The Funny Things Writers Do

Well, maybe I should retitle that: The Funny Things Compulsive Writers Do.

I'm rewriting the first chapter of my current WIP for the Daphne. My goal is to make the first scene heart-thumping, eerie, tense. My character hears a noise, one he knows is familiar but can't immediately recognize.

The sound is the shuffling of a deck of cards.

I really had to think about how that would sound, because I didn't want to **tell** the reader that's what he heard. I wanted the reader to **hear** it.

(Trivia: This is a rhetorical device--ONOMATOPOEIA: the use of words that imitate the sound the word describes.)

That one description took me hours. I tried to imagine the sound. Then I searched out my daughter's playing cards and shuffled them over and over.

When I still hadn't found a satisfying description, I went online and hunted down some shuffling sound clips. I closed my eyes and listened to the sound over and over.

Still, I couldn't get it right.

So, I enlisted my CP, Elisabeth, in the chore. (Thanks, E. You're a good sport.)

It started with: Riiiiiiiip, whiiiiiiisp.

Which evloved into various posibilbities including: flaaaaaap, whiiiiiisp; fwaaaaaap, whiiiiiisp; fwiiiiiip, whiiiiiisp.

I closed my eyes and listened another dozen times. I said the words along with the sound to see if they fit.

And I got it: Thwaaaaaap, whiiiiiisp.

Let me tell you, listening to the sound clip of those cards shuffling in a quiet house was as eerie as I thought it would be. I only hope I conveyed that adequately in my WIP.

You try it.

Go to: http://www.pdinfo.com/sfxM2H/Games.htm. At the bottom of the page, listen to the shuffling clips (use the right listen link if you have Windows, the left if you have Mac) and tell me how you think that sound would be portrayed in the glorious written word.

What extremes have you gone to for that "just right" element in a book?

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Remeber when...

Ah, young love.

I get to relive it all over again vicariously through my daughter. At fourteen, she's prettier than I've ever been, and smarter, sassier, more confident, more athletic more savvy than I was even at twenty. She's also a really great kid.

Sure, we've had some rough spots, but we've come a long way and found a comfortable place together--for now. I know it will change. Everything changes. So, I'm enjoying the innocence of young love while it lasts.

She's liked one boy in particular for about six months (a long time by teenage standards). I've met him, he's cute (tall, dark and cute), shy, polite. He's got a few stumbling blocks--divorced parents, each remarried who care more about their new spouses than about him. But, from what I've heard through my daughter and my daughters friends (and the parent networking of a small town), he's a pretty decent kid, too.

He hasn't admitted to liking her yet. So, we'll see. She knows she's not allowed to "date" until she's sixteen, and even then she's going to have some strict limits, but of course there's little I can do about her liking a boy and him liking her back.

Fortunately, she's incredibly open with me. The minute she gets in the car after school or track practice, she tells me what transpired that day. It's always something small that makes her glow, makes those dimples pop into her cheeks when she smiles. "He texted me first today." "He laughed at my joke." "He ran laps with me at track." "He gave me that smile, you know the one."

God, she's giddy with the infatuation. And I'm telling you, it's infectious.

Yesterday, she said they fought all day. When I asked what that meant, turned out they were playing all day--tripping each other, pushing each other, stealing backpacks. She thought it was all fun and games, I knew it was an excuse to touch each other.

Today, she comes to the car wearing a sweatshirt I don't recognize. "Whose is that?" I ask.

She says, "Wait, I'll show you." She takes off her backback and turns around. His last name is sprawled across the back.

When she turned back to me, her eyes were sparkling bright, deep dimples in her cheeks, straight, white teeth (where she got any of those, I don't know) grinning at me. I could feel her excitement. My own chest got tight, my heart beat a little faster, my body felt lighter.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked. "Or, rather, how did you get it and why did you get it?" And what exactly does it mean?...but I didn't ask that one.

"I stole it," she says with a sly smirk. "It was lying on the bench, so I took it and put it on."

"Doesn't he want it back?" I ask.

