A Writer's Work is Never Done

It's Been too Long

2012-01-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

I know it's been forever since I blogged. Turns out reality can really interfere with my desire to escape in to my writing fantasy world. But now that the holidays are over, and the rest of my stuff is mostly under control, I can get back to things. I hope.
Today I just wanted to send a little shout out to Mormon Mommy Writers founder, Nikki Wilson. She has become energized in a way that is completely inspiring. On our blog, we are doing a DAILY GIVEAWAY through the whole month of January to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary! Books, candy, even a query critique from Elena Johnson, besides more books. So come check it out!

Today's offering is from my good friend, Jennifer Griffith. Come read all about her and her new book, Big In Japan, due out in July.

And I promise not to fall away from this blog so much anymore. Let's just say the curveball life threw at me took me around the bend and back. And now I'm back. :)

Creativity

2011-12-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

What is creativity? When we are talking about fiction writing, we are usually talking about taking seeming unrelated things, smooshing them together in unexpected ways, and pulling a book out of your brain through the painful process of translating it from brain to fingers and onto the page.

But lots of time we take what has already been deemed a "classic" and see a whole new spin on it. How could we not, as we are different than the original creators? That doesn't make our efforts less original, though the source material is well known. Instead our efforts, combined with the strong foundation of the original work, can help us reach heights we couldn't achieve on our own.

In light of that, I'd like to present two videos from "The Piano Guys". They are Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson, a pianist and a cellist, respectively. With classically trained musicians, it's almost expected that you keep to the canon of accepted classical music. But they have succeeded in taking it to a whole different level. One is a fascinating interpretation of "Carol of the Bells" in honor of Christmas. The other is a hilarious take on a modern classic. As you listen, see if you can pull inspiration from these classics, with a twist. Imagine what kind of twists you could create on something you know well. It could be just what you need to jump start your writing this winter. Merry Christmas!

Back to the Grindstone

2011-10-14T11:13:00.000-06:00

Well, the move is complete (mostly), and now it's just a matter of putting things where they belong. Now if I only had enough bookshelves...

Ahem. I'm sure none of you other bibliophiles know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, my brain has finally settled enough that I can start getting things done on the writing front. I am about halfway through "Fairy Godfather". I really need to get it done, though, so I can be ready for NaNoWriMo, i.e., Nation Novel Writing Month. Why they chose November, I have no idea, it being only one of the busiest times of the year. But I have a literary fiction story that came to me, ready to write, that I think will stretch me in good ways as a writer. And I have plans, dang it. I plan on attending the ANWA Writer's Conference in February, and there will be several agents and a few editors there. I'd like to be able to pitch Fairy Godfather, which means it has to be done. Which means that I have to get it written so I have time to revise before February. Which means that I have to finish writing it before November, so it has time to sit before I do the final edits. Ack. That's a lot of work. But this is important to me. It's important that I actually finish a stinkin' story, if only to prove to myself that I can.

I wrote another chapter in this past month, but my personal challenge to myself is to get the bare bones of the story done in before Halloween. Gulp. Wish me luck.

Temporary Haitus

2011-09-12T00:16:00.002-06:00

I'm taking a few minutes out of craziness to let you know I'm in the process of moving. We moved to a new state in February, and we're finally buying a house. I'm in crazy mode for the next few, getting out of this one and into the other, so blogs go bu-bye for me during that time. See ya on the flip side...maybe three weeks. :) Wish me luck. I hate moving.

Monday Writing Tip: Wordplay Podcast

2011-08-30T08:43:00.006-06:00

Yesterday was one of those weird days where nothing went the way it was supposed to, including blogging. But I came across something interesting in my morning emails that I had to pass along, even if it is a day late. Nathan Bransford, J. Scott Savage, and James Dashner have started a podcast talking about books, and writing, and middle grade vs. YA, and they're prepared to have guest speakers and everything. If you don't know those names, you should. I linked to their blogs. Go discover!

Now I don't know about you, but podcasts have never really been my thing. Maybe because I only a little more tech literate than say, Gandhi. Maybe because there are so many out there, and instead of going and picking up the one thing I want, I have to browse and wander the convoluted isles of the podcast store.

But a fellow writer posted this link and I immediately had to check it out. It's great. One of the things I love about writers conferences is the chance to hear what other authors have to say. It's one thing to read it on their blogs or whatever, but to hear them speak is usually what people pay for.

The PODCAST is only about 24 minutes long. Take a listen. Even if they don't write in your genre or age group, these guys have published or been in the publishing arena for a while now, there is always a benefit to listening to experience. So enjoy!

WIP Friday: Ahem.

2011-08-26T07:00:00.001-06:00

So...I got nuthin'. I spent the past week doing edits for four the stories for the MMW ebook, Totally Cliche'd. I haven't even done anything on my story which is due in a week! Time for repentance, I think. But that being said, it was great to do those edits because it helped me see where I was going to need to fix my own story. I need to make sure every one of those 3500 words (or less) count. No lazy sentences, no meandering paragraphs, no info dumps. Clear, concise, clean. That's my short story motto, anyway. Kind of like poetry. Poetry is fun because you get to muck about with so few words that need to create layers of meaning. Short stories are like that, too. No allowances in short stories for egos. You are there to tell a story and that's it. Wham, bam, 'thank you, ma'am'. Get in and get out.

So, it's time for me to get back in and get my own editing done. Ta-ta!

Why Do I Love It?

2011-08-24T23:40:00.000-06:00

I really do love Pride and Prejudice, though every time I read it or watch a version of it, I can't help but want to smack sense into people. And yet I go back again and again.
I know that I am not the only one, as evidenced by this BBC miniseries from 2008. Here is the opening bit. Watch it and tell me that it doesn't suck you in.

I discovered this last year on Netflix, and completely fell in love with it. I watched it, oh, I don't know, maybe 4 times in a week. And clocking in at just under 4 hours, that was not a small time commitment. But after I was done gorging myself on it, I asked myself what it was about it that appealed so strongly.

I finally came to the conclusion that is was because when I read, I want to lose myself in the story, just like Amanda did. I want to become one with it, walk its halls and palaces, its alleys and dungeons. I want to be the fly on the wall that watches those moments of tenderness and the arguments that we hide behind the curtains.

And so I am jealous of Amanda Price, because she discovered a way to walk into the story of her dreams. I guess what I need to do is to write something so deep and rich I can disappear through the door behind the bathtub.

Writing Tip Monday: Balance

2011-08-22T23:28:00.000-06:00

You know, I'd really like to see a scale with more than 2 plates on it. Maybe 4, or 5, or 7. That would more accurately reflect my life.

Balance.

Today I had so many things to do. The list seemed eternal. And yet every morning I wake up, thinking that I will accomplish ALL of my to-do list. And I never do.

Balance.

I've never been a "slow and steady" kind of gal, more of a sprinter that collapses halfway through the long haul. I could always sympathize much more with the rabbit in that little morality tale of the "Tortoise and the Hare". Get there fast. Get it done in one big burst of speed.

Balance.

I've read books and gotten advice and watched videos on how to be more. More authentic. More of a mother, or wife, or homemaker. More organizational. More creative. More beautiful. More skinny. More appealing. More service oriented. More musical. More witty and entertaining. More of a commercial writer. More of a niche writer. More of a literary writer. Lots and lots of more.

Balance.

I don't know if true balance is even possible. Just when I think I have all my balls neatly juggled, flying in exact precision in tight arcs, someone lobs a granade into the mix, and suddenly I'm playing hot-potato, hoping it isn't one of my kids that goes SPLAT! when I drop the ball.

Balance.

I haven't found it yet, that elusive utopia of perfect balance between all of these balls in the air. Balance.

WIP Friday: Where to Begin?

2011-08-19T11:26:00.000-06:00

Beginnings are always hard. Always. I don't care who you are, you will probably rework your story's beginning more times than you want to count.

During WriteOnCon (have I talked about enough?) there were a number of forums and interactions with agents and/or editors that talked about beginnings. There were even forums where you could post a query, or the first page or the first 5 pages of your manuscript, and get feedback from other writers (and possibly a ninja agent!). I got some great feedback, as well as reading the feedback for other writers.

Two things I took away from what I read that applied directly to my WIP. One is that agents see TONS of stories that start with the child waking up in the morning. Totally overdone and cliche'. So that's out. But also they see a lot of "let's introduce the family before we get to the real meat of the story." And several people commented that I needed to maybe start my story at the bus stop instead of at home. And thinking about it I have to agree. So the beginning is going back under the chopping block...just as soon as the rest of it is finished. Ah well. That's part of the editing process, right?

Short but Sweet

2011-08-17T00:13:00.002-06:00

I am in the middle of WriteOnCon, so I'm not going to say much. But I had to send you to this article by Mette Ivie Harrison. It's one of the best explanations and helpful hints I think I've ever read about this profession of writing. So go read it. It's important.

Writing Tip Monday: WriteOnCon--GO!!!!

2011-08-15T09:13:00.000-06:00

How I love sitting around in my PJs all day. Alas, now that school has begun and I have young'uns to walk to the bus stop every morning, I no longer get to lounge around all day eating bon-bons and sipping ambrosia. (HA!)

But even more than just getting dressed is the getting up for being amongst my writing peers. You want to make a good impression, have people actually want to talk to you and not run away because you look like you haven't showered in, well, whenever.

Fear not, dear word workers, for WriteOnCon is here! For those of you who don't know, WriteOnCon is short for Writer's Online Conference. That's right, it's all online. You know what that means? The agents will be in their PJs, too! Oh, and it's FREE!!!!!!! DID YOU HEAR ME? FREE!!!!!! I participated last year and it was amazing.

Now I will say that this is geared mainly to YA, middle grade, and picture books. But the number of agents who are participating is huge, and many of them rep more than just YA. There are 3 days of delicious information. And you know the thing I like the best? All the info STAYS UP FOR A YEAR! That's right, if I want to participate in something live, but wanted to do something else at the same time, I know that the info will still be there 3 months from now when I get around to it. And you know all the notes you take when you go to a writer's conference? You don't need to because it's still right there for your later use.

It starts TOMORROW, PEOPLE, August 16-18th, but if you want to submit something for critique, there are several for tomorrow, and all of them have caps of 50 or 75, so go and take a look. You won't be sorry you did.

WIP Friday, Totally Cliched and MMW

2011-08-12T12:10:00.000-06:00

Most of you, my following public, know me from Mormon Mommy Writers. And you may also know that we recently held a short story contest to create an anthology ebook. Our goal is to follow the process beginning to end of self-publishing electronically, so we can educate ourselves and our readers on this erupting new market.

Well, the sad thing was that we didn't have a whole lot of entries. We had 9. And there was no way we could make 9 stories a, let's say, robust collection. So it was decided that those of us who contribute to MMW would have a story in it as well.

So most of the last few weeks of writing have been about this short story. Almost all the stories were of a supernatural nature, as well as a lot of suspense. So to keep in the spirit of those other stories, my own story is leaning that direction. Here is the first paragraph (and hopefully enough of a teaser that you will want to buy the book when it comes out) of "Not Another Werewolf Story".

Everyone has these fluffy, snuggly ideas about werewolves these days, like they are overgrown German Shepherds or something. They are not fluffy. They are not snuggly. They are human skin stretched over bones grown canine. There’s more hair, sure, but to see that malformed face, the lips pulled tight over a thrust out jaw and teeth sharpened into meat rippers-- there is no humanity left. I kill them out of pity for the humans they once were. Oh, and for revenge.

Authentic Voice

2011-08-10T08:00:00.001-06:00

Hello, my name is Megan, and I'm a 'So You Think You Can Dance' Addict.
I'm only recently come into it. I've watched bits and pieces over the years, but kids and other responsibilities kept me from being crazy. And I wouldn't say that I'm crazy, exactly. But I've enjoyed this season tremendously, if only to watch this amazing dancer named Melanie. She is multi-talented, actually studying art in college right now, but came to do this show. This little video I want to share is only a minute long, but after you watch it, I want to share a thought that keeps coming up.

Melanie is praised week in and week out for her technique. But in every case but this one, she has been under the instruction of a world class choreographer. This was a "dance for your life" moment, where she had to show the judges and the voting public that she could do more than just parrot back flawless technique. She had to build a 30 second routine for herself. What makes this 30 seconds so amazing is that it doesn't seem like any other "dance for your life" solos we've ever seen. It seemed professionally designed. It was the beginning of a story told through dance, not a series of her best tricks, though those moves were in there. The magic of this was that once she knew her stuff, (and she's clearly learned from the choreographers she's worked with this season), she was able to make it a part of her and bring it back out, entirely her own.

That's what we have to do as writers. We learn and assimilate and absorb all the knowledge and practice we can, so when it comes to that "write for your life" moment, we don't hesitate, because even as we change with new knowledge, we are still true to ourselves as people and as writers.

Coming to that point arrives in everyone's life at their own time. Sometimes they are young, like Melanie here, who is just 19. Or Christopher Paolini, who wrote Eragon at 14 or 15. Some come later, like J.K. Rowling, heading home on the train from her sub par job as divorced, single mum. Sometimes even later, like Grandma Moses, who didn't pick up a brush until she was 70 years old. But in each of those cases, they are clear in who they are. They are authentic.

So the next time you are wondering if you've found your voice, ask yourself this: Is the voice you sharing your true, authentic self, or are you faking an accent? Because I can promise you, agents have heard it all. And if you aren't real to you, there's no way they're going to buy it.

Monday's Writing Tip: Red Flags in Agents and Following on Twitter

2011-08-08T11:59:00.000-06:00

Not that I'm anywhere NEAR seriously looking for an agent (you kind of have to have a finished product first), but I came across this article today. I follow Rachelle Gardner on twitter, and she always has good and thoughtful things to say. Here is her take on some agent practices that are going on in the agenting world right now. As a newbie to the agent aspect of the biz, I'm glad to find these kinds of direct statements from other agents on their peers.

Questionable Practices by Literary Agents

One of the suggestions I liked the most is asking to speak to other authors that the agent represents. Here is what she said:

Failing to have the appropriate level of experience to be an agent. When you consider signing with an agent, you should check their track record of actual book sales to traditional, royalty-paying publishers. Ask them for references and check with some of their current clients (and consider it a red flag if the agent acts offended by this request, or refuses to give you names and contact information). If the agent hasn’t made any sales yet because they’re new, they’ll still need to prove their legitimacy to you by having a verifiable track record of experience in other areas of publishing, or showing that they’ve been working at a reputable literary agency in a different role while learning the ropes.

Following agents on twitter is a great way to get to know them. Sometimes they are very professional and sometimes silly, but it helps me get to know them and their personality. When the time comes that I'm submitting seriously, I'll know which agents I'm more likely to gel with because I've been listening to them on twitter.

So today's tip is: If you don't have a twitter account, I suggest getting one just to follow authors, agents, and publishers you know and like. It will give you that window into the publishing world you've always wished you had. The agents seem more like real people and less like the untouchable "cool kids".

WIP Update: My REAL Current Construction Project

2011-08-05T11:57:00.000-06:00

So I've been meaning to update my vast readership about my real current work in progress. I fell into the dreaded trap of "Where is this story going? I don't even like my characters right now. I quit!" with my Reborn story. Not that I won't come back to it. It's been a few months, so it doesn't grate nearly as much as it did a few weeks ago.

My current WIP is actually a middle grade with the working title "Fairy Godfather". The protagonist, Eli, is a thirteen year old boy who's life is pretty sucky. He has an obnoxiously perfect older brother, a widowed mom working hard to keep her two boys fed and sheltered, and a trio of bullies he calls the Jailbaits (behind their back, NEVER to their faces.) His voice hasn't changed, he hasn't had any real growth spurt, and he can't get straight A's like his brother. The only thing he does have is Track team (and Charli, the cute girl as his running buddy.) But if he doesn't get an A on his 3rd term project, he's going to fail US History. And Track goes out the window.

When the Jailbaits destroy his project, a dapper gentleman shows up, offering to help him out. And with that help, instead of things getting better, he finds himself in hotter water than he ever imagined possible. Can Eli survive his Godfather's help and junior high, too?

