Elizabeth Boyle's Blog, page 23

5 Things About Elizabeth

Avon Author Kay Thomas pinned me down and asked me to answer a few questions about writing for her. I, in turn, am forcing her to do the same. Here are my answers, and hers will run on Monday.

KT: What’s the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing?

EB: To let go of comparisons to other writers. As an author you need to learn to be confident in your own stories and tell them from the heart. If you start comparing your stories to others, you are missing the most important point: that other person could not have told your story. It was yours to tell. Own it. Write your heart into it. And don’t worry about what other people’s successes or stories. You have no control over that.

KT: Do you have a particular writing regimen?

EB: People tend to be surprised at how much of my books I hand write before I ever sit down at the keyboard. I go through piles of notebooks and scraps of paper while writing a book. I find that my muse has a mind of her own and when she gets going it is best to sit down and write everything that is coming out—just get it down as fast as I can. I carry a small notebook with me always.

Then I let the notes mull a bit and when I do sit down at the computer I use as a starting point. Sometimes I have fully realized scenes, other times it is only a smattering of dialogue—but those bits are usually enough that when I start to transcribe them, the rest sort of unfolds before me. And when I have days I don’t know what to do, I open the notebook and just start typing from it verbatim and that will often times grease the story wheels to get me moving forward.

KT: Do you outline an entire book before writing it?

EB: Yes. But I never follow it. I find that as the story unfolds, threads shift and rise up out of the fabric that I never expected, but they are character elements, surprises that I cannot ignore—they are gems in the rough. So the roadmap I start with is always a guide, but not a hard and fast route.

KT: What’s your best advice for aspiring writers?

EB: This is a craft. And you don’t get it right the first time. No one does. By way of example, I knit. A lot. And even though I’ve knit since I was seven, I know that with every project there are moments when I tear it back or tear it apart completely and redo it until it works. That is how you learn. Never think your words are carved in stone. They are not. They always need to be reshaped, sharpened and polished—even the ones that seem brilliant when they come tumbling out of the keyboard. So many people seem to rush their work—this grand race to call themselves published. But if no one wants to read your story because it is rough or uneven, because it isn’t polished, what is the point. It takes patience, rewriting and a dedication to craft to be successful in this business.

KT: What’s next for you? Can you tell us a little about it?

EB: I have two upcoming projects coming out. My first novella for Avon Impulse, Have You Any Rogues? (November 12th) and the third book in my Rhymes with Love series, If Wishes Were Earls (December 31st). The novella was a kick to write—Lady Henrietta Seldon has fascinated me since she came on stage in Along Came a Duke. Then as I was writing And The Miss Ran Away With The Rake, there is a scene where she and Viscount Dale cross paths—just for a blink, and in that moment I could see them staring daggers at each other and knew there was a story there. I LOVE those moments.

And of course, If Wishes Were Earls, is finally the story of Harriet and Roxley, who have been in love with each other for years. Again, when they first happened upon each other in Along Came a Duke, I knew they were perfect for each other. But happily ever after is never that easy. I loved putting Roxley and Harriet through their paces in If Wishes Were Earls, if only to see them find their way together through all sorts of adversity—and rightly so. A happy ending is earned.

Read an excerpt from Have You Any Rogues here, and an excerpt from If Wishes Were Earls here.

Kay Thomas writes romantic suspense and her upcoming book, Hard Target, will be available November 12th. Learn more about Kay at KayThomas.net.

Join Kay and Elizabeth as they take over the Avon Facebook page, Monday, November 11th at 7pm ET for an evening of live chats, prizes and mayhem.

Eight Ways to Maximize Your Writing Time

If you are like me, your writing time is both precious and never long enough. So here are some of my methods to make sure you are getting the most pages out of your limited time.

1) Stop reading email, posting on Twitter and checking your Facebook account. Okay, maybe that’s a little drastic, but how about printing out this little rule and stick it on your computer screen: Writing first, all the rest second. To make is easier, turn off all your notifications that will beep or pop up on the corner of your moniter. You don’t need to see “what’s going on” every second of the day. Especially not during your writing time.

2) Do as much pre-writing as possible. Take notes while you eat breakfast and lunch. Sketch out dialogue bits, scene ideas, setting descriptions. When you sit down to write, type these notes right into your manuscript and they are usually enough to catapult you into your story without too much hemming and hawing.

3) Write from a well-thought out outline or synopsis. These are the roadmap of your story and will get you from A to Z in the quickest route. You wouldn’t drive from Seattle to Dallas without a good map, so why write a novel without one?

