Round Robin

Most novels have an easily understood point to make to the reader, do your stories ever have more subtle or intuitive themes?

This month’s question contains an assumption – Novels have an easily understood point.

I’m not 100% sure that they do. Occasionally you’ll read a novel where the author constantly reminds you of the hero or heroine’s reason for being unlovable/depressed/hyper and very irritating they are. My preferred read is one where it slowly becomes clear that the hero or heoine struggled through a difficult or inadequate childhood or relationship or period of employment.

In my early work there were one or two characters whose inadequate childhood consisted of being given too much. Having no boundaries can be as difficult to surmount as having too many, I think.

Daisy in Daisy’s Dilemma is one such. She wants to marry John Brent and when he falls into her hands discovers, actually, that would be a great mistake. It’s the discovering she’d be in the wrong that makes Daisy’s story.

Coming up to date, my most recently published novel is contemporary and it deals with less flighty issues – bankruptcy, alcoholism and a life’s passion (for cooking). Here, I would agree I’m making use of subtlety and intuition. Why did Rosalie fall under Steve’s spell? She discovers why when she sees how he brings savvy businesswoman, Agnes, into line, too.

I think when you’re writing romance the reader might expect either a happy ever after or a happy enough for now – and I don’t disappoint on that score. The journey, however, does contain those more subtle and intuitive themes. Mariah (of Mariah’s Marriage now available in some libraries) has a strong social consceince and fights to save her apparent enemy from domestic abuse by her brother. It’s the below the surface themes that add colour and depth to characters.

My fellow authors, below, also have thoughts on this subject and you may like to read theirs.

Anne

Connie Vines

Judith Copek
Diane Bator
Fiona McGier

Skye Taylor

Dr. Bob Rich

Victoria Chatham
Helena Fairfax
Rhobin L Courtright

Lockdown Diary – 2020 – 91 – A New Project

 

Working in the sunshine on Daisy’s Dilemma

 

Having sent the completed MS off into the electronic ether yesterday, today, like many other people, sees the beginning of a new project. Many will be heading back into the actual workforce this morning. That might be a strange experience and I wish them well.

Broke up the jigsaw last night to make space for the one DH is now undertaking. Made progress with Sprig Muslin which has the most intractable teenage rebel (female) at its heart: an absolute joy and a recommendation from someone on FB. Had a long walk in the late afternoon between showers. Didn’t meet anyone I knew until I encountered my next door’s. Some housework and Rev Helen Alexander’s online reflections. Listened again to David Greig‘s Adventures with the Painted People – you could, too.

Victorian Edinburgh here I come.

Anne

 

Round robin – May 2020 – Edits

This month Rhobin has asked us to consider: All books go through multiple edits. What have
your learned are your problems, and what irks you about editing?

Problems

I overuse ‘that’ and I have the playwright’s inability to describe scenes and thoughts. Worse than both of those, I have the problem resolved by the end of chapter one.

Many writers have a word/s. Favourites are that, just, like, okay, anyway, Well..

I’m sure you pick up the idea. When the wonderful Judy Roth, my editor at MuseItUp pointed out to me how often I used ‘that’ I was horrified. It is, however, an easy issue to tackle. Whatever your word/s is/are a quick find search will show you where the devils are lurking and you can amend the text.

Withholding information was another issue I struggled with when I changed from writing drama to prose. Drama allows you to expect there will be input from an actor and a director. You don’t need, and in fact would be daft, to explain what the character is thinking. Expression is the actor’s job assisted by input from the director.

In prose, this is not the case. The reader needs a few clues. If the heroine is shredding her reticule with her fingers, the reader knows she’s agitated. If she’s sitting peacably at the side of the room, the reader has no clue she’s so worked up it was inevitable she would fire the gun…

It’s all very well to surprise your reader, but not to trick them.

However, that kind of editing is fine by me. I actually rather enjoy it. What causes me sleepless nights and endless re-writing is the structural stuff. It is my natural disposition to explain things to people. Useless for any kind of fiction. If the hero and heroine are in complete agreement about the perfidy of his mother by the end of chapter one then there is no point in writing the rest of the book. There is no rest of the book. It has taken me years to understand I do this.

