Every Day is a Saturday

Since hubby retired I've lost all track of time. All my summer TV shows have ended. Once Upon A Time starts again next Sunday. Can't wait! Hey, did any of you catch the first episode of Sleepy Hollow? Wow! It grabbed me. I don't remember Irving's Ichabod Crane being so cute. Tonight I'll be enthralled in the second episode. Will  you be watching it?

I watch Duck Dynasty periodically--always good for a laugh and a few life lessons. I know of some Louisiana people that are insulted by them, but really, this bunch could be from anywhere. I'm originally from East Texas and I have family members that look, sound and act just like the Duck Dynasty bunch. Come to think of it, I sound a little like them too.

I'm once again wrapped up in Project Runway--the only reality show I'm dedicated to. Odd since I can barely sew on a button much less create something one could actually wear. My mother almost put me up for adoption during my Home Economics sewing project.

Without my TV shows, I never know if it's a Tuesday, Wednesday or a Thursday. Truthfully, every day feels like a Saturday. Nothing feels real since we left Oklahoma.

 And as you know I haven't blogged.

I suppose all bloggers need a break now and then. Unfortunately, a break can turn into a very long time. I loved my blogging habit. I think I started in 2006 or early 2007. Now, I'm in non-blogging mode. Time to get back on track.

This weekend daughter invited her dad to see the LSU-Auburn game with her. They left around noon and got back to Lafayette around 1:00 A.M.

 While they were doing their thing, I met with a couple of very dear writer friends. When we lived in New Iberia, I'd drive into Lafayette to visit Barbara and Ro. We were all members of the Writer's Guild of Acadiana. That was 27 years ago. After we moved away, the three of us still visited each other, entered contests and went to conferences together. We all eventually got published one after another--books, short stories or poems. Barbara sold ten Silhouette Romances before she quit writing. Ro  published poetry and short pieces and ghost-wrote a nonfiction book. Her novel Hero's Welcome is available now and I can guarantee it's a wonderful read--about the POWs in Louisiana. She studied under Ernest Gaines and her novel--prepublished--won all kinds of awards. I've read it several times but I can still remember my very first reading, and how excited I was that it  was so wonderful. You know how you feel when you get hold of a really good book. I read Hero's Welcome straight through without putting it down.

When hubby, daughter and I moved to Luling, Louisiana, we added another writer friend to our circle: Barbara Colley, author of several romances, a Women's Fiction/saga and the Maid for Murder series set in New Orleans.

I love these friends. I wish we could go back to the way it used to be--meeting every week, keeping each other motivated, encouraging each other. Sad to say nothing stays the same. Believe it or not, I think I'd like it if things were always the same... as long as 'same' was good.

What are you guys doing? Finishing up manuscripts? Blogging daily? Have you sold anything? Let me hear from you.

MEET PAULA MOWERY

 

I was lurking on one of my writer's loops the other day and "saw" Paula Mowery talking about deep point of view. That subject always fascinates me so I asked her to be a guest blogger. Paula is also an acquisitions editor for  Prism Book Group so she knows what she's talking about. You can take a look at her editor bio at www.prismbookgroup.com.
I know you'll enjoy and learn from her post.



DPOV Basics
by Paula Mowery

Through my experience of writing and having books published as well as editing for my acquired authors, I have developed some basic things to look for in terms of deep point of view. POV essentially refers to the character the reader is experiencing the story through at a given time. This perspective can be deepen or honed to allow the reader to connect even more strongly with the POV character. To have the reader feel as though she/he is experiencing what the character is experiencing is what the writer wants to achieve. This is the goal of DPOV.

Here is a mental checklist I use when revising my work or someone else’s:

1. Check for head-hopping. The writer must remain in the same POV

until indicating in some way that they will be changing (insert a wingding or start a new chapter). Please don’t make your reader dizzy by hopping from the thoughts of one character to another. When in a certain POV, write only what that character would do, say, think, observe.

2. Only write what the POV character can sense. The POV character shouldn’t give a physical description of herself/himself. For example: Her cheeks reddened. The POV character can’t see this.
Better: Heat rushed up her neck and into her cheeks.

