Anya Richards, Bellissima & Giveaways!

Author Anya Richards shares about Writing Craft. She comes with Giveaways!

Letting the Plot Thicken

I can’t speak for other authors, but I often get ideas for stories in just a few words. Sometimes a title, other times a single character, or a “what if?” thought. The problem comes when it’s time to expand that singular spark of inspiration into a full-blown novella or novel. What do those particular words-that-could-be-a-title evoke? Who is that character, and what does he or she do, or get themselves involved in, to make them interesting? Can that “what if?” carry an entire story, or does it lead to other questions that could? For my new novella, Bellissima, it started with wondering what the reactions would be, in a nouveau riche Victorian household, to a foreigner being around. Like, perhaps, an Italian dance master…?

Having a thought like that is often when I step back and devote some time to thinking about where it all can lead, and if it’s a project I want to pursue. When I first started writing no plot got put aside. I’d spend time, often quite a bit of it, banging out words only to have the story fizzle. I’m an organic writer by nature—a pantser if you prefer—and in those early days I wondered if I was destined to waste precious writing hours on just figuring out if I had a viable story or not.

I was a bit perplexed by this stage of my learning curve, because the first two novels I’d written had seemed to flow out of me in huge spurts. Then I remembered how those spurts came about. While waiting for the bus, during my commute and lunch hour, I was thinking about the next scene of those books. Occasionally I’d have an idea and give myself leave to research it to my heart’s content, no matter how long it took, so I could weave what I found into the story. There were no deadlines for those books, just a hopeful dream of finishing them and maybe getting them published and, in a perverse way, that helped me get them done quicker and more efficiently.

Mind you, those two books are still languishing on my hard drive, unpublished but not unloved. They are a reminder of a simpler time I’d love to go back to but know is gone. Now there are deadlines (even if some are self-imposed), decisions on whether a book fits in with where I want my career to go and, yes, some serious thought about whether the book should be written now, later, or not at all. It’s the shortened, condensed equivalent of the thinking/researching/plotting time I spent on those first books. During the days, weeks—yes, I’ll admit it—even months I spend thinking about that kernel of an idea, it either geminates into a fully flowering story or withers on the vine. The story arc—the plot, if you will—either thickens into an interesting stew, or washes down the drain.

The nice thing is I’m working on other projects while cogitating on the new one. Sometimes, if I have a particularly brilliant thought (snicker) I’ll jot it down and store it in a file folder on my computer, along with website addresses for research sites, and other bits and pieces of information that may or may not be useful. It’s not plotting, per se, since I don’t do any outlines or synopses. The most I’ll do is a blurb, and I know it often won’t stand the test of time since, once I start actually writing, it may change.

But it’s a nice middle ground between full out plotting, which I know doesn’t work for me, and wasting time starting books that won’t get finished. Even if the plot doesn’t pan out into a book, the research is never wasted, but can be recycled on another project. In fact, some of the Victoriana used in Bellissima was gleaned while I was considering another story…

Multi-published author Anya Richards lives with her husband, youngest kid, a mutt, and two cats that plot world domination one food bowl at a time. The humans support her writing while the animals see her preoccupation as a goad.

Insatiably curious and irreverent, Anya loves history, music, the sea and a good rum punch. To learn more drop by Anya’s website make friends with her on Facebook  or follow her on Twitter.

Bellissima

His seductive rhythm calls to the passionate soul hiding within…
 

 Jane Rollins is anything but plain, but to keep her position as housekeeper to a wealthy family, she is content to hide her beauty behind a dull façade. This deception has become second-nature to her—until dance master Sergio Fontini waltzes into her life.

While the other inhabitants of the house see him as a foreigner and beneath their notice, Jane sees strength, barely leashed power, and an aura of iron control—an irresistible, arousing combination.

Sergio sees through Jane’s disguise to the woman beneath, and the desires in her veiled gaze call to him like the utterly irresistible strains of a beautiful symphony. The circumstances couldn’t be worse, for seducing her will endanger both their livelihoods.

Yet there are lessons he cannot resist teaching her, steps of a dance that crescendos to her final surrender…

Product Warnings

A deliciously seductive Italian unmasks a supposedly respectable Victorian woman and leads her into a lust-filled pas de deux.

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Buy Links

Samhain

Bellissima on Amazon Kindle

              
Bellissima Amazon UK

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