The Way We Write

WRITING WEDNESDAY

A friend recently shared a link to an interesting and thoughtful blog post.  Most romance readers and writers are familiar with the author of the post, but no matter who wrote it, Rocki St. Claire's words are important for writers to read and think about for several reasons.

Each of us has our own, unique way of writing.  While some of us rewrite and revise as we go along, at the other end of the spectrum are the writers who write straight through, from beginning to end, then go back for the rewriting and revisions.  Both ways work for the writers who use them.  Both ways get the job done.

After years of doing what works best, along comes a bump in the road.  Perhaps a writer is getting mired in making changes, to the detriment of the story progressing to the next level.  The writer is stymied by writing and rewriting the same scenes and passages.  Or it might be that the quick draft story the writer thought was solid may have taken too many twists and turns, causing revisions and rewriting to take too much time or be too confusing.  We often think we're fine with "the best way," until something happens to bring us to writing at the speed of a limping turtle, or worse, coming to a grinding halt.

When it's time to take stock of the way we write, opening ourselves up to new ways and ideas for putting words on paper screen is a great place to start.  The change doesn't have to be drastic.  If you normally plow through a story without stopping, try going back through each scene and making small changes before moving on to the next.  If you rework as you go, try writing a full chapter before going back over it, or wait three days. Whatever you do that's different, give it some time.  Our brains need time to adjust to new styles of doing things.  If, after a reasonable time, you find the change isn't working, you can tweak it or go back to your original way of doing it.  I'd lay odds that you find at least one small change that helped, if only a little.

I started out as a first draft writer, going back when the story is finished to revise and rewrite.  But the more I write, the more I make adjustments to my method.  While I still write from beginning to end, I'll often begin my daily writing time with a quick read-through of the day before's work.  It's a chance to catch misspelled and missing or duplicate words, and I also might (or might not) fix confusing sentences.  When I find a major mistake, I make a note of it on a sticky note or in a scene notes file I've created to keep everything in one place.  When it's time to go back to revise and rework, all I have to do is look at my notes to know where the problem is or the change needs to be.  This can work especially well for timelines and details.

New ideas often spring from fresh perspectives, prompted by different ways of doing things.  If writing has lost its sparkle for you, if putting words on paper has become stale, it may be time to try a new way of working, whether through small changes or large.  Many of us find that adjustments in the way we write can make the work a little easier and especially more enjoyable.  And that's really what we're hoping to gain.

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. - Andre Gide

The Problem with 3 Day Weekends

If you look closely at the photo on the left, you might notice something.

Do you see it?

Is something missing?

See it now?

The hammock is empty.

That's what 3-day holiday weekends are like for me.

Ah, you're shaking your head.  You don't understand.  I'll explain.  :)

Because of obligations and goals and deadlines, weekends for me--the normal 2-day kind--are much like my weekdays.  I work.  Whether it's websites or writing--or even cleaning and laundry (gasp!)--I'm usually busy and tend to get more work done, thanks to the absence of 10 not so little feet running through the house.  Even TV is more often than not a luxury on weekends.  Work has to come first.  It pays the bills.  So when a 3-day weekend comes along, it offers the chance to catch up on deadlines and goals.

This Memorial Day weekend was true to form...until yesterday.  By some miracle, I reached a goal I'd set earlier in the week by finishing the rough draft of a 3-chapter proposal.  And I did it by Sunday night. (double gasp!) I was even able to enjoy watching the next to last episode of Game of Thrones without worrying that an hour of TV would take up time I couldn't spare.  As far as the writing went, I knew where I was going, how I was going to get there, and I did it.  Believe me when I say it was a miracle.  That meant that yesterday my youngest daughter and I were able to get in a little shopping without having to hurry, and I even managed to get laundry done by 10 p.m..  Another miracle!

It may be Tuesday today, but to me it's Motivation Monday, and I should be working.  Let's face it.  I'm just not feeling all that motivated.  Even knowing there's still a synopsis waiting to be written--after I've done a little plotting that must be done first--and a final polish of those chapters, I don't feel like working.  Oh, and then there's a new deadline for some revisions on A Nanny for the Cowboy.  But I can't seem to get myself to move in that direction.  Unfortunately, these things don't write themselves.  Nor do words fly from our fingers to the paper computer screen of their own free will.

Instead of fighting it and making myself do the deed--start plotting, start writing, start whatever--I'm going to leave it for later and pretend I'm in that swing on the beach, with the soothing sounds of the ocean waves lulling me to sleep and, to borrow from Will Shakespeare, perchance to dream.

