Tag Archives: writing

Weekly Progress Wednesday

Posted on by under Learning the Business, Works In Progress
Michael-Hague

Michael Hauge expounding his wisdoms

Writing Progress

Filles Du Roi WIP: Current word count: 7,235 (no change)

So, I haven’t done any BICHOK work on this, but I’ve been doing a lot of discovery that will give me a much stronger foundation as I move forward. I’ll talk more about that in a second.

Platform Progress

Nothing happening here! It’s been so busy with other things that I haven’t focused as I would like.

Life Progress

This weekend I went to a Michael Hauge Story Mastery workshop held by my RWA chapter. It was two days full of story structure, character development and a little pitch practice too. It was honestly pretty damned amazing. Some of the concepts were things I was familiar with, which was actually pretty great because it allowed me to focus more deeply on understanding the layers underneath what I already knew rather than trying to absorb all new things. It’s improved my direction for my WIP exponentially, and my understanding of character goals and motivations. Michael is primarily a movie story consultant, but most of these concepts cross all types of story and so they are applicable in novels as well. It’s also been a great chance for me to think about how story relates to reality. Why we read stories and what we gain from them. It’s given me a better understanding of psychology and my own growth as a person.

How many times can you say you’ve gone into a writing workshop and come out with a better understanding of yourself as a human and also your marriage? Right?

 

Weekly Progress

Posted on by under Learning the Business, Works In Progress

17.-power-of-persistance-420x420_0

For the past week and a half it’s been hard to be persistent and consistent. I got a little distracted and overwhelmed by other things in my life. But I’m trying to make up for it by being smarter and preparing in advance. I’m trying to use the few moments I have wisely. It doesn’t always work, but it’s working right now, so I’m pushing forward. I have some exciting developments in the future, but that means trying to readjust the scales on my time management, figuring out what I can give up and what I need to keep. It’s not easy, but then, what is?

Writing Progress

Filles Du Roi WIP: Current word count: 7,235 (from 3,928)

3,307 words feels like a lot of progress right now. I’ve been consistent in my writing habit, but until today, it felt like I was trudging through mud. Good mud, the kind that might eventually even blossom lotus flowers, but mud all the same. It doesn’t make for easy walking through nature. However, today I feel like I might have reached a nice little turning point.

I’ve also resolved to write some of the fun scenes, the ones that I’ve been waiting anxiously to have a crack at, so that my excitement about this project is boosted. Usually I’m a chronological writer. It helps me keep the motivation of my characters straight, and their emotional state, etc. But right now, I just want some adrenaline shots into my day. So I’ll go write some of the scenes that I think will be really fun, and then I’ll come back and tackle the others once I have a stronger road map. I think that’s part of the problem right now. I have a big picture map, but none of the rest stops are marked on it, so it’s hard to keep the big picture in mind when you’re slogging through mud and don’t know when you’ll be able to get to the rest area.

Platform Progress

My new phone is shiny and pretty! But I haven’t been doing too much different with it besides enjoying having a new phone. I’ve been using it in much the same way.

In other social media news, I’ve continued to grow my networks, but I’m noticing a lot of the network isn’t who I would expect or hope my target audience would be. I really like the followers, but want to connect with more writers and readers of romance. So, I’m going to re-evaluate and re-adjust so that I can meet more of the romance community with my blog, because they are just so awesome and fun and nice, and because we share such a great common interest.

Life Progress

I have a lot to do today and very little of it has to do with writing. A lot of it has to do with my other job of teaching. We are going to be discussing one of Willa Cather’s short stories, “Paul’s Case”. I’ve read it several times before, but I do love how you learn and see so much more when you re-read. Just last night, I saw new shades in this story that I hadn’t noticed before. Often my teaching and readings for class feed my soul and direct me back to writing, so that is a lovely thing. But, grading does not feed my soul, and that’s what I’m about to do. Wish me luck!

 

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Francis of Assisi

Weekly Progress Wednesday

Posted on by under Learning the Business, Works In Progress

motivation poster of the week: remember how far you've come, not just how far you have to go

Writing Progress

Regency WIP: Current word count: 6,904 No change

Filles Du Roi WIP: Current word count: 46,613 (from 34,116)

Last night at my chapter meeting, we had a great speaker, Colleen Thompson, who talked about adrenaline shots for your plots. I’ve been struggling with this story a lot lately. I really enjoy what’s been going on, but until halfway through the plot there’s little conflict. There’s problems, and disagreements, but the conflict lock felt weak and not very believable. Now, though, I think I’m going to change everything about the first act, and this will of course change the second, but will make it much more enjoyable, and plausible. So, even though I’ve got nearly 50,000 words, it looks like there will be major overhauls in the next week. This number might go down!

