Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Writing Advice for "intrigue" genre

http://www.intrigueauthors.com/newsletters/Newsletter0907.html#question
Question of the Month: If you could give one piece of writing advice to an aspiring Intrigue author, what would it be? And how did you apply that nugget of wisdom to your current/upcoming Intrigue?
B.J. Daniels: Okay, advice. Everyone has heard this one and is going to moan, but the reason we keep hearing it, is because it's the best advice anyone can give: Write the book of your heart. The book only you can write. YOUR book. That doesn't mean you kick out all the rules or guidelines. It means you find your voice, your style, your story. You make it unique. That is definitely what I strive for every time I write. My October book Shadow Lake (mystery/suspense) isn't an Intrigue. It's a longer book with lots of twists and turns, lots of mystery. An isolated, high mountain lake town in the spring before tourist season starts. Something in the lake. A heroine in trouble, not knowing who to trust. I wrote the kind of book I like to read. And that is the best advice I can give. Write what you love because you can bet there will be someone else out there who will love it as well.
Rita Herron: In my upcoming Intrigue, Up In Flames, I turn up the heat by adding a slight paranormal element while continuing my Nighthawk Island series and the mysteries evolving around the mysterious research park.. While the detective in the book investigates several suspicious arson cases, he's drawn to a woman who claims a firestarter is responsible.
Mallory Kane: I have one piece of advice I always give to any writer, and I think it definitely applies to Intrigue. Never give up. Never, ever ever! I learned that from my father, who was a basketball player and coach. He's 87 now, and I see almost every day how much he has influenced others' lives with his wisdom and his caring. He says that the most import attribute an athlete must have is Desire. Everything else can be there--talent, support, intelligence, ability, but without the Desire, all the rest doesn't amount to a hill of beans. I never gave up. I knew I could write. I didn't know if I could keep going. But I did, and just like my daddy told me, it paid off. So all you writers out there who haven't sold yet--decide if you can do it. Decide if "never give up" will work for you. And good luck!
Susan Kearney: Read the guideline posted for the Harlequin Intrigue line. You can find them online or in RWR, the monthly magazine you get after becoming a member of Romance Writers of America. Although I no longer write for Intrigue, I still use many of those same guidelines in my romantic suspense. For example Kiss Me Deadly, my single title release from Tor, has two conventional Intrigue hooks, Secret Baby and Protector. So even if you never sell to Harlequin Intrigue, learning those hooks can help you sell romantic suspense elsewhere. Good luck.
Sylvie Kurtz: Persistence. Keep trying, keep writing, even when it seems the tide is against you. Just like good Intrigue heroes and heroines do. They don't give up with the first obstacle. They keep going even when things seem impossible and eventually emerge winners. Moving through shoulder pain to get Honor of a Hunter, The Seekers Book 6 (Nov 07) written was an exercise in mind over body. Physical therapy helped, just like having a writing support person is helpful to get through the tough times. Best of luck!
Dana Marton: Start with immediate suspense. You can explain things later. Instead of setup and introductions, send some bullets flying and have the hero and heroine running for their lives. Make the reader hold her breath. Intimate Details, (Sep. 07), starts with the heroine hiding above the ceiling tiles of a beach bungalow, spying on the enemy. She is in a tight place and in complete darkness. Then she realizes that she's not alone.
Julie Miller: Twisty mysteries. Larger than life heroes. Delectable villains. Danger. Action. I've picked up lots of wonderful advice from other Intrigue authors and editors over the years as to what makes a great Intrigue. But I suppose the one thing I think sets an Intrigue off from other romantic suspense lines is the pacing. The best Intrigues, iIMHO, move along like a roller coaster ride with lots of twists and turns. Sure, there are a few spots in the story where the reader can catch his/her breath and almost relax, but then the action and intensity of emotion/danger/action ratchets up again. Hold on tight! My September Intrigue, Nine-Month Protector, really moves along like a roller coaster ride. Sarah Cartwright witnesses a mob hit, and as the daughter of one cop and sister to another, she's willing to testify--a brave deed which puts her right in the sights of the hit man and the mob. Her brother's partner, Cooper Bellamy, steps up to protect her--and her unborn baby which he wishes was his. This one is action-packed as Coop and Sarah go on the run--you almost have to set down the book to catch your breath. That's an Intrigue.
Ann Voss Peterson: My advice would be to always remember Harlequin Intrigue's slogan, "Breathtaking Romantic Suspense." There is nothing leisurely about an Intrigue story. Think intense. Think urgent. Put your characters in a situation where they don't have time to sleep, eat, ponder. Give them an urgent, life-or-death goal. Make the danger they face grow worse with each scene. And whenever they find a quiet moment when they are safe from external danger, force them to face the emotional danger of falling in love. My upcoming Intrigue, Wyoming Manhunt (March, 2008), is the lead book in a Thriller promotion for Intrigue. It is the story of a woman who goes on her company hunting trip hoping to land a promotion...until the boss starts hunting her. The book starts with a bullet screaming past her ear and gets more intense from there. Believe me, the hero and heroine in Wyoming Manhunt don't get a chance to relax, and the challenges they face are definitely breathtaking.
Patricia Rosemoor: Build a believable world. Do your research. Extrapolate from fact. The reader should be invested in your story, not popped out of it by something that seems unbelievable. My upcoming December Intrigue, Wolf Moon, part of The McKenna Legacy series, is a paranormal involving both wolves and werewolves, so it was extremely important that I knew a lot about wolves. My heroine, Aileen McKenna comes to a small Wisconsin town to work on her thesis about wolves and learns that three men have been killed in the last months and many are saying they've been wolf kills, which she knows isn't right. In addition to reading books on the subject and much nitty-gritty information found over the internet, I participated in a weekend wolf ecology workshop in the area of Wisconsin where I set my book. There I gleaned information from wolf biologists that I didn't get from my reading. I feel that their sharing personal experiences gave my story an authenticity I couldn't have otherwise generated.
Dani Sinclair: Understand your market. This is crucial when you’re writing anything. In most category romances, including Intrigue, a solid marketing hook with a fresh twist will sell. Don’t understand hooks? Read the back cover copy of all the Intrigues on the shelf. You’ll quickly see that certain themes are repeated over and over. These are hooks that our readers have come to expect. Amnesia stories, hidden identities, runaway brides, sheriffs or cowboys are all selling tools that draw particular readers to our books. The pair of stories I am working on right now combine the ever popular bride and groom with a bodyguard story that is different than you might expect-- Bodyguard to the Bride and The Missing Millionaire. coming soon.
Rebecca York: My best advice to an aspiring Intrigue writer would be to read tons of Intrigues to see what the editors are looking for. Then write a book that's better than the current offerings! When I started at Intrigue in the early 90's, I was already established as a writer of romantic suspense, so I didn't follow the above advice. My agent "sold" Rebecca York to Intrigue, and I turned in my first book. That's when I got the first of many long revision letters from the then editor-in-chief, Debra Matteucci. For the first few years I was at Intrigue, I regularly got five or seven or eleven page detailed letters from her on how to improve my stories!!! These were never oriented toward the suspense plots of the book. They were always about the romantic relationship. Doing the revisions in a very short time frame was never fun, but it taught me the fine points of writing romantic suspense. You can either call that "learning the hard way." Or "earn while you learn."

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