writing Archives - Page 47 of 82 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Motivational Moments…for Writers! #12

How to Write Rich Characters.

After many years of writing, my characters show up in my head but it’s my job to ‘flesh them out,’ breathe life into them. Many times I will meet or see a character in real life and they inspire a character in my storytelling. If you’re a new writer take the time to write it down. It’s not the same as a few random thoughts about your character. Some intangible thing happens when I put pen to paper and get to know who my character is.

Read through your story and write down EVERYTHING the other characters say about the character you are creating. These exercises do not have to show up in your book. They are merely ways to research and explore who your characters are. When I am editing and rewriting I am looking for additional ways to bring my characters to life.

I keep asking myself about the character’s motivations, goals, and needs.

“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. Something more will arise for later, something better.”
— Annie Dillard

“A director becomes a diplomatist, a financier, a pedagogue, a top sergeant, a wet nurse, and a martyr, the kind of martyr who used to be torn into pieces by wild horses galloping in all directions at once.” ~Margaret Webster, Stage Director (This quote SO applies to writers, I thought I would include it.)

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! A long awaited interview with Kathleen Grissom (The Kitchen House) September’s author will be Joseph Drumheller and October: Andrew Snook. Check out Motivational Moments…for Writers!

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More Motivational Moments…for Writers! #11

I had a friendly debate with another author when she responded to my Stephen King’s quote about ‘plot being the the last resort of bad writers.’ One of her comments to me was, “writers have to accept that their readers might not care as much about your characters as you do.”

My vehement answer was, if my readers don’t care as much as I do, then I haven’t done my job. I just finished reading a book by a new (to me) author and I found her characters boring and unsympathetic. She didn’t tell me enough about them through dialogue and description for me to care. I suspect that since this was a series, she was relying too heavily on her readers already knowing her characters from previous books. Big mistake! Even with a series, each book, and character, must be able to stand alone.

Writers! You have to know your characters in order for your readers to know and care about them. With the most despicable villain, you must give your readers something to love about that character.

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.” Elisabeth Kabler-Ross

“When you are completely absorbed or caught up in something, you become oblivious to things around you, or to the passage of time. It is this absorption in what you are doing that frees your unconscious and releases your creative imagination.” Rollo May
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! A long awaited interview with Kathleen Grissom (The Kitchen House) September’s author will be Joseph Drumheller and October: Andrew Snook. Check out Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!

More Motivational Moments…For Writers! #10

Okay, your first attempt at creative writing is finished. In your journal or notebook or in a password-protected file on your laptop your first story awaits you. Now what are you going to do with it? You can’t possibly let anyone read it! What if they laugh and it’s not a comedy? What if there’s poorly hidden scorn? Or when they read the last page, what if they look up, their eyes filled with pity…for you.

Sorry, but you’ve just entered the world of writing. You must brave the experience of having someone actually read your work. That is if you intend to go any further.
Here’s the good news: pick people you trust who will give you constructive criticism. If you ask a family member make certain that they aren’t threatened by your new passion of writing. They might sense that if you pursue your writing, it will take you away from them (and it will). Or, worse, they tell you it’s wonderful, perfect….which, you and I both know it isn’t at this point.
Keep writing! Don’t let anyone or anything stop you. And I can keep this promise: if you keep writing, you will get better.

“Writing is a lonely business. You pour your heart and guts into the written word, often exposing what you’ve experienced in your own life. You nurture it, feed it, trim its toe-nails, wash its hair, dress it up and send it out into traffic.” Trisha Sugarek

“Planning to write is not writing. Outlining a book is not writing. Researching is not writing. Talking to people about what you’re doing is not writing. None of that is writing. Writing is writing.” ~~ E.L. Doctorow

Did you miss other Motivational Moments? Go to my blog and scroll down.
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A Review ~~ ‘Mother’ from duo-writers, Thorne & Cross

(5 out of 5 quills) MOTHER ~~ A Review

How to write a review without it being filled with spoilers! Like Dean Koontz (and early King) this writing team blends a common-place event with chilling anticipation. A young couple falling on hard times, goes back to live with the parents (in this case Mother) knowing full well it’s not a good idea. To add to this reviewer’s anxiety, the young wife is pregnant. Has Mother changed her ways? Has time mellowed her out?

Every page subtly tells the reader this is not going to end well. Just turn the next page and it will get better, won’t it? The authors deliver!

I highly recommend this latest offering by Tamara Thorne and Allistair Cross. I guarantee you will never look at your mother-in-law in the same way again.

