Author: Linda Nelson

Finding Writing Motivation – #ROW80

by Linda Nelson, posted in ROW80, works in progress, writing

Linda Attends her First Ever RWA Meeting

Yesterday I attended my very first Romance Writers Meeting in Bow, NH. I had a great time.

My friend Linda Kepner whom is also a member of the Monadnock Writers’ Group invited me to this meeting as a guest. She has been a member since last year and wanted to share the experience with me.

I think I got a lot more out of this meeting than was apparent to me yesterday. It has helped spark some enthusiasm in me just by being around these fun loving girls.

Can you imagine being at a meeting in a library where you have been taught over the ages to be quiet and to find that this meeting is so loud with laughter that it can be heard in the main part of the library behind closed doors.

I had such a good time that I began to check out the National site to see how much the membership costs. What I say made me say ouch. If it wasn’t for having to have a root canal taken care of over the next few weeks I think I would have had the money to join. It is kind of steep when you are living pay check to pay check.

Oh well, it will just have to wait a few months.

In the mean time I began to poke around and discovered that the RWA also has a subchapter that is right up my alley. The Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Special Interest Chapter of RWA.

If this doesn’t motivate me to join, I don’t know what will. When I saw this I said, “Wait a minute. I guess I really do need to find a way to join.”

But still it is going to have to wait. I can’t pull money out of a hat unless it is in a story line. Unfortunately reality does not work that way.

So coming back to reality…

My ROW80 Check – In:

At the beginning of the week I had only added 1k words to Road Salt. Working on this story has been like pulling teeth. Sometimes I have found it to be almost as painful. It is not meant to be an entertaining read and I have to destroy the lives of my characters. I’m not really having fun doing this. Even the humor is lacking making this to be a dark sort of fiction, or so it seems to me.

But I do have to write this story. I promised to write it and by golly I will write it and finish it. Then I will be able to reward myself by writing the next installment of the Orgarlan Saga.

Today I am happy to report on my current additional word count of Road Salt. In the past 2 hours I was able to add another 2k words.

That makes 3k words for the week. Yes!

Now I will go back and fight off the temptation to put Road Salt away for the rest of the day. World of Warcraft is calling me. Hopefully I will be able to resist the temptation and keep on writing.

Have you written any stories where you felt like you were pulling teeth?

Stop by and check out and meet some of the other ROW’ers with our Linkey List.

Attended My First #RWA Meeting

by Linda Nelson, posted in writing

Today I attended my very first NHRWA (New Hampshire Romance Writers Association) meeting, as a guest. It is held at the Library in Bow, New Hampshire. It was an – experience.

In fact, I kind of enjoyed their meeting much more than the little one I attend in the Monadnock area, which will begin meeting once again starting next weekend.

I learned that I must join the National RWA before I can join the state chapter. The National membership fee is $90, so I will have to wait a little bit longer before I will be able to join. I see that it is a good investment; I just don’t have the funds at this time to join. Maybe things will turn around next month and I will be able to fit it into my budget.

But the gals who I met today were down to earth and very enjoyable to be around. So, my membership will be delayed for a bit, but it will eventually come along in the near future.

We had a guest speaker today, just like the Monadnock Writers’ Group hosts. Her name was Laura Spinella and is the author of Beautiful Disasters, published by Penguin Books. She gave us some good points on composing Romance/Women’s fiction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I plan on incorporating this in the next Orgarlan Saga book with Darmin and Lord Ky’debaul. I love the idea because it gives the story added plot and subplots.

She said that when writing romance one should include certain aspects in the story.

They are:

  • Society Defined
  • The Meeting
  • The Barrier
  • The Attraction
  • The Declaration
  • Point of Ritual of Death
  • The recognition
  • Betrothal

 

Then she spoke about women’s fiction and what that is made up of. In general it is fiction about women.

There are several different categories:

  • Friendships
  • Women & Children
  • Women & Husbands
  • Women & Divorce
  • Widows
  • Women & Careers
  • Women against Society
  • Women & Messages

All of these things I have listed will make me think a little bit more about my plotting as I write. I am sure I can incorporate some of this in maybe even Road Salt.

All in all it was a great informative meeting. If you haven’t gone to a RWA meeting in your area yet and your thinking about writing romances you should really check them out, because I had a great time at the one I visited today.