A WIP Revisited - Part Deux

First, let me apologize for this being a day late. It’s allergy season here in Southern Nevada and I’m in hell...figuratively at least...LOL! Things are blooming and my eyes are swelling and the nose is dripping. It’s hit me hard especially this year as we’ve had more rain than usual. More rain means more blooms and while I don’t know what’s getting me, I do know it will be over by June...I hope...:-).

Still, life must go on and I need to make sure I do my weekly blog as it gives me direction. Again, here is my creative process on a book I will be finishing early next week. Enoy!

My Creative Process: Your Glimpse Into a WIP – Part 2

Well, here we are in month two of our work in progress. And I’ll be honest, the whole time between last column and this one, I’ve been thinking about what really does come next.

This is where I should come up with something brilliant and insightful but to be honest, I had to think about it once again. Even pantsers do some thinking about their stories. First, let’s recap what I went over last month.

Last month, we talked about how to get ideas and how to formulate that ever important first line. You all learned that I’m a pantser when it comes to writing certain things while there are others I have to meticulously plan. You learned that I continuously play head games with myself while I’m at the computer and that sometimes because of those head games, I have brilliant insight to how a story should go.

In this case, the inspiration for my work-in-progress came in the form of an intriguing picture. Add to that a really cute title and an interesting heroine who realizes her underwear is missing and suddenly you have the premise for a really good story.

Still there are some things that need to be done in the development of this story. When we last left our characters, Aeryn and her best friend, Monica, are sitting in a local pub discussing the previous eventful evening.

Let’s look at what we know about them. We know that Aeryn and Monica are lawyers who are in Scotland because of a conference on international law. We know that one of them drinks tequila like there’s no tomorrow and that one of them likes tea. We know that both of them know someone they call ‘the stud’ and said stud has Aeryn’s underwear. We also know that Aeryn is considered an all-American-blonde who has been hit upon by everyone at the conference. We also know that they have toured the continent before right after they became lawyers. Other than that, we don’t know much more at all.

So just where do we go from here?

At this point I usually ask myself some questions. What did they do when they had visited the continent? Who really is ‘the stud’? Does ‘the stud’ and Aeryn have a history? Is that why she’s so worried? Just what was that history if they had one? Will we stay in the city of Edinburgh or will travel to the Scottish countryside? Do I know enough about Scotland to write something like this? What’s the basic plotline going to be?

Okay, let’s look at these questions in order. First up, what did they do when they had visited the continent? Okay, what does one do when they get out of grad school? For this I either can look at myself and my friends or talk to others. I know that we weren’t the ‘Girls Gone Wild’ bunch in the least but we did party hardy when we realized that school was going to be in the past. By that time, each of us had significant others and did a variety of things. I went to Tahoe, a friend of mine went to the U.S. Virgin Islands, three others went to the continent for the trip of a lifetime. And believe me, I have talked to them extensively and there were at least one or two studs along the way. None of them spent the time in Scotland that I’ll have these two spending there but my friends gave me enough ideas to fill at least five books.

Second up is, who really is ‘the stud? And it goes right along with the third and fourth questions, does ‘the stud’ and Aeryn have a history and is that why she’s do worried? My obvious answer here is that ‘the stud’ is someone the girls met during their first trip to Scotland. The second answer is a little more rocky. Yes, Aeryn and ‘the stud’ have a history. What’s up in the air at this point is what kind of history. If I make them lovers, the obvious thing would be that the relationship had no resolution and this story will give them one. But what if they had had a resolution but it was one that neither one of them could accept. It would have to be something along the lines of ‘I love you but I have my whole life ahead of me. I have a wonderful job waiting and I don’t know you enough to throw it all away on good sex’ type of thing. But then again, there are a couple of other scenarios that could have happened. They had great sex and she disappeared in the morning. Or maybe they made a heart-felt promise that if neither had married before a certain age, they’d try to get back together. The answer to the fourth question is easy – no matter how you slice it, she has reason to be worried. The worry can be a total angst thing on her part or it can be because the relationship was great or the relationship was bad. Every one of those scenarios would work wonderful and I’m going to have to pick one. Actually, I’m going to have to let the characters pick one. They always tell me what they are going to do anyway.