So here is the first page. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any critiques or comments, please leave 'em. I'd love to get your thoughts. :)

Fairy Godfather

Chapter 1

“Come on, Eli. The alarm rang twenty minutes ago!” Eli could hear the stress in his mom’s voice and winced, even with his eyes closed. He rubbed his eyes, trying to get the sticky sleep out.

“Yeah, come on, Eli.” Mike’s fake mom voice pierced his eardrums and he opened his eyes just wide enough to glare at his older brother. Mike smiled at him, his face full of malice. Mike was already dressed, of course, his hair combed and his backpack on his shoulder. Peterson High was on the way to Mom’s work, so Mike got a ride. Eli had to wait for the bus to the middle school. The bus that also carried Cal, Kevin, and Alex. An involuntary shudder rippled through him, sending his sheets to the floor.

Mike leaned on the doorjamb, watching as Eli stumbled over his discarded clothes from yesterday. Mike snickered and Eli clamped his lips together to keep from saying anything that would start another argument that he would lose.

“Get out of here, Mike.” He searched through the bureau, finding his last clean shirt and pair of jeans. He would have to do laundry this afternoon. He pulled his pajama shirt off and dropped it on the floor before pulling the t-shirt over his head, his back still to Mike. He hated how Mike always made fun of his ribs poking out under his skin. He couldn’t help it if he was skinny. It wasn’t like he didn’t eat. Mike, with his perfect six pack and shoulders that had girls throwing themselves at him all the time, had no idea what it was like. The jerk.

Creativity...And A Recipe!!!

2011-08-03T12:03:00.001-06:00

I love to cook, especially Italian, since I can put together a pretty decent Italian meal on the fly. Pasta is always my go-to meal when we have a busy day. I can whip up a nummy pasta sauce in my sleep. I also love to bake. I have since I was a kid. Sunday night treats became "my thing" once my mother discovered how much I liked to bake.

But only recently have I branched out creatively and started making up my own cookie recipes. Baking requires a little more exactness because just tossing in a handful of something can ruin baked goods. But after baking tons of cookies over the years, I have the basics down.

So yesterday we had activity that I needed to bring a treat to. I had some things in the pantry, but nothing that screamed "cookie", like chocolate chips or raisins. And with a son allergic to nuts (except peanuts), we don't keep them in the house.

So I started to brainstorm with the ingredients I had. I had plenty of peanut butter, but I didn't want plain peanut butter cookies. I wanted chocolate. AND peanut butter. So I decided to just make up a recipe.

Thank goodness for all those years of practice. I knew, without looking, what I would need for a basic cookie, and then add the things to make it different. I ended up making a cakey chocolate cookie with peanut butter icing. IT WAS NUMMY!!!

So here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
3/4 c. cocoa powder

Peanut Butter Icing
6 oz. softened cream cheese
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
3 T. milk
1 lb. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine butter and sugars until creamy. Add egg and vanilla and beat. Add applesauce and mix. In another bowl combine dry ingredients and then add slowly to wet ingredients. Place rounded teaspoons of dough onto LIGHTLY greased cookie sheet (the applesauce instead of butter makes them stick a little) and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen.

While cookies are cooling, blend together the cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese) and peanut butter. (It will be pebbly.) After those are thoroughly mixed, add milk and blend until smooth. I added one Tablespoon at a time until it was the right consistency. Then slowly incorporate the powdered sugar. Frost the cooled cookies and Enjoy!

The parallel to writing is sometimes we think, as beginners, that we can just jump in and start throwing ingredients into the bowl. But what we really have to do is practice and learn. We read a lot to see other writers' "recipes". We practice, knowing that the first few attempts are going to have some balance issues. But eventually we learn the basics, enough that we can start doing things on our own, really putting out a quality product. Hopefully it won't take 30 years like it did me to actually start making up my own cookies, but give yourself some time to truly internalize those basics. Expect that when you offer those first few attempts to be nibbled by others to see a few pinched faces and hear, "No, it's good. Really. For the most part."

New Blogging Schedule and Today's Writing Tip

2011-08-01T10:32:00.000-06:00

So I decided to give myself a schedule for writing blog posts...maybe that will help me be a little more regular about it. :) I don't know about you, but sometimes having a plan helps get things done. (Sometimes not, so I make no guarantees.) So for the foreseeable future expect a writing tip of some kind on Mondays, whether it's something I gleaned from my own writing experience or a link from another writer and what they've shared that made me go "Hmmmm..."
On Wednesdays I'll have a Random thought, something I found interesting or inspiring whether it has anything to do with writing or not.
And on Fridays (gulp!) I'll post a little something of a current Work in Progress. It may be total tripe and I may end up taking it down the next week out of embarrassment, but at least I'm not being such a fraidy cat.

Ahem. So that being said, here's today's Writing Tip:

Voice. We talk about voice in writing all the time. What is it, how do you find it, is it born in you, can you build one or does it just get discovered as you practice your craft? It's harder, you know, to really "hear" your voice when you're so used to it in your head. Have you ever recorded yourself talking and then played it back? Doesn't your voice sound weird? Without the internal resonance of our own voice bouncing off the insides of our skulls, we sound very different.

Our writing is like that, too. We are so accustomed to how our writing voice "sounds" as it echoes in our heads that we have a hard time seeing it for what it is. So today's writing tip is to have someone else read your work out loud to you, without you having your own copy in front of you. Take notes on things you like as well as things that bother you. Do you like one kind of word too much? Do your characters need more differentiation so we can tell them apart just by the words they use? What about sentence cadence? Do you use one kind of sentence structure more than another? Does it become too repetitive or do you shake things up enough? Does your reader stumble over wording or get confused and have to repeat the sentence? (You'll know if it's because of what you've written or if it's just the reader having a momentary issue.)
If you do this, two things will become clear: where you might need to do some editing and polishing, and your "voice". It might be weird at first to hear that voice outside your head, but hang in there. Doing this exercise more than once will give you an immunity to that "weirdness" to the point where you can evaluate your voice objectively. Because all the agents and editors out there will tell you it's the voice that ultimately sells the manuscript, even if you have a mistake here or there. They see similar plot lines everyday. It's the different voices of the different authors that makes a sale or not.

(Thanks to Jennifer Stewart Griffith and Mette Ivie Harrison for their inspiration for today's tip.)

Archetypes, Genres, and Loglines

2011-07-21T18:25:00.000-06:00

As part of the retreat four of the writers there gave writing classes. One was given by my friend, Jennifer Griffith, on Archetypes in writing. The book she based the class on is The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines, Sixteen Master Archetypes was eye opening, to say the least. What I loved about it was how it helped me to really SEE my characters. It gives my characters a background, a set of characteristics, and common motivations and behaviors that every reader intrinsically recognizes and responds to. It doesn't mean that my characters are "stereotypes", just universal. When we got home I bought the book so I could really delve into building up my characters from the beginning. It will hopefully help me take the book all the way to the end.

I'm also reading Save the Cat and it's been so enlightening to take my work in progress through this additional filter. Because I know that the stuff I write is more commercial, more like writing a screenplay than anything literary or "Great American Novel" type. The more I can work those angles that access those universal themes and characters and then adding my own spin or twist, the better off(and more sellable) my work will be. In the book it talks about ten different types of movies (though this applies to most fiction as well), like "buddy love", "dude with a problem", or "institutionalized". Identifying the type of story you're writing gives you a canon to read/watch from. Just like identifying your character's archetype in Hero and Heroines gives you an idea of who your character is, Save the Cat does the same thing for your plot.

So as part of the work you do in Save the Cat is to write your logline FIRST. That's right. Before you write ONE WORD of you book or screenplay, figure out how to describe it. I'm still working it out, but I'm going to be posting my loglines for my middle grade in the next few days. I'll need some input for the ones that work.

Don't you love great writing resources?!?!

A Retreat Into Writing

2011-07-18T18:19:00.000-06:00

So most of you know that I have a few kids. Like 5. (Not as many as others, but a complete handful, anyway.) And a husband, and facebook. Which means that I get to writing not as often as I'd like. (If I laid off the FB a bit more, that might be helpful.)

But this last week I did something I've never done before: left my entire family for 4 days and went to a writer's retreat in Prescott, AZ. It was a picturesque cabin/mansion at about 8000 feet on the mountains above Prescott. There was enough room for 30 of us, though most of us were sleeping on air mattresses and such. But there was enough floor space for all in all kinds of nooks and crannies.

I have to admit that I have struggled with writing recently. I've done it, and forced my way through things, but I know I could still do more, if only I could let go of some of my hang ups. Namely PERFECTIONISM. I've struggled so long with this feeling like the manuscript has to come out perfect the first time, that I didn't know if I'd ever get a book written.

But I finally got to the point during the retreat that there really wasn't anything else to do (except eat, and heaven knows I'd done enough of that with the dessert bar). None of the usual distractions were available. And everyone else sat and wrote. Seriously. Thirty women in one house and total silence? So I had to write. And boy, did it hurt. It was a struggle against the desire to avoid pain and resistance. But very recently I came across this quote:

Everyone must choose one of two pains: The pain of discipline or the pain of regret. ~Jim Rohn

It has become my mantra. There are so many times in this world that when I ran up against the hard thing and faded away from that pain of discipline. And now I have years of regrets. It had never been explained so clearly to me before and while it might not hit you as hard, it came at the right time for me.

So I wrote. And wrote. I wrote more than I ever have in that amount of time. Thirty pages. And you know how I did that? By giving myself the permission to write crap. Sorry for the salty language, but there it is. I need to let it all come out just awful, if for no other reason than to get it down on the page so I can THEN come back and edit, instead of taking so dang long to get a single page out.

I loved every minute of my retreat. I loved the writing, I loved the word wars, I loved the other women I was blessed to associate with. They were inspiring, intelligent, and supportive, every single one of them. I can't wait to go again next year. :)

Goals. Yeah.

2011-06-28T00:44:00.000-06:00

So I've never been a fabulous goal setter. I've decided that it has to do with my perfectionism. If something isn't right the first time, then it must not be worth doing. (And then I wonder why this behavior drives me batty in my children.) So needless to say, there are very few things worth doing that I've actually accomplished because I get discouraged so easily.

So when I moved down here to AZ and joined the local ANWA writer's group, I was mildly dismayed to discover that they make goals. And we report on how well we've done at the next meeting.

But I had to go along with this insane goal setting because I didn't want to have to explain my lame-o psychology to strangers. (They have all become very good friends, by the way.) And found myself spouting the craziest goals, like writing 4 chapters in a month (a record for me), or polishing two picture book manuscripts and sending them off to an agent. Just craziness. I don't know what comes over me in those instances. It's a little unsettling, frankly. I may be more susceptible to mob mentality than I thought.

So this month, I set the craziest goal yet: finish the middle grade book I'm working on right now. I've written the first chapter and most of an outline. AND. THAT'S. IT. That's all I have. I can't believe I said it out loud and let it be written down.

Now I will say that I've been pleasantly surprised with myself; I've actually accomplished all the goals I set out to do so far. But this one...well, I won't say I'm converted to goal setting yet. I'm still a lazy perfectionist, but I will give myself a little pat on the back if I can see this through. I do have until August to get it done, so we'll see. We'll see.

Where Can I Add A Hurricane?

2011-06-09T14:41:00.000-06:00

When I was younger I was a compulsive rereader. If I loved a book, for whatever reason, I would read it over and over and over again. I see this same tendency in my own children, and wonder if it is genetic or just an indication of maturity. I say maturity because as I have aged, I reread a lot less. A LOT. Books that I love reading the first time these days rarely get a second reading. Part if it is because there are so many other books out there to read. Part of it is that when I am writing, if I read too much I get a little manic and put off writing for reading.

I've noticed as I've gotten older I also won't finish books. In my youth this was sacrilege. If I started a book, I HAD to finish it. But now if the book doesn't have it all for me, I'm not going to waste my time. Even books that others feel are amazing, if I can't get through it, I stop.

All that being said, I am rereading a HUGE SERIES that I read just last year. And by huge, there are 7 books (the series isn't finished, by the way), and all of them are around the 800 page mark.

As I've reread them this time, I've tried to analyze why I am willing to reread this series. First of all, I totally fell in love with the characters. Even the antagonists are so memorable they haunt my dreams. But the two main characters are so ALIVE, so full of, well, CHARACTER, with their foibles and follies and crazy stubbornness that gets them both into trouble from time to time.

Secondly, it's the richness of the setting. The story's setting is as much its own character as the people themselves. And the vagaries of the setting, with its marked differences influence so much of what happens to these characters. Though it takes place in a time and place I've never been, I feel like I can see ever cloud that passes overhead.

Third, and certainly not least, is the storytelling. As I've studied about writing and practiced at it, one thing that comes up again and again is making sure that every moment your reader spends with your characters is moving. The scene doesn't have to be moving fast, like in a fight scene. It can be slow and tender, a delicate flirtation between lovers. But every scene, every MOMENT must be moving the plot forward. And this series does that in spades. Part of the reason I can't put it down, AGAIN, is that even when the scene is over, it's not really, because the next sentence brings in a twist that changes everything all over again.

For instance, in the 3rd book, at the climax, the two protagonists rescue a loved one in the nick of time from death. They barely escape with their lives, and finally return to the rest of their friends by skirting around not one, but two different groups that while fighting each other, could easily turn on our characters. They reach safety and as the reader you're thinking, "Phew! Wow! That was crazy! I'm so glad everyone's safe!". And you turn the page, only to find out that they are indeed being chased by one of the groups. And the tension ratchets up again as the bad guys get closer and closer, with our poor protagonists trapped. And you're thinking, "How are they ever going to get out of this alive?"

And then a hurricane comes. Literally. It destroys the bad guys, but of course a hurricane is no respecter of protagonists, so they are tossed and turned and you're sure they've escaped the bad guys to be destroyed by the bad weather. And then they get caught up in the storm and thrown around and limbs broken and one of the characters begins to fade like she's going to die. And then...just barely do they survive. Bruised, broken, and thoroughly smashed, they still live. And find that they've arrived at the one place where they truly can be safe, a new country where no one's never heard of our two characters and the havoc that follows them.

And then the book is over, and you're left sweating and clammy with relief.

And so now I sit here, analyzing my own writing, thinking, "Where can I add my hurricanes?" Because I want my stories to be as compulsively rereadable as this one.

I Know I Should Blog...

2011-05-16T02:50:00.000-06:00

...but when the muse takes off, she takes everyone and everything with her. I've stared at this blog page so many times over the past month, wondering what to write, when I can't even get excited about writing a great WIP. Sigh.

I saw earlier today a list of word count ballparks for the different genres in childrens and YA fiction. And something caught my eye: a 6000 to 10000 word count for chapter books. I could write that much. I could write a story that has everything a chapter book needs with that few words. It's no longer than a short story. And I write those all the time.

I have had a chapter book idea rattling around for a while. Maybe I'll give it a whirl and see if it sticks. :O)

Power To The People

2011-04-27T09:10:00.000-06:00

(This is a repost from MMW today. Thought it relevant to this blog, as well. :)

I have watched the tumultuous upheaval of the publishing industry with a bit of distance and a lot of interest. Interest because I hope to be among the published masses someday, and distance because I don't think it's going to be any time soon. (At least if my struggles with my WIP continue unabated.) It'll be a year or two or ten before I will be able to call myself published. But by then, what will the industry look like? More knowledgeable people than me talk about this endlessly, and I'm not here really to add what little I know to the conversation.

What I do want to bring, however, is a little perspective. I tend to think in analogies, so here's one for you.

Once phones looked like this:

And it was amazing! People couldn't conceive of such a remarkable thing. Some people even called it the Devil box, they were so sure it was evil inspired. You could pick it up and have to tell the operator who you wanted to call, and wait for them to direct your call to the appropriate place.

After a few years the phone grew to this:

You could dial the place you wanted to call yourself. And for 70 years or so, this was the standard, with slight variations.

