Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Snowball Effect

We've all seen the cartoons. A character builds a small snowball and rolls it down the hill. As it rolls, it grows and becomes bigger and bigger until it becomes enormous and either crushes something or becomes a part of something even larger. Writing is a lot like that.

First, a writer is struck by a phrase, an idea or even a sight.
Second, a story is spawned. It may take hours or even years, but something grows from that little snowball and soon a novel is born.
For me, my latest work in progress (WIP) was all started from a comment someone made about a girl in a truck. That has escalated into a draft for Deja Vu. Another book of mine, The Bookstore Lady (now in the capable hands of my agent) started from a dream about a cat.

All it takes is one snowball. Or a grain of sand if you're an oyster.

There are other snowballs in our lives as well: new jobs, new loves, children, can all start out as something smaller than what they eventually become. We can let them consume or crush one another or allow them to build upon each other to become to make us stronger people. Just as ideas become multi-dimensional novels.

As a matter of fact, I think I have a new novel idea simply from writing this article.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

More Paperwork

I got an interesting e-mail from one of the other writers my agent Dawn Dowdle at Blue Ridge Literary represents. It's an interview. In order for all the writers to get to know each other, and our fans to learn more, Rachel Brimble has sent everyone an interview for each of us to tell others what we write, how we write and why.

I wasn't expecting any revellations out of the deal. Just the usual who, what, where, when types of questions. What I received was a list of questions about my goals, what I read and what I like and dislike about writing. One of those questions was "What is the book you wish you'd written?"

As writers, we all wish we'd been the ones to write Harry Potter and the Anything, or Twilight or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo novels. But do we wish that for the fame, the money or the desire to write something that will capture the imaginations of a broad audience? What surprised me when I answered that question was that I chose "On Writing" by Stephen King. It is the culmination of a lengthy writing career and many successes as well as failures by a man who learned from both. That is the book I want to write one day. A book to say I did it and this was how.

One day I will.
For now, I'm taking notes and keeping a scrapbook.
And writing....

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