Procrastination or delayed discipline

cj Sez: It used to be that I worked better when I had a short-term deadline. That said, I thought if I gave myself a deadline, I’d have the incentive to keep going on the WIPs I have on my computer. Found out that’s not true.

   I have managed to bury those deadlines under weeks of procrastination that I called “research.” It seems that the more I research, the less creativity I have. I’m getting bogged down in discovering fascinating facts, and the stories are suffering. I suspect I’ll be scrambling in the last few days to get finished.

   I suppose some of you might call that procrastinating. Nope, I’m calling it delayed discipline.

How about you? How do you kick research to the curb and stay on track?

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Speaking of research, I try to make it my job to learn something new every day. Today I came across the word "bildungsroman" while I was spiraling down a research rabbit hole looking for more information on coming of age stories. In literary criticism, a Bildungsroman is a literary genre

"Bildungsroman is the combination of two German words: Bildung, meaning 'education,' and Roman, meaning 'novel.' Fittingly, a 'bildungsroman' is a novel that deals with the formative years of the main character - in particular, his or her psychological development and moral education. The bildungsroman usually ends on a positive note with the hero's foolish mistakes and painful disappointments over and a life of usefulness ahead. 

   "The term coming-of-age novel is sometimes used interchangeably with Bildungsroman, but its use is usually wider and less technical."

(Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bildungsroman)

   I’ve seen the word before but never committed its meaning to memory until now.

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“The Apprenticeship of Nigel Blackthorn” is a coming of age story from author Frank Kelso, a friend of mine: https://amzn.to/2V3gmZT

In 1853 Texas, thirteen-year-old Nigel Blackthorn is the spoiled son of a Protestant preacher. When his missionary family fall victims to a Comanche attack, his easy childhood crumbles in an instant. How will he find the grit to survive?

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You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

Free on Kindle Unlimited at the time of this post:  DEADLY STAR \

A fast-paced read: Mirabel Campbell must learn how to stay alive in a covert world of political intrigue where the unexpected is the norm, and she’s not the kind of woman who’ll wait for anyone else to make her decisions. She made a promise to a dying friend to find out what’s so special about that tiny point of light in the sky, and she intends to keep that promise.

Little note: Print copies of Choosing Carter and Deadly Star are becoming scarce as Simon&Schuster winds down their support of the Crimson Romance imprint. HOWEVER, you can support an indie book store and order an autographed copy of my books here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

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BOING !

cj Sez: It may or may not feel like it where you are right now, but I’m here to inform you that SPRING HAS SPRUNG … can mosquitoes be far behind?  If you live where I do, they’re already here.

   A brief lesson on the vernal equinox, one of two equinoxes in a year . . . the other is the autumnal equinox (not to be confused with “solstice”—when winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, and the summer solstice is the longest day of the year).

   Equinox: There are only two times every year—September and March—when the Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun. It’s that instant of time when the plane of Earth’s equator passes through the center of the sun...the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night is nearly equal.

    Seasons are opposite on either side of the Equator. The equinox in September is known as the autumnal (fall) equinox and considered the first day of fall in the Northern Hemisphere, but it's known as the vernal (spring) equinox in the Southern hemisphere and is their first day of spring.

(Source Attribution: various Google sites)

cj Sez:  There must be a story idea in there somewhere. What if the instant that the equinox occurred could trigger some kind of awful device that put all of earth in jeopardy? What if the world powers have hired the protagonist to find the person(s) holding the earth ransom, but he has only a few short days to prevent Armageddon?

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Now a brief lesson on “The Royal Order of Adverbs” as presented by author/editor Joyce Sterling Scarbrough.

Example one:

Verb:               Dad walks

Manner:          impatiently

Place:              into town

Frequency:     every afternoon

Time:               before supper

Purpose:          to get a newspaper.

Example two:

Verb:               Roger naps

Manner:          

Place:               in his room

Frequency:      every morning

Time:               before lunch.

Purpose:         

   Joyce also says: In actual practice, of course, it would be highly unusual to have a string of adverbial modifiers beyond two or three (at the most). Because the placement of adverbs is so flexible, one or two of the modifiers would probably move to the beginning of the sentence: “Every afternoon before supper. Dad impatiently walks into town to get a newspaper.” When that happens, the introductory adverbial modifiers are usually set off with a comma.

You can follow Joyce on her Facebook page: https://bit.ly/2HPOIMv

Her amazon author page:  https://amzn.to/2TTMGC8

Her “Blue Attitude” blog at http://joycescarbrough.blogspot.com/

cj Sez: On a personal note, outdoor-

sometimes-indoor, amiable lump, Buster, was lounging peacefully on my lap last week when something, the TV or a catmare, startled him. Bless his heart. 

