Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 44

Biggest Challenge of Being an Indie Author

I recently had a very good question posed to me.  “What is the biggest challenge you face as an indie writer?”

I had to think over this one for a while, but it finally came to me: the biggest challenge indie writers face is taking over the role of a publisher.

Writing is the easy part.  (And yet, it has its own challenges because you have those times when the story isn’t “coming” to you because the characters are silent or you are going in a direction the characters don’t want you to go in.  There are also days when you don’t feel like writing but have to anyway.)

But the hardest part is playing the role of publisher.  I’ll give you an example of what tasks I have on my list to take care of in the next two weeks.

Marketing and Promoting: I need to get ads scheduled for The Viscount’s Runaway Bride and If It Takes A Scandal.  If It Takes A Scandal is due out soon, and I want to maximize potential effectiveness in launching the book by promoting it via Facebook through an author assistant who helps to promote romance authors.  She’s very effective and knows the right groups to hit with the promos.  I’m not sure if I can say her name, so I’m not going to.  But The Viscount’s Runway Bride is the first book in the Marriage by Bargain Series.  When that goes to free, I can then run a Bargain Booksy ad (via Freebooksy) that promotes an entire series.  Since If It Takes A Scandal is the fourth and final book in the series, now is the optimal time to promote the entire series.  This method has worked well in the past, so I’m doing it again.

Thank you gifts to the people who take time out of their busy days to help me out: I need to send out paperback copies of Taming The Viscountess to my beta readers.  I finally got the paperback approved, and the books are sitting on my desk waiting to be signed and mailed out.

Publishing: I need to make the paperback version of Forced Into Marriage now that my formatter has gotten it back to me.

Editing: I need to edit The Bride Price.  I just finished the first draft yesterday, so I’m onto the edits.  Once I finish the initial edits, I send it off to my editing team which composes of two editors and some beta readers.

Formatting and Publishing: I need to reformat Shotgun Groom so it’s ready when The Bride Price is out.  Sep Wilson is Joel Larson’s younger brother-in-law in Shotgun Groom.  Now that I have written Sep Wilson’s romance in The Bride Price, I need to go back and give Shotgun Groom a table of contents so that Smashwords will approve it for wide distribution.  While I do that, I’m going to advertise The Bride Price at the end of it.  I also need to do a Kindle version and upload it to Amazon.

Copyright Registration: I need to register the copyright to my latest books.  I have to send in the paperback versions because the US Copyright Office wants the very best version, and they have written to me in the past telling me they want the paperbacks.

Marketing and Promoting: I need to update my website and blog to reflect the new books I’m going to be writing soon and to announce when If It Takes A Scandal is released.

Cover Design and Description and Setting Up Pre-Orders: I need to get three covers and descriptions done for three upcoming books.  Now that I know what the titles will be to Books 2 and 3 in the Misled Mail Order Bride Series and I know what the stories will be about, I can move through with getting the books set up for pre-order.  I also finally figured out what to do with Book 3 in the Marriage by Fate Series.  So I’m going to be working on those things as well.  Usually, I hire out for covers, but in this case, I’m doing these myself because I bought the fonts and images and want the same look for the entire series.

Hiring Cover Artist: I want to give the Marriage by Scandal Series (a series that has been out for years) new covers since they need a facelift.  I have already contacted someone about this.

Formatting: Once I get If It Takes A Scandal back from a couple more people, I can move ahead with formatting the ebook version and putting it on Smashwords and Amazon.

Social Networking (which is really marketing and promoting that a writer would usually do anyway): I also have about 60 emails to go through, some of which are from Wattpad and Facebook.  So I have to get that all answered.  I do try to get to people as soon as I can, but the work above can get overwhelming, and with four kids and a husband, it’s hard to get around to all of the social media stuff in a day.  I answer a couple of emails at a time and then come back to answer more the next day.

