Kristy McCaffrey's Blog: Author Kristy McCaffrey - Posts Tagged "writing"

I didn’t begin my writing career until I was 33 years old, when I decided to write a book (called a manuscript until it’s published—I knew so little). I’d been writing all my life, but at that moment I made a conscious decision to refine the process. The difference between a published and an unpublished writer is really the desire to trim, tighten, and tuck that mash of creativity into something coherent. Working with a story, I believe, involves a great deal of intuition. As a writer, I’ve had to learn how to trust the process, and it’s not always easy. This element of faith is not unlike a religious leaning—you simply don’t have all the answers. If you’re lucky, they come at the end of the work, but sometimes they don’t. Writing is nothing if not a learning process.



My first book (yay, it was published so went from ‘manuscript’ to ‘book’) took four years to write. The Wren, a historical western romance, features a Texas Ranger reunited with a woman he thought was murdered by Comanche as a child. The seeds of this story came to me when I was 15 years old. There wasn’t much—just a girl who knew two brothers, and a ranch (which I assumed was in Arizona since that’s where I’ve lived most of my life). The characters became Molly and Matt, and his brother Logan, but when I decided to refine the story I had to become more specific. I soon realized the setting wasn’t Arizona, and after reading an entire tome on the history of Texas (Lone Star: A History of Texas by T.R. Fehrenbach), I knew I’d found the locale. It continued to be a back-and-forth process, however, between research and following the inherent thread of the story, a thread I wasn’t always aware of. (Often this becomes the underlying theme of a work. In The Wren it was the idea of home, and the many ways we define that.) But I trusted, and this book is still the most well-received of any of my stories.

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Many an author has posted such a list, and there's much good info out there if seeking guidance in the writing arena. I've been at this inscribing thing now for over ten years (more like thirty if you consider my childhood scribbles—yes, they do count), so it goes without saying that I've learned a few things along the way.

Here they are.

—Watch 'Romancing the Stone', a wonderful movie about romance author Joan Wilder. It's incredibly accurate, right down to the sticky notes all over her kitchen reminding her she needs to do this and that. When writing, we writers forget everything.

—I've given up trying to write before I've checked email, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I write in the afternoons and evenings, which pretty much ruins dinner every night.

—Get an iPod to block out the kids and husband. I make playlists for each story, offering me one more avenue to procrastinate on my writing.



—Buy bookshelves to hold research books, but know that it won't matter. You'll still run out of room, so make peace with tomes strewn all over the floor.

—When I'm stuck on a scene, I've found the most effective method is to stop writing and wait for inspiration. Three days later when nothing hits, I return to the computer pissed off and write a scene in frustrated anger. But, hey, I've finally moved forward.



—I rewrite any sentence that contains 'lie' or 'lay' because I'm unable to remember the rule and too lazy to look it up.

—I always keep a thesaurus and dictionary handy. My trade is words, and my work is to make 'em count. (By the way, this doesn't count for 'lie' or 'lay'—a loathsome trickery in the English language.)

—Don't name an animal after a color. If you decide to change the name later, a 'search and replace' in Word will make you realize how many times you used the word 'white' within your manuscript (because it will replace all the wrong 'whites'). Now, it becomes apparent that the thesaurus has been neglected.

—I refuse to feel guilt when I use an adverb.



—I have a tendency to put spectacles on my heroines in every first draft, which I must later delete. It's the oldest trick in the book to make my ladies appear 'smart'. Did I mention that I wear glasses?

—I've learned to trust my muse. She's a sneaky little devil, never making things clear until the end of a project. By then I've eaten too much ice cream and moped around believing I'll NEVER make this story work.



—I'm a writer, not a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist, and therefore there's no sense dwelling on bad prose (mine or anyone else's). Move on. I can always do better next time. (This is my pep talk after bouts of insecurity and lots of ice cream.)

—I obsess constantly about where to put commas, which has led to more than one restless night. I will edit year-old blog posts if I realize I missed a critical comma. And no, I'm not obsessive-compulsive, hyper-focused, or anal. (I will probably re-edit this post next year...)

