What I think I've learnt: Part 2 - plus, an exciting announcement!

I'll leave the exciting bit until the bottom of this post, and start with the second thing I think I've learnt thanks to Secrets & Speed Dating:

• Use what I've already got

I'll be honest and admit I didn't figure this one out myself. My lovely friend Nikki Logan introduced me to this concept when I got really stuck about three quarters into the manuscript (the "right" version, for those who read Part One). My hero and heroine had just made love for the first time, and I'd written this lovely "morning after" scene. But... now what? I knew what my black moment was, but it was far too early for that. I knew I needed to show both my hero and heroine's reactions to this first night together and how nothing could ever be the same again... but the scene I was writing just felt boring.

I'd made the mistake in a previous version of the book of adding in a random plot twist ("ooh, let's have my heroine's mum turn up!"), so I knew that didn't work. But I needed *something* to happen. Something that wasn't contrived but that would keep the tension rolling along nicely.

And so Nikki said, "Didn't Sophie say in the previous chapter something something, why don't you use that?" (I'll let you read the book to find out what it was). This was a massive lightbulb for me. I'd had no idea I'd already set up the absolutely perfect scene (yay for my subconscious!) but I never would have noticed without Nikki's prompting. 

But of course, it makes perfect sense. By looking back what you are really doing is revisiting your characters - and their conflicts and motivations. By making sure you use something you've already got, you're ensuring it's the characters that are driving the story forward.

While I was fortunate to have a throw away line of dialogue to set up my next scene, I'd imagine that this probably isn't always the case. But I think the lesson still stands. Next time I get stuck, in a "what happens next?" moment, I'm going to go back and review what's come before. What have my character's already done? What have they talked about? What has happened? What would they do next?

So what do you think? Am I onto something here? (with apologies to Nikki who I have stolen this from - and quite possibly butchered in my expansion and explanation :) ).

And... now for the big news!

In about two hours, I become a LoveCat!!! I feel incredibly fortunate to have been invited to join the LoveCats - a group of Australian and New Zealand Harlequin Mills & Boon authors who have the fabulous LoveCats Down Under blog!

My official welcome post will appear very soon, where I get to answer some fun questions, and visitors get the chance to win an awesome book bundle prize!

Please come along and say hello - I'll be popping in as much as I can tomorrow.

What I think I've learnt: Part 1

Way to sound super confident, hey? But the title of this blog post is true, at this stage all I have is a list of things I *think* I've learnt through the process of rewriting, and rewriting, Secrets & Speed Dating. I think I need a few (lot!) more books under my belt before I'm vaguely confident I've learnt anything at all :)

But, as some of you seem to be interested in this (*waves at Autumn!*) this is the first in a series of blog posts that I'll write over the next few months, covering "the list" (which I emailed to myself a few days after my book was accepted while it was still fresh in my mind). I won't pretend that anything I'm about to share is particularly ground breaking, but for me, it was a combination of all these things (and sheer bloody mindedness) that got me over the line.

So...Part One:


a) Trust my instincts. If it doesn't feel right, it's not. 


b) This isn't the same as it being hard to write.


See, I said it wasn't ground breaking :) But here's the thing, even though I've always known this, I somehow managed to win New Voices even though I didn't think my Chapter Two was "right". It was quite literally the best I was possibly capable of at that moment in time (it went through MANY rewrites!) but deep down, I wasn't happy with it. Yet I got through to the Final 4, and then I won. 


So, my subconscious went...AWESOME! and started to let other writing through that also wasn't quite right.


This other writing is otherwise known as "Version One" of Secrets & Speed Dating, that made it to about 19,000 words before having to be scrapped.


Version Two was much better, it got rid of some of the "not right" stuff from Version One, but I still knew that something wasn't right. Like I'd make excuses for it while describing the story to my family and friends. It wasn't a bad story, it just wasn't the right story for me to be writing. But I was so obsessed with meeting my deadline, and there was quite literally no time for me to go with anything else. So I soldiered on.


When Version Two got dumped, I dumped it properly. ALL of the "not right" stuff went. Any line of dialogue, or piece of back story, or ANYTHING that I didn't like... even if it had been in the winning chapters, went. Even if I knew, logically, that there was NOTHING wrong with what I was deleting... if I knew it wasn't right - for me - I trusted myself.


And that's how I wrote all of Version Three. And yes, some parts were really really hard to write, and I stared at a white screen and flashing cursor and whinged, and cursed, and typed, and deleted... but I never let myself get past a page of "not right" without stopping, going back, and starting again.


I know there is a lot of advice out there about writing a discovery draft, or "you can't fix a blank page" and so on. And this is all perfectly valid, and I'm sure works for millions of people. But for me, it doesn't.


What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

My Call Story

I just have to mention again how amazing the past few days have been :) The congratulations I have received from members of the romance community - both blogland and through Romance Writers of Australia have just blown me away. Romance writers really are the best!

So, I guess I'd better tell you what happened after the end of New Voices way back in November?