What irks me about editing is missing things. I hate opening the finished file and finding a mistake on page three. How did that happen?

Capital Writer, Jane Riddell has written a book on the subject Go here to Words’worth.

Daisy’s Dilemma

My fellow scribes share their own pet peeves. Why not pop over and check them out?

Anne

Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/

Anne Stenhouse  https://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Margaret Fieland http://margaretfieland.wordpress.com
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-1UN
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com

RNA – 60th Anniversary – Scottish Chapter

Romantic Novelists’ Association, Scottish Chapter

Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th February, the Scottish Chapter of the Romantic Novelists’ Association is hosting an event on Facebook to mark our contribution to the year long celebrations of this wonderful organisation.

The event is here

I warmly invite you to pop over and read the book extracts and a few wee personal details of their authors. I think you’ll find many of us began our publishing careers after submitting work through the unique New Writers’ Scheme of the RNA.

My Mariah’s Marriage was the fifth book I wrote in that scheme. Courting the Countess is my most recent e-published novel and there’s also Daisy’s Dilemma..

Mariah’s Marriage, Daisy’s Dilemma and Courting the Countess are also available in Ulverscroft, Linford Romance Library, editions.

Anne

Diary of a Writer – October Writing Prompt

A modest selection

Notebooks, notebooks, notebooks…

A staple of any writer’s toolkit and the one we love most, is our notebook. The picture shows but a modest selection from my immodest collection (no, numbers will not be revealed, but suffice it to say the completed ones can be considered as a useful addition to the attic insulation).

The big, plain A4 was in my goody bag at the recent, and excellent, Scotswrite conference of the Society of Authors in Scotland. I love these for jobs like editing and critiquing. I also still find it easy and therapeutic to write long-hand when the pc isn’t available or there’s a wee glitch to be sorted. Something about seeing the words appear and then the crossings-out makes it all very real. The two wee ones are from another goody bag – Romantic Novelists’ Association – and as meet-up swag. Thank you ladies, Annie Burrows and Christine London. The next size up were brought to the launch of Bella’s Betrothal by fellow Capital Writer, Jane Riddell – the elegant black and silver, and bought by me in the V&A – who doesn’t like shoes?

The medium sized ones comprise one for note-taking and, the dark one, for recording everything I send out and how the work fares. Some of the pages have lovely red £ signs indicating a sale or licence fee (I have plays, folks).

So, how many do you have? Did you start out sewing together pages to make a book, aged 6? Doesn’t the simple sight of a notebook prompt you to get started?

Round Robin – Memorable Characters

This month Rhobin has asked us to think: What characters in other author’s books have not left your mind? Have you written a character who wouldn’t leave you? Why do you think this happens?

Being a prolific reader over a long time period makes the choice here very hard. I know I’ve always enjoyed the anti-hero. I wrote the thesis for my sixth year studies’ certificate about anti-heroes from the characters in Grimms’ Fairytales to James Bond. so, at that vulnerable, romantic and sentimental stage in life, they’re all there – the Scarlet Pimpernel, The Saint, James Bond and the strapping men on horseback sweeping all before them in the novels of Georgette Heyer. They have the best wardrobes, the best dialogue and they do GOOD without being in the least WORTHY.

As I grew older, the reading didn’t diminish much so the choice is even wider. I think I’ve mentioned the book before, but it’s worth re-visiting – DON’T PLAY GAMES by Emma Darcy is a M&B published in 1985. It has a heroine, Kate Andrews and hero, Alex Dalton. So much, so M&B, but this book because of the characters and their story has stayed with me. I have the copy on the desk in front of me. Kate is a redheaded (is that a giveaway?) feisty, but loyal character, and Alex is , because this is classic M&B, an anti-hero of the billionaire world.

A more recent set of characters to stay with me are the women, goodies and baddies, from Katharine Stockett’s wonderful book, The Help. It is so beautifully realised and again the dialogue is first-rate. Reading it in an internal Southern States’ accent had me in the room.

