New Year's Revisions conference

This free online conference is being co-run by a Month9Books publishing buddy, Kristal Shaff.

Loads of fab agents, editors and authors participating.

Go check out the fab books giveaways now!

New Year's Revisions Conference 2013

January 4, 5, and 6 

Totally free, totally online. 

You wrote the book in November. Or maybe you've been working on yours even longer. The time has come... revision time. Pay the piper, meet the reaper -- all those lovely euphemisms for the real work of writing: revising. You do not have to do it alone. We have gathered a group of fabulous book lovers: the ones who write the books, the ones who represent the authors, and the ones who edit the books. They all want you to succeed in making your book as shiny as it can possibly be before you query/publish.

That's the focus of NYRC 2013.

If you love books, want to write, or have written a book, this conference will have plenty for you to love in the way of professional publishing advice, and yes, more giveaways. There will also be a critique partner matching service for those looking for a second pair of eyes for their work.

We'll be live-tweeting the events @OpAwesome6 and using the #NYRC hash tag. Hope you'll join us!

To recap:

• Professional publishing advice from our panel of experts
• Guest posts by literary agents, editors, and published authors - all with an eye toward helping you through the revision process
• Book giveaways - *happy sigh* mmm, books.
• Critique partner matching service (January 3, the day before the conference officially begins)

What's your writing mantra?

While I recover from the intensity of completing revisions on WHO WANTS TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE? here's a gem from Larry Brooks at StoryFix.

What happens in the story is driven by what the characters are feeling, where more often it is the other way around.

I love finding snippets like this, snippets that make us think and look at our writing in a new and positive way.

Do you have a favourite writing snippet or mantra?

New POV

I have a new editor at Mills and Boon.
She rang me last week and we had a lovely chat about expectations and favourite books of mine she's worked on and what's next.

What's next is revisions for the Harlequin Romance I recently handed in, WHO WANTS TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE?
They landed Saturday morning and as usual I printed them out, did a quick scan and left them on my desk while pretending not to mull for the next 24 hours.

Sunday, I re-read and my thoughts clarified and I'm now ready to tackle revisions.

The fact this guy is the inspiration behind my hero Rory should make the process entirely enjoyable.

Flexing my revision muscle

Revisions landed on Saturday morning for the book I recently completed, Learning the Ropes (Harlequin Modern Heat.)

Charli and Luca have plenty of sizzle at the start of the book but when they get it together, some of that fades out, so revisions consist of:

-maintaining & building on the emotional & sensual tension between Charli and Luca.

-digging deeper into their conflicts.

-reworking Luca's conflict/back story to make it 100% relevant

-lose the pregnancy

-build on the rock star angle of the plot

There you have it.
No prizes for guessing what I'll be busy doing over the next week or so...

Slave to the keyboard

Worked like a maniac all day yesterday to get my soldier Harlequin Romance, Coming Home, back to my editor.

The book is now gone!

For the next fortnight, I'll be frantically revising 'Holly and Joss' for my lovely agent, whose insight is phenomenal.

Slave to the keyboard, that's me.

Hot stuff

UK copies of OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED haven't arrived yet so imagine my delight when I stumbled across the UK cover last night (Google Alerts is a wonderful thing!)

How hot is this?

Definitely my hottest Mod Heat cover yet.

I love it.

The cover fairies have waved their magic wands again!

While Callum's story is soon to hit shelves, I've heard back on his brother Rhys' story. My editor absolutely loved the revisions, going as far as to say it's one of my strongest Mod Heats yet. Emotional depth, sexual chemistry, strength, all there (why is it the books we find the toughest to write as authors and don't like as much as others always seem to grab attention?)

Just a few tiny tweaks and I should have a release date for you.

Stay tuned!

Working through the process

This man has left the building for a second time (and as much as I love my rebel ranger Rhys, I hope I don't see him back until GETTING WILD WITH THE BOSS is in print!)

Yep, finished revisions late last night, always satisfying.
During the last fortnight I added over 5000 words in new scenes: tightening conflict, layering more emotion, getting inside Rhys and Jade's heads more.

I love how editors can pick up on key points from a scene, make a suggestion or two to get a writer's imagination ticking over and off we go.

This happened with my glacier.

It became a pivotal part of the book after just being a scene before. Good one.

Writers revise in many different way, using different processes.

How do you revise?

Switching POV

Another interesting tip while revising your manuscript: switching point of view can make all the difference.

