Don’t Write Every Day!

Dear Reader,

I’ve told you to write every day. I was wrong to tell you that.

I’m not going back on my word entirely as I do feel we need to be practicing our craft as often as we can. Taking my own experience as an example, however, I’ve found that this undue pressure we put on ourselves to write every day and come up with brilliant words every time we put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) is often what causes my dreaded “writer’s block.”

So what am I saying?

Maybe writers don’t need to write every day

Writing for writers is important. For me, it’s like breathing. Most times, I breathe normally, but sometimes I hyperventilate, and sometimes I feel like I’m being strangled. Those are the days when my writer’s block is the worst, and last night while I had trouble falling asleep I tried to figure this one out.

Is writer’s block really a block, or just frustration?

When I feel drained of words, I turn to reading. I pick up the nearest book and read at least a chapter. This seems to shift my metaphorical writing cup from half-empty to half-full. My imagination is sparked, and I begin asking my favorite question: What if?

The next thing I know, I’ve written a couple hundred words and hey, they aren’t even that bad.

So what am I saying? Maybe it isn’t important for writers to write every day. But it is important that writers do something related to writing every day. See the difference?

There is more to writing than the act of it

When I was learning violin in elementary school, it wasn’t enough to learn where to put my fingers on the fingerboard, or how to hold the bow, or how to read music. I needed to listen to existing musicians. I needed to watch their movements and mimic them until I became comfortable enough with the tools at hand to create my own movements. I mimicked until I was comfortable enough to create.

I am not saying to plagiarize. Good God I’m not saying that. I am saying that if you take time to read books, magazines, anything, to refill your cup (or bowl) of imagination, you are more likely to write because you won’t be burned out.

So on the days you feel like you can’t write, or don’t want to write, pick up a book and know you’re still making progress. Other things you can do that are related to writing include:

1. Read what you’ve written previously
2. Edit what you’ve written previously
3. Draw a mind map of your story
4. Draw a sketch of your main character
5. Make a collage relating to your book
6. Find music which inspires you to write
7. Make an exercise routine tailored to your main character, and then do the exercises
8. Buy your character’s favorite food from the grocery store and eat it

Take a note from Dory in Finding Nemo. What does she tell us? To just keep swimming.

What did we learn from Meet the Robinsons? Keep moving forward.

And finally, what have we learned about Belinda? She watches a lot of Disney movies.

All the best,

Belinda

Why I’m Writing a Ghost Story

Dear Reader,

Haunting Miss Trentwood began as an exercise to understand how my parent felt about losing both of their parents.

I researched adult (or midlife) orphans, which is such an important, and under-recognized topic. I’m certain the public library thought I was going through some deep trouble because I read every book on the topic.

I became fascinated and terrified by the idea that one day, my parents will die, and with them goes the only people in the world who have seen it all happen to me. They exist as a living record and archive of the traumatic moments in my life. They are my anchor.

I asked the questions: What happens to someone who loses both their parents? How do we continue, knowing there will never be anyone who knows us entirely? How do we keep the spirit of our parents alive?

Soon thereafter, I began dreaming about ghosts. Specifically, one ghost: the ghost of Mary’s father. I didn’t know why he was there. Mary certainly didn’t know why he was there. But we both knew his presence would forever change the plot and purpose of Haunting Miss Trentwood née Trentwood’s Orphan.

Looking back, I can see influences of Hamlet involved in the inspiration of Haunting Miss Trentwood. We so often underestimate the importance of the role our parents have in our lives, or the lack thereof if our parents are not a part of our lives. We underestimate the influence our parents have on our judgments and decisions.

This book is my attempt to understand and cope with the idea that one day, my parents will be gone, but I hope to keep their spirits alive within me. Is that crazy? Am I alone in worrying about this? Are you wondering how in the hell can I make an entertaining read about such a morbid topic?

Don’t worry, I wonder the same thing all the time. It’s a challenge, but it’s one I’m excited to face. Which, in retrospect, seems kind of weird, doesn’t it?

All the best,

Belinda

Interviewing Stacey Cochran

Dear Reader,

I’d like to introduce you to Stacey Cochran, my guest from the West today at Worderella Writes.

