So last night I was yapping at the Hubster (he never actually responds) and for some reason I got to talking about all through high school and college I would come up with KICK ASS paper topics, do all the research - TONS of research, but when it actually came to writing the paper, I got bored.

Things haven’t changed a whole lot. I still do the same thing today. That’s why I don’t outline. I write for *me* not for an audience really. So if *I* already know everything, the fun isn’t there anymore.

Just like if I already know how “Traditional Native Medicines impacted the US Pharmacopia” (yes, that was a real paper), I’m not really interested in telling anyone else.

Now, that said, I am learning to like rewriting. I’m teaching myself how to like rewriting.

I look at it as kind of a giant puzzle. It’s all there. I just have to put it into some kind of cohesive structure that can then be admired by others.

Now all I have to do is get myself to be able to do both at one time (write one story while rewriting another) and I’ll be unstoppable!

I’ll try to set up Wordpress to post for me the next few days - I’m volunteering at BEA which is going to take up an obscene amount of time the next few days (I’ll have to be on the metro at 7am tomorrow - that’s barbaric!) so if I’m scarce, you know why.

Sorry, my creativity is sapped at the moment. I can’t come up with anything more clever than Wednesday.

I have a book which I really need to turn in ASAP - the final Fate book - May 30th at the latest since I’m going to be gone for two weeks after that.

In theory it doesn’t sound so bad, until I tell you that with all of the other stuff I’ve got going on in the next two weeks I have 4 full days in which to finish this book.

If I’m scarce, you’ll know why.

And as much as I need to get this book turned in, I’m really excited to start on my next project. Unfortunately, I don’t know what it is.

I think I want to write a sequel to Secret Agent Man. Sam had a friend, a fellow agent named Fabio, that I’d love to give his own story. But “career wise” I’m not sure if that’s the next book I should be writing.

But…I don’t know that I care either. I really hate to think of writing as a career (even though it totally is) because that’s when I write crap and the whole thing becomes less fun.

So decisions, decisions. It doesn’t really matter anyway. I’ve got to finish Fighting Fate first (lovely illeteration there).

What are you working on? Have something fun percolating in the back of your brain?

Stupid spring - they’re calling for an inch of snow here today.

Anyway, today I want to talk breifly about writing processes. I know everyone has their own process and in the immortal words of Susan Elizabeth Phillips that process is to be protected to the death (okay, so I’m paraphrasing).

But, I still want to talk about it. Mostly because of Tess.

She’s doing this 30 drafts in 30 days thing where she goes through and looks at scenes individually and, I dunno, magically whips them into shape or something (obviously I don’t really get it ’cause it’s not my process).

But here’s the thing, it obviously helps her, it’s making her unblocked, but the thought of looking at my book and picking it apart by scenes absolutely terrifies me!

I’ll admit this once and never again - I don’t even know if I could separate my books into scenes. I look at a book as a whole. Please don’t think I’m picking on anyone’s process ’cause I’m not, if anything I’m impressed by people that can do this ’cause I can’t.

To me, picking apart the scenes in a book is like picking the chocolate chips out of a chocolate chip cookie (or perhaps eating the white stuff out of the center of the oreo first). The food all ends up in the same place, but I prefer my to eat the chocolate chips with the rest of the cookie, and dunk the whole oreo in milk, not just the chocolate parts.

*sigh* Only someone on a diet can compare writing to cookies.

So tell me about your process, and what kinds of things do you see others doing that you don’t understand?

First I want to appologize for not posting an author interview yesterday. My power was out for a good chunk of the day and by the time it came back on it was later in the day and well, I just didn’t post it, but Author Interviews will return next Sunday.

I also wasn’t able to tell you yesterday that I was posting at the SEx blog, nor could I check in there as often as I wanted.

But, I did read Gena Showalter’s Jewel of Atlantis!

It was really good. But does anyone else have this problem? I’m a total Gena Fangirl so when I read her books, I get so excited that I’m reading a Gena Showalter book that I don’t enjoy the book as much as I think I would if I were giving it my full attention. Like I find myself tearing through it so fast that I don’t enjoy it as much as if I read like a normal person.

