Archive for the 'writing workshops' Category

July 7, 2008 | Book One, Book Stuff, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Miss Snitch Mondays, writing workshops

I had started Miss Snitch Mondays in order to introduce the public to the Draven Atreides series. I began posting the unedited version of Book One in May in honor of its release in April 2009. However, after recently attending a writing class, I realize I still have a lot to learn about writing and being a good writer. I’ll be enrolling in a writing program in September that will take 1-1/2-2yrs to complete. I want the series to be a success and I believe that taking this program will help me to achieve that goal. In light of this recent decision, I’ve pushed back the release date of Book One to April 2010. I still plan to post excerpts (which will end around this time next year) and you will still be able to sign up on the Pre-Order Notification List.

If you’d like to catch up, the Prologue started on May 4th and Chapter One started on June 2nd. This month, you’ll be reading Chapter Two. Enjoy.

CHAPTER TWO

Close to eight o’clock, I drive home after dropping Poe off. I tap my fingers on the wheel to the beat of a Smokey and the Miracles song. Gotta love the oldies. I grew up on Motown and rarely listen to the R&B and alternative stations Ricky and Poe seem to love; but I keep them programmed on my radio for them anyway. Pulling into the parking garage twenty minutes later, I head up to my fourth floor apartment. Closing the door, I hang the keys on a hook near the doorframe and inhale deeply. The faint scent of ocean and lavender wafts under my nose.

“Home sweet home,” I murmur with a contented sigh.

The Victorian Square apartments on Portland Street had been the last place on my list. There was nothing Victorian about the place, but I had taken an instant liking to the airy spaciousness and hardwood floors. I’d never known how claustrophobic I’d been until I’d seen this apartment. It only has four doors, five if you count the front door. The door-less bedroom leads straight past a door-less closet and right into the living room-slash-family room.

The main color scheme is purple, my favorite color, and the different shades are common throughout. From the Volkswagen Beetle in the parking garage, the dishes in the kitchen, the jewel-toned satin comforter and fishnet canopy in my bedroom, right down to my most prized possession: a dark purple, crushed velour padded chaise lounge with a matching foot stool and tassled pillow. Poe loves it just as much as I do and says that it makes her feel like a queen when she lays on it. It’s my favorite spot to chill out, too.

The complex seems to have its own little community as well. The ground floor houses a yoga studio, a small gym, a reasonably priced restaurant and a deli. It’s also spitting distance from the public library and a movie theater. The clincher, of course, is the best coffee house slash deli in the city: CoolBeans Café, which is on my way to school. I’m a frequent visitor and the girls that work there know me by name. Sweeping aside the beaded curtain leading to my bedroom, I kick off my sneakers, toss my backpack on a corner chair and throw my purchases on the bed. I’m glad I had been able to talk Poe out of “vogueing up”. I normally don’t mind dressing up, but it’s not like we’re going to the Academy Awards. It’s the Grand Re-Opening of a spa, for heaven’s sake. I know from experience if famous people show up, they’re going to look like they just rolled out of bed.
Moving into the kitchen, I take down my teapot, fill it with water, set it on the stove, and turn the knob. Moments later, the teapot whistles. I pull down a large heavy mug, pour the water, and repeatedly dunk a bag of Chamomile tea. Cradling the mug in both hands, I shuffle to my desk, boot up my laptop, pull up my journal and begin to type.

11 November
Reflection
It’s been a while since I’ve written in a diary. June 14th 5:31pm 2003, to be exact. My life of late has definitely been diary-worthy, but I no longer trust writing my thoughts down in a book. Books get lost. Or left behind when you have to leave in a hurry. Not that I really left in a hurry, mind you. There was a little planning, but enuff for me to know the meaning of the word “sacrifice.” I left a lot of things behind two years ago. A purple, fur-lined suede coat. Central Park. The FCFH and their dirty little secret. Chevalier’s the name and human trafficking was there game. Need some factory workers? Call up Derek Chevalier; he’ll get you people that’ll work their fingers to the bone for a meal and a chance to bring another family member to the States. Oh yes, and my name. I left behind my name for the second–and very last–time.

Today. This day. The 11th of November, is the anniversary of my new life. The day I left the nightmare of Olivia Chevalier’s life in New York City and took a seat in the offices of The Agency in Arizona. As Miss Snitch. A new life that’s nothing like the Witness Protection Program, because, well, it’s not. A new life that includes a very important job with a certain company that will deny my existence til their blue in the face. No matter how bad those bamboo shoots under the nails hurt.

I haven’t told Party Girl or GQ about my New Life Anniversary. I hadn’t really planned on it and probably never will. Well, I shouldn’t say never. I’ve only known them a year and circumstances could change. I mean, it’s not like it’s my birthday or anything. I just kinda have to be careful what I say around them because, well, there’s this one little thing–okay two–two little things that they–maybe three–yeah, three little things…sigh. Okay, let’s just say I have some privacy issues that I’m not at liberty to discuss. And Chief probably wouldn’t care because I’m just a client to him. Hang on. I have an incoming call. It’s Chief.

