IWSG Blog Hop: Structuring Your Story, IWSG Question of the Day

Hello and welcome to the monthly meeting of the 

Insecure Writers Support Group(IWSG) blog hop! 

Internet Writers Support Group Blog Hop
First Wednesday of every month.

What is IWSG? Founder of the  Insecure Writer’s Support Group and author Alex J Cavanaugh explains the group's purpose is "to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!" You're invited to become a member of this supportive group.

The group blogs the first Wednesday of every month.  The list of bloggers is always available so you can hop around to the author blogs filled with humor, advice, and thought-provoking topics on writing and publishing. You can find the list of participants at Alex's IWSG page.

IWSG Question for the Month

IWSG Question for September IWSG Blog Hop: How do you find the time to write in your busy day?

I discovered while writing my latest mystery, Deadly Undertaking, in order to complete the project, I had to set a time every day to write, just as if I had a doctor or dentist appointment to keep. I chose to write after lunch. At first, it was very difficult to just stop my activities for the day and go to the laptop. But I later discovered I couldn't wait to get lunch eaten and the kitchen cleaned up so I could write. Perhaps if you develop this "habit" of choosing the one time of the day you can actually sit down and do it, you'll begin to look forward to writing and hop to it. Best wishes!

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Structuring Your Story

Structuring Your Story

I read this article by Marcy Kennedy on story structure. She writes, "These are your major plot points. I call them the Commitment Point (20-25%), the Flip Point (50%), and the All Is Lost (75%). (The percentages are approximate.)"

I have never believed in using a strict structure like this for a plot line. I've read numerous authors' articles on using this "formula" for story structure, but  

I never considered trying to write my cozy mysteries with the guidelines because I didn't want to write to a "formula." 

Marcy opened my eyes to the idea that readers expect the story to develop along these lines. Now I am wondering if I should try to use the formula because I want my readers to have a good reading experience. 

Do you structure your plots according to the "rules?" Do you agree or disagree with having events occur at the percentage points in your book? I would love to get your feedback on this idea.

Marci has four excellent articles in the series. They helped me examine my thoughts on writing novels. If you have time, click this link to take a peek at it. 

Marcy Kennedy's Article Link

The link will take you to the article on structure and to the others in her series on Dissecting Books.

Thanks for stopping in.

Sunflowers, Vegetable Garden, and Internal Dialogue

Sunflowers in our garden

Summer is a wonderful time of the year. I can make that statement because:
1. We've had some fun-filled times together with our family. (Even getting the grandkids all to ourselves so we can spoil them!) 
2. Our garden is growing fantastically-super-great!

New beginnings for gardeners in the spring

Every year Gardener Ted faces a blank plot of soil, but he doesn't see it as an impossible piece of work. He sees it as an opportunity. Gardeners are the most optimistic people in the world in the spring time. They work up the ground, plan where each veggie will be planted, and can practically taste the first red tomato on their taste buds even as they place the tiny seedling in the ground. Time is carefully spent nurturing the plant, covering it when the frost bites, watering when Mother Nature doesn't provide, fretting when the sun doesn't shine. The entire spring is filled with enthusiasm and hope that this will be THE garden, the best ever grown this year.

Finally, this year, THE garden sprang from that soil, a very successful, rewarding, delicious garden. 

That empty plot of soil kind of reminds me of facing the blank page or blank screen on my laptop. I don't view it as hopeless, but I am thrilled to begin a new story/project and "nurture" it into a piece of writing to entertain, inspire, and inform readers.

Garden Update with pictures by J.Q. Rose:
Our sweet corn is beautiful.

Sweet corn graced by cheery sunflowers

Sweet corn close up

Lip smackin' good boiled in the pot.
So sweet and tasty you don't need to butter and salt it.
(but of course, I do!!)

I hope you don't think I'm bragging. I don't have bragging rights. I don't grow the corn or pick it. I just cook it in the pan. Gardener Ted is in charge of growing and harvesting, and he would never crow about his hard work.

At this moment we are getting tons of green peppers, tomatoes, corn, lettuce, carrots, and he and our granddaughter just picked twenty-five pounds of potatoes this weekend!

Quite a team. Grandpa digs up the taters
and our granddaughter throws them in the buckets.

How about you? Do you grow a vegetable garden? Are you being rewarded for your hard work?
How do you cook corn-on-the-cob? Boil? Grill? Microwave?

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Internalized Dialogue

In a post last week, I offered two examples of how I treated thoughts or internalized dialogue in the manuscript--in italics or paraphrases. I came across a helpful blog post on this subject by Marcy Kennedy. Here's a bit of what she said on the Writers in the Storm Blog.

"Technique #4 – Save direct internal dialogue for the most important thoughts.

Direct internal dialogue is dialogue that’s written in first person, present tense. I’ll show you an example to make sure it’s clear what I mean.

Emily pasted a smile on her face. I still hate you. I’ll never stop hating you. “Long time no see. How have you been?”

Because direct internal dialogue is in first person, present tense—even when we’re writing in a third person, past tense story—we need to italicize it. But the italics draw a lot of attention to it.

Most internal dialogue can be written as indirect internal dialogue (where we stay in the same person and tense as the story). I’ll give you another quick example so you can see the difference.

Emily pasted a smile on her face. She still hated him. She’d never stop hating him. “Long time no see. How have you been?”

That’s indirect internal dialogue, and staying in the same tense helps it flow naturally with what’s around it.

Emphasizing a thought through direct internal dialogue should be done sparingly, when we really need to draw attention to an important thought. It’s like exclamation marks. They lose their oomph if you pepper your pages with them.

Find the complete blog post at Writers in the Storm Blog-5 Techniques for Amazing Internal Dialogue by guest blogger, Marcy Kennedy.

Check out Marcy's book, Internal Dialogue, for more information.