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www.cherylsterlingbooks.com

The next book

When do you start thinking about the next book you'll write? Are you the type to have over a dozen active stories in your head (waving to Brynn) or, like me, have no clue? My next idea usually doesn't filter in to my brain until I'm close to the end of my current WIP. For example, I'm thinking of doing a contemporary romance with a heroine who has some magical talents. I know her name will be Bea, she has two dogs and she bakes bread. I even know the title, but I don't have the "crunch" element that makes the story so different than a hundred others out there. Where is it? I'm waiting for the Muse to send it to me.
What about you? When is the next book a reality?

Change your point of view

Writer's block. Real or imagined, it can tie down the best of us. There are various techniques to break the block, but one of them is as simple as changing the point of view in your scene. The number one rule, of course, is who has the most to lose in the scene? Write it from that character's point of view. But sometimes, you're still blocked. Then what?
Try a different POV. As in 1st person if you're writing in 3rd. Or 3rd if you're writing in 1st. It could be enough to free your imagination and break through your block.

Where do you want to be?

Where do you want to be five years from now?  No, this isn't a job interview.  It's a career question.  Where do you want your writing career to be five years from now?  Three years?  One?  Next month?  On one of the big lists?  Looking at your astronomically large bank statement?  Or simply getting great feedback from your critique partner/group?  Big or small, grand or humble, dreams can be reached by a) making a plan and b) taking incremental steps forward.  Man did not step on the moon the day after President Kennedy issued the challenge to be there by the end of the decade (the 60's.)  It took over eight years, and many, many small steps.  The first men in space didn't even circle the globe.  With each mission, more data was collected and the goals grew larger.

What was your first writing goal?  To finish a book?  A scene?  A sentence?  Mine was to write the end of the book.  I woke from a dream and had a the ending scene in my head.  I didn't know these people, I had no idea what their beginning was, but I vowed to get them to the climatic end.  (I learned about big, black moments later.)

After awhile, I realized I needed help, so I took a gigantic, courageous step and found a writing group.  Then a critique group.  I finished a book.  And another.  A contest was entered.  A query letter was written.  A writing conference was put on the calendar.  Individual goals, but each was a step on the path to publication.

Were they part of a plan?  Nothing I'd consciously put on paper.  Do you want to leave your career to chance, or do you want concrete, constructive input?  Get out a piece of paper, open a new Word file, uncap that dry-erase marker.  Go ahead, I'll wait.  (insert Jeopardy theme song)  Ready?  At the top, write your goal.  Make it a big goal.  Now write the thing that has to happen just before the goal becomes a reality.  Write the action before that.  And the one before that.  Keep working backward until you are at where you are now.  Guess what?  You wrote a plan.   Add some target dates for each mini-goal and you have a workable plan.

Now go out and make it a reality.  I will. 

Did you vote?

Did you vote today?  From start to finish, including voting time, my wait was an hour.  It was beautiful weather outside of the polling place, and I used the time wisely.  No, not reading, but filling out character charts for my current WIP.  The activity filled in a few holes in their personalities and exposed others.

It's always good to have a plan B, whether your wait is planned (voting) or not (traffic backups).  

Whatever the outcome of today's election, take pride in exercising your rights.  Don't take it for granted.  At the risk of sounding schmalzy, God Bless America!

I gots to get me some BBC

Aaargh!  Unfair.  There ought to be a way to get original BBC programming here in the States.  Not BBC America.  Plain old BBC.

I'm talking about the series "Spooks" now in its seventh season.  The cast is awash in man candy:

Rupert Penry-Jones, aka Captain Wentworth in Persuasion (the kiss at the end - oh, wow)

Or - Richard Armitage, aka John Thornton in North and South ("Turn back.  Turn back to me."  heartwrenching scene)

Or - Matthew Macfadyen, aka Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice

Did I mention the guest list?

Hugh Laurie

Ian McDiarmid

Anthony Head

To name a few

Did I mention it's a spy show?

So unfair.

And totally unavailable as a download.

Le sigh.

Who are these people?

I've spent almost a hundred pages with Ian and Sophie, they're in the middle of angry sex, and I don't know who they are.  To remedy that, I took out some old notes on the best story I've ever written (you will weep at the fragility of their relationship) and have applied them to the two strangers in my WIP. 

* What is his/her external goal?

* What is his/her external motivation?

* What is his/her external conflict

(yep, GMC)

* What is his/her internal goal?

* What is his/her internal motivation?

* What is his/her internal conflict?

* What would he/she never do?

* What is he/she afraid of?

* What is he/she really afraid of?

* What is his/her bone deep "the world will end if anyone knows" fear?

* What is his/her strength?

* What is his/her flaw?

* What was the worse decision he/she ever made?

