New Year's Eve vs My Partial

Right, well, I suppose I should be thinking about resolutions and whatnot, it being New Year's Eve today. Thing is, I'm not paying attention to anything much (including the kids) because I am totally immersed in fiddling with my partial. In fact, I'd like to give New Year's Eve a total miss so I can get this sucker done and away before we head up north. Is that sad or what?

Anyway, I suppose I should get into the spirit of it and list my goals for 2010:

1. Get published.

2. Get published.

3. Get published.

4. Get published.

5. You getting the idea?

6. Get published.

7. I think you are by now.

8. Get published.

9. Eat chocolate (fooled you there for a minute).

10. Yep, you guessed it, get published.

Here's to a very happy 2010 for everyone! May we all realise at least one of our goals. I can definitely predict that number 9 on my list will come true. :-)

The iPhone Cometh

Yes indeed, Dr Jax came through. There was a large box waiting under the tree for me on Christmas Day and Dr Jax told me to be careful with it as it was heavy and fragile. I was a bit suspicious because he sometimes tricks me by putting small boxes in large ones and I was hoping that the large box was a trick. But then it was very heavy. So I was putting on my determined 'so it's not an iPhone but I will like whatever it is if it kills me' face while I opened the box. And inside was a heavy, rusty piece of iron grille. And underneath that was the iPhone.
My hero. Sigh. :-)

And I had another piece of happy news on Christmas Day too. I had emailed my completed character bios to the editor the night before and was not expecting a reply until next week at the very earliest. But in my inbox on Christmas Day (yes, I turned my PC on, on Christmas Day. Yes I am sad) was a reply saying she'd read them and thought they were good! And that my conflict looked fine and I was to send through my revised synopsis and partial!

So big relief for me. Finally I have some characters that will work and a conflict that looks good from the editors point of view. There were a few issues that she told me to keep an eye out for but I'm hopeful I can avoid them. Now all I have to do is to write a partial that she likes! Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Yeah, right. :-)

Hope everyone's Christmas was a happy one and here's to a New Year filled with what you love to do best.

A Good Old Kiwi Christmas

That blaze of red right there folks (image to you right) is the flower of the Pohutakawa tree, NZ's Christmas tree. And see that beach beyond the flower? That beach (oh, okay, not that particular beach but one fairly similar) is where I'll be the day after New Year. Beaches, sun, sand and Pohutakawa trees are the vital elements of a good, old Kiwi Christmas, which, I know, is inconceivable to all you folk buried deep in the snow.

Well, can I say I'm envious? I'd love a white christmas, I really would. I did live in London for a few years but even then we didn't ever have a truly white Christmas. But then again, there is a certain something to sipping Christmas bubbles on the deck in the sun in your t-shirt and then perhaps going for a post-prandial swim... I guess it's all in what you're used to.

Anyway, I'll be be around until after New Year (still waiting on my character tweaks) and then I'll be up north at the beach where there is NO INTERNET! I do not know how I will cope. I'm hoping Santa will bring me an iPhone for Christmas so I won't be completely cut off...:-)

But the point of this blog post (yes, I do have one) is to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and New Year. Here's lots of lovely Kiwi sun and warmth coming to all those in the cold, and to those in the Southern Hemisphere, let's hope it doesn't get too hot!

Dr Jax Stages An Intervention

There I was, throwing myself dramatically on the floor, crying that I couldn't do it, sounding remarkably like my four year old daughter, when Dr Jax at last arrived home from work. Honestly, I don't think he knew what to make of it. No, that's a lie, he knew exactly. I am the biggest drama queen in the world when it comes to my writing. When it's not going right, NOTHING is right. I can't concentrate on anything, I can't do anything, I am a grumpy, horrible, whiny person. Dr Jax knew immediately what the problem was though and, luckily for myself, and for my CPs, he decided to stage an intervention before I bored them all senseless with endless emails of whiny, moany drivel.

Yup, you guessed it, heroine problems. I had changed her conflict so many times it was just one big mess and I couldn't think my way out of it. It's at times like this when I need a cool head to talk me through it and my husband is just amazing with stuff like that. Ten minutes later, a strong martini in hand, I was finally getting to the root of my problem - at least according to Dr Jax.

My heroines, he said, are too perfect. They have no dark sides. Which is very, very true. Not to mention the fact that they are defined by their conflict - like their personalities and their lives are totally formed by that one event. Argh!

However, it's not all bad. After a long talk, aided by more martini and the wonderful ideas and suggestions from my fabulous (not to mention very patient) CPs, I have finally got an idea for a conflict for my heroine. It's not exaggerated (I hope) and she has a personality outside of this
one conflict. I even managed to give her some weaknesses. Woohoo! She's becoming a person! Now all I need to hope is that the editor agrees with this new idea.

So three cheers for Dr Jax. I told him that he could do a guest spot on my blog and everyone could write in with character questions that he could answer. He told me that finally he knew the real reason he went into psychiatry: to help me write my romance novels. :-)

Anyone else had any breakthroughs this week? Or has it been full-on, kicking and screaming on the floor frustration?

Heroines Behaving Badly

I am going spare trying to figure out the characters of my new submission. The editor has asked me to do character bios of each of them in an effort to get me to focus on characterisation and it's driving me crazy! I think I've got my hero figured out but my heroine refuses to play ball. I have no idea why I can't write her but it's incredibly annoying. Why are women so difficult?? :-)

Anyway, for those of you thinking the editor is gently holding my hand, no she is not. She called my heroine childish and immature, not to mention unnattractive. No words have been minced there. The really irritating thing is that the ed is right. I don't think Cat is like that in the partial but the fact remains that her conflict is only half thought out. Which is my fault.

It wasn't all bad. She liked some of the actions my characters took (which is solely down to Michelle S's expert advice) and she really liked the central theme. Which is why, I'm assuming, she is giving me the chance to do this story but with fully-fledged characters.

So, I have sent her some more ideas about the backgrounds for both characters and she said she'd get back to me with tweaks. Haven't heard yet but since then I've gone through yet another set of ideas for my heroine. I am now officially sick of her.

The problems I'm having though are mainly because of the way I write which is writing my way into my characters. They have a half thought of background when I start but I don't know really what they're all about until the end. And that is not working for me clearly. I need to know all about them from the first page. I need to forget about the external conflict that brings them together and start from a core of internal conflict, building the rest of the character around that. And I need to do that before I start writing because working backwards like this is very, very hard. It's hard because I'm desperate to keep some of the things the editor liked but I'm not sure, given my heroine's new background, whether she would still act in the same way. And if I'm not sure, then she probably wouldn't, which means I'll probably have to change those bits. Changing bits the editor liked is NOT easy but then again, acting unbelievably is one of my heroine's main failings so therefore I have to change them. Argh!

Okay, I'm now officially, officially sick of my heroine and am going to take the day off her. Big hugs to all of you who got the dreaded R from the competition. Remember an R does not mean you or your writing sucks. It just wasn't the right story.

On Contests

I wasn't going to weigh in to the fray with the palaver happening on the I Heart Presents site, but I wanted to say a couple of things in response. No, not controversial stuff, there's enough of that floating around at the moment I 'm thinking, it's just something to think about.