Then along came mobile phones, phones you could actually walk around with, instead of being tied with a cord to a base and telephone line.

Once cell phones looked like this:

And we poor peons who couldn't afford to even think about such a luxury oohed and ahhed over it.

Fast forward to today:

This generation 4 iPhone can do more than several 1980s computers put together could. And that's besides being a mobile phone.

My point is when the technology began, we looked at it in wonder. How could it possibly get better than this, we said. And yet it did. Again and again and again. And it will continue to evolve as consumers demand different things from the phone industry.

This is happening in the publishing industry. We had a standard, a framework that everyone recognized as the only possibility. And yet times change. People's demands change. All sorts of factors go into this force for evolution.

In my mind we are at the equivalent of the 1980s cell phone revolution in terms of publishing. There are things going on now that we never thought would happen. But they are. Do we know where they'll end up? We can guess and conjecture, but like watching an old episode of the Jetsons, we won't know if our ideas are too tied to our present experience, or if they're truly revolutionary. (Watch an episode, and see if you don't see things that we already to better or differently than they thought when they made the show. Cash money vs. a card? Or just scanning something in your phone?)

That doesn't mean don't write or publish or submit or self-publish e-books. Life still has to be lived. And without that demand for the industry, it would die out. I just think it'll be fascinating to see in 10, 20, 50 years where the publishing/writing industry has gone. I hope you'll all be along on the ride with me.

What I'm Doing With My Time

2011-04-02T02:25:00.001-06:00

This is Me. This is my WIP.

'Nuff said.

Romance in Fantasy (And What Makes It Great)

2011-03-28T00:04:00.001-06:00

I like to think I know it all. But really, I don't. There are so many other people out there so much more eloquent, so much better at bringing images to life through their words.

That being said, I want to direct your attention to this article in OSC's online magazine, Intergalactic Medicine Show. Mette Ivie Harrison is an fabulous writer with a lyrical, yet stark style that shows an amazing intelligence and command of language. She's a joy to read.

She writes a monthly column for this magazine, which article is made freely available. I follow it pretty religiously.

This month she talks about how to write romance into other genres and make it believable and real. What she shares are thoughts I've had, but been unable to articulate. So read it and hear me in the background saying, "Yeah. That's right. Uh-huh. Yep."

....Been Writing....

2011-03-25T09:25:00.000-06:00

....and my kids are off on spring break. I hope that explains the lack of blog posts. I was very excited to begin a chapter yesterday that I rarely see in my writing...chapter 5. Yes, I know, pathetic. I have two other books that have reached that far, but neither are finished, and they're both in completely separate genres. (One is pure romance, the other is a crime thriller.) So here's hoping I get well beyond "Chapter 5" on this one.

I promise to come back and blog next week...after all, I have some awards to give out!

Regularity (and Blogging Awards)

2011-03-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

And no, this is not a reference to bodily functions. (Though my five year old would think it's hilarious.) It's about regular writing. As in everyday.

When I'm on my game, I try to blog and write everyday. I've found that if I blog in the mornings, it helps me focus my mind on the task at hand, so to speak. It brings to the forefront the types of issues that I'm currently dealing with in my WIP.

This week kind of got away from me, blogging wise. Not because I wasn't writing. It was BECAUSE I was writing. I've been going to bed every night, trying to figure out the next step for my MC. I've struggled with getting the first chapter on the right path so I can go in the direction I intended to all along. But all that "dwelling" has distracted me from blogging. I guess that's a good thing, right? When I wake in the mornings, my first thought is what to write the second my oldest 3 get out the door to the bus.

A funny thing happens when you write everyday. Your word count goes up. As in closer to finishing the book. As in that-has-never-happened-to-me finishing the book. I haven't yet. Not even close. But this regular writing dump is actually a good thing. A book might ACTUALLY get written by me one day. :)

In other news, I actually got a Blogging award. Me. Huh.

Some people (not me) have made the comment that they don't see the point, since they don't really mean anything except the blogging community sitting around congratulating each other. I can see their point, but I respectfully disagree. People use the internet to do all kinds of things, find out all kinds of information (true or not). I think blogging awards are great, because it might lead someone new to find your blog, read it (and hopefully like what you have to say), and pass that info along. The internet world can be an isolating place, and anything that gets us out of our individual mentality and makes us part of a community where people care for each other can only be a good thing.

So a big thanks to Happily Cheesy! I will post (and give it away) with pride! Look for my official pass along next week!

The Power of a Good Critique

2011-03-08T14:28:00.000-07:00

Last week I heard a story about an artist who came from a small town in the west. She travelled first to Chicago, then to New York to study and learn the craft. During her stay in New York, she took a class where the professor constantly criticized her. But only her. After several weeks of this behavior, she confronted the man, and asked why he picked on her.

The man teared up and said, "Oh, can it be that you don't understand? The rest of these," he gestured at the class, "are not worth it. But you, YOU have something worth discovering."

We talk a lot about what makes a good critique. Kindness, for one thing. All of us, no matter how accomplished we are, were once a beginner, a novice. Treating others with respect allows them to discover for themselves who they are as a person or a writer. There's no need for sarcasm, diatribes, or beating someone over the head with your ego, trying to make yourself feel better.

But there is also a need for honesty. While writing tastes are subjective, some story elements remain the same regardless of the genre. That is what you are commenting on, what you point out when giving another writer feedback.

I've been in several critique groups over the years, and while the ones that find very little wrong with my work are flattering, I know, KNOW my stuff needs work. Most of it has been a 1st draft. There'd better be something wrong with it.

The ones that dissect it, point out what works and what doesn't are the ones I keep. (Here's my secret. They hurt, those thorough critiques. I usually read them through and put them away for a while, anything from a week to a month or more, until I can read it with more objectivity.) When I'm ready to edit and change things, then I pull them out and 90% of the time, I make the suggested changes. If it warps my voice too much, I don't change it, or if the character is going in a different direction than the critter realizes because of a plot twist yet to be revealed. But most of the time the review is right: there was something wrong.

So seek them out, those critters. They are the ones that will help your grain of sand grow into a pearl.

GASP! That Did NOT Just Happen!

2011-03-07T05:32:00.000-07:00

Made ya look, didn't I? That's what a plot twist does. You're tooling along the story, familiar enough with the type of road you're on that even if you are in a new town, you're pretty sure of your destination. Suddenly a sharp turn sign pops up:

And now you're driving on a completely unpredictable road, lost and a little unsure of what your new destination is going to be.

That is the plot twist. And mentioned frequently in the classes I attended at the conference were how the first big one has to come in the beginning, no more than 50 pages into your story.

There should be more than one, preferably three or so in a typical story. Just be careful that you don't sent so many twists that the reader A: gets lost, B: gets annoyed, or C: burns your book in frustration. Like all things in life, done in moderation, it will make your story.

Can you identify your "sharp turn" moments in your current WIP? Do you have them mapped out or are you going to go along for the ride as you write?

Murder Your Darlings

2011-03-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

Just for the record...I am not funny. I love funny. I dream of being funny. But it doesn't come naturally to me. I only learned it after 16 years of marriage to someone born with the funny gene. Now he's funny. His brain moves fast enough that he can come up with the one line zingers all the time. I'm the one that thinks up the funny thing two hours afterward and curses my tortoise brain yet again. I am learning, but very, very slowly.

So yesterday I polished up the first chapter of REBORN to take to my crit group. And a couple of funny things (or things I thought were funny) occurred to me, so I wrote them in. One was purely situational, where just about any girl in the similar situation could relate. The other was a cultural reference, that I thought that while not ha-ha funny, would still garner a few smiles and/or nods of appreciation.

During my reading of the story, I paid particular attention to those two things. The situational joke went over amazingly well. My group actually laughed out loud, and we paused to discuss why it worked so well. (Made my little writerly heart go all pitter-patter, it did.)

We read on, and when the cultural reference came up a few paragraphs later, I took a breath to give me an extra second to gauge their reaction. Crickets chirping. Luckily I had more to read, so I could continue without looking like a total twit.

When the comment portion of my time came up, that reference came up, the consensus being that it could offend my target group, and I should probably get rid of it.

I did protest a little (I thought it was funny! And I thought other people would too!) But they were right. There's no point in leaving it in if I know that some editor would say the same thing. It was time to murder my "darling".

(*The quote “Kill your darlings” is much attributed. The original came from Arthur Quiller-Couch in The Art of Writing. “Whenever you feel the impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it — whole-heartedly — and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.“)

So I'll take it out, write something else in its place. Dang it. The reference may make it into my everyday use, though, so it's not completely wasted. ;)

Dreaming Up A Plot

2011-03-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

I dreamed a new story today. Dystopian adult type stuff. Not my usual genre, but when I woke, I wrote down the main points of the dream that would function for the story. It may never be more than that paragraph, but for now, at least I got it down.

How many of you do that? Dream things and then write it down on a notebook you keep by the bed? I need to do that more often. Though I usually only remember dreams if I fall back to sleep after waking with the alarm, and then I'm usually trying to wake myself up one way or another. Which means I'm too tired to get up with my alarm. Which means kids don't make it to the bus on time. (Which almost happened this morning. Ack.) Which means I need to go to bed earlier and write more during the day so I'm not staying up late to write. (But that's another blog post.)

So how about you? Do you ever "dream" up new stories or plots or characters? If so, how do you approach that? Is it an immediate plunge into the new story, or do you let it sit for a while, see if it still has legs a few months later?

So Now Here's the Problem

2011-03-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

I hate beginning things. That jump into something you know is going to be lots of work. Something that forces me to organize my VERY disorganized brain, and in all other ways is DANG HARD. Sigh.

I'm trying desperately to move on in this story I pitched last weekend. But I put it away for a while, and I needed to remind myself what I was writing about in the first place. So I started rereading and OF COURSE my internal editor started chirping all kinds of corrections at me. And I can't get past that voice to move on.

I discovered something about myself this past weekend. I am lazy. Okay, not such a big revelation. But that part of me that HATES going back and fixing things (heretofore now referred to as "LazyButt") is somehow attached (Siamese twins, maybe?) to that internal editor, constantly trying to fix things. (Maybe it's a two-headed snake instead.)

So I've start some, but sputtered to a stop multiple times. ARRGH!!!! Okay. Enough said about this topic. I'm going to put that monstrosity of LazyButtEditorHarpee in a cage where it belongs until this first draft is done.

Building a Community

2011-03-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

I am by nature kind of shy. In new situations I prefer to sit back and and observe for a while, get the lay of the land, so to speak, before I jump in. Sometimes I can't do that. I have to get out of my comfort zone and just land with both feet already running. It's exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. The ratio of great experience/utter humiliation grows exponentially in these kinds of situations, and as my husband can tell you, I LOATHE humiliating situations. Not even just for me. I can't even watch it on TV. I have to turn the channel or cover my face when a character is doing something embarrassing. (What can I say? It's genetic.)

I'm also intensely private. There are some things I share with others only because my feelings about them are either neutral or I've already worked through any pain and/or anguish, and it doesn't hurt me in that way anymore. I'm sure most of you are that way. (At least I hope so. Otherwise I'm just weird.)

But what that means is for me, networking is a minefield of, as Inigo Montoya would say, "Humiliations Galore!"

It feels like going to a new school for the first time, and having to create a place for yourself where it seems the walls of friendship and familiarity have blocked you. To be that tree growing out of the side of the cliff, or the flower that blooms between the bricks. We have to be willing to be that and do that.

It's easier sometimes to do that online with our linked blogs and avatars and other ways we hide our insecurities. And I felt comfortable there. But now's the time to branch out, to make my place in the writing world because this is what I want to do. This is who I am. So it's time to put down roots and make my seedling grow.

Writing Conference! Woot!

2011-02-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

So I am sufficiently recovered from the lack of sleep (NOT!) incurred by two wonderful days schmoozing with fellow writers and agents and editors. I'm really not recovered. I slept in until 6 am, and almost didn't get my daughter to the bus this morning. But that's another story....

It's been several years since I last attended a writer's conference, and while it was interesting and informative, I was soooooo new to the whole process that I really felt like a fish out of water. So going this weekend was like being a newbie all over again. But this time I knew a little bit more. Like...go with writer friends, if at all possible. You meet lots of great people, but it was so nice to have a "home base" of friends to find when current conversations faded.

Having it be overnight was really great for me, because it let me concentrate 100% on being a writer, no normal life issues chirping in the background. (That isn't always the case, there were lots of people there who got to go home that first night, and there was a part of me that envied that, but the house was still standing when I got home, so it's all good.)

I have to get back to the "writer friends". I had a couple of FABULOUS friends from my local ANWA chapter that carpooled with me and I had as roomies. I learned so much from them, especially Jennifer Griffith, who is, by her own admission, kinda bossy. But in an EXCELLENT way. During Kirk Shaw's presentation on what makes a good publisher/author and how to find the right one for you (also excellent) he invited us to make a few goals with our writing. Now as you may know if you follow my blog at all, I kinda have an issue with finishing novels. Lots of starts, no THE ENDs. Jen leaned over during this portion and whispered "I think you should finish three novels this year." Yes. That's what she said. Me, finish three novels. If I hadn't been so high on conference juju and that morning's breakfast of mini Twix candy bars, I probably would have laughed. Instead when Kirk asked for people to share their goals, I announced this insanity for all the world.

But even now, a couple days removed from it, I still feel like it's a good thing to aim for. I need to get these stories done, if for no reason than to move on to the next one. So many ideas, so little time.

If you think that's not out of character enough, I pitched. I know, I know, I wasn't going to. I told everyone who asked I would pitch. Why would I? I knew the cardinal rule of pitching to an agent or editor was that the work HAD TO BE FINISHED, so if they requested anything, you were ready right away.
***(Kelly Sonnack, agent from the ANDREA BROWN agency said something Very Interesting, though. She said they don't want your stuff to appear in their inbox the next day. Or even a couple of weeks later. They want it to be a bit, so they know that you've taken in the information taught at the conference and used it to make your writing better. So WAIT!)***

But one of the great agents there, Kelly Mortimer, had some space. And against all my understanding of the process, several of my writing cronies encouraged me to pitch to her anyway. Just for practice. Finally I said "Sure. Why not?" I spent lunch hammering out a pitch for REBORN, then walked in and pitched. Just like that.

It was surreal. What was even crazier was that she wanted to see a partial when the story was finished. I TOLD HER IT WAS UNFINISHED AND SHE WANTED TO SEE IT ANYWAY.

I don't think it's still sunk in. Isn't this what all the hullabaloo is all about? Getting your book into the hands of someone who can do something with it? I still can't believe that she wanted it.

So here it is. I am giving myself the month of March to finish this novel. My own personal NaNoWriMo. And the month of April to get it polished. So by May it's off to the agent. If nothing else, it will have pushed me to finish something for once. :)

Small Hours

2011-02-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

I swim
through dark, souless waters
that wash and
drag and creatures with eyes
in the wrong place nibble.

I float
gripping flotsom that
rolls under my fingers and
gurgles in delight as
I go under again.

I stumble,
forsaken,
tossed into awareness
as I rub sand
from morning's vision.

copyright 2011 Megan Oliphant

Today My Writing S*CKS!

2011-02-23T22:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had a great idea for another story. Big surprise, I know. I didn't do much, just jotted down a few notes, and wrote a page or so at the beginning. I was excited by this new idea (big surprise), the various subplots that seemed to spring out of nowhere to weave through and strengthen the overall story.

So today I think "I'll just give what I wrote a look-see, and maybe write a little bit more. Just a page. Maybe a few more notes with the other ideas and subplots."

And then I read it. And the story idea, while still solid and exciting, was surrounded by miles of gucky mucky screwed up words. I know it's a first draft and yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah whatever, but it was bad. And now I'm mad. Makes me want to chuck the whole thing. So I think I'm going to sleep on it and hope that I'm in a good enough mood about the whole writing thing that when I get to the ANWA Conference on Friday I'm not biting people's heads off.

I'm not promising anything, though.