During the black moment of THE TYCOON'S LIVE-IN LOVE, I had Starr seeing red and losing her cool with Callum.

In the revised version, I need Callum to push her away so rather than slashing the scene, I changed POV.

Amazing how powerful it can still remain with just a few tweaks, adding new dialogue, changing things around a bit.

So before you cut that scene you love completely, see if it works in an alternate POV. You may be surprised with the results.

Slashing scenes

When I first wrote Starr and Callum, I had such a clear idea of who the heroine was.
Fun, flirty, sassy, resilient.

Yet there's a scene where she stops a scintillating kiss from Callum.
I need her to do it yet it doesn't fit in with her character.
This is just one of the dilemmas facing me as I tweak this Modern Heat.

I'm a third of the way there. Have slashed scenes (which always kills me!) and tweaked others.
Aiming to have this done by the end of the week...hopefully!

And Chapter 5 of ONE INDIAN SUMMER is now live at eharlequin. Enjoy. :)

Areas to concentrate on

While tweaking Starr and Callum's story, here are the 3 main areas my editor wants me to focus on:

1. Characterisation and emotional conflicts (so the reader can follow their motivations and behaviour every step of the way.)

2. Reworking the plot so that it showcases their personalities in the most exciting, pacy, intense way possible.

3. Upping the sensuality levels-steam up the page at every opportunity.

I posted these because it's amazing how as a writer, you may think you have everything covered, yet all it takes is one, small change (in Callum's instance, changing who died in his past and his role in their death) and the rest of the book needs an overhaul.

I revised 4 chapters last night, nothing major. The nitty-gritty stuff is about to start.
Changing his motivation has changed quite a bit.
And that sensuality stuff? They've been too good, keeping their hands off each other.
All about to change...

COVER TO COVER: Out with the old, in with the new

I could title this post Revisions: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, for it's a follow-on to my last revision post.
Which was all good.
This one will be brutally honest.

Remember how I said revisions tighten the story, make it so much better, make the book really sparkle and shine?
Well, all that still stands. But what if the revisions seem so huge you have nowhere to go? What if the story you wrote needs a total revamp and not just the occasional tweak here and there?

With my Modern Heat TOYING WITH THE BILLIONAIRE BOSS I revised all of last week, the revisions were clear. I could see exactly what needed to be done. Here's a brief summary:

The plot device bringing Beth and Aidan into contact wasn't wholly believable. She's standing in for a her cousin as curator at Melbourne Museum. This had to be tweaked. Easy.

Aidan had to struggle more with getting involved with an employee. Done.

Beth needed to tone down her personality. She was coming across as a bit too confident, too flirty. Done.

Plus, as what usually happens, once a few changes are made here and there, I ended up layering in a few more lovely dialogue exchanges, ramping up the sexual tension in one scene in particular.

So that was Beth and Aidan done and dusted.

Now, onto COURTING CUPID, my Harlequin Romance.
These revisions aren't so easy.
My lovely new ed adores the hero Blane. He's delish.
But the heroine Camryn is another matter entirely!

She's cynical. I deliberately wrote her like that. But in trying to create a character so opposite to the hero, I've gone too far. I've made the reader wonder why Blane persists with someone like her. Ouch!

In order to make this story work, it will require some major changes.
Camryn's personality stems from her conflict...which also requires major changes.

So I sat down and posed the 'What if' question.
What if Camryn does A instead of B?
What if Camryn had A happen to her in the past instead of B?

The first scenarios I came up with were close to my original plot...and my ed said they still weren't working. She posed loads of questions of her own which made me realise the plot as I had it wouldn't work.
Or more specifically, the heroine as I had her wouldn't work.

So back to the drawing board.
This time, when I posed the 'what if' questions, I let my imagination really take flight.
And came up with a scenario I wouldn't have contemplated first time around. This plot wouldn't have entered my head but I really didn't want to ditch Blane the way he is so thought around 'what would make this heroine take a chance on a guy like this?'

Now, it's a totally new plot. Blane will remain unchanged. Many of the scenes will stay.
But boy, will they have a major overhaul.
Because now, Camryn has a whole new conflict. She will be softer. More vulnerable. More likeable.
Which will make the story fly. Hopefully :)

I guess the moral of this story is never get too attached to your plot or characters.
If they aren't working, and you want to make your story the best it can be, you may need to do some major slashing.
I'm about to.
Let's hope it works. Stay tuned...