Month: November 2013

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Michaeline: End of NaNo 2013

And there was much rejoicing as the story was harvested and taken to the story mill for further processing!

And there was much rejoicing as the story was harvested and taken to the story mill for further processing!

It’s the last day of NaNo. So, here’s the condensed version of what I’ve learned.

Week One: Turn off the inner censor. Gosh, how fun it was to write in week one! I loved discovering who my characters were! I had no idea where the story was going, but every day was a joy as I got to watch events unfold delightfully. The first draft is about discovery, not perfect prose.

Week Two: I learn (again) the value of perseverance. If I keep writing, something will come. Maybe not today, maybe not even tomorrow, but at some point, the plot will turn. If I don’t write, it won’t come.

Also, I wrote in the real world for the first time. It’s given me a whole new view of writing details. Usually, I write what Continue reading →

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Justine: The Infinite TBR List

to be read list, what to read, what I'm readingI have a TBR (To Be Read) list that is waaaaay too long, IMHO. I didn’t realize this until I started organizing the books on my bookshelf. There’s quite a few, and that was before I counted what’s on my iPad and Kindle reader, too.

Most of them are romance. Some are general fiction, but there are a few non-fiction, either about writing or something history-related that is either research or will hopefully be inspirational for a future story. Some of them were given to me at RWA this past summer; others I picked up because of good reviews or because they sounded interesting. Some were free downloads and I figured, “What the heck?” All of them are worth learning from — either what to do or what to avoid. Continue reading →

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Kay: Happy Thanksgiving!

283turkey+vintage+image+graphicsfairy4-150x150Native-American-Lady-Image-GraphicsFairy-thumb-150x150Okay, it’s Thanksgiving, and I’m not writing today. Perhaps others of you aren’t writing today, either (if you live in the United States or Canada, anyway). Today has been set aside — thank you, federal government — so we can celebrate what we have. And that includes a WIP that’s been killing me. Yup, I’m thankful for that, sort of. But every writer needs a day to rest, recover, and celebrate what she’s done. And that’s what I’m doing today. Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Step by Step

(c) Eldridge Photography

(c) Eldridge Photography

Last week I talked about my plan to make the most effective use of the writing time I have available.  I’d love to say I put my plan into action and the words just started flowing onto the page, but that would be wildly inaccurate.

While I have slowly started increasing my writing output (hundreds of words, not thousands), my progress is still frustratingly slow.  I know writing is a marathon, not a sprint, but I want to be right there at the finish line, not back here in Act II fighting my way through the weeds with a dull machete. Continue reading →

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Kat: Friendship, Fellowship, & Sharing

iStock_000017887217XSmallThis week most of us are rushing around as we prepare for the holiday of Thanksgiving, and consequently, we’re probably not doing much physical writing. What we are doing is preparing for the influx of family and friends, shopping for our holiday dinner or (not me!) hunkering over store ads as we plan our after Thanksgiving assault on the stores—like generals preparing for a land and sea invasion.

We may not be putting words on the page, but holidays are rife with writing possibilities. I personally like to watch and listen to the swirl of humanity around me as I go about my preparations. If we pay attention, we’ll find writing ideas more plentiful this time of year—while we wait in line, on the roads, in the stores, but especially in our homes. There’s nothing like family thrown together in one spot to provide a little drama and a lot of writing fodder.

The tradition of Thanksgiving is steeped in the spirit of friendship, fellowship, and sharing, not to mention gratitude, and for that reason I try to take a little time to stop and reflect on my blessings. I hope you’ll indulge me as I do that now, but rather than listing the old standards (family, friends, health), I thought it would be more interesting (and fun) to list my writing blessings.

So here they are: Continue reading →

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Nancy: And in the End…

Nancy's Vinyl Beatles Collection

Most people who know me in the non-internet world, and a few who know me via the internet as well, know I am a HUGE Beatles fan. I am not of the Beatles’ generation or the time period of their music, but I love their work, their persona, and their lore with the intensity of a thousand suns. So imagine my pure joy when, last week, I came across a local radio station playing the original Beatles collection (albums released while they were still together as a group) on vinyl. And in listening to the beginning and end of this day-long broadcast (with the inconsiderate interruption of the day job in between), I got to thinking about story beginnings and endings. Continue reading →

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Jilly: I Wouldn’t Start From Here

I Wouldn't Start From HereI’ve been a bookworm my entire life, but since I started writing fiction, my reading has dropped off drastically (I’m surprised Amazon’s share price hasn’t tanked). I think I’ve been so wrapped up in my own story that I haven’t wanted to make space inside my head for anyone else’s voice. I know this is dumb. Stephen King’s famous recommendation that aspiring writers should read a lot makes perfect sense, and getting lost in a great book and then going back to see how the author did what she did is a cheap, fun way to learn. When I do make the effort, I get much more out of a novel now than I did back in the day, when I’d casually wolf down half a dozen in a weekend. Continue reading →

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Michaeline: Vacuuming the Cat

"Nuh-uh. Go defrost the freezer, human."

“Nuh-uh. Go defrost the freezer, human.”

In some of the internet science fiction and fantasy groups I visit, there’s a certain kind of writerly procrastination known as “vacuuming the cat.” You know, when the thought of writing is so boring or scary or so something that any job looks better – making up the Christmas card list, or scrubbing the kitchen floor, or polishing the silver (never mind that it hasn’t been polished in 20 years, and could easily go another 20 years without being polished), or pre-emptively vacuuming the cat so the hair doesn’t get all over the sofa. The phrase is attributed to Jo Walton.

It’s not a new idea. This may be an apocryphal story, but rumor has it when a newspaperman asked Ernest Hemingway what he did before he started a new book, Hemingway supposedly replied, Continue reading →

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Justine: Introducing the “Regency Showcase.” Today: Rotten Row

Rotten_Row_by_James_Valentine_1894

Rotten Row (to the right) and W. Carriage Drive (on left) by James Valentine circa 1894.

As a new regular feature (how “regular” it is remains to be seen), I will share a neat little tidbit or photo of things I’ve learned about the Regency, which is the historical period in which I write. For those of you more…well, historically challenged, the Regency Period is technically defined as the years between 1811 and 1820, during which the Prince of Wales (and future King George IV) ruled England by proxy as Prince Regent. His father, King George III, while still king, was suffering from a “madness” that rendered him incapable of fulfilling the duties of the crown (historians now suspect he suffered from porphyria, an enzyme disorder that can cause mental instability). Loosely speaking, though, the Regency period lasted from about 1795 through the beginning of Victoria’s reign in 1837 (or from the later French Revolutionary Wars to the beginning of the Victorian period).

It was a period of decadence, opulence, and over-indulgence on the part of the ton, or upper ten thousand (the aristocracy), and for me, it’s devilishly fun to write. Continue reading →

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Michille: Reasons for Scene

Image courtesy of nuttakit/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Image courtesy of nuttakit/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

 

My goal for the next week or so is to get several powerful scenes written. By powerful, I mean scenes with multiple purposes in the story. Jennifer Crusie, instructor for the McDaniel Romance Writing Program, is adamant that every scene is a unit of conflict. I want to write scenes that go beyond a unit of conflict Continue reading →