I wanted to try my hand at another romance before I get back into the Operation books and the Twin series.

Just know this:

The new book will be a brother’s best friend trope (she’s going to fall for her brother’s best friend), and it involves baseball. This book has been living in my brain for some time now, and I can’t wait to get to started.

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When I put my descriptions into an AI generator, this is what it came up with. What do you think?

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This romance is going to take place across several years and will be a heroine falling for her brother’s best friend kind of romance. I’m still finalizing my outline and working out the kinks. Hopefully in a few weeks, I’ll be able to provide you with a Tuesday Teaser.

So, what should my next project be after this one? Take the poll and let me know your thoughts.

The post WIP Wednesday: A new romance? appeared first on Martha L. Thurston.

This week I decided it was time to change my routine. I gave every day (including weekends) a designated work assignment. I would alternate between writing and sewing. On days where it was a writing day, if writing ended or I was unable to write for eight hours, I could stop and do a sewing related activity. That seemed like a winner, right? I would still be working on a business activity either way.

The biggest problem is not the day designation. The problem is I enjoy sewing. I’ll find any excuse to go sew. At least on days where my depression doesn’t seep in and cause me to be listless while my anxiety re-examines every awkward incident and event in my life.

So today is a writing day. If I can manage to find my thumbdrive (I don’t know why it isn’t where it is supposed to be) I may actually have time to work on my novel. That’s another reason why I needed writing days. I have much to write and finish this summer. My goal is to have my book finished by the end of July. I’m certain I can do it as long as I can stay focused.

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I know what it is that I am going to have to do to get myself out of this mess. I need to go back and look at my outline and make some changes. I need to figure out how to write my way out of the corner I placed myself into. I don’t think that I anticipated this, but then again, I began writing this novel without an outline. It kind of bloomed on its own. That’s why I’m suddenly stuck. I did find my handwritten notes yesterday when I began to clean out my old file cabinet that I will be chunking. Those may help me some, but I don’t know how much. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I think I had an unlikely hero rise up, and I don’t really want him to be a hero. I need him to remain helpful, but not be the rescuer. I need my heroines to rescue themselves. They need to know that they can overcome this. I don’t even want mom and dad to come to their rescue.

That’s my WIP for this Wednesday. What are you currently working on? Let me know down in the comments.

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In order to get the feel for a book that I haven’t worked on in ages, I decided to edit what I had written. This would give the chance to add anything that I felt needed to be added, plus I could fix any misspelled words or grammar issues all while getting back into the story. Needless to say I was on Chapter 13 when I realized that I called a character (in the same chapter) two different names. I then had to scramble back to my character notes to determine which was the correct name. Of course, this made me doubt the rest of the book. Did I do that prior to this point? Is this the only slip up I made?

I wrote a post on character development this past week, and this made me think about how much I need to have my character sheet pulled up at the same time as I am writing. Especially with my character names. Sometimes it is just too easy to confuse a character’s name with something that sounds familiar, even more so when you are working on multiple things at the same time.

So now I’m off to work on my story some more, and run a few searches to see if I’ve used the correct name throughout the story.

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Chapter 1

The moon glowed eerily outside the large estate and cast long beams of light through the window as it painted the floor in a silvery light. Flashes of darkness intermingled with the light briefly like shadows of a tree dancing in the wind.

A soft, startled cry ushered forth from the lips of a blanketed silhouette. The huddle of bedsheets trembled and rocked, and soon the sound of humming emerged in a soothing tone to settle the frightened mound.

“Go to sleep, Mia,” the figure in the other bed pleaded.

A squeak replied in answer.

“What?” the young girl said groggily as she rolled over and sat up in the bed. She stretched her arms and pushed her long blonde hair back from her face as she watched the pile of sheets that covered her sister rock faster.

From beneath the sheets a long pale narrow arm emerged and pointed down at the floor between the two beds at the moonlight.

Bree looked down at the floor. “It’s the moon, Mia. It’s just the moon.” She fell back into the pillow on the bed. “Get some sleep! It’s our first day of high school tomorrow. I don’t need to go to school with dark circles under my eyes.” Out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of dark and light that swept across the ceiling like a winged serpent. She instinctively reached up and grasped at the pendant around her neck and rubbed the raised engraving of her name, “Bridget.” The necklace, her mother stated, was her protection. A gift she and her twin sister, Mia, had received this year at their fourteenth birthday party.

