The Editor's WIP

I don’t normally do these kinds of things, but I’ve been on a list kick lately – keep getting asked by people what are my favorite books, people, authors, etc., so I thought I’d do this one – it’s a bit more interesting.

(x) Shot a gun? Way too many times to count.

(x) Gone on a blind date. My first love/husband was a blind date.

(x) Skipped school.

(x) Watched someone die. My first husband – there are no words.

( ) Been to Canada? But saw it from my hotel room window once.  hehehe

( ) Been to Alaska

( ) Been to Cuba

( ) Been to Europe

(x) Been to Las Vegas

(x) Been to Mexico

(x) Been to Florida

(x) Been on a plane

( ) Been on a cruise ship

( ) Served on a jury

( ) Been lost

(x) Been on the opposite side of the country

(x) Gone to Washington, DC.  But just passed through – I’m going back to say a while and see stuff.

(x) Swam in the ocean

(x) Cried yourself to sleep

(x) Played cops and robbers  (and for real)

(x) Played cowboys/girls and Indians

(x) Recently colored with crayons

( ) Sang Karaoke

(x) Paid for a meal with coins only?

( ) Made prank phone calls.

(x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose.

(x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue

(x) Danced in the rain

(x) Written a letter to Santa Claus

(x) Been kissed under the mistletoe

(x) Watched the sunrise with someone.

(x) Spent a day in bed with a friend/lover

(x) Blown bubbles

(x) Gone ice-skating

( ) Gone snow skiing

(x) Camped out under the stars.

(x) Spent a rainy day curled up with a good book and didn’t even get dressed

(x) Seen something so beautiful that it took your breath away? My children sleeping.

(x) Are or have been Married? Both.

(x) Children?

(x) Have a Pet?

(x) Been skinny dipping outdoors

(x) Been fishing

(x) Been boating

(x) Been water skiing

(x) Been hiking

(x) Been camping in a trailer/RV  But a tent is better – I love camping and fishing and being outdoors.

( ) Flown in a small 4 seater airplane (many of my family are pilots, but I’m not a happy flier. I fly only when I need to.

( ) Flown in a glider

( ) Been flying in a hot air balloon

( ) Been bungee-jumping   Are you insane?

(x) Gone to a drive-in movie

(x) Done something that should have killed you

( ) Done something that you will probably regret for the rest of your life

1. Any nickname… Georgia 

2. Mother’s name – Mom

3. Favorite Drink? sweet tea

4. Body Piercing? Yes.  Tattoos? No

5. How many of the 50 states have you been in?  40  Lived in?  6

6. How much do you love your job? Enough to do it for free, but don’t tell.

7. Birthplace? Marietta, GA

8. Favorite vacation spot? anywhere with DH. Truly. He is my very favorite companion and I’d follow him anywhere, and have.

9. Been to Africa ? Not yet!

10. Ever eaten just cookies for dinner? Yes

11. Ever been on TV? Yes

12. Ever steal any traffic signs? No.

13. Ever been in a car accident? Yes

14. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? 4-door

15. Favorite number? 7

16. Favorite movie? Oh, love so many movies…  Either Hunt for Red October or Fried Green Tomatoes or Mr. and Mrs. Smith or Secondhand Lions

17. Favorite Holiday? Thanksgiving – I make it a habit to live my life in a perpetual state of thankfulness for the blessings I have, and getting together with the whole family to relax and eat and just hang out and be together is as close to heaven as I figure I’ll ever get while I’m living.

18. Favorite dessert? Either creme brulee or vanilla bean ice cream drizzled with chocolate syrup. Homemade bread pudding is real close, though.

19. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Retired from the day job and writing my head off.

20. Furthest place you will send this message? Out into the cosmos of blogland.

In honor of this, my very favorite holiday of the year because I can’t think of anything more worthy of celebration than that of being thankful for your blessings, I will share two of my very favorite old-fashioned Southern family recipes.  Enjoy!

Papa’s Favorite Old-Fashioned Chocolate Pie

Combine flour, sugar, cocoa in sauce pan.  (double boiler, if available).  Gradually add milk.  Cook until thick, stirring often.  Blend about ½ cup hot mixture into egg yolks; then add to the hot mixture in pan.  Cook until thick.  Blend well.  Remove from heat, stir in butter and vanilla, then pour into baked pie shell and top with meringue, if desired.  I like to let it cool, then top with Dream Whip topping, and sprinkle with shaved chocolate.

Daddy’s Chocolate Banana Coconut Cream Pie

Microwave chocolate, 1 tablespoon milk and butter on high for 1 – 1½ minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, or until chocolate is completely melted.  Spread evenly in piecrust.  Arrange banana slices over chocolate.  Pour 1½ cups milk in large bowl.  Add pudding mix and beat with wire whisk for 2 minutes.  Stir in 1½ cups coconut.  Spoon over banana slices in crust.  Spread whipped topping over pie.  Sprinkle with toasted coconut.  Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set.  Store in refrigerator.

