Watching The Fish Swim

When I was in high school my mother had a peculiar pastime. She would sit in a chair in front of one of the three big fish tanks we had in the house and watch the fish swim. Something about the way they would glide through the water, their leisurely swim, mesmerized my mother. She would sit in a rocking chair with a cup of coffee and stare at those fish for what seemed like hours.

I remember seeing her in those moments and thinking to myself, please don't let me end up an old lady who spends her days watching the fish swim! (Remember, this is my idiotic high school self talking.)
At the time I could think of nothing more wasteful than to sit and watch soft bodied water creatures move within a glass tank. And now that I'm older, I feel terrible about myself if I "waste" even a small part of my day. And by "wasting" I mean things like sitting down to eat my lunch, or meeting friends for coffee, or reading a book.
That feeling has intensified as my kids have gotten older and many of my friends have gone back to work.
In my mind, if I'm a stay at home mom, and my kids are in school for the majority of the day, I should be getting three times as much done as everyone else.
If I'm not cleaning, or running errands, or shopping, or cooking, or helping the kids with this or that I should be doing SOMETHING. What is that something? Well, as it happens, that something is writing.
I feel like if I have a spare minute I should be writing. And when I don't use those spare minutes for writing I feel guilty. And although there may be no greater waste of time than making yourself feel bad about yourself, that's what I continue to do.
I thought my mother was crazy for spending her free time watching the world within a glass tank, but the truth is she was lucky. She found a way to relax. She found a way to bring her mind to a peaceful place. What a gift that would be.
In this world of go, go, go, sometimes we need to be able to stop and take a break. Whether it's meditating, gardening, yoga, or simply watching the fish swim, go do something relaxing today! You've earned it! Trust me. You have!
And I have too. So, today, instead of agonizing about word count, I'm going shopping. I'm heading to Ulta and I'm going to waste money on one more beauty product I don't really know how to use. Why? Just because it's fun, and no other reason than that.

Weekly Word Count

Another crazy week for me. By Friday I'd only written 6,436 words. I don't usually write at all on the weekends, but with last weeks total of only 841 words I thought I'd better give it a shot.
Of course, the kids were home and I didn't want to abandon my husband with both of them so I brought my daughter with me to the library. She's kind of a bookworm, and we were heading to "the big library" so I thought we'd check her out a few books and she'd settle in for a long read. How could I have been so wrong?
After we got her books and sat down she wanted to get a drink. Then another drink. She'd tap me on the shoulder telling me to, "Look at that cute baby." or say, "Mom, feel this. I think it's gum.".
Then she wanted to ride the elevator upstairs. "Come on Mom, just ONE time!"
Okay, I thought, we'll ride the elevator up to the top floor and I'll rent one of those study rooms. We could go in there together.
It would be like a tiny jail cell for her. No water fountain, nobody walking by, no elevator, no distractions. I could finally get some work done!
I was wrong. There was a key! The fact that she could lock and unlock the door proved to be too much for her to resist. She suddenly needed to go to the bathroom, "I'll be right back." she'd say as she walked out the door with the key and a new air of sophistication. Or, "I have to get another drink of water." or "There's this book I want to check out." In and out. In and out, until finally I'd had enough.
Needless to say I didn't get much done. I left after writing only 1,557 words, giving me a total of 7,993 for the week.
When we got home she told my husband how much fun we'd had and how she couldn't wait to go again.
Oh well, lesson learned.
 How many words did you write last week?

P.S  It's two o'clock on Monday, February 17th. So far my word count for the day is zero, and I've almost finished an entire box of Girl Scout cookies! I'm not off to a great start!

Midpoint Mirror

Okay, here are just a few tidbits on what to do at the midpoint of your story. The midpoint is sometimes referred to as a reversal, or a big reveal, but whatever you call it, it should have two things.

First, an action or incident from which there is no going back. This is not one of those moments in the story where you can be wishy washy. As the author, you have to make a decision and make it stick.

Second, your protagonist should do some serious self evaluation. He (or she) has to ask some hard questions. What do I really want? What is at stake? Who am I? Can I win?

