When I started writing seriously again, I never claimed to be writing romance.  I said I was writing relationship stories and when I started reading chick lit, the genre completely clicked with me.  In chick lit, there were heroines I could relate to, going through real-life issues, and trying to find their place in the world. Not necessarily trying to land a man, though that could be part of it, but going through a journey of self-discovery through career, friends etc.

My writing voice has a very distinctive chick lit edge. My heroines have flaws, are not always self-assured but often have a wicked sense of humour. For many stories, the main character discovered who she was through creativity – whether it was photography, art, music.  The creativity was a major part of her journey to self-awareness.  But at the same time, she would always end up with a guy at the end. It wasn’t always clear whether the guy would be Mr Right – perhaps he was just ‘Mr Right-for-Now’ and the ‘happily ever after’ was a ‘happy for now’ ending.

A few years ago, I joined Romance Writers of Australia – I don’t write conventional romance, but  it is the closest genre to what I do write, and I’ve found a wonderful community of writers in RWAus.

But I’m facing up to the fact that I am never going to write conventional romance – the one man/one woman stories which are almost solely about striving for a romantic relationship. I could never write category romance – the focus is too narrow – when I love lots of characters, parallel or contrasting sub-plots, and the general interference of reality. I shudder at the thought of  secret babies and so far not one of my characters has unintentionally fallen pregnant.  But I must admit, I do love the ‘pretend relationship’ trope, and have even used it in my real life, and like the contrast: ‘the secret relationship’ (and admit I’ve also done that in my real life.)

For a while I tried to convince myself that I was writing romance – after all, the girl always got the guy in the end. Even if I hadn’t intended to end it that way. But after entering romance competitions for several years, and polarising my judges on more than one occasion, I’ve decided that my writing is too far outside the ‘romance’ box for the conventional romance readers/judges to get it.

Reality Check was given a severe slap on the wrist by all three judges because the 29 y.o hero slept with the 19 y.o heroine on the first date.  And yet without  that as part of the set-up, what would it matter if they then sign a contract that forbids them from sleeping with each other?  And hello, first dates sometimes do end up in bed together on the first date in real life.

I’ve been told that polarising judges is a sign of a fresh voice, but while I’m buoyed by the comments from the higher-scoring judges, and find some value in the constructive feedback of the lower-scoring judges (and find it very bizarre that lower-scoring judges can give some fantastic comments and then mark you with a low score), I’m done with contests.  I don’t want to pay money out to have judges who don’t get my writing. As Jenny Crusie would say, ‘not my readers’.

Instead, I’m concentrating on making my writing the best it can be, telling the stories I want to tell (and not being boxed by a convention) and improving my writing craft.  I’ll be enrolling in online courses, applying what I learn to my works in progress and submitting to agents.

I’ll no longer be entering competitions that are defined by genre, and instead will step into the bigger competition – the real world of publishing. Wish me luck!

Where did the last decade go? It spun by faster than I could imagine – it seems like yesterday I was dancing on the banks of the Macleay River dressed as a Millenium bug, and the next morning the first sunrise of the millenium was glorious…I’ll bring you a photo tomorrow (need to scan it first!)

So it’s time to look at my 2009 goals and what I actually achieved. Perhaps I bit off much more than I could chew.

DAILY GOAL

Do something to further my writing every day (write, edit, critique, submit).

Achieved: Most days, though I know there were some where I just got sucked way into the internet or into the couch and did not contribute to my writing. But the first half of 2009, I was on track with this, and regular writing appointments with Deanna Carlyle went a long way to honouring this goal.

WEEKLY GOAL

Create a new collage poem a week.

Whoops. I created a few during my Writers Group retreat, but for the most part I didn’t do much collage. I made an attempt at creating some erotic collage and just did not have the right words – the Cleo and Cosmo mags let me down with titles that were more titillating than sensual.  And somehow, I just didn’t want to do a collage poem about blow jobs, which seems to be a fixation of these magazines.