Voice. What is voice? And why is voice important?

Voice is your unique “sound” – it’s how you come across as an author. It’s in the way you put words and phrases together, how you tell your story, how you express it. That doesn’t mean you can call head-hopping or other bad mechanics part of your voice. What it does mean is that you have a unique way of looking at and then interpreting the world, and that uniqueness is voice.

I’m sure you know what I mean when I say there are many authors out there you can read and know the author’s name before you see it. Many authors use particular story choices as part of their voice, character types like warriors or cops or shapeshifters, settings like the Old West or the South, themes such as dreams, or childhood abuse, or simply acceptance, or even certain times like Regency England or America’s Civil War years, and those choices can also help define your voice. Some authors write in short staccato sentences and some write with longer more descriptive speech. Some use a lot of colloquialisms while others use a lot of slang and/or cursing. All of these choices can be part of voice.

Some authors write as they speak, and when you meet them and talk to them, you feel you almost know them because you recognize the cadences they use. Others don’t write as they speak, so it depends. Some have a very different voice to their writing. I think everyone has a unique tone of their own, and I don’t think you have to work at having a voice. What you have to work at is how to let your voice shine, how to step aside and let your voice work for you. You must learn to be a window and let the light shine through rather than blocking it by trying to force it into something it can’t be.

Look at your writing and get familiar with your voice and how it flows. Once you do that, you can tell by the flow when it’s NOT working. And do not change your voice just because a CP doesn’t like it – if you’re writing to please everyone else, you aren’t going to like your career much. You have to please yourself. But by the same token, there could be a nuance to your writing that is the problem, and not necessarily your voice. If you hear multiple CPs or beta readers telling you the same basic complaint, you should look at your writing and weigh the possibility that they have a valid point.

An author can change their tone of voice to tell certain stories in a different way, and some authors use a different type of voice to write in multiple genres and it works very well for them. I think some stories call for softer voices and expressions than others. And you can use the same voice in softer expression to tell a different type of story, I think, and still remain true to your voice.

When an author is struggling to find their voice, it is usually very obvious to an editor. The writing seems flat, or it may change tone from chapter to chapter, or it may read overdone or exaggerated. There is sometimes nothing to catch your interest, make you want to read more, give you a clue to the tone or personality of the author or the character, and the story will read stiff and stilted, just words with no personality.

It is said that editors are always looking for unique voices. That’s in many ways true – we’re always looking for good stories told in a different way. But it’s not simply being unique that is the “Golden Fleece” we’re searching for – there are a lot of unique authors out there who may never sell a story. What is of utmost importance is a great story told in a distinctive way.  The great story has to be there – no one wants to read the same old story they’ve read over and over again with nothing new or different or exciting about it. But that distinctive viewpoint and sound is what makes your voice stand out from every other author. It’s that ability to tell a story in a different way, with a style of your own, that sets an author apart, gives them a recognizable voice. And that recognizable voice is what readers will start to look for as they become acquainted with your voice and discover they love the stories you tell and the way you tell them. Your audience will grow and they will expect to hear the same voice telling them new stories every time they buy your books. And that recognizable voice and expectant audience is what they mean in part by “building a brand.”

As an editor, I see manuscripts in all phases of progress, from first draft to ready for production. And along the way I’ve edited authors who are very good at their job, and others who are just learning.  I love working with both.  But what I love most is the author who never stops learning, never stops progressing, never loses that push and drive to be better, that hunger to improve their storytelling and their craft.  Authors are wordsmiths – their tools are words and phrases, and they should want to become a master with them – it’s part of the job.

What is a wordsmith?  Merriam-Webster says a wordsmith is “a craftsman or artist whose medium is words.”  What is medium?  Again per Merriam-Webster, medium is “the material or technical means for artistic expression (as paint and canvas, lithographic or sculptural stone, or literary or musical form) and according to J.D. Cook, “one can’t have imagination until one has a medium by which it can be expressed.”  What does that mean?  It means to be an author, you must become a master at your profession, which is the manipulation of language.

Of course I know other editors doing the same job at different epublishers, and we all experience the same issues.  Over the last couple of weeks, it seems the discussions I’ve overheard all seemed to concern the same subject, so I thought I would post on the topic.  But instead I’ve invited another much more experienced editor, and one I have boundless respect for, to guest blog for me.

Bestselling author Christy Lockhart is the author of eleven books from Silhouette Desire, Silhouette Intimate Moments, Ellora’s Cave, and Loose Id.    She also had a historical romance produced in audio format.

Originally from Northern England, she now calls the splendor of Rocky Mountain Colorado home.  She is a past president of Colorado Romance Writers and a past Board Member of Romance Writers of America.   She’s the recipient of Colorado Romance Writers Writer of the Year Award, RWA’s prestigious Emma Merritt Service Award, along with the Coeur Du Bois Love of Romance Award.  She is also the only managing editor at Loose Id.

