Writer Patty's Journey to Publication

Gems: Brilliant Blue Sapphires – Sparkling Imagery

2009-05-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

A novel of fiction should immerse a reader into a world full of amazing characters overcoming obstacles, growing as humans and perhaps being victorious, but that world must be painted for the reader. Scenes should be vivid. Whether you are writing science fiction, fantasy or a Young Adult novel, good imagery is a must. Imagery is the formation of mental images. This can be achieved using similes, metaphors, and personification.

A simile is a figure of speech where two unlike things are compared using “like” or “as”.
Example: The principal stood proud at the top of the steps like the Statue of Liberty, welcoming the students on the first day of the new school year.

A metaphor makes a comparison without using “like” or “as”.
Example: Her eyes were shinning beacons of bright light, expressing her hope for their futures.

Personification takes a non-human item and gives it the attributes of a human.
Example: The open doors welcomed the students as the first bell warned them that they had five more minutes to make it to their homerooms.

Imagery combined with good use of the five senses can make the world your characters are in come alive for the reader, but be careful not to overdue your descriptions. Remember that your readers are intelligent people. They are able to form a full mental picture from just a few well-planned sentences. As you read the example below, think of the mental images you get.

*
Martin quickened his steps through the tall trees, his booted feet crunching over fallen leaves and twigs as he got closer to the sound of rushing water. The freezing mist fell on him like confetti on New Year’s Eve almost as if to congratulate him for clearing the trees and coming upon the swollen river. His elation turned to frustration as the foaming water laughed, taunting him with its depth and width.
He sat on a moss-covered boulder and gazed up into the rapidly dimming sky. At least now, the helicopter might spot him. That is if they hadn’t given up for the day. Martin folded his arms to try to stay warm and glanced around, willing his mind to stay sharp. Spotting some fallen branches at the base of a large tree, he jumped off the boulder and dragged the slimy limbs closer to the rock where it blocked the wind. The branches were probably too damp to light on fire, but hope bubbled up from within him and with trembling hands, he flicked the lighter on and prayed for a miracle.
*

What kind of trees did you see? Pine trees, redwoods, or another type? How steep was the river’s bank? Did Martin see gray clouds in the sky as he looked up? All of these details where probably formed into your mind’s eye and I did not have to spell it out for you. Someone might see different trees than you did, but unless the types of trees are integral to the story, it is not an important detail. Naturally, there would be some clouds in the sky because there was a mist falling. I did not have to describe the clouds.

Imagery is a great tool to use to show the reader what the environment is like without having to tell them. Notice the absence of the words “were” and “was” in my example. I was able to paint a picture of the forest without having to tell my readers what they should be seeing. I just let them experience it along with my character.

I had a hard time understanding the idea of imagery until I read an article by Stephen King in a writer’s guide that I had picked up at a thrift store. In fact, the short story that I recently posted to this blog started out as an exercise in imagery after reading his article. I have done searches on the internet and so far, I have not found articles or websites that stand out as excellent when dealing with this subject. If you know of some good sites or have some wisdom to add about imagery, please comment to this post.

If you haven't already, please check out my new website: www.writerpatty.com

Gems: Point of View Like a Jeweler’s Loupe

2009-05-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

How does a jeweler view his gemstones? He uses a jeweler’s loupe. It’s through that lens that he inspects the gem. Point of view is the writer’s loupe and like the jeweler’s loupe, the writer’s lens can be of different magnifications. How the writer sees the story and puts it down on paper, determines how the reader will see the story. Basically, there are three types of points of views and variations within those three: first person, second person and third person.

First person is achieved by using the pronoun I. This is not my favorite point of view to read or to write. I find that it limits my imagination and does not let me get close to the other characters. This point of view is popular with the Young Adult crowd, which is my genre of choice for writing, so I know I am in the minority.

Example

If I have to sit behind Vinnie Trecelli all year in English, I think I might go crazy. Does that guy ever wash his hair or does he just get up and dip his head in hair gel every morning? Either way, he’s not the person I want to stare at the back of right before lunch every day.

*

Second person uses the pronoun you. I have read a few stories that use this point of view and as a child, I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books that used this point of view. It is rare to find a good book with it though. I am sure they are out there and if you have a good recommendation, please leave a comment about it.

Example

You slowly come to as the brakes on the Greyhound bus screech in protest and the bus comes to a full stop. Rubbing your eyes, you sit up and get your first look at the dark city of Los Angeles through the dirty travel worn window. You are the last one off the bus, and your heart pounds in your chest because you have no idea where to go from here. Freedom to do what you want comes with a price and now, you’re thinking that living with mom and Dalton wasn’t as bad as you thought. You hesitate on the last step until Dalton’s angry and insane eyes flash through your mind.

*

Third person uses pronouns such as he, she, it, or they. This is a very flexible point of view and I use it often in my own work. There are a few different styles of third person: subjective, objective, omniscient and limited.

I prefer to write in third person limited. My current book, that has been submitted for publication, is in third person limited and only in the point of view of the main female character, but I will often switch the point of view character from chapter to chapter or in some cases I might switch them for scene to scene.

For a more in depth look at the different types of third person points of view, you can click here.

Example of Third Person Limited

Helen kept her chin up as she stepped out of the principal’s office and walked down the hallway to her locker for the last time. She did her best to ignore the other students. Many of them she had thought of as friends until this morning.

*

How should you choose which point of view to tell your story in? My best advice is to start writing the story in a way that you feel comfortable. If later, you find that you need to get the reader closer to the main character, but you are in third person, you can always go back in editing and change the point of view. Or if you start in first person and find that you want the reader to know what the other characters are thinking or you want scenes where the main character is not around, you can always go back and edit and revise to change the point of view. That is the beauty of our craft. Nothing is set in stone and when it comes to point of view, we can change what lens through which we let our readers see the story unfold.

One important aspect of point of view, especially when in third person, is to make sure that you do not confuse your readers with headhopping. Some writers can get away with this technique, but most of us cannot pull it off decently. This is when you are writing in one character’s point of view and without warning, you switch to another character’s view point.

There is nothing wrong with having multiple viewpoints in a novel. In fact, I personally think it gives depth to a story. The key is to decide when the time is right for a different character’s point of view. As I begin a new chapter, I ask myself which character will have the most to think or see in the chapter, and that is the point of view I use. I may decide that another character would be better to have the point of view after the chapter is written and go back and change it.

I will admit that I had a problem with headhopping when I first started writing fiction. It is a common mistake and one that is easy to train yourself out of. It just takes practice. I have found two very good articles on headpopping.

Suzanne Hartmann’s article on point of view shifts. While you are there, check out the nine other articles on common mistakes new writers make.

And

Edittorrent headpopping vs. multiple points of view

Gems: The Gold Chain or Prose and Narration

2009-05-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

Prose and narration are the keys to holding a story together. In my own writing, this is where I really had to study. Prose is the ordinary everyday written language that we use in fiction to describe what is going on. My biggest challenge has been toning it down. There is a balancing act to writing prose and I often fall off the fence, writing too many adjectives or adverbs and getting carried away with the flowery language.

I do not know about you, but my main goal when writing a work of fiction is to make the words fall away from the page and have the reader seeing the story in their mind’s eye. I want them to live it, to be there in the thick of things and to forget there is an author at all. As an artist, this is something that I think many writers struggle with in the beginning. We want to be recognized as brilliant writers, but truly, the most brilliant writers are those that make us forget they are even there.

Yes, you want to have a voice and you want to set the tone of the story, but I truly think less is more. That does not mean that your narration needs to be boring. There are so many aspects of prose and narration that we can discuss that I am going to explore them separately in their own articles.

