Jessica Nelson's Blog

 So...I am learning coding languages. Ruby and JavaScript in particular.

I posted my story HERE on Romancing the Code.

And HERE on Medium. 

BTW, I have a new book releasing early January! SO happy and excited! That is all. :-) Happy almost Christmas! Did you put up your tree yet?

A marriage of convenience

is the only way to save her family…

Widow Sophia Seymour never planned to marry again—let alone become a duchess. But with her father missing and her family impoverished, an old betrothal contract promising her hand to a notorious duke is her only hope. And Edmund DeVane intends to honor the agreement—in name only. After all, Edmund needs a wife with an impeccable reputation to protect his debuting niece. But as their arrangement starts to feel much more real, can their budding love survive Edmund’s deepest secret?

I ran across a great article the other day HERE. And almost ten years later (hello 2021), that post is still up!

It mentions a bunch of cool things but a particular idea caught my attention. It's the SO WHAT factor.

From the post:

"It's easy to confuse concept with plot, and that's not it. Because that leaves out something that Lisa Cron's recent book WIRED FOR STORY calls the "'so what?' factor." She goes on to explain that the "so what?" factor is what clues a reader in on the point of the story, the relevance of everything that happens in it, what the story is about."

Basically, why should we care? Empathy is SO important in books. I think empathy and curiosity are the two biggest things that will keep a reader turning pages. 
What do you think?

If you've got a WIP, check out your first page and ask yourself if it piques curiosity or empathy.
Think of a book you couldn't put down. What kept you reading? How can you work that "So What" relevance into your WIP?

I would also call this STAKES.What does your character have to lose if he or she does not reach the initial goal? Stakes, stakes, stakes. That's what makes the story matter, in  my opinion. 
Think even of movies, since they tend to go faster. Immediately the viewer is thrust into a situation with a character who needs to accomplish something OR ELSE ... something bad will happen. This is what keeps us hooked into a story. We have to care about the character. 
Whew. So this is a repost almost ten years later but I still feel just as strongly about it. Now I need to revise, I think. LOL And maybe rewrite all my books. 

Good old Uncle Jesse...this is the first fictional character who I remember making my elementary heart pitter patter. Full House was my favorite show, and now you know why. Who could resist a guy like Uncle Jesse? He loved his nieces, played a guitar, rode a motorcycle, had a great sense of humor and of course, there was the leather coat. :-)

The character of Rick O'Connell captured my imagination as a teen and made me want to be a librarian, just so I could daydream about some daring, funny adventurer falling in love with me.









Damon is one of those characters in need of redemption, but the first thing I loved about him was his loyalty to the woman he loved. It was unshakable. That warms this woman's heart! 
I'm 38 now, and Damon still makes me *swoon*

Which heroes (in tv or in books) grabbed your attention? What was it about them that made you never forget them?

How do you view people?
I didn't have much interest in people as a kid. Once I discovered books (kindergarten, guys), the life within them seemed more real than the bustle around me. I cared for and liked people but I didn't really see them as interesting.
Until I landed a job at my local newspaper. As a freelancer, my editor expected a story on a person every two weeks to grace our Neighbors section, and it needed to be interesting. The story was supposed to focus on a local resident's unique skill or talent. 
I was blind, not understanding, wondering how I could find these "special" people. My editor forever changed my perspective. He told me every person has something unique, something special about themselves, even if they don't know it. It was my job to find that slant and spotlight it. 
Now everyone I meet I'm full of curiosity about. Who are they? What's their story? Where have they been and where are they going? If you were a story, what genre would you be? How do you see people? How do you think God sees people?
#ocala #story #human #writer #perspective #God 

This was originally posted in 2014!! Now Dylan has a new book coming out with #Hatchette books! (How Sweet It Is) Super exciting, and not a paranormal, which proves that when it comes to writing #queries, she still rocks. Look at this gorgeous cover!



Back to the past...Thank you to #author Dylan Newton who shared the #query that landed me my first contract for Love On The Range on her blog today! Dylan is a great person who writes wonderful paranormal romances! In fact, I'm looking forward to reading her next book when it releases!
If you want to check out my interview and query, here is the link: http://dylannewtonwrites.blogspot.com/2013/09/inspirational-romance-query-letter-that.html


You can check out Dylan's books on Amazon or at her website.


Have you written a #query yet? How did it fare in the terrifying world of #publishing??

While it is true that I have sold five books to Love Inspired Historical, I cannot claim any kind of authority on synopsis writing.

So it stands that three e-books later and five print books later, I am once again reading articles on how to write a selling synopsis.

So the link I used to have on this post changed, so I did a bit of googling (or duck duck going *grin*) and found this gem. I love examples because it's one thing to say how to do it, quite another thing to show how to do it. (Novel Synopsis Examples: How to Write a Synopsis (theazrianportal.com)
Examples are a great way to compare your synopsis to how others read. See if you can note plot points, transitions, character arcs. And then check your own synopsis for the same things. 
Have you written a synopsis yet? Do you like it? How did you learn?

