GENREALITY

Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid. She fell in love with vampires with the book Bunnicula and has worked her way up to the more…ah…serious vampire stories. She loves reading and writing anything paranormal, anything fantasy, and nearly every kind of romance. Once upon a time she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the midwest.

Museless

By Shiloh Walker

I’ll be honest-I don’t quite get the idea of a writer’s muse.

I don’t have a muse…I am museless and I finally figured out why, or at least, I understand why a little better.

My writing is mine. I am greedy. Mine, mine, mine…now granted, when I think my work sucks, I can only blame myself, not a muse. If the story takes a strange turn and readers don’t like it, I can’t go with… Well, the muse made me do it. It’s on me. Only me.

But when it’s good? I don’t have to share the credit with a muse, and I like that. It seems like a lot of writers who do have muses treat them as a separate entity, so to speak…even if it’s their creativity driving the muse. So they have to share the credit.

Does that make sense?

I’m actually pretty glad I don’t have a muse. Because I think it leaves me in a little bit more control. Yes, the story is going to often try to dictate how it should go, but I don’t feel like I’m a slave to a muse.

Once, I heard a reader ask a writer a question about a book. The reader asks, ‘Well, why did you have to do that?’ (The reader wasn’t pleased with how a certain book had ended). The writer responded with, ‘It was the muse.’

I’ve heard similar questions asked before, and have heard similar responses.

Another thing about muses-I’ve read/heard discussions where a writer is frustrated about changes an editor requests that go against what they feel their muse is telling them to do. Fighting these because of a muse? I don’t know, but it seems counter-productive.

Sometimes, author muses seem to come in the form of the characters-so the muses change for the writer from book to book. I can say that when I’m writing, my characters, and the story itself, tends to take on a life of its own and I am just putting it down on paper. But I still don’t feel that a muse is driving it. It’s the story…or it’s my overactive imagination.

A while back, I decided to do a little mini-poll on muses at my blog… a)yes, I have a muse b)nope, no muse, just an imagination…etc, etc, etc.

One of the commenters(mutltideofm) made this comment (in regard to whether or not she had a muse):

“I used to think so. Now I don’t. I think it’s given me an objectivity that I wouldn’t have in my writing otherwise. The no-muse model appeals to me because your fiction is your construct.”

And while I hadn’t thought about that aspect before, it’s a very valid one, and it kind of goes hand in hand with the ‘mine, mine, mine’ concept I concocted.

Since the story is my fictional construct, if there’s something that is holding the story up, or something that’s bogging the story down unnecessarily, once an editor/proofer/beta reader helps me to see what and (most importantly) why, I’m likely to be very open to change…and I can change it, because it’s is my construct…not a muse’s construct. I guess it’s my inner control freak-I want be in control (or at least delude myself into thinking it) and I can’t do that when I’m sharing the writing seat with a muse.

Shiloh’s latest release is part of her popular Hunters series. HUNTERS NEED, is out now! You can read an excerpt HERE.

I’d like to welcome the lovely Rosemary Clement Moore to the blog today. She has something incredibly fun, educational and helpful in store for you.

Thanks, Candy, for letting me play in your space today. Since it’s November, I wanted to share something earth shattering I learned from the concise little book, No Plot, No Problem, written by the founder of NaNoWriMo, Chris Baty.

Seriously. This is was a breakthrough idea for me.  Ready? Here’s what you do.

Draw a line down the middle of a page to make two columns. (I’ll wait while you do that.)

At the top of one put: Things I love in books. List all the things that you love in a story. Do not edit yourself. No matter how trite, cliché, cheesy, un-feminist, un-macho, or what your mother would say about it… put that on your list. (For example, I love witty verbal fencing between the hero and heroine. Also, books with dogs.)

Got it? Okay. Title the second column: Things I hate in books. List all the things that turn you off, bore you, or make you throw the book against the wall. No matter how classic and erudite, or how popular or trendy, write them down. (My example: I have an arbitrary dislike of present tense, despite many wonderful books being written that way.)

