Getting Intimate with Point of View - what is it, how to use it
Contest Counsel - the lowdown on contests.
The Return - my short story that first appeared in a 2008 Woman's Day magazine.
Illuminating the Black Moment - taking it to the edge when all seems lost.
Lady Kate's Scoundrel - my short story that appeared in a 2008 Women's Weekly magazine.
It Won't Happen Overnight... - musings on writer's voice.
Staying for the Long Haul - stories from the trenches of authors who took more than ten years to sell.
Anne Stuart Interview - Anna Campbell talks writing with New York Times Bestseller, Anne Stuart.
Becoming the submissive type - how will you get published if you don't submit your work?
Meet Anna Campbell - an interview with author Kim Howe.
Five Minutes with Anna - a brief interview for Hearts Talk, Romance Writers of Australia's monthly newsletter.
O, to be in England - the national 2004 Romance Novelists Association conference.
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Anna Campbell Talks Writing with New York Times Best-selling Author, Anne Stuart
One of my favourite writers is Anne Stuart who I’m delighted to say is going to be a guest at this year’s Romance Writers of Australia conference, A Darling Affair, in Sydney in August. In fact, so delighted, my squeals of excitement when I found out registered on a seismograph in Hawaii. If you don’t know her writing, run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookshop and buy everything with her name on it, even if it’s a street directory. Believe me, she’s such a good writer, even her street directory work will be dark, sexy, challenging, intelligent and compelling.
Anne’s first book, a gothic called BARRETT’S HILL, was published in 1974. Since then, she’s published over 70 novels in a variety of genres including historical romance, romantic suspense and category romance. She’s also contributed to over 30 anthologies. She’s won more awards than you can poke a stick at, including Romance Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Her latest release is a breathtakingly emotional romantic suspense called ICE BLUE from MIRA.
ANNA: Anne, one of the many things I admire about you is your longevity as a published romance author. You seem to have weathered changes in publisher and changes in genre and yet stayed remarkably true to your very individual voice throughout. Do you have any advice for someone setting out in this business who wants a long-term career? Any experiences that you’d like to share to show the vicissitudes of a writer’s career?
ANNE: Well, you have to be in it for love. If you’re counting on fame, success, or supporting yourself, you’ll end up making yourself crazy. You always need to be able to walk away. The only way to survive is to put the book first, because so much of it is out of your control.
Now you’ll notice that most people who started out when I did are either mega-bestsellers (Jayne Krentz, Elizabeth Lowell et al) or they’ve left the business entirely, and then there are masses of people who started a long time after me who also sell much better than I do. A lot of people are big on having a business plan, a career plan, goals, etc. Which is lovely, if you’re that type of person, but so much of it is out of your control. I think if I’d been focused on my career rather than my writing I’d either have foundered or be a NYT bestseller. As it is, to quote Paul Anka (not Frank Sinatra – maybe I’d rather be quoting the Sex Pistols) I did it my way, and to quote Edith Piaf, Je ne regrette rien (I regret nothing.) Except that I’m not rich :>
ANNA: I first became acquainted with your work through the classic historical romances you wrote for Avon in the early 1990s. In many ways, my first book CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, is a homage to your A ROSE AT MIDNIGHT which is still one of my favourite romances of all time. Since then, I’ve chased up your category books and your romantic suspense novels as well and loved them all. Can you tell us something about the differences and similarities in writing across genres? Also, and I’m sure you’re sick of this question, do you plan to write any more historicals? I loved THE DEVIL’S WALTZ and I noticed the RITA judges did too as you’ve been nominated in the Best Short Historical section this year.
ANNE: Oh, there’s a big difference between the various lengths and genres, though I tend to have a slightly gothic feel throughout, probably because that’s what I grew up reading. In a perfect world I would alternate romantic suspense with historicals (which I’ve done in the past). The romantic suspense I write can be extremely wrenching, and living in such darkness non-stop can be … tiring. My historicals, no matter how dark, have a lighter feel, more of an adventure and a romp, even in A ROSE AT MIDNIGHT. Going from a dark, real world to a historical world that I can make up is a release.
And I loved writing category romances – for the same reason I love haiku and sonnets. I love the structure, and the ability to go wild within that structure.
There are a thousands ways to tell a story and a thousand stories to tell. I love finding different ways to do things.
ANNA: You’re famous for your ability to write genuinely dark heroes who find redemption through love. What are your thoughts on making a dangerous man sympathetic and why are these bad boys so perennially fascinating? Awful as many of your heroes are (and I mean that in the NICEST way), I find them incredibly magnetic and launch into their journey knowing that I’m in for a great ride. One of my favourite heroes of yours, perhaps because he really does skirt the boundaries of the unacceptable, is Luke Bardell from RITUAL SINS. He’s a murderer and a conniving fake guru of a religious cult and his treatment of the heroine is appalling. Why, then, do I (and presumably a large proportion of the rest of the world) go along with him and cheer for him at the end? Do you have specific techniques? What brought about your fascination with the dark side of love?
ANNE: Nope, no techniques. I’m a totally instinctive writer (unless something’s not working – then I take a step back and analyse it). I’m not sure why I’m fascinated by the dark side, though I can think of three reasons. One, everyone has a soft spot for a bad boy, a rake, a wicked soul who can be redeemed. It’s human nature. Two, I had a very dark upbringing, and I’ve seen a lot of darkness in my life. People die too young, bad, terrible things happen, there’s no safety. If you go that dark with your characters and they survive then you know nothing will ever tear them apart. If a heroine can survive Luke Bardell or Bastien Toussaint or Takashi O’Brien, then they can survive day to day issues. And three, I have a fabulous husband (32 years now), the ultimate beta male. Having such a wonderful, safe, loving, decent man enables me to play around with all the stuff that would terrify another woman.
ANNA: I love the secondary romances that often appear in your books. Favourites include TO LOVE A DARK LORD and SHADOWS AT SUNSET. Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to incorporate a secondary romance in their work? Do you have a favourite secondary romance couple?
ANNE: The secondary romances were something I did deliberately when I started writing historicals (one of the few deliberate choices I made) because people kept bitching about how dark my heroes were, and I thought it would be more acceptable to have a beta couple as well as the alpha one. And then, of course, I fell in love with the second couple as well. I think you’re right – the two best were TO LOVE A DARK LORD and SHADOWS AT SUNSET, though I loved the secondary couples in LORD OF DANGER and LADY FORTUNE.
ANNA: I’ve just finished ICE BLUE, your latest romantic suspense release from MIRA. It’s a fantastic read, fast-paced, emotional and passionate, with another great dark hero. Can you tell us about the fourth book in the series, ICE STORM, which comes out in November this year? What are your writing plans once you’ve finished the Ice series?
ANNE: Oh, damn, ICE STORM is so good! It’s one of those gift books, that fell together perfectly. Things just meshed, answers to character issues presented themselves, and it was a total joy. I just grin thinking of it. It’s the story of Isobel Lambert, who’s younger than she appears, and someone she knew from her past (“the most dangerous man in the world”) with Bastien and Chloe showing up (for well-justified reasons), and Peter and Genevieve also involved. And best of all, my darling Reno reappears, livelier than ever, setting us up for the next one, FIRE AND ICE. After that I have at least one more ICE book (unless I combine the story with Reno’s in FIRE AND ICE) and then, who knows? I’d love to write another historical, I’m toying around with the idea of a big fat saga, I’m writing a quirky new novella and just having a good time.
ANNA: You’re amazingly prolific. Can you take us into your working life? How do you structure your working day? How do you approach writing a book?
ANNE: Actually I’m not that prolific – many people work much harder than I do, and are much more driven. I imagine the most I ever wrote in one year is three categories, and a lot of people can knock those out in six weeks. My problem isn’t the speed in which I write – I’m fast when I get down to it. It’s the time in between, waiting for the story to properly germinate, and getting the right opening.
