WRAPPING UP AND LOOKING FORWARD

Like many people, in December I like to analyze my progress and plan goals for the upcoming new year. Below are reports on my writing ‘career development’ this past year and my objectives for 2011. I hope you had a wonderful 2010 and I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I have a three year plan for social media. The first step was joining Facebook in 2009. I’m still on Facebook and have enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends in other states. (With all our moves, I have more faraway friends than nearby friends here in Colorado. Facebook has truly been a blessing.)

The second phase was this blog. I started it in late January of 2010. Committing to write the blog was much harder than using facebook. Making a public statement, saying to anyone who’d listen -- “I AM A WRITER” -- is difficult. I’d often think of things to say, but felt they were too personal or worse yet, too boring, to share. I’m learning how to come up with suitable blogging topics and working on acquiring a distinctive ‘blog voice.’ In 2011 I hope to be a more frequent blogger and post more than my thirty offerings this year.

The other plan for 2011 is to create my Twitter account. Thank goodness my young adult daughter is living in town and offered to help me with this. (I wouldn’t have a clue how to begin without her.) As soon as I have my Twitter information available I'll pass it on to you. I’m hoping Twitter will be easier than blogging and be as fun as Facebook.

NO WRITER IS AN ISLAND

One of my goals at the start of this year was to join a critique group. It didn’t go well at first. Initially I found only one person. We emailed a few times, but never shared our work. She decided to go back to school and was not going to have time.

Next I found a small group. We met several times, but they were all so busy with their day jobs they could not commit to consistently meet. The group disbanded.

Luckily this fall I joined a new group. These writers are dedicated and come regularly. They have also provided valuable insight on my work. Another bonus is most of them live nearby. Yay! My fingers are crossed that this group will stay together.

In addition to seeking critique partners, I’ve attended all but one 2010 SCBWI (Society of Childrens’ Book Writers and Illustrators) Denver Schmooze meetings. These talks are led by Hilari Bell and Anna-Maria Crum, two published authors. They cover various “how to” writing topics. I’ve learned a lot at these meetings and have made some friends.

EDITING

I’ve re-worked my THE FAMILY SECRET - A Rainy Day manuscript numerous times. I know it’s improving, but it could still use some skilled editing before I send it to agents and editors. So, I applied to the SCBWI - Rocky Mountain Chapter’s Mentorship program hoping I could get some skilled direction. I found out I was accepted into the program in November. I will be working with published author Claudia Mills. Yay! Claudia already has a copy of my manuscript and we will be working together from January to June. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work with her. She is a prolific author with so much to offer.

WRITING

I’m struggling along with the first draft of the second novel in THE FAMILY SECRET SERIES. I worked on it during NANOWRIMO, but I’m snagged with some plot issues.

Last night, from nowhere, this really cool idea for a middle grade basketball novel came to me. (No. I’ve never played basketball, but I do like to watch.) Anyway, yesterday afternoon, my husband had a basketball game on in the family room while I absently cleaned in the adjoining kitchen. I really wasn’t paying much attention, but it must have impacted my subconscious. At bedtime we watched the old movie Crocodile Dundee. I started to doze off and then suddenly, sat up completely awake and scribbled down this basketball plot idea. (The only thing I will divulge is it has to do with foul trouble, but really it is sooo much more than that. The main character is speaking to me, I swear.) First thing this morning I re-read my notes and took the dog for a walk. (I do some of my best pre-writing while walking Charlie.) The more I walked the more the idea made sense. I think I might be on to something here. Yay! (Don’t worry, so far, there are no crocodiles in the book, the Crocodile Dundee movie seemed irrelevant to the thoughts floating around in my subconscious mind.)

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” Edith Lovejoy Pierce

To Nano or Not To Nano

To Nano or Not To Nano . . .

November is National Novel Writing Month. In honor of this special occasion an organization named NaNoWriMo (for obvious reasons) promotes writing an adult length novel (50,000 words) in the thirty fleeting days of November. The idea is to pump out a whole novel lickety split and worry about editing later. Impossible you say! Well, it was for me last year. I accomplished a measly 15,000 words during Turkey month 2009.

