found a day job

So I finally found a job... with benfits! Benfits are always a very very good thing! I also going to give writing my christian fanasy novel another go.

God Bless You, and Your Dreams!

What do birds have to do with writing?

What do birds have to do with writing?

I intend to have an answer to that question as I read "Bird by Bird; Some Instructions on Writing and Life" by Anne Lamott.

Re-plotting

I re-read my first draft. Calling it a long outline is more correct then a first draft. To put it mildly it needs a lot of work!
For starter it more then a one book outline, more like a two books outline. I kind of hope a three books outline. How cool that sound! But three books outline is pushing it. So I'm taking what happened in the first 80 or so pages and re-plotting the first story.

So off to the drawing board to re-create my characters, plot, and background.

Later,

From Amelia Earhart

"Fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life, and the procedure, the process is its own reward." - Amelia Earhart

I need this quote posted where I can read it everytime I fear writing my stories or working on my rewrites!

voted off (your secondary characters)

Last night (Wednesday's night) to the shock of many Alexis Graces was voted off season 8 of American Idol. Ryan say at the beginning of every show "Anything can happen" and last night it did.

Now how to transport this into a lesson on how to write... Well I don't know about other writers, but I always have to many secondary characters in my story. People tell me all the time that my stories are confusing because the reader can't tell who talking or doing what.
So I have to "vote off" my secondary characters. I have to look at their performance to decide who stay and who goes.
Are they written well?
Are the a "whole person" or a "stick drawing person"? What i mean are they well developed or are they flat on the page like a stick drawing a child does.
And most important Do they move the story a long?

Dear Reader,
Do you think the judges and the people who called in made the wrong decision by letting Alexis go? Also what do you think of secondary characters you come across in books, TV shows and movies. And writers what do you do about your secondary characters?

Characters' desires

Dear Reader,
For you to enjoy a book or any other type of story, do you have to know what the main character wants or desires?

What is the character's desires in your favorite books and what are the titles of those books?

And other writers, how do you chose to express your characters' desires?

Characters' habits

The best way to change a bad habit is to change it to a good habit. We are creatures of habits might as well have many good habits vs. having many bad habits.

I think when I notice a character in a book having a habit, good or bad, it make them more human and real.

I often write my heroes running their hand through their hairs when nervous.

Dear Readers,
what habits do you notice in books or real life? If you are a writer what often show up in your books?