“Today, just take time to smell the roses, enjoy those little things about your life, your family, spouse, friends, job. Forget about the thorns -the pains and problems they cause you - and enjoy life” ― Bernard Kelvin Clive, Your Dreams Will Not Die

Just Breathe

MOTIVATION MONDAY

Yesterday I attended the monthly meeting of my local writers group and was reminded once again that setting goals can be tricky.  Don't get me wrong, the actually setting of a goal, the I'm-going-to-do-this can be fairly easy.  But settling goals without giving thought to how they'll be reached can and often does spell failure, if not disaster.

At the end of last year, as a motivational tool, I suggested to our group that we try something similar to NaNoWriMo, but over a longer period of time.  It was agreed that we give it a try, and the WARA Word Count Challenge was born.

We each set and declared a word count goal for the year, and each month we report how many words we've written.  It sounds easy enough, doesn't it?  And that's where the problem lies. It happens more often than not for a lot of people.  At the beginning of a fresh, new year or at a time of desired change or need, when we're feeling positive and invigorated (or desperate!) to make some substantial progress.  We forget that there will be times when our attention and time must be elsewhere, instead of on our goals.  Family, jobs, even weather can cause us to put our goals aside.  It's life.  It happens.  Priorities shift and change.  And sometimes we just decide that we don't really care about that goal, after all.

What can be done when we fall behind on our goal?  What happens at the OOPS!! moment, when we realize it's going to be a struggle to even come close to reaching our goal?  Is it quitting time?  Not necessarily.  The best course would be to stop and give your goal an honest re-evaluation.  Ask yourself a few questions:

• Why am I behind on reaching my goal?  Are those reasons within my control or something I have no control over?
• Is my goal still important to me?  Has something occurred that takes precedent over this goal?
• Are there changes I can make to help me reach the goal?  Can adjustments be made or do I need to rethink the entire goal?  Is it still what I want?
• Have I over-challenged myself?  Did I forget to factor in the curves that life often throws when I set my goal?

Not all goals can be saved.  When that happens, don't beat yourself up.  If you answered the first question above, you've learned something for the next time you set a goal.  One of the biggest mistakes people make when setting goals is to set them too high, making them unattainable and doomed to failure.  If you find that this happens far to often for you, remind yourself of a few things before setting the next goal:

1. Set clear and reachable goals.  Always take your lifestyle and commitments to others into account when setting your goal, especially if you have a time period in which you want to reach that goal.  One of the biggest mistakes new writers make is to set a goal of getting a book published within a specific period of time.  That goal is doomed to fail.  Why?  Because we have no control over what editor buys what book and when.
2. Set small goals that lead you to a larger goal.  Instead of that goal of getting a book published, set goals that are steps leading to the chance of that happening.  If smaller steps are used, it's much easier to adjust your plan, when something comes along to throw a monkey wrench into your plan.
3. Build in extra time.  Life really does get in the way of our plans.  It's a fact that we can't change, even if we moved to a cave and never spoke to another soul.  There's always that chance that the cave could, well, cave.  Give yourself some breathing room.  You'll be glad you did.
4. Make a backup plan.  If for any reason you discover you're not going to be able to reach your goal, instead of beating yourself up and setting yourself up for a bout of depression, create a backup plan when you set your goal and use it.  You might be surprised to find that this is what may eventually get you to where you need to be.

After turning in 12 books on time, last week I turned in book 13 several days late.  I'm the one who set the deadline, and more than likely would have met it on time, if things I hadn't planned on happening hadn't come along and messed up my daily schedule.  It happens.  We learn to deal with it.  The really bad thing is that because I was a few days late with that deadline, I'm going into the next deadline short on time.  I've now made some adjustments---much of them about when I write and do other things---and hope that the June 11 deadline isn't going to be like the May 10th one.  If only I'd known that my youngest would be graduating 3 hours away on June 9, I might have chosen a different date.  But I didn't, and I'm aware of the shorter time, so I'll have to work a little harder each day to get done before that date.  Not the best situation, but I know it can be done, if I put my nose to the grindstone and work.

So if you're partway into a goal, whether long-term or short, and you find yourself running behind, just breathe.  A little adjustment may be all you need to get you going again and on the road to reaching that goal.

"The goal you set must be challenging. At the same time, it should be realistic and attainable, not impossible to reach. It should be challenging enough to make you stretch, but not so far that you break." Rick Hansen 

I Love Surprises!

There's nothing like an award to make the middle of the week a sheer joy.  A huge thank you to Joanie at Left-Brained Business For Write-Brained People--which I love to visit!--for the honor of naming Diary of a Mad Romance Writer for the Liebster Blog Award.

