
Well, finished up the first round of corrections for MDG #1: The Scent of Evil this weekend and returned them to the editor. MAN she's a good editor, btw. Got tons of suggestions on improvements for setting, characterization, deep POV, pacing, and more.
And I've got my fingers crossed about the cover artist...if the one I'm hoping for is available, we're gonna have cover art to rival the big pubs for this series! Won't say any artist names yet, but all will be revealed in time, lol.
And I've started on a new project. The dreams and spells one was just too close to home; I don't think I'm emotionally ready to write that one just yet. Writing should not fill the author with dread. When that happens, an author should either find a new story to write or find a new career. Since I happen to like this career, I figured I'd better work on option B.
And what IS option B, you might ask? Ah, but I cannot tell just yet, lol. I will say that it's intended for the new HQN Nocturne paranormal line. I created a basic plot a couple of days ago, then replotted it tonight to include much more conflict and action on a broader scale. Now I'm using Roxanne St. Clair's color coded plot board method to ensure the plot is evenly balanced. Since this story is going to be a category story of only 70-75K, I'm not really doing any subplots. Just a triumvirate of one main romance, the hero's family conflict, and the heroine's community conflict. I used color coded Post It notes (pink for the romance, purple for her conflict, and orange for his), laid the scenes/mini scenes out in three rows to divide the story into three parts divided by two turning points, and WAH LAH. Come to find out, the darn story was already perfectly evenly paced! LOL But now I can visually see that it is. And the visual layout stimulates my creative side. Every time I look at the colorful plot board (a mini one propped against the side of my CPU on my desk since that's all the room I've got for it), I'm raring to go on this story! Too bad it's 2:10 in the morning on a weekday and my kindergardner has school in a few short hours. Darn education, grr.
But tomorrow, ahhh...
BTW, if you're interested in reading about this method and other plotting methods, be sure to go to the Romance Divas forum at www.romancedivas.com. Look under AOTM Workshops for Roxanne St. Clair's five lessons on plotting. Her theory is that you should use different plotting methods for different types of books (genius, that woman is!), and she offers 5 different methods good for both plotters and pansters. Very detailed advice too.
More later,
Sav