A Sense of Community, the 2013 Reader Author Get Together

June 10, 2013 by

I spent the past weekend near Cincinnati for RAGT 2013. Over the years, I’ve come to know what to expect when I go to these types of events and I look forward to seeing familiar faces as well as meeting new ones.

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At this one, I took a couple of hours on one evening to spend some time with a dear friend I haven’t seen in quite some time.

Though her eyes, I got a chance to step back and look at the word I’ve become comfortable in with new eyes again. I was reminded that the women (and men) who were in attendance were more than just authors, readers, and industry professionals. We were truly a community, brought together by our common love of books.

At every meal, every event, in every corner of the lobby, you could hear people sharing their love of one author or another. They were talking about this latest release or that.

Those who hadn’t seen each other in months (or maybe a year) warmly embraced, strangers became quick friends. Yes, this was more than just a get together, or a conference, it was a community, sharing their passion for books and reading with each other. (I can’t think of another community where winning a basket full of books would elicit such squeals of glee.)

And this community is one I’m so proud to be a part of. Over the years, I’ve met the most wonderful, supportive women. I’ve made lifelong friends, and my life is oh-so-enhanced for having them in my life.

…and I’m already looking forward to next year.

 

Filed Under: Life, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , , ,

Sometimes It’s Bittersweet…The End

June 3, 2013 by

Over the weekend I hit one of those milestone moments that can be bittersweet for a writer. I finished a book.

The End

For me, because of the way I write a book, typing the end doesn’t mean mission accomplished. No, instead I know I’ve just reached the end of my first draft. Typing those two final words, means it’s time to start the next step.

Being able to say a book is truly done comes after going through it twice with a very critical eye. Then, I give myself a bit of break. I listen to the book (have a nifty piece of software read it to me). After that it goes to my super amazing critique partner. Even then, I will still reread the book at least twice from beginning to end with a very critical eye.

Knowing a book is done — for me — isn’t about hitting a point in a story. it isn’t even about the number of revision rounds. It’s something I feel.  Chapter by chapter, I just sort of know inside that it’s as good as it can be.  When all the chapters get that stamp of approval on an individual basis and the all seem to fit together, like puzzle pieces making a cohesive picture. then I know I’ve really hit the end.

So what comes next?

I begin the submission process on that story and beginning writing the next book.

Filed Under: Books, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , ,

Writing in a Pressure Cooker

April 11, 2013 by

The deadlines that are the hardest for me to meet, always seem to be the self-imposed ones.

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Maybe I’m not as realistic about what I can do in a certain amount of time. Or, maybe, I expect too much out of myself.

But, I suspect that it has something more to do the miscalculations of the time it takes to craft a story.

Two pieces of the writing-a-novel story go relatively fast for me: the first draft, and the final editing stage. It’s that middle section. The fine tuning a draft into a constructed story, with depth and layers that takes time. More time than I would like it to some days.

This is the time I’m most likely to set those goals that have similar results to putting me in a pressure cooker, ie finish fifty pages in one day. And this is exactly what I’m doing for the summer.

My summer goals is to take two rough-draft contemporary romances that I set aside while working on Fairyproof and Resurrecting Harry with my editors. I want them pitch ready by the conference season, which, oh yeah, the first one is in two weeks.

So, if I resemble exactly somewhat that picture above, please realize it’s just because I’m writing in a pressure cooker right now.

Filed Under: Life, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Difference Between Beginnings and Middles

November 27, 2012 by

I’ve never been really good and muti-tasking. If I don’t stay focused on what I’m trying to accomplish, I get distracted and pushed off track on both projects I’m trying to make headway on.

But my career goals for the coming year are going to require me to not so much as split my focus as to be able to handle many irons in the fire at one time.

To that end, I’ve been trying again to work on a second draft of one manuscript while beginning a novella (related to the same project). Again, I’ve been reminded that the process of revising and editing takes completely different skills than writing a draft.

