GENREALITY

Writing is the one occupation/activity where you can have voices in your head and people don’t think you are crazy. Well, people who aren’t writers might. As my career has progressed the voices have grown louder. They began with the first book I ever wrote, which eventually became my fifth book to be published, The Demon King and I. A friend had challenged me to write the book, and I’d never done anything lke that. I remember staring at my computer and that blank page for a moment, and all of the sudden people began a conversation in my head. I didn’t really understand what was going on, but I wrote it down. I could see where they were, their gestures and I was transported into their world. The voices were so strong, that I sat down and wrote that book in two weeks, while working two full-time jobs.

The next book, the voices were even louder. That book was Charmed & Dangerous. The day before I was to meet my very first big editor from a publishing house, my friend Britta Coleman (Potter Springs) and I did some role play where she pretended to an editor. She had been through it before, but I had not. I’m a person who interviews Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise without even thinking about it, but the idea of speaking with an editor gave me hives. For real. One of the questions my friend asked me during that mock pitch, was what did I have next? I stared at her dumbfounded. I’d written an entire book, wasn’t that enough? She explained that editors and agents wanted to know that you had future potential beyond what you had already done.

I left her house in a panic. I had to come up with a new idea for another book before my meeting at 9 a.m. the morning. I sat on my bed with notebook, and all of the sudden this voice said, “I’m Bronwyn.” I kid you not, that voice was so loud that I jumped up because I thought someone was in my room. Then I worried I really was going crazy. (I’d been worried about that for years. Now I don’t care.) The next thing she said, was something that changed my life forever. “I’m a witch, think bad Willow on ‘Buffy,’ but I’m a good guy. I don’t take any crap, and I can seriously kick some ass.” I wrote down everything she said. Then she told me about this crazy job she had about protecting the British Prime Minister, and falling in love with a doctor and a powerful sheik. And that is how Charmed & Dangerous was born. That next day the editor liked the pages I’d sent before the meeting and asked me to send those to another editor at the publishing house. Sure enough she asked what I was working on next, and I told her about Bronwyn. She asked me to send it to her. Of course then I had to go home and write it.

Sometimes those voices are strong from the beginning, other times, like with Dragons Prefer Blondes I get to know them better as we go along. Alex in Dragons was strong and cut throat, but very different from her sister Gillian. By the time I finished the book she was my favorite sister, and her voice still won’t shut up in my head. If a miracle happens and I get to finish that series, I have a feeling she’ll have her way in the remaining books.

For my latest book, Take Me If You Dare, it was a man talking in my head. That was a little different for me. I was expecting to write this story about a recent college grad who was stuck running her mom’s investigative firm, and she was in over her head. But when I sat down to write a proposal for the editor, Jackson popped in. He said, “Where am I?” Instantly my mind flashed to this filthy hotel room in Thailand. “I can move my legs,” he said, “at least there is that.” (That honestly freaked me out a little.) Then he let me know he’d been beat to a pulp and left in this room without any idea how he’d arrived. He told the story so fast that almost couldn’t keep up with the typing. That book is written in third person, all the rest I’d done were in first person. So it was kind of weird to have two voices, sometimes going at the same time.

You’ve read this far and you’re thinking, “Okay, chick, you really are insane.” But I promise this is how I do what I do. People always ask how I come up with these wild and inventive stories, and the truth is I cheat. My characters tell me everything. And I quite frankly hope that never stops. I will say that they can keep me up nights, and drive me crazy throughout the day. It’s funny, because the voices are almost always there when I need them. When I start a new book, they show up for work.

If you’re a writer, do you have voices in your head? I know a lot of great writers who don’t work the way I do, so how do you do it?

And if you aren’t a writer, how does your creative process work for whatever it is you do?

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This will be a brief topic for me, because to be honest, I don’t deal with rejection very well. I know in my head that it’s just business, but my heart is on that page. While I know I should wear my big girl panties and suck it up, I take it all personally.

That said, I have found some tricks to get me through the rough times. As soon as I’m done with one project, I move on to the next. If I keep my momentum moving forward and always on the next thing, it’s easier to say, “whatever,” when those rejections come in.

