Controversy!

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Totally missed #MondayBlogs and am so not happy.  The only thing consistent in my life is inconsistency, something I dislike.

I seriously need to stop with the controversy in social media.  It’s tough not having an opinion about current events.  Or rather, hiding my opinion about current events.  I’ve spent 45 years of my life finding out what everyone else’s opinion was before voicing my own.  If mine didn’t agree with anyone else’s, I didn’t voice it at all.  Anyone who heard what I really thought about anything during those years?  I trusted them completely.

I like facts.  I like proof.  I love logic.  Based on experience and research, here is what I think about gun violence and violence against women.

There’s been a lot of talk about open carry and how people have the right to have any gun they want at any time they want, per the Second Amendment.  They want confrontation and heated argument about their rights.  I’m not sure how any gun by any one at any time is guaranteed in the amendment, but that’s fine.  They can have that right.  My right is, I can go to a public place and when seeing someone I don’t know packing heat, I can walk away.  I have the right to life just as much as they have the right to carry and I don’t have to be there on the assumption it’s safe.  Aw, but, they’re good people, you shouldn’t be afraid of them, some have said to me. Sure, I can believe that.  They may be the best person in the world, there to protect all of us.  But, if they’re in civilian clothes while carrying and I don’t know them, I’m leaving as quickly and quietly as possible.

#YesAllWomen was fun.  I didn’t realize how common or pervasive my security measures were until marrying my husband.  My locking the car door in a rural area, even, puzzled him.  As did me having car keys ready before leaving the store in broad daylight.  Walking fast in public?  He wondered why my habit wasn’t strolling, especially when we were just walking around sight seeing.  He saw no problems in going out to the car after dark, or running to the convenience store after 10pm.  Not until I balked at doing so, asking if he thought it was a good idea.  Why am I so ‘aware?’  One simple reason.  The bad guys look like the good guys and some of the best guys I know look mean.  NO man has ‘rapist’ tattooed on his forehead.  So, until I know them, I keep my distance, as do a lot of women. Even then, most sexual assaults are done by men familiar to their victims.  It’s so sad and wrong.

#YesAllPeople, though?  Domestic violence against men is not as pervasive.  Most men do not have to worry about being sexually assaulted by a stranger or their spouse.  There’s also not a lot of men kidnapped, raped, and left for dead. Maybe if we can get the domestic violence against women down to the level of domestic violence against men, we can all work on domestic violence against people.

Does all this not liking guns in public and saying alert when out in public with my daughter or alone make me a ‘cowering little bitch?’  No, I don’t think it does.  There have been many things I’ve done in my life that scared me.  And when possible, I did them twice precisely because I was still afraid of the second time.  So no, I don’t cower, not even when terrified.  The bitch part, though?  Good thing that whole tattooed on the forehead isn’t a trend or I’d not be fooling anyone. 😉

Next Post: What I learned at the RT Booklovers convention and other writerly things because who cares about anyone else’s opinion but their own?

I have a ton of them in paper form and several more bookmarked on my web browsers.  Some were hand drawn and now available via Google, while others are the latest in tourist roadmaps.  Still more are from National Geographic with infinite detail of every mountain and valley in our country.  I have more maps than those of just the United States, of course.  I’m trying to ignore them in favor of finishing the Oregon Trail series. After this project and all its intensive research, I’m totally in favor of writing something either present day or set in the far future.

“What?  That can’t happen!  You just pulled that out of your butt!”

“Why yes, yes I did.”

So back to the maps and why I have access to so many.  Well known landmarks in the 1800’s aren’t the same as the ones we take note of now.  In some places, the original trail crisscrosses highways.  In others, it runs through privately owned land.  Is every single step along the way to Portland vital to the story?  Yes, and no.  Sure, I could have a character die by falling down a steep cliff into the river below.  Could it be the Green River, or would it best to use the Snake River?

 

This is Green River.

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A bad place for a cliff death. That might be a good thing.  So, the victim will have to wait until the Snake River.  Even then, the banks aren’t steep the entire way.  Landscapes like this is why I study the topography of my settings.  It’s also fun to see what surprises the terrain and weather can bring to my characters as well.

