Purple Hearts

In our ongoing quest of sharing new resources with you all, here are our findings for this week:

As many of us start to gear up for the RWA National Conference this summer, this post by Adina Kahn of Dystel and Goderich Literary Management on the DO’S AND DON’TS OF PITCHING offers great and practical advice for your pitch appointments. For more information, click HERE.

Jason Boog from The Publishing Spot has a great post this week on HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR WRITING. Think you’ve won the game when you get THE CALL? In many ways, the game is just beginning. For more insight, click HERE.

At Flogging the Quill, there is a SHOW VERSUS TELL CLINIC taking place. To join in the discussion or to submit your own questions, click HERE.

We know that a bunch of our readers write romantic suspense, so the blog, The Graveyard Shift, is one we definitely wanted to share. With blog categories such as evidence, police procedures, and prisons and jails, there are more resources and more information on this blog than we can summarize here, but as one example check out one of this week’s from guest blogger Defense Attorney, Jessa Lutz, entitled, THEY’RE NOT ALL MONSTERS.

And so as not to end on a ‘No Country For Old Men’ note, we wanted to share this fun resource as reported on the Writer Unboxed blog, called, OBSERVATIONS ON DECK, a book and card deck that offers inspiration in lots of ways. To get the scoop on this great writer’s gift, click HERE.

We hope you found as interesting a mix of helpful resources listed as we did. As always, please share any other posts you found helpful from the week in today’s comments section. We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Have a great weekend!

Characters are a fundamental piece of the story. In my opinion, you can have a great plot, one that captures the reader’s attention and makes them stay up until 3am, cramped on a loveseat with a full bladder, just so they can get to the happily ever after or resolution of the killer. However, if you don’t have great characters to get the reader to care about what happens, then you may lose them before the black moment.

I’ve teased my good friend, Kristan Higgins relentlessly that her latest book, Catch of the Day, angered me because it caused me to lose sleep on a weeknight. However, as much as I loved her plot, it was my investment in the characters that made me burn the midnight oil. I wanted the heroine to find love, to get over her crush on the town’s priest and discover where her heart would find happiness. She was my new best friend and I needed to make sure she was taken care of before I went to bed.

Another example of great character development comes from my fantastic critique group (hello ladies!) when Sherry posted a chapter with a incredible cliffhanger. An explosion occurred that put two characters in jeopardy. Everyone immediately reacted to the possible losses, but more so for the dog than the man. Was her male character unimportant, no, but she had written the dog as such an integral part of the hero’s life. We all knew that the hero would never be the same without the four-legged mutt. He needed to survive and we didn’t want to deal with the emotions that would surface for us if we’d have to mourn his loss.

I struggle with character development in my own story. I love my characters, hang out with them often and worry that what I see in them translates correctly on paper. Am I capturing their sense of humor, their strengths, their funny quirks? Do I show enough of their weaknesses or losses so everyone else understands their motivations without making them whiny or pathetic? They are real people and I want everyone to love them as I do.

So how can we create characters that people cry out for and want with them at the next office party? I’ve tried the character worksheets to 3-D my hero and heroine, but find I can’t get in touch with them that way (Bria has many of them posted in yesterday’s entry). Instead, I have to develop my characters as I write and edit them. A flaw in my writing method, maybe. Something I’m trying to overcome.

I am also trying to figure out what I love about the characters that stay with me. What draws me in so that I pull out the book while waiting to pick up my kids at school? What qualities in the heroine causes me to miss my favorite show? Perhaps knowing what works in other books, I will figure out how to make mine as captivating.

So I challenge you- think of a favorite character and tell us what you loved about him/her. What drew you in? What capture your attention? What made you fall in love with him/her (or caused you to loathe them if it’s a villain)? Let us know so we can all learn how to develop characters that make the world lose sleep!

