Sharon Wildwind, my Spring Equinox Guest

Happy Ostara, Happy Spring Equinox!

Today is one of my favorite days, the spring equinox. It is a day of balance and fertility (e.g. creativity). I will be celebrating the balance and creativity in my life and writing today.

For now, it is my pleasure to welcome Sharon Wildwind as a guest on my blog on this special day:


What Comes Next is Not the Way to Plot

Today the world balances on its polar axis, and soon the northern hemisphere will make a joyful tilt toward spring and summer. What comes next is longer days, warmer weather, and a plethora of enjoyable outdoor activities.

What next is a good question for equinox, but when I ask a writer about her work in progress, all too often her answer is a litany of events that don't reflect the book's heart.

Tell me about your book.

It’s a mystery-romance about a woman who got in trouble at work and left home in disgrace. Her friend runs a fishing lodge where she used to live. He calls in a panic, insisting she come back, but won’t say why. When she returns, she discovers her brother and his new bride honeymooning at the lodge. She doesn’t like her brother’s wife. Her friend has family problems, too. His grandfather, from whom he’s been estranged for years, decides to hold a family reunion at the lodge. When his grandfather is murdered, the two of them have to find the killer.

This is a what-comes-next summary. This happens, then this happens, then this problem happens, and then they solve that problem, but this other problem comes up. It might be interesting (or not), but is it compelling? It took me a long time to realize there was a better way to summarize a story.

Tell me about your book.

It’s a mystery-romance. A woman was forced to leave a small town in disgrace after making an unethical business decision. Her brother’s unexpected marriage compels her to return. She immediately discovers why her brother didn’t invite her to his wedding, and she fears that his new wife is a gold-digger. The man she once loved was responsible for her being fired. She’s not sure what their relationships is now, especially when his estranged grandfather’s murder forces them to work together. Finding the killer is certain to put her in more ethical hot water.

Focusing on what’s at stake in place of what comes next works for plotting, too. For the writer who prefers to plunge in without a lot of planning, two questions will suffice:
When the story begins, what is the character’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual situation?
What is his/her first challenge and how does he/she meet that challenge?

Karen Hogarth is tired. She’s grateful to have a job, and a furnished room in a boarding house. Working casual means her schedule, and her sleep, changes daily. She hasn’t time, energy, or inclination to make friends. Thank goodness for library cards. She taught herself to knit from a book, is already bored with scarfs, but can’t focus enough to try anything more complicated. She’s not sorry for what she did, but regrets getting caught. Someone needed help and she helped. That’s the way life should be.

Being told her brother is married is her first challenge. Why in the world would he get married without telling her? For his sake, she has to go back, right away. Returning to the small town she left will be inconvenient, expensive, and scary, but this is her brother we’re talking about. She didn’t spend eight years raising him to have him throw his life away on the wrong women.

That should be enough to kick-start the writing.

For writers who like to plan in more detail, repeat those two questions for each major character. Attempt to have characters start from opposing positions. For example, Karen doesn’t like her new sister-in-law; her former lover thinks the woman will be a good influence on her brother. Bingo: instant tension.

Here’s my token to celebrate spring. Hope you have a wonderful equinox.

 

Sharon Wildwind is a Calgary, Alberta mystery writer. Her most recent book, Loved Honor More, was published in 2012 November, and that completed her first series. She’s currently at work on a stand-alone mystery set in the folk music world. Her web site is www.wildwindauthor.com and she tweets @sharww.

Kim Coates starring in Ferocious

Do you have a hankering for a psychological thriller?

The movie Ferocious, starring Kim Coates, 

opens in Calgary on Friday at the Globe! 

**See media release below for more dates, times, and cities**

I'll be honest, I've never met Mr. Coates, but I do know Robert Cuffley, the writer and director of the movie Ferocious. I love supporting Canadian films and local talent. It is my pleasure to share with you the press release. Enjoy!

PS, Robert, I write outdoorsy adventure romance, maybe you'd consider a romcom next time? ;)

PPS, Happy Weekend!

