Welcome to Pikes Peak Writers first Meet the Members Jenny Martin

By: Kathie Scrimgeour

I was excited to learn that “Meet the Members” was going to kick off with Jenny Martin. She and I first met at PPWC 2016, and we hit it off. With her contagious smile and laugh-out-loud attitude I couldn’t help but look forward to seeing her again. In late April, we met for coffee at my now favorite coffee shop in Parker, Fika (the one in Canterberry in case you’re wondering). With cold sleet and rain outside we sat across from one another over hot drinks. The goal of our first get together was to read each other’s work in progress and share some feedback. It was here that she agreed to be the first member for us to meet.

PPW Member Jenny Martin 

Jenny has been writing since junior high school. She and her best friend filled spiral notebooks with story after story. She began with young adult fiction, then found romance and “fell in with the happily ever after.”

Through email exchanges I learned that Jenny joined PPW in January of 2016 and attended PPWC in 1999, 2000, and 2016. She has attended two Write Brains, and is a part of a critique group.

PPW: Have you submitted a complete manuscript yet? What were the results? What best advice, or lessons learned, have you gotten from them?

Jenny Martin: I have not yet submitted anything. Well, not to publishers. I have submitted a handful of first chapters to writing contests and received an honorable mention twice and second place once. Lesson learned was I’m not too far off base, so keep working. It inspired me in that it validated my writing style. It boosted my confidence and made me more determined that I would finish my stories and find a publisher. 

PPW: What are you working on right now, and do you have a publication date set?

Jenny Martin: I have several things I am working on right now. I have two contemporary romance stories, a fiction story set in the Vietnam era, and a series of Civil War historical romance stories. I am focusing on the Civil War series right now. My goal right now is to finish the first in my Civil War series and move on to the second by the end of this year. As soon as I have two completed, and a start on the third, I plan to work on selling for publication.

PPW: What does success mean to you? Does it scare you or motivate you?

Jenny Martin: Success, to me, means finishing my novels. That is the first step. Then selling them.  It will take the sales of several to make me feel really successful. Does it scare or motivate me? A little of both, actually. I just have to push past the scared part.

PPW: What do you do when procrastination is winning over writing?

Jenny Martin: I have several sources I use to get past the procrastination or writer’s block. I use 52 Ways to Get Unstuck, by Chris Mandeville, The Writer’s Brain Storming Kit, by Pam McCutcheon and Michael Waite, and a card game The Storymatic Classic, by Storymatic. They have all helped me find my way forward. They suggest turns to take with the story to add new dimensions and twists that are difficult to come up with on one’s own. They offer suggestions on how to develop richer characters and sometimes, just walking away and acting like one of the characters. Adding a swagger to your own step, testing facial expressions that the protagonist might use, or dancing like a princess. By imitating a character, the writer comes more in tune with them which can help with description, characterization, and scene development giving the whole story more depth and credibility.

PPW: Writing conferences, workshops, and critique groups are an important part of a new writer’s experience (and more experienced writers too!). How have they helped you?

Jenny Martin: I have attended several conferences with dozens of workshops that have helped me with plotting and characterization and numerous other ways. They are a great way to meet other writers and [achieve] new energy and motivation to keep going. I have attended a handful of workshops outside of the conferences and found them very useful for improving my overall writing. I have also found a critique group which has helped me immeasurably. The wonderful ladies of my group have helped me focus, helped me tighten my writing, they cheer me on and keep me motivated. They help me set goals and hold me accountable.

PPW: Does your reading influence your writing? How?

Jenny Martin: My reading does influence my writing. I read in my genre(s) every day. I find the aspects of the books I like and try to incorporate those qualities into my own writing. The deep POV for example, I find much more engaging than the more distant POVs, so I work to make my POV deeper. I find the aspects of the books that have left me feeling unfulfilled and try to determine what would have made the story better and apply the same principles to my own work.

