On Writing and Letting Go

A few weeks ago, I sent my manuscript off to the editor and then sat back and stared at my computer screen with a sigh. Usually, when I'm finished with a story, writing the words The End is a relief. It's like an 'Okay, I did it' because contrary to what I thought when I first starting writing, you never (or I never) feel like 'yeah, I got this. I'll kick out another book'. Not to say I'm insecure. I'm not. I'm just grateful to be able to do it every single time.

So the sigh... This was the first book where the moment I wrote the words The End, I felt a little sad. 

While you're writing your story, the characters live only for you. Only for you. Stop and think about that for a moment. It's an amazing thing. It's not even only that they belong to me. I mean, they do, sort of, or at least they've trusted me to tell their stories, but they EXIST not only because of me but also FOR me. I feel like I know them better than I know anyone else in the world. 

In the case of this particular book coming up, it wrote it faster than I usually do, and it's also the longest book I've written. The idea had taken root a long time ago but I'd not yet been able to put the story together. I even knew the hero and the heroine's names from the start, and I felt like —once I hit send— they were no longer only my own. Maybe I just wasn't ready to give them up. 

That feeling is strange, and when I hit publish on a book, it's even greater. It's not quite a sense of loss. I don't mourn. I know other people will read the books and others will get to know these people and their stories and hate them and love them and scream at them, but as soon as I hit publish, they simply don't belong to me anymore. They no longer exist only for me and I let them go and I can never really get them back, not like it was when I was writing them and it was just us. 

It's such a strange thing and I wonder if other writers feel this same way. 

That all said, one of the most wonderful things after I've published a book is a reader messaging me about a character, asking a question, wanting to know more about their future, or just telling me how much they loved a story. I am pretty sure I can never get enough of that! 

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On Writing Spanking Romance

My friend Liv Honeywell asked me if I'd like to participate in a hop where authors talk about their writing process and I thought why not? It's good for me to not share just the sexy bits of my work. 

Wait, you're not going to stop reading now that I've said that, are you?

There are four questions to answer so here we go:

What am I working on now? At the moment of writing this, I have just submitted a manuscript for the next book in the Roark Brothers series as well as another piece I'd been working on for a while, a romantic suspense. I'm also editing a story the rights of which will return to me by the end of March that I will republish. More to come on that later.

How does my work differ from others of its genre? I like this question but also not. I think I work with a lot of very talented authors many of whom I also count as friends. I think the quality of erotica in general improves daily and spanking erotica is no different. 

How I feel I differ? Well, for me, the emotions of the characters and what goes on in their heads is the driver of my stories. This may not be all that different from others now that I've said it. One area that is different is that even though I would classify my work as spanking romance, the D/s aspect is central to my theme and exploration through my work. The more I write, the more I feel as though I take away another layer of myself. What I mean by that is that through the writing, I hone in on what it is that draws me to this.

On this note, my husband asked me the other day if I still find spanking sexy. I looked at him like he had three heads but then I thought of his question. The answer is yes, absolutely, spanking is what turns me on, but through the writing, I've become more specific, learning what it is about this whole thing that draws me, that has always drawn me, even when I didn't have a name for it.

Why do I write what I do? I started to write spanking romance to get the fantasies out of my head but it turned out to do the opposite. The more I wrote, the more I wanted and the more I learned about myself. 

Someone asked me a while back if I would write another genre soon. I think at the time they asked, I was a bit embarrassed about what I wrote (and they did not know it was spanking romance, just erotica). If they asked me that today, I'd tell them absolutely not. I love what I write, I'm proud of what I write and I think there are a lot of people who read these stories because they do not have the real life outlet and I am very happy to be a part of their escape. I feel like in a way, I help them (or I hope I help them) get beyond the shame and simply accept what is a part of us. There's nothing wrong with this kink and there's an entire community of people out here ready to open our arms to others who need embracing.

What is my writing process? It's actually very boring. I make coffee and I read my mail. I make more coffee and do some chatting on FB and some promotion. Then for the bulk of the day I sit alone in my kitchen and I write. Once my kids get home from school, it stops (for the most part) and in the evenings when my friends in the US are up, I chat some more. I don't plan out plots although I'd like to be able to at some point.

Thanks for being here and reading this. Next week, February 24th, Sheri Savill and Casey McKay will post about their own process. 

Casey McKay, author of Cursed Waters and Catch a Falling Star

Casey McKay enjoys fighting the boredom of her soul crushing day job by being a spanking fiction writer by night. Writing books she would like to read- not surprisingly they all become romance novels, with lots of spanking. She likes a good romance, with a little bit of comedy, a happy ending, and of course some spanking.

Follow her blog at www.caseymckay.com

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Sheri Savill, author of Owning Julia, Marked for Submission and Bound for Disappointment

SHERI SAVILL likes to put her name in all caps. Sh

She is an independent author who has written nonfiction and humor for a very long time. Lately she writes BDSM erotica. And w00t, she is a real-life submissive who was into kink long before it was cool.

A career in publishing/journalism led her to the brink of insanity. Or past the brink, depending on which former employer you ask.

Her hobbies include violating the rules of good writing and grammar simply because she can, directing friends to Google search, telling strangers to lighten the hell up, and preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

Sheri's books are said to be slightly less disappointing than Vanilla Coke.

Please deposit an additional twenty-five cents for more bio.

My social media crap: 

Website: sherisavill.com

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/12vqaIn

Twitter: @sherisavill 

Google+: http://bit.ly/1aPcZvg

Amazon page: http://amzn.to/186VPt4

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Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1ammHWE

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