Building on an Idea

I've been reading several blogs lately - rather than writing anything of my own I've been investigating what others have to say about the writing process.

I'm finding the Romance Writers community to be the most caring, loyal and giving community I've come across.

What I've learned over the last few weeks is:
unless you are either really REALLY lucky, or REALLY talented, you are not going to sell the first piece you write. And that's ok!
I've also found that you will learn something from everything you do, whether it is a short story, a long one, a poem, a book you read, a blog entry, an article for a professional journal etc. etc.

I've been published - and while it isn't a romance novel, it is a professional article for a technology blog. I'm happy about it because it's part of me to write those, and I'm learning a lot from writing them. But it isn't the only kind of writing I want to do so I have to find time to keep working on it.

As far as my blog title, I've decided that I'm going to build on the idea I've got about starting with the end and then moving to the beginning. I know I've read it and it works successfully for some stories. So I'd like to give it a try for me and see if I can make it work.

I visited a blog lately that discussed the use of dialogue and I found it to be extremely helpful. You can visit it here: http://www.trishwylie.blogspot.com/ and look at the two articles on dialogue.

I'm going to do an exercise shortly that begins with dialogue and then as shown in the article, I can add details to describe feelings, movement, location, and facial hmmm....what is it I want to say here...facial reactions I think. That will help me practice my skills of dialogue and scene building at the same time.

This seems like a fun exercise so I'll post my before and after to see how it goes.

Can I Pout a Little More?????

I'm trying not to do too much. I'm laying on the sofa, watching TMN (icky movies on and not interested in Judge Judy - some people are SO pathetic it makes me glad I'm not like that), I'm working on not jarring the back much and surfing the net, chatting online with my friends and reading some blogs.

I have read 17 blogs by women who have attended the RWA Conference in Atlanta and I am VERY VERY SAD.

I want to be one of those girls. I want to attend and meet, greet, learn, laugh and live a little...

Do I have to have a whole bunch of stuff to be part of this? I'm still learning the ropes, although I am looking into becoming a member of the RWA, I have to say, I've been waiting almost a week to get a response to an email I sent to the Toronto Romance Writers chapter. Can you say disappointed?

I realize that not everyone lives on an email high like I do, but really, it takes only a few seconds to reply to an email...wait, maybe my email found its way into the spam filter???? Could be!

**pausing for effect and giving it some thought** Yes, It is possible.

But it doesn't make me feel any less like I'm NOT missing out - because reading these blogs about the conference I know I am.

SO - from this point forward, I think my goal is to write write write, read read read, communicate with others and make it to the next conference!

Oh - I'm so pathetic *laughing out loud*

Looking Deeper into the Devil

I went to see The Devil Wears Prada and I really enjoyed it. Meryl Streep is amazing as always.

I admit I've never read the book so I cannot make any comparisons - so for my next read, I'm going to get it from the bookstore and read it.

I have an appointment for my back today and I've been struggling with the rececnt passing of my grandfather, so I find I'm not able to concentrate on writing what I really want to write. Instead I've jotted down some of my thoughts and feelings over the last few days.

There is no direction to what I've written, but I've started to review it. It's quite raw really, my feelings hanging out so I'm not sure it's anything I could ever share. But I do have a few things that could be effectively written into stories and I may just have to find a way to include one or two snippets in a work.

Well - I'm off to my appointment.

Crime Time

Oh, I think I want to go, but I'm not sure I can as I'll be finishing up my FIRST summer vacation in over 5 years...yup, we're going to Sauble Falls to spend some quality time, canoe, maybe head up to Tobermory and do a Glass Bottom Boat tour, eat lots of S'Mores, and drink an ice cold beverage or two! (doubt there will be much coffee that week)

Anyway, even though I may not be able to go (we'll see, I would REALLY like to go so I might be able to finess my way there) I wanted to make sure that others knew about it and could go.

This event is in support of the Port Hope library, and we all want to support our local libraries...so, here are the details:

Wed, Aug 30, noon
Rotary Park (beside the Public Library, 31 Queen St.)Port Hope, ON·
Join GAIL BOWEN for the launch of her 10th Joanne Kilbourn
mystery, The Endless Knot (M&S). Gail will be doing a free reading (books
will be available for purchase and signing), but why not stay on for a summer
picnic luncheon with her. Tickets are $5 in advance from the Port Hope Public
Library or $6 at the door. For more info or to purchase picnic tickets, contact
the library at library@porthope.ca or by phone at 905-885-4712.

