Guest Author Day with Neil Plakcy

Plotting the Romance by Neil Plakcy

Find more about this author HERE

 First of all, what is plot? A good definition might be “the series of events that give a story its meaning and effect.”

In traditional romance novels, the plot is typically that two people meet, fall in love, encounter obstacles, surmount them, and then live happily ever after. But how does that translate into the actual book?

I use a technique that I learned in graduate school, one based on the three-act structure of screenwriting. I’ll use the first book in my Have Body, Will Guard series, Three Wrong Turns in the Desert, as an example.

I start out with an idea. In this case it was “I want to run away.” I remember clearly driving home from my college teaching job one day, cranky with my partner about something, thinking how great it would be to just pick up and leave.

But my teacher protagonist, Aidan Greene, couldn’t be walking away from a positive relationship. That’s not very sympathetic. Instead, suppose he was kicked out by his long-term partner, for no good reason. In desperation, he opened up his computer and searched for a job somewhere far away, teaching English as a Second Language.

No book has only one inspiration, at least for me. I remembered a photo on my hard drive, of a well-built naked man showering outdoors. I decided that would be Liam McCullough, professional bodyguard. Aidan lands in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, and while walking around before his job is to start, he catches a glimpse of Liam showering naked.

So I’ve brought my characters together and started the sparks flying. But what happens next? I needed some action. So I killed someone.

I’ve been writing a mystery series for years, so that’s my first reaction. Drop a body in to the action and see what happens.

At this point I had to sit down and brainstorm where this book was going, and that’s where screenplay structure comes in. A screenplay is divided into three acts. At the end of Act 1, there’s a plot point, an action that shifts the direction of the book and sends it going somewhere else. In Three Wrong Turns in the Desert, it’s the first time Aidan and Liam have sex, about page 90. That’s when they both admit to falling in love.

Up to this point, Liam has been pressuring Aidan for his help, which Aidan has been providing reluctantly. Now, Aidan commits to the adventure whole-heartedly. He wants to ride the first wave of love and see where it goes, even if that takes him out in the desert on a crazy adventure.

Once I knew what that point would be, I just had to write my way there, developing the characters and seeing what kind of trouble they would get into. As I approached that first plot point, though, I had to start thinking about the end of the second act, when things would change again.

What was that going to be? Aidan and Liam were heading toward a rendezvous with a Tuareg tribe in the Sahara. What would happen when they found the tribe, though? They thought they were trying to connect with this tribe to hand over the number of a Swiss bank account, intended to help these nomads make the transition to settled life.

What they didn’t know until they found the tribe, though, was that the money was in exchange for a piece of information the tribe had. Once Aidan and Liam had that information, everything changed. They couldn’t simply turn around and go home. They had to act on what they knew, calling on Liam’s background as a former US Navy SEAL, and Aidan’s clever resourcefulness.

As soon as I knew what that piece of information was, I knew what the third act would involve. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure how the book would end, but I did know that I had to keep on building their relationship as Aidan and Liam continued on this quest. I looked for small ways to show their deepening love, as they shared more about their backgrounds and their emotions. And all the time I tried to keep the tension going as things keep making their situation more difficult.

I’m a happy ending kind of guy. Why go to all the trouble of inventing this great couple and making them attractive to each other only to break them up at the end? Not for me. But how exactly were Aidan and Liam going to get out of the situation? Where were they going to end up?

Those answers came to me as I wrote my way feverishly toward the end. That always happens to me-- my fingers can’t type fast enough to spin the story out for me. I want to know how things come out! I want to feel that rush of exhilaration as Aidan and Liam both recognize that their relationship is deeper than just hot sex on a desert run.

 I said above that plot is the series of events that give a story its meaning and effect. Putting Aidan and Liam through all these dangers makes them recognize that they are kindred souls, and that they belong together. They earn that happy ending through facing their fears and overcoming obstacles. By the end of the book, the reader has suffered through those things, too, and can revel in the idea that love conquers all-- even a series of three wrong turns in the desert.

There are two books so far in the Aidan & Liam series, with a third coming in 2011:

Three Wrong Turns in the Desert: http://www.loose-id.com/Three-Wrong-Turns-in-the-Desert.aspx

Dancing with the Tide: http://www.loose-id.com/Dancing-with-the-Tide.aspx

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Three Wrong Turns in the Desert

LGBT Suspense

From the moment he sees handsome Liam McCullough showering naked behind a Tunisian bar, ESL teacher Aidan Greene wants to screw the sexy bodyguard. At first, though, a dead courier and beefy hired thugs get in the way. But Liam soon convinces him -- with wiles and smiles and solid logic -- to join him on a race across the desert for a rendezvous with a Tuareg tribe at a remote oasis. Then nothing can stop them from getting naked and getting it on. Together they explore the passion Liam hid from as a closeted Navy SEAL, and the love Aidan's missed after his longterm boyfriend kicked him to the curb.

From the back of a motorcycle to a Turkish bath to a remote dune in the desert, these two Romeos find ways to bring each other to the heights of pleasure. So what if they’re carrying the password to a million-dollar Swiss bank account and being chased by Libyan intelligence agents determined to stop them at all costs? Love and lust fuel their passion and not even three wrong turns in the desert will keep them from surviving this adventure alive -- and together.
Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable. Anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices.