Cera Daniels

2012: Year of Gleeful Anticipation

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:19:00 +0000

2011 is over.

Wow.

Those last couple of months were a whirlwind, weren't they? For us, 2011 was a frenetic dance of doctor visits, day job and baby care shuffling, family drama, necessary sacrifices, and almost indescribable joys. Almost, because well, I'm a writer. *wink*

2011 good-stuff highlights:

I became a new mom.

I also became a new aunt.

I finished drafts on two more novels.

I wrote and polished a novella.

I got a promotion.

I finished two college-level courses.

I found vision. Motivation. Goals. And realism.

I'm still writing.

Yep. My second biggest accomplishment of 2011 was that I didn't quit. In fact, although my pace has been altered to accommodate my heavier day job workload and mommyhood, I'm more determined than ever to get my characters onto the page. With a zany year at my back, and many more characters demanding to be released upon the unsuspecting public, I'm thundering into 2012 with a solid vision and comfy new roles under my feet.

In the months ahead, I'm gleefully anticipating Joanna Connor's first birthday bash and first independent steps, my own office, the devouring of the paperbacks I got for Christmas, query trail adventures for my newest novel, and season 2 of Game of Thrones. Plus...I get a whole extra day to write. 2012 is a leap year!

What's ahead for you in 2012?

Writer Mommy Incurs Wrath of Tooth Fairy

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 02:14:00 +0000

The tooth fairy hates me. I'm not sure what I did to deserve the screaming fits, sleepless nights, and fevers these days, but if I ever run into the runt in the tutu on one of these dark autumn nights when I'm stumbling around the house at 3 AM banging my shins on every cat*, bookshelf, and epileptic's-nightmare baby toy, she's getting a titanium spork to the spleen. (Why, you ask? Because after the coworker-spork-ninja incident, I "misplaced" my darling kitchen utensil of DOOOM and found it again just this morning. Saints be praised--Writer Mommy can inflict mayhem once more!)

You'd think someone would have jailed those sparkly wings eons ago, what with all the stealing of teeth randomly during those already-challenging-enough elementary school years. But even global kleptomania doesn't compare to her incessant need to plant new teeth UNDER the gums in the infant months rather than on top, forcing the teeth have to work themselves free and said infants to suffer needlessly.

Sneaky-bad torturous fairy, prepare to be iced.

Writer Mommy is on to you, and she's writing you into her NaNoWriMo 2011 novel just so's she can kill you off...

*No cats have (thus far) been harmed by Mommy Writer's trompling.

Noveling Software for NaNo?

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:48:00 +0000

I've covered software before, but I've got some new words for 2011 as we wind down the month.

This year, I spent a lot of time trying out writing software to see what all the fuss was about. I gave a fair shot, both in teacher-led classes and on my own for yWriter, Liquid Story Binder, OneNote 2010, and Storybook, as well as the Scrivener for Windows beta. The verdict?

They are all equally suitable for writing, and will be equally distracting during NaNo if you're getting started on them in November. Pick something NOW, and spend some time getting used to the basic tools you need to know to write your manuscript.

Liquid Story Binder has the most fluid interface of the five--you can move everything and anything around to however you see fit, see as many text files and images open in whatever arrangement you need at any given time. There's even a built-in (and really PRETTY!) timeline tool so you can check out in a graphical format how your main plot and subplot are flowing along.

30 Day Trial
$45.95 purchase price.

Scrivener is not just for novels--you can design your own templates so it's versatile for organization of whatever form you're working in. The corkboard mode lets you move around notes for outlining--very handy stuff. Windows version doesn't yet have revision mode, Mac version does. (Mac version is the Precious, but I'm a PC user. *insert sad face here*)

30 Day Trial for Mac.
$45 purchase price for Mac.
Waiting on official release version for Windows--it's beta right now.
Discount for doing NaNoWriMo! How awesome is that?

Microsoft OneNote is the simplest to pick up and use in my opinion, because it's just like a physical notebook. (That one continues to be my electronic notebook of choice, and Microsoft Word is my word processor du jour, but only until Scrivener for Windows gets revision mode.)

60 Day Trial
Comes with the Microsoft Office Home and Student suite, so if you have it, use it. If you don't have it, it's $149 for all 4 programs (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote) and that's probably not the way you're gonna go.

yWriter and Storybook are intuitively labeled for organizing plot and characters right from the start, all the right tools ready out of the box. The other programs are open format, so you have to create your process instead of learning someone else's. yWriter is more spreadsheet-like but has handy scene and character trackers which print out nicely. Storybook, I thought, was more visually pleasing and had a pretty awesome scene card setup, but the free version doesn't allow you to print. (Fine for a trial run, not so fine for the full monty.) The Pro version of Storybook includes mindmapping!

yWriter is FREE. Yep. That's right. :)
Storybook has two versions. FREE and PRO, which is $26.55.

I'm a firm believer in building your own process instead of following the direction of software. Doing it my way, the words flow. If I'm trying to cram my muse into someone else's box, it doesn't work for me. Others find it far easier to take a stepped approach under an external source of direction. Choose, if you must have something outside of a regular old word processor, and run with it.

What tools are you planning on using this year?

NaNoWriMo Walkthrough: Your Region

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:47:00 +0000

Hey all! This post is part 2 of a 4-part series for new and old WriMos, focusing on the NaNoWriMo website. We're rocking out user/novel profiles, navigating regions, filtering forums, making friends, and picking up some NaNo terminology along the way--and I'll be around for any and all NaNo-survival questions.

Yessss...NaNoWriMo 2011--Let's do this!!

WriMos associate with regions to find other local crazies who have signed on. That's right--we're here to write 50,000 words in a month, AND make friends. Municipal Liaisons for each region host events such as the annual Kick Off Party and weekly write-ins. If you sign up for your region, you'll know about them on the forums, regional calendar, and even ML emails (if you home--see below for steps!).

Selecting Regions
1. Move your mouse over "My NaNoWriMo" on the main NaNo menu. From the drop-down list, select "My Regions".
2. Scroll down the page or type in a region in the search box to locate your region.
3. Click "Join" next to the region of of your choice.

