Moira Keith

I am seriously addicted to my computer. Well in all honesty, I am addicted to the internet and MY computer. Why did I stress ‘my’? Well because I have access to computers, they just aren’t my own. There is just something about the ease of access to things on your own system. Granted, I do so greatly appreciate my folks allowing me to utilize their computer, but my writing is saved on my laptop. At least the most recent version is anyways. So what am I going to do? Forge ahead as best I can because go figure… my computer decides to go on the blink right about the time I manage to figure out (or so I think) where my story block occurred and how to fix it.

Thanks to a good friend, I will now not only back up to my external hard drive…but to other programs such as google docs and…hmmm I forget the other one. He backs his writing up to both… religiously..like every five minutes as he confessed to me the other day. Apparently not a bad thing to do.

On another front… Kiara and Devlin are finally beginning to make sense to me. Their story still needs a ton of work and at 200 pages that very thought is a bit daunting. Though I try to make the story less about the romance between them, it seems unavoidable. The romance is a key element in the story. I can’t escape it…no matter how much I would like to. That does not mean that there will be an unending amount of mushy gushy sentiments….let’s get real here people.

However, the direction the tale is taking is good and I am confident that the ending will work out the way I see it in my mind. Now if I could just nail down all the little details that make up the mythology in my book and life would be blissfully sweet. Sigh. That being said, it is time for me to get off the computer. Past time in fact. The story will not write itself nor

will the characters do as I will them to. Well off to writerdom!

Sláinte!

Yep. I was having serious issues with her and getting yelled at from all sides because I was really trying to keep her on ignore. However, I am a bit lost in my WIP. I need to reacquaint myself with the story. Which means I have to go back and read through it. This usually is where I get into trouble.

I figured…no biggie. Just pop that puppy on the eReader and get to it. No keyboard=no editing right? Wrong. First thing my little editor starts doing is  screaming at me to fix a blaring hole in my scene where I had accidentally hit delete. I listened. Then thought… WTF am I doing?!

This is only going to lead to more frustration and procrastination on my end. Must be strong. Resist the temptation. I feel like a drug addict suffering withdrawals. It is hard not to run to the keyboard each and every time I see a little blip or the internal editor starts screaming at me.

This is a battle royale to see if I can manage to overcome my wench of an internal editor. Maybe I can lock her up. I doubt it though. I am going to try to reign in this compulsion, but if you should find me curled up in the fetal position, cradling my laptop and muttering “My precious”… you know what happened.

Sláinte!

There are so many things going on in my life right now and I have let myself get distracted from the one thing that truly relaxes me. Part of that is due to my continual head butting with the characters of my paranormal story. I managed to rope a nice 15k into the story, but have once again reached a stalemate with my hero and heroine. It was suggested to me, that there may be a slight issue of fighting my voice. That perhaps if I wrote what came to me rather than what I desired to write, I wouldn’t continue to have this problem.

Time and time again, I have divulged my desire to write paranormal. My story ideas seem to be limitless, but my biggest project to date has given me grief for more than a year now. Contemporary romance was not the genre I had envisioned writing, yet it is what I wrote and sold. Now with my frustration mounting and my desire to just write continue to plague me, I find myself looking back at a Buckling Down spin off story I had planned.  Justin Trent will get his story and it may be just the outlet I need at this point. I am tired of trying to wrestle my characters into submission. Hopefully, this will renew my muse.

And to my loyal support group who has helped push me along this far and is anxiously awaiting and routing for the paranormal, I do apologize. However, in order to do my hero and heroine justice, I need to step away from it for a bit.

Sláinte!

The gauntlet was thrown. Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen, it was. You all know I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for my fellow author Teresa D’Amario. HUGE. Well I had mentioned that I needed to find my motivation. Being the wonderful person she is, she found it for me. She challenged me to a duel. A fight to the death. The woman with the most words wins (and not this blog post does not count). She threw off the gloves and let me tell you, it was not a pretty battle. There was hair pulling, bitch slapping….

