Dating Myself- Finding The Joy In Writing Again

Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, “Grow, grow.”       The Talmud

 

How many of you sit at your computer and stare at a blank screen? Perhaps you have words on said blank screen, but you know it’s total crap.

I would suggest you go on a date with yourself.

Julia Cameron, who is a noted Hollywood screenwriter and director, wrote The Artists Way. It is a gem of a book. I’ve pulled it back off my shelves because I desperately need to do something different if I ever want to get back on track to being creative.

Before I begin with the meat of this article, I’d like you to get to know me a tiny bit so you can see that the writers here at Muse Tracks are the same as all of you struggling to find the road (and stay on it) to being an author.

Well, here goes…

I am a dabbler. I have a closet full of pencil sketches from copies of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings to pen and ink creations of my own imagination. I have watercolor paintings stacked at my mother’s house I dabble in textile arts and have woven, crosstitched, needlepointed, and even threaded fabrics through my paintings. I love to paint walls and decorate- my house is an ever changing canvas. Photographs clog the memory banks of my computer. Cooking is a total creative outlet for me and travel feeds my soul. Through all of this dabbling, I have learned quite a bit about the arts and am a lover of museums and artists from all walks.

While I’m a dabbler at all those things and have had varying successes at them, I consider them fun endeavors. It really doesn’t matter if I’m any good at them or not. I simply create.

Did you notice something missing?

I never once mentioned writing. I realized this while I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. We were talking about things we enjoyed and writing wasn’t on the list. He questioned me about its absence. I couldn’t answer him during that conversation, but it’s been waddling around in my head like a drunk duck ever since.

The Artists Way is a wonderful book that first and foremost gives us permission to be creative. It empowers us to delve into the fanciful, explore the beauty and remember that we are not whole if we deny this side of our being. (OK- I now officially feel like Earth Mother holding up a peace sign.) However artsy and spiritual this book may sound, the message is one that I believe everyone should hear. Is it fear, guilt, jealousy, or some other force that limits your beliefs in yourself? What causes you to self-sabotage? (My specialty) We have our own unique answers built on our own unique lives. Julia Cameron provides exercises that offer ways to inhibit the roadblocks we throw up for ourselves.

One of my favorites is dating myself. Basically, the advice is to spend time with ourselves nurturing and refilling the well of creativity.  Tomorrow I will attempt to have a date with myself all day. There will be no TV, no computer, no radio, no electronics of any type, no books- just me. The day will be spent in my garden, sitting on my back porch with a pad and paper, and visiting with my friends. I might go to an artist’s shop to wander the aisles or I might drive up to my brother’s lake house and sit on the dock. I will not think about the rest of my life. I want to remember the joy I had when writing was also simply about creating. Somehow it became about editing, publishing, marketing etc. Those issues are important, but are meaningless if it dive bombs the writing. Writing was fun, wasn’t it? It was a wonderful place to get lost in another world with characters who told us a fabulous tale. I want to get back to that.

The Twelve Days Of Writing Elves

“Never allow yourself to become one of those people who, when they are old, tell you how they missed their chance.”
Author, Claire Ortega

 By: Stacey Purcell

 Merry Christmas to all of our Muse Track readers! It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone so quickly.

I believe that, besides getting older, we fill our days so full, there’s hardly room to breathe. The Christmas season is a microcosm of that idea. We pack three months of activities into one and we expect to be merry and productive on top of that. Wow! That is a tough road- especially if you are the creative sort.

I have a confession to make.

I am not able to write on command. I don’t seem to have mastered the idea that you simply have to be disciplined everyday and the words will come. I understand the principle, try to employ it, but if the creative juice is not there- then it just isn’t there.

This month with all the parties, family flying in and out, shopping, cooking, cleaning etc., I’m finding it especially hard to get words down on paper. So what do I do? If my novel set in Costa Rica with lost treasure, drug cartels, small portable nuclear arms and wild romance won’t flow from my fingertips, I go back to my Twelve Days of Writing Elves to keep the creativity from getting rusty. (Those Elves have gotten me through many holidays and back on track.)

1. Elf 1 says- Find a holiday writing prompt and write a scene about 500 words. I borrowed this one from Writer’s Digest: Christmas Ghost
   While hanging up your Christmas lights, you are flagged down by a neighborhood kid who offers to help. As he helps you, he tells you about the Christmas ghost that haunts his house. What’s odd is that you’ve noticed the same things happening around your house. Write this scene.
2. Elf 2 says- What is your voice? Do you like to write in short staccato sentences or are you more flowing? Are you spontaneous? Or more methodical? Our voice is ultimately what comes out of us. Do you have a writer that you really admire? Do you like their voice? Take a few pages from your book and try to re-write it using their voice, their style. You might be surprised at what comes from this exercise.
3. Elf 3 says- Take an emotion that is commonly written about- let’s say “gut wrenching”. Now dig deeper and create a list of different, deeper, ways of making this emotion tangible. (Thank you Donald Maas for this one.) Take a trip out of the surface emotions into unchartered waters. Your writing will be better!
4. Elf 4 says- Create 5 new titles for your current WIP. What elements will you choose to highlight? How does it “color” your book differently?
5. Elf 5 says- Write the top ten things that must happen in your book before you put in the final period. Even if you are a pantster like me, you should be able to make this list. Use it as a road map or a check off list. (Thank you Will Graham for this brilliant idea.)
6. Elf 6 says- Read two chapters out of a new craft book. Write down 3 things you just learned. Post it by your computer, and try using those items the next time you write on your WIP.
7. Elf 7 says- Get your writing buddies on board and do a page swap. No editing, no rewriting to prepare it for others to read. Just swap the last page you all wrote for FUN- only for FUN!!
8. Elf 8 says- Take an experience your character will have and try to experience it yourself. If they are eating oatcakes from a medieval feast, then prepare some yourself. If they are in a rain forest, try going into a steam room fully clothed and do some kind of activity. If they are going to shoot a gun, go to a firing range and try it out. Use all of your senses!
9. Elf 9 says- Use the timer that was given in Link of The Week (Tuesday) and do a 5 minute brain storming session on finding a $1000 poker chip from the 1960s behind a loose board in a boarding house you just bought to remodel into a B and B. (Again- thanks Will Graham.)
10. Elf 10 says- Take 5 chapters and search for comfort words. Start off with “just” and “that”. You can highlight all of them with the push of a button and try eliminating as many as possible. Easy way to improve your chapters!
11. Elf 11 says- Read a book. That’s it- just read a good book.
12. Elf 12 says- Press the power button on your computer, scoot your chair away from your desk and walk out of the room. Never, never forget this is a time for celebrating family and friends. Enjoy them. Revel in your time together. Find peace and contentment in this season. The book will still be there next week.

May your Christmas be happy, healthy, and full of wonder. Merry Christmas!

Edits, Drama, and the Murder of an Epilogue

Song of the Day: Rolling in the Deep by Adele

Edits. Love ‘em or hate ‘em?

I think most of us have heard of revision hell. Conversely, we all know that someone who so rock, their editors have nothing to refine. So when my time came to be professionally edited, I had no idea what to expect.

The past few weeks I’ve been working on rounds of edits with my editor (I never get tired of saying that – my editor). Denise is fan – flipping – tabulous. And thus far, I’ve enjoyed the editing experience.

I look pretty good as a brunette.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not strolling through a field of poppies, barefoot and fancy free. I’m not one of those authors who so rock. No, I completely short circuit over doing revisions on a deadline and I’m convinced that Murphy’s Law requires that life heads into upheaval at the same time. Let’s face it, 14 days or less for revisions translates to 14 hours or less for this mom of a rambunctious toddler and ever-dramatic preteen.

I'm not being overly dramatic, am I?

Add in the momentary lapse of sanity with shameless sobbing, fist-pumping, and foot-stomping when I had to delete my entire epilogue. My epilogue that ties everything in a neat, pretty bow. My epilogue that hints to what’s to come in the next book. My epilogue that so rocked! Noooooooooo…

Other than that, I’ve been lucky, or maybe I just fake it well. My edits overall have been rather painless.

Action, adventure, romance. Check

Good grammar. Check.

No plot holes. Check.

Flowing sentence structure and pleasing cadence. Check.

Clear logistics. Check.

Drool-worthy libertine pirate with insatiable appetite. Check.

Tee Hee

My editor (giggle, snort, giggle) encouraged me to dive deeper into character motivation and helped pull the ropes tighter in my writing. Together, we spit-shined my novel squeaky clean. God love her, she found my amorous scenes hot and well written, and even asked that I add another. Gladly. Can’t have too much lovin’ to make your toes curl.

That woman’s got an eagle eye, too, picking out repetitive verbiage and phrases. Apparently, I have an affinity for certain words. They magically appear over and over in my book, this despite that I am usually very cautious about repetition. Still a few slipped past. Damn you CPs! *shakes fists*

Listen up, authors. She says she literally sees the following phrase, or variations

Even the dog is narrowing his eyes.

of, in every single manuscript that crosses her desk. She narrowed her eyes. Confession. I did this five times in the novel. Five! Everyone was narrowing their eyes. Ugh.

I’m not unique. Every author does this. We’re so wrapped up in conveying thoughts, emotions, and actions just right, we simply do not notice we’ve been repetitive. In an 80-100K book, it’s easy to overlook the same phrase or word.

Just when I thought we were finished, the copy editor sends it back. Writing historical fiction has its own challenge by way of proper words usage, terminology, and dialect. I have done extensive, exhaustive research on words, trying my best to avoid anachronistic terms. Imagine my surprise when the CE sent my novel back full of flagged words. *sigh* It’s times like these I wonder how I made it this far.

So how do we avoid these pitfalls? Get a good editor. Employ awesome critique partners. Besides that? Well, reading aloud works. Doing a ‘Find’ in Microsoft Word for any word you favor or think you’ve used more than once will help, as well. Do your research. And just be vigilant. No one is perfect. That’s why we have a team of peeps saving our asses.

Dear epilogue, you will be missed.

Now, please. A moment of silence for my dearly departed epilogue.

How about you? Do you have any favorite words that sneak into your manuscripts time and again? How about editing? How has the editing process worked for you? I’d love to hear from you.

Unicorns, Profanity, and Sexist Pirates – The Bright Side of a Bad Review

Song of the Day: Cold by Crossfade

It was bound to happen sooner or later. It was only a matter of time.

Last week, I found that I had been pirated. I’m wondering if this means I’ve made the big time now that bootlegs of Blood And Treasure are  available? So, I Googled my name. That’s when I saw it.

My first unfavorable review. ACK!

Don’t get me wrong, I knew I’d have to face the inevitable. I’m not so disillusioned to think someone wouldn’t come along and burst my shiny bubble floating around my castle in the sky and scare off my herd of magical unicorns. Even the greats like King, Roberts, and Patterson get dissed. The nerve. Fact is, as this novel made its round in the contest circuit, judges either loved it or hated it. Rarely was there an in-between. It goes without saying the same would likely hold true with reviewers.

The voices in my head warned me not to click the link. But did I listen? Hell no. I had to know how Blood And Treasure fared, especially since this was a pretty well-known review site and I hadn’t sought out their service in the first place. (The review site will remain anonymous to protect the innocent.)

So what did the critic say?

The reviewer chose not to finish reading the book. Ouch! Someone call a medic. I’ve just been hit.

Okay, okay. So, it just wasn’t her cup of rum. Got it.

She went on to say that sexist comments caused her jaw to drop and left her

Stacey & I wondering WTF. You didn't know we look like celebrities, did you?

thinking WTF. I was having my own WTF moment reading this. Then she pulled an excerpt from the book to prove her point. It’s an internal thought by the pirate hero, Captain Zane Fox.

