I don’t write fast enough, that’s all there is to it. I’m halfway through one book, a quarter of the way through another, have outlines and notes for at least three more, and now have more unresolved plot bunnies than ever before. And the worst thing about it is that they are absolutely useless for incorporating into the Works In Progress.

I have a tough time with plotting. Characters—no problem. Dialogue—bring it on. Settings, descriptions, research—I’m right there. Plots… oy vey iz mir. My plot bunnies tend to be vague ideas for a story involving characters that I love (“Let’s put them in such and such an impossible situation and see what they do!”) but when it comes to actually plotting out the scope of the story—hopeless. I could never write a mystery or thriller, because it requires the verb to plot.

Not just plot, but intricate plotting. Setting timing and dropping hints and twisting the story around so that you end up precisely at the point you need to be. It’s not how I write. I throw the characters into the deep end and see how they want the story to go. Seriously, it’s a crapshoot. And given that I am totally not a multiple-draft kind of writer, it really is up to the characters to tell the story in their own way. They’ll take over anyway; might as well let them.

For example: Finding Zach? Had a completely different ending mapped out in my mind involving David’s art, a scar, and a tattoo. The characters had other ideas, and the tattoo never saw the light of day.

 If it’s a short piece, it’s different. In those cases it’s usually the end I write first, or at least I’ll have a good idea what the end will be. Since there’s not a lot of time for character development, short stories have to have a plot, but size constraints mean that the plot will be fairly simple. I can do simple. It’s maintaining plot for the length of a full-sized book that’s the hard part.

So right now, I have this story I’m working on, with a whole bunch of characters that I love, and vaguely ahead is some kidnapping plot, or maybe a custody battle, or something… something…

And in the meantime, my characters are all talking nineteen to the dozen in my head and making me crazy because I can’t write fast enough for them. They all want their happy endings. They all want their resolution. They all want their climax (in more ways than one) and their denouements. They’re all yelling at once and it’s making me crazy.

So shut up, John and Nick and the rest of you. You’ll get your say, sooner or later. I can only write so fast!

The first draft of Kindred Hearts is finished!!!  (“And there was great rejoicing…” at least at Chez Speedwell.)  I was beginning to think I’d never get it done.  But I sent it out to Beta Reader #1, aka Patrice, on Friday, so I’m hoping she’ll have a chance to read it this week.  I’ll be getting copies of it to my other two beta readers something this week, I hope.  Patrice is easy—she’s got a Kindle so all I have to do is format it as a prc file—but I give Lynda and Shannon hard copies in my (un)patented two-column pretend it’s a book format.  Takes time to put together.

 I reread it this weekend and it doesn’t suck, which is good; there have been times during the course of the writing when I absolutely HATED the thing.  Especially since it took so much longer.  I had to do a lot more research; although I love the Napoleonic Era, and am quite familiar with it, it seemed like every time I turned around I was needing to look something else up.  Then of course there’s the issue of trying to both write it so that it sounded appropriate for the period, but is still accessible to the modern reader.  In other words, accurate but not boring.  Tricksy!! 

 So now while it’s out at the betas, it will be percolating in my head, and while I am working on the NEW book (because I can’t just sit still; plus I have been playing with it for a while unofficially) I will subconsciously be doing some work on Kindred Hearts.  Har.  Thankfully, the new one is another contemporary, so any research will be much easier.  I was going blind reading the facsimile versions of 19^th Century texts and letters.  (Because as wonderfully accurate as Georgette Heyer is, it is not Done to crib ALL your historical data from The Spanish Bride and An Infamous Army.  Although I did dip deep into both of those.  Mainly cuz they’re wonderful…)

 “Night and Day” will be appearing in the Dreamspinner Press anthology Myths and Magic on October 15^th.  Day before my birthday, though I don’t think I’ll have my author’s copies by then.

Forgot to mention earlier that I’ve finished the first draft of a short story (longish, 15,000 words) that takes the Orpheus myth and sets it in a 1930’s speakeasy, with Apollo as a club owner and Dionysus as a gangster.  Fun to write, but still needs major edits.  I’m hoping it will be accepted for an upcoming anthology if I can pare down the wordage a bit.   It’s in the hands of Beta Reader #1 for preliminary feedback.

Now back to the Regency…

Well, if one substitutes “words” for music.  I’m trying to write a short story possibly for an upcoming anthology and while the theme of the anthology dovetails beautifully with the story, the limit for submission is 12,000 words… and I’m already at 11,000+ and not anywhere near the ending.  Close to the climax, though.  There are some bits I can chop out of the beginning that won’t horribly affect my Deathless Prose, but unless the editors like it enough to include it anyway, it’s going to be more like 15,000 words.  Sigh.  I’m just not a short story writer in general; although I’ve done some in the past, it’s not a natural form for me.  I like getting into the heads of the characters and watching their personalities and backstories unfold.  With the short form, you have to kind of convey the whole personality in very short order, and in this case, anyway, Nathan’s personality is very much formed by his backstory, which is quite complicated.  And of course you need to avoid infodump.  PLUS it’s in second person, present tense, which is just plain weird.  I think it works for the story, though.

