Do You Have The Guts to Kill?....

I'm talking about killing scenes, chapters, booting characters out of the book--"Get out! I don't need you any more!"--in your WIP, of course!

Do you have a manuscript that got out of control, has copious amounts of pages, and many chapters and yet it goes nowhere?

"I know I have an 800 pound gorilla on my back! Got a shovel?"

Well, hey. It's a new year! Go ahead and shake 2013 off your back. Clean the belly button of your mouse out (seriously, mine was clogged up. I had no idea you could open it up and clean out the cakes of dust it accumulated over the years!), and get to work!

This is what I've been doing with an older manuscript of mine for the last six weeks. Some of you might be working on something more recent than mine, which I originally began in 1999, and thought was finished in 2004, but at some point was 800 pages with scenes and characters that I didn't need. I reduced it to 400 pages, and I could still write a whole new book from what I'm taking out!

I've been working on this these past few weeks we've had off--a glorious 2 weeks (no pay), and I've gotten over 72K words down in the new mss.

But how? How do you take a mss. and cut from it things you don't need?

You would ask that question, wouldn't you? It's called "tough love", or  Kill Your Darlings--and this means characters, even great chapters you're in love with, and so forth.

Ask yourself: Will anyone miss this if I chuck it? If you can take a chapter, a character or a whole thread out and it isn't missed, then you need to do that, my dears. Take those sections out [put into another file] and then put the thing back together and do a read through. If something is needed you put that something back. But if you can read through and the message/story is still there, then you've done the job! Have a beta reader read it too, someone who hasn't read it yet, to make sure you've done it right. They ask what happened here, or to such and such, then you know you need to add something back, or rewrite it.

Since my mss. (Vampire Legacy/Dhampire Legacy), was something I hadn't seen since before I had the Internet, but I did have typed copies from both a typewriter and a printer from a computer, I took it out and went through it. Although what I had wasn't like the picture above, it was close. I realized that I had many drafts/rewrites. There might be as many as 4 different versions of any one chapter, and I had to separate these versions. I used tables, chairs and a couch, and at one point the floor, to separate the chaff from the wheat--or something like that. I found chapters with people/characters who were not the main ones that carried the story. I had to chuck them.

You have to remember that in order for anyone to care about your story, and how it ends, you have to develop your characters! If you introduce new ones, somewhere late in the game, readers may become confused and slam the book shut, and might never buy your books again.

I realized had a whole other story going (which was why I set it aside and went to other things for a decade). I had scenes that prolonged the whole story, in fact, and I could see--now that my writing has matured--that the actual climax was getting bogged down, pushed back, and the middle part where there is what we call a "lull" was drawing the story into another direction. Can't have that. The plot must keep going toward the climax. The upward movement to the CRISIS has to be there and then you go for the lull, and after the lull you make things even worse for your main characters. (See below-yeah I just drew this so you guys know what I'm talking about! Hey, it's free for the grabbing, be my guest!)

Lorelei's plot graph

I knew that portions of it was salvageable. My two main characters are detective (Jan Vladislav), who is from Gypsy stock, and a man (Phil Green) who left his home town for at least three reasons to seek his fortune. They both are, or become, a vampire slayers. These are my two main guys, and one teenage girl--Lucy, the daughter of the detective--who by no real fault of her own, is snagged by the vampires. I have a romance angle, two actually, but the romance between Phil and Collette doesn't bloom right away--but the posibility is there since they once had been engaged, and she is now divorced. Problem for him is that she has come under the master vampire's thrall, and her daughter is taken by another vampire.

The town is terrorized when people go missing, a baby and its babysitter is abducted at the beginning of the story, and eventually the baby is found dead--blood drained from her--in a graveyard next to St. John's Church, which as been burned down prior to the opening of the story, and on the other side is the Lockwood Mansion, which a mysterious wealthy man has bought. I made this harder on my detective, as the baby is his sister-in-law's, and his wife died of lung cancer a year ago. So he's trying to deal with this, and has a real reason to get this murderer.

My work in going through each chapter is still underway, I've got it corralled to two tables--one holds the chapters I'm working from, the other holds future chapters. And one box has my discarded material, and one other place has chapters which I won't use in this, but could be used in some other future project.

In some cases I have to write a scene from scratch, not using any material at all. That's what I had to do yesterday and managed to spit out more than 2,000 words.

So, my dears, do you have a mss. in a bin, or are working on that needs a little help? You need to disassociate yourself from it first, and be brave. Take that editing knife and cut, cut, cut!

 Let me know how you're dealing with a wayward manuscript! I would love to hear from you!

I'm Not A Romance Writer

When I wrote Vampire Ascending and tried to find a publisher--or someone--to take it, I came across a publisher who I thought was interested in "vampire" novels. I'll not name the publisher, because many people are probably published there. I have nothing against them, but that the fact the editor egged me on by telling me that "this might" work for them. When she asked if I belonged to any writer's groups, I told her no. She thought I should join the romance writers association. I refused to. I began to feel that this wasn't the right place for me if she thought my writing would need "work". I explicitly told her my novel was Urban Fantasy.