It was my first attempt. I started with an idea and four characters, but no real outline. By November 30th I was halfway through a middle grade novel, typically about 30,000 words. I haven’t touched it since.

Now I’m in a quandary about whether to participate this year or not.

Here are my excuses of why not to do it:

1.) I’m busy.

2.) I’ll be out of town visiting family for a week this month. I don’t have a lap top so it might get a little difficult to write on the road.

3.) I didn’t finish last years’ novel so I don’t want to start a third, even though I do have a great idea.

Here are my reasons why I should probably do it:

1.) If I focus on word count and fudge on the rule to start a new novel, it’d be a nice opportunity to finish the novel I started last November.

2.) I need a break from editing my first novel. I’m sick of picking at it and would like to write something from scratch again. The NaNoWriMo emphasis is on quantity and not quality. I’m ready to focus on a feeling of accomplishment from word count alone without having to worry about perfection.

3.) I already signed up.

All right then, it’s decided. I’m going to give it another try. I mean come on, I couldn’t do any worse than 15,000 words. At least I hope not.

I’m going to pull out those chapters from last year tonight and re-read them so I’ll be ready to pick up where I left off on November 1st.

Check out NaNoWriMo for yourself, but don’t tell them my goal is to write the second half of a novel! (My nano cheating just may be my mother’s fault, she’s always insisted I finish what I start.) Next year I’ll start from scratch again. I promise.

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” Benjamin Franklin

Synopsis Progress

I hate synopses. Heck, I don’t even like pronouncing the word, let alone writing them.

I’ve been working on mine off and on for the last few months and have not been satisfied with the result. So, I wasn’t surprised when I had my critique (a review of my manuscript and synopsis by a published author) and she said something like, “I love your manuscript and really don’t suggest you make many changes, but your synopsis is another story.”

Sigh. Don’t I know it.

As far as my synopsis goes I’ve been in writer’s block mode for a long time. Well, maybe it’s been more like just plain avoidance mode.

Then last week I decided to show it to my new critique partner, let’s call her P. She’s a non-published writer like myself. She analyzed my synopsis and had some great suggestions. After working with her I went home and got busy. I’ve made lots of changes, even some she hadn’t thought about. Before, I was just listing the action and not including the emotions that drive the plot as well. Now I feel my synopsis gives a better account of my protagonist’s story. All I have left is to work out a few of the transitions between the paragraphs so it flows smoothly - then I think it will finally be done. Yay!

I’ll be seeing P. again on Wednesday and will probably have her take a post revision look.

It’s so nice to have a support system, sometimes all you need is a little push.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Walt Disney

“Put it on the list!”

My family members are always saying things like “We’re almost out of milk,” and I usually respond with “Put it on the list.” A list of some sort is a fixture on our kitchen counter. It seems no sooner do I run errands and get to throw away a list that we have a new list starting.

Sometimes I think we’re so preoccupied with the busywork detail kind of stuff on our day to day list, we miss the big picture. So today I decided to write my own “Bucket” list. It’s sort of my husband’s, too, since our lives are so intertwined. I figure writing these goals down will make them seem more tangible and less like dreams. One of the things toward the top of my list will be no surprise to you. It's to become published, and not just once, but again and again.

“Great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next!”

Michael E. Gerber, The E Myth

RMC-SCBWI Conference

The RMC-SCBWI writers’ conference in Denver on September 18th and 19th was fun and beneficial. From a networking perspective, I was thrilled to meet several writers who live nearby and we set up a new critique group. In addition, I got to listen to published authors give inspirational speeches and share writing tips. Oddly enough, the best lesson I learned from the conference came a few days later, when I was home curled up with a good book.

