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Writing Romance? Kinda R18 post

pikuroaI wrote my first sex scene the other day, and to me, it seemed rather clinical (and no, I don’t intend to share it here.)  I knew that I hadn’t quite got it, but I was too busy trying to get the rest of my story written.  I guess I was trying to put the experience behind me, and move forward.

But last night, my friend Trish made me confront my scene, but swapping scenes with her.  I liked hers.  It was based in medieval times, to it was in a castle and the mood was set beautifully, and the scene was poetic.  And that is when it hit me.  Poetic is the key word.

Trish commented that she liked the scene to start with, but then it got clinical.  When I went back to have a look, I discovered that I had changed point of view part way through and this was where the wheels fell off.  At least it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought.

So what makes a good sex scene?  Romance.  And sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch.  Yes, engaging all of the senses, makes a scene memorable, plus stimulating the mind.  Which I think is the biggest difference between romance and porn.  Porn (and even Erotica) uses slang terms for body parts and is quite abrupt with the terminology.  Romance (and this is where Erotica is different from Porn) is more about the sensations that are caused and felt during the act.

The hardest thing for me, was letting someone else read it, but now that I have, I can easily fix the scene and now I know that I’m not too bad at it (probably not great either) but at least there is room for improvement.

writing continues on the Cursed Love, with words being added in mostly during lunch hours at work, but at least I am working on it.  I am near the end of my story, but it could still take another 10k – 15k, and then I will have to go back through and add some description, more of the senses and more of the lust etc.

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A little explanation on Depression…

Light at the End of the Tunnel, Kawatiri Tunnel, Feb 2011

Light at the End of the Tunnel, Kawatiri Tunnel, Feb 2011

Circumstances in the last two or three days (eventuating from a couple of weeks ago) have built up to the point where I am feeling VERY down.  And I hate it!

A friend betrayed me, by acting out and another person very close to me has withdrawn and then wonders why I can’t support him. Hmmm – I wonder.

I have wonderful people around me who are supportive and encouraging, but it can be hard when you are in a dark place to “focus on the positive”, “spend time with people who shares your interests” or “enjoy your day” especially when all you can see is the dark cloud over your head.

I do try and be positive, and spend my days doing things I enjoy, but the moment I stop, the clouds roll in and I have to wonder just how much the good times do mean to me.  It is hard to concentrate on the good feelings when the bad feelings blanket you and smother you.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not dissing these people who support me, its just that sometimes it is extremely HARD to focus on positive and enjoy things when you have this overwhelming feeling of being unloved.

At the moment, all I want to do is have a good cry and cuddle with someone I love – but to do that would mean opening myself up, and that is something I really can’t afford to do right now.  Instead I have to push through, and know that this is only a little bump on the road – it just seems that the bumps are getting bigger, not smaller.

I am hoping to get some writing done today, because this is something that I know makes me feel happy at the moment – but I also don’t want to push it and take the fun out of it.  See what kind of conundrum a person suffering from depression ends up in!  Its honestly bloody hell!

Even the thought of stalking Tom Hardy on the internet no longer interests me… yes things are dire!

So anyway, I hope this gives you a little insight into how a depressed person thinks.  I had better get on with my day, paint a smile on my face and pretend that all is well.

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And Yet Again, Another Change…

Funny how things happen.  Last night, half asleep, listening to my husband and a friend playing their

guitars (at 2:30am) I came up with a plot point that would shore up my worrying plot line.  A surprising twist, but one I really like.

And it happens, just like that.  Even though I plot my story out, I keep it flexible as possible, and often, my flexibility allows other things to happen that I didn’t know would, but it adds to the drama and suspense of the story, as well as adds credence to a weakness that I was worried about.

While our friends were here, we were discussing dreams and about what they were used for.  The Native American Indians believed that they could specifically dream certain dreams by starving themselves for 8 days and then going into an induced sleep.  This is probably true.  When I go to sleep, I bring to mind the dreams I had from a previous night, or if I don’t want to focus on that, I think about where I am at in the story I am writing and how I can move forward in the story.  Sometimes I will think of a new idea or some way in which to move the story on, or I will dream something else.