I won’t be writing for the next two weeks so I can get caught up on the stuff I’ve been putting off for the last month in order to get The Bride Price finished.

Some authors get personal assistants to help with the stuff I mentioned.  I do hire out for editing and (sometimes) covers and formatting.  Lately, I’ve been hiring out for book descriptions.  I also pay for ads.  I also have an accountant and payroll service.  So I have people helping me for key things, but I do most of the stuff myself.  Some people will say I’m nuts, but I enjoy having my hands in these other details.  I love the writing, but the aspect of controlling the publishing process and setting up deadlines are fun, too.

Characters in Rebellion in The Bride Price and a Facelift for Her Counterfeit Husband

My characters in The Bride Price (the book I plotted out before writing it) have rebelled and are changing the course of the story.   

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First of all, this isn’t just something that comes with plotting.  Pansters go through this, too.  So I’m not saying that this is something negative in plotting.  What I am saying, though, is that characters definitely have a mind of their own.

In The Bride Price, Sep (the hero) decided he didn’t want to wait until the end of the story to confess his love for Angela, which was one of my main plot points to end the book.  So that particular ending is now tossed out.

Then Sep decided he wasn’t going to as weak or reckless as I wanted him to be.  Sep, if you’ll recall in Shotgun Groom, went through a lot of abuse early in life (11-14), and Joel Larson had his work cut out for him in helping Sep heal from all of that.  Well, if I went with what I had plotted out, then all that work Joel did would have been for nothing.  (Something neither Joel nor Sep are all that thrilled about.)  So that changes the second half of the entire book.  Sep wants to prove that he can calmly and rationally handle the conflict that has now been brought to his attention.  I would say what, but that would spoil the book.

Then Angela (the heroine) has also decided she’s not going to follow the things I plotted out.  First, she decided she wasn’t going to have a limp.  In the beginning, she was supposed to have scars and a limp, but she didn’t want the limp so I had to toss that out.  Now, she’s decided she doesn’t want to be clueless that something is bothering Sep.  (This goes into the conflict I was talking about above.)  Right away, she knew something was wrong, and she’s decided she’s going to spy on him until she finds out what it is.  This also changes the entire course of the story.

The villains are also not fully cooperating with me.  I’m not sure what’s going on there, either.

So I’m throwing out the rest of the outline I had made, and I’m going to wing it the rest of the way through.  Honestly, I’m surprised my attempt at plotting lasted halfway into the story, so I wouldn’t call my experiment a failure.  It wasn’t.  I could go back and plot out things again, but I would rather spend that time writing the book.  I would like to have this one all finished and off to my editing team by the time school starts.

When it comes to writing, authors are not the ones in charge.  The characters are.  But that is why writing is so much fun.  It’s neat to see how the characters develop over the course of the story.

Her Counterfeit Husband is getting a facelift.

One of my friends/beta readers pointed out something that had slipped my mind.  Candace (Lady Hedwrett) is the heroine in If It Takes A Scandal (Marriage by Bargain Series: Book 4), and if you’ll recall, I introduced her in Her Counterfeit Husband.  The main characters in Her Counterfeit Husband are Anna and Jason (the Duke and Duchess of Watkins), and since they are Candace’s friends, I brought them back for If It Takes A Scandal.  For those who read If It Takes A Scandal and like it, they might want to go back and read Her Counterfeit Husband.  So I thought I’d get a new cover.

Here’s the old one:

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Here’s the new one:

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The cover was made by Love, Lust and Lipstick Stains, and I found them at The Book Cover Designer website that features pre-made covers.  The link I posted will take you to the other covers Love, Lust and Lipstick Stains have made, but you can look through other covers by other artists and in a variety of genres on the website.  I was really pleased by the look of the cover I selected.  Once you buy the pre-made cover, they take it off sale.

