writing process

Typing With Wet Paws: Double The Edits, Double the Fun (?) Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This week, Aunt Anna has a lot of work in front of her, because she has two books that need a second look at the same time. You read that right. This coming week, she is in double edit mode, and she kind of doesn’t hate it.

photo: Rheuben Bowling

Aunt Anna is pretty darned happy to have not only unearthed her Alphasmart, but charged her and has her ready to go. I may or may not have had something to do with the “test” document that was about a million lines of “33333333333333” over and over and over again. Nobody can prove anything. It’s all conjecture. Not my fault if the Alphasmart is super super super interesting. Aunt Anna thinks that too. She can stare at that thing for ages, and do the clickety clack thing with her fingers on the keyboard at a respectable pace. Can you blame me for wanting to give it a try?

Anyway, that’s going to come in super useful because Aunt Anna does her best writing writing in longhand, meaning it will need to be transcribed, and if she can do that from the comfort of the soft office, with hot beverage, weighted blanket and super cute calico companion, that much the better. Also, she can’t be distracted by The Sims of chats with online friends. That is a real peril for the extroverted writer, and Aunt Anna certainly is that. That’s where a mews like me has to rein her back into line.

This coming week, she has the first fifty pages of Drama King to edit (well, look at Aunt Melva’s edits, say yes or no or yes and/yes or/etc and bat it back Aunt Melva’s way) and she has the whole first pass of edits on A Heart Most Errant, and then send it back to the editor for the second pass and formatting and all of that fun stuff. If she does 25 pages of that a day, she can get the first pass dealt with in one work week, unless she hits a snag, which she can’t promise she won’t. Either way, this is a stage that she likes a whole bunch, because it’s like doing surgery on the story at hand. Most of the time, this ill also give her fuel to put new writing stuff to start its own process on the back burner, and she’ll alway6s want something ready to catch those ideas to hold them safe until it’s there turn.

Photo by Sam Lion on Pexels.com

All of that work is going to require some well filling, and that’s where her Goodreads Reading Challenge comes into play. Aunt Anna is doing pretty well this week, at eighteen books read out of ninety, which puts her at twenty percent of the way to her goal, and six books ahead of schedule. She is salty that the library does not have the third book in Eloisa James’ Desperate Duchesses series but she did suggest that the library fix that, so we will see how that goes. It’s not like she doesn’t have other books, or can’t get it elsewhere. Audiobooks make great journaling buddies, which she expects to keep on doing in the coming week.

On the Buried Under Romance front, Aunt Anna posits some questions for new romance readers (and others) in honor of last week’s Valentine’s Day. I think they are interesting questions for any time of the year. If you feel like answering any of them, or have any of your own, consider dropping your answers/questions in the comment sections on that site or this one. Aunt Anna is nosy.

So am I. Big surprise, I know. Comes with the whole being a cat territory thing. What are you reading this weekend? Have you ever used an Alphasmart? Would you like Aunt Anna to show you what an Alphasmart does? What do you think of my new signoff photo?

Headbonks!

A calico cat sis with front legs folded on the keyboard of an Alphasmart. She looks like she is reading her work.
Calico got to go!
—Storm

Sea Legs, Inside Out

annabowling Leave a comment

Happy Wednesday, Liebchens. This post is not about pirates (well, there may be pirates, tangentally) or the Pixar movie (haven’t seen it.) Wednesday is kind of my Monday this week, and I am okay with that. We had a full house at home for the first two days of the week, so those became family days. A trip to the storage unit yielded the box that is now in the kitchen, holding my AlphaSmart. I have missed that baby, muchly, in the year plus we were apart. Having it back now feels right, and that it came at the right time. I have t he first round of edits on A Heart Most Errant on my desk, Melva and I are currently second-drafting Drama King, and laying the groundwork for Queen of Hearts. For this week, my part is to write the character profile of our heroine, Heather (Chasing Prince Charming readers already met her in that book.) I am not using any kind of template, but may or may not be developing one as I go. We’ll see. I am circling Her Last First Kiss and figuring out the best way to get back on the horse, and taking a more planned approach to my blogging, not only here but on Buried Under Romance, and MelvandAnna.com.

the once and future setup

Phew. That feels like a lot, but it’s a good lot. I could use some normal about now. Finding a big box of normal in storage felt super duper good. I honestly do feel like I am getting my sea legs back after too long on land, writing wise, . There’s even the outline of a pirate trilogy in the works (see? Pirates.) and learning the best way to have what I want to do and the best way to do that work together in the most amicable fashion. The whole sleep cycle thing remains a work in progress. The weighted blanket is amazing, thought the whole sleep schedule thing, and valiantly pushing through fatigue to Get Stuff Done is usually not the most effective way to reach the goals I want to reach.

