Broken

Intense Scenes

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It’s amazing when you finally get to write a scene that you’ve had rattling around inside your head for years. It’s also terrifying because you hope that you’ve done the scene justice to what you see in your head. It’s definitely a love/hate relationship because on one hand you can’t wait to share with people what happens, but on the other you’re nervous the whole time.

I guess I’m going to have to get used to these sorts of conflicts as I write books, cause more than likely they’re only going to get more common haha. Slowly coming off a writing high this evening where I tore through a ton of words. I’m very proud, but I also realize that there’s still the rest of the scene to go. It’s nowhere near done yet, and the roller coaster has just gone over the highest peak. This book is going to be all downhill from here, and hoo boy, what a ride it’ll be!

Project: Broken

A land has fallen. An escape was made. It’s a victory of sorts, but at what price?

Shaleigh has made a terrible mistake, one she may not ever be able to fix. Lost and in a strange land with anger and death all around her, she must navigate her way through treacherous lands on her quest for redemption. Along the way she’ll have to negotiate with the mercurial Queen of the Fae, survive the dangers of the Masked King’s realm, and seek out a terrifying fire dragon.

With two powerful beings hot on her trail, Shaleigh has no choice but to keep moving, or else face the dangerous magic of the Madness that has already caused so much pain and heartache. With her sights on helping her friends and her heart longing for home, Shaleigh is determined, but will it be enough?

BROKEN is Book 2 of the Stolen series

Words Written:
2/2- 3,08

Current Word Count: 53,166

Progress:
Everything just got a lot hotter, and um, not in a good way.

Next Up:
There is definitely going to be fall-out here. There is so much to finish with this scene, so much to explain, so much detail to go into. But that’s for tomorrow.

Commentary:
I really wanted to continue this scene, but I’ve been writing for a good 2-3 hours now and I’m feeling cramped and tired. It’s after 1 AM here at the moment, but the creativity just kept flowing. A few days ago I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to figure out how to continue this scene properly to give it justice, and yet here I am halfway through it. I’m leaving right in the middle of the action for now because that’s the best way to make sure the words come just as smoothly tomorrow as well (I forget who I got that trick from).

At this pace it’s not going to take me long to hit 60k words, and I’m really pleased about that. I didn’t hit 55k words like I wanted today, but it’s close. Sometimes the important part with writing is knowing when to take a break, knowing when to let your mind rest for a bit, and knowing when you should probably come back with fresh eyes. This is definitely that time.

Wish me luck for the next scene! Er, you may want to wish my characters luck too… they’ll probably need it more than me…

So Much Red Tape

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I feel so bad for Shaleigh. It’s not just the terrible events and situations she has to deal with, but my goodness does she also have a lot of red tape to cut through! It doesn’t matter if she’s talking with Dean Hammond or a leader of a land, there always seems to be some red tape to tear apart before she can get anywhere.

I’d like to say that this was something completely pulled out of my imagination and that I’ve never had to deal with anything like that in my life, but I think everybody would see right through that one.

Red tape is part of life, regardless of where you encounter it. Even if it’s in another world and you have no idea that it’ll be there until you walk right into it. Like I said, I sure do feel bad for Shaleigh, but isn’t that what writing is all about?

Project: Broken

A land has fallen. An escape was made. It’s a victory of sorts, but at what price?

Shaleigh has made a terrible mistake, one she may not ever be able to fix. Lost and in a strange land with anger and death all around her, she must navigate her way through treacherous lands on her quest for redemption. Along the way she’ll have to negotiate with the mercurial Queen of the Fae, survive the dangers of the Masked King’s realm, and seek out a terrifying fire dragon.

With two powerful beings hot on her trail, Shaleigh has no choice but to keep moving, or else face the dangerous magic of the Madness that has already caused so much pain and heartache. With her sights on helping her friends and her heart longing for home, Shaleigh is determined, but will it be enough?

BROKEN is Book 2 of the Stolen series

Words Written:
1/29 – 2,096

Current Word Count: 50,181

Progress:
The negotiations have ended, and it seems like there is a lull.

