So...Let's Do This Thing!

My very first blog post here! I wonder what I should say. *thinks...thinks...thinks...* Not a clue, so I'm going to ramble a bit, I guess.

The new semester has started and as much as I would like to write for myself and you, I have to write for school. I'm still working to finish my Thesis - hence why you see so many books on Roman History and Religious Practices in my "Have Read" list. Research never ends!

However, I do want to assure those very few people who have actually read my book that there IS a second book being written. I'm about halfway through the first draft and it is awful! (Hence, first draft!) But, as one of my favorite Creative Writing Professors said in Undergrad: "Real Writing happens in revision."

The first part of writing, you see, is getting the idea on paper (or on screen) so that it is no longer rattling around in your head as an ephemeral concept and it becomes solid. Once you have that solidity, you are able to go back to the beginning and start fleshing out the story - your characters gain more input and they'll tell you their personality quirks, you'll see the scenario that you're describing so much better and you'll be able to shape things the way you know they're supposed to be, and you'll be able to add those things that need to be added and take away those things that don't really work with the flow of the story.

I tend to write in dialogue. I'm not a big fan of extreme exposition. Dialogue can help to move action, develop characters, and build emotion both in the story and in the reader.

With a good dialogue, the reader is able to put a voice - even their own voice - into the character and become the character, which gives them an emotional connection to the story they're reading. With a good dialogue and judicious use of description and scene, you allow your readers to enter the story so that they are involved in it as much as you were when you were writing it.

But, that's how I think. Every writer is different and every reader is different. It's like they say in education classes: Every student learns differently, some are visual. some are audial, others are kinetic - and then there are those who are a combination of two or more of the three. You have to have something within the lesson plan to help each student learn. Conversely, as a writer, you have to have something within the story to engage each kind of reader.

I think I'll leave this here today. It's a bit longer than I expected it to be and went on a different tangent than I thought it would. Either way, I will write more later and keep you apprised of what I'm doing!

And Remember: Life is an Adventure! Live it!