What We Owe Ourselves —- by Christy Lockhart

Whatever we undertake in life we owe it to ourselves to be the best possible. Why settle for mediocre, when a little more effort will push us over the line, to borrow a phrase, from good to great?

In addition to being a writer, I’m an editor, an editor who does not want to reject books. Nothing makes me crankier than disappointing an author I know has worked hard to produce a story. I know the blood, the sweat, the tears that go into a book. But from this side of the table, I see things that authors do, probably unwittingly, that get them that headache-inducing rejection and leaves me in a bad mood.

First and foremost, even though we’re creative people, we have to recognize that publishing is a business. Here’s a cold-hard fact: we produce these marvelous works of art. And publishers see them as a commodity. They need to sell; they need to sell well. To survive and thrive in this business, we need to be professionals.

As writers, we owe it to our readers, to our editors, to our agents, to ourselves to produce the best possible stories. We owe it to the people who put down good money for our books to make our next story better than the last.

If you’re not good at grammar, do you shrug and figure that’s your editor/copy editor’s problem? Is it okay with you that your editor groans when your submission crosses her desk? When she makes the same suggestions, again and again, don’t you owe it to yourself to listen and learn? Do you frown because she can’t see past your little errors, or do you, like a pro, take steps to improve? Do you see your editor as the enemy, or as a coach? (Think of professional athletes who practice hours and hours a day, taking constructive criticism to improve their stance, their power, their flexibility.)

Part of being a professional means we’re on a constant quest for bettering ourselves. Why not take an online grammar class? Why not buy the Chicago Manual of Style (and read it?)? Maybe ask for a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss for the next gift-receiving occasions?

If your house has a style guide, learn it. If your editor is looking at the little stuff, she may become bogged down in it, and she may miss something bigger that will be obvious to a reader or reviewer.

If your characterization could be deeper, do you study deep point of view? Why would you settle for having unremarkable characters when you could have memorable people that your readers angst over and root for?

Why settle for writing a book when you could be a master storyteller?

If an editor has suggested you use active voice, do you scour your manuscript for instances of passive voice? Do you boldly cross out words ending in “ly?”

Do you do everything in your power to draw in your reader by showing, not telling?

Have you ever considered asking your editor this question, “If I could improve one aspect of my writing, what would you suggest?” Why not ask her to be your coach, to help you improve?

As a professional who wants to make a living from your writing, don’t you owe it to yourself, to your career to be on a constant quest for knowledge?

We never know it all.  Why not challenge yourself? Why not be the best possible YOU that you can be?

Hello again!  Sorry I’ve been gone so long.  I have had a mixture of health issues and other problems, and they’ve kept me busy – hope it won’t be so long again.

Let’s talk business.  For many authors, making their writing work for them is a big problem.  First of all, when you are working around a day job or around raising kids and taking care of a family, it can be difficult to treat your writing as a job.  But if you want it to become a job, you have to find a way.

I know most of you have heard the saying about if you want to be the boss, emulate the boss…that’s true with just about any job.  If you want to be a successful author, watch what successful authors do, how they act, what choices they make.  Now, you may not have sixteen hours in a day to work at it, but discipline yourself to give it all you have the two or three hours you may be able to carve out.

Some authors find it easier to get up very early and spend their first two or three hours writing, before they get the kids and/or the husband up and out of the house.  This is especially true if they have a day job, as well.  Some authors write while the kids are at school and after they go to bed.  I know one author who spends five hours during the school day writing, takes five hours to do her housework, make dinner and feed the kids, get them bathed and homework done, then her husband takes over and puts them to bed so she can write for another couple of hours.  That’s dedication, and that kind of discipline will serve her well – she is published and it works for her.

Whatever your schedule, whatever amount of time you have to devote to writing, make sure you use it wisely.  Learn to tune out or turn off distractions like Twitter and email and browsing.  Allow yourself time for those things, but you must learn not to use them to avoid writing.

Keep receipts – books are now market research, so save your purchase receipts.  Write down the date and time and mileage to the post office and back when you mail a manuscript, save the postage receipt, and keep track of those things.  Talk to your accountant or tax consultant to find out ways you can save money and what you can write off as a business expense, and how best to suit your situation.

Learn to look at your life as an author as your work, what you do, and treat it that way.  Make sure friends and family realize you are an author and between such and such hours, you are at work.  If necessary, turn off the phone.  I have learned that if you don’t respect and value your work time, others won’t.  So don’t get into the habit of saying, yeah, okay, this one time I’ll watch your kids while you go shopping.  Emergency situations are one thing, but you will know where to draw the line and don’t give in.