Let’s start with tense. No matter what tense you decide to use in your story, it is important that you be consistent throughout. The most common tense for writing prose is past tense. It is a comfortable tense for the reader who is used to it and is an effective tool for making the words on the page disappear in the background and letting the story play out in the reader’s mind. Past tense is used for narration and present tense is used for dialogue.

Some factors for determining what tense to write should be taken into consideration. First would be what you feel comfortable writing. Second would be what point of view you are writing in and third, what works overall for the story you are telling.

Grab some books off your shelves and determine which tense the writer used and notice how consistent they are.

Example of past tense in third person point of view:

Sybil kept her eyes focused on the stage before her and tried her best to ignore the boy sitting next to her in the dim theater. She’d slipped into the auditorium after the play had already started and not wanting to disturb the actors, she’d sat in the first available seat she could find. With a frustrated sigh, Sybil frowned and fought the urge to turn his way, knowing that he continued to stare at her. Next time, she would pay more attention to where she sat.

Example of present tense in first person point of view:

I don’t know why she doesn’t like me, but I don’t like her either. She acts all high and mighty, but I didn’t ask her sit next to me. My best friend’s rendition of Take Me Out to the Ball Game gets my attention, and I try not laugh. Poor Roger. He got suckered in to doing the play. If I were him, I would have come down with a bad case of laryngitis or something. There’s no way I’d get up on that stage and make a fool of myself that way.

What tense do you use most often in your prose and narration? And with that, what point of view do you tell your stories with? In the next article, we will discuss points of view.

Please take a moment to visit my new website: http://www.writerpatty.com

Poetry. An Elegy Poem. Goodbye, Puppy Love

2009-05-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

One way to kick start creativity is to do something different. If I find myself getting blocked or frustrated with my fiction writing or if the editing process starts to get me down, I will stop what I’m doing and research a form of poetry that I have never written.

I thought I would take a break from my gems series and share my latest attempt at poetry. The elegy form caught my eye and I decided to give it a try.

An elegy (not to be confused with eulogy) is a poem of mourning. The subject can be a person, thing or idea that has been lost to the poet somehow. It consists of three parts. Grief and sorrow, praise and admiration, and consolation and solace. Stanzas are usually four lines of two end rhyming couplets. I chose to write my poem with ten syllable lines and one stanza for each part.

Goodbye, Puppy Love

Sections of me died one hot afternoon.
Shadows held court over me, drenched in gloom.
Forever, life was over in my mind.
I mourned the loss; his love never to find.

Would my heart ever soar to heights so grand,
And passion swell ‘til I could understand?
Would my eyes ever be blinded to faults,
And stomach tie in knots and somersaults?

The pond is tiny and the fish are big.
The bait is still ripe; the worms I must dig.
From the bonds of childhood I have now fled.
Puppy love behind and real life ahead.

If you write poetry, what are some forms that you prefer to use? Do you like poems that rhyme or are you more attracted to non-rhyme?

Notice! I Am Moving.

2009-05-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

My husband bought me my own domain name and got me set up with a wordpress blog that forwards to it. I LOVE all the things that can be done with wordpress themes. Wordpress has a handy tool for moving all posts from another blog over to them, so I've done that with all posts here. I plan to continue posting here for a few more weeks.

The new site is http://www.writerpatty.com

2009-05-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

Good dialogue is essential to a great work of fiction. With it, an author can reveal to the reader who the characters are without having to tell them. We can give characters unique ways of talking, certain phrases they like to repeat and have the characters interacting with one another. Like the moonstone, dialogue should be smooth and should reveal important information that furthers the plot.

From the very beginning of my writing career, I have had little trouble in the area of dialogue. I hear the characters in my head and write their dialogue just as they talk. It comes so naturally to me that I had to analyze some of my work to find out how I actually do it that makes it flow and seem real.

Despite having read dialogue over and over again in books, what I didn’t have down naturally was the punctuation. Enough of the format was imprinted into my mind that I could remember that the quotes go outside the end punctuation, but my end punctuation and when to capitalize and when to not capitalize tags tripped me up. A speech tag is the part before or after the words spoken, such as he said or she said.

When I realized that I had been doing something wrong in my dialogue punctuation, I searched the internet and found a lot of drawn out and confusing web pages about it. I did find one site that explained the punctuation so simply, with easy examples, that I was able to get it and within two days, I had wiped out all my habitual mistakes. Now, when I am editing for new authors, I send them this same link: Dialogue Punctuation Made Simple.

There are a few things to remember when writing dialogue. There must be a new paragraph each time another character speaks. When three or more people are in a scene, use speech tags or action to indicate who is speaking. When having a long scene with dialogue, mix up where speech tags are and have action tags that give the reader a visual of where the speakers are and what they are doing so you can avoid the talking head syndrome.

Example of dialogue

Four-year-old Jack held the delicate sand dollar up to show his older sister. “Is this candy?”

“Candy?” asked Brooke as she took it from him. “No, it’s a sand dollar.”

“Oh,” Jack said, “is it a vegetable?”

“No, it’s not a vegetable.”

Brooke sat down on her beach towel and placed the sand dollar on her knee. Jack plopped down in front of her and ran his fingers through the warm sand.

“Is it a fruit?”

“No. It’s not food. This is the skeleton of a dead animal.” Jack’s little gasp and wide eyes made Brooke giggle. “Why did you want to know?”

Jack sighed and in a small, sad voice said, “Because I licked it.”

Some people find it helpful to write out only the words spoken in a scene of dialogue and add in the tags and actions later. The most important thing is to play around with dialogue until you feel comfortable writing it and it is believable speech. When in doubt, read the scene out loud.
If you have some tips or suggestions about dialogue, a question or a comment about this article, I’d love to hear from you.

Gems: You Want the Ruby, Not the Garnet. Homophones.

2009-05-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

While we are on the subject of new writer mistakes, let me embarrass myself and admit that I had a problem with homophones. Homophones are a group of words that have the same pronunciation but are often spelled different and have different meanings. You can think of it as the difference between a ruby and a garnet. Rubies and garnets look the same, but one is a harder stone, often more clear and more rare. If you paid the price of a ruby for a garnet, you would not be too happy. The correct homophone is the ruby while the other is a garnet, which is not quite good enough.

The wrong homophones can be found in the work of novice writers, can slip past more advanced writers and can often irritate editors. The best way to avoid the mistake is to gather a list of homophones, adding more and more as time goes by, and to study them.

Below, I have listed four of the most common sets of homophones that I was guilty of confusing and that I encounter when proofreading for newer authors. The great thing about these four sets is that after you have studied the differences and the more you write and proofread your own work, these will no long be a problem for you.

Your, you're

Your is the possessive form of the word you.
Example for your: Is that your dog?

You're is the contraction of you are.
Example for you're: I think you're going to be late.

It's, its

Its is the possessive form of the word it. And like the word your above, it does not need an apostrophe.
Example for its: The dog wagged its tail.

It's is the contraction of either it is or it has. It is a contraction, therefore it needs the apostrophe.
Example for it's: It's cold outside.

There, their, and they're

Examples:
There: I don't want to go there.
Their: Their house is up for sale.
They're: They're going to have to move soon. (They're: contraction of they are.)

To, two, and two

To: They want to go to the store.
Two: She has two children.
Too: That is way too much ketchup for one hot dog. OR He likes candy too.

With the first three sets, I believe there is confusion because in most cases an apostrophe is used with a possessive.
Examples: The cat's eyes glow in the dark. I put Mark's jacket in the closet. I went into the restaurant's kitchen.

