Tuesday Word Smart

Today's word is BEQUEST (bih KWEST) n something left to someone in a will

If your next-door neighbor leaves you all his millions in a will, the money is a bequest from him to you. It is not polite to request a bequest. Just keep smiling and hope for the best.

To leave something to someone in a will is to bequeath it. A bequest is something that has been bequeathed.


So, now you know.

Monday Musings: Do New Stuff

 Ebyss interviewed me--check it out if you want to hear about how I got my agent.

As writers it’s easy to sit around the house/office all day, the TV all night and read in the between times…hearing and seeing and reading about other people doing stuff, but never doing New Stuff ourselves.

I live in a city that is a known tourist destination. People come here on vacation. Why should I take time off to go somewhere else in the summer, when I live here? The problem is, I would spend my summers watching other people on vacation and never taking one myself—just life as usual, only warmer.

This summer I decided it was time for a change—I would purposefully do New Stuff. This meant venturing out of my home and into the places visitors go, doing what they do.

Like kayaking.

This is what I told DH I wanted to do for my birthday. Loved the feeling of being out on the lake in a slow and casual manner. Great upper body workout!

There is a channel nearby that joins two lakes. People float down it every summer, and even though I’d lived here most of my life, I’d never done it before. This summer I did it twice!

My friends!

I joined a ladies hiking group. We meet every Thursday morning at a different park or hiking trail, all within a twenty minute drive of my house and most were places I’d never been to before.

I also went golfing for the first time ever--not mini golfing but acutally 9 holes. Sorry no pics, but it was fun.

Why do New Stuff, anyway? Because as great as research is, real life is better. Even if you don’t use any of your New Stuff experiences in your book, it still stimulates your five senses, expands your creative voice, causes you to reach a little deeper—especially if the New Stuff is a little scary (which none of mine were—this time :D)

Have you done any New Stuff lately? And if not, what New Stuff do you dream of doing one day?

Friday Free For All – Where I Jump Off A Cliff

I don’t like conflict. I like to be liked. That is why I almost didn’t post this.

But here’s the thing: You know how it is, when you hang around with a group of people, it’s okay to have an opinion on something, as long as you agree with them? (Otherwise, get out of the group!)

Sometimes I just don’t agree. And in this “tolerant” society of free speech you would think that it would be okay to express a different opinion, even if it’s contrary to the current popular one.

For example, you may have heard how a certain YA author was uninvited from a certain Texan festival?

If you haven’t, it doesn't matter. This post is not about that. I understand the problem with censorship.

But what about the other face of censorship?

Censoring the unpopular voice is censorship, too.

I`ve experienced this personally a while ago. I had been following an up and coming YA author’s blog. One day she posted about X issue in YA and why it pissed her off that people (mostly over protective mothers, of course) had a problem with it in her book. A slew of comments followed, cheering RAH, RAH, RAH, X issue, RAH.

So, knowing that all issues have more than one side, I dared to state an opposing position, call it X issue side B. I expected civil dialogue, you know the kind…I can see where you’re coming from, but I disagree because of this…. Ending in, it’s nice to hear your point of view but we’ll have to agree to disagree.

Instead I got this: (Not verbatim, but this is the essence, and not only from the blog owner, but from her followers) What!? You hold that point of view? Vehement opposition! You must be an idiot. I don’t know how you raise your children but you need to look at yourself, because obviously you’re a…..(personal attack by a follower).

Do you see where I’m going with this? Censorship works both ways.

So, here I go again.

I’m not a fan of the Hunger Games Trilogy. I’m not on the Mockingjay band wagon. It’s not because I don’t think Suzanne Collins is a talented writer, obviously she is (I have read the first two books and I probably will read the last one someday).

I’m just not crazy about the kids killing kids theme. Especially when marketed to kids.

Okay, there. You can cut off my fingers now.

I find the growing fascination (and acceptance level) with violence troubling. I find the rate of violent crimes by kids troubling. (Turns out Nathan Bransford is discussing violence in YA on his blog this week, too.)

I remember wondering how the ancient Roman society ever got to the point where the populous believed Gladiator games were exciting entertainment and not the gruesome, animalistic acts against humanity that they were.

I’m starting to get it. (Ultimate Fighting, anyone?)