He was kind enough to answer my three questions with some excellent answers, so don’t let me keep you. Read on!

Learn more about Stacey

Stacey Cochran was born in the Carolinas, where his family traces its roots to the mid 1800s. In 1998 he was selected as a finalist in the Dell Magazines undergraduate fiction competition, and he made his first professional short story sale to CutBank in 2001. In 2004, he was selected as a finalist in the St. Martin’s Press/PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Contest. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife Dr. Susan K. Miller-Cochran and their son Sam, and he teaches writing at North Carolina State University. His books include The Colorado Sequence, Amber Page, CLAWS, and CLAWS 2.

How do you transform your passion into focused research?

Thanks so much for hosting me today.

To answer your question, it really just takes a ton of persistence. I suppose that deep down a writer must believe that what he/she has to say matters. We probably all start from that premise. In the case of the CLAWS books, it started with that belief and a curiosity about the area in which I lived.

See I moved to Arizona in 2001 from North Carolina, and the landscape out West was so different from what I’d known before that I immersed myself in it. Around 2003 and 2004, a number of mountain lion stalkings began popping up in the news in Tucson, and I thought that it would make for an interesting topic for a novel.

How do you translate your research into an entertaining narrative?

Well, it all starts with character. First I had to imagine who would be my guide through the novel… a novel about mountain lions. The logical answer was a wildlife biologist. I settled on Dr. Angie Rippard because “Rippard” was the name of my favorite high school English teacher, and it seemed to fit the story.

I followed the story template — the plot structure, if you will — of Jaws. But instead of an ocean-going adventure, CLAWS was set in the desert high country of Arizona.

How do you sneak an underlying message into your entertaining narrative?

The message in CLAWS is pretty direct. Unregulated and uncontrolled real estate development into wilderness lands in the American West is harmful to the environment. I didn’t hide the message at all. The villain of the story is not the mountain lion; the villain is the ruthless real estate developer who builds golf course communities on the sides of previously virgin mountains.

The tragedy is that this is what has happened all over Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, and that there’s been little progress to stop it.

Whether nature will fight back as it does in CLAWS and CLAWS 2 remains to be seen. What’s more likely to occur is that we will keep poisoning our atmosphere with CO2 and our oceans with mercury, and that our physical health (and our children’s health) will continue to deteriorate. Overpopulation of our planet is a real and serious stress on our environment, and our environment will continue to respond to that stress in ways that affect our health unless we make massive, lasting policy changes.

The CLAWS books are meant to stir that conversation into being.

Thank you to Stacey for providing great answers to some tough questions! Make sure you check out his CLAWS books, as well as other books published by the Stacey Cochran publishing arm.

Interested in being interviewed?

I’d love to profile you on Worderella Writes, especially if you are a self-publishing author in need of some marketing help. All I ask is that you email answers to the following three questions, along with a requested posting date. I look forward to learning more about you and your upcoming projects!

I lost my research

Dear Reader,

You are not going to believe this, but I seem to have lost my research. Not all of it, just the detailed, every day sort of stuff about the town that I’m writing about.

Shoot me. Shoot me shoot me shoot me.

Let me break it down for you: two years ago, I befriended Graham Carter thanks to the amazing randomness of the interwebz. He found me because I was bewailing the lack of information about the little town in England I had chosen as the location of Haunting Miss Trentwood, which at the time was called Trentwood’s Orphan. The town is Compton Beauchamp, which Graham described as “the back of beyond.”

Only an Englishman could make a middle-of-nowhere village sound charming. But then, as I understand it, middle-of-nowhere villages in England are charming, ergo my choosing said middle-of-nowhere village. He called it “obscure” and “anonymous.” He lives within 12 miles of the place and had to look it up on a map to remember where it was, exactly.

I still have the emails he sent me, and he sent me many, because he likes to study genealogy. In fact, he assumed I was an American looking for my Brit roots. Unfortunately, I have none. He went to the local library and made copies of newspapers from every month in 1887 that mentioned Compton Beauchamp.