4. If you need more than one region, like, say, to spy on the competition the next town over, you've moved and have WriMo contacts in your former region, or you're super curious how they NaNo in France, repeat steps 2 and 3 until all of the regions you want to add have "Joined!" next to them.
5. Once you Join a region and refresh the My Regions page, you can see them under the My Regions header. Click on the link for a region to load the region's forums. You can also click "Forums" on the main NaNo menu. At this time, regional forums are available at the very bottom of the forums list.
6. Get in there and start getting to know the 2011 participants close to you!

NOTE: To remove a region, click on "Leave" next to the link in your My Regions list. Click "OK" on the confirmation message. On page refresh, the link will go away.

Your Home Region
One of the best things you can do pre-NaNo is "home" to your region. Selecting a region as "Home" means your word count will count toward that region's total word count. You can only choose one place for that total to go. Homing can also ensure you get regional emails from your local Muncipal Liaison(s) when the functionality goes live on the site.

Method 1:
1. On the "My Regions" page, take a look to the far right of each link in your selected region list. You'll notice the houses next to the regions:

Grey House: Not Home

Blue House: Home

2. Click on a house to toggle the setting to Home for the region of your choice.

Method 2:
1. Move your mouse over "My NaNoWriMo" on the main NaNo menu. From the drop-down list, select "Set My Home Region".
2. Select your region from the drop-down list.
3. Choose whether or not to receive regional emails.
4. Click "Next" and you'll go on through to your home region.

You are rockin' this website! Way to go, WriMos! (If only that 50k would be that simple, yeah?)

NaNoWriMo Walkthrough #1: Author Info

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:03:00 +0000

Hey all! This post is 1 of a 4-part series for new and old WriMos, focusing on the NaNoWriMo website. We'll cover user/novel profiles, navigating regions, forum filtering, making friends, and terminology--and I'll be around for any and all NaNo-survival questions.

*punts Inner Editor into Cavernous Pit of Doom*

*just until December*

Whether you're a new WriMo or an old hat at the month of craziness about to strike, a new NaNoWriMo site launch means polishing up that User Profile so you can introduce yourself and your novel aspirations to your comrades! If you already had an account at NaNoWriMo.org before October 7, your username, password, and basic profile info is copied over to the new site. New folks, you get to start from scratch.

What follows is your quick and dirty how-to list for these important first steps. Head over to the NaNoWriMo homepage to set it all up and get things running smoothly before November.

Registration/Log In
New WriMos:
1. Click "Sign up!". Enter the username, password, and email address you want to use for NaNo stuff, check out the TOS and send it through by clicking the massive "Sign Up!" button at the bottom of the form.

Keep in mind, if you associate yourself with a region or select the "email new posts" option for specific forums, you'll receive news from your regional MLs and post updates to this email address as well as the regular NaNoWriMo news and pep talks.

2. Wait for an email from NaNoWriMo. Click on the link in the email or paste it into your browser to verify your account.
3. You're in!

Veteran WriMos:
1. Log in with your existing username and password. The first thing you'll be asked is to select your region.
2. You're in! Your 2010 word count will be cleared and you'll finally have that glorious blank slate to contend with.

Author Info/User Profile
1. Click on My NanoWriMo on the menu bar. Your profile will load. Click on the red "Edit Author Info" link between your username and your non-existent profile picture (we'll update that in a minute!).

Yep, that's me--Lady Fianyth. The buddy list isn't active on the new site yet--we'll get to those soon.

2. New WriMos: Fill in the form to your whim. Veteran WriMos: Verify your existing data and update as needed. Most of it comes over from the other site.
3. Veteran WriMos Only: For the Participated/Won selection boxes, verify the years selected in the box. Add last year if you were on board for 2010 (done = participant but not 50k, won = 50k!). To select more than one in either box, press and hold CTRL on your keyboard while clicking on the appropriate years. (New WriMos: Ignore these "done/won" selections. Next year, it'll let you stake your claim on 2011! )
4. Click "Save" at the bottom of the form to update your profile with the changes.

Profile Pic
1. On the My NaNoWriMo page again, click on "Edit Account Settings". (It's in the middle next to that "Edit Author Info" link.)
2. While you're here, verify your time zone.
3. At the bottom of the form, click "Choose File". Browse to a picture on your hard drive to use for your profile. It should be ".jpg", ".jpeg", or ".png". Size-wise, you're looking at up to 30 kB and up to around 100x100. Smaller than 100x100 will scale to the profile box space.
4. Click "Save" at the bottom of the form to update your profile with the changes.

Add Your Novel
1. Still in the My NaNoWriMo area, click on the "Edit Novel Info" link. (Heavens, is it right in the middle with the other two as well?)

2. Fill in everything you want to share with your fellow WriMos. I don't know what I'm writing yet, but you can bet it'll be Romance, so I filled out the genre and let it ride. You can put in a title, synopsis, book cover, and even a sample--although you shouldn't have one of THOSE to share yet (you rebel, you).

And You're Done!
Note that you can get to the "Edit" links from the drop-down list on the main menu, but I wanted to direct your attention to the pretty new interface. Sharp! Let's all dig in for NaNoWriMo 2011!

Thank you, OLL, for putting all your hard work, time, caffeinated/sugarified blood, and effort into the new NaNoWriMo site--you're all fabulous!

Pre-NaNoWriMo Jitters?

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:04:00 +0000

Are you ready for National Panic Before NaNoWriMo Month?

Already there?

As a municipal liaison for the Columbia, SC region, my favorite writing time of the year (other than, well, NaNoWriMo itself) is the month leading up to those 30 days of sharing my daily writing abandon with others. Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm, and as we ramp up to November 1st with our local gatherings and busy forums, you can feel the charge of creative energy. Energy is an awesome thing.

There's no more perfect time than now to gather up that energy, loose your imagination, and let those words fly, especially on the brainstorming front. To beat back the onset of this month's panic, have a plan A. And a plan B. (And even, like the lovely Vert who guest blogged for me last weekend, additional plans C-G.) Remember that anything can happen, get those thoughts down, and keep on going.

