Of Blank Pages and Story Prompts by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

You can’t fix a blank page. But what do you do when you are faced with one? I don’t know about other authors; I just know me, and I hate facing the dreaded blank page when I have no idea swimming in my head.

The blank page isn’t a problem when the ideas are flowing, I fill that page and then some lickety-split. When the ideas are not flowing, well that blank page can be daunting.

And why am I stuck on this?

Because I am faced with the dreaded blank page and no ideas this morning, why else?

Of course, there are ways to combat this. The easiest of which is free writing. The exercise where you set a timer for five minutes and then write down everything that comes into your head during that time.

The first time I did this exercise, in a high school creative writing class, I wrote that I didn’t have anything to write for the first couple of minutes, and then the words started flowing.

Not the greatest stuff, but as you can’t fix a blank page, at least I had something to work with, which is way better than staring at a blank page!

Another way to combat this problem is using story prompts, which can easily be found online. I find them all the time on Pinterest. Some of these are lists of three things to include in your story while others are single ideas, phrases, and even sentences to start off your story.

This is actually how I started the sci-fi I’m working on. A writing group I was in at the time had a prompt challenge, where the leader put up a group of prompts and we had a week to start one or more stories from those prompts. We shared what we produced at the next meeting.

I can’t remember how many prompts I used, but I remember the most important one. It’s morphed since then, I added some detail, but it became the opening line of my sci-fi until I realized that the scene in my hero’s POV, which I wrote after that scene, actually happened before the first scene I wrote, so I switched them around.

That prompt was still the start of what is looking to be a nice sci-fi series. I am working on book two while still occasionally tweaking book one, and I do have ideas percolating for book three. At this point, I have title ideas for four books, but I have a feeling I might need five books to finish the story. Mostly because I have two male heroes, and both their stories need telling.

Admittedly they are twin brothers, and the first book opens with the younger twin searching for his missing twin, which is really becoming quite a good read, if I do say so myself. It is the third book where the older twin becomes the main hero. I’m obviously not there yet.

But as the fourth book is supposed to be about the downfall of the villain they are fighting in the first three books, I’m now thinking I might have to have a fifth book to show the happily ever after of the heroes. Might. As I haven’t written that part of the story yet, I really don’t know.

I do know I need at least four books.

I’m working on it.

With Nano coming up, I might just start the third book then.

Wish me luck!

Then again, I started book one from that prompt during Nano a few years ago. And I actually wrote enough then that I started book two! As in I wrote over 90,000 words in that one month that year!

That was the best year I had yet.

This brings to mind the year Konnie actually wrote just over 50,000 words one November. Inspiration hit her and her family was mighty peeved at how much time she spent on her computer writing that month.

Konnie has never officially participated in Nano, never registered and after that one time, she has a good excuse not to.

Oh, and that book she was inspired to write. It is now the first book of her five-book sci-fi series!

I should point out that Konnie started her sci-fi years before that prompt session which started my sci-fi. A fact that all the other participants pointed out. It was high time I wrote a sci-fi too.

So anyway, now both of us have an epic sci-fi we are working on, but we also both have other stories on which we are working. What we both have always written is sweet romances. In fact, Konnie started her book as a sweet romance, it just morphed into a sci-fi.

Anyway, happy writing everyone! 

Of Pain and Loss by Konnie Enos

A month or so ago I went to see my PCP about my extreme back pain. It has gotten worse lately and I wanted to find out if there was anything that could be done for it. For the first time, I had a doctor prescribe me pain medications for my back pain. But he also ordered an MRI. I had that done two weeks ago.

Now it has been my experience that when I have medical tests done, I have to contact the doctor’s office a couple of weeks later and get an appointment as much as a month after the tests were done, so I can get the test results. Or on rare occasions, someone on the doctor’s staff will call me and relay a message about my results. Generally, this is just about a change in my medications. Such calls also occur at least a week after the tests are done.

I was called two days after the MRI was done and asked to come in to talk to the doctor as soon as possible. As you can imagine, I was extremely concerned about what may have been seen on that MRI.

But I also could not get into the office right away. Jerry had taken our car in for some routine maintenance, and it was discovered that our transmission was going out. This resulted in our car being in the shop for about a week. The only good thing about it was that the transmission was still under warranty.

Anyway, I had several days to stew about what might have been seen on that MRI and my conclusion was, based on experience, that it wasn’t anything serious or even new. My doctor was just going to tell me my arthritis was worse and give the same trite suggestions. Namely diet and exercise.