“Possessive, helpless, maniacal, devious, selfish, any one of these words could describe a woman. They could be tender in your embrace or calculating in your bed. And never to be trusted. […] And yet, Lianna was different.”

It dawned on me, albeit slowly, that she just did something for me. She quoted my book. Cool! Still, I was bummed. Maybe I’d take up drinking heavily. Oh wait…

Moving on. Upon closer inspection of her review, I realized it wasn’t so bad. She didn’t say the story sucked wind or that a second-grader has better grammar. In fact, it seemed she had nothing else to say about the book at all. Just that I’m sexist.

Jack Sparrow - Is he politically incorrect? Do you care if he is?

I do take exception to the name calling. Or rather, Captain Fox does. I did mention he is a pirate, right? A pirate! WTF? Whoever heard of a politically correct pirate? Aside from that, let’s not forget the time period. Newsflash. Unjust as it was, women were historically viewed as either manipulative creatures looking to trap a man in her snare, a vessel to brood children, or tarts to shag. Gasp! Did I just say that? Perceptions of women didn’t fully change until recent decades. (Here, give me a hand down from this soap box, will ya.)

All in all, I don’t think my first bad review was all that bad. She is certainly entitled to her opinion, and I completely respect her appraisal. I raise another cup of rum to her and thank her for the exposure.

Do you have a bad review you’d like to share? How about a WTF contest comment? I’d love to hear from you.

K.I.S.S. – Another lesson learned by Candi Wall

I hope everyone is well and busy writing, editing, submitting, revising, celebrating… Whatever stage you’re at, we at Musetracks wish you the best.

Some of you may have noticed my absence, others may not.

I’ve had a bit of an uproar in my life recently, nothing too concerning, but enough to keep me from doing what I’d hoped to accomplish over the last few weeks. Big sigh. But what I’ve learned over these past few weeks is something that applies in our writing as well as our everyday lives.

K.I.S.S. a/k/a Keep It Simple Stupid

Simple right? Yeah, okay.

Life is nothing but curve balls, twists, turns, you know, the best laid plans of mice and men…

And so during this unexpected, unwanted hiatus, I tried to keep the irons I had in the fire going.

Job – Check

Family – Check

Chores – Check

School prep – Check

Appointments – Check

Sports – Check

Volunteer – Check

Sleep – Yeah, not so much

Write – Okay whatever

Eat right – Pah!

Exercise – LOL!

Read – Can I do that? Really?

Priorities TAKE OVER our lives!

Not a darn thing we can do about it, and most of us don’t even realize we’ve prioritized our lives until after we’re done with our must-be-done’s and are onto our want-to-do’s. We plug along at our lists and schedules on auto-pilot, rearranging as we go, finagling each unseen activity or issue we need to add into the mix. We do it automatically. Some do it well, some do it mediocre, some (like me lately) just scrape by.

Regardless of how we do it, we scrape it all down to the necessities to keep it as simple as possible.

And we as writers, have to apply this to our writing as well.

And of course we’re not talking about your plot, or revising, or submitting. We’re not even talking about writing. All these things are HARD. They’re supposed to be. Nothing good comes easy or simple, but what we give as our final product needs to be. Readers don’t want to, and won’t, read filler words or sentences. They want movement, purpose, drive and action/reaction. When considering K.I.S.S., taking out filler words, scene and dialog that doesn’t create forward motion in your story is a must!

Consider two sentences:

*Amber didn’t know where the directions on the note would take her, but she had to find out.

*Amber eyed the note carefully, each crudely scribbled word carving another layer of fear deep in her heart until she forced her eyes back to the road.

(I’m tired, so bear with me.)

