Thursday, February 28, 2008

Starting the WIP

A WIP - Work In Progress is always exciting.
When you start plotting, I'm convinced this is going to be your best yet.
After you're first chapter, I'm full of enthusiasm for it.
Half way through, it's turgid and I get bogged down in the plot. Why did I ever start it?
Towards the end, it picks up speed and I have to stop for a quick weep when my hero and heroine get together. Sorry, but I do tend to get involved as I write!
Finished, I'm sure it's complete rubbish.
Then I start to edit. After I've got rid of the usual errors, the words I always overuse, the inconsistencies, the scenes that go nowhere, do nothing, I start again.
This edit is to add the touches that, hopefully will make the book sparkle. The cutting and cleaning done, it's time to beautify. And finally, finally, I start to think "This isn't so bad after all!"

My last WIP went badly. It took a month longer than usual because I started with the wrong heroine, one my hero (Chris Keys, for those of you who read the Pure Wildfire books) was more than happy to take to bed, but he stubbornly refused to fall in love with. And she wasn't too smitten by him, either. So I gave him the heroine he wanted and the whole book came alive. I had to rewrite the book right from the start, because the original plot wouldn't work for her. She's been in the series before, but I never saw her as heroine material, until Chris did. And he did. They burned up the pages together.

I'm at the very start of a new project - Corin's story in the Triple Countess series. I have a heroine in mind for Corin, but I need to do some scenes with them together to see how she works out for him. Let's hope this one works first time!



3 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulation on starting your new WIP. I think starting a new story is exciting. It's fun to meet new characters and see where they take you.

Anonymous said...

Good luck with your WIP. As you write, remember there are lots of us out there (like me) who love your work.

Anonymous said...

As a novice and unpublished author, I'm so happy to know that it's perfectly normal for the characters I invent to take over the story and tell ME how things are going to go! I'll be much more relaxed now as I let them have their way.