First Research Q and A Day
Today is Q and A Day, a day to ask all your research questions, especially those that relate to this week's blog topics.
Do you have any questions about selecting a setting? Or using Terry's ideas for getting information about a potential setting?
How about making use of National Parks and other sites as research aids?
Or about using your home town or another place you know well?
One thing we might discuss is whether it is better to invent a place or to use a real place. We've touched on this just a little this week.
Janet is on a quick trip to England so she can't exactly answer questions about servants but you could ask them and we'll tell her to come back later to answer.
So, how about it? Have any Q's today????
Labels: Q and A
Q and A Friday - Last on Conflict
Sorry, Everyone! My internet was down again and I'm now at the Washington Romance Writers Retreat---luckily there is internet access! Hope you saved up some questions for us!--Diane
Here's one more chance to ask your questions on Conflict. We Noodlers will try to answer.
♥ Do you have any questions on finding the proper size of conflict for your story?
♥ Or making certain that your conflict isn't impossible to resolve?
♥ Do you have any question on Christie Kelley's use of GMC to find the internal and external conflict?
♥ Or Jo Beverley's idea of conflict as barrier?
Ask any of these or any other nagging questions you have about conflict.
And, remember, commenting gives you a chance to win a signed Jo Beverley book. We'll pick a winner after midnight on April 30. For one lucky person it will be a great May Day present!
Also don't forget to order your copy of MJ Fredrick's
Hot ShotLabels: Conflict, Q and A
Q and A Friday #2
TGIQAAD. (that's Thank God it is Q and A day) You ask the questions and we Noodlers attempt to answer.
This week we've learned even more about Conflict. We've learned the difference between External and Internal Conflict from Noodler Theresa Ragan. Anna Campbell shared helpful quotations about Conflict. Susan Gable taught us to write mottos for our characters. And Noodler Charity Tahmaseb taught us to throw our manuscripts on the floor (and to look for conflict on every page).
Surely we have some questions about all this new information.
Or share your difficulties with Conflict in your manuscripts. We'll all try to help!
Remember, if you ask a question or make a comment this month you will have a chance to win an autographed Jo Beverley book
And don't forget that Noodler MJ Frederick has a new release.
Hot ShotLabels: Conflict, Q and A
Q and A Friday #2
It's Good Friday, a busy day and the start of the busy Easter weekend, so there may not be many Qs today or many As , but here we go!
Do you have any questions about this week's plotting topics?
We've talked about subplots, about making lists of events, about troubleshooting, and about making collages.
Or do you have a plotting problem you'd like to discuss?
We may not get to it all right away, but go ahead and ask!
And
Happy Easter to everyone!
Labels: plotting, Q and A
Goodbye to February! Q and A
Goodbye to February and to the first Wet Noodle Posse Character month. Today is Q and A day, the day you can ask those left over nagging questions about Character.
So what questions do you have?
Which character poses the biggest problem for you (For me it is the villain) and what problem do you have with that character (mine can get too "Snidely Whiplash")?
Are you struggling with a character's backstory? With their GMC (Debra Dixon's Goal, Motivation, Conflict)? Was there anything in Character Month you wished we had covered and didn't?
Ask away!!!
A big thank you to everyone who participated in Character Month, our Wet Noodle Posse bloggers, those of you who commented and those who just "stopped by." Those who commented have been entered in our prize drawing.
Today's prize is
Jill Monroe's Blaze,
Hitting the MarkAnd the winner is:
Gillian Layne
Whoo hoo, gillian! Just send your contact information to me at
diane@dianegaston.com and I'll pass it on to Jill.
By the way, Jill's February release,
Primal Instincts, is on sale now!
The Wet Noodle Posse has more in store for you. March is Plotting Month and you won't want to miss it.
Now.....on with your questions
Labels: Character, Jill Monroe, Q and A
Q and A and Prize Day
You have all been very very good, so, as promised here is a photo of my talking Leonidas doll (excuse me, I mean Talking Leonidas
Action Figure) He is 12 inches high and comes with an extra head, one without the helmet. He says things like, "Spartans, ready your breakfast and eat hearty. For tonight we dine in HELL."
Even better, because you have been good, one of you has been randomly selected to win
Dianna Love's RITA winning Silhouette Intimate Moments,
Worth Every Risk. And so you can read in bed, Dianna is also giving away a reading light.
The winner of
Worth Every Risk and a reading light is........
Terry ODellTerry, email me at
diane@dianegaston.com with your address. Let me hear from you by next Friday, February 22, or I'll have to award the prize to someone else and I don't want to do that.
Next prize is
Jill Monroe's blazing Blaze,
Hitting the Mark. I'll choose that winner on Feb 29, Leap year day!
On to questions!
I missed one from last week. Eden Sharpe asked:
My question: I know GMC and all the other components involved in discovering these characteristics are supposed to help us to get to our character's core, but sometimes it feels that I'm "assigning" these when I should be uncovering them. How do you know when you've hit the authentic GMC? After several lectures and classes, this is still a big snag for me. (My manuscript is unfinished.)Wow. Good question, Eden. I love the concepts of Debra Dixon's GMC and Hauge's Identity and Essence, but I'm not very good at applying them. I think it is for the reason you mention, it can become forced, something made to fit the concept, instead of the concept serving the character development.
I try to imagine people. I think about their past lives and about what they are like now. I try to think about what their vulnerabilities are. I try to imagine them as real people and then I see if the GMC or Identity and Essence concepts can fit, but my applications to the concepts always sound dumb to me. The important thing is for me to remember the people, not the concepts.
Some of my friends need to write several chapters until they get to know their characters. When they reach that point, they apply the concepts and see if they fit. If they don't, then my friends rethink things and tweak .
Noodlers and our noodlettes, lend a hand here. How do you keep your characters real instead of acting out "assigned" characteristics?
What other questions do you noodlettes have? What character concepts give you problems? Are there any leftover questions from this week's blogs?
Today is your day to ask!
Labels: 300, GMC, Hauge, Leonidas, Q and A
Today is Q and A Day, a day to ask all your research questions, especially those that relate to this week's blog topics.
