Take it away, Jen!

The romance industry, like any genre, is constantly changing. As a writer, one of the first pieces of advice I was given time and time again is the following: Write the book of your heart and don’t write to the hottest trend in the marketplace, because by the time you’ve finished your manuscript, what was hot when you started may no longer be popular. When a multi-published author who frequents the NYT bestseller list spoke at an RWA conference, she shared a way to break into a market while increasing sales and still staying true to her style of writing.  She took the “marriage of convenience” theme and placed it into a paranormal story.  By doing this she was able to tell her type of story in a paranormal setting, allowing her to tap into a popular market.

Erotic romance is smoking hot, pardon the cliché. More and more publishers, especially in the e-book market, have seen a growing demand for this type of book and are opening up more venues to cater to these readers. The erotic marketplace is also seeing the expansion of more  m/m and f/f , BDSM, and other once forbidden taboos. With the increased popularity of e-books, readers have gained the power of anonymity.  The purchaser can now enjoy an erotic read without succumbing to the scrutiny of others.

With the rising popularity of the erotic romance,  a question has been raised – Can your current romance be written for the erotic market?

This is a serious question that should be considered, but first, you must know yourself as a writer. If the idea of writing a sex scene causes you to blush and shudder, this market is not for you. If you do not enjoy reading erotic romances, you will probably not enjoy writing them.

It is also important to research various publishers to pinpoint the type of stories you enjoy reading, the quality, and the reputation of the publisher. With a growing number of small e-presses, you need to carefully read guidelines to see what each publisher accepts, and what you are comfortable writing. If you target a certain publisher, read many books to get a feel for the writing and the quality of the line.

If you are comfortable writing a sex scene, it’s a good idea to take a step back and look at your book. The key to a good erotic romance is to make sure the sex scenes are integral to the story. You can’t expect to take a regular romance novel, add additional sex scenes, and sell it as erotic.  If you prefer a bit of an edge to your love scenes, and can handle more graphic language, you may be able to re-write the book for this market. The erotic market is wide open for all genres: paranormal, contemporary, historical and Regency.  Each publisher has different requirements. Some need a certain amount of sexual scenes and others say as long as it blends with your particular story, there is no agreed number. Frank language is encouraged so if you are uncomfortable naming the terms of the body and prefer rose-colored, soft phrases, again this market may not be for you. But, if you’ve been looking to stretch and develop your writing into something different, to challenge yourself, you may want to try.

Romance Writers of America (RWA) special interest chapter, Passionate Ink, define erotic romance novels as stories written about the development of a romantic relationship. The sex is an inherent part of the story, character growth, and relationship development, and couldn’t be removed without damaging the storyline.

Erotic romances differ from erotica. In an erotic romance, there must be a happily ever after. With erotica, the relationship does not have to end happily. The following description was taken from the Ellora’s Cave website, defining the important difference between these two terms:

http://www.jasminejade.com/t-romantica.aspx

For the erotic romance, authors must have a skill for focusing on the art of physical lovemaking, developing conflict, and keeping a strong love story between the main characters to the very last page.

Most markets require a strong romantic connection with a happily ever after, and sexual monogamy. Other markets will let you explore threesomes, bondage, and any other sexual exploration the author is willing to examine. As in all romances, the bottom line remains key: write a great story with characters we care about. An erotic romance may contain more explicit sexual scenes, but it must enhance the relationship and development of story and character.

When I first sold my novella, “Masquerade” in Secrets Volume 11 to Red Sage Publishing, I specifically focused on mingling the level of sexual exploration along with my character’s growth. My heroine came from a repressed background and was taught to deny her sexuality. By using the setting of a masquerade ball, she was able to cover her face and allow herself freedom in expressing herself. This sexual freedom eventually opened her emotions and connected her deeper to the hero.  The sex scenes became integral to the story and not just thrown into the book to fit the erotic category.

So, if you are ready to try and develop the story to fit the erotic category, look at these main points.

1. Your sex scenes. They must be frank, riveting, and move the story along. Terms consistently used in many erotic romances include the following: pussy, penis, ass, cock, clit, etc. These words are not peppered into the scene just to make the romance erotic, but must fit the love scene and the characters. Also, make sure each character matches the sexual experience. If you have a virginal heroine, you may want to ramp up your hero’s background and have him use explicit language and initiate her into the experience. If your heroine is more contemporary and edgy, having her as the aggressor can be exciting. You can also take the opportunity to allow your character to express more sexual freedom that may not match her outward appearance. This is a great way to deepen your character.
2. Secondary characters and subplots should not overtake over the story. This is not the time to shove the best friend at your reader continuously, unless she is developing her own physical relationship or setting the stage for a sequel. Erotic romances focus tightly on the main characters and their relationship.
3. The sexual tension and relationship should be the main stage. In erotic fiction, the sexual relationship between the characters takes the main stage. You may need to write more scenes or intensify the physical relationship to make the sale. Extra characters chitchat, or too much plot without the physical connection may dilute the story.
4. Conflict. Conflict will raise the stakes in the relationship, and the heat of the love scenes. Pit two different types of people together and watch what happens in the bedroom. This is a great way to explore character growth. In my book, The Tantric Principle, my hero practices tantra in the bedroom – an ancient method of controlling his orgasm. My heroine was a take charge sort of woman who liked to set the pace. The combination of backgrounds was a great opportunity to inject conflict and hot sex, yet tie it into my hero and heroine’s growth.
   
5. Respect the genre. If you do not love or respect the erotic romance market, you will not be able to write a great story. Fans of the erotic romance genre are loyal and publishers generally want to purchase high quality work.
6. Dig deep. The beauty of the erotic romance is the intensity of the love scenes. This is a time to dig deep into your character’s secret fantasies and fears. This is not a time to worry if your mother will ever read your book! Let yourself go as a writer and explore each aspect of sexual exploration to initiate conflict, growth, fear and love.

Remaining flexible and open to market trends is savvy business, as long as you remain true to your writing style.   The erotic romance market is expanding, with many new and exciting opportunities.  If your book has the core elements of a great love story, and you are comfortable writing a more sexually explicit romance, this may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.

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RU Crew, do you love reading erotic romance? Tell us about your favorite authors. For our writers out there…have you thought about writing erotic?  Jennifer’s kindly agreed to answer any of your questions.

