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Fantasy Romance

Writing

Family: 2020 Mom

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Yes, I am a 2020 Mom.

That has meant a lot of time home with my children this year. More than I have ever had.

I work full time, and while I say I would have liked to stay home with my children, I think that is a lie perpetuated by society.

I love my kids. A lot. I would do a lot for them, including take them to dance class.

dancemoms
Some are nice, but the mean ones are really mean.

I do not think I am cut out to be a stay-at-home mom. I give those who can do it kudos, but it isn’t for me. And that’s okay. I happen to really enjoy financial modeling, and that isn’t for everyone, either.

I thought this safer-at-home period would make things better. No requests from teachers to come in on a Friday morning to help set-up binders (I do have to wonder how schools would function without the amount of unpaid labor they get from volunteers).

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Seriously, give me your supply list and I will help out, but do NOT ask me to do arts and crafts with my kids.

Except now it seems like the whole world has a lot of time on their hands while I am busier than ever. My day job is crazy right now, but the sheer number of projects coming at us from school, family members, and even extracurricular activities has been mind-boggling.

I truly don’t have time to learn to a dance, study a foreign language, or develop video editing skills. I have been feeling lucky to get up enough energy to even sit down at my computer to maybe write a little at night after my children go to bed.

I’ve talked about stress and creativity before, and none of my tips and tricks to reduce stress have worked very well. I have cut myself off from most news, but I am still really struggling to stay positive and focused on more creative endeavors.

And the guilt of “am I spending enough time with my children” or “am I doing enough for my family” always rears its head.

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Because you must feel bad if you are not learning to code with your child.

Some of this is in my head, but I know that writing takes time. I am trying to maintain a reasonable cadence, and that means making time to actually write.

One thing is for certain, I have gotten very good at tuning out Breath of the Wild while my children play it and I try to sneak in another 45 minutes of writing time.

ZeldaBoTW
Three years later, it’s still an awesome game.

Things are Weird

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I am not going to belabor the COVID-19 outbreak, nor am I going to minimize it.

My family is struggling. Frankly, eight days cooped up together is a lot. My husband has a cold. Every time he coughs, we jump. But yes, just a cold, thankfully.

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How we all feel with a cold.

I turn on the news only to turn it off again. I am doing what I can with social distancing. There is little more I can do right now.

We have no idea when or even if the kids will go back to school this year.

Grocery shopping is a nightmare.

The fear over if we will have a job in a few weeks also looms large. We live America where there really is no social safety net. We are fortunate that we have some savings to see us through, but the threat of unemployment is very real.

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Not the good kind.

Through all of this, I have been…writing. Yeah. I know.

I’ve basically tuned it to what I need to, then I have buried my head in the sand with my imaginary characters.

I finished one book during this time and am 30k words into a second. Yeah, burying my head.

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There will be knights. Mages, too!

I don’t know what else to do.

I look forward to a return to some normalcy. To at least knowing what we face rather than just being afraid all the time.

Until then, I pick up my sword and shield, and face the demons of the unknown in the dark.

Writer’s Life: When You Can’t Shut Your Brain Off

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One of the things about being a writer that some people often overlook is how much time goes into revisions.

For me, I spend less than 25% of my writing time on the first draft. It’s probably closer to 10%.

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I try to remember this.

Part of it is because I am a pantser. That means I do not do extensive plotting before I start writing. I do spend a lot of time thinking about my characters, their relationship, and their romance. But the actual progression of the story happens as I write. My characters tell it to me, and if I try to be an author-god, it gets bad quickly.

Because I am a pantser, I spend a lot of time revising. I have to go through and make sure the plot works. That characters are consistent throughout. That what happens in act three has the groundwork laid in act one.

Yes, this is a lot of work. But even though I tried again last year to plot out a novel, I made it less than ten thousand words in and was done. The story died. I did write three other first drafts during the year though. Without an outline. *sigh*

Yeah, I don’t like how my brain works either. But I have learned to accept it.

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Well, mostly.

But this does make it difficult to sit back and simply enjoy other works of fiction. Whether an RPG, a movie, or a novel, that editor brain doesn’t seem to shut up.

Interestingly, I have different levels of editor brain depending on the medium.

For example, with video games, I am far more lenient. Yeah, the story is poorly written, the characters inconsistent, and the plot is hanging by a thread, but a lot of the game is the battle mechanics. If it’s a strategy game with cool characters, even inconsistent characters, I am pretty forgiving.

For books and movies, though, I am more merciless.

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Truth.

For example, Frozen II. if you have not watched it and are planning to, and don’t want spoilers, don’t read ahead. But I figure it’s out on DVD now, so it’s safe to talk about.

Yes, Frozen II was a visual spectacle. I give it that. The animation was amazing. The songs are still being sung in my house *grumble*. But the plot? The characters? *shakes head*

  • I really struggled with Elsa simply “freeing” the unknown magic simply because it called to her and might be as confused about its identity and where it belonged as she was. Throughout the story, she is a cautious character very concerned with ruling her people well.
  • Later, we have the trolls tell Anna to protect Elsa from the magic. It is alluring but dangerous. However, then the crux of the story is Elsa literally pushing Anna away and embracing this same magic?
  • Elsa literally dies at one point in the movie, and is magically resurrected. Not sure how…They did establish Olaf coming back with the water has memory, but that doesn’t explain Elsa

All in, while my family loved the movie, I had to suspend a lot of disbelief. Too much.

I am even worse with books because then there are no pretty visuals to distract me.

I try hard to turn off my brain and enjoy entertainment, but I think this difficulty is just what it’s like for a writer sometimes.

