Link

I don't know why this didn't post as a link the first time....let's try again, shall we?? Hope to see you at the new site!

http://www.maiseyyates.com/

Maisey

Moving...

Hello everyone! I'm in the process of moving my blog...actually, it IS moved, I just have some formatting to do on some of the older posts. And when I say "I" I mean my husband.

So, you can all migrate over to www.maiseyyates.com (this is my starting attempt at getting all 'pro' or something like that...)

Hope to see you there!

Maisey

Character and Building it

There's been a lot of discussion over at http://jackieashenden.blogspot.com/ about characterization. One of the commenters suggested using astrology to help nail down a character, and that got me thinking of all kind of fun things a person might try...

The Myers-Briggs personality test...taken as your hero or heroine of course! Here's a link: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp After you score it, make sure you click on the link that will break down what the personality type means. (I'm ESFJ, for those who wanna know!!)

Also there's the 'temperament test' http://www.oneishy.com/personality/personality_test.php (I'm Sanguine Choleric)

And a little Chinese Zodiac (I'd be the tiger!)http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/chinese-zodiac.htm

Have fun!

Professionalism

I've often joked that the process of submission, rejection, revision, submission, revision...so forth...is like the world's longest job interview. Your submission is your resume and the ensuing revisions and contact with the editor are like your interview.

Can you take direction? Do you meet deadlines? Are you easy to work with? Or are you a whiny, petulant artist who believes their work is perfect on arrival? The editor is going to get a sense for all of this via revisions and other contact.

Writing is a competitive business. And it is a business. We, the writer, need to make a product that the distributor can sell. That's our job. Not only do we have to write something great, we need to do it their specifications, and, I believe, we need to be easy to work with.

Because talent is only a piece of it. It matters, trust me, but it isn't the only thing.

Comp Results: The Saga Begins

Well, there's an absolute controversy brewing on the ihearts site due to the fact that the winner and runner up for Presents Modern are published authors. Now, as Jane pointed out, if they are not currently on contract with HM&B this not a rule violation. I will say that upfront.

However, having had two friends who entered Presents chapters, I understand why people are upset about it.

So, I'm not going into the right or wrong or fair or unfair. What I will go into is this: You don't need the contest.

The contest has given the winners an amazing opportunity to bypass the slush pile, which will save lots of time, trust me. But, as someone who didn't do well in comps (to put it mildly) and who made it through slush to The Call, I can tell you, it happens. Just because you don't place in a comp or get good comp feedback does not mean you don't have talent.

People have said on ihearts that the winners of the Presents category didn't NEED the contest. Well, no one NEEDS it. Not in any way minimizing what was won here, because trust me, getting an editor to work with you is huge. HUGE.

I got mine through slush. I needed more time to refine some things, but the editor saw the potential, even if it wasn't all the way there yet. She helped me get there.

I emailed my editor to ask her if I could enter this contest because when it was announced I was not under contract, neither did I really think I would be any time soon, and she told me that I didn't need the prize since I had an editor already. That made my week...month...let me tell you.

Success comes from these competitions, look at Lucy King and Lynn Raye Harris, and very soon, Gill Clegg :-). But success also comes from other places. This isn't the end. For me, a 'failed' contest was the beginning.

Keep writing, friends. And submit, submit, submit.

Congrats to the Winners!!

Okay, I am bursting with absolute pride and joy, because my dear friend and critique partner Jilly, Gill Clegg on the iheartpresents site, has won the Modern Heat category of the Harlequin contest!!

Her chapter was truly amazing. I had the wonderful opportunity to read it before she hit send, and I can honestly say the feedback she got from the group on it was, 'You're brilliant. It's brilliant, don't change a thing!'

She's a wonderful person, a wonderful writer, and my wonderful 'sister.' She spent lots of hours critiquing my writing and helping me get my own book in 'up to publishable standard' shape. I can't wait until she gets The Call!