Next Up:
There is never really a lull. You would think my characters would get used to that by now. And everything is about to get turned upside-down. I’ve been gearing up for months (years?) to write these scenes. I’ll feel so good once they’re finally put down on paper!

Commentary:
It felt so good to hit that 50k mark! That puts me over 60% through the book and even though it’s not as far as I’d like, I’m really pleased with the big chunk of 2k words I wrote today. Once this next action piece hits, things are going downhill quickly from there. This is probably the last lull of the book and I’m buckling up for the rest.

That said, am I on track for my March deadline for this piece? I’m not sure, but I sure hope so. Fingers crossed, folks, and I hope you enjoy these updates cause there will certainly be a lot of them coming soon!

Oh and by the way I’ve been working on finalizing the events for this year and there will be several! Expect to see a big update for the Appearances page coming soon. So far I have 3 events finalized, 1 finalized and not yet paid for, and many more in the planning stages. Lets just say April through June are going to be some busy months!

Such a Busy January

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Whew, it has been a busy week! Between Stolen’s release day back on January 22nd to helping my sister with her art festival all weekend, I’m mentally pretty tired. I finally got to do one thing that I’ve wanted to do for a while since I’ve been working on promotions and prep work for the last few weeks. I finally got to write on Broken some more.

Now granted, it’s not a lot, nowhere near to where I need to be, but it’s also a really intense place so I’m fine with it. I’ve been talking about Stolen and about the characters in it so much that it was fun to dive into what I think of as their current timeline again and pick up where I left off. Dang, it’s so cool to see the changes!

Here we go, my latest updates on Broken, the sequel to Stolen, which I can now say is an Amazon Bestselling novel!

Project: Broken

A land has fallen. An escape was made. It’s a victory of sorts, but at what price?

Shaleigh has made a terrible mistake, one she may not ever be able to fix. Lost and in a strange land with anger and death all around her, she must navigate her way through treacherous lands on her quest for redemption. Along the way she’ll have to negotiate with the mercurial Queen of the Fae, survive the dangers of the Masked King’s realm, and seek out a terrifying fire dragon.

With two powerful beings hot on her trail, Shaleigh has no choice but to keep moving, or else face the dangerous magic of the Madness that has already caused so much pain and heartache. With her sights on helping her friends and her heart longing for home, Shaleigh is determined, but will it be enough?

BROKEN is Book 2 of the Stolen series

Words Written:
1/28 – 787

Current Word Count: 48,085

Progress:
Some very tense political negotiations at a time when things could easy go very bad very quickly.

Next Up:
Making some progress politically, but not much, and the storm is coming on fast. Shaleigh really doesn’t have time for these people.

Commentary:
Considering how long it’s been since I’ve worked on Broken and posted about it here, I’m really pleased with the progress it’s made! I still have a lot left to do but I’m excited to see how this story will go. I know I still have quite a bit to have to go back and clean up later, but for now I’m very happy with it.

Originally I wanted to try to get my rough draft of Broken done by the end of January. Clearly I didn’t anticipate the amount of work I had ahead of me at the time that had nothing to do with Broken. But I’m still moving forward and I’m happy about that. Nothing has stagnated.

Considering tomorrow has been declared a snow day though, I foresee me getting a lot of cleaning and writing in tomorrow! Hopefully I have a much more impressive wordcount on this book by then.

Abstract Emotions & Writing

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I went to bed last night thinking of black spirals climbing up into the sky, like enormous screws climbing out of the ground. Sounds pretty crazy, doesn’t it? Let me assure you that it will all make sense once Broken gets released.

Or I hope it will…

The words flowed again today and I was grateful, even if it did start in fits and bursts. On my drive in to work I realized that I wasn’t happy with how a previous scene had turned out. It was the perfect time for bonding and I was afraid if I didn’t go back to fix it today, I would forget it. So that took up about half my word count. I was glad I did it too, even though it meant a slower pace for my brief writing time and having to switch between characters again. That scene feels much more complete, and I know from experience that those kinds of scenes are the best.

When I wrote Stolen, there’s one scene between multiple characters that it took me forever to figure out. I kept rewriting it and rewriting it, trying to get at that difficult emotional exchange that is easy to feel but so difficult to describe. Finally I think I got it by the end, but that scene is now one of the more moving sections of the book. It certainly is one that hits your heart — and that’s the goal.

