Birth of a Novel Blog Chain Week 1

Today is our first Birth of a Novel blog chain. Thanks to Elizabeth Poole for coming up with the idea. As you can see, I'm doing the Nano version (need not play to take part in this blog chain, BTW, so sign up if you want to join. Email me and I'll put you on the list.)

For my first entry, I'll be filling you in on my goals for Nanowrimo, and telling you a bit more about my chosen project for the month.

My goal for Nano is to get the complete draft of that summer  novel I never wrote on paper. That will be at least 50K. I'm aiming for about 75K for the finished project. This will be my first YA Urban Fantasy, so wish me luck! The idea has been stewing for a year now.

How about my back jacket blurb?

Everything you've ever heard about faeries is a lie.
Lies they told to keep us from learning the truth.
The truth? They live among us, sentenced to watch over and nurture their greatest mistake.
Us.
Ryanne never believed in faerie tales, and yet all the eyes of the Fae are watching her.
And they hope she will be the one to set them free.

And some of the images I chose as inspiration?

 

And there will be Celtic flavors throughout. Imagine a garden laid out in the Five-fold design.

What Inspires Your Writing?

This week I'll be answering some of the questions you posted for me last week after THIS POST. If you didn't get a chance to ask a question, feel free to head over and leave me a comment. As I answer the question, I'm going to highlight the reader who asked it just a bit. This will give you an opportunity to meet new bloggers, and who knows, maybe find new besties.

Kiru Taye writes passionate romance novels about sexy heroes and sassy heroines in hot exotic Africa. Her (first?) book titled His Treasure, comes out December 2, 2011.

She asked, "What inspires your writing?"

There are so many things that spark ideas for me. A lot of my story ideas come from crazy dreams that I have. In fact, the Draguman from Sendek hunted me down in a dream when I was nineteen. They were a bit more like the Egyptian god Anubis, but I wrote the dream down, sketched the creatures and filed it away. Years later I pulled it out and started building a story around them. It took on a life of its own, but you know how that goes.

I also love people watching. Sitting at the playground, in the mall, in restaurants, you name it. People do so many lovely, brilliant, and stupid things. For instance, I don't drink but last week I watched people get totally sloshed on the cruise. It was the funniest thing I've ever watched. Now I can write about something I haven't personally experienced with a little more realism.

Anytime I feel strong emotions I write down how it affects my body. Trying to find the words is hard, and I don't think I've gotten it quite right, but it is a good exercise.

Music inspires me. I often wonder about the story behind the lyrics. What situation pulled that string of words from the writer? Sometimes entire stories grow from my wonderings.

Pictures, landscapes, etc. Here is a website that I like to visit and look at art. Cool Vibe

I like sci fi/ fantasy, but I'm sure you can find other places for pictures to match your preferred genre.

Now it's your turn, what inspires your writing?

I'm counting hours now...

The kids go back to school tomorrow!

I'm so excited because it means I'll be back on a schedule. And that means WRITING time!

You have no idea how many ideas have come and gone at times when there was no paper or pen to be found! (Ok, you guys probably do know.) And at 11:45PM. Yes. And I've been bad, I didn't get up and jot them down. Oh, the sorrow!

But this week I've been dreaming details into my Fallen Angel story. Figuring out the back story, the motivations, fleshing out the characters, and I've almost figured out where I want to take that little piece I wrote so long ago. Some things will have to change, but I'm getting really excited again.

And you know, that feels really nice. I've missed the joy of just sitting and letting my imagination flow. Escaping into a  new world. That's my favorite part about writing. Trying to find the words to convey the pictures playing out in my head. Isn't it wonderful to have a good working imagination?


How is your writing going? Is it easier for you to write in the fall and winter or do you get more done in the summer?

Thunder Always Follows Lightning

Don't you love it when you are deep in revisions and lightning strikes?

That thing you just couldn't figure out is suddenly crystal clear. And it ties things up oh so nicely. It makes you feel good. It makes you feel all brilliant and sparkly.