Getting Back On The Horse

2011-02-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

This is me. This is me getting bucked off the writing horse by a burr under the saddle called "life". This is me flying in slow motion thinking "This is goin'ta hurt."

And it did. In all kinds of ways. But now that I've fallen (and got back up) it's time to dust off my chaps and climb back up and stay there till the horse is broke.

Last night, for the first time in a very great while, I wrote. More than a word or two.More than a paragraph. I didn't get much more than a page done, only because it was past my bed time, and with this new life schedule we have around here, I don't dare stay up too late for fear of not getting up on time to get my oldest out the door.

I started small, attending a writer's group meeting, blogging again, reading again. And then it came to that moment when I just had to do it. I had to put my foot in the stirrup and swing my leg over. The poor horse barely recognized me, and shimmied around in the gate like a snake. The first few seconds were a little scary; everything felt a bit wobbly. But I got my feet down solid and my knees tight, one hand wrapped around the pommel while the other "waved in the air like [I] just don't care". It felt good. The rush was familiar and welcoming, kissing both cheeks with airy kisses.

Ahhhhhhh. It's great to be back.

Dissecting Evil

2011-02-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

So I'm at the point of my novel where I realized that I needed to have a better understanding of my antagonist and his motivations. I knew what he was, and why he did it, but I felt like I needed to dig deeper. Give him some serious backstory. So even though I'm not writing forward, I feel like it's important to give me a better grasp of what he will do in certain situations that I have coming up.

So when you are writing, how much backstory do you do on your bad guys? How do you make them understandable, yet appalling? I just finished the Hunger Games trilogy, and Suzanne Collins made her antagonists so believable that you could see them existing today, somewhere in our society. I'm sure they do, actually.

What makes your writing engaging and comprehensible is when the characters, ALL the characters, are sympathetic in some way. I think Lord of the Rings shows this very well. We have Sauron, the ultimate "evil" and his henchmen. While they are scary and disturbing and I certainly wouldn't want to run into them in a dark alley somewhere, the part of evil that is explored in depth is the darkness within men's souls. Over and over again Tolkien works through these different levels of evil, from gentle apathy to a full fledged fall from grace. Think of Boromir, and his desire to save the White City from Sauron's forces, but his own pride made him fall almost immediately under the ring's spell. Or Saruman, who thinks that he can go toe to toe with Sauron, communicating with him through the Palantirs, but is ultimately corrupted and removed from power.

That is were real evil lies, when men give in to the evil within. That is the test of the protagonist, to see that evil, face it, and decide to choose another path. So I need to figure out where in my "bad guy" he chose the dark and evil, and why it warped him the way it did.

Illuminating the Classics

2011-02-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

My mother is an English teacher. She is also a writer. I knew about the teaching part, but I didn't discover the writing until I was almost thirty at my grandmother's funeral (who'd had the dramatic sensibility to pass away on Christmas Day). I was having a difficult time because we'd had to bring my one year old, and I was petrified that he would make a scene or somehow draw attention to me when it was supposed to be about my Grandmother. So I wasn't really paying too much attention, I'm afraid, through my uncle reading the chronology of her life. And then to my surprise, my mother stood and delivered the most poignant, yet funny eulogy I've ever heard, before or since. Some of it was because I knew my mother and grandmother, of course, but most of what she shared was about events I knew nothing about. It is my most powerful memory of that event, being introduced to this secret life of my mother.

The selfishness of youth and young motherhood faded away as I glimpsed the vastness that was my mother's experience. You'd have to know her, too, to understand how dramatic this was for me. She is amazingly talented, but so quick to make it about someone else, to praise and uplift others, unless you're paying attention, you probably wouldn't notice her. She works hard at that kind of anonymity, especially around her children.

Since then I've tried to coax more information out of her, talk to her about writing, trying to get to know that part of her that she has kept hidden. But life always gets in the way. My grandfather needed care after Grandma passed until he passed away five years later. I had several younger siblings going through college, missions, and marriages, one brother who's suffered through kidney failure twice, and my own sudden explosion into young motherhood again six years after the birth of my second child. (I had 3 kids in less than 3 years.)

But life has almost settled again, and as we prepared for this move, my mother said she had lots of books on writing waiting in a stack on her desk at school. So the morning we left Utah, we stopped by her school to say goodbye and retrieve the books (which included "On Writing" by Stephen King). That was one bag. The other was filled with classic novels that she was getting rid of. I recognized the names of all of them, but of the dozen or so, I'd only read maybe five, all of them but one as required reading for English classes. And I hadn't enjoyed any of them, because it was all about dissection, not reading.

But I realized something that I'm sure has been said a million times. If I read these classic novels, the ones that were controversial and eye opening or reread over and over, then I might see what it is that we, as current writers, are trying to both emulate and avoid. For instance, I began Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead last night. I haven't seen that much head hopping since I tried to read Nora Roberts' first novel. But there again, Roberts wrote it 25+ years ago, and things were different. What was acceptable was different. Dickens would never get published today, I think. Except maybe A Christmas Carol, and then it would probably get rejected because it's too much of a morality tale. I'll still slog through The Fountainhead, if only to see what all the hullabaloo was about.

So I come back to the beginning. There are things to be discovered in these classics, just like there are aspects of my mother's life that need to be explored. But neither of these "classics" can be illuminated if I don't open up their covers and rattle around inside until something shakes loose.

The Science of Creativity

2011-02-17T12:50:00.001-07:00

Watch it and then I'll explain.

As I watched this I was struck by how calculating and precise the structure of this creative atmosphere is. They work really hard to make sure the work place is as conducive to creation as possible.

I also read an interesting blog post about world building today that I'd like to tie in. Today's post on Sisters in Crime the writer, Barbra Aninno, shared all she does in the research/cogitation stage of the writing. I was struck again by the methodical way in which she assimilated information, and then disseminated it back out into a writing path. And I know this is something that I need. I've always thought of myself as a free spirit when it comes to my writing and "creating", but as I've worked more and stumbled on my writing journey, I've discovered that I need more structure than I thought. I wonder if having some kind of place to write that has all that I need around me more helpful that just "going with the flow". A river goes with the flow, but then it has banks to keep it in control. It's when it overflows those banks that problems happen. And it's okay if the banks shift and change over time. That's a natural evolution of a living thing. What's not okay is thinking that I have to have the whole Midwest available to me before I can write.

Lots to think about.....;)

(I apologize for the weird white highlight today. Blogger was behaving oddly.)

Gobble Gobble!

2011-02-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

So I got a little greedy this week. I kinda sat and read for the better part of three days. First was "On Writing", which I blogged about earlier. The other was the Hunger Game series. Yes. I said series. As in I Read All Three Books In Two Days. Amazingly my family was still fed, clothed, and sent to work and school on time. I even had a shower or two and did dishes and laundry during that time.

What, you say? You JUST read the Hunger Games? Where have you been, you say, living under a rock?
Well, no. I was very aware of the series. I was aware that it engendered the same sort of rabid following as Harry Potter and Twilight. I was also aware that the last book wasn't slated for release until 2010. And I'm one of those people who hate, HATE to wait for the next book to come out. So I waited, and then my hubby lost his job and the waitlist at the library was 500+ people long for any of the books and well, I just didn't get around to it. My oldest got the whole series for Christmas, but then we moved.

So I went to my first ANWA meeting last week and the other authors (very kindly, I now realize) said that the WIP that I read from reminded them of The Hunger Games. And they asked if I'd read it. I had to confess my deficiency and say it was on my to read list.

(I don't know about you, but I am a feast or famine kinda gal when it comes to reading. I go months at a time without reading anything then read like a crazy person. Can't explain it. Just life interference, I guess.)

So I grabbed the first book two days ago from my daughter and started reading. I really am amazed that anything at all got done. I just read and read and I finished Mockingjay this morning.

It was as mindblowing as everyone said, and I can see why there was a controversy over the ending, but Suzanne Collins did such a good job of building Katniss's character that I couldn't see Kat doing or being anything but what she was. So I see the ending as fitting the series, though many readers didn't find it satisfying.

(My daughter just came in and we had this discussion even though she hasn't finished Mockingjay. She wanted Gale to stay in the picture, but even explaining it right now to her I see how well Collins drew these characters so that Kat and Gale and Peeta are so entirely themselves.)

Well done, Ms. Collins. Well done.

Stephen King's "On Writing"

2011-02-14T22:48:00.000-07:00

So I read the whole book today. Yes, today. "On Writing" is not one of his longer works, but still. I know we just moved in and I'm complaining about boxes everywhere, but I found it in a stack of books to be shelved and since I hadn't read it yet, I thought, why don't I read just a little, to see if it'll work for me.

Yeah. So, um...I didn't do much else all day. Just ask my kids. It's been a long time since I've read a Stephen King novel, and I'd forgotten how straightforward and, well, easy it is to read him. Even though this was part memoir and part writing instruction, I couldn't stop reading it.

First of all it was FASCINATING to read his childhood snippets. I wonder, frequently, what makes people write the things they do. What is it in their personal psyche that draws them to write one genre or another. But to see his bits and pieces laid out there, you can see the pattern of interests that underscore the darkness of his writing.

Second it was great to hear his take on the craft. Most everything he said I've heard before. Most of it, I said. I agreed with 90% of it. One thing he said a couple of times was that he had more fun writing the bad guys than the good guys. And I can see that. To delve into the darkness to create a character that is NOT you, but has its seedling from somewhere inside you can be fun. Scary, but fun.

Another fabulous author, Orson Scott Card has written on this subject as well, but he says the opposite. For him, creating a protagonist that is believable, three dimensional, and relatable, someone that does good even when it will cost him everything, that is the best part. Now that I think on it, though, it's not really opposite. They both say it's easier to write the antagonist, though writing a well rounded, believable one can be a challenge. It just seemed like King liked that part better, while Card preferred writing the protagonist.

Well, just had to share. Great advice from an excellent "hack". :)

And We're Back!

2011-02-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

The momentous move is over, my friends. We have officially become Arizonians. Well, almost. We still have Utah driver's licenses and plates on our cars, but the kids are enrolled, the lease is signed, and we are enjoying the massive temperature swing that is an Arizona winter. We also managed to bring the freezing Utah temps with us, and the Safford greater area suffered through the worst cold snap in recorded history. I'm not kidding. Can't tell you how many pipes froze and broke that week.

But I'm excited to get back into the swing of writing. I've been swamped with the craziness of the move, and we still have boxes EVERYWHERE, but the itch to write again has been like a spot on my back that I can't reach. I even went to my first ANWA meeting. It was great to do a crit session in person again. I haven't done that in years. And I'm hoping (knock on wood) to go to the ANWA conference this month in Phoenix. Hope, hope, hope.....

I think I've finally settled into a genre. YA urban fantasy. I like magic and magical things too much to give them up, but the creation from the ground up of a new civilization/magic system is a little daunting right now. It's like I told my new ANWA group, "I like to write about lives sprinkled with fairy dust, not create the world the fairy dust came from."

So now it's time to decide which YA project to work on right now. It's between "The Unmaker" and "Reborn" at the moment. Both urban fantasy, and both at about the same stage of development. Decisions.

Well, welcome me back to the living (or the writing dead, as the case may be). It's great to be back!

Tweet, Tweet!

2011-01-16T11:22:00.001-07:00

Okay, I finally did it. I jumped on the twitter bandwagon. I don't know why. It's not like I have a whole lot of time right now. But maybe that's why I did it...I can write something less than 140 words. Not like anyone follows me yet.

I find it interesting, though, that the people who tweet most are somehow involved with writing already, whether they be writers, agents, authors, publishers or news organizations. There must be something about Twitter that appeals to them as an extention of what they're already doing.

I did find a great contest, though, right up my alley. Take a Grimm's Brothers Fairy Tale and give it a steampunk twist. Short stories under 8000 words. Kinda fun to think about, though I won't have time to do anything for the next month or so. If you're interested, take a look at Steampunk Adventures. If you do want to follow me, look for thyxygirl.

I'm a Romantic Heroine!

2011-01-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

So another writing friend and fellow blogger, Jolene Perry, posted something interesting yesterday. She googled an image of herself. I'll send you to her blog to read her experience, but it was such a funny idea, I thought I'd give it a try.

The first 5 photos were of random people, but the sixth image was of a book cover. (The seventh was me, finally.) Facinated, I clicked on the image and followed the link. Dreams of Home, by Gwen Kirkwood, a novel occurring around WWII, and a family saga happening in rural Scotland, along the lines of Rosamunde Pilcher.

I totally want to read it now, if only to see what permutation of "Megan Oliphant" looks like to someone else. But it still sounds interesting, just like me. :)

The Siren's Call

2011-01-01T23:04:00.001-07:00

When Odysseus and his crew sailed too close to the Island of the Sirens, he had all the crew stuff their ears with beeswax and then tie him to the mast, so he could hear their song but be kept from diving into the sea to follow them.

I know I've ben MIA. It's been a crazy few months, and as the vice of normal life stress sqeezed tighter and tighter, it sqeezed out my ability to focus on my writing.

But I miss it. I really miss it. I've kept tabs on all my writing friends, and cheered their successes. Even the small ones of meeting a daily writing goal. And I miss my writing. I miss my characters that are waiting (not so patiently) in the corners of my mind. I miss the worlds that I've created and their unexplored depths. And it's been a really long time since I worked hard to discover the twists and turns yet to be revealed by my basic plot outline. I'm a writer. I know this. I also know that I need a balance between reality and the internal realities of my stories.

The sirens are calling...and this time I don't think I'm going to let the rest of the crew tie me to the mast. I'm going to have to face the sirens down and keep them from turning me into a swine. Come to think of it, maybe they wouldn't be too anxious to turn me into a pig because I'm not a man. Maybe they might even ask me to join them....oooh...now that's an idea....

Maybe...

2010-12-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

I've run away from writing for a while. Stress from other parts of my life has kept me away from all my WIP. But I'm feeling the cloud lift. Not that I'm doing anything new, or any of that stress has gone away. But I'm feeling like life might not be so hopeless and stuck.

It's kinda like being the mom of a newborn, the sleepless nights, lack of showers, the house going to pot around you as you stumble through life. You think that will never change. Ever. And stuck in a jobless limbo like we have been for months, I kinda feel that same stumble in my step. But...the gloom is lightening. It might not be too long before I'm writing like crazy again. I hope. :)

Amazingly Beautiful

2010-11-11T07:00:00.002-07:00

I am a compulsive reader of a few weekly articles. One which I love to read is Orson Scott Card's weekly column that appear every Thursday in the Rhino Times. The Rhino Times is a paper local to Mr. Card in North Carolina, and he reviews random things every week. I've found everything interesting, if not exactly applicable (he does occasionally review things local to his area), but he shares some pretty cool stuff.

Today he shared a link to just the most amazing thing. He said it brought tears to his eyes, and it did to me, as well. Just glorious, and I had to share. Enjoy! (Sorry this is so big...I didn't want to cut anything off.)

Not Abandoned, Just...

2010-11-03T23:14:00.000-06:00

...slightly on haitus. As much as I would like the rest of my life to not have any affect on my writing life, of course it does. We are in a holding pattern about a job for my hubby that could mean moving 16 hours away (by car, people. Not Australia.) It's a big change that's hanging over our heads, and I can't seem to get beyond that. Besides the fact that I've started a new project (again) that I'm sure will be the next WOW book (again), and I haven't seemed to break the pattern of following the shinys, I'm not sure I have a lot to report, other than status quo rules here. Until it doesn't. But right now, it does, so....the blog hasn't been abandoned, I've found I have nothing to say that not even I want to hear. :)

While A Meteor Destroyed My House I Sold Six Novels!

2010-10-11T10:03:00.000-06:00

(Muse it Up Online Conference starts today. If you haven't already signed up, I don't know that you can, but here is a reposting of my blog post on Mormon Mommy Writers from a few weeks ago. This is the conference topic I'm going to follow religiously this time.)

So life of late has been, to put it mildly, interesting. Things I thought I'd outgrown, personality defects I'd rubbed away against the pumice stone of life, suddenly have come rushing back to the surface. Where there had been a shiny reflection of God's beauty, it's now pock-marked, dull, and lifeless.

