works in progress – Page 18

Currently I am taking part in an online YA writing workshop. Tonight’s topic is Master Manipulators

Discussion:

Any good-looking lovers from your past who have used their charismatic ways to pressure you into doing something against your will? Describe the childhood and manipulative behavior of a character who won’t take “No” for an answer.

Truth be told, I have trouble with this character type. I certainly don’t like them and I have trouble casting a character like this but I know that I have, but not in Friends of Choice or Road Salt, or at least not yet.

This would be Darmin in Witch Book. She even goes through the trouble of stealing Monika’s binding cloth by switching it with the one she made knowing full well that the one she made was not properly created.

She will have to be more charismatic in the next book if she wishes to continue to keep up the charade with Lord Ky’debaul. He too is a master Manipulator and it will be a battle of wits between these two in the coming sequel.

(Squeal)

I just love all this character building. This is all bringing to mind ways to build my characters besides looking at the color of their hair and their eyes.

ROW80 Check-In:

No, I have not done much in the way of editing since this past weekend. But as you can see above I am getting much more insight into what kind of characters I have already created and how I can make them develop more in the coming sequels.

Wow…

I kind of wish I had joined all these groups sooner…

If it hadn’t been for my good friend, Linda Kepner, I would never have known about RWA.

Stop by the Linky List to root for other writers taking part in Round of Words in 80 Days, the writing challenge for those writers who have a life.

It’s Sunday already?

I feel like I missed the weekend somehow. If this keeps up I just might miss Christmas too.

Not!

I like Christmas. It has always been one of my favorite holidays and not because I get presents. I’m the giver. I have always loved to find a way, somehow, to surprise my family members with the gifts that I find for them.

I’m also the one who tends to the Christmas stockings, decorates the tree, and dismantles the tree when the holiday is over.

This year we went out and cut our own tree down, a first for me. We did get a really nice tree, one of the nicest trees I have ever had. It is almost 7 feet tall and is wide and full at the bottom. And, we bought it local.

I’ll show you our tree later on this week when I dig out the camera. I tried taking a photo with my cellphone but it doesn’t do the tree justice. So, you’ll all have to wait…

We had our first measurable snowfall yesterday into this morning. I think we had an inch of snow before it turned to freezing rain.

Today it warmed up and all the snow is gone. We will be seeing 50’s for the rest of the week.

NaNo Update:

No, of course I did not make my word count goal for NaNo. I didn’t really try this year. But I did finish the first draft of Road Salt and I am happy with the way the ending came out. It is a little dark and dreary, not like a romance is supposed to be but this is not really a romance even if it does have some romance elements built in to it. This is a story about drug addiction and the downward spiral associated with it.

So far I do not feel it is an entertaining read either. I have a lot of detail that needs to be hashed out during the edit process.

Which leads me to the next topic…

ROW80 Update:

I did make some progress this week. I began the first edit of Road Salt. Two, almost three chapters are done with 1k words added to the wip.

I think I am writing slower due to the more serious nature of the story. I want to get it right and make sure the story line is as credible as possible.

Drug addiction is a serious matter unto its self.

I did something else this week too and I will let you know how it goes. I signed up for an online workshop for YA authors. The topic is about criminal behavior in teens. Hopefully this two week workshop gives me some great tips on completing Road Salt. I have never taken an online course before.

Check the linky for other ROWers and cheer them on too with their works in progress —à
ROW80 Linky List

Oh, and for those of you who are curious about Road Salt you can take a free view of the first draft. It can be found here on Smashwords.com –à
Road Salt – first draft in eBook format of your choice. No I have not uploaded the edits yet. I may do this after the first or second edit. I’m not sure yet.

But if you want to comment on the story you can send them to my email address: lnelson_547@comcast.net

I would love any critic help I can get for this serious YA story, it would be most appreciated. I used to use autonomy but there was too much spam on the site with everyone saying read mine, no read mine and so on. I mean I don’t mind critiquing on someone else’s wip but when they begin begging you to read and star their work and then threaten you if you don’t change something in your own to their liking I have to draw the line.

Isn’t critiquing about giving someone suggestions on how to do it better?

I had one person do that to me too. He said if I didn’t change the way I wrote a certain line right away he was going to give me a one star review. I don’t think that is what critiquing is all about. You don’t threaten a person. That’s not how you make friends. Needless to say I refused to change the sentence to his wording and he did give me the one star. It was all uncalled for.

So I don’t visit Authonomy anymore. Bullying does not work for me.