 

W. Brett Wilson Chats With ARWA

Thursday night ARWA (Alberta Romance Writers' Association) was pleased to welcome W. Brett Wilson to chat with our group. 

I have to admit I had no idea what to expect, and I imagine we were not his usual audience. But my personal evening started with a good long walk in the balmy Calgary air and going out for beers with a couple fellow writers. So, the night was a success before I even got to ARWA. Excellent.

Sarah Kades, W. Brett Wilson, Lorraine Paton at ARWA.

Enter Brett. Entrepreneur, philanthropist, former Dragon (CBC TV Show Dragon's Den), and author of Redefining Success. . .  in a room full of romance writers. How is this going to go?

Brett told his stories, shared  insights, lessons learned, wisdom culled, listened to our questions, answered thoughtfully, and through the evening, quietly took us for a walk along on his journey. It was a thoughtful, inspiring, and a rather awesome night.

A few highlights stick out for me and inspired my own self-reflection. . . 

Priorities

Priorities was a big one. Getting them in order, straight in our head, so to speak, and having our actions match our priorities. I've been asking myself this same question, too. What are your priorities? Are they in line with how you want to live your life? Are you rocking it or blowing it? What are you spending your time on? Mindfully prioritize, live, adjust as necessary, repeat.

The Power of a Word

The importance of word choice was another. Although the context was in labels (e.g. corporate social opportunity instead of corporate social responsibility), he spoke of the importance of using the right word. Writers practice that, but for me, it goes farther. Words have power. They are energy. Take care to use the word you really want to use so you communicate exactly what you want, not what you don't. 

Words have Power and Energy

There are numerous books and authors that address this concept. I'll mention one here, Masaru Emoto. His books on water crystal healing speaks to the impact energy, in the form of thoughts and words, have on water, on us, and the world around us. Emoto's books ask we take care in what we are communicating, what energy we are sending out with our words and thoughts. Makes sense to me. Send out love and up the frequency of all around, send out grump and tank the vibe of what's around you. To be clear, I have no idea Brett's take on water crystals and happy thoughts, he did not go there. My brain did.

What is Your Frame of Reference?

It was interesting to hear an entrepreneur's angle, side to some of the topics. It reminded me when I was working on an interdisciplinary academic grant project years ago that included archaeologists, geo-archaeologists and geographers. Several profs, with like a million years of higher learning among them, all from different backgrounds, stared at a single soil stain and gave their theory on what it was from. Each one explained the anomaly with theories from their chosen field. Makes sense, you explain with your frame of reference. But for a bystander it was a fascinating anthropological study. And quite a show. Our history, our background, frames our experiences, gives us lenses from which we view the world around us. Of course we can choose to broaden our views and maximize our possibilities. But it helps to remember if we are looking at a soil stain as a physical geographer, it might not dawn on us the stain could be from, say, a boil pit. 

How are you viewing the world?

When We are Lucky, Books Help Us on Our Own Journey

He mentioned people have resonated with the book, some a bit surprised about it. Nicely done. A sneak attack of resonance is fun. 

This might be cheesy to pull one of my own quotes, but I'm going to because it fits. "The written word, like all forms of art, has the ability to move people, take them to a place they couldn't or wouldn't get on their own. Good books take our hand and lead us on an incredible journey. When we are lucky, they help us on our journey." 

I have no idea if this one is going to do that for you or me, but it sounds like it certainly has for some.

Overall, great night of reflection, sharing, and inspiration. Am I looking forward to reading the book, yes. Am I looking forward to redefining my success, oh yeah.

Thanks Brett and thanks ARWA. ;)

PS, I dig hyphens, too.

PPS, Honor your writing process.  Whatever it is, whatever path it leads you on, it is perfect. Sometimes writing a book is as much about the journey and getting there, as it is about your end product. Honor that. Some chapters are 900 drafts of journey. Some fly out of us and we nail it the first round. Books are teachers for the reader and writer, when we let them be. 

Happy Reading, Happy Writing!

An Interview with Fantasia Frog Designs

Happy Valentine’s Day! 