“Just because kids read about X issue, doesn’t mean they’ll turn around and commit X issue”. Yeah, I know. I’ve heard it. Also "Parents need to TALK to their teens about what they are reading." Most writers who say this aren't parents of teens. Have you tried this? First of all, it's a massive undertaking to expect parents to read everything their teens are reading, especially if they have more than one, and secondly, as much as I would like to talk to them, they're not exactly great talkers at this age. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. I mean, did you want to talk to your parents about what your were reading?

One other thing, while I’m totaling nailing myself to the wall—why is it okay to rate movies and TV for kids, but not books? Just asking, because it seems to be a really big deal. I picked up a YA book a while ago, that by the blurb and the packaging, you’d think it was just a fun, fluffy summer read. Like Prada and Prejudice or anything by Janette Rallison.

If it were a movie, it would’ve been rated 14A. Which would’ve been fine, if that was what I was intending to buy. Kind of like if I went to Blockbuster looking for a cozy chick flick but ended up with….well, you get it. It would be nice to know what you’re really buying before you dish out your hard earned cash.

This is all My Humble Opinion.

Anyway, feel free to comment. You can agree or disagree—that’s the whole point of this post—JUST BE KIND.

How To Write: Developing the Great Idea

I decided to commit to a how to write blog by faith. It came from the question: If someone asked me to show them how to write a novel, what would I say? (And yes, I’ve had that question—I’m sure I’m not the only one!) What are the steps to novel writing?

I just wrote a YA novel from start to finish in the last five months—How did I do it? What was my mental process? I should know this info, not just to share with others, but so that I understand it better myself. I’ve written several novels now, and mostly I just wing it… but with each new project I’m starting to see a pattern form. I’m picking through what works (for me) and what doesn’t.

So here goes:

The first thing you need is an Idea. I covered this already in earlier WHTW posts. Not just an idea, but a hooky idea. A hooky idea is something you can sum up in one line.

ie: Girl falls in love with a vampire who’s committed to not killing her.
Girl grows a blossom out of her back and finds out she’s a fairy just in time to fight the trolls and save her fairy kingdom.
You can read two of mine in my profile at the top of this blog.

So, you have a hooky idea, now what?

You need to develop the idea. Take some time to “think write”. Sit in the sun, put your feet up and mull it over. Who is this story about? You don’t need to know everything about this person, but gender, age and situation are important. What plot ideas that support your hook come to you? Jot them down. A few new ideas, variables, crazy possibilities will come to you—write them all down. How about a title? Pick a title. It may change but you need something to work with.

Once you have a story starting to form, open a file on your computer and call it Hooky Book (whatever your working title is) notes.

You’ll find that as you go about your day and your week, more ideas will come to you. Enter them in your note file. These don’t all have to make sense. They’re just ideas you may or may not use, but you don’t want to forget them.

Don’t rush this process. Give yourself time to let the creative juices flow. Consider it similar to baking a loaf of bread (yes, I’m still stoked about my new bread making machine!) You have to throw all the ingredients into a pan (only in the book writing case, you can do it in any order and you don’t need to follow a recipe). Take time to kneed your ideas together. Give it more time to sit and rise. And well, the baking….that takes much, much longer. :D

At some point you will have an idea of what the beginning, the middle and the end will look like (though these, of course are subject to change). Now you’re ready for the next step…

Which I’ll talk about next week!

Tuesday Word Smart

ENORMITY (i NOR muh tee) noun extreme evil; a hideous offense; immensity

    Hitler’s soldiers stormed through the village, committing one enormity after another.

“Hugeness” or “great size” is not the main meaning of enormity. When you want to talk about the gigantic size of something, use immensity instead.

Shoe Horn-ing It In

 

Do you remember  SHOE HORNS? I remember my grandfather using them. A necessary item to get swollen feet into a nice shoe without wrecking the back heel.

That’s how it is with writing sometimes: we just squish it in without wrecking the rest of our lives. Some of you know that I’m leaving my job, so that will open up writing time for me, but that doesn’t happen until the middle of September and then I’m away for two weeks, so I don’t get to try out that new schedule until October.

But I can’t wait until then to write.  And like many of you, I have a spouse and kids, friends and other responsibilities besides my work, to squeeze writing time around.

How do we do it?

We shoe horn it in.

