Growing
A long time ago, I had coffee with novelist Jennie Shortridge (she had not been published yet but would go on to publish four fantastic novels… and I was not even close to publishing, it would turn out).
Jennie is a friend of my good friend Jeri and Jennie and I probably sat and chatted for maybe an hour. I had just finished writing my first novel (which is so bad, it will likely never see the light of day but no door is ever closed in Kristen Ashley World so we’ll see) and I was ready to spread my wings and fly (I thought but this would take years). Jennie knew the publishing and writing business so Jeri set us up for coffee and when Jennie sat down with me, she shared generously.
Three things I took from coffee with Jennie that I remember to this day: 1) Jennie Shortridge is one cool lady; 2) beware of adverbs or, if memory serves, the exact thing Jennie said was "any word that ends in 'ly'" and 3) when you’re done with a work, set it aside, give it time and go back to it.
Recently, I made the decision to quit the day job and try to make a living with my novels. As I had, for years and years, been writing and writing (and writing) I had a full library of work sitting on my hard drive. In this brilliant age of ebooks and self-publishing, all I had to do was clean them up and let them loose.
So that is what I’ve been doing for five months. And just this weekend, I unleashed Lacybourne Manor , to my knowledge, the third novel I ever wrote.
Now let’s just say that Lacybourne has been sitting “on the shelf” for awhile and what an eye-opener it was pulling it down, dusting it off and cleaning it up.
And when I did, I found Jennie was right, boy was she right, beware of any words that end in “ly” and let a work sit for awhile before you unleash it.
Though, I don’t think Jennie meant seven years. Still…
In reading Lacybourne , a sweet little ditty that I had pulled out over the years and fiddled with lackadaisically (a useful “ly” word in this context), I was stunned how much my writing had changed over the years. After reading Lacybourne , I revisited The Golden Dynasty , my most recently written (as yet unreleased) book and the difference is immense.
This is because when I wrote Lacybourne (as well as Sommersgate House ), I had chained myself to two concepts that are bad for anyone and definitely a writer. One, I was worried what people reading would think to the point I wanted to make it something every romance reader would love (an impossible task), or, at the very least, there was not one thing in it they would find offensive or a turn off and two, I was adhering to “rules” that do not exist about what a romance novel should be. In other words, I was not writing from the heart, I was not writing in my voice, I was not writing for myself, I was writing under constrictions and attempting to write what I guessed (but could not possibly know) was what every romance reader in the history of time would like.
Cyril Connolly said, “Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self.” I get this now. And he is mostly right. The thing I would learn is that if you put your voice, your emotion, your experiences and your feelings in your work, you will have a “public”.
When I starting writing Mathilda, SuperWitch and the Rock Chick series , I did that. I let go of everything I thought I should be doing and stopped worrying about what people would think and wrote books I wanted to read. Then I kept doing that and now, I still do. And I can’t say everyone likes it but I can also say, with relief, gratitude and a whole heckuva lot of excitement, a lot of people do.
Lacybourne is intriguing to me for as it slowly starts, I can see my confidence building as the tale unfolds, so much is so very tentative at first to the point of being almost scared. Then I see my humor coming out, I see a hint of my voice that would grow stronger in subsequent works and I could see, by the end of Lacybourne , I found my footing. The end is action-packed, sexy, humorous and touching. Since then, my voice has grown and I’m still establishing it but you can see, or, more accurately, read as you read Lacybourne how that happens as Colin and Sibyl’s tale unravels and comes to a slam-bang finish with an epilogue that, I think, is unbelievably sweet.
It’s pretty cool.
Mathilda, SuperWitch is the first book I wrote where it was all about me, where I started to establish my voice, where I found my footing and, after I get my Fairytale Series sorted and released, she’s up next.
I can’t wait.
Oh... and, well, Jennie told me beware of adverbs but it so happens my voice likes them. That said, I do consider if they are needed and yes, that means every single one!