This was me about two hours in—–>

Okay so it wasn’t all THAT, but it was fairly intense. The challenge she gave me was that we would both write. Whoever had the most words written at the end of the night prevails. Becomes Queen of all that is Writing (sparkling crown not included) and will rule for all of five minutes. Well actually, the winner would get fifty pages of their work critiqued by the other. Pretty sweet deal right? Inspiring and motivational? Most definitely.

How did I make out? I have to start by telling you it was a nail biting experience. I had lots of distractions. My loverly sister was visiting and staying the night, there were midnight margaritas, Practical Magic, and did I happen to mention a video of a grown man replicating the baby dancing to Beyonce’s All the Single Ladies (which had me in tears)?

Who won, right? That’s all you want to really know, isn’t it? Don’t know yet. My word count started at 62,096 and it finished at…. well I will update you on that later. I am an author still hard at work, just taking a mental pause and writing this. Check back and update the number before I turn in for the night.

Update – Ending word count for the night 64,101. Not too shabby.

Yes, this is what I am asking of you. There is a fabulous contest put on by Stella Cameron every year called the Scarlett Boa. This year, the contest is for the best paranormal opening scene. My darling mother told me about this contest and after lots of discussion with some of my very PUSHY friends, I entered. So what I need from you is simple- go read the entries and vote for your favorite (Scene 15). No worries if you don’t vote for me. I think it is every writer for him or her self. (Although, you know what? If you don’t vote for me, the next time you see me, I may be huddled in the corner under the counter, rocking back and forth muttering nonsense about how I was one vote away or some such shit. So if you can live with that guilt, then go ahead and pass right over Scene 15.)

Really, I want you to read the entries and vote for your favorites. There are some REALLY good ones. I am up against some tough competition, including some of my fellow Samhain authors. First round voting closes on the 15th so hurry! Go forth and vote! It is easy to do. Simply click on the photo below to be taken to the page with all the fabulous entries. Read them. Take notes. Then when you are ready to place your vote, scroll down to where it says Important Dates. Click on first round voting (should be highlighted white) and fill out the entry form. Easy as pie! Happy reading and good luck to all my fellow authors!

Takes a lot of time. I know some people think the writing life is easy. It’s not. Each author is different in their approach to writing. Some plot, some fly by the seat of their pants, some do a combination of both, and some do it completely ass backwards. I would love to say that I just fly by the seat of my pants and everything magically falls into place, but that would be a lie. (And I don’t know about you, but my mama always told me not to tell a lie.)

The truth is, I probably fall into the ass backwards category. Now as cute as my ass may be, it does me no good when it comes to plotting or writing my story. I have worked and reworked my plot into, what I hope, is finally a solid story line. It took a while. Scenes were plentiful but they were lacking something. The title no longer fits. My characters weren’t giving me anything. Then I started questioning myself about one little issue. That turned into the ‘What If’ game. (Have I told you how much I hate the ‘What If’ game? Well on most occasions, I do.) This time, the ‘What If’s’ actually helped.

I am now on my way to tying together the two halves of my characters blood line, which until now was a major plot hole and now I have a lot of confidence that I am on the right track. Now to just work in the little changes here and there and I can get back on track.

In case you haven’t noticed, authors tend to be a very critical bunch, especially in regards to their own work. It takes a lot to make us happy and I would venture to say it is fairly common that we re-work a story to death. Thankfully, with the support of crit partners and beta readers, the madness ends and we sub a story. Otherwise that ten year novel, might turn into the fifty year novel. Oh btw, this picture, is what my desk looks like on any given day. (And no the manuscript in the picture is my distraction when I get to frustrated with the one I am working on.) Slàinte!

It’s been 10 days since I posted my PLAN. How did I do? Well let’s take a peek shall we?

1. I hereby forbid myself to work on any other story (outside of plotting) other than my paranormal WIP ~ Chosen. – So far so good, I have thought about my Young Adult Book, but no writing.

2. All current 117 pages of said story have been printed out. I realize this is working ass backwards, but I will use that to help fill in my plot structure and story arc. While doing so, I will not open up the original document and all notations will be made in either a notebook or in the side margins of the printed version. – Ok, admittedly, this one I did not do so well on. I opened the document and began to move forward. I found it difficult to plot the story after the fact.