Naturally, we want to put an apostrophe on all possessives. I found it helpful to lump all the possessive pronouns together to look at. Mine, yours, his, hers, theirs, ours, its. Then I found it helpful when editing to stop at words like it's, you're, they're and asked myself if they still read correctly as it is, you are, and they are.

There are many homophones and I still mix some of them up. I have reduced the amount of mistakes by simply studying a list of homophones found at this website.

When I write a word that I know is a homophone and I am in doubt about which one to use, I simply google the word and read the definition.
What are some of the homophones that you mix up? Do you have any tricks, tips or websites on how to beat the homophone trap?

Next up, dialogue.

Gems: A Strand of Shiny Grammar Pearls of Wisdom

2009-04-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Not being a daring person, I was nervous about the idea of sharing my stories with family, much less strangers. My desire to improve finally outweighed my bashful nature and I sent a story to a new internet friend. I was not worried about being critiqued as much as I was just nervous about whether they would like the story or not. I am so glad that I took that first step.

The day I got my story back with comments and red marks is a day I will never forget. I learned a few things about myself that I think have helped me get to a point where I had a complete manuscript that I felt was worthy of submitting. I learned that I had a thick skin and that I could take constructive criticism, I found out that I am very teachable, and I rediscovered my love of research.

My beta started her critique off with kind words and praise for my story ideas, but she pointed out some basic and common errors that many new writers make. She did not spend a lot of time educating me on the mistakes, but she put me on the right path by describing what the error was and giving me a quick example of how I could fix it.

I had some interesting grammar mistakes, and I am still learning to master many of them. For some reason, I overuse commas or put them in strange places. I had some fragmented sentences, I over used adverbs and did not know the correct order for adjectives or the rules about when commas should be used with them.d

Determined to get these things right, I searched online and found some great grammar resources.

Guide to Grammar and Writing: A great place to learn grammar and take quizzes.
The Perdue Online Writing Lab
Grammar Girl: I recommend subscribing to the daily emails.
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: Plenty of quizzes to take after you learn something new.

Some aspiring writers who are reading these articles might be asking themselves why I am starting my series by discussing the technical side of writing. My answer to that is simple. If you want to be a carpenter, you need to get familiar with the tools. If you want to be a baker, you need to know how to measure. If you want to be a writer -- one that has a chance of getting published -- you need to know the tools of your trade. Grammar is one of those tools. If you try to submit something with poor spelling, grammar, or formatting, be prepared to get rejection letters.

If you have some pearls of wisdom, comments or questions, please leave a comment to this post. I would really love to add to my list of grammar sites to recommend, so if you have a favorite, please comment and tell me what it is. I would love to know what your common grammar mistakes were when you first started writing.

In my next installment for this series, we will explore dialogue punctuation and homophones.

Introduction to My Hunting Gems Series

2009-04-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

In September of 1982, my parents gave me a diary for my tenth birthday. I started writing in it nightly. To this day, I can’t make out some of the words, but it was filled with the goings on of my young life. Every year after, while I was in school, someone gave me a diary for my birthday. Looking at my last diary from when I was seventeen, I am ashamed to say that I still can’t read some of the words. Of the ones I can read, many of them are spelled wrong and it takes a bit of thinking to figure out what I was trying to write about.

In August of 1985, I opened a spiral notebook, meant to be used as school supplies, and wrote my first poem. Over the years, the pile of poetry-filled notebooks would grow to number about twenty. Scattered amongst the angst-ridden poems were short stories or the beginnings of ideas for longer novels.

In the summer of 1985, my mother noticed and read the beginnings of my first novel attempt. It was handwritten on loose lined paper. As always, it was hard to read because of my poor penmanship and lack of good grammar skills, but she saw potential there and brought home a manual typewriter from work. I was so glad that I had taken typing in school.

In the fall of 1987, my parents bought me a word processor, complete with a printer. I painstakingly typed in my novel and then finished it. The freedom to cut, copy, and paste was so great that I spent much time trying to make it better. Unfortunately, the disks that I had kept the novel on got lost when I moved out of the house, but that first attempt gave me the writing bug.

In May of 2007, I sat down in front of my computer, opened a blank notepad file and started to type. As I wrote the story, I realized a few things.

1.) My grammar had not improved.
2.) My punctuation for dialogue was all wrong.
3.) My storytelling abilities were lacking.

I made the decision to stop writing and learn as much as I could about writing before I started the novel again, though I did continue to write practice stories.

I started my search by using the internet. What I found was scattered bits and pieces. It was like treasure hunting, finding gems amongst the sand and debris that litter the web.

What's Going On

2009-04-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

I have a conference to go tonight. I'm really looking forward to it. Friday should be the most fun as it's all day with a nice break between morning and evening. I have plans for lunch that includes having a few people over to my house. One of them approached me last night and asked for me help looking over her novel. I feel honored that she'd ask. She heard that I had written a book.

My husband has asked me to write an e-book about writing. :) I'm gathering notes and ideas for it now and it should be fun. So, look for topical posts here in the near future about different aspects of writing and the different stages.

Besides the sequel to Works in Progress and another fiction book that I am writing and now the e-book, I've been wanting to put together another non-fiction book. My husband is amazing person. He's humble and he loves God and I believe that because he lets the Spirit lead that God allows some wonderful things to happen when he witnesses to others. I'm going to compile the stories and organize them by theme for chapters and then see about getting it published. I know the book would only be interesting to those who feel it's important to fulfill the Great Commission that Jesus commanded us all to do, but I think it will be a blessing to those who do read it. Not because of my great talent as an artist, but because the stories themself are so wonderfully amazing. I know my husband read a book by a great preacher, Dr. Jack Hyles, where he told some amazing stories about people that he'd witnessed to and that really encouraged my husband.

Short Story: The Not-So-Brilliant Short Cut

2009-04-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

Graphic artwork and story by Patricia Schuyler

Walking briskly with her arms swinging at her sides, Julie tried desperately to keep her fear at bay. Why, oh, why had she stayed so late? Her simple, white tennis shoes cut through the thin mist swirling over the concrete path that went through Clydesdale Cemetery. She paused and shivered, taking furtive glances around her.

She’d lived in Clydesdale all her life and not once had she ever considered stepping foot in the old graveyard after dark. Some of the boys in town dared each other to do it from time to time, but Julie had always thought that they were stupid. Tonight though, she had no choice as she was thirty minutes past her curfew already.

Julie’s dad had talked with her just yesterday about being on time, and she’d promised to try harder. Her mom had sat beside him, wearing her peach house robe and listening quietly until he was finished with his lecture. She’d gazed at Julie then with her big, caring eyes and said softly, “I get so worried when you’re still out after dark. And when you are late, it’s even worse.”

A part of Julie had resisted both her dad’s firm words and her mom’s loving ones. She was sixteen now and not a baby, but she knew that her parents loved her and she was glad to see their relief when she didn’t argue or complain about the new curfew rule.

She’d lost track of the time again while hanging out at Sandra’s house. Sandra was the new girl in town, and Julie’s parents had encouraged her to make friends with her. The Capshaw’s house was on the other side of town, and she’d spent the last month going over there after school almost every day. Sandra had her own computer and a ton of neat games. They had been playing with Sims when she’d glanced over at the clock on the wall.

“Oh, no!” She’d jumped up and grabbed her backpack. “I’ve got to go. I’m sorry, Sandra, but if I don’t hurry, I’m going to be in so much trouble!”

She was so late and she knew that the old cemetery was a short cut. It would take twenty minutes to go around it, but only five to go through it. With her mind made up, she’d stepped between the sagging iron gates that never closed properly and began walking.

