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Cameron Darrow's Blog, page 9
June 25, 2021
How About a Title (and More)?
It's been a long time coming, but I can finally announce that the title of my next book is going to be Without Words!
But that's not all! While Without Words is a completely standalone novel, it is set in the same world as Midnight Magic! Thematically, they are very similar, so I've decided to expand on the world I built for Vimika and Aurelai, albeit in a very different time and place.
Without Words takes place thousands of years before Midnight Magic, but uses the same magic system to help enrich a story of a princess and an outcast finding their true strength in one another, growing through adversity and facing down their worst fears in order to try to save an entire elf tribe from annihilation. Together.
I don't know exactly when Without Words will be out yet, so all I will say today is 'soon', pending a few more final steps that are nonetheless time-consuming. But rest assured, I cannot wait to share my second fantasy romance with you!
More announcements to come!
But that's not all! While Without Words is a completely standalone novel, it is set in the same world as Midnight Magic! Thematically, they are very similar, so I've decided to expand on the world I built for Vimika and Aurelai, albeit in a very different time and place.
Without Words takes place thousands of years before Midnight Magic, but uses the same magic system to help enrich a story of a princess and an outcast finding their true strength in one another, growing through adversity and facing down their worst fears in order to try to save an entire elf tribe from annihilation. Together.
I don't know exactly when Without Words will be out yet, so all I will say today is 'soon', pending a few more final steps that are nonetheless time-consuming. But rest assured, I cannot wait to share my second fantasy romance with you!
More announcements to come!
June 18, 2021
Final Cleanup
The new book is in the last phases of being cleaned up before it goes off for final proofreading and formatting. Lots to announce and share with you, but I can't until this part is done. I had hoped to have something more for you this week, but it didn't quite work out!
Just a little longer!
Just a little longer!
June 11, 2021
A Year of Midnight
Midnight Magic came out a year ago this week! That's crazy! It's felt like no time and all the time at the same... time.
It was my first standalone novel and my first romance, which has made me even more happy with how positive a response it got (and continues to get!). It felt like a risk when I wrote it--it's very different from the Ashes books, but it has paid off in spades. I've always called it my funny little kissing book, but it was a book that I needed to write at the time. It's a book for 2020 (and beyond, now), for sure.
On re-reading it, it's also not the book I thought I wrote. There is a lot more going on in it than I remember, and layers within it that I didn't even intend! With a year's distance, I'm even more proud of it, especially given how short it is.
If you haven't given it a chance yet, please do.
If you have, and you liked the world that I built around Vimika and Aurelai, well...
Watch this space.
The magics are afoot.
It was my first standalone novel and my first romance, which has made me even more happy with how positive a response it got (and continues to get!). It felt like a risk when I wrote it--it's very different from the Ashes books, but it has paid off in spades. I've always called it my funny little kissing book, but it was a book that I needed to write at the time. It's a book for 2020 (and beyond, now), for sure.
On re-reading it, it's also not the book I thought I wrote. There is a lot more going on in it than I remember, and layers within it that I didn't even intend! With a year's distance, I'm even more proud of it, especially given how short it is.
If you haven't given it a chance yet, please do.
If you have, and you liked the world that I built around Vimika and Aurelai, well...
Watch this space.
The magics are afoot.
June 4, 2021
Signs of Life
Getting the first feedback on a new book is like having Schrodinger's Email sitting in your inbox. until you open it, the book is both amazing and garbage at the same time, but doesn't settle on one until you open it.
The cat is not dead! The initial response to the book is good! I'm not going to set any expectations by elaborating, but I am happy (and grateful) for what I've heard so far. Still a lot of work to go before you can read it, but that breeze you felt might have been me letting go of the breath I've been holding. The hardest part is done, it's all revisions and polishing from this point. So hopefully not much longer!
I hope you are having a happy Pride Month! I will be back next week with hopefully something more substantial.
