Let's Finish...

Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.  

Neil Gaiman

I like this quote, a lot.  I don't know about you but I have started and stopped several pieces without finishing them.  Good stories that deserve to be finished.  Stories that readers would enjoy.  But somehow, I've managed to move on to something else...and sometimes left that for something else too.  I don't know how many ideas I've got jotted down and stuck in a drawer for later.  Seems like later never comes for them though.

So, what do I do?  I think it's time to dig 'em out and start finishing them.  For example, I have this really neat idea for a romance that involves an alligator wrestler and a chocolate saleswoman.  And there's the far east fantasy that needs to be finished.  It's a great story.  I had the first five pages critiqued by a Japanese writer a while back and she really liked it.  Said it had a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon feel to it.  Or maybe that YA ghost story. 

What about you?  Got anything you haven't finished that deserves to be finished and shared with the world?

Let's pledge together to finish one of our set aside pieces.   I'll decide which one soon and let y'all know. 

Oh...for those of you who need to get organized, be sure to check out Productive Flourishing.  He's got some great planners specially designed for us creative folk.  And if you sign up for his newsletter, he gives access to his secret lab where he has some extra special tools.

K is for Kryptonite

Kryptonite, the one thing that could bring the man of steel to his knees.  His Achilles' heel.. 

Thing is, we all have some sort of kryptonite in our life.  Something that never fails to bring us to our knees.  I'm not going to turn this into a personal life type post but think about it.  We all have issues in our writing that brings it to its proverbial knees.  Meaning, we can always improve our writing.

For example, for a long time "that" or "just" showed up in my writing all the time.  It weakened the writing, kept it from being a good as it could be.

Others among us might have issues with dialogue tags.  Replied, questioned, hissed, sneered, cackled, cried, and so many others.  Usually a simple "said" will do. 

And what about adverbs.  Have you ever read something like these, "yelled loudly"  "whispered quietly" or "ran quickly"?  Those adverbs weaken our writing.  Not only are they redundant, they tell us instead of showing us. 

Another weakening issue is generic terms.  Chair, car, house.  Instead, why not use words that show us a specific item, for example, a rocker, convertable or victorian. 

Sure, these things are fine for a first draft.  Remember, the first draft is to get the story written, to get it on paper (or screen) so we have something to revise.

So, what's your writing kryptonite?

J is for Jean...

I mean, what else could it be for.  So, here's a bit about me.

I'm old enough to know better, but too young to care.  I was born in Arkansas but live in Texas now.  Course, since I was born in Texarkana, I was really close to Texas from the start.  After joining the military, I lived in Florida, (Homestead, Panama City) and Missouri (Sedalia) along with Fort Worth, Texas.  Also, lived on Guam for two years, thank you Air Force.

I met  my better half in Homestead, he was in the same squadron I was. While I worked on airplanes and he worked on bombs, we still managed to meet and get married.

We have 3 kids now, the oldest (21) is myone and only son.  We had three daughters but lost one to cancer at age 5.  It was 11 years ago so while there's still a void, time does heal.

Hubby is a Baptist preacher, and while I don't mention it here often, my faith is very important to me.

I've been seriously writing since about 2002.  And while I play in most genres, my favorites are mystery and fantasy.  I like SF but don't like the research needed to get it right.  Which reminds me of a story...

After the plot bunnies dropped off a SF idea for me, I realized I needed to do some research on space travel, specifically Faster Than Light (FTL) travel.  Now, I tend to get a bit obsessive about that kinda stuff so I read a LOT about FTL travel.  I guess when I went to sleep that night, FTL was the last thing I thought about cause next morning when I got clothes out for hubby, I noticed the FTL printed at regular intervals around the waistband of his undies.    Naturally I wondered just what the heck underwear had to do with Faster Than Light travel.  It took me about 10 minutes of pondering before I realized FTL stood for Fruit of The Loom. 

