NaNoWriMo

After more than a year away from writing, I'm finally making the dive back into my novel during National Novel Writing Month. It's been a crazy 12+ months, which have included separation and divorce, purchasing a new home and moving, getting my kids settled into their new dual-home life, starting a full-time job, and launching my daughter into her college career.

When I first began to rebuild my new life, I wasn't sure which parts of my old life I'd take with me. I knew I'd be working. I hoped I'd be dating. Half the time I'm single parenting. I knew something of my old life would have to go. So I worked on settling those things that had to happen, and waited to see where I was drawn. Would it be the writing? The quilting? The crafting? New and different volunteer opportunities? Or would none of these creative outlets call to me.

But as I've relaxed into the routine of my new life, I've missed my writing friends. I've missed the challenges of building a new world, and exploring the characters that appear on my pages. I find that of all the things that used to fill my old life, the writing still calls to me.

And so here I am, November 2010, wondering how one picks up on a novel I haven't looked at in at least 14 months. I had hoped that, in the weeks leading up to November, I would have had time to read through what I'd written before, review my notes, think about the story, plan where I might like to get started. But life happens. So here I go, launching myself cold back into the writing life I love and missed terribly.

Wish me luck! And luck to all my writing friends - be they NaNo participants or not. I look forward to connecting with everyone again!

On Becomming a Teen

My son turns 13 this weekend. Over the past 6 months we've seen many changes - the deepening of his voice, growth of some peach fuzz (which mothers, aparently, shouldn't rub), acne, and, of course, astounding growth. In the past month he's surpassed me in height. It's hard looking at "my baby" eye-to-eye.

All these things are both perfectly normal and call attention to the fact the the teen years are rapidly approaching. However, I became painfully aware this week that the teenage years have, in fact, arrived when my sweet, gentle, loving son not so gently told me "Mom, if you don't know the words to the song, don't sing it."

The sound you hear is my heart breaking!

Character Therapy and Charity Auctions

CHARACTER THERAPY:

Just a reminder, character therapy has begun over at the Books and Writer's forum. The marvolous Beth Shoppe serves as therapist today and tomorrow. I'll be standing in the role for Wednesday and Thursday. And next week, Monday and Tuesday, the amazing Jen Hendron will take her turn delving into your character's secrets. And be prepared for a few suprise visits and twists as we proceed through this house party. Come join us!

***
CHARITY AUCTION:

Author Gemma Halliday is holding a charity auction to benefit one of her teenage readers, who recently became homeless and is blogging about the experience here. Here's what Gemma has to say about the auction:

"Katy is a sixteen year old avid reader and aspiring author and illustrator who has won local awards for her artwork. Just before Christmas, Katy and her mother became homeless. They were evicted from their apartment and have been living in hotel rooms (when they've been lucky) or their car (when they've not been so lucky) since then.

Katy has been blogging about life on the streets, and you can read all about how this incredibly sweet mother and daughter ended up in this situation here: http://destinationanywherebuthere.blogspot.com/ As Katy states on her blog, "Homelessness has many faces. And sometimes it happens to have a computer." Both Katy and her mother seem to have very positive outlooks, but it's clear they're in some real trouble.

That's where this auction comes in. All proceeds will go toward helping Katy and her mother get back on their feet. This is a pair that are actively looking for ways to improve their situation, and just need a little push to help them get there. So, please bid generously and know that you're doing a wonderful thing to help two wonderful people."

Katy's blog is interesting to read, and she obviously has a talent for describing her life and what she sees as she and her mom travel through this difficult time.

I've donated a "Bling you Blogger Blog" package, and there are lots of other great items to bid on, including signed books, critique sessions, copy edits, artwork, handmade items, and much, much more. Pop over and check it out, and pass the word on your blog!

It's Cold Outside

Can I just say it is COOOOOOLD outside today? It was 6 degress F when I sent the kids to school today. And there is ICE on my office windows! My son is supposed to go camping tonight. IN TENTS! Are they nuts? (Yes, of course they are. Not only are they boys and men, they are Boy Scouts. Sigh...)

