Report--Write Night

In my last post, I mentioned I was going to attend a 6 hour write night with other authors where all we did was write. Four authors, including me, attended. I began the night on page 113 of my WIP and I ended at 119. So, in six hours, I wrote six pages. It doesn't look really great, but for me and considering what I completed, I feel pretty good about. Sure, I wish I'd written more, but actually, during that time I:

1)--Skipped over a section that required research I'd left at home--frown.  I wrote a one sentence description of what needed to happen and then moved on.

2)--My writing was fairly bare-boned. I knew I'd need to flesh it out more later, but because I was trying to get as far into the story as I could, I just plowed forward.

3)--I wrote the bare bones of an entire chapter and began the second.

4)--While I did have a basic outline of events that still had to happen in the full novel, I hadn't yet created chapter outlines which incorporated the POV character's chapter goal. So some of that time was taken in more fully outlining 2 chapters. That information, alone, speeds my future writing.

5)--One of the other authors said we talked a little more than they usually do. I wonder . . . since this was my first time, was that my fault? And yet, that communication really helped me.

6)--I learned I'm not the only one who writes, pauses for varying lengths of time, then writes again. So validating!

As I said before, I only wrote 6 pages, but this morning, I got up early and filled in the missing information for that first chapter. After adding and subtracting--editing!--I'm now at page 121 and ready to move further into the next chapter. Still, that was only 2 pages in about 2 hours. Looks like I average about a page an hour. I wonder how I can break past that?

Overall, I feel the write night is quite beneficial, especially during days filled with hard-to-find alone writing time. In fact, I'd really like to go to the next one which is scheduled for 12 hours--noon to midnight. I wonder how I can make that one happen.

Write Night

I'm going to try something new. A friend of mine has difficulty finding uninterrupted blocks of time to write, so she has created a write night where she and other writers go to a predesignated place for about six hours on one night out of every week. She swears by it, saying it's the best way she's found to get her writing work finished. So, with the holidays bearing down on me while I'm anxiously trying to write my latest suspense novel, I've decided to give it a try. I'll let you know how it goes. I hope it proves successful, because I'm on page 113, and my goal--unrealistic?--is to finish it by January 31. That means I'll have to write faster than I ever have before.To help me reach that goal, I've created a fluid outline of the entire book, but even so, I'm worried I won't be able to reach my goal. But if I don't try, I already know the answer, right? Wish me luck. :)

TRAPPED'S BEEN NOMINATED

Hi! I recently received an early Christmas present! TRAPPED has been officially nominated for the Whitney Awards in the speculative fiction division. Yay! And thanks to everyone who nominated it. I really appreciate your support. :)

What Carole Thayne Warburton Did Right--Humor

Authors try to capture their readers' emotions. Before reading Sun Tunnels and Secrets (provided by the publisher), I concentrated on creating grief, fear, and joy in my stories, but now I realized humor is not only an effective, writing garnish, but it's also a powerful "tunnel" to emotion. Who hasn't laughed so hard they cried? Or cried so hard they laughed? My point is, humor has the power to connect stories to their audiences, and Sun Tunnels and Secrets is filled with that power.

Case in point, Warburton's protagonists are more than people, their characters. By "characters," I mean they're the slightly "off," yet truly lovable people whose unconventional antics make life a bit more enjoyable. We all know them. They're kind of like the nosy yet too daring Sadie Hoffmiller in Josi Kilpack's culinary mysteries.

Sun Tunnels and Secrets incorporates other humorous elements as well. In fact, it reminds me of a zany cross between the movies, Driving Miss Daisy and Pure Luck; it's filled with laugh-out-loud humor (one sister refuses to die in Tremonton, Utah, because she can't stand the thought of a certain mortician laying her out),wild coincidences that somehow make sense (finding a naked, dead man out in the middle of nowhere who just happens to be able to help solve a long, lost family secret), and age-old insights that can only be taught with gentle wit (I'll let you pick these out for yourself.).