A Blank Page: Why Starting Over Is Sometime the Only Option

Jan. 27

A few weeks ago, I stood on the balcony of my rented beach condo and watched a group of workmen drive posts  for a new boardwalk across the dunes. 

The problem? The men had put the posts in the wrong place and at the wrong depth. I knew this because I could see the string marking the edges of the deck from my balcony. The men knew this because they kept consulting the plans for the boardwalk.

Then the crew set to work to ‘fix’ the mistake. 

They installed other posts a few inches inside the boundary to match the misplaced ones. 

They cut one post down a few more inches so it set at the ‘right’ height. 

Feb. 8-After the reset

They brought in a Ditch Witch and spent an afternoon, scooping out sand, piling up sand, and tearing up the dune.

On the third day, the foreman showed up. He took one look at the posts and lost his ever-loving mind. I think he cussed for an hour. Then the crew set to work digging up the posts, re-surveying the site, and setting new posts in place.

My current WIP is a lot like that darn boardwalk. I was no more than one-quarter of the way into it when I knew it wasn’t working. But I thought I could fix it in post. After all, I have eight novels under my belt, I know how to make running changes and tweak a scene to go from meh to whoa!

Feb.9

But not this story. A year later—and after several author friends gently scolded me for letting it get into such shape—I dug out the posts (characters) and resurveyed the landscape (plot) and started all over. I moved my heroine' journey of recovery up six months so her internal issues were about trust and starting over rather than constant pain and physical therapy. I remove one major arc of my hero's story because I couldn't kill off both of his parents, which opened the doors to changing the fate of my villain. He gets his comeuppance in a most satisfying way now.

Feb 12

The story is flowing better, the characters are sparking and conflicting, and the writing is fun again. But I lost a good six months to stubbornness. What were the signs the story was failing? Simple:

• inconsistent conflict
• sputtering sexual chemistry
• no emotional reaction from me as I wrote

What about you? 

Have you ever tried to ‘fix’ a story or scene, knowing it was wrong from the first sentence but not wanting to go back to the foundations?

How did it work?

Keena Kincaid writes historical romances in which passion, magic and treachery collide to create unforgettable stories. If you want to know more about her as an author or looking for a Christmas gift idea, visit her Facebook page or her Amazon page.

Feb. 13

Feb. 16

THE BIG QUESTIONS?

Post (c) Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines

As I continue on the journey of growing as a writer that began this summer, I am ending this series with 'The Big Questions'. 

What you may ask are the big questions? No, they are not, is this any good, can I get this published or will people like this? No, these are the big questions you can or may want to ask as you are writing.

I give credit to James E. Ryan, Dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, for these questions. He proposed that they are life's essential questions. I've appropriated them for use as I write scenes, chapters and ultimately the story. The questions are: Wait, what? I wonder (why, if)?, Couldn't we at least?, and What truly matters?. He has an addition question but it doesn't really apply for my purpose.

When I sit down to write another scene, I stop and ask "wait, what?" This allows me to focus in on what it is I'm trying to achieve by writing and including this piece in the story. If my hero wants to kiss the heroine, I will pause before I start and ask the questions. Wait, what: does he really want to kiss her, and what will be her response, or their response to each other?

Next I will ask, I wonder if things will go smoothly or I wonder why the two are in this situation. Will the kiss go smoothly, and why did things have to happen this way. Perhaps additional information is needed to inform what is happening.

Perhaps the scene could use an answer to the question, couldn't we at least let them be happy for a moment or maybe I need to create additional conflict from either the two of them or outside influences. Maybe he has had a bad experience and doesn't want to complicate their relationship. Maybe she is shy and although wants the kiss is afraid she will do it all wrong. 

Ultimately the final question is, what truly matters in the upcoming scene? Is it an end scene? Is it a catalyst scene? Do they come to some realization that makes the kiss the most important thing?

