The Book of Buts and Ellipses….

Writing every book is different. Your process changes or you have to shake things up because the story is unique or you’re just in a different mood when you write it. Sometimes, too, you get into writing ruts. I don’t mean like writer’s block—which I don’t believe in—but more like a scratched record that keeps repeating itself. (If you don’t know what happens when records get scratched, then this video might help.)

For me, I feel like I get into a different rut with each book. I can’t remember them all—I’ve written a number of books, both finished and unfinished, that will never be published—but here are a few of the funny ones.

• FINS2 (aka the book I just turned in) — This seemed to be the book of BUTS and ELLIPSES. It feels like every sentence is either a two parter with a but in the middle (I’m no grammar queen, so I don’t know what that kind of sentence structure is called) or an ellipsis somewhere along the line. There must have been at least one of the above on every single page. Possible reasons for this: 1. Lily is conflicted and can’t decide what to do (or say), 2. I was conflicted and couldn’t decide what my characters were doing, or 3. I was writing toward n ending that turned out to be wrong. Or, I suppose, I could have just been in love with buts and ellipses for a little while.
• Oh. My. Gods. — Definitely the book about RUNNING. And, while running is (obviously) a critical element of the plot, I would often find myself running–well, find Phoebe actually, because I don’t run–with nothing else going on. I can’t tell you how many scenes started off with Phoebe running or Phoebe and Griffin running where I had to say, “Something more than running has to happen in this scene.” That’s usually when I came up with my best plot twists.
• Unpublished Chick Lit #2 — This was the book that took place in ELEVATORS. As I wrote the first draft it felt like my characters were spending half their time in elevators. When I went back through to revise, there weren’t nearly as many elevator scenes as I imagined. Such a relief because, really, how much action and conflict can happen in a tiny elevator?
• Unpublished Romance #47 — This was the book of HANDSHAKES. Every time anyone new entered the scene (literally and figuratively) or characters met each other for the first time someone just had to hold out a hand for a quick shake. I know that, in real life, this is probably accurate. But when you’ve got three dozen handshake in a four-hundred page book? That’s a little over the top.
• And, of course, I must say that all my books are almost always about EM-DASHES. It’s my favorite punctuation mark. I use them so much, in fact, that my first copyeditor wrote, “The author seems exceedingly fond of em-dashes.” True that.

Hmmm, I wonder what will be the running theme in the first book of the top secret trilogy—next up on my to write list.