So what is the Liebster Blog Award?  I did a little snooping and discovered that the origin isn't really known, but most everyone believes that it originated in Germany, where "Liebster" means favorite or dearest.  The award is given to showcase bloggers with less than 200 followers.  There are a lot of us out there!  What a great way to help bloggers reach out to more people and let their fellow bloggers know that small doesn't mean forgotten.


The rules of the Liebster Award are:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog

2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you

3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to up to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed (see below)

5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

My contributions to the growing list of Liebster Blog Awards are (in no special order):

• Cats, Roses...and Books, the blog of fellow writer Karen Rose Smith.  Karen writes about her love of gardening and shares her wisdom on writing, so it's a great mix of beauty and information.
• Kristi Gold's blog is only a few months old, but her humor and heart shows in each of her posts, just as her books touch readers.  If you're in need of a smile or a giggle, check out her blog, and you won't be disappointed.
• Perfectly Penny - I've known Penny Rader for over 20 years and am proud to call her my friend.  No matter what life throws at her, she handles it with a smile.
• On the long bumpy road to publication - Marcy Bassett Kennedy is doing exactly what her blog title says and sharing it with others on that same road.  For many of us, that road wasn't very long ago and a reminder to all writers that nothing comes easy, but hard work can and often does pay off.
• Diary of a Shopaholic is obviously not a blog about writing, but belongs to someone I know very well.  Oh, all right, it's my oldest daughter, and she deserves the award for daring to blog and for sticking with it.  If you're interested in healthy eating, fashion and make-up, this is the place to stop.

So that's it for the list of blogs I've chosen to give the Liebster Award.  Here's hoping something catches the eye of new visitors for all and may a few new friendships be forged in the process.

"Strangers are just friends waiting to happen." - Author Unknown

Accepting the Subjective Truth

MOTIVATION MONDAYS

What does a picture of shelves and shelves of books have to do with accepting the truth?  The answer is: A lot.  Or even more specifically:  A lot of books.

A fellow writer in our local writers group replied to another writer's email about contest scores with a legitimate statement.  "So much of this business is personal taste."

Let me first say that the second writer's scores were very good.  All four of the scores were in the top 25% of the total.  That's nothing to feel bad about, and she should feel very proud.

Now look at that photo on the left and imagine a huge room filled with those shelves.  Some of those books are newer than others, but they're all books.  At some point in time, they're all read by someone.  Some are read more than others.

Which brings us back to the comment about so much of this business being personal taste.  That sentence, that statement, begs the question of how much of any business--or product--is personal taste.  My answer to the question (and it's subjective aka personal opinion aka personal taste) is probably about 99.something%.

Instead of diving into this strange percentage and reason for it, let's take a look at some current publishing stats.  (This information and much, much more on publishing and books can be found at http://parapublishing.com/sites/para/resources/statistics.cfm.  It's definitely worth reading through it all.)

What genres/categories are people buying?

55% Popular fiction
10% Religious nonfiction
9% Cooking/Crafts
--2001 Consumer Research Study on Book Purchasing by the Book Industry Study Group, http://www.bisg.org

It's obvious that popular fiction is currently, well, the most popular.  Don't stop there, though.  Break that down into genres, and things get a little more into popularity, who likes what, and...wait for it...personal taste.

In romance alone, there are enough genres and subgenres to make a readers head spin.  For instance, Romance Writers of America (RWA) lists nine (9) subgenres.  They are:

• Contemporary Series Romance
• Contemporary Single Title Romance
• Historical Romance
• Inspirational Romance
• Novels with Strong Romantic Elements
• Paranormal Romance
• Regency Romance
• Romantic Suspense
• Young Adult Romance

If you're a romance reader or writer, you know that the above is only the tip of the iceberg.  There are mixes of subgenres, such as Young Adult Historical Romance, Inspirational Suspense Romance, and Paranormal Romance, all of which include many sub-subgenres.  There are Time-Travel Romances, Futuristic, Fantasy, Western Historical, Western Contemporary, Medieval, Scottish Historical, English Historical, Chick-Lit, Romantic Comedy...  Yeah, you get the picture.

So why all the genres, subgenres and sub-subgenres?  Personal Taste.  And that personal taste thing goes for writers and readers.

While I've read quite a few of those sub and sub-subs, and considering the fact that I cut my (romance reading) teeth on Regency Romance (Georgette Heyer, to be specific), I wouldn't even begin to try to write it or all of those subs and sub-subs.  Or even half of them.  Anyone who might try to write so many would probably be wasting his/her time, not to mention going slowly insane with all the research and details.  We each have our strengths and our weaknesses.  It's wisest, especially when first starting out, to choose the two that feel the most comfortable.