The fifth question, just what was that history if they had one, will be answered like I said by the characters themselves. Since I write character driven stories, I need to try and figure out what is in their heads not mine. Sure I can shape the way things are going to go but in reality I’ve got to become that character briefly so I know what they would say, do, think and so on.

Next question, will we stay in Edinburgh or travel to the Scottish countryside? I’m all for traveling to the Scottish countryside. I’ve been to Scotland for a total of about nine weeks and am planning another visit at the end of this summer to start in August and end sometime in September as I’m going to a Tolkien Moot that’s being held in a highland castle. My hope is that this stud character will be a man of some means and live some place really cool in the countryside of the country I’d love to make my second home, Scotland. It really is a beautiful place but I’ve only been there in the summer. Now there’s a thought, some where in this story, they could get snowbound in a highland cottage. How cool would that be? LOL!

So I’ve answered the next question too, do I know enough about Scotland to write something like this? What I don’t know I can get from friends I’ve made over there and by reading more books on the subject. Since I do have a point of reference, I can extrapolate from there. On my first trip to Scotland, I spent a week in England and then the rest of the time on a farm near Stirling. The second time, I again spent a week in England, ten days at the farm and the rest touring the Scottish country side to places we hadn’t made it the first time. This next trip, I will be mainly by myself or with a friend and her family. Every time I go, I pick up more books on Scottish history and see more of those little obscure places that most people never get to see.

So, what’s the basic plotline going to be? Okay, so now that I’ve gone through and answered some of the questions to move forward, here’s the direction I plan to take right now. Remember, I let the characters talk through me and this is what they are saying right now.

Aeryn and the stud, who I’ve name Logan MacKenzie, do have a history, a hot and heavy one at that. Logan is the only man in Aeryn’s life who ever made her think her life choices weren’t the right ones for her. He made her live life instead of just being a participant. But Logan, at the time that Aeryn knew him, was too much of a free spirit for her and she bolted in a big way.

Now Monica was witness to all this but she’s hiding a secret, a big secret. Logan had gone to her early on in his and Aeryn’s relationship and got her to agree to a minor deception. The deception being that Aeryn thought the man was playing the field with her best friend also. But it was all a lie to make Aeryn think that Logan wasn’t as in love with her as she wanted to believe. The point of the matter is, Logan has never gotten over her. Period. That doesn’t mean he has had relationships since. Quite the contrary BUT none of them have even held a candle to the relationship he and Aeryn had.

So now, imagine what he is thinking when he finds both Monica and Aeryn at Clancy’s Pub in Edinburgh where he too has come for business. I know that I’m writing in first person POV and that it would be very hard to show you what Logan’s POV would be. But I have a very special surprise in mind for him that can’t be revealed until next time. Now on with the story. Here’s the next excerpt in my exciting new tale and we’re starting from the exact place we left off.

“What? No pithy comeback…nothing…you’re just going to lay your head there and say nothing?” She snorted like she always does at that point. “I thought you’d have at least something to say.”

The table felt cool to my cheek and I tried to concentrate on it while I plotted my response. Maybe saying nothing would be better in this case but I doubted it. “Let’s make sure we’re talking about ‘the stud,’ if you know what I mean.”

“What other stud is there, Aeryn?” She scowled at me over the edge of her teacup as I rested my chin on the table.

“Well…it could be someone that you met here…it doesn’t have to be our stud.”

Monica laughed. “For a lawyer, you can be really dense sometimes.” Sipping her tea, she just stared at me and I really hated when she did that. “You know you wanted to see him.”

I grimaced. Was I that transparent? “What if I did?”

“Pluazzzeee. Just who do you think you are talking to here? Your Grandma?”

“You just keep my Grandmother out of this,” I retorted back and frowned.

“Sweetie, your Grandmother would be hot and bothered if she knew the stud.” She just sat there giving me that all knowing look of hers. Sometimes I really hated her.