I don't always use every question, but do try. I have found it helps to focus me on what I'm trying to accomplish with the story. What is my overall purpose in telling this particular story? Why are these characters doing what they are doing? I do use 'wait, what' almost consistently when either writing a scene, re-writing/editing or when I'm pondering another project. Asking the question allows me to pause and understand my purpose for putting the proverbial pen to paper.

I've used the romance genre here, but these questions work for any type of writing. When you set down to write the non-fiction piece, or the mystery, stop and ask these questions. Wait, what is my purpose. I wonder if I should tell the story this way or another way. Couldn't I try it, see if it works. And of course, what truly matters about this work.

Hopefully, some of the ideas I've shared in this post and the other two, And Action, Badge of Pain, will help you as you travel the road of author who tells stories that matter to you and your readers.

If anyone wishes, to read Mr. Ryan's book, it is called "Wait, What?, and Life's Other Essential Questions" published by Harper One.


Doris Gardner-McCraw -Author, Speaker, Historian,
specializing in Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Photo and Poem: Click Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

RESEARCH, WRITING & SPEAKING

I recently had someone ask me how I researched. It took me a moment, for I consider myself a sort of dive bomber when it comes to seeking information. I just set a course and jump in.

Another person asked me about my writing. That also is a 'loaded' question. While I'm not at the skill level I wish to be, I also write across many platforms. My writing practice, that which puts my body in the seat is haiku poetry. My passion for historic research led to writing non-fiction works. My love of storytelling is what drives my desire to tell the stories many of you have read.

However, it is my public persona that most people know me by. I hear people say that can't speak in public. They are scared, it makes them ill. I confess, I try to understand that feeling, but it just doesn't register. Other than being alone, the most comfortable place in the world for me is in front of an audience.

So, how does all this tie together and what can you learn from my experiences? Well, let's start with research. Women doctors in Colorado prior to 1900 has been my focus for about four years. It all started with an obituary in the local paper for Julia E Loomis MD. There was something about the way her story was told that just struck me. Add the fact that no one had really heard of her and I was off and running. First I made a copy of the obituary from the paper. Then I located her grave in the local cemetery. (It does help that I know people who work to preserve the headstones in that cemetery.) I found she was from New Woodstock, New York. I located the local historical society there, and sent an email with questions about Julia. Would you believe I had an answer the next day? The information they sent me about her background told me I was on a journey I was meant to take. A journey of following my instincts and clues that came my way.

This research led to writing about Julia and the other doctors I found. The local library staff, we know each other by name, encouraged and helped me on this part of the journey. When I would get stuck, or as I spoke about some of the information I'd found, they were there with other suggestions for even more places to search. The research also helps lend a level of veracity to my fiction. When I come across something that fascinates me, it many times ends up in my work. When I was writing "Never Had a Chance" a piece of research showed that former President U. S. Grant was in Pueblo around the time my story took place. Yes, he is mentioned in that short story.

This lead to speaking in public. Yes, you can write, but there is something about the spoken word that can draw people in that is magical. Now, as to the fear. Well, first off, accept the fact that you will probably not be perfect, and might even make a mistake. So, perfection is boring. Reading your speech is deadly. If you are just going to read, without a bit of dramatic interpretation, just hand the paper to the audience and save yourself a headache. The key to remember is, they are there to hear you. You have information they want to know. You owe it to them to make it as exciting and personal as you can. Look people in the eye as you speak. Trust me, it makes a connection that draws your audience in.  This, along with the excitement to share your knowledge, is what makes what we do so special.

Share what you know. Research what your are passionate about. Write the stories that are in your heart. And above all share that with the world. Remember, just because you know it, doesn't mean everyone else does. These are your gifts to the world, and so ends this 'sermon'.

I leave you with a final piece of information distilled from my mother's words, "You can do anything thing you want with your life, you just have to give it a try with all your heart and soul." No one told me I couldn't, and even if they did, well I guess I just didn't belive them. (SMILE)

Angela Raines is the pen name for Doris McCraw. Doris also writes haiku posted five days a week at – http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com and has now passed one thousand haiku and photos posted on this blog. Check out her other work or like her Amazon author page:  http://amzn.to/1I0YoeL

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ARGUING WITH YOURSELF: TRUSTING YOUR CHARACTERS BY SHAYNA MATTHEWS

                   Arguing with Yourself - Trusting Your Characters by Shayna Matthews

The Journey: what's around the next bend? Photograph by Shayna Matthews.

