CBTM Chapter 5 Done

Even though in my personal life today was a crappy day I did manage to nearly finish chapter 5. So far it is a little over 3000 words when I was hoping for 4000. But a chapter must end at the logical conclusion, not at a certian number of words. I still plan to flesh out the chapter a little more. And maybe add a little drama to the very end- like he stalker coming after them.
Chapter one was a dramatic page turner imo.
Chapter two allie and spencer were apart the whole chapter. It had to be done though. She was recovering in the hospital and they weren't on good enough terms for him to hang out at her bedside. He thought of her every second in his part of chapter two and she thought of him and her stalker in her part.
Chapter three was exciting again. They get back together and their is a explosion and a gun and a kiss. All good stuff for a romantic suspense novel.
Chapter four was used to move the story along and set up the next act.
Chapter five was slow again. Talking mostly and planning, another kiss. So now I need to kick everything up a notch. what horrible event should I throw at spencer and allie now?

CBTM Back of the Book Blurb?

Here is my first effort to write a back of a book blurb for my WIP story Come Back to Me.


Allie Cook has spent years running away from a stalker. He has chased her all over the country. She even left her fiancee the day before their wedding when the stalker threatened him.
Spencer Roark spent the three years since Allie left him becoming a powerful businessman. He gave up on the idea of ever seeing his ex-fiancee again.
When Allie gets amnesia and thinks it is the day before her wedding to Spencer they are thrown together again in a race to outrun her stalker. Can they leave the worst parts of their past behind and salvage the best part for a future together?

Writing Round Robin

The yahoo group I belong to for aspiring romance writers is now doing a writing round robin. Each member takes a letter from the alphabet and writes the next paragragh in the story starting with that letter. The first paragragh starts with A, the next person starts theirs with B. It has been interesting so far to see everyones different writing styles. I worry about exposing how much of a newbie I am but the only way I can get better is with practice and critique. Hiding my work away under my bed won't make my writing any better.

Chugging along

I have finished Chapter Four and I am 2000 words into Chapter Five. Writing a novel is definetly a marathon event. The novella's I wrote before were much easier, but of course they were never meant for publication. Anyway I am liking this draft a lot more than the last draft. Hopefully I can keep up my pace of 5-10 pages a day. I also came up with the working title for Jackson's Story- it has the word spy in it , even though he is a private eye. I came up with it during a jackson/spencer scene in come back to me. jackson said something to spencer describing the way jackson sees himslef- not as a hero but as a spy and the title was born.

Writing chapter four CBTM

I am 1020 words into chapter four with a goal of around 4000 words. This has been my writing process so far. I sat down and started scene 1 of chapter four and tried to figure out where spencer and allie should go to hide from her stalker, regroup and plan a way to get the stalker arrested. I wrote the scene a couple of ways, with them heading to a hotel or to a cabin, before I decided on a location for them to go. Then during my next writing session I wrote the first paragraghs of the scene. It is hardest for me to get into the scene. Once I am in the words flow easier. I put away my writing for that day and let the idea of what I wanted said during that scene marinate in my mind. During my next writing session I finished the scene. Now I have started the next scene and I am trying to figure out where to go with it. It is a rather tricky scene because Allie is completely alone and has no one to talk to. I don't want the scene to be boring. I am thinking about having a flashback.

Jackson's Story

Spencers brother in Come back to Me is named Jackson Roark. Four years younger than spencer he is a playboy private eye. I love his voice. I plan to one day write a novel featuring his love story. I have no idea what that backdrop to him finding his soulmate will be but I know I want to spend more time with him. I had to cut some lines of his and watch how much I let him come out and play in Come Back To Me because I don't want him taking over the story. And I don't want him looking better than Spencer, they are very different but equally attractive and capable.

That song reminds me

I heard Three doors down song Let me Go and it reminded me of my WIP, come back to me. I could see Allie saying the words of that song to spencer.

Misconceptions

A lot of people have misconceptions about romance novels. My mother is one of those people. She supports my dream to one day be a published writer but she thinks writing a Harlequin is easy. She said once I wrote the first one all I have to do is change the occpuations and name of the characters and I can crank out another one. The plots are all the same to her. As if! Of course she hasn't read a harlequin since the seventies.

A new track

I am on the last scene in Chapter three now. There are three scenes in this chapter. I am at the point where the story firmly diverges from the previous draft.

