I just wrote the last few words on my proposal story for Noble Romance. It is tentatively titled Monday’s Child: Kiss & Spell. Right now I’m not exactly clear on how the titles will work for this series. So I just guessed.

The story came in at just under 26,500 words. Perfect!

It still needs some editing before it goes off to the publisher, but I’m pretty satisfied with it overall. It’s got some angst, it’s got some kinky sex, and it has the ever important happy ending.

Now I can go on vacation with this story completed. Yay!

I figured out something during this Nano challenge and my Noble Romance proposal…I can actually PRE-PLOT my story, and it works.

I’ve tried this in the past and failed miserably, so I’m not sure what has changed. Perhaps I’ve just developed other parts of my writing skills that needed work…and now I’m ready to take on plotting?

Who knows?

I don’t get very detailed, but I do get the major plot points and character motivations. Which totally helps when I’m writing. The story I’m just one chapter away from completing followed my outline about 80% of the time, with only minor plot points being added along the way to bolster it.

So, yesterday, I decided to try plotting out my shifter story that has been in limbo. I was horridly stuck and had no idea where I was going. After some brainstorming fun with my writer pal, Dee Carney, it all clicked into place. Now I have a plan in my head and just need to get it down on paper and go from there.

I’ll be out of town for a week starting tomorrow, so when I get back home I should be ready to start my new project with a fresh eye and an outline!

Yes, even pantsters can learn to plot. It’s true! I never thought I’d say that.

Since I live in the middle of nowhere, a Netflix subscription is a must have. The movie theater is very far away, which means we are usually four or five months behind ‘normal’ people in watching movies.

This week, my kids and I watched the Star Wars Clone Wars animated film. I was very impressed. Compared to the last three Star Wars films which had pretty horrible dialogue, slow stories, and wooden acting (even from some great actors), this film was stellar. And whoever did the voice casting…all I can say is wow. I really thought that was Ewan McGregor doing the voice of Obi Wan.

George Lucas is a great worldbuilder. I will give him that much. But director of actors and writer of dialogue? Not so much. My dream would be to get the same people together that did the Clone Wars movie and have them make the rumored ‘final three’ movies in the Star Wars pantheon.

How great would that be? You could use Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher as voice actors, so any age problems would be eliminated. Because, come on, who didn’t wince seeing Harrison on film playing Indiana Jones at the ripe age of 66 this past spring?

I always thought the idea of a third trio of films surrounding the lives of Leia and Han’s twins would be very cool. At the end of episodes 4-6 we do get a happy ending, but there’s really only one Jedi left…and a sister. Wouldn’t it be cool to see the rise of the Jedi?

Okay, I’m a total Star Wars geek girl. I know. But it’s not like I dress up in a Princess Leia bikini and go off to conventions.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed that someone over at Lucasarts is working on my idea…please?

I just received word last night that Noble Romance wants to contract my story-on-proposal. The exact title has not been worked out yet, but it is for their “Child of the Week” series.

This was one of my NaNo projects, so I’m close to finishing it up. As soon as I have more details and a blurb, I will be sure to post them.

Just wanted to get that bit of good news out there after last week’s fiasco.

Kris

Ouch! I had a very painful week last week. If you can believe it, FOUR rejections in one week. On various projects, from various agents and/or editors. Yikes.

These are the days you think to yourself: I really suck.

Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on. I write the books I want to write, and then I thrust them out there and hope someone gets what I’m trying to do. This week, clearly no one got it.

My biggest rejection was from a big NY publisher. Waited 6 months for that one. SMACK!

The bright side of that rejection was that I received some very nice compliments about my writing. I am trying to focus very closely on that one sentence in the rejection letter. How many authors can say they got a personalized rejection from an NY editor? So that is a big step in the right direction, I should say.

A good writer friend of mine, who has been a real cheerleader these long months, told me that when you start getting rejections like that, you are awfully close. I hope she’s right.

One rejection was also a bright spot…although my book was turned down, the editor offered suggestions to fix it and I was invited to resubmit it. So, I will work on it after my Nano writing. December will be the retooling month. I’m hopeful I can fix it to her liking because I know exactly what she means. I’d targeted another publisher, failed miserably, and thought I’d give it a shot with someone else.

The thing is, you just never know what they are looking for. So I subbed it as is rather than rework it without input.