When the plot crumbles...aftermath of your character war.

   
      A writer is a unique specimen of being. We create characters, journeys and universes of our own accord. Occasionally, we get lucky. A person will unfold before our eyes, plucked seemingly out of the blue. The character breathes life into the story. He or she forms his/her own thoughts and opinions, and expresses them freely, running roughshod over your meticulous plotting. "This is not how it's gonna be," he might tell you.

     No matter what you try, the scene collapses much like an implosion of brick and mortar. A writer might fight the nagging little voice, after all, it is the author's tale to tell, is it not? Characters must do as they are bidden. (And if you believe that, I have a nice piece of ocean front property in Arizona for sale...interested?)
     Advice on fictional writing is easy to find in this modern world. A quick search will unearth an avalanche of rules. How to write a novel. How not to write a novel. Planning. Plotting. Flying by the seat of your 'pantsters'. Show, don't tell. Well, tell a little, that one's all about balance, right? Character heroes vs. villains. But I believe it all boils down to two things: knowledge and trust. We must know our characters as we know ourselves. Perhaps more so. Trust in them, in their voices, should they decide to speak to you. They know the story better than the writer, for they are living it.

   I've heard it said about historical fiction, that an in-tune author inadvertently summons past truths. The characters we flesh out on paper lean over our shoulders and whisper the story within the life they lived once upon a time. It is the author's job to listen. Once in a great while, a spirited character will do a little more than whisper. They "nudge" with the force of a twelve-pound hammer.

      I know an author--let's call her Lynn--who has a regular habit of picking up on those not so subtle signs from her "fictional" characters, so to speak. She was in the realm of a chapter fight with a secondary character, an unruly cowboy, who refused to stay in the background. Character and writer could not see eye to eye, and the plot began to unravel at the seams.
AGAIN.
      Lynn went to one of her favorite stomping grounds, a western boutique filled with the leather-scented dreams most cowgirls lust over. In the shop, she gravitated toward a handmade pendant. It was a large brass portrait medallion. The image was clearly one printed from who-knows-where, a cheap repro of the original portrait of a smug cowpoke. The original was, no doubt, just that--the real thing. The unnamed puncher donned in threadbare britches, a whitish shirt and a broad-brimmed hat might not have had many worldly goods in his life at the time the photograph was taken, but he had pride--scads of it.                                                  
                                                                                              
                                            
     Lynn walked through the store for nearly two hours, but kept returning to that pendant. She could not shake the image, for the man was everything she imagined her own stubborn character to be...crude, boyish, charming and completely unforgettable. She bought it and brought it home. The very next day, she scanned Pinterest boards, looking for nothing in particular. The moment she brought up those pictorial boards, an image seared through her heart: it was a photograph of the old west cowboy, the very same image she had bought the day before, marked simply: C. 1890 Cowboy.                                                     
     Upon letting the pounding of her heart settle back in its place, a frantic yet thorough search for the cowboy revealed...nothing. His image is there, he crops up from time to time to haunt her, and yet, his story remains a mystery. At least, for now. For you see, now that Lynn has learned to listen, that prideful cowboy is whispering the true tales of his stories in her ear. She writes them down as fast as she can. When she strays too far from the truth of her characters, she flounders. Then she must pause, reflecting on the past, and search for what went wrong. Often she has to bite down, swallowing her pride for the good of the story, and trust a little deeper in the whispers of the characters she is writing with. You see, for Lynn, they are more than characters. They are the people who lived the tale, the co-authors of their own tales, and the teachers who guide her down the adventurous journey of history, of authorship, and of self-discovery.

Written by Shayna Lynn Matthews