Here’s a couple I did during the retreat:

Face it: collage is messy. You need time to get into that head space and into the mess. And time to clean it all up again. But as the stockpile of old magazines grows and grows, I realise I have to cut up the useful words to make some storage.  I did make a couple of attempts to make a black out poem as per Austin Kleon, but I found that I couldn’t see the trees for the forest.

So the anthology goal (in co-collageship with Jen Gordon) will be reset for 2010 and I will just have to get my head around the mess-making.

(And Jen has left us to do a design course in Sydney in 2010 – yay Jen!)

MONTHLY GOAL

One short story per month.

I completely forgot about this one (apologies to Karina). I guess that’s what happens when you leave your goals on your blog, and don’t print them out and stick them in your diary so that they’re in your face every day. (I will print out my 2010 goals!)

So there were no short stories this year.

YEARLY GOAL

WRITE EDIT SUBMIT  and beat writing 200, 078 words.

Well – I wrote, I edited and I submitted to contests.

Let me work out how much I wrote. I know it won’t be more than the figure above.

115, 193 words written in 2009. That does not count rewriting. I find that difficult to keep track of.

That’s okay. Because I wanted to focus on editing and submitting in 2009.

So my project goals for 2009 were:

1 Finish writing the first draft of Reality Check   – completed. Yay!


2. Complete edit of Making the Cut.  Submit until it finds a home.  - completed. Now with CP.


3. Complete edit of Diary of the Future. Submit until it finds a home.  - not touched.


4.  Complete edit of Beyond Happily Ever After. Submit until it finds a home. - halfway through.


5. Write 50ks in 30 days in June with my RWA pals. – wrote 37,168 words.


6. Write 50ks during Nanowrimo in November. – wrote 21,146 words

Beyond Happily Ever After went into 3 competitions: The Stiletto, The STALI and The Emerald.

Reality Check was entered into The STALI.
So what else happened in 2009?

The annual and warmly anticipated Nambucca Valley Writers Group retreat to Smokey Cape Lighthouse:

I even gave a workshop on Writing Sex Scenes.  Scary stuff!

I did Margie Lawson’s Writing Body Language online course.  Fabulous!

And I submitted Beyond Happily Ever After to the Hachette Qld Writer’s Centre Manuscript Development Program.


I didn’t attend the Romance Writers of Australia conference in Brisbane. Instead I joined my sisters in crime, Sandie Hudson and Rhian Cahill in running the Clayton’s Conference, and did we have a ball!  – with lots of competitions, chat sessions, Q&A’s and tutorials.  It was full on, and I was possibly more exhausted than if I’d attended the real life conference.  Have you even tried to MC an online an awards ceremony, repost prize winners from the real ceremony and update a blog simultaneously? Then you haven’t lived.

After spending the year as part of the web team for Romance Writers of Australia, I put my hand up to join the Executive Committee.  So I’m now the Social Media Manager which includes looking after our email loop, Twitter and be the blogmistress of the RWA blog, and look for more opportunities to expand RWA’s social media universe with my great team.

Plus I joined the We Love YA blog team set up by my fabulous critique partner, Kiki , Natalie Hatch, Amanda Ashby, Sara Hantz and Vanessa Barneveld. During the year we added Steph Bowe and Ellie Royce to our team.


And this is why I have been absent so much from this blog.  It all takes time. Plus I had to apply for the position I was working in on a temporary basis and got the promotion. But I promise tomorrow, I will make a new commitment to this blog.

And a rewrite of this writing mantra: Write Edit Submit

I’ve been thinking a bit more about my current Writer’s Mantra:

WRITE  EDIT SUBMIT

write edit submit

WRIT EDIT SUBMIT

Is it in your brain yet?  Say it a few more times.

Here are my latest thoughts:

Writers write
Editors edit
Submissives submit

Only an author does all three.

So you want to be an author?

WRITE EDIT SUBMIT

So an update on my mantra progress:

WRITE – 15,000 words to date on current WIP since beginning of June.

EDIT - with the assistance of the fabulous Writing Body Language & Dialogue Cues workshop with Margie Lawson, I’m whipping Beyond Happily Ever After into shape.

SUBMIT – Cinderella has been sent off to another ball to dance the night away.

I’m on track with my mantra.  How are you doing?