A.E. Jones's Blog, page 34

Forced Relaxation

Pic courtesy of pdpics.com

Over the last few weeks I’ve been talking about taking time to decompress with all the stress happening to and around us. In other words, take time to smell those daggone roses!

Well, this past week my body decided to force the relaxation upon me. I ended up with some cold/sinus/sore throat thingy and my Friday and Saturday was spent in my PJ’s sleeping and reading. Two of my favorite pastimes, if you will. Reading is such a joy to me and one that I have lost somewhat now that I’m a writer. The hours I used to spend reading are now spent crafting stories. So this past weekend, I got to read, read, read! And it was so much fun to get lost in another story. One that I didn’t have to write and worry about the character development, plot, etc.

I have always been a voracious reader which is why I ultimately became a writer. I have never met a writer who isn’t a READER. And I capitalize that word to show its importance. Addicted readers become addicted writers :)

So this weekend I didn’t do what I had planned, but I sure had fun playing hooky (excluding the whole sick thing, that is).

Relax on, my friends!

Christmas Tree Battle of the Wills

This past weekend (AFTER Thanksgiving) I put up my Christmas tree. And as I have spoken about in previous blogs I usually select a new theme each year. This year, I decided to do red, black and silver which turned out very nicely, if I do say so myself! What I haven’t spoken about is the battle that begins once my tree goes up. I have two cats. And if you live with cats, enough said. But if you don’t live with cats then let me educate you.

A Christmas tree is the granddaddy of all temptations to a cat. It is a giant sparkly toy that they can climb, bat at, chew on, and don’t get me started on what they do to the ornaments! I have experienced all of these escapades, although in the past couple of years my kitties have calmed down.

Somewhat…

My boy cat likes to chew on the branches. Not sure why green plastic is appetizing to him. So battle number one is stopping him from chewing. Two nights ago they knocked an ornament off the tree and I found it across the room. And last night they knocked two ornaments off and pulled some of the ribbon garland out of the tree. Sigh. The sneak attacks have begun. From the looks of the tree when I arrived home from work today, it looked like they’d climbed it.

But I will not be deterred! My Christmas tree will survive two inquisitive felines. And I will not let them stress me out. Actually I will not let the season in general stress me out. It seems like the holidays have become more harried and stressful over the years and so I plan on taking a breath, relaxing, and spending time in my make-believe worlds where I control everything that happens. There is something cathartic about writing, especially for a control freak like myself :)

I’ll let you know if the battle wages on. And while I’m at it, I thought I would share a picture of my tree (still standing for now) and my cats looking innocent (but we all know the truth).

Edit, Schmedits…

From my title, you can probably guess what my blog topic is this week. The dreaded edits. Yep, I’m smack dab in the middle of them with my newest book and it’s been a labor of love.

There are so many things that you look for when you edit, starting with plot and character development, and GMC (goal, motivation & conflict). All those big picture items that really need your attention as you write your story and you may need to revisit once ‘the end’ is written. Often the ideas you begin with are not the ones you end up with, so working through those larger issues can play a part in edits.  I think of it as the broad strokes of a paintbrush across a canvas as the foundation of the picture is created.

Then we delve into the structure of the book, the chapters, the scenes, the paragraphs, heck even the sentence structure can impact your telling of the story. I have been amazed at how rearranging a paragraph, or splitting a paragraph into two, often emphasizes an important point for the reader. Rearranging scenes that make better sense somewhere else now that the book is done (or sort of done). Realizing that the structure of the chapter needs re-swizzled to make it more powerful. All of these items can be equated to the shading and nuances a smaller brush can lend to a painting.

And once you have completed all of this work on your masterpiece, you’re still not done. Get out that tiny detail brush and start adding the finishing touches: word choice, spelling, grammar, punctuation. All the things that need attention now that you’ve worked on the rest.

Quite a bit to think about, yes? But it can be so rewarding once you have that finished book in your hands. And even more rewarding when your readers have it in theirs!

