Writing Process Blog Hop

Last week when Donna Cummings invited me to participate in the writing process blog hop I couldn't resist.   I'm posting my answers a little early (Monday was to be the day), but since I already modified the "rules" a bit, I figured one more little change wouldn't hurt.  My other little change is that I'm afraid my "hop" kind of stops here.  I didn't round up another writer or two for the next hop, but you can always hop on over to Donna's blog!

1.  What am I working on?

I’m currently working on a contemporary paranormal romance novel called Ghost of a Promise that I hope to release this summer.  I think my influences for this story are loosely the movies Ghost and It’s a Wonderful Life.  Those favorites are both memorable as being told from the hero’s perspective and I was drawn to do the same with Ben, my ghostly hero.  My cover will be revealed within the next few weeks, so I’m excited about that! 

In between the fiction writing, I’m often immersed in tidbits of historical research.  Of course, you probably think I have to say that…but it’s true!

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

I think my stories have a mix of tragedy and comedy that somehow works together.  I don’t entirely set out to write this combination, but it tends to happen that way.

3.  Why do I write what I do?

I don’t think I knew how to answer this until I answered the preceding question.  I think I write what I do because I want something a little different from what I’ve read.  For instance, I’ve always imagined a happy ending for the often tragic endings found in classic literature short stories.  Of course, this goes for life as well.  I write to change and embellish the ordinary. 

4.  How does your writing process work?

Ah, that is a changeable thing.  I don’t really think about the process too much when I’m in the early stages of a story.  It’s just not necessary, right?  But that won’t last!  Somewhere around the halfway point, if not before, I’ll start to think about how I need to organize my mess.  At this point, I start to panic and feel like my plot is a maze.  But I don’t think I could have done it any differently, which is hard to accept.  At this stage, I alternate between thinking I have a lot to work with (on a good day) and I will never fix this (on a bad day). 

So, after the euphoria of a brilliant idea has somewhat settled and during the bulk of writing the story -- and through the starts and stops of being a writer with a day job -- I eventually come to appreciate having a plan of action in place for when I can resume writing.  Okay, to be honest, it comes down to finding ways to trick myself into believing I have an easy task ahead of me.  So basically my writing process involves finding ways to pre-empt the fear of what’s next?  To do this, I’ve come around to thinking I need to have prepared at least two things; 1) I need to have identified small chunks of what’s left to do and 2) I need to feel like I have options, which simply means multiple small chunks to choose from.  That’s about it.  Because I know me.  If I don’t have small tasks, the thought of the whole project will send me running the other way.  Likewise, since I’m not a very linear writer, I know I won’t stand for being told exactly what to do! 

And recently I started using the writing software I stumbled upon called yWrite.  So far, this is helping in many ways.  More on this in a future post!