Annie Burrows's Blog - Posts Tagged "romance"
A writer's life, alphabetically...
Continuing my A - Z of a writer's life.
This month, B is for...backache
I had been trying to get something published for over ten years. So when an editor from Mills & Boon wrote to me, saying that she liked the first 3 chapters of my story, and could I send in the rest, I got very, very excited. I spent every spare minute up in my room, on an old sun lounger, my laptop on my lap, notes spread all over the bed, until the manuscript was ready to send in.
Unfortunately, by that time, I'd given myself a permanent crick in the neck. (Chair was next to the bed, notes on the top, so typing with my head permanently turned to the right) Instead of easing, once I'd posted my precious parcel off, the pain kept on getting worse, until the morning I woke up almost unable to move.
I'd already had some treatment from a chiropractor for a frozen shoulder. But having my shoulder gently manipulated turned out to be totally different from the way he approached a solidly stuck neck. You know in those comedy shows, where a white-coated man grabs someone's head, and wrenches it round to the sound effect of something ripping? Very funny to watch, but not so funny when actually experiencing it. But at least I was no longer in agony.
Until the publishers requested revisions. And I spent another few frantic weeks, up in my room, going over and over my manuscript until I'd got it perfect.
The chiropractor gave me a stern talking to, (as well as half wrenching my head off to free my neck up). I was not to type looking to one side all the time, but get myself a desk. I was to throw away my sun lounger and get a proper typing chair. And I was not to type for more than 15 minutes at a time.
I nodded, (well, at least I could!) smiled, and agreed with everything he said, whilst privately thinking how unworkable all his suggestions were. I lived in a tiny house, with nowhere to put a desk. Let alone throw away my comfy sunlounger, which I could fold up and stack away when I wasn't typing. And as for stopping work every 15 minutes to go and do stretches - how impractical was that? It sometimes takes 20 minutes to really get into "the zone", as any artistic person could have told him. (Indignant toss of the head - since I could now move my head without flinching)
Still, since I didn't want to spend every penny I earned from my writing on physiotherapy, I thought I had better adopt some of his suggestions, or face a future fraught with back trouble.
Hubby bought me a chair for my birthday, and to celebrate landing my first contract. And I did buy a kitchen timer. Instead of setting it to 15 minutes, I set it to one hour. This has worked very well for me, for the last five years. Every hour, the timer goes off, reminding me to get up and stretch, so I can just concentrate on my story, rather than clock-watching.
I won't say I am completely free from back problems. It seems to be a hazard of the job, from what I can gather speaking to other writers. But at least the chair, the kitchen timer, and the regular stretching keeps it at a reasonable level.
This month, B is for...backache
I had been trying to get something published for over ten years. So when an editor from Mills & Boon wrote to me, saying that she liked the first 3 chapters of my story, and could I send in the rest, I got very, very excited. I spent every spare minute up in my room, on an old sun lounger, my laptop on my lap, notes spread all over the bed, until the manuscript was ready to send in.
Unfortunately, by that time, I'd given myself a permanent crick in the neck. (Chair was next to the bed, notes on the top, so typing with my head permanently turned to the right) Instead of easing, once I'd posted my precious parcel off, the pain kept on getting worse, until the morning I woke up almost unable to move.
I'd already had some treatment from a chiropractor for a frozen shoulder. But having my shoulder gently manipulated turned out to be totally different from the way he approached a solidly stuck neck. You know in those comedy shows, where a white-coated man grabs someone's head, and wrenches it round to the sound effect of something ripping? Very funny to watch, but not so funny when actually experiencing it. But at least I was no longer in agony.
Until the publishers requested revisions. And I spent another few frantic weeks, up in my room, going over and over my manuscript until I'd got it perfect.
The chiropractor gave me a stern talking to, (as well as half wrenching my head off to free my neck up). I was not to type looking to one side all the time, but get myself a desk. I was to throw away my sun lounger and get a proper typing chair. And I was not to type for more than 15 minutes at a time.