Remember! These aren’t things that are bad writing, just things that you don’t like. The whole point is, these are subjective. Your may love something your best friend hates, and that’s okay. Neither one is “wrong.” (For both lists, it’s more useful to list general things rather than specific books/authors. If you dislike a book, try and figure out why.)

Okay, so now here’s the complicated part. Sit down and write your book. Put in everything (well, maybe not everything) you have on your “love” list and don’t put in what’s on your “hate” list.

What happens sometimes when we write–All of us!–is the inner editor says: That’s a dumb idea. That’s cliché, no one likes that but you, you freak. And in the other ear, the inner English Teacher speaks from the part of your subconscious where she’s been living since the ninth grade and says, “These things you hate make great literature. They are Worthy and Important. You just hate these things because they’re Good For You.

(Or alternately, your inner bookstore clerk will say: Everyone loves Lovelorn Vampires except you. What’s wrong with you? Do you hate kittens, too?)

Oddly, when I do this exercise in writing classes, the “hate” list seems much easier for people than the “love” list. I think that’s because we’re so conditioned to look for flaws, but we’re so busy thinking about what makes “good writing” that we may dismiss our personal fancies and passions as unimportant. But what could be more important? These are the reasons we write.

The first draft of any novel, whether you write it in a month, year, or decade, should be a selfish thing. As an author, you first need to entertain, enlighten and stir  your own soul. Because, trust me, if you don’t enjoy your book, no one else will.  Second drafts are soon enough to cull the clichés, or rein in your id (or ego) and amputate that scene you love so much but doesn’t advance the plot.

Funny thing is, when you write about things that tickle you, please you, and move you emotionally, it’s going to be a better book, because your love of the material is going to shine through. And here’s another secret. Whatever it is you love in a book, chances are, you’re not the only one.

Rosemary loves mystery, ghosts, magic, plucky heroines and smart, handsome heroes, all of which she put in her most recent novel, The Splendor Falls.

Last week I talked about my preference for well rounded stories that don’t close the door on the sex scenes. It sparked some comments about sexual tension versus a full sex scene, and how sex scenes for the sake of pure titillation don’t help any story.

Just because I love reading, and writing, sex scenes doesn’t mean that I want every story to be flooded with them, and I don’t believe readers want that either. There is a balance to a well written sex scene, the same way there is a balance to a well written erotic story. However, sometimes I feel others can say things better than me, so I reached out to a friend and see if she’d answer a few questions and share her thoughts on sex scenes, what makes a story erotic, and how to write hot without letting the story be overshadowed by the sex.

Shiloh Walker is nothing if not prolific. She writes erotic contemporary, suspense, paranormal, fantasy, futuristic and even non-erotic romance. Many of her books blend these sub-genres together, but all of them have, at the core, a fantastic story. She does erotic and romantic tension very well, not to mention steamy sex scenes – and she agreed to share some of her opinions on such things with us. So, without further ado… a short and to the point Q&A with author Shiloh Walker.

Sasha: What do you think puts a book in the erotic category or sub-genre, as opposed to simply sensual?

Shiloh: It’s not just one thing… it’s the language, it’s how the love/sex scenes are depicted, it’s how the characters react. Are they just ‘lost in the throes of love’? Or is it more basic, more earthy than that? Although hey, both work…especially when they are woven together. At least for me.

The language is going to be more explicit, the sexual tension should be sky high, or at least in a well-written book, and there should be focus on both the physical AND the emotional aspects.

Sasha: What makes a scene erotic for you?

Shiloh: How it’s written, basically. I want to get lost in it. I want to know what they thinking, feeling, doing. If a scene is too mechanical, I lose interest and skim the rest of the scene. On the flipside though, if it’s too overdone–if there’s nothing but the sex and I get no sense of connection, the writer has lost me there, too. I love a well-written erotic love scene. But for me, it has to be a love scene-there has to be some connection beyond the sex for me or it just doesn’t work for me. Even if the hero/heroine aren’t in love, yet, I want to see the promise of something growing, even in the early scenes. The combination of the heat and that emotional connection is what really gets me.

