Novella Love

Okay, so things in Ashenden world aren't so great. On the up side, I have nearly finished my novella. And when I mean novella, I mean the-little-story-I-thought-would-be-20k-at-most-that-ended-up-being-47k novella. I have no idea why this story got so out of hand. I thought it would be a nice little friends-to-lovers story, where the heroine asks the hero for help and then they have some sexy times together, work out their tiny conflict and then The End.

But no. That's not what happened.

Layers happened. My characters ended up having more layers than a really layery onion and that's why my nice little 20k novella ended up being a 47k monster.

You see that's what happens when you dig deep. You kind of chip away at the surface conflict and suddenly you see, ooh, bright and shiny, MORE conflict. The REAL conflict. So you start digging away into that and then suddenly you realise that's NOT the real conflict. So you keep going. But wait, there's MORE! And then, another 20k later, you finally get to the real, ACTUAL conflict.

Stupid characters.

Anyway, I started out writing this for fun. As a way to do something different and because I wanted to write what I really love writing, which I guess you could say is short length Single Title. Short length cos I hate sub-plots and secondary characters (hence why I like writing category) but not category so I don't feel constrained by language/hawt stuff restrictions. I don't know what to call it really. Dark, angsty category? Dirty, dark, angsty category?? Whatever, the great thing about it is that I really, really liked writing it. Loved. And I hesitate to say it wrote itself but...well, it kind of did. It felt like finally all the stuff I've been learning about character and plot and conflict came together naturally and became part of my process without me having to worry about it. I didn't even really think too hard about the conflict, I just sat and wrote and it all came out.

So, I'm not quite sure what to do with it now. I do love my dyslexic, extreme sports loving hero and my rather buttoned up lawyer heroine so maybe I'll end up subbing them some place. But one thing's for sure, I like this story. I think it's good. I think it deserves to be read and I think people should pay me money to read it. ;-)

Have you written anything different lately? Have you written anything you really totally love that you want people to pay you to read?

Rethinking The 10%

Last year I posted a somewhat gloomy post about how getting published was 30% talent, 30% hard work, 30% persistence, and 10% of luck (or something like that - don't ask me to check). And that the problem I had with that equation was that the 10% was something you had no control over. It might happen. Or it could never happen. It all depends on a combination of the right manuscript, the right publisher, the right editor, at the right time.

Or, in another analogy, a combination of wind speed, trajectory, and the weight of the pig.

Yeah, gloomy, depressing. And I am a great one for looking on the depressing side because sometimes you just don't want to hope.

Luckily I have a mother who is the most incredibly supportive person you could ever want to meet (hi Mum!) and something she said to me last night got me thinking about that old 10%. She reckoned that if luck is involved, all it means is that you have to spread your net wider until you eventually catch something. The wider the net, the greater the chance.

I know, people have been saying this to me for a while now and I have been listening. It's just that I'm a person who gets very focussed on one thing and shifting that focus can be difficult. But this year I'm going to give it a go. This year I'm going to try something a little different.

And starting it off is going to be my first attempt at a novella. I've never really liked short stories to be honest (except for Roald Dahl) - I like my stories long. And as far as writing one...I have difficulty with keeping under 50k let alone writing reeeeeaaaallly short. But I had an idea for a shorter story a couple of weeks ago and...well...gotta widen that net, right? Besides, as my six year old keeps telling me, 'only try, Mummy. You have to try'. :-)

So, anyone else widening their net and trying something different? If so, what is it? Share!