Field Day!

Today I helped out with 101 second graders as they had their Field Day. It was pretty fun. I wasn't assigned to any spot, so I stuck with my kiddo as she did the various games until it was time to guard the Wendy's kid meals. My kiddo is the one in the pink hat.

After about four injuries from scooterland with the kids pushing each other, the powers that be decided it would be smarter to have the kids push themselves with their feet.

On to tug-of-war. . . where the team my daughter was on promptly romped the other side four times in a row!

Then they had a bean bag toss. My pics didn't come out, so I didn't post them.

And then the jump rope. Look at the air the kiddo is getting!

There was the hula-hoop ring toss. Boring pics. And then the boy vs. girl relay race. The girls wore shoulder pads and a football helmet, while the boys had to put on a cheerleader's skirt and top.

Uh. . . Girls Rule! Boys Drool! Oh, sorry, girls won again. :-)

And that was that. I missed Musical Chairs and Four Square since I was guarding the Wendy's.

Mrs. Snodgrass, their teacher, wasn't there so when it came time to pass out the food, I literally tossed the food the kids. I had a blast! The kids and some of the parents that stuck it out think I'm weird, but I had fun and I think the kids did too!

I'd write tomorrow, but we have the an all day soccer fest. With all the rain we've had they've had to cancel a lot of their games. Ugh! First pictures, then warm up for the 10:30 make-up game, an hour break, and then the 12:30 make-up game. An exodus to the nearby Mazzios for a pizza party and the obligatory 'awards'.. Yep, the crappy plastic soccer ball statues. :-)

Maybe next week I'll be able to . . .

Write on!

Log lines

On Monday, I had a little reality check concerning what writers need to produce when they finish a novel.

And it isn't just a fantastic novel . . . though that is an important part of the equation.

A writer needs to be able to write a long synopsis (8-10 pages, double spaced), a short synopsis (less than five pages, double spaced), a one page synopsis (single spaced) a blurb (a couple of paragraphs, 500 words MAX, think back cover copy of a book for query letter), and an elevator pitch (one or two lines, roughly 25 words).

So I was trolling through the normal blogs that I check daily and I came across the Query Tracker blog, about pitching log lines and one of the genres requested was YA fantasy. I'm writing a MG fantasy, so I thought 'what the hay'. The contest is now closed and the results are pending, but it really brought the fact to mind that all writers, especially unpubs need to know how to do a one line pitch, or an elevator pitch. It turns out that my online goals group was presenting a log line class by my friend and CP Cindy Carroll.

Talk about synchronicity!

Uh, I didn't have a log line for this book. It isn't finished. I thought I'd wait until it was done, but I had managed to get myself stuck and couldn't figure out how to raise the stakes. (see Monday's blog) ;-) But I wanted to enter this pitch contest.

Why?

I don't know. Guess I just like rejection. Anyhoo, log lines originated in the screenplay world, but has now oozed over to other writing genres. Basically, you, the writer, pitch your story idea to an editor/agent/producer/etc. providing the essence of your story in 25 words or less. The log line should tell us WHO the story is about,WHAT he wants (Goal), and WHY he can't have it (Conflict). Names are not used. Descriptors tell the listener more than names anyway.

Cindy is really, really good at this. During the class many people posted their lines, and she waved a magic wand and clarified the statement usually using fewer words than the original log line.

Well, I wrote my line, had Cindy look at it, and submitted it. Now, the last time Query tracker did something like this, they had almost 600 responses. So I know I'm not going to get a request or any props, but coming up with a log line did one thing that I didn't expect.

It gave me the external conflict that I needed to continue with this story. The WHY. This isn't to say that the story won't change, but I now have a direction to go.

My log line? You want to see it? This is a middle grade fantasy novel, roughly 35,000 words long. Okely-dokely, here you go:

When a tween’s garden gnome disappears she enlists the help of her friend to investigate their cat-collecting neighbor and discover she’s a witch intent on wiping out mythicals to empower the coven.

Write on!

Ratchet Up The Stakes

My family and I went out of town for Mother's Day to Silver Dollar City. SDC is designed to be an old Ozark town from the 1880's, complete with craftsmen of the time: blacksmith, broom makers, potters, glass blowers, candy makers, etc. You get the picture. Plus they have quite a few rides. And yes, it was my idea. I needed to get away and ride some roller coasters. I love roller coasters, but that wasn't always the case.

When my daughter was little we went to SDC, but we only rode some of the easier rides. I wanted to ride an easy roller coaster called Thunderation. So I jogged toward the place I thought it was and saw the name Wildfire. I went up the long road toward Wildfire because I didn't want to take an hour before I met back up with hubster and child. I was in luck. There was no line for Wildfire. YAY! Then I got a look at this roller coaster--it went upside down and the loops looked crazy-tight like pulling a round balloon oblong. Uh-oh.

I took a deep breath and went on it. . .

Three times. It was fun! But I couldn't get hubster on it for two more years. The kiddo would have been right with me, but it had a shoulder harness and she was too short.

