This week I guest blogged at Rarely Dusty Books talking about the importance of keeping a series bible and how I almost totally messed up Walter Simon’s backstory. Stop by to check it out and to enter to win a copy of HOW TO SAVE A LIFE.
It’s all in the Details: Writing a Series
“It’s an adrenaline surge rushing through your body. You have this spark of an idea that keeps threatening to burst into flames and you have to get the words out on paper to match this emotion or picture in your head. After this comes the work of cleaning up the mess that you made.”
–Janet West
I blogged at the Loose Id author blog this week, sharing about the challenges and rewards of the writing process. Having finished writing HOW TO SAVE A LIFE and my holiday short story, I’m looking back at completed works and how strange it feels to have taken a spark of an idea and created a coherent (I hope) story.
Read the full post: The only easy day was yesterday
Recently I spent a weekend at a house on a lake with my local writing group. We alternated between writing and helping each other brainstorm story ideas. Here’s some of what was overheard during the weekend:
And perhaps my fave…
And of course that led us to…
I love this group of writers! There aren’t words to express how reaffirming and energizing it is to hang with other people who get the drive to spend hours and hours creating characters and stories from nothing but your imagination.
Some days, writing is hard, but days like today are why I love this gig. Thank you to all the readers who make it possible for me to do this for more than just myself.
This week at my publisher’s group blog, Loose Ends, I blogged about this wickedly cool video (below), the common questions I get asked by non-writers, and what I celebrate about being me. Stop by and share what you celebrate about yourself.
They saw a swing set. I saw a dinosaur.
Here’s the video if you just want to check that out:
Or you can watch it at YouTube
Have a good weekend!
I’m sharing on my RWA group blog today about what it’s like when you’re a writer and words fail. Every time I finish a story, I’m so glad I never stopped and gave in to the moments when it was tough.
Stop by if you can. I’d love to hear if there’s anything in your life that you’re glad you kept plugging away at.
I’m on my third pass working on Walter and Kevin’s story, and I had a series of great writing sessions this week. Today I worked on a chapter and a half that needed a few changes, including adding some dialogue and reactions. I ended up rewriting almost all of it. I was in some sort of zone where the dialogue and character interactions just flowed and worked better within the overall story arc. The more I rewrote, the more I knew what I had previously written wasn’t working. When I was done, it felt good to know it was the right call to rewrite those scenes.
Even though decisions like these affect the overall amount of time it takes to complete a project, this type of revising just seems to work for me. The more time I spend with the characters and their story, the clearer the overall picture becomes. Sometimes I can’t see the forest with all those damn trees in the way.
It took about five hours to get that chapter and a half rewritten. I sat in my comfy chair in my office while I wrote. These two little guys came in to keep me company.
Hope you all have a great weekend. I’m hoping to get in another 5 hours or more of writing on Sunday.
Image Source: http://cheezburger.com
I was writing the other day and got stuck with how to describe a fight scene. I needed some strong sensory descriptions. But how do you describe a fist slamming against someone’s body? I started lightly punching my fist into my hand, just pondering the fight scene, thinking about what it would sound like and feel like, really getting into the moment with my characters.
But I was punching my hand. That’s not right. So I proceeded to move my punches (albeit they were light punches) up my arm. Several slaps of fist to skin, I realized what I was doing. Yep, I was punching myself for my art.
I imagined someone seeing bruises all along my arms and asking, “How did you get these?”
“Writing.”
Duh. How else?
Two weeks ago I attended a brainstorming event with some of the writers in my local writing group. It was my third year attending this annual event, and I had such a fabulous time. Not only is it productive in generating story ideas, it’s also a time to recharge my writing energy. Just hanging with these fabulous women (and our lone, brave man who slept in a lake cottage with 12 women) gets me excited about writing. These people have amazing energy and talent. I’m always in awe of their creativity.
We spent the weekend talking about each other’s stories and coming up with titles, plot ideas, ways to kill off characters (don’t worry, that wasn’t mine), and more. We have writers of all genres and heat levels in the group. From contemporary to sci-fi. From sweet inspiration to steamy erotic romance and erotica. Most write romance, but some don’t.
So what kinds of things did I hear that weekend? Here’s a sampling:
“He’s a schizophrenic vampire priest!”
“Die, bitch, die!” (which worked for several of the stories)
“Orgasmoplasm“
“Hooha goo”
“Viagraville”
“Regrow the cherry!”
“Everybody use frickidous in a sentence.” Our 18-year-old, youngest member immediately told us all to, “Go frickidous yourselves.”
“bilabial frickidousness and glaodal stoppages”
And perhaps my favorite…“We need to make his junk grow!”
So yeah, it was a blast. Thanks ladies and Ray! I had a wonderful time.