A week or so ago I posted a short little rant about the negative stereotypes of the “bullie” breeds of dogs. Most are applied to pitbulls, but those fears have a way of extending to any dog whose breed has ‘bull’ in its name.
Anyone who frequents my Facebook, or comes by the house, knows all about Rose and Lily and what wonderful characters they are, and I plan to defend them and all their cousins from time to time on these pages. Instead of sharing pics or stories of my babies, today we’ll focus on someone else’s.
This is a great video, that shows a bulldogge personality well. Enjoy!
Not too long ago I shared some writing advice from Stephen King, and that tidbit was something he shared in his book, On Writing. Writers must read.
Boy, this one is hard to follow when you’re a wife and a mother with a part-time pseudo-job. It’s a struggle to spin your tales in whatever free moments arise. However, as I came away from RWA National conference last month, it really hit me hard how little I’ve read this past year.
Okay — let me rephrase that…how few published novels I’d read this year.
I have two critique partners who give me the most wonderful work to read. I try to get through my writing craft magazines that come each month. I also try to make the time to read books on the craft. While all of that is good, and counts, there is a special joy that comes from reading for pleasure. I made a promise to myself to read the books I brought home from conference and also sat down and loaded all of the paranormal Rita finalists I hadn’t yet read onto my Sony e-reader. A month passed, and I hate to admit I hadn’t read a single page.
But then something changed last week. My kids returned to school.
My eldest daughter is taking two classes at the university post secondary. (A high school senior taking the classes for both HS and college credit). She has to be 20 miles south in the morning, and 5 miles north in the afternoon. Even with a driving reprieve from my son–who also has an 8 am college class two of the 4 mornings she goes down–I’m still doing a lot of picking up here and driving there until we can get her a car of her own.
Now, I’m the type of person who is habitually early. It’s just my genetic makeup. When I have to be in a certain place at a given time, I calculate how far it is to my destination and how long it will take driving the speed limit to get there. I usually then add 5 minutes for unforeseen traffic and 10 minutes for unforeseen natural disaster. (Yes, I always allow for a natural disaster that will only slow me down by ten minutes <g>)
End result: I often spend 15 minutes waiting.
That is why you will always find 2 items with me in the car 1) a notebook and a pen and 2) either a book or my e-reader.
Between yesterday and today I’ve been stealing 10 minutes here and there to begin reading J.R. Ward’s Covet and have to say the absolute joy of reading has rushed back to me. And dare I say I’ve learned a thing or two too.
I think the hardest part of letting go of one project and moving on to a new WIP (work in progress) is letting go of the characters. At least for me, it take about fifty pages of a rough draft before i get a real good grip on a character. What makes them tick and their idiosyncrasies take time to come to the surface. After several months not only building the story, but layering the characters, they are no longer cut–out dolls, but they take shape in my mind and their voices whisper the story in my ear.
By the time I type “The End,” they are like old friends.
And moving on to a new project often means saying goodbye.
Goodbye can be hard, but life is about moving forward, making new friends and spinning new tales.
And how do strangers, virtual and otherwise, become friends? Through a getting to know each other phase, which takes us back to those first fifty pages.
Some other tricks that help paper cut out ‘concepts’ become real characters who grow into dear friends:
Pictures — This is a relatively new step for me, but it’s become a necessity. For two previous characters (In two previous works) a character that had little depth for me, suddenly became very real when I had an image. And while writing in that character’s POV, if I get stuck the remedy seems to be pulling the picture up. Suddenly mannerism show themselves and a dialect develops.
Character charts – There’s 1,000 or more of these on the internet and they all look very much the same. While they may seem generic (What can eye and hair color really tell you about a person) Thinking about the characteristics does help you dig deeper. I also find these are an awesome reference to keep computer side for when you forget what you said the hero’s eyes were in chapter 1. (And yes, this has happened to me.)
How do you develop your characters? Do you have tricks for digging deep before you begin to write?
So, it’s almost 5:00 p.m. on Friday and I’m determined to keep up my 3 days a week blogging schedule as I work my way thought the partial I’m writing, submitting my just completed MS, and getting used to my kids new ‘demands on mom’ schedule.
On Wednesday I talked about some of my pre-writing steps, with this new story in particular and itemized that I would be figuring out what was going to come in the hero/heroines way (In other words: plot). What’s that like? Well, it kind of looks like this video below…except both voices live in my head.
No, honestly, I love this clip. Almost as much as the “What if” scene in the movie “The Majestic”.
So, the early days with a new work in progress. You would think it would feel like a honeymoon, but these are almost as hard as the revision stage.
I’ve shouted it from the mountaintops, I’m not a plotter. But that doesn’t mean I just jump in and begin at…well…the beginning. Here’s a bit of the process.
What I’ve done the last 4 days besides write nine pages:
*Took a five subject notebook and put a tab on one section, labeling LL (Lizzy’s Legacy / Working title)
*Copied over two pages of notes from previous brainstorming sessions and my own thoughts.
*At half way point of the section, I began sectioning off pages for Character Charts. 2 pages each for major Characters, one page for the minor characters I already know about. Over the next week (probably) i will fill in the physical information and the emotional baggage as I learn it. I will also tape in pictures of the characters I find online or in magazines.
*Read/researched and took notes on the Korean conflict (Time / partial setting for book)
*Read (a lot!) and took a ton of notes on Japanese internment camps in the U.S. for hero’s background.
*As I wrote: established G-M-C (Goal, Motivation, and Conflict) for hero and heroine.
*In the next two days, I will start making a short list as to how I can ‘screw with’ the h/he GMC in order to advance the plot.
What’s your process for beginnings? Especially other pantsters out there?
As I posted on these pages last week, this week I will begin a new writing project. Oh, the excitement. Oh, the horror. And yes…I feel both.
New stories are wonderful. Allowing the muse to run free in an open field and building new characters from the ground up is so freeing. I love the way a new story slowly develops. How the turning points and the conflicts show themselves to me through the process. But at the beginning it can be scary too.
I’m a pantster. I do very little — close to no — plotting before I begin a new story. I do build character charts and try to flesh out the beginning conflict, the ending, and the major turning points, but that’s about it. I look at the clean page (even if it is a digital page on the computer screen) and start typing, letting the story flow. Yes, there are usually mis-starts. Those first pages will be caressed and refined a number of times before I will feel I know where we’re going, but I think that ‘s true of plotters as well.
On my last project I eventually built myself up to 2k a day, but beginning are hard so for this week and next I’m going to shoot for 1k.
Anyone whose read this blog for any length of time, or no me at all, knows our love for the Olde English Bulldogges. I knew before we got our sweet, baby Lily that there was a public perception for Pit Bulls to be viscous, but I wasn’t aware that those prejudices carried over to all bullie breeds until we welcomed them into are home.
A dog crisis that evolved this week is the reason this blog is a day late. And I couldn’t think of any other message to get out but this one. Environment can alter a dog’s temper, but there are no bad breeds.
Does this look like a viscous dog!
One of my favorite shows that is working overtime to change the perception of Pit Bulls is the Animal Planet’s PitBoss. Check out some videos and catch new episodes on Animal Planet.
Now excuse me, I’m going to go give my bullie-babies some hugs.
I had planned, hoped even, for a quiet week of reflection. Some time off between projects, but instead I’ve been overwhelmed with frustration and irritation.
Resurrecting Harry is done: edited and submission ready. I will begin that process next week and begin writing the next book. That’s what writers do, right? We Write!
This week was supposed to be devoted to getting the submission tools (a synopsis, a query, etc) in order. And to relax. Let muse recharge. Oh yeah, and tackle some of those household chores that get ignored when we are neck deep in a project. After the past month of stress, I believed this wasn’t only a good idea but a necessity.
The first couple days went well, but beginning yesterday and sense of calm or relaxation fled. Voices began whispering in my ear. Conflict and turning points questions occupied my mind (Very weird for a pantser) and I found myself thinking about character sketches for my new hero and heroine. And the ones for project two and project three. The muse had her long weekend off and she’s ready to go back to work.
So what could I do, but let her run free. Though I’m keeping it constrained just a few hundred words these early days. First focus has to be on submitting the just completed project. Next week, I will jump head first into the new project.
I’m sure there will be lots of fodder for the blog as the early days of a new project are the most fun and the most frustrating.
So, I’m a little late getting back to the grind. The week following RWA was filled with much more ‘catch up’ than I anticipate. I saw Rick Springfield at Centennial Terrace in Sylvania, OH last night, which inspired this post.
I’ve talked about it on these pages before. A lot of my inspiration comes from things I hear in music. I happen to see one of my favorites, Rick Springfield last night and while listening to the music many of the similes and metaphors for love rang out like a church bell.