So, sorry for those who didn't place, but, if it helps, I was in this exact same position the last two comps I entered. Not only did I not place, I did not receive personalized feedback. And it was tough. But, that wasn't the end of my journey, it was the beginning. So get out there and sub sub sub!!!

Congrats again, Jilly! I love you much and I'm so happy!

Comp Announcement Tomorrow!

The Iheartpresents comp results are going to be announced tomorrow! Best of luck to all who entered!

The Fangirl Delights Keep Coming!

I just submitted my The Call story post to be posted on iheartpresents on Dec. 21st! The Harlequin fangirl that lives inside of me is dying with glee. Seriously. It's just a wonderful added bonus to not only be a full-fledged Presents fan, but a soon-to-be-published author with the line I love the most!

Yay!!

Music and Writing

This conversation got started on Twitter and I thought I'd move it over here.

For me, music is just about the ultimate inspiration. I'm from a musical family, married to a musician, and it's always been a hugely important part of my life. (right up there with books!)

I have a playlist that is home to a lot of my favorite songs that have been a huge part of my MSs for the past few months. Not every song was a 'theme song' for an MS, but I have each of them on there for a reason.

Well, Paolo Nuitini is on there because my three year old likes that song. Anyway, enjoy my inspiration! And, share some of your own...what inspires you?

Title and Release Date

Many of you may have already heard this, but I'm just enjoying typing it continually because it all makes it much more real!

My title and UK release date landed in my inbox yesterday, and it looks like it's slated for August of 2010 with the title His Virgin Acquisition. (so fun!)

I haven't slept much since my Call came because now it's like every night is Christmas eve and I can't sleep because I want so much to be up experiencing the morning I know is coming. This is what it's like to be doing what you love so much.

I am counting my blessings.

Maisey

Blog

Okay....apparently The Blog is eating comments. So I thought...maybe if I started a new post it would kinda right itself...

Oh! I got asked to blog on I Heart Presents about my call! Should be on or around Dec. 21st! And I am so looking forward to that. One of the coolest things...well, okay, this whole thing is beyond cool. And yes, I said beyond cool. Getting published didn't suddenly make me not a big geek. :-) Anyway, one of the coolest things is that I am such a major Presents fan.

I've always written, but it wasn't until I picked up a Presents about two and a half years ago that I knew what I wanted to write. And it wasn't only my dream to get published, but to be a Harlequin Presents author. I wanted the white cover with the red stripe and the circle and the beautiful people. So blessed to have it!

You've just got to go for your dreams. Why not?

The Call

When I got up this morning and grimaced at my alarm clock, I did not think I would be getting any kind of life changing news. I was thinking I have to go get my son enrolled in preschool, go buy a backpack for him, clean the kitchen, the living room...etc.

I did not think I would be getting The Call.

I checked my email at about 7:30 and discovered I had an email from my editor asking if she could call me and chat about my MS. So of course I emailed her straight back with something like "heck to the yes". About a half hour after that came The Call.

I've been offered a two book contract with Harlequin Presents. Which I said yes to, of course! Actually, she said, we'd like to buy your book and I said something horribly clever like "well, I'd like to sell it to you. "*snerk*

So yes, I'm in shock a little bit. But I am set to be a published author. For the romance line I love the most. It is my dream come true and to have it happen so soon in my life is more than I could ask or hope for.

Thanks to God, my family, my editor, and last, but oh so definitely not least, the Sisterhood. Without you girls it wouldn't be happening and I love you all so much!

Get Published Quick! Write a Romance! (or...hahahahahahaha!)

We had an interesting discussion in my crit group yesterday about loving your genre. Because if you don't, your reader will notice. If you're cynical about romance, or find the genre to be beneath you, the reader will notice.

Now, I think the majority of romance writers really love the genre, but I do think there are some who are sort of 'winking' at the reader. Or sneering, as the case may be. They have an attitude about it being a stepping stone on their way to the bigger and better. Well, I have news for you. Romance is about the biggest thing there is. As it's been pointed out, just about every genre has romance as a part of it.

