Courage.

Courage in writing comes in many forms. It's in taking that tiny idea and putting the words to paper. It's in finishing that draft, editing that draft. Sending it out to beta readers, critique groups, and then swallowing your pride to edit some more. In querying, no matter how many rejections you rack up, no matter how discouraged you might get, it's sending out one more.

 

Those are all courageous things, it's true. But there's another kind of courage in writing, and that's writing with reckless abandon. It's telling the story how it's meant to be told, not how society thinks it should be told. It's laying your soul bare on every page for everyone to see, to feel. To experience. To tell a story in all its truth and beauty and horror, to hold nothing back even when it feels like you should. When others say you should. Sometimes it's telling that story no one thinks they want to hear, but in fact so desperately need.

 

That is courage in writing, and I only hope one day  to be so brave.

 

"I wanted you to see what real courage is,

instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.

It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.

You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

 --Atticus Finch 

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Writing, in 12 Words

 

 

 Ever tried.

 

 

Ever failed.

 

 

No matter.

 

 

Try again.

 

 

Fail again.

 

 

Fail better.

 

--Samuel Beckett's Worstward Ho

Perspective//New Problems Are Good Problems

It's amazing how time and distance can grant perspective, especially when you're trying to revise a manuscript that's Just Not Working.

I'm the kind of person who struggles to accept anything that's Just Not Working. Call it hardheadedness, a stubborn streak several miles wide, whatever, but I'm a grit-my-teeth-til-it-gets-done sorta person. And for the most part, it's worked well for me.

But not lately. Not in my writing. I've been trying to get a choke-hold on some perspective for months now.

But the thing about perspective is you can't tackle it, pin it, make it tap. It yields to no one, no matter how ugly a face you make at it or what names you call its momma.

Lately the feelings of impatience and behindness (today a word) have been suffocating. Why can't I finish this manuscript? Why does this thing still stink to high heaven? Why can't I query yet? Why why why why followed by a thousand general internal boo-hoos and lamentations. My cousin's a psychologist, and after a very general Hi-how-are-you?-oh-I'm-frustrated conversation, she encouraged me to write down exactly what I thought my problem was in hopes it would spark a solution. It didn't take me long to come up with the following:

My problem is me and my manuscript that refuses to go all Handyman Dan and fix itself already.

Stubborn as I may be, actually writing and reading those words made me realized what was necessary. I needed perspective, and the only way to get that was through some time and distance. Both of which I hate. There's nothing worse than idle hands when you're trying to be productive. But then I finally realized something. Trying to fix my manuscript without knowing what, exactly the problem was (or which new direction to take) was about as productive as repeatedly running into the same wall. So I gave in. Stuck the story, which in a fit of temper frustration got renamed THAT DAMN BOOK, in the proverbial drawer and didn't even open the file for two months. Did my best to forget about the thing and anything associated with it. Piddled around and wrote something else for NaNo that hasn't really gone anywhere but that's okay.

A few days ago, I reopened THAT DAMN BOOK. Read a little, made a some notes. Realized where I went wrong, developed a couple potential solutions and decided to just start over from a clean slate. I'm about 10k in now and I can already see the improvement. I'll run into new problems I'm sure, but I can guarantee I won't have the same issues as I did with the first version. And that's learning for me: not screwing up the same way twice.

All it took was a lot of patience, a bit of time and some damned old perspective.

#

How's everybody else doing? How'd NaNo go? Hope it's all bueno :)


Currently listening to The Perishers//My Heart

Life. Writing. NaNo.

*Shrugs off Worst Blogger Ever Mantle*

*Dusts off blog*

*Breathes deep*

OMG IT'S NANO TIME, GUYS!

:) This, as you can probably tell, makes me very, very happy. I love NaNo. I've been doing it both officially and unofficially for a couple years now and even though I've never actually won, I adore it all the same.

I never really set out to win. Mostly I just try and get words for new ideas from my head to the paper and let the chips--or the word count--fall where they may. As I generally write more intently in the winter months (and let's be real here, Texas doesn't really HAVE winter months), November's the perfect time for me to reestablish my Butt In Chair routine.

NaNoWriMo: Just what the doctor ordered.

This year I'm less prepared than normal (which is no small feat, let me tell you). I have absolutely no friggin' clue what my project is going to be. (Can you tell I'm a pantser to the core?) I've got a new idea for a YA contemporary that sure is tempting, but I've also thought about going back to an older story and restarting it from a clean slate. What to do, what to do. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. (And yeah, I'm that person at the restaurant who can't ever decide what she wants until the waitstaff is eyeballing her over the order paper, foot tapping impatiently. It's a disease.)