The best way to make the right decisions for your job is to remember how it would be if you had a day job working for someone else…would they allow you the day off to go shopping because you just don’t feel like working today?  Would they tolerate you showing up whenever you felt like it?  Would they allow you to talk to your mother for the first two hours of your workday even once a week?  Act like a professional writer, a successful one, and you will become one.

Happy Writing!

Georgia

When you are plotting a story, there are two very important attributes your story must have in order to sell to an agent or editor or publisher, and to sell to readers.  And in order to have these traits, they must first come from the characters – if your characters don’t have them, your story won’t.

The first attribute your characters and story must have is that they must be compelling.  By definition this means to persuade or force someone to do something.  In fiction, this means the characters and story are so interesting they compel the reader to keep reading, to not want to stop, to just have to know what happens next.  It has that “I couldn’t put it down” quality that grabs hold of the reader and won’t let go until the end.

The second thing your characters and story must have is that they must resonate.  This is my favorite word when it comes to books because that is the single most important quality to me as an editor, and as a reader.  By this I mean the characters and situation have to be relatable – they have to have a quality that makes the reader feel as if they know them, as if they can see something of themselves in the characters, as if they recognize certain traits or habits or feelings.  Even if they aren’t traits or habits the reader shares, they have to recognize the humanness of them – the characters have to feel and act and interact like real people.

Think of the movie Cast Away starring Tom Hanks – there are very few people on the planet who have ever actually been stranded on a deserted island and lived to tell of it.  However the actions of that character, his emotional journey coming to the realization he alone was responsible for his very survival, resonated within all of us.  In any language, we as humans understand the will to survive.  If done well, this resonance will stick with the reader, will vibrate within them and ring true to them, long after the book is finished.

How many of you have heard an author say, “My characters just won’t shut up!” or the dreaded “I can’t get my characters to do what I want them to do!”  Most likely, the author who made the first statement let the characters talk, let them move through the story naturally, and of course the author just couldn’t type fast enough.  The second statement was probably made by an author who didn’t listen to her characters, who didn’t pay attention to the type of scenario or plot needed for that character, who tried to make the character act in a way that was not natural to that character, and so they wouldn’t cooperate.

The first part of brainstorming any story is characters.  If you are like many authors, you come up with the two main characters – the man and woman, or the two men if it’s a M/M story, or even the three main characters if it’s a ménage story.  And maybe you even already have one scene, maybe the beginning scene or the black moment scene, in mind.  But you’ve also got to get into those characters’ heads, figure out who they are and what it is they want.  You must build characters who are so real they actually tell you what is happening to them, they lead you by who they are into where they need to go in order to grow and deserve that beautiful happy ending you have waiting for them.  Yes, you are going to torture the daylights out of them – that’s what authors do, and the more you love them, the more you will torture them.  But it’s for their own good – they have to grow and learn and become who they are meant to be.

Think about the most memorable characters you’ve ever read about, the ones you’ve agonized with and carried their story with you afterwards.  Scarlet in Gone With the Wind, or maybe Melanie.  Forrest Gump or maybe you related better to Lieutenant Dan?  Remember Mary Potter in Mackenzie’s Mountain?  She was feisty and opinionated and inhibited, and her refusal to give up challenged Wolf at every turn, but her joy in life and her earnestness made Wolf, and you, care about her.  And Wolf – yes he was sexy and strong, but he was also someone you wanted to see win.  He’d been mistreated and put down by the community his entire life and his anger at the world was totally understandable, but you wanted him to be recognized for what a good man he actually was.  He was compelling and relatable: we understood why he acted the way he did – relatable, and we found him interesting enough to keep reading to find out what happened to him – compelling.

And what is it that we find so compelling?  What are these characters doing that we find so fascinating?  They are going on an emotional journey.  And we care about them and want to go along with them.  And that journey, with its ups and downs, its rivers to cross and mountains to scale, is your book.

How do you pick which journey to send them on?  Well, you pick the journey most suitable for your characters, and something that’s important to you, something that inspires passion in you, and which you can use to inspire passion in the reader.  And pick something that will totally knock your character out of their easy chair and right into the hot seat.  Have a male character who is a free and easy bachelor, a “player” type?  Drop him into a house raising a popular teenage girl because a friend or relative died and left him guardian, and have him sweating it out while guys like him take her on dates.  Have a male character who is a loner, maybe orphan hard-scrabble background, trusts no one?  Have him fall in love with a woman who has tons of family and kids and very deep roots, where he has to fit in, to learn to trust and deal with his emotions.

Then, pick your external conflict, and make it something that illuminates the issue, perhaps forces the characters in a way they don’t want to go, but which will teach them things they need to learn on their emotional journey.

Pick a setting that enhances the issue, maybe dump a city bachelor into the country, take the rich girl’s money and makeup away, make a rich playboy fall in love with a nobody, toss that alpha male cop into a dangerous situation with only a bossy female defense attorney for help.  Then pick a cast of characters who will push the characters along in the way they need to go.

