kimlajevardi

Another month, another chance for writers worldwide to reach out for support, camaraderie, and a touchstone within the writing community. Please take a moment and check out some of the talent that joins this monthly blog hop by clicking on the picture above.

What do I have to be insecure about this month?

Hmm… Talk about opening a can of worms.

Let me give you a slice of what I’m thinking via song. 😉

http://youtu.be/a01QQZyl-_I

Most of it self imposed.

And…

http://youtu.be/sENM2wA_FTg

Because I’m not holding back. It’s time to begin.

What does this  have to do with my writing? My manuscript?

Well, it’s the culmination of 2 1/2 years of growth and development and shifting from a hobby writer to a real novelist, and these begin to explain the emotions I’m feeling as I completely reorganize the layout of my chapters into something that actually makes the book work.

It’s time. I’m not holding back.

Not really insecurities, more securities. This month, I’m clumsily trying to convey that I’m feeling like a writer, an artist, and perhaps one step closer to being ready to what that might eventually mean. 🙂

Once again it’s time for a round of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG). Every month writers from across the virtual world get together and commiserate about their insecurities, expressing their fears so they, we, can move on and write. If you’d like to join in the fun, click on the picture above.

Now on to my own insecurity. A couple of weeks agoI was informed that my entry in The RMFW Colorado Gold Writing Contest was a finalist in the Mainstream Category. When I saw the email, I was whooping and hollering, repeating “oh my God” over and over as I read. (I always turn in to a thirteen-year-old whenever I hear good news) 🙂 Anyways, the news was fabulous and spurred me on in my current revisions of said project. Good, right?

It is, it really is, but…Doubt has begun creeping in. Doubt accompanied by that old nemesis of mine – fear.

What am I afraid of?

All of it.

What if it’s not good enough? What if the agent who judges my entry, hates it? What if I’m out of my league?

And then there’s the flip side. What if it’s good? What if people actually expect more out of me? What if I can’t finish? What if…? What if…?

I keep reminding myself of all the good in this small victory, and, yet I know the road I’m on has merely begun.

Where will this writing road take me? Will I ever really accomplish what I want to accomplish?

I’ve discovered those questions are really at the heart of my fear, and so I sit down and write. I know I’ll never know what can happen unless I try. But sometimes the voice settles in on my shoulders. It curls around the back side of my neck, and it blows on the hairs back there, whispering those fears in every breath.

What I want to know is this: does anyone else hear those whispered what ifs? How do you deal with it?

Summer’s nearing an end, at least for those of us with back-to-school type schedules. Ah…  😦  Anyways, it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support group post. If you haven’t already checked out this great group of supportive writers, then you’re missing out. Click the picture above to find a list of their websites. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll probably wring your hands a bit, but you’ll see how much talent is out in the great wide web of writers.

Now time to dish on my own insecurity, or should I say progress against it.

Well, as I’ve mentioned in several posts of the last year or so, maybe some of them in my own mind ;), I’m revising/editing/giving birth to my first novel. The process is long, eye-opening, and sometimes quite challenging. I’ve lamented about my struggles with time, the work not quite meeting my standards, and an assortment of other failings, either perceived or real, but each time I picked myself back up, dusted off, and put butt back in chair.

It’s what we do, right?

Well, each time I feel like I learned something about how to be a writer, how to get the words closer to my vision. And I like that, I like it a lot.

So, a couple of weeks ago, it happened again. The rewrite became challenging, and I was feeling stuck on one particular POV character specifically. I chased squirrels for a few days, dusted my keyboard with a duster instead of my fingers, and wore my teeth to a fine point from grinding. And then, I did picked myself up, dusted myself off (maybe there needs to be more cleaning time in my schedule, but I digress :)), and I put my butt back in the chair. I changed tactics, and I once again feel inspired to finish.

And (come close for this one because I’m whispering so I don’t jinx myself), the tactic change has produced a breakthrough in my character arc. *quiet fist-pumping and dancing woo-hoo* It doesn’t mean I’m anywhere near finished, and I will hit further roadblocks, but the work is better. And that means the world to me.

So, my questions for you are: what do you need to change to get you closer to your goal? or do you already change tactics, habits, etc…to ensure that you make it over the river and through the woods?

Please share what works for you. We all have moments where we need to hear about the journeys, successes, and even failures of others. It helps, it really does.