PPW: If you met someone who was thinking about starting to write, what advice would you give them?

Jenny Martin: I would encourage them to try. I would also suggest writer’s guide books, writer’s groups, conferences, and a critique group to help them along the way. And persistence, patience, and focus are a must.

PPW: What is one (or a few) of the most important lessons you have learned in your writing career so far?

Jenny Martin: Life is always going to get in the way. A good writer finds a way to push past it and keep on writing. Feedback is crucial. Find someone or a group of people who will give you honest, constructive criticism to help you grow and evolve as a writer. Believe in yourself. Never give up.

Are you a member of Pikes Peak Writers? We would love to learn more about you and your writing experiences. Contact Kathie Scrimgeour at ppwsweetsuccess@gmail.com

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

"Sometimes, if you aren't sure about something, you just have to jump off the bridge and grow your wings on the way down." ~  Danielle Steel

Goodreads and Wikipedia

Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel, born, August 14, 1947, better known as Danielle Steel, is an American novelist, currently the best-selling author alive and the fourth bestselling author of all time, with more than 800 million copies sold. This as well as the mother of nine!

This week on Writing from the Peak:

August 8           PPW’s new feature, Meet the Member by Kathie Scrimgeour

August 10         Don’t Just Sit There – Move! by Darby Karchut

August 12         Sweet Success Celebrates Shannon Lawrence 
                         & Metamorphosis

Pikes Peak Writers August Events

August Write Brain – August 16

What:  Market Like a Maniac (without feeling like one)

Who:  Cindi Madsen

When: August 16, 6:30-8:30 pm

Where: Venue@21c (upper floor, to the right if coming in the upper entrance) of Library 21c, 1175 Chapel Hills Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80920

More Information: What’s the best way to get the word out about your book? We’ll discuss blog tours, newsletters, how to make social media work for you, publicity, anthologies, and street teams. Learn how to create a tribe of people who will want to help you get the word out for you, how to gain more followers without spending all your time marketing instead of writing, and how to find affordable help when you can’t do it all yourself.

About the Presenter:  Cindi Madsen is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance and young adult novels. She sits at her computer every chance she gets, plotting, revising, and falling in love with her characters. Sometimes it makes her a crazy person. Without it, she’d be even crazier. She has way too many shoes, but can always find a reason to buy a pretty new pair, especially if they’re sparkly, colorful, or super tall. She loves music and dancing and wishes summer lasted all year long. She lives in Colorado (where summer is most definitely NOT all year long) with her husband and three children.

You can visit Cindi at: www.cindimadsen.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter to get all the up-to-date information on her books.
Follow her on Twitter @cindimadsen.

August Writers Night – August 22

FREE Writer’s Night

Location: Kawa Coffee

Address: 2427 N Union Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO 80909

Fourth Monday of every month

6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Join fellow writers for PPW Night  on the fourth Monday of every month.

PPW Night is two full hours of discussion, laughter, and fun with other local members of Pikes Peak Writers.

Kawa Coffee stays open for our gathering when they would normally be closed. We understand if you can’t afford a coffee or a snack, but please don’t bring outside food and drink into the coffee shop. Thank you for your understanding.

The direction of the meeting is decided by the participants and can include discussions about query letters, obtaining and working with an agent, writing conferences, or other specific points of the craft.  If nothing else, we talk about books!

If you have any questions, or if there is a specific topic you’d like to get on the agenda, send an e-mail to the host, Deb Courtney, or call her on her cell phone at 719-337-9049.

Meetings are scheduled to start at 6:30 and run until about 8:30. These are drop-in meetings, so feel free to attend all or just part of them.

See you soon!

90-day Challenge: Not a Pantser, Not a Plotter

By: Deb McLeod

If you saw my previous post, you know I created a challenge for myself to write a romance in ninety days. Nowadays writers need a way to put out content fast. So, as a writing coach with years of experience studying and honing the writing process for myself and my clients, I decided we were all taking far too long to finish. Especially me!

