Time and Distance by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Have you ever stopped to think about how much time it takes you to get from point A to point B? or how much time it takes to get from point A to point B then to point C then point D, and finally back to point A?

Trying to figure out how long certain things will take, depends on distance, how large of a city (population), and even the number of people with you and how many places you’re planning to go. All of which add time to how long it will take. And your character running into someone else will add more time to the trip.

Which is what Konnie and I were talking about not too long ago. She said something about my characters getting too much done in one day. But, well, I always think her characters take too long to do simple tasks.

I’m guessing that both of us need to work on it, but in a lot of cases we’re guessing how long a certain action or event will take, we have no real way to tell us how long it will really take. There are some things that are easy to guess, while others are not so easy.

I mean I can have my characters drive across town in twenty minutes or less, but I generally put my stories in small towns, that’s what I know. That’s where I live and I rarely put my characters in larger cities. I may have lived in those larger cities in the past, but I don’t now, and I’ve lived most of my life in small towns, so its just easier to put my characters in small towns.

Konnie on the other hand lives in a large metropolis. For Konnie, she can drive ten miles in any direction from her home, and still be in the city. I can drive that far and be out in the countryside, sometimes in less distance than that. For Konnie, traffic is a constant problem, and traffic jams happens, routinely.

The last time I saw anything close to a traffic jam around here, a train had just gone through town, shutting off roadways for several minutes. Cars were backed up a whole quarter of a mile! 😊 There was once (years ago obviously) when Tom and I were watching the news and the reporter was standing with interstate behind him talking about proposed construction in that area and how it would affect rush hour traffic.

As he talked cars were zooming past him at about one every two to three seconds (it was rush hour). Then the reporter drew everyone’s attention to those cars, saying, “As you can see traffic is bumper to bumper right now.”

I turned to Tom and asked, “If that’s bumper to bumper, what do they call it when your bumper is literally touching the bumper in front of you?”

He said, “Around here that’s a fender bender,” deadpan and straight-faced. And it still makes me laugh because it’s so true.

At any rate, travel time is affected by so many different factors making it hard to figure out while writing a story. And of course, there is the issue of actually doing the shopping, and how long it will take. I’m sure some people think it takes them a matter of minutes to do their grocery shopping, but I’m telling you, I rarely finish in under an hour, and I’m just shopping for me. Think about how long it takes all those people who actually fill their cart, or even more than one cart?

How do you figure that out? I’m not sure. I guess. Maybe I guess wrong sometimes, but I think it’s possible to go too far in the other direction where you have characters barely managing a couple of things in a busy day. I manage to accomplish more on my busy days than my lazy days, because I keep going, keep working.

But when writing my stories, I need to remember that my characters aren’t working alone, and those characters they interact with might be having a bad day, or my character didn’t realize how long it would take to chat or whatever.

However, I think sometimes that Konnie is too vague about the passage of time, and she has her characters accomplishing too few things in a single day. If you have your character taking a half hour just to brush his teeth, you have two valid choices, either this is a character flaw of some importance to your story, or you have some editing to do.

Anyway, consider the time it is taking your characters to accomplish tasks, look at them closely. Is it taking too much time? Is it taking too little time? And how can it be fixed?

Happy writing everybody! 

Prologues by Bonnie Le Hamilton

These days if you mention prologues in a writing group just about everyone will tell you not to write them. I’ve even been told that editors hate them, but I happen to think there are times when a prologue is good and helpful, and even needed.

I’ve also heard that anywhere from ten to fifty percent of readers even read prologues. Well guess what, I’m in that group. I read them, I find them just as important as the story itself, and I have written a few. And by a few, I mean a grand total of five out of my over thirty stories that I’ve at least started. So not very many, and I have no intention of writing prologues for the stories that don’t have them. As far as I’m concerned, they don’t need them, but the five I have prologues for, well, in my opinion, they need them.

And I can explain why I have everyone I do have.

The first one is in the POV a minor character in the story, but the information in that scene is of vital importance. All of the remaining scenes are either in the hero’s or the heroine’s POV, but neither were present in that one scene. These few paragraphs inform the reader what the story is about. And frankly I tried to get away without writing that scene, because after all, I’d been told many times to avoid prologues, but well, this scene was needed, I wrote it.

The second one is partly in the POV of a secondary character and partly in the POV of the hero, its short, but it also says what, and who, the story is about. I guess it could be the first chapter, but its rather short for that.

The next two are short scenes, one in the hero’s POV, and in the other story in the heroine’s POV. They also say what the story is about, but at first it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the rest of the story, its only later that you see what it has to do with the story, sort of like in my first prologue.