Stop back Wednesday for author Tracy March’s discussion on Powerful Settings: Finding What is Unique for Your Characters…and You.

* * *

Jennifer Probst is published in contemporary romance, both sexy and erotic. Her first book, Heart of Steel, was published by LionHearted Publishing, and her novella, “Masquerade” appeared in Red Sage Secrets Volume 11. Her first children’s book, Buffy and the Carrot, was co-written with her 12 year old niece by Eloquent Books. Her new e-book release, “The Tantric Principle” is available now through Red Sage. Look for her new novella from Red Sage early 2012 entitled, Sex, Lies and Contracts!

Please check out her website at http://www.jenniferprobst.com
Blog http://jenniferprobst.wordpress.com or
Mommy Blog http://4badmommies.com
Twitter me! http://twitter.com/#!/jenniferprobst
Facebook me! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Jennifer-Probst-Fan-Page/111073648957581

This might not be earth shattering enough to be posted – BUT – I’d really appreciate an answer on this one – as this type of scene is in two different spots in my current WIP. Basically, it’s a one-sided conversation being heard by the POV character outside of the scene (does that make sense?). What I’d like to know is – do I need to structure this differently because there’s one side the reader can’t hear? I kind of clumped the sentences together because I thought it reads better this way – but is this right? Should there be the dreaded … in between those sentences?

“Mom it’s for you, it’s Aunt Kelly.”

“Hey,” Jake heard Peyton say. “No, no better, I’m afraid. They have no idea. Good news? Yeah. I could use some.”

He heard silence for a few seconds and then Peyton literally sputtered. “Tell me you didn’t. To Mr. Ginger ale! No, seriously, you didn’t, did you? Why?” That last word came out as a soft wail. “I know. I know. It was my idea. It was a brilliantly funny idea and if I wanted to go out with him I would have-” Silence again, so Jake waited quietly, unwilling to miss any of this. Clearly, they were talking about him. She couldn’t have two Mr. Ginger ales in her life.  “What do you mean, why do I sound mad? Why wouldn’t I be mad?”

“Don’t even–” Kelly must have cut her off again because there was momentary silence. “No, I did not tell you that. You–no, I said – Okay, I said he was better looking than I remembered. You said he was a hunk. I did not – aww, man, he’s going to think-” Silence again and then, “Oh, yes he will, he’s–” she either turned away from the family room or wandered deeper into the kitchen and lowered her voice, because Jake couldn’t hear what she was saying.

“Quarter! You said a bad word,” Paige called out.

Thankfully, Jake heard her again when she said, “Just a second,” to Kelly and, “I thought you guys were doing your homework,” to the kids.

“We are. You still owe a quarter, Mom,” Paige insisted.

“You do know that what I said is the actual name of an animal, don’t you?”

“Um, not when you end it with ‘hole’, Mom. Sorry.” Jake laughed out loud at Spencer’s logical interference.

“Oh, for cripes sake. Yeah, Kel, just a minute.” Jake heard rustling sounds and then a clink. Apparently, Peyton paid the piper in the form of a quarter in the mason jar and if he didn’t miss his guess, he was the asshole. Great.

Okay. I can see why this is giving you some trouble. First, let me point out that Jake is doing nothing. The scene feels static because it is static — he’s silent, unengaged, and unseen, a ghost in the corner. Give him something to do. And remember the importance of relevant action. Don’t just have him watering flowers as he’s listening. Give him a goal, and put that goal into conflict with the overheard conversation. Maybe he needs to get something out of the room with the phone, and he needs to do it without being noticed. (In that case, his need for stealth takes on an extra dimension of dramatic purpose.) Maybe he needs to get out of the house — some emergency elsewhere — and the phone call is causing him to delay. (In that case, the dramatic tension would come from the opposition between the need to stay and the need to leave.)

Do you see how that works? The phone call doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Even if it’s not currently written that way, other plot elements are occurring around the phone call. Bring them in and let them put some dramatic tension into the scene.

My next tip is for the call to be tightened. There’s a lot of extra chatter in this scene snippet, and it weighs down the pacing. Now, before you go cutting to the bone, I want to point out that in its current state, this dialogue feels and reads very much like a real phone call. Natural social conversation is rarely direct and concise. People interrupt each other and themselves. Sentences wander. Ideas are dropped only to re-emerge ten minutes later. You’ve absolutely caught that reality in your scene here.

But this isn’t real life. It’s a fictional representation of how a real life might be, and to that end, we must sometimes sacrifice a bit of reality to keep the pacing tight and clean. For example, you could cut almost all of the interchange with the kids — which, near as I can tell, has little dramatic relevance. I think you may have included it for flavor, for a bit of liveliness and fun and character interaction. A bit of flavor is a good thing, but keep it neat.

You could pare that part of the exchange to something like:

“Quarter! You said a bad word,” Paige called out.

“I thought you guys were doing your homework,” She must have turned back around to talk to the kids, because Jake could hear her clearly again. He could also hear some rustling and then a clink. Apparently, Peyton paid the piper in the form of a quarter in the mason jar and if he didn’t miss his guess, he was the asshole. Great.

So there you have it, the two secrets to managing an overheard phone call scene:

1. Let the call unfold in the midst of another scene so that more is happening than just standing and listening.

2. Keep it tight.

Where else can this exchange be tightened in a way that doesn’t interfere with tone?

Theresa

* * *

Thanks, Theresa and Murphy!

All right, RU Readers, Theresa’s issued a challenge? Any thoughts on where else the exchange can be tightened? Be sure to post your comments below.

Join us again on Monday when agent Scott Eagan discusses the benefits of category romance authors having agent representation.

Theresa’s bio:

After earning degrees in creative writing and law, Theresa Stevens worked as a literary attorney agent for a boutique firm based in Indianapolis where she represented a range of fiction and nonfiction authors. The lure of the courtroom led to a nine-year hiatus from the publishing industry, but now Theresa is back as Managing Editor for Red Sage Publishing, a highly acclaimed small press. Her articles on writing and editing have appeared in numerous publications for writers. Visit her blog at http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/ where she and her co-blogger share their knowledge and hardly ever argue about punctuation.

Kelsey: What’s your opinion of the state of erotic romance today?

Angela:  Anybody who walks into the romance section of a bookstore can probably answer that.  You’ve got historicals and erotic romance with paranormal or romantic suspense in various doses.  So erotic romance is still hot.

