Lucy Mitchell's Blog, page 6

How To Accept Editing Your Draft Novel is Like Adding Magic Sauce to a Meal #MondayBlogs

I have become a huge fan of editing and revising a draft novel.

This wasn’t always the case. I started writing seriously many moons ago and the word, ‘editing’ used to make me groan. I also couldn’t understand why anyone would repeatedly go over their draft novels. That felt like a form of writer madness.

As my writing journey has progressed I have developed a love for editing. If only time machines were available for hire. I would definitely be nipping back to edit the hell out of my old stories,

Why the secret sauce?

Accept you have a wandering mind when writing. You don’t actually see this until you start editing your book but as you are downloading your story from your brain there is a chance other stuff will come as well. I always find unwanted things in my draft novels when editing. I either find traces of my own life (family names, pet names, things from shopping lists and scenes from other books I have been writing) or random stuff that has nothing to do with the actual story.

Your mind will also stray from the path or your novel plan. If your mind is like mine it will go in search of excitement by itself and it won’t ask permission. Editing gets you back on track which means a tighter story.

You are too close to the detail when writing a novel. A structural edit helps you see the bigger picture, the plot, sub plots and the pacing.

It also detects those parts of your story which you have glossed over and whispered, ‘l’ll figure out later.’ In addition it will also shine a spotlight on other areas of weakness.

Cutting emotional ties with your story and characters is hard. This is the part I struggle with the most. By the end of the first drafts my character are like close friends. The thought of changing them or *whispers* deleting makes me want to cry. A good character edit will cause discomfort, it will get rid of dead wood but there is a pay off. You will end up with believable and fully rounded characters with desires and motivations.

This is what I have learnt you have to get comfortable with creative pain. The successful writers welcome the discomfort that editing brings as they know it’s good for their work.

Editing is the magic sauce. Your first draft is simply the cooking of the basic ingredients. Editing is where you create the flavour, the layers and the texture.

My last point is that editors are special human beings. Use them.

The Writer Joy From Falling Down Creative Rabbit Holes #MondayBlogs

Are there any fellow writers who, like me, enjoy falling down what I call creative rabbit holes?

I define creative rabbit holes as subjects, ideas, periods in time, events, theories, people or concepts which not only catch your attention but they send your writer brain into a frenzy. These ideas and concepts are so dazzling and beautiful when you first come across them that you can’t imagine going on with your daily life without a little peek. In a desperate attempt to follow the idea / concept and find out more you find yourself falling into an imaginary rabbit hole. Here you will stay for a few days or months or in some cases years. Once in your creative rabbit hole you will read up on this idea / subject, research it and create endless ideas for stories and books. It will be a very pleasurable and nourishing experience for you, the writer. The bit you will struggle with will be climbing out of the hole and actually writing something on the topic – ha!

My writing life has been punctuated with imaginary creative rabbit holes. I think my first experience with falling down a creative rabbit hole was when I started writing seriously (about ten years ago) and I became attracted to the idea of immortality and living forever. I allowed myself to read as many books as I could on the subject, I filled notebooks with ideas, I wrote 25k words of a story, I googled the hell out of the concept and I had some mad, late night conversations with others on drunken nights out. This for me all part of the creative rabbit hole experience.

You’re probably thinking these are like shiny new story ideas. I suppose in a way they are, but I prefer the rabbit hole to come before the shiny new idea.

Writing contemporary romance will always be big for me but I do have other genres in me.

My latest creative rabbit hole is the idea that there are multiple universes all running at the same time and there are multiple versions of ourselves. These universes split apart when we make a decision or something happens in our life; good or bad. This rabbit hole led me to buy some books from my favourite second hand book shop, buy new notebooks, write out plans for two future book ideas, watch TikToks, google a lot and watch a load of related films. Goodness me I am enjoying myself down here.

Things I have come to know about creative rabbit holes:

1. They have a habit of appearing when you are stuck whilst writing a novel on a different subject Procrastination is so enjoyable!

2. They are time robbers. Once in a creative rabbit hole you will lose track of time.

3. You will never forget how they made you feel

Creative rabbit holes are fun to fall down and are good for our writing souls.

