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Writing Group

Posted in Uncategorized on May 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Heading down to Plymouth to meet with my other writing group this morning. And It’s a beautiful spring day for the drive… for a change! I always jump off Route 495 and take the back roads when I get near the southern end of Plymouth… delightful scenery as I maneuver past cranberry bogs.

There are only three in this group, but boy, do we accomplish some serious editing in two hours! We have settled into a system of concentrating on just one submission in each session. Progressing page by page, even paragraph by paragraph, we offer not only critique, but specific suggestions to clarify the story, from changing a word to transplanting information into future chapters to converting a narrative passage into dialogue.

Each time, as I walk back to my car, my head is usually spinning with ideas, and I can’t wait to get back to my computer and begin the revision.

Thanks to Pam and Shirley for making this group so delightful and valuable to a first-time novelist!

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Fixing the Character

Posted in Uncategorized on May 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

AHA! Last night, I attended a seminar called “Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em: Create Great Characters” at the Hearth ‘N Kettle in Weymouth, MA. Afterwards, I had a wonderful conversation with Deb Kurilecz–the workshop leader–about my character dilemna. She offered a few suggestions in addition to asking if this character would continue in a sequel or make a one-time appearance in my first novel. I have not made that decision, but it would be delightful to have this particular character re-appear in another story!

I know, I know, I’m not telling you enough. But I don’t want to ruin the unfolding of the story by revealing too much here on my blog page… so sorry!

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Character Difficulty

Posted in Uncategorized on May 23, 2011| 2 Comments »

Recently, a member of one of my writing groups [I belong to two], plus a family member who is reviewing my chapters, mentioned difficulties with one of my characters. I take all critiques to heart, firmly believing that if someone finds an element disturbing enough to mention, there must be something there that needs to be fixed.

My difficulty stems from my own enchantment with this particular character–I don’t want to tell you which one and ruin it for you–so I am letting my subconscience fester on this character’s origin and purpose within my story. Hopefully, I will wake up one morning soon and the answer lightbulb will be burning brightly above my head.

To help me through this writer’ block, I am attending a seminar in Weymouth this evening about building characters. Sometime during the evening, I will venture to ask if anyone in the room has ever written a character similar to mine and if there are any suggestions to deal with the conflicts.

Over the weekend, I ordered a book from Amazon that delves into this type of character, and am hoping I find an answer there. The book is supposed to arrive in my mailbox this week.

My fingers are crossed that I can resolve this character problem quickly … changes will effect many other scenes throughout.

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Converting the old library

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on May 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Although I tried to get a tour of the inside of the old village library on the town common, vandalism a few years ago created safety issues, so I was denied access.  So I contacted our town historian, who walked me around the outside of the old brownstone and brick structure, shared bits of information he had gleaned over his many years of digging into the history of the town, and provided me with old photos of the library spaces.

With no feel for the actual size and space of the old library, I had to dream-up the interior of Gwen’s home using only my imagination. It was exhilerating to design this unique home, even if it’s fictional!

Because the interior shown in the old photos was rather tall, I decided to add a second floor balcony with a larger master bedroom on the deeper gable end, and a smaller guest room on the other. A sitting room along the back wall with a row of windows to look down into the rear gardens appealed to me. These three rooms would be tucked around the perimeter of the second floor, with an oval balcony defining the center, open to the first floor below. I did consult with a local architect, and he advised that the balcony was viable as long as there were criss-crossed steel girders incorporated during the conversion.

As I thought about the first floor, I decided an open floor plan worked best, interrupted only by two obstacles: 1] a double-sided fireplace that opened into the music studio in the rear corner and the living room in the front gable alcove. 2] a circular stairway that swooped to the second floor. Along the back wall, the kitchen was placed in the right corner, opposite the music studio, with French doors between these two spaces leading out to a back deck and the rear gardens. A dining room in the shallower right front area completed the downstairs floor plan.

I have to tell you that as I revise my novel, I walk through this dreamed-up home as if it truly exists… how fascinating!

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How I named my characters

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on May 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Picking names for my characters was one of the first things I tackled…and the most fun. After I decided what characters would be necessary to populate the plotline, there were several ways I went about finding the perfect name.

1. Instinctive name… don’t know why, but in my mind, my protagonist for The Uninvited Guest was always named Gwen. Not sure, but I think I named her after the 40’s actress and dancer Gwen Verdon. When I named “Hal”, I was recalling the face of the ultimate gentleman Hal Holbrook. Most of the other names were a struggle, and went through several revisions before the name felt right for the character.

2. No one I know… as I was searching, I was careful NOT to use names of anyone I know personally. I didn’t want any misunderstanding among my friends and relatives that a character was based on them in any way.

3. Mongobay website… this was a fantastic resource based on the U.S. Census to search the most popular names by year of birth.  http://names.mongabay.com/most_common_surnames.htm

4. Baby Naming Website… the source for most of the first names. They can be searched by originating country and sex.

5. Name Meaning website…  explains the origin of the name… quite interesting if you’re trying to go deeper.  http://surnames.behindthename.com/php/search.php?terms=English&title=English+Names&usage=yes

6. Numerology Text… names are assigned a numerical equivalent along with an in-depth analysis of the person who carries the name, but don’t use the name based on this.

7. Say the Name Out Loud… pretend you’re a narrator of books on tape to hear how the name rolls off your tongue. It also needs to feel like the character you’ve created. I changed a few names several times before they sounded like a good fit.

8. Other Naming Tips… in various texts about the craft of writing, I’ve found these additional tips: begin all names with different letters of the alphabet; use single-double-triple syllable names; don’t end the first name with the same first letter of the last name; don’t use a name that ends in ‘s’.

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As I put down the mystery…

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 26, 2011| Leave a Comment »

…I said to myself, “Why can’t I write a book like this?” Unfortunately, I have no idea which mystery novel I had just finished, cuz I would share it if I could remember the title. Anyway, that’s why I started writing my first novel I sat down at my desktop and opened up a word document. All I needed to begin was my main character, the place where she would live, and a problem to mess up her life.

In my sleepy New England college town, there’s an old village library on the edge of the common, abandoned since the 1990’s when a larger, more modern library was built. I’ve always thought that old library would be the neatest place to live, and so that’s where my story began. Not a large building, it was built with huge brownstones and bricks. How much fun would it be to imagine the conversion into a home!  I was not able to gain entrance into the interior to get a good feel for the space and size, but my imagination has taken care of that for me. In my fictional world, I have walked through the open floor plan every day as I work on the novel. If I managed to get that tour now, it might be disappointing when compared to the home I’ve created in my mind.

I decided my main character would be named Gwen, a retired music professor at the local college in her 60’s, and widowed over two years ago by a freak accident that killed her architect husband on the golf course. This would provide her with vulnerability, plus a potential romance sub-plot. Her problem ended up to be the return of her old nemesis Henrietta, and Gwen is blackmailed by Jack at the music shop to hostess the woman until the music competition ten days away.

After I’m published, you’ll have to read the novel to find out what happens!

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