When I talk about writing, I usually use a sweeping statement: I love it! That’s true—sort of. Actually, I have more of a love-hate relationship with writing.

A few things I don’t like:

Revision.  Ick. I tend to cut through my pages like a machete.  And the whole time I’m wondering: what was I thinking?  Why is this character a PETA groupie?  And why on earth is the sleuth and her sidekick having this conversation about the killer’s identity in a diner, surrounded by friends of the killer?  What about this blimp?  How does the blimp figure into this equation?  Was I under the influence of my allergy medicine when I wrote this?  (Okay, I’m exaggerating…..sort of.)

Knowing that I wrote poorly that morning.  It’s important for me that I write every day.   But the days I write poorly and know I’ll have to come back later with my machete I wonder if I’d have been better off doing yard work or something.

Promoting.  Because now they’re so intertwined that I can’t really divide the writing and the promoting up into two separate groups.  I graduated from college during the recession of 1993, and had to go into sales at one point in my jobless wanderings. Let’s just say I was the poster child for poor sales skills. 

A few things I like:

I love unexpectedly getting an idea.  When I get an idea, I hang onto it until I can grab some paper and jot it down. (With my brain, it will be gone forever unless I focus 100% on the idea until it’s committed to paper.)  I had a conversation with a lady at my son’s flag football practice. As she spoke, I realized how much she looked like Camilla Parker Bowles. It was then that I realized I desperately needed a Camilla character in my book. Unfortunately, since I wasn’t listening to the lady speak, it meant that I somehow got signed up for bringing snacks to the next flag football practice (and, consequently, that I forgot. Because I needed to get to paper to cryptically write ‘Camilla’ down.)

I love it when I know I’ve written well that morning.  I’ve got a glow that carries through the rest of the day.

I love it when I get so absorbed in writing that time flies by.  I’m lost in the little world that I’ve created.  It’s almost like going back in time to being a kid.  Remember how you could get lost in what you were playing? 

What are some of your likes and dislikes? 

When I was a kid, there were some books that really fired up my imagination. I loved Alice in Wonderland. The White Rabbit made a huge impression on me and I remember wishing that Alice would just hustle her bustle a little bit and catch up with him. What was he late for? Why was he in such a hurry?

My parents and grandmother read The Wizard of Oz series to me in elementary school and I loved them. Baum’s world was so colorful that I felt I was right there with the strange creatures that populated it. The characters were almost like friends to me (the Scarecrow was my favorite.)

It was around second grade that I got hooked on mysteries and I’ve been buying them ever since. I read everything, but my favorite books are mysteries. I cut my teeth on Nancy Drew. (The Clue of the Dancing Puppet was the first one I read. How I remember this and can’t remember what I did last week is anyone’s guess.) Then there was Trixie Belden. She wasn’t quite as mature as Nancy, but a lot of fun.

So I was wondering—when did everyone realize they wanted to write? Were there books that made you say “I want to write like that!“? And, do you write the genre that you read the most growing up, or have your reading/writing interests changed through the years?

Since it’s a holiday, I thought I’d post something on the lighter side today. Recently, I had to come up with a pseudonym for myself for an upcoming project. I wish I’d found this online gem before I chose it. :) Who knows what my name might have been? The directions are simple and the result is fun. But my name is singularly bad for this type of exercise! I’m sure y’all will have better results.

1. Your real name:
Elizabeth

2. Your Gangsta name:
(first 3 letters of real name plus izzle.)
Eliizzle

3. Your Detective name:
(fave color and fave animal)
Yellow Dog

4. Your Soap Opera name:
(your middle name and street you live on)
Spann Haviland

5. Your Star Wars name:
(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
Crael

6. Your Superhero name:
(your 2ND favorite color, and favorite drink).
Blue Guinness

7. Your Witness Protection name:
(parents’ middle names)
Alva Begg

9. Your Goth name:
(black, and the name of one of your pets)
Black Shadow

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day!

Yesterday I spent 4 1/2 hours at the roller skating rink with my second grade daughter and her friend.  They were absolutely delighted to spend the afternoon skating and I got a lot done.  I also I learned a lot during this time.  Here are some of my observations:

People don’t look as curiously at you if you have notebooks and pencils at the skate rink instead of your laptop.  I had my laptop last weekend and felt like an exhibit in the zoo.  No problem with the spiral notebooks, though.

It is possible to block out disco lights and blaring pop music.  The pop music was completely foreign to me.  If they’d been playing 70s and 80s stuff it might have been harder to stay focused. I did get distracted when they played the Hokey Pokey.  In fact, I think I still have it going through my head…

When your daughter says, “Mom! Look at me!”, you must look.  Look and smile and wave.  Otherwise, she’ll look behind her as she skates to see if you’re looking, and she’ll fall down like a block tower. 

Put your feet up in the plastic booth you’re sitting in.  Because you can get hurt by rollerblades, even if you’re not on the skating rink.  Trust me.  I still don’t understand how this one child’s spectacular fall (he wasn’t hurt, but brother, I was), caused him to end up under my booth. Somehow I could hear his rollerblades connecting resonantly with my shins over the rock music.

Bring lots of change.  My daughter and her friend went through about $10 worth of drinks, chips, and candy at the concession stand.  I finally just put a pile of ones and change on the edge of the table so I could continue writing instead of being a human ATM.

People at the roller skating rink are excellent extras for your novel.  I saw this mom with the most incredible tan.  Now, I know I live in North Carolina, USA.  I know it’s been 80 degrees the last few days. But honey, that tan wasn’t normal.  She was probably just that dark in January.  I’m sensing a tanning bed fanatic….just the lady I need for some local color in my current mystery. 

So to all the parents out there who are looking for a large block of writing time on Memorial Day weekend, consider taking your kid and their friend roller skating.  I got 3200 words written and some outlining and editing done.  Give it a go.

Yesterday was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 150th birthday and Conan Doyle’s greatest creation, Sherlock Holmes, is nearly as popular today as he was in the 19th century.

Conan Doyle was a master at character creation.  Although readers became extremely affectionate towards Holmes, there was nothing innately loveable about him. He was frequently described as cold (although he became very passionate when on a case.) He was a habitual user of both cocaine and morphine. He was rude and arrogant.  But he was gifted, and continually amazed readers with his powers of observation and deduction.

Conan Doyle eventually tired of his famous detective and decided to kill him off to work on his historical novels.  Holmes and his arch enemy, Professor Moriarty, fall to their deaths over a waterfall in “The Final Problem.”  The public would hear nothing of it.  First Conan Doyle tried to satisfy the public by producing The Hounds of the Baskervilles, set before Holmes’ death.  Readers, however, weren’t happy with this solution and Conan Doyle eventually brought Holmes back (as many soap operas today bring back popular characters from death.)  Conan Doyle’s publishers were, of course, delighted. 

I’m a big Sherlock fan myself and enjoy reading Conan Doyle as well as watching adaptations on television.  I love that Holmes is so popular despite his shortcomings…and maybe because of them.  I write a character that also has plenty of failings,  but try to balance them out with positive traits.  I enjoy brusque characters with hearts of gold.  Or characters that are tough on the outside but who stand beside their friends through thick and thin.

Do you enjoy reading about protagonists that have obvious faults?  Do you write these protagonists?  How do you make them interesting without making them unsympathetic to the reader?