What really burns my biscuits is when people act like they're going to get published quick by writing one of those romance novels. Like it's the pyramid scheme of fiction, or something.

But thinking that way does a big disservice to the writers of romance and the readers. And those of us who have been trying to get published for any length of time know it's not just a matter of 'boy meets girl, boy gets girl, writer sends to publisher, writer gets the contract.'

Like any other writer, we practice the craft. We learn about it. We refine it. We take it seriously. Not too seriously, which is something I love about the romance community. We know we're writing entertainment, but it's entertainment we love.

As I've said before, I love romance. I love to read it. I love to write it. And writing it is not a quick, simple way to get your name on a book cover. No matter your genre, I don't think there is a quick, simple way to do that that doesn't cost you a decent amount out of pocket.

Amen my fellow writers?

Alphas Again

Okay, yes, perhaps I've over posted on alphas. But they're darn tricky to write, because there is a fine line to walk between alpha and alphole sometimes, and no one wants to write the latter!

So my dear sister, Aideen, sent me this lovely quote that she saw on a documentary last night and I thought it was absolutely brilliant:

The true Alpha male is not a bully or a brute. He is the guy who is first to lead the charge for a worthy cause. He is supremely equipped, physically and mentally, to fight for success in the ultra-competitive world we inhabit.

The true Alpha male embodies the best characteristics of the male of our species, namely rugged outer qualities such as muscularity, strength and power, but also inner qualities such as confidence (without conceit), courage (without recklessness), commitment and a conscience.

The true Alpha male has the combination of physical and mental toughness but also a concern for other humans as a whole.

A true Alpha male meets the ideal of contemporary masculine excellence. In other words, the true Alpha male has all the core qualities of a hero.

The Internal Conflict, and How it conflicts Me Internally

I've done a post on internal conflict before, but it bears repeating. I give the whole subject a lot of thought, after all. As we all should, since getting it wrong seems to earn a lot of very talented writers some very fast rejection letters! I was fortunate that my own conflict issue has only gotten me revisions at this point.

I was reading a post on Waiting For the Call http://waitingforthecall.wordpress.com, and it got me to thinking about why internal conflict is so much more effective than external conflict. Then it hit me, it's about character development.

If the conflict is external it doesn't require the characters to confront anything more serious than a moustache twirling villain or a scheming maiden aunt. Internal conflict forces characters to confront the demons inside of themselves and really change in order to get to that place of Happily Ever After.

Because if the conflict was caused in the first place by Scheming Maiden Aunt, who told the hero the heroine didn't want to marry him because she couldn't stand the thought of being tied down to one man (hussy that she is!), well then, what's the say Moustache Twirling Villain won't enter the scene after the HEA and break them apart again?

But if the HEA is reached only after the hero or heroine is forced the confront the internal issues keeping them apart, and they have to change these parts of themselves that are the most damaged, or the most staunchly set in its way in order to find happiness with each other, well that's an HEA I can believe in. They had to bleed for their love and because of that it's all that more precious and real.

It isn't just about the hero slaying the dragons, he's got to slay the ones inside of himself. Because that is what makes a lasting relationship in life. Changing yourself and getting over old hurts...not easy things for us to do. So seeing a character face all of that in the name of love, changing and becoming better...well, that's much more satisfying than, "Sorry, darling, it's just that from my position in the bushes it looked like you were encouraging him to take liberties, not biting him and pushing him away. Now that I know we can get married!"

So, what's your take on the whole conflict thing?

Maisey

Needing Some Laughs

I'm in desperate need of some levity today. Has been an interesting week in the writing world and I just can't handle all the seeeerrrriousness anymore!!

Good news: my oldest son has been undergoing autism evaluations. The verdict is that he isn't autistic, he's just stubborn. As one of my lovely writing partners put it, "he just does things at his own pace, what he wants, when he wants. Typical alpha."

His speech delay is affecting some of his behavior, but that will be quite easily corrected and he's already doing much better with eye contact and name orientation. When he feels like it.

