I love plotting…more so than writing sometimes-which is ironic since I can’t plot my books too heavily as I’ve mentioned many-a-time before. (I think it’s because once I’ve plotted something whether it’s mine or a writer-friend’s I can totally picture the entire novel right then and there. I like it to be a discovery as I write. That’s just my process. Having said that, and because of that, I do like to come up with deep backstories for my characters. I personally like to know how they lost their first tooth and up to how they handled their senior prom. I t helps me flesh out the characters in the books even if I don’t include the info.

Last week I finished up a book (done, done and done some more) and sent that baby out (fingers crossed-will update if/when news comes through-on a side note, can I tell you, it took me a year to write it. It’s never taken that long, but as I have writer’s ADD, it wasn’t the only book I was working on and …life can get in the way sometimes-I need discipline bad! Anyhoo…). Naturally, a completed and out the door novel means I needed to get right/write back into. Too long of lag times is bad. It makes me lazy and often I have enough crap that pushes the writing aside anyway, I don’t want to add to the gaps when I can help it(as evident of me taking a year to write the last book).

As I mentioned in the comments here a while back, my process can vary from book to book. And I never know which process I will get until I sit down to plan the next book. This time around, I had a particular idea I wanted to work through (the hero is a bodyguard). That’s all I had, and by all, I mean all I knew was I wanted a bodyguard book. Doesn’t seem like much to go on, but that’s where I have/had to go from. I had a few fits and starts with the whos and whats-and I had to get past the hubby singing Whitney Houston every time I brought the book up trying to bounce ideas off of him (needless to say, he was banned from the thinking room while I was working).

I have a decent handle now on my new people. I still have a few kinks to work out, but I am excited to start a new book-I am always excited when a new books starts. The possibilities are endless, and I love playing the “what if” game so it’s pure fun for me. Now check back in with me in a month and I may be cursing said book due to lack of plotting and I have worked myself into a hole, but even that *is* fun, especially when you do get yourself out of it, have a finished book that’s ready to go out the door.

Have y’all started anything new recently? Where are you in your current book process? Are you at the “still in love with it” stage or the “hair pulling” stage? Which stage do you find more creative (sometimes it is the hair pulling stage for me, because I have to work at it just a wee bit harder)?