Critique Partners

Short post today. As I've been working through feedback from my critique partners, I've been really enjoying the creative juices that they get flowing in me.

Source: Saramena at Deviant Art

My stories don't just jump out of my mind fully formed. They're like lumps of clay that I'm shaping and molding. I always have an idea of where the stories will go, but I'm not always sure what they'll look like in the end. I have to try one look and see how I like it. If not, time to reshape.

My crit partners are very much a part of my creative process. Their feedback serves as a kind of brainstorming that helps me figure out what I want.

What about you? What role do your crit partners play in your creative process?

IWSG - Maybe

Click here to find out more and to see a list of other IWSG blogs.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

As I write this, I'm on my fourth chest cold (and ears and sinuses) since right after Christmas. Maybe the fact that I've felt like crap for two months is taking its toll on my outlook.

Maybe I'm running out of stories to tell.

Maybe not.

Maybe I'm sick and tired (of being sick and tired? haha) of the marketing part of being a published author. Definitely this part.

Maybe I am just looking back on the carefree days when I wrote for the sheer pleasure of it, when I had no delusions of publication.

Maybe I need to get another hobby.

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

Maybe I'll go finish those edits from my editor.

January IWSG - Creativity

Click here to find out more and to see a list of other IWSG blogs.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

I'm feeling pretty good this month. Kinda. Just a little pressure, but I've marked some things off my to-do list. A FB picture by an author friend gave me an idea on how to proceed. So, I'm just sharing a few quotes by famous authors. I figure they understand.

Have you ever wondered what a famous author, from many years ago, might write about--today, on a blog?

IWSG and Give Books for Christmas Bloghop

Click here to find out more and to see a list of other IWSG blogs.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Simple this month. A short video that inspires me when I'm down:

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It's that time of year--in case you haven't noticed. 

I've joined up to be part of the "Give Books for Christmas" bloghop. I'm giving away TWO ebooks!

For details about the giveaway and other participating blogs and the books they're giving away, click here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dreams: Dorothy called it Oz, Alice called it Wonderland, but Nightmares call it HOME.

When an evil shifter takes over the gateway to the realm of Dreams, it falls to 14-year-olds Parker and Kaelyn to stop him. Their only hope lies with Gladamyr, the Dream Keeper, but can they trust a Nightmare to save their world?




When Lyn sets off on her supposedly uncomplicated and unromantic cruise, she never dreams it will include pirates. All the 25-year-old Colorado high school teacher wants is to forget that her dead fiancé was a cheating scumbag. What she plans is a vacation diversion; what fate provides is Braedon, an intriguing surgeon. She finds herself drawn to him: his gentle humor, his love of music, and even his willingness to let her take him down during morning karate practices. Against the backdrop of the ship’s make-believe world and its temporary friendships, her emotions come alive.

However, fear is an emotion, too. Unaware of the sensitive waters he navigates, Braedon moves to take their relationship beyond friendship—on the very anniversary Lyn came on the cruise to forget. But Lyn’s painful memories are too powerful, and she runs off in a panic.

Things are bad enough when the pair finds themselves on one of the cruise’s snorkeling excursions in American Samoa. However, paradise turns to piracy when their party is kidnapped. Lyn’s fear of a fairytale turns grim. Now she must fight alongside the man she rejected, first for their freedom and then against storms, sharks, and shipwreck.

Just for Fun

Nathan Bransford had this video on his post yesterday. A friend on Facebook told me about the making of video. Together they were just too cool not to share. I love to see amazing creativity at work. And work is the key word. Now that I'm doing this writing thingy, and I realize how many hours go into the making of a book, it makes me feel bad when I blow through a novel in a day.