It is my great pleasure to celebrate the occasion by interviewing Fantasia Frog Designs. Let’s get started... 

What are all the products and services you offer?

We offer a wide variety of graphic designs; pre-made and custom-made book covers (both ebook and print), bookmarks, postcards, blog headers, banners, buttons, 3D cover images, animated graphics (including animated book covers), and more.

What is your favorite part of designing?

I love creating Pre-made designs. It's where I can try new ideas.

What are some of the favorite covers you have done? Have any in particular stuck with you?

One of my favorites was a pre-made I sold to Carol Van Atta. Her book is titled Soul Defenders.

I dig the name, what inspired you or where did you come up with that?

I adore frogs and all things fantastic (shrug).

How did you get into designing?

I worked in a bookstore for ten years, reading back covers of books, staring in awe at the pretty front covers, and then I happened to ask one of my co-workers what program I would need to design my own. He pointed me in the direction of the photoshop program and voila!

Where can readers find you?
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/FantasiaFrog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001988203659&ref=tn_tnmn

Website:  http://fantasiafrogdesigns.wordpress.com

And, our sister design site for Young Adult, Mainstream, and sweet romances, visit: http://spittyfish.wordpress.com

Here are a sampling of covers pre-made from Fantasia Frog Designs.

      

     

    

    

  

Happy Valentine’s Day! 

Guest Author at Vegreville Library's Valentine Fundraiser

Saturday I was the guest author at the Vegreville Library Valentine Fundraiser!

I walked in and was met with a romantic wonderland. The decorating crew did a stellar job with twinkle lights, tulle, flower arrangement and glittered accents. The hushed lighting and beautiful decor created the perfect ambiance  for the evening. I have never seen a library look like that. Nice work!

Everyone I talked to was so welcoming and happy. What a wonderful community! The raffle prizes were great. So were the refreshments. It was a wine and cheese and they did an awesome job!

Piano music, singing solos and duets, a belly dancer and my readings and Q&A were the night's entertainment. The crowd asked such thoughtful, interesting questions! It was great to be able to share my love of writing and stories.

Thank you Vegreville!

Sarah

Writing Tools, Organizing and Simplifying Your Writing Process

Many writers have a single biggest concern, finding the time to write. I want to talk about a few tools that I use that help me make the most of my writing time. They have helped me organize and simplify my writing process so when I do sit down to write, I spend less time on coordinating and more time writing. 

To note, one would not mistake me for a computer tech guru. My hope is to help others by sharing what I use to organize my writing. There is how-to help online that gives great specifics. I'm focusing mainly on how I utilize these tools. Alright, let's get started!

Outline and the TOC (Table of Contents)

Most of the time I am a freestyle writer, “pantser” as some call it. However, I decided to try doing an outline for one of my manuscripts, see if that style worked for me. I created the outline but then realized going between it and the manuscript was frustrating. So was scrolling though my ever-lengthening document. I’ve heard of others who create a separate document for each scene, but going between two documents (outline and manuscript) was more than enough back and forth for me. A document per scene? Not a chance. Gah!

Wait a minute, I can use the TOC (Table of Contents) function! I use it extensively in report writing, why not use it in writing fiction and keeping the story and scenes organized? Eureka! For some of you this is common practice, for others, like some of the writers I have spoken to, they had never thought to use it. It revolutionized my story organization, especially when I write from an outline. It is easy to change up if/when my story changes; adding scenes, taking some out, reordering them, whatever. And I didn’t have to buy additional software or gear, I just used the feature on my existing writing software. Sweet.

I work with both on Microsoft Word and Macintosh Pages, and both of their TOC (Table of Contents) tools are easy to use. I take my outline, name my scenes, and those are the headers that go into the TOC. By doing this, it integrates my outline into my manuscript so I literally fill in the scenes as I go. Also, when I am looking at my TOC, it has all the scene names there and I include who the POV is in, so at a glance I can get a feel of the scene flow and if my POV is balanced. I also include/add in the scene headings if I want to tweak or rewrite something. Sometimes additional story weaves or changes come as I get more into my story. Sound familiar? This helps organize that. It also gives me a great overview if I want to switch the sequence of scenes. It gives me a current list of where I am at. Creating a TOC is as easy as making your scene headings the style assigned to the TOC and then updating your TOC. It also creates handy hyperlinks within the document that you can click on and it will take you to that page in your document. 