I pretty much just wanted to remind everyone that a contest win doesn't automatically equal publication. Nor does a contest placing. If it did, I'd be published by now. All a contest is, is a faster-than-normal submission process. If you'd worked hard on your chapter and synopsis, and subbed them the normal way, the response you would get would be exactly the same. Some will get requests and some will get rejections.
Oh, but you say, didn't the winners get an editor for a year? That's different from the normal sub process. Well, actually no it's not any different. Because it's been a year since my contest placing and I am still working with an editor. And I was working with an editor before my placing too so me getting runner up in Feel the Heat really had nothing to do with it. It got a manuscript seen faster probably but that's it. They're not going to publish me because I got somewhere in a contest, they're going to publish me because I can write a book they want to publish. I know, it's all very well for me to say that but if you don't take my word for it, take Maisey's. She submitted through the slush, spent a year working with an editor, and sold. That's the prize right there, no contest required.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you don't need a contest placing to win the prize. If the editors see potential, they'll want to see more of what you have. And people always forget that even when you do get to have that wonderful feedback, it's not the end. No, it's just the beginning of how hard you need to work. Winning an editor for a year, whether through the slush or the contest, means a year of slogging your guts out. And even when you do slog, you may not be published. Because that last part - writing a publishable book - is all dependent on you, your ability to take criticism and your skill as a writer to apply it to your manuscript, not a contest placing.

No part of this process is easy. Contests are great ways to polish up something for a deadline and get a response to a submission quickly. But they are not the only way. Keep submitting. That's all you can do.

Presents Competition - Congrats!

Hey, big huge congrats to the winners of the Presents Writing Competion! To get so far out of so many entries is a huge acheivement. Chocolate martinis and champagne cocktails all round.
Especially to fellow aspirant MH author and MH winner, Gill (AKA Jilly). I've only just met you but your talent is truly inspiring. Can't wait to read the book!

In other positive news, I have heard back from the ed. She wants me to send her detailed character back-stories for Cat and Sean before a partial and a synopsis. So I'm still in the game here! Now this is something I should have done way back when and just didn't because I'm so damn impatient to get to writing the story. No longer!

So this weekend is my time to sort out just who my characters are. I'm going to write detailed backstories for them, why they are the people they are when the story opens. Very excited as this feels like I'm finally getting to the root of my problems with conflict...

More next week!

Romance Writer, Amateur Psychologist

Why psychology? Because I got feedback about my synopsis and, yes, there were problems. Guess where my problems were? Yup, the evil heroine strikes again! Hero had potential, heroine...childish and immature.

Groan! I'll be honest here, I did wonder when I was writing this story, whether her conflict was right. Halfway through the book I was going um...not sure about this...but I persevered hoping it would fix itself. But it didn't. So Jackie's number one rule is going to be: Go with your gut! If it's not working for you then it's not working full stop!

Right, so where to from here? Well, I'm going to go with fixing this one because in spite of evidence to the contrary, I do feel like I'm getting there with fully backgrounding my characters. Kate, for a start, is much more fully realised than Cat is. And that's mainly due to me thinking long and hard about Kate before I started writing. Plus, I like this story.

What I should be doing is taking advice from all you people who do character sketches before writing. Either that or I do what I usually do which is to write my way into my characters, finish the ms, and then write the synopsis. Impatience is my besetting sin and does not help in my writing!

The one thing that does console me is that the editor did tell me that writing romance with psychologically compelling, believable characters is very, very difficult. Hear that everyone? This is HARD stuff we're doing. We have to have strong conflict but it has to be light and flirty. It has to extend to 50k but you can't have any external conflict. It has to be sympathetic but not too specific. It has to have the fantasy factor. These are not easy things to accomplish. In fact, I was having a moan to a good friend of mine who is very, very literary and she said, 'Actually, what you're writing is very difficult isn't it?' And I thought, no kidding! Category romance is a tough beast.

Anyway, the other thing that keeps me going is this: the ed told me that my writing was all there and that once I got the characterisation right, I'll be away.

So, you see, I simply have to keep going. :-)

The Red String Bracelet Or The Problem with Quirks

Thanks everyone for the great input on my last post! Got some great ideas. You rock, did you know that? Anyway, still on the subject of my difficulties with heroines, I had a bit of a brainwave today. It actually happened while I was doing a pilates class (as you do). I realised that in order to do some of the exercises, I was over-compensating for my weak arms by using my shoulders, which are really strong. I know, what's your point Jackie? Well, the point is that I am doing something similiar with my heroines. In order to cover my weak character development, I have been over-relying on quirks to make my heroines different.

Kate is a case in point. She started out a hippy because I didn't really understand conflict at the time and making her a stereotype was an easy way of characterising her. Bad move. And I think that's why I'm finding it difficult to get a handle on her now because once I take away the stereotype, where is my character? In stripping her of her quirks (eco beliefs, nose-ring) I've exposed the fact that she has no real conflict. She's just a cardboard cutout. So I have to go back to basics, dig deep to find out who she is. Build up a real background with real problems.

Once I've got that, I can add those quirks back again - but only if they are true to the person she is now. Because although quirks aren't bad, if you're going to use them there has to be a reason for them. I think I've mentioned this before in other posts but if, for example, you take the time to mention your heroine's love of sparkly red shoes, you should then also explain why she likes them. Is she like Dorothy and they represent escape? And if so, what is she escaping and why?

Kate, for example, has retained one of her old quirks (no, not the nose-ring). She wears a friendship bracelet of red string around one wrist. Now, in the old draft there wasn't any reason for behind this, she wore it because I put it there. In the new draft however, she wears it because her brother gave it to her before he left to go overseas. She hasn't seen him in years and for her, it represents his connection to her. And now, because I've linked it to her conflict, it also represents the family that she once had and loved, and that is slowly slipping away from her. Now, I'm sure Alex will make a comment on this bracelet and perhaps it'll come to mean something for him too. Perhaps, once I write the thing, he'll help Kate to change its meaning so that it doesn't represent what she lost, but what remains strong. Because he has his own lesson to teach her, just as she has something to teach him.

Anyway, all this has been great distraction from the waiting. So, anyone else have a problem with unexplainable quirks?

Difficult Heroines

Right, well, no news for me this week. But I'm good with that. No, really, I am. Patience is a virtue and one I'm slowly learning. Certainly Maisey's 20 month wait for her Call is a fantastic lesson in good things come to those who wait. So I shall continue waiting.

In the meantime, I am wrestling with Kate. She's my hippy heroine who now isn't so much hippy as an architect of eco-friendly houses. And I'm wrestling with her because I am having a few problems getting a handle on her character. Does anyone else have this problem at times? Now she's an architect instead of a protestor, her character has - naturally enough - changed and I can't seem to figure her out. I had to change her from my FTH entry because in that story she had no conflict at all and - I have to admit - did come over as a little bit shrill. And as Alex is, in my updated story, quite a strong alpha, she does have to hold her own against him. So far she's managing to do that but in a quietly strong way, which surprised me because I had imagined her as fiery. But no, apparently not.

One of my problems, see, is that I write myself into my characters. The more of the story I write, the more they reveal themselves. Which is great if it wasn't for my anal-ness with regard to first chapters. I really, really like to have my first chapter as done as it can be before I write the rest of it. It's the set-up for the whole book you see and if it's not working, I can't write the rest. If I have a good first chapter, then the rest of the first draft can be as dirty as it gets, that doesn't matter, just as long as that first part is done. But if I write myself into my characters, I usually don't know much about them in the first chapter so sometimes their character is 'off' and hence the first chapter doesn't go well. You see my conundrum? So with Kate, I'm really finding it difficult to progress the story because I can't get past my first chapter difficulties with her.