I stop typing to answer my cell phone.

“I was beginning to worry,” says the voice in a low baritone.

“Not enough to send out the cavalry, I hope,” I reply with a grin.

“No. I would have waited at least another half hour. You are late. Is everything all right?”

“Yeah. Got caught up in the whole Internet thing,” I explain.

“You are usually very punctual.”

“I know. I got home later than usual,” I say.

“Oh? How was school?”

I shrug. “Oh, y’know, same old, same old. But it’s a good same old, same old. I really like this school.”

“You are not bored?”

“Not yet. I imagine I will be soon enough. Some of these classes are still new to me,” I say, taking a sip of my cooling tea.

“Did you hang out with Poe after school today?”

“Yeah. We went shopping, had dinner.”

A deep chuckle filters through the wires, making me smile.

“I know how much you love to shop,” comes the teasing reply. “What is the special occasion?”

“Spa day. At The Royale Treatment Day Spa. Poe was able to get an invite,” I say.

“That’s significant,” he says after a moments pause.

“Yes. Yes it is.”

“Hmm. Well, I hope you have fun.”

“I think I will. This time. It’ll be different.”

“I agree. So, do you know you have been with me for a year as of today?”

I smile and grip the phone tighter. “Really? I didn’t think you cared.”

~ Get to know Draven beyond the book by checking out her blog.

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July 1, 2008 | Book One, Book Stuff, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Miss Snitch Mondays, Movie Queue, The 4-1-1 on Me, Weekend Wrap-Up, writing workshops

Saturday, I attended a writing class taught by former university professor and indie pub owner, Pamela Goodfellow of Goodfellow Publishing. She teaches a 3-Level, 8-week program, Crafting the Character-based Novel out of her home. She likes her classrooms smaller nowadays. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to taking the program and her being my editor. Saturday’s session had to do with scenes. I learned so much that I’ve decided to share the highlights with all you writers out there:

1) Get rid of dialogue attributions. These are the words you tag when your characters are talking: she said, she beamed, she laughed, she cried out, she teased, etc. I had no idea those even had a name until I took her class. Unfortunately, I do that a lot. As I’m sure all you other writers out there do, too. Pam says “If you are writing in character, you do not need to use dialogue attributions because the reader already knows who is talking or thinking. To show the reader this you may use action, reaction or emotional responses. You can also set up gestures and tagged responses for the reader to get to know the style of dialogue for each character. It is not easy to do. The simple thing to do is to use and attribution. But, if you want to write in character you must force yourself to learn by never using them.”

2) The 3 stages of human emotional response are visceral (physical), behavioral (instintive and learned response) and chosen (where the story is)

3) Every scene has to have a hook.

4) Use place holders in your scenes. It’s basically explaining something that the reader should already know. Pam says “You use a place holder because you know the reader will understand it; usually a cliché’s or an explanation of something that had happened earlier in the character’s history. If you recognize this in your own work, when you go back to revise and edit, you can take that place holder out and write a scene to set up what you were trying to explain in the original scene. Then when the reader gets to the original scene he/she will already have the information needed and will feel so very smart to understand the emotions of the character he/she has become attached to. It is really a secret to “showing” and not “telling”.”

4) A character cannot have the same emotional curve at the beginning than they do at the end. Emotional Curve is the name given to describe the emotional development of a character throughout the story. For instance, a character who starts out cynical and untrusting of men at the beginning of a story can’t remain like that by the end. It doesn’t have to be a happy ending, but you have to show the character as growing and changing emotionally. Pam says, “It is the emotional changes that make the story real and relevant to the reader.”

One thing she did tell me was that I’d have to change it from present tense to past tense. That’s going to be a lot of work. Good thing I’m up for the challenge. Clearly, I myself need to grow as an author still–and as we all know, learning to be a better writer is a never-ending process–and I look forward to working with her.

Saturday night, the hubby and I went to see Wanted. Very. Cool. Movie. We loved it. It even had some supernatural undertones to it, which made it even more interesting. I mean, besides the fact that they were a secret society of assassins, they have this…unusual ability. The hero (James McAvoy) thought he was having anxiety attacks, only to find out it was nothing close. The one thing I’ve discovered lately is that–SPOILER AHEAD–I don’t like it when Morgan Freeman plays the bad guy. I haven’t seen his full repetoire of movies, but this is the third movie (Chain Reaction, Lucky Number Slevin being the first two) in which he’s been the bad guy and I don’t like it. I realize actors and actresses need to mix it up a bit, but he doesn’t appear evil to me. I can’t picture him torturing someone or being the mastermind behind a plot to do harm. Some people have it and some people don’t. He’s one of the people that doesn’t.

