Friday, February 25, 2011

Just general writing advice




Someone asked --"How do I make myself write?  How do I get writing again?"


First off -- congratulations.  You're way ahead of most folks who want to write.  You're doing it instead of talking about it.


Let me offer a few random pieces of advice.


-- Follow a writing routine.  Same time.  Same place. 

Put your butt in the chair.
Write every day.

Treat writing as a job.  You don't complain that you can't do the accounts today or you don't feel like teaching sixth grade this morning.
Write as if you were working for somebody else. 



-- The edges of sleep are strong writing times. 

Keep your computer set up and ready to go in a quiet place.  If you have ideas when you're falling asleep, get out of bed and go type them.

Write early.  Get up in the morning and head directly to the computer and work. 
Eat later.  Shower later.  Walk the dog later.  Don't talk to anyone.  Hold onto the dream state as long as you can.

If this works for you at all . . . give the first hour of the morning to your writing.

-- Write in little corners of time.  Keep a laptop with you, or a notebook and pen.   Write while you're eating lunch.  While you're waiting for the kid to finish dance class.  On the flight to L.A.

-- Write even when you're writing crap. 
Write bad stuff.  Just write something.
Nora Roberts said, "I can fix anything but a blank page."
Fill up the page and edit it later.  Just get something down.

-- Treat your writing as serious work.  It's not a hobby. 
It is more important to write than to have a clean kitchen floor.  You can send out for pizza.

-- Trust yourself.  There's endless creativity inside you.  If you lose an idea, it returns to the sea of your unconscious.  It will emerge again, that or something better.

And

Monday, February 21, 2011

AAR WIN for Best Non-UK Romance

I am so very delighted, so honored, and . . . may I say  . . .  surprised and knocked off my feet and spit-drying-in-my-mouth excited, that Forbidden Rose won one of AAR's categories.

See all the winners here.


Forbidden Rose, winning 'Best Romance not set in the UK'.


This is what I say:

Thank you very, very much. I am honored beyond words that folks nominated Forbidden Rose.

This book was hard for me to write.  I'd already pictured my hero and heroine as a happily married couple. I had to delve back into the past and imagine them much younger. See them at the moment they met. There was this also - their love story was set in a grim era of history. I wasn't sure anyone would want to join me in an adventure there.

Thank you so much for followin my Doyle and Maggie back into their dark and dangerous past. I am so delighted you liked the book.


I take this and I hug it close.  Because this is isn't just one reviewer saying she liked it.  This is READERS saying they liked it.

Since Readers were cool enough to say they liked the book, let me list the other cool books that won accolades.  There is just nobody on this list that isn't worth tracking down and reading if you haven't already.

We haz links.  Click on the author name to find out more about the book and buy it.


 
Best Romance of 2010  
Last Night's Scandal by Loretta Chase

Honorable Mentions for Best Romance
The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne
The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook

Best Historical Romance Set in the UK
Last Night's Scandal by Loretta Chase

Best Historical Romance Not Set in the UK
The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne

Best Paranormal
The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook

Best Contemporary Romance
Something About You by Julie James

Best Short Story
Here There Be Monsters (from the anthology Burning Up) by Meljean Brook

Best Romantic Suspense 
Naked Edge by Pamela Clare

Favorite Funny
Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn

Biggest Tearjerker
Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas

Best Chick Lit/Women's Fiction

All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgans
The Bikini Car Wash by Pamela Morsi

Best Series Romance
Marrying the Royal Marine by Carla Kelly

Most Kickass Heroine
Elena Deveraux, in Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Best Romance Heroine
Olivia Wingate-Carsington in Last Night's Scandal by Loretta Chase

Honorable Mentions for Best Romance Heroine
Margeurite de Fleurignac in The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne
Beatrix Hathaway in Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas

Best Romance Hero 
Leo Hathaway in Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas

Best Romance Couple
Olivia Wingate-Carsington and Peregrine Dalmay in Last Night's Scandal by Loretta Chase

Best New Author of 2010
Rose Lerner

Best Love Scenes   
Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt

Best Romantica
Patience by Lisa Valdez

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Black Hawk -- the Excerpt


In celebration of February 19th, (why should one not celebrate February 19th, eh?) and because the excellent Annie asked -- here is a short excerpt from Black Hawk.

Black Hawk won't be published till November.  We will hope this excerpt does not make that seem too soon.








***


Justine had told the boy to meet her at the guillotine.  It was not because she was blood-thirsty--indeed, she was not--but because they would be inconspicuous here.

She was dressed as a housemaid today, in honest blue serge, white apron, and a plain fichu.  She became indistinguishable as the tenth ant in a line of ants.  She held her basket to her chest and leaned on the wall that marked the boundary between La Place de la Révolution and the Tuileries Garden. 

She was too young to pretend to the august status of lady's maid.  A thirteen-year-old must be a housemaid, no more than that.  But a housemaid was exactly what a respectable woman would take with her when she went to an assignation in the Tuileries Garden.  A housemaid could be left in a corner of La Place de la Révolution, bored and resigned, while her mistress played fast and loose with her marriage vows. 

To play this part realistically, she assumed her appropriate expression of bored and resigned.  She waited.  Hawker would find her easily.  She was still when everyone else was in motion.  Nothing is more apparent to the eye.

This was a good spot for enemy spies to meet.  From a hundred yards away Hawker could look across the Place de la Révolution and assure himself she was quite alone.  The chattering stream of humanity that flowed through the square would allow him concealment as he approached.  Beyond, to her right, the tight, milling confusion of the arcade and shops of the Rue de Rivoli offered a dozen paths of escape.  Her good intentions would be clear, even to an English spy of limited experience.