Every day it's my personal challenge to find time to write in the middle of things. I'm brainstorming and getting my plot nailed down for my next book while revising an already written novel. I'm a new mom, I work a full time job, I'm taking classes. My little Joanna Connor (rebel against our robot overlords) just started teething. I'm not always successful in my daily writing and revision efforts.

I'm not always fearless.

But I do keep on going, and I know you can too!

It's a busy world. High-tech, fast-paced, drama-packed busy. If we're lucky, life is always going to be busy. Those experiences are what fuel our writing and give it energy. I hope all you WriMos, new and old, experience that this year: focused energy, wonderful support, and fulfilled dreams. I hope all you writers who knock out those books all year long keep finding time to write in the middle of things. (Seriously. Because my TBR pile isn't going to fill itself, folks.)

In the coming days, amidst all the busy, I'm writing a new book. I challenge you to do the same!

The Revision Drinking Game

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:38:00 +0000

Take a shot if the hero is Too Stupid to Live (TSTL).
Take a shot if the heroine is TSTL.
Have your characters take a shot if you've stuck them in whole scenes of introspection in an enclosed space.

Thanks to what I just uncovered in this draft, if I were taking shots for #3, part-Irish or not, I'd be under the table. Sadly, I can't complete many revisions when I'm unconscious. (Don't you wish, every once in a while, we could?)

My calendar says another November's on the horizon, when I'll make scenes that'll send my characters back to the bar all over again. Hold up. What's that you say? NaNoWriMo is 29 days away and closing??????

Shots may be in order sooner than I'd thought.

Writer Mommy Loses Mealtime Magic

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 09:07:00 +0000

I spent months perfecting the one-hand bottlefeed plus typing maneuver for feedings during the work day. Sure, it's tricky while she's kicking the keyboard, but at least I was able to squeeze a few emails in. I've even been known to take conference calls, work on manuals, and feed the baby at the same time. DH still doesn't know how I do it. Did it. Now, she's on solid food for 2 meals during the day.

Solid food. How fast they grow. (Sidenote: there really should be more truth in advertising here. Liquified fruits and veggies and grains are NOT solid. Until they're raspberried all over your glasses, sprayed onto the floor, dumped on the cat. Then, through what I'm sure is the magic of one of Murphy's Laws, they change state.) Needless to say, I've lost my free hand.

The math now?

1 = bowl

1 = spoon

1 = keeping baby from sticking her fingers in her mouth and subsequently spreading gushy noms e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e.

Yep, you heard it here first: Writer Mommys have THREE hands. Else, I'm really bad at math. You decide. Hey now, don't ask my DH. That's cheating.

These days, electronics can't be anywhere in sight or I risk a sleek, sticky, carrot juice coating. She also takes even longer to eat. It's frustrating, and it means my day job hours slip ever further into the evening, crunching in on my sleep and writer-me time. I can't wait until she can self-feed for snacks. That will be awesome.

Although you know, I say I can't wait, but I have a blast at our new feeding routine.

I'm not in any rush to see these days pass.

I may have lost my productive edge, but what I now lack in Multitasking we've more than made up for in Cuteness. I'd say the lift in spirits makes my productive hours that much more satisfying.

Guest Blogger: TriMu Vikki

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 13:13:00 +0000

Next up, Vikki shares her writing discoveries post-Dragon*Con.

At 4 am on Wednesday, Sept 1st, I had a revelation. This revelation could have been brought on by a lack of sleep. (I had been up 24 hours at that point.) It could have been brought on by a sense of urgency. (I was leaving for Dragon*Con in 5 hours and I hadn’t packed a thing.) I could have been a sign from above or maybe some combination of the three. I don’t know, but the revelation was simple.

My sewing machine was broken and if I didn’t do something about it, my costume for Dragon*Con was going to go unfinished.

Cue the inconsolable sobs here. I had spent weeks working on this costume and all the hours of work that I had put in were about to be wasted.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with writing. Well, nothing except that I’m a firm believer in learning from my experiences and I learned a lot from this one that can be applied to my writing.

Sometimes, it is so broken that it can’t be fixed. When I finally admitted that to myself, it was almost a relief. I’d been fighting with the machine for three days. It would work for a bit and then break again and I would spend another hour or two trying to fix it. Writing is like this. Sometimes, we want a scene to work so badly that we fight with it and fight with it and fight with it. We think that if I just fix this character’s motivation or that character’s response or add a dead body, this scene will work. And when we fix these things, it still doesn’t work. Admitting that the scene doesn’t work and won’t ever work is hard, but sometimes it needs to be done.
Persistence isn’t always a virtue. I’m stubborn to a fault and I certainly proved it here. I spent way too much time fighting with my sewing machine. If I’d admitted that my sewing machine was broken earlier instead of fighting with it for ten straight hours, I could have slept that night with the knowledge that my costume was complete. Instead, I stayed awake for 46 straight hours and let me tell you, I am too old for that. The lesson here is that continuing to work on a scene that you know isn’t working costs you nothing but time that you could be doing something else like moving on to the next scene or even the next book.
Admitting that something isn’t working gives you options. When I admitted that my sewing machine was broken and that I couldn’t fix it, I had a few options. I could stop working on the costume altogether and call it a loss. I could pitch a huge temper tantrum and cry or I could go to my local superstore that was open at 4 am and buy a new machine. I chose the third option because I’m stubborn to a fault and I’d already put so much time into it that I was going to finish the stupid costume if it killed me. When a scene or maybe even an entire plot line doesn’t work and we make the decision to toss it, we are faced with options. We can stop writing altogether and call it a loss. We can pitch a temper tantrum and cry or we can choose to move forward and write something else whether it is a new scene or a new book. The choice is ours and only we can make it.

So, what about you guys? Have you ever learned something about writing in an unconventional way?

Guest Blogger: TriMu Vert

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:22:00 +0000

Bragging today is the enigmatic Vert--say hi! I don't know about you folks, but after reading these two posts, I really want to buy convention tickets for next year. The only real question is: Which conference or convention should I visit in 2012?

