Lock Picking – A Practical
Personal Guide to Book Research
By Raina Schell
Showing posts with label writing a book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing a book. Show all posts
Friday, October 31, 2014
Lock Picking – A Personal Guide to Book Research
Researching is one of my favorite aspects of
writing, it makes me giddy inside.
Elisabetta (Lizzy) Moretti, the 23 year old Sicilian woman
who is the protagonist in my Destiny Series was born on paper over 15 years
ago. Lizzy evolved again and again over the past years that I’ve been writing
her and she continues to evolve but one thing has remained the same, Lizzy is a
thief. She wasn’t born a thief but she fell in with the “wrong crowd” somewhere
along the way, you’ll have to read the book to find out the nitty gritty of how
and why; and she was well trained.
When Lizzy learned how to lock pick I learned how to lock
pick. I watched youtube videos
for hours and hours and because I didn’t have a lock picking set (yet) I made my
first picks out of paper clips. I
then proceeded to pick every lock in my house. Within a week I could pick the
deadbolt on my front door with a paper clip (actually 2 paper clips as one is
used as the tension wrench) in under 30 seconds. No, this did not make me feel
safe but it did make me feel quite accomplished. That’s when I realized I’ve
always been a lock picker. It started when I was a wee tot and would pick the
bathroom locks with broken off Q-tips, the cardboard ones, not the plastic
ones. I didn’t understand the mechanism of a lock (tumblers and the
shear line) then but I still had the innate ability to do it. Maybe it’s
because I was locked in my room without food for days as a child, true story.
Or maybe it’s because when I set my mind to do something I do it. Persistence-are-us.
Who knows why? It doesn’t really matter. 
What matters is throwing yourself headlong into that
research. Almost as if you’re an actor and you’re method acting.
You become your character. Lock picking can even be a metaphor for whatever it
is you need to learn in order for your character to be believable and well
rounded. You could go into your story and character development giving them a
skill you have already mastered, one you’ve always wanted to learn or one you
knew as a child but forgot somewhere along the way.
What I’ve learned from writing thus far is that a majority
of it crawls up from the deepest, darkest hidden parts of ourselves, clawing
and scratching its way to the surface in order to forever stain the whiteness of
screen or paper.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
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!!!
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