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This week I’m going to be trying some new things.

One thing I’m going to do is practice doing live interviews. I’m not a fan of live interviews, I have to admit. I remember from my journalism years how easy it is to get flustered and for journalists to take things out of context.

My last phone interview was so-so. For one thing, I hate phones with a passion. If I have to be on a phone, I’m usually texting, not talking. For another, I don’t think the interviewer was exactly the most seasoned person on the news or entertainment desk. One of her questions was: “Where do you see yourself in five years?” and another was “What’s been your biggest accomplishment?” She sounded like she was reciting the questions she’d been asked for her job interview. So my answers were “writing” and “getting published.” I just couldn’t tell what she wanted from me.

My interview tomorrow looks to be a lot more thorough. I don’t want to be stammering my way through it. I started thinking about Presidential press conferences and how they usually stay on the topic the President wants to talk about. No matter how the questions starts out, it ends up on his talking points.

I’m going to make some note cards with some likely questions (frequently there is some overlap with interview questions—understandably.) I’m going to pen some succinct answers. I hate going “uh-uh-uh” on the phone.

Along these same lines is a radio show (podcast) I’ll be doing in a month or so. My reservations about that is that it’s live so any stupidity of mine will run, unedited. Also—my Southern accent. I do drawl, but it’s not remotely heavy…to me, anyway. But on the answering machine and other times when I hear my voice recorded, I can tell it’s thicker than I think. Those automated customer service reps? The bots never understand me.

My practice for that will be similar to the phone interview. I’m going to come up with my very own set of talking points. I’ll be a lot less nervous if I’m prepared, after all. And if I’m not nervous, I can stray off-topic and I’ll be fine and dandy. It’s just when I’m not prepared that I’m a wreck.

I’m also playing around with new schedules for my writing—I’m vetting a different schedule each day. Yesterday I decided I’d get all the ordinary household stuff out of the way first—it’s necessary, after all, and some days it hangs over me while I write. So I did laundry, made doctor appointment phone calls, sent off bill payments, etc. first. Then I did blog stuff, then I wrote. Pros—I felt like I’d accomplished a lot in an hour’s time. I was energized after running around the house and it translated into my writing. Cons—I didn’t start writing until 10ish. That’s late for me.

Today I’m going to try something different and see how it goes. I never know how my little experiments are going to go, but I’m willing to try anything that might work with my problem areas (phone and live interviews, and my busy schedule.)

There was a funny episode of Seinfeld ages ago where George Constanza decides that all his instincts in life are misguided and that every life decision has been wrong. His life is the direct opposite from everything he’s set out to accomplish.

His solution? Do the complete opposite from every instinct he feels. He approaches attractive women and asks them out, introducing himself : “My name is George. I’m unemployed and I live with my parents.” Immediately he encounters great success with this method and begins applying it to job-hunting (“My last job was in publishing … I got fired for having sex in my office with the cleaning woman..” he confesses during his interview), and even his choice in food (“Nothing’s ever worked out for me with tuna on toast. I want the complete opposite of tuna on toast. Chicken salad, on rye, untoasted … and a cup of tea…”).

Sometimes I feel like I know my characters so well that I’ve stuck them in a rut. It’s particularly easy to stick them in a rut since I’m writing series. I know what they would do when faced with a dangerous snake in their yard. I know which ones would run off screaming, which would shoo it off and continue gardening, and which would get a hoe and commence whacking the creature to death.

What interests me is eliciting different reactions from characters. The bigger the stretch, the better:

Timid, tiny Tina flings herself at the armed man because her small son is threatened. (Unusual courage under duress.)

Stern Gertrude bites her tongue instead of scolding her sassy son-in-law Simon during Thanksgiving dinner. But her restraint results in a wild rainbow of color across her face. (For comedic effect.)

These are cardboard cutout examples, but I’m going to spend time today playing around with the idea.