If you missed my INTERVIEW with this exciting writing team, CLICK HERE
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Interview (conclusion) with Author, Robyn Carr

Robyn Carr was a young mother of two in the mid-1970s when she started writing fiction, an Air Force wife, educated as a nurse, whose husband’s frequent assignment changes made it difficult for her to work in her profession. Little did the aspiring novelist know then, as she wrote with babies on her lap, that she would become one of the world’s most popular authors of romance and women’s fiction, that 11 of her novels would earn the #1 berth on the New York Times bestselling books list. www.robyncarr.com

Q. … and the all important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like for you?

RC. It’s complicated yet simple. There’s an idea. I usually talk to my editor and agent about the idea and it’s barely an embryo. Then I start typing. I let them peek at it at about 100 pages and at this stage it barely has arms and legs. We discuss it to death – and frankly I hate that part. I don’t want to talk about it, I want to write. I have never had a good pitch. I can’t even pitch a book that’s finished! I’d much rather you read it than have me tell you what it’s about.

During the writing of that book, other writing business interferes. The line edit on the previous book. The copy-edits on the previous book. The release of a book. Q&A’s you don’t have time for (she says, blushing). Book tours. Cover art. Cover copy. Blogs. Meetings. Etc. Continue reading “Interview (conclusion) with Author, Robyn Carr”

More Motivational Moments…For Writers! #9

Jump Start your Writing Day with Motivational Moments

Plot: I am currently finishing my newest novel and I have to tell you; the loosely built plot that I had envisioned when I began is gone by the way-side. Way, way off and into the forest, in fact. About half way through the characters took me on a journey, making their own decisions, loving who they wanted to love, building their homesteads their way. When this happens to me I welcome their story line in…they know better than I do at that point. My characters write a better story than I ever could.

“The last thing I want to do is spoil a book with plot. I think a plot is the last resort of bad writers. I’m a lot more interested in characters and situations; following where it goes. In Cujo I was as surprised as my readers when the little kid died at the end.” Stephen King

“A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” Robert Frost

Sign up for my blog and receive your ‘Motivational Moments‘ twice a week! Simple: type your email address in the box on my Home page (top/right). Click on ‘subscribe’.

‘As a writer, I marinate, speculate and hibernate.’ Trisha Sugarek

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! A long awaited interview with Kathleen Grissom (The Kitchen House) Best selling author, Robyn Carr is July’s author. Check out Motivational Moments…for Writers! on YouTube!

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Interview (part 2) with Author, Robyn Carr

Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?

RC. I begin with a vague idea of who they are but I have to write about them, put them in scenes, watch them interact with other characters for at least 100 pages before they become real to me. Sometimes it’s longer. Once I know them I can go back and revise and rewrite. I love revision. When the editor says it looks great and we can move right to the line edit and make changes there, I’m almost disappointed! I love weighing the pros and cons of each suggestion in the revision letter; I love taking that first draft (which is never a real first draft but usually a tenth draft!) and making it better.

Q. What first inspired you to write your stories?

RC. Reading. That feeling of not being able to close my eyes on a good book was so awesome I wondered if it would be even more awesome if I were creating the book. It was. I thought about the story while I was falling asleep and woke up anxious to get back to it.

Q. When your characters are nestled in a small town like Virgin River; what comes first to you? The Characters or the Town?

RC. Always the characters. The town is not only harder to envision, it has to play the best possible supporting role. With Virgin River not only did I visit the actual place – Humboldt County in Northern CA – but I realized very quickly that the best town to support my story would have to be rugged. Not cute, not quaint but rough, rural, remote – a place that would demand something of the characters. When I was there researching a local said to me, “If you last here for three years you’ll never leave.” What does that say about a place? It’s not an easy place and it’s worth the effort.

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?

RC. Oh yeah, embarrassingly so. Once I forgot a speaking engagement. At least it was local and at least I’d already showered and dressed. I got a phone call asking me if I was coming! I threw on better clothes and shot out the door! I was twenty minutes late, but I made it! I’d been in Virgin River and lost all sense of time and place.

Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment?

RC. You mean I have a muse? Really? Whoever it is, she’s slacking. I have to rely on myself and my discipline combined with my love of storytelling. Some days are harder than others.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

RC. Forty years ago. I was very nearly a kid. I was, in fact, a very young Air Force wife with two babies and no car, the closest thing to a shut-in. I’d never imagined I’d aspire to writing novels and was probably too dumb to know it’s an overwhelming goal. I sold my first book in 1978 and I was only twenty-seven years old. When the agent called me and said we’d had an offer from Little, Brown I said, “Little Who?” I knew nothing. I just knew I wanted to write this story. It was only my third completed manuscript but it was historical romance at a time when historical romance was hot.

Q. How long after that were you published?

RC. I think it was only three years after I began. It took longer to write books then – we didn’t have computers. There was no Google – I had to go to the library, babies in tow, and research. I wrote my first several books on a typewriter and being young and poor, it seemed to cost the earth.

