♪♫ Let's Get Together, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah ♫♪

Yes, I'm old enough to remember the original Parent Trap movie.  I loved anything with Hayley Mills in it.  But this blog post isn't about Hayley or her movies or the cute song, Let's Get Together, that Hayley and, uh, Hayley sang in the movie, although it keeps running through my brain.  I decided to share about this past Saturday, when my writers group got together for our Fall Mini-Retreat.

Nothing can be beat a group of females talking about writing and stories and characters and cake--  Oops!  We ate the cake, baked and decorated by one of our members.  (Thanks T!)

Ten of us gathered in the large, comfy and peaceful clubhouse of a large apartment complex at ten in the morning, ready to kick back, relax, and talk writing.  And, boy, did we talk!  We shared information about our current WIPs (Works In Progress), then really got down to the best part:  Brainstorming.

I. Love. Brainstorming.  When I'm stuck or not sure of something in my WIP, I have a couple of friends who I can turn to, and they put me on the right track.  But I love brainstorming other writers "stuff" just as much.  Maybe even more!  It gets the brain working and puts it in creative mode.  After a brainstorming session, I often have lightbulb moments about my own story and characters.

If you've never had the chance to brainstorm with other writers, you've missed one of the best things about writing.  Each of us at the retreat took a turn presenting what our story is about, while everyone else asked questions and gave suggestions, especially if the author had hit a bump in the road of her story.  When that bump happens, there are ways to smooth out the road.  It takes asking questions, whether asked by you or by a fellow writer.  What kind of questions? Why questions.

Why

One of the biggest things that writers need to learn along the way is understanding and using character motivation.  If a character isn't motivated by something or someone, that character will fall flat, leading readers to close the book and toss it aside.  Motivation is what drives a character to think what he thinks and do what she does.  When first deciding on a character, ask yourself a few questions.  What does your character fear and why?  What happened in the character's past made him/her way?  What kind of family did your character come from?  What was the character's childhood like?  Without knowing these things, it's difficult to motivate a character's reason for doing whatever it is she or he is doing throughout the story.  Without motivation, there's no strong goal, and the stronger, the better.  Why does the hero want to be a police officer?  Why is the heroine so negative about marriage and relationships?  Why can't these two people, who are obviously made for each other, get together for a happily-ever-after?  (Aha!  Conflict!)

If you can't answer the why questions, dig a little deeper. Motivation is in the character's backstory.  It's the character's life history.  What would make someone do or not do something?  Want or not want something?  Was the hero's father a police officer?  Had the hero, as a child, run away, faced danger, and was rescued by a police officer?  Did the heroine grow up in a broken home, never getting the chance to get to know her father?  What about her mother?  What kind of person raised this girl?  Or maybe it's something more recent.  Was the heroine dumped at the altar at her wedding?  What was it that makes your character who he or she is at the beginning of the book?

Creating a character that will tug at the hearts of readers or make them laugh, isn't easy.  Knowing your characters is the key to writing a great book.  Do whatever it takes to make your characters come alive.  Getting to know them is the first step.

People don't suddenly appear at the age of twenty-four or thirty-two or whatever age in real life.  Neither should your character, even in the beginning of a book.  A character, just like each of us, is the sum of his life.  You need to know that character and what's happened to him, up to the point of where you begin to tell the story.  That motivation or backstory will help drive your character and your plot.

There are as many ways to "flesh out" a character--get to know them--as there are writers.  Some writers choose to create a character profile of each of the main characters, right down to what books they read and the color of their socks.  Some writers start by writing some dialogue between characters.  Or they might let the characters, one at a time, tell the writer about themselves.  (Yes, we're a crazy bunch, who hear voices in our heads.)  Some writers do a character interview, asking the character simple questions that can become more complex as the interview goes on.  This can often lead to surprises for the writer!  He had a sister who disappeared?!

I've used each of those methods at one time or another, but usually by the time I'm ready to start plotting or writing, those characters have spent enough time in my head that I know them pretty well.  There are lots of times when I wish they'd be quiet!  Practicing some of the techniques above will eventually lead you to what works best for you...and your characters.  But whatever method you use, it never hurts to try something new, when your usual way doesn't work.

That's where brainstorming with a group or even one writer friend can help.  Be sure to keep an open mind, while brainstorm.  Others don't see your characters as you do.  They haven't experienced the same things that you have--or your characters have.  Sometimes we might think the ideas of others don't "fit" our idea of our character, but if we listen, something suggested might turn us down another road in the life of a character and lead to the perfect answer to why.  And that's what makes brainstorming so great.