4) Use a timer. When I get really behind or am on deadline, I use a kitchen timer. I set it for anywhere between five and twenty minutes and tell myself that I have that much time to write X amount of pages. That little ticking bomb really gets my fingers flying.

5) Turn off the internal editor. When I write my first draft, my only goal is to get the story down. If there are missing transitions, holes in the dialogue or in a scene, or a word, sentence or paragraph that just doesn’t sound quite right, all of that can be fixed when I do my revisions. Remember: Revising a manuscript is an entirely different process than writing the first draft.

6) Set a specific time each day and amount of time to write. Make this time sacred. You’ll find that as your daily writing time approaches, your imagination, thoughts and focus start moving toward your story automatically.

7) If you find yourself stuck and unable to think of anything, just write the dialogue for the scene. Or describe the scene. Anything related to that part of the book to keep your fingers moving. If you are really and truly stuck, go back to your synopsis and then move to the next scene.

8) Give yourself a writing night out once a week. I get out of the house, away from the family, and go to Starbucks, where I review notes and plan my writing for the next week. Sometimes I use these hours to review the pages I’ve written recently or just brainstorm. The change in scenery and the lack of interruptions will allow you time to concentrate and come away revitalized and refueled (literally) to get to work.

What are some of your favorite tricks to maximize your writing time?

NaNoWriMo Prep: Digging Deep into Your Characters

Let’s get to work on what I love most: creating characters. I love my characters. I love spending time with them, mulling over the problems facing them, how they are going to respond, but most importantly, how are they going to respond and why do they respond that way. So as you start to plan your month of writing consider some of this advice for helping round out and develop your characters.

From birth, we all collect experiences that shape how we do everything. And if you want to create living, breathing characters you have to consider their experience as you, the author, write their story. Let me use Lady Hermione Marlowe, the heroine in my book, Tempted by the Night, as an example.

Hermione, much to her distress, is one of those Marlowes. The ramshackle family of the Earl of Walbrook, and the stigma of her missing father and her rather flamboyant mother follows her like a pair of great big, ugly traveling trunks. In the world of being perfect and being from the right family and making the perfect match, her parents, as much as she loves them, are two strikes she can do nothing about.

As I created Hermione, first in His Mistress by Morning as Charlotte’s best friend and the hero’s sister, and then by writing her story, I was struck by how deeply her insecurities ran. And therein lay the character flaw that I mined like gold. She is the daughter of an earl and therefore should be quite secure and lofty, and yet she is as lost in Society as the greenest country lass. But this flaw works because it strikes a chord in all of us. It will resonate with every reader because everyone has been tied up by their own insecurities at one time or another. And because she tries so hard to overcome them, we as the reader root for her to succeed. Because her success on a very deep level is ours as well.

So once I had discovered how deep her insecurities ran, especially when it came to her feelings for Rockhurst (to the point of throwing up when he comes near her), I then had to give her the tools and the power to overcome her fears. Because Hermione wanted everyone, especially the Earl of Rockhurst, to see her as an elegant young lady of Society, I therefore did the complete opposite and made her invisible. Unseen. Nadda. Nothing. And slowly Hermione discovers that outside her self-imposed limits, the strictures of a Society where she will never be just another member of the herd, she can come into her own.

So take your hero and heroine in your story, and dig around inside them and ask yourself:

1) What are their greatest fears? Try to discover something that most everyone can identify with.

2) How can you take your character right up to the dragon’s lair and have them face that fear?

3) What lessons, tools, and help will they need to win the battle?

4) What can we as readers learn from our character’s lesson?

This exercise helps outline your character’s development, steps in your plotting and the story arc. And one last note: make your heroine likeable. Nothing tanks a book faster than a bitchy heroine. Would you want her for your cubical mate in an office? If the answer is no, then why are you spending November telling her story?

Likeable sells. So does a depth to character that tugs at the heart. Find what tugs at your heart and then write.

Quick Tips for Creating a Brazen Heroine

As you are working towards getting your story idea fleshed out, you will want to get your heroine ready for some Brazen action. Here is a quick checklist for creating the Brazen heroine. Sit down with a notebook or your character sheet and consider the following:

1) Write down your definition of Brazen

2) Look for examples from real life or history

Determine society’s boundaries
Research how other women broke those rules

3) Create your Heroine by giving her:

An insurmountable goal or roadblocks
Compelling motivation
Skills and/or help
Experience to help her deal with the world she’s about to be thrown into

4) Cast your Hero and make him:

The heroine’s equal
Intelligent
With the strength of will

And if you’ve made your heroine Brazen enough, God help your poor hero. LOL.

