IWSG: July 2018

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Insecure Writers Support Group

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Co-Hosts: Nicki Elson, Juneta Key, Tamara Narayan, and Patricia Lynne!


Questions: What are your ultimate writing goals, and how have they changed over time (if at all)?

Answer:
Ah! The question everyone asks and really doesn't understand if they don't write. ;-)

I do hope to finish my Women's Fiction MOTHER'S DAY and possibly its sequel--FRIENDLY FIRE--but at the moment I'm dealing with many family and personal issues. If they are finished, I'll self-publish. I know in the past I hunted an agent and a contract, but personal issues make that dream a bit daunting. I know my needs have changed. I have no deadlines, no conferences, no queries, and no pitches lined up and don't expect to. 

My needs have changed based on my health. It's a good feeling to take the stress off and just enjoy writing again. 

Here's to us all! Writers through thick and thin.

Next post: Why the July Book Pusher post, of course!

IWSG: How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader?

{Note to followers: if you want an email when a new post goes up, go the right column and subscribe for emails. Thanks.}

Insecure Writers Support Group

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Our Co-Sponsor's this month are:
Misha Gericke
LK Hill
Juneta Key
Joylene Buter



How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader?

Short Answer: It's changed how I read every word.

Long Answer: Truly, I look at all the word choices, the structure, the themes, the plotting, etc. But more than all of that, I have to say, the first and most important thing I read for is characterization. If the characters don't ring true, act like real people, I don't review the book. Learning how to create characters is key for writers.

Creating relatable characters is a key skill. What's your favorite tip?

Edited to add: Finally, I feel well enough to actually be back in the swing of IWSG and promoting our mutual blog hop. It's been a long winter already. Let's just say, I'm happy to be back among the community. Let's rock the words we need to write, y'all!

Might be John and I a few (a lot) of years and added pounds ago.

Source

Next Time: January's Mini Book Reviews

A Grateful Writer

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Fall is one of my favorite seasons. The colors of the leaves enchant me. The cooler temperatures allow me to turn inward and settle into a good story--either my own or someone else's. Everything says that it's time to be thankful for what I have, so I'd like to take this post and list a few of my reasons for thanksgiving this year.

• My mother is home after a few trips to the hospital and doing better.
• I pitched two agents at the Surrey International Writers Conference and both requested a submission--one a full and the other a partial. These requests are on their way.
• My husband and the pups are doing well and make my life easier and more fun.
• My best writing buddies and I planned for one and half years  to meet up at Surrey and pulled it off. From all over the world, we were able to congregate fourteen of our seventeen members for five days of amazing camaraderie and fun. Without these ladies, I'd not be submitting stories to agents and contests. So, I'd like to dedicate this post to the ladies who share the journey. Long may we write!

The Ladies!

With Diana Gabaldon

• I got to meet many of my buddies from the Books and Writers

  

  Jackie, Nan, and Cat

  Forum.

Taylor, Beth, and Veronica

Me, Taylor, and Beth

The Forum Gang!

With Aven

More of the B&W Crew!

Beautiful Surrey and Snow in the Rockies!

The next post will be in two weeks. See you on December 7 with another post from #IWSG.

Base Jumping

Writing carries a certain element of base-jumping, really. Fling yourself, fly, and only worry about the moment, the simple accuracy needed for a free fall, until your chute deploys and you have the time to focus on the finer details of your direction, speed, altitude and surroundings.
                                          ~~Claire Gregory, Books and Writers Forum

Claire Gregory has forever defined the act of writing a first draft for me with this quote. ; )

We can debate outlining vs. pantsing until our words run dry, but all of us have to commit to begin the process of telling a story, any story, if we intend to write. All of us have felt that utter sense of exhilaration when we write the first idea down and when the first scene forms.

So here's to flinging ourselves into the story, committing our ideas to paper. May we continue to let go and see where the jump takes us. ; )

How about you? What does committing to that first draft feel like?

I'm still recuperating from my foot surgery, but thought this was too good not to share and scheduled it ahead. ; )

Dream a Little Dream with Me

Zan Marie Steadham copyright 2010

To write is to dream....

That is how my morning pages started off this morning and what followed was an outpouring of understanding of how my stories are all connected. Cherry Hill is a lovely town, but hiding in it's streets and houses are all flavors of nightmare, abuse, and wounds unhealed. And all of this comes from a simple dream of a retired teacher meeting an abused child during a church-hosted party for foster children. There's so much fertile ground for my books. All the Cherry Hill stories come from that dream. When Laura Grace met Samantha in that dream, I found a town full of hidden stories. Stories that had been hidden for various reasons.