P.S. Check out my follow women’s fiction writersexchange’s blog: Lynn Romaine at Ecosuspense. Her latest entry poses the important question of character vs. story- which do you remember most clearly? Please leave a comment for her!

Meg

As we look at character this week, I thought some fun resources to play with would be great

Looking at Character this week feels timely to me for so many reasons. RWA Craft loop has just been discussing it, over that the Romance Divas we’ve been discussing it, my wonderful CP Ann and I have been discussing it. . .And so, here are some fun Character Toys to play with.

“In my opinion, the best way to write believable stories is to pretend each character is you.” Or so says James Patrick Kelly in his article YOU AND YOUR CHARACTERS. Mr. Kelly does a wonderful job summarizing the whys and why-nots, the how and how-nots, the – you get the picture – of creating characters that work.

Peter Hill has a lovely site dedicated to writing HERE. He writes not only about character and conflict, but about the character arc and what it looks like. 

Elizabeth Rose has a great page HERE on creating characters with phobias.

Sandra Canfield wrote one of Romantic Times “Expert Advice” columns on “Creating ‘Characters’ with Character” HERE.  

Love worksheets? Try these:

Pamela Dowd : HERE 

Tara Harper: HERE

Worsheetplace.com has a collection of them HERE

The Scriptorium comes at the worksheet from “Sketch” or “Biography angles HERE.

Script Frenzy has a fun worksheet HERE used for their “Young Writer’s Program” — it’s specifically geared toward secondary characters.  

While all these resources are fun to play with, your characters should be people, personal and tangible to you. Think about those characters who still own a piece of your heart years after being first introduced to them. What made them so memorable, so real? How do you take those things and bring them to your own writing?

I know for me personally, my characters are real people. They do their own thing and talk back when I try to stop or redirect them. One of my favorite corrections my CP made was to circle a paragraph and write “Brennid wouldn’t do that. Maybe Tane. Can you switch them or change it?”

I was floored. My characters were become real to someone else and, honestly, what more can we hope for as writers?

So, make real people live in your head and Go Write
-bria

Last week, I finally accepted the death of one of my friendships — something I had been resisting for a very long time. Fortunately, the person is alive and well, but my bestowed opinion, emotional attachment, and deep care and concern for this person, which had been challenged off and on for that very long time, have reached their final resting place. From the moment I made the conscious decision to lop the head off that proverbial snake, I have felt an incredible lightness of being - more healthy, more peaceful, more hopeful . . . as though I lost about 200 pounds of unnecessary and dead weight.

It took me a long time to endure the relationship ups and downs and reach this personal breaking point — the point where I felt that for my own personal story I needed to metaphorically kill this darling or have it somehow kill me. It strikes me how the agony, deliberation, and emotional stress in ending this relationship is very similar to making the decision to kill a beloved fictional character in our stories. After all, whether in writing or in ‘real’ life, we tend to get attached and grow a vested interest in the people whom we let inhabit our worlds. But despite the attachment and at times iron-clad heart strings, sometimes a character just has to go. Whether for the growth of the main protagonist, a turning point that moves the story forward, or a black moment that could make or break a story’s outcome, we are often faced with a hard yet necessary decision to eliminate a character from the story.

And despite the pain and suffering that characterizes the act of killing your darlings, aren’t our stories stronger for the painful exercise? Speaking personally, both as a writer and a friend, I must say yes. Either way, there is good that can come from the bad . . . making us better storytellers and better individuals for having endured the process.

So my goal this week is to keep putting on the big-girl pants each morning, one leg at a time, move on from my loss, and embrace my new lightness. A new twist in my story awaits!

RIP, my once and past darling! I wish you no ill will, but I am so happy to be moving onward and upward.

-Jessica

It was a lean week in terms of time for research, but we still came up with a few posts we’d like to share with you this Friday.

The week started with an exciting announcement about a new line: Belle Bridge Books, posted by Deb Dixon. The blog post states:

“What we are looking for is writers with unique voices who create strong fantasy, dark fantasy and urban fantasy stories with compelling characters–male or female.