Okay, now assuming you’ve set the stage for your character, which line screams K.I.S.S. and still maintains the same level of intensity? The second, right? Assuming your readers are already inside your characters head means you don’t have to tell them about her fear, they’re already there. The reader doesn’t need to be told that she ‘eyed the note carefully’, they’re already seeing her in their heads, glancing nervously between the note and the road.

Sure details and setting and emotion are important. But keeping our readers moving along, instead of stalling the pictures we’re painting in their mind’s eye with too many words, is our job. Now wasn’t that last sentence the perfect example of over-writing? Had I went with

K.I.S.S. it would have read something closer to: But keeping our readers moving along, instead of making them skim, is our job.

Share! What do you do to trash the unneeded filler words we always add in the first drafts?

BTW – Next week, I’ll have the awesome Saranna DeWylde here with her novel, The Real Housewives of Mount Olympus. (Click on her name and the link will take you to the Amazon page for her novel!) I got a chance to read this pre-pub stage and it’s a fast, sexy, ultra-fun read that will have you looking at the gods and goddesses in a new way.

She’ll be giving away a free e-copy to one lucky comment. But it gets better, she’ll give away a copy each time we get ten comments!

AGENT SHOP news? Did you see who’s going to be here in September (25th is pitch day)????

LAURA BRADFORD

Just Add Mash and Stir

Song of the Day: Overcome by Creed

Last week, Stacey mentioned in her post a mash-up experiment that she and I and two others participated in. Let me give you a recap, down low on the low down, the specifics of what we, The Usual Suspects, concocted.

Author #1 wrote the beginning of a story up to around 1000 words. He then sent his story to the next author, who in turn would pick up the tale where he left off and write another 1000 or so words. Then Author #2 would pass it along to Author #3, and so forth. After the last person finished their contribution, it went back to Author #1 for another round. When it was our turn again, we read the story thus far and added another chunk. The idea was to go several rounds and create a short story. There was no discussion of genre, plots, characters, or motivation. Imagine our surprise each time the story landed back in our laps, especially given that each one of us has our own unique voice, writing in different genres.

But the bigger surprise came when we finished. We had a great story! Sure, there were plot holes big enough for a convoy of beer-toting truckers to drive through and moments of mass confusion. (Where’d Clyde go? He was here a moment ago? Oh, he’s dead now? Really? How’d that happen? Oh wait, it was just a flesh wound? Yeah, someone should fix that.)  But the bones were strong. We talked about the problems and how to fix them. We are currently editing in the same roundtable fashion, sweeping up any gruesome evidence of heinous writer-ly crimes.

Though it was an experiment, we didn’t treat it as such. We put thought and honed skills to task. The goal was to have a marketable finished product. One that will eventually be available for e-reading.

Participating in this co-written short story was fun. I didn’t feel the usual pressure I place on myself, despite the twinge of performance anxiety. I was the last author, Author #4, in the roundtable. By the time the story reached me, it obviously headed down the dark and scary path of suspense. I should’ve known this would happen. Stacey and the other Usual Suspects have a flair for writing thrillers and romantic suspense.  But I write historical romance. Sure, I like to kill people. Sure, I like to throw in some spills and chills. However, these aspects are not the driving force behind my novels.

I surprised myself. I held my own against these thrill seeking pot boilers. I stepped out of my comfort zone, upped the ante, and managed to add tiers of tension. In the end, I was pleased with what I wrote. I learned that I can be flexible and push my boundaries into uncharted waters I have not been inclined to explore. What a great experience.

How about you? Have you tried your hand at a different genre? Ever plan to? Have you ever participated in a mash-up type story? I’d love to hear from you.

Paying the TimeKeeper – Blogger’s Debt

Song of the Day: Paparazzi by Lady Gaga

So, let’s talk about author blogs. Commentaries, musings, chronicles, running narratives of a writer’s life, there are a bajillion out there. But are they effective in bringing in sales and new readers? Or are they another time sucking black hole?

The answer I’ve come up with – yes and no.