Platform Progress 

My goal for this week was to start integrating these platforms and build stronger connections with people I admire. I don’t know if I’ve done much to start with that. I’ve done some integrating (should check that term out to make sure I know what I’m saying and doing). I’ve also expanded my followers a little, but wouldn’t say they’re definitely the people I look up to in publishing and writing. But they are people that I like, and am happy to have follow me because they’re doing their own thing and cool. Tomorrow my friend and I do our first trial run of our podcast (even though I’m stuffed up! Eek!) My writing habit has been decent, but could use more work. Now that the semester has started I need to make sure I’m being diligent. I’ve tried preparing as much as possible so that I have less to do on a weekly basis for the classes, but of course, best laid plans…

Life in General 

Still full of the sinus! I’m on so many allergy medications that I really hope they aren’t counteracting each other. I just want to breath out of my nose again! Today I go get a tattoo, so that will be exciting. It’s my second one ever, and who knows, might start a habit. I hear they are addictive, and I do have a few ideas floating around!

Weekly Progress Wednesday

Posted on by under Learning the Business, Works In Progress

Progress -Tracee Ellis Ross

Regency WIP

 Current word count: 6,904

I went back and worked on the plot for this story, fleshing out a good deal more than I’d originally had, or even intended. It’s much more solid and interesting now, with stronger conflict locks. It also involves revising at least one scene, which I worked on this week. Most of my work regarding this story over the week has been re-reading, and re-acquainting myself with the characters and their personalities. It’s been about doing more discovery and making sure I like the characters and can imagine them doing what I’m plotting.

Filles Du Roi WIP

Current word count: 34,116

I stopped actively working on this story during September I believe, not sure I could handle how unwieldy the story had gotten. But I kept thinking about it, and specifically, my hero, who in fantasy casting looks like this. Why, yes, that is a pensive-looking Chris Hemsworth. Hard to get that picture out of your mind, isn’t it? Now you see my dilemma. The man had things to say, even if he is a quiet sort. So, I went back and started re-reading yesterday. And I liked what I had. It might still move in fits and starts, and not ever be exactly what I imagine, but I’m having fun doing it, which is really important to me. Even if it never sees the light of day in the form of a publication, I think it’s good to have a passion project that you can turn to and just have fun with.

Platform Progress 

I’ve signed up for Instagram and Facebook this week, as well as added to my Pinterest boards. I’ve done a good deal of writing and establishing some practices for this blog and for social media, but I’m not quite ready to talk about them yet. I have some plans to move forward with an expanded blog, and am talking with a friend about starting a podcast that would be both fun and help produce content that might get readers and listeners. My goal for next week is to start integrating all of these platforms and build stronger connections with people I admire.

Life in General 

I’m having fun on Instagram, but need to remember that the real work isn’t there. It’s in the doing of the thing. I need to focus my energy and attention to cultivating my writing, not my followers. It’s hard to remember sometimes because of the dopamine rushes that hit when someone “likes” your post. But even as I set these up, and start navigating them, they are not the end. Creating work and getting better at my writing is the end.

In other news, I’m going to a writer’s workshop in about a month, so after that I’ll make some decisions about what to do with the first novel, the one that got a pass. I might revise and send it out again, or hold onto it for a while, or even try WattPad. Suggestions? Thoughts?

Also, do I have a prolonged sinus cold that will infect my husband with a kiss? Or is it allergies that are not contagious? Inquiring minds want to know! If only you had the answers, I would be forever grateful.

Writing Projects & the New Year

Posted on by under Works In Progress

Yesterday I printed out all three stories I’ve been working on this fall so that I could read them and begin the necessary work of getting back into my writing habit. I was so busy last semester with my teaching load that my writing got put on hold towards the end.

In addition to that, I felt stymied because I didn’t know what I wanted to be writing. I had several started drafts at once, and felt pulled in multiple directions.  I had finished my novel, and the editing process (for now) and felt like I was back at the beginning, trying to retrace my steps but forgetting the path. I did some of the same things I did before, casting my characters on Pinterest, laying out the acts and the Inciting Incident and all of the crucial steps, but I was still lost and floundering. I knew I had good ideas, and they had the power to be complete stories, but I felt none of the motivation I had previously to tell the story. I felt like I didn’t know my characters very well at all.