GMC.  Goal.  Motivation.  Conflict.  (Thanks, Deb Dixon!)  There's no required order to think of it at the beginning of an idea.  Maybe you know your character's conflict first.  Maybe it will be the character's goal.  And maybe you'll have an idea of the character's motivation.  Just keep in mind that it takes all three to make well-rounded, interesting, and believable character that readers will love.  Or hate, because, yes, even the villain should have all three.

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. ~ Mark Twain

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

My apologies for the missed blog last week and this week's being late.  My daughter's bridal shower was held last Saturday, and the days prior to it were filled with chaos.  Such is life. :)

Yes, it's goal-setting time again!

Fall is quickly sneaking up on us, although a high of 92 yesterday made that hard to believe.  But we're cooler today, and fall is in the air.  Fall is my favorite season for just about anything. :)

I've never been a "scheduled" person.  Most schedules have been given to me.  With four daughters, there were schedules set by others (school, Girl Scouts, sports, drama, etc.) that I had to follow to keep life within the bounds of sanity.  Add in the fact that we were a farm family, and nature dictated our schedules.  I am, by nature, a fairly laid back person.  There are those who might say I tend toward laziness, but I chalk that up to my being a more cerebral personality.  (Hey!  It sounds good, right?)  But over the years, I realized that, although I could get things done without a schedule and long-term goals, life often became chaotic.  And sometimes those goals were pushed aside.

I've had to re-evaluate, over the years.  I've learned to do things in different ways.  I've learned that setting goals, especially with writing, keeps me going.  I really like proving to my inner critic that I can do what I set out to do.

That re-evaluation took time.  My current manuscript will be my fifteenth published book.  While that isn't a large number for some, when I look back, I see how much I've grown, not only as a writer, but as a person.  And I expect to continue growing.  I continue to learn.  School is always in session!

One of the keys to setting goals is making adjustments.  This particular book has been filled with those.  But this time I didn't sit on my hands, waiting for news of a contract or rejection.  I put my butt in my chair and my hands on the keyboard (aka BIC-HOC) and worked on other manuscripts.  In just over two months, I wrote two books.  Luckily, the first three chapters of both books had been written and only needed some small changes.  No deadlines, no parameters with the plots or stories, I wrote for myself.  This did two things for me.

1. For the first time in several years, I wrote with the freedom to tell stories that didn't fit the parameters of what's currently selling.  My only goal was to finish them and discover how long it might take me.
2. When I finally received the contract for the current book, I was able to jump right into writing it, without the usual warm-up time. (HINT:  If you don't keep the writing muscles toned, getting back into writing after a long spell of non-writing, it takes a while get "in the writing groove.")

You don't have to be published to set goals!

I learned to set goals early on when I decided (actually was coerced by my writing friend) to enter writing contests.  The deadline was then set for me, and I had to set smaller goals to reach that big one.  I entered many.  Results varied.  And knowing in advance that if, by some crazy chance, my entry might lead to a request for a partial or full, I made sure the entire manuscript was finished.  You know, just in case. ;)  That paid off for me.  I'd been making the final rounds in some contests, earning second and third, but had never won a contest.  For the first time, I entered a contest without having finished the manuscript.  While it was being sent out to judges, I finished it.  That entry one first place in the Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Contest and the full manuscript was requested by the senior editor of the publishing line I'd targeted.  All I had to do was a quick polish, and off it went.  Eventually, it became my first Silhouette Romance, Rachel's Rescuer.  The door had opened.

With that open door came deadlines...and revisions and edits, oh my!  I felt like Dorothy in the Land of Oz.  Fitting, considering I'm a Kansas girl.  I learned to write on a fairly daily basis.  Those revisions had to be made and had to be done by deadline.

The road to publication has twists and turns.  Sometimes, along the way to that first contract offer, I wanted to give up the fight, become a "normal" person and stop writing.  But determination and some pushy friends kept me going.  So did one thought.

If I quit now, I'll never know if I might have made it.

 I landed on the Yellow Brick Road.  That road contains twists and turns.  Silhouette Romance closed, and I had to find a different line where my writing fit.  It took a while.

Sometimes the Wicked Witch of the West came along to try to stop me. That Wicked Witch being the Demon of Self-Doubt.  I still haven't found the bucket of water to throw on her and probably never will, but there will always be times when I laugh in her face and tell her that she won't get the Ruby Slippers.  I will write.  I will set goals.  I will reach those goals.

