A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

Welcome to the 2014 World Blog Tour! First, I want to thank Carole Brown , award-winning author of The Redemption of Caralynne Hayman  and Hog Insane   for inviting me to participate. I encourage you to check her work out. You can find Carole’s blog at http://sunnebnkwrtr.blogspot.com/ “Like” Carole on Facebook : https://facebook.com/CaroleBrown.author Connect with Carole on Twitter https://twitter.com/browncarole212 Her user name is @browncarole212 During this tour, each author/blogger  is asked to answer four questions.   Here are my responses: 1)   What am I working on? As usual, I have several irons in the fire. I am engaged in serious editing of my second novel and in the throes of drafting my third. The second book is about a young woman who opens up a coffee shop in Door County, Wisconsin. I am tentatively calling it Shirley’s Cuppa Joe. The current work is a novel about a woman who finds herself caught in the m...

If you read last week’s post, you know that I have spent my week working on the plot for my newest work in progress (WIP). If you didn’t read last week’s post you can view it HERE. I didn’t expect this to be a two-part post. I expected to express my concerns about a weak plot last week, work on it, and write a bit about my characters this week. Not to be. I had great comments about the plot, read a book and a few articles on plot, and spent my week creating a graph for the book. Graph? Really? I don’t necessarily outline my story, but rather create scenes and write from scene to scene. I’m a rather visual person. I went back to my initial storyboard and began plotting the scenes on a continuum. I placed them in order and where I expected turning points and the climax of the story. I realize now, I had lost sight of my original story. My story is about Karen. The dementia her mother experiences is the subplot. The dementia creates some of the tension in the story. But as...

My current work in progress is about a middle-aged woman who is dealing with issues surrounding her aging mother. Her mother is showing signs of dementia. I know where I want my story to go. I know what I want my main character to learn, feel, and do. But my plot is weak. Tension? I have tension aplenty. Dialogue? No problem. Flawed but lovable characters? Oh, yes. But the plot? Weak. The basic premise is that Karen’s mother can no longer live on her own. She comes to live with her daughter. Timely, yes. But, as I said, it’s weak. What triggers that move? What sequence of events brings about Karen’s “aha” moment in coming to appreciate her mother? What underlying plot or event will drive the story to its conclusion? To address the problem, I began asking myself “what if” kinds of questions. “What if Karen and her siblings had a falling out?” “What if Granny ran away from home?” The bottom line—“What happened to make Karen take on the role of caregiver?” And for a subplot...

How well do you know your audience? It’s a question all authors need to ask of themselves as they write. The notion is simple: if you have an idea of who will read your book, you will write with that audience in mind. I remember a television program where a teen was trying so hard to be “cool,” he was turning his back on his longtime friends. The lesson learned in the show was captured by his father who said, “In my generation, ‘cool’ meant not-so-hot.” The words we choose, the situations we create, even the conversations we capture speak to a specific audience. Identifying that audience helps keep our story fluid. I thought I had identified my audience for Breathing on Her Own . In my proposal, I stated the story would appeal to women ages 30 and up. I was right. And I was wrong. The book is written from the perspective of one woman, Molly, who is in her late fifties. She has a sweet husband and two adult daughters. I’ve had women of various ages tell me they ...