A Time For Everything

I've toyed with the idea of going back to college, but if the homework from a single month-long online class about writing is kicking my butt, I can't imagine actual course work.

>>picture me grimacing<<

So this homework / instructor is frustrating me. I'm not doubting it's a good thing to be challenged. I'm trying to work through it, to ask for clarification as needed, but youch. It's still tough. And while I'm competitive, I'm also lazy and part of me just wants to quit.

It's hard...

There are some parts that really are a challenge for me, not just because I'm lazy, but because that's just now how my brain works. I don't think I'll be able to find the nuances on my own if I use this method to work on another book down the road. But I do have critique partners and fellow writers who could maybe help. But argh. Still. And I'll still have all the lessons and my worksheets. But argh.

Part of the initial struggle was that this method takes some standard plotting methods and tweaks them just slightly, starting with a different take on the meaning of certain terminology. That wasn't so bad. But then I'm doing my homework and going along with the knowledge I've had all these years and bam!

Now, she doesn't include this slightly tweaked way of looking at things in her lesson posts... Then you get your homework back with her responses and suggestions and corrections--don't get me wrong, she's very nice and respectful--but boom, you're like WHUT?? Well, I am, anyway. And I'm scratching my head. And I'm thinking, "That's not the way GMC and every other plotting method tells you to do it." Not exactly. She's slightly left of center.

**sigh**

She did encourage us to read everyone's work/lessons, but that's a lot of data for me to parse on top of the lessons themselves, so I haven't. Just been following along with the movie example she's using and asked us to watch prior to class, which I did.

It all makes perfect sense until I try to do it and then, I'm taking a left turn in Albuquerque and she's in Omaha or something. :0)

But I'm really trying this time. I haven't given up even though I'm having to redo lessons. And all her explanations make sense. I understand the shift in thinking and the why of it. Now if I can just figure out how to do this without training wheels, I might could make some progress on more books.

Anyway...back to my homework.

A few posts ago, I mentioned the writing-related books I already had in my ownership. While I haven't giving up reading for pleasure completely, because NO WAY JOSE!, I have stuck with reading for pleasure just before bed as a way to relax and settle down.

I hadn't planned on making this topic a two-parter, but here we are. :0)

So...I re-opened the Save the Cat book and started reading from the beginning. It's been quite helpful and I'm just about done with it. In the meantime, an online friend of mine who offers online writing courses and edits and writes blogs about writing shared with me a recording of one of her classes that covered the same basic concepts as the Save the Cat book. (It was as a thank you for keeping time so often during our daily sprints in the chat room.)

I watched the video and she did indeed parallel a lot of points Blake Snyder made in the Cat Book. The gal in the video fleshed things out a bit more than the text of the book, so that was helpful.

In two days, I start an online class that I know is also going to complement and overlap what I've learned so far. I'm hoping repetition is the key to my success. The class is going to require me to plot a new book from an idea (which I have) rather than work on something in progress. But that could be useful too--starting the process from scratch and building from the ground up.

One of my goals for the year is two publish at least two new books. That means I really have to up my game in certain areas of my writing. Plotting is one of those areas.

Fingers crossed!!

Hope you're having a great week.

See you Friday.

New reading material of the fictional variety that I love so much is hard to come by right now. I think the universe is telling me to change my focus for a bit. I'm hoping my writing will be sparked as well. Those partially-finished books won't complete themselves...

In the interest of improving my craft, I'm switching gears and reading books related to storytelling. I've had a few on the ol' Kindle for a while and have just never gotten through them for whatever the reason was at the time.



First on the docket is Save The Cat by Blake Snyder. It's long been touted in the romance circles and after a speaker we had at my writers group gushed about how it changed her writing for the better, I finally (after over ten years in RWA) bought the damn book. I started it and then summer happened and I never got back to it. But I'm back to it now and even if it doesn't end up being the angels choir for my writing, there's bound to be a take-away or two.


I signed up for a class that I actually took years and years and years ago. I don't think I was ready for it back then. I'm hoping it'll also generate some much-needed sparks for the current works-in-progress.


Once I finish Save the Cat, I'll move on to K.M.Weiland's 5 Secrets of Story Structure. That's another book I began and never made much headway through.