Anyone?

Just me?

Anyway, I’m free to start something new today. Kind of. I have some edits to do on the 2nd Fate book so I can finish that. And I wrote a Venus Confessional this weekend so I want to edit that and get that sent out, too.

I feel in a really weird space right now where I’m actually amazingly free to do what I want. And damn it, of course I have no idea what I want to do!

So, I’ll probably work on the third Fate Book, maybe see what I’ve got on my computer that needs some TLC and see if I can work it into something good.

What are you working on now? Next?

Ok, I don’t mean plot as a verb (to plot) I mean plot as a noun (the plot of a book - the story, if you will, but well, I don’t).

See I think “story” and “plot” are two different things.

Story, is easialy sum-up-able, plot, not to much. Let me deomonstrate:

The story of Little Red is about a woman who gets lost in the woods and meets the Big Bad Wolf (I almost wrote “meats”, hee hee).

Now I’m thinking maybe Little Red shouldn’t be my example ’cause now I’m going to tell you the plot (more or less):

The plot is that Scarlet gets lost in the woods, she gets her suitcase stolen, a guy comes and saves her, (…), they have hot sex, (…) they live happily ever after.

There, see the difference (suddenly I’m reminded of the part of 10 Things I hate about you when they’re at the party and Joey Donner is showing them all the difference between modeling for swimsuits and underwear but it’s all the same)?

I’d venture to say that all of my books have good stories. Plots? Eh. Plot is that stringing together of scenes that when I’m finished hope goes together in some significant way.

I’ve realized this whole thing while working on the FurutiristicThatWillKillMe (FTWKM).

See before I started, I did plot (verb). But I realized that I plotted the the story not the plot. For instance part of my outline is “They go to island to save brother.”

I don’t know how they get to the island, or what they do once their there to actually save him.

Saving him is part of the story. How they do it is part of the plot.

Yes? No? Anybody rabidly agree or disagree? Like I said this came to me the other night when I was sick and exhausted. Still after 2 days it still makes a bit of sense to me so I’d love to hear what other people think.

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I also have no hot water. Again.

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Go Congratulate Larissa. She got THE CALL!!

I’m having trouble waking up this morning. And my big old cup of coffee isn’t helping.

Must be all the excitement of the STEELERS winning last night. Surprisingly I’ve yet to have one phone call about it yet today.

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FYI - I’ll be at the Torrid Readers Group all week if anyone wants to come by and say Hello. I’ll be sharing excerpts and answering/asking questions, trying desperately to get people to come out and play with me.

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My goal for this week is to keep plugging along at this Futurisitc. I’m getting to the point where I think it’s going to kill me. And I most definately remember why I prefer writing short.

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Agent Elaine English is speaking at my RWA Chapter meeting this week. She’s going to talk about Legal Issues for Writers so if anyone has any questions, let me know (either post in comments or feel free to email me). I’ll try to ask as many as I can.

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So, what are your goals for the week?

I can’t comment anywhere. Apparently blogspot blogs are down for maintenance. Of course the note says they’ll be down from 4-4:30PST. Yeah, it’s noon EST. Something’s a bit off there.

Anyway, April asks “Who’s Writing this Book?”

My answer, sure as hell not me. At least not my conscious mind anyway. Actually that’s not true and reading through my own work I can tell when *I* was actually in control ’cause it sucks.

I was re-reading/editing a story I’m getting ready to sub (the sequel to Tempting Fate) and I actually lost myself in the book. And I was laughing my ass off at something that I don’t even remember writing.

That’s when I know things are going well.

At Writeminded, Steph is looking for a reader but she also commented about how her friends that read her work can’t get past the fact that she wrote a book. Several of them even. (Actually it’s yesterday’s post, but admire Amy’s cover first).

I get the same thing. Apparently there are 3 kind of people in the world. Those that write. Those that “could writing a book if only they had the time” (I refer to those as the people that suck) and the people who absolutely in a million years can’t fathom that someone actually wrote a book.

