Very productive week in writing

I'm happy to say I've completed the first 100 pages of edits on my newly contracted novel, Cassidy's War. Fortunately, since I've already gone through two revision requests with this manuscript, these mostly seem to be line edits and I have three weeks to finish up.

I also completed the first draft of a short magazine romance story. I'm putting that aside for a week before doing edits and polishing a bit before submitting.

Besides all that, I researched, wrote and posted a history blog at Slip Into Something Victorian on the Baltimore Raid at the start of the American Civil War.

I think the contracted edits are helping to get me right into my writing tasks. Before the contract, I'd sometimes have a hard time deciding which project I wanted to work on, since I always seem to have several in the works. While trying to decide, I'd waste time checking email and websites, instead of writing during my scheduled writing time.

Hopefully, I can get even more organized now. No fooling around when you have to complete edits on a deadline that's not self-imposed.

Back to work on my time travel novella

I just polished up a new short story and sent it off on Monday. Now, I've got three submissions out at once. Yay! Haven't had that many out for a long while.

Now, I'm back to the time travel novella I had to stop work on a while back to finish up my novel. I had to go back and finish up the plot outline, but now it's done. Today I moved around the opening scenes and  wrote an additional 1131 words. I want to keep moving forward until I finish the first draft.

This novella is an offshoot of my Civil War time travel romance, Erin's Rebel. But the novella takes place 20 years after the war. The hero and heroine of Erin's Rebel are the parents of the novella's heroine, the hero is from our time.

It's fun to work on a piece taken from an existing story. My latest novel is too. Characters and situations already exist from the original story, so it's sort of like moving forward through time and seeing the characters grow.

Ack! Thought I was farther along with that novella

In going over my partially completed time travel novella, I found that although I'd written the first three scenes, I'd only plotted out the first eight scenes. So, before I resume writing, I have to go back and plot out the second half of the story.

I'd thought I'd finished that, so was a little disappointed, but I'll finish plotting, then get back to writing the first draft.

That's what happens when I leave a project midway through.

Writing Goals for the new year!

As promised, here's the list of what I'd like to accomplish--writing wise--in the 2011.

2011 Writing Goals


* Proofread and submit novel, Cassidy’s War

* List at least 6 or 7 ideas for short stories for True Romance and True Confession magazines

* Write and submit stories

* Finish first draft of time travel novella

* Revise, edit, polish and submit

* Outline series of science fiction romance novellas based on novel I put aside

* Plot out first novella

* Write first draft for first novella

I accomplished all of my writing goals for last year, except one and that's because I took a wrong turn with a new story I wrote over the summer. My goal for this year is to convert that story into a series of novellas.

What goals do you have for the new year, writing or otherwise? I'd love to hear them.

Revision's Finished!

Of course I'm not completely done with this manuscript, still have to go back and do line edits and a final proofread before submitting, but I'm relieved that this revision is over. And it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The trick, after reading my editor's revision request, was to put the manuscript aside for the entire summer, while I worked on other projects. When I came back to it in October, I could look at it in a whole new light.

I'm taking a week off from this manuscript and will start line edits the Monday after Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I'll catch up on blogging and revise, edit and polish a short story.

I even revised the blurb of the manuscript called Cassidy's War.

The Civil War is over, but Cassidy’s War is just beginning.

Cassidy Stuart longs to attend medical school. Her training under her physician father and her time serving as a nurse during the war, have only increased her desire to be a real physician with a practice of her own. When the man who’d left her at the altar five years before, returns, she’s determined not to let him upset the plans she’s set for herself.

Unknown to his former fiancée and her family, George Masters is now a Pinkerton agent sent to investigate a physician now living in George’s former hometown. When he finds Cassidy hasn’t married, he hopes he can have another chance with her, but can’t reveal his real reason for returning, at least not until his mission is accomplished.

Can love be rekindled with a doctor bent on revenge against them both?

I hope to have this completed and ready to submit by the beginning of the new year, if not sooner.

Too many projects...

...and now it's decision time.

I had a major interruption in my writing hours last week and now I'm at the point where I have to decide which of my projects I'm going to devote myself to for the next month, or at least the next week.

I have three projects I can work on. The first is a novel that needs revision at my editor's request. After she rejected the manuscript twice, I wasn't able to look at it for a while. But I do have her notes and finally feel I can get back into the project. It would likely take me a month. Then I can do a final polish and resubmit.

I also started the first draft of a time travel novella. The interruption of the past week has taken my momentum away, but if I bring up the file, I'm sure I can get my head back into the story. And because it's a novella, it won't take more than a month to finish the first draft. After completing that, I can put it aside for later revision and edits.

I also have an idea for a short magazine story. That would only take about a week to write, then I can put it aside for a short period before edits and a final polish. I did manage to edit, polish and submit another short story to the same magazine and now have a new contract to show for it, so that's incentive enough to get started on a new story.

The other project was the sci-fi romance I worked on all summer. But as I approached the end, something just didn't feel right. I ended up coming to a complete halt with that one. It will definitely sit on the back burner for a while. I think I need to come back to it with a brand new perspective. I may even try to write a series of novellas in that genre. Sometimes shorter can work to my advantage, especially with a genre I don't normally write in.

