What have I done?!
I became a member – of the Romantic Novelists Association💕
Am I ready for this?
Are they ready for me 😬
Joking aside, I left 2017 focused on doing this writing thing. I’ve thought about it on and off for most of my adult life, but allowed work and children and hobbies and husband and other people’s expectations to be used as an excuse for never giving it a serious ‘go’.
It’s 2018 and I am setting goals left, right and all over the place. I wish to learn this trade. Ok, I have a basic grasp of the English language – you may disagree – but I wish to soak up (like a sponge) all and every opportunity coming my way to improve and refine.
If I don’t throw myself off the top, I’ll never know if I can fly will I?!
I need a manuscript, full manuscript, by August to send off to a panel of authors and editors – eeeek 🙊
Can I do that? Is John a contender? No, he is a short story, almost half way done. Instead I shall edit my WIP from NaNo last November; 22,000 words already exist 🥂 (after editing, let’s narrow that down to about 18,000 because I always say too much!).
I fear I shall have to lighten up the dark parts or the Barbara Taylor-Bradford stalwarts will faint in their chairs by chapter 3. (Why did I even say that; I’ve never read a BTB. Maybe they are full of sordid details? Anyone?).
This is one of their claims… so, my lovely male fellow bloggers – is it true?
Come with me on this petrifying journey. Please? Help me, share with me your tips along the way…. if nothing comes of it and in September I receive the email “Thank you but deary me, no thank you.” at least I shalt have learnt a thing or two along the way, and had some tea and cakes at their regular meet-ups.
London. Feb 10th. First meeting and a chance to listen to a romantic novelist winner from last year 😱. Wow. I hope I don’t bow in awe when she walks in.
Shall I book you a ticket?
IdeasBecomeWords 
Really liked this post and I enjoyed your exchange with Joseph Beech. xo
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Aw .. thank you lovely. Joseph appears to becoming one of my regular readers and it’s an honour to realise real people do actually follow, read and communicate and I’m not sat in a pretend box of words and WordPress is merely computer generated mass answers 🤣🥂🌸
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😀 Yeah I know it can feel that way. Or that people are actually reading and allowing your words or creative work in, instead of clicking “like” for a return ‘favor.’ I mean blogging or any art is a call for ‘human’ exchange….
Right?
Thank-you for being here. xoxo
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Good luck! Well done putting your 2018 intentions into action already, looking forward to seeing how it all unfolds for you! 💚
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Thank you Laura – I’ll let you know whether the tea and cakes are any good at the first meeting!!!
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You can do it! The experience will be invaluable. A local historical romance author Anna Campbell got a contract with Mills&Boon and she is now living the dream. She says and I quote “Romance fiction is mind-bogglingly popular worldwide. According to figures from Romance Writers of America, romance fiction is the top performing category in the bestseller lists, it holds the largest share of the consumer market.”
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How very exciting for Anna – thank you for sharing these facts. Getting the correct romantic formula will be the key I suspect… but as you point out, the experience can only be positive! I’m excited x
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Good luck! I bet you will do great!
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Thank you Robyn, for your kind words and faith. 🌸
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Congratulations on taking this big step! You will no doubt create a masterpiece. 🙂
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We shall see …. I shall have a lot of fun writing it in any event.
I’m just picturing the meetings throughout the year to be quite conservative …. I don’t know why. I probably have a completely inappropriate vision of the lovely ladies of the RNA … I’ll let you know!
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Erm, are they all ladies? Men write romance, too.
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I’m glad you say this. Her on WordPress I have found many many very moving and romantic pieces written by men.
Yet on the RNA website, there is very little mention of men; no listed previous male winners. Yet why is this?
I enjoy male take on life.
I’ve even had a couple of friends raise an eyebrow when they read some of my male POV work, yet I often write with the MC being male. I think I might be wired differently to many women 🙈🤣
When I go to the first meeting, I will count the males in the audience and come back to you on this, with a number 👌🏼
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An interesting phenomenon for sure. I look forward to reading your observations. It is a useful skill to be able to write from both male and female POV. Keep doing it! There are some famous crime writers who try but IMO they fail, or worse, they create a stereotypical character. P.S. Historical romance author Jessica Blair is British grandfather Bill Spence 😉
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That is seriously cool!! Go Bill 😀
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😂😂😂
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With this information, I am going to write a fantastical hysterical romance about Bilbo Baggins and Goliath. A new twist?
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Oh bless …. Bilbo … how cute was he at the end?
My mind was playing havoc amongst the trees of Mirkwood however …
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A couple of years to Google Engineers released a book titled a billion Wicked thoughts . a study of internet searches ,billions of them . They were looking at a lot of pornography use , there’s lots about male pornography use and it’s easy to understand males are visually oriented . For women the story is more complex women tend to be literary , women tend to like Words more than they like visual stimuli . So they tracked down the archetypal structure of female pornography use.
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What they found out is that women like the Taming of the wild man archetype. That is Beauty and the Beast and Fifty Shades of Grey which is the most rapid selling novel in human history.
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Hmmm .. I ‘see’ that pattern many times in books. And readers who buy novels are talking with their feet and we have to ‘listen’ to the masses.
I do love the idea of throwing that on its head though.
Don’t laugh at me.. but my hero is 007. Women try all the time to catch or tame Ian Fleming’s agent … but to me his appeal is that he CANNOT be tamed
(I know he came close in Venice)
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Do you want to know the five categories of most desirable male entities use most broadly in female literature, it’s a bit embarrassing but it’s Vampire, werewolf , billionaire , surgeon and pirate.😂
Have you read the hero with a thousand faces? By Joseph Campbell ,after he studied hundreds of stories from around the globe in a means of finding a single archetype Within each one of those stories . It’s what George Lucas to used when he was writing Star Wars. The archetype starts off with a young man at home being whisked away into a grand Adventure.
It’s contradictory but I could imagine a strong independent young woman
Being whisked. whenever your story is finished I’ll buy a copy.
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mmmm, although I don’t write vampires or werewolves, I enjoy films around them. The billionaire business I’ll leave to P D James. But the surgeon and the pirate I can work with .. tee hee!
How about a strong, focused (if not independent) middle aged woman doing the anti-whisk thang!
Thank you – that’s the nicest thing anyone has said – if I ever get published, I’ll send you a free signed copy. So there!
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Interesting…. although I suspect research results in the study using words such as ‘majority’.
I love a visual, but then I always was wired differently!! But I enjoy writing too..
My writing may not be to the ‘majority’ of womens’ tastes, if those surveys were true…
but I will remain true to myself as I write … I promise you that 🙂
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Good luck 🤞 you can do this!
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Thank you!!! Means a lot ☺️
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