be at the end and and ready for those heady few days before revision sets in. I know it's a way down the road for most of us, but let's think about that last line. It's your big chance to package your theme in a shiny prose package. Consider writing it first. Here are a few examples, culled randomly from my shelves. Can you guess who wrote them? I'll tell you the answers in my next blog. Then we'll get down to the business of how to write one.

1) "She kisses his sleeping back and falls asleep."

2) "Write to me, she said. Write to me. I have written."

3)"Ten minutes after we were airborne a woman asked me for my autograph."

4)"And the truth of it had, with this force after a moment, so strangely lighted his eyes that, as for pity or dread of them, she buried her own in his breast."

5) "But Farid was still standing on the same lonely road. In the wrong world."

6) "Their heavy shots had splashed into him, and they had followed all the way, firing as they did, with that contagious passion peculiar to hunters."

7)"Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past."

8) "She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward into the dark sky and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars."

You know, you're right. That's too hard. Here are your choices: James Salter, Neil Gaiman, Willa Cather, William Gibson, Don Delillo, Henry James, John Banville and Cornelia Funke. It's probably still too obscure, but aren't those great lines?

Time is stretchy.

Do you know one of those tiresome people who when you ask them how their day was, they tell you every minute in plodding exactitude? Time lumbers forward in their recounting like a soporific elephant. Writers, in contrast, put time through its paces: slowing down for scenes, racing through summaries and even leaping forward and backward as it suits the narrative. What you need to know is, simply, that the more important something is, the more words you ought to devote to it. For example, if someone jumps from a train, the action may take only a minute in real-time, but you would want to write every nuance, every emotion and detail to draw out the excitement. Conversely, if your character has an uneventful cross-country drive, sum it up in a sentence. Don't be afraid to play with time.

Free Printables for Plotting

It's hard to get ideas to stop swirling around in your head and down on paper, isn't it? I find it next to impossible to get all my scenes and facts in order. Sometimes details need to be slowly dropped into the storyline like breadcrumbs. I don't like erasing and rewriting my plot plans, so I've been using index cards to record my ideas, which is good as far as it goes. Today I designed a set of cards to print on card stock that should help us get those ideas down and in the right order. I've put them on my website: under Free Printables. Let me know how they work for you.

What We Can Learn from Art Garfunkel

I was intrigued to read in Terry Whalin's blog "The Writing Life" that Art Garfunkel was not only an avid reader, but a meticulous record-keeper of each book he has read, according to the New Yorker article "The King of Reading" by Nick Paumgarten. Whalin suggests that this would be a good habit for writers to pick up and I couldn't agree more. Great books are a wonderful resource. Find a notebook you can use and allow yourself a page at least for each book. After each chapter write a quick summary and anything you found particularly memorable, good or bad. When you're finished you'll have a plot outline that you can study and a few examples of effective writing. If you keep it up, you'll have a notebook full of plot outlines that can help you structure your own book. I like the idea so much, I think I'll try it myself. (I put a clip of Whalin's post in the left-hand column. From there you can click to the New Yorker article, if you are interested)

It's Easier to Avoid Sin Than Practice Virtue

And no one is quicker to find fault than a publisher. So while you write your book, watch out for these mistakes:

1. You have no knowledge of other books in the genre. (Yes, I've heard that you can make money writing romance novels, but if you don't love to read them you'll have a hard time pulling it off. Write what you love to read. Anyhow, it gives you a great excuse to sit around reading your favorite books. You're doing "market research"!)

2. You have no experience writing, but refuse all advice. Creativity is a gift, but it won't get your plot untangled. Obviously, this can't apply to anyone reading this.

3. You don't pay attention to other people's speech so all your characters sound alike. Don't let your 3 year olds sound like thirty year olds. Or visa versa.

4. You don't really care about your characters, so you allow gruesome and tragic things to happen to them that aren't necessary to the plot. This sometimes happens to good writers with wildly creative imaginations. No brakes. Rule of thumb: Think twice before adding maggots. (See Neil Gaimon's American Gods ) If you write horror, then those gruesome scenes are necessary to your plot.
   

5. You love a writer so much that you try to write exactly the same way. It's okay to be slightly under the influence, but value your own voice. Then down the road, other writers will want to imitate you.

Fiction That's Realer Than the Real Thing

How do you fill your book with descriptions and characters that are so vivid, that the reader is utterly convinced in their reality? Do you stick to what you know is true? No way! You are a writer! You are not bound by those rules! Nonetheless, there are a few ways to get the facts.

1. Experience: I swam with sharks!

2. Observation: I watched someone swim with sharks.

3. Conversation: I heard someone talking about swimming with sharks.

4. Imagination: I imagined swimming with sharks.

5. Research: I read about swimming with sharks.

Often you'll hear that experience is the most valuable, but I don't believe that. Doing something is no guarantee you can convey the feeling in writing. Get your facts however you choose, (Read my post "Using Your Senses" for tips) and then let your imagination take over.