The cat is not dead! The initial response to the book is good! I'm not going to set any expectations by elaborating, but I am happy (and grateful) for what I've heard so far. Still a lot of work to go before you can read it, but that breeze you felt might have been me letting go of the breath I've been holding. The hardest part is done, it's all revisions and polishing from this point. So hopefully not much longer!
I hope you are having a happy Pride Month! I will be back next week with hopefully something more substantial.
May 28, 2021
It's Out of My Hands
Good news! The new book is in someone else's hands!
Bad news! The new book is in someone else's hands!
I handed the new book off to its first eyeballs other than mine for the first time this week, and it's always a strange, harrowing experience. It's momentous, as well, one of the biggest steps in getting a book ready, and a major inflection point in the process.
Here's a taste of how it goes:
Ten seconds before hitting 'send': "This is garbage, I hate this, why do I bother trying? No one will want to read this sh*t, I should just bin it and start over."
Ten seconds after hitting 'send': "These characters are my children and if I hear a word against them I will rend your soul from your body!"
Ten minutes after hitting 'send': "Let me take a look at this again and try to see it through their eyes... oh, this needs to be changed! Why did I repeat that word? That's a weird sentence, let me fix that..."
I made 26 changes to the first chapter before I had to consciously stop myself and close my computer. The time that the baby book is away is the time to gain perspective and distance, not obsess over it and make changes that your beta readers don't know about. It's hard to do! For me, there is genuinely a huge perspective shift the moment I send the book out that I can never manage before that moment. Just knowing someone else is seeing it helps me see it the way they do, and a whole bunch of stuff suddenly becomes clear.
But you have to wait. It's not fair to make what you sent out instantly obsolete, and what's the point of asking for feedback if you're just gonna change a whole bunch of stuff before you get it (thereby negating it and wasting everyone's time)?
There is a ton of other stuff that needs doing in this time, and editing is not one of them. Title, description, cover, all those things I can't/don't do while I'm still writing the book? Now's the time. Don't mistake, I set aside plenty of time for fretting, second-guessing anddrinking hand-wringing, too!
Now please excuse me, I'm off to do one or all of those things.
Bad news! The new book is in someone else's hands!
I handed the new book off to its first eyeballs other than mine for the first time this week, and it's always a strange, harrowing experience. It's momentous, as well, one of the biggest steps in getting a book ready, and a major inflection point in the process.
Here's a taste of how it goes:
Ten seconds before hitting 'send': "This is garbage, I hate this, why do I bother trying? No one will want to read this sh*t, I should just bin it and start over."
Ten seconds after hitting 'send': "These characters are my children and if I hear a word against them I will rend your soul from your body!"
Ten minutes after hitting 'send': "Let me take a look at this again and try to see it through their eyes... oh, this needs to be changed! Why did I repeat that word? That's a weird sentence, let me fix that..."
I made 26 changes to the first chapter before I had to consciously stop myself and close my computer. The time that the baby book is away is the time to gain perspective and distance, not obsess over it and make changes that your beta readers don't know about. It's hard to do! For me, there is genuinely a huge perspective shift the moment I send the book out that I can never manage before that moment. Just knowing someone else is seeing it helps me see it the way they do, and a whole bunch of stuff suddenly becomes clear.
But you have to wait. It's not fair to make what you sent out instantly obsolete, and what's the point of asking for feedback if you're just gonna change a whole bunch of stuff before you get it (thereby negating it and wasting everyone's time)?
There is a ton of other stuff that needs doing in this time, and editing is not one of them. Title, description, cover, all those things I can't/don't do while I'm still writing the book? Now's the time. Don't mistake, I set aside plenty of time for fretting, second-guessing and
Now please excuse me, I'm off to do one or all of those things.
May 21, 2021
What Was I Saying?
Deep into the beta draft of the new book, so this one will be short.
In the editing part of every book I've written, I've come across one or two lines that I just can't decipher. Whether it's convoluted grammar or some bizarre stream-of-consciousness thing, I won't be able to make sense of it when reading it back later. It's always such a bizarre feeling, like I'm reading someone else's work. Not only do I have no memory of writing it, but I can't piece it together, either. Something from my own head!
