Type The End Time To Celebrate

Typing The End is a great feeling. I have written—most likely a novel that has taken me months and hours of being on my computer and more hours of scrolling through Pinterest. But the end has arrived.

I am no longer writing. I have written. So comes the celebration, right.

A bottle of champagne?   A trip to a sandy beach?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, I don’t do either one.

For my two medieval Scottish Highlander Novels,  The Marriage Alliance and Claiming the Highlander, I have celebrated their completion by doing two things.

First, I take a couple of days off. I watch TV, lay in bed, anything to rest my brain so I can recharge because I have other projects I am working on and cannot waste time. But creativity is important so I can work on my next project.

The second thing I do to celebrate is a manicure.

While I am writing, I don’t bother doing my nails. So by the time I finish a manuscript my nails look like some monster’s and not the hands of a lady (as my mother and grandmother would say). When I step out of the nail salon with my nails perfectly painted, and my hands wonderfully massage, my need to is fully recharged. Then it is back to my computer to do this all over again, which will be happening soon with

Then it is back to my computer to do this all over again, which will be happening soon with The Laird’s Right and Highland Scandal. Yeah, my hands look scary and that manicure image has me drooling.

Yeah, my hands look scary. I can’t wait for my manicure.  *stares at image with longing*

Now tell me what do you plan to celebrate and how you plan to do it.

 

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Wednesday's Review

New to my blog is the Wednesday Review. It might be a book, magazine article, essay, blog post, or novella. However, my reviews will have a twist as you will read below.

This week’s review is Daddy’s Girl by Lisa Scottoline.
Natalie Greco loves being a teacher, even though she can’t keep her students from cruising sex.com during class. She loves her family, too, but her boyfriend fits better with the football-crazy Grecos than she does. Then a colleague, handsome Angus Holt, talks Nat into teaching a class at a local prison, and her world turns upside down.
 
A violent prison riot breaks out, and Nat rushes to save the life of a mortally wounded guard whose last words are:”Tell my wife it’s under the floor.” Nat delivers the cryptic message, but before she knows it, she’s suspected of murder and hiding from cops and killers alike. She is forced on the run to solve the riddle of the dead man’s words and to save her own life–and find real love.

Lisa Scottoline is a New York Times Bestseller and she has her niche. Her heroines are Italian attorneys in Philadelphia. The old writers advice is write what you know and Lisa does it with a freshness to each book. I like that she has created a brand. Her readers know the level of book they get when they pick up one with her name on it, which is one of the reasons she’s a bestseller. And this is a lesson I wish to learn from her and apply to my career.

The second lesson I learned is Plot. Daddy’s Girl’s plot twists this way and that so you don’t know where you are heading and end of the reading ride leaves you with whiplash in the greatest way. Although I’m revising a contemporary series romance I’m still perusing it with attention to how to twist the plot in unexpected ways to freshen up the manuscript.

The third lesson is what Margie Lawson calls NYT writing. That means writing at the level of New York Times bestseller. This writing seems quite simple yet it’s harder than it looks. And Margie I’m still learning. 

Another lesson is pacing. The story doesn’t slow. Natalie’s tale has moments that release the tension but the conflict it still there and the external conflict is simmering in the scenes. And the ending doesn’t drop-off. Sometimes, writers are so excited to be nearing the end that the last pages feel as a let down. This story satisfies the reader.

The last lesson I learned was the seamlessly blending of the Internal Conflict into the story and plot. I think I can improve on this front. I saw how the external and internal conflict, story and plot, came together and enriched each word on the page. So, I’m also applying that to my story.

It seems that my to-do list is growing but my writing is getting better thanks to my favorite pastime, reading.

Have you read Daddy’s Girl? Do you have something to add? Please share.