Huge Advances

Yes, I'm posting again and no I don't suddenly have the offer of a million dollar contract for my debut category romance (sniff). What I do have is a cold (double sniff). And I'm bored. I've finished all my 'work' reading (the latest modern heat) and I'm not sure if downloading any more romance will meet with Great Uncle Visa's approval. So what better thing to do to take my mind of my woes than to do a random post about....yep, huge advances.

In the paper today was details of Audrey Niffenegger's second novel advance. She's the author of The Time Traveller's Wife which was a romance thinly disguised as literary fiction. A great book in my humble opinion, even though it's fashionable to dislike it due to its popularity (and naturally popularity must mean it's not literary anymore). And now her second novel is apparently worth 4.8 million US. Argh!! Imagine being paid that kind of money?? I'm trying to think of the bad side, which would be the pressure, the critics waiting to shred your book, and um....anyone else think of a bad side?

Ah well, at least I can console myself with writing for the genre that apparently sells hugely during a recession. I confided this to a very well-read and literary acquaintance yesterday and felt rather smug when she looked gobsmacked. Yep, according to some stats I read somewhere, romance accounts for 50% of the American fiction market (though if this is wrong and I actually read it somewhere like the Women's Weekly, that well-known scholarly source, then please forgive me). So I figure the only way is up. :-)

Right, speaking of which, I shall ignore Great Uncle Visa's protest and go download some more romance while I lie in bed feeling sorry for myself. What a great way to start the weekend! What's everyone else doing?

On Waiting

Well, here I am still waiting. It's been two weeks since I sent off my revisions and I haven't heard anything. Not that I'm expecting to hear soon - apparently they're really busy over there at the moment. I was checking out the eHarlequin boards and some people have been waiting for responses on full manuscripts since July last year, so I guess I'm comparatively lucky!
Anyway, have figured that it's been seven months since I first posted off my partial for this manuscript. And seven months appears to be fast! However right at the moment, I'm feeling comfortable with the wait - no news is good news right? In fact, for the first time, I'm really not wanting to see an email from Anna in my inbox!

While I'm waiting though, I've decided that I'm going to enter some more contests. The RWNZ run one for category romance writers called Great Beginnings, which involves the first 25 pages of a manuscript and a synopsis. I've got one completeted ms waiting so I may as well enter it. Also the Knight Agency is running a Book in a Nutshell comp that it wouldn't hurt to enter. Only problem with that is that you have to encapsulate your book in three sentences! And I don't know if they take category writers. But it's better than waiting right?

Anyone else waiting for something to happen?

Whips

Yep, I've had to get out my whip and give my poor characters a sound thrashing to get them back into line. Thought Kate making her proposition was a good thing but no, as it turns out, it's not. Honestly, that woman is turning out to have more layers than an archaelogical dig. What I thought was her main conflict was actually just a symptom of an even deeper, underlying conflict!
Here was I thinking that she doesn't want to be let down by a man because her ex up and left her with a huge mortgage, but no, as it turns out. Her real problem is that she's a bit of an emotional whirlwind, falls in love too easily, and is devastated when they leave her (as they do because they are can't handle her), so when the hero comes along, she's absolutely determined she's not going to fall for another unsuitable man. Who knew?

I love that aspect of writing though. Who was it that made the onion analogy? Peeling back the layers to expose the 'real people' underneath. You think it's all going to be one thing and then suddenly it completely changes the deeper you get. Luckily Alex's conflict is fairly straightforward, though I'm reserving my judgement on this one. He could have a skeleton lurking in his closet that I don't know about.

Actually, I was going to put up a picture of Kate but I don't think I'm one of these people who can work from pictures of real people for my characters. They're never quite right and it puts me off. That's not to say I can't find inspiration in certain pictures though... ;-)

Revenge? Blackmail? Enemies?

On the subject of conflict, I was reading on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog about what kind of conflicts readers prefer in their romance. It makes for interesting reading - especially the comments regarding what sort of conflict readers don't like! (reminds me of the discussion on one of the Amazon boards about what was the biggest turn-off in a sex scene!). Bascially one person's hot conflict is another's major yawn. It also proves to me that there is no such thing as an original conflict - as one commenter points out, there's only 12 kinds of plots and Shakespeare already used them all. :-)

Anyway, my favourite kind of conflict to read/write is: opposites attracting, revenge, and friends to lovers among others. My pet hate is misunderstandings (though it depends on the execution with this one). To take a leaf from the SBTB blog, what about y'all?

