Ewww!

Crazy Busy!

Back later... hope your day is less action-packed than mine!

Off Writing Synopses

Wish me luck! ;-)

P.S.
What're you up to today? Something more fun than synopses?

Wall-Bangers & Book Etiquette

I was thinking about the term "wall-banger". Does anybody really throw books against the wall?

*erica shudders*

Not me! I practically burst into tears if I accidentally crease the spines. And I will use any random object within arm's reach before dog-earing a corner to mark my spot. Books are just... special to me. I get really honked off when I check out a library book and there's coffee stains and missing pages and highlighted passages---Grrr.

(I seem to have a lot of Care And Feeding Of Books angst today.)

Anybody else out there cringe when a book you loaned out comes back creased and bent? Or are you a spine-breaker and corner-folder?

P.S. I'm over in Mavenland today dishing about POV and Sub Plots--come tell me whether you agree or disagree with my assertions! =)

Storyboards & Setting as Character

Happy day-after-Tofurkey-day... Or whatever it is you non-vegetarian types eat. *g
(I'm still sick, so I had instant oatmeal. Mmmmm.)

I did manage to post 3 great reasons to storyboard over at the Manuscript Mavens blog, and my thoughts on Setting as Character over at Romantic Inks.

Come say hi to me--It'll make me feel better! =)

I lied!

As you can see, I didn't get a typical Erica long-winded post up at the crack of dawn. That's because I'm Coughy McCougherson and am not doing much of anything. :(

Be back as soon as I can...

E

Flying Home!

Due to a two-flight + layover situation and the time zone joy that comes with changing coasts, you will not see me online much today. But I will be back bright & early tomorrow!

Don't let me be lonely!

Come visit me at Romantic Inks where I dish about an ah-ha moment I got on a 757, and how it's helping me pump up the action when writing scenes.

More Pics!

Tonight, Lace is driving down from Seattle to Portland, and she and Darc and I are going on the Portland Underground Walking Tour.

YOUR TURN: Whatcha got going on this weekend? Are you a fan of walking tours? I'd love to hear about the best ones you've been on. Oh, and of course--feel free to snark captions for the photoage. *g

Shenanigans!

No photos (because I'm STUPID and left my camera in my purse all night) but tonight I got to hang out with my pals Maven Darc, Kendra, and Stephanie Rowe (the latter of which you may recognize as being *all over* my Read in 2007 list.) Sooo much fun! Hanging out with other writers rocks!!!

E

P.S.
Missed you, Kerry B!

Snark a Caption: Round 3

Got another one for you! This is a little Where's Waldo-y, but I swear I'm in there somewhere. =)



YOUR TURN: Go ahead, snark a caption for this photo! (And don't forget to snark the "ass" photo and the Microsoft photo, too!)

Snark a Caption: Round 2

Erica's extremely productive writing retreat with the Mavens continues!



YOUR TURN: Go ahead, snark a caption for this photo! (And don't forget to snark the "ass" photo, too!)

Snark a Caption: Round 1

Finally, photos!!

I'll be uploading these once or twice a day until I run out of humiliating photo evidence of the ongoing Maven retreat. (You'll see just how productive we are. *g)



YOUR TURN: Go ahead, snark a caption for this photo!

Portland!

And now I'm in Portland! Whoo! As soon as I get new batteries for my camera, I upload some pix of the trip so far for you. Hopefully later today.

In the meantime, there's new blood over at the Mavens! In the spirit of Good Karma Tuesday, today's random prize winner will be from those who go say hi to the brand new Maven Carrie (and leave me a note here so I know!).

YOUR TURN: Before/after you say hi to Carrie over on the MavenBlog, dish me what's been going on! I've been doing more plotting than writing... how about you? Are you Sven/NaNoing?

Two Places at Once!

I'm still in Seattle... and I'm over at the Manuscript Mavens blog today. Come visit! =)

Seattle Shenanigans

I am in Seattle for the Maven retreat, now through Monday the 19th. I'll post to the blog as possible, but if I'm uncharacteristically silent, it's because I'm busy being productive! =)

And: w00t to my pal C.L. Wilson who just hit #26 on the NYT best-seller list! Yayayayayay!!!

YOUR TURN: While I'm mavening in the northwest, what're you up to? Got anything fun on tap over the next week and a half?

