A little knowledge…

… is a dangerous thing. Maybe this is what Andi and Bria were getting at when they asked if I thought too much craft info stuffed in my head was a bad thing<tm>.

I admit I was pretty bored with the workshop on Saturday as the nuts and bolts were gone over. It’s a good thing the personality of the speaker was engaging and funny. Also, I think Dana Belfry was highly amused by the little origami boxes I made out of Hershey’s Treasures wrappers during the talk.

In a way, I was appalled that the workshop was so nuts and bolts in its approach. Maybe I just assumed the audience for it should already have known the basics of having two of their characters speak to one another on the page? That doesn’t seem like that outlandish of an assumption.

On the other, maybe my expectations were just too high. Did I really expect the speaker to simply download her brain to ours? I don’t know, but I know there was a definite disconnect there. I don’t consider myself to be an expert on dialogue by any means, but the basic mechanics of it have been pretty obvious for a while now.

If you’re reading this and thinking to yourself, “Gah! What a snobbish bore!” you can relax, because I’m definitely running into my share of challenges in the Deep Editing class, Bria talked me into taking with her. I’ll be the first to admit that editing is brand spanking new to me. You mean there’s more to it than fiddling with a word choice here and there? Cool.

Anyway, I’m learning technical terms for all sorts of rhetorical devices I knew existed, but never played with on a conscious level. I can hear my DH yawning right about now. Yes, dear. Old hat for you, but I was taking econ and business classes instead.

I think my favorite quote from Saturday’s workshop will always be, “Do it well, but don’t do it often!” That seems to apply to these rhetorical devices. I think the do it well part means you have to make it blend in with the writing around it too. It can’t just stick out like a sore thumb on the page. Otherwise, it just looks a bit purple.

I do feel I am learning from the class (yes I just signed up yesterday), but the EDITS system and taking a highlighter and painting the different sections (dialogue, description, internalization, emotion, and blocking) different colors really lets me see why I like and dislike various sections. Clumps are bad. A nice smattering of everything reads much better.

In other news, I’m over 10k on the Flower Queen’s Daughter story!

Off to LA

We’re taking off for LA this weekend. I’m going to attend a LARA workshop on dialogue with Julia Quinn on Saturday with 10 other divas and 50 other people. DH is going to take the kids to Universal Studios while I’m there. And Sunday we’ve been invited to a BBQ at a friend’s house, so I’ll be very scarce.

The good news, in participating in the Romance Divas’s writing month for May, I’ve hit 2k both days so far. I’ve got a little cushion to relax this weekend. I had planned to take them off anyway. I currently have 8399 words for 40 pages on the Flower Queen’s Daughter manuscript. I’m bouncing off the walls.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday Thirteen: Icecream!

 

13 Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Flavors

 

April 30th is/was 31 Cent Scoop Night at Baskin Robbins. We didn’t event try to buy 13 flavors, but we could have for only about $4.36! There was a limit of 10 scoops per person. And there were about 80 people outside the shop waiting to get inside!

Anyway, here’s some of the flavors we COULD didn’t want to stand in line for. DS got mint chocolate chip, DD got bubblegum, and I had butter pecan from Dairy Queen.

1. Oreo Cookies & Cream
2. Very Berry Strawberry
3. Chocolate
4. Chocolate Chip
5. Pralines & Cream
6. Cookie Dough
7. Rocky Road
8. Peanut Butter ‘n Chocolate
9. Pistachio Almond
10. Gold Medal Ribbon
11. Nutty Coconut
12. Chocolate Fudge
13. Pink Bubblegum

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Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 kay	2 Meg Cypher	3 Kimberly Menozzi
4 Debbie Mumford	5 Nina Pierce	6 Jennifer McKenzie
7 Paige Tyler	8 TLC	9 Susan Helene Gottfried
10 Robin L. Rotham	11	12

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Arcs & Lenses

Jodi of “Will Work for Noodles” fame posted the other day about one of her papparazzi moments similar to the one I had when I read Leigh Michael’s book On Writing Romance and how the conflict/force thing has to work in order for this arc to occur. Jodi’s post completed the circuit for me. I’ll wait while you click here to go read it.

No really, I’ll wait.

Ok. So she was talking about Virginia Kantra was explaining how the meeting, initial conflict, vulnerability, honesty, and acceptance that your hero and heroine (H/h) go through the story to reach their Happily Ever After (HEA).

This idea combined with MIchael’s take on how you have to have complementary problems for your H/h and a force that’s compelling enough to keep them from just walking away from the frustration that you’re putting them through really made a whole lot of sense to me.

