Keep it simple, stupid; or, how to write my novel faster

First, a quick shout-out to Fang-tastic Books, where I'm doing a guest post about what my characters do for Christmas, and giving away a copy of POISON KISSED! Yay! Thanks, Roxanne!

And, another shout-out to para romance author Hailey Edwards, who does a great job pimping my books (ahem! thanks, Hailey!) and has managed to find someone who named their Kindle after the magic mirror in my book SHADOWGLASS. 

And, finally, a yell for @Wenj_BL on Twitter from Black Lagoon Reviews, who has created my very first piece of fan art. Awesome! Two words, folks: Aidan Turner. Phwoar. Thanks, Wenj!

Anyway. Now we've got that off our busty chests...

Started a new manuscript last Monday, and I already have nearly 40,000 words. That's 40K in 8 days with the weekend off. This may not impress some of you :) but when you realise you're talking to a girl with a word goal of 2,000 per day that she often doesn't achieve, it's a little more noteworthy.

So how am I achieving this amazing -- nay, wondrous -- nay, prodigious -- feat of stamina and endurance? How have I turned this speedy corner from Slowville and raced off into the land of fuck it, let's get this sucker done in a hurry?

Well, of course, I get up early. I sit down. I write. I don't let other shit get in the way. I wreck my brain. I go to bed. But it's more than that.

I write to an outline, because I'm too scared to do it any other way. And I'm talking a mega-outline. My bad boy for this MS is 20 pages in 12pt TNR. I do scenes, plot lines, character arcs, romantic turning points, the lot. But I still can usually make only 2K a day.

Reasons? Well, the first is that there are a hell of a lot of words in my Shadowfae books. By which I mean the writing is, by design, laid on pretty thick. They're dark, sexy, dripping with colours and smells and sensations. Keeping up that level of sensory input for 100K and not boring the crap out of the reader (oy! no one asked you back there in the cheap seats, okay?) requires a lot of thought. This new MS, bless its skanky little romantic heart, isn't like that. It's fast. It's hot. It's darkly funny. It's got all the moves, baby. I can relax, and just let it dance.

The second reason? The keep-it-simple factor. Because I make such a monstrous outline, I tend to think the romantic conflicts to death. They're subtle and complicated. By the time I'm done, frankly, they're nuanced up the wazoo, and in every scene I have to include so many obtuse motivations that even I get confused. What's more: in revisions, I always end up cutting it all out and sticking to the basics.

Why? Because a simple, high-concept, tell-it-in-two-lines conflict is more effective. The simpler and more primal the conflict, the harder your crucial scenes will hit. The bigger your black moment can be. The more satisfying and climactic the resolution.

For four books I have done this. Think it to death, write it up, cut that sucker out. Learning curve? Very shallow, my friends. No one said I was smart.

But for this MS? What a brainwave! I said to myself: "Self, how about you cut it back to basics before you start? Yeah, it's all real nice that the hero was tortured by a rabid goat as a child and has issues with getting his hair to perm properly. But if the crux of his issue with the heroine (yeah, remember her? She's quite important, being as this is a romance and all) is that last time he fell in love, his demon enemies ate his woman's eyeballs through a straw and consigned her soul to eternal housework just to spite him, and he's terrified it'll happen again? Then fucking say so, you moron. No one cares about all that other stuff."*

Self was flabbergasted. "You mean, save myself days and days of work by (gasp!) keeping to the point? Figuring out what his greatest fear is, and making him face it? Without complicating it with goats?"

Patient sigh. "Yes, Self. No goats. It's not rocket surgery. Get on with it."

So there you have it. The goat and the perm problems haven't gone away. They're still there in my head, and will pop out on the page when I feel like it.**

But the big scenes? They're sticking with the basics. Big concept, big pay-off. Chk-chk-boom. And hence, I can write like a speedy madwoman and not get tripped up by irrelevant details.