The final one is for my sci-fi, and the prologue is an ancient story in the world where my sci-fi is set. A story as old as time, as my heroine later tells the hero. This story is mentioned often throughout what will be my sci-fi series, but I didn’t want it actually in the story, so I put it in the prologue, skip it if you want, but you may end up referring to it later. 😊

I know none of these stories are published, only one is even in the finished rough stage, and I’m currently working on the sci-fi, but each time I read these prologues I’ve worried about how the publishers will feel about them, and what they will do to my chances of being published, because after all, we are told to avoid them at all costs.

Then this past week Konnie came across this blog post: https://www.septembercfawkes.com/2018/06/how-prologues-actually-function-6-types.html  by September C. Fawkes, who is an editor. It’s a pretty good outline of the uses for a prologue.

I particularly like when Fawkes says, “. . . prologues are about making promises of one kind or another to the audience. This is the main function of a prologue.”

Okay, I do make promises. In four of my prologues, they tell what the story is about, they show something that is important or vital to the story. In my final one, well that story lets the reader know the story does not happen in our world. All of them set the stage for what is to follow.

Fawkes also says, “Like all writing rules, there may be some exceptions once in a while, but I’d argue almost always prologues = promises.”

According to what Fawkes says in her blog post my first one is an Alternative Viewpoint prologue, my second is partly an Alternative Viewpoint, and partly a Time Displacement because it happens months before the main story, my next two are little bit Theatrical and a little bit Dual Draw (Well actually, all of these have a bit of the Theatrical in them.), and my final one is both Informational and Time Displacement.

They all serve a purpose, and they all make a promise about what is to come.

In other words, I’ve used prologues correctly the few times I’ve used them. 😊

So, how many of you read prologues?

How many of you skip prologues?

And how many of you have written a prologue?

Happy writing everyone! 😊

When the Muse Grabs You by Konnie Enos

The last few weeks I’ve been trying to do edits on my fantasy and sci-fi mostly because they are my two “finished” WIPs. I’ve even been ignoring my one romance which is the closest to done of all my WIPs in that genre. However, the last couple of days I’ve had a new story demanding attention and some resolutions.

Well at first it was just one issue and I foolishly thought if I could just write that scene I’d be able to get back to what I should be doing.

It didn’t work out that way.

I did resolve it but wrote myself right into another one.

Yep, I needed to get it taken care of too.

I think I’ve done it at least six times now and I know I’ve had to backtrack closer to a dozen times because I either left information out or there was no way it could possibly work so I’d have to start over at some point. I’ve had to erase at least three scenes and try again because it wasn’t quite right. One of those I’ve erased at least three times attempting to get the right results.

And when I wasn’t moaning because it wasn’t working, yet again, I was typing as furiously as my normal mom schedule would allow.

Other than driving my kids hither and thither I have neglected my chores.

I have not updated the checkbooks. Don’t ask me how much I have in the bank right now, because I actually don’t know other than not much.

In the last two weeks we’ve actually run completely out of milk, not once, not twice but several times. Once we didn’t even have any juice in the fridge, which rarely happens. It was weird seeing my fridge so empty.

I have not done any laundry. Not to say laundry hasn’t been done in this house, just not by me.

What I did do? Up until this week, I made it to church each Sunday and, because circumstances kept me from my Henderson’s Writers Group meeting a couple of weeks ago, I made every effort to make it last week. My intent had been to make it to church and my meeting this week as well.

Well I didn’t.

And no, I didn’t miss church because I was writing.

Sunday I was sick.

Monday I felt better and I intended to go to my meeting. I really did. So what was I doing when I should have been driving to my meeting?

No, I wasn’t writing.

Yes, I spent most of the day writing, but what I was doing when I should have been going to my meeting was cooking dinner.

In fact, it didn’t even dawn on me I was missing my meeting until about an hour after it generally ends when my daughter came in my room and asked me if I was missing it.

By this time I was engrossed in writing again and I kid you not, it took about half a second for me to figure out what meeting she was talking about. Then I had to digest the fact I’d completely missed it.

I went back to my writing. Oh well. Next week.

Now to understand the next issue I came across, you have to know my sister and I attempt to get our posts up every Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. Mountain time. Yesterday (yes, I mean Tuesday) just before 11 a.m. Mountain time, my sister got on Skype and asked if I was online.

I seriously panicked.

I went so far as to pull my calendar out to confirm it wasn’t Wednesday. For a moment I thought I’d completely forgotten to write my post while I’d been working on my story. It was the most disconcerting feeling.

