19 April 2009

Questions, questions

I've just discovered Yahoo Answers. A couple of weeks ago I asked how to stop a canary singing without resorting to violence (canary on the windowsill downstairs + voice like a pneumatic drill + echoy patio walls = nightmare). Four answers popped back within an hour and I now write in drill-free bliss. Yesterday I posted a question asking for the name of an 80s film which may or may not have involved murder, models and body reshaping (really, it was that vague) and had the answer this morning.

So I wonder what response I'd get if I asked: What's going to happen in Chapters 7-12 of my Book 2? How do I know if my hero is crossing the line between fliriting and lechery? How can I make sure my heroine's sympathetic when she's supposed to highly competent and capable? Do I have enough internal conflict? Are my secondary characters taking up too much pagetime? And then my biggest concern: is it too similar in style/vocabulary/phrasing to Book 1 or is that kind of the point?

11 comments:

Jackie Ashenden said...

You should try it and see what comments come back! :-) Yahoo Answers for Romance Writers anyone??
Can't help with your questions. The only thing I can think of to help with hero potential lechery is to show the heroine's POV with lots of lustings and give the heroine a few little flaws to generate sympathy. As to being similiar in style etc, I think that is the point. That's your voice isn't it?

Sounds like the crows of doubt have been pecking at you. Can we get a virtual scarecrow from somewhere to stop them?? :-)

Lucy King said...

Haha, Jackie, yes I thought I might try it!! And that's what I thought about the voice thing. But then I find myself writing exactly the same lines - ho hum.

Funnily enough, when trying to silence the canary I did investigate scarecrows. Maybe I should have actually got one ;)

Jackie Ashenden said...

I just have. Virtually I mean. I'll let you know if it works. :-)

Michelle Styles said...

An answer to your question about vocab and sentence structure -- these things make up your voice, so you will use certain words, word patterns etc. If you try to force, it will sound forced. What you are trying to do is to avoid big repetition -- the hero driving the same model of car, or always have a mother who died in a car crash.
To avoid lechery -- employ Desomnd Morris's Courtship ritual -- see people watching.
To create empathy -- look at the deep character. Make sure you have a save the cat moment. Remember she is the heroine. The reader wants to be on her side. What does being highly competent mean to her? How does it free her? How does it enable her to make the world a better place?

Rachael Johns said...

Go on... ASK IT!! If you get a useful answer, we'll all try :) You may be onto something!!

I think Michelle's advice sounds perfect... they bought you for you, so you do want your voice to stay fairly similar! So excited about reading your book!!

Lucy King said...

Michelle, thanks for the advice - excellent points. On your recommendation I bought Peoplewatching, and it's fascinating and helpful.

I wrote a plot synopsis yesterday which gives chapters 7-12 a framework, and I know my characters have lots of flaws and self-doubt and the suchlike. I just need to make sure it's there in the writing.

Rach - thanks for the encouragement!

Lorraine said...

I can't believe no one has asked how you stopped the canary singing! Do tell :-)
We have pheasants courting in our garden at the moment and you've never heard a noisier bird...

I agree with the others that your voice is what they want so the fact it's a different story and different characters told with the same voice has got to be a good thing.
I sometimes use an online thesaurus when I'm worried I'm using the same words too often...

Lucy King said...

Ah, well, I ignored the comment suggesting gassing the canary, and in the end plucked up the courage to go downstairs and ask the neighbours to keep it inside when they weren't there.

That might not work with your pheasants ;)

Lorraine said...

LOL Lucy - I was hoping for a bird hypnotizing technique at the very least ;-)

Lucy King said...

You can get this silent bird scarer thingy that I thought sounded quite good, but then saw that it was £150...

Lorraine said...

Ah, I'll borrow Jackie's scarecrow instead :-)