I used to structure my working day by getting up, and working from around 9 to 3. But lately I’ve realized that what I like best is being able to change things around. I wrote most of ICE BLUE sitting on the porch at my husband’s family’s summer house, overlooking the lake (writing facing water is always stimulating). I wrote most of COLD AS ICE long hand in a Clairfontaine notebook. ICE STORM was part of my plan to write 200 words a day, and I did, even if it was at 11 at night. (The trick to that is, if you write your 200 words each day it keeps you in the story and of course, most of the time it’s just a jumping off point and you go ahead and write a lot more.) I started (in the 1970s) with the goal of writing 10 pages a day, then went to 15 or a chapter, whichever came last, but the problem with that is if I sat down and everything was going wrong I’d walk away and it would take me a while to get back. Writing 5 pages for a week is better than writing 15 pages in one day when those days come every two weeks.
So nowadays I go where I want (sometimes my office chair, sometimes the living room while everyone’s asleep, sometimes a porch by the lake, sometimes my cabin in the woods) and write the way I want (long hand, on a computer, on an alphasmart). Keeps me lively.
ANNA: I’m always fascinated by the books that influenced writers. What was your favourite reading as you were growing up? What books inspired you to become a writer? Who do you like to read now?
ANNE: Mary Stewart and Georgette Heyer. Though the life-changing book was MISTRESS OF MELLYN by Victoria Holt. Nowadays I read historicals by Laura Kinsale (my favourite), Teresa Medeiros, Elizabeth Peters (I even made a full-length quilted vest entitled “The Amelia Peabody Ceremonial Robe”). I’ve been enjoying the Stephanie Meyer YA vampire books (TWILIGHT, and NEW MOON), the JR Ward and Tara Janzen series, and books with a Japanese connection (TALES OF THE OTORI by Lian Hearn, the Rei Shimura mysteries by Sujata Massey, etc). And my favourite book of the decade was SUNSHINE by Robin McKinley. There are dozens of writers who are good friends whose stuff I love (Jenny Crusie, Barbara Samuel, etc) but it’s safer to list people I barely know (or don’t know at all).
ANNA: I notice you have occasionally featured a sexy Aussie hero in your work! Is this your first visit to Australia? Are you going to see anything of the country while you’re here?
ANNE: Oh, God, I hope so (seeing some of the country). I mean, we’re talking about a land that gave us Simon Baker (Eddy), Russell Crowe (yeah, I know he was born in NZ), Hugh Jackman, Guy Pearce, and more. Australian heroes can be the perfect modern cowboy, or they can be rough and dangerous. The possibilities are endless and yummy. And yup, this is the first time I’ve been here.
ANNA: I notice you recently made the New York Times list for the first time. Congratulations! How did that feel? After such a stellar career, are there any heights you would still like to scale? What are your long-term writing ambitions now?
ANNE: It was about god-damn time. No, actually my agent called me to tell me and I burst into tears and cried for half an hour in my office. I hate it when people say some honour or perk is well-deserved and long-overdue, because that’s really true for everyone. I wasn’t expecting it for that book, so it was a thrill to finally make that coveted place.
Are there more heights? Well, I hate to admit it but I’d love more money and fame (let’s be honest here). My son has had some special needs and his education has been mind-bogglingly expensive, so we’re deep in debt, and if I had more money I wouldn’t have to worry about how a book performs. Money = freedom.
The problem is fame and fortune is like having a clean house. A lovely thing, but not worth the effort. So I’m just going to keep on doing what I do and hope things fall into place. Sometimes they do (with BLACK ICE, NIGHT OF THE PHANTOM), sometimes they don’t (NIGHTFALL, SHADOWS AT SUNSET).
My long-term writing ambition would probably be keep writing but step back from the business. It can be really soul-sucking, and after 33 years I’m tired of it. The business, not the writing.
As for creative goals – well, I love what I’m doing. I’ve written books that anyone would be proud of, and I expect I’ll write more. It’s a gift, I’m truly grateful (no false modesty here) and as long as the girls in the basement keep sending up good stuff for me to write I’ll keep writing.
ANNA: Thank you so much, Anne. What inspiring answers! I’m so happy you’re coming to Australia to meet us all. My fingers are crossed that you’ll arrive trailing RITA glory. I’ll sure be cheering for you in Dallas.
You can find out more about Anne at her website.
This article first appeared in Hearts Talk, the newsletter of Romance Writers of Australia, in June, 2006
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Becoming the Submissive Type
I’d like to share a fantasy that took over my life for quite a while. We’re all broadminded adults so I’m sure I won’t shock anyone. This is how it went, with occasional variations:
Scene: Flat in Sydney that looks eerily like my place
Time: Late afternoon, any day
Loud knock on door.
ME (opening door): Hello. What can I do for you?
INTERNAL EDITOR: Anna, you’re never that nice to people who front up to your door without warning. For a start, they’ve probably just got you out of the bath! Put in some snarls to deepen emotional punch.
ME: Can’t I turn off my internal editor even in my fantasy life?
INTERNAL EDITOR: No.
Anyway, to continue with this sexy little tale.
LITTLE MIDDLE-AGED MAN BEARING LARGE BRIEFCASE: Good afternoon, Miss Campbell. I’ve been told this flat is brimming with potential bestsellers.
ME: Strange you should ask, sir. But of course I have a large number of manuscripts just ready for you to take away with you so that you can make me rich and famous.
LM-AMBLB: Excellent. I’ll drop them off at Avon and we’ll ring you when you make the New York Times. Goodbye.
I shut the door then run a bath where I drink Bailey’s and contemplate life as a tax exile in the Caribbean.
***
What is wrong with this picture?
Well, firstly, having to think about me in the bath. Sorry about that, girls.
Oh, and the middle-aged man. I did have a version where Daniel Day-Lewis in his Mohican gear arrived at my door but he didn’t get a chance to ask about the manuscripts so I scrapped that one.
What’s wrong with this picture is it just ain’t gonna happen. Ever. Ever. Ever.
Yet strangely, for years, I worked towards a career as a writer on the expectation that something like this was indeed likely to happen. I mean, I had manuscripts piling up under the bed, I talked about seeking publication, I was writing, working on new projects and learning my craft. But if I had a light, I was definitely hiding it under a bushel.
Recently, when I sold, I made a big deal of the fact that it had taken me 27 years to sell. Which is true. Sort of. I completed my first novel, fondly called Guerillas in the Mist because it was about partisan fighters in the Hundred Years War, when I finished high school. Fiddled with it for about four years, sent it off, got a rejection, felt tragic for several more years while I worked on an unfinished sequel to book one, nicknamed Troubadour Without a Cause. Planning a sequel was a bit silly as I never actually sent book one out again. Probably a good thing. I was only monkeying around, after all.
Several years of travel followed during which I certainly THOUGHT about being a writer. Returned to Australia in 1987 determined to write category. And I did write category. Seven of the suckers. All of which got what I now realize were good rejections (“nice writing, not the right story, send us the next one”). But I was doing this all on my own with nobody to help me, and seven rejections in a row sent me into an absolute tailspin. Especially when I assumed it was all going to be so easy when I started out (I think we’ve all been there).
I then didn’t send anything to a publisher for 13 years.
Count them. Then factor them into 27. I kept writing. I thought of myself as a writer. I worked part-time so I had time and energy to devote to my dream. What I didn’t have was the guts to put my work out there and face rejection again.
Towards the end of this time, I joined Romance Writers of Australia and discovered writing contests which somehow seemed less daunting than approaching a real live publisher/agent. On an aside, if I weren’t speaking to the converted, I’d make this column about joining RWA. At least you don’t sit around repeating the same mistakes over and over and you can learn from people who know what they’re talking about.
I also discovered the scattergun approach after talking to a few other writers. They pointed out that if you’ve got ten things out there and you miss out on seven, hey, there’s still three that might bring home the bacon in the form of a request or a final or a placing.
So that’s when my career as a contest s*** was born. And that led to editors/agents requesting my stuff which meant I finally had to bite the bullet and start submitting. I still had to drag myself kicking and screaming to the post office (interesting image, although surprisingly common in the streets of Kings Cross where I live) but at least I did it.
And within two years, I sold. So this story at least has a happy ending.
I wonder how many people share my phobia about sending writing off. If you do, please, please get over it. I look back now to all that time I wasted and I hate to think of anyone else going through the same agonies.