The music analogy is important, because music is the framework for the story.  It’s set in the early Thirties, before there’s been any improvement in the economy; Prohibition is still in effect, people are on breadlines, and Cole Porter and the Gershwins reign in popular music.  The story’s called “Night and Day,” and takes place in a “supper club,” a front for a speakeasy.  Nathan’s an out-of-work singer who’s survived the First World War with a major chip on his shoulder, and the peculiar brother and sister who run “Starlight,” the speakeasy, are his road to recovery.  It’s been fun dredging in the depths of my memory for things older people have told me about that era.  So many of them are gone now that I’ve had to supplement it with internet research.  But one of the things I love best about writing this is the chance to incorporate the music of the time.  Nowadays jazz is sort of an esoteric musical form, with a reputation for being an “intellectual” exercise, but back in 1932, it was popular music.  The old standards, the songs by Porter and Gershwin and Berlin and Dorsey and Ellington and Armstrong, were jazz, but were what everyone listened to on the radio and in the clubs and on their Victrolas.  And I was absolutely blessed with a dad who loved this music (and yes, he called our record-player a “victrola” on occasion) and taught me to appreciate the craftsmanship that went into it.  Take a listen to a good recording of “Night and Day” and you’ll see what I mean.

“Embraceable You” is going to get into the story, too, one way or another…

Okay, now that we’ve all had a bad ABBA flashback (okay, I admit it, I liked ABBA), we’ll move on.  After having read two Lois McMaster Bujold novels (Sharing Knife: Passage and : Horizon) and feeling completely inadequate, and two Amy Lane novels (Truth in the Dark and Keeping Promise Rock, and I really need the sequel to that to come out soon, please…) and cementing the feeling of inadequacy, I tuned into Goodreads this morning to find a new, highly ambivalent review.  I take those seriously, so I was pretty down.  The positive review on the Ebay posting of a copy of Zach only did so much to make me feel better.  This all goes back to this weird philosophy that used to make my shrink CRAZY, which is “if someone says something nice about you, they’re being nice; if someone says something mean about you, they’re telling the truth.”

This is why I was in therapy.

Okay, so on to more positive stuff.  Although the first part of “Skylark” (working title) still needs some MAJOR editing and rewriting, I’m plugging along with the second part, hoping to get at least a first draft done by Pennsic.  (Pennsic, in case you don’t know, which you probably don’t because why in God’s name should you, is short for the Pennsic War, which takes place every August between the Midwest and the East Coast.  For two weeks, about 10,000 seriously insane people dress up like they live somewhere between 600 AD and 1600 AD and hit each other with sticks.  It’s TREMENDOUS fun.)  Pennsic is almost completely non-electrical, which means I won’t be doing much writing during that timeframe, so I’m hoping to get the draft done by then and loaded on my Kindle for reviewing and annotation.  Three of my beta readers will be camping with me, so if I can get it in shape for their perusal, so much the better.  But that means…  Waterloo.

Thanks to Lynda and Osprey Publishing (THE place for books on historical subjects, I kid you not), I have a book that lays out the details of the Waterloo Campaign in a way that even I, who despite my educational background has minimal interest in military history, can understand and use.  Maps, paintings, lists, charts.  It’s awesome.

I wish I had looked at it before I wrote the last chapter.  Major rewrites ensue.  You know, you get an idea of how something goes and then you just run with it, and then you come SMACK!! up against… um… facts.  Damn.

But Waterloo is just the most fascinating series of military blunders.  It really illustrates the importance of communications.  I mean, it took two months for the news of the end of the War of 1812 to reach America, another month for it to reach the British Army in the Caribbean, then another couple of months to get orders straight.  During that time Napoleon had escaped from Elba and reclaimed France.  So most of Wellington’s best troops were either still in America or on their way back by the time of the Waterloo Campaign.

Then, of course, there’s the series of faux pas that plagued both sides, but especially Napoleon’s.  Things like his staff not bothering to let Marshal Ney (who was commanding half of his army) know that he was needed in a particular spot at a particular time.  Whoops!  Lost that sortie!  Stuff like that.  Amazin’.  Or Ney himself thinking “oh, did he say he wanted us to capture that crossroads, or just check it out?” and not capturing Quatre Bras before the Dutch ever got there.  Kathunk!  There were a few on the British side, but not quite as many, because Wellington was kind of obsessive about communications.  Napoleon?  It was all about the charisma.  And frankly, how charismatic can you be when you’re suffering from hemorrhoids?

So, I need to rewrite the last bit where Tristan finds out what he really wants out of life–besides Charles–and where Charles (and Randy) find out what’s really important…

Stay tuned!!