This post is a mini workshop I delivered to the MRWG a couple of months ago. I love angel cards. I like shuffling and laying out the cards in a spread. The gorgeous paintings are beautiful and inspiring in themselves. They also have an message of self love and confidence and are reflective of different phases of life and of the emotions which drive decisions and behaviour. Angel cards can suggest an area that requires focus or an activity that would be beneficial. For example. Cards indicating some quiet time or spending time outdoors in nature. In writing romance these cards could be viewed as the heroine needing to take time for reflection or regroup. (More on that later.)

Angel cards have a new age focus in their approach.  For instance they tend to reflect the idea that that we are responsible for the life we create. Whether you agree with that idea is unimportant in this instance because it fits with writing romance stories that are character driven rather than plot driven. Our heroes and heroines are supposed to be powerful in their lives and drive the story. A romance novel I enjoy reading is one where the journey of the characters includes growth in self awareness and confidence and ability to see their mistakes and correct them.

There are lovely illustrations on the cards which invite the imagination to activate. When looking at a card for little while you may come to notice some particular feeling or aspect of the card. The colours may give you a sense of meaning. You may look at a card containing baby angels playing together against a blue sky with clouds. Light heartedness may be your impression or it could be cheekiness. It depends on where you are in your story and what is going on in the scene you are inquiring about. People love to read romance, all romance promises a happy ending. How that is reached is what, I believe, gives the reader hope and satisfaction on finishing a book.
To draw cards you can shuffle the deck till you feel like stopping and take the cards from the top or you can fan them out and select cards from the fan. Angel cards are larger than normal playing cards so shuffling end to end may be easier. You can draw a few cards for inspiration on where the story may go. I can show you this better than explain it in theory so I’ll illustrate a card draw for myself.

When thinking about where to go after the end of chapter two for my WIP. I held the heroine in my thoughts and shuffled then drew the following cards from Doreen Virtue’s, Daily Guidance From Your Angels deck.
Already established in my story is the heroine who is a ballerina with a secret baby. The hero has come back into her life and they have now got to try and work out how they can parent their child and deal with the fact that they had a holiday romance but live on separate continents.

The first six cards I pulled from the top of the deck after shuffling were: Have Confidence; Child; Creative Project; Acceptance; Play and Change in Direction.

































The Confidence card is spot on. My heroine has confidence in herself issues. There is already a child in the picture and her childhood is definitely rearing its head. So I’ve interpreted the Child card as needing to keep focus on that. She’s a ballerina so the creative project might need to be identified. A ballet she’s rehearsing for perhaps. The Acceptance Card suggests to me that it would be important to have a scene that shows her accepting the hero as being a part of her baby’s life. The Play card indicates that this scene shows bonding and makes the reader want to barrack for this almost family. Change in Direction can be a call to the heroine to want to change her plan and maybe be consider a reconciliation and be a full time family.

There is no set number of cards to draw you just keep going till you feel like stopping. One or two might do the trick. I think what is valuable about using the cards is that they have the ability to inspire specific details or an overall theme, suggest what struggles a character may be facing and how they can get to the heart of the matter. You can do a draw for each character and see where there are links and clashes.

You can buy Angel cards from most new age/crystal shops, the Theosophical Society shop in Russell St, Melbourne and Big W costing about $20-$30 per deck. Each deck of Angel cards is slightly different in the way they deliver their message.  There are card decks based on advice from Ascended Masters, Fairies and Archangels so it’s good to browse through several decks, if possible, to see which ones appeal to you. An alternative is to make up a series of cards for yourself using pictures and insightful phrases topics or potential conflicts.

The Angel cards aren’t meant to override good story structure and craft but can be a useful  tool for sparking your imagination. Studying a card or spread of cards can help you focus and enter a kind of meditative state conducive to creative inspiration. My approach to the purpose of angel cards is that they help us to better love and understand ourselves, facilitating personal growth along with daily guidance. I believe this can be applied to creating romance novels which are about two people’s journey of falling in love with each other and growing through overcoming obstacles in order to be together. Good Luck and happy creating.

When looking to be inspired to write I usually scan the writing craft section of my bookshelf. Something normally jumps out at me as a vehicle to put me in the creative mood. Recently I stood waiting in front of my bookcase with fingers tapping my lips expecting the little jump in energy which signals success however it didn’t come. Plan B time. I turned on my e-reader to try reading a section of a downloaded category novel. I scanned the list of titles waiting for the right one to make its self known to me, again nothing. Not until I reached the very last entry. Then I felt it. A title jumped out. Not a novel but a craft book I’d forgotten I’d bought. ‘Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors II” by Alexandra Sokoloff.