As she rubbed the necklace, she drifted off to sleep, but her sleep was one of strange dragons and shifting shadows.

The next morning, she climbed out of bed and glanced over at her twin sister Mia’s bed. Paper littered the bed, and the sketchbook and pencil sat ready for the next round on the pillow next to her sleeping sister. Bree reached over and picked up one of the drawings. Typical Mia, Bree thought as she examined the drawing.

Bree shivered as she looked down at the paper. It was a sketch of their bedroom with the moonlight streaming through the window, but on the outside of the window, a dragon streaked across the sky, and the shadows it cast on the floor was snakelike. “Mia,” Bree whispered. “Mom is not going to be happy to see these.” Bree scooped up the drawings and shoved them all in a nearby wastebasket. She then walked over and shook Mia slightly. “Wake up, Mia. Time for breakfast and school.”

Mia stirred, but she did not wake up.

“Mia, wake up. We can’t be late. I know you hear me.”

Mia rolled over and pulled the cover up over her head and placed her hands over her ears.

“Okay. You leave me no choice,” Bree said, and with a swoop of her hand, the cover slid down the foot of the bed. “It’s time to get up.”

Mia rolled over and looked up at her sister with a frown.

“I know you don’t want to go to school, but you have to go.”

Mia pushed her long, mousy-brown locks back and secured it with an elastic band that she had around her narrow wrist. She then held out her arms at her sister.

Bree looked her over and said, “No. Not on our first day of high school. You just want to be picked on, don’t you?”

Mia fell back on the bed.

“Don’t worry. I’ll help you.” Bree walked over to the closet and started pulling out clothing. “You really have to make more of an effort.” She stood and admired a pale blue top and a pair of jeans. “You have a lot against you, so you have to try harder.” She turned and held out the items in her hands.

Mia sat up, looked at the clothing choices, and rolled her eyes.

“I don’t care,” Bree said. “You’re wearing them. Tomorrow, you can wear your slouchy old sweatshirt and jeans if you want to, but today, you’re going to make a good impression.”

Mia stood up and walked over to Bree and snatched the clothes out of her hands. As she headed into the bathroom, she glared at her sister once more before she slammed the bathroom door behind her.

I swear, thought Bree. Why must I be my sister’s keeper?

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Is it more important to write or to write one certain thing? I can’t say that I have the one perfect answer for that. I do know that I have many great ideas that I want to start working on again. Plus, reading YA novels has given me the inspirational boost I needed. I think I felt that I was inadequate. My story well had dried up. At least some new insight has made me want to retry. Maybe it was the YAs, or maybe it was the book I was reading that stated it takes doing something 10,000 hours to improve. Have I even tried doing that for this many hours? Perhaps not. Either way, look for Wednesdays to be filled with WIP posts.

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I’m thankful for productive writing days. I’m thankful for days when the words seem to flow from my head, to my fingertips, and to the screen. Productive writing days make me feel accomplished and like a writer once more.

It’s been a long time since I felt like a writer. Each time that I sat down at the keyboard and attempted to complete a novel that has been 3 years in the making, only to come back empty, I felt like a failure. How could I go from churning out novel after novel, to suddenly nothing?

It is in these moments when the biggest advice I’ve read seems to come to mind: Just get the first draft out. I get so hung up on perfection that it stops me in my tracks. I want to go back and dwell on a sentence. I want to rewrite a paragraph until it flows effortlessly. These moments of perfectionism can wait. The first draft is all about telling the story and getting it out.

So what are your pitfalls when it comes to writing? Do you worry over the details as you go, or do you doubt the story once you start? Let me know in the comments below.

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I’m so excited. I found out today that my last book, Operation: Containment is at #639 in the category for Young Adult Zombie books. That’s exciting! I can’t wait to see it climb some more!

When I wrote the book, I wanted to write something with my son in mind. He was the inspiration for the book (and the cover!). When it first started out, it was to only incorporate some of the lore of the area where we were living with some of the unexplained things (my students loved to come in and tell me their “ghost” stories).

I have also finally decided on a name for my current WIP, which has been a WIP for some time now. The 1st book based on my Necklace series will be titled Legacy, which I also hope to title the series (if I choose to continue that into a series). Right now, I really want to finish up the Operation 2nd book. I have too many books that I really want to write, but with teaching, I never have enough time to write.

Stay tuned to see what will happen.

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