Unimaginable Behavior

I'm in Seattle! Lacey picked me up at the airport yesterday afternoon and all sorts of fun shenanigans have already ensued... but more on that tomorrow. First, I want to get your opinion on something:

Night before last, I went out to dinner at a local pub/restaurant. From my booth, I had a ringside view of the bar area. A man and two women (all 20- or 30-something) sat front and center, the two women flanking him. Except to occasionally glance at the game being televised above their heads, I barely registered their presence.

Until.

Midway through my meal (and theirs), the guy smacks Girl #1. Just reaches over, mid-conversation, and slaps her. Hard enough that my jaw fell open. Hard enough that she was struck silent. (Literally.) Hard enough that she spent the next couple minutes rubbing at the bridge of her nose.

CrazyMan (the smacker) continued eating and drinking and conversing with Girl #2 until Girl #1 stopped massaging her face and rejoined the conversation as if nothing happened.

My mouth remained open.

Not only did Girl #1 not acknowledge being slapped across the face, neither did Girl #2 or CrazyMan himself. Those two carried on laughing and chatting until Girl #1 recovered enough to jump back in, which she did, with giggles and happy claps and another round of drinks.

So I ask you: What the hell was that???

The expression "couldn't believe my eyes" so applies in this case. I was torn between calling the cops on CrazyMan's antics, and smacking Girl #1 myself for letting him get away with it.

I couldn't tell whether CrazyMan was dating Girl #1, or Girl #2, or neither, or both, but man, I am still shocked. Several restaurant guests glanced up at the sound of his hand across her face. And most of them immediately looked away, when it was clear none of the party in question were remotely fazed by that turn of events. (I was, and continue to be, quite fazed.)

YOUR TURN: Question in three parts:

1) Have you ever witnessed something so dumbfounding, you didn't know what to do except stare and wish you knew what to do? If so, what?

2) What should I have done??? Nothing? Called a hotline? Shanked CrazyMan with my steak knife?

3) From a writer standpoint, what kind of characterization/backstory can you think up that would lead to such an event? Might Girl #1 be his wife? sister? neighbor? a victim? BDSM buddy? an actress? a blind date? a prostitute? a bet loser? wth?

Good Karma Tuesday

Three things I'm thankful for today:
* My pal Kel, who spent an amazing afternoon of brainstorming with me this weekend
* My pal Carrie F, who's never too busy to type up emergency garage sale pricing (thanks, CF!)
* Costa Rica, makers of the coffee that gets me going every morning.

Don't forget to leave your Three Thankful Things in the comments!

Today is a crazy day around here as I scramble to take care of my client shenanigans so I can pack up and head to Seattle tomorrow for the Maven Retreat.

However, I'm not too busy for Good Karma Tuesday!

Two winners today:

* Leigh Russell
* Camilla Bartley

You won for just being you! (Well, and commenting here so we could meet! *g)

Claim your prize:

Cathy Maxwell: In The Bed Of A Duke


Sydney Ryan: High-Heeled Alibi


Iris Johansen: The Ugly Duckling


Megan Frampton: A Singular Lady


YOUR TURN: How's your karma? What have you done for you lately? Have you been kind to others without expecting anything in return? Has someone else done something kind for you? Confess your karma!

Bookshelf: Dwight Swain

Lately, I've been reading Dwight Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer (1965) and being pleasantly surprised by all the ah-ha moments embedded within.



Today, I'd like to discuss what it means to be a writer. To that end, I'm going to copy and paste (er, type up, as my mouse doesn't seem to work with the printed page) a snippet from Chapter 8: Preparation, Planning, Production.

Please leave feedback in the comments! I'll be around all day to discuss. =)

###

The greatest talent in writing is nerve. Ignorance must be defeated in the process, and inertia also.

So now the alarm clock is ringing. What do you do about it?

1. You learn what it means to be a writer.
2. You learn how to recognize good story material.
3. You learn how to prepare to write a story.
4. You learn your own best way to plan it.
5. You learn how to get out copy.

To succeed as a writer, you must be enthusiastic.

Why is enthusiasm so important?

Because writing is murderously hard, lonely, frustrating work, upon occasion. Unless a project excites you to begin with, odds are you'll stand ready to slash your wrists before it's done. ...Maybe you will anyhow, as a matter of fact. But at least, with enthusiasm, you improve the percentages a little.

You must be self-disciplined.

No one really gives a damn if you don't make it as a writer. No one, that is to say, except you yourself.

