How to write for Modern Romance

Sofia, it's for all the lines edited in Richmond, as far as I know, which includes Historical. At the bottom of the page there are some links, and under the "Aspiring Authors" one, there is more information on how to submit manuscripts.

You might want to visit the Subcare thread on forums here too. A couple of the fab historical writers post there regularly and it's a great place for information and support!

what others have said. Thank you Jenny!

Jenny--I love the comparison of an author/editor relationship to a marriage of convenience.    LOL on promiscuity across the lines.  That's too funny.

At some point, it would be neat to see a behind-the-scenes look at the editorial side of M&B.  I'd love to hear about what it's like from the editors' perspective--a day in the life of an editor, for example.  And how DO you all know exactly how to pinpoint a plot problem?  Do you get training from other editors when you first start out?  

Just some suggestions, if you ever do another master class.  Thanks for sharing all of your expertise! 

I just want to echo Michelle here. Thank you so much for taking the time out to post this advice. So very useful!

Cheers
Jackie

So, last but by no means least we come to our final topic...

How to be a Professional Writer:

Being a successful Harlequin Mills & Boon writer is about more than just having a unique voice, creating believable characters and taking your readers on an emotional journey. You also need to build a positive relationship with your editor. Like a marriage contract, it's not just about the ring (or the bling)! Think of it as a marriage of convenience…

Marriage lasts for ever

At Mills & Boon, we’re not only buying your book, we are investing in you and your career. We look for talent with potential to grow and develop over time – we don’t just want a wedding, we want a marriage that lasts a lifetime.

Be faithful to your marriage

Certainly you and your editor will want to grow your career quickly. However, promiscuity - seeking publication across a number of lines when you first settle into being published - can be distracting and may come at a cost, as readers won't know what to expect from you. While you get established, we advise you to focus on one series to build your name. Infidelity might cost you your marriage!

Marriage is about give and take

It requires commitment on both sides. Investing in you means we are likely to want at least two series titles per year. Even the strongest marriage requires time and effort!

Marriage is built on good communication

Accept feedback from your editor gracefully! Feedback is an opportunity to develop your skills and you should use it to view your story with objective eyes. Take your editor’s suggestions and make them your own. Revision is an essential part of the editorial process and necessary if a writer is to learn and grow. A strong partnership needs trust to survive!

Keep your marriage fresh

Keep abreast of current themes in the series and don’t be afraid to try something new to give your stories an edge. Readers will develop expectations about your writing but they will rely on your next book being at least as good as your last, if not even better. Don’t let your relationship (or your stories) become stale - work together to ensure things stay innovative and exciting!

Don’t break your promises

Each Harlequin Mills & Boon series has a unique promise – for Modern Romance this is international affairs, seduction and passion guaranteed! Think about what your reader wants. You’ve made a commitment to them and the vow you’ve taken is binding!

Your marriage of convenience may start out as a business arrangement, but it can develop into a long-lasting, mutually beneficial partnership if you follow these tips for a successful relationship. We wish you all the best of luck.

See you at the altar!

 If you want to write for Modern Romance send or email us your first three chapters and a synopsis: 

Post your submission to:

Harlequin Mills & Boon Editorial Department Eton House 18-24 Paradise Road RichmondSurrey

TW9 1SR

 Or email your submission to: submissions@hmb.co.uk  

Best wishes and really good luck!

Jenny

Hi all,

It's wonderful to hear from so many of you, and exciting to know that there is a frenzy of writing going on! Can't wait to read the submissions! (Don't forget you can email your work to us now - submissions@hmb.co.uk)

So the first chapter is sparkling and you're well on your way, seamlessly weaving in character conflict and emotional intensity, building the tension and the pace, polishing your dialogue and adding all the extra goodies that make each series unique!

But before you send us your precious manuscript you need to think about your synopsis. Don't worry though, we're here to help...

How to Write a Synopsis! 

Let’s start with the basics, what is a synopsis? It’s the story in a nutshell: beginning, middle and end. Its aim is to tempt and tantalise the editor so she wants to see more. We want to see strong character development, sparky emotional conflict and all the twists and turns of the story. Above all allow your unique voice to shine through.

To help you craft your synopsis we’ve created a check list of our ten top tips…

* Have you shown the beginning, middle and end? Don’t leave your synopsis on a cliff hanger thinking it will tantalise the reader, the editor needs to know what’s going to happen!

* Does your synopsis target the series promise? Make sure your characters are living in the glitz, glamour and passion of the Modern world!

* Who is driving your story? Is it the main characters, and their emotions, or are you relying on secondary characters to create conflict?

* Have you shown your characters’ motivations? The reader needs to understand and sympathise with the choices your characters have made in the past and in the present. It is these choices that tell the reader who the characters really are!

* Have you shown the characters’ development? This shows us how the characters grow during the story – from the people they are at the beginning to who they become at the end. Let us see their emotional journey.

