Random Thoughts: Spreading Yourself Too Thin

I think every writer does this at one time or another. I have a tendency to do it from time to time. In fact I'm doing it right now - it's not something I can't handle but I need to organize myself better or it will get the best of me.

Say it ain't so Barbara...

Yeah, I sometimes have a bit much on my plate. Right now the new group I belong to called the #RHACafe - you might have heard me talking about this in an earlier post - is working hard on getting our names out there. We have a great time and about once a month each of us host a day on our FB page. Mine is tomorrow.

I help edit the MFRW Newsletter - for those of you who don't know about this group and you're a writer you need to google them - or bing them - whatever works for you. They are a wonderful group of writer banning together to help each other learn about marketing and promoting your book(s), brand. There is no promoting on the loop and you can learn a lot.

I also sort of got volunteered to write an article once a month on marketing - for which I feel so clueless about but I'll give it a go and see how I do. Right now I'm trying to come up with a post- not sure what I'll write about and it's driving me a little nuts.

I'm trying to finish the edits on Stolen Desire. It is taking far too long and I want to pull my hair out. But I'll get there, I know it.

My latest WIP in the series is pushing hard for me to write it when I had hoped to write a nice little funny short for Melange Books, but the pushy WIP has forced me to put it on the back burner. I also have another story I want to dust off and work on but pushy WIP won't let me.

Now normally I can handle this. As you can see most of them is once a month - no big deal but when they all land on the same time frame I get a little um...crazy. Like now.

But the posts for RHACafe are ready for tomorrow and the newsletter is done so I can breathe for a second.

I even got a little writing done tonight!

Barb:)

Writing Down the Bones: Research can be a Story Killer

Research is a very important part of the writing process. From writing fantasy to historicals you need to do your research. You have to decide what your world will be like in fantasies, science fiction and futuristic novels. Are you going to model it after a culture on Earth. Then you need to know how they live, what they wear, etc. In historicals you have to know what life was like, what was in the news, clothing, lifestyles anything and everything to make your story as real as possible.

But most of that research needs to stay in your head. As an editor I see all sorts of books, and had edited a few that have so much research information in them that it drags the story down. It's great that you do all that research but showing your reader how much research you had to do is not a good idea. Most don't need to know all the facts and how you got them as long as you got them right.

So what is too much?

That can be as subjective as can be, but I always say use as little as possible. I had to do research for a Portrait in Time and Love on the Run. I studied the timeline, as much as I could find, types of houses used in Louisiana, the clothing of the period, what sort of crops grew in that area - everything. It's one of the reasons I picked rice as a crop instead of cotton. It was grown in LA back in the 1880's.

In Love on the Run I had to find out how the train system worked. Which trains went where. That took a lot of time but I didn't bore my reader with all the tidbits I learned. By the way - did you know that the movies got it wrong with the bright colored clothing on a train? Soot from the coal powering the train would ruin your clothing.

My SF/Futuristics are the same way. The research is world building, but if you base your race off of a culture from Earth, like using the Blackfoot or the Incas, you need to know about their way of life. What sort of ceremonies they do. It doesn't mean you'll use it but you should know it.

What does your world look like? Does it have purple skies? Why? Is the air thinner there? Why? Cooler? why? This is where your research comes in. And your hours of research might only be one line in your book.

Research is important but it needs to go into the same file as your character development. Something you pull out to make the scene more three dimensional but not as a tool to say "Hey, look how much I learned to write this book."

Random Thoughts:To Be Nominated!

Love Romance Cafe has their annual Reader Choice Awards going on and I have been nominated in three categories. Holy Cow! I got this warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach when it happened. I feel like I've finally made it.

Writing is a lonely business and you don't always know how people feel about your work. With the Vespian Way series I have gotten wonderful reviews from review sites as well as from readers but they've only been on two of the six books in the series. Like every other author I worry that the series is dying, that my readers have become bored with my characters. But to be nominated...well, to me that shows that people love your stories as much as you do.