Kelsey: How do you think this sub-genre has changed in the last five years?

Angela: There’s a lot more erotic romance out there now than there used to be, which makes it more difficult to stand out from the crowd and establish a following.  This means that you have to be more than erotic or kinky or whatever – you’ve got to write books that give something more than a warm, wet feeling below the waist.  Your books need a solid plot and a solid romantic conflict so the reader wonders whether the heroic couple is going to get their happily ever after.  And then they get a good Happily Ever After ending that makes the reader feel good.

Kelsey: What advice do you have for writers who want to break into this sub-genre? Any trends writers should avoid or embrace?

Angela: It depends on what you’re targeting.  If you’re trying to break into e-publishing, readers want what they can’t get in the bookstores.  That means male/male romances, which NY still isn’t accepting.  Or you can go really, really balls-to-the-wall hot with BDSM, etc.  But that’s tricky as hell to write, because if you go too far, you get a creep for a hero.  You have to make sure you have a reason for this guy to want to use a riding crop on his lover beyond wanting to hear a woman scream in pain.  A good safe reason is because he knows it’s what SHE wants. You must clearly establish his primary considerations are A.) it’s what she wants and B.) that she’s safe when he gives it to her.  So even as he’s playing at being a dominant bastard, he’s watching her like a hawk to make sure he isn’t really hurting her. 

If you’re going for NY publishers, you need to make sure you’re hot, but you stay away from things that are going to squick most readers.  That means no icky bodily fluids, except  blood (if he’s a vampire). And NY houses still aren’t really doing gay romances for the most part. 

I think the real key to standing out in either e-pubbing or NY is to be really creative.  Think WHY these characters need to do what they do sexually.  Make it IMPORTANT to them.  Next, see what other writers are doing, and DON’T DO IT THAT WAY.  Find a way that’s outside the box.  I took King Arthur and made him a vampire.  Nobody was doing that.  So if everybody is doing vampires in leather, for God’s sake, do not do vampires in leather. 

Example: I decided to do a werewolf novella a couple of years ago, and I decided that instead of doing the standard wolfie, I would do a werewolf in the future.  They used nanobot engineering to make him a werewolf. Then I had to come up a reason why they did that.  Well, the world he lived on was so insanely hostile, you had to be a werewolf to survive. 

Then to make it kinky, I decided he’d been captured and enslaved, and the heroine buys him. To keep her sympathetic, I decided she bought him because she needs a bodyguard she can absolutely trust because she controls him.   You see how this works. 

THINK ABOUT IT.  Do NOT use the first thing that pops into your head, because odds are, that’s a cliché.  That’s why they call them clichés.  Original is the fourth or fifth thing you think of, not the first. 

Then take your time plotting, and find a really fun way to accomplish your goal.  The more fun you have, the more fun the reader will have.  

Kelsey: Do you have any insight on “erotic romance friendly” agents and publishers?

Angela: There are a lot of them now.  For e-pubs, I like Changeling Press and Loose Id, because I know the owners and they’re not going to screw you.  For agents, Deidre Knight is good, and of course my own Roberta Brown, but I’m not sure Roberta is acquiring. For NY, there is Berkley Heat, of course, as well as many others.

Kelsey: What do you love about writing erotic romance and what do readers tell you they love about your books?

Angela:  I love the challenge.  The one thing people bitch about most when writing love scenes is that it’s all tab A in Slot B. To me, that’s what makes it challenging. 

Don’t just tick through the positions: okay, we did it missionary before, so this time we’ll do it standing up against the wall.  You want to vary it, but your real approach needs to be how will these two people make love differently than anybody else you’ve written?  Because no couple makes love the same way. 

Sex is like a song.  All songs are made up of notes, right?  But songs are wildly different depending on who is singing those notes, and what kind of song they’re singing.  How will your people sing differently?

Kelsey: What do you think it takes to be a NYT bestselling author of erotic romances?

Angela:  I guess it takes not doing the really easy thing.  You need to give your characters strong internal, external and romantic conflicts, which interact to create a plot that is about more than sex.  And you need to have solid writing skills that you actively develop.

Join RWA and Passionate Ink, the Erotic Romance chapter of RWA, and go to every class at Nationals you can get into your schedule.  Or if you can’t afford that, go to Bill Stephens Productions and cough up $100 for the year’s set of CDs that have every Nationals session on them. Or download the individual sessions if that’s all you can afford. But the session CDs are the best buy.  I get the CDs every year, and I always learn something from them. Find them here: https://www.billspro.com/order/rwa/index.html

Kelsey: What are your predictions for erotic romance in the next one to three years?

Angela:  I think NY will eventually start doing M/M.  Other than that, I have no clue.  I think they’ll be doing whatever is big in E-publishing now.  And I think e-publishing is the wave of the future, because it’s environmentally and economically a much better way to go.  No print costs, no shipping costs, no overhead except for the cost of editing and doing covers and running a website.  And when the reader is through with the books, they don’t end up in landfills. 

The problem is preventing piracy, which is a bitch and a half.

I want to thank you for inviting me to blog with you, and I want to invite all of you to my website, http://www.angelasknights.com/.  You’ll find excerpts of my books, including my book on writing, as well as my artwork of computer generated hunks.  Thanks!

Angela Knight

***

Thanks again to Angela for hanging out with us at RU. Readers, what questions do you have for her about erotic romance or avoiding the “easy out” in your writing?

Be sure to stop in tomorrow when debut paranormal romance author Laurie London chats with us about her agent search. Her agent, Emmanuelle Alspaugh, has agreed to drop in as well!

Angela’s Bio:

Angela Knight is the New York Times bestselling author of books for Berkley, Red Sage, Changeling Press, and Loose Id. Her first book was written in pencil and illustrated in crayon; she was nine years old at the time. A few years later, she read The Wolf and the Dove and fell in love with romance. Besides her fiction work, Angela’s publishing career includes a stint as a comic book writer and ten years as a newspaper reporter. Several of her stories won South Carolina Press Association awards under her real name.

In 1996, she discovered the small press publisher Red Sage, and realized her dream of romance publication in the company’s Secrets 2 anthology. She went on to publish several more novellas in Secrets before editor Cindy Hwang discovered her work there and asked her if she’d be interested in writing for Berkley. Not being an idiot, Angela said yes.