Squeeze it in a little here and a little there. I admit when I’m in the throes of great inspiration, my house isn’t the cleanest it’s been or my family doesn’t exactly eat gourmet meals. Somehow I manage to write and revise, read for crit partners, answer interview questions, engage in social networking.

It happens in bits and pieces and that’s okay.

There are times I get good runs at it. And often I get things done faster than I originally thought. For instance, when looking at my calendar, I didn’t think I’d have a chance to get working on agent requested edits for my current WIP until this week—but I actually managed to get it done this weekend.

How? I shoe horned it in.

Are you finding time to shoe horn enough writing into your schedule?

 

 

My Take on This VS That

Okay, so it appears that people don't have strong opinions on these points.(I know you lurkers are out there :D)  Not that it's a big deal which way you prefer.

For me, I like HootSuite over Tweetdeck because I like the lighter format and Tweetdeck beeps every time someone tweets, which is like every 2 seconds.

I can't say I've given Google Analytics a fair shot, but when I did try it, it didn't seem to work properly. I don't know if it's because I already had site meter. Site meter seems more user friendly to me, less cluttered and easy to get simple facts like how many visitors and from where. One thing Analytics has (though I couldn’t find it) that I can’t find on Site Meter (doesn't mean it's not there) is info on how people find your blog, what search words they use.

As for Mac or PC--I'm PC. I started off PC, switched to Mac for my work, but when it was time to buy my own laptop, I opted for PC. Besides the fact that it was a third of the price, I found I could navigate the system more easily. Just a personal thing.

As for Blogger or Live Journal, well, I started off with Blogger, so I think I’ll always favor it a bit, but I love Live Journal as well. The two communities are quite different and each suits the format that is there. I haven’t tried Wordpress, but I’m not a fan of having to sign up to get an email every time they post a new blog. I like the ability to scan recent posts on my Blog Roll or LJ friends page.

Feel free to weigh in, to agree or disagree. To lurk or comment.

Happy Saturday!

Friday Free For All - This VS That

Here’s your opportunity to vote and tell us why:
1.Tweet Deck or HootSuite? (Or neither?)
I’ve tried both and think I’ve found a favorite, but I’ll let you know after you’ve had your say.
2. Site Meter or Google Analytics?
Again, I’ll weigh in later—but doesn’t anyone know, can you operate both at the same time on the same blog?.
3.  Mac or PC?
They say that once you’ve tried a Mac, you’ll never go back to PC. I beg to differ, but what do you think?
4. Blogger or Live Journal? (Or other like Wordpress?)
Why did you choose the one you chose?
Most of you know I post to both, (usually).  I just discovered Windows Live Writer—makes posting to more than one blog a breeze. (Anything that saves time is a winner in my books.

*Bonus Tip: just heard about Dropbox, a program where you can automatically update all your electronic devices at once. Anyone tried it? Is it as yummy as it sounds?

Isn’t choice great?

PS: You may have notice the Google Ad at the bottom of this post. I thought I’d try monetizing out for a while (now that I’m leaving my job!), see how it goes, but if it’s too intrusive I’ll unsubscribe.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

A Little Cute Overload--Because Smiling Triggers Inspiration!

For all you fellow kitten lovers:



And something for you dog people:

 

How To Write: You Have What It Takes. Yes, You Do!

It’s overwhelming, really, when you read all the advice out there on how to write a novel. Great conference speakers, great books, great blog articles. It seems you could read about writing a novel forever and never actually write one.

Why? Because, knowing all the ways you could go wrong up front is debilitating. For example, when I first moved to Germany way back when, I thought, yeah, I’m going to learn German. I’ve always wanted to learn a second language. I happily bumbled along, feeling quite proud of my efforts UNTIL I took a language course. Then I learned about all the things I was doing wrong and all the impossible grammar rules, I couldn’t possibly remember.

And guess what? It shut me down. I still don’t know how to speak German. (But I’m at least at a place where I’m willing to go back and learn AND believing once again that I can do it—but that’s another post).
Don’t let this happen to you. Here’s the secret. You have INTUITION. Yes, you do. You’re an avid reader. You know what you like and what you don’t. You have an idea, (if not, see previous Wednesday post). You can write your book. If you didn’t believe that somewhere deep down, you wouldn’t be reading this blog post right now.

Now, possessing intuition doesn’t mean you don’t have to work at your craft. You do. And it’ll be hard. But believing you can do it is half the battle.
It helps to know the basic building blocks to crafting a novel, and the different ways you can put them together.