 Happy Saturday! 

Just throwing out a blog post about #freebies so that my GoodReads and Amazon readers will have the info. 

I've got a book free on Amazon right now until March 02, 2021. Forever Love is the third book in the Women of Manatee Bay series. :-) The cover and blurb are below and you can buy it HERE.

I'm also participating in a BookSweeps #giveaway. Contest details can be found HERE and the graphic below showcases the participants (and there are some well known, awesome authors participating!).

Sky-diving instructor Maggie McCormick has a reputation in her small town for living on the wild side. What people don't know is how her painful choices have whittled away at her soul. Determined to be done with romantic relationships, she's ready to focus on a deeper relationship with God. She wants to prove she's different and dreams of opening a home for young mothers. When she stumbles across the perfect property, things seem to be going well until she discovers the owner is none other than her good-looking pastor. And he's refusing to sell.
Pastor Joe O'Reilly has big plans for his church and they don't include selling his inheritance to free-spirited, motorcyclist Maggie McCormick. When her desire to help young mothers inspires him to assist her in the quest for land, he doesn't expect to start falling for her. But Maggie guards dark secrets that could destroy his faith in their love.
Can Maggie trust Joe to love her despite her past, especially when she sees forever in his eyes?

Wow! This was so long ago that I don't even remember watching this movie with the kiddos. I love rereading this, not just for the characterization perspective, but for the memories. *happy smile*
In 2011, I watched Tangled with my kids. As the movie started, my six year old son couldn't help but give me a running dialogue about everything (he's seen it before). The movie introduced the hero, who happened to be stealing. 
I asked my son, is the thief the guy Rapunzel falls in love with? 
He turned to me, eyes round. "He's not a thief, mom." 
"But he's stealing," I pointed out. 
"No, no, no, he's not stealing. There are bad guys with him, but he's not stealing at all." My son shook his head and absolutely refused to believe that the good guy was doing a bad thing. I smiled and dropped the subject. 
Let him root for the bad guy. I knew that by the end of the story, the thief would be the prince. 
Have you ever rooted for someone, knowing they were doing bad things but seeing their potential for change? Have you ever been like my son and completely blind to a character's/person's faults? What do you think about starting a character arc so completely down on the morality pole?

There are a lot of reasons why I love the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Yes, still, even as a forty year old woman. 

Those who hate the movie might find this hard to believe, but Napoleon Dynamite is, at heart, about the deep value of relationships and how they  change us. The movie uses Understatement in a major way, which I think makes it slow-paced and boring at the beginning. If you don't finish the movie, it will be hard to like it, imo.

At the beginning of the movie, it's as though the major characters are muffled. Their emotions, their expressions, even the tones of their voices contain little emotion.

This is where Irony comes into play.

Secondary characters at first appear more alive than main ones. But as the story unfolds, as conflicts are introduced and relationships forged, the primary characters become the ones I root for. And by the end of the movie, a very interesting thing happens.

The discovered relationship and connection between the main characters has changed them so deeply that they become real and rounded. Those secondary characters who seemed more relatable at the beginning are actually flat stereotypes.

I also love the element of Surprise (aka freshness). When Napoleon's brother meets the girl he's been talking to on the internet, you're in for a surprise. There's a wonderful freshness in that scene, in how their love transcends the superficiality of culture and bias.

Besides the amazing soundtrack and fantastic use of Irony, Understatement, and Freshness, Napoleon Dynamite is a winner in my house because it takes the everyday blahness of (some people's) life and shows how friendship can change everything.

What did you think of Napoleon Dynamite? Anything to add to this? If you didn't like the movie, why not? What do you think now?

This is a repost that really makes me want to watch this movie again! :-) A long time ago, I watched The Book of Eli, a futuristic/post-apocalyptic type movie that really fascinated me. I highly recommend it!

The main character, Eli, in particular was intriguing.

As I watched, I realized how deeply his characterization was based in subconscious and conscious action. The actor (I think it was Denzel Washington?) pulled off the characterization and hooked the viewer by using the smallest details to portray emotion.

The writers or producer or maybe it was the actor himself used subconscious and conscious action to make the character come alive.

For example, in the movie Eli is traveling when he hears screams. He hides behind something and mutters to himself over and over, "There's nothing I can do." This is a conscious action not to help. He is choosing to remove himself from the situation. His repetition is subconscious though. He's trying to convince himself that it's true...or he's trying to comfort himself. Either way, we feel the weight of his guilt.

Later in the movie, a female protagonist enters the story. She is also almost raped and this time Eli helps her. When she cries, he moves forward and then stops himself. When she hugs him, the camera pans in and I notice he does NOT hug her back. Those are subconscious actions that reflect his internal turmoil.

When we create characters in situations, these tiny details will really show who a character is. The details themselves may not be noticed by a reader or viewer, but their impact is felt.

How do you use gestures and thoughts to deepen your character? How would you describe your main character, and how do you reinforce that personality/character trait in each scene? Do you have any specific quirks or impulses that appear in your daily life and give a clue to who you are?