Thursday, December 13, 2007

Secondary Characters becoming leads

As some of you may know, An Impulsive Debutante which comes out in September 08 in the UK features Lottie Charlton from A Christmas Wedding Wager.
I have had several people raise their eyebrows when I have said this. My lovely editor at the time when I first mooted this proposition around this time last year murmured -- it will be a challenge but if you want to... And you have never done a heroine like that before, Michelle but I have faith... My daughter kept demanding. She wanted to know what happened to her.
The one proposition I kept repeating over and over in my head is that EVERY character is the hero of his own story. And Lottie in her own mind has ALWAYS been a heroine. She did need to learn a few lessons though...I had a great deal of fun writing An Impulsive Debutante.
My current editor who had not read ACWW at that point loved Lottie. She thought it wonderful that I wrote this heroine's story because Lottie is so great. She also had not quite taken on board that it was a linked story, so it does very definitely stand on its own. There is a brief appearance by Emma and Jack though..
At the moment, I have been struggling with the sensual tension in this book. And it finally dawned on me, I was still in the mode of the last book and considered my current hero like a brother. He is the brother of the heroine. Basically he had very nearly taken over the first story and I had to FIRMLY put him in his place as my editors had wondered if I was more interested in his story than that heroine... But now, I have to think and see him through my current heroine's eyes -- oozing with sex appeal etc. It required a step change in thinking but I was not prepared for the problem.
It is all in the viewpoint.
There is so much you learn when you are writing.
But fingers crossed -- some of my problems are solved with this manuscript.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I can't WAIT to follow Lottie on her journey-- and what a journey it will be! She's so sparky and she just leaps off the page, but she has such a lot of room for growth and self-discovery which will make a fantastic book.

And if you can make her hero half as quietly sexy and meltingly gorgeous as Jack... (who goes straight into my all time top ten heroes)then I'm sold!

Michelle Styles said...

Yes, well Jack is special but Tristan Dyvelston is fairly good as well.

Mads Mickelson (with grateful thanks to Anne McAllister) who played the baddie in Casino Royale ended up supplying the eye candy inspiration. I wanted someone who was Dangerous.

Have got hair cut and finished Christmas shopping this morning, now I need to settle down and WRITE because Christmas is also spelt DEADLINE

Kate Hardy said...

Lottie's goingn to be really, really interesting.

Jack did it for me because he's serious and clever. Which is exactly what I like in a hero.

Kate Hardy said...

PS. Just seen what you said in your comment.

I thought Christmas was spelled CHOCOLATE but, actually, you're spot on. It is. I'm gone...

Donna Alward said...

*grins at praise of Jack* Jack IS special. He's hot. He's a self-made man. He's smart. He's a very heroic hero.

One of the good things about HR's being so short is that you can't develop secondaries really at all. I had cut most parts of Mike from Hired by the Cowboy, so when it came time to write his story, I was more than ready to see him as utterly sexy. Now writing the one after? That was hard. Because I was still a bit in love with Mike.

And I do think you've solved some issues with this lightbulb and I can't wait to read more. :-)

Amanda Ashby said...

Michelle - is Christmas Wedding Wager coming out downunder or do we have to wait until next Christmas??? I've been looking and getting very cranky at not being able to find it!

Michelle Styles said...

Amanda --

I think you will have to wait Down Under. But I don't know how long as nobody ever tells me these things.

It has gone back in stock on Amazon.com, so I suspect will be avaialble soon through the Amazon channels.

Donna -- I hear the sound of your whip cracking...

Amanda Ashby said...

Thanks Michelle - I might just get it next time I do a amazon.com order rather than wait until it hits downunder!