"No. He said I could wear it." She does a luscious eye roll. "And it smells so good. It smells like him. I've been getting high from the smell of it all afternoon."

Oh. My. God. She is so damn cute.

I laugh. "He owns you now, girl. He's got his name plastered across your back."

"Uh-uh. No way. I own him."

Sigh. I wish I had that kind of self-assurance when I was 14. Or 20. Or 30. At least I have it now.

As romance writers, we could learn a lot by observing and reliving those first delicious stages of interest, attraction, infatuation and love.

What do you remember (or relive via children) about young love?

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Inspiration

I really need it today. I had another hole drilled in my bucket.

"Only amateurs say that they write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth. Writing may be interesting, absorbing, exhilarating, racking, relieving. But amusing? Never!"

~~ Edna Ferber

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

~~ Scott Adams

"All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath."

~~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

"If you did not write every day, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act crazy or both -- you must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."

~~ Ray Bradbury

"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense."

~~ Tom Clancy

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Cookies are in!!

Girl Scout cookies are here! An my garage is FILLED with them. 111 CASES to be exact.

From Jan - March, I am officially, the Cookie Nazi! (A.K.A. Cookie mom.)

And I was going to start back on my healthy eating and excercise road on Monday! My goal is to lose the remaining 24 pounds I'd like to lose (lost 26 already) before Nationals in July. And now -- those DANG cookies are calling to me from the garage.

The new flavor this year is named Lemonades. Oh. My. God. Shortbread cookies with vanilla-lemon icing. They are to die for (and I'm not even a big lemon fan).

Here's a complete list:

• Caramel deLights: coconut, caramel and chocolate
• Shortbread: traditional shortbread recipe
• Thanks-A-Lot: shortbread with chocolate
• Thin Mints: Chocolate mint wafer with chocolate coating
• Peanut Butter Patties: peanut butter wafer with creammy filling and chocolate coating
• Peanut Butter Sandwich: peanut butter wafers with creamy peanut butter-flavored filling
• Cartwheels: Oatmeal and cinnamon--low-fat, too.
• Lemonades: Described above.

This is soooo not good.

What IS good is that this year the Girl Scouts have put together a donation program. If you'd like to donate cookies to the U.S. Military troops overseas, you can pay the regular $4 a box and GS will ship the cookies.

The donation is tax deductable when you buy for troops (as opposed to buying for yourself) so, it's a great thing.

You should buy from those girls you'll be seeing stationed outside your supermarkets and drug stores, etc. Or, you could buy through me and pay via Paypal. I'll even kick in the deduction Paypal takes for the transaction, and mail you the deducation form. If you live somewhere where you don't have access to these delicacies and don't mind paying the shipping, I'll send them to you also.

E-mail me at ultraswan @ hotmail . com (without spaces, of course) if you're interested.

Remember - almost $1 per box goes directly to the local girl scout troop, so support your neighborhood girls!

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Talk To Me

Choosing what to blog about it always a little tricky. You want to be relatively free to do your own thing...it is your blog after all, but you'd like it to be entertaining, informative, something others will want to come back again and again to read.

So...if you could design the perfect blog--your favorite, the one you check in with everyday to see what's new...what would it have?

~~Long, descriptive posts or short blurbs?
~~Posts everyday or every other or once a week or ??
~~Information or fluff?
~~Serious or funny?
~~Professional or personal?
~~Conservative or wacky?

Here's my take on it...

• I come to the web primarily for information.


• I visit blogs for communication and information.


• I don't mind long posts if they stay on topic and offer something valuable (information, a different point of view, etc.).


• I'm fine with short posts if they have substance. If there's no substance and it's just a "can't-chat-now" blog, then I don't think it's worth posting.


• I don't mind personal talk unless it's about washing the car or walking the dog -- that I don't want to know about.


• I like blogs that offer something others don't, either a unique point of view or information I don't get elsewhere.


• Sometimes I choose to read a blog because I like the person who writes it--they're warm, personable, responsive, and we have things in common.


