Rachael Thomas & Getting Past the Dreaded Block

Please welcome Rachael Thomas back to the blog today!
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Every writer, published or not, knows what it’s like to encounter that awful demon, writer’s block. That time when you are certain every word you write is utter rubbish or worse, where you can’t write a word. It begins with a little doubt monster and very soon can get out of control, preventing you from writing anything.

It’s happened to me, but thankfully not for any length of time. So here are a few of my go to solutions. 

Write A Different Way

Writing longhand can often free up your mind. So grab a pen or pencil and pad and continue your work from the point you became blocked or even start a new scene or chapter.

Find a new place. A change of scenery often helps. It could be as simple as another room at home or a local café.

If you can’t continue with your current work in progress, try some freewriting. For instance, it is January now, so where does that take your mind? Put your pen on the page and just let your mind wander, writing down every random thought which comes to your mind for the next ten minutes.

Don’t Write

You may be wondering what kind of advice this is, but sometimes it helps to step away from the keyboard and your work in progress. Take a break and clear your mind.

Take a walk. My dog gets extra-long walks when I need thinking time to unblock my creativity.

Relax and watch your favourite television show or even a movie.

Do whatever makes you happy, as happiness generates positivity and that keeps the monster of doubt at bay, stopping it from becoming a complete block.

If the block is really bad, give yourself the rest of the day off. Tomorrow is another day.

Reward Yourself

Give yourself a small incentive if you hit your session or daily target.

For those larger targets, like reaching the half way point or completing the book, reward yourself with a bigger treat. Perhaps a day out with friends.

And Finally

Don’t wait too long for your creativity to return. Force it to come back. Tell yourself you will write just one paragraph or for ten minutes only. Taking the pressure off might be enough to get past that block. Also, always believe in yourself and your writing. Don’t allow those doubt monsters in.

If you have any others to add, I’d love to know!

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Rachael Thomas 

I love escaping to distant shores with my characters, entering their glamorous world and feeling all the emotions they experience as they discover their love for one another. A love so strong it will overcome all obstacles eventually, leading to that promised happy ever after.

Connect with Rachael Thomas on the web:

Website         Blog        Facebook                Twitter              Goodreads

A Child Claimed by Gold (One Night with Consequences)

A scandal of their own making 

Nikolai Cunningham has kept his family history secret for seventeen years. So when photographer Emma Sanders is granted exclusive access to his childhood home, he returns to Russia to ensure it stays hidden. 

Though she tries to keep her eye on the story, Nikolai's potent sexuality proves too much for Emma's untouched body to resist! But, convinced she only wanted a scoop, Nikolai casts Emma out, unaware she's pregnant! 

When the consequence of their recklessness is revealed, Nikolai will legitimize his heir—with a gold wedding ring!

Read Reader Reviews

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Enter to win signed copies on Goodreads. 

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Thanks Rachael!

I often get attacked by the Doubt Monster - but I'm learning techniques to quiet him down! Working on a different project often helps me.

What about you? How do you get the mojo back?

Rachael Thomas and The Art of Dialogue

Please welcome Rachael Thomas back to the block today!
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The Art of Dialogue 

Well written dialogue will move your story forwards, allow the reader to really get to know the characters and allow you, the writer to show instead of telling. It also makes for a more attractive page within a book, one which isn’t a solid block of text and therefore more appealing to the reader. 

How to ensure your dialogue works hard in your story: 

• There is no need to include all the normal everyday parts of dialogue. Take your reader straight to what matters and leave out things like hello or goodbye. You also don’t need every ‘umm’ to make the conversation sound realistic. 
• Use dialogue to show your character. Every time your character says something the words they chose and the way in which they speak will bring life to your character and enable the reader to get to know them. 
• The use of dialogue tags, like he or she said, isn’t always necessary, but ensure it’s clear just who is talking. There is nothing worse than having to scan back up a page to work out just who is talking.  
• Take care when you have more than two characters involved in a conversation. Use some dialogue tags and you do not always have to ensure each character takes their turn.  
• Use your scene. Build in what’s happening around the characters and what actions they make as they talk. Make it a living breathing discussion instead of constant to and fro. When you want what is said to really stand out and make an impact use only the words the character said. 
• Different characters will use different words. An old lady would not sound the same as a teenage girl. Think about your characters and how they would speak. Make each one unique and recognisable to the reader. 
• Ensure your dialogue moves the story forward. It should reveal your character, show their emotion to the reader so chose your words carefully. Make each one count. 
• Don’t allow a character to use long rambling speeches. Break their dialogue up with internal thoughts or actions going on around them or another character’s dialogue. 
• Finally, read your dialogue out loud. Did it sound natural and flowing to read out? If not, think of how it can be changed, then read it again. 

