edits

Since I posted the excerpt last night, over at Portia's Prose, I've been thinking about more and more tweakage I need to do to Suite Seventeen. This is my process, I suppose, I slam down the main story without thinking too much about background [just to get something down] and then work through the ramifications and filter in stuff later to give it more depth. I was mainly thinking about Valentino's car last night... He has this amazing and very, very valuable classic supercar [there's a reason in the story why he comes to possess such a thing] but I'd not stopped to think about the insurance on such a vehicle, which would be astronomical... so I've got to come up with an explanation for how he can even afford to pay the insurance. I also got to thinking more and more about what Annie has been doing with her life to get to forty plus... She's got no kids... she probably hasn't worked for quite a while... other stuff... but I suppose the fact that the years have flown by and she hasn't a lot to show for them is actually one of the reasons why she's so open to a whole new world of experience with Valentino... so ready to shake things up so radically by getting involved with him. I'm seeing ways to lightly sketch in and hint at these background facets, but the accent is on dealing with them lightly rather than making a huge deal. Basically, I'm writing for entertainment. I want my story to have some emotional depth, quite a bit in fact, but I don't want to get heavy and bring readers down with anguished pasts and sob stories. I'm about giving people a fun read. I'm not about issues or making any kind of particular 'statement'. So I've to negotiate the tricky path between giving readers a true sounding experience and providing them with an escapist sex fantasy to tickle their fancies! :)

Having said all the above, it's Saturday and I'm not getting on all that fast. I'm pratting about mainly, although I have done my static cycling, whilst watching an ep. of Law and Order Criminal Intent... ooh, yummy, yummy Bobby! It seems weird to see him investigating crimes in New York when he should be either sitting in his office in Borough Hall, thinking up the next naughty thing he's going to do to Maria... or actually be doing something naughty to or with her! Probably in the back garden, so his neighbour Annie can watch them...

To be honest, I'm not feeling all that great this morning though. I feel as if a headache might be gathering... the sort that can morph into a migraine if I don't watch it. Will have to monitor the situation closely, and be kind to my poor old noggin... maybe take a pill of things take a turn for the worse...

Roll up, roll up! Excerpt!

New excerpt from Suite Seventeen... click here!

shout outs!

Just wanted to shout out to a couple of super people!

First... Jenny, who sent me a lovely email the other day, saying how much she liked my work and cheering me up on a day when I was full of doubts.

Secondly... Eliza, who is amazing, and she knows why! :)

Oh, and if I linked to you at my old blog, and you're wondering why there isn't a link to you at this blog... well, wonder no more! Just scroll down right to the bottom of this blog and you'll find virtually all the links from my old one. I also hope to be adding more when time permits...

a mixed day

Just what it says on the tin...

One of my royalty statements arrived today, and it wasn't quite as wrist slittingly piddling as I'd feared. Not much, but not so little that they simply sent the greengrocer's lad round with a bag of monkey nuts. Was reasonably satisfied... until started discussing royalty statements in general on a list I'm on... which caused me to look more closely at certain figures, and realise exactly how small a proportion of the price of a book the author actually gets. And how many books get 'returned'... Navy blue gloom set in again... and not for the first time, I started fingering my lottery ticket and chanting incantations. Was tempted to promise my firstborn to the gods of Lotto, but then remembered I don't have one...

So, back to paper editing my opus. Again, mixed. Some bits are okay, but I'm into an uncharted sort of region now. A bit of the book I've only 'written' and not worked over about four or five times. And consequently it's very rough, untidy, twittish and amateurish in a lot of places, and reads like it was a first draft of a first ever novel written by a poorly educated teenager. Oh, I think I'll be able to knock it into shape somehow, but it's going to need a couple more runs over this last 100 pages or so...

On the up side, the rampant indigestion and dyspepsia I've suffered for the last few days hasn't been so bad today. So at least that's in my favour... Wouldn't want to have bad guts over the weekend when Saturday is fish and chip night!

doin' it old school...