* What are the key turning points of the relationship? These are the elements that change the characters’ relationship for better or worse and keep your story moving forward.

* Understand how key emotional themes work. You may have told us the hero is a gorgeous Greek billionaire or the heroine a shy virgin but the label isn’t enough on its own. Create a character! Show us their layers. In the synopsis we need to understand who they are, their motivations and what drives them.

* Is the focus on the relationship development rather than the setting? No matter how glamorous the setting it’s the characters that make it come alive.

* Have you given us the best bits? Show us the bare bones and the important emotional development. Too much detail overshadows. If you feel you need to cram in everything to your synopsis it may be that the characters and emotional conflict are not strong enough at present to drive the story. 

* Last, but by no means least, keep it short! No more than 2 sides of A4. This should be sufficient to showcase your story. Challenge yourself, can you sum it up in just one exciting paragraph?

If you are struggling with any of the above this may highlight a potential issue within your story. You may need to go back and re-examine your characters and storyline.

Best of luck and happy synopsis writing!

Jenny

Lol, Mulberry! I have that problem with mine too. The naughty creatures... I need someone to turn the hose on them or something.

You make me laugh!    Great info there and I might just have to toddle off to Amazon to see if I can find that book!     It all helps - even the FWIW's!

Mavis.

One of the reasons why you want to get the inciting incident (namely the meet between the hero and heroine which changes everything) out of the way as soon as possible is that the length of the books mean there is little room for subplots and that includes bridging conflict.

Bridging conflict is the conflict that holds the reader until the main arc of the story starts.  It provides bridge from the opening sentence to the main action. Ask yourself: what needs to be there, what does business has to happen BEFORE the inciting incident and is it for the writer's benefit or the reader's. And if you do need to use bridging conflict, make sure the tension is sky high and absolutely necessary for the story.

 Anyway, once I learnt about bridging conflict, it made sense on why the inciting incident has to take place so early on, preferably within the first few pages.

The other great exercise that I learnt (from Donald Maass -- Writing the Breakout Novel workbook -- Penny Jordan had recced the book) was to move the bulk of the backstory to about chapter 10 and sometimes not even then. Only have the amount the reader needs.

FWIW

Michelle S

Me too - I've done the same....second document!    Isn't that amazing!     I have 'the book' in it's original state - and a separate document for the 'NEW' Chapter 1!    When I'm happy with it, i'll copy and paste it into the original doc and get rid of the stuff I don't like!  

I'm also the same as yourself.......I realise now that there might be a bit of waffling that can go in other chapters.   the good thing about this is I can expand in other places and add a little more tension, which I'm dying to do!

Mavis

Thank you so much everyone who has contributed here! I'm learning things all the time to make my stories faster, tighter, and more emotionally involving.

Mavis, I have exactly the same problem with my WiP. I'm sitting at 51,000 words, but I know I have at least 15,000 to 20,000 more to write to get them to their HEA. I already knew the start was far too slow and I need to cut around 10,000 words there.

But I'm also going to have to ditch a whole big section I had massive fun writing. It's funny, it's exciting, there's loads of great dialogue, in fact it's so good I look at it and wonder if I actually wrote it! And sadly, it soooooo does not belong in this story! The characters are behaving totally differently to the way they do in the rest of the book for one thing, but the main problem is that it doesn't do enough to move the relationship forward. At the time I thought it was the best way to get them into a particular situation, but now I see I can get them to the same place with far fewer words and keep the emotional intensity going. *Sigh* That section I love will have to go.

Thanks Anna and Megan. I'm always a classic case of getting carried away by dialogue. I love writing it and have to be really careful to make sure that every conversation that the H and H have has a purpose and that I'm asking myself with every scene 'what is the reason for this particular scene? What am I trying to achieve here?'. It's hard but I'm getting there.

J

It's great to hear that the workshops are really helping everyone focus on their writing, and I look forward to reading your submissions. As Jenny mentioned about the opening chapter, it's vital to have your hero and heroine meet early on, so that your reader can fall in love with them. Dialogue is a fantastic tool to introduce your characters and their conflicts, but remember, life is not static, and there are no prepared speeches in the real world, so your hero and heroine's dialogue must be borne out of their reactions to events and actions happening around them. Each conversation they have will further their relationship one way or another.

On letting go of Chapter 1......it was really easy in the end because if I was being honest.......way too much of an introduction (eek)!    Nevertheless, a learning curve and thanks to Kate I've not only axed that one but I'm being very ruthless with Chp 2 as well!     Upside is, hero and heroine will be right where they belong in Chapter 1.      Of course, now I'm going to be looking at every Chapter to cut the 'waffling' out!

Mavis

Thanks for the advice.

As I read your post I had a lightbulb moment. The conflict is there (I think!) but I've been delaying the 'change and development' you mention until further down the line. Maybe I need to up the stakes a little earlier and see what happens ...

