The Realms of a Fantastical Mind

It's Blog Ring of Power Friday time!  Welcome to the Realm Pippa! Pippa’s a stay-at-home mum of three who spent twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals laboratory, She bases her stories on a lifetime addiction to science-fiction books and films. Somewhere along the line a touch of romance crept into her work and refused to leave. In between torturing her various characters, Pippa spends the odd free moments trying to learn guitar, indulging in freestyle street dance and drinking high-caffeine coffee. Although happily settled in historical Colchester in the UK with her husband of 19 years, she continues to roam the rest of the Universe in her head. For the other parts, don't forget to check out Part 1 with T.W . Part 2, yup, right here Part 3 with Sandra Part 4 with Dean   Part 5 with Terri.   So as Section 2 of BRoP let's get talking about The Writing Life BRoP:  What is your writing process? Do you follow a regula...

Welcome to Zvi Zaks, author of A VIRTUAL AFFAIR, come on in and have a seat.  We'd love to hear a couple of Words of Wisdom. Part 1 @ Sandra – Monday, Oct. 15 Part 2 @ Dean – Tuesday, Oct. 16 Part 3 @ Terri – Wednesday, Oct. 17 Part 4 @ T.W. -- Thursday, Oct. 18  BRoP:    Tell us about your route to success –how did you land your agent/publisher? ZZ:  I haven't been able to get an agent (yet) but the website  www.querytracker.net  helped me write decent query letters, and websites like Ralan.com helped me find publishers for VIRTUAL AFFAIR and two other novels, IMPLAC and A TRUE SON OF ASMODEUS.  BRoP:   What tools are must-haves for writers? ZZ:  The noted writer John Irving uses nothing more than a pen and paper, so that must be the only essential, at least for someone with his skill set.  I can't imagine again having to write without a word processor and access to the internet for research. BRoP...

I'm up on Dragons and Aliens and Wraiths Oh My , talking about the need for thick skin when getting a critique of my work. It all deals with the mindset.  Keep an open mind and remember that your critique partner is trying to help you get better. What do you do to don your armor?  Do you react badly to critiques? How do you get past harsh review?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

We need our computer, some paper and pens, or some nifty software so that we can organize the craziness of our books. With all these things, our greatest tools may be overlooked. What are they you ask... go ahead ask. I'll tell you what they are (IMHO) Critique partners, Beta readers, and Editors. Yes, your greatest tools as a writer are those people who take time out of their lives to hack and slash your baby into little red filled pages of suffering.  They are the reason we writers need to have thicker skin than a killer whale. They are also the reason why the successful author's books get read, and read and read over again. It's common knowledge that as a writer we get so involved with our babies, so much care taken to make every word choice perfect, that we don't see the blaring black holes in our plot, or the grossly overused metaphor that needs to go. We need those extra set of eyes to point out the flaws. So what is the difference between ...

Every writer needs a support group, a gathering of like minds to help that person grow and become more than just a teller of tales.  Most writers, I have noticed, are finding groups online or in their community.  With that in mind I had researched online and physical writers groups.  I've traveled the e-highways and was pleasantly surprised when I was searching for agents and stopped at Agent Query Connect. My search had ended, this was the perfect group for me. AQC is a forum for writers by writers.  This smorgusbord of information by hundreds of talented knowlageable and helpful people. It has been one of the highest assets of my writing.  Disscussing things such as the dreaded Query, (in short: a letter to agents asking for representation) to things such as what an agent looks for and how to make that pesky first sentence, paragraph and chapter able to hook the reader.  There is advice for any aspect of writing.  Each genre has it's own group...

The tension is building up.  I find that I try to distract myself from what I should be doing.  If I should be writing or editing, I'm reading.  If I should be critiquing, I'm editing my own work.  If I should be looking up vow ideas, I'm playing on FB or checking my e-mail.  If I should be working on wedding things, I'm doing anything but. Yes, I've been putting off everything by doing everything else.  I guess when I really need to do something, my lazybones says no.  Sigh... and so I need to find a way to force myself to get focused.  I know there is much to be done in many aspects of my life.  I want to keep editing my book, so as to be ready to start really writing next month on the sequel.  I want to keep up with the crits, some of my critique partners have addictive stories and I hate leaving a good story left unfinished, either in reading or writing one.  I need to work on my vows, I bare...

I've been trying to get my crap together. Organize what I'm doing when and trying to get things running smoothly. And what happens but I find myself snuggled up to my kobo reading series after series of my favorite authors. Nothing I wanted to get done, gets done and my poor book is again neglected like the house plant that hasn't been watered for weeks. It sits with it's pages drooping over the edge of the table, practically begging to get picked up and revised fully into the 5th draft. 'Please' it whispers in the dark of night as I lay sleeping, 'please remember I'm here.' so after 2 weeks of my horrible behavior of reading, in which I've been poking and prodding at other writers work, only because I've done so much to my own book that I can't help but see what the holes are, I opened my critiquing folder and had a crack at a 1st chap of a MS that I should have opened the day I got it. I'm not even saying that out of duty, oh ...

So today I have decided that my Friday mornings will be focused on critiquing fellow writers in their works (and hopefully continuing on into the weekend).  The problem I have with that is not the ones I critique from AQC but the ones from Critters Writers Workshop .  Perhaps it is because I do not talk or chat with the ones from the workshop.  I do not know them in any way.  I have no problems with the site itself or with the people but some of the work that is offered up for review is so raw it is as if they posted their rough drafts without trying to polish and enhance their work.  Some have written stories with not enough research, so it seems beyond reason of suspended belief and others are just choppy and need to learn how to flow more.  It may be that those were the very reasons for them posting on Critters but some how I would think that they would have done more research on what works better, what flows better and the like before showing their wor...

The thing that has been getting to me the most lately is writers who don't do the research.  If you live from the south, and you want to write about winter in the North East, come to me, I grew up here.  I lived in MA for half my life, the other half has been in RI.  So I know the area.  The point is, please find some one who lives there and ask them.  Don't just guess.  The person I'm writing about had a good story going but didn't do the research, it ruined it dramatically for me.  Mass loves their snow plows! My responses were, wait what? The entire time, I could't focus on the plot, or on the characters because I was too baffled by ice storm= pretty white fluffy snow the next day=a snow mobile in Salem MA in December. (Wait, what?) It was a great story, if I could get past the holes.  However, I barely got through the three chapters that were sent to me.  I feel bad about it, cause I was supposed to help critique it ...