Planner or Fly By The Seat Of Your Pants

We are nearly half way through the month of March and it is as crazy as I knew it would be. At the beginning of last month, I received my deadline schedule from my publisher from now until the end of 2013. I know that sounds like a long way from now, but in the publishing world it isn't. The big publishers want anywhere a competed manuscript anywhere from one to two years before it gets into the hands of the readers.

 

Part of that writing schedule is getting the first three chapters of book 3 in my Finding Anna series written by the end of this month. The book isn't due out until summer 2013, and we haven't even finished editing Need yet, but I'm having to think ahead and figure out where these two go next.

This, of course, brings me to the title of my blog post today. I, am not a planner when it comes to my writing. I know some authors are and that's great. It just doesn't work for me. When I write an outline, I find I follow it for two chapters at most and then one or more of my characters throw me a curve ball I wasn't expecting.

You might be asking yourself right about now, how does she know there are going to be four books in this series if she doesn't outline? I guess I should qualify and say I don't use a written outline. My outlines take form in my head and they stay there. I know what a book will cover in the general sense, but rarely is it specific.

Because of this, and my deadline being moved forward by about six months, I've been spending some time this week pondering the beginning of book 3. Three chapters is a lot more ground to cover than it sounds. And when starting a new book, even a book that will be the third in a series, it has to be compelling and make the reader want to continue reading.

After several hours of pondering, I think I've finally found my opening for the book. Where it goes from there... I'm leaving that up to my characters.

So if you're an author, are you a planner or do you like to fly by the seat of your pants and see where your characters take you?

BDSM = Violence Against Women?

I've been debating whether or not to speak out about this since it will just give more publicity to those who were trying to sensationalize to get ratings, but given that I write BDSM I felt I needed to voice my outrage on the subject. For those of you who don't know, the books Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed written by E.L. James were highlighted in a segment on the Today Show Friday morning. Since Ms. James is also an author with TWCS, I tuned in. If you haven't seen the segment, click here.


The first part of the piece wasn't bad. It talked a little about the books, the author, and featured a Florida book club talking about how the books had swept them away. It centered around the graphic sex in the books, which is fairly well known considering they are listed as erotica. They also had a sex therapist, Laura Berman, to talk about how she wasn't surprised by the success of the book and that Dominance and submission fantasies are among the most popular.


What upset me, along with many others who write and/or live the BDSM lifestyle was what came next. The host was joined by Dr. Drew Pinske and Dr. Logan Levkoff. It should have been a tip off when the host began the conversation by saying, "it's explicit, graphic and parts of it are disturbing." What was disturbing about it you ask? Apparently the BDSM.


Dr. Levkoff, a sexologist and certified sexuality educator, quickly jumped in and said how she didn't view the books as disturbing at all. "i think it taps into a fantasy women have in terms of role playing, getting out of their comfort zone."


Of course there had to be a counter point to Dr. Levkoff's view and that came from Dr. Drew who said, "as laura berman said in the piece, the swept away fantasy is common, but it's going beyond that into actual violence against women." That's right. You are not misunderstanding. Dr. Drew, although beating around the bush a bit, says that BDSM equates to violence against women. He goes on to say that there is a lot of violence against children as well and that people who are abused as children can become aroused by these images.


Think I'm reading too much into his comments? Dr. Levkoff doesn't think so. She wrote a blog post herself over the weekend saying how blindsided she was by what was said by Dr. Drew saying, " What should have been a segment on women's fantasies and why they are an essential part of our lives...segued into a larger (and more inappropriate) discussion on violence against women." To read the entire blog post click here.  


The bottom line, and the reason I decided to write this post was because I am quite frankly ashamed of Dr. Drew Pinske. He openly admitted to having not read the books, which in and of itself makes him lose credibility. However, dismissing an entire subculture is beyond disgraceful. Whether you are one of the many who have bought the Fifty Shades Trilogy or not, you should be offended by this man's comments. I know I for one will never look at  him the same way again when he's brought on a show as an "expert".

The Edits Have Begun

I know I've been M.I.A. for a couple of weeks. Things have been a little crazy in my life as of late and they don't look to be settling down anytime soon. I'm going to try and get back on my once a week update schedule for this blog but, as I'm sure you'll agree, writing and editing have to come first.

Speaking of editing... Yes. We have begun edits for Need (Finding Anna Book 2). The official edits started last week, and Need is now with my editor getting poked and proded. ;)

This is quite honestly one of the hardest times for me as a writer. I've turned my book over and now I wait, knowing that once it's returned to me it will be full of red/pink/blue marks and those awful yellow highlights. It's one of those things that, although I know it will make the final product the best it can be, it still makes me cringe seeing all those marks and notes.

