This Week on the Wet Noodle Posse
Our month of celebrating the facets of sisterhood begins. Please join the discussion.
Monday, May 4th: Trish Milburn Sister-sister, Sister-friend
Tuesday, May 5th: Terry McLaughlin TBA
Wednesday, May 6th: Maureen Hardegree A Little Girl Time: Vacationing with Friends
Thursday, May 7th: Maureen Hardegree Qualities that Make a Best Friend
Friday, May 8th: Q&A
Labels: friendship, Maureen Hardegee, sisters, Terry McLaughlin, Trish Milburn
This week on the Wet Noodle Posse
Noodlers wind up March Madness and Spring Forward into April with the following blogs:
Monday, March 30th: Theresa Ragan Don't Worry, Be Happy
Tuesday, March 31st: Maureen Hardegree Signs That You Might Be Mad…Or a Writer
Wednesday, April 1st: Introduction to April’s Spring Forward Theme
Thursday, April 2nd: Maureen Hardegree Put a Spring In Your Step
Friday, April 3rd: Q&A What’s Your Favorite Sign of Spring & April New Releases
Labels: Maureen Hardegee, signs of spring, spring forward, Theresa Ragan
Making Non-Writing Time Work for You
I don’t know about the rest of you, but my biggest writing challenge, even though I am a stay-at-home mom is lack of time. I’m always wishing there was one more hour in each day for writing. If only I could get hold of some of that high speed internet juice our local cable company uses as an advertising gimmick, I’d be churning out the novels in record time. Sad but true, I cannot make a day longer nor can I approach superhero speeds as I go about my routine. But there are some things I can do to milk each minute for its optimal writing potential.
Exercise
A couple of years ago, I made a commitment to exercise five times a week to improve my health and keep the width of my butt from expanding exponentially, which it would do if left on its own. While I walk, if I’m not socializing with the other ladies (yes, I do that on occasion), I’m working out the next scene in my WIP, contemplating why my plot hit a brick wall, or I’m storing sensory details for future use. Some writers who exercise even attach their laptops to their treadmills and write while burning calories. It can be done.
If you do nothing else while you exercise, take in the details around you in the gym or on the walking path at your local park. What do the runners sound like as they lap you yet again? Do they huff and puff up the hill, but their stride and breathing evens out on the flat stretches? What are the bird and insect sounds you hear? They’ll be different depending on the time of year due to bird migrations and insect life cycles. In Georgia, this morning, the temperature hit the low fifties, the sun was bright in a deep blue sky, and I heard crickets in the tall grass. This summer, when I was sweltering in the heat and humidity, I heard cicadas in the trees. What about the squirrels scrambling up tree trunks? One had a scraggly tail. Was that the scree-ee of a hawk? Brown leaves crunch and crackle underfoot, but the bright yellow ones, newly blown off a nearby tulip poplar crush with barely a sound. While walking, you can use a digital recorder so you won’t forget the details you might want to use at some point in some book. Don’t worry about people thinking you’re weird as you speak into your recorder. I cannot tell you how many people I see with Blue Tooth gear in their ears looking like they’re talking to themselves while walking, shopping, or driving. No one thinks they’re insane.
One advantage to thinking through the scenes I plan to write while I’m walking is that when I get home to my office, I’m ready to make the most of the time I do have to type uninterrupted.
Carpool Lane
Ahh, the joys of picking a child up from middle school and having to arrive forty minutes prior to the
bell, so as to be near the front of the line. Achieving a spot at the front not only ensures that I get dancer daughter to ballet on time, but it also gives me a block of minutes that I can use in a writing related activity. Often, I print out a scene or chapter that I need to revise. Revising hard copy is great in the car. If I don’t have hard copy to work on, I take out my spiral notebook and work on the next scene in my WIP. Other writing moms I know use alpha smarts or laptops to do the same thing. Do turn off the cell phone, though! Make the most of this windfall.
