more on writing

These memes were all created in Stencil from their images and selection of quotes. Fun to play there also when I need a break

Writing a book is somewhat the same as anything I write. Write. That's the secret of being a writer-- the one huge secret. Write. Write when you are excited by your ideas. Write when you are not. I write usually a scene at a time and then stop, check out the newspapers, go to Facebook, write a Tweet for Twitter, check emails, and then go back to the next scene. All the time I am doing other things, my mind is on what comes next for my characters. I argue through various scenarios while doing something that doesn't require thinking-- like playing spider solitaire or Mahjong online. The break lets me consider if where they are heading works. 

If it's been long between my writing, say a visit to town was in between, I usually reread that last scene. Writers are never not writing. The pen to the paper or fingers to the keyboard is often the end result of hours of consideration and sometimes jotting down notes as reminders.  I spent a week-end debating how I could get my characters, in this current work, to where I wanted them to go. All of a sudden there it was. Breaks, long or short, do help. 

All writers are different, but generally speaking I don't like to write more than 2000 words in a day just to be sure my characters are not rushing ahead and missing something. 

Currently, I have two works in progress but that is unusual for me. It happened  a bit serendipitously as writing often does. I was trying for a short story in August and the first possibility (historical) clearly needed to be a longer story. So did the second possibility (women starting over). In the meantime, I had already begun a longer book in the paranormal series. 

Most Americans will relate to how I wanted a break from stress and Christmas novellas were the perfect antidote to escape into another world. I finished the historical novella (with edits to come) and will get back to the more stressful paranormal after Thanksgiving holiday is over. After that, the historical novella will be Book 8 in the Arizona historical romance series-- and there is a ninth historical for that series, which I plan to write in January.

Writing begets writing.