In order to not get lost in my writing yesterday, and hopefully get some of my chores done, I forced myself not to even open that file.

What did I accomplish yesterday?

Well, I didn’t update my checkbook or do my laundry,

I did run a child where she needed to go and accomplished a couple of errands, one of which was getting groceries. I also worked on my writing, considering my post was due I tried to focus on it.

Tried being the operative word. I fell asleep.

Good thing I’m used to getting up early.

Now to see if I can get my chores done before I open that file again.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Thwarting the Best Laid Plans by Konnie Enos

Recently I was reminded that the best way to make a story intriguing is to give your leading a character a goal and then throw obstacles in their way to make it difficult or even impossible for them to obtain it.

My one thought was, but it can be challenging to toss in realistic sounding obstacles without sounding cliché. Unique ones are even trickier to come up with.

Of course, when you have thoughts like that, life decides to teach you a lesson.

My week so for has been a major lesson on how life can mess with your plans in new and unique ways, or maybe some old ways, just with new twists.

Monday I had nothing planned except attending my local writer’s group meeting. Due to my daughter’s schedule I also had to take her to and from her class and we were, of course, and again, out of milk, so a trip to the store would need to be done, but both of those were necessary and par for the course.

The day was going smoothly and I was sure I needed to get ready to pick up my daughter because I would need to get her home before I could make my meeting and it was going to be a close call no matter how I did things.

Then my married daughter called.

We talked so long that the daughter I needed to pick up also called because I hadn’t responded to her text, which I didn’t notice came through while talking to her sister. By this time it was late enough I would barely have enough time to get her picked up and home and then run to my meeting IF there wasn’t any traffic.

I expected some congestion because of construction on Highway 15, but generally Highway 95 is clear once I get to the interchange. Not this time. In fact, the traffic for 95 was actually slower than for 15, which never happens. I finally get on 95 but it doesn’t really pick up and just when I think we might finally pick up speed the lane I’m in comes to a complete stand still. The other lanes are moving though.

I get out of it and eventually make it past the off ramp that is backing everything up, and on to pick up my daughter.

Driving her home we again run into heavy traffic and cars at a standstill on the highway waiting to get off at the same street that had things backed up going the other direction.

I have since learned this particular street, which normally runs three lanes in each direction, is currently under some construction and the powers that be saw no problem with restricting it to only one lane in each direction. Considering it is a main through street it is major league backed up and now that's spilling over to the nearest exit.

Anyway the entire round trip should have taken an hour. It took me that long just to get to her. By the time I got her home, any attempts to make my meeting in that traffic would have gotten me there roughly about the time it usually ends.

So instead of going to my meeting I figured I’d better make that grocery run. I had no desire to go alone especially since it involved several gallons of milk and juice.

Five of five family members were in bed and or fast asleep. After trying to cajole three of those people to go with me I finally resorted to bribing the youngest family member.

After getting the groceries put away and it not being all that late, not for me anyway, I determined I’d do something productive and work on my writing, like maybe this blog post.

I did get on my computer, but then the power went out. The first time was only for a few minutes, then it flickered a few times. Then it went out for roughly two hours. The estimated repair time meant it would be back on sometime between 11:30 and midnight.

I went to bed, though I did prepare a nice to-do list for Tuesday. I had hopes.

The day started out fine. Right up until I exited the highway on the way to my daughter’s class. Engine overheating. Again!

I got her to class, but spent three hours waiting for my husband and a tow. Then the rest of the day at home waiting for my car to be fixed. So much for my errands.

However, I learned a lesson.

When life wants to throw you a curveball, there is nothing mundane about them.

I think that’s what we need to remember when we start throwing curve balls at our characters when we are creating those intriguing stories.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Independence Day 2018 by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Two Hundred and Forty-Two years ago our Forefathers first read the Declaration of Independence to the people of what was then this brand-new country. Today everyone is busy going to parades, picnics, fairs, family gatherings. But while you’re taking part in all that fun, try to remember that such things happen in your stories too.

I know I’ve said this before, because I have read stories that have no holidays in them at all. Of course, in some the events of the story are confined to a few short weeks, they can be forgiven. But when a story covers a longer period, why aren’t there at least family special days, like a birthday or anniversary. If the character doesn’t have much family, couldn’t their friends have such days?

And of course, there are also national holidays to consider. After all, if the events you have happening occur on like the first Monday in September here in America, your character isn’t going to find a single bank that is open, possibly not even a store.

