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A Field of Paper Flowers
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Thoughts on a writing life by an up and coming Mississippi author
Recent Posts Tagged With 'research'
Character Development: Map That Family Tree
I have finally gotten off my tail to start trying to work on the family history of the people who used to own Blackbourne Hall (the estate my heroine is turning into a B and B). I thought it might b...
Peace & Quiet
For the second weekend running, I am ensconced in my office at work. And I have to confess–I like it. Oh, not the work part, but I have to confess I am really enjoying the quiet. There is ...
Daily Progress Report
Til Death: 0 Daily Goal: Not Met I wasted my morning’s free time playing with creating a header and picking a them for Murder & Magnolias and transferring links (so anybody who happens by th...
Daily Progress Report
Til Death: None written, but I did get each of my major plot threads pasted into a sort of abridged draft, one for each thread. I cut and paste all the relevant portions of the draft into a new file...
Smattering of Interesting Instructive Posts
Because I am existing under the looming axe of a deadline, I’m going to direct you all toward a handful of instructive posts that came out recently on some of my regular reads that I thought wer...
Daily Progress Report
Til Death: 769 Daily Goal: Met I was lucky to get anything today, as I’ve come down with the stomach flu. It’s been a rough day....
Daily Progress Report
AW: 480 words + plotting Daily Goal: met I did all my set up in Storybook tonight, entering all my characters, locations, and plot threads. Then did a little more work on the wedding scene that brin...
New Working Title
I’ve been trying to think up a new title for House of Cards since I started the last rewrite in–I guess it was January or February. The card aspect got cut, relegated to another book some...
A Change Of Plans
I was all set to write a post about series, as that’s what I have been giving a great deal of thought to since Sunday, when I finally sat down with this month’s issue of The Writer and rea...
Spewdraft
Candace Havens is starting a new round of Fast Draft in her Workshops this week. This rather astonishing program is intended for you to have a full first draft in 2 weeks. Fourteen little days of in...
What I Want In A Heroine
So it’s Villain Month, and I should technically be thinking about my villain. And I am–both of them. The ruthless CEO against whom Rowan will be testifying and also the stalker she enc...
Daily Progress Report
Without A Past: 1118 Daily Goal: Met And we’re off! Well it wasn’t shabby for first day out in ages. There a section that I need to expand and write as a flashback to make more of an imp...
Back In The Saddle Again…
It’s been almost 2 months since I’ve really written anything. I did some decent work on TD after we returned from our fabulous Colorado vacation, but then Angel died and everything went ...
Is There A Patch To Help Quit Pantsing?
I’ve been working a great deal on plot for Without A Past this week. After a lengthy brainstorming session with Pot last night, I think I’ve got the first third of the story plotted out....
The Lengths of Research
Being a scientist, I am professionally trained to research. If it’s an academic question, I can troll the stacks with the best of them and (more often) find exactly what I want through various...
Out With A Whimper
Well the 3rd round of the 70 Days of Sweat is over. I don’t even know were I stand on final words for the challenge. Maybe somewhere between 30k-40k? It’s been so long since I’...
To Hop Or Not To Hop…That Is The Question
Point of view is a basic and crucial decision every writer has to make at the start of any project. The POV you choose has an enormous impact on the story you’re able to tell. Would Janet Ev...
Daily Progress Report
Til Death: 1132 Daily Goal: Met–hot diggity dog! Actual progress to report! Who knew? This morning I finished what was, I think, my 3rd or 4th read through of the most recent draft of TD. ...
Car Thoughts
One of my favorite procrastination methods during college was playing Text Twist. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a game that has jumbled letters and you’re supposed to see h...
Baby Fever
I think any of us who have been around the field of writing have heard the analogy that writing a book is like birthing a baby. Babies are something that keep coming up in my life over the last year...
Finding An Expert
Well as you all know, I’m always on the lookout for places where I can ask questions as research for my books. In the past I’ve used Crimespace, Crime Research, assorted professional for...
Worldbuilding…Not Just A Sci-Fi Fantasy
When I hear the term “worldbuilding” I automatically think of the science fiction and fantasy genres–stories set in worlds other than our own, be they other planets, other galaxies, ...
Adversity Is The Mother Of…Something
Well my strongest lead on possibly finding an agent to talk to petered out today. A friend of mine has a good friend whom she thought was a retired FBI agent. Turns out he actually used to be Secr...
Surprise!
Do you ever surprise yourself as a writer? I always find it interesting to see how my brain works. I used to be very much an inspiration only writer. I would work on a project until the idea for a...
Twitchy
I haven’t written since Saturday, and I’m starting to get a tic. Well not a visible one but a mental one. I’ve been doing a lot of work on my Google Notebook trying to work out t...
A Pantser’s Latest Attempt At Plotting
Okay, so anybody who’s been with me a while here at A Field of Paper Flowers has followed my attempts at breaking my pantser habits to become a plotter. I don’t like it. But it is contin...
Ch…ch…ch…changes
So I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last few days about my book since it came to a screeching halt on Saturday. While in the midst of searching out someone to answer some FBI procedural q...
Lack of Progress Report
I haven’t written a word. I’m going to be crazy busy with work the next two weeks catching up on stuff, so I’m not going to push myself. We’ll call it a catch up, refill th...
In Search of an FBI Brain To Pick
I am not a fatalist. I don’t think that every single thing that happens to us is preordained or unavoidable. However, I do think that some things happen for a reason. My background is clin...
Daily Progress Report
HOC: 39 Daily Goal: Not Met Okay so that’s not spectacular, and it was written in less than five minutes on my way to bed (as we have a flight to catch tomorrow), but I think I finally figured o...