Mo Fanning - British writer and comic

Tips

A dark romance I wrote today

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New York Romance

It’s been a while since I’ve released a book. People have been asking me when the next one is coming out, and today, I’m excited to announce that my new dark romance novel will be out towards the end of this year.

New York CityThis new book is special to me because it’s set in a city I fell in love with: New York. I’m still trying to decide on the final title – there are several in contention – and my beta readers are hard at work telling me what’s wrong. (Yes, I take feedback very seriously!)

It’s the story of a father who lost touch with his gay son due to words spoken in haste and his journey to reconnect. The main character, Silas, is an interesting man who weeds gardens and (once a year) dresses up as Santa. I’m sure you’ll love him as much as I do!

What they said about ‘Rebuilding Alexandra Small’

I’ve also received some wonderful feedback from my readers on my most recent book. Here are a few testimonials:

“A book that was easy to get into from the star.”

“Told in a chic lit format but with a gritty core”

“Witty and fast-paced”

“A lovely, fun, summery read that’s also smart and moving. Definitely laugh out loud so don’t say I didn’t warn you”

OK, so I’m shamelessly plugging my new book. But please buy a copy of my earlier books as well! They’re all available on Amazon and make great gifts for the romance reader in your life. Thank you for your support!

 

Generating ideas for writing a novel

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New York writing

When I came up with the idea for my next book, I had to decide if I was up to the job of writing the story of a 67-year-old New Yorker. A Jewish man.

I wasn’t sure if I was up to the task, but decided to give it a try. It would mean a lot of research, but that was okay. I was feeling motivated.

I started by creating a character sketch, including all the details I needed to know about him. My new character was born and raised in New York. He was a guy who looked after gardens in the summer and worked as a department store Santa once a year. He lived alone in a one-bedroom apartment.

I was at a loss as to how to move forward with my character sketch. I didn’t want to write about a 67-year-old dying of cancer and loneliness, but I didn’t want to write about a man who was in perfect health. There wasn’t much drama there. This character is not a new one. He’s been in my head for months.

Writing away from the obvious

I decided to take my character sketch and turn it into a story about a man who is having a health crisis. After a small heart ‘incident’, he’s been warned to change his diet and lifestyle. That helped me decide how he’s a man who doesn’t like to be told what to do, who decides to ignore his doctor’s advice. What happens next? Will he live to regret ignoring the doctor’s advice? Or will he be alright?

I had no idea where the story might take me. I wasn’t sure if it would be a romance with a happy ending. It could end in a heartwarming way. It could go in quite a different direction. In the end, I was happy with the outcome. I have loved writing this book.

The first draft took two months. I set to work writing another draft, then sent the story out for feedback. I felt confident about the story, but didn’t want other eyes to see something I’d missed. This produced some good feedback from trusted friends, but also from a few honest readers who liked the story and suggestions. because the last thing I want is to be cancelled, I arranged a sensitivity read that helped open my eyes to unintentional bias.

I feel good about this book. I can’t wait to share it with you. If you’re an author, I hope you find my story helpful. If you are a reader, I hope you enjoy this story.

What are you working on? What do you hope to achieve with your next story? How did you get to where you are? Share your journey with me in the comments.

How to Pitch Your Story in Just 20 Words

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Pitch your novel

One of the hardest parts of selling a new story (to a reader, an agent or a publisher) is coming up with what us marketing geeks call ‘The Elevator Pitch”. It’s also called a log line. It’s your whole story (80k+ words) boiled down into one sentence. Two at most. And coming up with a pitch that works is a journey into hell.

“A young boy wizard comes of age” might be pretty generic, but isn’t too shabby as an elevator pitch.

The words you string together need to tell your story in one breath. They ideally need to suggest conflict. And they definitely need to get the person reading them excited.

Pitch conflict

We’ve all sat through meetings or watched insanely detailed pitches where you know the whole thing is going nowhere. If there’s no conflict in your elevator pitch, odds are there won’t be any in your story either. Your reader/agent/publisher will lose interest quickly and probably not bother to pick it up.

I’ve just completed the Cornerstones ‘Edit your novel like a professional‘ course. Eighteen weeks shared with some brilliant writers – and each of us struggled when asked to condense our work into a 500 word synopsis, let alone a 20 word pitch. Writing a story is one thing – but explaining it in such a way that you get someone excited and keep them reading…now that’s another!

