I've been absent from my blog for a little while. Life has been hectic (when isn't it?) and I haven't been able to focus much on writing. So today, I'm back on track, focused and keen and full of world-changing ideas (well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I can feign brilliance and enthusiasm!).
Today my plan is to catch up on blogging, do a bit of critiquing for my CP, and edit some of my work. I also have to create a list of questions for our Bootcamp session with author Amy Andrews. I'll let you know all about that after tonight's session.
I was also doing a bit of research into craft and found a bit more info about the Modern/Presents line I'm aiming for. This info below was posted by
Jenny Hutton, Harlequin Editor on the Harlequin Community wesbite, and I thought I'd share as it's extremely useful to everyone writing for the line. Then again, it probably applies to many lines, so take the time to have a look at this.
WRITING FOR MODERN: the mistakes that are most frequently made
This tutorial was originally entitled Frequently Asked Questions. But when the Editors at Modern thought about those, they realised there was one question that is asked far more often than any other: what are the most common mistakes made by unpublished writers? So here goes with our Top Five:
· Using too much narrative and not enough dialogue.
This is really a symptom of something else – the writer ‘telling’ the story, instead of letting her characters speak for themselves. In certain types of fiction, a narrative approach is fair enough: readers are happy to enjoy a more leisurely journey and stop off for interludes of reflection and description. But category romance – and Modern Romance – is essentially a short, sharp emotional fix, so our audience want to get to know the characters as fast and experience their unfolding emotions as immediately as possible; use of dialogue is the best way to achieve this. A rule of thumb is sixty per cent narrative, forty per cent dialogue. Or, if you have gone for more than a page without a line of speech, it’s quite likely that your reader will have gone, too, to make herself a cup of reviving coffee…and maybe she won’t come back…
· Too many minor characters.
The hero and heroine’s relationship is paramount to every Modern Romance novel, so it must remain the primary focus all of the time. If you struggle to generate intensity in the central romance, it could be because you got carried away writing about the heroine’s best friend and her adorable little puppy. Limit your use of secondary characters to as few as you can and make sure that if and when they appear, they do nothing more than providing a step forward in the development of the romance. Children are especially dangerous territory in this respect: it’s so easy to enjoy creating a cute kid who ends up getting in the way of the hero and heroine getting it on …
Remember the wise old British saying: Children should be seen and not heard. Off to the nursery with them!
· Too much background detail.
A mistake very similar in nature to an abundance of minor characters, but one frequently made by new writers who have lots of research that they’re dying to include – memories of a fabulous trip to Venice, or all the information they’ve gleaned from an excellent website about Greece. But, though the armchair travelogue style used to be very popular in our books (along with plaid picnic rugs and thermos flasks), these days, long-haul travel and exotic destinations are within reach of almost anybody, so a mini-guidebook to the flora and fauna of a remote Pacific island, or a re-run of that Venetian tour you took no longer holds any mystery. We’ve been there too and we just need a little flavour and colour to bring it all back and make the romance sparkle!
Global Warming may force us to travel less and spur the return of the armchair experience and the picnic rug, but for now – concentrate on the romance!
· Lack of emotional depth.
We editors often come upon manuscript submissions where the writing is competent, the conversation between characters is pleasant, the tone remains even throughout and there is little or no build-up of emotional or physical tension between the main characters…and then suddenly, without any warning, there is an explicit sex scene! Believe me, it’s enough to make us choke on our lunchtime sandwiches!
Check out our earlier post on Generating Emotional Conflict. The most satisfying romances are the ones where the level of conflict is high, passions run deep and the sensuality is at boiling point! In other words, place your hero and heroine’s emotions at the forefront of your story and work at creating an ebb and flow between them that will tantalize and excite the reader while propelling her towards explosive semi and final climaxes. All relationships have emotional highs and lows and, as this is romantic fantasy, the reading experience needs to be heightened and feelings intense.
· Overuse of cliché.
This can present itself in a number of guises, for instance, the hero and heroine’s first meeting, characterization, language and even what the hero and heroine are wearing.
It’s very tempting as a new writer to reach for the familiar; you have published writers whose styles you find inspiring and, of course, with fifty thousand words at your disposal, you want to get the message across as quickly and easily as you can.
But don’t lose sight of your own voice – your own particular use of vocabulary and those quirky little observations and phrases that make you unique and entertaining as a writer.
Do you really want to open your novel with a car collision between the hero and heroine’s vehicles when you – and your reader – will have seen that done a thousand times before? Will your hero always be arrogant and flare his nostrils, or does he have a more complex reaction? Does your description of how he eventually makes love to the heroine contain lots of euphemisms about body parts – or can you convey to us how the heroine actually feels?
I find I often read about how to do things, but not what I shouldn't do, so this info will really help me with my rewrites this week. I need to go back to the drawing board on some things, especially my dialogue and narrative ratio.
Btw, happy belated Mother's Day to all the mums out there - I had a lovely time with my family, and got very spoilt by my hubby and kids! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend with their families.
:-) Mon
