Thursday, February 28, 2008

Motivation

I, along with five writer friends, went to see Tony Robbins, along with several other speakers, earlier this week. What a great day. Very motivational and inspiring. And it was wonderful to get out and have lunch with friends in the middle of the week.

I've been a fan of Tony Robbins for years. I've listened to his original "Personal Power" tapes from back in the day many times. I think he's better than an antidepressant to get you feeling positive and energetic about life.

I "get" his brand of self help much better than "The Secret." Affirmations and positive thinking are all well and good but you really need to put action behind your decisions to make good things happen. I can visualize my name on the NYT list, and my picture on the back of a bestseller but if I don't sit my ass down in front of the computer every day and produce a decent page count, I'm not accomplishing anything.

I've completed a synopsis for a story about the brother of my hero from An Unsuitable Mistress. The Desire editors said that connected books were a good selling point so I'm trying to squeeze a little blurb about the second book into my letter.

And I've read through the first half of Front Page Affair. I love my characters but I think I've got some wish-washy motivation going on that needs tightening. I also wrote the first chapter of the next book which is about the middle brother, Simon who sleeps with the younger brother's fiance. That's the scene I wrote and I loved it.

I'm still patiently (not) waiting for my final reader to send back Unsuitable with her comments so I can get that in the mail.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anne,

Do you remember when all the Aussies and NZs sold a few years ago? I'm wondering if that was done on purpose to create a "down under" group. I'm Canadian and I'm thinking we (canadian romance writers) should think about swarming the next online pitch. We could have our own "DIAMONDS UP NORTH SERIES". Surely, as great as the Aussies are, they're not better writers than we are. (they are all friends and each other's CPs. We can learn from that. Maybe we can start a Canadian Category Romance Writers group and share all that we've learned from the personal rejection letters we've received--do like the Aussies and get ahead of the game.)
It's about time Canadian Heroes and Heroines get their voices heard and their stories told. Canada is a big, beautiful country with happy couples and a low divorce rate, and yet our country is ignored in category romance.
I write American H/h, and I bet you do too.
I'll be checking your blog to see what you think
GJ

Unknown said...

Thanks for stopping by GJ.

The MS that was requested is set in Toronto and has a Canadian heroine. The hero is multinational - a little Italian, a bit American and some Canadian thrown in.

The one I'm currently working on the H/h are both Canadian. I figured if Australia and NZ were okay as settings, then Canada should be okay. I think I asked Melissa J in one of her Q&A'a if Canadian settings were okay and she said yes.

Annette Gallant said...

My husband is a bit of a skeptic when it comes to motivational speakers, but he really enjoyed Tony Robbins.

LOL I'm getting anxious for you to send out UM, too!! But I'm sure your reader wants to do a really thorough job since the stakes are so high.

Kelly Boyce said...

I wish I had gone to see Tony, big teeth and all. Although that's a nice pix you have of him there. I might pick up some of his stuff. I could use a little motivation / kick in the butt right about now.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

I got caught in all the traffic that morning on the way into work. I thought, 'Is everyone in the world trying to get into downtown Halifax this morning? What is going ON?' And then I realized that everyone WAS trying to get downtown - for Tony Robbins.