A Writer's Blog

Farewell

2011-07-29T09:20:00.005-05:00

This may or may not be a long post.

First - Farewell!

Most blogs have a three year life span. I think this blog reached the end of its lifespan quite a while ago, thus the lack of posts in recent months. So, for the most part, I've decided to bid farewell to this blog . . . but not the blogging community. I'll still be out here, reading, lurking, and commenting from time to time. I just don't - at this point - have plans to keep blogging about a writer's life.

Why?

Well, I think I've said what I wanted to say, and there are a ton of other blogs out there doing pretty much the same thing, so . . . I'm leaving writers, aspiring and otherwise, in the capable hands of other bloggers.

Second - What I've Been Doing!

In the last few months I've been doing . . .

Reading - I just finished reading Book 9 of the Coffeehouse Mysteries by Cleo Coyle. Great Books! Book 10 release date is this coming Tuesday. Woo-hoo.

In reading these books, I've realized more and more that, well, I've been writing, well, right! Ha! Seriously, more so than anything else, reading all these books - started in June w/Book 1 - I've come to realize that some of my doubts about my own writing style were unfounded. The things I've been doing with my writing are, to use a British term, spot on! So, it's a good thing I bought that first book back in June to read on the plane while going to Key West, then directly to Boston, and back home. Geesh!

I just started Armistead Maupin's Mary Ann in Autumn, the latest in his Tales of the City series. Great series, btw, and some great movies out there as well with Olympia Dukakis as Anna Madrigal. Great casting. Plus, I have another mystery book awaiting my attention, and my mother recommended Sarah's Key - which has been made into a movie. Mom says she couldn't put down the book.

Third - New Blog!

Yeah, I know, like I needed another blog, but, you can find it here!

There are times when I want to write beyond fiction, when life just makes me, well, mad. So, this blog - Scottford Speaks - is where I'll put those musings, those frustrations with this life, that go beyond fiction into, well, the realm of non-fiction . . . depending on your viewpoint. Ha!

Fourth - Life!

Life has been crazy, especially these last couple of months, with more loss, and crazy stuff than I really want to deal with in this life.

They - don't know who they are - say bad things happen in threes! Well, multiply that by two and you have the series of events that have thrown me for a loop, and had me struggling with my faith. Don't worry, still have that faith, but it was touch and go for just a wee bit.

Fifth - Revamps!

Revamps to my cozy mystery. I changed one little thing . . . and am in the process of going through the entire document to fix that one thing.

Oh, and then there was the making the prominence of one character, well, more prominent . . . which meant altering the location of various chapters from one place to the other, which meant if it was happening in the apartment, but now at the new place, the fact that a character was pacing didn't make sense any longer, or the fact that one character likes to walk around naked in the apartment. Yeah, doing that in a public place might be funny, but would also lead to an indecent exposure charge. Ha! So, slowly but surely, I've been doing those changes which means . . .

. . . I have to change the one page synopsis a bit and . . .

. . . the query a bit. Geesh.

Then, my friend Traci - English professor - has started her own proofreading business, and has agreed to proofread the document. Woo-hoo! Okay, normally she won't do manuscripts, but, if you know anyone who needs a cover letter, resume, dissertation, essay proofread, etc., give me a shout. I'll hook you up.

Fifth - Cooking!

Yes, cooking. You see, a character in my mystery runs a tea shop and has all these delectable concoctions she creates, which means . . . I have to have recipes for these delectable concoctions. So, I've been experimenting in the kitchen coming up with these recipes. So far, I haven't sent Frank to the ER. So far! LOL!

Seriously, I have begun compiling recipes for the books - cookies, muffins, some main dish stuff. I think I love cooking as much as I love writing, so a combination of those two passions is a very good thing.

Sixth - The End!

So, with all that going on in my life, plus my need to write more in the non-fiction realm, I just figured now was as good as time as any to say farewell to this blog.

I appreciate every single follower, and every friend I've made through this blog. I've learned a lot from your blogs as well. Hopefully, I've learned enough. Plus, I'm friends with a good many of you on Facebook, so it's not like I'm going to drop off the face of the Earth!

Good luck to every writer out there. Don't ever give up on your dream. Keep writing. Don't give up, don't falter, don't think the publishing world is changing forever. Just keep writing. A dream is always worth following. The publishing world may change - Borders closing - but the need for books, whether in e-format, or whatever, will always exist. The human mind craves adventure, and it is up to us, the writers of the world, to provide that adventure!

S

Timeline

2011-06-03T07:19:00.003-05:00

Okay, so everyone knows I've been doing family history stuff for the last few months . . . to the exclusion of just about everything else. Trust me on that one.

Well, last week I ordered the FamilyTree Maker software from Ancestry. Best $$ spent in a long time. The software is nifty beyond nifty and lets me create all sorts of reports - descendant reports, places reports (showing all the places my ancestors have lived - NEAT-O!), and, best of all, the Timeline Report.

The Timeline Report, for an individual, will show all the events that happened in the span of a person's lifetime.

Take my Great Grandmother Maggie Morris Sweat . . .

When I ran the report on her, I learned the following information . . .

1800 - 1900: US History - Western Expansion
1830 - 1930: World History - Mass immigration to US, Europe, and Canada
1869 - Birth of my great grandmother
1893 - World History: Women's Suffrage in New Zealand
1898 - Spanish American War
1901 - William McKinley Assassination - September 6, 1901, Buffalo, New York
1903 - Wright Brothers First Flight - September 17, 1903, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
1903 - Ford Model T Manufactured
1912 - RMS Titanic Disaster
1920 - death of great grandmother

Here's the neat thing for writers: with a click of a few buttons, I'm able to get a sense of what was going on in America, and the World, for a specific time frame, and have it right at my fingertips as, say, I work on an historical mystery loosely based on a real life event, i.e., the disappearance of my great-grandfather.

So, as I write out the chapters, I can include some of these things in the book. Woo-hoo!

So, for anyone doing historical novels, you might want this software, perhaps solely for the timeline aspect, but perhaps more so to do your own family history research.

S

Stink, Stank, Stunk

2011-06-01T07:37:00.001-05:00

No, I'm not channeling the Grinch. Then again, maybe I am, because . . .

. . . my synopsis can best be described as . . .

. . . STINK!

. . . STANK!

. . .STUNK!

And . . . I wouldn't touch it with a thirty foot pole!! Ha!

Okay, it's not that bad.

Okay, I think it is that bad, though it has some promise . . .

. . . with a heck of a lot of tweaking.

Where in the heck is Cindy Lou Who when you need her?

Because, let me tell ya, my synopsis needs her . . . and a bunch of other stuff.

The problem: when I first worked on the synopsis for my cozy, I thought it was pretty dang good.

Yeah, I know, there I go thinking again. Never a good thing. It always gets me in trouble, like the time . . .

Well, no need to go there! Ha!

Suffice it to say, it needs work. I did some crossing out and red penning last night, and will do more work tonight to get this lovely stinky, stanky, stunky synopsis in tip-top shape!

S

The New Plan

2011-05-31T12:32:00.002-05:00

So, I've been dancing with the ancestors a lot lately. Okay, more than a lot. It's been a mini-obsession of mine - almost - to the exclusion of all us.

So, tomorrow, June 1, 2011, I step back from my dance with the ancestors and step forward to work on my writing.

Perhaps I just needed a break. Perhaps I was wallowing in self-pity. Perhaps . . .

Well, I don't know why I stepped back from the writing. I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV.

I think I just needed a break.

I think - see yesterday's post - I needed time to dwell on things and decided the best course of action for me, because, well . . .

. . . it's all about me. Ha!

Seriously, I needed a break, took one, and now I'm gearing back up to throw myself in the query trenches while . . .

. . . also researching some indie/small press publishers that deal with my niche (which, in my opinion, really shouldn't be a niche) market.

I've started the one page synopsis required by one of the indie publishers. It's gonna take a wee bit of work to finish. Okay, it's gonna take a lot of work.

Have I mentioned I hate doing the synopsis thing? Oh, yeah . . . hate, hate, hate.

Then again, I hated doing algebra. Boy, did I hate doing algebar (see I hated it so bad, I spelled the word wrong - LOL). Man, I hated algebra. In fact, I barely passed algebra in high school, and yet . . . "A" was the name of the game in college. Go figure. Ha!

So, I plod every forward, doing what I must in this crazy writing journey, to get my brilliance published.

S

Niche Writing

2011-05-30T09:38:00.003-05:00

My name is Scott and . . .

. . . I'm a niche writer. Yes, I admit it! I'm not a mainstream writer. I don't write about vampires or mermaids or, well, whatever.

I write about the life I see around me, the life I want to read about.

I don't want the overt stereotypes constantly portrayed by the media.

I don't want the marginalization of a distinct group of people.

I want - some of the time, not all of the time - characters I can relate to on a deep level, rather than a peripheral level.

Yes, there are books there our there that deal with what I'm talking about. There are writers - agented, multiple published - who write what I write.

But . . .

. . . the market is still niche. The market is still . . .

. . . limited.

In all fairness, the market shouldn't be limited.

In all fairness, equality should exist for all people.

It doesn't.

So, in submitting my query for my cozy mystery, I've begun to wonder if . . .

. . . the main characters weren't gay, would it be more marketable?

If I made the characters heterosexual, would it have more marketability?

If I made the characters female, would it have more marketability?

Okay, perhaps marketable isn't the proper word for the first question. Perhaps the question should be . . .

If the main characters weren't gay, would it be less rejectable?

Yes . . . rejectable.

Is the fact that the characters are gay a deteriment to acceptance?

Then again, perhaps my query just sucks.

Perhaps.

I don't know. The more I think about it, the more I talk about it with others, my instinct (normally right, not always right) is telling me that gay is too niche.

So, do I alter the first 20 pages so gay is not so evident, not obvious. Do I do a test and find out whether it's my query, or the gay aspect?

Do I want to know that truth?

I'm not sure.

I'm really not sure.

So, rather than submitting the query further, I've sat back and done, well, nothing. I haven't made the changes in the opening pages that would imply heterosexuality over homosexuality. I haven't researched more agents on the slim (maybe, maybe not) hope that someone will see beyond how the characters were born, to the actual story.

Yes, perhaps I'm being a bit too cynical. I don't know if I am or not. I just don't know.

I do know that one publisher pretty much said that gay is too niche. Go figure. So, scratched that potentiality off my list.

So, what would you do? Would you alter the first 20 pages to imply heterosexuality versus homosexuality? Would you query until you could query no longer?

S

New Blog

2011-05-18T12:21:00.003-05:00

Okay, in case any one is interested in doing ancestor research, check out my new blog devoted entirely to that subject at . . .

http://dancingwiththeancestors.blogspot.com/

I'm going to offer tips, what I've learned, what I'm learning, and provide examples along the way, as well as neat info I've discovered.

So if you're interested, if you know someone interested, go ahead and check it out. The first post went up today, and I have posts schedule to appear tomorrow and Friday.

And, since this blog is about writing . . . I'm back into that mode as well as I pull somewhat back from the ancestor research.

S

Slacker

2011-05-17T15:12:00.002-05:00

Hi, my name is Scott and . . . I'm a blogging slacker! I've failed at my duty as a blogger. It's been . . . OMG, flashbacks to confession! How many Hail, Mary's do I have to say for not blogging in, like, forever?

Waaaaayyyy tooooooo many!

So, since confession is allegedly good for the soul . . .

I've been consumed with family history research, plus traveling - both personal and for work. My life has been crazy.

Things are finally settling down a bit as I pull away - a bit, a smidgen, a tad - from the family history research. The main search - mother's paternal/maternal sides, going back on the paternal from each grandparent - is done, and a nifty little book, with all sorts of neat information compiled. Woo-hoo. The next project is the many branches of the family tree . . . as well as the twisted roots. Oh, the roots are so twisted or, perhaps, the better analogy: the branches have twisted into each other.

Well, as with any family history research, a skeleton or two tumbles out of the proverbial closet. Okay, we knew about my mother's uncle who shot and killed his wife. She was cheating on him. Mom always tells the story of how excited they were when their uncle that killed his wife got out of prison. Yeah, great thing to be excited about. Ha! Then . . .

. . . there's the mysterious disappearance of my great-grandfather. He went to get a pack of cigarettes . . . okay, kidding on that end. I just remember, from the time I was little, mom and her siblings talking about their missing grandfather and how their father (my grandfather) searched his entire life for him.

Well, lo and behold, one of my cousins also doing research stumbled on a clue about why he might have disappeared. Woo-hoo!

Now, what I knew and what the clue is = INSPIRATION!!! The wheels in my mind have been spinning into overdrive! From the moment I read her email with all the juicy little details, Inspiration has been singing to me non-stop, which . . .

. . . leads to my next project.

Yes, the next project will be a fictionalized version of the disappearance of great-grandpa. Where did he go? What did he do? Did he start a new family? BTW - that was always the assumption in our family since a woman in the same town disappeared the same night he did. Uh-huh, do the math on that one. Ha!

Anyhow, suffice it to say that Inspiration isn't being fickle right now. I have a list of chapter titles, what happens in those chapters, and I wrote the first few pages last night.

I still have some decisions to make with the entire concept, but the groundwork is laid.

Other than that, I'm querying my quirky mystery and may also consider indie or small press publishers since, unfortunately, some might label the book niche because it has gay characters. Go figure! Seriously, a quirky mystery is a quirky mystery, no matter that the amateur and inept, but lucky, detectives just happen to be gay! Geesh!

And, I'll try to do better about blogging . . . and catching up on what I've missed these past few weeks . . . er, maybe longer! Slacker I am!!!

S

What I've Been Doing

2011-04-07T15:06:00.002-05:00

I've obviously not been blogging. I guess that's a given, pretty obvious by my lack of posts.

I've been sucked into the eternal vortex known as . . . ancestry research.

Yes, I have.

Let me tell you . . . it's the biggest TIME THIEF . . . EVER!

I sit down for a few minutes and 4 or 5 hours will have passed. I think Hmm, maybe I'll just do one or two additions to the tree and the next thing I know, 2 hours have passed and I've done 20 additions to the tree.

So, that's where I've been . . . hanging out with dead people.

Okay, not literally, but still . . .

The interesting thing . . . the place of death for one of my relatives was the Tower of London. I'm not thinking that was a good thing. Just a thought. Ha!

The other interesting thing . . . I've got some neat names in my family history, which will come in handy when coming up with names for characters.

The other neat thing . . . I've come up for a new idea for a book in the mystery series because of all this research.

So, while I've been away from blogging, it hasn't been all that bad, and good things are coming of it, so, I guess, all in all . . . this ancestry research isn't such a bad thing after all. Okay, it's become a bit of an obsession, and I even dream about doing research (not a good thing), so I know I need to pull back just a bit and immerse myself further into my writing. S

New Look - Part Deux

2011-03-31T09:24:00.006-05:00

Okay, Traci tweaked the header for me . . . again . . . to include the leather bound journal, a gift from a very dear friend of mine.

She experimented with a few options . . .

The second header incorporates a picture I staged at home with the secretary, some old books, a quill and ink pot, and the leather bound journal. I love it, but . . .

The third header incorporated the original idea and included the journal. At this point, I'm going with header #3.

What do you think? 1, 2, or 3?

New Look

2011-03-30T13:35:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Traci @ Words, Words, Words . . . for designing my new look. As mean as she can be (ha) she does have her moments. The new look is a work in progress and will be tweaked over the next few days. S

Still Here - Again!

2011-03-29T09:50:00.004-05:00

I'm still here . . . just not as much between work, life, and other things. So, don't abandon ship . . . at least not yet. What I've been doing -

Finished the first round of edits on the still untitled project.

Set tasks for next stage of revision process of still untitled project.

Began work on one page synopsis - almost done, just need a bit more.

Researched a few more agents to submit mystery project.

At some point, I need to delve back into the rough draft of Book II of the mystery series - probably sometime this week.

I'm still out here reading blogs and commenting, just not so much right now. I think I just needed a blogcation. Ha!

Hope everyone else is doing well and having a fabulous time writing.

Adjectives

2011-03-17T05:18:00.001-05:00

First - Schoolhouse Rock is goes through my mind any time I write about adjectives, nouns, adverbs (Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, get your adverbs here)! Ah, the memories of Saturday morning cartoons.

Second - adjectives fall into that pesky little rule category. Follow or ignore, it's all up to you.

Anyhow, I get a daily email from www. dailywritingtips.com. They always have neat emails. Tuesday's email was about adjectives. More importantly, it was about the use of strong versus weak adjectives.

Adamant - hard
Baleful - foreboding
Corpulent - obese
Guileless - innocent
Turgid - swollen
Zealous - eager

Okay, they gave a list of 100, which I'm not repeating here. I think you can find them on their website.

The point - adjectives are not always a bad thing. Sometimes, the lovely little adjective that modifies a noun is, well, adroit (i.e., clever) - Ha!!

So, before you follow the rule about limited use of adjectives, perhaps considering the type of adjective (strong vs. weak) might be a better option.

One personal note - a lot of the strong adjectives are words that a good portion of people wouldn't know right off the top of their heads. In my writing, I consider the following question: do I want my readers to have to stop and look up a word, or should I use a more common word that everybody knows?

I normally take the second option, solely because - well, when not using my Kindle which has a built in dictionary - I don't want to stop, go find the dictionary, look up the word, and get back to reading. It's easier with the Kindle, but, still, don't really like having to look up a strange word.

So, if it twere (yes, twere) me, I would use strong, but identifiable adjectives so my readers don't have to go to extra effort to figure out what the word means.

How about you? Strong or weak adjectives? Do you adhere to the limited use of adjectives rule?

S

Oh - HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!! May you always dance like nobody's watching, and hope they're not videoing it in case you're a really bad dancer. Just saying . . . Ha!!

Thursday Next

2011-03-16T06:31:00.001-05:00

If you haven't read the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde . . . what in the heck are you waiting for? OMG - LOVE THIS SERIES.

Jasper Fforde takes a tongue-in-cheek approach, to, well, writing.

In his latest adventure the fictional Thursday Next, not the real one from this world, because in Jasper Fforde's world, the fictional characters are as real as, well, you and I. Uh-huh! Too dang funny.

In this latest adventure - One of our Thursdays is Missing - when the real Thursday Next goes missing, it's up to the fictional Thursday Next (as written by the real Thursday Next) to discover what happened.

Okay, so in the first chapter, one of the fictional characters (yeah, try keeping that straight in your mind) makes the following statement "My author couldn't be bothered to give me one (i.e., backstory)" - p. 2.

Now, the fictional Thursday Next, speaking in the first person . . .

I always appreciated honesty, even as personal as this. There weren't many characters in the BookWorld who had been left unscathed by the often selfish demands of their creators. A clumsily written and unrealistic set of conflicting motivations can have a character in therapy for decades - perhaps forever. (p. 2)

Too, dang funny. And, dear Jasper continues to make jibes like this throughout the entire series. In fact, the endings to the books that we know Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, etc. - well, you'll have to read the series to find out what I'm talking about. Clever, very, very clever.

But, raving about Thursday Next isn't the point of this post. The above italicized paragraph is the point of this post. Oh, and if you read yesterday's post, you don't have to pay attention to this post . . . unless you want to. Ha! Anyhow, the above italicised paragraph demonstrates the following: backstory is a necessary part of writing, as are realistic non-conflicting motivations.

Whether I like to admit it or not, my characters don't begin their existence on Page 1, Page 20, Page 40, or whatever. That might be when they first appear to the reader - fully formed, sometimes clothed, sometimes not - but they had complete lives before the reader first read about Jack and Jill going up the hill. Jack, in fact, was one of seven kids, the middle child, and . . . well, you see, he didn't just appear on Page 1, holding Jill's hand, and going up the hill.

Neither do the characters I write about. I create backstory for them so that - hopefully - my readers can relate to them. For me, backstory happens continually throughout the book, especially when the characters react with family members. Because, trust me on this, there isn't a non-dysfunctional family out there, and there isn't a person that doesn't have a whole lot of emotional baggage dragging along behind them - fictional or real. So, backstory, in small doses, throughout my writing, is how I insure that my fictional characters don't end up in "therapy for decades - perhaps forever" (p. 2)! Ha!!

As for motivation, if it isn't clear to the reader, why keep reading? I mean, Jack and Jill went up the hill to get some water. The motivation is somewhat clear: they obviously needed water. But, what if clearer motivation was provided: they had to get water to put out a fire that Jill started by sneaking cigarettes from her chain smoking momma and, well, she tossed the butt into the dry leaves and - BAM - instant bonfire, which wasn't a good thing, because the pile of leaves was next to the house, and next thing they knew the thatch roof caught on fire and . . .

