Making Sausage
(or The Ugly Way Stories Sometimes Get Written)
Sometimes, a story seems to write itself. Other times, a story seems to resist being written despite the writer’s best efforts and intentions. Taking Liberties, which comes out today from Harlequin Spice Briefs, definitely fell into the latter category.
It’s hard to say why some stories are so darned hard to write. In some cases, it’s probably because the whole thing was a bad idea in the first place that was never destined to work. That’s happened to me more than once. I have the carcasses of a few manuscripts that never got past the first twenty or so pages because they just weren’t meant to be littering my hard drive.
In the case of Taking Liberties, however, that wasn’t the problem. The problem, in retrospect, was that I sold it to the publisher on the strength of two pitch paragraphs, but aside from the setup described in those paragraphs, I didn’t have the faintest idea of where the story was going. Because the maximum word count for Spice Briefs was 15,000 words (about 50 pages, give or take), I fell into the trap of believing it would write itself. I mean, how hard could it be? I had a hero and heroine who were meant for each other but didn’t know it, a conflict, and some hot sex in mind. No sweat, right?
Except that as I wrote the story without a clear outline, I kept taking wrong turns. I wrote myself into dozens of corners I couldn’t find my way out of. Every time I did it, I’d have to scrap about 5,000 words to get back to where I’d gone in the wrong direction and continue forward. By the time I got 15,000 usable words, I’d probably written three times that many. Some of the words I wrote also wound up needing to be cut because, although I liked them, they weren’t strictly necessary to make the plot hang together and would have put me over the 15,000 word limit.
I did, of course, eventually finish the manuscript and, although when I turned it in, I was sure it was the worst thing I’d ever written in my life (mainly because I’d long since gotten sick of it), I’ve since reread it a few time and I almost can’t believe it’s the same story. Because, you know, it’s actually a lot of fun. The heroine, Tish, is funny and clever and the hero, Nash, makes me a little swoony because he knows what he wants (Tish) and will stop at nothing to get her.
Because Taking Liberties is a brief, I thought you might enjoy reading one of the “outtake” scenes I mentioned above. This one, between Tish and her older sister, Beatrice, is one of my favorites. I hope you like it, too.
“Ouch!” Tish popped the digit she had just absentmindedly stabbed with her sewing needle into her mouth. She had never been particularly skillful at stitchery—much to her mother’s chagrin—but she was even worse at it when she was distracted.
And she was considerably more distracted than usual.
She glanced at the clock above the mantel again. What could be taking so long? She had sent the footman out first thing this morning with the invitations. He should have been back hours ago with the responses, and yet it was approaching high tea with no word.
“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you, or are you just going to poke yourself until you’ve as many holes as a pincushion?” Beatrice asked in her best older sister voice. The voice that, when they were children, inevitably led to Tish being locked in a wardrobe or finding a frog—or worse—in her bed if she failed to comply. “I know you didn’t invite me here this afternoon just to sit and do needlework.”
Irked at being found so transparent, Tish removed her finger from her mouth and jutted out her lower lip. Beatrice was surely past amphibians by now, and Tish wouldn’t fit in a wardrobe anymore. At least not without a great deal of compacting, and that would require cooperation, which she would not be inclined to give.
“Perhaps I just wanted to spend a few companionable hours with my sister.”
Beatrice rolled her eyes. “So you could spend our entire time together in pursuit of one of your least favorite activities while simultaneously checking the clock every few minutes and jumping whenever a servant comes into the room? I know you better than that. You want to tell me, you know you do.”
The truth was, Tish had wanted her sister’s company solely keeping her mind off the scandalous thing she had done. If even one of the gentlemen breathed a word…well, her father wouldn’t be able to marry her off to the mustiest, goutiest, poorest aristocrat in all of England.
With a sigh of resignation, she set aside her (sampler) and sent a furtive glance toward the salon door. The last thing she need was the untimely arrival of a servant in the middle of her confession. “Papa has given me until next Friday to choose a husband, or he will choose for me.”
Instead of evincing sympathetic horror, Beatrice laughed. “Did you really think he would let you string along forever?”
“Three years is hardly forever.”
“It’s long enough,” her sister countered. “I was only out a Season.”
“And look where that got you,” Tish snapped, more harshly than she intended. Her sister paled, and Tish was instantly contrite. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
Beatrice set her needlework—the straight, even stitches in sharp contrast to Tish’s haphazard ones—on the gold velvet settee beside her and sighed. “Yes, you did, because it’s the truth.” Her sage green eyes misted over. “Albemarle doesn’t love me and never did. If it weren’t for the baby…” She pressed her hand to her belly, which had only just begun to swell, and the hint of a smile curved her lips.
As pleased as Tish was that her sister had something to be happy about again, she refused to take the chance of following in Beatrice’s footsteps. “I’m afraid,” she admitted.
Beatrice’s expression sobered. “Of marrying badly?”
Tish nodded. “I need to be sure that I choose the right man. I want to be madly, deliriously in love with him—and for him to be equally in love with me.”
