Just the facts ma'am

Writing is so hard.

Everyday I struggle with getting a line on my characters and everyday I'm finding more and more things that I like or don't like about them. Is this normal? Maass says that we should write about characters we like but how are you supposed to like the bad guy? I'm mean, he's the bad guy, the villain, the bane of our fearless hero or heroine's existence.

So now I'm going back through my lists, looking at my characters, changing them to suit the needs that Maass suggests so that they are breakout characters. It's so darn hard though.

**I should add a note here that I started writing about my characters and then went off on a soul searching tangent about them. Enough of a tangent that I have finally managed to pin down the plot a little. That's definitely progress in my book.**

Currently our workbook assignment has us looking through our current WIP. Well, I really don't have one. I mean for this assignment, I have to count all the dimensions of my characters. Kind of hard for me to do since I haven't even outlined the book, much less written anything.

I was initially feeling like maybe I was in over my head with this class but actually it's kind of good that I don't have anything to go by. This will save me time in the end by knowing what I need to do upfront, rather than finding out about it after the fact. I'm already implementing some of the ideas I've learned in my character creation process.

Now I just need a viable way to keep track of everything.

Dream BIG!!

That's right! According to Donald Maass, if we want our novels to stand out and be noticed we can't just dream (write) that our characters in danger. We need to put them in situations that makes the reader say, "Oh no! He's just being lowered into a vat of boiling oil with no hope of escape" or "Oh no! The main character is trapped in a well with an electric eel and a homicidal maniac". Of course those are just ridiculous examples off the top of my head but you see where I'm going with this.

I went back through my summary and realized that I was not taking it up a notch (or even getting a tiny spark). It was at mediocre level and that's just being kind to myself. No one was going to read this drivel. Hell, even I was kind of bored with it when I was writing it and then it struck me. Aha! This is why I can't finish anything!

Everything that I've attempted to write up until now has been dry, plain and just dusty (ie sawdust). There was nothing that held my attention so I wasn't inspired to finish it. Oh the horror, oh the humanity, yadda yadda.

Now I can't wait to jump in and start torturing... I mean giving my characters some difficulties that would make the reader want to turn the page and stay up late trying to finish the book.

(I want them to suffer so much that I'm almost drooling with anticipation.)

I don't know if I should be happy about this turn of events or not. Anyway, I can only hope that this will help me push my novel from the starter stage that I've been plagued with for years. Wish me luck with this new tactic.

Another day...

I'm back on track with writing again. I kind of took the day off yesterday and decided to get my reading fix on so I spent the whole day re-reading Midnight Secretary, a manga that I had a couple of years ago. I still enjoyed it the second time around.

I also updated my Twitter account. Hadn't used it in months. It was nice to see some familiar faces and purge the not familiar ones. I really hate when people follow me just to up their readership. I don't think I indicated anywhere that I was interested in buying my linens online.

So for today's writing update: I'm writing my characters out and doing my candy bar scenes. Not sure how many I'm going to end up with but I think fifty is a good number. I'll have to check my notes from Holly on what the starting number is since it's been a while. I did actually do some on my netbook last night but I didn't have my character sheet with me and couldn't remember the names I needed for each scene.

I guess that's about it for today. Once I get my scenes down I might print them out later and work on the order a little. My writing class starts tomorrow and I'm looking forward to the challenge but at the same time I'm nervous that things are not going to go my way. Let's just keep the fingers crossed.

Moving forward

I spent a lot of time Wednesday writing (and cooking). I didn't get to do any writing Thursday because I worked later than I expected but I'm hoping to get something done today.

Also, I ran a tally of costs for attending the RWA convention this year. My guesstimate was around $4000. I know this seems rather high but that was what I calculated on my high-end. If I get my book finished by April then I can get a better idea of expenses and such but for now...4K...wow, that's a lot.

I also found out about RomCon which is in late June and being held in Colorado. Never been there either but I don't think I'll be going, although you never know. I want the convention that will give me the most bang for my buck. I won't be attending MWG conference because I won't have enough time to arrange things for my mom. Same goes for RT in Chicago (so close...). Oh well.

On a happier note, I found out that since I was one of the first twelve to sign up for my writing class and so I was going to get a copy of the books for class. Too bad I already had them. I just told the instructor to offer mine to number thirteen. She thought I was being generous. I was kind of shocked by that, I mean why would I take the books if I already had them? Better for someone else who could use them, right?

Well, that's enough for now. Writer's Digest is sponsoring a short essay (2K words or less) contest and I have an idea of a little story. Need to get it down before it disappears into the ether.

April 1, 2012

I have until this date to finish my novel. It will be my first novel and I am hell-bound and determined to finish this novel, even if it kills me. I have several reasons for wanting this done but the most important is that I will be 40 on my birthday I want to say that I have finished something by then. Since I won't be returning to college anytime in the near future, this is the next best thing: my novel. I now have a pretty good idea (or two) about what I want to write.

My thoughts so far are that it is a romantic suspense novel centering around the lives of three brothers and the death of their mother twenty years earlier. Actually, I think I even have that little detail planned out and since it's burning a hole in my head I think I better get to work on that. I will update later.