Well, I’ve managed to keep this up, and now I am on day ten. I feel like I should reward myself or something.

Lord knows I don’t feel like writing today–I’ve spent too much time goofing around on the internet and I’m sick of looking at my screen–but I’m doing it anyway.

As fast as you can, jot down ten ideas for books you want to write, limiting yourself to one sentence or phrase per idea. Then return to the idea that feels the easiest to describe more fully and give yourself the rest of your fifteen minutes to expand on it.

Well, I don’t think I have ten ideas floating around. I’ll do what I can, then.

1. an elite gymnast struggles with her dream as the pressures of national competition get to her, and as she deals with her longing to have a “normal” life versus going for the ultimate prize.

2. a high schooler starts dating a boy, and finds out he’s a prince. (yes, I know it’s been done, but it’s still fun)

3. a group of students with special powers are sent to a special school for training, not immediately realizing that the administration doesn’t necessarily have their best interest at heart.

4. an intense summer love story that ends in scandal and heartbreak.

5. a high school student breaks the status quo by challenging her school’s “tradition” of having segregated dances.

…. and that’s all I have for now. Good Lord, do people really have ten ideas floating around in their heads? Or more even?

The one I’d love to work on is #1–the gymnast. An elite gymnast has to make a LOT of sacrifices. I’d love to get in there and work through what she’d be thinking and feeling as she struggles with chasing her dream, but thinking of what she is missing in her “normal” life.

I have a lot of research material for this particular story, and I have somewhat of an idea of where I want it to go, but I have no idea how to execute it. I suppose that’s where drafting comes in. Or maybe free writing. Just to see what happens.

I want to touch on some of the technical aspects of gymnastics, some of the mental and physical work that elite gymnasts have to do, the sacrifices she needs to make, and the desires and longings. Of course there would be a potential romance–which is a built-in conflict in itself. And maybe one day she just wants to eat pizza and drink a Coke.

Gymnastics fascinates me, and I’m a sucker for a love story, and junk food is so deliciously naughty, so I’d want to incorporate all of those in. Elite gymnasts have to be strong–where could I sneak in some vulnerability–some chinks in the armor?

This is not a story I want to work on right away, though. I don’t feel *ready* yet. Ha. But it’s definitely something to explore down the road.

I don’t get a lot of STORY ideas, but I am always getting ideas for story elements. Certain character quirks or scenes that I’d like to happen, or backstory I’d like to weave in. I do enjoy losing myself in the worlds I build–if only I’d stop daydreaming about them and write them! 🙂

I didn’t write yesterday. 🙁

I’m not going to offer any excuses or reasons. I know I could skip over Day Seven and just go straight to Day Eight, but I really want to do all of the prompts in this series. So here goes.

First prompt:

Make a list of people you think could offer you good feedback. Freewrite about why those folks might work, and why it could turn into a disaster. How would you feel if they asked you to critique something they wrote?

Right now, I have one person who I feel could offer me objective feedback.: Julie Decker, better known as Ivy. She’s my go-to person, my friend, and someone I’ve worked with for years. Ivy is an editor and an aspiring author. Writing is her PASSION, her love, her dream. She is represented by two agents–one for fiction and one for non-fiction–and I’m really pulling for her.

Ivy has a way of giving thorough, objective feedback and delivering it in a gentle, yet firm way. I find that her opinions are almost always valid, and I trust and respect her 100%.

The only way a critique from her would turn into a disaster is if *I* wasn’t in the right state of mind to read her feedback. And I have been there. I’ve had to learn to grow that thick skin!

I have critiqued her work as well, and I love to do it when I have the time. I try to be honest, gentle, but firm with her as well. My problem is that I’m not overly critical about stories. If I like the story, I like it. I don’t dissect books or analyze them. Just look at my Goodreads “read” shelf. Most of my books are rated three stars or higher.

But I DO try to give “real time” reactions. Track changes is my friend. I tell exactly how something made me feel, if it confused me, or if it doesn’t fit in that moment.

Another person I love to get feedback from is Mandy Hubbard. I haven’t had anything for her in a while, and now that she is an agent, I probably can’t use her anymore. While Ivy’s words are firm and gentle and fairly positive, Mandy’s words are blunt, knee jerk reactions which really gave me insight on how my words were working in that particular scene.

Mandy was a great learning experience for me because she really helped thicken my skin. Her bluntness also helped me improve in my writing by leaps and bounds. Her instincts are dead on and almost always right. Proof of this: I’d gotten a manuscript back from her and was incorporating some comments I found valid (and let’s face it, I found 99% of her comments valid). While in the middle of revising, I got an email from an agent who’d read the entire manuscript and was interested in representing it, pending a few revisions. The revisions he’d requested WERE THE EXACT ONES I WAS WORKING ON per Mandy’s suggestions.

I hope that I am lucky enough to get another critique partner like Mandy, and I hope that *I* become a better partner. I read a LOT, so I know what works for me. I need to learn to be more critical (in a helpful way) if I want to help people achieve their dreams. As I said, I have a positive bias, and I don’t know if that’s helpful.

Prompt Two:

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your writing? What comes to you naturally and what do you have to work on? Bonus points – take out one of your favorite books and reread it. Highlight or copy out the best passages in the book (setting, pacing, narrative, dialog) that exemplify what you are trying to improve in your own writing.

