On the road

The NECRWA conference is next weekend! I'm getting excited. I'll be travelling all the way across the country on Monday and staying with my writing friend Madison Leigh. Another of the members of our international writing group will be joining us at the conference. Mad and Jen and I have been busy emailing about our upcoming visit.

This will not be the first time I've travelled alone since my adrenal failure in May of 2005, but it will be the first time I've travelled alone to somewhere I've never been. You would think travelling to a foreign country on my own would have been the more intimidating experience, but there are a few aspects of this trip that have me a bit nervous. I'll be flying into Providence, renting a car, and driving to my friend's house in Massachusetts. Eek! But I'm a big girl, and I have a GPS navigation system with my friend's address already plugged in. Right now as I sit in my house in the Pacific Northwest, it tells me I have 2,454 miles to my destination.

On the aspect of writing, I have not done much of anything. I feverishly scribbled down the start of a longish short story, the one my muse handed to me when he should have been concentrating on one or the other of my novels in progress. To say that this short story is outside of my usual would be an understatement. Near as I can tell, this one takes place in the late forties or early fifties and is set in a tropical climate, most likely somewhere in South America. And it begins with the aftermath of an earthquake.

I think I'll let that story simmer for a while and get back to my mystery.

Devlin, the evil muse

My muse is evil. Faithful blog readers will remember that I dubbed him Devlin. His recent actions have given me vindication for my choice of a name.

He's engaged me in a short story when I should be concentrating on taxes, or at the very least, I should be concentrating on my novel. Thus far, I don't think it's a very good short story, either. If he's going to interrupt me, the least he could do is tempt me with something better.

Before assailing me with new characters, Devlin allowed me an exercise from the book Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot by Peter Dunne. Though this book is for screenwriters, much of what Dunne has to say applies to novel writing. I thank my writing friends Celine Shinbutsu (Writing from Japan) and Madison Leigh for the referral to this book. (Both of their blogs are on my link list.)

Celine and Madison encouraged me to try the 3 sentence summary exercise from Emotional Structure for The Art of Deception. I did, and this is what I came up with:

One of Rebecca Allyn's art gallery customers has been murdered and homicide detective Erik Thorne put Rebecca's name at the top of his suspect list. But Erik appears to run hot and cold whenever Rebecca sees him, and she has to scramble to prove her innocence while at the same time fighting her attraction to him. When the case against her unveils past wrongs by one of her family members, Rebecca finds out she must rely upon the very man she wants to run from.

Devlin then allowed me an exercise from Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. Funny how I always return to that book. I highly recommend it to my writerly friends. Emotional Structure is new to me, and I'm sure I will find it quite useful, but Plot and Structure is a book I cannot do without. I applied Bell's "L-O-C-K" method to Deception and ferreted out plot details that needed to be found. I can't post the results of that exercise here as it contains spoilers for the story, but the result of my efforts was a one-page summary.

I'd like to apply both of these exercises to my other novel Falling Short as soon as I finish the taxes. And finish Deception. I'd sure like to have the mystery done before I continue Heidi and Dave's story.

What I find most haunting about my muse is the fact that he insists on being heard when I have little opportunity to follow him. Where is he on those days when I need him? Why does he insist on showing up when I need to concentrate on something other than my writing?

Writing while life is in progress

In the midst of a hectic time for homeschooling, some sad and happy family events, home remodeling, and tax season, I've hardly had time to think about my writing. I had to make a choice: let go of the story or shirk my responsibility. The writing had to be set aside and eventually I became detached from my story.

Now is when my writing buddies are the salve for my pains. One ruthless friend helped me fill in the holes in my plot. A practical friend mentioned an exercise from a writing book that summarizes your story to help you gain focus. And a brave yet determined friend went through said exercise with her own story at the same time I was doing mine; her encouraging feedback has fueled my determination. I'm still working on the summary (you know it has to be perfect for me to move on), but it's giving me a better foundation for Deception and a desire to use the same exercise for Falling Short. The point is the story is fresh in my mind now. Probably any exercise would have done that, but not any group could have provided that kind of support.