Needless to say, it gets cut immediately and something sensible put in its place, but not before I have a laugh. Our brains are funny that way, but it's better that I catch it now instead of subjecting you to it! All part of the purpose of editing.
Lots more of that to do!
In the editing part of every book I've written, I've come across one or two lines that I just can't decipher. Whether it's convoluted grammar or some bizarre stream-of-consciousness thing, I won't be able to make sense of it when reading it back later. It's always such a bizarre feeling, like I'm reading someone else's work. Not only do I have no memory of writing it, but I can't piece it together, either. Something from my own head!
Needless to say, it gets cut immediately and something sensible put in its place, but not before I have a laugh. Our brains are funny that way, but it's better that I catch it now instead of subjecting you to it! All part of the purpose of editing.
Lots more of that to do!
May 14, 2021
When Cometh Insight?
Not always when you want it to. The earlier the better, but sometimes you just have to spend time with a project before it's comfortable enough with you to open up fully. I will always take having a new insight into a story or character over not, don't get me wrong, but when it happens late in the process it's kind of a bummer. Why?
Two reasons:
One, you have to pull on a lot more threads to integrate the new thing cleanly, and be much more careful about what you yank on. Depending on where in the story the it belongs, it can also involve redoing a lot of work that was basically done already. Like painting a room only to realize it doesn't match the couch until you've already moved it back in.
Two is entirely ego. You just feel stupid missing something so obvious for so long. "How did I get so much done without realizing this!?" It's genuinely an 'I will never tell anyone which part I'm talking about,' bang-your-head-against-the-wall feeling when you realize something profound in the third draft that should have come at the outlining stage.
I'm not mentioning this for any particular reason whatsoever, just as a hypothetical 'we all have those days' commiseration with anyone this has happened to. Because it certainly didn't happen to me.
No, the new book is much better than it was this time last week for completely unrelated, much less ego-bruising reasons entirely. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a couch to move.
Two reasons:
One, you have to pull on a lot more threads to integrate the new thing cleanly, and be much more careful about what you yank on. Depending on where in the story the it belongs, it can also involve redoing a lot of work that was basically done already. Like painting a room only to realize it doesn't match the couch until you've already moved it back in.
Two is entirely ego. You just feel stupid missing something so obvious for so long. "How did I get so much done without realizing this!?" It's genuinely an 'I will never tell anyone which part I'm talking about,' bang-your-head-against-the-wall feeling when you realize something profound in the third draft that should have come at the outlining stage.
I'm not mentioning this for any particular reason whatsoever, just as a hypothetical 'we all have those days' commiseration with anyone this has happened to. Because it certainly didn't happen to me.
No, the new book is much better than it was this time last week for completely unrelated, much less ego-bruising reasons entirely. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a couch to move.
May 7, 2021
Resonance
If there's one thing I'm really focusing on right now while editing my new book it's the idea of resonance. Not just in the traditional sense of 'sticking with you after you're done' or 'speaking to you personally', but the idea that the story as a whole resonates. Thematically, setups and payoffs, callbacks, foreshadowing, things that help tie the entire thing together and make it feel cohesive and rewarding. I don't know if resonance is the right word to describe what I mean, but it's the one that I use most often when I'm trying to work these disparate things out in a story. When you set it down after you're done, I want you to sit back with a satisfied sigh and that sense of completion. To achieve that, the story needs to resonate.
When a bell is struck, the entire thing vibrates in a special way that makes it carry on ringing instead of a single dull thunk. I want my books to vibrate. Ripples running throughout that keep the sound going and help make it satisfying.
How? Reinforcing themes is one. Theme is something that often gets overlooked when talking about writing because it's slippery and less tangible than structure or dialogue. What is the story about, and how can I reinforce that throughout the whole book? For example, one of the big themes in Colours of Dawn is 'new beginnings'. It starts with Victoria and Millie coming home after being changed by experiences away from EVE, and ends with them starting experiences that will change them even more. It all ties back in on itself.
