Writing Diary Entry #5
Well, I don’t feel like it has been a very productive week …
June 29 – July 5
Trouble with Men Series book #3 – words written: 3253
I struggled pretty much the entire week. Since I really don’t know anything about the end of my book yet, it’s trial and error. This week had me wondering “How do I get through these rough drafts?” But from past experiences, I know I will eventually get to The End. Yesterday, was my turn to blog at Soul Mate Publishing’s Blog, so I used it as an opportunity to remind myself of the writing weapons I have to fight and win. En garde rough draft!!
YA Fairy Tale Inspired – time spent: 0 hours
Sorry backburner story … maybe this is your week. (Shhh – probably not)
The Trouble with Scarecrows (book 2 Trouble with Men series) Time spent: around 4 hours
I’ve made it through the entire manuscript and fixed all the easy changes my editor pointed out, so now I’m looking over the notes that were sent for some bigger issues, plus my own notes.
Love and Laughter,
Dorlana
Read more about Trouble with Men series here!
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Writing Diary Entry #4
June 22 – June 28
This week went to book 3 of my series. And I didn’t actually have a chance to write on it at the end of the week. I didn’t work on the fairy tale at all, and it doesn’t look good for this week either. I received some edits back from my editor, and so that will also go on this list – (it will also be measured as time spent.) So since this isn’t just a rough draft diary entry any longer, I will have a new title for these posts.
Trouble with Men Series book #3 – words written: 4283
What I find interesting about this book (and book 2) is that it wouldn’t exist without The Trouble with Snowmen. The main female character was only mentioned in Snowmen (book 1) and the main male character has a minor role in The Trouble with Scarecrows (book 2) When I created their characters in the other books I didn’t know they would be the hero and heroine in this book. But while brainstorming they ended up being perfect opposites (which is the Tropes for the series) I’m not a pre-book character profiler – that’s work – yuck, and I have to get them into situations before I know how they will react. I’m over 12k in the book and have learned a lot about them. It has still been somewhat frustrating but I have to remember that frustration is a writer’s BFF. The story also took an unexpected turn. And now I have a few chapters that I have ideas for, which is always good.
YA Fairy Tale Inspired – time spent – 0 hours
Sorry backburner story ….
The Trouble with Scarecrows (book 2 Trouble with Men series) Time spent – 2 hours
I read over the notes and started working on edits for chapter 1 – I have some of my own changes also that I have been comparing with what edits were sent to me.
Love and Laughter,
Dorlana
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Cover Reveal: The Trouble with Snowmen
I am super excited to share the cover for my upcoming romantic comedy, THE TROUBLE WITH SNOWMEN (Trouble with Men series book 1). It will be available in eBook August 2015 (Soul Mate Publishing) the print book to follow (date TBA).
Here’s what it is all about:
A case of mistaken identity sets the stage for opposites to attract in my new contemporary romance. Add a large scoop of humor and a pinch of paranormal and you get:
The Trouble with Snowmen
by Dorlana Vann
Snowmen drift into your life like they were sent from above. The relationship is great, rolls right along, and builds. Everything seems perfect … until a little heat is introduced. Then they melt, leaving only their hat, their scarf, something to remind their victims of what they’d lost.
Urban cowgirl Haley Monroe is told that the fabulously hot guy who just dumped her was a snowman. Her friend, Maximilian, convinces her that the only way she’ll ever stop being played by snowmen is to become one. It takes a lot of drinks to work up the nerve, but Haley gets her sexy on and goes on the prowl.
Famous horror author Larry White drops everything to attend a midnight séance at Maximilian’s apartment where he meets Haley. By the way she’s dressed—and just propositioned him—he assumes she’s a hooker. Larry can’t pass up the chance to get inside her head, especially since prostitution is the character’s occupation in his next book.
After spending the weekend together, unexpected sparks surprise both Haley and Larry. The trouble is Haley is dead-set on snowmanning the unkempt “starving artist” she met at the séance, and Larry doesn’t think he could have a real relationship with a woman with a past, so they go their separate ways.
The real fun begins when they meet again and find out neither one of them were who they thought they were. Can they reignite the flame? Or will they have a snowman’s chance in hell?
GO HERE if would like to join the mailing list for the series release dates (email will not be used for any other purpose) and to be in the drawing for a signed print book.
Love and Laughter,
Dorlana
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Rough Draft Diary Entry #3
June 15 – June 21
Not a lot of words written last week – but I feel I needed this time to get my thoughts together. So you can guess what my goal is for this week – type, type, type …
Trouble with Men Series book #3 – words written: 779
When I opened the file up on Tuesday I didn’t start writing, instead I went back to the very beginning and went over it – it helped to better describe my characters and to get in their heads from the very beginning again. So by the time I was finished for the day, I actually had three more scenes in my head. I also sent the first 2 chapter to my friend and critique partner (she’s read the first 2 books) – This was one of her comments: “There were several places that surprised a laugh out of me.” Which is awesome because I was worried about it being too heavy. Of course it wasn’t all sunshine, she also gave me some things to think about. So now I think I’m back on track (I really think taking a few days off of this book helped) – even though my word count is yuck.
YA Fairy Tale Inspired – words written: 1593
I finished the rough draft at 36713 words. It still has a long, long, long way to go but it is plotted and down on paper after a very long journey of it being my backburner story. To me, the rough draft is the most difficult part of writing, so I’m actually looking forward to the second phase of the book. Since my word count isn’t going to be the most important aspect of the second draft, “words written” above will be changed to “time spent” on my next entry.
Love and Laughter,
Dorlana
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Rough Draft Diary Entry #2
June 8 – June 14
As you see below, I kind of favored one book over the other last week.
Trouble with Men Series book #3 – words written: 807
Hopefully, I’ll get back to it sometime this week, but I have a final scene in the other book that I have to finish.
YA Fairy Tale Inspired – words written: 6,366
I’m on the final scene and hope to finish today or tomorrow – I ended up with a good word count even though I did a lot of cutting and starting over. At one point I cut 1800 words – yikes. So I’m at the end of this one – and yes it looks like the rough draft will be about 36000 words. But of course this is just the rough draft so it’s not final – So I don’t want to stop and work on the other just yet.
Love and Laughter,
Dorlana
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Rough Draft Diary Entry #1
So I decided to work on the rough drafts of two books at the same time. I do like being able to have another book to go to if I get stalled on the other – but they are so different that it’s a huge mindset change whenever I do go to the next book. This is how the first week went with each book.
Trouble with Men Series book #3 – words written May 31st – June 7th – 3821
This one has been tough so far. It’s like pushing through wet cement. I have a few major scenes I am working towards, but I have no clear plan of how my characters are going to get there, so I’m really winging-it right now. I have to keep in mind that I can sort it all out better once I get my character’s interacting (I’m still getting to know them.) and something on the page. It is a lot easier for me to see what to change one there is something to change.
YA Fairy Tale Inspired – words written May 31st – June 7th – 3946
This is the story I’ve been working on for years – I wrote a post about it here – I already have about half of the rough draft finished. I don’t know if that is why this one is going smoother or not. I guess I do know my character’s a lot better and I know how it is going to end, etc. I was able to give a description of three chapters in advance so when I got to the next chapter, I already knew where I wanted the story to go. One problem that I do see is that this might not even be a 50k word story. Most of my YA fairy tale stories tend to end up 35-40k – so IDK but I’m hoping.
Love and Laughter,
Dorlana
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Don’t Ignore your Inner Editor
(Writing advice I disagree with #1)
I believe NANOWRIMO made the advice to never go back and edit during your rough draft stage very popular. And, over the years, it seems to be one of the top items on everyone’s writing suggestions. Keep your focus forward – Don’t look back – Ignore your inner editor – Just get that word count!
A couple of days ago, I wrote the first 2011 words of my book. According to my progress graph (on the right side bar), I had completed 4% of my goal. But then I thought about where I needed this story to go. I’m not an outliner, but I do have major turning points/scenes of the book in my head. And the beginning that I had just written was not going to get me there. I had to go back and fix it.
I didn’t have to start at a blank page again, but I did have to rewrite a lot of it. And I probably rewrote at least 1500 words. But my word count didn’t go up that much. My new word count is 2394, which – according to the progress bar – is still 4%. No progress. But I disagree. If I would have pushed on, ignored my inner critic, I would have wasted a lot of time because my entire concept would have failed.
(Side Note – I have had success with the NaNo method. I wrote my two YA fairy tale inspired books this way. However, I have two other 50,000-word drafts that I haven’t touched because they are horrible messes. So for me, it worked half the time.)
So although you do have to have words to complete a novel, you can’t only judge your progress by your word count. And sometimes doing what is best for your book might not always agree with the advice of the masses.
Love and Laughter,
Dorlana
(More post on – Writing Advice I Disagree With – coming soon.)
Dorlana Vann - Author 