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What's Bethany Writing?

Good morning everybody!

This posting has 2 parts...this part talks about the writing, the next part is going to be a FAQ of sorts. Anyway, moving right along:

This time I actually finished my coffee before posting, although today I seem to have a slight headache. Oh well! Push ahead anyway, right?

I've had at least one question on here regarding what I write and others in person and in emails. So, I thought I'd dive into that a bit. *Warning: I tend not to give a lot of details on public things like this, only a select few know specifics. I'm kinda private about the specifics.

Currently I have a novel in the works that is a fantasy romance (which is what I mostly write). While I won't go into many details, I will say it involves witches, vampires, mention of werewolves, centaurs, multimillionaire French man, flirting, magic, and a cat. As for the rest, I can't say. All I can tell you is I had a dream that gave the idea for part of the story and the rest came to me that morning. I wrote a synopsis, then began writing the actual novel. It started writing itself--I was moving along "like clockwork". But currently it's slowed down a bit. Part of that is because I'm figuring out some things and the other part is because I'm trying to get a clear idea as to where it's going. I let my characters lead the way...and sometimes I don't like where I go. And sometimes it doesn't look right--so revisions happen. (I will say I changed the female main character's name 3 times before I was happy with it).

My finished manuscript is with my editor, Debbie, and I'm looking forward to what she has to say about it. (I tend to be very harsh with my own work, but nicer when I look at other people's). I once joked with a friend of mine that I got so mad at one of my stories I was tempted to have the female main character go insane. Luckily I did not do that (and my friend, Sarah encouraged the character staying sane--kudos and shout out to her on that!)

I tried writing a sequel to one of my manuscripts and it wasn't working. For now, that's just my own story to look at. Not to share with the rest of the world (unless it's my husband).

I have another unfinished manuscript that was going well until about 130 or so pages into it. Then I was like "Wait, this character isn't being true to her personality. Something's wrong...where did I go wrong?" I still don't know how to fix it, so it's on hiatus while I work on the manuscript and then the edits to the finished one. My kid's God-sister (shout out to K.H.!) was disappointed when I told her that one was on hiatus. But, sometimes something doesn't work and when the writer goes back to it sometimes it falls into place. So I'm giving that manuscript space.

The one thing you can almost always count on with me is to find a character who offers a bit of comic relief. That's something I like to do because, like I've said, I have a goofy sense of humor--so I like to have a little comedy in there somewhere. (In one of my manuscripts it was a fairy that was a bit goofy...in another it was my male main character's best friend, in another it was my female main character's best friend...in any case, you get the idea. It's generally a minor character who's important to a main character, but not the focal point). If any of my work gets published you'll have to look for the comic character and see if you can figure out who it is...I won't tell (I'll only say if you're right or wrong!)

If you're a writer, make a stop at Regina's
blog. She's got a survey up on her post for today for writers that I think would be helpful to all of us writers!

Don't forget to check out some of the authors' websites that I mentioned in previous posts:

Laura Childs

Ciara Gold

Lynn Kurland

John Girsham

Nicholas Sparks

Kimberly Frost


Kerrelyn Sparks

Robin McKinley

Stephenie Meyer



Have a Fabulous Friday!

Comments

Regina Quentin said…
Wow! You have so much working right now. That's great. You'll have plenty of material when you query. Those were some excellent author web page links. I recommend that writer's check out yola.com or weebly.com to build themselves a free website if they don't have one already. I think it is important to have a web presence. You raise great points.
Bethany said…
Thanks, Regina. And thanks for adding to the advice. Sometimes I don't know something that will help others, so I appreciate the input! Have a fabulous day!
Bethany said…
P.S. I'm actually only working on the one manuscript while my finished one is with my editor. The other manuscripts are "on hold". I don't know if I made that clear in the post, if I didn't, I apologize!

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