Writing groups and/or writing buddies can be inspiring and supportive, or they can be a drain on your creativity. I'm fortunate to be among the inspiring and supportive. There are numerous writing books available -trust me, I have my own favorites - but when you lose your grip on your story, you need a good slap across the face and a shove in the right direction. Who better to do that than your writing buddies?

In the "Bummer" column: I received the results of a contest I entered, and my story "The Painting" was not among the winners, the finalists, or even the honorable mentions. Ouch. Time to set it aside for a while and think about what is missing from the story.

Onward ho! I have writing students waiting for critiques, homeschooling lessons to plan, airline reservatiosn to make, taxes to file, a variance report to fill out...oh, and a story to write :)

Results of P&E Poll

I forgot to mention, the results of the P&E poll are in!

• The Heat of the Moment tied for 6th place in the anthology category
• Devil's Breath tied for 14th place in the mainstream short story category
• Hear the Wind Blow tied for 5th place in the fantasy short story category

Thank you to everyone who voted, and congratulations to all the winners! You can see the complete list at http://critters.org/predpoll/tally.html

Judge a Book by the Cover

My, it's been a while since I last updated my blog. I've been busy with L-I-F-E and whining about not getting enough writing time. I get a few hours here and there but not enough to keep me happy. I sense a day-long writing session coming up. You know, one of those days where I don't even get dressed all day, I just sit at the computer and get lost in my fictional world.

Great news! The cover for my e-book, Hear the Wind Blow, is being featured on Nikki Leigh's blog. http://judgebookbycover.blogspot.com/2008/01/hear-wind-blow-by-janelle-dakota.html Check out Nikki's blog to learn more about her and her book promotion ideas. Thank you, Nikki!

Preditors and Editors: Last time I checked, Hear the Wind Blow was tied for 5th place; Devil's Breath was tied for 14th. The official results will be posted in February. Thank you to everyone who voted! You can see the tally at http://critters.org/predpoll/tally.html and the final results will be posted at http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/perpoll.htm

Vote for my stories on Predators & Editors!

My short story, Hear the Wind Blow, has been nominated on Predators and Editors. It only takes a minute to vote. Will you please cast yours?
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstorysf.shtml


And...The Heat of the Moment, the Echelon Press LLC anthology that contains my short story, Devil's Breath.
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/antho.shtml

And finally... my short story, Devil's Breath.
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstory.shtml

All you have to do is follow the links, scroll down (to Hear the Wind Blow, The Heat of the Moment, and Devil's Breath, respectively), enter your name and email address, and click submit. You'll receive a confirmation email and your vote will count once you confirm it. Voting goes from January 1 to midnight, January 15th (GMT).

Your vote is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

December

Wow, December flew by in a flash! I've been neglecting my blog. Shame on me.

I received my copy of the anthology yesterday and I sat down and read every story. I needed a day of R&R so it arrived at precisely the right time. It felt wonderful to be holding a book in my hands that contained one of MY stories. I read Devil's Breath again, but it didn't feel like reading a story because I'm (obviously) too close to it. It's still too fresh in my writer's mind for me to have any perspective.

On Thursday, I received a very nice rejection letter from Story Quarterly. It's time to put "Not Your Average Joe" aside for a while - let Joe sit until I can look at him objectively and figure out why he didn't win anything more than finalist status in the Lunch Hour Stories contest.

This December, I enjoyed time with family and friends. I didn't hover over my keyboard. My ISP helped: we've had intermittent connectivity problems for months and in December we rarely had any internet access. But stepping away from my story was good for my family, for me, and for my characters. Guess what they did while I was making merry? They GREW! Isn't that amazing? I'm so proud of them. Now they're ready to pounce back onto the page.

A productive detour

I worked on the 500-word version of "The Painting" yesterday. What I found the most challenging was retaining the story, keeping the descriptive element, and providing tension, all within the 500 word constriction. I hope I've told a story beyond the words on the page. We'll see. Now it has to sit for a while before I do anything else with it, plus I'm awaiting feedback from my WIP group.

