Category Archives: WIPs

Six Sentence Sunday- 4/17

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Welcome to another Six Sentence Sunday, a project that even YOU- yes YOU, unpublished, fledgling, wannabe, aspiring writer can participate in! Got a blog and at least six sentences? Sign up HERE and share them each Sunday!

I skipped last week because I didn’t want to join in again until I had something to share from the new project. I hesitate to call it a novel because if I do, then I get all overwhelmed and stop working on it. That said, I have some sentences from said new project.

In this scene, Maxine, a buxom, attractive, but terribly vain and overly self confident woman is stewing over a man she wants, but seems to be hopelessly attracted to her less attractive, more homely, girl-next-door friend. I love this scene because I can almost see her pouting and stomping her feet in a childish fit:

Maxine plunked her debit card onto the counter and slid it toward Ruby, not even listening to what the old lady was mumbling about.

Her mind was consumed with Malcolm. How had Renee managed to get an invite to dinner? And why had he seemed so happy to be sitting with her? And why hadn’t he shown the least bit of interest towards Maxine? She was irresistible—many, many men told her so.

That’s it for this Sunday! Please check out the other entries at  or via the hashtag #sundaysix or #sixsunday on twitter.

Saturday Sprint (on Sunday): Making life hard

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Yesterday’s DIYMFA exercise was our usual Saturday Sprint, but after a very stressful week rife with personal issues, I spent my Saturday sleeping and generally lazing about. It was much needed rest, but I didn’t get anything done in the way of writing. I did a lot of thinking, but thinking isn’t writing.

I did my Sprint today, answering the following questions:

Character name:  I decided to go with a new character, Maxine Donovan. She is every selfish, pretentious, self absorbed and vain woman you know, times ten. The only relationships she maintains are those of her friendship circle, simply because they have known her for so long that they’re used to her. As she approaches her late 30′s, she is desperately seeking a man to provide the finer things in life for her and to take care of her and will stop at nothing to make this happen– even attempt to steal a man away from a friend who deserves to have someone good in her life.

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#DIYMFA Homework Assignment #2: TADA! Character Compass

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Today’s lesson at DIY MFA focuses on showing, not telling, and using the TADA  (Though Action Dialog Appearance) Character Compass.

In the (very teeny) diagram to the left,  the outside of the compass represents the maximum amount of that attribute. The closer to the center, the less that attribute was used. In the example from today’s lesson, the compass represents an excerpt that is heavy on dialog and action, and moderate on thought and appearance– so we’re saying how we feel about things and not talking about what our characters are feeling or how others are reacting to what our characters say or who they are.

Our homework assignment was to choose a passage and do a compass to indicate the levels of TADA used. I chose a passage from Nowhere Man, since I just finished it and know it best. And it’s short. HA. This is the passage I’m analyzing and below is my TADA compass:

I purposely chose a dialog heavy snippet because I want to see, when I am in the thick of conversation between my characters, if I am doing more telling than showing. From my diagram, it looks like I am big on dialog and action. My character is the tortured type, so there is some thought, a lot of self talk and introspection. Not a lot of appearance, or reaction of one character to another, though it is there, like when she is pacing.

I see , though, that I could probably use a little less talky and a little more showy… but overall, I think the dialog works for them because it’s back story and I’d much rather have my characters give hints and clues via dialog than type up three long boring paragraphs about their family histories.

Hopefully my fellow DIYMFAers will come tell me if I’m right in my analysis or not!

#DIYMFA Writing Sprint #1- Breaking out of the comfort zone

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Today was the first Writing Sprint for DIY MFA. The theme today was breaking out of the writer’s comfort zone, breaking old habits that we settle into, so that when we aren’t comfortable, we can’t write.

I typically write at home, on my bed. I have a little lap desk that I set up and here is pretty much where I’ve written anything I’ve ever written. I don’t have a desk, so here I sit, day and night, writing. I normally have complete silence… if the TV is on, it’s muted. I also like to have some music playing, at least in one ear. And sometimes, even if I don’t have music, I have ear buds to cancel out any noise from outside, or my neighbor upstairs, whom I call THE STOMPER. One of these days, my prompt is going to be what THE STOMPER is doing up there, making all that noise.

Today, to break that comfort, I went to the Cafe at my local Barnes and Noble bookseller. And instead of writing on my laptop, I took a pen and a pad of paper. How did I do?

