I was inspired by the submission call for this anthology soon after I joined the Romance Divas this summer. However, my story didn’t make it past DH’s red pen, but I was so happy to see many familiar names when the acceptances came out. The anthology includes: Love Rewritten by Esmerelda Bishop Mistletoe Magic by…
I don’t know if this NaNoWriMo thing was a good idea or not. I’ve managed to get 3855 words down on paper which is more than I wrote fiction-wise all last month. However, I’m not sure I can sustain that rate or if I’m prepared enough to carry this story for 50k words. I also…
When I’m trying to write lately, I feel like nothing fits smoothly. DH says I’m trying too hard and over-thinking everything. I’ve tried to back off and let things ferment, but so far that’s not working either. I’ve had a week where I was pretty much away from the computer and didn’t even write out…
Last night, I was talking to DH about yesterday’s Thursday Thirteen. He made the mistake of asking what I thought of Dr. John Gray’s Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. We started off into a discussion about the types of love, but got derailed on Gray’s “point system” and how men and women…
I’ve been reading Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex by Dr. John Gray lately. The metaphor is absurd, but the logic and insights behind it are sound. I picked it up on a whim to see some concrete examples of the different ways that men…
Have you ever noticed that three is truly a magic number? I’m not talking numerology or anything like that, but the number three keeps coming up in everything I’ve been reading lately. The Classic Three-Act form. A hero must pass 3 tests to get his reward. Three cheers. Make sure you highlight a setting with…
My son’s Cub Scout Pack spent the weekend camping in the cold and windy mountains. No incidents involved wild critters, but at night, we could hear the wolves howling at the nearby preserve. The boys had a great time imitating them. We left home later than we’d hoped, so I put up the tent (mostly…
I got some phenomenal feedback on Revealed from several Divas. Jodi suggested some great websites: Michael Hauge’s article Screenplay Structure and The Unknown Screenwriter’s article on Transformational Character Arcs. She also recommended the book Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot by Emmy award winning TV producer Peter Dunne, which has me itching to…
As promised, I’ve posted the first of the stories based on the exercise of telling a story in the traditional Three ACT form. Revealed is set in the Regency Period and runs about 2400 words. The idea was pulled from an abandoned novel opening and might work as the opening chapter some day. If you…
I finished the story arc I’ve been talking about recently. I’m not at the point where I can do them quickly, so I may just post them as I finish them and feel they’re readable. Once I finish a few more minor edits, I will post that one on a page here with links to…