• And I like blogs that are updated every day or every other day. Sometimes everyday is a bit too much and I feel like I'm always falling behind. But after a coupld days of nothing new, my return visits to that blog slow.

How about you?

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Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I'd Do More Often if I Had the Money ...in the order I'd like to do them most. (**things that take more time than money, but time I dont' have because I have to work) 1. Travel 2. Pampering (massage, facial, pedicure, etc.) 3. Charity work** 4. Entertain 5. Eat at nice restarants 6. Remodel 7. Landscape 8. Volunteer** 9. Craft (Knit, scrapbook, bead, etc.) 10. Excercise** 11. Write/Read** 12. Shop 13. Relax**

Other Thursday Thirteen Participants:
1. Spyscribbler

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things.

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I'm Getting Sucked In

I can feel it. This new topic has snagged my attention like a shiny dime on blacktop.

Sexual Tension.

It's not because that's the topic of discussion over at RWKF this week. Sexual tension has been an interest since I read Roxanne St. Claire's book Dangerous Curves.

I read it because it was an entry in the Daphne Published Division contest and I was a judge. But I immediately noticed this author had a way with attraction and heat and sex. I was so intruigued that after I'd read it and judged it, I reread it for the specific purpose of figuring out just how she kept that spark so friggin' hot.

As I mentioned in my post on RWKF today, I'm taking a class in Sexual Tension with Mary Buckham. She's guiding us step by step through the stages of intimacy, explains how the elements relate back to evolution (which also illustrates why these stages are so powerful and meaningful in the sexual cycle) and showing examples in other authors work. The subtlety is amazing, the results awesome. Something I absolutely have to master.

I haven't been so fascinated with a subject since I took Empowering Character Emotions and The Deep EDITS System with Margie Lawson.

And everyone who knows me knows what happens when I get caught up in something new.

I'm in big trouble.

Are there subjects, either general or writing craft that grab your attention and don't let go until you've thoroughly explored and/or mastered them?

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Stages of Writing

After I'd been writing a while, maybe a year, I had a hard time reading because everything I read was so good. I was past the honeymoon period and had come to realize not just how much work and talent was involved in writing, but how much of that talent I lacked.

I was in the deep bend of my learning curve, struggling to get that grand vision in my head down to my fingertips. I found myself reading a book thinking, oh, my God. How do they do that? Where did they come up with that? How did they learn to write like that? And my Eeyore syndrome would peak: I'll never get there. That's just not me.

But the compulsive part of me pressed on. I wrote, I learned, I read. I took courses, attended conferences, and read some more. And, of course, I wrote and rewrote.

I got better -- almost impossible not to do when you work at something so damn hard and actually take the advice given you from those talented people in your writing world.

I started reading again with a fresh perspective. Oh, I like that. They did that well. I can do that, too. I'll just tweak it and do it in my own way, to fit my voice and my story. And I continued to get better. I broke some temporary ceilings in my writing, took that laboring next step.

Then I found myself at a stage where when I read, I find one of three categories of writer:

• 1) The author who really shouldn't be writing. Their work would never sell if they were starting out in today's market. (There aren't many of those, I have to admit, but a few I've noticed.)
  


• 2) The author who's a decent writer but has some major problems with their craft--they lack characterization or their characters aren't consistent or their characters are emotionally challenged (as in--they don't have any). Their transitions are choppy and pull me out of the story. Their pov is all over the place and I can't figure out whose head I'm in. Their craft lacks authenticity, originality, freshness.
  


• 3) The author who is a true craftsman/craftswoman. They struggle to improve their work with each book. Strive to push their own limits. Don't settle for the common metaphor, but go that extra step and dig deep and pull out something fresh and perfectly suited to their character. These authors are character driven writers and their plot and conflict grow organically from there. These are the authors that I used to read with the I'll-never-get-their woes, who I now read with the I'll-get-there-someday perseverence.

