Blogfest 2009

I’ve done a lot of series work, so I’m going to apply this question to series specifically. I think it’s much easier writing the first book of a series than it is to write the subsequent books. It’s a lot of work, don’t get me wrong, because in the first book you’re creating a whole new world and all these new characters and figuring out how they feel and how they talk and how they interact. But to me, that’s the fun part. Digging really deep and making things up from scratch is incredibly challenging, but so entertaining, too. The books that follow are more difficult in a way because not only do you have to adhere to all the rules you made up in the first book (you can’t, for example, suddenly have the lead female living next door to the lead male when they used to live across town from one another, just because it suits your needs), but you have to keep it fresh and interesting. You don’t want to get bored writing it and you don’t want your readers to get bored reading it! I definitely find the first book easier to write.

It depends on the book, but since I’m on a tight schedule with my series work, I have a kind of system that works for me. The first thing I do in the morning is read over and edit the scenes/chapters I wrote the day before. This helps me wake up my brain, reminds me of where I am and where I’m supposed to go next, and gives me time to punch up what I’ve already written. Then I jump into the scenes I’m supposed to write that day and read those over the following morning and so on . . . . Once the entire first draft is done, I leave it alone for a few days to give my brain time to refresh, then I read it all over again as one with a clear head and a fresh eye. At this stage I often end up moving scenes around, deleting or adding, because I realize something is missing or that the story is repetitive or confusing. Once that draft is done (I call it my “final first”), it goes to my editor and he or she makes comments. Then I work on it again and send it back. Usually, that’s the last time I see it, unless there are a final few questions to answer. I try to be as clean as I possibly can with my earlier drafts because we don’t have a lot of time between starting the book and publishing it. That’s just the way the series thing works! When I’m working on a book that has a bit more time built in, there are usually a couple more drafts between the first final and the final final, but generally the process is the same. I usually go with my first instincts and don’t give myself a whole lot of room for second-guessing, or re-plotting, because if I did I’d probably drive myself crazy and never get anything done.

When I was in first grade I wrote a short story about a box of animal crackers that came to life and ran all over the kitchen and took a swim in a glass of milk. It was published in the school paper. It was about six sentences long. The first book I ever wrote was titled “Trust Me” and it was part of a series called Love Stories. It was the story of a girl whose boyfriend cheats on her and breaks her heart. Then, when she meets a great guy, she has major trust issues and always thinks he’s lying or sneaking off to meet another girl. She even sets him up to meet one of her hot friends to see if he asks her out. He passes the tests, of course, but he finds out what she’s doing and they have a huge fight before finally reconciling in the end. It was interesting for me to write because at the time I was in a relationship that wasn’t exactly full of trust. It kind of helped me realize that I needed to end it because it wasn’t healthy walking around being paranoid all the time. So I did, and the next guy I met was my future husband! See how writing can affect your life?