La-Tessa Montgomery

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.

Hi all, please welcome my guest for the day, Shay MacLean.  Shay’s here to talk about her process for generating new story ideas, something all authors must due continually.  Shay is also celebrating the release of her erotic tale,  Shooting Stars, which I’m reading now. But don’t wait for me to tell you about (although I will be post my own review  ). Follow the link to read the free excerpt and/or purchase this spicy number.

Stoking the Fires: What Ignites My Muse’s Ardor

Ideas, concepts, insight, scheme, theory…all of these can be summarized as brainchildren to a writer and his or her muse. But, what sparks the ideas of creativity for a writer thus igniting her muse, who more often than not can be finicky at the best of times and a downright bitch/asshole at the worst. Every writer has their own way of coming up with ideas for new stories. Each can be either very exacting in the details or laid back in how much information they need to begin work. In my case, I feel I am a very lucky, my muse is very laid back. He likes to feed me ideas for a work in progress slowly over the course of a couple of months most of the time.

What makes his head perk up though?

The sources of his inspiration are varied and many. If I’m trying to come up with an idea of what a story should be about, I’ll go searching through the stock photo websites. Many snippets of information have popped into my mind as I browse the images. Just last night I was searching for a picture of a dragon (one of my personal obsessions ) to display on my website and I had the image of an existing character in my Rift Hunter Series’s love interest as a dragon shape shifter flash in my mind.

I quickly grabbed a pen and jotted down as much information as I could about what I saw and what my muse whispered to me.
The same thing happened when I was looking for new sexy pics of the week. I came across a picture of a couple dancing and a scene for a project came to mine. For that same project, I had a flash of inspiration when my husband took me out for Valentine’s Day. A café in Italy or Rome where my two heroes were talking. Later that same night, I got the image of those men meeting my heroine for the first time in a nightclub of old, like in Casablanca, where she’s singing with only a piano for accompaniment.

As a writer, everything around you, every setting, every conversation, every smell, every taste…becomes your playground and potential fodder for ideas and characters (yes, I said characters. All you writer’s know what I’m talking about   ). We’re always on the lookout for new and exciting ideas to keep our writing fresh and engaging for the reader. Just as I sat down to write this post I caught sight of a story on Yahoo’s homepage about Hidden Man Made Wonders of the World. I could definitely see using some, if not all, of them as a backdrop for a story. Even music videos have sparked ideas for characters.

About the author:
Shay has been writing ever since she can remember, penning her first short story about Tom Turkey in the fourth grade. As a teenager, she focused mainly on poetry, but still dabbled in writing shorts. She didn’t find her niche though until she started listening to the characters in her head whispering about the dark and sensual worlds to be explored in erotic romance. Now when she’s not engrossed in a great read, she listens intently when her muse murmurs seductively in her ear. She also enjoys dabbling in arts and crafts now and again. And although she isn’t an artist by any means she designed the tattoo featured in Shooting Stars. When she’s not writing she enjoys reading and spending time with her family. 

You can contact her at shaymaclean@yahoo.com or on her Facebook Page.