Fun fact about the Oregon Trail!  You could have left Independence, Missouri, near where I live, and maybe reach Oregon before October.  If nothing tragic happened, other than a death or two, it would be possible.  But if you waited to leave next week?  It’d be a whole lot better if you just waited until next April.  Otherwise, you’d risk a catastrophe of Donner proportions.  Read here for more information.

“You guys are being too noisy for me to hear the voices in my head.”

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Yeah, I said it. Voices in the head.

It’s an occupational hazard for a writer to hear others’ conversations in your mind. Hearing these people created by an imagination, overactive or not, is something a lot of fiction writers will only admit to in closed circles. Creating a true three dimensional character is something like creating a child. After a certain point, you have no control over anything they do.

Some writers start with character. Others start with a setting or conflict and see what character best fits. I tend to be in the characters first, situations second. I also close my eyes and ‘watch’ the book in my imagination, like recalling a memorized movie. Often this movie will have deleted scenes inserted in places that just work. Like, I didn’t plan for this secondary character to be run over by a wheel. It just happened. I have to admit, accidental scenes tend to happen when I’m bored with writing description. Dialogue is my strong suit, not details. That’s ok, too. Somewhere there’s a writer needing me to read over their dialogue to see why the words aren’t flowing.  Just as much as I need someone to tell me they need to know more about what’s happening.

But, back to writers and their mentality. I can imagine living with a writer can be difficult. It’s their nature to extrapolate everything. It’s also their nature to tell you to look up extrapolate if you don’t know what it means. They also say weird things like, “I wonder what would happen if we found a dead body in there” when stopped at an interstate rest stop. Not comforting, no. Something I’m not sure my husband loves is how I can have an entire silent argument with him without us saying a word. He also doesn’t know we’re having one until I tell him, “Fine. You’re right. Whatever.” Though he likes being right, he has no idea how I had a thought, imagined his response, responded to that, and back and forth until one of us won. I know, not normal, but somewhat typical of fiction writers.

What’s the take away from all this? For me, the best part of writing is creating everything in my mind or on paper and then giving my imagination free reign. Second best part? Rereading and completely enjoying what I wrote.  No, that doesn’t happen every time.  Feeling odd because your characters have minds and voices of their own?  Don’t.  It just means you did a great job in creating them.

Boredom and Writer’s Block.

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First of all, I could do links in all this to substantiate my words.  But I’m not.  I’ve had migraines off an on for the past six days and am not up to it mentally.  So, google for yourself and if I’m wrong, please comment.  Otherwise, come along and read something fun.

We live in a world of constant mental stimulation. Or maybe it’s just me.  With internet, TV, books, video games, being outside, work, gym, kid, cats, husband, friends, and crafts, I am only  bored in one place, bed.  I was, anyway, until my family teamed up and bought me an iPod touch for Christmas.  Now, even just before sleep, I’m not bored.  It’s my Words with Friends/self-improvement hypnosis time.  Which is both good and bad.

Why both?  Because electronics are infringing upon my “I’m bored but am fretting too much to sleep” time.  It was the one uninterrupted part of my day where I could imagine what if’s based on the day’s information.  Like, what if a couple made a deathbed promise to be married?  What if the one time a bride thought her sister would leave her guy alone, she doesn’t? My latest is what if someone could literally buy the sun?  How would that impact the world’s population?  Another is what if there was a world where eyes evolved in air? And another, how would we communicate with a species who lives in a place where we’d freeze solid? Or instantly burn into vapor?

All of these are fun ideas to ponder.  A few are already books.  What I think a lot of people call writer’s block is actually a lack of being bored.  Lives are so full of distractions, it takes away the time to just daydream and speculate.  We need that time to fill in our own blanks, not let others putty it in for us.

Bottom line? Boredom is not something to be feared.  Instead, it’s a good time to use the quiet to bust up that writer’s block.  There’s not a lot of chances to be bored in a world where even the stores’ checkout lines have televisions. So do yourself a favor and schedule in some daydreaming time and see how much fun your mind can have on its own.

What the?!

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I missed yet another Monday Blogging?  For crap’s sake!  This does not speak well of my consistency.  Maybe the only thing consistent about me is my inconsistency.

So what have I been doing?  A lot of NOT writing.  American Legion Auxiliary, changing over to AT&T U-verse, teaching knitting, spring cleaning, spring training (way out of shape!), getting my tiny child ready to graduate high school, and all those tasks that needed doing before the list above could be done.