We’re looking at some young adult. Very excited about that. If you’re interested in querying, head on over to the website: http://www.bellbridgebooks.com/“

If you’ve got a suitable project, we hope you’ll give them a query and we wish you luck!

Junta42, a content marketing and custom publishing blog, posted its NEW TOP 42 BLOGS LIST. The list includes a variety of content marketing blog sites, ranging from online marketing, new media, viral content, and blogging — all things we envision could help a writer in some way. Check out this wealth of information HERE.

Lynn Viehl of the Paperback Writer shared a clever post this week in which she makes STORY VOWS, or the TEN PROMISES [she's] MADE TO [her] WIP. While all 10 resonate with us, we want to give a special highlight to vow #4: “I will give you the best I’ve got, not whatever’s left over after the rest of the world is through beating the hell out of me for the day.”

Every so often we need some tough love to help kickstart the writing, and our friend Barb at the Moody Muses had a lot of love to share this week. Check out her TOUGH LOVE POST FOR A DEAR FRIEND in which she asks, How bad do you want it? Barb, we love you for your tough love and friendship!

And since we Purple Hearts have a lot of interest in YA books and the writing of such, we thought we’d close out the week by sharing this next blog — not because it has anything to do with books or publishing, but because it’s a great glimpse into the life of a teen fashionista. We loved her post this week on CHANGE YOUR SHOES, CHANGE YOUR DAY. We [purple] heart her!

So that’s it for now. As always, please share your suggestions in the comments section of today’s post. And don’t forget — at the end of the day today, we’ll choose one lucky winner to receive a copy of Nancy Haddock’s debut novel, La Vida Vampire. To be eligible for the drawing, post a comment to Nancy’s Honorary Heartlette guest post by the end of the day today.

Have a great writing weekend!

Writer’s block for a writer is like a broken leg for a marathoner. You can’t do the thing that brings you stress relief, releases endorphins (anyone who’s written that perfect scene knows the ‘writer’s high’) or fulfills a life long dream.

Yet a runner can go to a doctor who can put the leg in a cast, and after an indeterminate amount of time, the leg will heal. Maybe some rehab is necessary, but most likely the runner will be back on her feet in no time. Back to training and reaching that goal. For a writer, there is no literary doctor. No prescribed healing tasks that will set it right. Nothing to guarantee a complete restore to health. So what does one do? What did I do?

First, I tried to push through it, but then remembered my personal promise to not force myself to do anything in life that wasn’t fun. Then I took a vacation, otherwise known as giving up. And I enjoyed it. For a while. I read, I watched way too much TV and I walked around aimlessly without that one thing that I did for MYSELF and for personal enjoyment. And I realized I missed it. I MISSED WRITING.

So the cast is off and I’m ready to start my rehab. I surfed the web, looking for sites to overcome writer’s block and I came across this great one: http://grammar.about.com/od/yourwriting/a/wblockquotes.htm

Writers on Writing: Overcoming Writer’s Block from Richard Nordquist http://grammar.about.com/mbiopage.htm. On the site, he captures numerous points in a writer’s career where writer’s block may interfere with the process and uses quotes from successful authors to help jumpstart over the hurdles. These are the ones that caught my eye, but I recommend you refer to the site for full details:

GETTING STARTED:
§ “The easiest thing to do on earth is not write.”
(William Goldman)
§ “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It’s a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write.”
(Paul Rudnick)

The easiest thing to do is not write- very true. There are all the things that Paul Rudnick itemized that you can do to not write. BUT, and this is a big but, if you are a writer, if composing sentences and scenes is in your blood, after a while, the hardest thing to do is not write. It shows in your attitude and behaviors. It hurts.

CAPTURING IDEAS:
§ “I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that’s only the first step. Ideas are easy. It’s the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.”
(Sue Grafton)

I started doing this. Jotting down ideas, moments, descriptions of setting and people. This helped me realize that I was back in my writer’s head- seeing the world as a resource and it excited me.

