Thursday 30 July 2009

The lady from RT, she say 'Yes!'

Whoo-hooo, just found out I got a whopping 4 stars for Hot-Shot Tycoon in the September edition of Romantic Times Book Reviews. So nice to break out of my three-star doldrums at last.

The reviewer Sandra Garcia-Myers (she of the fabulous taste!) called Daisy and Connor's story 'emotional and heartfelt' and pointed to the 'amusing opening'. Cool to know I made her smile with Daisy's satin knickers...

Also while surfing the usual blogs (as you do when you ought to be writing) I discovered this vote of confidence from the fab  Waiting For the Call blog which said Hot-Shot 'could just be my new measure for the ideal Modern Heat Story.' 

I'll be posting more snippets from the RT review on my website soon, but until then I'm going to go bask in the golden glow of my own fabulousness.... Smug? Full of myself? Just a tad.

Now if I could only wrestle Leo and Issy's story into shape I'd be over the moon.


Saturday 25 July 2009

First Chapters.... This much I know.

So, including my unpublished first manuscript, and the one I'm currently beavering away at, I've now written eight first chapters which hardly makes me an expert, but I have learned a few things along the way. 

Personally I'm a big fan of first chapters, they're usually the best bit of the book to write - when your characters are still fresh and exciting, all the possibilities of the plot are unfolding in your head and you've got a great hook that you just have to get on the page.... At least that's the theory. But, as anyone here who's ever tried to write a first chapter will tell you, they can also be a complete pig to write. Basically because there's so much riding on that first chapter. If you're unpubbed you need that first chapter to shine so you can showcase everything you can do to an editor or agent, and if your pubbed they're one of the major selling points of your book, especially for new readers. 

And with category romance there's even more pressure. In a 50,000 word book you don't have time to prat about. You have to be leaping straight into the action, outlining your H & h and their conflict in that first chapter while also showcasing your voice and delivering the kind of page-turning pace that is a staple of Harlequin romances. And that's before we've even got to the terrifically hooky premise.

Now there are a few hard and fast craft rules to writing first chapters (and writing good fiction generally) that are well known to anyone whose ever read a 'how to' book on writing, but that I'm going to touch on here (just for the hell of it). 

Top Tip One: Less is More

We all know about the dreaded 'info dump' right?? When you slow down the action to a snail's pace to stick in your hero and heroine's back story? So I'm not going to insult your intelligence by talking too much about that. 

Except to say that I got a great bit of advice from Susan Elizabeth Phillips during her workshop at last year's RWA conference. Which went something like this 'prologues are for whimps'. Now, that's not to say that prologues aren't a valid writing tool, or that I haven't read fantastic books with prologues in them. But what SEP was saying was that you should always try to find a way to weave your H & h's backstory into your ms where appropriate. ie. Less is more folks. And especially in that first chapter, where the temptation is even greater to get all that relevant info about your hero and heroine straight on the page. 

Well, don't! We don't need to know straight off that your heroine has sworn off marraige because her parents had a bitter divorce and then she got dumped at the altar by the guy she thought was the man of her dreams when he ran off with her best friend and maid of honour. Intrigue us, tantalise us, don't tell us everything, just tell us enough so that we sympathise with her, we have some inkling as to why she is going to have to fight for her HEA and leave us wanting more.

A good way to spot info dump is at the revision stage. Watch out for rambling internal thought.. Or too much information... And cut it out. Always think, what does the reader absolutely need to know, and leave it at that.

Top Tip Two: Show Don't Tell

Yeah, yeah, I know BORING! You've heard that one so many times now you're reciting it in your sleep. And it's also one of those pesky rules that doesn't always apply. But if you're like I was when I first started trying to write fiction you might also be wondering 'what the hell does that really mean.' Personally I figured it out by a process of elimination. ie. If the writing was making me fall into a coma it was usually a good sign that I was telling not showing. Now, did that sentence make you nod off?? Another little tip is to look for  'was' and 'felt' - as in, 'she felt excited' or 'he was overjoyed' - because those two little words are often a sign that you're telling your reader how your characters feel and not showing them. 'Her heart raced as if it were going for Olympic gold' shows the reader your heroine is excited, or scared or possibly both. Let them figure it out, they'll thank you for it. Which leads us neatly to Tip Three...

