Month: January 2020

Romance—How Hot Can It Get?

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For our first Extra this year, we are going to delve into the murky world of romance writing…not that romance is murky…just the jargon that is used to keep the stories in their proper categories. If you are new to the speciality of romance, you’d best be aware of the way stories are ranked as far as heat or sexuality. The challenge here is consistency…amongst readers and publishers. What one thinks is too hot may be just right for someone else and vice versa. Disappointing a reader who is expecting more (or less) is frustrating, but until the industry can agree on set standards, we just have to try our best to fit into the scale as it exists.

Because there are variations at the publishing level, if a reader moves to a new author or imprint, what used to be just right for them may no longer fit their needs. It’s similar to finding just the right spice level at a restaurant…then trying a new one across town. What was good at your favourite may not be even close at the next, so every time you expand your horizons, you have to experiment to find the right level…either that or never try anything new.

Then there are personal preferences…just because someone recommends a book to you doesn’t mean it will be to your liking…though if it is a friend’s suggestion, they should know you well enough to anticipate your tastes. The lack of consistency is annoying, but there are a few clues to get you at least close to what may satisfy you.

Light Heat

One pepper rating out of fiveWholesome, sometimes called Mild or Closed Door, is rather mild. It would rate only one chili pepper on the heat scale or a PG rating in the movies. Think of a Hallmark movie…no explicit sex, though there may be scenes or situation that imply something is going on, but it never appears on the page. You know it happened, but you don’t read about it. Hand holding is fine, and a chaste kiss at the end is expected…hopefully one to rank in the five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This level of heat is appropriate for Amish and Inspirational romances as well as many Regency or Historical.

Also considered light heat is the category of Sweet or Medium. This one is worth two chili peppers or a PG13 in the theatre and has a bit of sizzle in it. Although we now know that the main characters have sex, there is still no description of the act. Any physical intimacy scenes are described from an emotional aspect…no body parts involved. A lot of kissing, a lot of touching…more than would be in a Wholesome romance. A bit of undressing may occur but nothing that would make you uncomfortable.

Heavier Heat

Three pepper rating out of fiveNow we get to the middle of the scale: Sensual Romance, also called Hot or Steamy. Here we have three peppers or an R…and maybe a Parental Advisory, too. The majority of romance writing falls in this rather broad group and includes love scenes that are an essential part of the story. Action packed sex moves the story along but is still not the main focus…that comes in later levels. You may find words included that don’t come up in daily conversation, but the attention will be on the emotional facets of love.

You won’t feel as though you’ve been left out…instead of closing the door, you’ll follow them right into the bedroom…and into the bed. There is no ‘fade to black’, instead you get to go along for the ride, and hang on…it may be a rough ride…but enjoyable.

Heaviest Heat

Near the top end of the heat scale is Sexy, aka Explicit or Carnal. This one is a scorcher! A four out of five peppers or NC-17 and definitely an Advisory. Graphic sex, impolite language, detailed portrayals of the sex act all drive the story along. Also included may be mild kinkiness such as sex toys and new ideas you hadn’t considered before. In addition to blunt language in the bedroom, there may be gratuitous profanity in the rest of the story. A wealth of sexual tension throughout and multiple love scenes are a feature of this type of story.

Usually the relationships still end in monogamy, and expectations are good for an HEA (Happily Ever After—yet another term specific to the Romance genre) at the end, but you’ll want to keep the paperback version out of the reach of children (anyone under the age of 18!). These stories are just one step short of the next level.

Five pepper rating out of fiveThe final level outdoes all the others: Erotic. This one gets all five peppers, earning an X at the movies and top shelf status at the store. Just to be clear, this is not Erotica, which stresses the sex over any plot…here there is still an emotional passage…just portrayed by the sexual encounters. Here the sex is part of the story and can’t be removed or it will break the narrative. In fact, the volatile attraction is paramount to the main characters’ relationship. Pushing boundaries, these stories contain multiple, explicit sex scenes that may include BDSM, anal sex, and multiple partners, but because this is still romance, you can hope for the expected HEA, though in the most radical instances it may not happen.

More Heat

Beyond romance, there are stories that seem to fall just past the end of this scale. They are full blown Erotica where the whole purpose of the story is the sex, no real plot or character development needed. The only limitations to these stories are often set in publisher’s guidelines where illegal or taboo subjects are specified.

