Here and There

I posted Monday on my new group blog Wicked Wenches about Vampires. Other than that I've been preoccupied with other things besides writing. I'm hoping to bounce back into it in a few days and get cracking. I did read Blood Fever by Karen Marie Moning and The Bleeding Dusk by Colleen Gleason while waiting in waiting rooms. I didn't get into Blood Fever as much as the first Fever book, but I still want to read more. The Bleeding Dusk was better and more engaging, but there was a lot of description (which is typical of historicals) that I found myself skimming. Again, can't wait to read more. These are the two series that I've followed on the Urban Fantasy route. I do prefer my HEA, but these series both have a good amount of sexual tension which make them interesting.

TIDBIT: Karen Marie Moning's blog has a chapter from an unpublished book of hers and promises to post more. Here's the link: http://karenmariemoning.blogspot.com/2008/03/working-title-lady-lies-chapter-one.html

Idea Generation

Some days they just flow from everything. I read one of my group digests and they mentioned writing exercises and gave a list of fake news article titles. (I'm warning you now that I'm very sleepy and will probably make lots of mistakes on this, but I'm going to gut my way through it. Sense it might not make, but at least proud Yoda will be.) So jump on board my idea train of thought. One article title was Fireman rescues Woman and Four kids. This can generate all sorts of ideas with these six characters, but I have a convulted mind. First off I don't do kids in my books, yet. I just don't. So lose the kids and you have Fireman rescues Woman. Big deal. Where's the conflict in that? Well, what if the woman doesn't want the man to save her? What if she'd rather die a firey death than let that man touch her? There's the start of a conflict that can be expanded on to make a story.

Then I'm sitting watching TV and I catch the last bit of a show on UFO's and some strange man is making a case for what he believes. The TV fades into the background as my mind races with the concept and twist it into something that could potentially be a story. I pop open word and type away and the initial concept turns into an interesting mystery.

Ideas come from anywhere. I'm grateful I don't have issues with coming up with ideas. Basic ideas for stories. Now creating a cohesive plot using that spark of an idea, that takes time and brainstorming. To plot a new book takes me at least a week to a month. But those little sparks that say hey, I could be a story, those are easy once you know what you are looking for.

Blogging

Oh, yeah, you knew it would happen. Another group blog hits the blogosphere. I joined another crit group and we decided a blog would be fun. So here's my post. Check it out. Let me know what you think it needs or what we should discuss and I'll be all over it. Meanwhile, need help on your synopsis? Here's a few links that could help:

Some articles on synopsis writing:
http://www.writing-world.com/publish/synopsis.shtml
http://www.charlottedillon.com/synopsis.html
http://www.vivianbeck.com/writing/5_steps_to_writing_a_synopsis.htm

There's also a really good class on http://www.accessromance.com/classes/ . You can access archived classes for $5. I have the synopsis class. It's very informative.

Oh, Linky

http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/web/2000/kochan/charactertraits.html

Listing of character traits. Yay!

Word Sprints Are Cool

I just made 2466 words in a little over 1-1/2 hours thanks to word sprints. Now, I'm a planner too, so individual results may vary. One of my many yahoo groups is Endurancewriting. It's a great place to find someone to sprint with you. Someone sets a timer and you both (or more) write until the timer goes off without checking your e-mail or online stuff. I got through 2-1/2 scenes. As soon as the timer goes off you take a break for a while. It really is fun. I'm going to have to find a permanent word sprint partner when the kids go to school in the fall.

I do get burned out easily. If you've ever done NaNo and won you understand burn out. Or maybe you don't. But I'm over 33k words now and I'll keep pushing. I thought I'd have to trash some of my writing from the day before last but it slid in nicely. I'm feeling more confident about my word count as well. I'm still a few scenes from the reversal (middle scene) and there are plenty of scenes to follow that as well.

I thought about waiting until I get my feedback to see what direction they think the story may go, but I'm not going to wait. This is my story and I'm going to tell it the way I want to. I'll wait until it's completely done then release it to my crit partners to destroy. :) I mean tell me I'm doing a fantastic job and that nothing needs to be changed. Of course, if they say that, then it's time for new crit partners. :) Or I just rock. One or the other.

Fallen

I placed 3rd in the Fire & Ice Contest. I'll get back the scoresheets and judge's comments soon hopefully. I'll let you know if the final judge wrote comments or not. I'm just excited that it placed with meant an agent read my piece. So now for the work. I did work on Fallen yesterday and some already today. I'm going to try to slam through as much of the second first draft this week and into the next. I have 1-1/2 hours before bedtime. So I'm going to cut this one short.

Edited: The coordinator made a mistake in the first message. No worries though. I'm still excited about getting the feedback.

And She Writes

Yes, sir. Today I wrote while the kids' had their gymnastics classes and hopefully will write this evening when they are in bed. Life has been getting in the way lately, but in the back of my mind, I had this niggling, nagging feeling that I should be writing. Last night my husband and I went out to eat sans kids. We discovered that since coming back state side both of us feel like we aren't accomplishing anything. It's hard when life starts throwing you fast balls to step aside and take the walk. Sorry I'm not very good at baseball analogies. Catching up with family and friends after being gone a year followed by the death of a beloved grandma really keeps you hopping. Though I thought I might find time to write while at my parents' home for the funeral, it just didn't happen. My mom needed me more than the story did. Now though is a different story. I need to write almost as much as I needed to keep occupied earlier this week. I don't shut down in grief. I speed up. Things that should have been done, get done. The next scene should get done tonight and then I need to focus on the synopsis while writing the rest. I want this book to be the story I envision in my head and for that to work, it needs my undivided attention. So here it is, story, attention. Use it wisely.