Beginnings, Middles or Endings??

What's your favourite part of writing a book?  Is it the beginning - where everything is new and fresh and there is a whole world of opportunities?  Is it the middle where things are tying together, you have two fully-fledged characters that feel real?  Or is it the end - the happy ever after - the bit everyone is waiting for?
Or maybe you're a little bit bad.  And your favourite part is the big Black Moment.  That horrible bit of the book where it seems as if there is no return??

I'm in a happy place.  Last night I started a new book.  And you might have guessed it but my favourite part of the book is the beginning.  I love the ideas, the potential developments, the little sentences you drop in that let the reader know there is something in this characters back story that will stop his or her path to a straightforward happy ever after.

I also love the drama.  Starting in the middle of something.  And not always with the two main characters on the page.  My first book It Started with a Pregnancy, began with my hero and heroine meeting in a bar and a night of passion followed.  Not the most unusual start.  But I learned from this.  And I developed.

My second story had drama.  The Boy who Made Them Love Again started with my hero pulling up outside a small hospital with the First Lady in premature labour in the back of the car!  He comes face to face with the woman he walked away from five years earlier and so the drama continues.

My third book was a follow up - still using the President and First Lady.  In this one my heroine turns up at the police cordon, heavily pregnant and trying to reach the doctor that's looking after the President's premature daughter.  She promptly collapses and is taken inside to meet her ex - the hero - and the only man she can trust to rescue her much-wanted child.  Sigh.  I love a bit of drama.



Book four, A Bond Between Strangers, starts with my hero receiving a letter telling him there has been an IVF mix up.  The embryos that had been created for him and his wife (with his sperm and a donors egg) and were due to be destroyed, have been mistakenly implanted in someone else.  His wife is long gone - but this is his baby - and all he's ever wanted is a family.  Someone else is carrying his child.  And he wants it.

Book five is the christmas story.  Her Christmas Eve Diamond starts with my heroine going to get her fortune told with her friends.  She doesn't believe in all that and is less than impressed when the fortune teller predicts she will be a Christmas bride.  It's August and she doesn't even have a boyfriend.  What's more she's vowed her next man will be a fellow Scot, but the fortune teller has other things in mind.....

Book six is the cruise ship story.  An Inescapable Temptation.  This one starts with the hero jumping in to rescue a child in Venice harbour.  He gets knocked out and my heroine ends up resuscitating him!

As for Book Seven????  Well, I'm not going to give too much away.  But again there is drama.  My study currently has a very important algorithm for a certain disease pinned on my wall.  Something big is going to happen in Chicago - something very big!

So, you can see a pattern forming here.  It's a bit worrying to be honest.  Apart from my first story, do I know how to write a story with a quiet build up?  I try not to do the backstory dump thing, and I do always try to start in the middle of the action.

What's interesting is that the middle of the action doesn't always have the hero and heroine on the first page.  It was one of the things I noticed about the New Voices contest.  I wanted to see the hero and heroine together straight away and yet I don't always do it myself.  Granted, it happens within a couple of pages, but maybe I still have a few things to learn.

So what's your favourite part?  Are you all about the middle and the developing characters?  Are you a wrung-out sort of person and all about the Black Moment?  Or, are you hearts and roses and all about the Happy Ever After?  Or are you like me, all about drama and all about beginnings?

Getting your foot in the door

Lots of people have entered New Voices, some of you may still be preparing your entry – last year there were over 800 participants, with a flurry of entries on the last day.

Then we’ll all wait anxiously for the Top 20 to be announced.  But what happens if that’s not you?

New Voices is only the start of the journey.  For some people it may be the first time you’ve dared to submit.  Congratulations on taking the first step.  For others, you may be veterans and looking for some feedback.  And if you weren’t here last  year you should know that after the announcement of the Top Ten (it was ten last year, not twenty), Mills and Boon also published a list of entries they wanted to see more of. 

But for all of you that don’t make it on the top 20 list, and feel all sad and dejected – don’t be.  There are lots of opportunities out there to get your foot in the door!

