When I say ignore, I don’t mean stick your fingers in your ears and hum. But do take anything that I or anyone else says with a grain of salt. There are entire industries out there devoted to telling you how to write. Some of the advice will be useful. Some will be horrendous. It’s up to you to pick and choose.

Every writer has her own rhythms and patterns. Lytton Strachey preferred to write in the bathtub. Thomas Wolfe (no, not that one, the other one) apparently wrote Look Homeward, Angel while balancing his manuscript on the top of a refrigerator. Either he was a very tall man or it was a very short refrigerator. I tend to eat a lot of peanut butter from the jar. (Chunky only, please.) Some writers work best in the mornings, others in the evenings. Some can write in snippets while standing in the grocery line; others need a week of Quiet Time. As long as the story gets told, there’s no right or wrong as to how you go about doing it.

Be aware of your own habits and rhythms. Take note of how you work most effectively. Don’t try to work against the grain because someone says “but you MUST…”; you’ll only make yourself nuts. Yes, that might work for her, but it doesn’t mean it will work for you. Some authors make beautiful and elaborate collages while plotting their books. The only thing making a collage would make me would be annoyed. I spend a lot of time scribbling long-hand notes on large sheets of paper that I then never look at again. Does it make any sense as a technique? Probably not. Does it work for me? Yes.

This applies to a whole variety of subtopics: when you write, where you write, how fast you write, whether or not you outline, how you outline.

For better or worse, writing is a process of trial and error. No matter what anyone claims, no one can give you a foolproof blueprint for How To Write a Book– because that book wouldn’t be your book.

Over the next few months, I’ll be posting about character development, dialogue, pacing, time management, and other fun stuff. Always bear in mind that nothing I say is a hard and fast rule; it’s more, as they say in Pirates of the Caribbean, guidelines. (Did you hear Geoffrey Rush in your head as you read that? Excellent.)

If there are any topics you’d like me to address, just let me know!

– She has a huge sweet tooth. Jane may take her morning chocolate straight, but Gwen stirs three teaspoons of sugar into hers. Those are heaping teaspoons of sugar, not the little skimpy ones.

– She’s in far better shape than I am. The woman burns that sugar off. She thinks nothing of scaling trellises and dropping from balconies. She’s her own stunt-woman.

– Her capacity for dress-up rivals that of Sherlock Holmes. Like Sherlock, she’s particularly fond of disguises involving silly hats and fake facial hair.

– Of the Jane/Gwen combo, Jane brings the cool analysis. Gwen brings the swash and buckle.

There’s more, mostly involving her past in Shropshire, but since that would constitute a spoiler, I’m going to let that wait for another time….

The attempt to thin the shelves before my move continues. Here are the books that are up for grabs this week:

– C.A. Belmond, A Rather Curious Engagement. (American chick lit. For those who haven’t read these yet, this is the sequel to A Rather Lovely Inheritance.)

– Beth Patillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life. (American chick lit.)

– Gillian Bradshaw, Beacon at Alexandria. (Historical fiction.)

– Rosalind Laker, The Golden Tulip. (Historical fiction.)

– Marissa Doyle, Bewitching Season. (YA Regency paranormal.)

– Julia Fox, Jane Boleyn. (Historical fiction.)

As always, first come, first served. Final batch coming up next week!

– Jen Lancaster, Jeneration X: One Reluctant Adult’s Attempt to Unarrest Her Arrested Development; Or, Why It’s Never Too Late for Her Dumb Ass to Learn Why Froot Loops Are Not for Dinner.

One of the few authors I (a) buy in hardcover, and (b) for whom I read non-research non-fiction. My favorite is still her original memoir, Bitter is the New Black, with Bright Lights, Big Ass in second place.

– Kathleen Gilles Seidel, Till the Stars Fall.

This is the book that kept me sane through the first wave of packing this week. (Well, this and the BBC versions of North & South and Jane Eyre.) Huge thanks to my little sister for giving this to me just when I needed it. It’s a beautiful, heart-warming story of true love found too young and found again later. It also involves a 70′s rock band, which is rather fun. My absolute favorite Gilles Seidel novel is Again, which involves a Regency-set soap opera (who wouldn’t want there to be a Regency-set soap opera?), but, sadly, it’s in a box somewhere and I can’t find it.

– Susanna Kearsley, Mariana.

Since Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s Again was already in a box, I fell back on Mariana, which I’ve been carrying around with me as a back-up re-read for a month now. It’s one of those “save the last chocolate chip cookie until you really need it” type things. Kearsley writes the sorts of books that you want to go live in– in this case, a modern heroine moving into an old house in a small village, complete with echoes of the past.

What have you been reading this week?

– signing at the big group signing at the RWA conference in Anaheim on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 25;

– a talk and signing co-hosted by the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore (Redondo Beach) and the Cerritos Public Library on Thursday, July 26;

– and another talk and signing, date and time TBA, sponsored by Laguna Beach Books (probably either Friday or Saturday).

I’ll put all the information on the sidebar as soon as I have all the details!

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation

You can read all about the creative process here.

Do you have Pink artwork to share? Send it to me and I’ll post it here on the News page.

p.s. On an entirely unrelated note, Writing Wednesdays starts next week!

But this time, I just couldn’t resist.

Remember that horrid novel Miss Gwen was working on? Well, it’s called The Convent of Orsino. (Miss Gwen knew her market: she was going for those Castle of Otranto and The Monk readers.) Poor Eloise is struggling through it, looking for some clue to the whereabouts of the lost jewels of Berar. Because, really, why would anyone have written anything that awful unless it was in code?

We’re not going to get to read the whole book– because I’m not sure my nerves would survive the experience of writing it– but all the historical chapters begin with snippets from Miss Gwen’s grand oeuvre.

Here’s one for your amusement:

“I seek my daughter,” quoth bold Sir Magnifico.

“Madam,” quoth the knight. “Your speech be passing strange.”

– From The Convent of Orsino by A Lady
(and if you were any kind of gentleman, you would stop trying to enquire into her identity!)

Believe it or not, this was the runaway bestseller of 1806. Hey, it has vampires in it.

So, if you like fiction about weddings, you’ll probably like….

– Donna Andrews, Murder with Peacocks. My absolute favorite, wedding-themed novel. Sheer, absurd, over the top, madcap comedy done brilliantly.

– Jennifer Crusie, Agnes and the Hitman. Another wedding you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. But quite fun to read.

– Elizabeth Young, Asking for Trouble. The origin of the movie The Wedding Date, but please don’t blame that on the book, which is excellent British chick lit and has very little in common with the book (other than a wedding and a date).

– Kristan Higgins, Too Good To Be True. Oh, those sibling wedding woes… especially when the sibling is marrying the heroine’s ex-fiance.

– Connie Brockway, The Bridal Season. Moving from the modern to the Edwardian, hilarity– and love!– ensue when a music hall actress finds herself impersonating a high society wedding planner.

– Speaking of high society… okay, these are movies, not books, but how could I leave out The Philadelphia Story and the musical version of the same, High Society?

What are your favorite wedding-themed novels?

Here’s this week’s haul:

– Sophie Kinsella, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (British chick lit, trade paperback).

– Stacey Ballis, Good Enough to Eat (American chick lit).

– Marilyn Brant, According To Jane. (American chick lit.)

– Robin Maxwell, To the Tower Born. (Historical Fiction)

– Beverly Swerling, City of Glory. (Historical Fiction.)

– Anya Seton, Devil Water . (Historical Fiction, very ancient copy.)

More next Sunday!