In recognition of this wonderful event's first anniversary, I would like to share something with all of you...
The *real* story behind Stricken - when I came up with the original idea, when its original 207K draft was finished, etc. - and the rest of the journey to being accepted by eXtasy Books in 2016. It's a little long, and may seem disjointed by times, but please... Enjoy.
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| Stricken's Cover Page, Manuscript Version |
BEHIND THE WRITING: The Real Story of "STRICKEN"
Originally published in Facebook on February 28, 2017
Edited version for Blogger Copyright 2018 V.J. Allison
When I first came
up with the idea for this particular story in 2010, it was quite different than
it is today. Yes, the principle of the story was identical - two extremely
different people falling in love and facing a lot of adversity - but the
evolution of the story line, the characters and everything else in the last seven - almost 8 - years still blows me away.
The original
version of Stricken covers 15 years from Chapter 1 to the Epilogue, with
a 6-year gap between Part 1 and Part 2, and another six-year gap between the
ending and its epilogue. Its original name was No Regrets. It covered
the blossoming romance from the time the two main characters met to six years
after their marriage, and even a lot of stuff that happened after their “happy
ever after”. It was a hefty read at over 207,000 words, and about 400 pages.
Its first draft was finished October 30, 2012.
I think my biggest
mistake was thinking that just because I did things differently, I would be
grabbed up by a publisher in no time. I was arrogant, and overconfident in my
work. I thought I knew it all about editing, proofing and everything else. I
didn’t have a beta reader either, and that’s something essential to an aspiring
or newbie author to my understanding.
It started going
out in 2013, not even four months after its first draft was completed. For a
newbie, this is not enough time to get things perfected. One needs practice,
and it’s rare that a publisher will take on a person with their first attempt
at writing a book.
I got rejections
galore. How many is between myself and a select few. No one told me why it
wasn’t what they wanted, other than it was “too long”, or my style wasn’t right
for them.
Finally, in January
of 2014, an editor for a publisher in Indiana (one of the best in the genre at
that time) took the time to give me a personal rejection note. She gave me a
few examples of what I was doing wrong - tons of repetition (think descriptions
of a person’s voice, eyes, etc), and that I had a lot of passive scenes -
unneeded stuff that didn’t move the story forward.
Her kind words made
me look at the story with new eyes. I went through it, noted a few things and
decided it was time to work on something else - a story that *was* up to
publisher’s standards - and to try honing my natural talent to a fine edge. I
also joined a couple of writing forums at her suggestion and decided to get
some people in as beta readers. People who I trusted, yet knew the craft of
writing, or were just voracious readers like myself.
(((You have to be
able to take constructive criticism - good and bad - in order to improve and
grow as a writer. If you cannot take things professionally and get offended if
someone doesn’t like your stuff or tells you a way to improve it, you will
never make it as an author, and more than likely, never get published.)))
“Away to Me” was
written in less than 3 months, and although it may never see the light of day
publishing wise, it’s still a cute story in my opinion.
Meanwhile, “No
Regrets” sat on my hard drive, gathering dust for a while. I can’t remember how
it came about, but one of my old school chums wanted to read it and I let her.
She liked it and gave me a lot of suggestions on how I could improve it.
I wasn’t sure, but
did write down her suggestions, just in case. I really wanted that story out
there. The characters were still in my head, clamoring for me to get their
story out there, somehow.
Even though it was
suggested by some that I self publish "No Regrets" in the original format, I decided
not to.
I'm glad I didn't. It would have marked the end of my career as an author. Self published works have to be *perfect* - from its storyline to the editing, as well as the blurb and the cover. If anything seems out of place, it's less likely that readers will purchase any of your books in the future, no matter if they are polished to perfection or not. (Thank you to the gang at my closed writing forum for those words of wisdom!)
I decided to
rewrite the entire thing, from start to finish. “No Regrets” was finally yanked
out of cold storage and looked at again. At 207 K, it was twice the length of
the average romance or erotica novel. I had to do a lot of trimming. I was also
seeing spots where it didn’t make sense, or it was too confusing. Thanks to the
kind editor, and my school chum, I was seeing the passive areas, and other
mistakes started showing up a lot easier.
I think a third of
the story was passive areas. Another ten percent of it was repetitive stuff.
All of those were immediately eliminated.
Next to go was
having it all in one volume. It was broken into two parts, and each was given a
designation. “Hearts Awakening” would cover the first half of their story, from
the time they met to a year after their breakup, and “Hearts Remembering” would
cover becoming face to face again and their subsequent journey toward happy
ever after.
It wasn’t until
about twenty false starts that I realized that working it as two books wasn’t
going to work either, especially after advice about “keeping it under 6 months”
came from that old school chum.