COPING WITH THE BADNESS:
§ “We can’t be as good as we’d want to, so the question then becomes, how do we cope with our own badness?”
(Nick Hornby)
§ “You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”
(Octavia Butler)
§ “People have writer’s block not because they can’t write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.”
(Anna Quindlen)
§ “I think writer’s block is simply the dread that you are going to write something horrible. But as a writer, I believe that if you sit down at the keys long enough, sooner or later something will come out.”
(Roy Blount, Jr.)
§ “Lower your standards and keep writing.”
(William Stafford)

WOW- this section is what made me see the light. What hit me over the head and said, “You idiot! You let your inner fears stop you from doing something you loved!” I did stop writing, even this blog, because I felt my writing was horrible. I had let people read my last novel without it being polished and the feedback was nonexistent. I should’ve held myself back until I knew it was ready and showed it to someone who would give me feedback on what was right and what still needed work.

ESTABLISING A ROUTINE”
§ I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.”
(William Faulkner)
§ “I have to get into a sort of zone. It has something to do with an inability to concentrate, which is the absolute bottom line of writing.”
(Stephen Fry)
§ “Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.”
(Barbara Kingsolver)

With all life demands, I do find it hard to establish a daily routine when it comes to my writing. The idea of putting six pages together each day won’t work for me. Instead, I hope to carve out one day a week that I can concentrate on my latest work. Progress won’t be easy, but I can use other unstructured time to think, jot down notes and observe the world to further develop characters and scenes. That way, even though I only have a set number of hours each week to write, I am working on my story every day.

WRITING:
§ “My block was due to two overlapping factors: laziness and lack of discipline. If you really want to write, then shut yourself in a room, close the door, and WRITE. If you don’t want to write, do something else. It’s as simple as that.”
(Mary Garden
§ “If you want to write, write it. That’s the first rule.”
(Robert Parker)
§ “The writer’s duty is to keep on writing.”
(William Styron)
§ “Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun.”
(Daniel Pinkwater)

It sounds so easy, go write, but when you’ve fallen into one of the above traps, it’s not just about putting words on the page. It’s finding your inner confidence to battle the critical demons or carving out the time to join coherent sentences into paragraphs. Or maybe it’s figuring out the conflict that will tear your hero and heroine apart or even developing your characters. No matter what the cause of your writer’s block, I empathize with you and feel your pain. I promise the cast will come off eventually and when you are ready, you will be able to run again. And maybe even fly!

-Meg

Inspiration is a funny thing.

It comes at weird times in different ways and surprising avenues. Sometimes just hearing or thinking about things outside your normal scope of interest can spur a inspired moment.

Here are some things that have inspired me in the last week:

Marissa Doyle’s first book, Bewitching Season, came out – it’s a fun read with character’s you’ll fall in love with. Don’t believe me? Go check out her character being interviewed at NineteenTeen for a chance to win a copy.

Marley Gibson’s first two books came out this week and seeing her joy – as well as getting to share it – at her book launch party was so inspiring!

My CP while looking at Markbearer came back this week to tell me how much she enjoyed reading it. My CP is asking for book two!

My characters have been driving me crazy. They want their stories told now! And hearing the questions people are asking about the next book, does this happen, is that person good or bad, will these two end up together. . . Is definitely inspiring!

StumbleUpon is a new toy for me. Sanroe was kind enough to kick off the Purple Heart’s summary page and now I’m addicted to clicking the next button to see what’s out there. I’ve found title generators, fun writing prompts, industry information, and other author’s sharing their stories – all these make me want to set pen to paper.

Other writers – I was lucky enough to hear Diana Groe (Emily Bryan) speak last night. She was witty, intelligent and informative. I’ve gone to hunt down another one of her books already. She told a great story about Staying Published – it really pushed me to keep moving forward.