* How does he/she see himself/herself?

This has helped enormously.  I knew Sophie was a "fixer", but her "world will end" fear?  She doesn't want anyone to know she doesn't know what she's doing.

And her internal motivation?  If I can fix everyone else's problems, then I don't have any.

I still have a few holes to plug, and some plotting (gasp!) to do, but now that I know how their traits affect each other - it sets up more conflict.  And that's a good thing.

Writing is easy

The story is already written, it's my job to find it.

With my new story (started Aug. 1, 86 pages complete) I'm uncovering it layer by layer.  Like all things layered (cabbages, lettuce) not every leaf is perfect.  Sometimes, there are holes.  Sometimes, a nasty surprise.  Sometimes, perfection.

I usually write clean first drafts.  But, as they say, each story is different, and this one is messy.  My heroine is reactive, my hero doesn't have enough motivation.  Until this weekend, which I spent with most of my writing group at a wonderful retreat, I didn't see these flaws.  Or the non-mention of eye & hair color of my two main protagonists.  Or. . .well, you get the idea.  So now I'm regrouping, beefing up the weak areas and thinking whole picture instead of what the next scene will be.  It will be better, stronger and tighter.  I even found the perfect place for the first sex scene, which has been a problem in the past.

And I was reminded of an old story, which, after a cursory read-through last night, reminded me of how good it is.  It's time for it to make the rounds again.  It's time for a good, old pirate/virgin mother story to be heard.

Writing is easy.

Getting out of Dodge and the Real skinny on raw diet

Getting out of Dodge.  City, that is.  That's where we are today, my friends, in the heartland of feedlots and meat packing plants.  Not a great place for two gals who just spent three days avoiding the taste of slaughtered animals.

From what I gathered, and bear in mind I attended less than 5% of the six hundred workshops given (somewhat) raw food is the tip of the iceberg.  It is a portal to a healthier lifestyle.  There are many thoughts on the raw diet, from supplements to dehydration to raw only to colon cleanses.   The main idea is that anything cooked destroys the natural enzymes and nutrition of the food.  Which makes great sense.  The further from the soil the food is eaten, the more it is stripped of its nutrients.

Example stories I heard but cannot confirm:

One vegetarian meal a week saves 1160 miles of driving

Beef is considered protein, but nutritionally has only 15% protein, 85% fat

Seeds and nuts are considered fat, but have only 15% fat

Blue-green algae is one of the most nutritious foods around (I cannot tolerate it by itself by it's great in a protein bar)

Going raw is difficult for some people because of they use food as an emotional crutch.  If they can't find comfort in the refrigerator, they're forced to look inward, and to many that is scary beyond belief.  So going raw is not just the food choices, but coming to terms with old demons and vanquishing them.

As for curing common and uncommon ills, check out just one website for inspiration:

 www.mycrazysexylife.com

Off the soapbox.  I'm going to start incorporating some of this stuff when I get home, and have even now, on the road.  I can't promise I'll never eat cooked again (rice!  bread!) but life is a journey.

Road Trip Day ? Somewhere in the Southwest

Ha, ha, kidding about that last part. We're in Santa Fe after having spent five wonderful days in Sedona. I'm moving there. For real.  Just not this year.  2009?  What the heck.

Raw Fest was and wasn't what I had thought.  Like any sub-cultural, it has its kooks and fanatics.  And serious, funny, wonderful, warm people who want to do right with their lives and bodies.  I can't judge any of them.  Nor should anyone else.  I mean, really, the people not on this lifestyle?  Sick.  Overweight.  Tired.  Blimpy.  Barely able to drag themselves out of bed and exist every day.  The raw fooders?  From what I've seen - thin.  Healthy.  Energetic.  Able to cure cancer, heart disease, diabetes and asthma with nothing but what grows in the ground.  Hoo-rah for them.

Road Trip Day 4

We're in the Colorado Rockies, having put almost five hundred miles on today.  Two touristy stops - a buffalo made of barbed wire, and the Cathedral Rocks in Kansas, which were the highlight of the day.  Not very touristy, as we had to wind down a dirt road for seven miles before we found them.  Nothing around for miles.  No other cars, no people, just the wind and some cows.  

Then across some lonely roads in dark, dreary Kansas, not meeting another car for miles and alternating between flat, flat lands and long, low hills.  The minute we hit Colorado, the sun came out and we started climbing.  And climbing.  Fifty miles away, we saw Pike's Peak.  Dinner was in Colorado Springs inside a beached fighter jet turned restaurant.  Pretty cool.  So that makes three touristy things, though I'm not going to count the rocks.

Tomorrow, the Grand Canyon then Sedona.

Road Trip Day 2

Abilene, Kansas, the end of the Chisholm Trail and the home of our 34th president, Dwight "I Like Ike" Eisenhower.  