And if at some point, demons don't tie Our Hero down and at least threaten to suck his girlfriend's eyeballs out and chain her soul to the Eternal Vacuum Cleaner of DOOM(!!) -- then I'm not doing my job properly.

45K to go. Wish me luck :)

* (As you can see, me and my Self have a tense relationship. We're in therapy. It's working out. For now.)

** Sigh. No, there aren't actually any rabid goats or perms in this manuscript. For exemplary purposes only, folks. Sorry :(

Teaser Tuesday: Highborn by Yvonne Navarro

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading:

1) Grab your current read.
2) Open to a random page.
3) Share at least two 'teaser' sentences from that page -- no spoilers, please!
4) Share the title and author so others can add it to their TBR if they like the teasers.

Basically, it's another opportunity for me to pimp some cool books I've been reading. Sensing a theme here?

'I was looking for a friend of mine,' Brynna explained.


'Then ring the damned doorbell instead of hanging around like a hoodlum!'


'I don't know his last name," Brynna said without thinking.


'Then you're not much of a friend," the woman snapped back. 'You get out of here or I'm calling the police. This is a Neighborhood Watch area!'

--From page 17 of HIGHBORN by Yvonne Navarro.

Friday Fancies: Glimmerglass by Jenna Black

Sorry I'm a little late with Friday Fancies this week. I've been writing like a madwoman this week and worked myself into a stupor. But better late than never, and without further ado...

Friday Fancies is where I tell you all about a recent read I really liked, and then give you the chance to win a copy. Easy? Right.

This fortnight's Friday Fancy: GLIMMERGLASS by Jenna Black, first in her young adult Faerywalker series.

What it's like: a cool mix of faeries and the real world. There's a faery world that you can visit via immigration and passport control (cool, eh?) in a place called Avalon, where the human and faery worlds intersect. The heroine's dad is some kind of big-time faery dude in Avalon (and she ALREADY KNOWS THIS, folks!! It's not a 'OMG I am a FAERY!?!' book) and she runs away from her unlivable-with mother to stay with him. Warring faery hijinks ensue.

Why it's cool: did I mention it's not a lame big reveal? I mean, yeah, there are secrets to be uncovered, but the author has done so much more with them than dump them in your lap and expect you to be gobsmacked.

The heroine is gutsy. There's no mooning around or whining. The adult characters are more than plot-convenient ciphers. And the guys (it's  more a romantic elements than a romance) are interesting as well as hot. Yay! What's more, they don't inexplicably fall for a heroine who would be about as fascinating to them as a mosquito. They all actually talk to each other. Real relationships in a fantasy YA, folks. Can I recommend this any more?

If you're a writer: see above. All that whiny, annoying, unbelievable stuff that drives you insane about YA fantasy? This book doesn't do any of it. The characters' emotions are never allowed to follow plot-convenient lines just because. Also, the 'infodump' parts are really well handled -- there's a lot of explaining to do about Avalon and how the two worlds intersect, and it's never boring or obvious.

Right. Wanna win a paperback copy of this awesome book? Of course you do. Just leave me a comment here, follow this blog, tweet me something nice, etc.. Christmas is coming, you know, so let's all make friends while we still can.

I'll choose a winner at random. Giveaway closes midnight east coast US time next Thursday, 23 December. If you live where the Book Depository ships, you can win.

So you tell me: Do you like books about faeries? What are some of your favourites?

Last day to vote for the Bookie Awards!

A quick shout-out: the Bookie Awards are run by the good folks at the Authors After Dark romance readers convention.

They're nominated and voted for by readers and have categories for almost everything in romance, from BDSM Short Story and GLBT to Historical Romance and Paranormal.

You can see the list of nominees for this year's Bookies here.

And the polls for voting are here. Voting closes today, 15 December.

So go along and vote for your favourites! We need more reader-judged awards.

And if you care to, you can vote for me in the very first poll :) I'm stoked to be up for Debut Author of the Year! So if you enjoy my books, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Teaser Tuesday: Deathwish by Rob Thurman

WIthout further ado, welcome to Teaser Tuesday.