Hi! I'm visiting for today! Mostly to prevent dust from getting on the furniture and stuff! Dust exacerbates allergies and therefore is not good at all!

Okay, enough with the exclamation points.

I was at Dragon*Con for the first time ever this month. I'll admit that I was dragged there, and yes, I might have been sulking. This was childish of me. Once again, darn it, my husband was right when he said: How can we know if we don't like it, if we don't go?

What I expected was bunches and bunches of people wearing extreme costumes. Yes, I had simple expectations; I'm a simple person.

What I got was more complex. Yes, there were bunches and bunches and BUNCHES! of people, and most of them were wearing costumes. But. The experience was so much more than incipient panic attacks from crowd pressure.

There was truly something for anyone/everyone. Interested in history? There were sessions for that. Interested in weapons and how they feel in your hand? There were sessions for that. Interested in stalking celebrities? Okay, so there wasn't a session explicitly for that (as far as I know), but there were opportunities to fangirl and fanboy out in front of the likes of Christopher Lloyd and Felicia Day. Interested in Pern, Tolkien, various forms of animated efforts, space, science, various forms of technological advances? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes, there were opportunities to explore those. And yes, there were opportunities to explore the writing craft, in case you were still wondering.

There were even quiet corners to breathe into a paper bag. It was amazing.

The best part, and the reason that if you haven't gone already, you might want to try it, is that the people there showed humanity in a good light. Even with the crowds and the costumes that might have been fragile and surely took hundreds of man hours, people were gentle with each other. I saw it again and again and it utterly blew my mind.

"Vacations" and Dragon*Con Brags

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:04:00 +0000

After some time away from home, I'm recovering in my own house and living vicariously this weekend. Several of my writer-friends headed to Dragon*Con without me, and they've sent along guest posts to -brag- keep things moving while I slip back into the writing and social networking realms. Time to realign those revision goals and get the writing schedule back on track!

Also: My little future warrior against the robot overlords is adorable.

For serious.

I'll be back on Monday with some writer-mommy cuteness starring Jo Connor. In the meantime, enjoy some guest blogging goodness!

For Writers: Optimizing the Day Job Commute

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:50:00 +0000

The daily commute doesn't have to be a void of time that gets sucked out of your life. Use it to your writing advantage. If you're driving alone, it's easy to tap on your recorder and relay your ideas (or even actual pages) out loud. But what if you're commuting with others?

Let's Play: Keep the Driver Awake

A quiet group of coworkers or a group who talk amongst themselves can be tuned into the background while you focus on driving and let your muse roam. But if you have chatty folks in your car, you should maximize your idea-gathering potential. Simply ask questions or infer comments that relate--however loosely--to your book, even if your coworkers have no idea you write. This works best when you have more than one so your ~~new brainstorming minions~~ carpooling friends will feed off each other. Your muse will have bizarre and interesting new idea toys to play with, as well as the art of conversation itself, which you can analyze later and use to build more believable dialogue as you write. (And if they ask why you're so nosy, just tell them you're having trouble staying awake. That'll bring the conversation up in a hurry. Muhaha.)

For example, I recently mentioned: "Our neighbor's lawn mower backfired yesterday. Sounded like a gunshot."

This was then followed by commentary: A: "Did you go and get your rifle?" B: "Why would she have a rifle?"

Followed by a rather enlightening and lively discussion of the merits of handguns and baseball bats over rifles "any day of the week". Amusement was had, and I nailed down one of my secondary character's quirks. Success!

Back Seat Writer

I can't write sentences in the car. Not because I get carsick (thank goodness!) but because my brain can't focus past the radio. In our car, the rule is "Driver gets radio rights. No complaints, anything goes." Sometimes I can get sucked into a good book, but if a comedian is on, my brain hears the random explosions of laughter and pulls me right back out of the words. I'm a musician, so notes, pitches, lyrics, bizarre rhythmic patterns...I zone out to focus on the tune, look down at my notebook, and discover I stopped jotting down brilliant idea #234235 at "Maybe he can jump through...."

Through what?

Instead of whole sentences, I catch up on my email or read blog posts and jot notes about comments I'll be leaving later. If my phone battery is questionable, I outline. I make lists. With a header on the top of the page, if I lose my spot due to a song or comment that swats at my brain, I have an instant reminder of where I was.

Public Transportation

The possibilities are endless. Pull out your eReader, smartphone, a genre book to study form while reading, or notebook (electronic or otherwise). WRITE. Read books, catch up and comment on blogs, get your social networking on for the day, listen to your music and tune everything out while your muse does a happy dance. Look out the window and write about the weather, surroundings, road, other vehicles.

Motion Sickness?

If writing or reading on the go makes you ill, try another tack. Discretely observe other riders. Put your headphones on, but don't turn on the music. Instead, listen and overhear conversations. Close your eyes and focus on your other senses. Hold on to those descriptions and ideas and jot them down as soon as you disembark. If you must, nap. Sometimes our muses spring the big ideas on us while we're snoozing on the go.

Are you a commuter too? How do you use your driving/riding time to your muse's advantage?

Jonesing for Yummy Book Noms

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:15:00 +0000

Ladies and gentlemen of the blogosphere, I have a crisis.

My T-B-R is E-M-P-T-Y.

Empty!

My favorite authors have new mass markets coming out in November. Which is NaNoWriMo. Which means I get to read those releases in December.

Folks, I'd prepared myself for the month-long fast, but as I watched my pile dwindle this summer I'm now aware that four months is way, way, way, WAY too long to go without a good book. So I'm asking you:

Who should I add to my favorite author list next?

I'm looking for an author of 3rd person romance at any heat level, with multiple books (two or more. So when I love that first one as much as you do, I can go out and get MORE goodies). The real catch? They have to be available in print.

(Hey, nothing against my ebook authors! I buy the heck out of you. But I don't have an ereader, so ebooks get read on my compy or my phone, and since I've been spending so much screen time writing, revising, working the day job, and social networking lately, I have to get off the electronics. Okay well, that, and I like the excuse to ~~hide out at~~ visit the bookstore.)

