Welcome to 40 Days of 3 Questions!
For the next few weeks, meet here every morning with a notebook or document to answer three questions about writing, about your status quo as a writer, or about the writing life. You can answer briefly and go about your day, or you can use this as a warm up exercise before your regular writing schedule. Whatever works for you, works for me.
Day 2 Questions:
- What is your current writing project?
- What parts of this project are a joy, and why?
- What parts of this project drive you batty, and why?
You may post answers in comments or keep your thoughts private–your choice!
And here is today’s pretty picture:
Ramona DeFelice Long 
My current writing project is the second Cozy Capers Book Group mystery.
I love the characters and the village I’ve set up. Yesterday I brought back the darling little sharp eyed grandma from book one, one of my favorites.
What parts of this project drive you batty, and why? As usual, the plot is a big problem for me. I’m still relatively near the start at 15000 words but I’m already feeling the muddle in the middle. I will prevail, though!
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My current writing project is the start of a series of paranormal mysteries. My protagonist is a private investigator for the dead. She is the granddaughter of Marie Laveau. The decade is the 1910’s. What I love is that I’ve written a cadaver dog into the story as her partner. As a pantser you can imagine what drives ME batty!
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What is your current writing project? Three years ago a WWll First Division Marine asked me to write his bio. He took the train here once a week and delivered copious notes on yellow legal paper. I bought a historical map of the South Pacific during the war and we would spread it out on my dining table and he would write notes on the map. I kept telling him that he couldn’t die during this process, but last year he died. So his story is now fiction, inspired by the notes he left on the map. Those little inscriptions led me to incredible, marvelous, enchanted, severe, frightening places. I must write this book. It’s just daunting.
What parts of this project are a joy, and why? The research is pure joy. He knew I would love the intimate details, the humanity of his story while there, and he knew I loved a conflicted love story. I had no idea the mistakes that happen in war, the complex yet simple human relationships and the animals involved. I miss him terribly, but I can feel him sitting next to me as I write. Writing my memoir was so much easier!
What parts of this project drive you batty, and why? Everyone’s goddamn advice. “You must outline!” “You have to know the end before you write the beginning!” “You have to plot!” And the one that makes me so crazy I want to rip their eyes out is, “I downloaded the book from my consciousness and it just wrote itself.” The other thing that paralyzes me is the enormity and importance of this topic.
I want to write it.
I must write this story.
And yes, this is different than most stories of the war.
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1.) What is your current writing project? I’m finishing the revisions for TORCH AND RUN (Webb’s Glass Shop Mystery #6). It’s due to the publisher on March 15.
2) What parts of this project are a joy, and why? I love revision because the framework is already done and I’m adding detail, emotion, and motivations.
3) What parts of this project drive you batty, and why? The first draft drives me crazy, but even the worst part of writing is joyous.
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What is your current writing project? I have two, actually. I just submitted the manuscript of my debut novel ROOT OF ALL EVIL to my publisher. At the same time, I’m revision a historical mystery set in WWII – think Rosie the Riveter meets Sam Spade (description courtesy of a critique parter).
What parts of this project are a joy, and why? For ROOT OF ALL EVIL, I’ve been working on this for a little over four years, pitched it for two, and was about to put in in the trunk for good. So it’s a joy that someone liked it enough to give it a home. For the historical, it’s been fun bringing a new set of characters to life (well, a fuller life, they debuted in my short story in MYSTERY MOST HISTORICAL) and learning more about 1942 Buffalo.
What parts of this project drive you batty, and why? For ROOT OF ALL EVIL, it’s been rewritten at least twice. That was a little hair-raising, but necessary. For the historical, the research has been fun, but at the same time exhausting. Did such-and-such a building exist in 1942? Where? How much was ? And so much time staring at maps!
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***What is your current writing project?
I’m just beginning DEADLY SWEET TOOTH, book #2 of the Vintage Sweets series, 3 books contracted. I turned in the first one a couple of weeks ago.
***What parts of this project are a joy, and why?
I love writing the first draft. I feel I’m getting to know my characters as they open up to me and do sometimes unexpected things. I also love inventing new characters. My granddaughter Lily has been begging me to put her in a book and I finally have a chance to name a character after her. I haven’t told her yet, but she’ll be delighted. She’s 11.
***What parts of this project drive you batty, and why?
Rewrites and revisions, always. I’m also waiting, right now, to get the edits back from my brand new publisher, from an editor I’ve never worked with before and have had little communication with yet. That’s kind of scary.
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1. What is your current writing project? I have struggled with writing different stories. I think the one I have been working with most recently in a class is the one I’ll turn to as my project. It’s time to take what I learned and start the story.
2. What parts are a joy and why? I like the characters I’m creating. Their stories are important and need to be told.
3. What drives you batty and why? With other stories I spent a lot of time putting a lot of words on pages and pages but didn’t know what I was doing. The advice I got through several classes was simply to write it out. No planning, no preparation, just write. But that didn’t help and it made me feel like writing a story was impossible. I bought books but couldn’t find answers in them. I’ve discovered other resources and am ready to start my story utilizing what I’ve learned from them.
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1. I’m working on #6 in my Jennie Connors mystery series.
2. I love being in the company of these characters. The series is set in a retirement community and residents are feisty and defy the common perceptions of what some people expect of seniors.
3. I’ve gotten out of the habit of writing day and the words are coming hard. Sentences are clunky. Descriptions are commonplace.
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1. Current project? Brief suspense novel.
2. Joy? The set-up.
3. Batty? It’s outlined. No surprises.
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