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I love escaping to distant shores with my characters, entering their glamorous world and feeling all the emotions they experience as they discover their love for one another. A love so strong it will overcome all obstacles eventually, leading to that promised happy ever after.

Connect with Rachael Thomas on the web:

Website         Blog        Facebook                Twitter              Goodreads

TO BLACKMAIL A DI SIONE

"When you've finished making offers for the bracelet, I have a proposition for you." 

Billionaire Liev Dragunov has spent a lifetime plotting revenge against those responsible for his family's ruin. Finally he has the way: Bianca Di Sione. 

She's denied their obvious attraction and coolly rebuffs every request to work for him—until he finds her weakness: a diamond bracelet she desperately needs! 

Bianca must become his fake fiancée if she wants her trinket! But the taste of revenge isn't as sweet as desire, and Liev discovers that she is innocent in more ways than one… 

Book 3 of The Billionaire's Legacy

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Thanks Rachael! I love both reading and writing dialogue and these are excellent tips! 

How about you? Are you a fan of writing dialogue? Do you read aloud and does your family think you're nuts (or is that just me???)?

Rachael Thomas & Backstory

Please welcome Rachael Thomas back to the blog today!
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Digging Deep Into Your Characters Backstory.

One of the first things to ask yourself when creating your characters is what’s their backstory? What happened to them before they arrived on your page? You need to know all there is to know about them in as much detail as you can. Why? Your character’s past will have shaped the person they are now as you begin to write. It will determine how they react to situation that will arise within your story and also the person they will be as you write the final chapter.

Each and every one of us will have experienced situations through our lives which have changed who we are and it needs to be the same for your characters. These can be good or bad experiences, but both will have an effect on your character.

Maybe your character is afraid of heights, the dark or thunder storms. What you need to know as the writer and creator of that character is, why? You need to delve deep into their past and find out everything. Once you are armed with this information you know exactly how your character will react when confronted with going to the top of one of the city’s tallest buildings, or being lost in the woods on a dark night when not even the moon is shining. By knowing every little detail about that past experience your character will react in a way that is real and convincing to the reader. They will come alive on the page.

As your character progresses through your story he or she will come up against things which challenge them. They will face fears which will have held them back and this in turn will change them, allowing them to grow and change as they progress through the story, so that by the end they have faced and conquered fears and become a stronger, better person.

It will be the same with good events in their lives. Your character may associate certain places with good memories or people they’ve loved or shared happy times with. Events in your story which threaten such memories, people or places they associate with happy times, it will give your character room to grow and show the reader who they are now.

So, you have your hero and heroine, you’ve named them, but how do you find out all this information to create their backstory?

For me it is a gradual process and one I do in the planning stage of my books. I have sheets with questions that are designed to create more questions and yet more questions. Gradually their past begins to show itself. It doesn’t matter how you do it, but in order to create real and believable characters you must know who they were before they appeared on your page.

However, it is important to remember the backstory isn’t the main story. It mustn’t be allowed to overpower the story you want to write. Neither must it be dumped on the reader in big doses. It should be weaved into the main story, giving the reader tantalising insights into what made the characters they are now.

Happy Writing!
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Connect with Rachael Thomas on the web:
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The Sheikh’s Last Mistress Promoted to Princess! 

Destiny Richards knows she is playing with fire when she accepts charismatic Sheikh Zafir Al Asmari's job offer, but it seems like a fair price to pay to start her life over again. Until the temperature reaches the boiling point and Destiny finds herself spending one out-of-this-world night with the sheikh!  When powerful Zafir seduces English rose Destiny, he never anticipates she'll hold the title of his Last Mistress. But their scorching affair has shocking repercussions. Now, before their nine months are up, Zafir must convince Destiny to make their arrangement more permanent!

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 Goodreads Giveaway:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Sheikh's Last Mistress

by Rachael Thomas

Giveaway ends May 31, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

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Thanks Rachael!
The first novel I wrote had a prologue AND at least twenty pages of backstory before the story finally started!! Boy, I've learned a lot since then!

How about you? Any more hints for backstory? Any horror stories like mine?

Rachael Thomas & The Dreaded Synopsis

Please welcome Rachael Thomas back to the blog today!
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Synopsis. It’s a word which can strike fear into just about every writer’s heart. How do you put everything from your story into between two and five pages? You don’t.

Wikipedia’s definition is a brief summary of the major parts of a subject or written work or story. It goes on to say ‘condensation of a work’.

What to include in a synopsis

The purpose of a synopsis is to show how your story is to go from the beginning to the end and the emotional journey or arc of your characters. It needs to show the voice or style of your book and be in the third person.

The first thing you need to do is introduce your characters and their main conflict. Then you need to show all the plot points they will encounter, their emotional journey and how they will reach their happy ever after.