So, Jill's motivation - besides wanting some nookie from Jack - in going up the hill, was to get the water to put out the fire that she started.

Now, Jill might still end up in therapy. She was chain-smoking at a young age, and had illicit designs on Jack, and there was the whole lie I don't know how the fire started, Momma she told, and . . .

. . . you should hopefully have gotten my point by now. Make sure your characters have backstory, and that the motivation for their actions is clear.

Now . . . Go read the entire Thursday Next series -

The Eyre Affair
Lost in a Good Book
The Well of Lost Plots
Something Rotten
Thursday Next: First Among Sequels
One of our Thursdays is Missing

2011-03-15T05:50:00.000-05:00

Here's the thing about blogs - each blog is just one individual's opinion/perspective on a subject. This blog is my perspective (and sometimes opinion) on writing.

I'm not an expert and . . . I don't play one on TV. Ha! I'm just a writer, struggling along, and hoping that, one day - hopefully soon - an agent will take notice of my query and ask for more, more, more!

I write to the best of my ability. I read blog after blog, intake the knowledge, shuffle it around a few dozen times . . . and toss out what I don't need.

Why?

Because not every don't do this applies to every individual writer.

There isn't a definitive writer's guide that says write this way and you'll succeed. If there was, there would be far less aspiring writers out there in the blogsphere.

There are guidelines - seemingly everywhere - that say do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that and yet . . . if you read debut authors, if you see what they did and didn't do . . . you might find that they ignored all those rules so easily found within the blogsphere.

Hmmmm . . .

No, I'm not advocating tossing aside every rule. I think - maybe know, check back with me on that one - that too much information is a bad, bad thing because, often, with too much information, people begin to second-guess themselves.

Yes, been there, done that.

I can't write like Tolkien.

I can't write like Mary Higgins Clark.

I can write like me, using the knowledge I've gleaned over the years, the blogs I've read, the books I've read, tossing out rules willy-nilly, and nilly-will as well, and writing what feels comfortable to me.

If I follow every piece of advice offered . . . I'm doing myself a disservice. No, I'm not advocating discarding the bits of knowledge. But, I am suggesting, in addition to the many blogs that are so very helpful, to also read, read, and read . . . books, and more books, and more books, and more books, and more books - by established and debut authors, but more so by debut authors.

Why?

Not to copy them, emulate them, or any other such thing . . . but to see what rules they broke, how they broke them, and to understand - if that's possible - why it worked for them.

In the end, the craft of writing is finding your own, well, voice.

If you do everything out there on the blogsphere, every bit of advice, you're silencing your voice . . .

. . . because you've stopped listening to yourself, your instinct, and started paying far too much attention to what works for . . .

. . . somebody else.

In the end, it is what works for you (me), the individual writer, that is (perhaps, should) matter most.

The blogs - at least in my opinion, this one included - are meant to guide you . . . and not to silence your voice.

For every rule to follow, there is a person who broke said rule . . . and wasn't struck by lightning.

So, my advice/opinion - soak everything up, but understand, in the end, that you the individual, must do what's best for you . . . and your writing. Sometimes, the voice you create is created from broken rules that might . . .

S

Lost in the Writing

2011-03-09T05:11:00.001-06:00

There are times when I write that time just drags on. Word after word, paragraph after paragraph, and . . . OMG, only 5 minutes has passed and I haven't written much at all. CRAP!

Then, there are times when I lose myself in the writing.

Sunday afternoon was one of those times. I sat down at the computer to edit a chapter of two in the Project with no Name (insert sound of big echoy computer voice repeating those words endlessly) and next thing I know . . . 90 minutes had passed.

Same thing last night.

I was lost in my writing. Nothing existed around me except the words on the page in front of me and, well, those synapsing with delight in my brain. Time didn't seem to exist.

These are the writing times I like the best. I love losing myself in my writing, caring about nothing, but the story and characters unfolding in front of me.

I wish every time I wrote was one of those times.

They're not.

I think the down times, the draggy times, the times when it takes forever to write a paragraph are there to make me truly appreciate when the words do flow and I lose myself.

S

Title Block

2011-03-08T06:38:00.002-06:00

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name . . . America. Okay, I love that song. I love that album. Ah, the memories . . .

But, this post isn't about a favorite song from my quickly fading youth. Oy! Okay, my youth's really not fading quickly . . . I hope.

This post is about a project I started a year ago . . . and haven't titled. That's right, there's no snappy title for this project. I have - gasp, the horrors - title block!! Ha!

For the life of me, I cannot come up with a title for this manuscript. Nothing. Nada. Zip!

I haven't had this problem before. Oh, I've changed titles on projects many times. That's fairly easy to do . . . because I had a starting title.

This time . . . nope, nada, nothing, zippo, zilch!! No title. No clue for the title. No nothing.

Title block.

My belief - hopefully not mistaken - is that, in time, a brilliant title will come to me.

If it doesn't . . . well, I can see the opening line of the query now: My untitled project is complete at ## words.

Uh-huh, a lead balloon has a better chance of flying than an agent has of not laughing his/her head off and sending me a response email that says AUTO-REJECT!

So, hopefully, somewhere in the nether reaches of my slightly depraved mind, the brain cells plan to synapse sometime in the near future so I'll come up with a title.

S

Deleting

2011-03-07T05:56:00.000-06:00

Sometimes you have to delete a chapter.

Case in point - current project. Friday afternoon I wrote a chapter. This morning I deleted 95% of said chapter.

Why?

Because it just wasn't working. I knew it when I wrote it, but I kept on writing it, and, well . . . DELETE!

I didn't trust my instinct on the chapter. Okay, I did, but I didn't, and it's a whole confused mess. Ha!

I knew what I wanted to write, to convey in that particular chapter. I wrote what I thought I wanted to write and convey in that particular chapter. But . . .

. . . it just wasn't working.

Today, I deleted a bunch of paragraphs, rewrote them and . . . voila!!! Yes, the chapter works much better now and also provides the jumping off point for revelatory passages about the victim in this current murder mystery.

There are two perspectives about every person: the known and the unknown. Those perspectives are often shadowed by misperceptions.

By using revelatory passages, I strip away the misperceptions and allow the reader a deeper insight into the victim, one not shadowed by jealousy, dislike, or any of the other factors that cause someone to talk bad about a person.

Why does it matter? Well, to me, as a reader, I want to care about the victim. I want to know who they were beyond the scattered comments of other characters that, quite often, paint a bad portrait of the victim.

So, at least in my murder mysteries, I plan to show who the victim was beyond those bad, often limited comments, that only present the victim in a two-dimensional format.

S

WiP Wednesday - March 2, 2011

2011-03-02T11:20:00.002-06:00

The progress continues on Book II. That's it. Update over with. Have a good day.

Okay, maybe a bit more . . .

Every manuscript I write is a bit different. Just like no two snowflakes are alike, no two writing of manuscripts is alike either.

Book I - frenzy! I wrote the rough draft in two weeks.

Book II - a slow progression, but the words are flowing, and I like what I'm writing.

I think the I like what I'm writing is the most important aspect of the writing process. If I don't like it, why am I writing it? If I don't love it, why am I writing it?

Ah, like and love! No, not going all philosophical on you . . . today. I don't have time.

I'm progressing and that's the most important thing (other than having a good hair day, good hair days are especially important) right now.

S

Writing Goals

2011-03-01T06:51:00.001-06:00

I normally don't set writing goals. I pretty much figure they're the same thing as New Year's resolutions: easy to make and easier to break.

So, I don't sit down at the start of the year and say I'm going to do this, that, then this, then that, and so on and so on and so on.

I don't do it!

Okay, I didn't do it.

But, today, while working away at, well work, and thinking about my writing, and thinking about what I've done and what I want to do, well, I thought, maybe this once, a writing goal or three might not be such a crazy idea.

So . . .

1 - query the cozy mystery project.
2 - research some niche market, independent and/or small press publishers for Margarita Nights.
3 - write rough draft of Book II in mystery series.
4 - edit project that currently doesn't have a title.
5 - figure out title for project that doesn't have a title.

So, those are the few goals I've picked to accomplish this year.

The good thing - #1 & #2 & #3 are all in progress. Hey, that's not bad, is it?

#4 & #5 are going to have to wait a bit, because, well, life goes on. Still, it's nice to have a small set of writing goals to get me through the year. I may even add - start a new project - to the list.

I think that setting small goals is the way to go. Forget those ginormous goals. You're just bound to fail if you aim to high. Anybody heard of Icarus? Yeah, I thought so.

I remember getting a Franklin Day Planner years ago, going to a class on how to use the planner, and the instructor telling us: set small goals that you can check off each and everyday, even if it's something as simple as return all AM phone calls by Noon. Yeah, a simple goal, and yet something I could achieve and, well, check off my daily to-do list.

So, I've done that with my writing goals. I've set achievable goals and some goals, not listed, that are going to take more effort.

In the end, I can hopefully look back and say: hey, look at that, I achieved every goal on my list . . . and then some.

How about you? Do you set writing goals? Do you aim to high? What are some of your goals?

S

What if . . .

2011-02-22T10:38:00.002-06:00

One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever read was from Mary Higgins Clark - if you don't know her you've got to have been living under a rock - when she was asked about where her ideas came from. Her response - what if! Okay, her response was longer than that, but the main idea was to look at a news story and go what if . . .

So, this is what I've done with my current project, which is Book II in my mystery series. I took a situation that occurred in the town I live in a few years ago and went, what if . . .

Woo-hoo!

I must say, this whole what if thing is kind of fun. I have a real life event that I'm putting my own spin on using just the basics of the actual event to provide motive for the murder that takes place on the first page of the manuscript.

Will I always use this technique? Probably not. The idea for Book III (which, once upon a time was Book II, but is now Book III - long story) came from a rumor of something that has been going on for a while and, well, provided the motive for murder. I just love it when that happens.

The fact is, life is full of situations that, for a writer, can provide the motive for murder . . .

. . . an argument witnessed on a street corner.

. . . an argument between co-workers.

. . . the sighting of a former, hateful, boss at a movie.

. . . the arrest of a public official.

. . . the . . .

Well, you should get the picture. Life is full of so many events that, with a bit of a warped imagination (mine's a bit more warped than most peoples) . . . anything can happen.

S

Why . . .

2011-02-18T07:09:00.003-06:00

. . . did you choose the agents you chose to query?

As every reader knows by know, I'm about to query. I've gotten the Query Ninja's (Elana) stamp of approval on my query and I've picked out three agents to query.

Yep, only three at this point.

The question I asked myself last night is why those three agents.

The second question I asked my self - Self, should you put 'why' you're querying said agents in your query letter? Okay, I didn't really ask myself that question. Okay, maybe I did.

I could just see this line in my query: I've admired you from afar (well, from the blogsphere). Then, I could see a restraining order in my immediate future. Scratch that line. Ha!

Then, how do I put what made me choose that agent - the why - in my query without, well, seeming to, well, suck up, kiss butt, whatever to said agent?

Yeah, that's a tricky one, isn't it?

So, one of the agents I'm planning on querying mentions on their site that they're looking for projects with a unique voice or look and something important to say. Woo-hoo! They just described my project. So, my line in the intro is going to be: I feel that TITLE OF BOOK is perfect for your agency because it has a unique voice (then again, doesn't every author think their project has a unique voice?) and something important to say. Yeah, I don't think that line's going to be added to my query any time in the near future either. Can you say AUTO-REJECT! Well, maybe not, but still . . . the line might be a bit too flip, a tad snarky . . . but so am I.

That little dilemma brought up the question: do I sterilize my query so much, that who I am as an individual - a bit flip at times, more than a tad snarky - doesn't show through?

I hate writing essays - formal, dull, boring. So, in college, I began to take chances with my essays - less formal, a bit snarky, and . . . I got great grades on the papers. I had one professor come up to me in the hallway and tell me she absolutely LOVED what I did with the essay, and that she howled with laughter (in a good way) when reading my paper. To me, that was the ultimate praise, because I put me in my essay.

I want to put me in my query.

Anyhow, I'm digressing more than Sophia Petrillo did in seven seasons of The Golden Girls.

I chose the first agent because of the concepts listed on their website, and because of the posts on the blog that, at least in my opinion, carried the same outrage, irreverence, and passion that I put into my posts when I'm, well, outraged. After reading those posts - I followed the blog first - I investigated the agency a bit more and realized I wanted to query said agent.

The second and third agents I found through blogs I follow. There was something about each agent that, well, spoke to me. There was something they said on their sites, in the interviews, that clicked with me. Yeah, they also represent my genre, but . . . that wasn't the primary reason I chose any of those agents.

So, with all this rambling on a Friday morning, my question to those who have agents, and those looking for agents: Why do you choose who you choose? Solely because they represent your genre? Or, is there some deeper reason? Please comment away.

Have a great Friday.

S

WiP Wednesday - February 16, 2011

2011-02-16T07:03:00.000-06:00

And the progress continues, slowly but surely. Ha!

Query Letter - done and done. Why done and done? Well, I had to write two letters. The one agent I plan on querying has very specific instructions on what he wants. So, first letter is more narrow, more defined. The second letter is a bit broader. Then again, I might not need the second letter. One just never knows. Ha!

I'm almost finished with the read through. I should finish up tomorrow. Other than the one chapter mentioned in Monday's post, the changes really have been minimal. I'll probably go through doing a word search - that, very, just, and a few other words - over the course of the weekend. For the most part, I'm not worried about the word very because I purposely used it in some instances. In other instances, as I've done the read through, I've eliminated the word.

The tone of this project is a bit irreverent. It's not some formal piece of work that will bore my readers. At least I hope it's not a formal piece of work that will bore my readers. Okay, I know it's not a formal piece of work that will bore my readers. My betas loved the manuscript. Okay, they loved the main character, and the manuscript.

Still, I think part of the charm - yeah, narrow perspective here - of the manuscript is the irreverence of the writing. Hopefully, said irreverence will charm agents everywhere. One can hope.

S

A Discovery of Witches

2011-02-15T06:03:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. LOVED! IT!!

This was a great book. I think it falls into the paranormal romance genre, but . . . it's just a great book. Yeah, there's some romance, but that's not the main premise of the book.

Here's what I loved . . .

Bridget Bishop - first witch killed during the Salem Witch Trials, who also happens to be an ancestor of a good friend of mine - is mentioned in the book. In fact, the main character is a direct descendent of Bridget Bishop. So, first and foremost, I'm intrigued because I actually know someone descended from Bridget Bishop. That qualifies as a neat-o factor.
Vampires - the author (Deborah Harkness) takes the been there, done that vampire and . . . puts her own unique spin on them that is incredibly believable and realistic. I love her spin on the vampires.
Complexity - this story is complex and intriguing and . . . so many other things.
Slow Read - no, this isn't a bad thing. I kept thinking the book was a slow read until I realized the reason why: I was absorbing everything, immersing myself in the present day world she created. I was lingering over the words. That is why it was taken me so long to read the book, and not because it was uninteresting.
Page Turner - even though I was lingering, absorbing, immersing, I also couldn't wait to turn the page to find out what would happen next.

Okay, those are only some of the things I loved about this book. It is rare for me to find I book I can't put down, that I want to read and read and read and read and . . . This was one of those books. I was sad to reach the end. I wanted more.

Did I mention the main character is a historian? Did you know Isaac Newton was a . . . well, I'm not going to give that little tidbit away, but . . . the author cleverly plays with historical facts. Absolutely fantastic.

So, if you want a good book to read, go and get this one (which is also available for Kindle, and probably other e-formats as well).

A Slow Progression to the Finish Line

2011-02-14T08:52:00.004-06:00

I'm about done with my read through. Yes, it's taking me forever. Patience is a virtue . . . or so I've been told. I'll get back to you on that one.

In doing my read through, as any reader of this blog already knows, I've been correcting minor things here, there, and everywhere throughout the manuscript.

Yesterday, a bit more than minor tweaking occurred in one particular chapter. You see, in writing this mystery, I had to make sure the clues pieced together to form a precise picture. This isn't always easy. Trust me on that one. In this one chapter, the specific connections I created between the suspects, and the detective, and another character didn't exist like they should have. Eeek!

You see, what happened during the rough draft process was . . . I created the connections toward the end of the rough draft writing process and not the beginning. That's how my mind works. So, in this read through, I get to this chapter and realize a lot of the chapter doesn't make sense because I'm not paying attention to all those connections.

Delete. Delete. Delete.

Revamp. Revamp. Revamp.

Voila!

Now, all the connections are neatly tied together, past relationships and all that jazz, so that the comment of one character makes sense. Woo-hoo!

This, dear readers, is why we, as writers, aspiring or otherwise, do not query the rough draft.

This, dear readers, is why we, as writers, aspiring or otherwise, do multiple read throughs of our manuscripts before we even give serious thought to querying.

Writing, as I've said over and over again, well, written over and over again, is a process. It is not a race to the finish line, but rather a slow progression to the finish line.

Patience - allegedly - is a virtue, and patience in the writing process should, hopefully, mean that by the time I query, I have the most polished manuscript I'm capable of, well, polishing.

Clarity . . .

2011-02-11T06:32:00.000-06:00

. . . comes at the oddest of moments. No direct thought, no pondering the problem, just - BAM - and the moment of clarity is upon me.

Yesterday, reading a book, my mind partway in the book and, obviously, somewhere else as well, a sentence formed.

Okay, it started a bit earlier than that. I was reading the book, a descriptive passage about the interior of a room, and my mind started to wander a bit - here, there, and everywhere. Suddenly, I'm opening up a Word document and typing a brief description of a room and, well, a scene that seemed to form at the same time.

Clarity!

Then, later in the day, immersed back in the book, a sentence formed in my mind. The sentence - at least as it stands here/now - is the opening sentence to a project I began working on a few months ago.

Clarity!

I've already written quite a few chapters on the project, but I set it aside as life intervened and my mystery project once again demanded all my attention. Still, the project rested in the nether reaches of my mind . . . waiting, waiting, waiting . . . until it could wait no more and leaped to the forefront.

Clarity!

The sentence leaped out, did a little dance, and away my fingers went, flying across the keyboard and typing out the new opening sentence.

Clarity!

Oh, this isn't just any opening sentence. This is THE sentence. THE ONE! Okay, maybe not . . . but, this sentence is twofold: it's the current opening sentence and it's the hook for the book. Woo-hoo, two birds with one stone.

Clarity!

And that, dear readers, is my post for today. Have a great day and weekend!

S

Finding Time

2011-02-09T06:38:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, in this writer's life, combined with, well, life, time to write is hard to find. Take last night - got home, started fixing dinner. Put casserole in oven. Set timer for 45 minutes.

45 minutes. That's all I had. So . . . fine tuned my query, sent it back off to the Query Ninja for review and . . . started this blog post.

It's all about finding the time, even if it's only 30 minutes here or there between doing other things.

Did I mention that I really didn't have 45 minutes? No, I didn't. Why? Well, casserole was in the oven, but there were other things to do before dinner was really ready. So, knock off about 10 minutes. Oh, did I mention a phone call while I was working on the query? Yes, a phone call. Yes, I had to answer it. Subtract some more time.

Okay, so time is of the essence and it's disappearing faster than the hair on my head. Dang genetics.

How do you do it? How do you fit time for writing in your hectic schedule? Comment away.

S

BTW - my query is done. I have about 100 pages left to read through. Soon I'll be standing on the precipice of the great Query Chasm.

Social Media

2011-02-08T10:41:00.002-06:00

Go here for a great blog about Social Media. The blog title: You don't Have to Blog, Tweet, or Be on Facebook. Go on, check it out!

The end sentence of the post: See social media as a way to connect with people who matter to you.

I don't Tweet. Okay, I do, but my tweets are few and far between. To me, Twitter is what my old boss called a time thief. Okay, he wasn't referring to Twitter because, well, it didn't exist back then. Time Thiefs to him, were the marketing reps who came into the office and wanted to sell us their products. Personally, I liked the time thiefs because they normally took me to lunch. I'm all about free lunch. Just saying . . . Ha!!

The main premise of the above blog is When you do interesting stuff—when you have something to say, a message to spread, or a story to tell—then social media makes more sense.

Exactly! Blogging, tweeting, Facebook shouldn't be something I feel I have to do, but something I want to do.

I think one of the reasons I pulled back from blogging for a while was because it became something I had to do, not something I wanted to do.

I have to work to pay my bills. I have to watch what I eat because otherwise I'll weigh 300 pounds . . . or more. I have to . . . well, you get the picture. I don't have to blog. I started to blog originally, my other blog not this one, because I had something to say. I started this blog, well, because I had something to say as well. In time, this blog become a duty, a requirement, something that lacked fun and excitement.

