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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.
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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.
Visit Mindy at her website: www.MindyNeff.com
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
© 2006 Lucy Monroe
Text and image composition © 2008 Lucy Monroe
All Rights Reserved
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