I nodded, (well, at least I could!) smiled, and agreed with everything he said, whilst privately thinking how unworkable all his suggestions were. I lived in a tiny house, with nowhere to put a desk. Let alone throw away my comfy sunlounger, which I could fold up and stack away when I wasn't typing. And as for stopping work every 15 minutes to go and do stretches - how impractical was that? It sometimes takes 20 minutes to really get into "the zone", as any artistic person could have told him. (Indignant toss of the head - since I could now move my head without flinching)
Still, since I didn't want to spend every penny I earned from my writing on physiotherapy, I thought I had better adopt some of his suggestions, or face a future fraught with back trouble.
Hubby bought me a chair for my birthday, and to celebrate landing my first contract. And I did buy a kitchen timer. Instead of setting it to 15 minutes, I set it to one hour. This has worked very well for me, for the last five years. Every hour, the timer goes off, reminding me to get up and stretch, so I can just concentrate on my story, rather than clock-watching.
I won't say I am completely free from back problems. It seems to be a hazard of the job, from what I can gather speaking to other writers. But at least the chair, the kitchen timer, and the regular stretching keeps it at a reasonable level.
A writer's life, alphabetically...D
D is for...Discipline
I get a variety of responses from people when I tell them what I do for a living. From those who are thrilled, saying they have never met an author before, to those who roll their eyes and say, "Oh really? I wouldn't mind writing a book, if only I had the time."
My answer - If you want to write a book you have to make the time.
It isn't easy. When I first decided to write, I had to start making difficult choices about how to spend my time. Not only "free" time, either. I deliberately chose jobs that wouldn't tax me too much, so that when I did have "free" time I wasn't so drained that my mind wouldn't function.
This meant taking reception work, cleaning jobs, or driving jobs, so that even when I was on the clock for someone else, my mind could still keep working over plot points. Then, when I did get home, and had fed the family, and generally tidied up after them, I could go and write down what I'd been dreaming up all day (when I should have been answering the phone/unloading cartons of sweets/stocking up shelves with greetings cards). Some of my best ideas have come to me while I've been stuck in traffic jams on the M56 with nothing to look at but the tailgate of the lorry in front of me.
(Trucks to the right of me, trucks to the left...here I am stuck in the middle of the queue...with apologies to Stealer's Wheel)
D also stands for determination. It took me over ten years from deciding I could write a book (ok - rather in the manner of those people who annoy me so much now by assuming it is easy) to actually getting a publishing contract. And during those years I went through a huge spectrum of feelings about my ambition. From belief and hope, to despair and self-loathing. There were times I couldn't even walk into a bookshop, and see all those titles sneering at me from the shelves by people who'd managed to do what I couldn't. It simply hurt too much.
Eventually, I went on a writing course (what - didn't I do that first? No. I was just as deluded as all those other people who assume they could just sit down and write a bestseller without any training at all.) By then I was starting to wonder if I was flogging a dead horse. What if I really didn't have what it took to be a published author? Was there a good reason why all I was getting was rejection slips? I finally decided to fork out some of the money I'd earned delivering sweets to village post offices, to go along to my local college and see if I could learn anything from a qualified teacher of writing.
And then, if I got yet another rejection I decided I would send my next manuscript to the Romantic Novelists Association New Writer's Scheme. Because I discovered that they would have a published novelist read my work and actually tell me what they thought of it (unlike publishers, who were just sending back standard rejection letters which gave me no clue where I was going wrong.)
You can see where I'm going with this - even after ten years I just wasn't prepared to give up. I was going to do whatever it took to see one of my own books on the shelves of W.H.Smith with all those others.
Well - going on the writing course did the trick (so my tutor said). Mid way through my second term, Mills & Boon finally showed some interest in a manuscript they'd had so long I was sure they must have forgotten all about it. Eventually it got accepted.
So I never needed to send anything to the New Writers Scheme after all.
But at least I had a plan B.
And if plan B had failed, you can be sure I'd have thought up a plan C, then a D, then...
I get a variety of responses from people when I tell them what I do for a living. From those who are thrilled, saying they have never met an author before, to those who roll their eyes and say, "Oh really? I wouldn't mind writing a book, if only I had the time."
My answer - If you want to write a book you have to make the time.
