Kate Hardy writes three Mills and Boon Modern Heat romances and three Mills and Boon Medical romances per year.  In addition she writes non-fiction about family history, produces a daily blog, and is raising a young family.  During this fast paced session we got a taste of how she achieves so much as she crammed a morning’s worth of material into this one hour session – not that anyone was complaining! 

Kate discussed different levels of planning whilst acknowledging that we are all on a continuum between plotting every detail and plotting none and that there is no right way.

Time Management

Being an author is our ‘business’ and we need to approach our work in a business-like manner, under-promising and over-delivering. Kate suggested that writing a consistent number of words regularly, writing at your ‘best time’, managing ‘time sucks’ and tracking progress, is perhaps less stressful than leaving things to the last minute and then writing huge numbers of words in a short timescale.

Plotting

Kate discussed various types of plotting, from creating a ‘selling synopsis’ to creating a ‘working outline’ and getting to really know your characters so the story flows naturally from them. We discussed enneagrams, which describe nine personality types, which are useful for building a well-rounded picture of our characters, and how the conflict between the hero and heroine deliver the tension and the necessary emotional punch.

Planning the Journey

Knowing the beginning and the end, the middle section consists of choices and relationship turning points telling each scene of the story from the POV of the character with most to lose. We explored a variety of techniques to assist us in creative ways of planning the journey including using hooks, SCAMPER (Substitute; Combine; Adapt; Modify; Eliminate; Re-arrange) and Edward de Bono’s ‘six hats’ technique which encourages adopting different viewpoints.

Timelines

Our novels take place in the ‘eternal present’ but need to take into account the timespan of the story. Children are born (ideally after no more than about nine months) grow and develop; occupation varies during the year and seasonal events happen . Plotting a timeline helps to keep things straight and saves having to re-read chunks over and over.

Evolving plans

Inevitably, as we get to know our characters, our plan will change and we should be open to such events.  Kate suggested keeping both an original copy and updating a working copy, with annotations which describe why a change was made.  This shows the book at a glance. During second and subsequent drafts the plan can assist in ensuring the characters are consistent, that there are enough emotional turning points, and that the scenes are in the right order for the strongest emotional impact. 

Revisions

All authors are asked for revisions.  By considering the plan, in conjunction with what the editor requires, it often easier to spot what needs to be cut, added, or moved to strengthen the weak points.  Then using the plan to lead the changes to the manuscript keeps the task more manageable.   
All in all, an enjoyable and thought provoking session which gave plenty of food for thought as well as practical tools and techniques.

Written by Joanna Brown