The new cemetery at the other end of town had just one big statue near the entrance and a grand mausoleum in the very back. A broad lawn of freshly mowed grass stretched out as far as the eye could see, with young trees planted here and there. All the graves were marked with flat little ground plaques.

There was no room in this cemetery for new graves, and the big monuments and tombstones were very creepy. Some of the gray and brown headstones that crowded the ground were so old that they leaned to the left or right. The taller ones had stone crosses on top, reaching for the dark sky. The big, leafy trees stood tall and imposing, having become overgrown in neglect. Their huge trunks obstructed her view of the grounds around her, and the hair rose on the back of her neck as she thought of all the things that might be lurking behind them.

Taking a deep breath, Julie drew in the damp, earthy smell permeating the air around her and eyed the gray headstone that was set really close to the path up ahead. It reminded her of the Haunted Mansion at Disney World. Last summer, the ghoulish characters popping up behind the headstones had made her jump and laugh. Julie slowed her step and edged as far away from it on the path as possible.

She glanced around nervously and spotted the small gap in the wooden fence that doubled as an exit and sighed in relief. Not far to go now. Hearing leaves rustle behind her, she took one step then hesitated before resuming her walk, quickening her pace. She was just telling herself that she only had a few more steps to go before she would be out of the eerie place, when more leaves rustled behind her.

Oh, gosh, is someone following me?

Julie was suddenly wishing she’d really thought this not-so-brilliant idea for a shortcut through. She could have just called her mom from Sandra’s house, apologized for being late and asked for a ride home. But when she’d seen what time it was, all that she could think about was getting home as fast as she could. What use was a shortcut if she ended up dead and never got home?

The sound of metal scraping against the rough concrete wrenched through the air. Panic rose up from her stomach and squeezed at her throat. She desperately wanted to run, but her feet wouldn’t listen and she stood frozen on the path. An owl hooted. Clasping both hands over her mouth, she stifled a scream and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Hey, you!” a deep raspy voice rang out in the stillness.

Julie’s eyes went wide at the sight of a man in dirty overalls and a black t-shirt coming down the path at her with a shovel in his hand.

“You can’t be in here.”

She put her hands to her cheeks when the heat of embarrassment came flushing over her face. It was just old Mel, the caretaker.

“I’m sorry,” she told him while backing up. “I’ll go now.”

She turned and ran the last few feet before ducking down and squeezing through the hole in the wooden fence. She jogged lightly down the sidewalk and was just coming to the end of the street when she let out a scream as a figure came around the corner and right into her path.

“Hey, watch it!” a scantily clad women said, slurring her words. The women pushed Julie to the side and walked by her on shaky legs.

As soon as her heart dislodged from her throat and her breathing slowed to normal, she walked briskly down the block and stopped at the next street corner to lean against a signpost. A few cars were parked at the well-lit convenience store across the street, and a couple of the young deadbeats were hanging out by the payphone with their brown bag covered bottles. She knew most of them, because they were all dropouts from her high school.

She stood tall, took a deep, calming breath and walked across the street. She giggled uncontrollably and the older boys watched her curiously. She didn’t care. She was safe and that was all that mattered. Julie Downs had crossed the old Clydesdale Cemetery at night. She couldn’t wait to tell Sandra about this. No one would believe her, especially not the boys. She giggled again.

Julie would have to wait three days before she could tell her friends. When she’d gotten home, her parents had been none too happy. They’d calmly informed her that she was grounded for the entire weekend. No phone, no TV, and no going out of the house. She took it quite well, knowing that she deserved it and feeling as if she’d gotten off lightly with only one weekend of punishment. It was settled in her mind that she would never be late again.

She spent the weekend reading a scary novel that her dad had tucked away on a bookshelf. Julie held the large hardback book up on her lap, while she sat up on her bed and leaned against the headboard. Shivering in delight as she turned each page, the weekend passed quickly for her.

Must Keep Going

2009-04-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

I'll be meeting the editor at the end of this week and I'm very excited about it. She's going to be speaking at a ladies confernece that I am attending. I mentioned in my second email to her that I really enjoy the editing process and she seemed to like that. If you are going to be a writer, you should force yourself to like the editing process, even you if you really don't. I personally love to polish my work and improve it. :)

Another First For Me

2009-04-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

I queried a publisher directly and got a response in two days. They would like to see the manuscript. Happy, happy me. :) They also said, in the email, that it will be two years or more before I could see the book published if they accept it. I'm resigned to this and from what I'm hearing, it does take a lot of time.

I sent the email off this morning with the manuscript attached.

Moving Forward

2009-04-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted an entry in forever and a day. :) But I had good reason. We've moved. Not that far, but it took all my energy just to pack and unpack. The new place is spacious with a large fenced backyard. There's grass, tree house with swings and a covered concrete patio.

As far as my novel goes, well there's been some progress there as well. I've gotten the manuscript back from the last person who I wanted an opinion from. It was favorable with some really great suggestion that I took to heart and have implemented.

Currently, I'm in the process of writing the synopsis. I hope to have it finished sometime tomorrow night. Hopefully, I'll get the nerve to share my synopsis with a group of writers and get their input/critiques. The next step is to put a query letter together. And then I shall submit to the publisher I had in mind and start some research for other possible publishers just in case that one doesn't work out.

I sincerely hope that I can get this book published and that I can make a small amount of money off it. Every cent will be going to my church. Ten percent for the tithe and the remaining ninety percent to the building fund. God gets it all for the first book published, because I believe God is the source any and all talent I may or may not possess.

While I Wait

2009-01-24T19:32:00.000-08:00

I did get my proof copy and it was so exciting to hold the glossy covered paperback in my hands. It made it more real for me. It was such a thrill to show it off to a few of my good friends and I even left it with some one that I admire greatly. She read it and gave me some really positive feedback. I don't know what I was expecting, but her words of encouragement really blew me away.

My YA novel is now in the hands of the last person who I feel needs to see it and give me their opinion before I submit to a publisher.

While I wait I am doing a few things.

1. I'm jotting down notes and putting together character sketches for the next book in the series.

2. I'm doing research on the right way to put a submission package together.

3. I'm going over some grammar and writing style things that I have learned over the last year and a half.

Today, I concentrated on the adverb. Mainly those -ly words that often sneak into my prose to modify my verbs. Slowly walking could be strolled. Quickly drinking could be gulped, etc.

My favorite Christmas song

2008-12-24T14:49:00.000-08:00

Normally, I do not enjoy the newer songs that come out. Mostly because they are repetitious junk lyrics. But, when it comes to Christmas songs, my favorite is Mary Did You Know because the lyrics are incredibly powerful and rich. I've heard many different people sing this song, but in my opinion, no one does the song justice like the ones who put it together. I get teary-eyed every time I heard it.

Writing Progress and Christmas

2008-12-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

I've taken advantage of the NanoWriMo winner createspace offer and set up an account with them. I uploaded the book text and my book cover art and it was approved. I just ordered my proof copy a minute ago. It was free and createspace was having a sale on the upgrade from standard to pro. So that was free as well.

In about seven days, I should have a proof copy in my hands! This will be a great back up if I can't get it published through conventional methods.

I've been playing with photoshop again, so here is a little digital Christmas card.

2008-12-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while since I posted. This month has been really busy.

I've got my manuscript all cleaned up and I'm just now trying to get the nerve to bring it to a certain someone's attention. I think they could be the help I need to get it published.