That said, I'll probably pop by every couple of days to give an update, even if it's only for my own accountability: I'm going to shoot for 30k in 30 days.

Anybody else participating in NaNo? Got a project in mind? Got opinions about what my project should be?

Best of luck to all!

Currently listening to: Ballada by Gusstavo Lima

Setting the Hook.

Any writer seeking publication has heard all about hooks. Not the treble, fishing kind of hook. The book hook.

Your query should hook the reader. Your first sentence should hook the reader. Your blurb should hook the reader. Your style and word choice should hook the reader. Your concept better have a good hook. Your voice should hook. Your first page should hook. Your first chapter. Your first three chapters.

So many hooks, so little time.

To make things even more subjectively thrilling, no one hook works for all readers. Sure there's general concepts/themes that intrigue lots of people, but you never know how effective your hook will be. Take Hannah Moskowitz's INVINCIBLE SUMMER. A big part of the hook was the triangle between one girl and two brothers. Did it squick some people out? Probably. Did some people feel intrigued enough to read on? Definitely.

Different strokes for different folks.

Books aren't universal. Yes, I know--your book won't be universal. In all likelihood, it will appeal to a very small niche market. I know my current WIP, Hell to Pay, is most assuredly a tiny niche-market book. It might be so niche-y it doesn't sell. Who knows. But I do know that the underlying hook of the book is pretty universal. The theme is pretty universal. Will it make a difference, I have no idea. Time will tell.

The same idea of hooking the audience also goes for movies. Like books, visual entertainment connects or hooks an audience on an individual basis. There have been countless times I have walked out of a movie theater with a friend and had a completely different reaction than they did. Completely. To the extent of them saying 'I loved it' and me barfing on the floor in response, or vice-versa.

But good movies and good books have one thing in common: they connect with you. They hook on some level that ellicits emotion, whether that emotion is joy, anger, despair, playfulness. They make you feel something. How strongly you connect is largely dependent on not only what you feel, but whether or not you like feeling that emotion.

I know writers have it tough to create hooker queries (ha!), I do. I struggle with them myself. But the cinematic world has a rough go with movie trailers--that's basically their version of the query. And we all know that some movie trailers are effective and make you want to see the movie. Some are not.

The Hunger Games trailer made me want to see the movie even before I'd read the books. In fact, I read the books because of the movie trailer. I'd heard lots of buzz surrounding Suzanne Collin's megaseller, but my to-be-read pile was (and is) enormous. I didn't see why I should add THE HUNGER GAMES, at least until I saw the movie trailer.

You know the part that hooked me? It's when the officials are leading Prim forward after her name's been drawn for the games. It's how Katniss struggled and fought and screamed, "I volunteer--I volunteer as tribute."

Every time I watch that scene a little part of my stomach clenches and the hairs on my arms prickle.

I love my sisters as much as life itself. That scene made me identify so strongly with Katniss (ass that she can be) that I rushed to my local bookstore and bought the series. Read them all in three days.

I'd say that hook worked for me.

What're yours?

Currently listening to: The time ticking down until I have to go back to work.

The Struggle.

Currently listening to Jason Isabell--The Devil Is My Running Mate.

Today it took me two hours to write 600 words.

For the record, I'm a pretty speedy typer, so it wasn't the mechanics holding me back. Nope, it was the unflexed writing muscle. Unfortunately I've been on a bit of a self-inflicted writing hiatus ever since the new year rolled around. I've got this pesky thing called a thesis that REALLY needs some attention. Like, if it's not done in the next six weeks, I don't graduate in May. *cue panic here*

Given options, I'd much rather write from-my-head fiction than thesis fact. (Yeah, hybrid zones, I hate you.) Rather inconveniently, my fiction writing isn't looking to pay my bills any time soon, so thesis it is. (Why I'm in a science master's program is anyone's guess. 'Cuz I've got absolutely no friggin' clue.)

Anyway. I made myself a deal--No novel until the dreaded thesis is done.

I've already broken that contract, of course.

Citing good behavior (I've been studying and generally being super--and unnaturally--productive), I gave myself a little reprieve today.

Too bad it sucked.

The 600 words today were a struggle of epic proportions. Were they epic words?--oh hell no. But perhaps they were functional. I'm afraid to reread them, so I can't tell. I'm not the type of writer who can go for extended periods of no writing without it showing. It's painful, really. But hopefully it'll be over soon and I can get back into the groove.

