Annie Burrows's Blog, page 3

E is for editing

I'm never satisfied with what I write. I even go through my emails a couple of times before hitting "send" to make sure I haven't included any typos.
But that kind of pernickety attitude is essential for anyone who wants to become a published author.

I don't think anybody can sit down and create a brilliant book in just one draft. I certainly don't know anyone who claims to have done so. But every author I know has a slightly different way of getting their writing up to a standard they feel ready to publish.

Some people edit as they go along. At the start of their writing day they will read over what they wrote the day before, and only move on when they're satisfied with the quality of the prose.
That approach has never worked for me. I get so bogged down in the grammar, spelling, and so on that the story usually grinds to a halt. On my first draft I have to just write the basic outline of the story as fast as I can, before I lose control of where I want the characters to go. At least, that is what I aim for as I write. But whenever I print out and read back this first outpouring, I nearly always end up clutching my head in despair. Because what I thought was a brilliant story turns out to be an absolute mess.

However, recently I've discovered that others have a similar experience. And have even coined a phrase to describe the method. It's known as the "sandbox" approach. Basically, my first attempt to tell a story is like flinging a great mound of sand into the sandbox. It's shapeless alright - but I have everything I need to create a fabulous fairytale sandcastle once I set to with a bucket of water and a spade!

OK - I've got my heap of sand. How do I turn it into my fairytale castle?
Well, basically, I want the story to flow from beginning to end. I want to build tension, to keep a reader turning the pages. I want every sentence to drive the story forward, whilst showing the reader something about the leading characters.

But exactly how can I achieve this? You have all heard the adage that you should "show, not tell". But you need to be careful that you don't overdo it. It's all very well to have your heroine twirling a tendril of hair round her finger to denote how nervous she is, rather than just saying "she was nervous". But if you have her twirling her hair every two or three pages she'd going to become tiresome. (Likewise - the hero shouldn't be grinding his teeth at the slightest provocation.)

Setting the scene is important to draw your reader into the world you've created, but over-long periods of description really slow down the pace. I'm jolly glad I discovered this, because I'm not very good at descriptions. When I first started trying to write books, I used to sweat for hours over details of a house, or a room. Nowadays I just tend to give the hero or heroine's impression of their surroundings, how it affects their mood perhaps, and leave the reader to fill in details for themselves.

Some writers will advise you to leave a manuscript for a week or so before reading it over, so that you can come to it with a fresh eye. This may work for some of you, but again, I have to confess it's not a technique I find terribly helpful. You see, I tend to see what I think I've written, rather than what I have actually typed. Printing it out, so that I'm looking at my work in a different medium from the computer screen, does help me to spot some mistakes and weaknesses. But nothing is as effective as reading the story out loud. If my tongue gets tangled up, that is how the sentence will feel to a reader's eye. And if I say it differently to how it appears on the page, I change the text to how I said it - that makes for an easier, smoother read.

And yes, going over and over and over a manuscript before sending it off to a publisher does take some patience. But I've heard the act of creating a publishable story likened to reducing a fine sauce for a fine meal. And everyone knows you can't make a good béchamel, in a hurry. You get lumps.
And who wants a lumpy novel?

A writer's life, alphabetically...D

D is for...Discipline

I get a variety of responses from people when I tell them what I do for a living. From those who are thrilled, saying they have never met an author before, to those who roll their eyes and say, "Oh really? I wouldn't mind writing a book, if only I had the time."
My answer - If you want to write a book you have to make the time.
It isn't easy. When I first decided to write, I had to start making difficult choices about how to spend my time. Not only "free" time, either. I deliberately chose jobs that wouldn't tax me too much, so that when I did have "free" time I wasn't so drained that my mind wouldn't function.
This meant taking reception work, cleaning jobs, or driving jobs, so that even when I was on the clock for someone else, my mind could still keep working over plot points. Then, when I did get home, and had fed the family, and generally tidied up after them, I could go and write down what I'd been dreaming up all day (when I should have been answering the phone/unloading cartons of sweets/stocking up shelves with greetings cards). Some of my best ideas have come to me while I've been stuck in traffic jams on the M56 with nothing to look at but the tailgate of the lorry in front of me.
(Trucks to the right of me, trucks to the left...here I am stuck in the middle of the queue...with apologies to Stealer's Wheel)

D also stands for determination. It took me over ten years from deciding I could write a book (ok - rather in the manner of those people who annoy me so much now by assuming it is easy) to actually getting a publishing contract. And during those years I went through a huge spectrum of feelings about my ambition. From belief and hope, to despair and self-loathing. There were times I couldn't even walk into a bookshop, and see all those titles sneering at me from the shelves by people who'd managed to do what I couldn't. It simply hurt too much.
Eventually, I went on a writing course (what - didn't I do that first? No. I was just as deluded as all those other people who assume they could just sit down and write a bestseller without any training at all.) By then I was starting to wonder if I was flogging a dead horse. What if I really didn't have what it took to be a published author? Was there a good reason why all I was getting was rejection slips? I finally decided to fork out some of the money I'd earned delivering sweets to village post offices, to go along to my local college and see if I could learn anything from a qualified teacher of writing.

And then, if I got yet another rejection I decided I would send my next manuscript to the Romantic Novelists Association New Writer's Scheme. Because I discovered that they would have a published novelist read my work and actually tell me what they thought of it (unlike publishers, who were just sending back standard rejection letters which gave me no clue where I was going wrong.)

You can see where I'm going with this - even after ten years I just wasn't prepared to give up. I was going to do whatever it took to see one of my own books on the shelves of W.H.Smith with all those others.


Well - going on the writing course did the trick (so my tutor said). Mid way through my second term, Mills & Boon finally showed some interest in a manuscript they'd had so long I was sure they must have forgotten all about it. Eventually it got accepted.
So I never needed to send anything to the New Writers Scheme after all.
But at least I had a plan B.
And if plan B had failed, you can be sure I'd have thought up a plan C, then a D, then...

C is for...characters

Not long ago I joined a reading group. Quite a literary one. I was hoping to stretch my mind a little, by reading more challenging books than I'd normally choose. But what I've gained from attending has been so much more. Discussing books with others has reminded me what readers are looking for in a book.

Time and time again, it hasn't been the cleverness of the prose, or originality of the plots, or evocative descriptive passages that have sparked off the most heated discussions. No - it's been the likeability of the characters. No matter how well written a book, if we don't find something about the main characters to like, we won't give the book a high mark. But we think of the whole book with fondness if we connect with the main characters.

This is one of the reasons Jane Austen's books have prompted so many people to write sequels, or spin-offs. Her characters are so well-drawn that they not only come to life on the page, but have taken on a life of their own in the imaginations of all those who've read about them. A lot of us want to know what happens after Lizzie and Mr Darcy get married, and will gladly read books where they go on expeditions to Egypt, solve murders, or even fight zombies.

Oh, I want to create characters like that! Characters that step right off the page and take on a life of their own. Long ago, I realized that I don't have a gift for writing descriptive passages, or thinking up cleverly twisty plots with a surprise at the end. But anyway, I would rather my readers empathize so deeply with my heroines that they will laugh with them, weep with them, and fall a little bit in love with the heroes who stride manfully into their life and make their hearts flutter.

So I spend ages reading books on psychology, problem pages in the backs of women's magazines (because aren't a lot of the problems in them caused by partners?) and life stories of people who lived during the Regency era, to learn how they would have treated the problems life threw at them.

I also read other writer's tips on how to create characters that will come to life in a reader's imagination. Just recently I've discovered fellow Harlequin writer Annie West's website, on which she gives some very useful advice about creating heroes. All of which could apply to Mr Darcy.

My latest book is Lord Havelock's List. The hero is sadly nothing like Mr Darcy, but I hope you will fall a little bit in love with him anyway.

A writer's life, alphabetically...

Continuing my A - Z of a writer's life.
This month, B is for...backache

I had been trying to get something published for over ten years. So when an editor from Mills & Boon wrote to me, saying that she liked the first 3 chapters of my story, and could I send in the rest, I got very, very excited. I spent every spare minute up in my room, on an old sun lounger, my laptop on my lap, notes spread all over the bed, until the manuscript was ready to send in.

Unfortunately, by that time, I'd given myself a permanent crick in the neck. (Chair was next to the bed, notes on the top, so typing with my head permanently turned to the right) Instead of easing, once I'd posted my precious parcel off, the pain kept on getting worse, until the morning I woke up almost unable to move.

