Norway Fjords, Phone-Drafting Wins, & Missing 2000s Paranormal Romance
It's been a tough week. I came back from a family wedding in Norway and feel like I need a holiday from my holiday. I really hate flying anywhere outside Australia. Any flight longer than 4 hours is just torture. Sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers like sardines in a can, inhaling the collective smells, and feeling your limbs atrophy from lack of movement is a human rights issue.
Thankfully, once I got to Norway, my attitude changed for the better. I couldn't hold my husband hostage with my emotional machine gun roller coaster the whole trip. That would be unfair to him. I kinda like the guy.
It's summer in Norway, and we were gifted with gorgeous weather. The scenery was just beautiful: the greenery, the rolling mountains, the icy-blue fjords, and the ice cream there tastes bomb.
Flåm, Norway
The wedding went off without a hitch. Not that I expected it not to. Well, a little bit. There is always tension in the air, and so much can go wrong with a wedding: clothing malfunctions, the cake, uninvited guests, the venue has a stuff-up, someone has clogged the toilet in the bridal room, etc., and as a guest I was ready for front-row seats lol. But alas the happy couple are happy. Mashaallah.
After Norway we headed to Qatar for a few days before our leg home. How was Doha, you ask? Well, it was 45 degrees basically every day we were there. Let's leave it there.
Writing Updates ~
Getting back to writing, I am happy to announce I am up to scene 21 of Project Hollow! That is basically the midpoint of the novel. I'm cheering about that, hardddd. (If you want to read more about my current WIP, Project Hollow, a fantasy romance with elements of sci-fi and mystery, click here to read a blurb).
I have really gained some speed with drafting in these last few scenes. It likely has a lot to do with drafting on my phone. I can whip out my draft throughout my day and write a few lines here and there. Or maybe I just know the characters better, and their words just come out more easily? Hmm, it's not fully that. In fact, I feel I may not know them completely until the draft is over. I still find myself surprised when they do things I hadn't strictly written out in my outlines, like show a gentler side I didn't know about or a bit of childhood history that no one else knows but them.
So scene 21 - I am getting to the point where I don't want to share too much plot for fear of spoiling, but let's say that Cin has to do something really hard for her. Ward is with her in the thick of it and getting on her nerves as usual, but there is something more under her feelings of frustration. I'm talking romance, baby!
Writing Romance ~
We are at the midpoint, so there should be romance fireworks by now. Right? I've been asking people at work, readers, about their expectations for romance by the midpoint. Most say yeah, there should definitely be some grumblings by now. So... it's hard to say if I've got the right amount.
Thinking about typical romance-book beats (Romancing the Beat), I'm a bit behind. But this isn't just a romance, it's a fantasy and sci-fi too. I have to have balanceeeee. So annoying.
According to Romancing the Beat, I should have my characters thinking that their romantic relationship could work by now. But Cin and Ward still only tolerate each other right now. There are grumblings of attraction, however, which makes sense given the storyline. They started out really hating each other. Without exaggerating, kill shots had been exchanged multiple times. Plus, they have their own personal issues to deal with, too. I plan for the romance to take over more of the page time after this midpoint till our climax.
As a reader, my personal preference for romance is that, firstly, there has to be some. More than some. It should be hot, tense, and emotional, and it needs to be believable. By the midpoint, I would like the leads to admit they are interested in each other, at least to themselves. Like most things, though, I won't know whether I've got the right amounts at the right times until I finish the draft. Shocking.
I've also been thinking about whether there are enough sci-fi elements in Project Hollow. But then again it's all made up. There are no hard-and-fast rules. We've got the setting on a broken planet shard floating in space, with spaceships and alien species. What else does it need?
Paranormal Romance Loves ~
I've never attempted to write a purely sci-fi romance before. I tend to read mostly fantasy,, and I grew up reading a lot of paranormal from Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson series, Gena Showalter, Nalini Singh, The Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and, of course, my fave, Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark.
Sad that the paranormal genre is not as big anymore. After Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters books, there don't seem to be any more heavy hitters. But it could just be that I'm not picking up as many paranormal books these days. Would love to get some recommendations in the comments if you have some faves.
I recently picked up the Midlife Fairy Hunter series by Shannon Mayer and have enjoyed the first few books. I have not finished the series yet.
I don't know. I feel like fantasy and, in particular, paranormal were better in the past. Am I just being a millennial about this, or is there something quantitatively better about the early-2000s and 2010s stuff? I feel like they were sexier, perhaps, more drama, more interesting story lines. Not the same stuff over and over.
You know what I'm not interested in though? I'm a latent wolf shifter hated by my pack. Then on the night of our pack’s matehood cherry-picking ceremony, my true mate, who happens to be the Alpha's son, rejects and humiliates me in front of the whole pack and maybe the whole world. But then it turns out that it was for the best because my true true mate is actually a super badass mega alpha wolf who is also a shadow daddy and comes from a forbidden wolf pack that has been hidden for a thousand years. But then I get amnesia, and somehow I go back to my pack who hates me, and the Alpha's son who first rejected me is now pretending to love me and convincing me that I'm his wife. I'm so confused. Do I love him or not? But I can't help but think there is someone else out there for me...in the shadows.
You know what I mean? I have read this book so many times, and it's the same. And now, for some reason, Pinterest has started showing me AI videos of this exact thing. Do I watch them from the corner of my eye as I scroll? Yes. But do I want to? No. #JusticeForParanormals
Recommendations ~
I've started re-watching the show Parenthood. It's about family and in particular sibling dynamics. I love a story that explores siblings. Growing up with four siblings, I really marvel at how no other relationship compares to the one you have with your siblings. It's fascinating.
Watching Parenthood has me longing to return to Project Ghoul, a fantasy romance about a Ghoul and a Demon. In the book, we have Raeleena, who is a powerful ghoul and lives with her two sisters in their dying coven and the journey that Raeleena goes on to keep it and her sisters safe. It's been over a year since I looked at my draft, and I am itching to go back to it, but one thing at a time.
Something about these cooler months also has me wanting to re-read The Apothecary Diaries by Hyūganatsu. The series is set in Tang-era China and follows a young girl trained in medicine. She gets sold to the royal palace and then uses her medical knowledge to solve mysteries. There is also a Netflix adaptation, and the art is gorgeous!
Argh, I love stories. Ok, I'm packing it up.
Peace,
M.
~~~
Project Hollow Progress Stats
Draft one: 51.2%
Current Scene: 21 of 41 planned
Word count: 101,717
