Joining the Fray

I love craft books!

2010-08-12T20:19:00.001-07:00

Almost put the title of this post as my facebook status but I have a lot of friends who don't know me as a writer and I didn't want to talk about crocheting. :)

I'm reading "Writing the Breakout Novel" by Donald Maass. I missed the RWA conference this year, but read several blogs about it and his Fire In Fiction workshop was highly praised. I attended his workshop last year (well, most of it) and loved it. Borders was out of "The Fire in Fiction" when I was on my latest craft-book-buying spree but I happily picked up WBN instead.

Loving it! It's getting me inspired and helping me find answers to questions I didn't even know I should be asking my characters or about my story. Making progress!

And yet also feeling overwhelmed. :)

Revise or start over

2010-07-31T06:59:00.000-07:00

I sit down with all these new ideas to revise a scene. Then I start reading what's there and end up just making little changes here and there and none of my new fabulous ideas come out in the "finished' product. :(

So my new approach is to just start the scene over. Fresh page, new document, whatever - just start with a clean slate and get the new ideas out there. My plan is to later merge the two and keep what I like from both.

We'll see if that works. :)

Cruisin' back to life

2009-05-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

Had a blast - the weather was fabulous, the water was an incredible color blue, the food was plentiful and delicious, and my mom and sisters and I were able to complete whole conversations with no interruptions from kids or hubbies - did I mention it was fabulous?

But I'm back to the real world now and back to working on craft and content. I'm still reading Jack Bickham's book (took a break for a bit), plus I'm reading another on characterization. Plus I'm studying scene & sequel a little more closely. And trying (but failing!) to get some actual new words in my WIP. I just re-joined our chapter's writing challenge to help me get my booty in gear, though.

Stay tuned for progress...

Uh, hi, May...

2009-05-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

When did you get here?

Although I can multi-task most things, I can't seem to do it with writing and blogging. I'm either writing or blogging (which is also writing, but not making progress in my manuscript!). I've been writing. Kinda.

Mostly I've been learning. Scene and sequel is great stuff! I'm planning edits, making a few here and there, and plotting out the rest of the story using this technique, so I haven't been blogging.

Hope all is fine with you - I'm going back to my manuscript, but I should be back next week to tell you about the cruise I'm going on this weekend!

Have a great week!

Hello, April!

2009-04-07T10:09:00.001-07:00

Hee, hee!

What's so funny, you ask? Well, I was reading a friend's blog and really liked her idea so I copied the link and came here to post about it. Then I realized I haven't posted since the second week of March, so I wrote the title to welcome the new month, then realized it's April's blog I'm posting about.... I'm so easily amused.

Anyway, as always happens when I get to someone's blog, I tend to read back a while (maybe a lot of whiles) and I usually end up finding something that really resonates with me. This time was no different. April is a writing coach and in the few times I've talked to her about my books, she's asked some question that is so right on that it nearly takes my breath away. In the post I'm posting about April wrote about characterization - something I'm struggling with right now - and I really liked her ideas, so I'm going to use them. Boy, every shopping trip is going to be different from now on. :)

In other news, I'm currently reading Jack Bickham's Writing and Selling Your Novel which is a re-write of his earlier book, Writing Novels That Sell. The first chapter is about professionalism and how important it is to set writing goals, specifically output - a number of pages you will write each day - and sticking to that goal. So, of course, I set a goal. And blew past it today, even though I haven't written in ages - or perhaps BECAUSE I haven't written in ages. It's all dammed up in there and I finally put my butt in the chair and opened the floodgates. A lot came out. A lot of crap, I'm sure, but hopefully some fresh, clean ideas I can use later. One of the quotes I've run across in this book that I love is:

Good novels aren't written -- they're re-written. ~Jack Bickham

Words to remember.

Confessions

2009-03-11T18:35:00.001-07:00

I just want to come clean and confess that the idea of looking for quotes to put in last week's post came from my friend, Romantic Girl's posts about love and motivation. She includes some quotes and that got me to searching and so on and so on.

Whew! I feel better having gotten that off my chest.

Next up: Reading, not writing. Actually that's not even true. I've actually been listening instead of writing. Another friend, Jane Sevier, mentioned Harlan Coben in a post and how much she enjoyed listening to one of his books so I figured I should give him a try. I have about a 30 minute commute to work so I've been borrowing books on CD from the library to help pass the time - and keep me awake - and cross some of the TBR books off the list (it doesn't do much to clear out my shelf, however).