I was not pleased with this prospect. I knew my back pain had gotten increasingly worse over the last few years. I had even done physical therapy and recently I’d lost a tiny bit of weight, with effort. Yet with all of that, I still have to regularly use my walker nearly every time I leave the house. I’ve managed an appointment here or there without it, but I use it every Sunday at church now. This is because the walk from the chapel to the Sunday school classrooms is too long for my back to handle without support.

Still, I made the appointment and went to it not expecting much.

My assumptions were incorrect.

He told me have had several herniated disks and some of them were pinching my nerves. I now have an appointment with a specialist to see what can be done for the pain. I am trying not to make any more assumptions about it, but I know the most common treatment for herniated disks is surgery. Like it or not, my brain is assuming a long recovery time and more pain.

I am hoping I’m wrong again.

Now if this wasn’t bad enough, on the last Sunday in August we discovered that our largest dog, Hmwun, was sick. Sick enough that Jerry quickly got him an appointment and took him to the vet.

I knew Hmwun had several issues but assumed it was all age-related and he still had a couple more years in him. I also assumed Jerry was overreacting as he is prone to do.

It was age-related, and conditions that are common in his breed. The issue was it had advanced to the point that there was nothing more they could do for him. Jerry was able to walk him to the car but by the time they got to the vet, he couldn’t walk anymore. He passed away on the exam table.

We miss him terribly.

One would think that would be more than a sufficient amount of bad news for just two weeks, but it hasn’t ended there.

I contacted our second-born child, who lives on the other side of the country, to let her know about Hmwun and my back. She let me know that she has been having some major health setbacks and is currently in the hospital battling a major infection.

As a mother, I want to be with my child through this health challenge, but I have my own health issues to deal with and I couldn’t possibly afford the trip. I can only pray she gets better.

This has just added to our string of unpleasant events this year. Thankfully, we have had some good things happen too. Like our son surprising us with a visit and I’ve been able to get most of the way through editing my sci-fi. Now if I could just finish it.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

 

Of Research, Notes, and Writing by Bonnie Le Hamilton

The other night I had a dream that someone asked me if I’ve ever played football. I was about to say of course I haven’t when a kaleidoscope of events that occurred when I was around twenty-one crossed my mind and I had to amend my answer.

The thing is that is the only time I ever played!

All my roommates and I joined up with a bunch of guys at a nearby park to play. As we divided into teams, I kept trying to tell them I’d never played, but no one would listen. As the team I was on formed a huddle, I finally got our captain to understand I knew nothing about the game.

He pointed out one of my larger roommates and told me all I had to do was keep from her passing our scrimmage line.

Okay.

I still wasn’t sure I could do it. This girl was taller and broader than my then less than five feet, 125 pounds body. But I lined up with the rest of my team directly across the field from said roommate.

When everyone started running forward, I took a couple of steps, planted my feet firmly in place, and then held my arm out to my side, the side for which she was aiming.

As she got to my arm, I put my whole body into moving my arm in front of me.

Within seconds she was flat on her back at my feet, staring up at me totally stunned I managed that.

My team captain yelled, “We’re playing tag football not tackle!”

I faced him and said, “You said stop her; I stopped her!”

My roommate spent the rest of the evening commenting on how I was stronger than I looked.

She was probably glad I stopped playing because soon after that my hip started bothering me and I sat down on the sidelines for the rest of the game.

I’ve never played football again. But some years later I came across a booklet titled “A Football Widow’s Handbook” which I studied thoroughly because my husband was into watching the sport.

Nowadays, anytime Konnie needs any information related to football for a story of hers, she asks me.

I lost that booklet decades ago, and I lost my husband over a decade ago, so it’s been at least that long since I’ve watched a football game, but Konnie still turns to me for such information.

Though it’s been a while since she’s asked me about football. More recently she asked me about makes of cars and their sizes. You know, to be more specific in her story. In other words, telling the types of vehicles wasn’t going to cut it.

Good thing I have a computer. I just looked up some of the makes I could think of. Konnie couldn’t come up with any.

So, I guess I do know cars better than she does but let’s keep in mind I have one story where the two main characters are auto mechanics. And boy did I have I have to do quite a bit of research for that!

Of course, I’ve also got one where the female lead is a pilot. And yes, I did a lot of research for that one too.