A day or two goes by and this bolt of lightning has time to simmer and spread. It's still perfect, but...

something starts to nag at you.

Say for instance, you find a way to resolve a major problem in book 4 of your series. Its heart warming happy making while still being a bit sad. Its the perfect feeling you want. There's hope for the MC finding joy, but there's a built in distance/time frame to achieving it. That perfect bitter sweet sigh. But...

You start to ask yourself:

1. Am I taking the easy way out?

You answer no.

2. How am I going to pull that off?

3. How will each of these little technical details affect the delivery and final payoff?

And it's these details that roil and pound the inside of your head. Then you ask yourself:

4. Are all these details back story? Do I even need to know these details? Will anyone else care? Will someone put the book down and say, "Wait! Why is he a hatchling instead of a fully grown dragon?" *waves magic wand of confusion*

5. If he's fully grown how do I deal with the time differential between planetary travel? Will the worm hole portal be sufficient?

6. Who/how/when decides who ascends and who doesn't?

And on and on.

Suddenly that bolt of lightning is no longer beautiful and shiny because it has charred your brains. Maybe it isn't such a good idea after all and you should scrap the whole thing. But it feels right for this story.

Then you groan, tug out a few strands of hair and type a blog post because you need to know if you're completely crazy.

Question for you: When you are writing or plotting (which I'm actually doing!) how detailed to you get? Do those details drive you nuts?

Ya see, I worked out this elaborate spell with ingredients and everything for book one and I'm not even using it in the MS. I worked out all the rules of magic for book two and then moved some of them into book one. Now I'm trying to figure out the details of ascension in my universe. Am I over thinking this whole thing?

In other news, this is what I'm listening to in order to calm down a bit.

Book 'em Dano...

Oops, this is Wednesday's post, but I hit the wrong button. :D

I had a different post scheduled for today, but I had to share my experience from last night instead. This goes along with the popular thought that writers should get out of the house and live some life. Learn new things and you'll find inspiration for your writing with the experience to back it up.

In an effort to be a good cub scout mom, I drove my son and another boy to their activity at the police station, four year old also in tow. When we arrived the front doors were locked and another parent with five additional boys were running around the parking lot trying to get in. It was FREEZING, as in 23 degrees outside. After trying every door we returned to the front and someone noticed us and let us in.

Two detectives and one patrolman proceeded to talk to our twelve boys about all kinds of cool things. We got to hold the hand cuffs (they were heavier than I thought they would be), listen to a tour of all the things on the patrolman's belt (lots of stuff!), watch him expand and demonstrate the baton (I can't remember the other word he called it), describe how a taser works, and then watch a demonstration of it. You should have seen the hands shoot up after that. These 8-10 year old boys were dying to be tased!

We listened to the patrolman talk about crime prevention and home and car safety before taking a tour of the station. The patrolmen shared cubicles on one side and the detectives on the other. We saw the evidence room and lockers, the interrogation rooms and everything. It was fascinating. There was also a slide show and explanation of how the detectives gather evidence at a crime scene. Finally the boys got to dust for their own fingerprint and then pull it up with tape. They looked at it under a microscope and tried to decide if it was a whorl, loop, or wave.

Before we left, one of the detectives was called away for a break in. They used a K-9 and caught the suspect. The doors to the room we were in had to be closed since they were bringing the guy in for questioning. It was quite exciting, because the whole place sort of woke up and they were more careful about keeping us all in one place. The boys thought it was really cool that they were going to take him into the interrogation room we had just looked at.

I left wanting to write a detective novel. Now, I've always enjoyed a good detective novel, but I don't have a dead body or any other crime to build a story around. But by golly, I was inspired last night. Who should I kill or what should I steal?

PS, at the end, the Police officer asked who wanted to be a policeman when he grew up. My four year old hid his head in my lap and looked so sad. When I asked him what was wrong he said, "I don't want to be a policeman. I wanted to be a fireman." He thought he had to be one since they gave him a badge sticker.

PSS, I'm not really going to write a detective novel. Not yet anyway, but now my brain is mulling it over so who knows?