Liz's Little Book

I will be posting more details of courses and workshops - including that very special one in Italy -  soon - but if you're interested in learning to write romance then I have a new  how to book to tell you about  that could help you with your  novel.

It's Liz Fielding's  Little Book of Writing Romance

Liz has just released this book  as an ebook  this week. I knewshe was working on this project when we met last year, so I;ve asked her to give me a mini-interview about it to give you all the information you need.


Liz, can you tell me a little more about your Little Book of Writing Romance?

I've taken my model from the great thriller writer Elmore Leonard and I've left out the bits people skip over, kept it to bones of what a new writer needs to know. How to begin. Character. Emotion. Conflict.


What gave you the idea to write this? Did the ideas come from any workshops you've done in the past?
What will would-be authors find in this book

It all began quite a long time ago when I was approached by a publisher to produce a "little" book on writing for Mills and Boon. For various reasons it didn't happen, but I'd written the first chapter - Grabbing the Reader on the First Page - which you'll find on my website under "Writing". Then, this year, I did a talk on Humour and Emotion at the RNA Conference, talked to people interested in taking part in Mills and Boon's New Voices competition, mentored a finalist, and I realised that it was time to put together all the stuff I've learned over the years.



You say your book is a primer - will authors who have already tried submissions or read other books find things to help them in it?  (Personally I'm pretty sure they will -  so often it's not the advice that's being given but the way it's told that makes that light bulb moment happen and I'm sure your voice will reach so many people and help them.)

Thanks, Kate! There are some terrific how-to books out there. I always recommend your own 12-Point Guide, which is a fabulous book on the art of writing romance. Where mine differs is that I've gone with the basics, holding the hand of someone who isn't familiar with the publishing world, who is a total beginner. I've used lots of examples, broken down a scene to show what I'm doing. Can a more experienced writer benefit from this? I believe it will be useful for someone who has been submitting for a while without success. And I use the vital bullet points myself to make sure I'm getting the most out of every scene, thinking deeply enough about conflict, getting to know my characters. (Walking around a supermarket with your heroine will tell you a lot more about her than her star-sign!)


Where can readers who want to buy this book get hold of it?

My Little Book is online at Amazon (you don't have to have a Kindle, you can download it to your PC) and should be available on all other eBook platforms very shortly. It will be online everywhere  an eBook  (except Barnes and Noble - but will come as soon as Waterstones sign up for the Nook) by the end of the week, or so I am assured.




Thanks so much Liz! Congratulations on the publication of your 'little book' - I hope it's a great success!

As I said above I do believe that  the good thing about having a variety of how to books out there is that sometimes one author's way  of explaining things can work better for  a writer than any others - and it's always good to have two different approaches to anything in writing so you can see what works for you best. And  having been to some of Liz's workshops - and of course knowing her writing, I  know how helpful this book  is going to be.

An Open Letter To A 'Wannabe' Part One

OK , so many people know that I love helping new writers – I love answering question, watching them learn their craft, seeing lightbulbs go on in their heads and shining through their eyes when they get something and see why it has to be there or how to implement it in their own work. I run courses, give talks, critique manuscripts, I have written a couple of how to books. Some – like minds and would-be authors - love this . Others, for reasons I really just don’t get criticise me for training up the opposition – for telling innocents and stupids that writing is easy, that they’ll make good money – that yea, they’ll be published and it will all be wonderful.

I’m helping to flood the market with 2nd class, 3rd class books, I’m leading those innocents astray by not giving them the hard facts of the writing life. Oh yes, and I’m only doing this cynically because I have those how to books to sell.

Well let’s get one thing straight from the start – if I was expecting to make enough money to retire on with the 12 Point Guide then I’d really need to be certified. Yes, it’s sold well – for a ‘How To’ guide – but I won’t be troubling the tax man with the income. If it was all I had from my writing I’d be in real trouble! It wouldn’t even pay my gas and electricity bill.

This morning I got up to find an email in my inbox - from L a college student in America. L is graduating with a Psychology degree in a month or so. She had just picked up a copy of Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride at the store as a reward for studying for a ‘killer chem exam’. And she’d thought about writing – and she asked for advice.