The three categories my story - Hesitant Desire - is up for is Best Couple, which I totally agree - I love them. Best Alpha Male - again totally agree - love me some Storm and Best Cover. I love that cover too.

It's nice to feel loved. To know that others feel the way I do about my characters really makes me feel good and spurs me on to write more.

Thanks for the boost of confidence everyone!

Writing Down the Bones: When the Characters Take Over

I love it when my characters take over. I feel it makes the story more three dimensional because I'm in their head and see their world the way they do, but sometimes those characters take off on you, sending your story in a direction  you hadn't planned. Sometimes that is a good thing and you end up with some wonderful twists. Other times they go way off course and you have to reign them back in.

So how do you fix it?

I know this is going to sound crazy but I sit my wayward characters down and have a 'talk' with them. In my first book A Portrait in Time - which is a time travel romance - the heroine's ancestors were part of the story and they tried hard to take over the book. Once I promised them their own book they calmed down and allowed me to finish the book the way I wanted.

In my new series - The Vespian Way - SF/Futuristic Erotic romance - Heather and Storm keep taking over. When I 'talked' to them about it they reminded me that the series is their story and I realized they were right so I had to learn how to balance their ongoing story with the newer characters I was introducing. It's been interesting and fun.

Sometimes you can 'talk' to them. They are your creation you do have final control and the characters only want to be sure their story will be told. If you hadn't thought about a second or a third book and you create really strong characters as secondary characters you might find they will try to take over, but you can ease the problem by plotting out the next book while you're working on your current WIP.

My characters are very real to me. When they push me I listen to see what they want. It might be a little crazy but it works for me and I've gotten some wonderful stories out of it.

Shameless Promoting: What is going on in January! #rhacafe

Lots going on this month and trying to keep up is crazy.

1.) I am so exicted to say that it's that time of year again for the P&E Reders poll - I'm in two ca6tegories - I've never been this high on the tallies and would love your help - Just follow the link to vote

http://critters.org/predpoll/author.shtml
http://critters.org/predpoll/novelerot.shtml

2.) I'm proud to announce I am part of Red Hot Authors Cafe! Come join us on facebook! https://www.facebook.com/redhotauthorscafe

3.) I'm going to be at Savvy Authors on the 12th -  http://savvyauthors.com/blog/index.php/new-years-resolution-write-the-book-by-barbara-donlon-bradley/

4.) I am also going to be part of Melissa Snark's Snarkology: The Path to Publishing My blog date is Feb 1st but the blog is already done so I'm going to see if she want's to use it earlier. I'll update this with the proper link as well.  http://melissasnark.blogspot.com/2014/02/paths-to-publishing-barbara-donlon.html

5.) On Jan 21st I'll be promoting on SSLY - I do have their webpage - here's the direct link - http://wp.me/p38Iym-1RF

6.) on Jan 22 I'll be chatting with LR Cafe from 7-10 pm. You'll have to join the yahoo group to chat with me but I promise we'll have fun.  http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/LoveRomancesCafe/info

Random Thoughts: Setting Those New Year Goals

Are you setting those writing goals for next year?

I have turned into a list person. If I don't make a list I forget to do something and most of the time it is important so I find they help me but I have learned not to put one big goal on that list. It can seem insurmountable. I do it in small chunks. I recommend doing that with your writing goals.

Making the goal to make a million dollars off of the sale of one book is great idea but what about all the little goals that lead up to it? It's not like you're going to sit there and just expect it to happen.

Make your goals realistic for you. If you can write a book a month then do it. If that is more than you can handle then focus smaller. A chapter in a week, a scene in a day, whatever works for you.

What are my goals?

Finish editing Stolen Desire
Finish editing book 8
Come up with a title for book 8
Write book nine
finish the rough I started of book 10 - yes I'm writing them out of sequence but it's the way the muse is driving me
finish the rough draft I started to Melange Books
Post to my blog more - not going to commit how much more but will try to do better
promote, promote. promote

What are yours?

Random Thoughts: A Christmas Poem

Tis a month before Christmas

And John is in the attic

What is he doing?

