WIP Joy Challenge - Days Nineteen, Twenty and Twenty-One

For the month of January, I'll be taking part in the WIP Joy Challenge, created by Bethany A. Jennings (found via a share from Adam.C.Macdonald).

I'm playing catch up on the WIP Joy Challenge today, as I was sick Thursday and Friday, and didn't feel like posting.

So here's Days Nineteen, Twenty and Twenty-One!

 I love my world or setting because it's loosely based on the closest city to me, Birmingham. All my books are based on my loose interpretation of the West Midlands, simply because I know the area so well, as it's easy for me to draw inspiration from real life places. For example, one of Birmingham's biggest spots for night clubs, bars etc. is Broad Street and the surrounding area along the canal. The hotspot became the perfect setting for a TV studio (in fact, I think there actually is one near by or used to be), and because of all the clubs, bars etc. Jade and friends have plenty to do when they're not working.

The relationship I root hardest for is Jade and Seth. They are the main characters! I just really want them to work it out, despite all the shit that's thrown their way. Even though there's a gap of twenty-five years between them, I think they're really good for each other, and when people stop selling stories about them to their paper, and Seth's ex-wife backs off, I think they'll be really happy together.

I'm most impatient to hear reader reactions to Seth and Jade's romance, and Seth as a love interest. It's not common in contemporary romance to have a love interest twice the age of the heroine, and I hope people aren't put off by the fact Seth is in his fifties (there's some hot guys in their fifties!). 

WIP Joy Challenge - Day Eighteen: Share an Example of Your Best Prose.

For the month of January, I'll be taking part in the WIP Joy Challenge, created by Bethany A. Jennings (found via a share from Adam.C.Macdonald).

I've shared a few snippets already, but I'm always up for sharing more.

Enjoy ...

“It’s just a thing, it’ll pass.” I buried my head again, and even as I closed my eyes, I knew it wasn’t true. When it was ‘just a thing’ your heart didn’t flip-flop inside your chest when the person smiled at you, and the days they weren’t around didn’t suck just because they weren’t there. This was way more than just a thing. 

WIP Joy Challenge - Day Seventeen: I Love The Way I Depict My Characters Because ...

For the month of January, I'll be taking part in the WIP Joy Challenge, created by Bethany A. Jennings (found via a share from Adam.C.Macdonald).

They're real!

I hope readers will connect with Jade and think "this could be me/ someone I know."

I want her words, actions and emotions to resonate with readers, so they feel what she feels. 

An example of that is this scene:

I woke up with the worst headache I’d ever had in my life. My mouth felt like it was filled with cotton wool, and my eyelids were stuck together. I forced my eyes open, and looked around.

I was lying in a strange bed, in a room I didn’t recognize.

Images of the night before flicked through my mind, and I saw the two guys who’d obviously slipped something into my drink, and then tried to take me from the club. 

Hot claws gripped my body, and I threw off the bed covers. Leaping to my feet, I found I was still fully clothed apart from my shoes, which had been placed neatly on the floor at the foot of the bed. 

My heart hammered, and I creeped from the room. As I stepped out into the hall, I heard snoring coming from the room where the door was half open. 

Terrified of what I’d discover if I looked in, but desperate to know whose house I was at, I peered around the door. 

WIP Joy Challenge - Day Fourteen: Which Characters Gt Along Worst With Each Other?

For the month of January, I'll be taking part in the WIP Joy Challenge, created by Bethany A. Jennings (found via a share from Adam.C.Macdonald).

I've already touched upon the fact that Jade and her co-worker Courtney have a mutual hatred for each other.

Here's a scene that really exemplifies that:

As I deepened the kiss, I heard a screech from behind us. 

“Oh my god. So, the newspapers weren’t lying. You two really are together?” 

My heart felt like led. Of all the people who had to see me and Seth kissing, it was Courtney Sinclair.  

I turned around to face her, my eyes narrowing. “Yeah, we are. Do you have a problem with that?” 

“A problem? This is fucking hilarious. Miss high and mighty, having me about accidentally showing a little more of myself than I’d intended on a night out, and here she is making moves on a man twice her age. What’s the matter, Jade? No one your own age interested in you? Or do you hope you can get your claws in good and proper, and score yourself a nice sugar daddy?” 

Before Seth could stop me, I’d jumped up off the couch and charged towards Courtney, my hand hovered just inches away from slapping that smug smile off her face. 

I stopped myself just in time, let out a breath, and stepped back. “Not even you’re worth losing my job over.” 

“Oh, you’ll lose your job. When I tell HR you raised your hand to me, you’re out of here.”

WIP Joy Challenge - Day Thirteen: What's A Message About Relationships in your Book?

For the month of January, I'll be taking part in the WIP Joy Challenge, created by Bethany A. Jennings (found via a share from Adam.C.Macdonald).

The core key message about relationships in my age-gap romance is not to over-think things, or assume what the other person is thinking/ feeling, and to keep the lines of communication open.

Seth sums this up perfectly in a conversation with Jade early on in their relationship:

“Thank you for being honest with me.” 

“I want us to have a chance. If we decided later down the road there isn’t a spark there or whatever, we’ll deal with it. But I couldn’t bare thinking I’d messed things up before they even got going by not being open with you. That’s one mistake Tessa and I made, and I don’t intend to repeat it.”

WIP Joy Challenge - Day Twelve: What Was Your Antagonist's Past Like?

For the month of January, I'll be taking part in the WIP Joy Challenge, created by Bethany A. Jennings (found via a share from Adam.C.Macdonald).

My age-gap romance has two antagonists. 

The first is soap actress Courtney Sinclair, who DOES NOT get along with my protagonist Jade at all; in fact, I'd go as far as saying she bullies Jade.