Goal for today since I spent yesterday working on a short story: 1500 words. I'll come back later to report my progress.

***

I did not meet my goal. I actually slid further behind because I edited the first three chapters. I rearranged a bit, deleted a paragraph or two, and wow! Did that make a difference. Now I'm ready to move on with confidence.

So I came up with a fantasy writing routine:

• 3-4 days novel writing
• 1-2 days short story writing/review/revision
• 1 day novel review and revise (previous 3-4 days' worth)
• 3-4 days novel writing
• 1-2 days short story writing/review/revision
• 1 day novel review and revise, etc.

That sounds like a perfect schedule to me. I wonder if I can make that work, even if only for a little while.

Very, very short stories

Wow. I have renewed respect for writers of flash fiction. It's difficult to tell a complete story in 500 words or less. A beginning, a middle, and an end within the boundaries of an estimated 166.67 words per section. Without sounding choppy or abbreviated.

Since I love to read flash fiction, I thought I'd try it. I trimmed "The Painting" yesterday. At 1200 words, it seemed short to this writer who loves to indulge in a good, long chapter. But an interesting thing happened when I was trimming: I had to weigh every sentence against the major dramatic question. Yep, back to the basics.

I wrote "The Painting" from a contest prompt, so my first step was to eliminate the prompt but retain the story. It's amazing what happens when you get caught up in following a prompt. My next step was to dissect every sentence for the following:

1. Usefulness in moving the story forward
2. Mood
3. Aesthetics (how the words look, visually, on the page, and how it sounds to my ear)
4. Characterization. To me, a story is nothing without a strong character to pull me in.

Now I'm ready for the ultimate test: run it by a few brutally honest friends.

Not Your Average Joe

Joe didn't win the Lunch Hour Stories 2007 short story contest, but it was mentioned.

http://www.lunchhourstories.com/contest_winners.html

Of course, now I'm wondering a few things, such as how many entries there were. 10? :) (Hey, I'm being honest. My immediate reaction was to count the honorable mentions and notice "Joe" was at the bottom of the list.) Do I email the editor at Lunch Hour Stories and ask them to use my pseudonym on the website or just leave it? I'm free to send "Joe" elsewhere. So does it even matter that they used the wrong name?

Not The Average Weekend

I wrote another short story. I should have been working on my novel, I know, but with all the activity in my life, my brain didn't want to wrap around the width and breadth of a novel. A short story, however, seemed within my grasp. So I heeded the call of another Echelon Press short story contest: Fast and Foreign.

It won't be a surprise to most of you that I wrote about Mexico, as it has been on my mind much these days. (I'm trying to determine a time in the remodel schedule when I can go visit my mother.) The fun part about writing this story was that my character, Rachel, was a woman who looked good in a bikini. On the eve of her vacation, she finds out her lover has more than one identity.

The whole story was fun to write, actually, and not just because of my characters. I wrote with friends. Elysabeth, Batya, Chai, and a new edition to the word-war club: my daughter, Hannah. Funny thing, it is, to be in the midst of a scene and to have your nine-year-old ask you a way to turn a phrase. My son is also a writer, and quite talented if I do say so myself, but he didn't feel the need to write a Fast and Foreign contest story. He's been working on a fantasy novel for the last year.

In the eleventh hour, my daughter had one of those contest moments that we writers all have. She decided the only way to fix her story was to completely rewrite it. She came up with a different plot for her beloved characters. She learned a valuable lesson in that she didn't get her story done in time to submit, but she did write a great story, and I'm proud of her.

Writing with friends is a singular experience. We logged on to conference chats, brainstormed, swapped stories, gave each other feedback, and generally encouraged and motivated one another. Elysabeth's character, Marie, faced a ghost from a past life at a chateau in France. Batya's character, Sarah, unearthed more than archaeological relics in Israel. Chai's character, Aleida, was caught in a flood in Holland. And Hannah's characters, Adamo and Allgeria, got lost on their vacation in Italy.

They are all entertaining stories and I hope to see them all in print.