Plotting with Strangers

Dear Reader,

In March, I wrote the first 14 chapters of The Rebel’s Hero. Within this first week of April I’ve discovered a problem: I don’t know why my characters are doing what they are doing. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know their motivations better than when I wrote Catching the Rose, so much so that I was able to write the first 14 chapters without a problem.

Still, after reading the first two books of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, and absolutely loving (as always) his well-developed subplots, twists, and surprises, I looked at my manuscript and sighed. I have work to do.

In a fit of creativity during my lunch break at work on Monday I sketched out a table on a scrap sheet of paper with the column headings: Character, Initial Goal, Roadblock, Recovery, 2nd Roadblock, 2nd Recovery, 3rd Roadblock. The rows of this table are the main characters, whose goals, roadblocks, and recoveries complement and clash.

When I came to one of the supporting characters, I realized I had no idea why he had his initial goal in the first place. To get outside my head, I posted a question on Facebook and got so many wonderful answers and theories that I feel totally inspired.

If you missed out on the conversation, that’s ok. I have a new question for you.

Why do YOU think someone would risk their life to free a slave?

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This post is part of the ROW80 bloghop.

Low-Hanging Fruit

Dear Reader,

When I participated in the first Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80), I had lofty goals which you can reference here. On April 4th, we begin the second round.

I’m still a sponsor for ROW80, meaning I’ll be going around to the participating blogs posting encouragement. This time, I’m keeping my goal simple:

I must write at least 750 words each week.

Seriously. I don’t think I can pick lower hanging fruit than that. I have four projects in progress which count toward this oh-so-low goal (as shown in my sketch below):

• The Rebel’s Hero (a complete re-write of Catching the Rose)
• My Unwitting Heiress (the new book I haven’t talked about much yet except to say it’s about estranged twins)
• Love or Lack Thereof (my short story/poetry anthology)
• Write more Worderella book reviews

I’m a writer, I must write. I’m using this round of ROW80 is remind me of this simple fact. Each week, I’m going to post a sample of what I wrote the week before. Should be fun. Or terrifying. Or both.

Check out the goals other participants have put in place for the second round of ROW80!

Making Progress and Taking Names

Dear Reader,

How are you doing? I’ve been wondering about you lately. There are a number of you who comment due to being a part of Round of Words in 80 Days, but those of you who don’t comment often, I’d love to hear how you found me, and what you find interesting about this blog.

The Latest Project

My new work-in-progress, The Rebel’s Hero, is coming along nicely, I have to say. It is a rewrite of Catching the Rose, so the characters, locations, and the overall plot inspiration are the same, but not much else. My mother keeps asking why I’m rewriting Catching the Rose, that people like that book for what it is: a historical romance from the mind of a 17-year-old girl.

But I’m not 17 anymore, thank god, and the characters are telling me they deserve a second chance. The writing for this book really picked up around mid-March, and as yet, I’ve accumulated 18 000 words.

If you follow me on Twitter or my Facebook fan page, you’ve been seeing my links from 750words.com, where you get a taste of the main words I’ve been using, the overall tone of the chapter I’m writing, how long it took me to write the chapters, etc. It’s kind of fun documenting the progression of a book like this.

For instance, on Sunday March 27, I wrote 2 435 words in 1hr 25min. I had no distractions (i.e. I didn’t stop typing for three or more minutes). The mood was happy and the characters were concerned about home. They were uncertain, but positive.

But most importantly, in the word cloud at the bottom of the page, you see two names: Brad and Veronica. The reason why I’m rewriting Catching the Rose is because the first time I wrote the book, I never had a good handle on Brad’s motivation. Why does he dislike Veronica? Why does he save her from danger in the middle of a battle gone awry?

A grown man isn’t swayed by beauty for much longer than a couple of months. There was something else making Brad stick around despite his annoyance with Veronica’s spoiled upbringing. And in The Rebel’s Hero, I finally figured it out.

I’d love to tell you, really I would. But that would be one of the many spoilers that is making The Rebel’s Hero so much fun to write. Instead of spoiling anything, I want to remind you that everyone subscribed to my newsletter will get a free advance ebook copy of The Rebel’s Hero. I’m not certain of dates, so you will have to bear with me.