I'd already had some treatment from a chiropractor for a frozen shoulder. But having my shoulder gently manipulated turned out to be totally different from the way he approached a solidly stuck neck. You know in those comedy shows, where a white-coated man grabs someone's head, and wrenches it round to the sound effect of something ripping? Very funny to watch, but not so funny when actually experiencing it. But at least I was no longer in agony.

Until the publishers requested revisions. And I spent another few frantic weeks, up in my room, going over and over my manuscript until I'd got it perfect.

The chiropractor gave me a stern talking to, (as well as half wrenching my head off to free my neck up). I was not to type looking to one side all the time, but get myself a desk. I was to throw away my sun lounger and get a proper typing chair. And I was not to type for more than 15 minutes at a time.

I nodded, (well, at least I could!) smiled, and agreed with everything he said, whilst privately thinking how unworkable all his suggestions were. I lived in a tiny house, with nowhere to put a desk. Let alone throw away my comfy sunlounger, which I could fold up and stack away when I wasn't typing. And as for stopping work every 15 minutes to go and do stretches - how impractical was that? It sometimes takes 20 minutes to really get into "the zone", as any artistic person could have told him. (Indignant toss of the head - since I could now move my head without flinching)

Still, since I didn't want to spend every penny I earned from my writing on physiotherapy, I thought I had better adopt some of his suggestions, or face a future fraught with back trouble.

Hubby bought me a chair for my birthday, and to celebrate landing my first contract. And I did buy a kitchen timer. Instead of setting it to 15 minutes, I set it to one hour. This has worked very well for me, for the last five years. Every hour, the timer goes off, reminding me to get up and stretch, so I can just concentrate on my story, rather than clock-watching.

I won't say I am completely free from back problems. It seems to be a hazard of the job, from what I can gather speaking to other writers. But at least the chair, the kitchen timer, and the regular stretching keeps it at a reasonable level.

A is for author

I've decided to take you on a highly idiosyncratic stroll through the A-Z of the writer's life.
Starting with A is for...

Well, Author, obviously! Nothing beats the feeling of getting that call from a publisher, saying that they want your work. (Or not much, anyway).

Only, the minute you become an Author, you have to start making a lot of decisions. Like, for instance, should you take a pen name?
And if you do, how do you choose it?

I knew right from the start I didn't want to write under my own name. I value my privacy, you see. When I write that best seller, I don't want to be staked out by paparazzi who've discovered where I live...(delusions of grandeur? Moi?)

And so I informed the lovely, intelligent woman who'd recognized the brilliance of my first book that yes, I did want to write under a pseudonym.
And how did I want to be known?
Christy Kendrick, I replied. (Christy was my sister's pet name for me, and Kendrick my grandmother's maiden name, and I thought it had a kind of ring to it. As though it should belong to a writer of historical romance. I'd even opened a new email account for my fan mail as christyk...)
There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone.
Then, "Well, we already have a Kendrick writing for Mills & Boon, and we don't want readers to get confused. But as soon as you've come up with something else, we will send out a contract."
Mild panic ensued. If I didn't come up with a pen name they liked, would they change their minds about offering me a contract?
Hurriedly, I wrote a list of about half a dozen names I thought might work. (Including Sue Kray, which is the Anglicized version of sucrée, or, "The sweet lady" which was what I was used to being called in my job as merchandiser for jelly babies)
It was the editorial team at Mills & Boon who selected the name of Annie Burrows out of the list I sent them. Which I suggested because Anne is my middle name, and Burrows is my married name.
So writer me still feels like a part of "real life" me.

(Although when I went to my first conference as a published writer, and people asked me what my name was, I had to keep looking at my name badge to check!)

I'm more used to being Annie now. Annie the Author. It has a nice, alliterative ring.
Although later on, I discovered the way I should have picked my author name. People who know what they are doing advise you to consider where your book might be placed on the shelves, when picking your author name, to maximise your earning potential. Early in the alphabet is good, for readers who browse in alphabetical order. Or late, for those who browse in reverse alphabetical order. Or next to someone really famous in your field, so that people pick up your book while they're looking for someone else.
I wish I'd known!
Maybe I should entitle my blog, "things I wish I'd known when I became a writer"...