Characters - Gaining Control

February 25, 2009

Again, another week gone by. It was a fun busy week of friends, clubs and best of all writing.

Managed to move The Woman Between forward every day. I'm so close to the end, but the characters are still giving me trouble. It's almost like having kids with minds of their own. And, the problem is that sometimes when they fight me on how I think they should act, they turn out to be right. I'll miss them when I write The End.

Also, I finished all the editing and printing on Deborah's Story. I gave the book to Bobbi, a gal who had just finished After the War, Before the Peace. She really hates Deborah, so I wanted her to read this and see if it's a believable turn in Deborah's character. Bobbi says she just reads for content and won't see any typos, but I feel she'll still do me a favor if she gives me her take on the plot and character evolution. Then, she said she'd give it to another friend, Wanda. Wanda is good at catching typos. Once I get it back, I'll send it to that publisher recommended by Anne.

The TelecomPioneer garage sale went well. We were busy, had a good turn out and made over $700 dollars. The folks were great with donating goods to sell and with all the work involved in set-up, sell and clean up. I had a writer's meeting on Saturday, so we closed shop at 11:10 a.m. and by 11:40 the group had boxed up our left overs and loaded them into a truck for a guy who came to haul off our stuff for a garage sale of his own. I'm just glad it's over for another year!

Saturday was the Lake Havasu City Writer's Group meeting. BIG attendance. Almost too many folks. We got bogged down in procedure again, but overall it went well. I got good feedback on my Freedom submission. This time we were to submit our 250 word assignment for the prompt 'A Stranger in a Foreign Land'. I revamped my old story The Move about a woman with macular degeneration being put in an assisted living home by her son. Looking forward to their comments.

Sunday, Karen and I went to see Taken with Liam Neeson. Too much shoot 'em up and not enough plot. I know with those types of movies, you often have to let things pass that seem obviously over done, but this was so extreme in some scenes that I found it hard to swallow. I really like Neeson, but this wasn't one of his best. Can't compare to his role in Michael Collins.

Monday, I had lunch with Donna. We like that we've set up the last Monday of the month as our lunch date. Otherwise, we let too much time go by.

Tuesday, the TelecomPioneers met to choose what Lake Havasu City high schoolers would be receiving our scholarships. We picked a girl and a boy. Nice kids. Seem like they have their heads on straight. We got into a discussion on writing recommendations because so many of the teachers used plastic phrases over and over again, like 'excellent student', 'star of my class', 'outstanding', 'extraordinary' and such. The recommendations became useless because of the pat phrases that really said nothing. Specifics would have helped. So, looks to me like the rules of fiction would have helped these teachers help their students more effectively with things like - John is a pleasure to have in my class (hook). He is first to raise his hand to start discussions and always listens to an opposing opinion with respect before debating the issue (conflict/action). As a result, his peers value his opinions and look to him for leadership (conclusion).

This morning was a TelecomPioneer Hug-A-Bear assembling session. Made some cute St. Patrick ones. I could just see some little kid afraid and crying in an emergency room and he's handed one of the little bears to hug. I just know it will help him through his trauma.

Lunch today with fellow writer, Gina, down by the London Bridge Village. Good food and good company. We talked about writing, of course. She was an English teacher and gives such good feedback at our meetings.

Guess I'm caught up now. Oh, got a rejection from Bewildering Stories ezine on my Careful What You Feed submission. The editor said it was strong writing, but the plot had holes that made it unbelievable. Really nice crit instead of a form letter rejection. They did say they'd like to see more of my writing, so I take that as a good sign.

So my quote for today, is from Leon Uris. It capsulizes why he is probably one of my favorite writers. "Writing, basically breaks down to relationships between people and that is what you write about."