Celebrating My Publication Day #PublicationDay #RomanceReads

It’s finally here – my second book with Bloodhound Books – Instructions For Falling in Love Again.

I am now a proud author book mum of two book babies.

A funny, heartwarming new romance about finding love the second time around—with a little help from an unexpected dating coach . . .

Lonely widow Pippa opens a notebook written by her late husband and discovers that good-humored Dan has actually provided lots of advice on how to live without him—and fall in love again.

After fifteen years of marriage and three kids, Dan believed he knew Pippa better than anyone. With detailed instructions on everything from what to wear to how she should act on a first date, Dan has all the bases covered. He even has someone in mind for her—and in Pippa’s opinion, he couldn’t have chosen a less suitable match.

Discarding his directions to make a match with Mikey, she embarks on her own hilarious journey of self-discovery on the dating scene, supported by her children and two best friends. But it isn’t long before Pippa is struggling to ignore Dan’s advice . . .

Early readers have left some fabulous reviews:

‘Loved this A really lovely read. Not your traditional Rom-Com! Had me laughing out loud and then crying the next minute. A real rollercoaster of emotions! Highly recommended x’

Instructions for Falling in Love Again: The perfect heartwarming romantic comedy https://amzn.eu/d/7wmmWLJ

Celebrating My Publication Day #PublicationDay #RomanceReads

It’s finally here – my second book with Bloodhound Books – Instructions For Falling in Love Again.

I am now a proud author book mum of two book babies.

A funny, heartwarming new romance about finding love the second time around—with a little help from an unexpected dating coach . . .

Lonely widow Pippa opens a notebook written by her late husband and discovers that good-humored Dan has actually provided lots of advice on how to live without him—and fall in love again.

After fifteen years of marriage and three kids, Dan believed he knew Pippa better than anyone. With detailed instructions on everything from what to wear to how she should act on a first date, Dan has all the bases covered. He even has someone in mind for her—and in Pippa’s opinion, he couldn’t have chosen a less suitable match.

Discarding his directions to make a match with Mikey, she embarks on her own hilarious journey of self-discovery on the dating scene, supported by her children and two best friends. But it isn’t long before Pippa is struggling to ignore Dan’s advice . . .

Early readers have left some fabulous reviews:

‘Loved this A really lovely read. Not your traditional Rom-Com! Had me laughing out loud and then crying the next minute. A real rollercoaster of emotions! Highly recommended x’

Instructions for Falling in Love Again: The perfect heartwarming romantic comedy https://amzn.eu/d/7wmmWLJ

Ep10 Love At First Write – Editing

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-7fdz6-14ea8cd

In this episode we cover:

How we edit our romance booksThe issues we face whilst editing Hints and tips for editing

Find out more about your hosts:

Bettina Hunt – My latest romantic comedy novel, ‘A Girl Like Me’ is available now from Amazon. mybook.to/AGirlLikeMe 

Find out more about me  – author.to/romanticcomedies

Lucy Keeling – Written the Just Friends series, with the final in the series, Just Friends for Now available from Amazon. https://bit.ly/3YEqich 

Find out more about me  – I’m in all the usual places but most often found here:  https://instagram.com/lucy_k_author 

Lucy Mitchell – My debut romance novel, ‘I’ll Miss You This Christmas’ with Bloodhound books is out now. https://geni.us/MissYouChristmas

Find out more about me –  https://linktr.ee/LucyMitchAuth  

The books we mention in this episode are:

‘Then She Was Gone’ by Lisa Jewell. ‘The Philosophy of Love’ – Rebecca Ryan‘Like a Charm’ by Kerry BarrettWitch You Weren’t Here’ – Emma Jackson

You can email the podcast by using the following email: loveatfirstwritepodcast@gmail.com

Let’s Talk About The Weird and Unexplained Things Which Can Happen When Writing #MondayBlogs #WritersLife

My writing life always gets weird and a little bit spooky during this time of year. I know what you’re all saying – ‘that’s because it’s Halloween tomorrow (Tuesday 31 October). Your brain is trying to spot things which it can label ‘odd’ and then validate your belief that this is a spooky time. Probably true…but let’s still talk- ha ha!

