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I'm an Author. I love to write, I love to read and I just love books in general.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

How I write



Do you have certain things you need to write? For me it's LOUD music (headphones) and my iced coffee. I was hooked on Carmel but lately I've gone with Vanilla. It's sweeter. LOL. I kick off my shoes. Turn on my computer, stare at my 24 inch wide screen monitor waiting for it to fire up, and then I take a seat. I reach for that Mp3 player, hook into my headphones, take a sip of my coffee.... and open up my WIP. LOL. My legs stretch out to the barstool a few feet away to put my feet up, lean back in my chair, play a little air music with my fingers to warm them up... and then start typing!
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I listen to a lot of heavy metal music. I listen to other music too. Apocalytica is a favorite band of mine. Bittersweet, Path, and I Don't Care are three of my favorite songs. I have been obsessed with 'I don't love you' by My Chemical Romance lately. I'm happy and in love so... yeah. But that song grabs me. It might be my character that I'm writing drawn to that song. She's trapped in a loveless marriage by a man who used her from the get go and lied to her about having feelings for her when she was at a low point, drawing her into his life and taking advantage of her. I NEED music to write. I work in a corner of my living room where I have a huge desk set up, one of those double station ones with the big hutch. I don't have windows near me with any kind of view so I bought one of those digital photo frames I'm going to load my favorite photos into just to motivate me and put it on my desk. I thought that was a good idea. I'm going to get around to doing that soon. Right now it's sitting on the bar picture-less. I keep two pillows on my chair. If you spend as many hours in a chair as I do... you need them or your backside will go numb. I dance around in my chair a bit to tunes so I keep body parts from falling asleep for the most part. LOL. It's also good exercise. My chair swivels so yeah. I can dance in my chair. LOL!
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When I'm in the 'zone' I write for long stretches of time. I've been known to go for 12 hours but of course I do take breaks. I eat. The first book I ever wrote took me a year to finish. It was a long book at nearly 300 pages (110,000 words I believe - WHAT WAS I THINKING??? LOL). I've gotten a lot faster since then. I typically take about a month to write a book. Some come faster. Some slower. I write more than one at a time. It keeps me from getting writer's block when I get hung up on a story and can't decide where to take it. I know some authors do the entire plot in neat outline fashion. That's not how I roll but it would be nice to be that organized! I'm a 'by the seat of my pants' kind of writer. My idea of an outline is knowing what kind of characters I want to write, a general idea of where I'd like the story to go... and that's about it. LOL. That covers about the first four chapters...after that... flying blindly, typing away, and the rest of it comes as I type.
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My favorite part about writing... is that blank page. When you open up a window in word that doesn't have a singe word yet. It's a blank slate and it needs filled. I feel excitement EVERY time I start a new book! The first 3-5 chapters always come to me within a matter of days. Then it starts getting complicated. I've created my characters and now my mind is emerged in their world, their thoughts, their dreams, their desires, and yes, their baggage. Now it's all about writing what happens to them and how they are going to react. The writing slows at this point and I spend a lot of time pondering. What would I do in their shoes? Then I'm off typing more. The part I dread the most is the ending of a WIP. You have to wrap up a story that I have become so involved with that it's like saying goodbye to people you love. It's difficult. Part of me is happy because their story is told but the other part of me... sniffling because I've done what I set out to do. I finished telling their story. Of course then there's the whole going over it forty times to edit the crap out of it. By then... I'm ready to send them off to submit them. LOL.
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Kidnapping Casey released on Friday. Thank you to everyone who was so supportive and thank you to Regina for promoting my book. I got emails from readers and they asked me if I'm going to plan to close the Zorn Warriors series after four books. NO! I already started working on the 5th book. It's about a character that you will meet in Tempting Rever. Another book that I wrote the first few chapters on is Vhon's story, Ral's youngest brother. There's also a character that I feel the need to write about that you will meet in the 4th book ( Berrr's Vow - name subject to change - it's submitted so cross your fingers). I see no end in sight so yes, I plan on writing more Zorn Warriors books!
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I don't have a release date yet for Tempting Rever or the cover art yet. When I get it, hear about it, I'll be posting all over the place! LOL. It shouldn't be too long! I also have another book that will be coming out in the near and dear future. It's called Burning Up Flint. It's set in the future, she's human, he's a Cyborg... Lots of fun to be had as they try to work out their differences.

4 comments:

  1. It's funny the habits we pick up when writing and the things we need to produce. I can't listen to ANYTHING much. Pretty much need absolute quiet. Maybe there's a little ADD going on because I just get distracted too easily. I must have my coffee though. Like you, I'm addicted. I take notes but don't have a well thought out outline.

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  2. Hi Regina!

    I have the 3 kids ages 5-10 so I HAVE to listen to music or I'd hear "Don't do that, STOP it!" Over and over since my kids can't play nice. My husband handles them so I can zone out. LOL.

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  3. Laurann,
    I so envy you doing your book a month. I used to write that prolific, but lately the last umm, too many months, my muse isn't cooperating!

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  4. Hi Mel,

    LOL. I spend a LOT of hours in front of my computer! Just kick your muse into shape. LOL!

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