I love to play with photoshop and awhile ago, I made front and back art for the book cover. I know that it won't actually be used, but visualizing my book in printed form is something that has motivated me to keep working on it and improving it.

This is the front of the book. Click the image to see a larger version.

And here is the back cover with a silly picture of me as a place holder for a nice picture. Click the image to take you to a larger version if you wish to actually read the content. :)

Nano Winner!!!! That's me!

2008-11-22T19:00:00.000-08:00

With eight days to spare, I did it folks! I am a Nano winner. And I am so thrilled to have finished this year.

I broke my toe last night, but I can type with a broken toe. That broke thumb last year was the death Nano for me last year.

I entered my short story, The Not-So-Brilliant Short Cut to a short story contest a few minutes ago. My heart is still pounding from clicking the submit button. I would be such a happy camper if I placed at all. Win, place or lose altogether, at least I took that leap and submitted something, somewhere.

If I lose, I'll be posting the story here, so that someone can read it. If I place or win, it will be put in a collection of short stories and I won't be able to post it here, but I will certainly be putting a link to a place where you could buy the collection. :)

I'm not bitter...really.

2008-11-13T23:55:00.000-08:00

This has nothing to do with writing,so feel free to ignore, but what a laugh I had!

Family, Nano, and Tools.

2008-11-12T18:04:00.000-08:00

November has been a busy month for me. I'm homeschooling my kids for now and I really hope we can put them back in private school again soon.

Even with this new busy schedule, I have been able to get a lot of writing done. The most difficult thing has been my driving desire to edit and revise as I go, which we're not suppose to do during Nanowrimo. I have more red lines that usual because I have been typing faster than I normally do. Leaving things spelled wrong just doesn't feel right. And the little green lines bother me even more. I've worked hard to improve my grammar and when I see a mistake with it, I want to fix it NOW. :)

But, I have to admit, Nanowrimo is a good thing. I've been more productive than I thought possible. Much of what I've written has been done early in the mornings or late at night when the rest of the house is asleep.

I've also spend some time lurking at the nanowrimo forums where I've learned some helpful hints and tips. I'll share two of my favorite tools here:

Realize your character's faces with Ultimate Flash Face v0.42b a free program. I could not believe how after just a few minutes of playing with this program, I was able to have a sketch like picture of two of my characters. I see their faces in my head, but it was amazing to see them on the screen.

Candy:

And

Grant:

I added the color on my own, using photoshop elements.

And my other new favorite fun tool really helped me to get some words typed out when I was feeling a bit "blah" about writing. It's called Dr. Wicked's Write or Die and the punishments for not writing fast enough are funny, annoying or scary, depending on the settings you put before you write. It really works.

Nanowrimo Update and Encouraging News about my Book

2008-11-02T21:24:00.000-08:00

First off, Nano. I haven't been able to get on the site to update my word count, so it still reads a big fat zero. But, I have written over 6,000 words so far and I haven't even begun for the second day. God/Church is my priority on Sundays. I'm hoping to get at least a thousand words in before I have to go to sleep.

My first reader for my YA novel has just returned each chapter with corrections done with track changes (oh, track changes, how I love thee!) and with some fun comments on the side.

She's really given me hope. From all those notes, I gather a few things.

1. She loves my Main Male Character.
2. She felt passionate enough about some of the characters to hate them or love them.
3. I made her shed happy tears near the end.
and
4. She truly believes the book should get published.

Her exact words at the very end of the story was "Bloody Brilliant! If this doesn't get published, I'll eat my favourite hat. Good job. Well done."

I'm going to work on making her suggested corrections and then print out a copy for my husband to read. Then I need to get the nerve to ask someone to proofread it for me. I have someone in mind, but I'm glad I have some time before I actually have to ask. :)

I did say that I was going to edit/revise starting on Dec. 1, but my nano writing is going better than I expected, so I may just fit in time to work on the first book this month. We shall see.

I'm going to put a nano widget on my blog, as soon as I can sign in and get the code for it.

You Wrote How Many Words?

2008-10-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

My Young Adult novel turned out to be 36,200 words! It's complete in rough draft. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. There is a plot and there are interesting characters with obstacles and challenges that they have to face. There is more than one moral to the story and both the main characters have grown by the end. There is a fun supportive secondary characters and some of them will be featured in the two books that will follow in the series.

My point of view character changes mainly from the inside while the male main character's changes are brought to our attention from the female character's point of view are are mainly inward, but are clearly seen on the outside.

So now, I'm about ready to open my New Novelist software and get my characters and thoughts down for my Nano Novel.

I Can Barely Keep My Eyes Open

2008-10-26T01:02:00.000-07:00

Today was a very good day for WriterPatty. :) I clocked in at over 6,000 words today, and completed chapter fourteen. I also have about 500 words done for chapter fifteen. If I don't keep expanding the story, I'll have it completed in plenty of time for Nanowrimo.

But my head is swimming in storyland now. When I close my eyes I see Bryan and Aimee and teenage angst. LOL!

I'm wondering about the silliness of my concern over chapter length. Am I just being nuts about it? I feel strongly that I need to keep them short so that I keep the attention of my young readers, and I'm finding natural places to end my chapters that make sense.

So, I think I should just stop thinking so much. The word count per chapter will change anyway, once I get to revising and self-editing. I'm sure I'll be taking complete scenes out and/or adding new scenes.

I'm just thrilled that this story is finally getting written and I'm thrilled that the story is just pouring out of me like crazy. Thank you, Lord. I feel so blessed. Here's hoping readers will feel blessed as they turn the pages of my book.

I've got to be up early in the morning for Church. I have a Junior Church to prepare for and a bunch of little girls who are counting on me to be awake when they get to my class. LOL! So, it's off to bed for me.

More Progress.

2008-10-23T23:31:00.001-07:00

I was only able to get about 300 words down for chapter twelve last night. And today, I wasted the day by cleaning my house and doing laundry and then the kids were home and I didn't get to write. But, (Yay!) I was able to get out almost 2,000 words in less the two hours and chapter twelve is finished!

I'm a happy camper.

It would be great if I could get a chapter written every day.

It could happen.

Another Chapter Under My Belt! & Chapter Length.

2008-10-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling very encouraged as I get closer to the conclusion of my story. Chapter eleven is now done. It's going to need a slight rewrite, but I can do that later.

I've been giving myself a maximum chapter length of 2500 words each. I think it's important for me to keep my target audience in mind. Young Adults have so many things competing for their time. I think it's good to keep the chapters short, start the chapter off with something that grabs them in and then end the chapter with a big of cliffhanger or questions left unanswered, so they'll feel compelled to turn the page and start the next chapter.

I wonder if other authors worry or concern themselves with chapter lengths. I think with an adult target audience, I wouldn't be so concerned about it. I've written stories in the past with up to 5000 words in a chapter and then next chapter might have 3,000 words.

My last chapter has 2,255 words. I reread it and I am sure I can removed two small scenes in it that will bring the word count down.

I'm thinking that there will be four more chapters. The days are clicking by. I have to get all four chapters written in nine days. I can do that. In fact, I plan to write some of chapter twelve after I get back from Bible Study tonight. I'd love to have two days between this novel and Nanowrimo. :)

Update on my writing progress.

2008-10-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

Don't have much to report today. I have ten days until my self imposed deadline. Chapter eleven is about a third of the way done. I'm hoping to get the chapter complete tonight.

I've been feeling poorly. The whole family has some sort of sickness with a head cold, headaches and loss of appetite. Then, I've also had a flare up and I woke up this morning with back pain and both knees swelling. Yuck.

