Writing?

As you know, I've been writing a thing called Thing, a sort of generally romantic women's fiction non-plotted writing exercise just to keep my hand in. I've done about 8K of this 'thing' so far, and while I like it, it's not really going anywhere as, of course, it has no real structure, no angst, no conflict, and none of the other things that constitute a good piece of fiction. But, I'm not writing it to sell. I'm writing it to keep writing, in the hopes that soon I'll return to writing something readers will actually enjoy.

However, I'm now starting to feel inklings of an urge to return to the project I was working on when I stalled, which is a sensual romance romance novella, #4 in my Secret Pleasures series. It was called The Boss's Secret, but I've decided that doesn't really fit right. Lawrence, the hero, is more than Rachel's boss. He owns the company and quite a few others. I see 'boss' as someone that a character interacts with every day, on site, whereas Lawrence is a distant, lofty figure who only very occasionally might visit her workplace. So, a new tentative title is Her Lover's Secret, which I think is evocative and fits the story better.

Her Lover's Secret started out with one hero template, and now has a different one, probably just as unlikely. He's a gorgeous man, but not conventionally so. As Lover's Secret is an older hero story, he has white streaks in his hair, and he's in his late forties. He's also about 6' 7" tall!

Above is a draft cover I designed for Her Lover's Secret, but I'm not sure I'll use it. I may even go mad, and get a pro designer to do me a cover. It's rather difficult to find cover images when you have a very specific looking hero with silver streaked hair, so you generally have to go with a 'headless' cover in these cases. And show his chest rather than his face and hair! LOL

'Lawrence'

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Back and forth

Have been back at work today on Victorianoid after a few days of procrastinating and doing other things.

I mostly find that when I've had a few days off from a book, I need to backtrack a bit to re-engage with the characters and the plot, and in this case, I went back about three [short] chapters, to rewrite and refine. I was going to change the 'action' in these scenes quite a bit, to follow what I laughingly call my outline, but on rereading the scenes, I think I'll keep the interaction between Beatrice and Ritchie pretty much as it is, and just change the outline! In my synopsis and outline thingoid, Ritchie was always the one pretty much calling the sexual shots, but as I've been writing, Beatrice has very much developed a mind of her own in these matters and is more sexually aggressive than I'd anticipated. I'm not sure how 'of her times' she is in this, but I'm sure that beneath the prim exteriors of many a Victorian miss or matron, there was a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to reach out and take hold of it... much like Beatrice, beneath the tablecloth in the restaurant of Belanger's Hotel. Think about it... ;)

I've also been thinking about length again [much like Beatrice during her under the table manipulations!] and have been reworking the outline with that in mind too. Have cut out some scenes, and some unnecessarily non-relationship type aspects, to leave more space for Beatrice/Ritchie emotion and sensuality. I know a novel needs *some* plottiness, but not at the expense of the love and sex stuff in this kind of book ie. an erotic romance.

Anyway, feel better to be writing again... even if my wordcount has shrunk today, having cut out 300 words of dead wood and cringe-inducing clunkiness. I don't think super fast drafting will ever be for me, because the absolute tosh I write when I'm racing just makes me wince. I'd rather work more slowly, and go back and forth with the thing, and then know/hope that the prose isn't too horrendously awful when I've finished the first draft. :)

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Eating: a lot of chocolate swiss roll
Watching: Victorian Farm/Victorian Kitchen Garden
Reading: my outline
Writing: Victorianoid
Feeling: not bad

Jay's finally left home...

... and gone on to his HEA with his beloved Sandy!

The proof corrections have now left the building and I can move on to new projects! Glory Halleluia!!!

Today, I'm returning to a WIP that I originally worked on several years ago. It's fun and kinky story that I really enjoyed working on at the time, but boy do I see shortcomings in the writing now! I'm always raising the bar for myself, always expecting more of myself, and what satisfied me a few years ago, falls short today.

