@J.L.O Any suggestions for a romance cover for Horsin’ Around? The dude is called Leo, likes horses, and is a Vaquero. The woman is called Auburn and she’s a ginger journalist who hates horses.
2 Likes
I don’t like the fading edges as much…
2 Likes
Okay, thanks. I will use the second one then.
I hope you like grumpy people 
2 Likes
I AM grumpy people.
2 Likes
Same.
Writing grumpy x grumpy is fun cause you don’t have to fake the whole damn ‘opposites attract’ chemistry lol.
3 Likes
Thank you very much. It’s great now.
2 Likes
Wasn’t a good Sunday overall for many reasons. Writing wise, I made some notes and scene snippets for the next chapter but overall it’s almost nothing. Kept getting distracted by life and though I sat with my laptop a lot of times, I didn’t get much done. I guess the mood and the state of mind just wasn’t there.
Let’s hope tomorrow I’ll have more luck.
1 Like
Updates:
-
Today, Behind These Eyes will post and on Wednesday, Over The Moon will also post.
-
Horsin’ Around needs another 1,000 words and Project C needs 1750. They are coming soon.
-
I need to write faster. I’m just getting into the swing of things, and next up is the road to 10k. Need to write 30k next month.
3 Likes
Omg. Omg. Omg. I’m almost done with the next chapter and the one after that.
I wrote the first part of the climax and it’s glorious. The second part should be shorter. I hope. Getting so close to the end, I can taste it.
In other news, I had to add a trigger warning in front of the chapter when I realized that the scene could be construed as containing self harm. It’s not that but if my characters were human, that’s what it would look like. Better warn than trigger someone.
But the funny thing is that the chapter that comes after is a lot more gruesome. And I’m starting to wonder if I’ve entered the territory of the story needing to be marked as mature.
How much blood and gore is enough to require mature rating? I asked my teenage son. He thinks if the guts get involved.
It’s not guts in this case but… another organ.
2 Likes
Sorry for going MIA for a few days! My current word count is still 6308 words. I hope to pass 8K by the end of the month and, why not, try for 10K
UPDATE: it’s now 7729 words. I’ve just updated a new chapter!
2 Likes
Oh, shoot.
I was already working on the last chapter. The last chapter, I tell you, but I’m going to have to backtrack.
I was describing the story to myself, right? And realized that though Lailoken is my main protagonist, Josie is only secondary, she gets the bigger internal conflict, the biggest decision in the story. So while the climactic scene is awesome and belongs to Lailoken as it should, it doesn’t really change much for him. He does the big climactic event just because, on a whim he feels like it.
And while that’s in character for him, it makes for a weak climax.
At first I thought, oh, well. It’s just a fun little novella. Who cares if it’s weak?
But then I figured out a way how to fix the climax to give him a dilemma. He can choose to do the right thing even if he doesn’t want to and when it’s not easy. I can up the stakes.
The draw side to that? I need to expand the chapter and it will get long so I’ll split it into two. Unfortunately, I already published it so… Oh, well. I’ll just have to put a disclaimer for the returning readers.
Sigh. I guess that’s the risk of posting chapters hot off the press. Sometimes I have to take a step back and revise.
But at least this is toward the end. I’m almost done with this novella.
1 Like
I think I am at my limit. Not doing anymore than 4 stories. Nope. I am reworking and rethinking my life choices if any of them get through 
1 Like
So, I’ve posted the first 2 covers up in here.
The next 2 are this:
So, currently, I have the 2K minimum written for all. Only Constance Penrose is turned in, and is posted up to 7K.
Drink Deep has 2k posted up on WP, need to enter it. Partially edited up to 7K.
I need to edit Until This World Ends, post at least 2K and enter.
I need to finish the first arc of Between Catholics and Voodoo Queens, but have enough to put 2K up if I edit it.
As it stands. I get all 4 turned in, and IF I finish one of the stories 0 Draft before deadline, I will do the minimum of 2K on a 5th entery. If not? Then these 4 are it.
3 Likes
I wrote the last chapter but it didn’t feel like enough of a closure. Something was off.
It was time to use my plotting skillet. So far I’ve already identified one major problem, a story thread that never got closure.
I started playing around with rewriting the chapter and found a delicious conflict sitting under the surface. I’m glad I took the steps to look at this before publishing that ending because this conflict needs to be addressed.
The problem is that I don’t know yet how to resolve this conflict. My characters are at an impasse. They have absolutely opposite worldviews. Can I get them to find a compromise? Sure, I could end the story with them going separate ways, but honestly, I’m hoping that there’s a way to give them a happily ever after. I need to dig deeper.
So as is, the complete story is at about 26k, but depending on how I fix the ending it could become longer, who knows. Still a novella though so I’m happy with the length.
Paradigm shift: where something drastic forces a worldview change.
For example: the basis of the value of life predetermines a ton of views. When you change that value, all the futher derivatives change along with it.
1 Like
@J.L.O Can you slap ginger and the cowboy and the cholo for me?
1 Like
Yeah. It’s a big problem and I worry if the last chapter is too late to address it. If maybe the seed for the shift needs to come earlier. We’ll see if I can pull it off.
One of them is arguing moral values that are hard to dispute (you can’t just kill people and excuse yourself from the responsibility). The other one argues that “You just don’t understand how things work.”
I have an idea of how I can get one of them to compromise - the moral character could stay to serve the role of a moral compass for the other.
It’s just not compelling enough reason yet for either of them. I need a magic formula to arrive at that conclusion.
In the prior scene, the moral character actually killed someone without remorse. I bet that is where the answer lies.
I think I have all the pieces. I just need to put them together somehow so it feels like a satisfying and believable ending.
2 Likes