What I don’t want to do is manipulate the character in an unnatural way (the usually intelligent heroine irrationally descends into the dark basement after hearing a suspicious noise scenario.) That’s the kind of thing that makes me throw books across a room.

But I also don’t want my regular characters to become predictable. Maybe they won’t have the success with their opposite-day approach that George did, but it might provide them with some opportunities for growth.

And, I think it could be fun. A bonus is extra internal character conflict. It’s stressful to leave our comfort zone(although, maybe, not for George Costanza.)

Mysteries are full of conflict. It’s a good versus evil struggle with internal and external conflicts abounding.

Most novels, in fact, are heavy on conflict. Otherwise, it’s a dull book. Even if the scene’s conflict is a monkey-wrench thrown in a character’s carefully planned day, that’s conflict.

External conflict is everywhere. It’s on the evening news, it’s happening during raucous PTA meetings and toddler playgroups. I’m a person who doesn’t like making waves and doesn’t like being involved in conflicts. But I don’t mind observing them as a third party.

I was in a shipping center the other day to mail off a package. A radio was playing the news in the background and the sad story of the girl who’d been kidnapped and held hostage for so many years came on.

The owner, who wasn’t originally from the US, said loudly, “This is disgusting! Do you want to know what’s wrong with America?”

The people in the line were politely pretending that they didn’t hear him and all began messing with their cell phones. I cleared my throat. “I do,” I said. “I want to know what’s wrong with America.”

There was a collective groan behind me. But come on. Great way of finding out what bugs people. What bugs people in their everyday, ordinary life provides wonderful conflict for someone like me.

In the kind of books I write, the things that just get under your skin may end up in a mysterious death.

The guy at the shipping center was delighted to launch into a rambling monologue of American ills. It was extremely educational and might be used for future material. :) On the downside, I think my fellow customers were about ready to string me up at the end of his discourse.

I get lots of other material from the local news…the more local, the better. In fact, if there was a subdivision newsletter, that might provide even more ideas for plot conflict.

Conflicts I’ve observed in local news include:

*Land disputes
*Irritating, obnoxious neighbors
*Long-time family feuds
*Church schisms
*Teenagers with too much family money and not enough sense
*Fraudulent financial planners
*People furious at real estate developers
*People furious at the local school board for changing zoning
*A man who has a sign posted, saying, “The Town of Matthews Stole my Farm.” (An eminent domain issue.)

Really, the newspaper is a treasure trove of ideas for plot conflict, especially for mystery writers. There’s certainly lots of other conflict out there, but again, I won’t touch a friend’s personal problems.

But conflict makes the plot go ‘round for fiction writers. And, luckily for us, inspiration is everywhere.

My sister told me a hilarious story the other day. It was so funny. She and I had such a big laugh over it!

But I can’t share it. She’d have my head. The story involved something silly that she did that had unexpected consequences.

She has a reasonable expectation that I won’t share it with a bunch of mystery or blog readers.

I don’t always keep interesting stories to myself. Pretty is as Pretty Dies has one story in it that’s absolutely true. The book club listed in the book? It exists. Or…well, it used to exist before it disbanded. You can tell from my book that it was a querulous group—and my insight into the group came from a friend who was letting off steam.

I asked her if it would be okay to use the material, somewhat fictionalized (there were no men in the group). She gave me her blessing.

The gnomes in the book came about when a friend complained about her neighbor’s yard art. Which I immediately went inside and wrote into my book.

My children (the darlings) make it into the blog quite a bit. But they don’t have to worry that I’ll be splashing embarrassing photos of them or putting their names out there on the internet. I’ve promised my family a certain amount of privacy—which they deserve. There are boundaries, definitely.

There are some fascinating stories I know—they’re not happy ones, though. And they’d hurt people who’d certainly see the parallels between their lives and the fictional characters’ lives. No one else would, but they would know. And that’s enough to keep me from ever fictionalizing it.