Angela lives in South Carolina with her husband, Michael, a polygraph examiner and hostage negotiator for the county’s Sheriff’s Office. The couple have a grown son, Anthony.

Present Tense

Definition: Present tense verbs indicate that action is taking place right now.

Example: The baby sleeps through the night.

We’re not talking about last night or tomorrow night. We’re talking about this night right now.

Literary Present: Here’s where things get interesting. Literary convention says that the “now” of the story is related with past tense verbs. In other words,

In life: Present time = present tense

In books: Present time = past tense

So how do fiction writers use the present tense? When is it appropriate? (We’re not talking about fiction that experiments with tense or deconstructs the convention. We’re talking about typical books.) You can safely use present tense in dialogue. You can also use it in italicized interior monologue, but with a light touch, please. You can, with some clever phrasing and very careful writing, use it in non-italicized interior monologue, but it’s not an easy thing to pull off. Use extreme caution.

Common error: Using a present tense contraction. “That’s when she realized the baby was sleeping.” (That’s = That is)

Past Tense

Definition: Past tense verbs indicate that the action took place in the past.

Example: The baby slept through the night.

Literary Past: As we’ve already mentioned, in fiction, the past is the present. The vast bulk of your story should be written in the simple past tense. Any time you stray from the simple past tense, stop and ask why. Why are you shifting out of the scene moment? Staying in scene is a good thing. Try to do it. J

Common Error: Sticking to the simple past when the time sequencing doesn’t permit it. “The baby slept through tomorrow night.” The simple past should be your default, but it’s not foolproof.

Future Tense

Definition: Future tense verbs indicate something that will happen in the future.

Example: The baby will sleep through the night.

Literary future: If the past is the present, then when does the future arrive? That sounds like a philosophy riddle. Rather than meditating on this one, let’s just remember the general rule that the simple future tense is safe to use in dialogue when the characters are discussing things which might happen in future scenes. As with the present tense, infrequent uses of the future tense in italicized interior monologue will be okay, too. Most other uses will sound awkward.

As with all general rules, there are exceptions. But please do flag any outside-the-quotation-marks usages of future tense and scrutinize them carefully.

Common error: Using the future tense in action sentences to impart a casual or conversational feel. “Marie poured a large cup of coffee before heading into her morning meeting. She’ll feel a lot better if the baby will sleep through the night.” (Second sentence is future tense. See how awkward that is?)

Present Perfect Tense

Now comes the tricky part. Perfect tenses can give even the best writers a migraine.

Definition: The present perfect tense connects the present and the past, but sometimes those connections are indefinite or intangible.

Example: The baby has slept through the night for some time now. (It happened on past nights. It happens on the current night. We connect those past nights with the present night in a single verb, “has slept.”)

We’re not going to worry about defining the three specific usages of the present perfect tense, though, because–

Literary Present Perfect: Almost never occurs outside of dialogue. Even interior monologue, whether italicized or non-italicized, will almost always be less awkward in past perfect than in present perfect.

Why is this? Well, if you think the “future of the past” question sounded like an unsolveable zen koan, try this one. If the literary present is expressed in past tense, and if you want a verb tense to connect that literary past tense to the past of that literary past, how can you do that in present terms? Is it even possible to connect the past to the past in the present?

Confused? You should be. It’s awkward and non-intuitive to try to shoehorn this tense into a typical story. So if you can’t wrap your mind around all this riddle stuff, just remember the general rule: In fiction, the present progressive almost never occurs outside of dialogue. Forget about the present perfect and stick with progressive conjugations for ongoing actions (“has been sleeping”) or the past perfect for completed action (“had slept”).

Common error: Using this tense in a present participial phrase. “Mary often found herself wondering if her baby has slept through the night.” I think the -ing participle throws people off tense sometimes.

Past Perfect Tense

Definition: The past perfect tense indicates an action completed in the past before some other past action or event. (The past of the past is the past perfect.)

Example: The baby had slept through the night.

Literary Past Perfect: Indicates actions or events that precede the current scene. The “now” of the story is told in past tense. Anything that happens before that “now” story moment will generally need the past perfect tense — the dreaded had.

Have you been warned not tooveruse the word had? This might mean that you’re slipping out of the scene “now” and using too many past perfect moments. Try to stay in scene. It’s a good thing. J

Common error: Using past perfect to describe sequential events in the current scene. “Mary had heard the baby crying and she got out of bed.” Hearing comes before getting up, but you’re in linear scene time, so no past perfect usage is necessary.

Future Perfect Tense

Definition: The future perfect tense indicates a future action or event that will be completed before some other future action or event.

Example: By the time he’s in kindergarten, the baby will have slept through the night. (The baby has not yet slept through the night. In the future, the baby will be in kindergarten. Before that future scholastic event, another future event — sleeping through the night — will be a done deal.) (Yes, the adverbial clause contains a present tense verb that snuck in via a conjuction. Good on you for spotting it!)

Literary Future Perfect: Follows basically the same rules as defined above. Does this surprise you? Think of it this way. The future happens after the past and after the present. Doesn’t matter if we’re talking about the real past or the literary “now.”

Common error: Substituting the future tense for the future perfect. “By the time he was in kindergarten, the baby will sleep through the night.”

Congratulations to all of you who have managed to read this far. Ask your questions in the comments, and everyone who comments will be entered in a drawing to win a download of Nathalie Gray’s steampunk novel, “Full Steam Ahead,” where the past and the present mingle freely in that way familiar to fans of the subgenre.

* * *

A huge thanks to Theresa for providing such an amazing resource on verb tense! This lecture is going in my keeper file.

Join us on Monday when Tracey chats with author Marjorie Liu about her new romance-themed video game.

Theresa’s Bio:

After earning degrees in creative writing and law, Theresa Stevens worked as a literary attorney agent for a boutique firm based in Indianapolis where she represented a range of fiction and nonfiction authors. The lure of the courtroom led to a nine-year hiatus from the publishing industry, but now Theresa is back as Managing Editor for Red Sage Publishing, a highly acclaimed small press. Her articles on writing and editing have appeared in numerous publications for writers. Visit her blog at http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/ where she and her co-blogger share their knowledge and hardly ever argue about punctuation.