A bit difficult to see here, but that's not just condesation on my windows! But see my nifty new heater under the window? At least I have real heat this winter. The last few years I've had to make due with a space heater in winter, and a box fan in front of the barely-working AC in the summer. Who builds a house - even a 100-year-old house, and leaves one room completely off the heating system?

Here you get a better sense of the ice. It's so thick near the bottom I can't even write you a scary-scratched-in-ice-message-from-beyond without getting frostbite!

And while my ice photography may leave something to be desired, my friend over at A Novel Woman has no such difficulties. I'll leave you an ice picture from her blog back in December.

How's the weather where you are? And if it's warm, can I come visit?

Author Ranked 93rd in Top Jobs List

Earlier this week, Careercast.com posted their list of the top 200 jobs in America. In case you're wondering what you're doing with your life, if you've chosen the right path, you can relax. Author ranked 93rd in the top 200 list. According to the survey, an author is defined as: "Creates fiction and non-fiction books, either on assignment from editors, or independently."

Among other writing/publising related jobs, Publication Editor ranked 31, Technical Writer ranked 60, Bookbinder ranked 83rd, and Newspaper Reporter ranked 140. Agent's didn't make this list - which either means it's not a job they considered in the ranking, or all you agents should give up your day jobs to become lumberjacks (rank 200), or dairy farmers (rank 199)! ~g~

Careercast looked at five major categories in order to rank jobs: stress levels, physical demands, hiring outlook (guess they haven't seen the stats on recent book sales!), compensation, and work environment.

Here's a comparison of the results for jobs #1 (mathemetician), # 93 (author), and #200 (lumberjack - it's okay - I know you'll have that song stuck in your head all day!).












Rankings are great, but sometimes it's helpful to understand what they really mean. I mean, who says being an author is the 93rd greatest job in America? How do they know?

Here's the breakdown of the factors that went into the overall ranking:

• Work Environment: A combination of the physical work environment and the emotional work environment. The scoring considered factors such as the energy requirement, physical demands, work conditions (fumes - do ink catridges count?, noise - the thrum, thrum of the printer?), stamina required, degree of confinement (this must be where authors start to fall off!), degree of competitiveness, personal hazards, and public contact. The raw score is then adjusted by the average number of hours worked per week. This higher the score, the worse the rank.
  
• Income: The explanation of the income ranking is an eye-crosser, even to my number-loving heart. Suffice it to say, it takes into account both mid-level incomes and growth potential.
  
• Outlook: This figure doesn't appear in the summary data, but does influence the overall ranking. Higher scores are awarded to jobs with promising futures. Factors such as unemployment rates, employment growth, potential salary growth, and potential for promotion are considered.
  
• Physical Demands: Considers factors as how much weight a person is normally required to lift on the job (and those reams of paper do get heavy!) - and then jobs are categorized into five groups: (1) sedentary work; (2) light work; (3) medium work; (4) heavy work; (5) very heavy work. Factors such as whether a job is indoors or outdoors, and whether it involved stooping, kneeling, climbing or balancing are also considered. The higher the score, the greater the physical demands.
  
• Stress: To measure stress, the survey looked at the typical demands and crises inherent in a job. A high score was awarded if a particular demand was a major part of the job. According to Career Cast: "Journalists, who often face daily deadlines, received the maximum of 9 points in this category." A partial list of factors considered include quotas, deadlines, working in the public eye, competitiveness, life of another a risk (do you think fictional characters count?), initiative required, outdoor work, confinement, and meeting the public.
  

If you have a day job, how does it rank compared to author? I'd love to know!

For me, I have piecemeal days! For part of the week I work as a Medical Plan Data Analyst (don't ask). Of the jobs on the list, this may be closest to statistician, or some sort of mathematician, which generally ranked high. For part of my week, I do web and blog development. Web developer ranked 23rd. Mother didn't appear on the list (probably due to the low compensation and high work-stress environment)!

How does your day job compare? Or if you're a full-time author, do you think the ranking accurately reflects your experience? Share your thoughts.

A Writer's Retreat

3 Days of no obligations. Nothing to do but relax, enjoy the scenery, and write. Nothing to feel guilty over not doing (i.e., there's laundry to be folded, dishes to be washed, children to spend time with, a husband not to ignore).

