What have I done this week?
1. Revised
2. Plotted The Guardian's Angel
3. Wrote the synop for Hellion's Haven
4. Worked on Web page for mother
5. Read What A Lady Wants
6. Chatted with Victoria Alexander over at Romance Round Table, you should really check out her new release The Perfect Wife
7. Went to a writer's meeting, listened to a screen writer, she was fabulous.
8. Visited Yo Ho A Writer's Life for Me
9. Revised HH
10. Revised HH
11. Revised HH
12. Considered joining Romance Divas
13. Revised Synop

I'm exhausted.
*If you move your cursor around there are links to places on my page.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Alice Audrey
Harris Channing
bettythegeek
Don't make me get the flying monkeys!
Buck Naked Politics
Jackie Does Dish
nichtszusagen
My Life~AUTHOR Adelle Laudan
I'll add more...

When I was little I loved to watch Happy Days, its appeal wasn't the family setting. It wasn't Joanie and it wasn't Ritchie. It was the Fonz. And then came Leather Tuscadero. As I grew older I moved on to Pat Benatar, man could she rock.

During my revisions I began to examine my heroine, now if you were to examine my her I'm sure you'd wonder where in the world I came up with her. If Fiona Graham lived in 2008 she'd more than likely play bass guitar and ride a Harley. She'd also support local charities, feed the hungry, be a bounty hunter, fight a MMA(mixed martial arts) ring. and not give a bloody damn that she lived in a man's world. Fiona is nothing like me, yet at the same time we are one and the same. I'm more likely to play the violin and drive a mini van. You wouldn't find me in an octagon for nothing, not unless I was forced to it by circumstances. Just like you wouldn't find Fiona with a sword in hand unless circumstances dictated that she be a warrior. And so, warrior she is.

Here's my tribute to Bad Girls of Rock and bad girls period.

1. Ann Wilson-Heart




















2. Nancy Wilson-Heart



























3. Pat Benatar























4. Chrissie Hynde-The Pretenders



























5. Gwen Stefani-No Doubt





















6. Amy Lee-Evanescence




























7. Sheryl Crow























8. Joan Jett





























9. Blondie























10. Janis Joplin





























11. Stevie Nicks























12. Annie Lennox





























13. Lita Ford




















If you want to check Bad Ass Heroines hop over to Romance Roundtable

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Alice Audrey
Harris Channing
bettythegeek
Don't make me get the flying monkeys!
Buck Naked Politics
Jackie Does Dish
nichtszusagen
My Life~AUTHOR Adelle Laudan
I'll add more...

Yeah, yeah, I know I did this a little backwards, but let me tell you. I can breath with ease. I'll sleep soundly. I'll get up refreshed. Renewed. Ready to take on revision hell. Thanks to the index cards I can see clearly. I'm very much bowing down to the index card Gods.

At the top left side of my card I placed the name of the character in which the pov is in. On the right hand side I numbered the scene. (I don't suggest this for plotting, because you may not know where it falls in the sequence yet.) In the body of the index card I wrote important notes about the scene. On the last line I wrote the current word count, of course this will change as I go through revisions but I was able to see which scenes needed more length and which ones might need to be cut.

So it might look something like this.

Gavin____________________________________Scene #9
Fiona offers her body in exchange for her brother.



__________________________________Word count 2,040

At least I'm not staring dumbfounded at the computer anymore wondering how I'm going to unlock all of Hellion's Haven's secrets. Now I have a plan. It works for my OCD brain. I have a lot of scenes, some need to be cut etc as is typical with revisions. But I have a plan. I have a two week plan. Yes, I said two weeks. With the help of these index cards I hope to have Hellion's Haven in tip top shape. Then I can hand it over to those who have been hounding me for pages. For a while I will be happy. For a while my cp's will be happy and all will be right as rain.

I'll let you know tomorrow if my plan looks like it will be successful at all. Today is the first day of my two weeks.

I can't say it enough I see the light at the end of the tunnel. At least until my cp's get a hold of it.

I've been meaning to discover what this whole index card plotting system is about, but I kept putting it off.

A few weeks ago my dh was watching a movie Stranger Than Fiction. I don't watch a lot of movies, television etc. What caught my eye was when Emma Thompson's character Karen Eiffel was walking through the ER looking for a deathly ill subject. Eiffel's muse had left her and her assistant Penny Escher played by Queen Latifah followed Eiffel around doing anything and everything to jar Eiffel's muse back to life. In one particular scene Escher is standing in a pristine white room moving index cards around on the floor.

