Hey there! My name is Sara and we'll be spending Thursday's together from now on here at Paranormal Romantics. So pull up a chair and the caffeine drug of choice (black coffee with one sweetener for me) and get cozy.
I write wherever my brain takes me. To say I'm an organic writer is a gross understatement. I never have a plan or course of how a writing day will take me. If a character from a book wakes with me, they'd done so for a reason and I'll spend the time necessary with them to get out what they have to say. I learned a while ago that this actually helps my brain purge growing ideas in order to work on others. For instance - earlier this year I finished up, and submitted, the next book in my Rebirth series, Blood Fever. I had a few notes scribbled on paper and 25K words already written for the next book I wanted to tackle, the second book in my Star Runner series (the first of which. Midnight's Ghost, releases on Monday, May 10th - WOOT!). So I sit down in front of the computer one morning and started to write. Only, I'm not writing what the notes sitting next to me talk to. I don't recognize what I'm writing but suddenly I've got 2K words.
And it's good.
So, I keep going. Learning about the people I'm writing about. I put away the notes and close the file on the 2nd Star Runner book. A month later and I'm looking at a finished book and I have no idea where it came from. It's not anything I'd usually write. It's not paranormal. It's not fantasy nor science fiction. It's...normal and I like it - a lot. *G* So, I let other people look at it and they like it too. This book came out of nowhere and the reaction to it is great! Which, if you know me at all, is a feat itself. It's hanging out in cyberspace for the moment. ;^)
I crack my knuckles because now it's time to dig back into the next Star Runner book. For a week or so everything is great. I even re-read Midnight's Ghost and pick up on a few things that still need to be dealt with and start dealing with them because I purposefully leave some unanswered questions at the end of Midnight's Ghost.
And then the characters start in. Only, it's characters from my Rebirth series - not the Star Runner one.
I fight and hold out. Determined that I will get more than just the bare bones of this book laid out. It will start to look pretty. Well, at least prettier than it does. However, my Rebirth characters are stubborn and determined. (Dealing with vampires and Fae - what did I expect?) So, I've given up. I shut down the Star Runner file and cracked open a file that had a "last save date" of Sept 2008. It won't change - it will always have that date because I also opened a crisp, shiny new file. Things in book 1, Flash of Dark and book 2, Blood Fever, have been changed from my first drafts and book 3 will have to be torn apart, chopped up and assembled before I wrap it all up in a shiny package - like a tasty piece of sushi.
Now I get to add the wasabi. :^)
5 comments:
Now you get to add Wasabi? Great line Sara. I'm a big fan of your work! Whatever you're doing, keep doing it. LOL.
For me, I have a process. A list of what I will write and when I will write it. Of course, I occasionally veer off course.
So glad to have you with us! Do we have your new cover in our book cover slideshow?
Rebecca
We write a lot alike - I never plan either, I just let the story take me where ever it wants to go.
Nice to meet a writer who is as unorganized as I am, but seems to be able at the end of the day to put a book together!
I've loved your work so you must be doing something right!!
I'm in the minority of the blog partners here. I outline and plot :-)
Best wishes!
I'm like Sandi. I plot obsessively. My outlines are small books before I start but I also don't have to edit much afterwards either.
@ Rebecca I always have, in the back of my mind, future projects I'd like to tackle. Then, of course, a sub call goes out and blows it all to pot. And the covers in there - it was mine for only a night before it got shared. :^)
@ Stacey I usually have a few notes of key things I want to happen but that's about it. Those points never change - especially when dealing with a series - and sometimes half the fun is trying to work around it.
@ Sandra & Annie I have tried sooo many times to outline and plot and I fail miserably every time. Enough that I get frustrated and give up on the project entirely. It's always amazing to see the vast differences in writing styles!
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