Lynn Raye Harris

Saturday was the Heart of Dixie RWA meeting. Have I said how much I love HOD? This is a committed, enthusiastic, sharing group of women (and one man). The group boasts more than one NYT bestselling writer as well as some fabulous authors who will get onto that list someday I am certain. And I can’t forget the unpublished writers who are dedicated and professional and who will also sell books and have careers because they won’t give up on their dreams. A talented, inspiring group to say the least.

Saturday, our guest speaker, a computer professional, talked about websites for writers. Very informative! I learned a lot. (My website, for instance, is in serious need of revamping. I’ll have to work on that.)

But you know what he said that had me thinking? He said that blogs are a timesink and not usually worth the trouble (I’ve talked about this before, but hearing it from a pro made me think about it even more). They can be, when the author has a clear purpose and a goal (such as promoting upcoming releases, holding contests, etc). As daily diaries, not so much. They take away from the writing.

And then I started looking around that room at those NYT bestselling writers. Not one of them has a blog. So I thought about the other published authors in the room. Only one that I know of blogs. The rest do not.

Other NYTBSWs do blog, so that’s not necessarily a definitive example. But it’s something to think about. Writing comes first. (And I’ve already spent at least half an hour editing this post. Things that make you go hmmm.)

No, not me, but the Instigator, aka Kira, over at the Writing Playground has sold her book to Brenda Chin at Harlequin Blaze!!!! Yay!!!!!!

Well, I did it. I plunged back into the WIP, after too much time away, and the ideas are coming along. One thing about being uncontracted is that you can spend way too much time writing a book. Too much time procrastinating and gallivanting off in the meadows.

Contracted writers don’t have that luxury. They have to write the book. They have to come up with new ideas and write new books and they have to deliver to an agent and an editor on a schedule.

It’s easy to say that we’ll be more disciplined when we have a contract, but the time really is now. It’s the persistent writers who succeed. The ones who write regularly (notice I did not say every day, because not everyone is the same), who move forward and stop revising the first novel they ever wrote (I stopped that a long time ago, but I know people….).

Back to the grindstone then. I’m on deadline.

From today’s Publisher’s Lunch:

Harlequin will develop a nonfiction line, launching in 2008, intending to publish in such areas as relationships, health, self-help, diet, fitness, inspirational, memoir and biography, along with nonfiction companions to their successful fiction, focusing on women 35 and older.

Oh dear. Wonder how that’s going to work out for them. It’s not a bad move, considering how popular things for the older female demographic are becoming. Dove Pro-Age, More Magazine, Christie Brinkley modeling again, Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon modeling for Revlon, etc. I’m not yet 40 (getting close) but I LOVE More Magazine (which is aimed at women over 40). I love those Pro-Age commercials with the older, heavier women strategically modeling their nudity. It’s about time the retailing world recognized that women don’t all come in one age and size. Let’s see what Harlequin will do with it…..

As I make the rounds of the blogs I’ve not been reading for the last few months, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. Some have gone dark. Not dark the way I disappeared, but dark as in over. POD-dy Mouth, a fabulous blog about finding good books in the mass of dreck that is self publishing, has closed her doors for good. The fabulous and always entertaining Miss Snark has bid adieu to her adoring masses. Squawk Radio, a popular blog by some NYT bestselling romance writers, has pulled the plug. What, or who, is next?

Is the thrill of the blog gone? I don’t mean just for the individual posters, but for the readers as well. Blogging was all the rage two years ago when I began, and it was widely seen as a way for authors to interact with their readers. Is that still going on, or have readers become disenchanted by the ease with which they can contact their favorite writer? Should there be some mystery between an author and her public? I’m just asking the questions. I certainly don’t know the answers, and I can’t speak as an author with a public. Do I hang out on favorite author blogs? No. Some of the authors I like I discovered as a fellow writer going to writing blogs.

I still enjoy the way blogging makes me feel like I’m part of a community, the way doing the rounds makes me feel like I’m sitting at a table and shooting the breeze with other writers. But I can see how blogging can detract from the real business of writers — writing. Ultimately, we are supposed to be typing words into a file that will hopefully become a book. Any other use of our time is extra-curricular. It’s necessary for sanity, perhaps, but not strictly necessary.

The thrill isn’t gone for me yet. What about you?

Imagine my surprise to realize, just yesterday, that National is July 11-14 and not at the end of the month like I originally thought. Never mind that I’ve been registered for months, or that I bought my plane ticket months ago. I’ve been telling my family that it’s the last week in July.

Duh.

So I realized that I have 6 weeks to get back into one of my evening gowns. I am NOT buying a new one. Six weeks is usually enough time, so we’ll see what happens. Ten pounds ought to do it, though twenty would really make me happy. I don’t really know numbers though because I haven’t been on a scale in a long time. Not because it upsets me, but because I use the scale at the gym and I haven’t been to a gym around here yet.

The diet has officially begun. So has the exercise, and today my chest hurts from the 45 push-ups I did yesterday. My abs hurt too. Ah yes, the price of too much good Southern cooking must now be paid.