Think of it in parts. I usually use five.

1. Introduce your hero.

2. Introduce your heroine.

3. Set out the story opening.

4. Show the emotional journey the characters are to go on and the main plot points which occur during that journey.

5. Set out the black moment and how this leads to the happy ever after.

What not to put in a synopsis

The synopsis is not a place to info dump the entire back story. Any important elements about a character’s past should be included in their introduction. Neither do you need every plot twist and turn or to introduce of every minor character. The synopsis is not the place to raise questions like will they ever reach their happy ever after? Keep your cliff-hangers for the story itself.

How long should a synopsis be?

The answer to this is a long as it needs to be. Check your submission details for this information, but once you have your synopsis you can either enlarge it or cut it back to suit a particular submission.

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Connect with Rachael Thomas on the web:

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New Year at the Boss’s Bidding

Moretti's by midnight 

Jilted bride Tilly Rogers hopes her luck is changing when she's offered a prestigious catering contract for billionaire businessman Xavier Moretti's New Year's Eve party. But then she ends up snowbound alone with her boss…and at his bidding! 

It's the end of the year and the end of Tilly's contract, which leaves Xavier free to seduce her at his will. Hardly shy of a challenge, this notorious playboy makes it his resolution to have virgin Tilly crumbling by his experienced touch. 

Before the snow settles, Xavier is determined to have Tilly under a brand-new set of tantalizing terms!

Read an Excerpt

Read Reader Reviews

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Enter this Goodreads Giveaway to win signed copies of New Year at the Boss’s Bidding.

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Thanks, Rachael!

What about you? Do you love or hate the synopsis? Any more tips to add?

Rachael Thomas & The Dilemma of Deadlines

Please welcome Rachael Thomas to the blog today!

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The Dilemma of Deadlines

As a published writer, deadlines become part of the routine, but learning to work to deadlines is something that I tried to do even as I worked on my first manuscript. Why put that sort of pressure on yourself if you haven’t reached your dream of becoming a published writer yet? Because without deadlines to keep me focused, I would have been in danger of missing my goal. 

I was a member of Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme for seven years before I finally achieved my goal of publication. On this scheme I was able to submit one full manuscript for critique each year and the deadline for this submission was the end of August. With enrolment onto the scheme opening at the beginning of the year, this gave me my ‘final’ deadline. Into the eight months leading up to that deadline I set myself ‘mini’ deadlines, such as, to be half way through the story by a certain time. Then I calculated how many words I would need to write each day or week to achieve first the mini deadline, then the final deadline. 

I firmly believe that the sooner you condition yourself to working to deadlines, the easier everything will be when you achieve your dream of publication. Once you get over the excitement of having a book published, deadlines will become a normal part of your writing calendar and if you don’t meet them, you will be letting down a lot of people waiting on your book to fill their schedule.

My tips for working to deadlines.

1. Make them achievable. It’s no good setting yourself a target of two thousand words a day if your daily life is not going to allow you to reach that target and believe me, when I say that continually not meeting your daily target will make you miserable and knock you right off course.
2. Don’t become distracted. Your writing is important, so give yourself the time you deserve in which to write. Carve out a set time each day or week for that purpose, even if it’s as little as half an hour a day. The words you write in that half an hour will soon build up.
3. Don’t be intimidated. You’ve worked hard for weeks or months and the final deadline is in sight and it’s very easy to become intimidated by it. That is the point when anything, and I mean anything, usually becomes more appealing than writing, no matter how much you want to meet your deadline. This is the point I tell myself I will write for just ten minutes then go and tackle the ironing or mop the floor, but usually find that the enforced ten minutes is enough to stem the need to be a domestic goddess and focus on my story.
4. Enjoy writing. Whatever scheduling you decide to use to reach your final deadline, always make it realistic and ensure it doesn’t put so much pressure on you that you lose the fun and enjoyment of writing. After all, that’s why we do it.

Rachael Thomas Bio

I grew up in the Midlands, but when I moved to Wales, over twenty years ago, I found a place to finally put down roots. I married into a farming family and embarked on a massive learning curve which also saw me learning Welsh when my two children were small.
Writing is something I have always wanted to do and I can still remember the thrill of one of my short stories being held up as an example to the class when I was about nine. It wasn’t until my own children were in school that I seriously started to pursue my dream. I joined a local writing group which met every Monday afternoon and being with like-minded people was the boost I needed.

Reading romance had always been my first love, and just about every short story I wrote was romance, so I decided to write my first book. During that process I also attended my first weekend writing course with Kate Walker and joined the RNA’s fabulous New Writers’ Scheme. A short time later I joined Romance Writers of Australia and learnt a lot from entering their competitions. I sought out courses and you can imagine my joy when I discovered Sharon Kendrick’s course in beautiful Tuscany.