This is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading:

1) Grab your current read.
2) Open to a random page
3) Share at least two 'teaser' sentences from that page -- no spoilers, please!
4) share the title and author so others can add it to their TBR if they like the teasers.

"Being wise is a burden." There was sympathy in my voice that I didn't bother to hide.

"Being a smart-ass moron is no cakewalk either," Cal retorted.

"So true," I offered dryly. "Yet you struggle on."

--From page 37 of DEATHWISH by Rob Thurman





And, the obligatory self-pimpage :)

Kane smiles, childlike, his black eyes swirling green. "You looked, didn't you? I warned you."

Indigo clenches steely teeth in denial. Maybe he's peeked into the glass, drawn by the shimmering silver surface. Wouldn't be the first time. He's a fairy. he likes shiny things. So what? That was days ago. Nothing's happened. Has it?

--From page 13 of SHADOWGLASS, by me :)



Hope you enjoyed today's teasers. Got any of your own?

How do I want thee? The many faces of insta-lust

Been doing research. You know, the kind that involves reading lots of cool novels. Specifically, I've been looking at insta-lust. The kind of book where the characters are shagging by chapter two, or even chapter one if they're really into it. Why? Because I'm writing a book like that, and I want to see how other authors do it.

That's what authors do, see. We copy. But in the nicest, most imaginative way possible.

So. Insta-lust, it seems to me, comes in several forms, with varying orders of lameness. Because, hey, on the whole, normal people don't walk up to total strangers and start having sex with them. As authors, we have to motivate this strange behaviour. Here, for your edification, are some justifications I found:

1) We're under a spell, goddamn it.
This is a good one when you're doing paranormals. It's magic, folks!

"A curse! Dang it! If I don't shag you right now, my head will explode/a demon will burst from hell and devour me/my dick will shrivel up and fall off!!"

Or alternatively: it's an arousal spell. "Gosh, I'm so damn horny! Oy! You there! Assume the position!"

Lame factor: I'd say 6 out of 10. This can work really well, or it can be totally pathetic.

2) Me caveman. You my destined mate. Ugh.
"Honey, we're fated to be together. Let's have sex, even though we each think the other is a total dweeb... Ooh, actually, this isn't too bad."

Or, alternatively: "You are totally hot. But we cannot be destined mates, because that would be, like, totally uncool. What? You mean it's TWUE? Aargh! My destined mate is rich, immortal and totally gorgeous with a ten-inch {redacted}!!! Oh, noes!!! I WILL not accept my FATE! Bugger off, dickwad!" etc. etc. until they finally give in six iterations later and do the deed, which of course is multi-orgasmic and awesome because, after all, they're destined mates.

Squirm. Some authors make a really good living writing destined mate stories. I can take them or leave them. But on the odd occasion, they can float my boat.

Lame factor: 8 out of 10.

3) Someone else made me horny, but I guess you'll do.
This is when a character is on the rebound from some past lover and just has to get their rocks off with anything that raises their pulse. Then, of course, they fall in lurve and spend the rest of the book trying to convince the other that it meant something.

Alternatively, the revenge shag. "THIS will teach that cheating bastard. Come here, you hot but obviously vapid stud who can't possibly be good for anything but a one-night stand... Oh. OMG. More! Harder!"

I actually quite like the revenge-shag-that-backfires (snigger). I guess I like watching characters squirm.

Lame factor: low. Maybe 4 out of 10.

So what do you think of insta-lust? Yay or nay? What's your favourite/least favourite kind?

Eve Silver giveaway winner

Without further ado:

the winner (randomly chosen) of last Friday's giveaway is...

Chrizette!!!

Yay! Congrats! Chrizette's won a book from Eve Silver's awesome Otherkin Series. 

Thanks for playing, everyone! And be sure to return next Friday for another Friday Fancy.