What’s in a name?

After attending a romance writing workshop this weekend, I left with a question humming around in my head: to take or not to take a pen name?

Getting INSPIREd – Toronto’s International Book Fair ~ Part one

Tonight’s the night where writers, editors and book lovers alike are flocking to the heart of downtown Toronto for INSPIRE! Book fair, from November 13th to 16th, hosted at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Literary line up for 2015 – my big Top 3 must do and see

Since I made the decision to actively pursue becoming published, the first thing I had to do was put myself out there by attending workshops and conferences, joining a chapter and critique groups, doing courses and webinars. My writing has grown so much in the last year, thanks to this process and next year I am upping the ante by venturing outside the small boundaries of Ontario.

Here are my Top 3 that I plan to tackle for the first time:

NaNoWriMo is here!!!

I am not going to waste the first 24 hours of my NaNo experience blogging. Instead, I am posting this funny little picture I crafted last night to give my fellow NaNo’s a giggle or two.

Let the writing craze commence! *crack of gun fire*

#NaNo Prep – Backstory, how to weave it and when to wave it

Backstory. The tricky, devious little beast. Often as writers, we make the cardinal sin of lacing our stories to death with details that have agents and editors rolling their eyes. Or, worse, forcing our readers to put down our books because they just can’t wade through the muck and mire of backlog we thought was ‘oh so important’.

But without it, how do we get them to care? Or understand our character’s motivations?

Therein lies the conundrum.

Capturing Shayne ~ introducing my NaNoWriMo work in progress!

Well, it’s official, ladies and gents.

I am a NaNo. To kick off for the main event, I officially opened my account and drafted my rough synopsis, and included an excerpt to tease and tantalize. Now, this story has been circling in my mind for some time and I had gone as far as sketching the bare bones, but that’s it.

So, I thought this would be the perfect project to tackle in the month long writing frenzy.

Now, just in case outsiders not participating in the event are unable to view my work in progress on the NaNoWriMo site, here is what I’ve posted:

NaNoWriMo – How to survive 30 days and 50k

November is almost here. Also affectionately known as “Movember” or, for writers like me, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

But what does this mean? For the non-writers of the world, or for those new the the wagon and unfamiliar with this hallowed month, to take the words from NaNoWriMo’s page:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.

Yikes! 50 thousand words in only one month?! Fear not, it can be done. Although this year would be my first actual attempt at joining in on NaNoWriMo, I’ve actually met this criteria many times over in my years of writing, so I know the impossible isn’t unacheivable.

So, before November 1st rolls around,  I think now would be an excellent time to think about assembling a NaNoWriMo “survival” kit.

Here are some ideas for what to include, my tried and true that have gotten me through many a writing-athon month and have proven not only successful but vital:

Me! Me! I have a Golden Ticket!

Who among us hasn’t seen the infamous movie Charlie and Chocolate Factory? (Either the original or the recent Johnny Depp redo, whichever floats your boat). Well, today I certainly could commiserate with the excitement and joy of young Charlie lucking out in finding the last Golden Ticket that allowed him to pass through the illustrious gates of Willy Wonka’s emporium to behold the marvels within.

Except, unlike Charlie, my ticket wasn’t for a sugar-laden Wonderland, but unlocked the doors of North America’s single largest publishing house, Harlequin.

Characters: how to create, mold and shape your own ~ Part Two

After establishing the preliminaries with your characters (name, age, gender and physical appearance), you now have to go a layer deeper. Beneath the skin.

As people, we’re all inherently flawed, and everyone, no matter how horrible they may seem, has at least one redeeming quality. What is viewed by one person as outstanding leadership may be perceived as bossiness to another. Loud and brash are the other side of the ‘enthusiasm’ coin. A compassionate, soft-hearted person could just as easily be condemned for being weak and blindly trusting.

Our characters should be so equally multifaceted and dimensional.

Characters: how to create, mold and shape your own ~ Part One

Character crafting is a tricky, tricky business. About as ‘wasckaly’ as Elmer Fudd’s elusive wabbit. How to create these ‘living/breathing’ people that exist only within the boundaries of the written page and the reader’s imagination?

It’s a lot harder then you might think and is the reason why so many writers constantly attend conferences, courses and workshops that deal with the fundamentals over and over and over again.

Even the published Pros! Which really opened my eyes as a newbie yet to be published, because even when you’ve ‘made it’, the learning and growth never really stops, or it shouldn’t if you’re serious about your craft.

In this post, I will address some of the basic fundamentals I’ve come to learn, keeping in mind that while there are rules, like in everything, once you understand the rules you will know when and how to break them.

So, for those of you who may or may not hear the ‘voices’, here are some steps to creating characters, or fleshing out the ones who are already speaking to you.