Like today, for example. Not only is Wednesday my Monday this week, but 1PM became my 9AM, as sleep sometimes happens in two or more shifts. Before, I would have thought of that as some sort of failure, and lugged the failure weight along with me as I stabbed things with a stick (metaphorically.) I’m over that. If my Sunday afternoon planning session ends up happening on Wednesday evening instead, that’s not a failure, it’s an adjustment. Still feeling all of this stuff out, and making note, while I do, on what works. If you know me, you know me and notes. Good thing.

For today, even with the “late” start, which is an on time start, because it began when I woke from a decent amount of sleep, the plan is: blog, plan, and work on character profile. I like doing all of those things. While I would like for the profile work to happen at the same time I am watching a movie, or streaming some sort of TV show, but I am not there yet. There, in this case, means watching streaming stuff. I want to be there, and it will come in time, but for now, my background noise is usually YouTube. Maybe an audiobook. Maybe I will listen to somebody I don’t know play computer games. I do that sometimes.

I am also looking forward to a super fun workshop that starts of February 22nd, Revive Your Resilience, with abundance coach Eryka Peskin. This post is not sponsored, (though I am totally open to such endeavors) but Eryka did mention that she would not be heartbroken if I shared the word. I have taken several of Eryka’s workshops, and even wrote a thing or two for prior events, and I highly, highly recommend checking out her stuff, which you can do with the link above. Five days, five exercises to help you figure out How To Bounce Back, and a super supportive community, including me, because I will be there. It’s also totally free, and there will be giveaways.

In short, it makes a lot of sense to have all of this going on at the cusp of the change from winter to spring. We live even closer to the park now than we did in our first Albany apartment, and soon there will be baby ducks. I will take pictures of them and visit them on a regular basis. Maybe I will bring the AlphaSmart.

Typing With Wet Paws: Now It’s February Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We are now into the second month of 2021. Right now, Aunt Anna is getting ready for the workshop she and Aunt Melva will be giving for Charter Oak Readers and Writers in a Zoom chat tomorrow. That’s going to be a thing. They will be talking about writing through real life plot twists, which pretty much sums up 2020. That’s all in the rearview mirror now, and the month of love has begun.

Photo by Sam Lion on Pexels.com
aka Not Aunt Anna

We’ll start with the reading update. So far, Aunt Anna is seven books ahead of schedule in her Goodreads Reading Challenge, with fifteen books read out of her goal of ninety. That means she is thirteen percent of the way to her goal already. Most of that is YA at present, but never fear, there’s historical romance in there, too, and a lot more ahead. A lot of this reading is actually listening to audiobooks, which is a really good way to get through nights when her brain throws slumberless parties. I don’t mind them at all, because that is prime time for her to play with me and my favorite toy, OG Mousie. Mouse on a string, basically, and super fun to chase and pounce on and play with allll night long.

Photo by Ono Kosuki on Pexels.com
aka Not Aunt Anna

For this week’s writing focus, I picked a notebook picture, because that’s where Aunt Anna is going to be doing most of her work. As she and Aunt Melva get ready to start writing Queen of Hearts, they have some groundwork to lay first. Part of that is making sure they are both working from the same information. So far, the way they work is that one of them writes all the hero scenes, and one of them writes all the heroine scenes, and they work out the plot together.

This time, Aunt Anna will be writing the heroine, and Aunt Melva, the hero. That is different from what they did the last two times, so it is kind of new territory. Not that they mind, because that kind of thing is actually fun, but there is a point where they are both stepping into the unknown. Not entirely unknown, because the heroine, Heather was in Chasing Prince Charming, and her hero, Rob, was there, as well. Only a phone call for him, but it still counts. This time, they are taking center stage, so the Aunts have to know more information about them now than they did when they were supporting players. There will be much writing and crossing out and Pinterest-ing and then they can start fumbling their way into an outline. This will involve many video chats, which I will probably join. I am nosy that way.

coming sooon….

For historical romance related stuff, this baby is coming back Aunt Anna’s way pretty darned soon, after editing and formatting and cover design, which means it’s that much closer to being an actual book that is ready to go out into the wide, wild world, and make room for her to start making plans for the next one. Well, the next medieval, because she is still doing the Her Last First Kiss thing, though it needs some structural work. More on that later. She’s trying to keep her focus on one thing at a time, at least in each genre. The key word is trying.

