Happy almost September! I’m sitting outside on my patio this late afternoon, just soaking up the sun and enjoying my first pumpkin spice latte of the season. I rarely write during the day. Hell, I rarely spend much time outdoors, unless I’m in my pool. But it’s absolutely gorgeous out. And it’s quiet—which is rare for this time. Normally, I’d be hearing a chorus of lawn mowers and weed whackers buzzing away. But it’s peaceful. Even the cicadas are chilling with their incessant chirping.

The fresh air coupled with the warm breeze has spurred my creativity. The words and ideas are flowing, and I’ve got plenty of fresh content for my fall blog series. I’m so excited to dive into these stories. I can’t wait to see what kind of surprises I encounter along the way, because the one thing about my fictional people is that they’re full of surprises. They almost never stay on track. And that’s a good thing. Sometimes.

And Ryan and Ash were no exception when it came to surprises. Those two took my meticulous plans along with my detailed outlines I worked so hard on and set that shit on fire. Ryan’s blog was never supposed to be a two-parter. Ryan and Ash weren’t supposed to hunt down Twila in Aruba.

Originally, Ryan was supposed to capture and kill Twila by the end of his story. And Ash was supposed to attend a family wedding for her blog. But obviously that didn’t happen. A lot of things didn’t happen in the way I first saw them.

Once I started working on Ryan’s blog, he just took over, steering the story in a different direction. And I followed along like a lost puppy. Sure, I could’ve taken control back. My fictional people don’t control me (they kind of do), but any time I rip the reins away from them, they shut me out. They just go radio silent, and then I get the pleasure of dealing with writer’s block. Fuck that.

So, I’ve learned to listen to them, to trust them, and to follow them, documenting every detail they share.

And that’s what I did. I let Ryan steal the wheel, giving him complete control while I documented his journey. And I just wrote. I wrote like no one was going to read his blog. I wrote without a single flying fuck or care in the world. My inner perfectionist didn’t come out to play that week. Not even once. That bitch sat in the backseat with her lips zipped the entire time.

Thank fuck, because the last thing I needed was a case of imposter syndrome. But that never came about. In fact, I was pretty damn satisfied with my word-vomited first draft, even though I was way over my word count. But that’s what edits and revisions were for. And since I had such an easy time drafting Ryan’s blog, I thought edits would be a breeze.

I thought wrong.

Editing turned into a nightmare. I needed to get my word count down. I needed to do some serious chopping, but I wasn’t sure what to cut without sacrificing the actual story itself. And I rode the struggle bus, hitting brick wall after brick wall.

So, I took a break. Chugged a fuckton of coffee, listened to some music, and paced around my house like a madwoman. After wandering around aimlessly for over an hour, the lightbulb clicked on. I remembered something that was engrained in me since college—a story is as long as it needs to be. Needs being the keyword.

I also needed to stay true to Ryan’s character. I needed to ensure that I was telling the story solely from Ryan’s perspective and in the way that he would tell it. It was his story, and it needed to be in his own voice. Not mine.

So, back to the drawing board I went. This time, I focused on the heart of the story, which revolved around Ryan and his brother. I focused on their complicated relationship, focused on the repercussions of the love spell, and focused on finding Twila. Anything that didn’t fit that narrative needed to go. I needed to kill my darlings. And no, that phrase does not mean killing off your characters. It means chopping scenes that aren’t necessary to the story.

And that’s when I knew I needed to change my opening. I needed to delete the one scene that I loved the most—and it was like a punch in the gut. I didn’t want to get rid of my opening. I didn’t want to cut the part where Ryan and Ash were flirting and kissing in the pool right before they were so rudely interrupted. That private moment, that steamy and intimate moment, was my favorite. And I was going to need to get rid of it.

But before I axed the scene, I sent the draft out to two of my close friends—who are also my alpha readers. I also had my husband read it to get his thoughts as well. He’s the analytical one in the relationship. If something doesn’t make sense, he’ll point it out.

When the votes came in, they were unanimous. Everyone loved the opening, but the steamy part didn’t fit the rest of the narrative. Basically, I started Ryan’s story too early. If this had been a novel or novella, I would’ve had plenty of wiggle room to make that scene work. But that wasn’t the case. And that’s one of the challenging aspects of writing short stories—you only have so much space to tell a good story.

So, I cut the opening and stuck it inside my deleted scenes folder. It was painful. It sucked. But it had to be done. After reworking the fuck out of the opener, I hit my word count goal. And the rest was smooth sailing. I was a happy girl.

Ash was next, and working with her was an absolute dream. She is just so open and raw and unfiltered, and she has no qualms about sharing her thoughts or speaking her mind. That’s what makes her so much fun to write. You never really know what she’s going to do or say.

Ash didn’t disappoint. She kept me on my toes the entire time. I had no idea that she was gonna stab some guy with a beer bottle. I didn’t realize how desperate she was to find Twila, or how much she longed to spend some alone time with Ryan. I had no idea that Nick was going to make an appearance. And I definitely didn’t know about the bathroom fight scene where Ash and Twila nearly killed each other.

And that fight scene was a bitch to edit. It was so fucking long and wordy—not that the wordy bit was any kind of surprise. Ash is verbose as hell. She really went overboard with the details of that scene. That thing was a beast, and I needed to trim the fuck out of it. Big time.

Now, normally I plan my fight scenes ahead of time. I use plenty of visuals, ensuring that I know the full layout of the setting. I always know where everyone and everything is beforehand. But I didn’t get a chance to do that because I wrote everything on the fly this time.

So I mapped the setting out like I’d been planning the scene from the get-go. But I couldn’t find any reference pictures that fit my vision of the restroom, so I sketched out the layout and then drew two stick figures representing Ash and Twila. Once the visual was engrained in my mind, I started editing their fight.

It took several days and several rounds of edits to get that scene just right. I made it quick and punchy—which is how I prefer my fight scenes—while still maintaining Ash’s voice throughout. Once I got that all done, everything was easy-fucking-peasy—except for the formatting. I hate formatting. But that’s a different rant for a different day.

Anyway, I absolutely loved working with Ryan and Ash. They were the perfect pair to take on the summer blog series—it was like they were made for the season. So, don’t be surprised if you see them again next summer.

Update

I should have all the character bios updated by the end of September—or at least, that’s my goal. Daniel’s bio will be updated next week, and Agnieszka’s (Magic & Medicine) will be posted shortly after. As long as everything stays on course, I should be able to start updating the character interviews and working on new mood boards soon. Fingers crossed.

I’m still hammering out the final details for the fall blog schedule. But the preliminary schedule is as follows: Nick and Karina will be back for another takeover on September 27th, Raichel’s blog will be posted on the weekend of October 25th, and I’m not sure about November just yet. Marissa might be taking November, or there might be a special blog with the Magic & Medicine cast. Maybe both. The last quarter of the year is an extremely chaotic time for me, so I have to see what I can pull off.

But I’ll have the final Fall Blog Schedule posted on or before September 13th.  You’ll be able to find that on the Announcements page.

I’m still planning on posting an outtake from Stavros’s WIP. I just have to get the Bonus Content section set up first. Bonus content will be gated, and you will need a valid email address to access it. Once I get that set up, I’ll notify you all on the Announcements page, or in one of the blogs.

That is all I have for you today. As always, stay safe and stay healthy. Until next time.

Cheers,

Amelia

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