October, November and December have always been big novel writing months for me. I like to think I’m not predictable (me – trying to sound cool) but if I look at my journals, I write novels in February, March and April, I have huge bouts of writers block during the summer months, I get a lot of ideas in September, I write an idea between October and early December and January is my month where I read far too many books.

So, these are my writing months. I am currently working on a draft novel and I have already experienced:

Meeting a stranger out of the blue who has the same name as my main fictional character. This year I have purposefully gone for character names which are uncommon to me as it has happened before. Well it occurred a few days ago at work. They were new and were introduced to me. Sat in a cafe and listened into strangers talking about a specific thing which is happening in my story. This made all the hairs on my neck stand on end and I had to shove a wedge of chocolate brownie into my mouth to calm myself down. If this novel I am working on gets published I am going to return to this blog post and tell everyone about the specific thing and you will all gasp with shock Flicking through an old magazine whilst at the dentist last week. it had been left behind by someone who was seen before me. I casually started reading it and seconds before I was called in to see the dentist I looked down to see that it was open on the Agony Aunt section. There in front of me was a letter from a reader. That letter was basically my novel. I know you are all shaking your heads and saying, you write romance and the chances of you reading something familiar in an agony aunt’s column are big. I get it. To me this was a bit freaky. I have a minor character who keeps appearing in my first drafts and I always end up deleting her. I always think she hasn’t found her right story yet. This character has been in the last six novels I have written and in each one she’s been deleted at second draft stage. She’s a novelist in my stories. She’s appeared again in this latest story. Don’t you love her persistence? Well yesterday I thought I would casually look her name up on Amazon. No idea why. I just thought it would be fun to know if there was a novelist with the same name of this character. Guess what? There is a novelist who writes children’s books and her latest book is about 2 KEY things in my draft novel. They are in the TITLE and on the COVER. Oh my days!

What are your thoughts? I know they are all coincidences and my mind is more aware at this time of year but a little part of me likes to think they are a little bit of writer magic.

Any weird things you want to share?

Let’s Talk About The Weird and Unexplained Things Which Can Happen When Writing #MondayBlogs #WritersLife

My writing life always gets weird and a little bit spooky during this time of year. I know what you’re all saying – ‘that’s because it’s Halloween tomorrow (Tuesday 31 October). Your brain is trying to spot things which it can label ‘odd’ and then validate your belief that this is a spooky time. Probably true…but let’s still talk- ha ha!

October, November and December have always been big novel writing months for me. I like to think I’m not predictable (me – trying to sound cool) but if I look at my journals, I write novels in February, March and April, I have huge bouts of writers block during the summer months, I get a lot of ideas in September, I write an idea between October and early December and January is my month where I read far too many books.

So, these are my writing months. I am currently working on a draft novel and I have already experienced:

Meeting a stranger out of the blue who has the same name as my main fictional character. This year I have purposefully gone for character names which are uncommon to me as it has happened before. Well it occurred a few days ago at work. They were new and were introduced to me. Sat in a cafe and listened into strangers talking about a specific thing which is happening in my story. This made all the hairs on my neck stand on end and I had to shove a wedge of chocolate brownie into my mouth to calm myself down. If this novel I am working on gets published I am going to return to this blog post and tell everyone about the specific thing and you will all gasp with shock Flicking through an old magazine whilst at the dentist last week. it had been left behind by someone who was seen before me. I casually started reading it and seconds before I was called in to see the dentist I looked down to see that it was open on the Agony Aunt section. There in front of me was a letter from a reader. That letter was basically my novel. I know you are all shaking your heads and saying, you write romance and the chances of you reading something familiar in an agony aunt’s column are big. I get it. To me this was a bit freaky. I have a minor character who keeps appearing in my first drafts and I always end up deleting her. I always think she hasn’t found her right story yet. This character has been in the last six novels I have written and in each one she’s been deleted at second draft stage. She’s a novelist in my stories. She’s appeared again in this latest story. Don’t you love her persistence? Well yesterday I thought I would casually look her name up on Amazon. No idea why. I just thought it would be fun to know if there was a novelist with the same name of this character. Guess what? There is a novelist who writes children’s books and her latest book is about 2 KEY things in my draft novel. They are in the TITLE and on the COVER. Oh my days!