I can deal with the first kind of people (hell, that’s the only kind I can deal with anymore), the second people I can just hate, but I don’t know how to answer questions for the third kind.

How did you write a whole book? I dunno.

Shannon is right. Word grammar sucks. But still, I leave it on anyway just ’cause I’m a glutton for punishment.

So anybody else have comments on anything that they can’t seem to leave anywhere else?

A few people in my online chapter are talking about burnout.

Luckily for them, they’re getting back into the swing of things after being burnt out. Unfortunately for me, they’ve introduced me to a new problem. (Yes, I’m a bit of a hypochondriac, what of it?)

I’m afraid I’m pretty darn close to suffering from burnout. And though this doesn’t effect the burnout fairy one bit, I don’t have time for burnout.

But I think I deserve to be burnt:

November 2005: A Walk on the Wild Side (WCPT)
Jan 2006: Baby, It’s Cold Outside, part of Winter Wishes (WCPT)
Feb 2006: One Hout Hour (Venus)
March 2006: Little Red (WCPT)
April 2006: Spring Break Fling, part of Spring Flings (WCPT)
May/June 2006: Futuristic for Venus (assuming they buy it), This would be the 4 month window LSB usually takes to have books out.

Oct 2006: Unnamed story in Fall Fires.

In all of this, I also have one story currently under consideration at Venus, 1 at WCPT and 3 at Hq.

Add to that the futuristic for VP isn’t actually finished, the LSB story needs 2 sequels to complete the trilogy, the VP story under consideration has a sequel I’d like to write, and 2 of the stories under consideration at Hq aren’t actually finished.

Can I please be burned out and take some time off?

*Sigh* Maybe after the writing marathon I’m hosting for the next two weeks.

Have you ever been burned out? What did you do to get over it? How do you combat it in the first place?

It’s Friday the 13th so I figure I’m entitled.

Actually, I’m delcaring (it’s my blog, I can declare as much as I want) it “positive blogging” Friday the 13th! So, if you have yet to blog today, make it a happy one. No ranting allowed, we’re in enough trouble already with it being Friday the 13th. And it’s scary foggy in my world today.

Anyway, on to the goodness.

The other day I started getting a bunch of emails from my RWA chapter friends congratulating me for being #1 on WCP’s bestseller list. I was confused as I wasn’t on the Torrid bestseller list and wouldn’t be on the regular WCP list.

Then I found out they were talking about Fictionwise. I’m the Number 1 Whiskey Creek Bestseller for the last 20 days (and I don’t think I’ve even been on there that long)!

I have no idea what that means, but it sounds exciting.

AND, I’m the #9 Bestseller in the Fictionwise Erotica category. We’ll ignore the fact that it’s an Erotic ROMANCE, I’m freaking #9. Out of…a lot! I’m enough of a number success whore to take being in the wrong catagory if it gets me in the top 10.

Sorry, still no official good news to share (and beleive me I’m quite anxious to share).

Anyway, because of my hypothetical good news, I took a good hard look at one of my stories last night. This story has worried me since the beginning because I think there’s too much emotion.

Or at least too much emotion for what I’m writing. Does that make any sense at all?

See, my heroine is a Fate so part of her job is to, well, cut the strands of life. She basically kills people. BUT, a good chunk of them go onto a better place - she knows this yet she still struggles with it.

Enter Mr. Hero. His daughter died.

I think you can see my problem now. I just don’t know if I should be dealing with the death of a child, I know it pushes a lot of peoples “No Way” buttons. But since it is a paranormal, I don’t know if I get a little bit of wiggle room or not.

The whole “daughter” issue runs kind of parallel to my story, purposely, because I don’t want to have to go into those emotions.

But then I’m not sure if I’m kind of shafting…something, by ignoring it.

I don’t know, what are you’re feelings? Do I get a little bit of room to move since it’s a paranormal?

You know me, I write romance, I gaurentee a happy ending!