Okay, sadly I don't own the book, so I'm going from my notes, but, Mel asked about Ari's incline and this is how Ray visuals it, and I use it:

Opening Scene and Closing Scene provide a frame for the story.

The hook and the introduction(s)[characters, setting, conflict, desires etc.] occur in Act One, where the action starts slowish and picks up but slowly. Imagine a line starting at bottom left and moving upward in an incline to upper right.

Plot Point One (this is a MAJOR pp) ends Act One; sending the mc in a new direction, usually an action or decision they think will help them achieve their goal, but which actually results in MAJOR COMPLICATIONS, which are revealed in ACT TWO.

[this is all my weird paraphrasing, btw, lol]

ACT TWO is all about conflict and complications, lots of them. It's also a good place to weave in some backstory, if necessary. Make it seamless, though, or it will disrupt the narrative flow. ACT TWO is the longest act in the book, so it's important to keep the action rising (remember that incline) but not too quickly and not too slowly!

The MIDPOINT divides parts one and two of ACT TWO, and is a nice place for romance, seduction, and minor, foreshadowing transformations. Ray says the MP links the two chains of events in the book, those leading up to the MP and those leading away to climax and eventual resolution.

PLOT POINT 2 caps ACT TWO and is the best place for a reversal, because this is the moment of decisive change-- this is the catalyst that transforms the mc. Action. Ray characterizes it as a mini-climax that propels the story into ACT THREE. PP 1 and PP 2 must have a distinct connection.

ACT THREE is where the action peaks and then quickly falls; the shortest act in the book. MC is tired and defeated, but makes one last decision toward change. This time the mc succeeds, and in the resolution, the story plays itself out to its natural and satisfying conclusion, which ends in the wrap up.

Which wraps up my post for today :)

Back to the revision-zone!

Tomorrow I begin revisions on The Brown Shoe Diaries.
Armed with comments from 3 beta readers and my lovely CP
idaho_laurie plus the normal route I walk.

Tomorrow and the day after, I will read through each reader's comments,
making notes, and adding notes to the revision sheets I am already starting
out with, ie.

BSD Revisions (surfing) Things to watch in descriptions: flow/fluid/grace/style
These aren't WORDS to use or that I might have overused (that comes way later in
the process) these are keywords to remind me of the comments I need to incorporate
into the surf scenes.

I'll read through for Voice, seamlessness, pacing (Ari's incline etc.)
Ask, is there conflict on every page? Are the 5/6 senses present on each page?
Can any visual details be added or expanded?

And remind myself that except in summary:NO TELLING! SHOW!

And I'll make the necessary changes.

Is compulsively starting new projects a form of procrastination?

Somebody stop me!! (No, don't, really.) I aim to continue my progress on completing BSD while writing a 120 page screenplay during the month of April.



Crazy, I know, but what can I say? And the best part is that I will be using most of an idea I've had percolating for more than 20 years!!! (Wow, does that date me, or what?) Also, my agent's been encouraging me to write a screenplay, so...

And in honor of National Poetry Month:

Fog weaves through my brain
Tendrils of mist masking light
Frosty air wakes mind

Also, a shoutout to birthday girl kellyrfineman ! Enjoy your day!
And to new book mama bluemalibu Congratulations!!
As well as an: if I lived in Maine, I'd vote for you!! To carriejones!!

An awesome author, fabulous person, and drinker of Postum!

Random: Peanut butter on bagels=the worst kind of nasty. Alert the bagel police. Bleh!

Sometime after I get my title, (usually a year+, sometimes sooner) a voice or voices will start talking to me: a word or phrase here and there, just a tantalizing tidbit of personality and voice. But what's the story? Where's the inspiration?

That's the big question. Literally. My characters show up, and a question pops into my head. And the first question engenders the conflict, which tells me what the character wants, and leads the entire story deeper and further, offering snapshots of the other characters and the setting etc. (Nothing goes on paper at this point. Only the title remains written in my notebook. But I will now create a document file and folder for the novel, with a title page only.)

For Life's Too Short, the novel Secret Agent Man is currently subbing, the initial question was: What would it be like to have a Madonna-impersonator as a mom? I'm sure you can see where the conflict might be and how the situations can only deepen from that point on.

From here, the process moves quickly, though in the background, with major and minor characters, setting, and plot all swarming into place and into play.

The back of my mind is a constantly churning pot of plot and story.

My characters show up fully named (first and sometimes last though mostly I research the last names for story reasons), though every rare once in awhile I change them.

Once things are gelling and moving, slamming together, breaking apart, reconfiguring, I get a clear sense of how the story begins, how the story ends, and what the middle will likely contain. Still no writing. Nor do I ever talk about the story to anyone at this stage. I've learned the hard way that is the quickest way to destroy the creative push to write it down.

So, inspiration and continued percolation (not a word until today, I believe, lol). At this point it is about perspiration... on another project.

Because my stories write themselves in my head before I ever commit a word to paper, it is essential that I always am working on something else as well. For me, starting a story too soon (on paper) signals its death knell. I might as well throw out the sparse notes, delete the file, and move on. And I've had to. I have learned to respect the process, in all its weird and wonderful randomness.

So I write and write and write, and revise, and crit, and read, and bug my agent, and obsessively check email. Lather, rinse, repeat. And the urge to get that story on paper grows, and grows, and... you know what they say about anticipation...