It's the second category of published author that gets under my skin the most. I can't figure out the "why" of it. Why them and not me or my critique partner or that other writer I know whose work I've read and that is so much better than what I pull off the store shelf? I know a lot of good, even awesome writers who struggle day in and day out to get published and continually garner rejection letters. And I can say that I think I'm one of them without the intention of conveying conceit. I've worked my ass off to learn the craft, dedicated myself and sacrificed other things in my life to get there.

Robert Gregory Browne just released his debut novel Kiss Her Goodbye and recently taught a seminar at the San Diego Writer's Conference. On his blog he said:

"Later that day I did something else I’ve never done: ran a “read and critique” workshop in which participants read a portion of their work in progress then sat quietly while the rest of us critiqued the work. It was a wonderful hour and a half and I can say without hesitation that the participants were all talented writers. I was, in fact, amazed by the quality of the writing. As I listened I kept thinking, why don’t these people have book deals?"

It was nice to know I wasn't alone in my thinking.

When I get really frustrated and discouraged with this whole industry, I remember what Randy Ingermanson describes as writing stages: Freshman, Sophmore, Junior and Senior. Based on his descriptions (and of course my own evaluation of my writing) I judged myself to be a Senior. He's what keeps me sane (for the moment anyway):

Seniors are those few who are ripe to graduate. A Senior is writing excellent stuff. Explosive. Powerful. Moving. But still unpublished. Seniors are worried sick that those mean editors are never going to notice them, that they'll be submitting proposals forever. Seniors don't realize that the editors are watching them, hoping to see the perfect proposal that can make it past the committee. Seniors are closer than they think. There is nothing worse than being a Senior. There is nothing better than being a Senior on that magical wonderful stupendous day when your son is busy ironing the cat, rain is leaking through the hole in the roof that you could swear you patched with toothpaste just a week ago, and the phone rings. It's one of those cranky editors you sent that proposal to last year and . . . she wants to buy your book!

What stage to you think you're in? And how do you keep going in the face of the it's-never-going-to-happen monster?

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Lazy Saturday

I haven't had one in...I seriously don't know when (and I'm truly not just saying that).

• The friend I spend most of my time with went away fro the weekend with her family.
• DD #2 has a by on her basketball schedule.
• DD #1 (aka the social butterfly) is off at a friend's house for the night.
• I sent off two bracelets that had been on order.
• I paid the bills.
• DH is home -- getting used to his new schedule, but that's a whole different post -- and he cleaned the house (well, the major stuff).

O.M.G. I'm not pressed for anything! What am I going to do with myself?

Write...right? That's really the only right answer. And, yes. I should. So, why is it that when you actually have time and space and silence to write, you don't want to?

I did write for three hours this morning. I've gone to the grocery store, surfed the internet, went to a movie, now I'm blogging. Um...I'm running out of ideas and it's only 5pm. I should excercise or just relax. I could oranize or do laundry or finish my friend's scarf. But I don't wanna do any of that.

I'm much more productive when I'm busy. Giving me downtime is giving me a license to do nothing-just till and toil until the time is gone and I'm mad at myself for wasting it. (I think there's some psychological problem in there somewhere.)

Anyway, in my surfing, I found a great blog by agent Susannah Taylor over at Magical Musings. Definitely worth reading.

Also, a week or so ago, there was a hilarious blog on Paperback Writer that I've been meaning to link to. Again -- worth the read.

When you find yourself with these unexpected down-time blurps, what do you do with yourself? Better yet, what do you avoid doing?

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What Color Is Your Aura?

Your Aura is Blue

Your Personality: Your natural warmth and intuition nurtures those around you. You are accepting and always follow your heart. You in Love: Relationships are your top priority, and this includes love. You are most happy when you are serious with someone. Your Career: You need to help others in your job to feel satistifed. You would be a great nurse, psychologist, or counselor.

What Color Is Your Aura?

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Inspiration

I don't know about you, but I could sure use some. What a crappy, stressful day. Thought I'd try fighting off my Eeyore syndrome with some inpirational quotes.

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

~ Calvin Coolidge

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all."

~ Dale Carnegie

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. "

~ Margaret Thatcher

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Eye Candy

I'm in the mood for a little more eye candy...how about you?

