My Writing Process Blog Hop

Today is "My Writing Process" blog tour day, when writers answer questions about their writing process. Last week, fellow author of romance, Anne Graham  posted hers.

You can check it out at   http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/ Thank you Anne for inviting me to join.

1) What am I working on?

I have more than one work in progress at the moment. Although it can have its disadvantages, the characters move in and out of each others' story, the advantage of letting one sit, is to work on another when you are blocked on the original.

 

The project I am struggling with is a compilation of stories, a collection of myths that come together is several differing stories, of various lengths under an umbrella title of The Magpie Chronicles.

 

The other, and at the moment, current project, Born Again, is a big challenge and requires a vast amount of research. Information which will create the background to and be twisted to become incidents my characters experience. What is making this project so challenging is that unlike previous stories I am writing this one by the scene, and then having to patch them together rather like a jigsaw puzzle. And for a 'pantser' writer that just adds to the challenge.

 

Days before her death my heroine's grandmother reveals a shocking family secret that changes my heroine's life and forces her to take a long hard look at herself and to decide how and what she is going to do about the information she's received as, depending upon her actions, many other lives, strangers' lives will be changed forever too.

 

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

The first two books I wrote, that were published came out in reverse order. But the common denominator with these books was I took years to write them. When The Brat, published in Oct 2010 by The Wild Rose Press, was released I was blessed with my first review... 

Sherry is daring. She doesn’t hesitate to develop a story that touches on the darker side of life. Death. Jealousy. Hate. Fear. Pain. By fearlessly exploring these emotions, it makes the journey real, human, and reading about the rewards after experiencing a hard fought struggle is that much more pleasurable. 'The author' has stayed true to herself and her original thoughts, and that uniqueness definitely shines through in her work.
I'd like to think I have maintained that uniqueness. I write across two romance genres, contemporary and Regency, and in all of them I like to add a dash of mystery.

In my Christmas Regency, Vidal's Honor, my hero and heroine had to flee across a divided Spain, over the Pyrenees into war-torn France and across the Channel to England.

 

3) Why do I write what I do?

I have always read romances, especially Regencies, I found and read every one of Georgette Heyer's books I found on my mother's bookshelves, And now I have every one of them on my own.

 

I like to take strong characters and strip them down to their basics and watch them rebuild themselves, their characters and their strengths. I enjoy watching their priorities change and see how they cope with all the challenges they (and I) set them. And of course, I like to read a story with a happy/feel-good ending.

 

4) How does your writing process work?

I'm tempted to ask, 'what process' but I'll refrain. :-) Because I don't - can't- sit down and write out a plot line of my story, I write by the 'seat of my pants' in other words I'm a 'pantser' writer.

 

My ideas come from nowhere and everywhere. I could be in the kitchen working and a character will come to me and tell me the beginning of their story --as happened in The Brat, and Duty Calls-- or I may get a title. On the other hand the title may not come until I am writing something down and just 'know' that is the title for the story, as happened with From Now Until Forever.

In my current Christmas novel, Name The Day I have been to a craft fair and got talking to an artist who did characatures as a side-line to his portrait commissions.

 

When I write, I may write all day or hardly at all the next. I do try to write something each day. I prefer to edit as I go along but when I become bogged down I try to write through it, even if that means side-stepping and freewriting on a clean page. Sometimes it is included in the story on others it goes straight into my discard file. But usually I garner a kernel of an idea on how to proceed.

 

Edits are a love-hate relationship.

 

I love to hate them.

 

But I can't, I learn so much from them :-)

 

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Next week the following three authors will be telling you about their writing process:

Trisha Faye ~ http://writerszenblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/my-writing-process/
Trisha Faye writes articles, children’s stories and novels – most about people from the past.


Patricia Kiyono ~ http://creative-hodgepodge.blogspot.com
Patricia Kiyono is a busy mom, grandma, teacher, and musician who writes contemporary and historical romance.

Jessie Bailey Andersen ~ www.readbetweenthelinesbookclub.blogspot.com
I write contemporary YA, but am branching out into dystopian YA as well.