• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Elizabeth Drakes's Site

Fantasy Romance

  • Blog
  • Books
  • Sign Up
  • About

excitement

3 Things I Learned From Not Wanting to Write Anymore (and Sticking with It)

May 6, 2016 by Elizabeth Drake

If you saw my post the other day, you read the culmination of a couple weeks of frustration and not wanting to write. I finally decided to admit what was going through my head, and it actually helped. A lot. Here are three things I learned that helped get me back to being excited to write again.

Magic

Revision is Important, but so is Creating Something New

The first draft of the first novel I’ve written in over 8 years was . . . rough. Okay, as I have heard other bloggers call it, it was brain vomit on the page. I spent three times longer revising this piece of work than I spent writing it. Yeah. Three times. Some of the revisions were fun, especially the early ones where things were still being fleshed out and there was a lot of additions and even more changes. The later revisions were less than fun, but they needed to be done.

During the months of revising Knight of Valor, I started work on a second novel. Need a better title than Devil’s Due, but that’s what I’m calling it now. I finished the first draft of this novel while I was still tinkering with revisions on Knight of Valor.

Now I have two novels that needs to be revised. So I didn’t start work on a third (even though I have several ideas percolating) because I was spending all my writing time revising. As important as revising is, it doesn’t keep me nearly as engaged or as happy as writing something new.

DH had recommended I write something for myself, something I would never try to publish, so I could enjoy it and not worry about revisions. He recommended I write fan fiction so it wouldn’t even be a temptation. I heard his words but didn’t listen (sorry DH!).

When Mariah Avix over at 600 Second Saga reminded me that creating was important, too, it really hit home.  Guess DH had to soften my thick skull up first.

 

Talk to Someone (and Listen!)

It really helped to hear other people remind me how important creating was. How there is more to the process than the end product. Sometimes the process itself is important.

And I love creating new characters, new conflicts, and finding a way to have them conquer it and live happily ever after. Yeah, romance writer here. You can tell.

I had lost perspective of that. And I hadn’t spent much time fleshing out new characters in months.

And, er, well, listen when people tell you something, even if you don’t want to hear it. (Sorry, DH!)

 

Keep Reading

This, honestly, helped. Way more than I thought it would. I picked new-to-me-authors, and while I really disliked some of what I read, I really liked others. Or parts of others. The reading in and of itself helped a little. Hearing a new voice has it pros, but the way my brain works when I read is that I no longer “see” the words on the page. So I don’t learn much on the craft piece just by reading. What I do learn more about is storytelling, but only when I ask why. Why did I like or dislike a heroine? Why was I bored and skimming through sections? How did an author craft a believable romance versus one that made me roll my eyes? What did I like about a hero that made him memorable? What parts of the steamy scenes drew me in? Bored me? Made me skim them to get them over with?

I am going to try to keep up with reading more, even if it means writing less. We’ll see if I still feel this way in a couple of weeks, but I am hoping it helps with the quality of my writing (and revising).

Besides, I love a good book.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: creativity, editing, excitement, inspiration, Publishing, Reading, revision, Writing, Writing help

Progress

March 14, 2016 by Elizabeth Drake

This is my busy season at work, although really, when isn’t it with the projects in the off season. There has been quite a bit of additional stress this year, especially with my little one getting pneumonia in the middle of it. Still, starting to see light.

On the writing front, I may be able to “finish” my first draft of that very difficult character. So exciting! After everything I went through, 80,000 words I wrote in two other attempts (which I may try to rework for different characters – like the story but I need a less ruthless hero to make them work), I finally may have a rough draft!

It’ll be short again, around 55,000 words. It’ll suffer from lack of description, and I already know one part that needs significant beefing up, but that will come during the first revision phase when I can focus on that rather than where the story is going.

Giddy sort of excitement as Stage 1 wraps up. And maybe a little sadness. I love the part where the characters are in your head “talking” to you. Granted, the rough revisions will bring that back as I rip at the guts of the story rather than focus on grammatical issues like should I use lie or lay.