So I selected a genre I wanted to write in and outlined a process using all the tools I’ve collected or created in my career. The process broke down like this:

30 days to plot
30 days to write
30 days to revise

30 Days to Plot

Part of my process for plotting uses Blake Snyder’s beat sheets to plot the story arc and the character transformation. I wanted to write a dual narrative, so I did a loose beat sheet for each character to track how the plot will challenge and change their character flaw and allow them to seek out and accept love. This is a romance so that arc is the driving arc of the story. And for me, plotting the internal change is far easier to plot than the external challenge that weaves around the two protagonists and keeps them together long enough to fall in love.

Discovery: I work best when I pace my plotting and weave it during the writing phase.

I learn about character through writing scenes. By the time I plotted to the midpoint, I felt I didn’t know enough about each character to pull me through the hardest section to plot - the second half of the second scene.

I learn about plot through the ideas that come to me when I write scenes. As I write and the scene surprises me it might suggest a way to play something out later or the need to set up something earlier. This affects both the plotting and the revision.

I really like to plot in chains. I like to figure out a section at a time. Then write it and ride the riff so to speak to see what comes up as I’m writing. Then the next section is easier to figure out rather than trying to plot it cold.

Originally I’d thought I’d plot the entire book out and then go back to write it. But for me, the second half of the second act is where it gets always gets hard. And writing scenes contain so much discovery of both character and plot that it felt a waste to force the plot that might change as soon as I started writing. So I shifted gears.

It made sense to plot through the midpoint so I would know what I was writing towards. And by the time I caught up to the plot, I might know better what I have to work with in the second half of the second act when the characters begin to be squeezed.

So I stopped plotting at midpoint and started writing. I continued plotting between times as I got an idea or as one of the characters revealed something useful. When I caught the writing up to the midpoint, I took a day to plot out the rest.

Now that I’m there, I’m changing the plot as I go. Like this morning. My characters took over yesterday. What was supposed to be a kiss scene turned into something much hotter and more involved. Then today I had to rework the last scenes – I have 12 more to go – in order to figure out a way to keep them apart till the end of the book.

Discovery: Not a pantser, not a plotter. I can use the best of pantsing and plotting to reach my goal.

Does that make me a plotster? A panter?

30 Days to Write

I am shooting for a 60k word novel so during the writing month I would need to write 2000 words per day.

That’s not that big of a deal any more. I’ve started pushing my daily word counts the last few years. And I write more than 50,000 words for NaNo month every year. If you’ve succeeded during NaNo, you can see that every year you win, it becomes easier to win the next time.

But for this challenge, I deliberately worked against the NaNoWriMo adage I’ve always used – just get the words on paper. When I do NaNo each year, I plot, I write, I develop character and I count all those words toward my 50k.

In my coaching practice, my clients learn to challenge their process – or change the challenge. In our freewriting practice, for instance, once a 30-minute timed writing is easy, then the idea is to challenge yourself to do forty-five, or twenty. It’s the change that keeps the writing fresh.

So with my 90-day challenge I decided to count only finished scene words. I wanted my scenes to be like the ones I might take to a critique group. Not the slap-dash of a first draft or what I produce during NaNo. Because plotting days and revision days are part of the challenge so wherever I can cut time out of the process, I need to try.

Discovery: With the 90-day public deadline and the need to get the scenes down right the first time in order to save time on the revision, my scenes are coming in cleaner on the first try.

Writing really is exercising a certain kind of muscle. And it’s trainable.

30 Days to Revise

I’m not at the revision stage yet, but I’m already jotting revision notes at the top of scenes I already wrote. When the plot veers I go back to the pertinent scenes and make highlighted notes at the top of the scene so I can revise later.