Am still paper editing Suite Seventeen and quite enjoying the process... I say 'quite' because there are moments when I can't believe I've written something so amateurish and clunky. The good news, though, is that quite a lot of the stuff is pretty smooth, and there are pages and pages and pages when I don't have to do a single thing to it. However there are some untidy bits, and I'm in one of them at the moment. The character of Annie is sort of wavering a bit, and I've to firm her up and bring her back on point. Although, maybe the wavering is right? She's going through big, big changes, revamping her entire attitude to life and sex, and of course, she's just fallen head over heels for the most exotic, perplexing and perverse man she's ever set eyes on ie. Valentino! Anyone would feel a bit all over the place at a time like that, eh?

Sex and Music

Ack, apparently it's the US publication day of Wicked Words - Sex and Music today... and I'd completely forgotten! Aren't I useless?

Many thanks to publication day buddy Nikki for reminding me. I'll post later with some more stuff about this, but at the mo, I'm deep in paper edits of Suite Seventeen... and actually enjoying myself for a change.

Here's an excerpt!

best intentions... yeah, yeah, yeah...

I did quite well, for me, yesterday. I've decided that I've really got to shape up and make like a proper writer - instead of being a weak, self indulgent procrastinator all the time! I wasn't perfect yesterday, but I did improve on a lot of recent days. Achievements included:

• checked proofs of Public Domain and sent changes off to lovely editorial assistant
• perused and edited my story for the Sex With Strangers anthology [quite pleased with it too!]
• printed off a few chapters of Suite Seventeen for a paper edit
• set up my excerpts blog Portia's Prose
• prepared a bill for a web client
• read some more of Alison Kent's CIG to Writing Erotic Romance

And that lot is quite impressive if you're me!

Today I plan to get on with that paper edit of Suite... I did the edit of the SWS story on paper, and somehow, I found it easier to do that way. I got a clearer view of it. Not good for the environment to do it that way, I suppose. I'm going to allot myself a few chapters a day, so I don't frighten myself off doing it. My critique partner is away on holiday at the moment, so I can't send it to her until next week anyway.

Anyway, that's my main job for today. I may perhaps post a tasty morsel of the SWS story over at Portia's Prose, if I have time, and I'll certainly be reading more of the CIG, because even though I've been writing for years and years, it's still giving me insights into how I should be editing Suite... mostly things which I should be mindful of, but have lost sight of somehow... basics like goal and motivation and that old buggaboo of mine - conflict! God, do I hate having to 'do' conflict in books!!! I'd walk a million miles over broken glass and nails dipped in pus to avoid conflict in real life, so it just seems totally against nature to have to make up conflicts for my characters in my books... but dramatic storytelling is NOTHING without conflict... so there you are, I've gotta do it.

One thing I mustn't do today is continually keep checking MySpace to see how many friends I have. I've really got to get a grip there, and just go once a day to do my socialising and friend adding... It's a super place to network, but it's also a timewaster too. Big time! I've also got to refrain from continually visiting my Google Reader page to see which of my bloggy people has blogged... The posts will still all be there if I ration myself to one or two visits a day, and it'll be more of a treat if I have lots to read at once.

Anyway, time to start on my new, improved productive day! What are the bets on how long this latest of a million resolutions to do better will last?

excerpts

Taste a bit of PUBLIC DOMAIN here!

Gawd help me!

****! I said I wouldn't waste time today... and I certainly shouldn't have done this one!!!

You Have Low Self Esteem 88% of the Time

You're definitely in a low place right now, but you also know deep down that you can get out of your funk. Take a chance and make a new friend or try a new interest. Shaking things up will give you the self-esteem boost you need!

How is Your Self Esteem?

What time of day am I?

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Thanks to Kate Hardy for this one... and do you know, this is exactly the result I would have hoped for. It's so me! LOL

And I didn't even have to cheat to get it!

spotting the goofs

Well, I read through Public Domain again, and spotted a couple more boo-boos. I always like to read through proofs a couple of times at least, in case I miss some dreadful howler on the first pass. This is a big task with a 75K manuscript, but not so bad on a 4K short story. There are a handful of thingoids in PD that need dealing with... mainly because I sent a draft of the thing to the editor for a look-see at quite an early stage. Because it's not my usual type of story, I wanted to know if it would be acceptable, and if not, I'd write another... But it was acceptable, and I never went on to work it over any more, when under other circumstances, I might have done. The good news is that it was pretty much okay as it was... there are just a couple of repetitions here and there that I might have spotted on another round of editing. Otherwise, I don't think I would have changed it anyway...