I just finished Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline and started Back Spin by Harlan Coben today. So far I'm enjoying it immensely. He's got a sense of humor I can relate to - sarcastic. I'll let you know how I like it as it goes on. I also recommend Lady Killer. Ms. Scottoline's characters are smart and strong and I enjoyed the story quite a bit. I've read one of hers and listened to two and have enjoyed them all.

On the writing front I have made some progress. I came up with some scene ideas and am a little bit closer to completing that elusive first draft. This is my third book, yet it's so different from the first two, it's like it's the first all over again. I'm finally enjoying it again, but getting distracted with all these audio books. They're really only supposed to help make the drive to work go more quickly, but they tend to consume me, just as if I were reading a real book. :)

This time when it feels like I've missed a week it's because I have

2009-03-04T16:21:00.001-08:00

How many posts can I use the tag "excuses" on? This would be why there's no book out there in the stores with my name on the spine. :)

February is a month of many celebrations in my house: birthday, V-day, anniversary, birthday. Each week holds something new. By the end of the month I'm wiped. But it's a new month now, so I'm back. Not very exciting, but here and ready to blog some fascinating tidbit.

Right after I come up with it.

Where my mind has been lately:

Happiness - how do you acheive it? is it long-term or a fleeting thing you have to chase daily? what do you to be happy? what makes you happy? does happy = contented = joyous ??? they somehow seem different to me, on the scale of contented, happy, joyous

Do the right thing, people - what would the world be like if everyone did the right thing? boring, probably, but heck, it seems like I hear more and more stories about greed, corruption, theft, murder....you get the idea. as part of my job I get these daily summaries of all the bad news all over the world - every day. I need some sort of counter balance that sends me all the good news that's happened. Oh, but wait. For some reason that's not news. Yes, there's some out there, but most of what you see is bad.

And now to counterbalance that vibe I'm going to leave you with a few quotes that resonate and bring me that fleeting happiness...

The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath
-so get over it.

Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. ~Jules Renard
-totally relate to this - heck, it's perfect in my head. If I could just do a Vulcan mind-meld with the computer I'd be set.

Catching up: kids, goals, backstory

2009-02-19T16:49:00.001-08:00

It feels like I've missed a week, but according to the calendar I haven't. My kid has been sick this week, so it's dragged, but she's feeling better and returned to school today. Yay!

I met my most recent goal by getting my entry into the Sheila under the wire, so I'm waiting (im)patiently until May 1st when they announce finalists. Yeah. What was I thinking? :)

Next up: backstory. I'm listening to a thriller right now that has a TON of backstory. Each chapter, nay, each SCENE has backstory in it. It's pissing me off! I work hard to avoid backstory - weaving in only what's necessary and then I spend my hard-earned, uh, time (since I checked it out from the library) on a not just published, but a best-selling author, only to be bombarded with it. Ugh. It's frustrating.

And yet a bit inspiring, too.

Half a goal met

2009-02-12T19:52:00.000-08:00

Oh, and btw, I did find a contest I want to enter (see 1/22's post). So I'm writing two posts tonight to procrastinate instead. :)

The Sheila contest from the Valley Forge Romance Writers has a Pocket editor as a final judge in the Romantic Suspense category, so if I can sneak some writing time this weekend and get a synopsis whipped into shape, I'm going to enter.

Whew! It's kinda scary posting goals here for the world to see.

Not that the world is looking. :)

It's not the writing that gets them.....

2009-02-12T19:04:00.000-08:00

I saw a blurb somewhere the other day (very specific, huh?) where Stephen King was talking about J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer and how they were both targeting the children/young adult market, but he said the difference was that Rowling can write.

My first thought was who cares? Meyer is just as successful as Rowling - maybe a tad less since Harry Potter pulled in both boys and girls and Twilight is attracting mostly just the girls, but still. What I wouldn't give for a fraction of that success! I read the whole Harry Potter series and I've read two of the Twilight books. I'm reading Twilight (the first in the series) again with my second daughter so this is all very fresh in my brain.

HP is a wonderful, fabulous story and I love Rowling's imagination and the world she created. I'm amazed by how plot points in the early books still have revelance in the last book, and I was so caught up in the adventures I could hardly put the books down.

