by Clare Austin, guest blogger
Hello out there is cyber world…I’m Clare. Happy to be here.
I was asked to share what I think are the indispensible points to consider when writing a story…specifically a romance.
I’ll be shooting from the hip on this one. I’ve never thought about it before. I’m sure I’ll miss some important things, but here goes.
- Think about this little fact: If your characters are interesting, engaging, tantalizing and you like hanging out with them for hours at a time, you have the biggest part of your book tackled. Your characters tell your story. Sometimes they even take you where you didn’t want to go, but if you listen to them, they rarely will lead you completely astray. Fabulous characters make your job easier and more fun. They also make your book a seller.
- Give the reader a setting that is hard to leave. I’m not a fan of “drawing room” romance, but if you make it so compelling that I have to stay in that room to find out where the old aunt has the bodies buried, you might be able to keep my attention. Whatever setting you choose, make sure you can keep your reader there because even the best and hottest hero needs a stage.
- Conflict. Ah...yes. Why conflict? Because humans like to solve problems and puzzles. We like to see others solving them too. Your conflict can’t be simply a difference of opinion and it must not be something that your characters could resolve by looking up the facts on the internet. The conflicts have to be gut level. Read up on Internal and External Conflict…it will force you to focus your characters and plot. I had a hard time with this when writing Angel’s Share. I’d not written this type of romantic suspense and I constantly had to go back to my basic conflicts and keep my characters actions consistent with those points.
- Other writers will probably disagree on this one but when I write I have to have both humor and pathos. I want comic relief in my very serious books and I need to have some heart wrenching moments in my comedies. There needs to be a balance. I sometimes categorize Butterfly
as a romantic comedy. When I wrote it I hoped I would make someone crack a smile…maybe even a belly laugh. But, a couple of the scenes made me tear up and they might have that effect on you too.
- Finish what you write and write often. Simple but oh so important. I know too many writers who have been working on the first couple of chapters of their only book for years. It has to be perfect and it’s their only story. NOT. Just write it! Get it down dirty and fix it later. If you are hopelessly stuck, write something else, switch your genre, do a short story or novella. If you are writing a Regency family saga, put it aside for a while and let your mind fly away with an alien invasion of an unknown planet full of time traveling, brain sucking, zombies. Let yourself have a success and then go back to the “troubled child.”
- When you submit to an agent/editor or enter a contest be professional. Submit only the best you can do. Punctuate and spell without an error. If you are not good at grammar, have someone else take a look at your work and fix the problems. Get yourself a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style
and use it. Always submit in a format that is easy to read… double space everything. Your editor will love you if you send her/him a clean piece of work. If they love you, they will want more.
- Finally, this may be the most important…have fun! Remember, even in the hard times, when you think you will soon have enough rejection letters to wallpaper your bathroom, when the words on your page only make sense to your three year old or the hermit crab and Windows Vista keeps asking your permission to open the next document…remember, you are doing this because you are a writer and you love it.
Thanks for hosting me on your blog today. Please go to my website www.clareaustin.com for more of my books. Butterfly is now available in trade paperback and e-book formats from www.thewildrosepress.com and other booksellers.
Online StoresExcerpt of Butterfly:
He lost sight of the fiddler in the mobs of tourists enjoying the April sunshine.
No sooner had he decided to give up on his quest than he heard hands clapping in rhythm with the beat of the now familiar Irish drum.Then he saw her.
She lifted her instrument and, with the surety of a bird’s wing slipping through the air, bow was laid to strings and life was breathed into melody.
He moved to the edge of the gathering where he could have an unobstructed view of the musicians. She looked up, and he thought she recognized him for an instant. Then her eyes turned and followed another. She smiled and nodded.
Cade had never thought of himself as the jealous type, but he did feel cheated out of that smile.
As soon as the last vibration of strings quieted, a man Cade recognized from O’Fallon’s came up behind the fiddler and, with disturbing familiarity, spoke in her ear. She responded with a hug and an adoring look in her eyes.
Cade had been raised to be competitive, in sports as well as in business, and the appearance of a rival on the field made him want to draw blood. He wanted the fiddler in his studio, and if she ended up in his bed, that might be as nice.
He stood and listened until the sun set and the air held a chill that thinned the throng. The musicians were packing it in.
He hadn’t realized he was staring, until she walked up to him and stood so
close he could smell the scent of her warm skin in the cool evening air. Her approach to introduction took Cade completely by surprise.“Are you lookin’ at me or waitin’ for a bus?” she said, one hand on her hip and a sassy smile on her lips.
