Spirit Goes Live Soon and I'm Not Writing

I haven’t written a word today on my new work in progress.

Tonight I hit “publish” on the final installment of my Young Adult Paranormal series: The Elemental Series. Spirit will be live and the series will be finished. I’ve talked about the possibility of a spin off series in the near future, but I haven’t started on it yet because both, I and my characters, needed a break from that world.

Shay and I went on a five year adventure together. We’ve fought, cried and bled together and came out the other side whole and new. But now we needed some rest.

So I started a new series with a new world and new characters. I’ve completed the first book and am working on the second, but I haven’t written anything today. I’m not sure that I can. Shay was the first voice in my head that stuck around long enough for me to tell her whole story and because we’re celebrating the end of the series, the anniversary of the start of the series and mourning the close, I just can’t seem to hear my other characters’ voices today. I’m sure tomorrow they’ll come roaring back to me, wondering why I took a couple of days off while they were on the cusp of a bloody battle, but not today.

I’m in a weird kind of fugue today. I expected to be excited to release this book, just a bundle of nerves, terrified to hear what everyone thinks, but I’m not. I thought I might dread hitting publish today, but I don’t. I’m almost not even present. Maybe I’m afraid of how upset I’ll be when it hits me that The Elemental Series is over? I don’t know.

I do know that I’ve heard a lot of love from my readers who cannot wait for me to hit publish. And that is incredible. I remember when I first put out Earth almost exactly two years ago to this minute, and how each little sale made me jump for joy, and now I’ll have five novels out and Earth almost has 100 reviews on Amazon alone and readers are reaching out to me. It’s a little strange, wonderful, but strange. It certainly hasn’t felt like two years. Not even close.

I hope you guys like the book. I hope I ended the series well. I hope you’ll feel satisfied. I hope you’ll keep reading the new things I have planned. I hope Shay decides to start speaking to me again, soon. I hope for a lot of things.

I hope.

Characters, role models or pure fantasy?

This week I'm over at the Spellbound Scribes' blog talking about characters and whether or not they should be role models for readers. Check it out!

Characters, role models or pure fantasy?

Cover Reveal: Secret for a Song by Adriana Ryan

Today I am very please to participate in the cover reveal for my friend, Adriana Ryan. A brand new New Adult book that sounds heartbreaking and beautiful, just like her cover!

Saylor Grayson makes herself sick. Literally.

She  ate her first needle when she was seven. Now, at nineteen, she’s been kicked out of college for poisoning herself with laxatives. The shrinks call it Munchausen Syndrome. All Saylor knows is that when she’s ill, her normally distant mother pays attention and the doctors and nurses make her feel special.

Then she meets Drew Dean, the leader of a local support group for those with terminal diseases. When he mistakes her for a new member, Saylor knows she should correct him. But she can’t bring herself to, not after she’s welcomed into a new circle of friends. Friends who, like Drew, all have illnesses ready to claim their independence or their lives  

For the first time, Saylor finds out what it feels like to be in love, to have friends who genuinely care about her.  But secrets have a way of revealing themselves. What will happen when Saylor’s is out?

Adriana Ryan: A huge fan of spooky stuff and shoes, Adriana Ryan enjoys alternately hitting up the outlet malls and historic graveyards in Charleston, SC where she lives and imbibes coffee. Her husband and two small children seem not to mind when she hastily scribbles novel lines on stray limbs in the absence of notepads.

How to stalk Adriana:

Website: http://www.adrianaryan.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorAdrianaRyan

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/adrianaryansc

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/adrianaryan

Spirit Giveaway - Open to International!

As you all know, I love to give things away! Today I am offering you a chance to win one of five signed copies of a paperback copy of Spirit: Book Five in the Elemental Series. And the awesome news? You will get it a whole month before it is available for purchase!

So how do you win? There are ten chances to win! Once you accomplish any of the following entry options, just click the appropriate button on the Rafflecopter widget below. But no cheating! I will be moderating all entries and if I find that you did not properly complete the task you claim to have done, that entry will be deleted. You have been warned.

Please note: you can do any or all of these tasks, the more you do, the more chances you have to win a copy!

The contest will run until 3/29/13 11:59pm. Winners will be selected on 3/30/13 and prizes will be mailed as soon as I have the winners' addresses, so watch your email! Winners will be announced here on the blog and on Facebook!

Option One: Creative Entry (worth three entries)
This is the most subjective option. Do anything you think is creative and show it off! I don't care what it is (so long as it isn't creepy of course - and yes, I am the final say on what is considered creepy). You can draw something, paint something, sing something and film it, take a cool picture of something, whatever! Just do something artistic or creative, post it online and provide a link to it on my Facebook page. If your creative project relates to the Elemental Series, all the better!

Option Two: Follow me on Twitter
If you are on Twitter, find me at @dyingechoes and follow me. Boom, that easy.

Option Three: Like my page on Facebook
If you are on Facebook, find me at http://www.facebook.com/AuthorShaunaGranger and like the page! (If you already like my Facebook page then you automatically qualify for this entry! Go click!)