Aunt Anna’s plans always include me

Plannerwise, she still has a few things to finalize, which is pretty much par for the course for February, or so I am told. This is only my second February with these guys, and the first one where things have been predictable enough to do any real planning, especially on the scale Aunt Anna would like. It’s looking good, though, because she has a coherent color theme going, and it’s one that shows off my best attributes (aka that I am gorgeous)

Thinking pink

There is a gold cover, too, but Aunt Anna was using that notebook while I was writing this, so it’s not in the picture, but still agrees with the whole aesthetic. She’s still working out what goes in the stripey pink cover, and the black paper notebook (the one on the end) but that will work itself out. Those things usually do. The blush pink cover in the middle is for her reading tracker, and she is waiting for some special filler paper to arrive before she puts it together for reals. Of course, I will need to give my Storm stamp of approval on any paper that comes my way, usually by sitting on it, and most often exactly when Aunt Anna needs it.

Speaking of which, that open notebook isn’t going to sit on itself.

Headbonks!

What Printing My Own Stickers Teaches Me About Writing

annabowling 2 Comments

Not the catchiest title, but it’s one of those days, which is not a bad thing. We had a snow day yesterday, with everybody home. Today, I had planned to take care of a few other things, but plans changed (everybody is fine) and well, low hanging fruit is printing stickers.

When I say “my own,” I don’t mean my own design, though I am splashing around in the shallows with that, but stickers I purchased, or downloaded, digitally, and printed on my home printer, for my own use.

Stickers by DaysUntangled and
PlannerologyStudio

I am all about the black/white/blush aesthetic right now, with strong elegant gothy leanings, and that’s not necessarily something one finds every day in things readily available in brick and mortar stores. Which is okay. I( am obviously not the only person in the world with my sort of aesthetic, needs, and preference, and it’s all about finding who makes what I want, and what I will actually use. Kind of like writing and reading, hm?

Of course this is also kind of like writing the sort of book I would like to read -which I hope is what I am doing- because it involves a bunch of research, typing odd combinations of words into search engines, until something pretty appears on the screen. Since I have a visual impairment, this kind of DIY stuff does make me ask “how badly do I want this unique thing?” on a regular basis.

For some things, like printing double sided pages, I will be going to the pros. March right in there with a flash drive full of clearly labeled files, and notes on numbers of copies, color or black and white, paper weight (the weight of each sheet, not a paperweight in hand to throw at annoying people and/or people who misprint my order) and one or two sided printing. Probably some other things, but I’m not looking at those notes right now. Ah. Paper cutting. That’s another one. I do have a slicer type paper cutter, which works pretty good, if I make dark pencil lines where the light cut lines are printed, but there are certain things best left to the professionals. That also applies to things like editing, formatting, cover design, etc, whether with a traditional publisher or on the indie route.

If I hand over the raw materials, go do something else for a while, and tender coin of the realm, I will get back a nifty bundle of very useful items. From there, it’s up to me to apply those in the right way. With what I printed today, I have stickers to pop into my planners and tell me when I need to blog, outline, revise, edit, keep track of progress by word/page/scene or whatever else makes sense for me at the time.

Some of the printables I’ve purchased, or downloaded for free, are going to require that professional attention, and though I can and do print stickers at home, I do not have a Cricut or Shilouette machine to do the individual cutting for me, which means I get to do the old scissors thing, and figure out whether I want to deal with the fussy cutting around each image, or go for a less labor-intensive method of cutting on the spaces between images, so I’m basically going for white squares around everything. Those don’t actually look too sloppy if I draw a black (or other color) frame around with a fineliner.

\One thing that bothered me a lot when I started printing my own inserts and printables was waste. Not toxic as such, but the way things are laid out on letter size paper, there are going to be big areas of white, that doesn’t get anything printed on it, especially for those that are sized to cut down into smaller pages that will fit into planner folders. Sticker paper is not cheap, so throwing away any of it unused is annoying. Except, I figured out, that it doesn’t have to be:

behold, the rubber stamps

Those scraps get a date with my rubber stamps. These aren’t all of them, but they do fit with the way I want things to look, and I love handling them. Doing things with visual arts actually does quite a lot to get the idea hamster running, so this is a good thing. Stamp on the scraps, peel off the backing, et viola, we have new stickers. That thing I thought I had to throw out, I don’t have to throw out at all, only make it into something else.

