Epithany (AKA apostrophe)

I use that word alot, but the word in itself is powerful.

As a writer I walk around open to almost everything. I see fantastic stories in the everyday world. I hear dialogue in my head and I have characters walk in a room, sit down, and start telling me thier story.

Wednesday night, my Kyo Sa Nim (instructor) started to tell us about the history of Tang Soo Do. The curious person that I am, I came home and started looking at the websites dealing with Tang and Korean Martial Arts history. Of course, it inspired me. I took many notes that I believe will help me with my book. Personally I love research and enjoy the process of making my book better.

The epithany I had this morning was amazing, to me at least. There are fables, and myths in history that explain the workings of the world. So. . . I know the people in my book and thier home planet have thier own history and myths I just haven't figured out what they are. Well, now I know I need to write my peoples history and thier own myths. I am sure it will help me, I know it will make my story better.

So, the next few days/weeks I will be a historian to the characters in my book. At least I have something for my daily goal for Tristi's July writing challenge.

Themes and symbols

As I peruse the web reading things that others say and do with writing I have found that other writers besides me have themes and symbols for their works. There is a romance writer who has dragonflies on her book covers, business cards book marks etc. I wish I could remember your name sorry, what you wrote had such an impact on me.

I love dragonflies and there are very pretty renditions of them out there but I felt that she as a writer "owned" that symbol. I have thought about it a lot: What is my symbol do I have a theme?

As I wrote Emergence a group of darker brooding songs were repeatedly played on my playlist. One especially, called ironically "Lean On Me" by Limp Bizkit. It isn't what you would think. It is dark and brooding and for the book I was writing at that time it fit perfectly. That song has become the theme song for that book and scenes play in my mind when I hear it. My second book Latent the song is "What I've Done" by Linkin Park. Each strangely appropriate for the work I am doing. I suppose that my other books will also acquire theme songs as I write them too.

As for the symbol, I was writing in Latent and my MC is pondering his past and thinking that no one will be able to see the new person he has become. His mentor tells him that even the most beautiful butterfly was once an ugly caterpillar. THERE it was my symbol the butterfly the symbol of the whole series, transmutation, metamorphosis, evolution. Bad guy going good.

I have lots of butterflies in my house, I like them but now they have special meaning. I chose butterflies on my website on a whim now they mean something deeper than just a pretty insect. What my MC's mentor said to his charge has become the theme for my entire series.

My Muse is truly working overtime and will be justly compensated.

Keeping the bad guy bad.

I may struggle with plot. But I feel I do well in characterization. So I was surprised when in the first book was finished and sent to my line editors. (hi girls) That I was having a hard time pegging the two main characters in the second book. The first book has a dark and conflicted assassin and his energetic and sometimes quirky wife.

Then as I began to write the second book I began to struggle with the characters and plot seeming boring. As I talked with my friend she suggested that perhaps I was trying to write the MC as the calm and self assured character at the end of the series when I still needed the raw dark and conflicted MC. (Just a bit older and no longer an assassin) She was so right and as I pondered the problem this morning I had some very good ideas as to how to handle the MC and make it work.

I should know this by now; however some times I am a slow learner. When I get stuck, or a block threatens to derail me. I need to remember that in the past it was a symptom that something isn't right in the book. Hopefully if I realize it a few more times I'll remember it.

To blog or not. . .

Okay, I was psyched and ready to write for Tristi's book in a month challenge. I sat at my lap top and tried to write. The wall however was too tall for me to climb.

My brain is fried. I had to remind myself that I did just write 70,000 words in four months. (Actually it is approximately 116,000 words since July.) My BFF reminded me that I was going to reward myself with a reading reward for finishing my novel. So, in response/reward I shut my word program down and have taken a break. However taking a break has meant that my writing brain which includes my Blogging brain is somewhere on some island sipping non-alcoholic margaritas. So in desperation I have tried to think about what I should blog and nothing amazing has popped into my brain.

Never fear my blog friends, I have been mulling book #2 over in my head; even though my writing brain is on vacation I guess my plotting brain missed the plane.

Perhaps I will have some amazing totals some time before Thanksgiving.

some inspiration. . .

EVERYTIME I start a new writing project the adversary hits me with a whammy. Whether it is family, personal confidence, illness or whatever. It is so obvious that this series is not what he wants me to do. There is a message in it and I am sure that he doesn't want me to tell it.