Sasha: Share your best advice on how to write hot.

Shiloh: Well, for one…don’t do it with three kids playing in your office…*G*

Beyond that? I don’t know…what works for some won’t work for others. But I’d say a writer needs to write what feels right, for her/him. If you’re forcing it, if you’re trying to write a certain heat level because you hear that’s what is selling, or if you’re trying to imitate the style/language of another writer, then you’re not being true to your story. Find what works for you and then develop it. And read. Read a lot. Pay attention to the twists and turns of phrases that other writers use, see what mood it puts you in and then, using your own style, your own words, try to work that emotion, that tension, that mood into your own story.

Thank You, Shiloh, for sharing your thoughts and advice with us.

In the comments to last weeks post, Rebecca brought up an issue that I’ve heard several writers mention before. Because of the erotic genre gaining such popularity in the past couple of years, many writers are feeling pressure to come up with new and exciting ways to write sex scenes. Rebecca’s writing a book that will most likely only have two love scenes in it, and she’s still feeling stuck on the first one. She says…“I am a romance writer who is frozen on the first (of probably two) sex scenes in my book. The line I’m writing for practically requires one, and I’m not afraid to write it. I’ve tried. And tried. But every time I slog through another version, it doesn’t seem any more imaginative or compelling to me than any other sex scene I’ve read in a ton of mediocre books. I don’t want them swinging from the proverbial chandelier, but every description and every internal feeling I come up with has been done a thousand times. I know there’s nothing new under the sun, but all I can think is: my God, am I really that boring? Maybe I don’t have the knack for writing a decent, memorable sex scene. But I sure as hell wish I did.”

I often hang out at Romance Diva’s, a forum full of writers of all levels and all genres, and I can’t how many times I’ve heard of this happening. Hell, its even happened to me. Because of this, I can’t stress enough that there comes a time when we have to stop re-writing things. Going over the same scene again and again can sometimes do more harm than good. You can edit the magic of the scene, that unnamable something that creates the connection between your characters, right out of the scene if you stress about it too much. My advice to Rebecca, and anyone who finds themself in her position is not to think about other scenes you’ve read, or heard about. Think about the person reading your story. They care about the characters. They don’t want to be pulled out of the story by some exotic sex act. Like Shiloh, they want to feel the emotion behind the act.
Copied and pasted from my answer in later weeks comments..
It’s the emotion behind any sex scene that makes it erotic. It’s the emotional growth (or lack of) that moves the story forward and makes the sex scene essential to the story. It’s the emotions that the reader will connect to.

I think one of the most important things to remember when writing a sex scene is to stay true to the characters and the story. If it’s a sweet sensual love story, don’t add something kinky just because you think it’s what the publisher might want. Readers want a good story. Readers read romance and erotic fiction of all heat levels. You said you’ve read mediocre books, think about what made them mediocre. Perhaps it was because it was like Shiloh mentioned above, a book that was full of sex but no story, or no tension/buildup. Maybe it was sex scenes that didn’t feel true to the characters, or perhaps it was that you didn’t care about the characters, therefor you didn’t care about the sex. Either way, I think you need to trust your self when it comes to writing the scene that is right for your story, and stop focussing on what’s out there.

As much as I love sex scenes, reading and writing them, I firmly believe that they can not be simply thrown into the story to add pages, word count, or to make a story fit the market. Sure sex sells, but books that are all sex and no story aren’t good for the genre, the market, or the author. Sex scenes should enhance a story, not bog it down or overshadow it.

If you want to know more about what *I* think about writing sex scenes and what is erotic then check out my February post What’s Hot? .

If you have any questions, or advice, about how to balance sex and story, or writing hot, please post them in the comments.