Which is a very good thing to keep in mind about those scenes, phrases, characters, ideas, etc, that we have to cut from a story during the revision and editing process. Could be that bit doesn’t die, but only becomes a seed to grow something new. Not exactly the same thing, but something with the same flavor, something that fits in with the rest, but has its own special voice and appearance. Considering that I have a couple of stalled stories that need to be transported to other eras, or seem to be me stuffing a ten pound cat into a two pound bag, which I often do tend to do when starting a thing. Sometimes it’s both. What I end up with something other than what I first intended, but I’ve learned a new thing, and that means I have more tools going in to the next project.

Planner Changes, Writing Changes

annabowling Leave a comment

Hello, lieblings. Monday’s post on Monday, because I have it in my planners (plural) and some things are about to be a little different.

Everyday Carry Planner

We will start with my everyday carry planner. This is the one that lives in my purse. I promised myself that I would give myself a solid month to try the mini vertical layout to see how I liked it, and…I have issues.

ironically, I like this spread

Being one month into a new sort of planner means I’ve had a chance to know what works for me and what doesn’t. I was thrown at first by the new vertical format in a mini size. It’s okay, and I think I’m actually getting the hang of it, because this week’s spread, that one I like. What I don’t like is having to completely re-date every single page, every single time. Not saying that this won’t be something I’m into later on, but for right now, I want to keep my energy focused on the whole writing thing because 2020 was not great for it, and things are a lot better now.

Then they pull the pink foil on me.

Here’s where I’m torn: February is a gorgeous pale pink confection, which I adore. This would still require complete re-dating, but the dominant color would be pink, which works really well with me for February for all the Valentine-y, month of love stuff. Especially for a romance writer. Right now, I am looking at getting ready to see two different projects go to the editing phase, and the first draft attention goes to totally new stuff.

Well, not entirely new, as some of it is venturing into the world of linked books, which is still kind of new to me (as Drama King was indeed my first planned connected book) and the most important thing to consider when planning is figuring out how I can best make this work for me. Sometimes that involves trying a lot of different tuff and finding a lot of t hings that may not work the very best. It’s all part of the process.

okay, so this thing
:drums fingers on table:

Sharp-eyed readers may notice I haven’t mentioned my social media planner yet, because that’s one of the things that I am reconsidering. I found the skinny mini planner above on a deep discount (yay, end of January planner prices!) and fell totally in love with the watercolor floral theme, and I like the compact space for writing/decorating. I am probably going to fake plan in one (or more) of the expired weeks and see how that feels. I also may try putting social media back into the regular planner, or possibly some other arrangement. We’ll see.

Now on to the writing. This is the week where I get all of the pens and papers together and sticky notes and index cards and throw ideas out there. The Lion and Thistle has Sunday night Discord chats, and last night’s was themed around Medieval or Pirates?

Since my first medieval is now in the hands of an indie editor, I’m naturally thinking about what do I want to do for any connected stories in this world. I do have an idea of the hero for book two, an old comrade of the hero’s, but the heroine? IDK. Zip. Zero. Nada. Not. A. Clue. I want to meet her, I really do. Guy deserves some good love. Maybe it will all pop into my head when I get the edits back, because the right editor can make absolute magic.

It’s pirates!

Yeah, these guys. I started on a pirate story called Abandon some years back, and figured out when I was elbow-deep, that I was writing the wrong story, because the heroine’s parents kept taking over the story. As a dear writer friend pointed out during a chat, those parents have strong voices, and they really do need to come first. The whole trilogy is pretty clear in my brain, the only nebulous stuff the third book, because that heroine is the daughter of the couple in book two, and that feels okay. I need to let her grow up on her own.

Contrast that with the “ummmm” about the medievals. Part of my brain says shove those pirates way, way down and get through the medievals. Why do I have to “get through” a project? I do fully find a way to fall in love with the medeivals, especially finding my groove after a while away. Maybe this kind of thing is normal. Maybe it’s normal for me.

There is a very big part of me that wants to tackle all of it at once. Do I want to splash around in all of it and see where I naturally gravitate (and yes, I naturally gravitate to the things with deadlines) and let the priorities sort themselves out. We’ll see. There are only so many hours in the day, and things have to fit into all of the rest of life. That’s definitely one of the reasons I love planning as much as I do, and how much I love how it intersects with writing. Let’s see how it goes.

