Allow me to introduce myself. I am Jaxx Steele, author of gay romance. I am guest blogging on this site and I can only hope that you will like what I have to say. Believe me when I tell you that I thought long and hard on what to say here. I had no clue what to write about until last night and it was only because my sweetheart asked me a question. “What was the question?” you ask. The question was, what do you do when you get blocked on what to write when you are writing for yourself?
I thought about that for a moment. So I asked myself, “What do I do when I get writers block or just get stumped when I am writing?” So I decided to blog about that. What I do when I get writers block. Maybe my answers may help someone in their own time of blockage.
As a romance writer I have many rituals that I go through to help my flow of writing. For instance, I usually play music, a lot of Luther Vandross, Barry White, some old Keith Sweat, you baby making music and I also wear this silky shirt that Hou ( that’s my sweetie, for those who don’t know that) brought me a few years ago because it feels good on my skin. You might think it is weird, but trust me, it works. It puts me in the mood to write sensual scenes and romantic moments. Atmosphere is important to me when I write.
Just as I have rituals when the words are flowing I also have rituals to ease writers block when it happens as well. I must admit that it doesn’t happen often (darn voices in my head won’t shut up), but when it does, this is what I do. First, I put everything away. Anything that has to do with writing and all my props go bye-bye. I need to put myself in another state of mind so everything must go. I then do something totally opposite. Lately I have taken up no-brainer stuff like watching action movies (here’s a quote from my favorite, “The boy’s pheromone level suggests he wants to mate with the girl.” Can you guess the movie?) and cartoons (I’m a sucker for Disney movies). I have also tried my hand at building model cars (I’m not very good at it, but I try).
I do that for as long as it takes. Sometimes I only have to go to the side track for a day or so, but on longer stories I have been known to watch movies for a week. I have found that doing something else with my brain really helps me focus when I go back to what I was doing. The good news is that when the flow comes back it comes like a flood.
So, my advice to help fight writers block, for those of you who dare to take it, is do something totally different and wait for your brain to reboot. You may not do some of the lame things that I do, but try something else that doesn’t require any real thinking on your part. Once your brain has some down time to relax the natural flow that you are used to will return.
These have been the wise words of Jaxx Steele. Visit my site and see what my flow is like.
Until next time…peace!
Jaxx
www.jaxxsteele.webs.com
www.jaxxsteele.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/romancebyjaxxsteele
-----
Contest:
Jaxx is also at http://yougottaread.blogspot.com
Find the question that is different and post the answer on either blog and be entered to win a book!
So, the cover artist from Red Rose finally got hold of me... lots of confussion insued. But that's all better now because my friend Kristin Bergh who is a professional illustrator is - hopefully as I type hard at work on a cover. I've seen the prototype and am TOTALLY excited.
Writing has been a bust - other than the trip to Bellingrath - still trying to map out everyone's locations... including the bad guy.
Black Velvet is with the editor - we're just waiting for it to be read and hopefully a contract offered.
Sarah's Story releases April 23rd!!! I'm so excited! I have 3 guest blog dates!!
March 23rd, April 15th and April 23rd!!! Will post links to the blogs themselves soon as I remember to get them.
And on March 20th - I'm HOSTING a guest blogger! Jaxx Steele! He's a fellow Red Rose author as well as writing for Phaze and Dreamspinners. So the few of you that do watch this blog - make him feel at home.
( Bellingrath Gardens in March - LOTS of pictures )
Like I said - this was only a few of the 89 pictures I took - but didn't think you'd be interested in the pictures of steps...
All heroes have a story of how they are created - some are from pictures or a character in a movie and some just plop themselves down in a chair and say hi! Not this guy... nope he showed up while I was listening to a song, then convinced me to do a 3d render of him.
The song: Black Velvet by Alannah Miles
( The pic )
But he didn't fit in any story that I was working on or thinking about - but he "fit" in Tir's (Antonia Tiranth) dragon shifter series. Picked himself a girl and took off. I love this guy! He's a blast to write, cause I'm never quite sure what his reaction will be.... which part of him will win out? The intelligence or the attitude.
It will be off to her publisher soon - hope they love him as much as I do!
Once you have the idea down. You have to edit it. You have to ask yourself hard questions...
- Is this scene necessary?
- Does it move the plot forward or create conflict?
- Is this sentence as impactful as it needs to be?
- Does it convey the emotions I need the reader to feel?
- Is this the best word?