I'll post if I'm going to be able to make it.

A Writer's Tool

Recently on a few of my frequently visited blogs, I have seen a number of posts regarding research. I want to share an excellent tool that I'm using to help keep all my information for each work together and organized.

For those of you not already familiar with the wonderful tool, I wanted to share it so you could take advantage of it. There is a 60 or 90 day free trial of it online at Micrsoft.com .

OneNote is one of the best tools I have ever used. I use it for home, for work, for writing. It's excellent for keeping all kinds of information stored in tabs which you can liken to a binder with tabs in it. There are several different templates that will allow you to keep information - for example there is an excellent template for book reviews, meeting notes for when you interview someone, and you can cut and paste everything into it, pictures, website urls etc. etc.

I HIGHLY recommend that you take a look at this tool. It is quite reasonably priced as far as an organization tool goes. Take a look at it and I'm sure you will also find it to be something you can use.

**Special note though you are not able to use OneNote 2003 together with OneNote 2007 the new beta version out there which I absolutely LOVE**

I even use it to organize my blog articles (even though I still forget to spell check!!!) and I use it to keep notes on all of my clients, their server settings, the software etc because it is so easy and it goes with me everywhere! I am certain you will find this tool to be a most welcome addition to your software collection.

Google Search Gets H-O-T

So, as an update, it's a bulging disk...and I hurt like hell...but alas, the world moves on and so must I...*giggles softly so as not to cause a jarring*

I wanted to post something today because of my sitemeter results...I thought other writers may want to get a bit of a giggle out of this...

There were several visits from my family and friends all over Ontario, a couple visits from my fellow American friends, and one that struck me as odd.

It was from the Netherlands. The referrer was google. I thought, I better see what they were looking for. And when I saw it - unfortunately I had just taken a very large sip of my extra-large coffee with cream from Williams Coffee pub, because I spewed the coffee, all over the place. Luckily, I didn't jar anything, my back is ok right now, but my computer's not doing so well.

What was it they were looking for? Hot Between the Legs...yes, that is correct, hot + between + the + legs!

What the heck would they find here on that topic??? It's not like I'm an erotica queen or anything like that! (ok in my dreams maybe)

I had a peek around though and then it hit me. Oh - right - you see I had totally forgotten that I had done an entry about the fact that my new laptop fan keeps you cool when you are hot between the legs!

It's amazing what the internet can do for us...and you know, it also explains why the visit was only 0 seconds long.

If only I could stop giggling-----------

A Pain in the ...

Yes, that's right, I'm saying it loud and clear.

I have a pain in the ...hmmm, neck - no, not today *turning my head from side to side* feels pretty good today, shoulders - they are good too...my feet don't hurt and my arms aren't tired and tingling today from all the typing...good sign.

Nope, the problem is a pain in my ass. It's causing me great bouts of discomfort, and I can't sit or stand for long periods of time.

My doctor took x-rays of my hips and spine and it appears there may be a bulging disc that is causing my at times excrutiating pain. So she's sending me for a second opinion, and she's requesting an MRI...

I wanted to complete some more of my ideas. Right now I've got what I think is a good opening, but I really want to make some changes to it as I came up with this idea that I'd change the opening to be a critical point in the story, then backtrack to the past, and work my way through to where the story begins, then of course, face the climax (is that a pun, I'm not sure yet!) *Jac is giggling loudly* and end the book just after where the story opens.

Now I just have to figure out how to write while neither standing or sitting and I'll be on my way.

Description Service

We had one WICKED thunder and lightning storm yesterday.

I stood watching, enthralled by the way the rain pounded onto the pavement and listening to the thunder roll and crash across the sky. The lightning lit the heavens like a spike of white light streaking over rooftops.

As I watched the rain get harder, the lightening get brighter and flash more often, and heard the thunder boom and rattle overhead, I thought about adding in to a story.

