Are We There Yet?

Yes, I’m still here, more or less. And still writing. You’d think with Covid keeping us homebound for the last year or so, I would have had plenty of time to work on that series I talked about—what, maybe ten years back or something? Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but when you write as slowly as I do it can feel like that sometimes. Sooner or later, however, things get done. Maybe.

So why isn’t my series finished yet?

This next part’s going to contain a lot of excuses, so I’ll do you a favor and mark when it’s over. When you get bored, jump down to the bolded bit. I won’t mind.

To recap: I needed to pay for a new air conditioner, so I decided to write a romance series about a family of Texas cowboys who double as vampire slayers. It’s a closed series, meaning the collected books tell a single long story, with individual books being the “chapters.” I actually plotted for once and decided I’d need eight books in all: seven romances and the big wrapup. Got my characters, got my plot, got to work and whipped out a book in (for me) record time.

Unfortunately, it was Book #3. Yes, I know. Most people start with Book #1. And I would have, but I really liked the characters in Book #3, and the plot took off and I couldn’t wait to work on it every day, and next thing you know I’ve got a finished draft. Yay!

And almost immediately ran head on into a writer’s block.

Now, I’m a slow writer to start with. There are writers out there who can do 5000 or more words a day, day after day, week after week. They’re the ones you’ve heard of because they publish a book per month. Plus sidebar stories. And they still have time left over to chat with people on Twitter. My hat is off to them, because I will never be among their number. I’m lucky if I can hit 1000 words in a day. Skipping housework doesn’t help me, either, because I do that anyway.

I started Book #1. Hit a snag and couldn’t go on. Started Book #2. Made good progress—I liked the characters, the plot was shaping up, two side characters did something that even I wasn’t expecting—

Then I got to the sex scene. Stopped me dead. I tried going back to Book #1. Nope, no luck there. I wrote random scenes from further up the plotline. Started Book #4, realized it wasn’t working, let that one peter out. Then Covid hit and I had to get home WiFi because the library shut down and I needed Internet access to download files for my freelance job. With everything closed and home WiFi, I didn’t even need to leave the house.

So I…didn’t write. I watched a lot of videos on YouTube. I watched TV. I took naps. My off-and-on video game addiction flared up with a serious vengeance. Looking back, I was probably depressed. Or overwhelmed by the notion of coordinating an eight-book opus and making sure all the plot threads worked. Or lazy. It’s often hard to tell. Procrastination is a problem I’ve wrestled with for years.

Okay, enough of this shit. HERE ENDETH THE WHINING.

The good news: after almost a full year of farting around, I’m back on track again. I started writing longhand and lo and behold, it’s working out. Probably because a sheet of lined notebook paper offers way fewer distractions than the Internet. The female lead started coming to life, and just this morning I decided the male lead looks like Gerald McRaney, a fave of mine from the ‘80s. He’s a werewolf in a cowboy hat with a moustache and a receding hairline. You got a problem with that?

Pity this is Book #7. The rest are all still stuck.

Well, too bad. I’m writing, and that’s all that counts. I’ll worry about the others when this one is done. If I have to write the entire series out of order, that’s the way it’s gonna be. Because that’s how I’ve decided to handle this: I’m going to write the entire series at the same time, and not even think about marketing Book #1 until I’ve got at least six of the others finished in draft form. It’s the only way I’ll be able to guarantee I can release a book a month. Disney/Marvel can afford to let a year or two pass between movies. That doesn’t work for ebook publishing. When you’re doing a series, the faster chapters come out, the better. Nobody wants to wait for anything anymore.

Don’t worry. I already know how the story ends. That won’t be a problem. The problem is my bad case of sequelitis. A throwaway character from Book #3 took on a life of her own; she’s got a trilogy lined up as soon as I finish the series. Then the main characters from Book #3 come back for a reprise. Or two. I didn’t realize until recently his mother was a literal witch. And so it goes…

 

Troubleshooting

In our last installment I talked about my decision to write a closed series with an overarcing story, which, for a pantser like me, amounts to hell on earth. I’ve mentioned some of the plot problems that have arisen already. Since I just started writing, I’m still at a stage where I can catch and correct these little glitches before they grow into plot holes. The one I’m going to talk about here was relatively easy to fix, and actually ended up solving a concern I had in regards to Book 7. Because it deals with breaking, or maybe just bending, the rules, I thought you other writers out there might want to hear about it.

Book 3 is going to feature a ménage—one woman, three men. That is, it was supposed to. Two of the brothers are fine, upstanding romance heroes, but the third is a total asshat. He’s what’s become known in the genre as an “alpha-hole.”

There’s no way my heroine, as I conceived her, is going to fall in love with this dickhead in the time allowed by the story. There’s no way that he, total jerk that he is, is going to change that fast, either.

At the same time I had what I thought was an unrelated problem looming in Book 7, the series finale. Books 1 through 6 are all the characters pairing off (or tripling or quadrupling off) with their respective destined lovers. Book 7 is the showdown with the bad guy, the culmination of the overarcing plot. No romance happens in that book; therefore, there’s no sex. The publisher requires sex. I thought I’d have to run a spate of scenes between all my established pairings the night before the big battle. Cliché plotting, but necessary.

Until I realized I could tie off two plots with one twist. All I have to do is bend the rules a bit.

Most romance books end with an HEA (happily ever after), with all participants committed to a lifetime together. But the HEA isn’t mandatory. There’s the alternative of the HFN (happily for now), where the lovers hang out but nobody gets married. In fact, I’ve got a Book 8 in the back of my mind, a stand-alone unrelated in plot to the rest of the series, that would absolutely have to have an HFN because neither party is ready to commit. It’s a Batman/Catwoman thing. HFN is acceptable, but the HEA is preferred.

A mix of the two settles everything. In Book 3, my FMC enters into a HFN ménage with the two decent brothers. Brother Asshat is left out in the cold. Over the next four books his story arc will play out as a subplot as he works to redeem himself in the woman’s eyes. He succeeds and is welcomed into the ménage in Book 7, before the final battle, in a scene I hope will satisfy the publisher. I can still have snapshot scenes with the other characters, but Brother Asshat’s story fills the requirement of a romance plot and makes the relationship an HEA. I can give him a scene alone with the woman, then add his brothers in, and it’ll all work thanks to the setup. Damn, I’m good.

I still don’t recommend pantsers try to write a series this way. This is plotter territory. On the other hand, it never hurts to stretch your writing muscles. Good luck.