Teen Appeal

Ah, nostalgia. Right in the bottom of your soul, there still lurks that pre-teen with the amazing, all encompassing yearning for five minutes alone with (insert name here,  I'm afraid mine would have to be Donny or David Cassidy). The emotions so strong they were completely overpowering.

Later, of course, would come 'real boys' and then later, 'real men', but in the exuberance of youth it was the fantasy boy who held my attention in thrall, and I was rocketed back there with a vengeance, this week, when I took my two girls to see their heros, The Jonas Brothers, live in concert in Birmingham. I dragged along my unwary sister for support, not really being honest about what was to await her, but desperate for the company.

Well, we had a great time. The seats were perfect, the merchandising booth did an admirable job melting my credit card, and they screamed and jumped up and down for a full hour and a half. We even got to touch the tour bus. Now, five days later, my knees have stopped their arthritic aching (what WAS I thinking? I shouldn't have been jumping up and down, I'll put a hip out!) and my ears have stopped ringing after the frantic screaming that would have put a roomful of banshees to shame. They loved it, my inner grin remains. Now just got to catch up my word count!

Inspiration from the most unlikely of places

There's a time in every novelists day when the dust at the bottom of the cornflake packet has been devoured by his/her hungry family, and the plaintive cries of children, husband, and dogs gets too much. Yes, its off to the supermarket.

As we all know, the dedicated novelist writes all the time. Even when not sitting down in front of the computer, there's the one sided conversations, trying out dialogue in the car, and the endless thinking about the next scene. There is for me, anyway. Right. Mini trolley tokened, and off I go, pushing around the shelves, searching for bread, milk, ham, cheese and the National Enquirer. The basic staples of life.

It started innocently enough, pushing past the end of the aisle a large sign caught my eye which gave me an idea for a new romance. There it was, proclaiming Millionaire Tarts. More a title than an idea really. I paused, wipped out the trusty notebook, and jotted it down.
Next, the cheese aisle. Strong and Mature, a package promised. Hmm, perfect hero material, although perhaps not so mature might be better. In to the notebook, and on I went. I had a bit of a revalation in front of the marmalade. Was my heroine Thin and Bitter or Thick cut? Maybe Strong and dark.
Scan it quick and get out of here, ignoring packets proclaiming Crispy Treats. There's only so much shopping one gal can take!

No time off for good behaviour

I'm feeling contrained. Although this is perhaps not the best image to describe it. Mentally handcuffed rather than literally. After all, being handcuffed while trying to bash out the words is completely wrong.
First week down, lots of action, altogether too many characters, who have a tendency to waffle on (but no drinking or eating, apparently my previous works have suffered from an over indulgence of drinking and eating, so this lot, as well as not going to the toilet, aren't scoffing). They're drinking though, although for some reason I've yet to discover, drinking booze. The story is morphing at the moment, I guess thats the way it goes while writing from the seat of your pants. I've had a good five chapters building everything, and now have the unenviable task of getting them through the next bit. This is the time (just over 14,000) where I find it difficult, and want to give up.
But I'm not going to. I know that if I can get through this section I've loads of stuff to get to. Its a first draft, which in my case means there's lots of action, and suspense, but little in the way of descriptive passages. I never finish the first draft and have to cut stuff, I always have to go back over and add details, make it more descriptive. It's tempting to just go back over what I've got and build up the wordcount this way, but I'm not going to do that, November is for moving onwards, not editing.
So, more coffee. My playlist from November 1st worked for a while, but now I'm back to another, older playlist, and I'm amazed at how blasting Abba into both ears is really working on the more psychotic scenes. My villain especially comes to life to the old favorites, becoming more evil with every pass of 'Take a chance on me.' Who would have thunk it?
Missing blogging. Missing twitter, Wishing November was over. Just have to keep going, dying for week three!

Starting

I think I love this moment more than any other. A new story, new characters, blank page. A new start. For the first time ever the lure of Nano has me so tightly in its grip that I cannot wait for the morning, cannot wait for the cold brightness of day, but instead sit at my computer with mere minutes to go, waiting.

In the moments before the first of November, I let my muse guide me. Compiling a new playlist - starting with Sting, the shape of my heart, then on to Bono and Clannad - In a lifetime, and then off into Sheryl Crowe country, with James Taylor's Fire and Rain making an entry in there somewhere.
Then setting up the page, making it all perfect as the clock counts down, before I type the title - Posthumous, at exactly one minute past midnight.
So, now an hour later I've passed my first thousand words, and feel free to go off to bed. Just a quick blogpost, an update of my word count, and off to work on the next thousand in my sleep.
What a month.