Finding new ways to express true, deep and resonating emotions can be difficult and some of the best come out in song. I’ve always felt a special kinship to the line in “Venus in Overdrive” – “I write words about it / but I doubted / if I even / have a clue.” Writing about love and loving relationships is difficult. (Not sex, tab a inserted into slot b is the easy stuff) but the underlying emotions and the true affairs of the heart well, that’s a very different story isn’t it?
(Note: after I hit publish I felt the need to clarify. Writing good physical encounter scenes is hard. Very hard. But for me, personally, the hardest part of it is making sure the emotions and the sensuality are being conveyed)
So find below a list of just some of my favorite lyrics about love and life, all found in Rick Springfield songs.
• “Affair of the Heart” – “The smell of your skin can light up the fires in me.”
• “Souls” – “He met her one endless night / her eyes had a light.”
• “Love is Alright” – “With the night comes a feeling that I’ve got this incredible power
Gonna love her Daddy, she’ll be feeling it tonight.”
• “What’s Victoria’s Secret?” – “But I know she’s not what’s best for me / and I know she’ll cause me harm / And I know she’d rather fly away / to someone else’s arms.”
• “Beautiful You” – “Beautiful you / You don’t have a clue / You star in the story of my life.”
• “Will I?” – “So I lied and said that I’m okay / Cause there’s the way you are / and the way I wish you were.”
• “Living In Oz” – “I’m thirsty for affection / let me drink from your loving cup.”
• “One Reason” – “Trying to get faith from the $8.50 paperbacks / Hoping they’ll show me the way (the way to what).”
• “Lust” – “Insipid smile on my face and a dumb remark / I trip, slip, slide over the precipice.”
And of course, what kind of list would it be without a “Jessie’s Girl” Lyric: “I feel so dirty when they start talking cute / I wanna tell her that I love her but the point is probably mute.
Here’s a video of “What’s Victoria’s Secret?” Just for fun.
My countdown for RWA Nationals in Orlando FL is down to hours now. I’ll leave first thing in the morning, have dinner with my parents tomorrow afternoon, possibly see my sister-in-law and niece on Wednesday, and spend 5 days learning and socializing with some of the most incredible people on the planet. I find the people who I meet at conference are the nicest, most generous, and most creative people. I sincerely enjoy taking to them, hearing about their work and learning from them.
However, I did run into a major issue yesterday and considered compromising my principles for the sake of a purse. (Yes. I’m crazy.) To understand the whole story, I need to back up a year-and-a-half. The short story: My wallet was stolen out of my purse. Before I realized it was gone, the thieves had gone to Target and cleaned out my checking account. Horrible as that was, when I found out that they did it in multiple purchases, scanning the card repeatedly for $200-$300 at a time until a purchase was rejected and the salesperson never once asked to see an ID…I was infuriated.
Yes, they had my wallet. They would have been able to produce my drivers license but the clerk admitted he would have known immediately the woman using the card wasn’t me. The money was returned to my account in a few days (Federally insured and all) and in fact the police found the discarded cards and driver’s license later that night–I didn’t even have to stand in line at the DMV–but I still felt like it could have been avoided.
While giving my statement to the police officer of the store they used the card in, I asked that question. Why did no one ask for an ID? Their answer: It’s our policy not to because a lot of customers get irritated/offended when we do. My response: I haven’t shopped at Target since. Call it a peaceful protest, one that I know doesn’t mean a thing to them, but something I’ve stood by for eighteen months.
Fast forward to yesterday. When I fly I like to carry a large purse so that I can tuck in a lot of extra stuff (Use it like a second carry on). I do have a lovely one, that I’ve used at the last two national conferences, but it’s black. As is my new computer bag. And I like purple. And I felt like I needed a splash of color. So, while taking breaks from the editing I found myself searching for “large purse, purple”. And a very stylish one came up. On sale for $12. In stock at my local Traget store.
I wrestled with my little conflict for two days. I posed the question at dinner last night and received mixed responses. My daughter wants me to not compromise my principles and my son and husband think I should hold the criminals responsible not the store. Son jokingly added “Nothing is ever accomplished by peaceful protest anyway.”
Still conflicted, I asked my hair stylist and my nail tech what they thought (They’re sisters by the way.) Stylist offered to take the $12 and go buy the bag so I could have both. Nail tech couldn’t make a decision. In the end…I’ll be carrying a large (yet still pretty) black bag — but my fingers and toes are a splashy purple.
Just can’t compromise on principles.
So — in order to try and break up my stress level, I’m adding a Family Guy clip. The little speech Stewie gives Brian over his novel. And yes, son teases me with it occasionally…cause that’s just the kind of guy he is.