Squeaky Wheel

Sometimes it feels like we go, and go, and go, and don’t stop. At least I find myself doing that. Like a mouse on a squeaky wheel, I run toward a goal not stopping to take care of that annoying squeak cause I just don’t have time.

Well this weekend I stopped. After what happened in France on Friday, I stopped. I jumped off that annoying wheel and looked around. And I decided that I needed to take a break, or a time out, or whatever I wanted to call it. But I wasn’t going to feel guilty if I didn’t write, or work on my next marketing strategy, or figure out what my writing plan is for 2016. I stopped and stood outside, letting the sun hit me square in the face.

I didn’t make any plans for the weekend (which is very unlike me). I just went. And I took a breath. Something we all need to do when it just gets to be too much. Take a breath. Enjoy family and friends.

Be thankful.

I know some might say I am a little premature on that sentiment, since Thanksgiving in the US isn’t until next week. But I don’t think being thankful for what we have should be relegated to once a year.

So jump off the squeaky wheel. Breathe and be thankful. Come on, I know you have it in you.

And before you jump back on again, oil that wheel for goodness sake! And take care of yourself so that it doesn’t start squeaking again…

Goldilocks and the Three Beginnings

While my current book is at the editor getting ‘beautified’ I started working on the next story in my new series. I am really excited about it too. I think that the hero and heroine will be a fun pair to explore and the overarching trope is enemies to lovers which should be a BLAST to write. And then I started writing that dreaded beginning, and while there was funny parts to it, I just didn’t think it felt right.I guess you could say it was TOO COLD.

There is something so important about the beginning. It sets the mood of the story and draws the reader in. And many authors sweat buckets as they write it. Those first few pages can be the reason why someone stops reading the story or doesn’t buy the story after they’ve perused the sample. Just a little bit of pressure here…

So I moved on to beginning number two which takes place at a different place in the story. A bit more action, not a whole lot of funny and again, I just wasn’t feeling it. And I figured out that while the scene is good, it wasn’t where I was supposed to start. TOO HOT.

You guessed it, on to beginning number three. A little bit of funny, a little bit of action (not that kind of action) and a little bit of getting to know the hero and heroine. It’s not too cold or too hot. But don’t let that fool you, it doesn’t mean that it won’t be revised again. More motivation, more conflict, etc. Those tweaks are like adding the nuts, and raisins, and a little bit of brown sugar to the story porridge to make it JUST RIGHT.

Stories Need a Little Surprise

On Friday, I wore my Halloween costume to work…check it out! I keep my costume a secret until dress-up day each year, much to the irritation of my coworkers who try to wheedle the truth out of me.

I do let my co-workers guess what I’ll be wearing and have told them that if they ever do get it right, I’ll tell them the truth. I’ve been dressing up for more than ten years and they have never gotten close to guessing the correct answer – until this year.

One of my co-workers asked me if I was going to be Thing 1 or Thing 2. He was so excited when I told him yes. And then 5 minutes later he wasn’t as excited anymore. He found the truth out last Monday and now he had to keep it a secret for five days.

Each day he would whine about wanting to tell SOMEONE the truth, and each day I would tell him NO.

And when he whined again for the third day in a row, I told him that he was now living in my world. If he thought keeping a secret for a few days was hard, he should try to write books. There is something so wonderful about writing a story that resonates with you. But at the same time it’s hard too, because you want to tell everyone about the scenes and surprises in your story. For me, writing is like unwrapping presents to see what is inside and then wrapping them back up again so that others can enjoy them as well.

I love surprises, I love the look on my co-workers faces the first time they see my costume and I love, love, love when my readers finish one of my books and talk about how much they liked this scene or that surprise. It allows me to enjoy the moment with them through their eyes.

And that’s what makes it fun in my part of the world!

Halloween Party: Take 2

This past weekend, I had my second Halloween party of the season, which was my neighborhood costume party. This year, my neighbors came up with AMAZING costumes!