I love that I dream, and I dream pretty much every night, and I can remember my dreams.  But then I have always focused on my dreams (they are where story ideas come from) from a very young age, so I have a good recall of them.  Something that the Native American Indians had to learn.  Little did I know that I am actually quite clever at being able to recall dreams, because many people can’t.

I have a notebook beside my bed for writing down my dreams, and sometimes I will even interpret them, and it can be fascinating what they are trying to tell me.  Like dreaming of moving water can be our life, and if it is swift moving, our lives are going fast, if they are slow and wandering, we are moving at a nice easy pace.

I kind of feel like I am rambling tonight… I probably am.  Not much sleep in the last week, and a 12 hour sleep in the middle, makes for a very muddled girl!

I got to talk to Year 5 / 6 kids at the school I work at about revising and editing stories.  I spoke to them about my own writing and showed them examples of my corrected work.  Then they asked heaps of questions about my writing.  I have since been asked by the Year 2/3 teacher to talk to her class about creating characters and planning a story!  Very exciting times.

Tom HardyWriting is proceeding well, I am wrapped with where the story is going, and I am about 1/3 of the way through it.  20k through, with over 5k yesterday before visitors arrived.  I don’t know what I will do after I have finished writing this story, because at least for now, I have a valid excuse for watching Tom Hardy movies and youtube clips!

Anyway, plan for the week, write, write, write.  SoCNoC is only a third of the way through.  :)

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SoCNoC 2013 – Day 3

pikuroaWhoops, I am a day behind myself because it is Queens Birthday Weekend.  I keep thinking that tomorrow is Monday, but then I have tomorrow off and start work on Wednesday, so goodness what day I will think it is then!

But anyway, work is progressing on Cursed Love.  I have the first 6 chapters done (as of now) and working towards getting the rest done.  I managed to achieve 6K in a Day with 6207 words on Sunday, thanks to my beloved taking the boys away for the afternoon.

Monday wasn’t much of a writing day because my beloved had to get a letter written up and guess who does that for me – yip, me.  It doesn’t worry me too much, because I did three days work on Sunday – but I have managed to get some words down, up to the curse part now.

I am loving where the story is going, and I am so excited about writing it.  I can’t believe how easily it is flowing from me.  It is coming together nicely, with some suggestions from my Mum, Melissa Pearl and Trish Peers-Adams.  I love brainstorming, it really brings the ideas together, and with the Goals Motivation and Conflict sorted out for my characters, and all the details of the characters put together, I have three very complex characters, whom I am pleased to call my own.  They are all flawed, and even my villian has a reason for his flaw – and it could almost be considered a love triangle.  I did say almost!  Depends on how readers like it.

So, I guess, rather than drivel on some more, I best go and put my keyboard skills to good use and do some more writing  :)

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Is it 1st June Yet???

pikuroaMan, I just can’t wait for the 1st of June.  Lots of reasons really, and none of them more important than the others, but there is a special reason that I am anticipating June this year.

1st of June is my father in law’s birthday, and it is also our wedding anniversary – 11 years!

But the real reason for my excitement is that, for the first time, in a couple of years, I am going to do SoCNoC!  And I mean I AM GOING TO DO IT!

I’m so damned excited about it too, have a wonderful story, have Scrivener all set up and ready to go, ready to start my Paranormal Suspense Romance – Cursed Love!

I have my goals, motivations, conflict, characters, settings and plan all lined up.  All I have to do it put fingers to the keyboards.  And I kind of have a plan – I work until 2:30 most days at the school, so from 2:30 until 3:10 I have 40 minutes of uninterrupted writing time… I reckon I could do a lot in that time.  There is also my lunch hour, if I decide to really isolate myself… have to find a quiet classroom somewhere for that one, because it can be quite amusing at lunchtime in the staff room.

But I guess, after two years of struggling with writing, I am so excited about a project.  I can’t wait to get started, and even though I want to start now… I am holding myself back, because otherwise I might run out of steam!

