Plot Monkeys

Yesterday, I finished a marathon.

I won a gold medal.

I received the Nobel Peace Prize…and I had all the laundry done, the kitchen clean and the toilets sparkled.

Okay, that last part isn’t true. Well, none of it is true.

But I did finish my book!

And trust me, there were many victory laps around the house. And dancing. Lots and lots of dancing. I don’t think there was any music in the house, but it was playing loud in my head!

Something along the lines of “Ding, dong the witch is dead!”

No, I didn’t kill my witch heroine…though at times, I really, really wanted to.

The creative process is a fascinating thing and even though I’ve been writing seriously since 1987, I haven’t figured it out. I think at one time or another, all of the Plotmonkeys have ruminated over the difficulties and the joys of writing. We spend a lot of time when we go on our plotting weekends talking about not just the stories themselves, but the process. And no matter how long of us have all been doing this, no matter how many books we’ve written, every book is a different journey.

This book has been particularly hellish for me, truth be told, and I don’t have enough distance from the story yet to be able to figure out why. A huge part of the problem–if not all of it–had nothing to do with the book itself, but with the things going on in my life and career while I was trying to write it, the largest part being the uncertainty about my Marisela series, my editor leaving, my publisher and I parting ways and the search for a new publisher. All writers go through these ups and downs–trust me, I’m not begging for sympathy for here! It’s just the reality.

Now, keep in mind that nobody’s life is ever perfect. We all have to do our jobs while the stress and pressure of every day life bears down on us. Trust me, I’m completely aware of this truth. Sometimes, writing books can be a wonderful distraction, a safe haven from life. I can control the characters, tell them what to do, bend them to my will.

But then some books come along that will not be controlled, will not listen to me and fight against my will.

This wasn’t one of those books. I wish it would have been because that particular problem I’ve dealt with before. But nooooooo. This book was different.

And frankly, I’m still not sure what the trouble was overall. Once I got into the book, certain parts sped out of my fingers. Other parts I struggled with. One issue that did crop up is when I write my single title books, like my Marisela books, I can go off on tangents and work them back into the plot so that everything is smooth and related. When I’m writing a Blaze, something I admittedly haven’t done in a while, I have to focus on the romance. That can be a problem when you have cool witches running around, in addition to evil warlocks. I wanted magic! Action! Exploding balls of magic fire and spells and wands and…well, you get the idea.

But this is a BLAZE. It’s about the romance. Not that it’s a bad thing…but emotional stories are HARD.

Boy, do I sound like a whiner or what?

All in all, I’m happy with the final outcome. The last chapter has lots of action, exploding balls of magic fire and all the stuff that literally fires me up. The rest of the book has a romance that turned out to be very sweet, very poignant and very fun and sexy, too. Give me a few weeks, and I’ll love the book. Unlike Leslie, I never love my books until a long time after they’re done–usually right before they are released after all the revisions, line edits, copy edits, galleys and such are done. After all the work is done. After the readers start writing in and telling me how much they enjoy the story. Trust me when I tell you that every kind word an author hears from a reader is pure gold. I’m going to need a lot of that come August 2007…and trust me, I’ll remind you all!

Anyway, I’m off now to spend a day catching up on all the things I’ve let fall by the wayside. Things like, oh, CHRISTMAS SHOPPING and baking and spending time with my family. I’m probably going to grab all my nieces and nephews and take them all to the movies. Eragon. A Night At The Museum. Charlotte’s Web. I don’t care! I’m free, I’m free!

For at least two weeks…and then, it’s back to my witching world.

Until then…let’s party!!!!!