Once you get that done - you send it off, after you bang your head against a wall writing a synopsis!
Then by some miracle get a contract for it there's more editing! Then a professional editor looks at it and ask those very questions and suggest things - sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.
Then you have to figure out a blurb - an excerpt - and work with the cover artist to get the best cover you can for your book.
Now comes the WORK! Marketing! What? You thought writers wrote the book, got through that process and started the next one? Well, they probably have their next book at some stage... But what comes next is convincing people to buy the book... sending it out for reviews and praying that you get good ones. Chats, Yahoo!Groups, message boards, websites, conventions, signings...
It's not the writing the story that's hard - it's getting it to the market and selling it that's hard!
- Music:Black Velvet
I've been busy! Doing edits on Time Displacement Corps Book 1: Sarah's Story, planning the promotion of it, working on a vampire story that has been in moth balls, co-writing a dragon story with my friend Antonia Tiranth... and RL stuff that won't be denied.
Sarah's Story is a first person time travel - and one that litterally surprised me while writing it. I'd gone through a year of not finishing anything. So when I started writing it, I didn't even give the file a name - just "time travel". I fully expected to get two chapters in and lose the story. But, Sarah is a determined woman and wanted her story told. The tenative release date is April 23rd - so you'll meet her then!
The dragon story - well I love the hero! And not just because I write him. He appeared fully developed - virtues, temper and flaws in one blinding clarity. Jett Houston is an Alpha's Alpha male. He doesn't take shit from anyone -- except his Grams! When I told Tir about him last year, she immediately determined he needed a heroine that would twist him in knots. We are currently beefing up some series stuff - since his will be the third book in her series - but the romance stuff is done.
The vampire story - is back on my home turf of Mobile, AL and my original plan was to submit it to Mardi Gras Publishing but it got stalled. I now know the characters knew something I didn't -- Mardi Gras Publishing closed within a year. But, they are back with a vengence!
Once I finish that - I need to do some research on the early 1900's and San Francisco, CA and the earthquake there. For the next Time Displacement Corps book... then the Corps will send one time traveler back to the middle ages! The best thing about this series is I can visit all my favorite time periods!
OK enough time
- Mood:
busy
Why? Writing the story is pure creation - putting the images in your head into words and then onto paper. Edits you have to think about every single word and how it affects the whole. Is it a word you repeat a lot? Does it alter the main theme of the scene? the book? the character? Does that word make the book stronger or weaker? Is there a word that works better? You as the writer have to focus not on the fact someone is suggesting - and they are suggestions - you change something you worried over and felt had discovered the perfect word for... only to find out that maybe you didn't.
A book is like your child - you hate to see someone say something negative about it/them... but sometimes you realize that the advice is good and you should listen.
Time Displacement Corps Sarah's Story booktrailer
What's been going on? Time Displacement Corps Book 1: Sarah's Story has been assigned to an editor and I'll be working on edits soon. No release date yet, I'll be sure to update as soon as I have one.
There is a prequel free read available at my website: http://www.delilahkstephans.com/jasonsde
I've been busy - my friend Antonia Tiranth has been in edits for her Feb 2nd Release "The Quickening" and I've been helping her - well more commiserating with her. I've read this story so many times from her first draft to the finished product. It's a fantastic read and will be available from Lyrical Press. http://www.lyricalpress.com/the_quickeni
I've also been busy working on a story that stalled a year and a half ago. Now I just hope it's not another year and a half before I finish up the thing.
In January, Antonia and I will be working on a joint story that we've been talking about for a couple years. I'm really looking forward to getting started on it. The two of us have poked and prodded each other for five years now. It was only fitting we signed our first contracts one day apart.
Well I've got a stack of new cookie recipies to try and a kitchen to get ready for Thursday - you know Christmas day? Hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.
People come into our lives shaped by the experiences that have made them who they are. Every hurt, every joy, every failure, every success creates the person that we meet. Characters within the pages of a book are no different. Every reader wants to know why that character is that way and accept they may never know the full extent of the why.
So how do writers create those heroes we all love so much? Each writer has a different method, I tend to use visuals to begin the journey.
( First up Devlin Ruark )
( Then there's Arashi )
I've signed a contract with Red Rose Publishing to publish Sarah's Story. This is the first in a series of Time Travel Romance. I don't have a release date yet, but keep your eyes peeled for more information as soon as I have it.
