Article idea. . .looking for input

Sitting in my home office with my two cats next to my laptop on Saturday morning before the sun rises, the aroma of my homemade soup wafting up from the crockpot in the kitchen, I am thinking it has been a while since I wrote an article.

Not that I don't have enough on my plate right now, but I feel the urge to craft something that will help other writers. Yes, the topics of my articles are always in the writing realm.

My problem this morning is a topic for an article. Maybe it's the lack of food, or that it is still dark outside, or maybe my brain has gone to complete mush after fighting computer/network issues for three days, but not a single idea has popped into my head.

I would be very grateful if others would leave a comment as to what they would like to see. What have you not read that you REALLY want/need to see?

Let me know and I will see what I can craft.

Next Interactive Discussion Topic

I know many people did not actually post to the blog but have been doing the exercises along the way. I hope you found these "lessons in love" educational and entertaining. Maybe in the future, the non-posters will feel more comfortable with sharing. Remember, we learn from each others examples.

Yesterday at NHRWA it was so neat to have everyone given the same set of scene structure and them all come up with a totally different outcome. The guide was a carriage with leather seats and windows, mid-afternoon in london in the fall, with dark-haired, beardless Brock as the hero, and Amelia as the heroine.

I have received great feedback on the writing prompts as well so I will keep those going. Besides, they really do make me get into the creative mindset. And if you have a prompt you want to submit feel free to do so.

I have enjoyed this immensely! Are there other topics that would be beneficial for us to do more of these types of interactive exercises?

Feel free to send me your thoughts and ideas.

Next article idea?

I need a break from my current WIP and want to write an article.



Does anyone have any suggestions on articles related to writing? Anything you're frustrated with and need help on?

Desperate Salem, New Hampshire Residents Get Creative

This is what I wrote yesterday to make myself feel better about the lack of power!!


Desperate Salem Residents Add a Little Humor to Their Plea for Power

After five days without electricity, one of Santa's little helpers gets creative. One resident who lives down West Duston Road in Salem, NH decided to take the initiative and leave a note for National Grid and ask for electrical poles.

How was the note delivered?

With Christmas-colored spray paints and two pieces of plywood tied to a street sign, one West Duston resident wrote a note.

"National Grid, we need poles ? Forgotten :-( ."

In the holiday spirit, the note also contained an artistic rendition of a holiday wreath.

Did this letter to National Grid help?

Uncertain that the creative communication did the trick, the many phone calls from the residents of West Duston, or time and patience, but as of Tuesday, National Grid was finally present and working to address the issue.

Even though the residents do not have power yet, the desperate, displaced, and stinky residents want to thank the unnamed author of the note and National Grid for paying attention.

Articles - Passive Voice

One person from my writer's group suggested a couple of writing articles for my next effort. Thanks, Jennifer!

Last week before I took the 5 hour drive to NJ, I did manage to get an article written on Passive Voice. I'll post that soon on my website. This may be an option for me when I do my speaker bit in February for the NHRWA.

If you've never been to a NHRWA meeting you should check it out. http://nhrwa.tripod.com/

Anyway, one thing you should know about passive voice that I found very interesting is that it is the number 1 thing new fiction writer's do wrong. Can you believe that?

But you know why? Because passive voice is how we speak.

There's some trivia for you.

Magazine/Newsletter Article

I want to write another magazine article on writing but haven't come up with any great topics so I'm opening this up for discussion.

What would you want to read about in regards to writing?

It could be something you struggle with as a writer, or maybe something that drives you crazy as a reader, or the topic could be something you can't find any information on.

I'm open to suggestions and I'll do the research. Let me know. Thanks!

New Story Idea

Hello everyone!

As you know, as of yesterday I finished my second manuscript. Yippee for me, right?

Yes, well, now I need to write the next story. And when I say need, I mean "lookout honey, where's the chocolate before I shoot you" kind of need. It's an addiction!

That doesn't mean I didn't get up this morning and write. As a matter of fact, I wrote 1200 words this morning, the start to my new manuscript. The problem is, I don't have a clue where I want to go with this story.

I have 2 great characters and they just met, but what is going to happen? Here's the other thing, I write romantic-suspense. I really like to read and write romantic-suspense so it needs to be one of those kind of ideas. Plus, my hero has already been seen in my two previous books and he works for a secret government agency.

Now, I did just skim through a bunch of gosh-darn (midwest accent showing through) articles on the net about how to sit down and come up with several ideas. HA! Are they kidding or what? I can't force an idea. Kinda isn't the definition of "idea" if I can PLAN it. Sheesh!

So what I need is inspiration and brainstorming. Any suggestions?

Pets and story ideas

I know - great title for a blog, right?

I have these two cats (pictures are on the left) and they just love to play. This morning when I was making the bed, one of them decided to attack me toes from underneath the bed skirt. Talk about a heart attack!

Of course, after the initial shock, I teased the little guy until he got tired. :-)

Then I started thinking, as I often do. Wouldn't someone (not a cat) under the bed waiting to do evil be a great part of a story? But then I thought, yes, a cat would be cool because you could use that as the prelude to a person being under the bed.

First event a woman comes home at the end of a day, exhausted, she kicks her shoes off, and gets undressed standing next to the bed and the cat attacks her foot. Yes, the woman jumps, but then laughs, and plays with the cat.

The next time though, she thinks it's the Fluffy the cat and thinks it's funny until the person under the bed grabs her ankle and pulls. . . Where it goes from there is up to you. Have fun!!

Official start of NaNoWriMo

Good evening everyone! Today is the first official day of nanowrimo. How many words have you written??

So far today, 1093 words for me. Not the greatest, but definitely not bad since I am still working on my current WIP as well.

I've been trying to get into the www.nanowrimo.org site and update my word count but I have a feeling the site is very busy with all the other writers. That's a good thing!!

Let me know how you're doing.

Show vs.Tell

I'm sure some of you writers attend writing critique groups, or maybe you belong to an online critique group, perhaps some of you have sent work to an editor. At some point on your path to becoming a published author you've probably had someone use the phrase "show, don't tell".

Do you really know what that means?

The best way to explain this is to show you. :-)

Tell:
Carol was walking on the beach near the ocean.

Show:
Sandals hooked to a finger, Carol inhaled the salty air. She strolled, the warm crystalline sand sinking beneath her feet, and scrunching between her toes. When she turned in the direction of a seagull's squawk, water-laden air wafted against her face, and lifted her hair from the back of her neck.

See the difference? The "telling" was flat without emotion. In the showing I never told you Carol was walking on the beach, but instead I drew you a picture with the words and from them you could gather she walked on the beach near the ocean.

Showing pulls your reader into the story, let's them see, feel, experience what your characters are going through.

Why don't you try this? Use the same example or show me. . .Cold, Anger, Scared

Discussion Topics

As you can see I've been doing most the talking on this blog. But, hey, I can talk with myself anytime. :-)

I wanna hear about some writing topics that are of interest to you. Let me know and we'll start a blog conversation.

In the meantime, I'll keep posting whatever pops into my head.