—I keep writing until the heart of a story can be excavated. It always exists, and it's my job to clear the dirt and debris so that it can shine. I'm simply a translator of myth and symbolism into something others can enjoy. It's my gift, and my curse. I imagine brain surgeons feel the same way.



So, to recap. Writing is exhilarating, but also crappy. (I can't find 'crappy' in my thesaurus, so have no other word to use. Sorry.) Come join the fun!

By Kristy McCaffrey

I’m in the process of readying my fifth novel for release. While I would love to say that I know the ins-and-outs of this writing thing, I can’t. Each book I’ve penned presents its own challenges, and with each I was at a different stage of my composition skills.



This is the first book that I’ve written fast. I’ve always called myself a slow writer because I was. Toiling away with a small press meant no real deadlines, so I never gave myself any either. I wrote to my creative whims. If I came to a crossroads in a story and was unsure of the direction, I easily took a three month break to await inspiration. As you can imagine, it took me years to write my first four books.

An important aspect of this slowness concerned my writing confidence. While I can’t say I’m super-assured at this point, I did make a deliberate effort to improve my skills, to network with other writers who could help me, to read more, and to look up grammar issues to make sure I was getting it right. I also had the opportunity to clean up my first three books to re-release them. That was an eye-opener. The sloppiness in prose jumped off the pages. I think the simple fact that I could recognize this helped me feel more convinced that my skills have improved (all cringing aside).

I wrote the first draft of THE BLACKBIRD (Book Four in my Wings of the West historical western romance series) in one push during the month of November. I participated in National Novel Writing Month, a worldwide endeavor to finish a novel in 30 days. I’d never done anything like it before, and I’d certainly never written so quickly. I was curious to try.

To ‘win’ the challenge, writers had to type out 50,000 words. This isn’t quite the length of a novel since most are around 70-80,000 words, but the goal was to get a decent outline completed. I quickly realized that to hit my daily word count of 2000 (I knew I’d have to take off Thanksgiving at the end of the month so I wrote more than the recommended 1667 words each day), I couldn’t move slowly or dawdle too much on my characters, or descriptions, or the plot. Some writers are pantsers, living in a world where ‘what will come will come’, but I wasn’t one of those. I had to discard all my carefully laid plans of meticulous research. This was especially grueling as I built three chapters around a fort in the Arizona Territory I wasn’t even certain existed.



It was a wild November (we writers do love the crazy), but I did it. And, I pushed to get to the end of the book. I did this by glossing over certain scenes, then moving on. I skipped descriptions—the hero carried a gun and rode a horse but I didn’t know what kind. I wrote hero’s backstory (with the Apache Indians) by using markers like ‘B Indian talks to C Indian from the D tribe’. But don’t get me wrong, I did do preliminary research in October to make sure I was heading generally in the right direction. There were, however, many details I simply didn’t have time to fact-check if I wanted to make my word count each day.

This type of intuitive writing is both exhilarating and scary. It can lead to serious misdirection, and hence much rewriting, but it also lets the plot breathe through the writer unfettered. I found hidden gems in the story I had no idea were present, such as what really happened to the heroine when she was assaulted two years prior. The twist really surprised me. But in the rough edges of this first draft I also found I needed additional time to find the best way to tie it all up, to cut away the fluff. This is where my best-laid plans suffered. I was unable to meet my March 2015 release date. I pushed it to April, and began worrying about whether I’d get it done by then, too.

By mid-March, I made it through a fairly thorough edit of the first draft, cleaning up and tying bows and ribbons wherever I could, but as I got near the end I found a major glitch. I needed a better motivation between the bad guy and the heroine’s father, a rather ambiguous character who I hadn’t decided was good OR bad. My husband offered to help. Over dinner, I explained the story—and many subplots. It was impressive that he didn’t doze off. Finally, his advice was to offer a simple explanation for why something had happened in the backstory. And he was right. When in doubt, take the most obvious, easiest solution because that will make the most sense. The key, of course, is not to reveal all this to the reader, doling it out throughout the story.



So, back to another editing pass. I’m just about complete with it, then it’ll go to the editor. Despite a deadline looming, this is really the most fun part of penning a novel, at least for me. It’s when the very finest of details are added, and it always feels like packing moist, sweet earth into the cracks of the world I’ve created.