Right at the moment my hero has taken over writing the story so it's turning out a little differently than I planned - and so much better!

There's so much useful advice here I'm feeling quite spoilt 

One aspect I still struggle with is making the motivations for my H & h's actions clear enough in the outset without revealing too much too soon. I want to use the onion technique but worry that only having the outer skin present in the first chapter might leave the reader not entirely convinced about the characters' actions.

Is it a case of allowing enough in the first chapter to make the reader believe what's there and yet leave her with questions she still wants answered? 

Right now I'm editing the second half of a sagging middle. I know exactly what the problem is (it's starting to feel like a series of similar scenes rather than a cohesive, unfolding story). But actually FIXING it is something else.

 Romy  - if your scenes are starting to sound the same  then perhaps you're going round in circles - I find this can happen when you either don't have enough conflict to keep your hero and heroine apart till the end of the book  (been there, done that one) so they end up saying the same thing over and over again and coming to no resolution. The conflict needs to change and devlop as your H&h learn more, grow more  and as the relationship changes too.

Is your conflict one  big misunderstanding or does it have layers to it, ones that need to be uncovered step by step until your characters get to the heart of the problem. When people are uneasy/uncomfortable/fear/angry with someone then they don't reveal the full story, the full truth and slowly revealing that and showing how your characters react can keep the tension up. But if the problem is one that could/should be solved with one direct question - and there is no reason why that question shouldn't be asked or answered  then there isn't enough conflict to giv e the book the momentum it needs. YOur commnet makes me suspect that you need to look at your conflict and see if it goes deep enough and comes from deep enoug in your H&h's characters to keep the tension developing through the whole book

Kate

I loved your comment about understanding the problem but taking a few more manuscripts to actually do it.

Right now I'm editing the second half of a sagging middle. I know exactly what the problem is (it's starting to feel like a series of similar scenes rather than a cohesive, unfolding story). But actually FIXING it is something else.

I just hope it doesn't take several mss down the line to figure it out!

That's an excellent post, Jenny! In my early twenties, I submitted and had rejected five mss for what is now the Modern Romance line. Looking at your list of writer personalities, I know instantly which category I fell into ... The Show-Stopper!

Those early books all started with an amazing BANG. I used to spend hours dreaming up a great hook for each novel. One first para had the rather prim heroine walking along a hotel corridor when a bedroom door opens and a naked beauty half-wrapped in a sheet tumbles out, the Italian hero standing sternly in the doorway, saying something like 'And don't come back!'

But I suspect the rest of the book didn't quite match up to the promise of that first page!! 

Hello Jenny - I am gearing up to giving it another go, having submitted a partial manuscript many years ago - and recognize the 'Me-Me-Me' style of writing (embarrassingly!) - characterized by too much narrative detail. The tips are brilliant, concise and really encouraging - thanks so much. I am reading M&Bs Moderns and Historical - and must remind myself to stop, in order to start to write one. Not so easy when they are the perfect excuse for prevarication, and sinfully addictive.

Donna, I think that was me asking over at eHarl.  So what great timing this post is! Thanks heaps, Jenny

J

Jenny, we were just talking about Modern/ MH over at eharlequin a while back and what constitutes global voice.  Could I have your permission to C&P you latest post (because it's fab) over in eharlequin's subcare?

Donna

Hi all,

Great discussion on conflict - thanks Megan and Anna. It's so often the same answer - character, character, character! Pin it on your noticeboards/ computers/ TVs/ bedside tables in big black marker pen. They are the reason for putting finger to keyboard - what is the story that they have to tell?

And as for cliche - we are looking for fresh, new voices. Writers who will bring something new to the line they are targetting. So rather than emulate what you have read before think about your natural voice and what makes your writing sparkle.

Next Masterclass coming up!

Best wishes

Jenny

Oooh, thanks Anna and Megan. Great advice! Especially looking at your characters in the present and asking yourself all those 'why' questions. I love a bit of character archaeology.

*sigh. Am slightly sick with jealousy over all those lucky heroines wearing beautiful shoes. The strappy sandals debate is an interesting one as I think it shows the difference between a convention and a cliche quite well. Beautiful shoes are definitely a part of the fantasy for me and for any other shoe-loving women (of which these posts would suggest there are many). However, strappy sandals have been used so much as part of the heroine's description that they can now alienate the reader - they are a prime example of the dangers of putting something (however small) in a romance because the writer is used to it being there. However, those strappy Manolo shoes sounded interesting because they were necessary - they were being used in an interesting way to reveal a little more about the heroine. One of the main factors causing cliched writing is the writer not asking themselves, 'why am I putting this in?' 

In the same way, conflicts can become cliches if they are used to create a character. For this reason it helps to start by seeing the characters clearly in your mind as they exist in the present - not by seeing their conflicts first. Once they are real to you, you are free to wonder (in the way we often do with new people) - how did they become the person that they are? In fiction, as in real life, the answer to that question is never simple!