Character Fodder

We pull our characters from a myriad of situations. Sometimes we stitch them together like Frankenstein’s monster – a little from one person, something else from another until a character emerges. Other times we combine two or three people we know really well, into one. Then there’s the character that makes themselves up; you know the ones. They download into your head and there’s nothing you can do to stop them. They are born like children with fully realized personalities. They may even have built-in catch phrases and drive specific cars. Those are the fun ones, the ones that you can’t fight off the page. No matter how much you try to bury them, they keep knocking on the inside of your skull until you let them out. I have one such character but this blog is not about him because characters such as those need no help, save for our discipline in getting them onto the page. This blog is about the first type of character, the one that’s stitched together like a patchwork quilt.

The other day I was purchasing plants from a nursery. A simple task. As a woman who worked there helped load them into my car she stated an observation. “You drive a Yaris, you get better gas mileage than a Prius.” The woman next to us had just pulled up in a Prius and the woman speaking to me showed unbridled disdain for the other car.

Now there are a few ways I could have proceeded. I could have simply said, “Yes, thank you.” thus agreeing with the obviously opinionated woman and our conversation would have been over.

My father (who I relayed the conversation to later) assured me that’s what he would have done. But, among my many faults I’m contrary, I pride myself on telling the truth and I like to stir up trouble. Plus I had very recently had a long conversation with my father about my car. Yes it gets great gas mileage, there is no doubt about that. It also blows into the other lane on the freeway when a truck passes by or when there are winds above 30mph. If you watch the collision dummy footage you will find, to my dismay, that if another car plows into a Yaris at a low speed (with older models such as mine) it crumples up like a tin can.

Therefore my response to the woman was something like, “Yes but if someone hits me there’s a good chance I will not survive.”

 To which she actually replied something like this: “That’s a conspiracy. They want you to believe that but those statistics are all made up. There haven’t been any car accidents in California in the last ten years. The news is full of lies about cars in order to promote fear and make people spend more money to buy more expensive cars.”

I was flabbergasted. I actually tried to argue with her by telling her I had viewed the crash test dummy footage online. She argued back telling me, and truly believing this herself, that the footage was faked. Her next statement, the one that had me walking away shaking my head was: “And if you put those negative thoughts of an accident out there, you will draw one to you.”

Now I believe in positive thinking and affirmations just as much, if not more than the next person but I am a realist. I do not think that if I jump off a tall building and believe I will land unhurt that I will indeed land, unhurt. I also believe in plenty of conspiracy theories but when I drive my car I feel like I’m driving a tin can. As for no car accidents in California… I don’t even watch the news but I personally know of three people who were involved in automobile fatalities in the Bay Area in the past few months and have personally witnessed several not fatal ones myself, quite recently.

 

But alas… what’s the message here? The importance of all this? That woman makes a GREAT character, or more so, part of a great character. A character who truly believes these things to be true. And I would have missed out on all of that good fodder if I had just agreed with her and moved on. The lesson/s – talk to people, listen and ask questions.

Writing Groups and Why You Need One

You’ve probably heard utterances of “writing is a lonely job”. I’m here to tell you – it doesn’t have to be.

We’ve all heard of writing groups. Where writer’s meet to either write together or critique what they or others have written. What I’d like to argue is that you don’t have to find “the perfect group”. That’s right, any group will do. No matter what genre the other folks write, no matter the type of people they are and no matter whether they approve or are supportive of what you write or not.

“How can that even work?” you demand. Simple. It’s not the personalities it’s the process. When I started meeting with writer’s groups I would proudly state that I was a romance writer only to be met with criticism and judgment. At first I got bogged down with the details, I felt less-than and even disrespected by some of my writing peers. In the end what I found out is that doesn’t matter. I’m not in a writing group to make friends necessarily, though that has definitely happened because no matter what, there are good people in the world and like attracts like. What I came to know is true for me is that I’m in writing groups to write. The impetus of one or more other writer sitting down and “just writing” without talking to one another or engaging in other distractions is a very powerful time.

The first group I joined was one you can probably find on meetup.com in your area. In some areas it’s called “Shut up and Write” and in our area it’s “Just Write”. Regardless of the name, the concept is simple… You arrive at the designated time, introduce yourself to the group and say a sentence or two about what you’re working on. You are not required to say anything you don’t want to. Meaning if you want to reveal your genre you can, otherwise you can just say you’re working on x, y and z. An example would be: “Hello I’m Raina and today I’m working on a scene in Chapter 4 of my third novel.” If someone asks what it’s about I can politely tell them it’s fiction as opposed to saying it’s a paranormal romance. What I learned the hard way is that some people do judge so if you’re a sensitive type, keep it to yourself.

