Sunday Snippet: The Writing Furiously Edition

And so I have been, writing furiously that is. Close to 8ooo words in a week. That’s pretty heavy writing for yours truly. One thing that has really helped up that word count is sprinting. If you don’t already know, sprints are timed writing challenges that writers do together. Sometimes it’s just Liz and me, other times it’s Liz, me, and several Tule authors that get together online. We chat for a few minutes (okay, whine), and then we turn off our cameras and mics and each spend anywhere from 25 minutes to 50 minutes writing. It’s not a time for editing or research, it’s a time for getting words on paper. Full speed ahead and damn the consequences.

Sometimes the words are great words, sometimes they’re meh, and once in a while, they suck, but we’re writing. And here’s the thing that every writer knows: You can’t edit a blank page. My words this week have been mostly good ones. Max and Lauren’s story is chugging along in my head and each time I sit down to write, the words flow. That’s a terrific feeling in case you’re wondering, because if you think that when I get up early every morning to write, words naturally come… well, they don’t.

There have been many predawn hours when I’ve sat in front of my computer just staring, willing the words to come, and they don’t. I’m not sure at all how people who put out ten or fifteen books a year do it. My publisher graciously gives me roughly three to four months to write approximately sixty thousand words and I use every moment of that time. Bear in mind, of course, that I don’t spend every working moment writing my own books. I also have a full-time job as a freelance copy editor–you know the day job–so I also spend time each day on editing gigs. Plus I do pro bono work for an arts organization and I maintain this website and produce a column every third week for another… so there are always words–either fixing other people’s or producing my own.

Speaking of words, here are the opening ones to the work-in-progress. (I know it’s been ages since I posted an actual snippet, so here ya go.) It’s Book 2 in my newest series for Tule Publishing, which I’m calling The Langes of River’s Edge, but I have no idea what Tule has in mind for a series title. This book doesn’t have a working title yet beyond “MaxandLauren,” but that’s okay. It may not be far enough along yet for a title.

She didn’t pick him because he was gorgeous, even though he definitely was gorgeous. No, that wasn’t the reason. She chose him for the simple fact that he was smiling and had the gentlest gray eyes she’d ever seen, and in that moment, a gentleman, a gentle man, was exactly what she needed.

Hope you’re intrigued.

Stay well, stay safe, and most of all, mes amies, stay grateful!