What are your thoughts? I know they are all coincidences and my mind is more aware at this time of year but a little part of me likes to think they are a little bit of writer magic.

Any weird things you want to share?

Ep 9 Love At First Write – First Drafts

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-sk6i7-14e073a

In this episode we cover:

 

How to survive writing the first draftHints and tips on for writing your first draftOur experiences with first drafts

 

Find out more about your hosts:

 

Lucy Mitchell – My debut romance novel, ‘I’ll Miss You This Christmas’ with Bloodhound books is out now. https://geni.us/MissYouChristmas Find out more about me –  https://linktr.ee/LucyMitchAuth  

 

Lucy Keeling – Written the Just Friends series, with the final in the series, Just Friends for Now available from Amazon. https://bit.ly/3YEqich 

Find out more about me – I’m in all the usual places but most often found here:  https://instagram.com/lucy_k_author 

 

Bettina Hunt – My latest romantic comedy novel, ‘A Girl Like Me’ is available now from Amazon. mybook.to/AGirlLikeMe 

Find out more about me – author.to/romanticcomedies

The books we have read are:

 

The Happiest Ever After by Milly JohnsonThe Rough Draft by Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegmund-BrokaThe Philosophy of Love by Rebecca Ryan

You can email the podcast by using the following email: loveatfirstwritepodcast@gmail.com

The Book Writing Metamorphosis 🦋🐛 #MondayBlogs

Today I am comparing the book writing process to the metamorphosis of a butterfly.

For noting – I am not a nature expert and in some places my knowledge of caterpillars / chrysalis might be a bit off.

Caterpillar Stage

The caterpillar performs the same daily tasks; eating, sleeping and shuffling up and down a leaf. It has no idea that it has the potential to change into something amazing and beautiful.

Before the idea for your book comes to you, your life is similar to that of the caterpillar – shuffling up and down that leaf day in day out.

You perform the same tasks day in and day out; wake up, do the laundry, eat, think about doing some writing (although you have no set ideas for any future books or an idea for your first book), avoid doing some writing as it feels like too much effort, go to work, spend far too long commuting, come home from work, cuddle your pets / kids / loved one, browse social media. put your recycling waste out for it to be collected, exercise if you feel like it, interact with family / friends, read, eat, watch TV / films, go to sleep and repeat.

Chrysalis Stage:

Something inside the caterpillar tells it to enter a private and transformational stage of its life. This involves locking itself away for a period of time inside a chrysalis. During this time the caterpillar will turn into a gooey mess inside the chrysalis before transforming into a butterfly.

You get a stunning idea for your first book or your next book. It’s a brilliant idea and makes you sing whilst doing the laundry. After a period of time spent deliberating whilst shuffling up and down that leaf something inside of you tells you that it is time to enter your private and transformational writing stage.

This involves locking yourself away in a quiet place (with a pad of paper, a pen, a laptop, a slab of chocolate and a hot / cold drink of your choice) and writing that brand new idea.

The process of writing a book is tough and it makes you dissolve into a gooey mess; bouts of crying, shouting, whimpering, wailing and screaming at your laptop / notebook.

For Noting: The amount of gooey mess varies from writer to writer. Some of us dissolve into tears after chapter two and don’t stop until the end.

The gooey mess stage eventually ends. You’ve decided that even though your book is a pile of literary wrongs you’re committed to it, there will be someone out there who likes it and you are weirdly attracted to the idea.

It will still be frustrating too inside that book writing chrysalis (I think I could be getting creative here about the chrysalis) as you will peer out of it during your gooey stage and spot all your writer friends emerging from their chrysalis in the form of beautiful butterflies / all with completed draft novels. You will be surrounded by gooey mess at this stage and wonder how the hell you will ever get out of your chrysalis.

Slowly you and your idea begin the build process.

