Cynthia Harrison's Blog, page 62

The Rocky Road to True Love

Got through 30 pages of revision yesterday. Five hours of steady work. And then last night, I realized they were all wrong. Really wrong. Like, unfixable. In need of swift deletion. The saving grace was that I also knew exactly how to fix the scene sequence. I didn’t have the words yet, but I knew the pattern and how they would follow the romance in a way that makes sense in the overall scheme of the novel.

In writing romance, for me at least, the most difficult, delicate part of the plot is keeping the lovers apart for most of the book, and for very good reasons. No misunderstandings or coincidences or other contrived devices will work these days. They are too cliched. So it’s tough to come up with something original that also feels true. However there is one thing a romance writer can do to sort of illuminate the path, and that is track the romance.

My romance was up and down and a bit desperate near the end when I was pursuing word count instead of story content. I want my lovers to progress forward in a smoother way, a more honest and believable way. There are bumps, but the times when my characters find each other, lock into their attraction, and connect in deep soulful (I hope) ways should, every time, ratchet up the love a little more.

Looks like this: first contact, first touch, first kiss, maybe another kissing scene just to keep things interesting, and then, the scene I almost totally messed up yesterday, the very important ”almost” scene. And the “almost” scene is exactly what it says. They “almost” have sex. Or as we like to say in the romance biz “make love.”

Thank stars I realized the problem in time. After the “almost” scene, it’s smooth sailing to the already finished love scene I worked on for a very long time. The editor enthusiastically approved that scene and the black moment that follows. From there it’s a short ride to resolution and happy ever after.

Were yesterday’s hours wasted? No. They showed me what was wrong and where I had to go to correct things on the rocky road to true love.

After Revision

Yay! I finished my revision today. Boo! I now need to add 50 pages to the novel in order for my publisher to offer a print version. I slashed through my manuscript, merciless to my darlings, mostly flights of fancy that didn’t add to the story but gave me room to monologue about how Eva was feeling instead of going into a real scene with real conflict and show it in real time on the page.

I hope I got rid of all of it because that was the big thing my editor asked me to do. The other was to end the story where it should end and not drag it on for 50 more pages just to get 65,000 words. So I did that too.

My next step is to read through the story to ascertain where I can best add 50 pages, which is approximately 10 chapters/25 scenes. I don’t expect this to be easy. I’m wondering if I can get it done before my vacation in a few weeks. Can I do it, is there enough of the story that begs to be explanded, or is this story told?

I’ll let you know:)

Indie or ePub?

Congratulations to my publisher The Wild Rose Press for winning “Best ePublisher” five years in a row here. Being with a #1 ePublisher feels good. About the same time I signed a contract with TWRP for The Paris Notebook, I self-published my first indie novel Sister Issues on Kindle. I thought it would be interesting to see the differences between doing it myself and having a publisher. I can now report that:

1. Money: the money I earned on each book so far is about the same. Quarterly earnings in 3 figures. Low 3 figures. Don’t let that discourage you. Other authors earn much more. They promote their work more effectively, write more books, write sexier books, paranormals, series.

Another money issue, if you go indie, you’ll probably have out-of-pocket expenses. Nothing like what a vanity press would charge. (Many people think indie publishing and vanity presses are the same but they are not. A vanity press will take thousands of your dollars and not even edit your masterpiece. Not even a spell check!) But a couple of hundred bucks if you hire out any of the hard stuff. With TWRP the author pays nothing and the publisher does everything.

2. Content Control: Going indie means I have complete control of content. It also means your book will need an editor unless you have two degrees in English and a super smart critique group, like I do. Freelance editors charge fees as low as $100 but some are much higher. Going indie, you’ll need to do your homework here. Ask indie authors you’ve read and enjoyed who edited their books. With TWRP, I worked closely with an editor.

My TWRP my editor advised I cut a subplot and add a consummation scene. I really loved that subplot so I turned it into the free short story “Sarah’s Survival Guide” on my website. I paid a friend who is good with graphic design $100 to make a cover. I think the book would have been better with the subplot but it would not have been a romance.

As for the consummation scene, this is a personal decision. TWRP does have a “sweet” line of books for people who want to be sure they are reading “G” rated material. My book was not sweet, even without the consummation scene. I had four letter words and lots of sexy foreplay. So I wrote the scene.

3. Covers: As an indie, I had to find a cover that looked professional or hire someone to do it. After a long time of trying to stage a cover myself, I got permission from my daughter-in-law to use a pic of her and her sister. I paid them peanuts, but I think anyone who gives permissions like that should be paid. At TWRP I got a great professional cover by one of their artists. Didn’t have to pay a dime or do a thing but fill out an art-fact sheet.

4. Print: As an indie, I knew it would cost a little more ($100 working with Amazon’s Create Space) to have Sister Issues available in print. I decided not to do that. Yet. With TWRP, if you write 65,000 words or more, your book goes to print. That was a thrill!!