Strong character arcs are another. Millie starts Remember, November barely able to talk to Elise without stumbling over herself, but ends it in happy relationship because she learned over the course of the story her purpose, which gave her confidence, which allowed her to confess her true feelings to Elise. And Elise reciprocated! Not only did Millie get what she wanted, she earned it, and that kind of growth is immensely satisfying. You're proud of her (well, I am), and happy for her. It's consistent.
Weaving in consistency and making sure the ending is supported by the beginning is one of the big tasks I take on in later drafts, because those are things that are sometimes hardest to see until the story is complete. I need to be able to read it at the same pace you will to find certain things, or (more often) what's not there. A lot changes over the course of writing a novel, and I may cut something for pacing reasons without realizing there was a little nugget of info in there that pays off later because I moved it two months ago and forgot.
All in all, I think this is my favorite part in the process. It's like solving a puzzle that I bought instead of having to design and build each and every piece one by one myself. It's rich and rewarding, because at this point the work only gets better and it goes faster!
Refine, refine, refine, and polish until it shines. And rings.
When a bell is struck, the entire thing vibrates in a special way that makes it carry on ringing instead of a single dull thunk. I want my books to vibrate. Ripples running throughout that keep the sound going and help make it satisfying.
How? Reinforcing themes is one. Theme is something that often gets overlooked when talking about writing because it's slippery and less tangible than structure or dialogue. What is the story about, and how can I reinforce that throughout the whole book? For example, one of the big themes in Colours of Dawn is 'new beginnings'. It starts with Victoria and Millie coming home after being changed by experiences away from EVE, and ends with them starting experiences that will change them even more. It all ties back in on itself.
Strong character arcs are another. Millie starts Remember, November barely able to talk to Elise without stumbling over herself, but ends it in happy relationship because she learned over the course of the story her purpose, which gave her confidence, which allowed her to confess her true feelings to Elise. And Elise reciprocated! Not only did Millie get what she wanted, she earned it, and that kind of growth is immensely satisfying. You're proud of her (well, I am), and happy for her. It's consistent.
Weaving in consistency and making sure the ending is supported by the beginning is one of the big tasks I take on in later drafts, because those are things that are sometimes hardest to see until the story is complete. I need to be able to read it at the same pace you will to find certain things, or (more often) what's not there. A lot changes over the course of writing a novel, and I may cut something for pacing reasons without realizing there was a little nugget of info in there that pays off later because I moved it two months ago and forgot.
All in all, I think this is my favorite part in the process. It's like solving a puzzle that I bought instead of having to design and build each and every piece one by one myself. It's rich and rewarding, because at this point the work only gets better and it goes faster!
Refine, refine, refine, and polish until it shines. And rings.
April 30, 2021
Titles
I'm in the home stretch of the second draft of my new book, but it still doesn't have a title yet. Titles are hard! That and the cover are all that the vast majority of people will ever see of my books, and they have to do so much work in seconds, if even that long! They have to say everything about the book (but not too much), be easy to say and remember, speak to the genre, tone and help set expectations for what's inside. And persuade you to click on it! It's crazy when you think about it. So much pressure on a few words!
My first three novels, Remember, November, Fires of Winter and Hall of Mirrors all got their titles quickly in the process. Remember, November I knew right from the beginning. (Gunpowder treason and plot!) Fires of Winter I thought of pretty much the moment I understood who Katya was. Hall of Mirrors was always going to have a scene set at Versailles, plus a secondary meaning that never really came to fruition (one I'll talk about when the series is done and do some kind of tell-all or 'paths not taken' thing).
Colours of Dawn was harder. With the time jump and all the character development we don't see, a lot of my title ideas sounded more like science fiction stories than historical fantasy (I used 'tomorrow' a lot). I had a list of maybe 20(?)-ish that I was banging around... until I got all the beta feedback. After that, the story became more focused and the themes of 'starting anew' and 'new beginnings' became clearer, and the title sort of jumped out at me.