Blogs are great tools in developing a web presence, especially when following a few tips. Blogs should reflect the blogger’s personality, be entertaining, and offer something (education, advice, links, prizes, a good knee-slapping laugh, etc.) to readers.  Length can be whatever the blogger is comfortable with, but shorter is sometimes better, especially when blogging often. (Not today. Sorry.) The blogger should make every effort to reply to every commenter. Personal touches go a long way, showing the blogger is not a cold, unapproachable, one dimensional being.

There is no question blogs are important to writers, whether they write them or not. Commenting on blogs regularly is an easy way to gain name recognition. They (whoever ‘they’ are) say it takes seven times for a person to see a name before that name becomes recognizable. That’s what we want, right? To be recognizable? Okay, maybe we won’t walk outside and be blinded by dozens of paparazzi flash bulbs. But we do want people to remember us.

Let’s go back to my original question. Are blogs another chupacabra sucking us dry of our precious time?

A question to ask yourself is who is the target market for your blog? For many of us, our circles of followers are other authors. This is great because writers tend to form supportive, tight knit communities. And in this industry, we need to each other’s back. But how far will that go in terms of sales and readership? It goes back to becoming active in the blogosphere.

We want to expand from the bubble of friends. We want to draw in readers near AND far.

Many authors do blog tours. Any way you slice it, blog tours are time consuming. Consider the time spent looking for and corresponding with other bloggers for a guest spot. Also consider that the content posted will need to be fresh and unique for each site. Don’t forget the time spent replying to every commenter to your post.

If you have time for a blog tour, I say go for it. Got a couple of tips for you, too. Keep the blog tour to a manageable amount, be that 10, 25, or 50 stops. Offer prizes. People will likely ‘follow’ you (think Grateful Dead’s Deadheads) on your tour if they have a chance to win something. Have a boilerplate about yourself and your book’s information already prepared. The boilerplate can easily be copied and pasted into each blog written. Don’t just hit up all your writer buds for guest spots and interviews. There are endless blogging opportunities out there. Expand on blogs that have content you may be interested in. For example, if your book is about a dragon-slaying pastry chef who falls in love with a racecar-driving homicide detective. You might consider looking for blogs about Renaissance festivals, Nascar, baking, and law enforcement and write a blog relevant to those topics. And if you have a boilerplate at the end, you’ll be slipping in that PSA on your book, upcoming release, or YOU the future best-selling author.

Need help finding blogs to appear as a guest? You might try Myguestblogger.com to get you started. Or try Googling ‘guest blogging sites’ or ‘guest bloggers wanted *topic*’. There is also The Cheap, a blog for authors and readers who welcome guest bloggers. Then there is MuseTracks.  That’s right. Want to do a guest blog here, contact one of us!

If tours aren’t your cup of ale, you can still use these blog tips to your advantage and at your leisure. Keep at it regularly and you will likely pick up a few loyal followers. That translates to readers and sales.

Just as with keeping up with the Joneses (damn you Jones- shaking fists in frustration) on social media sites, it goes back to managing your time to fit in a couple of blogs a day/week to visit, comment, and write.

For me, I recognize that my plate is full. I don’t have the time to do a blog tour. I will gladly do interviews, and I always try to put a fun spin on each one. But I am human and I know I can’t do more at this moment.

What about you? Do you blog? Love it? Hate it? Any advice to share? Let’s hear from you!

Please Remain Seated Until the Ride Stops

Song of the Day: The Kill by 30 Seconds to Mars

Do you spend a little extra time writing the ending of your book, or do you breeze through it with ease? You would think that because it is the end, it would be a snap to wrap that puppy up and call it a day, right? Wishful thinking.

This past week, I finished book #3 in my “Romancing the Pirate” series. But it didn’t come easy. Though I knew sort of what was going to happen – yes, I am a card-carrying pantster – I really had no idea how the story would get to ‘the end’. Guess you could say I’m just along for the ride, much like a reader. All I knew for sure was there would be a lot of nail biting, breath-holding action, and a happy ending. Pirates deserve to be loved, too, you know.