Pitch in secret

Try pitching your own work at home. Keep it short and snappy; no context, characters or backstory. Just the basic premise of your story: what happens, who am I writing about and why should they care? If you can create an engaging pitch like this (and of course, back it up with a great book) then chances are when you’re querying agents later on you’ll have their attention long enough to tell them more. Writing well makes all the difference when selling yourself as much as your work.

  • Know your audience and what they want from you
  • Keep it simple and engaging
  • Give away the best parts of your story

So write me something catchy. What’s your book about?

How to Come Up with a Book Title (That Sticks)

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A title that sicks

When it comes to writing a novel, the title is one of the most important aspects. It’s what potential readers will see first, and it needs to be catchy enough to make them want to learn more. But coming up with a title that is both original and interesting can be difficult. In this blog post, I’ll discuss some tips for finding the perfect title for a book – and making sure it sticks!

First, think about what the book is about. Is it a mystery? Does it take place in space? What kind of characters are there?

Once you’ve decided on these things, then start looking at words that relate to them (or other similar topics). For example: if your character has two eyes but not one eye or three eyes – they might be called “One-Eyed Jacks.”

You could also chuck in an adjective like “spooky”.

A title with numbers

Other options include using numbers instead of letters such as ‘The Fifty Shades‘ trilogy by EL James. Or maybe even something from mythology which relates well with your story. Another option would be simply coming up with some cool sounding names for each chapter and adding those together until you create something that sounds right.

And then there’s the market. Certain titles work for certain sorts of book.

If you’re writing a book about dogs, you might come up with something like “How I Became A Dog Whisperer”. Or maybe even just call it ‘Whisper’. It all depends on who your target audience is.

Romance

Romance often needs to convey some hints about what is going to happen in the story. If you’re writing a story about an English girl who travels to America and ends up falling in love with a Native American, you might want something along the lines of “An English Girl Finds Love In The Wild West”.

Once you’ve got some ideas together, start playing around with different combinations until one particular combination feels right. Sometimes even just changing the order of words can make all the difference between sounding cool or like the kitchen-based nerd at your own party.

How do you come up with your titles? Tell me and share some tips.

The shape of a story

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STORY PLANNING TOOL

There are two types of story writer. Those who just go where the words take them (sometimes known as flying by the seat of their pants – pantsers) and those whose planning efforts make Covid vaccination deployment look like the Teddy Bear’s Picnic (planners). I was a pantser, now I’m a dedicated planner.

With NaNoWriMo just around the corner, why not take a minute to plan the story you plan to tell?

I’ve seen too many would-be books collapse at the 30,000 word mark as I either lost interest or found I couldn’t really work out how to get to the ending I had in mind because I’ve gone in every kind of weird direction. It’s all too easy to say ‘the characters made me do it’. They didn’t. You made you do it. Characters don’t suddenly take on a life of their own and do what they want. You decide to let them.

If the idea of planning has you feeling you’d lose creative control, ask yourself how many drafts you’ve done of that book you’re still working on and how many times you’ve edited those brilliant first three chapters knowing that what follows isn’t AS good. Or run a stock take on abandoned novels or those where everything happens at the start or end in a rush and there’s a saggy middle (like a saggy bottom, but harder to disguise with cream and a load of strawberries).

The three-act story structure

The three-act structure is a classic way to plan your story. Act one sets up the status quo – it tells the reader where they are and who does what and establishes motivations.

Act two kicks in after an inciting incident (a decision made or something that happens after which there is no going back to the status quo). This is the meat of your story and goes on a while. Because pace matters, you need to build in drama along the way, spacing it out, each time creating higher stakes for your main character. Each time, having something they do inspire what follows. Each time, creating a stage from which there is no easy return. And then … just as everything looks to be working out, grab the rug and pull. Bring things crashing down and let your character find a way through. It may not be to where they first wanted to go, but everything they learned along the way comes into play now as we start …

Act three – the resolution, where you might again feature a dramatic flourish, but your aim is to land that plane. To take the character to one side and ask “what did you want to do/achieve?” and then “What did you achieve?”. The story ends all neat and tidy and tied up in a pace-maintained bow.

Jack and Jill plot

Download my planning tool

Download in PowerpointI’ve created a FREE planning tool you can open in PowerPoint to use with your own screenplays or stories.

Let me know if it’s helpful.

Rebuilding Alexandra Small by Mo Fanning