Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

Not all parts of a book a created equal. Some fly off the fingers, other bits have to be dragged out or coaxed with chocolate and bribes. And not all tricky bits are the same for all people. First page fear (or the horror of the blank document) doesn’t bother me as I plot and I know the start. I know the turning points. That pivotal bit in the middle is no drama, the black moment holds no terrors and I love the rush to the end. I get stuck in the second quarter. That bit that happens sometime after the story has started and the characters have met and the stage has been set and before the big thing in the middle. Something has to happen for 20,000 words in there…. This is the bit of the story where I also get the wobbles (my characters suck, this story is awful. What was I thinking there’s not enough to make a novel!). I get the second quarter blues on every story regardless of length. You’d think in a 30,000 word novella it wouldn’t be a drama, but it is. I have however discovered...

By Anita Clenney It's a brand new year and I'm looking for a brand new me. This past year was wonderful with so many firsts. First sale, first edits with my editor, first copy edits. I survived it all, and I enjoyed it, but now I'm looking for ways to make myself more productive, work smarter - not harder, have a better attitude, and get my priorities straight. At the moment, they're slightly askew. I'm starting book three in this series and it got me thinking about how a story starts. I love new stories because I'm like a kid with crayons and a blank sheet of paper. I can go any direction, use any color, any shapes. But I have to have an idea to start, and if it's a series, the new book has to be great on it's own, but make sense within the series as well. I love plotting and brainstorming. I think it's my favorite part of writing. I usually mull over a story for a few days, plotting as I drive or as I'm falling asleep. I build it in my head, th...

Some words just ideally describe your state, and right now, 'befuddled' is mine. My friend, Merriam-Webster, claims that 'befuddle' is an intransitive verb meaning to muddle or stupefy and offers the synonyms 'confuse' and 'perplex'. I nod in agreement. I am confused. I am perplexed. I am muddled and stupefied. I am plotting. To explain; my plotting procedure can best be described with an analogy. Have you ever been out walking and seen a lovely clear field? The temptation to take a walk across it arises in your mind and before you know it, you strike out. At first it's not bad. There are puddles, but you go around them. Then, there is a little muck, but what the hey, you're sturdy! You've been here before, you can do it! And you proceed. But soon, alas, the mud thickens. You look ahead. Looks like a long way across, still, but you look back and it's about as far. Might as well go forward. So you slog on. And the muck thickens, though a f...