In order to produce a good story, your author needs to climb into the story, if she can. Focus and imagination are required. With luck, she’ll be as involved with the characters as you are when you read a good one and lose track of the world around her.
Alas that is not always (sometimes not often) the case. First there are the immediate distractions—phone calls, physical discomforts, schedule conflicts, noise, and so on. Then there are the broader ones and those are worse. That last book—how is it doing and do you have promotions planned. Have you heard from the publisher about your proposal? Will your work in progress fit as well with your ongoing series or planned collection as you hope. Is it any good? Maybe you should check on messages from your writers group about it. Your goals are slipping; better check your planner. Why can’t you stay on a good writing schedule. AND SO ON.
This week I want to make serious progress, and perhaps finish “Music in the Night,” my story for the Dukes All Night Long collection from Dragonblade, in which each story will take place primarily at night, and involve or at least mention a duke. It is worked out in my head but it will take that focus and imagination.
But my writer’s brain has a dozen or more balls bouncing back and forth in it. I owe Dragonblade a response to my proposal about republishing the Danger and Empire series. I have an idea I’ve been mulling that I should reinstate “Facts Behind the Fiction,” the mid week blog I used to call “Highlighting History.” It offered guest authors space to share the research they did for a particular book. The advantage to me is that posts like “Gigs and Pony Carts,” “The slums of London,” and “Forced Marriage in Regency England,” have driven traffic to my website regularly, long after they were posted. I need to write up an invitation and set it up in SignupGenius, no? Oh yes, I’m in charge of the Bluestocking Belles’ Brunch on Saturday. My topic is Easter through History…that will take research, for sure.
Of course, it is both Passover and Holy Week. I celebrated with the Jewish part of the family Saturday night. I have choir Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and I love it. Sunday they are taking me to the shore for Easter dinner.
Sigh. I think I need to respond to Dragonblade’s questions about the series I want to republish first. I should be able to focus better the next two days. I hope. But first, coffee.