Twilight is similar. Yet so different. And I'm sorry, but you can't compare the Twilight movie to the Harry Potter books, so don't even try. To compare, you have read the books. Not that I'm going to compare the books. I'm just stating my opinion on why the Twilight series is so popular. Now, I know that I haven't finished the series yet. I know what happens in the last book (darn spoilers!), but I haven't read it. So, judge me if you must, but this is just my opinion, not policy. :) Okay, on with the post.....

So, why does Twilight work? For me it's the first love aspect of it. The angst. The holding back, afraid you feel it more than he does. Add to this the fact that he could kill you at any moment and isn't sure he trusts himself not to until the middle of the book and it just turns up the emotions. First love is wonder. Insecurity. Obsession. And Meyer covers these well. Yes, she uses too many adverbs. Yes, she often tells instead of showing. But still, the story grabs you. It's hard to put down. You want to know what's going to happen next. There's danger, intrigue, and all those wonderful emotions that are brand new to some of these readers and fun to remember for others. :)

Is Meyer's book perfect? No. But is any book perfect? No. I guess when it all comes down to it, the bottom line is that I still hope my books are a fraction as successful as hers have been. I hope the reader gets sucked in and can't put it down and wants to buy the next one. And the next one.

POV

2009-02-04T21:04:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Suzanne Brockmann's latest book called "Dark Of Night" - and loved it - as I do all her stories! The woman is a master of the deep point of view (POV). Master, I say.

She really gets into her characters' heads, thus pulling us, the readers, in with her. It's wonderful. Impressive. And loads of fun. I can read her books over and over again because I consistently get yanked out of my world and into hers.

Another book that really nailed POV was Elizabeth Bevarly's "Taming the Prince" (Desire #1474). Her heroine is a prim and proper girl with a bit of a British accent, while her hero is cool. Just one of the guys. A real down-to-earth dude. There is never a question in any scene who is talking. Each character's speech is so distinct it's like you're hearing it as you read. Fabulous! I re-read this one periodically for inspiration, too.

Got any great examples of POV?

I don't have time for pens that don't work.

2009-01-28T09:59:00.000-08:00

You know the ones I mean. You pull out a pen to jot down a note or an idea or gosh, even a whole scene, but after the first word the ink fades to nothing. On the corner of the page (or index card or napkin or prescription) you scribble madly trying to get something to start flowing again, and maybe it does - for another word or so.

Chuck it. Throw it in the trash. Or across the room. (Please don't just drop it in the street, though - I'm not condoning littering here, people.) Get a new one - one that works - and get that idea written down.

I have several cups of pens (ink, markers, fountain: all kinds), but I bet more than half of them don't work. My goal as a recovering packrat is to start tossing the writing implements that don't write. Who needs them? No one. Except maybe some artist who's creating an altar to the unuseable pen. That person is not me. Although I have all the raw materials! :)

Anyone have a suggestion for a great pen for everyday use? I'm not looking for a Montblanc. I don't want to spend a ton, but I know you get what you pay for. The freebie pens typically don't stand up to the test of time - except I did find one that I LOVED from a hotel. Maybe I should go back there and grab a few from the front desk.

I'm looking for something that flows freely, has a cap (cuts back on that annoying clicking) and keeps writing day after day. Any suggestions?

2009-01-22T04:50:00.000-08:00

I got nothing this week. Except cedar fever. And it's sucking the life out of me. I've only done a smidgen of the writing I planned to do. Only a smidgen of the planning, too.

The worst part is that with weather in the 70's in the afternoons (almost 80 yesterday), I fear the cedar blooming is just gonna get worse. Ugh.

I'm at the point where I'm hoping this is the flu so that it will go away. Before, say, March. :)

Next up: find a contest for my current WIP. I'm looking for the right agent or editor as the final judge. This manuscript (ms) doesn't fit into any of the nicely defined categories I typically see in contests, but it could maybe swing it as Mainstream with Romantic Elements or something along those lines.

Okay, good. I've posted a goal. Now I just gotta get on it.