3. Get rid of telling words and just say it. Even in a POV character’s internal thoughts, she/he wouldn’t think the words thought, felt.
For example: She thought he might be tired. He supposed she needed time to herself.
Better: He might be tired. She needed time to herself.

4. Show in order of occurrence.
For example: She shuddered after the knock at the door and wondered at answering.
Better: A knock on the door jolted her. She shuddered. Was it safe to answer?

5. How would the POV character really be thinking? Would the character use internal questions?
For example: He wondered if he should open the door.
Better: Should he open the door?

6. Show emotion; don’t name it.
For example: She was mad.
Better: She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.

DPOV is a skill in progress. Keep working to give the reader that close-up experience with your POV character.

Some resources that have helped me personally are The Emotion Thesaurus by Ackerman and Puglisi and Rivet Your Readers With Deep Point of View by Jill Elizabeth Nelson.

Paula Mowery is a pastor’s wife and former homeschool mom. She has always been an avid reader of Christian fiction. She began writing in the area of nonfiction creating three Bible studies which were self-published. However, she crafted fiction stories which she shared with friends and family. When one of her readers encouraged her to pursue publication, she joined American Christian Fiction Writers, learning more about the world of fiction. Her debut work of fiction is a novella published by Harbourlight, a division of Pelican Book Group – THE BLESSING SEER. She is also an acquiring editor for Prism Book Group.

Learn more about Paula at her blog – www.paulamowery.blogspot.com and you can connect with her on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Read more of her writing in her monthly columns on www.christianonlinemagazine.com.

Her new book releases Sept. 13th and is called Be The Blessing.

 

IWSG: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

JOIN HERE

Today (Wednesday) is IWSG day and it’s the two year anniversary! Founder Alex Cavanaugh has a really big announcement today, something that will take this group to the next level so you might want to skip on over there to learn what it is. IWSG is over three hundred strong. I haven't been a member for the entire two years, but I've loved and benefited from the months I've been involved. Thanks, Alex, for having a giving heart and a heart for all writers.

If you'd like to sign up for the Insecure Writer's Support Group so you can learn from and encourage others, just click on Join Here beneath the IWSG badge. But read my post first!

I collect writer's groups like I collect newspaper clippings, books, magazines and the other treasures that clutter my house. Just can't seem to pass up an interesting something. I still think about the hour glass sand timer I spotted in Target in Yukon, OK, and didn't purchase. It was an interesting something. I still want it. I keep wondering how many pages I could type in three or five minutes. Yeah, I have a timer ... but not an hour glass timer.

Guess you've pegged me as a procrastinating hoarder. Yep, that's me. I love, love, love collecting all sorts of little treasures ... and groups... and classes. And they take up my time.

Recently I've joined the new Women's Fiction Writers Association. I've learned a lot from their discussions on the temporary yahoo site. I have two WF novels in need of revision and the WFWA group will be teaching a course later this month on what to do with the middle of the book. That's usually my downfall--the middle. So in 2014, I want to devote some time to these two books and their middles.

I also belong to Romance Writers of America and several of the RWA chapters; Sisters In Crime and its chapter called Guppies, and some unknown free sites that I hardly visit anymore. At the end of the year, I plan to weed out a lot of these groups. They distract me.

I've always been distracted in my writing--only focusing and concentrating when I absolutely have a deadline. If I don't have a deadline, I may outline a novel one day then start playing around with short stories for Woman's World the next day, instead of starting chapter one of the novel I outlined the day before.

So...am I A.D.D. or something? Or just unfocused? Or lazy? Why can't I focus on mysteries or romance or women's fiction? We all know successful writers don't hop, skip and jump from one genre to another, never mastering any of them.

Tell me, do you have trouble focusing? What do you do to keep yourself on track? What carrot do you dangle? Has the Internet done this to us? Or do I just need professional help? Am I a sicko?

Please share your tips for staying on track because "like sands of the hour glass, these are the days of our lives."