So, I'm left with three projects I can start work on tomorrow. But which shall it be?

Switching projects again!

I've put my sci-fi romance aside for a bit and am now working on a time travel novella. I'm really excited by this story, because it's an offshoot of my time travel romance, Erin's Rebel. The heroine is Erin's step-daughter, Amanda, all grown up in the year 1885.

The hero is from the present time and I've decided to call this story Thoroughly Modern Amanda. Do you like the title? Sometimes just finding the right title for a new story sets my creative juices flowing.

Anyway, I'm still plotting the story out, but already know how it will end. I'm working on plot details right now as I go from scene to scene. But I have enough plotted out to begin writing, which I plan to do on Monday.

I also completed the first draft of a short romance story this week and am putting that aside for at least a couple of weeks before looking at it again.

Switching among several projects really energizes me, especially when I'm stuck!

Feeling unproductive today

I planned to finish the end of my first draft this week, but it's just not happening. For one thing, I'm signed up for a workshop on Character Torture and already had two lessons and a homework assignment to complete. And I did such a bad job with the homework, I had to do it over and still didn't get it right.

It's a real learning experience that shows me that draft I'm trying to complete is going to take a lot of work when I get to the revision stage. I don't know if that's why I'm freezing up on the project or I'm just getting tired of working on one thing day after day.

If I can't get back into it tomorrow, I might switch to one of the short stories I've started on and see if I can do something with that to get my enthusiasm for writing back.

Of course, if I could just get that homework assignment right, I might not be so scared to go on with the draft. It's a first draft after all. It's allowed to suck. LOL.

Getting closer to 'the end'

After taking a day off, I'm back to adding to the word count of the first draft of my science fiction romance, A Pirate's Honor. In the past two days, I've added over 2500 words to the draft.

If I can fight off my procrastination that seems to descend when I'm close to the end of a project, I'm hoping to finish up sometime next week.

I do have a workshop starting on the 19th, but I hope to navigate around that and finish this project up. I'm just so close!

Wish me luck.

When inspiration wavers, I clean my desk

Today was one of those days. I don't know if it's because I'm nearing the end of my first draft, but I just didn't feel like opening the file of my latest project today. I have a plotting sheet describing what will happen in the end of the story and am currently writing an exciting scene that leads to the Black Moment, but when my writing time of the day came along, I just couldn't go into the file.

So, I thought a day off from writing might be what I needed. But now what do I do? Watching TV or reading, unless it's writing related, would just feel too unproductive and I'd regret it later. So what to do instead?

My solution was to clean off the mounting pile of supposedly important things I was saving on my desk. Some of the pile was important and needed daily, like the folder for my WIP. But there were also magazines that I was saving for reasons I couldn't remember and pages I'd printed out.

About half of the pile was important, it turns out, but the rest went into the recycling bin. The important stuff I don't need right now went into file drawers. Although the pile is now a lot smaller, it's still there. But at least now, it will be easier to find what I'm working on and what I plan to work on when this first draft is finally done.

I feel a bit more organized and plan to add to my word count tomorrow.

Summer Book Challenge report

Although I wasn't able to complete the first draft of my summer book challenge book, a science fiction romance called A Pirate's Honor, I'm pleased to announce that I'm 68,936 words along.

All I have left to write is the black moment and ending. I should have no trouble completing this by the end of this month.

So, that said, my goal for September is to finish and write 'the end' to this draft.

I'm looking forward to putting this manuscript aside for a bit, so I can work on a few short stories and novellas for a change.

Still plugging away...

I started writing the first draft of my science fiction romance, I'm calling A Pirate's Honor, on June 1st. And while it's been hectic this summer, I managed to complete 59,286 words as of yesterday. My word count goal is about 80,000 words. A little more than 20,000 to go.

I've mostly been writing on weekdays and not every day, depends on what other tasks and complications arise, but that's a lot of words for a couple of months work. Of course, once I've finished the draft, I'll have to put it aside for a few months and work on something else. But I do look forward to writing 'the end'.

And to accomplish that feat, I've place my butt in my desk chair every afternoon for days on end. I bring up the file, read the last couple of pages I wrote the day before, confer with my plot sheet and write.

It's been working out so far. I've had no blocks or stoppages, except to work through plot points in the murky middle of the story I haven't yet worked out, but it seems to be going smoothly so far. One scene feeds into another. I hope to have the draft completed before the end of September.

For writers out there, how do you keep going when working on the first draft of a novel?

Writing on my own time

Now that my latest manuscript's been rejected, I decided to devote all my writing time to the first draft of my science fiction romance. My plan is to write at least 1000 words each weekday and try, if I can to stretch it to 1500. I also have to continue to plot out the middle of this story. The beginning and ending are plotted out, but there's a lot of middle I'm still not sure of.

But I like working at my own pace for a change. And since it's summer, once I get my word count done and do at least a little bit of plotting, I can spend a little time before starting dinner to pleasure read.

