New Publishing Opportunity

Harlequin have asked me to pass on a new publishing opportunity - they are going digital!

Carina Press will be launched in the summer of 2010 and they are looking for new authors in all sorts of genres. Submissions are open right now and you can get the details here:

Carina Press

Could be good you reckon?

Oh and if you want to hear some great editorial advice, check out Maisey's blog. She's discussing stuff she got her revision letters and that kind of comment, well, it's gold dust.

The Dangers of Self Awareness

It's been a bit of a full on weekend. Firstly it was my daughter's fourth birthday, secondly I am in the middle of Nano-ing, and thirdly I twisted my ankle right at the crucial moment of getting my daughter to come to see her birthday cake! Collapsing on the couch in a moment of extreme agony, the rest of my family thought I was having a wee nap and laughed. It was only when I went green that they suspected it wasn't just tiredness that had me stretched full length on the couch.

Anyway, trying to do the first two with the third has been a bit of a mission. Especially since all I wanted to do was sit at my desk and write my ms - apparently not a good thing with a twisted ankle that should be kept elevated.

However, I have been making respectable progress. I will be finishing it this week which will be great. The only problem with writing a novel in about a week and a half is that no doubt I'll need to spend a month editing the thing! I'm almost afraid to read what I've written - it'll be dreck I'm sure of it.

And it hasn't been all all plain sailing with the writing either. I have a big problem in that I tend to make my h&h too self aware too early. In fact I didn't even realise this was, in fact, what I was doing until Dr Jax rolled his eyes and pointed it out to me. The issue with making them self aware - ie being in love - is that if you do it too early, you run into the problem where it's not the conflict keeping them apart so much as the being in love and not wanting to be. So the focus changes from the conflict - eg, my heroine not wanting to be protected - to her not wanting to be in love. Same with the hero. He fell in love too early and so his angst stems from not wanting to be in love rather than wanting to hold on to someone who doesn't want to be held.

Tricky eh? It's my own fault really. I love angst which is why I make them self aware - the anguish of loving someone but not wanting to! O the pain! But if you have two people loving each other and yet not wanting to be in love, how does this resolve the conflict? All there is angst with nothing really progressing. Which is why I felt I was writing the same thing over and over, having my heroine constantly go over the reasons why she doesn't want to fall in love and yet nothing really happening with her real conflict.

But then, how do I include the angst and tension? You're supposed to have it right? Which is when Dr Jax pointed out that the conflict provides the tension not the 'I'm so in love and yet I can't be' kind of thing. Another Aha moment for me. So I've pulled back on the awareness, let the conflict provide the tension, and my characters will not be falling in love until right near the end. That'll teach 'em.

Caveat

I'm feeling a bit bad here. I'm really liking that people who read this blog get something from it to help in their writing, but please know that this is only my journey. And I am still travelling on it, nowhere near my destination yet. Which means that some of this stuff on here may be wrong. So please take my little lightbulb moments with a grain of salt. And let me know if I've made a mistake somewhere!

Re the whole conflict thing, when I said that conflict doesn't need to be bad, I did mean that. But only because I always thought it had to be some terrible tragedy. So it was kind of interesting to figure out that it didn't need to be. That I didn't have to pile on dead fiances/wives/family/kids. However, that doesn't mean that tragedy can't be good conflict because obviously it can. It can be very, very strong. Now, the hero I talked about in the last post, whom I gave a dead fiance to, the only reason that was him living in the past was because there wasn't anything about the heroine that tapped into my hero's conflict. Perhaps if my heroine had sworn never to play second fiddle to anyone again, that would have been better. Or if she'd decided that her next relationship would mean marriage or nothing.
Even this current WIP, my hero has had tragedy in his life. He lost his parents in an accident and so had to look after his much younger sister, but his conflict isn't to do with grief about his parents (though obviously it's in there). It's to do with responsbility and trying to do what's best for people, even though they may not agree. So his conflict becomes a culmination of his experience - looking after his sister, taking over his father's company, etc, etc, rather than a single moment of loss. And it's conflict because my heroine does NOT want someone looking after her.

