Day 4 of little-to-no-writing and I feel awful. I hate it. I’ve managed about 500 words in 4 days, put a book on hold because it’s literally making me miserable (interestingly I think erotica is awful for me. Loved the main plot but it was turning quickly into just erotica and I hate that) and all I want to do is write, and mainly write my upcoming NaNo novel.
I need to focus, and sleep. I’ve had little sleep and now have a very heavy cold. I’m hoping writing will come easier soon. Hopefully I can finish the ongoing chapter tonight for my chick-lit thing. Then I might “rebel” NaNo for the first time and start that book because why not.
In other, better news, I’ve had confirmation that my publishers will send out my author copies on Tuesday. Not sure how long they’ll take but after all the freaking drama, it looks like it’s FINALLY happening. I couldnt be more excited now. it WILL be worth it!
It’s funny, I proved I can churn it out last NaNo, but I got so damned tired of writing smut.
A trick, if you want to get through this? Fade to black, skip the scene, write the rest. Leave writing each one as you are only in the mood to handle it, or rearrange all the excessive scenes so 2/3 are fade to black or a more suave “and so they boinked”.
As it is, when I pick back up that monstrosity, I need to drop all the scenes and edit “the straight stuff” to see if it still makes sense without the smut.
Oooh I might try that later on. I kinda have it in my head once I start making a book full of smut I have to show every sex scene and I think I hate it. I don’t mind usually but idk I might rewrite it come December once nano is finished
The rule of thumb I was using for my scenes is if they didn’t add to the story something I needed to move it forward, then it was a waste of smut. For the damned erotica, I was making sure things happened surrounding the smut to make it “worth writing” (for the value of that).
Some scenes it’s a talk of how good it is because it’s on par with the same 30 before it, so no need for details.
Another way to think about it is looking back on your own experience from 5 or so years ago (been married since 2008, so I’ve got some years to go through): remember the rough frequency vs specific events. The truth is that most acts bleed together. Only thing more mundane is how often a morning routine or meal sticks out over time.
I want to cry.
I got sent the file of my published book today, and agreed it, but upon re-reading it for a second time, I realised something wasn’t right. The last few chapters was sent in error thanks to my computer not saving the freaking edits I made, so the last 10 chapters are wrong. I’d already agreed it, but hadn’t had a response from the publisher.
I’ve sent an emergency email with the right document, but it’s the weekend and I assume she doesnt check her emails. It’s meant to be coming out Tuesday.
I just hope it’s a quick fix and can be done within hours. I literally had a panic attack when I realised. I hate this so much. I want to cry. Everything felt like it was going too right. sigh
Well, one good thing is if they can’t handle this: you know, have an editor check this before it goes to print, then you get your final nail in the coffin of a small indie publisher.
Practiced drawing the prequel book’s second love interest today. Not done yet so I won’t drop it in the thread yet. Drawing hair is hard.
Still working on the prequel, 12.5k words. I also started feeling like, since I was working on the prequel and editing Without Parole at the same time, the three love interests were starting to blend together a bit? I guess once I got used to writing one character, it started bleeding into the other, so I decided to start a “relationship dynamics” doc where I wrote personality summaries for all 3, and then I wrote different “scenarios” and how each MLI behaves based on the scenario. This way it’s a little easier for me to be like, okay, this is Lancet’s personality and he would do this vs my other two characters. It’s helping.
I swear, universe conspired against me finishing that chapter today. My cat, my kid, my garden, my husband… everyone needed tending to!
I wrote a big chunk, getting to 57.3K words, but I need to close off a scene and write a short cute scene that completes the chapter and shows how idyllic their relationship is before the villain shows up next chapter to try to crush it.
I heard some really interesting advice on flashbacks today and remembered your question.
Treat flashbacks as the B story.
You still need the A story - the one that’s happening right now - and it still needs to work on its own. You can’t use the B story as a substitute for one of the core scenes that the A story needs (like the Inciting incident or All is lost). Flashbacks work well when they add a flavor to the story. At their core though, flashbacks are exposition and you know what they say about that—don’t overdo it. If there’s any other way to introduce the same information, do that instead.
What works very well in stories that have a lot of flashbacks is if they run concurrently throughout the full book. So the A story is running chronologically and the B story (told in flashbacks) is running chronologically. Bonus points if the two timelines meet and from that point on, it’s just one (AB) story.
Another great advice I heard is that flashbacks work well when they answer a question but the trick is that the question has to come before the answer.
So in other terms, something in the A story happens that readers might wonder, but wait, why? And the flashback comes AFTER to explain the why. Otherwise, the reader really won’t care and will skim the flashback to get to back to the A story.