In this profession, we all want an agent. Someone to be our advocate, who will champion us and sell our work for oodles of money. Finding an agent isn’t easy, and finding the right agent for you is even harder. Thats because not every agent does every thing. Some don’t like to read and offer opinions or revisions to their clients. Some are very editorial. Some are only comfortable with specific genres, some just want a good story, no matter what genre.

Laura Bradford has been in the publishing arena for fourteen years. She’s been an editor, a writer and bookseller. Now she’s a literary agent. In fact, she’s the Bradford Literary Agency. And she’s our guest blogger today.

How dark is too dark?
by Laura Bradford

One of my authors gave me the idea for this blog topic when she asked me to read a chunk of her latest work-in-progress with the question, is this too dark? In my work I have to always be mindful of marketability but really I have a pretty high tolerance for darkness and I have been known to like some intensely dark material. Like alienatingly dark. Give me a character who commits a despicable act and then make me love them. Give me a character that is morally gray and make me sympathize with their choices. I even know where this deep love of mine came from.

Like most everyone in this business I grew up an avid reader. When I was a kid, I got a $5 allowance every week (or was it every month? Dang, that part of my memory is awfully foggy) and I would go straight to the bookstore and spend it. Back then you could buy two kids or YA books for $5…in my case usually Nancy Drew or something elevating like Sweet Valley High. Anyhoo, one week when I was 11, I was at the bookstore and I found a book that totally changed everything for me—btw, thank you Waldenbooks, Southland Mall, Hayward, California for your badly mis-shelved young adult section. Because there amongst the Sweet Valley High books and the Nancy Drew Files was an Anne Stuart romantic adventure trilogy. It promised romance, it promised adventure and danger and intrigue. With spies. It looked…titillating. I bought the first book and started reading it while I waited for my mom to pick me up. Some emergency had happened and she was late that day—this was before cell phones so pretty much I was stuck sitting there until she showed up. I read that entire book while I waited as if a whole other universe had opened up for me and it totally had. I lapped up the other two books in the series as quickly as the first.

At the time I didn’t know that these were my first genuine adult romance novels but moreover, these were also my first what I would call “ballsy” reads. It is funny how much you can get formed by your early reading life, but seriously, like a baby duck I imprinted on those Anne Stuart books like you don’t even know. Also, to this day, if I ever run into Anne Stuart at a conference, I am incapable of not gushing all over her like a crazy fangirl. Makes no difference that I have been involved in publishing for a decade—underneath it all we’re all just book lovers at our cores. I think she has probably heard my story about how her Maggie Bennett books were my first romances about six times now but to her credit she never told me to get lost and leave her alone. These books have been out of print for a very, very long time now so hopefully you will forgive me the slight spoiler. The first book in the trilogy is completely a romance: boy meets girl, they fall in love (as bullets fly and they are on the run for their lives, around the world and back) and they end up together, happily ever after. The second two books in the trilogy have a vastly different, much darker tone and unfortunately, when book two opens, our hero from book one has been gunned down in the street and our heroine is a grieving widow. In Romancelandia, this is a pretty monumental sin. In book two, we learn that hero number two is guilty of committing an act that is completely unforgivable and the darkness continues on into book three. From soup to nuts, collectively the trilogy was an exercise in ballsy writing, risk taking, defying convention and being unafraid to explore some dark spaces. Of course at 11 I didn’t know there were romance rules. I had no clue that Stuart had taken a huge risk alienating her readers. I just knew that it spoke to me. And moved me. And thoroughly compelled me like nothing else ever had. She is still a ballsy writer today and I love the thrill of opening up one of her books hoping that as I read and she is throwing the writerly punches, she doesn’t pull a single one. Anyone out there read her Night Fall or Moonrise? Dude. There are no words. Talk about dark. Maybe I should call this blog, In Praise of Not Pulling Punches. Her Ice books embody these qualities, too and I love them.

