IWSG Wednesday: Writing, Covers, and Soundtracks

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

I just received a rough draft of my fourth and final cover for the Lorne Family Vault series, and I’m excited with how well it fits with the others. It feels great to have them all nearly done, one more thing I can cross of my list for releasing (and rereleasing) all of the books. My biggest complaint with my current (and previous) covers is the visibility (and readability) of the titles, especially viewing them as small cover icons on Amazon. This was another live and learn experience for me since these issues with the titles were my fault. I wanted title graphics that were uniquely stylized. But the results were also hard to read. I know not to ask for that anymore. Now, I’ve asked for a bold title font that stands out even as a small icon—and my new designer fully delivered.

I’m still plugging away at the manuscript for Archanum Manor and just passed the halfway point. As I’ve previously written, I’ve been writing without an outline for most of this first half, but I’m now getting nervous. I want to bring this series home with a strong ending and that pressure is building into more frequent writer’s block. I haven’t written in a few days and I need to get myself back on track this evening because days of non-writing can be a slippery slope of losing momentum.

I enjoy creating soundtracks to my books for brainstorming and writing, and I finished the one for Archanum Manor last week (as an iTunes playlist). For Provex City, the songs I chose fit with specific scenes in the book, but now I create a soundtrack mainly for expressing the tone of the story (though some songs in the other soundtracks still coincide with certain key scenes). The difference is that for Provex City I created the soundtrack after the book was written and fit the songs accordingly. Now my soundtracks are WIPs before and while I’m writing until they feel complete.

And now I’d like to leave you with the teaser of a first song from the Archanum Manor soundtrack for your listening pleasure while I get back to writing.