I enjoyed listening to Elizabeth Law, publisher at Egmont USA, moderate a First Pages session in which she evaluated the beginnings of manuscripts submitted by attendees. During her literary discussions she made countless references to classic novels. I took notice because I hadn’t heard any of the other industry professionals who spoke during the week-end make these kinds of comments. Curious to find out more about Egmont, I bought Scones and Sensibility, one of its 2010 publications. It’s written by Lindsay Eland, who happened to be at the conference and was kind enough to autograph the book for me. (I loved rubbing elbows with published authors like Lindsay, it makes my goal to be published seem more attainable.)

Anyway, when I got home and began reading Scones and Sensibility--a cute novel about a modern day girl captivated by the romance of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice--I found it less than a coincidence that Elizabeth Law chose to publish a book about a classic. Clearly, she is partial to these kinds of books.

I’ve always heard publishing is a subjective business, but this experience really hit the concept home for me. When I’m ready to submit my manuscript (which better be soon -- if I could ever stop editing) I really need to seek out an agent who likes my kind of writing. In turn, that agent will know the tastes of specific editors and will know the right perspective publishing house for my manuscript.

Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

The Eye of the Beholder

On my daily walk this morning I heard someone coming up behind me. I turned and noticed a young man. Oh, I see people on my walk everyday, many have backpacks and lunch boxes. They move at a quick pace in the direction of the bus stop near Walmart. I also see dog walkers with their customary poop bags, joggers with ipods, and clusters of retired people chatting as they amble along.

I knew right away, this guy was different. He was tall, wore a muscle shirt and green fatigue colored pants. I kept glancing behind me at him, intrigued, but not sure why. His arms swung back and forth with each gangly stride. In spite of his quick pace there seemed to be an indifference to his demeanor. Something about him made me nervous. When he was about to overtake me, I dodged into a commercial parking lot. After he passed I headed back to the sidewalk and followed him up the hill. He had unruly dark hair that hadn’t seen a scissors in some time. When he got to Walmart, he passed the bus stop, and plopped himself down on the grass median between parking spaces. He just sat there, his long legs sprawled out in front of him. I realized he was undoubtedly a street person and probably had no where to go.

I think it’s odd how I immediately sensed there was something different about him. Periodically, I see street people. They usually have old weathered faces and faded clothing, unlike this kid, who had to have been between 15 and 25 years old. The biggest tip was something about the way he walked. He had a sense of energy the beaten down typical street people don’t have, yet there was no direction, no plan, every step was a new agenda.

As a mother, my heart went out to him. What horrible circumstances could possibly have brought him to the streets? As a writer, I thought about the characteristics about him that intrigued me and held my interest. I wondered, wouldn’t a character like him have a great story to tell in a young adult novel?

And then I laughed, had my “the glass is half-full” husband encountered the young man he may have never noticed him or he would have assumed he sat down on the ground to enjoy the nice weather. I hope my “the glass is half-empty” attitude is wrong and that young man is okay, but if my instincts were right I hope he realizes he does have a lot to offer. He fed my creativity without even knowing it.

“It is generally admitted that with woman the powers of intuition, of rapid perception and perhaps of imitation, are more strongly marked than in man . . .” Charles Darwin

On a personal note . . .

Things are pretty exciting around here. Our oldest daughter, let’s call her “T”, became engaged last Tuesday. Her finance, “R”, is a wonderful young man from Rochester, New York. I’m so happy for them both. We were just catching our breath from that big news, when on Thursday “R” got a fantastic job offer in Grand Junction Colorado, three and a half hours from Denver, where my husband and I and our youngest daughter live. He gave notice to his employer in Rochester on Monday and starts work in Grand Junction on August 1st.

Life moves pretty fast. In a matter of days I went from “I’m sure going to be traveling to the east coast a lot,” to “Omigosh, they’re going to be living in our home state.” I’m so happy. Of course, they’ll be on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, but still, same state.

It’s all very complicated, as they will be getting married in Milwaukee, the town where they attended school (Marquette University) and met. Milwaukee feels like my daughter’s home town since she was born there and has gone back to visit often. We moved so much, our most recent home towns, Denver and Seattle, have been summer and holiday visiting locations, but places she’s never permanently settled in. We still have plenty of family in the midwest and both of their college friends are there, so Milwaukee will be the perfect spot for the big day. Long distance wedding planning will be the name of game for the most part, but “T” is in Milwaukee, now and will stay there temporarily while she gets things started. Later she’ll move to Denver to live with us until after the wedding, when she’ll go to Grand Junction.

