*sigh* She can’t have him, of course. He’s mine, all mine!
Thanks Barbara for the link to this ad.
Any prizes for guessing I’m procrastinating when I should be writing?
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Wow, look at those mentors!
Okay, I’m a bit New Voices obsessed at present. And yes, the chance of me making the top twenty will be about 1:50.
But the mentors!
What a fabulous line up, from all the series published in the UK (not just the series edited in the UK). Cherish (including sweet Romance and SuperRomance), RIVA, Modern/Presents, Medical, Historical, Blaze, Nocturne.
There are a number of authors there whose stories I love and who I’d adore the chance to work with.
Those top twenty are going to be getting a wonderful opportunity.
As last year’s winner Leah says, don’t assume you won’t get picked! Know your characters and where the story is headed. Write more than one chapter, just in case you need that second one to work on with your mentor.
Then think even bigger. Know what your pivotal moment might be.
I saw mine last night, coming home on the train from work, brainstorming about my characters and their internal conflicts and relationship blocks. Oh my. It wrung me out even thinking about it. Writing it will kill me.
It’s not the Black Moment, it’s part of the lead up to it. A moment where the heroine lays herself so emotional bare to the hero it terrifies her and she has to retreat, get away from him. Of course, it will lose about 95% of the emotional impact when it goes from that scene I see in my mind to words on the page. But I still hope it will be powerful.
Even if I don’t get into the top twenty, Meg and Nick’s story is getting written. It’s getting subbed. I want an editor somewhere to read this story, see this couple, fall in love with both of them like I have.
It’s on- New Voices 2011 goes live!
And so it begins!
Mills and Boon New Voices 2011 officially starts today. Another hopeful romance writer will go from wannabe to doing it- getting her story published with the biggest women’s fiction publisher in the world.
The writers who’ve been ready to go for days or weeks are already biting their nails about comments and rose ratings, with eighteen entries already up. This will end up being hundreds before the contest ends. I haven’t read any yet but I’m looking forward to it! As always, it will be a mix of good and not so good, with a sprinkling of “What planet is she on?”, and a few “OMG, this is fabulous, wish I could write like that!”
I love the game of “Guess the winner”, too. Of course, we get to have a say in that too when the voting round opens.
But I don’t want to start reading entries just yet, not until I’ve entered my chapter. There will be plenty of slower off the mark writers like me, consoling ourselves with the knowledge that closing date isn’t until 10th October. Maybe there’s still time to pull that chapter together?
And if you don’t want to enter at all, just read, as well as all the fun of the first chapters, there are two free full-length ebooks available on the site. They’re by the fabulous Heidi Rice, who’s being a mentor for one of the finalists again this year. One I already have, but the other I don’t yet. Yippee!
So, back to the contest! I’d planned all year to enter a particular story, then found the contest rules prevented that. Back to the drawing board, and I’m glad. In one of those Plan-B-that’s-really-an-old-Plan-A twists, the story I hope to enter is another in the Haven Bay series.
Now, this will get hopelessly convoluted and make no sense at all, but it’s the first Haven Bay story I started, early last year. I finalled in the lovely Donna Alward’s eharlequin pitch contest with this story, and she gave me a thoughtful critique of chapter 1. But I stopped writing around chapter 6. I didn’t have any strong sense of the character conflict, wasn’t sure if everything I’d written was really backstory and the story should start in chapter 7 or 8! I moved on to the next Haven Bay story, Cady and Lock’s story. As I wrote that, I saw what the overarching series arc could be, an ongoing background story that threads through the series. Cady’s story came first, then Meg’s, then Zanna’s, then Lucy’s…
Well, Cady and Lock were rejected, for good reason. But could I enter the second story in a series into a contest like this? Stretching my imagination as far as it will go, what if I got picked? What if Meg and Nick got published first? Where did that leave Cady and Lock?
The answer is, back where they started right at the very beginning, second in the series, or maybe even third, after Zanna. I’m so excited now about going back to Nick and Meg! I figured out how that story arc can still work, it’s not a big deal anyway, just a background thing going on in the town that involves the characters.
I have new insight into their GMC, that will hopefully strengthen the story dramatically. I have (for once, hallelujah) a focus on internal conflict instead of external events.
I’m going back to the very first version, quite different to the revised version I sent to Donna. Two problems with that chapter. One, I was trying to write in a style that didn’t suit me, a sexier SuperRomance like an author I adore, Karina Bliss. My natural style, I’ve come to realise, is a sweeter one. The other problem, one I did with my rewritten Cady and Lock too, is take too much to heart the advice about starting right in the middle of the action. I had things happening to a character the reader didn’t know and couldn’t empathise with. My first version had five pages of not very much happening before the action, which is of course too far the other way, but better than the rewrite. Somewhere in between is the start that will work for my story. I need to find a way into the story that will hook the reader and pull her in, but also tell her who this person is these things are happening to!
So this is my job for the next four weeks, less if I can manage it. Rewrite chapter one of Meg and Nick’s story so it shows who these two are, what their needs are, what their goals are, what the things are that will pull them together, what the things are that will push them apart.
I’m a better writer now than I was eighteen months ago. I hope I can do it. If not, I’ll have fun trying, and you can laugh at my efforts when I enter the chapter in New Voices. As long as my chapter doesn’t fall into the “What planet is she on?” category, I’ll be happy!
So, what about you? Are you entering, reading, or not sure yet?
Discouragement
Well, I thought I was all ready to sub the partial of my SuperRomance Memorial Day Challenge entry.
Then I made the mistake of posting the synopsis to my critique partners.
Oops! They pointed out everything that was wrong with it. The places where my characterisation didn’t ring true. The plot devices. The over-reliance on external stuff at the expense of internal. All the usual mistakes I though I’d fixed with this story.
*sigh*
They’re right of course, quite right, damned right. They did their job as CPs well. So the partial I thought was ready to sub will have to go on hold while I rethink some of the points they brought up. Maybe it can be my So You Think You Can Write entry this year.
I want to back to an old story I abandoned after six chapters, to rework it as my Mills and Boon New Voices entry. It started off as the first story in my Haven Bay series, but after six chapters it was clear the goal-less characters and lack of real conflict made it a very pretty story that was going nowhere. So I put it to one side and started on Cady and Lock’s story instead. That had more genuine conflict, but was rejected for goal-less characters (again!). I’ve started on a rewritten Cady and Lock, with the same backstory and core inner relationship blocks, but a totally different beginning. With real goals for both characters. Problem is, the rules won’t allow me to enter this in New Voices.
So back to Meg and Nick’s story. I have some ideas about their conflict. Not quite so much about their goals! But it will come together. Hopefully in time for New Voices! Entries start next week, but 10 October is the deadline for entries.
Leaving it late and cutting it fine, but I wanted to get Kate and Jack’s story subbed first. Which I’m not. And now I have some awful virus or something that’s giving me terrible headaches and tummy pain. I can’t think straight about anything. I’m amazed I’ve managed to string this many words together!
LOL, given the hash I’ve made of my stories when I thought I WAS thinking straight, maybe this is just the state of mind I should try writing in…
So, are you entering New Voices this year?
