It's all in the way that you handle it

In terms of writing, there's no such thing as a bad idea.
Seriously. If you can marry Jane Austen and zombies, and give birth to a movie deal, and make international bestseller lists--twice!--with Twilight fan fiction, there is no possible way to screw up on the idea front.
Execution, on the other hand, will kill you every time.
(Yes, I intended the pun.  I get an o-pun-ing so rarely, I have to take them as they come.  Deal.)
It is, as Chuck Berry once said about sex, all in the way you handle it.  Experience and technique play a role.  (Don't they always... Geez, when did this turn into THAT kind of a blog?)
I mean, WRITING experience and technique play a role.  Seth Grahame-Smith of PP&Z had writing credits to spare before he penned his first mash-up.  E L James of 50 Shades of Gray had spent her time behind the keyboard, too--though in different areas.  But luck is a key factor, too.  For example, people have been writing fan fiction since forever.  And I don't just mean Kirk/Spock.  There's a distinct possibility that some of the more out there Arthurian stories, especially those with overheated bro-mances, were fan fictions written by educated ladies for the amusement of their friends. 
Why was James the first to go mainstream?  In part, because she lucked into the historical instant when a host of factors--the Internet, the popularity of her inspiration, popular awareness and access to fan fiction, etc.--her books were there when the public was looking for exactly that sort of story.
The flip is also true.  If she hadn't happened on that historical instant, she would've been dismissed by the arbiters of taste as having wasted a lot of time writing a BAD IDEA.
Piffle.
There are, however, perfectly good ideas whose sole purpose in life is to drive the poor writer into a state of gibbering incoherency--or in the case of those of us for whom gibbering is a way of life, greater blithering idiocy than usual.
For example, about two years ago a new fiction magazine (paying professional rates of five cents a word!) invited me to submit a story to one of their first issues.  We talked about the kind of story they wanted (contemporary urban fantasy featuring magicians and mundanes set in Washington, DC) and the specifications (under ten thousand words).  I did a proposal and a plot outline.  They loved the idea and sent me a contract.  Before it was even written!
Then I sat down to the keyboard.  By the time I reached my due date, the story (which had already been outlined, remember that) was seventeen thousand words and still growing.
I returned the contract with groveling apologies.  Fortunately, it was a "payment upon delivery" deal, so I didn't have to worry about the money.  But still, nobody wants a reputation as someone who fails to live up to their obligations.  In addition, I'd always been a reliable producer of nonfiction for the publication.  So the publishers and I are still friends, and the market remains open.
But without a deadline and the lure of ready cash at the other side, I stalled on the story.  For two. Whole. Years.
Then, about a month ago, I decided to open the file and see how bad a mess I'd made of things.  To my shock, the story was ready for the next word.  Over the next forty-eight hours, I blazed through the nearly three thousand words needed to complete it. 
I had a draft.  It was good.  But it was good at twenty thousand words, not my original market's ten thousand word limit.
Oh well, so now it's a novella.  There are markets for that.
It's all in the way that you handle it.
Happy writing!

#

Jean Marie Ward

A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing

While I was still an unpublished author, but with two novels already completed and gathering dust under the bed, I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. I wanted to see if I could write under pressure, because although I knew I could write quickly I was looking ahead to when I may find myself under deadline. Pretty cheeky, for a woman who had only, to that point, received a drawer full of FOAD* letters from publishers, editors and agents. Yet, I wasn’t at all sure that if an agent said to me, “I love your premise and I want to see it. How soon can you get it to me?” I’d be able to produce.

I’d also done a lot of learning since I wrote the first two novels—taking courses, discovering just how much I didn’t know, figuring out what the market wanted, finding out all the stuff I was doing that shouldn’t ever be done. I felt ready to move on to the next level, to write a book I could actually have a chance of getting published with. So NaNoWriMo was my personal test, my big push toward success.