Bedtime
Most of us go through some sort of ritual before hitting the sack. Why not add in writing one more page or one more paragraph to your WIP, after flossing your teeth and moisturizing your face? I have to credit writer Stephanie Bond for this suggestion. She mentioned it in one of the workshops she gave at the Moonlight and Magnolias Conference, and it made sense to me. Plus, it helps eliminate the guilt you might be experiencing if you have a day where you had to be away from the computer. You can console yourself with writing a little something before going to sleep.
How about you? Are there places in your day where you can eek out more writing time? What are they? Any tips you’d like to share?
Maureen Hardegree writes southern short stories for Belle Books' Mossy Creek and Sweet Tea series. Look for her newest short story, A Tale of Two Kitties in the seventh Mossy Creek book out this winter Critters of Mossy Creek.
Labels: Maureen Hardegee, time management, writing challenges
Funny Bone Moments as Inspiration
Tickle my funny bone, and I’ll be inspired to write. The equation is that simple for me.
My brother’s proposal via Valentine card to his long-standing girlfriend struck me as funny. He couldn’t say it? He had to write it? Not exactly the romantic proposal of every girl’s dreams. I tucked the idea away, and then with his and his wife’s permission, I tweaked it and used it in a short story titled “Be Mime.”
I was also inspired by my mother doing something that I thought was particularly humorous during a visit to my house. She didn’t like the toilet seat in my guest bathroom. Rather than tell me or suggest that I replace it, she bought one and had my father install it while I was out running errands. I returned home to the big reveal. She’d thrown the old one in the trash. I used this oddity the first chance I could get in a short story titled “A Very Mossy Christmas.” She’s also thrown away pillows she didn’t like and replaced placemats on my kitchen table that went with nothing in my kitchen. Yes, all without asking first!
Sometimes I take an anecdote I’ve heard from a friend or relative and turn it into something more. One such bone tickler that I took parts of and embellished with my own characters in “Tale of Two Kitties” included in Critters of Mossy Creek (BelleBooks, Winter 2009) was told to me by a friend of my sister-in-law. When she’d moved to a new neighborhood, her cat went missing. The cat decided to hang out at a new neighbor’s house and was adopted by them—or so they thought. Imagine her son’s surprise to find his missing cat at his new friend’s house.
Inspiration can be found anywhere. What are some moments in your life that should be in fiction?
Labels: humor as inspiration, Maureen Hardegee
Get Your Head in the Game: Preparing for National
Several years ago, I wrote the following advice for the President’s Column in The Georgia Romance Writers’ Galley newsletter. I’d like to share it with posse readers, too, because I think what I have to say is just as relevant now as it was then. Prepare for the national RWA conference at the end of July as you would a district basketball title. If you want to win an opportunity to send a partial to the editor or agent of your dreams, gain new professional contacts, and make a good impression on everyone you meet, you’ve got to get your head in the game.
Practice Your Free Throws. Those of us who watch basketball go ballistic when we see players missing free throws, also called foul shots. Players miss for two reasons: they get intimidated and choke or they don’t practice enough because it’s an easy shot. The writing equivalent to a free throw is the two-minute-or-less pitch. Quick pitches are great for when you’re introduced to a published author, editor, or agent who asks what you’re working on. You might feel intimidated, so practice. Your two-minute-or-less pitch should tell who your hero and heroine are, what their major conflict is, and what subgenre you’re targeting. Practice your two-minute pitch while showering, while driving in the car, or while grocery shopping. You don’t want to shoot an air ball.
Don’t Get Caught Hacking. Hacking is a personal foul. The equivalent in the writing profession is to speak ill of other writers, editors, and agents in a public forum. You do not know who might be listening at the bar or restaurant, or in the elevator. Consider keeping the alcohol to a minimum as well. An extra glass or two of Chardonnay sometimes loosens a person’s inhibitions and tongue.
Don’t Be a Ball Hog; Get Some Points for an Assist.
