Chocolate Milk & A Sharp Left to Nowhere...

I'm sitting here on my couch with my glass of yummy chocolate milk contemplating where my novel is going. I have it laid out in my mind, but dragging it out of my head has become a problem today. I'm 7500 words into it and somehow about 1500 ago it lost its way and took a sharp left at the car rental place to rent a car to go somewhere. Where I don't know. I think my MC needs to learn to use the GPS that is installed in the rental car she and her best friend rented.

After researching for hours and hours about the Cajun Loup-Garou, I'm not really finding any specific locations or types of things I'm looking for, so I'm taking a new route. I'm changing locations of the story. Back to my original idea of a small town, even though its been over done like a million times. Every werewolf type story I've ever read happens in a small town. Actually a lot of the monster type stories evolve in small towns. I may even change my "monster" into something a little bit different than your typical werewolf. I'm not sure yet. I'm still compiling notes and research. I know I'll figure it out though, so I'm not stressing about it. It's just pretty aggravating when it starts out easy and then I have to get the pry bar out of the garage to pry it out of my head. I'm sure if you're a writer, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

A Peek Inside... my new WIP

I thought I’d share a bit about what my newest novel is about. When this idea first popped in my head (about 5 days ago)  came out as a were wolf story with The Three Little Pigs twist. Well once I started writing it, I couldn’t really place the twist in there. I mean sure I could eventually, but as I wrote and thought about my story while painting my dining room, I thought about another well-known fairy tale -  Little Red Riding Hood.  What better story to rewrite for an older crowd of readers. I know, right?

Therefore, I figure this I can put it into the story with no problems, but with a twist. There will be no grandmother, but a best friend instead. The MC is a photojournalist who originally began looking for a story on legends in New Orleans, but instead discovered a different story to follow and is now in search of a story about the Loup-Garou who is the Wolf.

This story just would not leave me alone, so for a day or so I only thought about it. How everything would begin and end. Even as I tanned, images of the MC and the wolf ran through my head like a film clip. Her running down the street with her best friend who followed her to New Orleans, the two eating dinner in little cafes, and shopping in the small voodoo shops. The entire book is playing over and over in my head like a movie – I guess that’s why its been so easy to write thus far. I’m just so ecstatic about this book. And believe it or not I even have my boyfriends support this time around. My last project or three, he wasn’t supportive, but this time he was. He listened to what my story was about and said it was a great idea. He even ask me when he gets home if I wrote more of my story that day.  He hasn’t asked to read it yet, but I expect that. He’s not a reader unless it involves Camaro’s, engines, Hot Rods, well you get the idea. 

Happy Friday Everyone!

Wow this week just flew by. I hope everyone is enjoying the awesome weather on this great Friday afternoon. I have chosen to work on my book today, at least for the most part. In between writing I've been checking out some of the blogs I follow. Something I've been lacking on lately due to being involved in a ton of other things. I want to thank all of you who follow my blog and leave comments here and there. I'm trying to keep up with and return the favor.

There's still so much to get done before our guests come to stay for a few weeks. Eleven days to be exact. The guest room has been completed and there are only 2 rooms left to do finished. Once they're done, the tile can be placed and the carpet can be installed.

Well, back to my writing. I'm on chapter 3 and its all flowing out pretty well.  I'm writing about 1,500 words a day now. I plan to write more today though. So far, so good - knock on wood.

Update: Today I've written 3,000 + words on my novel.

Editing as You Go??? Good or Bad?

This morning I was looking through the blogs I follow and found Sarah's Confessions of the Unpublished with a post about Wannabe Writers and of course this perked my interests. Along with this interest and in continuance of my comment, I decided to post some pictures here of my new way of getting my story from my head and onto paper without the horror and time wasting of editing what I just pushed out of my brain and onto the screen. 

When I start to write, I usually don't know where it's going. It's just something that is trapped in my brain that needs to hit the screen. So, thats what I do. I type out everything as I see it in my head. The characters are built by my fingers upon the keyboard along with every other aspect of their world. Then, when I reach 10 or 11 pages, I scroll back up and do the most awful thing I could ever do to bring my thoughts and novel to a complete HALT. My fingers give life to my novel as they also taketh away. I edit. I delete, move things around, change the characters... you name it, I do it. And then after I finish all the editing and drowning all of my creativity, my novel doesn't move forward any more. So, the day before yesterday I was chatting to a good friend of mine and she showed me some notebooks that she had purchased to work on her screen writing and novel. 

Then LIGHTBULB, I decided to borrow her idea, (Thanks Lisa), and started writing every idea (characters, traits, dialogue, scenes, plots, settings, etc.) into the notebook. I moved everything (post-its, both laptops, hightlighters, my notebook, pens, camera, box of index cards, magazines, etc.) into my idea room (my couch in the living room) and started writing. With in about 3 hours I had 3 pages written. Sure, there are a lot of scribbles, hightlighting, and lines, but I actually have a plot, setting, and quite a great crew of characters all written in black ink in my cute little pink journal. This is the most progress I've made in weeks. I'm so happy. 

I find that by using a notebook, I don't get sidetracked trying to research ways to write a novel on the internet. I have found some great books on Amazon about writing, creating characters, etc. and bought a few. I haven't received them yet. A few of them are:

Writing For Young Adults

Writing and Selling The Young Adult Novel

From First Draft to Finished Novel: A Writer's Guide to Cohesive Story Building

Those are just a few. 

Plotting with Index Cards

How do you plot your stories. I came across something earlier today on ways to plot your story. Various index cards, each a different color that represent something or someone in within the story. For example: 

• Pink: Characters
• Blue: Inner Conflict
• Yellow: Setting
• White: Plot Problems
• Orange: The Theme
• Green: Various Dialogue

I have a similar system, just not colored cards. I use white cards, 4x6 to be exact (much larger work space to write), and use a colored highlighter, either pink, blue, green, orange, etc. to organize whats what. I write character names even if they're not currently in my WIP. I can possibly use them in other stories at some point and if not, they can inspire me with my current characters.

I write down dialogue that I think may fit somewhere. Maybe Maggie (one of my characters) might say something to her little brother like, "You poopy face. I hate you!" or "I'm telling Mom!". You know how kids are. But you get the idea. This has worked for me so far in my current WIP. I spent a few hows last night before bed writing up somethings on my cards and this morning reviewed them adding more to story. 

What's your system for plotting out your story?