Writing for life

Hello, blog. 

It turns out is rather write than blog. And since my time right now is rather limited, I continually choose writing instead. 

I would like to thank the makers of iPhone for developing a "block caller" button in the latest OS update. Because people who call me from unknown numbers, don't leave messages, and have weird recordings when I call back are just wasting my time. And I don't have any time to waste. 

The result? You got it. Blocked calls. Ah, the freedoms. 

And in the meantime  I'm enjoying 80 degree weather with writer friends in beautiful Eureka Springs. 

Enjoy your day! (Or month, as blogging would have it.)

High expectations

Someday...

I will clean my own house again. 

I will blog from my computer, not my phone. 

My kids won't watch TV while I sleep all day. 

I won't sleep all day. 

I will write again. 

I might even put on make up again. 

And you? What aspirations do you have for yourself?

DEW time!!!

Warning: If you never have an issue finding time out of your day to write, this post won't apply to you at all. Feel free to move on.

So you know the drill. Either you're a mom or you work full-time or you're in school all day. But finding time to write gets harder and harder until you begin to wonder if you're even a writer anymore. By the time the kids are in bed and the house is cleaned, you're too tired to think. And during the day, the stinky dishes and the sticky candy on the carpet demand that you care for them before you sit at the computer. Not to mention all the things you should do--like read to your kids, take them outside for a walk, write in your journal, dust (dust?? what the heck is that?)...

The list goes on and on. And it often feels like, before you can tackle what you want, you must tackle the NEEDS.

Well, guilt no more. While lamenting over our serious lack of writing time, my friend and I came up with a simple solution: DEW. Drop Everything and Write.

In grade school, we had DEAR time: Drop Everything And Read. It was the time when we, well, did just that. So now, at 1:30pm CST, for half an hour each day, right after I've put my youngest down for a nap, we write. She does it at her house and I do it at mine, but we text each other and check in to make sure we're doing it. It gives us accountability, but it's also something we can do. I can achieve this. I don't feel bad about neglecting anything I should be doing because it's only HALF AN HOUR.

During this time, I turn off my internet and my phone. No distractions. And it's amazing what I can get done in half an hour.

I'm creating a twitter hashtag for this. #DEW, obviously, and we might end up attracting a bunch of Mountain Dew fans, but maybe they'll find they like writing also. Won't you join us?

What do you do to find time to write? How do you get it in?

Getting Credible Sources

I've had a breakthrough with my Joplin book, and I'm so terribly excited about it.

For those of you who don't know, I recently started tackling a nonfiction project about the Joplin tornado. I've spent a lot of time this month interviewing survivors. But I also wanted some factual, scientific information to include in the book.

I wasn't sure how to do this. I've done research for fiction, but nonfiction is a whole different beast. I knew I could find most of the information on the internet, but how credible is that? So last night I googled "tornado experts" and started searching out their emails. The first email I sent out was to the National Weather Service, asking them to put me in touch with anyone who could help.

Within 30 minutes I had a reply from the representative over Joplin. A very positive reply. I explained a little more about the project, and I got back this EXCITED response:

I TRULY wish you a best seller!  Your framework largely covers what sociologist have said is necessary for people to respond to warnings.  It would be my hope that your work would encourage families to respond proactively without being prompted by a horrific situation that touches their lives first. 

He then went on to tell me all the data and information he has available and wants to know how he can help.

I'm so excited I can hardly sit. I can't believe I'll be able to get all of this from the source!

This is all new to me, nonfiction, but what I've learned is, ask. If you need sources, go to the person in charge. They might be very willing to work with you.

Oh, and if you're googling people, be aware they are probably going to google you...he did. :)

Writing a Thriller

Before I got my publishing contract with WiDo, I didn't know what it meant to write a thriller. I wrote a book. I thought my novel (then titled Walk Beside Me), was kind of like a coming-of-age story. It had all the elements of a thriller, but I didn't know it. I was just writing about horrible, dramatic events that happened to these teenage girls, forcing them to question their faith and grow up.

When WiDo asked me to change it to a thriller, I though, "Sure! No biggie!" My editor gave me suggestions and I did them. "Perfect," I thought.

Except it wasn't. Turns out, there's a whole lot more to writing a thriller than I thought. It's all about the suspense, the mystery, the uneasy feeling that persists through the entire book. Now that was a bit harder to do.

I've spent the past two weeks working on pace. Making sure that the novel doesn't ever stop being a thriller. It's okay to have moments of breathing, I think. And comic relief. But then, the heart-stopping action must pick up again.

Yesterday on Twitter there was a chat on thriller novels that I, unfortunately, wasn't able to attend. Turns out they do these chats frequently, with a slightly different twist on the topic. Isn't that amazing? I can research writing a thriller from Twitter! Last night's topic was "The Thrill of Keeping it Real" or something like that. The entire chat has been transcribed here. Let me share with you some things that readers want out of a thriller:

"what matters is if it SOUNDS real. There may actually be real things that no one would believe!"

"author needs to be careful about complex things, too. For instance, In Dan Brown's Digital Fprtress, he has all kinds of computer details and he gets some critical stuff wrong. Ruined book 4 me as a programmer."

"people will accept fantastic things if it doesn't *contradict* reality."

"Building on reality to create new possibly realities is where I believe the cool factor resides."

"I love stories that make me believe things my rational mind wouldn't normally accept. Storytelling at its best!"

"The writer's job is to make anything seem possible. This is so much harder than it sounds like it should be!"

"Making it realistic enough that people suspend disbelief is certainly key."

What do you look for in a good thriller? What is it that keeps you interested?

