Even more on conflict!

The reader of my NWS Report believes that "conflict is the hardest nut for a writer to crack" and surprise surprise, conflict was one of the main problems with 'Wanted - An Unconventional Wife'.

My heroine Laura did have a good strong, internal conflict (a bad past relationship with an alpha male that left her with a pathological fear of being controlled) but my hero's conflict was not deep enough or emotional enough to make him sympathetic. 

He was frankly, a bit of a git. Which would have been fine, but only if he'd had a good enough motivation for being a git.

There were some glimpses of deeper, more emotional motivations (fear of failure and bad role model for relationships set by his parents) but I didn't go deep enough.

I suppose I wanted to keep things a little lighter (thinking it was more Modern Heat) and was worried that Laura's conflict was a little heavy but I know now the emotion has to be there for both the hero and heroine for the reader to care about them. I think my two newest heroes have deeper conflicts and (I hope!) better motivations so I'm hoping I've learnt to up the emotional ante...

Also "In every single scene your characters have to be either establishing the conflict between them, confronting it or resolving it." Unfortunately my H & h were still arguing about the same stuff on page 100 as at the beginning so there wasn't a satisfactory evolution of the relationship.

I'd hoped I could just write a flowing story where the conflicts became gradually resolved (after a big Black Moment) but it would seem that every scene must count. So I need to think a bit more carefully before writing a scene about what I'm trying to achieve with it. Having a nice piece of dialogue in my head is not sufficient...

On another subject there was something in the Telegraph about the Mills and Boon UK website launching an online community today. I'm a little confused as surely this will just be duplicating the eharlequin site? I can't see anything about it online anyway but if anyone knows more please let me know.

There is also another news item about recession busting romance novels which is encouraging :-)

New Writers' Scheme Report

I've finally got that feedback I've been desperate for :-) 

The Reader does say some really nice things (and the words 'dim and muddled' did not appear!!!) that have really encouraged me and her comments about the problems with the story are gold dust. In fact so much of it is really useful that I'm going to do a couple more posts about the points she raises, both to consolidate them in my own mind and for anyone else who might be interested.

But before I think about the problems I'm going to enjoy the nice comments -

"I enjoyed reading your story a great deal. You have a fluid, easy to read writing style, a fantastic grasp of dialogue and a fabulous 'voice' which is fresh, sharply witty and very distinctive. Your voice is the one fundamental thing about your writing that can not be learned and is hard to change, so having one that is going to catch an editor or agent's eye (and I believe yours will) is worth its weight in gold. I loved your opening which I found hooky and instantly engaging. I also liked your heroine's sassiness and felt she had a strong internal conflict and while your hero was a bit more problematic I did enjoy his sense of humour, too"

After this did follow twelve pages of things that need work (gulp) but all extremely valid and very useful points that I can apply to my newer WIPs...

At the end my Reader says "I've put a lot of time and effort into this report because I think you as a writer have a great deal of potential and talent. Everything else, frankly, is just nuts and bolts"

:-)

Limboland and Tartan Sheep

I'm feeling a bit in limbo as I wait for my New Writers' Scheme report. It feels a bit like waiting for an exam result or a school report. I'm really hoping there will be some nice stuff in it to encourage me as well as some helpful pointers about things I might be blind to...

That is if I ever get it back. I have never, ever arranged a postal redirection and it go smoothly. This time I rang up Royal Mail and cancelled the redirection in place to the PIL's. Then I received a letter saying they had extended it for a year and wanted lots of money please! One phone call, some sarcasm (mine), an apology (theirs) later and I was reassured it was sorted out. Except all the post this week so far has gone to the PIL's house. Grr.

So while I'm in limbo here are some tartan sheep to look at - one of the best of today's April fools jokes :-)

A Shock to the System

I am finally home (later than advertised) but my body is in shock. When we left the south of England  spring had definitely sprung and shorts had even made an appearance (not on me, I hasten to add). 600 miles and 12 hours later and we were driving through thick snow and the car's temperature gauge was reading minus 5 - this on the day the clocks were going forward for British Summer Time. Um hello? Summer? The snow in the garden has melted today but even so...