Hang tight, readers. I’ll get this published by the end of April. Cheers!



Arizona Territory 1877

Bounty hunter Cale Walker arrives in Tucson to search for J. Howard “Hank” Carlisle at the request of his daughter, Tess. Hank mentored Cale before a falling out divided them, and a mountain lion attack left Cale nearly dead. Rescued by a band of Nednai Apache, his wounds were considered a powerful omen and he was taught the ways of a di-yin, or a medicine man. To locate Hank, Cale must enter the Dragoon Mountains, straddling two worlds that no longer fit. But he has an even bigger problem—finding a way into the heart of a young woman determined to live life as a bystander.

For two years, Tess Carlisle has tried to heal the mental and physical wounds of a deadly assault by one of her papá’s men. Continuing the traditions of her Mexican heritage, she has honed her skills as a cuentista, a storyteller and a Keeper of the Old Ways. But with no contact from her father since the attack, she fears the worst. Tess knows that to reenter Hank Carlisle’s world is a dangerous endeavor, and her only hope is Cale Walker, a man unlike any she has ever known. Determined to make a journey that could lead straight into the path of her attacker, she hardens her resolve along with her heart. But Cale makes her yearn for something she vowed she never would—love.

By Kristy McCaffrey



NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each November, writers everywhere attempt to write a novel in 30 days. To ‘win’, you must write 50,000 words. This is approximately the length of a long novella. My books tend to run between 70,000 and 85,000 words, so this endeavor doesn’t yield a complete novel for me, however, I’ve always made an effort to get to THE END by skipping scenes and lengthy descriptions along the way.

I’ve just completed my second NaNo and I’m happy to report that I met the goal of 50K. But it wasn’t easy. NaNo never is. That’s the point. It pushes a writer to their creative limits and beyond.



To reach 50K in 30 days, a writer must punch out 1667 words per day. Since there’s a U.S. holiday smack-dab in November (Thanksgiving), I set a goal of 2000 words per day. This would give me some cushion and allow me to take a few days off while I had a house filled with family. It also provided a buffer for those days when the words just weren’t flowing, as well as the unexpected event (mid-November my husband and I had to transfer our youngest daughter rather abruptly from boarding school, throwing a stressful wrench into my schedule).



NaNo teaches discipline. For me, writing 2000 words (4 single-spaced, typed pages) often takes several hours. And some days, it was so bleepin’ hard. I knew my story, I knew the main characters (well, kinda), and I knew the pathos I was searching for, but writing them down is always something entirely different. Scenes veer off-course and characters behave differently than imagined, and because of the pace of NaNo there’s no time to breathe. No editing, no languishing in research books searching for ideas to spark my ideas. In some ways, it’s a bulldozer approach. But it is effective.



I now have a beautiful, somewhat messy, first draft. Even better, I know my hero and heroine in ways I hadn’t anticipated. I’ve been in the trenches with them. I’ve found their strengths as well as their weaknesses. Now, I can revise and use these to the advantage of the story. But there’s also a slew of inconsistent plot points, repetition, characters who serve no purpose at all, and what I call ‘pivoting’, when I made a major change mid-story but didn’t go back to fix the earlier parts—I moved forward as if I’d already changed them. If anyone was to read this first draft, they would surely say: What were you thinking? But this process is highly productive, which is why so many writers participate each year, logging into our accounts each day to post our progress, reading motivating messages from big-time authors, and tracking the momentum of our writing buddies. NaNo brings out our competitive nature and that’s not a bad thing. It’s the Ironman event for writers.

The manuscript I produced isn’t my usual stuff. With the conclusion of my Wings of the West series this year, I decided to take a break from historical western romances and write something else I love—women exploring the world. Tentatively titled DEEP BLUE, this first book in a new series is a contemporary romance set against the backdrop of great white shark research. My heroine, Grace, is a marine biologist who likes to get up close and personal with her subjects. The hero, Alec, is hired to film a documentary about her, to aid Grace in her quest to provide conservation measures for the sharks, but he’s also haunted by a previous expedition that went horribly wrong. His growing feelings for Grace leave him conflicted about how far to push the boundaries between humans and the great whites that inhabit the waters around Guadalupe Island in Baja California.



