How do you do it?

Geez this writing business is damn hard work.

Okay. So I have this story that I've been dabbling with for a good 3 years now. I've named it Dragon Lord and as you guessed. It is about a Dragon Lord. Yes, my own creativity leaves me baffled and open mouthed in wonder. But I digress.

See, I've been plugging away at this - this THING. Leaving it and coming back to it. Adding. Subtracting. Heaven forbid re-writing. Until I've come to the point where I now have DL WIP 1, DL WIP2 and numerous versions of DL WIP3.

I've kept text that I'd removed and popped it in it's very own special document, just in case I wanted to come back to it. (I was so over remembering that I wrote something only to find out that I'd deleted it, so hence the Deleted Text document). Then there's the character charts, Idea documents and vague attempts at Plot lines and world building.

So of course I've totally confused myself to the point that I can't even remember which DL WIP 3 I was working on. Yes. I opened them all on the same day. *smacks head*

So. Over to the right there, you can see that I've put up a little progress meter. It shows progress on what is obviously Dragon Lord version 4. Yep, yep. I'm an idiot.

But this story wants to be told. I just don't know how to tell it. I thought that by starting from scratch it would be easier to pull together. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case. I can't totally turn my back on what I have previously written (17,000 words). There are some good bits there. Somewhere. In amongst the mind numbingly boring bits involved with getting from point A to B.

In all honesty I'm starting to go stark, raving BONKERS. This then sees me disenchanted with the latest version so I return to the previous one, telling myself that it wasn't that bad to begin with. Which means that I shelve the new one I started BUT there are parts of that that I quite like and may just be able to slot into the storyline, so it get's it's own little document. (can you see a pattern here?)

Also. I've noticed that V3 and V4 seem to be written in two very different voices and the characters are a bit different. For example in V3 my Hero is quite defensive and manipulative but in V4 he's coming cross as caring and a bit pathetic.

Plus, when I go back and read what I did in V3 I sometimes find myself stitting back and wondering. Who wrote that? Surely I didn't write that? But I did. See. Somewhere in there there are little hints of genius. Well, maybe that's taking it a bit far but there are things there that impress even myself.

Oooh look. Yummy. There's my hero *drool* It's as sexy as a half a head can get I suppose. ->

So. Where do I go from now? I probably shelve the whole lot. Because this is what I do every time I get in the mood to write. I start, get confused, get bored with getting confused and then put it all away. *sigh*

I think I have commitment issues.

I need to find myself a small Critique group that specializes in Romantic Paranormal Fantasy, or there abouts. I need to discuss my work with other writers. I need to learn so I work out how to get the Heroine to invite the scary Hero into her house ASAP so we can can get the story moving. Now keep in mind he will be naked and she will be sporting a wound thanks to him. Oh and then there's him changing into a Dragon thing. Geez, talk about baggage! Who in their right mind would invite THAT into the house? Honestly.

*sigh* I need a bex and a good lie down.

Heatwave

Oooh lookey, Heatwave's been released. Coming soon to TEB!

I was beginning to think that this cover had been swept under the rug. It's been a while since I did this one.

TEB made a light change and moved the Author's name down to just above the Title. Makes sense as in my version it's covering part of the woman's face.

So. It was a pretty straight forward cover. Changed the couples colouring (hue) to match that of the sunset a bit more. Then just blended the two images together using a layer mask.

The font was one I downloaded and from memory I just added a glow to the text.

I like how this came together. Let's hope it works for the Authors.

Not much else been happening. Been finishing up some more covers.

Don't you just hate it when you do something that you kinda know you shouldn't be doing but you do it anyway? It was suggested that I contact one of my authors to discuss a cover I was doing. The first version was vetoed and I needed to get more of a feel for what she was after. So I'd mocked up another cover and sent it to her for approval. I also sent that version to the publisher. Fine. Dandy. Not a problem. However, I stupidly created a 'option' version and for some reason sent that along as well. The publisher came back preferring the first version and of course the Author came back preferring the 'option'. Argh!

Stupid. I felt so bad. So there was a bit of bending over backwards to make up for my mistake. Claire was SO understanding. God she's awesome! Anyway, it all sorted itself out in the end. Mind you I ended up with THREE covers for them to choose from because I felt so awful LOL! I guess that's why contact with authors should be left to the publisher. Suits me to a tee. Too many cooks ... yeah, you get the idea :D

Oh. Did I mention my husbands van was written off the other night? A young fellow on his P's and driving dad's car hit it head on. He said a dog ran across the road in front of him and he swerved to miss it. I appreciate that he didn't hit the thing but I always remember being told not to swerve to miss an animal. Aaanyway, no biggie. The insurance will cover the cars and no-one was hurt, except maybe his pride. His young girlfriend was in the car at the time LOL! Oh well. We live and learn.

Edited to add: Hubby wasn't in the car. It was parked out the front of the house! LOL Thought I'd better add that so I didn't sound more worried about the animal than my husband. As tempting as it can be sometimes :D