My goal for tonight is to finish chapter eleven and outline twelve and thirteen. I'm guessing the story will be fourteen or fifteen chapters long. I also need to finish my last read through/edit of my short story for that contest. My first reader has seen it left me plenty of comments. I love her for her honesty. Then I plan to submit the story to a writer's group online. It will be my first time doing that. I'm a little nervous about that.

Encouraging Progress!

2008-10-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

I was able to finish writing chapter ten last night. I read it this morning and had to laugh at all the stupid mistakes I made, but it was late at night when I finished it. I was tired.

I'm a little concerned about the pacing of the book. The first seven chapters are a quick run through with fun incidents of the to MC's childhood, but then the pace slows down for high school. Chapter nine and ten are all about tenth grade and chapter eleven will be set in ten grade and then move on to eleventh grade.

I'm going to leave it as is for now, but as I go back and revise, I may try to find a way to condense two chapter into one.

I've got notes and a rough idea about what I want to do with chapter eleven. I may have to go back and add a few things to the previous chapters to set the tone for what is going to happen next. I had it in my mind, but as I wrote, the MC has not wanted to behave the way I want him to. I know that sounds strange and spooky, but it's fixable.

An Excerpt from my WIP

2008-10-18T20:34:00.000-07:00

I'm just reading over chapter nine before I read my notes and rough outline for chapter ten and get back into writing it.

Here is an excerpt from chapter nine that my daughter really liked:

Aimee turned to Kim with her mouth slightly open in shock. “Did you just ask Bryan if he was jealous of Evan?”

“I know he’s jealous of Evan. I just wanted to see his reaction,” Kim said as she shut her own locker. They walked down the hallway a bit and Aimee glared at Kim who stopped her, glanced around and then said quietly. “Wake up and smell the coffee, Cinderella, Prince Rebellious has a major crush on you.”

Aimee shook her head. “Nope, he can’t stand me and I can’t stand him.”

Kim rolled her eyes and held out her hand. “Let me see Evan’s note.”

“No. Not until I’ve have a chance to read it,” Aimee said, dodging Kim’s prying hands as she tried to dig in to her pocket.

Aimee faked her friend out, going left and then running down the hall to the right. They were out of breath and laughing like idiots when they got to History class. She plopped into her seat and waved back at Evan who was smiling at her. Bryan was directly behind him and when she caught him staring at her, he quickly glanced away.
No.

There was no way Bryan could like her. Was there?

I think her favorite part is the Cinderella line, as it references something funny that happened when the characters were all nine years old.

I'm going back to preparing to write.

Things are going slow but steady.

2008-10-18T19:38:00.001-07:00

I'm working on chapter ten of my book. I hope to have it done by the end of the night. I got to spend time today with a few high school students and I picked their brain with notebook in hand. :)

I've also been gearing up for Nano and today I read the first two chapters of the story I plan to finish in November. Of course, my count will start with chapter three, but I know it will be long enough to go past 50,000 words.

Every time I turn my computer on or minimize a window, I see my Nano wallpaper and get excited about it.

I still have to work on editing and rewriting my short story submission for the Reader's Digest Contest. I will get to it.

I just read about commas on the edittorrent blog, and I'm all prepared to write using my commas properly. The comment that stuck out in my mind is that punctuation is not bling. I seriously want a question mark with a diamond for the point. A very very large question mark.

Just because I haven't rambled on enough in this post, I'll discuss one more thing. Edittorent mentioned that they get angry replies to their rejection letters. Often. I just can't understand why someone would do that. I am going to submit, submit, submit, knowing full well that my books will not be right for every publisher. I will be expecting rejection letters.

The more I read about other writers, the more I see how crazy insane a high percentage of them are. :) Me included. *Shakes head an babbles incoherently*

I know it's been a while

2008-10-06T16:38:00.001-07:00

I've been busy getting my act together and doing my best to write everyday. One of the best things a writer can do is to write, everyday.

Currently, I have just started chapter nine of my young adult book. I'm more than halfway through now and I'm very excited about it. It must be done by October thirty-first. I have signed up for nanowrimo and I've been lurking over at the forums there. Reading the posts of other excited authors has really gotten me excited.

My biggest problem during the month of November is the no editing rule. It seems that my writing skills have improved from last year and that I won't be leaving a trail of grammatical mistakes in my wake, but when I type fast, I can really pile on the typos. I thinking it would be best to turn off the spellcheck as you go thingy in Word. This way, my mistakes won't be starring at me as I continue to write. I would be way too tempted to fix, fix, fix.

I'm going to try to be more faithful to post to this blog as I know it's good to keep writing and it may inspire my muse for the actual art of writing a novel.

I have much of my current novel planned out in my head and I'm outlining two chapters ahead of what I write. My goal is to make it a fun read for a teenager that sneaks the moral of the story right by them.

I have a friend who's reading chapters as I go. I spend a half hour tops, going over a chapter and then I send it to her for her thoughts. So far, so good. She's my age, but she seems to like the story and is enamored with my male main character. My thirteen year old daughter is also reading as I go and she is often so impatient to find out what happens next that I will let her read an unedited version of a chapter. I get genuine pleasure from watching her as she reads off the computer screen. She laughs at the right times, her eyes get big at the right time and her overall reaction to the story has been very positive.

Where I am at.

2008-09-27T14:18:00.000-07:00

I'm excited! I have a plan, goals and self imposed deadlines that I feel confident I'm going to be able to meet.

With my Young Adult Christian book, I have started writing it again. I am currently in the middle of writing chapter seven. I have a rough outline for chapters eight and nine and I know where I want the rest of the story to go.

At the rate I'm going now, I should have a completed rough draft in less than three weeks. I get tingles down my spine when I say that. I have completed every book I have ever tried to write. One in high school and five in the last year (all between twelve and thirty-one chapters long, but none of the five are publishable.). It just gives me great confidence and I know I'm going to finish this one.

My plan is to have it written and gone over by both my beta readers before November first, because I plan to participate in Nanowrimo again. I've got a story in mind. It would be secular and would be for the mass market, yet I plan to keep it clean. I've got the prologue and most of the first chapter written, but I'm holding off on doing more so I can use it for Nanowrimo. I won't be counting the words I've already written, but the book will be well over 50,000 words.

So far, I have two people who are beta reading my Christian story for me. One is an amazing friend and aspiring author that I met online. The other is my daughter who is in the age bracket of my target audience. I trust both of them to be honest about what they are reading. And so far, they both really like it.

I'm going to the enter the Readers Digest short story competition. I have two short stories that I plan to enter, but I need to bulk them up a bit. I want to get as close to the 1500 word maximum as I can, and I want to self edit some more and possibly submit one or both of the stories to a critique group for their opinions first.

So, YA Christian book done and first edit finished by November first. Two short stories just under 1500 submitted in the Reader's Digest short story contest before December. Get 50,000 words written for new book in the month of November. Hopefully more words than that and finish it to be put aside for a while. Work on first book, editing and revising until satisfied, then work on submitting to publishers in January. Get second book fixed up and have it ready by May of next year to be submitted to publishers.

I shall let everyone know when I fail or succeed at anyone of my goals. :)

Polar Bears

2008-07-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

We went to the San Diego Zoo yesterday. Had a great time. Our favorite exhibit is the Polar Bears. Difficult to get to, but will worth the hike up the steep hills. Here are a few pictures we took there.

Software to Help Write Your Novel

2008-07-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

I bought a piece of software awhile back, thinking that it may just be a gimmick, but I'd give it a try. It's called New Novelist and although it's fairly simple, I was very impressed with it.