My current read is Linnea Sinclair's Finders Keepers. I'm about 80% through and really hate to have to put this one down. So, if dinner gets held up...oh, well.

But it's really nice to have some downtime each day for a change. The past few weeks have been deadline hell!

Interruptions...interruptions...

I'm trying to zoom ahead with my latest writing project. I'm enrolled in a summer book challenge with the hope of completing the first draft of a new novel by Labor Day.

I'm doing rather well, so far, I've written over 20,000 words for a book that I hope will total at least 80,000, but there's always something to interrupt the flow.

First of all, my son brought home a new puppy. Our old dog, Kelly, we had to put down over a year ago, because of bad hips. While this new little puppy he named Chase, is real cute, he does require a lot of care. I'd gotten used to being dogless over the past year, so this is a big learning curve for me.

And this week, I got work in for my second job, manuscript typing. I have to complete typing a full-length novel in the space of a couple of weeks. In the summer!! But I need the money, so will try to work everything in. It just won't be easy.

Ready to take on new writing goal!

It's nearly the end of May and for the second year in a row, I'm ready to start a summer book challenge. The goal is to write the first draft of a brand new novel.

Last summer I completed the first draft of Cassidy's War, the historical romance manuscript I just resubmitted to my editor after finishing up a revision request. This summer, I want to write my first science fiction romance. I've tentatively titled it, A Pirate's Honor.

I was plotting out this book off and on while working on other projects and while I have the beginning and end all plotted out I'm kind of stuck in the middle. But I have enough plotted out to get a good start, so the plan is to start writing and plot the middle out as I move along.

The challenge starts on June 1st, so for this upcoming week I'm going to try to complete the first draft of a short story. Then starting in June, my book will be top priority, unless I get a new contract of course. But that's completely up to my editor.

Writing Break Day!

I've just sent off my historical romance, Cassidy's War to my editor after an extensive revision and now plan to take a day off from writing. I'm going to spend this afternoon watching a baseball game.

And tomorrow I'll have the delicious task of deciding which of my works in progress to start on. I have two contemporary short stories that I've started first drafts on, a time travel novella I've started plotting out and a full-length science fiction romance, still in the plotting stage, but I do still plan to start writing this as my summer book project.

So, which one will I choose?

I'll be back tomorrow with an update.

For now, it's off to the ballgame!

Revision's done!

I finished up the revision for Cassidy's War and put the manuscript aside for a week before giving it a final look over. I hope I now have a stronger version of the original story that my editor and, down the line, readers will love.

I put a lot of work into this sequel to my out-of-print young adult Civil War story, Under the Guns. I loved these characters and had a great time revisiting them. Although Under the Guns is no longer available to readers, this new story can stand alone. It's set five years after the war ends.

For this week, I'm working on a few short pieces. Since it's been 5 months since my last release, I can't be a slacker. I think short stories will be a way to keep fans happy and keep those releases coming.

For any writers out there, do you like to write long or short, or do you like to mix it up?

Have to clear the decks...

I'm starting an online workshop on Monday that I hope will help me figure out the fuzzy middle of my new science fiction romance. I've decided to change the title from Jason's Honor to A Pirate's Honor. What do you think?

I still have to finish up the revision on Cassidy's War. I'm a little past the half-way point, so I've decided not to work on any new projects this month. I'll have enough on my plate.

Hopefully, I'll finish that revision and get it back to my editor before the end of the month. My goal is to start writing the SFR on June 1st as part of a summer book challenge. Don't know if I'll get the entire first draft completed by Labor Day, but I hope to have most of it in the bag.

Confusing week for me

I thought I had my path clearly spelled out. My plan was to plot out my latest romance novel, a science fiction romance, and have it all finished, so I could start writing in June as part of a summer book challenge.

But now, I've got a rejection for my latest historical, with a request to revise and resubmit. I know if I follow my editor's suggestions, she'll likely contract this manuscript, while I have no idea yet who I'll submit the sci-fi to whenever I manage to get that one finished.

So, I'm doing the turnabout once again. The historical romance goes to the top of my to-do pile, while the sci-fi gets put on the back burner again.

Although I do like to switch back and forth with multiple projects, it's hard to stay focused on two major projects. So, my plan now is to complete the revision on the historical, resubmit, then resume plotting. I have the opening chapters of the new book plotted out anyway, so can at least start writing in June, plotting further along as I go.

So, that's my plan for now, unless something else crops up.

The life of a freelance writer, I guess.

Feeling a bit off today

I just can't seem to get into the swing of things. Guess I can blame it on the switch to daylight savings time or the cloudy, dreary day we're having.

Although I got up at my usual time and have been on the go all day, I don't feel like I'm accomplishing much.

I should have already put in an hour on the plot for my science fiction romance, but just can't seem to psych myself up to open the file. So, what have I been doing?

A lot of promo. I've joined the TWRP authors over at Rites of Romance Chatters to showcase excerpts from all my TWRP books. So, I guess I have accomplished something. If I could only get myself to open that plot file, maybe I could actually have a very good day--writing wise.