Writing and Watermelon

It’s the middle of the summer and watermelon is in abundance here in the south. As I was having a way too big of a piece for lunch, I started to think about the similarities. Well, I know you’re thinking here she goes on another wild rabbit chase, but I do have a method to my madness 🙂

I was looking at my watermelon and noticing how the top inch or so has no seeds and then as you get into the middle it is almost completely seeded and then toward the rind for about a inch no seeds again.

In writing you start a book out with a solid story beginning. Always trying to make the story plausible so that the reader stays interested past the first chapter or two. Then you get to the middle and that’s where the real story just pops out and goes in every direction to fill in the body. The middle is full of the dark secrets of the story like the seeds of the watermelon. There are so many elements of the middle story. Then you get to the last of the book and you’re bringing it in tight again for a clean finish. One that will leave the reader wanting more if it’s a series or leaving them completely satisfied.

So, how’s your story going? Do you have your solid beginning and ending? Is the body of your story full of seeds that lead to the finale of a lifetime?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

How do you contain yourself?

As a writer you have to have some patience. Unfortunately when a story is pressing in on you patience is hard to find. When a story pops into my brain it normally comes in with a vengeance. It presses on my brain until I start writing it. I have to relieve the pressure of getting it started. Usually I get the story outlined before I forget what needs to be said.

When I start writing the story I get excited and can’t hardly wait to see how the middle and end unfold. I have to contain myself and not just jump through the story and leave out some important information. Sometimes I tend to want to see how it ends before it even begins. That’s kind of like reading a book and skipping to the end because you just have to know how it ends.

Remember if you do an outline, which is very important to me to keep me in line 🙂 then you need to stick with the outline. If you just have to skip ahead, then mark where you stopped and go back to fill in the important elements needed to make the story flourish.

Hope this helps. Remember you’ve got to be patient and let the story flow out. It’s hard, but if you practice you can do it.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Writing Backwards

Have you ever started a book at the end of the story and worked your way forward? Sometimes when I sit down with an idea for a book I start at where I want it to go. As you know from previous posts I like to do an outline for the story line. That way I stay in line. But sometimes it’s the end result of the story that drives me on.

I have a book that I’m working on and I’ve worked mostly on the ending. You may be going are you crazy. Well, yes, but that’s beside the point. The ending seems to inspire the beginning. It’s not as hard as it seems. Try it sometimes. You might be amazed.

Be sure if you do this method of writing that you keep the first part in the same style as the ending. An outline helps to keep that part in check. It’s really fun. It’s like walking backwards and using a mirror. You can always see where you’ve been, but you also see where you’re going.

Let me know if you’ve done this before. Or tell me if you try it out and if it helps. Sometimes the best stories start at the end and work their way backwards.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Good Memory and Writing…

Do you have a good memory? Me, not hardly 🙂 Sometimes I really think I’m losing my memory skills. Our memory is an integral part of writing. Why? Well here are my top 5 reasons memory is important to writers:

1: You have to remember the main characters biography. If you have a woman with blonde hair for the main character and all of a sudden in the middle of the book you write they have dark hair, well you’ve just lost the character all together. I’ve actually read a book before that the main character changed all together. It’s a story breaker!

2: Book Setting – This is important to the story. If you’re story is based in the snowy mountains, then midway through the book it becomes the desert, then you’ve lost the objective completely.

3: Character backgrounds – When you start a book always keep a notebook beside you as you write. As you develop a character write down their characteristics. Keep up with amount of siblings, hometown, etc.

4: Love background – You may have to ask yourself what I mean. Well it’s quite simply this, if your main couple has a history, then keep it straight. Make sure that if they’ve been in a relationship before the book starts, then don’t make it sound like first love. Let the past lead you to the present.

5: Don’t forget the main objective of your book. Don’t let it stray far off the mark without a good reason or sub plot.

This is just my opinion and the way I write. It may not work for you, but it helps me to keep things straight.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Steps to Writing a good story…

Ok, so we’ve all wrote a story at some time or another. Whether it’s a school report or as a writer. But have we ever sat down and thought about the steps it takes to write a story, good or bad?