Classes and Classmates – I’m taking Margie Lawson’s online class on Deep EDITing and highly recommend it. But one of the most inspiring moments so far was when Margie quoted classmate Nancy Haddock’s next book as an example. WOW! To get your book quoted in a class as a strong example of great craft – not to mention being in the class when it happened.  Plus, I was even more excited knowing that Nancy was blogging for us this month too!

Spring (or summer or fall or winter) – While fall will always be my favorite season, any time the weather changes seems to be a kick in the butt for me – Each season a earthy-makeover for the landscape around us.

So, find something this week that makes you look at your writing with new eyes, excited and inspired and then, Go Write
bria

I had a college student’s weekend in that my weekend started on Thursday night. Sadly, I no longer have the mental and physical stamina of a college student so while I had a nice, long, busy weekend, this Monday morning feels as though it has come all too soon.

I’ll characterize my weekend by saying I spent it supporting the arts – such a fun string of days, it’s no wonder the time flew!

- Thursday night I attended an author talk, where three superstar authors spoke to a sold-out crowd about writing and life
- Friday night I attended a book launch party for a debut author and dear friend
- Saturday night I attended an opera recital
- And yesterday, I hope you all stopped by the blog to help us welcome another dear friend, Nancy Haddock, as our guest and to celebrate the release of her debut book, LA VIDA VAMPIRE

And while all of these people from my weekend are solo artists, I am reminded that it often does take a village to make our projects come to fruition. Whether in the support of a critique partner, a commiserating peer, or a loyal, caring loved one there to help pick up the pieces when they fall or help us keep up the good work when things go well, we are not as alone as it often feels. Seeing the care and support during each of these artists’ events, makes me grateful not only for being able to support them in the way(s) I can, but also for the people who provide such medicine for me.

So while I’m toiling away on seemingly endless writing conundrums, I will think back to this weekend and remember the strength and creativity and forward momentum that true friendship can inspire. And when I hit the proverbial wall, I hope to draw on that strength, creativity, and positive momentum, and keep writing!

-Jessica

The Long and Winding Road

I’ve been a member of RWA for 24 years now. Last February I sold my first book in a two-book contract to Berkley, and La Vida Vampire, my debut in this new series was released on April 1st.

So, was I a horrible writer during my first 23 years in RWA?

No. Though I’m a better writer now than I was then (ya think?), I placed in and won contests early on. I had a great agent within a few years of joining RWA. I received good rejection letters. Published friends who read my work asked why I wasn’t published yet.

So, why was my road to publication so long and winding? I attribute it to three main reasons.

First, balance in my writing life. When we join RWA, we tend to join one or more chapters. We may tend (like me!) to get involved in volunteering for the chapter, or even volunteering at the National level. I found myself accepting an appointment to serve an unexpired term on the RWA Board less than a year after I’d joined, and this was at a time when the Board members chaired virtually every job to be done. We had one full-time employee, and the organization was growing by leaps! Talk about time devouring! I met wonderful people who are still friends. I learned how to break my comfort zone wide open. I gleaned information about the publishing business just by having meals with other writers – some published, some not.

What I failed to do during all my Kamikaze volunteering days was to balance doing the jobs with doing the writing. I let job deadlines consume me instead of letting the flow of writing consume me. So my advice to those who tirelessly lend their expertise to organizations – writing, PTA, whatever – is to create balance in writing and volunteer activities. Find out what a job requires in as much detail as possible, including the daily/ weekly/ monthly time it takes. If this is a new kind of job for you, double the time you think you’ll spend on it. You may not use double the time, but if you don’t, you get to write!

A second reason for the winding road was that serious family issues came up, such as my middle management husband being “downsized” out of a job. During this period, I also faced challenges with my children, and I went back to teaching. I tried to write in spite of the chaos, but found myself frozen. I couldn’t write in the upheaval – not for publication anyway. I just couldn’t shake the internal editor who had me changing words before I’d written a complete sentence. And I don’t mean a compound, complex sentence! When the internal editor took over, concentration and confidence vanished.

