For the Criminally Inane

Hello! I've decided to start a YouTube channel and talk about all the things I've learned about writing. Please check out my videos and subscribe if you feel so inclined to my channel.  Click the link or view below! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClxrZBB--pz84cAHvC7z2Dg?view_as=subscriber I'd love any suggestions for topics you'd like to see me cover for writing, publishing or life as an author!

Writing isn't just sitting down and letting magic slip from your head to your fingers to your keyboard. Writers do so much more than just write. Here are a few things I have done as I've written my clean romantic suspense and clean romantic comedy. 1. Attend conferences. Conferences are good for networking in your genre, honing skills, taking classes, meeting people for critique partners, writing groups, pitching, and making friends. And they are fun! I've met like-minded people who are serious in their career and writers who are more successful than I am and who can inspire me. 2. Read. This goes without saying but a lot of writers read. What are they reading? Fiction. In their genre, out of their genre, similar to their genre. I also read a lot of non-fiction, biographies, writing books, and children's books. 3. Enter contests. One of the biggest deadlines in my life right now is entering contests. I do this to get exposure, professional feedback and a chance...

When I first started writing, I read a book that said your millionth word will be the one that gets published. Or your third novel. Or if you write for ten years. I am here to say that was the truth at least for me. Back then, I thought to myself, wow! That's going to take some serious bum glue! Bum Glue : (v) The ability to be able to sit for long periods of time and produce something that doesn’t seem to be of immediate value, without seeing immediate results. I thought to myself, well, ten years are going to pass whether I wrote or not, why not write? It was a cheap hobby and healthy at least mentally, not so much physically as I feel like a sloth with a laptop and a bazillion stories competing for screen time. But what makes people successful? Is it their brilliance? Or is it that they just kept at it long enough to be good? Is talent more important than skill? In ten years could I learn the skills to write well? If I put in the time and learned my craft would I acc...

I've probably done a post on this before.  But I think I can't say it enough, writing is hard.  It's not the hardest thing I've ever done.  A few other examples come to my mind for that category: serving a foreign mission for my church for 18 months, rehabbing a house, raising three kids would top my list.  But nevertheless, writing is hard.  Sometimes I don't want to do it.  Sometimes I doubt myself, my characters, my plot.  I feel trite, cliche', hackneyed, shallow.  I feel like a fraud.  So why do I write when I could be scouring pinterest for the latest and greatest craft for my house?  Why do I write instead of getting a night shift job that I would actually get paid to do?  Because writing benefits me in so many ways. I learn patience.  I am so impatient.  Ask my husband.  I can't keep a secret, I snoop in Christmas presents, I want it and I want it yesterday.  Writing a novel takes a great deal of time, ...

There is probably no human emotion that is more damning to my personal growth than jealousy.  It is something that impairs my creative process, my chi and my spirituality.  Yet, it is so hard not to read about someone's smash hit success and not feel the smothering green emotion.  As a writer, I can never become that which I envy.  Negative emotions do not produce good fruit.  How do I overcome these emotions?

I think about this topic so often, I'm surprised I haven't actually written a post about it.  This is a good question.  Why do I write?  Why do I skip sleep, sacrifice social interaction, food, just about every basic need a person could have to write?  There is only one answer:  Because I have to.  Writing for me is an art.  Artists are passionate to create what they see, feel or hear and then share what they see, feel or hear with others.  I've always loved making people laugh and cry.  That's why I gravitated toward theatre in my youth.  Writing is an extension of that.  And it's a cheap hobby. The other reason is for me.  I use my novels to work out my demons (I have many), express feelings I may not want to deal with in any other form, maybe even discover feelings I didn't even know I had.  Writing helps me release those feelings, deal with them and move on.  It's pretty cheap therapy.