Typing With Wet Paws: I Feel a Draft Edition

annabowling 1 Comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. The draft I am talking about here is not coming through any doors or windows (our building is very well insulated, which is very much appreciated) but drafts coming from Aunt Anna. By this I mean of the booik variety, of course.

Photo by Andrew Neel on Pexels.com
(not Aunt Anna)

Drama King

As you may have read in Aunt Anna’s blog, Drama King is now officially a draft. Aunt Anna is a little dazed over that because, well, 2020 was horrible. Now it’s time for the editing phase, which Aunt Anna actually likes. Strange, I know. It also means time for a new notebook setup for laying the groundwork for Queen of Hearts. Oh what hardship. (I am being sarcastic here.) There will probably be new pens and highlighters, too, or, more likely, appropriating some that Aunt Anna already has. One of the really fun things Aunt Anna is looking forward to is getting together things that remind her of the character she will be writing for Queen of Hearts, which, this time, will be the heroine. She really loves the heroes Aunt Melva writes, so this is going to be fun.

It also serves as a nice balance to the much more technical work of the editing process, filing in holes, smoothing out transitions, making sure that the best character (a cat!) has enough scenes and all that kind of stuff.

A Heart Most Errant is now in the hands of an actual editor, and in about two weeks, it will be back in Aunt Aunna’s hands. That means she will have some more tinkering to do, but there will also be formatting and cover art, which sounds an awful lot like…a real book. The kind that can be sold directly to readers, if you’re into that sort of thing.

This means that she needs to start thinking, now, about connected books, which is not normally a thing she does, but the market is what the market is. Trying new stuff is fun, and the idea of writing more books in that setting means that A) she has a really good excuse to read more medieval romances, and B) get back on track with The Walking Dead, because the whole concept of this story world is “post-apocalyptic medieval.” It takes place after the Bubonic Plague whomped out basically half of Europe. This is either incredibly good timing for this sort of story or incredibly bad timing. Aunt Anna figures it will all work out in the end, and she’s happy to be writing historical romance, period, so on with the show.

Reading

First, the good stuff. (well, Aunt Anna says all reading is the good stuff) Aunt Anna is currently one book ahead of her Goodreads Reading Challenge, with six books read out of her goal of ninety. That puts her at seven percent of the way home.

The thing that gives her pause (as opposed to paws; I provide the paws around here) is that all six of those books are YA (or NA) – two romances and four scary books. With all of them, she has, at one point or another, or multiple points throughout, wondered how that sort of thing would work in a historical romance. Maybe this counts as some sort of research? This can be mildly concerning when one remembers this was also the week of…

Historical Romance Readathon

Yeeeeaaaah. Aunt Anna did not do great here. Not going to hold it against her, though, because A) this has been a rough week with raging insomnia, and B) that kind of led into feeling pressure-y about hewing to her readathon plan, so she is going to call this a deferred readathon and still do it this week, although albeit unofficially. That’s how she rolls.

All is not lost, though, because Aunt Anna acquired a super neat thing this week: a weighted blanket. That means that it’s a blanket, filled with lots and lots and lots of tiny glass beads. The weight is often very good for people who have anxiety (which Aunt Anna does) and make it easier for them to sleep. This one, I am happy to report, works. I even tried it myself.

Hooman tested, kitty approved

Also, Aunt Anna has another anthology ready for weekend reading, Regency in Color (vol 1!) which has a story from Jessica Cale, who is one of Aunt Anna’s favorite historical romance authors. This bodes extremely well. She can confirm that reading historical romance under a weighted blanket, with a hot cup of cinnamon tea, and a beautiful, purring calico girl makes for a super duper cozy time. Aunt Anna is very much into this sort of thing. Possibly with extra pillows and a scented candle set well away from any place aforementioned calico girl can get to it. I am never ever ever left unsupervised around candles.

Regency in Color, vol 1

Okay, I think that’s about it. That weighted blanket is super snuggly, and I have a lot of napping to do, if I am going to be any sort of purr-sonal assitant. What’s on tap for your weekend?

Headbonks!

End of Book Daze

annabowling Leave a comment

2020 has been a ride, for sure and for certain, and perhaps the wildest thing of all is that, right now, I am furiously scrawling ink and pounding keys on my very last scene for the hero’s POV on Drama King. Yikes. This feels surreal, and about dang time. Wow. It’s not going to be the final scene of the book, as that honor goes to my amazing writing partner, Melva Michaelian, who I know is going to knock it out of the park and give me all of the feels.

