You're writing a mainstream suspense with your husband. Tell us about that. What's your process?
Ah – I’ll expose the mystery of coauthoring. ;-)))
Lucky for us, most of the suspense, tension, and conflict is in the story, not the coauthoring process!
Honest – my husband and I have such fun brainstorming and what-if’ing. Then, we decide who writes which scenes – and we edit each other’s work. Given my propensity for deep editing, I dive into my scenes, as well as his scenes, and deep edit, deep edit, deep edit . . .
Collaborating usually involves synapses cross-firing between our brains, but it’s not always magical. When needed, we use a 100 POINT PLAN.
If we don’t agree on something, we quantify it. The writer has up to 100 points. The challenger has up to 99 points. If the challenger gives their suggestion 40 or 50 points, they realize they can easily let it go if the writer’s points are higher.
No external conflict. No internal angst.
If the challenger has heavy-duty points in the 80’s and 90’s, the writer usually rethinks it. Often the scene is tweaked, torqued, or trashed, resulting in a new scene that pleases both writers. A scene that carries power.
Like every writer, our goal is to plot and craft the best scene possible. It’s easy to jettison your idea when the other person’s idea is better. ;-)))
You have a closet full of hats: counseling psychologist, college professor, workshop presenter, keynote speaker, clinical trainer, sex therapist and hypnotherapist and writer. Which is your favorite and why?
Ane – You’re asking me which of my children I love the most. You’re so mean!
I have a strong inner need to be creative – and I wear my creativity hat in all my roles. I’m fortunate. I have a brimming-over life that’s rewarding for me. Multiple hats might make others crazy, but they keep me energized.
Hmm, which role do I like best? To draw from the song, “I love the one I’m with.” The role I’m in at any moment is usually the one I like best. My roles are all creative, all helping in some way (real people or fictional characters), all fabulous fits for me.
You've said you're fascinated with the psychology of writing. You love to unravel the psychological nuances of the craft. If the story is good, I get caught up and forget to dissect what I'm reading, even if it’s a second or third reading. How do you dissect a scene?
In school, I loved anatomy. Loved dissecting everything. Exploring layer after layer. Understanding the intricacies. Exposing the magic.
I’m equally passionate about dissecting scenes. I get to expose the writing magic.
On my first pass, I’m 99% reader. That remaining 1%, I sticky tab whatever grabs me. It may be fresh emotion, nonverbal communication, one of 30+ rhetorical devices, or a line that could boost the author onto the New York Times bestseller list.
Next, I go through the book and type some of the tabbed examples in a file. I may have 2 to 10 pages of examples. Some authors WOW me with their fresh ways to hook the reader viscerally.
I draw from those examples for my on-line courses and my full day master classes. Writers get to see how I dissect writing and learn how to write their own passages loaded with psychological power.
To analyze a scene in depth, I use my EDITS System as well as my 5Q, (my Five Question Scene Checklist). For details, keep reading. ;-)))
When did the writing bug bite you?
Young. Very young. But I didn’t trust that I could be a writer. I whipped straight through school focusing on psychology. I allowed myself to write psych-based articles on intriguing topics like the emotional impact of impotence. Not destined for bestseller lists. :-)))
What sparked the desire to teach writers?
Writers didn’t have anywhere else to acquire this knowledge – and they needed it.
I used to teach college, from undergraduate to post-graduate courses. Abnormal Psychology, Group Dynamics, Psychology of Learning, plus all the other courses I taught, gave me a strong foundation to teach writers. Not that writers are abnormal. ;-)))
I attended your Empowering Character Emotions class at the ACFW conference and it was insightful. How did you develop the course?
I didn’t have a big plan to develop any courses. I dove deep into analyzing books and developing systems so I could understand how writers were successful at capturing emotion on the page. I wanted to learn from them. I wanted to be successful too.
Over time, my systems evolved, courses evolved, and presentations evolved. Voila! My non-fiction writing career was launched.
Empowering Characters’ Emotions was created to teach writers how to write real emotion. Emotion so strong, so smooth, so immediate, that the reader is hooked viscerally.
When the reader is hooked viscerally, and stays hooked, you’ve got a page turner.
How can Empowering Characters’ Emotions benefit novelists?
As a psychologist, I know the impact of body language. I also know that writers often use tried and trite body language. In Empowering Characters’ Emotions, I teach writers how to expand their repertoire of nonverbal communication, including the full range of facial expressions, flicker face emotions, movements, gestures, ideomotoric shifts, and vocal cues.
Empowering Characters’ Emotions also introduces my EDITS System, explores the Four Levels of Powering Up Emotion, and teaches writers how to write fresh. The course is loaded with hands-on tools guaranteed to add psychological power.
Since we're on the subject, how do we avoid clichés and still convey emotion?
Here are two ways:
1. Rewrite clichés. When you find clichés in your manuscript, highlight them, and insert these words in bold, right after the cliché: WRITE FRESH.
2. Use my Four Levels of Powering Up Emotion to stack basics in a creative way to create complex, empowered, or super empowered passages.