However, it also means when something is well, really well, you get that, too.

And then you try to figure out how they did it so you can do it, too.

 

 

New Year’s Resolutions – 2020

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It’s that time of year. Everyone is discussing their New Year’s resolutions.

I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions, but I do make goals. I feel like resolutions are too easy to throw up my hands and say I failed. Goals are trickier, particularly when I map them out with tangible steps. The two things I am focusing on in 2020 are health and writing.

 

Health

I have really studied what it will take to get me downstairs and onto the elliptical machine or treadmill nightly.

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Very complicated.

First, I need to feel like I am still part of the family group.

  • That means whatever we are doing upstairs as a family, whether playing video games or watching something, I want to be able to do in the basement. I can’t right now as the 1990s is calling and wants its TV back.
    • Solution: We purchased a new television for the basement compatible with the new gaming systems. Yeah, our other one really is so old we couldn’t hook the Switch up to it. At all.

Second, I need to give myself permission to be bad at exercising until I can be good at it again.

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This  might be generous.
  • This means allowing myself to walk, slowly, as I rebuild stamina
  • It means letting myself be done after 15 minutes if I’m tired.
  • It means counting things like playing dance games with the kids rather than feeling guilty that I am tired

All the science says 30 minutes a day of just brisk walking will get us a majority of the health benefits of exercising. I need to tune out the rest of the nonsense and focus on that.

 

Writing

I have been using Wunderlist for a couple of years now, and I use it to create monthly goals with subtasks within that tell me if I’m where I need to be each month.

It allows me to set my yearly goals then work ahead in months where I have more indoor time. Hello January in the frozen tundra! So that if something is happening later, say spring break with the kids, I can plan for it.

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Okay, a little dramatic, but you get the idea. 

My goal is to publish two books in 2020 and set myself up to do the same in 2021.

  • A Knight’s Redemption, available here, will be released in January.
  • I am working on The Pirate Captain’s Daughter, and I plan to release that in June of 2020.
  • I also have specific goals related to revising The Shadowguard so that it is ready for publication in 2021.
  • I have created a timeline to write the first draft of an interconnected three novel series that takes place within the Knights of Valor world.

Yes, it’s aggressive. Particularly with a demanding day job, two kids, and a spouse. Plus, I need to sleep. Really.

But I figure its best to lay it all out, try, and fail than not to organize myself for success.

 

Anyone else out there have New Year’s resolutions? What are they? What is your plan to achieve them?

Book Review: Romancing the Duke

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RomancingtheDuke
Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare

As said by one of the greats, and quoted often:

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
― Stephen King

But as a writer, I need to do more than just consume fiction. Consuming it is easy. But much like watching great movies doesn’t make me a screenwriter, I also need to do more than read great books. I need think about what makes them great. To understand what I liked about them, and even what I dislikes about them. But more than that, I need to think about the how and why the author does what they do.

Tessa Dare is an amazing author, so I decided to really think through one of her books. I just finished this one, and it is was a nice read. I started it on Friday night and finished it on Saturday morning.

As a said, it’s a solid read, and I would recommend it.

As I think through it, here are a few things she did particularly well I can learn from:

  • She doesn’t reveal things too quickly. Why is the heroine afraid of the dark? You’ll find out, but not too quickly. And when you do, it moves the romance along. She does this repeatedly, seeding story points early and bringing them to fruition later.

 

  • Her characters are not perfect. The heroine isn’t insurmountably beautiful. The hero is scarred. Literally. And blind. She uses this to build tension naturally. There are very few external events, which is perfect.

 

  • She uses these flaws to create tension. The characters do talk to each other, and sometimes they say mean things. But this fits with the flaws. Never too much to make them irredeemable, but you can see them working through their pain and flaws to earn their happily-ever-after.

 

  • Her characters all have agency. Each one chooses their path. They act with self-interest as well. Sometimes blatantly, but never maliciously so you still love them.

 

  • Her steamy scenes are concise but impactful.

 

Reading the work of a master always helps with your own work. Building a world. Crafting a story. I am particularly mindful of how she builds those character flaws and allows them to guide the story.

Something more for me to ponder.

NaNoWriMo 2019

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I will not be doing NaNoWriMo again this year.

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And any love from your family.

To those that are doing it, I will once again cheer for you from the sidelines.

I set my goals last January, and I am trying to stick to them as well as I can.

At the moment, I am working on my February 2020 goal because that is what has me inspired right now and because I managed to finish my October goal earl. Which happened to be the first draft of Thomas of Claudia. So maybe that means I already finished Nano?

Okay, so not really.

I just can’t complete so much in a month, especially not a month when I am already so busy at work.

Thomas and Claudia’s story is currently only fifty-five thousand words, but it has a beginning, middle and end. I like the characters, but clearly the novel needs more robustness.

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Will always be how it is for me.

Not surprising as that is how I write.

I have given up on trying to do what I am “supposed to” do. I don’t outline. Yes, it means more rewriting. So be it. In my defense, my editor says my first draft is like a very chunky outline. All the pieces are there, but they are stripped down to their bare bones. Not that she has ever seen a first draft, but she has seen how my revisions work. And she knows how spare the third draft she receives from me is. So, instead of paring down and killing my darlings, I tend to start by writing a skeleton draft and layering on from there.

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Actual footage of my first draft.

This is what works for me. It may not be the best thing, but it works.

To everyone out there taking on Nano, I wish you well!

I will be writing this year along with you instead of revising as these new characters just won’t hush, but it will be at a much slower pace.

My family thanks you, especially as I need to keep that day job!

And so does my cat.

 

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Yeah, he’s cute. Until you want him to move.