Spring Is Here...

You may have noticed that there were no blog posts last week. I was quite busy and very tired, so posting and reading other blogs just fell by the wayside...

Immediately after the Easter weekend, I had to get a few things sorted for the local writers club AGM. I was elected Chairman last April - so I have two more years to go before I have to step down. But there's still a lot to do, keeping the club viable and modern; moving forward into another decade...

Writers have so many opportunities to develop their craft nowadays via the internet, online groups and forums, a wide variety of competitions, courses and workshops, that it is getting harder for many groups to continue to attract members.

There are still a lot of groups around, some parts of the country fair better than others, but don't overlook them. Some will have visiting authors you might like to hear talk and to get their latest book personally signed.

When Nottingham Writers' Club was founded in 1927 life was much simpler for it's members. Short stories were read widely, and novels were what we now look on as novellas.

Publishers worked with their authors and didn't demand instant success to keep on producing the individual writer; and newspapers - there were lots of them in the first half of the 20th century - actively looked for articles and fillers.

Even in the 1930's writers were still writing to future deadlines. I do think this suggestion from the club magazine, Scribe, in July 1935, was a bit extreme...

"Now is the time to write your Christmas stories and articles. If you find it difficult to conjure up the appropriate atmosphere try sitting in a cold room wearing a heavy coat, with your feet in a cold bath."

The modern world does have some advantages after all... :-)

Do you think a writers' club or group still has a place in today's writing world?


See: www.nottinghamwritersclub.org.uk for author talks, workshops and other info.

There's Only So Many Plots...

Quite a few romance writers were surprised to read that Mills and Boon author Kate Walker and Harlequin had recently been the subject of a copyright violation case; and were happy to hear that Kate (and her publisher) had been cleared of any wrong-doing.

Kate revealed the news on her blog earlier this week. You can read it here.

Kate ran a Romance Writing workshop for Nottingham Writers Club in 2012 that I arranged, and I'd have no doubt of her innocence.

She would never infringe another writers copyright.

And the judge agreed...

Please read the judgement that you can find here you will learn a lot about the elements in romance writing that are not considered protected, and those that are. The detailed analysis starts around page 9.
It really is worth the time reading this judgement if you want to write romance...

The link was available on The Pink Heart Society blog, whose post 'A Troupe of Tropes' has an explanation of tropes and archetypes in relation to copyright, by the editor of the PHS blog, Michelle Styles, who is also an Harlequin Historical author.

It is sad that this case even came to court in the first place.(My personal opinion only.)

As a reader of category romances of over thirty years, I can recall a number of Mills and Boon novels that used scenarios and plots that 'the plaintiff' used in her unpublished synopsis, and first chapter (that formed a part of her claim for copyright infringement).

There are only a limited number of plots, whether you are writing a contemporary romance or an historical. They even apply to futuristic stories.

The scenarios of Star Wars and Harry Potter share many similarities, and it occurred to me today, that even Pip in Charles Dickens, Great Expectations has shared scenarios...Nothing is new, just the uniqueness of your story and the characters you've created.

We all want our heroes and heroines to fulfil certain demands in a romance. Whether you go for the tall dark and handsome man, or prefer the blue-eyed blonde, they are all recognisable.

And red hair does often genetically go with green eyes, like blue eyes with blondes...

My novella uses a returning character to resolve a past situation in the story. But so do a lot of romances...

The only essentials, with stories and characters, are what you do with them and the details that make them yours...

It's all just a variation on a theme...


Do you have a particular plot or scenario that you find yourself regularly using in romance writing? Or are there any you don't like, or wouldn't use?