Writing Help from Gracie O'Neil Author Paranormal Romantic Suspense

Kissing the Snowman: Writing Short Stories for Fun and Profit

1. Know what you want to say.

You only have time for one theme. Know what it is. In the final version of Mr Snowman’s Kiss* I wanted my heroine to realise that she was wasting her life waiting for a love that might never come and she needed to change her attitude. But it didn't start off like that. Mr Snowman’s Kiss actually began life as the response to a technical exercise - a writing prompt entitled 'Personify a Season.' I love winter, so I wrote about a mystical bringer of ice and snow and his effect on a twenty-first century woman.

Full of hope and visions of filthy lucre I sent it off to an English magazine whose fiction department was so enthralled that they sent me (sigh) a Dear Author. Being thick-skinned, I tinkered a bit and sent it off to a NZ magazine. They had obviously been talking to the English mag because I got a similar response. At this point, I lost what little thick skin I still possessed and did what all sane women do when faced with such a crisis - I snarled at my loved ones and grumped around till I was sick of myself. Then I stuffed Winter into the BGI file** and scoffed an entire bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

However, truth, justice and The Great NZ Pavlova always prevail. When the 2006 Romance Writers of New Zealand Autumn Short Story Competition came around I thought of Winter hibernating in the BGI file since 2001, dragged him out, removed his paranormal element, made him a nice normal hero, changed my theme, knocked off the minor characters, deleted extraneous descriptions and introduced the romance aspect.

Read the previous paragraph fast and it doesn’t sound like much!

2. Know who you want to say it to.

On sober reflection I think one of the reasons Mr Snowman’s Kiss didn't go anywhere in its first two incarnations was because I hadn't written it focussing on a specific market. With the third rewrite I had a better idea of the market I was aiming for: I knew what kind of fiction Woman’s Day published and I was writing for RWNZ. I rewrote and edited accordingly.

3. Choose the POV that best conveys what you want to say.

I love writing in first person and the first person POV is about the only thing that didn't change in the metamorphosis of Mr Snowman’s Kiss. However, that is only because first person was the most appropriate POV to convey both the original and the final themes while still giving a conversational 'over a latte' feel to the story. Third person wouldn’t have given the same effect. How do I know? I tried it. The whole tone changed. So don’t be afraid to experiment with POV. Try it different ways and choose the best.

4. Read it aloud.

Reading your work aloud enables you to pick up things those [censored] spelling and grammar checkers let through. If you stumble over a sentence structure when you're reading, change it. Reading aloud also catches cheesy dialogue (“Oh WOOpert! You’re so STWONG!”) and continuity glitches like finding a hero with three hands in the bedroom scene. Three hands on a normal red-blooded man in a bedroom scene may be a lot of fun for the heroine but, trust me, it only annoys an editor. And who wants to do that?

5. Edit like an editor.

Kill off every word that doesn't add something to your story theme. You might have written the best line since "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!" but if it doesn't relate to your theme or add to the tension between heroine and hero, get rid of it. DON'T delete it! Put it in the BGI file and use it somewhere else. It may be just what you need when the next competition comes around.

6. And finally ...

Don't wait until there is a competition before you sit down to write. Always have something on the boil or filed away or both. Nothing you write is ever wasted effort. It is simply the price you pay for being what you are … a writer.

* Mr Snowman's Kiss was the winner of the Romance Writers of New Zealand Autumn Short Story Competition in 2006 and was published in the Australian and New Zealand editions of Woman’s Day.

** BGI file - the place you put Bloody Good Ideas until you know what to do with them.

WORKSHOPS

Critiquing a Manuscript: Making it Sing

Presented at the 16th Romance Writers of New Zealand National Conference (August 2009)

Critiquing: Top Twenty Questions

Presented at the Waikato/Bay of Plenty/King Country Chapter of RWNZ (2009)

Characterization

Presented at the Waikato /Bay of Plenty/ King Country Chapter of RWNZ (2008)

Plotting

Presented at the Waikato /Bay of Plenty/ King Country Chapter of RWNZ (2008)

Websites for Writers

At the moment these eight to twelve week online tutorials are available only to members of Romance Writers of New Zealand. We hope to offer them to a wider audience in 2010.

Writing with a Global Voice

Presented at the 15th Romance Writers of New Zealand National Conference (August 2008)

Why do some manuscripts seem to hit the slush pile and sink, while others don’t even touch the editor’s desk before being snapped up? One key is in the book’s marketability through international appeal.

The aim of this workshop is to give practical ways to make your manuscript and query more enticing to the publishing industry by addressing the “internationalising” of voice, story elements, and theme. Illustrating from her own experience Gracie gives you the tools she has found to be helpful, and shows you how to use those tools so you can begin your own journey.

If you'd like Gracie to present a workshop to your group, please contact her through the About Page on this site.