Sprinting

I'd like to take credit for this ingenious idea, but someone else in the Olympia RWA Chapter came up with it.  We tried this at our Manresa Castle retreat last month (January), and it worked like a charm.  I have to admit, I had my doubts.  But wow, the results are truly amazing!

Here's the gig:  You set a specific period during which you will write.  Or revise, if you're in revision mode.  We started with 20 minutes, but for some reason that didn't work all that well.  On our second attempt (we were doing this as a group during the retreat) we set the timer for 30 minutes.  As soon as the timer went off, you put your head down and write.  You don't worry about whether or not the stuff you're writing is 'good enough', whether the dialog is stilted, or whether you've just introduced a spaceship into your Colonial romance.  You just write.  No self-editing or talk.  No Solitaire.  No answering questions.  No interruptions.

It was amazing!  After 30 minutes we were all in the thick of writing (or editing, as the case may be) and over the course of several Sprints much headway was made.  We generally paused for 10 minutes between Sprints to compare notes, talk, get something to drink, check plotting notes, or whatever.  Then, set the timer again and off we went. 

That's my very first writing tip ever for this blog, but this worked so well for me that I had to share. 

Yes, it's more difficult to do this at home, when you don't have the supportive bubble created by a writer's retreat.  But take your laptop somewhere away from the hubub of the house--go sit in the back seat of your car if you have to--and just WRITE for 30 minutes.  Go buy some crime scene tape if you think that'll help give you the uninterrupted time and space.

Think of a sprint as a small investment that will pay off big time--with the added benefit that you won't be out of breath at the end--unless, of course, you're writing a love scene! 

It's off!

After way more time than originally planned editing the ms, it's finally headed back to the editor.  It started at 103,000 words and ended up at 76,000 words, so much red ink was spilled. 

I miss the characters already.  Am I mad?  I guess when you've watched them do everything--and I mean EVERYTHING--it can be hard to let go. 

I worry about the book:  will it sell; will readers like the setting of southern Spain, which I consider very romantic but is considered an 'unusual' setting; will I be able to re-focus on the current book without too much difficulty. . . .

But for now, I'm going to celebrate the fact that my 'baby' is as good as I can make it right now and hope and pray that the editor will like the revisions.  

What do you do to distract yourself while waiting for an editor's reply?

Final polishing

I'm in the final polishing stage, examining each word, each phrase, each paragraph.  This is where the self-doubt creeps in for me.  Should I change it or not?  What if I change it and the publisher wants something different?  What's the point of it all?  What's the meaning of life? 

Ugh.  Just need to muscle through this and make sure the conflict shines in each scene. 

How do you make that final (hopefully) pass through your manuscripts?  What are your techniques?

Karen Harbaugh on American-set historicals

Karen Harbaugh is a Regency author who follows market trends and has been incredibly accurate in predicting where the next "turn" in the market will be, and why things are operating (or not) as they are.  With a lovely re-issue of "The Marriage Scheme" available at Regency Reads, I thought it would be a good time to ask her about the State of the Market, and how that relates to my last blog post regarding the difficulty of selling American-set historical romances.

So here, without further ado, is Karen Harbaugh:

Well, IMHO, what's curtailing the move into American-set romances is the fear of traditional publishers to take risks. That's always been the case, and it's even more so now. Even though they're moving into the "risky" ebook market (at last), this does not mean they're going to take risks with subject matter. They're going to take baby steps, because they have assets to protect and right now, their assets are under a tremendous amount of threat.

Indie authors, on the other hand, have very little to lose. You have a few hundred bucks for a really nice cover and copyright registration, you do your own scanning and coding, and you're good. If you're really short on money, you can try creating the cover yourself and you're out maybe $50-$75.

When I look at what should sell if there weren't these constraints, I'd say American Revolution, Civil War, and WWII eras. Why is this?

1. We are at the same point in the approximately 80-year cycle that gave rise to the American Revolution, Civil War, and WWII. There is and has been rising interest in these eras.

2. We have already seen interest in these eras in the bestseller lists (McCullough's books comes to mind:  1776 and John Adams, the latter of which not only was on the best seller lists, but won the Pulitzer Prize AND was made into a mini-series. The media doesn't plunk that kind of recognition and money down on something like that without knowing it's worth the risk. Interest in the Civil War is suppressed at this time because of continuing racial tensions concerning slavery--it's very difficult to walk the line between historical accuracy and offending someone.

World War II gets special mention. In the 1980's the U.S. released 17 WWII-themed movies. In the 1990's, the same number. From 2000 to 2009, it released twice that many--34. That is a significant jump in not only audience interest, but business investment. In other words, it's considered a relative "sure thing."

3. Controversy sells. In addition, we live in one of the most divisive of times, and when we do, we ALWAYS hearken back to periods of history that might possibly give us the answers we need to get us through. Controversy + desire for answers = big sales.

Mainstream publishing hasn't jumped on these romance trends. I think this is typical--they tend to lag about 5 to 10 years. Case in point: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which developed a cult following from 1997 to 2003. The ratings were modest, but the significance here is in "cult following." That represents extremely loyal viewers who "evangelize" the show and get others to watch it, far beyond the lifetime of the series. This is the epitome of word-of-mouth. You get that kind of loyal readership for books, and you can guarantee bestsellerdom. But, as many of us know, in the mid to late 1990's, the publishers were saying that paranormal romances and vampires were dead (if you will excuse the expression) :-D

The consumer demand for paranormal romances was very heavy even back in 1995. I went to a Romantic Times convention around about that time, and it was significant to me that when the readers (and this was a reader--rather than writer--convention) that when readers were asked what kind of romances they wanted, there was a loud cry for paranormal romances, and a great deal of frustration that they couldn't find them. Keep in mind that these readers--like the Buffy fans--were readers so dedicated that they would not only go to a convention for romance novels, but they were the romance novel evangelists. The kind you want to spread word of mouth.

Yet, publishers at that time kept insisting that such romances were not popular. However, we all know how that subgenre has been doing since that time.

If I were to go on historical circumstances and similarity to our own era, I'd say that the order of relevance would be American Revolution, WWII, and then the Civil War.

However, our memories are short, and what we are currently told about the American Revolution is highly politicized. So the most accurate accounts we have of an era that is similar to ours is for WWII, because we still have some eyewitnesses.

If we were to write stories in older eras, we REALLY have to do our research. We can't go on the stereotypes of those eras. We have to look at those eras with fresh eyes and present a fresh, and very accurate perspective. So far, I don't think that's been done. The research may be good, but the fresh perspective may not be there.

If you want some historical parallells or have other questions, feel free to ask.

And since she's asked for questions. . . . ask away!!