Little Buddy Kisses and Sub-plots

It's time for Viclit's Celebrate the Small Things!

Today I am celebrating chubby little arms wrapping around my neck and sloppy kisses in my hair.  After two years of cuddling my youngest son, kissing his fuzzy head and telling him "I love you" he is returning it to me in the sweet way only a toddler can.  He even says "uv you" in my ear.  Two may be a challenging age in some aspects but parts of it are just wonderful.

My second celebration is that I have an idea for a sub-plot that makes me want to sit down and write it now (even though I have a mile long to do list..).  I think it will add some depth and intrigue to my main plot and the idea came just in time.  I have a week to figure it out before JuNoWriMo starts.
Now I am off to make some of my favorite coffee and start tackling my to do list!

Meeting my Characters

       How is it that I feel like I meet my characters when my mind is the one that made them up?  Its  slightly disturbing if I stop to think about it...  I do love it when things just fall in place, however.  I will be writing and I just know that my character likes green and that she's scared of being vulnerable and that she hides behind her bold actions.  It makes it easy to know how she will react and what it will take to motivate her.  Sometimes I stop and ponder what my characters are like but most of the time their personalities just show up.  I realized this when I was answering a list of questions I found on a blog called Writer of Wrongs.  Most of the answers were just there for the taking whether I had thought about them or not. It was really rather fun! 
    Oh, but there is a limit to this magic.  I only seem to meet the good guys in my stories.  The bad guys are standoffish and slow to cue me in to their motives and personalities.  Its more like I'm chasing them around hoping that they will drop some sort of clue about themselves.  They don't even like to tell me their names.  Maybe I need to watch more movies with compelling villains.  At least my latest villain has a name and he has brown hair.  That's a start anyway...  I wonder why he likes to pick on my MC so much...  Maybe she will tell me, seeing that she is the more talkative one out of the two.

I'd love to hear how you come up with your characters or if they are like mine and sorta just show up!

Revisions

I've been revising all week.  I'm not sure if I love it or not but I don't hate it.  That is good enough, I suppose.  I think I will find it more exciting once I get past this first round.  I'm basically reading through and answering questions about every scene.
The questions I'm asking are:

1. Whose point of view is this scene from?
2. What is the goal of this scene?
3. Is the character consistent?
4. Is the conflict strong?
5. Does it end with a disaster of a hook?
6. Is the tension escalating?

I found these questions and a lot of other useful information at writerunboxed.
It is a guest post by Cathy Yardley.
I'm not following her methods completely but it gave me a great place to start.  I have answered these questions for the first 23 scenes of my book and I am noticing some interesting facts about my writing.

• I almost always have character consistency.
• I almost never have enough action/conflict.  I come off as passive when I shouldn't.
• I have lots of hooks and not enough disasters, which is probably why my work lacks action...

I take this to mean that I'm stronger in character development then I am in plot/action.  Now that I see these areas pointed out so blatantly I can begin to improve my work (hopefully!).  I also have detected a few major holes in my plot.  For example,my main character risks his life to get information from the enemy camp.  What is the information?  I never said.  What did they do with it?  Um...  Yeah...  That is going to need some work.  They did nothing with it.  Ever.  Discovering one's flaws is humbling but I feel like I am learning so much right now and that is encouraging.

Writing Updates and Goals

     I am happy that April is over.  I loved the A-Z challenge and am happy with my collection of children's stories.  I survived being the maid of honor at a wedding and traveling 12 hours each direction with my three children (leaving our lab/Great Dane puppy at the kennel was an awesome decision!).  Despite how well all these things went, I am drained.  I am ready for a new month.

    Last month my main goal was to avoid looking at the first draft of my novel "Awaken".  I succeeded, mostly, anyway.  After spending months immersed in it I found it hard to leave it alone.  I read all of  the Tiger's Curse books by Colleen Houck except for the last 50 pages of the final book.  Somehow the library here had a review copy of the book that was complete except for the final 50 pages...  How cruel is that?  I guess I will have to go to the downtown library and hope that they have the complete book.  I also read Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare and bits and pieces of books on revising.  I didn't do much writing other than my a-z stories.  I did start my next novel though! It deserves its own paragraph so more on that in a minute.

    My goals for May are:

• read 2 YA books
• plug away at the stack of review books that's staring at me
• begin revising "Awaken"
• finish plotting my new WIP (even though I've started writing it already...)
• write 2 short stories with the end goal being magazine submission

Knowing me, I will probably draft quite a bit on my new WIP, as well. 

   I made a post a while ago about following the muse.  I am so happy that I did!  My latest work in progress makes me smile every time I think about it.  I don't know if this will be it's final name but for now I am calling it "Simmer". 

Here is a line that may or may not be included in the book but I think it tells a lot about the tone of the book.

It was their way or die, or so they said. We looked around. The mainlanders were puppets. The islander’s were asleep, afraid to open their eyes to reality. We would settle for neither. We took to the sea. 

Following the Muse

   I've been slowly working on my next YA novel.  It is in the idea stage still. The plan was to take this month easy. Then in May I was going to work more on my new book and start revising my first one.   My plans changed when my muse attacked me this afternoon.  I'd say inspired but it is to gentle of a word for the intensity of the idea. I tried to push it aside so I could finish folding the laundry but it wouldn't leave me alone.  I finally went running to my computer to type out the basic storyline.  Let's just say that I still need to fold the laundry and I now have a new work in progress.
  Revising "Awaken" is still my priority next month and I don't want to abandon my other WIP but somehow I am going to fit in this new idea.  I think I would be crazy not to try.  I hope I can do it justice.  Now to fold that laundry....  or so I hope.

Reasons and Beginnings

   I keep trying to decide where I should start with my blog.  I am  new to blogging and I find it rather intimidating.  I suppose the best place to start is with why I have chosen to create this blog in the first place.  So...  here it goes!
    I have two main reasons for my little blog.  The first is that I love to write.  I have always loved the written word.  Reading other peoples ideas and stories is fascinating to me but writing down my own thoughts and watching them take shape is even better.  Unfortunately I find myself thinking more then doing.  My ideas seldom make it to paper.  I always feel inadequate.  Instead of being passive about my dreams I have decided to work towards them.  I see this blog as a place to start.  Maybe my writing is inadequate but only practicing will improve it and this seems like an excellent place to begin.
   My second reason is that I love finding joy in the simple things in life. I love watching yarn take shape in my hands and turn into a blanket for my baby to snuggle.  I love hearing my oldest son say "yum" when I hand him a plate of something that I have cooked and I love teaching my children at home around our table.  I lead a quiet life. Quiet, but full of loved ones and meaningful work.  It is my desire to share it with you.