On Sunday… (more…)

Technorati Tags: Pamela Goodfellow, Goodfellow Publishing., Crafting the Character-based Novel, Wanted., James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Chain Reaction, Lucky Number Slevin

May 8, 2007 | Book Stuff, Calendar of Events, How coolio is THAT?, Writing Movements, writing workshops

I forgot to post on here–and MySpace–about my booksigning event I had on Saturday. Sorry. My bad. It was hosted by the Arts Council for Youth and it was fun. Except for when my tent almost blew over. That was not so fun (damned sandbags). Anyhow, we had an excellent spot near the Main Dance Stage. Besides the books, there was music, art, food, a raffle, and plenty of dancing. You can see photos from the Arts Jam Festival HERE.
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I started another AuthorMBA online workshop this week: Feng Shui for Writers: Move Your Stuff, Make a Sale. Sounds cool, doesn’t it? I couldn’t pass up the price. Why are you taking this, you may ask? Besides the fact that it’s geared towards writers and us writers need all the creativity flow we can get? I’ll give you one good reason: have you seen my office? I don’t write in here, I type in here. It’s obvious I’m in dire need of help and Bella Andre is going to show me what I need to do. I’ll be sure to share the results–the suggestions, that is. Not so much the actual physical results. That could take a minute. Or two–with all of you when the class is over.
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A guy contacted me through my Flickr acct yesterday. He’s doing a special project on his website about movie studio theme parks and there’s going to be a section about the Foxploration Tour in Rosarito, Mexico. He saw my ‘great’ pictures (the hubby and I took this tour on our honeymoon last year) and asked permission to use them and name me. How coolio is that? “Sure thing, dude,” I said. Well, I didn’t say the dude part, but close to it. You can check out the photos HERE.
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The writing deadline (scroll down to read) I mentioned not too long ago is now under way. Even though I had a bit of a head start when I made the first deadline (33 pages already completed), I’m finding that I’m writing more than my daily quota of 1 page a day. During the week, that is. I have an hour for lunch at my new job and I consider that to be Prime Writing Time for me. On good days, I can crank out 2-3 handwritten pages. On the weekends? One page. It’s been going quite well, although Draven isn’t happy. With the way she’s been acting up, you’d think I’d ruined her whole life or something. Such is the life of a writer. Lucky me. I’ll post a Writing Movement update later this week.

April 29, 2007 | Book Stuff, writing workshops

Since around Jan of this year, I’ve been taking workshops through AuthorMBA. This month is no different. Sort of. I took a two-week workshop called Snap Planning: 6 Steps to a High Impact Career Plan. Here’s the blurb:

Beginning writers and bestselling authors alike can benefit from having a simple, inspiring career plan to guide them. Whether you’re working toward that first sale or aiming for the NY Times bestseller list, knowing where you want to go and how you plan to get there can make all the difference in achieving your goal. The Snap Plan is a short and sweet, high impact career plan… a snapshot of your purpose, vision, brand, goals, and much more. It’s everything you need to help you stay focused and motivated, all on one sheet of paper. What more could a busy writer ask for?You’ll leave this hands-on workshop with a complete, personalized career plan to help you stay on track and pursue your goals with confidence. If you’d like to take your writing career to the next level—whatever level that may be—let the Snap Plan be your guide!

With all the worskshops I’ve taken through this website (their blog has a perm link in my blogroll), I’ve come away with something new. Every. Single. Time. All of the worskshops are very hands on. They post 3 times a week and we have homework on each of those three days. I learned a lot about myself as a writer in the previous workshops and this time was no different.

In fact, it was a little bit of a struggle. More so than all the others.

Lecture #7 had to do with Production Goals, Milestones, Intentions: goals to work towards and set target dates to finish by.

My Production Goal: To finish a first draft of Book Two in my YA series by 11/01.

My Milestones:

Milestone #1: complete first 66 pages by 5/31

Milestone #2: complete second 66 pages by 8/31

Milestone #3: complete third 66 pages by 10/31

I’ve written about this before, so you know that I don’t do deadlines very well. It reminds me of being in school and the pressure to finish a homework assignment by a certain time. Also, I’m a worrier, and when the little things happen in my personal life, I’m thrown off my creative game.

Like the fact that I need to look for a steady 40 hr work week type of job and then get a new car once I do. Yeah, hearing that my transmission is failing, two of my 4 cylinders are misfiring, all the mounts are out and to fix it all is going to cost me $3000-$3500 was something I so didn’t need to hear right now.

But I digress.

The month of May is going to be a fresh start for me. It’s going to be about commitment, achievement and determination. I made the commitment to finish the first draft by 11/01 and I am determined to prove that I can achieve that goal. Or come as close as possible. If I can do this, then I know that WHEN I get that book deal, I’ll be able to accomplish what I say, when I say.

Be forewarned: from May to November, you’ll be seeing more Writing Movement posts. If not everyday, then at least on a weekly basis.

I can do this.

I will write one page everyday. Even if it’s crap (which it probably will be).

I will reach my first Milestone deadline.

I will take a moment to reward myself for reaching my first Milestone.

Words of encouragement and plenty of good writing vibes sent my way will be much appreciated.