Lately I've been trying to work more on setting descriptions in scenes. It's a weakness of mine that I know needs help so I thought today I would challenge us to a writing prompt using our current characters.

Below I'm including a few photos for inspiration. Pick a photo and use it to inspire a scene with your characters - you can set them in the photo or use it to inspire a different setting or memory. Whatever you choose, let's see if we can work on how we layer and add setting descriptions into the scene to enhance it and not just as filler (as I have a tendency to do).

Yes, indeedy, folks. The buzz about THE BEST MAN is not hype. It's all true. It's like crack-pie awesome sauce on a triple chocolate sundae. You thinking, "I better pace myself reading this book, or I'll make myself sick with laughing" but you don't. And your smiley muscles ache, but you don't care, because the book was just awesome in a can.

Personally, I didn't think she could top MY ONE AND ONLY, which I know I'm sorta alone on that island because many readers weren't as impressed by the heroine, but I adored it. Nothing could possibly top that crotchety heroine and her smart-alecky ex-husband...and then I met the heroine who basically lives my nightmare on the page.

Faith gets jilted at the altar. By her "newly-out-of-the-closet" groom, which she totally didn't know because they'd been having sex and everything. Poor girl. I totally wanted to meet this girl for drinks and say, "I know your pain." Okay, I've never actually been jilted at the altar...and I'm pretty sure none of the guys I've actually had sex with are gay--but I did date a gay guy for a while who kept insisting he wasn't and I still managed to get my heart broken and that's like totally the same. He and his husband are happy now and have a baby. Just saying. I know.

Moving on.

And to make the jilting that much more bitter, it's the best man who pokes the groom and makes him fess up. Right in front of everyone and God. Yeah, I could see holding a grudge against the guy, since he certainly gives all the appearance of having the sensitivity of a bull in a china shop.

The story moves on to the heroine's current dating experiences 3 1/2 years later--and you find out she's still hoping to cross "have sex with a straight guy" off her bucket list. (Really at this point, you're laughing with her and not at her.) But the world is full of scallywags and her gaydar is definitely broken, so dating hasn't been working much for her.

The heroine is called home to help resolve a problem ("How do you solve a problem like Lorena?") and while there, she's also going to landscape and remake this barn on the family wine-farm to make it useful for weddings, et al. She immediately bonds again with the best man, who is now a sheriff in her hometown, when he writes her a ticket for speeding. (Not a love at first sight premise, no.)

Many, many more horrifying shenanigans later, and finally, miraculously she and the best man-sheriff have sex. (Yes! She scratched "have sex with a straight guy" off her list!)

This is what she says after, reflecting on Levi's beautiful, breathtaking abs: "Yes. Levi Cooper was a sparkly unicorn of wonder." And a bit later, my favorite line in any book ever: "And the sex was great. She honestly hadn't known sex like that really existed outside of Ryan Gosling movies." Yeah, that line was so stupendous that I had to read it to Deerhunter, who said, "Yeah! Or porn!" "Sweetie, Ryan Gosling movies are girl porn. We don't usually find the regular porn all that." "Oh. Okay."

The book is about two somewhat awkward, imperfect, hurt people who find love together--and Ryan Gosling-esque sex. It's funny, magical, heartwarming, bittersweet, sad in parts where you could just weep, and ends on the right note of Happily Ever After. Even though the hero does remain rather emotionally constipated when discussing his feelings, it's okay--that's what makes it feel real, you know?

Good stuff. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

What great stuff have you been reading lately? Any horrific wedding stories to share--or those about emotionally constipated men?

Musical Influence:  "House of Cards" Hurt (Blackmarket EP, 2006)


There have been many times in my life when emotion has taken over. When I no longer have control over what my mouth is saying and everything that I’d held inside for so long came front and centered. There is nothing like those moments, vulnerable and exposed to the one who’s either caused you pain or you’ve loved like no one before them. It’s in those moments that we realize who we are inside.