Twitter - oh, Twitter, you steal my time from me. I feel that I have to be on Twitter 24/7 or I'll miss something. So, I take the other extreme . . . I rarely get on Twitter. Yes, I know, I can interact with people in the literary field - agents, editors, writers (published and aspiring). Yes, I should be more Twitterfied. I'm not. Maybe one today.

Facebook - I love me some Facebook. I love connecting with friends, old and new. I find Facebook easy to manage.

So, in the end, I'm going to do what's best for me: some blogging, more Facebook, and an occasional jaunt into Twitterville every now and then.

How about you? Do you do all three social medias? If not, which ones do you do and . . . why?

S

The Synopsis - Arrrghhh

2011-02-04T06:01:00.001-06:00

Okay, synopsis time. Where's the wine? Where are the margaritas? Ha! Kidding, it's not that bad.

Okay, it's not that great either, but it's part of the writing process and . . . this too shall pass.

I look at the query and the synopsis like I did algebra in high school: it's not something I love doing, but it's necessary . . . and I'm not going to graduate without it. Basically: I have no choice, so buck up.

I'm currently at work on the one page synopsis, then I'll move on to the more detailed synopsis, and then . . . well, hopefully, my synopsizing will be done.

So, one page synopsis - list the major events. This is easy because I have a Table of Contents with clever (at least in my warped mind) titles that mark out the major events in the title. Woo-hoo!

So, what I did last night was list all the major events (i.e. chapter titles containing major events) on a piece of paper which I'll flesh out into proper sentences later on because . . . I can't very well submit a bullet point synopsis with chapter titles. Yes, I'd love to do this, but . . . such an action could well get me black-listed from agentdom and I don't want that to happen. Still, these titles do make my job a bit easier . . . kind of like the cute tutor helping me out with my algebra back in high school.

What I also did yesterday, bullet point style, was list out both the major and minor events to help me with the longer synopsis.

Example

* Major Event 1
* Minor Event
* Major Event 2
* Minor Event
* Minor Event
* Major Event 3

Well, you get the point . . .

So, that's where I am right here and now with my current project.

Other updates: query letter (faux and real) sent off to the Awesome Elana for review. She rocks, by the way!!!). The faux query is, well, the query I'd like to send, but also the one that would get me blacklisted in agentdom. Sigh!!

Have a great weekend.

S

WiP Wednesday - February 2, 2011

2011-02-02T06:41:00.002-06:00

Happy Groundhog Day!

My wish for the groundhog: may he not see his shadow. Enough with winter already.

Here's my progress - 1/2 way through second read through.

That's it . . . have a nice day. Kidding.

I am about 1/2 way through the first read through. I haven't found any major things to change - just some wrong words (as mentioned in my previous post) and a lack of a word within a sentence . . . or five, well, maybe seven . . . but who the heck's counting? Okay, me, but that's beside the point.

I have one agent - so far - picked out to query. Yeah, only one, but there are a host (well, not really a host so to speak, but a few, well, maybe many) of others that I need to double check information on and see if they have any special requests regarding queries.

Why special requests? Well, because first agent I plan to query wants the following: intro, pitch (one paragraph is fine), and bio. This is not your standard query letter, dear readers. To me, this is a dream. I have the pitch down pat. Well, I hope I have the pitch down pat. You just never know. Still, this query is a bit easier than others where I have to provide a bit more information. So . . . I'm in a quasi-happy place.

Yeah, that happiness will dissipate when - maybe if, one just never knows - I have to send out more queries. Still, for now, I'm enjoying the brief respite from a more lengthy query letter.

Now, my question: does intro mean title, genre, and word count or does it mean something else entirely? Thoughts? Opinions? Words of wisdom?

On that note, dear readers, . . .

S

Read Throughs

2011-01-31T05:43:00.000-06:00

Why are multiple read throughs important?

Because, last time I checked, I was human and I miss things.

Example: Katherine wanted to know if he learned anything knew.

What's wrong with above sentence? Different word, right sound . . . wrong for the sentence!

So, changed knew to new and all was right with the world. Okay, all was right with the sentence. The world, last time I checked, was in sore need of some fixing!

So, multiple read throughs of a manuscript are important because we - I - miss things. For me, that's the Number One reason not to jump the gun and submit a first, second or third draft of a manuscript for query. You - I - are going to miss something, and that something (knew vs. new) could make the difference between an agent saying Yay versus Nay.

Then again, it might not. I don't know enough about agents to make that statement with 100% accuracy.

This writing journey I have taken on, this joy in my life, isn't a race to the finish. It's a slow progression from start to finish with many stops on the way. It doesn't matter if others out there have agents or success before me. All that matters is that I do the best I can.

In order for me, nobody else, to do that best, I need the multiple read throughs. I need the slow and steady pace to ensure that when I do query, when the agent ask for my manuscript, I am submitting the best manuscript I can to said agent. I don't want him/her to come across the sentence above and write me off as inexperienced. I want said agent to come across the correct sentence and somehow - fingers crossed - know that I take this writing journey seriously.

S

Nifty Little Tools

2011-01-28T07:13:00.002-06:00

I bought a new computer recently. It was time. I shopped around, looked for the best deal, even though I was leaning toward buying a Dell again. I loved my Dell laptop, and the one before that. Heck, the IT guy at work loved my Dell laptop . . . which is why he bought it from me. Ha!

Anyhow, finally settled on an HP because they had the best deal out there. I even purchased Office 2010.

Love It! I'm a Word junkie. Yes, I know, there are other programs out there. I love Word. In fact, Word 2010 has a nifty navigation bar that appears on the left hand side of the screen.

What's so nifty, you may - probably not - be thinking? Well, since I have a table of contents, that's what shows up in the navigation bar. So, I can just click on the chapter title and POOF there I am. Voila!!! LOVE IT! This makes editing so much easier.

The other nifty tool on my new computer is Sticky Notes. Basically, it's an electronic post it note that appears on the desktop. You know what I do with them? I write what chapter is next to edit. No more start here inserted into the document so I have to do a Find in Word. Nope! Now, I just open Word, look at the navigation panel, click, and poof there I am, right where I left off. Woo-hoo!

So, that's the post today. Yeah, not a lot about writing, but . . . nifty little tools do come in handy in the writing process. Sticky Notes is my new best friend.

As for the writing . . . I started the read through the other night. I changed a few words, deleted a sentence or two, but, so far, nothing major. I hope to get through a good portion of the read through this weekend and then get back to work on my query next week.

I hope everybody's had a good week and has an even better weekend.

S

Here, There, and Everywhere

2011-01-26T11:19:00.002-06:00

Okay, very busy at work, exhausted at the end of the day . . . no time. So, that's why you're not seeing much of me on the blogsphere or here on my own blog. I'm still here, but my time is limited and by the end of the day, I don't want to get on the Internet and read a gazillion blogs. I'll catch up . . . one day.

Other than that . . .

Procrastination. I realize I've been procrastinating.

I haven't finished my query.

I haven't finished my synopsis.

I haven't done the next read through.

In fact, in regards to writing, I've done little to nothing in weeks.

That changes tonight. No TV, no personal reading, no nothing until I pull out the current manuscript and read the first few chapters.

Time's a'wasting, dear readers, and I'm not getting any younger!

I need to set my fears - yes, I think it's fear that is causing me to procrastinate - aside and just get on with it. I know the story is good. My beta readers loved the story. My beta readers all want to spend time with the main character. Hey, I don't think a writer can get a much higher compliment than the words: I love (insert main character's name)!

So, with all that said, I still haven't finished the query, the synopsis, or the next read through.

I think I just needed a break, some time for me, and now it's time to delve back in, dive into the trenches, polish that coal until it's a diamond, write the query, the synopsis, finish the read through, and send off those dang query letters.

How about you? How's your writing progressing? What exciting gem of brilliance are you working on right now? How about dem Bears? So close, and yet so far away!!

S

Action!!!

2011-01-24T06:19:00.000-06:00

Real people move - they act. They talk with their hands, turn around, walk forward, step sideways, reach for a glass, toss this, toss that, squat down, duck, run, and . . . ACTION!

The characters I write must do the same. They can't just stand immobile throughout the course of the book.

But . . .

Action is a tricky thing. Too much action = confusion. Case in point . . .

Katherine stood up and walked across the room. She stood in front of the bay window that overlooked the expansive acreage of her Belle Meade property. The house itself, a massive Tudor was impressive enough, but magnificent when combined with the forested property. “My son was out and proud, as out and proud as you could get, much to the detriment of our family name, and much to the glee of my society friends. Oh, how, they loved it when they found out the high and mighty Katherine Deluca, she of the wickedest tongue in Nashville, had a gay son. They delighted in my shame and horror.” She turned around. “I delighted in becoming the proudest PFLAG member ever. You should have seen the horror on my society friends’ faces when I invited every drag queen in town to the charity lunch.” She laughed softly. “Yes, a bit petty on my part, but I am the Bitch of Belle Meade, after all. I do need to live up to my horrible reputation.” She turned back around. “My son was quite vocal in his activism. He outed more than one prominent member of Nashville society. He has a blog, the address is in the folder. Check it out. You’ll understand my son far better by reading his blog than by anything I can tell you.” She turned around again, her hands clasped in front of her. “Is this a typical hate crime? Was my son attacked for being gay?” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I do know, the word faggot etched on his forehead was intentional. That, dear detectives, make this a hate crime in my book. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Question: without looking back at the passage, which direction is Katherine facing - toward Peter or out the window?

Yeah, I guessed it - you have no clue. Neither do I and I wrote the passage. I made a very - at least in my opinion - common error: too much action in too little space. Yes, Katherine, for all intents and purposes, needed to turn around once or twice . . . just not so many times that dear brilliant - ha - author here is confused and, ultimately, so are the readers.

So, lesson learned: too much action isn't a good thing. Less is more! Okay, I didn't come up with that gem of brilliance on my own, but it is a good one and something that I will pay much more attention to in future writing endeavors and in the editing process.

How about you? Too much action in one scene? Are you and your characters confused about their position? Forward? Backwards? Sideways? How many times can one character turn around in one paragraph? Ha!

So, words of advice from yours truly: don't confuse yourself or potential readers with two much action in one paragraph/scene. Limit the action to the necessary and delete the unnecessary!

S

WiP Wednesday - January 19, 2011

2011-01-19T07:10:00.002-06:00

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccccckkk! Be afraid, be very afraid. Okay, not really.

I'm back from vacation. I miss the sun and sand already. Heck, I missed it the moment the plane landed back home amid the rainy and cold day that greeted me.

Reality stinks most times! Ha!

So, I'm about to delve back into another read through of the manuscript before I put the final touches on the query letter and get back to work on the synopsis. I have two posts in mind for later in the week and, hopefully, I'll get those pre-written and scheduled to post tonight. I think I've caught up on some of the sleep I missed during my FL vacation. Let me tell you, 4 - 5 hours of sleep per night takes it's toll after six days. OY!

On that note, back to work - you know, the job that pays me so I can pay my bills - and digging out my desk after a week off. Geesh!

S

Happy New Year

2011-01-03T10:05:00.002-06:00

So, after some time - for the most part, not totally (ha) - away from the blog . . . I'm back, at least for a bit.

The last few weeks of the year were spent reading and not writing. I pulled myself - almost - totally away from writing. I needed a break. I needed distance. I needed time for me, to gel, to reenergize, to just have a break from pretty much anything to do with writing.

Now, the New Year here, the sun shining, the temps frigid, it's time to delve back into the writing process, or, more importantly the editing, finish the query, finish the synopsis, research more agents process.

Editing so far and yet to come . . .

Beta Readers Comments Received and Read
Read through without correcting a thing - done!
Typos and incomplete sentences fixed - done!
Second read through without correcting a thing - should get underway later this week.
Review Beta Readers comments and debate pros/cons of making some changes based on reader feedback - will happen this week. Heck, will start happening in a few minutes.
Respond to Beta Readers questions - sometime today.
Go through MS sent back from Beta Reader with typos and incomplete sentences highlighted and red flagged - yeah, she went overboard! Ha! - I should start on this later today, and will work on it throughout the week. Hopefully, between my corrections already, there won't be many things to fix. Hopefully.

Next week - off to FL for an annual trip with a group of friends, so very little writing will occur. Okay, no writing at all will probably occur from the time I leave and the time I get back. Ha!

So, I ease back in this week, a blog post here or there, editing everywhere, back to work, and just life in general.

I hope everyone had a fantastic New Year and may this year be filled with happiness and dreams come true.

Antagonist Hate

2010-12-27T11:17:00.003-06:00

So, I'm supposed to be on blog holiday. Well, I am, but I'm not, and such is the state of my life sometimes.

On my blog holiday, besides some work, some vacation, cooking a heck of a lot, and eating even more (if that's possible), I've also been reading.

I just finished reading Book III (Shadowrise) and Book IV (Shadowheart) in Tad William's Shadowmarch quadrology. It was supposed to be a trilogy, but he overwrote Book III and split that book into two books. Luckily, the distance between publication of Book III and IV was only about 5 months. Woo-hoo.

Anyhow, I waited until Book IV was about to come out before I started Book III so I could finish the series in one sitting (or what amounts to one sitting over a period of a few weeks).

There were two main villains (well, one villainess) in the story: Sulepis the Autarch of Xis and Yassamez of the Qar (the fairy people). These two were the antagonists.

As every writer knows, the antagonist is normally what the protagonist faces to complete their goal. The antagonist is the one throwing the wrenches in all the well laid plans and making life difficult for the poor, put upon protagonist.

In most cases, the antagonist is an evil person (and/or entity). In most case, at least in my opinion, the reader should dislike the antagonist, if not outright hate the antagonist.

I must admit, in Books I - III, I disliked Sulepis the Autarch, but I didn't really hate him. He was just another mad emperor set on world domination. Hello, Napoleon!! Well, then along came Book IV, and all redeeming qualities went out the window. Madness or not, there wasn't a redeeming quality about Sulepis to be found. FINALLY! Here was an antagonist with no redeeming values - not even his harsh childhood as growing up as one of a bunch of children of the current Autarch. Woo-hoo!

Early on in Book IV, the hate was flowing toward the Autarch (almost as much as I had for Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter - now she was a character to hate).

Now, Yassamez, well my hate, even my dislike for her began to diminish as the truth behind her hatred for the mortal race began to unfold. Compassion settled in for this woman, centuries old, who suffered loss upon loss. I could understand her rage. I could understand her hate.

In the end, she allied with the mortals and lost her aspect as antagonist.

Sulepis remained.

So, now my question: is it necessary to inspire hate in your readers toward the antagonist? Do you attempt to show redeeming qualities? Do you show why your antagonists became who they were? Is creating compassion toward an antagonist a good thing or bad thing?

As for me, in my writing process, I normally try to show why the antagonists became who they became. I think this is easier to do when not writing epic fantasy because such a strong/forceful antagonist isn't always necessary in mystery or commercial fiction. Sometimes, the antagonist is as simple as the inner turmoil facing the protagonist, versus an actual physical being. Agree? Disagree? Give me your thoughts.

S

Blog Holiday

2010-12-06T07:32:00.002-06:00

So, I've been scarce of late because . . . well, life's been a bit busy and hectic lately, and I've gone into hibernate mode. Okay, I've gone into reading mode. Read, read, and read some more. Curl up on the couch with a good book, and the cat if she's in the mood for attention . . . which she normally is if I'm in the mood for reading . . . and/or the dogs.

As for writing, some ideas have been swirling around in the primordial maelstrom that is my brain. I'm trying to work out the details of Book II. Okay, I already wrote Book II, but I think it makes a better Book III, so now I need to figure out Book II. Yeah, that's how my thinking works. Crazy scary at times. Okay, crazy scary the majority of times!!!

So, blogging has taken a backseat lately because, well, can't think of much to blog about right now. In fact, I'm thinking of taking a bit of a blogging holiday until January 1.

This means . . .

. . . I'll probably come up with tons of posts and you won't even know I'm gone! Ha!

So, my plans for the next few weeks . . . finish query, finish synopsis, beat the last beta reader over the head because she still hasn't gotten me her input, digest the input of all beta readers and implement some changes, do another read through, and - hopefully - do another edit phase.

So, I won't be kicking back sipping on the egg nog reading the last two books in Tad Williams shadow series. Okay, I will be kicking back sipping on the egg nog and reading the last two books in Tad Williams shadow series, but I'll also be writing as well and . . . I'll still be lurking in the blogsphere and making comments here, there, and everywhere.

S

Best Post Ever

2010-11-30T07:48:00.002-06:00

I'm not posting today. Okay, I am, but . . . I'm directing you here to a post written by Rachelle Gardner because she wrote the post every single writer needs to read.

So, click, read, let the words sink into you, and . . .

S

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-23T10:51:00.002-06:00

So, Thanksgiving is here . . . already. It seems just like yesterday that the year started. Time seems to be zipping by me the older I get.

This week, well, work's been crazy, life's crazy, Thanksgiving is just days away and I have way too much to do.

What sacrifice will I make?

Yeah, you guessed it . . . blogging. I'm still lurking around, just not posting or commenting too much this week because . . .

Wednesday - finish cleaning house, and start Thanksgiving prep: cranberry sauce to make, two pies to make, bread to bake for dressing.

Thursday - touch up bathrooms, prep turkey, make vegetable dish, make sweet potatoes, get turkey ready, make dressing, set table, prepare for guests. Oy, somebody get me a Bloody Mary!

Friday - start decorating for Christmas. Oh, wait, it's Friday . . . meet friends for margaritas.

Saturday - continue decorating for Christmas.

Sunday - collapse in exhaustion!

Well, that's it for me this week . . . oh, I started rereading The Deathly Hallows so I'll try and fit in some reading throughout this crazy week as well.

I hope everyone has a fantastic and safe Thanksgiving!

S

WiP Wednesday - November 17, 2010

2010-11-17T09:09:00.003-06:00

So, the edits - for now - are done. Typos and unclear sentences fixed. Sentences, a paragraph or five deleted, and a total of 8 pages cut from the manuscript . . . at this point.

Input from three out of four beta readers in hand, the fourth input should arrive in my email Monday morning.

Major change: deleted first few chapters and started the manuscript with the fourth (I think) chapter because . . . survey said: this is where I really started to get into the story. So, I went with the 2 out of 3 survey response.

I need to do another read through - .pdf format so I don't change things willy-nilly that seriously don't need changing - and then compile the beta readers opinions and see what I will (and won't) change based on their feedback.

Then . . . more work on query, start the synopsis, and do some agent research. I do have the logline done for the query, so the rest is just - brief, to the point, voice speaking loudly - filler.

So, how about you? Where are you with your writing projects? What great and exciting adventures have you created?

S

The First 250 Words

2010-11-15T11:42:00.003-06:00

Okay, what is it about the first 250 words? Why do they have to be stellar, amazing, awe-inspiring, hook-grabbing, and all that jazz?

I don't judge a book (or a writer, for that matter) by the first 250 words. I normally - bad on me - judge a book by, well, it's cover. Yes, I'm a cover snob. I'm more apt to pick up a book with an interesting cover, than one with not. Okay, a catchy title will grab me as well, but both combined . . . ah, the ambrosia that tickles my literary senses.

Now, after the cover and title, or a combo of both, I like to - whether in a book store or not - read the first chapter before making a definitive decision on the book.

So, to me, the first sentence, the first paragraph, the first 250 words or, well, whatever, really don't matter.

What does matter is the writing within the first chapter!

So, why is there this myth, perhaps a reality, that the first 250 words, or whatever, matter so much?

I don't have an answer to that question. I only have my own way of deciding if I'm going to buy a book, and the first 250 words really don't come into play with me. The cover, often the title, and, yes, the cover jacket or back cover blurb are taken into account as well, but, not, I repeat, not, the first 250 words.

Now, I understand agents getting a ton of submissions and having to make a decision quick. But, don't many of them ask for the first five pages, which, last time I checked, is greater than 250 words? Why, yes, it is. Hmmm . . .

Okay, I love me some Miss Snark's First Victim. I love her blog and what she does for all aspiring writers. I've submitted my first 250 words to contests in the past. I haven't recently because, well, the MS isn't complete. But . . . I couldn't submit my first 250 because I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the first 250 of the current project isn't the expected - wham, bam, right into the action - norm that I seem to see out there. The first chapter - 4 pages - sets the stage for everything. Yes, there's a bit of wham, bam, right into the action, but not in the first 250 words.

My readers - so my betas tell me - love this first chapter. They've all said they get a sense of the two lead characters within those first four pages, as well as who they are and what they, well, one of them, wants out of life, i.e., the goal of the book.

Trust me, they wouldn't get this in the first 250 words. Sorry, it's just not happening.

So, you tell me: are your first 25o words wham, bam, right into the action? Do you prefer this in the first 25o words? Do you prefer something a bit more subtle? Do you base your buying on the first few pages or the first few chapters of a book? Comment away.

S

p.s. Please note I'm not intending to dis' Authoress in any way, shape, or form. I love her blog, I'm friends with her on Facebook, and we've chatted back and forth in emails in the past. I think - heck, I know - the main reason for this post is the fact that I knew the first 250 words of my current manuscript would fail the litmus test of her blog, and really, just wanted some other input out there from my writerly brethren! : )

Editing vs. Writing

2010-11-12T06:22:00.003-06:00

Editing takes more time than writing. Yeah, most of you probably know this . . . at least on some level.

Writing, at least the rough draft, and at least for me, is all about getting the words out of my head and onto paper . . . well, the computer screen since I don't write things out by hand any longer. It's about running with the idea, careening through a dark forest, the path sometimes barely discernible, and suddenly discovering myself at, well, The End.

Editing is, well, tedious. There's not this onward rush, a dash of sorts, over the hills and through the woods to grandmother's house we go. No, there's a steady, slow, tedious, long and arduous progression from word 1 to word 63,057.

I can't write willy-nilly, not worrying about typos and incomplete sentences, chasing my muse, hoping she'll wait for me and not rush off four pages ahead so, that by the time I get there, she's long gone and the words, for the moment, dry up.

No, with editing, I must examine each and every word, fix the typos and the incomplete or unclear sentences, replace her with here, or vice versa, and ha with he and there with their and . . . well, the list goes on and on. I must delete the unnecessary and think does this make sense? If it doesn't make sense, then it must go - edit, delete, eradicate. I must think forward and backward - no, this doesn't make sense here, but later, in Chapter 12, it will make sense or did I leave a clue in Chapter 6 that makes this scene plausible . . . and so many other things.

So, while I might be able, on a good day, when writing, to sit down and write 8,000 words. In editing, the process is much slower. I am the tortoise, slowly progressing along, whereas, when writing, I am the hare, racing forward, content - so to speak - in my arrogance that I'll win the race.

Yes, I know, writing isn't a race. Writing is, in many ways, the tortoise - a slow progression to the finish line.

So, as I near the end of this edit phase, I acknowledge that editing takes more time than writing.

Just another glimpse into the warped and twisted space I call my mind. Ha!

S

WiP Wednesday - November 10, 2010

2010-11-10T09:02:00.003-06:00

Okay, first, how in the heck did November 10, 2010 arrive so soon? Seriously, people, where in the heck has the year gone? Geesh!

As for Work in Progress (WiP) Wednesday . . . I'm still in the fix the typos and unclear sentences phase of the editing process. I have 71 pages to go. Woo-hoo!

I also have the feedback from two beta readers, partial feedback from the third, and should have the feedback from the fourth this weekend. The next phase of my editing process will be reviewing their feedback and deciding what, if any, changes to make.

I have completed the logline (for the most part) with the fabulous help of Holly Bodger over at Random Notes from Holly Bodger. Holly took time out of her busy life to give me some tips and honest feedback. I can't thank her enough, but, I can send people over to her site to read her posts on loglines and everything. Go on, click on over and show some love! She really has helped me narrow my focus when creating a logline. That, dear readers, is invaluable assistance.

I always struggled with loglines. I just couldn't get the knack of them until . . . I, thanks to Authoress, found Holly's site. So, if you're having trouble with your loglines, click on over and see if what helped me can't also help you.

Now, back to me (ha) . . . after I finish this edit phase, and before I start the full review of the betas feedback, I plan on writing my query. You know what? I already have the logline, so the rest of the query is just filler. Ha!

I'm also reading The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, who also wrote The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden. I loved, loved, loved The Forgotten Garden and I'm loving The Distant Hours. I haven't read The House at Riverton but plan on doing so at some point.

So, that's my Wednesday update. How about you? What's going on in your writing life? Are you immersed in NaNo? Some other project?

Whatever it is, may the words flow freely and your muse always sing, just not off-key!

S

Loglines - My Process

2010-11-05T06:14:00.001-05:00

Today I'm going to write a bit more about loglines. Specifically, my process - at least at this point - as I try to come up with a logline for my cozy mystery.

As I mentioned yesterday, all thanks to Authoress and Holly Bodger, there are five elements to the logline: main character, inciting incident, conflict, goal, and consequences.

This all seems pretty straightforward. Yeah. Right.

In working on my logline, I realized as straightforward as this seems, it is often far more complicated.

So, what I did was this . . .

Main Character = name of main character
Inciting Incident = well, the inciting incident, which, for example, was the attack on the victim
Conflict - the suspects would rather their secret remain secret and will do pretty much anything to keep their secret secret
Goal - solve the case (yeah, that was a hard one to figure out - ha)
Consequences - twofold (as in my Little Red Riding Hood example), but, for brevity I'm going to say . . . MC could end up dead

So, then I went about constructing my sentences. Now, I'm not giving you what I wrote, but I have come up with similar sentences, that hopefully show my process:

Inept, amateur sleuth Porky Pig (main character) gets the career-changing opportunity of a lifetime when he's asked to solve (goal) the death (inciting incident) of Foghorn Leghorn.
When Foghorn Leghorn is attacked (inciting incident), his good friend the Chicken Hawk asks amateur sleuth Porky Pig (main character) to solve (goal) the case. The problem: Porky's pretty much inept, and ever since he began investigating the case, dead rabbits have been showing up on his doorstep. He's afraid he might end up as dead (consequences) as the rabbits if he doesn't solve the case soon.
When Foghorn Leghorn is attacked (inciting incident), his good friend the Chicken Hawk asks amateur sleuth Porky Pig (main character) to solve (goal) the case. Porky Pig’s investigation (conflict) begins simply enough, but soon dead rabbits start appearing on his doorstep and he’s afraid he’ll end up just as dead (consequences) if he doesn’t solve the case . . . soon.
When amateur sleuth Porky Pig (main character) begins investigating (inciting incident) the death of a rooster, he doesn’t understand how desperate (conflict) the suspects are to keep their part in the death secret. As the clues add up, and dead rabbits start appearing on his doorstep, he’s afraid he’ll end up just as dead (consequences) as the rabbits if he doesn’t solve (goal) the case . . . soon.

Let me dissect the examples above, in order of appearance:

One - I'm missing conflict and consequences
Two - I'm missing conflict
Three - I have all five elements
Four - ditto

The difference, at least to me, between example three and four is that four - again, my opinion - is a bit more clear. I also took out all names except that of the main character.

So, these are my feeble attempts at example loglines for your reading pleasure. I think the main thing is to include the elements so that you - hopefully - hook potential agents, editors, publishers, readers, friends, lovers, and mortal enemies. Ha!

Loglines

2010-11-04T06:12:00.002-05:00

Loglines, it's all about the loglines - one or two sentences to sell your 70,000 words (or more) of brilliance to . . . everybody: agent, editor, publisher, friends, lovers, and mortal enemies.

Holly Bodger over at Random Notes from Holly Bodger did two recent posts about Loglines: here and here. Authoress over at Miss Snark's First Victim provided the link to the second post here. Go on, check things out. Thanks.

Now, back to the loglines. According to Holly Bodger, there are five elements of the logline as follows:

Main Character
Inciting Incident
Conflict
Goal
Consequence

In her first logline post, Holly provides a description of each element and examples as well. In the second logline post she does a bit of clarification and provides a few more examples.

Since I've been working on my own logline for my cozy mystery, this information has come in handy.

But, being the generous person I can be (shhhh, don't let my sisters know), I'm going to share the knowledge by providing an example of my own by using a well-known fairy tale character: Little Red Riding Hood.

Main Character = Little Red Riding Hood

Inciting Incident = going to grandma's house to deliver a basket of goodies

Conflict = Big Bad Wolf

Goal = reaching grandma's house safely . . . and delivering the basket of goodies

Consequences = twofold: ending up dead or grandma starving to death

So, in the grand tradition of loglines, using the elements provided by Holly Bodger . . .

When Little Red Riding Hood (main character) sets off through the woods (inciting incident) to grandma's house, she encounters (conflict) the Big Bad Wolf. Suddenly, the forest isn't so inviting, and Little Red must use all her cleverness to make it safely (goal) to grandma's house before the wolf eats (consequence) her and grandma starves (consequence) to death.

Okay, I'm winging it here and adding a bit of drama . . . just for funsies. Still, the logline - 2 sentences - contains the five elements outlined by Holly Bodger: main character, inciting incident, conflict, goal, and consequences.

As I work on my own logline, I'm making sure I incorporate all these elements into the logline. So far, so good.

Oh, and just for fun, Authoress is having a logline critique session on her blog. Go over, look at some of the loglines, and see if they have (or don't have) all the necessary elements.

Have fun.

Beta Readers and WiP Update

2010-11-01T09:34:00.004-05:00

So, my beta readers have been, well, beta reading. Woo-hoo.

Initially, they had a short deadline, on the rough draft, because I was going to enter a contest. Well, in the meantime, I decided not to enter the contest.

Why?

Well, my cozy mystery, rough draft, came in at about 65,000 words. The word count for cozy mysteries is between 60,000 and 70,000 words. Yep, I was right there in the middle and ended up with about 286 pages.

Fine! Dandy!

Oh, wait, the contest only wants 220 pages which meant I would have to eliminate 60 pages.

Well, when I mentioned this to my beta readers there was a collective: Noooooooooo!

Well, talk about a consensus on that subject.

Okay, I'd pretty much decided the same thing, but I did pose the question just to be on the safe side.

Yes, as I go through the edit process, I'll eliminate pages. I just don't see where I can eliminate 60 pages. In fact, one of my readers made the following comment: every page is pertinent and fun!

So, the idea of entering the contest, well, bit the dust. I really wanted to enter the contest.

But . . . to do so would have meant eliminating far too many pages that, at least in my opinion, would hurt the integrity of the novel.

So, my focus now is creating the best manuscript possible so I can query after the first of the year. I've written the query - needs work, I'll be emailing Elana at some point - and plan on working on the synopsis as well over the course of the next couple of months.

Lastly - my beta readers rock. They don't always agree with each other, and sometimes they do:

one was distracted by a subplot, while another one loved the subplot.
three agreed that I needed to begin on Page 8, and one said that my initial beginning was fine.
they all wanted more!

WOO-HOO!

On that note, done for blogging . . . at least for today. Ha!

Distance

2010-10-27T08:13:00.002-05:00

How much distance do you put between yourself and your writing to create objectivity?

For me, write rough draft, set it aside for 2 - 3 weeks, then begin edit phase. Complete first edit phase, set aside for 2 - 3 weeks, then begin next edit phase. And so on . . .

I mentioned to a friend of mine, who is also a beta reader, about needing to create the necessary distance. What I said, well, wrote, since it was in an email, was this . . .

As much as I love writing, as much as I believe in what I write, I always fear that I cannot create the necessary distance between myself and my writing to look at it objectively, i.e., with the eyes of a reader and not the eyes of the writer/creator.

The response I received is . . .

And Scott, honestly, don't be so critical of yourself. You have such a talent in your writings. When you write....I am literally there. I can visualize the characters, feel the mood, and become enthralled. Not many have this talent. And don't distant yourself from the writing....that again is what makes it very very special and wonderful!!

Now, stop thinking: oh, it's a friend, she has to be nice. You don't know my Suzi. This is the woman who told me one day: You look like crap!!! Yes, she did! She's brutally honest with me, and with everybody . . . which is one of the things I love about her. She's not going to hold back, she's not going to coddle me, she's going to tell me a) if I look bad, b) if my writing sucks, and c) what the hell were you thinking wearing that outfit.

Yes, I know, writers shouldn't let friends beta read because friends - allegedly - can't be objective enough. I beg to differ. If a friend can tell me I look like crap, said friend can be honest about my writing.

Anyhow, back to this distance thing. What do you think of her statement - and don't distant yourself from the writing . . . that again is what makes it very very special and wonderful!!?

Are we creating too much distance between ourselves and our writing in the editing process? Is the whole distance thing just a big myth used to create havoc in aspiring writers lives? Do we, as writers, create too much distance in the different phases of writing, and is this a good or bad thing?

I don't know. I always fear I'm too much in love with my writing to be objective. If I'm too much in love with my writing, can I edit objectively? If I create too much distance, do I somehow, during the editing phase, edit out too much and somehow diminish the work? Is there a fine balance between distance and objectivity that we, as writers, as humans, can somehow find so that we don't lose what makes our writing very very special and wonderful!!?

S

Flawed Characters

2010-10-26T06:17:00.000-05:00

What issues do your characters have?

Oh, I'm not talking about the fact that Character A made the fashion faux pas of wearing white socks with dress pants and shoes - the horrors. I'm talking about the issues that make your characters a) more human and b) relateable.

Lynn Price over at Behler Blog did a great post about Character development - Ken and Barbive vs. The Seven Deadly Sins. Go check it out!!

The post talks about the importance of character development. Go on - check it out!

Now that you've checked it out . . .

. . . let me tell you a bit about my characters: they're flawed! Yup, flawed. They're far from perfect.

My characters . . .

. . . have receding hairlines. Yup!
. . . have weight issues.
. . . have money issues.
. . . have other issues.

I have a character who, just upon seeing a cookie, has fat cells that go into a multiplying frenzy similar to the feeding frenzy of piranhas when a stray cow happens to fall into their path!

My characters are far from perfect.

Okay, I've had a perfect character . . . or twelve, make an appearance in my writing. It happens. Perfect hair. Perfect teeth. Perfect life. Perfect relationship. Blah, blah, blah.

Personally, I don't want to read about perfect people who have their lives perfectly together.

I have bad hair days. Boy, do I have some bad hair days.

My characters have bad hair days as well. My characters step in cat vomit that squishes up between their toes and make them curse their cat. Yes, that character is based more than a bit on my real life. Dang cat, throwing up just where I'll step on it in the dark. She's sneaky, my Squeaky! Ha!

Nobody, not nobody, has a perfect life, and the characters we create shouldn't - aside from the imperfection of the main conflict of the story - have a perfect life either.

What fun is perfection?

What fun is having an unrelateable character?

You know what I love about the character Stephanie Plum - created by the amazing Janet Evanovich? She can barely make ends meet and often, the only thing in her refrigerator is peanut butter, bread, and olives so she can make herself a peanut butter and olive sandwich. Eeeew! She also, more days than not, has bad hair days. Woo-hoo for bad hair days. She struggles to make ends meet, she has a dysfunctional family, and . . . I can relate to the character.

I want to relate to the characters I read about . . . on some level.

So, what issues do your characters have? Are they too perfect? Do they suffer from the Barbie and Ken Syndrome? If so, perhaps you need to add some flaws to your characters.

Just saying . . .

Still Here

2010-10-21T07:23:00.002-05:00

Sorry, been absent for a bit, had some things going on.

I've started the initial revision phase - typos, incomplete sentences, etc. My betas deadline is this weekend, so I should have input from all of them and can delve into the depths of despair! Ha! Kidding.

I have the most recent issues of Writers Digest and The Writer, so next week I'll post some things on the blog from the magazines. Those are two great magazines with great info. If you don't subscribe, you should. Just saying . . .

S

Read Through - FINISHED

2010-10-16T06:37:00.001-05:00

So, I finished my read through of the rough draft of my cozy! Woo-hoo!

Boy, are there some typos out there. Okay, there are a lot of typos. It's all part of the writing process.

I've written . . .

her for here
here for her
down for done
Jospeh for Joseph - and a few other misspellings as well. What the heck???
I have a few incomplete sentences or sentences that just don't make sense.
There are a few other issues as well - things to fix, time spans, etc.

All in all, I'm pretty impressed at how little needs to change . . . at least at this point in the game. Yeah, there's a chapter I want to delete and incorporate a small portion of said chapter into another chapter. There's a sentence here or there that needs to come out as well.

I didn't find any major plot holes. Okay, I found a few small ones - easy to fix. I have my clues laid out, one or two more to add, but . . .

Overall, the revision process - knock on wood - shouldn't take that long.

I still have to hear back from my beta readers, but I plan on starting on fixing the typos and other issues this weekend. My instructions to my beta readers were quite simple: I'm looking for flow issues, as in does it flow easily, are there plot wholes, and are there moments that make you go huh!!!?

Any of those issues can be fixed at a later date, well, not too much later, since I'm on a deadline.

S

100 Pages and . . . Stuff

2010-10-15T07:04:00.002-05:00

So, I've been doing the read through of the rough draft that's out to beta readers because I want to submit this manuscript to a contest.

I have 100 pages left to read. This has been an interesting experience. First, I'm reading the rough in .pdf format so I can't change things as I find them. If I was reading the document in Word, then I'd be changing things here/there/everywhere and not getting the essence of whether the story flows or not.

Yeah, I'm noticing mistakes. Mistakes happen. Such is life.

I also know, when I sit down for the actual revision stage, I'll find those mistakes.

I have printed off a few different pages where I needed to make notes. A few, i.e., less than 10. I think that's pretty good.

I also think, in the future, I'll always do my read through this way since I'm less tempted to start changing things because I really can't change things in PDF format.

Project Runway - what can we learn from Project Runway?

BE TRUE TO OURSELVES!

Last night, one of the designers didn't go with her instinct she, as she put it, lost herself somewhere. She wasn't listening to her inner voice.

We need to listen to our inner voice. We need to believe in ourselves. If we don't, then like this person on PR last night, we'll come very close to losing the competition.

We screw up our lives when we don't listen to our instinct, when we pay attention to what other people our saying/doing, versus what we know we should be doing.

Case in point: one designer last night told another designer that his/her outfit looked like it was a madame (i.e., street walker) outfit. The designer in question really began to doubt his vision and couldn't get the image of a hooker dress out of his mind. In the end, he stuck with his gut and didn't change things.

Now, back to the person who said the dress looked, basically, like a hooker dress: personally, I think said designer did it on purpose because it's all about the competition. Later on in the episode, said designer was like "oh, maybe I shouldn't have said anything" . . . Yeah, ya think?

Which, brings me to the second lesson from PR: sometimes people aren't going to like our work, they're going to criticize our work and we, as is part of human nature, are going to think "OMG, I just wrote the biggest piece of crap ever!" Then, hopefully, we're going to take a step back, realize that everybody has their own opinion, everything is subjective, and that if we believe in our work, that's enough.

So, when a critique comes back, look at it both subjectively and objectively. Examine it, study it, analyze it, and really think about what the person is saying before you go off willy-nilly and change everything!

Have a great weekend.

S

WiP Wednesday - October 13, 2010

2010-10-13T08:20:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm done! Woo-hoo! I finished the rough draft of Book II on Monday! Yeah!!

At this point . . . I'm in downtime mode. No writing. I'm reading a book. Yes, just reading. No writing. Did I mention no writing?

I'm on a writing break . . .

Okay, it's a very brief break. I don't want to immerse myself in any other writing project because I'm about to immerse myself in revision mode on a project I'm thinking of submitting to a contest.

I have a very narrow window of time to get the edits complete. The rough of that project is out to beta readers. Their deadline to finish is fast approaching . . . like this coming Saturday.

So, once I hear back their initial thoughts/impressions/whatnot, I'll delve into edit mode and whip the manuscript into fighting shape to submit to the contest.

Then . . . I'm not quite sure what I'll do. Will I finish up another project I set aside so I can finish Book II? Will I edit other rough drafts? Will I write something new? Will I work on that query I've needed to work on for-like-ev-uh?? Who knows? Only the shadow knows . . . Ha!

Seriously, I don't have a clue. I just know, here and now, I'm gearing my mind toward the edit phase. I sent off for the guidelines - haven't heard back yet, but should soon - they do have my SASE envelope, and I'm not going to be happy if I don't hear back. I'm just saying . . .

On that note . . . what are you up to? Where are you, dear readers, on your current projects?

S

First Chapters

2010-10-11T12:06:00.002-05:00

Nathan Bransford had a great post about first chapters.

My problem: in what I'm reading, I'm not seeing this phenomenal first chapters. I'm seeing so-so chapters that give me an intro, but nothing standout dynamic.

Yes, I know, we're all supposed to be writing these phenomenal first chapters. It's one of those rules.

Well, if we're all supposed to be doing this, then why am I reading more and more first chapters that aren't phenomenal. Oh, they're good, some are bad, but . . . I keep reading.