In case you missed our announcement on April 8, please help us welcome our newest addition to the Romance University faculty: Carrie Spencer! Carrie has been a regular reader and participant at RU since the early days. With her knowledge of our mission, her technical background and outgoing personality, Carrie was a perfect match for our faculty needs.

Mon, 4/12 – Crafting Your Career: Border’s book buyer Sue Grimshaw tells us how all those lovely books get onto the shelves.

Wed, 4/14 – Anatomy of the Male Mind: Wayne Levine’s back to reveal how a ropes course can teach guys to become better men. Don’t miss this insightful conversation.

Fri, 4/16 – Chaos Theory of Writing: Managing Editor Theresa Stevens starts a new lecture series about writing effective sentences. She’ll begin with the five major verb tenses and why traditional grammar instruction on tenses doesn’t do fiction writers much good. Wanna talk to a grammar guru? Be sure to stop by!

Remember, 2010 is the Year of the Sub-genre at Romance University. Each month, we will poke, prod, and beg publishing professionals close to the sub-genre to give us the latest information. Is it hot? Is it not? On April 2, we highlighted erotic romance with author Eden Bradley. Be sure to check it out!

All Romance University lectures are generously provided by our Visiting Professors. RU is a tuition-free zone!

Best regards,

Tracey Devlyn, Kelsey Browning & Adrienne Giordano

PS  - Want RU’s weekly lecture schedule in a cool new email format straight to your in-box? Sign up on RU’s homepage or any of the lecture posts!

Okay, so you’ve written the next New York Time’s Best Seller! Great…right? How in the devil do you break down a mammoth 102,000 word count of complicated characters and complex plot lines into a teeny-tiny, member of the Lollipop Guild sized 150 word blurb that is guaranteed to make your book so enticing that the reader uses her Victoria’s Secret emergency panty fund to purchase your book instead of that water bra thing? Thanks for your wisdom.

~Pauline Allan

~~~~

Great question! Truly, you don’t have to write this particular blurb. Most publishers have in-house marketing people to do that for you. Remember, your first sale — the first one you hope to make with your submission — is to the editor, not to the bra-buying public. So your 150 words should be geared toward the needs of that first editorial reader.

How do you hook this editorial reader? You start by showing her that the book suits her editorial line, and then you show the one or two ways that your book will stand out from the pack. It’s the old “same but different” mindset. We need to see both the sameness (the suitability for the line and the breadth of the book’s appeal) and the differences (why your book is special). Save the complexity for the synopsis, but even there, please keep in mind that you don’t get to the bra-buyers unless you win over the overworked, eyestrained editor.

~~~~

I’ve been pitching my book to agents as science fiction, but after reading some of your posts I’m thinking that perhaps paranormal romance would be a better fit. Can you suggest a resource where I could find agents that are interested in that particular sub-genre? I’m familiar with QueryTracker and AgentQuery, but their searches don’t include sub-genres.

Thank you,

S. King

I’m not an agent, but in my experience, if an agent represents one kind of romance, she will probably represent the other kinds, too. This isn’t iron-clad, but more like a general tendency. If an agent intends to build relationships at romance houses, there’s little sense in doing that and then excluding entire groups of stories from consideration.

But there will always be personal tastes involved, such as an agent who gets squeamish over blood (vampires!) or one who loves historicals to the exclusion of all other romance types. The best way to suss out these kinds of personal preferences is to follow the authors an agent represents. Does she rep 40 romance authors, and not a single bloodsucker among them? That might be a clue. Do all of her authors write dialogue-heavy, super-pacey stories? That might be another clue.