Then I remembered I had read on another blog somewhere, and I'm sorry I don't remember where, that giving yourself a task, a short piece of writing, can hone your skills when you have a weak area. My weak area right now, beside - well, everything, is descriptions.

In thinking about the storm yesterday I wondered how many descriptive words I could use to describe, the rain, how it dropped, huge tears pelted the earth unrelenting, puddling on the grass into murky brown pools, riccoched dangerously off cars, and spattered through the screen of the window...and the thunder, how it crackled, boomed, sighed and sounded so angry-unforgiving, then the lightning, how it flashed across the sky like a deadly beacon of electric fire blinding me with its power.....

So - how would you describe rain, thunder and lightning? How would you make it feel real to someone who wasn't there to experience it?

And this is my corner

So I was mentioning that I have been working outside the last few days.

I thought I'd like to show you what my little corner looks like...there is a finch feeder behind my chair and this morning we had two cardinals chase away the chickadees. As you can see, my husband has been sitting beside me. We must look a sight - what geeks we are!

I use a travel mug to keep my coffee warm while I work outside. It's not as sunny today as it has been, but it's still hot thank goodness for the breeze!)
Well I have to report that I've written 1700 words this morning. I was really on a roll and feeling really good about what I've written. Even when I re-read what I'd done so far I thought it was an amazing start.

While I am motivated, I should really get back to it. We're getting our water heater replaced this afternoon and I think I can make something out of the character that's replacing it...he'd make a great bad guy!

Location, Location, Location

Yes, it may be a fictional town, but its mine...all mine.

I couldn't write yesterday. I got a few sentences, which I know is better than nothing, but I wasn't able to concentrate. Hubby is on holiday, my daughter is being a brat (when I was her age, we were NEVER in the house in the summer. We played hide and seek, jumped rope, walked to the corner store for candy, I swear if she leaves the house it is only for baseball!)
and I am stressing just a little about my day job.

*sigh* When we were kids life seemed so simple didn't it?

Anyway, that's off topic. I got up really early this morning because I was supposed to drive into Toronto to meet with a client for 8 am, but the meeting has been cancelled (only this morning AFTER I was already up) so I grabbed my laptop, got my coffee in a nice travel mug to keep it warm, wiped the dew off my lounge chair, turned the cushion and am now sitting in my back yard, enjoying the cool morning, the sound of rush hour and the chirping of birds. Oh wait, then there is the sound of the screaming kid from behind us. If Johnny was my kid....yeah, he really is a Johnny.

So I went to sleep last night dreaming about my town. Not the town I live in, but my story town. I had a map in my mind of the location of my town, a nice name for my town, and it includes so many of the places I love about my own town...names have all been changed to protect the guilty *sly smile*.

I even drew a map.

It got me wondering, if your story contains a lot of geographical references, do you create a map too? Do you base your locations on real places, or maybe you envision a soap opera type stage. What's it like for you when you want to make references in your book to places of interest? I know that not a lot of novels in the romance genre really care about the location and the authors tend to keep place references generic, like "they drove to the hospital" or "she went to the corner and turned into the Market lot" or "She stopped at Jacqui's CoffeeBar" places, but no real locations if you know what I mean.

Tell me, what do you do about location?

The Edge of my Concious

Maybe the isn't exactly the title for this post, but in a way, I suppose it fits.

We visited a friend in Toronto last night, went to dinner and a movie, had a really nice time, and stayed WAY later than I had planned.

I don't sleep in moving vehicles. It has something to do with not being able to see my life flash before my eyes if there is a crash but that's for another time.

As I was very tired, and my eyes were very heavy, I decided to try different things to keep my mind from wondering over that line between sleep and awake. I was just barely concious of where we were, how fast we were driving, how many vehicles were around us. The music, one of my favourite artists, Duncan Shiek played softly in the background as I watched an RV with four bikes on the back drive by.

I often like to imagine where they are from, where they are going, what they've seen on their vacation, are they fugitives (**giggles a little too loudly**). It makes the time pass much faster and I find that I get some good ideas for places, actions, modes of transportation and of course for reasons people do the things they do.

Last night while I was bordering on the edge, I had a wonderful idea creep into my head.

This usually isn't a bad thing, as I find the more ideas that I have the more I can choose what project I want to work on.

The timing on this idea however, couldn't have been any worse.

Since we were going to a friend's for dinner and the movie, I decided to clean out my purse. In cleaning out my purse I removed THREE, yes THREE critical items that would have been very helpful to me.

• facial tissues mini pack
• my notebook/pen combo
• my digital recorder

I had to resort to using the inside of a Dentyne gum pack to jot down the idea. Cinnamon.

Now if only my idea can prove to be as hot as the gum inside the wrapping.

Hotter than Hot

Yes, it is the warmest weekend of the summer season thus far. Man is it H-O-T in the S-U-N (if I say it I'll feel like I'm swearing).

We have central air, but we're keeping the temperature at just livable so that we don't cause rolling brown outs or black outs like what happened when the grid collapsed a couple of years ago.

I have been working on alternatives to keeping cool and yet still enjoy the outdoors. We have a lovely rear yard that is mostly shade through the day. I sat out for a good portion of the day yesterday in my chaise, listening to the birds come to the new feeder I put up...We've got yellow and purple finches, chick-a-dees, cardinals, some black things I don't know what they are, and something that has quite a sad sound that I can hear but can't see.

This morning I decided I wanted to bring my laptop outside with me and do some writing while I enjoy the breeze and shade, sights and sounds of my yard. It's not quite as breezy as yesterday but lovely none the less. My husband also wanted to bring his laptop outside and make use of the wireless internet I setup. The problem is we have no power outlets on the outside of our house or in our yard.

My husband, handy as he is, created an outdoor power outlet (like an extension cord but visualize a power outlet from your house) that he connected to an outdoor extension cord which is plugged into our office and hangs out the window. No one can see it so it's ok. We have the extension cord running about 25 feet and then the outdoor outlet connects both our laptops and voila! We have power.

It's wonderful. Now if only I could figure out how to get my coffee pot out here too.......

The Name Game

So what's in a name...

it's odd how the characters of a good story can suit the name they are given, much like in real life different people really do meet the expectations or preconceived ideas we have based on their name.

I remember growing up we had a neighbour named Trevor. Trevor was just a little feminine, but he was such a nice guy it made it difficult to not be his friend.

Not that long ago, I recall being in my local grocery store hearing a mother call to her child using the name Trevor.

I was not at all shocked to see that my vision of a child named Trevor hadn't changed. Even this young lad was a bit feminine looking and not at all someone I would associate with playing sports or other male ritualistic-type actions.

Here's something to try next time you go into your favourite bookstore.

Pick a book, any book (but I would prefer a wonderful romantic story).
Now before you read the teaser at the back of the book, skim through for the character names.
What visual do you get when you read the name of the character. Do you associate their name immediately with someone you know? Do you give them some of the same physical features?

I am writing this because:

1. I am stuck and don't know where to begin
2. the names of the characters are really hard for me - I have a visual, but I just can't find appropriate names
3. I'm feeling a bit lazy this morning and I just wanted to do something creative to see if I could get the juices flowing

Now that I've got my fingers limbered up on the keyboard like a pianist warms up before they play, I believe I may be ready to begin.

The Theory of Love - Stacy Dawn

Now Available from The Wild Rose Press (www.thewildrosepress.com): The Theory of Love by Stacy Dawn

Abbey's doubts about her friend's sparks and fireworks theory only grow
when a set-up date turns into a no-show dud. Vowing never to let her friend set
her up again, the last thing she expects is a jean-clad dancing plant putting
the theory to the test!

To purchase, A Theory of Love, or for more information on Stacy and her upcoming releases please visit www.thewildrosepress.com/ or www.stacydawn.com.

Please support Stacy by purchasing this work. Best wishes and congratulations Stacy.

The Move is complete

Yes, the move from my old blog site to this one is now complete with only a few minor issues to contend with...it makes me so happy that I have Dreamweaver as it made editing this blogskin so much easier than trying to figure out the html stuff.

Of course there were still a few pieces I had to add in, and I had to adjust the comments and insert the tags for the profiles...my links still aren't finished, but all in all, I like my new home here at Blogger.

