Category Archives: Inspiration

What is a novel?

So! Grimaulkin 2 is going along smashingly. 15K words so far with an average of 1000 words a day, except weekends which I can top 2K words a day.

I got my first one-star review from Homecoming. Basically, he said I had no plot. At first, I laughed it off. “You just don’t understand.” Then I thought about it, and I thought about the editing of War Mage, when the editor said, “All they’re doing is running around saying, ‘There’s dragons!'” I was so into being authentic that I didn’t develop a typical plot.

Now, I usually write toward a theme. Homecoming was “Home is where the heart is.” War Mage is “Friends are in surprising places.” Grimaulkin, I notice, doesn’t have a theme that I wrote toward, but it does have a plot (two of them, in fact). The stories in Water don’t have much of a theme or plot, because, well, it’s all sex.

Anyway, back to the one-star review and how I now think about War Mage. War Mage has no typical plot. Meaning protagonist vs. antagonist. Well, it does, but there’s garbage in between. The “oh look, there’s dragons” scenes. I could tell War Mage in a short story if I wanted to. But what is a novel if not a main plot with side plots along the way? Unless I’m looking at the construction wrong.

I’ve noticed, after reading some craft books, that novels are “protagonist in constant struggle.” Take a protagonist, throw in assorted things to block him, ratchet up the conflict as you go along, and have him succeed or fail. Thank you, Joseph Campbell.

So now, this is expected. Is this what makes a best selling story? Or is it something original? I will admit, I haven’t read a lot of fiction over the past couple of years, concentrating mostly on craft books because they’re easier to read/listen to in chunks. Fiction I have to keep the story in mind, and when I’m writing a story, I don’t want to have another story in my head to distract me. Maybe I should pick up a few short stories to get the idea of what people are looking for, and deconstruct those. Or break down a novel or two that I’ve already read.

I’m thinking Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series, which is what I’m basing Grim a lot on. To me, there’s a main plot with side plots. Repairman Jack has a main plot that goes through the entire novel with one or two side plots that continue through the books. One book I read two years ago had one plot throughout the entire thing, with assorted conflicts for the protagonist–the typical story that the craft books tell me to write. Until the author killed off a main character, I thought the story was boring. Then I threw it across the room in disgust, knowing that was just a ploy to make things exciting. Another story I read last year had a deus ex machina that pissed me the hell off. The last book I’m reading, which is gay erotic romance, has stalled out in the middle and I’ve put it aside not caring what happens to the main protagonist going home to his family (I expect that he’ll suddenly get a spine; I can see that coming a mile away).

What I’m going to do is let the editor take a look at War Mage. If it doesn’t have a plot, then I’ll think about what plot to put in and weave it through the story, with the authentic scenes in the middle. Grimaulkin, I feel confident in. Water, is, well, meh (except Scorpio–I’m proud of that one).  I need to drag Grimaulkin 2’s plot a little longer than it is. I have a two-week time period to play with, and a lot can happen then.

Discovery writing

Merry Christmas! Yes, even though I’m an eclectic witch, I still harken back to my Roman Catholic roots and say Merry Christmas.

Pisces is coming along slowly. Very slowly. I don’t seem to be in the mood for writing about sex. I’m writing story. So it’s probably not going to be great erotica, but it might be a pretty good–and historically accurate–story. For Cancer and Scorpio, I need to add a lot more sex into them to make them erotica.

The other thing is, my erotica is pretty vanilla. Very plain, without tying people up or safe words or any BDSM stuff. Boring, maybe. I suppose I need to do some research to make vanilla exciting. Guess I’ll be lurking on the literotica website to get an idea of stories there.

Grimaulkin’s second book’s first and last line came to me overnight last night. If I have both of those in mind, then I know where I’m starting, and where I’ll end up. It’s the in between that I don’t know anything about yet, and that’s what makes me an “intuitive” or discovery writer. I don’t usually know what I’m doing until I get to the story itself. I have noticed if I plan out the story, I get bored easily. It’s not that I don’t find the story easier–it’s a lot easier if I plan it out. But not planning it actually makes it more fun, makes we want to sit at the keyboard because I want to know what happens next.