The end of a book is a weird place to be. For the reader of a romance novel, there may be some sniffles, maybe a heart clutch, some laughs, depending on the sort of book, and/or situation, and, at the end of it all, is the tried and true, happily ever after. We know this couple is going to be together for the rest of their lives and they are very much okay with that. For the writer, there is all of that too, but a whole lot more.

Self-doubt is part of it for sure. Did we forget something? Are there dangling plot threads? How can we make this scene unique to these two lovers, to bring their individual arcs and their arc as a couple when this is literally the defining thing that makes a romance that makes a romance a romance. Okay, one of two. (1) the love story is the central focus, and 2) there is an emotionally satisfying and uplifting ending.)

Originally, I’d had the outline for the blog post I wanted to write here, spotlighting one of my planners for the coming year. That will still happen, but I have to get out of the fog first. Then I have some thoughts on the Bridgerton series on Netflix. I haven’t seen the series yet, and I didn’t originally plan to, but I don’t feel I can join the conversation without watching at least the first episode, to experience it for myself. I have not read the Bridgerton books proper, but I have read the four prequels about the previous generation, which was…okay. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it, but those don’t have anything to do with the series, which I definitely want to watch while alone, and take pen and paper notes, because this could be a Thing. A good Thing. I hope. See self doubt above.

The end of one book always means, at least for me, the start of a new book. This time, it’s a return to Her Last First Kiss, which was put on pause, due to things like bedbugs, homelessness, shingles, anxiety, depression, and helping to clear out my bestie’s childhood home when her mom moved to a super nice apartment. We also ended up moving into a super nice apartment, which is my favorite place I have ever lived, so that’s pretty swell.

Melva and I had decided we wanted to wrap Drama King before the end of the year, because we both need a win, individually, and as a team, and it looks like that is actually going to happen. Huzzah. There are emails and DMs flying back and forth, and a good deal of my initial composition takes place from the safety of a blanket burrito, with spiral notebook and felt tip pen (and feline assistant providing soundtrack and extra warmth.) I have growled at family members to get out of my air space (yes, exact words) so that I can get the darned thing finished.

Today, that’s exactly what happened. Housemate conveyed Real Life Romance Hero to his place of employment, and promised to stay away until it was time to convey him back home again. There may or may not be prepared food coming with them. If not, RLRH will be cooking. I will not be cooking, because I know myself, and I will be, by that time, a wrong out washcloth, sad that I wrote my last scene for this book, and triumphant that I wrote my last scene for this book, I won’t say that I will miss Jack and Kelly, because Melva and I will be spending a lot of time with them as we edit and get them through the end of draft two.

It’s also time to look ahead to laying the framework for the next Love By the Book story, Queen of Hearts, with my first shot at writing the heroine of our couple. Heather is the sister of Dominic, the hero of Chasing Prince Charming, and I look forward to helping to guide her to her own happily ever after.

Love By The Book, #1

Once this scene is off to Melva, it’s time to turn my attention (after a nap!) to setting my writing goals for 2021. I’m treading a line between ambitious and realistic, and will probably end up somewhere in the middle, with a few stumbles along the way. It’s times like this when I remember my high school gym teacher, Ms. Napier. We weren’t close. I was probably a bane of her existence, as I loathed physical education as much as she loved it, and she loved it as much as I love writing romance. Even so, it’s her voice that comes into my head at this stage of the game, as it were. I can see the finish line. I can’t quit if I can see the finish line.

Where’s your finish line for 2020?

Historical Romance Writing for 2021

annabowling 4 Comments

Tomorrow afternoon, I will be having a video chat with my contemporary romance writing partner, Melva Michaelian, about getting Drama King to the first draft finish line. January is for a fun new co-written project and a revamp of our joint website, then moving on to the discovery draft of Queen of Hearts. I am looking forward to all of that, and also looking forward in 2021 to getting back to writing historical romance.

I will admit to a certain amount of trepidation about getting back into Her Last First Kiss after so long away, but the last year wreaked havoc on the writing life and life in general. I know I am not the only writer to go through this. I am also very much looking forward to getting Bern and Ruby to their Happily Ever After at last, even if there may be a slight detour along the way. Part and parcel of being a historical romance writer, which I very much still am.

