Let"s Create

Since I was a small child, I was told we are put on this world to create, or to love one another , or to take care of things and people who cannot take care of themselves.

It depends on what you believe as to which of these things is the most important. In a perfect world, it would all be relevant.

Today I want to talk about creating. Everyday someone says to me, "I could never write a book," how do you do it? Then they look at me in disbelief when I tell them, "I'm not quite sure."

It's true. Most of my ideas come from a snippet of a recurring dream, a piece of a conversation, or a thought I can't get out of my head. Usually, for sanity's sake, I write it down.

The funny thing is, once I write it down, it goes away. I don't have the dream anymore. I can think about other things and I can't always remember the way the conversation, I obsessed about only moments before, actually went.

Now here is the odd part, (if that isn't odd enough). I have absolutely no idea who will be in the book, what the plot is or how it will end. I sit down at my computer with a cup of coffee (decaf, I am hyper enough) and begin to type. To get started, I read the last paragraph I wrote the day before. Then my mind is off  and running. People pop into my imagination and I see them with great detail, even down to the mole on their cheek.

If I stick to it, no one gets sick, the dogs don't have to go outside, the room isn't too hot or cold or a dozen other things to interrupt my train of thought, I spew out a story. Sometimes stories take weeks, others take months and one even took a year.

Enter, my friends and family and even my families friends. I need readers. At this point, I am convinced the reader thinks I am illiterate. My work needs comma's, periods, quotation marks, different paragraph breaks and on and on. I only want to know about the content. Is this a story line you could get into.

I mostly get, "Wow,you're weird!"  "Whose brain  comes up with this stuff.?" 

The Springfield area has several writers groups, Sleuth's, Ink Mystery Writers, Ozark Romance Authors,and The Writer's Guild to name a few. Believe me, these people are as weird as I am. Maybe they are a little more mainstream weird ( yes, it is possible).
Wanda Fittro wrote about an abusive relationship and I swear, you would think you were in the room.
Tierney James writes  (among other things) a series about a housewife turned spy. It is so believable, you wonder what the lady next door did last night. Lisa Medley writes of Space Cowboys, Alien love, and Reapers, (the grim kind). Beth Carter writes romance novels that are raising in the ranks.
VJ Shultz will surprise you every time with her short stories, password journals and coloring books. Shirley McCann will scare the beegeebees out of you. Before you know it you are sitting with your back to the wall so no one can walk up behind you. (I wanted to say McCann can, but thought better of it.)

If you paint, draw, care for the sick or elderly, cook, garden, or a thousand other things , you are a creator.

Stop by and tell me about your passion.

http://susankeeneauthor.com                    https://www.facebook.com/susanskeene1/

How to Write the great American novel, well, maybe!

Everyday someone asks me, how do you write a book. I answer honestly, I haven't a clue. There is a book called The Artist's Way. It tells all aspiring writers they should write three pages a day no matter what. If nothing comes to you then right babble, just write. Well, I have never had a problem with coming up with ideas.

First, if you want to be a writer, the one rule I know is  to put your rear end in a chair and write.

If you don't have an idea then look up and write about the first thing you see or some people practice by using a prompt. The short story Thirteen is written from a prompt. I went to a writer's group and the lady said "For next month write a story about Friday the thirteenth, so I did.

Once I sit down, I can write for hours. My problem is sitting down. I swear, I think I have AADHD.

There are a million things I can think of to do instead of writing.To keep myself on the straight and narrow, I get up most mornings at six and write until ten. I only allow myself to get up to use the bathroom or get another cup of coffee. It has been working well. I average about fifteen hundred words a day. Theoretically, I could write an 80,000 word  book every two months or so. Wow, that sounds great.  It doesn't work that way. During those four hours, I have to make sure my details are correct, my characters are believable and my story flows.

I have always been told "get it down on paper and then go back and fix it". I can't work like that. If I realize my hero was thirty-five with green eyes in chapter two and in chapter four his eyes turned brown, I must fix it.

Next question I get asked is where do you get your ideas?  Everywhere. The other day I was buying groceries and the guy in front of me looked like the kind of guy who could clear out a bar with one swipe of his hand and yet he was gently holding a baby. Believe me, he will show up somewhere.

In truth, I don't know. I dream them, see a snippet on TV or in a book that sends my mind off on a tangent and I'm gone again.

Children's books are different. They come to me fully written. For days the idea will swirl around in my head and when it is fully formulated I sit down and write it. Usually in an hour or so. Then I take it to the very talented Mike Sears and he brings them to life. Diggitty the Dog Vol 2 will be out in a week or so and Diggitty the Dog Saves Christmas is at Mike's now.

For fear that I will bore you , I am going to stop now as soon as I tell you about my new series about the Watcher in the Woods.

All of the mysteries or crimes take place in the towns around the Mark Twain National Forest. (Truman  in the series). It is one and a half million acres. The Watcher sees things. At first he didn't do anything. He went on about his business , but one day a man drug the body of a boy in the woods and buried it. The Watcher couldn't get it out of his mind. When a sheriff of another small town is investigating a murder in another part of the forest, the Watcher moves the boys body where it will be found. It is only the beginning of the things the Watcher sees and the lengths he goes to to bring the criminals to justice. The first book in the Watcher series is The Body in the Woods. Should be out  by fall.

See you soon.
Stop by  www.ptierneyjames.blogspot.com  who will be a guest blogger here on May 15  and at www.lisamedley.com . Lisa will be my guest on May 5.
Happy reading and writing

Random facts

This is the third day I have been inside.  Living on a 97 acre piece of land makes this a rare event.
Right now my reason for staying in is ice.  I go out in snow and rain, but ice and I do not mesh.
Cars and I have no traction on ice.

 I have been working on the edit of my novel Tattered Wings.  I love seeing it get better and better, but once in awhile, I stray.  This afternoon I strayed because of odd facts.  That's right.  Not brownies or ice cream or even a second cup of coffee, but odd facts.  Facts fascinate me.  I am always amazed to watch Jeopardy and have someone come up with an obscure fact.  I wonder how they know which star is the brightest one in the northern sky of the southern hemisphere on December 9,1918, at dusk.  Okay so maybe that wasn't the question, but it was something unknown to us normal folks.

So here I am  to entertain you will some facts not known to most of you.

1.   There are more chickens than humans on the earth.
2 . Butterflies taste through their feet.
3 . Lightening strikes the earth 8 million times a day.
4.   Dolphins sleep with their eyes open.
5 .Only 11 % of the earth is used for crops.
6 . Your heart beats about 100000 times a day.
7.  A flea can jump 130 times his size.  If you could do that you could jump over the St. Louis arch.
7.  China has more pigs than the rest of the world combined.
8 .97 % of the world's water in non-drinkable
9.  70% of the world's red meat eaters eat goat
10  Silent and listen have the exact letters.
11.  The blue whale is the largest mammal on earth.
12.  Bull frogs never sleep
13.  We don't sneeze when we are sleeping\
14.   We use the equivalent of two liters of oil per person in the world, per day.
15.  Only 20 % of the people in the world have a passport.

Okay, I am ready to go back to editing.  I hope you are all enjoying some good weather and are not stuck in the house as I am.  Life is good.