I'm going to spend today working on a new book and gathering some of my reference photos for Sarah's Story.
Each month there seems to be one or more e-publisher opening and one or more in trouble. Given that publishing is a hard business to run on a day to day basis, why do so many authors decide that opening their own e-publishing house is a good idea? Is it the ease of setting up a website with a shopping cart or creating PDF and HTML files? Maybe it’s the desire to control their own work and to help other writers.
If it is the desire to control their own work, rather than open a new publishing house and signing authors I feel that they should consider self-publishing. Self-publishing has come far from the Vanity Publishers of old. It is not easy and the average self-published P.O.D. book sells less than 300 copies, usually only to family and friends. If an author decides to take this path, they take on several jobs usually handled by the publishing house: Editor, typesetter, marketing director, and art director. While difficult, it is not impossible. You can offer e-books and print versions. For those who would rather spend their time with their fingers wrapped around a pen/pencil or curled on a keyboard it may be a daunting task.
There are tax advantages to self-publishing that are often not discussed; some are common to any publishing. A few examples:
1. A computer once a novel is sold either to a publishing house or a customer.
2. With today’s internet savvy consumer a website, blog, email and discussion group are the indispensable tools of marketing also the many online writing workshops bringing your internet service.
3. Travel to book signings, conferences, workshops. This includes lodging, and food.
4. The software you use to type your masterpiece into.
Two e-publishers have opened in the last two months: Red Rose Publishing - http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstore/
Just some of the things on my mind this Tuesday morning.
Thoughts on publishers
I'm on several writer's groups; crit groups, marketing groups, support groups, research groups - you name it there is a yahoo group for it. It is helpful to see another writer going through the same thing you are.
Recently on one of the crit groups, one of the author's informed us she had received a rejection for her manuscript. Well, it wasn't really a rejection per se but more a "If you do this, remove that and change this, we'd love to publish it." Nothing wrong with those type of rejections - unless the suggestions completely change the tone, plot and/or feel of the book. In this case I think it would.
One of the suggestions by the publisher was to have the hero and heroine have sex sooner and more often. Some of the other suggestions would totally destroy the plot of the book. Yet, this same publisher on their submission guidelines state that they want strong plots and no gratuitous sex.
Huh? That makes no sense. They say one place they don't want it but then later say that their readers require it.
As a writer - I want the characters to have some kind of connection before they jump each other's bones. Otherwise it is that gratuitous sex thing. This publisher requesting sex earlier is, to me as a writer, saying we don't care if they feel anything yet just get 'em in the sack.
As a reader - I'll read those type books but they make me remember my days reading fan fiction. We had a name for those stories - PWP. If you aren't familiar with the anagram, PWP can mean "Plot What Plot" or "Porn without Plot" or (this one is new) "Porn is Plot".
Do they have a place? Of course. They aren't new. The tradition of erotica, porn or whatever other word you choose goes back centuries. In a society that represses sexual expression, there will always be material to satisfy the human need for titalation.
But when a publisher request such changes of a writer, which are in direct violation of their stated submission guidelines, they are forcing the writer of what is an excellent romance to change the work to a mindless piece of porn.
The publisher in the case I mentioned is a well respected e-book publisher. Yet I can't help but feel that in placing all their focus on their readers desires for "hot sex" and soon above the basic elements that constitute a good romance, they underestimate both their readers and force their writers into creating books that are nothing more than thinly thought out plots that string together sex scenes.
( Photo references )
Esther held her hand out to indicate all the books around them. "Only a small percentage of books written ever get published, dearest. Many more stay in the hearts, minds and closets of their authors forever after they are commited to paper. They are there solely for the author's pleasure and benefit alone. But more importantly, they are there for the characters because until they are on paper, the charaters aren't truly alive. Every author owes it to her people to birth them as best as he or she can."
-- excerpt fromthe story "Knightly Dreams" by Sherrilyn Kenyon copyright 2003 in the book "What Dreams May Come" from the Berkley Publishing Group, New York, NY
There are days when writing that nothing goes right, or the characters throw you a curve you didn't expect or the rejection letter arrives and you find yourself wondering why you keep writing. It is after all a lonley, isolating job. Then you turn around and through your mind's eye you see all these characters waiting patiently to sit at your knee and tell you their story. How can anyone deny that calling? I can't - even on the days I don't think I can ever right another word.
- Mood:
giggly
( The Pavillion )
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
delilahstephans- delilahstephans
Syndicate