We spent last night east of St. Louis, rose, took our walk  then drove to the waterfront to ride to the top of the Gateway Arch.  Picture five people knee to knee in a giant egg rocking back and forth.  Four minutes up, three down.  Ten at the top.

Tomorrow we explore the finer points of the sunflower state (giant ball of twine, a buffalo made of barbed wire, etc) before meeting a friend of my daughter's who now lives in Garden City in the west side of the state.  Tuesday is her birthday, so she gets a birthday dinner from familiar people.

Off now to plot the big adventure.

More signs

Spotted license plate:  GOIN2AZ

check out this website: www.roadsideamerica.com

5 in 2, I get the picture

Sedona messages keep wandering into my life.  On Wednesday and Thursday, I talked to five people who have visited Sedona.  One man went there for the first time in 1959.  I received advice to a) ride a hot air balloon b) take a train ride c) go to the airport for a fabulous view.  For a little town of 11,00, it sure has a lot of visitors, at least within my sphere.

My daughter is temporarily home, and we've touched on different aspects of the trip.  St. Louis for sure, Santa Fe (which was featured on Rachel Ray less than ten minutes after she mentioned it - did I mention the psychic powers floating around here?)

On a secondary note, I am waaaay too dependent on the internet.  We lost it Saturday and I was forced to call Comcast and schedule a tech visit.  Fortunately, DH wiggled some cables, and we're back in business.  

Writing wise, I've super-duper cleaned Tall, Dark and Slayer, and it is finished.  I've started The Princess Rescuer, which has been renamed  The Dark Ages Detective Agency.  The rule is - there are no rules.  It is a total medieval farce, and I'm enjoying the first few pages written - a talk between two minions, one of whom is pushing the other to join the henchmen's union.  See?  No rules.

2,400 miles down, 4,000 to go

Between July 4th and 11th, DH (and various members of the Sterling family) piled 2,400 miles on to our trusty Malibu.  (three adults do not fit well in the back seat.)  First up-Traverse City.  Best part of the weekend?  A toss up between the Blue Angels airshow and the New Age bookstore we found.

Monday-all day on the road to Pennsylvania, taking Libby home as she packs 

up four years of college life (most of which returned with us Tuesday and Wednesday

)  The best part?  Tooling around the back roads Tuesda

y morning to Ringing Rocks Park.

Thursday-Lake Michigan beach.  A fabulous place that we tend to take for granted.  Best part? The hot pink plastic shovel that washed up, allowing me to repair a moat left by previous visitors.

Friday-the casino.  Best part?  Coming home with only $5 less than I started

Saturday-our local RWA meeting, connecting with fellow writers.

What's next?  What about that 4,000 miles in the title?  Huh?  Our graduation present to Libby was fairly open ended - a trip.  Somehow, it morphed into a trip with Mom, similar to our European romp of 2003.  After much debate, delay and consideration, the possibilities of Iceland, Ireland and Morocco were discarded for (drumroll, please) Sedona, AZ.  At Raw Spirit Fest 2008 www.rawspiritfest.com.   Go figure.  I'm going to spend three days in September not eating cooked food.  Do not talk to me for at least two weeks afterward, or ten Big Macs, whichever comes first.

The best part is, it's going to be a roadtrip.  Why?  With the price of gas climbing every week?  Well, is it going to go down in price?  The cost and hassle of a plane ride for the two of us will probably equal the gas we'll buy.  Which leaves cheap hotels and eating out of a cooler.  The cost of spending two weeks with my daughter:priceless.

Look for more blogs as we map the great American west for awesome things to see.

Look out, giant ball of twine (it's in Kansas)

Feedback

Not too long ago, a member of my Toastmasters club gave a speech on evaluating speeches.  At the end of the speech, he passed out handouts of what he'd covered.  Handouts are cool.  Remember that the next time you give a presentation.  But, I digress.  With a little word substitution, I've borrowed from his speech to give you the rules for effective writing critiquing. Thank you, Bruce.

1.  Give positive reinforcement

2. Help the writer stay motivated

3. Evaluate the writing - not the person

4. Nourish self esteem

5. Show the writer how to improve

6. Show that you care

7.  Suit your evaluation to the writer

8. Learn the writer's objectives

9. Personalize your critique

It's easy to forget we were not always experienced writers and there are tender writers just starting out who should not be treated roughly - as we might have been.  On the other hand, we don't need to sugarcoat bad writing, either.  Use the above guidelines to give an honest, constructive evaluation.   One of the responsibilities earned by our experience is to teach.  Do it in a good way. 

Why writing is like remodeling

It started with a gallon of paint. Luminary was the color. For various reasons, it took almost two months from purchase to application. The results - shocking! A nice, rich gold morphed into school bus yellow. In my bathroom!