By the way, you can mention this sort of thing in your query. “I noticed you represent Annie Author and Brenda Bestseller. Although my story is a different subgenre, its fast pace and tight focus are similar to books written by them.”

~~~~

What are the prospects for someone who’s not an established writer and is trying to sell a futuristic romance?  And if you have the time, please tell us what you think separates a futuristic romance from a science fiction story that has a significant amount of romance in it.  Or is there a difference?

Sincerely,

Mary Anne Landers

I’ve been keeping a close eye on this corner of the market for the past year or two. There is a core group of loyal science fiction romance readers, and there is the potential that these books will break through to a broader romance readership. (Also, just as a personal thing, I really enjoy these books, especially the world-building and the philosophical questions.) Will it happen? Eh. Maybe. Time will tell. I hope it will, though, because scifi romance submissions have been looking fresh and interesting lately. They deserve a broader readership.

How hard is it for a new writer to break in? This might sound like a non-answer, but the difficulty will be relative to how good the book is and how many slots are available. At my house, for example, we publish a few erotic scifi romance stories every year. For every one we publish, we probably get 30 or 40 submitted. (There are relatively few writers submitting these, which increases your odds.) You have no way of controlling the competition, but you can control the quality of your submission. Make the story as dynamic and engaging and thought-provoking as you can, and then make each sentence as well-written as you can.

When is it scifi romance, and when is it scifi with romantic elements? This question is probably harder to answer for scifi/romance than for other hybrids, if only because scifi frequently examines social organization, and the formation of romantic units and families is one way we organize societies. That said, if the core story is about the formation of a romantic attachment, then it’s romance. If the story ends when the lovers unite in some form of HEA-bond, then it’s romance. But if that bond is never achieved, or if it’s achievement is but one step in the middle of the plot, then you’re probably dealing with scifi with romantic elements.

On the topic of science fiction romance, I have a question for RU’s readers. The conventional wisdom is that science fiction is mainly appealing to teens and young adults who are awakening to the kinds of big questions raised in these stories. After about the age of 25, readership (it is claimed) drops off to a core, loyal audience, and the youthful scifi reader moves on to other story types. Has this been your experience? Did you read more science fiction in high school or college than you do at present? Why do you think that’s so?

Answer the question in the comments, and you’ll be entered to win a download of Partners by Cricket Starr, an erotic science fiction novella from Red Sage Presents. I happen to think this story is a great representative of the genre. Read it and see if you agree with me!

* * *

A huge thanks to Theresa, Pauline, S. King and Mary Anne!!

Join us on Monday for our Romantic Suspense sub-genre segment with multi-published author Roxanne St. Claire and literary agent Jill Marsal. Find out what’s hot and what’s not!

Theresa’s Bio:

After earning degrees in creative writing and law, Theresa Stevens worked as a literary attorney agent for a boutique firm based in Indianapolis where she represented a range of fiction and nonfiction authors. The lure of the courtroom led to a nine-year hiatus from the publishing industry, but now Theresa is back as Managing Editor for Red Sage Publishing, a highly acclaimed small press. Her articles on writing and editing have appeared in numerous publications for writers. Visit her blog at http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/ where she and her co-blogger share their knowledge and hardly ever argue about punctuation.

So let’s get to the good stuff!

Kelsey: Some writers are uncomfortable with writing love scenes. Do you have any suggestions for making the process easier for those writers?

Nicole: Thanks so much for inviting me and asking great questions! If a writer wants her book to be sensual or erotic, she needs to feel comfortable writing at that specific level, for her targeted market. If she isn’t comfortable, this will show through and the reader will be aware of this discomfort. (In other words, the reader will be uncomfortable reading it.) As a writer, if you blush simply reading a love scene, then reading them aloud, in private, should help. Gradually expand your comfort zone by reading and writing slightly hotter and hotter scenes.

Kelsey: How do you balance the emotional and physical aspects of a love scene?

Nicole: I blend and layer the emotional with the physical. Some beginners make the mistake of including only the physical in love scenes. This makes it come across as clinical or maybe even porn-like. But if we analyze a well-written love scene from a romance novel and highlight the different elements with a different color, we’ll find there are not only physical actions, but also emotions/thoughts/internalizations, reactions, five senses/ sensations, and dialogue. The scene needs a balance of elements. There should be about the same amount, if not more, of the emotional component compared to the physical. The reader wants to know how sex affects the characters internally. How does he/she feel about the other person? What are they experiencing as far as sensations? What do they see, hear, smell, etc. Some writers mistakenly treat the characters as if they no longer have a mind during sex. When, in fact, the mind is probably more active than the body at that time.

Kelsey: If every scene should have some component of conflict, how do you integrate conflict into a love scene?

Nicole: You can do this in several ways. Tying the main story (external/internal) conflict into the love scene brings tension and makes the scene necessary to the story. Sex should complicate the characters’ situation, internally and/or externally. The characters should hold something back (such as emotion or commitment) during the love scene, until the end of the story. If possible, use society’s or their families’ reaction to their sexual relationship to add more conflict. The conflict shouldn’t interfere with the sensuality or the emotional experience. The reader wants to enjoy a hot scene. But slipping in conflict and tension in a subtle way makes the scene far more interesting.

Kelsey: Where do you get your inspiration for writing these scenes?

Nicole: I’m not sure. The ideas pop into my head.  I have a psychology background and I love to delve down into the characters’ psyches and explore their behavior and emotions. My characters’ personalities and attitudes about sex guide me in how the love scenes play out. I like to give each of my heroines a different type of sexual history so we can see how that affects her interactions with the hero. In the case of Leslie from my novella Kilted Lover, she has settled for a boyfriend she’s incompatible with. They have no sexual chemistry and are more like friends. When she meets the hero, Scott, their attraction is scorching. She’s never experienced this type of sexual chemistry before and she’s more than intrigued. She’s not about to pass up the opportunity to see what this attraction could lead to, even though it means feeling some guilt in the process. The love scenes are sizzling-hot, yet playful and emotional. The unexpected passion forges a bond too deep to forget. These kinds of conflicted, sexual situations inspire me because I find them so fascinating.

Kelsey: Do you have any friends or family members who have reacted negatively to your “hot” writing?

Nicole: Aside from my husband, my family doesn’t read my stories. They’re very uptight and conservative. Most of my friends have said they enjoy my stories. So I haven’t had any negative reactions yet.

Kelsey: How do you keep your love scene writing fresh?

Nicole: I challenge myself to write slightly new and different things with each story. Perhaps a situation I haven’t written before. This applies to almost any aspect of a story. I don’t like writing the same thing over and over. I like to move into new territory. So even though it might be the same subgenre, I still want new elements, new things happening. That keeps it interesting and fresh for me (and the reader).

Kelsey: Could you offer suggestions on authors who write excellent love scenes to study?

Nicole: In my workshop, Writing Hot Delicious Love Scenes, I direct writers to many different authors and published books for examples, so I hesitate to mention only one or two. In general, most published love scenes are good. The best way is to find love scenes YOU love, then read them over and over to figure out why they work so well. Not everyone is going to like the same love scenes.

Kelsey: Any other advice you’d like to offer about writing love scenes?