Want to have quick access to that TOC, instead of scrolling through the pages of document, instead scroll through a sidebar of the pages of the document. In Word, under the View Tab, show the Navigation Pane. In Pages, under the View Tab, click on Page Thumbnails. They both will be on the left side of your screen and you can navigate from there. I'm all ears if anyone knows how I can have my TOC open in that sidebar only. It is quick enough to scroll there, but if I could just lock the TOC open instead of it going to whatever page I am looking at, that would be sweet.

And just a reminder, do not manually change your TOC, simply use the style needed and then click update. I update my TOC after any changes or tweaks so I keep it current.

Comments Function (built-in sticky notes, writing in the margin)

Again, this might be review for some, but if you haven't heard of or thought to use the comments function, it might facilitate organizing your story. I dig it. I use the comments function in both Word and Pages. These are notes I add to my document that act like sticky notes or writing in the margin of hard copy. I use them if I want to remember something to go back to and address, or note to think about further, stuff like that. I mentioned weaving above, it helps here, too. The comments function pinpoints a specific spot, not just a scene or chapter. Whatever you need to remind yourself, you can add a comment to help organize your thoughts or to remember something. 

Comments can be added or removed easily, and if you want to read your manuscript without them showing, that’s easy, too. Just hide them in the toolbar. When you want them back on, simply check the box to see them again. If you are at the stage of having beta readers and editors, it is nice to be familiar with this feature when their comments come in. To note for those who don't know, each commenter has a different color and tag. On any one document, you can have multiple people make their comments and each be labeled differently so you know who said what. Same goes for track changes, but that's another conversation.

Smartphone (as Recorder)

I heard Kevin J. Anderson speak at the When Words Collide conference festival in Calgary, Canada in 2012. First off, awesome sessions! One of the things he mentioned was he uses a recorder for when he “writes” while hiking and then has it transcribed. I thought brilliant! I love hiking, and it clears my head. What a great thing to be able to write and hike (or walk) at the the same time. 

However, I was hesitant to fork over cash to purchase one if it turned out to be something I wouldn’t end up using. But my cell phone has a microphone. I can talk into it and send myself an email of what I just “wrote.” Perfect. I am up and running. Again, my lack of tech savvy pops up here. I imagine there are apps I could search for that would help with this, but for now, this is working. ;) 

In Gratitude

I sincerely hope this has helped some of you out there. I have learned a ton from other writers and it is cool to be able to share a bit of what I have found that works for me. Cheers to efficiency and keeping things simple and organized. These tools have helped me do that with my manuscripts so I can make the most of my writing time and concentrate on the fun part, writing!

Happy Writing!

True Story Telling Event "Close Calls"

On Saturday a friend of mine hosted a True Story Telling event in Calgary, Canada, inspired by the True Story podcasts. The theme was Close Calls.

What an incredible night!

There is a joy to being present and listening to people tell their stories, live and in-person. Strangers can become friends, and friends or acquaintances learn a new layer to the other. Saturday night was real. In some cases raw, others hilarious, in all fascinating.

Listening to the stories, there was little time for nerves anticipating my turn at the microphone. And I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. We all have our own stories to tell. In selecting which one to tell on Saturday, memories that have long been dormant resurfaced. In listening to others tell their "close call" story, even more came whispering in. It was a great night hearing everyone's tales.

There is an art and beauty to storytelling that feeds the soul.  I love hearing and reading stories; around a campfire, or at an art studio like Saturday, or curled up with a book. Stories can nourish us, connect us, and remind us we are not alone in this human experience.

That is one of the reasons I love writing, I get to share stories with others.

Many thanks to all who inspired, participated, attended and organized! It was an awesome night!

Happy Listening, Happy Reading, Happy Writing,
Sarah