And when I can finally stand it no more, and there is time in my schedule, I write. But only the beginning. About 10-15 pages, sometimes less. Just enough to get going. Then I go back to my current project and allow the need to create to build up again. This time, when I move back to the project, I write a synopsis. (I love synopses; I think they're terrific tools)

Now I'm ready to draft. And I do. I edit as I go, not a person able to just vomit onto the page and clean it up later, though that method has been wildly successful for so many. I need to play with the words, to get them just so, in order to move on. Same thing with details, I research every little thing, and I don't use placeholders in the text. I'd be lost without the Internet, and instant access to... say... photos of vintage fabrics and sewing instructions.

And I'm a big believer in procrastination. Kerry Madden had this great quote in her blog a couple of years ago, I think it was by Edith Wharton, about how much time she spent staring into space, and how that was *working* too. Love that, feel that, live that!

My favorite procrastination tools are: LJ, Verla's, and Neopets (in fact, while I was composing this, my youngest neomailed me from her school, lol)

So, what's your inspiration? Do you let your ideas steep? Favorite methods of procrastination?

Tomorrow, scene summary's, Ari's incline, and crit peeps...

I haven't participated in these previously, but as I break for lunch, decided, what the heck?

A snippet from THE BROWN SHOE DIARIES, the wip I'm finishing up:



She waited at the window, watching until the Jag’s headlight beams swept across the side yard, illuminating a stark black and white snapshot of the dunes and the trees, before cloaking them again in night. The landscape hide-n-seek reminded her of the two faces of Ian and she shuddered. Such a master of deceit; able to transform from Mr. Perfect to King of the Damned without even passing one hand over his face.



Sweet dreams, and productive days. 'Til tomorrow!

As I was starting my day this morning, (kids off to school and caffeine round 1 imbibed) I sat down at the piano and played masterfully attempted to play. It has been many, many years. Cellular memory (along with normal memory) is deserting me as I age. Ugh!

My best friend growing up, Nancy, played both the piano and the cello. Enviably well. But she was dedicated. Me, I was a dallier who got the ruler across my knuckles from the nuns more often than not.

It got me thinking more, though, about beginnings, and about the recurrent themes in our lives and in our art.

The themes I find cropping up most often in my novels are characters who are artists of various types: painters/photographers/musicians/songwriters/writers/designers/sculpters/architects etc.

and the overarching theme of voices unheard and/or unheeded. Most of my mc's are fighting to be heard, understood, respected, for who they are and who they wish to become.

What are your themes and variations?

How do you begin your stories?

Almost without exception, I begin with a title. It may come years before the actually characters and storyline reveal themselves, but it comes first. I keep a notebook with all my titles in it, and when the time is right, and the story and characters have gelled in the back of my mind, the two become one. (Note: I am a MAJOR pre-writer, composing entire novels in the back of my mind before ever committing a word to paper)

New project one's title came to me about 2-3 years ago, and I thought at the time it would be a mg novel set in middle school with a female mc. When the main character spoke to me for the first time a couple of weeks ago, I was shocked but thrilled to discover my mc was a senior in high school, and a gay male. Go figure!

Tomorrow... the big question, names, personalities, and agendas. The next step in the process.

Since my little calendar shames me every time I log on to read my f-list, I've decided to kick my blogging into high(er) gear. Which in my case means blogging more than once a month, I guess.

I was so excited last night I had a hard time falling asleep! For the first time in two weeks I had writing time all to myself on my wip! Yeah!! When last we left our heroine, things were about to get fabulously fantastic. And then come crashing down. In a big way. And then again. And just when she thought life couldn't get any worse... Yep. I'm the big bad wolf of writers. Poor Aiden. And she's such an awesome person, too.

My kiddles returned to school, today. (I know, lol, random much?) Anyway, since I spent the last two weeks helping 7th grader edit the first 50 pages of her novel (she didn't make the entry deadline, though, for the Scholastic PUSH 1st novel contest)and write a synopsis and also wrote two synopses and 2500 word openings for two new projects of my own, it was nice to get back to BSD. We spent the day getting reacquainted, and ah... I do so love this book :)

I always try and enter the SCBWI WIP grant competitions. It's a nice brainstorming/testing time for me with projects that have been working in the back of my mind. This year was no different (note the two new projects and synopses above) however, in the end I decided not to enter. Not sure why, just felt project one needed more head time, and project two felt too sweet for someone else to see it before Steve...

Got my first taste of editing/working revisions/brainstorming with Secret Agent Man though, on new project one, and it was just as awesome and amazing and kick-ass as I knew it would be :) That project will be taking a hiatus for quite awhile, though. It's still in the back-burner, percolating stage.

The other new project though *insert ginormous, high-pitched squee-ing here* just made me lol and happy dance and do the ooh ah boogie I do when I first fall in love with a story and its characters and the voice. As soon as Aiden has danced her way into Steve's hands and heart, new project two and I will be spending some quality time together!

It does have a title, which will remain secret at this point, and is the first teen male protag I've written since forever! I cannot wait!!! But I must...

In other news, for the first time (seriously!) in almost a year, the studio is nearly clean and organized, and is already usable!! I'm in creative heaven, people, I swear!!

I may even post evidence of this by the end of the week :)

Ooh and book reviews!! I have read tons and reviewed none here! Bad, I say, bad!

But you have my pledge, faithful readerz (all two of you) that I will be a good little bloggette henceforth. And perforce. 'Cuz ya know, I just like the sound of it!!