Thanks to the year in which my historical romance is set, there are only three ways I can get my hero and heroine legally married. Option one is an absolute no-go. Options two and three are both possible, and I did have a preference, which I thought was the only choice, but…maybe it’s not? This is one of the reasons I am on the search for historical romance writing buddies to brainstorm/critique. Maybe this will mean joining something like the Hearts Through History online organization. That sounds like a lot of fun. If I am not moving forward in a work where I want to move forward, that means there is a block in the way, and I need to know what that block is, in order to find a way around it.

Photo by Andrea Davis on Pexels.com

Her Last First Kiss is, at present a standalone. That’s the format I prefer, but the market does not at present share my preference. Which is okay. A Heart Most Errant is headed to an editor in 2021, the first of a projected trilogy, with maybe a short story to round things out. Plunder will be the start of a generational trilogy (my favorite form of series) and dealing with one of my favorite tropes: pirates. This got me thinking that it might be fun to plan on a few mini series all themed around certain tropes or settings. I don’t know if I have it in me to write Regency, Victorian, or western, but I am totally here for other tropes like highwaymen, maybe Highlanders, Restoration, Tudor, Stuart, etc. I wouldn’t totally hate it if there were an overarching family or two. We’ll see how that goes. Also a bunch of Georgian standalones that maybe could connect, or there could be a Georgian standalone series? :shrug:

One of the best things to come out of my You Tube binge of 2020 was a statement from one favorite You Tuber, the phrase “when I was writing the script for this video…” I don’t remember which You Tuber, but that got me excited. Writing. The. Script. Writing. I had a brand new spiral bound notebook with heavyweight paper and a bucket full of ballpoints, which now live on the kitchen table. There’s something about writing everything down in rough form first – blog entries as well as fiction.

How much of a difference does it make? Actually, a lot. That kind of surprises me, and kind of doesn’t. I am using the heck out of the margins, in a different color from the text, as a note to self to look for notes to self, etc. Is it some kind of magic? Well, no, but I think it’s going to make going forward and keeping a regular blogging schedule – here, on MelvaandAnna.com and on Buried Under Romance, which is also going through a 2021 overhaul.. It’s also an added impetus to keep searching in the storage unit for my AlphaSmart or procuring a new one, as well as looking into testing out some speech to text, because that feels like it might make things get from brain to screen all the quicker.

2020 has been a flaming dumpster fire roller coaster ride, and there are no gaurantees about 2021 being better, but it is looking pretty good, and these are all things that I can control.

Computer Repair Chicken (and other stories)

annabowling Leave a comment

No post on this past Friday, because A) I had a winter bug, and B ) Storm could not tear herself away from her duties as nurse on duty to make a blog entry. Never fear, she will be back this week. Her nursing did its trick, and I am back at the keyboard, which I am still sharing with Real Life Romance Hero until somebody gets a laptop repaired. Honestly between the two of us (three, if you count Housemate, who also has a laptop in need of repair) we are apparently playing some sort of computer repair chicken. No clear leader discernable at this time, except maybe Storm. Cute cats always win.

I don’t have a clear topic for this post, which is not really a surprise. It’s one of those posting to post posts (try saying t hat three times fast) but I am rather proud of the fact that Housemate and I, after one look at the storage unit, agreed to not even attempt to reach the box with the Christmas tree, as it is, by process of elimination, behind Other Boxes Full of Heavy Stuff, and instead head over to Big Box Store on payday and get a new one. The ornaments, however, are close to the door, which will be quite handy next week, when se need them. Much more accessible were my hundred count box of Crayola Super Tips, so I nabbed those. I also nabbed a new spiral bound notebook while on the morning’s grocery run, and I plan to have the two make sweet, sweet music, figuratively speaking, in the very near future (aka making swatches) with or without background noise of streaming TV, audiobook, podcast, etc. Outside chance of Christmas music playlist. That part is all fuzzy, but that’s okay.

Person Holding White Ceramci Be Happy Painted Mug
Person Holding White Ceramci Be Happy Painted Mug · Free Stock Photo (pexels.com)

Swatching inks, both artistic and regular pen (ballpoint, gel pen, etc) is part of my plan. How many of us writer types have a hidden cache of Beautiful Notebooks That Are Too Good To Use, and thus would be ruined for all eternity by the addition of any less than perfect writing. Which, of course, is any writing created by well, any writer, and thus we have the uhhhh, thing. Yeah. This is why an idea snaked its way into my brain, between “dairy products” and “household cleaners.” Okay, it was not on the list, but it was pretty. Dusty pinky=lavender color, poly cover, and those magical words, “heavyweight paper.” For. A. Dollar.