Introduce a friend or acquaintance from your chapter to another professional, be it a published author, editor, or agent. Networking is part of the business. Several years ago in Reno, fellow Georgia Romance Writers member Berta Platas (Lucky Chica, SMP, January 2009) introduced several unpublished authors from our chapter to her agent and other agents she knew. These introductions resulted in requests for partials. Points scored. Kudos to Berta on the assists.
Develop a Game Plan.
Would you play for the district title without one? Use the conference schedule sent out in RWA’s Romance Writers Report or online to determine which workshops you’d like to attend before arriving in San Francisco. Contact friends and professional acquaintances you’d like to see now. Volunteer to help at the conference. There’s no doubt about it, networking and spending time with friends during the conference are as important as learning more about the craft of writing romance. But don’t forget that with the slate of fabulous workshops available, you are there to learn as well as socialize, network, and get requests. Balance is the key. Leave yourself a little down time every day to rest and evaluate how you’re playing. Every basketball game has a half-time.
Break Away
A breakaway shot is one where you beat your opponents down the court for an uncontested opportunity at the goal. Finish the book and polish it to perfection now, so that when you get a request from an editor or agent, the book is ready to send. Many of your competitors won’t have theirs ready, and you can break away. You might just get a slam dunk!
Is your head in the game?
Labels: Maureen Hardegee, writing conference preparations
Character Month
Last month The Wet Noodle Posse covered Getting Started. This month our topic is Character.
We Romance writers often ask each other whether we are “Plot Driven” or “Character Driven.” I’m definitely Character driven, which is why I volunteered to moderate our WNP Character Month. Almost all my stories develop out of a character, the idea of a person whose story I want to tell, often a character who appeared in a previous book.
All of our characters are important, but I believe the success of a romance novel mostly lies with the hero. We want to fall in love with the hero of a romance novel and we want the heroine to be someone --- like us, or an ideal of us.
We don’t want our heroes or heroines to be perfect, because part of the delicious fantasy of romance is to see how love can change us, transform us, make us into better people. At the end of our books, we want the hero and heroine to be more than they once were, to have the injuries of the past healed because of love. We want Beauty to tame the Beast; Cinderella to wed her Prince; Snow White to be awakened with a kiss.
But how to craft these strong, to-die-for heroes and valiant heroines? How important is backstory? What should their Goals, Motivations, and Conflicts be? What flaws should they have? What will make the reader fall in love with them? How can I make them unique? How can I show who they are in the writing?
That’s what we will be discussing in a variety of ways this month.
This week’s schedule:
Tuesday:
Maureen Hardegee, author of quirky southern short stories like her latest in
At Home in Mossy Creek, discusses Using Pet Peeves to Inform About Characters.
Wednesday:
Dianna Love, whose next book,
Phantom in the Night, is written with the fabulous
Sherrilyn Kenyon, covers that thorny question, Is Your Character Acting Out of Character?
Thursday: Noodler and Multi-award winning
Priscilla Kissinger writes about Character Interviews
Friday: Q and A Day, a day to ask any questions you like about crafting characters. You may ask your questions ahead of time by emailing me at
diane@dianegaston.com or just asking in the comment section on Friday.
There is more.
We are giving away prizes this month! Dianna Love will give away a signed copy of
WORTH EVERY RISK and a booklight. And
Jill Monroe will give away a signed copy of
HITTING THE MARK. All you have to do is comment on the blog! Dianna’s winner will be randomly selected on Friday, Feb 15, and Jill’s winner, on Friday, Feb 29. So join the discussion and have a chance to win.
Beginning now.
What do you think are the important elements in a romantic hero and heroine?
What are your peskiest problems in developing characters?
(Speaking of prizes, come visit my
website and enter my contest. My friend
Kathryn Caskie, whose
How To Propose To A Prince is due out Feb 26, and I are each giving away signed copies of the books that started our series. From Kathy, it will be
How to Seduce A Duke, and from me,
The Mysterious Miss M. )
Labels: Character, Diana Love, Jill Monroe, Maureen Hardegee, Priscilla Kissinger
Our month of celebrating the facets of sisterhood begins. Please join the discussion.
