Lynn Raye Harris

Determination and caffeine got me through this round of revisions. Oh, and a hubby who didn’t mind going to get the takeout every night this week. And who actually did a load of laundry last night. And now, since in another hour I will have been awake 24 straight, I think I better go to bed. I’m too old for all-nighters….

more cat

Still revising, y’all. Someone throw me a rope before I drown…..

Hope to be back Wednesday or Thursday.

I think I must be a maniac. I’ve started another book. I’ve barely recovered from the last one, and yet an idea cropped up. I’ve written about 1500 words, so not much at all, but enough to get the idea simmering.

It’s hard waiting to hear back on the book I just sent, but I’ll distract myself with a new one. I think. I just have this antsy, can’t sit still feeling. I can’t putter around the house, catch up on the laundry, breathe, go grocery shopping, or any of the things I’ve neglected. No, must start another story. I have delusions of grandeur that I’m like Nora’s soul sister or something, but yeah, right. *g*

Must calm down, must put on the wisdom cap and know I’ll be waiting a while. Must think straight, must decide what is best to write at the moment. Must not neglect San Francisco preparations in crazy hazy desire to write new story….

What do you do when you’ve finished writing a book? Start another one right away? Or take a break and enjoy life a little bit first? How do you get off the treadmill?

Hmm, after several months of non-stop work, I find myself bookless. Bookless as in I don’t have a book to write. What shall I do? Work on the lawn? Do the laundry? Clean the house?

Um, NO! I’m going to catch up on my reading and WRITE another book!! Like most writers, I don’t lack for ideas. I have several. I could write the next book in my romantic suspense series, or I have another idea for a Presents novel. Probably, it’ll be the Presents I get to work on.

Why? Because I had SO much fun writing the last one and I want to do it again! Writing that book was like coming home. Crazy, but true. I’m a little bereft at being done with Alejandro and Rebecca’s story. (Though maybe I’m not done at all — revisions, you know.)

I’ll probably also finish the proposal to the next RS — just because I love the story and want that blueprint available.

Writers: what do you do when you finish writing a book? Immediately start a new one? Revise the old one (I should mention there were two drafts of TSMR to this point)? Take a break and play? Cry and miss the characters? Want to blow them up? (That was me with HOT PURSUIT.)

Today, check out my guest post about my writing journey over at the I Heart Presents site. I talk about what it’s like working with an editor.

And, in related news, I typed The End to THE SPANISH MAGNATE’S REVENGE last night. I’m so thrilled! Now, must think a bit on it, and then off it goes.

THE SPANISH MAGNATE’S REVENGE is almost done. I’ve been buried in the ending. I always get this way — grumble, groan, moan along the way, and then I hit somewhere before the black moment and the ball starts rolling so fast I can barely keep up. I write as much in the last few days as I did in the first few weeks. It’s crazy, but apparently that’s my process.

I owe emails. I owe blogs. I owe time to family and friends. I cannot escape the grip of this story. But it’s almost done. Soon, I’ll emerge from the cocoon and wonder what’s happened around me.

Hope you writers are getting much done!!! Does this happen to you, btw? Is there a certain point where the story takes you over so completely that eating and sleeping and showering are extreme impositions?

Aside from hot alpha males with attitude and heroines who whip them into shape? Travel. Exotic locations.

Finally, all that time in Europe is paying dividends! (Although it paid plenty of dividends when I lived and traveled there — priceless experience.) But now, I get to revisit those places I loved while I create the world of my Harlequin Presents story.

I didn’t stay in the Gritti Palace (pictured) in Venice, but it’s the inspiration for one of my hero’s hotels. The Gritti Palace starts around 500 Euros a night. Can you imagine?

There was a time, when I lived there, when that would have cost about $350. Today, it’s nearly $800. I don’t think I’ll be staying there anytime soon.

But I can imagine it! I can view the pictures and see my hotel come to life. I can imagine the luxury of that place, the service, the gorgeous views from that terrace. I’m doing armchair traveling to write this story and I LOVE IT! Why didn’t I do this sooner?

I always wanted to write for Presents. But I stubbornly kept putting it off. Until the Instant Seduction contest. I can’t thank HM&B enough for having the contest. I’d still be saying someday, and I wouldn’t be armchair traveling through my old guidebooks and getting inspired by pictures of sumptuous rooms and table settings.