If the story you are working on happens over the summer months, why don’t you have Independence Day events in your story? Even if your character isn’t in America, if he or she is American, wouldn’t they at least celebrate on a small scale? And all sorts of things can happen during or around the events associated with this holiday.

I’m currently working on just such a story, still need to work on the scenes which happen on the fourth of July, but I do have them, because they happen. Somewhere in this story I also have to have the birthday of the hero’s stepsister because I’ve already established at the beginning of the story that her birthday was coming, as in over the summer.

Of course, my problem is, because of many different issues, its been decades since I’ve been to any events that occur between the parade and the fireworks, so I’m trying to figure out what this fictious town would have planned that would be fun for teens and younger to enjoy for most of the day. What kind of booths or games they’d have planned, where they would they be at? That sort of thing.

Then again, this is a fictitious town, so I guess I could do just about anything.

And then there is writing sci-fi or fantasy, things that happen in worlds not our own. I have a sci-fi in the works too, and I have to decide what I’m going to do about things like birthdays and anniversaries. Do they celebrate them? If so how? And what kinds of other things do they celebrate? Do they have national holidays? Do they have religious holidays? And again, if so, what are they? Do they even have celebrations of any kind? And if they don’t? Why not?

There are so many questions that can be asked, but what are the answers?

The answers always depend on the story, and what you are trying to convey about the characters, the place, etc. But I think I might enjoy coming up some holidays, celebrations, and traditions for this make-believe world of mine. I also think having such things as a part of the fabric of the world I am building will make that world more believable.

Don’t you think so?

Have a happy and safe Fourth, Happy writing everyone. And happy birthday, tomorrow, Konnie!

Languages and Writing by Bonnie Le Hamilton

In order to communicate, we first have to know the language being used and with the number of those in world, it isn’t always easy.

I’m reminded of an incident years ago with my husband. He was watching his World War II movie “The Dirty Dozen” and at one point he remembered that I had taken one year of French in college, so he turned to me and asked me what the staff at the hotel were saying in those final scenes. I told him I only remembered a little bit, but that I’d try, so he backed the video up just a little and I started translating, what I could of it, because some of what they said was so garbled I couldn’t pick out any words, then one lady said two very clear and distinct words. I turned to Tom and said, “I’m not translating that.”

“Why? Because you don’t know it?”

“No. Because she just took the Lord’s name in vain.”

“Oh.”

The translation was, “My blank!” Fill in that word yourself.

Another time we were watching “Father Goose” which has three characters who speak French, two of those don’t speak any English. And of course, Tom asked me to translate; half the time I didn’t get what they said because they said it too fast. Though the funniest scene is when Leslie Caron’s character takes down a message for Cary Grant’s character in French, so of course, Grant (i.e. Father Goose) asks her to translate, which she does, but she is intentionally stalling for time, so she asks him how to say parachute in English. Makes me laugh every time.

Language is important. It helps get across ideas and information to other people. Language is the building block of writing. But what do you do when what you’re writing is in a language other than your native tongue?

I occasionally use a bit of French in my writing, not a string of words, and nothing that needs translated, just a word here or there that is actually commonly used in America. The one I use most often is fiancée, but hey, I mostly write romance. I’ve also used touché a time or two and even en masse. That’s easy; I know the words, and they are well known; I don’t have to translate them. Then again, French does exist. It is a real language.

This last week Konnie and I have been dealing with languages that don’t exist except in our sci-fi worlds. For me, my hero speaks the heroine’s native tongue quite well, but the heroine doesn’t speak his native tongue all that well, and I have both of them switching back and forth between the languages to communicate. Only, there isn’t two languages, just the names of those languages, and a few made up words.

With Konnie, there are a lot more languages, and some social rules about when you can use which one. She has characters switching what tongue they are speaking probably more than I have mine switching. And she was complaining the other day about how hard it was. I couldn’t help but point out she was one that made up the rules.

And we’ve both made up some words. After all we need the name of the language in order to tell the reader what language they are using. But I’ve made up a few words which are in my heroine’s native tongue. And I’m talking about words other than the ones I made up for devices and such in my made-up world.

I’ve another story where I confined certain words to a specific meaning. The most notable was the word join. In that novel join only refers to intimate relations (including a simple kiss) between and a male and a female. The people in my story don’t use that word to mean anything else. Which made for fun scene when my heroine, who isn’t one of that group, uses join, and she wasn’t talking about intimate relations.

It really got the hero’s heartrate going. 😊

But all this brings up the question what is the best way to deal with foreign languages in a story?

