Writing a Mills and Boon

Oh, I've tried, and tried and tried..... But not for some time. At one time I'd tried so hard, I thought I might have made it as my whole manuscript was requested after sending them my initial three chapters. There was one problem though. I'd only written the first three chapters! I foolishly dashed off the next nine chapters and whizzed them off. A rejection letter whizzed back. It taught me a lesson though which is that at least 90% of success in writing is completion. Also that it's one thing to produce three fizzing chapters. It's quite another to produce a whole, coherent, gripping, well-crafted twelve chapters. There is loads of advice around such as this great and succinct summing up of the alpha male on the Mills and Boon website at http://community.millsandboon.co.uk/forums/write-stuff/how-write-modern-romance (After reading that, I'm in love with him already). Also, as one of my writing friends so succinctly put it, 'never leave their side'. That is, the hero and heroine and I think those four little words sum up one of the essences of a Mills and Boon, so thank you Jan S, it's something I keep remembering whenever I start to veer off on a pathway away from my two main protagonists. Never leave their side........ I'm 8881 words in so far, around two chapters and I've stuck with them all the way like their consciences, on their shoulders, interpreting their every move and studying their every motive. Only 41,119 words to go...........