In this post, I'm sharing a lesson from my month-long online class "Brainstorming to Revision" at Savvyauthors.com. The class starts January 1, and includes 12 lessons posted on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, students are invited to post scenes for critique.
I wrote this class while actually in the process of writing a 12,000 erotic short romance. The lessons explore how I worked through each step of the writing process, all the way from brainstorming the book, to creating the characters, to plotting and writing it -- all the way through revisions. Materials will include the planning tools I've created to plan and plot my books.
Brainstorm
to Revision: Writing Short Erotic Paranormal Romances
Lesson 2: Brainstorming the Initial Idea
By Angela Knight
Note:
I wrote these lessons a few years ago as I was in the process of working on “Chain of Kisses,” out now. As the lessons progress, you’ll see that my initial ideas
changed radically as I developed the story. Often I have a plot in mind, only
to realize that it doesn’t work. Then I have to go back and fix the plot holes.
That’s just part of the process of writing.
As
I became an experienced novelist, it became apparent to me that planning a
story in detail saves time because you don’t have to backtrack.
It
may seem that the pre-planning is a waste of time, and you should just start
writing. But if you end up throwing away whole chapters because you didn’t
think it through, you’ve actually wasted time.
When I’m doing something for Changeling or
one of the other paranormal e-pub, the first question I ask myself is, “What
would be fun (and erotic) to write?”
I already know this piece needs to be
pretty short – 50 pages. (Note: at the
time I was under contract with Berkley, and my editor wouldn’t have liked it if
I did a paranormal novel for anyone else.) Plus, I need to slide this in
before starting my novel. If I do ten pages a day, I can have it finished in
five days. (I’ve done this recently, so I know it’s possible.)
My Mageverse novels are a bit grueling, so
for this short story, I want to do something fun, where I can cut loose and
have a good time.
According
to the guidelines, they want: “Paranormal,
Dark Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Futuristic, BDSM, and Action/Adventure
romantic love stories. All submissions must be targeted for at least one of
these genres.
What's a Love Story? While there should be
both highly erotic and romantic elements to the book, relationships and endings
should be plot driven. We don't demand your characters trot off to get married
at the end of the book, though we do ask for a HEA (Happy Ever After) or, in
the case of serials, a HFN (Happy For Now).
Please keep in mind, we've only got one
heat level. Over-the-top hot! We can handle anything you send us as long as it
meets our guidelines! We do not accept simultaneous submissions. We do accept
multiple submissions.
Length: We accept outside submissions from
10 to 28K for single titles. Serials from unsigned authors must be submitted as
a completed set.”
Does their website get a lot of reader
traffic? Do they publish at sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes? The
more traffic a site gets, the better the paycheck is. E-mail some of their
authors and see whether they like the publisher and are treated well. Check
them out with Preditors and Editors to see how they’re rated, here: http://pred-ed.com/ That site has listings for
both agents and editors.
Note: If you’re offered a contract, read it
very carefully and make sure they don’t want to keep your pen name or
something. If they do, see if you can strike the clause you don’t like; often
they will. Check the details of the contract with a lawyer or agent if
possible, or other writers if not. You can easily be screwed otherwise. (I have
been, and it wasn’t fun.)
Remember that the lawyer who wrote the
contract was working for the publisher, not you. He wrote the contract to give
the publisher the advantage. You have to look out for you.
Pay particular attention to how quickly the
contract says they’ll publish the book, when, and what percentage of sales you
get paid and how often, and what happens to your rights if they go out of
business before they publish it. Also, which rights do they want? Those details
are the kind of thing that can bite you on the ass, so you need to be careful.
I’ve been writing for Changeling for many years,
so I’m comfortable with them. They’re not going to go out of business, and I
trust the publisher not to screw me.
Now that we know what market we’re
targeting, let’s start brainstorming the book. I like to take a big whiteboard
on an easel and just start writing down whatever comes to me, without
criticizing the ideas, just letting them come. You can also brainstorm with
Post-it notes on corkboard, or software on your computer, or a spiral
notebook. Hell, cocktail napkins.
Whatever works.
In my case, I find that writing my ideas on
the whiteboard often triggers other ideas, and soon I’m zooming right along.
There’s something about those big words and my handy eraser that frees me to
play with ideas.
I know I want to do a captor/captive story.
I haven’t done one of those in a while, and they’re always fun. The bondage
thing Changeling wants is built right in to a C/c, and if you add a big, sexy
hero, you’ve got all you need to get my motor running.
That last bit is really crucial to writing
an erotic story. You can’t write something that doesn’t turn you on. For
example, I’d never try to do a ponygirl story. Women playing at being horses
just doesn’t do a damned thing for me. Not that there’s anything wrong with
that -- it just doesn’t hit my buttons.
You need to identify what’s really hot to
you, because that’s what you’re going to write best.
You also need to be honest with yourself
about whether you can write erotic romance. Some people just don’t want to
reveal their deepest sexual desires to utter freaking strangers. Like me
telling this list I like bondage. Hey, Angela Knight is KINKY! (Like you didn’t know that just from reading Jane’s
Warlord.)
If writing hot sex makes you squirm and
imagine the reaction of your preacher, priest or rabbi, don’t do it. You won’t
be able to pull it off. You’ll be happier writing more traditional romances,
and you’ll do it more effectively and believably.
Once you have the basic subgenre and
conflicts, start with the obvious questions. WHY is she a captive? Why would a hero
TAKE her captive? He’s got to have a good, heroic reason, or he’s not going to
be sympathetic. And if he’s not sympathetic, the story won’t work. In 50 pages,
you don’t have a lot of time to set up the characters. They’ve got to be
instantly likeable as well as hot. You don’t have time to do a big growth arc
from asshole to good guy. That might work in a novel, but not in 12,000 words.
Sometimes this stuff doesn’t come in a
logical progression. As you brainstorm, you may see connections and come up with
ways to strengthen the conflicts. Then you’ll have to go back and work those
into the plot.
This is what I wrote down as I brainstormed
the book last week. The italics are my commentary for this lesson.
Why is she a captive?
Hostage against someone’s behavior?
War prize? He won and demanded her as his
payment for not destroying her people?
Why HER? Maybe she is an enemy
general/princess.
He is from a culture where men and women
take sexual captives and practice dominance.
(Note that it’s not just MEN practicing dominance. I wouldn’t want to live in a
completely male dominated society, because it would drive me nuts. I just want
to play submissive games in the bedroom, so I need to set up a more-or-less
believable reason for the hero and heroine to do that. This is, after all,
fantasy.)
As the story opens, she is bound and
waiting for him to approach. She is aroused but pissed. (I can really FEEL the potential in that scene. Imagine being all
tied up as a big, sexy guy strides across the bedroom, his schlong leading the
way…. YUM!)
Is
this TMI? Ah, deal with it.
Futuristic. I like writing futuristics for
Changeling, because Berkley limits me to straight contemporary paranormal. When
I get to play, I want to do something different. Besides, when you’re doing
something like bondage, which has so many explosive political implications,
you’re better off setting the story on another planet. Then you can just enjoy
the fantasy without worrying about your NOW membership.
He is hyper masculine. His people are very
aggressive. They want mates who have proven their intelligence and skill in
battle. He became fascinated by her when he fought her, which is why he decided
to go after her.
How
did he fight her? Hand to hand wouldn’t work; he would have kicked her ass, unless
she’s got super powers. He’s a big guy, and he knows how to fight.
Maybe she’s a ship’s captain, and their
ships battled in space. Female Captain Kirk type, swashbuckling, has had a
string of lovers. (I don’t like virgin
heroines when I’m writing a guy that dominant. A meek little virgin just
wouldn’t be a proper opponent for him. They must be equals, at least mentally,
for a romantic conflict to work. Otherwise he just runs all over her, which
means he’ll come off as a bully. A romance between a bully and a rag doll is
just no damned fun at all.)
Thing
is, I have already done a captor/captive with two ship’s captains before.
(“Roarke’s Prisoner” in Secrets
2 for Red Sage, which was my very first
published romance.) So I have to find a way to give it a twist.
Maybe they’re royalty. She’s the youngest
daughter of the empress on a matriarchal planet. He’s the king of a neighboring
empire. At one time, they were engaged, but she called it off because she was
unnerved by her strong reaction to his dominance. He was aware of her reaction,
and swore to have her anyway. She threatened to leave the empire and become a
pirate if they forced her to wed him.
Ehhhh.
Not sure that works. He sounds like an asshole, and she’s no better.
Continuing
to brainstorm…
They have known each other since childhood,
when they visited one another’s palaces during various events. As a child, she
had a crush on him. He was older, handsome, dashing. They were engaged when she
was two and he was fifteen – one of those royal treaty things. (When you’re doing a story this short, it’s
a good idea for the characters to be in love to start with. It’s very hard to
get strangers to love in 12,000 words. Giving them a romantic past solves the
problem. The story’s conflict is how they overcome whatever has been keeping
them apart all these years.)