Top Tip Three: Use All Five Senses

When showing not telling, remember your characters don't just see things, they hear them, smell them, touch them, taste them. Use all of those senses to set your scene and describe your characters emotions. It'll make your writing more vivid, more colourful and draw your reading right into the heart of the action.

Okay, now we're covered the basics... Or some of them... Let's get down to some tips I've worked out for myself that might help you guys.

Top Tip Four: Trust Your Instincts

Or rather Trust Your Instincts and don't bottle it... 

If you know something isn't working be ruthless. For example, in my first published book I originally opened with this fantastic sequence where my hero was riding his Harley in the ritzy neighbourhood of Long Island where his long-lost brother and sister-in-law lived. Feeling surly and moody and desperately out of place, he spots an empty house (that he doesn't know is their's) and, being the rebel he is, he decides to take a dip. All beautifully written with lots of wonderful backstory about my hero's past and the reasons why he was there intricately woven into his internal thoughts and... 

Yep, you already know what's wrong right? And so did I, but I couldn't bring myself to cut to the chase. How the heck was I going to get all that crucial information in if I kicked off with my heroine spying on my hero in all his gorgeous naked glory while he stands soaking wet beside the pool? Answer: it was extremely hard work and some of my hero's conflict character development had to be left out of that first chapter, but it was absolutely the right decision to make and I knew it (however much it pissed me off at the time).

In short, when you come to revising your first chapter keep asking yourself questions like 'Have I started the story in the right place?' 'Does this sound right?' 'Am I showing or telling here?' 'Does the reader need to know this now?' And answer those questions honestly... However annoying - and however much more work - that answer might entail. 

That said: this is a top tip for the revision stage only. Don't edit while you write a first draft, because however wrong the Hero on his Harley may have been as a starting point for my story, writing it did give me some invaluable insights into his character.

Top Tip Five: Let Your Characters Speak For Themselves

This is a top tip that is particularly useful for Modern Heat, because an intrinsic part of the 'fun, flirty tone' is that 'sparky, sassy' dialogue between your Hero & heroine.

But quite apart from that, it's a known fact that  'Dialogue Lifts Pace'. Why? Because when it's well written, it's a great way of dispensing with reams and reams of internal thought and letting your characters show what they're feeling - and letting your readers see how they interact with each other. 

Now, that doesn't mean you want your characters dictating their thoughts or telling each other how they feel. Why? Because it would be tres boring and anyway, that's not how people talk to one another - especially when they've just met as they may well have in your first chapter. 

A great top tip when writing dialogue is to say it aloud. If it doesn't sound like something someone would realistically say, get rid of it, however clever it might be. Also, watch your genders. Men don't generally talk in long flowery sentences and they also don't beat about the bush, they say what they're thinking... And they don't get hung up analysing their feelings. Women on the other hand have been known to beat about the bush a bit. They look for the subtext... 

And so should you. Especially in that first chapter where your hero and heroine are interacting with each other for the first time (even if they've met before, this will be the first time your reader has met them) and there are going to be tons of nice juicy tensions, conflicts, etc seething beneath the surface of what they're actually saying to each other.

If it works, I love kicking off a First Chapter with a line of dialogue... Between the hero and heroine or coming from one of them and concerning the other. Now, it's not always possible, so don't force it. But if you can pull it off, it's a great way to jump right into the action, get the pace moving straight away and begin revealing those all-important conflicts from the get-go. And it can also be a lot of fun. 

If that first chapter has virtually no dialogue in it... Look at it again. Especially if you're aiming your ms at Modern Heat. 

