Sharon Dunn Muses About Writing

On Tuesday, author Sharon Dunn shared her thoughts about collaborating with other writers on a book series. Today, we ask her a few questions about herself.

(And no, silly, that's not Sharon's head shot! Read on for the explanation.)

Q. What do you love about being a writer, and what do you like the least?

A. I love most everything about being a writer. I like setting my own schedule. Love going to conferences and meeting other writers and learning new things. Don’t mind working alone, but I love collaboration too.  My current book, Guard Duty, is book three in a six book series, so I got to work with five other writers.  The interaction and encouragement was energizing.

What don’t I like? I find I’m reluctant to do some of the promotional stuff I’m expected to do and I think I finally figured out why.  A lot of the social networking starts to feel like high school all over again.  How many “friends” do I have? How many “Likes” do I have? What’s my rank on Amazon? It’s like a popularity contest. So much of that stuff can create a false sense of importance. I would rather focus on writing a great story and seeking out genuine interaction and connection with readers.          

Q. Amen to that! I'm pretty sure you have a lot of fellow-writers in that frustrating boat with you. We'd much rather spend our time writing! 

So on that subject, please tell us: how do you get your best ideas?

A. Ideas are everywhere. The hard part is figuring out which idea to pursue, which one would make a good story. Since I write romantic suspense, I also have to think in terms of which idea would fit the construct of a fast paced suspense with a romance thrown in. Let me give you an example of a spark of an idea that I am working on right now. In these early stages, I don’t write anything down. I just let the idea brew in my head. If it passes the brewing test (meaning I see story potential) then I’ll start to brainstorm and free write on the idea to flesh out the story. But here is where the spark for the idea came from. When all the news reports for Hurricane Sandy and all the graphic pictures were being shown, my mind immediately started to think in terms of a story.  There is all that looting going on. There would be huge physical threat to the characters and there would be a degree of isolation. A good foundation for a suspense story. Don’t know if that will ever become a full blown story but the spark for an idea come as easily as that.

Another spark happened when the story of the ex-cop in California who was seeking revenge from being fired from his job started to hit the news. I saw characters who were maybe taken hostage by this guy or were related to him. Or what if my character was one of the lawmen who had to find that guy in the California mountains? That’s how the spark works. Asking lots of what if questions, seeing a character as part of the story. If I pursued either of those ideas, by the time I put the story together, it wouldn’t look anything like the news stories. I’m not trying to recreate those events. I’m using those events to fuel my imagination.      

Q. Plainly, you're a writer at heart! Now let me ask you this, for a little change of subject: Do you have any pets? If so, do you own them, or they you?

A. I’m so glad you asked about pets because it gives me a chance to talk about a new favorite guy in my life. His name is Bart and he is a very energetic border collie. We got him from the shelter. All they could tell us about him was that he and his mom were found abandoned in a rental house.  He’s super smart and super stubborn. I can’t tell you how much this dog has added to my life. When it’s just me and him and the cats in the house, he’s my writing buddy. He comes and lies on my feet (not at my feet) if I’m working at my desk and he checks on me if I am working with my lap desk on the bed. Gotta love those puppies. Bart is almost three now, but he’ll always be my puppy. My new book, Guard Duty, is about a Texas K-9 unit, so it was fun to write about the bond between owner and dog. It was something I have become familiar with and see as a pretty special thing.

Q. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Sharon! We wish you the best in all your promotion efforts (smile). Give Bart a scratch behind the ears for us, too! 


Don't forget to come back tomorrow, when you can enter to win a free copy of Sharon's latest release, Guard Duty!

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Making the Stakes Higher by Sharon Dunn

Sharon Dunn is an award winning writer of romantic suspense and humorous mysteries for the Christian market. Her suspense novel Night Prey won the 2011 Carol award. Zero Visibility is her fifth novel of Love Inspired Suspense. You can read more about Sharon at www.sharondunnbooks.net.

In writing fiction, the advice is often given to “make the stakes higher.” It took me a long time to translate that in a way that helped me construct a tighter story. To me, upping the stakes for a character just means that you increase the potential for disaster or you make what the character stands to lose even bigger if they don’t make the right choices or succeed in their goals.  

With suspense, increasing the stakes for a character usually involves the potential loss of life or of a loved one’s life. When I set out to write a suspense story, I try to come up with a threat that is relentless and escalating. For example in my current Love Inspired Suspense Zero Visibility, the inspiration for the story was a what if question. What if two character, Nathan and Merci, were completely isolated from help and they had only each other to rely on for survival? So I picked an isolated setting—a mountain side during a freak spring blizzard. Those are pretty high stakes for survival right? But harsh weather conditions and isolation are not enough to sustain a whole story.  I had to raise the stakes even more. Back to the what if questions. What if these two people were being chased by thieves bent on killing them? Those two factors help create a suspenseful story, but I can raise the stakes even more by causing more mayhem in my characters’ lives. What if one of the characters gets injured? What if they have no weapons, no way to defend themselves? What if they get lost on the mountain? With that one, I can make the stakes even higher: What if they get lost on the mountain at night? All of these factors create the potential for a character to die, thus the potential for huge loss. 

Finally, raising the stakes doesn’t just involve threats from external forces… even in suspense. Often the greatest potential for failure and best place to raise the stakes can be found within the characters. In Zero Visibility, I have points at which each character gives up hope that they will get off the mountain alive. Also, a character’s background is a good place to look for possibilities. The one thing these two characters have is each other.  What if Nathan does something that reminds Merci of her father with whom she does not have a good relationship causing Merci to walk away? When the two characters are separated, the potential for danger increases.  

Upping the stakes is not only important for good suspense writing but for all story telling. In a book I am currently working on, I couldn’t figure out why the romance between the two characters seemed so blah. The characters were forced to worked together to survive, but there was no spark between them.  Back to the what if questions. Initially, I had this hero and heroine meeting for the first time when her life is suddenly under threat. The what if question I came up with changed the dynamic of the relationship. What if hero and heroine had known each other when they were teenagers? Had in fact been in love and had a child they gave up for adoption. Their immaturity at 16 made it impossible for them to sustain the relationship. The stakes are raised not only for things to not work out romantically, but also for them not to be able to overcome the hurts of the past to work together and keep the heroine alive. 

A lot of times in a book, the stakes are emotional. A character stands to lose a relationship or faces humiliation that devastates them. The bottom line is, you need to mess with your characters. Create a situation that seems insurmountable and them make it even worse.     

      

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