Writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon

LilacPixie

Anglea wrote: »

Hi Lilac pixie welcome to the group

jei jei - thanks you very much for that essential information.

5. Is the point of view consistent? Are changes smooth and logical?

8. Has the writer begun at an interesting place in the story?

Even if there is an exciting beginning, I often give up reading books that introduce a backstory right in the middle of a cliffhanger scene. Especially if they go on for too long or are boring. I completely lose momentum and end up skipping through them to get back to the good parts.

that drives me nuts, its ok if it is just a brief almost daydream back to when they first met, you know the clich! ' then she remembers where she had seen those piercing steel Grey eyes before,' but other books you end up with pages of the past and other characters and it drives me loopy.

Been working reasonably hard today, put kids to school and nursery and sat for roughly a morning writing little scenes. Nothing with any structure or even characters, just altercations or meetings of people. I am attempting to find something i can move forward (or back) with. Nothing that sets my world on fire though

Anglea

What genre do you think you might end up writing LP?

historical, crime, medical etc?

My mind has been whirling overtime after quickly skimming the pdf notes. Brilliant info to read when I get more time (washing up to do now). Sassers you're a star.

Jei-jei

Well I received the standard email acknowledgement from HMB today, which was reassuring since I was thinking of sending a hard copy to be sure.

Considering the amount of manuscripts they go through I didn't expect to hear anything at all until they actually said yea or nay.

Trying not to think about the outcome but being my own worst critic I'm really feeling pessimistic. Must try to concentrate on positive vibes only. :beer:


Dear..........
REF: xxxx



Thank you for sending in xxxxxx for our consideration.

Your submission has been sent through to the editor.

Please be aware we do our best to respond within 24 weeks.

Please keep a note of the above reference number, should there be a query.

Best regards,

Editorial

freeoffers

LilacPixie wrote: »

I am unsure if i should set myself a target for submission or a target for words per day or just go with the flow.

What does everyone find best? I would hate to be churning out tripe so i could hit my 500 words a day aim or submission by christmas or something.

Whatever works for you. However, I'm at the stage where if I don't do a little writing everyday it just doesn't feel right. I usually write a scene or a chapter, often about 1,000-2,000 words. Some writers prefer to sit down for 2 hours and then call it a day.

As for churning out tripe, I read that everyone has plenty in them but we also have plenty of good stuff too. An old writing teacher of mine (a published author of a few books) said that he was embarrassed to look over his earlier work. That gave me hope!

freeoffers

Jei-jei wrote: »

So true. I went to the library to check out some classic MB writers and was pleasantly surprised to see they were still writing. I picked up a couple of their books and I can't believe how turgid the plots and dialogue are - particularly for the series category they were in.

Yet another author I borrowed in the Historical series who has been going just as long, delivered in freshness, dialogue, sensuality, intrigue, development of the characters, etc.

Obviously there's some subjectivity in my opinion; I guess that's why there are so many categories - to cover the wide range of readers out there. But it seems kind of unfair for some to be sailing by on reputation when their contemporaries are still able to deliver.

There's no accounting for taste Jei-jei. What also gets to me are so-called 'celebrity authors'. It's nice to know that authors like Kazuo Ishiguro can still sell books though.

freeoffers

Jei-jei wrote: »

Well I received the standard email acknowledgement from HMB today, which was reassuring since I was thinking of sending a hard copy to be sure.

Considering the amount of manuscripts they go through I didn't expect to hear anything at all until they actually said yea or nay.

Trying not to think about the outcome but being my own worst critic I'm really feeling pessimistic. Must try to concentrate on positive vibes only. :beer:

24 Weeks!!

By the way, you've done the hardest part, you've been brave and put yourself out there. Sometimes you just have to take action.

Jei-jei

Thanks free offers, I do feel like I've achieved something. Even though it was scary as hell doing it.

I took out about another 8 MBs from the library, one of which turned out to be by an author who'd won a contest so it was her very first title. Nice.

I'm now going over some research to cut down on my love scenes - possibly too many and too hot . So I went looking up some terms for the ahem - male member (since this is an open access forum...) and came across a old purple prose competition for All About Romance. (Sorry, as a newbie I'm not allowed put up the link... )

I think this had to be my favourite opening line:

"As he laved the mounds of her delicate chest, Chastity's nipples twisted themselves into erotic peaks, resembling Chinese pastry.

She trembled as Steel's turgid staff prodded the folds of her womanly shrine like a happy chopstick."


And here we have an extract from the winner:


"Randy advanced another menacing step and Bliss threw her hands up to stop him, accidently pushing instead on the marble-hard bulge in his breeches. He groaned aloud as he felt himself swell to a state of turgid tumescence he had never experienced before in all his many years as a libertine and profligate debaucher. But before he could question his response, the buttons on the overstretched seams began to pop one by one, firing into the shadows like small bullets of desire, each 'ping' causing Bliss's pulse to race a beat faster."



Wonderful!! :rotfl:

Anglea

That first one was beyond belief.

As for the second, cold shower needed

Today I was looking at some MB's in the library, checking out the opening chapters. Strangely enough one book by Liz Fielding (of the PDF fame) was distinctively confusing at the start, I couldn't understand it at all.

SlopingBird

Sassers, thank you so much for the New Voices handout - Liz's advice is sound and will be a huge help when I get going. I vowed in bed last night not to sweat too much on the first few paragraphs but just to write some hero/heroine dialogue and backfill.
Jei-Jei, these extracts are hilarious. Not too sure about the second one either - though who am I, an unpublished would-be author, to mock another's price-winning prose? OH says he can't imagine any tumescence would be turgid enough to send buttons firing across the room - though, of course, he's not a M&B hero (just my hero)!

I obviously need to up the action in my manuscipt!!!

Jei-jei

SlopingBird wrote: »

Sassers, thank you so much for the New Voices handout - Liz's advice is sound and will be a huge help when I get going. I vowed in bed last night not to sweat too much on the first few paragraphs but just to write some hero/heroine dialogue and backfill.
Jei-Jei, these extracts are hilarious. Not too sure about the second one either - though who am I, an unpublished would-be author, to mock another's price-winning prose? OH says he can't imagine any tumescence would be turgid enough to send buttons firing across the room - though, of course, he's not a M&B hero (just my hero)!

I obviously need to up the action in my manuscipt!!!

Good god, no people, no!! :rotfl:

This was the result of a purple prose competition ie how not to write a romance - using overdone and overblown language.:D

We'd be going on the permanent slush pile for sure writing like this.:eek:

On finding interesting names to call the man's willy (Christ I sound like a schoolkid!) so far we have: pillar of manhood; rod of love; happy chopstick (see above); velvety blade; manhood; shaft; engorged member (an MP on expenses?); burgeoning muscle.

I'm thinking I also saw hot rod but might have been on a website for cars by then... Just gonna go with the medical standard and will put the work into re-drafting a more sensually heated love scene. There's always room for improvement.