Again just three days into the challenge I have been hit hard with family issues. I am trying to remember that this is par for the course in my writing career. (and some people only struggle with writers block)

I was searching for some song lyrics,(What I've done by Linkin Park). My friend Nichole pointed out they told an eleoquent story with well written lyrics. I wanted to have them as a theme for my second book. After I printed them and they were safely in my plotting papers; I looked up the lyrics to my favorite song at the moment and surprise I have recieved inspiration again.

The song is called Falling On by Finger Eleven here is the video:




And the Lyrics:

When you feel so close to some resolve
And you write the words you were writing for
But your courage gets dissolved
Into what, I don't know...

When you feel that way again
You have to stop your thinking
And think of what you're here for
And let the rest of your feelings go

You've got to find your balance
You've got to realize
You've got to try to find what's right before your eyes
And if you find you've fallen
And all your grace is gone
Just scream for me and I'll be what you're falling on

When you feel so close to some resolve
And you say the things that you're standing for
Don't let your courage get dissolved
Cause it's then that the fear grows

Just give me the word and I'll be there for you

Why I rewrite. . .

Okay, I hit chapter three and 12,000 plus words on my new book. Then I hit a six foot thick, nine feet tall wall. Looking back, I just felt it wasn't right. I tried to add to it and see if that was what was wrong. Nope.

So much to any writer's cagrin; I deleted chapter three. All nine pages and 3100 words. Any of you who write know how many hours that equals. So. . . I sat back and looked at those pages, and analyzed what was wrong. My bigest problem as a writer besides my passive voice. (which BTW I think I have fixed.) Is that I hurry through the scenes and tell the story instead of showing them what happened. That is what I did with chapter three.

So after analyzing what I did wrong with the chapter and plotting a little better I sat back down at my lap top and began to type. I slowed myself down and began to show the scene instead of telling. Meanwhile, as the scene unfolded, a secondary scene emerged, I filled out the scene and decided I loved it. Then I sent it typos and all to my best friend.

A few minutes later she called me panting and yelling. She was so excited with the scene. She loved it. She was so drawn into the scene she was pissed off when I had a paragraph of telling in the middle of the action. I almost made my best friend pass out! She says that scene gives the reader a reason to love my character.

I know why I had to rewrite it. . .the additional scene needed to be in there, the reader needed the scene to see that my bad boy assassin can be cold and uncaring one moment and warm and caring the next. Such is his personal life VS. his occupation. Had I not sat back and listened to what my gut was telling me and deleted all of that hard work I wouldn't have that scene.

So to inspiration or gut feelings, wether they occur in ther shower or not, I tip my hat.

Wow, I've been slacking....

With the preperation for the conference and other things I have slacked on my blog posts. I wanted to leave the blog tour on for a while but still, I have only posted four posts and June is almost over.

Some times life gets away from you I guess.

So a few days ago I took a shower, some of you know where this is leading..... I had an epithany and I have restructured DD3 Foxproof. It was too similar to Dominion Day so I altered it and I definately like it better. My Protag and the love interest have fantastic sexual tension, so instead of getting them together in the begining and losing the tension, I pushed it back a while, (sorry Kellie you'll have to wait a little bit for the kissing scene.) I had to change some things but it turns out the plot is better. It is interesting that everytime I change things it just gets better, I KNOW I am being guided in writing this series, everything falls into place when it needs to.

With DD1 done I am thinking about Awaiting (DD2). It is taking some time since this book is in Lyris' point of view and I have had to switch from Noble to her in my head. My tendency is to write everything from his POV. You'd think that it would be easy to write from a female POV since I am female but I have had Noble in my head for so long it is hard to switch.

Anyone else? Do you write in your own gender? Or do you write in the opposite?
I'd love to hear your opinion....

My Saturday Adventure.

When we had a little extra money I allowed my DH to buy a plane, it is a small one seater ultralight. Even though my DH is a geologist by trade, he is a pilot by heart. When we started school we didn’t know there were pilot programs or he’d be a commercial pilot now instead of a mine geologist. This little plane gives him the excuse to get in the air and relieve stress. Which is a good thing. However, we were storing the plane at an airport whose hangar rentals were almost 100. A month, and over 3 hours from our home. My DH found a hangar that was not only just an hour away but only 40.00.