Nicole: Just relax and have fun with it. If you enjoy writing love scenes, chances are the reader will enjoy reading them. And make sure you have plenty of emotion in the love scene. It doesn’t have to be love-type emotion. Lots of different emotions surface during sex. Explore them. Does anyone have questions about writing love scenes?

Okay, RU crew! This is your chance to get the down and dirty on writing fantastic love scenes, so fire away! Don’t forget, Nicole is giving away a copy of Secrets Volume 27 Untamed Pleasures to one US-based commenter.

Be sure to join me again on Monday when Christy Reece returns to RU to discuss back-to-back book releases, an increasingly common occurrence in the romance publishing scene!

Nicole’s Bio:

Nicole North’s erotic romance novellas have been described by reviewers as “exciting, high octane, captivating, scintillating, sinfully delicious and pure romance.” Her latest release from Red Sage, Kilted Lover, is contemporary erotic romance novella with a touch of paranormal. Her first story, Devil in a Kilt is in the anthology Secrets Volume 27 Untamed Pleasures, out now from Red Sage. The second novella in the series, Beast in a Kilt, will be in Secrets Volume 29, July 2010. Her works have finaled in over a dozen writing competitions and won several awards. She teaches online workshops about various aspects of writing, including sexual tension and how to write great love scenes. Though she has a degree in psychology, writing romance is her first love. Please visit her website at: www.nicolenorth.com.

Her dark gaze darted from guest to guest, searching for an appropriate distraction, until her focus skidded to a halt. Her steps slowed and a wintry blast of irritation swept through her, locking her muscles in place. Two devastatingly handsome men of Viking proportions stepped inside the ballroom. Lord Beaufort on her left, with his ready smile, bore the swarthy, rugged complexion of a Welshman, and in stark contrast, his dark-haired companion wore his brooding English refinement like a shiny badge of honor.

This paragraph illustrates a common error in event sequencing and verbs. There are two ways to analyze this error, and two ways to correct it.

Good, linear prose takes the reader directly from event to event in sequence through time. Yes, sometimes we break that line on purpose, as with a flashback. But in general, we want events to proceed in a direct line through the chronology of events.

In this paragraph, what is the very first event in linear time? Her dark gaze darted from guest to guest, searching for an appropriate distraction. And what comes next in story time? Look closely. It’s not the event in the second half of the first sentence. It’s buried in the middle of the paragraph. Two devastatingly handsome men of Viking proportions stepped inside the ballroom. This is the second event in the list of events taking place in the paragraph. In chronological order, the second and third sentences are reversed in time. It’s a small jump, but it’s a jump nonetheless.

Because the timeline skids backward, the verb must reflect the time shift, or the reader might get confused. Using the past perfect verb tense clarifies the sequencing. Two devastatingly handsome men of Viking proportions had stepped inside the ballroom. This is now the past perfect — an event in the past of the storyline’s simple past. (Just as in real life, the present tense reflects “now” and the past reflects “before now,” in most stories, the past tense reflects “story now” and the past perfect reflects “before story now.”)

So, that’s the temporal/chronological analysis and repair. There’s a second way to look at this and fix it, one that examines not the time sequence, but the chain of causation.

Action and reaction are the foundation upon which story is built. Something happens. A character reacts, causing something else to happen, causing a new reaction, causing a new action, and so on until the whole cast is all bollixed up in a crisis. If things happen without cause, we say they’re improperly motivated, or improbable, or contrived. But what do we call it when something is properly motivated, but that motivation isn’t revealed until after the event?

It’s a sequencing error. In larger forms, it can give rise to a logic error. Here, in it’s smaller form, though, when the cause is revealed directly after the reaction, instead of creating a gap in logic, it’s creating a minor stutter in the otherwise smooth flow of the narrative.

So let’s look at the true causative flow of these events. First, she scans the room. Because she scans the room, she sees two men step into the ballroom. Because she sees them, her eyes stop on them. Because her eyes stop on them, she has a shocked reaction and is able to process some descriptive detail related to their appearances.

If you compare this causative chain with the order of events in the paragraph itself, you’ll notice that the same sentence is out of order. Two devastatingly handsome men of Viking proportions stepped inside the ballroom. In the paragraph, this sentence follows her shocked reaction. In the chain of causation, though, her shocked reaction stems from their appearance. The fix is to move this misplaced sentence into its proper place in the causative chain:

Her dark gaze darted from guest to guest, searching for an appropriate distraction. until her focus skidded to a halt on two devastatingly handsome men of Viking proportions stepping inside the ballroom. Her steps slowed and a wintry blast of irritation swept through her, locking her muscles in place. Lord Beaufort stood on her left, with his ready smile, bore the swarthy, rugged complexion of a Welshman, and in stark contrast, his dark-haired companion wore his brooding English refinement like a shiny badge of honor.

I had to tinker with it a little to smooth out the sentences — stepped is now stepping, for example. But there’s one very good reason for not making this change. Can you see it? Post your answers in the comments, and we’ll talk it over.

On a side note, I would like to thank everyone who has sent in a question to the Ask an Editor column. You’re giving me lots of good questions to choose from, and I look forward to answering them in upcoming months.

* * *

RU Readers, how about you? Have you encountered problems with use of tenses? Wanna share a few sentences, so Theresa can provide suggestions on how to fix them?

If you have a question for Theresa you can submit it to askaneditor@romanceuniversity.org.  Don’t miss this great opportunity to have your concerns addressed by a top-notch editor!

Adrienne talks to Golden Heart finalist Amy Atwell about the twists and turns of pursuing that first book deal.

Theresa’s bio:

After earning degrees in creative writing and law, Theresa Stevens worked as a literary attorney agent for a boutique firm based in Indianapolis where she represented a range of fiction and nonfiction authors. The lure of the courtroom led to a nine-year hiatus from the publishing industry, but now Theresa is back as Managing Editor for Red Sage Publishing, a highly acclaimed small press. Her articles on writing and editing have appeared in numerous publications for writers. Visit her blog at http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/ where she and her co-blogger share their knowledge and hardly ever argue about punctuation.

Your last column on writing actively brought up a question I’ve had for quite some time on passive voice writing.  In commercial genre fiction (romance, mystery, etc), the practice of writing in an active voice vs. a passive is pretty standard and accepted.  I’ve noticed, however, that when someone is claiming to write literary fiction, the writing tends to be passive voice (with lots of has and had and were and other passive voice indicators and sentence structures) with much of the action and scene events being “summarized” instead of being shown to the reader through direct action and dialogue.  To me the difference is as noticeable as feeling like I’m listening to a report of the story on the radio vs. seeing the events play out live on TV in ”Breaking News!”

Is there really a different active/passive voice need in commercial genre fiction vs. literary fiction?  Is it a matter of commercial fiction narrative vs. literary narrative?  Or is this something wannabe authors tell themselves distinguishes their work from “mass commercial fiction,” or is it really a necessity of their form? 

Thank you.

Julie H.

Hi, Julie,

Let’s start by distinguishing passive voice from passive writing.  Passive voice is a type of sentence structure in which the object of the verb action occupies the subject position in the sentence.  For example, in active voice, we might write:

The priest rang the bell.

In passive voice, however, the sentence would read:

The bell was rung.

Or,

The bell was rung by the priest.

Passive voice is a useful sentence construction anytime you’re trying to obscure the actor or anytime the actor is unimportant.  It has a bad reputation, but it is not without its uses.

Passive writing, on the other hand, can result from any number of things–weak verbs, meandering characters, flat conflicts, too much exposition, and many more.