Only six more weeks to go.

How's your writing going?

What do you feel when

you come up with the perfect title for your manuscript?

Glee?

Elation?

Relief?

Me, well, I feel all of those. Especially because coming up with the perfect title* for my current project has been a long road, and I don't feel like I can really work on something unless it has a name beyond WIP1 or @)(*&Q#$)(*%)@#(*!!!!! (<---This is a common stand in.)

No title is like not naming your children until they are 18 and headed out the door.** Too late. I try and make my titles capture the essence of the book in question, so once I find a fitting one I hang onto it for dear life. It's my fall back when I lose my theme or core of my story.

So, yeah. Call me a big bundle of Gleelation (that's really happeh, people.) I found the one.

Relieved? You bet. Which is probably what Wendy Corsi Staub felt when her work finally got the go-ahead title:

along with Mr. Green

and George Pelecanos

The HELL TO PAY by Wendy Corsi Staub was the book that brought about this blog post. Hot off the gleelation of finding a title for my WIP, I was perusing the book aisle at walmart when I saw it. The sight prompted me to first burst out laughing and then to do a quick search on Amazon, which is what led me to the others. There's even a Hillary Clinton book with Hell to Pay in the title. Needless to say, this just reinforces the belief that creativity is unlimited, but ideas aren't.

Just when you go a'thinking you're somethin' speshul.... Yeah. Not so much.

Consolation: None of those books are anywhere near mine in terms of theme or plot. Hell, none of them are even the same genre. So no harm, no foul.

Have a great one, everybody :).

*Yes, I know that titles usually get changed, but com'on--this one's perfect. (because I'm the only one with a perfect title...LOL.)

**This is a bad metaphor, I know. Books aren't children. And the writers who treat them as such generally end up never getting them out the door. That's right, those bookbabies become 40 year-old stay-at-home children who crow about the glory days of high school and wipe potato chip grease on your recliners.

in which I bemoan my lack of progress.

NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. Upon us(me). Looming. Imminent.

Yikes.

There's so much for me to do between now and November 1st it's not funny. The Painted Queen is thisclose to being a completed first draft. It's sitting at 70k right now. I thought I could wrap up everything around 75k and expand through edits, but it looks like I was wrong-o. (insert le sigh here.) I've taken to writing short snippets (~500 words) that capture the bare bones of the scenes and can be fleshed out later. As is, I've got about 14 of them to write.

Probably time to get crackin'.

Beyond that, I'm really excited to begin the new WIP, tentatively titled Hell to Pay. Like I've said before, it's been driving me crazy. I'm so excited, in fact, I've forgotten how I wanted to open the damn thing. Openings are hard for me. Like many newish writers, my stories usually begin about three chapters beyond where I start them. I'm determined to begin Hell to Pay right where it needs to--only I'm not sure where that is anymore. #fail.

I downloaded a free trial of Scrivener software, mainly because they claim to make the first draft easier (which sounds like an impossibility to me, but I'll give it a go) and offer a discount on the full version if you 'win' NaNo. To be honest though, I'm not sure I'll figure out how to use the darn thing before Nov. 1, so I'll probably just stick to good old MS Word. The concept of Scrivener sounds fabulous, and I'm sure it works for many people, but I'm not sure I have enough patience to fiddle with it when I could be writing away on my normal word processor.

Although, with the new schedule I've set up for myself, I might actually have some free time to figure out Scrivener. Because I'm only writing my thesis and working this semester, I'm really having trouble getting in a routine and many things have suffered because of it. (My jeans, for instance. They seem to have shrank from the spite.) November is my opportunity to adopt a schedule, all while writing furiously.

Basically, in the next 35 hours I need to write 8-10k, figure out Scrivener software, grocery shop, grade 200 papers, do laundry, and drive back home. Not too bad, right?

Oh. Right.

And outline the novel I'm going to write like a madwoman, because it hasn't been done yet.

Crap.

50k in 30 days. Oye.

I did it. I signed up for the insanity fun that is National Novel Writing Month--eek!

Find the site here: http://www.nanowrimo.com/

For those who may not know (or don't wanna click the link), NaNoWriMo is an annual event that draws hundreds of thousands of writers, both published and aspiring. Basically, it's a writing free-for-all, with the main goal to pull words from the aether and put them to paper...erm...word processor. 50k.

In 30 days.

That's about 1,666 words/day, for those strange creatures who actually like math.

