O is for...Osmosis by Annie Burrows

On the first Friday of every month, Novelista Annie Burrows has been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer.  And is dealing with themes in alphabetical order.  This month, she's reached O...

I have to admit I was a bit stumped for an "O".  I have to thank fellow Novelista Johanna Grassick for coming up with the fabulous word "osmosis".

The dictionary definition is: "Tendency of solvent to diffuse through porous partition into more concentrated solution."

Or, "The process of gradual or unconscious assimilation of ideas, knowledge, etc."

In other words, "soaking stuff up".

I have to admit, when I first started writing, I did a lot of "soaking stuff up."  I'd studied literature at university, but not creative writing.  So that although I could write essays about style, metaphor, and subtext, I didn't have a clue about how to achieve any of those things in a work of fiction I'd written myself.

I've already mentioned in an earlier blog (M is for...Mills & Boon) about how I discovered that any writer who wants to submit to a publisher of genre fiction had better read a lot of them to get a "feel" for what they are looking for.  In other words, I needed to soak up the atmosphere of romance that Mills & Boon publish.  I've read, since then, all sorts of books which go into clinical detail about how to become a better writer, specifically of romance, but I still think the best way to get a real feel for the genre is to read lots and lots in the same line, and soak up the atmosphere.

I have shelves full of Georgette Heyer, and other Regency romances, so it's not surprising that the stories I've had published are also light-hearted Regency romances.

I'm not trying to write like Georgette Heyer, though.  I'm trying to be as original as I can be.  Which brings me to the slight drawback to learning to write by a process of osmosis.  And that is the danger that I might unconsciously soak up someone else's style.  That is why I steer clear of reading any kind of Regency romance at certain stages of writing my own books. I don't want to accidentally reproduce someone else's turns of phrase.

It isn't just the art of writing that I needed to "soak up", though.  In order to make a historical background convincing, I have needed to positively wallow in research books.  The only way I can confidently mention a mode of travel, a political undercurrent, or the cut of a gown is by reading as much as I can about the period.  The only way to get into the mindset of my characters, and make them come to life, is to understand the way people in that era would have thought and acted, which means reading biographies of eminent figures of the day.  And period newspapers.  Soaking up as much knowledge as I can makes it possible to bring the era to life on the page for my readers.  (hopefully!)

Going to museums and stately homes is also another way of soaking up atmosphere.  I can imagine myself as an aristocrat, strolling through the grounds in a full-length dress, or going for a ride in a carriage.  The view from a window, or the pattern of wear on a carpet can spark ideas, so that I often come home from trips to a stately home with inspiration for a new story.

A lot of writers will say that their mind is like a kind of compost heap.  All sorts of things go in, get absorbed, transformed, and produce a rich crop.

That's me.  A veritable compost heap!

Annie's latest release is "A Mistress for Major Bartlett" the second in the "Brides of Waterloo" trilogy from Harlequin Mills & Boon.

 Available from Amazon

N is for...Notebooks by Annie Burrows

On the first Friday of every month, Novelista Annie Burrows has been sharing a very personal view of what it is like to be a writer.  And is dealing with themes in alphabetical order.  This month, she's reached N

If you're serious about being a writer, you need to have a notebook (and pen) handy at all times, because you never know when inspiration is going to strike.  I learned this the hard way, when I had a brilliant idea to deepen my hero's conflict, but by the time I got round to sitting down at my laptop, and applying it to the story I was writing, I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was.  I still can't remember what it was.  But I can remember how cross I felt that I'd forgotten it.

I carry this one in my pocket to jot down things that occur to me when I'm on the move.  I love the design that makes the pen a clasp to keep it closed.  What I don't love is the fact that the pen has run out of ink already.  Which means I need to carry a little pencil as well.

I have another notebook in my handbag, in case I'm out without a coat.  Or I've hung my coat up in a cloakroom.  It's so battered that I'm ashamed to take a picture of it and post it.  People who have been to lunch with me will have seen it however and can vouch for how disreputable it looks!