Agent A might discard a potential book based on a so-so first chapter. Agent B might snap up the book. The thing is . . . it's all subjective.

None of us are psychic. If we were, we'd know which agent to query so we become the next hot author.

None of us can know whether we've written a phenomenal first chapter or a so-so first chapter. We might think we know, but, in the end, it comes down to the subjectivity of an intern and/or agent and whether they think we've written a phenomenal first chapter or a so-so first chapter.

So, in the end, we have to write the best first chapter, and subsequent chapters, that we can write and understand that, to some, those first chapters might not be phenomenal. To others, those first chapters might be literary gold.

S

WiP Wednesday - October 7, 2010 and . . . things!

2010-10-06T06:26:00.003-05:00

First - WiP Wednesday: I'm at the Ta-Da Moment of Book II, i.e., the Climax. Woo-hoo. Next is Falling Action and then the Denouement. As I was working on the Climax scene - confession, gun, life threatening moment - I suddenly shifted gears. This was something I had considered, very briefly, earlier in the novel, and somehow the idea stayed with me and appeared, almost on it's own, while working on a chapter Monday evening.

As I was writing the chapter, I had a different scenario in mind for the end of the chapter. I'm typing away and suddenly - BAM - I end the chapter a bit differently. Now, I have to pick up from that point and begin the falling action.

Check out this prior post about The Basics as well as the links in that post. Good stuff.

Now, on to other things . . .

Here's my question: when setting fiction in a real town, do you use real television stations and newspapers, or create fake ones?

To me, if I set something in New York City, I'd probably, at some point, have a character reference The New York Times. If I set something in Nashville, I'd have them reference the local paper The Tennessean and/or an actual television affiliate like Channel 2 - WKRN. It's just me.

Okay, the reason for my question: reading a book, set in Nashville, and the author created a fictional newspaper. I'm just wondering . . . why?

How about you? Would you create your own newspaper or use an actual one? I'm just confused.

Is it easier to make up newspapers and/or television stations? Does it give a novel a more realistic feel to reference actual realities of the setting? I mean, yeah, most people aren't going to know there isn't a newspaper called The Nashville Hound Dog (no, that's not what the author in question used in their book). Still, I like, especially when reading about cities I've lived in or visited, seeing the, well, realism.

Case in point - I just read a book set in Salem, MA. I go there every year for a work conference. I knew the streets and landmarks the author mentioned in the novel. I could, well, relate.

So, I'm thinking - yes, I know, a dangerous thing for me to do - that by inserting actualities (i.e., real newspapers, landmarks, etc.) into my writing I'm creating a bit of realness.

How about you? Thoughts?

S

One Clue

2010-10-05T06:04:00.002-05:00

So, I'm reading a cozy (mystery) this past weekend and I'm taking notes. Yes, you read that correctly: I'm taking notes.

As the amateur sleuth compiled her lists of suspects, I compiled my list of suspects. As the amateur sleuth crossed names off of her list, I crossed names off of my list.

Holy Oleo, Batman, we've crossed off every name on the list . . . and still haven't found our murderer!

Yes, every single name gone from the list and the murder was still at large.

Never fear, Polly Purebred, Underdog is here!

There was one clue only to the alleged identity of the killer.

One Clue!

Yes, this confused me just a bit. You see, the author gave a list of names in the beginning of the book - first/last, you know the drill. Then, slowly, the last names disappeared.

Now, I'm lucky to remember my own first/last name (on a good day) let alone a list of 10 or so suspects! Yes, 10!

So, when the one clue appeared, I took careful note. I traversed my memory trying to match up the one clue (an email address, btw) with the names of the alleged suspects who - did I mention this - had all been crossed off the list already.

Then, I thought - gee, I bet the author is being really clever and the I need to decipher the meaning of the email address. Then, I thought - oh, wait, the author used these specific initials multiple times already . . . and my thought process continued as I kept reading.

The end result: I didn't have a clue who the murderer was until the big reveal.

Not fun, not fun at all. This was no fair game I was set to play. How in the heck can I solve a mystery with only one clue? How in the heck, with the amateur sleuth's ah-ha moment shrouded in mystery - she knew more than she (or the author) told - could I solve the crime?

I couldn't.

Yes, again . . . this was no fair game! The clue was obscure and there were multiple possibilities for the email address in question. The last name was only briefly mentioned - possibly twice - at the very beginning of the book. So . . .

. . . as I examine my own cozy, I realize I'm pretty safe because I clearly identify the suspects, and provide their motives, early on in the manuscript. There is no doubt who the suspects are, and it is only through the clever - okay inept with a bit of luck - work of my detectives that both they, and the reader begin to suspect the truth.

There isn't a vague clue about a person who - if I remember correctly - wasn't ever on the suspect list in the first place.

So, this author - while writing a great book, and I'll read more of her stuff - left this reader feeling a bit, well, cheated.

You see, according to some things I've read, the reader is supposed to learn the clues along with the amateur sleuth. The killer shouldn't be a total surprise. There should be, at some point fairly early within a novel, a hint of the killer's identity.

This didn't happen.

Still, reading this particular cozy was an enlightening experience and has helped me know what is needed, and not needed, as I immerse myself in the revision process.

Random Things

2010-10-04T07:33:00.002-05:00

Book II - in the homestretch. Lead in for the BIG CLIMAX was written this weekend. This week I'll write the climax chapter, and then wrap things up. I should end up around 50K words. Woo-hoo.

Book I - revisions should start this weekend. Well, maybe not until the following weekend since I'm waiting for input from beta readers before I dig too deep into revisions.

Authenticity - okay, I live in the Nashville area. No big secret. So, I know a bit about the city, local haunts and dives . . . how people talk. Yeah, just a few minor things. Everybody in the south doesn't constantly say y'all. There are educated people in the south. We also don't always say you'uns (this is basically y'all but in a different context) or fixin' (as in I'm fixin' to go to the bar with my friends) and not fixings (which is the side dishes at dinner). I've also rarely heard people say Well, he's itchin' like a hounddog with fleas.

Sorry, those are stereotypes more fit for television than real life . . . not that some people might say those things.

My point - still in Authenticity for those trying to keep up with my randomness (ha): if writing about the south, don't play into stereotypes. Learn a bit about the location, especially if you're not a native, and make it true to the area, rather than true to your perception of the area. You never know, someone who lives in Nashville might read your book set in Nashville and might get a bit ticked at the dumbing down portrayal.

Yes, I'm reading a book set in Nashville that is so stereotypical it's not even funny. The writer is from New York. I don't have a clue whether the writer has ever been to Nashville. At this point, four chapters in, nothing is coming across as authentic and . . . I've lived here 18 years.

Now, in the writer's defense - the main character is a transplant, so some of the non-authentic stuff could - in an odd way - make sense. Then again, maybe not.

I set the majority of my stories in Nashville for a reason: I know the area, the backroads, the slang, the places people hang out, the subdivisions, where the wealthy live, and some historical info as well. If in doubt, I get in my car and drive around to make sure I'm being authentic.

To me, to do otherwise is, well, just wrong.

Yes, I probably shouldn't bash - not that I'm technically bashing - another writer's work. The writing is good. I like the book. I'm just sort of pulled out of the reading by the less than authentic vibe that keeps coming across time and again.

I think, in the end, my goal as a writer is to keep my readers immersed in my writing. I don't want moments that make them stop reading, shake their heads, and go WTH?? I want uninterrupted reading for my readers . . . and my self.

So, if writing about an unfamiliar location (i.e., you're from Nashville trying to write about Chicago and have never been), do some research, take a trip, explore the town, listen to how people talk, look at how people dress - the locals, not the tourists wearing their cowboy boots (little known fact: more tourists than actual residents wear cowboy boots in Nashville) - and so on and so on. Don't play into stereotypes that aren't the norm. Yeah, we talk a bit funny in the south . . . but have you ever been to New England! Ha! Oh, I have and have friends in New England.

S

Doing It Right

2010-10-01T09:26:00.002-05:00

How much of writing is instinct versus knowledge? How much is a pool of knowledge in our subconscious that is just waiting for our brain cells to synapse in the right direction and pull forth from the pool of hidden knowledge within our brains?

No, haven't been drinking . . .yet! It is Friday, and margaritas are in my future this evening.

As any reader of this blog knows, I recently wrote a cozy mystery. I pretty much did it on instinct, that is . . . after writing the manuscript, I went back and researched cozies and found that - somehow - I had used most of the elements for cozies in the current project. Woo-hoo!

Now, my question: how much was instinctive, and/or pulled form that pool of knowledge slumbering in my subconscious?

I don't have a clue. Yeah, I read Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Goodman. I devour Mary Higgins Clark's books. Her books, for the most part, are cozies. I also absolutely love the Midsomer Murder series (television, only read a few of the books) that used to air on the Biography Channel and were always followed by the Peroit Mysteries. So, knowledge of cozies, while not in the forefront of my brain, was in my brain.

Somehow, without trying, without thinking, I was able to write a cozy, incorporate the necessary elements, and - very freaky - end up in the mid-range of the genre word count. That, dear readers, freaked me out.

So, in writing the manuscript, I would veer off the case and insert bits and pieces of life for the main characters. They might be thinking about the case, but life itself still existed beyond the case. I wasn't totally positive whether this was the right thing to do.

Well, yesterday, at Borders, I bought a cozy mystery and immersed myself in the pages of the book. You know what? My little forays into the lives of the main characters is pretty standard.

You know what? I was doing it right.

So, this long, rambling post is really about doing it right . . . even if we don't know we're doing it right. Every chapter, every sentence, every word doesn't have to involve the forward arcing plot. Yes, plot is important, the story must move forward, but we - or rather, me, I, whatever - must also realize that our characters have lives outside of the plot, or the mystery in this case. Just because Character A is investigating a murder doesn't mean that he doesn't have a tension filled dinner with his mother or can't realize he's attracted to another character or . . . whatever.

So, this long rambling post, beyond being about doing it right, is about going with your instinct.

On that note . . . have a great weekend. Back to reading.

S

WiP Wednesday - September 29, 2010

2010-09-29T07:30:00.002-05:00

48 Degrees this morning! Woo-hoo! This week, well, since last Friday, has been absolutely amazing with autumn temps. I spent a good part of the weekend outside just soaking up the autumnal weather. I love the early Autumn/Spring when the temps are just - baby bear - right!

On the writing front . . . I'm still plugging away at Book II. I'm in the home stretch, standing on third base, just waiting to run for home once the current batter knocks the ball out of the ball park. Woo-hoo.

I'm about to hit the big climax scene. I've typed up some notes regarding that scene. Now, I just have to do a few lead up chapters, do that chapter, the follow up chapters, and then . . . The End!

Once this project is done, I'll immerse myself in the revision phase of Book I. I have the rough of Book I out to two beta readers right now. Normally, I don't do this. Normally, I wait until, like, the fourth or fifth stage of revision. The reason: there's a contest I'd like to enter, which means I have to polish up this cozy a bit quicker than normal. I can't submit a rough draft, but, with the amount of time I have until deadline I should be able to do two revision phases and then . . . off it goes.

Why? Well, why not? Why not take this little book that came out of nowhere, that poured forth from my brain in less than two weeks, that hit right in between the required word counts for cozy mysteries, and - cue Abba - take a chance???

We only live once in this life. We can be passive or active. I choose active, in this moment, if not always in other moments. I choose to take a chance with a first draft, in a contest, because . . . well, just because. So what if it doesn't win? It might not. It might.

Things happen when they're meant to happen and not when I want them to happen.

Maybe, just maybe - the margarita glass half-full - everything has fallen into place so far for me to enter this contest, this year. Ha!

S

BTW - I responded to comments on yesterday's post this morning. Yeah, a bit behind! Sorry.

Write What You Read

2010-09-28T06:35:00.003-05:00

"The most important thing is you can't write what you wouldn't read for pleasure. It's a mistake to analyze the market thinking you can write whatever is hot. You can't say you're going to write romance when you don't even like it. You need to write what you would read if you expect anybody else to read it." ~ Nora Roberts

The above quote comes from the Writer's Digest Facebook page. If you haven't LIKED the page, you may want to do so. Tons of useful information.

And, as normal, an established writer says it like it is!! Woo-hoo!

It's a mistake to analyze the market thinking you can write whatever is hot.

Amen, Sistah!!

As an aspiring writer, I found the best joy and freedom with writing, when writing what I want to write . . . not what I think is the current trend to write. It is the moments when I quit thinking about trends and audience (yes, audience) that I feel I do my best writing . . . because I'm writing solely for me.

Yes, at some point, I have to consider a broader audience. Every writer must do that at some point.

The fact is, trendy today is not trendy tomorrow and, to the best of my knowledge . . . writing a fabulous novel, query, synopsis, agent research, finding an agent, editor, publisher, revisions out the ying-yang just doesn't happen in a day.

So, even if I write the best been-there-done-that-vampire-novel-EV-UH . . . by the time I go through all the stages of the writing process . . . vampires have been eradicated from the literary world, only to be replaced by a kid who loves pickles. Yeah, go figure.

You need to write what you would read if you expect anybody else to read it.

Amen, sistah!

I don't read the current trend of vampire books. Okay, I read Anne Rice back in the day. I loved the first few books in the Lestat series. I also loved the one and only book in her mummy series. Please, Anne, write another one! Please???

The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned is an excellent book, btw! Loved, loved, loved the book! I always hoped she would write another book. She never did. Perhaps now that she's come out of her religious phase, she'll get back to writing another book about Ramses the Damned!

But, I digress . . . hey, it happens.

I write what I want to read, and, in some part, what I've been reading. I also write, to a greater extent, about what I know.

In the end, every writer will write what they write. Every writer must - should - follow their heart and instinct with their writing.

Best of luck to all . . .

S

Revision Phase

2010-09-27T12:31:00.002-05:00

I'm getting ready to delve into the revision phase of the cozy mystery I wrote a month or so back. You know, the one I wrote in a bit under two weeks. Yeah, that one.

I'm still working on Book II - slowly, but surely. I have about 1/4 more to go before I'm done.

Still, my brain has begun to drift toward revisions of the first book (of hopefully many - ha). I did a read through of the first few chapters the other day. I already know that one chapter is going to disappear . . . for the most part.

The chapter in question is mainly backstory . . . which, in some cases is needed. It is needed in this case, but with less length . . . and all that can easily fit into the next chapter. Woo-hoo!

On a side note . . .

The read through . . .

My main problem with the read through is that I have a tendency to want to fix things. It's an irritating, borderline OCD, tendency. A read through should include reading only, no editing . . . at least in my opinion.

I finally solved my - somewhat - OCD tendency to edit: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Yes, .pdf format is how I do my read throughs. I might come across a scene to edit/delete/whatever. The Adobe format doesn't - well, not the free version anyway - allow me to edit the document. This is a good thing.

So, in the first few chapters of the read through I came across "here" instead of "her". I came across a paragraph I pretty much knew I wanted to delete.

Both things will still exist when I begin the editing phase.

As easy - obsessive, perhaps - as it is to edit on demand (Ha!), I think, for me, it's better to not have the edit option available. Sometimes, I just need to read and not edit. If I'm always stopping to change "here" to "her" . . . or whatever, than I'm not getting a sense of the flow of the novel.

Yes, my mind reacts to what is wrong within the novel, but . . . I can keep reading with only a brief pause, rather than a long pause to fix what I find that I think is wrong!

And, if worse comes to worse, there is the bookmark option which allows me to mark a specific page for later reference.

How about you? How do you handle your read through? Do you have a tendency to edit as you go? Do you hold a red pen in hand? Do you read through totally, from beginning to end, with out an edit at all? How do you turn off your inner editor?

S

The Influence of Writing

2010-09-21T07:16:00.003-05:00

So, last week, or the week before, I was reading a blog. The blogger was ranting about this, that, and that and this, and a whole lot of other stuff. Fine. Dandy. Not a problem. Then, the blogger stated that he/she was the first person to use a particular writing technique . . . or something to that effect.

Seriously?

I think not.

In fact, I'd used something similar more than once.

OMG . . . I'm psychically plagiarizing!

No. I'm. Not.

The whole post started my brain cells synapsing. In fact, they were doing the synapsy-dance thing.

The end result: the influence of writing.

I firmly believe that every single thing I read . . . influences my writing AND eventually, permeates my writing to a certain extent.

We all know there are no new ideas. There are only ideas used over and over and over and over and over again . . . with a unique twist we, as writers, can call our own.

We should also know that what we read influences our writing in some way, shape, or form. It happens.

So, if someone writes a story about dragons that communicate telepathically with humans . . . well, they've been influenced, most likely, by Anne McCaffrey (Dragonriders of Pern - LOVE IT!) or some other story they've read that used a similar idea.

Tolkien set the stage for Elves. Seriously, people, he did. My image of Elves is firmly set in Middle Earth. When I write about Elves . . . they're influenced by Tolkien's imagery. I can't help it. I forever see Elves as tall, somewhat ethereal, individuals. I don't see them as small, pixie like beings . . . and I don't write about them in that way.

Tolkien influenced my concept of Elves. It happens.

The whole point is . . . while I'd love to take sole credit for something, in reality, I really can't when it comes to writing. I can take credit for a great concept and a great story. I can't take credit for comparing a relationship to a flower. Many, many writers have been there, done that, and have multiple t-shirts to prove it. It's been done before.

I can't take credit for telepathic dragons. I might use them in some fantasy novel in the future, or a story idea that's outlined but hasn't gone anywhere, but I can't claim credit for the original concept or say I'm the first to have telepathic dragons in a story.

My imagery of dragons was firmly established by the brilliance of Anne McCaffrey . . . just as my imagery of Elves was firmly established by Tolkien. Oh, and he established my imagery of dwarves as well.

In the end, I can take the influence of everything I read, and acknowledge that influence in what I write. I don't live in a vacuum. I don't NOT read books. I devour books. An author's irreverent and quirky writing style might inspire me to try something similar. An author's long, narrative descriptive passages might inspire me to try the same thing. Then again, it might not. If my Elves are tall and my Dragons telepathic, I can acknowledge, to myself and others, that the writings of Tolkien and McCaffrey influenced my Elves and Dragons. If I don't acknowledge the influence of all that I have read, and all that I will read, am I not lying to myself?

Hmmm . . .

The Perils of Familiarity

2010-09-20T07:30:00.004-05:00

There are ups and downs to the writing process. Sometimes the words flow and other times they don't. Sometimes a brilliant ideas remains brilliant and other times, well, the brilliance fades and the idea gets placed in a folder to collect dust. Yes, it happens.

There are perils to writing as well. The peril I'm going to discuss today is the peril of familiarity.

What is this dreaded peril? Well, in simple terms, it happens when a writer becomes so familiar with their characters that, well, every character they create is pretty much the same.

There's one series of books, well, two series, same characters, very well written. I've read the series many, many, many times. The author had great success with this particular series, so-so success with another series, and then, many years later wrote a stand-alone, single volume book.

Well, enter the perils of familiarity. The characters in this book - perhaps intentional, perhaps not - were carbon copies of the characters, down to personality traits, of the oh-so familiar characters I knew and loved from the author's previous works. In fact, the only difference was the names. Yes, the characters were that familiar.

Now, on to a different author that I love. She makes me laugh out loud every time I read one of her books. Heck, one time, I had to quit reading because I was laughing so hard. I walked the dogs, still laughing btw, and couldn't pick up the book for almost twenty minutes because the one scene was so ingrained in my mind. Great writing.

So, anyhow, new book by this author, good concept and characters, loving the book, even though there is a sense of familiarity about one of the characters. There's enough difference, however, to make the sense vague . . . unlike my previous example. Then, wham, bam, this vaguely familiar character happens to drive the exact same vehicle as a character in another series by this same author. Screeeeeeeeeecccchhh! Apply the brakes. WTH??? Yes, pulled right out of this great story by the perils of familiarity.

I mean, couldn't this similar to another character have driven a different type of vehicle? Couldn't the explanation for where the vehicles came from have been a bit different than used in the other books by this author? Couldn't . . .

Yes, more than one similarity (i.e., familiarity).

So, all of this got me to thinking about my own writing and whether I too might suffer from the perils of familiarity.

Why, after careful inspection, yes I do . . . to a certain, but hopefully not jarring, extent. At some point, in most projects, the characters end up drinking margaritas. At some point, the individual characters might drink Jack Daniels and Coke, or Crown and Coke, or Scotch and Water, or . . . some other type drink that my real, not fictional (ha), friends drink.

This is okay.

The fact that all the characters in each different project drive the same vehicle, at least in my opinion, isn't okay.

