Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

Fiction Writing

Did You See Damian’s Shot?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                   (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Fiction is wonderful to write since we get to create worlds and make fairytale endings come true.  Then sometimes real life provides us with those moments. I think Spec Ops Cat is still trying to get his hearing back after the end of Game 6 on Friday night when Damian Lillard put our Trailblazers into the second round of the NBA Playoffs with the buzzer beater shot.

So for today I am going to revel in that perfect moment and prepare snacks and goodies to watch the Trailblazers and Spurs in Game 1 tonight. Sometimes life is about basketball. Here’s hoping all the teams win, but since that isn’t mathematically possible, here’s hoping the best for our Trailblazers. Rip City!

http://www.nba.com/blazers/video/2014/05/02/BlazersWinLillardclutch3ptmp4-3257826/

 

Is The Writing Always Greener On The Other Writing Project?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

A funny thing happened last month, I started writing again. Not the non-fiction book stuck in the box in the corner, if you remember that project, but my fiction book. Then a weird thing happened.

I wrote the opening few pages of the sequel to the second fiction book in the series. Got it down on paper and out of my head, then went back to the first fiction book. Then another wacky thing occurred; I wrote the story climax of the first book out of sequence and then expanded on it.

Up close and personal with the apple crisp remains.
Up close and personal with the apple crisp remains.

Normally I write fiction straight through from beginning to end. I have a rough outline, plot points and my hero’s journey framework, then I write like a crazy woman. Not this time. I’m engrossed in getting the story climax correct, then will go back and fill in the gaping hole from past the halfway mark to the new writing. I know the ending, so I can then wrap the puppy up. Next I will have to hard edit the whole mess.

I wondered what it meant when the first pages of the second book arrived in my mind, then I figured it out; this first book is ready to be finished. When the next project calls like a siren from the sea, it can mean procrastination, avoidance of grunt work, or the first project is ready to be finished.

Do I have all the plot and action answers for the first book? Not in my conscious mind, but I’m pretty sure my subconscious is figuring it out. When I write, it will be there. This might be the place where I confess the first few pages of the third book in this series were written a couple of years ago.

That third book is going to be a challenge, so I was happy to turn that assignment back to my muse and let her chew on it for a while until I get to it. Speed is not the key in writing these books, staying true to the character’s stories and the series arc is the important focus.

Fiction is fun for me to write. This time it feels like my process is changing and I’m okay with this new adventure.

When I was deciding the Easter lunch menu for this past Sunday, I had a big debate about dessert. I settled on  making both apple crisp with maple nut ice cream and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Everyone decided to have a little of both.

Sometimes with both dessert and writing projects embracing variety is the true spice of life. We can get words down on paper so we don’t lose our new ideas and then go back to our first project. We don’t have to choose one or the other, but we do have to finish one. Then we get dessert!

 

Have You Pruned Your Writing Lately?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Last Friday we had a sunny day. Since the monsoons were rolling in Saturday, I jumped out into the yard first thing and pruned my roses. Since I’m not really sure what I’m doing, I’d looked at how the landscapers pruned my Mom’s roses. Pretty severe.

Rose bushes before the great prune-off .....
Rose bushes before the great prune-off …..

Hacking away at the poor bushes reminded me of editing. Like the time I threw out two-thirds of a fiction manuscript and started over. Painful but necessary. It got me to thinking of the top three edits writers need to make, but many times do not. I know these three because I have done them all and still do; then I have to self-prune my writing.

1. Back story overload: Because you know everything about your character from her favorite nail polish to her indigestion issues does not mean the reader needs to know it. We create our characters so we can react how our characters would react and know their motivations. DO NOT put every single item about your character in the book or the first chapter. Sprinkle observations and quirks throughout the manuscript to unfold layers of your heroine and let the reader get to bond with her. Do not overshare or for the younger set do not TMI. (Too much information!)

2. Research hurling: This is a close cousin to back story overload. Research hurling means the writer throws every single tidbit they discovered about the time period, horse carriages, leather harness, brass wax and currier combs into the story. Stop the madness! Pick important details which move the story forward or provide some scene setting but don’t slow down the story. If you get bored editing it, a reader will be comatose.

3. Starting before the action: Everybody does this, really. Then the good writers edit it out. The reader does not need to know exactly what year, political structure or cult history brought the hero to this point in his life – we need to know what is happening right now. Instead of explaining the entire history of the Reno Rodeo, how about starting with the hero trying to escape from the pounding hooves of the bull he’s been thrown from onto the dirt. Drop the history stuff in later as the story requires or if it is important to the character arc. If it doesn’t advance the story, don’t use it.

Self-editing is one of the hardest things to do for beginning writers and all writers. But the more times you edit, the better you become at letting your story free from the overgrowth of deadwood which doesn’t let it grow. Hopefully like my pruned rose bushes. Prune away!