Tricia and I spent 3 nights at the Lakeside Cottages in Green Mountain Falls, CO. (http://www.lakesidecottages-co.com/). It felt like being a guest in Kim and Lon's home, such is the care they show to their cottages, landscaping and guests. I can't remember the last time I've felt so relaxed. And having a good friend there with me was wonderful. Our days went something like this:

(1) Get up whenever and eat something (we had some groceries and a kitchen in our cottage). Maybe read for a few minutes.

(2) Settle in to write.

(3) Stop to ask questions: Does this sound all right? Can you read this when you get a chance? Can we brainstorm about this character for a moment?

(4) Write some more.

(5) Eventually need a break. Shop in the quaint town of Manitou, visit the Cliff Dwellings, take a walk around the lake.

(6) Pick up lunch or dinner while out.

(7) Write some more

(8) Stay up late talking

(9) Sigh over a satisfying day

(10) Sleep

(11) Repeat

In terms of word count, Tricia did better than I did. But I feel good about finally getting an opening scene nailed down that I feel good about. Maybe, in the end, it won't stand, but for now it's like having the foundation built - something that I can build upon, weaving in all those pieces of the story I've already written, and those that I need to fit in now that I've got a better idea of my structure (having gone through the Hero's Journey process).

I just wish I could recapture that feeling of utter peace and joy in sitting down to write that I had while in Colorado. Splended place.

A Writer's View

Many authors of my aquaintance have posted views from their office or writing space window. My office is on the third floor of our old house, so I view the world from tree level. 363 Days a year the view is quite mundane. We live across the street from the back of the Middle School. So on a typical day, I can watch the kids running laps in gym class.

But once a year, on the first Thursday and Friday of May, the school festival - know in these parts as May Fete - arrives. On these days, I have a totally different view.

Around here in the small suburb I live in, May Fete is a big deal. The festival has been happening since the beginning of time, or at least as long as anyone living can remember. Tradition holds that school is cancelled on Friday, and rides run both Thursday night and all day Friday.

Beginning on the Monday leading up to the big day, trucks arrive pulling rides and games, and the set-up begins. Now, if you don't happen to live across the street from a festival, you may never have considered how exactly those movable amusement parks come and go. Here's a few shots of the set-up this week.

The Pharoh's Curse receives its head (top right). The Merry-go-round is still packed up in its truck, (center right). Three men assemble the mini-roller coaster (bottom right). And of course, no festival would be complete without the all-popular Monkey Maze! (below).

Living across from an amusement park would probably be considered the dream of many children. Who wouldn't want a field full of rides in their backyard (or front yard, as the case is here)? And we do have fun. Every year we set up a buffet on our front porch. The kids run back and forth, and tired and weary adults - particularly those running the game booths, stop by to sit and relax and, later in the afternoon, drink Margaritas with us (the adults, not the kids). And did I mention endless access to funnel cakes for two whole days?

But when my kids were little, May Fete was a week of sleepless kids. Not only was the anticipation hardly bearable, but each night the carnival workers test the rides until way past bedtime, the multi-colored lights flickering in through the windows. May Fete at night is a really spectacular display -- better than Christmas. To get the full impact, you really need to see it in action...

But the most impressive part of May Fete is the illusions of what was. On Friday night, everyone goes to bed and sleeps soundly, tired from the long day. Everyone, that is, except for the workers. The workers stay up all night, disassembling the rides and packing up the game booths. By Saturday morning, nothing is left in the field but empty cups and an amazing collection of silly-string wads in all colors of the rainbow (Don't ask. It's part of the tradition.).

And the view from my window becomes mundane for another year.

Six Random Facts about Me

I've been tagged. (Beware, you may be next!)

Rose tagged me to write six random things about myself.

The rules:
a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Okay, here goes...

(1) I did not grow up wanting to be a writer. In actuality, until my senior year of college, I wanted to be a psychologist. The writing bug hit me about 5 years ago and I've been trying to figure out how to do it well ever since.

(2) My all-time favorite vacation was to Hawaii. I got engaged to my husband there, but that doesn't explain my fondness for the islands. Up until that point, my travels had been limited (we went to Florida to see my grandparents every year). So Hawaii was just this wonderful tropical oasis. The engagement? My husband being who he is waited until the second to last night of a two week vacation, one month before his "drop dead" date to propose. When not snorkling or otherwise enjoying the scenery, I spent most of the time trying to figure out where my next apartment was going to be!

(3) I love learning. Given unlimited funds, my chosen career would be professional student. In addition to still working on learning this writing thing, my most recent endeavor is learning web design. It's facinating, and I love it.

(4) One of my childhood dreams was to live in an old house. My grandparents had a farm when I was growing up, and most of my happiest childhood memories are associated with that farm. I currently live in a big house built in 1906 (it's definately no farm house, but it is old.) . My adult dream is to live in a brand new house that never needs anything beyond minor repairs - and all the rooms have fresh paint and new carpet at the same time! {g}

(5) I love crafting. As a child, I learned to crochet and embroider. I've pretty much left the embroidery behind (although I do have this dream of making a crazy quilt), but I generally crochet something at least once a year. And as an adult, I learned to quilt - which I love but can be quite expensive. I also make stamped cards, and will try just about any craft once. In recent years I paper-mache'd a chip bowl for myself, made a rag rug for my front porch, created a locker-hook rug (also for the porch), scrapbooked, and, well, anything I can find an excuse for!

(6) I volunteer a lot of my time. Currently, I have a Girl Scout troop of 12 high school girls who are all working on their Gold Award - the top award in Girl Scouts. In the fall/winter I co-lead a group of boys (it was 10 last year, but this year it will be 6) middle-school boys in a LEGO Robotics competition team. I also volunteer some at the schools (less than I used to) and am generally willing to step up for other little tasks that need to be done (although I'm getting better at saying "no"). The one volunteer activity I won't help out with if I can avoid it? Fundraising. I hate fundraising. I'd rather do something hands-on - direct delivery of services.

Who do I tag?

Linda Gerber

Claire

Beth

Catherine

kc Dyer
Kaza Kingsley

Good luck ladies!

Jenny

Crossing the First Threshold (Outlining)

So what does the "desk" of a compulsive outliner look like?

As part of my new resolve not to be distracted by e-mail, forums, blogs(!) and the like when I'm "working" on writing, I've taken over the guest bedroom. This is where I spend the first hour or so of most weekdays, meeting with my "mentors" and learning how to outline. If you dropped by today, here's what you'd see (left).

I like this picture because you can see the bright, sunny room I get to work in. (I hope my mom doesn't come to spend the night soon or she'll be on the couch!) But you don't really get the full impact of my outlining so far.

This pictures gives you a much better view of the appearance of my "desk". I curl up there in the upper left, pillow for a lap desk, reviewing all my notecards and scribbling down my ideas.

I'm using notecards. Lots and lots of notecards. I'm using green notecards for notes on The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler (the book I just finished). Pink notecards for notes and ideas on character development. White notecards to write mini-synopses on different parts of the story as they occur to me, and yellow notecards to actually write line-for-scene cards. The notes I've taken from the book (see green notecards) I use to brainstorm ideas. If it's just story flow - what needs to happen, I write these on white index cards. If I actually get down to a real scene, with conflict and scene arc, I write this on a yellow card.

While it may seem my attempts to organize are getting in the way of progress, I'm proud to report that I have a fairly decent outline for about the first 6 of the 12 stages of The Hero's Journey. I've decided my heroine (a young gypsy woman, for anyone not familiar with my work in progress) has three approaches to reaching her goal, and conveniently, there is a male character/potential love interest who represents each of these approaches. Having these three different approaches gives me a lot of options when trying to fill in that "saggy middle" of the story.

But it also makes for a lot of ideas floating around, and I've found the notecards aren't always as visual as I need. So, I've stolen an idea from my friend Linda Gerber. I took three file folders, divided each in half, and then in four sections. On the left, I've written each stage of the journey, and scribble in the highlights or broad overall structure of the story (like the three approaches noted above). On the right, I stick tons of post-it notes with my ideas. This is very visual, as I can see everything at once, and I can move the post-its around as my ideas about the story develop. I'm still using the notecards too (there's not much room on those tiny post-its). It may seem complicated, but it's all working for me!

