Emotional Stages of Writing a Novel

~~If you haven't figured it out by now, I'll let you in on a little secret...
I'm bogged down at the moment. Too much to do and too little energy make me very bad at connecting with all the lovely writers in the Campaign. I really planned to get to at all my groups at least once a week. I'm not doing so well at that. So, I'll give you a lovely little clip to watch--The Emotional Stages of Writing a Novel. Enjoy! ; )

Decisions--First Campaign Challenge

~~The first Platform Challenge is here! And it's a challenge and a half. The instrustions are:

Write a short story/flash fiction story in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, including a poem. Begin the story with the words, “The door swung open” These four words will be included in the word count.

If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), use the same beginning words and end with the words: "the door swung shut." (also included in the word count)

For those who want an even greater challenge, make your story 200 words EXACTLY!
 Check out Rach Writes for links to other Campaigners' stories.

~~Here's my challenge story--Decisions--and it's EXACTLY 200 words. ; )

Decisions

            The door swung open.

            Lights. Sirens. Screams.

            “Oh My God!”

            “Is he dead?”

            “He just slammed into that tree!”

            A man’s face forced him to focus. “Buddy, we’ll get you out. Hang on.”

            Whump. Whump. Whump.

            “LifeFlight’s here.”

            “Good. Okay, buddy, we’ll get you out of here. Hang on.”

            Then everything faded out.

#

            “Paul. Paul. Do you hear me?”

            Beep, beep, beep.

            Pressure squeezed his arm and then released with a whoosh.

            His mouth was dry, clotted. “Uh?”

            A tall woman in green scrubs leaned over him and smiled. “Hi, Paul. Good to see you awake. It’s going to take a while, but you’ll get better. You’ll see.”

#

            Weeks. It took weeks, but he finally pieced it together. He’d been drinking, but he wasn’t more than buzzed when Harm had texted him about the card game. Yes. A card game. In a flash, he’d decided to go. Then hit a tree.

            Now it was all over. He’d hit a plateau in his healing, and he’d be stuck with that decision for the rest of his life. Traumatic Brain Injury.

            Any decision he’d make in the future got up and walked out of the door.

            The door swung shut.

P.S. I'm linky 118 at Rach Writes

Roadblocks and Detours

AKA: Plot twists wrecked by reality

~~Have you found that one of your long-planned (and fully drafted) plot twists just can't be? Of course, this is a question for those of us who write reality-based stories i.e. contemporary or historical vs. fantasy and SF. I think the last two genre allow, for more creative license.

~~That's what's happened to me recently. You'd think I'd be wailing and gnashing my teeth or, at least, tearing up, but I'm not. Really. I'm quite happy with this turn of events. I think that somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew the plot point that developed from this newly abandoned twist just couldn't happen that way. And now I know why.

~~What caused this outbreak of reality and the new, truth-based twist I'm now planning? Through a quirk of coincidence, I've been introduced to a current Department of Family and Children Services caseworker. She was thrilled to let me interview her and her reality-based information has created my shift in plot. Let's just say, I'm happy, excited, and plotting up a storm.

~~How to you handle this sort of plot upheaval? Tears or gratitude?

Terra Incognita

~~I know I've haven't been around much lately, but I promise I've been writing and I now find myself in a new place, one I've never experienced in my writing before. It's a whole new world and I'm still trying to get my feet under me and find myself on the map. Like the mariners of old, I'm wondering what sort of monsters I'll find and where the edges are.

~~I don't really write from an outline, but I do have a list of possible scenes in rough chronological order for my current work-in-progress, FRIENDLY FIRE. I write where ever the mood of the day strikes, or as Diana Gabaldon describes it, what I can see. In the last few weeks, though, I've been able to complete the first page of my scene list. Since I have the last page of the outline done already, that leaves me with the middle page, much of which I've never been able to see well enough to even take rough notes. Terra Incognita indeed! I'm feeling my way into the big middle of the plot and so far, so good. I have a plan for how to show the good and the bad that knits the start of the story to the end. Keep your fingers crossed.

~~Here's to opportunities you might be interested in:

• If you'd be interested in submitting a story to Good Old-Fashioned E-Publishing Company's "Plot Beasties" anthology, go HERE for more info. I'm happy to say that my submission, "Of Books and Bunnies," is in the editing stage with editor/publisher Ron Wodaski.
• Rachael Harrie has launched her Third Writers' Platform Building Campaign HERE. The second campaign was a hoot and a big boost for my blog, so come and join us. You have to sign up before August 31. 

~~I'll be here more often, I promise. Keep cool in the Shade.

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. ; )



Farewell, Darling Scenes!