Then, just today, I found “Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels” by Gwen Hayes. So I’ve taken the entire day to look at the plot and rework scenes that don’t fit into the beat structure she lays out. My plot did fit Snyder’s Beats, so I’m not that far off, but I can see now I was drifting to focus on the external arc and letting the romance arc slide. After comparing what I had to what she lays out for a romance, I’m with her on her beats.

I haven’t attempted romance in years. It was great to find out that I’m good on the beats until almost midpoint. Then… So it’s back to the plot for a bit while I figure this out. But I’m ahead of schedule and this will save me time in the revision stage.

The takeaway from the challenge so far

My clients, who are watching and cheering from the sidelines, are beginning to look at their own process. They know that this will be my next course offering and I’m going to challenge them to try it. So I’ll issue a challenge here to you – how well do you know your process? How much have you challenged your process and tried something new?

Here are my stats at day 36 so you can see where I spent time and what I achieved:

• Total days spent on the project so far: 36 days
• Average time spent per day: 3 hours
• Exclusive days spent on character development: 3 days
• Exclusive days spent on plotting the arc: 9 days
• Plotting scenes and writing: 24 days
• Word total for finished scenes: 39,444
• See you next month when I’ll be in the middle of the revision.

About the Author: Deb McLeod, MFA, practices novel research immersion. For her novel, The Train to Pescara, Deb journeyed to Sardinia to study ancient goddess worship and spent time in the Abruzzi village her great-grandparents left in 1905. Her metaphysical knowledge for the Angel Thriller, The Julia Set, culminates from four years of studying and teaching meditation, clairvoyance and chakra healing. For over fifteen years, Deb McLeod has been a creative writing coach helping other writers to embrace their passion and get their words on the page. For more, 

August Letter from the Editor

Hurray! It’s August. Quite frankly, I’m relieved. July has been one accident after another, and I’m hoping August will break my clumsy streak. Oh, the accidents weren’t life-threatening. One involved me typing away, reaching for something, and sending my coffee cup flying. That little episode cost me $99 to call a carpet cleaner to get the stain up. Did I mention the coffee cup was full? Did I mention my first attempt to use Resolve and Dawn Detergent didn’t work and Dawn actually fades your carpet? Oy!

Accident number two occurred a day or so later. My carpet was freshly cleaned, therefore, I’d placed my computer on my breakfast nook. I’d been out on a walk, so I poured a glass of ice water, set to get to work and dumped the entire contents on my laptop. 

Doomed! Doomed I tell you. I immediately shut it off and tried to drain the darn thing, but water was everywhere. Worst part--the computer is not yet a year old.

Fortunately, I know a great computer repair shop. The owner said, “Did you turn it on?”  Of course I had. (Note, if this ever happens to you, do not turn it on.) Long story longer. The next day as I headed out to research computers, my cell rang, and the owner said, “Good news, it’s dry and it’s working.” That incident deprived me of an additional $35, but I paid it willingly because it could have been far, far worse.

What did I learn from my accident-prone July? Do not keep liquids near your computer. As I type this, my coffee cup is in Virginia!

Obviously, I’ve been distracted. Writers get that way. I was thinking, of course, about my manuscript. But also the sensational articles we have coming up for you this month. Tying nicely into avoiding accidents and hindering our writing careers, we’ll talk about health and ergonomics. Darby Karchut has a great article on Don’t Just Sit There – Move! Catherine Dilts presents an outstanding series on ergonomics, complete with graphics, and deadline driven Barbara Nickless, writes about stress. 

We’ll have a review of Jason Evan’s July Write Brain on Writing African American characters. Deb McLeod, the Writing Coach has an update on her 90-Day Genre Series Project, and Kathie Scrimgeour has a new column called, Meet the Member (a new feature introducing a PPW member).

Finally, I’d like to do a shout out to K.L. Cooper who has been designing some fantastic graphics for the blog and on Facebook and will be joining the blog as a columnist.  Writing from the Peak is also moving in the near future as part of Pikes Peak Writers redesigned website.