Things I tiptoe around:

Leave personal tragedies of friends, family, and acquaintances alone or else completely generalize them. Obviously, some tragedies are universal (loss of a spouse, child, job, etc.) But singular events that would be immediately recognizable to the parties involved—those I don’t touch.

Ask permission to fictionalize stories that friends provide me. They’re sure to recognize their story in print, no matter how distorted it might be. I don’t have enough friends to risk losing the ones I do have.

Things I don’t mind using:

News stories are completely within my limits. I do change them around with “what if” scenarios.

I steal names like crazy. Sorry folks…it’s fiction. Unless you have a copyright on your name, it could end up being mine. I need waayyyy too many character names in each book.

A reminder:

Anyone remember reading Thomas Wolfe’s novel You Can’t Go Home Again? The writer who writes about the residents of his hometown until they start driving him away? That novel was semi-autobiographical.

I’m the Queen of taking on too much.  It’s never my idea, mind you, but because I’m known as a volunteer (school, Scouting), people come to me with ideas on more ways for me to volunteer.

They know the school is my soft spot.  Just about anything they ask for me to help with at the elementary or middle school, I’m going to do. I’ve read stories, talked to classes, sent in supplies, given parties, assisted with the writing programs, passed out waters during field day, watched the class for the teacher while they attended special events…the list goes on.

I’m also a Brownie Scout leader for my daughter’s troop.  I was asked, in person, to take that commitment on.  I started with it last fall.

In the middle of the commitment to the troop, I got an extra book deal.

I continued going to mandatory trainings, meetings, camping trips, and troop events.

The upside (and there’s always an upside) is that I was spending a lot of one on one time with my daughter.

The downside was that I really didn’t have the time to do all this.  And I hated the district meetings with a passion (I’m not a meeting person. I spend the time wondering if all the information couldn’t just be emailed.  Or why they didn’t set up a Yahoo Group for us to get the information.)

I decided I would give the Brownie Scout coordinator (who’d recruited me) a year’s notice. That next fall I wouldn’t be able to continue this commitment.

It didn’t go as planned. :)  The coordinator is a very determined woman.  She said, “Maybe play it by ear?  After all, you’ll have turned in your two books by next fall.”

“But then,” I explained, trying not to sound like a big-shot, “I have another book to turn in.  November 1, 2010.  And I’ll be promoting three other books.”  At this point, I felt like banging my head against a wall.

I’ll admit I’m a black and white kind of person.  I like to do a Good Job and there are no compromises. But then the Brownie coordinator gave me an out.  She certainly knows me.  “No meetings…..you don’t have to go to any of the district meetings.  Only attend the events you want to.  That’s all I need.”

It ended up that that worked for me. She modified what I needed to do to make it manageable for me. 

But I did learn from our exchange:

Non-writers don’t understand the process.  They understand the amount of work that goes into writing a book, but they don’t understand the promoting.  They don’t understand that you’re either writing a book, revising a book, promoting a book, or trying to sell someone on a new series…or doing all of those things simultaneously.

If you try to explain this process to a non-writer, you sound like you’re exaggerating.  Or bragging.

Best just to say the writing is consuming all of your time.  They may understand that better than the other stuff you’re doing.

If you’re in a time-sucking commitment, see if the parameters of the commitment can be adjusted before you drop it altogether. It’s a very tough time to find volunteers right now….many former volunteers have had to return to the workforce.

When you’re asked to take on a new commitment (even if they ask you face to face), tell them you have to sleep on it and will email them back.  I can write beautifully, but I’m awful on the phone.  I can elegantly explain why I can’t take on a new commitment via email where I’d somehow end up taking it on if I’m on the phone with the person.

So far this fall I’ve  scaled back on one commitment and avoided another.  I’d like to take on a lot of volunteer work, but right now I’m more limited, time-wise, in what I can handle.  This is the year I’m more cognizant in realizing when I’m getting in over my head.