Welcome to My Guest Author: Carla Caruso

Today I welcome Author  Carla Caruso to my blog!  

Carla is giving away an Amazon Kindle copy of Second Chance to one lucky commenter!  So over to Carla...

 

First vs. third-person POV

I recently made the switch from writing in the point of view (POV) of first-person to third-person. It was difficult for me to do as first-person is something I have written in since a teen when merely dreaming about being a novelist! The last time I did something that even looked like third-person was way back in primary school.

A lot of my favourite chick-lit authors (hello Sophie Kinsella) also write in first-person, so it’s something my brain is used to seeing.

However, first-person seems to be something that is going slightly out of favour as happens with book trends (unless you’re E.L. James or Stephenie Meyer, of course). And the term, chick-lit, is definitely so last century, seeming to have a nineties/Bridget Jones whiff about it…

Some of my other fave authors, like Maggie Alderson and Zoe Foster, have also recently gone to the other side too, now writing in third-person. So I thought it was high time I gave it a go, seeing it seems to be what readers prefer.

At first, I found it really, really difficult to make the switch. Everything I typed came out sounding clunky and I had to revise each scene half a million times. It felt extremely tough to get inside a character’s head without being able to write their every thought and reaction.

I wrote that first manuscript in third-person – it sucked – and then I attempted a second. Suddenly, something clicked. I actually began to ENJOY writing from this new perspective – so long as it was deep POV, and thus, not far a stretch from first-person. Plus, I now relished also being able to write from the viewpoint of the hero.

Being a chick-lit devotee, I’ve always been inclined to keep Mr Silent Brooding Type more mysterious rather than getting inside his head. But now I’m loving being able to go between scenes in the eyes of the heroine and her love interest.

In another change, I also swapped from present tense to past. Whew!...

So, now what the fun is going to be? It’s seeing whether I can swap back to writing in first-person and present tense for a sequel to Cityglitter (another book of mine), so that it looks consistent. Wish me luck! I’ll need it.

Hugs,

Carla

Bio: Carla Caruso

Carla Caruso was born in Adelaide, grew up amid a boisterous extended Italian family – yet somehow managed to become a bookworm...

Carla always wanted to be a novelist, annoying the kindergarten teachers by dictating long, detailed stories to them. It just took her a while to realise her childhood dream - journalism seemed a more practical course. Her media career has included stints as a newspaper and magazine journalist, government PR and fashion stylist. These days, she works as a freelance journalist and copywriter. She began seriously writing fiction three years ago when she went freelance full-time.

The romance genre appeals as she is a sucker for rom-coms (especially if Channing Tatum is in the mix) and likes to think her Italian ancestry means she lives with passion. Hobbies include watching trashy TV shows, fashion (her mum named her after Carla Zampatti!), astrology and running. She lives in Adelaide.

Carla Around The Web:

Website

Author Page

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Blurb: Second Chance

On the night of her 36th birthday, Flora Brunelli is full of regrets. The celebrations have turned sour 

and life hasn’t gone according to plan. Then she finds herself zapped back in time, landing in the summer of 1998 when she was 20 years old. The Spice Girls are at the top of the charts and The X-Files is the hit TV show. It’s also the week Flora’s life unravelled.

For Flora, this is a chance to change her future: win back the love of her life, stay friends with her former best mate and succeed in landing her dream job. It should be easy. But her ex’s best friend, Lance Devic, who she never really noticed before, keeps popping up and messing with her head. And after a while Flora begins to wonder if living in the past really will deliver her the happiness she seeks?

www.destinyromance.com

Buy Links:
Amazon
ITunes
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Welcome to My Guest Author: Kamy Chetty

Today I welcome Author Kamy Chetty to my blog!   So over to Kamy...

 

Using Deep POV to step out of the Slush Pile

As a writer we get told a whole bunch of things that we have to stay true to, if we want to catch that editor’s/agent’s attention and not have to get picked up off the slush pile. Don’t get me wrong, many great writers have been picked up off that slush pile but we both know that it’s getting harder to get noticed.

Not too much back story or you slow the pace; your characters need to be believable; your reader needs to be invested in the story. You have to get the reader to have that emotional journey, and the most important one of them all, show, don’t tell. It’s impossible to remember all of this when you’re writing your story and to be honest, if you did, you’d drive yourself nuts and never get past page five. You’re sitting there thinking, this still isn’t telling me anything about deep POV, so here goes, I’m going to show you an e.g of how I used deep POV in getting published.

I wrote Falling into Paradise in three weeks but it took me a lot longer than that to edit the book. I couldn’t have done it without my wonderful editor, but there were a lot of things I learnt that helped. The concept of layering opened new doors to me and my writing started making sense which resulted in a stronger book.

Deep point of view is when you go into the character’s head and start writing from their POV, instead of the narrative. You might say what are the benefits? Think of it this way. By going into deep POV you can start writing actively and you can show things your character sees and does and that added layer gives your reader the key to your book and the characters.

E.g. when you meet Sophie you see a woman who dresses up in expensive suits with a flashy car, so you think rich doctor from a cultured background.

‘She looked down and wanted to say she felt more like the prostitute from down the road where she lived as a child than Catwoman, but it didn't seem appropriate to share that much information with a man she barely knew.’

Now that little thought Sophie shares with us tells us she didn’t grow up with a silver spoon stuck to her palate and that is a very important thread in the story. I could have used a few paragraphs to imply the same thing but saying that she grew up around a prostitute has a lot more punch and power than anything I as a writer could have narrated.

The other thing deep POV can do is give your book sass. Throughout the book I use deep POV to deepen the characters and their motivations and make it all real. It heightens the tension and makes the story flow.

I can go on about deep POV if you let me but I’d rather you ask questions and I am happy to answer them as best I can. Thanks for having me, it has been a real pleasure being here and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about the book or about being a newly published author.

Cheers

Kamy

Kamy Chetty Around the Web:

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Facebook

Twitter

Author Page

 

 

 

 Blurb - Falling Into Paradise:

A woman too afraid to commit. A man too hurt to love again. A passion that refuses to be denied.

Sophie Redmond knew betrayal, she knew mistrust. She knew everything that was wrong with the world, until Damon Watson charmed his way into her life.

The rules she used to shield her heart were broken one by one, as Damon showed her compassion and kindness. When no one else believes in her, he shows her hope. But is hope ever enough?

Damon knew trouble when he saw it. He was the sheriff. He could spot it a mile away and Sophie was trouble with a capital T. What was it about this City Slicker doctor that made him want to forget everything but those whiskey brown eyes and that honey blonde hair spilled against his naked chest.

Can Damon put the past behind him and choose to love again?

Buy Links:

Red Sage

Amazon

Amazon UK

B & N

 

 

 

 

Romance Writers Words to Live By: Newton's Third Law of Motion

(Continuing with my Science of Romance Writing Theme)

Years ago I read a story where the hero came to Australia to tell the heroine that the grandmother who had raised her was dying. The hero and heroine had quite a history and she’d left the country several years earlier. There were some great emotions when he first saw her and then when she first saw him. But when he explained that she must return to see her dying grandmother, she broke down and told him there was a three and a half year old child. And I braced myself for the huge reaction from him. Instead he went into pragmatic mode and started making plans about adding the child to her mother’s passport and the practicalities of travelling with a young child. At this stage the author lost me.

What could be more emotional than finding out that you have a daughter with the woman you once loved?

So we have: Newton's Third Law of Motion:

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Looking at a similar scene, let’s say we have a hero, Carl and the heroine, Grace. If we’re in the hero’s point of view, we expect to feel what Carl is feeling and see what he sees. e.g.

Carl watched as Grace wrung her hands together, bit her lip just like she used to all those years ago. Why is she so nervous? It must have been a shock to hear about her beloved grandma, though she hadn’t been back to see Helene since she left London four years ago.

She hadn’t been back to see him, either.

Though they hadn’t parted on the best of terms and he could have followed if he hadn’t been so damn proud.

Grace looked amazing. Her slim body was a little rounder in all the right places. Her hair, still wild and spiky, now barely touched her collar. He sensed something different in her. Time did that to a person. She looked him in the eye but then turned her face to gaze out the window at the quiet street.  “I can’t just leave.”

 “Helene is waiting. She is hanging on just for you.” Perhaps there was a man in her life that she couldn’t leave. Something shifted inside him. 

Tears threatened to flood her eyes but she blinked them back. “I want to go but I can’t. I have... responsibilities.”

What could be more important than her responsibility to the woman who raised her from age five? It’s not like she was a high fallutin’ corporate leader. Surely she could take a few days out of her busy schedule at the jewellery shop.

He moved closer to her. The sunshine freshness of her perfume swirled around him but he refused to let it taunt him.

She pulled back slightly, still blinking hard.  “I have a child.”

Surprise siphoned through him. A child? So there was a man in her life.

“She can come with you—”

“Carl, we have a daughter.”

Carl’s world suddenly tilted on its axis. His gut tightened, his heart beat fast and loud, thumping in his ears. Of all the scenarios he’d been through on the flight to Melbourne, he hadn’t given thought to anything like this. His mind buzzed with the news. He had child. A daughter. He started to pace back and forth.

“How? When?” He knew how. His mind tripped back to that last month together. Those long, lazy nights. The frenzied moments during the day. He stopped in front of her. They’d been careful every time.

Almost every time.

“And it didn’t occur to you to tell me.” He heard the sarcasm dripping from his own words. “A child, Grace. My child!” The blood surged through his veins and exploded in his head.

“Carl, I—”

“You what, Grace? You forgot?” His voice raised a few decibels. “You were too busy?”

“I know how you must feel.” Her face grew pale, her eyes wide and watery.

“Do you? How do I feel, Grace?” He wanted to grab her and shake her and make the last four years disappear. “Tell me how I feel!” He realized he was shouting and tried to reel in his anger. “Explain to me how I feel.”

She suddenly seemed quite frail. He refused to feel sorry for her.

 

Now if this scene were written in the heroine’s point of view, we would be privy to her emotions and what she sees.

As an exercise, why not write the scene from in Grace’s POV?

Serena