Another thing that I learned the hard way was when one writer asked me in my “Just Write” group if we could critique each other’s work. I had never done that before and I didn’t realize that 1. It was a set-up and 2. That was not the right venue for such a bold foray into the unknown. I trepidatiously agreed, I should always follow my intuition. I had my coveted and closeted writing torn to bloody shreds in front of my eyes. The person whose work I critiqued explained how I knew nothing about critiquing and told me they would not be taking any of my (implied) crappy suggestions. Sometimes people need to make others feel badly in order to make themselves feel better. I took this as a fantastic learning experience and have since found two different critique partners that I trust who are kind and helpful. And all WE do is critique each other’s work, we don’t get together and write.

As for the writing -- I now have three different writing groups and I love them all for different reasons but mostly I love that they enable me to sit quietly and write with a group of people for a set amount of time. There’s something purely magical and persuasive about that. Sometimes I get more written in an hour with a group of other writers than I get written in a day at home. Fewer distractions and focused concentration. Maybe there’s a little bit of healthy competition too!

By Raina Schell

RWA Conference Overview

I was, not only a complete newbie at the RWA (RomanceWriter’s of America) Conference the week before last in San Antonio Texas, I am a complete newbie in the world of novel writing altogether.

Quickly – the conference blew me away. It exceeded my expectations completely. There were workshops on everything I could think of from How to Write Faster and Better (Cindi Myers) to topics I hadn’t thought of, like Homicide (M.A. Taylor). There were fun workshops like BDSM and How to Write Hot Sex @ShoshannaEvers. There were serious workshops… oh I didn’t go to those :) And in between it all there were speakers like Sylvia Day @SylDay, book giveaways, book signings, and schmoozing! Lots and lots of schmoozing!

More in Depth:

I don’t know how many overall workshops there were, I didn’t count but they went on from 8:30am until 5:30pm for three straight days. For each time slot there were 3 or 4 different workshops going on at the same time. There were also tracks you could choose from like the marketing track or the craft track and for the first time this year there was a self-publishing track. I was told to try and mix it up a bit by going to different workshops in different tracks, which is what I did. Since I could not make them all, I bought the audio because most of the workshops were recorded! Did I mention the handouts? The workshops had handouts too and we got a flash drive with the handouts plus they can be downloaded from the RWA website if you’re registered for the conference. --- a handy dandy app was available with all of the handouts and workshops plus the ability to set your own schedule.

Here were the available tracks:

• ·      Career Track
• ·      Chat Track
• ·      Craft Track
• ·      Industry Track
• ·      Marketing Track
• ·      Publisher Spotlights
• ·      Research Track
• ·      Self-Publishing Track
• ·      Special Topic Workshops
• ·      Training Track
• ·      Writer's Life Track

Another option is pitching. You are able to sign up to pitch an agent and a publisher/editor.  On the day of, you can pick up extra pitch slots as well. A lot of people were nervous about the pitching but this was one of my favorite parts of the entire conference. I love pitching! Disclaimer: I wrote and read my pitches, I did not have them memorized. It was exhilarating.

Now I have a 4 month deadline to finish and polish my novel and send out partials. The best part of the RWA conference is that it filled me up. I am re-committed, re-motivated and excited to put my plan into action. If nothing else, this is a reason to go… but there are so many reasons!

1.     EDUCATION – so much to learn!

2.     Free books and schwag

3.     Meeting your favorite authors and finding new favorites

4.     Pitching agents and editors

5.     Rekindling your motivation and passion for your craft

I cannot say enough about the awesomeness that is the RWAConference. Next year it’s in NYC and I will be there!!!

Why do "we" get more done when we're not "home"?

At first I thought it was because I had nothing pressing to do. For example... I'm kind of on vacation right now in a town I've never visited before. I thought that's why. Here I am, making time to do something that normally I wouldn't have the time to do because I'd be working on one of my other projects or maybe going out, hanging out with friends, exercising - any of the many things I am wont to do. Sitting all day yesterday in a coffee shop, sipping tea and writing was my dream come true, truly. But why can't I take that with me back home? Actually I can. It's just going to look differently. It's going to look like something I've scheduled myself to do on my calendar and not have the spontaneous "excitement" of yesterday.

