Welcome Wednesdays – The Hardest Thing…

Welcome Wednesdays – The Hardest Thing…

Welcome to this week’s edition of Welcome Wednesdays.  Today I’ve got a question about writing for all of you great authors out there…

Tell us about something that you found very difficult to write, and why it was hard for you.  You can interpert “difficult” however you like: a scene or story that was very emotional for you, or a character that you had a hard time with, or a plot that took forever for you to sort out.

Tell us about the book/series in question and then what about it was difficult and why, and be sure to leave a link so we can take a good look at it!  If it makes sense, feel free to include a short (2-3 paragraphs tops) excerpt, too.

 

I’ll begin.  By far the most difficult thing in the Dream Series was chapters 2-3 of the fourth book, DREAM FAMILY.  Those are the chapters that describe Sara’s arrest, her horrific night and morning in jail, and the immediate aftermath.  It was not pleasant to put her through all of that, and I had trouble sleeping thanks to it (as did one of my beta readers).  But the final result was a book that’s probably the best-written one of the whole series.

 

And now it’s your turn!

(when you’re done here, please stop by Exquisite Quills, where there are daily memes just like this one and plenty of fantastic authors you can discover!)

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8 Replies to “Welcome Wednesdays – The Hardest Thing…”

  1. Hi, James. Thanks for the Welcome Wednesday and your interesting question. I don’t like being mean to my favorite characters, but conflict is the whole point of fiction. In my newest book I had a hard time writing a scene where my heroine loses the man she was just beginning to love (as well as her voice), but if this didn’t happen, she never would have met the prince:

    Incredibly, his face was peaceful, more beautiful to her in death than he had been in life. Mercy started to caress his cheek and saw the gore on her hands. Anguished keening burst from her, turning into a scream so raw that something tore inside her throat. She fell across Gabriel’s body, sobbing until there were no tears left and her swelling throat closed off all sound. The world went mercifully black.

    From MERCY’S PRINCE, YA Christian fantasy
    http://www.amazon.com/Mercys-Prince-Katy-Huth-Jones-ebook/dp/B0115KNDS4

  2. The most difficult aspect of writing Blue Hydrangeas, my Alzheimer’s novel, was writing from the point of view of Sara, who has Alzheimer’s. One can only imagine what it’s like to live with this disease. My latest reviewer wrote that she wished there had been more scenes from Sara’s perspective, but also said that this must be a very difficult thing to write, and that I had done a good job with the scenes I had written. I wrote a blog post about this which I will post here http://literarylagniappe.com/2013/07/04/writing-saras-point-of-view-by-marianne-sciucco/

  3. My Charming Academy series had several difficult parts to write, but the first book had by far the hardest scene as I had to kill a character everyone really liked. I agonized over the scene for months, trying to find any other way to make the book work. But it was no use. The character had to die for the story to continue as it should. I’ve been told that one reader was so upset she threw the book across the room and refused to keep reading for several months. Here’s a snippet of the scene:
    Sebastian stayed at the young lady’s side, cleaning the multiple wounds and gently rubbing in ointment against infection. She had lost a lot of blood and he could see that she was becoming feverish from her long exposure in the elements. Who knew how long she had lain in the bitter cold, waiting for someone to help her? Gently wrapping bandages about her, Sebastian softly hummed a tune, the name of which he’d long forgotten. Night lengthened and turned to dawn. The young woman’s condition did not improve. If anything it steadily got worse. Exhausted, yet determined to see her well, Sebastian spoon-fed her cups of broth and took the time to bathe her wounds and redress them. It was midafternoon when the young woman awoke from a fevered sleep. “Sir?”
    “Yes, child, I’m here.”
    “I need you,” she began, her voice weary and strained. “I need you to tell George…tell George that I love him.”
    “But, my dear, I don’t know your name.”
    The girl smiled as her eyes closed. “Tell George, Eleanor loves him.” With that, Eleanor took her last breath and lay still in Sebastian’s arms, the slight smile still playing on her lips.
    Charming Academy by Jessica L. Elliott https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/171612

  4. Thanks for letting me join you today, James.

    The hardest thing I ever wrote was the final book in my Bunny Elder mystery/thriller series. I’d grown so fond of the character of Bunny, I didn’t want to let her go. In fact, I managed to resolve my dilemma by giving Bunny cameo appearances in each of the books in the next series, “The First Ladies Club.”