Q. What makes a writer great?

RC. It’s unknown, actually. It’s a kind of magic that happens between the book and the reader. It’s unpredictable and undefinable. In fact there are many great writers who are completely overlooked and many terrible writers who, for whatever reason, rise to bestsellerdom and fame. And you might not know if you’ve achieved that magic that has readers talking (and talking and talking) for quite a while after the books have been published. No matter how hard we work or how much PR and advertising we do, at the end of the day it boils down to word of mouth. It always does. It’s readers telling other readers who tell other readers. You might be able to trick them into buying the book with a lot of press or chatter, but you won’t twice and you won’t for long. Readers, who we don’t really know, have to have that amazing emotional connection and response – and then they won’t shut up.

Q…..and the all important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like for you?

Tune in for Part 3 of this wonderful Interview July 30th ~~~ Did you miss Part 1? Click here
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! A long awaited interview with Kathleen Grissom (The Kitchen House) Michael Saad, Canadian author, was June’s author. Robyn Carr is July’s author. Check out Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!

More Motivational Moments…for Writers! #8

Writers! Jump-start your day with more Motivational Moments!

“….you have to be willing to write crap. You have to write all the time whether it’s any good or not. You can always delete or revise or rewrite but if you wait until it feels perfect, you’ll never accomplish anything. You have to fill up pages with words and keep moving forward…”

My interview with bestselling author Robyn Carr began yesterday ( she was so generous with her time and thoughts it became a 3 parter) and she said this in the context of the post. I couldn’t have said it better so I borrowed it! Thanks, Robyn!

“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.” Kurt Vonnegut

“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do.” Kahlil Gibran

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” Edgar Allan Poe

Sign up for my blog and receive your ‘Motivational Moments‘ twice a week! Simple: type your email address in the box on my Home page (top/right). Click on ‘subscribe’.

‘As a writer, I marinate, speculate and hibernate.’ Trisha Sugarek

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An Interview with Bestselling Author, Robyn Carr

TS: Although Robyn’s earlier novels were historicals, she found the voice that has resonated with readers by writing a blend of contemporary romance and women’s fiction—books that not only entertain but also address sensitive issues, such as domestic violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, workplace burnout and miscarriage, anything that can compromise a woman’s happiness because she’s female. There have been standalone novels—and wildly popular series.

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space

RC. I work in an extra bedroom that has built-in desktop, drawers and bookshelves to the ceiling. I really outgrew it years ago – I’ve been in this house and office for 17 years. I share the space with my husband who takes care of all our family business and attempts to help me with my business and since he tends to stack things, it’s become small and messy. I have the half with the desk and desktop computer – he has the half with the file drawers, not that he actually files. My desk is cluttered with everything from checkbooks to unanswered mail. Given our computerized and internet lives, most of the unanswered mail remains unanswered. If I can’t do it on the computer, it’s just impossible to get to. This office that houses two people and a million books is only 10X12. But it’s where I’m most at home. The chair is curved to my butt and the screen is exactly the right distance from my eyes. All the letters are worn off the keyboard because I like the keyboard. Continue reading “An Interview with Bestselling Author, Robyn Carr”

A Chip Off the Old Bukowski Block

My efforts have lain elsewhere of late…re-energized with my most ambitious novel, Song of the Yukon and maintaining a blog that is a never ending job.

But this poetry came to me, as it often does, with no apparent rhyme or reason. I had just been reading some Bukowski and he always inspires
me. I don’t suggest that I am even on the same planet as Hank, with regard to poetry, but I do admire his harsh, poetry reality.
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i sit here on the toilet
looking at the cane by my side
when did this happen?

its pronged feet could, at any moment,
scamper into a tidal pool, so much does it
remind me of a robotic crab

my mornings now consist of pills,
shuffling to the next room,
with the aid of my robotic crab
to pour cereal
then work up a shit before I can
leave the house
When did this happen?

bodily functions take priority as
I can no longer trust this body not
to embarrass me in public
when did this happen?

my knees are shot to hell
my bowels rumble and twist
my arthritis tears at me with sharp little teeth
my vision is perfect, cataracts
blasted away by another robot
when did this happen?

the other day my mind went on a holiday
leaving me behind, confused and blank,
frightened
is this a harbinger of what’s to come
when did this happen?

Have you discovered my regular postings: Motivational Moments…for Writers?

“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.” Charles Bukowski

My INTERVIEW with Bukowski
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! In April, a long awaited interview with Kathleen Grissom (The Kitchen House) Michael Saad, Canadian author, was June’s author. Robyn Carr is July’s author. Check out Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!

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