3. The nights when the kids are with their dad…. I will limit my online time (i.e. the devil Facebook) outside of a brief check in or status update. The kid-free time will be utilized for writing and research. - Did okay with this. Kids have been at their dads for three nights out of the last 10, but one night was spent on my birthday.

4. I will gag my internal editor as much as possible during this process so that I may actually have a finished draft before all is said and done. – She has been gagged thanks to slave driver Lauren who insisted that I email her new material or else…

5. Once a week, I will blog about my progress. – Though a few days late… we will call this done.

We will do this all over again next week! Whoot. Maybe I should make Friday my update day.

As we all know, I can be easily distracted. Daydreaming is perpetually something I do and is who I am. Head in the clouds…

Have no fear though, because I now have a plan of attack! Who would have guessed it? Actually, the  plan was contrived only moments ago and in an attempt to make myself accountable, I am laying it out here. Oh don’t you worry your pretty little heads, I have several slave drivers.. ahem, I mean cheerleaders… who will also hold me accountable. Sometimes it helps. Especially when you come from a traditional work background. I can hear you saying, “So lay it on me already. What is the freaking plan?!”

Here it is:

1. I hereby forbid myself to work on any other story (outside of plotting) other than my paranormal WIP ~ Chosen.

2. All current 117 pages of said story have been printed out. I realize this is working ass backwards, but I will use that to help fill in my plot structure and story arc. While doing so, I will not open up the original document and all notations will be made in either a notebook or in the side margins of the printed version.

3. The nights when the kids are with their dad…. I will limit my online time (i.e. the devil Facebook) outside of a brief check in or status update. The kid-free time will be utilized for writing and research.

4. I will gag my internal editor as much as possible during this process so that I may actually have a finished draft before all is said and done.

5. Once a week, I will blog about my progress.

Timeline for this from start to finish, completed first draft and all (including a possible crit and beta read), is Christmas. Seriously wishful thinking there, but wishes and dreams is how I got a story pubbed in the first place. My focus train has been de-railed for some time now and I am desperately struggling to get back on track. Splitting my attention between multiple stories, the lack of plotting, working a full time job, focusing on my children (which is not negotiable nor should it be) and other little blips that come along in life, have all contributed to this state of affairs. Good news is, that there is no such thing as too late to change. Check back with me and see how I do. Everyone could use a few extra cheerleaders in their section and I am no exception to the rule.

With multiple stories in the works, it is always difficult to decide which one to focus on. I’ve done everything from story hop to forcing myself to concentrating on one project regardless of whether or not I was ‘feeling’ it. The latter is not my recommended way of doing things, but then again neither is the former. Hopping from story to story tends to lend itself well towards leaving a writer (or at least this writer) with the feeling that they never finish anything. On the other hand, if you force yourself to write a story that you are not feeling at the moment, it will show in the end result because it will undoubtedly be lacking the writers passion and excitement…at least on that first draft.

So, I TRY to focus on no more than two stories at any given time. My intentions usually fall short because my muse is a finicky little wench who usually decides that we should work on a project that I had previously relegated into the idea folder. See how she is? Can you blame a girl for hogging the ice cream after such an atrocity?

Anyhow, now I find myself without my muse. Maybe I need to find a new one? Or possibly a spare? A male perhaps. One with dark hair and a nice accent since that always seems to do the trick for me. Maybe he could help me tame my more fickle female muse, though I will not hold my breath on that one. She tends to be far too much like me, which only makes me both understand and loather her all at the same time. Of course if she should return, I will welcome her back with open arms. I can be a heartless and cruel bitch at times, but a good muse is hard to find. So please, if you see her, let her know that I am willing to bend…. a little.

Wow! this has been a really huge roller coaster ride for me lately. Book released, life issues happened, my creative well ran a little dry… you know the norm. Only at this point in time, it seems to be more overwhelming than usual. Its alright though. Slowly, the tides are turning, I am getting back into ‘Chosen’ and making a bit of progress.

So the ideas are flowing for other stories as well. If I thought I could manage popping back into the young adult book without my BFF totally having a coronary… I would do that at the moment. But alas, reacquainting myself with the characters of Chosen has been an adventure.