It’s my hope to have a revised manuscript completed in the next several weeks and release it in the spring of 2017, if all goes well. Thanks to NaNo, the most challenging part is complete—the first draft. Facing the unknown abyss of a story can be disconcerting. NaNo forces a writer into those murky depths. It’s true—creative undertakings can be frightening and writers often develop sly little evasion mechanisms to avoid facing a blank page and the daunting task of writing an entire book. But there’s no magic formula—it’s all in the baby steps and steady progress, and NaNo provides that in a very compressed and intense atmosphere.


Are you a writer? Wanna give NaNo a try? Check out their website and finish your book at last.



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By Kristy McCaffrey



I recently came across an old post on Facebook from a few years back in which my author friends were challenging one another to reveal seven things about their writing life. And since I’ve been a bit brain dead lately from promoting my latest release, I thought I’d regurgitate my response into a blog post. Reuse and recycle, as my husband likes to say.

1. An early spark of interest in writing occurred when I was young and read Mary Stewart’s King Arthur Trilogy. I remember wondering how in the world she came up with her dialogue.



2. My first real writing happened in high school. I penned fan fiction in Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern universe (I’m not related to her, unfortunately). I had one of my Pern stories published in a fanzine. I was so very excited. I have to give a shout-out to my mom because she helped me to write it.



3. My first published novel was also the first full-length book I ever wrote (The Wren). Yep, I had no rejection letters. (I have some now.) I was with a small press run by a wonderful woman who gave me a break, but the editor she assigned did very little editing and I was too green to do anything about it. I’ve since cleaned up that early version, although it’s still not my most polished book. But it’s one of my favorites, teaching me much about plot, character, and writing from the heart.



4. Why I started out writing westerns is a mystery to me because it’s so dang hard. I know nothing about guns or horses, and history was never my favorite subject in school. However, I’m anal about research and always do quite a bit for each project.





5. My writing routine has changed over the years, but one constant remains—writing a story is like riding a rollercoaster with my eyes closed. I hang on and hope I’m good enough to get to the end.



6. I figure out most of my story problems when I first wake up. My husband thinks I’m a late sleeper, but I’ve usually been awake for a while before heading to the kitchen. (Hubby and I both work from home.)



7. I tend to see stories in symbols. (I view everyday life this way, too.) I’m always looking for archetypal moments in a tale, times when there’s a double-meaning in a scene, or a larger picture than what the details convey. This isn’t a fast process, and I’ve frequently come up short when trying to finish a work quickly. I’ve always felt that writers are, in essence, healers. A good story can patch up a weary soul.



Time to get back on the rollercoaster…



Did you know there's a free follow-up novella to my new book DEEP BLUE? Sign up for my dedicated Pathways newsletter and get the download code today for a digital copy of DEEP BLUE: AUSTRALIA.

By Kristy McCaffrey



As a writer, I always appreciate advice from other authors. But when I’m asked for my own writing tips, I glance over my shoulder, because surely there’s a famous author standing behind me. Still, there are a few bits of advice I can offer.

Surround yourself with people better than you.
This is how you’ll improve. And you can always improve.

Network
Friends make the world a sweeter place. Friends can give you endless ideas about how to move forward in your career. And, finally, to get support, you must give support. Read your friend’s books. You’ll learn much.

Trust your instincts and intuition.
Follow your creative impulses—they’ll always be right and true. But be more business-like and discerning during the editing process and the subsequent marketing of a book. Don’t crumble at the first sign of criticism.

Learn the craft.
This will be an ongoing process that never ends. You’ll make mistakes. Learn from them and move on.

The 80% Rule
If a story is 80% good enough, I send it off to the editor. With good editing, I strive to bring it up to 95%. It’s impossible to reach perfection, so stop tweaking and release your creation to the world.

Be authentic.
As an author, as a writer, and as a person. You are your writing. At the same time, your job is to be as invisible as possible within the work itself. Dig into your characters and plot. Embrace research.

Follow your own path.
Your journey won’t look like anyone else’s, so don’t compare yourself to another author.

Have fun.
If playing with words and stories wasn’t buried deep in your bones, you wouldn’t be doing it in the first place. There are no limitations, really, so don’t place any on yourself.

