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Fantasy Romance

Elizabeth Drake

Writing Process: Writer’s Block

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Writer’s block sucks.

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More organized than my words lately.

I’ve been suffering from it for well over a week. While many are participating in NaNoWriMo (yes, auto correct, that’s the word I want), I’ve been trying to plod along at my 1,000 words a day. This will result in a first draft completed by the end of November.

As is my usual M.O., I was ahead on my word count. I hate waiting until the last minute for deadlines, and it’s no different with my writing.

Then came family birthdays. Halloween. My never-ending kitchen which probably won’t be done by Christmas.

That is before you take into consideration this is the busiest time of year at work. I’m going in early and working through lunch, and I still have to bring things home at night.

I am literally writing this post as I wait outside my daughter’s dance class.

So, yeah, time is tight.

But it’s more than that.

Normally the characters are dancing in my brain. Invading my commute. Singing to me in the shower.

They’ve gone silent.

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Maybe because I wasn’t listening to them. Who wants to shout at a wall?

Or maybe there is something wrong with the story. Maybe I backed my characters into a corner and I’m playing Barbies with them rather than writing a coherent novel.

Or perhaps it’s this pesky plotting business, and my characters just don’t want to do what’s supposed to happen next. Always possible probable.

It’s possible figuring out the underlying cause of my writer’s block will help me beat it, but it might not won’t.

I need to work through it. Close my eyes, give up my pre-conceived ideas of what was going to happen next, and let the characters talk to me. Let them lead me on their journey.

Looks like I’m a pantser no matter how hard I try to be otherwise.

 

Micro Fiction: To the Death

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MarcusDefeatstheLich

Filled with the holy light of the gods, Marcus channeled all he was into one final thrust.

The skull stared at him, its ivory bone incapable of showing surprise, pain, or even triumph.

Fear pooled in Sir Marcus’s stomach as failure stared at him.

Then the lich was gone, the light of the Holy Trinity incinerating it to ash.

Marcus fell to his knees, another prayer on his lips as exhaustion dropped him to his knees.

NaNoWriMo 2018

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I will not be doing NaNoWriMo. I know. Blaspheme.

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And any love from your family.

For those who may not be familiar with this, November in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). As part of the celebration, authors join together and attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

No, 50,000 words is not a full novel. Romance novels tend to be around 70,000-85,000 words.

But 50,000 words is A LOT for one month. A LOT. It’s almost 1,700 words a day.

Yeah, a lot.

Many people will tell authors that they *must* participate. That it shows them the pace of a true writer.

Yeah, no. Every writer is different. Every writer’s process is different.

For me, rough drafts are a tiny fraction of the work of creating a finished novel.

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To Love a Prince took me fourteen drafts. Yeah, Fourteen. After I discarded two different false starts.

Seducing the Ice Queen was ten drafts. Better, but still a lot more revising that drafting.

And while I still need to figure out how to shrink those number of drafts further and still have a product I am proud of, participating in NaNoWriMo will not get me there.

What it will do is make me stress even more, steal some of the joy of writing from me, and make my family hate my writing.

The after NaNoWriMo, I am still dealing with the unpleasant side effects while trying to get from 50,000 words to the 75,000+ words of a finished romance novel.

It also does nothing to conquer the editing process.

I’m going to posit that following NaNoWriMo might actually make my editing process more intense as I struggle to get the 1,700 words on the page rather than 1,700 words that make some sort of sense.

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Yes, most first drafts are dumpster fires. But there’s dumpster fires and then there’s industrial dumpster fires.

None of this means NaNoWriMo doesn’t work for other authors.

Whatever works for each writer is a valid form of writing, even if it means typing while standing on their head, or whatever else they may do.

Some authors swear by working at cafes. Or libraries. Or rainbow fields surrounded by unicorns.

I prefer sitting at my old computer desk or curled up in the recliner with my laptop. I like music but I don’t need it. I prefer my lap to be cat-free, but that isn’t always possible.

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Yeah, he’s cute. Until you want him to move.

I like to write when the kids aren’t awake, but again, not always possible. Sometimes I write on my lunch hour. Sometimes while my daughter is in dance class. I have toyed with the idea of dictation software so I can write in the car.

This is what works for me.

That new story I told you about? I’m over 40k words into it. I am hoping to have this first draft completed by the end of November. Then, it’s back to edits for Knight for Valor.

Writing Process: Seducing the Ice Queen

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Many of you said you were interested in learning more about my writing process, so I thought I’d share a little bit about my journey for writing Seducing the Ice Queen. If you’ve read To Love a Prince,  you’ve heard about Lady Daniella Spencer, Prince Eli’s jilted fiancée.

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I had originally started writing To Love a Prince as Daniella’s story, and Prince Eli was supposed to be the villain in it.

Then he started developing as a character. He revealed some of the events in his life that shaped him into the person he was. And how hard that person would fight to be king. Not for the power, but because he wouldn’t see the kingdom his mother died for torn apart by civil war.

Yeah, he still wasn’t entirely good, but he was interesting. And that led to me writing To Love a Prince as it is today.

But Daniella was not treated well in that book. She still needed her story, even if it was a different story than the one I’d originally planned. You’ve read about some of my issues with this story, but in the end, I feel like I’ve been true to characters.

I allowed myself to go where the characters took me. And yes, it was messy. Yes, it took nine revisions before I finally accepted I had to let go and release it into the world. Yes an editor and I had differences of opinion on the story.

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But I still enjoyed Daniella and Callen’s story. They went through a lot, but they earned their happily-ever-after (that’s not a spoiler. It’s my book. You know I always give my readers a happily-ever-after.)

 

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You will never have to worry about this from me!

Interestingly, the character I created to be the villain in their story completely rejected the role. *face palm* No, they didn’t want to do those things, thank you very much. It wasn’t in their nature. Wasn’t who they were.

Yeah, this is why I am so awful at plotting. Characters get in the way of my plots on every book!

So, I let the character be themself and reworked the story around them. The book is better for it, and now the character who was supposed to be the villain wants their own happily-ever-after!

And as it is prone to doing, my brain has been ignoring editing as it starts thinking through this new story.

He’d Give Her the Moon

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By the gods, she was beautiful. Brave. Kind. Loyal.

He’d done nothing to earn her or her love, but she gave it freely.

If she asked for the moon, he’d figure out how to give it to her.

All she wanted was to find her brother. And so he’d find him.