It you haven’t had a chance to look at the harlequin website now is the time.  The Write Stuff is full of information for aspiring writers.  It also frequently features pitching opportunities – specific to individual lines across the harlequin series.  For those of you who’ve never tried a pitch, you write a brief paragraph about your story.  If you’re lucky enough to be chosen you get to have an online conversation with one of the editors for the line you are targeting.  The chances are they’ll ask you for a partial submission and you’ll have a real live editor to submit it to. 

In March 2010, there was an pitch opportunity for medical romance.  Myself and Wendy S Marcus were successful “pitchers”.  And after some hard work, we’ve both been published.  So, for those of you who are sceptical, it does happen.

The harlequin website also ran a Fast Track opportunity in August last year.  For one month anyone could submit to the medical line and hear back within a few days.  And for anyone that’s experienced going through the slush pile before that is like gold!

If you have a little money you can also join the professional organisation in your area.  Two years ago I joined the Romance Novelists Association.  They have a New Writers Scheme, where unpublished writers can join and submit a full manuscript before the 31 August that year.  Your manuscript will be read by a professional writer in the RNA and you will be given a detailed critique on your work.  If they like your manuscript, it will be sent on for a second read, and could be forwarded to a publisher.  Fiona Harper got published this way.  Her first book Blind Date Marriage was published by the Romance line at Mills and Boon.  Be warned!  The New Writers Scheme is only open to 250 writers every year, place are limited and you literally have to get your application form in on 1 January!  If you live in the US, the Romance Writers of America have a competition every year called the Golden Heart.  Unpublished writers can submit their manuscripts and have them judged.  Many people who have finalled in the Golden Heart and have gone on to be published. Historical author Jeannie Linn is one, and new Medical Author Tina Beckett is another.

And finally, there is the slush pile.  Let me tell you about another new medical author Louisa George.  She entered New Voices last year – didn’t final and didn’t get a mention in the call back list.  But she submitted her three chapters via slush and will be published in March 2012.  Maisey Yates, one of the Modern/Presents authors was pulled from the slush pile too, so it does happen!

So whatever happens in the next few weeks, think of New Voices as a first step, and keep writing!

And not sure whether blogger still hates me or not.  Last week no-one could post on my blog and I couldn't post on any others!

New Voices - are you brave enough?

Well, the time is fast approaching.  So the question is......are you in?...or are you out???????
Some people I know are out - for a good reason - they've been published in the last year.  WHOOPEE!
But others, still have a superb chance to shine this year like a glistening star in a dark night sky.
See, I'm being all writerly.

I have to put my hands up and say, that last year, I read EVERY entry.  Over 800 of them.  And about a quarter of them were uploaded on the last day at about a quarter to midnight!

And I found some entries I absolutely LOVED.  And some that I hated.  And some that I didn't understand.  And some that just made me say....What??????

I also was taken aback by some of the comments.

Now, I don't think anyone can accuse me of being a shrinking violet.  Last year, I registered under a pseudonym and commented on lots of the entries - constructively, or so I thought.  Until someone took umbridge when I pointed out a little mistake in her entry.  And she chewed me up and spat me out.

This year I will look for her and smile sweetly thinking to myself - wait until you're given revisions Missy - that'll sort you out!!!!!!!

Some of the comments last year were nothing short of acerbic.  And as my granny always said, "If you can't say something nice, say nothing at all."  And I was conscious of that.  And I will be this year too.

But most of all I'm looking forward to the chance, once again, to get the opportunity to read loads and loads of first chapters.  I want to find some, that I reach the end and think... NO!!!!!!! WHAT HAPPENS NEXT???????

Some of the other Mills and Boon authors got accused of favouritism last year, or having secret knowledge, when they said they liked something.  But they didn't.   They were there as a reader, just like I was, and simply said what they enjoyed.

So this year I will be brave and will be commenting as Scarlet Wilson.  And letting the world know what I love!  So are you in...or are you out??????????