The character study section really helped me to get a grasp on my main characters and keep all their attributes in an organized file system that is easy to refer to when needed. I also love the research section where I keep notes on websites and statistics that I find helpful.

It comes with a word processor that I do not use, because I love Open Office, but I sometimes copy and paste a chapter into their word processor just to hear "sam" read my words back to me. I plan to copy and paste every chapter into the word processor once I have finished the editing process, because there are some great extras to the program that will help to print it out properly for turning in my manuscript.

The program can be set up to help with any genre of writing and asks you a few simple questions to get you started. It's very easy to have multiple projects going at once.

There is a lot more to it, and I was pleasantly surprised at how useful it is. It was worth the small investment.

Check it out, here.

I'll Take an Editor Seriously

2008-06-17T22:08:00.001-07:00

Not too long ago, I gave a recommendation for the Edittorrent Blog . If you are an aspiring writer, I highly recommend it still.

I've been a busy girl and haven't had a chance to read it lately. Tonight, I took a moment to glance at it and what did I find on the first page? A question and answer section.

One of the questions asked was: Do you ever reject because of bad grammar and other writer mistakes.

The editor's answer was a resounding YES! She remarked that she is always surprised at how often this is asked or even that it's asked at all. If our job is words, we should be able to know words and how to effectively put them together to communicate.

So, I don't feel bad about putting my novel on hold. In fact, I feel more inspired that I have been. Anyone reading this blog can clearly see that I still need help in the area of grammar and even more help with style. I'm not ashamed of that fact. I write in this blog to practice my skills. One day, I'll look back at these early posts and cringe at how poorly they were written, but at the same time, I'll be very happy to know I have improved.

Got to be Starting Something

2008-06-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

Yikes! What is wrong with me? Don't answer that.

Last night, I couldn't sleep. So I sat with my laptop and my plan was to start writing my my WIP. It just wasn't coming, but I had a blank Open Office Writer document in front of me. I decided to try that trick I've read about where you just start typing.

Well, it worked. My muse kicked in. Only trouble is, I got an idea for another story in a different genre. The story is more for grown up woman. I don't know if I'd call it a romance, though there will be some of that in it.

I had a dream, years ago. I woke up telling myself that it would be a great plot for a book. I'm going to attempt to write it.

I'm not abandoning my other story. Once I get going on it, I know I can have the rough draft finished in two weeks tops. I just have to get started again. Hopefully, I'll get a few chapters of this new things down and then I'll be in the mood to start writing the other thing.

Sick as a dog...but back. And one deuteragonist!

2008-06-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

We've been sick, sick, sick. With seven of us in the family and all of us with various stages of some stomach, cough, fever think, I haven't had much time to blog.

I'm here now. : )

I saw an interesting topic on deuteragonists. The role of a deuteragonists is to help the reader better understand the protagonist's actions. The sidekick. I like this. My current WIP (work in progress) has a deuteragonists. She is the best friend of the protagonist. She changes hats like the Greek deuteragonists did. Some times she's the sounding board, sometimes she shows another angle to the protagonist's view point, and sometimes, she points out when the protagonist is being an awful human being.

I haven't done enough research on this new word, and maybe this is discussed in great detail in some over priced writer course? I just love to learn something new and thought I'd share it here.

Comma Spices & a Site Rec.

2008-06-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

When I edit the work of others, I often find this common grammar mistake. I'm really not one to talk, because I have my own love/hate relationship with commas, but I thought I'd bring up this one today.

The comma splice. The thing is, I couldn't possibly describe it better than Grammar Girl. While you are there, I highly recommend bookmarking the site and going back another time to look at the other topics. Great stuff.

On a personal note, I'm still not feeling well. This cold/flu thing has taken the pep right out of me. I feel very tired. But, Vacation Bible School was a big hit and we had at least eighty kids, on my husband bus route, in attendance for all three days. We've met some new families in our neighborhood and they are excited about letting their kids ride the bus to church this Sunday.

Get to know me...Post

2008-06-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

I have to write a quick post today. We are in the middle of our Vacation Bible School and I need to help get some kids to the last day.

Some things of interest about me:

1. I'm a homebody and if it weren't for a husband, who likes to be on the move, and a church with lots of activities and services, I'd probably never leave the house.

2. I'm not a people person. I love my kids and husband and enjoy spending time with them, but I'm perfectly happy not to have friends over and go out with the girls. I MAKE myself care about others for my Christian ministries, and once I am in the middle of serving God by teaching a children's class or doing a church nursery, I really enjoy it and remember that there is nothing better for a person's soul, after salvation, then doing for others.

3. I went to a secular University and was in a sorority when I made the decision to start going to church at least once a week for the rest of my life (as long as health permits). So far, I have kept my promise to myself and to God for that and I'm grateful for his grace to allow that.

4. In my early twenties, newly married and just starting to teach Sunday, I was inspired by a lady in her late 80's. Her name was Pearl. She was so faithful to church and she found a way to fill her car up with kids in the neighborhood to bring them to Sunday School, each week. We talked many times and she told me how she'd been in church since she was a little girl. How she used to teach Sunday School for many, many years. I made the decision to be like her and NEVER quit on God. If the Lord tarries, and he's sees fit to let me live to a ripe old age, I've got another fifty years of service planned out for the Lord.

5. I'm a big cat lover. I have two cats right now, and when my kids are grown and gone, I plan to have more.

6. I wrote a novel when I was sixteen. I had plans to revise and edit and go over it chapter by chapter, but then my fancy word processor broke and everything was a on a 3.5 disk that would not open on a regular computer.

P.S. Someone tried to contact me through my AIM box on the right. That little purple box. I saw the message five minutes after it was sent. I had just walked away to do housework and did not hear the incoming sound. I'm sorry I missed you, whoever you were. Leave a comment to one of my posts or try to catch me online another time. I love to chat with people interested in writing. : )

Not Much for Today.

2008-06-05T23:11:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything really intelligent to say. I missed posting yesterday because I was terribly sick. I have a fever, aches and a terrible head cold. I'm feel pretty bad this evening as well, but my brain in functioning enough to get a post done.

I hate that feeling, when my brain doesn't function properly. All I wanted to do yesterday was go to sleep. Usually, I get a lot of thinking done when I lie down. If I'm in the middle of a story, I go to sleep thinking about what is going to happen next. Sometimes bits a dialog will come to me and much of the time, I'll fall asleep with ideas in my mind that will turn into dreams in the night. I often wake up ready to jot things down.

Which leads me to my devotions. I don't pray at night. Sometimes, I'll say a quick prayer for someone I'm thinking about, but I don't pray long prayers while lying down. I do my devotions in the morning and I pray and/or talk to God all day long. But, if I have ideas for a story, I get up and type them all out, so I won't be distracted as I pray. I will often pray at my desk with a notepad window open, so I can quickly type ideas that come to mind or to do notes. I don't want any of that bothering me while I talk to the Lord. If I type it out quickly, I don't worry about forgetting a thought or errand I have to run, but then I can let it go and focus on my Lord.

I also use a computer program to read my Bible. Though, I do keep a physical Bible near by.

I had some things I wanted to get written yesterday, but I couldn't do it. So, I spent a few minutes writing it out today. I was so tickled by the ideas that I was able to get down tonight. I can't wait to show this new chapter to someone. It's for a current project that I won't be trying to get published, but I'm loving it.

Which leads me to a thought. I seemed to write in a linear fashion. I may have a whole story thought out. How it starts, what's going to happen in the middle. Conflict and even certain scenes might be floating in my head and short notes written down. But, I can only write it from the beginning straight through to the end.

