Hello everyone! Thank you so much to the ladies of Jaunty Quills for having me as a guest today! I’m celebrating the release of my 20th book, NEVER MARRY A STRANGER, a Victorian novel about a man who returns from the dead, only to discover a woman pretending to be his widow. Of course he has to figure out what’s going on—without too much scandal—so he pretends he has amnesia from his war wounds and can’t remember being married. But he’s more than willing to have her remind him!

Since I’m celebrating a new book, I thought I’d talk to you today about my writing rituals, the things I do every day. Some seem silly and obvious, but others help me get into the flow of the story, and put myself back into the scene so I can keep writing. First, my alarm wakes me up…

No, no, I’m not going to go THAT in depth. But I do manage to check my email just before I go downstairs. I write on a laptop not connected to the internet. I have to go all the way upstairs to another computer to read email, research online, etc. I would be too distracted if I could access that stuff easily. So after a check at the computer, and pouring myself a huge mug of ice water, which I refill several times a day, I head down to my office in the basement, hopefully by 8:30 or so. The first thing I do is log in. I write down the time I start and stop, and what I’ve accomplished for the day. It gives me a good feeling to page through and see that I’ve actually accomplished something on the book that’s giving me fits!

The way I get myself back into the story is to summarize the previous chapter. I tend to write about 15 pages a day, so I usually finish a chapter in there somewhere. I keep a chapter summary to one page in length, and write one small paragraph for each scene in that chapter, keeping track of important things that happened in that scene. At the bottom of the page, I even summarize the whole chapter into a couple lines. By the time I finish this, I’m right back in the story again. I use my chapter summaries when I get a revision letter from my editor. It helps me see an overview of the book, and track where I need to make changes. But sometimes, I just can’t remember where I put a certain plot point in the book, and rather than reread everything, I go to my summaries to find it with ease.

And then it’s time to write. As I said, I shoot for the daily page goal that will allow me to work five days a week, leaving me a few weeks to revise at the end before the manuscript is due. I leave my office about 1:00 to exercise my dogs, then eat my lunch while watching my soap (One Life to Live). I read emails again, and then I’m usually back at my desk by 3:30. If the day is going well, those 15 pages can be done by five, but sometimes it’s 7 or 8 before I’m done. And since life happens, if I can’t meet my goal for the day, I make it up on the weekend. And on days when I’m revising or plotting or reading copyedits or updating my website, I try to work 8 hours or so.

So that’s my writing process. Do you have your days mapped out like I do, or are you the kind of person who takes life as it comes? We’re all different, and that’s what makes the world interesting.