If you can’t get up the nerve to send your work to publishers/agents or you don’t think it’s ready, enter contests. Enter lots of contests. If you can’t afford the American ones or they’re not relevant, enter the local ones or the New Zealand ones. What’s the worst that can happen? You don’t get through to round two or you don’t final. But, hey, you get a few critiques and there might be something in those that helps you do better next time. The other side effect of contests is they really toughen you up to rejection, insensitive comments, people who just don’t get your work. When rejections arrived on those submissions I’d steeled myself to make after 13 years of cowering in a corner, I took them in my stride.
So my diamonds and pearls advice after all those years of writing is get your stuff out there! Hearing ‘no’ won’t kill you. And you might end up surprising yourself. I know I did. And best of writer’s luck to you!
This article first appeared in Hearts Talk, the newsletter of Romance Writers of Australia, in June 2006
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Meet Debut Author Anna Campbell!
Kim Howe, runner-up in American Title III and 2006 and 2007 (double!) Golden Heart finalist, interviews Anna.
Please welcome Anna Campbell, a talented historical romance author from Down Under! Anna's new release CLAIMING THE COURTESAN is receiving rave reviews, so feel free to check out your copy today.
KH: First of all, I'd like to say how much I enjoyed reading CLAIMING THE COURTESAN; the plane ride to Barbados passed in a blur thanks to your talented writing. Given my love of thrillers and suspense, the novels I read are often plot driven. CTC was a refreshing change, as it was very much a character driven novel and I loved the push and pull of the relationship. Can you describe your writing process, developing an epic novel from characters rather than plot?
AC: Thanks, KJ, for saying those lovely things about CLAIMING THE COURTESAN and for inviting me to do this interview. Before I answer your question, congratulations on all your success! I can't wait to see what happens next in your writing career. It's almost as suspenseful as one of your books!
Also thank you for saying you found the story epic. It sure felt like an epic when I was writing it even though the palette I use is fairly small - only a couple of settings, only a couple of characters, no major subplots.
All my books are character driven - I really admire people who can construct a detailed plot like you can! My stories emerge very much from my subconscious. A character or two and perhaps a situation start up an annoying scratch at the back of my mind. Slowly stray ideas attach to the germ of a concept. So my idea with CTC was a duke from a dysfunctional family decides he wants to marry his mistress, London's most notorious courtesan, basically to thumb his nose at his appalling ancestors (and living relatives!). Having read the book, Kim, you know it moved a long way away from that! Those characters eventually take over my life and insist that I start writing their story. Then something weird happens in the process of putting the story down on paper. It never emerges as I think it will, even if I've got a reasonably good road map of character arcs, etc., in my mind.
KH: Your research for CTC was impeccable. Can you tell us a little about your research techniques or share your favorite sources? I'm especially interested in the role of courtesans.
AC: Thank you! I tried really hard to be true to the period, although it's the little details where you come unstuck. The things you'd never even think to look up. I try to give my characters attitudes appropriate to their times - to me, that's the fascination in a historical. How did people navigate their way through the strictures of that particular society to find happiness?
I've always been a voracious reader--of anything, really--and I've read historical romance since I was a kid. Reading writers like Barbara Cartland or Georgette Heyer, you pick up a lot of historical detail accidentally. I also read stacks of nonfiction. I guess I'm saying I have a good historical general knowledge that works as a raft that I can build my story on. Once I come up with a specific story, I start reading specifically even as I'm writing. It keeps me in the world of the book.
The courtesans were amazingly interesting--partly because they were so varied. A book I would recommend highly is Katie Hickman's COURTESANS. It gives short biographies of famous courtesans and you get a real sense of what these women would have been like. That's what I wanted - their personalities and the fabric of their lives. Strangely, I came across a courtesan called Elizabeth Armistead who fell in love with one of her lovers and married him, very happily (although obviously she was never accepted in society). By that stage, I'd written the first draft of CTC but this woman had so much in common with my Verity that I thought the universe was giving me the green light!
KH: Justin was a wonderfully tortured hero, a throw-back to the gothic days. Rumor has it that his take-charge attitude in the bedroom has some readers gasping for air. You have touched on a fascinating and controversial issue regarding sexuality in novels. Why do you think so many readers enjoy the dominant sexual male?
AC: Have I told you these are fantastic questions? They are!
Personally I think it's the taming the beast fantasy. Although I hate the thought of 'taming' anyone and I think Justin is far from a beast. There are reasons behind anything he does and he learns from his mistakes - seems to me he's pretty human! But going back to the fantasy, it's the Heathcliff thing, isn't it? Byron. Mr. Rochester. That love can redeem the least likely candidates and all that bad boy passion can be channeled into a loving focus on just one woman. So the rogue male turns into the warrior protector of the woman he loves and his children. I think romance is such a powerful form partly because it plumbs these archetypal depths. Most of my stories are Beauty and the Beast - this one definitely is.
KH: Australia is full of mystique and unique treasures - the perfect place to write romances. Can you share what the romance market is like Down Under? How many members belong to Romance Writers of Australia?
AC: I'm not sure how many members are in RWAustralia, but it would be in the many hundreds. We usually get between 200 and 300 to our conferences (which are great fun and worth a visit if any of you are passing).
The Australian romance market is dominated by Harlequin/Mills & Boon. Category books are an institution over here and we have a lot of great writers published with HM&B. Single title books have a big audience too - Avon is generally available everywhere (yay!) as are publishers like Bantam and Pocket, especially if you're talking about big name authors. Some mid-list authors are a bit harder to find although I think that's improving too as people become aware of the variety and quality of romance published in the US. There are five specialist bookshops in Australia (they're listed on the links page of my website) who get American releases concurrent with the US.
KH: Before you were published, you did very well in contests, including a double final in last year's Golden Heart. Do you feel that entering writing contests helped your career? What advice would you give unpublished writers about contests?
AC: Absolutely contests helped me. As many of you know, I was unpublished for an embarrassingly long time. One of the things that kept me writing was that I usually did pretty well in contests. It was that glimmer of hope that kept me plowing on. And the Golden Heart double final was a great calling card when my agent sent my manuscript to editors.
Actually, I've got quite a lot of advice about contests! Ask yourself why you're entering. Do you want some feedback on a story to see how it strikes a stranger? Or are you entering hoping to final and get your work on an editor's desk? If the second, make your work as polished as it can possibly be - the competition (no pun intended) is incredible. If one judge says something, it may or may not be true. If two or more judges say it, it's worth looking at. But remember it's your story and often judges are only seeing a small portion of a work and can't judge the whole story. So I think I'm saying hold onto your vision. Try and enter contests that allow for widely varying scores. CTC created love/hate reactions in judges. Fortunately more love than hate. But if there are only two judges and one gives you full marks and one gives you a bad mark, you have no chance of finaling. Lastly, I'd like to say that if you enter a lot of contests, it actually demonstrates that your work will receive a wide reaction out in the world and it makes you tougher. Having a bit of protective armor as a writer is a good thing as long as it doesn't shut you off from what inspires your stories.
KH: You have a fascinating work background, sampling many different jobs on the way to becoming a full-time romance writer. How did these experiences affect you as a person and as a writer?
AC: I think working in so many different jobs exposes you to a huge variety of human nature. And human nature, after all, is what we draw our stories from. I've worked in places I loved and places I hated and they all taught me something about how people react to different situations.
KH: After readers finish CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, I know they will be clamoring for more Anna Campbell books. What novels do you have in the works?
AC: Untouched, my second book for Avon, is tucked up and ready to go in New York and will be a December release. It's another Regency noir but the story isn't related to CTC. I think of it as a dark fairytale, sort of a combination of Beauty and the Beast (again!) and The Sleeping Beauty. I'm putting an excerpt and the back cover blurb on my website at the start of May but if you want a sneak peek, try here.
I'm currently working on book three which is another courtesan story.
KH: I'm picturing Glenn Close (a la Cruella de Ville) in the movie role as Justin's mother. Who would you cast in the lead roles of Verity and Justin?
AC: Hey, an excellent question. Glenn Close would be PERRRRFECT as the evil Dowager Duchess. That icy beauty! I usually have a 'type' in mind when I begin although the characters tend to change and become individuals as I write it. Justin was like a young Daniel Day Lewis, you know with that dark intensity and that beak of a nose and all that lean masculinity. Oh, mamma! Verity was like Olivia Hussey from Zeffirelli's 'Romeo and Juliet'. That perfect fall of silky black hair and the wide gray eyes. I think she was breathtakingly beautiful in that film.