I was giddy. Ecstatic. I printed them out in chronological order, highlighting and marking where and when I could use local events in Trentwood’s Orphan. I kept the information with me while I moved to Bloomington for grad school. I remember packing the folder when moving back to Columbus for a job.

I cannot find the folder. I know I put it somewhere, and I hope when I move from my parents’ to my brand-spanking-new apartment it will magically appear beneath my pillow, a la the tooth fairy.

In the meantime, I’m working from memory. Thank goodness I spent so many hours studying those papers. But bless me if I didn’t almost lose my mind searching for that folder in all of my within-reach boxes.

I do have generic research about the era, such as clothing, vehicles, etiquette, that sort of thing. Going through that research reminded me that originally the climax of Haunting Miss Trentwood née Trentwood’s Orphan was to be a court scene in which someone was sued for breach of promise. A breach of promise lawsuit could also be known as “how &*%#!@ dare you &*%#!@ break up with me you mother-&*%#!@!”

But I’ve lost the good stuff that I had tucked away in a green, battered, two-pocket, three-hole-punched folder. Maybe if I channel the self I was at the beginning of the summer, I will remember where I put it.

Or, I can wait one more week until I get into my new place and hug the folder upon its retrieval.

All the best,

Belinda

Worderella Enters a Word War

Dear Reader,

I’ve been in a writing slump thanks to my car breaking down. Last night, I saw a tweet for help from the lovely manda903, aka Amanda Racette, saying she needed inspiration.

What sort of inspiration? She wanted to partake in a word war. Now, I’ve known of word wars for years, but have never taken part in one, other than the type where I’m working against the clock  like 750words.com and NaNoWriMo.org. In both situations, my war companion is myself. I’m fighting the clock alone.

But last night, I went for it. A thousand words in one hour, with Amanda as my war companion. We each had to report to one another how many words we wrote, during whatever time span.

I did 1100 words in 50 minutes. Amanda did 1400 in 60 minutes. Definitely worth the initial fear of failure.

Have you had similar situations where you just had to suck it up and go for it, risking failure?

All the best,

Belinda

Worderella Interviews James M Turner

Dear Reader,

I’d like to introduce you to James M Turner, my guest from across the pond today at Worderella Writes.

Turner is an author, composer, musician and screenwriter. Having had a successful career as a highly paid professional musician, he now works in the film industry. His first television series screenplay ‘The Taker’ is currently in development and will hopefully move into production later in 2010.

About ‘Beyond the Comfort Zone’

According to James, his newly released work Beyond the Comfort Zone is a memoir of a short period in the life of James M Turner. Having enjoyed a career as a professional musician for the rich and famous, in 2002 he moved to south east Asia where he eventually came into contact with the child trafficking trade.

Together with an acquaintance and the help of a US organization they attempt to gain the confidence of the traffickers and bring them to justice – saving the cargo in the process.

There is a little bit in there about James’ hedonistic days of travelling the world as a high paid musician, but this is really just a foil to throw into stark contrast the subsequent adventure in Asia.

It’s a tale that follows two young men trying to do the right thing and in the process nearly losing themselves as they spiral downwards into a shadowy world where human lives, at least their lives, are worth nothing. There is danger, intrigue, high emotion and a fragile love story woven together in what one reviewer called ‘ an exceptional journey …the making of a Hollywood blockbuster, in short a Shantaram for South East Asia.’

I’m very pleased to have James here to interview. So let’s get on with the questions!

How do you transform your passion into focused research?

Well, in the case of Beyond the Comfort Zone as it was a memoir there was very little research to be done, it was more a ‘method’ writing piece. I did a little historical research in the areas where I thought that people needed contextual help to understand the jeopardy, but again I was already fairly well read in that subject and it really was minimal internet verification.

However, when I was writing ‘The Taker’ my main research consisted of putting myself in the environment. I had a rough plot arc, stepping stones as I like to call them, but I wanted to feel the atmosphere.

This consisted of me sitting in downtown L.A. and soaking up the sights and sounds, making notes as I went. Also, as there is a technology component to the story, I researched cutting edge technology and then imagined how I could push it a bit farther.