Blogging - A Study in Perseverance

2009-01-14T20:57:00.000-08:00

Here's how my blog entry went today:
8:15 am - see reminder, but ignore it to check email and pay bills
8:50 am - remember I was going to leave for work at 9:00 but I haven't even gotten in the shower yet; see reminder again and make a mental note to do it tonight

8:40 pm - as I'm reading through something I should have critiqued a while back, remember I was going to blog tonight - I even have a topic that's been brewing since Saturday (so why didn't I just do it then, huh?)
8:41 pm - open IE and go the the "Blog Sign-in" bookmark. Sad that I have to do that, but I used to waste hours trying to find the sign-in page through other peoples' blogs.
8:42 pm - ah, yes, my blog....I should check out Deepish Thoughts and see if anything's new since last time (yes!)
8:45 pm - now I need to check Lexi's blog and see what's happened. Oh, look, comments on one of her posts.
8:50 pm - Oh yeah, THAT'S who Avery Beck is.... cool, she sold another book! Neat website.
8:55 pm - Hmmm, website designed by Stonecreek Media.... I'll just go see some of their other work.
9:10 pm - There's Avery's site! Ooooh, who's Gregg Olsen?
9:30 pm - Wow. I should read one of his books. Hmmm, let's get back to the Stonecreek Media site and see what else is there.
9:40 pm - Cool. Murder She Writes - I should check that out. Oh, look. Allison Brennan blogs here. Last night at the ARWA meeting Jan Hudson mentioned Allison Brennan writes thrillers with some romance in them and I made a note to check her out. Let's go see her website.
10:05 pm - OMG it's 10:00 and the kids are still watching TV!
10:30 pm - Okay everyone's in bed. I should really go write my blog now. Right after I check out this one link.....

How are your resolutions going?

2009-01-07T06:48:00.000-08:00

My co-worker lamented yesterday about the crowd at the gym in the afternoons and how she was going to have to get up early to get in her workout until they all got tired of trying to get in shape.

I laughed. Then I did a few sit ups this morning. Maybe tomorrow I'll get up even earlier and get on the Wii Fit.

As for my resolutions, the second day of writing at the coffee shop has commenced. I didn't actually write yesterday, except to get more of the outline in the computer. No actual manuscript pages, though. And today I'm writing the blog. That technically counts toward my resolutions, though, since one of them was to blog more.

Today I need to do a little more outlining. Maybe by tomorrow I'll actually get to some real writing. Maybe.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T12:23:00.000-08:00

Wow! Only two weeks since the last post. Which I would be proud of, except that I set a reminder to blog every week and have already skipped one. But it's not the new year yet, so I'll count that as a skipped practice. :)

Tonight's the night, though, so get ready for 2009.

Some of my resolutions:
write more (in general)
blog more regularly
finish book 3 and send it out
write book 4 - all the way in one year (can she do it? stay tuned to find out!)

There's some family stuff, too, but this is supposed to be my writing world, so I'll focus on that here.

Happy new year to all and to all a safe night!

Helllllloooooo?

2008-12-17T17:17:00.000-08:00

Dang. 6 months since my last post. My committment to blogging is staggering, huh?

But since we're nearing the new year I'm preparing for the impending resolutions and getting a jump start on my resolution to blog more.

There. That wasn't so hard, was it?

Progress

2008-06-03T17:15:00.001-07:00

School's out and yet I'm making progress. It seems strange. With the kids home more you'd think I'd have a harder time getting to the computer, but it turns out that I have an enforced hour every day to work on MY stuff because they're in swim practice. Plus I don't have Internet access at the pool (thank God!), so I actually get real stuff accomplished. What a concept!

I sent off my quitch to the CPs and got some good feedback, so I'm moving forward. Yay!

So close and yet...

2008-05-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

Heh, heh. I thought I'd get a jump on the day and post early while the computer's free. I'm skipping work this morning and supposed to be posting my query/pitch ("quitch") to my CPs, but instead I'm going to whine about how long I've been working on it. :)

This little exercise (figuring how long I've been working on it) has taught me two things. First, I love doing my writing in a notebook. I've gotten into the habit (finally!) of putting the date first whenever I start working, so I can go back and track stuff like how long it takes me to get something useful. Or hopefully useful. I guess that's up to the CPs.

Second, I really was lost somewhere in May. I feel like I've been struggling with this quitch and working on it constantly, but when I go back and look at my notebook the reality is a slap in the face. There's a major 2 week gap. Then a couple of days of work, then a few more off, then a few more of work. I know my work times were chunks of 45 minutes to an hour, but I really felt like I did more than about 4 hours of work on this thing. Reality bites.