But returning to older work like this is extraordinarily satisfying. It's like a makeover show, and every change and improvement in the story is like... yes, I can do this, this is so much better!

So, a much pleasanter working day ahead for me... especially after the traumas of proof corrections! :)

Page proofs... spawn of the Devil!

I'm checking the page proofs of this mofo at the moment... and as usual it's driving me nuts!

I'm sure I'm not the only author who dislikes this stage of the publishing process. As a dear friend on Twitter just pointed out, manuscripts are like children, and when you've sent them off into the wild blue yonder, all growed up, you do not want them back again so soon, hanging around the house starting niggling arguments over relatively minor issues. Especially when the come back influenced by others, outside the home. ;)

I like this book. I really do... It's not great literature, but there are story elements in it that I've really enjoyed writing, employing themes of yearning and reunion that have always touched my heart. But going through it and having to pick nits in it, several times over, makes it hard for me to remember the magic of its creation and to anticipate the joy in sharing my little story with others...

Checking page proofs just slaps you in the face with things you suddenly feel you might not have got quite right... just when it's far to late to do a lot about them.

Obviously, it's a very necessary evil. It's quality control. It's making sure there are no typo snafus to spoil the reader's enjoyment of the book...

But boy does it drive me to distraction and back again!!!! Grrrr....

I should never get off the Merry-Go-Round!

I've come to the conclusion that I should never completely get off the merry-go-round of writing, no matter how ill or tired or uninspired I feel.

If I ever stop writing for a day, it's twice as hard to start again the next day, and three times as hard if I leave it a couple of days... and so on, and so on. And so the feeling grows and perpetuates until writing becomes some horrible, hated monster I just can't face.

I've been falling off the merry-go-round quite a bit in this last month or two. Health problems, other worries, life crap and other disappointments have all put me again and again in a 'I'll take a break today' mood and those 'day' breaks have turned into longer and longer intervals between writing. And this just won't do!!!!

These gaps make me easily forget that I *can* actually write, and even if I'm not one of these golden, talented writers who everybody adores, I am quite good at some aspects of the craft, and quite a few people *do* love what I do! :)

I also forget how much I *enjoy* writing, if I don't do it. I somehow manage to block all memory of the pleasure I experience from writing, and only remember the hard aspects of it, like coming up with plots and ideas... I focus on my shortcomings instead of relishing and celebrating my strengths.

So, from today onwards, I will be engaged in attempt no. #23,742 to write a little bit of something every single day, even if I don't feel like it and haven't the foggiest idea what project to work on! Call this me getting an early start on my New Year's Resolutions!

No Olympics all day for me today!

Not that I'm not patriotic, and not that I don't enjoy brave and brilliant performances from athletes from all nations in all Olympic disciplines... but watching big sporting events like this just sucks me in and makes it hard for me to focus on my own challenges ie. writing, catching up after RWA, and doing a zillion other jobs!

I'm just going to dip into the Olympics now and then, today, and catch highlights segments for all the best bits and standout performances.

On the subject of catching up after RWA... basically... I'm not. Still tons to do. Still stuff in my case even! Still washing festering in the laundry basket. I've got to get on that as well as push ahead with Kiss It Better. I did get around 500 words done yesterday, in between mending the garage door which I'd managed break, and dealing with a pipe leak in the bathroom. Himself is away on his own jollies at the moment, in France, so it falls to me to handle these small domestic crises. I think I'm doing quite well, especially with that m***********g garage door, but it's still all time spent wrangling with 'stuff' instead of focusing on writing!

So today I will be mainly:

Writing some more of KISS IT BETTER
Catching up on to do list
Doing some web design bits
Washing
Not going anywhere near the garage
Doing a little bit of static cycling to get back into it
Trying not to spend too much time on Twitter
Generally trying to behave like a committed and professional writer [stop laughing!]

Stories...

