[ Back]

Sorry. Couldn't resist the pun. Can you tell I don't write humor?

I'm a one full length novel a year writer. It takes me a year to plot and four months full time to write a 70,000 word novel (and then another year after that to revise). I've tried rushing the next story. No can do. The result was a poorly plotted mess.

It is very challenging to build a romance writing career on one book a year. So what's a writer to do?

In the world of ePublishing, writers have the luxury of publishing shorter works. These include novellas (around 25,000 words) and shorts (less than 10,000 words). Brilliant, I thought. I'll simplify a love story, cut out the middle, and bam, I'm done! Yes, stop laughing. I know now that it doesn't work like that. Shorts and novellas have their own rhythm and requirements. They require a unique skill set.

The first few shorter stories I wrote didn't work. They were either too simple or too complicated or too slow or too fast. It took me a few tries. However, because shorts are quicker to write, I was able to rack up experience points quickly.

I can write 10,000 word shorts part-time while working. They were simple enough that I can hold the stories in my brain over the time required to write them down. I write 500 words a day and have a first draft done in less than a month.

My first novella, Selling Forever, is a standalone story. The characters don't appear in any of my other novels. Upon hearing that, an author buddy asked me what the heck I was doing. I was building rich worlds in my full length novels with plenty of interesting secondary characters buzzing around. Why not tell their stories? I got right on that. I have one such companion piece submitted to my publisher (to accompany Flawless, my February 2010 release) and another being looked at by my wonderful pre-editor Mandy.

So now I've found my rhythm. I write one full length novel and a handful of shorter works during the year. It may still not be enough to build a career but it does feed the writing monster. Plus I'm having fun!

Kimber Chin's fourth published story will be Flawless, a sequel to her contemporary romance, Invisible. Flawless releases February 2010, in time for Valentine's Day (if you like bloody Valentine's Days, this romance has a very high body count). An excerpt is available on http://businessromance.com