I Need to be Outlining...but Can't Focus!

I do know where my focus is this week!  Maybe the Easter bunny needs to bring me a giant basket of it!  I need to be outlining!!!  My entire WIP is stuck in my head and I'm afraid if I don't get it out it will make my brain explode!  At first I blamed my problem having bought a new house this year.  You see when I outline I use sticky notes(everywhere).  The problem is I have no idea where to stick them!  It's an excuse...plain and simple excuse.  However, on Friday I was so ready and excited that I went out and bought my two whole new packs of sticky notes.  I haven't even opened them.  I held them in my hands for a while today but couldn't get any farther then that.  Does anyone else have this problem during the outlining and planning phase and if so what do you do to fix it?

Apps!

This morning I woke up and the first thing I did was reach for my phone and send my SIMS to work for the day.  I came downstairs for the day and my husband is playing Words with Friends on Facebook.  Later on that day I am watching a movie with my daycare kiddos and reach for my phone again.  I stop myself for whatever reason and a thought pops into my head about all the time I waste on these type of apps.  Recently they have been the first thing I've done in the morning and the last thing I do at night.

Thomas is a champion at pretty much every Facebook game or app there is out there.  Both of us get into one, grow tired of it and find a new one.  Today though I wonder how much creativity has been lost by us putting time into apps instead of our projects.  Did whoever created these things know that when they did it would cause people to be more focused on them than their own lives? 

I know we shouldn't be all work and no play and as humans deserve some stress relief, but like most people I tend to play on these far more then I should.  If I worked out half as much as I played on my apps than I would most definitely weigh what I should.  As our slow season begins(the one where we are not at the rink five nights a week) I question if I'm ready to take on the projects I wanted to get done.  I have a new WIP that needs to get out of my head, but instead of outlining it like I should have the last couple weeks I played apps!  Now I find myself staring at my first free weekend since October not ready to start writing like I should be. 

Is it just us out there that finds ourselves so distracted by these things? Is anyone else willing to admit that they sometimes do these things when you should normally be working?

-Veronica

Oh the Places You'll Go!

My current WIP is set in Salem(yes it has to do with witches).  With all the research that I have done for this project it made me think about its location.  Time after time I have visited places for vacation and always had certain things in my mind on how it should be, but showed up and it wasn't that way at all.  A good example of this would be the Hollywood sign.  All the pictures at night show it beautifully lit. Well here's a hint...it's not lit at night. 

Even with visiting Salem I thought about my reader's preconceived ideas of what it should be like.  Should I write it what they think or what it is actually?  If I take liberties with it how many people will actually know?  So I thought I would ask my blog readers what they thought and how they work with a specific location!  Just curious as I love to read about others processes.  Hopefully it enlightens everyone!

Have a great night and I will see you all on Friday!

-Veronica

Love for Reading Starts Young

As many writers and readers my passion for reading began an an early age.  Today when I learned about the death of Jan Berenstain co-writer for The Berenstain Bears it saddened me to the core.  These books are some that would take to the back yard and hide in my reading spot so I could read them for hours.  My first copy of the book in the picture fell apart because I had read it so much.  Today I enjoy reading these to my kids as well as my daycare kids.  Children's book will never be the same-RIP Jan!  Thank you for giving me so many great stories over the years!

Road Trip Influences Take Two

Sorry for the late post guys!  Remember we have additional teenagers that live in our house.  This year we had three and now we are down to two.  It's been a crazy last couple of days due to this.

By now you should have created two characters and ten traits for each character.  What I want you to do is go down your list and put a mark by every other trait.  So ultimately you should have 5 traits selected for each character.  Now combine the selected traits in a new list.  What you will have is a whole new character.  That character will be more dimensional to your readers because you have created traits for them that you didn't even think about.

How did you do?  Anyone want to share the kind of characters you came up with?

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Veronica

Road Trip Influences

If you didn't know already a hockey mom spends a lot of time on the road.  This hockey mom is no exception to that rule as my kid's travel all over the Midwest looking for teams to defeat.  On our road trip this weekend I paid special attention to the drivers or passengers in the car sharing the road with us.  It always amazes me at the things you see on the road and I ofter wonder what stories the other car could tell me.

It made me think about a great exercise that I did at a conference once.  It is on the subject of character building.  As writers we often focus on the story instead of building our characters and when we are done at the end of the book we have a great story but the characters are flat.  So here's what we are going to do.  As you drive today pick two people that you noticed in the other cars.  Pay attention to what they are doing or wearing.   Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the center of it.  Each column is for a different driver.  For each driver write down ten different characteristics.  Make half of them ones you know about them like they wear really big sunglasses and make the other half ones you make up as in snorts when they laugh.

Keep those for tomorrow's blog as we will need them for tomorrow's exercise.

Enjoy your Tuesday and keep writing!

-Veronica

Writing Work-outs are Coming!

After a long hockey weekend and the kids being out of school today we decided that our first post for this week would be on Tuesday!  I will give you a hint though...as you drive to work or school tomorrow take a couple glances at the people you are passing on the road.  Remember some of what they are doing or what they look like while driving.

-Veronica