However, in the interests of progress and getting words down, I have pushed through my first chapter woes and am writing further on in the hope that Kate will stop being such a changeable little thing and settle down. In fact I often do this too, just push through. Sometimes I'll even skip a scene that isn't working and go on to the next one. This can work well as usually the scene I'll have problems with either turns out to be unnecessary or different in some way that I wasn't aware of until I skipped it.

So what does everyone else do when they have problems with their ms or one of their characters? Long wistful walks in flowing white gowns through fields of sunflowers? Cleaning the shower? Throwing yourself dramatically on the couch and declaring you're a hopeless writer, you'll never get anywhere and you don't know why you bother? *puts up hand*. :-)

This Is Why We Do This - Congrats Maisey!

We do this so that one day we might actually be published authors. Like Maisey Yates. This damn fine woman got the call yesterday and I would just like to sent out a huge...

(no, get your mind out of the gutter)...

WOOHOO!!!!

Presents/Modern's brand new author is not only a very cool person but a great writer too. It's enough to make a girl simply green... ;-)

Well done, Maisey. Can't wait until your book comes out!

Why Do We Do This Again??

I should imagine that I'm not the only aspiring romance author who is feeling sick at this moment in time. Hands up all those who entered the Modern/Modern Heat writing contest! It's a horrible feeling eh? Knowing a decision is being made, one that is all about your hopes and dreams, and knowing that you will have absolutely no control over it. Gah, it's enough to make anyone reach for the bucket.

So why am I sick? Well, I didn't enter the contest but I have heard that the lovely editor who is (un)fortunate enough to read my stuff is getting to my synopsis this week. So every morning I open my email program with huge amounts of trepidation. What I'm hoping for is a 'yes, this might work if you change this, this and this'. What I'm terrified of recieving is 'never on God's green earth would we want to publish this tripe'. Because no matter how good we think our story is, the fact is that we don't know until the editor says yes. I think my story is good, at least I really enjoyed writing it and it was certainly better than the last one. But who knows? There may be some kind of fatal flaw in it that I haven't spotted.

Anyway, the annoying thing is that usually the best way to cope with these sick feelings is to write something but I can't concentrate on writing anything at the moment. Grump. Grump. Perhaps taking Great Uncle Visa out for a little tootle round the shops is in order. Sadly he hasn't recovered from the last pair of NTAI shoes I bought so maybe I'll have to go easy on him.

So, what do other people do to when they don't want to think about what's going down over in Richmond?

New Hero Love

New story love is a special kind of love. So too is new hero love. And I adore my new hero. Or should I say, I adore my new-old hero, cause he's not really new, having made his first appearance in my Feel The Heat entry last year. However, he IS kind of new in that he actually has some internal conflict. Plus I've also given him a sympathetic in with the heroine, because in his first incarnation, apart from his astoninishingly good looks, he didn't have anything that she could admire about him. Or even like. And let's face it, if your h&h are going to be antagonistic, there has to be something there that each finds admirable about the other otherwise your love story isn't going to be very believable.

It's all about the sympathy factor. Is your character sympathetic? This is doubly important (I think) when you've got a rude hero. And my hero is one of those lazy, arrogant, sarcastic types because, sad to say, I really like those kind of heroes. Mostly because their downfall into love is so delicious...
Anyway, I think this touches on one of the seven sins that I Heart Presents listed about the comp entries - a hero who gets irrationally cross and treats everyone like dirt. This isn't alpha. This is just being an a*hole. So how to stop your sarcastic hero from coming across as a guy you'd just want to kick? Give him motivation. Why is he being so rude? Is he sick? Tired? Worried about something else? Angry? And if he's angry, why is he angry?
For dear Alex, his reason for being an ass is that he's worried about his father and having to deal with a bunch of protestors who are bothering him with what he thinks of as inconsequential problems is the last thing he wants to think about. Especially as one of the protestors is very, very attractive.
True, this isn't an excuse for his rudeness but at least there is a reason behind it. And the reason is the 'in' with the heroine because when Kate discovers it, she is immediately sympathetic. Family is important to her and she finds his concern for his father attractive.

I should confess also that the other reason I love sarcastic heroes is because they do make the dialogue fun to write. Especially when you pair them with an equally quick heroine. Oooh, yum, yum. I love my dialogue - can you tell?
So what's your favourite type of hero then? Do you like yours with lashings of sarcasm? Or are you more into the strong, silent type?

All Dressed Up

Okay, well, the partial is done. Its got its party dress on, hair has been styled, the makeup done. Now all it's waiting for is to be asked out. Don't want it to be a wallflower...

In other romantic news, the darling Dr Jax took me for a suprise wedding anniversary weekend to Waiheke Island, one of the islands in Auckland's gulf harbour. A kid free weekend and it was bliss!
Not to mention giving me a few ideas for my next wip. Yes, a writer's imagination is always working.

This wip is the infamous Kate and Alex story and I finally, finally think I've got the conflict and plot exactly as they should be (at least I think so). Waiheke is home to lots of hippy-type people as well as very rich-type people. So I can see the Modern Heat potential. Lots of beautiful vineyards, lots of five star resorts, lots of tie-dye and dream catchers. The perfect place for the child of hippy parents to take on a rich and unscrupulous property developer...

Now I've got a handle on the old action/reaction and the KISS principle with regard to conflict, I think I could make this one work. Now what I really need to concentrate on is NOT adding additional strands to my conflict but that's a whole other story...

Wherefore Art Thou Tension?

I have just realised why I've been unhappy with the last third of my wip and why the black moment feels like it comes out of the blue - there is no tension. My characters are having a lovely time now they've fallen into bed but where is the 'OMG it's all going to end in tears I just know it!' feeling? Where is the dark cloud that is rapidly lowering on the horizon? Gone, that's what.
Michelle Styles' comment on my last post about kitchens was incredibly prescient as it turns out because yes, I have lost the tension. With every scene the tension should wind tighter not release like a tightrope snapping under a heavy weight!

The good thing is that I know why my tension has snapped. It's because I've lost focus of the essential conflict - again! I got sidetracked by the reasons they were falling for each other and though that's important, it's not as important as the all reasons they shouldn't! And not just the 'I must not fall in love' but the 'why I must not fall in love'.
Not to mention the fact that I haven't dug as deeply into my conflict as I need to. My hero has been bringing up his much younger sister for the last ten years and though she's now at university, he is still finding it difficult to let her go. Why? What's he afraid of? And what does this mean for my heroine? And speaking of her, she is still trying to escape her over-protective parents. Why? What's she really afraid of and what does this mean for the hero?

So, have hauled the sorry mess back into line again by putting their essential conflict back into their scenes together. Building up that tension so that when the black moment arrives, it'll be so dark that they will be absolutely unable to see their way out of it.

