📚 lisa writes stuff issue #30 🌮 Perseverance is the name of the game

Plotting my way to love

Dear Internet,

I’ve plotted my first book. I am elated.

Sometime last year, I bought Plottr which is software to help you plot and flesh out your books. I’ve been a pantser for years which is to say I have no idea where the book goes after the fourth chapter because I do not outline. Which, I am now finally recognizing plotting is something I need to do.

I knew I needed help so I spent the $39 and bought Plottr.

The thing is, that was six months ago and I’ve never used it. I wrote about six thousand words a few weeks back on a story I want to turn into a novel and just stopped. I was so frustrated because I have ideas and they never fucking come to fruition. I dusted off Plottr, thought what the fuck, and just dived in.

Except the software kept crashing. After going back and forth with support (easy fix), I was up and running. Now I have working software but I didn’t know how to use it. Plottr has live webinars on the reg so I signed up for two. The 101 on the software and how to plot a romance novel in 90 minutes, which was a lot of fun. And I thought, fucking hell, I can actually do this.

So, I did.

It’s a fucking mess and I love it.

But Christ, was this difficult to do.

I’m not sold on everything plot wise but unlike every attempt before, I’ve got a plot somewhat started.

Here’s the funny thing: I’m using the outline but my book is taking its own course as I write and as the course changes, I move pieces around in Plottr to adjust as necessary. I’ve got 10K words in and having a real goal in sight is making me breath easier.

But it also got me thinking: If I can turn out 10K words in relative ease, which is about 40 printed pages, I could easily come up with novellas and sell on Amazon. This idea totally excites me. Side hustle!

As I’ve talked on and on about, finding inspiration has been hard until I stumbled across a few articles recently about romance tropes. Get this, there are over 100 of them and as I come across new books, the more the list grows. The book I’m working on now is the friends to lovers trope. Another book I’ve started (Stella Matthews Makes a Decision) is an enemies to lovers trope.

(If you want to see a fairly comprehensive list of romance tropes, Evie Alexander has a great list.)

When I came up with the idea of my WIP (work in progress) I’ve started hammering away at, I saw two college friends who have a few obstacles. One, his college girlfriend comes back to town and flames rekindle. Two, my FMC has a mental illness and while she’s stable, she’s struggling to stabilize some areas of her life because she’s stable. Three, she’s a print maker who hasn’t created anything in years and she’s afraid she’s lost her creativity now that she’s on meds.

To begin, I saw my two MC sitting in the bar, drinking, and FMC and MMC have a moment and she wonders if there may be something there after all because they had moments in the past and she’s never addressed it within herself, let alone him. So now, does her subconscious know something she does not? And if so, how does it handle this situation?

Ok, did not mean to go down the book summary route.

Speaking of book summaries, I tweaked my writing website a few weeks ago, tied in the smut pseudonym (who has something published!), and pulled out my novels in progress with summaries of each, of which there are five in different stages. Now that I’ve figured out how to use Plottr, the other four books get an overhaul too.

I know some authors juggle more than one book as their interest wanes and increases which I think is a good idea so I’ll probably do the same. Right now, I’m trying to not overwhelm myself with all the work but if you’ve read me for some time, you know how that won’t work as planned.

I will persevere!

Submission update

78 submissions, including 63 rejections, 8 acceptances, 1 withdrawal, and 6 outstanding.

Publication

chapbook: commercial breaks

lisa  x