Completing this manuscript was, at times, tedious. I experienced moments of shear genius, my prose burning up the keyboard with g-force speed. This would be followed by the clackety-clack-clack of agonizing drags lasting days. Now, I am so exhausted, I have jet lag.

The scenes were drafted in my head barring any details or dialogue. The good guys, aka pirates, fought the bad guys, aka corrupt government (how’s that for irony). Yet, it took me much longer to write the scene than I would have liked.  Eventually, the hero bests the villain and wins his heroine. Great, only I didn’t feel the story was done. Ohhh no. I needed to make the hero and heroine suffer more. It only seemed right. Once I decided on how to put their lives in jeopardy again with a harrowing near death escape, I blazed right through it in just a couple of hours.

And still, I couldn’t write the words ‘the end’ just yet. An epilogue was in order to tie up all loose ends. This should be no problem. Okay, okay, I admit, keeping up with the Kardashians is easier than answering all the questions left in the wake of the prior 17 chapters.

Some writers make charts to help them keep track of all subplots, characters, and objects relevant to their stories. Others wallpaper their writing spaces with post-it notes. And still others have outlines, notebooks, dry erase boards, and files. I envy them. Though I do keep notes from time to time, I don’t do these things. I can’t. As I write, the tales evolve on their own, surprising even me on occasion. I’m free to let the characters tell the story through their eyes. Otherwise, I’m convinced, with my compulsive organizational skills, the narrative would come out stiff.

I somehow remember all those loose ends. Granted, it does take some serious staring out of the window and face scrunching, but I rarely forget any points that need to be revisited. I chalk it up to the way I do my first round edits. Once I’m finished with a chapter, I print it out for editing. I can’t move forward until I have read through, made changes, and strengthened the writing. Anal retentive? You bet! It certainly isn’t an easier method than plotting with charts or color-coding with sticky notes, but it works for me simply because I retain more of the story as I go along.

And then there’s the added stress of writing the killer last line, the sentence that signifies all is right in the world, the final words which make the reader go “Whew! That was awesome!”

Stop. Go. Stop. Go. That defines how I write the endings to my novels. What about you? Do you find that when you get close to the end it’s like a downhill ride and you write faster? Or are you more like me, where the roller coaster has its ups and downs and hair pin turns, but near the end, the ride slows down until that final jerk and the seat restraint lifts?

Let me hear from you!

How is your middle shaping up?

by Marie-Claude Bourque

So how do you work the middle of your story?

A writer friend was asking me that just that last week and I shared with her what I do. I thought I’d share it here in case it might give someone some ideas.

Now everyone has their own way to write a book, and frankly there are no “right” ways. But here is mine. This is what I told her.

Have you tried Save the Cat to plot your book?

 A fake victory half way through your story.

At mid-point, I have a fake victory. A place in the story where the characters feel they won but it’s an illusion (a love scene there works well).

Find your way from mid-point to climax

So for the last part I need to go from fake victory to the Climax in Act 3. I start with a bad event, something coming out as a consequence of previous decision. Blade Snyder talks about the “bad guys closing in”. I bring in my “really bad guys” in this oart, maybe escalading from one bad thing to the next.

How bad can it get! Escalate the bad in the second half!

Donald Maass talks about the “how bad can it get!” In my current WIP, a contemporary romance, it starts after my heroine finally gets together with the hero, with first her car breaking down, then her ex moves in town, then she lose her job (because of a stupid decision on her part), then she breaks-up with the hero (tied to the job loss), then she gets into a huge fight with her mom.

As far as the bad stuff happening, I try to have the bad events tied to the characters worst fear as defined in the GMC! And make it a consequence of their actions (in my story, it’s her fault she gets fired, then the firing leads to a break-up, she fears being dependant on a man). You have to torture your characters the whole time!  Make them suffer!

Tension and conflict! Lots of it.

After all that bad stuff, we need “the dark night of the soul.”