And what is the best way to deal with made up languages in a story?

Do you ever make up words? Or do you ever make up rules for the society in your story about the use of certain words, or like the Konnie did, the use of language?

Happy writing everyone! 😊

Of Technology and Other Issues by Konnie Enos

 At the church the other day the teacher in our Sunday class was having some technical issues with the equipment she was trying to use as part of her lesson. For several minutes the lesson stalled and at least one class member left the room looking for someone who was elsewhere in the building to solve the problem.

Several of the women in the room (it was a woman’s meeting) made comments about getting one of the younger children to help.

I turned to the older woman beside me a told her that when I have issues with my technology (which isn’t often) I call my youngest son. I also admitted I obtained my first internet ready computer while I was pregnant with my older son. Both my boys have grown up with technology and at least my youngest daughter doesn’t remember much before surfing the web was a common everyday thing.

On the other hand, I think I was in high school the first time I saw a computer and that wasn’t to use it myself. The secretary at the school I was attending was using it.

My first computer class was when I was in college.

Today, I have my own laptop and use it every day.

So I sat in this class thinking more about how much things have changed over the last twenty years. The last forty. Then I did about the lesson.

Just think about the changes you’ve seen in just the last twenty years.

Internet ready and capable devices and World Wide Web being one of the biggest changes. Now the idea of not only flying cars, but self-driving cars isn’t so farfetched.

This technology can be a blessing and a distraction.

As a writer, I appreciate the fact I can now type a full page without having to use whiteout or eventually rip the paper out of the typewriter and start over. It’s also helpful that the program can, sometimes, help me properly spell words, something I often have difficulty with. And if I can’t find the word I want sometimes I can get the program to help me find a similar word that would work just as well.

It also helps me get things done, like managing the family’s finances.

The downside of technology is it’s a major distraction.

I fought even having a video game system in my house for years for this reason. (Yes, I am very anti-video games. Long story.)

People get lost surfing the web or on Facebook every day.

Me?

I spent the last couple of days doing little else but reading, though my files.

This is why my post is not only late, but sort.

I was distracted, by my writing.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Weather and Natural Disasters by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Life isn’t always sunshine and roses, and we shouldn’t have our stories be that way. The weather can sometimes wreak havoc on our lives and we should be doing the same to our characters. “A Very Special Delivery” by Linda Goodnight starts with an ice storm bringing the hero and heroine together. And I recall a story I read years ago that started out with guy driving home in a huge thunderstorm and spotting a little girl on the roadside in the glow of his headlights, leading him to finding the little girl’s mother in their wrecked car. “The Lawman’s Honor” by Linda Goodnight also starts with an accident in a thunderstorm, though in that one, it’s the heroine rescuing the hero, which I think is a nice change from the man always doing the rescuing.

I’m not talking about starting your story out with, “It was a dark and stormy night,” for one thing, that is telling. In the “The Lawman’s Honor” I know its stormy by the fact that both the hero and the heroine in their separate vehicles are keeping an eye threatening conditions outside their car, and by the fact their windshield wipers are having a hard time keeping up with the deluge. No telling needed, I can visual the storm and that winding mountain road.

Anyway, weather can, and should play a part in our stories, and not just weather, but natural disasters. I know there are stories that start with avalanches, earthquakes, tornados, and blizzards. I’m sure there might also be some that start with a hurricane or a Nor’easter.

Those stories are about the disaster, about how it affects the character’s lives, but it is possible to write a story where the storm or the disaster is just something that happened to bring two people together. I’m talking something that happened, then the story moves on past that. It is over, but the story isn’t.

Though I guess if you have an earthquake, or a volcano erupting, or an avalanche, you need more time to get past those things. (Every volcano story I’ve ever seen was all about getting away from, surviving, the devastation.) And I guess that works for action/adventure or disaster type stories, I just don’t write them.

When I write, I try to consider what time of year it is, and what the weather might be like, because for one thing, the weather would play a role in whether or not they need a coat, or an umbrella. The weather plays a role in whether or not they run from their car to the house or not. It can’t always be sunny and warm that wouldn’t be realistic.

Weather plays a role in what we do each day, it should also play a role in your stories.

In my stories, the weather helps set the time of year that it takes place. In one I have, the bees are buzzing and flowers are in bloom, in others I guess I’m not as clear on the time of year. And I’ve read some where they make me feel like the characters never even experience rain, its always sunny, and they don’t even need jackets, let alone coats.

