Dirty Birds Inspiration

Did you hear?

 

I was over at the Dirty Birdies this Sunday to talk about inspiration.

What a fun group! If you haven't had the opportunity to visit these girls, you need to. Regardless if you are a writer or a reader of erotica, you will find this to be informative and tempting at the same time.

 

 

What inspires you? If you read my post over there, you know that real life inspires me. The chocolate strawberry my husband hands me, the child skipping down the street, the couple arguing at the bistro over steaming cups of coffee.

 

Now it's your turn. Tell me where you find your inspiration!

So let's talk inspiration.

The Big “O”

From the time we’re old enough to read the magazine covers lining the checkout counters, we know the big “O” is important (not that we know what it means). But I wonder how many people actually buy the magazines for the advice.

Okay, I’ll admit I have, but they don’t tell you anything you can’t learn from a steamy romance novel. And if your husband times it wisely (i.e. you’re reading one when he’s in the mood), you’re already in the mood before you’re IN THE MOOD, if you get what I mean.

So my questions are:

Do you buy magazines that promise to tell you the 75 Sex Moves Men Crave (don’t laugh, it was an interesting article), do you buy books on the subject, or do you learn your fancy moves from novels (or none of the above)?

And if you write steamy love scenes, where do you get your inspiration (knowledge) from?

Blogger & I had a Fight.

There's one thing you should all know about me.

I don't play fair.

I had the 'bestest' post for today. I wrote up my post early and have looked forward to your reactions today to it. How to write a shower scene from the POV of the woman and the man. There was nothing obscene or vile. Just funny.

But it wouldn't show up. Even my delicious chocolate refused to show.

So I took away the chocolate. None for blogger. All for me.

What If I Don't Like Her?

We spend a lot of time, in love stories, focusing on the hero. Is he cute enough? Strong enough? Sensitive enough? Funny enough? Charming enough? Etc., etc., etc.

It makes sense, because most of us -- whether single or married, content or yearning for something more -- want to put ourselves in the shoes of the lead female character, and live vicariously through her.

But what about the heroine herself? Don't we have to like her too?

Unfortunately, there have been quite a few books that I started . . . and eventually stopped reading because the heroine got on my Last. Damn. Nerve.

The hardest part of writing a story geared toward a female audience, can be writing a female character that the majority of readers WANT to spend more time with. For me, I have to either want to be her -- or at least be her friend -- for me to stick with the gal through thick & thin.

She has to be humble, without being weak.

Elizabeth Bennett -- Pride & Prejudice

 She has to be able to take care of herself, and still retain her femininity.

Guinevere -- King Arthur

And she has to be just as willing to rescue the hero as she is to let him rescue her.

Elizabeth Swann -- Pirates of the Caribbean

(Apparently, I have a bit of Keira Knightly fetish)

Bottom line -- It's not an easy job being the heroine. Not only does she have to make the hero fall in love with her . . . she has to make us (the reader) love her too.

What about you? Anything that a heroine has to do/be in order to keep you reading?  Anything that completely turns you off and causes you to close the book, never to return?

Real Life or Romance?

I used to believe in Fairy Tales. You know - the HEA types. My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn was my heroine of choice. My mom used to warn me that life wasn't like the fairy tales I loved but I never believed her.

Not after my heart was broken from too many boys with winning smiles and dangerous glints in their eyes. Not after my best friend married at age 18 and then divorced a year later. Not even after I experienced rape first hand.

Nothing would shake my belief that HEA is real.

When I met my husband, he proved it to me. My white knight who drove a hard core Mustang. It was love at first sight.

My Fairy Tale come true.

But we all know life gets in the way of love. And that's why we dive into the romance novels. Not for the hard core body action, not for the sighs of delights, the handsome Scots in their kilts, the Tall Dark & Handsome stranger who rescues the damsel in distress. Nope. We read it because of the ups and downs our heroines go through, the conflicts, the stupid choices made throughout the story.

Don't get me wrong. All that other stuff is CRUCIAL to enjoying the story! We need the naked bodies, the titillating heart throbs, the love at first sight. But deep down, I think we like to read a story when someone else's life is WORSE than ours. When the choices THEY make end up making our choices look 'not so bad after all'.

We lose ourselves in these stories because they take us away from our lives. They give us our fairytale when we feel like Cinderella before the ball.

That's my thought at least. What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Why do you read romance novels?

Better yet - why do you write them?

Soul Mates?

In romance, the ultimate ending is the heroine capturing the heart, and vice versa, of the hero—her soul mate. But does that elusive individual really exist? And how do you know if you’ve found him? It’s not like he has [Insert name here]’s Soul Mate tattooed on that sexy ass of his.

What if he exists but doesn’t live anywhere near you? Maybe he’s in another country or even another continent. Is there some divine intervention that will lead you to him? I mean, can you imagine if your soul mate is out there but you don’t know where he is? That would burn big time.

Now if fate would have it that you find your soul mate, what would happen if he dies before you? Does that mean you’ll never find love and happiness again? And if you do, and you all end up in heaven together, what happens now? You see where I’m going here? (I know the erotic romance writers’ minds are spinning with possibilities.)

And what about in paranormal novels? If one of the lovers is immortal and the other one is mortal, and they’re soul mates . . . well, what does that mean for the poor immortal individual? Man, that sure would suck if there was only one soul mate for him, wouldn’t it? Or maybe if you’re immortal, you get to have several soul mates scattered throughout the centuries.  And if not, well, you’d better come up with a way to turn your soul mate into an immortal too. I’m just saying, ya know.

Of course, there’s always the possibility of reincarnation. Great, if you’re a teenage immortal. Not so great if you’re much older. Now you’ve got an even longer wait ahead of you.

So what about you? Do you believe there is only one person out there for you? And do you believe you’ve found him (or her), or are you still searching?

(Okay, this post is what happens when Stina drinks too much caffeine.) ;)

Mastering the Flashback

There's something about a flashback that always draws a writer in. We love to use them. Sometimes too much. New writers will become dependant on them while seasoned writers will realize their value and use them wisely.

But how do you write a successful flashback? They're not easy. If we're not careful, the flashback can do more harm than good in a story. They offer more problems than solutions. Why? Because they are events that have already happened. They take the reader out of the story - if not written correctly.

So how does one master the flashback? There are ways to keeping your flashback from destorying your story. Keep the flashback as brief as possible. Make sure you don't slow the action, bog the pacing or lose our readers interest. If the flashback must be long (longer than a paragraph), then transition into and out of in ways that are clear to your readers. Use signifiers that will help the transition for your readers - like a phone call, someone at the door, being shuffled in a crowd, coping a feel at a party ... you get the idea.

Verb tenses are crucial in flashbacks. If your story is being told in the past tense, then write the first few verbs of the flashback in the past perfect and the rest in simple past. For example use words like she knew, if she had to remember, she had thought ect. 

It's important not to confuse your readers, so Nancy Kress suggest that to signal the start of the flashback,  puts its first five verbs in past perfect ("had done," "had dressed," "had bought," "had come," "hadn't even seen"). After that, tell the rest of the flashback in past tense ("eyes were," "they passed," etc.). The reason for this is that an entire flashback in past perfect would be cumbersome, especially if it's very long.

Here the most important piece to remember: when you're ready to end the flashback, revert to past perfect for the last few verbs. Then use past tense to resume story time.

Have you mastered flashbacks in your novel? Did they cause problems for you? Do you find it easier to master your flashback during the revisions? Do you even think about them?

P.S. if you are wondering why Richard Armitage is in this post - its cause I can't stop staring into his eyes ;)