Butterfly Stage

There is a period of intense struggle as the creature inside the chrysalis struggles to break free. The caterpillar has been transformed into something truly wonderful – a butterfly. It is amazing to think that this beautiful creature was always inside the caterpillar. A new and exciting life awaits the butterfly.

As you get close to finishing your first draft you will endure an intense struggle. Self-doubt and your inner critic will do their best to keep you locked in that damn chrysalis.

A few weeks / months / years later you will also finally break out of your private place (chrysalis) clutching a load of paper / a word document on an exhausted laptop.

You will have created something amazing – a draft novel. You are now an author of a new book. You have brought something into the world. All the hours you spent in that chrysalis have been worth it and have brought you here to this stage.

Trust me – going through all of the above is amazing. We don’t celebrate this enough.

You should be proud of yourself.

I am currently in my chrysalis and in my gooey stage. Where are you?

Have a fabulous day!

The Book Writing Metamorphosis 🦋🐛 #MondayBlogs

Today I am comparing the book writing process to the metamorphosis of a butterfly.

For noting – I am not a nature expert and in some places my knowledge of caterpillars / chrysalis might be a bit off.

Caterpillar Stage

The caterpillar performs the same daily tasks; eating, sleeping and shuffling up and down a leaf. It has no idea that it has the potential to change into something amazing and beautiful.

Before the idea for your book comes to you, your life is similar to that of the caterpillar – shuffling up and down that leaf day in day out.

You perform the same tasks day in and day out; wake up, do the laundry, eat, think about doing some writing (although you have no set ideas for any future books or an idea for your first book), avoid doing some writing as it feels like too much effort, go to work, spend far too long commuting, come home from work, cuddle your pets / kids / loved one, browse social media. put your recycling waste out for it to be collected, exercise if you feel like it, interact with family / friends, read, eat, watch TV / films, go to sleep and repeat.

Chrysalis Stage:

Something inside the caterpillar tells it to enter a private and transformational stage of its life. This involves locking itself away for a period of time inside a chrysalis. During this time the caterpillar will turn into a gooey mess inside the chrysalis before transforming into a butterfly.

You get a stunning idea for your first book or your next book. It’s a brilliant idea and makes you sing whilst doing the laundry. After a period of time spent deliberating whilst shuffling up and down that leaf something inside of you tells you that it is time to enter your private and transformational writing stage.

This involves locking yourself away in a quiet place (with a pad of paper, a pen, a laptop, a slab of chocolate and a hot / cold drink of your choice) and writing that brand new idea.

The process of writing a book is tough and it makes you dissolve into a gooey mess; bouts of crying, shouting, whimpering, wailing and screaming at your laptop / notebook.

For Noting: The amount of gooey mess varies from writer to writer. Some of us dissolve into tears after chapter two and don’t stop until the end.

The gooey mess stage eventually ends. You’ve decided that even though your book is a pile of literary wrongs you’re committed to it, there will be someone out there who likes it and you are weirdly attracted to the idea.

It will still be frustrating too inside that book writing chrysalis (I think I could be getting creative here about the chrysalis) as you will peer out of it during your gooey stage and spot all your writer friends emerging from their chrysalis in the form of beautiful butterflies / all with completed draft novels. You will be surrounded by gooey mess at this stage and wonder how the hell you will ever get out of your chrysalis.

Slowly you and your idea begin the build process.

Butterfly Stage

There is a period of intense struggle as the creature inside the chrysalis struggles to break free. The caterpillar has been transformed into something truly wonderful – a butterfly. It is amazing to think that this beautiful creature was always inside the caterpillar. A new and exciting life awaits the butterfly.

As you get close to finishing your first draft you will endure an intense struggle. Self-doubt and your inner critic will do their best to keep you locked in that damn chrysalis.

A few weeks / months / years later you will also finally break out of your private place (chrysalis) clutching a load of paper / a word document on an exhausted laptop.

You will have created something amazing – a draft novel. You are now an author of a new book. You have brought something into the world. All the hours you spent in that chrysalis have been worth it and have brought you here to this stage.

Trust me – going through all of the above is amazing. We don’t celebrate this enough.

You should be proud of yourself.

I am currently in my chrysalis and in my gooey stage. Where are you?

Have a fabulous day!