For anyone not familiar with National Novel Writing Month, you’re asked to commit to writing fifty thousand words during November. At the end you’re expected to have a first draft, not a book all polished and ready to be subbed. You’re also encouraged to have some kind of plan so you’re not stumbling around writing yourself into corners and wasting time.

Even as a pantser I knew my chances of writing a novel of that size without some kind of outline were slim, so I came up with everything I thought I needed—a plot, character outlines, research notes. I was ready!

I started on November 1^st and cranked out three thousand words the first night. The second night I cranked out a thousand, but it was hard going. You have to understand, I didn’t doubt I could get the word-count. I’d done almost one and a half that much in the past. I was aiming for a good first draft, something that didn’t need much work at the end, so I was paying attention to all those rules I’d learned, trying to follow my plan, pushing, forcing, biting and clawing toward the end.

I didn’t finish writing the book.

It bored the crap out of me.

Hatred isn’t a strong enough word for how I felt about my heroine, hero, the plot, my writing. I had a moment where I thought I was done for. I’d failed the test and had about ten thousand words of unadulterated effluvia to show for it.

I won’t bore you with the details of my depression, hair-tearing etc. I can tell you what I learned from that experience was invaluable. I can’t force a plot or ignore the direction my characters want to go in. I can produce quickly, but there has to be a certain level of freedom to the writing, so I can stay engaged and let my imagination really be in control. But most importantly I learned that slavishly following all the writing rules, trying to conform to every little thing people say you MUST or absolutely SHOULDN’T do is the fast road to boring, stagnant writing and an unfinished book. It’s like I learned in art class…the best abstract artists are those who know exactly how to draw and paint in a realistic fashion, but choose not to.

There was other good news too. On November 12^th I had an idea—a vague, “suppose” kind of idea—started writing it to get the bad taste of defeat out of my mouth, and got the entire 50K first draft finished in time to receive my NaNoWriMo certificate. I still had a lot of work to do to find my voice, to discover which rules I was able to break effectively, and I re-wrote that book a couple of times before it became Breaking Free, my first erotic historical novel.

I’ve had other unfinished books since then, but now I tend to know fairly early when to let go and not waste my time on a thread-bare plot or an untenable character. And I’m still learning when and how to break the rules… Sometimes we're better off not knowing them at all, I think!

*For anyone not familiar with FOADs, that’d be F*** Off And Die.

Good Stories Gone Bad? How About Bad Stories Gone Wonderful?

Today, I am supposed to talk about good stories that have gone bad. You know, the ones that start out as a gloriously spectacular idea and end up a big fat mess.

And I have had those. Don't get me wrong. They give me shivers to think about and are under my bed with the hairy spiders, the voracious dust bunnies, and the creepy monster that groans in the night (no, wait, I forgot I figured out that was just me groaning in my sleep when I turn over).

So I could talk about them.

But I won't.

I want to talk about love. Life. And the gloriously beautiful human spirit.

The past few weeks have been loaded with tragedy. All of us feel the heartbreak, the devastation and desperation. Please except my deep, deep sympathies to those who were touched directly by the Boston bombings and the West Texas explosions. I am so sorry.

But I'm here to say that I have seen more generosity and selflessness in the past few weeks than I've seen in a long time. At Beyond the Veil we gathered around one of our own beloved authors, Xakara, in her time of need and asked for your help. Bless you one and all for contributing. You are angels.

I am so thankful for the men and women who risk their lives every single day to save strangers. And the regular folks who rush in to help others. I was brought to tears by the folks in Boston who ran toward the site of the first bombing, not knowing if there was another.

Last year, a friend of mine had a heart attack during a local triathlon. Do you know that people stood in line to administer CPR until the ambulance arrived? One after another kept his heart going and breathed life into his lungs. A doctor was in that group. He saw how bad off my friend was and told the last guy to stop the chest compressions. My friend had died. That young man, I'll never forget this, that wonderful selfless man (who prior to this moment had been a real competitor) screamed at the body lying there in the street. He yelled at him not to give up. He promised he wouldn't quit either and he didn't until the EMT got there.  My friend lived to tell the tale. In fact, he's still running. He absolutely credits those people who came to his aide and saved his life. Especially the young man who didn't give up on him and he hopes to race against again soon.