So my title. What does that have to do with my angst, you say? I had signed up a few months ago for the Muse Online Writers Conference that Nikki talked about last week. A couple of days ago I got an email with the info on the different things available to participate in.

One presentation (I won't name it, but if you see it, you'll know which one I'm talking about) was from someone who is a lovely lady, a perfect mother, and a prolifically fabulous writer. I assume so, anyway, because her blurb for her presentation said something about having every disaster known to man crash through her house, but she still sold a bajillion novels, and "YOU CAN, TOO!"

I don't doubt it. I'm sure when the time comes, I will participate in that particular presentation because I want to know the secret. (Which I'm sure is something basic like "write everyday", "have a great outline so you never lose your way while writing", or "put all your kids in a spaceship and welcome them home in twenty years while you write".)

But until then, I'm going to crawl under a rock and lick my wounds. This writing business is brutal on the ego.

Enter This Contest, Please.

2010-09-30T08:59:00.000-06:00

Listen one, listen all two of my regular readers! On Mormon Mommy Writers today, we are starting a new contest. In the comment section, leave us up to 3 (yes, THREE!!!) of your best sentences. We'll give you all a week, and next week, we'll put it up for the readers to judge. The winner gets....I don't know yet. :) But something fabulous, because everybody over there is fabulous. I'm sure we'll think of something great to give away.

So come on over and drop us a line or two. You never know what could happen.....

Modern Magic

2010-09-28T09:29:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, people used stories and tales of magic to explain natural phenomena. Heck, the ancient Greek and Romans built their whole religious system on gods they created to explain the unexplainable.

But we live in the scientific age, an age where men have explained so much. And if there are mysteries, scientists are sure that there is a logical explanation to it out there somewhere. They just have to "science" it out.

So why do so many people still believe in magic? I'm not talking David Copperfield stuff, making the Statue of Liberty disappear (though I would like to know how he did that). I mean why is fantasy, in all it permutations, so popular these days? You can call it paranormal, you can call it epic fantasy, you can call it urban fantasy. But all those things are talking about one thing: finding a magical explanation for something.

Why is that? Why has sci-fi lost its luster, and fantasy exploded in popularity? What is it within the human psyche that needs magic in our lives?

An Awesome Free Read...Get It Before It's Gone!

2010-09-21T04:00:00.007-06:00

Everyone has their favorite authors. We have them for many reasons. But usually there is one basic element to our adoration of these other writers: In some way they have moved us. They've reached inside, found some soul string similar to their own and plucked it, sending the vibrations rattling into our minds and hearts.

One of my favorites is Orson Scott Card. Now you may or may not agree, but that's another blog post. My point right now is that when I read any of his works, there is an undercurrent, a constant humming of familiarity. Not because I know him personally, or that I have reread his work so much I can't tell if it's him or me talking.

No. It's because when I read his stories, I am overwhelmed by his power and command of language and storytelling. I have lusted for years to be able to go to one of his writer boot camps. It hasn't been feasible yet, but I hope to get there someday soon.

Anyway, as part of a quirky national celebration day (you know, like Personal Assistant Day, Grandparent Day, Donut Day) known as "Elephant Appreciation Day", he has, until September 22, posted as a free read his short story, The Elephants of Poznan. It's not long. It part of an older short story collection that you can probably find in your local library, but if you've never sampled his writing, take twenty minutes and fall into a world of OSC's imagining. You may not be of a similar soul vibration, but at least it's a free read by a fabulous author. And what self respecting writer turns down the opportunity to learn from someone who's "made it" already?

Death Takes A Holiday...

2010-09-20T08:29:00.000-06:00

...and came to spend the weekend at my house. I am just getting out of a 3 day fight with a nasty flu that included a fever, the shakes, aching everywhere, a sore throat so painful I couldn't sleep for longer than 10 minutes without it waking me up when I swallowed.

So I'm not telling you all this to whine. (Though maybe I am, just a little. Sympathy, please.) I realized something. I was truly incapacitated, and unable to put two coherent thoughts together. And now that I'm no longer a fever zombie, I'm feeling grateful for the energy I do have.

Resolution: I will no longer tell myself that I can't write because "I don't feel like it." I treasure my ability to write, and I will use the moments I have to further my craft, not resent the time it takes.

So there.

The Power of a Short Story

2010-09-14T09:59:00.000-06:00

In college I took a class that was about writing short stories, either in fantasy or sci-fi. Yes, there really was a class like that. I loved it, but I wasn't very good at rewriting.
It took many more years of maturity, but I finally got over the "If I wrote it, it's perfect" syndrome. But I've struggled with story arc in the longer pieces of fiction I've written. So I'm going to try short stories for while, and see if I can perfect the story arc, and then move on to novels again. Or maybe I'll do them both at the same time. We'll see....

"Two Roads Diverged in a Wood...

2010-09-09T11:38:00.000-06:00

...and I--

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference."

Okay, actually I didn't. Both roads are ones well travelled by others. One is one genre, and one is the other, both followed by much better writers than I am. But I enjoyed both paths, and imagined I could do both. At the same time.

But alas, one must choose, and though I thought I had decided, I've had to back track, and take the other. I thought I could disregard all the warning signs, posted instructions, and other hints that the one path was not for me. But...I can be a little stubborn sometimes. Okay, most of the time. And it took a major head-banging-against-the-wall experience to get me to see reason.

All the rest of it is, well, TMI, but I will say that I have reached that divergent again, and am choosing the other way. And so I begin. Again.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

My life exploded while I wasn't looking....

2010-09-06T23:16:00.001-06:00

So this is my first post in a week. Or longer. I'm not sure. I'm running on the fumes of Indian food and chocolate chocolate chip muffins right now, after very little sleep and a heck of a lot of work today. Why is it that Labor day always includes lots of labor? Really. I need someone to answer that question.

There was a time, not so long ago, that I had complete control of my life. I knew where I was going, where my family was going, and that was enough. I had dreams, aspirations, but if I worked hard, they eventually would be mine.

And then life. What can I say? First we find out that my hubby is being laid off, right before we leave for a big week long family trip to California beach/Disneyland. It took two months to wind down, but he's officially been out of work for three weeks now. Then after a wonderful week in August, my mother-in-law finally succumbs to the ravages of diabetes and passed away last Tuesday. We spent the last week with his family of 10 kids, their spouses and 52 grandchildren (and other various permutations) preparing for her funeral and moving her husband out of the retirement community and in with one of his daughters.

I'm rambling about this because I have to make a point. In life, things don't have to make sense. The experiences we have in life come when we need them, not when we think we need them. And as human beings, we hate it. We wish everything would be perfect all the time. But in fiction, we have to have conflict, problems, issues that twist apart the very fabric of our character's life. And then we put them back together through the experiences they have to become a better person.

I think God does the same thing. And I think that's why I write, because I want to see what happens to someone else when you do that kind of life shredding. And you can't do that to real people. Unless you're God.

Life Puts Writing On Hold

2010-08-27T13:13:00.000-06:00

As writers, and in my case, as a mother, I have to fit writing in when I can. And sometimes life just doesn't allow for it.

We found out this week that my husband's sweet mother is dying. It's her choice, she's been on dialysis for two years with kidney failure due to diabetes, but she's older, and not a candidate for a transplant. She's been gradually losing her quality of life, though her children and husband have tried hard to make things more comfortable for her. This past week has been a nightmare, with the culmination being her decision to no longer go to dialysis. They give her 4-7 days after that before she passes.

Needless to say, the past few days have been crazy, with several trips to her home for visits and for hubby to spend time with her. It's been a tender time.

I've discovered that writing, for me, is something that I have to put aside during this type of crisis. I need to be available for my children and husband, not to mention a wonderful father-in-law who will be truly devastated when she's gone.

The blog and writing will resume when life resumes some sense of normalcy. Till then, "May de Swartz be wit you!"

JAWS Ate Well

2010-08-21T08:16:00.000-06:00

So I had loads of fun giving my first page to JAWS. I didn't get to post anything yesterday, because I had...well...issues here at home that needed attention, but my revised version is up over on their website. Actually, if you don't want to go over there, maybe I'll post the two versions myself next week, and all three of you who read me regularly can take a peek and tell me which you like better. Or which you hate more, it's all the same.

Have a great weekend!

Are Ya Hungry???

2010-08-19T13:44:00.000-06:00

So I know that I've blogged about them before, but writing/blogging pals AJ and Charli are funny, innovative, and down right hilarious in their complaints and struggles to get published. One of the great things they do is every Thursday a victim...er, volunteer goes into the shark tank with Jaws (AJ). She shreds the first page of a work in progress, and everyone can weigh in with their two bites. Then tomorrow they post a revised version of it, also up for comments.

Today I jumped in with "Waltz With Me". Head on over and take a bite...it's yummy.

A Missed Opportunity

2010-08-17T13:01:00.000-06:00

I have, at the moment, about ten different projects in the works. None of them close to completion. I have hope that someday I'll finish one, but right now, NADA.

So I heard through the writer grapevine that a publisher was doing an online pitch session on Saturday, and they were looking for, among other things, sci-fi. I have a sci-fi novella as one of those many projects. But alas, it isn't anywhere near ready, and this is the last week before school starts for 3 of my 5 kiddos. And I'm stealing a few minutes between activities to blog.

Sigh. One day.

The Book of My Heart

2010-08-14T09:59:00.000-06:00

So if you hadn't noticed, yesterday was a bad day. But! We move on, and the next moment isn't so bad. (Or I've succeeded in pushing away reality again.)

But in my flailing around, looking for something to help me channel my angst, I read a post by Mett Ivie Harrison. Her link is in the "Cool Authors and Agent Websites" on the right. She writes amazing YA fiction: lyrical, deep, and open, giving the reader the sense that we've opened up a window and can see into the characters' lives for a time. I wish I could write like her. (Or Orson Scott Card. Either is good.)

Anyway, in her blog post, she said recently that she had a conversation with a friend where Mette complained about having too many ideas, too many books to write, and her struggle between all the WIP she had. The friend listen sympathetically for a while and then asked, "What are you afraid of?"

Mette said she paused and really had to think about that question. What was she afraid of? She's been published several times, so it wasn't about that initial "gotta finish my first book" thing I'm struggling with. For her it was the the fact that she hid behind several works in order to avoid the ones she really wanted work on. There were a couple she had started, but put away because she feared the pain of working on them. They were the books of her heart, the ones that would break it if they weren't loved as she loves them. But those were the ones she thought had the best possibility of being truly great.

Her post caused me to pause. I am struggling with this right now. My mind is so full of ideas, different story lines, that some days I have two or more of them open on my computer, WRITING THEM ALL AT THE SAME TIME. I don't think any of them improve being written like that.

So I stopped myself, and really examined the WIPs that clutter my mind and asked that question: "Whis is the book of my heart?" And even though I am not as close to finishing it, there is one that is special. It speaks to me like none of the others. I adore my MC. She's funny, and clumsy, and just has a way about her that makes me smile. And even though horrible things happen to her, and she's going to lose some of her innocence and that which she loves the most, it's this story I'm most excited about, that is the "book of my heart".

So take a moment, and if you struggle like me with many WIPs, run them through that filter. It will hurt the most to work it, but it will fulfill you the most, as well.

Depression

2010-08-13T09:58:00.000-06:00

I don't know about the rest of you writers, but I secretly wonder if I'm bipolar. These huge swings between highs and lows, fighting back up from the depths only to be flung back down like a rag doll is getting a little old. But then I know people who are truly bipolar and I know that's not me. Unfortunately. Maybe then I could get some drugs to stop this stupid cycle.

This isn't a long post, I just wanted to get this out there...how do you deal with the sad times? Do you cave up under your bedcovers and refuse to even look at the computer? Do you bury yourself in your work? Do you go off and get out of the house, stay busy with other things? Do you walk away altogether, and pretend that the writing bug had never bitten you and changed you irreversibly like Spiderman?

Permission

2010-08-11T09:40:00.000-06:00

(This is a repost from MMW, but it was too important not to share twice. :) )

I don't know how many of you know, but yesterday, August 10th, began something new in the writer conference world, Writeoncon. A bunch of kidlit authors got together (cyberly) and decided to create an online conference for kidlit authors. For free. They still have great speakers, agents, editors in the biz, everything you'd find at a regular conference...minus the hotel rooms and food that doesn't agree with you. It lasts through the 12th, so you've got a couple of days to catch up. I believe all the info will stay up for while after the conference, so if you can't make it right now, you'll be okay for a while.

Now living in Utah is usually a great place for kidlit and fantasy writers. There are many of us here, and we like to get together and chat and improve our networking and our writing skills. But because I had three kids in three years, plus the two older ones, I've been busy/out of money for conferences for a long time. I finally felt like my kids were old enough that I could do a conference, but they all coincided with times I would be out of town. And then the hubby lost his job, so now there's really no money for writing conferences. But I digress...

One of the speakers, Molly O’Neill, an associate editor with Katherine Tegen Books, gave a great presentation on giving yourself permission. Permission for what, you may ask. Permission for all kinds of things that can improve you as a writer. Take a look, and tell me that isn't the most inspirational list for a writer. If it wouldn't take so blasted long and take time away from writing, I just might needlepoint it on a pillow. So go ahead. Give Yourself Permission. Give yourself permission to take another couple of minutes and read something that will help open a new window in your writing. Just do it.

The one that was most powerful for me today? "Permission to write a scene or a story that might make certain people who love you shocked and surprised." Tomorrow it might be another one, but this list of thirty empowering statements has been printed out and taped up next to my computer. I need that daily permission from myself to write what needs to be written by me. And I'm the only one who can tell the story the way it needs to be told. And so I give myself permission.

Go get your own Permission.

IMing My Way into my Character's Head

2010-08-07T12:00:00.000-06:00

So I have a great writing pal that is taking an online writing course. For one of her assignments she had to have a conversation with someone as if she were the character. She asked for volunteers, and we had a two hour chat, via IM this morning, me as my character, her as hers.

Wow. I mean I knew my character pretty well, but I discovered things about her that I didn't know as we talked. How she comes off as icy and a control freak, but inside she's a mess. She has doubts about her current relationship that I (as the writer) didn't know. She's also afraid she's too damaged to ever have true love, or be truly open with someone.

I got to know more about her motivations and internal feelings than I had after all this time working with her. It was fabulous. Thanks tons, Anne!

"If you have the means, I highly recommend it." Ferris Bueller

Seriously, if you're struggling with getting to know a character, find someone who can do this with you. You'll be glad you did.

Self-Definition

2010-08-06T12:21:00.000-06:00

So this is a theme running through my house of late: Who am I? Not just me, but my hubby also, as he looks for a new job. He has lots of talents and experience in many areas. He could go in many directions, but isn't sure which one to put his energy towards. Frankly, I don't know which basket to put my eggs in, either.

I think this all the time as I write, especially as I flit from story to story, with all of them different genres. I have many writer friends who know exactly who they are as writers, with a solid idea of who they are. They've picked their genre and stuck to it, and they're able to focus and keep to their path.

Me...not so much. I have two stories that have made it past the 50 page mark, into the heart of darkness, so to speak. And both times I've gotten lost in the jungle, searching for some revelatory clearing that will show me exactly who I am as a writer. The direction, the end result of my calling as a writer. Instead I hop back out, and start another story, anther "shiny" to distract me from the twisting path.

I'm kinda sick of myself and all my angst over this. As Charli would say, "A definite ledge moment". And if I drank, I'd probably be indulging right now, at noon. But alas, I am not a drinker, so I will probably go do something truly productive and clean my house.

Pressure

2010-08-05T11:59:00.000-06:00

So today I've stared at my screen for a few hours. Nothing is coming...and I'm a little freaked out because I have a schedule to keep, and when the words don't come, it feels like I'll never write another decent thing again.
This is the song that came to mind...it may date me, but I don't care--how can you go wrong with Freddie Mercury and David Bowie?

But for the younger crowd, there's this one, also an awesome song...