Maybe that’s just where its set, and the time of year. I know at least a few of those are set in like California or Florida, so they are forgiven, mostly, but I do have one which starts out in California, but its during the rainy season, and involves a series of mudslides. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t happen, because I started writing that one the year there was a ton of mudslides all over the state in California.

And let’s face it, there are other natural disasters. Florida is having problems with sinkholes. Who has sinkholes in their story? 

California is known for their earthquakes. Who has earthquakes (even if its only a minor tremor) in their stories? And California isn’t the only one with earthquakes, back East they don’t occur very often but out here, they happen, a lot.

I keep telling myself I should write an earthquake scene were at least one character isn’t used to earthquakes (only knows about them from disaster movies on TV) and panics at the first tremor thinking everyone there with her is going to die.

Its easy for me to visualize, I’ve seen it. It happened to me in college. We weren’t that close to the epicenter (it was within this state, but a couple hour’s drive away), and while the house was shaking quite a bit, nothing was falling down.

Anyway, we need to consider the weather as we write our stories. Into every life a little rain must fall.

Happy writing everyone! 😊

Meditation and Writing by Konnie Enos

In a recent conversation with my oldest son brought up the subject of meditating because one of his teachers made them do yoga as a means of de-stressing them.

He said he didn’t understand why mostly because part of the time she had them listening to a recording of a lady talking them through a meditation, noting that he didn’t even listen to it. Then he said, “I can never empty my mind completely because when I try story ideas start popping in.” He blamed this on ADHD.

I’m sure, from what Bonnie has told me, she’d concur with him. Based solely on the number of partially finished stories she has I’d say she is constantly bouncing from one story to the next. I’ve seen her work on at least two different stories at once to the point of putting the wrong heroines name in one manuscript because she’d been thinking about the other one.

She blames this on ADD.

I blame it on being a writer.

Why?

Because I don’t have ADHD or ADD.

My mind is always going and if it doesn’t have to concentrate on the task at hand it will be either creating new stories or working out the details in the one I’m currently writing. Even in my sleep I’m working on stories. Ask any writer and they’ll tell you of a story they got from a really good dream.

Unlike my sister, I don’t generally work on more than one story at a time. Although I do have several right now that I need to finish and or edit. I’m not usually writing in one and thinking of what happens in another. Unless of course, like a couple of my books, they have the same characters in both books.

My point is writers think differently.

A writer’s mind is always full of ideas and more come all the time.

I doubt it is possible to empty a writer’s mind completely because their characters will see the empty stage and come out to play. If you have multiple stories they might even contend for time. If none of your current characters want to talk to you a new one will rush out and ask for attention.

It’s almost funny how often new ideas come.

That’s why one of the best gifts to give a writer is notebooks and writing implements so they can always have something to jot a quick idea down on. The quickest ways to lose a story idea is to not get any part of it written down.

Though once you get even a few bones down you have to figure out if there is any meat to the story. Because without that meat, it isn’t worth writing.

I’ve lost story ideas because I didn’t get them written down.

I’ve discarded story ideas because some aspect of it didn’t seem plausible or it just wasn’t going to work.

I’ve stopped working on other stories because there wasn’t anything there to make a good story (the meat).

I’ve also left stories because I couldn’t figure out what happened next. This was because the characters weren’t talking to me. Without their input I couldn’t figure out what happened next or where I went off the rails. Those stories stalled.

Other stories I’ve got I’ve only been given a scene or two and I still can’t figure out how to make those into a full story. Of course, those characters aren’t talking to me yet, so no help at all.

I have one story idea that I dropped after trying to write one scene because I figured out I’d have to do a ton of research to do a proper job on it.

The stories that get somewhere, the ones I get to “the end”, are the ones were the characters start talking to me. They tell me who they really are and what their hopes are. Even what they are doing.

The best writing I’ve ever done was when I was typing out a scene I’d outlined for my story and one of my characters surprised me with something they said.

I went to delete it. I not only had not planned on putting that line in, I had intended not having that outcome in the story at all. However, before I removed it, I looked over what I had and thought about the character and the scene. It stayed. It worked. Sometimes your characters surprise you.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Mirror Twin Distractions by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Living with ADD isn’t easy and being a writer and living with ADD can be the pits. I think my life would be a whole lot easier if I didn’t have to deal with ADD.

More than once this last week I caught myself getting distracted from what I was doing each time I took a break to use the facilities or get more water. At some point or other I would notice something that needed done, or remember something I was going to do, and, instead of a couple minutes away from my computer I’d be more like twenty or longer, i.e. long enough the thing went to sleep.