Early NaNo Writing Month

It's time to admit I've been lazy.  It's very nice to have a story sitting the midst of Mills and Boon somewhere.  But this is the point where I should have been rapidly writing the next one.  And I haven't.  So it's time to get my head down and start writing.  Last time around I definitely had a slow start.  It took three attempts to write the first chapter, probably because I kept starting in the wrong place.  However I finally had something I was happy with.  This time around I've planned my storyline, worked out my conflict (well some of it anyway), did my lovely character profiles (courtesy of Kate Walker) and have a good idea of what I want to achieve.  I have also spoke to my lovely critique partner and my blog friend Wendy Marcus as this story is set in America, so I have two lovely American nurses who can point me in the right direction when I have any queries.
I have also been HEAVILY distracted by New Voices.  (Note to slap the back of my hand and stop going on to the website everyday).
So it's time to set a goal.  So I've decided to set October as my own personal NaNo Writing Month.  Yes, I know that I'm a month early, but this is a good time to start.  I'm going to aim to have the little word counter moving in an upward direction on a daily basis.  Hopefully by the end of the month I will (almost) have a dirty draft and spend the next few weeks editing after my critique partner has given me her thoughts.
It will also help to keep my mind off of Mills and Boon land.  So if I get a YES I can scream and shout and say, Yes I have written something else.  Or if I get a NO I can smile sweetly and say "Well that one might not have worked, but what about THIS one."
Time to get writing.  If you see me anywhere, tell me off and send me back here!

New Voices - What have I learned?

So it's only been two days but I feel as if I have been on a huge learning curve. I am absolutely determined to read every single entry and give it a grade.  Here's what I've learned so far.

1. Everyone who has submitted is very brave.  I have the utmost respect for anyone who has put their work out there for the world to comment on.
2. Now I understand the premise of having a REALLY good first line.  Something that makes you sit up and take notice.  Something that throws you into the start of the story straight away.  I'm not too good at first lines and it's definitely something I could work on.
3. Funnily enough, now I understand the premise of having a really good last line, or 'hook'.  I've got to the end of some chapters and screamed NO!  I want to read more!  I've also read some last lines that totally intrigued me and made me want to turn the page.  I also read some last lines and thought HUH?  is that it?
4. Backstory dump is a disease that is widespread and is in danger of becoming an epidemic.  I always find it so much easier to see this in someone else's work than my own.
5. Getting the hero and heroine on the page together as soon as possible is the most important element of the story.  No excuses.  I don't want pages and pages of blah blah blah I want to see them reacting to each other and I want to see the conflict.
6. I'm not a huge fan of historicals or paranormals but I've read a few chapters here that I've really enjoyed.  I mainly only buy historicals from Michelle Styles and Michelle Willingham as they live in blogland quite a lot, have lots of good advice and show support to all aspiring writers.  But I've found some chapters that have sparked my interest and made me curious.  That can only be good.
7. My crit partner Nancy, helped me immensely with my punctuation and grammar, she practically held my hand.  Some submissions could do with a little hand-holding themselves.
8. Some chapters SPARKLE.  I don't want to show favouritism but Rachael and Jackie's ROCK.  You know when you read something and just think Wow! well if you haven't read them yet ladies, then go and hunt them down.
9. Names.  I want to give comments on what I've read, I want it to be constructive criticism or praise.  I also want to vote honestly.  When I registered I wasn't sure if people would know who had given them what % vote, and I don't want to offend some of the brave soldiers, so I am currently voting under an alternative pseudonym that I've used when writing.  And to be honest, now I feel a bit crap about it.
10. Now  I really feel for the Editors when they read through the slush pile.  In a way I think I can understand.  You don't know what genre or style you're getting, or the standard of everyone's writing but you read anyway.  Then if something stands out from the crowd you just KNOW it.  And it terrifies me, because I'm not sure if any entry I put in would do that.

So there we go, after two days that's what I've learned so far.  What about you?