Well - it turned out winning the competition was the easy bit.

My original deadline for my book was Christmas. So off I went, typing madly away, and sending chunks of my book off to my editor for feedback. All was going well... right?

By the end of November, and 19K into the book, my editor called - there were issues with my story. So I
threw out at least half of what I'd written, and tried again.

This time I got stopped at 27K words. This was about ten days before Christmas, and the email and subsequent phone call telling me all that wasn't working...well, they were just awful. Of course my editor was right (If I was honest, I knew it wasn't working), but I was very low and felt like a complete failure.

Surely by now Mills & Boon regretted choosing me as their winner?

With my editor's encouragement, I took a break over Christmas, and didn't start writing again until 2nd January. Amazingly, my editor still seemed to have faith in me!

This time I threw out everything - leaving less that 3000 words from the original book. If you read my competition entries, both the pivotal moment and 90% of chapter two is gone. My hero has totally changed. The book is SO much better for it.

I was determined to write my way this time, and while still taking on everything I learnt from my mentors during New Voices (and my editor subsequently), to trust my instincts.

The feedback on my first few chapters was very positive, as was the feedback on the first half of the book a few weeks later. We decided on a new deadline - 10th Feb.

I wrote like a mad thing, with my support team (including Nikki and Rach) getting me through. But I did
it - I subbed the book on time. A whole book in five weeks - this was amazing for slow typing, procrastinator me!

I got my revisions back quick smart (via phone call), which I managed to turn around in four days, and then had some final tiny sentence level tweaks to make. 

Then, on Friday, I got "the email". My book is to be published, and they want my next one too :)

So while I didn't get "the call", I'll claim my revision stage call as my call :) 

My editor called me yesterday with more details about release dates and so on - my book will come out as part of a New Voices anthology in the UK in October this year, and then as a Harlequin Romance in the US and M&B Sweet in Australia in 2012. My next book is due later this year!

It was hard - much harder than I anticipated when I won New Voices - but absolutely worth it.

And no... it hasn't sunk in yet :)

It's official!!

I found out today that my New Voices book is definitely going to be published. Yes - Leah Ashton, published author. OMG.

PLUS - Mills & Boon want to publish my next book. To say that I am excited would be a complete understatement :)

I don't have many details yet, but I will be published (there's that word again!) with Riva in the UK, and Sweet/Romance in Australia/US.

I'll share more of my journey since winning New Voices in the next few days, but for now, I will take another sip of my pink champagne, another hug from my super proud fiance, and enjoy this moment :)

I'm at Romance University today!

I sincerely apologise (grovel, grovel) for my extended absence from blogland. Sadly... it will continue for a few more weeks until this book is finished.

If you'd like to know what I've been up to, please visit Romance University where the lovely Carrie Spencer (and New Voices Top Four!) has interviewed me and Heidi Hormel (another member of the Top Four!):

Mills & Boon New Voices - What's Next?

Please come and say hello, I'll be popping in to answer any questions in the comments.

Otherwise - I'll see you all in a few weeks :)

Interesting writing contest news...

And not about New Voices :)

Prior to the announcement of the New Voices Top 10, I entered Secrets & Speed Dating in the Romance Writers of Australia "High 5" competition. In this contest, you enter your first 5 pages of a novel aimed at one of the Mills & Boon category lines.

This week, I found out that my wonderful friend, Rachael Johns and the lovely Jackie Ashenden both finalled in the High 5! Awesome! Big congratulations ladies! This is a fantastic achievement as there were more than 70 entries.

But, as you may have guessed, I didn't final. I wasn't even close! 25th, to be exact :)

One of my judges adored my story (scored 100%) while the other two hated it. One even suggested it may be better suited to another publisher :)

So, this has confirmed something for me that I kind of already knew. And that is:

• Everyone who finals in a writing contest thoroughly deserves it. Their writing must be of a very high standard and really draw in readers in order to shine amongst so many entries.
• But - not finalling does not mean your entry is not also fantastic. Judging is such a subjective thing. Some judges mark harder than others. Some judges will think your heroine is neurotic and unlikeable :) :)

It is always a little kick in the guts when you don't do as well as you'd like in a writing contest. But just because you don't final in one contest, doesn't mean you won't do well in another. If you don't believe me, please refer to Secrets & Speed Dating :)

Anyway - I must get back to writing madly - my deadline is fast approaching!

Winner - Mills & Boon New Voices 2010

Even writing this blog post title is surreal. How did this happen again?

I won't write much now... still too tired, too shocked, too euphoric and too terrified (ohmygod what if the rest of the book is rubbish and they decide not to publish it!) to even attempt it.

But I did want to say a huge big massive THANK YOU to everyone who entered the competition. There were so many talented writers who entered - Heidi, Lindsay and Carrie from the top 4 included, but also all the lovely ladies who read this blog - and without you there would have been no New Voices.

Thank you also to everyone who took the time to read my entry, to comment and to vote. You have quite literally made my dream come true. Thank you.