I really do covet.  I meet people with personality traits I wish I had, and I covet them.  And then I try to implement those qualities in my life.  I went to a party over the weekend and met a new friend with an attribute that is so enviable: she was encouraging.  I told her how I've written four novels but have not yet made a serious attempt at publication. She was so enthusiastic for me to put myself out there, asked me for my website address, asked me what kind of books I write, even assured me I had the personality to succeed--such ego fluff!  I'd just met her 15 minutes before and she believed in me!  I want to be a friend like that.  All of us seem to be trying to accomplish a difficult task.   We could all encourage each other a little bit more.  Be that friend -- the one who has a positive word, who believes in dreams against all odds.  And guess what I'm doing today--I'm writing query letters!  Believe in the impossibl...

I have to say the last few days have been some of the hardest in my life.  I won't go into the dreadful details of my boring life, because we all suffer and because trials are meant to be shared, not compared.  As I was prostrate, crying huge sobs this week, feeling regret, pain, stupidity, guilt, I came to a realization.  I realized that suffering made me a better writer.  Not only have I earned greater depths of understanding, compassion and skepticism, I learned another great truth: Everybody loves to read about somebody else doing something stupid.

When I was in college, I majored in theater.  I know, shocking isn't it?  Now that you've recovered, I have to tell you about something I learned while at a theater competition in California. I went to a workshop titled something like, "Do you have what it takes?" to see if I could make it big in theater.    The lady who taught the class lectured then gave us an oral questionnaire of things we needed to make it big.  She should know, she had a bit part in the Young and the Restless.  I dunno.  To me that didn't sound like wild success. But who was I to argue with someone actually making a living in my chosen field?  I found her lecture interesting and worth my time as I came away with several precious nuggets of wisdom. First, I decided I didn't want to do professional theater.  I didn't have the passion or persistence and my talent was only so-so.  Second, you need passion, persistence and talent to be successful in any profession....

I realized something in the last few months while I've been struggling to even have a desire to write. I started my fourth novel and gave it to my hubby to read and he liked it, encouraged me. But then he said, "I think you need to write this one on your own and I'll read it when it's all done." Guess what happened. Yup, my writing stalled out. Like, I don't even have a desire to write. It seems if I don't get immediate pats on the back, I don't have the will to go on. But it's not that my ego needs to be stroked, or I need encouragement after every chapter because I'm a self-conscious writer. It's true, I cannot write in a vacuum. First off, it's very dusty and dirty, and very cramped--ha, ha! Bad joke, I know. But honestly, rarely can people do any kind of great work on their own. I need to bounce ideas off someone, I need someone to ask me probing questions that open up whole areas of character exploration, or understanding...

So, I'm starting my writing schedule again. I've been too long distracted with summer and company and fun. Time to get serious, or since I write comedy, silly, again. Have you ever had the feeling that you want to live in another world, be complete absorbed, lost from reality? When your life is too complicated, too stressful, too weird to deal with do you need to check out for a while? I do. I think most people need a bit of an escape now and then. Usually when I need that, I read a book because quite frankly, it's darn hard to write. Writing takes brain power, stamina, persistence, diligence and much more. Reading, or worse, watching TV, only requires a pair of eyes. So why bother writing when 1-there is so much to consume and 2-it is much easier to consume than to create. Well, I want to write stories that interest me, that explore my ideas, that help me to string out my thoughts, examine them and make sense of them. It's so interesting. There are things...

Girls want to read books about girls like themselves. So why do all the agents say they want stories with a strong female protagonist? I understand from a plotting point of view that a girl who's making decisions and going places is much more interesting to read about. But then I think of Bella. Why was she so effective? First she was coupled with a vampire. Let's face it, Edward is the star of the show, right? But Meyer does something interesting, whether intentional or not--Bella is every girl. Who hasn't felt stupid, clutzy, even the cheerleaders. (See True Story below.) It's like the reader morphs into Bella, she disappears. We are living the story. True Story: I sat next to a girl in high school in one of my classes. She was toned, she was tanned, she was, in a word, H-O-T. Ok, that was three letters. Her hair was high lighted, her nails were done. I never saw her wear the same thing twice. Plus, she hung out with all the popular crowd aka "...

If a short story is a mouse, then the novel has to be a hulking beast. It's unruly, complex, detailed, fresh, original and compelling. Can I master the beast?