I am also going to give the description a facelift, too.  For that, I am hiring Best Page Forward to redo that for me.  I can write a novel, but it’s hard to describe it.  I started using this service for The Bride Price and was so happy with it that I’m letting Best Page Forward do other descriptions for me.  Since I’m giving Her Counterfeit Husband a new cover, I decided to give it a new description, too.  I haven’t gotten that yet, but I’ll post that when I publish If It Takes A Scandal so that you can read both of them together if you want.

Dictation, Plotting, and What I’m Working On Now

Dictation is now my preferred method of writing.
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Dictation has finally grown on me.  Learning to adjust to it was like learning to ride a bike.  Earlier this year when I started, I ended up disgusted with it because I ended up having to rewrite 75% of the scenes I dictated.  It was a lot more work than simply typing the story out.  Since I was forced to go back to it last month, I started out with small word counts.  I didn’t even add punctuation for fear it would pull me out of the story because it can be hard to think of what the character is thinking, saying, or doing when you’re worried about what punctuation to use next. I was pretty much forced into using it because my husband couldn’t make out anything that I had dictated, and I was tired of sitting with him for an hour to work on one scene.

Now, I am very comfortable dictating with punctuation.  Better yet, I don’t have to rewrite anything because dictating the story has become as natural as typing it.  In fact, I actually prefer dictation at this point because when I dictate, I can go for a long walk, too.  I dictate while on my iPhone and then email myself the scene when I’m done.  I then take the email and paste it into my document.  From there, my husband will polish it up. Sometime, I’ll have to share some of the amusing things the software “thinks” I said.

I have finally established a regular word count goal for each dictation session.  I figure for every 1-2 miles I walk, I can write one scene into a story.  One scene is between 1200-2000 words.  Sometimes I break up a scene between sessions, but sometimes the words just keep flowing, and I’m able to get everything in. It’s not too unlike typing.  These days I’m averaging 3-5 miles of walking a day.  When I first started, I did good to get 1 mile in. I didn’t realize I had been that out of shape.  So when I think about it, this issue with my eyes has been a blessing in disguise.

My eyes are doing a lot better, but I still have to limit how much time I’m on the computer.  I find that it’s also better when I’m outside instead of indoors.  I suspect there’s something in the air conditioning that is aggravating my eyes, but I have no proof of that.  Come winter, it’ll be interesting to see how my eyes do.  I don’t think I’m going to go back to typing, though.  I’ve now gone from 1500-3000 words on a writing day to 3500-5000 words.  I heard that exercise can boost creativity, and I’m inclined to agree with it.  Plus, I feel better than I’ve felt in years.

By the way, I use an app I bought off iTunes called Dragon Dictation. I would highly recommend it if you’re looking into dictation software. Once you get used to it, it’s a great tool.

Plotting is actually going okay.
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I’m surprised.  The Bride Price is my serious experiment in plotting.  I had Stephannie Beman’s help on it because she plots and I don’t.  I thought for sure the story was going to morph into something else about 1/4 of the way into the story.  I’m shocked that it’s right on track.  I’m halfway into the story now, and things are progressing just as it was supposed to according to the outline.

Just so everyone knows, my outline is very simple.  It’s like this:

Angela gets off the train and realizes something is wrong.
Sep learns that there’s a man who are going to auction off women the next day.
Sep enlists the sheriff’s help and rescues them.
Sep picks Angela to marry because of her scars.
Etc

So I didn’t go into detail on anything, which left me plenty of wiggle room to be a panster in certain scenes. For example, between #1 and #2, I inserted a scene where Angela finds out what has happened to her, and she meets the other two women, who will be the heroines in books 2 and 3 of the series. So I have been inserting things to help flesh out the story better.

My original plan was for this book was for it to be about 30,000-35,000 words since novellas in romance seem to be popular these days, but this story is already at 30,000 words, and I’m only halfway through.  I might be just over the halfway point.  But there’s no doubt that this will be a full-length novel.  And that’s fine.  I don’t stress over how long a book is going to be.  As long as the story is complete and doesn’t have any sagging middles, I’m happy.