I’ve had this bouncing around my head as I’m writing up the basic scene descriptions that I find it easier to work from as I go through a first draft for the Flower Queen’s Daughter story I’ve been talking about, but haven’t shown much progress on. I’ve been trying to look past it and let it settle in the background of my thoughts, but it’s helped pull out some significant moments in my outline. And yes, they seem to fall where Dunne refers to as points of no return. It’s exciting when things fall into place! Or at least feel like it.

The other thing that’s been running through my mind today was Andi, the unhinged one’s question to Jodi and me if it was possible to stuff too much craft into one’s head or at least too many different styles of approach. I think I’ve decided that since we’re fairly visually oriented people, that I want to describe the different approaches as different lenses. I’m easily distracted, ooh, shiny? Niiice…

Oh yes. Sorry, back now. Different lenses. My brain bounces around a lot. Focus is frequently an issue for me, so all this craft stuff bounces in and out of focus on me as well. This means I don’t always realize what needs to happen just because Dunne says around this point you should be thinking about having New Dangers Defeat Old Weapons and Emotional Defeat or Vogler says you have to show Tests, Allies, & Enemies and others just call the Mid Point. BUT, if I have them lined up in my handy spreadsheet and can see them all side by side, I can flip through the available lenses and use the one that makes the most sense at the moment.

Now, the other thing I’ve been thinking about is form vs formula. This is Robert McKee’s fault. I go back and forth on my reliance on my spreadsheet. I think at this point I’m allowed a crutch, though. You see, I haven’t internalized things enough to push the vague formula into organic form yet. I need reminders.

Andi also mentioned that she needed to learn through trial by fire or learning by doing. I agree with this to a point. Things click when I read them, but it seems to take me at least two iterations for them to click on the page.

I was going to ask a pithy and thought-provoking question here at the end, but my brain’s on overload from all I managed to get done today. I’m planning on going into May with a solid plan in hand and just writing all month for RD’s RoDiWriMo. Eep, one more day left and 9 scenes to capture the details on!

Goals

I’ve never been a very goal oriented person. I’m more the type to sit back and react to what happens around me. This isn’t working as far as writing goes.

One of the joys of DH living in Peru and growing up with football (that’s soccer to us Americans) as a way of life means I get treated to World Cup Soccer in Spanish because the coverage is better. The announcers are also a whole lot more into it, it’s crazy how excited they get, especially when you only catch about every 5th word or so. At least it’s only every 4 years.

One of the Divas Author of the Month forum workshops was by Jaci Burton on career building and goal setting. I read everything, but didn’t really do anything with it. It seems silly to me to be thinking about things like agents and editors and publishing houses at this point. Maybe this is fear of rejection talking, but seriously, my main goal is still to have something finished and in shape to send to one of those type people. Baby steps.

One of the sections of the RD board there’s a section for posting goals and being held accountable to them. I’ve never posted there before, but I’m always reading and occasionally cheering people on. One of the people I regular challenge with, Elune, posted a very simple and elegant set of goals:

Daily (weekday) Goals

1. Write at least 2K words
2. Read through & revise previous days progress

Weekly (weekend) Goals

1. Learn 1 new thing to improve my writing
2. Read through & revise the weeks progress

Monthly Goals

1. Read through & revise the months progress
2. Refresh 4 lessons learned that month

Short and to the point. They’re easily measurable. They’re not very subjective! They seem reasonable!

I must steal them. Several people are doing a Fast Draft for two weeks where they attempt to write 20 pages a day which comes out around 5k a day. Now, looking back at November, there’s no way I can do that, not with other obligations still hanging over my head. The 1667/day that NaNoWriMo meant was doable. Last fall I’d been doing the 2k/day when I sat down and focused and knew what I was going to be writing each time.

How fortunate that RD is also hosting a WriMo for May. I think I can do that and I really need incentive to help me push through another first draft. Andi and I are talking about becoming accountability buddies, but the combination should ensure success. So, I’m going to steal Elune’s goals and tweak them for me. I’m sure they’ll evolve over time and come to include more things, but for now, this is what I want to do for May. I know I’m going to probably have a week devoted to other obligations, but I think it’s do able!

Kaige’s Daily (weekday) Goals

1. Write daily journal entry (1k words)
2. Write at least 2K words on WIP
3. Sanity check next 2 scenes, adjust where necessary

Kaige’s Weekly (weekend) Goals

1. Make sure 14k goal for week is met
2. Sanity check remaining outline, adjust where necessary
3. Post a minimum of 3 times per week (Th13 is one).

Kaige’s Goal for May

1. Have rough draft completed by May 30th before we go camping.
2. Don’t sweat the small stuff!

Wish me luck, I’m gonna need it. I can already feel the welts from Andi’s whip. *wince*

What do you do to push yourself and meet your personal goals?