~~There come a time when you have to admit defeat; when  scene you've slaved over and cried about, refuses to get in line and march properly into its place in your plot. It's always a scene that you think is an absolute necessity to bolster your theme, define your character, or reveal some deep, dark secret. And yet, it refuses to open its heart and sing. I've been working on two such scenes since February. If I'm honest, I'll admit that these two scenes have tortured me for over two years.

~~It took a great post on Letting Go by Jen at All the World's Our Page to to make me wake up the the truth. So join with me in saying a fond farewell to "South Pacific" and "Samantha's Essay." I've mined the key discoveries and found more natural places for them. In fact, on my reread this morning of the newly reconstituted "Cherry Beach" scene, I was amazed that I'd not seen this before now. I've learned my lesson. When the next thorny scene refuses to be beaten into submission, I won't be as slow to cut the little darling and re-imagine the whole thing. I know my WIP will be better for the lesson.

~~What about you? Do you have some scenes that won't behave? What do you do with them--cut or keep plugging along until they submit?

~~Happy writing! ; )

Sweet, Cute, and Productive

~~In the last two weeks, I've been very occupied with the Mall at the End of Time House Party at the Book and Writers Forum. I thought you needed an update.

• I've written 14,000 words
• Learned who Alex Singer is (more on that in a bit)
• Gotten way behind on my awards (see below)
• And submitted "Tea With My Inner Editor" to a magazine. Keep your fingers crossed.

~~Now for the full report of Alex Singer. I'll add a bit I posted on the HP denouement thread:

 When we started two weeks ago, I knew that Alex Singer was the son of Mack Singer and Sandra Roberts, that she never told Mack about Alex, that he showed up in Mack's life shortly after he marries Laura Grace, and then deploys to Afghanistan. I knew he would have TBI and come to live with my Cherry Hill family with all the problems of integrating a new family member with disabilities. I'd written no scenes with Alex in them. Now I know who he is, how he will respond to the care and love of his family, how hard it will be to accept his condition and learn to live again. Not to mention that he will learn to love as well. With all the revelations I've learned, I can mine how Alex will learn to accept love, give love, heal, and realize he is still the young man who was willing to die for his country.

~~Seriously Cute Blogger and Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award

Thanks to Deniz, one of my House Party buddies, I have two new awards.

Seriously Cute--I need to list five books/ TV programs/ films I've experienced in the last twelve months. Are you kidding? Only five? I thought I'd do five authors instead:

~~Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy
~~Lois McMaster Bujold's Challion trilogy
~~Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire series (13 books)
~~Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants
~~Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees

There are others, but I'll stop at five.

Irresistibly Sweet--I need to list seven random facts

1. Max has started barking at the rotating photos I use for my screen saver--especially when one of him and Casey pops up.
2. When my momma, sister, and I went on a long ride together in June, we discussed our old boyfriends. Really. It was fun, too.
3. We put our huge Norfolk Island Pine on the deck for the summer. It's secretly a transformer. When wet, it's conical shaped and when dry, its cantilevered limbs lift again.
4. I've picked up four new followers lately. Thank you!
5. I'm about 60% done with the rough draft of FRIENDLY FIRE. ; )
6. It's too hot! We've had 24 days of 90+ degrees in June. July is following in line with the possibility of triple digits next week.
7. My husband has washed and waxed both the car and truck in the last two days.

There was a tag somewhere in the last month and I can't remember who tagged me. Nor can I remember the 7 funny questions except for the "Are you hot?" I think #6 answers that one.

~~Now  to pass on these awards:
Here's the people who have commented on my last blog post:

Mary Mary
JillyBean
Another Author
Madeline Bartos
And the lovely Charlotte Rains Dixon who I owe for "Tea With My Inner Editor"

Have a great day, everyone! ; )

The Mall at the End of Time--Play With a Purpose

~~I know you think I've fallen off the end of the Earth, but I've been busy. Really! I've been writing a lot just not here in the Shade. My buddies at the Books and Writers Forum have gotten a new House Party off the ground and I'm participating. I can think of no better place to practice writing. The members are great critique partners and we love each other's work. A house party is a specific setting created by one of the members so that multiple writers can bring characters from their works in progress. We create long, involved story lines that can sometimes cross over and have characters in more than one place. 

~~Our current setting is The Mall at the End of Time, created by Ron Wadaski. Go HERE for the warm up party. Warning: We are talking Armageddon consequences that must be foiled by a combination of characters including mine, Alex Singer. In warm ups we let anything hit the fan in order to get our fingers, brains, and words going. This time is no exception.

~~Since Friday, July 1, we have shifted into the official party--HERE. Our theme is Warriors and Lovers with an underpinning of fear. Believe me, every character has something to fear.

~~I've written 10,000 words in the warm up and I've already written 780 in the official House Party. Who knows where I'll end up. All I know is that I will know who Alexander Singer is when I'm done. When I need him in LINE OF FIRE, Cherry Hill Book 2, I'll be ready. ; )