Another thing that surprised me is that plotting out the book hasn’t caused me to lose interest in it.  Some authors say they get bored if they know what will happen in the story.  That’s not happening with me.  Maybe that’s because I made a skeleton of an outline which has given me plenty of room to be a panster.

Would I plot another book?  Probably not.  I love being a panster. Being surprised by the twists and turns that pop up are my favorite part of writing.

Here’s What I’m Working On

If It Takes A Scandal

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Click here to pre-order on iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo

I hope to have it available for pre-order on Amazon soon, but at this point, I suspect early September will be the release timeframe for it.   Right now, it’s with my awesome editing team.

This book finishes up the Marriage by Bargain Series, but don’t worry: I’ll tackle Lady Eloise in the Marriage by Fate Series.  In this one, she got off unscathed.  Sometimes it takes a while for characters to get their just desserts.

The Bride Price (Misled Mail Order Brides: Book 1)

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Click here to pre-order on iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo

The Bride Price was originally posted for a November release, but I expect it to come out in October instead since I’m already halfway into it.

Married In Haste (Marriage by Fate: Book 2)

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Click here to pre-order on iBooks and Kobo

This one is about 20,000 words in, so we’re just 10,000 words shy of the halfway point…I think.  The heroine (Miss Ava Baynes, who was Opal’s best friend in The Reclusive Earl) is going to try to join Lady Eloise’s group.  The hero in this book is Brad Bachman, the Earl of Youngtown (who was Loretta’s brother in The Rake’s Vow), and if you’ll recall, Brad hated Lady Eloise.  So yeah, some interesting stuff is coming up in this one.  But it’ll also start the ball rolling for what I have in mind for Lady Eloise.  *rubs hands in evil delight* I know it’s usually wrong to be excited about the downfall of a character, but I’m looking forward to getting to the end of this series so I can finally give Lady Eloise what’s coming to her.

I want to get this out during the last week in December.

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I have no cover yet, but the book I just hit 11,000 words in is  Wanted: Mail Order Husband.

I am going with the romantic historical western romance about the hero who grew up in a wealthy household back East who thinks he’s marrying a wealthy woman out West.  His family has lost all their money and has gone to London, leaving him all by himself in America, so he marries a rancher’s daughter, thinking that since her father owns a ranch, he’s wealthy.  Boy, is he in for a rude awakening.  He hasn’t had it yet, but he will very soon.  I’m looking forward for the humor to begin.

Anyway, this was the one everyone voted for.  Thank you for chiming in on the book you wanted most to read!  It helped to make the decision a lot easier.  You guys are the best for helping me out!

I’d love to have this one out in January.

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I’m finally in 16,000 words into The Outlaw’s Bride

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The hero and heroine are already married and have just arrived at his cabin tucked into the mountainside.  This isn’t on pre-order because it’ll be released as a free book since it’s a rewrite of The Stagecoach Bride.  Right now, I’m having to decide which parts from The Stagecoach Bride will go into this book.  I still want her past to come for her, but I think I want to insert more of the hero’s sister into this book.  The heroine doesn’t know her husband is an outlaw, so I need for her to find that out, too.  At least, I want her to discover it.  We’ll see how the story plays out.

Forced Into Marriage is Now Available!

This is book 4 of the Pioneer Series.  This is going to be the last book in it, so if you like to wait until an entire series is out before buying it, this will be a good time to get all of the books.  This way you can read the whole series at one time.

Here are all of the books in the Pioneer Series:

Book 1: Wagon Trail Bride – Richard Larson and Amanda’s romance
Book 2: The Marriage Agreement – Jesse Palmer and Laura’s romance
Book 3: Groom For Hire – Joe Otto and Michelle’s romance
Book 4: Forced Into Marriage – Brandon Herman and Lokni’s romance

For quick reference, here is the link to the Pioneer Series page on this blog.

