I’ve had this story in my head for more years than I care to count. The working title has changed several times. I’ve written what I originally thought were seven chapters, but I’ve learned a few things since I wrote them and now I’m not sure they’re worth anything to the story. In my self-debate over participating in the 70 Days of Sweat, I wondered if I should trash everything and start the story over. I don’t think I will. I need to keep moving forward. The only way to have a complete first draft is to keep writing – no re-writing until the draft is finished.

Beginnings are important. Heck, the opening of a novel can make or break you in terms of getting agented and published. But a great opening is worthless unless something follows it – like a middle and an ending. As a starting point, I’m counting what I’ve already written. The challenge for me is to produce new pages. Lots of them. So let’s get to sweating!

Alison Kent is challenging writers to whip out a full draft of a novel in the next 70 days. She’s giving prizes, too. Now you’d think that would be awesome motivation and I’d just jump right in and say “Count me in!” But prizes weren’t enough to overcome my negative self-talk. I learned about the challenge last Friday, but have shucking and jiving with myself for this entire week. What if I signed up and couldn’t write 4–6 pages a day? What if I signed up and couldn’t write for 70 days in a row? Oh, believe me, the “what-ifs” can drive a body crazy. And it’s not like I haven’t been there/done that in the past. I have a friend who’s convinced I could start an excuse factory and make a fortune. LOL

So I’ve hemmed and hawed with myself, should I or shouldn’t I? Which of my stalled-out works in progress should I tackle? Should I start from scratch with something new? Then I got to thinking that maybe I didn’t really need to sign up and be a formal part of the challenge; I could just write my pages and not tell anyone. No public failure and humilitation that way, eh? Like that’s worked before. LOL

All week, I kept reading Alison’s blog, watching the number of challengers grow to over 200. I read all the comments, checked out a lot of blogs, read all the tips. And still I hesitated to take the plunge. I know I’m not the only writer who’s been stuck or discouraged or afraid of failure or just plain needs a good swift kick in the derriere.

The deadline to sign-up for the 70 Days of Sweat challenge is midnight CST. I’ve had my eye on the clock all evening, still debating. Maybe what I needed was that ticking clock. I finally made the decision. And Tony Robbins says to follow a decision with immediate action toward your goal.

So tonight my name went up as participant number 261.

A writers’ group that I belong to recently decided to do an activity regarding premise.  Each member posted the premise of their current WIP. It was no easy task for most of us. 

Our group leader cited a number of writers and gave us a detailed explanation of premise.  Alas, I either had a blonde moment – or a senior one. Several of them. Strung together.  For the life of me, I couldn’t get the concepts.

So I drudged up my trusty dictionary and various books on the writing craft, looking for something to help me “get it.”  The result is a brief article on theme and premise.  I’d appreciate knowing if this helped anyone – or not – so feel free to comment.

Theme and Premise: What’s the Difference?

Theme and premise, while closely related, are not the same. Read more

You know that saying “You can’t see the forest for the trees”? It applies to writing. Sometimes—well, in my case, maybe a lot of times—we writers think we know how to do something and it turns out that we just thought we knew what we were doing. LOL

Case in point: I rewrote a scene from one of my WIPs and cut it down considerably. It was the Heroine/Hero’s first meeting so I bobbed and weaved from her POV to his and back again. Hey, that’s supposed to be a romance genre technique, right? I successfully stayed in each character’s POV, but with my tunnel vision I missed the big picture until it was pointed out by another writer.

My scene had a “ping-pong match” feel to it because I wasn’t staying in one character’s POV long enough. A paragraph for her, two for him, three for her, another one for him. I wasn’t letting the poor reader have enough time with either character to get to know him/her. Which will translate to the reader not being able to bond, identify with, and care about those characters. My bad.

The lesson in this is to periodically step outside your own view of your work and welcome feedback from other writers.

A few days ago I upgraded to WordPress 2.1 and it promptly “broke” the blog theme that I had spent countless hours modifying from a beautiful design created by Patricia Mueller.  Thus this new, simpler look which I uploaded today. Perhaps it’s all for the better because now I can stop obsessing about my blog theme and get back to working out the theme for my novel.

Actually I tend to write with an eye toward an underlying theme of redemption. I don’t deliberately set out to do that; it just seems to develop that way when I begin creating my characters. Somehow each character’s “wound” requires some form of redemption.  Heaven help me not to analyze it! Any time I start analyzing what I’m writing or why I’m writing it…well, let’s just say that the work is soon abandoned. I never hear “why are you doing that?” as anything other than a demand for explanation and justification. LOL

For a helpful article on theme and premise, check out Vicki Hinze’s writers’ library. That woman is amazing!

