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Posts Tagged ‘laugh’

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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Zombie Craze

Posted in Fantasy/Scifi, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »


I keep hearing the next big thing is going to be zombies. So I thought what the heck why not give it a shot? Perhaps I don’t have a talent for zombie drama, but here’s my attempt.

Babs lay face down on the pavement. Her warm blood flowing away from her like a river, carrying her life with it. She was helpless to do anything but watch. With a last shuttering gasp blackness enveloped her…

“Hey lady, you ok?”

The smell of vomit and cheap liquor stung her nose. Babs gagged. Perhaps she had cheated death afterall. She pulled herself up. The ugly gapping wound was still there, but there was no blood. Her heart wasn’t beating. She wasn’t breathing.

“Oh geeze, not undead,” Babs said. “Anything but zombie. This is going to put a damper on my sex life. And the whole flesh eating thing. I’m a vegetarian for gosh sakes. This isn’t going to work for me,” she yelled to no one in particular.

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DMV

Posted in Random, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 1, 2010| 1 Comment »


I just had 24 hours worth of creativity sucked out of me through my nose. The jokes my parents and grandparents told were true. I spent two and a half hours at the DMV getting my driver’s license renewed.

I think this process is designed to make you feel old, because by the time I got to the front of the line I was telling stories about the good old days before computers, internet, and cell phones back during the Iran contra affair and the Berlin wall. I feel I’m too old to stand in a line that long. I have less than half my life left and the last two and a half hours just ticked away at the DMV.

It was taking half an hour to process each person. That’s people with the correct paperwork, identification, and money ready to go.  What were they doing up there? Definitely collecting too much information.

I was almost at the front of the line when they were unable to scan the ladies thumbs in front of me. They could only scan one. What’s the big deal? What would happen if you were missing a thumb? It could happen. When did thumb scanning become mandatory? I’ve had MRIs that did were faster.

Here’s the logical next step, the DMV should start selling Starbucks coffee, tea and sandwiches. The money they collect should be used to pay off our debt to China. If they added those little airline size bottles of booze, we’d be out of debt in no time.  Because everyone there needed a good stiff drink.

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Drusilla’s Morning

Posted in Fantasy/Scifi, My Writing Updates, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on October 31, 2010| 11 Comments »


I sometimes have a character without a story, who is interesting none the less. Someday, maybe Drusilla will have a story of her own. I’m sure there’s at least one hiding in there somewhere –
Do you remember when air travel was so much better, before the tight security? Back then you could stuff your husband’s body in a trunk, fly to France, dump it outside of Paris and still have time for dinner with your French boyfriend.

The dog barked, waking my husband .
“Hush,” I told the dog.
My husband rolled over, “Who are you talking to?”
“The dog.”

Who does he think? My French boyfriend hiding in the closet? Hopefully he doesn’t notice the body size suitcase. – Drusilla Signet (current character in question)

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