In draft one when Allie leaves the hospital spencer takes her back to his place. There is one good scene where the villan leaves a disturbing message, a knife stuck in a picture of spencers face on the dining room table. But after that the story went into dullville.

In Draft two, what I am working on now, allie and spencer instead are almost blown up when spencers SUV explodes. Then they head off to find a gun to protect themselves from the villan. I think this version is a lot more interesting. I may still take them back to his place and throw in the previously described scene where they realize the villan has been inside the apartment. Then I will get them right back out of there again and on the run. In Draft one I had them stay there and sleep together.

update on latest draft

I am 60 typed double spaced pages into my latest draft of Come Back to me. I have added a scene and edited the rest. I am not yet up to the part where the story really goes off track yet. I am one scene into chapter three at this point. I am not completely thrilled with this latest draft but that is just my nature. Always to go back and tweak something and never getting to the end of the story because of that.

Too many POVs?

In chapter one of Come Back to Me I am worried about if I change points of view too many times. There are four scene breaks. The first scene is Spencers POV. It has to start with him because Allie is unconscious. Line Break and it switches Allie waking up. Spencer is in the room with her but the scene is her point of view. Then Spencer walks out of the room. When he comes back it there is a line break and it goes to his point of view. He has a flashback while staring at Allie , who is pretending to be asleep. Then there is a line break and it goes to her point of view. She admits she is awake. They have a talk and then the chapter is over. I am thinking I should try to stick to one half of a chapter in Spencers point of view and
one half in allies but I don't know if that is right either.

Counting on me

To anyone reading this blog there should be no doubt that I am struggling to complete my current WIP. I think often of giving it up and starting a new project I could be more excited about. But lately I have been feeling like I can not abandon Spence and Allie. They are becoming more real to me. I created them and I cannot just leave them hanging. If I don't find a way to tell this story, allie will never get free of her stalker and Spencer will never soothe his bitter heart. They are counting on me for their Happily ever after. Somehow I have to get the words on the page that give them that.

prologue?

I am thinking of writing a prologue to Come back to Me. In it I would show when Allie's parents are killed by her stalker and how Allie fled her city and went on the run. I am not sure if the novel really needs this or not though.

CBTM Chapter 2 Edit

Today while typing it up I started editing Chapter 2 of Come back to Me .
I always write by hand the first draft. I need pen to paper to make the muse appear.
Come Back to Me is the love story of Spencer and Allie.
The first scene in Chapter 2 introduces Spencers younger brother to the story. Jackson Roark is a private eye so he will be helping Spencer, a business man, investigate Allies past. I find that I like Jackson much more than Spencer. Jackson is a sexy smart aleck playboy type. Spencer is a more settled down, consumed with work business mogul. Plus he is damn bitter that Allie left him three years before. Of course he doesn't know why she left. That's what this story is all about.

1st Draft of Synopsis and Outline

I did write out a first draft of a synopsis and outline for Come Back to Me. It is very rough. Not at all in a professional form. But I was thriled to get it done. It helped me hammer out some ideas on what I would write for the middle and end of the story. The way I write is not to follow a outline so I will have to wait and see if the story turns out the way I wrote in the synosis and outline.

CBTM Chapter 1

I have decided to start back at the beginning of CBTM and re-write it so that I can fix where it went off-track. I have now fixed Chapter One to my satisfaction, for now.I submitted it to my critique group so we will see what they say. I know it will show them how much of a beginner I am but I have to start somewhere. Chapter 1 is posted at my msn group under sara's story.

MSN Responds

Okay I am no longer pissed at MSN. They responded to my email right away and said that it could take up to 120 days to have my group added to the listings. So I guess it is a waiting game now. I feel like a squirrel, posting away at a site all by my lonesome, storing away posts for members to read one day.

So what do you think?

Now that I am posting my work online I open myself up to the inevitable opinions I will receive about what others think of my writing. I tell myself I can take it. even if my writing is called the worst dreck anyone has ever read. I can take it, right? sigh. probably not. It will hurt like hell I am sure. But I know I am a true beginner right now and it will take years to improve my craft. Everything I don't know I can learn.

Pissed at Msn groups listings

I started a msn group called aspiring romance writers.

