Jen's Attic: April 2006

The Guys in the Attic…

For anyone who is curious, you can go to my other blog Murder She Writes and read my description of the guys in the attic of my mind. In short, they are a group of men who help me figure out characterization and plotting.

The problem with these guys is that they are MEN, which means that they don't always communicate as well as I'd like.

Here's our latest conversation about a project I'm working on.

Guys: "Hey, what's taking so long with those chapters you're working on?"

Me: "Well…umm…you know, it has to be good. Better than good."

Guys: Sighing, "Just do it."

Me. "It's not that easy!"

Guys: "Are the characters talking to you? You whined that they wouldn't talk to you, and we fixed that. Go write."

Me, grumbling; "Now the characters won't shut up!"

Guys, "Huh? Not you are bitc…uh…whining that they talk too much? What's up with that?" The guys all look at one another, shrug their big shoulders and say, "Women."

Me, squirming now. "It's just that, umm, they keep throwing things at me, I'm having trouble sorting it all out, organizing it to make the right impact. They are so real in my head, I have to get it down right on paper."

Guys, "Cut the crap. What's the real deal here?"

Me, knowing it's time to confess the truth. "I want the readers to love them as much as I do. Especially the hero. I want them to…"

Guys, rudely, "Not gonna happen."

Me, mouth hanging open. "But…"

Guys, "Your job is to make the characters real and tell their story. If you do it right, not everyone is going to love them. Don't be a coward. Got that?"

"Yes." I stomp off wondering if it's time to clean out the attic.

Just stuff today...

Guilt and Fear.

I struggle with them all the time. Like say, guilt over not blogging enough :-) The more time that passes that I don't get a blog up, the more I think I should write a really good blog to make up for it. But then I can't think of a good blog and the cycle goes on.

Fear works the same way in my work. Writing is a career for self-starters. We have to be disciplined and focused to develop the stories and make deadlines. I actually like the structure very much and the upside is that I walk to work, choose my own hours and I love working with my editor, agent and various publishing professionals. The fans are awesome. So what breaks my focus?

Fear.

I'm dealing with that right now. In this case, it's fear of getting this all important scene in a project that I'm working on. I've probably written this scene ten times. I don't like it. I like the idea of the scene, but on paper, it's flat and the emotions of the characters aren't there. Then I start doubting myself, fear sets in and the cycle starts.

I've noticed this pattern with lots of writers. I don't have a sure what to break this cycle. I try to remove myself, go to the gym, and bake cookies— the cookies usually work. I don't know why baking chocolate chip cookies does it for me. BUT I AM NOT BAKING COOKIES THIS TIME! I am not given into my Inner Diabetes who has already been we fed over Easter. But today I am determined to break through the fear and get this scene down.

Shifting the topic a little bit, Allison Brennan over at Romancing the Blog talks about how she chooses to buy books these days. After reading her blog, I realized that my buying habits have changed significantly. When I go to a bookstore now, I already know what I want. I have authors or specific titles that I want because I'm doing market research, my agent has suggested I read it or I'm buying friends' books. It used to be that I'd go into a bookstore and browse until titles and first lines caught my eye.

I still buy books based on word of mouth. If I keep hearing from various places about a book, I'll run out and get it because I don't want to miss out.

How about you? How do you pick the books you buy?

A Title is Born!

I have the title for my January 2007 sexy romantic mystery; THE SEX ON THE BEACH BOOK CLUB. This book features Holly Hillbay, a kick ass private investigator, and Wes Brockman, a serious hunk of a bookstore owner with a dangerous secret. On the trail of a cheating husband, Holly goes undercover in a book club and uses a little Sex on the Beach (the drink!) to pump Wes Brockman for information. But when a book club member is found murdered in Wes's locked bookstore, the danger heats up, nothing is what it seems and Sex on the Beach might not just be a drink after all...

Talking up Books

I recently read a book I loved. So I went to my Romance Writers of America chapter meeting this weekend, and I was chatting with a bookseller about this book. We were deep in conversation, and she was promising to mail me the second book in this newish series, when another person came up and said, "Jen I read your book BATTERIES REQUIRED and loved it!" It was really nice to hear, but I immediately started telling her about this book I had just read.

It dawned on me I was selling her this other author! I had to laugh. I may not have this self-promotion thing down yet. But seriously, I think it's a good thing. We should talk about books. Nothing sells books better than word of mouth. So we continued on talking about books.

The book I loved? DARK LOVER by JR Ward. Lately, I've been reading paranormal. I tend to switch around in my reading.

What about you all? What's the last book you read (aside from Samantha Shaw!) that you just had to tell people about?