Will Contemporary References Crash and Burn a Novel?

MASTER OF THE OPERA, my erotic retelling of The Phantom of the Opera set in modern day at the Santa Fe Opera House, originally published as a serial ebook, is now available in print! Exclusively from Books A Million for the time being. You can read a snippet from the book at That's What I'm Talking About today. Also, if you like my contemporary erotic stuff, you can vote for a scene from UNDER CONTRACT here for six more hours! Finally, over at Here Be Magic, we're celebrating August with Beach Week. I've got an excerpt of Ursula at the beach - a scene I really love.

This week at Word Whores, we're talking about whether topical or contemporary references should be avoided in fiction.

I heard this debate a whole bunch back when I was writing essays and creative nonfiction, which meant I was heavily involved in the literary and university/arts council-driven writing communities. I've rarely encountered it in genre circles, either in the romance or the sci fi/fantasy groups.

Frankly, I never bought the argument back then. People felt it "dated" the books, which would prevent them from becoming classics. I'd always bring up Jane Austen, whose books are classics partly because they so perfectly capture that era.

I imagine this doesn't come up as much in SFF because the stories are rarely about the contemporary era as is. In romance, particularly contemporary romance, topical and contemporary references are, well, pretty much expected and necessary. That said, I did hear one piece of advice on topical references that I've since taken to heart.

Angela James, Editorial Director at Carina Press, said in a workshop that writers should avoid comparing their characters physically to celebrities. I wanted to object, because I did this in GOING UNDER, comparing my hero Fox to Tom Hiddleston. To make her argument, she said two words: Val Kilmer.

Everyone groaned.

If you don't keep up with such things, Val Kilmer, who used to embody all things smexy, enigmatic and smoldering has now... gone exceptionally squidgy around the edges. In a distressing Brian Wilson/Marlon Brando way. Angela said, "you don't want people picturing that."

In addition, I've since learned that - astonishing to me - not everyone has a THING for Tom Hiddleston. Go figure.

Word to the wise!

Drafting versus Revising

Hai! Yes, it's me again, just posted yesterday but the Universe is a funny thing sometimes and here I am today to lead off the Word Whores lineup, discussing drafting versus revising.

I'm not sure what stand my fellow Word Whores are going to take on this aspect of the writing process. In my writerly garret, I do a first draft of a novel, which is the initial time I commit my entire story to the metaphorical paper. (Actually, I rely on the laptop and the keyboard and the electrons of WORD nowadays). What I do is get something written, and each time I sit down to write thereafter, I start by rereading the portion of the story I wrote last time. This process warms me up for the new stuff and I might expand on what I wrote previously, add embellishments, clean up action etc. Technically I guess that's "revising" but I wouldn't give it the twitter hashtag #amrevising at that point. It's not Revising with the capital "R".

When I finish the first draft, I have all the bones of the story in place and then I regard myself as revising, in the work I do on that book thereafter. I'm not sure what it would take for me to feel I'd done a second draft of a novel. Wholesale replacement of characters and plot elements maybe? I can't honestly remember a time I ever did that.  Even if I add or delete new scenes, it's still revising at that point.

I can't tell you how many more passes I make through a manuscript. As you've discovered if you read these Word Whores posts very often, I'm quite the organic, superstitious, what's-the-opposite-of-organized author. So all parts of my process vary, depending on feedback from my beta readers and critique partner, and then on inputs from my editor. Drafting is between me, myself and I but more players enter the mix when we hit the Revising stage.

I once received a pretty hefty Revise and Resubmit (R&R) from a publisher and that one took me a while to absorb and think through. I liked the suggestions, but not in their entirety, so I had to figure out a way to accomplish what the editor was recommending, as far as amping up the conflict and tension between the hero and heroine and not allowing them to fall in love too soon or too easily. I ended up with a couple of very cool new scenes and some insights I could apply to future projects. Always a good thing!

Carina Press Executive Editor Angela James wrote a terrific blog post about the R&R process. As Ms. James said in that post:

"Trust me, if the editor wanted to reject your book, it would be a lot less time consuming. The R&R letter can often take hours for the editor to craft, after they’ve made extensive notes while reading your book. We don’t just whip out an R&R letter in 15 minutes and send it out. It gets crafted by the editor and then read by me and we discuss. We want to make sure that the letter is clear, lays out the issues, but also tells you why we love the book and want to see it again."

I know some authors who have chosen not to pursue an R&R's from various publishers. I've known other people who have done R&R's and either the book as revised got bought, or it didn't.

The author has to decide if the suggestions work for them and their vision of the novel. And now, if you'll forgive me, I #amrevising, on a deadline!