I get lots of letters like this – and I don’t have time to answer them all in detail. Usually I have some basic notes that I send and a list of books to look at. But I thought I’d answer L’s questions here so that other ‘wannabe’ writers can have the answers too. And no – I’m not going to say that everything in the garden is beautiful and you’re on your way to fame and fortune, because you’re probably not.

The answer to L is going to be quite long - so I'm goingto spread it over several days or you'll be reading for hours.
So – L’s questions –

I've been reading romance, all sorts, since I was too young to be reading those kind of books. I feel like I could write one if I put my mind to it.

Well that’s a good start. A reader has a genuine love of and understanding for the genre. Readers know the differences between the lines, the type of stories each one deals with, the types of heroes and heroines, the range of conflicts. I always advise new writers to read read read – and then read some more. In your case, this bit’s been dealt with.

But – can you write one? Well let’s get one thing straight – I don’t know if you have any talent. I don’t know if you can write lively, easy to read narrative, create characters who live and breathe in the readers’ minds, add in vivid dialogue, a love people can believe in, create a conflict, maintain the pace, work it through and bring it all to a conclusion all in 50,000 words. I haven't seen a nything you've tried so I don’t know if you can write.

And if you don’t have talent then I can’t help. I can’t teach that. I can’t put in what isn’t there. I’ve had some very rough manuscripts to critique – some will never, ever make it. Some were rough through inexperience and lack of focus – they had a raw writing talent underneath. I could help them and as a result some of them have succeeded.

Because they could write.

So
What does it take?

Talent, dedication, hard work, commitment, the ability to learn, to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again when you get a rejection. The ability to work with editors, to do revisions, to stick at it when things are going wrong and the Crows of Doubt are circling, cawing for your blood. And the ability to accept criticism from an objective (editorial) reader. Oh and an understanding of people helps – and experience of life – and courage . . .

And talent



More tomorrow

That delivery man again

So no sooner had I written yesterday's post than the delivery man was back at the door with more books. If he has to come to the house any more this week then the neighbours will be talking.

This time it was a huge box full of the 3rd editions of the Straightforward Guides - my Writing Romantic Fiction and the BM's Creative Writing, Freelance Writing and Writing Perfomance Poetry. As I said in a previous post, the 3rd edtion of Writing Romantic Fiction is expanded from the 1st ed but the same as the second. But the other books are expanded specially The Straightforward Guide to Creative Writing is which has an Active Writing section of exercises. It's always fascinating to see what a 'new look' will do to a cover - and these have come a long way from the way they first appeared in 1998.

I had to look that up - I didn't know it was quite that long ago that we originally wrote them. The novels I had out in that year were The Temptation Game, Wife for a Day and Fiancée by Mistake. And Wife For A Day was my 25th title.

Another delivery was a parcel of foreign editions - from Hungary, Germany and Korea where they had a very festive edition of The Christmas Baby's Gift.

Obviously red was the theme of the day for book covers.

COMPETITION REMINDER:

As it's coming towards the end of March, just a reminder that my current contest to celebrate the publication of Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride is still running. Entries are accepted until April 15th and the prizes (2 of them) are:
An autographed book from Kate's backlist;
A Kate Walker book bag;

and
A beautifully crafted Shamrock bookmark as pictured here.

Details and the trivia question you need to answer can be found on the Contest page of my web site of over on My Tote Bag where lovely Lee Hyat is helping me with my contest entries. While you're there you can read the first interview with Abby Green whose very first book is now out in America and already on the Waldenbooks list.

And on I(Heart)Presents the discussion is about Sheikh romances - do you love them or dislike them? I've only written two sheikh stories myself. Desert Affair and At The Sheikh's Command. Well - three if you count the Writing Round Robin I worked on on EHarlequin and then I had some great unpublished authors to help me (Kate waves to any 'Hoods' who might be visiting.)The reason I wrote them was because the story called for a sheikh hero.