Now here is the information on Forced Into Marriage

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A broken-hearted divorcee. A pregnant survivor. Can they turn an unwanted marriage… into love?

Brandon Herman wants to drink away his heartache. Divorced, disgraced, and out of work, the last thing he wants to do is marry again. When he’s strong-armed into marrying a Crow Indian woman, he only thinks of running away… until he learns his bride-to-be is nine months pregnant…

Lokni doesn’t trust her pale-skinned husband. After all, his kind raided her tribe, killed her loved ones, and stole her freedom. If it weren’t for the contractions, she would’ve already left her intoxicated groom. But until the baby is born, Lokni must bide her time and plan her escape…

As the unlikely couple embarks across the untamed West, Brandon’s support helps their friendship to blossom. They start to realize that it’s more than the baby that draws them together. But on the trail to a brighter future, not everybody they meet is interested in their happily ever after…

Forced into Marriage is a historical western romance set in a more realistic Wild West. If you like spirited characters, journeys of exploration, and the healing power of family, then you’ll love Ruth Ann Nordin’s stirring tale.

Buy Forced into Marriage to set a course for romance today!

Amazon US

Amazon UK

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Smashwords

First Draft of If It Takes A Scandal is Done!

Today, I finished the first draft for If It Takes A Scandal (Marriage by Bargain Series: Book 4)!  

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In case any of you wondered where I’ve been hiding, I’ve been working on finishing this book.  This is why I haven’t gone to my inbox lately.  I am behind on emails and on Facebook.  Over the weekend, I plan to have someone help me catch up on this stuff.  It’ll still be me answering, but the person is going to take what I dictate and polish it up so it’s legible.  Otherwise, people might not know what I’m trying to say.  Sometimes the dictation comes up with the strangest things.  For example, “Lord Erandon” in dictation comes out “Lorde random”.  No matter how much I try to correct this, it doesn’t work.

My priority has always been writing and editing the books, but I’m going to slower than I was before at getting back to people, so please be patient with me. I’m in the process of training my husband on how to figure out what my job is so he can help me.  I also need to update my website, which I’m going to have to train him on as well.  I’m sure other tasks will pop up that I’ll need to work with him on.

So…What Series Will I Work On Next?

I haven’t made up my mind on this.  I typically work on three different series at a time.  Recently, I have added a fourth series.  That’s the one that is a rewrite of the series Stephennie Beman and I started together with The Stagecoach Bride.

Anyway, now that I just finished the Marriage by Bargain Series (with If It Takes A Scandal), that leaves me with an opening.

Here are the series I’m working on right now:

Misled Mail Order Brides Series.  This is a historical western series.

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I’m on Book 1: The Bride Price.  (This is Sep’s romance.  Sep was Joel Larson’s brother-in-law in Shotgun Groom.)

Marriage by Fate Series. This is a Regency series.

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I am currently on Book 2: Married In Haste.  (This is Brad Bachman’s romance.  Brad was Loretta’s brother in The Rake’s Vow.)

Wyoming Series.  This is a historical western series.

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I am currently working on Book 1: The Outlaw’s Bride.  This is a rewrite of The Stagecoach Bride that Stephannie Beman and I did together.

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So, the way I see it, I have two options.

Here’s the first option:

I could start on Book 2 (The Rancher’s Wife) in the Wyoming Series so that I can get it done sooner.  My plan is to publish The Outlaw’s Bride and The Rancher’s Bride together.  Book 3 and Book 4 (if there is a Book 4) will then be out on pre-order.  The reason I’m publishing Books 1 and 2 together is because Book 1 is a rewrite of The Stagecoach Bride, and since some of you already paid for that version, I’m going to be pricing this one at free so no one has to “re-buy” it.   From a business standpoint, it makes no sense to not have Book 2 available at the same time Book 1 comes out when Book 1 is free.

