Refueling Before Revisions: My Writing Process

I've discovered a lot about my writing process since I began this journey. I believe I am Crapper Pantser Plotter Fixer Upper Layerer writer.

In other words: MESSY but as many critique partners have attested, I "clean up well." Here's how it usually rolls for me.

1) I get an idea about a story. Usually it's spurred by a show or a news item or some weird bizarre trip of the wire in my brain. I have more ideas than I know what to do with and some of them are kind of not going to work with the current line I'm targeting. But I always keep them and I have files everywhere, notebooks everywhere, you name it.

2) The characters. I have a distinct scene in my head where the hero/heroine meet. How they meet. What's in their heads. What I don't have is their profession, their looks, their names. I just have a scene with dialogue and thought and bodies moving around a vacuous space. Sometimes there is more. But usually they're just talking and I see them moving around, little nuances.

3) The idea grows into a blurb which I mold into a logline--the logline/tagline may not be pretty, but it's mine and I own it.

4) I brainstorm with friends, critique partners, myself to flesh out the characters' reason for being together, who they are and what they look like, what the story will be about and the basic turning points I know I have to reach. I lay down my tent poles/get the bones of the story ready.

5) I write a synopsis based on the first four steps. Truthfully, I just did it BEFORE I had the story written in discovery phase with the current WIP. I got the idea straight from CJ Redwine and it works. The trick is to let go of what you originally thought was going to happen and revamp it as you go along. The current synopsis does not match the original synopsis, but it's been easy to fix the original. Way easier than writing one AFTER the manuscript is "done."

6) I write a quick discovery draft, flesh out the bones a bit,

7) I really work on the first three chapters and polish them because they are part of the partial/proposal I need to query.

8) I retool the story based on critique, suggestions, my characters telling me I'm going in the wrong direction.

9) I go in to add meat, and to take away some of the original flesh of the rest of the story based on what I'm discovering about the characters and about their love story story. I do this fast, but as grammatically correct as possible (don't ask me about the commas). By this point I've cut a lot and I've added a lot.

10) I let the first revision sit for a few days while I listen to craft tapes, read other books in my genre, mull my ideas and my story, catch up on the business side of the writing world (my least favorite part but it has to be done), query, print out my book and let it sit around the office (or the tornado shelter), catch up on household mundaneness and with friends who wondered where I was for a few weeks.

11) I begin revising in batches. I send the revised batches, usually 3 chapters at a time, to CPs and continue revising forward. I don't utilize the critique till I am ready for another round of revisions.

12) I export everything to Word and work with the complete document, formatting and cleaning up Scrivener "burps." I'm not that technical so I tend to have a lot of driver error in this export stuff. But I think it just forces me to look at the book in a new way which is a good thing.

13) I continue polishing and shining up the story. I layer in more visceral elements and look for things like sensory items I can add to the story. But I don't overwork it. I would drive myself insane if I did that so I begin working on the next book. Pre-writing.

14) I start entering contests with the newest manuscript. I move forward on the next book. I query. I go through it all over again.

My goal is to get faster at this gig. I must generate 3-4 category series romances per year to be a successful career writer and build readership. I'm glad I have a "future list" ready to go out the door, but I want to write more. 3-4 48,000-50,000 word (180-190 page count) books means getting one done every 3-4 months for the editor.

For me this meant getting faster at revising during the MEAT phase. I already had the 1st three chapters polished and critiqued and much of the leg work done. The ending always echoes the beginning for me and I can usually visualize the scenes very clearly. I know the black moment and how they will resolve it to a point. I just keep layering in new stuff and getting rid of stuff that doesn't work. But I don't have beautiful prose until at least the 3rd time through. And even then I have work to do. This isn't easy for me. I work hard. Really hard. And with this current WIP, I want to deliver on the first three chapter's promise. So I am determined to write it fast, write it smart, and be focused during this month despite the fact that I have a lot of travel interrupting my time.


This means I CUT a lot of words. But I like cutting. I like revising. I am the Queen of Revision. I know of no other way to allow the actual story to unfold than be getting rid of beloved words and scenes an people. Oh, I keep them all in another file, but the story demands I make changes. This is a good mindset to get into as I have had a Revise and Resubmit letter from editors at a publishing house. Basically, I had to cut 30 thousand words and start all over again to take the story in a new direction with the same characters. They even asked me to change THE PREMISE. So I did. We'll see how the new premise  flies.

Right now I am in Stage 10 and getting ready for Stage 11. I am printing out my batches today. Fritzing around with business of writing stuff, and giving my wee brain a break.

