Writing Process Blog Hop Begs the Question…

Writing process? There’s a process?

People seem fascinated by what we do. Here’s a graphic that describes what we do and what people think we do:

But really, it’s rather dull. I sit in front of a computer. It usually has a blank screen, reflecting the state of my mind. If I’m really lost, I go for a walk, which shakes the cobwebs loose and brings forth a few words.

Here are some of the questions folks are most prone to asking:

1. What am I working on?

I’m in the midst of writing a novella in my series, Highland Vampires. The series follows a clan of vampires living in the far northwest Highlands, though the forthcoming Rakes in Tartan takes place in Regency London. Here’s the Rakes cover:

Rakes in Tartan, available April 18, 2014

The book I’m writing is a medieval, tentatively entitled Viking in Tartan. I’m also writing a manual entitled Plotting and Planning, which should provide the basics about writing a book. It’s a companion to Write This, Not That!, which I published last year—it reached #2 on Amazon’s list of writing references.

Here’s Write This, Not That! It’s available at http://bit.ly/WriteThis

 

Write This, Not That!

 2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My vampires are special, not because they’re Scottish or hot, but because I didn’t use a lot of the traditional vampire memes. I imagined vampires as they’d be if they really existed, so they don’t have superpowers. My vamps don’t turn into bats or live forever. They’re perfectly able to eat garlic and walk around in the sun.

However, they do have a taste for blood. They’re immensely strong and fast, and because of their strength, they can perform feats ordinary humans cannot—such as tear off the heads of their enemies and drink their blood, their preferred mode of fighting.

And because of their strength, the can appear to fly, even though they’re actually jumping long distances while using the wind and a cloak to travel through the air.

Their lives are unnaturally prolonged because of their taste for blood, which can keep them alive for centuries. However, their minds shatter after about a century or so—they tend to go mad and become very dangerous.

3. Why do I write what I do?

After seventeen books, a host of short stories and articles about writing, I make a lot of choices to keep myself entertained. I can’t write the same book over and over again, even though many writers find financial success in doing just that.

Vampires interest me and have for a long time. I was raised on those awful Bela Lugosi B movies and then found myself fascinated by the stage play Dracula and Anne Rice’s vampire novels.

I love history and imagine that’s why I’ve gravitated to writing historical romance, though previously I’ve written across the board in just about every subgenre of romance. I love to learn about how people used to live—their food, their clothes…even minutiae about furniture. For example, in a museum, I saw how beds were constructed a couple of centuries ago and that information showed up in Desire in Tartan.

Here’s the cover to Desire:

http://bit.ly/DesireVamp

 

4. How does my writing process work?

There’s a process? Really?

Honestly, it’s hard to describe how I do what I do. That seems to change over time. My first manuscript was very off-the-cuff and instinctive. That became a book called Walk Like A Man. It was first published as a hardcover for the library market by Five Star, and was recently turned into a digital ebook.

http://bit.ly/
WalkLikeAMan

I didn’t know much about plotting or craft, two subjects that now fascinate me. Later books, especially the ones I wrote for Harlequin/Silhouette, were highly structured because that’s what the short romances I wrote needed. Everything had to fit into less than 50,000 words for Silhouette Romance. I used to plan out each chapter—the number of words/pages, where turning points, the midpoint, the dark moment, the climax and the denouement would take place and the number of words/pages these scenes would take.

Digital publishing has changed everything. The reason the Silhouettes had to be so structured is because cover flats were a specific size, and all the words and pages had to fit inside that cover flat. Digital publishing has liberated writers. I can write my story without worrying about its length, and my publisher, Ellora’s Cave, will price it accordingly.

I tend to think in scenes, and often I’ll imagine a later scene before a previous one. But generally I have an idea of how the story is going to go. I write that down, figure out what the meet, the midpoint and the dark moment are, and everything flows from those three major events. I generally start at the beginning and write to the end, editing as I go. I slot in any scenes I’ve written out of place and then fill in the blanks.

This sounds a lot easier than it is! There are times when writing feels harder than digging ditches with my teeth, but generally, I love what I do. I couldn’t stop if I tried! And I wouldn’t want to.

This is a blog hop, so…

I’m tagging three other writers. Don’t forget to check out their blogs in a week!

 

Antonia Van Zandt

Antonia van Zandt grew up in the ancient city of Salisbury, England and is related to deposed European royalty. She now lives in Vienna, Austria with a collection of family paintings and a menagerie of cats. She writes Paranormal Erotic and Paranormal Romantic Fiction. Her novellas, VIENNA VALENTINE and SEDUCING AMANDA are both available in the usual ebook formats, including Kindle. Her short story, SERENA, has been published in the HALLOWEEN HEAT III anthology by Etopia Press. She is currently working on a new Paranormal Romantic novella.

Don’t forget to visit Antonia’s blog on April 7!

http://antoniavanzandt.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Wt Prater

Wt Prater has published four short stories and currently has fifty eight (58) works in progress. His motto is: Love. Above all things. He is also a blogger with Just Write and SO Gay, which gets updated as often as he can. In 2013, he co-founded Writer’s Online Network and and now serves as Executive Producer of WON Radio on Blog Talk Radio. He tries to maintain active social networking on Facebook, Twitter, Fetlife, Linked In, Tumbler, Goodreads, and Meet Up.

In real life, he stays just as busy bouncing around in his non-profit volunteering from the GLBT community to the BDSM community to church community. Spiritually speaking, he is an active part of the Uniteran Universalist church as part of various committees. With his life experience and knowledge, he has lead panels at various conventions including Connooga, Chattacon, OutlantaCon, Hypericon, GMX, DragonCon, and Whedonfest. He has also gotten back into the Thespian Scene recently after a slight case of retiring.

His blog is at www.jwasg.blogspot.com



P. J. Fiala

She says: Having always dreamed of becoming an author, I found myself making excuses when it came to writing.  I didn’t know what to write about.  I didn’t have the time… and so on…on and on.  In 2012 I took a job that made me cringe just walking in the door.  I dreaded the atmosphere, the work, well simply, everything, except the few friends I had made there.

That’s when I decided to start writing.  Now, I can’t stop.  I think it was God’s way of helping me find my “time.”

When not writing, my husband, Gene, and I are on our motorcycles exploring new places, meeting new people and creating new memories.

Website  and blog: www.pjfiala.com

 

 

And here’s a little bit about me:

Best-selling, award-winning author Suz deMello, a.k.a Sue Swift, has written seventeen romance novels in several subgenres, including erotica, comedy, historical, paranormal, mystery and suspense, plus a number of short stories and non-fiction articles on writing. A freelance editor,

Suz deMello, bestselling erotica author

she’s worked for Total-E-Bound, Liquid Silver Books and Ai Press, where she is currently Managing Editor. She also takes private clients.

Her books have been favorably reviewed in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist, won a contest or two, attained the finals of the RITA and hit several bestseller lists.

A former trial attorney, her passion is world travel. She’s left the US over a dozen times, including lengthy stints working overseas. She’s now writing a vampire tale and planning her next trip.

–Find her books at http://www.suzdemello.com

–For editing services, email her at suzswift@yahoo.com

–Befriend her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sueswift, and visit her group page at  https://www.facebook.com/redhotauthorscafe

–She tweets her reading picks @ReadThis4fun and @Suzdemello

–Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/suzdemello/

–Goodreads: http://bit.ly/SuzATGoodreads