When they do come in, I give myself one day to be bummed. I can cry, eat chocolate, whine to my friends and then I have to shove all those crappy feelings up on a shelf and be done with it. Honestly, it isn’t easy, but it’s necessary in my world, which moves like a speeding bullet. I don’t really have a lot of time to be miserable, there’s so much to do. (Smile)

My friends and I came up with a fun thing. We have a beautiful hat and in it we’ve placed slips of paper. When you get a rejection you have to pick a piece of paper. They say everything from go and buy and new pair of shoes to rent Pride and Prejudice (Your version of choice.) It’s a positive way of looking at what really is “just business.” We go to dinner once a week and if you have something sucky to deal with, you get to pull a fun thing from the hat. Some weeks you get to pull more than one. We all laugh and it takes the sting out of it. We actually haven’t done that in a while. It’s time to find the hat again.

Whatever happens, don’t let it get you down. This business is subjective, so just keep moving on to the next thing. And remember it is a business. One agent/editor may not like your work, but there may be six others who do.

I’ll give you a good example. Before I had an agent, I had a chance to meet with an editor at a conference. She was interested in my work and asked to see it. She rejected me. A year later, with the help of my agent, I sold to another editor at the same house. That editor didn’t want to change a single thing with the book except the title.

Flash forward two years. That original editor who had rejected me became my editor when mine left to become an agent. When we first chatted she said, at the time I sent in my manuscript that sort of thing wasn’t selling in the marketplace. I never said anything, but always wanted to. The same time I sent mine in was about the time Mary Janice Davidson and Charlaine Harris hit big, but I never did.

The truth is, you don’t know why someone is going to pick something up. That first editor was nine months pregnant and liked that I made her laugh on the second page. She got me. Some day, someone will get you.

But you have to persevere and keep moving forward. Always.

Tell me what you do to get past those evil rejections?

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Those of us who have access to writers’ workshops/conventions/critique groups sometimes forget that not everyone is so lucky. Those first two can be expensive and it’s sometimes difficult to find a good critique group. That’s one of the reasons I started the Write_Workshop yahoo group was to give free access to writers all over the world to tool that would help them be successful.

It’s worked. We have over 1500 members on the workshop and 200 of those have gone on to be published by major houses. That’s something I’m proud of and it makes me feel like we’re doing something right. The idea for the workshop came about when I had success with my first book “Charmed & Dangerous.” I’m a fairly nice person and people were coming out the woodwork asking me to read their manuscripts. I couldn’t do it and stay sane.

But I wanted to help in some way.

I’d had some amazing mentors, which is why I had found success so fast. I wanted to do the same for other people. To give them an inside look at the business, and to give them those all-important tools I talked about. The Write_Workshop was born in August of 2006. The Workshop provides craft classes, and I also bring in editors and agents.

I tell you all of this because as a writer, no matter what level you are at, sometimes you need some help. That’s one of the many reasons the Internet is such an amazing tool for writers.Need to know how to write a synopsis? You can find a multitude of resources online. The same goes for how to get an agent or finding out specifics about certain publishers. I can’t think of a single question that can’t be answered online. Though, you do need to be careful about the people giving the advice. ALWAYS check their credentials.

There are so many online classes these days it can make your head spin. Some of them cost a lot of money, and you should be careful where you spend your funds. RWA (Romance Writers of America) has hundreds of chapters all over the place. They can be a great resource even if you don’t write romance. Many of the classes they sponsor are good for all writers, and they usually strive to get the best instructors. For example I’m teaching my FAST DRAFT and REVISION HELL classes for the OCCRWA (http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassFeb10.html). Those are an inexpensive way to give yourself a kick in the pants if you’ve been dragging your feet with your latest manuscript. But there are tons of classes like that given by various chapters. You just need to check online.

Blogs can also be helpful. I learn stuff from THIS blog all the time from my fellow writers. The same goes for the http://witchychicks.blogspot.com/

If you’re interested in joining the Write_Workshop you can subscribe here: Write_Workshop-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. That’s a free resources, and on the separate chat loop you can ask questions and there are 800 people there to help you.

Best of luck on your journey. Remember, even though you may feel alone, you aren’t. We’re out there and we want to help.

p.s. Take Me If You Dare is out this month. Please pick up a copy and help a writer out.

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I sometimes think that after publishing seven novels, with three more on the way over the next year, I ought to know what I’m doing, right?  I should have it all figured out by now.  Nope.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve revised two novels and two short stories.  (I’ve been busy.  Really busy.)  Three of them  had pretty much the exact same problem.  Wow, was that ever eye-opening.  So, I’ve learned something about pacing.

What was the problem?  Withholding information unnecessarily to create a false sense of tension.

We want to build a sense of mystery and suspense so our readers will keep turning the pages to find out the answers to the questions we raise.  But sometimes this backfires.  Instead of creating mystery, we create vagueness, confusion.  We obfuscate parts of the plot that should be clarified.