   Sensing an opening over my head, he made a mad dash for safety and used my face as a launching pad. Fortunately, he left only one slice in my cheek and a couple of punctures. Prescriptions for antibiotics and antibacterial creams later, I now have more facial character and another story to tell. I am extremely happy I wasn’t twenty-one when this happened, else there would be a plastic surgeon’s bill on the horizon. (I tend to scar easily.) It’s amazing how quickly one’s life can change or be changed. I could use some prayers that the injuries continue to heal without infection and leave little or no scarring. Please, and thank you.

   That’s all for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

Free on Kindle Unlimited at the time of this post:  CHOOSING CARTER           

Bryn McKay goes on a rafting trip on the untamed Yampa River with her best friend, naturalist and outdoor guide Carter Danielson—and she wouldn't mind if things turned romantic. Unfortunately, Carter is a recovering alcoholic who shies away from commitment. That is, until the two of them stumble across her revenge-seeking brother, and they must flee for their lives.

Will Carter figure out where his heart lies? Will Bryn have to face her biggest fear: watching someone she loves die?

Pick up a copy to find out how their story ends.

Little note: Print copies of my books are becoming scarce as Simon&Schuster winds down their support of the Crimson Romance imprint. HOWEVER, you can support an indie book store and order an autographed copy of my books here: The Haunted Bookshop  

   Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles), will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

Drop me a note to sign up for my quarterly newsletter: cjpetterson@gmail.com 

cjpetterson/author on Facebook   

Amazon Central Author Page =  https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj

Simon&Schuster Author Page = https://bit.ly/2uo1M0Z

Get your green on !

cj Sez: Wishing you the luck of the Irish.

   I spent March 16 at the Mobile Literary Festival, and I’m sorry if I missed seeing you.

Carolyn Haines, Susan Tanner and Rebecca Barrett, the Madcatters who write about Trouble, the Sherlock of Cat Detectives joined by moderator Cj Petterson at the Mobile Literary Festival for a panel on "The value of shared characters.”

   The whole day was a fun event—complete with best-selling authors, a TV celebrity author, and the managing editor of a newspaper. We’ll have to do it again next year. Let’s plan on it, shall we?

*** 

Tips from my personal How To folder together with points gleaned from one of today’s workshops:  

   1.      Don’t wish it, don’t dream about it, do it…Decide To Write.

   2.      Make a plan to write at least a paragraph a day for three months. (I’ve read that it takes that long to create a habit.) If you don’t have a story idea in mind on day one, start journaling. Whether it be a personal morning journal of the day’s plans or an evening journal of the day’s events, write something. You’ll find your “writer’s voice” in those journals, and you never know when the words in them might become the nucleus of your next novel.

   3.      Commit to learning the process … the do’s, the don’ts, and the must-haves, especially good grammar, punctuation, and spelling skills, either your own or a hired proofreader.

If you’re serious about becoming a published writer, those three bullet points will help you get started on that path.

***

That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

Mirabel Campbell is a brilliant but bored scientist and amateur astronomer who wants to trade in her microscope and telescope for a career with a little more excitement. When she spots what she thinks might be a new comet in the California desert night sky, she abruptly gets her wish and her life is transformed into nothing less than high adventure. International intrigue, hired assassins, and a romantic hero with an Irish accent abound in the midst of all that fast-paced excitement.

OPENING EXCERPT:  I am not going to die. I am not going to die. Mirabel squeezed her eyes shut as the plane’s wheels lifted off the tarmac of the small landing strip on the outskirts of Mendocito, California. Her throat worked, but she couldn’t swallow her fear of leaving the ground with nothing but a thin slice of sheet metal beneath her.

NOTE: Print copies of my books are becoming scarce. HOWEVER, you can support an indie book store and order a signed copy of my books here: The Haunted Bookshop

Drop me a note to sign up for my quarterly newsletter: cjpetterson@gmail.com 

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Amazon Central Author Page =  https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj

Simon&Schuster Author Page = https://bit.ly/2uo1M0Z

You are cordially invited...

cj Sez: If you’re in the Mobile, AL, area, here’s a (FREE) writer and reader festival you won’t want to miss:

   Attend a workshop, sit in on an author panel, admire the  artistry of Maurice Sendak on display at the library, brown-bag it at the noon poetry readings, buy signed copies of local authors’ books. Whew! Lots of stuff to see and do. I hope to see you there.  

***

   At 2:00 a.m. this morning, you were supposed to “Spring Forward” and set your clock one hour ahead to mark the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. I remembered to do that before I went to bed Saturday night. Did you?

   By the by, the Vernal Equinox, aka “Spring,” arrives on Wednesday, March 20, promptly at 5:58 p.m. Eastern time…no clock adjustments necessary.

***

Laissez les bons temps rouler! 