Thanks for reading, oh, and by the way, if you see the dust fairy coming, close your windows. That stuff gets everywhere. 🙂

Book Release: CLOAKED IN FUR by T.F. Walsh

Hi Kim, thanks for having me on your blog.

You’re welcome! I know you’re excited about the book coming out, but I’m curious about how it started. Can you tell us about where you get the ideas for your stories?

Story ideas are pretty much everywhere if you know where to look. Walking down the street, visiting friends, watching TV, reading a newspaper, overhearing a conversation, and even dreams offer a number of ideas. But fleshing out that single spark of originality is a completely different beast. Every author approaches this differently, and today I thought I’d share a bit of my approach.

For me, my creations always start with world building or a character with an issue. I’ll let the concept mull around in my head for a good few weeks, thinking through different possibilities. Then I sit down and start typing things. It looks something like this:

Write a rough synopsis of story, genre, length, WIP title, and usually incorporates the big plotline. (this usually changes by the end, but is a good start)

Establish main characters, their incorrect core beliefs and their conflicts (internal and external), and subplots.

Flesh out characters (including images – I’m a visual person), plus their goals and motivations. I also write a few random paragraphs from their POV to get a feel for their voices.

Flesh out synopsis into a plot incorporating characters, inciting incident, conflicts, character encounters, obstacles, climax, and how it will be resolved. This part usually takes a while.

Then I print out the plot and start marking on it where chapter breaks should happen, cause and effect, along with any new scenes needed.

Once updated, and chps are broken up, I take a couple of weeks away from it. I want to come back to it with fresh eyes and see what I’ve missed. Plus, it gives me time to mull over the best possible way to start chapter 1.

Then for each chapter, I ensure I add the goal, conflict, unexpected turn, reaction and a new course of action for each character who has a POV scene.

Now, I’m ready to start writing the first draft.

Thank you for sharing your process and best of luck on book sales. Thanks for dropping in, T.F. 🙂

Buy Cloaked in Fur Here:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cloaked-in-Fur-ebook/dp/B00DV0XJ4A/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374564291&sr=1-1

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cloaked-in-Fur-ebook/dp/B00DV0XJ4A/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374635978&sr=1-1 

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cloaked-in-fur-tf-walsh/1116059078?ean=9781440571619

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/cloaked-in-fur/id672328984?mt=11 

Crimson Romance Books: http://www.crimsonromance.com/upcoming-releases-romance-ebook/cloaked-in-fur/ 

Publisher: Crimson Romance www.crimsonromance.com

About The Author

T.F. Walsh emigrated from Romania to Australia at the age of eight and now lives in a regional city south of Sydney with her husband. Growing up hearing dark fairytales, she’s always had a passion for reading and writing horror, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and young adult stories. She balances all the dark with light fluffy stuff like baking and traveling.

Author Links

Website http://tfwalsh.wordpress.com

Twitter www.twitter.com/TFWalsh

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tfwalsh

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/tfwalsh/

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7150942.T_F_Walsh

Amazon www.amazon.com/author/tfwalsh

Another month, another opportunity to share what I’m insecure about. (such a looonngg list ;))I know you must be thinking: wait, wasn’t there a couple of months skipped?

Yes, I was most definitely out of the loop for a while, but our Captain, Alex Cavanaugh, has graciously allowed me to rejoin, and I couldn’t be more excited. And the timing, well, it’s perfect.

My insecurity surrounds the full revision I’m in the middle of. If you remember back several months ago, I was anticipating getting to the end of my manuscript, excited about getting to begin a new project. Unfortunately, as I got to the end, I realized that it needed so much more. Mostly due to the great reviews from my CPs, I became aware of the need to clarify the characters’ motivations. And in that moment of clarity, I decided to rewrite the book.

Agh, gasp, groan…right? Well, yes and no. It’s painful and oy vey, it’s slow, but I have to admit that it’s better. It’s closer to something I’d be willing to read, and that’s the first time I can say that, and something I’d be willing to submit to agents. Blood and sweat outline the edge of every page, but in a good way. 🙂

Here’s where the insecurity comes in: because even though it’s closer, it’s still not exactly what I envisioned. I’m sniffing around the edges of the characters, plot, and dialogue that are in my head, but I haven’t quite reeled them all in yet. I’m worried that they’ll never exactly match my vision.

Does anyone else feel this way about their WIPs?

