Yet another RWA National conference I didn’t attend. I know I really can’t afford the time off this year anyway, and staying home meant I got Night Music done and in early which it needed to be for the print release, but I’m still feeling like I missed out. I didn’t get to go to The Knight Agency’s 10th anniversary bash, didn’t get to meet my agent or agency mates in person, or my fellow authors that in some cases I’ve known for 2 years online now. My editors and publishers. I would really like to meet people next year in person, have a face to put with the names of all these people I work with.

So next year I really want to be at RT and RWA National. Not only do I want to meet the people I’m working with, I want to meet the readers. Which I guess means I’d better be doing the work now so that taking two weeks off next year is feasible. *eyes pile of work* Maybe I need more coffee. Anyway, I’m browsing around for industry news from conference attendees.

Fun read! Thanks to Alison and Jennifer for the contest I won this book in. I like men in kilts, I like time travel, and I like LaBrecque’s voice. This is a fun, sexy book and now I have a signed copy of it on my bookshelf. Ooo. I’m really happy to see Blaze branching out in their storylines and I really hope this continues. The variety of settings and types of stories was the reason I loved the old Temptation line and there’s been nothing like it in category romance since. Can’t wait to see where Blaze goes!

I’m cranking out the next story at high speed in the calm before the editing storm. It’s like being in the eye of a hurricane, things are quiet now, but just wait. There will be edits for Wild Wild West. There will be edits for Night Music. I’ve done all the edits for Wolf In Shining Armor (Sept.) and Yule Be Mine (Dec.), so I don’t need to worry about those. But I’m finishing Miss Lonely Hearts and Only Human, and those edits will be incoming, too. I pretty much expect August to be The Month Of Edits. So, I’m hurrying to get more writing out the door (to add to the storm of incoming edits) before they arrive and I have to shift gears.

My goal is to have everything current finished and edited by the end of August, leaving the decks clear for SMP #2, which is due in December, and That Other Book, which I’m prepared to have to finish fairly quickly. (That Other Book=Secret Project A.)

Which is why after turning in Night Music yesterday afternoon, I pulled up the next book to turn in and began to break it down into daily sized chunks, putting me in a good place to get started today.

I’m also reading fun stuff. I finished Bad Boys of Summer, and Amy Garvey’s novella was my favorite of the bunch, so now I need to get Murder in the Hamptons and I Love You To Death. And Highland Fling arrived in yesterday’s mail, so I get to read that next!

I also noted something reading the Brava Bad Boys. I keep thinking I’m not all that erotic a writer (quit laughing, yes, I remember what the award’s for and who I write for), but when I looked at Night Music which I wrote without any restrictions, just letting the story be what it needed to be and compared it to the Bad Boy anthology, it was very obvious to me that my natural voice is a step beyond those stories. I write erotic, I just do. It’s not even a matter of word choices, although I think graphic language can be used to very good effect, it’s the number of erotic scenes and the importance of them and the kind of scenes they are.

Which is not to say Night Music is a sex fest, because it’s not. It’s very erotic, though. The eroticism is a very important element in the story because my take on vampires is the Demon Lover. My vampire hero isn’t a warm fuzzy guy with unique dental needs, he’s a killer and he’s seductive and powerful and even frightening. And the eroticism is part of his power. I think traditionally horror and vampire literature has a strong element of eroticism, of sensuality.

Anyway, Night Music is a good example of my natural voice, written without any restrictions or limits or expectations other than “Must be 12K and have a Samhain theme”, and it’s hotter than a Bad Boy novella. That’s how the story needed to be, that’s how I write. So I guess I am an erotic author and I’ll just have to wrap my head around that concept. But I’d better not spend too much time dwelling on it because the edits will be upon me and I have work to do.

Finished Night Music. Ran a tad over my target word count, but not by much. I’ll give it a final read-through and make sure I’m not missing any bone-headed mistakes, and then off it goes. Whoosh!

Picking up from the previous entry on structure, it’s important not to confuse structure with process. Everybody goes about process in their own way. Some people use plotting boards, some people create elaborate collages, some use 3×5 cards, some people use diagrams and fill out sheets on characters and goals, motivation and conflict. It goes on and on. When it comes to process, the only thing that matters is whether or not it works for you.

My process is 90% unconscious. Most of the activity in our brains goes on below the surface. Doesn’t mean it’s not thinking, it just means it’s not conscious thought. What does this mean? It means I couldn’t fill out those sheets or diagrams or build a plotting board, but other than that, it doesn’t mean anything.

Here’s an example; math class. I used to have a horrible time showing my work in math class, because I could often arrive at the right answer but by using a different method than the one we were supposed to be demonstrating. I got there, the answer was right, I just did it a different way. In some cases, I could point to the right answer and have no idea why it was right. I just knew it was.

What matters with a story is that you get there in the end, not what method you use. Compare story structure to building a house. You need to know your lot size (length of story) and how big a building you can fit into that space. If you have a tiny lot, forget putting a 3-car garage in your plans. You don’t have the space.

I talked about things like turning points and reversals in the previous post, which may have made unconcious kinds of writers whimper and curl up in a ball, but here’s a secret. You don’t have to know what your big reversal or your turning points will be until you get there. You do need to know that you need them. In building terms, you don’t need to know what kind of doors will be used, just that there needs to be space for them. You need to know the building code and the basic things your building has to have. Walls, roof, foundation. If you know the structural requirements, you’ll end up with a solid story in the end, no matter what process you use.

