Nine

I went and saw Nine tonight. It amused me that the story was, essentially, about an author/director with extreme writer's block. However, I found a lot of it quite thought provoking. Mostly that all of his movies were basically scenes from his own life. I remember my husband once talking about one of my projects and saying it was if I was living out my fantasies through these stories. In Nine, he was living out all his fantasies to have something to write about. Ultimately, that destroyed his marriage. I imagine my stories are in some form or another like that. What would have happened, if...? I don't think it is because I am bored with my life or I am unhappy with the choices I have made. I just think those thoughts can lead to entertaining stories. I love my life. I am happy living it and do not use writing to escape, anymore. Yet, I have found you have to write what you know. I use the people around me to create new worlds. I guess that is why my leading ladies are in most ways...me...because I am always looking at each new world through my eyes.

Sticking to Reality

Writing a new story can be really hard for me sometimes. Mostly because you never really know when you have crossed that line of reality. Being a work of fiction, I should have liberty to write whatever I want, right? Wrong. I have found that the further you stray from reality the less your readers like it. It's true. Unless you are writing something within a sci-fi genre, when you are writing novels, you have to stick with what would really happen. Therefore, when you are working with a story and one of your characters is a psychiatrist, you have to research the elements of the story they are involved in. The problem is when you get to a point of the story when you are not sure if you are being realistic, and you can't find help through the web. Then, your options become such that you have to start making contact with real people, who can tell you if it is realistic or not. You don't just write a novel. There is a lot of research that goes into everything, and when you step outside of those realms of reality, you get a lot of criticism. Trust me. I know!

Inspiration

Inspiration can come from anywhere. I learned that early on. A person, a song, a dream...today it was a song. My character developed before my eyes as I saw a new portion of her life come to be.

The intensity of any scene is difficult, especially when you are the kind of person who draws from their life. You always wonder how much of it you want to be you, and how much of it you don't want to be anywhere near to your actual experience. I've always believed in writing what you know. I feel sometimes, though, because of the way I write, some might believe me to live in a dark world. I don't. I live in a very happy world. It's just that those moments were once real and, if anything, I know how to draw from them when I need to.

My next book is dark, yes, at times, but it is full of hope as well. Like all my stories, right? I guess so. I guess if I had a message to share it would be that the hard times will come but there is always hope in tomorrow.

The First Day

Here I am blogging. I am told that a blog is a good way to get recognized, and if I want to sell books, I need to be recognized. I am not sure how helpful this will be, but here I am. What do I hope to accomplish with this blog? Well, I guess I hope that I can let you into my life for a little while, and in so doing maybe you will want to enter the worlds I have created. A little background?! My first book "The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory" was published about a year ago. It is a story about a young woman, Susan Watson, caught in the middle of one of history's most tragic events while trying to live and love. To start out, I would like everyone to know that this is not a book about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. It is about an account of a young couple. I guess I should have named it something different. I just recently had a writer write me, telling me that he felt my character, Emily, was unbelievable. He read a few pages off of my site and felt it did not paint the right picture of the time. Luckily, that day, I saw a new review on Amazon that made me feel much better. You have to learn to take the criticism with the love or you will never make it in writing. So many want to tell you how to write, what is the right way, but you have to do it your way. It's your story, tell it the way you see it. My second book is in the process of finding the right publisher. I will keep you up-to-date on that as well as let you in on my writing process as I write my third book. I will not tell you the name of this book, nor tell you too many details, but I will let you in on what is going through my mind as I create these characters. I must go now. I hope you stay tuned as I move forward and write my third book.