We had called him ‘the stud’ from the moment we met him. Logan MacKenzie. His very name still made shivers of delight run down my spine. But we didn’t end well, any of us. He liked both Monica and I way to much and I wasn’t into sharing any more now than I was then. But Monica could never know as my loyalties are with her and always were. I could still picture him in my mind with his wild warrior look comprised of his dark curly locks framing his almost romanesque face and his brilliant green eyes. His hair had a touch of red which matched his touch of temper. And he had been tall, much taller than my five foot ten frame. He was a man I could actually look up to as he dwarfed in comparison.

And he was the only man for which I had fallen completely head over heels. Not a day had gone by since I left him where I didn’t wonder if I had made a mistake all those years ago. Sighing heavily, I licked my dry lips. This damn hangover wasn’t making my life any easier.

“How did he know we were here?” I mumured still holding my aching noggin in my hands.

“He didn’t.”

I glanced up at her and realized that she told the truth. He hadn’t know where we were. It was a chance hapenstance that got me into this mess. My frown deepened. Logan had hated the city and swore he would never be caught in one. This lead me to my next logical leap…why on earth had he been here?

“Is the little lady any better?”

I wearily watched the barkeep, Clancy MacDougal, bring Monica another hot pot and while his brogue definitely turned my head, it would never turn me on. The thing that gave me pause was when the handsome redhead leaned down and gently kissed my best friend. “What’s this?”

Monica leisurely finished her lengthy lip-lock with her usual attention to detail and turned my way. “While you’ve been four sheets to the wind most nights, I’ve been doing some searching of my own.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t say a thing. I knew that she had been in the market for a long time for a good man. Still there were questions to be answered. “I thought that Clancy was an old man.”

He turned a brilliant smile on me and I could glimpse what had stolen Monica’s heart. “I’m the younger,” he stated, his brogue light and airy.

Again I had little comment. “Oh.”

“Is that all you can say is ‘oh’?” She continued to sip her tea.

“Well…” I began, “…I’m not sure what to say.”

“You could say you were happy for me,” she growled at me.

I knew that this was a serious thing to her as she never growled at me. “Umm…sure…I’m happy for you.” I must have looked like a wide eyed puppy or something because then she did a very rare thing. She took pity on me.

“Look. You really should be happy to know that all any one got was your underwear.”

I sat up straight. “What are you talking about?”

“You haven’t told her about the table yet?”

My eyes switched rapidly from Monica to Clancy. “Table?” I saw her jab an elbow into his side.

“Ouch. Whad’ya do that for?” They exchanged a look which I could read. “Oh,” he said and turned away. “I’ll leave ya to explain that one.”

Next time we’ll talk about Logan’s appearance and how I intend to clue you in on his point of view. Oh, yes…and then there’s how he actually got the underwear left to be told. Again, I promise not to leave you hanging too long! Later…and have a great month.

I hope you enjoyed this look into my novel. Let me know what you like, what you don’t like and we’ll go from there. Have a great week everyone and I’ll see you next!

Lynn

The Art of Rejection

This time of year, I start thinking about my goals and wonder just how many I’ve completed over the course of twelve months. Each year as a writer, an author should set some goals for the coming year. They can be as simple as Write a chapter a day or as hard as Finish fifty books this year. And believe me, I’ve been somewhere in between every year for the last seven or eight years.

So as usual, I started to look at my mission statement: To bring readers the best in erotic romantic fiction, to provide readers with a happy ending and to write every day to bring about this goal. Not bad but definitely needs some revamping for this coming year. I plan to post it early next year so all of you can see just how I’ve lined it all up.

Then I went on to what I call my business plan. It’s just ten simple statements of what I plan to do this year. And while I won’t got into complete detail as that is another blog, I can say it started out with the statement of be the best writer you can be and ended with take care of yourself because if there ain’t no you, there ain’t no this. In between those two lines were things about branding, agents and the total number of books I wanted to publish as well as conferences, sales and a host of other things.

In retrospect, it was a big plan, an ambitious plan and I feel good that I accomplished about 50% of it this year. I should have accomplished 100% but that too is speculation for another blog. But in all this planning and thought, there was one thing I kept away from my mind totally. And that was any thoughts about rejection.

