Finding Motivation

With the holidays in high gear at the post office, and carriers leaving the work crew, I'm finding it very difficult to find time to write.

As I write this post, I've just completed another nine hour work day.

How someone working these types of hours ever accomplishes his/her dream is beyond me. So how does one find motivation to write, and the energy to think about the story?

Here's a quote from Stephen King, "Read four hours a day and write four hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer."

You all know how much I look up to this man, but I can't say I totally agree with this statement, nor can I say I disagree. Take out the 'four hours a day' and you have something. All writers must read and write. The more you do these two things the better you will become.

With that said, how can you motivate yourself to continue when you are not able to fit one or either into your daily routine?

The answer - you fit it into your daily routine. The motivation comes from just how determined you really are to succeed. No whining, just do it. (Okay, you can see I'm trying to motivate myself, right?)

But seriously, you can Google all you want on how to find the time, and get advice from whoever, but it is 'You' in the end who has to make it happen.

I wish you all the best in your writing careers. Let's take it one sentence at a time. See you at the finish line. I'll be the one crawling the last few yards. :)

Interviews and First Review

Two interviews and a first review of Seduced by Darkness

Aubrie Dionne invited me over to Flutey Words.

Pembroke Sinclair opened the doors at her blog for an interview.

Please stop by, ask questions, and enjoy a cup of coffee. Hope to see you there.

Cherie Reich of Surrounded by Books Reviews gives Seduced by Darkness a glowing review.

Cher Green's Seduced by Darkness delights in a seductive tale of the power of love and loss. Read more.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'd like to take a moment and share with my readers what I am thankful for this year. Feel free to add your list in the comments.

I'm thankful for:

Family and Friends (far and near, online and offline).

My home, my job, and my determination to succeed.

My spirit guides and guardian angel.

Life and all its wonderful (and not so wonderful) experiences.

Thank you, Lord, for bestowing upon me my gifts and allowing me to learn lessons at each turn in my life.

Seduced by Darkness featured on Promo Mondays

My latest novella, Seduced by Darkness, has been featured on Cherie Reich's Promo Mondays.

A new release is almost as exciting as the creating. It seems to be just as much work also - promotions and such.

Guess if there's to be a follow up, I better get busy writing on the next work in progress.

Do you ever feel as if the more you publish the less time there is to write? Course the holidays have got the post office hopping, which has a lot to do with down time on writing.

Seduced by Darkness released

Seduced by Darkness is now available at eTreasures Publishing.

Blurb:

Geneva Chilton, warned against human contact, betrays her family in order to be close to the world she longs to join. Intrigued by an artist’s work and his ability to capture life on canvas, Geneva steps too close to the boundaries and discovers love, but what price will she have to pay?

Lewis Hunt, intrigued by Geneva’s beauty and determined to capture it on canvas, discovers he needs more. Lewis needs the real woman behind the beauty. His course leads him to her, but also to danger. How hard is he willing to fight for a woman of darkness, a vampire?

The Romance Reviews Year End Splash Party

The party is going into its third week. Don't miss out on the chance to win some wonderful prizes.

A copy of Escape to Love and Seduced by Darkness are among the prizes.

Visit the Party to find out all the prizes and to participate.

The Dreaded Middle

The middle of a story is dreaded for many reasons. Whatever your reason may be, you can never have too much advice on how to deal with it, right?

I've found two interesting posts on the subject:

Planning Your Novel's Middle by Janice Hardy
Testing the Middle:Subplots by Editortorrent

Now, I can't take credit for finding these two wonderful blogs. All credits go to Roni Loren of Fiction Groupie. Every Friday, she offers up some great links in her Fill Me In Friday: Best Links of the Week posts.

Genre confused?

The idea of narrowing your story down to one genre can sometimes cause major confusion. The likely reason for this is you're crossing genres.

As writers explore their story worlds, elements may present themselves which is outside the main genre they planned for their story. Cross-genres are fine. But, it's important to realize what you are doing to avoid confusion and feeling defeat.

