Novel Planning and Procrastination

Posted on October 18, 2012 by

Appropriately, I’ve been putting this post off for days.

Are you a chronic procrastinator? I am. I’m guessing a lot of you are too. For many of us, the best we can hope for is to be really productive while we are doing something other than what we ought to be doing. You know, like organizing your closet when you should be making phone calls. Or better yet, organizing your kitchen.

With eighteen days left in October, I’m betting that a lot of NaNoWriMo participants are starting to feel like it’s all well and good to know where all the tupperware lids are, but what about the book?

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Attack of the Plot Bunnies!

Posted on October 17, 2012 by

Plot bunnies are story ideas, to put it succinctly. I have a folder within my writing folder to pen up my plot bunnies. I’ll write a few words, a premise, a location, sometimes only a bit of dialogue that I really want to use in a story. Usually I put just enough information in the file to get the idea out of my head.

I have enough on my mind already! I don’t have the brains to spare to be constantly starting projects.

Besides, that’s a good way to make sure you never finish any.

Last night I was attacked by a plot bunny. Viciously savaged in my own bed, as I tried to fall asleep. This idea just kept coming and coming. World building, mostly, but so much!

(That paragraph had a cringe-worthy supply of innuendo.)

And I realized: this is a good idea. I shouldn’t forget this.

So I got up out of bed. I went to my laptop and wrote about five hundred words. There’s no plot, there’s no characters, and there are a ton of questions. But it’s good stuff, I can tell.

And now that I’ve done that? I’m going to put it in the pen with the other plot bunnies, there to wait until I have time to think about writing it. Perhaps next summer…

 

 

Posted in The Writing Process, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Help Wanted: Excerpt, Chapter Three

Posted on October 16, 2012 by

I’m starting to feel the pinch! Help Wanted is going to e-press by the end of the month, and I’ll be ready. For your third taste…

3. E IS ALSO FOR ENGAGEMENT

Time went on. Maggie did well at school except that she remained shy. Amy’s maternity-leave anxiety about a closing came to pass, but for another hospital. The rule with County was that if you have the job, you keep it, regardless of seniority or qualifications. Amy had the job. She was very qualified, but hadn’t been there as long as many equally qualified people. There were a few rules broken in round-about ways; a firing of a fumble-fingered phlebotomist who was only coincidentally replaced by a nurse with twenty years seniority at the closed hospital, for instance. Amy was very nervous for a while. Then things finally seemed to shake down, and reach a new equilibrium. It had been good fortune that this coincided with Jenny going back to school. Trade one worry for another, rather than carry them both. Amy felt blessed.

Continue reading →

Posted in Help Wanted | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Help Wanted: Excerpt, Chapter 2

Posted on October 14, 2012 by

Help Wanted is coming soon! Another chapter to make you quiver with anticipation. Or something like that.

2.BACK TO THE REAL WORLD

Amy didn’t have to wait long for more details. Rita tried several more times to contact Paul and he rebuffed her diversely. He wouldn’t answer her calls or her pings. Her emails got responses full of curses. Finally he blocked her on Gmail and that was pretty much that.

Amy: For someone who wants space to make up her mind, she sure is throwing herself at you. What’s up with that?

Paul Fournier: I know! Head-games. I refuse to play them. I’m done with her.

 

Then Amy didn’t hear from Paul for a while. She didn’t seek him out because she wasn’t sure she wanted to know how things went down with Rita. She figured that he’d contact her either when he needed her or when things calmed down and he was bored some day. She had better things to do with her time than pester someone for internet chatting. If she wanted online company, there was still Musikland. Amy and Paul had been friends online for years, spent countless hours talking about hopes and dreams, trials and tribulations. But every now and then a few weeks would pass without conversation.

Continue reading →

Posted in Help Wanted | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Help Wanted: Excerpt, Chapter One

Posted on October 10, 2012 by

Help Wanted  is coming soon! Don’t worry, the published product will look tidier than it does in blog-post  format.

1. THE MAN IN THE BOX

Bonk.

Amy looked away from the television to the laptop on her desk. Her Gmail tab was flashing Paul Fournier. She clicked on the tab and looked at the chat window.

Paul Fournier: * poke *

She considered whether or not she should answer. She had set her status as “busy”, so she had the choice of pretending she was away from her computer. She was tired, but three week old Maggie was sleeping like an angel and could probably be counted on to do so for at least another hour. She decided chatting with Paul was probably going to be more interesting than the re-run of Mythbusters she had on the television.

Amy: * tickle *

Paul Fournier: Hi!

Amy: How’re you today?

There was a pause and gmail’s chat window put up the words “Paul Fournier is typing”

Paul Fournier: Okay

Amy thought that was a lot of “typing” to come up with four letters.

Continue reading →

Posted in Help Wanted | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Gearing up to Publish Help Wanted

Posted on October 9, 2012 by

Barring unforeseen obstacles, I will be publishing Help Wanted at the end of the month.

Help Wanted is different from anything else I’ve written, or will ever write. It’s a fictionalized true story about generosity repaid with abuse. I will be donating 50% of my royalties to WEAVE, an organization dedicated to helping women and children at risk. For more information on how you can donate to WEAVE, see the Help Wanted page on my blog.

In the next few days I will start to trickle out the first few chapters. I hope my readers enjoy the work, even if it is more serious than my usual style. So keep a look-out for the excerpts and other announcements!

Posted in Help Wanted | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Outlining

Posted on October 3, 2012 by

I’ve addressed outlining in a couple of previous posts ( The Larval Stage of an Outline and The Bare Bones Outline ) but both of those were specific to individual works and hardly comprehensive.

I don’t know if I’m going to achieve “comprehensive” in this post, but I’m at least going to open up the focus and talk about the whole process.

Let me start by saying that this post assumes you have at least a basic story idea. Maybe I’ll try a post about getting ideas, but really, I don’t know that I’m qualified.

Continue reading →

Posted in The Writing Process | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Inner Editor

Posted on September 29, 2012 by

Your inner editor is that voice in your head that tells you when you’ve made a typo, or written an awkward sentence, etc. A strong inner editor is not a bad thing, most of the time.

When you’ve written your first draft you can let that strong inner editor loose on your work and hopefully avoid humiliation when you first hand your draft to another reader. If you have a weak inner editor you should get as much outside help as possible.

Notice I said “when you’ve written your first draft.”

While you’re writing that draft, your inner editor is not your friend.

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

National Novel Writing Month (aka: NaNoWriMo)

Posted on September 25, 2012 by

Okay, I know it’s still September and NaNoWriMo doesn’t start until November, but I thought to myself, Why wait to tell people what it is?

Before I get into the history and utility of NaNoWriMo, let me say this:

It is not a contest, it’s a challenge. Nobody gets a prize and you’re not competing with other people (though some people choose to “compete” with other Wrimos, it’s not an official part of the concept).

Simply put, NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write fifty thousand words in thirty days, specifically the thirty days of November. A writer must average about 1,666 words a day to make that goal.

The first NaNoWriMo was done in 1999. Every year more and more people accept the challenge and literally billions of words are written.

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Plotting in My Sleep

Posted on September 1, 2012 by

Or at least near my sleep.

When I’m in the planning phase, the outlining phase, of a new book I’ve found a pretty darn reliable way to work on ideas. I snuggle in to go to sleep and then start musing.

Since I’m close to sleep, my mind wanders. Sometimes it wanders in a useful way and sometimes not so much. For instance, I often get side-tracked in imagining dialog or detailed descriptions of things. Since these are things that flow well when I’m writing, I have to firmly tell myself to leave it alone for now.

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments