Guest Post – The Writing Process by Barb Hendee

A GIRL OF WHITE WINTER
A Dark Glass Novel Book #3
by Barb Hendee
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Pub Date: 8/7/2018
Kara, as a ward with
no parentage and no future, has been raised knowing nothing outside
her lady’s chambers. Until Royce Capello, a visiting nobleman, is
struck by her ice-pale looks, and demands her as payment for the land
the family needs.
With barely time to protest, Kara is sold and packed off for a life as a concubine
—until a raiding party descends on Royce’s company and she’s kidnapped
for the second time in as many days.
Whatever happens, Kara will be alone in the world, inexperienced and fearing even the
vast unfamiliar sky. But one raider gives her a choice—and a magic
mirror appears to show her where each path will lead…
She can leave with her protector Raven and journey with his performing troupe, competing for his mercurial affections.
She can flee the raiders’ settlement, and return to Royce’s manor, chattel among
devious nobility.
Or she can stay in the settlement, bound to firm, silent Caine, who is as gentle as he
is staid and inscrutable.
Her fates twist and turn to affect far more than she could have guessed, tangling the
bitter with the sweet—and Kara must choose which consequences she
can live with…

Guest Post: What’s Your Writing Process?

Normally, I avoid doing any type of “writerly” blog posts because for most people, they’re a good substitute for sleeping pills.

But . . . chatting about the human writing process is a little different. Nearly all of us write, whether it’s fiction, poetry, essays, letters, reports for work, etc. And everyone has a different process.

When I chose my major in college, people were shocked when I did not wish to go into teaching creative writing. Seriously. I’ve never taught a creative writing course. I did my master’s degree in composition theory, and I teach essay writing. The reason behind this is that I don’t have the first clue how to teach someone else to write fiction. It’s something that I “do,” but I don’t really understand it. I have a firm grasp of how to teach someone how to write an essay. I also spent years studying what goes on inside our minds as we attempt to write.

When you hear the phrase “writing process,” it can mean several different things. For one, we all have a personal writing process—meaning in reference to the way our brains and habits function. There are perfect drafters, binge writers, over-planners . . . procrastinators, etc. The list goes on.

I’m a firm believer that deadlines play into this process.

For example, my husband and writing partner, J.C. suffers from being a perfect drafter. He’ll write a sentence and then stare at it. Something isn’t quite right with that sentence. He’ll change a few words–or maybe the order of the words–and then stare at the sentence again. Sometimes thirty minutes will go by, and he hasn’t moved on to the next sentence. This is a stressful way to write, and these folks tend to start projects early if they are to meet a deadline.

Then there are procrastinators. These writers let the ideas churn and swirl inside their heads. They have been given two to three weeks to write a six-page project, and the ideas are still swirling twenty-four hours before the project is due, but not a word has been written. Ten hours before the project is due, they start drinking coffee like it’s going out of style, and then they sit down and start hammering out words. They do get the project done, but they are often unhappy with it because it really needs to “cool” for a few days before quality revision can take place. But it’s due and needs to be submitted.

Then, there are the over-planners. These writers love to do research and outlining. They will come up with a grand idea that excites them, and they will begin research. They also have two to three weeks for a project, but they spend most of that time doing research, taking notes, and outlining. They are having a fabulous time until they realize the project is due, and they haven’t actually started writing yet.

I’m a “binge writer.” I have a friend, another fiction writer named James Van Pelt, who is the complete opposite of me. He’s capable of getting up every day and writing three pages of a novel or story and then saving his work, closing the file, and going to work (he’s also a teacher).

I am sooooooo jealous of him. I can’t do that. With fiction, I have to become completely immersed (meaning “lost”) in a project. As a result, I only write fiction on breaks between college terms. But within a few days of starting a novel, I do nothing besides write from dawn to dark. This is a little hard J.C. because I’m also the cook in our house, and during those writing binges, we eat a lot of cereal, tuna sandwiches, and pizza.

But a few days into starting a novel, I’m getting up at 4:30 in the morning, making coffee, and pounding on keys. A Girl of White Winter is just over 80,000 words, and I wrote it in three and a half weeks. What’s more, I don’t remember writing it. I read it afterward, and I was very caught up in the story. It’s heart wrenching. Hah! But I don’t remember writing it.

This is not unusual. I’ve woken up to emails from students that read, “Barb, I finished the first draft of my essay last night at midnight. It’s on why Orca whales should not be kept in captivity. I got caught up in the topic, and I don’t remember writing it. But I just read it, and I think it’s pretty good. I’ve attached it here. Will you read it for me early and tell me what you think?”

I’m always glad to read projects early and give feedback, and I really understand what a student means when he or she says, “I don’t remember writing this.”

But the processes I list above are just several examples. What is your typical process? Think about this. Do you like your process? Or would you prefer to change it?

A CHOICE OF CROWNS
A Dark Glass Novel Book #2
Olivia Geroux knew
her king was reluctant to marry her, whatever the negotiations had
arranged. But she never expected to find handsome, arrogant King
Rowan obsessed with his stepsister instead. And before she can
determine what course to take, she overhears her greatest ally
plotting to murder the princess.
Olivia must act quickly—and live with whatever chaos results.
As the assassin hunts his prey, a magic mirror appears to show Olivia the three paths that open before her . . .
If she hesitates only a moment, the princess will die—and she will become queen.
If she calls for help, she will gain great power—but she must also thrust away her
own happiness.
If she runs to stop the murder herself, she will know love and contentment—but her
whole country will suffer.
As she lives out each path, her wits and courage will be tested as she fights to
protect her people, her friends, and her heart. And deciding which to
follow will be far from easy . . .
THROUGH A DARK GLASS
A Dark Glass Novel Book 1
On her seventeenth birthday, Megan of Chaumont discovers she’ll be sold as a bride to
the brutish Volodane family—within hours. Her father grants only
that she may choose which one of the ruthless, grasping lord’s three
sons she weds:
Rolf, the eldest: stern, ambitious, and loyal?
Sebastian, the second son: sympathetic, sly, and rebellious?
Or Kai, the youngest: bitter, brooding, and proud?
As shy, horrified Megan flees the welcome dinner for her in-laws-to-be, she finds an
enchanted mirror that will display how her life unrolls with each
man, as if she were living it out in a breath. But there is no smooth
“happily ever after” in her choices.
Deaths and honors, joys and agonies, intrigues and escapes await her in a remote,
ramshackle keep, where these rough but complex men reveal one side
and then another of their jagged characters—and bring forth new
aspects of Megan, too. But the decisions of one teenaged
marriage-pawn reverberate much farther than any of them have guessed . . .
Barb Hendee is the New York Times bestselling author of The Mist-Torn Witches
series. She is the co-author (with husband J.C.) of the Noble Dead
Saga. She holds a master’s degree in composition/rhetoric from the
University of Idaho and currently teaches writing for Umpqua
Community College. She and J.C. live in a quirky two-level townhouse
just south of Portland, Oregon.
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