an_ortega

I told you last week about my epic illness that required not-so-epic reading. This week was more about recovering my life after weeks of being checked out.

Playing catch up on my manuscript proved the most daunting task since I’d lost my forward momentum.  I fell into all the usual first draft traps, generally trying to follow every rule ever known to writing-man therefore miraculously producing a perfect draft in one shot. [pause for laughter]

So I gave myself a pep talk. If I needed it, AGAIN, I bet someone else out there probably needs it, too.

Picture my kitchen.

We live in a shoebox of a house with a non-type-A man (read “messy”), two kittens that love to get into everything (read “messier”), and two young children (read “disaster”). Now remember that I didn’t pick up, wash, or clean for two weeks. It was ridiculous. When I’d finally stepped in to clean, I threw away trash, cleared counters, and washed dishes.

What would you have told me if I’d stopped in the middle of all that to take a toothbrush to the grout on the counter? You’d have told me that grout is really not my priority right now and to get back to scrubbing crusted food off of pans.

When I finished that, I looked at the kitchen with everything put away, felt accomplished, and went to work on the Mt. Everest pile of laundry. A few days later, with the stuff cleared, grime on my counters really stuck out, so I scrubbed them because now it made sense.

After a few more days, I may decide the pots and pans need reorganizing and do that. (Although, it’s not likely!)

You see where I’m going with this, right? Sure you need to avoid passive voice and adverbs. Sure you shouldn’t overuse your favorite words. But mostly, in your first draft, you SHOULD get the words on the paper.  ANY words so you can scrub them clean later.

katzni

• Rules from TPTB world that says cannot be together.
• He has a girlfriend back home.
• Something in his past keeps him from getting serious.
• He lies to her to protect her, but she gets upset and doesn't trust him.

an_ortega

For the past two weeks I’ve been sick. Like I-might-die-and-I-kinda-wish-it-would-hurry-up sick. So, during recovery I picked up a book to read that I wouldn’t feel all that guilty about not remembering through the haze of yuck. It was an adult action/mystery/romance/thriller type.

Oddly enough, I do remember it. Or at least I remember my feelings about it. They were abnormally violent given my weakened state.  The question “Why would she do THAT?!” sort of became my mantra.

My struggle with plot has been thoroughly noted here on YA Know but this book got me thinking about plot versus character even more. It offered enough plot questions that I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened but not enough character that I wanted to read every word. Therein lays the crucial balance. Or the madness depending on how you look at it!

An awesome story with twists and turns can really grab a reader. But if the people taking those turns don’t make sense, the story loses its magic and the reader just wants to skim to the end. Or shout at the pages in my case!

Interesting characters can also suck a reader into a story. But if they all just run around in circles, a reader will eventually stop wanting to run with them.

None of this is news to those of you who have been writing for a while. And, sadly, I don’t have a formula or magic word for finding the happy medium. All I have is a little reminder taken from a “what not to do” book:

Look for balance in plot and character because they really are both important.

katzni

Today is one of those days. This week has been one of those weeks. I'm not sure what it is (okay, I do. It's called self-doubt. It's called, "how much longer are you going to invest in this 'hobby' before you face the reality that you're just not succeeding?").

So.
Yeah.
I'd rather be:

• Reading
• Watching TV
• Scrapbooking
• Catching up on work
• Shopping
• Doing laundry
• Cleaning the house
• Going to the gym
• Playing on Twitter
• Playing on my phone
• Baking cookies
• Eating cookies
• Going to the movies