Cloud Nine Girl

[I wrote this post as a member of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group where we share our worries and also offer support and encouragement to each other on the first Wednesday of every month. If you’re a writer like me and you’re looking for a bit of support, you can click the link and sign up here]

This month’s awesome hosts are: JQ Rose, C. Lee McKenzie, Raimey Gallant, & E.M.A Timar!

And thank you to founder Alex J. Cavaugh 🙂

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I love the month of May. As a kid I’d look forward to outdoor adventures in tents near the lake, or in the middle of Kansas on my dad’s land in a grove of trees staked inside a dried up river bed. I’d live imagined adventures and dream of characters I’d read about in books.

Maybe it’s the warmth. Maybe it’s the way sunlight slips into every crack of life. From early good mornings to lingering evening sunsets, reminding me how peaceful endings are always possible no matter what happened in my day.

This month’s IWSG question asks; “It’s spring! Does this season inspire you to write more than others, or not?”

Most mornings, I tip-toe down the steps to my writing workstation just off the side of the kitchen island. I brew my coffee and open the Celtic patterned curtains because lately, the sun is already peeking over the horizon. The birds are clearly awake too, chirping in the trees. Just yesterday, I glimpsed a couple of rabbits outside wrestling around in the grass in my backyard.

My answer is yes.

I’ve always loved spring. I’ve always loved flowers. Sunshine motivates me and trickles into my thoughts, changes my words sometimes, and my fast flying fingers sing.

Currently, I’m researching solid historical patterns before I revamp an old manuscript. I’m also waiting on edits from my last new YA Sci-Fi and I am very nervous, but with the sunshine over my shoulder, each day feels a little brighter.

On the reading side, I also just finished reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. It’s fantastic if you like YA.

So if May is your month like me, then why not use it to best of your goals and dreams? Even if it’s not, there’s something good to be found in every season.

Happy Wednesday, IWSG Day all.

The Author Toolbox Blog Hop is “a monthly blog hop on the theme of resources/learning for authors: posts related to the craft of writing, editing, querying, marketing, publishing, blogging tips for authors, reviews of author-related products, anything that an author would find helpful.” Want to jump into the writing tool box? Search #AuthorToolboxBlogHop or to join via blog, click here.

Thank you Raimey!

***

When we speak, a series of steps has already occurred:

• An external action
• An emotional reaction
• A thought blooms from the above mentioned steps.

The result is return dialogue or reactive action.

It’s human nature.

Writing scenes and paragraphs should ideally follow the same logic we use when we speak or react.

Writer’s Digest suggests: “… get your reader to invest emotionally in your character, and you’ve laid the foundation for every action scene.”

A year ago, I came across a writing article on sequencing sentences. I hadn’t thought about the pattern of action, emotion, thought and reaction. I didn’t know how much it mattered until I wrote for it. I wish I could find the article and share it today. *Big shoulder sigh.* I lost it in the move to my new home over the summer.

Consider two examples:

Example One

    The moment Henry stepped out of the door of his apartment complex, he shivered with a chill then violently sneezed three times. With his shoulders arched up, he froze under the awning. Germs. He hated them. They hated him. Or at least he’d pictured it as an even exchange to survive.

   Henry’s hand trembled as he reached into his back pocket for his hand sanitizer, but stopped short with his thumb resting on the ridges of the cap. Something in the wind drew him. A cry so soft it couldn’t be a man or woman. A lamb? No, not in L.A. 

   He listened, shuffling down another couple of steps to the paved walkway.

   There. In the shadows. The barely there cry came again.

Example Two

    The moment Henry stepped out the door of his apartment complex, he shivered with a chill then violently sneezed three times. He removed his sanitizer from his back pocket and shuffled down the steps. Cars zoomed past the street. The wind tickled his nose. He shuffled backwards and peered around the corner of the building. He swore he heard a sound. A cry. Soft, like a lamb, urgent and hungry.

What’s Different?

    In the first example, Henry is moving, leaving his apartment when an outside irritant stings his nose and he sneezes (external influence/action).  He hates sneezing (thinking). He reacts to his phobia of germs and reaches in his pocket for his hand sanitizer (result of what we are thinking).

    In the second passage, we go from action to action to action. We miss a point about the character. We miss his phobia. We miss the connection between the first action and the second action. Then we miss the reason why he turned and went back to the building.

   So as we write, don’t forget motive, intention, and the process which leads our characters into action. Write for logic and sequence.