Buns & Roses Recap

Had such a blast at the Buns & Roses Tea this past weekend in Dallas! Of course any weekend that involves Cathy Maxwell, Lorraine Heath, Candis Terry, Sophie Jordan, and Kerrilyn Sparks is going to be a hoot. Here are just so fun pics from the day, so enjoy!

Texas went all out to make me feel welcome–even at the airport. LOL!

 

 

Lovely place settings–including autograph books for everyone to have the authors sign–which gave everyone a chance to meet, well, everyone!

Sophie “Catwoman” Jordan and Kerrilyn Sparks wearing a jacket that should be mine.

 

The basket I really wanted to get but Darynda Jones outbid me. I would despise her if she wasn’t so darn nice!

 

Former Avon Lady Rebecca Wade with the current maven of all things Avon, Cathy Maxwell.

Everyone looked so lovely and dressed up, I had to take a picture from the podium to make sure they got their moment in the spotlight.

 

The other side of the room was moving, hence the photo is unfocused. It has nothing to do with the photographer. I told them to hold still.

 

Samantha Tennant with the lovely auction quilt her mother bought for her. Oh, and me helping her hold it up for all to admire.

 

Jaye Wells and Cathy Maxwell behaving badly. They wouldn’t hold still either.

 

Becky Wade and Gwen from Fresh Fiction.

 

Me and my totally cool table. They are the loveliest ladies!

 

The lucky bidder for my Rogue poster. I was having some problems letting her take it home. Uh, mine.

 

Take a Sneak Peak inside a Rogue

Let’s just get to the good stuff, shall we? I’ve posted the excerpt for Have You Any Rogues?! And apparently I do, Yes, Sir, Yes, Sir, Three Rogues will do. Tee Hee.

As a little backstory, I got the idea for Have You Any Rogues? while I was writing And The Miss Ran Away with the Rake. There is a scene, late in the book, where Crispin Dale comes to Owle Park and demands that Preston hand over his cousin, Daphne. As Crispin was there, glowering on the front steps, I realized–or at least in my imagination–I saw Henrietta Seldon glaring back at him–and I just knew they had HISTORY. Lots of it.

All that all was left to do was to explore what had happened to them before and what might happen if they were tossed together yet again.

I love it when a good bought of glowering and glaring ends in a happily ever after, don’t you?

Rake in the Summer Savings

Avon is having a fun summer promo this year: Escape with a Rake! And no, they don’t want you to wander off with wayward garden implements, but with some of hottest, wickedest, devilish rakes out there–and for only $1.99!

Here’s your summer raking, er, reading list:

by Elizabeth Boyle

And the Miss Ran Away with the Rake

Daphne Dale thought she’d found her perfectly sensible gentleman until she met Lord Henry Seldon.

This Rake of Mine

When the rakehell Lord Jack Tremont kissed Miranda Mabberly, mistaking her for his mistress, neither realized his reckless act would cost Miranda her reputation, her fiancé, and her future.



by Sara Bennett

Led Astray by a Rake

Beneath Livy Monteith’s icy blonde exterior beats a passionate heart, a heart that will not abide by society’s rules. But even her friends at Miss Debenham’s Finishing School are shocked by the man she desires. Lord Dominic Lacey, the man they call Wicked Nic, and is every bit a scoundrel.

by Suzanne Enoch

Reforming a Rake

Alexandra Gallant is a governess extraordinaire—and if it weren’t for that unfortunate incident at her last position, she wouldn’t now be forced into the employ of Lucien Balfour, the most notorious rake in London. Though the sinfully attractive earl hired her to teach his young cousin, his seductive whispers and toe-curling kisses suggest he has something far less respectable in mind .

The Rake

When a young lady who vows revenge on the rakish lord who loved and left her, she finds herself unexpectedly caught in Cupid′s net along with the handsome viscount when her plan to love and leave him backfires.

by Sarah Maclean

Nine Rule to Break When Romancing a Rake

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell, a plain but wealthy 28-year-old who refuses to marry a man who only desires her fortune, acts on a long-held crush and flings herself at Gabriel St. John, marquess of Ralston. Gabriel finds her antics more amusing than enticing, but his half-wild half-sister needs an impeccable chaperone and he chooses Callie for the role. Their proximity creates an infinite series of opportunities for the rake to practice his wiles on the more than willing wallflower.