The Reader's Imagination

For not having written anything on WIP #1 since June 30th, I think I've made some great progress. I've received  three full-novel critiques back and, while it needs work, the results have been very positive and encouraging. In fact, I was so elated yesterday at work that I had a hard time concentrating on the matter at hand--getting ready for the candidate orientation. I'm well into the municipal election season, and things are getting crazy at work. Not a time to make mistakes because I'm distracted; those kinds of mistakes can get me sued. *sigh*

But an issue I've been trying to deal with in my tale (and is something others have raised as an issue) comes down to how much I should leave to the reader's imagination. I've mentioned before that I suck at description. I'm learning, and I think I'm getting (a little) better, but it will never be my strong point. It's hard to describe something that your mind's eye doesn't really look at.

How to explain it better. My stepmother was wonderful at creating silk and dried flower arrangements. She could just grab a little of this and a little of that and in minutes have this beautiful creation. I realized I had a problem the first time I went to a flower display, walked around looking at different kinds of flowers for nearly an hour, and then left the store empty handed. The lovely creations that popped in my stepmother's mind were on vacation in mine.

Or maybe retirement, since they still don't show up for me.

I like to leave some things to the imagination of the reader. I will describe my characters somewhat, but I don't want to say too much. I like the reader to be able to fill in the blanks, so to speak. I read somewhere that one of the reasons the Bella character in the Twilight series is so popular is because it's possible for the young girls reading the book to superimpose themselves on her, to be Bella. I'm completely good with that. I just don't know if I'm good AT it.

I'm struggling right now with how much description to put into the physical, romantic elements in the story. I don't want my story to be a substitute for an aphrodisiac--unless it's the readers' own internal thoughts that are taking them there. If the readers prefer an image of a more chaste relationship, I want them to have that option as well. I just hope the creative juices for this aren't on vacation, when I start working on it in August.

How do you approach your description? Do you prefer more or less?

Watching Creation

It's Week 2 of "Gearin' Up to Get an Agent Blogfest" hosted by Deana Barnhart. And today, some will have a chance to watch creation as it happens, while others will be able to participate in it.

I get to help be a creator.

Today, there's going to be a blogfest story chain. Participants have been given a specific time to post, along with a topic and three key words we have to include in our portion of the creation.

So I can't even think ahead to figure out what I'm supposed to write as I haven't even met the characters yet or know their circumstances.

My time is 2 p.m. EDT, and I get the middle of the story. Where I help the mc "gain all the knowledge she needs to take her through the rest of the story." My words are: get, safe, muddle

Now I have stress! *shudders*


You can find the scene before mine at Amy Kennedy's blog.

Dio took a deep breath and gasped at the smell. She covered her mouth, staggering back from the cave's entrance. The thought entered her mind again, stronger. "If you had the book, you could right the wrongs...maybe even your father's death." She sensed the emphasis on the word death, almost like a mental nudge, and Dio knew what she had to do. 

Get the book. 

She groaned. That nasty, stinky, purple book. 

Comfort flowed through her entire body, almost as though her father stood behind her, his hands resting lightly on her shoulders. Dio smiled. She could be safe. She could fix this muddle. She would find her parents and stop these psycho people. 

But how ...  Dio grinned. A gleefully wicked grin. She turned toward the cave and did a little curtsey. "Thanks, your Larva ... greatness."

Spinning, she faced the lights in the distance. The city lights where she lived. Where the book was. Squeezing her eyes tightly and tapping her sandled ankles together three times, she imagined her father's study, visualized that dratted book. That wonderful, answer-giving book.

Her body shook, jerking like she'd been struck by lightning. Her breath ripped from her lungs as her body launched into the sky. Toward the lights. Toward home. Toward help.

She was flying!



You can see the next installment at Lindy Legends ....

Blogging Challenge N(otes)

Creativity is a fickle creature. That great idea that comes to you while you're in the shower somehow makes off on its fleet feet before you have access to pen and paper. So what do you do when you have the flash of brilliance at an inopportune moment? Do you grab your smart phone and start talking into it? Do you keep a notebook handy in the restroom, your nightstand, your desk, your car?


JK Rowling's Plot Outline for Order of the Phoenix

 What do you do to capture those illusive thoughts?

ETA--thanks to BayGirl for being my 100th follower!