As a writer I’ve got several things I do. First, I’ve got to be inspired. I have people all the time telling me to write about this or that. Well, for me it doesn’t work that way. It’s got to come to me in one way or the other. Sometimes it’s in a dream or just a daydream. Those are the best. My novel “Ghost Lover” came to me in a dream. Well most of it anyway. It was as though I was possessed by the stories and characters. They ruled my life for a while as I put the thoughts in my laptop.

Second, most of my books have had a general outline. When a story idea comes to me I immediately try to sit down with pen and paper and write down the story in outline form. This way I don’t forget the basics. It would be nice to sit in one sitting and write a finished novel. If you have, please relay the story to me? What’s funny is sometimes as the story evolves so does the outline. Most of the time I make each line in the outline into a whole chapter.

Third I write a character sketch. As I get older my memory slips some 🙂 I hate to constantly be going back in the story to remember a name or place. As I add to a character or introduce a new place or person I write it down. This helps speed up the process.

Fourth, now this is the important part. If you’re writing and you lose the momentum in a certain spot, just make a note of a key spot to come back to. Then go forward and most of the time that inspires you to go back and finish the lost spot. Most of the time continuing the story helps. I usually know the outcome of the part, but the middle is somewhat fuzzy. Writing the ending helps to give you inspiration for the middle.

Fifth, keep the interest. Don’t give away the ending mid way. That really makes a story dead to me when I’m reading a book and the author gives away the whole story by the middle of the book. Then the ending just goes stale. So keep the momentum building. Maybe even have several momentum building moments that build on each other.

Sixth, the writing process does not end with the words “The End”. I’ve said this in several blogs. It is very important to read your story to yourself, even out loud. If you just finish and hand it to your editor, you’ve left off a big step. Every time I read a story over it brings on extra thoughts. I’ve added whole chapters just in one reread. Do it, don’t leave it to the editor. You’re the writer, take charge.

Seventh, Now that you’ve reread and rechecked details, now you’re ready to hand it to the editor. To me this step is the hardest, you’ve got to write a description. How on earth do you condense a huge novel or even a short novella to a couple of lines? Well, make sure you leave the reader guessing. If you give away the whole plot on the back of the book why would they want to read the book itself?

Eighth, so the writing is over, the editor has it and you’ve got the description. Now if you haven’t already set up the cover, now’s the time. Make sure the cover has something to do with the book. A vampire on the cover isn’t good if the book is about a horse ranch. Make it interesting and eye catching. Yes, you’ve got to pay a little to get the good pictures, but it’s well worth it. My first couple of covers were totally stocked pics from office. Not cool!. After they were published I said “YUCK”. My editor is an awesome cover designer. I tell her what I have in mind and she usually finds the pictures for me based on my idea. What’s funny is the latest book ‘Rekindled Flame’ had a completed cover before I was anywhere near finished.

Ninth, now just sit back and wait for the finished product. Go publish it and enjoy the knowledge that you’re a published author. Don’t worry at this moment if someone likes your work. Just check that off your bucket list. Wait a little while before you worry about if people like your work. Remember you’re going to have those that don’t like your style writing and others who love it. Go with you gut and enjoy yourself. If you get nothing but bad reviews you might want to recheck your work, but if you get good and bad then you’ve probably done alright.

These are just the steps I go through, maybe you do your steps totally different.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You!

Letting Characters take over…

OK, so as I often do, today I muse over writing. I spend a lot of my time fighting with my characters. They seem to have minds of their own. If you’re not a writer, you probably think I need the men with the straight jackets. Well, maybe I do need a straight jacket. 😉 But as a writer this is a real fear. If you let them take over, what will happen?

As I’ve told you before, I have another new book coming out in the next week. This one is my New Year’s romance which is the 2nd part to “Tender Flames”. Well, since I was under the weather last week, I got way behind in the manuscript. As I tapped on the keys last night, one of the characters took over the writing process. I had a planned way this book would end, but guess what. As one of the characters evolved in the story, she took over the ending and totally blew it out of the water.

So my question is this, Do we as writers need to let the characters launch a hostile takeover, or do we take back control? Basically if we take over, are we hurting the story? As I sat and let the character take over, I realized maybe she had a point.

Ok, so maybe it’s my brain that does the takeover. Or maybe it’s my heart. As most of you know I love romance and anything about it. Maybe the story didn’t have enough romance or maybe it had too much. But as the story goes, I was pleased with the end results. If all goes well, the story will be ready by the end of the week. Most of the early edits have been completed and the cover is awesome.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you!

