Month: September 2014

Motivation

I let my crazy life put my writing on the back burner. I have been contemplating plots, scenes and POV but nothing has been set down on paper. It is time to change that fact and get my butt in gear.

I opened my notebook with all my future stories and it gave me the inspiration to get busy writing. I started with historical romances because that was what I was reading at the time. As I looked at the plots for several of those genre they don’t have the draw for me because I don’t read those anymore. The story ideas are good but now I want to convert them to contemporary settings.

But I love history.

I find that most of the books I’m reading are biographies and mysteries. The development of one genre into another is not easy. As I looked over the research I did for the historical romances there is a lot of information. So many of them have characters who have obstacles rooted in the drama of survival in early territorial life. How does this convert to a contemporary setting. The human struggles are basic day to day living. The desires are food, shelter and establishing a home in hostile environments.

During a conversation with a friend who is also trying to break into the writing field I discovered how much I needed the perspectives and input from other writers. Her efforts mirrored my own and the enormous wealth of helpful material out there encouraged my own efforts. She understands what I’m trying to do and why I am compelled to tell stories. As we spoke of delving into who our characters are and why they do what they do, my mind began to race with scenes and plot devices. This is what I needed.

I want to be published.

I will keep going. I will make my writing the best it can be with the resources available to me. I have rediscovered the fun of telling the stories of the people of my mind.

-N

The Wait is On

I’ve just submitted a short story to a literary competition and the nerves have started. This is my first official submission and it is like handing off one of my kids to a stranger. I am confident the story is good. I’ve had it critiqued and done more editing it, yet there is still that thought “will they think it was written by a 10 year old?”

My writing is diverse and I am always working between several pieces at a time to keep each piece fresh in my eyes.

I have been doing lots of research on a writing career, but the details are daunting in the scope. How to make the story the best it can be, getting objective critiques, securing an agent, publishing processes and a dozen other things. Creativity in getting published is as important as it is in writing. I am looking at setting up an author website and what that will require. I’m pretty good at using the computer but setting up my own website requires more skills than I feel I have.

More research.

My work is in short story and novel fiction. I am outlining a nonfiction piece too. There is also a children’s story, handed down in our family from my grandmother, I have started to work on. My cousin sent me a rough draft of it and if it get’s published we will be co-authors!! Thanks Niki for the words.

I have a book full of ideas and it amazing how a revisit to these notes will tease out a new detail or direction for the project. Back to work!

-N

What is a genre?

I am working on so many things that cannot be pigeonholed as a specific genre based on the current formulas. It is ridiculous that I have to make my work fit into a style so it will be seriously considered by an agent/editor. I have a short story from a female perspective that’s not only for one age group of women, and a historical fiction that has a romance but isn’t the bodice ripping, throbbing manhood romance. The history is solid and well researched.

I love history, geography and humans. When you read my work it will educate, and draw the reader to the human side of the story.  My story about sisters will make you take a look at the depth of the sisterly symmetry. My historical will give you understanding of what it took to live in Arizona Territory and how two people adjust to an unexpected relationship.

History is the first cousin of geography. Discovering the integration of the two is education in human motivation. The progress of history is intimate with the discovery and understanding of geography. The compulsion for a pile of rocks with my name on it can drive humans to conquer. It happens.

Why would anyone in their right mind decide to settle in southern Arizona or northwestern North Dakota? What motivates a pregnant woman and her young children to travel by covered wagon from Tennessee to north central Texas? Where is the conscious of the humans who took advantage of war to accumulate wealth after 1865 in the US? It is about land, ground, terra firma and land is wealth.

How is it that two sisters who are so incredibly different in personality and desires, be deeply imprinted on each other with closeness and understanding? Have you ever thought you wouldn’t be friends with your sibling if you weren’t siblings? What is the difference – the secrets you share or the life of forced contact? What will you allow in a sibling you would scorn in someone else?

Humans. What was God thinking?

So you see I am struggling with what my genre is and how can I be marketed? My stories are human stories. Human desire and human motivation. Humans have a desire for love and acceptance and they find this in home and other humans.  Do you see?

-N

 

Netflix and Cooper

I love Netflix! Especially now that we have Chromecast. I feel so empowered, as if I am a network programmer. I decide when a movie is shown or how many episodes (without commercials) of my television programs are played in one sitting. This is seductive power. It is also starting to control my life, a wee bit. I have to tell myself to stop and do the dishes or let the dog out.

Oh yeah that dog. He threw up this morning.

I’m sitting at the table with my French roast with stevia and cream when I hear that sound. You know that sound. I looked up and saw him assuming the position. “Out Cooper!” I cry, and as he swings around to run out – he spews. One perfect two foot long arc across the living room carpet. It was nasty and he knew it. What has he been eating?

More coffee, now.

More about Netflix and Chromecast. I have access to dozens of programs and if I have to pee – pause, let Cooper out – pause, check the cell phone – pause. This is great! The best part is I am sending it from my laptop to Chrome to the TV. I know this sounds like advertising for Chrome and Netflix and if they so desire I will accept their endorsement payments.

I currently live in an RV in north west North Dakota. No cable service, but I have excellent internet that I have put to good use to keep up with my programs. This is a sustainer of life and mental well being. After all a woman can only go so long without Dr. Who.

-N