Remodeling

By Susan G. Haws

We are remodeling a bathroom. It was a perfectly good bathroom, functional even appealing. But it didn’t meet our needs. So first the workman took measurements, found out our needs and made a plan. Then we picked out tile and soon there was a man demolishing our bathroom. Part of the foundation was even cut out. (That noise really scared the dog and cats.)


Now we are on the rebuilding portion of our adventure. The men installed new copper pipe new drains and new concrete. I have faith the toxic fumes from the red smear on the new walls will dissipate when it gets covered with tile and when finished we will have a room that meets our needs.

I think rewriting and editing are like remodeling. Sometimes perfectly good scenes or subplots don’t meet the needs of the whole novel. We rework or delete phrases, scenes, chapters, even characters we like. It is difficult, even scary. But we only rip out elements that detract from the story. We keep the structures that move the story forward and craft new sentences that the support the plot and main characters. We save the sink to reinstall, buy new tile, touch up paint and have faith that the new version will be better for the book as a whole.

Life's Little Interruptions

by Kami Cornwall

Wow! What a week! And it's only Wednesday. I was going to be on top of it and have something fantastic to blog about today...until Sunday night. My heart woke me up doing a strange and noisy dance which sent my brain into a frenzy including images of dialing 911 and imagining what an ambulance ride to the ER might be like.

My family doctor frequents Facebook so I sent him a quick message about it and he told me to come in asap. It turns out that they can't find anything wrong with my ticker so far which is great news! Meanwhile, my son and I have been battling a nasty cold which robbed me of my voice and stole his even temper. He woke me up at three this morning with ear pain. Then he couldn't go back to sleep so by five he decided it was time for breakfast. My husband decided to take over and get up with him. He has ear infections and at this very moment I'm waiting for the pharmacy to get his medication ready.

Yeay!

It's life's little interruptions like this that make writing HARD! I thought with Spring Break being this week I'd have lots of "down time" that I could spend writing away and polishing up my little fantasy story. No such luck so far. Here's to getting well and finding some time the rest of the week to get it done. Cheers!

What Diet Pills to Choose?

by Terri Wagner

I think I have discovered a very profitable way of making money as a writer...shopping diet pills. There are so many out there and how do you know what will work best for you?

You could have a blog about it. Invite "real" people to comment. I say "real" people because the cynic in me says those diet blog/ads aren't real people. That's just me. You actually start something that could prove invaluable.

I say this not because we are all overweight and need help (although I am in that category), but because what works for Tom, Dick and Harry won't work for Mary, Tina and Sally. Hence the blog. Hence the guinea pigs.

I've only tried one diet plan using pills once in my life to no success. My personal opinion for the failure is quite simple: I don't need a pill to make me eat less because I'm not hungry; I need a pill that will keep me from eating when I'm not hungry. You may need to read that twice to get it, ha.

Anywho as my Louisiana relatives always say, I think this could be a great opportunity for someone. You could possibly parlay this into a profit-making venture.

Bottom line: There's a lot of niche places where people really want to go and get honest answers. The mommy blogs are perfect example of that.

PS I was shanghaied into trying pills one more time, but I remain convinced that I need something for mind control instead of appetite control. See I've got the first blog entry!!!!

Are You a Careful Outliner or Seat-of-the-Pants Writer?

by Kristin Baker Przybyla

Sorry about my lateness in posting. I'm in Boise for the week at my mom's, celebrating my little one Anya's fifth birthday. Lucky Anya has had two days of "happy birthdays" because I somehow got ahead of myself and most of the day I thought yesterday was her birthday--then I logged on to my laptop and discovered it was only the 27th, and today's the big day!

If I'd planned better, I wouldn't have been so mistaken (not that Anya minds). For the longest time I'd thought I was the type who could come up with a vague plot and some characters, and flesh out a story just by typing the first paragraph. Wrong. I can't even get through the day without a detailed list of my tasks and chores. I'd started and tossed out dozens of stories and novel attempts because I had no idea where I was going. This was fine at the time, because it gave me great writing practice and I learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses. But I constantly bemoaned the fact that I had characters, the basics of their world, and a semi-workable plot, but still no novel.

Then, a few years ago, my husband gave me a laptop for Christmas and told me to quit griping and just write the book already. I figured I'd better get serious and actually come up with a working plot. Maybe some decent planning would be in order? I had no idea how to plan an entire novel. After a Google search (on my new laptop!), I had a few sites to peruse on the subject. The one that helped me outline my plot, give my characters personality, plan my chapters with real direction, and organize a solid timeline, was Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake Method. The Obsessive-Compulsive planner in me was thrilled! In under two weeks I had a document which plotted out all the chapters in my book, and within two years I had the first draft of The Moongate. I've used the same method to plan out the next two books I'm working on. I have graphs and timelines and character charts galore! I could wallpaper a room with all my outlines, and it's heaven.

Stephen King is a seat-of-the-pants writer, and obviously it works well for him. There's also a guy in my local writers' group who starts writing with only a vague idea of his characters and plot, and he writes great stories. I'm sure there are a few ANWA women who write effectively with minimal planning as well. But for me, the more rigid the planning, the better. I even write in linear fashion, beginning to end (I tried skipping ahead and writing the more exciting scenes, but that only meant I had to drastically rewrite them later). This doesn't mean that what I've planned had been outlined in stone. The Moongate went through countless changes as the story started to come to life. Ultimately I shaved off over 40,000 words (more like hacked off). But if it weren't for the outlining in the first place, I wouldn't have had any kind of WIP to edit.

I'd love to hear about your process. Do you outline like me to the last detail, or do you take a freer approach to writing?

Now I'm off to grab some birthday cake...