Bob Mayer Retreat & Agent Update

Well, it's been a busy month or so.

I've gotten a request from an agent for another revision on In Pursuit of Caviar. Which seemed totally daunting until I went to Bob Mayer's retreat in Hilton Head the first weekend of this month. I feel honored by the agent's attention and I think her input is valid and will add a lot of value for the writing, now that I think I can do it justice.

The other seven people in the group were fantastic and Bob outdid himself. Actually, I think he had to recover when we left, as all of usare romance writers. Anyone who reads the He Wrote, She Wrote blog knows how Bob feels about YEC (Yucky Emotional Crap.

A few of my takeaways:

I got my money's worth in the first day. The rest of it was icing. Very thick, delicious icing. Many lightbulb moments. I think we made Bob a little nuts with our romances, but he didn't get to be special forces for being wimpy - that's for sure!

One of the most valuable things that lightbulbed for me was outward directed POV. And showing things happening in real time. Which I'd not thought about before.

Outward directed POV: He used an example from their new book. The reactions of the different characters when they entered Agnes' kitchen. And what it told the reader about their characters. The ways to develop character without it having to be emotion or body functions like heart speeding up or smiling or whatever. It was very cool and I'm trying to use it now in my rewrite of Caviar for Lois.

He worked with me on my plot for the Golf Club book and we got it all ironed out. I really, really like what he helped me see and how I'm now going to develop the plot. Hewants me to slow down my scenes a bit. Which was frustrating because there's all this emphasis on pace, but he made a big point about real time. And giving the reader time to let the impact hit. It makes a lot of sense and doesn't necessarily mean to slow down the read. Fun stuff.

He talked about our original ideas and our "what if" statements. The idea that whatever the character's scene goal really is probably is determined by some black hole in the character's psyche from the past. That we need to find that event and learn all we can about it in our character's backstory.

He talked about motif and symbols and how to use them and develop them. Which was really interesting. Something I'm not quite sure I have a full grasp of yet, but probably enough of an idea to really be dangerous with.

So, onward with my revisions for my Caviar manuscript so I can get going on the story I worked on with Bob.He's a peach of a guy. (Which I hope I can say to someone like Bob.)

Thanks for stopping by.

Ardath