Letters from Camp: There I was…

Wow, I just have to say… last night was amazing!  There I was, just minding my own business… working on rewriting a section, since I have been struggling so much, and chatting with a friend about life.  And wouldn’t you know it, the next thing I know I am knee deep in giant felines, and I have a couple hundred words on one of the scenes I was struggling with!  I couldn’t believe it!  I don’t even remember switching over to work on it.  I just know, one minute I was rewriting, and chatting with my friend and the next, BLAM! two hundred plus words in that new scene!  I really couldn’t be more excited!

In honor of that, I will leave you with a few words from last night!

Working together with my crew, and almost hand in hand with Kyi, we all buckle down to help the planet recover from the latest in a string of pretty bad disasters. The earthquake that took me out for a while seemed to give Kyi new purpose. Never leaving my side, as if afraid I am going to fade or pass out or something.
I can not believe the connection to him. It is almost as if we move in perfect synchronization, our movements mirroring one another without any effort. I almost feel as if we are two planets orbiting one another.
“It is because you are finally accepting it. Do you notice the difference around the two of you? How the people seem different after they have worked with you?” Kieran asks me slyly.
Reaching out I swat at him, only to hear a low rumble. Looking over to ask him what has gotten into him, I notice that it is not him I have swatted, it is in fact Árdghal. Heat flushes up my face, “I am sorry dara athair. I thought…” I trail off, not really having anything to say.
He chuffs and tackles me, rolling around like I do with Kieran, leaving me breathless and laughing. When out of no where he is flying off of me, a cat I have not seen before standing over me, rumbling. I go perfectly still, not sure what is going on, or what the newcomer is upset over.
Rumbling comes from all around me, with the new cat still standing over me, I do not dare move.
“What ever you do, hold still” Kyi’s thoughts filter quietly into my mind.
“You think” I retort, making sure he catches the eye roll that goes with it. Holding desperately to humor, anything to not think about the danger the cat represents.

What about you?!? Have you had those moments?  Times where you planned to work on one thing and found yourself magically working through another, with no knowledge of how you got there?

Beat Sheets and Writing Helpers

 

 

The writer’s toolbox is a varied thing.  Each and every writer has different ideas of what to put in one.  That is a topic for another time however.  What I wanna talk about today is beat sheets.  You know, those worksheets one can use to help know where your story is going, help create an outline.  Not that I use one of those… I am a pantser, but I do like to have a bit of knowledge of my story, a bit of structure.

I have been doing a ton of looking around the web lately for those wonderful little helpers.  Of course I never find what I like, what I think is the best, but I do take the best of what I find and create my perfect worksheets.

 

 

What about you?  Do you use any prefab worksheets to learn things about your up and coming novel?  Do you use them after you have your WIP up and running?  Or do you create your own outline?  Or pants the heck out of it?  What is your process?

My Interview Question Answers

So tomorrow I have a guest post on my blog, and since it came about from an idea… I will get it rolling! *grins* The idea is simple really, it was to look at two writers views on writing and their processes. It was to show the difference in every writer, and to be a bit on the silly side. But as we both looked at the question, it became apparent that silly was not how we wanted to answer. So I will start with my answer, which is a bit shorter and less eloquent than his, which you will get to see tomorrow!

 

My answer to “How I View Writing” and a “glimpse” of my writing process.

I have always loved stories. More often than not lived in a land of make belief and fairy tale. I don’t think anyone has ever truly caught me without a book in hand. To this day that is true, and now with ebooks, I am never far from several as they are even on my phone!
I truly got my start with poetry. Pouring out my emotions to the ever forgiving page. But eventually a need in me grew. To craft such amazing stories as I read became a need in me. The need to share with the world a joy in the escape reading had given me.
In writing I have found almost a greater escape. There are worlds locked in my mind I could never have fathomed before I started the craft of writing. I meet my characters much as any reader would. They slip in and use me to tell their tales. I have no control of the stories they share, as they are unique to each character that tells them.
I guess therein lies my process. I meet the character and then hand over the reins so to speak. I let them tell their tale, I just give them voice.

 

What about you? What is your view of writing? If you were to show the world a glimpse of your writing process what would it entail?