A lot of writers I know have a favorite part of the process. Some love the wonder and creativity of the first draft, others love putting a high polish on their words, making paragraphs after paragraph sing. I, however, love it all and am actually enjoying both.

What I am not doing, is giving each project completely equal chunks of my time. I do tend to favor whichever one plays to the skills that feel sharper.

If you are a writer do you have a favorite part of the process? If not, are you good at multi-tasking?

Filed Under: Fiction, Life, Writing Life Tagged With: , ,

NaNo (and Personal) Update

November 20, 2012 by

NaNoWriMo is a curious thing, isn’t it?

Even when I don’t make my word counts, I seem to learn something about myself or my writing process. And yes, this is going to be one of those years when 50k is just too far out of reach for me.

Not that I want to make excuses, but life threw some curve balls at me — as she tend to do — and I lost too many days of production to make it up.

That doesn’t mean the experience was a waste. Not by any means.

What I learned:

1. Every word counts: The days that I added less than 1,000 words are not less valuable than the days I added 4,000. They all contribute to the completed manuscript and they are all important.

2. Making time is a mindset: It’s easy to say “I don’t have time” or “I will do this later.” The fact is, we make time for what is important to us. Time won’t magically appear. We have to set it aside.

3. Some things matter more than work. Yes, this one comes with a caveat. Of course, most of us have to work to pay the bills. For many of us, writing already comes behind a “first” job which fills that role of providing the money to live on. For me, it can be hard to push writing back further on the plate, but some things do take precedence. For one, family.

I’m not sorry I took on the challenge and even though I know 50k is out of reach, I will still be working hard this week and next to get the largest word count I can.

If you’re participating in NaNo, how’s it going?

Filed Under: Fiction, Writing Life Tagged With: ,

Another November, Another NaNoWriMo

November 5, 2012 by

It’s November again. For writers, that means it’s NaNoWriMo time (National Novel Writing Month.)

You always knew writers were a little bit crazy, right? What other segment of the population would take the month before the winter holidays — a month that contains an American, family holiday of its own — to write 50,000 words.

Only writers.

But if I can defend us for a moment, I don’t think we do this because we’re a little unstable.  I don’t think we do it because we’re a teeny bit into causing ourselves pain. I think the reason we — or at least the reason I’ve done it year after year — is that we love to challenge ourselves.

Even though writing is about creating new stories, the process is always the same — even though it might be different from writer to writer — for each individual it can become habitual, and it can be easy to fall into a rut.

Hitting a daily word count, and calling it a day. Editing or revising a certain number of pages and saying “that’s good.”

For me, NaNo is about pushing my limits.

It’s about throwing plans and routines aside and writing until I drop. Not because of the daily word count to his 50,000 words in thirty days is insurmountable, but because I know there will be days when I will be too busy with the day job to write. Some days I will be busy having family over for a big dinner. Other days will be spent planning for that dinner. By by month’s end I want to be able to say “I did it!”

So, where am I? At the end of day four, I was just 70 words shy of 8,000 words. This puts me just a hair above on track. Today I have the morning off — and hope to add another 3,000 – 4,000 words.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? How are you doing so far?

 

Filed Under: Fiction, NaNoWriMo, Writing Life Tagged With: , , ,

Push and Pull, Hot and Cold

October 1, 2012 by

In the last few weeks I’ve been able to dig back into the book that I hope will be the follow-up to Fairyproof.

I’ve been focusing on a turning point at about the one-third point, and the song below — Katy Perry’s “Hot and Cold” has been stuck in my head.

It may not seem like a song that would relate to a romance, but when I think about that portion of the book just before a couple commits to work together, there is a push-pull of emotions. The hero (or heroine) the story is about, doesn’t easily surrender to the other, the fight to protect themselves from what it is they believe will hurt them.

In this case, my hero can’t really trust anyone around him, not even the hero.

Yes, it’s not really a light storyline, but if you get past the up beat…neither is the song.