Probably the longest gestation period in the development process in ‘The Taker’ was with the characters. I think I had between ten to twenty thousand words of back-story before they even set foot on page one of the script. That made for a fairly quick writing process as I had a very good idea how these people would react in certain situations.

How do you translate your research into an entertaining narrative?

As Beyond the Comfort Zone is a true story, the entertaining narrative really took care of itself. These were real people, very complex individuals. I had a location which was exotic (Thailand). Then the story itself was as dramatic as any fictional thriller.

I tried to make the writing as concise as I could which meant that if I didn’t feel that something was moving the story along or there was some part that needed to be told in a more succinct manner – then out it would go.

One of the things that people have picked up on is the ‘page-turner’ aspect of Beyond the Comfort Zone most people tell me they have read it in 24-36 hrs. I think that is something that my cut throat editing approach has enhanced. If it isn’t contributing to moving the story forward, then it has to go.

How do you sneak an underlying message into your entertaining narrative?

Well, there’s an old quote from Don Maclean who wrote the song ‘American Pie’. When they asked him what the lyrics and the song meant to him he replied ‘It means I don’t have to work again!’ But, to be serious, I’m not sure sneak is the right word. I have however been amazed at how people take away all sorts of ‘hidden’ meanings and sub-plots from Beyond the Comfort Zone. Actually I’m quite happy for them to do that and very glad that the book lives on with people for quite some time after they have read it.

For ‘The Taker’ however hidden meanings are very much an integral part of the plot structure. I had a rough idea of interconnections between events and people, but just wrote the story down without expanding too much on any of those. Then, when the story was complete, I went back to those moments I had identified and dropped in little nuggets that at the time don’t attract too much attention. By the end when the revelations appear there is a clear though (hopefully) surprising link.

However, as I said before, I am constantly surprised by the conclusions drawn by others as to what is sub-text and hidden meaning. Of course I’ll take credit for that…even when it wasn’t deliberate.

Thanks for joining us today! For more information about James, visit his website James M Turner.com and read reviews on Amazon (UK).

All the best,

Belinda

Worderella’s How to Make a Character Map

Dear Reader,

After giving you a taste of Haunting Miss Trentwood, I thought it would be nice if I showed you one of the many ways I keep track of who I’m writing about, how they relate to one another, etc.

I love pen and paper, and could probably buy out any office supply store in the blink of an eye (that is, if I had unlimited funds, which, thankfully, I do not).

That said, I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise you to hear that I adore Post-it notes. The image in this post shows how I visualize the love triangle(s) from Haunting Miss Trentwood. I would make the image bigger but then it might spoil some of the plot twists!

You see, dear Reader, this is a sort of map for me. I use this to remind me where tensions occur between characters. I’m color code so I know which character is part of which plot or subplot, and then I draw arrows with visuals to tell me the generics about the relationships.

I was thrilled to read Deanna Raybourn’s blog when she said she does something similar: a collage of images that help inspire her current work-in-progress. I love learning other types of writing exercises that don’t—shock!—require you to write. I need to make things because I am a Maker. I need to use my hands while I’m figuring something out, even something as cerebral as a plot twist. And then after I’ve made the thing, I want to share how I did it. Like this.

How to make a Character Map

1. Have a crummy day at work.
2. Have an awesome conversation on Facebook.
3. Grab a tabloid-sized sheet of paper, multiple colors of small sticky notes, a pen, and a pencil.
4. Write the names of the main characters on different colors of the sticky notes. Try to group the characters based on their primary plot lines.
5. Play around with the configuration of the character sticky notes on the page until you can get them to fit, and represent the relationships.
6. Draw arrows from one sticky note to the other to show direct connections.
   • Use dotted lines to show indirect connections.
7. Use a pencil because you might make a mistake and try to draw one arrow over another.
8. To keep the character map legible, try to arrange the stick notes so you won’t have to cross arrows.
9. Have fun with it! I drew a funny angry face to show antagonists, hearts to show love interests, and broken hearts to show tragedy.
10. Put the character map somewhere you can glance at when you need inspiration.