Laura Grace tries to hide how much pain she has lived due to grief for her husband and childlessness. Samantha hides from a life of abuse. To feel would be beyond painful, but to hide means the wound isn't open and subject to further damage. But it isn't open to healing either.

Rosemary hides abuse because if she admits it's happening, she will have to say that the appearance of domestic bliss is all a lie. If she can hide the pain behind the perfect family facade, she thinks she will be able to control it. Her son Dean hides his abuse because to show fear invites a heavier load of it from his father and older brothers.

Mack hides long ago abuse among the memories of combat and his grief for Sandra. It's another pain that can't heal until opened to sunshine and new love.

I could go on with several more of my characters' hidden hurts.

What about you? Have dreams influenced your stories?
Do your characters have a few dreams or nightmares that need exploring?

History of the English Language...In Ten Minutes

I love language. I think all writers do. And I can just imagine the use English teachers can make of this. My sister, the English teacher, said it made her want to be back in the classroom for about two minutes.

And no, I'm not kidding. The following video does exactly that--it gives the history of the English language in an easy to understand, humorous fashion--and all in about ten minutes.

So, without any further ado, enjoy! ; )

chubby, plump, pudgy, tubby

What's the difference?

I've been working on the question of connotation since I described a person as "pudgy" and John vehemently disagreed. That started a discussion of the connotation of adjectives that equal fat. With my mother and several other people the list grew into the four adjectives in the title: chubby, plump, pudgy, tubby.

All of these are defined as "having excess body fat" in my thesaurus and readers are directed to to entry on fat. In my AMERICAN HERITAGE dictionary these words are used to define each other. Now my question is: Do you assign different amounts of excess body fat to these words? Is chubby cute? I.e. a chubby-checked baby, or plump pleasing as we say so often? It's all in your perception of the words...and your self-image if you're describing yourself. (Note to self--pleasingly plump sounds so much better than pudgy.)

All this matters when we describe characters for our readers. How do you decide which word to use? How do writers decide between two close words? We do it all the time and it does matter. Check out Your Brain on Fiction from THE NEW YORK TIMES. Our brains actually react to different words in different ways.

I posed this question to the writers on the Forum in a thread titled chubby, plump, pudgy, tubby and got a rollicking discussion of adjectives for overweight. Some of the words included were:


portly, stout, husky, zoftig, thick, barrel-chested, porcine, corpulent, thickset, heavyset, doughy, fleshly, thick-waisted, Rubenesque, cuddly, chunky

What was really interesting in the discussion was the age and gender assignments that went with the various adjectives.

So, how do you decide which adjective to use? Do you take connotation into consideration?

Lightning

"God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed."

~~Mark Twain

~~If you're as amazed by that quote as I am, you are looking at it and wondering just when on earth do you use adjectives? And adverbs for that matter. We've all heard the writing rule to cut adjectives and adverbs and "use stronger verbs and concise nouns." So I have a question for you--where do you get those stronger verbs and concise nouns? Is there a nifty little list we can consult or is it trial and error, learning by doing?

~~I'm a bit tongue in cheek, but sometimes I do find it hard to find the right word that makes the sentence say what I need it to say and cut to the bone of the topic at hand. Of course, Mark Twain has a quote for that, too.

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."

~~So happy hunting, my fellow word sleuths. ; )



Inkheart--The Storyteller's Art

~~In honor of all the A to Z bloggers, today's letter is I. Even if I don't have the stamina to post for every letter of the alphabet, I can make sure my posts are the correct letter of the day. ; )

~~Have you ever read a story that came alive as you read it. The characters are real. They live and breathe. They speak directly to you. It's magic. It's the storyteller's art. I've read many great books and seen many great stories made into movies over the years, but last week I saw a movie that hinged on this very idea. The movie was Inkheart based on a book by Cornelia Funke. The movie came out in 2008, but neither of us had heard of it until we found it in our Netflix suggested movie list. And we're glad we tried it. Of course, John had to endure my endless comments of the magic of writing stories as we watched.

~~Mo "Silvertongue" Folchart is a bookbinder with a secret talent. When he reads a story out loud, the characters become alive and some cross over into his world. Unfortunately, his wife crosses into the world of the book he is reading, Inkheart. His art as a storyteller creates a problem he has to fix, but he can't find a copy of the book. His quest leads to the action. I won't give you the entire synopsis. For more check HERE.

~~What I want to discuss is the art that storytellers use when the story steps off the page. The reader becomes lost in a new world. They can't stop reading. They have to know what happens next. The creation of such a story is beyond amazing. It's magic. And don't we all want to be able to do exactly that when we write? ; )

Where To Begin

~~Writers are told to begin their stories with a hook or in media res (Latin for “in the middle of things”). I’ve read that we should write our novels and then cut off the first four chapters. This is attributed to Chekov, but I haven’t been able to find the reference. If all this advice is giving you an attack of nerves, I’m with you.


~~There’s something to it though. I recently read a novel by a best-selling author and I was stunned to realize that the story didn’t really begin until a quarter of the way in. Everything before that was backstory that should have been sprinkled in like salt. I almost put the book down. Almost. But I couldn’t quite do it. The story was good and the characters intriguing…and I’m a bit obsessive. ; ) Why would the author of over sixty titles make this mistake? I imagine she thought we needed all of the backstory to fully appreciate the plot.

~~Two different sources finally made the advice hit home for me. One is an article by Victoria Mixon on “Four Mistakes of Fiction Writers” and number two addresses just this issue—“Misplaced Backstory.” Here’s a bit of Victoria’s advice:

Unfortunately, we don’t read in a chronological world. We read for excitement. We read for the thrill of our blood pressure being inflated, soothed, then inflated again. We read for the roller coaster ride. (emphasis—Victoria Mixon)

Check this LINK for the full article.

The other great advice comes from Beth at the Forum. She has a great blog post that describe gangplanks, doors, and bridges. Gangplanks are for writers to help them get into the scene and they should be ditched later. Doors are for readers and bridges are to let readers make transitions between scenes. Check out Beth’s entire post at this LINK.

~~All this thinking about where to begin has made me reassess the starts of two of my works-in-progress. FRIENDLY FIRE begins when Laura Grace first sees Samantha, an abused foster child and that’s the right place because it puts into motion everything else in the plot. If I’d begun a year earlier at the funeral of Laura Grace’s husband, Tom, I would have spent pages telling you about her slide into depression, day by day, and you’d rightfully put the book down, bored to tears.

~~THE DAWN AND THE LION, my SciFi work-in-progress, is another story altogether. The many handwritten pages I have squirreled away on this story are largely backstory, and I’ve got to cut them severely to make the beginning hook you into the story. I will use all the info I’ve learned, but as sparing detail to flesh out main character Canda as she negotiates Patria with its very different culture and mores. Susan Edwards, one of my writing buddies, has always said I started THE DAWN AND THE LION in the wrong place. You know what, Susan, you’re absolutely right! It took me reading a book by someone else to really internalize the advice.

~~So here’s to finding the right place to begin. May you all find it easily. But, then, when was writing ever easy. Enjoy the hunt!

Helping Momma Write

~~Do you have little helpers when you write? I do. I have two poodle helpers who constantly have to find a way to wiggle their way into the job. I'll be honest, typing is a lot harder when a puppy tongue is licking your thumbs. ; ) Or two puppy feet are propped on your lap and the little head nudges your elbow. That's what happens around here.

~~After realizing they can't make Momma stop working, Casey and Max take up new positions. Casey becomes the guardian of the study and Max sits politely and watches me type. Here's two photos to show the action. I was unaware John was taking the computer one. Max wasn't. ; ) John said it was really cute when Max was reading with me.

~~If you have little helpers, I hope they are as sweet as mine are--at least most of the time.

Done!

~~Well, it's as done as a rough draft can be. I finished A Christmas Walk's rough draft and now I'm planning to start the rest of the process. As many of you know, editing, formatting, and getting a manuscript ready for printing is a much longer process than writing the rough draft. In fact, this rough draft is a record. I've written it in about four months! I'm amazed and thrilled that it is done. Now on to the tough job. ; )
~~I'm going on the record of when the rest of the job will be done. In April, I'll do the first rough edit and type it in. Yes, I'm a long hand composer. If that is complete by May, I'll let my husband John and Susan Edwards at it. June is scheduled for two more of my close readers. In July, I plan to finish the ticky formatting stuff and in August, if all is going well, we print.
~~So wish me luck and fast fingers. ; )