IWSG & Emotional Sparks

The Insecure Writer's Support Group is the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. He, his clones, minions, friends, and fellow authors make it an amazing event every month.

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! 

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July 5 question - 99% of my story ideas come from dreams. Where do yours predominantly come from?

Yikes! If I wrote from my dreams, I'd be writing horror or psychological thrillers and I'd probably never sleep again! #wimp

I don't really know...

My head is always popping with ideas, one of the advantages of having a bouncy brain. I think most of my story ideas start with an emotion. Usually, it's an emotion from the crisis scene (betrayal, fear, despair, panic...) although sometimes it's the opening scene where everything changes for the character.

The emotion comes attached to a character and then I know WHY they're feeling that emotion. Then I suddenly have backstory attached to the character.

My subconscious does a whole lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to story ideas - especially when the new character has been a secondary character in one or more stories.

For Built Of Second Chances (which just released last week!), the spark of the story was the feeling of total panic when a person who's been in witness protection for years meets up with someone who can put her at risk. But that person is someone she's always loved.

That was followed immediately by the emotion of the man who meets up with the woman he thought was dead. His emotion spark was betrayal and anger...with a bit of reluctant love tossed in.

My current WIP started with the emotion of a person grieving the death of her father and the terror of realizing his killer is after her too.

Those emotional sparks give me backstories to think about for a while and then my characters are ready to meet each other and I get to find out how they figure it all out.

How about you? Do your story ideas start with emotions, characters, settings, or plots? or something else? If you're a reader, what do you think was the spark for the author of the last great book you read?

IWSG & Pants & Family, Oh My!

 The Insecure Writer's Support Group is the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. He, his clones, minions, friends, and fellow authors make it an amazing event every month.

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! 

August 4 question - What is your favorite writing craft book? Think of a book that every time you read it you learn something or you are inspired to write or try the new technique. And why?

My favourite craft book is Take Off Your Pants!! by Libbie Hawker (scroll right to the bottom of her page for links).

I'm NOT a natural plotter. I was the kid who had to write the essay first and then make the outline that you had to hand in before you were supposed to start writing the essay.

As a teacher, I've always planned units backwards - start with the assessment piece at the end and work back to figure out how to get everyone there.

Most plotting books hurt my brain and inhibit my process. They also make me feel like a twit because I simply can't do it no matter how hard I try.

Libbie's book talks about starting with the character and his/her personality and flaws. Then you build a path based on that. It's not written for romance authors, but I simply think about two people, two paths, and how they can twine together.

Notice I said think, not write. I do create charts for the steps of the plot points along the path for each character but I haven't completed one of these charts yet. Getting better though!

I don't follow Libbie's entire process but it makes sense to my brain and has helped me organize my stories in my head so that I'm not dealing with a bazillion revision rounds trying to make the plot make sense.

Honorary mention to ALL the Thesauruses (Thesauri??) written by Angela & Becca. They are amazing!

How about you? Are you a backwards planner as well? Plotter or pantser or somewhere in between? Thesauruses or Thesauri?

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In other news, Reaching For Family (Bloo Moose Romance #8) releases on August 10th! That's next Tuesday!

Jenna Wilkes grew up knowing that animals were the only source of unconditional love. As Bloo Moose’s vet, she’s determined to make sure all of her patients find a loving home.

Noah Washington may not have been able to save the farm his adoptive parents owned, but now he’s got it back. Instead of taking out the bad guys as a Ranger, he’s trying not to sever his fingers while shearing his herd.

When the land surrounding her barn is suddenly filled with nosy alpacas and a wary man with shadows in his sexy eyes, Jenna realizes she wants to heal him as well. But when accidents start to happen she wonders if he only wants her gone.

When the threats escalate, they’ll need to rely on each other if they’re ever to learn what family feels like.

When family isn't safe, you need to make your own.

Preorder today to make sure Reaching For Family pops onto your e-reader as soon as it's available!

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IWSG & Marinating Stories

The Insecure Writer's Support Group is the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. He, his clones, minions, friends, and fellow authors make it an amazing event every month.

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! 

June 2 question - For how long do you shelve your first draft, before reading it and re-drafting? Is this dependent on your writing experience and the number of stories/books under your belt?

I NEED some time away from my draft. It has to marinate for a good while (about a month) before I set eyes on it again.

I have a bouncy brain that is often working on (worrying about) multiple stories at a time, so this is pretty easy to do.

At the moment, I have:

• Bloo Moose #8 - awaiting final polish
• New series #1 - awaiting a rewrite after a critique on draft 1
• New series #2 - first draft about 1/2 complete
• Bloo Moose #9 - making planning notes in Scrivener on plot & characters

Of course, there are also main characters for Bloo Moose #10 and New Series #3 & 4 who are walking around in my head letting me know who they are and what their stories will be about. That doesn't count Future Series characters knocking on my skull.

An author's head is never lonely!!!