Huuuuuuuuuuuunky!

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Happy Valentine's Day

My post is over at RWKF today...contest winner announcements and a new contest for a Sharon Sala trilogy, handmade snowman earrings and hand-knitted scarf. Plus a great blog on Little Known Facts About Love.

Come comment to win!

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Getting ready...

I haven't posted because I'm busy getting ready for tomorrow -- Valentine's Day over at Romance Worth Killing For.

A very fun contest is being offered -- just comment any time this week at RWKF and you'll be entered to win: 1) A Sharon Sala trilogy, 2) Snowman earrings-the glass beads handmade by me (here's a pic of the little devils: http://www.swandesigns.com/images/auctions/let.it.snow2.jpg) But instead of a red and white scarf they have periwinkle and purple scarves...to match #3) a hand-knitted fluffy purple scarf.

And I'm a tad behind on that purple scarf because I had a little issue with the yarn I was using. Long story short, I had to ditch that scarf (almost half done) and get new yarn and start over. So, I'd better knit fast, because I wanted to have a pic of the earrings and scarf to put up on RWKF with my post tomorrow--Little Known Facts About Love.

Also, this is your last chance to get your name in for the CHOCOLATE drawing. Check out my post on RWKF here for your chance to get a chocolaty treat in the mail this week.

I've never been one to celebrate Valentine's Day -- always felt like it was a day made up by Hallmark to sell cards and gifts and candy. Actually, I still think it is. But as a romance author, it's only right to celebrate a day dedicated to love in style!

So, make sure you join us over at RWKF this week!

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Ever wonder...

...how objective you are about your own work?

Magical Musings has a guest agent blogging this week, Lucienne Diver of The Spectrum Literary Agency. Today, she spoke about what sets manuscripts apart. And as I read the list and the expanded description of the elements, I thought...Yeah, I do that.

Lucienne writes:

Quirks: Your characters should live and breathe for you...

Check.

Voice: Your viewpoint character is the lens though which the reader sees the world...

Check.

Emotional connection: ...you’re best bet is to give us characters we can identify with and make the stakes personal enough so that we can’t stop turning the pages to find out what happens to them...

Check.

Background: Remember that a person is shaped by his or her background and build your characters accordingly...

Check.

Caveats: Your characters should become so real that they surprise you, but you still have to wrest back the story from them if they get carried away...

Check.

Okay, then why haven't I sold? Maybe I'm not as accurate about my work as I thought. Maybe I'm interpreting the description wrong.

Writer's Digest had an article some months ago--a list of ten things amateur writers do that keep them from getting published. I read all ten and cleverly told my husband that I don't do any of them.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm sure." How could he even ask? I was indignant, then quickly backed up my own insecurities with, "I read them all. I'm cognizant of them when I write. I avoid those mistakes with everything I write."

A year later, I don't have any doubt that I'm a better writer. I'm also a better self-editor. How much of a better writer and/or self-editor remains to be determined by others more qualified than myself--those editors I wonder if I'm understanding adequately.

Do you think you objectively judge your work? If yes, how? If no, do you think it's possible? A skill one could learn?

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Fun & Love or Persistence?

I've been hearing/reading the same comments over and over again lately: If you write, you should love it. If you don't love it, you shouldn't write. When it's not fun anymore, quit.

These sentiments have made me question my own fit with writing. It's no secret this last year has been trying for me as a writer. I've been revising one manuscript while another has been going out to NY houses. I've been waiting. I've been getting rejections. It's been rough. And there have been many times over the last year that I haven't loved writing. There have been many times when it hasn't been fun. But never did I seriously consider quiting.

Writing, like marraige and jobs and raising kids, has peaks and valleys. There will be days you don't love writing. There will be days when 'fun' is the last word you'd use to describe getting your story down on paper. The reality is, that's the nature of this business. Yes, we have to accept it, but we don't have to like it.

If I stopped doing something every time I fell out of love with it, if I quit something simply because it wasn't fun anymore I wouldn't have graduated from college, I wouldn't have stayed married for 16 years, I would have sold my children at age two, I would never have held job longer than six months and I'd have dumped some of my more irritating friends years ago.