I can’t believe how much time I’ve spent writing backstory, all the while thinking I was writing my novel.  Ya’ll know what backstory is: all those fascinating details about what happened to your characters before the story starts, how they got to be who they are and where they are at the time of the story’s opening.  Yes, yes, that is all very important information that you, the writer, needs to know. 

However, the reader doesn’t give a hunting dog’s left rear paw about it. The reader wants the story to start in the here and now.  Don’t tell me about the Hero’s tragic childhood, moans Reader, show me the kind of trouble he’s in right now.  Don’t bore the reader with details of the long train ride to Where It Happens; set her down right smack in the middle of T-R-O-U-B-L-E.  As you flesh out the story, subtly add information that will help the reader understand the character’s fears and motivations. 

Don’t stop writing backstory for your characters. The writer needs to know far more about the characters than the reader does. Just be aware that backstory is not story. Story is what is happening to the characters in the here and now of your novel.

Making characters distinctly different from each other is not always easy, especially when you are writing from the POV of several characters. I just finished a novel by one of my favorite authors and throughout the entire book I was very conscious of how each character “sounded” in my head.  Each character seemed to have the same type of smart-alecky, sarcastic self-talk, and also used the same swear words. Perhaps it was just me - I love smart-mouthed characters like Bruce Willis in the “Die Hard” movies.  Or maybe after writing a number of books with the same characters, the author herself can no longer “hear” distinct voices.

In any case, it was a reminder for me to pay attention to not only dialogue, but to my characters’ internal attitudes, their self-talk, when I’m writing from deep POV.  I think we tend to think of the spoken word when we write character dialogue, but I’m learning dialogue is much richer than that. Adding action tags, rather than “he said”, paints a more dramatic picture and conveys more about the character. The writer can show nervousness, for instance, by having a character twist a strand of their hair or drum their fingers on a table. (Yes, cliches, but they work!). The dialogue itself might appear mundane, but the actions belie the words.

Writing and publishing romantic erotica is the…uh…“hot” topic tomorrow night at InspiredAuthor.com’s weekly free chat.   The word is out that the discussion will center around Phaze, the erotic romance imprint of Mundania Press, LLC.  It’s likely that Phaze authors will be sharing their experiences. And wouldn’t it be exciting if a Phaze editor or two made an appearance.  This is a unique opportunity for writers to learn about writing and publishing in this specialized genre.  

If writing women’s erotica is not your thing, there are still benefits from attending the chat. There’s the opportunity to network with writers who work in various genres. There’s a opportunity to learn about the publishing industry from the inside and how to market yourself.  Writing can be a lonely occupation, so treat yourself to a night of fun and comradery with other writers.  The free chat starts at 7:00 pm eastern time on Friday. 

I’ve been trying to fit my characters into an already-written outline for a novel I started a few years ago. It hasn’t been working. I’ve been extremely frustrated and discouraged because of it. I’ve been doing this daily writing thing, but it has felt like slogging through mud. I almost gave up yesterday when it got to be 10 p.m. and I hadn’t written a single word.  One more time I had to force myself to sit down at the computer and write. It was more about knowing that if I slack off for even one day during November, it will be that much easier to slack off for two days..or three days..And ya’ll know where that leads.  I wound up journaling - which counts as writing, and which is something that a lot of writers have used successfully. Julie Cameron’s insistence upon morning pages comes to mind.

Slogging or not, I’m pleased with myself today. I have now written something for five days - in a row!!  And it’s beginning to pay off. I woke up this morning with a new focus for my WIP.  I have a new idea for the title and some new paths for my three main characters. Somewhere along the line, I must have unconsciously given myself permission to let go of the old and invite in the new.  I’m five days into the 21 days needed to build a new habit, and I’m excited about the new direction my WIP is taking.

I got off to a rocky start with NaNo yesterday. I had a major brain freeze. You, know, the kind that blocks any iota of creativity concerning your WIP.  Frankly, it scared me and that huge mountain of self doubt about my ability to write a novel came crashing down on me.  I couldn’t even come up with any ideas to blog about, and that began the process of eroding more of my self confidence.  Can you tell I was heading downhill toward that canyon of despair with no brakes?

Fortunately, I’ve been struggling with writing a novel for a very long time. I say “fortunately” because I recognized this path and I know what to do.  I gave myself a basic pep talk, starting with reiterating the exact nature of my goal with NaNoWriMo.  My goal for November is simply to write every single day in order to develop and reinforce the habit of daily writing.  That’s it. No great American novel. No stress about counting words or pages.  Just relax and write every day. If my NaNoWriMo participation results in a rough draft, that’s a plus.

Keeping my goal small and manageable is what I need to do to succeed today. So no more kicking myself around. I met my stated goal yesterday, and I have met it today. The other thing that helped me get over my slump today was this article on writer’s block by author Holly Lisle.