What Did I Just Do?

OMG.

Dirty Little Freaks #24 was way out of my ballpark. I’m not sure how I got there, but the story took me places I have never been before. Places that are impossible for me to reach. It was a struggle all the way, but I think I can be proud of what I did, even if it was a painful journey.

I started with something simple. A rude comment made by someone at a funeral. As I developed the story, the comment was made by a younger brother and the funeral was the main character’s father. Then things started to get really interesting when I decided that the comment that had been made was true, and that it was about our main character having an incestuous relationship with her father.

It was about pain and loss and love that broke the rules.  And it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to write. I’m not looking forward to editing it, because I know that any changes I make to it will only have to make it better, and I’m not sure how I can. I was really stretching my boundaries on the first draft, so taking it to the next level is going to be rough.

I think that the direction my story took was at least partially influenced by the book I was reading. The Lake of Dreams, by Kim Edwards. It wasn’t about incest, but one of the themes was the death of the main character’s father, and how it affected the course of her life. I could actually see how the story I was writing changed to reflect the story I was reading. That sort of thing doesn’t happen often for me, so it was interesting seeing it happen now. And don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it was a bad thing, just that it was unexpected and a little frightening to go where I have never gone before.

In other news, that makes 19 days in my Magic Spreadsheet chain, for a total of over 8,000 words. Having the spreadsheet is really giving me that extra incentive to keep writing, even though I might not want to. In the last few months, I have only been worrying about getting the story done, and have skipped some days when I didn’t feel like writing. But now, the focus is on getting at least the minimum in every day, so I have been writing first thing in the morning and taking the rest of the day for myself. The stories have been longer, as I only have to make sure I reach the end by Saturday, but I think they have also been better. We’ll see how it goes in the coming months.

That’s it for this week. I’ll be back next Sunday with another update. See you then!

Pets and Writing

We just added a new member to our family. On Valentine’s Day we went to the pet store and picked out a black and white guinea pig. My wife has decided to call him Charlie. He’s about eight weeks old and so he is a bit nervous, but he is really cute and cuddly. Other pets in the house include a dark grey hamster with a white beard and feet named Smoky, and a bunch of fish: mostly swordtails and one huge plecostomus.

Because of this new addition I have had pets on my mind recently and I started thinking about how pets might affect an authors writing. If you look at the author biographies included in many books or if you follow any authors online there is a good chance that you will find that they have pets. And you may even find that they write about those pets in their books. Some of the writers that I can name that have pets and write stories including pets are Janet Evanovich and Jim Butcher.

It shouldn’t be surprising that many authors have pets. Pets can be wonderful companions, and writing is mostly a solitary exercise. Having a pet around can keep an author connected to life without being too distracting. They can give you love and affection without being judgemental. Even fish can help. Studies have shown that watching fish can lower your blood pressure. Since writing can certainly be stressful this is a  really good thing.

Pets can also be inspiring. The love that you feel for your pet can help you express strong emotions for your characters. You can write about love by tuning into how you feel about your pet. The death of a loved pet can help you express the grief your character may feel over a death of someone they care about.

So what do you think about this subject? Do you have pets? How do they fit into your writing life? Do you include them in your stories, or are they just there for moral support?

Love is in the Air

It’s February 14 and the first draft of my paranormal romance is finished. I have started sending it out to several of my friends to see what they think of it. I also offered it to my blog readers to try to get a more unbiased opinion, but so far no takers.

I have been seeing romantic advertisements everywhere for the last couple weeks. Of course that is to be expected. Valentine’s Day has always been said to be a holiday created by the flower and greeting card industry. But that doesn’t mean it can’t also be a good thing.

I have been married to my wonderful wife for almost fourteen years now, and I love her just as much now as when I first met her. I tell her this every chance I get. When I wrote my paranormal romance novel I tried to channel that feeling into my writing. I’m not sure how well that worked out, but that’s what edits are for, right?

I have to confess that I really struggled with the romance part of my novel. First of all, I’m a man, so that’s one strike against me. Can anyone tell me of ANY male romance authors? I can’t think of a single one. Or are they writing under a pseudonym?

Secondly, I’m usually a calm and reserved person, so writing a passionate love scene was EXTREMELY difficult for me. I mean, I feel that passion for my wife, but allowing myself to open up and share it with the rest of the world was kind of against my nature.

Third, I felt uncomfortable writing about sex. My faith has taught me to respect the love of two people, which should not be sullied by things like premarital sex and pornography. So I felt that when I was writing about my heroine and her man having premarital sex I was encouraging behavior that I didn’t believe in, even though it was what the characters demanded.

I would be interested in hearing what the rest of you think about this. And if you are interested in reading my first draft of Finding Valhalla just let me know and I’ll send you a link to the file on my Dropbox share.

Happy Valentine’s Day!