La-Tessa Montgomery

Total word count produced during Week 1 of the book camp is….  3,809

Not bad, but no where I near I needed to be.  I’ll admit, the NBA Playoffs are seriously messing with my concentration this year (Go GRIZZ!!) but I digress…

At first glance, I was heading into week 2 6,191 words below my weekly goal.  So I knew I had work to do, but I was confident I could do it.  Then I looked at my daily word goals and realized I’d horrible miscalculated my daily word goal. HORRIBLY.  Bascially, I’d only set my goal at half of what it needed to be.  So instead of needing 10,000 words a week, I need 20,000 …

Like I said… I was COMPLETELY off and I blame the playoffs (go GRIZZ!!) for my suspect math calcuation skills.   So actually, I’m heading into week 2  16,191 words off my goal.  (I’m such a spazz sometimes…. LOL)

Ok, I’m off to tackle my real writing goal for the week and I hope to make a dent in my week one deficit as well.  Hmm, I may have to go off grid this week to get anything done.

(But to be clear, going “off grid” does NOT mean I’m giving up any of the Grizz playoff games. I’m  just sayin’ )

Yes, yes. It’s that time again my friends. Tomorrow is day 1 of the Savvy Authors  May bootcamp.  I’m excited to get started. My newly finished UF draft will be my project for the month.  I’m hoping I can complete the total 1st round rewrites on it, thus  putting me in good shape to start my polishing phase for it in June.

I’ll admit, this is a highly ambitious project– undertaking  a 90k word rewrite in just 30 days– but I’m convinced with concentrated effort, I can pull it off.  My rough draft is a little over 80K words and I believe I can reuse atleast 85% of it for this next draft.  My main goals are to:

1. Add a new Act I (roughly 20k words)
2. Eliminate some now unnecessary scenes
3. Rearrange a few scenes to better serve the plot
4. Add about 15-20 k of new content. 

It won’t be easy, but generally nothing worth having , nor any goal worth attaining is.   I’m not going to lie to myself and even say I’ll do daily updates here as to my process, but I will do a weekly recap.

Best of luck to all my fellow bootcampers.

Today I’m joined by new author Christine Ashworth, sharing her experience with overwriting– an affliction that many newbie authors suffer from.  I’m sure most of you authors out there have similar tales as Christine, if so please share.  There’s no judging here  

Hi La-Tessa, thanks for having me on your blog to blatantly promote my first published novel! But before I get to that, I wanted to share how I went from overwriting, to writing to sell.

When I wrote my first novel, I put everything in it. Ballet dancers, gay men, straight men, alcohol, sweat, snow, gorgeous imagery, sexual tension, heartbreak, omniscient POV, deep third POV, Paris, New York, San Diego, Los Angeles, hot tubs, nakedness in the kitchen, really great lasagna, sex with inappropriate people…should I go on?

Needless to say, that novel, while remaining a darling in my heart, is on a dusty section of a hard drive that no longer exists. Ten long years have passed – eleven complete novels and over a dozen partials later, and I’m still struggling not to put everything plus the kitchen sink into a book.

I know now how to plot just enough that the thought of writing the story doesn’t bore me. I know how to go back through a book and see what’s missing, and how to add it in. I write fast, mainly to get through the writing to the rewriting, which has become my favorite part of writing. (Which is good, since selling means rewriting.)

But it’s taken me a long time to accept my method of writing and then rewriting. I had a friend ask me if I keep all the words I write in a day (typically 2k-5k, depending on the day, the story, and life in general). At first I thought, well of course I do! But in retrospect, when I rewrite a story for sense, romance, plot, and character, I do change/add/delete quite a bit of words. I’ve tossed out entire chapters because that dragged in a fourth POV, which the story didn’t need. So do I keep all the words I write? No. My bet is, few writers do.

I’m no Gustav Flaubert (Madame Bovary), who would at times agonize over a paragraph for a month before he was satisfied with it. (Plus, you know, he was writing in French.) Rather, the words fly out of my brain and onto the screen because if I think too much I can’t write – therefore, the words that make it to the page aren’t always appropriate for the story, but they lead me to the next bit, and the next, and before I know it, the book is done and the real work (fun!) begins.

No writing is truly wasted. When I say I “toss” words, I really mean “put in a delete folder for all eternity”. Because someday, those words might come in handy! Yes, I still over-write – add in elements to the story that don’t really fit. But they get put into the delete folder at the appropriate time, because my brain has finally figured out what happens next.

Christine, thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your experience.  You weren’t kidding about trying to put everything in your first manuscript were you?.  Personally, I’d like to know how all that could possibly exist in one story, but I suppose that’s a tale for another day.  Great lasagna indeed-LOL. 

Before I let Christine go, I ‘d like to mention her 1st release, Demon Soul is out and available for purchase.  Here’s a bit about it:

…to retrieve his soul, she’ll become fire… Gabriel Caine stands on the edge of the abyss. A vampire has stolen his soul and if he doesn’t get it back soon, his next step will be into hell.

Rose Walters has been sent back from the dead to complete one task – save Gabriel Caine. But this muscled guy in leather, black jeans and a dangerous aura didn’t look like he needed anyone’s help.

Rose has touched the whole of Gabriel, making him yearn for a love he believes he can never have. Her willingness to put her human life on the line for him forces him to bring all three parts of himself – demon, human and Fae bloodlines, and the traps and gifts of each – into harmony, and into the fight that will decide their fate.

Demon Soul is available for purchase on Amazon and All Romance eBooks. 
You can find Christine over at her website and on Twitter.

Check out the status bar to the right —>

I’m OFFICIALLY in the revision stage for my Urban Fantasy novel, Shadow Walkers.  Now time to flesh this puppy out and fill in the plot holes. LEGGO!!

WOOT  WOOT!!  That is all! 

Snoopy Dance time