    Excerpt from Chapter 3:

    1. Looks like a messed up the html on the except from chapter 3. For the curious, here it is:

      “Hey, Buns! Come up here and give me a hand!”
      Max’s shout woke Bunny and she was instantly aware of a change in the rocking of the boat. When she swung her legs out of bed and stood, a violent surge jolted her to her knees. She crawled to the steps and pulled herself up onto the deck, holding tightly for balance as she emerged into a violent squall.
      She accepted the life jacket Max thrust at her as he scrambled about the deck hauling on lines and lashing them down.
      “What should I do, Max? Are we going to sink? How can I help?” Bunny shouted over the wind.
      Max explained he had the sea anchor deployed underwater to keep the bow pointed into the wind, so the boat was not likely to capsize.
      The sloop was already heaved to and turned close to the wind, with the jib partly furled, and the helm locked into position, so it slowly jogged along without turning broadside to the waves, giving Max the chance to show Bunny how to help out in this rough weather.
      Several hours passed with the two fighting to keep the sloop on course before the storm abated and they were able to relax.
      Bunny was mopping up puddles from the deck, still in her soggy nightgown, when she looked up at Max with a grin.
      “I’m swabbing the deck, aren’t I? So, now I’m a real sailor.”
      “Yep. And you passed your first storm at sea without losing your lunch, too. I’m proud of you.”

  5. Hello there, what a great idea for a blog topic! Thanks James.
    I am currently having a very difficult time working on a paranormal romance called Raven’s Awakening. I knew when I started off story plotting for this book that I wanted to go a much darker route than my current sci/fi romance series. So as I began writing I pulled a lot of my own characteristics and issues and put them into the main heroine, I just didn’t really anticipate how vulnerable it would feel to be putting all of this down on the page for the world to see. I suppose I was a bit naïve on that point, but as tough as it has been to write, I really think it’s giving Raven something special that a lot of readers will be able to identify with.
    I’m certainly relieved to be able to take breaks to carry on with my other WIP’s since they are pretty light hearted and a lot of fun to write. There is a sneak peak for Raven’s Awakening on my blog page: http://sarahmarshfiction.com/

    Since I am still working on the trouble maker I’ll give the link to my other releases for the Coalition Mates series, its science fiction romance, lots of fun, adventure and LOTS of heat! Or come check out my Facebook page!
    http://www.bookstrand.com/sarah-marsh
    https://www.facebook.com/sarahmarshfiction

  6. I’m new to your Welcome Wednesdays. Thank you for the opportunity to talk about “The Hardest Thing…”

    My latest release, Heaven Sent, involves not one, but two near-death experiences for my female protagonist right off the bat. I’ve never experienced an NDE myself, but my mom and I used to discuss them and exchange books detailing NDE accounts. When she died, my family discovered something she’d written that described her own NDE. We don’t know why she never shared the experience while she was alive, but her written account affected me deeply. I’ve known since then that I wanted to write an NDE book, but until last year, I hadn’t figured out how I would handle it.

    I think what made writing Heaven Sent so difficult was my desire to ensure that I wasn’t doing a disservice to anyone who has ever experienced an NDE. My character Sophie is given a mission from God to return to the earthly plane to save a little girl named Bella from the Dark Place. Sophie never questions the assignment, nor does she dwell on the obvious question, Why me? She figures she’ll have time to think about the dying-and-coming-back piece later, after she saves Bella. What she doesn’t anticipate is the spiritual reawakening she experiences.

    The research alone was intense for this project. Not only does it involve a dark NDE (for Bella), but I had to find a way for Sophie to communicate with the other side and also a means for her to travel to the Dark Place. Then I had to actually go to the Dark Place with her. Fortunately, I have a vivid imagination—and it does come in handy.

    Heaven Sent is currently available on Amazon as an ebook and in paperback.
    US
    CA

    UK

    AU

    Also available on Amazon wherever Euros are spent.
    CreateSpace Store:

    Author website:

    Ann Simas, Author on FB:

  7. Something went awry with my links, all the way down the line. If you are interested in learning more about HEAVEN SENT, my website is http://annsimas.com and you can find the book by plugging ANN SIMAS HEAVEN SENT into Amazon’s search engine. Sorry for the foul up.

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