But they also have another coaster called Powderkeg. No shoulder harness, but a really snug lap bar. The kiddo could ride this one when she was four. And boy, did we! It still scares the heck out of me and it doesn't go upside down--sideways yeah--but not totally over. It scares me because it is so fast that you are up and over the hill before you realize it. We're talking two or three seconds tops. It's still a lot of fun.

So what do roller coasters have to do with writing? A lot actually.

On the drive to SDC I started (and finished on the way home) a middle grade novel by Rick Riordan called The Lightning Thief, featuring Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It was wonderful!! After I read this I realized that I had to ratchet up the stakes in my gnome story. I knew I would have to, but reading this story really brought it home to me.

No matter the age level you are writing for a writer needs to have a couple of things in his/her arsenal.
1) conflict--without it, the story is boring. The best type of conflict is a mixture of internal and external. And this story did a great job of mixing it up.
2) it has to get worse--if all the story questions get answered at the beginning of the story, there is no story. It has to get worse for the character before it gets better. This also helps the writer with characterization. Who wants to get behind a character that has everything? No one. We all like to read about underdogs. We connect with those characters more than the ones who have it all.

In romances, we know the hero and heroine get together. In mysteries, we know the mystery gets solved. In Urban Fantasies, such as the Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher, we know Harry will survive--because there will be another book in the series until #24 or #25. Why read a book if we already know how it ends.

We read for the journey, for the roller coaster ride. The good, the bad, and make it worse stakes for our main character. So when you're writing a story remember to make it hard and harder for your hero, your readers with thank you for it later.

Because reading a good book is like a roller coaster ride, when you think it is looking up for the hero then it is time for him to hit rock bottom again . . . and again . . . and again.

Write on!

Friday's Mish Mash

We had a few rays of sunshine yesterday! Yay! Hubster mowed the lawn while I took the kiddo to soccer practice. I used to read in the car, but the practice area is on a grassy section of a large church property, so I began to walk the property on her practice days. I can hoof it around the perimeter five times and it takes me about an hour--yeah, it's that big! They have most of it poured for a walking trail, but it stops about halfway around a pond, so I walk to the end, do a U'y and walk back. I really enjoy it when hubster can walk with me--we can really reconnect and talk about adult stuff. We also do family walks on the other nights of the week. It's great exercise and it has helped the kiddo's endurance during the soccer games.

I just checked on my afghan and it is up to $75! Yippee! Let's see if it will get to $100. Remember, it's for a good cause.

NaPiBoWriWee was an experience. No, I didn't write any picture books. :-( BUT I did write down some ideas that I can percolate over the summer. It was a good challenge, but next year I need to be prepared in advance.

I started going to town on my MG novel this week--the one I need to finish by the end of this month! I'm getting pretty excited about it. I know I'll probably have to change the POV in the first chapter (it's in the mom's POV), but I'm leaving it in right now.

I also belong to a BIAW (Book In A Week) yahoo group that Barbara does once a month. And next week is the week. I really want to crank out this story, so I can let it sit before I start my layering and revisions. In preparation to this plan, I'm going to read the first Percy Jackson and the Olympians book, a middle grade novel that has turned into a series. We are heading out of town so I plan to read in the car. Hubster hates it when I do that because I'm 'supposed' to entertain him and keep him awake---isn't that what those Monster drinks supposed to do?

Hubster read the rough draft picture book out loud the other day to the kiddo. Of course, I was listening with my eyes closed to hear all the nuances, etc, and found many places that I can cut. So I'm really happy about that. There are also a lot of places that need some serious work. Since my eyes were closed I didn't see my kiddo's reaction. Hubster said she was really interested and reading along with the story. Right off the bat, the consensus was to cut Piper's brother--whoops, he's gone! See how easy that was? :-) I need to tweak this story so I can let it sit over the weekend.

So many things to do and not enough time to do them. I also volunteered at my kiddo's school and that will eat into my writing time today, but that is partly the reason I quit working to help out with her and her class. Maybe it will make me more focused and I won't get sucked into those reality judge shows. Yes, I am addicted. But isn't acknowledging it the first step??

Write on!

I'm Sick of Gloom

Oklahoma isn't supposed to be gloomy or rain sodden. It just isn't. If I wanted to live in Seattle I would have moved there, but I don't want to live there. I NEED the sun! I squelched through my yard to look at my overgrown grass and shrubs. It's too wet to mow, the puddles in the low areas can't get absorbed since the ground is so wet--thus the flooding. I'm lucky that I don't live in a low area. The bulbs I just planted are popping up through the mulch. And I still haven't had a chance to fertilize and thicken up the mulch in the thin areas. My roses and peony's are limp and sad with their heads hanging low. Pretty soon, I'll see the tell-tale signs of powdery mildew and black spot covering everything. And it's too wet to spray, plus with the way the rain has been pouring down in spurts and starts it will wash away the fungicide before it gets soaked into the leaves.



