Back in March, I hopped into the flow of a Monday Blog Tour answering an invitation from Ariella Moon and her post The Writing Process. The Writing Process Blog Tour asks four questions of each writer who joins in, and today it's time for an update. At the end of my post you'll find the next "tagged" author. Advantage to you? You can follow this Tuesday Blog backwards and forwards to meet a lot of authors and learn about how this mystery called writing works.
My thanks to Cindy K. Green for the invitation to "hop in". Check out her answers to the Four Questions and learn more about her writing process.
My Writing Process
What am I working on?
I'm finishing the final installment of SHADOW LOVE, a Regency historical romance. Bethany Hathaway tries to deal with the London Season, the fact that her mother accidentally shot a peer, and holding the peer's persistent and attractive brother, Alexander Grayson, at arm's length. The book is being published in installments, chapter by chapter. When the book is complete, it will be re-issued as an entire work. Serial publication is a new concept in romance, although it's popular in science fiction and fantasy.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
My contemporary novels have been described as "delightful slices of life" and "uplifting", and my writing as "eloquent". These novels feature a librarian in some way, in honor of my training and second profession. In all of my writing, I add the touch of the Spirit by exploring life's options. For many of us, the choice that lies before us is not between Good and Bad, but between Good and Best. There are plenty of things we can do, judged as Good by society, our parents, our church, our peers. But what is Best for us? What will match our talents and joy to the world's needs? I like exploring that kind of choice through my writing.
Why do I write what I write?
I write sweet romance (little descriptive sex or violence) because I like the tension that builds between people who are caught in social or life situations that keep them apart without the complicating layer of physical love. Elinor's pulsing emotions under the surface in Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" are what I want to reproduce. Other than that, I write what I write when a subject, a character, a scene or a setting grabs me and won't let go. Elsewhere in this blog, you can read how that happened for each of my books.
How does my writing process work?
I start with what grabs me, as I said above, and usually one or two scenes form in my mind. I'll write those down. After that, I'm a planner. I create character sketches for the hero and heroine using a template that I've drawn from several sources. Those sketches are full-blown biographies, so I'm already doing research as I go. Then I start plotting. I have a couple of plot tools that I use. There's a Conflict Grid and the Book in a Month system by Victoria Lynn Schmidt that help with story line. Finally I create a plot grid using a software program called Writer's Blocks which allows me to keep scenes, settings and timeline all in sync. I write the first draft in one long gulp, usually over a month. Then after another round of research and plotting, I begin rewriting and editing, rewriting and editing, each time looking at a different piece of the novel, such as dialogue or repeated words. Then it's ready to send out to my core of first readers. Whew! Every step of this journey strengthens my writing and the story. You get to enjoy the results!Fellow Travelers on the Blog Hop
Cindy K. Green is an award-winning author of more than 10 titles both in print and out of print. She's a fellow member of the Heart of Carolina RWA chapter here in North Carolina A previous middle school history and English teacher, she now writes Inspirational Christian and Sweet Fiction for Adults and Young Adults.
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