So I know what I am doing during June – what are you up to?

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Researching Simple Things

pikuroa

As I get prepared for SoCNoC, I feel that I am the most prepared I have ever been, and that is simply because I have been researching.

Not indepth or anything, just little things, like how to track cellphones on GPS, what the Maori name for the twisted greenstone pendant and the Clean Slate Legislative Act.

Sometimes it is these little simple bits of research that could make or break a story.  I wanted the story to have authentic information, not movie magic, or mystical ways of obtaining information over the internet.  I wanted to make it realistic as possible – and it is incredibly simple to track a cellphone – worryingly simple!

But this research is also part of a greater plan – world building, which we(RWNZ Nelson) learnt from Nalini Singh is about creating an authentic, realistic and believable place for your characters to live, act and breath in, and have the reader wanting more – hence the above links.  Because it is strangely easy to achieve.

My planning document for Cursed Love currently stands at 15 pages.  A remarkable accomplishment considering I haven’t finished planning the story – but I do have character sheets for my main characters and one of my secondary characters.  I also have information on each characters background that I deemed necessary.  Most of this information won’t make it into the story, but it is there for me to refer back to.

I have to admit, I have had fun with this,  such simple things have come to life, brainstorming has answered some problems.  Lying in bed, trying to drift off at night has also given my brain a chance to mull things over and make some decisions.  My characters are indepth and have personalities, my settings are realistic, the circumstances of the story all mesh together.  It is amazing how the muse can come up with ideas that initially I would dismiss, but on further investigation, it seems more viable.  My Hero was supposed to be a player, but he decided he wanted to be a widower with a kid.  It works in extremely well for the story, better than I hoped as it turned out.

So, roll on 1st June – can’t wait to get things up and running  :)

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Skin Deep Release

T G Ayer has done it again!  And before she released Dead Chaos… how could she?

But then I read Skin Deep.  And I couldn’t put it down!  I started reading at 8am, and with a couple of breaks, I read through until 2:31am the following day.  What a read!

Kailin Odel is a skin walker, a panther by nature. She also kills wraiths, something her family don’t know about. The character of Kailin had her fair share of knocks and bangs in the story and by the end of the story I felt sorry for her.  So much heart ache and pain that has made Kailin who she is, and a strong person at that.

Logan has his own secrets and works as part of a special division of the Police Force. A very special division. This is how their paths cross and there is instant attraction between the human and the skin walker.  We don’t know much of his history, but we do know that he has links with Kailin’s family, and not in a good way.

These two join forces when a skin walker is found dead, and Kailin becomes a target because she witnessed it, and later because she is an alpha’s daughter, making her a very powerful skin walker.

Tee threw everything she could at these two people.  Stabbings, shootings, kidnaps, death, fellow skin walkers.  How much can one couple take?  Apparently quite a lot.

EXCERPT:

“The cold cocking of guns set my body on fire.

It also did something worse. With mortal fear gripping me, my imminent Change wasn’t taking second place anymore. My body Skin Deep Coverchurned the fear and my Panther grasped at the visceral power of the adrenalin in my veins.

I ran.

A gunshot echoed around the garden, the sound ping-ponging off the aging brick walls of the surrounding apartment buildings.

I gasped as a blast of searing pain slammed into me.

As a bullet buried itself deep within my shoulder.”

Blurb

DESCRIPTION:

 

Panther Shape-shifter Kailin Odel just wants to be normal. Leaving her clan, and her Alpha responsibilities, to live with her grandmother in Chicago had been the best thing for her. Only then did she discover her ability to track and kill the soul sucking undead creatures called Wraiths. Now she protected the humans, and had something to be proud of.

But, when she discovers the body of a murdered shape shifter, Kailin has to come to terms with the reality that her own kind are just as vulnerable as the humans.

The closer Kailin gets to the killer the more she has to face the intricacies of her people. When the time comes can she accept who and what her real purpose is?

Click on the picture to purchase the eBook copy NOW!