#Writerly Wednesday Beauty When It Blooms #writing

Beauty, when it blooms, takes my breath away. It doesn't "burst" but unfolds with a simple kind of grace that not all things have. In a way, that's how my writing process often is. It doesn't burst onto the scene always, but infiltrates my mind slowly, sometimes slower than molasses on a cold winter morning, but, things begin to take shape and sometimes it's the most beautiful awe-inspiring thing to me when bits and pieces of a character start to come to life.

A little while back, I posted about my eagerness to start the next story, except for the research I need to do and that I'm getting bits and pieces of background info, like things about the heroine's grandmother. The other night, after working to clean the bathroom, kitchen and living room and wearing myself out so severely that I woke up every hour in bodily pain, I started "brainstorming" in my sleep.

Yes, I guess brainstorming it is, as I wasn't technically dreaming anything, but for several hours before I awoke, my brain worked out a BUNCH of background info on my heroine, who was otherwise a stranger to me. I mean, I know more about the hero. He is the baby brother of the other Pryce brothers, so he's made his appearances, albeit, most the time brief, but he's there and I know his family. The heroine was a complete stranger to me, until more recently and as her background and past begin to bloom for me, even in the deepest and darkest of the night, I feel exhilarated that "she" is showing me who she is, where she's from, the life she had before the story begins.

And from the looks of it, her past is haunting her with significant losses and rebellion in her youth. Her past is not going to be spotless. Not that all my characters pasts are, but this one seems exceptionally dark considering she's a surfer, but then, I'm starting to understand that surfing isn't just something she loves doing- its also her escape and her sanctuary. It's a dangerous sport, but one that brings her momentary peace from her demons, and its the thing she has just for her that saved her life after all the tragedy in her youth. No one else in her life, up until now, understands it, but Mark will and it's just making me SO SUPER excited to start writing their story!!!

(Laugh if you want, but the swell of excitement about starting a new story has brought me to tears this afternoon. It feels so good to be this excited about writing again!)

And thank heavens Mercury is back direct! I feel the shift, the movement of forward motion again in my life, and writing...and it's about time.

Hope you're having a wonderful Hump Day!

~I can see the weekend from here~

Hello! My Name is Pantser

From where I sit, I see the mist...

The other day I was checking out a blog over on Fresh Fiction.com because of an interview Joan Swan (a debut author of Fever due out at the end of February) was having with Cindy Gerard for a discussion on setting goals and having a book giveaway. I left no comment, as I'm not a registered member. I clicked the link Cindy had posted just to check out what was being discussed and though the book giveaway sounded nice, the thing that stopped me was Joan's take on writing. The very thought has stuck with me for the past few days—

Here is what Joan had to say....

Now, my goal setting techniques are a lot like my plotting techniques. I write (and set goals) into the mist. It's similar to the panster way of writing, but with a tad more structure. The best way to describe it is that I'm standing a point, looking forward. I can only see so far—to where the landscape gets a little fuzzy (that's the mist). I write (or set a goal) to the farthest distance I can see, then set out for it. I know where I am, I know where I'm headed, and if time is an important factor, I have a rough idea of how long it will take me to get there. And somewhere, out there beyond my scope of visibility, is an end point. In a story, that might be the next chapter, the next act or, if we're uber lucky, The End. It's the same with goals for me.

I really like her take on how she writes into the mist. I am a bit more structured when I write, too, though I don't plot at all but I kind of take it as far as I can see into the mist myself and her sentiment really rang true to me, so I just had to share that small gleaning of commonality. Her debut novel also sounds intriguing (title links to the amazon page for it)

Anyway, the first thing this sentiment made me think of was one of my favorite quotes about writing—

It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
~E.L. Doctorow~

It's amazing how often I forget that other authors out there are really, truly just like me. We all are traveling this road to reach similar destinations and I think we all enjoy our own method of getting there. Just as some cannot type a single word without a clearly defined outline, there are also those of us who want to walk into the mist, taking that mysterious journey with our characters as they make the journey as well. Either way, I think that's what is so exciting for us.

Writing revs our engines, fills us with a need for the adventures that lay ahead and whether we use a road map or just jump in the car and drive with only a few little clues as to where we're going, we still know we're going to make it to our chosen destination just the same, with all the little bumpy scenic routes along the way.

This felt very appropriate for this blog today— Into the Mystic—

Here's to lovely travels today my friends. Stop by tomorrow to check out what's on the roster for Fun Feature Friday.

WIPlash Wednesdays-Question from Marlo

WIPlash....it's what I get when I work with on my current novel(s)-

Unlike the real word "whiplash"- I'm putting a new spin on it.

WIP= Work In Progress Lash- the flexible part of a "WIP"

Wednesdays are also flexible. They're not quite so stressful as Monday, but not nearly as exciting or as looked forward to as Friday and the weekend. It's a nice little in-between to take inventory of where you've been and where you're heading.

