Do Not Pass Go...

Photo: New America(.net)

"...I write chapter outlines so I can have 

the pleasure of departing from them later on..." 

- Garth Nox

Hey! I know that I have not posted in about a month but I'm still here ;-} I've been wrestling my wip. Until now, I've been happily flying by the seat of my pants - 30,000 words' worth (yay). Then... crickets. Enrolled in a few RWA online workshops, a few lightbulbs and a bit of inspiration garnered another 4,000 then those damned crickets returned (Grrr). Plan B: return to my bread and butter - research. Deborah Dixon (G.M.C.) Angela Knight (Passionate Ink), Buckham & Love (Break Into Fiction). The ladies helped quite a bit, but they also filled my head with a cacophony (grimace). After yet another night, when squeezing out a sentence felt like passing a gallstone, I 'stepped' back and ruminated on the/my process. Let me tell you, it was not a pretty sight. 

There I was, on the raggedy edge...

Solely 'pantsing' was obviously not working; but writing out intricate diagrams and charts for my nearly dozen characters (major, minor and walk-ons) SO did not work for my flow either. I thought that I had to be either a pantser or a plotter. I chose one and stubbornly clung to it. But, as this journey continued, and I struggled to fit my metaphorical red tipped feet into too small stilettos (ouch!), I realized that I became caught up in semantics.   What if I'm not one or the other but a little bit of both - defined by my own particular spicy flow? Isn't that what a writer does: take the bits and pieces that fit and file away the rest for possible future use? Time to mix it up a little.

I grabbed my trusty notebook. I wrote major character templates before I wrote a single wip sentence. But they were never complete. Now I realize that's because I'm discovering new things about my characters as the plot develops and new conflicts get thrown into the mix. Cool, I can work with this. But I've started a 2nd notebook - all plotting to keep it clear. One short paragraph for the overall chapter's theme, one sentence for each scene within that chapter, then I get my pantser on and keep adding layers in no particular order. I'm finding that my 'Temple outline' keeps me focused and gives me clear direction (even if I make changes in the interim). Before I knew it I had pantser-plotted my way to the end - hallelujah!

I've given myself a tentative completed draft deadline - 1 June. And for the first time I think that I just might actually make it. Alright back to work. Send me some positive vibes. Allons-y!

'Til we meet again,

Temple 

Alpha inspiration

Joe Manganiello - yeah I know, yuuuuummmmm!

"You saw. They're all teeth and fight and sex."

Alcide Herveaux, True Blood

I've been working on a nasty little sex scene between my heroine and hero and decided that I needed to do a 'net photo crawl for a bit of inspiration. I have a clear picture of my heroine in my mind. As for my hero, he's my uninhibited mental compilation of everything I love about the male spirit, mind and body. You know the man who'd you'd only kick out of your bed so you could fuck him on the floor. Still, I needed a visual inspiration for my alpha male - the better for quality writing, of course. Joe/Alcide is Ridge Copeland personified...sigh. Oh how I suffer for my art ;-} Okay, back to work.

'Til we meet again,

Temple

The Wild Wild West

Photo from Miss Oakley's Wiki-biography

"Refuse to behave." - Jaid Black

Research Alpha

"He was Special Forces after all. He had been trained by the best to quickly assess an unexpected situation and adapt his ops plan to handle it.

He'd fuck her up against the bar."

- The Good Professor, Temple Bryon

You'd think that writing Erotic Romance(s) is all about hott sex. And you'd be right ;-} And while this challenge is a happy, gleeful, and joyous one, there's quite a bit more to it. In developing a wip, my first task is to create a world in which hott sex gloriously exists. Of course that world is built around my heroine and hero.

I'm a Pantster. For me that means I write the story as it pops into my naughty mind, and I research while I write. Although I'm a seat-of-the-pants writer, I did begin with a firm vision of who my hero and heroine are - more about my heroine later. In a word, my hero is an Alpha (yummy!) In The Good Professor, my hero - Ridge Copeland is a retired Marine (Special Forces). In his 'new' life, he's the founder and head of a securities company (i.e. uber hott bodyguards). And while my imagination is fertile when it comes to my ideal Alpha male (physical and emotional characteristics), I only had vague ideas about the military/military culture. And just to keep this interesting, I'm not only writing about one Alpha, but a team of Alphas and a few secondary Alpha characters as well (all some sort of military) - yeah, I don't do much easy. So I've been spending a great deal of my Panster time on 'Research Alpha: different types, lingo, guns, hand-to-hand combat, counter surveillance, defensive driving, etc. Let me tell you, it's a fascinating complex world and I can't wait to see where this particular leg of my journey will take me.

'Til we meet again,

Temple