Prompt of the Week

Halloween night, the doorbell rings. You answer the door, expecting children dressed as princesses, ghosts and Batman. Instead, shockingly, it's __________

Writing Without Actually Writing

Deb just left my office. She was giving me grief about not updating the blog more often. Of course, she hit the proverbial nail when she suggested that when I'm don't write, I don't blog. I haven't been writing. Well, I haven't been getting words on paper. But I have been thinking about stories. How do I quantify that?

Here are some of the things I've been working out for HM:

--Sloan's relationship with Jenny. When does he acknowledge that she's more than his daughter's godmother?
--How much should the blizzard impact the story?
--Do I need to deal with Caleb's position being an elected one?
--How many deputies would he realistically have?
--What does the area around the quilt shop look like?

For D&D:

--Where does their money come from?
--How many employees are there?
--What kind of licensing do they need?
--What are the packages they offer?

For TOO (The Other One--I don't have a name yet):

--Should it be on a real street in Pueblo or should I make one up?
--What is the name of the shop?
--I can see the protagonist but don't know her name yet.
--What is she retired from that would give her enough money to open this shop?

When I spell it out like that, it looks like I have been working. I don't have answers to everything yet, but at least I know the questions. And with the boss out today, I may be able to answer some of the questions. Or put words on paper and really feel like I've accomplished something.

Prompt of the Week

Create your own workshop. Think of a writing workshop that you would like to attend. Who would run it? What would the topic be? How long? Who are the other attendees?

Bonus Prompt

Evil Editor has a fun writing exercise on his blog today. You roll a die and use the number you get to pick a genre. Then roll again and get a setting. And so on. You can see what the options are at www.evileditor.blogspot.com. This is like Deb's story cards, except with specific characters.

My results were:

Children's/YA genre
Set in a courtroom
My two speaking characters are Bullwinkle Moose and Norman Bates.

This could be fun. Or a trainwreck.

Finally

A good book. The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz broke the streak of really bad mysteries. The question is: Is it a cozy? I guess an argument could be made because it's about a family and, mainly, what goes on in their family life. But the family business is private investigation so they are all professionals. And what goes on is a lot of cloak and dagger. The last two things would say it isn't a cozy. It really doesn't matter. It's a fun read.

Which leads to a question. Does it matter what label you put on a book as far as genre goes? I have seen some pretty nasty exchanges on one of the Yahoo! lists I'm part of over genre. Those who write "genre fiction" stating things along the lines of "those literary snobs." Arguments over what is literary as opposed to Literature. Gnashing of teeth over the death of horror as a separate genre. Does any of it really matter to anyone outside the writing community?

I don't really think so. People pick up books they think they'll like. They may start in the Mystery section or Romance or Fiction. But then they scan the sale tables or the staff recommendations. They remember a book someone told them about, or that they heard about on Fresh Air. I have never heard any non-writer friends say anything along the lines of, "It was supposed to be a mystery, but there's an awful lot of romance and a poltergeist so it probably should be called paranormal romance with undertones of mystery. It always bothers me when they mislabel something like that." They either say it's good or it's not.

So why do we tie ourselves up in knots over these labels? Or do you? Do you just write what you want?

Environmental Prompt of the Week

Think about climate changes that have already happened in a favorite spot. If things go on as they have been, what will it be like in ten years? Twenty? Write about what it would be like and, more importantly, how you would feel about those changes.

Throwing Books

I finished The Body in the Library last week and have been having a hard time deciding on the next book to read. I picked up Fool Moon, the second in the Dresden Files series. About 30 pages in and I can't get into it. Maybe part of it is that they adapted this story for the television series and I already know "whodunnit." But the biggest part is the way Dresden talks about himself. "I growled" and "I barked" are used as dialogue tags several times. Okay, the book is about werewolves. Cute. Except people don't talk about themselves like that. And one of my nitpicks with the first book resurfaced over and over in this one. He keeps describing himself as tall, lanky, long-legged. I get it. You're tall. You don't have to tell me three times every chapter. So I put it down.

Then I picked up The Cat Who Dropped A Bombshell, the 28th book in the series by Lillian Jackson Braun. That is the book that I literally threw across the room two chapters in. All of the characters spent those two chapters telling each other things they already knew. Maybe it's a case of author malaise after so many books about the same characters. Maybe the editors just didn't have it in them to read another book about KoKo and Yum Yum either. Whatever the case, I just couldn't do it. I may go back and look at an earlier installment to see if it is the "curse of number 28" or just indicative of the genre. Which would make me very sad.

There are some good cozies out there. I have read them. So I'm not quite ready to give up on the genre altogether. But it is frustrating to run into so many bad ones.

Blog Action Day 2007 Video 2

Prompt of the Week

The New Hampshire primaries and the Iowa caucuses are still months away, but the candidates have been out stumping for months and months. Let's say that you aren't happy with any of the choices so you decide to throw your hat in the ring. Right up your platform.

Goals

Deb was just in my office talking about how she forgot to set her goals on a weekly basis. Which reminded me that I hadn't done my check-in for the week.

I didn't revise 25 pages last week, but since I overachieved the previous few weeks, I'm okay with that. I will try to finish the revision on the first part this week. That should be about 25-30 pages.

Prompt of the Week

The Fall colors are brilliant. Describe the scene without using the words red, yellow, orange or green.