As we proceed with Wednesday How To Write, we’ll tackle these building blocks one by one: plot, structure, pace, voice, character arcs, subplots, sentence structure, scene building, and more.
For now let me end with some of the great How To books I’ve read.

On Writing by Stephen King
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont
Hooked by Les Edgerton
Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell
There are many, many more.

What are some good How To Write books that you’ve read lately?

Tuesday Word Smart

Today’s word is CONGENIAL (con JEEN yul) adj agreeably suitable; pleasant

-The little cabin in the woods was congenial to the writer; he was able to get a lot of writing done there (sounds like Laurie Halse Anderson’s place!)

-The new restaurant has a congenial atmosphere. We enjoy just sitting there playing with the ice in our water glasses. When people get along together at a restaurant and don’t throw food at one another, they are being congenial. Genial and congenial share similar meanings. Genial means pleasing, kind, sympathetic, or helpful.

You can be pleased by a genial manner or a genial climate.

Not to be confused with congenital (kun JEN uh tul) adj describing a trait or condition acquired between conception and birth;innate

Monday Musings: I Did Something Scary

You know how they always say, “Don’t quit your day job”? Well, I did. In my defence I had to do it for non-writing related reasons and I know without a doubt it was the right thing to do, but still, I agonized over the pro’s and con’s. It’s scary. I’m waving goodbye to a regular paycheque.

One of the pro’s? I can work at writing full-time. At least for a while. DH agreed that I could take until late spring to pursues writing as a career move—and then, if nothing has changed, I go back into the work force.

I’m excited! And I’m scared. I really, really want this to happen for me, to be an income earning writer. And yet I know there are no promises.

But still, I’m trying.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” Sure, she was probably referring to soldiers traveling overseas to face the battlefield, but don’t we all face a battlefield of some sort? Sometimes it’s opposition from family members or friends, sometimes (most times) it’s in our own minds.

Another pro? Since I have to give back the computer I’m currently working on I got to buy my very own laptop! (I had to give up getting a bike to do it, but hey, no one said there wouldn’t be sacrifices—and thanks Walmart for that terrific sale!). I’ve never owned a computer that wasn’t owned by someone else first – no previous owner residue! The user name is actually mine!

Isn’t it pretty?

I know you’re waiting for the con’s but, honestly, I can’t think of any right now. I’m in new era honeymoon bliss. Ahhhh.

Have you done anything scary lately?

I’m Not One of Those

You know how there are people who just seem to win stuff all the time? I’m not one of those. I never win door prizes or name draws or 50/50 type games. Especially those book contests that are all over the blogosphere. I never win those, at least I didn’t UNTIL NOW— I WON, I WON,I WON!!!!

Jessica Shea had a terrific contest where she gave all these books away:

Yummy, right?

So, now I can’t say I’m not one of those—because obviously, I am!

How To KNOW If An Agent Is Right For You

Well, some say read their guidelines/blog/twitter/FB, look at their track record, find out who else they represent. Do they like the kind of books you write? East Coast or West Coast--does it matter? What about editorial preferences?

While all these things should be taken into consideration I've recently discovered that there is only ONE thing that really matters.....

Are they a dog lover or a cat lover????

Crit Partner, Kara, is a dog person. She just signed with an agent who is a dog person. I'm a cat person (duh), and Agent Awesome is a cat person. See the connection????

Don't you wish you would've known this secret earlier? So happy to be of some help!

"Behind Every Successful Woman is a Cat and a Fridge Full of Chocolate" -- Fridge Magnet

Friday Free For All

Lot’s of news this week:

1. Didn’t WriteOnCon rock? Super thanks to the lovelies that organized that! Over 11,000 attendees! Amazing. For me, it was so cool to see Agent Awesome live—she has a new website, go check her out!

2. For those of you still looking and somehow haven’t heard, there is a new agent on the block. Weronika Janczuk is a new agent at D4EO Literary.

3. Jen Daiker is hosting a new blogfest What’s That Character? Sounds fun!

4. Moonrat posted an article recently comparing Big House to Small House publishing (I found this thanks to Nathan Bransford). Interesting.

5. Also interesting, it turns out that the New York Times just realized that YA IS HUGE. Gayle Forman had something to say about that (along the lines of, What? You're just noticing now?). (Thanks to Kirsten Writes for the tip off).