Lots of things in store for the rest of the year, and especially August. We hope you’ll tune in. Suggestions for content? Interested in writing for the blog? If you’re a Pikes Peak Writers member, I will consider your ideas and your writing. If you’re not a member, why aren’t you? PPW membership is free. Join Here  The advantages and learning opportunities are tremendous.

Hey, everybody, it's August. Here's an idea. Have an outstanding—accident free—writing month.

About the author: Donnell Ann Bell is the managing editor for Writing from the Peak, the coordinator for the monthly Open Critique held on the first Wednesday of every month, and one of Pikes Peak Writer's board members at large. She is a best selling romantic suspense and mystery author. To learn more about her books, find her at www.donnellannbell.com

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

"You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more." ~ Michael Connelly

Source: Wikipedia and Biography.com

Michael Connelly, born on July 21, 1945, in Philadelphia, PA, is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. 

This week on Writing from the Peak

August 1       Letter from the Editor   Donnell Ann Bell

August 3       The Writing Coach   Deb McLeod

August 5       Pikes Peak Writers August Events

Sweet Success Celebrates Shannon Lawrence and Sound Advice

Bloodbond Magazine is pleased to present a short story by Shannon Lawrence, “Sound Advice,” (adult horror), published by Alban Lake Publishing, May 2016. It is available online at Alban Lake Publishers: http://store.albanlake.com/product/bloodbond-may-2016/

A family trip becomes a night of terror when they venture through skinwalker territory in the middle of the night. 

A fan of all things fantastical and frightening, Shannon Lawrence writes primarily horror and fantasy. Her stories can be found in anthologies and magazines, including Under the Bed, Devolution Z, and The Deep Dark Woods. When she's not writing, she's hiking through the wilds of Colorado and photographing her magnificent surroundings, where, coincidentally, there's always a place to hide a body or birth a monster. Find her at www.thewarriormuse.com.

Planning a Writing Retreat

In the fast-paced times we live in, it's especially difficult to carve out those precious hours we need to do our writing. I've advocated "stolen moments" before, which is where you write when you can. It doesn't matter if it's just twenty minutes, those twenty minutes are precious.

However, it's wonderful to be able to dedicate two, three, maybe even four hours to cranking out words, edits or outlines. Those times are rare for most of us, but the amount of stuff done (when not on Facebook) can be amazing.


What would you do if you had an entire day to write? What about a long weekend? Think of the wonders that can be created! I don't think I need to expound further on the benefits of getting two or three days of solid writing time so I'm going to tell you how to pull it off. 

This is where writing retreats come into play. A writing retreat occurs when you literally retreat from the real world, isolate yourself from job, family, (maybe) the Internet, and the worldly concerns of being a social being.

There are several phases to organizing a writing retreat.

Planning

A vast majority of writing retreats are done in a group setting to help split the costs of getting a place to stay in a relatively remote area. I've seen retreats as large as twenty people and as small as four. The sweet spot seems to be right around eight to ten folks. Fewer than that, the price point can rise beyond affordability. More than that leads to logistical nightmares. Look to your critique group for folks to run away with.

Once you know who is going, dates need to be set where everyone can make it.

Next, set a budget. Figure out what individuals can pay for renting a cabin in the middle of nowhere. This will let you know what the group can afford.

After you know the who and when, you need to determine the where. This is the rough part. Communicate with your group and find a city or three where folks would like to spend a relaxing (yet productive!) weekend.

Reservations

There are loads of options for renting properties for a long weekend, and this can be overwhelming. For my critique group's recent retreat, I took the lead and found a dozen places (some in Breckenridge and some in Estes Park, our agreed upon cities). I took the details of each location and plugged them into the spreadsheet on Google Drive, then asked each person to rate (scale: 1-10) each location. The top two scoring locations were then presented to the group and we picked one.