It’s a cute story, and it deserves some more work. Because I think it could really shine. So there’s that.

Anyway, just wanted to reiterate the toughness of the industry. How hard it can be to break in and have somebody get what you’re doing, see that it is good, and give you a chance to prove yourself.

Let’s hope this week is a little bit brighter….

This week seems to be ‘introspective writer week,’ wherein I write down what is running through my head about my writing, the industry, my future, etc. I hope this is not boring for everyone. For some reason, when I put everything down in words, I can think much more clearly. Feel free to skip this blog post and go look at shirtless pics of Jensen Ackles or Philip Winchester.

I was a good girl and did my Nano writing yesterday. I think I wrote about 2K. Need to hit the same number or higher today to make up for lost time. Wish me luck on that.

But after I had run out of steam, I found myself thinking about my mainstream idea that has series potential. The one I don’t want to waste by jumping in too quickly. I haven’t figured out the whole plot of this book yet, but instead of doing my usual and just diving in and hoping for the best, I am taking my time, brainstorming, and writing down ideas. I found fleshing out my cast of characters to be kind of easy. At least, as I was writing down my thoughts, a lot came to me about each person.

And in order to have a book series, you have to have a pretty complex cast of characters. You never know when you might need to turn a minor character into a major one, so I’ve given even my smaller characters some interesting backgrounds and conflicts that will come into play in the first book to at least some degree.

There are two parts to this book idea…I have the bare bones: Who the heroine is, the basics of what her journey will be, how the other characters may impinge on or help this journey. The second part is still alluding me….the meat of the plot. I know, sounds silly, doesn’t it?  Shouldn’t I have the plot all figured out already and THEN create the characters?

You would think so. But you’d be surprised how much you can build without the main plot. In fact, I have more to do with the characters before I feel like I’m done.

Anyway, I have a feeling that research will spark my plot. That is what happened with my last mainstream book, I just started researching a little too late (midway through writing the book) to really think things through. I’m looking to connect my plot with a natural disaster of some kind. I just haven’t picked out the natural disaster or the time period. I’m thinking it needs to be quite a few years ago. Not sure how far back I will go, but I have a feeling once I start researching things will fall into place. That’s typically how it works. The holes are filled in by facts I uncover, and they usually dovetail somewhat neatly with my plot ideas.

This brainstorming moment also cleared up something on my stalled Werewolf series…the ones you see mentioned on my homepage: ASSASSIN & SLAVE. I do have quite a bit of worldbuilding done for these two books, but there is more to go. I discovered that when I tried to start writing the first book. I stalled horridly. But yesterday, I had an ‘ah-ha’ moment with one of my secondary characters. He was too ‘good’ with no decent motivation, so I gave this guy a nice, dark secret. Something that could be very twisty and cool if I do it right.

So, I’m taking my time. Working on smaller ideas, writing smaller stories, all with the intention of building to those full-length books. I’ve discovered that I’m not a fast creator. Sure, the shorter stories come pretty quickly, but that’s because there is a lot less to plan, a lot less to build. The plots are simpler and are resolved much more easily. There are higher expectations with full-length books.

Before, I used to have ideas and would execute them, never writing them as well as they appeared in my head. And now I realize that part of my problem was not taking the time to think things through all the way. Getting the details down on paper. This time, I want to do it right.

This has been probably the weirdest week for me as a writer. Why? Well, I’ve been hit with a few rejections. One of which didn’t bother me. And it should have.

It actually gave me some perspective on my writing, my goals, and how I should move forward. It gave me an oddly positive feeling, when I should’ve been upset.

I still don’t know why.

You know how sometimes you just have those moments of clarity? When you can see past all the trees and see the forest? That’s kinda what happened this week.

I feel calmer. Less anxious about each and every step. More in touch with how I want to proceed and what equals success.

My Nano writing has taken a hit in the last few days as I worked on a freelance writing project. My goal was always to try to reach 35K before I went on vacation the 25th of November. And I still want to reach that goal. Today, I’ll play a bit of catch up with my creative writing after I finish up my paid writing.

Perhaps with this new perspective on my writing career, I will make some major headway.

Authors all have different roads they follow. When I look back over the last four years that I have pursued publication, I see how convoluted and twisted my path has been. But I have moved forward. Sometimes little steps, sometimes by leaps and bounds. But always forward.