Now, rejection is perceived as bad. And in some ways it is and others it isn’t. Rejection isn’t meant to be a smack in the face or a I’m going stop this crazy life kind of thing. No rejection really just means for whatever reason, that work is not liked by that person at that moment. Still, as I get ready to put forth my foot in the ring for an agent and all that encompasses, I thought I should remind myself just what it means to be rejected.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I know what it means to be rejected. I’ve been rejected a lot over the years by people who requested my work, by agents and publishers alike. Overall, I’ve had very few items rejected in the epublishing world in the last four or five years. This is good and this is bad as well. While it does give me a confidence boost, it doesn’t prepare me for when it does happen. I’ve also been rejected by a couple of agents and a NYC publisher in this past year as well all of which left me feeling somewhat out of my element.

So, with all this in mind, I started looking at my email this morning and wondered what the heck I would write about for today’s blog. Yeah, I had a basic idea but it really didn’t get cemented in my mind until I read this on an agents blog. Agent Jenny Bent was interviewing a young author who had racked up 20+ rejections and nine rewrites on a particular piece which sold. You should go read it:

http://jennybent.blogspot.com/2009/12/meet-mandy-author-and-agent-who-never.html

Wow, what a lesson in humility and the art of rejection. But the one thing this girl never did was give up. She never gave up on her story or her dream. Nor did her agent. And suddenly, my insides got all soft and I could feel this author’s joy as she finally achieved her dream. So I’m back to holding my dreams in my hands for all to see. This is a scary thought but as I go into the new year, I know this is what I need to do, what I must do.

And I have to say thank you to Mandy the author, thank you for giving me back a little portion of the dream I must have lost somewhere along the way. I’ve tucked it neatly inside and will cherish it always.

So as Christmas approaches, my wish for every author is that they have a well planned, long career ahead of them complete with successes and rejections, joys and passions for the writing you so love. For my readers, I sincerely hope I have brought you some of the best in erotic romantic fiction this year and to continue to do so throughout the next.

Now for the winner this week of An Elf’s Love, my new Christmas book...Sherry...come on down! Just email me at lynncrain@cox.net and I’ll get you your copy!

This is my last giveaway of the year. If you are interested in my Christmas giveaway, details are on my yahoogroup XtraOrdinary Romance. You can join here:

XtraOrdinaryRomance-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

The contest is easy...just join one of my groups or become a follower...and you get an entry to get a gift basket which is full of goodies and chocolate! LOL! Post on XtraOrdinary Romance and you’ll get more entries tossed into the hat. I’ll occassionally ask a question...you answer...another entry. If you bring a friend, you’ll get two entries. The contest starts today and runs through Christmas Eve with the winner being announced on Christmas. Have fun! And don’t forget to invite your buddies!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Lynn

Selling On Spec

This past month has been hard for me to figure out just what I’m going to write here at The Many Shades. This is not withstanding the fact that each blogger here brings a new perspective of writing, research or a writer's life information to this blog. To put it bluntly, I learn things here and this is a very good aspect of any blog as it’s my feeling if you can’t learn something from what you read, what’s the point.

I’m not talking about what you read for pleasure because usually those readings are for entertainment purposes only. Meaning, I don’t read those books to learn something even though many times I do. Now sometimes I do read a book with the idea of dissecting it to see why such and such a person was such a good author and therefore published by NYC.

So this morning, I was pleasantly surprised by a few things in my email box. One was an invitation to speak at my local writers group’s conference in a day. This is where they try to get some of the best local people to speak regarding writing and a writer’s life. I’ve been part of the program before but was surprised this time on what they wanted me to do. I was to go over the submission process and include the topics of researching agents, researching publishers, choosing the right agent or publisher for you, writing a synopsis and writing a query letter.

Wow...lots of stuff...big stuff for a writer. Sigh. Yeah, I know this stuff but since I’m with a few houses already, my submission process is quite different. When you are a publisher’s author, you usually just submit to your editor and go from there. Very few things in the last five years have been rejected by any of my current publishers. I’ve been asked to tweak, rearranged and do overhauls on pieces but none have been rejected. And this is great but these are my epublishers not NYC publishers.