Midnight Magic was something else entirely. All the working titles I had were gigantic spoilers, and I just could not think of what to call it for real. It was my first proper romance, and all I had were fantasy titles that didn't do the work I needed them to. Frustrated, I took some advice from other writers and wrote down every single idea I could come up with whether they were garbage or not. The point of that is to get the juices flowing and hopefully land on something good eventually. Also, it helps to see where your mind is at and hopefully pick out a pattern or something thematic. In the end, I had over a hundred (that is not a typo) potential titles for that book before I settled on the final one. Does it have problems? Sure. It's a bit generic and it evokes witches more than elf wizards, but between Aurelai's eyes and one of the key (spoiler) moments in the story, it was appropriate. Simple, snappy and memorable. And alliteration! Gotta love alliteration.
Which brings me to today. The current book has a working title I use, but I don't think I will ever make it public. I just needed to call the file something! This book has taken a lot more refining than Midnight did. The themes have been slower to emerge, and I've been going back and adding stuff to amplify them and make them more resonant. In addition, there's... well, I'm not ready to talk about that yet, but there's more to this book than I've let on! So stay tuned for that.
I have locations and character names, but those don't always make for the best titles in fantasy books, mostly because they're usually made up and sound weird. I'm quite happy with Vimika and Aurelai as names, but if your first exposure to either was in the title on a little thumbnail on Amazon, they wouldn't even register beyond "Aurelai's Eyes? What? How do I even say that?".
The final two Ashes books already have titles, as do several other books that I haven't written yet, based on the premises and characters alone! They were all as obvious as my first few books. It's just the one I'm working on now, the one I theoretically know the best of my unpublished books, that refuses to give up its name.
Rumpelstiltskin! Oh, that's already taken. 99 more to try, I guess!
My first three novels, Remember, November, Fires of Winter and Hall of Mirrors all got their titles quickly in the process. Remember, November I knew right from the beginning. (Gunpowder treason and plot!) Fires of Winter I thought of pretty much the moment I understood who Katya was. Hall of Mirrors was always going to have a scene set at Versailles, plus a secondary meaning that never really came to fruition (one I'll talk about when the series is done and do some kind of tell-all or 'paths not taken' thing).
Colours of Dawn was harder. With the time jump and all the character development we don't see, a lot of my title ideas sounded more like science fiction stories than historical fantasy (I used 'tomorrow' a lot). I had a list of maybe 20(?)-ish that I was banging around... until I got all the beta feedback. After that, the story became more focused and the themes of 'starting anew' and 'new beginnings' became clearer, and the title sort of jumped out at me.
Midnight Magic was something else entirely. All the working titles I had were gigantic spoilers, and I just could not think of what to call it for real. It was my first proper romance, and all I had were fantasy titles that didn't do the work I needed them to. Frustrated, I took some advice from other writers and wrote down every single idea I could come up with whether they were garbage or not. The point of that is to get the juices flowing and hopefully land on something good eventually. Also, it helps to see where your mind is at and hopefully pick out a pattern or something thematic. In the end, I had over a hundred (that is not a typo) potential titles for that book before I settled on the final one. Does it have problems? Sure. It's a bit generic and it evokes witches more than elf wizards, but between Aurelai's eyes and one of the key (spoiler) moments in the story, it was appropriate. Simple, snappy and memorable. And alliteration! Gotta love alliteration.
Which brings me to today. The current book has a working title I use, but I don't think I will ever make it public. I just needed to call the file something! This book has taken a lot more refining than Midnight did. The themes have been slower to emerge, and I've been going back and adding stuff to amplify them and make them more resonant. In addition, there's... well, I'm not ready to talk about that yet, but there's more to this book than I've let on! So stay tuned for that.
I have locations and character names, but those don't always make for the best titles in fantasy books, mostly because they're usually made up and sound weird. I'm quite happy with Vimika and Aurelai as names, but if your first exposure to either was in the title on a little thumbnail on Amazon, they wouldn't even register beyond "Aurelai's Eyes? What? How do I even say that?".