But again, that's not to say that those moments of loss aren't hugely terrible and don't make good conflict. It's just you can't take them in isolation from the rest of a person's life. My last sub was an excellent example of doing just that - my heroine lost her father in an accident (yes, I have a terrible tendency to kill off my character's parents!) and that defined her character completely. It was like she'd had no life since her father died, which is not the case in real life because people move on after a tragedy (just ignore the fact that some people don't!). They don't forget, obviously, and it marks them, but it was like my heroine was stuck in some kind of time warp. And it didn't help that I'd exaggerated her living safe ways. Not good for an aspirational heroine who was supposed to be a lawyer!

So, anyway, that's my thoughts on this irritating conflict business. Really, talking about...say shoes for example is far less annoying. Or favourite books. And speaking of which, I bought Natalie Anderson's Hot Boss, Boardroom Mistress on ebook a couple of days ago and if you're looking for a sizzling reunion story then baby, you've found it!

Oh and for those of you worried about having too much sex without emotion in their stories (Jackie raises hand) here's is a great post by Sam Hunter, a Blaze author, about sexual motivation. Certainly made me think.

Conflict: Past vs Present

So, here I am in waiting no-man's-land. I am forging ahead with my wip regardless though. Even if they don't want it, it's great practise and I have to say, I'm quite enjoying writing it. I even like my heroine for a change! :-)

Anyway, I wanted to talk about a comment Janet left on my blog about conflict and how it happens in the present. I think I mentioned in the last post but I thought I'd expand a bit here. I never really got this to be honest, I mean, come on, of course conflict happens in the present. And in the past too right?

Well yes. And no. The conflict that we deal with in our stories may have been seeded in the past, but it happens only in the present. For example, the hero of my current wip has been looking after his sister for the past 12 years (this is the seed of his conflict). He's the protective sort and has been doing this quite happily with no problems. He's not conflicted about his need to protect at all.
Until he meets my heroine. Why? Because she does NOT want to be protected. So here he is, calmly going about his protective business which, he assumes, the heroine will naturally see eye to eye with since no one else has called him on this behaviour before (apart fom his sister but that's different 'cause she's his sister right?). But lo and behold, the heroine says 'I don't need protecting buddy so back off.' So instantly we have conflict. And it's happening in the present. Yes, the basis for it is the fact that he's been looking after his sister for years, but it's never been a problem for him until now.
Same with my heroine. She's escaping over-protective parents and wants to do things for herself. Not a problem, no conflict - until she meets my protective hero. And then it's conflict all the way baby!

Now, you could compare this to an earlier incarnation of this story where I (overdosing on internal conflict!) gave my hero a dead fiance. This was fine but when he met the heroine, there wasn't anything other than a dead fiance to hold him back from a relationship with her. There was nothing about the heroine in particular that made him feel conflicted - other than the fact that she was a woman and he was wary of loving again! :-) Thus, when they met, there wasn't much in the way of conflict happening - all his conflict was in the past. Does that make sense?

Anyway, that's my understanding of it and no doubt there's heaps more still learn about this angle. Anyone got any other thoughts? Might as well think about that rather than thinking about our subs/competition entries huh? ;-

Synopsis Sent

After two weeks of fiddling and rewriting, synopsis version 6 is on its way. Thanks to the wonderful Michelle Styles, I now have a story with potential, rather than severe flaws. Of course the editors at Mills and Boon may not agree but even if they don't, I have learned SO much about conflict and action/reaction in the course of the past two weeks that the next sub will be even better. And I like my story a whole lot more than the last one which is a good sign I hope.

So what have I learned?

1. The conflict and thus the story plays out in the action and reaction of the characters.
2. The conflict happens in the present.
3. Internal conflict need not be based on tragedy.
4. Internal conflict can be simple.
5. That action is not talking. Talking is talking.
6. That rewriting one's synopsis completely six times can be a good thing.
7. That one can have too many dinners in one's synopsis.
8. That chocolate is a vital ingredient to synopsis writing.
9. That banging one's head on the table after version 4 hurts.
10. That you still feel sick when you press send no matter how many times you have subbed.