At 17, he went into his empire’s military,
where he got a reputation as a fierce warrior while fighting off an attempted
invasion by reptilian invaders.
When she was 17 and he was 30, they were
supposed to get married. But she found him so intimidating and dominant, she
broke it off and ran. The result caused a rift between their empires. Ten years
have gone by. He is now 40 and she’s 27. She’s a mercenary ship’s captain. (I do a lot of mercs, because it’s a good
way to involve a hero/heroine in someone else’s war.)
He attacked her ship and defeated her in
combat. He then demanded her surrender in return for the safety of her ship’s
crew. Under the treaty between their people, he feels he’s still entitled to have
her.
Ehhhh.
I’m Not Happy. He’s still an asshole, and I don’t like the idea of marrying a
30-year-old to a kid. He ought to understand why someone that young would get
unnerved and run, given the kind of Alpha Male he is. What would give him a
good reason to take her sexual captive ten years later?
When she was five and he was fifteen (making her older and him younger so the age
difference is reduced), her mother, the planetary empress, engaged the
heroine to the hero, who is the son of the emperor of a neighboring planet. The
mother’s planet was being menaced by an alien race of reptilian warriors who
were on the verge of invading and killing everybody. The treaty gave her planet
protection against the invaders; the hero’s father, the emperor, declared war
on the lizards and drove them back out of his empire. The hero went to war and
fought the aliens. He became a war hero and conquered several planets during
the next twelve years.
Now
it’s a little more understandable. A lot of his people (maybe his best friend?)
died protecting hers over that treaty, and she spat on it by chickening out and
running away. No wonder he’s pissed. But now she’s
the asshole; I have to work on that.
When it’s time for her to get married to
him when she’s 17, (which makes him 27, which sounds a little better), her
sister, the heiress to the throne, tells the heroine the elder sister wants
him. The sister is a bit older and a little slutty. The hero does something (I have to figure out what; maybe the
heroine saw him having really dominant sex with someone. Her sister? No, that
would be kinda asshole on his part. Somebody else. He doesn’t know she saw
them.)
This incident freaked her out. She ran,
rationalizing that her sister would marry him and everybody would be happy. But
he wanted nothing to do with the sister; he wanted HER. The treaty was salvaged
when the sister married his younger brother, but it was a great scandal, and
the hero was PISSED.
The heroine assumed a false identity as a
spacer, then later became a mercenary captain. He has been hunting her ever
since; it’s a matter of honor now. Too
many warriors died for her world and SHE OWES HIM, DAMMIT.
I’m
still not happy about her. Running away was cowardly.
The fact that she ran away from him has
been eating at her for years. In retrospect, she bitterly wishes she’d married
him as she was supposed to. Her cowardice almost resulted in the destruction of
her people. Besides, he’s been a subject of her secret fantasies for years. So
when he captures her, she’s secretly delighted, though she’s also outraged by
his gall and a little frightened about what he intends to do.
Now
this is a little more understandable. Most of us have done something when we
were kids that we regret, so I think readers will be more inclined to cut her
some slack. This is also why I need to keep the age difference. If she were 20
when they were first supposed to marry, it wouldn’t work at all.
So that’s my initial process. I come up
with a rough idea, and then start brainstorming reasons for the characters’
actions that the reader can understand and sympathize with. I also rough in the
idea for the paranormal world, but not in great detail. I figure out just
enough to go on to the next step.
Now I need to nail down the
characterization for the hero and heroine before I can brainstorm the plot. So the
next lesson will be on creating the hero.
Any questions?
Oh, and I’ll do a crit for the first two
people to submit rough plot ideas. First come, first served.
Angela Knight
Thanks for reading. I hope you'll join me!
When ice artist Judith Dane is hired to create a kinky version of Michelangelo's David, she thinks the ice sculpture is just another Christmas party centerpiece. But when she delivers the work she's nicknamed "Frosty the Snow Dom" to the BDSM club Valhalla, the party turns out to be a lot stranger than she expects.
When ice artist Judith Dane is hired to create a kinky version of Michelangelo's David, she thinks the ice sculpture is just another Christmas party centerpiece. But when she delivers the work she's nicknamed "Frosty the Snow Dom" to the BDSM club Valhalla, the party turns out to be a lot stranger than she expects.