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Leigh Michaels

Leigh teaches romance writing both on-line and in person, and she is the author of several writing-craft books including Writing the Romance Novel and Creating Romantic Characters.  A number of her students have published with Harlequin, Kensington and other publishers.

Bits of Advice

from Lucy and Her Friends

Lucy's Soundbites: If you have a question you would like answered in the soundbite section, email it to me at lucymonroe@lucymonroe.com with Soundbite Advice in the subject header.  I will only be adding soundbites of advice as I receive questions. ON WRITING TO DEADLINE:  One of the greatest gifts I gave to myself before publishing was learning to write to deadline.  I set my own goals for finishing and polishing my books and stuck to them.  Knowing how to do that has made writing to deadline so much easier for me.  I know what I am capable of doing, how fast I can write when I have to, what pace I'm most comfortable at and how to keep going when I feel like reading instead.  Now, that I'm writing for two publishers, this is even more important and I cannot stress enough to new writers how much they need to train themselves to write to deadline before they sell, so the very pressure that means they are now published (a due date for their next book) won't stifle their creativity. ON DOING VS. DREAMING:  I have this wonderful quote on my "Tough Dames" calendar by Gossip Columnist, Liz Smith.  "You can't build a reputation on what you intend to do."  I love the quote so much because it is absolutely true and never more so than for the writer.  A lot of people want to write a book, a few people will and even fewer will have the courage to submit their work to an editor.  Dreams remain dreams until we give them feet.  Then they become goals.  I sold the 13th manuscript I wrote...that's a lot of feet for my dreams and it meant a lot of stumbling along the way, but the intention to write a book will not make you an author.  Only writing it will do that. ON CRAFT VS. BUSINESS:  The business of writing is brutal, both before and after making that first sale.  Our egos take an amazing beating from rejections, revisions, negative reviews, disappointed readers, not to mention media slams on our genre and sales that aren't as high as we'd like or failure to make bestseller lists.  If we don't keep our focus on the joy of the process, we'll end up burned up, burned out or wholly cynical.  We can't dismiss the business of writing, but we make a huge mistake getting wrapped up in it too tightly.  We are writers because we have to write, so let us embrace the writing and put the business where it belongs...under the joy we find in our craft. ON WRITING GENRE FICTION:  I’m a firm believer that the "rules" to writing genre fiction are much less pervasive than we like to believe, but I do believe each genre and subgenre has its own conventions.  For instance, Westerns are written with a hero protagonist who wins in the end, Mysteries have a...mystery (imagine that), Science Fiction steps outside the realms of our accepted realities, romance has an emotionally satisfying, *happy* ending and so on.  How do we learn the conventions of genre fiction?  We read it.  If you want to write romance...read romance.  If you want to write category romance, you are best served by reading category romance.  Conventions aren’t about restricting the creative process...they are about meeting the promise to our readers.  If you picked up a book sold as a cozy mystery and it was an erotic romp set in 18th century Ireland, you’d be angry at the publisher, the bookstore and the writer for misleading you.  However if you pick up "Heaven, Texas" by Susan Elizabeth Phillips – a romance with a sports star hero which breaks one of the so-called *rules*, I guarantee you’ll be thanking the publisher, bookseller and author for giving you such a fine read.  SEP doesn’t break the conventions...she gives her readers emotional satisfaction, a strong romance and a happy ending, but she does break a rule or two.  If you want to learn the conventions of your genre...again, read your genre.  If you want to learn good writing...read good writing.  It’s as simple as that.

A few bits from other authors: LORI FOSTER Never Give Up: The best advice I can ever give a new or aspiring author is to NOT give up. I had 10 books get rejected by every publisher in existence before finally selling. This is seldom an easy business, but it is oooohhh so fun, it makes up for all the really hard work and heartache.  Visit Lori at her website:  http://www.lorifoster.com/  MINDY NEFF Attention to detail: In the category romance market, editors and readers are drawn to books with best-selling marketable hooks, but it's the extra spark in the writing, the attention to detail that will make your book stand out.  Make sure all five senses are in play throughout the entire book.  At all times you want the reader to see what the character is seeing, feel what the character is feeling, hear, smell and taste right along with them.  Keep in mind that the character's perception of sense is governed by who he or she is--what is in their background.  To one character, the smell of wood smoke might evoke happy memories of a family Christmas spent by a crackling fireplace in a cozy mountain cabin.  To another, it might remind them of the terrifying night their house burned to the ground and they lost everything and everyone they loved. This attention to detail will not only enrich your story, it will insure that each of your characters have their own individual voice. JANE PORTER Just Write: One of the things I'm always telling myself is to ignore the inner critic and just write.  There's a time to edit, and a time to write, and it's important not to confuse the two.  Lately I'm writing more in a big disorganized rush of words, pouring out a jumble of ideas.  This is a new process for me (I used to struggle over a scene for days and days!) because it's helping keep my productivity up, as well as letting me feel the pleasure in creating again.  At week's end, I'll edit down, and streamline, but when I'm trying to find the heart and soul of a book, I'll just go for it and not worry about grammar, structure, dialogue, POV.   Bad prose, nonsensical ideas can all be fixed...but only if you have something on paper.  So my advice is to get the words down--whether it's a paragraph or a page--and worry about perfectionism later.  Visit Jane at her website: http://www.janeporter.com    © 2011 Lucy Monroe   Text and image composition © 2012 Lucy Monroe All Rights Reserved [ Complete Book List ] [ Book Catalogs by Year ] [ Connected Stories ] [ Upcoming Releases ] [ en Español ] [ For Aus/NZ Readers ] [ For UK Readers ] [ Appearances & Chats ] [ Be a Giver ] [ Classes & Advice ] [ FAQs ] [ Fun Stuff for Readers ]