Inspiration

Inspiration for writers is a fickle thing, I think. I get some of my absolutely best ideas when I'm not even trying to think about the. Like that last time this happened to me, I was outside walking the baby and talking to her about my WIP (b/c she's obviously very interested). Then again, today I was jogging and thought up a great idea for a plot! It has both the elements of stories I'm most interested in: romance and therapy!

Then I got to thinking if I've pigeonholed myself with these two elements. My current WIP is a suspense, but the ideas I have floating around in my head (which I'll write down later on tonight before bed in my idea journal) don't necessarily have to do with suspense - although that element could be worked in, I suppose. I kind of did that with my current WIP.

Anyway...cheers to the unexpected, un-sought-after ideas that Providence just springs upon you.

Synopses

Two days ago, I wrote my first synopsis for the Genesis contest. Amazingly difficult to do. Condensing a 90,000-100,000 novel to one single-spaced page? Man, you really have to know your stuff. You have to know exactly where you are going with the story, and exactly how you are going to get there. You have to know who your main characters are and who the extraneous ones are that you don't have to include.

You want to be able to wrap it all up by the end of the page, but not give absolutely every little tidbit away. Ideally, the person reading it would be intrigued enough to want to request a partial or full manuscript.

The consensus from my crit partners was that I did a pretty good job. I felt good about it, which is good. But I'm very anxious to get my feedback from the judges, regardless of how I do in the actual contest. The feedback is what I'm entering for.

So, here's to the Genesis contest submissions and my first synopsis!

Let the Rhythm Move You

I just finished typing a fairly intense scene when my hero's foil comes into the picture. It was kinda fun to do (as writing is fun for me, anyway) because the hero meets this man under false circumstances, thinking he is something he is not. Which is always fun for the reader! So I'd write a bit and then read it, asking myself if it would work for the reader or if it wasn't feasible.

And the rhythm just moves me! I love it when things are clicking and I'm pumping out quality pages at a decent rate. Man...it's such a great feeling! Even stopping to take the time to reread and tweak it here or there doesn't stop the rhythm. I guess I'm lucky in the respect, because it helps me. I've heard of others who absolutely have to write everything first before going back to edit or revise. But I've just never had that problem to get back to it.

Okay...now I'm singing that song from C&C Music Factory "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)." Oh, yeah.

Reference Books

I never thought about needing reference books for writing before a few months ago. I reread certain books that struck me as fantastic, and that was about it. But recently, I've been buying several resources to help with the writing craft.

So now that I have these touted books on how to write better, I find myself in a quandary. I'm only allotted so much free time in a given day to write/read/edit/blog/email/etc. I find the motivation is around 20% or lower to read books that don't disengage me from my life as I know it. By this, I mean, books that don't have a plot and characters (i.e., these self-help writing books!). When I do put aside my computer from writing, I want to read books that make me laugh with a character that did something I totally would have done! Self-Editing for the Fiction Writer just doesn't cut it when I'm in that sort of mood.

So I'm realizing the sacrifice that is needed here. In order to make my writing time that much more valuable - to write more quality stuff in the time I have - I'm going to have to sacrifice some of that time to begin with. Ah. There in lies the rub.

How To Find Your Story

Jeff Gerke wrote this amazing book, How To Find Your Story. My crit partner and I both bought it (it's an ebook, so you just download it right to your computer from this website) and we've been planning out our WIPs using the worksheet tool that he provides. This book is for writers who essentially are "character-first novelists," that is, you just get a character stuck in your head and you decide to write a story about him or her.

In contrast is the plot-first novelist, where the twists and turns are already apparent usually before the characters who will live through them are. (Jeff also wrote a book for these type writers called Character Creation for the Plot-First Novelist, available at the above website in a bundle with How to Find Your Story.)

So we just got off the phone with each other, talking about our characters and what pitfalls and adventures we have in store for them, using terminology that we both knew (like escalating arms race, moment of truth, character knot, etc.). I just can't say enough about the book. I feel like now (after reading the book and especially after bouncing ideas off my crit partner), I have a DIRECTION!!! And knowing that is the harder part of the journey of writing a book, to me. My characters aren't swimming around anymore, but heading somewhere, and that's exciting!

Now I just have to find the time to actually write this good stuff. :)

Mary DeMuth critique

Author Mary DeMuth does a free critique per week on her blog, So You Want To Be Published. This week, she critiqued the synopsis of my current WIP. You can read the post here.

I was almost embarrassed at how much better the re-write sounded! But, that's why Mary DeMuth is published, and I am not. :) Unfortunately for me, after I sent her the synopsis, I got a fabulous crit partner through ACFW who really helped me become more aware of my cliches. I really had a tendency to write using them. I find that the cliche sticks out in my head now, though, and I search for a more unique way to express what the cliche expresses. This can take several minutes for me!

Anyway...but thanks to Mary for pointing out a much better way to describe the plot of my book. Less passive voice and less cliches (and less run-on sentences, which was the result of my run-in with the Snowflake Method that indicated I should have a synopsis in about 5 sentences...see post here).

Bibliotherapy for a Writer

Bibliotherapy is one of my favorite ways to structure therapy, especially for children. Frequently I use it with adults. So what it is? As the name might imply, it's using books in a therapeutic way to either 1) bring home a message or moral, 2) bring insight into the reasons BEHIND the symptomology, or 3) bring encouragement that other people, going through the same things my client is, have been there and made it through.

So, I'm taking my own advice and have now at my disposal, about 6 different books that should help me with the writing craft. I'm currently reading three at the same time: How To Find Your Story by Jeff Gerke, Self-Editing for the Fiction Writer by Renni Browne and Dave King, and Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell in the Write Great Fiction series.

Already I have my black moment (which is pretty knockout!) and I'm only on page 14 of How to Find Your Story! That's what I call having a good resource!

Will review the books on here when I'm done. Stay tuned.