I haven't given much thought to why Courtney is the way she is. She's just one of these arrogant people who believes the sun shines out of her arse, and everyone should bend to her every whim, so when someone doesn't, she goes to war with them.

I guess it stems from growing up as a spoiled child and teen, getting anything she wanted, including lots of attention because of her natural good looks.

The second antagonist is Seth's ex-wife, Tessa, a former Page-3 model, who is actually vary similar to Courtney on the surface, but the reason behind her behaviour runs much deeper.

Their relationship was the classic tale of rock-star marries model, that you see a lot in real life celebrities. 

Tessa was happy to live the celebrity life, and hoped her marriage to Seth would further her career. But after a few years of her aspirations of being an actress not taking off, Tessa decided instead that she'd devote her life to being a mother, and quickly convinced Seth to try for a baby - even though he was struggling with a cocaine addiction at the time.

However, motherhood wasn't what she imagined, either, and with Seth still away a lot (first in rehab and then trying to reignite his music career) Tessa became bored and lonely, and turned to alcohol and partying to combat this.

Eventually their marriage broke down, and when Tessa shows up the the story, they're in the middle of a divorce.

She doesn't want to be with Seth anymore, but she can't stand to see him happy with someone else, either, when she is so miserable, so she tries to cause as much trouble between Jade and Seth as possible. 

WIP Joy Challenge - Day Eight: Who's your protag's best friend (s)

For the month of January, I'll be taking part in the WIP Joy Challenge, created by Bethany A. Jennings (found via a share from Adam.C.Macdonald).

Jade has three BFs, the girls she met while working at G.E.M TV network. Here's Jade introducing them in her own words:

Jon shook his head and stood up from the stool. “Well, anyway. We’re all going out for welcome drinks tonight. You game?” 

“Sure, any excuse for a piss up.” 

“Cool. I’ll tell the guys. You ask Kelly, Chloe and Maria?”
I grinned. “Absolutely.” 

‘The guys’ were video games expert Mike Hawthorn and tech specialist Rich Clark, and together with my best-friends Kelly Stewart, the network’s fashion and beauty host, network model Chloe Deeley, and Maria Ball of the wardrobe department, the six of us made up the usual crowd from the studio who socialized together regularly. 

I've tried to balance Jade's friends out, both in terms of appearance and personalities.

Kelly is the most down to earth, and the one Jade will go to if she needs solid advice. She's the voice of reason, and the person who'll always tell Jade when she's over-thinking a situation. 

Maria is the 'dreamer' and can sometimes annoy Jade with her match-making, and trying to 'help' in her life. But she's also loyal, with a heart of gold, and is a hopeless romantic. 

Chloe, I guess, would be the one Jade sometimes has tension with. She can be a bit blunt sometimes, and haughty, and that tends to rub Jade up the wrong way. It's not that she means to come off as bitchy, it's just she sees the world in a different, more detached way, especially when it comes to love. 

WIP Joy Challenge - Day Six: Which Character Is Hardest For You To Write?

For the month of January, I'll be taking part in the WIP Joy Challenge, created by Bethany A. Jennings (found via a share from Adam.C.Macdonald).

Right now, I'm struggling most with secondary characters and finding a balance between making them real, well rounded characters, without them taking over the story.

I think my problem might be I don't understand them, and what makes them tick as well as I do my main characters. Mostly, they react they way I want them to, because they're filtered through the protagonist, but sometimes they're difficult. 

WIP Joy Challenge - Day Seven: Tell Us About YOU and Your Work!

For the month of January, I'll be taking part in the WIP Joy Challenge, created by Bethany A. Jennings (found via a share from Adam.C.Macdonald).

Well, for those new to the blog/ me/ my writing, I'm Clare, a thirty-something British Girl Woman, from the West Midlands.

Even though I've been writing since 2005 - starting out in the world of fan-fiction, before moving onto original fiction in 2010 when I took part in NaNoWriMo for the first time - I still consider myself a fairly 'new' writer in that I've only recently been published.

My first story, a paranormal-romance novella called SEEKING THE TRUTH, is part of the LOVE IN THE FIRST DEGREE ANTHOLOGY, which was published July 18, 2016.

My first full length novel, ALL IT TAKES, a contemporary romance about life, love, responsibility and self-discovery, will be published on February 14, 2017. 

I have a number of other novels, written mostly for different year's NaNoWriMo, which I may or may not return to in the future.

However, my focus right now is All It Takes' release next month, finishing my age-gap romance, and another project I can't announce just yet! 

WIP Joy Challenge - Day Five: How Easy Is This WIP To Write

For the month of January, I'll be taking part in the WIP Joy Challenge, created by Bethany A. Jennings (found via a share from Adam.C.Macdonald).

When I started my age-gap romance during NaNoWriMo, the words just flew out of me, and I produced 28, 727 words in the span of seven days! The idea gripped me, like plot bunnies used to in my early years of writing when I worked on fan-fic etc. 

Just after NaNoWriMo I got sick, so didn't do any writing, then I got swept up in holiday prep and the kids being off school for Christmas etc. so no writing got done, then, either.

I got back to it yesterday, and managed 2444 words - not as good as when I was producing 5k during NaNoWriMo, but back on the right track, and hopefully once I get into the swing of the story again, words will start flowing in massive amounts.

So yeah, on the whole, for a first draft, this one is pretty easy. Obviously, there's minor blips, like in any story and sometimes real life takes over, but on the whole I have a good understanding of the characters, and know exactly where the plot is heading. I feel confident I'll have this finished soon (I don't want to give an exact date, as February will be busy for me with the release of ALL IT TAKES), and I'm fairly certain editing and revisions won't unearth many major issues.