I think that through exploring darkness in characters, you often end up exposing their layers. A layered character is certainly a richer, more compelling character to me. No one is all good or all bad…I like ‘em complicated and messy. I like it when good characters do bad things. I like it when bad characters do good things. So back to my author who had asked me to look at her scene with a question about whether or not it was too dark–if it is important, it is a scene in which the hero and heroine (who have not yet fallen for each other) get into a rather serious scuffle. I ask, what would happen if he was cruel…what would happen if he didn’t pull HIS punch? What would that reveal about his character? And would you still be able to make me love him? As a reader, I want to see all that flawed humanity. To use a more contemporary example than my nostalgia-laden references to OOP Anne Stuart books, has anyone read Heartsick by Chelsea Cain? It has this quality in spades and it is awesome on the complicated, fabulously layered character front. So. Now that I have rambled on about story elements that melt my personal butter for a while (thanks for listening), I will throw it open to anyone who wants to ask me Agent-y questions. I’ll stick around today and check the comments. Thanks for having me, GenReality!

About the Bradford Literary Agency:
At the Bradford Literary Agency, we specialize in all types of romance (including category), romantica/erotica, women’s fiction, mystery, thrillers and young adult. We also represent non-fiction and other fiction genres. All queries sent to us will be considered with the exception of poetry, screenplays and short stories.

We do not charge reading fees for evaluating your material.

We are an editorial-focused agency and prefer to work closely with our authors in helping to build strong, sustainable careers. We believe the best author-agent relationships extend beyond making sales; in order to best serve our clients’ needs, we must also be a partner, an advisor, a careful listener, a troubleshooter and an advocate.

Wednesdays have become our “Whatever” day. What that means is sometimes it’ll be an interview, a guest blog, or a story excerpt or treat of some kind from us regulars.

Our first guest is here today. She’s a sharp agent with a reputation for making bestsellers, and she’s recently opened her own agency. Please welcome Agent Jenny Bent.

I’m in the middle of negotiating a few contracts right now, which believe me, is exactly what I want to be doing now that I’ve founded The Bent Agency. First, for the obvious reason that it means I’ve closed a few deals and that is never a bad thing. But second, because I actually like negotiating contracts. To me, they’re like a big puzzle. You read through them and you figure out every tiny possible thing that could ever go wrong, and then you figure out how you can try to prevent it. For a big worrier like me, it’s not too hard to come up with a thousand things that could go wrong.

Aside: I read once that people who have a lot of anxiety are very good in a crisis because they have spent most of their lives worrying about every bad thing that could ever happen. I am here to tell you that I am very, very good in a crisis.

Back to the previously scheduled blog:

Anyway, it has me thinking about the fact that as an author, it can’t hurt you to have some familiarity with contracts. This is, after all, your business and your livelihood, and just as I really shouldn’t throw away my (personal and NOT professional) financial statements each month and say things to my financial adviser like “I don’t care, do whatever you think is best,” you probably shouldn’t say that to your agent. I’m not saying that you should go out and get your degree in contracts law, but it’s good to know some of the big issues that your agent will be negotiating for you. Ask to see your contract before your agent sends comments to the publisher, and share your questions/comments with your agent who should be happy to go over everything with you. Having said that, you will be less annoying to your agent if you have done a little homework beforehand. Which brings us (eventually) to my point.

First of all, a great, great resource that I have used throughout my career is a book by Mark Levine called NEGOTIATING YOUR OWN BOOK CONTRACT. You will note if you buy it that there is a blurb on the back from yours truly and I promise up and down I get no kickback from Mr. Levine, who is a terribly nice man. Okay, I did get a free copy. But I promise, that’s it. Anything you don’t understand about your contract will be explained in this book. www.BookContracts.com

I’ve decided that if it’s okay with the GenReality folks, I’ll do some recurring yet intermittent posts on contracts. (GenReality folks break in to  say YAY!)Otherwise, with the way I go on and on, this would be the neverending blog. So first, since contracts have been on my mind, I’ll do the option clause and the sneaky next work clause. Later, I’ll do out of print and electronic which also go hand and hand in many ways.