Or I hope it does at least.

Project: Broken

A land has fallen. An escape was made. It’s a victory of sorts, but at what price?

Shaleigh has made a terrible mistake, one she may not ever be able to fix. Lost and in a strange land with anger and death all around her, she must navigate her way through treacherous lands on her quest for redemption. Along the way she’ll have to negotiate with the mercurial Queen of the Fae, survive the dangers of the Masked King’s realm, and seek out a terrifying fire dragon.

With two powerful beings hot on her trail, Shaleigh has no choice but to keep moving, or else face the dangerous magic of the Madness that has already caused so much pain and heartache. With her sights on helping her friends and her heart longing for home, Shaleigh is determined, but will it be enough?

BROKEN is Book 2 of the Stolen series

Words Written:
12/4 – 1,166

Current Word Count: 43,586

Progress:
Expanded on some very intense character interaction. Also had some nice exchanges and world-building time.

Next Up:
Expanding on a new place with new rulers along with new rulers. For as nice as it sounds, it’s not quite as nice in person.

Commentary:
Not as much writing in today, but it’s not for a lack of inspiration. More like a lack of time. Can I find a way to double my free time on work days so I can increase my output even more?

Still haven’t hit that 45k mark yet, but I’m getting close! Hoping to maybe even hit 50k by the end of the week – which would be phenomenal.

The People in Your Head

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When you finally get through the block that you’ve had for too long, the floodgates open, and all the words start pouring out. I love that feeling. I also love making progress finally. Sure, it’s post-NaNoWriMo, but progress is progress! I get away from a set of characters for a bit and then come back to them and I’m in love with them all over again. It’s like seeing a close friend that you haven’t talked to in a while, and then they’re just as witty and entertaining as always. It’s refreshing.

It also sounds crazy when you’re talking about people in your head that you made up, but let’s be honest, that’s what writing is all about. You chronicle the lives, the loves, the struggles, and sometimes the deaths of people that are part of you. Sometimes it’s tragic, sometimes it’s inspirational. Only you get to control the outcome. As Stephen King said in his book, On Writing,

All the arts depend upon telepathy to some degree, but I believe that writing offers the purest distillation.

On Writing, Stephen King

Each character is a little mental child that I’ve molded into existence and send off into the world. Yes, they’re part of a book or a story, but they also exist in their own bubble of a world, isolated from everything else. The fact that I can write about them and share them with others and others can love/hate them too is pretty damn amazing if you ask me.

With that, I give you my progress on my latest WIP this evening!

Project: Broken

A land has fallen. An escape was made. It’s a victory of sorts, but at what price?

Shaleigh has made a terrible mistake, one she may not ever be able to fix. Lost and in a strange land with anger and death all around her, she must navigate her way through treacherous lands on her quest for redemption. Along the way she’ll have to negotiate with the mercurial Queen of the Fae, survive the dangers of the Masked King’s realm, and seek out a terrifying fire dragon.

With two powerful beings hot on her trail, Shaleigh has no choice but to keep moving, or else face the dangerous magic of the Madness that has already caused so much pain and heartache. With her sights on helping her friends and her heart longing for home, Shaleigh is determined, but will it be enough?

BROKEN is Book 2 of the Stolen series

Words Written:
12/3 – 2,357

Current Word Count: 42,420

Progress:
We had an unexpected adventure – which I always enjoy! My characters never do, but I do! 😉

Next Up:
I’ve got the perfect music to set the mood for this place, and some great build-up going for it from multiple points in this book and from Stolen. I left a number of hints around that this would be introduced, so I’m curious to see if readers pick up on it. Now I get to enjoy setting the mood for it and giving it some life.

Commentary:
I’ve been loving how many words I’ve gotten in just over the past couple of days. I know this won’t be sustainable long-term, but I’m just going to sit here and bask in high wordcounts while I can.

Also this whole scene was largely unexpected so I’m really pleased with how it fleshed out and the twists that it took. Things started so mildly at first and took a turn for the worst (like they do in my books). Really curious to see how this next location is going to be for these guys!