Wednesday 5 January 2011

Kate Walker's 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance


Hands up everyone who made a new year resolution to finish that manuscript in 2011.

Keep that hand up if you’re writing a romance and you haven’t yet read Kate Walker’s 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance. 

For the last few years I’ve been a reader for the New Writers’ Scheme run by the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association.  This is a really wonderful opportunity for new writers to get constructive feedback on their manuscripts.  As a reader, it’s a privilege to get a glimpse of all the potential that’s out there.  I read lots of stories with distinctive voices, but the most common problem is the lack of a strong emotional conflict.  I try and write a really detailed report, but at the end nearly always find myself recommending Kate’s book as a follow up on my comments.

As many of you will already know, Kate Walker is a very experienced and popular writer, and in her 12 Point Guide she  offers a wonderfully clear guide to the nitty gritty of writing romance.   This is what you really need to know:  how to create emotion, conflict, dialogue, sensuality, characterisation, endings and so on, plus there’s a useful section on practicalities.   Especially helpful, I think, is the checklist of questions to ask yourself at the end of each chapter. 

So successful has the 12 Point Guide been that it’s now in its third edition.   If your hand is still up, and you’re serious about writing romance in 2011, I have a copy to give away! 

All you have to do is tell me below what your hero and heroine are called (or are going to be called if you haven’t written your story yet!)  I had thought I could just suggest you left a comment, but I’m nosy that way.  Once I’ve satisfied my curiosity about all those characters out there just waiting to get into print, I will apply my advanced technological selection process (otherwise known as eeny-meeny-miny-mo) and choose a winner.

So what are you waiting for?  Satisfy my curiosity and tell me your characters' names - and don’t forget to check back at the weekend to see if you're going to start the year on a winning note.  (I’ll need you to email me your address so that I can put the book in the  post to you next week). 

18 comments:

  1. I've been lucky enough to already get my hands on Kate's book but I couldn't resist commenting on the cover of Convenient Engagements. I just think it's so pretty and screams romance!

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  2. Hello and Happy New Year! I haven't read it would love too! My modern hero and heroine are called James Perry and Tabby Winters and my (unfinished) historical h&h are Loveday Trelawney and Lord Harland.

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  3. Would love to get my hands on that book :-)

    My currrent H/H are called Elise Donovan and Marco Giovanni, well she's Elise Giovanni now!

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  4. Mine are Olivia McInnes and Sheikh Khaled Ibn Saqat al Mayim.

    I had such trouble finding a name for Khaled - everything I thought of turned out to be the name of an Al-Quaeda terrorist! But once I'd worked out what I wanted it to mean, it was easier.

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  6. Duncan Drake and Lesley James. His friends call him Double D. While I wanted her to be ordinary. So she would seem too plain to attract a man like him.

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  7. Happy New Year!!

    Oooh what a great prize!! My WIP is aimed at Modern Heat and the hero is Dante Savarese, a self-made billionaire, and the heroine is Alida Mancini, daughter of Dante's father's ex-best friend - the man Dante believes stole his father's fortune and escaped to Australia.

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  8. Happy New Year Jessica. I've got Kate's excellent Guide so don't enter me in for the comp. But since you're asking my H/h names are Marsallas and Justina. It's a "Roman" ms! ;) - Caroline xx

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  9. My just begun work has a Will Anderson and Sophie Kramer. That's subject to change; only first chapter done and I've already changed his name twice.

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  10. i'm trying my hand at a harlequin historical undone, so my characters have rather regency names Charlie (Lord Charles Arthur Elmslie Lampson)and Caroline (Lady Caroline Eleanor Sessions)
    Hoping 2011 is the year for me!

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  11. I'm so enjoying hearing all these characters' names. Interesting how the names immediately conjure up a character, isn't it?

    And Lacey, I'll be giving away a copy of Convenient Engagements on the next blog ...

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  13. Hi Jessica

    Kate Walker mentioned you in her blog and I was curious to take a peek. I would so love to win that book *grin*

    The names *drum roll* for my first manuscript are to be :

    The heroine is Alixandria de Isabella and hero Duc Maximilian Missiliano.

    Compliments of the Season,
    Rita from South Africa

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  14. My heroine is Ana Castille and her hero is Crown Prince Benedict Viktor Thomas de Sirenia, or Ben for short, in a gentle royal romance set in a beautiful 'Queendom'

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  15. Hi Jessica, Katrina and Dylan are about to begin their romantic journey in 2011. 'They have made an entrance with an opening scene and now I'm discovering who they are and what their journey will be. Would love to win Kate Walker's book.

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  16. My heroine is Abby Tyler and my hero Luke Storm. He sounds a bit like a superhero and that's what I'm aiming for!

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  17. Hi Jessica! I'd love to win a copy of Kate Walker's 12 Point Guide. I read both her blog and yours. You're both so wise. *Love* your thoughts on Internal Conflict from September. I shared with my writing group.

    Danek Kroll and Natalie St.Clair are the leads in my WIP.

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  18. Caroline and Hari. She's Irish, he's Indian. Mine's not a love story with a happy ending, but it does end satisfactorily enough, I think...I hope...

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