A day later, my perspective has changed. Why have a safe gold color when you can have a HAPPY Bathroom? A Cinco de Mayo explosion of color? The start of a bright and expressive place to live?

With the shift of thought, we've begun a complete remodel of our condo. No more boring neutrals (maybe the carpet, which needs replacing.) No more safe choices. Today, we started with a new kitchen table. Wednesday, we pick up my new craft table, which replaces a boring desk I don't use. A large worksurface with shelves underneath equals more opportunities for creativity, which should spill into my writing. If you look closely, you'll see the top has a seam down the middle. It folds onto itself, but unfolded, the worksurface is twice as deep. Notice the shelves, perfect for baskets. I could go on and on.

But wait, you say. What does this have to do with writing? Simple, oh young one. One simple spark, an idea, a twist in the plot, can lead you and your characters on a wonderous journey. Sally isn't the girl next door that you envisioned. Instead, she's a space pirate. The hero's best friend is the real father of his daughter. The heroine's boring backstory suddenly becomes the catalyst of terrible problems. Or choices she has to make, each one suckier than the last. Your characters will go on a school bus ride of epic proportions, with ruts in the road and dead ends, mudslides and terrorist attacks. But somewhere in the adventure, they'll find a new side of themselves. Better. Colorful. And maybe, if they're lucky, they'll find what they didn't know they'd been searching for.

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig

Pittsburgh was great. The Hilton was not. All my flights left and arrived on time. I'm back to the real world with three dozen new books (could have had more) most of them free. It was a feeding frenzy an hour into the Dorch party. The two book limit disintegrated when people realized they could get back in line. I saw women taking them out in boxes. I'm sorry, but let's not be piggy. I only took books that looked interesting, not as a means of financial support once I listed them on E-Bay. As it was, I had to bribe the airport guy to put a "heavy load" sticker on my suitcase instead of charging me extra for the weight.

Now I can concentrate on writing again instead of trawling Goodwill for one more accessory for my costumes. As soon as someone (hint, hint) emails the pictures they took of me, I'll post them. And send them pictures I took of them. The other shots are of the city itself. Was I the only one to venture out more than once?

The little store where I had Pelmeni (meat-filled dough) with a big scoop of sour cream. Yum. You can see one of the three tables in the store. The owner tried to get me to eat Halva, which is a nut/honey/mystery ingredient so sweet the half-teaspoon sample put me into a diabetic coma for a few minutes.

Walking downtown, looking for a place to eat (try Costanza's chicken marsala) I passed this chain link fence. Someone had cut out the pages of three very old books and wired them to the fence. This one had a map glued in it, with a star and the words "You are here." It was so cool, I had to take a picture.

RT Day 700, 982

This is a typical RT conference. (RWA too) Nothing works the way you want it to. I must admit, this hotel is different in that it's under construction. We are woken by hammers, saws and lots of noise. The rooms that are finished aren't. Ceiling fixtures in the halls are missing. The elevators are busy - wait! That's normal. I can't wait until tomorrow at check out time. Imagine 1,500 women, each with four suitcases, cramming five elevators. It's like the Great American Race on estrogen. Whoo-ee!
Now the only big complaint I have is the timing. Why, oh, why does it have to be during hockey play-off season? Thank God for Versus and their coverage. Which meant I missed Heather Graham's fantastic vampire ball last night. So sad. I missed losing a decade of my life.
I'd post pictures (I did bring my USB cable) but I haven't taken pictures of anything fantastic.
Off for breakfast and to prepare for the book fair.

RT Day 4

Romantic Times conference, Day 4
There are different ways to work a conference. Socially/networking; for the workshops; for the experience of being in another city. I usually opt for reason 3. Not that I don’t enjoy meeting new people and learning new things at workshop, but I love finding out new things about the city I’m visiting for several days.
Pittsburgh:Working people, a tough, gritty city with pockets of really cool places like the Strip, which is more Little Europe than any place I’ve seen outside of Europe.
The Cheesecake Factory (no lines, contrary to what I’ve heard) which is universal, but not in my part of the world. I enjoyed the architecture of my salad (really, I think there were support beams in place that dissolved as I plowed my way through it) and the wonderful cheesecake, and especially the tender care of my waiter, Paul, whom I think I have fallen in love with a tiny bit. He called me dear and wanted to take care of me. It’s probably in his waiter handbook on how to get a 25% tip from women traveling alone, but it worked, so kudos to him.
The internet connection in our room is spotty, so I’ve resorted to hanging out in the lobby to get any work done. Lots of opportunities to people-watch.
Only one workshop for me this afternoon, and maybe the opportunity to write before it starts.
Later!