The character ‘wot I wrote’ that stayed with me was Mariah’s sister-in-law, Lady Daisy. I had to rein in the writing while working on the scenes she appeared in in Mariah’s Marriage. In due course, she got her own book, Daisy’s Dilemma and a worthwhile choice she proved to be.

Others have written about their memorable characters and you can find them here:

Heidi M. Thomas http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com/
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com

Round Robin – Emotion and all That

How emotionally involved are you in writing some scenes is the question posed for this month’s round robin.

Well, it’s a biggie. I think the emotion I personally find hardest to deal with is disappointment. I’m writing this on the 24th June 2016, so many in the UK will know disappointment this morning and throughout the whole day.

I’ve just had a peek at Facebook and astonishing stuff is coming through. People who voted ‘Leave’ (the European Union) because they didn’t think their vote would count so it wouldn’t matter (Eh?). People who believed Eurocrats made the laws – where were they when the rest of us were voting for our MEPs?

However, we’re talking writing here and as I write romance with lots of ups, downs and round-abouts, there’s enough emotion to find a few heart-wringing moments to tempt you.

MARIAH’S MARRIAGE

London Girl

Mariah’s Marriage is shot through with disappointment. Sir Lucas is disappointed he could not snare the Earl for his sister. Lady Mellon is disappointed she cannot secure a suitable wife for the heir. Mariah is bitterly disappointed she cannot continue her life teaching because the earl has trapped her in a compromising situation. I really felt that tug between what one wanted to do and what one must do.

And I hugely enjoyed the resolution which I was able to write with, I hope, laugh-out loud farce.

 

 

BELLA’S BETROTHAL

Bella’s Betrothal charts the resolution of disappointment because Bella feels abandoned, if not even cast off, by her family. I really invested in the scenes early in the book when she tries to defend herself against the pragmatic arguments and physical attractiveness of Charles Lyndsay. Well, how do you choose the lesser danger of a bogeyman out there and a heart-stoppingly attractive man in your room at the inn?

 

 

DAISY’S DILEMMA

Daisy’s Dilemma springs out of disappointment and it’s all the more poignant because Daisy doesn’t see it coming. Actually, as the creator, neither did I. Reuben Longreach’s voice caught me a little by surprise, but I soon grew to love him dearly and I wrote one or two of his scenes entirely wrapped up in him.

I refer a lot throughout this book to The Foundling Hospital where mothers could leave the babies and small children they were unable to keep. Some were never re-united. Today in Camden, within walking distance of King’s Cross, you can visit the Foundling Museum which sits in some of the original buildings and in Coram’s Fields. The display case exhibited there of the tokens – sometimes a button or scrap of a shawl – by which mothers hoped to identify their baby should life improve and they could reclaim them, is deeply moving. So, yes, I was emotionally very involved in writing much of this book.

Thomas Coram

So if you fancy learning how other authors go about it, try one of my friends, below:

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Anne Stenhouse  https://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Heather Haven http://heatherhavenstories.com/blog/
Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.blogspot.ca
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Margaret Fieland http://margaretfieland.wordpress.com
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/

Bob Rich https://bobrich18.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/emotion-in-writing
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com

Upstaging for Beginners – Secondary Characters’ Round Robin

 

Upstaging for Beginners is something all eldest children know about. I’m an eldest child – what do you mean, you knew that? There you are in a neat little bubble of loving relatives, doting friends and neighbours and admiring strangers when it BURSTS.

New Baby

A sibling has arrived. They don’t have to do anything to attract all that wonderful attention that was hitherto yours and yours alone. They just are Secondary Characters and they’re upstaging you.

Secondary Characters should support the heroine or point up by their failings and villainy how sparkling, intelligent, beautiful… Okay, I think we all know what we want the secondary characters to do. Unfortunately, as in The De’il has all the best tunes, the villain often has more of the colour and a writer needs to take enormous care to avoid making the good pale and uninteresting by comparison.

My favourite Secondary Character from my own writing is Reuben Longreach in

DAISY’S DILEMMA

Reuben arrived on the first page of the new story fully formed and snapping at the heels of the man I had thought was going to be the male interest. He was certainly a surprise and I loved him from the first words I ‘heard’ him say.