To help you out let's look at a few simple midpoint examples.
In our pretend story your protagonist works hard throughout the first half of the book to get the man of her dreams. In the middle of our story, when she finally nabs the dude:

A.  She spends the night with him (we're talking sex here, not just a sleepover), but when she wakes up in the morning she has second thoughts. He calls out to her from the bedroom, he wants her to make him breakfast. It reminds her of her parent's relationship, a relationship that was all wrong for both her mother and her father.  She asks herself; Am I like my mother? Do I really want this man?

B.  She spends the night with him (S-E-X). He asks her to make him breakfast and it reminds her of how her mother used to cook breakfast for her father.

C.  She takes him to her place and cooks for him. He seems demanding. He reminds her of her father, the way he used to boss around her mother. She asks herself; Am I like my mother? Do I really want this man?

Now, obviously, example A is your midpoint and it's not just because there is more writing up there.
It's because an action has occurred that she cannot undo (I'm pretty sure you can't UNsleep with people. You can say "nothing happened", but we all know it did:), and then she asks herself some questions. In essence, she holds a mirror (hello midpoint mirror) up to herself to ask what she really wants.

In example B, she spends the night with him, and is reminded of her mother and father's relationship, but she doesn't ask herself any hard questions. It's the questions, or more precisely, the answers to those questions that gives us the reversal we need at the midpoint.

In example C, you have the protagonist's realization that he is demanding like her father, and she asks herself the important questions, but there is no event that can't be undone. She is just dating him at this point and she can easily say, "Oops, my bad.".

Do you see how examples B and C could really make your midpoint drag? A reader might be saying to themselves, "Nothing's happening in this story." You don't want that anywhere in your novel, but especially not at the midpoint (or at your two major plot points).
Use your midpoint for your big scenes. Kill off characters, reveal secrets, blow shit up, but make sure that whatever happens it cannot be undone (You can't almost reveal the secret! Or reveal it and then take it back!), and it has to give the protagonist a reason to stop and re-evaluate what's been happening since page one.

Event that cannot be undone - Protagonist self evaluation - A change in the action of the story. That is your midpoint!!

Yes, there are a million different ways to do this. You don't need to have your protagonist sitting with her head in her hands thinking about feelings for two pages. You can set it up from the beginning of the story so that the reader knows that if our main character's mother dies she will be...homeless, helpless, charged with murder...whatever. When, at the midpoint, the mother does die we already know how our main character is going to feel about this. We already know it will change the direction of the story.

If you're muddling through the middle and you're stuck, try writing out a scene with the midpoint mirror in mind. If nothing else it will give you a better handle on who your main character is and what she wants.

If you wanna know about more than just midpoint, check out my post on  Three Act Structure.
Also, for a look at my writing resources check out Books on Writing.

Weekly Word Count

Don't laugh, but I only wrote 841 words last week. That's a lot of zeros up there!!
I'd like to say that I feel bad about not writing much last week, but the truth is I don't. I watched TV, hung out with the family, made costumes for a mother daughter rollerskating day, ran errands, helped kids with homework, and generally just enjoyed the role of stay at home mom.
Will I get back into the swing of things this week? I'm not sure, but I'm going to try. I must admit, it felt rather nice to just chill out a little:)

A quick update on my new writing gimmick. I have 30,000 words left to go. That means thirty of those note cards are left hanging on my bathroom mirror until my novel is done. Hopefully this week I'll be able to pull some more of those numbers off!

Weekly Word Count

My total word count for the month of January, in case you're interested, is 40,325. Not quite up to NaNo standards, but still not bad.
On Monday the muse was with me and I wrote 5, 572 words. I had to count twice to make sure I was right.  The rest of the week I did add some word count, but I was meandering through the plot a little. I need to spend the weekend to figure out exactly where I'm going.
I did end the week with a total of 10,992 words, my best week yet.
If you read my post about my new writing gimmick you'll be happy to know I've already taken down 20 of those little note cards. Not only am I writing faster, so that I can pull all those cards down, but I'm also just writing more. More scenes, more nonsense, more everything.
 I tend to be a very lean writer, thinking about the story structure in each scene. This is a good thing for the most part, but it can also be very limiting. By pushing myself on word count instead of just finishing the book I think I'm getting a little more depth to my characters and my story.
All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about January's totals.
Here's hoping next month will be even better.
Cheers!