Book 1, as some of you already know, is about Mic who rescues Lillian from a bad guy she’s about to marry.  Mic (and his family) have been labeled as outlaws, though they really aren’t.  Unlike the original version, in this one, they fall in love right away, and it’s going to be an easy adjustment for them to get used to each other.  The problem is going to come in with the money she brought out to Wyoming with her.  Her ex-fiance is going to want it back.  Also, they are still going to help the hero’s brother (Wade) rescue his two-year-old son from the bad guy.

Book 2 is going to pick up where Book 1 left off.  (Don’t worry.  I’m not delving out cliffhangers.) It’s just that in Book 1, they do rescue Wade’s son, but in a shootout, the son ends up with Abby (who is Mic and Wade’s sister).  She ends up on a stranger’s ranch, and in order to protect him, she disguises herself as a young man.  She pretends her nephew is her little brother.  She needs to keep up the ruse because the bad guy is coming around looking for the boy.  I haven’t thought out anything further than that at this point, so it’s all I can say about it.

Here’s my second option:

I can start a new historical western series.

This would be a series of mail order husbands/brides stories.  I know Book 1 would be a romantic comedy about a mail order hero who comes out to marry the heroine in order to protect her father’s ranch after her father dies so the bad guy can’t take it over.  The hero grew up in a wealthy family, and the family lost all their money.  He thinks that since the heroine owns a ranch, it means she’s rich and has a house full of servants.  He’s in for a rude awakening, of course, and he’ll have to do the unsavory chores of helping to run a ranch, something he won’t be the least bit prepared for.  I see this as being a comedy because there are a lot of fun things that can pop up in a setup like this.

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Does anyone have any thoughts on this?  Which option sounds the best to you?

Updates On What I’m Doing

Thanks For Sticking With Me

First of all, it’s an honor for Forced Into Marriage (Pioneer Series: Book 4) to be featured in the Smashwords Hotlist last week on the Happy Ever After USA Today blog.  It’s only because of you that I’m able to hit this kind of list, and I don’t take that for granted.  So thank you for sticking with me through the years.  I am very blessed.

Forced Into Marriage Will Be Out July 22
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Click here to pre-order

This will complete the Pioneer Series.  (Book 1: Wagon Trail Bride, Book 2: The Marriage Agreement, Book 3: Groom For Hire, Book 4: Forced Into Marriage)

I don’t have this up on Amazon yet, but it is up on the other retailers.  I’ll say more about this when it’s released.

If It Takes A Scandal is Almost Done
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Click here to pre-order

This will complete the Marriage By Bargain Series.  (Book 1: The Viscount’s Runaway Bride, Book 2: The Rake’s Vow, Book 3: Taming The Viscountess, Book 4: If It Takes A Scandal)

I’m currently on chapter 18.  My books tend to be around 20-22 chapters long, so that gives you an idea of where I’m at right now.  I’m not sure exactly how much more I have to go, but I know what I need to do tie things up.

Originally, I had marked this book down for a December release, but since I’m so early on this, it’ll probably be out in early-to-mid September.

I’m about 15,000 words into The Bride Price
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Click here to pre-order.

This book is the first book in the Misled Mail Order Brides Series.

I had planned to give the heroine scars and a limp, but it’s become clear to me that she doesn’t want the limp.  So I’m going to have to remove that part when I go through the edits.  I think I only mentioned it once or twice, so this won’t be a problem.

The fact of the matter is, even when I carefully plan out a book, the characters still have the final say.  (This is the book I plotted in advance.)  Will other changes come as I’m going along?  Well, I already ended up having to swap a scene and modify another one.  I do think, however, the overall story is going to stay the same.

I just hit the Chapter Three mark in Married In Haste
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Click here to pre-order

This is book 2 in the Marriage by Fate Series.  (Book 1: The Reclusive Earl, Book 2: Married In Haste, other books to be announced)

While I was dictating a scene in this book the other day, I came up with the perfect way to take care of Lady Eloise.  I’m not going to say because it’ll spoil the surprise, but I plan to do it later in this series.  It won’t happen in this book, but I start the ball rolling on it.