I had so much fun with this, I might do it for the relationships I have in my life, and use it as a sort of art piece in my apartment. Or as a way for me to remember who is who at work. Learning the organizational scheme of a new workplace is always so stressful…

All the best,

Belinda

Worderella Reveals a Snippet

Dear Reader,

I am ashamed to admit it has been, according to 750words.com, five days since I last wrote a word for Haunting Miss Trentwood. Thank goodness for blogfests! I almost forgot I agreed to be a part of the Rainy Day blogfest, held by The Writer’s Hole.

Below is my submission, a first-draft snippet of Chapter 24 from my work-in-progress, Haunting Miss Trentwood. To give you an idea of the story, it is set in 1887 England, and the tagline is “Father knows best… even after death.” Enjoy!

By the time they reached Wayland’s Smithy, it had begun to rain. It was the kind of loud rain which spoke of the end of winter and the coming of spring. Mary had been forced to jog that last one hundred yards to the black opening of the Saxon tomb. She had slid on the slick rock floor covered with decaying leaves. Trentwood’s tight grasp on her arm righted her. She jerked away from his unnatural touch.

Mary huddled beneath the sheltering rocks of the sarsen stones that made the ceiling, her arms wrapped tightly around her waist. I haven’t anything left to vomit. “Tell me what happened back there.”

Trentwood stood in the shadows beside her. She could feel his white eyes watching her, and fought the wave of nausea that shuddered through her body. Those white eyes had, for a brief moment, looked at her through Hartwell’s eyes. Certainly she hadn’t imagined that? Trentwood had, for a time, stepped into Hartwell’s body so he could land a devastating punch to Sedgwick’s jaw. One couldn’t imagine that. Just as one couldn’t imagine one’s father haunting one.

I’m not mad. Please, tell me I’m not mad.

Outside, the rain plummeted to the ground more furiously than Mary had ever seen. It was as if the sky vomited on her behalf. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead into the moss that clung to the vertical stone walls. She sighed as the cool rock soothed the pounding at her temples.

“What would you like to know?”

She wasn’t sure where to begin. “How did you do it?”

Trentwood shrugged. “One minute I was watching you thrash about in bed, and I heard you scream that terrifying scream of yours, and the next minute, I was in your dream. I haven’t the slightest clue how it happened.”

Mary blinked. Wait, what? Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth. “I was talking about when you possessed Mr. Hartwell, Father.”

Again, Trentwood shrugged. “I’m as new to this being dead folderol as you are in watching it.”

Wiping beads of sweat from her brow, Mary whispered, “You will limit such… jaunts… in the future, I hope?”

“Indeed,” he said with a short laugh. “It pains me to do it as much as it seems to pain you to watch it. Do you know how difficult it is to be dead, hopping around from one mind or body to the next, not knowing how you got there, or how you’ll get out?” He stepped closer, and she could smell his death-stench.

“No, I don’t. I never thought it was a skill I would need to learn.”

He grunted. “Inherited your mother’s morbid sense of humor, I see.”

“Given the circumstances, I think I’m glad of it.”

Suddenly seeming sheepish, Trentwood took yet another step closer. “Mary, we must talk about your dream. We must talk about your mother’s death.”

Definitely make sure you check out the other submissions. Thanks for reading!

All the best,

Belinda

Worderella Joins a Blogfest

Dear Reader,

In case you didn’t know, today is my birthday, and two years ago I put my writing aside to get a masters degree.

Now that I’ve graduated, I feel a bit like Mr. van Winkle after his twenty-year slumber.

Two years ago, Smashwords was a fledgling idea I didn’t trust. ISBNs were only sold in groups of ten. Good luck getting distribution, because no one would distribute a self-published work… oh wait, we have Amazon CreateSpace now?

Two years ago, Twitter was for nerds. Well, it still kind of is for nerds, but now it’s for super cool super social nerds, like me. Blogs were starting to become passé for those who couldn’t maintain steam. But us writers, I’m happy to find, are chugging along with these cool things called blogfests.

What is a blogfest?