Saving lives, offering strength, a hand, a gentle word, a small act of kindness...  This is love people. This is who we can choose to be. Please, take the time to love.

Thank you,

Kimberley Troutte
Kimberley's website

Do get Fresh...or not

Trying to keep writing fresh in my opinion is more about revamping, twisting the old than starting with something entirely new.

I will occasionally watch a movie and wish for a different ending or maybe see something that I'd like to mash up. 

However that said I truly believe the heart of most romances follows your basic fairy tale or love story.

We've seen your: Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet and that's okay.  Why?  Because readers love these stories and they love the resolution that occurs, well maybe not the Romeo/Juliet ending but we tend to make that a happy one.

There's nothing saying that Cinderella can't fall in love with her fairy godmother, That the beast can't be a merman or that Juliet has to be a girl.  You get the idea.

Taking an old story  and putting a new face on it makes it both familiar and fantastical to the reader. 

Tina

Getting Fresh

The topic for this month was where we get 'fresh ideas'. Seems to me that everyone's taken a look at where they get their ideas.

I got thinking about what makes them fresh.

And the answer to that is so easy and so complicated that people really struggle with it.

To me, a 'fresh' idea has to have a hint of the familiar to it. It's a way of looking at something we've ALL SEEN BEFORE.

Romeo and Juliet -- with zombies.
Titanic -- in space.
Sleeping Beauty -- the cyborg.

Each of those twists allows us to tell a familiar story in a new way.

But that's just the beginning.

Because each of us here could be given one of those story ideas as a prompt, and we'd each write the story very differently, because we each bring our own stuff to the table. I'm always absorbed with themes of right and wrong, lies and truth, bravery and cowardice (for example) while another author might be more focused on themes around family and trust, for example.

Ideas are great. They get me motivated, get me excited about a project. But often, the fresh twist that brought me the story -- is the thing that gets lost along the way. "Sleeping Beauty the cyborg" sounds great, but as I brainstorm, I might discover that the story REALLY works if I make her a zombie, instead. Or if I don't use the Sleeping Beauty myth at all.

It's hard to allow myself to let The Idea go sometimes. Because really, Sleeping Beauty, the cyborg (or even zombie!) sounds pretty freaking cool. But sometimes, that's what the story needs so that I can frame the story I REALLY want to tell --which isn't Sleeping Beauty the cyborg, but how absolute power corrupts, or how right can be done for the wrong reasons or whatever my own truth is that I really want to explore.

Thank you

To all the readers of Beyond the Veil for your generosity.  Xakara's Fundrazr exceeded all our hopes.  She and her family are in a much better place thanks to you.
Thank you.  That is all.

#

Jean Marie

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Pictures of RavenCon 2013

If a picture's really worth a thousand words, I just might be able to make up for being such a bad blogger this year.  Besides, you'd much rather see the faces and costumes of RavenCon than hear me blather.  So, without further ado, thirteen photos from RavenCon 2013

 

Author Laurel Anne Hill shows off a steampunk style perfectly suited to her story in the anthology Shanghai Steam.

 

 

Fan Guest of Honor Carla Brindle and Writing Guest of Honor Kevin J. Anderson frame one of Carla's amazing cakes.  Since RavenCon flaunts Richmond's Edgar Allan Poe vibe, Carla baked a fully functional chest containing a beating cake heart. The book leaning next to it was edible, too.  And I can personally attest that it tasted great.

 

Sarah Black and Braxton Ballew of Valentine Wolfe perform their first concert of the weekend.

 

With Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta as the con's Writer Guests of Honor, the costumes were guaranteed to glory in Steampunk.

 

But Star Wars was well represented by the 501st Legion and this fierce Tusken Raider.  Star Trek sent Klingons...and a jail!  But you have to go to my Flickr page to see that. 

 

There were Steampunk writers, too. From left to right: Emilie Bush, David Lee and a guy I really think I ought to recognize...