Non-linear Writing

I'm doing something different this time around with my novel. Previously, I've just followed my outline, writing every chapter that popped up. This time, I'm skipping around.

Since I'm writing from four different POVs, I've noticed each easier for me to keep my train of thought if I write the sections from one POV for a few days. When I find myself growing tired of that character, I switch to a different POV. The result is that I've written something like this: Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 3, 7, 11, 6, 9.

It's been quite fun, actually. I know that when I finish, I'll need to go back through and iron out the seams, make sure the whole thing fits together seamlessly. It's keeping me energized, though, fueling me on every day to take a fresh look at my manuscript.

I suspect this way of writing isn't new, though! Certainly I didn't stumble upon it by mishap. Those of you who write in multiple POVs, how do you do it? What method do you use? I'm very curious!

Sequel Stats:
today's goal: 27,597
actual: 27,710 (+2,113)
tomorrow's goal: 29,710

Countdown: 15: Study Hall

Sometime in the early 90s (I'm thinking '93 or '94)

I was bored. Second semester of seventh grade, and somehow I had managed to land myself the easiest schedule ever. I can't remember the order of the classes, but it went something like this:
1) American history
2) English
3) math
4) science
5) teacher helper
6) choir
7) study hall

Did you notice those last three classes? Yes. I had a lot of free time on my hands. I finished all my homework before fifth period was over. I started going through three books at the library a week. I started writing notes to my friends like crazy. I started--well, I started a book.

I took a piece of notebook paper, folded it in half, and wrote "Walk Me Home. By Tamara Hart. Chapter 1." Yes, that was the original title, and that was my original name.

I started the book thinking about my three best friends, thinking of "The Babysitters Club", and thinking about what would be an exciting story. I came up with the idea of a kidnapping. I also wanted to share my LDS beliefs in a non-obtrusive way. Kids love reading about other kids. So my four girl characters, aged 12 to 14, were all LDS. As I was only 12 at the time, there was a lot of silliness--like getting away from the kidnapper and going on a shopping spree at the mall--and going into Sam's Club to try all the samples. I employed a lot of known 'plot devices' at the time (I thought I was being clever...) like a real skeleton in the closet, and horrible, nightmarish incidents that turned out to be dreams. Yes, I cringe a little, but I was just a kid.

Let me tell ya. This became my biggest obsession. I didn't finish writing the book until right before school started in eighth grade. But I did finish it. My dad began the arduous process of typing it for me, until I mastered keyboarding in the second semester of eighth grade. Then I finished typing it up. I took those typed pages with me everywhere, handing them out in class, on the bus, at Girl Scouts. I was so proud of what I'd written. I was 12, and I'd written a book. (Of course, by the time I got it all typed up, I was 13.) After this thing's published...I'll pull out the original first page and you can laugh at it with me.

Now What?

Yesterday was a busy day for me. I finished rewriting Branca, and I absolutely love the changes. Of course, I'm sure the ending is stiff and needs molding, as everything I write does after the first draft. But it's done and I'm putting it aside for now.

Then, I stretched my fingers, wiggled the tips, and got busy on the requested changes for Walk Beside Me. First, I made a calendar of events, attaching a month and date to each action in the book. Next, I made an outline for our detectives: when and what they are going to do on each of these dates. Exciting!

So I'm ready to go. Except--now what? Am I supposed to actually start writing something? Uh-oh. I don't know what to write! I've never been a detective! :::slinking down on the couch::: It looks like I'm going to need to contact the local police department and ask for some help. B/c I really don't know where to go from here.

Oh boy. This is going to be harder than I thought!

Avoiding Cliches

Right now I'm working on my second novel, Branca. This novel made it to the semi-finals in the ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) contest of 2008. It used to be my better novel. But after the changes I made to Walk Beside Me, I kind of cringe when I look back over Branca.

I love rewriting, though. I love watching something mediocre (or :::gulp::: bad) become better. And Emerin, my friend from writing.com, said something several months ago about the ending being kind of cliche. Well, how do you fix the ending? I've got it now. The idea came to me yesterday. And I am *so excited* to start working on it.

Thanks, Em!

Currently I'm on chapter 7, though. Changing the time frame and giving Cirus' coronation more urgency. Before I think it was kind of like, "Why are we rushing his coronation? What's the hurry?" Well, I'm still working on the reason, but I think it's more clear now. And instead of having this novel take place over the course of about a year, we're cutting it back to six months. Might even cut it back more...but six months isn't very long for our protagonist to meet Prince Charming (or Dejan, as it would be), court him, and marry him. Though I suppose in fairy tale time, it's plenty long enough.

Who am I?

This question came up, and I feel awful for not introducing myself! Allow me to do so now.

My name is Tamara Heiner. I live in Springdale, Arkansas, with my two beautiful boys, Jacen and Asher, and my husband Mark. And our cat, Seamus. Oh, and Mark's not really here right now, b/c he joined the Army in May. Fun stuff!

I'm a stay-at-home-mom. For fun I write, take my kids to the library, write, scrapbook, write, cook, and write some more. Seriously. I love writing. And yes, my children really do get jealous of the computer. :::slaps hand::: Bad mom!

Mark and I used to work at a gym and had a really bad experience with it. Did you know there are a lot of dishonest people out there? People who will pretend to be your friends and then turn on you in a heartbeat? People w/ malice and vindiction in their hearts?

Oh, okay. You all knew. Well, we didn't. Believe me--WE DO NOW!

But I'm really happy not to be working. After all, I probably wouldn't have finished my book otherwise! And now I've got three others to finish. Whoo-hoo! Off to write some more.

Keep the questions coming! It gives me something to talk about!