Somehow, at the end of all this, I may have a comprehensive strategy to recommend to anyone who, like me, can't seem to move forward in writing without an outline. For now, it's working for me, and it evolves as I go along. The real proof of concept will be a finished book!

Meeting With the Mentor

Have you ever had one of those moments when you suddenly know yourself for who you are?

I remember being in my Sophmore year of high school, and being the annoying kid who wanted to know what came next in the outlining format. You know:
I.
II.

A.
B.

1.
2.

a.
b.

i.
ii.

I guess I just feel better getting all the details down, not just the high level stuff.

Of course, this desire to organize didn't flow through to all my school work. I also have a vivid memory of my Senior year research paper. It was a compare/contrast paper on The Once and Future King, by TH White and, I believe, Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson. I still have my original copy of The Once and Future King. But I digress.

So I spent weeks taking notes from all the reference books I checked out of the library. I had a stack of notecards, basically cataloguing every fact I'd read, but I had no idea of the structure of my paper. So there I sat, in the middle of my mother's living room, surrounded by notecards and piles of books, sobbing.

Until recently, I've been able to laugh over this image. But I now have a 15-year-old daughter of my own and I'm having more and more trouble seeing the humor in the situation.

But the point is, this is who I am. The person who loves structure, and also wants to know everything I can about whatever I research, but am not always good at putting the two things together. My husband, who never reads fiction unless I force him, is actually a good advisor. One night fairly recently, we were discussing my frustration over this whole outlining thing. How I'm able to write non-fiction documents without any trouble at all, but I just stumble all over myself trying to write a complete novel without an outline. I want to be an organic writer. One of those people who can just sit down and write, fully formed plots appearing on the page. He pointed out that this just isn't who I am. It's not how my brain works. If I'm going to do this, I'm going to have to write an outline.

I need some mentors.

There are, of course, many methods to plot a book (at least I think there must be), but after some thought last summer, before I "Refused the Call" of plotting and went back to my old, unsuccessful ways (reached my self-imposed time limit of summer's end for plotting), I determined that my story fit well with a Hero's Journey structure.

The purpose of a mentor is to prepare the hero to face the unknown. They may provide knowledge (something I definately need), guidance, or magical equipment (oh, if only it was this easy!).

Where to find my mentors? Where I always go to find new information, of course. Books! I already had a stack of books on writing. But what I needed was books focused on plotting, and story structure. And then I needed to decide where to begin. For recommendations on these books, I turned to the Compuserve Books and Writer's forum (see right sidebar). My mentors:

• Christopher Vogler - The Writer's Journey
• Joseph Cambell/Bill Moyers - The Power of Myth, Hero with a Thousand Faces
• Christopher Vogler/Michael Hauge - The Hero's 2 Journeys
• Blake Snyder - Save the Cat
• Holly Lisle - Create a Plot Clinic
• Robert McKee - Story
  

Other mentors may appear to help me out as I move along my journey. I don't plan to learn from all these mentors before I begin to write again. In fact, I've already Crossed the First Threshold. I've finished reading The Writer's Journey, and I have plans. Stay tuned...

Refusal of the Call

I've been dancing with this plotting thing for awhile now. Longer, really, than I'd care to admit. It's a two steps forward, one giant step back thing. There is something so alluring about "organic writing" and the creativity it implies. Plus, actually writing seems so much more productive than planning what to write.

My first attempts at outlining involved stating "I'm going to outline my book", and then randomly writing down any scenes ideas that occurred to me. The problem with this approach was that (1) there was no structure; and (2) there was no clues as to what needed to go into the "blanks" to create an interesting story; and (3) my story still seemed to wander down all sorts of interesting but unfocused side paths. I needed a tool to help me brainstorm scene ideas, and some structure to help keep myself on a reasonable path, but I had no idea where to start, so I just kept writing whatever came into my head.

I thought if I kept researching, I'd be able to fill in all the holes. So I've researched. A lot.

I kept coming back to the need to outline. But still had no clue exactly what to do.

