Flying On The Fringe

I met with my critique group today. They are my inspiration, and they keep me going when I want to quit. So many times I’ve left my computer, with the intention of never writing fiction again.  (I’d say I’ve laid down my pen, but these days, I never write that way). They push me to go back.

Today I got some great tips for rewriting part of the first chapter of my WIP. This from the same people who had me throw out the first three chapters I’d written previously, so the current chaptter one was chapter four. But they were right. It is SO much better. And today, it’s better still.

If you write, I encourage you to do whatever you can to find a supportive group of fellow authors to work with. There are caveats, however, and if your chosen group doesn’t meet the following standards, it would be best to move on.

1.   Ideally, at least some of the members should be farther along in the writing profession than you are. A mix of people at different levels is fantastic, because skilled authors don’t always read something the way those who read a lot, but haven’t done much writing. The more we learn the trade, the more it affects how we assess what we read, and most readers are not writers.
2.   Critiques should be constructive, not destructive. Suggestions should be made with the goal to build you up as a writer, not to prove how much more they know (or think they know.) On the other hand, sometimes it should be tough, just like tough love. If the book has to start with chapter four, they have to have the guts to tell you.
3.   That being said, you as the author have to be willing to accept criticism and use it to your advantage. People who just tell you how wonderful you are won’t really help you.
4.   Regular meetings are important. They keep the momentum flowing, and give you the motivation to keep producing when you’d really rather do something else this week. If at all possible, find a group that can meet in person. There’s something about the back-and-forth flow of discussion in a group that far surpasses what can be done online. However, an online group is better than no group.

Check with your local librarian to see who else in your area is an author. See if the library will allow you to post something seeking other authors (published and unpublished) to start a group if one doesn’t already exist.

Good luck my friends, and keep writing.

Wrote 1500 words today. I rock.

I recently tried to discipline myself to write every day. I did get quite a bit of writing done that way. My greatest fear was that I would write junk that I would end up throwing out, because I normally try to write based on inspiration. So what happened?

I ran the first four chapters by my critique group. They recommended I throw out the first three. So I stopped writing for a week. I decided I was fed up and would stop writing, at least until I could find an agent interested in what I’ve already written. I have two books in my first series edited and ready to submit, and two in my new series ready for editing.

But, as is usually the case, the writing bug has bitten me again, and as much as I would like to ignore it, the bite REALLY itches. So I’ll be back at the computer again today.

Wish me luck.

 

 

Image by Pete from Pixabay.

Well, we got a little rain, but no where near enough. I understand farmers are worried about hay crops for the winter, The fields here have rows of big bales, but I’m sure there should have been at least one more cutting, maybe two. I’m worried about the wildlife as well. Deer, normally pretty elusive, have been hanging out close to the house and eating our garden for the first time ever.

I doubt there will be a nut crop to support the squirrels. The year we moved to our property, there wasn’t a single squirrel on the entire 8 acres, or in the woods behind us. They all starved and froze to death the previous winter. It was two or three years before we spotted one in our yard, and a couple more years before we saw young ones growing up. I hate to think that might happen again this year.

I’m praying for the people affected by this, but I’m praying for the animals too.

What kind of writer are you—plotter, pantser, or hybrid?

I recently saw a quote from C.G. Drews @PaperFury that really hit home for me. (Capitalization was part of the quote I saw on Facebook, so I am presenting it as it appeared.)

“there are three type of writers;

1) those who plot their books

2) those who discover their plot along the way

3) those who know what will happen but their book is a bit feral still, needs a bath, has bitten and will bite again.”

I’m sort of a hybrid writer. I do some plotting, but I have a bad habit of forgetting to look at the plot once I’ve created it, so my stories tend ultimately to flow more organically. However, when “pantsing” leaves me stuck in a corner, sometimes the plot helps bail me out, or at least gives me a structure for correcting whatever mistake got me into trouble.

But it was #3 that really struck me. Been there, done that. I’ve been bitten by my main character. In fact, at one point my main character threw the key element of the plot for an entire book out the window. I was trying to plot one day, and he basically just said, “Nope. Not doing that.”

I hope that every writer has a chance to experience having their MC talk back to them. It’s the moment at which you realize your characters have become living, breathing creatures. If they are real for you, they’ll be more real for your readers.

My advice is to listen respectfully when they talk back. They often know more about the direction the story should take than we, as the builders, do. In my case, my MC was absolutely correct. I knew it. I was still aggravated, because I had to start from scratch on that story, but I couldn’t deny he nailed it.

Perhaps some day I will once again experience the painful joy of being bitten by one of my characters. I look forward to it.

 

Got back from a week-long trip to Roswell, NM last week. It was interesting and surprising at the same time. I was expecting obvious commercialism, but I was surprised that everyone used the same “little green alien” image. There wasn’t a speck of difference from one shop to the next, or from one hotel to the next (almost all of which have a green alien welcoming visitors.

Even the street lights had alien faces. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of an alien face sporting an American flag for the Fourth of July. Do aliens dream of their own independence from …?

My friend Linda and I also visited the International UFO Museum and had a chance to study the details of the original Roswell crash. Some details we knew, of course, but there is always more to learn. Exhibits included transcripts of some of the actual radio traffic between the officers who were first dispatched to the scene and the operator back at base.

Our last stop was to the Robert H. Goddard Planetarium, where we saw an interesting presentation on the search for dark matter particles in the Hadron Collider in Cerne. Just days after we returned, there was breaking news about new particles discovered by scientists at Cerne, though not unfortunately dark matter. Also saw a news post about a research effort in a South Dakota mine where they are trying to capture the elusive dark matter particle.

For a science fiction writer it was a dream trip. The only thing that can top it will be if I finally get to visit the NASA research facility in California where one of my books takes place.

 

 

 

 

This image by S. Herman &amp on Pixabay.com caught my eye the other day and brought back one of my fondest memories from childhood.

I fancied myself a Tomboy, but wasn’t very good at it. My rebellious effort to go barefoot in the yard resulted in running a stick up through my foot.

I did manage to climb the willow tree in our back yard, however. For those who aren’t familiar with willows, they have nice alternately spaced branches that make them fairly easy to climb. I used to get the amazing distance of about five feet off the ground with a book tucked under my arm. My companion was not a Teddy bear, but my ever faithful cat, who thought reading in a tree was the cat’s meow. She would follow me up and perch on a nearby branch or drape herself around my shoulders.

Like my magical swingset which could transport me to other star systems on command, I could pass an hour or more lost in a book, transported to who knows where.

Tell me about a special moment or memory from your childhood.

Do you believe it takes courage to be a writer?

I do. To be a good writer, you can’t just write and hold it close to your chest. You have to put it out there and accept criticism from readers and other writers. And you have to believe enough in yourself to put those first words on paper. My mother did a great job of instilling a degree of courage in me. She was notorious for informing me that she had signed me up for this or that activity.

The first was the Youth Crime and Civic Commission. (I wanted to be a spy, and it was the closest thing she could find.) I was irritated, but I soon learned to enjoy the meetings and events. It led to her second brilliant idea. One day she told me I should start writing newspaper articles about the Commission’s activities. She wanted me to call the Kansas City Star and offer to write for them. I was in high school. I thought she’d really gone too far ‘round the bend that time, so I decided to call her bluff. I called them. The receptionist didn’t bat an eye. She put me straight through to the Youth Page editor, who told me to submit an article and he’d look at it. Guess who had to eat crow? I wrote the article, he accepted it, and I wrote regularly for the Youth Page for the next two years until I left for college.

Actually, my experience in journalism started much earlier, in about the sixth grade, when my mother volunteered me to be the reporter for my 4-H club. No one else was willing to run for the position, so naturally I got elected. I had a monthly column in the Johnson County Kansas newspaper. I guess I should mention at this point that my mother grew up around newspaper people. Her mother worked for the Kansas City Kansan, and my mother had her first job for the paper. My dad was a photographer for the paper, and he taught me photography and photo developing, which became my 4-H projects.

The last time my mother enrolled me in something, I came home from school, and just inside the door I was informed I had joined the International Relations Council, a not-for-profit organization in Kansas City. When I attended the first dinner lecture, I was probably the only person there under the age of 50. However, having learned from previous experiences, I kept going. My first professional job was as Assistant to the Director of the International Relations Council.

Unlike my mother’s lessons in imagination, these lessons stuck in my mind when raising my kids, and they both got pushed into any activity I thought would fit with their interests. Matt wrote for a local newspaper during summers off from college, and Ben took piano lessons for almost ten years. In the process, he found out he was one of the gifted few who has “perfect pitch.” Coming from a family with zero musical ability, who would have guessed?

The moral of this story? You never know what your gifts might be until you try something new. Like writing.