KH: Daniel Day Lewis...yes, that's Justin all right! Thanks for taking the time to stop by to answer those questions. It's been a pleasure!
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Five Minutes with Anna
Are you a pantser or a plotter?
I'm definitely a pantser. I tried outlining a plot once and then found the whole process of writing the book incredibly boring as I already knew exactly what was going to happen in excruciating detail. Unfortunately my boredom translated to what I put down on the page. I find the things that emerge organically as I write the story are by far my best ideas. If things are going well, my characters take over the story and tell me where they want to go. Generally into more trouble which certainly helps the plot to keep unraveling!
How does this help you write?
It means I'm discovering the story with the reader so anything I find exciting or humorous or unexpected, hopefully they will too. Although obviously, I know there's going to be a happy ending and I almost always have a vague road map in my mind of what scenes will go where. The problem with being a pantser is that sometimes I'll imagine wonderful scenes and then by the time I get to them, they don't belong any more. But as I said before, generally what I've come up with through the organic process of writing the book is better and certainly less contrived than my original idea, anyway.
What do you do when you have writer's block?
I've been blocked a couple of times in my life - badly, I mean, not just one of those days when you can't put pen to paper to save yourself. Each time it was because something awful was happening in my life outside my writing and I just didn't have the headspace to give to my story/characters. When it happened, I thought I'd never be able to write again but somehow the crisis passes and you can do it again. Big relief! For smaller blocks, if I'm having one of those days where I just can't write, I've learnt to be kind to myself and not force it. This is probably a luxury only the unpublished experience! And generally the next day, I have a great time. Sometimes, you've come to a stop just because you need a break or because your subconscious wants a bit more time to work on an issue - I find those short blocks often come before a big scene. So I've learnt that they're actually a positive rather than a negative thing.
Who's your favorite author?
Dorothy Dunnett, especially with her Lymond Chronicles. Those books are so rich and complex and Francis Crawford, the central character, is the ultimate tortured hero. I can't think of another character who is as compelling as he is. For romance, my favorite authors are Laura Kinsale and Loretta Chase, both of whom write historicals.
What was the first romance you ever read?
I was a very talkative child - anyone who knows me will find that hard to believe. Anyway, I used to drive my poor mother wild when she couldn't keep me occupied with a book. This particular evening when I was eight - I remember it well - I'd read everything suitable to my age in the house and in desperation poor old Mum pulled out a Mills & Boon from the back of a cupboard and shoved it into my hands. Certainly shut me up! And a good romance continues to shut me up to this day! It was A Touch of Silk by Joyce Dingwell, about a nurse who went to Hong Kong to look after the Portuguese hero's daughter. I still remember the senhor/senor thing. Mind you, back in those days, you could give an eight-year-old a Mills & Boon. They might have kissed on the last page. I can't remember.
What keeps you going through the mid-novel slump?
Luckily, I generally have plenty of plot for my stories (sometimes far too much!). But I often find myself disheartened or disenchanted with a manuscript about halfway through, even if the story is working quite well to that point. I've worked out it's a fear thing. By a couple of hundred pages in, I'm starting to look at the big picture of having to turn this baby into something readable and it absolutely terrifies me, whereas in the earlier stages, I kid myself I'm only fiddling with an idea to see where it goes. Anyway, I've found that if I stop looking at "I have to finish this whole book by Christmas", or whatever, and just say to myself, "I'll write five or ten pages today," I can cope. And often what happens is that I'll soon remember what excited me about the idea in the first place and I'll be raring to go again. And doing the small steps approach means I'll eventually get to a scene I really enjoy writing and that spurs me on - hopefully - to the finish.
What's your favorite romance/writing website?
All About Romance - I love this site - although some of the reviews can be pretty scary, they're so honest. There's a column every fortnight called At the Back Fence which is usually an extended ramble on some theme in romance, tortured heroes, heroines too stupid to live, etc. There's historical information, there's author interviews. You name it, there’s everything for the romance reader (and I mean reader not writer). It's a very entertaining way for me to keep up with what's being published, by whom and how it's going down with readers.
This article first appeared in Hearts Talk, the newsletter of Romance Writers of Australia, in September 2005
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O, to be in England...
..now that the 2004 Romance Novelists Association Conference is here!
Actually the RNA Conference took place on the first weekend in July at the University of Leicester. Nearly 150 attendees invaded the campus to network, meet old friends, make new ones and discuss writing and romance novels. Very like an Australian conference, in fact.
The wonderful Sophie Weston, who attended our Passion in Paradise Conference at the Gold Coast in 2003, invited me to attend when she realized that I was going to be in the UK at the same time. I thought, “Why not? At least I’ll have some novelty value as the only Antipodean.” A plan which was foiled when I discovered that Karen Phillips from Western Australia was also going, not to mention two New Zealanders. My novelty value shrank to being the only person there who sounded like Louis Armstrong after a week on the tiles, thanks to the typical end-of-trip flu. That definitely got me noticed, I must say, although I doubt if it will translate into a publishing contract.
I’m not sure what I expected of the British conference – cucumber sandwiches, formality and people speaking like the Queen? “My husband and I are very pleased to launch this glorious Mills & Boon Sexy…” But our romance-writing sisters over there are as funny, smart, generous and welcoming – and noisy – as their Australian counterparts and I had a marvelous couple of days.
Kate Walker, multi-published Mills & Boon author, shepherded all the newbies. Prior to the conference, we all received a series of newsletters including introductions and information, most of which I promptly forgot. But what I did remember was that there were 36 other first-timers and it all sounded very welcoming.
The conference opened on Friday night with a tea party (well, this was England after all!) and then an official welcome from Anthea Kenyon, the RNA Chairman. After dinner, we all adjourned to the bar for a session to welcome the newbies (by this stage, I was beginning to feel like the newbies were the guests of honor!). Something else this conference had in common with the Australian ones is that the bar was one of the more popular spots at the venue.
Saturday was packed with workshops covering topics like agents, computers, synopses, sensual writing and historical romance. Sheila Hodgson, Mills & Boon editor, addressed the whole conference about what Mills & Boon and Harlequin are looking for and Jim Parker spoke about Public Lending Rights.
The keynote speaker was Barbara Taylor Bradford who was an absolute model of professionalism. I had no problem at all seeing how she has become such a success. She has sold over 75 million books. Yes, the whole room gasped in admiration too. Her comments focused on A Woman of Substance, her first book. After several false starts as a writer, her ‘lightbulb’ moment was hearing Graham Greene say, “Character is plot.” After this, Emma Harte’s story came together and a great writing career began.
One of the highlights of the conference for me was a session on beloved romance novels of the past. There were sincere tributes to The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates and Katherine by Anya Seton, which was my favorite book in the universe when I was about fourteen.
But the best was yet to come. A full-on performance including Slavic accent by historical writer Elizabeth Hawksley as she read from the steamy 1907 bestseller, Three Weeks by Elinor Glyn. The excerpt featured a half-naked Balkan princess lolling in teeth-gnashing passion on a tiger skin while she seduced an understandably nervous (and virginal) British hero. All the hilarity had a serious point, as Sophie Weston remarked in her introduction. Sometimes we don’t pay adequate tribute to the women who came before us as romance writers.
After dinner, Eileen Ramsay (who enjoys a very successful career as a historical saga writer) spoke about the perils of changing genres. After a lot of pain and discouragement, she ended up producing the bestselling Someday, Somewhere, so I think the message was that in the end, it’s worth it.
Sunday started with more workshops including panels on respect for the genre and on the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme. This is a very successful arrangement where new writers pay a premium on top of their RNA membership for a published author to assess their complete manuscript. Promising works receive a second reading and even, sometimes, are submitted to a publisher or agent. While it is not a competition like the RWA’s Emma Darcy Award, manuscripts which go on to be published are then eligible for the New Writers' Award each year.
There was a panel on perils for the newly published – more than I imagined, actually – and Elizabeth Chadwick, multi-published historical novelist, spoke about her creative process from idea to finished book.