What's your process? I know mine continues to evolve. How has your process evolved?

Lent, Faith, & Prayer

A lot of people are walking through the Lenten season. 40 days and 40 nights of reflection and review, of sacrifice and sacrament, of prayer and more prayer. I am not formally following the Lent season. I don't think I've ever done so. I've never looked at this season as a time to stop doing something. I look at Lent as a season to start excavating my spirit.

This season I'm mining the depths of my soul and pouring the results onto the pages I am writing.

The only way I know how to go into the caverns is through prayer and meditation. My prayers are focused in the morning, but they're also wrenched from the pit of despair within my heart during odd times of the day.

I believe in the power of prayer, but not because I think praying is a way to get answers to questions and riddles we can't ever solve. I don't believe I guide my prayers. I believe God guides my prayers. And when I listen to God, the direction often goes into territory I hadn't expected, nor wanted. Often times I go there kicking and screaming and fighting. But in the end I yield to His leading and I bow down in acceptance.

I I continue to pray even when the woods become dark and scary and frightening. I continue to pray even when my faith is faltering. I continue to pray even when I know deep, deep, deep down the answer isn't what I wanted to hear.

Why? Why do I kneel and pray even when I know I won't like the answer? Because I have to believe that in praying I am coming closer to God and that He will guide me through the darkest hours. He will pull me out of the depths of despair. He will give me comfort.

My prayers aren't necessary for God. They are necessary for me. Prayer is His gift to me. Prayer is His way of drawing me near, covering my shoulders with his love, sheltering me from the storms, and bringing me peace if only for that moment.

And for that I give thanks. And for that I go back to my knees and pray again.

All faiths have their rituals and prayers. What are your rituals? Did you give something up for Lent? Do you believe in the power of prayer? If so where do your prayers lead you?

Top Ten Lessons for Living in Tornado Ville

We're anticipating tornadoes overnight. I'm writing this today because who knows? Maybe I won't be here tomorrow? Or maybe I'll be here, but the house will be in Oz or some other fantasy world. I never thought I'd live in a place where I'd be hiding from tornadoes many months out of the year, but here I am. Don't have to like the situation, but I have accepted the reality.

Here's what really makes me scared about tonight. All the tornado events that occurred on April 27th. We were slammed hard. We lost power and lives and homes. And we were forgotten. Yup. Out of all the massive weather events that required FEMA to help, Alabama got the least amount of the moola. I don't care for myself. I have insurance and I have the financial means to crawl out of a disaster, but many do not.

Now I'm also lucky because we could afford to build a tornado shelter. I love that it is above ground, weighs a ton and will protect me, the fur babies, the Teen and the Physicist. I wish I could protect more people in my 4x6x6, but I can't.

Which leads to the valuable conclusion that I am not all-powerful and important and special. I am human. This one is up to the Universe and God. I ask WHY NOT ME more often than Why Me so I have been very fortunate and blessed and spared from lots of things for reasons that go beyond my understanding.

So having said all this--here goes my take on surviving these events.

Top Ten Lessons for Living in Tornado Ville for the Non-Survivalists (people who stock up food for 6 months-have bomb shelters-think we'll be taken captive by mutant aliens to name a few)  in Northern AL


1. Have all cars' gas tanks full.
2. Make sure you have cash--at least $100 if not more.
3. Gather all your important papers and put into a file that is easy to carry to a safe place. For us it is a shelter. For you it might be an interior closet or bathroom.
4. Have all computers and phones and purses and wallets and chargers loaded in a bag ready to go to your shelter or safe room.
5. Be sure you have closed toe shoes and comfortable clothing in the shelter and/or near the door/or on your body.
6. Have blankets and pillows loaded in shelter or near safe room.
7. If you have a shelter, stock it with water and basic supplies but really? It won't hold 6 months food supplies so don't go too crazy. Assume you'll only be there for about 20  minutes.
8. Get emergency radio and so forth locked and loaded.
9. Keep TV on for weather alerts--I have the station call me with weather alerts on my cell phone and home phone for a small fee.
10. Don't bother cleaning the house--just chill and be aware.

Oh, and on your way out to the storm shelter or to the interior bathroom, grab a corkscrew and a bottle of wine. If you're going to lose everything, you may as well get a bit tipsy.

Cats, Cookies & Characters

I've been a taking a break from blogging for three reasons:

Tonks loves the hutch but she loves to make trouble as well!

