with Fran Louise

Fran Louise sat down to answer a few questions on her work – we’ll be posing these questions to guest authors in the coming months. Here’s Fran’s take on things to get us started.

Question: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Fran: When I was thirteen, during the summer holidays I was given an assignment by a brilliantly motivating English teacher to write a novel. Any subject, any genre. My friend and I were avid readers of her mother’s Mill & Boon books at that stage – we would steal them and read them aloud in a whisper to each other at night to much giggling and gasping at the chaste love scenes – and so she and I embarked on our first romance novels. I think we wrote ten thousand words, so it was more of a novella, but I realised at that stage I could write a book. I never looked back.

Question: How do you chose your titles?

Fran: I use all kinds of codes to identify my books while they’re in draft format – sometimes the hero’s name, sometimes the place. The title is the second-last decision, just before the cover. I’m a bit old school with my titles; given my background, I tend to veer towards a Harlequin / Mill & Boon style! It’s very much a case of ‘it does what it says on the tin’ when it comes to this area.

Question: Which authors inspired you?

Fran: My favourite romance novel for many years was a Mill & Boon Bestseller Romance from the eighties called ‘The Winds of Winter’ by Sandra Field. I’m a sucker for a vaguely arrogant hero… not sure what that means! I love Ms. Field’s style, in the same way as I like a lot of authors from that period in romance fiction. I guess the romance was chaste but the storytelling was packed with subtle emotion. That said I’m a huge fan of plenty of contemporary authors like Linda Lael Miller and Robyn Carr. The characters and the storylines have come a long way in the last couple of decades; single moms; single dads; divorces; one-night stands; unplanned pregnancies! I love that both Ms. Miller and Ms. Carr don’t shy away from the grittier parts of life to give real emotional depth to both their characters and the plotlines. So I guess, in my own writing, I walk a line somewhere between a fascination for those traditional gender roles that men and women often slide into when romance enters the equation, against the backdrop of a very modern world where the struggles for both genders have diverged.

I’d also like to add that with the advent of the Internet, I’m very inspired by the community of self-published authors out there who hustle every day to ply their wares. I feel like I’ve joined an inspired group! The exchange of ideas and the support you receive from other authors – and even avid readers – just makes the whole process so much more rewarding. I get a lot of inspiration from there.

Question: Can you describe your writing process?

Fran: I generally write the first draft of my books in a handful of days – the final versions are usually in the region of 55-60,000 words. I can bash out eighty-thousand words pretty quickly when the inspiration strikes. I always have a crush on someone/something, and so that first draft is really just a fleshing-out exercise! I’ll leave it for a week or so and then do a couple of passes on the book after that, tidying up obvious errors and highlighting passages, plotlines that don’t work. Then I let it bake. After a reasonable period has gone by, I review it again with fresh eyes and generally rewrite! For me, the priority is the emotional journey of the main characters. The arc of their relationship, the obstacles they face and the structure of the plot, all have to work towards some form of emotional discovery. Once I have the final draft, I run Margie Lawson’s Deep Editing process* on the manuscript. This part is hard work. I am still very much at the learning stage with it, but each new book takes me a little further into the process.

Question: So what are you working on now?

Fran: I’ve just finished a surfing romance! It’s at the baking stage. Once the promotion for Having Nathan’s Baby is finished, I’m hoping to write a series, inspired by the fantastic catalogues of Ms. Miller and Ms. Carr mentioned above. I think both of these women have excellent careers – they are accomplished writers and great spokespeople for both their books and the industry, and you feel genuine warmth from them as fans. I’m not suggesting of course that I’ll come anywhere close to reaching that level of expertise, but I’m inspired enough to give it a go.

Fran’s Bio:

Fran Louise is Scottish by birth. She’s lived in several countries across Europe and describes travelling and living abroad as her raison d’etre. She’s inspired by discovering new places, and meeting new people, and loves learning languages. She currently lives in France, in the south-east corner of the country, and writes her books on a sun-dappled balcony overlooking the hills.

Fran’s website: http://www.franlouise.com

Fran’s blog: http://franlouiseblog.wordpress.com/

Having Nathan’s Baby: out August 14, 2013

Rediscovering Jess: http://www.franlouise.com/#!buybooks/c1r2g

Wrangling with the Lawyer: http://www.franlouise.com/#!buybooks/c1r2g

*For more information on Margie Lawson’s Deep Editing, click here: http://bit.ly/ZcSi3x.