But I didn't and my life is happier, richer, more satisfying and more successful for it.

Unpublished or published, writers suffer through revision, rejection, writer's block, self-doubt, financial hardships, dry spells, despair. There are a lot of "not fun" parts to this whole business. There are also a lot of "highs" available to those willing to work for them.

The only way to succeed at anything in life is persistence. Acknowledge the rough spots and ride them out, work through them or just put your head down and walk straight into the storm. But don't feel like you weren't meant to write because you're not on a constant writer's high. And don't quit based on someone else's estimated value of your destiny based on your own negative responses to the rough spots.

Bottom line: believe in yourself, in your writing, and get it done, however you get it done.

Do you believe in fun & love or persistence? How do you get through the valleys on your writing path? At what point do you draw the line and move on?

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Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Ways to Make Others Feel Important 1. Say please. 2. Say excuse me. 3. Say thank you--and mean it. 4. Hold the door open for the person behind you. 5. Hold the elevator for someone coming in. 6. Compliment someone. 7. Smile and say hello, even to people you don't know. 8. Bring your coworker back a snack or drink when you go get one for yourself. 9. Let someone merge in front of you in traffic. 10. Offer someone the change they need when they come up short at the check-out stand. 11. Let someone with fewer items than you cut in the grocery store line. 12. Let an elderly person have your seat. 13. Ask if you can help. Leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things.

Other Thursday Thirteen Participants:1. Elisabeth Naughton2. Elisa Adams

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Out of The Dark

It's clearing...I can feel it. You know, that haze you live in when something in your wip isn't right, your direction unclear.

I'd forgotten that feeling of a story bubbling up inside me, popping and percolating and bursting to get out.

God, what a great feeling. Like finding out you're pregnant after you've been trying for months.

I had a hard time starting back up again on Dead Man's Hand. I stepped back and thought about it. Did some character work. Some plotting work. Some more character work.

And...a little more character work.

That's it -- the key for me. Those darn characters. Everything stems from them: plot, backstory, beginning, ending, middle, twists, turns, sexual tension, emotion.

Everything.

And until I get them...really GET them, my story is flat. And getting to know them doesn't come overnight. It comes after walking with them, talking with them, interviewing them, living with them day in and day out--just like real friends. (You know, the flesh and blood kind). Even now, my husband will tell me something about himself I'd never known, or just didn't click.

For example. He hates caramel. Hates it on ice cream, hates it in candy bars, hates it...period. I've known this now for about 18 years. Another thing I've known for 18 years is that caramel apples are one of his favorite treats. It didn't click until I went to pick up a ginormous caramel apple covered in coconut for him for his birthday this year. I stood there thinking...why does he love caramel apples if he hates caramel? When I asked him later that night, he laughed and said, "I was wondering if you were ever going to ask me that."

Sometimes with characters, as with real life loved ones, things have to gel before they click. (No, it shouldn't take 18 years for this to happen, but you know what I mean.) And sometimes you have to see one thing lined up next to something else to see how they relate---or don't.

Anyway...I was having a tough time getting close to Stone and Christina (my h/h in Dead), but that deep character work I'd done seemed to have marinated my brain, because while I was on my scrapbooking retreat last weekend, I kept having this vision pop into my head: Stone. He was sitting on a bench outside his police precinct in his Evan Picone suit, one Dolce & Gabbana lace-up impatiently tapping against the concrete with that aren't-you-done-yet? glare.

That is a fantastic sign. I haven't had characters communicating with me like that for a long time. A very long time. A character actually nagging me to get on with the story--a real WOW moment.

I haven't fooled myself into believing I'm ready to run with it. Neither has Stone. And the fact that Christina was nowhere in the picture, even when I sought her out, tells me there is still work to be done, nuances to be found, plot and conflict to be woven.

But I'm bolstered by Stone's constant presence. And I push on.