Spent most of yesterday in my normal pursuit of mildly fretting about a variety of topics, but in between that, I edited three stories I've had sitting on my hard drive for a few weeks or so. They weren't doing anything just mouldering there, so it was time to give them their final spruce up before sending them off to editors.

As usual, I'd convinced myself they were pretty ropey. I always do that. Despite the fact that I've been published for a fair few years now, I'm always convinced that most of that was by mistake, and I have no real talent. I think a lot of writers feel that way though, so I'm used to that. However, short stories require a special knack, and even though I used to write loads and loads of them, I've found them harder to do in recent years.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by all three of these shorts. They weren't too bad! It was like reading something written by somebody else. The readability of them didn't seem to connect in any way with the uphill struggle of writing them. Weird, that...

Sent them to my CP, and she really liked the first one, a frisky little yarn on the theme of 'liaisons', so that should be on its merry way to the editor some time today... and then it's fingers crossed for acceptance. I've got another with the same ed. at the moment, so keep 'em crossed for that too! :)

Today I will do better!

Am going to make a concentrated effort to do the stuff I'm supposed to be doing today. The 'to do' list is massive again, still, as ever, and I need to polish some items off... including:

1. finish a story [HANG TOUGH]
2. polish some answers to interview questions and send them off to the interviewer
3. do a bit of work towards the tranche of web updates that've just come in
4. do some RWA prep, including order some stuff, make lists, timetables of stuff to do
5. edit two other stories [LIAISONS thing and FLICKER]
6. keep on top of my accounts
7. do some reading for a mate [this is a priority priority, actually]
8. begin thinking about how to tackle my next Black Lace
9. try and pull together some proposals for new book ideas [yeah, like that's *so* easy...]
10. bloody well stop foofing about!

In spite of the technological distractions of yesterday, I did achieve a bit of writing. Just a very modest 200 words, so all is not lost on that front. :)

Right, better get some breakfast and start on the above list...

Oh hell...

Agh, it's a good job I decided to do another run at these proofs! I found a minor plot inconsistency that I now have to get around with the least amount of adjustment to the text... bugger, bugger, bugger!

Can be done... but it's caused me to start doubting and questioning the whole book now. And the behaviour of the characters. I've gone from rather liking it to thinking it's a pile of pooh again, and silly, unintelligent and uneven.

It's probably okay, actually, but now, I'll always have doubts and uncertainties about it. One thing I know though... *never ever* again will I agree to turn in a manuscript early. Next time, I'll work up until my originally allotted deadline and take all the time I need for additional checking and nitpicking and extra polishing!!!!

Professor Hottie... is hot!

Despite my natural fears, I've been been enjoying checking the proofs of IN TOO DEEP and especially reacquainting myself with my hero Professor Hottie McHotstuff aka Professor Daniel Brewster. He's a very naughty academic, full of sexy fun, but also dealing with some quite serious issues. Molto complex... and it's no wonder that Gwendolynne very quickly falls for him!

The proofs themselves are pretty straightforward... no major boo-boos or continuity errors as far as I can determine. Just a few odd punctuation bits, nothing drastic. Which is big phew of relief for me! I've done the first pass, and am 'clearing my head' of them today, but tomorrow, I'll be reading through the proofs again. Even though I think I've caught everything, there is always, but always something I find on the second pass...

And I do like the book. It's a simple story, very intensely focused on two sexy, emotional people, pretty much a feel-good tale but with a side of complications that make the pair work for their happiness.

Snooker Loopy!

This is what I'll be watching on the telly for the next couple of weeks! Wahey, it's the World Snooker Championships held at the Crucible in Sheffield!

Snooker is the ideal viewing while checking page proofs, because you can have it burbling away in the background as a calming presence, and when you need a few moments to refresh your mind and your eyes, you can look up and dip into a game. I haven't quite yet decided who I want to win... but when I do, it'll be the kiss of death for that player, naturally.