I’m so excited, I've decided to start writing a personal wedding journal. As the year unfolds I'm going to write dated blurbs about what’s going on with the wedding from my “mother of the bride” perspective. I’m going to ask “T” to do the same thing from the bride’s perspective. She’s a gifted writer. It will be interesting to look back later and see our different perspectives as the big day approaches. It’s funny how just about any event can become another topic to write about.

Marriage is a book of which the first chapter is written in poetry and the remaining chapters in prose. Beverly Nichols

The Subconscious Mind is Always at Work

A few months ago, heavy rains and melting snow widened the creek near my home. My dog Charlie and I walk along it’s banks almost everyday. For a week or so I went by unaffected by the creek’s changes, never missing the ducks and geese who had vacated it’s rough surface opting for the calmer lake, never noticing the beaver dam had washed away.

Then one day the changes hit me. I was overwhelmed by the sound of the rushing water, mesmerized by the white foam on the waves and felt a sense of urgency as the creek raced by. I was bombarded with ideas to embellish the flood chapter in my book (something I had considered finished prior to that moment.) I ran home, planted myself at the computer and typed for several hours. I added loads of descriptive details and even a new dangerous flood related plot twist to the story.

The incident got me to thinking about the different roles observation plays in my writing. Here’s the definition of “observe” from my Merriam Webster Dictionary - “to see or sense especially through careful attention.”

I got to thinking about the “careful attention” part and decided that’s really only half of it. Yes, in fiction writing we sometimes make deliberate ‘scientific’ observations. Okay, I’m using the word scientific somewhat loosely here, but what I mean is we do research on a particular aspect of a story to make our writing seem more realistic. I read about flooding before I wrote the first draft of that chapter and it was helpful, but another type of observation evoked my recent changes and it shouldn’t be underestimated.

It’s subconscious observations. We take in details all day long, but are unaware of it. Our minds sort through incoming information, look for patterns and file the knowledge away without our knowing it until our mind perceives a particular file as helpful and it hits us like a lightning bolt and says, “Hey, this relates to what is going on in my life, this is important, I need to use this!” That’s what happened to me with the creek.

I think this subconscious observation process happens to all writers, and all people in general. It’s a gift that improves our perception. Next time you get a fantastic idea that seems to come out of nowhere, thank your subconscious mind.

I am a part of all that I have met. Alfred Lord Tennyson

Market Test: Twelve Year-Old Seventh Grader

I had a great Fourth of July, and so did my manuscript. We had family over to celebrate. When my sister-in-law asked how my writing is going, her friend’s twelve year-old daughter, Molly, whom I’d met for the first time that day, overheard. Molly was taken up with the idea of getting to read a book before it is in print. She asked, “Well if it’s not in a book yet, where is it? Can I read it?” She was so cute I went ahead and printed off the first chapter for her. She read it and came back asking for the second. After the third she asked. “Is this book going to be long enough to make a movie?” When she finished the fourth chapter she said, “If I go play with the kids would you print the rest of the book for me to take with me? If not I won’t play, I’ll finish reading it now. I really want to know what happens.” I agreed to give her a copy to take home.

When I gave it to her later, she spouted out several theories about the villain and about what she thinks is going to happen next. This was my first experience witnessing a reader become emotionally involved with my fictional characters. It felt fantastic and was meaningful to have a non-relative, (family members are too biased) in the target age group read the manuscript and enjoy it so much. Yay! It makes me feel more confident about sending it out to agents. This was a big win!

Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating. Denis Waitley

Details

I’m already excited to attend the SCBWI-RMC’s fall conference. If you don’t know, SCBWI-RMC stands for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators-Rocky Mountain Chapter. Their conference is called Letters and Lines and it’s coming up on September 18th and 19th in Denver. Registration just opened and I’ve already enrolled. Now comes the hard part. I need to send in the first ten pages of my manuscript as part of a Critique/Agent Pitch application. I’m a nervous wreck. There are so many details: no stapling, name on cover page, no name on the manuscript pages, etc. etc. If you overlook any of these procedures your application will be eliminated. Talk about putting on the pressure.

So many rules makes me nervous. I wonder if this is how it feels to be in the military. I’m a wreck, because I’ve messed up with this kind of thing before. Last year, when I attended an SCBWI conference in Seattle I accidentally folded my manuscript. Apparently one of their rules was “no folding.” They were really nice about it and said they would make an exception and allow me to have a critique by a local published author anyway. I learned a lot from the critique so I really want to make sure I get everything right this time. I’m not sure if I’ll be lucky enough to get a reprieve twice in a row.

My fingers are crossed and I’m hoping I get everything right this time.

Excellence is in the details. Give attention to the details and excellence will come. Perry Paxton

An Easy Beginning for Critique Group

I often complain about the difficulties in getting the opening pages of my novel just right. I’m about to re-work it again for the hundredth time. Luckily, the beginning of the critique group six children’s writers are forming in Denver had an easy start. We met on Sunday, strategized, and set up the following tentative guidelines.

~Open enrollment in the beginning. When the group gets to an ideal size we’ll start a waiting list.

~Monthly meetings every third Sunday at 1 p.m. The first gathering will be in the Colorado Mills area, possibly Border Books or at a nearby library if one is open on Sunday afternoon.

~Each person will email their manuscript to the other members a week in advance. If it’s a picture book they can send the entire work, if it’s a novel they’ll send about 10 pages. (I will be sending the new beginning I’m about to write. I can’t wait to get some direction.)

~Members can bring to the meeting copies of the other writers’ work they received by email and their hand written or “tracking and change” comments.

~A timer will be used. Each person will have 25 minutes devoted to their work. They will read it aloud for about 10 minutes and then there will be approximately 15 minutes for discussion.

~We will re-evaluate and improve this process as we go along.

The only thing left to do is think of a name. Maybe we’ll have time to discuss that at our next meeting.

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” Plato

Transitioning into Summer

My high school daughter is off school and my son is home from college. The whole family is working on a landscape project in our yard. These are exciting changes in my typically routine life, but they have distracted me from writing. I didn’t work on my query letter last week. I remember my cousin-in-law Randy Boyagoda telling me he gets up at four o’clock in the morning to write. I decided to try this tactic today.

I got up at five-thirty, (four just wasn’t happening.) My house is quiet and there are no interruptions. Well, the dog did rouse and give me a funny look--he’s a habitual guy and he’s used to me walking him at 7 a.m. Somehow he knew it was too early to get the leash and rolled over and went back to sleep leaving me with an hour and a half of precious writing time all to myself. This just may work.

Oh yeah, I do have some other news. In spite of my time management problems, I did progress in two areas this past week. One, while I was outside raking wood chips I came up with an idea for re-working the first few pages of my novel. I’ve been wanting to improve it and now I’ve got a plan. Two, I made arrangements to start a critique group with some other writers. Our first meeting is on Sunday.

If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got. Lee Iacocca

Query Help

It’s going to be short and sweet today. I’m playing catch-up after a wonderful weekend out of town. I was in Wisconsin attending my daughter Theresa’s graduation ceremony. She graduated from my alma mater, Marquette University. I still have family in Milwaukee and it was great catching up with them this weekend. It was a wonderful experience for her to attend college where we have so many family members. Since I moved away soon after my graduation, Theresa spent little of her childhood there. I’m pleased she chose to go to Marquette, it gave her the opportunity to experience a special place and connect with many wonderful people. Since Wisconsin will always be close to my heart, it is not surprising I chose it for the setting of my book.

