Editorial gold dust

I was shocked to see how long it is since my last post. It honestly doesn’t feel that long.

I suppose the reason for that is that I’ve had my head down, working on one thing or another for the whole time. So what’s been happening Chez Tora since the last time I checked in?

Well, I sent my ms of The Welsh King’s Spy in to Mills & Boon and settled down to a nail-biting wait. In order to save my nails, I started work on my next novel and had just got my head settled in Roman Britain when I got my report back from Mills & Boon. There were lots of things they liked about it but wondered if I could take a few characters and situations further.

I had to read the letter all the way through, heart pounding, before I read that yes, I could resubmit if I was able to make the changes. After picking myself up off the floor, I printed out the letter and read it through more thoroughly.

What it boiled down to, in my interpretation anyway, was that the opening chapters promised something that the story didn’t go on to deliver. Upon another read through, I had to admit (reluctantly, oh, so reluctantly!) that the editors had a point. So after some walks to think things through, a bit of sulking and a lot of chocolate, I sat down to revise my ms. If I’d known how hard it was going to be, I’d probably have indulged in a lot more sulking and even more chocolate – every scene I changed required me to unpick so many things running up to and leading from it. As a result it took me much longer than anticipated.

However, I’ve finally worked through all the revisions and I sent the ms back last week. I think it’s an improvement, but obviously I’ll have to wait for the editor’s verdict. Whatever the outcome, though, I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunity to work with a Mills & Boon editor. Feedback like that is pure gold dust and it’s spurred me on to keep writing and look more critically at my characters and their conflicts and ask myself if the story can be improved.

And finally, as I’ve got a busy few weeks, I’ll take the opportunity to say Happy Christmas, one and all! I’ll check in again in the new year.

Quick update and locations

I’ve got some time on my hands at the moment. Last week was all excitement, because I got my NWS report back on The Welsh King’s Spy and was told it’s ‘almost ready’. As a result I devoted all my spare time to making the suggested adjustments, which I finished on Sunday. Now it’s with my beta reader (the gorgeous Janice Preston—if you haven’t read her wonderful debut novel, Mary and the Marquis, yet, drop everything and order it now!) So there’s nothing more I can do on TWKS until I get it back.

It feels wrong to be doing nothing writing-wise, though. I do have two novellas that are at different stages of editing, but I’m finding it hard to immerse myself in the lives of those characters when I might have to get back into the heads of Matilda and Huw in a few days. Therefore I’ve decided to start planning my next full-length novel. 

I had an idea for a hero and heroine back in the summer. Of course I was committed to my rewrite of TWKS by that time, so I jotted down the idea in my notebook, wrote the opening scene that had come to me, then forgot about it. I dug my notes out yesterday and I think the story has potential. So I’ve decided to develop the characters and come up with a plot outline. There’s just one problem – I’m not very familiar with the location.

Hawkstone Follies - I always find inspiration here

So far all my novels/novellas have been set in Shropshire and just over the border in Wales. It’s where I live, which makes research dead easy. I just have to go for a walk or bike ride and I’m exploring the landscape that my characters inhabit, seeing the same skyline, the building materials, the trees, plants and animals… I have visited the place where my new story is set, but I haven’t built up anything like the same feel for the place. Still, I’ve decided to go for it – any excuse for a research trip to a beautiful location!

Do you prefer to set your stories in familiar locations, or would you rather research new places?

Historical Heroes and The Fear

The subtitle of this blog is writing and facing the fear. Yet although I’ve talked about the writing side of my life, I haven’t mentioned the fear part so much, if at all. This is probably because when I’m suffering from a monster dose of The Fear, I’m so convinced that everything I write is laughable that the last thing I want to do is post something that anyone in the world with an internet connection can read. (Even though my hit count shows me I’m well short of that number.)

 

It’s time to put that right and make a confession.

I nearly talked myself out of entering the Historical Heroes contest. Here’s how it went…

Part of my prize was all these books!

When the contest was first announced, I thought: ‘Great – an opportunity to get feedback from an editor. I have to do this.’ I had a MS that I’d put aside while I did other things so what better way to find out if it was worth polishing it up for submission? However, as the deadline for the Medieval heroes part of the contest approached, I kept putting off submitting it because I just wanted to get this line or that bit of dialogue right. I’m sure I’m not the only one like this. (Please tell me I’m not!) 

By Saturday (the deadline was Sunday) I’d convinced myself that a two-year-old with a crayon could write a better romance than I could. I turned off my laptop and decided there was no way the M&B editors would ever be able to hear my name without cracking up ever again if I submitted my first chapter. I was deluded if I thought anything good could come of entering…etc, etc. 

It was only on Sunday that I gave myself a slap round the face and had a conversation with myself that went something like this:

Tough me:       You do realise that if you’re ever going to get a publishing deal, someone, at some point is going to have to read your work. Do you want to be published?

Scaredy me:    [Squeaks] Yes.

Tough me:       And if you do ever find a publisher then a lot of people could read your work.

Scaredy me:     I know.

Tough me:       Including your mother.

Scaredy me:     Eep!

Tough me:       So are you sure you want to be published?

Scaredy me:     [Squares shoulders] Yes.

Tough me:       Then get your arse in gear and email that first chapter off now. Because if you’re ever going to be brave enough to let your mother read your work, you’d better get used to strangers reading it ASAP. Move it! Now!

So I put together my pitch and emailed the whole lot off before my fear could get the better of me again. And guess what? I WON!!! Woohoo! You can read all about it on the M&B socialise blog.

Of course, The Fear hasn’t gone away. It’s gnawing away at my confidence as I rewrite the whole story, telling me that maybe I could manage a single chapter, but the rest of it stinks. I’m trying not to listen to it. And now I’ve had that one success, my armour is that bit stronger. Another thing I’ve done is to save all the emails and messages of congratulation I got (and I got loads – my friends, both online and RL have been amazing) and whenever I start to feel my self-doubt get the better of me, I reread some. That’s really helped to keep me going.

So what’s next? Well, as I’m a NWS member, I’m submitting my MS there first and I’ll show it to my lovely critique partner. Then once I’ve polished it to the best of my ability, I’ll send it to M&B for the full appraisal I won. And that’s such an amazing opportunity – I still can’t get over how lucky I am. And none of this would have happened if I hadn’t overcome my fear and entered the competition in the first place. In future I’m going to try much harder not to let my fear get the better of me.