Learning to Plot

So a few days ago on Facebook, I mentioned one writing tip is to NOT do what I did to get to this point in my writing career.

Writing, like weight loss, is a journey. None of us have the same path to travel. Some writers have an easier path than others, whether it's due to talent, perseverance, or just simply good luck.

While other writers seem to hit their head on the wall every single time they type on the keyboard, stare at mountains of nonsense notes to try to write a cohesive story, or simply are too stubborn to look beyond our own inability to realize other writers might actually know what they are talking about.

I'm one of the latter group.

Over the years, I took classes, read books, belonged to clubs as I wrote my first few novels, but I never could find the magic. I had convinced myself that I was a pantser type of writer, in other words, I had a basic idea for a story outline, but I chose to let my characters direct my path, Which meant I learned about my characters while I was writing.

But after 13 years of writing this way, I knew I needed to shake things up a little. . . especially if I wanted to do justice to my Elemental stories.

This particular set of story lines touch upon the other novels in the series.

So I'm learning how to PLOT a story.

I found a really good website (I'll post the link later if it really works for me!), and I'm going to review what plot is all about.

I have four sheets of paper and a handful of colored pencils on my table to figure out how my stories cross. I could probably do this with my new fangled touch screen computer, but I'll opt for the old fashioned way for right now as I'd have to learn how to actually USE the computer tools.

But THE FIRE WITHIN has a short synopsis, which means that it's mostly plotted, but I'll need to add a few points along the way. I'll use that story as a guide for how I want these stories to touch upon the other ones.

Wish me luck! I know I'll need it!

Later, Peeps!

Lots of Little Things

School starts this Thursday. I'm pretty sure we have the important stuff taken care of: school supplies, school uniforms, and summer reading is finished. Taking her to school won't be as easy as walking her to the school behind our house. Nope, she will have to be driven across town to Cascia Hall . . . luckily, I'm not stuck with THAT particular chore in the mornings! Hubster will be taking her through the horrendous road work areas (three lanes on major expressway narrowing down to one--are they serious??) and then continuing on to work.

I'll be picking her up at 3 PM, well, 2:55.

With school starting I'd like to start a nice normal writing routine again, but I have a lot of little things I'd like to accomplish before I can do it. This is just the stuff that piles up over time, until you know you need to do something about it.

Saturday night I finished one the them.

The magazine pile--I had about six month's worth of magazines to go through. Of course they were all cooking magazines and I had to pull out the pages of the recipes I found interesting, then trim them to a reasonable size before filing into one of my thirteen cookbooks. -- DONE!

My earrings---I keep my earrings in four fishing tackle boxes. These are only 1-inch deep and clear(ish). I need to take a picture when I'm finished. Well, about two years ago, it was in fantastic shape. My hubby had spray glued the polyester backing to fuzzy stuff so I could hook my earrings through the material and keep them nice and neat. I need to cut new pieces for the earrings I use and to reorganize the boxes, as my earring habit seems to keep growing.

--I picked up cute little person with a pearl head earrings in Seaside and a pair from the Italy venue in Epcot that I'll be getting for my b-day.

My blog---yep, I need to do some housecleaning on this blog: hyperlinking my WW and FF blogs to their respective places, updating my book info, copying and pasting all my WW blogs to a document and then organizing them for my weight loss book.

My documents folder--I've been really bad about this one, as it has grown to unimaginable proportions . . . when you have to scroll down to see all the documents, it's too large!

And then there's the 'other' stuff I need to do:

Reformat my Goblin's Apprentice books for print--which means I need to do another editing job.

Fill out my Weight Watcher's leader info when it arrives--if I decide to actually take the job. I'm still waffling on this one. The pay isn't good, but there are some perks. But then there's wear and tear on my car, the lack of ability to call my own shots, plus my mom might be needing more of my driving skills in the near future.

Brainstorm my Elemental series.

Plot Goblin's Apprentice book 4, DRAGON DAYS OF SUMMER

Finish working on my Christmas projects

Order chocolate supplies to be ready to make and mail the donated items I've already promised.

And of course, last but certainly not least, act as chauffeur to my kidlet. Swim hasn't started back up, but it will when the pool is ready to go. And we already have two other school activities PRIOR to school starting!

Monday is a get-together pool party for the kids. And Wednesday is orientation and a retreat, but hubby wants to do the driving on both ends of it so he can figure out his driving plan of attack.

While there is no firm deadline on any of this--with the exception of the Christmas items and the donations to Lee Lofland's Writer's Police Academy in September--I don't really have to DO anything, but I'm ready to work . . . and that's a big plus in my book!

Oh, BTW, does anyone know how I can make book marks or something like that I can put into the candy boxes?? I have no clue where to start on this!

Later, Peeps!

Plotting SCENT OF EVIL

When I finished editing, formatting and publishing FAERIE I needed a mental break. I started reading again, working in the garden, thinking and plotting. 

Before I started writing middle grade, I had written a paranormal romance. 
 . . . well, it wasn't much of a romance, considering I never really 'got' the hero and heroine conflict that was necessary for a romance. And it wasn't much of a paranormal in the sense it didn't involve vampires, werewolves, demons, etc. My character was a shape-shifter, but with a very weak reason to shift, if I say so myself. In hindsight, I have to admit that the entire story was too shallow.

I had the external conflict. I had the internal conflict of the heroine. And I wrote the story as a novella. I thought that I could rewrite it to make it a full length book, but then I started writing MG and shelved this story.

After editing three middle grade stories over the last five months, I needed to write something fresh. I resurrected SCENT OF EVIL.

But with a big difference.

The external plot is more convoluted. The villain has a serious purpose, which directly relates to the heroine. For those of you new to the writing biz--the villain always has a purpose. You might be able to get away with 'he was just a froot-loop' once, but the villain has a reason for being, and doing, evil.

My female protagonist has her internal conflict.

But my hero was just there.

--Though this isn't a romance, per se, I did want to deepen the conflict with the hero to add a deeper dimension to the story.

When I had a lunch date with Marilyn Pappano, I decided to pick her brains. She's the queen of writing romance and has a gazillion books under her belt. AND it helped that she had read a little of the original story when I was still in her crit group. I told her my problem and within a couple minutes of talking it out--we came up with his internal conflict! AND the conflict between the hero and heroine! YAY!

The interesting part of this whole scenario was that the answer was right in front of me, but I couldn't see it.

Can't see the forest for the trees, yanno? 

Over the last few weeks, I've been working out the details of the plot with bullet points. I've had to work the story from the conclusion back to the beginning, figuring out my red herrings and other stuff. And I think I'm ready to write . . . two days before school is out for the summer.

Yeah, my timing sucks.

I'll write my synopsis this week and I'll start writing the story. . . because there's a contest I thought I'd enter to see how people respond to it. I'll need to write 25 pages--edit and clean it up--by June 10th. Tight deadline, but I think I could pull it off.

We'll see.

Later, Peeps!