Writing = Puzzles

I had the pleasure of going on a weekend writer's retreat with my fellow Toronto Romance Writer authors - JK Coi, Leah Braemel, Christing d'Abo and Kimber Chin. Much fun was had, words typed, brains stormed, wine drunk, chocolate consumed...

Over a week later and I'm still reflecting on how different we all worked, how we structure not only our writing time, but how our stories unfold.

While I write this, my son is sitting on the floor doing a puzzle. We usually do them together, me in the lead, so he follows my method: I begin with the four corners, then find all the edge pieces. Once those are in place, I like to sort the pieces by color so that I can quickly identify which part of the puzzle they belong. Then I start filling in the middle.
Left to his own devices, my five year old started from the bottom up.
The bottom up!!
Imagine that. It makes no sense to me, but he's plugging away and by the time I'm finished this post, I'm sure he'll be done.

Back to writing...
My method, what seems to work for me, anyway, is to get the four corners down, so within the rough outline (no, not synopsis... this is more of a mind dump) I identify the hero and heroine, their internal and external conflicts, how it affects them within the framework of the story.
Then I figure out how the hero and heroine meet, a few critical turning points and an ending (or at least a glimmer of an ending). Voila - my frame.
Then I begin - usually with 'Chapter One', but not always! I often write the critical scenes or turning points (the sorting of the colors) then go back and fill in or further flesh out the plot that lead to the critical scenes.

Other writers in the group write in a linear fashion -- from Chapter 1 to The End. Something like what my son is doing with his puzzle (he's finished, btw -- every little Spongebob piece in its perfect place). The beginning to end method makes the most sense, doesn't it? It's logical -- can't argue with that -- but this method doesn't work for me because if I come upon a part I don't know what to do with, I get paralyzed, unable to move past that point. (I know, I know, stubborn like mule.) I feel like I don't have an aim.
I'm strange like this. Y'know how some people go for a walk? "Hey - let's go for a walk, get some fresh air, some exercise."
This isn't me. I need a destination or it seems like a pointless task. Tell me to walk to the mailbox, to the store for a paper, to the closest Tim Hortons for a coffee, and hell ya! The fresh and exercise is a bonus. But just to go for a walk... uh un.
(I get it, btw, why people do, so don't misread this as me being judgemental --It's totally me being strange!!)

What works for you? Are you a corners and border first, a one end to the other, or a grap a piece and see where it fits?

BOO! or Boo...

BOO and Happy Halloween bloggers, writers and readers!

I'm finally writing the end chapter to my current wip. I knew roughly what would happen and how I needed to end the story of Clara and Luc (the book doesn't have a title yet) but it wasn't until my walk this morning that the details became clear.
My conclusion - active body=active brain cells!
Once I write The End, I'll go back to the beginning and smooth over the messy bits, add more flavor, tie up any dangly bits and begin the dreaded synopsis so I can begin the query process.

I was hoping to finish this book weeks ago but two weeks of sick kidlets threw a serious wrench in my creative process. My boys are needy (and that's putting it kindly) when they're feeling icky (*cough* much like their father *cough-cough*) but that's okay... it's part of the job description. BUT - and this is where I actually get to the point - the messed up time-line makes it impossible for me to do NaNo. And maybe that's a good thing. Maybe next year, when Sweetness (aka youngest son) starts school full-time and I'll have hours to spend at the computer rather than minutes -- and I'll feel less guilt. (thanks for that mom)

Are you NaNo-ing? How do you juggle it all? What sort of schedule will you adhere to (if at all) and what are you writing?

Wylie's Fail Tags

1. So THEY are now saying that a huge percentage of reported H1N1 cases (they stopped the blood tests awhile ago and go by symptoms only) are not actually H1N1. Me smells a pharma-rat. #swinefail

2. I'm in the home stretch of the novel-in-progress. But everytime I've said that in the past I've found some way to add 10 - 15 K to the total. Hmmm #trendspottingfail

3. Four Christmas pressies bought. I'm a month and a half ahead of schedule! #franticshopperfail

4. I've eaten half the treats I bought for Halloween and still have days to go. #dietfail

5. Recently returned from a FABULOUS writer's retreat where as much laughing was done as writing. I thought I had nothing to brainstorm with the group until I returned home and realized that my book has neither a title or ending. #brainstormfail

6. Yay me for kicking my severe coffee dependence. Boo me for replacing it with fingernail biting. #compulsivedisorderfail

7. I live for Wednesday's GLEE. #getalifefail

H1N1 is in the building!

My youngest son, aka Sweetness, has the H1N1 virus. It's the mild form, thank goodness, but he's been put on medication to ensure his lungs don't get a secondary infection because this virus is expecially hard on the respitory system.