That said, like everything else there are exceptions that prove the rule. Take Natalie Anderson's great recent release Between the Italian's Sheets. Here's a link to read the opening chapter. The first line of dialogue in that opening sequence doesn't come until the third page and then it's from an ice-cream seller, but the chapter works magnificently.... At least I think so. I was itching to read more about these two after that explosive meeting at the Opera. 

Which brings us on to Tip Number Six.

Top Tip Six: Ignore All My Tips and Work Out Your Own

Okay, before you get ready to lynch me, let me explain. 

Your opinion matters the most in your own writing. Yes craft and talent and structure, etc are important. But remember, you know what works for you and what doesn't because before you ever became a writer, you were a reader and that's the most invaluable tool you can ever have. So use it. 

If you haven't already, read as many first chapters in Modern and Modern Heat as you can (simple as pie if you use the 'Browse this Book' feature on the Harlequin/Mills and Boon websites) and think about why those chapters work and why you like them. What makes them vivid, engaging, page-turning, etc. When you've finished doing that you'll have some top tips of your own to apply to your writing.

Voila! My work is done. Let me know if it helped, confused you, or just made you think 'what the heck is she on about?'

Thursday 16 July 2009

A Quickie

Just a super-quickie to say I'm blogging on the PHS on Friday 24th July about Movies to Watch Out For over the next year. I have Hugh action, McDreamy and McSteamy in the same film and a touch of Vampire spotting in Twilight: New Moon, so pop over there and post a darn comment. Yes, I know I originally said on this very blog it would be Friday 17th but I got my dates mixed up! Quelle suprise! But hey, at least I got my blog done early for once.

Will be back here soon to talk about First Chapters and a few of the tricks I've learned about how to write them... Or maybe that's a few of the tricks I've learned about how not to write them.

Either way, it'll be valueable advice, when I figure out what it is...

Wednesday 8 July 2009

Winging it... Part Two.

Hey all.

Thanks for all your comments yesterday. And glad to see the synopsis for BBBB was helpful. I had planned to post the revision email I got today, but I haven't heard back from my ed (probably extremely busy reading submissions so we can't blame her) and I don't want to post her words without getting her permission.

But, I can say that a lot of the changes the ed asked for weren't in the synopsis (perhaps a clue right there that they had no business being in the book!!).

And that the main changes were all to do with tightening the story up, tailoring it to Modern Heat and keeping the focus on Monroe and Jesse's relationship.


What to Put and Not to Put in Your Synopsis:

What I find more interesting though when reading the synopsis for BBBB is all the scenes that I didn't describe in it. The scene where Monroe tells Jesse about his past (his mother's abuse and the fact that he was raped as a teenager in jail). The scene where she sees his art for the first time and tells him he has to make a career out of it. The scene where they have a picnic on the beach and Monroe discovers she has always dreamed about having what her sister Ali has (and he becomes starkly aware that he can never give that to her).

Why didn't I describe them? Simple, in a 2-page (or even 1-page) synopsis there isn't space. But what I did do was reference the conflict and/or character development that took place in those scenes.

What you have to do when deciding what to describe and what not to describe in your synopsis is look at every single scene in your story (or if you haven't written the story yet, just visualise the basic plot development during the course of your story) and then look at how your hero and heroine and their relationship has developed in each scene (or plot point) and/or how their conflict is changing (ie: being confronted or resolved) and then summarise those changes/devlopments in the narrative of your synopsis.

Making Your Synopsis Work for You:

The synopsis (quite apart from giving an ed the low-down on your story) can also be a brilliant tool for you when it comes to structuring and pacing your story.

One thing to look out for when writing your synopsis is scenes where nothing much happens. They could be scenes which concentrate on secondary characters too much (like my icky birth scene!!), or don't tell us anything significant about the H & H or their relationship, or they may be scenes that go over old ground and repeat information you've already given the reader in another scene. If you find those scenes, take a good, long look at them and decide if they're really necessary. And be ruthless. Because if they're not doing anything they could seriously slow the pace (however sparky and sexy the dialogue or beautifully written they are).