Further, no one's going to pay you for the stories you don't write.

This means you have to be your own taskmaster. If you're not up to the job, you can always sack groceries for a living, in a store where someone else tells you what to do and when to do it.

To succeed as a writer means getting up in the morning, even when you'd rather sleep.

It means working when you'd much prefer to take in a movie or go swimming.

Really working, too; not just staring, trance-like, out the window.

It's your decision.

###

P.S. I'm over at the Manuscript Mavens today, dishing up some fun stuff. Come stop by!

YOUR TURN: What do you think about Swain's words? I consider myself an extremely self-motivated writer. I absolutely agree that the only person who *makes* me be that way is me, and my enthusiasm is key. What keeps YOU motivated? What keeps you excited and in your seat every day, ready to go to work on your WIP? Or *do* you do that?

Ordinary World, Black Moments, & Resolving Conflict

Last night, I went to the Mahaffey Theater here in town to see Wedding Singer, the Musical based off of the Adam Sandler film of the same name.

As is my wont ever since pursuing a writing career, I couldn't help but view various elements as plot events rather than mere scenes in a story.

ORDINARY WORLD

In now-classic volumes like Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces and Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey, the idea is put forth of a specific path characters follow to reach their journey, and that this path inevitably starts with the characters' Ordinary World, so we get to see what their life is like today before bopping them on the head with a mythic quest or dead body or missing child or whatever will change their lives tomorrow.

However, we as contemporary fiction authors (particularly those of us who are romance authors, like myself, but this may be true to genres across the board) are often if not always told to start with the action, in medias res, begin with the story actually happening, a page one line one meet and greet between the hero and heroine if possible, and we will figure out the rest from there.

What I found interested about The Wedding Singer from a writer's standpoint, is that they did both.

The story opens with the hero and heroine engaged to be married--but not to each other. So we get to see them meet, right in the first scene, even though their Ordinary World is that they're on an un-collision course to marry someone else.

WHICH RESOLVES FIRST: THE IC OR THE EC?

Another eternal writer's debate (which we will likely never solve, as I believe it's a personal-preference meets what's-right-for-the-story issue) is the question of which plot thread must be resolved first: the internal conflict or the external conflict.

Do they [rescue the baby/catch the killer/escape the tornado/win the tournament/reach the altar/tell the truth/vanquish the army/survive the apocalypse] before or after they get over their hangups and confess their love?

And once they do verbally admit their love to each other, must they then attack External Conflict elements before being able to move toward a satisfying Happy Ever After?

In the Wedding Singer, in some ways, both are done in unison. (Plot spoiler incoming, but seriously, the movie came out in 1998 so hopefully you've seen it by now!) An action taken by the hero simultaneously informs the heroine of his love--and gets rid of her jerkweasel of a fiance. Technically, she axes the fiance once she learns hero returns her love, so you might say EC came last, except that immediately before this scene, hero gives his own evil fiancee the boot, which knocks *his* EC out of the way.

BLACK MOMENT

Another writerly debate is: what, specifically, causes the Black Moment? That point right before/after (depending who you ask) the Climax where it seems all hope is lost?

I can think of any number of books/movies/plays where this moment of darkness is brought about by forces outside the hero's control. But about a year ago, I attended another author's craft class in which she put forth the alternate beneath that the Black Moment needs to derive directly from the hero/heroine's choices--particularly bad choices.

Now, I had seen many a black moment come from a hero's heroic actions--he either saves the town or he saves the girl, but he cannot do both, etc. How could a black moment come from him making wrong decisions?

Well, in the Wedding Singer, the black moments (because I would argue each character has their own) come directly from the hero and heroine making bad decisions. (And, as is so often the case in movies, this is helped along by a healthy dose of Simple Misunderstanding. I do try to avoid ye olde BigMis in the written word.)

In this play/movie, each character has an opportunity to make things right, but at the pivotal moment, they make an incorrect assumption followed by a bad decision, which then spirals into a black moment. The heroine even compounds her bad decision by ramping up the timeline with her evil fiance, making the climax very much a now-or-never situation.

YOUR TURN: So, I ask you: How do you balance Ordinary World and Starting With Action in your work?

What resolves first, the Internal Conflict or the External Conflict?

Should the Black Moment be a result of external forces, hero's heroics, or hero's bad decisions?

In what books/plays/movies have you seen these three elements done well/badly?