Free Will

As you'll probably have guessed from the word meter at the side, I am working on Kate 'n' Alex. Or at least, a new story for them. It's completely and utterly different from my Feel the Heat entry - it kind of had to be really - but that's not really the problem. The problem is the fact that these two characters will not do as they're told.

Does anyone else have characters that just randomly do stuff you didn't expect? I get it all the time. I don't know how it happens. I'm sitting there, writing away, and just suddenly I'll have Kate, who is desperate to sell her house but not wanting Alex buy it and pull it down (he's a developer and the only prospective buyer, natch), offer him a night of hot loving if he will buy it with certain conditions attached. Now, this was not something I had planned. Or even intended! So where did this idea come from?? I'm at a loss. Okay, so I admit that I had intended Alex to make an offer along those lines as a bit of a joke - he is very naughty - but no, it's Kate who comes out and says it. And Alex, who is supposed to be the naughty one, is coming over all honorable about it! Argh!! Now, I could rewrite this and try and change it back, but it's been my experience in other stories that it doesn't work very well. As the editorial assistant told me, you shouldn't make the characters do things they wouldn't do just to suit your plot. You have to let them make decisions that are true to their personalities - plot be damned (oh, all right, she didn't say that last bit)!

So, looks like Kate is being true to her personality and I'll just have to go with it. Anyone else need a whip to keep their characters in line??

Still More Angst

Just heard that my ms finally got there! Yay! Anna at HM&B has told me that she's swamped this week but she'll get onto it ASAP. Don't know quite what ASAP means in M&B land, could be in the next couple of weeks, the next month, the next six months, who knows? But now the angst of wondering if it got there safely has been replaced by the much more general and possibly worse angst of wondering whether they'll like it or not. Sigh. Such is the life of a writer eh?

On the up side, I can busy myself with Kate and Alex. Yes, I have two other mss that need my attention, but they're both at that tricky 'middle stage', where you've got over that first initial 'new beginning' glow, and you have to settle into the hard yards of working out their wretched conflicts. Beginnings and black moments, that's what I love to write and I'm not at either of those points with the other mss. Oh well, I'll indulge myself with K&A now, though at the moment it's very difficult keeping those two apart. I shall have to wave my big stick at them and let them know that if they want a nice love scene later they'll have to behave themselves now. That Alex though, he knows how to get around me. Damn alpha males! ;-)

More Angst

They didn't get it. Can you believe it? After all that angst and dancing around, Anna at M&B never received it because their email was playing up on Wednesday! And to think I was concerned about sending another email because I didn't want to bug her... Argh!!! In her words, 'thank goodness you checked'!

Right, this is almost like a second chance. I have all weekend to do yet more editing and more changing if I want. And do you think I did? Nup. I send it again immediately. No more editing, no more fiddling. I hope it's got there - won't find out till Tuesday morning NZ time though.

So moral of the story is: if you don't know whether they got your sub or not, always check.

Ah well, feel less jittery now though I won't be totally happy until I get the confirmation from Anna that the ms got there okay. Then a whole new mountain range of angst will open up before me, vast vistas of nervousness....

To cope I've started a new story for Kate and Alex. They're desperate for their HEA and have been nagging me for weeks now. :-)

Elvis Has Left the Building Or JSTFT

I've done it. Had a final read-through today, made some more changes, pestered the husband to read them through again, re-did a paragraph he thought didn't work, then danced round the house going "I can't, I can't!" As my other half told me in no uncertain terms - JSTFT. Just Send The F%&!ing Thing. So I did. I sent the F%&*!ing thing. Although, just you all know how much of a wuss I am, the husband pushed the send button. Yes, I'm a complete wimp.

Now I feel sick. Has anyone got a handy bucket?