Which brings me to some good news for the novel. It so happened my cousin from Toronto was in Milwaukee visiting, too. Her husband, Randy Boyagoda is a gifted author. He’s written “Governor of the Northern Province”and “Race, Immigration, and American Identity in the Fiction of Salman Rushdie, Ralph Ellison, and William Faulkner”. He has a third book due out soon. Randy offered to help me with my query letter. Yay! It will be great to receive guidance from a published author. I’m anxious to get started right away.

As the whole world and the individuals that inhabit it get increasingly cocooned, it is critical that one spends time with one's family. Simran Khurana

Romance?

On Saturday, children’s author Denise Vega spoke about trends in middle grade and young adult fiction at the Hearts of Denver Romance Writers meeting. I attended only to hear Denise's speech, but made a spontaneous decision to join the group. It’s a small organization of about 40 members. Even if I continue to write mysteries and never write a romance novel I could benefit from this group. Commercial fiction incorporates the same basic principles in all genres.

Of course, after mingling with all the romance writers, I now feel a passion to write one. Well it’s really more of a curiosity, but the word passion sounds appropriate given the topic. I wonder if romance writers are more dramatic? I do tend to exaggerate. Hmmm. I might be good at this.

I wouldn't have to switch to adult readers to write romance. I could write a middle grade romance novel. It would involve a boy and a girl having a crush on each other and in the end holding hands. Pretty exciting stuff, don’t you think? A young adult romance novel is another option. A lot more than holding hands is allowed in that genre.

Whether I stick with children’s books or move into adult romance it might be fun to try something different. When I finish editing my middle grade mystery I might try my hand at a romance. We’ll see.

"Said"

The word "said" is easy to understand. Readers know who is talking and stay engaged in the story. I use “said” to identify the speaking character more than any other verb. A combination of the dialogue itself, and a description of the character’s actions as they are talking often does a better job depicting a character’s mood, than substituting a fancy word for “said.” If I write “she prattled” the reader might need a few extra seconds to digest this less common verb, slowing down the pace of the story.

Here’s an example of three ways to identify the same dialogue.

1. “I don’t know what to do,” Tara said, tapping her pencil on the desk and frowning.

2. “I don’t know what to do,” Tara worried.

3. “I don’t know what to do,” Tara worried, tapping her pencil on the desk and frowning.

I like the first of these three choices, because it shows the reader how the character feels. The word “said” simply lets us know Tara is speaking, it doesn’t get in the way of the scene. The second example tells the reader what’s going on with the character rather than letting him figure it out himself. The third example is redundant. The reader doesn't need a description of her actions and “worried.”

The problem is, a page filled with “said” will sound repetitive. To keep things interesting, I spice it up by using a different verb for “said” every so often. An appropriate replacement adds meaning and variety. The secret is to make sure the substitution fits the situation. Fortunately there are lots of choices. Here are a few.

demanded commanded instructed nagged

groaned ordered scolded urged

announced warned stated protested

giggled lectured lied added

debated indicated observed worried

fretted agreed decided noted

shrieked uttered sniffed replied

argued claimed chortled murmured

piped acknowledged bragged grumbled

spat questioned denied called

insisted estimated lamented yelled

shouted volunteered cried babbled

plotted

Critique Groups

Someone (besides me) needs to read my work-in-progress manuscript. My self-editing helps to find most errors, but I worry my emotional attachment to the work might cause me to overlook a problem. I need a second opinion, with an objective eye to let me know if my intended message is coming through. The question is, who?

I won’t ask my husband. He’s a non-fiction kind of guy. My three children and parents have read my manuscript and loved it. The praise is great, but come on, as a new writer there must be a few necessary adjustments. Even if my family members did notice something was wrong they wouldn’t know how to fix it. I need an objective appraisal of my work and suggestions about how to make it better. I could hire an editor, but that would be expensive. Another option is to join a critique group. A critique group is a club of writers who read each other’s work for the purpose of helping one another improve. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but after attending a discussion on critique groups on Sunday I’m more motivated than ever to find a group.

The discussion was sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. The session was lead by published authors Hilari Bell and Anna-Maria Crum. The two of them belong to a Denver critique group that has been in existence for more than twenty years. They emphasized two key components to a successful critique experience are: the readers need to give constructive criticism and the author should listen without becoming defensive.