Little Bit of Happiness

2010-08-04T07:39:00.000-06:00

So about six weeks ago I polished up a short story, 1750 words, and sent it to an e-pub. Just to get my feet wet, practice writing a query letter, etc. I thought I might have a possiblity of something, but then don't we all?
Anyway, I heard back from their acquisitions manager, first saying my file was unreadable. FOREHEAD SMACK. Embarrassed, I sent a new copy, but I was still hopeful because, as one of my crit pals said, she obviously liked my query enough to want to read the whole thing.

Two weeks later I got another email saying that they weren't taking any Christmas themed stories (which it was) at the time because they were running a Christmas submissions contest, and would I like to enter the contest with my story?

Now this email caused some confusion because it was worded in such a way to imply that I would be moving on to the final round of judging. On top of that, the contest wanted a certain type of content which my story definitely didn't have. (It's a romance e-pub, and they were looking for some sex, which my story did NOT have...just the hint of it.)

So after polling my writer friends, some of which had worked with this publisher before, I emailed the manager back with questions asking for clarification.

With that set up, here's my news: My story WOULD be in the final round, and in the case of my little story, they would make an EXCEPTION about the content, they liked it so much.

I don't hear back until November now, but as there really isn't anyplace that took that type of story that was that short, I said, "Fine, I'll enter." Right now I don't even care if I win. It's enough to know that they liked it that much that they were willing to break the rules for my story. Squeee!!!

This is my first writing contest. But what about you? To contest or not to contest, that is the question....

Ooh, Shiny! (part deux)

2010-08-03T17:19:00.000-06:00

So I've been a little frustrated with my current WIPs lately. So I decided to just try to write something new. I tried one story, then another, getting a few pages into each. And each one was better, more interesting, and instead of writing a short story, which was my intention, they each burst into a full fledged story. Arrrggghh! Like I don't have enough to write with the stories already in play!!!

Obstacles

2010-08-02T12:52:00.000-06:00

So yeah, I kinda crashed and burned this past week. I had a bad writing day, and then the weekend happened, and I don't write well on the weekends. Too much family stuff. But now it's Monday, and I'm feeling like it's been AGES since I wrote. I'm trying to get back into it, but I'm so far removed from the "writing brain", that I struggle with it.

I've also discovered I'm also a little obsessive, plus a few attention deficit issues. So I fixate on something for a while, go gung ho for weeks at a time, and then something will throw me off track. It could be something small, like needing a little more sleep. Or it could be huge, like the computer crashing. (Which did happen a few weeks ago, but we're good now.) Or it could be not knowing where to go next with the story which has happened with one story...I had to add another chapter that I hadn't planned on, and it threw off my muse. She ran off to drink herself blind in some dive, and I haven't dug her out of her hole. Yet.

Either way, I'm struggling to get back in the mode of thinking like a writer. Grrr......

What kind of things throw your mojo for a loop?

When Do YOU Write?

2010-07-30T08:47:00.000-06:00

I am a confirmed night owl. I love midnight, it's my favorite hour of the day. Kids are asleep, sometimes the hubby, too, and I am alone with my thoughts and the words on the screen.

But every once in a while life catches up to me. Staying up until 1 am every night, then getting up 3 times a night with different children, and then getting up at 7 to help the hubby get to work, means that some nights the amount of sleep I get is minimal.

So last night I crashed at 10 pm. ALL the kids were up and running, including the 3 year old, but I couldn't bring myself to care, I was so tired. I let my 14 year old and the hubster put them to bed.

But I woke this morning feeling guilty. Not because someone else put kids to bed, but because I didn't write. I did some edits on a story I'd been sitting on yesterday morning, but I'd planned on writing last night after kids were in bed.

I actually do my best writing in the morning, and use the night sessions to write a little more, if I need to bring up my word count, or edit, or other things. But I did it backwards yesterday, and the guilt this morning is terrible.

So now what...am I officially a writer, now that I feel bad when I don't do my "job"? Lol.

I'm a two sessions a day girl, with life and kids in between. When do you write? What works best for you?

Pulling Teeth

2010-07-28T12:27:00.000-06:00

Did you ever wonder why there were so many similes and metaphors for writing when it's difficult? "It was like pulling teeth," or "Pulling the words out of thin air."

Some days the story writes itself, with my poor fingers doing their best to keep up with the flood. And others, it's a mere trickle, dribbling out one word at a time, like wringing water from a stone. (Where's a rock-smiting Moses when you need one?)

So though yesterday I said I wouldn't complain, I guess that didn't mean today, too. New scene, new characters that I don't know as well always makes the work go slow. Grrrr....

Reality Check

2010-07-27T09:49:00.000-06:00

So today I heard some news that made me put my puny problems in perspective. It's not my news to share, so I won't. But I will say that both me and my hubby looked at each other and said "I can live with my problems. I don't want those."

So today--no whining. No complaining. Just work, and darn grateful for it, too.

Here's my gratitude prayer:

I'm grateful for a fertile imagination that brings me new stories to think about.
I'm grateful for a husband who, though he can't stand writing himself, is a creative soul and encourages me to continue, and doesn't begrudge the messy house. (Too much.)
I'm grateful for my kids who, though they want computer time, too, understand that when mom is on the computer staring at words, I am working. And they leave me alone. (Mostly.)
I am grateful for wonderful critique group members who are more than writing buddies, they are my friends, though I've never seen them in person.
I am grateful that there is an outlet and a consumer base for the stories I write. I may not be published yet, but I will be.

I may have to needlepoint that on a pillow. :)

That Little Monster

2010-07-26T14:02:00.000-06:00

So yesterday I had a moment (or two, or twelve hours worth) of self-doubt. That I shouldn't be using my time with writing something that probably won't get published. That I'm not writing the "right" kind of stuff. That because it's not perfect this first time out, I should chop off my hands and throw them to the crocodiles.

You name it, and I felt it yesterday. But...I'm not alone. There are thousands of you out there who struggle with the same issues and doubt. We work in silence, we writers, interspersed with tiny flashes of interaction with others in the business. It's easy to listen to the voices in our heads, because that's what we do...we listen and write down what they say and do. And sometimes the voice is not a character, but our own issues, creeping in like a miasmic fog.

So while I entertained the little monster for a while, I recognized him for what he was--a lie, wrapped in fur and fangs.

I know he'll visit again, but I'm getting better at dismissing him and sending him back to his hole where he belongs.

Writing Rituals: A Writer's Dirty Little Secrets

2010-07-25T13:57:00.000-06:00

Every writer has them...some are innocent and easily shared, while others...are not. I am here for a little confession. (Big gulp). I must Facebook before I write. (Hides head in shame.) And blog. (Blushes hard and hides face again.)

Writing is a solitary business. You may not think so (and somedays I don't think so, either) with five kids running around on summer break, but even with a houseful, when I am writing, I am lost in the world between my ears. The need to connect with others, especially with people experiencing the same sorts of things that I do as a writer is a compulsion so instinctive, it's irresistible. Truly. And I've conditioned myself to do these things. Without them I cannot write.

I know what they are. Facebook represents interaction with the outside world, with people of my past and present to keep me grounded in myself and who I am.

Blogging gets me in the writing mode. I think about writing, about the mechanics, others doing and sharing the same things, and when I am done, I am ready to open my WIP to be lost in a world of my own making.

I'd like to share what other things I do, but...um...I guess some of those secrets will have to wait until later. When I'm okay with feeling more exposed. Maybe.

Okay, confession time for you readers....What do you HAVE to do before you can write?

My First Interview

2010-07-23T08:01:00.000-06:00

So I belong to an amazing online critique group. I've done the online thing before, but nothing compares to the activity on this one. I think it's an anomaly, 'cause I've certainly never seen anything like it. I love it. It keeps my brain focused on writing more than I can keep it there on my own. Life likes to get in the way.

So a couple of them, AJ and Charli, have gotten together and put up a blog. Well, so has every other writer, you say. Okay, this is true....BUT AJ and Charli are hilarious, and they are using this blog for all kinds of reasons, one of which is to answer all the blogs by agents/editors that complain about writers. Those of us in the great mass of the unpublished are sometimes not allowed to have opinions on said agents/editors because of the fear that we might somehow offend them and get blacklisted and NEVER GET PUBLISHED. So I appreciate their blog, if only because I'm not brave enough to say those kinds of things out loud (or in writing), so I'm thrilled that somebody else is.

This Saturday they are posting an interview they did with lil' ole me...so if you're interested, go check it out tomorrow at AJ & Charli Bite Back.

Mental Blocks: 50/50 vs. NaNoWriMo

2010-07-22T11:07:00.002-06:00

For the past two years I tried to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). This is a huge thing in the writer world, with all kinds of chapters, groups, and support sites. The challenge for me was two fold: 1-It happens in November. Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, and a child's birthday on the 1st of December, all combine to make this the worst month ever for me to dedicate to writing.
2-To keep on track, you have to write 1,667 words everyday. EVERYDAY. It was too much. Some days if I get 500 words down I'm doing awesome. It was just too much for me to handle. So I crashed and burned, and concidered myself the laziest writer (and did I even deserve that title?) in the world.
A week ago a fellow writer/blogger said she was joining this little movement hosted by another writer/blogger Sarah Darlington. This 50/50DAY idea seemed perfect. I found it a few days after it started, but I had a new WIP that had just the right amount of words to have started on July 12th. And for some reason, 1000 words weren't nearly as intimidating as 1667 words were.

So, drumroll please......I am at 11,042 words as of 8am. Yay!!!!! I'm a whole day ahead. So excited! I hope I can see it through...but this time, I think I will. Wish me luck!

The Whirlwind of Change

2010-07-21T11:32:00.000-06:00

Change is an integral part of life. And stories. The only constant is change. But as humans, we don't seem to like it very much. We fight and kick and scream and complain and whine and generally act like babies. A more sophisticated baby, mind you, but a baby, none the less.

My kids have had "The Wizard of Oz" on the past couple of days. And I noticed that Dorothy's life back in Kansas was no picnic, with the lady who owns the town wanting to get rid of her dog, her life already sad because her only family is her aunt and uncle and the farm hands (and her Auntie Em isn't all that nice, either). In fact she's so desperate for things to change that she runs away.

Then she goes to this amazing place, the world over the rainbow she sings so poignantly about, and what does she want? To go home. To go back to her old life. Even being honored and revered as a queen who rid Oz of two witches and a fraud of a wizard, she just wants to be in Kansas.

My life right now is in that whirlwind, with all kinds of change being thrown at me. But through it all, my desire to write remains constant. It's my lodestone in the craziness of life. I don't get to it everyday, but it's still there, letting me know that I am me, and the stories will be there when I'm ready to write them down.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

2010-07-20T00:24:00.006-06:00

It's been kind of dark, topic-wise, here on the blog. It's time to lighten things up a little.

Let's talk humor. I was born without a funny bone. Well, I didn't have much of one, until I met my husband. He has such a dry wit, with a gentle sarcasm (nonwounding) and a bizarre love of puns. I loved to read humor, and I loved to laugh as much as the next person, but coming up with it myself? Pretty darn impossible. It's taken 15 years of marriage to figure it out, and sometimes I crash bad.

So here's the question. I love humor in books. But when you're writing (or reading) something that has a dark subject matter (refer to my previous post, "Blogfest of Death"), do you like to have humor, a little something funny thrown in there? It it like being at a funeral and someone decides to lighten the mood by cracking a joke about the deceased...you want to laugh, but the stigma of finding humor in a solemn situation is heavy. Or is it a great stress reliever, something to break the tension, and making the next crazy twist that much more unexpected?

I wrestle with this, because at least when I write, I can craft the perfect joke or humorous situation. But I don't want to ruin the tone of the story by being humorous inappropriately.

What do you all think? Is there a line? Should it be crossed, or is it iron clad?

And in the name of something funny, here are two videos that still make me giggle!

And here's the parody/remake of the commercial for Brigham Young University's Library. Funny, funny stuff. (And yes, the guy's voice is his own...he's a comedian and voice impersonator, as well as a student at BYU.)

Blogfest of Death: Death Scene from WIP, The Unmaker

2010-07-18T00:05:00.003-06:00

I decided at the last minute to enter the Blogfest of Death, so here is my entry.

I AM PUTTING UP A CLEAR RATING WARNING!!!!!
This is not for the faint of heart, and would definitely have an "R" rating, so read on at your own risk.
The Unmaker

Kristal quivered under his hand, but not with pleasure, like he supposed. The need to vomit rose hard in her throat, but she swallowed the bile back down. Only a few more minutes, and this would be over. Only a little more pain.
Derek leaned over her, his long white blond hair itching her neck. She kept her eyes closed to hide her disgust and her gradual power growth. It had to be small, the steps of an ant, but even that incrimental amount showed in the eyes. He couldn't suspect until it was too late.
She could feel the power rippling off him in waves as he stripped off her pants, using a knife to cut them off, rather than risk untying her. He wanted her, wanted her power, and even though she'd done all she could to convince that she wanted to give everything to him, he was still cautious. It was that caution that had let him live for nine hundred years already, slowly stripping power from the unwary, the uninitiated. That had been her once. But her latent power had even then been too much, and had forced him to turn her into someone, something like himself, a magical vampire of sorts. If there were any other way to die, she would have done it, rather than give in to his evilness. Instead she would have to give up a part of herself to make this work. If it worked. It was only a rumor, a legend of the sorcerer's world. If there was a god left to pray to, she would send any sacrifice to the heavens.
His breath grew heavy and hot as he moved down her body. She tried to remain still but her body responded as it had before, twisting in his touch.
He seemed to decide it was time, because with one painful thrust, he entered her. She gasped as she felt his magic slam into her barriers. The desire to resist him burned in her chest, but she pulled them back a little at a time, trying to simulate the wearing down of a block, rather than a retreat. No one ever retreated. It was block with everything you had, or die. She hoped he couldn't tell the difference.
He started to move, thrusting his magic harder and faster against her own. Tears slipped out of the corners of her eyes and he licked them up, whispering in her ear, “That adds savor to this deliciousness. A last bit of your essence before you are Unmade.”
She said nothing, just moved her head to the side. He was close, so close. Surely just another minute and he would be ready to lift his own barrier so he could dive in and absorb all her power that, if things were normal, would be open and vulnerable.
Derek's body begin to shudder, and she knew it was time. She opened her wall and felt his power roar in, a thousand lions on the attack. She threw up the barrier again, cutting him off from everything, trapping his power within her own, like magical white blood cells absorbing bacteria.
Then she unleashed her own power, plus his newly absorbed magic. It was probably because of the sudden addition of his that she lashed out as hard as she did. The weight of his body disappeared as he flew across the room, slamming into the wall near the ceiling before falling to the floor. Lavender smoke, her trademark, drifted up from his groin. He didn't move.
She sent a small stream of fire into the bindings at her wrists and ankles and they fell off in smoking chunks. Sobs exploded from her as she tried to sit up, and she fell back onto the table and curled into a fetal position.
Not yet, you have to check! The voice was loud in her head, and sounded a lot like Caleb. Biting her lip hard enough to make it bleed, she forced herself out of her hysteria. Rolling off the table, she fell to the rough wood floor, welcoming the dig of splinters into her hand to bring her back to the now.
With a heave against her knees she stood. Warm blood trickled down the inside of her leg. She ignored it as she moved across the room to Derek's still form.
His black eyes were open and staring, no spark of essence left. The Unmaker had himself been Unmade.
She turned and left, for once not caring about the intersection of the two worlds. Let the mortal police try to figure this out, determine Derek's identity and cause of death. With the last bit of strength left to her, she illusioned a disguise, making her look like every other college student as she made her way off campus back to the House. Back to safety. Back to Caleb and hopefully, a future that was not as bleak and lonely as it was before, if only for a while.

A Writing Fairy Tale, The Conclusion

2010-07-16T10:56:00.004-06:00

"It is simple," said the hermit, "but the most simple things are the most difficult. Come with me."
He turned and hobbled back to his hut.

The writer climbed to her feet and followed, careful to bring her bag of seeds.

