Wicked Indulgence…With An Audience

January 30, 2008 at 1:54 pm (Romance, Writing)
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Have you ever acted on impulse? I’m not talking about sneaking an extra cookie when no one’s looking, or tossing a handful of candy bars onto the conveyor belt at the grocery store. I mean an act of wicked indulgence, with an audience.

While in public, most of us (writer’s especially) tend to curb the urge to actually commit an outrageous act of daring. Instead, we weave them into our heroines and heroes, living through them just a little bit.

But, writer or not, once in a while we need to shake things up. Get our hearts to skip a beat and smile like we ate the biggest canary on the face of the planet. Well, I have. And it was fabulous.

Let me explain…

The day was perfect–gray, windy, a touch rainy…just right for a Highland festival. But the weather was merely the backdrop. Bagpipes, bodhrans, and whistles filled the air, adding excitement to the day. Then came the call. There were openings on the panel to judge which single, kilted man had the “bonniest knees”. As a writer of historicals, Scottish and Viking, I went all giddy inside. Little did I know.

At the urging of my family, I volunteered. I can do this; I can look at bare male knees peeking out between wool stockings and plaid tartans to pick the nicest pair. Well, imagine my surprise when I, a willing volunteer, found myself ushered to a chair and blindfolded. I was to judge all right, but not by sight. I had to judge by feel.

One by one a line of men paraded in front of myself and several other ladies, standing patiently as each pair of female hands reached forward blindly in their general direction to “squeeze” their knees. Brave fellas, huh?

I don’t think the smile ever left my face.

Now what has all this got to do with writing? Well, aside from a great deal of fun, I dared to act. I chose to do something I would never ordinarily do – and with an audience no less.

As writers we tend to linger in introverted, creative worlds. But we do need to live life in order to create more believable characters. Don’t pass up a chance to smile, or laugh, or cry. We will be better for it, and so will our characters.

And know this, you can take great joy in feeling your way through.

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A Writer’s Life

January 29, 2008 at 1:13 pm (Romance, Writing)
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During the process of heavy editing on my latest novella over the last week or so, the characters in my next set of stories started whispering to me. Well, they’ve begun to shout now.

I don’t like these breaks between stories.

But editing has to happen. And seeing as I edit on hard copy, I still have to put all my changes to the novella in the computer. A process that started yesterday. The bulk of my time today will focus on that. It’s the only part of how I write that ties me to my desktop computer. The benefit, however, is that I can listen to music or news or BBC stories (my favorite), and not get distracted from what I’m doing.

And of course February is almost here. My local writer’s group is having another one of our NEW (No Excuses Writing) competitions during the month. And I committed to participate. The timing is very near to being perfect for starting the first of my next three books, though I do need to find the time to sit still and get just a little better grasp of each of my character’s motivations and needs, and get them charted.

We’ll see how the next couple of days goes.

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Let It Snow

January 28, 2008 at 1:10 pm (Romance, Writing)
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Once again snow is piling up outside. And today, with the wind blowing as well, I’m thinking that my 10 hour marathon editing session yesterday should have had a break for getting a few other things done.

Too late now. The good news, however, is that the novella is edited. So as soon as I transfer all of my changes from hard-copy to digital, my critique partners get to run amuck in my story and tell me what they think.

I must say this was the hardest story I’ve written so far. The hero is dark and dominant. And he took a great deal of energy to write. And edit.

But his story has been told.

February will bring another NEW contest with my local RWA chapter. And the timing couldn’t be more perfect. With the research for my next three books nearly complete, I’ll be ready to start writing a fresh story.

So…let it snow…

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Gotcha

January 23, 2008 at 1:09 pm (Romance, Writing)
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As a writer keeping up with the market, I love to hear editors speak or read interviews with them. And more than once I’ve heard them mention opening lines in reference to a book they recently bought. One editor even went so far as to say that she knew from the moment she read the opening line that she was going to buy that author.