Apples and oranges and broccoli and cauliflower

Back to accepting the subjective truth.  Fact is, most things in life are subjective.  In other words, most things in life are affected and chosen by personal taste.  We choose the books we read by which genres and subgenres we like, by the authors who write them, and other individual likes and dislikes.  A particular cover might catch our fancy.  Or the blurb on the back.  Or something a friend mentioned about a book.  Or even the fact that it's on sale or free. ;)

Not only do are the books we read chosen by our individual and personal taste, but so are the TV shows we watch, the movies we go to, the music we listen to, the clothes we wear, the things we do in our spare time, and...the food we eat.

I like black.  Two of my daughters like purple.  One likes pink.  Someone out there likes orange.  Or green. Or yellow.

Except for math and most of science, everything is personal taste.  Everything is SUBJECTIVE.  For me, even math and science are subjective, because since sixth grade, I've hated math and science. ☺  And to think that when I was in fifth grade, I wanted to be a research scientist when I grew up.  I even had my own microscope.


SUBJECTIVITY AND MOTIVATION

There are genres of fiction that I would probably never choose to read, much less write.  That doesn't mean they aren't good.  It means they aren't among my personal tastes.

Not everyone who reads or even everyone who reads fiction or this genre or that genre will choose to write.  But if you do choose to write, begin with the old adage of write what you know and especially what you like.  If you're not writing what you enjoy, you're losing out on two things:  (1)The prime motivation for writing aka the reason we all dipped our toe in this crazy business and (2) the joy of doing it.

When it comes to personal taste, a writer chooses what kind of story to write.  In other words, a writer is as subjective as the people who will or won't read that writer's books.

There's more to this subjective thing, such as contest judges, agents, editors, readers and more, so next week we'll focus on those and how they do and don't affect our motivation and what we choose to write.  Stop back next Monday for More Subjective Truth. :)

Most beginning writers (and I was the same) are like chefs trying to cook great dishes that they've never tasted themselves. How can you make a great (or even an adequate) bouillabaisse if you've never had any? If you don't really understand why people read mysteries (or romances or literary novels or thrillers or whatever), then there's no way in the world you're going to write one that anyone wants to publish. (This is the meaning of the well-known expression "Write what you know.") - Daniel Quinn

Digging Deeper - Part 3

WRITING WEDNESDAYS

Because characters are the most important thing in a story, we want to make them the best they can be.  We also want them to be unique, without cookie-cutter characteristics or goals.

Characters and what motivates them

No matter what, this is the most important thing to work on and learn.  Each character's goal should invoke intense, passionate feelings in the character.  And, as mentioned before, it's the characters' backstories that gives them the motivation for their goal...and also sets up the conflict.

Know what it is that brings the character to the point of the beginning of the story.  Each main character should have what Naomi (Susan) Horton calls the PRIME MOTIVATING FORCE (PMF).  Sounds like a police term, doesn't it? 

"For the sake of your story," Horton says, "this PMF will have stemmed from a single, dramatic event in the character's past, the prime motivating event (PME)." - Writing Romance by Vanessa Grant

This is what drives the character to want (GOAL) and the reason why (MOTIVATION) the character wants it.

There are levels of PMF, from the simple to the complicated.  The more complicated ones are usually the more emotional ones, so dig deep into your character's past to find out what has happened and how it affects the character.  Look for the character's emotional investment in something that happened in the past.

PMF can be positive or negative, but whichever it is, it must be emotional.  The more emotional, the stronger the character's conflict will be and the harder to reach the goal.

With PMF comes PMI (PRIME MOTIVATING INCIDENTS).  This is where conflict is built.  An example would be a hero forcing the heroine into a marriage of convenience to get her inheritance when her ailing father dies.  That's just one of many popular hooks used as a basic of conflict in romance.  But what makes each story different is who the characters are and why they want  and what they do.  Motivation and backstory make a character unique.

Do you feel the example above shows a detestable hero?  What if the heroine's father had cheated the hero's family out of their fortune?  Or what if he needs that money from her inheritance to pay for a family member's life-saving surgery?  Is he so bad now?

CHARACTERS CAN DO ANYTHING IF THE MOTIVATION IS STRONG ENOUGH.

The PMI should give the character a personal emotional investment.  Note the strong needs the (believed) detestable hero has.  But what about his conflict?  What can make this strongly emotional need (GOAL) impossible to have?  What can make him try harder OR change his mind?

THE DEEPER THE MOTIVATION--THE MORE EMOTIONAL--THE STRONGER THE CONFLICT.  FIND THE CONFLICT IN THE CHARACTER'S MOTIVATION THROUGH HIS/HER BACK STORY.

Yes, characters can be complicated to create, but once you understand and learn who they are and why, the job of making them real becomes much easier.

“Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.” - Mel Brooks