My house is not quite a disaster area, but it’s not completely done yet either. I still have boxes to unpack (not many). I still have decorating to do. And I have six weeks to finish this book, write another proposal, and get yet another idea in the formation stage. Can’t go to National with nothing to talk about.

*sigh* Better get busy. Aloha.

On the search for interesting things to talk about, I pop over to Tess Gerritsen’s blog. I haven’t made the blog rounds in a long time, having been occupied with my move, so I’m beginning to branch back into my favorite reads again. Always trust Tess to deliver. Though we’re members of the same RWA chapter, I’m sorry I never got to meet her in person. She’s a pretty smart lady.

Finally, I leave you to ponder Creepy Fact #5: the animal with the shortest lifespan is the aquatic gastrotrich. It lives only three days. Only three days to accomplish everything it needs to do in a lifetime.

You, on the other hand, have fifty years ahead of you. That may seem like a long time right now, but it isn’t. I’m a gardener, and we gardeners know that we’re allotted only a limited number of spring plantings in our lives, only a certain number of seasons to try out new plants.

So here’s the final lesson from my creepy facts file, a lesson brought to you courtesy of the pitifully short-lived gastrotrich: Don’t waste a single planting season. Plant the seeds of your future now by nurturing every interest, every hobby. And always have something new growing, something you’ve never tried to grow before. Because you never know. It could end up being the most beautiful plant in your garden.

Head on over to Tess’s blog and read the text of the speech she gave for the University of Maine’s graduation. Much to think about, whether you’re 22 or 42 or 82.

How did you spend the weekend? Saturday, we went boating on the Tennessee River. We watched balloons taking off from the balloon festival in Point Mallard Park, then we docked and went to eat BBQ at Big Bob Gibson’s. Sunday, we went to a fish fry and shrimp boil in Decatur, in a very lovely garden, and Monday we moved some more stuff from my parents’ house. Whew, life is busy here in Alabama, but I’m loving it.

I’m sure I’ve talked about conflict before, but I want to do it again. Why? Because I’m judging a couple of contests right now and the one thing that strikes me the most is the lack of conflict in these entries. Some are gorgeously written, with pretty words and lovely sentences (and proper punctuation, ha) that just make my grammarian side sigh happily.

But they’ve got no conflict, which makes my impatient and time-conscious side tap mental fingers against my brain and try to rush me through the pages. I’m BORED. And bored is not good when reading a story. You don’t want to bore people because that is the kiss of death. If I’m bored, the agent or editor is probably going to be bored too.

How do you know if you’ve got conflict? Well, you can start by summarizing your central story question. I mean in one sentence too. Because if you can’t do it, then you may have a problem. Example: a burned-out former detective is forced to take one last case when the woman he’s never gotten over crashes back into his life with a killer on her tail.

Not the best example, maybe, but there is a hint of conflict there. This, btw, is for my novella that was published in serialized form in a local Hawaii magazine. What are the questions this sentence raises? How about: why’s the detective burned out? Why didn’t things work out with the woman? Who’s trying to kill her and why? Will the detective succeed at saving her?

If you can’t summarize your own story question in one sentence, then try it for your favorite novels. And then compare and see why you can’t do it for your own. A woman from an unfeeling psychic race must confront the emotions she isn’t supposed to have when she encounters a shapeshifter who claims she’s his lifemate. (Nalini Singh’s Slave to Sensation – fabulous book, btw! There is of course MUCH more to the book, but that’s my attempt to show conflict by stating the story question in one sentence.).

A woman whose husband spontaneously time travels must try to build a life with him that’s anything but normal as he unwillingly moves back and forth through time. (The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger)

A man with a secret identity must try to save a trio of priceless vases, and capture a sadistic killer, if he’s to have his criminal past wiped clean so he can be with the woman he loves. (French Twist – Roxanne St. Clair)

Maybe these sentences aren’t how the authors would phrase it, but the point is that each sentence raises a question (or several) that makes the reader curious about the outcome. The entries I’m reading do none of that (actually, one did — you can bet that one scored high, even though it’s not a storyline I’d normally purchase).

There are a lot of good writers out there. A lot of people who can string together lovely sentences that paint good pictures of settings. But if there’s no oomph, no story, what’s the point? A recitation of bland events, no matter how beautifully described, is not something that deserves to be published. The only thing getting you published is a great story question where the outcome remains in doubt until you resolve it for the reader (hopefully toward the end of the book and not in the first 50 pages). Believe me, it took me a long time to understand this concept. I used to worry about the words and the sentences much more than the what and why. Not anymore. Good writing is important, but good story is probably more so. Hone them both, figure out what conflict is, insert plenty of it into your story. Put your characters through hell. Don’t be nice to them.

What’s your story question? (In truth, in romance, you can probably write one for the hero and one for the heroine.) Are you being too nice?

Edited to add: check out this post over at Agent Kristin Nelson’s blog. Apparently, the conflict thing was on her mind this week too.

Have a look at the pics from our booksigning in October. Then pop over to One True Media and make your own montage. Great site, and basic membership is free!

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