I, for one, welcome our new mummy overlords!

See my guest post on editing over at Shen Hart’s blog.

I’m many days late,  I’ve been trying to finish up an editing job before November. Here is the first take of my plot done up in the 7 point system. I wrote them up in the order I listed in the previous post, but I’m typing them up here in the order they’ll come in the novel to make sure they make sense to me. I don’t think I need an Ice Monster Prologue, but I haven’t decided which will be my first scene yet.   Main Ghost haunting plot Protagonist: Kate Antagonist: Ghost of Myra’s ancestor, who died in the building   Hook: The ghost is angry because Kate and Myra are arguing Plot Turn 1: The ghost vandalizes [...]

Plotting a novel using Dan Wells’ 7 Point System

Plotting a novel with the Five Movement Structure

  Back in the depths of time, 2001, imagine me, a young mother with three children under six, wondering if I could write a novel.  Did I really have 50,000 words in me? And if I did, could I get them all out in November?  I’d heard stories of people taking 10 years to write their novel – ten long, painful, soul-stripping years. Who was I to think I could write a novel in thirty measly days? Given my circumstances, I was a little frazzled and full of self-doubt but I didn’t want to give up this idea that made me wake up early with character sketches and kept me up late at night, thinking about plots. So I did [...]

Come write a novel with me in November!

I have two laptops – neither are fabulous but both work. I stopped using one when it was no longer to connect to out wireless internet – husband made some upgrades and the poor laptop couldn’t keep up – and I just put it on a shelf “just in case”. I am so glad I did because I’m going to have to move my writing to the old, non-internet laptop so I don’t get so distracted when I’m supposed to be writing. The only problem is the old laptop is missing the 5 key. I can live with that for the (hopefully) increased productivity.

Half done with the novel edits, and it’s clear to me that I’m holding back when I’m writing. This is showing up in two ways, which are really one way when you look at it. First, there isn’t nearly enough setting and description in the novel. I’m not fully immersed in the vision of my novel – there’s always a bit of me keeping my ear on the kids in the other room, or waiting for dinner to be ready, or any of a million other mom-related tasks. So I get down the dialog and some action so I don’t loose my entire train of thought before I’m inevitably disturbed and never get back to the setting. The second problem [...]

Start a book and realize it was not very good, but not want to put it down anyway? I’m there right now. I’m listening to a book at http://www.podiobooks.com (no, I’m not saying which one) and it’s been very mediocre all along but last night there was a sex scene that was actually painful to listen to. The thing is, if I don’t finish the last 8 hours of the book I’ll wonder about it and wish I had. Should I cut bait and just stop listening or should I look for a good lesson in how not to write? I think I’ll just keep on listening, using the book as entertainment when I am doing housework because anything that [...]