Okay. Awesome notebook with paper I want to pet, but without the “this thing cost a lot, better not ruin it” pressure. Hmmmm. Plan is to swatch pretty pens and markers and highlighters and stuff, up to, and probably past the point, where my brain says “pens, paper, we must be telling stories, right?” It’s fallen for that before. No guarantees, but what the heck, could turn out well.

Better Writing Through Computer Games?

annabowling Leave a comment

Wednesday’s post is here on Thursday this week, because A) I came down with a rotten winter bug, last week’s “cold” actually the first stage of ick, and B ) Real Life Romance Hero’s laptop, less than a year old, abruptly stopped working, so we have had to share the single desktop. Not a lot of writing done this week, which is understandable because all power to shield, and better living through pharmaceuticals. One of the first things I want to do when I am climbing out of this stuff, is play Sims. Right now, that means Sims 4, and by playing, I mean largely refining my custom content to a fare-thee-well.

How does that relate to writing? Glad you asked (because somebody is probably asking. If not, you get my input anyway.) There’s no “right” way to play a life simulation game, and the methods of playing such are infinite, the same as telling a story, which is basically what I like to do with my games. It’s all storytelling. There are times when I blithely ignore what the game wants, er, suggests I do, and wander off the path to do my own thing, focusing on the aesthetics and letting my story brain take the wheel.

Everybody starts with the same basic stuff: the base game. It looks like this:

The Sims 4
how it all started…

Now here’s one of my recent screenshots:

what I’m doing now

What’s the difference? Well, a boatload of custom content, for one. I think the only things in this picture that aren’t custom are the archway, the window, and the washing machine that’s almost in frame. Jacqueline, a Sim I have made in Sims 2, 3, and 4 versions, (yes, she is kind of probably going to show up as a heroine in a future novel, but she will have a different name, and will likely be historical) has custom skin, eyes, hair, makeup, eyebrows, and I spent longer than I would care to admit tweaking her facial features with not only the in-game options but custom presets. This picture is her taking a selfie, which she can do with her smartphone, a game feature, further tweaked by an in-game filter option, and ReShade, which adds post-processing to create some serious mood. Or vintage mood, or bright, cartoony mood, or, or, or, or…yeah.

Right now, my current neighborhood is all British New Build houses made by other players, which I download and decorate down to the tiniest bits of clutter, to best reflect the residents. It’s all character and worldbuilding, and I love it. Next float in this parade is to take one of my screenshots and edit it further in a photo editing program, maybe add some design elements and/or text. Now that I have a ne printer, this might turn into stickers that I can put into my planners and notebooks, etc. There aren’t a lot of words involved in creating Sims and their environments, but here’s one thing that does happen when I spend a good chunk of time playing around with this: I want to write more fiction.

I didn’t expect it to be like that, but maybe it’s not such a surprising thing. As above, it’s character building and worldbuilding. Sims have their own wants, which I can fulfill or not, and deal with the consequences. I can override all of that and make whatever I want happen, within reason. Sometimes without it; Sims actually have things called “whims” that affect their moods, which affects how likely they are to do what the player wants them to do. This isn’t entirely unlike how it goes with writing. There’s also the times when things will just…stop, due to a glitch. Possibly a bad piece of custom content that doesn’t belong in this version of the game, or got shafted due to incompatibility with a patch, or I forgot to tdownload a mesh, or any one of a few dozen things. Maybe my aesthetic has changed, and so the custom content or even dfaults that I ha been playing with for years aren’t going to work anymore.

That means diving deep into my files and ripping out what doesn’t fit with my current methods/desires and replacing it with stuff that does. Trying new things, rising perhaps to a few challenges, or knocking it down and starting from scratch, though I am setting myself the goal of sticking with a single save for a certain number of generations, which is not unlike oh, say, finishing a book.

Right now, Melva and I are focusing on finishing Drama King, and I am loving that. Still, I have my notebook for Her Last First Kiss set up and that’s probably going to be next, because I miss historical romance like I would miss my own right arm. The only way to stop missing that is to get back to it, and, like searching for Sims content, this is going to mean reading a lot and poking around and seeing what I love, love, love, now, and if that means changing a few things that I have already done, so that I absolutely cannot wait to get to that keyboard and get to Bern and Ruby’s HEA, breathless, worn out, but still with enough energy to pump my fist in the air because we did it, fates be danged.

Not at all a bad way to wind up one year and start another, the way I see it.