It isn't easy. When I first decided to write, I had to start making difficult choices about how to spend my time. Not only "free" time, either. I deliberately chose jobs that wouldn't tax me too much, so that when I did have "free" time I wasn't so drained that my mind wouldn't function.
This meant taking reception work, cleaning jobs, or driving jobs, so that even when I was on the clock for someone else, my mind could still keep working over plot points. Then, when I did get home, and had fed the family, and generally tidied up after them, I could go and write down what I'd been dreaming up all day (when I should have been answering the phone/unloading cartons of sweets/stocking up shelves with greetings cards). Some of my best ideas have come to me while I've been stuck in traffic jams on the M56 with nothing to look at but the tailgate of the lorry in front of me.
(Trucks to the right of me, trucks to the left...here I am stuck in the middle of the queue...with apologies to Stealer's Wheel)
D also stands for determination. It took me over ten years from deciding I could write a book (ok - rather in the manner of those people who annoy me so much now by assuming it is easy) to actually getting a publishing contract. And during those years I went through a huge spectrum of feelings about my ambition. From belief and hope, to despair and self-loathing. There were times I couldn't even walk into a bookshop, and see all those titles sneering at me from the shelves by people who'd managed to do what I couldn't. It simply hurt too much.
Eventually, I went on a writing course (what - didn't I do that first? No. I was just as deluded as all those other people who assume they could just sit down and write a bestseller without any training at all.) By then I was starting to wonder if I was flogging a dead horse. What if I really didn't have what it took to be a published author? Was there a good reason why all I was getting was rejection slips? I finally decided to fork out some of the money I'd earned delivering sweets to village post offices, to go along to my local college and see if I could learn anything from a qualified teacher of writing.
And then, if I got yet another rejection I decided I would send my next manuscript to the Romantic Novelists Association New Writer's Scheme. Because I discovered that they would have a published novelist read my work and actually tell me what they thought of it (unlike publishers, who were just sending back standard rejection letters which gave me no clue where I was going wrong.)
You can see where I'm going with this - even after ten years I just wasn't prepared to give up. I was going to do whatever it took to see one of my own books on the shelves of W.H.Smith with all those others.
Well - going on the writing course did the trick (so my tutor said). Mid way through my second term, Mills & Boon finally showed some interest in a manuscript they'd had so long I was sure they must have forgotten all about it. Eventually it got accepted.
So I never needed to send anything to the New Writers Scheme after all.
But at least I had a plan B.
And if plan B had failed, you can be sure I'd have thought up a plan C, then a D, then...
E is for editing
I'm never satisfied with what I write. I even go through my emails a couple of times before hitting "send" to make sure I haven't included any typos.
But that kind of pernickety attitude is essential for anyone who wants to become a published author.
I don't think anybody can sit down and create a brilliant book in just one draft. I certainly don't know anyone who claims to have done so. But every author I know has a slightly different way of getting their writing up to a standard they feel ready to publish.
Some people edit as they go along. At the start of their writing day they will read over what they wrote the day before, and only move on when they're satisfied with the quality of the prose.
That approach has never worked for me. I get so bogged down in the grammar, spelling, and so on that the story usually grinds to a halt. On my first draft I have to just write the basic outline of the story as fast as I can, before I lose control of where I want the characters to go. At least, that is what I aim for as I write. But whenever I print out and read back this first outpouring, I nearly always end up clutching my head in despair. Because what I thought was a brilliant story turns out to be an absolute mess.
However, recently I've discovered that others have a similar experience. And have even coined a phrase to describe the method. It's known as the "sandbox" approach. Basically, my first attempt to tell a story is like flinging a great mound of sand into the sandbox. It's shapeless alright - but I have everything I need to create a fabulous fairytale sandcastle once I set to with a bucket of water and a spade!
OK - I've got my heap of sand. How do I turn it into my fairytale castle?
Well, basically, I want the story to flow from beginning to end. I want to build tension, to keep a reader turning the pages. I want every sentence to drive the story forward, whilst showing the reader something about the leading characters.