Last Minute Revisions on the Revisions

Have managed to hold out a week and have taken out the ms for a final read-through and to do some last minute tweaks. And I have to say that I'm completely BORED with it. I suppose that's normal. Anyway, went to an Auckland Chapter group meeting of the RWNZ over the weekend and got some very good advice from that published authors that attend. We're very lucky to have people like Frances Houseden, Yvonne Lindsey and Nalini Singh in our group, plus a whole slew of people who have been published by Red Sage, Samhain and Wild Rose Press. So these ladies know what they're talking about. Their advice was gold for me, the inveterate fiddler. And basically it amounted to this: only change what the editors have told you to change and nothing else.

Right. Good. Thing is, I have changed some stuff in the last half of the ms. Okay, not changed so much as cut. And I had to do that because of the word count. I'm hoping it's still okay! As to the rest of it, that advice was great because I was worried about some motivation here, some pacing there, timing etc, etc. But since the eds didn't mention it, I'm not going to worry! Woohoo.

Which leaves me with finishing these tweaks in the next couple of days. And then I shall have the dilemma of waiting until just before the 24th of March (the deadline) to send it, or just throw caution to the winds and send it at the end of the week. Either way, I think if I have to read it one more time, I shall scream.

So, any recommendations? Send soon or wait until the deadline?

Reading Modern Heat

I should of course be writing, not doing lots of blog posts, but my two oddly titled WIPs are proving difficult. Can't get them to flow right. Probably because I'm too busy trying not to think about my revisions and whether I've done them right!

Anyway, the best thing I've found to do for inspiration is to read more Modern Heat (or the horribly titled Sexy Sensation as they are down under). Now this is something that I should have done right at the beginning, when I first started trying to write a Mills and Boon. Other authors tell you this, the guidelines tell you this, but do you think I did it? Nup. My reasoning was that somehow my voice would end up sounding like whatever I was reading at the time. Which is stupid. Because when I read Ian McEwen, I don't end up writing like he does (wish I did!), or Michael Ondaatje, or Heidi Rice or any one of a hundred other authors that I read.
Right, so after my first rejection, I thought, hmmm, best I actually read some of these things. First one I downloaded was Natalie Anderson's Pleasured by the Secret Millionaire and I read it from a writer's point of view and not just enjoying it as a story. Reading that was probably the best thing I ever did because I had one of those 'aha moments'. I noticed that all the hero and heroine ever did was meet, talk, have a love scene, part. Meet, talk, have sex, part. Meet, talk a bit more, have sex, reveal deepest secrets, happy ever after. AND THAT'S IT!
Now, that's overly simplistic of course and you may know this already but for me this was a revelation. There were no car chases, no complicated sub plots with extended family members, no hiding from stalkers, no shootouts. And definitely the hero and heroine did not stay apart for longer than half a chapter. This was my first realisation about internal conflict.

After that I decided I needed to buy them every month and so I did, religiously. Good thing too because when I met Jenny Hutton (MH editor) at the RWNZ conference last year, she asked me which Modern Heat authors I liked. If I hadn't been reading them, I probably would have said something dumb like "Um...Essie Summers?"

Moral of the story? If you want to write for a line (or any publisher), read the books. All the time. I buy them every month. It's good to see what M&B are publishing in terms of plot and conflict. You get a feel after a while for what might work in your own writing and what probably won't.

As to which ones I like, well, I prefer the grittier ones. Like Natalie Anderson, Heidi Rice, Kelly Hunter. What about you guys?

What's Wrong With Huntly?

Indeed, you may ask. What is wrong with Huntly? Or more importantly, just who/what is Huntly?
Huntly is a small, rural town in New Zealand, just outside of Hamilton. Its claim to fame is a large power station and a spoof song that was famous on student radio back in the 90's. The song was: What's Wrong With Huntly? So why am I talking about this? Well, good point. I'm talking about it because of hearing Scotland being nixed as a location for Modern Heat (see Lucy King's blog), I thought, what's wrong with Scotland?

Obviously Huntly, although I'm sure people like living there, is not going to be an appropriate place to set a Modern Heat story. It's small and rural for a start. But Scotland? Too cold and wet apparently. But then so is London and yet you can clearly set a story in London. So, given that the guidelines are so vague, how do you know what's a good location for your story and what isn't? I think the key for this is fantasy. These books are fantasies, grim-reality free zones. Still not sure why this excludes poor old Scotland but maybe Scotland is too grim-reality.
Also 'urban' is another one of the buzz-words that they give you in the guidelines. Which means a city. So really, what they want is a big city that you can fantasise about. Like LA, New York, Paris, Sydney, Auckland (hahaha!). No small towns, no villages, no remote settlements. Not Modern Heat enough - though it works for traditional Modern/Presents stories.