How did I find a dozen properties to review and rate? The Internet! There are quite a few websites where property owners will do short term leases for folks like you looking to organize a writing retreat. Some of these sites include:

• Airbnb
• VRBO
• roomorama
• FlipKey

Once we found a place, I arranged the rental, which was a pretty simple process. I won't detail it here because I'm certain each rental property has their own process/procedures.

One caveat I want to bring up: The security deposit. There are logistics around splitting this between the group members, then getting the returned deposit back to the members. To make this easier on everyone, I decided that I'd directly pay the security deposit and keep it when it was returned. This worked out well for our group and made things easier on me in the long run. Yes, there are financial risks associated with this approach, but I know and trust everyone I had along with me, so didn't worry about it too much.

On Location

What do you do when you're "on location" at the retreat? 

Write, of course. Or edit. Or outline. Or brainstorm. Or research. Or whatever floats your writerly boat.

The key things to determine are food,drink, quiet times/rooms, and social times.

We did a two-part approach for food. We decided that Friday and Saturday nights would be social times around meals and that we'd run into Estes Park for a restaurant meal. This did raise the price some, but it was well worth it to get away from the keyboard for a couple of hours.

For quiet time/rooms, we decided the public areas would be quiet for  Friday afternoon, all-day Saturday, and Sunday morning. Everyone respected this quiet time, and it's amazing how much energy can fill up an almost perfectly quiet room. There were brief conversations, but it was limited to group-impacting questions. Things like turning on the A/C, asking if anyone needed a drink while on the way to the fridge, etc.

We also agreed that the times after returning from our evening meals would be social time in the public areas. After a full day of brain-melting edits or cranking out thousands of words, we all knew we'd need a break. Getting this downtime is vital to keep energy levels up for when it's time to write. The human mind and body can only do so much in a day.

Clean Up

When it's time to leave, do the fellow who ponied up the security deposit a favor. Clean up. You don't have to spit shine every surface, but most rentals have guidelines on what needs to be taken care of and how to do it. It's pretty minimal, to be honest. Take out the trash. don't make the beds (so they know which ones were used and need to be laundered). Clean up spills. Throw the dishes into the dishwasher. Stuff like that. It's not the wilderness, so you don't have to leave it as you found it, but be nice to the cleaning staff and the owners.

Decompression

After a retreat, it's time to head back home. Do so gradually. My favorite way of doing this involves a long drive. Keep the distance from home base reasonable, which will allow you to relax and smoothly slide back into the real world of responsibilities.

Another decompression approach is to have a "going away" breakfast or brunch for the group. I usually do this after we're out of the cabin and on the road back home. Picking a place to eat near the retreat is ideal. This is where everyone talks about his or her weekend accomplishments. Even if the accomplishments aren't as high as some hoped, applause and congratulations are in order for each person's efforts.

Conclusion

I highly recommend going on a writing retreat every 12-18 months to refresh your writing batteries and help remind you why you chose this very difficult endeavor. Even though my last retreat finished up in June, I'm really looking forward to the next one coming my way.

J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the president of Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he secures computers at the Day Job, homebrews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card/board/role-playing games.

I Think I've Read This Before

By: Donnell Ann Bell

I’m judging a contest. I love judging. It truly gives me a taste of what storylines are out there, and, in effect I get a glimpse of what editors and agents are seeing. Also, I’m judging some really, really great entries. So that should be an acknowledgement that there are some great upcoming authors in our future.

I also realize that there are romance tropes that are automatically accepted, and I love secret baby stories, the billionaire playboy who meets the girl next door and more. But something that is bothering me is the acceptance of something other than trope. The overabundance of cliché. Frankly, in every one I read it seemed like I’d read it before.

For instance:

That licking lip thing. It reminds me of Marlo Thomas in THAT GIRL. In that long ago series, Ann Marie (Marlo Thomas), an aspiring actress, is at a party and her manager tells her to mingle, and while you’re at it, “Wet your lips, baby. Wet your lips.” She goes around the room licking her lips. The manager points her out to a director, or some such individual, who looks at Ann and her darting tongue, and says, “Oh, right. The thirsty one.”