Or perhaps not.  She would not trust herself if she were an English spy. 

Friday, February 18, 2011

DABWAHA

Smart Bitches kicks off the 2011 DABWAHA event, here.

Nominate your favorite book.  The entry form for nominations is online.


For instance . . . you might have liked some of these:


The Accidental Wedding by Anne Gracie, ISBN  0425233820

The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, ISBN 0316043966

Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin, ISBN 0373296142

Changeless by Gail Carriger, ISBN 0316074144

Forbidden Rose  by me, ISBN 0425235610

Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie, ISBN 0312303785

Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep, ISBN 1439147973

The Wicked Wyckerly by Pat Rice, ISBN 045123071X

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Sequels . . . Love 'em or Hate 'em

Over at Word Wenches, seven Romance authors discuss how and why they write sequels.  
My contribution:

What's written in the pages of any book is only part of the whole story.  There's worlds of delving and spinning, working and loving going on outside the scenes that land in Chapters One to Thirty-two.  I think we all feel these stories buzzing and nudging at the edges of books, begging to be told. 


And onward over here.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

He loves her. Let me count the whys.

In celebration of Valentine's Day . . .

Let us consider the delightful question of why the hero loves the heroine.

Let me count the whys . . .








 
1. -- Because of her strengths.

Why did the author write about this woman?
Why did the writer decide to spend a couple months inside the heroine's head?

Because the heroine is smart and funny, or strong, honest and kindly, or courageous and resourceful.  Whatever she is . . . she has wonderful qualities.

Lasting love arises from an appreciation of the beloved's strengths and virtues. What the reader sees in our heroine, however deeply buried, the hero is going to see.

He loves her for being wonderful.





2. -- Because of her weaknesses.

Love is not only based upon what we want from the beloved, but also upon what we can give.
Nobody wants to live their whole life with somebody who doesn't need them.

If our heroine can't cope with large social functions or can't cook or is scared of lightning, the hero loves her because he can guide her through the intricacies of a formal dinner, or cook her a tarte tatin, or hold her during thunderstorms.

He loves her for what he can give her.


3. -- Because she has something he needs.

The hero needs something. Everybody does.
Validation of his beliefs. Healing for some past trauma. A challenge that excites him. Guidance. Inspiration. An audience. A safe harbor in a chaotic world.

He loves the heroine for what she can give him.



  4. -- Because together they do what neither can do alone.

The two are greater than the sum of their parts.
They become a gestalt.
What is added to the mix when these two join hands?

Do they become Gilbert and Sullivan? Spies working together? The heads of a Nineteenth Century mercantile empire? Nick and Nora Charles solving crime?

He loves her because she is the other half of his team.


5. -- Because it is natural for him to love.


The Romance hero has a great capacity to love.  He's not afraid to be a lover.  Not ashamed to be a friend.

Heroes may express their love in a thousand different ways, but the heroic quality of these men springs from a heart that knows how to love.


 
And y'know what. 
These are the same reasons the heroine loves the hero.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Technical Topics -- The Final Edits



Someone asked:  HOW can you tell if edits you made on work you let sit for a while are good?
I'm having A LOT of trouble with this.





 Couple o' thoughts.

It seems to me the last work on the manuscript falls into three stages:

Rewriting
Final polish edit
Specific fixes.

It is good to know which stage are you actually in.

-- Are you committed to the major plot points? Do you feel the events make sense and they're in the right order and you are not going to fiddle with big story stuff any more?

Until you declare the plot pretty much fixed, you are still in the 'rewriting' stage, not the editing stage.

In 'rewriting' you're still dreaming up story. Your eyes are all unfocused and you get surprised by new stuff you come up with. You're not analyzing. You are still creating.

I'd say to finish this creative stage, if you can, before you start your last edits. It is frustrating to spend Tuesday nitty-grittying away at Chapter Twelve, then toss it out on Wednesday or change the POV or something.



 -- The true 'final edit' process is a trip through the entire manuscript, reading out loud, fixing infelicities of language, character incongruities, plot glitches and pacing.
The final edit is going over the manuscript with a magnifying glass. it is inherently detailed, small-scale process work. The approach is starkly analytic. It works best if it proceeds as one fast, continuous run through.



-- During both rewrite and final edit, you may concentrate on specific problems. That is, you may go into the manuscript with a defined and limited goal.

This might be something your beta readers brought to your attention.  Might be something your editor wants worked on.

You want to "expand the protagonist's internals," or "add more description," or "clarify how the suspense plot works."



In 'fix-it' mode, you skip forward and back, following that one thread of the story wherever it may crop up.

This limited-goal approach is tremendously useful. You look at changes in terms of what they accomplish for the story as a whole. You can ask yourself whether an edit expands the character POV or clarifies a story point instead of a nebulous 'is this better?'.



As a purely housekeeping note,
it's best to keep both old and new version. Come back in a day or two and compare them.

You can keep the old version in another document, or you can keep it in the major working document by putting it in brackets or a different font or color.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Secrets from the Underbelly of Paris

  Women drinking beer manet
It's 1800 or so. 
There you are, sitting in a café in Paris, relaxing, wearing somethin
g Parisian with great éclat and style. 
Unless you are feeling deeply philosophical it's unlikely you wonder about what secrets lie hidden beneath your feet.   

"All secrets are deep. All secrets become dark. That's in the nature of secrets." 
Cory Doctorow


It is not solid earth down there. 

See the rest  at Word Wenches here