What do you write and why do you love it? Do you love to armchair travel? What’s the best vacation you ever had? The coolest place you ever lived?

**Best Vacation: Venice
**Coolest Place I lived: Toss up between Europe and Hawaii

If it’s summer break, I’m not having any of it. I’m working. I have a book to finish, and it’s rolling along pretty good — so far.

I totally love it when a book starts to write itself. I love sitting down at the keyboard and knowing the only impediment will be how fast my fingers can keep up with what my mind creates. That’s not to say it’s all easy. No indeed. I still have those stretches where one set of ideas reaches a conclusion (at the end of a scene or chapter, maybe) and I need to figure out which direction to go for the next set.

Yes, I know, if I were a plotter who outlined extensively, I’d know where I was going. But chugging along is part of the process for me. I really love that enjoyment of discovery along the way. It’s like getting on a train and going for a trip to a place you’ve never been. If I bought a video of the trip before I went, and then watched it through, it wouldn’t be as exciting for me.

I love this part of being a writer. What I don’t love is the pain of self-doubt, the misery of waiting for responses to submissions, the sheer terror of going to the mailbox. I could do without those bits, thank you.

Right now, I’m on the downhill slide. My goal is to be done before 1 July. Then I have a trip to New Orleans over the 4th, back home for shopping for National, then the National conference at the end of the month. Once I get home again and recover from that, it’ll be September. Whew, this is a busy summer! Where’s the break?

How about you? Any big plans this summer? Any writing plans?

Inevitably, unpublished writers obsess about page counts, word counts, and format. It’s hard to understand how your masterpiece in progress stands up, length-wise, to your favorite stories if you don’t know how format is done. I think this post by Jessica Faust over at Bookends will help.

Basically, don’t obsess. I write in TNR 12, though I’ve tried 14 and I’ve tried Courier 12. When I want to know how many words I have page-count-wise, I put the whole thing in Courier 12 and do the 250 words per page thing for an estimate. Inevitably, this differs from the actual computer count.

For an explanation why, go see the blog post. It might help. Or it might simply confuse the issue further. Just make it readable, and understand whether the publisher you are targeting wants computer count or page count. But don’t sweat the small stuff, really. Story is key. Not margins, and not font.

So have you encountered the format nazi? The one who tells you your pages MUST be in Courier 12, or else? I think I was that person once. *sigh* It’s what I was told. But, OTOH, I did encounter people writing in TNR 12 and estimating total word count by 250 words per page. Obviously, their count would have been quite a bit short….

What’s your writing routine? Do you write early or late? Most creative between the hours of 10 & 2, but only if you’ve had a cup of coffee, a candy bar, and got out of bed on the left side instead of the right?

I’m on a deadline. Or a couple of deadlines, to be truthful. Self-imposed, certainly. And I have been hitting the keyboard regularly, staying for hours, writing more than I ever thought I could do in one day — and yet, there are still a few things I end up doing that I can’t seem to stop.

I get up around 7 usually, make coffee and come upstairs to my office. I check email. I read and comment on blogs. When Idol is going on, I check the Idol recaps. And then that thing known as procrastination sets in. My document is open, waiting for me on another screen. All I have to do is click over, read a few paragraphs, and start work.

But I keep finding things to do. I don’t want to click over. I don’t want to work. I can waste an hour (after the hour of email and blogs) avoiding work. Why?

Darn if I know, but it happens all the time. Once I get brave enough to face my manuscript, I’m off to the races. But it’s the getting brave part I have trouble with. This seems to be a nearly non-negotiable part of my routine. I can force myself to click over. But then I stare. And stare. The brain won’t function.

I think, maybe, I need that distraction of other stuff while my mind readies itself. Even when I start work, I’ll often click back to the Internet side when I finish a scene. I’m thinking about how to start the next scene. Sometimes, a hot shower is in order. Sometimes, like yesterday, I’ll vacuum or start laundry (no choice — inlaws arrived last night).

It sounds an awful lot like making excuses, doesn’t it? But it seems to work for me. Yeah, there was a time when I kept up the blog-hopping and surfing all day because I was S-T-U-C-K. I can’t do that anymore. People are waiting on me to get stuff to them. And I will not fail because I couldn’t face myself if I did. I certainly couldn’t face my hubby.

Unfortunately, I think a certain amount of time-wasting is part of my process. I just need an hour or so to play before I work, I guess. What about you? Do you waste time? Or are you a machine who works set hours and never deviates?