Do your characters always talk to you? Or do you sometimes have to dig them out? Have you had characters that never spoke? Were you able to write adequately without it? Do you find it harder to communicate with some characters than others? What do you do to get under their skin and prod them into reality?

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What was I thinking?

I just realized that I've signed up for three online classes this month. I did that frequently last year, but promised myself I wouldn't do that again.

How did this happen?

Poor planning, as usual, I suppose.

I've got:

Practical Chemistry: Poison, Procedure and Worst-case Scenarios via KOD's Murder One.

I was thinking this would come in handy in revisions to Tangled Webs which has a villain with Munchausen by Proxy.

When Everyone Stares: Presenting with Pizzazz via KOD's Killer Instincts.
I was looking ahead for this one, anticipating the promotional arena I may (will) find myself in one day. And it could never hurt to have more confidence speaking to groups, right?

Sex Between the Pages: Understanding and Writing Sexual Tension via Carolina Romance Writers.

IMO, sexual tension is right up there with conflict -- can never have too much. But keeping it up (pun intended) isn't my specialty, so I'm ready for some advice. And I've taken a class with Mary Buckham before -- great teacher.

I may bring you a tidbit of wisdom or two from these classes this month, so stay tuned.

And wish me luck.

What are you doing this month to advance your writing?

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To The Limit

I'm sleep deprived. My brain's not working correctly. Thoughts enter and exit randomly, chaotically. Evidently, I get my best ideas then. (Or maybe not--you tell me.)

I attended a scrapbooking weekend with my sisters in Scotts Valley--the mountains of Santa Cruz in California, and I had fun. Kind of. It was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I try to do those things that push my limits because, 1) I have a lot of limits due to bizarre personality traits that get stronger as I get older, and 2) that's just kind of who I am, a person who pushes limits, tries new things, takes risks.

Driving home, my mind drifted to the tag line issue I've been thinking a lot about lately. If you haven't seen the contests already -- you can win CHOCOLATE by coming up with the best tag line for me. Contest ends Feb. 14th. So, go over to Romance Worth Killing For and put in your suggestion!

So, in this class I'm taking on promotion, the instructor suggests looking at the themes in your books to hone your message. I also recently read a blog by a suspense author who was working on finding her message. One of the suggestions she gave (offered by her publicist or her agent or someone) was to consider audience, because a tag line isn't about telling your reader what you write, it's about how your readers perceive your work. Or, in an unpubbed world, how you want your reader to perceive your work. She chose her tag line from comments her readers made about her books.

Which got me to thinking...who is my audience? Me. Women just like me. Mothers, wives, professionals. They're the intelligent, confident, take-charge type. Even if they have to tone it down at PTA, it's in there. They've probably been around the block a few times, and while that may include their bedroom histories, most have been progressive in their education and careers. In that group there's bound to be a number of women who have doused their own dreams to meet their family's needs. Kids, husbands, aging parents. Maybe they've put personal desires on hold for work.

Generally, IMO, women make a huge number of sacrifices for others.

So, why do they pick up a romantic suspense novel? Escape--number one. Another reason, IMO, is so they can live vicariously through the hero and heroine, watch the characters go in an out of danger, fall in and out of love from a safe distance. Maybe even fantasize what it might have been like if they had or could move past their own current limits, consider how much better they could be, what they might look like if they'd pushed themselves like these characters do.

I thought about my novels, about the way I push my characters to their limits--personally and professionally--by throwing conflict after conflict at them. I ask myself, what could be the worst possible thing to happen to this character at this point in their life? Then I make it happen. I ask myself, what is their greatest fear? Then I bring it to life.

Which brought me to the tag line: To The Limit.

It's about excellence and perseverance. It's about being your own personal best and pushing past the limits levered on you by yourself and society and family and friends and profession. It's about taking risks, trying new things, giving everything you do your all. And while I'm not going out skydiving tomorrow, and I have no intention of taking up bungee jumping, I like to think that's what I strive for in life. So, the line seems to fit both my personal motto and my writing.

I'm still thinking it over...playing, adding, subtracting, changing.

What do you think?

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