And also, Smart Bitches (http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/) are doing a contest, deadline midnight EST tonight. They were challenging people to rename current Harlequin releases with the old 1950's flair. Winner gets the whole line of the vintage stationary (which I wants!!).

But me being me, I could not just sen

d in a text entry. I was too inspired. So, here's my Old Timey interpretation of 'Sheikh Boss, Hot Desert Nights' by Susan Stephens.

I call it...One For The Harem!

It made me so happy to make. :-) And it lifts my spirits.

So, how 'bout it people? Entertain me!! :-D I know...let's play a game! Comment me your fave OTT romance novel euphemisms...go for it.

I'll start!

"Log of Love" (this was not in a pubbed book, it was in a rejected MS...not mine!!!)

Maisey

You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth..

Nothing, and I do mean nothing, pulls me out of a story faster than wooden, unbelievable dialogue. And it's not an uncommon problem, even in published books.

So what can be done to guard against this hideous, heinous problem?

In a lot of ways, I think it's an extension of character development. Who is your character? How old is she? Where is she from? What's her socio-economic class? Is she loud or soft-spoken? Brash or timid? All of these things are going to change the way she speaks. A thirty-something career woman is going to speak differently than her grandmother or her sixteen year old sister.

For example, in this snippet from one of my MSs, my heroine Stacey is completely outspoken. She's from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak, and she doesn't do well censoring her thoughts. Jack, the hero, while also from the West Coast of the US, was raised in a wealthy family. Control is important to him and he isn't the kind of person to just run off at the mouth. (scary offering up my own dialogue as an example, but here it goes...)

She looked past him. “I want you to know, I tried to call you. I did. I left a message with your PA and you never called back, and so I came here to see you, only I couldn't get in to see you, so I was just going to go home.”

“You're rambling.”

“Yeah, I do that when I'm nervous. But you try telling some guy you barely know that you're pregnant and see you calm you feel.” She clapped a hand over her mouth in a belated attempt to stop the uncontrollable flow of words from escaping.

Jack's eyes narrowed. “You're what?”

“Uh...pregnant.”

“And this has something to do with me?”

Her blood reached the boiling point. “No. I thought I'd come all this way to let you know I got knocked up by some random guy. So, it's been real, I'll look you up next time I'm in the area.”

His temper snapped. “This is not the time for sarcasm.”

She let out an indignant huff. “Well, ask a stupid question.”

“So, you're telling me it's my baby?” he began to pace the room. He felt dangerously close to losing his trademark cool. In every situation in his life, business or personal, he was always in control. Except, it seemed, with Stacey.

“Of course it's your baby! Do you think I hopped out of your bed and into someone elses?”

His blue eyes flashed dangerously. “Well, you hopped into mine pretty fast.”

Her cheeks flamed. “You hopped just as fast as I did.” Of all the chauvinistic double standards.

He had the decency to look somewhat cowed by that. “I'm sorry. That was uncalled for.”

Especially with Stacey, I don't let proper grammar get in the way of creating realistic flow in the conversation. (who am I kidding? I don't let proper grammar stand in the way of anything...) And I wasn't out to make Jack sound overly stiff, just demonstrate a subtle difference in the way they react to things. And that she, like most women, has ten words to his every two. :-)

Run-ons, fragments and all kinds of grammar no-no's sound a lot more realistic than a perfectly structured sentence that reads like an homage to proper syntax.

Contractions (the pregnant lady grips her belly at the usage of that one) are another thing. I can't tell you how annoyed I get reading this in a book, "I am glad that you came. You are going to owe me for being late." "Yes, I know. I am sorry that I was late. It is icy out on the road and I did not want to drive unsafely."

BAHHH!!!! Now, maybe your character talks that way, and if he does, fine, but if that's the case then it will feel natural, an organic part of the character, instead of just stilted and unreal.

One good way to see how a section of dialogue is flowing is to read it out loud. Does it sound like something people would say? Like something your character would say? Like something they would say in the era you're MS is set in?

