Friday, November 06, 2009

Friday Faves


Let's see, I had a woman at the book signing last week tell me she had a friend in Iowa that had all my books and loved them. (ego boost)

I've written 8500 words this week and am nearly half way with the project I'm working on. My goal is to have it finished by Thanksgiving. So keep your fingers crossed.

The editor of the Yellow Rose like at Wild Rose Press said she liked my contemporary western but would like me to up the emotion and change the title. As soon as I get this project done, I'll jump into those revisions and I'm hoping to brainstorm a new title with my RWA chapter this month.

Found out my Alaska daughter will be here for Christmas with her crew!

And I'm attending a workshop with Sherman Alexie in Bend today with a writer friend.

I've fallen behind- Here are the subtypes of the enneagrams by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

SUBTYPES
If you met Sherlock Holmes and Greta Garbo in an online chat loop, you wouldn't have any trouble telling them apart. They're both Fives, yes, but no two matching enneagram types are alike anymore than two matching astrological types are alike.
One reason is because of the subtypes: Self-preservation, Intimacy, and Social. Everyone values each of these in different amounts. When you're holed up studying for the final exam, that's self-preservation. When you're on a dinner date talking for hours, that's intimacy. And when you're in a crowd of fans all cheering for the home team, that's social. We all do all three.
Ideally you have them all weighted equally in your life, but most of us tend to hang out more in one area than in the others. And of course that area is going to be a source of great strength because we're good at it, and it's also going to be a source of great weakness because we've left the others alone. But great weakness is a fine thing when it comes to creating characters! So see which subtype sounds like your hero or heroine (or yourself and your real-life hero).
The Self-Preservation subtype person is concerned with exactly that: self-preservation. Does their household have enough water to last through a nuclear winter? How are they gonna pay their kid's tuition? Is there anywhere they can get some privacy? Where can they find their favorite kind of soda? These people are concerned with basic survival issues...survival of the body or the spirit or both. If they were stranded on a desert island with plenty of survival gear, they'd be fine by themselves.
Now, how—in a romance—can this self-preservation trait work? It's not what you'd expect from a typical romance character, right? An adventure thriller, yes, you want your hero or heroine to save the sinking boat and elude the Nazis...but on an emotional level, this self-preservation can be a wonderful character trait for building internal conflict. Imagine someone who's trying to preserve their well-being, their sanity, their heart, by not falling in love. Imagine the tension as they find themselves falling in love, and resisting, and falling, and resisting.... Self-preservation is a great trait for a romance novel character!
The intimacy-subtype person is someone who's concerned with one-on-one relationships. Not just their lover, but every individual friendship. They want to spend time alone with everyone they care about, just the two of them, talking as intimately as they can: "What's going on? How're you feeling? Here's what's new with me." If they were on that desert island, they'd want one other person with them. Just one...who'd be just as involved with the relationship as they are.
Now it's no good for a romance if your hero and heroine are both intimacy subtypes who wants the same intimacy at the same time, because then all you have is two people kissing and holding hands for chapter after chapter. But suppose one character wants this intimacy with not ONLY the lover, but also with the friend next door and the brother across town and the boss and the waitress and the lover's grandmother...there's going to be some conflict, right? I remember a great book where the hero was a social worker who gave himself wholeheartedly to the individual kids at his youth shelter that needed one-on-one contact, and when it came time for the romantic dinner with the heroine while a kid is in crisis...okay, more conflict. So you can see how an intimacy character is great for a romance novel!
Finally, the Social subtype. This person is concerned with the community as a whole. They're not so much interested in what's going on within themselves, or what's going on within a particular person, as they are with what's going on in the whole group. That group might be their church, their co-workers, their RWA chapter...whatever it is, these people love being part of the group. They want their entire gang on that desert island, and they want to do their part for the whole group...for the whole social structure.

3 comments:

Eunice Boeve said...

Hi Paty,
I must fit in all three, maybe we all do. Probably the last two do fit me best, though. Interesting. Not something I've thought about before, at least, not in such concrete terms. Eunice Boeve

Paty Jager said...

Eunice, It's ironic, I'm self-preservation and my dh is social. So we do have some conflicts at times about how to do things or who is going to do what. I prefer to stay holed up at home and he prefers to visit with everyone.

Lauri said...

Congrats on the ego boost! I love those. Best of luck with the writing and brainstorming the new title. I can relate with the self-preservation at times!