I’ll be honest, it was hard. My brain moves much faster than my fingers do, but I have to slow down while I’m writing so I can read it later to type it up. And then there was the finger cramping… I was able to push through and get down about 1500 words in about an hour and a half. On my laptop, once I get going I can get 1000 words in about 45 minutes. So it seems it took me twice as long, but at least I got it done.

I just typed up what I wrote, which is a scene from my next project. It’s also a scene from what I estimate to be about the middle of the book. I’m a linear writer, so I will actually write forever just to get to a certain point. I’ve been delaying starting this project because I don’t have all my ducks in a row.

No more. Today, the project started!

I got a total of  1,504 words in today. Great start.

Six Sentence Sunday 3.28

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It’s another Sunday! Time for another Six Sentences! I’m still enamored with my recently completed piece called Nowhere Man. Here is a blurb:

He walked around the perimeter of the long, strip-mall like row of rooms, counting the numbers. 618… 619… 620… at 621 he stopped, took a deep breath and rapped his knuckles on the door twice.

It opened almost immediately. The warmth of the room and the scent of something—soup maybe, rushed from the room in a blast of domestic comfort and hit him head on. In sweat pants, a t-shirt and bare feet, the girl stood in the doorway.

“You never told me your name.”

The full text of this piece is located here at my archive. It is nowhere near perfect, but I liked it and my goal was to finish it.

Check out the other Six Sunday authors here!

WiP Wednesday 3.23

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I find myself WiPless today, since I’ve finished my open project. I have a few things in my mind, rolling around. I am going to start a new project, original fiction, based loosely (in idea form mostly) on a group of ladies that I brunch with monthly. I still also have Mama Said, which has been at a standstill for awhile. Maybe around Mother’s Day people will feel generous with their stories and sayings for Mom. I realized it was going to take much more work than I could dedicate at the moment to get Mama Said off of the ground, so it’s been simmering for a bit.
I am deep in the throes of getting ready to fly to New York tomorrow. I have my list of places I really need to go, like The Strand Bookstore and Word and MoMA and the Met. I’m not much of a touristy kind of person… I don’t need to see Lady Liberty and all that but I do like neat, interesting places. I’m pretty excited. And hopefully I’ll get inspired to do some planning on the new project.
Or ya know, think up a new fanfic story. *shrug* I can’t help myself.

#WiPWednesday 3.16 & other stuff

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It’s Wednesday again!

Just  quick update on my WIP. I hammered at it some last week and spent a good amount of time pushing the story forward past an important point over the weekend. I sent it to a small group of people to check out and give some feedback and plan to work on it some this week.

I don’t know if it’s the time change or just general fatigue but I’ve been getting home around 5:30 or 6 and I just feel like passing out. Like a lot of writers, it is my “night job” or my hobby. I can’t write all day as I’m at work, so by the time I get home I’ve already had a full day. Then I try to read a little– it gets me in the writing mood, then I settle down to write by 7 or 8pm and I’m already yawning.

This happens at the beginning of the week, and maybe it’s beceause Monday and Tuesday are my hit-the-ground-running days. Wednesday- Friday tends to be less taxing, so I’m not as tired when I get home.

So  I said all that to say that I haven’t worked on my WiP since Monday, but I’m not feeling bad about it because I pounded out some words over the weekend. Last week I was at 18,500 or so words. As of right now I am sure I am over 27K. I wanted to keep this story short. I guess I am just incapable of that. Ha!

The other night on twitter, it must have been last weekend, I wrote about 6K words on a Sunday. Not a huge deal for me as I was on a roll and in the meat of the story. Someone responded that it was ‘amazing’. I added the caveat that I won’t likely keep all 6k, but I write them and count them. In editing, I cut a lot back, rewrite a lot, rephrase and prettify. What started at 6k might only end up 4k.

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Six Sentence Sunday 3.13

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I’m going to try to join in on this latest trend called Six Sentence Sunday, where you post six sentences from your current WIP. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I write a lot of sentences and my stories move slowly… six random sentences doesn’t tell you much of anything.

Well, I picked a set from some that I wrote last night. It’s erm.. PG-13, though I am sure I don’t have any underage readers. As a primer, this story is about a man who becomes homeless and meets a woman who tries to help him. In this scene, he accidentally sees something he wasn’t intended to see.

So….here goes!

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#WiPWednesday, 3/9/2011

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It’s that time again! WIPWednesday is when we talk about what’s going on with our latest projects. And once again I actually have an update. Huzzah!

I must confess that I really like my latest story. It’s a departure from the stories I’ve written before in that it’s a bit dark, but not depressing. The topic is serious, but the story isn’t sad. Rather, it’s real and it’s vivid and also hopeful.  I want my readers to really root for my main characters.

