WEEKLY CRAFT: Finding The Thread To Connect A Story

I have rewritten this post twice and finally scrubbed it completely and started fresh. Here's to hoping the third time is the charm.

I have no way of knowing how things work for other writers but for me developing a story falls into two very different categories. Category one is the pre-voices in my head. That quiet time where I go and turn over rocks with my muse and try to piece together a story idea. I love this stage of the game. Putting those first few pieces together is such a rush. Then the voices come and characters start springing to life and demanding attention.

I confess, I don't know how I fell about this stage of the process. In the beginning I don't always understand my own characters or how they fit into the story I have started to form in my mind. Usually my characters reveal themselves slowly, a piece here and there. The more they reveal the more threads I can pick up or reject until I can tie the story and the characters together.

This is an imperfect process and a frustrating one while I am trying to pull it all together. There have been times when I have had to shove the whole tangled mess aside and walk away before tackling it again. Yesterday I finally was able to pull these threads together for my work in progress, the Damn Novel.

My husband looked at me like I had finally gone of the deep end as I jumped to show him the two pages of notes I had done that tied my novel together. I fidgeted as he read it. My husband is the sweetest guy I know but he is also the most honest. If something I write is rubbish, doesn't make sense or needs to be redone he tells me.

He looked at me and then the pages and then handed it back. "So what happens next?"

I danced all the way back to the computer. He was hooked and I was ready to start pounding out the zero draft.

music: Jon Bon Jovi "It's My Life"

THE SERGENTS LADY by Susanna Fraser

I loved this book! Susanna Fraser does a wonderful job of constructing a gut twisting romance with some of the most believable and lovable character I have ever had the pleasure of meeting on the page.

Set against the wonderfully rich back drop of the Napoleonic Wars the story follows Lady Anne Arrington as she "follows the drum," traveling with a husband that does not love her and the English forces. The fact that Lady Anne has chosen to follow her husband adds a unique level of gritty realism and danger that is sometimes missing from more traditional historical novels. The best thing about Lady Anne was how well she was crafted. I laughed and cried with her and she has remained with me even though the story has ended. She was one of those rare literary gems - a completely believable heroine who has her own strengths and gut wrenching experiences only she can deal with. When she finds herself falling for the one man she could not have she was faced with at best more scandal and a ruined reputation and at worse destroying the career of the man she loves.

After the scandalous demise of her cruel husband, Lady Anne finds herself under the protection of the 95 Rifles and Sergeant Will Atkins. It did not take me long to start thinking of Sergeant Atkins as My Sergeant. He was hands down the best soldier I have every read on the pages of a romance, historical or otherwise. Will is a ran away who joined the army because he was not ready to get married and take over the farm. There are no deep dark secrets behind his soldiering and he is not Rambo. He is a natural born soldier, popular with everyone. Will is brave and chivalrous, and self-educated. He is also handsome and romantic as hell as he discovers that his feelings for Lady Anne go beyond anything he could imagine.

 Filled with a slew of villains and obstacles there were times I did not know if Anne and Will would get their happily ever after. When they finally where able to be together and over came everything that had been standing in their way I cheered.

This was a wonderful read and I highly recommend it.

5 STARS

The Work In Progress aka That Damn Novel

I used to hate books. As a young child I had a speech impediment and reading out loud in school was painfully hard. I would rather go to the dentist then to the library. When I was ten years old that all change. I was sent to the school library for one week during recess to help prepare for the book fair. The librarian, a very nice women who smelled like lemon drops had hurt her back so it was left to me to set up the Scholastic book fair displays under her sharp eye. That's when I saw it, a reprint of Lloyd Alexander's "The Black Cauldron." The librarian must have caught me admiring the new cover art as I set up displays because when my week was done she gave me a copy. It was the very first book I read on my own and the first book to every make me cry. I loved that book. That week changed my life.

I devoured everything I could get my hands on, preferring adventure stories with strong female leads. Tamora Pearce's Lioness series was a favorite that I reread often. However, I soon realized that there was not that many books with girl heroes out there.

Coming from a family of writers I decided to write my own. I have been scribbling stories for the past twenty three years. I have done this for my own pleasure and have never really pursued publication, mostly because I jump from story to story and write whatever pops into my head. My husband, the Darling Italian Rogue, after having moved my boxes of notes and story snippets from home to home, suggested I just write my damn novel already.

Never one to pass up a challenge, even a casual one, I took the bait. So I went through my old boxes and stumbled across a story that my brothers and sisters used to not only tell each other but would act out in our back yard. Those memories sparked ideas and my muse sat up and took notice.

So here's my goal - six months to finish one damn novel.

Wish me luck -
Story Scribbler

music: Byran Adams "On A Day Like Today."