In Conclusion

No matter what level of heat you desire in your reading…or in your writing…there is a market for it. Just be certain to properly identify what your readers can expect from you…or you risk bad reviews from miscommunicated expectations.

Quick and Easy Writing Software

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The first Tool we want to examine is some software that could come in handy in the writing process. As you are probably aware, there are a lot of products out there that claim to help make your writing perfect…or at least make it easier to write. We’ve used a few and have debated others with both writers and editors. Opinions vary, but it’s obvious that no one piece of software does everything a writer needs, so please read our comments and carefully consider your needs. Our intent in these postings is to make your decisions easier by giving general advice and suggestions, but we will be mentioning a few tools by name (in which case, we’ll link to their sites).

Software comes into play in all the phases of the writing process. Some help you get your words onto figurative paper, some will correct your grammar, some will analyse your writing for style issues, some will format your work for ebook or literal paper, and some even claim to guide you through the entire process. As our wont is to start small and work our way up, we’ll address these stages linearly—from beginning to end.

Getting Words on Paper, the Quick and Easy Way

One of the first steps in any writing project is actually writing it down, and there are a variety of programs that help with this. The most basic one is already built into your computer (assuming MS has got you under their control): NotePad. There is no formatting, no grammar or spell check, no dictionary or thesaurus, not even a word counter…nothing but a blank piece of paper in a typewriter. The advantage over a real typewriter is you can change things around, edit, copy-n-paste, and search, and it’s ready to go right out of the box (just verify that Word Wrap is on). If you want to mark a title or some place to come back to later, I’d suggest surrounding the text with “==…==” or “-=…=-”. Those are probably never going to appear as text in your novel, so they’ll be easily found in a search when you go back to clean things up.

Setting NotePad to full screen and hiding your taskbar, all you can see are your words (and a small menu bar that’s waay up at the top). If that’s all you need to keep focused on writing, then you’re ready to go. It’s a really good way to get started—but once you get past a certain point, and your project starts getting out of hand, it gets difficult to keep track of where you are. That may be the time to copy out the text and transfer it into a more powerful program, ready to move ahead to the next steps—but…when your next idea strikes, just pull out NotePad and get going.

Get Writing

You can play around with different programs…or you can write. Yes, finding the right one may help you write better and faster…but only after you’ve put forth the time to learn how it works. If you have a long-term goal in mind, that may be the way to go, but for those just starting out…or those who only want to write one book…then the effort isn’t worth it. There are plenty of editors and book doctors who will accept a .TXT file to clean up, so there may be no need to invest either time or money for something that won’t add much to the process.

The conclusion is that it may be worth it…but it may not. You are the one who will make that decision. We are only here to help by gathering information that may help. Our problem is that there is so much software out there, that we certainly won’t have time to investigate all of it, so if you have some familiarity with a particular program and want to share your experiences, please let us know. We’d be glad to expand our knowledge of what’s out there and may feature your comments in a future post.

The Three C’s of Writing

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The only reason you’re writing anything is because you want to share it…with family, with friends, with the whole world. It doesn’t really matter who your audience is—you have one in mind (maybe even just yourself for now). But…if you want your ideas to be understood by your audience, you need to follow the Three C’s of Writing—be Clear, Concise, and Compelling.

Clear

Word choice is important. Many words have the same (or similar) dictionary definitions…but are entirely different in use. That is because what they denote (from the Latin de– meaning “complete” and notare “to mark out”) and what they connote (from com- “together” and the same notare) aren’t the same. If you have access to a really good dictionary, you can find more than just the definition…you’ll get references to information beyond the literal meanings. So how is that important? Choosing the right word will affect the attitude of what you’re saying. Consider these examples:

  • Bob pointed across the café. “That girl over there is rather slender.”
  • Carl nodded. “I’d say she’s a bit thin.”
  • Dave shook his head. “Too skinny for me.”

All three underlined words have similar dictionary definitions but widely differing feelings. Consider that most of your message will be carried by the subtle implications behind the actual definitions, so think about which words you use.

Another problem with unclear writing is if you use a pronoun and it isn’t clear what the antecedent is. Before you say ‘he’ or ‘she’ make sure that you’ve identified that person earlier on…especially if there are multiple people in the scene. Also, if you’re going to refer to ‘this’ or ‘that’, you can usually identify the noun at the same time. Instead of just saying “I enjoy that”, try “I enjoy that book.” Instead of “I don’t prefer this”, try “I don’t prefer this ice cream.” It will keep your writing clearer.

