Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘comedy’

Hero’s

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 12, 2011| Leave a Comment »


In fiction writing, you need a hero, heroine, or preferably both. In my mind the more the merrier. In standard fiction you have a man, a woman, a boy, a girl or even an animal. In fantasy, paranormal, sci-fi and other subgenres you usually have a character or two who isn’t quite human. And that’s where your creativity can really start to play.  Why have a plain old human when you can have something extraordinary? Take a look at the Blood Guardian tab for a different take on an old favorite…

Read Full Post »

New Pages

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 12, 2011| 2 Comments »


Prairie Jones is a high school student who also happens to be a dreamwalker. She’s uses her power to get what she wants, but now she’s in trouble. Check out PJ’s new page – Dreamwalker …

Madison Girot is a descendant of the Goddess Innana. Unfortunately she’s failed to receive her powers. Now she’s being tormented by a blood guardian and is defenseless. Check out Madison’s new page Blood Guardian …

If anyone knows how to add a side bar on pages that is independent from the home page, let me know. I seem to be blog challenged. Thanks.

Read Full Post »

Sisters

Posted in Personal, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 17, 2011| 3 Comments »


My sister has had bronchitus for about 6 weeks now. Last night she took a cough medicine and started itching. At 4am she went to the pharmacy and got benadryl. She took the benedryl and started vomiting. She vomited for about an hour and then had a heart attack. She had a heart attack for about an hour until they were able to get stints in. She’s in the hospital and is stable.
She needs to have a bypass to fix the rest of the problem. I spent the day at the hospital. When you’re young you see your family at weddings and births when you get old you see them at the hospital and funerals. That’s all.

Read Full Post »

Recommended Reading

Posted in Recommendations, Writing Help, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »


Someone asked a question about creating perfect characters, so here’s my two cents worth.
If you have a super perfect character, then the story is usually told from someone else’s pov such as Watson for Sherlock Holmes or if you have super bad characters with no redeeming characteristics, then the story is usually told from a better character’s pov, such as the “The Beans of Egypt, Maine” by Carolyn Chute. The POV character is Earline, the girl across the street.
I also like the idea of giving super dark characters a goodness quality, like Artemis from “Artemis Fowl” by Eoin Colfer
An author who is really good at creating many believable sympathetic characters in one novel is Cecily von Zeigesar. Yes, I know she writes “Gossip Girls” and I am rolling my eyes, but she’s great with character sketches.
I always advocate buying other authors’ books, but I know that’s not practical for everyone, including me. So you can read excepts from Chute and Zeigesar’s books on Google Books and Amazon and Colfer’s book on Amazon. I recommend the first in Colfer’s series Artemis Fowl. This has made me think I might need to put together a book list of authors who do things well.
Write on.
D

Read Full Post »

Week 2 Plotting Lesson

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing Help, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2011| 3 Comments »


I’m not a fan of the hero’s journey or the 3 act structure. The third act or middle just remains this huge mass of undefined territory.
I like the idea of 4 acts or parts instead of 3 to break things down further.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
The four acts:
1. Setup
2. Response
3. Attack
4. Resolution
1. Setup – composed of hook, hero, stakes, foreshadowing, current world. Main character is an orphan without a purpose.
2. Response – composed of running, hiding, analyzing, calculating, observing, recruiting. Main character is a wanderer/responder with a purpose, but no good direction. S/he is fearful, hesitant
3. Attack – composed of overcoming, obtaining, leading, gets new information/skills. Main character is a warrior.
4. Resolution – composed of changing, overcoming, winning or sacrificing. No new information, skills or people can be introduced. Main character is a winner/martyer.
I’m currently editing the end of Act 1 Setup and am going to start working on the Response act soon.
Hope this is helpful to someone else.
Write On.

Read Full Post »

A Novelist I Will Be

Posted in Recommendations, Writing Help, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2011| 2 Comments »


I went to a local writer’s meeting yesterday. Where I confessed to not being able to plot, which is a HUGE handicap if you want to be a writer. A woman, whose name I don’t know told me to do the following:

1. Go to storyfix.com, download and read Story Structure Demystified

2. Go to Michael Hauge’s blog, study his plotting chart and read his past blogs on plotting

3. Go to Randy Ingermanson’s blog and get his book Writing for Dummies.

I’ve started #1 and must say Story Structure Demystified is really good. I’m beginning to get the big picture.

I’ve learned so far novels are composed of 4 stages. The first being Setup and ending with the first plot point. My current work doesn’t do a good job of setup and misses the first plot point altogether. So you know how I’ll be spending my week. Editing section 1 of my current work, Feral.

For now, Write On

D

Read Full Post »

Day 3

Posted in My Writing Updates, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 27, 2010| 1 Comment »


Bad News

I lost a chapter I wrote yesterday. Apparently I had a little computer problem. I’m hoping I have it on paper somewhere. So I haven’t given up yet. However, if I tried to write it electronically instead of hardcopy first, then it is gone forever.

Good News

I managed to fix my plotting issue and am back to writing. I finished two more chapters and believe I’m in the home stretch to finishing my rough draft. Only two days remain.

And I must fit in another murder before the climatic event. I still haven’t decided who to murder first old childhood friend or father’s old friend who was like an uncle to the heroine. Can’t decide which one will have the most impact.

I’m going to get one more chapter in before going to sleep.

Read Full Post »

Count Down

Posted in My Writing Updates, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »


Day 4 also referred to as Thanksgiving Thursday

I’ve escaped the big meal without eating big, so I’m still feeling ready to write. An unfortunate incident caused a stall in yesterday’s plan.

I realized this section of my manuscript becomes episodic, meaning a series of unrelated events. Each scene should lead to the next and this isn’t happening in this part of my plot.

I’ve been able to get about half of the next set of scenes to lead logically from one to the other, but then it just breaks down.

I know my strengths are character and voice with my current weakness being plotting. My plan for this evening – to write until I hit the episodic part and hope ideas come. I’ll let you know how this works out tomorrow.

Read Full Post »

Making the Most of It

Posted in My Writing Updates, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »


Count Down Day 6

I have the following 6 days to dedicate almost 100% to working on my manuscript, a cross between Divinci Code and Under World. A few months ago I was able to finish about 90% of a rough draft.

I recently made changes that affect the entire manuscript. I changed the plot, added characters, including a new villian, removed characters, changed some characters’ nationality, reset some scenes, deleted scene, and added scenes. So I’m trying to complete the rewrites in the next 6 days. I’m about a quarter of the way through.

Today’s Goal:

Write 2 new scenes

Modify/Rewrite 10 scenes

Read Full Post »

Skinny Girls

Posted in Random, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »


In honor of Foodpress, I am digressing from my last post to provide some observations on skinny girls. As my sister is one and I am not, I feel qualified to comment.

Skinny girls do lunch, I eat lunch. I don’t go to lunch to be seen, nor to see who can eat the least, nor to collect white styrofoam boxes. I go to lunch to eat and visit with friends, but mostly eat.

A skinny girls’ hair salon has more bleach than a laundry mat.

Skinny girls do not wear low-cut blouses to show off their cleavage. They wear low-cut blouses to show off their collar bones.

The skinny girl mall has no intellectual pursuits. No bookstores, magazine stands, electronics stores, not even cell phone stores.

I have discovered swallowing gum is not a cheap form of bariatric surgery. It doesn’t stay in your stomach forever or I’d be skinny too.

Skinny girl drool, the rest of us rule.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »