Trials and Travails of the Journey...

Laura:

I’ve wrestled with the WIP I’d hoped was destined for the Big Girls. Tried out Jennie’s suggestions (excellent for figuring out character arcs), tried other suggestions, and finally last night, decided, “Yanno, I’m struggling. I’ll set it aside for the moment. Work on something else.” So, I pulled out a couple of old WIPs and found myself re-enthralled with one of them, and re-intrigued by another, and laughing at myself because one is clearly a romantic comedy and the other is a paranormal.

This morning, while I was climbing into the shower, still half-asleep (the ol’ bod knows what to do in the mornings, even if my braincell isn’t engaged yet), it occurred to me what was wrong with the “Original WIP.” Still more asleep than awake, I IM’d Sherry first thing this morning with, “I figured out what was wrong with it!” Of course, Sherry knew exactly what I was talking about as we’d spent a couple nights chatting on IM, with me whinging about having lost that lovin’ feeling for the story.

Now the conundrum: which WIP to work upon?

Heh. Well, I do know now what I need to do in order to “fix” the original WIP, but the lovin’ feeling is gone, gone, gone... ooooh-ooooh-ooooh. So, I’ll just sideline it until the lovin’ feeling comes back.


Sherry:

I absolutely know how it feels when you lose your thrill (On Blueberry Hill?) for your WIP. *stares pointedly at the large number currently cluttering up the ole hard drive* Sometimes, though, after a few months (years?) that thrill returns, along with the plan to breath new life into a former love (in this case, a WIP gone bad). A case of absence and the heart growing fonder.

I’m in love with my current WIP. The subject matter has haunted me for a long time. I have no idea why it took me so long to think to build a romance novel around it. So far, by using writing tips (which we have dubbed The Method) gleaned from Julie Cohen (Waldenbooks bestseller for Harlequin Special Presents and Mills and Boon), I’m finding my thrill again with nary a blueberry hill in sight.

And the journey continues.

Taking shape....

Laura: Yes, as I admitted in the guest post intro, Jennie’s method scared the panster in me into a curled up mass of whimpering writer. I mean, this takes organizational skills (if you could see my desk, you’d understand that “organizational skills” is a foreign concept to me.). This takes more colored paper than I have on hand. This takes printer ink. (Guess what I managed to forget again today, on my trip to Wally World? G’wan. Guess. You’ll never get it. Heh.)

So, the other night, as we drove to watch a minor league baseball game (the home team was... well, in a word... trounced. The only reason we stayed ‘til the end was for the fireworks, but I digress...)...Where was I?

Oh, yeah, so there I am, without a computer, a laptop or even any caveman tools (notebook and pen), and I started thinking about my current WIP. I’m on chapter four, and it just wasn’t working for me the way I was trying to take it, and I KNEW it was wrong, but couldn’t quite see a way to fix it.

“Try thinking just about the hero’s arc,” said a little mutant voice in the back of my head.

So I did.

Wow.

Let me just say, when I focused in on what my hero wants and needs to do, I saw several things unfolding: the heroine’s BIG conflict, and how his actions will contribute to... get this... the BLACK MOMENT! Yes! (Panster does a li’l victory dance here, because the BM’s don’t usually unfold this early in the story for me.) I can *see* where this story needs to go, what needs to happen in order to fuel all the conflicts and growth necessary towards bringing this couple together.

I’ll admit, I didn’t use the color coding method when I finally got my hands on caveman tools, but I got my points written down, and will have them on hand as I finish writing this story. And Sherry’s fainted from the shock of my announcement via IM: “I’ll have you knows, that I used a portion of Jennie’s method... well, in my noggin, on the way to the b-ball game, and wound up PLOTTING some of my hero’s arc for the WIP.”

I’m excited about the direction I discovered this story would take, and I don’t feel like I’ve traded sides here, and gone to pitch for the Plotters, either. Nope.

I’m still firmly planted in the Panster’s dugout.



Sherry: Here I sit with my stash of colored paper and find myself also sans printer ink. (whimper). I will be rectifying that lil oversight posthaste.

Not that the need for the printing part of Jennie’s method is anytime near for me. I still have to do the identification portion. And I will. As I might have mentioned before, I have the perfect, most imperfect story just begging to be scrambled into pretty colored strips.

In the meantime, as I pondered the methodology involved, I also began to mentally focus on yet another story that I have brewing. Using Jennie’s method, I began to “think” the story into the appropriate colored sections. Being only in the beginning stages of the story, this was fairly easy to do.

Right away, I could tell where I needed to concentrate my efforts. How exciting!

Keep checking back as I begin using Jennie’s Big Breakdown method. The plotter in me is simply all-atwitter to begin. I’ve read Jennie’s books and I know how well plotted and executed her stories are.

Go find out for yourself if you haven’t already.

Now, off to get that ink!