The heroine in this book is going to try to join Lady Eloise’s group in order to please the hero.  It should be interesting to see how things go.

The Outlaw’s Bride is slow going

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Since I’ve been having to play around with dictation again, I’ve made little progress in this one.  My focus has been on the other three books because those are ones I plan to get out before the end of this year.

News on the Dictation Front

I don’t know how many people are all that interested in this part of things, but I’m happy to say that the dictation is finally working well for me.  My main problem has been on finding ways not to strain my eyes by going on the computer and having to polish what I just dictated.  Doing that has proved to be a problem on my eyes, especially since I still need to do things like edit.

I have printed out several chapters of If It Takes A Scandal and have it set to a size 16 font.  When I finish marking up the pages, I like to go in and make the changes on the computer in the document itself.  This is probably going to take up the bulk of my computer time from now on since I go through so many books in a year.

So I bit the bullet and started adding the punctuation and new paragraphs while I dictate.  I had to do this because my husband, who is polishing up my dictation for me, has no idea what to do when I don’t add the punctuation.  This does slow things down when I dictate, but I will admit that I end up with a cleaner copy for him to work with.  It’s worth the extra time so I don’t have to sit down with him while he reads my stuff back to me so I can tell him where to put punctuations and new paragraphs.

I usually dictate for one book right after I take a shower in the morning.  I will lie down with a warm cloth over my eyes, and this is the perfect time to dictate since I have nothing else to do.  Then, later in the day when I’m sitting on the porch or taking a walk at the park, I’ll dictate a scene one or two more books.  Sometimes I get to the fourth book.  Sometimes I don’t.

My average word count is what it used to be when I was typing.  I haven’t gained any more words by dictating, at least not at this point in time.  Who knows?  Maybe that will change as I get more used to it.  I’m just happy that I can finally get emotionally into the story when I dictate it.  Such wasn’t the case earlier this year.  Now I keep 95% of everything I dictate.  I used to only keep 30% and rewrite the rest.  I guess since I’m forced to dictate, my brain has finally jumped on board with this process.

Went Back to Dictation

I was having a hard time getting emotionally into the stories when I was speaking them into the Dragon dictation software I have.  So I had decided to put the thing away, and I went back to typing.

But then the whole thing with my eyes happened, and I was forced to return to the dictation software.  Some authors have ghostwriters.  They give the ghostwriter what they want written, and they let the ghostwriter do that work.  That is not an option for me.  I want to be the author of my own stories.  If they suck, they suck, but they will suck on my merit.

So I had to go back to the drawing board and pick up the dictation software once more.  Fortunately, nothing is wrong with my voice.  I just returned to speaking my stories again this past week, and I guess all the practice I had up to this point paid off because I no longer have trouble emotionally connecting to my characters when I speak the stories.

I learned a couple of tips that might help others who want to experiment with dictation software or who need to use it.

1. Have a plan before speaking the story.

I’m not a plotter by nature, so this one took a little time to adjust to.  I don’t have the whole book (except for The Bride Price) mapped out.  I do, however, come to the dictation session with the scene planned out.  What I need is how the scene will begin, a goal I have for the scene, and an idea of how it will end.  Then I try to speak the entire scene in one session.

I will sit still and close my eyes for about five minutes.  During that time, I visualize the scene in my mind.  Some people might want to write notes.  I don’t.  If I can picture the scene, I’m good to go.

2. I speak in quick bursts with a few seconds of breaks between sentences.  And I don’t rush the speaking for the sake of accumulating word count.

Word count is a huge thing for me, but even with speaking, I average 2,000 to 3,000 words a day.  I don’t know how authors do it when they are used to doing 5,000+ words a day.  I aim to write 5 days a week, and I take 2 off.  Maybe the authors building up serious word count take longer breaks than I do.

