Moira Keith

There are people on both sides of the fence and a few that straddle it. (Don’t say it.) The hard core third person pov camp and the first person pov camp can clash heads on this issue time and time again. I’m a fence straddler. To me, pov is solely dependent on the story. However, that being said, I think every writer’s voice is stronger in one over the other. For example….I have a stronger first person voice (or so I’ve been told) and at times I fully agree with that. 

I have read works by other published authors who, while the story themselves are great, the pov takes away from it because they have a stronger third person voice. There is no doubt in my mind that authors exist with talent for both, but it all comes down to knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Of course, you have to open to constructive criticism if you can’t pinpoint them yourselves. I for one, am a poor judge of my own, so I rely on my crit partners and beta readers. 

Knowing where my voice is strongest only leaves me with one other issue to tackle where pov is concerned, and that is how to truly express the other’s emotions while not in their heads. Hopefully I will figure it out before it is all said and done. What are your thoughts on pov. Which camp are you in?

In no way am I talking about pulling someone’s drawers down, but if that is what tickles your fancy, by all means have at it. I’ll wait. Okay, all funny business aside, this is about how one tackles their stories. Are you a ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ kind of writer, or do you meticulously plot every detail of your story before you even begin to write that first scene? Do you fall somewhere in the middle? 

On many occasions, I’ve settled myself before my computer, and start penning my story. Completely a fly by the seat of my pants affair. Recently, I’ve come to realize how this is both beneficial and harmful. Let’s start with the beneficial point first. I get scenes out of my head that otherwise might be lost. The harmful? Well let’s just say this list seems to grow as I examine my writing process.

 I’ve quickly come to realize, my writing benefits from knowing all of my characters inside and out before I truly can move forward. I’ve begun to create dossiers on each character (including the minor players). Even though they may not all have huge parts in the story, knowing them so well can contribute to every action or inaction they may have in the story. I figure plotting, even in its simplest form can do nothing but strengthen my story. And even if the muse decides to drop an entire scene in exacting detail into my head, I feel confident enough to type it up in a note program and come back to it later.

 How do you tackle your stories? Do you find plotting helpful to the process or harmful?  At times, I’ve felt it can reign in the creative process and lock it in a steel chest, but now I am learning it can enhance the process more than stifle it. 

Well, not quite, but getting closer by the minute. I have some edits to do on my synopsis and then it will be time to hit the query letter. There will be no fear, I will simply grab the query letter by the horns and bend it to my will, take no prisoners, and all that jazz. Cowboy Up is nearing the finish line. Hopefully the editors will find this little tale just as fab as my cp’s and friends have. I can honestly say regardless of what happens… if the big R should happen to find it’s way into my hot little hand, I would have come full circle and learned more than I could have ever anticipated.

See? Positive attitude. That is my strategy at the moment. Let’s just see how far that carries me. (Pretty far is my guess.) 

On another note, I am moving along with Chosen and locating plot holes, reworking scenes, and overall finding a peace with the fine art of plotting. Not my strong suit, as I typically just hash out my ideas as I go, but as I have said many times before… that may be the problem. Escaping Darkness is also garnering some benefit from this new outlook. I have a writing program that I am using, more for organization of the story than anything else, and for what its worth… the Dossiers alone have me enamored. 

Well, off to do a bit of writing and such before dinner. Stay tuned…hopefully this renewed passion will give me plenty of fodder for the blog.

I hang my head in shame. Productivity has taken on a different path than I would have liked it to. Though I have managed to get some edits done on my WIP, other things have snuck under the radar and grabbed my attention.

What? I’m not going for Sainthood here… just trying to be honest, and write a book in the process. So what could possibly derail me from the tracks? Oh I don’t know-blogs, websites, graphics, fonts, name searches, family…. ok now I’m just making excuses. (But it is pretty damn funny to watch a four year old play wiiFit, because after all shouldn’t they do the tree pose as well?)

In my defense, I have been working, just not maintaining my focus where it should be. There have been some disturbing discoveries in my work as of late. Such as having a certain attraction to particular names… even when pointed out by the BFF, and the previous post-mentioned plot holes. But, as I sit in fixing mode I look forward to the progress and hope it propels me into new writing mode. (Yes, I make up names for the modes I’m in. Stop laughing at me.)

Well, I am being paged on IM… I mean… um… I gotta go! Hope you have a sinful week!

It would seem that my story had holes and my mind just skipped right over them and filled in the blanks. Funny how that works. As an author, we become so steeped in the story, that it becomes second nature to us.

It’s all good. The story will be better for the holes being plugged before the entire ship sinks. I need to keep it afloat or all my hard work (not to mention that of my friends and CP’s) would have been for nothing.

Watch and Dev & Kiara, I’m gunning for ya and if you try to elude me again, it will not be pretty. Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Catch ya later!

So the inevitbale happened. I know that Dev needs conflict. It is a necessity. Yet I thought giving him conflict would mean I needed his point of view. Now I am qiuestioning that. My heroine is a strong first person character and when I attempted to alter the story to third, it lost a lot of the punch it had.

Not willing to sacrafice the strength of one character for another, I am now moving forward, confident that I can portray Dev’s conflict through his actions and words, not by his point of view. I can do this, and truth be told, the story will benefit. I believe it down to my toes.

So it is a short update because I am in a groove. That, paired with the fact today is Labor Day and the family is throwing a huge shin dig, means that I have limited time at my disposal for creativity. Catch you later with an update to my trials and tribulations.