My crit partner, the very wonderful and talented Maisey Yates, is not only a fabulous writer who can sing extremely well, she can also draw. Like a boss. So I asked her to do one of her special pics for me to celebrate my first release.

Because it’s THIS MONTH Y’ALL!! In fifteen days!!

Check it out. Finn is just the way I imagined him…

Whaddya reckon??  Shall I put it on a mug??

Oh and in the middle of that there’s the Romance Writers of Australia conference that I’m going to and then the week after that the New Zealand Romance Writer’s conference. Not to mention Dr Jax being an international jetsetter and flying off to Milan in a week or two – without me, I may add.

It’s all very busy. 

Hopefully when I get back from the Gold Coast I’ll have some good goss to relate and blackmail pics to post. I’m pitching to an agent there – first time evah! – so wish me luck.

In the meantime I’ll leave you with a link or two:

This is to the Hot Pink Typewriter where fellow Indulgence author Victoria James is talking about torturing your characters. Okay, so she doesn’t put it quite like that, but that’s the essence of it. And since she posted this the same time I was putting my sheikh through the emotional wringer, I thought it was very appropriate.

Also see here, where the fabulous and talented Maisey Yates has her story of selling to Berkley with a cowboy story! So proud of you girl!

Ummm…and that’s about it. Might do a post later about what to do when your characters take you places you really don’t want to go (not looking at anyone in particular Mr Sheikhypants!). Should you go there or rein them back??  (I let him go there and still can’t work out whether that was a bad thing or not).

 Have a good week, y’all.

Anyway, as you can imagine from my last couple of posts, I have encompassed the full emotional spectrum due to my wretched stories and I’m sure my family would now like to lock me away if only for a bit of peace and quiet.

However, I’m sure they’ll be relieved to know that – for the moment – I’m okay. Because I’ve just spent the entire weekend rewriting the beginning of the story that gave me such a wonderful ‘aha’ moment about the heroine. I knew it needed to be done because although the beginning I had was okay – my CPs liked it – I still felt funny about it. Couldn’t put my finger on why. Couldn’t really even articulate the specific problem. Perhaps there was too much setup. Too much going  on. Too busy. Whatever it was, I just had a funny feeling about it (cue the ‘I hate the rest of my life too’ moans).

Now, when it comes to rewriting, there are two schools of thought (or possibly more but I can’t think of any others right now). You either don’t need to rewrite as much as you think. Or you should rewrite entirely. Although the former can be very attractive after you’ve spent months crafting the perfect ms, the latter, for me at least, can be exactly what you need.

Maisey Yates gave me the best advice – rewriting entirely can help you break out of the cage you’ve written yourself into. It’s hard but it feels like you’re starting over and that can give you a lot of freedom. It was certainly the best thing for this particular ms. I rewrote chapters 2 and 3 completely. Different things happened.  They didn’t go out, they stayed in. The kiss I had happening at the end of chapter 3 didn’t occur. It was like writing a whole new reality for them. But the best thing was allowing myself the freedom to let the characters be who they were, not me trying to impose what I thought they should do on them (which, I figure, was the problem with the original iteration) or what was good for the plot I had planned.

Anyway, the sum total of this is that now, having rewritten, I no longer have that funny feeling about the beginning. It’s not perfect and it may not be at all what the editors want. But it feels more true to the characters than the earlier one. In fact, it’s a beginning I’m not sure I could rewrite again since what I’ve already got is IT.

In Chez Ashenden, all is now right with the world. At least until I run into the next story problem.

So, when you run into a writing problem, what do you do? Pull your hair? Scream at the kids? Throw the computer through the window? Or rewrite?

1. Give her a hero who is the antithesis of everything she believes in. (He’s arrogant and uncaring. I hate him).
2. Make him absolutely physically irresistable to her. (But man, he’s soooo hot! Hateful male)
3. Give him one (or more) qualities that she can’t help but admire (He’s so arrogant! But…he really loves puppies and I can’t but like a man who loves puppies).
4.Make him get in the way of her goal. (I want to be head of the corporation? Why is he so determined to stop me? Hateful male!)
5. Have him do something for her that changes the way she thinks about him. (Oh he’s such an arrogant SOB. I hate him! But then, he donated all that money to the puppy shelter to keep it running…)
6. Make her fall in love with him. (I hate him so much! But the puppies…wait!…No!….I can’t!….Noooooooo!!!)
7. Have him refuse to talk about his feelings (Why doesn’t he want to talk about this? I can’t understand it. Doesn’t he know how important it is?? Hateful male).
8. Have him do something that makes her think he hasn’t changed after all (he’s completely destroyed my chances of promotion! Why would he do that?? Why do I STILL love him! Hateful male etc..)
9. Get her to make her declaration of love to him only to have it come flying back at her – because of course, it’s all got to be on her terms. (He didn’t want my ultimatum that I’ll marry him only if he stops standing in my way of promotion? What? Why not? Hateful, arrogant male. Why do I still love him? Why???)
10. Make her realise that he isn’t the only one who needs to change if she wants to be with him. (Wait! Is being with him more important than being the head of the corporation….? Why do I need to be head of the corporation anyway? I just want to be with him and the puppies! Uh oh…)

If you want to go get some awesome examples of both hero and heroine torture, then go no further than the fabulous Natalie Anderson. I’m doing a bit of pimping for her since she’s a fellow Kiwi and her latest release kept me up till 12.30am last night! The End to Faking It was a really emotional, intense, sexy read and I just loved it. Anyway, if you want to go get it, you can from the M&B site or go to Nat’s page on FB where she is doing an excellent giveaway. Cue the ‘free stuff’ woot! Details here.

And of course, if you’re of a Modern bent, then Ms Maisey Yates is also a great torturer past compare. Marriage Made on Paper is now out and for really great hero torture, you can’t go past The Inherited Bride.

So, anyone have any more handy tips for heroine torture?