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I was part of a writers’ conference this past weekend and talked about developing characters for mysteries.

The audience was attentive, the library that hosted the event was gracious, and my topic seemed to go well. People laughed at the right places and even took notes.

But my favorite part of the whole event? Lunch afterwards. We met at the Artist’s Cafe in Newton, NC and had a delicious lunch and a very productive conversation on poisons. I’m on the lookout for different poisons (2 different series) and need something good. I have a great book on poisons, but it was so much more helpful to have the other mystery authors discuss poisons…and for me to listen in.

I think we may have startled the waitress. I was so caught up in the conversation that I didn’t notice, but one of my friends explained to her at one point that we were mystery writers. “Oh,” she said, “that explains a lot!”

I really enjoy my time with other writers, both online and in person. Sometimes writing is such an isolating activity that we forget there are others out there we can make contact with. Sometimes making contacts is good business sense—but other times it just keeps us sane.

Sometimes life happens to a writer and they get behind. Not me, of course! I’d never do that. But some writers do. If you’re one of those writers (poor things), here are some tips I have for catching up on your WIP. I sat in deep thought to come up with these tips, since I never get behind. Especially in the last two weeks. Okay, so maybe I got behind. But I’m almost done with my first draft now (I have a September 1 deadline for the finished product) and here’s how I caught up:

Don’t Google anything. Google will suck your time up like crazy. When you get to the part in your manuscript where you need to make sure the town name you’re mentioning is spelled correctly, just type *** . Later, when you’re caught up, you can do a “find” search for *** and insert the correct information.

When you can’t think of the right word to use, put in ***. Same idea as above. Pretend you’re taking the SAT or some other standardized test—move on to material you do know.

Go somewhere where you feel uncomfortable. If people are looking at you and wondering why the heck you’re pounding away on a keyboard at a park, then you won’t even look up from your monitor–you’ll be so busy ignoring them and focusing on your WIP. Trust me.

This should go without saying, but unplug thyself. Don’t Facebook or Tweet or email or DIGG or blog or…..just write.

Have your parents take your young child for the week. :) (I kept my indentured servant older child here.) Thanks, Mama and Daddy! It was Camp Nana and Papa for my rising third-grader.

Write at the library. This is sort of the same principle as writing where you feel uncomfortable, but with a tinge more excitement. At our local branch, I plug in my USB drive with my WIP on it. I type in my library card number and PIN. And then—there is a countdown clock on the screen, detailing how many minutes I have left (and it only gives 60 minutes.) I have to admit this gives me a nerdy thrill. In fact, I speed-type to see how much I can write in an hour. Such excitement!!!

Hope no one else gets in my predicament, but if you do, give the above tips a try.

I’d just like to check and see if anyone else is in the same shape I am, memory-wise. It seems that my head is so full of imaginary friends (and I do mean my characters…I gave up on Super Elizabeth a long time ago) that I’ve become very, very forgetful.

I forget things I’m supposed to attend. I forget where I’ve put something. I forget why I went upstairs. I forget why I went to the store.

And very frequently, I’m forgetting people. This is very bad because these people never forget me and spend their lives tormenting me in the drugstore, grocery store, post office, and library: “Elizabeth! How are you? And how is your husband? And your two children? Gosh, your son must be going into 7th grade now? Wow! Please tell your family I said hi.” And I am smiling and stuttering and wondering who the hell these people are.

My good friends know that I will never introduce them to anyone because I won’t remember who the person is who acts like they know me.

Lately I’ve tried to do a pre-emptive strike: if a person looks even vaguely familiar, I go up to talk to them. If I act like I know them first, then they won’t realize I don’t remember them at all.

This led to a very embarrassing situation for me at the Harris Teeter grocery store the other day. There was a middle-aged man in the frozen foods that I thought looked familiar. “Hi there!” I said brightly and started a conversation with him. He looked surprised, but pleased. I ended up with, “Well, I hope I’ll see you at Boy Scouts soon.” “Oh,” he said with crinkled brow, “I don’t have a son.”

Dear God. So my poor memory led to me chatting up strange men at the grocery store.

Anyhow, the point of this story is to find out if anyone else is in the same mess? Oh—and also, do people talk to you when you’re in your own, creative little world and they have t0 say “Ma’am? Ma’am? Ma’am?” a few times before you snap-to?

Or do I need to make an appointment with my GP?

We all need a little help.

I’ve been the recipient of a great deal of help the last few days—in the form of my twelve-year-old son.

We were at Walmart and he wanted to purchase something there….and he was a little short. He wanted me to spot him—$40.00.

I know a good deal when I see one. He’s young, he’s strong, and he needs money. Now I have myself an indentured servant for the next month and boy: I am definitely taking advantage of that fact. Yesterday, he and I went through my desk. The process took about an hour and a half. He spent most of that time shredding, filing, and occasionally rolling his eyes. But he also had some very good ideas about how to make the process easier.

Ideas are important and we don’t always get them ourselves. Sometimes we’re so stuck in the rut of our routines (but…this is the way I always organize the desk…) that we don’t view challenges with fresh eyes.

Sidekicks are wonderful additions to our novels. Dr. Watson for Sherlock, Captain Hastings for Poirot, Robin for Batman. For one thing, they keep our protagonist from having long internal monologues about their conflicts—instead, they can share them with a sidekick. And maybe bounce some ideas off them, too.

It can be a little boring reading about the perfect protagonist who solves all their own problems. Much nicer, much more realistic, I think, to have them tell a friend about them…and maybe get a fresh perspective on their challenges.

Today was my first day to blog at InkSpot—the blog for Midnight Ink writers.

The topic I wrote on was “Information Dumps”—you know, when you dump a whole bunch of information, usually backstory and character description, on a reader at one time.

Hope you’ll pop over to InkSpot and visit me there.