R.L. LaFevers's Blog, page 32

Dear Struggling Writer

From Friday's Comments:


Dear robin,
A few years a go I began writing. I wrote because my sister was a writer and people always fawned that "wow, a writer?" while my dad bragged proudly.
I...I guess I was jealous. That I wanted praise.
So I started a book, purely out of envy.
The book failed. I moved on to another idea.
Now I believe myself to be a writer, I'm no longer jealous.
I enjoy writing but the reason I started to write haunts me.(Is 'haunts' too dramatic?)
<>Because of that I can't fully give my</>

J. K. Rowling Interview

I watched the ABC special on J. K. Rowling last night. I enjoyed it, but then I'm a pretty easy sell when it comes to shows on authors.

One thing that really struck me about J.K. (she totally doesn't mind if I call her that) was when she said of the last Harry Potter book: "Some people will hate it. Because in order for some people to love it, others will have to hate it. That's the nature of the plot."

And I thought, wow, I wish I could embrace that as well as she does. Because it's undeniably tr

The Why of It All

So I'm working on Nathaniel Fludd III, and in this book the antagonist comes on screen in a major way for the first time. In the past, he's merely been an off screen threat or catalyst. And since he's now fully on stage, I have to spend some time with him and get a handle on his motivation, the why of it all. Why is he doing this? Pursuing this goal?

I started out by brainstorming a list of what the end goal he was pursing was. I ended up with a list of six things, only of couple of which felt l

An Embarrassment of Riches

Okay, I admit it. I have way too many books. I have four floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stuffed full, with some of the shelves double-stacked. And if all my books would fit into those shelves, I'd be very, very happy. But alas, they do not. (Even after I've carried four enormous bags full of books to the library in the past month!)

I have at least enough books scattered around the house to fill another shelf unit. There are tons stuffed down in the utility cupboard in the laundry room. And my activ

The Muse Works In Mysterious Ways

I know just how odd a duck my muse is, but I am still surprised by it sometimes. Take this weekend, for example. I had basically 20 days to finish Beastologist III and turn it in, yet my muse was OBSESSED with cleaning out every closet in the house. Now normally, one could look at this as an avoidance strategy, except my muse doesn't normally operate that way. Plus, trust me, there are a lot of things I would pick over de-cluttering as a means of procrastinating.

I did try to write. I got a measl

Jump Starting

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big believer in writer's block. However, I am a big believer in the fact that sometimes we just don't know enough about our stories to write the next part yet. And sometimes, we don't even have a clue of what should happen next. For me, stewing and fermenting in my subconscious is a big part of my process, and when writing on contract I don't always have the luxury of time enough for that. For me, not know what comes next happens most frequently in the third q

Dinner in Twenty: Grilled Chicken Sandwiches

I don't know about you, but grilled chicken is my best friend. It's quick, easy, and since I grill it outside, it doesn't heat up the kitchen on hot summer evenings. However, since I do rely on it a lot, the others in the family sometimes get a wee bit tired of it. In an effort to try something new, yet equally easy, we came up with these grilled chicken sandwiches. The secret here is to buy the thin sliced chicken breasts. They have been sliced thin so cook in 10-15 minutes and are perfect size

Arcs

Okay, I'm going to get all math-ish on you here, but bear with me a moment. And I say this as a person who hated geometry. (I liked algebra because it mimics life--in life we are always trying to solve for the unknown--but that's the subject of a different post...)

In geometry, an arc is the path between two points. It is exactly the same with a character arc. A character arc marks the path between your character at the beginning of the story and your character at the end of the story. The chang

Thinking Outside the Box(es)

I have a confession to make. I have a thing--yes, that sort of thing--for graph paper. In fact, I'm a bit of a graph paper trollop. I love the basic 8x11 size and have about three pads of it on hand at all times, but I also have little flings on the side with 11 x 17 size graph paper and the enormous 17 x 22 size as well, although I admit to indulging in that last size only a couple of times a year.

You can get a pretty clear indication on how overwhelmed I'm feeling by the size of the graph pape

And The Winner Is...

...Barbara Bietz!!

She has won an elegant journal in which to confess all of her secret writing desires, and journal her way to her personal, unique artistic vision!

Barbara, email me with your address and I'll get it right out to you!

And thanks to everyone who entered. It was nice to know I wasn't alone...