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Thoughts, loves, quirks, rants and inspiration! |
| Thoughts, loves, quirks, rants and inspiration! |
| Someone asked me today "What's the hardest part of creating a character?" Surprisingly, I knew the answer right off the bat. The hardest part for me is the names. It is honestly something I struggle with. I will change a character's name half a dozen times before I settle on the one I like. So now you ask, why does it take me six tries to come up with the name Eric or Rebecca, or even Charlie? (my most recent family of characters). Well, to me the name is sooo important. I am not sure if this is the case for all writers but it is definitely the case for me. Especially when it comes to romance. The character names have to fit. They have to match the image in the readers mind. Yes, the depth of the characters is extremely important. However, personally, I know that if I come across a funky name I don't like I will hesitate about reading further. I guess it is a pet peeve of mine as a reader and a writer. If names are not correct, language will not be in accordance with the truth of things. ~ Confucius So what is the process? How do I figure out what name I settle on? Well first I pick two that I like. For example, Rebecca and Eric started out as Emma and Travis. I actually started writing the story with those names. I found though that as the characters developed the names didn't fit. The conversations weren't flowing for me. I went through several variations including nicknames. It was when the nickname Beccs popped up that I knew it had to be Rebecca. There is a strength about the name that is unmatched. Once I had settled on Rebecca, Eric came a little easier. His name needed to be strong but also have an easy appearance. It rolls off a conversation with relative ease and fit into the dialog perfectly. So would a rose of any other name smell as sweet? Heck no! Not for me anyway. Think about your favorite couples...the names are not accidental by any means. Scarlett and Rhett Rick and Ilsa Sam and Annie Harry and Sally Derek and Meredith Paul and Holly Joe Bradley and Princess Ann Ben and Elaine Robin and Marian Arthur and Guinevere Even Male Pairs or Female Pairs are carefully chosen Bert and Ernie Laverne and Shirley Mary and Rhoda Felix and Oscar So the next time you are talking about your favorite characters take a minute to think about their names. Every detail counts! TTFN! |
| Someone asked me today "What's the hardest part of creating a character?" Surprisingly, I knew the answer right off the bat. The hardest part for me is the names. It is honestly something I struggle with. I will change a character's name half a dozen times before I settle on the one I like. So now you ask, why does it take me six tries to come up with the name Eric or Rebecca, or even Charlie? (my most recent family of characters). Well, to me the name is sooo important. I am not sure if this is the case for all writers but it is definitely the case for me. Especially when it comes to romance. The character names have to fit. They have to match the image in the readers mind. Yes, the depth of the characters is extremely important. However, personally, I know that if I come across a funky name I don't like I will hesitate about reading further. I guess it is a pet peeve of mine as a reader and a writer. If names are not correct, language will not be in accordance with the truth of things. ~ Confucius So what is the process? How do I figure out what name I settle on? Well first I pick two that I like. For example, Rebecca and Eric started out as Emma and Travis. I actually started writing the story with those names. I found though that as the characters developed the names didn't fit. The conversations weren't flowing for me. I went through several variations including nicknames. It was when the nickname Beccs popped up that I knew it had to be Rebecca. There is a strength about the name that is unmatched. Once I had settled on Rebecca, Eric came a little easier. His name needed to be strong but also have an easy appearance. It rolls off a conversation with relative ease and fit into the dialog perfectly. So would a rose of any other name smell as sweet? Heck no! Not for me anyway. Think about your favorite couples...the names are not accidental by any means. Scarlett and Rhett Rick and Ilsa Sam and Annie Harry and Sally Derek and Meredith Paul and Holly Joe Bradley and Princess Ann Ben and Elaine Robin and Marian Arthur and Guinevere Even Male Pairs or Female Pairs are carefully chosen Bert and Ernie Laverne and Shirley Mary and Rhoda Felix and Oscar So the next time you are talking about your favorite characters take a minute to think about their names. Every detail counts! TTFN! |
| n the development of my book, it was decided that the intimate scenes needed to be 'spiced up'. I had agreed to do this from the beginning and I have no problems with it...theoretically... Don't misunderstand, it is not the content that I struggle with, it is the actual writing of it. To explain plainly, my intimate scenes are VERY descriptive and effective, however I don't...ughm...use the 'words'. I don't replace them, so we aren't going to cheese level with a velvety sword or her treasure of delight...(lol). No, I simply refer to them I guess as his and hers, or him...(you get the idea). I do this not because I have some objection to the 'words' (and if you are wondering about these 'words', think about all of the words to describe human anatomy that your mother would smack you for using aloud). but more because I would cringe using them. Which is REALLY ironic considering I have no problem reading them. So, I swallowed my unreasonable squeamishness and rewrote the main sex scene using the 'words'. Not bad...but I was curious. Does it really make that much of a difference? So I did an experiment (my Jr. High science teacher would be so proud) that perhaps you guys would find interesting. I took a few close friends (people who did not know about my hesitation), and two people I am acquaintances with. I had them read the original scene and asked them a few questions. Then I broke out the SAME scene with the rewrite to include the pesky 'words' I was referring to...the results were interesting. The groups reaction to the first reading was of heated discomfort, in a good way. They felt