Right, so now all I need to do is write the thing! And thanks to Janette, I have a title: The Art of Attraction. Not a millionaire or a defiant mistress in sight.

Now, on with the NTAI.

Another Minor Epiphany

Yes, I know, two in one week is ridiculous but after Friday's lightbulb moment, I kind of had another. I wanted to use the whole action/reaction/consequence thing on my other WIPs but first I had to really concentrate on the essential conflict of the h&h. And it was as I was doing this that I had another realisation (cue drum roll, please):

Conflict doesn't necessarily need to be based on bad things happening in the past!

Cool eh? Now, you guys may already know this and be thinking, 'yeah, duh!' but up till this point I have been giving my characters all manner of dead families/fiancees/babies or whatever tragedy is popular right now, purely so they would not want a relationship. The thing I suddenly got was that the point is not that the h&h don't want a relationship at all, they just don't want a relationship with a particular person! Why don't they? Because that person threatens everything they believe up till that point in time. And it's only when they come into contact with that person, that there is conflict. Conflict, as Michelle is always telling me, happens in the present not the past.

Clear as mud? For example, I've finally figured out the essential conflict of my Kate and Alex story: for Alex, home is where the heart is. For Kate heart is where the home is. Neither of them have any problem with this UNTIL they meet. And as soon as they meet, there is conflict because each challenges the other. In order to resolve this, Alex must learn that having roots isn't a bad thing and Kate must learn that home isn't necessarily embodied in one place.
Now, I had Alex having lost a fiancee etc, but really, in order for him to believe that home is where the heart is, I don't need any of that. Maybe just the fact that he moved around a lot as a kid is enough. And maybe he was quite happy with this state of affairs. But it's only when he comes into contact with Kate that he feels threatened about it. And voila, instant conflict.

So all in all I feel rather pleased with myself about this. Especially as I have now got real and believable conflicts for all my WIPs. Now all I have to do is plan the stories using action/reaction/consequence, completely rewrite all of them, and Robert's your father's brother. ;-)

Oh yeah, and I signed up for NaNo too. Need to write my next sub, rather imaginatively titled Cat and Sean. Anyone else?

A Minor Epiphany

After a week of banging my head against a brick wall with this new synopsis I have finally - with the help of the perspicacious Dr Jax and the wonderful Michelle Styles - figured out my problem. I simply could NOT get my characters to act without exaggerating my conflicts. And I had to exaggerate the conflicts in order to give them motivation to act. I was STILL getting them to act in the way I wanted them to.

The reason is that they were still passive. They were not taking action. And the reason for that is I have been thinking about my stories in terms of scenes. I think, okay, need a love scene, put one in here. What about a 'save the cat' moment here. And black moment here. And when I think about the scenes I want, I try and move my characters towards the scenes, which is NOT letting them act.

It's like a play. The play opens with the characters on stage. They do the scene, the scene ends, the stage goes dark. Then the next scene opens. How have the characters got there? Where are they going? The scene ends, the stage goes dark. What happens next? We don't know and neither do I!

I have been treating my stories like this play, opening with a scene, then jumping to the next scene etc, etc. Episodic in other words. Great for a play, not so great for a story.

So I've cut it right back. Concentrating on the most essential conflict - my hero wants to control and so has to learn to let people go, my heroine needs freedom but has to learn it's okay to lean on someone. So what happens when a guy like this meets a woman like this? Forget flirtation scenes, think about action. The external conflict puts him in the situation of having to look after her so what does he do? He's all about control so says she has to come with him. Her reaction? She's all about freedom so get lost buster. What is the consequence? Does he force her to go? And if so, what action does she take in response? And right there is where the conflict is driving the story through the actions of the characters. No need for exaggeration because their reactions are based on their essential conflict. Who knows when they'll need a love scene - I'm not sure - but it will be because one of them makes a decision and the consequence of that is making love.

Dunno if this makes sense to everyone or if everyone is goin 'well, duh, I already knew that!'. But this is certainly why I have been having so many problems with conflict. I have already got a plan for the new story based entirely on action, reaction and consequence. Hopefully it'll make a good synopsis but if not, it's certainly been a HUGE learning curve to take!