These are exciting times! The Rebel’s Hero is coming along, and the next book in the queue to be written finally got a title that I like… My Unwitting Heiress. The only thing I will say about that book is there are identical twins involved.

Don’t forget to tell me how you are doing! Whether you’re a reader, a writer, a mixture of both or none of the above, I’d love to hear from you.

All the best,

Belinda

Roundup for Round of Words

Dear Reader,

I can’t believe that today is the last day of Kait Nolan’s first Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80). She has asked us to focus on what we did accomplish, rather than bewail what we did not.

For posterity reasons, I should note that my goals for ROW80 were lofty. I was supposed to write 750 words a day for the rewrite of Catching the Rose, and release an anthology of contemporary fiction short stories.

I did not do that. Not exactly.

I never released the short story anthology. My winter was full of ups and downs that killed my passion for the project, sadly. It really wasn’t until I was struck with a super bad cold/sinus infection that laid me out for a week (I telecommuted from my bed for three days) that I finally got inspiration to work on the Catching the Rose rewrite.

As I was getting better, work got more stressful… making my stomach more sensitive… meaning I’ve been dealing with a food poisoning-esque experience the last three days.

In the last 24 hours, I’ve written over 2,000 words. Baller. When I was sick with the cold/sinus infection, I wrote a couple thousand. Double baller. I also re-titled the work from Catching the Rose to The Rebel’s Hero and am within spitting distance of introducing the hero to the heroine. Triple baller and a half.

I have to say I’m surprised I lasted. When I started ROW80, I kind of thought I wouldn’t make it. That it would be a way to get things started, but who knew if I’d really finish? But I made it to the end, with different results than I expected, but results all the same.

Feels pretty good. Thanks Kait for putting this together! Check out what the other ROW80 survivors are saying…

Best,

Belinda

When Your Title Doesn’t Fit, You Must Acquit

Dear Reader,

A funny thing happened last week while rewriting Catching the Rose.

I realized I wasn’t writing Catching the Rose anymore.

Now, the funny thing is the characters are the same from Catching the Rose, and the plot is the same. But my writing style has changed so much in the eight years since I wrote the original Catching the Rose that I feel weird about continuing to call it Catching the Rose.

I mean, the book that’s out there now, known as Catching the Rose: Second Edition, is still the book I wrote in high school, but with grammatical fixes, etc.

I laid in bed late at night staring at my ceiling wondering what I was going to do. The fact is I don’t write that way anymore. I’ve learned a lot in the past eight years.

I couldn’t call it Catching the Rose: Third Edition. That just felt clunky.

I thought about calling it Catching the Rose: Redux. That felt good for about twenty minutes.

Then I thought, you know, people who really enjoy Catching the Rose as it is might feel betrayed. So I decided I won’t call this rewrite Catching the Rose at all.

Which meant I had to come up with a new title.

Well… crap.

I suck at writing titles.

But ok, if I can write an entire novel, I can write a title. Right?

I started thinking about titles I like. For whatever reason, I like three-word titles. Everything feels better in threes. It flows off the tongue better, don’t ask me why. So I knew the title would be three words long.

I began thinking about themes of the story. This is about Veronica, a rebellious young woman who is proud to be a Confederate (known a a Johnny Reb to the Yankees). She’s on the hunt for her Prince Charming. She has no idea where her Prince Charming is, but at this point in the story, there’s suspicion he may not exist anymore.

You know what Veronica needs? Veronica needs a hero. She needs a hero until the morning light. He’s gotta be sure and it’s gotta be soon and he’s gotta be larger than life.
Bonnie Tyler – Holding Out for a Hero

So now the book I’m writing is called The Rebel’s Hero. It’s a working title; I’m only seven chapters into the rewrite so I have time to live with it.

The Rebel’s Hero.

Thoughts?

P.S. Check on the other ROW80 writers this week…

Update from the Trenches

Dear Reader,

Have you ever been so sick you can’t even stumble from bed? That’s what I’m going through right at this moment. My manager mentioned it might be strep, which I hope it isn’t because that means I have to leave my apartment to get antibiotics.