But if that weren’t bad enough, I couldn’t concentrate on one manuscript! I’d get thinking about changes I needed to make on my science fiction series and open it up only to have my brain switch gears to one of two other incomplete novels I have and some changes or additions I need to make to them. Except if I opened either of those, my brain would switch back to the sci-fi.

In other words, I never got much of anything done even though my brain was actively working on my various stories – I doubt anyone could write about A and B when their brain was thinking about X and Y. I personally found it disconcerting when I had the story about A and B open, and suddenly my brain had the story about X and Y running through my thoughts and I very nearly inserted the new details for X and Y’s story into A and B’s story, which would have been more than a little weird since one is sci-fi and the other a contemporary romance. 

  

And adding to my problems with concentrating on just one story was my problems with sticking to just one task until I was done. More than once I caught myself stopping in the middle of the room, on my way back from the bathroom, trying to remember what I was going to do next, and when I did remember something to do, I’d start doing it and suddenly remember what I’d been doing before I got up, either that or I’d go back to what I’d been doing and I'd suddenly remember that I had something else I was going to do before I got back to it.

More than once it was my empty stomach or water bottle which finally reminded what I was going to do before returning to my computer.

None of which helped me because while I realized all sorts of tweaks that needed done to three different manuscripts this past week, I didn’t get a whole lot done toward actually executing any of those changes.

On the other hand, Konnie actually managed to get some writing done this last week either, more than I did anyway, which for her is an improvement, but let’s face it, her life is so much busier than mine, which is why she’s usually the one who doesn’t get a lot of writing done in a week.

Time zone wise I’m an hour earlier than Konnie is, but she beats me up every morning, because she’s up before the crack of dawn, whereas I sleep in. Typically, when most people are heading out the door for the day, I’m just crawling out of bed, while Konnie was heading out the door around the time most people are getting up in the morning, and she’s constantly busy from the moment she gets up in the morning until she finally shuts off her computer and goes to sleep each night.

I spend the majority of my time around the house, with the only noise being when I turn on the TV or the stereo. At Konnie’s house, noise erupts anytime someone so much as walks past the house. With, I think the current count is five, dogs I have a tendency to cut phone calls with my sister short because that pack started barking again.

Konnie on the other hand lives in that racket, and lives with her family, so there is always something going on, and always people talking or doing something, and it only gets quiet around there after like eleven o’clock at night, but their mornings start around four-thirty or five. And she not only works in all that chaos, she’s in charge of it!

So, while I don’t get a lot of writing done because my brain won’t focus on one project she doesn’t get a lot of writing done because her family requires so much of her attention.

As kids, living together, our lives were very similar, but things changed because we now live such different lives as adults.

Happy writing everyone. 😊

Finding the Writing Motivation By C. Hope Clark

Motivation means different things to people, but for many it is so elusive that they give up on it. Some are afraid they don’t have it. Others are afraid they’ll mistake a quick nice feeling for motivation. Some worry they don’t understand how to maintain it.

            Many of my readers ask where I get my motivation from. It’s not magic, and it’s not science. For a writer, motivation comes about through the culmination of its several parts.

1)      Having an original idea.

In reality, most of us fear of being too original. Sure, we talk about having that grandiose idea or remarkable brand, but seriously, are we willing to be SO original that we are unlike anything else out there? Isn’t that scary? What if we are so different that nobody gets us?

Experts and celebrities bank on their originality, making money because of their talent and the fact so many people want to be like them. However, we have to avoid emulating someone else’s success so much that we lose our originality. Following someone else’s path means we often take the safe route and latch ahold of someone else’s wagon. We call that copycatting. The trouble is, there’s nothing motivational in being a copycat. We don’t totally scratch that itch.

On the other hand, when we snare a grand idea, and are daring enough to strike out with it, we can become flooded with a deep motivation that carries us so much further than an idea similar to someone else’s. There isn’t any energy in playing someone else’s game.

2)      Being organized.

We can be busy or we can be organized. And if the busyness feels frantic, stressful and out of control, then we’ve indeed lost control of our direction . . . our motivation. We are answering to all sorts of stimuli instead of focusing on a plan making us ineffective. Disorganization quickly dilutes motivation.

So the point is to establish your goals for each year. Complete the novel? Publish the novel? Submit to 25 magazines? Attend three conferences and take a class. Identify your writing strengths and weaknesses, then make concerted plans to fix the weaknesses. Wake up in the morning knowing what you will do that day toward your annual goals. Keep a calendar and stick to it, helping (enforcing) family and friends to better understand the seriousness of your mission.

