The Writing Process - Claiming Shayla

If you've been following my website, you know I'm about 90 pages into True Mates 6: Claiming Shayla. Readers have been asking for it and I've been working on it off and on for about 3 years now. I recently finished another project, a book whose characters absolutely demanded to have their story told. Now that I'm finished, I'm ready to get going on CS and get it done.

Major problem. I've lost their voice. I vaguely know what I want to do with the story, had ideas of what I wanted to plot-wise that came to me while working on other projects, but now that I'm actually focusing my whole attention on Claiming Shayla, I'm feeling a little lost. I'm questioning what's already been written, which is bad.

So what do I do? How do I get back inside my characters' heads? Go back to the beginning, of course. No, not the beginning of Claiming Shayla. I have to go back even further. I have to go back to book 2, Mary and the Bear, to get a handle on Rory. And if the truth be told, back to True Mates where Shayla was first introduced to get back inside of her head. I need to find that spark, the quirks that make Shayla who she is and what made Rory the tortured hero that he's become. Only then can I complete this story.

So, while writing Seduced by a Wolf, I took the break I alway need after finishing a True Mates' story. But now it's time to immerse myself in their world again so that I can tell Shayla and Rory's story the way it's begging to be told.

Over the next two weeks, I'll take time to read True Mates, Mary and the Bear, and Nikolai's Wolf. With my perspective and viewpoint firmly in place, I'll once more read what I've written of Claiming Shayla and be ready to finish it.

I've had several timeline goals during the course of writing this book, but my new one is to have it finished by June, and submitted by September. I know you readers have gotten used to one to two True Mates books being released a year, but honestly, that's not the way it works in the real world -- my world, with all its ups and downs and my busy schedule. As my writing skills improve, I want to be in a position to take my time with these stories, have quality over quantity.

Do I plan to take another three years before completing the next one? No, but if I do, I hope the final product will be worth the wait.