The Writer's Block

Here you have your great story idea. You have it in your head how it is supposed to go and where its happening. You are set for that million-seller, award winning novel. Now you just have to get it down on paper, or word processor. Boom! You get to writing and the first character comes up. Your face gets that blank look to it and your enthusiasm fades. Who is this person? Where is he from? Do you have any background on him? How did he get to here? EEEEEEK! I will tell you this, sometimes, most of the time, you are not writing about a story. You are writing about a character, or several. Sometimes the character is so obvious that creation is easy. Joe Shmo is a mechanic who wins the lottery, or Jane Whatsherface moves to the beach into an old lighthouse. But is it this easy every time? Not on your life!  If you go into your story without some sort of idea about your characters, it is like going cross-country driving without ever opening a map. The journey is slow and arduous. There w

I have a tendency to jump the hurdle before looking how high it might be. In such, I stumble all over myself trying to get my balance again while looking like "I meant to do that". I think I may have jumped before looking again but I am so excited about it that I don't care if I fall or not. Sound wierd? Nah, I am just joining the Nanowrimo challenge. What is Nanowrimo, you ask? It means National November Writing Month. It is a challenge to any and all writers-to-be and old vets at the profession to dive in and write 50,000 words in one month. 50,000? Lottie, have you been smokin' the funny stuff? Nah, again. It can be done. I am going to try to be one of those who kick out the 50K for the win. I have been promising my readers a sequel to my book "Balance on the Terra" for a long time. Trust me, 50,000 words will give me a good kick start. I hope I have all of your support in this. I will keep accountable by posting my daily word count on here and on my Twit

Last week I read the newest novella by Michael Stevens, The Case of the Weeping Museum. The story takes me back to a time where I could follow the "private Dick" on his adventures where he could solve a case using his wits, charm and, usually, bad vices. This book has all of that. In this case, P.I. (Paranormal Investigator) Samika Gupta is brought in on a case where employees at a New York museum are scared senseless from hearing voices and crying and their manager can't get them to go back inside the museum. This is where our heroine detective comes in. I won't go into too many details, (spoilers are evil, you know) but I will say this. I usually don't read books like this. I am NOT saying it wasn't good! What I am saying is that I usually don't go for the old detective story types. It was very entertaining and I am glad that I read it. I half expected the detective to end up to be "Sam Spade" instead of Samika Gupta. The old trench coat and p

Since I have started writing seriously, I have often wondered if I needed a website. I mean, is it really necessary to advertise myself along with my books? I am shy in reality so boasting about myself and my work has been a slow process. I have got to thinking lately, however, that author websites do give the readers a heads-up about new material and lets the reader get to know the author. The thing that brought this to mind was when I was checking Terry Brooks’ website. I have been keeping track with his writing for years and now his Shannara books are going to be a tv show on M-TV. I was really getting into the articles when it hit me. I go to these sites all of the time to keep track of my favorite authors like Terry Brooks, Zoe Saadia and Heather Graham, so others must do the same thing! Why not mine? Well, probably because it isn’t up yet, but it will be. I encourage everyone to look up their fave authors and check out their webpages. There is so much to see. I love finding