I have another one on my bedside table in case inspiration strikes me at night.  My husband has got used to me suddenly sitting bolt upright and grabbing my pen.  "Got an idea?" he murmurs sleepily.  Not even expecting an answer because I just grunt at him, and keep on writing.  Inspiration is so elusive, sometimes, that even pausing to explain what it is will make it shimmer into a sort of mist that you just can't get a hold of any longer.

And then, there's my collection of big notebooks.  These are rough drafts of all the stories that have come to me over the years, when I've been away from a computer so that I couldn't type them straight into my "ideas" file.  A big notebook will always go in my suitcase if I'm going on holiday, because when sitting on a beach, I'd as soon be writing a story, as reading one.

And a confession about these notebooks.  Some of them have gone to work with me, when I was working in call centres, or as a temporary receptionist.  While other temps might sit about filing their nails, I was scribbling down my ideas, under the desk.  And sometimes resenting the phone ringing and interrupting me while I was in full flow!

Annie's latest release is "A Mistress for Major Bartlett", the 2nd in the "Brides of Waterloo" trilogy from Harlequin Mills & Boon.  In bookshops from June 1st, or available for pre-order from Amazon now.

You can find Annie on facebook at Annie Burrows 

You can also follow her on twitter @NovelistaAnnie

Writing What You Know... by Annie Burrows

Continuing Novelista Annie Burrow's monthly alphabetical rambling though the writer's life.  This week, she's reached the letter K, which is for...Knowing.  (Or not)

"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know." (Donald Rumsfeld)

When you first start writing people advise you to write what you know.  The argument goes that you cannot write a convincing story unless you know your subject inside out and upside down.  The trouble is, I wanted to write fiction set in Regency England, which is a place I have never been, and never can go to.  All my knowledge of the era comes from books.

However, when I started attempting to get a publishing deal, I felt fairly confident that I knew enough to be able to create a convincing fictional Regency world.  I've read stacks of Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen and the like.  And whatever I didn't know enough about, I could look up, right?

So I bought loads of books about every subject I thought I might need to know about - fashion, the army, the navy and biograpies of people who actually lived in the time which would hopefully give me an idea of the mindset of people living back then.

I even go round stately homes to get an extra "feel" for the era, especially ones where I can dress up in period costume, or have a ride in a carriage.

All the little details of dress, manners, and so forth, help to create a world that strikes a reader as "real".

For example, an author may set a scene by having the hero check his cravat in the mirror.  The heroine curtsies to him.  Instantly we're in an age where manners are more formal than today, and the costumes easily dateable.  The hero asks the lady to dance the waltz.  She refuses lest she be thought "fast".  We're very firmly in Regency territory.  So far, so good.

The trouble is, there are things about the Regency world that I never knew I didn't know.  I didn't know, for example - until it was mentioned on an author loop I belong to - that a girl couldn't waltz in public until she'd been granted permission, by one of the patronesses of Almack's, within those hallowed walls, to do so with an approved partner.  I'd had no idea how close I'd come to the brink of writing one of my heroines into committing such a social gaffe.

And a lot of authors fall into the same trap.  As a resident of the UK, I cringe whenever I read of Regency bucks going down to Dorsetshire to sample the local whiskey.  Or having to banish their dogs to the stables after an encounter with a skunk on the South Downs.  For me, such slips of the pen ruin my belief in the Regency world the author is trying to create.  Though I don't suppose it has any effect on readers who don't know that in Dorset the local brew would most likely be cider, and that the only way a skunk would wander onto the South Downs was if it had escaped from some local eccentric's private collection of rare species.

Which brings me back to the inimitable Donald Rumsfeld, who has been soundly mocked for warning the world about the danger of the "unknown unknowns".  As an author, I can vouch for the peril of those pesky facts that hamper us in our creative endeavours.  I have had my own heroes and heroines unwittingly do and say things that a person living in 1815 would not have done.  I have had them use the word "hello" - which was not in common use until the 1880's except on the hunting field.  I have also had them perform a twentieth century waltz, having had no idea that in the Regency era, the waltz was nothing like the rather tame dance performed today.

Only look at the way these couples are cavorting in each other's arms...

However, if I was now to describe the dance with complete accuracy, I suspect that editors and readers alike would find it hard to believe in it if my hero performed an acrobatic leap while the heroine hopped to one side.  It would strike them all as bizarre, and would ruin their belief in my Regency world just as surely as it would had they arrived at the ball in question in a porsche 911.

So - I'll probably need to disguise what I actually know, so that a reader will be convinced I do know what I'm talking about.

Donald Rumsfeld might have fared better with the world's press if he'd done the same.

Annie's next book, "A Mistress for Major Bartlett" which is part of a trilogy "The Brides of Waterloo", will be out in July 2015

H is for heroes

Novelista Annie Burrows continues her alphabetical meander through her life as a writer.  This month she's reached the letter H, which of course stands for heroes...

 

I've recently handed in a book that is going to be part two of a historical trilogy.  The three books in the series deal with the loves of three officers in the same regiment, who fight at the battle of Waterloo.  And about the first thing my co-continuity authors wanted to know about my episode was "What does your hero look like?"

Sarah Mallory and Louise Allen had already put pictures in our joint files of actors who'd inspired them when it came to imagining their heroes.

Sarah Mallory chose Peter O'Toole when he was  Lawrence of Arabia for the Colonel of our fictitious regiment.

 Louise Allen picked Sean Bean for her Major Flint.

My problem was that although I had a clear image in my head of my own hero, I hadn't based him on an actor.  I just can't do that.  Because for me, what the hero is like inside, as a person, is far more important than what he looks like.  I always start with the personality, and work outward.  And if I start picturing a specific actor when I write about my hero, I'm always worried that the actor's personality traits might sneak in.

However, Sarah and Louise - who write much faster than me - were already writing scenes where my hero would have to stride across their pages, and really, really wanted to know what my hero looked like.

Fortunately (for them!) about that time I found an image of Tom Hiddleston in a cravat, from when he'd been playing a nineteenth century gentleman.  That was about the nearest I could come to explaining what my hero would look like.  And it wasn't about his features.  It was about the cleverness you could see in his features.  The potential for wickedness beneath the charming smile.

Posting an image of Tom certainly inspired their imaginations.  Whenever they sent me a scene in which he appeared in one of their books, they had my Artillery Major off to a "T".  He was a flirt.  A charmer.  And devilishly good-looking.

Thinking about Tom Hiddleston kept them happy for a while.  

( Well, he seems to make a lot of ladies happy.)

 Tom Hiddleston

Until they wanted to know what his name was.  I had to explain that he hadn't told me yet.  In my defence, I explained that I was only on about chapter 3 by then, and he was only just waking up after having sustained a head injury.  He was confused, and concussed, and couldn't everyone just call him "Sir."

I can't remember exactly when, during the course of the emails pinging back and forth as we created our fictional regiment, we started referring to him as Tom.  And then, when I couldn't come up with a surname, Louise Allen coined the nickname Tom Cat, which really, really suited him.
 

This kind of procedure is how it usually goes for me when naming my heroes.  I know that some authors can't start writing their heroes until they have a name, but I find that mine don't tell me what it is until I have got to know them pretty well.  My secondary characters had to speak of one of my heroes as Lord Rakey Rakerson well into my second draft of his adventure!

And it's the same with the book I am currently writing.  I know quite a lot about my hero's childhood, and naval career.  At the time he meets my heroine, he's reached the rank of Captain.  He is also an Earl to an almost bankrupt Scottish estate.  So naturally, the heroine has been having to call him Captain Lord Scotsman.

But only a few days ago, his sister (who is a minor character in the story) bounced up to him calling him Alec.  Which is short for Alexander.  And since I knew her name was Lizzie Dunbar (because it's always much, much easier to name minor characters) that meant his family name had to be Dunbar too.  Which is just right, and sums him up perfectly.  Alec has a sort of cautious ring to it, somehow.  He is a solid, dependable sort of chap.  He is also the Earl of Auchentay (a Scottish area I invented several books ago, which has come in very handy)

 

And yes, I have the same slow process when it comes to naming my heroines.  I think it is because it is so important that they get a name that really, really conjures up an aspect of their character - something that will help them to come to life on the page.  I can't just pluck any old name out of a baby book, or something similar.  The name has to have a resonance.  Tom was a good name for my military hero - there's nothing stuffy about a Tom, is there?  And you can imagine a Tom being brave on the battlefield, insubordinate to his officers, and lethal with the ladies.  And once we started calling him Tom Cat, well...  

If you'd like to read more about Lord Rakey Rakerson, well, this is the book he became the hero of. (available at Amazon UK and Amazon.com  )

You'll have to wait until next Christmas to read about Captain Lord Scotsman! 

And if you should want to know about any of Annie's other books, there's more information on her website

My Writing Process by Annie Burrows

On the first Friday of the month, Novelista Annie Burrows blogs about her writing life.  This month, she is taking part in the "Writing Process" blog hop, after being tagged by fellow Novelista Valerie-Anne Baglietto

 

What am I working on?

I'm collaborating with two other Harlequin writers (Sarah Mallory and Louise Allen) in a trilogy which we're bringing out in 2015 to commemorate the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo. So far we're calling it "The Battlefield Brides", but that is just a working title.  It's great fun working on a continuity, like this.  I have two other ladies immersed in my characters' adventures, and we're constantly chatting to each other, via emails, as our work progresses.  We might be checking background research, making sure our timelines match up perfectly, or simply swapping pictures of the actors we'd like to play our heroes.

(Photo:  Major Adam Flint, Hero of Louise Allen's book, brooding...)

How do my stories differ from others of their genre?

Every writer, in fact every person on this planet has a unique personality.  No two of us are alike.  If three people were to write down a description of the same event, each of them would be radically different - because each person looks at the world through a unique perspective.  So my books reflect my take on life, which tends to mean that they keep on leaning towards the more light-hearted end of the Regency spectrum.  If I have a highwayman holding up a coach, for example, it is as likely to turn into a comic scene as a moment of high drama.

(Photo: Major Bartlett, plotting the seduction of my heroine)

Why do I write?

I'm very tempted to quote Valerie-Anne Baglietto's answer here (from previous blog post)  In a nutshell, I can't help it!  Like Val, if I don't write, I get twitchy.  Like Val, I've always had a cast of characters flitting like butterflies through my brain.  When I was very young, I used to think of these people as my "invisible friends".  And nowadays I still feel as if I spend my time writing down the adventures of my invisible friends.

How does my writing process work?

If only I knew!  Well, ok, then.  Basically, I have a set of characters, or a scene, drifting around my mind which I feel a need to write down.  Because I make my living from writing, I then have a jolly good think about whether I could make that scene, or those characters, grow into a fully fledged story.  (I have dozens of notebooks full of snippets which may or may not get used.)  If I think a story will "work", or if the characters just won't leave me alone, I jot down an outline and send it to my editor at Mills & Boon to see if she likes it.  Mostly, by the time I've got to this stage with a fledgling story, I know that it could become a book that others would enjoy reading.

When I get the go-ahead for any story, I launch into it with great enthusiasm, flinging all my ideas down as I go. And then I print out what I've written, so that I can look at it the way a reader would look at it.  And start sorting out the language, making it into the kind of thing someone would (hopefully) get a great deal of entertainment from reading.  This is always the most difficult bit for me - bringing my characters and their predicaments to life on the page.  Imagining their adventures is easy - bringing them to life requires weeks of slog. 

Annie's latest book, "Portrait of a Scandal" is available for purchase from Amazon UK