WIPlash Wednesdays will be that place for me in my writing. It will be a day to take inventory of what I've done on my current manuscript, whether it be writing, editing, or whatnot. It will also be a nice place to just answer questions from friends and family about my life "as a writer." Questions that other writers also get from family and friends or curious strangers and their readers. Eventually I'll probably pool all the questions and my answers into a FAQs section on my website, but for now, I'll just be flexible and go with the flow.

Hopefully soon though, I'll be adding word count to my meter again(I added 3,046 new words to my WIP just the other night), working through various manuscripts, and talking again about the thrill and excitement of creating, of actually getting words on paper (or on screen, as the case may be.) I have more stories to tell and many miles to go before I sleep.

Today's WIPlash will include a question from one of my friends on FB. Of course, as my fellow writers can attest, these questions remain the same, but the answers are usually as personal and as individual as the writer who answers it and those answers vary tremendously among all of us in the writing industry.

Here's my take on one question. I think I'm going to get long winded on this question, so bare with me. Other questions will follow on other WIPlash Wednesdays in the coming weeks.

From Marlo- I've always wondered how writers come up with their characters.

My characters come to me in a variety of ways.

Catherine, from Castaway Hearts, came to me via, of all things, a Myspace background in 2006, which I'll touch more on when I post my blog in a few weeks that introduces her. (not sure who this image actually belongs to, but this is where Catherine really started to come to life in my mind)
See, though the story came to me via this "black & blue" image, Catherine Barrett had actually existed on paper since I was a teenager. I wrote what I considered the introductory couple of pages—just one sheet, front and back, but I never got any farther than her stepping up the planks of her grandfather's ship. I knew the story was historical, I knew she was going to sail away to a new world she was not accustomed to, but I hadn't yet dreamed what that story would possibly be. The image above helped bring Catherine from my past to the present. It haunted me as I'd lay down to go to sleep at night. This girl was so forlorn, so heartbroken and I knew the ghostly ship meant something, but what?

But what of all the other characters? Some were born when I gave them names, and their personalities bloomed from there. Literally. Others, names just came to me and I just already knew what kind of person they were and still others, a name has come to me, but they are playing coy and keeping their secrets about themselves a mystery for now.

In my Love By series, the four sisters originally started out as individual book ideas, single titles. There wasn't going to be a series, but their names all seemed "flowery" and this formed a synapse in my brain that said they HAVE to go together, those characters are SISTERS!

Some authors name characters and give them characteristics based on their names, the origins of the names, based on the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of their characters but I go on gut instinct a lot in choosing names. The wrong name can make or break the character, or do little more than create a block when it comes to writing them as they should be. The right name that suits a character feels like it fits them like a second skin, blends with who they are and makes writing and reading them a pleasure.

Tune in next Wednesday for more and questions from Mary Ellen & Katie!

Feel free to leave me more questions in the comments here at anytime.
I'll be happy to answer them.

Happy Hump Day! I can see the weekend from here!

How Could I Do It?!?!?

Again, I didn't write as much yesterday as I planned to- I got my total up to 37,505 yesterday, writing just over 4K instead of surpassing my goal for the day. I was just too tired to wrap my mind around it until yesterday evening.

I only have about 12-13K left to go before I hit 50K. I feel like I'm floundering a bit, faltering and a little weary that the story will end before I hit 50K. I suppose if that happens, I can go back and add more detail and description to the story in places I might've overlooked it before during my crazed writing woman typing.

But then last night, I started crying after a significantly poignant scene that ended one of the chapters. I started bawling when I realized what had happened. I had only "sort of" seen it coming and after it happened all I could think was "How could I do it?!?!?!"

I got my MC shot- as it turns out, only a flesh wound, but dang...I scared myself and gave rise to fear and sadness in my own heart once I was finished with that scene. It felt vivid enough to me that I could see it in my mind's eye.

I almost think my novel has turned somewhat into more than just a romance...it was romantic suspense there for a bit, while this last part played out. In some ways I feel like this should be almost over, but at the same time, I'm still waiting- There has to be more to the story. Besides the fact that after I got through what I DID have loosely plotted, I ended up giving my characters the reins and they took it in a very different direction than I had thought it would go. I have a scene that was part of my plotting process, though it was going to come later in the story. Now it appears that it probably won't happen. I'm actually surprised at that revelation. It's no longer pertinent to the story, nor would it be that I can see. Maybe I can work it in, in a round about way, but it would only be the remnants of that idea rather than the one I had originally thought of.

I'm also still unsure of how things will pan out in the end, but that's ok. Sometimes it's better to let my characters lead the way, to let them tell me their story.

Hope everyone has a lovely Friday. I'm off to write on and keep going...

37,505K/50,000K