My WIPs include a mystery which is being run through my critque group and a dragon fantasy I'm revising in my spare time.  (Yeah right, what spare time.)

I do stupid things.  Multiple times.  I don't care for veggies cause I ate so many of them as a kid.  It was veggies or nothing so...

Chocolate is my favorite food. :-)  Course you already knew that. 

Our household includes a Golden Retriever named Doofus and a several cats.  El Gato de Muerte keeps bringing me dead things (this morning a cardinal) and  Skittles is a kitten given to us by the neighbor last week.    I love horses, Dobermans and Long Horn cattle.

As a kid, I spent many hours under the covers with a flashlight and book.  I loved "horse" books, westerns, fantasy, SF, horror and even gothic romance.  My favorite books vary from day to day so I won't even try to list those.  However I will say I've never read War & Peace, Moby Dick and most of the other classics.

Comment section open for questions though I won't guarantee an answer. :-)

F is for "First Things First"

I don't know about you but so many times what I "want" to do gets shoved aside for things I "have" to do.  Somedays, writing (what I want to do), takes a backseat to just about everything else and sometimes writing doesn't even make it in the car. (Insert big sigh here.)

The question is, how do we make what we want to do a priority?  I don't know about you, but sometimes it's hard to justify sitting at the puter when there are dishes/laundry that needs doing, kids that need our attention and what seems like 900 other things demanding our time.

I once read, well, more than once really, but the idea was to get up a half hour early and do your writing then.  Or, stay up a bit later after everyone else has gone to bed.  But what if you are just too tired to do either one?

Then, there's the "make an appointment with yourself that you can't break.  Ha!  Isn't that just the time when the baby wakes up or the cat hocks up a hairball in the  middle of your desk? 

And, then there's the other stuff we need to do that relates to writing such as blogging, tweeting, editing, market research, submitting and such.

So, what do we do?  We run plots through our heads while doing the dishes.  While running errands we rehearse dialogue and when we get it right, we pull over for a moment and make a note.  (I plotted a whole story in the car one day. Thankfully I had pen and paper with me.)  We jot down a scene here and a scene there and sooner or later, we have a whole story.  Then, we can put it all together. And, while shopping or doing things out on the town, we watch people.  We watch how they carry themselves, their body language and expresssions and make a note about that so we can create realistic characters.

I don't know the answer for everyone else so here's where y'all come in.  What are some tips, tricks, helpful hints to get the writing done when there are 900 other things that need to be done?

E is for Expectations

I don't know about you but when I buy a book, there are things I expect.  For example, I expect to be transported to another world.  I want to leave the reality behind for a bit and go on an adventure.  I want to experience something I've not done before and might never get the chance to do.  I want to meet characters who become real to me, that I'd like to sit down and chat with over a glass of tea or cup of hot cocoa.  When I read a book, I want to go someplace I might never get the chance to visit.

Back as far as I can remember, I've loved to read.  I remember reading under the cover with a flashlight cause the book was so good I couldn't wait to read the next page.  In school, I used to read during class by putting the book on top of my textbook and holding it up so the teacher couldn't see.  Of course, that worked fine until I got so involved in the story I didn't hear the teacher call on me and a classmate had to get my attention. 

But, when I read a book, I want to get that involved.  So involved I forget where I am, that I need to fix dinner, or put the laundry in the dryer.  I want to keep turning the pages until I reach the end at three in the morning.  And when I get to the end, I want to feel satisfied but also a little sad.  Satisfied cause it's a fitting ending but sad because my time with the characters has come to an end.  I want to put the book on my keeper shelf and know I'll be reading it again soon. 

What do you expect from a book?  And got any recommendations?

D is for Dream, Dream, Dream...

One of the ways I can tell I need to be writing fiction instead of non-fiction is my dreams become extra vivid and extra strange.  It's like my subconscious is so full of ideas that insist on coming out, one way or another.  Most of the time, the dreams are unconnected and don't make much sense but ever so often I dream something that's really good.  I've even gotten a couple ideas for stories from my dreams.  Which is kinda cool.  What's interesting is when I'm writing a lot of fiction, if I dream, I don't remember them.  