Another way to make your synopsis work for you is to make sure that you've got all the scenes you need to show rather than tell the story of your conflict. By working out who your hero and heroine are, what their conflict is and how it is going to be resolved you are clarifying the structure of your book.

Think of the synopsis as a road map, so that when you come to write the book, you know exactly what every single scene needs to achieve. Or as a revision tool if you've already written the book, to tell you which scenes are not working or which scenes you have to add.

One thing I always look out for now in my writing is scenes where I've got a third party keeping the conflict moving in the right direction (say a villainous step-sister who reveals to the heroine that the hero's illegitimate) or a random external conflict that keeps the plot moving (like a marriage of convenience for no good reason other than that I had a great scene with an Elvis impersonator in mind).

So my final bit of advice is, when writing a synopsis, keep an eye out for any random Elvis Impersonators.

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Winging it... Or how to write a decent synopsis when you hate the flipping things.

With the news on I Heart Presents that Harlequin/M&B are running a brand new writing comp for aspiring authors to Modern and Modern Heat, I thought it might be useful to give some tips about writing the dreaded synopsis by posting the synopsis for my first ever published book, Bedded by a Bad Boy (aka Bedded by a Playboy in the US).

I'm also going to post some notes tomorrow about what parts of this
synopsis didn't work for the editor - and what bits I changed and strengthened when revising the story.

But before I do any of that I should point out that I am no expert on synopsis writing. Being a complete pantser, I generally avoid them with a passion (and have only had to do outlines for the books I've published since). So if you want tips on how to write a synopsis that will dazzle the editors with its brilliance and originally and beautiful craftsmanship. Forget it... You ain't getting any help with that from me, because I've never managed it myself... But if, like me, you can't stand writing the damn things, but know it's a necessary evil (especially before you get published), I can offer advice about how to make the process work for you and your story.

So here's my top tip: The synopsis is a narrative describing your characters and their conflict and NOT a description of the plot.

What that means: Stay focussed on the internal conflict between your H & h like a rottweiler with a juicy bone. Make sure that conflict springs from your characters and their emotions and not from outside influences, that it drives the story, works itself out through the course of the plot, reaches a crescendo and is resolved and is, at all times, one hundred per cent consistent. And describe that in your synopsis. Your plot is only relevant as a narrative of your characters and their conflict, not the other way around.

And another thing to remember. The synopsis is really just a tool to show the eds you actually have a book worked out after that wham-bang opening scene and that you've got a basic understanding of your characters and their conflict. But it's still your voice they'll be looking at most, your storytelling ability, because
everything else can be revised. And if you're like me, the chances of you ending up with the same story you wrote in your synopsis once you've written the book are pretty much ziltch.

Okay so here's that synopsis I was talking about. See what you think....


SYNOPSIS

Bedded by a Bad Boy

aka Bedded by a Playboy

by Heidi Rice


JESSIE CONNOR is an impetuous, wildly romantic English girl in America who believes that family is everything. As long as she can remember, she’s dreamed of having a gorgeous husband and a house full of beautiful children -- just like her big sister Ali. So when Jessie and the heavily pregnant Ali return to Ali and her husband Linc Latimer’s seaside home in Long Island and spy a naked trespasser taking a swim in the pool, Jessie knows just what has to be done. The guy may have a body like Brad Pitt but he’s on private property and she’s going to sort him out. Nobody messes with her family.

MONROE LATIMER is a loner who’s spent the last 14 years roaming America on his Harley. He believes in nothing and nobody, except himself. After two spells in prison as a teenager, Monroe knows that he’s the only person he can count on. He’s driven to the Hamptons out of curiosity, but no way is he going to visit his long-lost brother Linc once he sees the swanky neighbourhood where Linc and his family live. But then he spots an empty house with an empty pool and figures, what harm could a little swim do, before he heads back to the interstate?