I'm not going to dis my former blogsite, I am just going to say that I moved because I felt that my needs wer enot being met there and I was looking for a fresh start, a clean slate, a new place to lay my dripping umbrella...it poured here today. No thunder and lightening though so that was good! Thunder and Lightening generally indicate my server will go down and if that happens I can't work from home. I know, I know - I need a new UPS but who wants to spend the money?

anyway, I'm off to make some dinner and maybe chill with a nice glass of wine before I try to get my documents together for tomorrow morning (another early meeting in the big 'smoke'.

Can you say LUCKY ME?

Beginning Again

I decided to follow a simple plan to begin again - the last item I was writing wasn't going where I wanted it to so I've saved the file to a backup disc and I'll look at it again in the future.

Here are the few steps I want to get done by Monday:

1. a sentence describing my story
2. four characters - with at least a half page description for each
3. I need a mystery to solve - a half page idea behind the mystery

So - wish me luck. I know I've got a busy weekend, but I really want to find some time to do this.

Tomorrow is going to be work work work and Thrusday as well - then Friday who knows, but I think there is yet another baseball tournament for our girl but I can always take a writing pad with me just incase something that happens there sparks some interest or gives me some dialogue to work with.

Get a Fan and Cool Yourself Off!

I like to work on my laptop in bed.

That way it's handy if I wake up in the middle of the night it's close by.

PROBLEM: my laptop gets hot on my legs and I can't use my laptop very long. I don't like to be hot between the legs unless I know I'm gonna get some action down there...and with the hours my husband works, I don't get much action there during the week.

SOLUTION: I bought myself a cool fan. It's flat about half an inch high and my laptop sits on top of it. There are two fans that draw the hot air from the bottom of my laptop and blows the air out the back. It keeps the laptop cool on my lap, on my desk, on the wood table that was starting to get marked by the heat.

SO - if you are like me and you like to write with your laptop on your lap, get one of these laptop cooling fans. Mine is called a Notebook Chill Mat(TM) by Targus. It was $35 at the Office Depot.

Protagonist Problems

Definition:
Protagonist:
Pronunciation: prO-'ta-g&-nist
Function: noun
Etymology: Greek prOtagOnistEs, from prOt- prot- + agOnistEs competitor at games, actor, from agOnizesthai to compete, from agOn contest, competition at games

1 a : the principal character in a literary work (as a drama or story) b : a leading actor, character, or participant in a literary work or real event
2 : a leader, proponent, or supporter of a cause : Champion

Here's my dilemma, in romantic fiction does the protagonist always have to be the female lead? I've been researching and I can't seem to find too many romatic books that have the man as the protaganist. I did find one, which I actually found to be an amazing read. It was Northern Lights by Nora Roberts. I actually thought this book more like her works as J.D. Robb, but felt it was very refreshing to read it. I have actually read it twice in the last three weeks because I really liked it.

Do I think I am talented enough to write with the man as the lead?

I'm not that "in touch" with my masculine side.

BLOCKed

Writer's block.

Never thought I'd suffer from it, but I've been trying to force myself to write since I have some time.

Nothing is coming. I can't even get a clear picture in my mind of any of my main characters so there isn't even a chance to get some planning done for my story.

Yes, I keep calling it a story because I don't know if it will be a short story or a novel. I am of course aiming for a novel, but I'll settle for any words right now!

Since I'm suffering from the lack of creative juices flowing from my brian to my keyboard, I thought I'd try to find something stimulating on iTunes.

I found the neatest channels in the radio links for Talk radio...there are a couple of channels dedicated to one of my favourite things! OTR! That's right - Old Time Radio - all the best shows from the era before television, where families would sit together around the radio and listen to stories, letting their minds draw the scenes, and their imaginations fill in all the details, scents and colours!

Those were the days...and I'm really enjoying listening to the Mystery channel. They had the radio play for "Lifeboat" on and amazing as this sounds, that movie was just on TMN last week! I watched it and it is one of my favourites!

Ah, I'm off to listen to Dragnet! Hmm...maybe my next male character should be based on Jack Webb's Friday!

Canada's Day

Happy Canada Day!

I wonder why it is that a story that includes Independence Day is much more accepted than a story that would write up about Canada Day?