But remember – learn who your characters are first – knowing them inside and out will give you the information you need to write their story.  And remember those two key words – compelling and resonating – with those qualities as your keystone, you can’t go wrong.

Hello!  Sorry for the long post delay, but I’ve been working very hard on several deadlines and have not had time to devote to blogging.  I’ll try hard to keep up the weekly posts in the future.

As those of you who have worked with me know, and probably think I’m repeating ad nauseum, I am a huge proponent of author web sites, or at least a blog.  How will the world ever discover the bright shining light that you are if you don’t let them see it?  How do you tell the world who you are? You need a place on the Internet where readers can read more about you, and where folks like me, editors and publishers and such, can find you and get to know you.  You also need to show you are at least attempting to make professional promo efforts.

As I’ve said many times, when I get a new submission, the first thing I do, even before reading the intro/query letter, is Google the author and see if they have a web page, blog, or have made any effort to promo their name and/or their work.  If you intend to make writing your career, this is proof you are making a commitment and putting out the effort, and not just playing around with a hobby.  This can be a huge thing for me as an editor because I need to know that when I send you edits and revisions, you will get them done in a timely professional manner, and not keep putting me off because you aren’t in the mood – a deadline isn’t optional.  It doesn’t have to be a big web site and multiple pages, just a blog page is fine.  But you need to get your name out there so readers can find you and you can begin to build up a following.

In my opinion, this is even more important for digital authors – digital readers, simply because of the medium and its equipment, are much more likely to be out there looking for your web site.  By virtue of the medium, they have to be on the Internet to purchase and download books, they have to learn how to upload that book to a reader, if they use one, and they tend to be more technically savvy because of it.  What they find on that web site can earn you sales, and what they read of your books can earn you fans. Even if you don’t yet have a book out, you can intrigue potential readers by letting your personality and writing style/voice be heard, build up anticipation for that first release.

Some say, and I agree, that the very best promo you can do is to write your next book.  Yes, you can not build a career without working on it.  However, especially in digital publishing you need to build a presence, a brand, and get the word out.  In digital publishing you don’t have a huge publishing company with its advertising department and big budget behind you to build up a promotion plan and do a lot of the work for you, such as graphics and flyers and etc.  That plan falls on your shoulders to build, and the work will also be mostly yours.

If you are considering a new web site, or redesigning your existing one, shop around.  You can register your own domain for $10 a year or less, and some of them come with free hosting.  From experience I highly recommend GoDaddy, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with web sites because many of their features have good instructions and their tech support is excellent.  There are also many other providers out there, so do your homework – the time and effort you put into your site will pay off.  Visit author web sites – make sure you know what other authors of your particular genre and type of book are doing and write down features or designs that appeal to you.  Have a plan in mind before you ever start work.  Also look at some of the web designers who specialize in author web sites because they sometimes offer discounts and specials for new authors and that fit more easily into a starving author’s budget.

If you are going to do your own web site, consider learning how to do HTML on your own.  Visit your local library and check out a few books on building web sites for beginners.  You will save a lot of money by building your own site, and I highly recommend WordPress to get started with.  Hang out at the WordPress site and read the articles and how-tos.  Once you get started you’ll find it’s much easier than you think, and I’ve seen some truly awesome web sites made by authors who just took the information given on the WordPress site, along with the software, and let their imagination soar. Don’t be afraid to try new things, show your personality, and indulge your creativity.  Visit web sites like www.kommando.com and get answers to your questions – technical information is freely available on the web, and you’ll be amazed at how readily those “in the know” are to answer questions and help you do it yourself.

Now – go forth and be geeky!  That is all…

Georgia

Hey, it’s Tuesday, Release Day at Loose Id, so drop by to see us!

What I want to talk about today is your core story.  This is a topic very near and dear to my heart because I truly believe it matters.  Some authors have never thought about what their core story is, and they seem to do very well, and that’s fine.  But for me, the core story to an author’s work is what draws me back again and again as a reader.  And it’s what keeps me writing.

Every writer, heck everyone, has a core story. Your core story is made up of all of the experiences and joys and sorrows you’ve lived through, and with each one your core story is narrowed down more and more, honed until it’s sharp and clear. That core story is who you are, what story you have to tell the world, your voice, your vision.

If you look at any author’s books, they sometimes tell the same story over and over without sounding the same. That’s because they almost always have the same core story to tell. Some authors write about acceptance, some write about rescue, or finding a protector, some write about second chances, but every writer has something they, perhaps subconsciously, want to tell the world.

Knowing your core story, what it is that keeps you writing, what idea or concept or belief it is that you want to impart, is what gives you as an author a unique voice and style and meaning. And as you grow to learn more about that core story, to consciously use it rather than subconsciously letting it push you willy-nilly, to understand yourself more and become more “true” to it, you will find your writing will flow better and you’ll recognize when you get off track and why.