21 Essential Books on Writing

No need to hide the fact, I love writing. And I love learning about my craft–so when I asked a number of my friends, who have between them like a gazillion books in print, their all-time favorite books on writing, I discovered some new faves and of course the ones I consider some of the best. So here it is, the 21 Essential Books on Writing in no particular order.

1. Making a Literary Life by Carolyn See. I have not read this one, but when I asked Liza Palmer her favorites, this title was out of her lips without any hesitation. Now on my TBR.

2. On Writing by Steven King. This is the audio version, because face it, it is Steven King reading Steven King.

3. How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat. Another book on Liza Palmer’s must read list. As she explained, “Don’t we all want elements of suspense in our novels to make them page turners.” True that!

4. Bird by Bird by Annie Lamont. This was Megan Crane/Caitlyn Crewes first choice out of the gate, and she’s picked a true classic, one that is on everyone’s list. But have to admit, I have never read it. Time to change that.

5. Save the Cat by Blake Synder. I love this book. It helps you see fiction through a screenwriter’s focused eye and keeps you on target. Love it!

6. The Courage to Write by Ralph Keyes. Another book on Megan’s list. Another for my TBR.

7. Writing from the Inside Out by Dennis Pulumbo.

8. The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell. I adore this book. The perfect pick up and read a short chapter for your daily kick in the pants. JoAnne Ross says it is a perfect book for “quick encouragement.” Can’t we all use that from time to time? Keep this book within reach.

9. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Another one of those books that is always on the top of writer’s lists of inspiring and helpful books.

10. On Writing Well by William Zinsser

11. The Writers Journey by Chris Vogler. If you haven’t read this book, make this the first one you pick up. The best book on novel writing out there. And as Christina Dodd said, (and rightly so) “Not boring.”

12. Reading like a Writer by Francine Prose.

13. If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland.

14. Writing Dialogue for Scripts by Rib Davis. Lori Wilde recommended this book and called it an “eye opener.” Another for the list.

15. Walking on Alligators by Susan Shaughnessy. This book is another one for quick inspiration and daily affirmations and exercises.

16. The Writing Life by Annie Dilliard.

17. How to Write Your Best Story by Philip Martin. This and the Annie Dilliard book both came with the recommendation: “Good advice, well written.” What more could you ask for?

18. Goal Motivation & Conflict by Deb Dixon. I will be honest. This book has never sung to me. But on the other hand, I know so many writers who rave and love it. I mean LOVE it. So I could hardly leave it off.

19. Break into Fiction by Mary Buckham and Dianna Love Snell. Love Mary Buckham–and her workshops are so popular. So if you can’t get to a workshop, then the book is the next best thing.

20. Scene and Structure by Jack Bickham. The quintessential and essential nuts and bolts book for every writer. Love this book.

21. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. One of my all-time favorite books–a great nuts and bolts read for honing and making your novel standout.

Are there books missing from the list? Add your own in the comments.

Winners!

Here is the list list of winners from my 20th Book Giveaway Contest. Winning entries came from my Newsletter subscribers, my Facebook fans and my Twitter peeps. I want to thank everyone for taking the time to enter and for your enthusiasm over my 20th book, AND THE MISS RAN AWAY WITH THE RAKE.

Facebook/Twitter winners:

June Manning ‏

Stephanie Cecil Putteet

Jennifer Richardson Bradley

Cindy Hughes

Beth Cottone

Tammy Sommervold

Elizabeth Sells

Crystal Broyles

Karen Haas

Donna Hammer Durnell

If your name is listed above, to claim your prize you will need to email me (elizbo AT elizabethboyle DOT com) your mailing address before April 4th. Any unclaimed prizes will be given away in a second chance drawing.

Newsletter winners:

Rosemary Krejsa

Kay Plough

Judy Jeanes

Linda Price

Ana Sosa

Dale Kirk

Jane Irish Nelson

Melena Verity

Damaris Sanchez

Silvana Seraji

If your name is listed as a Newsletter winner, you can just sit tight. Your box will be mailed to you this coming week.

Contest Coming! Sign up Now!

To celebrate this week’s release of my 20th book, And the Miss Ran Away with the Rake, I’m throwing a cyber-party with tons of prizes–20 boxes filled to the brim with books and goodies, and author swag. I’ve been shaking down all my author friends and cleaning out the contest closet to make sure these boxes are loaded.

But the first 10 boxes will go only to my newsletter subscribers! If you are a subscriber to my newsletter, all you have to do is hold tight until you get my newsletter on Tuesday and follow the instructions to enter.

Not a subscriber? Just get signed up before midnight, PDT, Monday, March 25th. You can sign up here.