As the woman I'm staying with here in Austin, Michele pointed out - I also don't have my household life yelling at me to do the laundry, the dishes, cook, clean, nap... whatever it is. And that's true too. Here I have nothing but time, for this moment.

Traveling makes me appreciate things more. I appreciate "home" more, my belongings, my friends, my boyfriend, my house, my car, my dog... but WHILE I'm traveling and staying in the present moment my biggest appreciation is time, having time. I am the person who has traveled to Hawaii for 10 days with nothing more on my agenda than to sit on a different beach every single day and read a book. I'm happy to say I was able to accomplish that at one time. Life doesn't seem to follow me when I'm away. It's as though life has taken a hiatus or remains elsewhere in suspended animation for me to pick up and put back on when I go home.

Plus there are the discoveries. Self discovery, how I don't "need" the creature comforts I'm used to when I'm home. How suddenly "less is more" and I'm happy with a simple bowl of yogurt for breakfast or not showering every single day or sitting outside with mosquitos. There's also the discovery of something new. New conversations, ideas, places and experiences that I could not have or don't have when I'm home caught in my "rut". And I say rut with love because I do love my life (for the most part) and I know how lucky I am - even when things are tough.

This is my first vacation in a year and I feel long overdue. I needed to regenerate, doing absolutely nothing, even if only for a few days.

RWA Post 1

I’m in Austin Texas getting ready for my first RWA (RomanceWriters of America) conference. I’m so excited I could jump up and down screaming and I very may well do just that… at some point on my trip anyway. I’ve never been to Austin. It’s been on my bucket list. As a matter-of-fact I seriously considered moving here about 5 years ago which is pretty crazy, even for me. Moving somewhere I’d never even visited. Still, you know when you’ll like something or someone just from what other people you admire have told you about it or them?  My first concern when I was thinking of leaving California was to move someplace warm, that’s always been very important to me. And warm Austin IS. It’s also hip and fun and filled with myriads of nice people. OK I’ll admit I haven’t even been here for 24 hours yet BUT I like it! I like being able to sit outside at a local coffeeshop, drink tea and write on my laptop for hours. Why can’t/don’t I do that at home, except on Tuesdays when I meet my weekly writer’s group? Probably because I run a business that has nothing to do with writing. And I’m just not sure my heart is in it anymore.

Sitting here with nothing but time on my hands, I am reading the RWA monthly magazines cover to cover. Something I also don’t “make” time for at home and I fell in love with “The Big Picture: Sustaining Your Career for the Long Haul” by Donna Alward. In the article she talks about knowing when you’re not happy doing what you’re doing and quotes Kieran Kramer saying that she is “willing to walk away from any situation that leaches her happiness”. I love that! So powerful. Donna also points out that once we’ve accomplished a goal we’ve set for ourselves it’s healthy human nature to then set another goal and another… Well I’ve accomplished a goal – to get my Masters degree, my CA acupuncture license and open up a large acupuncture clinic with employees and products. And now… I’m no longer happy doing it. I have to really look at this. Is it the chasing, the striving, the trying, the working that I’m addicted to? And once I’ve achieved my goal I’m bored? I don’t think so. I think it was a much bigger “project” than I ever imagined. And now with a huge overhead and 5 employees, a ton of responsibility I can’t walk away from and a slew of patients – I’m miserable.

Would I be happier being a full time writer like I want to believe? Maybe, maybe not… but I’m not the kind of person who can ever be stagnant. I almost always have 3 irons in the fire. I’m giving my clinic another year and moving forward with my writing. I’m asking for guidance and feeling positive that everything will turn out the way it’s supposed to – for the best. RWA2014 here I come J

Listening With Writer’s Ears On

by Raina Schell

I’ve been reading a lot of books on “how to write” lately. Books about publishing, editing, outlining – you name it. I enjoy reading other writer’s processes, I really do.

Last week I spent time with my family and an old friend. They were both crazy in different ways and I’m talking – certifiably insane, or at least my old friend L is. I kept thinking “this is a good character study” in order to make it through the week. On some level I’m sure that’s the truth but on the level of protecting my own sanity it was the excuse I came up with in order to participate in the hell that was their lives.