But what if you have never been to any of those cities? Well fear not. If you read a Modern Heat carefully, you can see that there isn't that much in the way of location detail. So all you need to do is a bit of internet research (Google Earth folks!) and you can get away with much. Because as we all know, the location is just a bit of tinsel on the tree. The main attraction is the tree itself - or the conflict.

Anyone got a favourite city they would like to see in a Modern Heat story? Personally, I'd like to see one set in Rome. I loved Rome...

Now What?

Well, have layered in all the new conflict for my heroine, managed to cut down the word count so that it's 53k instead of 56k, and added another love scene. Gave it to the husband last night for a first readover and he gave it the thumbs up. Phew! Poor guy, he's read the thing about 50 million times and yet still manages to find something nice to say about it each time. Is he a god or what? In fact, he's even taken to reading some of my Modern Heat books so he knows what he's critiquing. Cool eh? He likes a bit of romance now and then does my husband...

So what now? I don't know if I can bear going over it yet again, but I suppose I'll have to. Going to ship it off to my CPs to see what they think. Make some more adjustments. And then... Must resist the urge to send it away and be done with it. I've got till the 24th of March so maybe the intelligent thing to do would be to let it sit for a week or two, then read it again for a final once-over. Then I'll either rewrite the whole thing or hit the delete key and give up. :-)

Why Being a Geek Isn't Enough

Where am I up to with the whole heroine's internal conflict thing? Well, since getting the big thumbs down on the mother angle of her conflict, I've had more feedback. Now, initially my heroine was ashamed and insecure about being a geek. But this is not 'good conflict' because being a geek should not be a reason to be a ashamed or embarassed. There has to be something deeper that makes her feel insecure, not just because she likes electronics and gothic metal. And there is something deeper I've decided. What makes her feel insecure? The fact that she's different and has never felt like she fitted in.

So, how do I make her different without falling into the Parent Trap? I can't make her feeling different because her mother always told her she was. Neither can I make it dependent on her taste in music or because she likes computers. It has to come from something inside herself. I had a good think about my heroine and the way I've written her, and thought that probably she'd feel different because she was very, very bright. Perhaps her family is very normal and don't know how to deal with a high IQ child? Perhaps when she was in high school, she was put in accelerated learning classes, made to feel different from the rest of her peers at a time when all a kid really wants is to be the same. And then I thought, well how about at one stage of her life she found a group where she did fit in but ended up being cast out of it? How would she feel? What's say that at university, a place where she thought she belonged, she maybe showed up someone by mistake, and as a result was excluded from the group. This would make her very unsure of herself. She'd always be worried she's going to make another mistake, break some social rule she didn't know about, which may mean a loss of the feeling of belonging. So maybe this is why she doesn't like social situations, the reason she's very insecure, worried about saying the wrong thing. And this will be the reason why her black moment will be so terrible for her: she will say the wrong thing and it will result in her losing the hero, and thereby losing the one person in the world who she thought understood her, the world she built with him where she thought she belonged. Evil eh? Didn't I say I liked torturing my characters?? :-) Her resolution will be her finding the confidence to risk saying the wrong thing again in order to win the hero back.

Phew. Sorry, went on a tad there. I hope that wasn't too boring! It's just that I thought going through the process of deciding on strong internal conflict could be useful. Ideally you would do this before beginning writing your manuscript - or at least you'd have the bones of it there to begin with.

Anyway, I don't know if this will work. I let Anna know the angle I was going to take and I haven't heard back so I'm assuming this is a 'go for it' sign. I hope!! She has given me a deadline which is in a month's time. Eurrgh! I feel sick!!

Conflict - The Parent Trap

I have had more feedback from Anna at M&B re my conflict for my heroine. One word: argh!!!

Want to know why? Alrighty, no, having parents dictate a characters actions is not acceptable. A bad relationship with a parent should add to the conflict, not define it. And add is the key word here. In other words, the reasons a character behaves the way they do must be for their own reasons alone and not be explained by another person's ill treatment of them.