What with the proofs and everything, I have a busy week ahead. I'm featured at the Raven Blog on Wednesday, and will be dropping in to answer comments there. :)

And on Friday, I've got an excerpt post at Lust Bites. Still haven't quite decided what excerpt to post, but it'll be from my first ever Black Lace novel GEMINI HEAT. Have been reading through the thing, looking for something to pull out, and it's astonishing how different it is to the way I write now. I'm not saying it's necessarily worse or better... it's just different! I think for my own taste, I prefer the me of now... I'm much, much happier with emotion based, committedly romantic writing... but the old PDC of full on, shag everything that moves erotica still has a certain charm.

Regular readers... what do you think? Erotic journeys toward love and HEA? Or women's erotic education bonkathons?

It couldn't last...

... my writing spurt, that is.

I finished my first school reunion story on Saturday evening, in first draft, but I haven't really done any new writing since. Correction, I haven't done any writing since, why avoid the issue!

I'm sort of in a bit of a multiple holding pattern at the moment, waiting to hear about various things, and I'm not sure what to do next. Editing the reunion story would be obvious, but I like to leave things to set for a little while before I tackle editing. In the meantime, I've not been totally idle on the writing front. Instead of actually laying down words, I've been researching and reading topics up online, for a book idea that's 'out there'...

Now I've no clue as to whether this idea/proposal will come to anything, or any special hint or sign that there's any hope... but it's a story line that needs more background development than my usual boy meets girl, boy shags girl, boy and girl skip off into the sunset tales. So, I thought I would look up a few things in sheer blind hope that I'll need them...

Other than that, I'm having a pleasant but very lazy Easter Holiday... and I hope you all are too.

ps. I indulged myself this morning at Amazon, with a Black Books Complete Box Set. Oh, so funny... And in honour of that, here's another look at a YouTube I've posted before, but which is one of the most hilarious and ironically true to life writing vids I've ever had the pleasure to view.

One Day Down...

Well, it was a pretty good first Sven day!

I edited about five chapters of IN TOO DEEP, and despite many qualms about this one, I didn't find it too horrifically bad. It's pretty light on plot, but I'm starting to really like Gwendolynne, and her fairly grounded attitude to life, sexy mindgames, and her larger than sylphlike size. She's excited by the sudden naughty goings-on that she's becoming immersed in, but she's pretty down to earth too.

Later, when I'd done a good editing stint, I even went so far as to do a bit of writing on a different project too. Now this is a gamble, because I can usually only keep one set of characters in my head at once, but I thought I'd give it a shot, as I wanted to get some actual words laid down for the challenge, as well as just the editing. Plus, editing can be intense, and this other thing was like a 'refresher'... Not sure whether this new thing will amount to anything, as I'm not sure it's at all right for the project it's aimed at... but hey, it might come in for some other project at another time, or maybe turn into something suitable with editing.

I don't think I'll achieve nearly as much today, because I'm at a bit in ITD at the moment that needs some drastic reformatting. The characters are IMing each other, and the way I'd got it set out was confusing. So I'm having to do it a different way entirely... Plus, later, I'll be going out, so there'll be no extra evening working today.

still bad blogger....

I'm still having trouble summoning the will to blog at the moment. I'm afraid that I'm not going to be able to find anything interesting to say. I've never been one for writerly posts... 'cos I know my way of doing things is a pretty ridiculous one, even though it does seem to get results in the end, judging by the kind things folks sometimes say about my work. But I wouldn't inflict my shambolic way of writing and working on anybody, when I wish that it was different for myself anyway.

So, what's happening? The first draft of IN TOO DEEP is in the maturing vat at the moment, and in the meantime, I'm working on an old partial I wrote about two years ago [working title Thief] and 'bringing it up to code'. I thought this thing was pretty spiffy when I wrote it, but now I see it's not as good as it could be. It wasn't out and out terrible, just a bit 'flat' somehow. I'm getting a feeling I should change the voice, but it's complicated. Basically, my heroine wants to speak in 'first person, present' while my hero seems to want to tell his side of things in 'third person, past'!!!