Behind the Scandalous Façade, my So You Think You Can Write entry, is my thirteenth book and although only eight have those magic words ‘the end’ written on them the others are definitely part of the learning process I have enjoyed over the last six years.

I love escaping to distant shores with my characters, entering their glamorous world and feeling all the emotions they experience as they discover their love for one another. A love so strong it will overcome all obstacles eventually, leading to that promised happy ever after.

Connect with Rachael Thomas on the web:

Website         Blog        Facebook                Twitter              Goodreads

One Night To Wife

A souvenir from her Greek affair! 

Mogul Nikos Petrakis is on the verge of a deal that will make him even more powerful. He doesn't need any distraction—especially not a sexy redhead whose curves beg to be touched! But now that she's carrying his heir, Nikos is forced to make a decision.

It's time to make Serena his wife!

When one night…leads to pregnancy!

Amazon Kindle

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Harlequin US

B&N

Three months ago, journalist Serena James had her heart broken by a man she'll never forget, especially not the fury in his eyes the night they parted. Now she's back in Santorini to tell him that their summer fling had unexpected repercussions…

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Great advice! It's amazing how appealing cleaning the bathroom can be when we're trying to avoid a tough scene!! Any more deadline tips to share???

Rachael Thomas - Critique Partners are Invaluable

Please Welcome Rachael Thomas to the blog today!

***

One of the best decisions I made as I began my writing journey was to join The Romance Writers of Australia. Apart from the great competitions they organise, I discovered the Critique Partner scheme. It definitely helped my writing and made me look at my work through different eyes. Having another writer read and critique your work is so much more beneficial than simply asking a friend or family member to do the same. After all, who would be more honest?

Critique Partners are exactly the right person to go to if you hit a sticky patch and don’t know where your story should go, or to have chapters read and critiqued and best of all, to bounce ideas around with. Whatever it is, having another writer read you work and offer constructive advice is invaluable. Why? Because as the writer, you are too close to your work. Not only do you not see those silly mistakes we all make, you can be forcing your story in a direction it doesn’t need to go. Just having someone suggest an alternative can bring you back and set you off on a much better storyline.

CP’s can also be helpful if you have deadlines for competitions or submissions and can help to keep you motivated when the going gets tough. Together you can build a nice relationship, one that can span oceans, which is exactly what happened for me. I was lucky enough to be matched with three fabulous Australian writers, Joanne, Louise and Kathi and over the years we’ve built brilliant relationships. I really hope that one day I’ll get to a RWA conference and meet them in person. I’m also very fortunate that I have several writing friends here in the UK too. We often rent a small cottage in the middle of the Welsh countryside and spend the weekend reading through each other’s work as well as writing.

So, if you are writing romance and need someone to bounce ideas off, join RWA, it doesn't matter where you live and you can select who you'd like to be partnered with on the Critique Partner scheme. It's also really helpful to link up with other writers you meet and organize your own retreat weekends.

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About Rachael: I grew up in the Midlands, but when I moved to Wales, over twenty years ago, I found a place to finally put down roots. I married into a farming family and embarked on a massive learning curve which also saw me learning Welsh when my two children were small. 

Writing is something I have always wanted to do and I can still remember the thrill of one of my short stories being held up as an example to the class when I was about nine. It wasn’t until my own children were in school that I seriously started to pursue my dream. I joined a local writing group which met every Monday afternoon and being with like-minded people was the boost I needed. 

Reading romance had always been my first love, and just about every short story I wrote was romance, so I decided to write my first book. During that process I also attended my first weekend writing course with Kate Walker and joined the RNA’s fabulous New Writers’ Scheme. A short time later I joined Romance Writers of Australia and learnt a lot from entering their competitions. I sought out courses and you can imagine my joy when I discovered Sharon Kendrick’s course in beautiful Tuscany. 

 Behind the Scandalous Façade, my So You Think You Can Write entry, is my thirteenth book and although only eight have those magic words ‘the end’ written on them the others are definitely part of the learning process I have enjoyed over the last six years. 

 I love escaping to distant shores with my characters, entering their glamorous world and feeling all the emotions they experience as they discover their love for one another. A love so strong it will overcome all obstacles eventually, leading to that promised happy ever after. 

Connect with Rachael Thomas on the web: 
Website         Blog        Facebook                Twitter              Goodreads

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Claimed by the Sheikh

by Rachael Thomas

Giveaway ends March 02, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

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Thanks Rachael! I agree - CPs are amazing and impossible to live without. My 2 crit buddies (Jean & Cali) are amazing ladies and together we've become much stronger writers. Can't imagine doing this without them!

How about you? Want to give your CPs a shoutout in the comments? How did you meet up?