This picture is used a lot in motivational context to encourage you to be the girl on the right.
And I say … eh. If that’s who you are, go for it. But if you’re not that girl, it’s okay.
Personally, I’m the girl in the middle. Shoe untied, confused about the steps, not sure what to do about a severe leotard wedgie, but still determined to dance.
I love you, Bookworms!
This will be an ongoing series where I answer the most common questions I get from readers:
Q1: Do you have a favorite book you’ve written?
A: I don’t have a favorite. I like them all for different reasons and I think they could all be improved for different reasons.
Q2: Do you have a muse? Why or why not?
A: Not in the sense that there is one particular person or one specific thing that inspires me.
Q3: Do you listen to music when you’re writing?
A: Mostly instrumental and in the vein of whatever I’m writing. Listening to Christmas music in August while writing Christmas romances is very disorienting!
Q4: What part of the book do you have the hardest time writing?
A: That murky middle! I don’t usually write chronologically, instead I take the major scenes and write them first, then link them together.
Q5: What other genres would you like to try writing?
A: I’ve had a YA adventure churning in my head for about ten years. I’m finally starting to work on it and I’m so excited!
Have questions? You can submit them here as a comment or email me: AuthorJeanetteLewis@gmail.com
This will be an ongoing series where I answer the most common questions I get from readers:
Q1: Where do you get your ideas?
A: I have so many ideas for books! Once you’ve done this long enough, your brain starts automatically evaluating most situations to see if it would make a good book. Many of the ideas I’ve been developing lately are not purely sweet romance and it’s been exciting to branch out a little.
Q2: What is your writing process?
A: Once I’ve settled on an idea for a book, I start outlining. I write down the major moments and how I want them to go, then work backwards from there. Some of my author friends can start on page one and write consecutively to the end, but I do better when I can skip around and write the big scenes first, then go back and add the little ones to tie them together.
After I’ve finished the story, I send it to my beta readers and I usually end up making quite a few changes based on their feedback. I rewrote almost the entire second half of Sweet Illusions after I got it back from beta. I recently hired an alpha reader to read the manuscript chapter-by-chapter and give feedback, so that should cut down on the rewrites since I can make adjustments as I go based on her feedback.
Q3: Do you have any unusual writing quirks?
A: I outline and brainstorm on blue copy paper. It has to be loose papers (not a notebook) and it has to be blue. I have no idea why that’s become my thing, but it is.
Q4: What do you love about writing? What do you hate?
A: I love creating stories! I’ve always been a storyteller and I love coming up with new ideas, developing characters to fit the situation, and piecing it all together into something that is exciting and new.
The only thing I hate are the pirates and plagiarizers who steal your work. Most of my books are distributed exclusively through Amazon and they do a great job trying to crack down on the thieves, but it’s extremely difficult and there are, unfortunately, a lot of people trying to profit from someone else’s hard work.
Q5: Do you ever get writer’s block and if so, what do you do about it?
A: Absolutely. Everyone gets writer’s block, it’s part of the process. When I have it, I usually take a break and try to get some exercise to restart my brain. Then I’ll sit down and try to come up with 5-10 things that could happen next in the story and pick the best one. Writing is just like any other job – you’re not inspired all the time and there will be moments when you feel inadequate or you’re sick of it, etc. But you have to keep going and push through it.
Have questions? You can submit them here as a comment or email me: AuthorJeanetteLewis@gmail.com
I’m not on Pinterest much anymore–I don’t like the way they’ve changed the layout and now it feels like a wall of ads instead of pictures from my friends. So now instead of using it as a way to find inspiration photos, I mostly just Google photos and save them to my computer. But that does make it harder to share them with you. Instead of simply unlocking a private Pinterest board, I actually have to go searching for them and upload them somewhere.
Ugh. *cue lazy sad music*
But, Tamarack Ridge is an awesome little town that exists only in my mind and my books. It’s modeled after the small town where I grew up, with some differences. Here are some of the inspiration photos I use when I write a new story for the Tamarack Ridge Romances. I hope you enjoy!
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