June 2019: Wish You’d Known
~ Marie Dry ~
CTR asked:
What is something you wish you’d known when you first started writing? (Craft or career).
Marie Dry said:
I wish I knew my first book would sell well and that I would be able to write a whole series. I had to write the rest of the series as fast as I could and I’m a slow writer. Compared to all the other writers who seem to comfortably put out four or more books a year I feel like a snail. Then I’d get to book three and realize I said things in book one and two that tied my hands in later books. Don’t get me started on making my aliens so tough they have no vulnerability. And I cleverly set it up so that little detail haunted me through every book in the series. Writing a hero after hero with no vulnerability, takes some serious brainstorming and head bashing against the table and lamenting. I learned a lot from writing the Zyrgin Warrior series and I can’t wait to get my teeth into the spin off series coming (The unclaimed Galaxies, Beyond the unclaimed galaxies and the Scars) and the other science fiction romance and paranormal romance series I have going. With the spin off series and other series I am determined to at least write a short rough draft for every book in the series before I tie my hands again.
And they will have vulnerabilities so I can torture them a bit. That’s one of the big lessons I learned and that I wish I applied from the start. I knew it but I didn’t KNOW it if that makes sense. I struggled to be too hard on my characters, but now I really tortured the poor things.
One thing I also wish I knew was that I would remain a pantser and that it is my process and that won’t change. I had this weird idea when I started out that somehow I would become a plotter eventually. I thought when your first book is published then you can write and the rest of the books would be easy to do. Big mistake. It gets harder with each book and I think its because the more you learn and grow as a writer the more you expect of yourself. Being a pantser makes things really interesting and I don’t think I can write any other way.
With Alien Mine I spend a lot of time writing and editing and learning about story and character development. When it was accepted for publication and actually sold I had such a fright all the stories just jumped right out of my head. So there I was with an empty head for the first time in my life and I had to get book two handed in as soon as I could and I had written little bits of Alien under Cover but not nearly enough for even a very rough draft. Luckily the stories came back and I had great fun writing all of them. At a snails pace!
I always joke and say if anyone wants to write a series and want to know what not to do, come and talk to me because I made every mistake in the book. But I loved the journey.
– Website – http://mariedry.com
– Twitter – @MarieDry1
Melisende and the Star Warrior (Wedding Season Anthology)
[Science Fiction Romance]
In medieval France, Melisende, a noble woman, is kidnapped from her wedding by a strange being who claims to be a warrior from the stars. But after this sexy warrior shows her wondrous things like computers and synthesizers, Melisende’s not so sure she wants to escape her alien captor.
Available in Ebook:
More Authors Dish about what comes first.
https://coffeethoughts.coffeetimeromance.com/ad2019-jun-wishknown/
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