BFF Jenn just bought and recommended yet another book: Story Engineering by Larry Brooks. I'm contemplating that one, but I have another K.M. Weiland book waiting on the Kindle as well as a handful of other random writing-related books. So maybe I ought to read the books I already have and see where that gets me before spending anymore cold hard cash.

That's what I'm up to...hope you're having a good week.

Catch you Friday. :0)

So I moved on from one online class to another in my quest to figure out how to improve my plotting skills.

What I'm learning is that I am not a plotter. Which I sort of knew before. The few times I've actually, really plotted, I didn't have any desire to sit down and write the book because I knew what happened.

So I guess my real purpose in taking classes is to figure out what kind of information I need about my two main characters and possibly the plot in order to start writing.

Class #1 is called Conflict Hurts and the lessons made enough of an impact that this was the second time I took this class. I still like those lessons, though some were a challenge too. They echo a book I read the year before last which also resonated with me.

Class #2 is called Plotting Via Motivation. The lessons start off easily enough and the information we're required to gather about our protagonist/s is good stuff. It's when we got to the part where we needed to summarize the overall plot of the book that I started twitching. I know it's the 20K foot view, but it's not clicking with me. Generalized concepts make little sense to me. I learn much better with specifics. With examples. Sometimes. Even though I've read the other participants' homework, I'm still having trouble coming up with the point by point progression of my own book.

*sigh*

Bear in mind, than much of the info in these two classes and in the book I read is the same, just referred to by different names and explained in a different fashion.

I'll do my best for the rest of the class. Even though I really want to give and quit because it's too hard.

And, YES, I'd love some cheese, thanks. Swiss, sharp cheddar, or pepper jack, please.

On a lighter side note, the weekend was good. My writer's group celebrated it's 35th anniversary and a fun time was had by all. Now it's time to get back to my own work, except...I'm struggling.

But no way out but through.

Have a great week.

There's a definite learning curve to this retailer platform. But Google Play could be a lucrative platform and one I need to figure out. It doesn't appear that either of the major publishing aggregators (Smashwords or Draft2Digital) is able to feed books into the Google Play store at this point, although one of them claimed to. But even if they did, it behooves me to not to use aggregators when I don't have to because I get a bigger piece of the profit pie.

Figuring this platform out sooner rather than later would be better. But as I mentioned last week, January is a bit busy. It's gonna be a month or so until I have more time to get a handle on things. My writing group has started a new program and I might be on the schedule to present a program on where and how to self publish in terms of retailers vs. aggregators. I better know my stuff, huh? Luckily, I won't be called upon for a few more months yet.

Hope you're having a good week. :0)

One of my story-telling goals this year is to make my writing better. I mean, a writer should always be striving to improve his or her writing, so yeah. There's a best-selling, 60+ novels-to-her-name author in my writers group who said in a conversation several months ago that she still works to improve her writing. She's been at this for close to twenty years. If she's still working at it, then I, sure-as-shootin', should be too.

So the questions become--a) improve in what area? and b) how?

I had a vague notion last year and I tried to work on it, but I didn't stick with it. Not that it's an excuse, really, but there was a lot going on and I let my efforts fall by the wayside. I think the issue is intrinsically intertwined with the struggles I've been having in getting the last couple of books written.

So that means I need to figure something out. And quickly.

First thing I figured out is what I need to work on: plotting and conflict. I hate conflict in real life.

I know, I know, who does? Most of you deal with conflict like adults and that's a thing I struggle with. I hate it. I avoid it. I'm better now, but it's still a chore to communicate with the people with whom I have an issue.

So putting my hunky heroes into conflict?? Ugh.

But readers want to read about those same hunky heroes overcoming whatever obstacles stand between them and true love, not just sappy sunshine-and-rainbows-filled treacle. I prefer those kinds of books too--so there you go.


The next thing I need to figure out is where to find/how to create conflict between my heroes. I understand that conflict stems from each character: what their goal is and what baggage they carry, but beyond that, how do I determine what wounds to poke at, what paths to go down, etc. What makes for the strongest and most compelling conflict. Or how do I support the conflict I want to write about?