6. And finally, my terrific crit partner, Kara Mustafa, is newly represented by Suzie Townsend. Congratulations, Kara!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

How To Write: What Triggers An Idea?

Last Wednesday I talked about the mystery of the Idea. How do we get them? James Scott Bell in his book PLOT AND STRUCTURE, devotes an entire chapter on how to get ideas.

Here are some of his suggestions on how to trigger ideas in point form:
- The What If Game (we’ve all heard of that, but worth repeating)
- An Interesting Title (write a book around a good title)
- The List (sort of stream of conscious list of nouns)
- Issues (social, political, personal)
- See It (Let your imagination play you a movie)
- Hear It (Listen to Music)
- Character First (Close your eyes and let a character form in your mind—or read obituaries)
- Steal From the Best (ie: Shakespeare, Austen)
- Flipping a Genre (ie Wild, Wild West is James Bond in the Old West)
- Predict a Trend (Read magazines, what’s being talked about)
- Read the Newspaper (Scan all the section, see what sparks)
- Research (Reading about a topic that interests you can spark something)

You can probably add to that list. But often the best ideas can come when you’re not looking for it as was evidenced by the comments left in last weeks post when I asked What were you doing when you got your last Great Idea?

Then I promised I’d share some of my idea spurring experiences.

EAST OF THE SUN, a women’s fiction published in Germany is a about a self-absorbed young woman who suddenly finds herself the sole care-giver of her mother who is ill with Alzheimer’s. She stumbles across a family mystery, only it’s too late to get the goods from her mother; she has to piece the clues together herself.

This idea came to me as my husband and I were traveling to a friend’s house for dinner. Enroute, I spotted an elderly woman sitting alone on the deck of her house—it reminded me of my own grandmother who’d had Alzheimer’s and I remembered what it felt like the first time I’d visited her and she didn’t remember who I was. Then I thought, all of her stories are locked away. It was too late to ask her about her life, and what if something important had happened. Something tragic?

PLAYING WITH MATCHES, about a boy who grows up in Hitler Youth, came as a result of a dinner date we had with a friend and his elderly father who had grown up in Germany during the war. He told us a story of how he, at sixteen, had to walk 200km through the rubble after the war to find his family, no food, money or transportation. He had been a student at a flight school and had no way of knowing if his parents and brother were even alive. I had teen boys around that age at the time and I couldn’t imagine them in that situation, separated from us and having to walk that distance home and without any aid. I first wrote this story as a film short, just about the walk home, but eventually it turned into a fictional account of a boy going through the whole war.

CLOCKWISE, about a teen time traveler, who accidentally takes the cutest boy in the school back in time, is a little harder to pinpoint. I had written an early time travel story that had long been permanently shelved. I’d come to a point while working on Playing with Matches that I just needed a break from the war—I needed to work on something lighter. I pulled out this old story and thought maybe I could rework it. I moved the setting from West coast to East coast (because we had recently moved away from the Boston area and it was still fresh in my mind), changed the premise of how time travel worked, and just started writing for fun. It turned out to be the book that garnered me an agent.

SEAWEED, about a teen swim athlete who falls for a merboy is my latest WIP. This idea came in a backward way. I’d just finish reading two popular YA books that just happened to use a lot of the same plot devices and was joking with my teen daughter about this. We bantered about our own idea, following these plot devices but replaced the paranormal element to Merfolk. We had a good laugh and I blogged about it the next day. THEN, I heard that Mermaids were predicted to be the next big thing and it got me thinking: I should write a Mermaid book that does the opposite of everything on my list of overused plot devices. And I managed to do that for the most part. Seaweed is currently in the hands of Agent Awesome…I’ll let you know how that goes!


How about you? How did you get your idea for you latest book?

Tuesday Word Smart & WriteOnCon Starts!

In case you haven't heard, the free online writers' conference starts today! Check it out here.

The Word of the Week is SANGUINE.
(SANG gwin) adj cheerful; optimistic; hopeful

* a great word for the mood at WriteOnCon! *

Miguel was sanguine about his chances of winning the Nobel Peace Prize, even though, as an eighth grader, he hadn't really done anything to deserve it.

The ebullient checkers champion remained sanguine in defeat; he was so sure of himself that he viewed even catastrophe as merely a temporary setback.