Or is it just me? 😛

If you haven’t already checked out some of the other amazing IWSG blogs yet, you should. It’s a supportive collection of writers across a variety of genres, and some of what they have to say will make you laugh, cry, think, and feel better about your writing insecurities. Check them out! Click directly on the image to go to the site.

Hello again! I’m knee deep in revisions, and so, of course, I’m trolling about online, wasting time. 🙂 During my virtual wanderings, I came across some words of wisdom for writers, and I wanted to share. Hope you enjoy these words as much as I did:

Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words. Mark Twain

When men ask me how I know so much about men, they get a simple answer: everything I know about men, I learned from me.– Anton Chekhov

There are two kinds of writer: those that make you think, and those that make you wonder.– Brian Aldiss

At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that the young man or the young woman must possess or teach himself, training himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance–that is to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is to be–curiosity–to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does, and if you have that, then I don’t think the talent makes much difference, whether you’ve got it or not.– William Faulkner

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.- William Faulkner

Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind.- Rudyard Kipling

Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of a void, but out of chaos; the materials must in the first place be afforded; it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself.– Mary Shelley

And because I so hope this is true:

The next real literary “rebels” in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of anti-rebels, born oglers who dare somehow to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles. Who treat of plain old untrendy human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction. Who eschew self-consciousness and hip fatigue. These anti-rebels would be outdated, of course, before they even started. Dead on the page. Too sincere. Clearly repressed. Backward, quaint, naive, anachronistic. Maybe that’ll be the point. Maybe that’s why they’ll be the next real rebels. Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk disapproval. The old postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal: shock, disgust, outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism. Today’s risks are different. The new rebels might be artists willing to risk the yawn, the rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the “Oh how banal.” To risk accusations of sentimentality, melodrama. Of overcredulity. Of softness. Of willingness to be suckered by a world of lurkers and starers who fear gaze and ridicule above imprisonment without law. Who knows. David Foster Wallace

That’s right, I’m back! 🙂 Making up for my bad blogger moments with my second blog posting in a week. Are you shocked? Don’t look outside to see if the sky is falling, just sit back and enjoy the unexpected. You never know if it will happen again. 😉

So, I went back to Mother Load Boulevard, and as I was walking there yesterday, I took a few images to share with my huge audience.

Laughing, really? All right, I’ll wait until you’re done. Get it out of your system now. *foot taps impatiently*

Are you ready?

Okay. Well, my second trip was nearly as entertaining as my first. Not everything was the same as my first trip, I guess that was to be expected, but the setting still held a ton of creative ticklers.

Like this first house. What’s the big deal you ask. Just looks like a regular house to you? Zoom in on the window. That’s okay, I’ll wait. *Hum, hum, hum*

See it now? That creepy jack-o-lantern smile carved into the screen is not present on just that window, it’s on all of the windows that can be seen from the street. WTF, right? Well, if you could see the whole house, you’d realize that no one has lived in it for what looks like quite a while. Another foreclosure resulting from the Great Recession I’d imagine, but that’s not what got my imagination stirring. No. It was the creepy smile. Now, I’m not normally a horror writer, but I started picturing all kinds of creatures floating around inside there, and then I began to imagine the kind of magic that could keep a property empty when it’s so clearly on a large, valuable lot. The kind of magic that makes for a great story. And that’s just the first house on the street. :-O

Next up was this ranch. Just doors down from the other house, this ranch sits on a ton of property. If you zoom in on the gate, you’ll see that they’ve named their property, and it’s most likely the a beautiful family home. But…*cue maniacal laughter here* I didn’t picture a cozy family riding horses and sharing tea on the back patio. I envisioned a Dallas-type family, replete with evil schemes, sexy women falling into bed with every man that gives them a flex of their abs, and hot cars. A bit of a difference from the first house, huh? Just wait.

Back across the street and right next door to the first house, we have this little gem. Keep you’re eyes on the foreground, rather than the big, box houses in the back please. Those are not nearly as interesting.

The house hiding in the bushes, the one with the red paint sneaking out from a very old coat of white paint, looks like it was a one, maybe two room bungalow when it was first built. Simple, honest, no frills. But, do you see the small white structures on the right side of the frame? Those are attached to it. Not in a professional, “let’s spend a wad of cash cause we’re moving on up way”, they’re attached in pieces. Chunks, really. It brings to mind the ramshackle homes you see in documentaries of the slums of India or of squatters villages in Asia or Africa. Sad. Depressing buildings that are held together by scraps of wood and metal.