A little light bulb began to flicker. Knowing that I had a synopsis to write and soon I began to wonder if index cards would be of any use to me. I couldn't find the book I had been reading so I googled and came to Holly Lisle's site. With a few adaptations for the romance genre this will work great for my OCD mind. I have yet to put the cards into action since I only discovered it last night but I'm very excited. I think it'll bring a bit of organization to my chaotic way of thinking. And the best part-I don't have to outline.

I'm the type of person the typically buys stock in index cards. They're in my purse, on the counter, in the car, they can be found everywhere, even the bathroom. Wouldn't you know it- I can only find seven cards. Such a tease. I can guarantee I'll be hitting the store tomorrow and buying index cards.

Why this is bothering me I have no idea. My stories are plot driven not character driven, so why should it bother me? I guess I'm trying to figure out what signifies a character driven and what separates it from plot driven. And where the heck my writing falls in the world of romance fiction.

I have this dream of creating a priceless piece of art with my beautiful prose. I long for the vivid imagery to pull the reader in. I want my words to wrap so firmly around my reader's hearts and minds that it'll be with them for sometime, maybe even for years. I want my stories to break rules and move boundaries. I want my words to be fresh, unique.

Back to the point-I just finished a book, I picked it up late Saturday night and finished it Sunday evening. It was hard to put down. The thing is, there was no real mystery, no real intrigue, nobody trying to kill or kidnap someone, no plots to sabotage a kingdom. It was three hundred and some pages about a budding romance between two people. Oh there was some jealousy and what-not. Interaction between the h/h and friends and family. What made it hard to put down was the way the author got into her character's heads. I knew what the heroine would and would not do, same as the hero. I cried when the heroine cried and wanted to rage with the hero. I knew their inner most secrets.

So I ask you why when I try to get into my character's head is it suggested that I take it out? There's no suggestions that the execution may no be done correctly, it's just "Take it out". The only thing I can think of is because my stories are plot driven and therefore there is a set of rules that applies to plot driven ms's and another set that applies to character driven ones.

If anyone has a suggestion it'd be great to get an insight to what I'm doing wrong.

Thursday Thirteen Valentine's Day



































Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Alice Audrey
Harris Channing
bettythegeek
Don't make me get the flying monkeys!
Buck Naked Politics
Jackie Does Dish
nichtszusagen
My Life~AUTHOR Adelle Laudan
I'll add more...

Isn't he adorable?


How could I say no?




He's only 8-10 weeks old. That's my 14 year old trying to hold him.

There is progress in the Scott household. Not only with my writing but also on the homefront.

I'm actually getting somewhere on my second novel The Guardian's Angel. And surprisingly most of it is handwritten in a notebook. Why I've never done this before is beyond me. So I've gotten some plotting done and I've gotten some writing done and a lot of research. I love it when things begin to come together.

On the homefront, well Mr. Scott asked what my second novel was about-and I stuttered as I tend to do when nervous or put on the spot. He never asks, don't get me wrong he's been plenty supportive, but he just doesn't ask.

So what do you say? Do you give a professional pitch and hope he'll be impressed? Do you ramble on about this historical fact and that one to give your novel some standing and chance losing him? Or do you say, "Well it's about an overly tall widowed lady who..." yeah I probably lost him too. :)

One of these days I'll write something that'll keep his eyes glued to the pages, but until I figure out how to write a Bruce Lee action packed type romance I'll just keep expecting blank looks. LOL Actually when I told him what The Guardian's Angel was about he actually seemed interested, and amazingly there wasn't one Kung Fu move in my description.

I guess it's time for me to write a blurb for TGA.

*Goals for this week
1. Rework Hellion's Haven chapter 1
2. Rewrite Hellion's Haven synopsis
3. Add 3k to TGA
4. Write a blurb for TGA

Thursday Thirteen what I've done in the last week

1. Grocery shopping
2. Bought Tosca Reno's The Eat-Clean diet books
3. Changed my diet
4. Exercised
5. Wrote a couple thousand words
6. Revised
7. Watched the Superbowl, sadly my team lost
8. Took youngest too the Hannah Montana 3-D Movie
9. Critiqued
10. Joined a few special interest writer's groups
11. Am taking a few online workshops
12. Took youngest to piano
13. Read Elizabeth Boyle's Love Letters From a Duke


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Alice Audrey
Harris Channing
bettythegeek
Don't make me get the flying monkeys!
Buck Naked Politics
Jackie Does Dish
nichtszusagen
My Life~AUTHOR Adelle Laudan
I'll add more...