But exactly how can I achieve this? You have all heard the adage that you should "show, not tell". But you need to be careful that you don't overdo it. It's all very well to have your heroine twirling a tendril of hair round her finger to denote how nervous she is, rather than just saying "she was nervous". But if you have her twirling her hair every two or three pages she'd going to become tiresome. (Likewise - the hero shouldn't be grinding his teeth at the slightest provocation.)
Setting the scene is important to draw your reader into the world you've created, but over-long periods of description really slow down the pace. I'm jolly glad I discovered this, because I'm not very good at descriptions. When I first started trying to write books, I used to sweat for hours over details of a house, or a room. Nowadays I just tend to give the hero or heroine's impression of their surroundings, how it affects their mood perhaps, and leave the reader to fill in details for themselves.
Some writers will advise you to leave a manuscript for a week or so before reading it over, so that you can come to it with a fresh eye. This may work for some of you, but again, I have to confess it's not a technique I find terribly helpful. You see, I tend to see what I think I've written, rather than what I have actually typed. Printing it out, so that I'm looking at my work in a different medium from the computer screen, does help me to spot some mistakes and weaknesses. But nothing is as effective as reading the story out loud. If my tongue gets tangled up, that is how the sentence will feel to a reader's eye. And if I say it differently to how it appears on the page, I change the text to how I said it - that makes for an easier, smoother read.
And yes, going over and over and over a manuscript before sending it off to a publisher does take some patience. But I've heard the act of creating a publishable story likened to reducing a fine sauce for a fine meal. And everyone knows you can't make a good béchamel, in a hurry. You get lumps.
And who wants a lumpy novel?
But that kind of pernickety attitude is essential for anyone who wants to become a published author.
I don't think anybody can sit down and create a brilliant book in just one draft. I certainly don't know anyone who claims to have done so. But every author I know has a slightly different way of getting their writing up to a standard they feel ready to publish.
Some people edit as they go along. At the start of their writing day they will read over what they wrote the day before, and only move on when they're satisfied with the quality of the prose.
That approach has never worked for me. I get so bogged down in the grammar, spelling, and so on that the story usually grinds to a halt. On my first draft I have to just write the basic outline of the story as fast as I can, before I lose control of where I want the characters to go. At least, that is what I aim for as I write. But whenever I print out and read back this first outpouring, I nearly always end up clutching my head in despair. Because what I thought was a brilliant story turns out to be an absolute mess.
However, recently I've discovered that others have a similar experience. And have even coined a phrase to describe the method. It's known as the "sandbox" approach. Basically, my first attempt to tell a story is like flinging a great mound of sand into the sandbox. It's shapeless alright - but I have everything I need to create a fabulous fairytale sandcastle once I set to with a bucket of water and a spade!
OK - I've got my heap of sand. How do I turn it into my fairytale castle?
Well, basically, I want the story to flow from beginning to end. I want to build tension, to keep a reader turning the pages. I want every sentence to drive the story forward, whilst showing the reader something about the leading characters.
But exactly how can I achieve this? You have all heard the adage that you should "show, not tell". But you need to be careful that you don't overdo it. It's all very well to have your heroine twirling a tendril of hair round her finger to denote how nervous she is, rather than just saying "she was nervous". But if you have her twirling her hair every two or three pages she'd going to become tiresome. (Likewise - the hero shouldn't be grinding his teeth at the slightest provocation.)
Setting the scene is important to draw your reader into the world you've created, but over-long periods of description really slow down the pace. I'm jolly glad I discovered this, because I'm not very good at descriptions. When I first started trying to write books, I used to sweat for hours over details of a house, or a room. Nowadays I just tend to give the hero or heroine's impression of their surroundings, how it affects their mood perhaps, and leave the reader to fill in details for themselves.
Some writers will advise you to leave a manuscript for a week or so before reading it over, so that you can come to it with a fresh eye. This may work for some of you, but again, I have to confess it's not a technique I find terribly helpful. You see, I tend to see what I think I've written, rather than what I have actually typed. Printing it out, so that I'm looking at my work in a different medium from the computer screen, does help me to spot some mistakes and weaknesses. But nothing is as effective as reading the story out loud. If my tongue gets tangled up, that is how the sentence will feel to a reader's eye. And if I say it differently to how it appears on the page, I change the text to how I said it - that makes for an easier, smoother read.