And I began to imagine the people who lived there at some point because this house also looked abandoned. I imagined their hard lives and the tenacity that type of life breeds.Can you picture the people who might have lived there? Who do you see? I smell a book of generations. What about you?

Next, I bring you the millennium’s version of hippies. A lot has changed. 🙂

That is the biggest peace sign I’ve ever seen. What was even funnier about this house was the fact that as I walked away, I actually saw an old school bus in the back yard. I tried to take a picture, but there were too many trees. It was hilarious because this is one of the nicest houses on the street and it had a relatively new high-end SUV parked on the side of the house. A lot has changed hasn’t it?

The story I saw in this house had more to do with the golf cart of their neighbor’s house. Across the street and two doors down was a golf cart with not one, but two rifle cases mounted on back. It was sitting in front of a cute, little ranch with flower pots and a cozy front porch. I imagine each neighbor would have something to say about the other ones’ choices in life. What would a conversation between them sound like? And how would they perceive that conversation? Oh, my mind was roiling.

And for the finale: a big, blue box. (For you Dr. Who fans out there, it’s not that kind of box. *Darn, I need a smirk emoticon.*)

Seriously. (Ha ha ha – sorry, it still cracks me up)

This sits across from a high-end house on the corner; the house that is for sale. Can you hear the conversations the real estate agents must have with their buyers? Oh, I can.

But it all goes back to setting, my friends. As time moves forward, so much changes, but as change takes place, pieces of lives are left out for us to gather. Those pieces can be found on a suburban street or on a far-away planet, but they’re there, and it’s our job to gather them. So, pull on your walking shoes, wand, or jet pack — whatever your mode of transport – and go take a look around. There are streets just waiting for you, but stay away from mine. 🙂

I should tell you right of the bat that I’m beginning this blog post full of energy and excitement. Now, you may ask yourself what is so exciting about setting, and why on Earth would this silly, little writer be energized by it?

Silly, huh?

Ah well, I’ll tell you anyways. 😉 I’m excited because I found a neighborhood riddled with inconsistencies and character.

Character? What does character have to do with setting?

Oh, oh, oh, let me tell you. Everything! Setting makes all the difference in the world. Whether our world or another one far, far away. (Cue Star Wars music please :)) There are numerous cases in television, movies, and books where readers get the sense that the setting is the elusive extra chess piece on the board. The “character” pushing the events forward. Fantasy is one genre in particular that jumps to mind when discussing setting. Science Fiction another. Both of these genres would be sorely incomplete without unusual times and or places, and the influences each has over the characters involved. What would Harry Potter be without Hogwarts, or Katniss Everdeen without District 12 and the Capital?

A pop culture example of setting directly influencing or becoming a character is in Sex in the City. The women in that show would be dynamic – not always likable, I know, but still interesting to watch – in any major city, but what made their dialogue take shape, and what influenced their very core relationship struggles was the fact that they lived in New York City. An aggressive, competitive, and influential nexus where these women all strove to gain some sense of their own piece of the apple, a large piece, probably an enormous hunk when considering what the average Joe gets, but still something they could call their own.

Without New York City, Hogwarts, or the fractured districts of Panem, none of the stories above would have been the same. None of the characters would have been either, and that leads me to what I saw today.

I was walking in an area around my son’s high school, waiting while my son practiced soccer with his team, and I stumbled on an example of setting that lit my writer brain on fire. Seriously. I was walking down the road head ping-ponging back and forth trying to take it all in because I was so excited. (Must have looked hilarious to anyone who saw me, but oh well.) What got me so jazzed was an eclectic mix of old and new, suburban and rural, hippie and hunter, McMansion and hovel; all on the same street. It was the mother load.

Characters began taking shape as I looked at each house in turn, and situations immediately followed. I imagined traumas and triumphs, marriages and divorces, and changes galore. And each piece of inspiration owed itself to the time and place, not just of the street, but of the locale. I’ll be revisiting this street and after those visits, I’ll be posting more about Mother Load Boulevard, but for now take a moment and remember. Remember the last time you were brought alive by a walk down a single road. Can you picture it? If not, do this for yourself, do it for your future characters, but just do it.

It’s on a bunch of t-shirts, so how could it be bad advice? 🙂