Casting a "Star " Main Character

Whose eyes will the reader see through? When you choose a character to be the point-of-view character or the main character in your book, that's exactly what you must decide. The point-of-view character's eyes will become the reader's eyes; his/her hands will become the reader's hands. The point-of-view character will lead the reader into the world you have created. Your reader will also walk hand in hand with the "main" character. The main character is the one that the story revolves around. Let's work with a main character who is also the point-of-view character for our first book. This is the most exciting option for the reader because it places him or her right in the center of all the action. (Like a first-person shooter for you game buffs). If you have an idea for your book already, you probably have a sense of who your main character will be. As you dream up your story, try to make your main character active rather than passive. In other words, if your character is hit by a bus, be sure that it is because he or she ran into the street, rather than that the bus swerved onto the sidewalk. Why? Because your character needs to act with passion, be motivated by strong ideals, face up to harrowing fears and live every moment of your plot as if it were his or her last. Then the reader will happily follow your character anywhere.

Free Worksheets

I was going to wait until I was completely finished working on my web page before publishing it, but I really wanted you guys to be able to use some of the worksheets I've made for you and they didn't fit on this blog! Here's the website: http://howtowriteyourbook.writersrecipe.com-a.googlepages.com/home. Go there and look under Free Printables and you'll find some premise cards to print and play with. There's a "Madlib" plot worksheet too. I hope you have fun getting some ideas. Let me know how they work for you!

The players are the game

Characters. You need some. But how many? And who? To decide what characters your story needs, keep in mind that your characters are your plot. They make it happen. Imagine a football game. Your main character is the star player. He's on the field (the setting) holding the ball (the action). The field posts are his goal. His motivation is to score and achieve his goal. The main character carries the action toward the goal. Naturally, it wouldn't be much of a game if he were alone on the field. Let's give him a team-mate to help him. (In your book, this will be a side-kick or romantic interest). This team-mate should complement the main character; he should have strengths and weaknesses that are different, to keep things interesting. But don't look now! Here comes the rival team's best player! (This is your villain in a suspense or mystery novel or the competition in a romance novel.) Be sure that the rival has as strong desire to keep your hero from achieving his goal as your hero does to reach it. These characters are all you need. Any other characters should be added only if they serve to advance the plot. Remember, a close game is more nail-biting than a rout. Keep your sides evenly matched. Victory is sweeter when snatched from defeat. Consider this: the player has no function outside of the game. The game cannot exist without the players. Your characters and your plot are inseparable in the finished book, even if we tend to work on them one at a time in the planning stages.

Go ahead! Make a scene!

Okay, so you want to get to work? I don't blame you! Jump right in! Probably you already have a dramatic moment in mind, a crucial moment in your future book. Time to transform it into a scene! If you remember from my earlier post "The Basic Recipe" each scene has three elements: action, dialog and description. Aim for between 1 and 3 pages. Here's the breakdown:
1) Begin in the middle of the action. (The car skidding, the gun pointing, the letter crumpling in the fist, the door slamming, the phone ringing.)
2) Think like a movie producer. Zoom in from a distance and get close with your details.
3) Get the main character right into the mess. Get those feelings, impressions and thoughts down. Let them use all their senses.
4) Take a breath and set the stage. Where is this taking place? Why is the main character here?
5) Dialog. Don't say a word that doesn't either foreshadow, reveal character or give essential information.
6) More action. Finish the action you started, and if possible, get something else brewing so you can end with a hook. (the car skids to a stop...on the edge of a cliff.)

Now, remember action isn't just car chases and cliff-hangers. You romance writers know that a good deal of suspense and action can be subtle and interpersonal. Sometimes the action is as quiet as character having a life-changing thought. Use what works.

Break habits and build suspense

Since so many of you are interested in the mystery/suspense genre, I thought I'd write a bit about suspense, the tension that keeps readers avidly turning pages. How do you get it in your writing? First, you need a good handle on what suspense is. Suspense isn't curiosity. Curiosity is when you wonder what will happen next. Suspense is when you know exactly what might happen next, but you don't know if it will happen. You need these factors in place for good suspense:
1) Anticipation. That's the "if" factor. The reader must expect something to happen by experience, habit or hope. If you do not establish that your character eats eggs for breakfast every day, your reader may not notice or care if toast crusts on left on the plate one Tuesday, which leads me to the next point...
2) Make a habit, break a habit. Something was anticipated and it didn't happen. That's suspense. The reader is on alert.
3) Make sure the reader knows what's at stake. What is the main character trying to achieve? What are the obstacles? What is that black cloud looming on the horizon? Let the reader get good and worried. (Remember, if the reader doesn't have an inclination of what will happen next, that's just curiosity.)
4) Don't let your plot unravel! If you've got unresolved questions and side stories, tie them up neatly. Don't leave the reader with loose ends.
Even if you aren't planning on writing a mystery, tuck these tips away. Suspense is useful in all genres.