Be humble. Be curious. Be grateful.



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By Kristy McCaffrey



I always begin the new year with much optimism and ambition in regard to my writing/publication schedule. I sincerely hope I can stay on track, because I’ve been known to get lost in research piles along the way, or sometimes sidetracked by a shiny new publishing venture (group projects – always a welcome challenge and great fun).

But here’s where my head is at the start of 2020.



I’m currently in revision mode of ANCIENT WINDS, Book 3 in my Pathway series. I wrote a first (very rough) draft in November, and then spent December reading, reading and more reading to figure out my characters in more depth. I’m happy to report that I’m starting to uncover what makes archaeologist Brynn Galloway and physicist Dr. Tristan Magee tick. This is my “Indiana Jones” meets “The X-Files” story, so expect adventure alongside some weirdness (ancient aliens anyone?). Stay tuned! I’m hoping to have it out by March or April.



Once I finish Brynn and Tristan’s story, I’m planning to write COBALT SEA (Book 4), which will star Chloe Mann (Grace’s sister – Grace was in DEEP BLUE) and Nick (he doesn’t have a last name yet). Chloe, like Grace, is a computer programming wunderkind and she’s working on deciphering the language of Sperm whales. She’ll travel to Dominica (a Caribbean island that has a year-round population of Sperm whales) where she’ll meet Nick, who runs the program that studies them. I can’t wait to write this one! Anyone who knows me can attest to my deep love for the whales of this world. I’m really hoping I can have this one completed by August or September.



I’ve been focused on the Pathway series for the past few years because I wanted to give it a chance to find a readership before I went back to my westerns. (Thank you so much to my western readers for being patient.) Since COBALT SEA will give me four novels in the Pathway series, I’m planning to pen the first book (a full-length novel) in a new historical western romance series in the fall. Tentatively titled COPPER CANYON, it will be set in southern Arizona in the late 1870s (my favorite old west time period) and will feature three brothers (not blood-related but adopted together) and the women who tame them. The stories will be filled with colorful characters, gritty settings, and steamy romance. I’m not sure if these will cross over with my Wings series – still trying to figure that one out.

Despite my ambitious schedule of producing three novels this year, I’m also hoping to carve out time here and there to add to the Pathway short stories. I’ve got several about Grace and Alec from DEEP BLUE in mind, and another climbing adventure for Lindsey and Ty from COLD HORIZON. Fitting them into the timeline is proving to be a bit tricky, so I may hold back on publishing them until I get the new novels completed.

I would also like to add to my Wings of the West series, as many of you have requested more stories (although the series itself really came to an end for me with THE BLUEBIRD). However, I’m exploring the possibility of side stories. I’ve had a long novella called THE SONGBIRD on the backburner for a while, and hopefully I’ll have a chance this year to spend some time on it. Stay tuned.

I really want to thank the readers for embracing my work – for reading and sharing and posting reviews. Please know that your support is so appreciated and helps tremendously in keeping my small business (with one employee – me!) going.

I wish you all a fantastic 2020!!

“I simply do not distinguish between work and play.” ~ poet Mary Oliver

By Kristy McCaffrey

I was thinking the other day about why I do what I do (writing), because the truth is that publishing is an exceedingly hard business to be in.

Sometime last year I hit burnout, not with the writing itself but with always trying to claw my way up the discoverability bowl, only to slide to the bottom again and again. I’ve become weary.

Sometimes when I get like this, my husband will say, “Then quit. Move on to something else.” Except … excavating characters and stories is my happy place.

So when this happens I’ll pause, take a breath, and then get back to work, adding music in the background to improve my mood (it works) and making a point to dance a little when I complete a tough writing session.

I came across this quote recently, and it really speaks to the gypsy in my soul. (And some of you may know that Women Who Run With The Wolves is one of my favorite books that I turn to often when I need a soul pick-me-up.)

“Modern storytellers are the descendants of an immense and ancient community of holy people, troubadours, bards, griots, cantadoras, cantors, traveling poets, bums, hags, and crazy people.”
~Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With The Wolves

So, from me to you I want to say thanks for reading! We’re all in this life thing together. (And I’m only a little crazy …)