5. Format: I had to find someone to format my Word document into KDP (Mobi). I tried several times and could not get it to work right. I found someone to help with that for $100. Turn around time was less than 24 hours and my book looks great. TWRP does all that for you:)

6. Marketing: As an indie, you are on your own. I read up on self-promotion and did what I could with the time I have. I want to write, not market my work. But with indies, self-promotion is essential. TWRP has a marketing department. They send galleys to all kinds of review sites and I pulled in a few reviews that way. They chat up your books on Twitter and Facebook. They ask you for ideas to partner with them to promote your book. I’ve done a bit of that, too.

7. Distribution: Most stores that sell books do not sell indie books. If you live by an indie bookstore, lucky you! But you need to make first contact. TWRP handles distribution. That is huge.  Everything TWRP does for me is huge. I want no part of making covers, formatting, or distributing my books. So the clear winner, at least for me, is The Wild Rose Press.

 

At the Hop

If you’re a writer, and you probably are if you’re reading this, you’ve heard the idea that we need to Protect The Work. Meaning, save your best self, your peak hours, for writing. Not talking to your mother on the phone. Not having lunch with girlfriends. And certainly not pursuing social media!

That is one reason why I never participated in a blog hop until this past week when I was lured in by a week of solitude. Because writers need friends too. And also, I got an iPad at Xmas and I am going to use it to read blogs during commercials on Nashville and Parenthood and Bones instead of magazines or newspapers or checking FB & email one more time.

Engaging in this hop introduced me to some great writing blogs and I’m not just talking about “learning your craft” stuff. I also really dig reading about new social media tools, practically painless self-promotion, and healthy writer reports. Also tarot, meditation, yoga, and self-care. There are blogs about all this stuff just out there waiting to be discovered.

Who needs The New York Times? I am a little bit mad at them because their e-version of the Sunday Book Review has way less reviews than the print version. Why? Makes no sense. Also let me buy Sunday only and share with my husband on his Kindle! Geez.

Strayed a tad off point, but all I’m really saying is I love having all those hoppers with links in this post and I am going to visit each and every one of them. I’ll be posting my favorites soon with links in Must-Read Blogs. Sometimes I forget that it is really fun to do new things and that the work can protect itself.

Woodswoman

Picture a single young woman at her keyboard, writing for her life in a cozy cabin tucked deep inside the Adirondack mountains. Sounds like heaven. For Anne LaBastille, it was a reality. Not only did LaBastille live and write in her rustic cabin, she built it herself. Woodswoman tells this true story, spanning the first ten years of LaBastille’s life as a writer and conservationist.

LaBastille earned her PhD in wildlife ecology from Cornell University, travelling to and from her beloved cabin. She wrote for many popular and scientific magazines from Reader’s Digest to National Geographic. She also took the photos, which in the heyday of print journalism was a must. The thing she was most proud of was that she made her living by her writing, never having to take a 9-5 job to pay her bills.

I have read Woodswoman many times, most recently just a few days ago. LaBastille is my hero. Not only is she an excellent writer, but her stories are filled with the sort of feminist freedom and daring I would never attempt. She’s got a sense of humor, too. When she built her cabin, she purposely kept the bark, thinking it would look pretty as wallpaper. Then came the first mating season of the birch bark beetles, and in the easy LaBastille style, she laughed at herself. And kept the bark.

Some of the hardships she willingly went through to realize her Thoreau-like dream were isolation, dangerously low temperatures in winter, no indoor plumbing, no electricity. All the while she wrote, traveled the globe for her conservationist work, and consulted on ecological concerns. She also earned her Adirondack guide badge, which allowed her to take groups deep into this stunning national forest.

My book collection includes a thousand titles: poetry, novels, memoir. I’ve got another 500 or so in my Kindle cloud. I’m a college teacher of English literature and have two degrees in the subject. And yet, my all-time Classic Read is a book not widely known, a memoir written in 1976, before there was a name for the genre. LaBastille wrote many books on conservation. These titles are not the dry tomes one might expect from an academic. Instead, she mixes adventure, ecology, and even romance into her subjects. Her titles also included two sequels to Woodswoman. LaBastille died in 2011, yet lived her live with a richness and character few can claim.

January Deadlines

It’s January 1st, but I feel none of the optimism I’d been expecting. Probably because taking down Christmas is so much more depressing that putting it up. Also, I hosted a dinner party last night, and one on Saturday night, too. It has been go, go, go and I am very happy to settle back down to writing. I’m also really tired. Too much rich food, too little exercise.

I have three deadlines this month: a chapter I must send today for my critique group, a revision of Blue Heaven by the end of the month, and a post on the 3rd for a blog thingy, I am not sure how it works or what it is called, I only know that I need to post something about a book I consider a personal classic. There are all kinds of prizes and things. And links hither and yon. I’ve not done much partying in the blog world, so I am a little lost. It’s only when I remember I simply have to WRITE that I calm down. I have produced hundreds of pieces of non-fiction on the subject of fiction. I will be fine.