You can read the first chapter of Taking Liberties at my website and comment here to enter to win a digital copy!
I like the sound of this book. Enter me in the draw please!
Sounds like a fun read and I’m so busy this time of year that short is perfect!
love it!
Wow, twice I’ve tried to send my comment, and each time I’ve re-worded my phrasing. Both times after submitting, I received a time out, advising me to re-reply. LOL! So, here I go again. It will most likely will be different from the last 2 comments, but oh well. This time I plan to be smart and copy my comment! 😀 Just in case I need to paste later.
Jackie,
I completely understand what you meant about Beatrice. I loved her humor, yet sorrow for her loveless marriage. You did right by Beatice though. The child Beatrice is carrying brought love and hope back into her life. This short and sweet snippet, intrigued enough, I want to know more. Will I read more about Beatrice and her beginning. Will her sister, Tish, end up in the same type of loveless marriage as Beatrice. Will this baby bring Beatrice and her husband together. Gee’s the questions go on and on…
Bev.
As much as this book intrigues me. Please don’t enter me in this contest. I must bow out gracefully. My phone is too small to read an e-book. So, if “Taking Liberties” is out on the book shelves, I must hurry then… B&N… here I come.
I can’t believe it… I was just on line looking for this book.
Sadly, “Taking Liberties” is only formatted in e-book. :'(
Dollar General has an eReader for $45.00 right now. That is a great deal. I love my Nook eReader.
Not only was the excerpt wonderful it was so good that I immediately had to use the link to go read the first chapter. I can’t believe that I’ve never read one of Jackie’s books because from just the first chapter of Taking Liberties she is now added to my TBR/Must Buy list!
Thanksgiving may be over but I want to take a moment for sending my thanks for not only keeping me up-to-date with my favorite authors and their books but also for “introducing” me to so many offers I hadn’t “met” before.
If I didn’t already own a Kindle I’d be jumping over to Amazon right now to buy one now. I’m getting my husband a Kindle for Christmas so he stops taking away my Kindle to use for himself AND that way Ill stop getting really strange emails from Amazon about new baseball books being released!
It always amazes me when an author manages to fit an entire story in 50-100 pages. Happy release day!
Sounds like a good book. I really liked the Spice Briefs I have read in the past. Thanks!
Hi, Jackie! I think you did a great job with Taking Liberties if the first chapter is any indication. I definitely want to read the whole book. Thanks for the giveaway!
I loved the analogy about making sausage, though I’m sorry that’s how it seemed when you wrote Taking Liberties. Thanks for the giveaway.
Taking Liberties sounds awesome! I have heard other authors say that novellas are more difficult to write because of the strict word counts. Writing 15,000 words in a novel may go quickly but trying to tell a concise story in the same amount of words for a novella is much tougher. Congrats on the new release!
Taking Liberties sounds good. I think short stories are harder to write than the longer stories because you have a lot less words to get the same thing done. Congratulations on your new release!
The excerpt sounds wonderful. I imagine that sometimes writing the shorter stories are harder since you have a restriction you have to abide by. You have to make everything fit and flow. It’s always amazing when I finish a novella and still feel satisfied and happy with the characters. I’m just glad you didn’t give up on Taking Liberties and I can’t wait to read it.
I hate to say this, but I never read any books by Jackie Barbosa. 🙁
Sounds like a wonderful short read, I will have to check out your site to see what other goodies you have.
Putting you on my list of new-to-me authors!
P.S. ~ Please do not enter my name in giveaway, I’m a recent winner. 🙂
Lovely
I would so love to win this book!
Thanks Mary… I went on line and checked out the e-Reader at Dollar General. It’s a great buy. However, I wouldn’t be unable to transfer my favourite books I purchased on my phone from B&N, and from Amazon. KOBO will only allow purchases from their website, no other apps. 🙁
Again, thanks for the info. 🙂
It would’ve been a great buy, for sure.
I’m still hoping Santa will drop off a Nook or Kindle for Christmas. 😀
Great outtake and certainly leaves us wanting to know more. Thanks for the chance to win a copy of Taking Liberties!
Thank you for sharing your insight on your writing/creating process.
Congrats on the new book!
hi jackie..
iam a new fans for your book,,after finished reading for chapter one..i love this book,,you make me corius…
i cant stop it for reading this book..
Thank you for the deleted scene. Too bad you couldn’t leave it in. I am so glad women don’t often find themselves in that situation any more. Sounds like it should be a fun read.
That out-take is good, enter me please.
You hooked me in!!! Please enter me.
Thanks for all the lovely comments. I’m so happy you all enjoyed that little excerpt. I would have loved to leave it in the story, but since it turned out I didn’t need it and I wound up right on the boundary of the maximum 15,000 word count, it had to go!
Love the outtake and if the remaining text is as good as the outtake…then we’re in for a treat! Thanks for the giveaway.
I love the cover. Makes me want to read this book right away.
I love those Spice Briefs! Looking forward to reading this story.