As for my foray this past year with NYC publishers, my luck hasn’t been so good. But I’m getting close. And part of the reason for this is because I present a decent proposal package. Still, I’ve decided once my current contracts are completed, I don’t want to write on spec any more as it makes me crazy. Basically, what writing on spec is that your publisher is making the speculation that you will complete the proposed novel and turn it in on time. What I do when I sell on spec is submit a package consisting of, but not always, a synopsis, a sample chapter and a complete outline of where the book is headed but I don’t necessarily have the book complete. With NYC, you can get an advance, but usually only a portion of the full amount, then finish the book. It all depends upon how the contract is written. I want to have everything I submit complete, meaning ready to go to an editor, as this cuts down on my stress level as an author.

I hear what you all are saying...but every author writes on spec...and this is true. Almost every writer does. I currently have twenty-two books sold on spec and right now am writing on six of them at the same time. Here’s how many deadlines I have scheduled for the next year: January – 1, February – 6, March – 2, April – 1, May – 1, June – 2, July – 1, August – 2, September – 1, October – 1, November – 1, December – 1. This leaves one last book on spec due in 2011. Then, I’ll be all done with spec unless I’m stupid. And as everyone knows, I can have hoof and mouth disease at the drop of a hat. LOL!

Now the real reason I would like to stop writing on spec is the fact I have found that writing this way can stymie my creative process. And it doesn’t matter if you are writing something in one of your beloved series. Point in case was my recently completed Christmas novel, An Elf’s Love from my Santa’s Elves series. The first book is a true stand-alone while the rest of the series has pretty much has been decided by the epilogue of the previous book. But I altered what I had originally planned for this latest book by sticking in an August release in the series called Giselle’s Elf. This addition to the group, while necessary in the story arc, totally threw off what I had originally sold on spec.

At this point, I had to explain to my editor what happened and curse the fact I had sold to her this Christmas story on spec. Imagine trying to do this with an NYC publisher whose deadlines are normally in stone. With my epublishers, I have a little latitude on where and how I go, so if I screw up something, they at least have a little wiggle room where they can have another book step right to take another’s place and maybe I’m able to take that person’s slot. But with a seasonal book, or a themed one, it’s a little harder. After all, Christmas does only come once a year. Thank god...LOL!

But here’s the real kicker: I could not wrap my head around what I needed to do. For almost a full week, I was paralyzed with nothing coming in regards to this story. So, to make sure I wrote every day, I went back to other stories where the deadlines weren’t so close and looming or one of my uncontracted pieces. Finally, something in a show kick-started the process for me and I was off, writing a 38K story in only eight days. This is not something I recommend for anyone. Not that it isn’t possible, obviously it is since I completed it, but if I had done things differently I wouldn’t have been in such a crunch at the end, no matter if my muse left me or not.

Knowing this will color how I put together my presentation for this mini-conference. Never have I told a group to have the book complete before submitting. This time I would. Right now, along with all those contracted books, I am working on one or two which aren’t contracted by any one. These I’m completing at a more leisurely pace and once of them I am actually going to pass through both the agent and NYC circuit. It is a good solid story written from the heart.

Now each of my stories have been written from the heart and are good but something is different when you don’t have it already sold. I don’t write a story I don’t have an investment in or don’t like. I’ll never do that although I know authors who do. They write to the market and not what their heart tells them. Even the ones I sold on spec have a piece of me in them.

I don’t know if it’s the fact that I am only writing a chapter a week or that I’ve taken longer to plot it out or that I now have a wonderful critique group to bounce things off of regarding this story. But something feels different and right and oh so good that I’m not getting with any other book.

This whole experience has made me think about my plans for my portion of the blog next year. Next year there will be more articles on the actual process, like a submission process, and what a new writer can or should do. I’ll talk about contracts as well as other portions of what a writer should really know when coming into this business. I’ll even talk about royalty statements and how the different publishers do them. I plan to use some connections and get some interviews with well known editors, publishers and other writers to share here. There will be a few give aways but only once a month max as sharing my knowledge is more important to me than giving my books away. I do that anyway...I rarely have to opportunity to share what I know.

And that to me is a writer’s true legacy.

So...you all have probably been waiting to learn who this week’s winner of An Elf’s Desire is...SiNn! Email me and I’ll send you a copy of this eBook!

Next week...I’m giving away a copy of my new book...An Elf’s Love! Hope you drop by to get your name in the hat!

See you all then!

Lynn