However the problem with being a discovery writer is what I’m running into with Pisces. I have a vague idea of what’s going to happen in the story, but no idea how to get there. I need to provide certain scenes for the erotica portion of the story, but, again, that’s a constraint. Discovery writers hate constraints. This is also why I’m no good at being a romance author, either. Romances have a formula. I don’t follow maps to places that I’ve been to before. I only use maps to someplace I’ve never been to. I’ve read enough “romance” within the fantasy genre to know the score. I want to dispose of the map and just see where the writing takes me. I know it seems like I’m trusting in the muses, but (most of the time) they’ve never let me down before.

So I personally think that maybe, if you’re a plotter, try letting things go and let the Universe take you on a ride. What you end up with might be trash, but it’ll be an experiment in how your mind works.

So, until the new year, keep writing!

The Passion is Gone

Saturday was my last appearance for the year, and there’s one thing I learned.

I need a better pitch.

My pitch leaves too much to the imagination. I need to tell the plot of my novel in one sentence.

But I noticed, too, that Homecoming is not my baby anymore. I ran out of passion for it at Comicon. I need to bring out something new. War Mage might fit the bill, but I’ve been sitting with that story for over a year, and it feels old. Grimaulkin is shiny and new (to me) and is what I want to press forward. I got some good pointers from some beta readers, though I need to rewrite it in spots. It’s fresh and new enough to me that the rewrites are still enjoyable. War Mage would be on its 8th rewrite. Personally, I think that’s way too much and far too long for a rewrite. War Mage has turned into work, not play.

I was asked to do some erotica, and I had started an erotica/romance series called Brothers of the Zodiac. I separated them into four novels, three signs each, instead of the initial separation of just 12 short stories. The first novel will be Water, with the signs Scorpio, Pisces, and Cancer. The Brothers are guardians from the goddess Ishtar, who takes warriors from the underworld and brings them back to life. They are supposed to help and support humanity in some way. The only way they can die is if they “find love in the eyes of another man.” Obviously gay erotica. I tried the write straight erotica, but I don’t have a good grasp on female characters.

Unfortunately, both Water stories (Cancer and Scorpio) I’ve done so far equal only 12,000 words. I have to pad the stories, making them at least 20K words a piece. Scorpio is the origin story. My plan is to have them all across the timeline of Western history, and, of course, their story will lead up to their deaths.

Hopefully I can work up the passion, the enthusiasm, for these stories.

I can’t write to a theme, I’m an ARTIST.

There is a Kindle book out there called Write to Market: Deliver a Book That Sells by Chris Fox. I skimmed it for funsies (Kindle Unlimited, so I wouldn’t feel so dirty after spending $3 for it). He basically says if you want to sell books, you have to write what people want. To hell with your art. To hell with what you like. You write at the behest of your fans.

This goes against why I write. I don’t write to sell, though that’s nice. I write to read. I write a story that I myself would plunk down money for. Another reason why I write is because the muses have this story idea that they want to get out on paper, and if it goes out into the world, so much the better. That’s Brent’s story, which started as a dream. It turned into a “story I would pay for” later.

Which brings me to the title. I found out that the Association of Rhode Island Authors is holding a contest for their next anthology (title TBD), and they put out a theme “People of the State of Rhode Island.” Instead of my muses saying, “*scoff* That’s stupid. Why write to what they want?”, they took the bone and tossed it into the cauldron. What I got a couple of days later was a memory: my Uncle Manny telling me stories of prohibition.

Hm, hm, hm, I thought, and mulled it around like sucking a hard candy. I had heard other stories from my family – my Aunt Alice’s courtship, my grandmother Elsie’s love for an Irish boy, my Aunt Emma’s death at 14 from some unknown sickness, my Uncle Charlie’s death in the war. My great-grandmother Rose was still alive when I was very young, couldn’t speak a word of English; but my Uncle Manny would tell me all the stories of how she, as the matriarch, kept the family together after her husband, also named Manuel, had died (before my time).

I brainstormed in my journal. I gathered the characters, made them young enough for Prohibition and courtship, and then put pen to paper to start writing. As I usually do, I research on the fly. There was a “Danny Walsh” who operated in the Valley, an Irish bootlegger centered in Pawtucket. I threw him into the mix. I made up the name of the bar and owner (until I get to the Cumberland Library for research).

Of course, my first draft is just getting it down on paper, but I’m already editing as I’m going. I have 5K words to get this story on paper, and I’m not even sure if it’s worth a story on its own. But I’m going to try it, get my beta readers to look it over see if they like it, and then submit it. What’s the worst that could happen? They say no?

