More Ideas than Time

I'm a writer who has more ideas and characters than time to write them. I can get a great story idea at least once a day, I mull it over and if it won't go away or becomes even more ingrained in my thoughts, I jot it down either in one of my computer folders or an actual folder of ideas I have in my file cabinet.

The same goes for characters. I don't  get one of those a day but when one comes to me and sticks in my mind, becoming more and more real, I jot down the information for them and in some instances even come up with a story that they would work in.

Right now I have a real strong secondary character in my mind. I brainstormed a bit about her with Danita Cahill on our way to a booksigning this past weekend. My main character in my mystery thinks of the secondary character in this way. "Crazy Lil came with the ranch like a stray cat. She helps me out and I provide a place for her to live and food to eat."

I've thought of "Crazy" Lil as being simple minded, a lover of animals, and a person who is diligent at their tasks. Danita gave me some great ideas of backstory for her to explain why she won't leave her grandparent's ranch even after they are dead and it has been sold. It also gave me some insight into the mystery that will revolve around Lil and her past. Her mystery story that will be down the line from several others I've come up with for my mystery series.

Are you a prolific idea collector? Or can you come up with ideas at the same speed you can write them? Or if you do hobbies, do you dream up more projects than you can sanely make?
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For the rest of this month you can purchase Secrets of a Mayan Moon for $.99 at Kindle.

What happens when a brilliant anthropologist is lured to the jungle to be used as a human sacrifice?

Blurb:

Child prodigy and now Doctor of Anthropology, Isabella Mumphrey, is about to lose her job at the university. In the world of publish or perish, her mentor’s request for her assistance on a dig is just the opportunity she’s been seeking. If she can decipher an ancient stone table—and she can—she’ll keep her department. She heads to Guatemala, but drug trafficking bad guys, artifact thieves, and her infatuation for her handsome guide wreak havoc on her scholarly intentions.

DEA agent Tino Kosta, is out to avenge the deaths of his family. He’s deep undercover as a jaguar tracker and sometimes jungle guide, but the appearance of a beautiful, brainy anthropologist heats his Latin blood taking him on a dangerous detour that could leave them both casualties of the jungle.

Secrets of a Mayan Moon is available at Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. 

www.patyjager.net

www.patyjager.blogspot.com

Premise, Plotting, Writing

I wasn't going to ask a question this week because, Alice has dubbed me the question asker (LOL)- but after reading hers and Eli's comments on the Saturday check-in it made me wonder- What do you find the most difficult stage of a new project? Is it coming up with the premise or idea for a book, the plotting of the book, or the writing?

With everyone at different stages in their projects and listening to the concerns or problems they face- it made me wonder, just like everything else in writing, does each writer also find different stages of the writing more difficult than others and is it because of the genre they write, or just their own preference of getting the story on paper?

Myself, I love the research involved in writing the historical westerns. I don't have a problem coming up with a story premise/idea- but I tend to get frustrated with the plotting at times, but find the writing, once I get started flows fast and the story comes. With the contemporaries- the story idea comes and the plotting seems to fall into place, but the writing is harder. Not sure why, but I feel like a newbie writer every time I attempt contemporary.

So what is your genre and which of these do you feel you struggle more with Premise, Plot, or the writing? And why?

Titles

This one or that one.... Well, I'll post my original post here and the other one I was thinking about will be on my Monday personal blog. So you'll have to buzz over there to see what the subject I was thinking about posting is. :)

I know most authors say your titles will be changed you don’t need to think too hard about them. But according to agent, Jessica Faust of Bookends Agency, that is the first thing that grabs her about a manuscript and will keep her reading. The title.

She says it should evoke the feel of the story and grab the reader’s attention. Granted most titles get changed when they are bought by a publisher, but if you have a good one, it will grab the attention of your first reader-either an editor or an agent.

So, I’ve been anguishing over the title of my historical western mystery. I had planned to use colors in the titles, but so far no one has liked the titles I came up with. Then I thought I’d just go with Mae Simon, Pinkerton Detective: Vanishing Heiress. To keep the series influence the Mae Simon, Pinkerton Detective would be on all the manuscripts with a title for each book. But that doesn’t grab the reader. Then I thought of “Au Revoir Esther” since at the beginning of the story the heroine throws off her old persona “Esther”, and she pretends to be a French Prostitute. But this doesn’t tell you there is a mystery involved in the story.

Faust also said your title should let the reader know a little about the story genre.

I need something that says historical, western, romance, mystery…

The title of a book, usually comes to me just like the characters and the premise, but for some reason this book isn’t jumping out at me with a title. Here are some of my other ideas. Any thoughts?

Improper Pinkerton

Chasing Dead Ends

Posse of Two

Cloak and Colt .45

How hard do you work to get a title that suits the book? Or do you just name it your character’s names and figure it will get renamed when it is bought? What is your method for finding the right title for your story?

How Thick is Your Skin

As writers we are a vulnerable lot in that we put our feelings down for others to see. Granted they are in the body of a character in our work, but they are still our feelings. And everyone who puts their feelings out there can be crushed.

We have to grow a tough skin for those contest judges who “don’t know” enough to be judging a category, or that critique that hurts, or that form rejection letter or even worse the lengthy rejection letter that came so close to maybe getting published.

There have been two incidents lately in my little realm of historical writing that made me think about this topic. One is a post on my historical loop from a writer who received her judge’s comments from a “historical” contest. She said more than one judge commented she needed to explain what a “union suit” was. Anyone who reads historical knows what a union suit is! It is the one-piece underwear with a flap in the back that is still worn in some parts of the US today and used as PJ’s by some women. This is where the tough skin comes in- this writer could have thrown a tissy fit and asked what kind of judges are we getting for these contests, instead, she went on the loop and asked for different ways she could describe the clothing. Which, I feel she was accurate in just saying what it was- any true reader of historical fiction will know what she is talking about. So while she was calm, it ticked me off that someone was judging a category they shouldn’t have been.

The second incident is a writer who submitted to a publishing house and received a rejection stating her historical information and characters didn’t ring true However, her writing-grammar, spelling, prose were commended. This was an instance when a tough skin was needed, but this person didn’t have one. She sent several scathing replies to the editor.

Which of these writers will grow from the experience? Which of these writers do you think will go the farthest with their writing career?

Do you have a thick skin? Can you go the distance to be published? Do you have a thick skin story?