 

Comics artist Monica Marier gleefully admitted she crafted her shiny SF costume to draw potential customers' eyes.

 

You knew there had to be at least one panel shot, didn't you?  Here (from left to right) Jim Bernheimer, Gail Z. Martin, Ron Garner and John Betancourt discuss professional self-publishing.

 

There were two book launch parties, but I only took still shots of Leona Wisoker's event. Here Leona (center in black) discusses the role of coffee in the party and in her new novel Fires of the Desert.

 

More Steampunk-y goodness. From some overheard conversation (in the bar, naturally) I understand this group later won the Masquerade. Alas, I didn't catch their names, but I do recall that it was the gentleman's first costume competition.

 

Don't tell anyone, but I can't identify these costumes--and I know I should! Sob.

 

Masquerade Masters of Ceremony Billy Flynn (left in scarf) and Rich Sigfrit (to Billy's right) introduce the Ghostbusters of RavenCon.

 

There were belly dancers, too.  And much, much more.  If you'd like a bigger taste, please, check out the rest of my pictures or follow the links from the RavenCon Facebook page.  It's not too early to sign up for 2014, after all.

 

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Jean Marie Ward

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday: Spotted on the Roadside

****


Jody Wallace
Author, Cat Person, Amigurumist, Sadly Untalented Photographer
http://www.jodywallace.com  + http://www.meankitty.com

Passing the hat for one of our own

Lousy doesn't begin to cover the events of this week. Most of us are still in shock over the bomb at the Boston Marathon, checking in with our New England friends, and hugging our loved ones tight.

Unfortunately, great tragedies on the world stage doesn't make the everyday ones go away. It doesn't even slow them down, which brings me back to friends and loved ones.

Xakara, whose books (from Samhain and Liquid Silver) and Beyond the Veil blogs are guaranteed to make you smile, is stuck at the intersection of Bad Economy and Worse Health.  Her unemployment benefits ran out before her disability benefits could kick in, and like a character in a 1920s melodrama, the landlord is at the door demanding the rent. Seriously, folks, the landlord couldn't extend her due date for one. More. Week. She needs the money by Friday, or she'll lose her home on Saturday.

Which is where we--and hopefully you--come in.  We've established a Fundrazr account to send money directly to Xakara. The beauty of Fundrazr is you can pay however you choose, including Paypal. All you have to do is click the big red heart/donate button.

Beyond the Veil doesn't do this sort of thing often. We're a free blog, with free content. But sometimes, the need is so great we have to reach out. We can't do anything about the haters who leave bombs in duffel bags. But we can do something to help the people who bring love and laughter into our lives.

I hope you will do something to help Xakara.

###

Jean Marie

Tales of the Were by Bianca D'Arc

For the past few weeks, I've been doing two main things - writing my upcoming book, Tales of the Were: Grif and packing goodies for the big RT convention in about 2 weeks. I have to mail a ton of stuff ahead to be at the hotel when I arrive and that all requires me to be done with packing and sending on a somewhat tight schedule. Eek!

I thought today, maybe I'd give you all a little insight into Grif and the whole series...

Grif is trying to find some peace of mind in the mountains, but instead finds a human woman named Lindsey, being hassled by the local werewolf Pack. They're trying to drive her off and Grif realizes almost immediately that he can't let that happen. He needs to find out why the wolves are so dead set against her and help her overcome whatever conflict is between them, so he can keep her nearby. His inner cat demands Lindsey's presence and Grif finds himself prowling near her home in his cougar form, watching over her safety both day and night.

The book, Grif, is named for the hero of the book, Griffon Redstone, CEO of Redstone Construction and Alpha of one of the most influential shifter Clans in the U.S. I've mentioned him in previous installments of this series and his brothers and cousins have appeared in other books - most notably, Matt Redstone, who is a favorite character from the novel Sweeter Than Wine, which is technically part of my Brotherhood of Blood series, though the two series do crossover a bit here and there.

