moving slowly..

[erastes]

The WIP (still tentatively called Gentleman of Fortune, but I'm still not sold on it) is moving. It's treacle rather than a torrent, but I'm choosing to ignore you lovely productive people who are doing thousands of words a day. You will not intimidate me!! I did 500 words today, and I'll try and keep that pace until I find I'm writing more.

I'm feeling my way tentatively because with this I really have no idea where it's going. With Mere Mortals, Muffled Drum and even with the stalled I Knew Him, I had a theme and a general clue of the outcome—but with this I don't have a flipping clue, it's like I'm chipping away at a marble slab—knowing (or rather hoping) that there's a winged angel in there somewhere, but worrying that I might chip the wrong bit away and it will all collapse.

That's a bit of an OTT description, I know but it's the best way to describe it…

Part of it perhaps is I'm teetering on the non-romance edge. If any of my books is likely to warrant a sequel or a series it could be this one. Yes I know how mad that sounds considering I don't even know what's going to happen in the latter part of chapter four. And I don't want to write a romance series—I'd rather write this guy having adventures, and his being gay is just part of this life.Can't really say it will be mainstream, because it'll have some other label stuck on it like mystery or crime or even alternative lifestyle!!

There's a few anthologies I'd like to submit to, too. It's just a shame I'm feeling such aversion to getting my head down and working.

Comments

[chris-smith-atr.livejournal.com]

Title: "The Saga of Prince Schmoopy McBeefy Biscuit", volume 1 episode i

You know you want to. ALL HAIL THE GREAT PRINCE SCHMOOPY.

[aunty_marion]

If there's a winged angel in there ... Don't Blink.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

LOL- good point!

[oceankitty1.livejournal.com]

Well, good for you! Writing should be joyful. Don't worry about the romance part. So the guy is gay. He probably has sex at some point, we all do, but for me it's more about the story than the hanky panky. I think I would read anything you write, even if you leave some of the more graphic stuff out.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That's very kind of you. :D I think I'll do as you suggest and go with my gut!

[lawless523.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about chipping away at a marble slab, except that's generally how I write even when I know what I want to say because it can be hard to find the right words to express or describe what the characters see, hear, or feel. Since I've only written fanfiction, I can't say if that would change if I were doing original writing, though I'd probably have a better sense of plot if I were writing original fiction.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean--when I was writing fanfiction I'd just write a story about feelings or a scene that occured to me, I never had to think about commercial aspects...

You should give it a try.. tempts.

[lawless523.livejournal.com]

I intend to. Amber Allure has an open call due 9/1; I'm kicking around ideas with my beta.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

One thing I'm finding intensely freeing about the short story project I've got going on (and with Searching for Julia come to think of it) is that there's no requirement for romance. Some of the short stories have a romance in them, and ...Julia has a romance subplot, but it's not the focus. Of course I still have to revise the novel and start submitting it to people, but at least there's a pretty good chance of the short stories making it out there in the near future.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that many of the people I know are pulling away from romance, at least I'll have company out there! good luck!

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Thanks. My current short story has a very low-key friendship between two people whose partners have died. It may develop into more, but when one of them is told that the other makes a habit of having flings with summer visitors, her first thought is 'good on him' rather than any standard romance novel jealousy (a little bit of envy maybe, that she hasn't moved on enough to play with summer visitors herself, but that's different).

But really it's all about the fairies and the scenery.

[jl_merrow]

I'm having the same problem with Feathers - it's the sort of thing I really have to get into to write (why did I think it'd be fun to make my 1st person narrator as unlike me as possible? Why?) so it's stop-starting all over the place.

And the romance - well, I've written part of a sex scene, and it mostly consists of my narrator telling the other guy he's not in love with him, and being turned off by the guy's scars...

Meanwhile my muse keeps seeing anthology calls and going "Ooh! Shiny!"

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It worries me, really. Why am I so self destructive that I want to pull away from a genre that's growing and risk never selling books again! LOL.

Good luck with feathers, dear.