ROW80 – Page 20 – Linda Nelson

What a day we had yesterday at the Bow, NH RWA
meeting. It was our first meeting of the year. The meetings run from September to June, if your interested.

Yesterday there was a deep discussion over the changes taking place between the National levels and the chapter levels. But, not to worry, it is all good changes that seems to be creating a bit of havoc in some of the chapters. I’m sure it will work itself out. I’m not going to go into detail. For those who need to know more you can contact your local chapter for more information.

After lunch the best part of the meeting took place. It was our speaker Hannah Bowman. She gave us a workshop on Plots, Structures, and Pushing your Characters.

It was a great workshop.

I will only highlight some of her points here. You can look for her at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference which I hear is coming up soon.

Hannah uses a check mark approach for mapping out conflict and climax within a story. You can use this approach while either creating your plot outline or with a finished manuscript where you give it a go over to see if there is enough rise and fall of conflict in your story. The check mark can be used with multiple character development in the way of a graph. Use colored pencils and you will see how your characters rise and fall at different places within your story.

I saw what my goal would be too. That would be to have all the characters begin at the same point and have them all end at the same point. This may seem to indicate that closure of the story has happened. If they don’t end at the same point you may be looking at a cliffhanger.

Some readers like cliff hangers and then there are others who are completely turned off by cliff hangers. Personally – I like both.

Next week
is the Monadnock Writers’ Group in Peterborough, NH. They hold their meeting downstairs in the Peterborough Library. This meeting is open to the public and they will have a speaker as well. So if you are in the area come on by. The meeting starts around 9:45 am. I like to get there early so I can meet and greet.

ROW80 Check-In:

I haven’t been to active with my checkins as of late. I really need to get my butt back into action and disicipline my self to make these posts on Sundays and Wednesdays.

So for the past week I have been slogging. I let the internet distract me from finishing up the revisions and edits of Witch Book. That is the last book I need to go over before I begin working on my next fantasy book to go with my Orgarlan Saga.

I think the Teen Contemporary series has come to an end. Or so it seems.

But you never know, something might happen with either my son or daughter to spark a new Contemporary idea to take hold. See, kids do have their uses when they are older, they just don’t know it. (lol)

My daughter is waiting for the next Orgarlan book to come out. Jeesh…

I guess I had better get to work on that.

Have a great week and don’t be shy, check out your local writing group if you haven’t already. It could be a rather fun experience.

Check out other ROWers and cheer their progress along…

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Kernel-to-Outline Plot Development (katepavelle.wordpress.com)

This is such a sad thing to have to talk about. I know I’ve had my share of experience with drug addiction via my son. It is such a shame to watch a loved one throw their life away over some petty substance. It doesn’t even make them a better person, actually it does the opposite. It creates a monster.

Some people don’t understand addiction. They think that the person can mearly stop using and things will get better for them. That is easier said than done.

The worst part of addiction is the fact that they have lost every ounce of will power they ever had. It is stripped away more and more each time they use. That which is taken away in a matter of days or hours of use will take years and years to restore.

It is crippling. They eventually lose everything they ever held dear to them. Even loved ones.

Did you know that when a person has been clean for just 28 days they are at the highest risk for a drug overdose?

This is caused by their tolerance level to the substance that begins to lower and they have not yet made the connection. So they go on to use, thinking they should be taking the same dosage they were using before they stopped. They do this not knowing that their bodies can no longer handle this amount of the substance. Most will overdose and many of those will die.

So when you pop that ibuprophen today for that headache, take the time to think about what it must be like for an addict. The pain they go through while they withdraw from their substance. I hear it is worse than a migraine. It makes their whole body hurt.

Fortunately I have not had to witness an overdose. I hope I never have to. But I am worried. My son is about to enter a rehab once again. This time it is one of those 28 day programs, and knowing what I know now about how dangerous these 28 day programs are, it kind of scares me.

If only there were more programs out there, and they were all on the same page, with longer terms to keep our loved ones clean.

They are right to say that drug addiction has become a national health problem.

ROW 80 Check-In:

Last week I finished up the edits to Aaron & Keja, which is the first book in my fantasy series, Orgarlan Saga. This week I will begin the edits on Witch Book. That is the second book in the series. After which I should be able to begin my plotting of the next book in the series.

My goal is to some how get all the characters from both of the books into the next book. Will I succeed? I don’t know. But I will sure as hell try.