So, with my Tigger Brain, I focus on one story's needs at a time. Then while that sits and waits for the next step, I do the next round of work on the next story. That gives me the 3 or 4 weeks I need away from the first story to see it with clearer eyes.

So far, my pattern has been pretty consistent - basically 3 or 4 stories in various stages at a time.

How about you? Do you have a Tigger Brain? Or, does you brain let you focus on one story from start to finish (I can't even imagine how that works!)? Anyone else have a head chock full of characters?

Reaching For Family is up for preorder at most retailers.

Google Play & Eden Books will be up soon!

Jenna learned early that family wasn’t safe. As Bloo Moose’s vet, she’s determined to find her patients loving homes even if she knows the same isn’t possible for her.
 
Noah Washington promised his adoptive parents he’d save their farm and now he’s bought almost all of it back. Only one acre to go but it belongs to a woman who makes his owned guarded heart seem vulnerable.
 
After a decade as an Army Ranger, Noah’s alpaca are supposed to ensure him of a peaceful life but someone is targeting them. Or Jenna. Or him.
 
As the danger escalates, Jenna and Noah build a wary trust, but they’ll need to learn the true meaning of family if they want the farm—and themselves—to survive.

Why I Love Scrivener - Plotting

I'm been asked multiple times about Scrivener and why it works for me, so I thought I'd put together a few posts. Hopefully, they're helpful!

Here are the previous posts:

The Basics (organizational basics)

Double Vision (double writing pane)

I don't use the whole range of tools in Scrivener but I've found that MANY of the features really work for my brain. This program has saved my sanity and my stories on many occasions.

When I first started writing, I was a total Pantser (writing by the seat of my pants). I knew the genre I was writing, but that was about it when I started. As you can imagine, this created a need for a LOT of revising and editing. Over time, I decided to learn to plot.

However, most plot books didn't make a lot of sense to my brain. Enter Libbie Hawker's Take Off Your Pants book. Now I have a much better sense of story before I start. I don't feel overwhelmed by the amount of plotting I do and it doesn't suck the joy out of the actual writing for me (which happened with other styles of plotting).

Of course, everyone has to find their own way to plot or not to plot.

When using Scrivener, I always have a folder for Paths. Which is how I think of plotting thanks to Libbie. Each character has their own Path and then I have to combine their paths.

In the screenshot, you'll see the top part of a chart I've created using Libbie's book. It gives me the basics for the character's path. I do one for each character (I have 2 MCs as I write romance with dual pov). Then I need to combine these two paths into one story. And that's where the right-hand side of the screenshot comes in. It bears the fancy title of "Things that need to happen."

I don't have a step-by-step outline. Rather, I have the two paths and the chart of what happens in what order.

Because Scrivener allows that wonderful double writing-space option, I can have either of the Paths or the Combined Path on the screen at the same time as I'm drafting. This helps keep me on track and reminds me where I'm going.

No matter what style of outlining or plotting you do I think you can use Scrivener's double workspace option to your advantage.

How about you? Do you like having your outline visible as you're writing? Anyone else use Take Off Your Pants? Any tips to share?

Take Off Your Pants!

As many of you know, I do NOT have the brain of a plotter! I've never started writing a story with more than a few scenes in mind. I generally know the ending, the beginning, the backstories of the 2 MCs and maybe another scene. Because I know I'm working toward a happy ending, I have the end goal in sight and off I go.

There are several BIG problems with working this way, but the biggest is that editing takes forever and I never have much an overall game plan to guide me. I need more.

Recently, someone pointed me to Take Off Your Pants: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker.

As the title implies, it's a plotting books for people who don't plot. It's making sense (mostly) to my brain! YAY!

Some of it is a little too visual for a kinaesthetic learner like me (inverted triangles, I'm looking at you!), but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I've followed the book through for an older story I knew wasn't working It didn't take long for me to realize the big issue in the story and it's helping me work out a way to solve it while keeping true to the story itself (which I love).

For the first time, I have some hope that I may be able to tighten up the pacing in my stories without driving myself completely crazy.

How about you? What resources do you use for plotting & outlining? Or, do you?

Keep Calm & Scrivener On!

So, I'm reading through my NaNo draft and finding lots to like...and more than a few things that just don't work. Pretty normal for a 1st draft, I'd say.

I've now realized I've got to switch the order of 2 of the Major Events. This will entail millions (or so it seems) of ripple effect changes throughout the entire story. More or less a complete rewrite while keeping the essence of the story.

Slightly terrifying! Exciting too.

If you've used Scrivener, you know that you can make notes on each file (scenes for me) and notes for the entire document. I use that one to keep track of the Big Idea Changes I need to make -- things like making one character more evasive, make the other crankier, keep the sexual tension up, add description etc.

I also keep a couple of folders that aren't part of the ms. Inside my Outlines folder, I have my rather pathetic attempts to plot. One is a (far too brief) synopsis, another has a chart outlining proposed chapters, another has a bullet list for main ideas of each chapter, and so on. Because I might actually be the world's worst plotter, there are far too many files and I'm about to add at least one more with my newest ideas for rearranging the plot lines. Hoping to find a method that really works for me soon,

Another folder is my To Do Folder with Things to Add, Big Ideas, & Fix This!