I used to worry a lot about the fact that I couldn’t draw an elaborate blueprint in advance. Just a general one that covered the basics. But I made peace with my process a long time ago and I accept it for what it is and how it works for me. It works, that’s the bottom line. I do end up with characters who have goals and motivations and conflicts. I do end up with turning points and reversals and three acts that contain all the things they need to contain to accomplish their structural purposes. I end up with a completed story that makes sense and that’s what matters. And it works every time.

So if you don’t know every detail of your story in advance, don’t panic. Trust your storytelling brain to know what needs to be there, and go write. Of course, if plotting boards or GMC charts or whatever else work for you, by all means do that.

So several months ago Ellen asked me to blog about writing short, and I did, but I thought I’d revisit the topic with a more concrete example, using my current project Night Music.

Night Music will be 12K finished. I don’t like how the chapters are breaking currently, so I’m going to rearrange it at 6 chapters of 2K each. That’s more organization than structure, but it’s a beginning point.

I use the 3-act plot structure, which means I need to organize the first 4K (2 chapters) to introduce the main characters, the central conflict, the setting, and so on. Establish who and what the story is about, where and when it takes place. The next 4K will develop the characters and the conflict introduced in the first act and lead to a reversal. The final 4K will include final conflict and resolution and wind up all the threads to conclude the story.

With a story of this length you really only need one major reversal, but I like to end chapters on a turning point, which keeps the tension high and the pages turning. So. When I go to put a project together I will have this kind of map of the final product, what goes in which act, average chapter length so I can pace it to move towards a turning point, average length of each act so I can pace each piece of the puzzle.

When I finish each act, I read over and do my fixes and brush it up, flesh out anything that needs more detail, more impact. After I finish the second act, I’ll go back over the first two acts, and then through the whole when I finish the third act. This is a good way to make sure that no important points from the first act fail to develop in the second or resolve in the third and it means when I’m done, I’m really done. I’ll do a final read-through and make any fixes I spot, but I’m essentially done when I reach the end.

That’s more process than structure, but I thought I’d throw it in there. Also, since I tend to write out of order I’ll often discover something in the second act I should have introduced or built up in the first act and I’ll have to go back and layer that in.

In a story of this length the conflict can’t be anything too complicated to fully resolve. If you’re contemplating starting a short story or novella, make sure the idea isn’t something on the scale of Star Wars or there’ll be trouble when you try to make it fit the length. Another trick is to keep the cast of characters tight and scaled down. Protagonist, antagonist, ally, for instance. A romance needs a hero and heroine, and any additions need to be few and given little space. Otherwise it’ll be very hard to contain the story to the short length.

Structure is pretty important in something this short because there’s no room to get off-track. I think structure is always important, but it really, really shows in a short piece.

With my structure laid out, I like to have my playlist to work to. For Night Music, my playlist is: Behind the Walls of Sleep, The Smithereens, Possum Kingdom, The Toadies, and A Little Night Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

And that’s how I write short. Not much different from how I write long, except I’ll be done a lot faster.

Books finished in last 3 days of heat wave:

1. Fear Nothing, Dean Koontz. The way this ended set it up for more books and my husband told me there were more Christopher Snow stories, so I looked it up; the next two books are Seize the Night and Ride the Storm. I will be acquiring those ASAP because I must know what happens at Moonlight Bay.

Short summary: Christopher Snow has a genetic condition which makes him vulnerable to sunlight. He discovers with his father’s death that the world around him is full of things that go bump in the dark and somehow they’re linked to him. Genetic experiments on both animal and human residents of Moonlight Bay have escaped from the lab. Anything more would be serious spoiler territory, but this book is worth reading just for Mungojerrie, the super intelligent cat. Since I am a fan of T.S. Eliot’s Book of Practical Cats, I’m delighted that Mungojerrie returns in the following books.

2. The Red Heart of Jade, Marjorie M. Liu, 3rd Dirk & Steele book. This is a terrific series. If you love paranormal action romance and you haven’t read these books yet, what are you waiting for? Grab Tiger Eye and Shadow Touch and a comfy chair.

Short summary: Dean and Miri were separated 20 years earlier and each thought the other was dead. But they share a history that goes back further than either of them suspected, and the discovery of a piece of jade in an ancient mummy will lead them to it, if they can survive long enough. I loved this story, the setting, the history, the fire-breathing dragons. Great stuff.

3. Smitten, Janet Evanovich. I am so thrilled to see her long out of print Loveswepts back in print!

Short summary: Lizabeth wanted to be a fairy when she grew up, but had to settle for an alternate career, first as a wife and mom and then post-divorce as a construction worker. Matt hires Lizabeth out of pity but quickly discovers that her organizational skills can save his construction company and her family can save him from an empty house. Although the streaker has to go…This book made me laugh repeatedly and for that alone I’d recommend it. Stephanie Plum fans will recognize Elsie as an incarnation of Granny Mazur.

Now that the heat wave has broken, I have Night Music to work on. Theme song: Behind The Walls of Sleep, The Smithereens.