Jun 30, 2008 | Writing |
I think I must be a maniac. I've started another book. I've barely recovered from the last one, and yet an idea cropped up. I've written about 1500 words, so not much at all, but enough to get the idea simmering.
It's hard waiting to hear back on the book I just sent, but I'll distract myself with a new one. I think. 🙂 I just have this antsy, can't sit still feeling. I can't putter around the house, catch up on the laundry, breathe, go grocery shopping, or any of the things I've neglected. No, must start another story. I have delusions of grandeur that I'm like Nora's soul sister or something, but yeah, right. *g*
Must calm down, must put on the wisdom cap and know I'll be waiting a while. Must think straight, must decide what is best to write at the moment. Must not neglect San Francisco preparations in crazy hazy desire to write new story….
What do you do when you've finished writing a book? Start another one right away? Or take a break and enjoy life a little bit first? How do you get off the treadmill?
Jun 25, 2008 | Writing |
Hmm, after several months of non-stop work, I find myself bookless. Bookless as in I don't have a book to write. What shall I do? Work on the lawn? Do the laundry? Clean the house?
Um, NO! I'm going to catch up on my reading and WRITE another book!! Like most writers, I don't lack for ideas. I have several. I could write the next book in my romantic suspense series, or I have another idea for a Presents novel. Probably, it'll be the Presents I get to work on.
Why? Because I had SO much fun writing the last one and I want to do it again! Writing that book was like coming home. Crazy, but true. I'm a little bereft at being done with Alejandro and Rebecca's story. (Though maybe I'm not done at all — revisions, you know.)
I'll probably also finish the proposal to the next RS — just because I love the story and want that blueprint available. 🙂
Writers: what do you do when you finish writing a book? Immediately start a new one? Revise the old one (I should mention there were two drafts of TSMR to this point)? Take a break and play? Cry and miss the characters? Want to blow them up? (That was me with HOT PURSUIT.)
Jun 20, 2008 | Blogging, Writing |
Today, check out my guest post about my writing journey over at the I Heart Presents site. I talk about what it's like working with an editor.
And, in related news, I typed The End to THE SPANISH MAGNATE'S REVENGE last night. I'm so thrilled! Now, must think a bit on it, and then off it goes. 🙂
Jun 19, 2008 | Writing |
THE SPANISH MAGNATE'S REVENGE is almost done. I've been buried in the ending. I always get this way — grumble, groan, moan along the way, and then I hit somewhere before the black moment and the ball starts rolling so fast I can barely keep up. I write as much in the last few days as I did in the first few weeks. It's crazy, but apparently that's my process.
I owe emails. I owe blogs. I owe time to family and friends. I cannot escape the grip of this story. But it's almost done. 🙂 Soon, I'll emerge from the cocoon and wonder what's happened around me.
Hope you writers are getting much done!!! Does this happen to you, btw? Is there a certain point where the story takes you over so completely that eating and sleeping and showering are extreme impositions? 🙂
Jun 13, 2008 | Research, Travel, Writing |
Aside from hot alpha males with attitude and heroines who whip them into shape? Travel. Exotic locations.
Finally, all that time in Europe is paying dividends! (Although it paid plenty of dividends when I lived and traveled there — priceless experience.) But now, I get to revisit those places I loved while I create the world of my Harlequin Presents story.
I didn't stay in the Gritti Palace in Venice, but it's the inspiration for one of my hero's hotels. The Gritti Palace starts around 500 Euros a night. Can you imagine?
There was a time, when I lived there, when that would have cost about $350. Today, it's nearly $800. I don't think I'll be staying there anytime soon. 🙂
But I can imagine it! I can view the pictures and see my hotel come to life. I can imagine the luxury of that place, the service, the gorgeous views from that terrace. I'm doing armchair traveling to write this story and I LOVE IT! Why didn't I do this sooner?
I always wanted to write for Presents. But I stubbornly kept putting it off. Until the Instant Seduction contest. I can't thank HM&B enough for having the contest. I'd still be saying someday, and I wouldn't be armchair traveling through my old guidebooks and getting inspired by pictures of sumptuous rooms and table settings.
What do you write and why do you love it? Do you love to armchair travel? What's the best vacation you ever had? The coolest place you ever lived?
**Best Vacation: Venice
**Coolest Place I lived: Toss up between Europe and Hawaii
Jun 12, 2008 | General, Life, Writing |
If it's summer break, I'm not having any of it. I'm working. I have a book to finish, and it's rolling along pretty good — so far.
I totally love it when a book starts to write itself. I love sitting down at the keyboard and knowing the only impediment will be how fast my fingers can keep up with what my mind creates. That's not to say it's all easy. No indeed. I still have those stretches where one set of ideas reaches a conclusion (at the end of a scene or chapter, maybe) and I need to figure out which direction to go for the next set.
Yes, I know, if I were a plotter who outlined extensively, I'd know where I was going. But chugging along is part of the process for me. I really love that enjoyment of discovery along the way. It's like getting on a train and going for a trip to a place you've never been. If I bought a video of the trip before I went, and then watched it through, it wouldn't be as exciting for me.
I love this part of being a writer. What I don't love is the pain of self-doubt, the misery of waiting for responses to submissions, the sheer terror of going to the mailbox. I could do without those bits, thank you.
Right now, I'm on the downhill slide. My goal is to be done before 1 July. Then I have a trip to New Orleans over the 4th, back home for shopping for National, then the National conference at the end of the month. Once I get home again and recover from that, it'll be September. Whew, this is a busy summer! Where's the break?
How about you? Any big plans this summer? Any writing plans?