My New Writing Gimmick

I am constantly looking for ways to cut corners, wait scratch that. Let's call it what it is. I'm constantly looking for ways to procrastinate when it comes to actually writing my novel.
( For proof check out my first post. ) I've written countless "to do" lists, made up schedules and marked up calendars. I've read books on writing and taken classes on writing mostly in an effort to avoid the actual writing.  Once I spent hours writing out random word count assignments. Then I sealed them in separate envelopes, and wrote out every day in March on the front of each one. "Word count assignment for March 1st, Word count assignment for March 2nd...ect" I was supposed to open a different one each day and write the assigned number of words. Guess how many envelopes I opened? TWO!
I still maintain that it was a good idea, even though my follow through wasn't the best.
Well, over the weekend I had a brand new idea for getting the writer in me to step back in line. Or maybe it was a brand new idea for how to procrastinate further...I guess we'll see.
First, let me present the problem. I've been getting my word count in pretty consistently, but I'm bouncing all over the place. I'll write on one story one day and switch to something new the next day. The entire point of this adventure is to finish a novel.
So what's the answer? Why my new writing gimmick of course.
On Monday, (January 20th) I took out 50 small note cards and wrote the number 1,000 on each one of them for a total of 50,000. You're getting it now, right? 50,000 is roughly the length of a completed novel.
 I then took these bad boys and taped them onto my bathroom mirror in neat rows. (I can't wait to see what my husband thinks of this when he gets back into town.)
After I've written 1,000 words I get to take one of those little note cards off the mirror. It's a visual representation of how far I have to go, and how far I've come.
The trick is, it's all got to be on ONE NOVEL. That means my word counts for the day can total up as high as I want, but if I'm not writing on this one particular novel then those note cards stay put.
Gimmick? Or great idea? Waste of time and space or brilliant plan? 
Let me know what you think.

Weekly Word Count

My weekly word count total for the week of January 19th to the 25th is 10,052. That's the highest one so far, and it came about totally by mistake. Well, sort of...
On Tuesday I actually wrote 2,081 words, but because I was trying to multitask while writing down the total (something my brain is really not equipped for) I accidentally wrote the number 3,801.
Now, I know you can't tell it by my handwriting, but I have a need for things to stay tidy. The thought of crossing out that number and replacing it with the correct number was too much for me to bear. I couldn't mess up my entire calendar to put the right number in. Instead, I did the only thing I could do. I wrote the extra thousand or so words to get to 3,801.
I tried it again the next day. I wrote 3,211 down on the calendar before I had even written one word on my novel. True to form I couldn't cross it out when I wanted to quit at about 2,000 words. I also couldn't bring myself to lie to you guys and say I'd written that much when I hadn't.  So...off to the laptop I went and I wrote until I got to my goal of 3,211 words.
As you can probably tell by the low word count on Thursday and Friday, I did NOT write down a total word count first.  The fact is, to get those higher word counts on Tuesday and Wednesday my days were pretty hectic. I didn't watch any TV because of all that writing. I LOVE my TV time so I was unwilling to give it up on Thursday and Friday:)
I will say that just knowing I have to publish my word count each week has been very motivating for me. I bet it would be for you too. So go on, jot down your word count online. Put it on Facebook, or Twitter or on your blog. Or put it in the comment line below. It just might be the motivation you need to finish that novel!

Word Wars

If you're not familiar with word wars, sometimes called word sprints, it's a challenge to see how many words you can write in a certain amount of time.
I've been "meeting" with a group on a website called Tiny Chat. Someone will set a timer for fifteen minutes and then type "Go". Everyone starts writing and we don't stop until the timer goes off. After fifteen minutes (or ten or whatever) of fast and furious writing we all get back on Tiny Chat and share our word count. Whoever wrote the most, wins.
What do they win? Nothing. Or maybe a shot of confidence, but mostly we all win because we've all got at least a few hundred words to add to the daily word count.
We'll do at least two challenges, sometimes three, and then call it a day. I can get anywhere from 800 to 1200 words in those short bursts of writing, but more than that I find it freeing somehow.
There's no time to judge what you've written or think too hard about word choice, you've just got to write. And for someone who's been struggling to get the entire story onto paper this is exactly what I need.
There is even a Twitter account that does word wars during the month of November. You can find it @NaNoWordSprints.
And if you want to get a little more technical you can use Write or Die. This website will give you rewards, and punishments, for your writing. For example, there is something called Kamikaze mode that will un-write your words for you if you stop typing for a certain amount of time. Yikes! 
You're probably thinking that all of those words written in a frenzy are pretty much crap. For the most part, you're probably right. But with each word war I'm moving the story further to the end. 
Once I'm at the end I'll go into editing mode. To see what that entails, check out Editing Your First Draft. In the mean time, gather some writer friends and try having a few word wars of your own. You're sure to be pleased with the results! 
Ready. Set. Go!