My own personal favourites are by my special friend the brilliant Michelle Reid who wrote the fabulous The Sheikh’s Chosen Bride and The Arabian Love-child. I was so intrigued by Rafiq who had a secondary role in the first that I was thrilled to see him get his own book in the second. And The Sheikh’s Chosen Bride is a brilliant example of the way that a great writer can show how two people can be totally in love with each other from the very first page and yet the conflict can tear them apart simply because each one of them is trying to be honourable.

What about you? Do you have any favourite Sheikh stories? If you want to join in the discussion you'll find it here

"How To Write . . ." Books - answering some questions

According to Amazon, 25th March is the official publication date of the 3rd Edition of my first How To book - A Straightforward Guide to Writing Romantic Fiction. The new cover is much more attractive than the 2nd edition - and way better than the sickly pink first edition which had a clichéd pen and a rose on the cover too!

I've had several people wondering about this edition and whether they want to buy it so in the interests of accuracy, I thought I'd better clear things up.

Question 1. Is this edition of The Straightforward Guide different from the previous one?

Answer: On the Amazon page for this book, it says that this is the 3rd revised edition. This is not strictly true. If you have a copy of the 2nd revised edition, then the 3rd has not been revised from the second edition (except to do basic changes like returning the line Tender Romance to it's 'new' - and original title of Romance). So if you have the orange and black edition of this book, you do not need to buy the 3rd edition. Unless of course you want one that no longer tells you about the 'invisible heroes' who are listed under the topics on the back cover. These have now become the 'irresistible heroes' I actually wrote about and not the invisible ones the publisher made a mistake about in printing.

However - if you have a sickly pink first edition of the Straightforward Guide - then the third edition is very definitely revised and expanded from then.

The second question I'm getting is - Is the Straightforward Guide the same as the 12 Point Guide - do they reproduce the same material?

The answer is that they are not the same. The Straighforward Guide was the first guide I ever wrote - it was created for a publisher who had a series of short informative guides to all sorts of topics - Book-keeping, Consumer Rights, Speech Writing etc are all covered in the series. The BM was commissioned to write Guides to Creative Writing, Freelance Writing - and he later added Performance Poetry and he suggested I might like to add a guide to writing Romance. The first edition was very very basic - they really were only 'guides' - but by the second edition I added more material including a Q&A I had done on the eHarlequin site (The 5 W's - Who, Where, When, What and Why - of writing romance. A very basic and skeletal description of the 12 Point Plan for writing Romance, and an article on targetting your work) . This is the information that is in the 3rd edition now.

Kate Walker's 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is a much expanded and very much more detailed book that has developed from that original 12 Point Guide chapter. It is not just a 'how to' guide but includes questions and working suggestion - things to think about and things to write to develop the skills discussed in the main chapters. It is partly a workbook as well as an information book.

The 12 Point Guide is also the book that has won the Cata Romance Reviewers' Choice Best Book for Writers 2004

Final question - is the 12 Point Guide available in the USA/Canada and Australia and if so where.

Answer - Officially the 12 Point Guide is available in America- it can be ordered through bookshops. Though from the number of letters I've had about it, it seems that most bookshops are saying they can't order it! Hmmmph.
So - a quick run down of information on where this book can be bought:
Australia:
From Dymocks (inc on line) and other bookshops and to order from Footprint Books

USA: Amazon.com B&N.com
It can also be ordered from bookshops via Trans-Atlantic publications

UK- both books can be ordered from good bookshops and are available at Amazon.co.uk

So I think that's the questions answered and the details on these books are up to date.

Oh - one final point.
The first edition of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is rapidly running out and the publishers are looking into a second edition. It will be a very slightly different format - basically a smaller sized book - but the same material inside. They hope to get this edition into actual Barnes & Noble shops though B&N say there is no demand for UK authors. So if you'd like to help get this book more easily available for unpublished writers of romance (and not have to wait for Amazon shipping time - and pay their delivery costs ) why not ask for it in your local bookshop - tell them where they can order it from and create a demand?

PS I'm running some courses on the 12 Point Guide this year - one in Fishguard, Wales (details on my web site) and one in Leicester with the Arts Council Write Away courses - details to follow late. If you'd like any more information on either of these, then