From all the reading I've done, it seems that I'm in the minority. Or am I? I've read about people writing the ending first, or using the technique of writing exciting scenes ahead to get their creative juices flowing to write the middle stuff. I just can't see doing that.

I write all the way through, but will edit and revise with new material if the ending calls for props or certain elements to be foreshadowed in earlier chapters.

I'll end this post by saying that I am making a goal of having chapter five finished of my original novel, but the end of this month. I'm a goal setter and I need to do this. Maybe if I get more written, I'll be inspired to write more.

I've been holding off, because I was hoping to observe some activities at a youth conference coming up next week at my church. But, my husband and I have plans to celebrate our anniversary. So, I won't be able to go to the conference with my daughter. She'll just have to take pics and video with our digital camera like she did for winter camp. That really helped, but I was so hoping to be there and see what goes on and observe and take notes.

I didn't grow up in a Christian home, so I never did youth activities. I was in college by the time I was going to church regularly on my own. The story I'm working on centers around a group of kids, a couple mostly, that grew up together in a local new testament church. Going to activites together. I tell the story of the couple and how they met and didn't like each other and how they grew to the point where they end up engaged and are about to get married.

More on that another time :)

Writing Dialog Punctuation

2008-06-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

I love to write dialog for fiction. I seem to have a natural instinct for translating character voice to written words.

I have a lot of weakness, but I'm not going to focus on those in today's post.

I act as editor for six different aspiring writers. What we write is just for fun and to entertain others who have the same interests as we do. We all know that our "fiction" has no chance of being published, because we are taking the ideas of others and running with. With the express delight and permission from the original creators.

One thing I've noticed is that when I first start working with a new author, we have to take the first three or four chapters to work on the correct way to punctuate dialog. I personally had errors in dialog punctuation when I first started writing, so I have a lot of patience with my writers.

Now, I find that my dialog punctuation is automatically correct. I don't even notice it as I type away, which is the point all authors should strive to get at. If we are worried about correct punctuation, we can not possibly write good, easy flowing, natural sounding dialog.

I'm sure there are even better sites that explain dialog punctuation, but this one is really simple and most of my writers have said it was easy to understand.

I'll talk about other things I learned about dialog in an upcoming post.

I'm Now Using Open Office

2008-06-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I'd call this a recommendation, but I finally downloaded OpenOffice again.

If you've never heard of it, I'll tell you about it. It is comparable to Microsoft Office Suite, but it's much cheaper. How's free sound?

I used to have it on my computer, but ended up getting rid of it, when I stopped using it. It didn't have a grammar checker and I really need one of those.

I read about it on a forum and someone mentioned that they now had a language add on for a grammar checker. It does look pretty good for being new, but I haven't really gotten the chance to try it out yet.

There are a lot of things I like about Open Office. I like how they are constantly improving. The fact that it's free to download and use is great. I like the track changes and how it's compatible with Word's track changes. And a big plus, is that I can password protect my files.

When I am working on something that has more than one chapter, I like to give it its own folder. Then I open a different file for each chapter, plus I'll have one or two for research and notes. I have little children and while I don't let them "play" on my laptop, they do sometimes get access to it. I love that I can password protect the files in OpenOffice, so they can't open the files and start tapping away on the keyboard.

I am still saving all my files as .doc files, so that they can be sent as attachments and friends and others can open the files with Word.

Becoming a Grammar Fanatic

2008-06-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know all the rules, and I am very sure that I make a lot of mistakes as I write. What is good though, is that I am willing to improve, and I'm tenaciously working at it.

Grammar is the not-so-fun part of writing. If you struggle with it, that is. It just takes a little effort and determination to make good grammar an automatic part of the writing process. Clearly, I'm still in the effort and determination stage.

On my personal journey to getting published, I have made grammar my first stop. I wish I could say that I paid attention in my English classes. I was always able to get 'A's, but that doesn't mean I retained any of the education when it comes to grammar. If you don't have a problem with grammar, I'm very jealous.

After months of going over old grammar text books and trudging through countless websites devoted to the subject, I still don't feel confident. I cannot take a sentence apart and name them all. I still try to put commas in places that they don't belong and leave them out when they are needed to connect two complete sentence. Or, should I say two independent clauses? I have no idea.

I do know that my writing skills have vastly improved. Truly, you do not want to see what my writing looked like six months ago. I would not subject anyone to it. Here's hoping that I continue to improve.

I am not looking for perfection. And, yes, I know that there are proofreaders and editors, during the process of getting a work published. I am just a little obsessive and, I want to take pride in my work.

There are many good grammar sites online. One that I really liked and found myself going back to often is Guide to Grammar and Writing

I recommend this site, because it is easy to navigate, easy to understand, and has interactive quizzes. I used the quizzes to determine my skill level and concentrated on learning the areas that I scored poorly in.

Something I Wrote

2008-05-31T13:54:00.000-07:00

I read a lot of books on writing. I can't get enough of them. I left college in the middle of my sophomore year, to get marriedh, so I've only taken one creative writing class. I am learning the art of writing by reading books and scouring the internet for good sites.

A while ago, I was reading an older edition of The Writer Handbook. There was a chapter by Stephen King that I found really helpful, discussing imagery. I loved the advice that Mr. King gave on not going over board. He reminded me that readers are not stupid and that they read because they like to use their imaginations.

I decided to try my hand at improving my imagery skills. I wrote this very short story with my focus on the imagery in the story. You can read the story here:

Jenna Takes a Short Cut

After you are done reading the story, I'd love for you to comment here and describe the grounds keeper for me. : )

Site Rec. Owl Purdue Grammar

2008-05-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

Yay! I am getting a post done today. I've been writing, but not for my novel. I've been doing some practice writing, which I don't want to talk about here too much. It's creative writing. I've gotten six short stories written. Two of which were nineteen chapters long. I'm currently working on one that I'm up to fourteen chapters and I have over 3,000 words written today.

When I was first starting out, my grammar was terrible. I decided I wasn't going to let it stay that way. When I turn in my first manuscript, I want it to be as clean as possible. One of my favorite sites, that really helped me refresh my grammar and punctuation was The Owl Purdue English Website. So much good stuff here.

In the future, I will post links to some of my creative writing exercises that I've done in the past. All short stories or little snippets that could come from a story. I have them stored on a site that I'll talk about in a post soon.

Where I'm at and a site recommendation.

2008-05-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

So at this time. I have five and a half chapter written for the novel I hope to get published. I have not written more for the story in months.

This does not mean that I'm not making progress. I have been practicing my creative writing skills, brushing up on my grammar rules and learning to outline. I'm getting to the point now where I feel I can continue.

My children are now out of school and I believe I will have more time to write, now that I'm no longer a taxi.

If anyone reads this blog, they will clearly see that I make dumb typos and strange grammar and punctuation errors, often. It is my goal to get better and better at writing properly automatically.

I have no problem with revising and editing my work. I actually enjoy that process. It's just better to have rules and such down so they are automatic. It will mean less time correcting the mechanics and more time adjusting my style.

I am going to try to post daily, if I can. I do try to make goals and complete them. Let's see if I can keep up this blog.

Everyday, I plan to post a website or book that I have found helpful in my journey to learn more.

Edittorent

I can't say enough good stuff about this site. Two editors post on writing and publication. The posts are like secret gold for an aspiring writer. We get an insight into the editors world and mind.

Easy to navigate and quickly find the topics that interest you at the time. I found the posts on point of view especially helpful.

Patty S.

My first post : )

2008-05-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

My goal is to become a published author. I intend to use this blog to practice my writing skills, log my progress, and showcase some of my short stories that I've done and will do.