Anyway, I have learned that a complete session for me ends up being a half hour.  That is how long it takes for me to get through one scene.  One scene averages 1,000-1,500 words.

I’ll start speaking 1-2 sentences.  Then I’ll pause.  Sometime I redo the sentences.  Sometimes I keep going.  But I have found when I focus on getting 1-2 sentences out at a time, I don’t feel the pressure to hurry up and get the whole scene out.  (When I rushed the scene, I was able to get 1,500 words in 15 minutes, but I ended up deleting or rewriting half of it.  So slow works better.)

3. I do edit as I go.

If I notice the software got something wrong, I will pause and correct it.   Speaking in short bursts is good for this.  I’m able to delete stuff that is repeated or change most misspellings right away.  Doing this makes my work easier when it’s time to insert the dictated segment into my story and polish it up.

4. I don’t add punctuation because my focus is on the story, but I do insert what I spoke into my work in progress right away and work on it so it’s fresh in my mind.

I know some authors who work better when they add the punctuation.  If that’s you, then do what works.  I just know that for me, getting bogged down into the technical aspects of writing will break my concentration.

To compensate for this, I will work on the scene immediately after it’s spoken.  If I do that, it’s fresh enough in my mind where I know where the punctuation goes as I’m reading through the text.  I also pick up misspellings and words that were picked up incorrectly by the software program (their vs. there, to vs. two vs. too, etc) right away.  I can polish up the scene in about 15-30 minutes.  If I wait until later in the day, it takes me about an hour.  If I wait until the next day, I’m probably going to be at it for 1.5 hours.  The sooner you can polish up the text, the better.

Results:

Basically, I’m maintaining the same speed in word counts that I do when I type.  I didn’t get faster, as I had hoped back in January and February.  But I’m okay with that because my primary concern is being emotionally engaged with my characters.

Anyone got any tips they’d like to share?

Taming The Viscountess is Now Available!

Can someone like Celia be likable?  You’ll have to judge that one for yourself.

Random Thoughts on Strong Heroines, Multi-Author Stuff, Who To Write For

I notice that a lot of romance readers do not like strong heroines.

I think those of you who read my books are the exception.  Often, I hear over and over that people like my sweet heroes and the fact that my heroines aren’t afraid to stand up for themselves.  But when I look at comments I get on Wattpad, the majority of people there hate the fact that Sue Lewis (in An Inconvenient Marriage) is so strong.  There is one chapter in particular where they get especially upset with her.  I’m a lot like Sue Lewis, so when I see their comments, I often wonder, “Would these people like me if they were to meet me in real life?”

Sometimes the strong heroine can come across as a you-know-what.  She can be seen as bossy, temperamental, and rude.  They instinctively feel sorry for the hero, or they think the hero is a wimp for putting up with her.  If only they could see how my marriage is…  My husband is a beta hero.  I am an alpha heroine.  I don’t necessarily act alpha at all times, but when push comes to shove, I’m a Type A personality.  I lead because my husband tends to look to me to make the decisions.  He has a more relaxed and easy-going personality.  So I guess we do write what we know to some degree.

And before you think I became a Type A after marriage, the truth is, I was always a Type A.  My mom used to joke that I was like Lucy in the Charlie Brown TV shows and comics (except I wouldn’t pull the football away from the poor guy).  My mom and sister were both Type B’s.  My dad was a Type A.  I take after him in a lot of ways.  So I guess we can blame my dad for how I turned out.

Updates on What I’m Doing

With school out and having some trouble with my eyes (it’s not serious), I haven’t been online as much as I would like to be.  So if I take some time to get back to you, it’s because I’m either tied up with the kids or need a day or two off the computer to help my eyes.

I don’t know how this is going to impact my writing this summer.  I might have to slow things down.  I know this doesn’t seem like a big deal, except I love writing so much that I get restless when I’m not able to do it.