So what did I learn from the RNA conference? Apart, that is, from good bladder control after all that tea! I learnt that the British market is a little different from the Australian market and a lot different from what I understand about the US market. Romantic suspense hasn’t caught on at all in Britain, while 20th century historical sagas are still very popular. UK publishers blanch at the words ‘chick lit’, although a lot of stuff that is chick lit by any other name is still being published. Apparently they prefer the term ‘commercial women’s fiction’.
Mills & Boon Historicals seem to be in a healthy state and they are actively pursuing a variety of settings and time periods. Barbara Taylor Bradford was an inspiration in terms of maintaining focus and determination which is something I think we all need to remember when the going gets tough – as well as always avoiding clichés like the plague. And I got to meet Sara Craven whose writing I have admired since I was a teenager.
If the bank account allows, I’ll definitely go again. The people were lovely, the sessions were informative and the tea was copious. And Australians were definitely made to feel more than welcome. So if any of you are over in the UK in early July next year, why not book a berth? It’s well worth it.
This article first appeared in Hearts Talk, the newsletter of Romance Writers of Australia, in September 2004
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Staying for the Long Haul: Stories from the Trenches of Authors Who Took More Than Ten Years to Sell
I was going to call this article Giving Up Can Be Good for You before I decided that was a little prejudicial. But one of the best decisions I ever made was giving up my dream to become a writer-oh, and coming back to it, of course!
A Personal Journey
When I sold my debut historical romance CLAIMING THE COURTESAN to Avon in 2006, it was twenty-seven years since I'd completed my first manuscript. That's a long time to be in the wilderness.
Heading for the twenty-year mark, I told myself becoming a published writer was a childish fantasy. I should grow up and be sensible about life. When I was a little girl, I decided I wanted to be a writer. But I'd also wanted to be a ballerina and I put that dream aside when I realized your average brick had more grace and coordination than I do. Seeing a book with my name on it was obviously another dream that had reached its use-by date.
So I gave up writing.
For eighteen gray, horrible months.
I'd trained myself to be a writer, noticing things, asking what if?, shamelessly eavesdropping. But now I wasn't going to be a writer anymore, every time I started to take note of something interesting, I'd stop myself and say, "No, you don't do that. You're grown up and sensible." My lovely technicolor world shrank to this depressing black and white existence.
Eventually, I couldn't stand it. Not writing was too depressing so I went back to my dream, having discovered it was the writing that mattered for me, not necessarily getting published. That was one good lesson I learned from giving up.
I also learned I needed to approach things differently. I couldn't do this on my own so I plucked up courage to join Romance Writers of Australia and, later, Romance Writers of America. I joined a critique group, the Turramurra Writers in Sydney. Having people around me who understood romance and what I was trying to do made a huge difference. And there was the side benefit that I made so many marvelous friends in romance writing, people who kept me going through bad times and helped me celebrate good times. I learned there were techniques I needed to develop before my work was publishable, principally writing emotion. I learned that not only did I need to work harder, I needed to work smarter.
Through the next few years, I started entering writing contests. First in Australia and then about two years before I sold, in America. Success in those helped me persevere through an even harder part of my pre-publishing career. The stage when you're getting closer and closer to your goal but you're not quite there yet.
Then the magic moment came when someone wanted to buy my book. Twenty-seven years after finishing that first manuscript, I was finally going to see my work in print. Fantastic.
Stories from the Salt Mines
I'm not alone in taking a long time to publish. I asked some writing friends who wrote for at least ten years before they sold to tell me what kept them going.
Gerri Russell wrote for thirteen years and had completed seven full manuscripts and several partials before she sold. During this time, she won the Golden Heart twice and finaled three times. Her first book THE WARRIOR TRAINER sold to Dorchester last year after she won Romantic Times BOOK Reviews American Title II. Her second book, WARRIOR'S BRIDE, comes out in October, 2007. "What kept me going? The insane belief that I would succeed someday. I was determined to keep writing and submitting until I was 102 if necessary. But I knew, without a doubt, that someday I would succeed if I just continued to write. Here's something that really helped me: When I finished a book, I would create a cover for myself. I would spend time finding just the right images and make a mock-up that looked just like a real cover. That process was so therapeutic: mentally, physically, and spiritually. I'd post the cover on the wall of my office, and every time I looked at it I would experience the greatest feeling of hope."
Paula Roe wrote seriously for twelve years before she sold to Silhouette Desire (FORGOTTEN MARRIAGE, September, 2007). What kept her going was, "A burning desire to see my name in print, to have a reader pick up my book like I'd done many times before, get to the end, smile, sigh and say, 'Wow. That was brilliant.' An unwillingness to give up - I simply can't not write. There's too many stories in my head. Most of all, encouragement from contest judges. By the time I got a judge telling me my writing was crap, there were a dozen others who'd said it was great. So then I got stubborn <vbg>."
Trish Morey, who recently hit number one on the Waldenbooks list with THE ITALIAN'S VIRGIN BRIDE, has had ten books accepted by Harlequin Presents. As she puts it, "It took eleven years from me deciding that writing for Harlequin was my destiny to Harlequin coming to the party."
When I asked her what kept her going, she said, "Pure boneheaded stubbornness. I honestly thought getting published would be easier - I'd never failed at anything I tried - and the fact getting published proved elusive meant I was more determined than ever. But I honestly always believed in my heart and soul I'd be published. I couldn't give up. (Plus I wanted to show all those people who thought I was wasting my time that I could do it)"
The Urge to Surrender
I'm ashamed to admit that, unlike the seven authors I asked to contribute to this article, I actually did give up. But my stalwart friends admitted that at times the thought did cross their minds.
Jane Porter put it particularly eloquently. Jane wrote for over fifteen years and completed twelve manuscripts before she sold to Harlequin Presents. Since then, her titles have graced numerous bestseller lists. Her book FLIRTING WITH FORTY is being made into a movie. Her next book, ODD MOM OUT (5 Spot), is on sale September, 2007.
When I asked if she was ever tempted to give up, she said, "There were times the rejections decimated me. I took the rejections harder and harder, especially the closer I got to being read by senior editors. When your manuscript is under consideration for a year or longer, you get your hopes up. When you have two manuscripts under consideration for a year or longer then they both arrive in an envelope together on the same day with a 'thanks, no thanks,' you hurt. You might try not to get your hopes up, but you do. You imagine how wonderful it'd be to have an editor, an agent, people who want your work. You get excited thinking that this editor will help you improve as a writer, really find your voice and stride. At one point I took six months off from writing since I was so depressed. I couldn't even go into my office or look at my computer. Just being near my computer made me feel like throwing up. In fact, just before my big break I was at my lowest. I wasn't even writing anymore, and when Tessa Shapcott, the senior editor for Presents, asked for a partial, it took me months to do it just because I felt so discouraged. But knowing I'd see her at the national conference, knowing I had a group appointment with her, made me suck up my fear and my insecurities and my desire not to write and I sat down and wrote a partial and mailed it off. After conference I got a note saying Tessa wanted the rest of the manuscript and January 2000 I got my first sale-with the manuscript I couldn't initially write because I was so blue."
What Made the Change?
What tipped the balance toward selling rather than not selling? Was it something they did or something that changed in the market? For me, it was a combination of the two. I started to write dark and sexy just as the market got hotter. The influence of erotica on mainstream romance also made a courtesan heroine acceptable whereas I'd have had difficulties selling Verity's profession when I started CLAIMING THE COURTESAN back in 2001.
Annie West now writes for Harlequin Presents after ten years of targeting a number of other category lines. Her first book A MISTRESS FOR THE TAKING hit the Waldenbooks list in early 2006 and her most recent release, FOR THE SHEIKH'S PLEASURE, was out in the US in August, 2007.
