Alison Kent's Blah Blog

Happy New Year to all of you who make blogging fun. I’ve got a few goals this year, all involving numbers. Big numbers. Numbers of words and miles and other things, but I’m keeping them to myself. Protecting them in the same way I protect the work until it’s ready for public consumption. I have a calendar hung to keep track, two, in fact, and am excited to start plugging in those numbers and watching them rise . . . or in some cases, fall. *g* Yes, things like lists and calculators and analyses make me happy.

On the right sidebar you’ll see a fun new feature. Instead of using a form to collect contest entries, I’m going to be giving away five copies of a single book each month here on the blog. To be eligible to win, you just have to comment at some point during said month. At the end of the month, one commenter will also win a $15 gift card to Amazon. I’ll still do giveaways from time to time in my posts, yes. Oh, and you’ll have to check the first of the month’s winners’ list to claim your prize. You’ve got all month to post, so no pressure to pop in immediately! And if you already have the book or don’t want it, it’ll go into a box to be given away down the road in a grab bag.

On New Year’s Day in 2006, 2007 and in 2008, I posted John McDonald’s introduction to Stephen King’s NIGHTSHIFT. I’m not posting it today, but I am pointing you to it. Here’s a snippet, but if you are a writer, do go read the whole thing. It’s the best piece of writing ON writing I’ve ever read, and I should read it more than once a year.

If you want to write, you write.

The only way to learn to write is by writing. And that would not be a useful approach to brain surgery.

Stephen King always wanted to write and he writes.

So he wrote Carrie and Salem’s Lot and The Shining, and the good short stories you can read in this book and a stupendous number of other stories and books and fragments and poems and essays and other unclassifiable things, most of them too wretched to ever publish.

Because that is the way it is done.

Because there is no other way to do it. Not one other way.

Today I am guest blogging about cowboy LURVE at Amber Leigh Williams’ The Cozy Page, and if you come over and comment, you might just win a copy of either TEX APPEAL or ONE GOOD MAN. What I didn’t mention there but will mention here, is that one of my current WIPs stars two gorgeous cowboys, a white hat and a black hat, as it were and if I want to go all cliche. After I finally settled on the name for the second one, everything about his story fell into place, and I can’t wait to learn more about him. For now I know he’s contrary, coarse, a true cuss who knows what he wants. The main thing he wants is the story’s heroine, but that’s kinda tough because he’s not the hero. The hero can be just as contrary, just as coarse when needs be, and he definitely knows what he wants. So who’s the white hat and who’s the black? That’s what’s going to be fun figuring out as I go! And their story is the one I’ll be writing on today. Yes. Today.

Are you writing today?

*****
Writing Tip O’ The Day

To jump into writing about characters who aren’t yet developed through hours spent putting them on the page, make a list of five character traits for each one. Tack it to a bulletin board, or write it on a sticky note and put it on the edge of your monitor. If you write by hand, dedicate a page at the front of your notebook to these words. Keeping a character IN character means spending time in his head. The list will help in the beginning when you’re not yet intimately familiar with your story people and need the cue. Soon enough, their reactions and responses will be second nature and stepping out of character won’t be an issue. Until then there’s nothing wrong with a crutch.

*****

Post O’ The Day

10 Things I’ve Learned About The Writing Biz