Sounds like a lot of excuses dressed up like reasons.

I’m not a big fan of excuses.  Now that a few big events are done, I can focus on getting to the halfway mark of Undesirable.  One of the huge positives to come out of not writing is how there’s been a book trailer created.  It is amazing!  My daughter and I have been fine tuning it, and now we need to buy the stock footage.  We reviewed a lot of other book trailers and this one is terrific.  Vicky has made more small movies since then and the kid is really super good.  I’ll have to get her to post a few on here later.

Yes, I’m all over the place in this post.  Mainly because my mind is still on Undesirable.  I’m a few paragraphs away from being done with the current chapter and I’m all like, “Write this post faster so you can get back to it already!!”  Time to obey my inner slave driver.

Slacker!

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I know, I know! I’d devoted myself to Monday blogging. Tuesday happened, then Wednesday, and at last today. I have a lot of great reasons, but no decent excuses.

So how can I make this a value added post, one that will benefit your life? No idea, except that whole don’t mix colors with your towels is a lie. Unless there’s bleach involved. Then yeah, it’s a bad idea.

What else? I’ve written about showing versus telling when writing a story, so that’d be old news. New news? How about a cool story idea instead. What happens when you thaw an ancient plant? Not much, probably, but what if it were a killer plant? One capable of sentience?

At any rate, here’s the article that started this little germ of an idea.

“I’ve been dormant HOW long?“

Author Interview: Laura Stapleton for #MondayBlogs

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Hey everyone!  You must run over to Book Bliss and read my interview over there.  I had such fun answering Lexi’s questions!  She’s one of those women who do more in an hour than most people do all day and I so admire that.  After you read my interview, stay a while and show her some love.  Her blog is wonderful.

Lexi's avatarBook Bliss

Please welcome the amazing Laura Stapleton to Book Bliss! Scroll on down to get to know here a little more, not to mention a list of spoilers!

With an overactive imagination and a love for writing, Laura Stapleton decided to type out her daydreams and what if’s. She currently lives in Kansas City with her husband, daughter, dog, and a few cats. When not at the computer, you’ll find her in the park for a jog or at the yarn store’s clearance section.

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– You write a collection of Oregon Trail novels- I love this game and can’t resist asking, any influence from the game when you thought up the idea?

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I Need More Sex

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I’m halfway through with writing a book, Undesirable.  The plan?  To have it chock full of hot, romantic, adulterous pioneer sex.

The result so far?  Not even a kiss between the two main characters.  This is a romance, they’re supposed to at least kiss.

Not until chapter six, I guess.

So, the question on most non-writer’s minds is most likely why can’t I just force the issue?  Aren’t I, as the author, the one in control?

To which I answer, I was in control, but now I’m not.  I created the setting and conflict.  I created the characters, each with their own lives and motivations.  They’re not 3-D, more like 100-D, with that many dimensions to them.  Again, why can I not ‘write’ them what to do?

Because my work with creating them is done. It’s kind of like having adult children.  You can set things up to be easy or difficult, but in the end, character drives their actions.  I think in the best stories I’ve ever watched or read, the characters are always true to themselves.  Sam in Undesirable is a straight arrow, intent on right and wrong.  Even if wrong is where he wants to go, he won’t because that’s not who he is.  Marie, his love interest in the novel, is also an honest person.  Her feelings for Sam are growing but her love for her husband is keeping her from giving in to them.  Me?  I’d planned on them having a make out session in chapter one, and yet, it’s in chapter six that they kiss.  I’m not even sure they’ll do that, to be honest.

So now I put it back on you.  Are readers in an instant gratification world fine with extended sexual tension?  Can characters be truly that strong in a writer’s mind that they call the shots?  Is adding violence a good way to substitute for the lack of sex?

Being Accurate is Exhausting!

My biggest fear in writing anything historical is someone coming up to me and saying, “That was wrong.” Checking and rechecking everything takes a lot of time. Enough that, at the moment, I’d like to write anything that’s in the present day and familiar. Not the future, because that would take tons of research, too, into today’s technology extrapolated by X number of years.

Don’t get me wrong, I do LOVE research. It’s my favorite part of writing. But sometimes? I just want the words to flow and damned the facts. Instead, I’m on Google Earth, inching my way along the Oregon Trail from overhead, and typing out each tiny little paragraph at the same time.