Whether you abhor numbers (*raises hand*) or not, 50k in 30 days probably seems like quite a challenge. I know that it will be for me. Try as I might, I don't write regularly, or at least not in a daily routine. I have relegated most of my writing time to the weekend, where I can spend a few continuous hours on my projects. Generally I can turn out 3.5k a week, usually in about 3 hours. Weekdays are too crazy with school and work and thesis crap.

But, that being said, I'm going to try and tackle NaNo this year. Is it crazy? Will I even have a chance to 'win'? Yes and probably a snowball's chance in hell, respectively.

Joining NaNo is helpful to me for two reasons:
1) It means I have a deadline of October 31st for my current WIP. I need deadlines. Otherwise I fiddle on the google or on AW or on crackbook or chew my nails or take naps instead of writing. Hi, I'm WT and I am a procrastinator.

2) It also means I have a distraction to keep myself from editing immediately after I type the end in mah current WIP. Letting it rest for a month will help me to be more objective when the time comes to go back and gut edit the thing. (And major edits it needs.) Plus, the idea I've got for November is one that been pestering me for months and months. One that's been trying to lure me astray. To distract me with its Shiny New Idea-ness. (All words are better with -ness endings. Face it.) I've resisted admirably up to this point. (The query that I tapped out oh so very quickly doesn't count...right? I swear it was just tiny moment of infidelity...I mean weakness.)

I want to get a down and dirty draft done for WIP2. Basically, the beginning, the pivotal scenes, and the ending. While I'm shooting for 50k in 30 days, I'm not going to be too disappointed if I fall short. Any words on paper are progress, and most of those words will get changed through editing sweeps anyway. The point is to get the words out there, period. No editing, no fretting, no second-guessing.

Write. And then write more.

I'm posting this here as a little accountability thingy. Every three days or so I'll post my progress. I have say that I'm really stoked about this story. It's got some pretty dark themes going on--much darker that in my current WIP. Should be fun.

Should any other NaNo-ers exist out there, my handle is lilchubb. Add me. We can talk or moan/groan together. It's always funner (today, a word) when there's people to commiserate with ;).

Holy crap.

If you are in a particularly weird place with your writing, or you just want to read something that will straight-up suckerpunch you, read this: http://www.murderati.com/blog/2008/11/23/comfort-reading.html


...



Now go write.

What I'm Writing.

Yes, I am writing. (Not really blog posts, obviously. I'll do better. Promise.)

So. What am I writing? *DeepBreath*

My thesis.

(Yikes)

I'm about to be working on the the Discussion section.

(DoubleYIKES)

It is a scary thing, folks. And to give you an idea of how it's going, I leave you this:

Muse Fuel

Like many other writers, I'm inspired by lots of things. The ideas come from occasionally weird places, such as the bone my dog is chewing on, or The Beast*, a genetics machine/monster that I do my research with.

Most of the time, however, music really gets the creative pot a'simmering. Case in point, the latest WIP I've got going was not only kicked off by my love of history, but also this song:  

Then there was this one**.

 Most recently, it's this:***

So, what's your Muse Fuel?

*I mean this. It's the devil. An expensive devil. If I could get the 96 capillary array version, I'd be the happehest gurl in th' woirld.

**It's worth mentioning that The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack (Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman) is twelve kinds of awesome.

***My playlists (and cds) span many genres, much to the chagrin of my boyfriend.

Productivity--I haz it.

It's shaping up to be a good week here: in the past two days, I've cranked out 7k that I'm pretty happy with--yaya! Even though it's just a rough (first) draft, I'm really seeing ways I can iron this story out and make it fun/interesting/something-someone-somewhere-will-wanna-read.

Hopefully, this weekend will be even more productive, but we'll see how that goes. *fingerscrossed*

So how's your writing going? Any goals met?

hayyyyyyy :)

The Chaos Between

Ah, the Shiny New Idea (SNI) strikes again. I've started a new mantra (as of 9:00am this morning): I am going to finish my current WIP. I am going to finish my current WIP. I Am Going To Finish My Current WIP. IAMGOINGTOFINISHMYCURRENTWIP!

Maybe I should tattoo that backwards on my forehead. And then carry around a handmirror everywhere I go.

Okay, so maybe not. But I could definitely use a little in the way of focus right now. I'm so excited to be writing again that I've got a twenty-nine point five zillion ideas going on in mah lil noggin which makes it ohsohard to concentrate on anything at any given time because there's so much going on or so much I could be doing if I could only work on twelve WIPS of different genres all at one time....