And the thing that really bites is that it's not even finished! I'm in the midst of revising the book(don't even ask how long THAT's been going on), and writing the quitch is supposed to help me focus down to the essence of the story. I'm on the cusp of making a breakthrough. The key that ties it all together is right there. Just out of my grasp. I can't quite see it, but I can feel how close it is.

Maybe shipping it off to the CPs will help me gain some perspective.

And hopefully June will be more productive.

Time Warp

2008-05-27T21:05:00.001-07:00

Wow. I don't know about you, but my May rocked. I got swooped off to parts unknown, and saw worlds no human has seeen before. The clouds were the most awesome shade of purple, and the plants (at least I think they were plants) were bizarre twisted furry spindles that resembled pipe cleaners. It was awesome!

Instead of time freezing, however, it continued at it's normal pace, and I seem to have missed several weeks.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The alternative ending is that we only have one computer and my almost-teen beats me to it every evening.

But that's way too boring. :)

Next up: selecting a second computer.

At least I finished cooking dinner

2008-04-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight’s recipe:

2 boxes Betty Crocker Scalloped Potatoes, prepared as directed in 2 quart casserole dish
5 chicken drumsticks, washed, spiced, placed on parchment paper in stoneware jellyroll pan, covered in foil

Set oven to 450 F (actually do this earlier so it's ready when you are)
Place potato dish on bottom rack
Place chicken pan on top rack

Start a blog while dinner cooks
Hear loud POP
Check kids
Check cats
Check oven
CRY

My stoneware pan cracked into three pieces! I was devastated. It’s seasoned to perfection and has been wonderful, but tonight I had to bury it. :(

But by using the parchment paper, I was able to finish cooking dinner and enjoy it. :)

P.S. Don't get all excited about two whole posts in one day. It's a fluke. An anomaly. It probably won't happen again. Expect them more like once a week. But who knows? Maybe I'll have more to say more often than that.

Howdy!

2008-04-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

So , here’s the thing about blogs. I recently started reading them, and found they’re quite addictive. They are also quite abundant. So why would I start one? Why enter into the fray of self-absorbed thoughts? Why spew my much un-touted opinions out into cyberspace?

Perhaps more importantly, why would someone read it? Not that I want to dissuade you, because I hope to eventually write some gem of an idea. Some fabulous tidbit that has the masses raving. Of course I’d like it to be published by a reputable publisher, and to have received an advance on it, but that’s just me.

There’s this fine line between – damn that editor in my head. I got started on this idea and then realized I needed something more in the first paragraph and went to fix that. By the time I got back here, I’d forgotten what I was going to say.

This happens to me all the time.

In fact, I used to joke about needing to go to Storytelling 101 because I’d always get side-tracked in the middle of a story I was telling and go off on some completely unrelated tangent (which, I think is the definition of tangent, so I really didn’t need to say it was completely unrelated, but.…Hmmm. I’ve done it again.) I had, of course, forgotten all about this for many years (in which time I decided I wanted to write novels), and when I inconveniently remembered it, I was hip-deep in two books, trying to dig my way out of the story structures from hell that I’d created.

It turns out that in order to have a good story you have to have, well, a story. Things have to happen. And they have to not happen for reasons that the characters have to overcome. And the characters have to want to overcome those reasons. In other words, they have to want this thing that’s not happening enough to go through the things that I make up to put them through. It’s kinda fun in a weird way. But it’s also hard. Why would they want that thing so much? You have to give them reasons. And not overly dramatic reasons, either. But everything I’ve come up with so far is this awful tragedy. And I know it doesn’t have to be this way. I see it in other people’s books. (But then again, I see worse tragedies than I’ve come up with, in other people’s books, too.)

Then I get to thinking. Hey, it’s kinda like real life. Here I am struggling to get this thing that I really want (to be published) and even though no one (agents, editors) seems to want me to have it I keep trying. Why is that? There’s no tragedy that made me want this. No deep dark secret that made me want to write a book and see it on the shelves of a bookstore one day. (And another one next to it, or heck, even four or five at the same time – different titles, of course.) But it is something I want. And I want it enough to keep going through the things they put me through (rejection letters).

So, I’m jumping on the blog bandwagon. Still not entirely sure why. Or how often. But I hope that it releases me in some way and frees me to think of those non-tragic things that happen in real life, but in a way that makes you guys want to shell out the bucks for a really good story.

That’s it for now.