I got back into a writing routine today.  It took a good month and a half, but it’s finally back.  I am going to admit that I tend to panic when I get out of the routine and after I finish a book (unless I’m in the middle of another book at the time).  From time to time, I worry that I’ll lose my creativity and that I’ll never be able to write another book again.  Even after publishing 29 romances, I worry about it.  You’d think I’d understand that creativity is an infinite resource, but I don’t.  😀

As I sat down to sort through the stuff I had started last year, I realized that I’ve already completed 40,000 words of Mitch’s Win.  I halted writing on the book because I wasn’t sure which direction to go with the plot.  I decided to skim through it, and as I did, I knew what I should do to finish it.  So I decided to get back to it.  I’d like to finally finish it and publish it.  I really do enjoy the story, but it’s important I get it exactly right.  It’s time I went ahead and finished it.  I figure I have 10,000 to 25,000 words left to go.  That puts me at roughly the end of February for finishing the first draft.

I’m now 20,000 words in Runaway Bride, and as unbelievable as it sounds, Lexie’s mom isn’t so bad after all.  😀  However, it’ll take some time before the likable side of her fully emerges.  While the evolving romance between Lexie and Mark is fun to write, I’m also having fun watching Lexie’s mom from Lexie’s point of view.  She has no real redeeming qualities in Suddenly a Bride.  She was meddlesome, bossy, and snobbish.  In this book, she is these things, but it turns out there are other traits she has buried beneath the surface, and it’ll be exciting to see how that other side of her will emerge.  Mark is going to be the one to bring that side out, too, which will be even more fun to explore.  One thing about writing romances is that the stories are always more than just romances; there are many layers involved with relationships between the hero and heroine, the family members, the friends, and even those who don’t get along.  Those layers in dealing with the relationships is why I love writing romances as much as I do.  In my opinion, the other genres don’t give that level of depth into who the people are.

I am close to 16,000 words in this one.  Sandy has been trapped in her book with one of the characters pretty much hijacking the story because she’s not writing it to suit his will. Needless to say, she’s not happy, so this is one of those heroines that will be giving our hero grief.  Those heroines tend to be on the more unpopular side, but it’s the only way she can be given her past.  I plan to bring Sandy into Runaway Bride, so I’ll offer a little more background to help set the stage for this book.  Sometimes in a series I will throw in a scene or two that doesn’t do much to enhance the plot of that particular book, but if you read the series, then it makes another book more interesting.

The way I see it, a series is like a tapestry.  Each book (even if it’s complete in itself) lends itself to a larger picture, and when you read the books in the series, you see that picture.  One thing I love to do is cross series for an even bigger picture.  I like connecting characters from one series into another.  I have plans to merge the Nebraska books with the Montana books.  (Mitch’s Win starts the Montana Historical Romances), and the secondary character, Boaz, will end up marrying one of Dave and Mary’s daughter.  I just haven’t decided if Boaz will go to Nebraska or if Dave and Mary’s daughter will go to Montana.  I’m looking for a way to slip in a Larson into a Regency somewhere, but I don’t know if that will work or not.  It’d be fun if I could get it to work somehow, though.  But that is what I love about not focusing on one series.  There are more possibilities when I can work with more than one time period and more than one group of characters in their “world.”

I am not sure how fast I’ll go with this one, but since I started it, I want to see if I can go somewhere with it.  I’m almost at 8,000 words.  I’d like to make it a novella, something to explain what happens to Christopher (Perry’s ward in The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife).  I’d like to write it before getting into Perry’s book because I want to bring Perry into the plot as a single gentlemen.   I’d like to give the poor guy one more “lost chance” at love so we can appreciate it all the more when he finally finds his true love.  I know, it’s probably cruel to watch a character suffer since Perry wants so badly to be married, but in other ways, the wait makes the reward all the better.  😀  My plan is to make it 30,000 words, but if it becomes a longer book, then it’ll be a longer book.

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So that is my current list.  This is why I can’t go with a publisher.  I have way too much freedom that I enjoy in publishing these books on my own.  I can do whatever I want with the characters and mix them up in different series.  The world is a lot more open and the possibilities endless.  I’ve also learned I need the word count goals and widgets to stay motivated.  I’ve tried writing without those word count widgets on this blog, and it hasn’t worked.  So I put them back.  You can see them on the right.  I haven’t added His Reluctant Lady to the list but probably will soon.  My main focus will be on Mitch’s Win, Runaway Bride, and His Abducted Bride.  I also learned that I need to work on more than one book at a time.  I just can’t work on one book at a time.

I guess the lack of writing wasn’t a total waste.  In writing this blog post, I realized I learned a lot about what works best for me.  😀