Right. You get what I mean.

Hi, my name is Lee, and I'm battling SNI addition.

[Must. Not. Give. In.]

Suffice it to say, after this current WIP is completed and sitting nicely in a drawer for thirty days before editing, I shant be twiddling my thumbs in want of an idea. Or seven.

*head desk*

It's Okay to Suck. (Seriously.)

No matter how you say it, nobody wants to suck. At anything. I'm one of those people. Blame my perfectionism, my INFJ personality, whatever. Long story short, that trait is very deeply ingrained within my personality. It's there for the long haul, baby.

And you know what?

It's something I/you/we need to get over. That's right, I said it. You've got to be willing to suck at some things before you can ever get better.

Several examples come to mind, ranging from musical instruments to sports. Regardless of the scenario, however, the idea holds true. Ask yourself this question: 'What things am I naturally good at?' Got a scroll-like list yet?

Then try this one on for size: 'What are the things that I really love doing?'

Odds are, between the two questions, you'll have some overlap. But there may be a few things you love and maybe aren't so naturally good at. (This is where the musical instruments analogy comes in.) Some people are musically inclined. My family (largely excluding me) is one such group--everyone plays at least one instrument, usually two. My mom is just amazing--she plays piano, guitar, flute, sings....

But she didn't get to be seventeen kinds of awesome overnight. (I think it took two nights.)

*...maybe she's not the best example....*

A long, long time ago, I asked my mater familia to teach me her wicked-awesome-guitar/singing-jedi-ways. She obliged, began speaking in reverse syntax like Yoda and calling me 'grasshoppa'.

Wonder of all wonders (not), I sucked. Something about strumming and singing at the same time blew my mind to the point of short circuiting. I was pissed. First (bratty) reaction went something like this: Whatthehellwhyisn'tthisworkingi'msupposedtobeawesomeliketherestofmyfamilyamIadoptedthissucksIquit.

Yoda...erm, my madre, just laughed and handed me back my guitar pick after the ninth time I'd launched it airborne. And you know what she said?

Suck you do. Hopeless you are not.

And that gets us to the point of this whole rambling blog post: It's okay to suck. Seriously. Most people throw in the towel in the early stages of learning to do anything new because they can't handle not being awesometastic immediately.

To get to Jedi Master levels, you've got to be willing to suck first. To not be naturally awesome or a virtuoso. And that fact, well, sucks. But those people who do stick it out, deal with the ridicule, ignore the family members who point and giggle, eventually stop sucking. Maybe even get to the point where others consider them to be impressive. Maybe even Yoda-like.

The same theory can be applied to many different fields. Because it's on this blog, you can bet I'm going to relate it to writing. Many moons ago, once I decided I was going to get serious about writing, I found this awesome writing forum. I learned a ton immediately--the amount of Jedi Master Juice there is fantastic. I prematurely posted a snippet of a WIP up on the Share Your Work section, and promptly got told that it needed work. It wasn't fun, but it was necessary. I was told I sucked, but I wasn't hopeless. There might have even been some potential hidden in there.

Flashback to the mom and guitar session.

Through some self-motivation, I'm still writing. I can now say with complete honesty that I've gotten better. I understand the craft more now. Nowhere near an expert, but I'm learning more and more everyday just because I want to.

Most people think that writing is simple, that anyone can do it. They're only partly right.

All it takes is dedication and patience.

And the willingness to suck.

Why hello there, stranger.

Admittedly, I know it's been about four million years since my last post. I know that's not good. It's not because I haven't had much to say. Quite to the contrary: I've had A LOT to say...just not really about writing. This mainly because that evil monster called School consumes my life. She let me out for a short reprieve, however, so I'm here to make the mostest of it.

So, what have I been doing in the last two months? Well. I've--

1) Written 3 not-for-funsies papers*

2) Completed a rough draft of my thesis proposal

3) Completed AFLP analyses on 40 of my 130 specimens

4) Created presentation over completed research

5) Presented presentation at BigScaryScientificConference (Subtitled: PlaceWhereGraduateStudentHatersCongregateAndAnnihilate)

6) Collapsed with relief once BigScaryConference was over

7) Had a drink. Or three.

8) Made and presented another presentation.

9) Collapsed. Drank.

10) Attended music festival. Did not drink.

11) Ate copious amounts of candy

11.5) More candy/caffeine here.

12) Studied and took 3 finals.

13) Collapsed.

14) Preoccupied my mind by surfing youtube. (This is fantastic. I ran and bought several of her originals from itunes after finding this cover.)