Grif picks up immediately after the action of my most recent book, Tales of the Were: Slade.

In Slade, they are tracking the killers of the Redstone matriarch. Grif and his whole family, including the youngest, a pre-teen girl named Belinda, are traumatized by the murder of their mother. In Grif's book, he leaves the homestead in Nevada and takes little Belinda out into the wilds of Wyoming, to the family cabin, to help them both recover from the shocking loss of their mom.


The intrigue thickens when two of Grif's brothers arrive in Wyoming with news that the feral shifter who killed their older sister a while back, is stalking them all. Grif fears for Belinda's safety, but also for Lindsey - the woman he thinks is his mate.

Along the way there are some rather heated love scenes between Grif and Lindsey... and even a little naughty threesome action. ;-) There's also a deep and abiding love between Grif and his new mate that cannot be denied. He'd do anything for her - including sacrifice himself so that she can remain safe.

I plan to release Grif's book in late May, if all continues as planned. And part of the "master plan" is a sub-series of Tales of the Were stories that will start with Grif and end with the youngest Redstone brother, Matt. I'm going to call these 5 books, Redstone Clan books, though they are technically part of the overall Tales of the Were series. Yeah, I know it could get a little confusing, but I'm not sure how else to do it.

Grif will start the sub-series, followed by the intriguing story introduced in Tales of the Were: Slade, of Magnus Redstone and his mysterious vampire lover. We're going to find out how Mag knows Miranda, the trapped vampire we meet at the end of Slade. So we're going to mix it up a bit. Cougar shifters, werewolves, vampires... You get the picture.

The Redstone Clan sub-series will be released over the rest of 2013 and into 2014. It even has it's own little graphic, that will appear on all the covers. Neat huh?

In the meantime, you can already get the stories that lead up to this sub-series. The Tales of the Were to this point, are as follows:
1. Lords of the Were
2. Inferno
2.5 The Purrfect Stranger (only available from AllRomanceEbooks.com at this time - it's a short story)
3. Rocky
4. Slade
5. Grif (coming soon)

And there you have all the info on the Tales of the Were. I didn't really mean to go on so long in this post, but it's done now and I hope it answered some questions for some of you.

- Bianca

Come over to The D'Arc Side... www.biancadarc.com

Mah Brain

Which can be quite the convoluted place at times, is always full of characters.

If I wasn't writing, well that's not even a question I can comprehend. I think about other professions I wouldn't mind doing, but my brain would still be full of stories.

And that's the lead in to this ramble. I get asked all the time where I get ideas for my stories.

Last night I said to a friend that my Muse is on crack when talking about where I got the idea for Incarnate.

After our laugh I said I got the idea watching Ice Road Truckers when I was dealing with my newborn.

Maybe it was sleep deprivation mixed with my fascination of the north which brought about it.

Honestly, anything can trigger an idea.

Music, a picture, something someone says.

My most recent idea, which is still percolating in my brain, was from watching a lot of Dr. Quinn and visiting Montana this past summer.

My imagination has always been full.



I was quite happy spending my Saturday and Sunday in my room playing with my dolls. Inventing up crazy story lines for them. There was always a villain. Always.

So I can't say for sure what specifically will inspire me. A lot of things do. I do know one thing for certain, I wouldn't trade away my very full and weirdly wired brain for anything.

Helloooo, Muse!

Where do you get your ideas? This is a common question of authors. I'm not sure there's a common answer and I'm not sure there's even a "right" answer. I've heard people tell me they must be inspired. They must be in the mood. They can't write because they don't have an idea. To me, this is horsefeathers. One doesn't need an idea to write, one needs the simple act of applying ass to chair and write down what's in your head. It's hard at first, and sometimes in the middle, but it gets easier the more you do it. There's no magic to it. You just do it. The job description is "writer," not "waiter and seer of ideas," or "inspired person," or any of a hundred other myths. Audacity is what gets it done, not even necessarily talent.

So where can one get ideas?