So what does this mean for my poor heroine? Well, her mother's ill treatment of her cannot be the reason she is the way she is. Whether this happens in the real world or not is beside the point - this is what they are looking for in a character and so this is what I must provide.

Do I have a solution? Oh yes, indeed. In fact I had a brainwave about this last night. My heroine at the time the story opens is feeling lonely. Why is that (why question again)? Because she feels no one understands her. Why? Because she's different and she feels she's never fitted in. Aha! I sense a conflict coming on... And indeed, Anna suggested the feeling of not fitting in, in her feedback to me. So that's what I'm changing. My heroine now has always felt like an outsider. She's completely different to everyone in her family, is fearfully intelligent and this has always set her apart. Her conflict is that she yearns to belong. How is this a conflict? Well, the hero makes her feel she does belong in the little world she creates with him. Until his conflict blows this world apart.

Complicated huh? Anna told me the aim is to create a believable character and not just invent reasons for already existing behaviour. Can you see why it's hard to do this with an already written mansucript?? Luckily my heroine's behaviour is to do with confidence issues so fitting this conflict into the ms shouldn't be too difficult. I just have to fight the urge to over-complicate it. And also I have to find a resolution for her. Which is the thing that's getting to me now. Does her resolution involve her finally accepting her differences? They are what makes her special after all. Or does she decide that she has let her differences define her and hasn't noticed the parts of her that do make her belong?

Conflict Again or Keeping Your Poker Hand Secret

Wow, this is great guys! I'm loving your questions and comments. Doing these posts focuses me too 'cause I'm still learning along with the rest of you.

Right, so, I read my ms last night and thought about my poor old heroine. Interestingly, and luckily for me, I found I had the bones of a great conflict for her already in there, but I just didn't develop it enough. Must have got distracted and in the end, couldn't see the wood from the trees! So what's her conflict? Well, it has to be strong. It has to be the kind of conflict that would affect your whole life. I guess internal conflict is the emotional baggage we all drag along with us and everbody's got it. My heroine's baggage is a mother who wanted a pretty little girl but got a tall, skinny geek with a stammer. H's mother pick pick picks at her, telling her to smarten up, pretty up, how being interested in unfeminine things will mean she'll be lonely all her life, how she'll never be as sucessful as her brother. How she'll never measure up. So now my H has a reason to be ashamed of her geekiness - ashamed because her secret fear is that perhaps her mother is right and she will never find someone who will want her for who she is, that she will never measure up. Naturally this fear will be realised because that's what you have to do to get the emotion pumping, and she will be forced to either get brave or give in to her fear. And that, my friends, is internal conflict. I still have to run this by Anna at M&B (want to get it right) but I think it's pretty strong.

So you've got your conflict sorted. Great. Now, how much do you give away in that vital first chapter? I would say it's a bit like playing poker. You've got a great hand but you don't want to give it away all at once because you have to save something for later. I mean, you want the reader to keep reading, right? So you hint. Like a trail of breadcrumbs (sorry, mixing my analogies here), you give the reader a little bit to intrigue, for them to keep reading a bit more. A hint could be along the lines of: "He was never going to end up like his parents." or "If only her relationship with her mother was better." So now you've got your reader thinking, 'so what's the deal with his parents? She's got a bad relationship with her mother? Why?'
Does that help? I mean, it's by no means a hard and fast rule. I've got a wip where the internal conflict is right out there in the second chapter and the rest of the ms is how the h/h resolve it.

Again, the crucial part of this is the strength of the internal conflict. It has to be life changing in order for the h/h to make the decision that they can't be together. I mean, if it's just because her job is important to her, that's not strong enough. But what if her dying mother's last wish was for her to follow her dream of being a plastic surgeon? And then what if the hero pops up and tells her she has to make a choice between him and the vow she'd swore to her dying mother? Can she live with having the hero and breaking her vow to her mother, or will she lose her one chance at love because of the promise she made to a dead woman? That's what I mean by strong internal conflict. It's not dependent on the heroine's job, but on her own desire for two goals that cannot be reconciled.

Okay, now I've got my heroine's conflict sorted (hoping!), I'd better go write it! Anything else you want to ask or discuss, please go right ahead and post. I'm liking discussing this too.