So with kids at home and baby in tow, we drove to Cedar Fort to get the plane. DH dressed like an Eskimo (it is an open cockpit) got in and flew it to Nephi. With me driving like a mad woman to get there before the sun started to set. So in Nephi he refueled and headed to Mount Pleasant. Where, when he landed, the fuel tank slipped off the straps and sat on my DH’s legs. It took us a few minuets to get my DH out of the plane and fix the tank straps so it wouldn’t happen again. We stopped at a great little buffet and ate dinner before going home.

I sat in the truck as he readied the plane in Cedar Fort and had some cool ideas for my book watching him do a preflight check and pull the plane from the hangar etc. I have a too active an imagination to be normal.

But that wasn’t the Caveat of the day. As I was feeding the baby I saw a bird swoop past the truck and towards the plane. Needless to say the bird hit the propeller and was killed instantly. I was sick to the point of throwing up. It was awful. I am a bird owner and lover. It was a scene that rolled over and over in my head the whole day. Sadly I was looking for a opening scene for a book I am working on. I think this is it. It will be hard to write but it seems perfect. Sometimes inspiration doesn’t come from the greatest of situations.

Revelation...

Sometimes hindsight is 20/20... this is one of those times.

I turned a MS into Penguin/Amazon, a few months ago. I feel that it is a good MS and worthy of consideration for publication. However, a few weeks ago I picked up a book called the Yoga Bible from the library. There is a wealth of information in it about the spiritual side of Yoga. As I was reading the book I had an apostrophy. I have created a spiritual side of the training that my agents recieve. It's been like an accidental foreshadowing, the stuff that I read afterwards and say COOL! I did that?

Now my brain is churning, I am wanting to flesh out the small snippets of where Noble is training Lyris and add some of this "spiritual stuff" to deepen the story and characters. Add some internal dialogue from Lyris to give the reader more insight to her character. And create a "sprirtual/martial arts system" much like fantasy writers create a magic system or SF writers world build.

So my desire is now one of two things; that my MS doesnt make it into the finals so I can re-work it, or that if it makes it into the final round, that I have a willing editor that will let me deepen the MS and make it better. WHEW! that isn't much to ask is it? GRIN!

Michelle

Did I say plot restructure?

I meant book restructure... I have realized the 9 months that Awaiting happens in is too short of a time to build up Foxproof. Since Foxproof, Doninion Day and Awaiting happen at the same time. So now the structure will be Doninion Day, Awaiting then Foxproof and then Prophecy Rising. which happens 8-9 years after Awaiting. Thereby giving enough time for all of the things that happen in Foxproof to occur. Whew I am glad I had this apostrophy before I started to rewrite either Awaiting or Foxproof. It saved me alot of worry in the future. So now to change some scenes and start rewriting Awaiting which is where my gut kept pushing me in the first place.....

Some of you may have wondered....

whether the guys in my shower actually moved with me or stayed to haunt the new residents of my old house. Well after this morning i can assure you that they are here. Noble has packed his wife 17 kids and his huge house, not to mention the entire JFF world and transplanted the world of Altine/Caledonia in Castle Dale UT. I spent the entire time I was in the bathroom totally restructuring my series. But that is a subject for another post. Any ways I am glad to have Noble here with me Castle Dale would be rather boring...

A little funny.....

I was sitting on the floor folding clothes while two of my kids were playing like the laundry basket was a boat. My 1 yo was bored and got out of the boat and walked away. My 6 yo looked at him and said
"Oh look, Noble can walk on water." The Noble in my head that lives in my shower startled and shook his head.
"I can't walk on water and no, I don't have a God complex." I think my Noble (who is a Prophet in my book)has a guilty concience.

So...some of you have heard of my shower...

You know the one where Noble and the rest of my MALE main characters live. Well I was showering Monday morning when Shina appeared in my shower. Shina is Nobles' small shoulder dragon. She is about 5 ft. long muzzle to tail, and has a wing span of about 3-4 ft. I showered as I watched Shina play in the water and clean herself. Needless to say I was basically kicked out when Shina was joined by her mate. I was done anyway, but man sometimes I think that my characters have taken over....