I started on this story about a week or so ago. I didn’t title it until this weekend: Another Day in Paradise. If you’re humming the Phil Collins song under your breath, then you know where I’m going with this new piece and I’ve been really digging into it.

It is about a man who, through a simple mistake and a Domino effect, becomes homeless. He’s been homeless for a year when a woman, who seems more like a guardian angel, inserts herself into his life. He is both grateful for and afraid of her because of what she might force him to face about himself and his situation and what he needs to do to get back on his feet. As well, she’s got some things she needs to come to grips with and though she wants him to serve a purpose in her life, he’s not sure that that’s the right move for either of them.

I find this story line intriguing, especially as I watch people like Ted Williams literally pluck a Golden Ticket from the sky and go from homeless to famous in 22 seconds. He was overwhelmed with opportunities, getting offers left and right from everyone from the Cleveland Cavaliers to a guest spot on the Dr Phil show. However, everyone expected him to be so grateful for the opportunities that he wouldn’t dare screw up. He’s human, though. Fallible. It happens. Today, Ted seems to have a better grip on his life and has remained ever hopeful, grateful and happy.

Stories like these really interest me. In my research, I have been digging through some books about the homeless, namely Pinkie: Stories of a Homeless Man and websites like Underheard in New York, a project where four homeless men are given a pre-paid cell phone and are tweeting about their experiences. It is eye opening and humbling to say the least.

I don’t intend to lift experiences from these sources. I want to capture the emotion, though and push it toward my own idea of what it’s like to not have a penny to your name and no one to turn to. A homeless man named Ben wrote, “But you see love on the streets—sometimes more love.”

That’s what I want to capture.

I am currently at 18, 549 words. I was hoping this would be around 20K, but it’s looking like it’ll be more. I write a lot and then edit out the unnecessary, so who knows. I want a complete story, so however long it has to be, that’s how long it’ll be. I’m excited to move toward finishing it.

I was going to post a snip, but I can’t really find one that will work.  To make any sense, it would be too long. Just have to wait until it’s done!

WIP Wednesday 3/2/2011: Something old, something new

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I actually sort of have an update for WIPWednesday!

Despite my groaning about doing another fanfic story, another idea crept into my head and I’ve been plugging away at it for a few days. I don’t want to pay too much attention to it, because if I do, it’ll go away. I think it has legs, though. It’s a bit different than I’ve written before, but then again, we all know I hate writing the same story over and over. I have issues with straddling the line between a complex plot and just way too much going on. I am hoping this will be a shortie (and in my world, a shortie is about 20K words. I know).

After that, I have an idea brewing for something original. I’m not as blazing about it as I was a few days ago, though. Mostly because trying to develop the story arc and define my characters has me drawing a blank. I may have just got caught up in a moment and let myself get overly excited about something. Who knows. It’ll come, if it’s coming.

I’ve official put away Caged Bird Singing. I’m about to remove it from my Writers Write page. It just never came together for me and I feel like if I let it go, I can stop trying to go back to it and torturing myself with the fact that I can’t get past chapter 1. I actually was reminded of this project when I read today’s post at Fuel Your Writing:

Don’t Let the ‘B’ Word Ruin Your Writing

Alight with potential, you settle in to write this thing. You eke out a few rough pages, hit ‘save’ and close the project down for the day. In the ensuing weeks, you tell everyone that you’re writing a book. You come to relish your new self-generated identity as an author. Visions of you sitting next to Oprah fuel your days.

There’s only one problem in this new, better version of yourself. After that initial foray into the content of the book, you’ve stopped actually writing the book.

Your fantasy of yourself, once so seductive and energizing, has coiled back on you like a snake let loose from its charmer’s basket. Your dream is now coming back to attack you – as a monstrous, frightful demon.

You avoid writing anything, and soon you also avoid all the people you told you were writing abook. You can’t stand the innocuous question that drives you crazy: “How’s the book coming?”

Convinced that you’re a putty-spined loser, you let the vision of writing the book fade as you settle back into your routine. Who were you to think you could write a book, anyway?

This was me, right after I decided I could write a book.  I was intimidated by the book. And then the book stopped happening and I stopped writing a book. The same thing has happened with MamaSaid. I REALLY want to put something out there, but it is going to take more work than I originally planned and by the way, I WAS WRITING A BOOK!!!!!! Ugh. That one will resurface, I am sure.

So, fellow writers…. what are you working on???