"Targeting the right publisher helped! I read a variety of romance and thought I knew where my stories fitted. Strangely though I hadn't seriously attempted to write for Harlequin Presents, even though Presents stories had been a constant in my reading for years. I didn't think I had what it took to write one. Maybe it was a confidence issue, or perhaps just coming to grips with my own writing strengths and preferences. When I sat down to write A MISTRESS FOR THE TAKING, it felt different. Corny as it may sound, it felt like I'd come home. I wasn't confident that I could pull it off but I spent a lot of time letting instinct guide me (that's an instinct carefully honed from years of devouring these stories). 'Write what you know best' worked for me. Around this time, I heard Stephanie Bond talk at an Australian writers' conference. She asked the questions I'd been avoiding. Did I take my writing seriously? Did I have a plan and achievement targets? Did I spend more time talking about writing than actually writing? In the next year I worked harder than before, polished more, changed the style of book I was writing and the rest was easy (!)."
Colleen Gleason wrote for seventeen years before she sold THE REST FALLS AWAY, the first of her Gardella Vampire Chronicles to Signet Eclipse. The second book in the series, Rises the Night, was released in June, 2007. "I think it was simply that I wrote the right book at the right time. My craft had been improving over the years, but even in the early stages, I had rejection letters that told me that my writing was good. It was mostly the plot and the demand (or non-demand) of the market that kept editors from buying. The one that broke through for me, THE REST FALLS AWAY, was a very high-concept, unique idea in a very hot market."
Yvonne Lindsay's first Silhouette Desire THE BOSS' CHRISTMAS SEDUCTION hit number one on the Waldenbooks list. I asked her why this book broke through after she'd been writing for thirteen years. "I think it was the intensity of emotion. This was the first book I wrote that ever made me cry (think that scene in Something's Gotta Give where Diane Keaton's character is howling over her typewriter - that was me.) Actually, to be honest, it's the only book I've ever written that made me cry (so far). I really believed in my characters and believed in their motivations, more than I ever had before. There were no halfway measures. It was from the heart, all the way. My other books have been no less motivated but there was something in the core of THE BOSS' CHRISTMAS SEDUCTION that really hit me."
Advantages of the Long Haul
Awful and frustrating as it is to wait for the validation of a publishing contract, there are advantages. I absolutely agree with Trish Morey, who says, "You get to appreciate your own voice and where it fits; the apprenticeship you serve stands you in good stead for dealing with deadlines, revisions and editors after you're published; you learn all about the industry you want to be part of so you don't have to catch up in the busy post-contract times; and you gain some of the best friends you'll ever make. A long apprenticeship won't hurt your career, in fact, it will probably strengthen it - my first two US releases were Waldenbooks number one bestsellers. In fact I've written an entire article on The Upside of Not Selling-or at Least, Not Selling as Fast as You'd Like. It's on my website."
Jane Porter has also come to appreciate her years in the wilderness. "I'm a fighter now. I work so hard. I am fierce about my books, and my readers, and giving my readers an unforgettable read. I write for myself, yes, but I respect my readers so much and I will not give them a book that's 'less than'. I want every book to be worthy of their time, their money and their emotions. Also, being rejected for 15 years before selling helped me handle the ups and downs of publishing. Not every book sells in the top tier. Not every book gets glowing reviews. Not every book is easy to write. But if you've worked hard to sell, and you've a strong work ethic, and a determination to succeed, you don't give up when things get bumpy. You expect to have bumps and problems and you expect to get knocked down and you expect you'll get up and try again. I'd rather have a hard road to sell than not because it mentally prepared me. It made me Scrapper Jane, and that's the Jane who's learned to give readers the stories I do. Working hard didn't just make me a published author, it made my themes in my novels so much stronger, and my heroines stronger, too."
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
If you're downhearted because you've been writing for a long time and you haven't sold, don't despair. All of these writers got contracts after trying for many years and so can you. I asked my interviewees for any final words of advice.
Colleen Gleason says, "If you like to write, keep doing it! If it's a hardship, and you feel badly about it, then don't. Don't do it. Getting published is one part luck, one part talent, and one part perseverance. You have to have all three to do it."
Gerri Russell's advice is, "It sounds so glib, but hang in there. It only takes one 'yes' to take you from unpublished to published. For me, the source of hanging in there came when I realized I did absolutely everything my published friends did. I worked every day. I set goals. I met self-imposed deadlines. I attended conferences to improve my skills. The only difference was they had a contract and I didn't. But I was still very much a writer just like them. That realization helped me keep my focus on the only thing I could control--my writing."
Paula Roe also focuses on what the writer can control. "Learn why you haven't sold - some people complain about it but never send anything out! Dig out your rejections and analyze the comments. Do you lack emotional punch? Is your writing too 'big' for your targeted category? Too emotionally intense for mainstream? Learn about writing, publishers and their requirements in order to fix what can be fixed. Treat your writing seriously, allocate writing time, set achievable goals, e.g. enter the Golden Heart, finish five chapters by Christmas, submit a proposal to a publisher."
Yvonne Lindsay says enjoy the journey. "Make friends with other writers who are going through the same thing you are. Don't be poisoned by envy if they sell before you. Don't get bogged down in other people's bad news (an easy trap to get into with all the message boards we have available to us. Support is a great thing but misery does love company and it's a whole lot harder to dig yourself out of a pit when you can't get to the sides for the company of other miserable people. That sounds callous, but you have to draw a line somewhere.) If you can't get to conferences, buy the tapes and listen to them! Read widely. Keep going, keep learning and listen to advice from people who've been there before you. One of the things I wish I'd learned earlier was to listen to advice from the long-stayers in the industry. Things like, finish a manuscript (it was years before I did that!). And above all NEVER EVER GIVE UP!"
Annie West's message is also never give up. "The difference between a published writer and an unpublished one is that the published writer didn't give up. If you want this enough, if you work at it and focus on improving your work, you can succeed. I'd also urge people to write what they enjoy. If you create the stories that speak to you, that you really feel, your strengths will shine through."
Thank you to all the authors who contributed to this article and shared their encouraging advice so generously. The message is enjoy the journey, learn everything you can, hang in there and above all, keep writing and submitting. Good luck!
This article first appeared in The Romance Writers Report, the magazine for Romance Writers of America, September 2007
Illuminating The Black Moment
I write out of my subconscious so anything I say about craft needs to be taken with a grain of salt, but I hope these random comments spark some thoughts for plotters as well as diehard pantsers like me.
When I start a book, I have a hero and heroine (sometimes a villain), a setting, and a situation presenting major problems for my protagonists. I generally also have some inkling of where the story goes over the next 400 pages. But the really good, vivid stuff comes as the conflict develops organically from those particular characters and how they interact with each other.
So the seeds of the black moment, that scene towards the end of the book when all seems lost and a reader can’t see any way the characters will achieve their happy ending, are sown in the first few pages.
How do you go about creating a heart-wrenching black moment? A technique that’s terrifically effective is something I heard in a Donald Maass workshop:
- Work out the one thing your character would never do, then make him/her do it.
- Work out the one thing your character would never sacrifice, then make him/her sacrifice it.
- Work out your character’s greatest fear then make him/her face that.
Using the answers to one or more of these questions can lend enormous emotional power to your black moment. Especially if you’ve spent the entire story, right from the start, building up just how much the character wants what they sacrifice or fears what they face or abhors what they do.
Here’s an example of what I mean from my debut Regency historical romance, CLAIMING THE COURTESAN.
The hero, the Duke of Kylemore, is on a parabola of redemption (hmm, there’s a term that’s going to take over the writing world, NOT!). On this parabola, he confronts a series of black moments, each darker than the next. This leads to the final crisis where he has to do the one thing that at the start of the book he would never countenance doing because he recognizes it would destroy him.
He knows what he wants (the heroine) but in his desperation he goes about achieving it in the surest way to drive his goal further out of reach. When Verity, the woman he loves, runs away and almost dies, he at last recognizes that his obsession has led him to horrific depths where he is on the verge of destroying the only thing that gives his life meaning.
A black moment indeed. But it’s actually the start of him climbing slowly and painfully back into the light. That’s not far past halfway through the book.
There are more black moments to come, culminating in the worst one at the end. At the start of the book, he will do anything, right or wrong, to keep this woman. At the end, he acknowledges she is free to go although he knows that nothing but devastation awaits him without her. That’s truly the climactic black moment, when he (and hopefully the reader) thinks all is lost!
