My Characters are fighting me!

Ok fellow writers, you know what I mean when I say, ‘My characters are fighting me!’ It’s the craziest thing. You’ve got the outline, it seems to flow pretty well. The middle and ending are completely figured out in my head, but my characters are not flowing well in the front.

What do I mean? Well, let me explain myself. I’ve worked on the first couple of chapters, but they don’t seem to work. My characters are very familiar to me because this is the 2nd book in a series, so it’s not that. It’s having all the characters together at one time. Which is crazy, right? Every time I start working on it, everything seems off.

So, what do I do? One thing I’ve done is put it out of my mind completely, well not completely but out of sight. I’m taking a little break from it, then will go back fresh and start in the middle where the story is the strongest for me. Let’s just hope the front part comes to me as I write the middle and ending. Thank goodness for Scrivener!

Do your characters give you problems? How do you handle them?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

But one good thing about this one, the cover is beautiful and completed! Here’s a sneak peak!

Lacey's Choice front cover

Sunday morning thoughts…

series ad

As I sit here sipping my coffee, waiting to dress for Church, I need to be working on my latest WIP, but this morning, just thinking about it is enough. Then my thoughts went to my two pirates. With a full publishing schedule through the end of the year, writing another pirate book is not on that list, but what if…

So, what does this mean, well, it means that if the pirate that’s niggling my writer brain wants to come out, I’ll have to work really hard to squeeze him in. As always, I’ll figure it out. Maybe I’ll finish one of my projects early, then I’ll start a new pirate romance. My fans seem to fall in love with my pirates, so I have exciting news for my pirating loving friends. These two pirates will be coming out in one book soon, really soon and here’s the cover for that book union.

Full Cover

Yeah, I’m loving this cover for the series compilation. It’s so gorgeous! So, for my fans that love my two favorite pirates, here’s a special edition.

I hope you enjoy your Sunday. Go out and do something fun.

As always, great writing and May god Bless You…

Feeling the heat…

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Good Thursday morning! I hope that you’re staying cool in the heat that has moved in. Summer is coming in like a lion. Here in Georgia, it is hot and humid. I call it murky. So, stay inside if you can and ride it out.

Now on to today’s post. Have you ever been working on a manuscript and it just wasn’t coming together? I’m in that spot at the moment. The manuscript is at a dead stop. The strange thing is, I can see the middle and the end just fine, it’s the first part that’s giving me the hiccups. I don’t know why, but it’s making me feel the heat in more ways than one. I have to say that this is the first manuscript that’s baffled me.

You may be saying, maybe it’s time to put it aside, but I can feel this one deep in my heart. It’s driving me crazy. If I couldn’t see the middle and last, then I’d give up for a while, but the characters are pulling at me. This book is totally outlined, but the first say four chapters just don’t sound right. So, today I’m starting work on the middle and end, hoping for some inspiration for the problems plaguing the first part. Let’s hope it helps. I just can’t see dropping it totally.

I wouldn’t call it totally ‘writer’s block’, but maybe ‘partial block’. Has this ever happened to you?

Some of you have been asking about the publishing contract I signed last week. Well, it’s going well. The manuscript is in editing and will be returned to me shortly for my side of the process. I have to tell you, Solstice is on the ball. They’ve already created the cover, which I’ll post as soon as the time draws near. It’s a great cover and I can’t wait to start posting it everywhere. The blurb is in their hands now. All that’s left is my author photo, which will be taken today, and the acknowledgements page along with the dedication page. I’m working on those. It’s been a busy couple of days as I’ve worked on getting everything to them on time. And yes, I’m still smiling broadly.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Excitement in the air!

Contract signing

When I walked into my office yesterday morning, it seemed like any normal Wednesday morning, but it turned out to be an extraordinary day. Let me give you a little background on the reason it was spectacular. I’ve been publishing my work for a little over 4 years and it’s been such a wonderful time, but in the back of my mind, I wondered what it would be like to sign a publishing contract. Today I got the chance to see what it felt like and I have to say it felt wonderful!

I turned in Tuscany on Monday to Solstice Publishing and yesterday I received a sweet note with a contract attached. Let’s just say for a moment I sat there, reading the email about ten times, then pinching myself before I realized that yes, it was real. I screamed, totally alarming the three men outside that were working on my property. Then, of course, I sat back, trying to remember how to breathe.

The picture above was taken as I signed the contract and gave Solstice publishing rights to my manuscript. It was the scariest thing as a self-published author and the most gratifying thing knowing that all the late nights and long hours of tapping at the keys had finally paid off. To say I’m humbled is an understatement. Now, as I sit here in the after glow, I’m totally off the rocker excited about what the future will hold.

So, my advice is to do what I’ve been told over and over by successful authors, keep pushing, keep moving forward and one day, it will happen!

I’ll keep you up to date on the process as it goes. It’s a new, exciting adventure.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

How many words?

Good Wednesday morning! It’s looking to be a warm one here in Georgia. Thank goodness I’m working inside.

As for my writing, one of the things I struggle with is how long should my manuscript be. When I set up my writing schedule, it was important to know what count I was shooting for. As I looked at the work in question and worked on the outline, my mind went to many questions and I’ll share them with you now.

Can my plot sustain itself into a 50k+ book or only a 25K novella?
Will my story hold together and is it long book worthy? (Some books are best left short and sweet)
Do I have enough of the book in my head to make the book work?

I know the questions sound similar, but they’re totally different. My plot has to be strong enough to sustain a book. If not, all I have is a couple of pages of short story. Then you have the story that goes into expanding the plot, is it strong enough to make a big book or a novella. I’ve had manuscripts before that I started out wanting a 50K+ book to come out of it, but soon I figured out that if I went past say 25K it would lose some of its strength. And who wants to read fluffy filler that is only used to expand the word count.

The biggie, and of course, if you’ve read my blogs long enough, then you’ve seen me talk about this before, is the story in my head strong? Most of my books come to me start, middle and finish style. If I can’t see the end of the book, most of the time I won’t schedule it until I do. If I can see the end, then I pretty much know the story has some merit, for one reason, then I know where it’s head and what it will take to get it there.

So, when you sit down to start a manuscript, do you have an idea on word count or is it a fly by the pants sort of thing? Since I’ve started scheduling my books and my writing time, I have to keep the status quo, but I was one of the pantser’s for several years.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…