Don confuse sanguine (a nice word) with sanguinary (not a nice word). Sanguinary means bloodthirsty.

Have fun with words!

The Road to Publication’s A Little Like The Game Of PacMan

If this looks familiar it's because I wrote this as a guest post for Sara B Larson this summer.

Do you remember that old arcade game PacMan?

The little jellyfish icon (You) has to find its way through a dark maze to the end to win the game—only the world is full of peril, a little yellow biting mouth thing is chasing you and before you know it, you’re doomed, swallowed up by the little yellow biting mouth. The WIN eludes you.

The road to publication is much like that. It’s a dark and nebulous without much for directional markings. And if you are fortunate to make it to out of the maze unscathed, your victory dance is short lived—because there is ANOTHER LEVEL.

First Level: Write the book to the end. This is surprisingly hard. No doubt there is many a drawer with an unfinished novel residing in it (or computer file).

Second Level: Perfect the book. Since nothing is perfect this is a near impossible level to pass. You can see early on that we are set up to fail and only writers with Indiana Jones type luck, skill and bulldogged determination can ever hope to cross the gaping chasm to the....

Third Level: The murky waters of Querydom. This level takes a lot of mental fortitude to win. The little jellyfish icon must BELIEVE it can beat the level, and if it (you) keep trying, over and over again, you will succeed.

Fourth Level: Yeah!!! You made it to Agentdom! You spit on Querydom, and stamp on it with your jellyfish feet.

Fifth Level: Agentdom has an eerie resemblance to the second level—more perfecting with Agent guidance. Jelly fish sucks it up and perseveres.

Six Level: Whoo-hoo! Venturing out in Submissionville. So exciting, so nerve-wracking, so LONG. Some find they get antsy at just how long they traverse the maze at this stage and begin to wonder if they’ll ever see the next level—it’s some kind of purgatory, level six— endless travels down dark alleys....

Seventh Level: You did it! You got a book deal! You won the game!

Only now you find you’re in another game.

So, you’re wondering, If it’s so hard to win, why play at all? Because it’s FUN. And isn’t that why we started writing? Because we liked it? We thought it was fun. And that’s why we keep writing. It doesn’t really matter what level we’re on, does it? As long as it’s still fun. And if it’s not, well, maybe it’s time to give it a rest, find something else that is fun, right?

This is the reality on the bumpy road to publication—if you’re in it for the money, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re in it for anything other than the love of the game, you’re going to be disappointed because many worthy contenders never make it to the seventh level. And that’s okay.

How about you? Are you still having fun?

Friday Free For All

1. First of all let me say, it feels really good to be back. I MISSED you guys! The hiatus was appreciated though. By July I felt like a dried up sponge—needed some playtime in the water, and resuscitation of my creative juices.

2. I came back in time to hear about the High Drama Blog Fest to take place tomorrow (Sat), hosted by DLHammon. If you’ve never been part of a blog fest you should give it a try. It’s a great opportunity to post a bit of your work for others to read and for you to read in return. Guaranteed place to make new writing friends. Are you in? I’m in. I’ll be posting an excerpt from my latest wip that I’ve just sent out to Agent Awesome. *chews nails *



3. Writing Prompts make me nervous. I like to write what inspires me, not what inspires other people. I like time to chat with my muse before setting fingers to keyboard. But it’s good for us to do things we don’t like sometimes, things that make us uncomfortable, things that stretch. Which is why—now that I’ve finished my revisions marathon— I’ve jumped in late (and you can too) to Laurie Halse Anderson’s Writing Challenge to write for 15 minutes a day. To a daily writing prompt. I’ll let you know how it goes. Are you taking the challenge?

4. Have a great weekend!

How to Write: IDEAS—What Are They And Where Do They Come From?

Every author dreads this question—where do you get your ideas?

Before we can attempt to answer that question we have to understand what an IDEA is. What is an idea? I mean, how is it that, one moment your mind is unaware of a certain thought, and in an instant—there it is—a new thought, a new idea! Where did it come from?

Dictionary.com gives nine definitions, and you can check them out here.

But for right now, how do we explain the BIG IDEA? And why do some people get them and others don’t?

Some people really know how to tap into their creative side, and like our bodily muscles, when that area of our brain is exercised it gets stronger.

Not all ideas are created equally.

