3T Tidbit

Anticipation - Challenge - Reward: for progress in something that's meaningful to you, where do you get the dopamine rush? 

I read up on game theory a while back. I've forgotten most of it, but that little note seems to have come from that exploration.

Answer: The dopamine is in the anticipation. That's why it we sometimes dwell on the planning of things that will never happen. The challenge getting there is great, and the reward may never be better than what we're getting now. Who hasn't mentally spent a bonus ten times over before it's received or bought a lottery ticket for the sheer joy of imagining all the ways of spending the winnings? Even though the chance of getting hit by lightning is greater and the bonus will depressingly go for repairs?

Good news for writers, though! Challenges that are mundane and take years in real life become significant and life-affirming when lived vicariously through fiction. Ups and downs are exaggerated into a thrilling rollercoaster of a ride. The quiet satisfaction of a job well done or new level of expertise claimed fictionalized into the rewards that would actually outstrip the rush of anticipation.

So when you write, make sure you take advantages of all the stages. Your hero's going up against the bad guy? Don't shortchange anticipation of how the fight might go, good and bad, or who in your hero's life might be affected. Make sure the challenge is worth the anticipation, and most important of all, make sure the reward is commensurate with the hero's fight, because the reader must feel the hero has earned it.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance - Vegas Dancers, Jane Austen, and All Their Jewelry

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published September 18, 2012 for Nine Naughty Novelists

Vegas Dancers, Jane Austen, and All Their Jewelry

Dressing for a great date. Shimmy into that little black dress or those long-legged jeans and tiny sweater that does everything for what’s on top. Sweep color onto cheekbones and long lashes. Pop open the jewelry box for a glittering final touch of gold, silver, platinum or pewter. Or diamonds, turquoise, zirconium or pearls. Go with chunky and bold or sleek and elegant?

Stand back and look in the mirror. Is it too little? Too much? What’s right?

My college music teacher used to say, “Composing is like a woman choosing her jewelry. She selects carefully to complement her clothes and her mood. She put on a piece here, then picks up a contrasting color or texture there. She never wears all her jewelry at once.”

She meant it for music but I still hear her voice, decades later, when I look in my jewelry box. “Don’t put on all your jewelry.”

But what’s tasteful for a business professional would be horrible for, say, Vegas dancers. They’re a symphony of glitter and color—and that’s right for the bright stage lights. Makeup, too, is dependent on conditions. A rock star’s stage makeup would have office clerks screaming “Clown!”, but it’s brilliant under the searing spotlight.

Writing is like that. The heroine who would have “nudged fundament” in Jane Austen’s time can kick ass in ours. The world is bigger, the lights are brighter, the stakes are higher. We can throw more styles together too. In Bram Stoker’s time vampires meant horror. My books spice up vampires with sex, action, and romance. And in the case of my new release Biting Oz, it’s topped off with a touch of glittering theater.

Biting Oz (Biting Love Book 5)

Real vampires do musicals.

Gunter Marie “Junior” Stieg is stuck selling sausage for her folks in small-town Meiers Corners. Until one day she’s offered a way out—the chance to play pit orchestra for a musical headed for Broadway: Oz, Wonderful Oz.

But someone is threatening the show’s young star. To save the production, Junior must join forces with the star’s dark, secretive bodyguard, whose sapphire eyes and lyrical Welsh accent thrill her. And whose hard, muscular body sets fire to her passions.

Fierce as a warrior, enigmatic as a druid, Glynn Rhys-Jenkins has searched eight hundred years for a home. Junior’s get-out-of-Dodge attitude burns him, but everything else about her inflames him, from her petite body and sharp mind to what she can do with her hip-length braid.

Then a sensuous, insidious evil threatens not only the show, but the very foundations of Meiers Corners. To fight it, Junior and Glynn must face the truth about themselves—and the true meaning of love and home.

Warning: Cue the music, click your heels together, make a wish and get ready for one steamy vampire romance. Contains biting, multiple climaxes, embarrassing innuendos, ka-click/ka-ching violence, sausage wars and—shudder—pistachio fluff.

Mary Hughes is a computer consultant, professional musician, and author. At various points in her life she has taught Taekwondo, worked in the insurance industry, and studied religion. She has a wonderful husband (though happily-ever-after takes a lot of hard work) and two great kids. But she thinks that with all the advances in modern medicine, childbirth should be a lot less messy. Visit Mary at http://MaryHughesBooks.com.