The style you describe — especially the reference to heavy use of narrative summary — is something that many of us first encounter when reading classic literature in school.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that aping that style makes the resulting work literary.  The literary community has evolved since the days of the early novelists.  They’re bending narrative forms and tinkering with structure and point of view.  Think, for example, of De Lillo’s long lists of nouns in “White Noise,” Proulx’s fractured interior monologue in “The Shipping News,” the metaliterary flourishes in Faber’s “The Crimson Petal and the White,” or Atwood’s truncated structure in “Oryx & Crake.”

Although it’s possible for the style you describe to be used by a contemporary literary novelist, in my experience, this type of writing more often results from laziness or confusion. Writing from subjective viewpoints is hard work. And wrapping a standard genre plot and characters in exposition won’t convert a book into a literary novel. Today’s literary novels push the boundaries of form. They don’t retreat into a style that was developed over a century ago.

Commercial fiction usually prefers deep point of view (though some thrillers are sometimes more omniscient), lots of action, minimal exposition, and other devices which engage the reader’s emotions in an immediate and direct way.  This is especially true of romance with its goal of providing powerful emotional experiences for the hero, the heroine, and the reader. (Which is not to say that current literary books are incapable of engaging our emotions. See “Oryx & Crake” in particular for an example.)

In general, writing genre fiction means getting this part of it right. We want stories told in scenes with lots of action and emotion.  There are exceptions. For example, Sherry Thomas kicks off her popular first novel, “Private Arrangements,” with an omniscient summary of the definition of proper marriage that feels almost Dickensian. But the rest of the book is narrated from the subjective point of view of the hero and heroine, and there’s very little exposition other than that opening. This technique worked beautifully for this book, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. The subject of Thomas’s expository opening was unique and engaging enough that the lack of an immediate point-of-view character was not a problem.

All of which is to say, yes, genre writers can occasionally borrow techniques from our literary brethren, but we still must focus on providing an emotional, immediate reading experience. We can accomplish that better by avoiding passive writing and narrative summary.

Readers, what do you think makes for an emotional read? Active writing? What else?

If you have a question for Theresa you can submit it to askaneditor@romanceuniversity.org.  Don’t miss this great opportunity to have your concerns addressed by a top-notch editor!

After earning degrees in creative writing and law, Theresa Stevens worked as a literary attorney agent for a boutique firm based in Indianapolis where she represented a range of fiction and nonfiction authors. The lure of the courtroom led to a nine-year hiatus from the publishing industry, but now Theresa is back as Managing Editor for Red Sage Publishing, a highly acclaimed small press. Her articles on writing and editing have appeared in numerous publications for writers. Visit her blog at http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/ where she and her co-blogger share their knowledge and hardly ever argue about punctuation.

I’m just wondering if you’ve ever had this problem.  How do you tell a writer that their work reads exactly like a piece of published fiction without them thinking you’re calling them a thief?

Dyanne 

Hi, Dyanne, and thanks for the question. I’m going to recast it a little more broadly, though, because I think your question hits on a larger issue regarding delivering any kind of negative criticism. We’ll answer your specific question, but we’ll also look at the bigger picture and try to give you some tools for similar situations.

It can be difficult to deliver bad news to a writer, but sometimes, it’s the kindest thing you can do. No author would want to spend a year or more completing a manuscript only to learn that her plot is a near-perfect duplicate of an existing published novel. But although she may eventually come to thank you for your intervention, in the short run, she may have some tricky emotional terrain to navigate.

So let’s start by answering the specific question. When someone submits something to me that is too close to a published work, I do three things. I offer whatever relevant praise I can, I tell the truth, and I offer some suggestions on how the author can change her story to distinguish it from the published work

“Your story is well-written and entertaining. The characters are solidly crafted and you have found some fun and unique ways to breathe life into this setting. But the plot is very similar to a book we recently acquired. If you’re interested in revising your work to distinguish it from this other story, I would recommend you start by….”

Most people want their stories to be original and fresh, so while this may be bad news at its core, it’s also helpful for them to hear it. It may be that they didn’t realize their story was so close to the other. After all, with approximately one hundred new romances published every month, none of us can keep up with it all let alone keep it all straight. And letting them know exactly where it’s duplicative and where the strengths lie will help them figure out how to transform their stories.

So that takes care of the specific question. But there’s a larger issue here, I think, that might be phrased as, “How do we deliver bad news without getting attacked in return?”

You might notice that when we were telling the truth about the duplicative story, we layered the truth between a bit of honest praise and the helpful suggestions at the end. This is the best method for delivering difficult news in a constructive, solution-oriented manner, and it’s referred to as the sandwich method. You put a bit of breading on the outside, and the meat of the problem on the inside.

There are several reasons this method is so effective. First, by opening with the good news, we soften up the audience and make them more receptive. It’s not mere flattery, remember, but honest praise, and letting them know they’ve done something right can soothe their worries in advance. Plus it can give them a bit of confidence to deal with problems. Don’t underestimate the importance of confidence when dealing with creative tasks. It can be the difference between successful revisions and writer’s block.

Second, the human mind processes information in very particular ways, and the order in which the information is received can have a profound impact on the way it is processed and retained. Items in the middle of a cluster won’t be overlooked, but they will lack the same impact of the items at the beginning and end of a grouping. They are muted merely by their placement. If you’re trying to avoid an emotional explosion, work this muting effect to your advantage by placing the emotional trigger in the middle of a cluster. (Hint: This also works in fiction. You can hide clues in plain sight by burying them in the middle of a paragraph or even in the middle of a long sentence.)

Third, by ending with constructive ideas for solving the problem, you demonstrate that the problem can be solved. This is another confidence builder, but more important, it has the immediate effect of engaging the creative mind so that no blocks or freezes can take hold. Our minds might shy away from perceived failures, but they gravitate toward puzzles. End with brainstorming or useful, positive questions that create a puzzle, and you’re less likely to end with arguing or tears.

In the end, though, much depends on the character of your writing partner. Some people are eager to learn and grow. Some want nothing but praise, while others need to be challenged or even flogged a bit. Some will become emotional no matter how hard you work at being gentle, and some will be champions in the art of not taking it personally. Over time, you will come to understand what your critiquing partners need to hear, just as they will learn the same about you. Respect those needs, and don’t be shy about cutting loose a critiquing partner if they can’t or won’t respect yours in return.

Now it’s your turn. What strategies have you developed for delivering bad news to a writing partner?

Theresa

After earning degrees in creative writing and law, Theresa Stevens worked as a literary attorney agent for a boutique firm based in Indianapolis where she represented a range of fiction and nonfiction authors. The lure of the courtroom led to a nine-year hiatus from the publishing industry, but now Theresa is back as Managing Editor for Red Sage Publishing, a highly acclaimed small press. Her articles on writing and editing have appeared in numerous publications for writers. Visit her blog at http://edittorrent.blogspot.com where she and her co-blogger share their knowledge and hardly ever argue about punctuation.