I just hope to God I can! :-)

Everyone's Always in the Kitchen At Parties

Okay, so not just parties. In the process of editing and I've discovered that in every one of my mss there is always a scene where one or the other of the characters is in the kitchen making coffee. I have no idea why. No, actually, I do: it's the old 'let's have a conversation about our conflict' kind of stuff and so they have to be doing something while they're having this conversation. But for some reason these scenes are always in the kitchen and during the course of it one of the characters is making a hot drink. But why? Why the kitchen? Why coffee and not tea? Why a hot drink? Why not make food instead?

It's probably a custom thing. Whenever my h & h eventually get to go to one another's houses, offering a hot drink is the socially done thing. And since I don't drink tea, it's usually coffee. Plus, coffee gives the character something to do, grinding beans etc (especially the hero - coffee is a more manly type of drink, especially when he gets to fiddle with a gleaming, stainless steel espresso machine. Ha ha.) . But still, it's weird. This wip for example, the heroine is staying with the hero and so what does he do as soon as she arrives? Heads straight to the kitchen and goes to make coffee! Why doesn't he whip her up a souffle or something?

I really should break out and do something more radical with my dialogue scenes. At our last conference, I went to a workshop about setting scenes and about how lots of people seemed to set their dialogue in kitchens. It was suggested to try another location for interest's sake. Such as a wind tunnel. Or a mountain side. Or a boat. The problem I have with that is that kitchens/restaurants etc are the places where people normally have conversations like this. Especially deep and meaningful ones. And if you're writing Modern Heat most of the time your characters won't be in wind tunnels or mountain sides, and if they are, they're probably doing much more important stuff than talking about their conflict!

Seriously though, I should be a bit different with my scene setting. What about everyone else? What's the most unusual location you've set a scene in?

Finished

Big woots all round - I finished my story! Yep, now have 48k of...dross probably. :-) Got bogged down in the last third and I'm hoping it's not going to be as bad as I think. Dr Jax says I'm over-thinking the conflict. He's probably right. But won't know until I see what I've written.

One thing's for sure, already stuff has changed from the synopsis. Not the big things but some of the small plot points. Just goes to show how things can change once you've completed a manuscript. I guess that's why everyone says to sub the partial only once you've finished writing the whole thing. Not that I've ever done that! Maybe that's why I haven't had anything accepted yet! :-)

Anyway, the most certain thing about it is that I am going to have to do a lot of editing. If the initial draft is 48k it means that the polished ms will almost certainly be longer. Especially since I only kind of sketched the ending. Lots of work. Maybe I'll be so busy with editing it that I won't stress about the synopsis currently living in London. And considering the number of entries for the Presents competition, I suspect it will be living there for some time to come.

In the meantime, I have joined the Romance Writers of Australia in the hope of entering this baby into the Emerald Award. I know, I kind of went off contests but they sure give you something to do while you wait. Am even considering this one for the RWNZ Clendon award too.

Right, that's the end of my insights for the day. Having one's four year old daughter wake up in the middle of the night twice is not conduicive to thinking about writing sadly. What's everyone else up to?

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!

The Rebound Submission

Yes, that's exactly what my rejected sub was. I had the rejection on the revised full and then, so desperate to submit again was I, that I quickly fiddled with a new story and sent it away without thinking it through properly. Or rather, I over-thought it. I was trying so hard to get it right that in the end I got nothing right, even the stuff I normally do well.

So it's back to the drawing board. Somehow I've now managed to overboard with internal conflict and have to bring it back to the middle ground. Hard? You betcha. But I have been slowly learning even more. Especially about the dangers of too much sex in Modern Heat! Is that even possible? Oh yeah! I tried to do a one night stand story but even as I was writing it, I found myself inventing ways to get my heroine to go through with it. And that should have been my first indication that all was not right in the world of my characters. Again I was trying to make my heroine do something she actually wouldn't by adding all this stuff to make her to do it! Argh! In the end it wasn't convincing and to add insult to injury, the driving force behind the one night stand was only sexual tension. There was not enough conflict! Apparently the sex arises from the emotional conflict, NOT the other way round!

So many things to keep in mind. But this time I am going to make sure I get it right. I am not going to panic-sub. I am going to spend time really thinking through my new synopsis. And hey, I'm already doing better with that on the sex front - so busy working out the emotional conflict between my h&h, that I forgot to put in a love scene!

Romance Writing is Not for Sissies

Okay, as someone told me on the RWNZ email loop today, congratulations on my rejection because it means I'm a writer. And she's right. I can no longer pretend that it's a little something I do in my spare time, that it's a sideline to my real life, that it's my hobby, that it doesn't matter. Because it does matter. I was gutted yesterday, really and truly gutted. I told myself I may as well give up. But you know what? Even as I was telling myself that, I was thinking about the story I'm currently writing and how I needed to adjust the internal conflict a bit more now!

A rejection stinks. It's not easy and it won't get any easier. There will, no doubt, be more rejections to come. You can't control the rejections but, to paraphrase Michelle Styles' wise words, what you can control is your response to them. Yesterday I wallowed completely and utterly, allowed myself to think about giving up, allowed myself to feel I was hopeless and I'd never do it. But now I am done with wallowing. Time for my professional response which is: keep writing. Work on that next submission. Make it the best. Take the hurt and turn it into determination.

I want to say though that part of dealing with rejection is also sharing the pain of it with others who understand and you all who have read this blog do understand. And the support and faith you have given me is amazing. I am so lucky to be part of this community. So huge thanks for all the comments and encouragement from yesterday - it really got me through the worst of it.

And, since I am a writer, I have advice for other writers who want to do this, who are lurking and thinking of submitting: to paraphrase my old boss, romance writing is not for sissies. It's a hard road and a long one. You may take a step forward, only to fall back again. But if you love writing, if you can't NOT write, then don't let the fear of rejection hold you back. Yes, you will get rejected. Yes, it will hurt. But you will not be published if you don't submit, if you don't keep writing, if you give up.

Right, since I am very good at NOT taking my own advice when it comes to my writing, I need to sit down and take a good look at my next submission!

Oh and Aideen? No, you didn't see the words 'give up' on my blog. They weren't there. You must have mistaken them for "NOT giving up" :-)

Missed Again

Well guys, I heard from Anna and no, they didn't want it. As you can imagine, I'm very disappointed. All her comments were right on the money but it's the usual story - you submit something and only after it's gone do you learn more and realise what you should have done.

So, having gone from nearly there to missing entirely, I feel a bit like I've taken the wrong road somewhere and ended up in a dead end. Do I actually know what I'm doing? Maybe I don't. I certainly don't feel qualified at giving advice to people - not that I ever really did I have to say.

Oh well, I guess the only way to go on from this is to keep going even though part of me just wants to give up.

A Riddle Inside A Mystery Wrapped In An Enigma

No, I'm not talking about Russia (thanks Winston Churchill), I'm talking about the wretchedness that is internal conflict. As you know (or should know by now!) internal conflict is where Modern Heat/Modern is at and you'd think, after a year of learning about this, I would have finally figured it out.

Nup.

Witness my Kate'n'Alex story. I was writing happily away (the aftermath of a love scene, hot), my conflict sorted, getting into his introspection about how he cannot possibly want a relationship and then I come up, slap bang against the dreaded 'why'. Okay, says I, he doesn't want a relationship because he doesn't like being tied down. Why? Because his family moved around a lot and he learned never to commit to anything or anyone because he knew he'd have to leave again. Yes, but that's what he did as a kid - why does he continue this behaviour as an adult? Um...because he just wants to??

