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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.



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