My first attempt at finding a structure, about 15 months ago, was to listen to the Christopher Vogler and Michael Hauge Audio Seminar - The Hero's 2 Journeys. Great audio "book". I wrote down lots of story ideas. But I found there were still a lot of vectors my story could go in and I guess I just wasn't ready yet to get down to the hard work. I learned a lot, but didn't really internalize it. I wasn't ready for the journey.

So I messed around a few more months and didn't make much progress. Every time I tried to write an "out of order" scene, I kept getting stuck because I didn't know what I would have already written when I got to that point in the story. I kept trying to introduce characters from scratch every time they appeared, or fill in backstory. Very annoying. Perhaps I needed to find the beginning. So I worked on that. I have several beginnings now. {g} All of them different, and probably none I'll use.

At one point last Spring, I decided I was not cut out to write a novel. It was time to quit. I mentioned this to my mother and stepfather on one of my visits. My stepfather, who is also working on a novel, implored me not to stop. He said I had inspired him to write his own novel, and I should stay with it. He offered me some software he'd purchased called The Writer's Dreamkit. I'm not recommending this. It's very prescriptive and, in the end, spits out your plot for you, including prompts for each scene. Definitely a recipe generator. But it did cause me to think a lot about my story - the archetype of the characters, the goals of my characters, the dramatic theme of my story. Maybe one day I'll create an entire post on this software. As a brainstorming tool, though, it did provide some ideas.

I was fortunate right at the beginning of summer '07 to get a Writer's Sabbatical Weekend away from my family. In that one weekend, I wrote a significant number of scenes. I made a great deal of progress. It felt good. I had some really great dramatic scenes by this time, but still no structure. In one scene, I wrote about the death of my MC's sister. But was this a climax or a Call to Adventure? Where did it fit into my story?

On a roll, I followed this with Holly Lisle's Create a Plot Clinic. A great brainstorming tool, but it didn't provide the structure I was hoping for. I fiddled with writing a few more scenes. I wrote down ideas for many more. I resolved some more character issues. But after spending the summer months brainstorming and trying to create a structure, my time ran out. I'd given myself the summer to plot, and summer was over. Back to writing.

The problem was, I still didn't have a structure, just more scene ideas. I'd given up too soon.

In the hero's journey, heroes often give up because they are not fully committed to the journey. I guess this was me. Like those heroes, I needed some other influence, some external motivator or crisis, or the help of a mentor, to move me along.

I think a lot of authors have these fits and starts. What have you done to overcome resistance and just move forward writing your story?

Call to Adventure

I am jealous of organic writers. You know, those people who can sit down and write a story from beginning to end, seamlessly creating compelling story arcs and developing intriguing characters without breaking a sweat? Or those who can write disconnected scenes and chunks, and then connect these like some sort of invisible road map only they can see. I know the reality is different, even for these people, but it seems that there are a fair number of writers who are able to plot in their head, intuitively or otherwise, without once mapping out their story on paper. I suspect they drank less in college than I did.

When I first started working on my novel, I didn’t realize there was any other way to write a story except to just sit down and start writing it. Of course, there were a lot of things I didn’t realize about writing a novel back then, but we’re focusing on plotting here.

I’ve written quite a few scenes the organic way – just letting inspiration take me where it will. In my current novel, I probably have over 50,000 words written in scenes varying from ones I’m very proud of, to ones I wouldn’t read to my cat. The problem with this method, for me, is that without guidance my imagination tends to go off in many different directions, as if ten writers were all given a high level concept and sent out to write my novel. No matter how hard I try, the scenes I’ve written will never go together in the same book.

I need a better plan.

It’s not that I’ve wasted my time writing those 50,000 words. I’ve learned a lot about my characters and their culture and environment. The characters have evolved over time, maturing and becoming more like real people. Their lives have become more complicated. I can’t wait to tell their story.

So, uhm…how does one outline a novel?

Novelists on the whole seem to have grasped this concept intuitively. Books on novel writing tend to focus on craft, with maybe a chapter overview on the three and four act structure. There are very few novel writing books that deal with plot, structure, and how to create them. Even the writer’s conferences seem to avoid this topic. I’ve heard advice like "dissect a novel" or "use Excel" or "buy software like Scrivner or Liquid Story Binder." But none of this advice really addresses how one moves a plot from point A, where the story begins, to point Z, where the story ends.

