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This blog is the often amusing, sometimes dangerous den of two British writers of contemporary and paranormal romance, and urban fantasy. Most of our stories are based in the UK and our heroes and heroines are passionate Brits - yes, passionate Brits exist! Come on in out of the cold, pull up a chair and see for yourself...

Monday 17 February 2014

I am not a planner

I am not a planner. Now, when I say a planner I mean to the extent that I have every single detail mapped out on a project. I know a lot of authors who do plan, and sure, plans change as you dive into a world and start writing a story, but a lot of writers have guidelines . . . I am a very bad improviser.

Usually, I will get an idea in the form of a scene. One of the characters will come to me; they are vivid, and bold, and they give me a segment to wet my appetite. I know the general details on them, but that’s it. I pretty much dive right on in and figure it out as I go.

So far this silly approach of mine has worked, but with my latest WIP I find I am somewhat torn. I’m going in to the realms of fantasy, and I am creating a whole new world. I’m sure a lot of writers may have already taken this adventure in one particular genre or another, but this is new to me; fantasy, and creating an entire universe from scratch is very new to me.

I’m excited – of course I am – because this world is one that I have had hidden in my slush pile folder for the last seven years, but I will admit I am a little overwhelmed; there feels like there is too much to know and create in such a short amount of time.

My plan was to solely concentrate on my Blood Series this year. I have finished reading through She-Wolf – which is with my editor – and Cranberry Blood, and I was originally going to dive right in to planning the next book, but then I saw the most fabulous submission call, and I just couldn’t ignore it.

Decadent Publishing have a new series called “Beyond Fairytales,” where the author is assigned a Grimm tale and has to re-vamp it in their chosen genre.

Now, I could have ignored it, but I was too intrigued. I also could have made things very easy for myself and picked a genre I had already played in before, but when I got my assigned tale I just knew I had to go fantasy with it. I usually don’t apply for things that have a time limit, for many reasons which I won’t go in to, and because if I don’t make it I will kick myself. But still, I found myself signing up any way. So, needless to say this project is a huge challenge for me.

Jumping back to feeling excited . . . I am. I have snips. I have already met four of the characters they are an interesting bunch. I have a very rough sketch of how the world is and the inhabitants you will find there. I know magic is going to play a huge part, and I have been lucky enough to get a tale where I could really do anything with it . . .

Now I’m stuck. Not in a way where I am clueless, because despite the fact that I don’t plan I have had to do the above. I have had to figure some details out; write some guidelines. After I drew my map of the world – yes, I actually drew a map. It’s rough, but it’s a start – I found myself sitting there and thinking, “well, I can’t do any more than this until I get inside this world and see where I am lead.”

So, it is now time for me to get my panster-ness on and see what these characters want to show me. I have no idea what’s going to happen. I will openly admit that since Fantasy is new to me that I have no idea if I can pull it off successfully, but I am going to damn well try, and naturally, I will keep you updated with my progress. J

For those of you who have read the Blood Series and are waiting for the next book, I will definitely be working on that next, and I plan to have She-Wolf and Cranberry Blood re-released by this summer, 2014.

Wish me luck! 

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