Skip to main content

Romantic novels: What is a writer's blog for(?); Comments on Scribophile; Discovering Scrivener; National Novel Writing Month

Well I'm not so sure about I'm suppose to be writing about. Writing about writing is boring. Okay. So yesterday I went on a massive rant about writing a romantic novel and how most of the heros I've read are twats. Well dickhead to be precise.  I've got a potty writing manner which comes over due to my lack of vocabulary.  That is a challenge in writing believe me.

Anyway about ranting and moaning about editing this novel and not wishing to part with cash for the most famous novel revision online course by respected author Holly Lisle - I decided there must be a way.

So I remembered I downloaded Scrivener a while back. I was using it for job hunting then stopped using it for some reason. Anyway it's a trial version with 30 days - non conservative use! Now editing is really about making sense of my first draft.  And my story.

My first read was okay - I like it. But the characters are shallow. Noah is an arrogant dickhead.  I peer reviewed my first chapter on Scribophile and one critique said he was creepy. I agree.  But then most are the Mills and Boon heros - a lot of them are  arrogant,  creepy with bits of sympathy moments.  I did use their formula as a template.

After spending lots of hours writing my story I. AM. NOT. CHUCKING. IT. AWAY.  Nah - I don't do I-have -thirty-novels-under-the-mattress-or-in-the-attic-before-I-published-this-one thing.  So now I'm thinking how can I change it into the kind of novel I want.

Romantic Hero

Okay Noah is a dickhead, I removed the line that made him creepy. Well he proportioned the woman on the first meeting so I agreed it made him sleazy and creepy.  So just dickheadism remains. Another reader pointed out the profanity.  So I removed it from the first chapter not sure I will do the same through out though I will minimise the use.

The problem is that Noah is suppose to be a player who doesn't want to commit and  it's very hard to make him sympathetic.  The man is a moving male slut. Okay he doesn't sleep around but he isn't interested in settling down. The main problem is I'm not feeling him.

Romantic Heroine

Her name is Kendra and she is one dimension. Boring and self obsessed. Hmmm


Scrivener

I've copied all my first draft to Scrivener which seems like magic.  Now that is expensive but I'm also writing something for National Novel Writing Month so I might get a discount at the end of it. Yay! It's a great outlining tool.  I tired using Microsoft OneNote but it didn't have comments. This does.



-----------------------------------------------------------
 Check out Bigga Day's books on

Smashwords.com
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bigga
Apple iBooks
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/bigga-day/id595585425?mt=11
Barnes and Nobles
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/bigga-day
Kobo
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Search?query=Bigga%20Day&fcsearchfield=Author

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Daily Writing Journal: Mo Money Challenge - week 8 which means £8 in the tin!

£8 in coins So I'm on my second week on saving and still not sure. I'm not feeling the pinch per se, but it's hard thinking how am I going to maintain this. So I managed to get a few coins out and gather some change, but at some point I'll really need to organise this. I've put in four fifty pence pieces with come up to two pounds sterling and the rest in pound coins.  Remember the money tin from last week. Well it all went inside that.... How am I feeling? Slightly bored but I still have a long way to go..... Saving money is boring, spending is more interesting.

My London Hood - The Tate Modern

Modern Gallery make you think of the world as it is today. I just wandered around the exhibitions in the Tate modern and  seemed focused on oppression of humanity - focusing on the poverty, wars, sexuality, violence, conflict, the underdog and gritty. This was a picture that captured my imagination because it looked so modern. This is a painting by German artist Christian Schad  called Agosta, the Pigeon-Chested Man, and Rasha, the Black Dove 1929 is a large portrait-orientated oil painting of two funfair performers.  https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schad-agosta-the-pigeon-chested-man-and-rasha-the-black-dove-l02264  So in typically America-speak when I saw my people, I had to stop and take a picture, therefore homegirl, Rasha, the black dove is headlining my blog. In those days, I guess the only work she could get was as side-freak show but she is very beautiful, modernly so. It also made me think of what happened to all the black people or people of colour during Nazi Germ

Review of January 2018 - lost weight, socialised with others, completed my beta-read, doing my courses.

Hello everyone, Just checking in about my goals and life in general. It's all good. What went well. I took in packed lunches for at least four days a week. This was just hummus, sprouts, grated carrot sandwich. So very vegan.  I also cooked dinner a few times a night rather than eating junk food or takeaway. So a lot healthier. I finally have a social life of sorts. In my last job - it was work, home and see family on weekends. I was so drained and tired so this new job has made such a difference, that I can go out and meet people.  So I go out with some drinking mates once a week. It's a nice evening out of the house and away from social media or the internet. It's mostly small talk but its nice. I'm doing my photoshop course. That is coming along nicely, that picture is from one of my practice sessions. I'm doing a couple of writing courses which are intense. What hasn't gone well. I need to focus on having more routines, and breaking tasks