Feel free to throw names and titles at me for your favorites so I can go collect the goods at our local shops.

OOOH! It'll like a treasure hunt! *big grin*

Conflict. Brought to you by Caffeine.

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:35:00 +0000

Cera has coffee and is happy-go-lucky.

Cera's mind is buzzing with ~~caffeine-addled~~ brilliant ~~delusions~~ ideas.

Cera is beset by coworker who steals her coffee and bashes her ideas.

Cera becomes angry with herself for not standing up for her ideas and for allowing her coffee to be stolen.

Cera is then furious with the coworker for being a meany-head.

Cera plots revenge.

And 'lo, a goal (ultimate vengeance), motivation (coworker is a meany-head and must therefore be punished), and conflict (social decorum dictates that an irate super ninja flying attack with a titanium spork would be gravely out of line) is born.

Have you hatched any diabolical plots today?

7 Tips for Fast Draft Success

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 12:30:00 +0000

The last 10 days of July were spent in a fast draft haze with Kerri Nelson over on her Book Writer blog. I made a stunning 27k, just over half of the 50k goal, while working a full-time day job, playing peek-a-boo and "you're SOOOO cute" with my little girl (okay, let's be honest, there's way more to the mommy business than that, but we know those little smiles and giggles make it worth it!), and keeping my exercise commitment.

I averaged around 2.5k a day, with one day of absolutely nothing (my little Joanna Connor was sick and I was fast and furious on a project I had to wrap up for work). I broke the 5k a day goal only twice.

It was fabulous.

It was also 5 times my usual word count.

The 7 Golden Tickets to Big Word Counts

1. Laundry Prep. It is vital to have an appropriate clean clothes to word-cramming days ratio. Do all the laundry before you get started. If you're day-jobbing, hang whole outfits together (from head to toe!) so you don't have the opportunity to hem and haw over what to wear. No time for that: You're writing!

2. Mindset. Decide not that you'll "probably only get 2.5k a day, but sure, why not" or "I average X words an hour. I can only produce X words an hour." There's a reason why it's called an "average". This is your comfort zone. Perfect for a normal day. But for a fast draft? Challenge your cozy, safe place. Explode into the extraordinary. Say to yourself: "I WILL get 5k every day of this challenge".

3. Box up the Guilt. If you don't meet your 5k daily goal, don't despair. Tomorrow is a new day and you can start the word count over. Never regret that 500 more words than normal. It's 500 more words than normal!

4. Don't Catch Up. Playing catch up is a giant motivation killer. If you can energize yourself on a daily basis toward your set daily goal, without raising the bar exponentially every day, you're making forward momentum. You might not hit the 50k. So what? What you're doing is staying excited about your project, filling your brain with your characters and your world and your story. Keep the momentum going, but don't raise your daily goal if you know it'll start to look unobtainable.

Caveat: If you're one of those people who find seeing an increase in goal makes you that much more determined to reach the end game, DO IT. I applaud your competitive spirit, and I bet your muse will be on FIRE!

5. Set the Timer. When I do word sprints these days, I don't even look at the screen. *crickets* I'm serious. I stare at my keyboard, remind myself of the tagline I've written for the scene, and fly until the timer goes off. Or the baby wakes up. Or some other reliable indicator of "time's up!".

6. Make a Scene List. You can outline or plot things out deeper if you want to. I find just a sentence for each scene sparks my writing mojo for the typing frenzied session. Often in the middle of faster drafts, just like when I play around with words during NaNoWriMo, I find the plot shifts dramatically anyway. It's far more useful to use the scene list as a series of prompts to keep my motion positive.

7. Lock up the Inner Editor. My slower days for this last round can partially be attributed to the editorial "wow, that sentence sucked. what did you just write? you do know i have to clean that up. don't you know fixing that's going to take forever?" soundtrack rolling around in my brain. Thoughts like these cause hesitation and hovering fingers when they should be typing away. Drown it out with loud music, soothe the I.E to sleep with some lavender candles and zen tunes, or just pound the keyboard so hard you can't hear him/her over the deliriously joyful clacking of new words.

This week, I'm revving up to do it again. Kerri's challenge for this bout? 4k a day for 7 days in a row.

You should join us.

Writer Mommy's Adventures in Babyproofing

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 03:37:00 +0000

Watching two children, one mobile, one not, while working and trying to acquire enough coffee to function was a blast this past weekend.

At one point, the multi-tasking involved all four limbs:

Hand 1: non-mobile baby.
Hand 2: mobile baby's hand.
Foot 1: DVD rack stabilization.
Foot 2: Frantic hopping motion.

As far as trial runs go for what I'm in for once our little Joanna Connor figures out how to move her arms and legs in tandem, it was a lesson in physics, multi-tasking limitations, and well, rather spectacular on the whole.

As is the resulting to-do list:

Anchor the DVD rack to the wall. Do not put any decorative objects on top. Remove all cases so baby can't plunder, chew, and strew cases all over floor.

...

Okay, fine. Just move the darn thing to another, inaccessible-by-baby room.

Remember that everything under 3-4 feet is fair game.

The nightlight in the hallway is eminently baby-grabbable. And it's WAY cool that it flickers when you touch it. Shiny!

Take down the folding kitchen doors to prevent finger-pinching. They're useless anyway. If the cats can open it, why shouldn't a baby be able to?

Take all auxiliary work equipment to the kitchen, then gate those cords and electronics in. You can then meet daily exercise quota by hopping over the gate 15-gazillion times to check on the child while working, and the baby can't use the laptop in an attempt to pull to standing. Think about all that extra screen-free eye-saving time!

Put the money for the new bookshelf toward a gate to cordon off the hallway and the kitchen. After viewing the result of the DVD rack placement, a bookshelf wouldn't survive either.

To hubby's chagrin, this of course leaves the problem of stacks of towering books which could topple over and fall on the small child, crushing them under a mound of Nancy Drews and Curious Georges. Block off the hallway and for extra measure, simply keep the office door closed and pray the crawly creature doesn't learn to teleport.