Option Four: Follow me on Tumblr!
Pretty straight forward. Find me here and follow: http://shaunagranger.tumblr.com/

Option Five: Review Earth
Just post an honest review (I'm serious, just be honest) on Amazon and post a link on Facebook so I can verify it (if you already have a review posted, just provide the link and you qualify for this entry so go click it!).

Option Six: Review Air
Just post an honest review on Amazon and post a link on Facebook so I can verify it (if you already have a review posted, just provide the link and you qualify for this entry so go click it!).

Option Seven: Review Water
Just post an honest review on Amazon and post a link on Facebook so I can verify it (if you already have a review posted, just provide the link and you qualify for this entry so go click it!).

Option Eight Review Fire
Just post an honest review on Amazon and post a link on Facebook so I can verify it (if you already have a review posted, just provide the link and you qualify for this entry so go click it!).

Good luck everyone!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Post Writing Malaise – Or What Happens When You Finish a Book

As a full time writer, I write every day. I treat this like the job it is and only take off on the weekends and sometimes, not even then. When I had a day job I only asked myself to write 1,000 words each day, but now I expect 3,000+ each day. So when I finish a book I’m always at a loss.

I had a moment of pure, crystalline clear joy that it is finally done. Yesterday, when I finished the first draft of the Dystopian book I’ve been writing, I jumped up, ran out into the front of the house and just screamed. This book has been especially difficult for me since none of the characters could perform magic. And there were days that I never thought I would finish. There were days where I questioned why I ever wanted to write a book outside of my wheelhouse – after all I write Paranormal fiction, why would I risk hurting my brand by straying from it? There were days where I told myself, just put in zombies, or make someone a firestarter, or something, just add some magic and it’ll be easier. But I managed to keep with the plan and left out the magic and supernatural creatures. And, in doing so, I had a brilliant idea that will lead into the second book.

And yesterday I wrote for five straight hours, hearing the last words of the main character echo in my head, waiting for me to catch up in the story to type them, and I finished the damn thing.

Then I ran out and screamed. I jumped up and down and screamed some more.

Then I ran back to my office and quickly backed up the document in three different locations. Remember to back up your work people!

Then I went in search for food because the whole day all I had consumed was coffee and protein shakes, not wanting to waste time preparing food or eating it. But after I ate I sat down and just stared. I didn’t know what to do with myself.

Wasn’t I supposed to be doing something?

Right, I’m supposed to be writing. But I finished.

So what do I do now?

Relax.

How?

Watch some TV.

But I’m supposed to be writing.

But you finished the manuscript. Now you need to take a breath and regroup.

Regroup for what?

For the next project.

The next project! Yes! I’ll start that!

No, the next project is editing and you’re too tired to do that right now. You’ll take a long weekend, decompress, get the end-of-the-world story out of your head and print off the Paranormal book on Monday.

Monday?

Yes, Monday – that is when you’ll start editing.

Editing?

Yes, that’s the next project!

That’s not writing! I’m supposed to be writing! See! Even Neil Gaiman says I should!

Editing is writing, it’s re-writing, much more important in the process.

So what do I do now?

Sit. Relax.

Oh.

That is the inner monologue that goes through my mind when I finish a book. I used to try to plan little trips when I finished a book, giving myself a deadline to meet so that when I finished that last sentence I knew the next day I would be out of the office and didn’t have to think about “what now?” But I didn’t do that for the last book or even this one. I finished a the first book in a new series in January and then the next week I started writing the Dystopian book, again the first in a new series. And again I have nothing planned to get me away from the computer. 

One of the things I always tell my writer friends is to make sure you do something nice for yourself to celebrate the victories, big and little. Even if the celebrations is as small as treating yourself to your favorite cup of coffee, an hour on the couch and your favorite show. I did this after the first week I managed to write 20,000 words in five days. 

Maybe buy yourself a small present. I bought myself some sparkly pink slippers after I finished writing that Paranormal book in January.

Now I’ve added up the numbers and I’ve found that I have written over 155,000 words in two months. So I have to do SOMETHING for myself. I think my husband and I will pile into the car this weekend and we’ll take a drive down the coast, get some seafood, watch the waves and the sunset over the ocean. I’m going to buy some lilies and plant them in the front yard. And I’m going to read for pleasure. It’s not much but it is more than I’ve been able to do for myself in the last two months.

When you are your own boss you have to remember to treat your employees well or they’ll quit on you. So I’m giving myself a few, hard earned days off.

Do something nice for yourself, I’m sure you deserve it.

Reader Questions Part 6

How do you get into “the zone” to write? Have you ever had to deal with writer’s block? How do you get around it?

Seems appropriate to answer all of these questions in one post. You would be amazed how often I get these questions. Seriously. All the time. Even from other writers.

First, let me dispel this concept of “the zone.” There is no such thing. Sure, there are things that you like to do to make it more enjoyable, things that get you into the right mood, maybe, but other than that? Nope.

If you want to be a writer the plain and simple truth is you have to write. People have so many excuses why they don’t have time to write or why they couldn’t yesterday or how tired they are today. Blah blah blah.