Grrrr. See what I mean? It's all very well having angsty childhood stuff happening, but there has to be a reason for the character to keep acting that way as an adult. Which brings me to finally understanding why a parent cannot be the reason for someone's internal conflict (yes, I'm slow). A parent can add to it, deepen it, but as an adult, would the character really continue to act the way they had as a child? Especially an alpha male?

So, for Alex, I have to have some reason why he continues to believe the lessons he learned in his childhood. Did he ever try thinking differently? What happened when he did?
I have another hero too who I thought had his conflict sorted. But no. He had a difficult childhood and had issues with responsibility, but again, the difficult childhood seems to be the excuse to for him to continue acting the same way as an adult. Again, I have to ask myself, did he ever try to rise above it? Did he succeed or fail? Why did he fail and how did he feel about his failure?

Argh! Seems you can never stop learning in this business...

In the meantime, after a depressed weekend where my writing and everything about it sucked, I succumbed and bought some NTAI shoes. Wedges as you can see since I cannot wear heels without seriously damaging my feet.
Yes, they were ridiculously expensive. Yes, they are totally impractical. Yes, they made me stop thinking about my sub for, oh, about five minutes. :-)

So, anyone else got a handle on internal conflict? What about shoes?

Attraction

Following Heidi's inspirational video (lord the Modern Heat authors know what they're doing if this is their inspiration!) , I thought I might put one up of my own. I keep seeing this on TV and every time I see it I think, 'yes, that's what the attraction between the h&h has to be like!'.

Except of course, the end of this video isn't the way I'd personally end this particular scene, if you know what I mean. ;-)

Oh and Kelly and Heidi's new books? Three words: Fab. U. Lous. Heroes to die for. Yummmo.

Ten Fun Ways to NOT Win the Harlequin Presents Writing Competition

If you have your heart set on NOT winning the Harlequin Presents contest, here are some (slightly tongue-in-cheek) ways to achieve this.

1. Have no internal conflict.
That doesn't mean car chases and villains. Internal conflict is what keeps your h&h from their HEA if they met in bar one night. And it can't be just because he's a Montague and she's a Capulet - that's external conflict people. If you have to introduce a scheming mother-in-law to keep them apart then your conflict isn't strong enough.

2. Have your hero be the shy, easy-going type.
Sorry guys, he may be sweet but that ain't alpha. And alpha is what goes in Presents/Modern.

3. Have as many sub-characters as possible.
You love the heroine's best friend, her wise-cracking husband and their three adorable children. But devoting a whole chapter to them isn't a good idea.

4. Include vampires and werewolves.
I know, you really liked Twilight, but paranormal isn't where Modern/Modern Heat is at, even if you think it should be. Remember the guidelines.

5. Force your characters to act the way you want them to for the purposes of the plot.
I've been there and it ain't pretty. You may want your hero to eat some bad cheese so that he gets sick and the heroine has to look after him, but you do have to ask yourself: does he even like cheese? And if not, why not? These are character driven which means you let the characters act they way they want. So go on, let them have their head!

6. Have things happen to your characters rather than have your characters make decisions and act on them.
A fire might make your hero rescue the heroine after their black moment but what would have happened if there hadn't been a fire? Would he have made up with her anyway? What decision would he have made if you hadn't cruelly sent him into the fire? Again, character driven.

7. Have your hero enter the story in chapter 2.
If that's the case, then shouldn't that be chapter 1? Don't make us wait! He's the reason we're reading it - at least he's the reason I'm reading it.

8. Make your characters act in seemingly random ways.
Such as your heroine suddenly kissing the hero whereas up till now, she hates his guts. Where is her motivation? Why would she do that?

9. Have either or both of your h&h be drug addicted alcoholics.
This may provide heaps of conflict but not much in the way of sympathy. Your h&h must be sympathetic and though drug addiction and alcoholism are real issues, they're probably a little too real for category romance.

10. And most important, you definitely won't win if you don't enter. :-)

Good luck!

Why I Like Ebooks

Because I am extremely, extremely impatient and downloading an ebook is instant. No getting into the car and driving to the bookshop, no feeling annoyed because they don't have the book you want, no getting back into the car and driving to another bookshop, no waiting in a queue at the fourth bookshop where you finally found the book and need to buy it, and no having to haul said book around in your bag for days afterwards because you can't put it down (thank you Wolf Hall).

Okay, the down sides are irritating formatting and licensing which means that if you want to put it on another PC, it's difficult to transfer, reading on a PC screen (which I have got used to), and not being able to read it in the bath. It's that last one which is the biggie for me because I particularly like reading in the bath. If they ever invent an ebook reader than doesn't mind water, I'm an instant buyer.

And the other reason I like ebooks is that I can get my Modern Heat fix a month early! Woohoo! Now, I like all the Modern Heat authors, they rock, but two of my particular favourites are available for download right now - Heidi Rice and Kelly Hunter have two books out this month on the Mills and Boon site and I am happy, happy, happy. I'm going to be a shameless fan girl here and say that I love Heidi's deliciously strong heroes like I love chocolate, and I love Kelly's way with dialogue like I love chocolate martinis. Yummo. Oh, and I've been hanging out for these two stories for ages...

So I'm planning a happy evening downloading and curling up in front of my laptop. What else is everyone doing this evening (or day, depending on your time zone)?

The Joy of the One Page Synopsis - Part Two

Righto, now I shall reveal all my secrets... :-)

Seriously, I am not setting myself up as an expert in this so please take my advice with a fairly hefty grain of salt. The final judge will always be the editor. However, I have learned a few things in the past year and doing it this way does make a lot of logical sense to me. Whether you feel the same though is up to you! :-)

Okay, so I've rewritten my Kate and Alex synopsis the way I would do it now, given what I've learned.

You start with the internal conflicts:
The sole survivor of a car accident that left the rest of her family dead, environmentalist Kate Weaver is used to taking care of herself. But the loss of her family has left her with a desperate need to protect herself from emotional harm: falling in love is far too emotionally risky for Kate.

Millionaire property developer Alex Woolf lost his parents young and a series of violent foster homes ensured a lesson he never forgot: only the strong survive, never admit weakness. Love is definitely a weakness and one he will never fall prey to.

Then you have the story opening:
Kate and Alex meet at a protest that Kate has organised against a development by Alex's company in an Auckland mangrove swamp. Sparks fly and the chemistry between them is red hot. When Alex suggests a weekend together, Kate cannot resist: she doesn't want love but surely a little sex is okay?

Then there is the growing attraction (why do they fall for each other?):
Their weekend together is unexpected. The sex is sensational but there's more to it than that. Alex, used to control and not showing weakness, is drawn to Kate's uninhibited passion and her blunt honesty, while Kate is attracted to his intellect, the way he makes her laugh and by the vulnerability she senses, something he is trying to hide.

