by Chantelle Shaw, author of Argentinian Playboy, Unexpected Love-Child (Harlequin Presents Extra, Sept. 2009)
Whenever I tell anyone that I am a writer I have to pinch myself that it’s true – I still find it amazing that I spend every day doing the thing I love most, and have a valid excuse to live in daydream for most of the time! My first book, His Secretary Mistress, was published in 2006, and here I am three years later just starting my fourteenth book.
My latest book to be released is Argentinian Playboy, Unexpected Love-Child. It features a gorgeous Argentinian polo player, Diego, and Rachel, a stable-girl and show-jumper who dreams of competing at the Olympics and definitely doesn’t have time for romance. I’m often asked where I get my ideas from – and I have to admit that I don’t know! Rachel just came into my head and I knew she was a skilled rider with a passion for horses. The advice often given to writers – to write what you know – certainly wasn’t true with this book because I have only ever ridden a horse once, was absolutely terrified, and fell off!
For me, the key to writing is the characters. When I start a book I always imagine my hero and heroine first, and rather than try to plan what is going to happen in the story I think very deeply about who my characters are, the traits they have, and I spend a lot of time thinking about their past lives and the reasons why they act in certain ways in the book. Rachel had an unhappy childhood, caught up in her parents’ divorce and never feeling as though she belonged anywhere. For her, animals, and especially horses, became more important to her than her relationships with humans. Her upbringing made her fiercely independent, and nothing was going to stand in the way of her ambition to be picked for the British Show-jumping team – until a sinfully sexy Argentinian swept into her life and ruined all her plans!
As for Diego – I knew he would be a rider too, but rather than a show-jumper like Rachel, I saw him as a polo player. Polo has a reputation as a glamorous sport, but it’s not just about millionaires drinking vintage champagne at the prestigious Cartier tournament! Polo is an exciting and often dangerous sport, and Diego is an international champion, a fearless risk-taker who hides the tragic secrets of his past behind his image of a jet-setting playboy.
As with Rachel, I thought a lot about Diego’s past, right back to his early childhood. I believe that events in our early lives shape us as adults, and the fact that Diego was rejected by his mother taught him to lock away his emotions. The person Diego loved most was his brother, but his guilt that he was responsible for Eduardo’s terrible accident made him believe that he had no right to find happiness or to ever fall in love.
Diego is instantly attracted to beautiful, feisty Rachel, but initially all he wants is a brief affair. Rachel doesn’t fit in to his glamorous world, but when they part he can’t forget her. He seeks her out, assuring himself that the only thing between them is passion, and even when he discovers that there is a reason why they must stay together he is still determined to keep his heart under lock and key!
I’ve just read Mills & Boon editor, Joanne Grant’s post entitled ‘Don’t let the plot get in the way of the story’, and I agree absolutely with her point that plot is all about character, character, character! With Argentinian Playboy, Unexpected Love-Child, the basic storyline of a hero and heroine who have an affair and then reluctantly marry because they are going to have a child has been done many times before by many authors. So how am I confident that my book is different from all those other books with a similar plot?
It is because my characters are uniquely mine. For weeks before, and while I was writing the book, I was totally immersed in Rachel and Diego – in their lives, their emotions and the way they gradually opened up to each other as trust slowly grew between them. When Rachel was trying to hide her attraction to Diego my mind flew back across the years and I recalled the agony of longing for a boy to notice me, and the intensity of feelings I experienced then. It was a long time ago (too long to admit to!) but I think that as writers we have to look inside ourselves as we write about our characters emotional journey. It’s not so much ‘what happened’ during the book, but ‘how did the characters feel, and how and why did they react to events’ that is the heart of a good book.
I loved writing this book, but as usual when I had finished it I felt absolutely drained and Rachel and Diego lived in my head for days – until a new character popped up, a ruthless Greek tycoon with revenge in mind. But that’s another story!
I’m fascinated to know where other people get their ideas for stories and characters from. Of course newspaper articles, TV programmes, etc are a great source of inspiration, but do random ideas just appear in your mind? Does anyone else daydream endlessly and burn as many dinners as me? I’d love to know!
Best wishes, Chantelle
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Chantelle, great post, I love reading about other authors inspiration, and especially after reading a book. I loved Diego and Rachel’s story – the setting was gorgeous and he was even more gorgeous. I find films and magazines great sources of inspiration. It was lovely to see you in London this week too! x Abby
Chantelle, I loved your post as I totally could relate to your journey with your characters. I can’t write a word, even a plan for a book until I have the characters already running around in my head. In fact it is usually the characters that for me that tell me what the plot will be.
You are so right in that each writer’s unique take on a well loved and well used romance theme is what keeps romance selling the way it does. If ten writers were given a secret baby plot we would all do something different with it.
Your characters sound wonderful. I think it is the books where the characters are really strong and real to you that are the easiest to write. Your hero looks rather gorgeous on that cover too!
And fourteen books in three years?!!! It looks like you might knock me off my prolific perch if you keep that up!
Love Melanie
I always find it fascinating to read about how authors write their books. I can’t wait to read your new book.
Following the advice to aspiring writers to read the published books I chose this one specifically. I wanted to know more about the enough- but- not- too- much- background balance. I know more about horses than I do about wonderful locations so I would be better able to judge using this story than some others.
I really enjoyed the book and the background was convincing in the areas I knew something about. It really answered my questions so thank you very much.
Great post Chantelle. For me I often start off with a kernal of something, maybe a song, a film, a photo or something I’ve read. And then I start the “what if” process. For my latest wip I recently read a book about a leper island. I then thought “what if” my current H/h (in my latest Roman historical) were shipwrecked on a leper island – what would they do? How would they survive, not only the situation they faced but their growing attraction to each other? Anyway…I’m sure you get the drift…Take care. Caroline x
I stole my favorite getting the story technique from (the late) Paul Harvey.
“The rest of the story” often creates my story. For example, my Faerie series was started from running across the famous legend about the McLeod’s of Skye and their faerie flag. I read the legend and started thinking about “the rest of the story.”
And even “the rest of the story” has a flip side. That can give birth to a whole series.
My second favorite story technique is to see a character in a certain status of life – say a Duke in Regency, England or a Greek billionaire in today’s Myrtle Beach and imagine how they’d react to a certain situation. I write it so that the Duke or the billionaire initially reacts as expected, but learns to dance to the heroine’s tune and ends up a happier and wiser man.
Great post!!
Great post Chantelle
I really like the line – “the key to writing is the characters”. For newbie writers like myself, this the gold.
Thanks for the insight
Cheers, Joanne
That is such a useful post, Chantelle. Your immersion in your characters really has paid dividends – take it from an avid reader.
It was great to see you in London, btw. I’m already looking forward to the next one!
Thanks for all the comments on my post. I’m now trying to take my own advice and get inside the head of my new Italian hero – but at the moment he’s being very stubborn!
As for me matching your fantastic output Melanie, I don’t think it’s likely, especially as I have spent the last hour staring out of the window and eating biscuits rather than writing!
It was great to see everyone at the AMBA lunch.
Chantelle
Great post Chantelle. Loved your book by the way.