DAISY herself was a secondary character in MARIAH’S MARRIAGE I did have to tone her down in one scene to allow Mariah to flourish.

There are many classic secondary characters such as Dr Watson & Captain Hastings. The reader comes to love their contributions. Clever readers might even solve detective mysteries through their pointed mistakes (I can’t ). And there are many small, almost cameo, characters who live on in the memory. A recent, and in my view brilliant one, was Lowrie the taxidermist and artist in the television serial Shetland, BBC 1

So, in conclusion, I love secondary characters. Visit some of my blogging friends to find out what they think by clicking on any link below from Saturday 19th. My post is up early as I’m off to the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference – more of that later.

I’d love to know, dearest reader, who your favourite secondary character is from my three published novels, Mariah’s Marriage, BELLA’S BETROTHAL and Daisy’s Dilemma. Leave a comment, please.
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.blogspot.ca.
Helena Fairfax  http://helenafairfax.com/
Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Hollie Glover http://www.hollieglover.co.uk
Dr. Bob Rich http://wp.me/p3Xihq-CZ

Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/

MOTHERS, MOTHERS, MOTHERS

 

BELLA’S BETROTHAL an entertaining romance with humour and a touch of thematic mystery.

Bella’s Betrothal, set in Edinburgh 1826, has two mothers offering opposing views of that position. Bella’s actual mama is a distant and critical woman who does everything in her power to diminish her talented and engaging daughter. Why would she do that? Obviously, it’s a plot device, but it happens in life and many women will sadly recognise the relationship.  Hatty, to whom Bella flees for succour is red haired and feisty like her niece. She’s also the kind of mother we all long for: supportive, encouraging and loving without being suffocating.

Mariah’s Marriage a roller-coaster read with razor sharp dialogue.

Mariah’s Marriage, set in London, 1822 has a motherless heroine who wonders wistfully if her life would have been different had her mama survived. But she’s made a very good job of growing up with only one parent and when confronted by the Earl of Mellon’s mama, Lady Constanzia, has mixed feelings about the relationship. The earl, finds his mama exasperating, loving and a great excuse for trapping Mariah into marriage. Will he, though, get the high-spirited girl as far as the altar?

Daisy’s Dilemma a brilliant exploration of what it was to be a lady in the 1800s

Daisy’s Dilemma,  set in London 1822 and later brings us more of the story of Lady Constanzia and another of her children, the talented and stifled, Lady Daisy. How does a girl behave when her duty is clear, but her head and her heart are at war? Can her mama help resolve her difficulties? Once more, Anne Stenhouse juxtaposes two mothers in Lady Constanzia and her sister-in-law, the monstrous Lady Beatrice. Whose will prevails?

Bare Bones and Cover-ups

The Bare Bones of a story often arrive unheralded and at an inconvenient moment. Having a notebook to hand might be the ideal, but it ain’t always possible. So how do I hold that thought?

An image helps. The lovely lady above was photographed in an Eastern museum. She hasn’t inspired anything yet, but I have the distinct feeling she will and I’m so glad to have her image readily to hand.

Once the bare bones are lodged in your head the question of what next arises. How do you add flesh or covering, cosy curves or flamboyant frocks without losing the initial inspiration?

It was a process I found quite stressful in learning the art of novel writing. Starting out with plays means your head makes allowance in the writing for what the director and actor will bring to any character. Description is hardly needed and as to Stage Directions…Unless you’re the ghost of JM Barrie, forget it. The director certainly will.

Clothing the story and the characters is a lovely creative process. I saw a gentleman through the bus window this morning. Tall, his own hair, smartly dressed – but wait – sporting a bow-tie? Who wears a bow-tie?

And I was off – running. So look out for a story with a dandy, unreliable and petulant, in a bow-tie.

Sorry chaps.

Daisy’s Dilemma contains a few scenes about clothes and clothing. Appearances were so important in the fashionable world – nothing changes, does it – that Tobias instantly sees the problem faced by his young cousin, Elspeth when Daisy brings it to him. She will never attract a suitable husband if she is only the bare bones of a lady. Daisy, however, can be relied upon to have a plan.