Today my guest is Romance writer, Judi Fennell, author of In Over Her Head, the first in the Mer-Trilogy, available June 1, 2009.
Reality comes crashing down along with the high of a publishing contract when deadlines arrive fast and furious, life intervenes, holidays show up sooner than they should, and the dang story doesn't want to be written.
Normally when I write a story, I fashion it. I picture the setting, get a feel for where the story is going, and then let the characters out of the starting gate. Add a bit here, tweak this, move that, write the words.
Until the most recent one—the first story written to deadline, under contract.
I liken the writing of this story to a sculptor who tries to bring the piece out of a block of marble. It's in there and up to him/her to bring it forth, as opposed to a builder who crafts the piece.
This story would not let me write it. This story wanted to emerge. I knew the middle, and fashioned the ending, but that beginning... I think I have two dozen different starts-no exaggeration.
Where to start, how much the reader needs, what is the story... questions I never had to deal with before. In other stories, the beginning was always there. The black moment was there. The character arcs were there.
This time?
Nope.
This time, I had the middle of the story. No sagging middle for this baby—which is great, as sagging middles can be problematic. But the beginning, where you meet the characters, like them, find something about them to root for...I had nothing.
Well, I had something—it just wasn't the right something. It was everything I needed to know and none of what the reader needed.
So, like a sculptor, I pared it down, layer by layer, rounding the curves, smoothing the edges, and, slowly (slower than I liked), the piece emerge, the story unfolded.
And became the piece of art I knew was in there.
Judi Fennell
Mer-Trilogy
In Over Her Head, Wild Blue Under, & Catch of a Lifetime
Published by Sourcebooks
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http://www.judifennell.com/