Don't look for a post on writing beautiful prose from me though, as that's just not my thing. It's a struggle really. But if any of you want to post on it, I'd be happy to go glean info from it...

So do you find writing dialogue easy or hard? What are your tips and tricks for making it real? What challenges come for those of you writing in different times or even different worlds?

Maisey

Tone of Voice

The MS that I just finished was a lot darker than what I generally write. We had a dead wife and all kinds of baggage between the H and h, and while there was humor (I simply can't help but add some!) the overall tone was a little bit heavy.

In contrast, the MS I just started is much lighter. Of course, a lot of that is owed to the situation and the characters. They're not coming from as dark of a place, which makes the overall feel of it much different. And so much depends on who the characters are.

My heroine, Caitlin, has just discovered her fiancee in a very compromising position with her sister, and while it's a heartbreak for her, she's handling it with a little bit of humor. Not everyone, or every character, would handle it this way, but after the twelve hour crying jag she's more interested in moving on than wallowing.

As this is my thirteenth MS *screams* I've noticed that, while my voice is my voice (and re-reading my own writing I can get very tired of hearing myself 'talk') the tone of it does change, even though my MSs are all aimed at the same line. So much depends on those characters!

In my third MS I had a heroine who suffered from foot-in-mouth disease and tended to just spout whatever came to her mind without censoring it. That, of course, made the tone of the MS lighter and added a bit more humor naturally. I've also had characters coming from a place it's hard to find humor in, and with that the overall tone was much darker.

I really enjoy writing both, just as I enjoy reading both. I like a good laugh and I like a good, heartfelt cry. If I can get both in the same book, as a reader or writer, all the better!

So, how 'bout you? Do you find the tone of your voice changes? Or are you a little less schizo than me? :-)

Maisey

Building Character

So, I'm starting a new MS and of course, this means I'm creating a new set of characters. Ideas always come to me a little bit differently, sometimes the characters come first, sometimes a scenario comes first. When the scenario comes first I tend to think 'well, okay...what characters would have the most conflict with this!'

In this instance, the plot came before the characters. I knew I needed a prince, and I knew I needed a commoner. Beyond that, I had nothing in mind. So I had some free rein in creating the people that wanted to inhabit my new little world.

First order of business was to figure out who the hero was. He had to be commanding, of course, and sexy, and powerful. He's a prince after all. And as I'm partial to dark haired, dark skinned men, he was lucky enough to be blessed with hose attributes. But that isn't who he is. So I had to dig deeper and figure out what his internal conflict was. What would hold this man, with wealth, power, everything he could want at his fingertips, back from falling straight into love with the heroine?

So as the picture of my hero began to form, the heroine started taking shape. I knew the hero was going to be all about duty and honor, a very straight laced, traditional kind of guy. And I knew that with that, I wanted a woman who didn't back down from a challenge, who had wit to spare and who knew how to hold her own. Her personality was formed as a foil to his, so that she was someone who would both compliment and challenge the hero that I had created. Even her looks were designed to be in opposition to something: the woman my hero is *gasp* engaged to.

Then I started going deeper into her, figuring out where she came from, and what things are hang-ups for her, what sorts of things would bother her and which things would roll off her back, and ultimately, what would be the breaking point for her in a relationship.

From the character histories that I created came all kinds of things about them, the way they move, the way they talk and the way they react in certain situations.

Caitlin, my heroine, for example, is from the Midwest and has a much more casual speech pattern than Renzo, the hero, who speaks English as a second language and grew up in a much more formal environment.

Character building, for me, is never the same thing twice. With my last MS I created two people with a fairly complete history and then though: What would be about the most difficult situation for them to deal with? Then I threw it at them. As far as internal conflict went, this made writing that MS pretty straightforward.

How do you do it? How do you build characters and bring them to life? What comes first, the characters or the plot?