For me, character comes out of conflict. I have a harder time with plotting than with coming up with interesting characters. I could spend all day describing and dressing my characters, giving them names and backstories and quirky traits. But I have a harder time knowing what their story will be. So I start with the harder stuff: figuring out what the central conflict is. Then, I look at the conflict and try to figure out what kinds of characters might be involved in that conflict. From there, I figure out where that character’s motivations and goals collide with the conflict. And I can work backwards to flesh out their character from that.

I finally realized, after lots of pondering and stewing and re-reading of my first pages that I had two great characters but nothing for them to do. So, I at last harped on my conflict, and must now go back to the discovery stage so I can work out the changes that this conflict will mean on my characters. Wish me luck! It’s scary to realize you messed up and have to start over! But, falling down and getting back up is part of the process.

Now, I’m going to write for 20 minutes because that is how I ease myself back in, and avoid too much procrastination. You can do anything for 20 minutes!

Unfinished Work and Fun Factors

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I’ve been steadily working on my second historical novel over the summer, plugging away at it, a few hundred words at a time. It’s slow, but I know where the story is going and for the most part I like my characters. It’s hard to say, as it’s just the first draft, but I care about them right now, and despite that, I’ve sent them through some shit and have more to come.

But, as I was working my summer job (waiting tables at a nearby restaurant) I’ve been bombarded with two new ideas that have come rapidly and nearly fully formed. In the first, parts need fleshing out, but the beginning structure, the voice, the characters are all showing up and taking over, even if I’m not ready to tell their story.

In the second, I had to get home and start writing immediately, too impatient to care much about anything else, and it is this story that has been driving me to the keyboard obsessively over the past few days. I started it last Sunday and I’ve already written nearly 11,000 words, which is a rarity for me. I can write 1,000 easily, and have to stop before I’m truly finished so that the pump is well primed for the next session.

I feel some guilt about putting the first story, the historical, on hold, but it was losing its fun factor, and although I like it and want to finish it, I need to find the fun again. These other stories (only one of which is in the draft process) are fun, and a challenge in ways the other one doesn’t have right now. I try very hard not to set stuff aside, because this is how I end up not finishing things, but I also believe that taking a break and finding the magic again might be good for me when other things are quite stressed in my daily life.

What are your thoughts? Do you do this too?

I Finished My Draft!!

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Yay! Yay! Yay!

Two things are going through my brain right now. First, I am so super excited to have finished the draft and to be able to say that I am done (for now) and let my brain rest for awhile. This draft was hard to finish, and I worked really long on it. I enjoyed it, but it was not easy. I do think that this draft is much better than the first one and am much more excited about it than the first draft, but it wasn’t butterscotch cupcakes and sunshine. Actually, today is, because that’s what I had for breakfast and it’s sunny as I type. I’m about to take the dogs to the dog park (but don’t tell them yet).

The second thing going through my brain is what my beta readers are thinking of it (or whether they are even reading it!) I know there are probably so many problems, and I’m really anxious about what my beta-readers say about it. They have it right now, and I’m pretty terrified. I usually don’t let other people read my work. I’ve been in workshops before, and that can be really stressful and I don’t always like it. There’s something dreadful about taking this thing you’ve spent hours and hours on and letting people at it with red pens of death. So I’ve never really done it and never really minded, but now I am. I want my work to be publishable and that means other people have to read it. Sometimes when it’s not very good.

And especially with this genre I’m even more anxious. I feel like I’m opening myself up to all sorts of snickers from a few of my friends who don’t read this type of fiction and will, next time I see them, think to themselves about all the ways I described “doing it”. I did grow up with a Southern Baptist mother who used to criticize if she saw any skin that could even possibly be considered cleavage. Being so open about sex feels uncomfortable for me.

But, I know that I can fix it, and I can  make it better after I take a break and get feedback. And I know this next comment is weird and doesn’t work for everyone and I don’t want this to be a habitual way of thinking for me, but when I get so caught up with trying to make every little, goddamned thing perfect, and worrying about the universe collapsing if I don’t get it right, and having panic attacks about grammar, or accuracy, or believability, I like to remind myself of all the crap romance novels I’ve read out there. Or all the ones by authors I really like that fell a little flat for me. I don’t want to be a crappy writer, but they’re like talismans, reminders that they do not have to be perfect. And with each novel I’ll get better.