A Child’s Wish Becomes a Woman’s Dream…

As a child you wish upon a star. “I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish, I wish tonight.” Have you ever thought about those childhood wishes. Well I was reminded this weekend of some of my wishes as a child.

The first wish as a child was to be a concert pianist, which I studied music for eight years in order to make that wish come true. I wished on every star that I would play at Carnegie Hall and study at a top music school. I did get offered the chance at a full music scholarship, but I was engaged at the time and I turned it down. Thought my parent’s would kill me. By the way, I never married that man. I live my music dreams through my child. He has self taught himself to play drums, electric guitar and bass. My husband sings in the praise band at Church and plays guitar. So proud of both of them.

The second wish was to be a rancher and own as many horses as I could get. I even took riding lessons. Well, this too came to pass me on. I still love horses as anyone who reads my books soon find out. I also have horses everywhere in my house, so I am surrounded by one of my childhood dreams. If I ever make it big with my writing I plan to own horses, so that is still in the cards for my life, God willing.

The third wish was to be a writer. My grandfather used to hold me in his lap and tell me that he wanted me to be a journalist. He said I could spin a story out of anything. Well, that started me writing many of my manuscripts back when I was a teenager. I gave up on that dream when I started college and found out that I was enamored by accounting.

Well the Lord works in mysterious ways. It has taken almost twenty five years from the first manuscript to decide to publish, but it has been a wish upon a star that evolved into a dream come true. Through my writing I live the wishes and dreams of my childhood. It can be the channel to your dreams. As a writer I can own horses and be a concert pianist. Through writing I can be who ever I want to be and so can you. As a reader you can get lost in another world and live another life. But remember to come back to reality because God gave you the life you live and it can be wonderful, you just have to live it.

So, as I close this post I leave with you the wishes of a child that turned to the dream of a woman. Step out of your comfort zone and live. That first step is hard, but you can do it. Have a wonderful Monday and a blessed day!

Writing from the hip!!!

Have you ever knew exactly what you wanted to write, but when you started putting it into print it changed in your mind? Well that is where my new piece of work is at. I’ve had the 2nd book in my “Flames of Love” series in my mind for two months. It’s been poking me all that time trying to get out. I finally sat down in August and wrote an outline so that my other books would not overtake it.

Sometimes the mind of a writer strays from it’s original mark and starts up an uncharted road. That is how is seems to me. I sat down yesterday morning to start “Rekindled Flames” which comes after my published book “Tender Flames”. It started off in the same general direction that I wanted it to go, but one of my characters went off on a sudden tirade and there you have it. The outline went askew.

I opened it up when I got to my office and had my assistant and editor read what I had so far which was almost seven pages in an hour and a half. She turned to me and smiled. That is always a good sign. She said she liked the new road and could not wait to read more. As I wrote last night and some this morning I decided I would throw out the outline and write from the hip. Sometimes that is just where the story has to go. We will see if it is a road that leads to the same end, but if it doesn’t it is from the heart. So….. To my fellow bloggers, have a wonderful day and as always, good writing.

Good Morning!

Good morning to all bloggers. Hope all is well with the world around you. It is our first crisp morning here in Georgia. So invigorating. I actually had chill bumps while waiting on the bus with my son. He was the smart one, he had on his hoodie.

I excitedly came back in the house smelling the delicious aroma of fresh brewed coffee. As my followers are well aware, I have got to have my morning coffee. It just tastes better when you are cold. I started thinking about the upcoming colder weather and start having warm, fuzzy feelings about the start of fire building season. By March I am totally over the warm,fuzzy feeling and into the I can’t handle wood on the floor and hauling endless loads to the porch, but for now am excited.

I look forward to the days of curling up in front of the fireplace with my laptop or a good book. I am smiling just imagining the work I will get done this winter, especially now that I am publishing my work. I am also happy today reeling from some really wonderful reviews and an upswing in sales since all my books are now available at Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony, Kobo, and Diesel to name a few. So exciting this craft that we do. It brings a whole new meaning to “telling the story”. So to all my writer friends good writing and to all my reader friends good reading!