So when given a theme, an idea, or a spark, I notice that it’s something the muses thrive on. It’s a writing prompt, not a command. My art won’t suffer for it, but will thrive.

Next Appearance:

I’ll be at an Author Meet and Greet in Narragansett, RI in the Theatre-By-The-Sea on Beach Street, September 10 from 10-3. I’ll have Homecoming, and also Best Intentions selling under the table. There will be about 40 other authors there with their wares, as well. It’s after the tourist season, so it would be a great time to come to the beach and check out one of the more beautiful places in Rhode Island.

Somebody Set Them Up The Bomb

This week, for the past week or so, I haven’t been writing. It’s not that I don’t have the time. I have two books that I’m working on at the same time, and I don’t know which one to concentrate on, so I decide to not work on either.

At this point, what’s got me stuck is the indecision of what to work on.

I pulled open both books and noticed I had stopped in the middle of a scene, which Hemingway always did, to spur me on to the next scene. Problem was, I forgot what I was writing. Again, stuck.

When I’m stuck, I blow something up. Or as Chandler put it, “When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.”

I realized the power of this when I wrote a collaborative story a few years ago. My character, Rusty, was doing something boring. The characters around him weren’t doing anything much, either. I blew up the dock Rusty worked in, and it was on.  The story picked up, things moved.

Exposition is well and good; internal navel gazing is important to the protagonist; but conflict, action, making things happen–that’s the meat of the story, what the readers really want.  It might sound like I’m writing Chandler-esque stories: books that are there for the action, and not much else. It’s a hard balancing act to have story–characters, world–and the conflict. Anybody can throw a bomb into a room, but there has to be a why, even if it’s explained after the fact.

So, I opened up Dark Prison, my newest War Mage novel that I’m working on, and introduced a man with a gun. It’s like putting gas directly in the carburetor; it’s a jump start, but not something you want to do as a rule, or the shock value will fade. The gun could be anything from a real gun to a new reveal, something that would create a conflict for the protagonist, or even for a secondary character to develop a subplot. Even during introductions, throw in a “gun” to make things move.

Pokemon Go and writing

I’ve played a little bit of Pokemon Go, enough to be slightly familiar with the concept. One afternoon I was thinking that Pokemon have a lot to do with writing.

First of all, Pokemon Go superimposes itself on reality. That’s what you do when you write, especially urban fantasy/contemporary fantasy like I do. The characters are in our real life. Sometimes they take over our real life, and it’s all you think about. It’s addicting.

You have to catch characters. They’re fleeting, in certain places and at certain times. To sound a little mystical, they’re out there, but they do their own thing. Sometimes you find yourself with the same characters over and over (How many Ghastlies can you hold, anyway?). You put down lures, or give the characters some reason to exist in your story. They stick around. Then, they evolve.

That is the point of the story, in general–to take your character and evolve it into something that it wasn’t when you first started the story. To make your character grow, you coddle it and care for it, train it and then use it to fight. (I’ve always thought Pokemon was just an baby version of a cockfight, but I digress.) The fight is the conflict, and there’s plenty of them. At a gym, with other people–there’s always fighting. You evolve your Pokemon, your character, and make it powerful enough to surpass the  fight and win.

In order to succeed and get Pokeballs and other Pokemon, you need to go to different Pokestops. This is your inspiration, to go out into the world and let it “fill your well”.  Pokestops around here are churches, parks, and historical sites. Historical sites are the most open-ended places to get ideas. Parks are a great place to people watch and imagine. Churches…I’ll leave that to you. The architecture is nice.

So every time I get a Drowsy (and I have plenty of them at my house), I think of a sad sack of a character, which I might put into a story.

Real Life Muses

Today, I want to give a shout-out to some real-life muses that have helped me along these past few years.

I have been lucky to have such good people around me to give me inspiration and ideas, and, most of all, inspire me to write. They all follow the cardinal rule of improvisation: “Yes, and…”  That is, whatever they do, your reaction should accept what they have done and build upon it. Because most of my muses have been found using role playing (RP) games, this is not an unusual occurrence. Sometimes, though, people take advantage of the rule and “God-mod” their characters so that nothing is impossible for them. It’s tough to play against perfect characters.

Anyway. One of my most important muses was my husband. He still inspires me due to his life. He was a carnie for 4 years, and I joined him on the circuit for one summer so I could get the idea of what it was like. That summer still inspires me. He was a biker, and that inspired me with Knight of the Road, a character I play on Champions Online and City of Heroes. I also have a story on Tumblr called Leopard Knight (which badly needs to be updated). My husband was into the military, but had never joined (though he wanted to so badly), and inspired me with the War Mage series. I learned enough military terms to be dangerous, which is how I wrote War Mage.

He probably would be proud of me, seeing my book in print and in audio. My second book is dedicated to him. He, unfortunately, is no longer with us, but he is always in my memory.

Speaking of City of Heroes, Cedric is another muse I worked with. He fell into the god-mod rule sometimes, also a rule-monger. We played characters from Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and other White Wolf types of characters. Some of the other players were god-modders, playing “races” that were “banned” or exiled. Cedric would jump on that with both feet, which pissed off some people. But he worked with me and Grimaulkin’s character. I wouldn’t have fallen so much in love with Grim if it wasn’t for him.

Steven is another muse. He’s more of a ski-fi type of guy. I never did sci-fi–too much science! He inspired me with his Emerald Flight series, which I developed a character he enjoyed and has taken in for his own, Rusty Raynes. I loved playing Rusty. He’s a constantly recovering alcoholic, drug addict, and all around junkie who is an excellent engineer (he might have some telepathic connection with machines, or at least it seems that way). I can’t wait to see what he does with him in his upcoming book.

Four other guys ended up moving from City into Champions. Chris helped me develop Grim and other characters. Chris was an RP nut, but he was sensitive to his characters.  We developed Knight’s flaws with his characters. Aaron also came along. He worked with Grim (played his “boyfriend” for a time, too and was there at Grim’s rebirth). Chris disappeared; I still get pokes from Aaron every once in a while. Both of them did “Yes, and…but…” which sometimes pissed me off, but helped me to stretch my imagination and my mind outside of the box. Both of them also validated that I could play/write a gay man well.

Two other muses still inspire me today. They have consistently inspired me over the last…wow, has it been almost 5 years? Jon is an RP gamer and, I think, a GM (game master) for some games he plays offline. So he’s very familiar with how RP works. He presents his characters with such wide-ranging issues that I really have to stretch to both accept and work with. He’s not wild or crazy (well, he could be); he’s very realistic, keeping his characters grounded in reality. He’s witty, funny, and sensitive to how my characters act and react. His ERP (you figure out what that means) is second to none. I’ve learned so much from him.

Joel is also a muse that still inspires me. We have so many pairings that I think 3/4 of my guys have touched his characters, literally and figuratively. He’s always accepting of the “Yes, and…” rule. And, most of the time after a session of RP with him in Champions, I walk away with a story idea that I need to write down. It usually finds its way into 800 Words–except recently because I’m working on War Mage. Because he’s so accepting of the “Yes, and…” rule, I often write myself into a corner that he remembers or points out and I have forgotten. He must take better notes or have a more cavernous memory than I do to remember the details of what one of my minor character did six months ago. He’s also consistent, so I can sometimes take his characters and write about them. And he lets me!

The writers’ muses are in conjunction with the well that constantly needs replenishment. The water in the well is only as good as the inspiration and imagination that draws from it. The “Yes, and…” rule is a cardinal one for muses. They should accept what’s going on, accept you and your character, and work with them without judgement.  Hopefully, they’re living, breathing people with imaginations, too, who are interested in seeing where you’ll send your characters–and maybe theirs.

Preparation

I’m going along pretty good with the new novel. Mostly, though, I’m doing preparation.

I figured out this method with Blood From a Stone, my NaNoWriMo book of last year. Because I only had 2 weeks to do NaNo, I had to have a road map. I usually pants the thing, and I end up going off on tangents and side roads, getting lost. War Mage‘s first draft is a lot like that. It’s why I ended up with 6 drafts before sending it to the editor (and I know I have issues there).

So with this one, I’m doing up a main plot, and then sub-plots. I happened to be reading a book at the same time called Blueprint Your Bestseller, which describes this method that I stumbled upon. Instead of calling them “plots” the author of this book calls them “series”. You have a theme, which is the main series, and then other series that point to the theme.

I always start out with a theme. Homecoming‘s was Home is where your heart is. War Mage’s is Friends can be found anywhere. High Road‘s is It’s better to take the high road. A lot of times my titles allude to the theme. Heavy-handed, aren’t I?