I definitely have a love/hate relationship with springtime in Oklahoma.




Update on the kiddo: She's fine. All the flu tests came back negative. Consensus is that she has a common cold due to our schedule, thus her exhaustion, and the lame-o weather. Hubster will be pissed, but I'm going to post one of her pictures in her First Holy Communion dress. She's such a cutie!



And an update on NaPiBoWriWee, I've already given up for now. I sent a note to Paula Yoo that I'll never get those stories written since I didn't even get any ideas until day 3, much less have them fleshed out enough to write a story. And she suggested that I jot down a sentence or two for future use. Yes! This I can do! So today and tomorrow I'll jot down my list and I'll have seven prospective stories to write this summer. One good thing came out of this--I wrote over 1000 words on my Middle Grade novel. If I can keep this pace up, I should have it finished by the end of May (my goal), which will give me a month to clean it up before I have to mail it into the contest.



Well, that's it for now. Time to Wii, eat lunch with hubby, get my hair cut, shop at Barnes & Noble, Sam's and Ulta before I come home to write another 1000 words. I'm a happy camper today.



Write on!

Monday, Monday

Wow, last weekend zipped right on by, didn't it?

After a tension filled weekend of getting the kiddo to First Communion rehearsal, house cleaned, cooking class, getting food ready (Thank you, Sam's Club and Panera!), early Sunday mass with the First Communicants, group pictures, individual pics and the local family gathering (15 adults & 3 kids) we relaxed by going to see Wolverine (naked Hugh Jackman is yummy!)and eating pizza. We all got in our jammies early and took it easy the rest of the night.

So, of course, when we got up this morning the kiddo was sick: fever, headache, body aches, coughing, etc. Called school. Called doctor's office. And lo! and Behold! got an appointment for 9:15. Of course there's nothing they can do if she has a flu except verify the fact. So instead of doing the saline blow the snot out test, they did a PNP. Poor Kiddo! If you don't know what a PNP is here's the gist: they ram a small swab with a flexible wire up the patient's nose into their sinuses. This is a pretty tough kiddo, but it brought even her to tears. Poor baby. We barely got home when the school called wondering about her--uh, the school has NEVER called to ask about her welfare. Guess everyone is a tad gun shy about the Swine Flu. Anyway, I hope to hear about the preliminary flu testing by the end of the day.

Other than this I'm thinking about my picture books. With the help of my buddy, Silver James, she managed to get my mind functioning again with some wonderful ideas that I can use. I think the key for her was when I say Piper was like the Amelia Bedelia of Faerie World (uh, no not the one that Timmy Turner goes to. . . uh, The Fairy Oddparents for those of you without kiddos). Anyhoo, I've got some ideas which is better than where I was a couple of days ago! YAY!

Doubt if I'll get any writing done today, other than my mandatory 100 word challenge that I issued to Ash. I can't back out of my own Challenge, can I?? As I have laundry, more laundry . . . wait for it,. . . and IRONING.

Ah, the life of a stay at home mom. I've got the kiddo working on her thank you notes, then she can watch TV for a while until time each lunch. I'll have her read a couple of books this afternoon--besides she needs to read my faerie picture book anyway since it was her idea to write it in the first place!

NaPiBoWriWee--What the Heck is That?

Unless you live under a rock or don't have Internet every writer knows November is NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. So what the heck is NaPiBoWriWee? (Boy, I'm cutting and pasting that word from now on! It's hard with all those capitals.)


NaPiBoWriWee is Paula Yoo's answer to NaNoWriMo, National Picture Book Writing Week. I found her blog through Alice's CWIM blog. See I'm doing research when I blog hop. :-) Hey, It's my blog, I can lie if I want to. So Paula's challenge is to write seven picture books in seven days.

I thought, "Why not?" and signed up. When I told hubster he had a different reaction, and wondered why I would want to add stress to my life.


Uh, stress? What freaking stress? I don't have no stinkin' stress! The only stress in my life is if my kiddo will somehow goof off, or faint, during her First Communion this Sunday. And I don't see that happening. Or we run out of food when we have family over for brunch afterwards. Okay, that's possible, but unlikely as we tend to have more food around than anyone I know!

So I have to write 7 picture books with a word count anywhere from 50-2000 words per book, and I have to have them finished by May 7th. And I only have two titles, translate that to two ideas and they aren't really formulated yet. Yeah, I've got a lot of thinking to do. HALP!

Okay-dokey. This weekend is out--uh, see above, daughter's First Communion and then family brunch (18 people) on Sunday, which means, shopping and prepping the food and cleaning house on Saturday, plus taking the kiddo to cooking class at the Savory Chef followed by a soccer game (that we have to stay and watch--another 1 1/2 hours lost, including driving time) provided the rain lets up enough so the kids aren't playing mud soccer. Whew! How do you like THAT sentence?!

Uh, I gotta go brainstorm in the shower. . . and during my workout. . . and during the walk to school. Argh! Blank page staring at me . . . Going nutso . . .

Write on!