Brainstorming Exercises

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I did a little brainstorming exercise a few days ago entitled “Ways to Torture Lillian”. Lillian is my main female lead. And I came up with about 20 things that would just drive her crazy, or push the story forward, or give me chances to create conflict. Some of them could become scenes, some of them could be combined with each other, and some of them can just be simmering under the surface of scenes. But all of them are fodder for my imagination, and now I have a list of things that I can’t wait to start writing about, rather than sitting around wondering when the words will come. Also, they are great character exercises. I now know Lillian so much better now that I know what makes her frustrated or angry!

So I did the same thing for Morgan, my main male lead.

Now on to the writing!

Conflict and Clear Vision

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While listening to the ever insightful, funny team of Lani Diane Rich and Alastair Stephens debate back and forth and laugh at each other’s and their own jokes on StoryWonk, I came to a rather jaw dropping realization. Well, jaw dropping for me, I guess. And any other person who has happily finished a draft and thought, “now I just have to fix a few things and polish!” Ha, bloody ha.

It happened while I was listening to their daily podcast (now defunct in favor of a longer form weekly show) entitled Elegant Conflict. And I realized suddenly that my first draft’s conflict was definitely lacking. There were so many sticky, webby parts you might think it was a particularly disorganized spider weaving this story. Not that the conflict didn’t exist, but that it was so internalized and so distant that it didn’t exert much pressure on my characters. And as we know, only pressure and time create diamonds. Ok, and carbon.

So as I was driving along, listening to their discussion on conflict, the other part of my brain was busy untangling knots. I find that driving long distances, much like taking showers or walks with the dogs, is a GREAT place to think about storycraft. There’s something about engaging your more critical, logical and driven part of the brain in some activity that is mindless enough you don’t have to concentrate too hard, but still have to focus on so that the rest of your brain can just play and wander.

And I figured out how to ratchet up the pressure a few notches so that the conflict becomes even more visible and the characters have to actually DEAL with it! In addition to this, it creates lots of nice pockets for character driven plot that otherwise has to be forced into place. Now it falls quite naturally into its slot.

And THAT, my friends, is why we tell new writers to put their work away for a while and come back to it when your brain is refreshed and ready to see the problems more clearly! Now, I just have to REWRITE ALL THE THINGS!!

all the things

image created by the hilarious Allie Brosch at Hyperbole and a Half

Research!

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One of the things I love most about historical fiction is the chance to dive into great big piles of articles about a topic and emerge with a little nugget of inspiration. Tonight I was preparing for my British Literature class by doing some research on Sir Thomas More and his literary and religious adversary, William Tyndale.

Here’s the few nuggets I collected that I might just polish into gold as part of my story:

  • Thomas More was engaged in spying on Protestant heretics.
  • He was given a special license to “read and keep certain books of Luther” which were banned at this time, so that he could use him in his response to Luther’s revolutionary ideas about the Church.
  • When King Henry VIII became the “Supreme head on earth of the Church of England” (how is that for a title?) his followers were able to rely on the common people’s ideas of obedience to one’s ruler as a Christian duty to get them to follow Henry’s changes in religion (somewhat). But, when his daughter, Mary, came to the throne and reverted England back to Catholicism this little idea created quite the dilemma! Do you all of a sudden backtrack and encourage the common people to follow a “papal queen” down the road to “certain hell”? (emphasis mine, but they’d probably say it too!)
  • During the years 1534-1547 there was a massive overhaul of the physical expression of the Catholic Church. It started with the Dissolution of Monasteries under King Henry, when he gave away land to the gentry in order to get their support for his new church (and kept a lot of the money found in the monasteries for himself) and it continued under his son, Edward. Stained glass, shrines, statues, crucifixes, and bells were all taken down and destroyed. Clergy were no longer expected to be celibate and the saying of mass for the dead was ended.
  • Many feast days were banished, which unsurprisingly upset the common people, who rather enjoyed the feasting and celebrating that went on in the villages on these days. Mobs also tried to prevent the dissolving of the monasteries, and other changes to their faith.

Why did I find all of these archaic details fascinating? Because they are the basis for storytelling and plot! Just think of the human tragedies that went on under the dissolving of the monasteries and abbeys, and destroying of common objects of faith. Think of the political machinations that occurred as part of Henry’s efforts to gain support, or his daughter’s accession to the throne. Imagine the anxiety of the messenger who had to carry Luther’s books to Sir Thomas More, special license or not! All of this is fodder for the story. All of this carries with it the passions of people who, no matter what we think now, felt deeply about these issues and were willing to die for them. That is what makes telling these stories and helping them come to life so exciting and vital. And a little romance to ease the pain doesn’t hurt.