1. Character Rebellion: I have two strong characters. I know my heroine. She's fantabulous. My hero is amazing and sexy and wonderful, but NOT TALKING. I was floundering in the 4th Chapter because my hero and heroine felt like marionettes and not people. I know what happens at the end. I know what she and he must go through so they can have each other, but my hero has NOT been cooperating with his story. And after a day of reading and chilling and thinking, I finally figured him out. Well, poor guy just is scared witless. Now I know why. And I can't wait to reveal his secrets to my readers.

I made 4 plus dozen cookies. Yum!

Tons to repackage and sell.

2. Cookies: In addition to being a writerly momma, I am also a DRAMA MAMA. I have banded with three other Drama Mamas to help bring folks into our teenagers' benefit play. They're trying to raise money to get to the South Eastern Theater Conference in Chattanooga where they'll represent Alabama. Pretty cool beans. Which means I am baking lots of cookies and other sundries as part of their fundraising efforts. What is so wonderful about all this is that the moola they raise helps ALL the kids. This is a group who takes care of each other. Kind of intense because my current characters are involved in fundraising as well. But their fundraising is to raise research money to search for an understanding and a cure of a yucky disease which is killing their best friend. Love my teen and her crew. Love my characters, too.

Tonks is so relaxed!

 3. Writerly Cats: The household felines have been taking over the new writing space. When I opened up the office, Tonks found all kinds of new caves to be cavelike inside. And she is chasing the paper, the paper clips and more. She is up to mischief. And speaking of mischief, the Teen's cat MISCHIEF has also returned to the office. A tentative truce is set up. Missy and Tonks are trying to get along for the most part. Much like my characters, it is an uneasy alliance, but they do it out of love for me.

Mischief has returned to visit the office.

She and Tonks are reluctant allies.

And so that is the way of the world in my corner of the universe. 

What's in your world today?

Getting the Writerly World in Order

This week I have rebooted my goals for the year and prioritized them. I've also figured out the obstacles. Most of them are centered around the household duties and errands I have to perform. I can't do this alone. The Physicist offered to hire a housekeeper, but that's money taken out of the writer pile and we should get this done together. As a team. We'll revisit that one after I get a contract and we see how much the college fees amount to for the Teen.

And speaking of the Teen, she got quite a wake up call after she was Miss Independence Day about her life and me trying to control her. Man, did she pick the wrong day to play the "It's My Life" card. Cause I want a life as well. And you know what, she's right. She should understand the cost of being Independent. She's going to college in August. She needs to learn how to manage things for herself. Therefore, she is officially in charge of her stuff and I will only clean it for a fee. And that's an automatic fee clean. Cause I can't stand smelly clothes and a smelly teen wing with lord knows what kind of crud growing under her bed.

She tried to get things back to the "way they were" but I held my ground. I had my own little Independence Day. I am officially liberated from being the Evil Harping Nag Queen. Why? Cause her fee goes to me and I am motivated to see her not perform so I get $$$ for the RWA National Conference in Anaheim.

I should have thought of this MONTHS AGO.

Any rate, the Physicist is already helpful and he pays the bills with the money he earns so I can't complain about his efforts. I do want a little more help with laundry, but that'll come as I have decided to start laundry when they come home. That way they will at least have to fold and put away for me.

I also realized I have to back down on some of my social media stuff. But that's been in the works for a while. I control the media, it doesn't control me. Amazing what a little time with a James Scott Bell book can do to get my priorities straight. I am stoked about the freedom I've gained by realizing what a drain the household is on me.

So celebrate with me!! I'm have a Writing Revolution! What do you need to let go of in order to liberate your writing time?

Buzz Buzz Busy Bee Needs to Get More Energy

As I progress further down the road toward my ultimate goal of publication, I have discovered that my energy needs a boost. This writing thing takes a lot of creative energy. There are certain drains to my creative energy. These are my current creative energy drains:

1. Anything Tech--last week I had to go over building my web pages with Florina Craven of THINK FLOW DESIGN. I'm so glad I am NOT trying to build  one myself. This requires way too much energy and stops the creative flow.

Lesson: Delegate stuff you hate doing to people who love to do it!!

2. Anything Family: My family is super important to me. I like spending time with the Physicist and the Teen. And the Teen is graduating so there are a lot of holes to plug and t's to cross and i's to dot. This is HIGH PRIORITY. But it is energy draining. My solution? Write when they're not around or go away to write. They can't drain me if they can't find me. It's not selfish. It's self-care. But when I am with them I am fully with them. I'm not disengaged.

Lesson: Schedule writing time to fit your lifestyle demands.

3. Emails/phone calls/social media/blogging all drain my creative energy. I'm easily sucked into the social media world. It is my "water cooler." But I have to put into place rules to maximize the benefit over the energy lost. This means setting a timer, only tweeting and doing status updates during writing breaks, and blogging less. I also don't answer the phone unless it is the school calling. I make phone calls after I'm done working FOR THE DAY. Not during breaks. It is too easy to get sucked into a conversation that lasts too long. The only calls I make during the day are calls which are required by the office hours of medical offices and insurance companies and I schedule them for Mondays. I call them "MEDICAL MONDAYS." Fortunately, haven't had too many of them lately. I am also blogging less. Stay tuned for less of me on the blog and more of me writing books.

Lesson: Use a timer and set a schedule which puts you in charge of social media and phone calls.

4. People. I love people and I have a lot of energy, but I can get drained as well. So I have to pick and choose who I am with and when I am with them. I give myself mini breaks and hang out with non-writing friends between projects and on the weekends. This is a better way of recharging my life.

Lesson: Say no when people want to take up your writing time. Say yes when you have time to socialize. Be in charge of your time and own it.

5. Health. If I'm not exercising and eating right I become grumpy and surly. I need to do both to be a better writer.

Lesson: Take care of yourself or you won't be able to write. Make time for your health. Schedule workouts and plan healthy meals.

It's not rocket science. It's called making your life and your body and your writing a priority for you. And yes, life happens. It does. This morning I had to set aside my goals because the Teen needed help with a printing issue. That's okay. I immediately rescheduled my writing time and will still put in the hours I need to put into the writing later.

Final Lesson: Be flexible and learn to go with the flow and rhythm of the day.

What drains you? What do you do to combat the drains?

A Tangled Web to Weave

I am in "business" mode this week. What does that mean? I am thinking about marketing and web design and "brand" and head shots and more.

Why? I think it is important to have the bones of my marketing world in place before I get "the call." And here's why. I know it will happen one day and when it does, I don't want to get bogged down in all of this heavy thinking when I need to concentrate on what is important: THE WRITING. I have a bit of time now. I have some wiggle room to work in all of these other elements. And it's okay if my brain isn't fully focused on the development of my stories 100% of the time.

When I get "the call" I won't have that luxury. And believe me this time and wiggle room is a luxury. I've been slowly building my base, not in a crass way, but in my usual way: be friendly and kind and the world will return the favor. I don't push hard for followers or facebook friends or twitter peeps. I think I just  need to be myself and eventually my base will grow as a result.

I don't want to be that hamster on a wheel running and running and running in circles singing "look at me and look at what I can do!" when I get "the call." I believe my books will speak for themselves and my readers will love them. I want to have time to connect with them in an authentic and real way. That's why I am "branding" myself now. That's why I am building my network and my web pages now.

Yesterday I spent about two hours talking with a wonderful person who runs THINK FLOW DESIGN. Florina Craven knows how to design pages. She knows how to connect all these marketing dots. This is what she breathes for air. Me? Uh, not so much. But I don't have to know everything. I just have to know enough to get her started and she'll run with my brand and my ideas and my story themes and build me a beautiful and spicy website with 4 pages to start.

And for a fee I can have her design a logo which I can use for all my future marketing needs. Wow. Really? That's awesome. That beats me taking the time to do it because if I spend all my time trying to make something half way pretty for a design guess what I won't be doing? Right. The writing.

I love to write stories. I love to get to know my characters and build their worlds. I love cutting out pictures from magazines and storyboarding. I love revising and reshaping my stories. I love the craft of writing. I love learning about it and talking about it. It energizes me.

Talking about passwords and overlaying codes and widgets is something I have to do now so I won't have to do it much later. And I am so glad I found Florina and her company. It helps that she knows me and we have connected at conferences on a personal level. She understands me and knows my personality. In fact she knows my personality so well that when she suggested the colors for my website I was floored. They're all over my house!!

I am embarking on a journey. One that will be fun and a bit scary for me. But I am not embarking on this journey alone. I have a professional with me. One who has my best interests at heart. One who understands writers. One who will bring my worlds to the web far better than I could possibly imagine.

As I embark on this journey I want to know what kind of questions or experiences you have had in marketing. Do you have web pages? Are you intimidated by trying to "brand" yourself? Do you know where to start looking for designers, photographers, marketing tools?

Post your questions here. I plan to interview Florina and would love to incorporate your ideas and questions.

And for one lucky commentator, I have a fun prize. A book called WE ARE NOT ALONE by Kristen Lamb. If you haven't got this book and you're dedicated to building a writing career, this is the book for you. It gives you a great place to start building your career one step at a time!