If you don’t yet know, or more accurately recognize, your core story, look at your books, or your daydreams, those stories floating around in your head. In your stories, what are the goals of the characters? What motivates them? What are the conflicts and by what means do they resolve them? Look at each story carefully and you’ll begin to see a common thread running through each one. Look very carefully because sometimes the core story may be masquerading as another core, but overall it should be apparent. If you can’t figure it out, ask your editor or critique partner or a good friend you trust. Figuring out what that common thread is can be huge in learning who you are as a writer, where you want to go, and what it is you want to say.

Even if you are writing formula romance, with a determined theme, expected content like erotica or sweet, and a HEA or HFN ending, you still can rearrange that story to fit your core story. For example, say your publisher asks you to contribute to a holiday-themed set of stories, and you must write about a soldier with a happy ever after ending. One writer might choose to write a story about a soldier who goes off to war and almost gets killed, and thus realizes the girl he left behind is the one for him – second chance story. One author might write a story about a soldier who is wounded and loses a leg, comes home and has pretty much written himself off and fallen into a deep depression. Then he meets someone he falls in love with, but he has to clean his life up and woo them, become the person worthy of their love – transformation. And another writer might choose to write a story about a soldier who comes home and while he’s trying to decide whether to stay in or get out of the military, he becomes embroiled in a neighbor’s dispute with her ex-husband and ends up saving her life, falling in love with her, and they live happily ever after – rescue story. The framework of the publisher assigned series gives you the characters and the ending, but it says nothing about what route you choose to get there – your unique core story, your voice, will make those choices.

Some might say that over-analysis isn’t necessary, that it’s okay to go merrily along writing stories without thinking too much about why your write and where you are going. Even if that works for some, I find it does not work for me, and for many authors I know. Your voice, your core story, is what makes you who you are as a writer. Your fans, your readers, will come to expect certain things of you, and revealing that core story is how they know your writing from all the other writers out there. Just because you write rescue stories doesn’t mean your stories are going to be like any other author who writes rescue stories. Every single author writing rescue stories has their own unique view of the world, their own unique spin, and that uniqueness is what will draw their fans to them. If you aren’t aware of what you are giving to your readers, how will you continue to satisfy them?

Also think of this – say you are going merrily along, about halfway through your story, and all of a sudden you are stopped dead in your tracks by a plot issue or character issue – this character simply will not do what you want them to do no matter what you try,o r no matter which way you twist the plot, it’s just not right. How do you fix it? What tells you what is right and what is wrong? I think every single writer has a story or two they just can’t seem to finish – nothing fits and it just won’t work out. I believe that’s because we are trying to write outside of our core story – we aren’t being true to ourselves and our brain knows it. In most circumstances, your core story will tell you what is wrong, where you got off course, what you need to fix. When you lose touch with that core story is when things normally go wrong, and when you figure out where you lost touch with it is where you can figure you got off track and fix it.

Here are a few examples of core stories:

Acceptance stories are stories where the characters are trying to find their place in life, their “home.” They usually end up having to leave where, or what, or even who they know to be safe and secure, and go out into the dangerous world and find their own path, forge new goals and a new destination.

Second chance stories are stories in which one or both of the characters get the chance to go back and fix or address a situation they failed at, or ignored, in the past, like finally telling someone at a high school reunion you had a crush on them all those years ago and finding out they had one on you too, and ending up together.

In transformation stories, two people meet and fall in love, but either one of them, or both, have some changing to do in order to make the romance work, so there comes a point where they realize a change must be made, then they make it. Many of the most popular erotic romance stories are ones where the hero introduces the heroine to some form of erotic play she’s not familiar with, and brings out needs she wasn’t aware she had, or wouldn’t admit – these are great transformation stories.

In a crusade or quest story, the story is about the journey the character(s) go on to find something of value to them, like the Indiana Jones stories. Or maybe the journey is a spiritual one, a journey to discover themselves or their needs. And sometimes they don’t have to actually go anywhere – sometimes in the end they discover what or who they needed all along is right next to them.

In a healing story, you have one or more wounded characters who find their healing within in the story, either with a person or place or job or whatever. The story is their journey from wounded to healed, and their conflict is usually their own stubbornness, maybe an inability to admit to weakness, or even their own fears of being less than whole.

Protector stories are those in which someone assumes responsibility for something or someone else, and they can also be a story where a mentor teaches someone to stand on their own and then accepts the fact they no longer need protection. These stories, along with rescue stories, are very popular with romance authors because almost every little girl has dreamed of the knight on a white horse who comes to save her from the big bad world. Well, almost every little girl.

If you think about it, you will recognize your most beloved authors have/had a core story. Some authors are known for writing flawed and tortured and wounded heroes – those authors write healing stories and Laura Kinsale is a good example. Some authors are known for writing great stories where the alpha male swoops in and saves the heroine – author Kathleen Woodiwiss wrote terrific rescue stories that are still all-time favorite stories for many readers, and Linda Howard still writes them but with a bit more contemporary viewpoint.