There can be only one theme in the book, and every scene and series has to point to it. The first draft of War Mage showed me that I had scenes that went no where, scenes that had no place in the book, and characters that were repetitious and similar. Using the method in Blueprint, which was written for rewrites, I can tear apart War Mage and put it back together, with a main plot and subplots. (Sorry, but I’m going to use those terms instead of “series”.)

What I’ve been doing mostly is character sketches and subplots from the characters. Some of them want to be furniture, so I’m doing quick physical descriptions of them and their attitudes. When stuck, I use StoryMatic or The Positive Traits Thesaurus or Negative Traits Thesaurus to get an attitude.

Other characters want a life of their own, so they get the full treatment. I have tiny composition books I bought at Dollar Tree; they come in a package of 3 for a dollar.

char book

I have a character sheet that I downloaded from some writer’s site I don’t remember, but it goes into excruciating detail. I don’t answer all the questions – except for Brent, I really should redo his character sketch. I pick and choose some questions and put them in the little composition books. For example, one question is, “Does he want to have children?” My character, a staff sergeant, is going through a divorce according to the subplot. Does he have kids? How many? What are their ages and names? What are they like – brief traits? How does he feel about them? I fill up a small page with these answers, which spurs me on to other questions, and rinse and repeat.

From the characters come the subplots. I am an index card freak. I write out the scenes on index cards and put them on a ring. Staples has what I normally use, and they can be found sometimes for $1-$1.50. I bought oodles of them on sale, so I have a box full of them. I write out or keep in mind the subplot’s main point – the “where am I going with this” idea – and then I write out the scenes. Then I thread them among the main plot on the ring.

index card

This card is using the subplot named “Sergeant” (at the top) and goes into a scene. I don’t give a lot of details because then I’m writing the scene, I believe. I give enough to whet the muse’s appetite, or to spur on what I was thinking of at the time.

Sometimes, though, I get the urge to write. I’ve prepared the first few scenes, so I know where I’m going with those, and those are the ones I write. I’m still in chapter one, but I’m on scene three. I need to make “looking at profiles” exciting.

Update

I just noticed I missed last week, so this week you’ll get two posts.

Last week was hellacious. I had a cancer scare – yes, that’s a real possibility in my life, as you’ll find out when I write my memoir of the experience. I was on eggshells all weekend, so could hardly concentrate on anything. But I’m free and clear now.

Homecoming is coming along. I’m a little miffed that the cover I had paid for is not going to be used in its entirety. It initially had a house with a hook in the clouds. The hook was meant to be a meat hook but someone pointed out that it looked like a hay-hook. It wasn’t as important to the plot. But it is a symbol of what he’s carrying into the next book. However, it won’t work for this book. So they took the hook out entirely and now it’s a house. I’m a little bummed out, but they said they’ll use the hook for the banner ads. And when I make the poster of it, I’m going to use the hook, too. It’s supposed to make the reader wonder “What’s that there for?” so that way they read the book to find out.

The book is short (184 pgs) enough to read in one sitting. I hope that people want more, which is the point of it. It’s a prequel to War Mage, where I’ve done the research and have set it in an exotic country. I’ll put the bibliography here sometime.

I’ve still been writing scenes, a couple of Champions stories based on my muse from that game (Scott the Mage’s player). He threw me a curve ball after the “Marker” story and I’ve been trying to recover ever since.  Which is a good thing! I love when I get a challenge.

Grimaulkin, when I finish that book, is going to be dedicated to those muses.

I don’t do romance

Writing a romance is hard.

I read a book about writing romance, that basically gave out a boiler template of how to plot your romance. Fill in the blanks and off you go.

I actually used tarot cards to figure out a plot and characters. It came up as a romance. Good, romance is good because that’s a very hot market. Paranormal romance is a really big market too, so yeah, I can see this. And YA romance? It has its own shelf in B&N. I’m in for this.

So the plot is that a girl, who doesn’t know she’s part mermaid, spends a summer in a seaside fishing town, gets in the ocean, changes into a mermaid, is seduced by the mer-prince, refuses for the human that she left on land, and comes back to land to spend the rest of her summer with the landlubber.

Beautiful.

But I can’t get the MC to get beyond a bundle of nerves and fear. She’s acting like Bella. But then, from what i’ve skimmed, most of the YA girls are either feisty bitches or dingbats. Making her feisty would overshadow the hero. Making her a dingbat would just be a Twilight ripoff.

How difficult it is to be original. I was thinking of giving it up but I haven’t gotten any other ideas.

Yet.