the scene was intimate, hot and personal. The groups reaction the second version of the same scene were blushes, clearing of throats and embarrassment. The people who don't know me as a friend were more at ease with the content than those who did. Both were complimentary, stating the scene is great. It is sensual, dirty and a good portrayal of two strangers 'getting it on'. The most interesting part came with the people who know me. I found overwhelmingly that those people found it difficult to read the piece without cringing at first and it took a little while for them to become enveloped in the events. Thinking, "Oh, Wow, Amy just used the word cock!" Although in the end their comments were very similar. Hot and a guilty pleasure. So do the words make a difference? Really? Original Scene - Unrelenting, her feather touch trailed his spine. It circled his waist, and stopped at the button of his jeans. Her hand covered him and spread as it stroked the bulge in his pants. Spasms of unparalleled hunger pushed through the core of his body. Revised Scene - Unrelenting, her feather touch trailed his back, circled his waist, and stopped at the button of his jeans. Her hand grasped his cock through his pants and stroked the bulge. Spasms of unparalleled hunger pushed through the core of his body. This is probably a weak example but it illustrates the point. In both paragraphs I am describing the exact same events with the difference of a few selected words. What is the difference?Is there a difference, really? It seems to me there is a difference but it is subtle. One garners more of a physical reaction than the other...who knew a few pesky three and four letter words replaced in a sentence could create such a reaction... Very curious... |
| This is the title of an Eagles song that I always loved. in a New York Minute everything can change...so terrifyingly true. For anyone who knows me personally it has been a heck of a month, year, heck of a life, to say the very least! Lots of change, lots of wondering what the hell am I doing? Has any of that changed? Not really, but the horizon has...the destination has gotten just a bit more interesting. New goals. New possibilities. New choices in the road ahead. Do I have any regrets? Do I wish it could've happened sooner? No. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. After all of the life I have lived in my 36 years I can say I am ready for this. Everything and everyone in my life so far have brought me here, to this juncture, and it is by those experiences that I have the strength and the will to control my own future. It is up to me. It has always been up to me and I am ready. Bring it on. So thank you too all who have helped and thank you to all who will. I am forever in your debt. |
| In 2009 I turned 35 and had a minor thirty-life crisis. Mind you I have a wonderful life. A loving husband, three incredible children, a supportive family and a rewarding career. I felt though, that I was missing something. That I wasn't doing what I was meant to be doing. My life was off kilter and after some debating with my best friend I realized that it was time. For years I have been writing, and toying and playing with fiction. I was never able to grab it and hold on. On that day I resolved that the playing was going to end. I was going to write if it killed me. I needed to give that side of me a fighting chance. I began slowly, unsure of what it was I as doing. I wrote some fanfiction, played around, and experimented. Then the annual novel writing contest rolled around. It is held every year over Labor Day Weekend. The challenge, to write an entire novel start to finish over a four day period. So I got all of my outlines and notes together and I started my novel. I worked over the next four days and at the end of it I was exactly half finished. While I didn't complete the novel I did create momentum that kept me writing everyday for the next two months until I completed my very first novel. Now it is a few weeks until Labor Day weekend a year later. I have since completed another novel and started two others. I have learned so much since this journey began and I am still learning every day. I would like to say, proudly, that as of today, Sunday Aug 22nd I have been offered a 2 yr publishing contract for my second novel. I did it! With the help and support of a lot of people. It took almost two years but I have made the leap. And so now the real journey begins... |
| A few years ago my company merged with another and we were all assigned as part of out yearly reviews to the read the book, 'Who Moved My Cheese?" by Dr. Spencer Johnson. It is a dialog that deals with how we as individual deal with change. Dramatic or subtle we all react differently. So in the beginning of the book you are thinking that you deal with change fine, no problem. Life is full of change, how would it effect me or the way I deal with others? By the end of the book you have changed your tune somewhat. Even if not, you have become aware of the effects it can have on your outlook, your reactions, your life. Change, chosen or thrust upon means a bend in the road, a curve around the corner, an unexpected twist of fate. My life, as of late, had been filled with lots of little of these twists. From my car of ten years dying, to having to move my office (again) or losing a few friends due to the every changing job market. To you, the reader, these may seem like insignificant adjustments to one's daily life. I am, however, becoming confused at the severe effect these 'changes' are having on my...existence. Everything is seemingly unsettled as if I just experienced a personal earthquake. Now I need to clean up the mess, right? Yet I find myself seated in the middle of the room staring dumbfounded at the broken pictures and mementos, the shift in my furniture, and the smell of gas seeping into the room. What now? Well, for me, I put on a song. It is cheesy but it works. Maybe you've heard of it? Stand - Rascal Flatts (chorus) Cause when push comes to shove You taste what you're made of You might bend till you break Cause it's all you can take On your knees you look up Decide you've had enough You get mad, You get strong Wipe your hands, shake it off Then you stand... If you've never heard it I highly suggest it. It is one of those power, belt it out at the top of your lungs, because you can songs. You fall into it and by the end you feel a thousand times better! So the conclusion of this little rant is the power of change and of words. They can both be thrust, hidden, chosen and even denied. Any way you slice it, they have weight and impact. For a moment and some for a lifetime. Listen, Learn, Laugh, Love and most of all Stand. |