15) Realized I haven't really done crap in the way of Actual Writing**

The good news is, however, that I've spent most of the day alternating between AW surfing and glorious WIP-writing. (AKA, It's been a damn good day.) I've basically outlined 3/4 of my romance novel, and that's something that makes me verrah happeh. I've also figured out a queue for my WIPs and set some goals. (Goals are a good thing.)

I plan on finishing two WIPs this year: my historical romance and my YA Contemp (which basically just needs a middle-section-rewrite), come hell or highwater. It's going to be tough, but I think I can do it.

So. hello! More stuff coming here (hopefully good stuff) soon, so check back!

Up next: It's okay to suck.

*Not-for-funsies=anything school related. Usually dry, boring, scientific style writing that sucks my soul.
**Actual Write=well, basically the opposite of above.

Working the angles

So, it's been a long time since I've posted on here. That's the thing with school--it consumes my life. I may be female, but I'm not a very good multitasker or time-manager (don't tell my bf...he believes the facade).

Anyway.

I recently took on some major house-renovating tasks. Like the kind that should probably be done by someone with, oh, I don't know, a contractor's license. Yeah, I go big.

One of the most minor tasks I began was pulling up the atrocious moss growing on the stairs. Although it's not a good picture:

  
Those lovely stairs are encased in fungus...erm, I mean carpet. Carpet samples, no less. Orange and green, of a really fuzzylicious composition. (Yes, today 'fuzzylicious' is a word. Work with me here.)

It was a bit more of a task than I anticipated. It was sweaty, dusty work. There's no telling how long how those samples had been there, and it seemed like they were rebelling against removal. Like, growing and becoming one with the wood beneath. *Refrains from 'you complete me' joke*

Somewhere around halfway down the staircase I started thinking about writing. (Mainly how I would much rather be writing, but that's not the point.) Pulling up ancient carpet on stairs is friggin' work. I found out the hard way that you can't just pull in side-to-side (aka, safe) motions. You've got to work the angles when tugging on that carpet to achieve maximum rippage, and that means occasionally pulling in non-safe (or not smart) directions.

Namely in a downhill direction, but I digress. 

The point of this rambling post isn't about potentially dangerous home improvements. It's about writing. 

Yep, there's a correlation between effective carpet removal and enjoyable and effective storytelling. Whudathunkit?

Working the angles is a good idea in carpet removal. The same goes with your writing...you've got to explore alternatives to fully evaluate your plot. You've got to scrutinize your story, find the nails (plotholes), and then figure out the best way to remove them. Brainstorm. Pick your nose. Stand on your head--whatever works for you.

Once you find the problem(s) in your story, often you've got to change your approach. Don't just keep pulling/writing in the same direction. It'll just frustrate you, and probably make you want to quit and drink a bottle of wine in a bubblebath. Don't be afraid to take a (short) breather, either. It's better to step away for a bit than to get so irritated you end up leaving the stairs half molded, half not. Or to keep writing aimlessly, with no real direction. Find the angles that work. Look for alternatives. Ask yourself "what if?" And by all means, change for a different tool from your writerly utility belt if your need to. (No sense in using a hammer if a crowbar is what you need, or vice versa.) The harder you examine your plot/characters/theme, the stronger you can make it.

If you're struggling, often you'll find those alternative angles (after a lot of painful brainstorming, of course) are the ones that tell the story best. And isn't that what we're all after here?

The only difference between writing and home improvements in an ancient rent house is, after working my novel's angles and removing plotholes, I don't feel the need for a rabies/hepatitis/tetanus cocktail vaccination.

Usually, anyway.

Thoughts? Comments? Concerns? Flames?

Hello, bloggosphere

Yep. It's happened. After all this time resisting, I've finally decided to get a blog. (Obviously.)

Welcome!

I won't say that this will be one of those profound, deeply terrificallywondiferous blogs. Quite to the contrary, in fact. I’m on a journey to become a published writer, and I’m sure there will be huge potholes along the way. Like monumental, ginormous quicksand-filled pits with vipers at the bottom.

Pit vipers.

But I digress.

However, like most things worthwhile, the work is worth the gain (fingers crossed). I’m currently working on a time-travel romance. Writing a straight-up romance is new for me—I’ve tried my hand at UF, YA, and thriller/suspense. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to make up my mind. Stick around here long enough and you’ll see that for yourself.

Anyways. My dog (LittleMonster) is eating one of my shoes. Until next time,

~l