Michelle Styles's Blog, page 37
November 11, 2010
Perfect Pawz and Hardy
Hardy completed his Obedience Level 2 training last night, getting a gold envelope with his certificate for his trouble. (He refrained from eating it as he once had done with his discharge papers from the vets) And while he is not perfect (yet) he is much more under control and well on his way towards getting better manners. Anna Bradley who runs Perfect Pawz has been absolutely brilliant with her advice about how to get him to stop pulling so much and how to work with him instead of against him. I really like her training ethos. Lots of treats and praise. Behaviour Modification. She is currently working towards her kennel club accreditation and will become the only trainer in the North East to have it.
It was great to see how well all the dogs in the class performed under her guidance. Last night, I suddenly realised that Hardy was not the worst behaved and that ALL the dogs had their unique quirks. Poppy the Boxer who would not recall, Midge who won't sit and stay and Kobie who just wants to play and turn over on his back. Hardy simply likes to pull and refuses to heel. Hardy is brilliant on stay and can do recalls. It is going to take time and working with the walking on diagonals but after one week of trying this, I can already see a difference.
Anyway, Perfect Pawz covers the Tynedale, and Newcastle area and is based in Hexham Auction Mart. The classes are small and Anna takes the time to talk to everyone about their dog. The dogs really seem to respond to her. If you are looking for an excellent trainer in this area, do consider contacting Perfect Pawz.
I know I am glad I did. And Hardy did enjoy himself (particulary the high value treats of sweet chilli and port sausage) One great tip was to have a variety of treats and move up or down the scale depending on how Hardy was responding.
Perfect Pawz runs a variety of courses and Hardy may yet go on another one...
IN OTHER NEWS:
My Roman Undone has finally been scheduled. February 2011. Title to be decided. But hooray!
November 10, 2010
Rules and Story
When it comes to Story and rules -- there is one cardinal rule -- The Story Rules All. The Rules don't rule the Story.
Get your mind around that and you can see why certain published authors are able to *break* so many cardinal rules. Their story telling talent is such that they are able to hold readers in the palm of their hand and make them turn the page. And when they have finished, the reader wants to read MORE.
It is one of the big problems with writing, particularly when you are learning to work with your voice and talent -- how do you showcase your talent.
You can write a story that follows all the rules but feels flat and someone else can write something that on the face of it should not work but does and works really well.
The question becomes why.
And the technical answer is that it has a lot to do with how the micro tension is presented and how questions arise in a reader's mind. The reader needs to want to turn the pages.
The non technical answer is : A lot of writing is instinctual and therefore impossible to give an exact paint by numbers. It works because it works and the author has made the reader care.
Can writing be taught? Or can talent merely be honed?
Some of it is about learning the why behind the best practice and understanding how things work but still loving the mystery of the process. A good exmple is a rainbow -- I understand why a rainbow happens and what it is made up of, but I still get a thrill every time I see one. I still appreciate the beauty of it and I look for rainbows whenever I can.
Get your mind around that and you can see why certain published authors are able to *break* so many cardinal rules. Their story telling talent is such that they are able to hold readers in the palm of their hand and make them turn the page. And when they have finished, the reader wants to read MORE.
It is one of the big problems with writing, particularly when you are learning to work with your voice and talent -- how do you showcase your talent.
You can write a story that follows all the rules but feels flat and someone else can write something that on the face of it should not work but does and works really well.
The question becomes why.
And the technical answer is that it has a lot to do with how the micro tension is presented and how questions arise in a reader's mind. The reader needs to want to turn the pages.
The non technical answer is : A lot of writing is instinctual and therefore impossible to give an exact paint by numbers. It works because it works and the author has made the reader care.
Can writing be taught? Or can talent merely be honed?
Some of it is about learning the why behind the best practice and understanding how things work but still loving the mystery of the process. A good exmple is a rainbow -- I understand why a rainbow happens and what it is made up of, but I still get a thrill every time I see one. I still appreciate the beauty of it and I look for rainbows whenever I can.
November 9, 2010
Blogging at PHS
Today I am blogging at the Pink Heart Society about Mallorca and how it provided me with the epiphany that not only did I want to write, I wanted to write for HMB. If you have never been, it is a great island to visit and offers so much more than simply high rise appartments and badly designed resorts...
I managed to get an eye infection and so have been spending time away from the computer. Golden eye ointment works. However, it does need to be a new tube and you throw it away once the infection clears up.
Thankfully I am waiting on my revisions and simply doing the self-imposed ones for the very nice agent I met in Orlando. I do have time.
The weather here is dreadful and we have had to put the central heating on...
I managed to get an eye infection and so have been spending time away from the computer. Golden eye ointment works. However, it does need to be a new tube and you throw it away once the infection clears up.
Thankfully I am waiting on my revisions and simply doing the self-imposed ones for the very nice agent I met in Orlando. I do have time.
The weather here is dreadful and we have had to put the central heating on...
November 5, 2010
Good writing books
A couple days ago an aspiring author asked me for a few recommendations of good writing books as I had sent back a critique highlighting a few things like Show, don't tell and Resist the Urge to Explain also 1+1 = 1/2.
How did I know these things? the aspiring author asked as her critique partners had never really highlighted them before.
Short answer is through reading how to books.
I divide my how to books in several categories.
First there are the writing romance books -- my go to books here are Leslie Wainger Writing Romance for Dummies and Kate Walker's 12 step guide (3rd edition coming out soon!) Do not underestimate how much is actually in this genre and how rusty you can become on the basics! I did and had the serious revisions to prove it.
Then there are the books on structure:
Robert McKee Story (almost of the Harlequin editors have attended his seminar)
Blake Snyder Save the Cat
Donal Swain Techniques of the Selling Writer
Then there are the books on editing
Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King -- This is a great primer on explaining about things like Show Don't tell, Easy Physical beats, Resisting the Urge to Explain and why 1+1 = 1/2. They also explain why an adverb isn't necessarily your friend. I like knowing the WHY behind the practice. You can know about a rule but if you don't know the theory behind it, you won't why it works when you break it.
The Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon -- it is excellent and full of helpful advice on creating 3 d characters
And the Donald Maass books -- Writing the Break Out Novel plus workbook and The Fire in Fiction. he is brilliant on creating mirco tension and looking for low tension traps. Plus identifying points of change in a scene and really making them standout.
I do read other ones but those are my go to library as it were.
Above all though it is important to look at the Doughnut (the story) instead of the hole.
How did I know these things? the aspiring author asked as her critique partners had never really highlighted them before.
Short answer is through reading how to books.
I divide my how to books in several categories.
First there are the writing romance books -- my go to books here are Leslie Wainger Writing Romance for Dummies and Kate Walker's 12 step guide (3rd edition coming out soon!) Do not underestimate how much is actually in this genre and how rusty you can become on the basics! I did and had the serious revisions to prove it.
Then there are the books on structure:
Robert McKee Story (almost of the Harlequin editors have attended his seminar)
Blake Snyder Save the Cat
Donal Swain Techniques of the Selling Writer
Then there are the books on editing
Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King -- This is a great primer on explaining about things like Show Don't tell, Easy Physical beats, Resisting the Urge to Explain and why 1+1 = 1/2. They also explain why an adverb isn't necessarily your friend. I like knowing the WHY behind the practice. You can know about a rule but if you don't know the theory behind it, you won't why it works when you break it.
The Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon -- it is excellent and full of helpful advice on creating 3 d characters
And the Donald Maass books -- Writing the Break Out Novel plus workbook and The Fire in Fiction. he is brilliant on creating mirco tension and looking for low tension traps. Plus identifying points of change in a scene and really making them standout.
I do read other ones but those are my go to library as it were.
Above all though it is important to look at the Doughnut (the story) instead of the hole.
November 3, 2010
Newsletter and Hook Paragraph contest
My newsletter went out yesterday with details of my Hook Paragraph contest...It is ONLY for my newsletter subscribers. My newsletter is free but I do like to reward them.
Trenda emailed and asked if this contest was open to published authors. My only stipulation is that people are newsletter subscribers. In the normal course of events, I would expect pubilshed authors to be working with their editors. However, I do understand some people sell to very small press and wish to see if they can improve...I would emphasize - -I am only an author and as it is MY contest, it is MY choice.
Loads of things in this business are subjective. I learnt that in the last year when I changed editors and suddenly could understand some of the things I had been doing wrong. It can be the way people put them.
The desire to write shows you have talent. How you utilise that talent is up to you.
I heard neil Diamond speak on Jools Holland recently and he was asked how anyone becomes a song writer these days . He said -- Same as it always has been -- passion and persistence.
Alice Cooper was also on the show. Alice Cooper is still touring. Apparently Halloween is quite big for him. He and his band rehearse 10 hours a day. 2 hours on the theatrics and 8 hours on the music. And he is utterly passionate about the music. He agreed with Neil Diamond -- passion and persistence.
With romance wiritng, the same principles apply -- you need to be passionate and persistent. In other words, desire, dedication, determination and discipline. You have to be ready for the Luck.
Trenda emailed and asked if this contest was open to published authors. My only stipulation is that people are newsletter subscribers. In the normal course of events, I would expect pubilshed authors to be working with their editors. However, I do understand some people sell to very small press and wish to see if they can improve...I would emphasize - -I am only an author and as it is MY contest, it is MY choice.
Loads of things in this business are subjective. I learnt that in the last year when I changed editors and suddenly could understand some of the things I had been doing wrong. It can be the way people put them.
The desire to write shows you have talent. How you utilise that talent is up to you.
I heard neil Diamond speak on Jools Holland recently and he was asked how anyone becomes a song writer these days . He said -- Same as it always has been -- passion and persistence.
Alice Cooper was also on the show. Alice Cooper is still touring. Apparently Halloween is quite big for him. He and his band rehearse 10 hours a day. 2 hours on the theatrics and 8 hours on the music. And he is utterly passionate about the music. He agreed with Neil Diamond -- passion and persistence.
With romance wiritng, the same principles apply -- you need to be passionate and persistent. In other words, desire, dedication, determination and discipline. You have to be ready for the Luck.
November 1, 2010
Made my deadline
I have sent the full of my Sinai one off to my very lovely editor for her thoughts. I expect revisions as I firmly believe that every manuscript can be made better with an editor's eye. I do really believe in this story and think that once it is done, it is going to be absolutely fab.
One thing that was different about this book is that I finished it several thousand words short. By the time I had done the edits, I had add an extra 10k to the story. If I had made that word count in the first place, I would have been cutting furiously. So it is a lesson for me. I actually found this to be true of the Online Serial as well. I finished under the word count and trusted myself to layer in the emotion etc that was in my head and not on the page.
I will get my newsletter out in the next day or so and have decided it will be a pitch type contest (ie the middle paragraph of the query letter). I promise to comment on all entries... More in the newsletter...
Both A Question of Impropriety ( on eharlequin) and The Viking's Captive Princess (on Mills & Boon) are on sale today. You can browse The Viking's Captive Princess here and read the first chapter of A Question of Impropriety here.
One thing that was different about this book is that I finished it several thousand words short. By the time I had done the edits, I had add an extra 10k to the story. If I had made that word count in the first place, I would have been cutting furiously. So it is a lesson for me. I actually found this to be true of the Online Serial as well. I finished under the word count and trusted myself to layer in the emotion etc that was in my head and not on the page.
I will get my newsletter out in the next day or so and have decided it will be a pitch type contest (ie the middle paragraph of the query letter). I promise to comment on all entries... More in the newsletter...Both A Question of Impropriety ( on eharlequin) and The Viking's Captive Princess (on Mills & Boon) are on sale today. You can browse The Viking's Captive Princess here and read the first chapter of A Question of Impropriety here.
October 25, 2010
Na No Wri Mo and my process
November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. Loads of people do it, and some have had huge success with it. It basically asks the participents to write a 50k novel in a month, taking a leaf out of the great Isaac Asminov's book as it were. You are allowed to do background stuff before 1 Nov but the writing can only be done in November.
I used to try and fail. For some reason, I can't do it, even though I can write more than 60k in a month. I have finally figured out that it is to do with my process. I do Discovery Drafts and some of my preliminary work is writing that first draft, particularly the first three chapters. I like that feeling of being able to write and go back and edit. I also like to think that I can do it on my own starting when I like etc. and making mistakes. It normally takes me about 6 - 12 weeks to write a novel from scratch.
So I am not doing it this year or even pretending that I should be doing it. I write four plus novels per year (and get them published through my publisher) and that is enough. Or should be.
I will be cheering people on who are doing it as finishing a novel is a great way to learn about your process and how you write. Remember writing the first draft is only the start but you can't build a house without bricks.
And on process: Scrivener is developing software for writers who use windows. When it goes on sale next year, any one who has completed the NaNoWriMo gets a 50% discount. Some authors swear by it for organising their novels. Apparently you can link loads of different files, create story boards and outlines etc. I throw this out in case anyone's process leads that way.
Currently I am happy with my chaotic process. It took me a long time to get here as it were. And once upon a time, I'd have been running for that software...and I am sure it is excellent or will be once the beta testing is done.
It is all in how you work and many times you won't know until you try. At the end of the day, it is the results that count.
In other news:
I did watch Downton Abbey last night and it does keeping getting better and better. There is a reason why the UK is becoming a nation transfixed and Bates does have a lot to do with it. I think it is also called old fashioned decency towards others and courtesy. Comforting.
I used to try and fail. For some reason, I can't do it, even though I can write more than 60k in a month. I have finally figured out that it is to do with my process. I do Discovery Drafts and some of my preliminary work is writing that first draft, particularly the first three chapters. I like that feeling of being able to write and go back and edit. I also like to think that I can do it on my own starting when I like etc. and making mistakes. It normally takes me about 6 - 12 weeks to write a novel from scratch.
So I am not doing it this year or even pretending that I should be doing it. I write four plus novels per year (and get them published through my publisher) and that is enough. Or should be.
I will be cheering people on who are doing it as finishing a novel is a great way to learn about your process and how you write. Remember writing the first draft is only the start but you can't build a house without bricks.
And on process: Scrivener is developing software for writers who use windows. When it goes on sale next year, any one who has completed the NaNoWriMo gets a 50% discount. Some authors swear by it for organising their novels. Apparently you can link loads of different files, create story boards and outlines etc. I throw this out in case anyone's process leads that way.
Currently I am happy with my chaotic process. It took me a long time to get here as it were. And once upon a time, I'd have been running for that software...and I am sure it is excellent or will be once the beta testing is done.
It is all in how you work and many times you won't know until you try. At the end of the day, it is the results that count.
In other news:
I did watch Downton Abbey last night and it does keeping getting better and better. There is a reason why the UK is becoming a nation transfixed and Bates does have a lot to do with it. I think it is also called old fashioned decency towards others and courtesy. Comforting.
Secret crushes and updates
I am blogging today at the Pink Heart Society about the reason I watch Downton Abbey -- namely Brendan Coyle. I haven't watched the latest episode yet as I tape it and watch on a Tuesday. It saves fighting with my husband for the remote as Sunday night is always NFL football. He developed a liking for the NFL when we first started going out...Luckily he saw sense to support my team! As a lifelong 49ers fan, this season has been a trial...but in baseball, the Giants have made the World Series. But the downside of all this is that I go around for two days trying not to find out what happen in Downton but in many ways being desperate to! Monday nights are Spooks.
I finished the Author Alterations for To Marry A Matchmaker and I do love this story. It is really a feel good story and I am very proud of it.
I have finished the Discovery Draft for my current one. The semi-polished version is due on 1 November and I am still a few thousand words short (thankfully). I do know some of my bad habits now. These include: repetition, not layering in sensual tension, not layering emotion, confused motivation etc. But in theory knowing that these things exist, I can work on improving them. I do love this story and am totally excited about writing the sister's story as well. But right now I have to keep my eyes on what needs to be done -- namely the polishing of this draft before my eagle-eyed editor looks at it...
Finally as regular readers know, I suffer from lymph oedema in my left arm. A year ago when we were in Istanbul, it was brought to my attention that my left arm was much larger than my right one. I had to have all sorts of tests and after all sorts of nasties were eliminated, it was decided that I had lymph oedema. I now wear a bandage sleeve and glove on my left arm most of the time. And last week, joy of joys, my fingers had gone down enough that I could get my wedding ring off!!! At one point, there were muttering about cutting it off, so I am pleased. My left arm now looks like my right arm in proportion but I think it remains a bit bigger. The main complication from lymph oedema is infection, particularly celluitis. Thus far, knock on wood, I have avoided that.
My weight is also going down and I was able to throw away another pair of too big trousers. I still have some way to go before I reach the weight I want to be and fit into clothes that I wore a few years ago. Slowly but surely and each small victory is surely worth celebrating!
I finished the Author Alterations for To Marry A Matchmaker and I do love this story. It is really a feel good story and I am very proud of it.
I have finished the Discovery Draft for my current one. The semi-polished version is due on 1 November and I am still a few thousand words short (thankfully). I do know some of my bad habits now. These include: repetition, not layering in sensual tension, not layering emotion, confused motivation etc. But in theory knowing that these things exist, I can work on improving them. I do love this story and am totally excited about writing the sister's story as well. But right now I have to keep my eyes on what needs to be done -- namely the polishing of this draft before my eagle-eyed editor looks at it...
Finally as regular readers know, I suffer from lymph oedema in my left arm. A year ago when we were in Istanbul, it was brought to my attention that my left arm was much larger than my right one. I had to have all sorts of tests and after all sorts of nasties were eliminated, it was decided that I had lymph oedema. I now wear a bandage sleeve and glove on my left arm most of the time. And last week, joy of joys, my fingers had gone down enough that I could get my wedding ring off!!! At one point, there were muttering about cutting it off, so I am pleased. My left arm now looks like my right arm in proportion but I think it remains a bit bigger. The main complication from lymph oedema is infection, particularly celluitis. Thus far, knock on wood, I have avoided that.
My weight is also going down and I was able to throw away another pair of too big trousers. I still have some way to go before I reach the weight I want to be and fit into clothes that I wore a few years ago. Slowly but surely and each small victory is surely worth celebrating!
October 22, 2010
Success at last!
As you can see, I have FINALLY been able to upload my cover on to blogger!!!I do love the cover and its colours. I also like the romantic feel of the cover.
With my current wip, I can see the end and will get there, either today or tomorrow. Then it will be going back and layering. I have a number of words to play with and there are places where I can layer. One of my big problems is that I have things in my head but not on paper. This can include sensual tension, emotion and sometimes whole scenes that should really be there. In theory, I know my faults and therefore should be looking for them. But I am feeling more confident which is good. And I started crying when I was typing yesterday which is a good sign.
Doughnuts and not holes.
My AAs for To Marry A Matchmaker have to be done this weekend and I keep finding reasons why I love this book. Fingers crossed other people love it when it comes out in July.
There is some exciting news with regards to The Lady Soldier which I co-wrote with Kate Allan all those years ago. It will be going into e-book and I gather mass market paperback with the fledgling publisher Embrace Books. When I know more, I will let people know...but contracts have been signed.
October 21, 2010
The US cover for A Question of Impropriety
The December releases for Harlequin Historical went up on the ebook section of eharlequin today and I discovered the cover for A Question of Impropriety. I like the cover very much. It captures the mood of the book which is all I ask. I knew it would be different from the UK cover as the UK cover was recently reused for a Mary Nichols release so I have been waiting with bated breath.
Annoyingly blogger is not letting me add images and I don't time to play with the stupid thing. You can see the cover on my website -- http://www.michellestyles.co.uk/ There is also a first chapter excerpt.
Annoyingly blogger is not letting me add images and I don't time to play with the stupid thing. You can see the cover on my website -- http://www.michellestyles.co.uk/ There is also a first chapter excerpt.