I've been reading MUCH about this virus and the vaccination that's meant to be coming out in the next few weeks. If you're Canadian, and you can get your hands on the MacLeans magazine that came out this week, they tackle the topic with thorough, unbiased approach.

Then I came across this article from the Canadian Press that made me chuckle.
The full article is here: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091022/world/us_cda_flu_vaccine
But this is the part that slayed me. It concerns the short fall of vaccine supplies in the U.S.:

Canada's abundant supply of H1N1, meantime, was noted with envy on Wednesday during a Congressional hearing into the swine flu crisis on Capitol Hill. Sen. Joe Lieberman told a Senate committee that the American shortfall of swine-flu vaccine is a result, in part, of countries like Canada choosing to make their own populations a priority. Ottawa pressured Canadian manufacturers to take care of the needs of the Canadian population before they could make vaccine available to the U.S., Lieberman said.
"It's exactly what we would do with an American producer, and it just puts an exclamation point on the importance of developing domestic capacity for production of vaccine in these cases," he said. "I'm not blaming Canada, but I suppose in some sense you could say that the ... shortage of the vaccine today, beneath what we would want it to be, is attributable to foreign countries telling their local manufacturers, 'Hey, you've got to fill our needs before you fill anybody else's."'
But one American who badly wants the vaccine - 29-year-old Katie Hentges of Jefferson City, Mo. - says the blame lies with U.S. officials who failed to anticipate the scope of the H1N1 crisis.
"I'm not miffed at all at Canada," said Hentges, an asthmatic who fears the flu could hit her hard if she catches it. "It's not their fault that Americans are short-sighted and have the dumbest health-care system on the planet."

Goodness -- I'm not even sure what to say about this, except: Senator Lieberman... REALLY?? LOL

Personal Message to M. - nothing mysterious about the raccoon... it made camp on my front porch last spring and it's cute and I have no book covers to advertise. That's it!

Ralph Lauren FAIL

File this under Extreme WTFuckery...

Ralph Lauren photoshops a model to unhealthy proportions, gets called on it, then fires the girl for being too large!

Dear Ralph Lauren,



Not that I drop a large amount of money on your products anyway... but I'm now going to actively go out of my way to purge the house of anything with your moniker on it. And don't expect to ever see my credit card number on your books again.

Sincerely,

The Kinsons

Read here how she was photoshopped into anorexia: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/06/the-criticism-that-r.html



And here for how she was subsequently fired for being too large!!! She's 5'10" and 120 pounds. Good grief!! http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/fashion-beauty/articles/trends/cp/home_family%20model_in_altered_ralph_lauren_ad_says_she_was_fired_for_being_too_large_

SQUEE for GLEE!!

I'm unashamedly hooked on the television show GLEE.

The cast is brilliant and though I love Lea Michele's character Rachel, Cory Monteith as Fin and the adorable Matthew Morrison as the Glee Club director Will Schuester, it's Jane Lynch's cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester who completely steals the show. And she doesn't even sing!

You might not recognize her name, but her imdb credits are well over 100 long so you'd probably recognize her. For me, it was her role as Paula, the electronics store manager in The 40 Year Old Virgin that made her memorable...

A program like Glee -- about the nerds, losers, misfits who make up the school's show choir -- has to settle onto a wire thin tightrope of balance between drama, humor and song. They do it brilliantly, with just enough campiness to not take itself to seriously. And that's important!

But ignore everything I just said and watch Glee because it will make you feel... Gleeful :)

The Best Part of the Holidays? LEFTOVERS!

Up until last night we were still enjoying leftovers from out Thanksgiving dinner. In the spirit of giving (and thanking!) I thought I'd share our favorite dish that works for both Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts.

Sweet Potato Casserole

5-6 cups sweet potato, cubed
1/2 cup white sugar (I sometime use less sugar and it tastes just as fine)
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup evaporated milk (you can subsitute regular 2% milk)
1 tsp vanilla

topping:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 c cup chopped pecans

directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 C). Boil sweet potatoes in a medium pot until tender, drain and mash.
In a large bowl, mix together sugar, eggs, salt, butter, milk and vanilla - add sweet potato mash and mix until smooth. Transfer into a 9x13 baking dish (or large casserole works well too)
In a medium bowl, mix the sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse (like crumble topping). Stir in the pecans. Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potatoes.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the topping is nice and brown.

Total prep time: approx 30 minutes
Total cooking time: approx 30 minutes.
Makes enough for 12-14 servings

And most importantly, it tastes even better the second and third day.
Enjoy!