An alternative approach to Nanowrimo

Well, its almost November, the month my family dread more than any other because it means lots of takeaways and a distracted mother who is strangely preoccupied with odd research for the entire month as she works away (8th time) on a new novel.
Many of my co-writers are put off by the idea of writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, and I know how that can be, so this morning I decided to post some alternative ideas about Nano, which I hope you'll find interesting.
The one thing to remember, is that different to contests, Nano is not about beautiful sentence structure, great characters and tight plotting, but instead about volume. Nobody except you gets to read your 50,000 words, so there is no criticism involved, and this, on its own, can be a powerful incentive to write, and unlock creativity. It struck me that there are as many different types of writers as there are cars, or chocolate for that matter. Perhaps you like to write short stories? In that case, perhaps your 'novel' could be a collection of short stories rather than a novel. The target is just over 1,600 words per day. If you decided to write a collection of 2,000 word short stories during November, you would have 25 by months end, or you could take the pick and mix approach, and still end up with a collection worth something at the end of the month.
Nano gives you the freedom to do this, not all chapters of your magnus opus need to be perfect, or even good, you can let your mind wander and see what comes out of it, and if you get stuck, as Chris Baty (Nano head) advises, why not have a spaceship land? Great if you write science fiction, and somewhat dubious if you write Regency romance, but it will get you out of a hole, and once you've written that bit, you may find that your earlier story re-emerges, in spades.
The first week is always easy, a new story, new characters, and lots of inspiration. Week two is more difficult, working on those threads and building the characters, and by the time you get to week three, you're pulling your hair out, wondering why you started, and wishing you were anywhere else but in the middle of a dog of a story. If you can get through week 3 everything changes, inspiration is back, and writing is pure joy again. I don't have a problem with having bizarre writing in week 3, worse case scenario is that you have 11,000 words of dodgy material in there which can be rewritten (or cut), but still almost 40,000 words completed that you can work with in 2010.
NaNoWriMo is a different way of writing, a way your brain adapts to. It's challenging, inspiring, and great fun, so for those who haven't considered it I'd say join the party - I bet you'll enjoy it.

The Golden Rose Contest

Back in early July I entered Bound to Love in the Golden Rose Contest, which is run by Rose City Romance Writers, in Portland, Oregon. I heard about this contest through Trish Wylie's blog, and upon investigation decided it would be a great thing to enter, because all entrants are judged by 3 judges, and a score sheet and detailed summary is provided to everyone.

Yesterday, I received my scores back, and although not a winner or even a finalist, I must admit that the process has been a good one. Each judge provided a score sheet and a marked up version of my submission, which was the first 50 pages.

The first catagory scored was Characterization, with a total score possible of 20 points. To give you an idea, they rated each question 1-5, five being publication ready, 4 being extremely minor revisions, 3 being some revisions, 2 being many revisions, and 1 being major revisions required.
The questions under characterization were:
Are the character's physical descriptions vivid? Can you picture them?
Are main characters sympathetic despite flaws/faults? Would you root for them as the story progresses?
Are secondary characters necessary and non-intrusive? Do they add interest and issues to the story?
Are character's actions/reactions appropriate and consistent?

They have sections on Conflict/Motivation, Dialogue/Narrative, Pacing/Plotting, Description/Setting, Craft/Mechanics, Style/Voice, Romantic Tone and a Bonus question.

Now its always difficult to hold up your creation for analysis, but I really believe it can be worth it. Especially if you grit your teeth and take the comments not as criticism, but as the help that they actually are.  The total available points are 190, and if you receive 80% of the total (e.g.152) as your lowest grade, you are on to the next round. The top 10% of those are wittled away until they come out with a winner.

I did an editing course (previously mentioned on this blog) in August, a month after sending my first 50 pages, and after submitting an entire of it to a publisher. It was declined by the publisher, but they agreed to re-read an edited version, and with the knowledge I gained from the course I hope I did a good enough job, time will tell! (It's back out there, fighting for its life!). The Golden Rose results and detailed breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of the book backed up the comments I got from the publisher, so I know that the areas that were weak have been addressed, and also know that all 3 judges said that they would like to read the rest of it, so that's consolation at least.

My weaknesses are my weaknesses, but something I should have seen coming and could have done a lot to mitigate against was what the judges took to be spelling mistakes. It's worth remembering that submitting to the USA we need to check the spelling for UK English and change to US English. I was docked points for this.

Finally, for those who are wondering, I scored 127, 147 and 163 from my judges, and would have needed lowest of 152 to get through.

A contract!

This week has been a good one, from an unexpected source. I currently have two fulls out for evaluation, a partial out to M&B as well as 2 competition entries and have been checking (rather obsessively, I admit it!) my email and having all sorts of "We love it" fantasies.

Imagine, then, my surprise to receive a contract via email for a short story that I sent off hopefully 14 months ago and had completely forgotten about. After a stunned silence (rare, those) for a couple of minutes, I signed on the dotted line and sent it back. Not what I was expecting, but publication nonetheless! So here's to me, I'm off to buy some chocolate to celebrate... and will post more when I get a publication date. So far its just enough to say I'll be featuring in New Love Stories Magazine (a New York Magazine) some time in 2010.