Rose sticks afterwards. Stay tuned for June!
Rose sticks afterwards. Stay tuned for June!

Do You Edit On Screen Or Paper?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                    (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Love the smell of school supplies in the morning. This time of year I buy school supplies to re-stock my writer gear, not that I need more but it makes me happy. Got me to wondering about how other folks edit their work. Since I am of the “every manuscript in a three-ring binder” persuasion, in case all the tech goes belly up, hard copy-edit is my preference.

It's school supply time. Stock up your writer supplies. Bet I need more pens, I'm getting low on my stash.
It’s school supply time. Stock up your writer supplies. Bet I need more pens, I’m getting low on my stash.

No matter how many times I look at something on the computer screen, my tricky brain can fill in words that are not even there until I see them in a finished manuscript. Argh! The weight and heft of a binder also lets me feel like I have accomplished something important instead of fonts in space.

When I first started writing fiction I worried about manuscript format, margin width, how many words the book should be, how many lines on a page, how many pages it took to make that many words, double spacing the manuscript, etc. Now I worry about the story. Seems to be the main reason people actually read what we write.

Binders require no batteries, USB ports or charging plug-in to cart it to a quiet spot and focus on editing. In the best of times editing is grunt work, tedious and requires a clear mind. What better way to let your inner critic loose than on paper with a purple ink edit pen – no red ink allowed; too many bad memories from corrected school papers.

So if you haven’t tried the three-ring binder method of manuscript editing, now is the perfect time to get out and purchase some fabulous new school supplies at bargain prices. Patterned binders. With zippers! You might need some paper too. And pens. And erasers. Cute pencil boxes. Not that I have an office supply addiction. Really. Glue sticks. Composition books.

Got school supplies?

Creativity Or Knitting – Which Came First?

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by Kimberly A. Cook             (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Back at the desk. No sooner had I stuffed my second edition non-fiction book in a box and stuck it in the corner than my three other manuscripts in process started yelling from the cheap seats; “Pick me, pick me!” It’s enough to drive my creative muse around the bend and over the edge.

Deep inside my yarn drum. This is yarn drum 2, yarn drum 1 is at the day job. It's an addiction!
Deep inside my yarn drum. This is yarn drum 2, yarn drum 1 is at the day job. It’s an addiction!

Checking my options, I informed the three projects I am knitting now. Knitting! That worked for a while, but my romance fiction book is calling to me like a siren from the sea.

So, I may work on it when my hands cramp up from knitting so much. Of course, my subconscious brain and my muse are going full steam ahead with rewrites for the fiction book while I try to focus on knitting!

Now this seems a very healthy thing to me. Since my creative frontal brain part needs to be relaxed to create, obviously the knitting is just what it needed, a complete break. I must say it is also quite happy to be the cool kid in the pack now that I’ve kicked the non-fiction book to the curb. Manuscripts do get jealous that way, sibling rivalry.

While I am buying yarn on sale and stockpiling bamboo knitting needles, my muse is getting a bit too happy; this is the first book in a three book series and my muse is working on all of them! It’s like trying to direct a toddler away from sticky candy while trying to remember what brilliant prose fell out of my mind for book three.

Who knew knitting was creative crack for my exhausted muse brain? It seems the best thing to do is let it percolate and write down snatches of what I can grab and stuff those items in their correct book box. That is my goal. Stay tuned. Mama’s don’t let your writers grow up to be knitters….. or something like that.

Now For Something Completely Different – Happiness

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by Kimberly A. Cook         (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Author Debbie Macomber is one of the sharpest marketing minds in romance fiction today. Besides that, she is a wonderful person, class act and always takes the high road. I’ve taken classes from her and learned from her since the mid-1980s. She is a gem and a great storyteller.

Author Debbie Macomber. Photo by The Hallmark Channel
Author Debbie Macomber. Photo by The Hallmark Channel

In this world of 24-hour infotainment news, plugged in everything and people getting a tad rude everywhere, I am so excited her new tv series debuts on the Hallmark Channel this Saturday, July 20, at 8 p.m.

Debbie’s made for tv movies from her books have been on the Hallmark Channel in the past, but this launch is the first tv series for Hallmark and they’ve bet their golden crown on Debbie Macomber. Good choice.

With more than 100 novels published and 170 million in print, Debbie always shares with aspiring romance writers and her readers. She is very smart about her career decisions and learns from her own mentors too.

Check out the two video previews of the new series here: http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/cedarcove/video/Preview/CedarCoveExtendedTrailer

If you enjoy good stories, treating people with respect and dignity, and the novelty of not one car chase, this series is for you. Check out Debbie Macomber’s web site at www.debbiemacomber.com and see all the great things she does for her readers.

This is going to be a fun debut, so fire up the popcorn popper, grab the pets and snuggle in this Saturday. It will be a great beach vacation without leaving the couch!