1. Option Clause. The option clause gives the publisher the chance to consider your next book. It doesn’t give them the right to buy it, but it gives them a first look. There’s a lot to cover in an option clause so I’ll seperate it all out.

• A. Limit the option. You want to limit the option so that the publisher doesn’t have the right to buy whatever you write next. This may actually be okay with you if you only write novels and you write one every few years (the way that many writers do). But if you write in different genres or you write both fiction and nonfiction you’ll want to make sure that the option matches whatever genre you sold them. Which means try to avoid an option for the “next book.” At the least, do “next work of fiction.” At most, do “next work of singly-authored historical romance written under a psuedonym.” And no, I am not kidding.
• B. Commencement of option. Worst case scenario: two months after publication of the last book in a multibook contract. Best case scenario: whenever you want to submit the material (again, not kidding–I’ve seen this in more than one contract with a major publisher).
• C. Length of option: What length of time do they have to consider the material exclusively? Try for thirty days. Worst case: 90.
• D. Option material: this depends on genre, among other things, or how many books you have written. Sometimes it is perfectly fair for the publisher to ask for a complete manuscript, but mostly you can try for proposal or synopsis with sample chapters. If the publisher is obligated to make the decision to buy you based on sample material, this means you will be able to get income while you are writing and not have to wait for them to make a decision based on your complete book.
• E. Matching clause. This one drives me crazy and frankly is the reason I was inspired to write this. Sometimes the option clause will say that after you’ve complied with the option, and in the event of an offer, negotiated in good faith, and were unable to come to terms with your publisher, and you go out and submit the material to other publishers, you cannot make a deal with another publisher for equal or lesser terms than the original offer from your publisher. You might be thinking, well, fair enough. But what if you were genuinely unhappy with the publisher? If you’ve negotiated with them in good faith, you should be able to move on regardless of the terms. What if your editor moved houses and you’d like to follow her? This language complicates things–it some instances might make it impossible for you to leave a house that you haven’t been happy with. In a perfect world, that language wouldn’t be a problem. But it’s not a perfect world and I would always suggest that you strike that phrase if possible. At least get rid of the “equal” part.

2. Next Work. You can fix the option clause all you want but if you don’t fix the “next work” language you can also be in trouble. They need to go hand and hand. The “next work” clause goes something like this and can often be hidden so you have to look hard: “The Work will be the Author’s Next Work written under his name or a pseudonym or in collaboration with any other person.” What this means is that you can’t publish another book with any other publisher or any other topic until this book comes out. Now, this might be perfectly fine with you and if you are a writer who is just doing one book at a time and only writing in one genre, then it should not be a problem. But if you are writing romance under one name and urban fantasy under another, this language is problematic. It does you not much good to limit your option to “romance written under the pseudonym author X,” if your next work clause says you can’t publish another book before this one is published. You might think, well, that’s okay, I’ll just wait. What if it’s a three book deal? If you’re writing in two genres, you can’t wait for all three books to be published. And if you keep signing contracts with this clause in it, it ensures that you can never publish with a different house. So, you might try to limit a next work clause to read, “next work of romance written under the pseudonym “author X.” When in doubt, just try to match it to the option clause. Sometimes you can’t, in which case just try to limit it as much as you can.

Finally, and I beg you, please, please don’t send your contract to your Uncle Louie the divorce lawyer. If you want to use a lawyer–and that can be a very good idea, particularly if you start to really make a fair amount of money–please, please use an entertainment laywer who knows publishing law. I can refer you to a few if you want. But using a lawyer who doesn’t specialize in this can really create more problems and hassle than it’s worth.

I’m signing off. But I’ll be back again with my contract geek on and we’ll talk about out of print and electronic. It will be fun. I promise.

PS: Jenny is traveling today, but she’ll be back to answer any questions in the comments when she’s near the internet again.