It all started in April of 2018, in the months leading up to my second National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a personal challenge thousands of writers take on to see if they can write a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days. I’ve participated in three so far, 2017, 2018, and 2019. 2018 was something different, however. When I prepare for a NaNoWriMo I like to go outside of my comfort zone, and really, the Paranormal Romance genre is about as uncomfortable as I could get. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it was never my scene.
So, for six months I binged Twilight movies, read Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton, and crammed as many vampire movie classics as I could (I actually liked Interview With a Vampire) while I brainstormed concepts and characters. On the flip side, I studied the craft of romance writing, learned about the structure of a romance novel, and looked at tips and tricks provided by members of the Romance Writers of America.
By the end of October, I was ready. I had a concept, a setting, character sketches (narrative, not drawings), and an outline. November 1st came, and I dove in. I wrote a simple tale, of relationships, adventure, the power of the will and resisting seduction… Only, not really. Shots were fired, cars chased each other, a building caught on fire, an aircraft crashed. All quite comfortable things to wite about, if I’m honest.
At the end of the month, I was victorious in my word count, heck, I nailed it a day early, and that was with Thanksgiving break in there (and oh yeah, I got married, that ate up a week, Luv you, Hon!). The words did flow, but the problem was they were all wrong. Sure, the draft was messy, but I’m talking about the story. The overarching romantic plot turned out to be more of a subplot. The focus was more on the vampire hunters than the vampires. Everything got kinda mixed around.
During the year after I worked on the draft to make it something less laughable, with frequent input from my critique partner, a solid writer in his own right. There was a lot going on in the story, so I split it at a place that made sense and focused on a smaller chunk.
The result is a shorter book, with less cheesy romance and more action, but at least it was something I finished. Besides, part two is mostly written at this point, and the revision process is going that much faster. Win!
I didn’t quite accomplish my original goal of writing a paranormal romance, but I did crank out an urban fantasy, and that’s just as good, in my book. I had fun writing it, I learned a lot about so many things involved with not only writing but self publishing, and I’ve been able to release it as my debut novel. Maybe one day it will gain some traction among fans of the genre, along with the second in the series.
Not the most dramatic “behind the scenes” story, but it’s how we got Vampires Wear Shades. Now that the book is out there, let’s see what happens…