I’ve never got that image out of my head when a character wets her lips to attract a hero. Which reminds me, I need to try this with my husband and see if it works. (I’ll keep you posted.)

Coffee as sludge. I’m judging romantic suspense, and I kid you not, every single entry has had a terrible coffee reference. Fellow authors, this shows me that we need to stretch. Find a cop who drinks tea perhaps, or some coffee connoisseur who prides himself on making the best cup of coffee ever. Or a boss who outlaws coffee until someone can make a decent cup.

Sound familiar?

The facial hair reference. I’m guilty as the next person on this. I love the bad boy look, and don’t know how to get around it. With the exception that if a cop stops you, or a detective comes to your door, he’s probably going to be close-shaven. (I know, lets fall in love with his aftershave ;)) Or his dimples!

Forgive my facetiousness, please. I truly have had some creative and exceptional entries and many I’ve scored high. But I hate the idea of these fabulous stories being rejected or diminished because they take on words or ideas of authors who used it when the phrasing  was still fresh and creative writing.

As authors we need to work hard to make each story our own. Do clichés yank you out of the story? Cliche: Do you get the impression you've read this before?

About the author: Donnell Ann Bell is the managing editor for Writing from the Peak, the coordinator for the monthly Open Critique held on the first Wednesday of every month, and one of Pikes Peak Writer's board members at large. She is a best selling romantic suspense and mystery author. To learn more about her books, find her at www.donnellannbell.com

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“I have always been more afraid of a pen, a bottle of ink and a sheet of paper than of a sword or a pistol.” Alexandre Dumas

 

Source: Biography.com & Wikipedia 

Alexandre Dumas July 24, 1802 – Dec 5, 1870 adopted the last name "Dumas" from his grandmother, a former Haitian slave. Dumas established himself as one of the most popular authors in France, known for plays and historical adventure novels such as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.

This Week on Writing from the Peak

July 25           I Think I’ve Read This Before by Donnell Ann Bell

July 27           Planning a Writing Retreat by J.T. Evans



July 29          Sweet Success Celebrates Shannon Lawrence

Sweet Success Celebrates Shannon Lawrence & Grandmother's Leather Sofa

By: Kathie Scrimgeour

“Grandma’s Leather Sofa,” a memoir flash fiction by Shannon Lawrence, was published April 24, 2016 as part of the journal entitled, Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things (MG, YA, Adult, -ISBN trade paperback: 978-1-68073-058-6, -ISBN hardcover: 978-1-68073-057-9, 151 pages), by E&GJ Press. Ember is a beautifully illustrated semiannual journal of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for all age groups.  It is available at: E&GJ Press: http://store.egjpress.org/collections/ember/products/ej022

My grandmother was dying, and she asked my mother and I to take her home. She didn't want to die in the hospital. This is a short creative memoir of one of the nights I sat up with her.

A fan of all things fantastical and frightening, Shannon Lawrence writes primarily horror and fantasy. Her stories can be found in anthologies and magazines, including Under the Bed, Devolution Z, and The Deep Dark Woods. When she's not writing, she's hiking through the wilds of Colorado and photographing her magnificent surroundings, where, coincidentally, there's always a place to hide a body or birth a monster. Find her at www.thewarriormuse.com.

By Any Other Name

By: Darby Karchut

What’s in a character’s name? Well, a heck of a lot, really. The perfect name expands your imaginary universe and helps establish the character’s personality. It can be obvious or subtle. For many writers, including myself, characters do not become “alive” until they bear the perfect handle. That holds true for readers, too.

Here are some things to think about when choosing names for your characters:

Respect Your Genre

This is especially important in fantasy and sci-fi and historical fiction. Culturally-inspired names add another layer to your world building and helps ground your work in a real place and time, even if your book is fantastical in nature. And just as period costumes, manners, and vocabulary set the tone for your historical novel, so, too, can the proper name.