And yes, going over and over and over a manuscript before sending it off to a publisher does take some patience. But I've heard the act of creating a publishable story likened to reducing a fine sauce for a fine meal. And everyone knows you can't make a good béchamel, in a hurry. You get lumps.
And who wants a lumpy novel?
Heroes and Heroines
Every month I've been blogging about a writer's life, dealing with various topics in alphabetical order. If you're wondering what has happened to "G", then I'll just explain that it stood for "Gladrags". My post was all about the glamorous author parties I go to, and was full of pictures of me with other authors, as well as a lot of shameless namedropping. I can't post pictures on my Goodreads blog. So, if you want to read it and look at the pictures, the post appeared at the http://novelistasink.blogspot.co.uk/ (you'll have to go to archived 2014 blog posts and scroll down to older posts. By then you'll feel like an archeologist!)
Anyway, this month I've reached H - for heroes. (And heroines) I've recently handed in a book that is going to be part two of a historical trilogy. The three stories deal with the loves of three officers in the same regiment, who fight at the battle of Waterloo. And about the first thing my co-continuity authors wanted to know about my episode was "What does your hero look like?"
Sarah Mallory and Louise Allen had already put pictures in our joint files of actors who'd inspired them when it came to imagining their heroes. Sarah Mallory chose Peter O'Toole for the Colonel of our fictitious regiment, and Louise Allen picked Sean Bean for her Major Flint.
My problem was that although I had a clear image in my head of my own hero, I hadn't based him on an actor. I just can't do that. Because for me, what the hero is like inside, as a person, is far more important than what he looks like. I always start with the personality, and work outward. And if I start picturing a specific actor when I write about my hero, I'm always worried that the actor's personality traits might sneak in.
However, Sarah and Louise - who write much faster than me - were already writing scenes where my hero would have to stride across their pages, and really, really wanted to know what my hero looked like.
Fortunately (for them!) about that time I found an image of Tom Hiddleston in a cravat, from when he'd been playing a nineteenth century gentleman. That was about the nearest I could come to explaining what my hero would look like. And it wasn't about his features. It was about the cleverness you could see in his features. The potential for wickedness beneath the charming smile.
Posting an image of Tom certainly inspired their imaginations. Whenever they sent me a scene in which he appeared in one of their books, they had my Artillery Major off to a "T". He was a flirt. A charmer. And devilishly good-looking.
Thinking about Tom Hiddleston kept them happy for a while. Well, he seems to make a lot of ladies happy, as you can tell from this buzzfeed post:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaum...
That was, until they wanted to know what my hero's name was. I had to explain that he hadn't told me yet. In my defence, I explained that I was only on about chapter 3 by then, and he was only just waking up after having sustained a head injury. He was confused, and concussed, and couldn't everyone just call him "Sir."
I can't remember exactly when, during the course of the emails pinging back and forth as we created our fictional regiment, we started referring to him as Tom. And then, when I couldn't come up with a surname, Louise Allen coined the nickname Tom Cat, which really, really suited him.
This kind of procedure is how it usually goes for me when naming my heroes. I know that some authors can't start writing their heroes until they have a name, but I find that mine don't tell me what it is until I have got to know them pretty well. My secondary characters had to speak of one of my heroes as Lord Rakey Rakerson well into my second draft of his adventure!
And it's the same with the book I am currently writing. I know quite a lot about my hero's childhood, and naval career. At the time he meets my heroine, he's reached the rank of Captain. He is also an Earl to an almost bankrupt Scottish estate. So naturally, the heroine has been having to call him Captain Lord Scotsman.
But only a few days ago, his sister (who is a minor character in the story) bounced up to him calling him Alec. Which is short for Alexander. And since I knew her name was Lizzie Dunbar (because it's always much, much easier to name minor characters) that meant his family name had to be Dunbar too.