 

Filed Under: Fairyproof, Fiction, Music Tagged With: , , , ,

It’s About Context

September 10, 2012 by

Over the weekend I received my editor’s revisions for my upcoming novel, Resurrecting Harry. Over the last week and a half I’ve been working on a critique for my critique partner on her upcoming story. Both projects have reminded me of something that can be easily forgotten. Context.

 

It seems when someone else reads my work there is always a line or two — or a paragraph or two — that my new reader doesn’t read in the same way that I wrote it. It isn’t about missing words or misconstruction in the sentence structure. The reader just doesn’t process it in the same way.

Of course, that is a strong indication that some rewriting is necessary, because I want my intent to be as clear as possible, but I find it interesting how the human mind works.

It’s not only about a line, or a few words. but sometimes a whole scene can mean a completely different thing to another person. For example, I was told by a friend that when her daughter looked at the cover for Fairyproof (out now) she pointed to the man silhouetted in the ally and attributed him as one of the minor characters in the book. After hearing that, I could see that her interpretation of the scene depicted on the cover could an accurate one. I, however, had seen and processed it in another way.

And that is the beauty of fiction, and in reading, that we as readers, can take the story and process it according to our life experiences.

Check it out: A local newspaper  interviewed me last week about Fairyproof. The resulting article can be found and read online.

Filed Under: Books, Fiction, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , ,

Character Building: Through a Different Set of Eyes

August 6, 2012 by

I have some big deadlines looming on the horizon, so, meeting with my “prison group”  this past weekend was a necessity. Before you get the wrong idea, my writer friends and I call our commitment to each other to write on the weekends (usually in a local coffee shop) “prison”. We hold each others feet to the flames and it is often some of my most productive writing time.

On one of our short breaks we began discussing characterization and motivation One of us had that inkling that one of her characters and its motivation was not strong or clear enough. As we sussed through the problem, it quickly became evident that all of us tend to focus in deeper on one of the two main protagonists of our stories, even if it’s really designed to be a two hero story.

We tossed around some possible causes and tried to brainstorm some possible solutions. I’m going to list a few below, but — at least between us — it seems to be a common problem for writers, so I’m interested in hearing any tricks you have to making your characters in a romance story equally strong.

1) Defining inner conflict for both characters – One of the issues I find when I’m a brainstorming a story (remember I’m a pantster vs plotter) I tend to work of “what if” statements: “what if scenario XYZ happened.” The suggestion was made if I build a strong GMC for both characters around that scenario.

2) Consider “Conflict Lock” – A Bob Mayer concept (check out the video), the essence is to make sure your main character’s goals are in direct conflict with each other, for example: Both people want to purchase the same piece of land for different reasons.

3) Develop full back stories – (Off the page of course) One of the best ways to get an in focus look at a character is through a well developed back story, even if you don’t put every detail on the page. It’s good to know.

Do you have any tips of tricks for developing both your heroes fully?

Filed Under: Fiction, Life, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , , ,

Looking for a Hero

June 19, 2012 by

Even though my new stories often start with a seedling of a plot idea. I probably spend most of my prewriting time sussing out what my characters are like.

Jim CaviezelIn fact, it sometimes take writing as much as 15,000 words of the story before I really feel like I get the character. I way have a handle on the goals and their motivations. I can infuse all kinds of conflict between two people, but it takes spending a little time with them to see inside and know what makes them tick.

I can build a hero from the ground up. Write him a back story that has made him the person he is on page one, but, at times, I feel like there’s something I just don’t understand completely.  I can decide he has brown eyes, but until I look at a picture of a man with dark, soulful eyes I’m not seeing everything there is to be seen.

I’ve spoken here before about how I use images to round out my character profiles, but I was reminded of it again as I went on web search looking for the perfect hero for my novella-in-progress.

I’d like to introduce you to Nate Jenkins ( Okay…Jim Caviezel)

Do you have any tips or tricks for getting to know your characters?

Filed Under: Fiction, Life, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , ,
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