Tara Sue Me | Learning to Trust Your Voice

By the time I sat down to write THE COLLAR, I’d already written five books. Now, I’m not much of a plotter, I write more by the seat of my pants, but I had a pretty good idea of how the story was going to go.

This will be easy, I thought. And, in the beginning, it really was. The characters were talking to me, I saw where everything was going, and, for the most part, saw how it was going tie together in the end. And then That Scene happened.

If you’re a writer, you know all about That Scene. It’s the one where you stare at your laptop for hours at end. The one you try every trick you know and still only net 500 words, if that many. For me, it was two weeks of author hell, knowing something was wrong, that ended with me deciding I didn’t care what words I put on paper, I just wanted words.

And when I went back over them, that’s all they were, words. But the scene was finished so I wrapped up the chapter, sent it to my crit partner, and wiped my hands of it. Now as a writer, you need a crit partner who will be brutally honest with you. And that’s what mine was. She confirmed what I knew: the scene was merely there. There was no emotion, no intensity, nothing.

I took a deep breath and went back to the scene, determined to make it work. The first thing I did was start over completely. I didn’t want to use any of the previous words. I wanted a clean start. And so, even though part of me feared I was going to spend another two weeks struggling, I went to work.

I decided to change POV from the hero to the heroine. Just to see how it went. Maybe she’d be chattier while I was writing. I started typing and hours later the scene was finished. What had taken two weeks in the wrong POV was completed in hours in the right one.

That little voice is there for a reason - listen to it. It wouldn’t lead you astray!

About Tara Sue Me

Tara Sue Me wrote her first novel at the age of twelve. It would be twenty years before she picked up her pen to write the second.

After completing several clean romances, she decided to try her hand at something spicier and started The Submissive. What began as a writing exercise quickly took on a life of its own and The Dominant and The Training soon followed. An avid reader of all types of fiction, she soon discovered she enjoyed writing a variety as well.

Tara lives in the Southeastern United States with her husband, two children, two dogs, and a cat.

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About THE COLLAR

The New York Timesbestselling author of THE SUBMISSIVE returns with a scintillating new tale about power, danger, and jaw-dropping passion....

Nathaniel and Abby are struggling to navigate the challenging waters of their own relationship, when they get a surprising phone call from their partners in play, Dena and Jeff, who are in need of a helping hand…

Seven years ago, blonde, beautiful lawyer Dena Jenkins was tired of her carefully controlled life. Desperate for something exhilarating to help her escape the pressures of her demanding job and her senator father, she joined a steamy, local BDSM club as a submissive. There she met brooding Dominant, Jeff. The attraction between them was undeniable, and, despite Dena’s doubts, they couldn’t stay away from each other.

Except, as the years have passed, their blazing connection has proven difficult to maintain. Dena and Jeff have a history they’d rather forget, but Dena can’t let go of the past, and Jeff is ready to move across the country to give her space. Now, to save their passion, they’ll have to rediscover what it means to trust each other—and give themselves to each other completely…