Turns out quite a lot, when he pulls on his jeans and is tackled by a beautiful girl with a crisp English accent, firecracker hair and a temper to match. Then Linc and Ali and their two young children show up and Monroe is trapped, forced to accept an invite to stay in their garage apartment. The apartment — full of light and overlooking the beach — is the perfect place to paint and Monroe’s secret passion is painting, so he agrees to stay, but only if he does yard work to pay his way. He’s no goddamn freeloader. The one other compensation is Linc’s feisty little sister-in-law who Monroe thinks is cute as hell when she’s riled, which is whenever she’s around him.

Jessie decides Linc and Ali must be insane. What are they thinking inviting a stranger into their home? He may be gorgeous but he’s obviously a complete reprobate, why else would he get such a kick out of making her mad?

After a trip to town on Monroe’s Harley, an errant kiss in front of the A&P on Main Street and the discovery that Linc and Ali’s five-year-old daughter Scout has become Monroe’s biggest fan, Jessie’s opinion of the new house guest begins to change. She loves art, but she’s never had the talent to create it herself, so when she discovers that Monroe is an artist, she finally has to admit she’s hooked. But still she resists. He’s way too dangerous for her.

However hard he tries to distance himself, Monroe finds himself falling for the family against his will -- and the gorgeous Jessie is the catalyst. He wants her, badly, but knows he shouldn’t touch her. She’s got quality written all over her and that’s a word he can barely even spell.

When Linc gives Monroe a birthday gift, Monroe’s fear of becoming a part of the family comes to a head and he snubs his brother. Thinking Monroe has been unbelievably rude, Jessie confronts him. During the heated exchange that follows, Jessie sees through Monroe’s cool, cocky facade to the vulnerable, lonely man beneath. He needs love, companionship -- and who better to give it to him than her?

With Linc and Ali and their children away in New York for two weeks, Jessie and Monroe begin a tempestuous affair. But while Jessie becomes convinced Monroe is her dream man, Monroe knows he’s exactly the opposite. He can never give her family or commitment; he just doesn’t live that way.

When Ali and Linc return, Ali cautions Jessie about the affair. The sex may be fantastic, but Monroe’s going to be a hard man to love, especially if he won’t share his feelings with her. Jessie is blinded by her love for Monroe, though, and allows him to dictate the terms of the relationship, especially when she watches him deliver Ali’s baby — the doctor was unable to get there in time — and begins to spin dreams about what a wonderful father Monroe would make.

Jessie becomes increasingly uneasy, however, when she tells Monroe she loves him, countless times, and he says nothing in return. Eventually, at Ali’s suggestion, Jessie gives Monroe an ultimatum she won’t sleep with him anymore until he tells her how he really feels.

Desperate to guard his heart, scared that he is falling in love with someone he can never keep, Monroe closes himself off from Jessie and the rest of the family. If only he could just get on his Harley and go now, but somehow he can’t bring himself to do it.

Jessie makes the startling discovery that she’s pregnant. She tells Monroe and is horrified when he accuses her of cheating on him. The baby isn’t his. It can’t be. His mother -- an abusive woman who hated both him and Linc -- had him sterilised as a young teenager. Jessie flees to New York, now convinced that she has been fooling herself about Monroe all along. How can he ever have loved her if he can accuse her of something so hideous?

Linc forces Monroe to get tested by a fertility specialist. Monroe discovers he is the father of Jessie’s baby, something that he knew all along in his heart. He tracks Jessie down in New York.

Hurt and angry, Jessie resists him. Monroe is forced to finally lay his feelings bare, to admit to Jessie that he loved her all along but was too scared to tell her. Because he thought he could never give her what she dreamed of. Home, hearth, family.

Jessie sees Monroe for who he really is. Not a dream man, but a real one. He’s vulnerable and insecure after the horrors of his childhood, but he loves her, and he needs her and is at last willing to admit it. She doesn’t want a fantasy anymore, she wants Monroe, their baby and a life they can build together.


Phew, that was a bit long... But now you get my drift I hope. Conflict, conflict, conflict....