Which is just right, and sums him up perfectly. Alec has a sort of cautious ring to it, somehow. He is a solid, dependable sort of chap. He is also the Earl of Auchentay (a Scottish area I invented several books ago, which has come in very handy)
And yes, I have the same slow process when it comes to naming my heroines. I think it is because it is so important that they get a name that really, really conjures up an aspect of their character - something that will help them to come to life on the page. I can't just pluck any old name out of a baby book, or something similar. The name has to have a resonance. Tom was a good name for my military hero - there's nothing stuffy about a Tom, is there? And you can imagine a Tom being brave on the battlefield, insubordinate to his officers, and lethal with the ladies. And once we started calling him Tom Cat, well...
Anyway, this month I've reached H - for heroes. (And heroines) I've recently handed in a book that is going to be part two of a historical trilogy. The three stories deal with the loves of three officers in the same regiment, who fight at the battle of Waterloo. And about the first thing my co-continuity authors wanted to know about my episode was "What does your hero look like?"
Sarah Mallory and Louise Allen had already put pictures in our joint files of actors who'd inspired them when it came to imagining their heroes. Sarah Mallory chose Peter O'Toole for the Colonel of our fictitious regiment, and Louise Allen picked Sean Bean for her Major Flint.
My problem was that although I had a clear image in my head of my own hero, I hadn't based him on an actor. I just can't do that. Because for me, what the hero is like inside, as a person, is far more important than what he looks like. I always start with the personality, and work outward. And if I start picturing a specific actor when I write about my hero, I'm always worried that the actor's personality traits might sneak in.
However, Sarah and Louise - who write much faster than me - were already writing scenes where my hero would have to stride across their pages, and really, really wanted to know what my hero looked like.
Fortunately (for them!) about that time I found an image of Tom Hiddleston in a cravat, from when he'd been playing a nineteenth century gentleman. That was about the nearest I could come to explaining what my hero would look like. And it wasn't about his features. It was about the cleverness you could see in his features. The potential for wickedness beneath the charming smile.
Posting an image of Tom certainly inspired their imaginations. Whenever they sent me a scene in which he appeared in one of their books, they had my Artillery Major off to a "T". He was a flirt. A charmer. And devilishly good-looking.
Thinking about Tom Hiddleston kept them happy for a while. Well, he seems to make a lot of ladies happy, as you can tell from this buzzfeed post:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaum...
That was, until they wanted to know what my hero's name was. I had to explain that he hadn't told me yet. In my defence, I explained that I was only on about chapter 3 by then, and he was only just waking up after having sustained a head injury. He was confused, and concussed, and couldn't everyone just call him "Sir."
I can't remember exactly when, during the course of the emails pinging back and forth as we created our fictional regiment, we started referring to him as Tom. And then, when I couldn't come up with a surname, Louise Allen coined the nickname Tom Cat, which really, really suited him.
This kind of procedure is how it usually goes for me when naming my heroes. I know that some authors can't start writing their heroes until they have a name, but I find that mine don't tell me what it is until I have got to know them pretty well. My secondary characters had to speak of one of my heroes as Lord Rakey Rakerson well into my second draft of his adventure!
And it's the same with the book I am currently writing. I know quite a lot about my hero's childhood, and naval career. At the time he meets my heroine, he's reached the rank of Captain. He is also an Earl to an almost bankrupt Scottish estate. So naturally, the heroine has been having to call him Captain Lord Scotsman.
But only a few days ago, his sister (who is a minor character in the story) bounced up to him calling him Alec. Which is short for Alexander. And since I knew her name was Lizzie Dunbar (because it's always much, much easier to name minor characters) that meant his family name had to be Dunbar too.
Which is just right, and sums him up perfectly. Alec has a sort of cautious ring to it, somehow. He is a solid, dependable sort of chap. He is also the Earl of Auchentay (a Scottish area I invented several books ago, which has come in very handy)
And yes, I have the same slow process when it comes to naming my heroines. I think it is because it is so important that they get a name that really, really conjures up an aspect of their character - something that will help them to come to life on the page. I can't just pluck any old name out of a baby book, or something similar. The name has to have a resonance. Tom was a good name for my military hero - there's nothing stuffy about a Tom, is there? And you can imagine a Tom being brave on the battlefield, insubordinate to his officers, and lethal with the ladies. And once we started calling him Tom Cat, well...
