First two weeks writing Bitter Confessions
Week 1: Brainstorming
I thought I was going to dive headfirst into what I’d written of book 3, but something told me I should list the new ideas that cropped up during my re-read. This led to my whole week being hijacked. Once I started listing ideas, the scenes began to form, which led to details, dialogue, and then bridges to other scenes. Long story short, I spent the whole week writing all new shit without even glancing at what already existed of the story. And I don’t regret it.
I wrote five days that week and totaled 8,435 words, which gives me an average of 1687 words a day. Not great, but we’re in the beginning stages, and it will increase as we delve deeper into the book.
I got a wee bit distracted by SJ Tilly’s Sleet Series, a hockey romance I’ve been seeing on IG. I had a great time with this trilogy, which I gobbled up in 2 days. You can read my review here. And then I got recommended The Pucking Wrong Number by CR Jane (available only on Amazon). This was a NA dark hockey romance with an OTT J/P stalker. Triggers galore. This was also a blast. Been a while since I came across a psycho who’d tie the h to a bed… 5 stars! Here’s my review.
Week 2: Maximus & Roth Flashback
In the original opening for Bitter Confessions, Roth refers to a confrontation he had with Maximus five years ago. I’m sure you can all guess what that special occasion was. I had bits and pieces of this scene written, but now that we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty, I need to know exactly what was said during that showdown.
On Monday, I started working on the scene. It’s from Maximus's POV and will be shown in book 5, an extra book with different view points (mostly Roth’s). I thought it would take two days to flesh out this scene—it ended up taking five! Another week hijacked (kind of). At first, I was rushing through, so I could get to Bitter Confessions, but this is Roth and Maximus. They’re stubborn, cunning, and this confrontation has been a long time coming. It wasn’t going to be short and neat. It was going to be long and messy with them taking shots at one another and both of them pushing for what they wanted. Besides, this may be the only time I write from Maximus’ POV. I stopped trying to force their conversation to cover the points I wanted and just let it unfurl at it’s own pace. I allowed myself to sink into Maximus’ consciousness and listened to his side of the story. Here are some snippets:
“He ducked into the back seat, wrapped his coat around him to ward off the chill, and was pleased when the driver floored it. He didn’t have time to waste. He planned to be in London just long enough to blackmail a man and be back home in New York before sunrise.”
“He couldn’t resist throwing stones and when that didn’t give him the results he wanted, he graduated to grenades, and then dynamite. And still he waited. That gnawed at him. It gnawed at him that his daughter couldn’t see the writing on the wall and it gave him ulcers that the man who married her wouldn’t give up the charade.”
This face to face was surreal. Both of them in one room. Yikes. The power plays, verbal jabs, and reveals kept me glued to my screen. I was swept away by it all. When you write a scene like this there’s a lot of mad typing, pausing, considering, checking facts from past books, snickering, more thinking… You want to get the tone right, and it was a little bizarre because this confrontation happened before Roth and Jasmine divorced, so I constantly had to adjust my thinking from their present to where they were then.
Because everything is so tightly intertwined, I found myself jumping between all 3 books this week. I wrote 7044 words in book 5, 3381 in book 3, and 966 in book 4. Total weekly word count: 11,391. I wrote 6 days this week, which is an average of 1898/day.
I finally cracked the seal on chapter one of Bitter Confessions. It feels like coming home :). This week I’ll be making my way through what I wrote previously. I have 4 consecutive chapters from the morning after Jasmine and Roth’s showdown in London to their arrival back in the States, and some family shit. After that, there are jumps to shocking chapters, some events I would like to see happen, and then blank spaces that have now been filled in with new ideas.
There’s definitely a different flow to this book. You can tell the faucet’s been opened a bit more. Everything that’s been held behind the dam is desperate to come out. I can’t remember when I’ve written so consistently (knock on wood). I wonder if it’s because I’m nearing the end of the series, and I’m closing loopholes rather than creating them... Or maybe I’ve spent so much time with these characters that I don’t have to second guess what they say or do. Whatever the reason, I’m enjoying the writing process so much. I can feel years of notes and ideas coming to fruition, and I can barely contain myself! I love this couple—their fights, their makeups… The quiet interactions when they’re sizing each other up, gauging the other, and never being sure if their suspicions about the other are right or not.
Just in the past two weeks, there were some reveals that had me jumping out of my seat and walking away because I needed to talk to someone, which leads me to:
Mia’s writing cave (Member Area)
I wanted to share my progress in greater detail—chapters I’m working on, scenes as they develop, and writer ramblings as I make my way through this book. So, I decided to open up a members section on my website!
This will be similar to what I did on Patreon. I’ll be documenting in blog form for the most part with a snippet and (if possible) some context. You’ll have access to a Discord server to chat about the snippets or other bookish discussions. I may post occasional polls for character names, ask what flashbacks people would like to see, etc. I don’t know whether this is a bad habit or not, but I can’t stop myself from dropping a line here or there when I’m writing. I have to tell somebody. Some people hate that, but… too bad. I need an outlet while I write, and that’s what this place will be: Mia’s Writing Cave.
I’m currently working on that on the back end of my website and will make sure I have goodies waiting in there for you to devour once it’s up and running. I won’t be releasing raw chapters like I did on Patreon. We all know that didn’t work out too well for me. Lesson learned. This will just be snippets and me documenting my progress if you’d like to follow along and get spammed. A lot. I’m hoping to have the member section sorted by August 1. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun! It will be a monthly subscription like Patreon and there’s a higher tier for those who want to be mentioned in the acknowledgment section like I did for Bitter Secrets and gain other benefits.
I’m currently getting all that sorted. I just wanted to give an update. I hope you all have a great week!