Writers Resources – Page 5

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)

What a good question.

I don’t think that this would have been a problem four years ago before I started writing. I may have missed the online communities, but I would have gotten over that problem.

My computer has become the center point for all my writing. It’s my tool. I don’t think I would adjust well to switching back to a typewriter. The correction tape is such a thing of the past. I remember using it back when I was in high school, or the eraser pencil from way back then that tore holes into your page if you scrubbed that type to hard. I don’t miss typewriters at all.

Have you ever used one? If you have it shows your age. – he he he

But if you think about it – where would you be without your computer? Or tablet for that matter?

Would you be able to survive?

Five years ago, in southern NH we had a bad ice storm that wiped out power to a good portion of the state. We went without power in our home for 12 days. It was a nightmare. Back then we didn’t even own a woodstove. We quickly rectified that problem.

But not only was our power gone, our phone was gone too. I had to take my cellphone to work just to keep it charged in case of emergencies.

Now we own a generator. (Thank God)

If I didn’t have my computer I would be lost. The internet would be gone. My ability to create those amazing covers of mine would be gone. I would be reduced to using a typewriter and having holes in my manuscript from the eraser pencil. Spell check and grammar check would be gone, and I would be forced to mail – mail my manuscripts to a publishing house. I wouldn’t be able to self publish. Oh No!

Yup – my computer has become the center of my writing life.

What do you think? Do think you could survive in this day and age without your computer or tablet device?

ROW80 Update:

My goal for this month is to reestablish my blogging. I have been to lazy for quite sometime. I need to get back into the habit of posting twice a week.

What I’ve been up to: For the past few weeks I have been busy preparing Along Came Neil to hit the Kindle shelf. That is done.

Now I am going through each of my previously published works with line edits. I think I have seen an improvement. I just finished up the edits on my Teen Contemporary Series. My Orgarlan Series is up for the edits next. Once those are done I will be able to begin the next book in that series. (I can’t wait)

I am dying to get back to my fantasy world. I’ve had enough of the drama in a teen drug crazed world for now. If you’ve ever known an addict you would know what I’m talking about. It does get to you after a while. Fortunately my books are pretty tame to how they really are in the real world.

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