Writers... have you ever had a dilemma like this? And how did you deal with it? Readers, if you started reading a book with two different viewpoints like this, would that put you off, even if you liked the story and the characters and the writing style in general?

[Editors, would you give a proven author a chance to get away with something like this? LOL]

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Telly: not yet
Choc/Yummy: banana
Mood: okay
Writing: Theif
Reading: Exclusive
RSI/FMS: bit sore generally


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

It's like a hurricane out there...

Just look at all this mad wind over the British Isles! It's crazy out there! I've just been up to little town for an essential prescription, and I nearly got wafted off my feet... and I'm no sylph, I can tell you. When I got back I felt as if I'd been put through an industrial mincer and an hour later I'm only just getting over the shock of it.

Am really close to the end of In Too Deep now. Just a couple of scenes left to write. Strangely though, I'm still not in 'race for the end' mode, the way I usually am at this stage. I'm almost reluctant to push on... not because I don't want to leave my characters, but because this has been quite a tough book to write and I'm scared of it somehow. And I know there will be tons of editing, changing and layering to do. I think the lesson to be learned is to stop pantsing as much, and do more planning and working out beforehand. Then I wouldn't be changing so much on the fly and having to go back and engineer what's already been written in order for it to be consistent. I freely admit that I dove into this book without a clear idea of what it was... and that's just stupid!!!

In other news, plans are steaming ahead for The Big Adventure! I'm thrilled to announce that our little Mad Brit Erotic Romance Posse has officially increased to three, as Madelynne has now registered for the conference and will definitely be joining Saskia and I on the expedition! I can't wait! I know we three are going to have the wildest time! Saskia is going to have her hands full with us two nervous nelly flyers though... I haven't been on a plane in nearly 30 years and Madelynne has never flown! It should be veeerrry interesting! :)

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Telly: nothing yet
Choc/Yummy: grapes .... :(
Mood: vaguely out of sorts but not too bad
Writing: not yet
Reading: some stuff for a buddy
RSI/FMS: not bad


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

The Last Mince Pie

Well, I just ate the last mince pie of the Christmas season... and boy, it was nice. Still plenty of chocolate left though... :)

It's been quite a productive morning so far and it's not yet noon. Have done a bit of web design, and also a creditable 1.1K of IN TOO DEEP. Not bad stuff, a bit rambly, but at least it's words. I have to really buckle down at the moment, as not only am I trying to maintain the momentum with this book, I'm also catching up on around half a dozen sets of web updates that I couldn't do while I was chasing my THE RETREAT deadline, and a set of page proofs arrived this morning to check!!!!

These are for ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, my novella in the MAGIC AND DESIRE anthology, which is published later this year. It's a long, long time since I looked at this novella, at least fourteen months! So reading it will be a bit of a novelty. Fortunately, it's not a huge checking job at 25K, but I still hate doing proofs... eek!

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Telly: Numb3rs
Choc/Yummy: see above
Mood: okay
Writing: In Too Deep
Reading: The Ipcress File
RSI/FMS: not too bad


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

Progress... of sorts

Well, I finally caught up with where I'd previously got to with IN TOO DEEP. What a marathon that was... and it's taken so long that I've probably forgotten a lot of what I was supposed to be recapping. But I'm bloody well not going back *again*, that's for sure! I've started to move forward and I'm going to continue to do so... although I think I'm going to have to try and think things out more, as I go. I'm not sure this hoping for the best and pantsing it approach is working all that well with this particular book. I'm sort of tying myself in knots with the characterisation and the motivation of one particular character. I should have nailed him better first, because the mind-games he's playing throughout the plot need to be more consistent...

But then again, people in real life *aren't* consistent, are they? So maybe this makes the book more realistic rather than less so... it's hard to tell. I only know that there's going to be more, much more editing and tweaking and rewriting and layering to be done after the first draft is finished. Ack!