Besides, romance
novels generally have a happy ever after or happy for now ending. Part One was
*not* a happy ending. It was sad, and really not for the romance market as we
see today.
It was late in 2014
that I decided to eliminate the first half of the story, and only write from
their meeting up years after the break up to their happy ever after.
I also started
thinking about how plausible a lot of the things were, like how the breakup
came about, and everything else related to it. That was changed.
It’s now extremely plausible and flows so much better.
I eliminated a few
of the characters too, as well as changed one around to something else, and
added a new one. This had been pretty illogical in the first incarnation.
Instead of starting
off exactly where Part 2 originally started, I went with something else, a much
better hook. Something that would make you wonder what the hell was up with
that and why they broke up in the first place.
I admit, I did copy
and paste somethings from the original into the updated version... The original
wasn’t all bad, and some of it turned out to be some of the most memorable
lines I’ve written to date.
However, I’d say
about 80% of this was me pounding on the keyboard, writing it from scratch but
with the timeline and their personalities handy, just to keep myself on track.
It was finished in
February 2015, after I decided to eliminate the epilogue. It wasn’t going to
add to it, only drag things down. It also left the option of having this as a
standalone book instead of a series or duology.
I think the year I
took off after its revised first draft was done was the best thing for it. When
I took it out of “storage” in early 2016, I could see a lot of the problems
with editing and so forth and set out to get those corrected. Thanks to my best
friend Heather, we managed to polish it to a shine. I dubbed it “Hearts
Remembering” and decided who would get it first.
It went to a
publishing house that was supposed to reply to me in three months or less.
It was rejected at
the five-month mark, which wasn’t unexpected. By that time, I was used to
rejections, so it was just another publisher knocked off the list, and a mental
note of they were not the right one for me after all.
I set off to find
another reputable publisher, one that accepted stories less than 90 thousand
words, and had some really rough language into it.
I was looking at
one in particular, an American press, but there was a Canadian one that kept
bringing me back. Finally, I decided to research this particular house and see
if my little story would meet submission guidelines.
I sent it to them
on a whim the first week of October 2016, after changing the name to “STRICKEN”
at the last minute. (((Yes, it is named after the song by Disturbed. Once you
read the story, listen to the second verse of the song. You will get why I
chose that name for my first book.)))
That “Canadian
House” was eXtasy Books, in British Columbia, on the opposite coast...
I didn’t expect
much, and decided to focus on Halloween Havoc, which was coming up in a few
weeks.
October 29, 2016 is
a day I will never forget. I was giving myself a manicure with
purple polish, and I got an email from the Acquisitions Editor at eXtasy Books.
I suspected another rejection and opened it.
I had to read it at
least six times before it sank in.
CONTRACT OFFER.
Seriously? They
liked it?
My book. Really?
No way.
WAY.
I signed the
contract in November of 2016, and things went from there – editing, approval of
the cover, revisions galore, and finally, approving the final copy just a
couple of hours before the book went LIVE.
Stricken came out on
March 17, 2017, as an e-book on eXtasy Books’ website, and was released on other
e-book sites like Amazon and Kobo on March 26, 2017.
When I first came
up with the idea for this story in 2010, it wasn’t supposed to be this short -
under 60K word count - or only cover 6 months. All loose ends were supposed to
be somewhat tied up at the end. Instead there, are still a few questions... But
they are not to be answered now, if ever.
I look back at the
last six and a half years, and I’m still shocked that all of the work for that
story is finally done. I’ve had the two mains in my head for years, and it’s
not easy letting them out into the wide world. It just amazes me how much this
story has evolved, same with my writing. I think if I hadn’t written its
original version or the ABOMINATION ("Family Portraits" - it was written as a sequel for the original version of Stricken, but it will *never* see the light of day, it is HORRIBLE!), I wouldn’t have learned
anything, nor would I be the author I am today.
**********************
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This was done writing part time - think maybe one or two days a week if I was lucky - and while fighting an occipital neuralgia flare up every day I was writing and when I wasn't. I wasn't going to let something like my neuralgia - which is extremely painful and debilitating - keep me from reaching my dream of having one book published by a traditional house in my lifetime.
No excuses. Either do it or stop writing completely.
I chose to keep going.
I am to keep going even with my occipital neuralgia worsening to the point of needing nerve blocks so I can at least function.
I will never give up on getting another book finished and published. Nor will I give up on improving my skills as an author, or stop writing the love stories I want to give to my fans.
Once again, I would like to thank eXtasy Books for giving me a chance. ♥
Have a great weekend everyone! Don't forget to check out the amazing authors at eXtasy Books and Devine Destinies... You may find a new favorite! ;)
I leave you with the song that gave me the name for my first book - "STRICKEN" by Disturbed. I think David Draiman has some of the best pipes in the business... I adore this band!
HELL YEAH BABY!!!
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