That is how important an opening line or two can be.

Be it humor, angst, dialogue, a shocking revelation…it needs to make the reader have no choice but to read on to find out what is happening.

So many times in our writing we focus on plot and characterization, grammar and flow. And those are important, no doubt.

But don’t forget the “Gotcha”.

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Men Don’t Always Have It Easy

January 22, 2008 at 1:18 pm (Romance, Writing)
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I’m not talking about your average Joe. This is about big, strong, sword-swinging men who are used to being obeyed. Those are the men I write in my books. Men who are larger than life, even in the eyes of their compatriots. Warriors. Down to their marrow.

Not flawless men, by any means. They have their faults, and plenty of them. They just don’t see these flaws as weakness.

Until…into his life walks the sweetest trouble he’s never wanted. The one woman for whom he’ll break every promise he ever made to himself just to stand close enough to smell her scent, touch a strand of her hair. The one woman he can’t breathe without.

He’ll protect her, despite the fact that she angers him at every turn. He’ll see her face, when she’s the last thing he wants to think about. He’ll even find a way around his pride to give in to her wishes.

And suddenly his flaws are no longer something he can ignore. He must change or die. Because if he does not change, she’ll never hold him in her heart.

And without her, he doesn’t exist.

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Gosh, I Love What I Do!

January 18, 2008 at 12:45 pm (Romance, Writing)
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I mentioned the other day how much I love history, hence writing historical romance novels, right? Well, I must say that researching these three new time periods has proved to be great fun (even if there is very little known about them, or at least published that I can find). And these stories are still clawing at me, all three of them. I’m seeing scenes, I know names, I can almost smell the landscape and feel the chill of the rain…

But edits have begun on the novella, and I need to get them finished and off to my critique partners for review. Not to mention I have another single title that I need to edit quite heavily and get out to agents.

It’s been close to a year since I’ve been this excited about a story, let alone three. This time I’m going to try and do a little ’story boarding’ and see if that works for me. Not plotting so much as just posting scenes I want to happen on sticky notes, as well as noting what happens in each chapter as I write. I want to see if using the story board helps me keep track of the small things (hints, character traits, promises, or threats) and thread them through the rest of the story better as I write the first draft. Maybe that way I’ll have less editing later.

I’ve already purchased my story board - one of those self-standing cardboard ones kids use for science projects at school. They stand up without tape or pins, but they fold flat so I can put it out of the way, too. Should be an interesting exercise for some one who doesn’t particularly plot.

Best get back to editing…the sooner that is done, the sooner I can start on these new books.

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Back To The Grind Stone

January 17, 2008 at 1:46 pm (Romance, Writing)
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I’ve been neglectful of the blog this week. But in my defense, I’ve been working and sometimes shifting mental gears, as it were to post here is difficult, especially when scenes and dialogue begin to nag at you. I have not yet started to write the first of these stories, but that fact has eluded my characters and scenes and dialogue have become cloying.

On the bright side, I’ve worked out most of the general storylines for these next three books, as well as what particular facts will circulate through all of them as well. I don’t plot, per se, but I do figure out the main goals and motivations for my characters. Something I find necessary to do even for a novella.

These next three books are all single title, stand alone stories. However, they are all connected. A sort of trilogy I guess.

I’m being vague I know. On purpose :)

Today, however, brings edits. I’ll start going through the novella I finished a week or so ago to begin smoothing out the storyline and plot hiccups my characters threw in there for me. I’ve been hesitant to return to that story. The hero is dark, and strong. He was not an easy character to write, but he was one who has wanted his story told for several years now.

Back to the grind stone…

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Keeping Up With The Jones’

January 14, 2008 at 1:37 pm (Romance, Writing)
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On occasion, my chapter will have a little contest we call NEW (No Excuses Writing) to prod us into getting new pages written. And one of the things that always amazes me is how fast some of my friends write. They sit down and boom, they’ll have 20 pages in an hour or two. Or they consistently write 10-15 pages a day.