I bet you’re wondering -- How do you write fresh? Challenge yourself. See how the masters write fresh. How they twist, avoid, or think outside the cliché.
Dean Koontz is a master of writing craft. He avoids clichés like vegetarians avoid haggis.
How’s that for a fresh simile? I didn’t fall into that predictable line: He avoids clichés like the plague. :-)))
Let's talk about editing. Some writers hate this part and others love it. It's my favorite part of writing. Tell us about your Deep Editing Course. How did you develop this one?
Most writers don’t know why some writing hooks them. They don’t know why some books are page turners. They don’t know why when they read certain books, they become engaged viscerally. Heart rate up, breathing shallow, muscles tense.
They could be reading any genre – and have the same gut-wrenching, jaw-clenching physical response. And still . . . not know how the writer grabbed them.
We’ve all read passages that by their content, should have hooked us emotionally, but didn’t. We’ve written scenes that we expected to pop, but went pfft. They fizzled.
Tighten your cognitive seat belt. Here’s why I developed my Deep Editing course.
To teach writers how to write to psychological power.
To teach writers how to build credible conflict and crescendo emotion.
To teach writers how to speak to the unconscious of the reader.
To teach writers how to wrap their words around the reader’s heart and squeeze.
And again, how would your Deep Editing course benefit novelists?
WHOA! I’d need a million words to adequately describe my DEEP EDITING course and how it could benefit novelists. I’ll give you the fast-track description.
Deep Editing covers four major psychologically-anchored topics:
The EDITS System goes deep, deep, deeper
My multi-layered Five Question Scene Checklist
Twenty-Five Rhetorical Devices for adding power using style and structure
More Deep Editing Techniques
Writers have a galaxy of choices to add power to their writing, yet many writers repeat the same basic patterns. I developed my Deep Editing course so I could help writers go deeper. Duh! The full title is: Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More.
Can you briefly explain your highlighter system?
A EUREKA moment! That describes how I stumbled on developing my EDITS System.
EUREKA!
I’m a visual person. I wanted to analyze what I had in each scene. Wanted to see where I had strong emotion, where I had dialogue (and assess stimulus/response sets), where I’d kept the POV character in their head (internalizations), where I’d slipped in setting, and where I needed to add more tension and conflict.
I picked up some highlighters and matched colors to those five elements of fiction and highlighted those five components. When I realized that Emotion, Dialogue, Internalizations, Tension, and Setting spelled EDITS – I shrieked. ;-)))
My EDITS System is multi-dimensional, multi-applicable. It helps writers identify their weaknesses, their voids, their less-than-desirable patterns and shows them what they need to do to write a page turner.
So what's in your future? Are there any more Margie courses lurking behind your office door? Maybe a new take on character personalities? Come on, you can tell us.
Ane – Are you a mind-reader? I do have new material!
Interested in learning SIMPLE SELF-HYPNOSIS?
That’s one of six new topics I added to my Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors course. I also added writing-on-the-go, the power of sleep, stretch breaks, blasting writer's block, and optimizing productivity.
I’m offering a new opportunity in October (2008) – a two-week intensive study: Digging Deep into the EDITS System. Writers have been nudging me, requesting a course focused on analyzing and applying the EDITS System. Here’s their chance to dig deep applying the EDITS System to their work in progress.
Empowering Characters’ Emotions (March, 2009) and Deep Editing (May, 2009) have some new topics too. One of the new sections is called Stretching Time. Writers will learn how to amplify and deepen Motivation Reaction Units. How to draw the reader into the nuances of moments that may take a page or more to describe. How to stretch time and keep the reader not only engaged, but holding their breath.
You teach each of your on-line courses one time per year, and I know your classes are popular. I understand you offer Lecture Packets for writers who miss the courses. How does that work?
Each of my Lecture Packets consists of a Welcome, 9 lectures and a Wrap Up, all the lectures for that course. Course descriptions are under the LECTURE PACKETS tab on my web site, www.MargieLawson.com. Each Lecture Packet is $20 and consists of over 250 pages of lectures. People can use PayPal, or mail a check.
Margie -- What’s next for you? What do you want to make happen in your life?
My life is amazing. I’m thrilled to share that I get to present full day master classes in Australia and New Zealand in 2008. A few years ago, I had presenting in Australia as one of my Wild Card Goals. Now - - it’s happening. New Zealand too. Amazing.
I have several other big goals I’m focusing on this year. Regarding nonfiction goals, I’m taking material from my two editing courses and creating a Deep Editing Power Workbook. Deep Editing Power would be the first in a series of five workbooks.
I envision them in a format similar to Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. Donald Maass covers plot. I cover the full range of deep editing.
Regarding fiction goals, my husband and I will put a lot of energy into finding the right agent for our psychological suspense. For this suspense series, we have the first book almost ready to fly and we’ve plotted four more.
I have a few other Wild Card Goals in mind for 2009, 2010, 2011 . . . Yet, life is already grand. Enjoying life is about enjoying the minutes and hours every day, while they’re happening. The goodies in life are bonuses. Enjoying your spouse, your family, your friends as often as you can – those are life’s treasures.