I, for one, would love to see if this was a useful exercise. Not that I’m doubting it…I just adore seeing progress!
My first five changed drastically. The comments I received made me realize that my initial instinct was right and I had tried too hard to make my beginning what it ‘should’ be.
You’d think I would already know this, as my guest blog on here a while back was all about going with your gut. Hmmm… Maybe I should take my own advice.

Anyway, we’d love to see those revisions!
Just post them as a comment to your submission–don’t be afraid to own up to which one was yours. They were all great =)

Thanks to all who participated!

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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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Spilling all the beans?  When to start talking about your WIP

I don’t know about you, but I have killed many a plot line by talking.  I don’t know what happens, or why, but I seem to lose the will to write it down after I have told the story.  For me, the story has to unfold on the page; it has to come out like it is something I haven’t heard before.  As if the story is being told and I am not the writer, but the listener.

So… if I spill the beans about an exciting new idea I have for a novel, I don’t end up writing it down.  Instead, it just comes out of my mouth and spills onto the floor and gets mopped up, absorbed back into the universe.  So I have learned a quiet patience about my work.

The first novel was an outright secret.  I didn’t tell anyone on purpose.  I didn’t even want to tell myself.  It was a surprise.  That was a good thing.  I never really did understand why it took me all these years to write a good story.  I was always the storyteller.  At sleepover parties when I was a little girl I could scare people right into calling their moms to pick them up.  As I grew older and told stories to colleagues in my academic circles they would inevitably say “You should write that down!” But I simply could not do it.  I couldn’t do it until it was a secret.

And after that I had SO many ideas!  Book ideas were everywhere I looked.  The old man in the grocery store became an aged, un-captured, sociopath who follows a mass murderer around and everyone thinks he is going to be a hero, but all he really wants is one last kill.  And then there was the story about the woman who was in a car crash and the Mexican man who mowed her condo complex lawn comes to her as she is dying in her car, only he is a ghost type of figure who leads her through her past and present and possible future (you know, a take of on Dickens, with a whiff of Stephen King) and let us not forget the story of Meg, the literary agent who needs to return to her small sea side city to help unravel the mystery of her sister’s death twenty years before.  All of these were well mapped out, plotted, stories.  They could have been decent books…. But I wrecked them!  I sat in my kitchen and told them out loud to any one who would listen to me.  And in doing so, made myself so bored when I sat down to write them, that they wouldn’t come out. Used up … washed up… already told stories.  Humph.

But we do, as writers, have to share…do we not?  It is important, especially with a WIP (work in progress for all of you out there new to the biz) to get a good, solid critique.  So what do we do about this?

I figured it out… at least for myself.  I have to keep quiet about the book and write.  I have to get the story out on paper.  The whole story.  The beginning the middle and the end.  And I have to map out the chapters in between.  For me, this means about 20k words.  It is then that I can safely begin to discuss my project without losing interest.  See, at this point it is already done.  The rest of it is an assignment.  For example in my current WIP The Junk Garden, I knew there had to be this crazy showdown in a motel parking lot.  I knew why it had to happen, and I knew the gist of it.  I knew what came before and what was to come after.  So even though it simply stated SHOWDOWN AT

THE STARDUST MOTEL, I could safely talk about the book knowing that I had to write that chapter soon.   (I just did, by the way, and I am really happy with it.)

How about you?  Do you ever ruin a story for yourself by spilling the beans too soon?  Or is it better for you to talk the whole thing out before you write?

Suzanne M. Palmieri

Suzanne is a Sociologist by profession and degree. She teaches Social Behavior and Social Interaction as well as many courses in Deviance at the university level.

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I have come to a point where I need to complete some research for my book to be believable. The MC has acute myeloid leukemia and I have no idea what that really even means. The symptoms looked feasible to fit in with the story, and I needed something for the other MC to help this MC with. Is that confusing enough?

So, I’ve been Google-ing the disease and reading up about bone marrow transplants.

My question is this- Do you have things in you WiP(s) that have required research? How do you find the information you need? How do you incorporate into your story?

And if anyone knows anything about this disease, I’d happily take all the info I can. Thanks!

Oh! And birthing calves. That’d be helpful, too.

Oh! And hospital procedure…I don’t know a thing about that stuff.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a site to go to for information on random things that writers need to learn about? Does anyone happen to know of anything like that?

Good luck in your research!

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You never know when we’ll have another contest–so let’s get these first 100 words ship-shape!

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This is my first novel. I started by taking Sarah’s advice and just wrote. I wrote about what I knew and that is…being a girl growing up in East Texas. Creative, huh? For me, I had to just write about what was familiar. I changed the names of towns, but in my head, I picture where I grew up. That way I can accurately describe even the sounds and smells. All five senses are needed to portray a good setting.

This was the best scene of setting that I could find in my book. Remember-it took me a long time to find this and I even had to tweak it to put it on here. I’m no expert!!

Ugh. Hospital. The disinfectant stench wafted through my nostrils making my head spin and eyes fight to close again. My stomach rumbled and I put my hand over the worn blue fabric of the gown. At least I didn’t have to fix my own breakfast. The room was dim and I wondered if it was even morning. I forced myself to think about what I might order instead of the beeping machines and where I was lying.

Find a good example of setting in your WiP and post it in the comments along with your advice about the topic!

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Today we’ll start off with your main character. Please share.

Don’t they look great together? Well they are. Most of the time…but that another story.

So, from the advice of my sis, I created word docs with their bios. These really help keep things straight while writing.

Alexander Jack Snow
DOB: April 10 (22 y/o)
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 180?
Hair: shaggy, curls at ends, sandy color (not Tom Welling’s color)
Eyes: Steel blue
School/Occupation: Graduated from ? with Construction Management Degree/Home builder

Personality: Very reserved. Shy around girls. Keeps to himself. Loves family. Loyal. Caring. Witty, but only around those who know him.

Hobbies/Likes: plays football and basketball every now and then, loves animals and farming. Good with horses. Loves working with hands.

Dislikes: ?, people trying to hurt Rose

Identifying Features: scar on chin, uneven eyebrows, hair on face grows quickly

Rose Ella Conway
DOB: June 12 (20 y/o)
Height: 5’2″
Weight: 120
Hair: Dirty Blonde
Eyes: Blue (Darker than Jack’s)
School/Occupation: Texas A&M Vet Med/ works at local vet during summer

Personality: quiet, shy, outspoken at times, neat and organized, overdramatic sometimes,

Hobbies/Likes: swimming, reading, being outside, loves animals, sports in general

Dislikes: snakes

Identifying Features: scar above eyebrow

So that’s them. I left out their most important features of course. The ‘special’ things about them that make my story. You’ll just have to help me edit to find those things out…

Post or comment about your Main Character(s)!

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