Long story short, even though she put me on hold, telling me she'd get back to me--and didn't--I put my first chapter up in a writer's forum on a group I used to belong to. There is where my present publisher found me, and invited me to send him my novel. At some point in between, I lost my Internet connection. I lost all email from that point, and had to start anew. I will call it a blessing because I'll never know if this other editor ever got back to me.

Back then I didn't know what the difference between urban fantasy, and paranormal romance was. I could not find anyone who would answer my question. It was like I was supposed to figure this out on my own. Well, I eventually did.

Meanwhile I poured over books by Charlaine Harris, Kim Harrison, and a few others. The spines are usually a clue as to what these novels are. Charlaine Harris' are published by Ace and it says under the publisher: FANTASY/MYSTERY. Mainly, I would guess, because Harris was a mystery writer before she took a chance with her now very popular vampire series, which is now an HBO series.

Others, like Kim Harrison and Karen Chance's books are under FANTASY. If you look around in a bookstore and go either to the heading of horror, or fantasy, you should find any of these author's books.
You can also tell by the title. Usually the title is telling. Eternal this or that is something a romance author would use as part of the title. Also, if AVON has published it, it is most definitely a romance. A hot guy and babe on the front cover, usually one or both are nearly nude and in some sort of embrace--that would tell me that we are looking at a straight romance, I don't care if the characters are vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, or ghosts.

The point I'm trying to make is authors like Harris and Harrison do not write romance, even though romance is featured in their works. It's basically a fantasy--Urban Fantasy. I enjoy them because I'm not expecting anything but a great story with a lot of fantasy, creatures introduced, and some mystery solved, and some witchcraft, or magic going on.

Although sex/romance will be featured in any of my novels, I'm not going to hammer it to death. Romance--whether there are elves, vampires, shapeshifters between the pages (and sheets), it is still a romance. What is a romance? Well, the basic plot is rather simple. Man and woman either meet for the first time, or have known each other for a while. They are attracted to one another, however something keeps them apart. It can be anything from a danger factor, or the fact that they basically hate one another. But, you, the reader, knows that at some point these two are going to hop into bed and go at it until the cows come home. Wow. Big surprise. But that's why people like these types of books for the hot sex on page 105-120.

An urban fantasy is gives us a basic a story, usually there is a problem or a mystery to solve. It is the adventure, with various interesting characters that pop up, and the ones you've come to know and love throughout the series, and you expect them to act in a certain way. If there's sex along the way, this is a bonus, even though you might hope for such a thing, it is not a necessity in an urban fantasy, although a lot of people may think it should be, mainly because some people are including hot sex scenes in such books, it is not a requirement. Believe me.

Also, I don't write romance because I don't want my main character to be bound by the stringent confines of what is considered a romance (i.e. see above). Maybe the guy she starts out with will not be the one she winds up with--surprise! Maybe the man she's been seeing, or is in love with may die--surprise!

You see what I mean? I don't have to confine my plot to one that is boxed in. I love to think outside the box.

And as far as writing sex scenes into my books, I've had to take a stand on how far I would go with it. I'll say right here that I'm not interested in a spitting match with romance writers to see how many pages I can write a bedroom scene or how pornographic it might become. I'm interested in bringing to my readers a sense of realism, a bit of horror, throw in a romantic thread, problems, mystery, danger, and even humor into my books. It's entertainment of a different kind, or style from romance (they can call it paranormal romance or anything-under-the-sun romance, it is still romance and must adhere to the plot formula). Urban fantasy has become the easiest genre for me to write. You can do anything you want, as long as you tell a great story. If you want to write in a lot of hot sex, you're perfectly free to do so.

So, when I find someone who has left a review on my books stating they wanted to see a bit more sex, that's okay, because they've given me a 4 or 5 star review. That means the amount of sex--which by the way, other people who have read the book think it's perfectly hot, and the various men I introduce are hot, and make for an interesting story--doesn't matter. It is the story which I've told that keeps people riveted to the pages.

Each genre has it's own restrictions, and plot formulas to adhere to. Mysteries are nearly devoid of the need for sex. Sexual tension, or even a budding romance between two characters is okay, but no bedroom scenes. The same goes for science fiction--unless that has changed. Urban fantasy seems to be, at least for me, the most freeing choice to write in.

What do you prefer to read or write? Urban fantasy? Paranormal romance? Other? Why do you like to write it? Let me know. I think it would be interesting to have people chime in on this.

Updates on Writing

Sunday I decided I would work on the 4th book and I DID! I didn't go on line until later in the morning.
I've now got 2 solid chapters finished on the fourth book. I used the notes I'd made and filled it in, using scenes and dialoug I had written from before.

I actually got 16 pages of this book done--1st draft. I feel happy about it.

Still debating the title. I know it has to change. I don't think it fits, Crescendo, any more. It's more of a Nocturn, I think. And I don't know if I need to put the word Vampire into it. I'll put the question out there and see what the consensus says.