Coffee & Conversation: First Quarter Update 2021

05 Monday Apr 2021

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Coffee & Conversation

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answer, editing, FAQ, goal, goals, progress, question, reading, social media, Update, Writing

First Quarter Update 2021

I wanted to give you an idea of where I am and what I’m working on.

In the past three months, I’ve gotten more work done on Canvas Blues and the body count is racking up behind the scenes. In fact, i don’t think I’ve ever written anything with this level of death, yet such a long drawn-out light tension before. Usually tensions run high with that much death going on.

Next, I finished all the things for Lost Isle and got it out into the world. Woot!!

I’ve written many, many blog posts.

I’ve quite a twitter game I attempted to start. Well, actually, I’ve mostly quit twitter completely because I just can’t keep my endurance up over there, not while doing everything else I’m doing.

[On my non-romance name, I’ve written six short stories, three on submission, one already semi-sold (no contract, just word of mouth), one needing edits; wrote a ton of blog posts for over there (mostly rec posts); slush read over 200 stories; critiqued a bunch of friends’ work; began a novel and a novella (no relation to one another because I’m a masochist)]

I’ve gotten on the schedule with a cover artist to get Shatter by Glass a cover. And I’ve finished formatting that book for paperback. Ebook still needed, however it looks to be on track for a Jun/July rerelease.

I’ve also been striving to read more, though this has been more short stories than novels.

Oh, and I’m in the process of moving.

So that’s about where I’m at. For the next three months, I’m working on keeping up with blog posts, getting Shatter by Glass fully ready, adding words to Canvas Blues, and doing a lot of prep and work on Scorched Isle. Plus words for my other name. Shall update again in three months to see how far I get :)

~Emmi

Coffee & Conversation: What is something you continually procrastinate on?

04 Monday May 2020

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Coffee & Conversation

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answers, edits, FAQ, formatting, prose, questions, reading, social media, Writing

Okay, I thought this a suitable question.

When it comes to writing, the writing part is actually the easiest. It’s just you and the blank page. No one watches. No one sees the mess-ups. No one sees the tangential paragraphs where you go on for two, three, four hundred words about how you have no idea what the next plot point is or repeatedly asking yourself why this character is even in this story. It’s a private affair. Where doubts intermix with excitement.

On the other hand…

Edits require you to dull the creative part of your brain. Force it into a little box with air holes that it might leak out, but only at appropriate times.

Formatting requires you to completely lock the creative side of you away. Forget it exists. Staunch it until it’s just a murmur begging to be let free.

Social Media requires you to plant your feet firmly in the here and the now, in a place where the date matters and the story is just a story and never an overactive part of your mind where you just want to linger forever.

Synopsis writing requires you to take your entire story, every living, breathing part of it, and turn it into something bland, dry, and dull that fits on two pages.

These are the things I procrastinate on the most. They are antithetical to everything writers tend to love. The clean-up at the end of the party.

Oh, we know we shouldn‘t procrastinate on them. The longer they sit needing to be done, the larger they loom. The more stories you complete in the meantime, the more end work accumulates. Yet, they sit out there still, demanding to be done by you and only you because someone else might do it all very wrong and you know it.

~Emmi