My parents keep asking me when I'm going to pop out a baby. Well, too bad, mom and dad—I'm busy popping out books! Ain't nobody got time for babies right now, and with the world as it is...yeesh.
I started writing Falling for You, book two in the Burlfriends series, in earnest back in January. It was mostly touch and go, in part because I had to do a lot of research and get to know my characters better. But after a while, I became frustrated at how slowly it was coming together. The first draft of book one took three weeks for me to write; why was my second book taking so long?
Part of the hold up was my fear that I wouldn't be able to replicate the success** of my first book. What if it was an anomaly? What if I only had one book in me? What if I'd overcommitted myself? Doubts about everything...the quality of my ideas, my jokes, my writing abilities...they plagued me daily.
But then, something clicked.
Over these past couple of weeks, I wrote for 12+ hours per day, every single day. Most people are going nuts, being cooped up all day (my poor husband has blown through a few video games already), but I've been steadily crushing it.
I've been asked before: how do you stay motivated, as a writer? How are you so productive?
My secret is simple: just have people whom you don't want to let down.
The thing that "clicked" was that I committed to a date. My friends have offered to take time out of their busy schedules to look over my book, and I told them that I'd have the book to them by a certain date. I don't want to have to look them in the eye (through text 👀) and tell them that I couldn't keep my promise and need more time.
Same with my fans. I know this is a hard time for everyone right now, so having your support means so much. I don't want to keep you waiting for any longer than you need to.
Most of all, my husband is supporting the both of us right now so that I can pursue my dream. I don't want to squander this precious time that I've been given. I want to give it my best effort.
So yesterday, three months after starting, I finally finished the first full draft of Falling for You, which tells the story of Lina and Asher, two of the characters who were featured in Crushing on You.
What does "first full draft" mean? It means that all the pieces are there, and I'm not ashamed to have human eyes on it. I actually read the first three chapters aloud to my husband last night (to make up for all the time I spent neglecting him), and he legitimately felt things and laughed out loud at times.
I'm looking forward to hearing what you think!
My friends and I are hard at work polishing it up. In the meantime, here's what I can tell you about it:
There are a ton of climbing puns (see song below for some examples).
The series explores different kinds of relationships with climbing. For example, Anna was a brand new climber; Ian, a seasoned gym rat. Asher has climbed in the past and is rediscovering climbing, while Lina has spent time as a dirtbag. I won't reveal the characters for book three just yet, but they will also have different perspectives.
There's mention of a menorah bong.
One of the tag lines that I'm considering: "Lina loves wordplay as much as she loves foreplay…but is Asher enough of a cunning linguist to win her over?" 🤣
If you missed my post on social media about the song that I wrote for the book, here it is:
Still aiming for May 1 release. I might need a bit more time than that, but not too much more.
Unless I try to find an agent 🙊. We'll see.
**success is an extremely relative term. But feedback on book one has still been rolling in, even as of yesterday: "Few things can distract me from the baby and Coronavirus news, but [Crushing on You] is awesome!" If you haven't left a review yet, please consider doing so!