Because I like to talk about my writing I assume others like to talk about their writing to. In this spirit, I forced my lovely co-authors in Owned by the Alpha to answer a bunch of questions about how they got from the blank page to this book.
Question 3: Tell Us About Theme Writing
What challenges did you work though writing for a theme or such a short work for the anthology?
Having to keeping things short and sharp. Most of my works are around the 40,000 – 50,000 length so trying to tell the story and do my characters justice in such a short word count was a challenge.
After reading shifter romance for probably a dozen years, I was cautious if I’d be able to do the genre justice in such a short word count. I usually write in first person (I and my) but decided to write this as third person to stretch not only my genre’s but my point-of-view skills. I put more weight on my shoulders than probably was necessary, but I love to challenge my own writing. And in the end I loved it! I actually wrote a blog post about the journey. Love to have you check it out.
My biggest challenge always is having a word count limit, however His Guardian Panther just poured out of me and the story felt complete.
Partly because I was emulating Noir-style detective fiction, which by it’s very nature were short and fast, the word count wasn’t an issue. However, because this world is part of an Epic Fantasy, I feel like there’s sooo much I didn’t get to share. Like entire continents of story these characters don’t even look at. My difficulties were much more in trying to get my main character to behave like an alpha; I was worried I missed the mark completely, but I guess I did alright.
Keeping within the word count. It would have been very easy to add much more, about all three of my characters. Anthology calls have this danger for me. A few times there’s just been too much about the characters, and what happens to them, to keep within the word count.
Writing anything with a word-count limit is its own challenge. But, for me personally, I am the WORST with deadlines. Thankfully, I’m pretty good at lighting a fire under my own bum.
James Cox
Wishes to let his story speak for itself, damn it. Now stop asking questions and let him write more delicious stories.
Graceful Indecency 