I found myself approaching listening in a new and different way. I began to really listen, to absorb not judge and not have to insert my experiences. I listened to get ideas for characters, plots and scenes. Instead of thinking “this person is crazy” or “when will they get to the point?” I listened to hear, wanting to file it all away for future writing projects or now as I decided to name it “listening with my writer’s ears on”.

After a particularly juicy tidbit was revealed to me (by a stranger, a friend, family) I wanted to go home and take notes. I wasn’t sure how I would index those notes so thus far I’ve only tried to remember but I can see that note taking would be advantageous. Perhaps in one word (or more likely evernote) file titled “notes while listening with my writer’s ears on”. Then when I need some inspiration for a character or a plot I can look there. It helps to get me through the mundane, crazy and non-engaging moments of life.

Are you ready to take the lottery challenge?

The most ridiculous, yet true epiphany I had shortly before I wrote the first draft of my novel in a month was, “if you don’t play the lotto you won’t win.” Simple, true and everyone knows it. I’ve always known that and still I don’t play the lotto and probably never will. That’s not why that simple statement came to me though. It was about my 1^st novel, Exquisite Destiny. I started writing Exquisite Destiny about 15 years ago, yes you read that correctly. FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, more or less, give or take a year or two.

I was a different person back then, completely different. The only thing that remains the same is that I look relatively un-aged (thanks to cosmetic surgery – just kidding! Thanks to good eating and even better genes).

The first thing that happened was that I birthed the character. From the “Artist’s Way” book given to me by my still amazingly close friend Max I began writing morning pages. Morning pages is an assignment in the book where you write either 3 (I think it was 3) pages or you write for an allotted period of time, 10 minutes maybe, I can’t quite remember now – it WAS a long time ago. Regardless, my character Lizzy was born. And once I gave birth to the character she needed a venue.

Her playground was hammered out in my then office/closet. I wrote like a fiend for a month, maybe two. I had a full time job then too so I wrote whenever I could and though I don’t remember for sure I think I probably managed a few pages a day. At some point I had 50 pages and I thought they were good. I really did. My then husband (exh) wanted to read them as did a couple of friends so I started on the rewrites, without ever finishing the first draft. I re-wrote for another month or so. Ecstatic to get everyone’s opinion and not knowing the “rules” which consist partially of DON’T LET YOUR FAMILY OR FRIENDS READ YOUR WRITING, especially if you’re unpublished and have an easily crushable ego. So I did what any other eager young writer does – I printed out my pages and I handed them to my exh, who by the way doesn’t actually have a name, and 2 of my closest friends. I sat and waited with baited breath.

When the jury came back it looked something like this…. My exh hated it and thought I should shred the entire thing immediately. My “best friend” at the time, who it turns out was actually my exh’s best friend said “it’s ok.” But my other friend, oh Liisa thank you for believing in me! She LOVED IT!!! She ranted and raved and said these words, “please keep writing because I want to know what happens next, I couldn’t put it down.” Why didn’t I listen to the sage Goddess and her knowledgable advice? After all her husband is a professional writer, she would know!!!

But no, my ego was fragile and my exh’s demeaning opinion mattered to me. Still I sent out the first 3 chapters to an agent and got turned down and that was it. I gave up. Looking back, the agent’s letter was really nice and open ended but I didn’t realize that then. Sadly what happened was I put my stock and belief in the jealousy and control issues of another and I stopped working on my novel – for 15 years.

Why is this a blog topic? It will hopefully inspire others not to listen to naysayers, not to put their dreams on hold but instead to move forward with them. And don’t show your first time novel to friends and family, unless they are 100% supportive. I have a current critique partner who runs her writing by her husband and he is nothing but supportive. It can happen but often times it doesn’t and when it doesn’t, the results can be catastrophic.

If you don’t play the lotto you can’t win. If you don’t write on your novel consistently you’ll never finish it. If you don’t practice your sport of choice you’ll never be good at it. If you don’t play your instrument regularly you won’t get better. If you don’t speak the foreign language you’ve been trying to learn you’ll never learn it. Simple, very simple and we all know it but knowing it and doing it are what separates the doers from the dreamers. Are you ready to take the lottery challenge?

NaNoWriMo

Thanks to NaNoWriMo (National November Writer's Month) I wrote my novel in a month! And since I wrote, scrapped, rewrote and scrapped again I really did have to start from scratch.