Some people out there might think once you have ONE contract, the rest is all easy as pie. You see on my homepage I have four books released, and contracts for two more. I must not have any problems with writing and getting my stuff published. Right?
So not the case. Every contract is a new fear of failure. I’ve shot for bigger epubs in the past and have failed. I’ve even had a ‘revise and resub’ from a place I’m already published with.

I like to think that I’ve learned a lot about how to write. What makes for a good story. How to be guaranteed a contract with each and every book I write. But I’m not that writer. I’m also not the writer who has such a ‘name’ that she can ride on that alone.

The best I can do is move on to the next book, the next idea. Resubmit that rejected story to another epublisher and keep my fingers crossed and my hopes high.

What is hard is still having to write to appease a certain audience. I can tell you right now which epubs want what kinds of stories. How you have to write to the market, to a certain degree, even in the smaller world of epublishing. Which can be a real bummer.

But you know what? This readies me for the larger stage. The climb is even steeper with the larger epublishers and the big NY publishers. You have to be prepared to struggle…a lot…before you can succeed.

So, when you see an author with a bunch of books listed on her website…or even just a few…know that she, too, still gets rejections. She, too, works very hard every day to improve the quality of her writing. There is no ‘easy ride’ in this business. If anything, the more successful you become, the harder the job because expectations are set. Instead of coasting along, the bar is set higher and higher.

Most big authors we think of had years of obscurity, books stuffed under the bed, piles of rejections. They’ve done the hard work. Still do the hard work to stay where they are.

I’ve been cruising along with my Nano challenge. I’m staying on target, booking extra words so that when I’m on vacation I won’t get behind.

My first project was to write my proposal book. I had a real outline for once in my writing career. One that broke the story down by chapter. Now, I knew I wouldn’t stick super closely to the outline. Not point-for-point. I just don’t think that is really possible for any writer. But I did stick very closely to how the story develops, the characters and their motivations, and how it will be resolved.

However, I noticed something yesterday. Well, I noticed a couple of things.

One, my story is turning into something a bit longer and more involved than I intended. I think because I started out with two people who have a lot of differences to overcome before they fall in love. But that’s okay. I’m not worried about writing a longer story than I originally intended.

Two, I don’t think I have enough outside stuff going on to make the rest of the story interesting. I got to a point in the story now where the hero and heroine are examining their feelings and motivations for their actions. However, it wasn’t until last night that I realized I need to have some conflict going on with outside characters who are messing up the romance. And those outside people could just be manifestations of the characters’ conflicts. Someone to bounce ideas off of or someone to push them into examining themselves a little more deeply.

What does this mean?

Well, I don’t need to scrap the whole thing and start over. Nope. I’ve set up enough story that works fine on its own. But I do need to bring in a character that I hadn’t contemplated when writing the outline. So it could make my outline not as neat and clean a path to a complete story as I would’ve liked.

What I find interesting is that the more I write, the more I am able to see where I’m going off track and why. Used to be I just wrote a book and afterwards wondered why it just didn’t turn out like I had planned. And a lot of times, I couldn’t tell you what didn’t work.

The minute I feel that emptiness in my writing…like my character is acting in a blank room and going around in emotional circles, that’s when I realize I have to pull someone else into that blank room.

Today will be a writing correction day. I’ll get words down for sure, but I will be writing separate from my outline. Don’t worry. It’ll be okay.

I put the finishing touches on ICE WHITE today. Just have to do a teeny tiny bit of editing, and then I will send it off to Cobblestone Press. Hopefully, they will like it as much as the first two in the series.

Very exciting to have that one done. I’d been thinking it over for months now. And, of course, the minute I was done, my creative mind decided that it had an idea for how to extend this series beyond the three Wicked-length books. We’ll see how that develops.

I also had an idea for a new book that is not related to my arctic shifters. Something that could be fun with some voyeur-type elements. What fun! I’ll let you know when I figure out how that story’s going to play out.

Tomorrow or tonight, I am going to start in on my proposal book. I still don’t know if I have a contract for it. But even if I don’t, I would write this story…I’d just end up subbing it elsewhere. I have it outlined, so it should hopefully go a tad smoother than my regular projects.

Keep an eye on my main page for updates on my WIPs. I’ll add this new one tomorrow. For now, it’s title-less.