A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

Tom and I were married one week before Christmas. A few weeks prior to our first anniversary, a married-into-the-family relative asked us to drive her to her parent’s house. It was roughly 100 miles away. We agreed. The plan was to drive her there, turn around, and drive home. When we arrived, her parents insisted we stay for dinner. How nice of them. Then they suggested that since it was dark, we spend the night and leave the next morning. Why not? Late in the evening, our married-into-the-family relative’s family sat down to play a “friendly game of poker.” “Do you play cards?” they asked. “Sure, but we’ve never played poker.” “No problem. We’ll teach you.” They dumped a pitcher of pennies on the table and parceled them out to the whole family. “We use pennies instead of chips,” they said. They taught us how to play poker. We each won a few hands and we lost several. When we were out of coins and it was time to go to bed, the patriarch of the family...

OR... Lessons learned from cutting the grass For forty-three years I served as my husband’s barber. Yep, he let me cut his hair but refused to let me cut the grass. Why? I am terrible with a mower. I leave tall swaths of grass in the middle of a nicely mown lawn. If I do a good job and cut every piece, it’s only because I’ve used enough gas going over and over the yard to have raced a couple of laps at the Indy 500. Now I have to cut the grass. I do it though I am still terrible at the job. I’ve had other women tell me how much they enjoy using their lawnmower. How it gives them time to think or how it is great exercise. Okay, I’ll give them that last one. I’m pretty sure I lose weight every time I mow. Of course I reward myself with ice cream so the whole exercise thing is a wash. I have, however, learned lessons from this weekly activity I can apply to my writing. The grass didn't need to be cut all winter. I was in the clear for months. Then…summer came and th...

Ah, the things you learn on cable TV. I haven’t had cable for several years. A couple of months ago, I discovered I could get better internet service and phone service by bundling those with cable television. I still turn the set on mostly for noise, but now I have a wider range of choices for the voices filling my living room. Recently, I discovered a program called “Undercover Boss.” Apparently the show has been on for some time. The premise of the reality show is that the president or CEO of a company takes on a disguise and acts as a new employee of the business. Those he works with (I’ve only seen male bosses so far) are told the newbie is part of a reality show highlighting people changing careers or something. Hence the cameras following the disguised CEO around. By acting as a new trainee, the CEO learns how the company is functioning internally. The CEO often has a question in the back of his mind, “How can we improve…” You can fill in the blank. Improve our productivity…...

Writers write. They actually spend time in front of a computer or with a pen in hand and they write. It is the simple truth. Writers write. While others talk about it, writers do it. Writers write. You see writing takes time. If you’re a follower of this blog, you know that a few weeks ago I ran into a problem with my plot structure. I turned to the internet and the library to see what I could learn about “plot.”   What I didn’t tell you was that one of the books I checked out was an inspirational little book by Chris Baty, the founder of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It caught my eye because of the title: No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress,High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days.   (I understand there is an updated version of the book as well.)             I checked it out and for the past two weeks I’ve enjoyed the quirky mind of Chris Baty. Although the book has some gritty language sprinkled in here and there (Not...