I asked this very question not three days ago. I’d never heard of one, and I couldn’t find any examples. Lo and behold, following my usual six-degrees-of-Twitter, I joined a bloghop for romance writers. From there, I learned about a blogfest that I could join.

The idea is to have a bunch of bloggers write toward a particular theme on a particular day. The blogger hosting the blogfest links to the other blogs and vice versa, and everyone hops around reading the submissions.

It’s like an online writer’s group, or something. It sounds awesome.

This blogfest I’ve joined will be on August 25. The theme is “rainy day.”

Since Haunting Miss Trentwood is set in England, I need a rain scene. I’ve already had one, but it’s been a couple days in the time line, so I think we’re due for another. I’m excited.

Are you in the middle of a project? Are you feeling stuck? Maybe you need to throw your characters in the middle of a rainstorm. You should join the blogfest!

All the best,

Belinda

Worderella Re-releases an Old Book

Dear Reader,

You might wonder why I’m publishing a second edition of my first book while in the middle of writing my second book. You wouldn’t be alone in wondering this. My mother has asked why I bother in looking to the past when I’m also planning for the future.

It’s a good question, and one I thought I’d answer here at Worderella Writes. You see, Catching the Rose was my learning book. When I say that I mean this was the book I wrote in which I learned how to:

1. write a novel.
2. edit a novel.
3. ensure my book was the only one with that particular title.
4. look for a reputable vanity/subsidy publisher.
5. deal with a vanity publisher.
6. make a cover sketch so my cover designer would know what I’m looking for.
7. twiddle my thumbs while I waited for the proof to arrive.
8. scream with excitement as I held my book in my hands.
9. gain local buzz for writing a 384 page novel as a high school student.
10. set up a professional writing website.
11. set up a professional writing blog.
12. compare my cover to other covers in the genre.
13. recognize my back cover copy was sadly lacking.
14. recognize my marketing plan sucked, because I didn’t have one.
15. accept compliments and criticisms with the same smile.
16. swallow my pride.

I learned a great many more things, but there’s no need to list them all. The point is, I love Catching the Rose, and a great number of my readers do as well. Almost seven years later, I’m still hearing about how a friend of a friend of a friend of my mother picked up my book, and liked it so much that they asked my mother when my next one was coming out.

If you’ve ever had this happen to you, you know the quiet joy that spreads within your chest, blossoms in your heart, and makes your eyes shine.

So I’m releasing a second edition of this book, giving it a real chance this time because it deserves it. I know so much more now about the book industry, though I have a lot more to learn. I know how to do page layout and cover design; I did both for this second edition. I removed a number of my glaring rookie mistakes, such as

1. spelling out accents (“Why how dayah you, Mistah Williams, foah speakin’ to me in such a mannah!”)
2. allowing widows and orphans to mess up the visual harmony of the typographical page.
3. adverbs run rampant.

I didn’t catch everything, but like I said, I’m still learning. Catching the Rose is my baby. I spent six years writing it during the developmental stage of life. I poured in all of my teenage confusion and angst, edited out the worst of it, and made an entertaining and engaging read for women of all ages. And a few men, too.

Even as I was re-doing the page layout last night, I caught myself reading passages and chuckling at the characters, or wondering what was going to happen next. Isn’t that odd? I mean, I wrote the book. Shouldn’t I know what’s going to happen?

I do, because I did write the book. But for me, it’s always been about the journey. I’m that jerk who reads the end of the book before I read the entire thing, because I don’t want to read it if I won’t like the ending. That doesn’t mean I only like happy endings, because I don’t. I like well-written endings. And a well-written bittersweet ending is clutch.

So I’m re-releasing Catching the Rose because:

1. It was, and still is, my learning book.
2. As per #1, I’m learning how to truly self-publish so when I self-publish Haunting Miss Trentwood, I’ll have worked out the kinks.
3. I love this book.
4. I love the characters, and I love their issues.
5. My readers ask me, years after reading the book, what happened to Veronica and Brad.
6. While formatting the pages, I got lost in my own story.
7. I am a writer, and I must write.
8. I am a storyteller, and I must tell this story.

So what do you think? Am I being dumb? Am I being greedy? Or something else entirely?