I apparently bring out the competitors in each of them. Everyone takes pride in being very creative. Each year, the group votes for best costume. And then a ribbon or a ‘very-expensive’ plastic trophy is awarded to the winners.

The winning couple this year dressed like a farmer and a Holstein cow including udder. For those of you who are city-folk, Holstein are cows with black and white markings. And if you don’t know what an udder is, I’ll let you Google that :)

Halloween reinforces (for me) that we all still have a child in us. One that wants to pretend. To be someone else if only for a night. Imagination is key. Maybe that’s why I love Halloween so much. Instead of writing about a character, I get to personify one instead. So cool…

Happy Halloween!

Fuzzy Time

This weekend, the weather turned cold. As in, turn the heat on and don the fuzzy robe and slippers. It always seems like the first couple weeks of cold weather are a real shock to my body. I almost feel like I need to acclimate myself again to Northeast Ohio weather. Which is ironic, since the last Ohio winter wasn’t that long ago. The cold is never far away.

When the fuzzy robe and slippers make their first appearance for the season, fuzzy thinking sometimes accompanies it. I snuggle in my robe or blanket and become one with the couch. As you can imagine, fuzzy thinking is not good for writing. And so I’ve learned to go with the flow. I work on the edits or changes that I can and highlight the other parts that need future tweaking once my fuzzy robe and fuzzy brain have been put away. Brainstorming is another good way to occupy my time since it seems to work with fuzzy thinking. I’m not having to be specific or detailed, instead ideas blossom. It’s all about adapting for the season.

Luckily, this fuzzy phase normally lasts for a short time and then my body says, “I’m not afraid of you cold weather…I’m going to keep doing the things I want to do. No hibernating allowed.” And the interesting thing is that I will put away my fuzzy robe and get down to the business and fun of writing.

Maybe it’s my body’s way of preparing for BOTH winter and writing since I am most productive when the ‘precipitation that cannot be named’ covers the ground.

 

 

 

It’s Like Riding a Bike

Over the last month, I’ve been working very hard on the publishing and marketing side of my writing business. While this is a vital part of getting my name and books out into the world, ultimately the proof is in the writing, so to speak. So now it is time to settle back down into the writing. Which is really my favorite part of being “AE Jones” but for some reason I have been struggling a bit with it. I’m currently working on my new series and the first book needs some major revisions before I even THINK about sending it to my editor.

So it has taken a few days to turn off the business side of my brain to let the creative side emerge again. And even though I had to force myself to sit down this weekend and start writing, I realized that the old saying, “It’s like riding a bike…” is very fitting. You might start out wobbling and weaving down the road, but eventually you get your balance again and head down the path.

I think I came up with this analogy because I’ve been riding my real bike over the past few weeks and, trust me when I tell you, there has been some wobbling going on. But at the same time I had forgotten that feeling of speeding along with the wind and the sun. Makes me smile and this is the same feeling I get when a scene is going well for me. Tonight I am settling in for another writing session and there might be wobbling going on, but at least I’m moving forward!

 

October is Here…Let the Halloween Parties Begin

You heard right, my followers. My favorite month is here! October. The beginning of fall and my favorite holiday.

Halloween

Love, love, love it. I had my first Halloween party of the year on Saturday. I wanted to have it early, hoping for good weather. It was 50 and raining, so there was no outside celebration. But we still had fun! Or I had fun, and hopefully my guests did too. Every year I have a theme for my parties and I decorate according to that theme. This year it is Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin. Or more specifically, Linus’ Great Pumpkin. Linus is the voice of hope and belief in the Charlie Brown universe, and by default, he is the storyteller.

Maybe that’s why I like Linus the best. Because he tells the stories and spreads the joy of believing in something ‘beyond’ the mundane. And that’s why I’m a storyteller too. There is something amazing about suspending disbelief and building a world of people who are so different then us, but we nevertheless relate to.

So join me in celebrating my favorite month. Suspend disbelief and read a wonderful book, or write one!

decorations on my mantel – it’s all about THEME