I write fulltime now; this is my job. But before I had “all the time in the world” I wrote while having a day job. I’m not a morning person so I didn’t write before work. I like spending time with my husband so I didn’t write after work. I wrote during work. Oh yeah, that’s right. How did I manage it? Easy, you are given breaks at work so I took that time to write. For every four hours you get a 15 min break and if you work eight hours a day you get a lunch break. So, every day I wrote through my breaks. Sometimes I would save up my two breaks and lump them onto my lunch break to give myself that extra time, sometimes I didn’t.

I set myself a word count, back then the minimum amount of words I would demand of myself per day was 1,000. Now that I write full time I aim for 2,500. I know, doesn’t seem like enough, but writing full time and being self-published means I have a lot of other things I have to do that take up time. Like writing this blog. But recently I’ve managed to write 3,500 or more a day. I don’t like to get more than 5,500 words in one day though because it does wear you down.

I do enjoy writing to music and I do like noise to drown out the neighborhood, the dogs and even my husband. And I like to have something to drink with me. But other than that, everything else is just procrastinating. And sometimes I don’t have music to write to, or something to drink, but I still write. Hell, I wrote two chapters one day when I was waiting to be called for Jury Duty. Talk about less than ideal.

But if you want to write, you have to write. Consistently. This is not a hobby for me. Is it a hobby for you?

Writer’s block. I think this is a myth. I think there are days where you don’t feel like writing. I think there are days where you’ve written so much for so many days in a row that you need a break. I think there are times where you’ve written yourself into a corner and can’t figure out how to get out of it. I think you can drop a plot point and mess up the entire roadmap of your story and feel stuck. But there is no such thing as writer’s block.

Sure, there are days where you’ll just stare at the computer, the cursor blinking at you and hours will pass before you start typing, but eventually you do start typing.

On days where I’m having trouble with one scene and I just can’t get into it, I’ll open a blank document and start writing a scene I know is coming so that I can work the kinks out of my brain. While I’m working on that suddenly I’ll realize where I went wrong or where I have to go in that other scene and I’ll pick up where I left off. Because I have to.

For much of The Elemental Series I was a panster, that is to say, I wrote by the seat of my pants, with no outline or idea of where it was going to go. This gave me a sense of urgency to tell the story before I lost it. I always knew what the last scene or great battle was going to be, but I went on the journey to that point much like you, the reader, did – having no idea what was going to happen or what characters were going to walk on stage.

It wasn’t until I was writing Fire that I found I needed to start loosely plotting and outlining. For this new book, I have a full outline. I’m not following it closely, things have changed as I went along, but when I have gotten stuck, I can look back at that outline and remember things I wanted to include. You have to figure out what kind of writer you are and remember every book is going to be different.

But writer’s block is just another excuse not to write. Remember that. If you want to call yourself a writer then you have to write. Simple as that.

Reader Questions Part 5

How do you go into so much detail in fight/magic/love scenes?

I was a creative writing major in college. I went into college thinking I knew how to write, boy was I wrong.

Obviously I took a lot of writing courses, creative writing, children’s literature, exposition writing and on and on. But the course that really helped shape my skills was my Creative Writing: Poetry class. I was lucky enough to be taught by Dr. Jack T. Ledbetter, an award winning poet and playwright.

He was the first person to tell me what a horrid writer I was. He didn’t say it so bluntly, but he opened my eyes. JT liked to tell us about the year a student wrote a poem about staring out his window at the moon. But he didn’t say that, he call the moon, “Yon sailing orb!” Yep. That happened. So, whenever we got too ridiculous or flowery in our poems JT would write in bright red “YSO!” on your paper, across your poem so you knew you’d gone off the descriptive cliff.

JT told us about the French writers of the early Nineteen Century who would write these “masterpieces” that no one actually understood. They thought, “Wonderful! This is Art! The average man shouldn’t understand what we’re saying!” That was the kind of writer I was when I started college. Thank goodness I signed up for Dr. Ledbetter’s class.

Now I know how to write clearly. I can still paint a picture with prose (say that three times fast!) but you, as the reader, still understand just what the hell I’m trying to say.

I’m also lucky enough to have a husband who is a self-defense instructor who has been training in various martial arts for nearly 30 years. So when I need to figure out a fight scene, I turn to him and he teaches me how to hurt someone and then let’s me practice on him. Now that’s love.

In my last post I’ve already told you how much research I’ve done on magic and Wicca, so I just remember what JT taught me about being clear and direct so you see what I see in my mind when I write.

As for the love scenes… well… this is a family friendly page for the most part. Let’s just say I’ve gone through my fair share of poisonous apples until my prince charming came along and broke the spell. I think knowing love helps you write it.

But even with all of that education it still takes practice. I think Air was a better book than Earth, and Water was better than Air and so on. You have to hone your craft and like any skill, if you don’t practice, your writing can get rusty. I’m a better writer today than I was a year ago because I just keep at it and I listen to constructive criticism and have learned to edit my own writing.