Now is the time for all good writers to set goals.  If you're not a goal-setter, start small.  Start slow.  Use your brain, as the Tin Man did.  Keep writing--on a fairly regular schedule--so you don't have time to rust, as the Tin Man did.  Be courageous, as the Cowardly Lion did, and submit your work, whether to a critique group, contests, or editors.  You'll find many Wizards to help you along the way!

It really was no miracle. What happened was just this... ~ Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz

School is in Session

When we think of learning, we think of school.  But that's really narrow-minded.  School is only one part of learning and not even the first part.  We begin to learn the moment we're born.  We shouldn't stop until we breathe our last breath.

We learn by instruction, doing, and keeping our eyes, ears, and minds open.  That last--keeping ourselves open, is probably the most important, because without it, instruction and doing will often fail.

I'll be the first in the line that's formed for those who have learned by mistake.  That doesn't mean I give up.  I keep trying.  I keep learning.

Knowledge is like the tip of an iceberg.  What we know is above the water, and it may seem abundant, but below the water is the real stuff.  That's what we don't know, but should learn.  Add the ocean water surrounding it, and it seems endless.  Learning is endless.

One of the ways I learn, other than by all those mistakes, is sharing with others.  Yesterday evening, I attended my critique group meeting.  There are four of us, all writers.  Two of us are published, and the other two are on their way to being published.  None of us would ever say we know everything.  All of us share and continue to learn.

How do we learn?  For me, it's three things.  Seeing, doing, and sharing.

Seeing

As I'm sure I've stated before, I'm visual.  Seeing things helps.  That's why I always took copious notes in school.  Hearing it just didn't do the trick.  Writing it and seeing the words or drawings or whatever was needed, helped embed it in my brain aka learn.  I find that a bit strange, because I loved being read to as a child.  Of course, once I learned to ready on my own, it changed and became better.

I've critiqued with others for over fifteen years in both written and verbal form.  Written works better for me, whether on the giving or getting end.  In our group, we each read our work to be critiqued.  Sure, I can do it, but give me a paper with print on it, and I'll do a much better job.  Still, something is better than nothing, and sometimes hearing something will make a good thing or a not so good thing jump out.  Yes, we writers are storytellers, but we tell our stories with the written word.  I am eternally grateful to writers.  I might miss the good stuff, otherwise.

Doing

When I came home from critique group last night, my daughter was watching a spin-off of Dance Moms on TV.  I don't watch a lot of TV, myself.  I have a few favorites that are must-sees, but I don't watch every night.  Not that I've always been that way, but to have the time to write and read, I gave up a lot of TV.  One of the judges--if you've ever watched Dance Moms, you'll know who this is--never sugar coats anything.  She's blunt, sometimes to the point of rude.  But the point I see and that she made on the show last night was that the young people who are dancing at competitions are professional dancers.  It isn't easy, it often isn't fun, and it takes a lot of hard work, learning routines, steps, and all the other things that go along with being professional.

After the program was over, I turned to my daughter and said,  "If they can't take the judge's criticism, they need to find a new dream."  Harsh?  Yes.  True.  Yes.  Those young people will have to learn that there will always be criticism.  "It's like getting rejections," I said.  "It hurts.  It can really hurt.  And often we (writers) will quit or at least want to.  Many of us don't.  We simply try harder, keep learning and working toward our dream, whatever it may be."

That's "doing."  Those revisions, those critique groups, those contests we enter, and those rejection letters we collect on the way are all a part of learning.  We learn and grow and make changes.

Sharing

After joining RWA and my local writers' group, I discovered that the people involved in writing, especially romance writers, are over-the-top generous.  The sharing and helping goes on wherever you look.  Conferences and conference workshops, writers' groups, critique groups and writing friends are always there to lend an ear, a suggestion, a hand to pull us up when we're down.

I've already stated that I'm a pantster turned plotter.  Over almost twenty years of writing, I've created and learned how to plot in a way I can understand.  Like me, it isn't perfect.  It didn't come instantly.  Everyone has his/her own way to do it.  I'm always looking for ways to tweak "my way," especially when I hit a bump in the writing or plotting.  I ask others how they go about planning their story.  Often, there's a small grain of something I can use to help make my plotting and writing better.  And I'll share the way I do it, too.  Isn't that what sharing is all about?

Never, never, never be afraid to ask questions.  That's one of the best ways to gain knowledge.  And when the table is turned and a question is asked, offer your own experiences, good and bad.

We'll never know everything, and that's okay, because it's nice to keep learning.  An "aha" moment is worth it's weight in gold.  Happy learning!

The world is a university and everyone in it is a teacher.  Make sure when you wake up in the morning you to go school. ~ Bishop T.D. Jakes