Camp Nano

Posted: May 31, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

It’s here, well, almost. Tomorrow is the official start of the first month of Camp Nano, and yes, I’m participating. The kids are home, and we have lots to do this summer, but I’m going to try it anyway. I’m hoping it will be a good motivator to get at least the first half of the third Kitsune book drafted out.

In the mean time, I’ll work on my outline and plan how the book should go… Maybe that will help me some.

Time for a deep breath.

Posted: May 17, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Fight, Odds and Ends | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

After pushing to get Fight ready to go to my copy-editors before our annual camping trip, I’m feeling the strain. I emailed out the book yesterday and took a deep, cleansing breath. Then immediately picked up the notebook I’ve already started for book 3. Yeah, I know I should take a break, give my brain something to do other than Nickie’s story but Nickie is just so upfront in my mind right now.

I’m not ready for a break. I picked out the notebook for book 3 about 3 weeks ago (I have a supply of composition books I use for this purpose, most of them have different covers,) about the time I started the last rewrite of Fight. I had to have some place to keep track of the thoughts and ideas for the next book.

Now that I’ve finished with (this stage of) Fight I can get more in depth more intimate with what will happen in the next book. There are some big changes in store for Nickie, she just hasn’t told me yet how she’s going to handle them.

Hard Days

Posted: February 27, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Fight | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Not that life is hard, or things aren’t going well in my day to day life, it’s just that some days the story comes more easily than others. Some days the words flow more readily, and others every word, every phrase is a battle. I’ve had several of the latter in a row and it’s a little discouraging. I know where my story is going, I know what needs to happen, it’s just this particular scene isn’t going well. I’m going to give the process a little more time before I move on to another scene to come back to this one.

I feel like this scene is important to the story, but I’m also afraid that since it’s so difficult to write it may end up being something I cut in the long run. Still, I know I need to write out the scene, even if it has to be cut later, because for the story it has to be written, even if I know I will cut it later because this scene will be used in the long run to work out some of the details in the plot.

So, I’ll work on this scene for a  while longer, and if things don’t open up I’ll move on, and continue the story, then come back to the scene later on. It will work out, I know it will, in the mean time it makes for some hard days.

Steps

Posted: January 19, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

I’ve gotten Escape all ready to be published, I’m just waiting for the time to be right.

I’m back to working on the sequel to Change. I already had quite a bit of it done, as I started it back in July, shortly after I finished Change, but I  set it aside in October to focus on what I was going to work on in November for NaNoWriMo. I spent all of November focused on my NaNo project, and all of December recovering from November… Oh, and doing the Christmas thing with the family.

The hiatus did a couple of things, it let me and my characters rest. We were all tired from the push to finish change, and heading straight into it’s sequel. By the the first of January, when I started the final edits on Change, Nickie and Devon were coming to me in that space between awake and asleep and telling me it was time, time to continue their story. By the time I got finished with Change and Escape and could get back to the book, they had come to me several times, telling me bits and pieces of the story yet to come. Leaving me a bread trail on where to start.

Now, I’m back at it, and things are going great. I have scenes I know exactly what happens I just need to get them down, and others that I know vaguely what will happen but when I sit down to work on them they grow, expand and take on a life of their own. This is one of my favorite parts of writing. Not having to struggle with what to do next, but the characters telling me, using me as their conduit to get their story told.

How do you write?

Posted: January 7, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Questions | Tags: , , | 1 Comment

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve only been writing seriously for a few years… So I don’t have nearly the experience of some of the major name authors out there, but I still get asked some of the same questions.

How do you find time to write?  Well, I make it. It’s a priority for me. If I didn’t make the time to do it I wouldn’t be able to manage it. I set aside time to write, re-write and edit. I also steal minutes here and there. by doing both I’m able to get things done.

How do you write? When I joined a local writing group I started hearing this more. They weren’t meaning style or how I find time, they were asking about basics. Do I write long hand or type? When I told them I use a computer for 95% of my writing the question that immediately followed was this:

What software do you use? Well, in the beginning I used Word for all my writing, and it worked, though it was a bit generic for what I was doing, and difficult to manage for the way I write. But last year I found where the developers of Scrivener  were working on developing a version for Windows. I joined in on the Beta testing and I’ve never looked back. I love the way I can outline, move things around, and write in a non-linear manner and it’s easy to keep track of where every thing goes and what’s still missing.  I know there are other programs out there for this, but this is the one I’ve found and fallen in love with. Plus, it’s very affordable. I do all my drafting and story writing in Scrivener, then I compile it into a Word document and do my final edits. It works for me.

Another question I’ve often been asked is Why do you write?  This is a question that the answer is going to vary by the author… Personally I write because the people in my head won’t leave me alone unless I do. They’ll haunt my dreams, talk to me in quiet, and not so quiet, moments. They generally drive me crazy to get their story told.

Do you have any questions you’d like answered?

Writing and Music

Posted: January 5, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | 4 Comments

I’ve learned in the few years that I’ve been writing seriously that music seems to help the process. Different types of music help in different ways, but they all help.

Up until this last summer I’ve listened to country music almost exclusively, but with some of the life events I found that I needed to change things up and I started asking friends for suggestions. Since then I’ve really expanded my music selection, and I’ve found that I have a fondness for music much harderthan I’ve ever listened to before.

While I still listen to artists like Jason Aldean and Christian Kane, I’ve discovered a love for Theory of a Deadman, Godsmack and Five Finger Death Punch to name a few.

I’ve also discovered that how you listen  to the music makes a difference. For some reason, headphones work better for me than speakers, even if I’m the only one in the house and it’s blasting louder than I would set my headphones.

Newer Entries →