The hut surprised her. Instead of a filthy hovel, the inside was bright and airy, full of sunshine and very tidy, with a whole wall full of windows and a table that held delicate sproutlings.

Drawn to the tiny plants, she examined them, noting how each plant was in a different stage, but each had its own schedule and system written down and laid on the table. "Why do you do this?" she asked, turning to the hermit. "I thought all that was needed was to toss them on the ground in my garden."

The writer was dumbfounded. "You mean the fox lied to us? It's not enough to cast it in the fertile soil of my imagination garden?"

The hermit smiled. "That is the fox's role, you see. Not everyone has the dedication needed to grow these seed to ultimate fruition. His part is to confuse and distract those that will be easily swayed by the perceived easiness of the way. Only those who are truly dedicated to the craft will become a hermit, someone willing to succor and shelter these seeds to their ultimate destiny.

"I learned this from the hermit before me," he said, touching one plant with a soft finger. "Each idea seed is a good one, as they fall. But, and here is the secret, each seed needs nurturing, a steady eye and a plan. Without those things, the seed might catch root, and grow a little, but it will not become a Pillar of the Forest."

The writer watched the hermit for the rest of the afternoon as he showed her the steps. Sometimes he grafted two or three seedlings together, creating a new and stronger sapling. Other times he clipped off branches that threatened to topple over a tender young tree. Always he stopped to explain what he was doing to the young writer, making sure she understood all the ways in which to nurture the seeds.

By the end of the day, the writer's mind was full of the hermit's wisdom, her heart anxious to return home to begin her own process.

"Thank you, Learned One, for all your help today. I hope I can fulfill the destiny of the seeds as well as you have."

The hermit patted her hand. "It will come, if you have the determination to see this through. Do not fear the changes that will come to you. And you will see," he said as shooed her out the gate, "Someday you will be the one sharing the magic with the writers that will come behind you."

THE END

A Writing Fairy Tale, Part One

2010-07-15T06:28:00.006-06:00

Once upon a time there was a writer in love with her own ideas. The seeds of different stories fell from the story trees like rain every time she visited Published Forest. She would carefully gather them and tuck them into her bag to bring back.

There was a fox who lived at the edge of the forest. This fox was considered wise by all the other creatures and visitors to the forest, and many went to visit him to learn from his wisdom and experience.

The writer loved to sit at the edge of the clearing in front of the fox's den, listening to other's questions and relating it to herself. "I am just like that writer" or "The fox knows so much. I should follow his counsel."

One of the things the fox said often was "The story seeds you gather from the forest are all you need to be published. These seeds will grow by itself into one of the cornerstone trees of the forest."

After these times visiting the fox, the writer would walk home, caring her ideas, excited by the possibilities she held. "These are such amazing story seeds. I know I will add to Published Forest someday!" She would get home with the seeds, placing them carefully on the dirt that surrounded her house and wait for the seeds to sprout and grow.

There was a part of her walk home that scared the writer, however. As she traveled along the path, she had to pass the tiny farm of the crazy hermit. She didn't like the hermit, for he was old and wrinkly, and smelled of sour sweat. His garden was amazing, though, and and if he wasn't sitting outside, harassing the other travelers, she liked to pause and wonder at the amazing variety that grew there. He had few plants, but they always seemed to grow quickly and strong, and there were many of the more famous story trees that were his.

One day as she leaned against the low stone wall that surrounded the hermit's garden, she noticed something horrifying. One of his plants the same idea as one of the seeds she had put in her own garden. While the hermit's was already halfway grown with full lush leaves and a trunk that thickened by the minute hers was sickly and yellow, with a weak trunk and only a few leaves.

Despite her fear of the hermit, she climbed over the wall and approached the new tree. It was even more beautiful as she neared it, it's leaves deep emerald, the trunk sturdy and firm under her fingertips. As she looked closer, she saw tiny purple fruits beginning to grow. This tree was already bearing fruit!

Despair washed over her. How could she possibly compete for the precious space of Published Forest with the hermit, who's magic far surpassed her own?

"I was like you, once," came a voice behind her. She spun and saw the hermit standing close behind her. She stepped back, but ran into the tree and had to stop. The hermit did not come any closer, but continued talking. "I was once a path traveler like yourself. I would come and pluck story seeds from the ground almost every day. I would pause and listen to the fox spin his tales and go home and scatter my seeds by the handful into my garden."

At her look of surprise, he nodded. "Oh, yes, the fox is very old. He has been around longer than I, longer than anyone can remember. He tells a very pretty story, himself. One that is easily believed by the new and gullible."

The hermit stepped around her and placed a work-calloused hand on the trunk. The tree shuddered. And then before her very eyes it grew, the trunk thickening, sprouting new leaves, and the small fruit growing big and heavy, bowing the branches above her. The hermit's magic awed her, and she gazed in wonder at the miraculous tree.

"It is not magic, though it may seem so to you," said the hermit. "It is only that I have learned the true secret of the trees."

"Tell me, please, I beg of you. I want my story trees to be like yours," begged the writer. "What must I do to gain the secret?"

The hermit shook his head. "I do not know if you are ready. I know you have admired my garden, but..."

The writer fell to her knees. "Please. I am willing to do whatever it takes. I have scattered my story seeds, but nothing comes to fruition. I don't know what else to do."

The hermit sighed. "I hope you are ready, because even if you are not, the truth of the secret will haunt you, keeping you awake at night until you follow this new path."

"I am ready. I will do whatever necessary to follow this new way."

(Look for the conclusion tomorrow!)

Writing Evil...Mwahahahaha!!!

2010-07-14T01:30:00.001-06:00

Darth Vader: You cannot hide forever, Luke.
Luke: I will not fight you.
Darth Vader: Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can save your friends. Yes, your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for... sister. So, you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her, too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark Side... then perhaps she will...
Luke: [igniting light saber, screams] NO!

(Star Wars, Episode VI, Return of the Jedi)

There was a time when I couldn't write. I tried, oh, I tried. I wrote short stories and novel chapters and picture books. And they all stunk. Why? Because I couldn't give my characters problems.

One of my biggest flaws that I had to overcome as a writer was making everything perfect in my stories. Do you remember when you were little and you played imagination games with your friends? It didn't matter if it was princesses, pirates, or Star Wars, I had to make my person be the strongest, fastest, have the coolest magic that could counteract anything anybody could throw at me. After a while it got boring, because no one could defeat the other, or even kidnap them for very long, because the other person would miraculously develop some other talent or skill or find the critical piece needed to escape sitting on the dungeon floor.

It was the same in my beginning stories. No problems, or problems so easily solved by my perfect characters, it was B-O-R-I-N-G.

I used that quote from Star Wars at the beginning to make a point. We have to, as writers, be seduced by the Dark Side. It doesn't matter if you're writing a picture book for toddlers or the Great American Novel. Our characters have to be real. They have to have real, relatable problems. Those problems have to be impossible stumbling blocks that make our characters do things out of character, to become something different than they were when they started. As readers, we read about other people dealing with insane issues so that our normal challenges don't seem so challenging. "Hey! I'm not getting chased by a dragon into a volcano! I think I can handle the dishes today."

This doesn't mean you have to glorify evil, or make it seem beautiful. But we do have to embrace the Dark Side within, and acknowledge it, and put it in our writing. Because (lean in close, it's a secret): Everyone else has a Dark Side, too. And when they see your character overcoming evil, or just their own internal demons, it brings a little hope that they, too, can overcome their own Darth Vader.

Wanting to Work

2010-07-12T09:23:00.003-06:00

When I knew I was going on vacation, I thought about putting up posts for the week, to keep the momentum going. But as time ran short, I realized something important: taking breaks.

I know I do it as I write, taking a few minutes here and there to check my email, read a blog or two, sometimes actually caring for my family. But sometimes I have to get up and walk away. Take an extended period to just let my current WIP percolate in the back of my brain until the problems I'm facing resolve themselves.

I hadn't hit a wall in my newest WIP, but I knew I wouldn't have the ability to work on it while I was gone. So I just let it sit and rumble in the back of my mind for a week.

It was so interesting the things my mind came up with during that time. I added a critical element to the beginning chapters that I hadn't considered before. I also was so itchy to get back to work on it, it was a physical thing. The whole drive from California I could barely sit still, I was so anxious.

How about you? Do you ever feel that excited to work that you can barely concentrate?

Characters Coming to Life

2010-06-30T10:02:00.001-06:00

(This is my post from MMW blog today. Enjoy!)

So right now it's about 2:50 am, and I just got home from seeing the Twilight Trilogy at our local theater with my 14 year old daughter. (So I apologize profusely if this is incoherent.)

It was fascinating for many reasons, but what I enjoyed most was people watching (or people listening, since we were in a darkened theater.) Our crowd was definitely "Team Jacob", with lots of cat calls, whistles, and various other outbursts of approval every time he came on scene. Especially with his shirt off.

It made me wonder about Jacob as a character, and what made him speak so clearly and so well to so many. Or Edward, for that matter. Or Harry Potter, or Elizabeth Bennet. All these characters are from a book, but books that are so well known, so beloved, that somebody had to make a movie about it. Had to visually realize what millions of people pictured in their heads.

As a writer, that's what I want for my characters. I want them to be as real to others as they are to me in my head. When I first started writing, I thought that meant describing their physical appearance, so the reader could see dark hair, blue eyes, and glasses on an oval shaped face above a perfect male body. Or whatever. It took me a long time to understand that no, I didn't need to create an actual picture with words, I needed to leave an impression strong enough that the image could carry the reader through the scene, or chapter, or the entire book. I struggle with this in the visual arts, too, trying to be so accurate that when all that's really needed is a hint of color or highlight.

That's the type of thing we have to practice as writers. Creating hints and highlights, not a realistic photograph. We have to leave enough up to the reader's imagination that they want to keep reading because the story and characters have become their own. We as the authors have slipped into the background and let them step into the story.

Think about that this week as you work on your own writing. Are you adding enough to be clear, but not so much the reader is bogged down with explanation? Do you trust the reader enough to "get it" or are you so preoccupied with creating the "perfect picture", that you bore them?

Buon Lavoro!

Inspiration and Genre Choice

2010-06-29T09:19:00.003-06:00

So the other day I did the hard thing. I actually submitted something. Just a short story to an e-pub, but it's done. Sure to come back with a rejection, but hey, I did it, right? I get to join the club of the writer rejects of the world?

Now we come to Genre Choice. As a writer and reader of many different types of books, I've tried my hand at almost all of them. With all of them, I've struggled getting a plan, or beyond the first couple of chapters.

Then something happened. The day after I sent the story, I sat down to write. None of my current WIP excited me. So I opened up a blank document and typed the first sentence. "Viv screamed."

And suddenly, an entire story, BEGINNING TO END, came to my mind. I spent the morning working furiously, working out the kinks and finalizing the outline, but the whole thing is there. The thing that surprised me was that it was a genre I love to read, but have never tried to write: a suspense thriller. I've never thought of myself as a 'thriller' writer. Maybe because it's scary, and dark, and exposes more of my psyche than I've been willing to share before. But you know what? I really don't care. This is a story I'm excited about, a story that is writing itself, including my brain saying things like "Oh, don't forget to go back and add more detail here" or "Add this twist now, so it'll be more 'WOW' at the climax!"

Anyway, I'm squeezing in writing and plotting like never before (even as we make plans for a 10 day trip), and I'm so excited, I can't stand to be away from it for more than a while. (I think my hubby is finally realizing what it means to be married to a writer, lol.)

Onward and upward!

I Won!!!

2010-06-23T20:10:00.002-06:00

At the beginning of the month, a new blog came on the market, making a big splash (at least in my corner of the world). Several middle grade authors got together and put up a fabulous blog titled "From the Mixed Up Files..."
Anyway, as part of their promotion of the blog, they offered a giveaway of NINE (!) books. And I won!
So over the course of the next several days, I'll be getting some great books to read, devour, and share. Great big SQUEEEEEEE!!!!!!

(It's been a bad few days, so this came at just the right time. Gotta love good karma.)

Who Do You Write For?

2010-06-22T09:13:00.003-06:00

Who is your audience? Think about that. I hear people in the industry say all the time, "Write for yourself. Write what you love, what you would read."
This is good advice. Like Anne Shirley in the "Anne of Green Gables" series. I can't remember which book it's in, but after Anne writes one book and gets it back with the advice to write what she knows, and then writes another story about her life on the island, she gets a contract.

But notice something. Anne Shirley (though fictional) wanted to get published. She wanted to do more than write something for just herself. If she had, she would have stuck to journal writing.

I will write forever. I do it because I can't do anything else, the compulsion is too strong. But I don't just do it for me, or my family, or my friends, or my cat. I think I write well. I think I have an interesting story to share. I believe that others will appreciate what I have to say.

So I write (and submit) for more than just myself or my immediate circle. I write to share it with the world, to have it published so others can hopefully enjoy the stories as much as I do.

Finding Inspiration

2010-06-18T11:15:00.004-06:00

I've been at this writing thing for a while now. I've gone in bursts, especially as kids have come along. I've attended a conference or two, read as much writing advice I could get my hands on, and generally researched the process of writing to death.
There are a few pieces of advice that I've heard over and over. I thought I would deconstruct them a bit, kind of get behind the platitude or trite saying. Really explain (at least to my satisfaction) what writers or agents or editors mean when they say things like "Write what you know", "Write regularly", "I find inspiration everywhere". There are others, but I thought I'd start with those.

Today I'd like to talk about finding inspiration for new stories. This must be a typical question for writers on panels at conferences, or on their blogs, because I see this question answered EVERYWHERE. But they all say pretty much the same thing. "I find inspiration and story ideas just in everyday life, all around me."

As a writer at the beginning of the game (finishing WIP, prepublication), I found this singularly unhelpful. I'm sure I'm not the only one, otherwise other beginning writers wouldn't still be asking this question.

So what do they mean, finding inspiration everywhere around you? What they don't mention is the preparation they do within their own minds long before those ideas appear.

What kind of prep, do you ask? Now that's a good question. Let's use an analogy. When you are learning a new skill, say cooking, or learning to play the piano, you have to start with the basics. With playing the piano, you have to concentrate on things like correct posture, loose wrists, and curved fingers. When you're writing, and looking for new story ideas, you have to be able to see the world around you, really examine things that you take for granted. The human mind is designed to "skim" over things we're familiar with. It's so we don't get overloaded with so much stimuli that our brains become frozen, like a computer with too many programs running. But as writers, we have to be observers. We can't skim. We have to delve, to dig deep under the surface, to make connections between the mundane and the ordinary, find the meaning in those things and bring it up to the surface.

The other day the MormonMommyWriters yahoo group posed a writing exercise. Take 10 ordinary items and put them in a bag. Pull out 4 random objects and write a scene that includes them all.
This was fascinating for me because as mom of 5, stuff gets left everywhere. I have learned to tune this out to a certain extent, because otherwise I'd be locked in my room screaming at the mess. But when I did this exercise, it brought out a whole bunch of ideas. In fact, I started a new project this morning, based off the 600 words I wrote for the exercise. I'm going to include the exercise. See if you can tell what four items were random things I really SAW that made the story come out of the ordinary white noise of my life and up to the surface into a cohesive story. Give it a try yourself. See what you can really see in your own life.

