Skip to main content

The Writer's Life


Putting the finishing touches to my regency novella ebook, Passionate Persuasions, and hope to hit the submit button this coming weekend.  

Scary stuff.  It's one thing to write, but it's another thing all together different to revise, edit, revise again . . . 

You cry, 

You tear your hair out because somewhere in the middle of all this creativity you changed the hero's name but didn't carry it throughout the entire story,

You changed the heroine's hair color, which now clashes with everything she wears,

You stopped writing for a few weeks and when you return, the story picks up in a different landscape, a different season, a different town . . .  where the heck are we?

And the list goes on. And that doesn't include any grammatical corrections, sentence structure, chapter endings . . . 

So why does one write?  Why torture oneself?

Here's the secret:  because it ultimately is fun, enticing, magical.  You get to create a whole world all your own (until you publish, that is) and live in this world forever.  Well, not forever but long enough to feel that your characters are part of the family.  You know their quirks, their passions, their problems, just like children.

Ah, there's the rub -- just like children.  Yes, they do tend to do what they want; they often do not do what you want them to do, and then once in a great while, they turn the tables on you and do something not in the script, thus forcing you to revise again.

And so it goes.

It's a misery.  It's a passion.  It's an enigma.  

But ask me if I'll continue writing, and I'll say yes, yes, and yes again -- until I'm halfway through the next editing/revising process on that story and the cycle comes round once again!




 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

More Secondary Characters

As promised, I'm back with some tidbits of info on another favorite secondary character who has appeared in several of my Regency romances -- the Dowager Lady Rutherford. I needed a character who would balance out Lady Caro (see last week's blog entry), someone who was smart as a whip, tough and yet hiding a soft side.  The dowager seemed to fit the bill for when she first appears in Snowbound Seductions , she's ornery, feared by all (even the duke) and willing to use her ebony cane like a Scottish claymore. So, the first British actress who visually inspired me, mostly for the dowager's physical attributes is Phyllida Law.  If you're an Acorn TV or Brit Box fan, many of you will recognize Ms. Law. Phyllida Law She's appeared in so many series and movies, and is also known as Emma Thompson's mother.  She is a wonderful actress and, to me, captures how I visualize the dowager. And in my work-in-progress, Wicked Wagers , we'll see a b...

Sources of Inspiration

I've been working on my first Regency romance novel and, although I've read most of Jane Austen and seen so many of the excellent BBC movie variations, one still needs a bit of inspiration when working through the writing. It's usually those small details, descriptive of the landscape or the manor house, that gives a work that added level of veracity, of impact for the reader.  Why else would readers want historical romance?  I have to think that it's the time period that intrigues, a bit like a time tunnel.  Go ahead, pick your period -- there's probably a romance set in each one. That's why I love Pinterest.  If you can control the time spent on the great "P" -- and that's a big "if" -- there's so much out there to help spark those imaginative ideas or get a writer over the hurdle of writer's block.  Here's a few that I chose to help keep me churning out those words: Image captured from Pinterest Wouldn't thi...

As promised: Favorite Historical Romance Authors

 Last entry I promised a list of favorite historical romance authors that you could easily download and print out for your TBR list.  Or your lists (plural) if you're like me, as I tend to jot titles down and then lose the list.  Hence, my house is scattered with bits of paper here and there.  Someday, I'll figure out a better way to do this . . . In the meantime, here's my list.  These are "inspirational" authors, meaning there are no steamy scenes that may disturb some readers.  Why do I read them, although I do write steamy scenes?  Because I've found that these authors pay close attention to historical details and events, many of which are based in various time periods in American history, not just Regency England.  For me, it's a switch that I enjoy personally as I am a lover of American history and live in New England; thus I am surrounded by history on a daily basis. I created this on Canva based on my own tastes; yours may be different....