Romantic Novelists's Conference Day Two

Saturday was an example of how my life can be divided. I needed to be in two places at once. DS2 was celebrating his last day at prep school and there were all these wonderful sessions at the conference.........I may it back to the conference in time for Jill Mansell's talk which was the last session of the day.

Jill had us all laughing which did make it tricky to take coherent notes but here is what I can make out of mine (Jill if I have my facts wrong please please correct me - otherwise it might be embarassing!):

-she writes feel good fiction with nice people in it
-her characters are much wittier than she is (so she says)

-she writes by hand sitting comfortably on her sofa with tv going in the background

-she doesn't break the work up into chapters until she has written the whole book and can see where the breaks need to be

-she uses a time line

-she gets here ideas from being nosy, eavesdropping, watching tv while writing, problem pages in magazines, asking people pertinent questions

-sparks of ideas do just come

-she adores the Internet and has found that looking oneself up is like being in the a loo cubicle and having people just outside talking about you

-the biggest compliment is that she made a reader laugh or cry and helped them come through some hard times
-she collects embarrassing experiences
-she writes one book a year/ roughly 1000 words a day


Now Fortunately I can send you and me in the right direction for some brilliant reports on the the sessions I missed. Debs Carr has written up her day at the conference here. The notes are brilliant in their detail. Ray-Anne is working her way through her notes and thus far written up the Midas PR session here. We were lucky enough to have the independent book seller Mark Thornton of Mostly Book in Abingdon providing the conference with the book stall and a talk on Shelf Secrets. His account of the conference is here.


So the one successful thing I did do was have my camera handy to capture everyone dressed for the gala dinner........... So here is a selection of Romantic Novelist's in the bar of course

Here is Anne Ashurst and Giselle Green

.

Nell Dixon and Fiona Harper.

Here's Bex Leith and Lesley Cookman.

Jane Wenham-Jones and Katie Fforde

Kate Harrison and Sarah Duncan

Julie Cohen and Pam Brooks aka Kate Hardy

Janet Gover and Ray-Anne (see above)












Fenella Jane Miller, Anna Jacobs and Jean Fullerton

Jill Mansell and Moi

Beryl Kingston

Kate Johnson

and her shoes!

Romantic Novelists' Association Conference 2008

Wow. Me thinks I might still be brain dead from all the thinking, talking and dare I say drinking but what a fabulous conference again this year. It is just the boost I needed to set me back into my writing life and remind me that this is exactly where I belong. Upon arrival it was like being greeted by a massive group hug. So many friends to see and chat to but by the end of the weekend I still had missed people or only briefly said hello.

The opening session was a panel of authors who cover the broad spectrum of Romantic Fiction which went to show just what a broad church it is ( yes for those attending it is an intentional pun - all the plenary sessions were held in the chapel). So looking at the photo above you have Anna Jacobs who writes just about everything including Sagas and Contemporary Women's Fictions, Pam Brooks who writes for Harlequin Mills and Boon as Kate Hardy for both the medical line and Modern Heat, the moderator Anne Ashurst who writes as Sara Craven for HMB, Kate Harrisonwho writes Chick Lit, Nicola Cornick who writes Historical Fiction for HMB and HQN Books, and not in the photo was Kate Johnson who writes Paranormal as Cat Marsters.

It was a fantastic start to the conference to see how each of these authors felt about Romantic fiction and how passionate they are about what they write. There was a thread that carried through all their answers about romantic fiction- a journey. This is journey of growth to love and to greater self understanding.

As is appropriate shortly after the opening we adjourned to the bar and there I spotted these fabulous shoes on a HMB editor, Joanne Carr.

I will post more about the conference tomorrow - the natives are rising here and it's time to leave the writing world behind and be mum again.

RNA Conference Part 12

So now this is my last session notes entry. As you will have read it was a brilliant conference and I picked up so much including the seed for my next novel. Well this session was one that really hit home. One of the first things I did when I had a bit of time the following morning was read quickly through bits of August Rock to check. This next session did help guide me through the last rewrite before I submitted it to the New Writers Scheme. So with that introduction I will present my notes from Anne Ashurst's (Sara Craven) and Jenny Haddon's (Sophie Weston) 'I've Started: How the Hell do I Finish? Plot rescue Service'

Anne began. Starting is easy. You need to think of writing a book like building a house.

Divide your books chapters into three sections:

1-4: foundation - make sure it will support the structure and sow seeds

5-8: windows walls - building up

8-12: roof, custom made kitchen and hand over of the keys

There can be stutters at 6. The middle is sheer graft. Don't panic and struggle. Put it away for days, a week or more. Then reread where you started to go a stray. THEN kill your darlings.

Look at the foundations:

- do we know enough or too much

-should you hold back more

Go to place where it started to waiver - then cut and save elsewhere.

Is your conflict enough - interior and exterior.

- beware of them fighting the same battle over and over

-secondary characters have started to take over or could they do more?

- do the secondary character vanish without explanation; waning Wayne

Middle Section is where most of the drama takes place - dramatisation of themes and conflicts. Rebecca (which is why I am reading it now) is a perfect example. It comes to a rising peak. Each events raises the tension a bit more -

Illustrations from the book:

- can't find the morning room

- breaks the cupid

- the ball

- Mrs. Danvers urges her to kill herself

At the end of middle - enter the crisis. Make then wait; never have the major love scene come too early; if they have sex then the balance shifts (unless of course it all goes badly wrong) Save the good stuff for the end.

So don't peak too early; give then enough little peaks then tune it for the final explosion. Leave room for the appreciative Ahhhhhh.

Jenny then took over. She began by talking about Robert McKee Story Structure. Movies are about the last twenty minutes. The ending validates the beginning. She spoke of the Paula Gosling's The Zero Trap as a perfect example and then on to Mary Stewart's Nine Coaches Waiting.

You must have a satisfactory

- solution to the main plot

-emotional release

and total absorption of the reader's energy at the end.

Her points for a great ending:

1. insufficient conflict; ratchet up the stakes - go back half way and twist the knife - deepen it

2. unanswered question; use post it notes as you go and then fix it

3. leave to end the biggest questions - the 'But I thought you loved Carlotta moment' - watch your 'guns' and make sure you use them

4. clear up minor points in preceding chapters

5. details are enormously important; go back and plant them if necessary; readers don't want new things at the end

6. quality of writing is so important at the end; careful use of language - almost like a poem

7. need to satisfy expectation and even add a bonus

8. absorption; the reader must be so completely in the story so needn't tell; reminders of the whole book should be there but not pull them out of the story; no distractions to the bulls eye

9. at the end only one p.o.v. for emotional impact

10. no new information but new light on old

11. all the emotional issue bright to light

12. read it aloud - it should be smooth

13. if necessary go back and feed in earlier details to make end stronger

14. PACE - speed up toward the end; vary it but it all should to faster than the rest of the book

15. reminders of the whole book -right up to the end; reference direct echos of the first meeting

Jenny then took us step by step through the ending of Nine Coaches Waiting. She mentioned 'discovery of self then you discover the other.' Mary Stewart in the reference 15 points from the rest of the book in the last scene. The energy is tremendous and varying of the pace. Finally if you are writing romantic suspense tidy up the suspense plot first then the romance.