If your novel is inspired by legends from other cultures, this is fairly easy to do. Since my middle grade series, The Adventures of Finn MacCullen, is based on the Irish legend of The Boyhood Deeds of Finn McCool, I took the Gaelic spelling of Finn McCool (Fionn mac Cumhail) and Anglicized it to Finn MacCullen. A tried-and-true practice within the fantasy genre, but it is still an effective technique, especially for younger readers who are coming across this stuff for the first time.

Another tip: Use the name to reveal about the character’s essence. In my YA series, Griffin Rising, the hero is a teen guardian angel named Griffin. I gave him that name for two reasons: One, it means “Strong in Faith.” Two, it begins with a hard consonant (more on the actual sounds of names later). The challenge for you as the writer is to find a clever way to weave background tidbits about the name(s) into the story. Some readers will skip over this kind of geekery. Others will eat it up. Sprinkle it in judiciously.

J.K. Rowling, in her Harry Potter series, did a wonderful job taking roots words (many which had a Latin or Greek origin – just screams English boarding school, does it not?) and creating spot on names. For example: Serverus (severe), Albus (white), Draco (dragon). She also used alliteration (Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, etc.) but beware—too much of a clever thing is too clever by half.

Age Appropriate

Is the name appropriate for the age of your character? Check the baby names lists for the year your character was born, not the time period they are living through in your story. For most part, a woman born in the 1950s would have a different name than a teen girl born in the early 2000s.

A New Twist

That said, you might want to make your character stand out by giving them an unusual name (perhaps an old family name). In Stone’s Heart, Stonewall Wheeler is a modern-day farrier living in western Colorado. His son is Beau. Good, solid cowboy-ish monikers, and a tip of the hat to Civil War aficionados, to boot.   

Music to the Ears

Say your characters’ names aloud. How do they “feel” when you say them aloud? A hard consonant (B, D, G, T, etc.) can project strength or power. Softer vowels (A, M, N, O, etc.) might indicate a gentler personality. Sibilant sounds (S, Z, sometimes P or Th) can go either way. One of my characters from The Stag Lord is Shay Doyle. She is a shield maiden, as well as her clan’s healer. So, I chose the softer-sounding ‘ay’ in Shay and paired it with the hard consonant of ‘d’ in Doyle to show both her sides: healer and warrior. Soft and hard.

Ready for something subtle? Take Game of Thrones’ Ned Stark. The name starts off with a softer sound of ‘n’ (a family man, Ol’ Ned was), then it ends in a hard, clipped consonant. The ‘k’ sounds like the snap of a dire wolf’s jaws. Yeah, yeah. I’m stretching it, but you get my point.

Mind Your ABCs

Make sure none of your characters have similar names: Ken/Ben. Mac/Max. Casey/Kaci/Cassie/Kelsey. Olive/Olivia. Jim/Jem. Readers will get frustrated having to pause to figure out who’s who, especially at the beginning of the story.

One way to avoid this is to make sure your main characters’ names start with a different first letter. A lot of readers only skim the first few letters of a name. You want your readers turning pages, not slowing to remember if Mike was the romantic lead or was it Mitch?

I admit that the geek in me takes great joy in researching and selecting just the right name for my characters. It helps me understand who they are, why they are the way they are, and what they want out of life. I hope these thoughts help you, too, in your writing adventure.

Now, if folks would just stop calling me Darcy instead of Darby…

About the Author: Darby Karchut is an award-winning author, dreamer, and compulsive dawn greeter.  A native of New Mexico, she now lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, where she runs in blizzards and bikes in lightning storms. When not dodging death by Colorado, Darby is busy writing for children, teens, and adults. She is represented by Amanda Rutter at Red Sofa Literary.

www.darbykarchut.com

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