And speaking of remembering, I remember as a novice writer being told never start a story with your character dreaming.  And I kinda understand why.  I seriously dislike starting a story only to find out it's a dream.  It's annoying.  Same thing with television shows.   It's like I've put all this time and emotion into whatever's happening to the character only to find out it's not real.  I feel cheated.  Of course, there's always exceptions to any rule.  The mystery novel I'm working on now has a prologue that's a dream.  However I make it plain from the start it's a dream.  The dream also gives the reader some info that is important later.  I'm still not sure if I'll use the prologue but it's there for now.

And speaking of dreams, I read an article this past weekend (I think) that basically asked how much you sold your dream for.  Meaning, at one time you had a dream, yet you settled for something else.  The example was a man who had at one time dreamed of becoming a chef  but had instead gone into business. It sorta made me think about the things I let get in the way of acheiving my writing related dreams.   I realized I need to be more focused on what I want instead of what just sorta happens.  And, I find it sad when people give up on reaching their dreams because the journey becomes a little tough. 

So, here's some questions for you to ponder.  Please share your answers in the comments if you like.

1.  Have you ever gotten any ideas from your dreams?  Do your dreams ever connect with your writing?

2.  How do you feel about dreams in novels?  What about in movies?  Do you use dreams in your writing?

3.  Are you letting unimportant things distract you from your writing dreams?  And just what are those dreams anyway?

C is for...

CHOCOLATE!!!!

Milk, dark, white (yeah, I know, it's not really chocolate), semi-sweet...it's all good.  Cakes, pies, brownies, fudge, cookies, ice cream, cereal...just bring on the chocolate.  Chocolate eases stress, stokes the fires of inspiration, is the perfect reward and cures most things that ail. Okay, I admit it, I'm a chocoholic.  My dream vacation would be to Hershey Pennsylvania for a week.

Hi, my name's Jean and I'm a chocoholic.  It's been, ten minutes since my last bite of chocolate. :-)  Egads, it's been ten minutes since I've had chocolate!  Well...it's not that bad really, but I do like chocolate.   

What's this got to do with writing?  Just that one of the things well known by my friends is I enjoy chocolate.  What do your characters enjoy?  What is their passion?  When your character has a really, really, really bad day in fiction land, what do they turn to?  Some form of alcohol, ice cream or other comfort food, a hot bubble bath or a trip to the gym to work out some frustrations?

Showing the reader this bit of information gives depth to your character and helps them connect.  We want our reader to connect, to become part of the story.  We want our readers to relate to the characters we write about. 

And when they do, it's a good thing.


**Update:  This came to my email a few minutes ago and I just had to share with the rest of you chocoholics. I haven't tried them but they sound yummy.

Double Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients


2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup fat-free hot fudge sauce, warmed

Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.

2.In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except fudge sauce; mix well then spread half the batter in prepared baking dish. Top with hot fudge sauce then spread remaining batter over sauce.

3.Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely then cut into squares and serve.

B is for Bonsai

A couple years ago I started a new project and needed a "cool" hobby for the main character. I don't remember exactly why I chose growing bonsai but I did and now I'm hooked too.


I've killed two little trees trying to figure out how to keep 'em alive and think I finally have it. This little guy has lived through one summer, one winter and now is here for spring. It's about ready for trimming though I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle that part of the process.

Growing bonsai is kinda like writing too. You need a strong root system, have to water often and then you have to trim 'em back. For us writers, we must have a strong root/plot, have to water/write often then we trim/edit what we don't need.

It's a learning process too. And while we can't kill out writing, we can obsess so much over it that it's not fun any longer.

And writing should be fun. Sure there will be days when we really don't want to write but shouldn't be be eager to write, to get words down on the page and slip into the world of our characters? I'm vowing to have more fun with my writing. How about you?