Coffee tables are stepping stones. Let's not put that where the next ledge is the entertainment center. Mmkay? Mmkay.

You know what, spare no expense. Buy the gate to go around the lizard's cage, TV, short bookcase, and entertainment equipment.

Footnote: No babies were harmed in the making of this to-do list. :) Writer Mommy just has a vivid imagination. And an effective preview.

Future of Bookstores

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:24:00 +0000

A year and a half ago, I posted a day in the life of a reader in the print/digital book landscape of the future on my critique group's group blog. I still believe our libraries and chain bookstores are heading toward more of a gathering place. The cafe portion of a bookstore will have a bigger footprint and the vibe will roll toward the coffee shops and Internet cafes of today. Libraries, too, are gearing toward the digital age, and will continue to adapt. Ours has a decent media center, and plenty of meeting rooms. In Canada, they've already adapted into more social atmospheres: Some even host concerts. A far cry from the "shhhhh!" mentality! (Though I wouldn't mind having that mainstay in some portions of the library--I do still visit mine for research and quiet time.)

I woke up this morning with this post on my brain, so I thought I'd share and see how it held up. So far, I'm right about the zombies.

Enjoy Tuesday at the Bookaplex!

The 'ping' was either Mom's breakfast toast or a new email. Anteriyuma Snapdragon Cooper, just "Snap" to her classmates, swiped her thumb across the fingerprint-resistant screen on her ComPlex cellphone. "Wicked-nova!" she stared at the bright display. The five-star review for the newest Zombie Paradox book had just zipped to her Inbox. "Marra Thneed's book got front line POD billing!"

"I take it you're off to the BookaPlex this morning," Mom said, scraping a healthy measure of grape jam over a piece of hot sourdough. "Vampire's Den Eleventeen?"

Snap rolled her eyes. "Zombies, Mom. Zombies. Vamps are SO 21st century." She sniffed the air and shifted from foot to foot. The smell of roasting caffeine was tempting, but Mom didn't have the caramel flavoring in the cabinet like the BookaPlex's café. "I saved up for the paperback. And I figure I'll grab some coffee with friends."

Mom spun around, butter knife still in hand, and a drop of jelly oozed into a pockmark in the beige linoleum at her feet. "Your father and I make sure you have perfectly good coffee at home. Why do you insist on squandering your allowance over there?"

"For the third time this week, Mom. It's not the coffee, it's the company." Snap waved her cellphone at Mom and snagged her Plastic from the holder by the back door. Shoving the card into her back jeans pocket, she added, "I'll be back for dinner." Snap bounded down the back stairs and onto the sidewalk, hiding a grin at the lingering image of her disgruntled mother with her hands on her hips, hair sticking up like she'd shoved the knife in the toaster instead of just the bread. Mornings.

The BookaPlex was bustling with activity, and Snap spotted her usual crowd by the periodicals. "Mere!" Snap waved her phone and the little plastic cartoon doll hanging from the phone's keyring lit up as she approached. Mere's friendship doll lit up in response and Snap's best friend barreled across the café area with arms outstretched and twin braids bouncing over her shoulders.

"It's out! Have you read the reviews? Oran42 said it's the best one Marra Thneed's ever written! Ever! How do you beat that?"

"I know!" Snap's sneakers squelched against the polished floor as she jumped into the air for a high-five. "You get your copy for the signin'?"

"Five more minutes. I've been nursing my hot chocolate and checking out the mags." Mere pointed to where two of their other friends were sitting, thumbing through the latest news on the BookaPlex's rental touchscreens.

Only Sasha waved in their direction; Toby had his headphones on, his eyes closed, and bobbed his head to the latest issue of what Snap knew had to be Music World.

"Be back, Mere." Snap scampered onto the thick pile carpet that filled a good third of the rest of the BookaPlex. She weaved past the bargain table, stepped around shelves of hardcovers and audiobooks, and made a direct line for the PODs. Two were empty, and she dove for the door, slipping inside with a quiet 'snick' of the latch.

"Good morning," the machine chirped at her with a friendly sort of voice.
Snap loved that voice. It meant she was going to get a brand new, hot-off-the-presses book before she'd even finished her cup of coffee.

"Will you be using paper or Plastic today?"

Snap swiped her card through the reader and tabbed through the printing and shipping options on the screen. "Not electronic, not mailed to my doorstep, I just want plain old . . . " she mashed the button with a grin, "paperback."

"Please make your selection."

Snap typed in the title and wiggled her fingers in the air before pressing down on the cover image with barely restrained glee. A preview of the text sprang to the screen and she thumbed through it, already more than happy with the book about to be in her hand.

"Would you like to make any other purchases today?" A list of related titles came to the forefront of the screen, each sporting their own preview. The list based itself on publisher marketing and her own previous purchases.

Snap thought about it. She 'could' print off a copy of Nosereaper. And maybe get something for her brother. She stared down at the card in her hand. Not today. The holidays were around the corner and she would have them all shipped instead, pick up a stack of hardbacks her parents had been drooling over. Besides, the new Ed Riley wasn't even out yet and Mom would want that for sure.

"Leticia McEllen's Faeries and Peacocks is 20% off today with your purchase of Zombie Paradox Four."

Snap thought harder. She chewed on her bottom lip, sighed once, and finally pressed "No."

"Please verify your identity by placing your thumb on the scanner," the machine chirped. When she did, it said, "Thank you," adding in her own voice, "Anteriyuma Cooper."

Snap's cellphone pinged as the receipt hit her Inbox. "Wicked-nova! Zombie Paradox Four is so mine!"

"Your book will be ready in - 30 - minutes at the front desk. Please be aware that if you do not pick up your purchase in the next 24 hours, it will be shipped to your home address. Have a book-tastic day!"

Snap grinned and stepped down from the POD. Already a line had formed for the machines, most of them teens like her. Someone asked, "Printing?"

"Printing!" Snap waved the receipt still gleaming on her cellphone screen at the boy in line. "Coffee time," she murmured to herself and trotted off to join her friends.

Where does your picture of the print/digital landscape take you?

