This is what writing should feel like ...

I'm working on the Oz book -- another 1st person mystery set in Kansas after a tornado. I'm writing a few pages a day, somewhat effortlessly. The story is flowing off my fingertips and into the keyboard.

This is the way I like to write. On my previous WIP it was a struggle. I just never felt like I connected well with the characters. I think I crafted a good book, but it was just that -- a craft exercise, a placing of words on the page without that visceral connection to the plot or the setting throughout the book. I did feel that in spots, but in other spots I had to analyze what I was writing and deliberately think, "Now, what's needed here? Should Dru get lost or should I have her meet with Cal and his group?"

In the book I'm writing now, the characters are dictating the story and it's such a relief! With stories like this, I can write my draft, let it sit, then come back and review it later. I don't feel I need to tweak it and prod it and massage it. My character has determined the scope of the story and I'm just telling it. I do nudge things in certain directions, of course, but overall the feeling of the story is all done by the time the first draft is done.

I think this is my niche. Many folks think first-person mysteries are tough to write, but I find them refreshing and invigorating. Yep. My niche. I'm here.

The sign of an empty mind ....

I'm in between books again. Just finished edits on two and sent them to an editor for consideration, and not quite ready to start the next one.

As I was driving to work today, I realized I didn't 'have to' think about a book. Usually when I'm deep into writing, I'll use spare 'duh' moments (when I don't need 100% attention on the task at hand) waiting in line, TV watching and yes, sometimes, driving, to think about my book. I'll say 'where am I? Oh, yeah. Dru has gone into that room and what needs to be said next?' And I'll allow my mind to wander at will on the plot. I'll jot down ideas when I can and when I sit down to write, I'll have a good sense of what I want to accomplish.

It feels sometimes like I'm renting out 'brain cycles' to my book and letting it take me over for a time. I'm really noticing it now when I don't have anything percolating in the front of my brain. There's one spot in my commute when I can sort of relax (all the merging of cars is done and it's just a straight shot to the office). Today I got there and thought: 'hmm. No plot to think about. What an odd feeling.'

I suspect this will last about 3 or 4 days then I'll be back into it. I'm already making notes about ideas. Until then ... an empty mind. Another interesting side effect of writing....

All over but the emailing ...

I've been tweeking my next 2 submissions and you know, I could nickel and dime myself all day. It's good that I'm working on the 2 books simultaneously, because they're related -- one follows the other in the series.

What I'm doing now is the gruntwork: I've got my list of faux pas that I regularly commit and I'm slogging through both ms, checking for those gotchas (too many ellipses, too many dashes, too my 'ly' words ... you get the idea).

This is the unglamorous side of writing, the cleanup. Just like doing the dishes is the unglamorous side of the Thanksgiving feast. They are both tasks to do and the reward is being able to say "DONE!"

I'm almost there. I'm going to do one more review tonight then they are emailed off to my editor. I'm going to take a few days off and just do some promo stuff, relax, read a magazine, then start the next book. I'm already looking forward to it ....

Almost DONE!

A day late ...

... but not a dollar short -- I typed "The End" last night to my latest WIP.

This book gave me Fits with a capital "F". I couldn't get into the plot, I wasn't involved with the characters, yada yada yada. I finally realized that I was trying to make it Character A's book and it was really Character B's book. So I went back, changed a few things, beefed up Character A's role but made it Character B's book. Once I did that, it went a lot better.

So now I can truly relax over this holiday. I have to do a ton of promo which I let slack while I was writing and I have to cook and get the house decorated for Christmas, but hey, those things are easy compared to struggling with a book that doesn't want to be written!

Slugging it through to the finish

I'm a bit stuck on my current WIP. By 'stuck', I mean I've been working on it for about a month and don't feel like I'm making really good forward progress. This book has been hard to write. The words aren't flying off my fingers for this one, like they did for the previous book in the series. I suppose it's because it's a political thriller type of book and not one of my lighter mysteries, but it's tough.

That said, I've only been at it a month. I've set an artificial deadline of Thanksgiving for me to have it done, which means I've got about 2 weeks to go. I figure I need about 5 more chapters to wrap it up, so that should be doable.

Will it be any good? I think it will be, but I never know until I finish. That's what's so hard about this writing game -- you work and work, and you really don't know if it was worth the effort until you finish it, set it aside for a while, then pick it up again and evaluate it. Even then I'm never really sure -- I wait for my editor or my critique partner to tell me, 'yeah, it's good'.

So all I can do is keep slugging away and get that plot wrapped up. Then I'll let it sit for a couple of months and come back to it and decide .... keeper or not?

We'll see.....

Progress report

My latest mystery is zipping along. I've hit a few speed bumps on the way but Miss Sockeye Salmon is still one of the villains, I've thrown the main characters into hot water (literally and figuratively), and I have a clear idea of how I'm going to finish.

At least, I thought I did until I realized ... hmm ... this book is set around Halloween. Maybe I need to work in some trick or treat action. I don't know about you, but it always spooks me when I answer the door at Halloween. It's the perfect time for someone to pull off a murder. Everyone is in costume, it's usually dark and spooky, and toy weapons are everywhere. Who knows if one might be real or not?

So I've decided to rip up chapter 14 and change my timeframe a bit. This means going back to the start, making sure my dates are right, and changing the fall foliage colors slightly and making the weather a bit colder...

Gee, it's fun being in charge of stuff like the weather. Don't we wish!

Once again ... first chapters

State Fair update: chocolate covered bacon is interesting, but not a keeper. I did like the Frog Legs, though (battered green beans, deep fried). Quite yummy.

I'm on a new WIP and feeling pretty good about it. The first chapter is going well, and as we all know, that's critical -- this one is tricky because it's the second book in a series, so I want to give a bit of history but not too much. I have to introduce the characters quickly but not give too much detail for those who know the characters from the first book.

A challenge ... I are up to it!

Learning a new voice

I'm starting book 3 of my paranormal series, and I'm focusing it on a new set of characters. The first book focused on Isbel and Cyrus; the second on Dru and Jak; and this third book will focus on Jessa and Bron.

Isbel, Dru, and Bron are half-siblings, which is part of the continuity thread running through the books. The other thread is the political upheaval on their planet -- Dru, Jak and Bron are leaders in their government and they face a lot of challenges in this third book.

As you can tell -- it's complex, but that's not the part that has me worried. With each book I need to slip into the mind of a different person, a different personality. I have a good sense for this book of 'who' Bron is, but Jessa has me a bit worried. I'm not sure I'll so easily slip into her mind for her chapters. So I'm spending a lot of time fleshing out her history (none of which will appear in the book except by allusion to it) so I can get a sense of who she is.

Most of my characters are loosely based on people I know or on archtypes, but Jessa is a bit of a conumdrum. So I may need to postpone her entry into the story until I know her better.

Thoughts and musings on the writing life for a Tuesday ....

Where am I?

I'm deep in the forest of another planet.

This new book is going very, very well. Words seem to be flying off my fingers. I know I said I was going to try to work on two books at one time, but this one is progressing so well, I may save the other book to work on if I get stuck in this one.

I hope it's hanging together okay. This is tricky because it's the second book in a series and I use many of the same characters. I have to allude to what happened before, but I can't do a bit information dump telling what occurred. And I want to make sure I'm consistent with personality, setting, etc. So I'm referring back to the first book a LOT.

Along the way I'm creating my Bible (detailed histories for characters, descriptions of locations, etc.) This will help me when I write the third book, which I'm already starting to jot notes for.

so far, so good!

The importance of the right sticker

I'm getting organized for the next book. As some of you know, when I work on a book I keep a small notebook (5x7) of thoughts, ideas, pictures, etc.

The next book requires a bit of research, so I'll have 2 nb for it, one for the 'hard' research and the other for snippets of dialog, thoughts, ideas, etc.

I always buy cheap notebooks at Michael's or Target and decorate them with stickers that indicate what I think will be the theme of the book: family, trust, honesty, fear etc. I also use stickers to indicate where it's occurring: on a trip, in farm country, in a city, on a construction job, etc. It's amazing what kinds of stickers you can find.

I got my Research NB all stickered up okay then I started writing in my Other NB before stickering it. Then I went back and stickered it and decided I just didn't like the look. The cover was too busy -- not from stickers but from the original cover design.

{sigh}

I'd invested some time in getting the NB set up with info in it, so I couldn't abandon it. So I got out some background mattes (sticky pages, essentially), covered up what was there and re-stickered the front.

MUCH better. I felt very good about it.

At this point I realized I was working off superstition and had a good laugh at myself, but I'm telling you, the right stickers make all the difference in attitude. And that's what's needed when starting a new WIP -- you've got to get the attitude right.

So now it's Onward with a freshly stickered book. I still need to do some creative brainstorming before I'm ready to write, but figure in a week or two you'll start getting info about the next project.

All stickered up and ready to go.

How a writer's mind works ....

There's a natural disaster in my home town (major flooding), which I've been following closely on the news. In addition to my natural shock and dismay at seeing familiar landmarks be innundated with water, I'm also making notes.

That's what writers do, you know? We see something and thing, "Hmm. I can use that in a book." We're not trying to be cold-hearted or anything -- we see the human side to the disaster and we empathize. But we also recognize interesting data for our stories, and want to capture it while we can.

This whole Midwest flooding event has given me great ideas for my Big Book (the one I plan to write when I get all these other books out of my head). All those things I had a hard time imagining? They're happening right now. All I need to do is take notes, stretch my imagination a tiny bit more, and I'll have some great plot points.

So I guess that does answer that old question. Does life imitate art, or does art imitate life?

In my case, art will definitely imitate life....