by Charlene Teglia | Nov 17, 2005 | Uncategorized
The baby is getting teeth. This means that the blissful sleeping through the night she usually does is not happening and I’m sucking down coffee in an effort to keep myself up. What I’d really love to do on a day like this is go back to bed. Or if I couldn’t take a nap, curl up with somebody else’s romance novel. Instead, I must work on Vikings. This has been going on for about two weeks now, pretty much the entire time I’ve been working on TGB.
I think I should put something in the credits: Many coffee beans gave their lives so that this book could meet deadline.
by Charlene Teglia | Nov 16, 2005 | Uncategorized
Ellen wanted me to do a blog entry on how to write a short story (up to 15K). I promptly passed the buck to Morgan Hawke, who has a great article on that very topic. Angela Knight also has a great article about it. But since I need a topic today, I’ll see if I can come up with anything to add.
I think the main thing to realize is that structurally, short stories (up to 15K), novellas (around 25K) and novels (40K and over) are very different. It’s not just the length of the story that makes them different. Check out this handy resource for helpful tips on the different forms and structures.
In a romance, the shorter lengths pose a particular challenge because you have to make the hero and heroine together for life happily ever after scenario work in a very small space. There are ways to do this, but this is where it’s important to remember you’re not writing a novel. In addition to the various ways A.K. suggests making romance believable in that length, use the other tricks up your writer’s sleeve. Use symbolism. Use theme. Use settings to create emotional impact.
And since two of these three short writing references mention Poe, I will too. I studied Poe very thoroughly and anybody who wants to write short might want to, as well. His characters and settings are vividly drawn and his stories are full of emotional impact. He’s like the Bruce Lee of literature, the one-inch punch of short stories. He packs a whallop. Study his stories and see why.
Writing short is hard. Wolf In Cheap Clothing is by far the hardest work I’ve done to date from a technical standpoint. But I think it’s very satisfying to work in different forms and lengths, and it’s creatively challenging. I think it also brings added appreciation of fiction elements back to your novel writing, because in a short story you have no space to screw up. The structural work I’m doing on The Gripping Beast now is a direct benefit of the fiction essentials I had to master in order to work short effectively. And TGB is my longest novel to date.
Now I need to get back to work. Sadly, the revision fairy did not visit overnight and fix my manuscript.
by Charlene Teglia | Nov 15, 2005 | Uncategorized
Lately I’ve been calling myself an intuitive writer because I like it so much better than “panster”, which sounds silly and too random to be accurate. So this morning I read Intuitive Thinking As a Creative Pathway from “Creative Utopia” by Theo Stephan Williams and had to share:
“Using our intuition means not worrying about incoming perceptions or expectations. If we trust that we are right, we can at the very least offer an explanation for our choices…Being intuitive boils down to being just plain honest, first with ourselves, then with others…It is our moral obligation to be truthful to our intuition.”
Just the thing to help me stay focused and not worry about what other people are going to think about The Gripping Beast, whether they’ll like it, whether this or that is too much. If I believe it’s right, it’s staying in the book. If I think it’s wrong, it’s getting revised or removed. Be honest. How simple.
by Charlene Teglia | Nov 14, 2005 | Uncategorized
but Shannon had to point and laugh. “Gripping The Beast” is not in fact the new, improved title and the characters do other stuff besides, you know, grip the beast in the story. Really. Or make the beast with two backs. Or…you get the idea.
Must. Stop. Laughing.
In case you think only Samhain makes these blunders, I just had to tell the fine folks at Amazon that Henry Tedeschi did NOT in fact write my book, Love and Rockets. He can go write his own damn book if he wants author credit.
I can suggest a great title for him…
BTW, if you take a look at what other titles Henry is credited with, it only gets funnier. Maybe I should offer to cowrite with him for real if he ever needs to write a book on mitochondria with a romance angle?
by Charlene Teglia | Nov 14, 2005 | Uncategorized
It’s Monday! I’m still knee-deep in Vikings, but things are going swimmingly. One of my listed events that had to happen for the ending to come together (“Erik has Big Realization”) is now a splendid fully formed scene in my head. I’ll get that down today and I’m also going to go over the erotic storyline very carefully. I left that separate from the rest so I could do it all together. Very important scenes, lots of character depth there. I may even take another pass or two over them, they’re that important. The action, the choreography, the physical you-are-there details, the emotion, it all has to be exactly right.
Anyway, that’s what I’m working on today. Hope everybody out there has a good start to the week. Oh, yes, and The Gripping Beast now has an official ISBN and a release date more specific than “February”. It’s Feb. 7. And I’m checking my inbox continually for cover art. If you haven’t seen the Samhain covers yet, go check them out. Gorgeous! I have cover art envy.
Recent Comments