Then you have the emotional turning points of the story, such as the moment when each falls in love, why they fall in love, and the black moment. These points should be active - the characters make decisions and choices based on their internal conflicts.
After the weekend, they agree to keep seeing each other. Alex tells her not to expect any more than a fling but Kate is happy with that, it's what she wants as well. But an incident at a party forces her to revaluate this: Alex defends her from an over-amorous suitor and it's the first time anyone has taken care of her. It tips her liking for him into love.
Defending Kate felt natural and right to Alex but he doesn't know why he did it. He's only ever looked out for himself, not anyone else, so why does he feel the need to protect now? Deep down he knows the reason but he shies away from it: he must stay strong and admitting feelings for Kate is a weakness.
And then Kate finds out that their weekend has consequences: she's pregnant. Kate wants the baby desperately, wants to have a family again. Since Alex defended her once, maybe he'll have a change of heart when he hears about the baby?
When Kate tells him about the pregnancy, Alex is appalled – a child is the one thing that demands unconditional love, a weakness. And yet latent protective feelings stir in him. His own childhood left him scarred; he would never wish that on a child of his own. So he decides on a compromise: he'll provide for the child in every way, but he will maintain a physical and emotional distance.
But Kate will not settle for half measures. She wants a family and that means Alex in her life and in their child's. She demands to know why he can't provide this so he tells her about his childhood and why he cannot give her anything more. Kate asks him whether her loving him makes any difference and Alex, desperate to protect himself, to be strong, angrily tells her that no, it doesn't. She will have to be satisfied with what he gives her.

Then the resolution (how do they resolve their conflict and why?):
Kate is heartbroken but the need to provide for their baby gives her the will to fight. She involves Alex in the pregnancy every step of the way, setting him an example that being strong has nothing to do with denying love. Alex sees how determined Kate is to be there for their baby and he realises that it's love that makes her strong. It's not a weakness to be fought. The example she sets allows him to finally admit that he loves her, that he wants the family he never had just as much as she does. Together they will make it work.

Easy eh?

Okay, okay, so not easy. And this is by no means a perfect synopsis. Kate's emotional journey is truncated - why does she fall for Alex, out of all the men in all the world? What does she learn from him and how does she learn it? I'm sure you can spot other things too.
But the focus of the synopsis is solely on the basic internal conflict. And that's the main difference to the previous one - I've actually given Kate and Alex some internal conflict (the loss of their childhoods/parents). Also, there is no external conflict in here apart from the opening set up and the bit with the amorous suitor. Introducing this has Alex having his hero moment but should this come from an outside source? Still, it has him making the decision to defend Kate and her reaction to that defence.
There is no secondary characters included, and there is no 'voice'. The voice is for the partial - nothing but cold, unadorned facts in the synopsis. What I've done is shown the editor how their romance will play out and how it will eventually be resolved, via the main emotional turning points - initial attraction, why they fall for each other, Alex's hero moment (Kate falling in love), pregnancy and reaction, black moment, resolution. It'll be up to the editor to decide whether this makes enough sense and whether the story is strong enough for her to want to see the rest of it.
The formatting is a little off (thanks Blogger) but this synop, in Word, is one page with a blank line between each paragraph.

And if you're wondering, this synopsis isn't actually the way I've written this story. Not sure of the ethics of posting an unpublished synopsis that I'm hoping to submit (one day!) so this is one I based on my original story, which was eventually rejected. :-) Anyway I hope it gives you a bit of an idea on how to proceed. Feel free to ask questions or anything, or even let me know if there's a better way to do it! Like I said, I'm no expert...

The Joy of the One Page Synopsis

This is a killer, right? You're not wrong. How do you get everything you want into one page? Well, it's not easy but it's entirely possible. After Michelle S gave me her critique of my sorry synopses, she suggested that I try doing them in one page. This was really hard but in doing so, I had a bit of an inkling about how an editor might read it and why certain things were important.

Now, obviously I am no expert in this but I thought I'd share my insights just in case they're helpful.

To help illustrate points, I'm going to use the synopsis I subbed for the FTH contest. This was two pages double-spaced and quite frankly, not very good. See if you can spot why.

When Alex Woolf, Auckland millionaire property developer, discovers eco-activist Kate Weaver protesting at one of his constructions sites, his self-contained world is suddenly thrown into chaos by a sudden attack of the lustful kind. But Kate is wary: he's the very antithesis of her green ideals and is also, unfortunately, incredibly attractive. Unfortunate because she's susceptible to physical chemistry and has learned from past mistakes that it means nothing in the end.
Incensed by the blatant way Alex shows his interest, Kate organises a protest outside his offices but this turns nasty and she ends up being rescued by him. Naturally she tells him exactly what she thinks of him. His response? A kiss to her palm that leaves her trembling. Alex is hooked on the chase. He tracks Kate down with a demand: dinner at her house or he presses charges regarding her protest: Kate has no choice but to agree.
At dinner, Kate tries to scare him off with her blunt opinions but Alex is even more attracted. The evening ends with him pulling her into his arms and kissing her senseless. Then he goes further by manipulating her into having lunch with him at his Waiheke Island home.
Kate, hating to be manipulated, fears the worst but over the course of the afternoon, realises that her initial impressions about him are misplaced. There is a vulnerability to him that she, champion of the vulnerable, finds very intriguing. But, worse than that, he makes her laugh.
That night, finally unable to resist her own sensual nature, a side of herself she's always mistrusted, it's Kate who does the seducing. Their lovemaking is a transcendent experience, a true meeting of both bodies and spirits, and it changes everything between them.
The next day circumstances force Kate into staying on the island but after the night she spent with Alex, she feels she knows him, is sure he would never hurt her. He brings out her humour, her sense of fun. Things she'd hadn't even known she'd lost. She soon doesn't want to leave. Alex too is changed by the experience. A lonely childhood has led to a life of emotional self-sufficiency but passionate Kate has opened a door in his heart. A door that leads to a world where caring about someone does not lead to dependency but emotional fulfilment.
But the spell breaks when they return to the mainland. Attending a party with Alex, Kate is served with a reminder about how out of place she is in his world: a chance meeting with her ex leads to bitter humiliation and it's enough for Kate to decide that it can never work between her and Alex. They're too different and she's too afraid of being hurt again.
Alex feels betrayed at Kate's rejection after the party. He defended her – stepping in to help someone else was a huge step for him in the first place – so why did she throw it back in his face? He wants what they had on the island but he still can't reconcile these feelings with what he's been brought up to believe: that being dependent on someone else for your happiness makes you weak. Way out of his comfort zone, he decides that perhaps his parents were right after all, that looking after number one is the most important thing.
But then they discover that their island tryst has had consequences: Kate is pregnant. She's appalled. Not only is she in love with someone she doesn't want to be in love with, she's also having his baby! Alex is horrified too – the ultimate in dependency requires the ultimate in unselfishness. But now it's happened, he realises he wants it more than anything in the world. So he challenges her: she must get over her fear of not being good enough for him and understand that their differences need not divide them. Kate answers with a challenge of her own: if she'll do that for him, can he get over his need for emotional self-sufficiency and commit to her as well as their child? But for Alex, admitting finally that he loves her, there's no need to compromise. He'll do whatever it takes to have her and his child in his life. Permanently.

I think I put everything but the kitchen sink into that synopsis but anyway, here's what's wrong with it:
Firstly and most importantly, where are Kate and Alex's conflicts? They're not in the first couple of paragraphs and because they're not, nothing the characters do or feel really makes any sense. When an editor reads a synopsis (this is just a guess here folks 'cause I've actually got no idea. It's more how I would read a synopsis) she'll want to know immediately why these two feel they can't be together. If she knows straight up, then she'll be able to see why/how the characters make the decisions they do and if they make sense.
If not, she'll be left asking herself questions like these:
What were Kate's past mistakes? Why does Alex's interest incense Kate? Why is he vulnerable? Why is that attractive to her? What made her lose her sense of fun? What does being not of his world have anything to do with their romance? Why are they too different? Why will it never work? Why was it a huge step for him to defend her? Why did he learn this lesson from his parents?