My options for education are blog posts (usually free), books, (generally not free), classes (generally not free), and brainstorming with others (usually free), and one-on-one consulting sessions (usually expensive).

While I love the concept of brainstorming, I don't have much success with it because I haven't yet found that one person whose thought processes gel with mine. Not that I don't ask for help, because there are still ideas to be gleaned from the effort. And maybe communicating my needs better is a skill I need to learn. But sometimes, I hate imposing on other authors to spend their valuable time on me.

Blogs are good, but sometimes the explanations or concepts are too abstract for me. Straight reading is not my best learning style. Also the posts are higher-level in concept than execution level information. Still helpful though, because adding new concepts and insights is never a bad thing. And one never knows where one will find the the switch that sheds light on everything else.

I like classes because I get a lesson. Information as well as homework and, most importantly, someone to explain more if I don't grasp something. There's also someone to evaluate my efforts and give me feedback.

I took a class last year that I'd love to take again. So I've contacted the author and asked if she's offering it anywhere this year. *fingers crossed*

But coming at an issue (how to develop/build conflict in books) from various viewpoints is a good thing, so I'll keep my eyes open for additional class opportunities on how to write conflict better.

I'm not opposed to books either, but, like blogs, they can be a bit abstract. And they're not cheap, so it could take a lot of frogs, I mean books, until I find something that resonates and makes sense to me. That would get expensive very quickly.

I certainly can't afford a consultation with a professional author--yet. But my writing group is putting together some programs, so maybe I'll get lucky and win a session of some sort or another.

For now, I'll be Google-searching blog posts and using tools already in my toolbox to plot out books 7, 8, and 9.

Wish me luck!

The annual national conference of my writing group is next week. In case you didn't figure it out, it's in San Antonio.

As I mentioned in my post a week or so ago I've only been there once before, but it was a quick trip and DH and I didn't do anything but attend a Brooks & Dunn concert at the county fair. I didn't see anything else but the hotel and the interstate.

Despite it being a conference full of workshops and networking opportunities, I'm going to get from the trip what I want out of it. That being said, there are only two workshops I found of interest for Thursday, so I'm going to at least explore the Riverwalk, on one side of which my hotel sits. Can't not go, right? I'm right there. I have some time. It's an opportunity.

Friday and Saturday I'll attend workshops and spend time in the lobby and bar meeting people and networking even though it's really not my forte. I need to drum up some proofing business... Hopefully, I'll get to spend some time with Robin Perini, an author I've been doing some work for. I can't wait to see her again.

Since I'm not normally around a lot of people, I'll also probably spend some time alone the hotel room. Too much sensory input otherwise. I know it's only four days, but I've got to go the distance and I hate feeling out of sorts physically or emotionally, so--

And since it's Friday, hope you have a great weekend!

Since the discovery of the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcasts, I've been on a learning binge. Not only with the podcasts, but I caught up on some TED talks, I'm watching documentaries (primarily) on the British monarchy, and am researching various topics for some writing.

I'm not sure how much of all this information I'll remember, but I can't help but think I'll remember some of it. On the other hand, it doesn't much matter. The act of learning, of soaking up information keeps my brain active and helps fight dementia. Well, it sounds plausible anyway. Not saying I'm pre-disposed or anything, but you know, the niggling worry sometimes pops up so anything I can do to keep the brain active and working seems like a good idea.

There's also a website (and applicable device apps) called Lumosity which is supposed to help improve brain cognition abilities. Basically the brain's ability to learn. So I went through the assessment and it turns out you have to pay to access/use your specially designed training program. Hmmm... Not sure I want to pay for that. Won't crossword puzzles and word searches and Sudoku work just as well? Maybe, maybe not. The subscription rates are low, but still... I'll think about it and let you know.



Another thing I like to think helps me is Rock Band. I primarily play to spend time with my kids. They generously invite to play with them and those opportunities will be non-existent in just a few short months. But...I've thought often that there's no reason I can't keep playing on my own. The exercise of beating the correct drum pad or multiple pads in synch as directed by the game seems like another good way to keep my brain (as well as my body) working. If you play at a harder difficulty which generally increases the speed at which you play, it could be considered a mini-workout too. :) At least for the drum players.

