Spring into Writing with the 3 Big Cs

Spring is the time of year when the sap rises, the birds and bees get busy and maybe, just maybe, with the lengthening days, that neglected New Year resolution about writing a book — starting is just so hard — could be shaken out and given an airing.

So where do you begin a story? With the three big Cs.

You have an idea, but an idea isn’t a plot. A plot requires conflict, a conflict big enough to carry a book anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 words. That’s not going to be something that could be cleared up if the two people involved sat down and actually talked things through. (Obviously, you can never let them have that conversation, but even so…) Imagine your heroine has a life or death goal and the hero is an immovable object blocking the way.

Which segues very neatly to the next big C - character. To have any kind of conflict you need protagonist and an antagonist. A heroine and a hero if you’re writing a traditional romance. Two people with opposing goals. (Or maybe, as in Ally Blake’s brilliant The Secret Wedding Dress, two people with exactly the same goal – except that, as their relationship grows, the goal posts shift).

Finally, once you have a conflict and the characters to battle it out, you need a crucible – a container that can withstand temperatures high enough to melt or otherwise alter its contents. A device, such as a journey, or house, or a problem they are both involved with, which will hold your characters together and change them forever.

Liz has written more than 60 romances. To find out how she does it, download her Little Book of Writing Romance from any eBook retailer. For more information and to check out her latest releases surf to Liz's website

 

Brenda Novak Auction

It's that special time of year again. May is Brenda Novak auction time when the whole romance community comes together to help raise funds for diabetes research.

There are some truly amazing lots offered by writers, publishers and companies who support this great charity.

Brenda, whose son lives with diabetes, has raised a staggering amount of money for research.

You can help. Just browse the auction lists. It doesn't have to cost much. You'll find books by your favourite authors, Jackie Braun's fabulous writing pajamas eReaders, social events, jewellery and there's even a chance to blog regularly for a year as a guest of the Chocolate Box Writers blog.

I have a family member who suffers with diabetes - I'm sure most of you will know someone who is similarly afflicted.

My donation this year is a Kindle Paperwhite stocked up with a bunch of my books - I hope you'll help spread the word and maybe bid on an item or two yourself.

Thank you.

Tulips by Susan Meier

One of my favorite signs of spring is the first tulip. I don’t have many that just pop up on their own. I usually buy new plants every year and stick them in the flower beds as if they’d been there all winter! LOL

But every once in a while, a bulb survives my planting and replanting the beds in front of my house every few weeks in the summer, and pushes its green head up to the sun, ultimately becoming a pink, yellow or white tulip.

I love the tenacity of perennials. If you leave their bulbs alone, they will return. J And they don’t consult the weatherman to see when it’s time to bloom. Once the ground warms, they begin. It’s as if they know winter has drained us of a good bit of our joy, and they intend to fix that by being a beautiful sign that summer is coming.

I don’t depend on those few surviving blooms, though. I buy oodles of tulips to transplant in those beds. Multi-colored. Short and tall. By the time I get them into the ground, they’re about bloomed. So they only live a week or two. But for me the color is worth the time and expense. It’s a living acknowledgement that spring is here and the front of my house will be peppered with flowers.

So I’m a tulip girl. Others like crocuses. Some like daffodils. But I love the audacious, optimistic splash of color of a beautiful tulip.

What about you? What’s your favorite spring flower?

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How BDSM and Sweet Romance Are Connected by Barbara Wallace

Recently Esquire Magazine published an essay by Stephen Marche entitled, “The Sex Scene is Dead” in which he noted that graphic movie sex had become old hat.  This got me thinking, would the same thing happen with romance novels?  Is it happening already?

When Fifty Shades of Gray first came out, the romance writing world went crazy.  Granted, erotica had been around for a while, but suddenly, there was real money to be made in pushing the envelope.  Grab your leather and whip, baby, because BDSM was where it was at.  You couldn’t log onto Facebook or Twitter without seeing at least one reference to domination.

Lately, however, I’ve suspected readers might be becoming less enthusiastic then they were two years ago.  Like with the actual Shades of Gray books, BDSM books have gotten repetitive.  I saw one tweet the other day chuckling over how the characters in a book were shocked by sexual activities that she considered ‘been there, done that’.  And on some message boards, a few readers have complained about BDSM and erotica creeping into their romances.  (Thus denoting an important difference between romance and erotic romance, btw.)  To me, these are subtle signs of reader fatigue.  I predict that, in another couple of years, the erotica boom will decline.  Will it disappear?  Never.  Subgenres might shrink, but they never truly dry up.  But the wagon jumpers – the writers who piled on because there was money to be made – they’ll start to depart, leaving the dedicated erotica writers – the ones who were there all along – to satisfy their readers.

So, why do I, a sweet romance writer, care about the BDSM trend?  Because, my friends, the pendulum swings both ways.  You know how, when you’ve had too much candy, you suddenly want something healthy?  Well, that’s how it works with romance novels too.  After awhile, readers want something different.  At conference this fall, a well known contemporary author commented that she saw a growing interest in sweet romances.  A new trend is coming, and for once, I might actually be ahead of the curve.  I’m looking forward to it.

What about you? Do you think the erotica craze is slowing down?  Do you even care?  Do you think readers will be looking for sweeter, gentler romance?  

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