Tag Archive | plot line

Something New

Jan8

I have 2 Happy Planners that I use for creative journaling. The problem is with my hermit tendencies, I have a problem filling up one let alone two.

So this year I started doing something different.

I’m using one as a creative journal, the other one tho… It has become my Writing planner.

What is a writing planner you might ask. It’s a good question. It can be anything you want to be, but for me a writing planner is….

A place to celebrate writing

Write the poem I wrote that day

Note any submissions I’ve made

Write my wins in bright colors, bold letters (like I wrote  2K words yesterday!)

Keep track of the days I blog

It can be anything you want or need it to be. For me, myself and I, seeing what I’m doing laid out with stickers and colors feels good. I look at each day that is filled out and pride creeps in. I don’t often feel pride as a writer. Most of the time I feel like a failure. But seeing each day fill up with the fact that I wrote? Yes, please!

What would you keep track of in a planner of your art form?

Suspension of (dis)Belief

Aug23

I wrote a whole romance story in my little Mead spiral notebook when I was in 4th grade. I don’t remember the particulars, but I do remember the female main character having a broken arm and leg, hopping on a motorcycle and riding it down the face of a mountain. Not very believable. It tracks, tho, for my age at the time.

You all know I don’t name and shame when I find something I so passionately disagree with in a book that I’m willing to write about it here. I spoke, at length, to my BFF last night (who is NOT a reader) about the problem I had with the book & problem we are going to discuss. I basically gave a TED talk.

When I went back to see the reviews I kept coming across the acronym TSTL in reference to the female main character (FMC). I’m a little old, and oblivious, and my first thought was “What’s a T St Louis?” No, Dear Reader, it does not have anything to do with the city. It apparently means TOO STUPID TO LIVE

Roughly 4 months pregnant, she hops fences, gets drugged 3 or 4 times within a couple of chapters, mounts a rescue with a teen girl, oh … The same teen girl who tried to help her escape the hero. And The “hero” choked her out and left bruising and chafing around her neck. This wasn’t sexual. It was abuse. And all the heroine would say was “It’s complicated.”

This FMC is the one in a horror story who would say “Hey, what’s that noise in the basement? Oh, look, it’s a werewolf should I pet it?”

I can’t tell you how it ends because I gave up on the series somewhere in the middle of book 2. I couldn’t suspend my disbelief. Now, I’m not trying to yuck someone else’s yum. If you like books that veer more towards bruises that’s ok. Your reading taste does not have to be the same as mine. 

But what I really can’t abide is how stupid the FMC was.  And how cavalier she was with the lives of not only her unborn babies but the teen girl and her brother. She was “so good with them”, and yet she kept making choices that any dumbass would know were going to have high consequences. For her and them.

And she kept making the same mistakes.

It’s ok to write a character who is TSTL. But as authors we need to write some kind of growth (unless it’s a horror book). Or at least new ways to be stupid.  The FMC was not exhibiting any signs of growing the F up, and the hero was devolving. As a reader I was skipping whole parts and as a writer I knew…. When that starts happening, it’s time to skip the book altogether.

What’s your reading TED Talk about, Dear Reader?

I Would Have Written It…

May1

Differently. We all have those books. We’re reading along, there might be some inconsistency in the writing but we’re still in it. Until that moment when we think “No, this that and the other thing needs to happen right here.”

And as writers, our brain sets off like a freight train.

I just had that happen recently in the middle of a book. And my brain is chugging along. I have several ideas that haven’t got the steam on their own, but maybe if I smash them together I can get somewhere.

Spoiler Alert: I’m working through this as I’m writing. I will tell you there will only be generalities about the stories because, whelp. It’s not that I believe someone will “steal” my ideas. You and I could be given the same setting, plot and characters and write completely different stories. It’s because if I write too much or discuss a story my brain is over it and I lose all interest in writing it.

So first off, the book stat I was reading (and DNF’d) was trying very hard to be a mafia romance. And for some odd reason it made me think of a story I had started and stopped quite a few times– it deals with witches & warlock vs mage ability. What’s the difference and what happens when you are one but everyone assumes you are incompetent at the other? This idea is hands down 100% fantasy so obviously no mafia. But warring factions? We can do that.

The part I put it down at was a “meet the head of the family” type of moment and it was not going well. Whelp. Last year I started watching those super short shows– you know the ones. Rich guy drops his wife who is a secret billionaire who is now gonna make his life hell. Ok, so take part of that– the part where they really have NO IDEA who the heck they are dealing withand smash it with witch/mage thing.

I really want a sentient house in there too. I love them. When the house is a character it can go either really really well or very badly for the people involved.

But then I’ve been leaning towards shifter romance, although none of the ones I’m seeing are catching my eye and/or imagination. That might A. Be one step too far or B. Just be a reading thing. I know I tend to not read what I’m writing or what I’m hearing up to write so I might just go back to some old favorites of that type and see if that scratches that.. oh that’s in poor taste.

So. There you have it. My creative brain run around and proof that even the books we don’t finish can be worth it for us.

Ta, my lovelies! I’m off to write a bit now!

Plotting it out

Jan3

Through editing, and writing new words, I’m probably just about 2,500 – 3,000  words into the new story. I’m really enjoying writing it, even if last night I discovered to my chagrin that my bad guy is not a bad guy at all and may possibly even be one of the heroine’s greatest allies. SIGH.

My characters up and do this all the time. They don’t want to be purely good, or evil. It’s just a horrible situation made worse by the involvement of a child in it, and people are going to play the roles they are going to play.  Which is going to make it interesting…

THere will be no one villain to this story.

Don’t get me wrong, there will be bad guys, people who should be smacked down with a braodsword (btw- I write fantasy LOL).  But the main driving force of the WHOLE novel isn’t them. THey only factor into Part 1, not parts 2-4.

The rest is going to be pushed through by situation. By a mother’s feirce love for a child who isn’t quite where he should be… Well, you’ve read the blog. If not, go forth and explore. It’s something that I’m familiar with, and it is enough, more than enough, to sustain a story.

So. Old Lord Orlando is going to end up being a Stand Up kind of guy. I can deal with that. I think it will make the story even better, too. Even if I do have to scrap those words.

Because at least now I have a great lead in and know where I’m going.

YAY!