Pick-me-up

I had a little day-trip today.  Although I hadn’t exactly been looking forward to it, it turned out to be a marvelous change of pace.  The sun was shining and the sky was clear.  The temperature got all the way up to 34 degrees, making it a positive heat wave.  It’s amazing how much that sunshine picked up my mood.  It’s been cold and overcast for so long, I hadn’t realized how badly I’d been trudging through my days.  That shot of Vitamin D has picked up my energy and my mood at a much needed time.

You see, I’m closing in on the end of my work-in-progress.  It’s at this stage that I always get anxious to see the end.  I want to finish so badly I can barely stand it.  I imagine it’s like running a marathon (not that I’d ever do that).  At mile 23 or so, you’ve just got to be exhausted, but the finish line is in sight.  Do you kick into gear and make a mad dash to get it over… running the risk of pooping out and not finishing?  Or do you keep the pace so you know you’ll cross that finish line, even if it will take longer?  I’m trying to keep the pace.  If I go too fast with the writing now, I’ll drop important points or get sloppy with characterization.  Yet I want to zoom to the end, just to get the story out of my head.  I always have to go back and fix things when I do that, but it’s difficult to keep my patience.

Hopefully this feeling of refreshment will help me refocus and get the job done sooner rather than later.

Plodding vs. Plotting

I’m making good headway on my latest work-in-progress.  I finished Chapter 12 yesterday, so my New Year’s resolution may hold.  (Fingers crossed.)  The problem was that after I typed the words “Chapter 13,” I came to a screeching halt.  I needed to plot.

Some writers can sit down at their computer and just go, not caring that they don’t know where they’re heading.  In some ways, I admire that.  It’s daring, it’s free, and it’s open to possibilities.  It’s also not me.  Some writing instructors or other helpful souls will tell you that when you hit a writer’s block, you should just sit down and write whatever comes to mind.  They believe that will help break through the resistance.  I’ve tried that, and it’s a complete waste of my time.  I can’t seem to be creative and orderly at the same time.  The solution for me is usually to sit down and map out where the story needs to go.  That’s the creative part.  Once I have that, it’s a matter of execution.

In my current story, it wasn’t that I was at a complete loss for direction, it was that I had several specific points I needed to hit and a certain number of pages to get there.  So I spent yesterday mapping how to get from Point A to Point B to Point C to, eventually, The End.  Everything needs to come together by that final page.  The TV show, Seinfeld, had some great examples of plotting.  George, Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer would all be obsessing about their individual problems until the end of the show where everything would come together for a hilarious conclusion.  Remember Kramer’s meat slicer being used to cut food thin enough to slide under the door to feed Elaine’s cat?  Or Kramer hitting the golf ball into the ocean and “marine biologist” George having to save the whale?  Genious!

Sometimes you just need to find your own way of doing things.  Don’t block out what others are advising, but pick out the information that works best for you.  Maybe you can go to the grocery store, walk through the aisles, and buy everything you need.  Me?  I need a shopping list.  Maybe you can accomplish everything you wanted to do in a day without reminders.  Me?  I need my “to do” list.

So how about you?  Are you a free spirit or a list maker like me?  Do you plan ahead or go free wheeling?

Dream Wreakers

I’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about the Dream Wreaker series.  I’m glad so many of you liked Cael and Derek’s stories.  I thought I had a really unique concept.  Everybody else writes about vampires and shape-shifters.  (I can’t get past the fur issue.)  I liked writing something totally different, and the world of sleep is fascinating to me.  Unfortunately, the publisher, Pocket Books, chose not to continue the series.  Sad, I know.   Tony and Zane’s stories are still sitting in my head, but they’ve had to move aside for other ideas.  I still have hopes of one day writing them, but it’s rare that another publisher will pick up a series started by a competitor.  I’m ready, though.  If the opportunity arises, I’m all over it.

Happy New Year!

Well, it’s that time again — the time to make New Year’s resolutions.  I’ve made some specifically related to writing, which I thought I’d share.  They say that makes a person more apt to stick to them.  We’ll see about that.  Now, every writer has goals relating to the number of manuscripts to write, sales, publishing houses, agents, etc., but I consider those to be more of a business plan.  The following are things I can actually control, or try to…

In 2011, I resolve to:

1)  Get my current work-in-process out the door by January 31.  (It will be close, but this is the resolution I’m most serious about so there is a chance it will happen.)

2)  Not to let others get inside my head to tell me what/how/when to write.   (I’ve been doing much better at this.  I call it the pbbffftttt resolution — as in “pbbffftttt on you.”)

3)  Not to get stuck on on difficult paragraph or scene for an hour, a day, a week, or more.  (Just stop the insanity.)

4)  To only play one game of Spider Solitaire before starting to write for the day.  Okay, two max.  (I do not have to win to have a good writing session.)

5)  To blog at least every other week.  (You know that will be the first resolution broken, but I needed to get up to 5.)

So there they are, my goals to increase my productivity and reduce my headaches.  Unfortunately, I am a creature of habit.  I’ll try to keep you updated on how things go (if I can stick to Res. #5.)  So what are your resolutions for the new year?  Any secrets to keeping them?