Always make the black moment completely individual to that person. It’s the thing Kylemore would never do, not the thing Lord Generic Hero would never do. There’s plenty of things that could separate a couple, for example, war, death, money, family issues. But in a romance, the black moment should grow naturally from some essential issue that has propelled the character through the story.
Your black moment should emerge directly from the conflict at the heart of your book. This not only lifts the stakes during the black moment, it also gives your story an organic unity.
Confronting this issue and conquering it lead to your character’s emotional growth and leave the way open for the happy ending and the emotional pay-off which is one of the reasons we all read romance! That sigh of blissful contentment when the characters ride off into the sunset for their happily ever after. We want to feel these two people have faced difficulties and overcome the obstacles between them. Now they face a fulfilled life together, their love strengthened by what they learnt about themselves when they came through the black moment. Knowing how to write a great black moment is an essential tool in any writer’s box of tricks.
Don’t censor yourself when you come to the black moment. It needs to be as black as night not a whiter shade of pale. You can come back and tone it down later if you think you’ve gone too over the top. I believe more books have failed to sell because the writer pulled their punches than failed to sell because the writer went out with all guns blazing to create every ounce of drama they could.
One of the best ways to make a black moment powerful is to force your characters to face the consequences of what they do. That seems so simple, doesn’t it? But I read a lot of contest entries and the occasional book where the writer just doesn’t want to make those characters face up to the damage they’ve done and suffer accordingly. We’re all nice people (well, I’m sure Hearts Talk readers are. I’m not so sure about me – bwahahahahahaha). We don’t like to give the characters we love pain. Believe me, if you want to write a compelling story, you have to.
Do black moments only appear in dark, angsty books like the ones I write? Not at all! You still need the crisis and the catharsis in the lightest comedy. Tone is important but that doesn’t mean characters in a comedy shouldn’t face the prospect of losing everything they want and emerge from their crisis purified and deserving of a happy ending.
So good luck with making your characters really miserable. It renders readers happy! And may all your black moments be BIG ones! Be ruthless. Be ultra-ruthless. Torment those characters until they’re screaming for mercy. Your readers will thank you for it and they’ll line up to buy your next book as a result!
This article first appeared in Hearts Talk, the newsletter for Romance Writers of Australia, in January, 2009.
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It Won't Happen Overnight... Musings on Voice
Who could forget that immortal shampoo commercial featuring New Zealand’s own Rachel Hunter? Well, certainly not me! And what do people remember? The VOICE!
I have to thank wonderful Harlequin Mills & Boon Medical author Amy Andrews for the title of this article. We were talking about voice and she started quoting the infamous ad. Bingo, I thought! What a great title for my latest Diamonds and Pearls.
Everybody talks about a writer’s ‘voice’. Yet what is it? I’d like to say I can’t define it but I know it when I see it. But that’s going to make this a terrifically short column so I’ll have to do better than that.
To me, voice is what makes you the writer you are, which comes down essentially to the person you are. It’s as much a part of you as whether you have a big nose or blue eyes. It expresses how you see the world, how you feel, what you find funny, what you find sad, what you’ve experienced in your life, what you’ve imagined, what words are part of your individual way of speaking or writing. You name it, that’s part of voice.
So if it’s so innate, why does it take so much hard work and time before a writer’s voice emerges in its full glory?
Ah, one of the major mysteries that one!
I made a huge saga of the fact that when I sold in 2006, I’d been writing for 27 years. People calculate their pre-published time in different ways. Sometimes it’s from when they started writing romance seriously for publication. Sometimes it really is from when they started writing. I started writing, well, when I learnt to write! So I calculated my pre-published years from the completion of my first book when I was 17. And yes, sadly, that IS how old I am, if you do the additions!
But one of the things that got contest judges and agents and editors and since then, thank goodness, readers, excited about Claiming the Courtesan was that I have a very strong voice. Apparently. So I’ve been told. By people who I wasn’t buying drinks for at the time.
Don’t ask me what that voice is! I suspect it’s to do with the way I use vocabulary – never be afraid of a big word, I say. That’s why God invented dictionaries! Perhaps a rather skewed sense of humour. Definitely characters who have kinks and detours and black marks in their souls – I like people who are complex and who don’t give away everything about themselves on a cursory meeting. A strong sense of the historical period because that’s something I respond to myself in a book.
And do you know what? If I asked someone who enjoyed Claiming the Courtesan what they found individual about it, they’d give me a completely different answer!
Another mystery of voice. Hardly any writer I know can pinpoint what it is about their writing that makes a reader respond. And maybe that’s a good thing. If voice is so innate, analysing too much can destroy the unselfconscious magic of it all. It’s a bit like dissecting a butterfly to see how it works. You might know more at the end, but you sure don’t have a butterfly any more!
My theory about voice is that we’ve all got one but it’s buried deep underground in a long dark coal mine and you only find it by digging and digging and carting out the dross and digging some more. And there will be cave ins. And sometimes your miners get trapped and you need to save them. And sometimes those miners are just stuck there forever. And sometimes your lamp goes out. Or the canary dies because there’s no oxygen. And it’s sweaty and dirty and there’s no other way to get the coal out. An open-cut mine doesn’t work for this particular seam. Only going right down into the dark and hewing away at the rock wall like a demon will winkle out that mineral wealth that powers your industrial revolution. Hmm, have I ‘mined’ that metaphor enough, do you think?
What I’m trying to say is only by writing lots and lots for a long, long time do you find out what your voice is. There will be inklings of voice in everything you do. And of course, every rule has exceptions. Some people emerge with their voice intact from the first. I think they’d be as rare as pink elephants, though! For most of us, there’s no substitute for bum in seat, hands on keyboard or curled around pen, brow furrowed as we battle our story and our characters and our doubts and our lives outside writing. Hard work and persistence are the only quick fixes and neither are that quick! You need to work out how to say what you want to say and only practice and perseverance will give you that ability.
Everyone starts writing by imitation. That’s how everybody learns most things. I started writing as a kid because I loved Enid Blyton and I wanted to be her (well, my limited understanding of what being her involved, basically having kids like me stay up all night to finish my stories!). So all my early opuses were pseudo Enid Blyton. Then I became a huge Victoria Holt fan so most of my early teenage efforts were gothics. Which hasn’t changed in many ways. Then I discovered sexy American historicals like Kathleen Woodiwiss and Laurie McBain. My first finished manuscript was KW in the Hundred Years War. Pretty drack but a landmark nonetheless. Finishing that first book is a major milestone in any writer’s life and I admire anyone who gets to that point. Most people will never do that so remember to stop and give yourself a pat on the back, even if the manuscript ends up as lining for the budgie cage.
I think you’re getting the idea. Imitation was the sincerest form of flattery for writers I liked. More than that, through all these efforts and the ones that followed (I won’t bore you with the complete list of influences!), gradually, uncertainly, erratically, the voice that would become Anna Campbell’s was emerging. And I gravitated towards authors who had that affinity with me and who could show me how to do what I needed to. There was always an appreciation for drama (perhaps even melodrama!). There were always characters with complex inner lives. And slowly and hesitantly I was learning the skills that would help Anna Campbell’s voice shine as something individual and not just a pale imitation of greats like Woodiwiss or Kinsale or Chase.
So to finish on another quote, “You are the voice!” Keep digging at that coal face and you will find the mother lode! Good luck with your pick and shovel! And don’t forget to have a good, long, hot shower when you come up from the pit!
This article first appeared in HeartsTalk, the newsletter of Romance Writers of Australia, in January 2008.
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Contest Counsel
"(&^%%$$ contest judges! What do they know? May immortal elephant-size cockroaches invade their house! May their swimming pools fill with indelible green slime! May dogs eat their birthday presents!"
Ever found yourself saying something like this? Fess up! I bet you have. I sure did!
You know what? It's perfectly natural! But having got your justifiable resentment (well, mine was ALWAYS justifiable, LOL) out of your system, what's your next step?
OK, here's the lowdown on contests from a bona fide contest sl*t.
Firstly, contests are great preparation for submitting material to agents and editors and then when you're published, putting your work before the general public. Judging is completely subjective and nothing will ever change that. Get used to it - submissions are completely subjective too! Judges have likes and dislikes and odd quirks of tastes. Believe me, so do the people who eventually buy the book from a shop. So contests are a great way to grow the thick skin you'll need when you send your work out into the big, wide, CRUEL world.