More on Conflict

Okay, we were talking about internal conflict. Thought I'd discuss this a bit more because I got my revisions today! Yes!!! These are revisions for another story that is currently under consideration at Mills and Boon. I am hugely relieved to say that they like the story but there is one major problem with it that I have to address. And I thought I'd use it as an example as the major problem is to do with - yep, you guessed it - conflict!

So, lots of people liked the analogy of putting your characters in a room, shutting the door, and asking yourself if there was any reason why these two couldn't be together right then and there. It's a good one eh? But how, if they can get together right then and there, do you provide reasons for them not to? A good place to start is asking the 'why' questions.

Which brings me to my problem. The central issue with my story is that the heroine's conflict needs to be stronger. When I wrote this story, I fell into the same trap as I fell into with Kate: I based my heroine on a social group rather than as a fully-rounded individual. She's a geek. She's shy, introverted, into computers. Cool, I thought. Lots of room for conflict there. But sadly I did not consider the most important question. Why is she a geek? Any yes, she does need a reason other than because she just really likes computers!

Okay, so I stick her in a room with my hero and ask myself why they can't be together. He doesn't want to because he's afraid of love. Why? Because his parents' relationship was a bad one. Why? Because his father loved his mother but she didn't love him back and their marriage went to hell in a handcart. My hero now considers love ruined his childhood (see what it did to his parents?) and he's not having a bar of it. Right, now this conflict came across as strong. Great.
But let's compare with my heroine. She can't get together with the hero because she's a geek and is ashamed of it. Why is she a geek? Why is she ashamed? Um.... See? As was suggested to me, turn it on its head - perhaps it's her insecurities that made her a geek rather than the fact that being a geek has made her insecure? Better. So, why is she insecure? Why is she so shy? What is it in her life that has her running from the hero? Why does she think she isn't good enough for him? It has to be a very good reason for her to run away from the love of her life.

So, are you getting the hang of it? See Lucy King's blog for more on the why questions and how you can get a handle on that wretched internal conflict problem. As for me? Well, I need to go away now and figure out the answers to the above questions myself!

Editorial Comments on Chasing Kate

Hello lovely blog readers. Thanks again for your great comments re my synopsis! Maybe I'm not as lousy at writing them as I thought... :-) Right, prepare for a long post...

You've probably seen the editorial comment go up on I Heart Presents. I want to say Anna wrote an extremely flattering and lovely piece - I don't know if it's fully deserved but I'm extremely grateful to her for her faith in me. It does seem to be true what they say - the editorial staff at Mills and Boon are great!

Right, so the editorial comment. She says that I leaned quite heavily on stereotypes and she's absolutely right. This was part of the whole 'lack of of internal conflict' thing. Now, poor old Kate seems to exist in a vacuum. There aren't any reasons given for her to act in the way that she did. Why does she feel so passionately about her beliefs? My only excuse is that 'she's a hippy. That's what she does'. Stereotype? Uh huh. Anna told me I needed to provide reasons for her to act the way she does otherwise she doesn't come across as a fully rounded character. She said that at every step you have to keep asking yourself why your characters do the things they do. What made Kate lie in the dirt? Why did she go with Alex to his office? Why did he threaten her? 'Just because' isn't a good enough reason! Providing reasons means providing backstory and you'll notice that there wasn't any backstory in that first chapter. Now, I'm no expert, but I've been told a number of times that because these are short romances, you have to get all the information out there quickly. And do it without info-dumping. Who said writing Mills and Boon was easy again??

Now, what else did they say? Kate's appearance was an issue. She's got a nosering (thank God I didn't give her a tattoo!) which may be a turn-off for some readers. Readers have to identify with the heroine so you can't go for extremes. They also thought the whole protest scene was a 'gimmick' and over shadowed the rest of the story. Does that make sense? Their conflict stemmed from the setup and not from their internal conflict. A no no.

And the humour. Yes, I'm a dialogue girl. I love writing it. I can hear my characters talk in my head like it's a movie. I am extremely flattered that some people found the dialogue funny because humour is just one of those things that's hard to do. But (you knew there was a but didn't you?) I got kind of carried away with it in this chapter. They told me that the humour was great but it couldn't be there just for the sake of it. The dialogue should drive the romance forward and if it doesn't, you should cut it.

