Behind the Scenes — Contemporary Romance Author

Formatting

Behind the ScenesHeather AshleyApril 20, 2024Behind the Scenes, Writing, Dirty Hit Comment

The Process

Behind the ScenesHeather AshleyApril 15, 2024Behind the Scenes, Writing, Dirty Hit, Savage Society of Emerald HillsComment

Crossed Souls Rewrites Are Done!

Phew, what a journey! It took me an entire month, but I did it. Crossed Souls is now 16,000 words longer and I think the story is so much better than the original version. For context, 16,000 words is essentially the equivalent of four extra chapters (though I didn’t actually add any new chapters). I know all of my books are longer than your average romance novel, but hey, I’ve never pretended like I’m not a wordy bitch.

Plotting

I’ve written eleven books, and in that time, I’ve had a different method for plotting every single one of them. As a writer, I struggle a ton with perfectionism and I also have what I’m guessing is a raging case of undiagnosed ADHD on top of a type-A personality that drives even me crazy.

So, what does that mean for my writing methods? Welllll….

Crossed Souls Rewrites: Progress Update

I’ve been working my way through Crossed Souls and tweaking the story to correct some things I should’ve put in the first time around. Currently, I’ve added about 7,000 words to the story and I’m working on chapter nine.

Behind the ScenesHeather AshleyMarch 21, 2022Crossed Souls, Reverse Harem, Behind the ScenesComment

Dulls vs. Extras

Remember when I talked about how my world building was basically trash in Crossed Souls? I’ve had to do a lot of exploring of the world in my head to figure out all sorts of little details of Willa and the guys’ world to change while I’m doing rewrites.

One of the things that kept coming up was the question do the humans know supernaturals exist?

Behind the ScenesHeather AshleyMarch 18, 2022Twisted Soul Magic, Crossed Souls, Behind the ScenesComment

Crossed Souls in the Making

I mentioned in my last post that Crossed Souls had started in my head as something so much different than it turned out to be when I wrote it. Originally, I imagined Willa as a sort of Cupid-like character. She was compelled to help everyone around her find their soulmates while not having one of her own and she was definitely bitter about it.

Crossed Souls - Rewrites

Crossed Souls, the first book in my Twisted Soul Magic series, was my first foray into paranormal romance. This was a story that started out in my head as something so much different than it came out when I wrote it. It also was my first attempt at writing reverse harem, and y’all… that shit is hard.

Heather AshleyMarch 6, 2022Crossed Souls, Writing, Behind the ScenesComment

Twisted Little Games - Plot

Every book I write, my actual process of writing the book changes just a little bit. Well, I guess that’s not true—sometimes it changes a LOT.

Behind the ScenesHeather AshleyFebruary 28, 2022Emerald Hills Elite, Twisted Little Games, Writing, Behind the Scenes, Follow AlongComment

Emerald Hills Elite Behind the Scenes

The Emerald Hills Elite series has been on my mind for a looong time. I don’t know if reverse harem academy books are still popular or not, but they’re a trope I love to read (and have loved to read for a while now). I’ve really itched to write my own story, put my own spin on the subgenre and so that’s where the idea for this series came from.

Behind the Scenes, InspirationHeather AshleyFebruary 26, 2022Emerald Hills Elite, Behind the Scenes, WritingComment

Twisted Little Games - Prep Work

Now that Hostile is finished and out in the wild, it’s time for me to start working on my next project. I thought it would be fun to update you as I go, giving you a behind the scenes look into my process of plotting and writing the first book in the Emerald Hills Elite series.

Behind the Scenes, Writing TipsHeather AshleyFebruary 24, 2022Emerald Hills Elite, Writing, Behind the Scenes, Follow AlongComment

Progress Update

I thought it’d be fun to update you along the journey of writing my current books. So, what am I actively writing?

Behind the Scenes, What I WroteHeather AshleyMay 4, 2021Behind the Scenes, Writing Tips, WritingComment

Makeover

As you may or may not know (depending on when you came across my writing), I’ve never been crazy about ANY of the versions of the Shadow Phoenix covers. None of them really screamed “ROCK STAR” at me the way I wanted, but I had no idea how to make that happen.

Two-Timing

Well, it’s official: I’ve lost my mind.

Yup, I’m about to dive into writing two books at the same time.

Behind the Scenes, Sneak Peek, Writing TipsHeather AshleyApril 28, 2021Behind the Scenes, Writing Tips, Writing, Crossed Souls, ChasedComment

Plotting... to Take Over the World?

…cue maniacal laughter.

I’ve probably talked about it before, but there are two types of writers (and potentially more in the form of hybrids of the two types but we’ll ignore them for now): Plotters and Pantsers.

Now, “Pantsers” are the type of people who fly by the seat of their pants. Get it? Ha. Ha.

Behind the Scenes, Writing TipsHeather AshleyApril 21, 2021Writing Tips, Writing, Behind the Scenes, Chased, Captive, Hollywood GuardiansComment

What Captive Taught Me

This whole writing journey started for me with a song and an idea to explore what it would be like to be a rock star and also finding love. At the start of my writing career, I had no idea about HOW to actually write. I mean, sure, you can sit down to your computer and just start typing, and a lot of authors make that work for them.

I am not one of those people.

Behind the Scenes, Writing TipsHeather AshleyApril 8, 2021Hollywood Guardians, Captive, Writing, Behind the ScenesComment

My Creative Brain

Heeyyyy, lovely reader! The first book in my all-new Hollywood Guardians series, Captive (Connor's story) is still underway and on top of that, I've been working on something top secret, too... But right now I want to do something I'm not great at and let y'all in a bit.

Behind the ScenesHeather AshleyMarch 24, 2021Behind the Scenes, Writing, PersonalComment

When I'm Stuck

Typically when I write a book, I aim to get a chapter done every day. Now, there are plenty of times that it doesn’t happen or that I do more than one in a day (more often, it not happening is what’s going down rather than me writing more, but it does happen from time to time).

Behind the Scenes, What I Wrote, Writing TipsHeather AshleyJanuary 14, 2021Behind the Scenes, WritingComment

British Heroes

So, right before I started writing Tempting Harrison, I was seriously kicking myself because what the hell was I thinking making him British? What do I know about writing a character who’s not even from my own country?

Get to Know: Magnolia

Taming Griffin is upon us (eek, just 13 more days!) and now seems like a great time to introduce you to Magnolia Dawson, Griffin’s other (better!) half.

Magnolia’s fresh out of college, so she’s young like Griffin, and she’s already had a pretty rocky life. This book explores some dark subjects like domestic abuse, but I wouldn’t call the book itself dark. It’s more a redemption, a story of a girl finding herself and her happily ever after despite the circumstances she’s been through.