“Oui, cher.”

   The 2019 Mardi Gras season in the Mobile area started on February 2 when the krewe De La Dauphine rolled on Dauphin Island and ended on March 5, Shrove Tuesday, aka Fat Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras. The formal Mardi Grass balls and the sixty major parades are now a fond memory as revelers recover and count how many Moon Pies, stuffed toys, and beads they caught. 

   There were 60 major parades in the area, and the one that impressed this writer most was the Infant Mystics event—their theme was “Turn the Page.” All the floats were constructed and decorated to feature a book. Way to go, Infant Mystics!

cj Note:  The parade photos© were taken by The Haunted Bookshop. You can support an indie book store and order a signed copy of my books here: The Haunted Bookshop

         

          ***

Addenda:

A last note on literary trusts from Jane Friedman:

https://us2.campaign archive.com/?e=404abdabf3&u=f8b16374ec668e8d6004fcc38&id=25b2e2c0c8

***

That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

Choosing Carter has a little mystery, a little adventure, and a little romance . . . 

Bryn McKay has always tried to save her brother from his risky choices, but a near-tragic truck accident landed him in prison and her in the hospital. Now, a year later, he's converted to radical Islam and escaped, vowing revenge on the people who put him there, including his sister.

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A podcast and a bit about character arcs

cj Sez: PODCAST today

I’m joining some of my fellow Bienvenue Press authors for a Romancing the Reader podcast later this afternoon (March 3), when we’ll talk about our stories. 

   We record at 3 p.m. CST, and the podcast will be available shortly after. Be sure to drop by the Bienvenue Press Readers and Writers Facebook page for more info and a link to the Romancing the Reader page to have a listen.

***

Okay, do you know the real answer to the question, What is a character arc?

s

   I’m guessing most of my writer/readers know the answer. The simplistic answer is "The arc is the change that a character undergoes during the course of the story." But what causes that arc? Two things come to mind.

   A strong, believable character will have a definable goal and will have some kind of fear that could prevent her/him from achieving that goal. I’m not talking about a phobia, although that certainly may be an abiding fear. I have a phobia about spiders, but I learned to stop squealing when my sons were small because I didn’t want to teach them by example to fear the creepy crawlers. That was my change, my personal character arc.

   Maybe a character’s goal is to be successful in a new career but is almost irrationally afraid of failing…again. What kind of personality does that create? Another character, having been rejected once, may fear/resist commitment to another relationship. Then, in spite of that fear, s/he develops an attraction to another character (a popular conflict in romance stories). Characters’ goals and fears and backgrounds drive their responses, emotionally, physically, and verbal, throughout the story.

   To help me understand exactly how all the characters in my stories will react and what they will say, I write character bios before I begin her/his path through the story. Of course, I start with the protagonist and then the supporting characters. I also write one for the antagonist, and I give him/her a vaguely sympathetic flaw to further complicate his persona. My character bios are never static until I type “The End.”  I will edit/emend most all of the bios as I write the story.

   Deciding what I want my characters to fear establishes their internal conflict. The challenges they face and how they respond causes them to change over time. They learn from their responses. Good or bad, they are no longer the people they were at the beginning of the book. There is a change that readers can identify and perhaps commiserate with. A multi-layered, conflicted personality is what makes the character interesting to the reader.

   I’ve used this cartoon many times…get your character up a tree then throw rocks at her/him. Give them one problem after another, hurdles that cause them to confront fears and make a yay or nay decision…that a plot point, a turning point, a point of no return for the character, like when Bruce Wayne decides to become Batman.

   It’s during the challenges, the external conflicts, and the characters’ responses to them, in spite of or because of internal conflicts/fears, that the character changes. That’s my definition of a character arc.

   What about authors? Our first goal is to write a marvelous story that people will want to read. There are others that come after, like getting it published. But what do authors fear? I think my biggest author fear is writers’ block. However, Fiction University’s Facebook page linked to an interesting article that started out with “What’s your deepest darkest fear? And what are you going to do about it? The camera’s rolling.” Read the column here:  https://bit.ly/2GVtME4

***

   That’s it for this post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

   See you next week?

cj

Review excerpt: "Botanist Dr. Mirabel Campbell falls into a deadly scheme of murder, political intrigue and potential biochemical warfare when she spots an unnamed star in the night sky. Unaware that she has innocently stumbled into an elaborate plot which involves the FBI, CIA, foreign diplomats and murderous assassins, Mirabel must figure out what and who is behind the deaths of people near and dear to her." (cj Sez: Things get even more complicated when her CIA ex-husband gets involved, and she discovers she’s still in love with him.)

   Free on Kindle Unlimited. 

NEW: Buy a signed copy of my books from my local book store: The Haunted Bookshop.

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