Do you see now why they didn't want it? I did revise and give Kate some backstory, toned down the protest scene (should have not put it in at all in retrospect but I liked it!) and gave them a bit more in the way of internal conflict. But I didn't go far enough. The archetypes were still there. Again, stick your characters in a room, with no external plot or sub characters or anything else, and what is it that keeps them apart? If there isn't anything, then there is no internal conflict and therefore no story.

However, all is not lost for Kate and Alex. I am going to write their story. It will be a new story though and hopefully with lots of internal conflict and absolutely no archetypes!

Okay, I'd better stop now. Does this help people? Feel free to ask me any questions about it. Again, I'm not an expert (hello! Still unpublished!) but I hope that by passing on comment like this, it helps others get an insight into their own work.

My Synopsis

Firstly, another big thank you to all who posted here yesterday and said such lovely things! I've been feeling a bit down over the past few weeks, waiting for the wretched revisions, and having such nice comments made me feel much better. Thanks guys.

Anyway, I see my synopsis is up. Argh. Now, I hate these things. I don't know any writer who likes them (don't put your hand up, Lorraine!). It didn't help that it was only supposed to be two pages double spaced and that Chasing Kate had been rewritten six times and I still hadn't worked out what was going to happen! Anyway, luckily I had a baby plot in there - the ultimate in internal conflict (yes, apparently it is) - so that was a relief. And I chucked an argument with an ex in there just for good measure. But they were just desperate attempts to cover up the fact that I didn't have a handle on the conflict and it showed. If your conflict isn't convincing to you, it won't be convincing to other people - at least that's what I've come to realise.

Right, I think they'll put up the editorial comment tomorrow so I'll wait till that goes up before I post anything else. People had some great questions about conflict so I'd like to talk about that, and stereotypes as well. They also gave me some good comments about alpha males in MH - slippery beasts to get a handle on (no double entendres intended!). I had half thought to post up my revised chapter here, just so you can see how I revised it with their recommendations and to see how it compares with the first draft. Would that be useful? Maybe not. Although they liked the revisions, they still didn't want the story! :-)

Oh and if you have any questions about the synopsis, do ask. I'm not an expert by any stretch though, and they didn't give me feedback on the synopsis specifically.

My Chapter is Up

On www.iheartpresents.com. Argh!! To all of you who posted about it, thanks so much for your great comments. It's great to know you all liked it - and even if you didn't, thanks for posting that you did. :-)

Unfortunately Kate and Alex did not get their happy ever after because M&B decided in the end that the story wasn't strong enough - mainly because their conflict was pretty much based on what they did rather than who they were. The conflict was external rather than internal. I was asked to do some revisions on it, which I did (retro-fitting a manuscript with decent internal conflict is NOT recommended!) and they liked the revisions but said that the beginning kind of overshadowed the rest of the story. Luckily I had a partial of another story already with them and they liked that one better. Yay!

Anyway, feel free to ask any more questions about Chasing Kate and why they didn't want it. I found the editorial comment they did on it hugely helpful and don't mind passing any of that kind of stuff on.

Top Ten Things to do While Waiting

1. Twiddle thumbs and whistle tunelessly while surfing around aimlessly on the interweb.

2. Check email for the 50 millionth time.

3. Post pointless comments on other people's blogs.

4. Finally get to your WIP then waste time trying to think of titles for it. So far - being crap at titles - I have gone for the joke option (you never get to choose your own titles anyway). Option 1: It Started With a Panic Attack. Option 2: The Venture Capitalist's Backpacker Mistress.

5. Critique other people's manuscripts. This is the perfect time, people. If you have a Modern Heat burning a hole in your PC and need a crit partner, I am currently not doing anything. ;-)

6. Eat more chocolate and have another coffee.

7. Wonder if you should go for a walk and then decide not to 'cause it's too hot. Summer in Auckland is far too hot for anything strenuous.

8. Check to make sure Hell hasn't frozen over. No. Good.

9. Wonder if you should post a poll on your blog - Revisions first or chapter up on I Hearts first?

10. Plan the next blog post, determining not to mention revisions again because you're in danger of becoming a revisions-bore.

11. Return to number 1. Yes, the numbers do go up to 11 (for those who have seen Spinal Tap).