Over the years, I've heard write what you read, and read what you write. In my opinion, this suggestion isn't always great advice.

For one, I love medical thrillers. Could I write one? Not without extensive research. I know nothing about the medical field. But then you may wonder what if the story is about a doctor's personal life rather than his occupation. Wouldn't it still be a medical thriller? This would depend on the subject matter and story question. I'd say it's possible to produce such a book and still hit the medical thriller genre, but it would still need a splash of medical element.

The main reason for this topic this week is a revelation I had. I have two incomplete novels waiting for completion and a third in progress. I'm thinking the reasons for the incomplete novels may have a lot to do with not knowing what genre I was writing.

Those who know me are aware of my genre dilemma over the years. Those who've read my work can see the broad range of genres I write. Only recently have I truly come to understand how genre can effect what we write and how we write it.

When writing Escape to Love, I knew from the word 'go' I was writing a paranormal romance novella. There was no question of the basic plot - boy meets girl, forces separate their joining, boy gets girl. Those of you, who have read this, or even the blurb, know that this story turned into a historical paranormal romance. So, even though I had an idea of the genre, I still crossed over to another genre.

In most cases, this will work. In some cases, the story will need some rewriting because of the crossing.

If you start out with a dead body in Chapter One, and then by Chapter Thirteen you have an alien, who you didn't expect, I'd say you have some rewriting to do. Something in the beginning needs to give the reader a clue as to this new genre element or you will jar the reader. Chances are your book is about to be thrown across the room. Now, I'm not saying you need a spaceship or something to that extreme, but some hints. Maybe the dead body has a glowing mark on its chest; this would give a science fiction element - preparing the reader.

Say you start a romance novel, boy meets girl, nothing unusual. Then, at the half way mark, we learn the heroine is a ghost, with no indication of such in the first section of the book. You'll need to do some inserting along the way to prepare the reader.

Sixth Sense, the 1999 movie starring Bruce Willis, is a great example of planting hints along the way to keep from jarring the reader (or viewer) out of the story.

So, do you know what genre your story is? How many genres are you crossing?

Technical Difficulties

It seems I've managed to mess up both my blogs. The images are gone, replaced by icky black boxes. I guess when I moved ownership over to different email addresses and deleted the old account, I managed to do away with whatever links Picasa Web Albums to the blogs.

Have patience, this may take quite a while, but I will get it all back in order.

Guest Post at Savvy Authors

Come by Savvy Authors and read my latest guest blogging post. I revisit what seems to be my favorite topic, germs - idea germs.

Sounds kind of icky, right?

So, what is an idea germ? An idea germ is the small spark within your imagination, the conception of your story. With nurturing, this germ grows into an amazing story. The first step is to discover the germ.  

Continue reading. (The original link has been broken.) You can now find this article on the blog.

Feel free to leave comments or even start a discussion. See you there.

Prison Break

Prison Break is a Fox Television Series which ran from 2005 to 2009.

The story follows two brothers and a wonderful crew of characters.

Due to a political conspiracy, an innocent man sits on death row and his only hope is his brother, who plan is to be sent to the same prison in order to break them both out from the inside out.

As with everything in life, I'm a little behind and only recently viewed this series, but I believe it came at the right time in my life. This series can be viewed on Netflix.

Okay, now what does this have to do with writing? Everything.

This series will show you how to create living, breathing characters. (These characters became a part of our household during the weeks of watching this show, even invaded my dreams.) The back stories are wonderfully wove into the story, and never bog it down. Cliffhangers anyone? This show is full of them and not just at the end of each show. At each turn, you think one thing, but it turns out to something completely different. Show, don't tell is a major pinpoint of this story. You have to figure out who's about to do what by their actions and movements, because honestly the characters don't even know what the other one's about to do.

I highly recommend watching this series for pure pleasure, but also as a learning adventure.

Warning: There is violence in this story, but what can you expect? The main characters are convicts.