Secondly, sometimes judges are wrong and sometimes judges are right. A good strategy is instead of scrunching up that critique and stamping on it and throwing it into the nearest bin, put it aside for a few days. Then come back to it. You may find once emotions have cooled, there's something in those critiques that can improve your work. Remember, people saying you're wonderful is lovely but it doesn't give you anything to help you reach publication standard.
At this stage, remind yourself it's YOUR story. If you don't agree with a judge, just move on. These people offer advice and an opinion. You don't have to take it as gospel if it's inappropriate to your story. I would however say that if more than one judge singles out the same problem, revisit that. You may decide to stick to your guns or you may decide they have a point. Again, totally up to you! You're steering this particular ship! You get your name on the front cover as author!
Did you get wildly disparate scores? Again, just a sign that the world contains millions of readers with different ideas about what makes a good story. I used to get a ridiculous range in scores, rarely anything in the middle. Sometimes that can be a good sign - you have a strong voice that elicits an equally strong reaction from readers. This is a great quality when you submit work to publishers wanting something fresh and new.
What if the judge is just plain wrong? Well, it happens. Someone didn't get your stuff. No big deal. Again, move on!
Be gracious. I always sent thank you notes even to people who clearly hated my work. Judges give up valuable writing time to read your contest entry. They're sincere in trying to help, whether you as the end user find their comments helpful or not. Even just a "thank you for taking the time to judge my contest entry. I appreciate your comments" letter makes you look professional.
And keep entering! Contests are a great way to get a wide range of feedback and advice. If you final, they're a fantastic shortcut to landing on an editor's or an agent's desk with a gold star. Good luck!
This article first appeared in Hearts Talk, the newsletter for Romance Writers of Australia, in February, 2009.
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Getting Intimate with Point of View
I love playing with point of view. It’s one of the fun bits of writing a romance novel!
Firstly, what is point of view? It’s the eyes you use to tell the story. It’s the person you filter the events of the novel through.
Novels like the classics often use omniscient point of view which I like to think of as the ‘God’ format. This is where the author sees all and knows all and can pop into everyone’s head to give the reader a quick idea of what’s going on in a character’s thoughts.
The benefit of this is you get that whole world effect that someone like Dickens achieves. The downside is you run the risk of not developing a particular emotional intimacy with any character as you’re always dashing off to see the world through another set of eyes.
Omniscient point of view is still used these days but sparingly. I think of it as a wide-panning camera shot that sets up the scene and then of course, you can zoom in to get the close-up. Used sparingly, it can be a highly effective way to begin a chapter or a scene. Used too much, it can make your book seem old-fashioned and lacking in emotional punch.
Still popular is first-person point of view, ‘I’ books. Chick lit and women’s fiction have a great fondness for first-person point of view although I’ve read many romances, especially gothics, that also use this technique.
With first person point of view, you can play games with things like unreliable narrator that keep the reader guessing. WUTHERING HEIGHTS, for example, is a sequence of first person narratives and every single one of those narrators doesn’t understand the full story. All of this adds very effectively to the story’s unsettling, dark atmosphere.
The principal benefit of first-person point of view is you develop extreme emotional intimacy with the person telling the story. One downside is readers can become tired of that one character’s voice unless that character is very engaging. Another downside is you view all the other characters from the outside. You don’t go into anyone else’s head.
The majority of romances, in fact most books these days, are written in third-person point of view (he/she). The writer picks one character or a couple of characters through whom to tell the story. With most romances, including mine, the viewpoint characters are the hero and the heroine. Sometimes the villain or a major secondary character will become the point of view character. Unlike omniscient point of view, the narrators in third-person point of view can only know what that character knows at that stage of the story. So unreliable narrator games also come into the equation.
Most romances take third-person point of view one step further and are written in what I’d term very close focus point of view. This can also be called deep point of view. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this close focus point of view is one of the reasons romances are popular across the world.
This technique brings you really close to the character, concentrating on their reactions, their emotions. If it’s done well, the reader feels like there’s no filter between them and the character’s actions and feelings in the story. You get that intense intimacy you experience with first-person point of view combined with the ability to move into other viewpoints that you get in third-person. The reading experience becomes intense, vivid, as though the reader were experiencing the events of the story with the viewpoint character. It’s an amazingly powerful technique.
Most aspiring writers have heard the term ‘head-hopping’ and the general consensus is it’s a bad thing. Head-hopping is when the point of view character alternates quickly or across a large number of characters – omniscient point of view often uses head-hopping but as I said, the effect can be rather old-fashioned.
I’ve judged contest entries where the point of view character changes from paragraph to paragraph, even from line to line. Sometimes the problem is that the reader becomes confused about whose eyes they’re viewing events through. But that’s not the greatest danger. The greatest danger is that with lots of viewpoint characters or this whiplash effect of changing viewpoint characters, the reader never develops that intimate relationship with the lead characters and never gains that intense experience of living through the story with them. So you’ve missed your chance to create a page-turning, compelling romance that delivers a huge emotional wallop. The story may be great, the characters may be interesting, but the reader will experience the whole thing from a distance.
My advice for anyone wanting to use deep point of view in a romance is to limit how many characters tell your story. I’d strongly recommend just hero and heroine, maybe villain if that’s the only way you can get essential information across or you think this builds suspense. I’d also recommend staying in each viewpoint for an extended period. Some people say for the whole scene. I don’t necessarily subscribe to that, but stay in one head long enough for the reader to feel they are intimate with the character.
Whose point of view should you use for a particular moment? The general consensus is that the point of view character should be the person with the most at stake. Another technique is to pick the character who gets the surprise when the information conveyed in the scene is revealed, especially if it’s information the reader doesn’t yet have. This puts the reader and the character on the same footing and builds intimacy.
Often in my books, the characters have equal stakes in a particular scene. What do you do then? In that case, I’d go for the most dramatic option or for the option that gives the reader the most new information. In a love scene, I may choose a point of view character who hasn’t yet had the chance to express their feelings/reactions in a similar moment. So the first love scene may be in the hero’s point of view. The reader wants to know how the heroine feels so the next love scene will be in her point of view.
What techniques can you use to achieve close focus point of view? One is to concentrate very much on the character’s sensations, thoughts and emotions. How does that character react to something that’s been said or done? How does that character feel in any given moment? Use the senses – ALL of them, not just the visual. Use memory. Give us a strong impression of what it’s like to be inside that person’s skin.
Another technique is to limit filter words like “he thought” or “she felt”. Close point of view reflection is presented as dialogue with the flavour of speech. So if the character curses, the patterns of his thoughts should include cursing. Use other techniques you’d use with speech, like fragments or colloquialisms.
Effective internal monologues use words the character would in speech:
He thought she was beautiful. This puts the reader at a distance.
By all that was holy, she was lovely. The reader instantly hears the cadence of the character’s speech.
Yet another trick is to use imagery that relates specifically to him or her. To give you an example, in UNTOUCHED, Matthew, the Marquess of Sheene, is a botanist so he uses a lot of plant and horticultural language. The more specific you can make a character’s internal dialogue, the more the reader will feel they’re inhabiting their head.
Use point of view to play games with your reader. This is when it becomes really fun! Your reader is in the box seat when it comes to knowing what’s going on with the story. The hero may be going through agonies because he thinks the heroine doesn’t love him. The reader knows better. The heroine may completely misunderstand something the hero does. The reader knows better.
You can also use point of view to keep your reader turning the page in a fever to find out what happens next. When your hero, in his point of view, declares his love at the end of a chapter, the reader will immediately rush to read the next page because of course, your reader wants to know how the heroine reacts to this important moment in the story.
Skilful use of point of view is a really powerful technique for drawing out suspense and creating a compelling story that will keep your reader sitting up past midnight to finish the story. And isn’t that just what we want?
Come on! Use point of view to get us really intimate with the men and women in your stories! Your readers will be clamouring for more!
This article first appeared (in German) in Love Letter Magazine in February, 2009, then was reprinted in Heart to Heart, the newsletter of Romance Writers of New Zealand, in March, 2009.
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