For the most part, those authors who are successful and develop huge followings are authors who have figured out their core story, what it is about that core story that appeals to their fans the most, and they stick with it so the fans keep coming back. That builds a career.

Now sometimes just the idea you are telling your core story to the world can be uncomfortable. Few like to share their personal feelings and/or information in public, and once you know what story it is you are trying to share, it can sometimes hit too close to home, feel a bit like having your protective layers pulled back. But remember – that core story may have absolutely nothing to do with your own story, but simply be a theme that resonates with you and that you feel worthy of repeating. Just because a story touches our emotions doesn’t mean we’ve ever experienced it, and any intelligent reader knows that.

Do I believe a writer can tell a story that is not their core? Can an author whose core story is acceptance write a quest story? Absolutely. But I also believe there will be themes of acceptance in that story, too – that core is what is true to you, what “lesson” you feel the driving inner need to teach the world. I also believe some authors can go merrily along, writing and selling, and build a career, and may never need to think that deeply about why they are writing, and what it is they are telling the world, and that’s just fine. But I think other authors may need to understand, to dive deep into their own heart, and fully recognize what it is they need to say. I especially think this is true for authors who are burned out or who find themselves stuck or stagnant in their career, or who may find their readership changing and the market changing in ways they didn’t expect.

I think every author has something they want to tell the world, a story or a lesson to teach, and figuring out what it is you want to say is critical to being happy as a writer for the long haul. If you never seem to be able to tell the story your heart yearns for, how happy will you be in the end? And if you do figure out what it is you are trying to say, it becomes much easier to plot out and tell that tale every time. Every story can be totally different in theme and character and plot, but the underlying core will remain strong as long as you remain true to that core inside you that makes you write.

What is your core story?

Georgia

Yay!  It’s Release Day at Loose Id – check out the new selections:  Visit Loose Id

Wow new blog, new project, new readers… New beginnings are great, don’t you think? They are a second chance to make something happen, fix an error, take advantage of a missed opportunity.

So many times when opportunities come along, we let them pass us by. Sometimes we think they aren’t meant for us, or we feel unprepared or undeserving. And sometimes we make a deliberate choice to ignore them. Why is that? Why is it authors feel so undeserving of any success they attain?

When we think of successful authors, we may look at how we feel about the authors we love, and they seem so much bigger and better than we could ever be. We are so enamored of what they do for us that we can’t fathom having those same abilities ourselves. That hero worship may skew our ability to see our own efforts clearly.

We should not be holding ourselves up against our favorite authors, our author friends, or against the measuring stick of anyone else’s ruler. Your measuring stick as an author should first be your own sense of accomplishment – how do you feel when you finish that story? Do you see progress and improvement in your writing with each story? And second of all your readers – what is it that you offer them? If you are happy with what you write, and if your readers are getting from your books what they need and what you want to give, then you are a success already.

Georgia’s Rules for Success:

Develop a can do attitude. Success means perseverance and determination. And it also means you must decide ahead of time that you can rise to meet the challenges – you can do it.  You may get rejected by ten or more publishers before you find the one that loves your story. Don’t allow anyone to sway you from your goal, even yourself. Lack of confidence and fear of failure, or even fear of success, can cripple your career before it even gets off the ground.

Being rejected is part of the game. It isn’t personal, it’s about your book, which is a product. Like it or not, you have to learn how to see your book as a product and find ways to improve that product until publishing companies want to acquire it. Look at it this way – a publisher is basically a storefront – they choose the books they want to publish by what looks good in the window and draws sales – what will attract more shoppers to their store, sell the most copies, and make the customer so happy they return next week for another purchase. It’s a lot like a restaurant – once you find a recipe that all the customers like, you want to keep satisfying them, so you look for other recipes that have the same ingredients or are complimentary. It’s all about money, like it or not.

You as a writer have to learn to see your book not as being part of you, but being something you created. Just like if you made curtains for your friend – if they are too short, you raise the hem, if they are too plain, add a bit of lace, change colors, whatever it is you need to do to make them work. It’s the same with a book. Sometimes you just need to find another store that will be interested in your product, and sometimes your product needs fixing – it’s up to you to decide when and where and how to make those decisions.

From the very beginning, have a plan. Know where you want to go with your career, and know yourself. Know what will work for you and what won’t, what you are willing to give up and what you aren’t, where you are willing to bend and where you aren’t. Your plan is your road map – how are you going to get to your goal otherwise? Take the time to sit down and plan it out – it takes twice as long to get anywhere if you don’t know the route.

Make yourself a schedule and stick to it. Write something every day – imagination is like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it will get, and your writing skills are the same. If you write only when “the muse” feels like it, you’ll always be at the whim of that muse. Teach the muse you want it working all the time, and it will.