| What a great article. True leadership is something that has been lacking within all of the facets of our country. It seems that so many people are just trying to stay either just below the radar or they are such a huge blip that they drown out everyone else. There are two things I have seen in all of my hero's. 1.) They lead by example - This sounds so elementary but it is not followed or even attempted. Those that I have seen come into a leadership role within my business and or our country have primarily gotten there through extreme ambition and arrogance. Their support grows out of the mastery of PR and all of those who want the same 'spotlight'. The followers hanging on the coat tails bringing others (those who fly beneath the radar) along. this all in the hope that one day something good will happen. 2.) They fight the good fight. - This is a phrase I have picked up over the years working in the corporate world. There are those who fight the good fight and those who do not. Fighting the good fight means that if you come across something that is wrong, damaging, unethical, and or misleading you don't look away, you don't pass it off. You stand up and do everything you can do to fix it. Now this does not mean shouting 'FIRE' and or even placing blame and then leaving it to someone else to fix. This means taking a real look at how it happened, why it happened and how to ensure it doesn't happen again. Becoming an active part of the solution, not to gain political ground, or PR spin but because it is simply the right thing to do. These two traits, applied to any industry, any facet of any one person's life if embraced can be a real sign of leadership. Those who actively live by these things, who are not scared of making waves in the pursuit of a little justice for the greater good are the leaders we need. These are the people we need to support. The people who are truly trying to make a difference within our companies, our governments and our everyday lives. Too many of us are just trying to ' win the rat race ' or speeding to the top. The top means nothing if you didn't even look at the stairs of understanding and experience you climbed on the way up. Okay that is my 2 cents. Again, great article, please check it out. http://tenowls.blogspot.com/2010/08/defining-leaders.html |
| I am going to assume anyone reading this familiar with Monty Python. If you are not you are probably too young, sheltered and or need to seriously get a life. Sunday afternoon and on IFC is a marathon of Monty Python interviews from the six hour documentary. My husband is watching it and I am half listening. One of the things that did hit me about the interviews was the exorbitant amount of chaos surrounding the brilliance of these legendary comedians. Once again it got me thinking, and I realized that most successful, or brilliant moments are ofter times surrounded in chaos. Could it be said that brilliance produces chaos or chaos produces brilliance? Now there are certainly plenty of examples of brilliance without chaos, but if you think about it. These instances are few and far between. Are we able to think clearly when surrounded by mess because chaos is inherent in all our minds, even those of the great writers and thinkers... - Clive James, Novelist, poet and essayist. I remember the tales of the making of Jaws and the shark that refused to work. Which in the end, as Spielberg stated, made the movie what it is. NOT seeing the shark made it the film classic it is today. One of the characteristics of truly brilliant people is disorganization. Einstein is the most popular example but, there is also JK Rowling, Mozart, Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, just to name a few. I know that for whatever reason when I work, I perform better amidst the chaos. Under a deadline when the stack of projects is too many to count. When I write, the flow is easier when my life is chaotic. Perhaps it is the absence of thought or over thought that allows the spark of brilliance? "If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?" |
| It is a truth of the ages, all great things start with a small kernel. A dim flicker of inspiration. We all have them. Sitting in traffic, watching TV, listening to music, reading a magazine, exercising...it can happen anywhere and to anyone. The difference between us, as individuals, is which kernel gets our attention. I have kernels for lots of things, not just the drama of human nature. I have, on occasion, envisioned a new product, an inspired painting, a breakthrough clothing design, a fresh marketing idea, or deep realizations about religion, war or politics. For me, it is the kernel that becomes the eruption of a scene playing out in my head that gets my heart racing in excitement. Usually sparked by a song lyric or a melody, it will fade in and out of my mind and then finally materialize. Once I have that image, that scene, It becomes the embryo of my novel, slowly developing and evolving until it is ready to be birthed onto the page. In my most recent novel, Trust Me, the kernel was the image of two people, deeply in love, but forced into separation. They come together in the dark of the night, unable to hold back their feelings. Swept into a powerful embrace as they say goodbye. This image was the driving force for the entire novel, and yet in the end the actual scene was cutout of the book. The book has since been written, re-written, commented on, submitted, rejected, and considered. I have recently latched onto a new kernel and am nurturing it into fruition. At this juncture, it could take me to any number of places. Just depends on where the characters decide they want to go...but that is a conversation for another time. It makes you wonder what other's kernels were like? How did the kernel for Jaws erupt in Spielberg's mind, the music of Phantom for Webber, the Danny for King, or the Stewie for McFarlane? When was the last time you had a kernel and what did you do with it? |
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