Concise

Besides being clear, you also need to avoid using too many words. One way to do that is to keep in the Active Voice—passive typically takes more words. Another good way is to avoid expletive phrases, such as “There is”, “There are”, or “It is”. Most can be shortened to be more powerful:

  • There is a treasure buried here.
    • The treasure is buried here.
  • There are tall trees waving in the wind.
    • Tall trees waved in the wind.
  • It is the boss who makes the decisions.
    • The boss makes the decisions.
  • It was the bright sun that made such dark shadows.
    • The bright sun made dark shadows.

Watch out for empty filler words. Do a global search and consider the use of each. Most aren’t necessary, nor do they add much to the content:

  • actually
  • already
  • definitely
  • entirely
  • extremely
  • fairly
  • just
  • quite
  • really
  • totally
  • very

Converting verbs (or other parts of speech) into nouns is known as nominalization. Similar to passive voice, it can weaken your text as well as make it longer without making it better. Converting the nominalization to a solid verb can tighten your writing:

  • The detective conducted his investigation of the scene.
    • The detective investigated the scene.
  • He is writing daily now.
    • He writes daily now.
  • Good writers make choices regarding
    • Good writers choose words carefully.
  • We performed a demonstration of the new product.
    • We demonstrated the new product.
  • Regular reviews of online content should be scheduled.
    • Online content should be reviewed regularly.
  • The inspector gave an assessment of the problem.
    • The inspector assessed the problem.

The idea is to use as few words as necessary to get your ideas across…unless you are intentionally being repetitive for emphasis.

Compelling

Once you have your ideas Clearly phrased and Concisely expressed, you still have to be certain that they Compel the reader. If you know your audience, then you know what they like…so give it to them. Make your writing exciting…avoid boring facts, give them action, emotion, something to enjoy. Use good solid verbs and avoid Weasel Words. Have each of your chapters end on a high note…enticing your readers to continue reading instead of putting the book down…even for a moment. You hooked them at the beginning of the story, so make certain you keep them hooked by starting each chapter with a solid intro, describing the room, the people, and the action.

Don’t try to show off with fancy words (that you had to go look up). Just stick to what you already know…what your audience knows. If you have something new that has to be explained, don’t talk down to your reader…assume they are as smart as you are. When you are introducing some new concept, it helps to have a character in the story who doesn’t understand it either. That way your MC can explain it to them, and the reader just listens in. Better yet, show them the new item in use and let them figure it out for themselves.

Create a believable world…don’t introduce too many changes to what we all know and love now…unless you give convincing reasons for the difference. If your world is far from what we know as ‘normal’, try to not break too many laws of physics. If you really need to have some new-fangled technology, research it to see how it might really work. Draw them in with how it fits into the society you’ve created.

Bottom line

Keeping your writing Clear, Concise, and Compelling will help get your message across to your readers and keep them occupied all the way to the end…and that’s when they’ll set your book down, ponder a moment, then run off to tell all their friends about it—word of mouth is your best advert!

Quickie Marketing Ideas

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Most authors dread marketing…because they want to write, not stand on the corner waving signs. Fortunately, they don’t have to really do that, but the whole idea of marketing is new to them. Yes, there are folks out there who are natural marketers…they can sell ice to Eskimos and coal to Newcastle—they become Diamonds or Emeralds in certain Multi-Level Marketing schemes, but for the other 99.7% of us, marketing is generally incomprehensible. How do you get anyone to look at your book…much less actually buy it? Well, we can’t compel anyone to put out good money for your book, but we do have some thoughts on how to let them know it’s out there…and that’s the first step—they can’t buy it if they don’t know it exists.

Let the World Know

Almost everyone is involved in social networking. (Though, we know a few folks who’d rather eat sand than waste time doing that.) So, if you post pictures of your book…along with an extract or description…your friends may send it on to others. I’m certain they’ll be impressed that you’ve actually finished writing a book, so that’s a good place to start. (Don’t worry about preaching to the choir—that’s what you’re supposed to do…let the choir preach to the rest of the world!)

If you’ve considered the marketing aspect well before you wrote anything, you may already have a following…even a Mailing List! That would be wonderful, so now you can tell all of them in one quick email. Be certain to include a link to where your book exists (for example: Amazon for print, Smashwords for ebook).

