Plotting

For the next few weeks, I'm digging deep into the craft, working on that elusive concept of plotting. And, I'm very interested in how my process varies from other writers...how do you plot your tales? weave your universes?

I've asked the writers and readers in my Yahoo Publisher's Group on what types of reads they were most interested in. Short, "quickies" if you will - fulfilling stories you can read in 10 minutes or less (frankly, for the mother of toddlers, this is an awesome idea).

Personally, and the general consensus is - that the full length novel is still our over-arching favorite. To read and to write. But in either case, you must give way to plot. A conceivable, believable plot that will draw your readers in from sentence #1, and keep them turning pages late into the night.

If you're like me, you have a trunk full of stories that you've been writing since you could hold a pencil. Most of them are unfinished. Un-plotted. Written by a plotter who was writing like a pantster.

Okay - what's the difference? A plotter knows basically where the story is headed. A pantster writes "by the seat of their pants" - giving life to their characters and letting them go and do as they will.

Writing like a pantster for the past two weeks, working on a short, has been an excellent exercise for me. Allowing my organized self to just let it go and see what happens. Of course, once the bones are there, then the plotter goes back in, fills the holes, revamps the ending, and ties up all loose ends in a nice, neat little bow. We'll see if the latest submission has any merit soon. Hopefully. Perhaps what I've written is actually a first chapter and not a short story, as one of my writer friends mentioned. Aye yai yai. Too late now.

So, with regards to plot - here is what I do when laying one out:

1. Pour a cup of coffee
2. Pick up a yellow note pad
3. Write a quick scene, off the top of my head, introducing me to the hero or heroine I've been chewing on (if no one particular is in mind, I'll add someone into the scene and ask them who they are...)
4. When the mind clicks, (authors, you know what I mean), I give the hero/heroine a problem, and then introduce them to each other. Do they like each other? Have they ever met before?
5. Write out the storyline for the two to solve their problem together.
   If all of the above clicks, you have a story to write through to fruition. If none of the above works, it's back to step 1 tomorrow.

Now - though I'm a plotter, I'm vicious with my stories. I am known to hack my darlings to pieces if I don't believe what they're up to. Often, I'm surprised by what happens. I mourn when someone dies. I laugh with them, cry with them, and lose myself - much to my family's chagrin. Even Rachel now "writes books" at her little student's desk in my office, telling me, "Mommy, read what I've written here!" - okay, voices from MY past - I did the same thing to my mommy. Ha.

If they aren't going anywhere, back in the WIP pile they go. I flip flop from story to story until I fall in love and can't let go. Historical Romances are slightly different, as my plotting process depends a great deal on historical events, research, and finding believable voices and points of view.

I would LOVE to hear your plotting schemes - how your story arch comes into play. Feel free to comment!

Have a blessed day!
~Ashley

Where do the ideas come from...?

I'm in a think tank meeting, and I was just realizing that I am one of those people. Those idea people who think, why not? Why can't we do this? instead of that? And what's more... Where do all of the great ideas come from?

I think that most great ideas must stem from people being ticked off in one way or another. Wondering why something doesn't work as well as it should. Or why there isn't a better way to do something. Quicker. Faster. Cheaper. Better. Or maybe that's just me.

I've been thinking about agendas and organizing and planning, and really - I make fits and starts at it - but the question of the week is - what is your 5 year plan for writing?

That one has kept me up at night. So here's the deal with my writing background. I have always written. I used to dictate to my mother and she would read me back my elaborate tales. I fabricated great stories about riding on fire engines, or seeing a gorilla jump up and down on a policeman. (Some call this fibbing or - lieing. I call it a stellar imagination.)

so, I've always written. Since I was a child and could put pencil to paper. When I hyphenated words after consanants. When I misspelled everything. Okay, so I still need to edit myself - but who's asking. The point is, writers write. Because they have to. Because it is in their blood. Because they need to have that fix. Create that universe. Live in an alternate reality. It's who we are.

So, my 5 year plan for my writing is - to be the best writer I can be. To never give up. To write as many stories as I can. Enter contests. Publish multiple titles in e-book and print. To hone my craft. And, to learn how to juggle the important things, and let the little things drop where they may.

I have a few quotes from the prolific Nora Roberts that really made me understand my craft. And what I need to do to get to the next five years.

(I'm paraphrasing - but this is what I remember from her interview...)

"Write. Write the best story you can. Write what you would want to read. Enjoy
your characters. If you don't enjoy them, no one else will, either. Don't play
favorites. And remember, there are 88 keys on the piano - and think of all of
the beautiful and different songs and types of music."

(This is me again) Every story and character is a unique universe. And with regards to my process, I guess you could say that I write with my heart. I write what I have loved to read, or love to read now. Sometimes it's historical. Sometimes it's a mystery. Sometimes a thriller. But there is always a love story at the heart, because I'm a hopeless romantic. As my daughter Rachel reminded me the other day...

"Every story should start with Once upon a time and should end with ...And they lived happily ever after..."

We only have a limited amount of time on this earth - and personally if I read a book, I want to be entertained. To escape for awhile. To fall in love with a place. The sights. The smells. To miss them when I close the cover. And that, my friends, is how I want to write everything I pour my heart into.

Author Page Up on The Wild Rose Press

Well, ladies and gentlemen...I'm officially "in the garden" as they say. I have my author's link up on The Wild Rose Press website. View it here...

I'm also meeting some fantastic fellow authors - the ladies in the garden are most prolific. It's actually most exciting and gives me a great deal of hope that All or Nothing will be more than a single title for me. Those who know me well know that writing has always been my heart's desire. And, wow. Here we are in rewrites.

Speaking of rewrites, here's a note as to progress:
I'm up to page 87 of 304. I feel really good of about 80 of them. (The page number/total changes as I rip scenes out, rewrite the POV, and I have to admit - some I mourn the loss of and others I can't believe I ever clung to as if a liferaft in a stormy sea!)

My overwhelming issue has been with my supporting cast, if you will. Yes, it's interesting to know who they are and how they think and feel, but as Elizabeth has reminded me again and again, the story is about RuthAnne and Bowen. And come to think of it, I'm a glosser over myself when I'm reading chapters such as these. AND when you gloss over your own chapters, that would be a big warning bell I would think.

The Online Writer's group I've joined is really neat. So far, I've "met" an author/cover artist from San Diego - and Canada - and various other well wishers who all lend phenomenal support. I've evaluated my character's opinions about me... (yikes. Never suspected Bowen would consider me a gossip!) and all of that. Crazy. Now I am looking to consider my writing process. Well, fits and starts seems most appropriate these days.

I have a stack of half finished plot outlines, WIPs and scraps of paper with ideas that I had at 3:45 am - which apparently is when my brain wakes up with creative fervor! my body however, flings a pillow over my head and forces me back into a restless slumber. That is, until I'm summoned by two year old Ellie to soothe a nightmare, fetch a cup of water, and now for heaven's sake! take her to the potty. She's 2! she potty trained herself and doesn't even use her pull up at night! must limit her fluid intake prior to bedtime. MUST. *sigh* Maybe I'll finally get the hang of motherhood by the time they go to college.

Of course, last night - my inspiration is this love of time travel romances that is flitting through the garden. I have one in my drawer - in need of a rewrite since many elements from that one migrated to All or Nothing (my stories are by no means monogomous in their pre-published formats).

SO - perhaps this one - Working title "The Hawk and the Raven" - a 3:47 am inspiration - might get my attention next. I will say this. Seeing all of these amazing women working on multiple projects, juggling family, career, life, the universe, and everything is incredibly inspirational. I finally feel like I've found where I belong.

Until tomorrow!