That's about all I've done today so far, except for some pottering around on MySpace. Which is fun, but it scares me too. Not for the timewasting, which is bad enough, but for the fact that I feel it's a dangerous space, wide open for the nefarious activities of spoofers, hackers, crooks, creeps, nutters and general mischief makers. I think one needs to be very wary there, somehow... It's a great promotional opportunity for writers and other kinds of creative types, but it does merit some care and caution...

Well, I still don't know what project I'm going to do next. When Suite Seventeen is turned in, I'm out of contract, and that's a very depressing state of ungrace to be in. My editor has murmured about projects, but so far, not come to me with anything more concrete than that... and I feel that because I'm not proactively pushing stuff at him, he might forget about me and work with other writers who are hungry and eager and full of dynamic ideas. I suppose I must really discuss this with my agent, but in the meantime, I have various bits and pieces to edit inc. a novella and a short story or two, which could do to be polished and put out there. Nobody's going to accept anything that's still festering on my hard drive or in a heap of A4 in my office!!!

In other news, I've just started reading Alison Kent's how-to book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Erotic Romance. I read a preview of Chapter 20 aka Getting Wild and Kinky and that was totally fabboo, but now I'm going to work my way through the whole book. This book is perfect for me, as I need to understand better how to meld romance and erotica more harmoniously, and raise the volume on the romance side of things to match that on the erotica side of things. It's also v. apt for me because as most people who've read my blog for a while [both here and at the old place] will realise, I am actually a bona fide Complete Idiot! :)

I think there's much to be gleaned from writing how-to books, even if you've been in the game for a while, like I have. There's always something new to be learned, or something that you need reminding of that you've forgotten. Or, and just as important, you can find affirmation in them, in that, you can find yourself going... 'Oh god, yes, I do that...' and you realise you're doing something the right way, or at least in a way that's one of the right ways to do a thing. I think that when I've read Alison's book - which I know is going to be invaluable - I'll dive into Janet Evanovich's book, How I Write. Obviously, I won't be writing romantic crime in the near future... at least I don't think I will... but I expect there to be a lot of great advice of use to writers of all genres amongst the pages.

Ah well... better get on with something, I suppose...

web site housekeeping day

Okay, it's a kind of foofing about, but it's something that would have to be done anyway, so I did it. My main site www.wendywootton.co.uk has needed some minor updating for a while, so as I just can't get into writing, and I needed to avoid my proofchecking, I thought it would be more useful to update my site rather than spend the day cruising MySpace making new friends.

There are no great design changes. It was mainly adding info about Sex in Public, and posting links to a few reviews, and updating all the blog links to point here instead of the old place. The review bit was actually very cheering. In total, there seem to be quite a few of them now, and when folk say nice things about my writing, it fair bucks me up! It was all very time consuming work, though, and fiddly here and there, but thank heavens for Dreamweaver that can do global changes for things like the blog link.

One of these days, I suppose I should do a makeover of both my Wendy site and my Portia site, but I'm having enough trouble applying myself to writing as it is... In fact, I know it sounds silly when I design myself, but I'm almost tempted to get someone else to makeover my site for me. I was reading on a romance writers' message board only yesterday how important it was to have a high impact site if you really want to make an impression, and I know the poster was right... But I've always resisted anything that looks too self conscious, as I don't want to look like a product or a brand... I just want to project a very personal sense of 'me' with my site. Not me as the big time writer [like, yeah...] but me as a the real, living person... And if I should go for a new design, by someone else, one of these days... there's one thing I will not embrace, no way, not in this freaking universe... and that's referring to myself in the third person on my site!!!!! I mean, how pretentious is that? I'm not the Queen, for God's sake! When I encounter a 'third person' site, even if I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the author is the sweetest, most unassuming and most genuine person you could possibly imagine, there's this subconscious muttering gnome of curmudgeonliness inside me going 'get her, the snobby cow!'

I have heard people say that the 'third person' approach makes people think that you're much more successful ie. it implies that there's a whole team of people looking after business for you... But I think the shrewd site visitor can always tell what stage the author's career is at from the amount of books listed, their type or genre, and their publishers - and from that deduce that there is no mighty machine behind her or him. LOL!

Yikes, I don't know what brought that little tirade on! Just felt like a bit of a whinge about one of the many minor niggles that get on my wick from time to time...