Strengths in my writing:
– strong characterization
– relateable characters
– realistic, believeable dialogue that moves the story along
– emotional impact
– draws people in

Weaknesses in my writing:
– lack of description, especially in settings
– i have no clue what to do with all the characters i create
– can be sappy and/or cheesy
– lack of direction
– hard to market topics

As I said on Day Three, making up characters and people comes easily to me. I love daydreaming and getting to know these characters in my mind, brainstorming them, searching on the internet for pictures of them, their features, their clothing, their homes, etc. I can make up people and build their worlds forever. But then, I don’t know what to do with them. Or HOW to explain their worlds, SHOW them, without being boring. See, when I read, I tend to skip over a lot of description in the books, preferring to focus on the dialogue and the action. So when I write, I tend to skip describing things except in a very basic and rudimentary way. And I get a lot of feedback regarding that from critique partners–I NEED to do more description. So I try to do it in a way that doesn’t bore ME but satisfies those who have no problem lingering a bit over what a room looks like or how the sunset looks.

One of my favorite books is ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins. The pacing, the dialogue, the characters–everything in that book is what I emulate in my own writing. Here are some examples of my favorite passages in the book (although I really just love everything it).

Description:
The city is pearl gray.The overcast sky and the stone buildings emit the same cold elegance, but ahead of me,the Pantheon shimmers. Its massive dome and impressive columns rise up to crown the top of the neighborhood. Every time I see it, it’s difficult to pull away. It’s as if it were stolen from ancient Rome or, at the very least, Capitol Hill. Nothing I should be able to view from a classroom window.

Characterization/Description:
Every sentence she says has a word that’s emphasized. I snort to keep from laughing, and Beautiful Hallway Boy gets a strange coughing fit.

Dialogue:
“You have leaves in your hair.” Mer giggles and pulls one of the brown skeletons from St. Clair’s locks. He takes it from her, crunches it to dust, and blows it into her curls. They laugh, and my gut twinges.
“Maybe you should put on The Hat,” I say. He asked me to carry it before we left. I chuck my bag into his lap, perhaps a little too hard. St. Clair oofs and jerks forward.
“Watch it.” Josh bites into a pink apple and talks through a full mouth. “He has parts down there you don’t have.”
“Ooo, parts,” I say. “Intriguing. Tell me more.”
Josh smiles sadly. “Sorry. Privileged information. Only people with parts can know about said parts.”
St. Clair shakes the rest of the leaves from his hair and puts on The Hat.
Rashmi makes a face at him. “Really? Today? In public?” she asks.
“Every day,” he says. “As long as you’re with me.”

Those are just a few examples of the great writing that makes this my favorite epic love story ever.

Now, she makes the pacing immediate because of the first person present tense. I prefer first person past tense in my own writing, and I also prefer to read first person past… but when the story and writing is this good, I can and will overlook tenses. It’s not a deal breaker for me or anything.

So, basically, I want to be more like Stephanie Perkins, or Jennifer E. Smith, or Sarah Dessen, and other writers of the epic love story. I want to write a story with emotional impact, description, character development, pacing, and setting that resonates and haunts. I feel like ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS is a perfect balance of all these ingredients, and I want that for my writing, with my stamp, with my mark.

Describe a perfect day that would combine everything you have to do and everything you want to do, including writing. What changes can you make this week that will get you a step or two closer to being able to enjoy days like that?

I’m a night owl, so I guess my perfect day would actually be my perfect night. And I’m trying to think of a perfect day that’s not including a day at Disney World, because face it. I wouldn’t be doing any writing after a day in the Parks.

But… if I’m playing by the rules and making it a DAY thing, it would be like this:

I’d sleep until about 10:30am, peacefully without my bladder screaming bloody murder every two hours. I’d get up slowly, and actually be hungry for a breakfast of Cream of Wheat and bacon (or sausage). So I’d have that, and I’d play on my various social media sites. I’d cuddle up with a cat and read for a while, and not have to worry about litter box stank. And I’d fit in a yoga practice, either at home or at the studio. And I’d be so used to writing every day (thanks to WFMAD) that I’d crave my writing time and do anything I could to make sure I get it. (I remember when it used to be like that–I’m so happy that it’s coming back.) But, as I don’t like to be disturbed when I’m writing, nor do I like it when people are around in general when I’m writing, I’d need to wait until I was home by myself.

I’d have an amazing writing session, busting out the words like crazy. Thousands of words, with my only taking time to use the bathroom and grabbing some spaghetti to eat. GOOD words too, not junk that I need to cut the next day.

I’d also have time to play a video game or watch a DVD if I chose, or to just mess around on tumblr or something. I’d also get to hang out with Aidan.

I can easily make changes for some of these things to happen NOW. I can carve out more writing time in addition to the WFMAD prompts. (Hmm… does idea boards and brainstorming count as writing? Just wondering if it needs to be a hard word count.) I can set my alarm and actually get up at 10:30am (if not earlier), but that means getting to bed at a decent time. *Looks at clock* Too late for that now! As for the appetite in the morning, I can’t really control how hungry I wake up. It’s very rare that I wake up ravenous. Most of them time, I am not hungry for hours after I wake up. So I can have the Cream of Wheat and sausage another time in the day. Litter box stank is avoided when I stay in my room all day, which will be the case once the cold winter hits. And I can do yoga anytime, any where, so there is no excuse for me to be skipping out on that.

So…basically, I have all the tools to have a perfect day. I do most of my work from home, except for the occasions when I am called into an office or off on a film shoot. The yoga studio is a six minute walk from my apartment, or I can drive there fairly easily. I have a laptop, so I can write anywhere. I also have notebooks and pens which I always carry with me.

I just need to make it happen. For REAL, not just for play. Not just in a fantasy, but for real. It’s here. I just need to grab it.