You see? I'm sure you can spot the other questions in the subsequent paragraphs too. But all these questions pretty much stem from the same reason - what are the conflicts here? And the short answer to that is: there aren't any. Not anything internal anyway. All the baby stuff etc, scene with the ex, is all just me trying to cover the fact that there was nothing to keep Kate and Alex apart. There's hints - Kate's past mistakes, Alex's parents, but nothing concrete.

So if that's not a very good synopsis, what's a good one? I'm not the world's greatest synopsis writer and I'm certainly not setting myself up as one, but I can do better than the above these days. Next post I'll redo the synopsis the way it probably should have been done the first time and you can see if it's better or not.

Light and Flirty Modern Heat: Yeah, Right.

I'm worried about my sub. So what else is new right? Well after reading the transcript of the editor chat on eHarlequin, I've got several worries:

Firstly, I'm worrying that my sub is too angsty for Modern Heat. The problem is that I love deep, emotional internal conflict. And I love a strong, tortured hero. However, I also like humour which makes an uncomfortable mix between Presents/Modern style internal conflict with the Modern Heat flirty/sexy hero. With MH, you can't have your hero standing around brooding endlessly. There has to be some humour/flirtiness there, which makes it hard if you have a deep internal conflict for him. I think my hero isn't too broody (which makes him sound like a chicken!) but towards the end, he's pretty conflicted. Will this be a sub-killer?

Secondly I'm worrying about the whole 'fresh twist on an old theme' thing. The fact is, my setup isn't particularly fresh or original. They meet in a nightclub - how original is that? I like to think I spiced things up with the presentation of it a little but maybe I didn't. The whole fake engagement thing I had going on there was supposed to make it a little bit different to the marriage of convenience thing but I've now taken it out, I haven't even got that. Is my sub too boring?

Thirdly, I'm not sure I pushed the boundaries enough. I wanted to get this one right and in doing so, I'm worried I may have played it too safe. The transcript seemed to imply new and innovative is the way to go, but really, how far can you go as an aspiring author? What, exactly, can you get away with? Perhaps, as Kate Walker says, it's all in the execution. In the sub that was rejected, my hero and heroine didn't physically meet until page 6 or so but they did have a sexy online conversation. This was not mentioned as a problem in the feedback I received so maybe you can get away with a certain amount of rule breaking.

Lots of worries, huh? Anyone else worried about their sub? Perhaps I need to put up the scarecrow again...

Home Again or Completely Gratuitous Shots of New Zealand Countryside

Okay, 4055kms later, I am finally back home! And already feeling the post holiday blues... :-) Stupid eh? But had a lovely time. Travelling the country has given me a new appreciation for how beautiful New Zealand is. If any of you are down this end of the globe, make it your mission to see the South Island, especially Fiordland. And most especially, Doubtful Sound. A more beautiful place on earth I have yet to visit... (Picture on right is Lake Te Anau. Picture on left is taken from the Cardrona ski field in Otago, looking towards Queenstown)



Yes, it rains in Fiordland. A lot. And apparently people have been known to complain to the local tourist information bureau about the fact that it rains. As if the tourist bureau has anything to do with the weather. Reminds me of the time we were Morocco, on the edge of the Sahara and how a couple of our tour party complained to the tour guide because clouds meant they couldn't get their desert sunset photo... These waterfalls at the right are in Doubtful Sound and only appear when it rains.

Here's me being blown about on the front of the boat in Doubtful Sound. Well, I suppose there has to be one shot of me but no one took one of me in front of anything scenic so this will have to do. :-)






And here's my eldest daughter taking a wander along the shores of Lake Whakitipu near Queenstown.







Now the holiday is over, it's back to the wait - 13 weeks! Not to mention thinking about the next writerly blog post... Hope everyone else has had a good couple of weeks!
P.S. Please excuse the big lines of nothingness in between the photos. Blogger sucks when it comes to formatting posts with images.

A Missive from the Deep South - On Heroines

Still adventuring in the wilds of New Zealand's South Island. We're in Dunedin, the southern most city and I have been searching in vain for wireless internet. I think poor old NZ is rather foot-dragging when it comes to providing free wireless hotspots because there ain't none around here. Luckily Dr Jax has an iPhone and it can provide me with the access I have come to require, nay demand.

So, had plans for doing lots of lovely writing/editing while I've been away but they came to nought. Probably a good thing to have a complete break but it does lead to frustrated writer syndrome (symptoms include grumpiness, impatience with long suffering family, and general wistful imaginings about all the lovely things one could do if only one had enough time on one's laptop) - which isn't happy for either me nor my family. Loving the holiday though (especially the three days of unexpected and superb skiing) but will be looking forward to getting back into the swing of writing again.

Anyway, while we've been away, I came across an article in the Guardian about writing for Mills and Boon. It was extremely interesting, especially about 'the heroine problem'. Apparently, according to this journalist, writing M&B heroines is extremely difficult. This is because they provide the reader with the conduit to the hero - in other words the reader needs to be able to imagine herself as the heroine in order to experience the love affair with the hero. But in order to do this, the heroine has to appeal to as wide a range of people as possible - basically she has to be bland enough to appeal to everyone and yet interesting enough to appeal to everyone. Hard, yes? It's good to know I'm not the only one who thinks so!

This is pretty much my problem with my heroines. I give them things like nose rings and tattoos. Or make them geeks with no self confidence. Or make them flawed in some way. But as soon as you do this - make them extreme in any way - you instantly alienate the readers who don't understand or can't relate to that kind of heroine. Which is why my FTH contest heroine didn't work - she was too extreme in both her views and her appearance, and thus alienated a whole lot of potential readers.

In fact, I had a rather interesting conversation with Dr Jax about this particular issue. I was running my new idea by him and he was asking me why a woman recovering from breast cancer was more acceptable than a recovering addict. I had to point out that addiction was more alienating and less sympathetic than breast cancer, not to mention it was a subject you couldn't wrap up nicely in 50k or less, even if it did happen in the past. He argued about this but even if a recovering addict was worthy, it doesn't provide the requisite fantasy or escapism element that you need to have in an M&B.
Even breast cancer may be pushing it. You can't wrap that up easily either but am thinking I'll have to make her in total remission, with all her treatment in the past, and, bearing in mind the whole appealing to the widest range of people possible thing, probably not having had a mastectomy.

Of course, I'll have to hear back about my current sub first before I send anything else out. Sigh.

What does everyone else think about the whole heroine thing? Do you find them difficult to write?

In the Millionaire Playboy Psychiatrist's Penthouse

Two out the four statements in the above title are true and I'll leave you to figure out which ones are which...

Yes, it is a little bit sad to be posting a blog entry while I'm on holiday but a) wouldn't you know it, I have a cold and am holed up in our apartment and b) my eldest also has a cold and is holed up with me. The cold is helped marginally by the setting - a penthouse suite (one of the true statements, see photo) on the shores of Lake Whakitipu, which has all the mod cons including a deck with a spa pool that looks onto the Remarkables Mountain range. Dr Jax outdid himself with the accommodation it has to be said. We have broadband, we have heated floors, we have flat screen TVs... Happy days.