For some of us emotion is not easily said aloud but easier shown in small gestures that are often overlooked. It’s easy to say the words, “I love you” if you don’t really mean it. Words are often regaled as the emotion behind the person but without these gestures behind the meaning, it truly isn’t worth the last turnip on the turnip truck.


I’ve often thought about those gestures behind my characters. What makes them act the way they do? What makes you engage the character? Visualization of the scene, gestures that seem real and not overbearing. You really have to analyze every day life and those around you in order to get an understanding of this. To me this is one of the most important jobs of a writer. I want you to feel like you are in that scene. Like you can feel the motivation behind my character’s actions. If you can’t physically feel that emotion draped between the words, sentences, paragraphs, then I’m obviously not conveying it the right way.



I can think of a few writers that do this and do this well. I adore dark heroes. The darker the better. But that’s what makes their redemption so much sweeter in the end. The dark heroes know how to do the gestures behind their actions. For them, it’s the only way they can truly express their feelings without feeling overpowered by the moment.



It’s the small gestures that, to the reader, tell you everything you need to know about the relationship between two characters. There is no telling of these emotions, there is no need. As a reader, you sense that connection between the hero and heroine. Without that connection, I wouldn’t be a reader of their fiction. Plain and simple. I don’t need to be told of the emotion. Seriously, any schmuck can say the words “I love you” and grin like an idiot and that still doesn’t mean, to me, that they actually care or genuinely love. They are saying the words. There can be all the basis in the world behind them, and they still might not mean anything without the gesture of love behind it.



What do I mean by gesture, you might ask? To me, the gesture of love and emotion is showing me you mean it. By not just saying it, you truly feel it. Nothing will separate us. Not obsessive or overbearing; but that one true deep emotion that happens once in a million years. Pamela Clare just has this wonderful way of writing the emotional gestures behind the action. My favorite example of Pamela Clare’s gestures is *spoiler for Hard Evidence* when Julian steps into the line of fire and takes several bullets in the back for Tessa. Yes, he’s a FBI agent, but it’s the moments afterwards. The way Julian reacts. The tenderness between them when Tessa cries for him that truly shows you the gestures behind the motivation and emotion. It’s complex. It’s raw. And it’s truly awe-inspiring.



Julian is a different breed of dark hero. A man who truly doesn’t know his worth because he was never taught. There was no trust in his heart. No love in his life. My heart pitter-patters at the thought of Julian, dark sunglasses, 5 o’clock shadow, lean hips swaggering towards me. You can just tell that Julian is all action, no talk.



Not to mention Janet Evanovich’s character Ranger (R. Carlos Manoso). All of the words that come out of Ranger’s mouth contradict his actions. The way he unabashedly tells the truth no matter how painful it is to hear it. He tells it straight. He makes no apologies. He’s hard and unforgiving. And it takes a special sort of love to understand him. If you hear the words come out of Ranger’s mouth you can take it to heart. He thinks about what he says before he speaks. Every word is weighed carefully. Don’t say things you don’t mean. But there is a sneakiness about Ranger as well. Qualifiers. Contradictions. Keeping at arm’s length.



Looks that tell a different story. Actions that show exactly what he feels.



Take for an example: In Twelve Sharp *spoilers for Twelve Sharp* the book is about Ranger’s daughter with whom he has little contact with. When asked about it, he speaks of her clinically, without emotion, detached. But his actions tell a different story. He exudes his every resource to find her. Spends countless hours awake, searching, hunting, tracking down leads. He enlists Stephanie to help him. And when he sees his little girl’s smiling face on the TV and a picture of him, listed as armed and dangerous, you see his mask slip and the emotion becomes very raw and painful. And even then, Stephanie knows that his daughter is just not another expense in his budget, but a real emotion he keep close to his heart and never shows to anyone.



So, in your opinion, who is the master of these sorts of gestures? What sort of characters suck you in and never let you go? Has there ever been a scene that just stuck out for you and stayed with you long after you sat the book down?