Wow.

I must say I have, on occasion, written that many pages at a sitting. But it’s not the most common outcome for me. The story has to really be flowing for me to do that. As a fairly accurate, consistent measure, I write 3-6 pages a day. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Everyones creative process is different. For me, I have to be able to tap into my character’s specific point of view to write a scene, especially a very emotional scene. If I’m sick, or too many other things are going on, sometimes I can’t get there in my head. So the scene has to wait another day.

I’m a linear writer – I cannot just see a scene and write it to put it in later where it fits. I know writers who can do that and that’s great, but it just doesn’t work for me. Often I will know specific things that are going to happen, but I can’t write the scene ahead of time. I just make a note then when I get to that point, I write the scene. If I tried to write it early, I wouldn’t know my character’s true emotional state (what has or has not been resolved in their world), nor would I know so early which character’s POV the scene would need be in. So I would only be giving myself more work to do later in editing.

The hardest part about being a writer is learning your specific process. It takes trial and error, and often years, to figure out. But it’s worth the effort. Knowing how many pages you can consistently produce will benefit you when a contract comes your way. Deadlines are negotiable, within reason, so knowing how long it will take you to produce that next book is the best gift you can give yourself.

Don’t worry about keeping up with how many pages everyone else writes. Learn your process and then they’ll be trying to keep up with you.

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Time To Prep

January 10, 2008 at 3:24 am (Romance, Writing)
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With the first draft of my contracted novella complete, I need to step away from it for a few days. That way, when I come back to edit, my eyes and senses are fresher to the storyline.

So what is keeping me busy in the mean time? Well, besides catching up on household chores and errands I got way behind on while in deep writing mode to finish the novella, I’m researching. I have a three book idea I plan to write a proposal on, but each book requires a great deal of research. Some theories about the times of history I have in mind have been proven, some not. Not all of history is concrete. There are often gaps and unknowns, and lots of just plain educated guesses.

Fortunately for me, I love history and fact and theory (especially Chaos theory – where anything can happen). I’m a social psychologist by degree and work in research. I love the thought process of deciphering what could or could not be possible, given the resources and knowledge available at the time.

So today, with somewhat of a break in all the snow and icy roads, I finally made it to the library for the first of my research runs. I have garnered a wide variety of books in each of the historical times I want to set these stories. I will use this first pass of research books to narrow down my general ideas to more specific times in each historical setting. From there I will know the specific facts or theories that I need to chase down in order to tease out the settings to make them as authentic as possible.

Only when I’m satisfied that I can re-create that historical setting in my mind with my characters, will I be done with the research and ready to write. Not that all of my research will be complete. Inevitably, my characters will throw a monkey wrench into the story and give me something else to seek out for authenticity, but by then, I will be well immersed into the plot and still be able to carry on writing.

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Don’t Forget To Have Fun

January 9, 2008 at 1:23 pm (Romance, Writing)
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Writing is a job, it’s work. Sometimes hard work. But for me it’s terribly fun, too. I get to hang out in history with warriors and rakes, intelligent men who know how to fight for what they want, good or bad. The same men who learn the hard way that love comes in the form of a woman, soft in all the right places and just as determined to get what she wants. 

Not all stories are easy to write, some delve deep into the corners of the soul. Into fate and the past and wickedness. Into the dark. 

The novella I just finished writing was like that for me. The hero is dark, troubled by demons that clench their hands around his heart and squeeze. And he’s happy that way, in control, rigid. His daily life is maintainable that way. Until he meets the woman that excises his demons, against his will and turns his every vow to himself on end.

Sometimes I had to walk away from the keyboard writing that one. That hero was strong, dark. And the heroine was dog-paddling for air constantly. But when I typed THE END, I knew I’d told their story, and told it well.

Hard work’s not so bad…

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