Mr Sheikhypants

When I was at university, I got through my English degree with a healthy dose of Mills and Boon. Shakespeare and Chaucer and Dickens and Bronte were leavened with lots of billionaires (or millionaires since a million bought you a hell of a lot more then than now!). But back then I was most particular about my heroes. I didn't like Mediterranean heroes and I didn't like sheikhs. I used to find them ridiculously over the top and one things was for sure, even when I thought I might give romance writing a go, I swore I would never EVER write one.

Oh how times change.

In my quest to challenge myself, I've decided to tackle a sheikh. When I announced this to some dear friends of mine (you know who you are!), one of them in particular could NOT get his head around it (he is a guy so fair call). He had many questions, all of which stemmed from the most basic of misunderstandings - why would anyone find a sheikh sexy? Of course, he's thinking real life. But these stories are NOT real life. They are fantasies. And for many women, a sheikh is the ultimate fantasy.

He's dark. He's brooding. He's alpha. He's kind of mysterious. What's not to like?

So I figured out a premise and considered my sheikh. Dark? Check. Alpha? Check. Brooding? Well, I tried to make him brooding. I really did. I wanted him kind of harsh and angry because that's what sheikhs are, right? Except Sheikh Fred (as he came to be known) wouldn't. He kept kind of morphing from Angry Sheikh into Amusing Sheikh. I did have to consult the inimitable Ms Yates who is experienced in all things Sheikhy and she suggested I let him do what he wanted to do. You'd think I would have learned about not imposing what I wanted on my characters but noooo.... Anyway, so it seems that this hero is not to be a dark, brooding, ruler of a mysterious desert desmene. He's to be a wry, amusing, charming ruler of a mysterious desert desmene.

I don't know whether this will work. It could be that this is my point of difference on the sheikh story (I'm not saying there aren't other sheikhs like Fred out there though). It could be a terrible travestry. However, I DO know that underneath he IS dark. He's got major issues. He just covers them with an amusing front. Which kind of makes it darker in a way....

So, anyway, back when I first read M&B, the heroines in sheikh stories tended to be ingenues thrown onto the mercy of this powerful, brooding king. I get that part of the attraction is the heroine being totally out of her depth but - again in my quest to do something different - I didn't want to do that kind of story. What I wanted to write was about what would happen if an alpha male was given an alpha female for a heroine. A woman powerful in her own right. So I thought I'd make Mable (my heroine, and no, her name isn't really Mable) be an incredibly successful businesswoman. But not at something traditionally 'female' like interior design or whatever. I wanted her to be powerful in a man's world. So why not an oil baroness (my friend couldn't get his head around this either. No, I know there are no women oil barons and I know the oil industry doesn't work that way but, hello!, fantasy here!)?

Of course, what they do isn't really what's important. What's important is who they are as people and how they overcome their various issues in order to find happiness. The sheikh part of the equation is just window dressing.

I'm going to have fun with my window dressing though, that's for sure. So anyone else tackle a trope or a genre they've always sworn they'd never write??

More Novella Love

I am boring for New Zealand about writing something different on the Sisters' blog today. I'd like to say you might win something if you do. But sadly all you'll win is my excellent regard for your good taste. :-)

Novella Love

Okay, so things in Ashenden world aren't so great. On the up side, I have nearly finished my novella. And when I mean novella, I mean the-little-story-I-thought-would-be-20k-at-most-that-ended-up-being-47k novella. I have no idea why this story got so out of hand. I thought it would be a nice little friends-to-lovers story, where the heroine asks the hero for help and then they have some sexy times together, work out their tiny conflict and then The End.

But no. That's not what happened.

Layers happened. My characters ended up having more layers than a really layery onion and that's why my nice little 20k novella ended up being a 47k monster.

You see that's what happens when you dig deep. You kind of chip away at the surface conflict and suddenly you see, ooh, bright and shiny, MORE conflict. The REAL conflict. So you start digging away into that and then suddenly you realise that's NOT the real conflict. So you keep going. But wait, there's MORE! And then, another 20k later, you finally get to the real, ACTUAL conflict.

Stupid characters.

Anyway, I started out writing this for fun. As a way to do something different and because I wanted to write what I really love writing, which I guess you could say is short length Single Title. Short length cos I hate sub-plots and secondary characters (hence why I like writing category) but not category so I don't feel constrained by language/hawt stuff restrictions. I don't know what to call it really. Dark, angsty category? Dirty, dark, angsty category?? Whatever, the great thing about it is that I really, really liked writing it. Loved. And I hesitate to say it wrote itself but...well, it kind of did. It felt like finally all the stuff I've been learning about character and plot and conflict came together naturally and became part of my process without me having to worry about it. I didn't even really think too hard about the conflict, I just sat and wrote and it all came out.

So, I'm not quite sure what to do with it now. I do love my dyslexic, extreme sports loving hero and my rather buttoned up lawyer heroine so maybe I'll end up subbing them some place. But one thing's for sure, I like this story. I think it's good. I think it deserves to be read and I think people should pay me money to read it. ;-)

Have you written anything different lately? Have you written anything you really totally love that you want people to pay you to read?

Grim Determination

I was going to do a Valentine's Day post but...well...I didn't. I've been too busy hanging on to this writing gig by the skin of my teeth.

I think in my last post I questioned why we do this thing and y'know, for the past few days I've been thinking about it. The answer I always come up with is that I love to write. There really isn't anything I'd rather be doing. But I'm coming to the point where because it's no longer economically viable for me to write fulltime - hey, whaddya know, I haven't sold anything yet! - I'm going to have to do something else that actually earns me some cash.

You hear of people who take chances and quit their jobs to write fulltime who then, after years of toil, finally sell and go on to make pots o cash doing what they love. I would love to have been one of those success stories. But I am not. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend 3 years writing fulltime but that time is now coming to an end. And it's a bummer because I haven't managed to do what I wanted in that time. My craft has improved out of sight and I am writing better than I've ever done. But I haven't got that all-important sale yet.

I guess no one said it would be easy (three years is NOTHING). My words of warning to aspiring writers everywhere was even in our national paper - here! (yes, fame at last, mwwwwahhhhahaa!). And just because I have to get a 'real' job doesn't mean I should give up - though I have to face facts that I won't have as much time to write as I used to. Maybe it would even be good for me since I tend to be very obsessive about things I like doing and need to break out of it occasionally.

I am sad it didn't work out the way I wanted it to though. But never say never. Sometimes even I underestimate my own grim determination to succeed. And that determination is still there. Hanging on by its fingernails, but definitely still there.

Anyone else feeling like they're hanging on by a thread? Or is that me being waaaaay too dramatic again? :-)

Hiding

I know, I've been gone for a wee while. Two weeks of mad writing, closely followed by a full-on doubt spiral and crash. No reason for it, just....Well, actually, I tell a lie. The trigger was a narrow miss on finalling in a contest. Which I should NOT have got so wound up about but did. Mainly because the margin was so narrow and it would have been another opportunity to get more than the first 3 chapters of a story before an editor... Sigh. One door closes and another shuts. Story of my life...

Anyway, laying low at the moment, trying to get some inspiration back again while I battle with non-writing stuff that's getting me down. Not to mention wrestling with the continual question:

Why, oh why, do I want to be a writer again???