Now I’m working on my sci-fi and I had to do a lot of research, more than any of the rest.

I had to look up military ranks because the hero is in the military. But I also had to research the Greek Alphabet and study how fables were written for my backstory for the series which is an ancient fable for the world I’ve built. I did write the fable.

Then I also had to look into things like kings and their heirs, because that plays a role in my story, and for good measure, I looked up ranks of nobility.

Let’s not forget looking up a bit of science so my solar system I’m making up works!

Yeah, I’ve done more research for my sci-fi than I’ve ever done for any of my contemporary romances.

But then when I’m not researching, I have also done a lot of drawing up floor plans for the characters' homes, and for my Moose Creek series, I have a file on the family groups, including birth and marriage dates, and another file of who graduated in what year from the local high school. I also have the genealogy of the main family in that series, back several generations. I also have a file on family groups for my speculative fiction. Yeah, I take lots of notes.

As I write a story, I note character names, ages, and whatever else I need to remember, including my research notes.

How about you?

Happy writing all!

Of Call Etiquette and Teasing by Konnie Enos

Growing up in the good ol’ days before everyone carried their phones in their pockets, we were always instructed that it was rude to call anyone before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. If you knew they worked ‘9 to 5’ you had about three hours in the evening when they might be available to talk.

There were, of course, exceptions to this rule. Such as calling someone you know stayed up later, or who was expecting your late call. And late calls did happen because long-distance calls were cheaper after 10 p.m.

Of course, you also couldn’t get ahold of someone who wasn’t home, or at least in a known location with a phone number you knew or could get. But no one was calling people at work just to chat either.

But to this day, anyone who grew up in that era will panic if their phone rings unexpectedly after 9 p.m. or before 8 a.m. I’ve done it myself and was extremely irritated when a spammer woke me at 6 a.m. I’m sure others will agree with me that there are just sometimes of the day when you absolutely shouldn’t be calling anyone.

Now, the one thing I learned about this piece of etiquette is that you have to know the time differences between time zones so you’re not calling someone too early or late. For example, someone in New York can call someone in California at 11 p.m. because it’s only 8 p.m. in California.  But California can’t call New York at 8 p.m. without first arranging the time.

Now that I have children on both coasts (Massachusetts and Oregon), not to mention family in Utah and Idaho, I have to remember the time difference before calling any of my family.

Okay, so four of my five kids live in the same time zone as I do. But two of those don’t live with me and I never remember their daily schedules.

Who am I kidding? I don’t know my son's schedule other than if it’s daytime, he’s probably working. I’m sure he gets a day off here and there, but I don’t know when it is.

My daughter does tell me her schedule, but their wake-sleep cycle is different and I’m never sure when they are awake. And my sister is active enough that between her jobs, friends, clubs, and groups, I’m never sure she’s home, at least during the day. I can generally catch her on weekends and evenings.

Our oldest son does have night owl tendencies but is working a daytime job. Even then I doubt he’d be in bed before 10 p.m. so 9 might not be too late to call him. Then again he’s had jobs where he had to be to work before 7 a.m. so he might be in bed by 9. The conclusion is that since I don’t know his work schedule, I don’t know the best time to call him.

Then again, he’s a twenty-something. He has told me more than once that he prefers people to text him. Then he can deal with it when it’s convenient for him. And apparently, that’s the mind set of most twenty-somethings. Even Bonnie and I have gotten into the habit of texting our questions or whatever we want to say to each other. Once in a while one of us asks if the other can talk which then leads to one of us, usually Bonnie, texting, “Call me”.

Thinking about sending a text just brought me to the realization that the new phone etiquette is ‘always text someone before you call them to be sure they are willing and able to talk to you at that moment’.

So, what brought all this musing on?

My husband.

It was inching past 9 p.m. and he asked if it was too late to call our son.

After I thought about it a moment or two (see my musing above) I told Jerry I had no idea if it was a good time or not but also mentioned how Bonnie would react if he called her.

He said, “Okay, I’ll call Bonnie.”

“You will not. She’ll panic.”

“I’ll call from your phone.”

“You will not. If you called from my phone, especially this late at night, she’d think something happened to me and really panic.”

(Don’t worry, Bonnie. I think he was teasing.)

He finally said, “Fine. I’ll just text.”

(Pretty sure he meant our son because Bonnie didn’t call me in a panic when his text woke her up.)

Anyway, that was my moment of clarity and my “I just got to write that down” inspiration.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.