For example, in this case, I needed an IDEA about how to approach writing a blog post about ideas. I took some time to think about it, and this is what I came up with. You may think, man your idea sucks, but it’s still a creative idea—your opinion on my idea is subjective. You may like it or not, but it doesn’t negate it as an actual idea.

I believe we’re all capable to of thinking up new ideas everyday, because it’s my personal belief that we are created by a creative Being, in his image, and that this is the reason we all have creative abilities, unlike, say, most other life forms. This means that all people are capable of creativity, even people who don’t think they are. It’s just disguised as accounting or gardening or fingernail painting, but it’s still creative.


Let’s take definition #1 from dictionary.com

1. any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness, or activity

This definition makes the most sense to many writers. Often we can recall the instant we got the Shiny New Idea—and the object or event that triggered it.

But a book cannot be written on a Great Idea alone. You need lots of mini ideas, strung together into a cohesive theme. This is called a plot, which will be the subject of another post.

The first Great Idea triggers all the other ideas needed for the creative whole. This is true for many art disciplines, not only writing—take dance, visual art, song writing and movie making for examples. It’s also true for areas not always considered art, like science and technology—many break-throughs in these areas were made because someone had a Great Idea.

Does this really answer the question, Where Do Ideas Come From?

I don’t know, you tell me. Where ideas come from and how they’re formed is still (as far as I know) a mystery.

Next Wednesday I’ll share about some of my own actual ideas and the situations that triggered them—just for fun.

Do you remember where you were and what was happening when you got your last Great Idea?

Tuesday Word Smart

I decided to add a blog post day dedicated to words--this is a writers blog, after all!

I'm using a book published by The Princeton Review called WORD SMART that has "1,505 words you need to know to: communicate effectively, be more persuasive, get more from your reading, score higher on the SAT and other standardized tests".

The first word:

ABASH (uh, BASH) v to make ashamed; to embarrass

Meredith felt abashed by her inability to remember her lines.

To do something without shame or embarrassment is to do it unabashedly.

Ken handed in a term paper that he had unabashedly copied from the local newspaper.

My question for you: Should I start at the beginning of the list, meaning you'll get a lot of words that start with A for a while, or pick randomly?

Say It Isn’t So… (Is Summer Really Half Over?)

I’ve been on hiatus for so long; I really ought to re-introduce myself. Hi there, I’m Elle Strauss and I’m a formally overwhelmed, currently revitalized citizen of planet earth and sometimes I write…pleased to meet you.

I wish I could say I got big news while I was away, but alas, I’m still in submissions purgatory, with another pass to add to the list. But I also still have two books on submission and I’m working on revisions on a third book I hope to have agent ready soon. Got to keep looking at the positive, right?

I've been lurking, of course, so I do know about Laurie Halse Anderson's' writing challenge to write for 15 minutes a day, everyday, in August.
I'm in--are you? I have revisions to get done so, I'll be doing more than 15 minutes a day this week.

And I'm sure everyone knows about the free on-line writers conference coming up, but if you don't check out the widget on my sidebar, WriOnCon.

One thing that happened while I was away was the removal of my blog back ground by Cutest Blogs. Anyone else have that happen? So, this is my new look for now. Not as busy, bumped up to 3 columns—just a basic Blogger Template. My plan is to do an overhaul once I have a book deal and need to think about branding, etc.

I also made a decision on my blog posting direction (didn’t know you needed a blog posting direction, eh? Well, you don’t, only if you want to). I will be blogging Monday, Wednesday, Friday with themes. Here they are:

Monday Musings: Whatever writerly issue or other issue I feel the need to chat about.

Wednesday How To Write (Like I Do. Sometimes.): First, the disclaimer—I know there are a lot of people more qualified to write a How To blog, than I am—but, I have written a few novels and published one, so I think I have something to say, even if it’s just for me to figure out what the heck I’m trying to do and why it is or isn’t working. Second, talking about craft is part of the mission statement of this blog (see title).

Friday Free For All: This could be lists, contest news, out-of-the blue news, interviews, announcements, etc.

I reserve the right to change this up, write on off days or not write at all.

Which I’ll do right now: The funnest (spell check tells me “funnest” isn’t a word and wants me to say “most fun”, but that sounds weird) thing I’ve done so far this summer is kayaking on our lake with my family.

What’s been your best summer time fun, so far?