If you've followed any of my guest blog posts, you may have heard me mention how bad a speller I am. If it were not for spell check, it would be a lot worse. But editors catch those things that spell check doesn't like your and you're or their and there. They're also great for those times when you know what you were trying to say but it doesn't come across quite that way to the reader. Editors are a fresh perspective, and a good one will want to work with you to make your story the best it can be.

The initial feedback from my editors was positive (with the spelling exceptions). So while I'm not exactly looking forward to the edits, I can say I'm excited to get them back and get moving on the story. I know most of my readers are anxious to read the next installment of Stephan and Brianna's story as well.

What about you? If you're a writer, is there a specific part of the process you like/dislike more than others?

The End Is In Sight!

This is going to be another update post, but for those of you who are waiting on pins and needles for Need: Finding Anna Book 2 you should like this one. I'm almost finished; at least with the writing part of the book. It's currently sitting at just over 76,000 words and I now know there will be one more chapter plus the epilogue. Who knows, I might even meet my January 25th deadline. (did you catch that that's tomorrow?)

 

One of the things I love about writing is that I'm along for the ride as much as my readers. Brianna threw me some curve balls in this book, but so did Stephan. He opened up more than I ever thought he would. You're going to learn more about Brianna as well as Stephan in this one.

The book is still currently scheduled for release in July. I'll have more details about that as the time draws closer. There is a lot of editing I have to do between now and then.

On a side note, my 3rd novel, Behind Closed Doors releases in 16 days (February 9th). To get more information about that book, go to www.thewriterscoffeeshop.com/publishinghouse or to my main blog www.sherri-hayes.blogspot.com.

I hope to get posts back on track starting next week. Thank you everyone for your support!

I'm late. I know...

but I have a really good reason. I've been writing!

Need is coming along nicely. I'm sitting at about 65,000 words right now, but there is still a good ways to go and my deadline is fast approaching. As soon as I post this, I'm back to work. Unfortunately, The Playroom post for this month isn't going to happen. I haven't had time to ask fellow authors to contribute and I haven't had the time to do the research myself. I somehow think you all would rather me be writing than researching a blog post, right?

Have a good day everyone! :)

Need

Good morning! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was mostly spent watching the NFL playoffs with my husband. I love football, american football, and incorporate it into my stories any chance I get. I did get a little writing done on book 2, but writing on the weekends is never overly productive for me.

I did however, have a major break through this weekend. If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I've finally figured out a title for Finding Anna Book 2. My editor was bugging me about writing the summary for the book, but I was hesitent since I didn't have a clue about the title. Usually I work that in the summary somehow, but without knowing it there was no way I could. Turns out, writing the summary was what made everything click. As soon as I'd written the short summary, it was there staring me in the face.

So what is this title you asked? The second book in the series will be called Need: Finding Anna Book 2.

Hopefully I will have the summary and cover for you soon. :)

Housekeeping

Morning everyone.

For this week's blog post, I thought it would be a good idea to do some housekeeping. Sometimes I feel like I'm being pulled in a number of different directions, so I want to make sure all my followers are up to date and on the same page.

 

1)I have two blogs. This one is specifically for my Finding Anna series and BDSM related posts. My other blog http://sherri-hayes.blogspot.com/ covers all my writing, books, etc.

2) Facebook. If you are not following my author page on Facebook, you are missing a lot of information. I don't post daily on either blog, however, I do tend to post every day or every other day on my author page. I always post links there to guest blog posts I do along with updates on my writing. I also share reviews and other fun stuff when I come across it.

3) Twitter. I'm not the best twitter updater, but I do try and post important links there as well as blog updates. If you'd like to follow me on Twitter, you can do so at @sherri_hayes.

4) In case you haven't been up to date on my blog posts, facebook, and twitter messages...I've just completed my third full length novel, Behind Closed Doors. The paperback is currently available for pre-order through The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House, and the ebooks will become available on the day of release, February 9, 2012.

5) TWCS now has a Goodreads group. If you've enjoyed reading some TWCS books, chances are you may enjoy some other ones as well. This is a great way to connect with other the authors and staff of TWCS, and other readers. We have a 'if you like this book you may like that' thread, a review cafe, as well as an individual thread for each of our books divided by genre. If you'd like to join, go to http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/58876.TWCS_Authors_Readers.

6) There are only 28 more days left to order your copy of Season of Love, which contains a short Christmas story from me titled 'A Christmas Proposal'. The story is available through TWCS or Amazon.

I hope everyone is having a great new year so far. There are a lot of exciting things planned on my end including the release of book 2 in this series.

Happy New Year, and don't forget those resolutions. ;)