Depending on my mood and need, I can keep one of these files open alongside my current chapter. Or I can keep my current chapter in one window and the new version in the other. GREAT way to use the good bits and eliminate the garbage.

Then, I can easily slip the scenes around the MS with a few drags of the mouse. For me, it makes the rewriting process a lot less daunting and the mountain I've got to climb doesn't seem as steep.

Are you a Scrivener fan? Any tips to share? How do you feel about those major rewrites? Any magic wands to turn me into a Plotter Extraordinaire?

Seasonal Writing & Goal Setting

As a teacher, I'm lucky enough to have 8 weeks off in the summer. For this summer, I set some goals with respect to writing.

Novel 1 in Series 1

• Revise about a dozen scenes that felt off
• Revise to eliminate 10 - 15k
• Polish & edit
• Send off to crit buddies

Novel 2 in Series 1

• Revise to increase the tension - move a major revelation up from the 3/4 point of the novel to the first chapter (this involved a total rewrite after that point)
• Change/tweak two aspects of the female MC's character
• Read through the rewrite and make any needed improvements
• Polish & edit
• Send off to crit buddies

Novel 1 in Series 2

• Rewrite completely
• Make a major alteration to MC's character
• Make a major change to the antagonist
• Incorporate a future main MC into the story in a minor role
• Attempt to plot without having my brain explode

Start working on a website

• figure out how this all works
• get the basics in place

I'm thrilled to say I made most of my goals. The first 2 stories got through their rewrites. The 3rd one did as well, but it ended up being more of a bare bones story and I need to go in and flesh it out a bit. I've never done this before, but it's surprisingly fun and I'm about halfway through. Aiming to add another 5-10k and it'll be done and ready for a re-read too. I'm much happier with it now.

Unfortunately, my writing time will greatly diminish now that the school year has started, but I'm hoping my momentum will help me keep moving at a decent pace!

How about you? Are you a seasonal writer as well? Which time of year is your most productive?

Painful Plotting

I'm over at From the Write Angle today talking about Plotting. As I'm not a plotter, this should be interesting!

I'm attempting to plot out a rewrite. I love the story and the characters, but there are huge issues with the story - mainly lack of tension between the 2 MCs. It's a contemporary romance so (d'uh!) I need tension. They're both too sweet and nice and get along and... yeah, no tension. There's lots of external stuff to keep it going, but it's not enough. Not nearly.

Hence the need to plot! Hope you'll pop on over and join the discussion - I could use some suggestions!

Sideways Solutions!

I was stumbling along with my ultra-fun NaNo project, when I came to one of those bumps that trip you up when you least expect it. An unexpected death in my ms caused my half-baked, sort-of-kind-of plan to go sideways.

All normal in the course of my writing, but still unexpected. Especially during NaNo when I don't want to spend a lot of time figuring out what to do next. So, what did I do?

I asked my daughter to create a device for steampunk England that someone would kill to own. "Steampunk? Huh?" was her first response. However within about 3 minutes, she had the perfect device for me!

After a few very hectic back-and-forth minutes of discussion, not only do I have the next step in the story, but I have a pretty good idea of how the ending might turn out. At least until the next sideways turn. :)

So, what do you do when you hit a wall -- when the unexpected stops you short and changes your plans? Do you step sideways or plow right on through?

(On another note, a huge THANK YOU to WM Morrell (aka Quillfeather). She awarded me the Honest Scrap Blogger Award. Notice the great picture to the right of the blog. I've just posted my info for the Kreative Blogger award, so I won't torture you again. Well maybe a little :) I'll bet you didn't know I used to play the clarinet and I can probably give you more details than you ever want to know about hockey!! Thanks QF for the award. Check out her blog for some awesome stuff from my New Zealand buddy - http://quillfeather-blog.blogspot.com/)

Star Trek & Agatha Christie?

"The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes." - Agatha Christie

Don't you just love Agatha Christie? She's one of my all-time favourite authors. I also love this quote of hers. I have such a hard time imagining dear Dame Agatha doing dishes!

It got me to thinking about where I plot my books. I've never had an easy time falling asleep. Even as a kid, there were too many things running through my head for sleep to come easily.

And then I encountered Star Trek (the original series) in one of its rerun seasons. I started plotting out new stories as I waited for sleep to arrive. The series struck a deep chord within me - all of those thinly-veiled morality tales filled with excitement, new species and adventure. For years I plotted out new stories before bed. Never wrote one of them down, but lived through them night after night instead.

Now, I plot out my novels before I sleep. I watch the characters play out a variety of scenes, test out the emotional impact of their words and actions, watch them to see which scenes need to get written down and which need to stay in almost-dreamland.

Where do you plot out your writing? Do you have a set time or place that sends you directly into that creative mode?