Normally I skip the into in my usual impatience to get to the practical learning parts but this time I read everything the author wanted to impart to me. An awakening began as to my ignorance of what type of stories I like to write. I mean, I know I like writing romance and a good idea of what category I fit into but I hadn’t connected with the subconscious desires that actually direct my stories. Being a mix of plotter and pantser I’ve relied largely on intuition By reading the introduction, I understood that knowing more about the intuitive process or understanding my intuitive process would be empowering.

Alexandra Sokoloff feels this is so import a foundation that she puts it right up front. Part One, Chapter One,. ‘The Master List’. This list is an aid to analysis of story structure. She says, ‘...it’s very simple: in order to write stories like the ones that move you, you need to look at the specific stories that affect you and figure out what those authors and filmmakers are doing to get the effect they do.’  In the beginning exercise she asks the reader to list ten of their favourite books or movies. The benefit of the list is understanding which romance story elements you gravitate to. The idea is that in writing these kinds of stories you are working with yourself and tapping into your brand of magic.

I found this a little challenging. I mean, only ten? Alexandra does say this list is not carved in stone and is meant to grow and change. So encouraged by it not being a now or never event, I asked my intuition to activate my favourite romance stories and went with what popped into my head first. Here’s my list – in no particular order

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Sleepless in Seattle- Movie
The Perfect Rake – Anne Gracie
The Sheikh’s Convenient Virgin – Trish Morey
The Accidental Tourist – Anne Tyler
Slave to Sensation – Nalini Singh
Business in the Bedroom– Anne Oliver
Persuasion – Jane Austen
White Palace – Movie

Alexandra says there is a number of things that can be understood about your preferences from this list. Genre being one. There is really no clear genre in my list but as to the type of story I connect to I see the common elements as they are perceived by me. Remember this is my list and therefore my reasons are why they’re on this list, so you may not agree with me. As long as you see the commonalities on your own list your winning.

This list gets analysed in detail but first I identified some major stand out features.  I love a Cinderella story and stories in which opposites are attracted to each other. I did have to take ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ out of this mix as it didn’t seem to fit with the others. So there’s a generalization taking place but I may yet discover its connection with the list. That my novels have these story elements came as an ah-ha moment. Also I’m reading a book which is going to be on this list.  ‘Cassie’s Grand Plan’ by Emmie Dark. It has those elements I love and I feel a really strong connection that means it will be memorable.

In looking for a creative spark I got a whole fireworks display thanks to Alexandra Sokoloff.

I’d love to know if anyone else has benefited from this process and how it helped.

Flushed with excitement Ebony McKenna descended the stage stairs at the Melbourne Emerging Writers Festival in 2010. Dark curls bounced around her shoulders, her cheerful countenance and rosy cheeks a testament to her successful interview. In looks she reminds me of Snow White and also in temperament. Her honest enthusiasm for sharing her love of her first book Ondine is infectious. In this heady moment I asked my fellow Melbourne Romance Writers Guild Member if she would grant me an interview for an assignment in my professional writing course. How could she refuse?

Sitting in her warm and welcoming home Ebony and I drink coffee and talk about our favourite topic, writing. In particular I’m interested in the path which took her from unpublished author to emerging writer. With writing roots in journalism and the later shift to writing novels she focused on writing for a market. The difference with ‘Ondine’, her young adult novel published by Egmont, was that she wrote to please herself.

Of course she had knowledge of the market however this wasn’t her priority while writing ‘Ondine’. She said ‘I had no idea where it would fit.’ ‘I didn’t even think about the market’ during the revision process her publisher suggested changes to accommodate the target market of young teenage girls. It is interesting to note that reader reviews show the mothers of these girls also enjoyed the book so much they recommended it to their friends, showing that McKenna has tapped into the accessibility of Young Adult fiction to appeal to a broad market.

Ebony explained that she also wrote about what she knows. Her experience of being raised in small rural town where everyone knows you informed her knowledge of what life would be like for Ondine. Ebony helped out in her parent’s restaurant, this life experience enabled her to bring authenticity to Ondine’s character who is growing up in her parents hotel. She recalls what it was like to be a teenager, saying, ‘I enjoy writing about this age because the feelings are still there, the peaks and troughs. As a teenager these are the first hurdles you come against and so they feel like the worst thing possible.’ In creating the characters for Ondine she said she got to know them so well that she fell in love with them and in return they loved her back. ‘Love your characters and they will love you,’ she said and then laughed because it had just that minute occurred to her to coin the phrase. We both picked up our pens to write it down.

 I asked how becoming published had impacted on her writing. She said, ‘It doesn’t feel like a hobby anymore and I don’t feel I have to justify my writing time. When I got an agent I didn’t feel like I was pretending anymore’ and ‘I have always had a good writing routine.’ ‘It just solidified it for me that I have to get that done first before I do anything else.’

McKenna’s passion for her book is compelling. No wonder she had success with getting it published.

It has been a couple of years since I interviewed Ebony. Since then book two of the series ‘The Autumn Palace’ has been published and book three is completed and ready for publication.