So what do you do to keep those aging neurons firing and in shape?

Last time I posted a wishful Wednesday, I talked about how I'd love to be able to put up a privacy fence around the rest of my yard.

This time, I'm changing direction, and this wish requires way more money and people way smarter than me to take this dream and make it a reality.

So what is this wish, you ask...

A school!



It's no big secret that our educational system has many many issues, and my wish here (if you're gonna dream, you may as well dream BIG, right???) is to create an environment that not only teaches children what they need to know knowledge-wise and then some, but also how society works. I know you're probably wondering what I mean by that and I'll tell you eventually or it may become clear as I ramble.

But let's start with the school...I want it to be birth to twelfth grade. Interesting concept, huh? The reason for that is not because I want to start teaching kids that young but because I want the older kids to have access/exposure to younger children of all ages.

I want no politics. I'm not sure how to pull that off, but this school is about the kids. About how to educate them to the best of our ability. Not about making more money or becoming principle or getting on the school board. I mean those things are not bad in and of themselves, but if that's a teacher or an administrator's primary focus, they're in the wrong place.

The last thing I'm gonna mention as part of my ideal school is I want kids to be tested and then placed in classrooms with like-learning peers and be taught the way they learn best. Sonshine is an auditory learner. If he hears it (a couple of times), he knows it. So lecturers are his ideal teachers. Me--not so much. DD and I like to have instructions and the ability to do the thing.

So what do you think?

I have a lot of other plans and ideas to cover at some point, and I hope you'll share your own.

Well, my boy has his school schedule which includes marching band, JROTC, and hopefully baseball (he's trying to transfer in), not to mention three pre-AP/honors classes. The boy will be busy. Which makes his momma happy. Mainly because if he's busy with with school activities, he's less likely to find some other troublesome way of keeping busy.

Of course, with his history of homework the past two years, I'll be riding him hard about getting it done and asking for help when he doesn't understand something. Not that we haven't done that in years past, but this isn't Kansas anymore, Toto. I've tried to impress upon him that while middle school was important this is HIGH SCHOOL and he can't really afford the mistakes or to make the choices he made last year. I know he's smart enough. (The boy can memorize almost anything he hears enough times and then recite it back verbatim. If only he'd apply that effort a bit more to school work.)

Speaking of classes, I'm taking couple, too. A writer is always learning better and new ways to wield their pen, er...keyboard and to tell their story. When you're a beginner, the learning curve is huge. As you grow as a writer, you learn various lessons about writing, the requirements of the genre you've chosen, etc...but even once you become published, there's always something new to learn. Not that I'm there.

I'm no longer a beginner, but I still have a lot to learn. I recently joined a second writers group, Savvy Authors, in order to participate in their Summer Symposium since I couldn't afford to attend the RWA National Conference. ($30 vs $1500, hm...) They offer classes and chats and workshops. Some free, some requiring a small additional fee.

Right now I'm taking a class on "Life in a Medieval Castle" and one called "Cracking the Romance Code." I'm always in search of the light bulb moment for things I still struggle with. Hopefully, I'll have one with the second class. The first is more informational as I'm working on a historical set in the 1100s. I've also participated in a couple of the free chats, one about utilizing online social networking sites to get my name out there and promote myself and eventually my work. But I have to admit, I still really don't get the Twitter thing.

Well, that second class started already, so I better go check it out...try to have that light bulb moment.

What exciting thing have you learned recently?

I'm taking an online writing class over the course of the next couple of weeks called 'Challenging Couples in Love' presented by Laurie Schnebly Campbell.

Our second assignment was to describe our hero & heroine in 75 words or less. Thankfully, Laurie included an example. However, as I was trying to do my homework and describe my happy couple (and the story), I suddenly realized that I didn't know their individual goals, motivations, and conflicts. Yikes! That must be why I hit a snag in the writing. I had been going great guns, but now I'm at a loss... Could it be because I really don't know what my hero and heroine want and why they want it? You betcha!

This part is always hardest for me--so back to the plotting board.

But now, when I sit down to plot the third story in this little trilogy, I'll know where I need to start.

When beginning a new story, what's the hardest part for you?