Break Time: Repaint Your World

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:49:00 +0000

Whew! What a busy week! Let's make some time today to remind our muses why we're in this business of writing in the first place. I hereby give you permission to take a break from the flurry of social media and industry upheaval. That's it, take a step back. Breathe. Good?

Proceed.

Challenging Assumptions

One of my favorite things about world-building is the ability to bend and shape the existing world to my whim. The existing world is ordinary, familiar, and relatable. Once you start tweaking things, you shift from ordinary to extraordinary and leave your readers grounded with an easy point of reference that makes them grin with delight at the picture you've repainted.

Today's post has several pictures which challenge the norm. Let's allow our muses some playtime before they rebel against us for all the time we've been spending off the page. *big grin*

Take your own pictures, and bend the definition of our world to your needs.

Share your results in your own blog post and link it in the comments so my muse can play, too ;)

Use the pictures below as kicking points for a freewriting prompt.

Tackle a stack of magazines with a pair of scissors and set about redefining life.

Find a spot in your novel where the ordinary can be made extraordinary--your muse will be delighted, and might even be nice enough to share new words.

Look at your contemporary, your fantasy, your historical, your sci-fi differently today. Fresh descriptions will pop!

Vandalism (So it's boiling outside--I had to have a snow picture.)

Salad

Graveyard

Highway

Hunter

Moss

Home

Picasso, Michelangelo, Frank Lloyd Wright--Assumptions challenged in mediums of paint, marble, wood and steel. We have words. Let's make them shiny.

How do you repaint the ordinary?

Insanity, Cuddly Bunnies, and the Dewey Decimal System

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:00:00 +0000

How are you spending your summer? Anyone out there joining me in the craziness and tackling the Camp NaNoWriMo adventure? I'm up to 25802/50000 words this month on a new super-secret project entitled "WIP X". (Mysterious, right?)

Of course, for the fireside reporting of word counts, I'm only counting one project in the explosion of new words. So don't tell, but I'm also revising another novel at the same time, hoping to keep my inner editor distracted so my muse only has to fight the limitations of my cramping fingers.

I can't believe I'm drafting a new novel when I've got so many other things to do, but even more than that I can't believe I'm already at the halfway point. If I survive the month, I'm hibernating through August.

Good thing I found a self-hugging jacket.

[Self Portrait of a Crazy WriterMom Woman]

Postscript: A couple of weeks ago I made a reference to an old TV show whose premise was along the lines of saving the world from an oppressive alien race by learning the Dewey decimal system.

Through much research and toil, my hubby finally found it: Tomes and Talismans! It is a comfort to know that in 2134, when the human race has been destroyed by aliens and Earth has been resettled by yet another alien race altogether, libraries, bookmobiles, and librarians can still save the planet. :D *hearts*

To My Favorite WriMos

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 02:39:00 +0000

Last Tuesday was a night of insanity.

After a half hour of the power flickering off and on like a strobe light at the Worst. Rave. Ever. followed by a 4 hour power loss--and subsequent supreme alertatude, as the baby monitor was also out--the Muse exploded with NaNo bunnies. Not the cool frolicking through the plots kind, but the amazing municipal liaison workshop and write-in brainstorm kind.

This is a problem.

See, I had promised my husband I wouldn't ML this year, because I had a lot of other stressors on my plate--new momness, editing a novel, writing a new project, keeping up with the full time day job, making trips to visit family so they can see the new babyness, new manager at the day job, monthly girls' night out, new momness, weekly game night with friends, online classes, online writing classes, social networking, working with my critique partner (heads up, pages for you this week or I get to spend the weekend in a chocolate-less haze...noooo), new momness, doctor appointments...

...oh, and holiday obligations. Have I mentioned I only get 4 hours of sleep a night?

*insert insane laughter here*

Well, DH and I had a discussion, and it's official: I'm not only returning to the playing field in official ML capacity--I've finally set up our regional Cola WriMos Facebook page and I'm hosting a mid-summer collage and brainstorming bash in preparation for Camp NaNoWriMo, which is launching soon (and kicked off its sneak peek today).

It is in the midst of insanity that I feel the most accomplished, write best, and focus hardest on the things that matter to me, so I'm in.

Bring it.

That said, anybody have a self-hugging jacket I can borrow? ^___^;

Watermelon = Nut?

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 07:36:00 +0000

Recently, we picked up some watermelon from the grocery store. While we were munching away, my hubby recounted an educational show he watched in school. The conversation went something like this:

DH: It took place on Earth. There was this alien trapped in the wilderness, and he was hungry, and couldn't find anything to eat. So he called the librarian, who was hibernating in the library...

Me: o.O; ...Seriously?

DH: Well, you see, the librarian was magically put in a hibernating state by a sorcerer...

ME: O.O!

DH: Nevermind. It's not important. Anyway, he called the librarian and she told him to find some nuts and berries. Well, he found a watermelon and didn't know which it was. The librarian asked if it was soft or had a hard outside. He told her it had a hard shell and the librarian said, "then it's a nut!"

Me: Hmm? Wha? Oh. Sorry. I'm still stuck on the alien. On Earth. With the magically enchanted librarian. Wait.

o.O!!!!!!!

Me: Wait wait wait...Watermelons are NUTS now?

DH: I'll be in the living room when your muse comes to its senses.

Amusements and merits of educational TV aside (I'm not gonna lie, had I watched that as a kid I would have been fascinated), this premise is exactly why I love world-building. This is why I love writing on my own planets, in galaxies yet unnamed. It's the taking of something unexpected, something that breaks the current rules of reality, and crafting that something into an element of story.

DH's alien teenager found a "nut"...with an incredibly juicy interior. That could exist somewhere else. Or it could exist right here. It's our job as authors to make whatever brilliant plants and animals that flesh out our world potent for readers. It's our job to make it "real", so a reader's imagination can soar with it, play with it, accept it, and use its implications to figure out some twisted mystery. It's just lucky for us that our job is hella fun.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. The day after the aforementioned conversation, I actually looked at the label of the watermelon container. In case you can't tell from the quality/size/availability of this pic, the word "Watermelon" is actually printed on a label that reads: "Meats and Seafood".

PS: I have to say, I'm friends with several librarians, and I don't think any of them can be defeated by some crazed sorcerer with the ability to imbue a super-hibernation power. Nope...not a one. More power to you, ladies! <3

A Dude can be a Muse

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:33:00 +0000

As I mentioned over the weekend, my muse is actually a dude.

Point One: He's a player.

What else can you call him when he's constantly seducing me with shiny new ideas, tangential subplots poised for novella primary plots, and trips to ~~research mecca~~ the public library? I'm infinite grateful he's not a one idea kind of man. A little disturbed that he's collecting a harem of ideas, but, well, at least they'll stick around to fruition.

Point Two: He's the world's best wingman.

Seriously. Since meeting my muse, this romance writer has met SO MANY attractive ~~rogues~~ gentlemen in her gray matter, it's gone a mite beyond "raining" men. It's like a...a...deluge of hotness. Meeting them and telling their stories it's a wonder I don't electrocute myself while I'm drooling all over my keyboard.

Point Three: He's got lady friends.

Luckily for me, when I need my female characters to be spicy and smart, he's got a big ol' notebook of them to pick from. He dials them up and see if they're interested in fooling around. With one of his friends, of course. He's too busy romancing ideas.

Point Four: He's part-Irish.

Okay, so that has nothing to do with my muse being a "he". His taste in inspirational boozes, however, are akin to my own.

Point Five: He has an "eh" relationship with chocolate.

If my muse was a chick, she'd be demanding chocolate 24-7 to keep the words coming. Sadly, he's just not into sweets. They're okay. But they don't give him any extra superpowers.

At least, not noticeable ones, like coffee. Coffee gives him...

--ahem--

Stamina.

Apparently, stamina is a major turn-on for ideas. (Of course, it could also be because coffee makes him look like this.)

That's right, Muse. Don't think I haven't noticed how the ideas come flocking in like a bunch of drunken floozies when you've been tipping back the caffeine.

Time to Have Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 17:07:00 +0000

Today is Funday. Not because I have a babysitter for a few hours so the hubby and I can have a chance to relax, but because I'm finally ready to embrace this blog for what my blogs used to be. Now, that doesn't mean there will be more frequent posts (let's not get crazy, yo!). Lemme 'splain:

Historically, after launching this site I only posted when I was able to pry energy from the aether and inject it into the words, which led to quite a bit of time between some posts. Not much of a schedule. My recent realization that I can return to being hopelessly random and irreverently punny (bwahahaha, you poor readers, you) means the energy and verve can return to play as well. Without a mental wrestling match. No more hunting!

The change doesn't affect you lot much. It's happening behind the curtain. It's a shift from the current method of shoving bamboo sproutlings under my fingernails back to the old procedure of pouncing on the keyboard with a fresh glass of wine in hand...

*blinks*

Oh.

Well that makes sense.

Pregnant and nursing women experience a distinct lack of this:

Oh Bailey's...how I've missed you. ;)

Ahem. So moving right along. It's not really the alcohol getting me back into the spirit of things. It's my muse. He had an epiphany earlier this week, so now he's feeling feisty both for fiction and non, and it's all thanks to the gentleman in the middle of this video right here:

Bwa :)

Yes, Esposito, a dude CAN be a muse.

Tune in again on Wednesday, and I'll introduce you to mine.

Oh, and tell your friends: Cera is BACK! *insert Kermit flail*

Baby Steps Back to Sanity and Routine

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Thu, 26 May 2011 09:28:00 +0000

Last week I enjoyed a fabulous return of my muse and slammed down some much needed words. After wrapping up revisions on a chapter that had been mocking me, I realized the time to blog had come and gone. Whoops. It'll happen again--words are like that and muses are even moreso. *g*

When last I popped in, I was hanging onto my sanity like a stray piece of string cheese being nibbled at by a radioactive mouse. The past few weeks have been more of the same. The cheese is nearly gone. (The metaphorical cheese, that is. My punnyness is here to stay. Alas and woe is you.)

But, dear followers, I hope your late Spring days are as filled with happy as mine have been lately. Our small downs make us appreciate the ups even more! I'm one chapter closer to having this manuscript polished and ready for submission, I'm back to writing every single day post-maternity leave, and I've even poked my toes back into the social networking waters. (Although I'm having a tough time keeping Twitter to Fridays. Short status updates make it easy for me to be nosy.)

The laundry is done, the lawn is...kempt, the house stays picked up, and aside from the lingering smell of smoke (grr) you can't tell our kitchen caught fire anymore.

We have purple martins nesting in our backyard. Our quest to keep the mosquitoes busy this summer continues. Those happy bird sounds are keeping me inspired and cheerful in the mornings so I can get my words done before work. I never thought I'd be a morning person, but it's actually working for me.

Little by little, one step, one sentence, one word at a time.

How do you reboot your muse after a setback?

Brainstorming the Castle

noreply@blogger.com (Cera Daniels) — Wed, 04 May 2011 07:33:00 +0000

There are days in a writer's life where lack of sleep, addition of caffeine, and mega sugar-crashes culminate in a brain-dump of gloopy proportions. These are not days to mope about and whine about how tired you are. These are not days to slump on the couch with glazed eyes, catching up on the latest soaps. These aren't even days in which you should nap the world away and hope to be rested for the morning. No, no!

These are days where you have conversations with your writing friends like this:

Cera: I just informed someone that my brain is not firing on all squids. Instead of cylinders. As if my brain were made up of an amorphous blob of tentacles. Seriously.
Friend: Hate to break it to you, but your brain isn't really made up of cogs, wheels, and well-oiled cylinders either.
Both, simultaneously: Oooh, what if it was??

5 minutes later...
F: Paranormal steampunk!
C: Yesss...I must has ghosts...

Before you go nap, scribble out some of those random, sleep-deprived thoughts. Sometimes, your subconscious will surprise you, and you'll look back on it during one of your well-rested days and find something you can incorporate into your manuscript. Like "ghost with clockwork brains". Pure coffee-induced gold. *insert cheesy grin here*