I still need to work on the mostly finished manuscript, add a bit of flesh to its lean fame, and package it up for submission. It’s been a mixture of wanting to work on the first draft of the new manuscript combined with a bit of procrastination on the old. I hate rejection. It sucks. And I have a long line of it ahead of me to even have a chance to get the first one published.  Ugh.

Back to basking in the joy of an almost done rough draft. And not losing focus on that!

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: accomplishment, editing, excitement, Manuscript, progress, revision, time, Writing

Detour

February 22, 2016 by Elizabeth Drake

I have been super excited about my new project. Characters are alive, the story is taking shape, my outline is already 9 pages long as I include snippets of dialogue and other key points as they pop into my head.

Sure, a bunch of it will get cut and reworked, but it’s been heady.  A taste of what made me love writing.

And then our baby got sick. She’s been running a fever of 101-103 (with Tylenol) for three days as I write this. At day 5, the doctor wants to see her (but not before, as he says little ones sometimes go through this, especially little ones in daycare). I had to take off of work. My husband had to take off of work. You’d think a day home would have seen some writing done, but a sick baby allows no time in front of a computer. She needs to be held, comforted and cuddled. She’s a baby. She’s sick. She hates being sick, and she’s mad as hell about it. And she lets you know. Constantly.

One of us has to be dedicated to her while the other deals with the rest of the things a household requires. Food. The other kid. Laundry. Dishes. Recycling. That’s just the few my sleep deprived brain can name that needed doing this morning.

It’s hard enough to deal with a sick little one, but it’s compounded by frustration. Sure, writing isn’t my day job, but its important to me, and I’d finally found this spark of energy.

I don’t want to lose this rhythm, this grove.

I’m hoping the time I have spent on the outline will see me through.

If not, I have to find something that will next time. This isn’t the first or last time that real life is going to get in the way.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: excitement, illness, inspiration, Kids, New, Outlines, Writing

New Project

February 19, 2016 by Elizabeth Drake

There is nothing like a new project. It’s exciting.

I started working on an outline for the story. Rather than the very structured, rigid outlines I used for term papers, I have gone more with a stream of conscious flow. Snippets of conversations, or conversations I want to be had. Background. Plot ideas. Protagonists and their motivations. Antagonists and their motivations.

The outline itself is a bit sprawling and I am trying to tame it as I go. But it’s working better, allowing me to select snippets and insert them into the story as I go rather than being bound.

At 9 pages and over 3,000 words, the outline is a beast unto itself.

But this has helped me produce almost 10,000 rough draft words. That is an amazing amount for me to accomplish in such a short time. Yeah, they’re all garbage and will need to be rewrtten and reworked, but that’s how all of my rough drafts are.

I just need to find a way to keep the momentum!

Yeah, that synopsis I was going to work on . . . not so much this week.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: characters, excitement, New, Outlines, Writing

Something New

February 15, 2016 by Elizabeth Drake

I have started thinking through a new story idea. Completely new. And I am excited, filled with hope and potential. My mind is racing. Characters are talking in my head again.

I started writing an outline, but rather than my normally organized, bullet pointed outline, this is more stream of conscious.

Maybe it’ll work better, maybe not.

Funny thing, it’s the same difficult character from the other story. Put in a new story in a new way, and I feel like it works. I keep him out of his center of power without weakening him. It lets him be ruthless without asking him to be ashamed of it. It lets him be both protector and conqueror.

The female lead is the same and different. It lets her be softer, less powerful, but still in control. I think. I need to work more on her.

I am planning to save all those thousands of words on the other stories and try to recast them with different characters.

I am just glad they are interrupting my thoughts again.

 

Oh yeah, I am still working on that query. Slugging through it and very, very thankful for my two beta readers who haven’t cut me any slack on it.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: creativity, excitement, New, Query letter, Writing

Footer

Connect with me on social media

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Looking for something specific?

Copyright © 2021 · Author Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in