AspiringRomanceWriters@groups.msn.com

It is the reason I started this blog. I was hoping other aspiring romance writers would read this blog and join my group. Well it's been about a month since I started the group and it is not showing up in the msn listings. I found a email address to email msn groups and ask them why.

I hope it will show up soon. No one has joined my group yet. I know it is because it may as well be invisble since it does not show up in the listings.

wanna join?

http://groups.msn.com/AspiringRomanceWriters/general.msnw?action=get_threads&all_topics=0

Pantser VS. Plotter

Reading How to books lately I have discovered that writers can fall into two categories. the plotter or the pantser. The plotter carefully plots, sometimes in great detial, thier novel before they start writing. The panster writes by the seat of thier pants. I am a pantser for sure.
I have realized about myself that I have plenty of ideas, or premises, for novels but when I start writing I don't know how the story will go. I have no clue what the ending will be. I think that is whay I keep starting novels and not finishing them , Once I get through the first third I have writtern all I know about what I planned to put in the book. And that is where I become lost as to where to take the story and at what pace.
In Come Back to Me , my current WIP which is stuck at chapter 10, I like the beginning. I have the hero rush to the hospital because the heroine has been in a car accident. I wrote how he felt when he got to the hospital and how he felt when he first saw her. And how she felt when she woke up and saw him. And how she felt about having amnesia and not remembering the last three years. Once he leaves the hospital I start to lose my way in the story.
I introduce some supporting characters and tell some backstory. Then it is time to throw the hero and heroine together again. From that point on all they seem to do is fight. And half the time she is either plotting to run away from him or crying. WTF? I wrote it and I even I am thinking WTF! this novel is meant to be romantic suspense.
But I wouldn't call what I have written too romantic so far!
So today I read a website that was talking about How to write a novel and it said to write a 5-20 page synopsis. That threw me for a loop.
I write a one page summary of the story, one page on each main character, and a few lines setting and who the supporting characters are- and thats it before I get started.
To write even 5 pages on what my story is about seems impossible. I could 5 pages on the backstory of my characters - maybe. But on what the novel will cover? I haven't ever tried that cause I don't know ahead of time what will happen. So I think I will try writing a 5 page synopsis on Come Back to Me and see if that helps to get the story back on track.
I don't think I'll ever be a plotter but I do think this panster needs some kind of kick start.

Dreaming about Writing

When I was ten years old I discovered I was a writer. I say I was a writer, not that I wanted to be a writer, because I feel I was a writer from the moment I was born and just stumbled upon the fact at ten years old.
I wrote a short story for a school assingment and I just knew. Yes, this was what I was meant to do. So I did. I wrote on and off for years.
As I mentioned before in 2001 I was working on my current WIP, a novel called Come Back to Me. But I hit a brick wall with it, life got in the way and I didn't write much at all for the last four years.
Then one night in early 2005 I happen to go to one of my links in my favorites, eharlequin.com. I had joined years early and posted for a while on the Learn To Write Board. Reading through the messages again I was inspired to pull out my old Works - in- progress and get back to what I love.
Now I am so engrossed in writing again I am dreaming about it at night. Last night I dreamt I became a published author and everywhere I went people were begging me to read thier unpublished manuscripts. I was beating them off with a stick practically. I ran home and thought I was safe. Then I got a phone call. It was my aunt. She said she wanted to read me her unpublished manuscript. She started reading but I couldn't hear a word she was saying, it sounded like she was a millon miles away. I kept saying "I can't hear you!" and she kept starting over. What I could hear was awful and I didn't know how to tell her that. I was panicked. I asked her to mail it to me and slammed down the phone. The strangest thing is that in real life my aunt has never once said she wants to write a novel. I guess my dream was born out of all the stuff I am reading on the internet about the journey writers go on from being unpublished to published.

Major Rewrites

I just can not continue on with finishing Come Back to Me at this point. The story went off track somewhere around the fourth chapter and I need to go back and fix that before I can write the ending. I was trying to just force myself to finish this WIP, that I started in 2001, and then do a total rewrite. But there is no way I can. Back to the drawing board!

writing exercises

I have started working on a writing exercise. It is helping me to learn how to write romantic suspense. Although this writing exercise is not anything I can ever hope to publish it is another step in the right direction towards improving my craft.

Stuck

I really want to finish Come Back to me before I start working on anything else but I am stuck. I tell myself to just finish it by any means neccesary but I can not seem to get the words down on paper.