Weekly Word Count

I'm late. I know. I went out of town this weekend and I was partying too hard to think about writing or blogging:)
Here are my word count totals for last week.
I wrote a total of 7, 535 words.
I'm not too disappointed in the word count for the week, but the really frustrating thing is that it's not all on one novel.
On Tuesday I wrote my characters into a corner. On Wednesday, I thought about how to get them out of it. Obviously, since my word count was zero on Wednesday I didn't find a way out.
Instead of just skipping on Friday I started ANOTHER story, but at least I got a few words on paper.
I'm still not back on track, but I'm (literally) plotting my way out. Hopefully, by tomorrow I'll be able to get back to my main story.
Wish me luck.
What were your word count totals for the week?

Weekly Word Count

As I mentioned in Ten Thousand Words A Day I am going to start publishing my weekly word count on my blog. This is nothing fancy or detailed, I will simply update you on my word count.
I will resist the urge to make excuses about how busy my week was or this and that and just get down to the numbers.
The holidays were crazy (wait, I thought I said no excuses....maybe just one) and I missed the first week in January so you'll get two updates for this one.
From January 1st to the 3rd I wrote a total of 3,131 words.
From January 4th to the 10th I wrote a total of 8,615.

What are your word count totals this week? Any word count above zero is pretty fantastic in my opinion!

Rubbernecking In Fiction

So you've never heard of rubbernecking in fiction? Ha, that's no surprise to me because I completely made it up. Now hold on a minute or two because I think this is information you're going to want to hear.
 Usually when a person hears the term rubbernecking they do not think about fiction. What comes to mind is a car accident. Maybe you're thinking police on the side of the road, cars smashed up, and an  ambulance at the scene? There is that definition, but there is another way to use the term.
Wikipedia says, "The word rubbernecking has also come to be used more generally to describe voyeuristic interest in someone else's business or difficulties."
 So how can you use this in your novel to set you apart? Simple. Just make sure you add in those things that people can't seem to turn away from. It's like adding a bit of gossip to spice up your novel.
Have you ever started a story with, "Oh, man I just heard the most disturbing thing on the news."?
 Or, "The strangest thing happened the other day." People love the interesting, sometimes sick, things that they hear that are not your everyday gossip.
And it's not just gross things either. It's amazing love stories, stories about psychic moments, or miraculous rescues. People love to hear things that are different from the norm.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that your story is out of the norm, but that's not what rubbernecking is. Rubbernecking is all the strange stuff you see or hear on your way through your story. Your story should be fantastic and interesting in it's own right, but give the readers a little something extra.
Make the reader slow down in places because you've just given them something to gawk at. There are all sorts of opportunities for minor characters to have a big impact. Maybe your main character see's the neighbor taking out the trash and she wonders how she's doing now that she's out of jail for killing her newborn. Or maybe it's a supporting character that has half of his body scarred from burns.
On a lighter note it could just be a few racy sex scene's (depending on what you're writing of course).
These things shouldn't take away from the story, they should add to it. If you're main character has hidden pain from the past (and most of them do) maybe the short description of the man with scars all over his body is a metaphor for your main character's inner pain.
It should be subtle of course, and short. Rubbernecking is not a subplot or worse, an entirely different story. It's just a little extra kick to the details of your book.
The reason for doing this is, of course, to make your novel more interesting. Why not just say use every opportunity to make your novel more interesting to your reader? Well, you could say that, but I like "give your readers an opportunity for rubbernecking" better!