A Writing Wednesday

Just FYI, I can not write with the TV on. Why that is, I don’t know. I can write when the kids are talking to me. I can write in the middle of the night when I’m half asleep. I can write inside my head when I’m in a shopping mall full of talking people. I can even make up stories when I’m supposed to be paying attention in church...um, I didn’t mean to admit that. lol But, for some crazy reason, when my husband comes home and turns on that TV, I just can’t write!

Speaking of writing in the middle of the night, I’ve been doing quite a bit of that, here lately. About a week ago, a character waltzed in to my head, right out of the blue. Immediately, I liked him, even though I didn’t know much about him. I still don’t know a whole lot, but he lets me know when he’s ready to tell me. A couple of days after I met my character, the heroine of the story started talking to me in my head. I was like, “What is your name, anyway?”

Deed, y’all she wouldn’t tell me. So, I wrote 1,039 words, the first night, and I kept saying “She” cause I didn’t know her name. I’m like, “Lady, I can’t write a book about you, if you don’t tell me your name.” lol

So, I went a-googling, cause my male character’s family is not originally from this country, and I needed a good last name for him. While looking up names in his native language, I found what appeared to be a normal, old-fashioned, American girl’s name. But, apparently, in Spanish, it means “beauty”. Aha! That’s her name! :)

As for research, well, I’ve stopped, for now. I need to do a lot, but I can’t. The biggest reason for stopping the research is that I want to write the story. My characters live in a place called “somewhere”, and they go visit places like “that town”. The bad guy’s gun is a “gun” and the illegal organization is called “something or other”. Ha!

I’ve been following the blogs and writing advice on
www.mybooktherapy.com
and their suggestion is to do a fast write. I’m not editing, even though one character has changed gender on me. I’m not correcting bad sentences, because it all makes sense to me, right now, anyway. lol I’m just writing. It looks bad, but oh well. It’s in pieces, scenes separated by about 4 blank lines, but that’s ok. And, more importantly, I’m not talking about it. No excerpts on here, no teensy excerpts on FaceBook, no chats with my best friends Anita and Peggy about it. Nope, I’m not talking. What you’ve heard is all you get. This way, maybe it will get finished. I sure hope so.

Another thing I want to say about writing, is it’s a sacrifice. Very few people take me seriously, mostly because I never finish anything. I’m real good at the big ideas, but not so good at following through. But,with writing, the biggest problem is confidence, not laziness. I love to make up stories. Love to read them, love to write them, and someday, I’ll be taken seriously. But, I digress.

Anyway, as I was saying, writing, for now is a hobby. I have to home school my girls during the day, do laundry, dishes, yatta, yatta, yatta, so my writing has to come somewhere after that. This blog, too, has to come in between it all. In today’s world, if you want to be seen, you got to have a presence on the internet, and i like communicating with y’all, my faithful readers, via blogging. After all, why would you consider buying one of my books, if you haven’t read anything I write? This way, if you like my blog, you might be more interested in buying my books.

People ask me, “How do you find time to write, plus do everything else?”

Well, y’all, do you remember the writing in my sleep? That’s it. I get up early or stay up late, put off doing housework, stuff like that in order to write. Does it have an impact on the rest of my life? Sure it does. Sleeping off a 3 hours wakefulness in the middle of the night, usually means we don’t get started in school until 10 or 11 in the morning. But, these characters who are talking, living and breathing in my head, have to come out! Even if no one reads them, the stories have to be told.

Take this current WIP, for instance. I haven’t told you anything about it. And, truth is, I’m not writing this one for anyone, except me. I want to write this one for me. I want to know if I have what it takes to write this kind of story, and I’ll never know, if I don’t try. I wrote the sequel to “Wild Heart” for a few interested folks, but this one’s for me. I need your prayers that I finish it for me, cause if I finish it, then and only then can it be a blessing to you.

Y’all take care and come back Friday. Think I’ll write about home school and some of the funny things that happen when you get kids involved. :)