(And for those of you who are organic writers, and are now saying "give it up!", bear with me. It’s not that I have no idea what my story is about. It’s just the scene to scene building, deciding between competing ideas part that gets me in a bind.)

But the screenwriters? They seem to have a passion for structure. Maybe it’s just because pulling apart the structure of a movie takes 2 hours, over and over a few times, until you’ve got each scene mapped out. Pulling apart the structure of a novel takes 10-15 hours, a few times, if you’re lucky and didn’t decide to analyze Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) or Pillars of the Earth (Ken Folliet) or Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell).

To start my own journey of learning to plot and outline my novel, I asked around at the Compuserve Books and Writer’s forum, where most of my writing friends hang out. I received a number of recommendations: Create a Plot Clinic (Holly Lisle), The Hero’s Journey (Christopher Vogler), The Hero’s 2 Journeys (an audio seminar by Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler), Story (Robert McKee), and Save the Cat! (Blake Snyder).

Note that all but Holly Lisle’s book have a primary audience of screenwriters. But the screenwriter seem to have a lot to say that makes sense.

So, I've set myself a task - to outline my novel. Like all good heroes, I've had a few false starts. I spent last summer looking at some software my stepfather (also an aspiring author) loaned me called The Writer's Dreamkit (more later, maybe). I also worked my way through Holly Lisle's Create a Plot Clinic. Then I reached my self-appointed end-date -- the end of summer, and discovered I had a lot of new scene ideas, and a new depth of understanding about my characters and story, but still no real structure.

Several months later and I'm at it again. And this time I'm sticking to it. I'd love to discuss my process and learnings with you - so stick around!

My Ordinary World

When did you decide you wanted to be a fiction writer? Maybe you always knew. Maybe some event, something you read, or saw, or experienced, created a sudden inspiration. Maybe you woke up one day and the inspiration just took hold. However you came to the decision to write, I’m sure you will agree that the process is a journey – not unlike the Hero’s Journeys of mythological stories.

My decision to write a novel happened about four and a half years ago. I’ve always loved reading – it was my sanctuary as a child, and a love that continued into adulthood. But I’d never considered writing a novel.

Perhaps it was the series of books I’d recently read with less than satisfying endings. Perhaps it was a realization that authors as different as John Grisham and Diana Gabaldon had not, in fact, majored in English in college with an eye toward becoming professional writers. That writing was a path you could choose at any point in life. Wherever you want to place the blame, once the decision was made, I shortly awoke to the fact that I had a lot to learn. Writing a novel wasn’t as simple as spilling my personal fantasies and imaginations onto a page. (Believe me, you do not want to read that!)

I’m no stranger to non-fiction/business writing. I spent 10 years writing reports explaining health care insurance claims data to executives, and creating in-house training documents for fellow data analysts and end-users of a database reporting system I helped to develop. And let’s not forget about that Master’s Thesis (Service Line Management in Healthcare, if you’re wondering) – a year in the making, hardbound, and collecting dust on some library shelf in the Xavier University archives.

Does non-fiction/business writing really prepare one to write fiction? Clearly, four-and-a-half years later, it’s not an immediate transition, at least not for me. Although perhaps more knowledge of fiction craft techniques would have kept those executives awake and on the edge of their seats! But the love of writing, of enlightening the reader, that carries over. More difficult for me is how to structure that fiction story. How to write engaging scenes that flow together into a complete novel.

I’ve done a lot of learning in the past four years – mostly with the aid of the Compuserve Books and Writer’s forum (see link to the right) and the many, many wonderful writers I’ve met there, and by attending the Surrey International Writer’s Conference for the past 3 years. And of course, I read about writing, and practice writing, and exchange pieces for critique with my other writer friends. And I read, a lot. I can’t imagine my life now without my writer’s community. But that question still hangs out there – when am I going finish my novel?

Come back and visit me as I travel along my road, discovering plotting techniques (my next self-assigned learning goal), exploring web design, book and author promotion ideas, and generally traveling my self-assigned journey to writing a novel.