Claire Delacroix and the rules of writing

"You can break any so-called rule -- the trick is that the more you step beyond convention, the better your book has to be. Ironically, you can defy any so-called standard if you provide a greater emotional whallop to the reader, which is the ultimate reader expectation of a romance. Wring out your reader's heart, stomp that sucker flat, then make everything sunshine and roses by the end. She'll let you get away with anything, just for that emotional roller coaster ride." (1)

On Wednesday, Claire blogged about the rules. Above is one of her concluding paragraphs - a passage I intend to post near my computer. And I'll read it whenever I get down or have someone tell me I'm not doing things "the right way".

Claire is a font of great advice - scroll back in her blog for insight into both the craft and business of writing. You'll learn lots!

And speaking of writing, I spent some time yesterday typing some of my Wednesday musings into WWP. And discovered I'll have to go back and redo some of my FDin30D work - the Summary sheets etc, as I've changed the opening of the book drastically. A pain, but ultimately I'm pretty certain the revisions have made the story stronger.

Next week I really will dive back in fully, using the FD method. Have been floundering about this week and realized it's cause I'm not focussing. And that's what the FD method does for writers like me - forces me to FOCUS.

Yesterday's hike was fantastic. Hard work going up, but worth it for the views halfway:



and at the top:



Ok - now I really must go. Have more errands to run this morning, so need to get myself in gear :-)

Happy long weekend, everyone!!!

Teresa

Currently Reading: Madame de Staël by Maria Fairweather
Also Currently Reading: Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella
Link of the Day: Garden Bay Pub (where Sean and I may stop while out on the motorbike this weekend)

1) There are no rules. Blog post by Claire Delacroix, posted on Wednesday June 28, 2006 at Publishing is Funny, If You Think About It, hosted by RWAonline)

Email programme meltdown...

yep - I tried something yesterday, The Bat! froze and when I reopened, ALL my folders and email appeared to be gone. Now, note my use of the word "appeared". Fortunately, despite the loss of my folder tree (a pain to reconstruct, but that's about it), all my messages were still stored on my hard drive. So I'm working on rebuilding my email today. Bit by bit. Importing messages to each individual folder. Tedious, but waaaaaaaaaay better than realizing everything is GONE! This is why I LOVE The Bat!

Have also reverted to good ol' wbloggar. The Qumana experiment pretty much flopped. It only posts to Blogger, doesn't publish automatically, so I still have to sign in. And it puts in TONS of extraneous code, yet when I entered the html code for the pic of Cleo yesterday as directed, it didn't upload it.

Wbloggar has proven to be remarkably stable and easy to use. Doubt I'll stray again :-)

In other news, I planned more scenes for my ms yesterday while gazing out at the lake. Seem to have made at least SOME progress with it and intend to enter those scenes into WWP today. Have pretty much given up on yWriter - it was just too much like hard work. Has great features, but isn't as logical as I'd like. Or, er, need *g*.

Oh, and re yesterday's question about finding out stuff you wrote is better than you thought, I'm glad I'm not alone. Should clarify, the TT novel is one I completed a few years back and set aside the marketing on for a while to work on my French Rev story. There are a couple of the smaller presses I may try the TT out on. Just a thought.

Am off on a hike with a friend later - it's the perfect day for it. Sunny and about mid-20s C. Should be fun. A great way to start an extended long weekend - it's Canada Day on Saturday, so I'm figuring my weekend starts pretty soon *g*.

Teresa

Currently Reading: Madame de Staël by Maria Fairweather
Also Currently Reading: Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella (Found it at the library yesterday!!)
Link of the Day: The Writing Life (one of my fave blogs to visit)

A sunny Wednesday morning...

It's a beautiful day here today - sunny and cool right now, but with promises of highs in the low 20s C. Just the kind of day to sit outside and work on my ms. I think I might just do that after running errands and other such stuff this morning.

 

I'm trying out a new blog editor today. Not sure I'll really abandon wbloggar, but I figured I'd give this one a try, just for fun. Cause, yanno I LOVE software :-)

 

Yesterday I ended up reading bits and pieces from my time travel ms. And have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. It's actually better than I remembered. Of course, I noticed lots of little things and started mentally editing. But what I didn't do was try to rip it up or stuff it far underneath the bed for the cats to sleep on.

 

Does this happen to you when you pull out something you haven't looked at in a while? Are you surprised by the quality of your own writing? Just curious.

 

And here's the latest in my series of cute cat photos. I walked into our bedroom/office yesterday afternoon to see this:

Isn't she adorable? She even stayed there while I grabbed the camera and snapped the shot.

 

Teresa

 

Currently Reading: Madame de Staël: An Extraordinary Life

Link of the Day: How to Create an Instant Bestselling Novel

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