The critique depends on how much of a mess the manuscript is…hoping for a bit of tidying up a scene or two and then a nap. I also promised the editor at my publishing house a substantial re-write of the manuscript by the end of the month. What was I thinking?? I had mistakenly believed I’d be able to work on the revision during the holidays. No. Revision, specific editorial revisions, take chunks of time, daily attention. I’m happy to get back to it, but also feeling pressure too!

Emergency Writing Idea

Hello from the land of party after party after party…We have been on the go for several days and today Al is hosting his gang of pals, guys he has known and kept in contact with since high school. They have season tickets to football together and go to the NASCAR race in Michigan in August. He is barbecuing steaks for them and they will play pool for money, listen to loud Led Zeppelin, and drink copious amounts of beer.

I really wanted ONE quiet day at home to write, but it won’t be today.

It is time for emergency measures. I’m taking myself away from the testosterone to the movies, maybe some shopping, certainly dinner for one. Possibly popcorn will be dinner. In the midst of all this I plan to buy a new journal and hole up in Starbucks for some writing time and a latte.

If you are a writer, and you find yourself cranky in this season of good cheer, you are not alone. I am right there with you! The problem is not writing and the antidote is finding a window, even if you have to go to a coffee shop!

 

Writing Thru the Holidays

Does anybody get any writing done during the holidays? For me, it’s a challenge, but I manage to write (almost) every day. Here are 5 fail-proof fallbacks:

#1 Morning Pages. Write in your paper journal about whatever is on your mind. Aim for three pages. If you only get a paragraph, that’s okay. But push yourself to do more!

#2 First drafts. Really there is no way to screw up a first draft. None.

#3 Collaborate. I am working on a first draft of a non-fiction book with a friend. We email each other sections of whatever shows up in our minds that day regarding our subject. We chat. We brainstorm back and forth. We ask and answer each other’s questions on our topic.

#4 Blog. I have never been one to revise my blog. When I started out blogs were spontaneous and even misspelled words were okay. Bloggers posted every day. I did not miss a day for the first three or four years! Now it’s acceptable to do “once a week.” Piece of cake! Don’t listen to the rules of blogging. I recently saw that you MUST have a photo with every blog. Nope! Do it your way.

#5 Christmas Letters & Emails. Correspondence counts!

Loss

Every day since last week I  have been wanting to write an entry, but just could not do it. I posted about my personal loss on FB and then again when Newtown tragedy hit us like a bag of hammers. On Monday, my beloved cat died after three weeks of struggling to stay alive. Then on Friday, the children. And the adult school personnel. Since my first post to FB about that mass murder, I have not been able to post again.

If I write that a friend gave me homemade cookies, it sounds trite. If I write that I can’t eat those cookies because of doctor’s orders, I sound self-involved. If I say Al will enjoy them and not gain an ounce, well, now I’m kidding around and having fun and that is not the mood of FB right now.

And yet, I don’t want to look at that post about Newtown anymore. I don’t want it to be my last comment to FB. I want to begin again, but it is difficult. My cat was my constant companion for ten years. I rescued him from kitty death row (he had a cold and they were putting him down). I knew that he would not have as long a life as some of my other cats. It was not in his nature to play it safe. Our family cat lived to be 22, living with my parents longer than I did! Rusty lived only ten years.

But Rusty was a wild cat. He daily attempted feats of great danger due to his love of high places. He ate shoelaces and ribbons. He chewed my purses and boots. He was part dog. As a consequence, my house had to be Rusty-proof at all times. Now, I don’t have to make sure the pens are put away or the purse is hanging on a hook. I don’t have to cover the hummus before guests arrrive and I can leave a glass of water on a table with confidence that no cat paw or tongue had been inside it. All Christmas bows and ornaments are unshredded pristine.

But in every moment of the day, I miss my cat. I can only imagine how the parents of the Newtown children must feel. There is no comparison. In fact, when Newtown happened, it put my grief, that now seems so small, about Rusty aside. Now I grieve with the rest of us for Newtown’s families.

 

 

Thank You!

This morning I woke up determined to try to contact and thank as many reviewers of The Paris Notebook as I could find. I knew a few of them and guessed on one, correctly I hope, but the other reviewers remained a mystery. I am about as inept as Deena from TPN when it comes to detective work:) But I tried and think I’ve got them all but one. That would be the lovely Scarlet.

I thank Scarlet again. She’s only posted two reviews, both of my books, so she must be an angel who wishes to be anonymous.

Then there are the review sites, so important for ePublished writers. I tried once to get reviewed through a site I know on Twitter and nothing came of it. Trying to get a novel reviewed is not an easy task and I abandoned it in favor of writing after that one aborted attempt.

Thanks to the marketing magic of Lisa, who does PR for The Wild Rose Press, The Paris Notebook got a couple of reviews from sites I’d like to thank here. Fern from Romance Reviews Long & Short  wrote a very nice review on that site and also posted to Amazon. And Nikki at Storm Goddess gave me 5 lovely stars at that site and also posted to Amazon.

As a former book reviewer, I know these people write for little more than love of books and I am grateful and humbled by their kind praises.