By the way: Check out Jennie’s work. I’m not certain I can say which is my favorite but Eating Heaven and Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe stand out as I type then I think of Riding with the Queen and I know I’m wrong. Just read all Jennie’s stuff, it’s fantastic. www.jennieshortridge.com
Jennie is a friend of my good friend Jeri and Jennie and I probably sat and chatted for maybe an hour. I had just finished writing my first novel (which is so bad, it will likely never see the light of day but no door is ever closed in Kristen Ashley World so we’ll see) and I was ready to spread my wings and fly (I thought but this would take years). Jennie knew the publishing and writing business so Jeri set us up for coffee and when Jennie sat down with me, she shared generously.
Three things I took from coffee with Jennie that I remember to this day: 1) Jennie Shortridge is one cool lady; 2) beware of adverbs or, if memory serves, the exact thing Jennie said was "any word that ends in 'ly'" and 3) when you’re done with a work, set it aside, give it time and go back to it.
Recently, I made the decision to quit the day job and try to make a living with my novels. As I had, for years and years, been writing and writing (and writing) I had a full library of work sitting on my hard drive. In this brilliant age of ebooks and self-publishing, all I had to do was clean them up and let them loose.
So that is what I’ve been doing for five months. And just this weekend, I unleashed Lacybourne Manor , to my knowledge, the third novel I ever wrote.
Now let’s just say that Lacybourne has been sitting “on the shelf” for awhile and what an eye-opener it was pulling it down, dusting it off and cleaning it up.
And when I did, I found Jennie was right, boy was she right, beware of any words that end in “ly” and let a work sit for awhile before you unleash it.
Though, I don’t think Jennie meant seven years. Still…
In reading Lacybourne , a sweet little ditty that I had pulled out over the years and fiddled with lackadaisically (a useful “ly” word in this context), I was stunned how much my writing had changed over the years. After reading Lacybourne , I revisited The Golden Dynasty , my most recently written (as yet unreleased) book and the difference is immense.
This is because when I wrote Lacybourne (as well as Sommersgate House ), I had chained myself to two concepts that are bad for anyone and definitely a writer. One, I was worried what people reading would think to the point I wanted to make it something every romance reader would love (an impossible task), or, at the very least, there was not one thing in it they would find offensive or a turn off and two, I was adhering to “rules” that do not exist about what a romance novel should be. In other words, I was not writing from the heart, I was not writing in my voice, I was not writing for myself, I was writing under constrictions and attempting to write what I guessed (but could not possibly know) was what every romance reader in the history of time would like.
Cyril Connolly said, “Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self.” I get this now. And he is mostly right. The thing I would learn is that if you put your voice, your emotion, your experiences and your feelings in your work, you will have a “public”.
When I starting writing Mathilda, SuperWitch and the Rock Chick series , I did that. I let go of everything I thought I should be doing and stopped worrying about what people would think and wrote books I wanted to read. Then I kept doing that and now, I still do. And I can’t say everyone likes it but I can also say, with relief, gratitude and a whole heckuva lot of excitement, a lot of people do.
Lacybourne is intriguing to me for as it slowly starts, I can see my confidence building as the tale unfolds, so much is so very tentative at first to the point of being almost scared. Then I see my humor coming out, I see a hint of my voice that would grow stronger in subsequent works and I could see, by the end of Lacybourne , I found my footing. The end is action-packed, sexy, humorous and touching. Since then, my voice has grown and I’m still establishing it but you can see, or, more accurately, read as you read Lacybourne how that happens as Colin and Sibyl’s tale unravels and comes to a slam-bang finish with an epilogue that, I think, is unbelievably sweet.
It’s pretty cool.
Mathilda, SuperWitch is the first book I wrote where it was all about me, where I started to establish my voice, where I found my footing and, after I get my Fairytale Series sorted and released, she’s up next.
I can’t wait.
Oh... and, well, Jennie told me beware of adverbs but it so happens my voice likes them. That said, I do consider if they are needed and yes, that means every single one!
By the way: Check out Jennie’s work. I’m not certain I can say which is my favorite but Eating Heaven and Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe stand out as I type then I think of Riding with the Queen and I know I’m wrong. Just read all Jennie’s stuff, it’s fantastic. www.jennieshortridge.com
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