I've also made a tentative start on the gigantic backlog of web work that's built up while I was rushing to complete THE RETREAT and enjoying Christmas. Now there's a task and a half, 'cos there's *loads* of it! I'm sure it'll move along pretty swiftly though, once I get stuck in.

Himself is back at work tomorrow, so hopefully, I'll start getting more done then. It's jolly having him around, and the hols have been fun, but somehow I can't seem to focus properly when there's someone else in the house, even if he's busy doing something in another room. I seem to need the whole house to myself to be able to work properly.

I'm determined to waste far less time in 2008! It's not so much a New Year's Resolution as a simple hope that I can do better and be a bit more disciplined and productive. Wish me good luck with that one, eh? I'll need it!


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Telly: nothing yet
Choc/Yummy: nothing yet, but the Celebrations are calling, as are the mince pies
Mood: quite good
Writing: notes and thinking about In Too Deep
Reading: nothing yet
RSI/FMS: so so


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

Back in the saddle...

... writing IN TOO DEEP again aka Professor Hottie McHotstuff's story.

I looked at my records and it's nearly a month since I worked on this book, and that's quite a gap. I wanted to keep moving forward, but I knew I had to go back and 'learn' the book again. A tough choice, but I compromised. I completed the sex fantasy scene I was working on when I left the book, then scooted back to the beginning and began reading/editing again. At first the text seemed a bit wooden, but after a little while, it started to come alive a bit more, and I was getting a better feel for it. And for Gwendolynne, my librarian heroine; Nemesis, my secretive and pervy anti-hero, and Professor Daniel Brewster, my hero. I think it could be all right, if I weed out some of the terribly clunky language, and just get real with it.

Am facing a challenge, as usual, but overall, I'm really, really glad to be back with this story...

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Telly: Numb3rs S1
Choc/Yummy: cherry Madeira cake
Mood: good
Writing: 1K In Too Deep
Reading: Lord of Scoundrels
RSI/FMS: extremely achey and tired


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

a lovely compliment

My writing buddy Dayle A. Dermatis took this picture in a Powells Book Store in Portland, Oregon. Isn't it wonderful? :)

In spite of having proofs to correct, and an ever mounting list of jobs to do, yesterday was a complete washout. I had a naggling migraine all day, and with it being a weekend, and a shorter day due to a lie in, nothing whatsoever from my list got done. Spent most of the time either drowsing, or watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3. The latter was good, but not as good as the first in the series. I liked the lightness and colourfulness of the first one better, this was a bit too plot heavy. Okay, but not great...

Today is a shorter day too, and I'll probably not get a great amount done, esp. when himself gets back from his clay pigeon shooting and we get involved in chatting and maybe watching TV. We'll also be going out later [cos we didn't yesterday] so there'll be no evening work.

But tomorrow, I will be good and get on with those proofs and my other jobs! If I'm not around much, don't worry, I'm just a bit busy. :)

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Telly: Natural History of Britain
Choc/Yummy: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: okay
Writing: nothing yet
Reading: nothing yet
RSI/FMS: not too bad


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

a very strange pattern...

This has happened a few times in the last week... I spend the entire day fuzzed and befuddled by 'stuff' and I don't have the energy or the inspiration to write. Then, come evening time, panic, and the combined disapproval of Kuffer, Professor Hottie, Mr Blue and Sven, all bears down on me and I feel compelled to at least try and write a bit. I usually just scrape to the 1K mark with some very inferior prose, but that's about it.

I'm getting the words down therefore, but I still worry that what I've got is a pile of irredeemable horse plop that's gone entirely in the wrong direction...

--
Telly: nothing yet
Choc/Yummy: mini battenburg
Mood: low
Writing: nothing yet
Reading: Along for the Ride, Michelle Pillow
RSI/FMS: sore, esp. wrists


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!