I do realize NaNo did not write my novel for me but because of NaNo I did it! Finally, it's done - well it's not really done yet but the first draft is in the can. Do I look different? Not really. Do I feel different? Most definitely! I feel accomplished. I feel like I can do anything now, even bungie jump if I so choose.

In October I had never heard of NaNo but all of my complaining was finally heard and two women in particular told me of the challenge and I boldly accepted. Actually they pretty much made me promise I'd try and made me promise to stop complaining.

Locking myself in the house for the month - not at all - I hammered out 50,000 words. The truth of the matter is that I went on with my full life. I worked full time (overtime actually), I kept up with my insane exercise routine, I saw my friends, I walked my dog.... Where then did I eek out that extra 2 hours a day that I didn't have before NaNo? At night when I got home from my long, tired, busy days.

I am up at 6am (or 7am) and out of the house by 8:30am to return at 10 or 11pm - most days of the week. When I got home I sat down and cranked out 2,000 words. What did I used to do when I got home? Watch TV shows I love, read, play with the pets, cook. I gave my nights up for the month of November and all I did was write.

There was a fun writing group formed that met at the local coffee shop one night a week where a guy named Ken stood over me my first night in attendance (without my knowledge) and then I heard his voice "what are you doing?" I looked up from google, confused. "I'm researching." He shook his head, "you can do that later, after NaNo, after November. In November all you do is write. If you don't know how to describe something you write 'describe place here' and move on." Thank you Ken. I honestly don't think I would have finished the 50,000 words if you hadn't told me that and then looked over my shoulder occasionally to make sure I was "just writing".

Is it finished and ready to be published? Not yet. I have a critique partner or two, I have a massive support group, I've moved on to my next book and soon - the rewrites will begin. Rewriting and editing and more of the same. Call me crazy but I love that part!

Writing, Doing, Achieving (or) Goals (or) Just Do It

I’m working on my first novel, that’s true. I’m even writing a little bit almost every day, or night – which is my current goal. Goals are important, especially in writing. I feel that if I don’t set goals for myself there won’t be anything to accomplish, nothing to strive for. Having nothing to strive for seems like a very bad idea. Read on while I begin, not only to make valid points but also to make sense…

Each year in my writer’s chapter we write our writing goals for the year to come on a piece of paper. We then place the paper in an envelope, seal it and “turn it in” to be looked at when the next January’s frost hangs thick in the air. This was my first year writing those goals and so far I have not completely accomplished what I set out to do. I remember writing that I hoped to blog once a week and tweet once a week plus have the first draft of my novel completed. But I am making those goals in small strides. Always biting off much more than I can chew I have a full time job (overtime actually as I run my own business), I have another part time job, I am writing my novel, reading novels and studying, trying to blog and tweet (I have 3 active blogs and 6 active twitter accounts) and I have a regular, yet a little crazy exercise program as well as relationships to maintain. Forget about eating, sleeping or cleaning house - there is absolutely no time to fit in those mundane aspects of life.

The one constant, throughout my entire life, that I’ve always returned to over and over and over again is writing. It’s like my warm blanky. I can sit on my couch or lie in my bed and wrap myself up in my computer keyboard and screen. The warm soft glow encroaching on what might otherwise be a sad and lonely existence. When I tap out these letters I can be whomever I want, say whatever I want and reach my little cyberfingers out across the interweb, knowing not whose warm and wet eyeballs will find them.

I don’t mind that I’m an overachiever who wakes up each and every morning, rolls out of her bed with her puppy and kitty at her side, each begging for attention; stumbles into the kitchen to start the hot water for the coffee press; jumps into the shower and then goes until very very late at night when she collapses like a folding chair into the bed once again.

I don’t mind that in between the time I awake and the time I sleep there are thoughts brewing in my consciousness like bacon sizzling on a hot griddle. Sometimes they’re ripe for the picking, or crisp enough for the journey from skillet to plate to mouth and other times they are just beyond the edges of rapture, missing their goal like a poor lip synch in an old poorly dubbed kung fu flick.

At times, what matters the most is just doing it. Sure if you do it you should do it well BUT if you don’t do it all can the ideas become realities? The answer is no. No bounty was never harvested without the seeds first being planted. No best picture was ever won without the screenplay having been written.

So there you have it, my crazy advice that seems to lead directly to adrenal fatigue. Make those goals and keep them. Make those dreams become a reality. The only one stopping you is me, seriously though – it’s you – but if blaming me will get you off your ass, then by all means go right ahead.