Hilari also suggested a larger group is preferable over a smaller one. That way if a few writers move, the organization can stay in operation, while they recruit new members. A second advantage is you get a better consensus about your manuscript.

Anna-Maria said she learns as much from analyzing other people’s manuscripts as she does when her own is critiqued. I hadn’t thought about that. I figured you would be reading theirs solely as payback for reading your own. Learning from their work is an extra bonus.

I enjoyed the discussion so much I’m anxious to join a group right away. Several other writers there were looking for groups, too. We exchanged cards. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be able to start a new critique group.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for. Socrates

Time for Fun

Today’s blog will be short. It’s a beautiful day and I want to go outside and enjoy.

On the subject of having fun, there’s a game I’ve been wanting to share with you. It’s the Reader’s Digest Word Power Game. Before a writing session I often use it as a warm up device. It’s an enjoyable pastime and also a tool to improve vocabulary. There are four parts. The first section is multiple choice questions. They give you one word and you have to select the best definition out of four options. The next portion involves unscrambling words. It’s sort of like playing hangman only they provide a definition. There's a nerve wracking timer ticking in the background. I don't seem to hear the timer while doing the other sections, but I always do during the unscrambling component of the game. It’s the most challenging part. Next comes a matching exercise. They give you four words and four definitions and have you determine which belong together. The final part gives you six words, three pairs of synonyms. You have to put the corresponding words together. They give you a score at the end. Try it sometime. The link is: http://www.rd.com/international/asen/wordpower/WordPower.swf

A second thing I want to tell you about is a writing book I’ve been reading. It’s Novelist’s Boot Camp 101 Ways to Take Your Book From Boring to Bestseller by Todd A. Stone. The book relates the process of writing a novel to military strategizing. The analogy works well as a structure to organize the book and also makes dry subject matter entertaining. Stone starts with the initial creative process and takes you all the way through to final editing. I checked him out on line and found he offers Novelist’s Boot Camp Workshops. If he does one in Denver I plan to attend.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." George Bernard Shaw

Are we there yet?

I’m impatient. I want to be done. I felt almost finished with my manuscript until late March when I decided to make dialogue documents for each of my characters. The dialogue documents are a single list of all remarks one character makes throughout the book. I compiled these lists as a double check to ensure each character’s comments are true to his or her personality. Some statements for each of them popped out as too bland and not fitting their character type. At the time I thought it would be easy to go in, make the necessary corrections and be done in a snap. I was wrong. It’s been weeks and I’m still making dialogue changes. The problem is conversations involve multiple people. When I change one person’s comment I often have to alter another person’s response. This means I’m going back and forth from one character to the next in multiple scenes making numerous adjustments. In addition, the dialogue document for Travis established that he needs further development.

Travis is a gregarious prankster, the kind of kid who talks a lot. It makes no sense for him to have a shorter dialogue document than the other two supporting characters, but he does. I think I tended to omit remarks from him because his personality gets in the way of the task at hand. I was preoccupied with protagonist Jenna as she tried to solve her various problems including the mystery. Now I realize Travis offers an opportunity to add more tension to Jenna’s situation. His fun-loving personality can hamper her progress in solving the mystery. This will put a strain on their relationship adding interest to the story.

Improving Travis’ character will make a better manuscript, but the realization that I’ve got more work than anticipated has impacted my morale. I procrastinated all last week, doing just about anything I could to avoid getting back to my novel. I was like a kid on a road trip, making her family stop at a rest area, not to use the facilities, but rather as an excuse to get out of the car. I was so frustrated by how much I had left to accomplish I shut down production.

This week I’m trying to recharge and be positive. Even if I’m behind in my self-imposed schedule some things are going well. Several of my characters are well developed and ready. Even though I’m disappointed the answer to the question, “Are we there yet?” is no, I’m happy I’ve got a clear plan mapped out and the destination is in sight. With an improved attitude I believe I can make better progress this week.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson