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Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Going With the Flow

One of the best pieces of advice I received on writing was that the process will change, and instead of fighting to do it the same way every time, I should go with how the story wants to be written.

This has turned out to be so true. Right after I sold, the process changed dramatically from book to book. Now, the changes aren't as drastic, but they still happen. Whenever I'd start to get all stressed because this isn't the way I do it, I'd remember the advice and stop fighting.

It continues today. Right now, I'm working on a trilogy idea set in the Blood Feud World and the information is coming in oddly. Maybe it's because the first two couples have been around for more than a year, but my thoughts are caught up on the third couple. Particularly, the hero, although I am getting stuff on the heroine now, too. I wasn't getting anything on her even a few days ago, so this is welcome.

The most recent information has been stuff that happens after the third book ends. At first I was wondering why. It wasn't after the book couple stuff, which I've gotten before even it usually came when the entire book was written and finished. This was stuff with the hero and his family. Including hours spent listening in on a conversation between the hero and his father.

I finally got the why of it over the weekend. The relationship stuff that I'm seeing after the book is all unresolved during the story. That means that all these issues I'm seeing him deal with after he's had his Happy Ending are going to be in play as his book unfolds.

Maybe I could have gotten this information in other ways, and maybe with another book, I would. But this is the process I'm dealing with for this book, and when I'm writing it, I'll have to consider how these family things will impact the hero's actions in his story. It would be so much easier to see it first hand, but no one ever said writing was easy.