This n that

Didn't get a damn's worth of writing done this week. Figures. Just can't write while stressed out. But yesterday, stress was allieviated somewhat, so I managed to crank out a page of outline for what I want to accomplish in this chapter and which existing scenes I'll be using where. Then I did a page of actual writing, so hopefully today I'll make a big dent in chapter 12 progress.

I've also signed up for Sylvia Day's Word 2004 Challenge, her NaNoWri alternative. So that should help me get the lead out a bit. Even if I'm stressed, I'll probably still make the effort to write something each day.

CeCe and I had an interesting email exchange about voice and conformity yesterday. The two of us are very big on the former, and pretty resistent to the latter.

She has a very mainstream spare way of writing. She mixes 1st person pov and 3rd. She writes about personal character growth and hot sexy romance. To me she's mainstream. But she's been targetting Chick Lit--and there's definitely room for her style there with all the morphing/expansions that that genre has been going through. But, mho, she'll end up mainstream, sort of like Marsha Moyer or Jessica Davis Stein.

I was explaining to Cece that part of the reason I'm so frustrated with this revision is because my voice has changed since I wrote it, so it feels like I'm working in a straight jacket. I really feel strongly that I'm going to end up in that shadey mixed-genres area that will include a strong love story at the core, but also a mystery, paranormal touches, and I can think of at least one series I plan to write that includes historical flashbacks.

I'm leaning more and more towards not censoring my language (as I do now in writing my first 2 contemporary romances.) And I've already dipped my toe into the 'not quite heroric' character pool with my second set of H/h. She's an alcoholic, he's a tad on the amoral side. Oh, and did I mention this is an interracial couple? *g* I see plenty more of these types of flawed complex characters populating my books in the future, including the *some* of edgy subject matters that *may* come as baggage with them.

On the flip side, I'm a goof. I love to laugh and joke and my sense of humor ranges from snarky/clever to cheesy/tacky. No matter how dark I plan a story to be, my humor makes it through in the actual execution. Some character is always a smart ass, sassy, wry, or a goof. . I'm getting a handle on how to better blend this humor stuff with the straight forward prose/ poetic metaphore that is my voice. But it won't happen if I box myself in with genre expectations.

More off topic. In surfing around for those links I used above, I came across this chuckler on Nina Bang's affiliated site Got Sex Authors. Master of Ecstasy is fun & funny book. Check it out.

What a long assed post.