Here’s what happened in the short story.  My main character has a traumatic incident in her past that affects her standing in the community, making her almost an outcast.  Most of the other characters in the story know what the incident is.  In my first draft, however, I didn’t reveal what trauma actual was until about two thirds of the way through.  Then I had a nice long talk about the story with my first reader.  Now, my intention was to create a sense of mystery about this character’s past.  How did my reader react?  He was confused.  Instead of paying attention to the story, he kept wondering what the secret was, and he was frustrated that I wouldn’t tell him.  And when the secret was revealed, it didn’t justify that confusion.  Especially when every other character already knew it.  Instead of letting the reader into the world, I had kept the reader out.  My very wise first reader suggested putting the secret in the first paragraph.  Lay it out right from the start.  Then, we understand exactly why everyone else treats the main character the way they do, and exactly where the main character’s stress is coming from.  Now, the tension in the story isn’t about what her past is — it’s about how she’s going to overcome her past and succeed in her goals.  Which is a much, much more interesting story.

Here’s how it worked in the YA novel I revised:  in the first draft, I kept the identity of the antagonist secret until the second half.  I was trying to make the mystery, “Who is the bad guy here?”  It turns out, that wasn’t as interesting as identifying the bad guy early on, making it clear just how powerful he is and what his bad intentions are, and drawing suspense from figuring out how the heroes are going to defeat him.

In a nutshell:

First Draft:  Something’s wrong.  I wonder what?  We need to figure out what’s wrong!

Revised Draft:  Here’s the problem.  Here’s why it’s bad.  Now what are we going to do about it?

I’ve actually used the “we don’t know who the bad guy is” plot structure successfully before.  But then, the problem was clearly defined — the heroes just didn’t know who was behind it.  (A classic mystery plot structure.)  In the stories I’d been working on recently, I think the problems weren’t well enough defined in my own mind to be able to create that suspense.  I needed to define them.  And that meant not holding back information that I was originally holding back.

It seems so basic now, I want to kick myself.  I would have figured it out eventually.  But working on this problem three different ways on three different stories really solidified this concept for me.  I hope I can use what I learned on my next novel draft!

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I get this way every time a book is about to come out. Well, one of my books. I have trouble sleeping. I think about stupid things like: Will the book sell? Will people love the characters as much as I do? Will they get into the story? The truth is, I can’t control any of that.

Of course I want the book to do well. Who wouldn’t? It’s my first time out with a new publisher and I want to impress. I’ve done my bit. Worked on promo, although it never quite feels like enough, and I’m tweeting, updating facebook and blogging all over the place.

You may hear stories of writers who don’t worry about their books coming out, but I have a feeling they are lying. I’m the last person to judge, but I don’t know how you can be successful in this business and not worry about it. Before you’re published you think that all that matters is selling the book to the publisher, but there is so much more.

But the writing really is the only thing we can control. When I feel like jumping on Ozzie’s Crazy Train, I ask myself two questions. Did you write a book you enjoy? Do you love the book? The answer is always yes. I can’t turn something in that I don’t believe in. I’ve created characters I want to spend more time with and that’s always a good sign. And I wrote a spy story that I’ve always wanted to write.

I’m happy with the book. I just want it to sell really well so I can do more. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

But back to that train. The best way to stay off it is to constantly move forward. I’m already two books ahead of the one that is coming out. And I’m contracted to write three more Blazes. So when the scary stuff bothers me, I think about the future.

Yes, you say, but what if you don’t have a new contract yet? You keep writing. I’ve been there too. Sometimes with Berkley I went close to a year between contracts. I just kept writing.

I was talking to a friend the other day who was upset about someone, who is at the same level as her in the publishing world, getting a huge world tour. That person also had special placement in stores and all kinds of advertising. My friends argument, was why not me? I get it. But we can’t control that stuff. It’s a combo of a pushy editor/publisher and a marketing department that thinks they can make big bucks, and sheer dumb luck most of the time.

So, when you ask what I’m doing these days. I’ll tell you trying to finish the first draft on a YA and then I’m jumping headfirst into the next Blaze, which I’m super excited about. Oh, and I’ll be doing book signings (Feb. 6, Hurst Texas, B&N, 2 p.m., you better be there) and blogging about TAKE ME IF YOU DARE. But most of the time I’ll be writing, because that is really all that matters.

What makes you crazy and how to you get through it? Tell me, I really want to know.

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