Revisions

I've mentioned in past posts that I consider revision letters to be little chunks of gold. And being the proud owner of three, count 'em, three, that pertain to the same manuscript, I'm starting to get an idea of some of the pitfalls we unpublished writers can fall into.

So, I thought I would talk about some of the main points made in my letters, to give you an idea of what the editors are looking for, using my folly as an example. Hey, someone oughtta learn from my mistakes, right?

A lot of this relates specifically to Harlequin Presents/Modern, but also could be translated to any publisher of any genre, because good writing, good story construction, is pretty universal.

Pace: After my second round of revisions I had added in some new scenes, which was a bad idea, because while, in my mind, I was building a mood, in reality I was slowing the pace. I had added these scenes that were fine enough, but they weren't advancing the story. Especially in these shorter novels, pacing is a big deal.

Recently, with all the contests floating around, I've seen a lot of the people who judge contests saying that the biggest problem they see in entries is pacing. Too much time is spent describing the mundane and not enough time spent propelling the story forward.

I heard it described this way once: In the classics, like Dickens for example, description was much more important. The author might spend two paragraphs explaining a cobblestone street. Because maybe not everyone knew just what a cobblestone street was. Now we're inundated with images, we've seen much more, and in our movie culture we demand stories with a more movie-like pace, rather than one that spends four pages telling you about the gables of a house.

When editing, ask yourself: what is this scene doing to advance the plot? As it was put in my letter, "In this case the reader is almost waiting for the point of change, or a secondary layer of conflict."

And I didn't deliver it. What I had was some boring scenes that just sat there.

Conflict: Oh, this is the biggie. Conflict. Internal stinking conflict. In my letter it was put this way, "Readers respond to strong, believable conflicts that stem from the character’s fundamental personality, and which exist within the construct of the relationship itself."

Well, that means that (and this seems like a no duh, but it took be long enough to get it) the conflict comes from within the characters, not an outside source. External conflict is there, it's essential to most plots.

For example: The h and H have to get married to secure an inheritance, but they'll only stay married for one year.

But that's not what keeps them apart, it's not what drives them or what makes them who they are, and ultimately it's not the twelve month limit on the relationship that's going to end it, it's their own issues. And no, it can't be a crazy ex-girlfriend, I tried that. That's also external.

But what if the hero believes that no one can love him? His own mother left him, and since then, since acquiring his vast fortune, everyone in his life has just been a leech, after his wealth. So he rejects the heroine's love because he believes it to be false, based on an insecurity within him.

Probably not the best example, but I thought it up on the fly. And anyway, you get the idea. Internal conflict is not the crazy exes or evil aunts or half-heard conversations.

Character: Now, she had a lot of good to say about my characters, but she had some very valid points about some things I'd done wrong. This is from my third letter and she mentions that especially during revisions, it's easy to have characters slip out of...well...character.

With my hero especially, as I've mentioned, I had to really make him more alpha than he was in my first draft, and while I did that, there were moments where Old Marco came out and undermined New Sexy Marco. It was essential that I made sure I knew Marco so that I could read through the MS and know right away if he was acting 'off.'

As for my heroine, I was guilty, at times, of falling back on cliches. Elaine is a strong woman, educated and career oriented, yet at times she did things simply because it's what the heroines do. When Marco reached for her she gave a cry and pulled away. And it was brought up in the letter 'why would she give a cry?' Good question. Why would my very non-shrinking violet heroine turn into a swooning Southern Belle suddenly?

The editor's words were, "have faith in your characters. Don’t try and emulate what you have read before, but build believable, three-dimensional people who have honest reactions. Don’t fall back on the stereotype."

And that's great advice for every author and every MS in every genre. If the reader can't buy into the characters, they won't care about the book. We have to make people that are real, who say real things and react to situations the way real people would. Even if they are richer and prettier while doing it. :-)

And in closing, she reminded me to let my natural voice shine through, because that's what they want. Authors who can bring their own twist and flavor to the line, not retreads of what's been seen before.

Write happy, my friends!

Maisey