The evolution of a writer (And LAST RITE giveaway #4)

Six weeks from tomorrow, Last Rite will be on shelves. I'm so excited to have it out there in the world so you can all follow Frannie, Luc and Gabe through the end of their journey together. But it's bittersweet. At the same time as I'm excited, I'm also mourning a little.

I've discovered that my writing process with Personal Demons was a little different that most of my writer friends'. Some of them call themselves "pantsers" (meaning they don't outline their novels) but I've never talked to anyone else who literally didn't know ANYTHING that was going to happen in their novels until it did. Most "pantsers" tell me they have a general sense of where the story's going, they just don't know how it's going to get there.

Not me. When I sat down to write Personal Demons, all I had was a character. I joke that the book wrote itself, but it's really not a joke. Scenes would pop into my head and I'd write them down. That's all. Many times, they'd shock the hell out of me. I was all over the place with my writing. The first day I sat down, I did write the beginning, but after that I wrote whatever was in my head that day...chunks in the middle, the end. Whatever. Six weeks later, I pieced it all together and found out I had kind of a cool story.

So I got an agent.

She asked me what else I was working on. It turned out Frannie, Luc and Gabe weren't done with me because, as stupid as I knew it was to write a sequel to a book that hadn't sold, the scenes that were popping into my head when I sat down at the computer were more Personal Demons. She said "good," which I decided gave me the go ahead to write Original Sin. But I still had NO CLUE where it was all going.

Can I tell you the dirtiest, nastiest, most horrifying word you can say to an author?

SYNOPSIS

Especially an author like me, who only knows where her story is going when it gets there.

We went on submission and my truly fabulous agent told me I needed to write a series synopsis. I almost puked. I could give her a sketchy sense of Original Sin, cuz I was already halfway into it, and even though I didn't have any idea how it was going to end, at least I knew part of what was going to happen. But how do you write a synopsis for a book three when you're clueless about where book two is headed?

Thank God my editor lost the synopsis, is all I can say.

So, Last Rite surprised me a lot. When it was finally all done, I looked back and thought, of course that's where this was going, but I didn't see it until it got there. So, what I mourn isn't my characters. They'll always be in my heart. What I mourn is the excitement of watching their story unfold and seeing where it lead. So, in that way, I'm just like you. The story unfolded for me as if I was a reader. I miss that and I kind of want to go back and do it again.

I am, sort of, with other characters in new worlds. But the process has changed for me. I'm not as pantsy as I was. I've known the end of my last few projects before I started, or very early on, and that takes a little of the excitement out for me. But it's safer. So, does this mean I'm getting more weathered? (In writer's terms.) Or less spontaneous? Or just tired? Maybe. But I really feel like it's my perspective that's changed. When I started writing PD I was a reader. Now I'm a writer, and a writer's mind works a little differently. So I really thinks it's an evolution.

I've evolved. Into what, I'm not exactly sure. We'll see.

Enough of my waxing poetic. I know y'all are just here for the contest. Let me look through my stack of signed books and see what I can come up with... Okay. Got it. How about, in addition to a signed finished copy of Last Rite, I throw in a signed copy of Across the Universe by the lovely Beth Revis.

Remember that entries do not carry over from week to week, so your name needs to appear in the comments below to enter for this giveaway. To enter, all you have to do is comment below and tell me what book has taken you most by surprise and why. You must be 13 or older to enter. Extra entries can be accumulated as follows:
Follow this blog: +1
Follow me on Twitter (@LisaDez): +1
Tweet or Facebook a link to this contest: +1
"Like" the Personal Demons Books Facebook page +1

Add up your points in your comment, please, because my math sucks. Also, leave me a way to contact you if you WIN! Contest closes Friday March 30th at 12 noon, PST. Winners will be chosen by the randomizer and posted here that afternoon. There will be a new contest for signed copies of Last Rite and other signed books (think Holly Black, Jessica Spotswood, Marie Lu) every Monday between now and May 7th, so don't forget to check back every Monday to enter!