The final two Ashes books already have titles, as do several other books that I haven't written yet, based on the premises and characters alone! They were all as obvious as my first few books. It's just the one I'm working on now, the one I theoretically know the best of my unpublished books, that refuses to give up its name.
Rumpelstiltskin! Oh, that's already taken. 99 more to try, I guess!
April 23, 2021
Embracing the Crap
Sometimes a second draft feels more like an accident investigation. There are pieces exploded all over the place, and I have to fit them all back together to see what I was thinking in the first draft. It's not always pretty, but you learn something in the process that will help prevent it from ever happening again.
Patterns emerge, like obsessions with certain words or types of imagery, using the same phrasing over and over again, things like that. Many times it's on purpose. I use a lot of placeholders that get the idea across so I can move on, other times it can be a real WTF? moment when I have no idea what I was trying to say.
There is a lot of crap in there, too. I compared it to an accident investigation for a reason. But that's okay! It has to be okay. One of the things I had to learn in order to finish not only my first book, but to keep going and write more, is that I have to be comfortable with writing crap. Why? Because it's writing. The only people who can be perfectionists on their first drafts are people who have outlines so detailed they basically already written the book. That's not me. Otherwise it's important to get the words down, get the story down, figure out who your characters are and worry about the details later.
How many people out there have a bunch of beginnings sitting on their computer but no endings because they keep refining that opening chapter over and over? That used to be me, then I embraced the crap. I need the crap. The second and subsequent drafts are my favorites now for a reason; I like refining.
It's easy to get into the mindset that it's all garbage and I'm no good, though, so I have to be careful there, but the tweaking and the fixing is actually validating because there's something there, and I'm making it better.
Sometimes I find stuff that I forgot I wrote! It can be a great feeling to read something I wrote and have it feel brand new. Even better when it's good! There is a run of scenes in this new book that I adore already. They're done, as far as I'm concerned. (Until beta, when someone else sees it and goes 'Yeah, not so much.' But hey, I have them now, at least.)
So if you're struggling with getting the words down or thinking that what you're doing is crap, I say embrace that crap! It's your crap, and you can always make it better later. That's not putting things off! Sometimes you need perspective and/or context for things to click together.
But you can't finish the puzzle if you don't have all the pieces first.
Patterns emerge, like obsessions with certain words or types of imagery, using the same phrasing over and over again, things like that. Many times it's on purpose. I use a lot of placeholders that get the idea across so I can move on, other times it can be a real WTF? moment when I have no idea what I was trying to say.
There is a lot of crap in there, too. I compared it to an accident investigation for a reason. But that's okay! It has to be okay. One of the things I had to learn in order to finish not only my first book, but to keep going and write more, is that I have to be comfortable with writing crap. Why? Because it's writing. The only people who can be perfectionists on their first drafts are people who have outlines so detailed they basically already written the book. That's not me. Otherwise it's important to get the words down, get the story down, figure out who your characters are and worry about the details later.
How many people out there have a bunch of beginnings sitting on their computer but no endings because they keep refining that opening chapter over and over? That used to be me, then I embraced the crap. I need the crap. The second and subsequent drafts are my favorites now for a reason; I like refining.
It's easy to get into the mindset that it's all garbage and I'm no good, though, so I have to be careful there, but the tweaking and the fixing is actually validating because there's something there, and I'm making it better.
Sometimes I find stuff that I forgot I wrote! It can be a great feeling to read something I wrote and have it feel brand new. Even better when it's good! There is a run of scenes in this new book that I adore already. They're done, as far as I'm concerned. (Until beta, when someone else sees it and goes 'Yeah, not so much.' But hey, I have them now, at least.)
So if you're struggling with getting the words down or thinking that what you're doing is crap, I say embrace that crap! It's your crap, and you can always make it better later. That's not putting things off! Sometimes you need perspective and/or context for things to click together.
But you can't finish the puzzle if you don't have all the pieces first.