The dogs are looking round at the bare concrete floors and wishing they hadn't left their winter coats all over the PIL's nice carpets and the part whippet is shivering reproachfully as if to ask why we haven't got any of those nice warm white things on the walls like the PIL.

Good question (I grew rather fond of them myself) and one I intend to ask the husband only he has disappeared to the airport to fly south already, faster than I can say 'So whose idea was it to buy a renovation project again?'

In the mean time I have moved my computer next to the Aga (only source of heat) and am planning on staying in the kitchen until Spring follows me up to the Highlands.

I promise a more writery post once I've acclimatised. 

P.S. Oh but it is nice to be home at last, being cold aside :-) 

Science v. Fairytale

I came across an interesting article about a new book exploring the science of romance. I don't necessarily agree with all of it but there are some interesting snippets such as 'women who wear a spicy floral fragrance are judged to be twelve pounds lighter than they actually are' :-)

Also a link to another article about a scientist who believes a potion that can make you fall in love is not far off! Seriously, it seems that Shakespeare was way ahead of his time with A Midsummer Night's Dream and such a potion could one day be reality. 

I think science might be able to explain how or why we fall in love but I don't see that it has to make the experience of it any less of a fairy-tale. Otherwise we might as well put down our pens/laptops right now...

Imagine the following: Rebel hero meets feisty heroine and both take love potion to resolve all conflict. HEA. 

I don't think so. 

On the other hand it would be a solution to that pesky conflict issue...

Sappy heroines

Okay, I think my heroine might have misread her brief - I specified "sassy heroine" when I was doing my casting but somehow she's mislaid a couple of consonants and is veering dangerously into sappy territory...

For some reason she's turning out to be far more vulnerable than I intended so I think I might do a quick re-write of the second chapter just to bury her angst a little further under the surface. After all she's going to need her strength for the Black Moment when I reveal that Luke is not who she thought he was (shock horror ;-)

I wonder if my own mood creeps into my writing more often than I realise. Does anyone else have this problem? I am feeling a little vulnerable at the moment, having discovered the fact that my symptoms from my head injury are wider than I first realised. At first when the doctors asked if I had memory problems I said I didn't think so - it turns out that I have, I just couldn't remember them!

It started with a spate of proof that I hadn't actually done things I was convinced I had and had done things I didn't think I had (confused? welcome to the club!). It was compounded by evidence of objects I'd left in very odd places - at first only a few that I noticed but when I probed further it became clear that I've been doing this a lot only people didn't want to mention anything.

All fairly minor so far, inconvenient but nothing that can't be got round by becoming List Woman but then yesterday I went to see a very good friend I've known for years and suddenly realised that I didn't know how old I was. In fact I was absolutely convinced I was an age I wasn't - even when provided with evidence and calculations to explain it it didn't make sense. I checked with my husband last night and got into a bit of a state when I realised that I was in fact wrong but still couldn't compute the sums.

(My mental arithmetic is shot to pieces lately. Not great given my money earning career is with numbers.)

P.S. Before anyone asks yes I am going back to the doctor and this time I am writing down a list of my symptoms so I don't forget to tell him what they are!

I've written something!

Okay, not so astounding given I am a wannabe writer, but to put it in context - before my accident I was writing about 3k words a day but since then I've written only 11k, that's since the 27th of December. 

That means I've gone from an average of 3k a day to 220 words a day! Not great really.

So the fact that I have today been able to write some more of my WIP, albeit in thirty minute on/off chunks is a major achievement :-) 

Yes, my word counter has actually moved!

I'm not going to get too carried away - a slightly better day today has followed three absolutely horrendous health days and my eye is right now starting to complain again. I won't bore you with the details but I can safely say that when I'm better I will never, ever take for granted the ability to read or write. Or think, or concentrate, or remember things.

And thinking about the outcome of Natasha Richardson's head injury I'm just plain glad to be alive.