Guest Drunk Stephanie Doyle

In my writing/drinking life, before there was Maureen and Sinead there was Stephanie Doyle. She's a fantastic Harlequin writer whose career has taken her from Intimate Moments to Duets, Flipside, Bombshell (The Contestant 2005 Romantic Times Best Bombshell winner, right here, folks) and now the Athena Force series. Untouchable is out now and I couldn't recommend it more.She poses a question in the following post regarding what is the Stephanie Doyle experience - and I'll answer it for her: out of the box heroines (did I mention Untouchable's heroine has poison skin?) and heroes who leap off the page fully formed. Stephanie gets away with things in category romance that no one else does.Here she is:First I want to say thank you to the DWs for allowing me to guest blog. This is officially my first blog. Very exciting. Usually, I read blogs and think... all the good stuff has been said already - why bother? That's especially true of DWT. It's almost a little weird how much I jive with you guys.Anyway I told Molly I was going to write about one thing. Then I changed my mind. Not unlike what I do with my editor. What I wanted to talk about was a) I'm in love with David Cook. For those who don't know he won American Idol. And b) how a singing competition really sets an example for writers who want to be successful.I 'lurv' David. I figure I'll wait until he gets his fill of hot Hollywood ass and then make my move. I'm starting with a 'Will You Marry Me David C' sign that I plan to hold up during the Idol concert. That's right. I'm a 37 year old single woman and I'm going to the Idol concert. It's okay. Mock me. I would.Moving on... In one of the writers group I belong to there is an author who was in the publishing biz for many years. He gave a talk at a conference in which he said something that blew me away but probably shouldn't have given that I've been doing this for 12 years. He said part of being a successful author is the ability to repeat the same experience book after book.I get it. Stephen King has to be Steven King. Nora Roberts has to be Nora Roberts. But as I watched this season of Idol it hit home with me. What made David special wasn't just his voice it was the David Cook experience. If you look at several of his performances he consistently did three things: big notes, angsty-emo emotion, new twist.A different song each week but the same feeling. I found myself thinking it doesn't matter what he sings. I want the experience. Me and the other people who voted for a total of 94 million times. (I only voted like 50 times. I swear.)As writers we need to do the same. Deliver a different story, but deliver the same experience with each book. It's not easy. The first hurdle is not re-telling the same story over and over. I can say there are a number of authors who I fell in love with, who ultimately I gave up on, because for me the books ran together. The plotting, the characterization, the pacing, the resolution - same old, same old. Insert character's name (here).The second hurdle is identifying what you want your experience to be. This is where as a writer it really comes down to crunch time. You need to choose the elements that will make up your experience and you need to love them because whatever you pick you will need to repeat them FOR-EVAH.Imagine a JR Ward Brotherhood book that's funny and lighthearted with a well adjusted beta hero who doesn't need saving? Or an Elizabeth Hoyt historical that closes the door on the bedroom scene? Breaking faith with readers is just about the kiss of death for an author. Keep in mind what I'm talking about isn't voice. You don't choose your voice - it is what it is. All you can do is hone it. But the experience - that's completely up to you. Do you like hot sex scenes or tame ones? Lots of action or lots of angst? Do you want to make readers laugh or cry or both?As an experiment think about your favorite authors, old and new, who are successful. What are the elements you need from them to consider the book a success? I've been writing for 12 years. I have 10 books published. I've done funny, action, mystery, paranormal. I have done strong heroines and alpha males. Now I'm attempting an historical. Basically I've been all over the place. The thing to do now is to isolate from those 10 books what elements are consistent. What do I keep going back to? What makes a Stephanie Doyle book a Stephanie Doyle book?If you're thinking about being a successfully published author you need to do it too. Who are you, what elements make up your experience, and what do you want to bring to each story each time? If you figure that out, and if readers fall in love with that experience, you too could win 94 million votes.