Sunday, June 7, 2009
June 2009 archive
Because behind every writer is an impressive set of goals…
Make a writing plan for the upcoming week. Take into account your schedule and obligations. How many words or pages will you finish?
Share your goals as comments so we can cheer you on. You can do it!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
6/6 WIP Tip Saturday
Published author? Click on the “For Authors” tab above and request 1, 2 or all four author interviews for WIP readers. We’ll send them off and schedule your responses as an upcoming post. Feel free to pass us along to your other published friends. Everyone loves an author interview!
Unpublished author? Click on the “Contact Me” tab above and send me your most pressing writing questions. Craft, business, creativity…hit me with your best shot! I’ll use your questions as upcoming posts.
Friday, June 5, 2009
6/5 WIP Tip
On the same note as yesterday’s post regarding creativity abounding around us, today might be as much a physical challenge as a creative one.
Be a listener. Do as little talking as possible. I guarantee this will be tough but when you spend more time listening and less time thinking about what to say in response to something, you might just hear something to help your story.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
6/4 WIP Tip
I firmly believe the universe gives the writer what they need when they need it–you just have to remain open.
Today, make a habit of stopping, looking and listening for potential ideas and sparkling little gems that will help advance your story, answer story problems, deepen your characters or clarify plot.
You might be very surprised at what you find…come back and share with us if it’s good stuff 
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
A Picture is Worth 90,000 words
From Notes to Novel
But a few weeks ago, I woke up from a dream about rosemary. The plant, not the mom of the demon-possessed kid. I’m all about plants and planting, and it is spring, so I didn’t think much of it.
Until I woke with the same image in my head the next day. And the next. And…well, you get the idea. Something told me it was a trick from my muse to get me back into writing fiction again, but I wasn’t falling for it.
That is, until she gave me a name and a picture.
Flipping through a glossy magazine a few nights later with nothing fictional on my mind, a photograph literally jumped from the page and implanted itself in my brain. I knew this picture (I’d never seen it before) like the back of my hand. In this picture was my heroine and her story. The entire novel in a 4X6 black and white photo with an elephant lamp in the background.
I quickly passed the page but the image was caught in my head. I went about my usual business for a few weeks, thinking about rosemary and the picture every now and then but taking nothing seriously. But when I started hearing voices–accusations and conversations–in my head between these characters (see previous post, Plotting by Ear)), I knew I was toast. It was futile.
I was charged with the job of telling this story.
But in looking at this photo, ripped from the page of the magazine I’d saved on a whim, knowing I wouldn’t be able to escape, I am overwhelmed by the amount of story to be told. My other novels did not start with a photo. Instead, they were grains of sand wrapped slowly and securely with layers of shimmery, glistening pearl. Sure, there were images I found later that conveyed my internal, abstract storythoughts into the real world, but nothing like this picture.
The difference between my other stories and this one is that when I began those stories, I had but a word or two that blossomed into a story. This time, I have over 90,000 words to tell about this single picture that are in desperate need of shaping and narrowing into a single theme. It’s a little scary but I know my way around words. I think I can do this…
How do you write your stories? From a sentence up or a story down? Just curious. I may need some brains to pick on this journey….
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
6/3 WIP TIP
My favorite Stephen King quote from On Writing is …”Writing begets writing.”
We all know it but we don’t all practice it. Today, charge yourself with the challenge of writing something, anything for the next seven days. Even if you don’t feel like it, even if you’re “too busy”, even if you don’t have anything to say or your story isn’t gelling, WRITE. 10 minutes each day, uninterrupted. No excuses, no expectations except writing in that time.
Let me know how this goes for you. I’m doing the same myself.
It's pretty simple, really. I'm a writer who loves writing about writing, and sharing all the tricks of the trade with other writers. And when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. I have a hunch you know what I mean :)