Anyway, over the weekend I wrote another 900+ words for Catching the Rose, which is pretty great. Not that what I wrote was fantastic, but it’s progress, anyway. I’m upping the tension in the book much sooner… I’ve cut out pages and pages of description and pitted Amy and Veronica against each other in a way that both surprises me and has me interested. Which I hope my readers will feel the same way. An excerpt to wet your whistle…

As if there wasn’t enough to worry about these days, with the southern states breaking away from the union. Amy pushed her tongue to the side of her mouth and bit it lightly to keep from saying anything. Veronica was a spoiled brat who had no concept of what was going on around her. She wouldn’t know, or care, that this war was chasing Amy south, for a little while, anyway.

“But you know,” Veronica said, leaning back in her seat, “they probably should have. Or they would have, if they had any idea what I’m intending to do here.”

The carriage skidded to a stop. Amy’s stomach landed somewhere between the stamping hooves of the horse that dragged them to the quiet street where Mrs. Beaumont lived.

“And just what might that be, Miss Vernon?” Amy managed, hand on her stomach.

“Ronnie,” Veronica corrected. She rifled through her satchel, which had sat hidden beneath her skirts all this while, and pulled out a careworn journal. She flipped through it expertly until finding a page some three-quarters of the way through. “Find him, and marry him.”

Amy blinked at the handsome sketch of a man Veronica couldn’t possibly know. “What?”

“It’s not the best likeness, I know,” Veronica said. She sighed a little, staring at the portrait of a man with dark hair, sharp eyes, and the hint of a smirk tucked at the corner of his lips. “I haven’t seen him in years. But that won’t stop me, no ma’am.”

“You’re in Richmond to find this man and marry him.” Amy knew she sounded stupid repeating Veronica again. Her lips felt swollen and her tongue heavy. The nausea from the train came back with a vengeance and she swallowed heavily against riotous bile. She had come to Richmond to erase all traces of this man.

It’s a first draft, obviously, but I like it.

How is everyone else doing? Check out the Round of Words in 80 Days list of participants to keep up.

Best,

Belinda

Sporadic Creativity

Dear Reader,

Apologies for going MIA for a bit. Work has been super stressful and winter was getting me down, but no matter. I regrouped over the weekend by working out for three hours (two consecutive, one where the trainer kicked my butt and I’m still hurting four days later).

On Monday at work I took charge on a project that people needed but no one had time to do except for me, because I’m in a holding period for my two projects. It was just the sort of creative project I needed to do at work to make me feel accomplished and useful, because I haven’t felt either lately.

Tuesday was a rush of decision-making, updating the creative project I did on Monday, etc. I tweeted about how work was making my brain hurt but I wanted to write… I haven’t written in a while and rather than feeling down or antsy about it, I was finally starting to feel like doing something about it.

I’m in the middle of organizing the extra papers and books in my home office, one of the last things I have to do in order to truly be moved into my apartment. Rather than continuing with that, I plopped on the floor in the middle of the mess and wrote for an hour.

Reader, I wrote over a thousand words in 44 minutes for the rewrite of Catching the Rose. Which, funny story, is selling better than Haunting Miss Trentwood on Barnes and Noble for reasons unknown. Hoping that the rewrite will make those sales even better.

It might be too early to say, but… I think I’m back.

Check out how the other participants of Round of Words in 80 Days are doing!

All the best,

Belinda

Getting Back on the Horse

Dear Reader,

Last week you’ll remember that I announced unplugging to help eliminate stress in my life. Things were getting bad, and with my seasonal affective disorder on top of everything, I was feeling super low, unmotivated, and irritated that I felt that way. I worked from home on Friday both because my car was semi-blocked in by the snowplow and because I didn’t want to leave my bed. It wasn’t until I texted my guy Sweets around noon that I hadn’t left bed yet and I felt crummy about it that I realized what a pathetic waste of space I was being.

And I was tired of it. For about a month, now, I’ve been whinging about how I can’t write but want to, I feel crummy but am afraid to join a gym, etc. Wah-WAH woe is me life is hard what do I do?

I climbed out of bed and took a much-needed shower. I grabbed my computer and took Sweets’ advice to work at a bookstore or coffee shop instead. I finished the work day at Borders because I could walk to it. I walked back to my apartment, dug out my car, and drove to Barnes and Noble for some enforced writing. I told myself I wasn’t allowed to leave B&N until I had written 750 words. This was a big deal because I’m scheduled every Friday night to be at the ceramics studio… that’s $230 telling me I need to be in the studio on time to make the most of it.

Reader, I wrote over 900 words in half an hour.

They were crap. As soon as I glanced over it, I knew they were crap. My mood was plummeting because they were complete and total crap. But I left them, went to the ceramics studio, and had dinner with my friend Adrienne in the desperate hope she would smack some sense into me. On Saturday, the sun was shining, which is always a good sign. I decided I had to move.

An object in motion stays in motion. An object at rest is dead.

After running around town doing errands, a skype date with some graduate school friends who helped me work through some things, and a pep talk from Sweets, I wound up at Panera drinking a lovely chai latte and nom-nom-ing on french onion soup. I pulled out my laptop and wrote over 1000 words to replace the 900 from Friday evening. And this time, they weren’t bad. They weren’t great, but they weren’t bad.

Yesterday, I met Jen Lane, a fellow local author, at a different Panera, and just being around another writer working on her own project inspired another 830 words. Don’t let these numbers fool you: the words are not flowing. It is a painful process. But at least I’m making progress. I know I said I wanted to write 750 words a day, have an outline for Catching the Rose, and be completed with Love or Lack Thereof by this point. But last week, six different people told me I need to chill the freak out and rest on my laurels a bit. I just published a book in October. No one expects another book so quickly. No one but me, that is.

So even though I am still a part of Round of Words in 80 Days, I need to chill out. Any writing at this point is better than none. I need to be okay if I have to postpone the release of Love or Lack Thereof again, since the words I do have are for the rewrite of Catching the Rose.

Thanks for supporting me last week when I was getting to my really low point. I really appreciated the sentiment. Don’t forget to see how other ROW80 participants are doing.

Belinda

Frustration, Deadlines, Delays

Dear Reader,

I announced last week through Twitter that I was unplugging from my social networks for a while. I wanted to get Love or Lack Thereof to my editor this past weekend. Did that happen? No, because I have three extended short stories to edit still and I completely underestimated how much time that would take.

What does this mean? It means that my anthology won’t be out in time for Valentine’s Day because my editor is booked through February. To be honest, I am so drained right now that I can’t imagine getting the anthology to her before March anyway.

This does mean I can look forward to a March release. Just in time for the flowers to bloom, the birds to sing, and all you lovebirds to become couples. Spring is the season for love, and that’s what this anthology is about. Well, leaning a bit more on the savory side of things, however.

I didn’t get any writing done last week, or this weekend. I’m not worried about it because I needed the break to get my bearings. Much like Zoe, Kait, and Susan, I’ve been feeling the pressure of the all-encompassing DIY approach for my books. So I’ve failed this week’s ROW80 completely.

I’m thinking what I need to do is just, well, chill the freak out. Re-prioritize, as it were, to feel like I can write again. I need to start haunting book stores and coffee shops to get back into the creative writing mindset.

I am excited about releasing Love or Lack Thereof, and the re-release of Catching the Rose. But holy cow, did I make an aggressive schedule for myself without realizing it.

How are your projects going? Frustrated with how long it is taking things? Wondering if you need to alter your deadlines? Sad that you’re suffering through delays?

Dreaming of Books Giveaway

Dear Reader,

I’ve been selected as January’s “Author of the Month” over at A Buckeye Girl Reads. Make sure to check out the interview and leave some love. :) I like that idea, highlighting local authors (I’m on Ohio). Maybe I’ll do something similar, but with indie authors…

Now then. It’s a new month, which means we have a new giveaway! All you have to do is agree to sign up for my newsletter and agree to write a review for my upcoming book of short stories, Love or Lack Thereof. At the end of the giveaway, you will receive a 100%-off discount code to “buy” Love or Lack Thereof.

I am trying to get more reviews on Barnes and Noble.com and Amazon.com. Goodreads.com is always appreciated. I’ll send you the information through the newsletter when we get closer to the release date, which looks like it will be March.

Pretty simple, right? Happy new year!

Best,
Belinda