Snarling and growling because I’m in a panic

There are trees to put up – I’ve now go three

And rooms to decorate

There’s shopping and cooking – will I ever be free?

There’s the writing and editing and blogging for sure

My brain is spinning

Is there a cure?

But somehow I do it

Year after year

How I don’t know

But I succeed – never fear

I take a deep breath and do what I must

I write, then I edit then work on my blog

I push and push until I could bust

Now the holiday is here

And everything is done

I’m happy for my family, friends and my fans who are dear

My crazy mind that comes up with the wild stories that I share

For my job and my passion to write

Sometime they make me pull out my hair

But I love each story

I wish all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Barbara Donlon Bradley

www.barbaradonlonbraldey.com

Random Thoughts: Sometimes a Glitch Can Work in Your Favor

I write everything on a computer. I find it easier than writing it out by hand then reentering it into a word document. Not all writers will agree with this but it's what works best for me right now. I try to make sure I save everything regularly, but I have to admit that I'm not that good at it.

I start writing and get into a grove and that is all I think of. I must finish the scene. If I'm editing my latest book I want to finish the chapter. Once I'm done I move onto the next thing. Unfortunately I don't always remember to save my document and I'm horrible about making copies of it for those just in case moments.

I have lost pages of work before. Back when I first started writing I lost whole chapters. I was working in WP and would hit two keys at the same time when I went to save so instead of saving what I had done was ask it to delete then gave the command yes at the same time. It was a horrible feeling because I wasn't the fastest typer. The only great thing was all I was doing was imputing scenes that had already been written.

Now when I make a mistake like that I want to cry. All that hard work down the drain. I have to rewrite everything. You know what I found? Sometimes the scene I had to rewrite was stronger.

I always recommend you save and save and save again. I save to my computer, to a thumbdrive, I send the document to myself in an e-mail - one of the accounts that doesn't download the e-mails into my computer and I upload to something like the cloud. My cable company offered that to members and I take advantage of it.

But...if it does happen you need to remember as you rant and rave at the horror of it but that sometimes it could be a blessing in disguise.

Writing Down the Bones: Different Points of View

I know I've talked about POV before, but as I have been going through my mother-in-laws collection of lectures and programs form different RWA meetings and I found another little gem.

The four different points of View:

First Person POV: This - to me - is a restrictive POV. Always the 'I' POV wavering from it can confuse the reader. You are the character as you read a novel in first person and no matter what is going on in the scene the only thoughts and deductions you learn is from that character you embody.

Third Person POV: I think of this as being a witness to a scene. It's like you're a voyeur watching everything. They can't see you, but you're there, learning what they learn. seeing that they see, smelling what they smell...you get the picture?

Objective POV: This is where the author (us) tells part of the story but doesn't delve into the character's thoughts or feelings. To me a lot of those descriptive scenes that were popular in the 80's fall into this category.

Omniscient POV: Someone once explained that this viewpoint was like being a god in your story. You (the author) gives away information that the characters can't. Describes things that the characters can't see. As a writer you're intruding into the story by relating info to the reader that they wouldn't get from the characters you've created.

Most romances are written in third person. In fact when I was learning my craft it was beaten into me that I had to write in third person, and now I'm not sure I could write in any other POV. It's the one I'm most comfortable doing.

Random Thoughts: Can I put my family in my books?

I went to visit relatives on my mother's side of the family last month. They're such wonderful people with rich, funny stories that I would love to use at times. Part of me wonders if that is a smart idea. It is my family after all and I don't want to insult them, but I would never write any funny story in a negative light. I know that.

All of my family has had goofy moments. And do are our friends. I think we're magnets for the goofy in the world. My sister and her friends had done some wild stuff that I want to put in a book I just need to have a plot or story that brings it all together - I've been thinking about using a funeral because it is the time when people reminisce. Then I can create the people I want.  A German aunt using the word yonder with a sturdy German accent. A cousin who lost a finger and bragged about it. Friends climbing into the wrong cars, walking into things. I fear after I write it my readers won't believe they were true stories, but as they say truth is stranger than fiction.