You cannot get anywhere without knowing specifically where you need to go. Don’t say you’ll write more. List the word count, number of chapters, and period of time to complete them. Define your tasks in measurements you can be accountable for.

3)      Being focused.

The world today is about instant gratification, easy wins, and keeping a tally while watching our neighbor. It’s about writing a paragraph then checking email. Writing another then reading Facebook. Attempting one more paragraph then reading a new blog post.

Being focused means just that. . . working uninterrupted. And don’t blame others for interrupting you. They can’t without your permission. Leave the phone out of the room and don’t open social media. Mute the sound so you don’t hear incoming messages or updated headlines.

Then fall into your work. Become engulfed in it. That’s where you find magic. That’s where you tap that stupid mythical muse so many talk about. It comes from you being proactively focused, not from some invisible feeling randomly striking you. There’s almost nothing as satisfying as coming out of a straight, multi-hour writing afternoon with a couple thousand words under your belt. That doesn’t happen with a muse. It happens with purpose and sweat.

What is motivation?

Motivation is having an idea, planning how you’ll achieve it, then diving in deeply to create it. And the amazing thing about it is that the more you’re able to achieve using this formula, the more empowered you become. In other words, the more motivated.

I simplify. I say no to things. When I feel out or sorts or too busy to get everything done, I start culling the obstacles in my path that are inhibiting my motivation. If writing is your goal, then whenever you’re doing something that’s NOT writing, ask yourself if it’s necessary or did it just slip in the way. Then discard it. Decide what really isn’t needed in your writing plan, and what’s in your way of doing something meaningful.

Learn to feel excited about your writing again. Feel excited about the direction you’ve decided for yourself. With a mission, and a plan to achieve it, you once again love reporting to work, even accepting the parts of your work that aren’t your favorite. Make your work become play again.

BIO: C. Hope Clark’s latest release, Newberry Sin, comes out late April 2018. It’s the fourth in the Carolina Slade Mysteries, and Hope’s eighth mystery. Hope is also founder of FundsforWriters.com where her newsletter reaches 35,000 readers. The site was selected for Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers . . . for the past 17 years. www.chopeclark.com 

Morning Thoughts by Konnie Enos

Try this morning. You get up at your normal hour and start waking teenagers up. Ten minutes later you hear activity but it isn’t your son getting in the tub so you go investigate. Oldest son, who doesn’t have to be up just yet, is getting food while youngest son is still in bed. You wake him up again. He finally gets up.

He can only find two pair of pants. Being on the autism spectrum he is picky about his pants. One won’t due because their pockets are too small. The other pair has big enough pockets but has a nice big hole in the crotch.

So you have dig out your sewing supplies and stitch up his pants while you make him get in the tub, already later than he should have. Situation handled and you can still get them to class on time.

Then you realize that it’s garbage day.

Now since the garbage man doesn’t come until after the sun comes up and you have to get people out the door well before that it’s likely the cans can get to the curb in time but as you are realizing it is indeed that day it dawns on you that it is also blog post day and guess what? You did not write your post.

Your choices are hope it isn’t your turn to actually write the post or wake up dear husband and hope he takes the children to school so you have to time to write, should you come up with something.

As luck would have it, it’s your turn and dear husband is willing to drive. Yeah!

Now to get an idea.

Unfortunately instead of coming up with an idea yesterday you spent the whole day paying bills, balancing checkbooks and running errands. You tackled quite a bit of your to-do list, just not that part of it.

So you get on your trusty computer and start looking but the clock is ticking then your phone rings. It’s your youngest son and you are positive he is going to say his headache won’t go away and he wants to miss even more school. You’re actually prepared to fight him on this one.

No. The car won’t start. Dead battery.

Now this poses a problem not only in getting your two teenagers to school but your youngest daughter needs to get to her college classes and she has mid-terms today.

So instead of writing you are calling to get them some help hoping it is fast enough so people aren’t too awfully late.

Then your son calls again. The car finally started.

Whew!

Now you have to pray the car stays running long enough to get all the kids where they need to go and nobody is late, and you still need to write your blog, with no ideas.

And the clock is still ticking while you are facing the very real possibility of having to drive your daughter to school. So you are trying to type some stream of thought in hopes of inspiration and still praying that dear husband will actually take daughter to school, you know since he is already in the car. Not to mention dressed.

Then the phone rings again. This time it’s your husband, only if he says anything you can’t hear him. Your daughter goes out front and checks. He’s home.

She says she’s leaving. Oh good. He did drive her.

Guess my morning is taken care of now.

I hope that’s the end of the problems today.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.