So, if you have a yappy internal editor, I beg you to destroy that negative voice now! Think twice before you let him/ her out again. Ever. I let mine out during my revisions of La Vida Vampire, and banished her again within minutes. She hadn’t mellowed a bit, and still had nothing constructive to contribute! Whether internal or external, surround yourself with only the constructive voices!

SIDEBAR: One of the positive outcomes of going through intense family times was that I came out of them with clear experience in conflict, confrontation and combat. Since the major criticism of my writing had been that I hid behind humor rather than letting characters confront, the lessons paid off when I began writing in earnest again! There’s always an upside!

The last component of my long, winding road had to do with finding the courage to write what I wanted to, the way I wanted to, rather than “following the market.” I came into RWA in a time when new writers were expected to break into category first. If you proved yourself, you might move up to Single Title. Lead title. Mainstream. But you didn’t simply burst onto the scene in single title. In this sense, we all followed the market, more or less.

When I came back to writing for publication in the late 1990s, romance publishing was no longer quite so restrictive. For the first time, I wrote romantic suspense … with humor, though, so that didn’t pan out. When I moved to St. Augustine in 2002, I decided to release the stories I’d been working on in order to start fresh. I let the energy of my new hometown permeate me, and my story ideas. I was actually working on a cozy mystery series when the idea for La Vida Vampire gripped me and wouldn’t let go.

I’m still working on the cozy series, but my first loyalty is to Cesca, Saber and the gang of La Vida Vampire. It may have been a long and winding road that I wouldn’t wish for anyone else but we must all find – and follow – our own paths. I trust that yours will be shorter and straighter!

+++

Thank you, Nancy!

We will be giving away a copy of La Vida Vampire to one lucky winner at the end of the week! Post a note to the comments section to be eligible. The winner will be chosen at random on Friday afternoon.

. . . Another Friday and another chance for us to share some great writing and publishing resources from around the blog-o-sphere.

Jonathan Lyons does a rundown on being a writer and getting paid.  It’s more than just shouting, “Show me the money!” at your agent.  For his post on GETTING PAID, click HERE. 

And to continue on a similar strain, Chip MacGregor from Writer Interrupted had a great post this week on GOING FROM PART-TIME TO FULL-TIME WRITING.  To read how, click HERE.

LitMatch featured a post this week that talks about the SASE and the upcoming postage hike.  To find this post on POSTAGE CHANGE COMING - FUTURE-PROOF YOUR QUERIES “FOREVER”, click HERE.

Michael S. Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, (a predominantly Christian book publisher), had a great post this week on CHOOSING WHICH BOOKS TO PUBLISH.  The information is helpful for anyone looking to break into the ranks of the published, whether you write Christian books or otherwise.  To read his take on the topic, click HERE.

A number of the blogs we looked at this week called for a review of goals at this point in the year, so we thought a post on motivation would be a helpful one to share.  We loved this post from Pick the Brain on MOTIVATION DOESN’T NEED TO BE SEXY; OR HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED UNTIL THE END.  To read HOW, click HERE.

In case you hadn’t heard, Janet Reid from Fine Print Literary has a blog where she dissects queries.  If you want to submit to ‘the shark,’ you can find the link HERE for her blog, Query Shark.

Are shapeshifters the new vampires?  You be the judge — click HERE to check out this new group blog.

And one last note — Brenda Novak has kicked off her fourth annual online auction for diabetes research.  After raising $250,000 last year, this year’s goal is to raise $300,000!  Click HERE to see the list of amazing items up for bid and to, of course, participate!

So . . . that’s the list for today.  As always, please share your favorite posts from cyberland in the comments section — we would love to learn about the resources you’ve found helpful!  Have a great weekend, and keep writing!