There’s no post coming from me today, instead–I invite you to find a book that’s been challenged or banned and read it!

Ellen Hopkins says it best:

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I will come to you
In the still of the night
And I will crush you
With the burden of sight
And you will understand
The shadows in my heart
The fury of my conviction
Will cause your heart to quicken
And then, my dear
You will see you want me here
~~ Haunted — Jewel   ~~

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What would your character do (your current one, an old MC, or a brand new one you create today) if s/he knew a stalker was in the house?

I want to go dark for the end of the week. I’m in that kind of mood….

Try to keep it about half the length of Suzanne’s prompt from yesterday. We’ve had so much advice lately (which has been fabulous), but I’ve missed the writing part of this blog. So have at it!!

I’ll post mine in the comments, as well.

Image Source

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Since winning her first writing competition at a young age, Eden Tyler, has only fallen more in love with the written word. She uses her English, Psychology, and Sociology backgrounds to create depth to her own stories and novels while contributing to and running websites about writing. This is what fulfills her, along with working as Co-Editor for Fuel Your Writing, but she also enjoys the freelance work that puts food on the table (and that ever-essential roof overhead) for her family.

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Be quick, yet careful.  See if you can come up with a short story of 500 words EXACTLY(beginning, middle and end) that could accompany this image. I triple dog dare you.

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In writing any novel, you have to learn and understand your characters. That is a journey full of bumps and rough patches. The road is often long and arduous, so how do you get to know your characters? Do write until you figure them out? Do you listen to what they have to say or try to force them to fit into a certain criteria? Do you engage in exercises that build them into actual people?

Good to know you, started by Joyce, has been a great way for me get to know some of the neuroses and nuisances of my characters. So, Joyce, I want to thank you for the games you’ve inspired to get us to learn more about our characters, things that shape them, even if it never makes it into the story.

And with that, I would like to know what kind of music you characters listen to. Do they sing along or simple sit back and enjoy? Are they shower singers?

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Sarah is writer looking for an agent. She is currently working on novel # 4, editing novels 2 and 3, and querying novel # 1. For more insight to her work, visit: http://legendoftheprotectors.wordpress.com/ or http://legendoftheprotectors.blogspot.com/

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So, the movie that gave me the inspiration for my novel’s ending (yes, the one I stole) was about a writer and it went way into the paranormal realm.
It’s called Re-cycle, and the writer ends up being thrown into this world where all her tossed writings have gone. All the characters she either changed or crumpled up and threw away — they were all there. The worlds she created were there. And then it became a huge ‘otherworld’ of every writer’s unused ideas.

It got me thinking recently about the process of my writing. For Avalon, in particular.
When I started, I was on a roll — writing a few thousand words a day and the story was moving right along. But then, I hit a snag. I started editing instead of just finishing the book.
Don’t get me wrong—I think I did the right thing by doing that. I’ve learned a lot and my writing is better now because of it. The rest of my novel will be easier when it comes to revising, now that my writing is tighter. The first few chapters had to be edited to pieces, but now I don’t have to change much at all when I go back.

All right, here’s my point…
I wonder what my book would have been if I’d continued writing. Would it be completely different? Because I know that different things in my life have affected the storyline, and certain ideas seem to come up at just the right time.
But, had I left the learning process for later, would I have had a different plan for the book? Would my characters be different?
Heck, would I already be finishing one of the other books I’ve started? What are those characters doing, just sitting around waiting? Are they developing into different types of people based on my life experiences in the meantime? Are parts of their personality disappearing and entering another realm? Are characters morphing into each other?

This is an odd post, I know, but I seriously wonder how different a book would be if you wrote it at a different time in your life. Would Avalon be even remotely the same if I’d written it ten years ago? Even if I had the exact same idea back then??? Hmmm…

What do y’all think? Do you think that everything is always changing in your work based on your life and based on breaks you may take between writing? Or are your ideas solidified enough that nothing would change them? This kind of goes along with Marybeth’s posts about influence…

I’m interested to hear your thoughts!

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Since winning her first writing competition at a young age, Eden Tyler, has only fallen more in love with the written word. She uses her English, Psychology, and Sociology backgrounds to create depth to her own stories and novels while contributing to and running websites about writing. This is what fulfills her, along with working as Co-Editor for Fuel Your Writing, but she also enjoys the freelance work that puts food on the table (and that ever-essential roof overhead) for her family.

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The other day, I met an aspiring writer, uncommonly depressed.

She had just received a string of rejections, and was thinking of sticking to her day job, to the total exclusion of writing. Not so uncommon.

For most writers, publication is part of being validated, of being told how good they are. And since a writer does not write in vacuum, but for an audience, it makes sense that they should write to be published.

While talking to my friend, out of nowhere, the image of Winnie the Pooh came to me. Yes, you read that right. Winnie the Pooh.

Winnie the Pooh saying something about honey, and eating it. I was so keen on figuring out what exactly Pooh had said that I immediately googled it when I came back home.

Here it is:

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best — ” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.

So, I called up my friend, and told her all about it. How Publishing a Book was good, but what was even better was the time before that happened. Enjoy your time while writing, I said to her, and enjoy your time before publication.

Like Winnie the Pooh, we writers must learn to enjoy the moments before we begin to Eat Honey. We must wait to be found, not only by publishers but also our own Muse, because as the wise Pooh bear says:

Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is go where they can find you.