The fact that every character I write is exactly the same except for a change in name, at least in my opinion, isn't okay.

Now, back to the book I just finished reading. Here's my hope: the author, in book II or III or whatever, will link the vehicles to the character in her other series. Yes, wham, bam, right out there for every one to see the author will insert a sentence that says "Yeah, we get the vehicles from this dude in Chicago who runs a . . . " This, dear readers, would be neat, and a great tie in to the other series, and make the perils of familiarity not so jarring.

How about you, do you suffer from the perils of familiarity? Is there a way for this not to happen? Is it okay that this happens? Thoughts, comments???

S

Project Runway

2010-09-17T07:34:00.002-05:00

This post is for Tess!!!

This post doesn't have much, if anything to do with writing! Fair warning!

This post probably contains spoilers about last night's Project Runway episode. If you haven't watched, don't read. I'm just saying . . .

Okay, Tessinator, here I go . . .

Can someone run over Gretchen with a steamroller? Push her off a high building? Lock her in a closet? My nerves can't take much more of her! Ha!

So, last night, in the current incarnation of Project Runway (i.e., Big Brother meets Project Runway) the claws, as usual were out again! Why? Well, one designer summed it up the best I think too many of the designers have an elitist attitude and think they're way better than everybody else! Ya think? Yes, that designer nailed it on the head.

As I've mentioned with writing, distance is required for objectivity. Yes, we, as writers, must defend our work. Yes, sometimes, we as writers write, well, crap!! Yes, crap! Designers, sometimes, especially on a reality show, sometimes design, well, crap!!

Last night was no different than any other week. The designers talked bad about each other behind their backs and then were all smooches when they saw each other face to face. The worst of the worst is Miss Sickly Sweet She Makes Me Want to Puke Gretchen. In her one on one with the camera she doesn't have a nice thing to say about any body, but put her in a room with a bunch of people and the saccharine pours out of her like water at Niagara Falls. Ha!

The winner - stop reading - last night, oh, wait, did anyone see Mondo's personal outfit? OMG! I couldn't stop laughing. Okay, I was laughing because I could picture a friend of mine wearing that outfit on Halloween . . . or just a night out at the bar. I'm just saying . . .

Anyhow, Mondo won with a neat outfit that, at first, I thought a clown had puked up the skirt. But, with the other pieces, everything worked and, for the first time ev-uh, Mondo was the big winner.

Poison Ivy redeemed herself from last week and proved she's more than just a seamstress, though, she made a bit of a goof which cost her the win. So sad . . .

Did I mention Gretchen was pissed that she wasn't in the Top Three? Oh, the look on her face . . . priceless.

Andy made an outfit that, well, Michael Kors summed it up best . . . it looks like MC Hammer met Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies! Yes, it was that bad, though Andy loved his look . . . which he should!

The loser . . . Michael D. I'm gonna miss that man. He added humor to the show . . . which'll be sadly lacking the rest of the season. I really thought Valerie was going home. As Nina said about Valerie . . . she bores me. I thought that was the final nail in her coffin. I was wrong! Go figure.

And that, dear readers . . . and Tess, is the sum total of my recap of Project Runway. Here's hoping Gretchen goes home soon. I haven't disliked a contestant this much on PR since Wendy Pepper from Season 1!

S

WiP Wednesday - Sept 15, 2010

2010-09-15T07:07:00.002-05:00

Okay, it's the middle of freaking September already!

Sorry, about that, this whole time is flying way too fast is really getting to me.

Works in Progress Update:

Book II Rough Draft - Cozy Mystery - just over the 1/2 way point of the rough draft. Words are flowing and alibis are being dissected!
Fantasy Project Rough Draft - not working on this as much because of a crazy hectic weekend last weekend. Still, progress is being made. The exposition (i.e., into) has been completed and the rising action has begun. Not bad, not bad at all.

Blogging! Well, I've been a bit absent from actual blogging, but I am out there reading the blogs and leaving some comments. I just haven't had much to say lately. Yeah, I know, go figure. I'm sure this is only a temporary thing on my part as I'm more immersed in my personal writing than my blogging, which does count as writing . . . btw!

So, never fear, Polly Purebred, Underdog is . . . well, on a sabbatical, so you'll just have to deal with those pesky villains all by yourself. Ha! Kidding!

WiP Wednesday - Sept 8, 2010

2010-09-08T07:17:00.002-05:00

First - where in the heck did summer go? Seriously? Heck, where is the year going? Why is it racing away so fast?

Second - spent the past weekend in Chicago eating, drinking, and walking way too much. Had a fantastic time with friends and family. Ate the best cinnamon roll ever, and some excellent deep dish pizza. Riding the train . . . oh, the inspiration to be found riding the "L" in Chicago. You outta try it some time. At one point, had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud at the one conversation. Then, there was the woman with the - at least - six inch stilettos riding the train. You should have seen her try to stand up and maintain her balance. Oy!

Third - still plugging away at the two projects as I maintain distance from the project that I need to edit. Just a bit more time.

Speaking of distance . . .

I love Project Runway. Okay, not so much this season because it's become Big Brother Meets Project Runway. Not pretty, not pretty at all. Too much drama. I liked the show better when it was more about the designs then drama.

Anyhow, last week's episode reminded me that as writers, we are some times way too close to our work. We can't see the flaws because of the closeness . . . which is why we need distance between the different stages of the writing process from the beginning to the i'm ready to query.

Now, on Project Runway last week, five or so designers who didn't make it into the top three, were sitting back discussing the six designers that, together, were in the top and bottom three. There's one designer that they DESPISE. They are ripping this designer and his design to shreds. "Blah, blah, blah!" Now, at the same time, the judges are praising this designer. PRAISING! In fact, said designer is the winner.

Said Despised Designer comes back to the lounge area, announces his win, and nobody congratulates him. NOBODY!

Each of the designers in the room thought their design was the best design ev-uh! In fact, one of the designers said "I just don't know what the judges are thinking". Well, when she's in the top three, the judges are doing their job. When she isn't, the judges don't know what they're thinking.

UH-HUH!!!

So, this episode brought home to me, that distance is needed between ourselves and our work so that we can look at our work objectively. If there is not enough distance, if we do not create the necessary distance, than objectivity of our work doesn't exist.

Now, back to Project Runway and the petty designers that cannot congratulate someone on a win. I'm sorry, but even if I despise a person, don't admire them, or whatever, if said person does an excellent job, I'm going to congratulate said person. I don't like one of the designer's on the show - her attitude sucks, she's arrogant and manipulative - but she makes good clothes. I admit, she makes good clothes. I might not like her as a person, but, as a designer . . . she's good.

On that note . . .

S

Friday Update

2010-09-03T07:52:00.003-05:00

So, this week has been about not one, but two project: Book II in my cozy series and the fleshing out of a fantasy idea.

Normally, I'm a one project at a time kinda guy! Focus! Focus! Focus! It's how I work.

Okay, there was that point earlier this year when I was working on three projects at once, but only because I couldn't decide which I wanted to work on the most, and once I figured that out, I set the other two projects aside! Whew!

So, I've been alternating, since this past Sunday, between Book II and New Idea.

For the New Idea, I just wanted to get down the basics: premise and main characters. I did that! Woo-hoo!

Then, for whatever reason, I began to write more and more. I'm 6,000 words into the project. I'm at the 20,000 point on Book II.

I'm also probably at the point where I'll set the New Idea aside . . . well, after whatever I complete today. Sometimes, I just need to work through the initial rush of the new idea so I can then shift my focus back to where it needs to be . . . on Book II!

How about you? What are you working on right now?

S

Unlikable Chracters

2010-08-30T12:44:00.002-05:00

I'm currently reading a good book with a totally . . . unlikable character. So far, almost finished, and there's not one thing I like about the character.

Nada!

Nothing!

Zippo!

In fact, this unlikable character, at least for me, totally pulls me out of the story every single time I have to read from this character's perspective.

I hate being pulled out of a story. Hate! It!

I'm pulled out of the story every single time I must endure this character's perspective.

Thankfully, the perspectives are just a bit here and there, but . . . I'm still jarred out of the story.

Now, there are characters I don't like, that I hate - The Dursleys and Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter series. Oooooh, Dolores made me grind my teeth, but . . . she never pulled me out of the story. She never made me skip passages of narrative because her character was so unlikable.

I'm not even sure the character in the current book I'm reading is necessary . . . other than to irritate me, which some people (probably my sisters - ha) would say is a good thing.

What about you? How do you deal with unlikable characters in books you are reading . . . and writing? How unlikable do you make them? Do they serve a purpose?

As for me, yeah, I have some unlikable characters. Sometimes they are needed as a balance, a counterpoint to the hero/heroine.

If no obvious purpose is served, then what's the point?

If the unlikable character pulls the reader out of the story time and time again, what's the point?

Thoughts? Answers??

S

WiP Wednesday

2010-08-25T08:37:00.002-05:00

So, right now I have two Works in Progress (WiP).

The first is the rough draft that is currently in the distance stage - that is, I can't begin editing until I've created the necessary distance. Okay, I've pretty much failed in that endeavor. I have added things here and there, but nothing . . . too major, well, just a bit major, maybe! Ha!

Still, I haven't delved into the major edits of the post Rough Draft phase . . . yet. That should happen this weekend.

The second project is Book II. I'm working on this a bit, but not wholeheartedly . . . at least not at this point.

At this point, I have the introduction - crime, motive, suspects, detectives introduced - done, and a start to the rising action. I'm almost 50 pages into the project, maybe 5,000 or so words.

The whole reason I'm even working on this project is the off chance that, with the way Book I ended, an agent (woo-hoo) might ask Well, what else do you have planned for these characters?

So, a bit of pre-planning on my part, combined with a driving need to write now, meant I needed something to work on beyond the editing phase of a project.

S

Cinders

2010-08-23T07:25:00.000-05:00

I've given you what you thought you wanted, but it's not enough.

Cinderella wished for happily ever after. She married her prince and found out that happily ever after only happens in fairy tales. . . and her current life isn't a fairy tale.

Cinderella's current life is one of adjustment, fear, longing for a past she is only just beginning to remember, and for a future where love exists outside the spell of a fairy godmother giving Cinderella what you thought you wanted.

Michelle effortlessly creates a world ouside the Disney-fied (nope, not a word, but I'm using it) imagery so closely associated, and a bit beyond the Brothers Grimm's intentions, with the classic fairy tale. From a palace filled with darkness and shadows, blood on the floors, to burnt out villages, to 'dark maroon ground' that 'spreads itself straight to the edge', and a 'watery horizon in the distance churned', and . . . so very much more.

Gone, and not in a bad way, are the glittering visions painted forth in the Disney version of Cinderella. Here is a realistic world where both light and darkness exists, and where the darker depths of humanity shine forth as those in power play out their games of power, oppressing those they fear, and embracing the past so fiercely they cannot set their feet on a path toward a different future.

You must control your future now. It is a choice.

The above words are spoken by Eolande, Cinderella's fairy godmother, and define the journey Cinderella takes throughout the pages of Cinders.

Life is about choices - good, bad, or indifferent. Cinderella makes all of these, some with devastating consequences. In the end, magic aside, a spell broken . . . or not . . . Cinderella must face her doubts, her indecision, and forge a life that is enough . . . for her.

I loved this book. Okay, there were parts I didn't love. I love the fact that Michelle created a compelling, entirely fallible woman. I loved Cinderella (the character). I hated her. I empathized with her.

Cinderella doubts herself. She struggles with who she wants to be, who she has become, and who she might become.

In the end, Cinderella must face all the decisions she made, the reasons she made them, and decide what the future holds for her. Whatever she might have wished for, whatever her fairy godmother granted her, the next steps in her life are entirely up to Cinderella: You must control your future now.

You can get your copy of Cinders by Michelle Davidson Argyle at Amazon. It is also available in Ebook format on Kindle or at Smashwords.

Friday . . . Update

2010-08-20T08:32:00.003-05:00

Yes, I've been a wee bit absent from blogging this week. Such is life sometimes.

I finished Cinders by Michelle Davidson Argyle. Check out my review here, which also contains links to where you can purchase this great novella. Oh, and technically, the review should have posted yesterday, and not Monday, except I started the review on Monday, finished it yesterday, and didn't pay attention to technical aspects like when it would post. Yes, even I fail in the technology department from time to time. So, if you missed the review, go here and check it out.

As you know, Inspiration decided to strike this week on Book II of a potential series. No, nothing like Robert Jordan's ginormous Wheel of Time series. This will be a cozy mystery series with all the books being stand-alone. Still, from a license plate, Inspiration struck and I've worked out the first few chapters. Okay, this was easy enough since I've developed a format for the books, and the beginning chapter sequence will remain the same for all the books. So, it really wasn't that hard.

I think I mentioned that I have the following for the next book: the victim, the motive, the suspects, and, of course, the detectives. Woo-hoo. Now, I just have to get to all the good stuff that leads up to The End.

That will happen in time. I plan to start the editing phase of the first book next week. I've been trying to maintain a distance before starting the editing. My goal today is to finish the notations on the Table of Contents regarding the timeline, and then Monday I'll dive into the editing full force. Once first draft editing is done, I'll send it off to my beta readers to get their opinion. Woo-hoo.

Have a great weekend.

S

License Plates

2010-08-18T07:16:00.002-05:00

I got your attention, didn't I? Come on, admit it!

What the heck do license plates have to do with writing? Well, in my delusional little world, quite a bit . . . at least since yesterday afternoon on the drive home from work.

TN License Plates have the following format: ### (mini image of state) 3 Letters.

So, in the boredom of sitting in traffic, I've been known to attempt to come up with words based on the three letters on the license plate. Example: ### HXG. Well, easily enough, I can come up with the word HeXinG. Woo-hoo. Yes, I'm easily amused. So, for quite some time, while stuck in traffic, I look at license plates and attempt to come up with words. Most times I succeed, some times I fail.

Well, yesterday, brilliance struck and I thought, what if the three letters were initials? Voila! Inspiration strikes. She (Inspiration that is) is quite clever at times.

I began to look at the letters with renewed interest and - BAM - two new names for some future project, and a - hopefully - endless supply of names in the future. Woo-Hoo!

Now, in using the letters HXG, I could come up with Henry Xavier Goldblumstein. Okay, maybe not the best name, but the ones I came up with yesterday were, well, genius.

Speaking of yesterday . . . as you know, I've finished the rough draft of my cozy which is probably the first book in a series. Well, I hadn't - until yesterday - had a clue what Book II, III, or whatever might be about. I'm still too focused on Book I . . . which is as it should be. Still, I might need a bit knowledge about Book II, etc., once I query and an agent asks "Do you have plans for future books?" Ha!

So, yesterday, I - thanks to those handy-dandy TN license plates - came up with three names for Book II, the crime, the victim, the motive, and the suspects. Woo-hoo.

Now, back to you, dear readers . . . what clever tricks do you have for coming up with character names?

Timeline

2010-08-13T11:28:00.002-05:00

Happy Friday!

I wasn't planning on a post today. Nope, not at all! I was going to sit back and relax today. Why? Because it's going to be 110 freaking degrees with the heat index. I'm not going outside!

So, I planned on doing a bit of this, a bit of that, and a whole lot of nothing today. I'm allowed. Okay, not as often as I'd like, but today . . .

Then again, the best laid plans of . . . well, I'm sure you know the phrase.

Have I mentioned I love my Table of Contents for my latest project? Love! Love! LOVE!

You see, this handy-dandy Table of Contents has come in, well, handy. Ha! Not only does it show me the course of the novel from beginning, middle, to The End, it has also allowed me to map out the - ta da - timeline (like how I weaved in the title of the post) of the novel as well.

As I've pointed out before, the contents looks something like this . . .

Chapter Title .........bunch of dots ............... page #

It's simple and precise. I've been known to notate in the ...... bunch of dots ...... about things that I need to do in specific chapters. Very handy indeed.

Well, today, in mapping out the actual chain of events, I've done this . . .

Chapter Title ....... Early July ................... page#
Chapter Title ....... few days later ............ page#
Chapter Title ....... August .......................page#

Isn't that clever? I amaze myself sometimes.

So, not only can a Table of Contents help track the progress of a novel, it can also help you - me - map out the span of time of the novel. Woo-hoo!

On that note . . . have a great weekend and try to stay cool.

S

WiP - Update

2010-08-11T05:32:00.002-05:00

Sorry, been a bit absent this week. Just life in general and not enough pre-planning on my part. Go figure.

So, my current cozy project - rough draft DONE - has been simmering in my mind as I put the necessary distance between rough and first draft stage.

Okay, I haven't given it a ton of distance. I've tweaked things here and there. Nothing major, mind you, just some things I knew I needed to add - a plot point here, an explanation there, and that's been about it, until . . . Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday, I began the read-through of the first draft phase. I'm not making major changes . . . yet. I'm going more for the is this story flowing, does it make sense, and what is missing phase of the, well, edit phase. Ha!

My Table of Contents is coming in quite handy. I'm putting check marks next to each chapter as I finish the read through and minor revisions. Woo-hoo!

Who knew a Table of Contents could be so beneficial? It helps me track where I've been, where I'm at, and where I'm going! Woo-hoo!

So, for the most part, this week is about reading my rough draft and making notations of what the heck, oh no, seriously, and other such stuff that stops the flow of writing or, well, just doesn't make sense. It's also about correcting glaring mistakes. Somehow, in the obsessive flow of writing, I changed one of the major character's names. Okay, it was only in one sentence, but still . . . Ha! So, I'm reading, notating, and waiting for the next phase where I seriously begin the editing process as I polish my little piece of coal into a sparkling diamond.

S

Chapter Titles

2010-08-06T05:00:00.002-05:00

As I might have mentioned, I love my Table of Contents. I love staring at all the chapters, the fruits - so to speak - of my labor.

Now, Scott Bailey posted some chapter titles from his current WiP, so I figured, why not do the same.

Yes, Robyn, I'm stealing ideas from somebody. No, not stealing, just borrowing a bit of genius.

Now, here are some of the titles in random order

The Bitch of Belle Meade
Dinner with Mumsy
The Married Detective
Sensory Overload
The Moral Soapbox of the Hopelessly Deluded
Afternoon Tea with a Crazy Man
The Pink Pigeon
Detective Abworks Loses His Patience
Not the Cleverest Idea in the Universe
Pandora's in a Mood
Confession is Good for the Soul
It's Raining Men

Now, in chronological order, at a glance, at least to me, the chapter titles tell something about the story. Heck, even out of order, at least to me, the chapters tell a story.

Don't Write Every Day

2010-08-05T05:47:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm a rebel. There are many schools of thought about writing. Two of those schools are: write every day and don't write every day.

I graduated from the second school . . . just in case you were wondering.

So, in defense of not writing every day, I'm going to let author James Scott Bell explain the philosophy instead:

Don't write every day.

I'm a big believer in word quotas. Some of the earliest, and perhaps still the best advice I ever got, was to set a quota of words and stick to it. I used to do a daily count. But a thing called life would intrude and I'd miss a day. Or, there were times when writing seemed like playing tennis in the La Brea tar pits, and that'd be another day I'd miss.

Such days would leave me surly and hard to live with.

Then I switched to a weekly quota and have used it ever since. That way, if I miss a day, I don't beat myself up. I write a little extra on the other days. I use a spreadsheet to keep track and add up my word count for the week.

I also intentionally take one day off a week. I call it my writing sabbath. I find that taking a one-day break charges my batteries like nothing else. Sunday is the day I've chosen. On Monday I'm refreshed and ready to go. Plus, my projects have been cooking in my subconscious. The boys in the basement, as Stephen King puts it, are hard at work while I'm taking time off.

I also advocate taking a weeklong break from writing each year. Use this time to assess your career, set goals, make plans - because if you aim at nothing, there's a very good chance you'll hit it.

Okay, now for my thoughts: woo-hoo!

Oh, you want more? Geesh!!

I love this advice. I followed this advice even before I was officially given this advice. I'm ahead of the game. I'm a trend setter. Okay . . . maybe not.

Word Count - in my most recent project, I set a weekly (M - F) and a weekend (S - S) word count. There were days I couldn't meet the daily goal, but I always made up the words. Did I mention I achieved over 60,000 words in less than two weeks. This was an anomaly, btw. The words just flowed like crazy and I went with the flow.

Writing Sabbath - Tuesday is normally my writing sabbath. Why? Well, during the television season, that's NCIS night. I love NCIS. It's one of the few shows I watch.

There are writers everywhere who follow the write every day adage, and others who follow the don't write every day adage. Neither way is correct for every writer. Every writer is different. What works for one writer might not work for another writer, and vice versa.

As writers - as individuals - we need to learn what works best for us, and follow that path. Nobody but you (or me, in this case) the writer truly knows what works best for you. Nobody.

In writing, as with life, follow your heart and instinct and do what works best for you.

S

Note: the above italicized material comes from the September 2010 edition of Writers Digest and the article: 10 Experts Take on the Writer's Rulebook - p. 28.

2010-08-04T05:20:00.002-05:00

This whole writing experience of the last two or so weeks has been . . . interesting, to say the least.

The latest voyage into the Realm of the Unknown is . . . The Table of Contents.

Why? Oh, stay a while, and let me tell you why . . .

For this project, my chapters all have nifty little titles. I don't normally title my chapters. Okay, one time in the past. One time out of so many projects isn't a problem, or anything . . . is it?

So, this project has nifty little titles for each chapter.

I decided to create a Table of Contents. Not as easy as you think, though Word does have nifty little menus and videos that helped me along the way. The neat thing: if I add or delete a chapter, I just hit 'update' and - voila - updated (ha) Table of Contents. I've done this a few times already. W00-hoo!

Okay, back to the post and hand and the reason why . . . I'm absolutely loving this table of contents thing.

I printed it out - it's so pretty - and I stared at it quite a lot this past weekend. On one hand, I'm proud of what I accomplished. The Table of Contents shows my hard work. On the other hand, the Table of Contents will help through the editing phases. I've already made notations next to some of the chapter titles about things I need to add. I also, as previously mentioned, have notated on the ToC (for short) the different areas of The Basics.

Example:

Nifty Chapter Title ..............................................................................................................................3
Nifty Chapter Title ..............................................................................................................................7
Nifty Chapter Title ...........(add photo of three suspects) ............................................................12

Okay, you get my point. For me, on this project, the Table of Contents is not only an outline of my story, a chart of the five stages of The Basics, but also where I can make notations throughout the editing process of things I need to change. Or, if I need to move a chapter earlier and/or later in the novel . . . move this chapter to this point.

Has anyone out there ever done the same thing? Have a created a fancy new - and very helpful - editing tool? Have I completely lost my mind? No need to answer that last question! Ha!

Okay, off to stare at my Table of Contents a bit more!

S

Cozies

2010-08-02T05:24:00.002-05:00

Today, I'm going to talk about Cozies. No, not tea cozies, though, with a bit of irony, tea does play about in the cozy I'm going to talk about, which is . . . the sub-genre of the mystery genre.

I just finished writing my cozy last week. I didn't know I was writing a cozy. Sorry, not up on the hip and happening language of the mystery sub-genre. All I knew was I wanted to write a mystery. I did just that.

Perhaps instinct guided me. Perhaps it was something else. I don't have a clue. All I know is I wrote what I did and it - amazingly - turned out to be, well, a cozy.

First - some basics about cozies: set in a benign environment, little violence, few gory details, amateur sleuth, and mystery solved.

Okay, that's very basic. For a bit more in-depth discussion go here. Now, anything from this point forward references back to this site.

Elements of the Cozy Mystery:

no explicit sex
no gore or violence
no graphic language
amateur sleuth
centers around a puzzle or whodunnit
local setting

Now, in my normal fashion, I'm going to discuss each point in relation to my recently finished (woo-hoo) rough draft.

No Explicit Sex - my characters aren't romping around in the bedroom. Okay, one of them is, but . . . I don't provide any explicit details. I just let you - the reader - know that the character is doing the big nasty.

No Gore or Violence - in Cozies, the gore or violence takes place off the page. Such is - somewhat - the case with my mystery. Not totally, but close.

No Graphic Language - okay, this point doesn't get checked off. My story takes place in the here/now, not some quaint, English village in the 1920s when people didn't cuss like there was no tomorrow. This is one rule I'm bending. I'm allowed to bend a rule here and there. It's my delusional little world after all.

Amateur Sleuth - I have two of those. Woo-hoo.

Centers Around a Puzzle or Whodunnit - there is a murder, after all.

Local Setting - yep, I have that based covered as well.

Did I mention I did this without having a clue how to write (or that I was writing) a cozy mystery? Seriously, no clue at all. I just wrote, the words flowing in a torrent, and then on Friday I researched word-counts for mystery novels (btw, cozies come in between 60 - 70K, and my rough is complete at 60K - coincidence? I think not) and came across the term cozy, which I then researched. Again, I find it very odd that, pretty much, without having a clue, I wrote this rough draft in the first place.

Back to the setting - many cozy mysteries are set in a small town or small section of a larger city. Uh, yeah, big check mark for that one. In addition, the story may center around a tea shop. Uh, give me another big check mark for that one. Yes, there is a tea shop in my novel. This happened a little over half way through the novel. There were no plans for a tea pot when I started this project. None. At. All.

Coincidence? I think not. Instinct? I don't have a clue. I'm not about to question why I was able to insert the majority of elements of a cozy without knowing such elements were a requirement.

Perhaps my years of watching all the British mysteries instilled these concepts into my subconscious. I don't know.

I'm just finding it a bit odd that I have the required elements and the word count. Very. Odd. Indeed.

Denouement aka DONE

2010-07-30T05:14:00.003-05:00

So, in following The Basics I've finished the denouement, which means - woo hoo - I've finished the rough draft.

As you may remember . . .

The last part of The Basics is the Denouement. This is where I get to write and they all lived happily ever after. Kidding . . . again. This is what happens to the characters, good and bad, before said characters "ride off into the sunset".

Well, my characters have 'ridden off into the sunset'.

The rough draft is currently at a bit over 53,000 words, for a total of 230 pages! Yee-ha!

I did this in less than two weeks. I don't know how. I don't know why. I just know that's what I did.

Writing is not a race with some big prize for finishing the fastest. Writing is a process. Writing is a roller coaster ride.

Sometimes, the words don't want to flow at all. Sometimes, they flow so quickly that life spins by and I barely find the time to take a breath.

This project was one of those times.

I can't tell you how I'm feeling right here - now - as I type this post. I'm smiling. I'm overwhelmed. And yet . . . there's so much more.

There's joy! There's . . . ecstasy. There's . . . everything!

This project consumed me. I stayed up late to write, I worked during lunch at work, I spent hours on the weekends. I couldn't stop. Every time I thought - enough, I need to stop - I kept on writing.

Wednesday night I finished the rough draft. Oh, there's still some things I have to do - heck, that's what my day off on Friday is for this week.

Last night, I did the Table of Contents. Then, I broke apart the various - OMG, are there chapters - chapters into the sections of The Basics: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.

I now have a neat little picture of The Basics. I know which chapters fall into each section. I know I have each of these sections in this all consuming project.

Oh, man, I feel good right now (Thursday night, btw, pretyping this post).

Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank Lynn Price over at Behler Blog for feeling the need to put up his post (The Basics). This chart is just absolutely amazing. Thanks!!!!!!

S

Brief Update - finished the addition of some pages. Rough Draft Done @ 255 Pages and 60,000 words, give or take a few hundred for chapter titles, table of contents, and title page.

Thursday Funny

2010-07-29T05:10:00.000-05:00

Just a bit of humor for a Thursday . . .

Work in Progress Wednesday - The Basics Update

2010-07-28T07:21:00.003-05:00

Well, it's Wednesday . . . just in case you were wondering.

I'm at 49,000 words! Woo-hoo!

I'm currently nearing the end of the fallen action section of the book and then there's the denouement. Are you confused? Have you not been paying attention to my blog? Okay, go check this out and then come back. Ha.

I finished the climax Monday evening . . . despite the awesome display of lightning and thunder put on by a menopausal Mother Nature. Trust me, she's going through menopause. It was bound to happen. Global Warming? Bah! Hot Flashes from a Menopausal Mother Nature! HA! Oh, did I mention a whiny dog because of the storm? My Jesse doesn't like thunderstorms.

So, in the midst of the climax chapter I have to stop writing and go cuddle with my baby dog. The other dog? Well, James could care less and was gnawing the heck out of his favorite toy. Go, James.

Yesterday, I began the falling action (what happens next) part of the project. This section will encompass a few chapters, and then I'm on to the denouement. I should, hopefully, have the rough draft done by Friday. Woo-hoo.

So, that's it for my progress update. What's going on with you?

S

The Basics - from my POV

2010-07-27T05:59:00.000-05:00

Last week, I posted a link to this post by Lynn Price over at Behler Blog regarding The Basics. If you haven't checked out the post, please do so.

I want to talk, solely from my perspective, and about my current project, about The Basics.

The first part of The Basics is Exposition, aka the introductory stuff: setting, characters, and whatnot. For my current project, this encompassed the first six chapters. Okay, don't panic here, my chapters are short, very short, no more than four pages in length . . . at least in the introductory section. In fact, the very first chapter is only one page.

The second part of The Basics is the Rising Action, aka the good stuff leading up to the Climax. As Lynn so expertly put it "this is where you have to commit to your story and build the foundations for the big Ta-Da". For my current project, this encompasses quite a few chapters.

The third part of The Basics is the Climax (note: Lynn added a bit of an addendum to her post about the Climax). This is, in Lynn's words "the Ta-Da moment". In my instance, since this is a mystery, this is what I call the Big Reveal. All the pieces of the puzzle are neatly put together to form a picture. Ta-Da!

The fourth part of The Basics is the Falling Action. What happens here? Well, everybody lives happily ever after. Ha! Kidding. This is the "whew moment". This is the moment where the characters, at least my characters, are able to breathe again, to realize that the case is solved, and decide what comes next for them - all of them, bad guys included.

The last part of The Basics is the Denouement. This is where I get to write and they all lived happily ever after. Kidding . . . again. This is what happens to the characters, good and bad, before said characters "ride off into the sunset".

On my current rough draft, I've already written the Climax. I have a few chapters to insert before the Climax, aka the Big Reveal.

Today during lunch, I outlined both the Falling Action and the Denouement. I typed out the name of every character and beneath their names I did a bullet point list of what happens to them after the Climax. Those bullet points will help me create a series of chapters that detail the impact of the events leading up to this moment for the characters and provide a glimpse into the futures of the characters.

All in all, I love this little chart. Thanks, Lynn!!! I love keeping a list of chapters and lumping them into the various aspects - exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement - of the chart so I can make sure I've included all of these aspects in my little gem of brilliance called . . . ooops, sorry, can't tell you the title, it's secret. Shhhhhh . . .

S

p.s. all items in actual quote (") marks come from Lynn Price's post on Behler Blog titled The Basics.

A Life of Her Own

2010-07-26T06:19:00.000-05:00

So, I've been plugging away at the mystery (genre) project. I hit 30,000 words Friday, bypassed 35,000 on Saturday and, since I'm pre-doing this post, will probably pass 40,000 on Sunday. All of this means I have about 10,000 words left of the rough draft since my normal goal is 50,000. Woo-hoo.

On Saturday I created a new, peripheral character for the book. I didn't pre-plan this character, I didn't give much thought to this character. I just needed a fill-in character to serve a brief purpose.

Well, every now and then a character takes on a life of his/her own. This character did just that . . . much to my surprise and delight. At first, she was just the owner of a tea shop. Then, she became someone my main character had known for a long time. Then - yes, the metamorphosis continues - she became his favorite aunt. Geesh!

How did a simple, fill-in character, suddenly become so important?

I don't have a clue. It just sort of happened.

Then, she became, in the next chapter, a strong, force to be reckoned with woman who likes to talk with her hands . . . even if she is holding a cast iron skillet in one hand. Yeah, I don't know how that happened either.

Sometimes, I amaze myself during the writing process.

Oh, did I mention that this character knows the dirty little secret about one of the other characters? Who knew?

These things just sort of fall in place during the writing process. Not that I'm complaining . . .

I see a bright future for this character in later books in my mystery series. Yes, series. Every main character needs a no-nonsense supporter, and this woman is definitely no-nonsense. Did I mention she's a fabulous baker? Yum! Yum! So, as the series progresses, at some point and time in my writerly life, this little side character, this fill in character, will serve a more prominent role.

S

Friday - Update

2010-07-23T06:21:00.000-05:00

My how time flies when I'm having fun! Woo-hoo!

I'm absolutely loving the new mystery (as in genre, not as in I haven't a clue what it's about) project I am working on right now. The words are flowing. Inspiration is singing . . . amazingly not as off key as usual, go figure! I haven't felt this jazzed about a project in a long time.

Don't get me wrong: I love every writing project. The love's just not always so grand. This time, the grandness is almost overwhelming.

Picture it, Tuesday night: I get home from work and finally find time to write. Yeah, me. I write a few chapters and then it's off for bonding time with the boyz and my whiny butt girl who thinks she's starving to death because she's on a diet. Geesh. Anyone want a whiny cat? Free to a good home. Earplugs provided. Kidding. I love my Squeaky cat. I don't love her whining so much . . . Ha! Anyhow, I finally decide to go to bed and . . . well, long story short, I go into my office and type up a few more chapters. The words just couldn't wait until Wednesday.

I love it when that happens!

Okay, not so much when it's 2 AM and it happens, but right before bed wasn't a horrible thing.

So, long story short, in a week I've written over 25,000 words on this new project. Woo-hoo! Somebody pass me a margarita. Okay, not right now, it's a bit early, but trust me, there's a margarita in my future this evening.

Technically, as far as my standards go, I'm at the half way point in this project. I normally aim for 50,000 words on a rough draft. Yeah, not a huge amount of words, and definitely under industry standards, but . . . this is only a rough draft. The next draft phase normally adds quite a few words as I expand on such things as setting, etc. The rough draft is always: get the story out, develop the characters as much as possible, and get from Point A to Point The End.

Have I mentioned how much fun I'm having writing this project? I'm tossing rules out the window nilly-willy or willy-nilly whatever the case might be. Ha! Seriously, I'm taking a laid back attitude with this project and, well, just having loads of fun. I have the banter thing down between the two main characters, I have a tension thing going on with two other characters, and I'm taking over-the-top presentations of some other characters. All in all it boils down to one thing: FUN!

Have a great weekend.

S

The Basics . . .

2010-07-22T05:45:00.000-05:00

. . . shamelessly stolen from Lynn PRICE over at the Behler Blog. Okay, I'm not shamelessly stealing anything. I'm actually directing every reader and my lurker over to her blog to read her fabulous post on The Basics. Go on, click on over, read it, print it, remember it and . . . raise a margarita to that overworked beagle! Heck, send the beagle a margarita. I hear she's gone through quite a few pitchers already. Ha!

S

Cinders

2010-07-21T07:38:00.000-05:00

Michelle Davidson Argyle (aka Lady Glamis) has written a great novella called Cinders. In honor of the forthcoming release, she's doing a giveaway on her blog. Head on over there, read about the giveaway, and then spread the word! Woo-hoo.

Murder Happens

2010-07-20T07:27:00.003-05:00

I had four days off this past weekend! Woo-hoo! I cleaned the house. Boo-hoo. I wrote a bunch. Woo-woo-hoo! 5,000 words per day! Yee-ha!

I started a new project this past weekend. Yes, I know, I'm supposed to be working on my query. I am, I am . . . and I like green eggs in ham!

Inspiration - that creative little wench with no regard to my sleeping schedule - struck last week and I've been going with the flow. The new project is a mystery. I've never written a mystery before. I've never really considered writing a mystery before. Though I love a good mystery. Still, for whatever reason - perhaps Miss Cranky-Pants (aka Inspiration) just decided, as usual, to have fun at my expense. It wouldn't be the first time, trust me on that one. Perhaps it's just the right time for me to do this project.

I don't know. I don't care. I'm having a ball writing this project.

I have a format! Woo-hoo. If, in the grand scheme of things in my little delusional world, this turns into a series, I have a format for each subsequent book in the series.

My chapters, oh, my chapters, in this book range from one sentence, to one paragraph, to one page, to two pages, to three pages, and even as many as ten pages. Yep, there's no rhyme or reason to my chapter length!

I love it!

The chapters are what the chapters are, and I write what I write, and end each chapter when it feels right to end said chapter. It is my book, after all.

There are no rules with this book. None at all. It's all about the fun, the joy of writing, and that, my friends, is the only way to write . . . at least in my delusional little world.

S

Writerly Stuff

2010-07-16T05:38:00.002-05:00

Well, the work-week, at least for me, is over. Four days, including today, off! Woo-hoo!

This week, as far as writing goes, has been a hodge-podge of stuff: work on hook, work on query, write query for project that is only in rough draft stage, and jot down ideas for future project.

In order of appearance . . .

Work on hook - still working, but getting there. It's not so easy to sum up an entire book in one sentence. It's possible, just not easy and . . . whine, whine, whine!
Work on query - I've pretty much written the rest of the query. All that's missing is the hook and then it's off for critique.
Write query for project that is only in rough draft stage - yes, I did. I was on a roll and figured I'd practice on another project. Inspiration hit and I dove right into that shimmering pool of . . . raspberry flavored Jell-O. Yummy. Okay, it wasn't raspberry flavored, but this is my delusional little world after all . . . The hook for this project was a heck of a lot easier to come up with, as was the query. Yes, everything will change between now and the ready to submit stage of the manuscript.
Jot down ideas for future project - Inspiration is a clever little . . . witch . . . at times. I just never know when she is going to strike. She happened to strike while I was driving home from work on Tuesday. Geesh, she could at least wait until I got home, but noooooooooo . . . so, at traffic lights I jotted down ideas. In between traffic lights, I kept repeating the ideas over and over so I wouldn't forget them. Geesh! Well, this future project, probably way down the line, will be my first attempt at a mystery. Okay, might not be so far down the line, but definitely not in my immediate future.

What am I going to do with four days off? Well, the bathrooms need cleaned, as does the rest of the house. Fun, fun, fun. I just live to scrub toilets . . . NOT! My days off will be a mixture of writing, reading - I'm on Book 4 of Harry Potter, hope to finish it and start Book 5 - cleaning house, and just relaxing.

This weekend will also mark Frank's and my sixteenth anniversary together. Dang! 16 years! I sometimes wonder how we survived and then I remember: we work different shifts! Ha! In real time, we've probably only been together a couple of years! Still, they've been some of the best years of my life and I wouldn't change a thing. Okay, maybe a smidge change here and there, but nothing major.

Have a great weekend.

The Hook . . . Continued!

2010-07-14T06:01:00.003-05:00

I'm going to talk a little bit more about the hook today. Yes, I know, you'd rather hear more about my wildly exciting life! Yes, the demands for such news are overwhelming at times. Ha!

Seriously . . .

The hook can be absolutely any sentence as long as it sums up the book. For example, let's take Little Red Riding Hood.

Possible hooks for her sordid little tale . . .

A girl wearing a red-hooded cloak walks through the forest to grandmother's house, encounters a wolf, and is saved by a man swinging an ax! - yes, this tells what the story is about, but it's really quite boring.

Little Red Riding Hood foolishly goes traipsing through a forest where a very hungry wolf lives. - okay, this is a bit more exciting, but doesn't tell much about the story.

The Big Bad Wolf is on the way to a a wedding, sees Little Red, learns where she's going, and decides he could eat both something old and something new, and worry about the borrowed and blue later on . . . as long as the woodsmen isn't nearby. - yes, a tad snarky, well, maybe more than a tad snarky, but far more interesting then the other two . . . at least in my delusional world.

The fact is: the hook needs to grab an agent's attention in the best way possible, even if it is with a high dose of snark.

Now, in working on my own hook, I was intrigued by this hook from Jessica Verday's The Haunted - A tragic death, a mysterious stranger, and answers to questions that Abigail Browning never knew she needed to ask . . .

I love this hook. It's intriguing and makes me want to read a bit more. I'm sure that's what caught Jessica's agent's attention. At least I hope that's what caught her attention.

So, if I was to use something similar . . . I'd need something snazzy that lists some of the things going on in my book. What to do? What to do? I know . . . why don't I create a list of events that occur in my book. Brilliant, if I do say so myself.

So, I broke down the events by character. As an example, let's go back to Little Red Riding Hood . . .

The events for Little Red - walks through forest, encounters wolfs, finds an oddly different grandmother, realizes it's the wolf, screams for help, and is saved by the woodsman.

The events for the Wolf - encounters Little Red, learns grandma is home alone, eats grandma, tries to trick little red, and is killed by the woodsman.

Grandma - eaten by wolf, saved by the woodsman.

Now, the difficult part is picking what events to describe in the hook. You can check out the above examples to see which events I did. Okay, in short: the major events that carry the most impact.

This is where I'm (okay, I'm pre-doing this post, it's really Monday, so everything might be done by the time this post hits the blogsphere Wednesday morning) at right now. I have a list of events and need to pick out the key events with the most impact if . . . I'm going to go the route of giving a brief list of what happens as my hook.

