Please see the full post at Will Read for Feels. Also check out their awesome reviews and blog posts!

The playlist for Flame’s Dawn (Songs are listed in the order they appear in the novella.)

Here's the awesome YouTube video of the playlist -- again, thanks to Will Read for Feels! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcwqCmEi9Jc&list=PLL9Ccxm_X9baIA0KbpgbOe1p43j-YpkqL

• Jackie Wilson “Higher and Higher”
• Herman’s Hermits “There’s a Kind of Hush All Over the World”
• The Monkees “Daydream Believer”
• The 5th Dimension “Up, Up and Away”
• Santana “Evil Ways”
• Jimi Hendrix “Machine Gun”
• Blue Swede “Hooked on a Feeling”
• The Carpenters “Top of the World”
• Kool & the Gang “Jungle Boogie”
• Elton John “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”
• Bachman-Turner Overdrive “Takin’ Care of Business”
• Grand Funk Railroad “The Loco-Motion”
• Jim Croce “Time in a Bottle”
• John Denver “Sunshine on My Shoulders”

Although it wasn’t listed specifically in the text of the novel, while editing this novella, I had Melanie’s “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” on eternal repeat. I had never heard of this song until I stumbled upon it while searching for songs from 1970. (Long story, I got the year wrong for part of the story on my first draft and for a while looking for songs from the wrong year. Anyway.) Now I can’t get “Lay Down” out of my head. The live version at Woodstock with the Edwin Hawkins Singers gives me goose bumps.

In the last post, we talked about what IS fastdrafting. Now I'm going to share how I tried it. Yes, everyone is different, but maybe this will give other folks good ideas for writing to work for them.
 

What are the rules?
 
As far as I can tell, there’s nothing set in stone, but here’s what I needed to pull this off:

1. Fully fleshed out character interview (10 pages for each character done ahead of time) and a solid outline, preferably revised a few times before starting.
2. A set amount of protected time. (For me – all day Friday, 7-12 on Saturday and late that night, pieces of Sunday and also late that night, and all day Monday.)
3. Verbal commitment from hubby who understood that I needed those protected times and a promise from me to take him out for dinner for his birthday Saturday night.
4. Permission to wear comfy clothes or whatever outfit was most conducive to writing lots.
5. Permission to sit wherever I could write lots

 
 
Here’s what happened (times are approximate)
 
Friday 7-9am – Shiny object! Day off work! Surf Internet and read other folks’ blogs and writing articles. Polish up website. Check electronic medical records (EMR) at work to sign off orders and put out fires.

There have been lots of great articles on fastdrafting, but I wasn’t a believer…
 
Until this last week. You see, I had a four-day weekend earmarked to write. I had a deadline for a developmental editor pass in two weeks. And before this last weekend started, I had…no book.
 
So I figured, why not? Let’s try fastdrafting. And I mean really fast. Could I crank out my usual first draft of a novel in four days? (Usual first draft for me = 35-40K words FYI)
 
 
What is fastdrafting?
 
Basically, it’s writing the first draft of the book without stopping (editing) and just getting the ideas and words down on paper. Some websites shoot for getting a book done in one, two, or four weeks with this method. I think it must also depend on the length of the book.

 
            As the first book of a new, top-secret project departs for initial developmental edits, I feel kind of lost. There’s been so much writing and editing and creation going on for the past few months -- now that there’s a break, I feel weird. Like the brain still has ideas bouncing around, but it’s too tired to process them right this minute. Could also be because I’m 10/10 exhausted from this call week, too, but that’s beside the point.
 
            Nowadays, I can’t not have a project to work on in front of me. Like, it feels…wrong…not to write.
 
            At nighttime, after sending off that last project, my head switch gears.  Like I wanted nothing more than to start outlining the next book, but simply couldn’t do it. Too tired. But then the scenes for the next story started lining up, on their own! Couldn’t stop if I wanted to.
 
            Maybe there’s some truth to what more seasoned authors say: These stories rolling around in the head must be let out! Only, it would be nice if those stories gave me a break every once in a while.
 
            So what if I don’t write this day or this week? Good news! There’s always something for a writer to do. Always. If it’s not writing, its editing. If it’s not editing, it’s sending queries. If it’s not queries, it’s marketing current books. The work doesn’t end, and I love all of it. Even the times when there’s waiting.
 
            Only…it’s never waiting. Not really. It’s just time to write more!