In fact, the setting and the apartment are all extremely Modern Heat - I'm inspired despite the cold! Queenstown is pretty young, urban and hip - certainly judging from all the trendy snow people I saw in town yesterday - with lots of bars and restaurants. Could be a great location for a new story. In fact, I even have a great idea to go along with it. Shows you what an obssessive writer I am that even on a family holiday with a vile cold, the creative urge never stops. Am kind of itching to get into writing it and if it wasn't for those meddling kids... :-)

But I can't think of new ideas at the moment. Too many old ideas to edit, not to mention angsting over the partial under consideration. Coming up for 12 weeks next week but I'm not holding my breath for an answer just yet. In fact I should be doing more NTAI - ing. Unfortunately my main method of NTAI-ing is more writing....which I can't do...

Ah well, shall try and distract myself by reading the new AS Byatt I bought with me, though as much as I love her writing, it probably won't provide as much escapism as Lucy King's new book did (great going, Lucy!). Isn't it lucky I also have Kate Hardy's latest too? ;-)

Holidays!

Woohoo!! Yep, we're going on holiday for two weeks on Thursday! Be the first holiday for me in months (no, two nights in Rotorua does not count) and I can't wait. We're going to Queenstown (see piccie) in the South Island for a conference that Dr Jax is attending. Queenstown, for those in the northern hemisphere, is kind of like NZ's answer to Switzerland on a much, MUCH, smaller scale. :-) Remember those mountains in Lord of the Rings? Those are the Remarkables (again, see piccie). Remember Rohan? That's the kind of country where we'll be going. Anyway, not sure of the wisdom of driving over a thousand ks with two small kids but hey, if you don't try you'll never know right?

Of course the other advantage of going away is that it's the perfect NTAI distraction. It's been ten weeks since I sent in my sub and the twelve week mark will pass while I'm away. I'm thinking I won't hear, considering the busy-ness of the London office. Sigh. Oh well, I am taking the laptop with me just in case (does that make me sad?). Can't do without my email and can't do without my lovely blog friends. :-) And perhaps I'll even have time to do some writing. There's lots of hot alpha skiers, snowboarders, climbers and general extreme kind of guys down there... Hmmmm....

Modern Heat set in Queenstown anyone?

Yet Another Post About Heroes

Yes, I know, I've probably posted this before but I thought I'd do another one simply because I love a good hero. Always have, always will. I like a good heroine, don't get me wrong, but baby bring on the hero because that's what I read romance for.

Now apparently I do a good hero - according to the editors. And my last (sadly deceased) manuscript had a 'perfect Modern Heat hero', so I guess I must be doing something right with 'em. But it seems that creating a good, Modern Heat alpha male is a problem for a lot of people (let's not go into my difficulties with heroines okay?). Kate Walker did a fabulous blog post about alpha males so I won't go into that either but here's a little bit about how I begin doing mine.

Dr Jax (my husband for those who don't know and no, that's not his actual name) reads all my manuscripts and he often tells me that I manage to get into a guy's head really well - which is pretty much essential in creating a good hero. And that's how I often start. I imagine myself as my hero - how would he feel? How would he think? Guys are not so different, their emotions are the same as ours and essentially they want the same things as we do. They're human right? Okay, at least semi-human. ;-) Their key difference is in the way they express themselves and in some of the actions they take. For example, my heroes are used to taking charge of their own lives. They make decisions and take action, they don't hang back and wait for someone else to do it for them. But they also find it difficult to talk about their emotions because guys generally aren't very good at that kind of thing.

The other thing I find helps me with writing them is very basic - you have to write what you find sexy. If you don't find alpha males at all sexy then creating a convincing alpha male hero is going to be very difficult. If you don't love your hero then no one else will either. I like strong men. I like wounded, flawed men. I like men who take charge. I like intelligent men who have a sense of humour. I like arrogant, witty men. And most especially I like the confident, gorgeous guy who always has a come-back, who thinks he knows everything there is know, and yet who can be brought to his knees by the heroine. Mmmm, yum. Everything that I find sexy in a man goes into my hero. Now, other people may not find him as sexy as I do, but that's okay, everyone's version of sexy is different. But I think if you find writing an alpha male hard, you have to ask yourself why. Is it because you don't actually like alpha males? Or is it because you just can't get into his head?

If it's the latter, close your eyes. You're sitting in a bar. You're not worried about how you look because your looks aren't important to you. You're not worried about your clothes either because clothes are just clothes and they looked fine when you put them on that morning. You're not anxious about what to do if a woman approaches you because you always know what to say. In fact, there are more than a couple giving you the eye right now but you're not interested in them, despite the fact that they're gorgeous. No, because through the crowd you've spotted someone. A woman who is interesting to you in a way you can't quite put your finger on. It's irritating you because you can't figure it out and you hate not being able to figure stuff out. Then again, you do love a challenge, a puzzle, figuring out how things tick. This woman is lovely but it's not her beauty that draws you (beautiful women are a dime a dozen in your world), it's the puzzle she represents that holds your interest. And you want to figure out that puzzle. But she's surrounded by her girlfriends and they've already warded off quite a few approaches this evening. So what do you do?

What would Luke do? :-)

Conference - RWNZ

Warning, this post contains scenes of shameless name dropping...

So, how was the RWNZ Conference? Pretty damn good actually. Romance writers are such a lovely bunch of people - I can't get over how friendly and supportive and just plain old nice they all are. Which makes a conference full of 'em a great place to be.

Anyway, my highlights? Firstly there was a workshop where Melissa Jeglinski of the Knight Agency did a one page critique of people's WIPs. I was pleased to get some nice feedback about mine which kind of set me up for the rest of the conference. :-)

Secondly was a talk from Harlequin editor Mary Therese Hussey about writing for category. She had this to say about what an editor looks for in a first chapter (in general):

Are the opening and closing lines strong?
Do characters make decisions?
Are the conflicts strong and interesting?
Are the characters compelling?
Does the story start in the right place?
Do you want to read on?

Interesting eh? Made me want to hurry back home to check out my first chapters!

She also mentioned the importance of making the conflict clear and understandable and of making sure your story begins where it should. The opening of the story should be at a point of change in a character's life, not before it.

There were some other great craft sessions where I got some more insights about a great fault of mine which is thinking up quirky openings and then struggling to find the motivation for the characters to do the things I want them to. It all comes down - naturally! - to having strong and meaningful conflicts. Asking the 'why' questions. All this made much more sense this year than last year, probably because of what I've learned since then via my rejections and advice from other authors.

Anyway - name drop moment - the main highlight was meeting the lovely Natalie Anderson and having a great old chat about writing and law libraries (she was a librarian as well)! It was great meeting one of the authors for the line I'm trying to write for - especially one whose books are my faves. And also to get a bit of reassurance about the difficulties of balancing strong emotional conflict with the fun, flirty Modern Heat vibe. It's not easy and it's nice to know I'm not alone with that! Cheers, Natalie!

So that's conference this year. Next year promises to be even better and I'm even thinking about hopping across the ditch and going to the RWA one in Sydney too.

All in all a great weekend. Hope everyone else had a good one as well!