This is only one option with a hook. The options really are endless. It all depends on you the writer.

A girl is whisked to a magical land by a tornado, meets an odd group of friends, encounters a wicked witch, and learns that there's no place like home. - The Wizard of Oz.

A cyclone, a tragic death, magic slippers, a yellow brick road, a scarecrow, a tin man, a cowardly lion, some poppies, a wizard, flying monkeys, a wicked witch, and a bucket of water. - The Wizard of Oz.

Yes, two different hooks, one fashioned after Jessica Verday's hook for The Haunted and one that's just simple and straightforward.

In the end, only you (or me) the writer will know what will work for you. Sometimes, the best way to learn is by example. So, go read some successful queries, see what worked and then, as with your writing, put your own unique spin on the query.

S

The Hook - Part II

2010-07-13T10:57:00.003-05:00

As I might have mentioned (hint: check yesterday's post and tune in tomorrow), I've been working on the hook - the one sentence that describes what my book is about.

Yes, this is a struggle . . . at least for me.

Here's some of what I've come up with so far . . .

Margarita Nights . . .

. . . is about a group of friends.

. . . is about a group of friends who get together once a month for margaritas.

. . . is about a group of friends confronting their own fears and insecurities.

. . . is about life in the gay lane: unexpected attractions, sudden break-ups, a drugged drink, confrontations, a brutal attack, acceptance of truth, and the realization that even the most meaningless of relationships, ironically, have meaning after all.

. . . details 2 years in the lives of a group of friends as they face life in the gay lane: unexpected attractions, sudden break-ups, a drugged drink, confrontations, a brutal attack, acceptance of truth, and the realization that even the most meaningless of relationships, ironically, have meaning after all.

. . . details 2 years in the lives of a group of friends as they face their own fears and insecurities and discover that even the most meaningless of relationships, ironically, have meaning after all.

As you can see, I've come up with quite a few different hooks. Well, I've come up with quite a few different sentences that might be hooks. Then again, they might not be.

So, based on the ramblings of a writer struggling to come up with a hook, which, if any, of the above sentences might make you (if you were an agent . . . or heck, just a potential reader) want to read more.

S

The Hook

2010-07-12T07:17:00.002-05:00

As everyone knows by now, I finished the final, pre-query edits on Saturday. Woo-hoo for me!

But, there is no rest for the wicked . . . or at least that's what I've been told. Not that I'm wicked. I truly am a very nice person. Seriously!

Next step: The Query! Boo-Hiss! Okay, it's not that bad, but, I've been on a snarky roll for a while and . . .

The Query is a work of art that showcases the brilliance of, say, a 93,484 word novel in a single page. Talk about Reader's Digest condensed version! Geesh! So, in maybe 250 words, I need to somehow grab an agents attention so much so that they immediately pick up the phone and call me.

This is possible. Writers everywhere have been doing this for, like, well, forever!

So, I too shall do this and succeed along with the best of them.

There are a ton of blogs out there about how to query. One of my main resources is From the Query to the Call by Elana Johnson. You can get the e-book right here! This is a fantastic book with lots of links. Elana's pretty much the Query Ninja! She has an agent. One of the followers of my blog, using this wonderful e-book, got an agent.

Elana mentions that a hook is a necessary, in her opinion, part of the query. What is a hook? Well, go get Elana's e-book here and you can find out for yourself. Kidding, people.

A hook, in one sentence, sums up the book. The hook, in many ways, is the elevator pitch. The one sentence you need to have ready at all times in case you get stuck in an elevator with your dream agent.

Yeah, the hook, like many things, is easier said than done! Elana's e-book provides plenty of examples. The New York Times Best Seller List provides many examples.

So, the first part, at least for me, of designing my brilliant query is to come up with a hook. I read a ton of query examples - provided by Elana, of course - yesterday and looked for the hook. I focused solely on the hooks in these queries and thought about my own. I finally narrowed down a general idea. No, nothing final yet, but a general idea. That's a start. Once I get the hook down, I'll move on to the next step of the query, and the next, and so on.

This isn't, at least not for me, a sit down, write a letter and send it off process. I'm deconstructing the query writing process into little steps, puzzle pieces, so to speak, that will all add up to the final piece of brilliance that will WOW agents everywhere. Yeah, my own little delusional world is quite a nifty place to be at times! Ha!

So this week, my evening writing time, will be all about crafting my query. Luckily, the wine rack is stocked. I'm just saying . . .

S

DONE!

2010-07-10T11:14:00.003-05:00

93,484 is the final (okay, not final-final, but final for this point in time) word count! Woo-hoo! I did it and am dang proud of all I have done.

There's a definite sense of accomplishment and pride right now. I took this whomping, 140K + word document and pared it down, bit by bit, month by month, into a lean, mean fighting machine of 93,484 words. Woo-Frakkin'-Hoo!

There was a point in time where I thought this task was impossible, insurmountable, and wasn't gonna happen, no way, no how, uh-huh!

I'm glad I proved myself wrong. I'm really glad I proved myself wrong!

Life is about challenges, day after day. Some days,. my hair is challenge enough. You know those days when, no matter what you do, how much goop you put in, your hair's just going to look, well, really, really bad. Oy! Then, there are the days when everything that can go wrong does go wrong, and then some. Boy, do I hate those kind of days. Still, day after day, I move forward in this crazy life. Day after day, I write because I love to write. I live because life is worth living for, even with 100 degree heat and 200% humidity.

The things that make life, and writing, worth living are these small and brief moments where everything gels together and I feel dang good. Right Here! Right Now! This moments as I revel, briefly, in the fact that I pared down the whale into a sleek dolphin. Whoopie!

S

Friday

2010-07-09T08:00:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know, another day without an awe-inspiring post. It's just life right now.

I have three chapters left to edit. Four. Two of them should get done today and the last tomorrow. Woo-hoo!

Sunday is for query! Boo! Hiss! Okay, it's not that bad. It could be worse. I don't know how. I just know it could be worse.

Kidding.

The final word count should come in somewhere around 94,000 words. That's totally impressive, at least for me, especially knowing the high word count I had in the beginning.

Will this lesser word count create more potential? I don't have a clue. I just know that, as strong as my query might be, in the end, the really high word count was a detriment. Very few debut authors are probably going to be able to get a 500 page book published. Yeah, it might happen. The odds are minimal.

Why fight the odds? Why not minimize the odds instead?

Everything we do on the road to success has an impact toward that success. High word counts, in some instances, create a detour or delay. A minimal audience for our work can create a detour or delay.

As an aspiring writer, I write for me first, and the audience second. Yeah, I know, not the best way to do things, but it works for me. I wrote a big-ass book and then I pared it down. Again, probably not the best way to do things. I'm writing for a niche audience - not as huge as a Twilight audience. Again, not the best way to do things.

In the end . . . I don't care. I'm writing what I want to write for an audience I know is out there, and that's enough for me. My audience isn't as small as some people might think. I may have to market my book to agents a bit differently then I like. I might have to go for a smaller category of agents at first, and then expand.

In the end . . . I have to follow my heart on this, as with most of what I do in life.

S

Writing Rules

2010-07-08T05:08:00.002-05:00

Okay, not going to bore you with a bunch of stuff. Just click here and off you to a great post about writing rules.

Now, a great tidbit from that post: Of course, new writers need to understand the rules. But if we’re not careful, we will turn the creative process into a formula and make literary Pharisees out of our proteges.

My thoughts (okay, did you seriously think I wasn't going to expound a bit on what I read??? Seriously?): Woo-hoo!

Wasn't that brief enough for you? Yep, still a bit snarky. It happens.

Seriously, I and many other aspiring writers have complained - sometimes bitterly - about the overwhelming rules out there and how we, over time, learn to ignore many of the rules. It's all part of the writing process. We, as writers, can either fall victim to the rules and stifle our creativity or, we as writers, can moderate the rules we choose to use and stimulate our creativity.

S

Wednesday

2010-07-07T07:19:00.002-05:00

Well, I don't have an awe-inspiring post today. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Sorry, such is life sometimes. Ooooh, my co-workers aren't going to like me today. I feel a snarky kinda day in my immediate future. Ha!

Anyhow, I have five chapters left on the word elimination project. Five chapters. Three day weekend coming up. Two chapters per day. Hey! Yes, I should finish the edits by this weekend. In fact, I should get at least two chapters out of the way before Friday.

I would have had more done, but Harry Potter kidnapped me and made me help him look for the Chamber of Secrets. Then, Tuesday night is Wipeout night. I love that show. It makes me laugh. I normally set Tuesday night's as my night to just relax and not write. In the summer there is Wipeout and during the main television season there's NCIS. I don't watch much tv at all, so I figure I'm allowed a night here or there. Okay, I do love Dr. Who, but that comes on Saturday nights, and I'm done writing by nighttime on the weekends.

Once I finish the edits I'll begin the lovely stage of crafting the semi-perfect query. I already have the one line hook - I think that's the hardest part - and I have Elana's e-book, so I'm ready, set, go!!! Of course, I need to drop by querytracker.net and research the agents in my folder and see if any new ones have dropped into the agentsphere over the last few months. Research. Research. Research.

I'm also, because of the potential niche factor of my book, going to research some of the indie and small press publishers. Thankfully, there are sites out there that have done the research for me and the info should be readily at hand as to the validity of these publishers. The good thing: I have bought books published by some of these publishers. Woo-hoo! Points for me.

Now, for some of the publishers, I can submit directly to them without an agent. That (hey, Tess, how's it going? Ha!) is not my intent. I'm going the agent route - if I can find one to rep my stuff. But . . . it's nice to know there are other options out there for an aspiring writer with a potential niche book. I'm just saying . . .

Have a great day.

S

Writing is like . . .

2010-07-05T06:25:00.001-05:00

. . . Cooking! No, I haven't been nipping at the cooking sherry . . . at least not yet! HA!

Writing is like cooking because . . . we take the gem of an idea and shape it into something extraordinary. Okay, not all my cooking experiments have turned out well. That's not the point.

Slow-Cooker 'Baked' Beans

3 Cans (15 ounces each) Pinto Beans - drained and rinsed
1 Cup Barbecue Sauce
1 Small Onion - chopped
1/4 Cup Firmly Packed Light Brown Sugar
2 Slices Center Cut Bacon - chopped

Place all ingredients in slow cooker, mix well, cover with lid and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours or on HIGH for 3 hours.

The above is a basic 'baked' bean recipe from the Kraft Food and Family magazine (Summer 2008). It's a nice recipe. It is the gem of an idea. It's been done before.

Vampires have been done before. Anne Rice - pre Stephanie Meyers - reinvented the vampire tall. She told the story in her way, with her twist and - in my opinion - did a mighty fine job of it, as have other authors.

Since every story has already been told, we, as aspiring writers, must retell those stories in a new and exciting way.

So, cooking is like writing because, sometimes, I take a basic recipe and refashion it in a new and exciting way.

The first time I made the above recipe, I didn't have three cans of pinto beans. I had two cans of pinto beans and one can of butter beans. In a pinch, any bean will do. Oh, wait, I didn't have enough BBQ sauce. What's a poor chef to do? Well, I had some Catalina dressing. Yup! I just threw in enough Catalina dressing to make 1 Cup! Hmmm, Mom's baked beans always had meat. What else did I have in the refrig? Oh, look, some breakfast sausage. Brown it up, mix it in, and voila - something fresh and new.

Now, this past weekend I decided to make the baked beans. I wanted something new and different. Open the pantry - sun dried tomatoes, roasted red and yellow peppers, and look, in the refrig some celery. Hmmmm. Yes, indeedy, dear peeps, I reinvented the Slow Cooker 'Baked' Beans . . . again.

I do the same thing when I'm writing. I take an idea that's been done before, and I do it in a different way. Sometimes it turns out great, and other times, well, not so great. It's all part of the writing process. It's all about adding and/or taking away certain elements to make something work.

So, writing is like cooking . . . even if you haven't been nipping at the cooking sherry! Ha!

S

100,000 Words

2010-07-02T13:20:00.001-05:00

Yes, the title of the post says it all. What? It doesn't? Okay, let me elaborate a bit: I've reached the 100,000 word goal after today's edit phase. Yes, I'm down to 100,000 words and there's more still to go.

For me, this is a monumental moment. I never thought I could cut out 40,000 + thousand words. Never say never! Ha! I did it! Woo-hoo . . . and I'm still cutting those words. I hope to cut out close to 3,000 to 5,000 more words before all is said and done.

S

Perseverance

2010-06-30T07:04:00.003-05:00

Well, it's Wednesday and I didn't pre-plan a post to auto pop up here at 5 AM! Yes, I'm slacking in my blogging duties. Ha!

I'm halfway through the final pre-query edit phase of a project I've been working on for quite a while. I'm close to reaching the 100,000 word goal, which really wasn't a goal at one point in time. I mean, the project was up to 141,000 words. My only hope was to eliminate 10 to 20K and be done with it!

Yeah, Right!

With tons of effort on my part, I have just 500 words left to eliminate to reach 100,000 words and . . . I'm only at Chapter 13! So, I figure I can probably eliminate at least 5,000 more words . . . if I"m lucky. If not . . . well, still below 100,000! Woo-hoo!

The best part about the word elimination is that it really made me take a close look at what I'd written and tighten it up. There were so many excess words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs and what-not! It's a bit unbelievable and daunting.

Still, I persevered - something all writers should do when following this crazy writing dream - and did much better than expected. Woo-hoo!

I also never gave up on this project. Yeah, I know, I haven't started the query process yet. Still, I think the main thing we all need to remember is: perseverance! Don't give up. Keep plugging away, even if the project you think is the best thing you ever wrote has to sit on the closet shelf for a few years or forever.

Things happen when they're meant to happen, and not when we want them to happen.

Perseverance!

S

There is No Consistency

2010-06-28T06:07:00.000-05:00

I'm going to share a deep, dark secret that I've discovered: there is no consistency with writing.

Okay, now I'll explain a bit further.

I've written a brilliant book. It's scathingly brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant. It's brilliant brilliant. Okay, maybe that's only in my mind.

The book began as 12 Chapters w/three sections (i.e., perspectives) per Chapter. Then, the book grew to 24 Chapters. Well, technically, there was more story to tell, so I wrote the sequel, but then decided that a sequel wasn't necessary and effortlessly turned two books into one. Voila!!!

Then, there's the whole industry wide standard that your book must be this # of words for this genre thingy!

My brilliant world crashed down around me! What's a guy to do? Yes, drinking plenty of margaritas was an option. Throwing myself into a volcano was an option. Jumping off a cliff . . . Well, other than margaritas, the only option was: split the book in two (again) or eliminate enough words to drive an insane man sane . . . or vice versa.

I chose the elimination of words. Yea, Me!

Woe, is me! OMG, I had to eliminate 40,000 + words! 40,000 + words!

Somebody pass me a margarita.

Onwards and downwards (the word count, that is) I plunged into the elimination fray. I made progress. Slow, very slow progress. There was no way in a very hot place I was ever going to eliminate enough words.

Oh, wait, what is that in the distance? Is it the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel?

Yea, Me!

The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel was the epiphanous moment where I realized that I could easily (far too easily) eliminate one of the sections in the first twelve chapters of my brilliant book. Woo-hoo! And the words came tumbling out of my brilliant novel.

Yea, Me!

Woe is me!

How can Part I only have two sections per Chapter and Part II have three sections per Chapter? My life, as I knew it, was over. I would have to shelve the book, give up the dream, and move on to something else.

Wait, woe is not me. Yea, is me! Why? Well, dear readers, let me tell you why: there is no consistency in writing! I don't mean the actual words to page. I mean the actual published books out there by debut and established authors.

Sherlock Holmes switches from first person to third person in one book. Yes, first to third then back to first! Is that consistent? Of course not!

An author tells the majority of the story from one perspective and then, the last three chapters, adds a second perspective. Is that consistent? Of course not!

I have a brilliant novel that has two perspectives per Chapter for the first twelve chapters, and then three perspectives per Chapter for the last twelve chapters. Is that consistent?

Everyone: OF COURSE NOT!

There is no consistency with writing. We as authors - aspiring or otherwise - have total control over our writing. Yes, an agent, editor or publisher might take issue with our total control, but . . . until they do, we do as we must, because we must do as we do.

So, always, remember: there is no consistency with writing. Read a book, read a dozen, and look for the non-consistency. You'll find it, my friends, in book after book written by both debut and established authors.

S

2010-06-25T06:20:00.000-05:00

This has been a strange week for me, that started last Thursday (June 17, 2010 - my sister's birthday, btw). It all started with a sense of knowing what I needed to do on a certain project and having this burning desire to get home and get started. In fact, I mentioned that in an earlier post.

Then, articles I read, things I heard people say on television - fictional characters, but their words held impact for me - and so much more seemed to gel together into this sense that I'm back on the right track with my writing and that what I'm doing with this current project is definitely the write (yes, meant to use that word) thing!

Life is full of so much doubt, so much negativity, and it's hard not to fall in step with the doubters and negators (not sure it's a word, but I'm using it). It is, I believe, human nature to have feelings of doubt and negativity.

It is also human nature to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a person believes bad things are going to happen to them, then, most likely, bad things will happen to them. If a person believes that nothing is going to come of a blind date, then isn't it more likely they're really not going to try really hard to impress the other person on the blind date? No, not me, but a friend of mine did just that recently. He had such a negative outlook on the upcoming blind date that I think he sabotaged the date. Just my thoughts.

But, back to happier things: Dreams don't work without action. Nobody can stop me but me. By now, you know these are the words spoken by the fictional character Roseann Connor in the final episode of Roseann. You should also know by now, that these words have become my mantra.

Life is what we make of it. Yup, I'm going all Pollyanna on you - if you've never seen that movie with Hayley Mills (she of the original Parent Trap) and Jane Wyman (she of Falcon Crest), then stop what you are doing and go rent that movie now. Heck, even Agnes Morehead (Endora from Bewitched) is in the movie, and has a delightful part. Anyhow, perhaps I am going all Pollyanna lately. Perhaps we all should.

On that note: Boyd Morrison, debut author of The Ark - he "didn't let rejection discourage him". His book was "turned down by 25 publishers". He persevered. He believed in himself and his book. - Writer's Digest - July/August 2010 - p. 18.

Boyd Morrison was passionate enough about his book to do whatever he needed to do to get his book out there. We, as writers, need to be just as passionate.

I also read a comment on Twitter, or maybe the blogsphere, about an author who received way more than 25 rejections . . . and still ended up getting published.

Perseverance is key.

Trusting our instinct, our gut . . . is key.

I'm going with the sense that everything is just right at the moment. It's just a feeling. I'm diving into that feeling and not coming up for air until I absolutely have to come up for air!

If I take meaning from words spoken on Bewitched or Roseann or from a successful author, or whoever, and if that meaning inspires me and pushes me forward . . . so what? I take what I can get in this life. I can either move forward with a positive attitude, or I can stagnate with a negative attitude.

In the end, we make our lives what they are . . . and not somebody else. We choose our path. I've chosen the crazy, nerve-wracking, OMG I have to write a query and a synopsis in addition to a novel of brilliance path . . . and I have no intention of giving up. I may lose my way from time to time, but I know that, out here in the blogsphere, there are enough friends to set me back on that path!

S

Questions/Answers

2010-06-24T06:07:00.002-05:00

No, not me. Hop on over to Rachelle Gardner's blog and read this post. She answers some burning questions in a short/sweet manner.

Two questions/answers that stood out for me:

If you have more than 2 POV characters, are your chances of publication lessened?
→ Not unless your book is really bad.

Do you think agents are more likely to take on work that has a great plot with writing that needs work, or great writing with a plot that needs work?
→ Great writing with a weak plot - for sure. I can help a good writer improve their plot. But teaching an average writer to be a good writer is not my job.

Question 1 - I love it, especially since I often write from more than one POV! Love it, love it, love it! Enough said.

Question 2 - this is one of those double-edge sword kinda answers. Why? Well, let me tell you . . . the answer provides great hope and great delusion. Great hope in that a writer who writes great, but has a weak plot, has a good chance of success. Now a writer who actually writes poorly, but thinks they write greatly, well, ya know . . .

So, what did I glean from Question/Answer 2?? Again, thanks for asking that brilliant question. Ha! I learned that we all need to write to the best of our abilities. It helps to have both great writing and a strong plot, but, if you are a great writer, and your plot is weak, all is not lost. I'm just saying . . .

There are some other great questions and answers, so don't forget to click on the linkity-link above and check everything out!