Laundry Day (copyright 2010, Megan Oliphant, all rights reserved)
I tripped over the flip flop, again, at the bottom of the stairs. My shoulder slammed into the basement door, the loud boom echoing through the house. I bit my tongue, hoping I hadn't woken the baby. Again.
Blowing a wisp of greasy hair out of my eyes, I waited for a scream from upstairs. Blessed silence continued, and with a sigh, I moved into the laundry room.
Not that it was much of a “room”. The unfinished basement that housed my washer and dryer was completely open, allowing me to see, and mostly ignore, the immense pile of clutter that dominated it. I skirted around the pile that included the brand new dominoes I bought last week for our trip scattered through it (curse them!) as I headed to an even bigger pile of dirty clothes. We'd moved into the house with a small infant, from a single floor house with the washer and dryer on the same level. A year and a half later I had another small infant, and the stairs, covered as they were with the detritus of four children, were a Mount Everest in the path of my motherly duties, namely doing the laundry.
But today they were gone with their dad to a family day at the park. Thank goodness.
“I need a break, Will. I need a few hours of no demands except the baby. And if we time it right, he'll sleep most of the time. I'm sick of finding this,” I held up another DVD, left on the floor by my seven year old and cracked beyond repair by my enterprising two year old. “If they don't leave the house for a few hours, I. Will. Kill. Them.”
He just shook his head at me and rolled his eyes, but I didn't care. I was serious, and he knew it.
So here I was, staring at the pile of dirty clothes, grown so large the beginnings of tears clogged my throat.
“I refuse to give in to this,” I muttered, and stepped forward.
Piercing pain stabbed through the heel of my bare foot. I gasped as I fell over into the now thankfully large pile of laundry, face first. Wrinkling my nose at the smell of dirty socks, underwear, and all overlaid by the alcoholic sweetness of fruit juice-soaked shirts, I pushed myself over and examined my foot.
The Barbie crown was broken, of course, though whether by my stepping on it or some other violent action, I didn't know. What I did know was that the sharp plastic stuck into my foot much more than it should, blood already dripping down in a slow trickle.
I started to laugh, and flopped backwards onto the pile as hysteria overtook me.
That's where they found me after they came home from the park, cushioned by clothes, my foot still bleeding, while I hiccuped the last of my tears.
“What's wrong with Mom, Daddy?” asked my seven year old daughter. The five year old wandered away to the clutter pile and started stacking dominoes on his hand.
The two year old stuck his thumb in his mouth and grabbed his dad's hand, brown eyes open as wide as they could go.
Will gazed at me for a long moment before answering. “Mommy's okay, sweetie. She'll be just fine.”
After the trip to the emergency room to have my foot stitched (19 stitches!), we went out to dinner. Okay, it was just McDonalds, but I count it as the first of our dates that Will miraculously found babysitters for every week.

Acceptable Influence: Orson Scott Card

2010-06-17T09:13:00.000-06:00

(This is this week's post from MMW. Enjoy!)
Last week I talked about finding my voice and balance between myself and absorbing the flavor of the authors that I read.
This week I wanted to introduce one of the writers whom I've actively admired and tried to emulate (not too much, though.)

Orson Scott Card is a famous Mormon writer. He's been around longer than he'd like me to point out, and while it wasn't his first effort at novel writing, Ender's Game was, in it's time, as amazing as Stephanie Meyer's Twilight is today.
I've read every book by Mr. Card, and own most of them (which is a serious investment with several kids to supply basic needs for.)
OSC has also written How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. Even if this isn't your genre, its principles apply to the basics of good writing.
Two things have stuck with me over the years about OSC's writing. First, dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. Perfecting your dialogue, the voices of your characters through what they say is key. Dialogue, more than anything your characters do, will bring the reader closer to being a part of the story. Dialogue reveals more about the people in your novels, whether they are liars or perfectionists, sly or simple. Or all of the above. As much as we want to be able to put the things we see inside our heads on the page, we don't want to take up 1000 words of our novel to describe the view from the doorway. Our readers don't want that, they want to know what happens next. Dialogue propels the action forward. So the sooner we get a handle on our dialogue, the better.
The other thing that I've heard from him several times is that evil characters are boring. The whole “anti-hero” fad is annoying in the extreme because what really fascinates him in a book is when a good man (or woman) is faced with agonizing decisions, choices that have us as readers screaming at the book in heartbreak over these people we love having to deal with such horrible options.
I have to agree. I have a hard time sympathizing with characters whose motivations are so alien from my own. I don't mind reading about them every once in a while, but it's like looking at some odd creature of nature, safely behind glass at the zoo. I'll look for a while, but I won't ever fall in love with it.
So when I write, I try to have my MC be the kind of person that is good, faced with difficulties that seem impossible to overcome. Of course you need bad guys, and they can't be one dimensional, either. But they're the bad guys. They don't need to be sympathetic. They can be alien to our way of thinking. That's why they're the antagonist.
Next week I'll talk about another author who caught me young, and changed the way I thought about narrative in novels.

Poetry and Music in Your Novel

2010-06-15T00:28:00.004-06:00

Poetry and musical lyrics are a totally different beast than novel writing. I've come across plenty of poems and song lyrics in books over years, some tolerable, some amazing, and some real stinkers. It always cracked me up when I would read the disclaimer or something in the acknowledgements that went something like this: "I'm sorry there are poems and/or song lyrics written by me in this book. I know I'm not very good, but I couldn't help it. I know it stinks. Sorry."
Of course, it was usually in the books where the poetry was the most lyrical and imaginative. The writers whose poems were vomitrociously awful usually said something like this: "You will note that there are several original poems found within these pages. After several years studying at _____ University, under the well-known tutelage of Professor ______, who is famous for their poetry collection titled 'The Pile of Toe-Nail Clippings', I have graced the world with my own awe-inspiring and groundbreaking poetry. All will bow down and fear me."

I struggle with this in my own writing. I am big into music in my everyday life, and I can't help but inject that into my characters. I can't imagine a life without music, and the poetry set to music that are lyrics. So in the spirit of complete disclosure, here is the latest attempt of mine to write lyrics to a song from my YA fantasy, Goldenheart. The scene is where my MC, Annie, is singing a song sung to her as a lullaby by her mother, deceased for several years. Annie has avoided singing for various reasons, but in a desire to please her father and also to try to reclaim a portion of the life robbed from her, she sings this well-known (in their land) song by the fire.

“The morning wakes, but you sleep Beyond,” she began.
“Clouds spray the skies,
while I pray for dawn.
Your precious life,
a gift to me still,
left me alone,
the darkness to fill.

“Clear as the dew,
my teardrops do fall.
My heart break is still;
a pale, silent wall.

“Oh how I wish
your sweet voice to hear,
spilling words of rejoicing,
renouncing fear.
And though you begged unrelenting,
and pleaded yet more,
I cannot, as yet,
Weep no more.

“Clear as the dew,
my teardrops do fall.
My heart break is still;
a pale, silent wall."

So there it is. And while I say I know it is not the best poem/song lyric ever written (I've always had a love of John Donne), I hope it evokes some images of longing and the sorrow of loss.
Don't be afraid to include some of your own work in your novels. It will bring a better understanding to reader if you help them understand the world of your story by sharing the music of it with them.

Ah, Life.

2010-06-14T00:58:00.003-06:00

So it's been a normal week/weekend. Lots of little things, a couple of big activities. This next week is full of dance recital stuff for my 6 year old. But what is really the hardest thing about life right now is juggling life and writing. I want to write. Everyday. And not that I'm waiting for some mythical being to pop up and transform my writing life. The balance between the everyday and the writing is delicate, and I guess I've been pushed off the ledge.

Though I've stolen moments here and there the past week, I've written maybe 500 words. And that's words combined from several projects. (Not counting blog posts, of course.) I really do need dedicated time and quiet. Five kids and a shared computer in a main room of the house are not usually conducive to such activity. (Which is why, if you notice the time stamp on this post, it's about 1am, and my youngest, after having a late afternoon nap, only JUST went to sleep about 1/2 hour ago.)

So anyway, I guess I'm just venting. One of these days I'll climb back on that tightrope. It may have to wait until after this week. Or maybe next. Or maybe the week after that. Or...maybe I'll do it right now. ;)

Help!!!!

2010-06-10T15:47:00.000-06:00

I am the queen of beginnings. Middles...not so much. Ends? What are those? I have so many beginnings scattered across my computer that even I don't remember them all.
So I'm asking...no, BEGGING for some input and comments. I'm posting the first 150 words of my most promising Works In Progress, and I need a vote as to which one appeals the most to my loyal readers. Just so I can see if I'm on the right track. So......

Story 1: Goldenheart, YA fantasy

Anne tracked the line of clouds coming in over the treetops, their black underbellies exposing their stormy interiors. A shiver coursed through her as the first flash of lightening split the darkening sky. The rumble of thunder was low and distant, but another shiver wracked her thin frame.
Her father sprinted around the corner of the mill, heading to the house faster than any man that big should move.
He jumped onto the porch where she sat in her chair. “Annie, darlin'. Are you doin' well? I came right away.”
She smiled at his worry, trying to hide her own by tightening the heavy shawl over her shoulders.
“I'm fine, Papa. It was only the first one, after all. It won't be here in earnest until suppertime. You didn't need to leave so early.”

Story 2: ThiefBorn, MG fantasy
Gia slid her left foot along the ledge as her fingers dug into the crumbling mortar. The corner and freedom were six inches away. Four inches...three...
“Hey!” The shout came from above her head, but she didn't look. She leaped backwards, arching her back and tucking in her knees, kicking out just in time for her feet to hit the ground.
The guards on the tower continued to shout as she bowed to them to hide her smile. An arrow whistled over her back, and she sidestepped into the shadow-filled bushes nearby.
The shouts turned to cries of confusion as she disappeared, and Gia's smile widened. She flipped her long black braid back over her shoulder, the end of it hitting the sack that hung from her waist. She patted it as she walked, feeling the irregular shaped object tucked safely inside. This one would bring much wealth to the Clan, and honor to the name of Roan. Her father would be proud.

Story 3: Second Chance Cafe, Cozy Mystery
It wasn’t every day that I tripped over a body in the diner's walk-in freezer.
Mayor Gerald Chance stared at me through shocked dead green eyes. He was blue, as blue as his blue shirt with a white pinstripe. His partially stiffened body slumped against the boxes of Ben & Jerry’s in the back. The faint smell of lilacs wafted out at me and I felt the skin on my back try to climb over my shoulders.
There was a part of me noticing these little things. It was a small part, because the rest of me was screaming.
I walked backwards out of the freezer, afraid to turn my back on him, then slammed the door shut and ran to my office. My shaking hands dumped my purse on the desk, then scrambled after my cell before it fell on the floor.

(Copyright 2010, Megan Oliphant, all rights reserved.)

My Writing Voice: Who Am I?

2010-06-09T00:13:00.000-06:00

(Here's the post from MMW. Enjoy!)
I debated all week what to write. Should I write something inspirational? Personal? Instructive? Should I try to be all things to all people?
And so I came to my topic. Being a people pleaser. This is built in to my psyche. I never want anyone to be angry with me, so I try to accommodate them by being everything to everybody. (This doesn't seem to apply to my children, with whom I have no problem making angry and not caring one whit.)
When it comes to my writing, I write as eclectic as I read. In fact, I can't be a reader while I'm a writer. I tend to absorb the style of the author and it shows up in my own writing, both in cadence and genre. I'm very sponge-like in that regard. (I'm spongy in other ways, too, but we won't go there.)
I'm still discovering my voice. I know I like humor. A story doesn't have to be all funny, but a surprising twist that make me laugh out loud is something that makes the story memorable.
I also like mysteries. Even when the story isn't a mystery per se, I still like unexpected twists and being outsmarted by the author.
I'm a skimmer. I am not a page-after-page of description gal. I've ruined more than one reading experience by skimming over pertinent facts and being brought up short with a “What did I miss?!?” Then having to flip back several pages until I can track down the lane change in some paragraph I skimmed over.
There are a few authors, however, that have made it into my permanent pantheon of acceptable influences. In the coming weeks I'll explore these various writers and why I consciously choose to emulate them, hopefully creating my own voice in the process.

Buon lavoro! [A traditional Italian phrase that directly translated means “Good work!”, but is more like “You can do it!” I hope you don't mind if I finish off my posts with it. Because you can, you know. Do it, I mean. ;)]

Tomorrow's The Big Day

2010-06-08T13:12:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is my first official day for posting on MMW. I'm excited and terrified at the same time. I'm so inspired by all the other women and their insight. I hope I do them justice. So if you're reading here today, take a look at MormonMommyWriters tomorrow and see what I have to say. (Or just read it here, as I'll post it here as well.)

Do You Journal? Part 3...

2010-06-07T08:33:00.000-06:00

So this is the big question...which camp am I in? Am I a diner cook or a a gormet chef?
Well, I haven't decided. I remember once hearing a friend of mine discuss this very issue. When asked if she would let her children read her journal, she declared, "I will rip out pages and burn them before I let anybody read them. Especially my kids."
At the time (before children), I thought she was being overly dramatic. After all, we were counseled by prophets to write journals for our posterity. But now, as I look back at those old entries, I tend to snort in derision at my younger self. Even at ones from 10 years ago, when I was doing just what I'm doing now--mothering.
The angst and emotional turmoil seems overwrought and phony, and I want to take my younger self and give her a good shake. And then take the journals and bonfire the lot.
I do cringe when I think of my kids reading this stuff. But to deny them the opportunity to really know me, to know the humanity of me, when they're old enough to appreciate it, and maybe glean some wisdom and insight into their own existence, can I, as their mother, deny them that?
Hopefully I'll have quite a few more years to decide. Meanwhile, I think blogging, for the most part, is my journal these days. Yes, it is sanitized, to some extent, as the rest of you are not my posterity, and really don't need to know all the shadows. I might let you meet one or two, though. ;)

Do You Journal? Part 2...

2010-06-05T09:10:00.000-06:00

We're talking about journal writing this weekend. In a previous post, I talked about the "diner cooks" of journal writing, who throw everything and the kitchen sink out there.
Today we're talking about the selective journaler, the one who artfully arranges their entries into tasty titbits, leaving only the absolutely necessary ingredients on the plate. These five-star chefs of the journal world are of the camp that only the best things need to go into the journal. Postitive and uplifting, things that show the the writer in the best light.

These entries are meant to be read by those who follow behind. They're left for children and grandchildren to read and absorb the wisdom of their elders.
I hope I don't sound derogatory. I think both camps have a place. Next time I'll talk about where I am on this issue.

Do you Journal? Part 1...

2010-06-04T08:56:00.000-06:00

This is a loaded question. As a writer from forever, I do have a journal. I've had one since I was 8, and given one for a gift for my baptism. And I wrote in it off and on, with periods of active writing, and not so active. Active times were during junior high and high school, plus my mission. Also the early years of my marriage and beginnings as a mother.
But then there are years where I never picked it up. Especially when the days all run together, and though there are slight variations on the theme, the daily script remains the same.
When it comes to journalling, I've found there are two camps: diner cooks and five star chefs.
If you've ever been to a roadside diner, especially one that is frequented by truck drivers, you know that the plates are huge, and loaded with food. There's usually enough sustenance to feed three or four people, and there's some of everything there.

In journal writing, I see this as those who write EVERYTHING down: the good, the bad, and the TMI (too much info). Their philosopy is "This journal is for me, to organize my thoughts, to get it out of me and down on the paper, so I can move on."

Tomorrow we'll talk about the other camp...

It's Official!

2010-06-03T11:55:00.000-06:00

I am now a regular contributor to the Mormon Mommy Writers blog! I was notified yesterday, and the official announcement went up today. I'm so excited! I can't wait to start posting. My first official day is next Wednesday, so it'll be almost a week, but still, So Excited!

Offically Back, But....

2010-06-01T15:57:00.000-06:00

We have one computer for our family. Thirty years ago, this would not have been an issue. Today, however, it feels like punishment (at least my kids say so, and I feel like it, some days) to have only the one.

One side effect, though, is that sometimes kids aren't as careful or cautious about websites that might have yucky viruses. We've got a doozy right now. It's been interfering with our internet connection. I'm only on right now through some fluke. We're going to have to probably scrub the computer and reinstall all our programs. Luckily we have some advanced warning of a crash, so I can take evasive maneuvers for our critical files. We also backup everything off site, so I'm not worried about anything major, other than the time it'll take to fix it.

So I'm not going to write anything else until this is fixed, on the chance that I could lose any work. So I'm not writing, but only because I need to wait until I can do it without worrying about the big bad virus mutating it into a giant cyborg monster that tries to eat me while chasing me through a virtual reality. (Hmmm...that may be an interesting new story....)