Written on Thursday, July 31, 2008 by haleigh
It's official.....
I have a first draft.
Woo hoo!!!!!! I was running around my house squealing last night when I finished. My husband, who does try his best to be supportive but really doesn't get it, says "Oh good, you're all the way done?" (he's been a little bummed by me completely ignoring him for the past week). And I stop squealing and spinning and say, "No, this was just the first draft. Now I have to start at the beginning and re-write most of it." So he sighs, pastes on a big fake smile and tells me congratulations.
The end still ins't quite how I want it, and most of the beginning needs to be scrapped and re-written. And there are three or four major plot changes I made along the way that created huge inconsistencies.
I think I'll make a list of everything that needs to be changed as they come to me, and next week (cause I need some time off - whew!) I'll get back to it and get this baby polished and shining.
In the mean time.......I have a first draft!!!!!!!
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Written on Monday, July 28, 2008 by haleigh
So I turned off my email when I got home Friday, sent the hubby to his parents house, and cloistered myself in a room. At one am on Sunday night/Monday morning, I am finally emerging.
My legs and back are sore from sitting on a futon, I've drank 3 two-liters of diet coke and eaten I don't know how many frozen pizzas, and have inadvertently called my dog by my heroine's name on multiple occasions.
All this to say that in 56 hours, I wrote 15,564 words.
Hot damn!
Does this happen to anyone else? I call it binge writing. Once I get the end firmly in sight, I can't stop. My house is a mess, I'm out of clean clothes and groceries, and yet I can't stop. Concentrating at work tomorrow will be impossible, mostly because I know if I just had one more day, I'd finish. Finish!!
Ideas and sentences and sights and words are spinning around in my head at an alarming rate. I just have to ride out the binge until I have a first draft. Than I'll close the laptop, give a big sigh of relief, scrub my house and do some laundry, and finally come back to start over on the re-writes. *Sigh*. I can't wait :)
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Written on Friday, July 18, 2008 by haleigh
Though "frustration report" would probably be a better title than "progress." After almost a month of writing only one single, tiny, lone little paragraph, I am finally back on track. I think. I wrote 5,000 words this week, so I'm at least moving in the correct direction, if not perfectly.
I'm finding myself stymied on the suspense side of the romantic suspense plot. The romance side I have done. In fact, the suspense side has kind of faltered, and they're just spending a lot of time in bed, waiting for the bad guy to show up and cause a ruckus. Not the best plot device, but they seem to be enjoying themselves.
So I decided to make a list of all the possible things that could happen on the suspense side. Of course some of them are ridiculous, like the bad guy could blow up the apartment building where she lives and poof - that would be that. Or Cole could capture the bad guy, tie him to a chair, and torture him until he talks. Interesting, but not really going to fill 30,000 words unless I want to get really gory.
But having a list of options seems to be helping. Getting the creative juices flowing, so to speak. So let's see if I can make it to the end. I'm offically at the 2/3 mark, which is exciting. Not as exciting as Marnee finishing and winning our little contest (yay!!!), but still progress!
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Written on Friday, July 18, 2008 by haleigh
It's been a while since I posted an excerpt, so I thought I'd stick one up here. In this scene, Cole going to visit his former mother-in-law, Maura, and his ex-wife shows up. Needless to say, Shae's snarky side comes out in full force
..............
“I still can’t believe you let him in this house,” Adrianna said to Maura.
He dropped the knife and slid his arm along the back of Shae’s chair. “Here it comes,” he said under his breath.
“And there’s the matter of alimony that I didn’t receive this month.”
Shae blinked, seemed to come back around. “Who gets alimony anymore?” she whispered.
He grinned at her before turning back to Adrianna. “I’ve been declared dead, Aid. You cash a check from my account right now and you’ll find your pretty little butt in jail.” He feigned reaching for his wallet. “I’m more than happy to write you one. See what happens.”
She huffed, scooped up a serving of Pad Thai and plunked it on her plate. “You’re a jerk.”
“Yeah, I’ve got names for you too.”
“All right, children,” Maura said, passing the bowl of pasta to Shae. “Can we eat now, or do we have to listen to more of this?”
Adrianna rolled her eyes and started eating. Thank god she couldn’t talk and chew at the same time. She must have perfected that shrill voice, practiced until it was just the right decibel to drill into his skull. He took another swig of his beer. He nudged Shae under the table with his knee and raised an eyebrow.
She smiled around a mouthful and swallowed. “It’s good. I don’t know why you’ve had me cooking this whole time.”
“You were more heating than cooking.”
“True. Oh!” She turned to Maura. “The food you left in Cole’s cabin is great. Way better than anything he or I could have come up with.”
Adrianna froze with her fork halfway to her mouth. “You’ve been in the cabin?”
Shae nodded and smiled politely. Shit. He knew what was coming.
“Who are you?”
“Uh...” Shae glanced toward him.
Before he could help, Adrianna said, “Are you sleeping with him?”
“Adrianna!” Maura said. “Can someone in this family pretend to have table manners?”
“Oh, it’s okay,” Shae said. She turned to Adrianna with a smile would have terrified Cole had it been directed at him. “No, I’m not sleeping with him. I’m his prisoner. He keeps me chained in the cabin and trots me out for family dinners.”
Silence. Adrianna’s face flushed red with outrage. Shae kept that smile in place - one that showed too many teeth to be sincere - and took another bite. Maura muttered something and rose to get the bottle of Bourbon kept on the sideboard. She poured it into her glass and took a swig.
He squeezed Shae’s knee under the table for being a good sport, scooped the rest of the Pad Thai onto his plate, and finally started eating.
Adrianna was still sputtering. She threw her fork down on the table. “I’m not putting up with this.”
Maura poured more Bourbon. He wondered how drunk she’d have to get to be okay with him killing Adrianna. If he could just get his hands around her neck....he sighed and pushed aside the fantasy. For now. “Put up with what? I’m working on a case. She’s in my custody until I finish it.”
She squinted at Shae. “Aren’t you that reporter?”
“Oh look,” Shae said. “She’s bright too.”
Adrianna gasped and leaned forward, bracing her hands on the table. “Do you want to know why Cole and I split up?”
“He said it was because you’re bad in bed.”
“Oh Lord,” Maura said. She drained her glass, scooted back from the table, and started picking up plates. Cole’s was half full, but he let her take it anyway.
He glanced at Shae out of the corner of his eye. “I said it was because I was bad in bed.”
She grinned and shrugged. “I know.”
“It’s because he killed my father.”
Cole scrubbed his hands over his face. “Great.”
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