Understand that every piece of feedback is a gift. All critique, whether a rejection letter with revision suggestions, the letter of praise from a reader, or a nasty review is a gift. It is valuable feedback which you will use to evaluate your product. It is also an opportunity to learn, to improve, to hone those skills that build your product. Look at it as research and development, earn to accept it well, and see it for the opportunity to improve that it is.

Keep in mind you are now a public person, whether you like it or not. What you do will be scrutinized and evaluated, and the higher you climb, the more intense it will get. If you don’t want your words splashed across the Internet in the most embarrassing way possible, don’t say them, don’t write them. The Internet is not secure – your emails will be seen by the person you are gossiping about, that snarky piece of commentary you just posted on someone’s blog, that ugly letter you just wrote to an editor or publisher you feel didn’t treat you fairly could and probably will be read by someone who could have been important to you, a prospective agent, editor, or publisher. What you might lose will never be worth the satisfaction you got of telling someone off – don’t burn your bridges before you even get to them.

Take advantage of any opportunity that comes your way. There’s a saying about a wise person being ready and waiting for opportunity, and that is totally correct. Prepare yourself for opportunity – learn your craft, work at it hard, build a network of friends and acquaintances in the industry you can call on, then when the door opens in front of you, walk through it.

Don’t quit – every writer has had rejections, and how you treat those rejections will mean failure or success to you. If you allow your feelings of failure to stop you, then your career dreams will never happen. But if you keep trying, you will improve, you will grow, you will learn, and you will succeed.

The wise writer knows their audience and learns to give them what they want. They also learn what not to give them, and they don’t let others sway them into writing a book that is not true to them as an author and what their audience expects. Once you lose a fan, it is very difficult to get them back. Burn them more than once, and it may be impossible. This is why many authors, even big names, have multiple pen names – they have readers who expect a certain type of story and they don’t like change. It’s just the facts of the market.

Surround yourself with support, supporting people, post encouraging sayings and comments on your desk and monitor, set realistic goals and then celebrate them. Celebrate even small successes like reaching your page goal every day for a whole week. And get rid of the negatives in your life, those who say your dreams are too big, those thoughts that cause you to second guess yourself or make self-defeating decisions. Life is too short to waste it catering to those who do not have your best interests in mind, and if they don’t want your dreams to come true, they aren’t on your side.

Take time for you. Take care of yourself – your health is important. And take vacations, take time to get away and just be with family and friends and relax. Then come back to your desk refreshed, full of new ideas, and ready to work.

Meanwhile, take a moment to sit down and think about why you don’t take advantage of opportunities. Write down all the reasons. Then think about each one. Are they justified? Do you fear things that haven’t even happened yet and may not come to pass? Figuring out why you avoid and thus miss out on opportunities may help you to stop this self-defeating practice. And if there’s anything we all need, it’s to learn to be winners.

Go get ‘em!

Georgia

I’m Georgia, and I’m an editor.  Sounds like one of those 12-step programs, doesn’t it?  Well truthfully I’m sure my husband has occasionally wondered if there was a 12-step program to wean me away from books.  But  it’s too late – I’m addicted and there’s no turning back now.  My fancy title is Senior Editor for Author Development at Loose Id, which means I’m the biggest mother hen in the bunch.

So maybe you’re a new author and you want to get published.  Or maybe you’re already published, and you want to further or broaden your career by contracting a book with Loose Id.  Whatever your reason, I hope to be able to help.

A little background – I’ve been reading romance books since about 1973.  My first romance was Katherine Woodiwiss’ The Flame and the Flower, quickly followed by The Wolf and the Dove, and Sweet Savage Love.  I’ve been hooked ever since.  I started reading ebooks about 2004, and I’ve been editing for authors and one or the other of the bigger epubs since late 2005.  Now you’ll rarely find me without my Kindle, and I buy most of my books in digital format – saves on buying bookcases.

I’ll admit I’m one of “those” people who can spell and remember the details of my high school and college grammar classes.  My husband calls me a walking thesaurus and says he has no need for spell check as long as I’m around.  I can remember character traits and plot twists from books I read 20 years ago.  I don’t know why those things stick in my head but other important things like people’s names and my three-item grocery list don’t.  And I can’t walk across a room without tripping on something.  *sigh*  It’s a gift – what can I say?

On this blog I will post craft help, tips and tricks, things editors look for or hate to see, in hopes of giving you an inside track.  I will answer questions, share information, and in general see if I can help you reach your goals.  No, I can’t teach you how to write from scratch, and I certainly can’t guarantee your book’s going to sell.  But I can tell you how to improve your writing and maybe share some resources you’ll find helpful.  It’ll be up to you to practice, to sit down and apply what I’ve shared with you, to build on what you already know.  Writing is a craft that can be learned as long as you have what it takes to keep trying and never give up.

If you have questions, feel free to drop me a line – georgiawoods at loose-id dot com. Who knows?  Maybe someday I’ll be YOUR editor.