Good thing you asked! It just so happens that this month, I'm teaching a free workshop over at Coffee Time Romance called "Using Prompts to Expand Your Repertoire". We'll explore where to get ideas and what to do with them once we get them. We'll play and write a lot and in the process, maybe just get an answer to the question, where do we get ideas?

Here are some of the places I get mine:

1. Writing prompts - they create a picture in my mind and I tell a story
2. Pictures - I've always been visually stimulated. I love going to the museum, walking outside in nature, wandering around a park, or poking around online.  The waterfall above is from Starved Rock State Park and I took that shot last Spring.
3. Scents - I love scents and the way they stimulate the emotions. Try wandering into your spice rack and pull something off at random, sit down and inhale over it. Then pick up your pen and see what happens.
4. Consequences - as an abuse survivor, consequences fascinate me because so often, bad behavior goes unchecked.  Many of my stories involve consequences of one sort or another.
5. Solving problems with society - after all, until they install a phone line directly to my cell phone from the President's office, this is my way of changing the world one sentence at a time.

What inspires you?

Ideas Galore

Greetings Kittens,

So we’re here to talk about ideas and from whence they come. Like most authors, it would be easier to list what doesn’t inspire me, but right this moment, I’m having a hard time with that, so let’s stick with idea origins.

With me, it can be anything. A single sentence can be enough to set off another 100k words to keep it company. I don’t always know how the sentence is born, but dreams play a big part. I tend to be lucid or semi-lucid most nights and I’m a vivid dreamer, with good recall. Since my subconscious can’t be bothered with logical jumps and continuity, it’s a chance to just let go and roll with anything and everything.

Daily entertainments are a big inspiration as well. On good days, I can get through a chapter, or to the end of an episode, before I start rewriting everything. On a more average day, I’m lucky to make it to a point-of-view or commercial break before my mind spins in a million different directions on how to do it differently.

Every conversation and occurrence around me carries the potential of a story within it. Every new skill I learn spins the great “what if” and allows me to go deeper. And right now, even my illness is a journey with the potential for more. So if you come across a paranormal with a heroine who hoops, bakes and may have an alien shape-shifting virus, altering her DNA, give it a whirl.

Gaming and writing - what fun!

Gaming!

Recently the hubby and I went to a local gaming store for International Tabletop Day, a day devoted to tabletop games and all the fun that goes along with it. The idea is to try out and discover new games that you usually wouldn't try on your own and without buying them, of course. It's a great way to find something new to add to your huge game collection. (okay, OUR huge game collection...)

The idea of International Tabletop Day came from Felicia Day and was/is supported by Wil Wheaton. (yes, *those* two) The two of them, proud geeks, often review tabletop games and post reviews on Day's page, Geek and Sundry.

So we discovered Smallworld.  Discovered, played and purchased on the same day. Same with another board game.

Smallworld is a fantasy type of Risk – you take over territories with your fantasy characters such as Orcs and Giants. It's a great game and I recommend it if you like that sort of conquering the board fun.

Now I know what you're thinking – what the heck does this have to do with writing? Or reading? Or anything other than geeks, not that there's anything wrong with that…

I find gaming to be a wonderful way to kick back and generate new stories without really having to work at it – the games we play tend to create their own reality and it's fun to work and play in someone else's world for a bit.

When I return to the computer after a good gaming session I'm usually reinvigorated. Not because I've found a story to write necessarily (and any gamer can tell you that often the story is so *not* what counts in a good session) but the ability to step into another character's shoes (or armor) allows me not to only stretch my creative muscles but also to watch and study others as they work their way through situations.

It doesn't have to be a role playing game as well – we picked up the X-Wing miniatures game based on some good tutorials and jumped on that this past Tuesday for our weekly gaming night. It was great to play a rookie pilot running into two other rookie pilots on the other side and the resulting dogfighting.

So if you're stuck for an idea and want to boost your creativity, why not check out some great board games for inspiration? Grab a copy of Smallworld or kick back with a game of old-school chess or even Monopoly (if you want a family fight but that's another column!).