Another way to avoid costs is to allow your ebook to be available exclusively via Amazon for 90 days. Then you can use KDP Select to do a variety of price promotions to get more visibility.

Not Free

If you’re ready to invest a little of your hard earned money, there are a few fairly inexpensive ways to get the word out there. Adverts on Facebook can be targeted to specific categories, helping your investment go where it will do the most good, but if you’re not careful, the costs can escalate out of control.

Another option is to find Book Reviewers and Promotional Services. They already have the connections, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but because you don’t control the release of info, you may not see that their effort has any direct effect for the cost. When you pay someone else to do the job, you lose some control, but it may be worth the trade-off.

So When Should You Start Marketing?

Right now is a good time to start your marketing efforts. You already have in mind who your Target Reader is, so just use that information to start a mailing list. If you are savvy enough to run your own distribution list, that’s good, but automating it can save you a lot of time and effort. Free accounts are available at MailChimp…until you have more than 2000 addresses, but by the time your list grows that much, your sales should cover the upgrade just fine.

Avoiding Clichés

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Welcome back to another year at Turner Editing. We’re going to continue posting helpful hints and suggestions to assist writers, but we’ve changed up the topics this year. We’ll keep the Terms category (as there are still a few folks confused about the jargon), but we’ll be replacing the Printing topic with a Marketing one (for those ready to take on the next aspect of writing). We’ve also swapped out Grammar for one covering the Writing process (for those who need the bigger picture). The last topic, Shortcuts, seems to have been exhausted, so we’re going to look at and review some Software that may make your writing easier.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.—Samuel Johnson, creator of A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755

Just as a clarification for those new to this site, let me explain about our naming and numbering scheme. You’ll notice that the posts have a topic and level indicated. This one is “Terms, 1 Introductory”. That means it is a first level discussion on some terminology. The other levels are “2 Basic”, “3 Advanced”, and “4 Excessive”. When you get done reading any post, if you’re still confused, let us know. We hope to be able to answer all your questions and be your source for writing information.

New Terms

This year, when we’re doing the Terms postings, we won’t be just listing or defining some new words—instead we’ll explain in more detail and show how to use (or correct) certain aspects of writing. We mentioned some of the expressions last year (in which case, we’ll link the two posts), but we’ll also add in a few fresh ones that have come up in questions and discussions with various clients and readers.

At the end of last year, we gave short definitions of a bunch of terms (Writing and Editing Terms #1, #2, and #3), specifically mentioning some issues to avoid. Well, now we’re going to expand on one of those items to avoid: Clichés, and their friends Metaphor and Simile. I’ve seen too many good stories that have been spoiled by some stale clichés, yet the fix is relatively easy…once you know what to look for, so we’ll start off with a definition, then dive right into the remedy.

What Exactly Are Clichés?

When someone puts together a phrase that succinctly expresses a thought, it gets repeated. The problem is that the best such phrases get repeated a LOT. Once one gets repeated too many times, and everyone knows it, it becomes a cliché. It once had the power to catch attention and fill in a gap in language, but now, due to over use, it is weak.

Writers write what they know, what they’ve read…unfortunately, what usually comes to mind are those trite little phrases. It’s so easy to just throw it in there…everyone knows what it means, but that’s just the problem…everyone knows. It’s no longer a bright spot in the literary world. It’s now a worn out, tired old, ready to be replaced expression…and maybe you are the one to replace it.

When you have something fascinating to say, see if you can find a fresh way to express it. Surprise us with the connections you make. Make us stop and smile at the wonderful way you take us along with you into the story.

What are Metaphors and Similes?

Very similar, both metaphors and similes relate things that aren’t usually connected—in a metaphor, you say that something is something else…in a simile, you just say that they are similar to each other.

  • Metaphors
    1. His eyes were blue ice.
    2. Her hair was a river of golden flax.
    3. His muscles were mountains on his arms.
    4. Her smile was a bow, made to launch cupid’s arrows.
  • Similes
    1. His eyes were as blue as ice.
    2. Her hair flowed like a river of golden flax.
    3. His muscles bulged like mountains on his arms.
    4. Her smile curved upwards, like a bow made to launch cupid’s arrows.
Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.—George Orwell

As you can see, you can use either one to say the same thing, so you get to pick which to use. The problem with both is that although once evocative upon creation, as soon as they start getting used and reused again and again, they both can become clichéd, so your task is to find new and interesting ways to connect things, and someday, we’ll be quoting you.