This leads me to the real bottom and a “dark night of the soul”, where the heroine is all alone and is really really low. Then I come up with some epiphany where she decides to take action towards solving her problem. The decision to take action is what leads to Act 3 and the beginning of “lead into victory” and to the climax.

Tie all loose ends in the climax

And then, as I heard Jane Porter say, it’s just a matter of closing all the doors to make sure all is resolved (in this WIP, my heroine makes-up with mom, get back with the hero and takes action that leads to a new job and dealing with issues with her ex.)

Story boards: See the story in one picture!

Jim Butcher had conquered the swampy middle!

I really like the Save the Cat story boards. I made 3 so far for 3 WIP and it helped a lot. Basically, the first part is all about the “fun and game” promise of your book (say for me in a small town family romance, I have sexy kisses and some cute scenes with family, kids and engaging with the hero) and the last part is the meat and bone serious “how bad can it get” sort of thing. I like to make things deeper and deeper in emotions and/or action (for my paranormals) to escalade the pace, than finish with a bang in the climax.

Have fun with your middle. If all fails, also have a read of Jim Butcher’s The Great Swampy Middle! His writing advice his priceless.

What are your tricks?

8 Tricks to Writing Productivity

by Marie-Claude Bourque

How do you keep track of your word counts and keep yourself motivated.

A writer friend on Facebook asked me this question this week so I though it’d be best to write a blog post on the topic. I have a few trick to get me going. In fact, I used the following since Oct 5 and wrote a total of 63,000 words so far. I am a slow writer, so this is a huge word count for me. But hey, it adds up. I could make it to around 250,000 words in one year if I keep this pace!

(1) I write longhand. So I calculated that I write about 200 words for each page of my notebook. This is actually a bit of an underestimate so in fact my 63,ooo words is probably closer to 70,000 words. I tally my word count for every session I write by counting how many pages  I fill in my spiral notebook.

(2) I use a calendar. I got this trick from Liza Palmer at a writer’s conference. I have a large calendar posted on the wall (I use the awesome calendar put out by artist Tony Mauro who designs Yasmine Galenorn book covers. I write a scene a day, first thing in the morning, anywhere between 500 to 1500 words a day. I just write down the number for the day on the calendar. It sounds simple but it is a powerful tool. If I miss one day, I have to stare at an empy space for a whole month, so this really motivate me to get that day done.

(3) I got my second trick from Megan Crane at a writer’s conference. I started a page for my novel in progress where for each session I write the date, the scene number, the word count and a word count tally.

 

Like this:

• 10/19  — 1  — 900 — 900
• 10/20  — 2 – 1500 — 2400
• 10/21  — 3 — 700 — 3100
• etc…

(4) I also record my word count in a app I have for my iPhone called WriMoDemon which tally my word counts for the month. I usually make my target 20,000 words for the month so this app tells me what I need to do to stay on track. I write my total word counts for the month on my big wall calendar at the end of the month.

(5) I also record my word in another app called WriteChain from the How Not to Write website. It’s based on the idea that you need to write everyday and never “break the chain” to stay motivated. (see how Jerry Seinfeld use a similar idea) I keep my minimun goal at 500 words a day.

(6) I also have a group of romance writer friends from the Greater Seattle Romance Writers of America. We started as a motivational group last year where we report our word counts each day and the leader post a spreadsheet with everyone’s progress once a week or so.

(7) I am also part of the “Write the Damn Book Challenge” group run by author Cherry Adair for people attending the ECWC writer conference. We report our word counts every week.

(8) and I am a member of WritingGIAM  (I’m in GIAM group 3) which was created by author Amy Atwell for romance writer just for the purpose of making and keeping writing goals.

(9) I also post my word counts of the day on my Facebook and Twitter status. A little for fun and a little for keeping me accountable. So all of 9 tricks that keeps me in check. It sounds like a lot but really it takes me about 5 minutes a day and an extra 5-10 minutes on Sunday. Little steps get you there!

Happy Writing