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Episode 105: Preptober: How to Plan for National Novel Writing Month

Hey Christian Indies,

This episode reminds me of Christmas.

I know, I know, I’m rushing things; the leaves have barely started showing off in northern Michigan: but allow me to explain. 

 In our family, Christmas is a time to gather with family and share love and gifts. Unfortunately, there is so much to see and do (many families to visit) and we enjoy Christmas so much, our celebrations have spilled over into the day before. Now, we also have an enormous gathering on Christmas eve!

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, or, “NaNo” for short,) is a bit like this. However, it is more than the excitement of writing a novel in just thirty days that causes people to start thinking about this event an entire month in advance! No, dear Indie, the truth of the matter is far more consequential: you NEED a plan for NaNo! That is, of course, unless you are the hardiest of the die-hard pantsers and  like to open your cursor at midnight on November first and look at a blank screen and a flashing cursor! Zoikes!

Find more of our planning chats in Episode 85, 86 and 87.

Tune in this week and learn how to make the best of your October planning session for NaNoWriMo!

See you there,

Jamie

Episode 97: Finding Your Social Media Stride

A recent foray into the world of social media has brought a sad fact of reality profoundly to my attention: I have a boring life.

You see, I primarily peruse social media in order to read.

I enjoy reading about the happenings in the lives of other people, the opinions of my peers, or  chronicles of events which obligation or distance prevented me from attending, often reacting with “care” or “love.” 

But that is the extent of my participation: I’m not really much of a poster.

In fact, I think I’m more of what you call a “lurker.”

So, when I was recently challenged to increase my participation on social media (and, thus, build my “author’s platform,”), I found myself with quite a dilemma:

I had no idea what to say.

I mean, not on my author’s account, anyway. On my personal accounts, I have no issue. It’s easy enough to think of areas in your life your Mom or your Aunt Sally would like to receive updates about:  but surely, my future audience – and new social-media-platform acquaintances – are not interested in the fact that my daughter’s prom pictures got rained out, or that I tried a new muffaletta recipe last weekend. 

So, what are they interested in? Nothing that I could think of to post from the world of Jamie Hershberger. Thus, I reached the sad conclusion of my introductory announcement: I have a boring life.

Ever intrepid, I wonder now, “How can I overcome my interesting-life deficit sufficiently in order to  connect with these people*, thereby creating from them connections, which eventually leads to ‘fans’, when I honestly, secretly, don’t even believe I am a writer, yet?”

Could that, perhaps, be the majority of the problem?

Tune in to find out,

Jamie

PS – Sheesh. Since I’ve become a writer, I’ve discovered I am both a “pantser” and a “lurker”! I’m going to need a notebook page dedicated to keeping up with all my nicknames!

*Jen has told me I am not allowed to call them, “twits,” no matter how many times they may, “tweet.”

Episode 96: Plodding Through Plotting

Hey, Christian Indies,

You may or may not know this, but I am a “pantser.” This means that instead of plotting my books out, I am  committed to “fly by the seat of my pants,” so to speak, a “die-hard” devotee to the idea of discovering the story as I write it. Therefore, I have never found myself in the peculiar position of being bound up in a never-ending plotting nightmare.


However, even with my limited experience, I can see how someone who has discovered the benefits and utility of the process could be inclined to “over do” plotting.  How tempting would it be to just keep adding things to the outline, when you’ve created these characters that you know oh so well: you know in which hand they hold the body pouf in their hand when they shower, what their favorite brand of microwave popcorn is, and that they’ve always wanted to drive a luxury sedan.  Thus, you (wrongfully!) conclude your novel must – whatever the cost to story structure – include a crying jag in the shower, a pajama party/movie night, and a trip to the Lexus dealership. Or, you find it impossible to turn off the spigot of setting or plot ideas once you’ve opened it, and you keep inventing little scenarios in which to position these unfortunate creations of your maniacal imagination.

In both scenarios, your plot just grows bigger, and bigger, and bigger  and you never get around to actually writing the book, or, worse, you do attempt to write this book, and end up with something that  isn’t a novel at all, but just a big wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey mass of weakly strung together occurrences.

So, how does a plotter know when “enough plotting is, (FOR REAL!) ‘enough’?” Tune in this week as our resident plotters, Jen and Rhonda – as well as Tina, who’s a self-professed “plantser” (plotter/pantser hybrid) – try to navigate this tricky topic. For special fun, we’re bringing on Rhonda’s mom, Barb, the other half of the mother/daughter writing team “Dee Dee Bouman.” They’ll talk to us about their book, “Use this Workbook to Plot Your Novel” 

See you there,

Jamie

PS – Just for fun, you can hear us talk about the difference between “plotting” and “pantsing” on  episode 11 of the podcast to figure out which is more your style!

Episode 93: Art Imitates Life #4: Inspiration is Everywhere

Hey Christian Indies,

Something readers often ask is, “how do you come up with all these ideas?”

If you’re anything like me, you stumble and fumble to answer such questions. After all, if I knew the source of my ideas (the good ones, anyway!), I’d return to that fount afresh each morning, hauling along the biggest bucket I could carry.

We writers know that our writing inspiration does not come that way, in some predictable manner, such as a spring-fed stream which perpetually and inexorably flows from higher elevations to the lower. Inspiration is more like the wind, or perhaps like a wisp of vaporized sea, lingering – even faintly tastable on the tongue – yet impossible to directly grasp.

This sounds like bad news, until you consider inspiration – like the vaporized droplets of the Atlantic that make that region’s saltwater taffy dance on the tongue – is everywhere, all around you. This week on the podcast, we’ll learn how to recognize, collect, and distill this inspiration into a story that comes alive for your reader. 

See you there,

Jamie

Episode 92: Art Imitates Life #3: Characterization

Hey Christian Indies,

Just recently, a woman caught my eye. She was walking down the sidewalk in a fifties get-up, complete with a poodle skirt, sweater,  and scarf around her neck. In moments, my mind created details of this woman’s life, based solely upon her outfit. I imagined her a sold-out member of a sock-hop reenactment group, who had assembled her outfit with painstaking attention to detail. She’d done a remarkable job; every piece appeared accurate, save for one bright white exception – her shoes, which were athletic sneakers.

I gestured toward the tote the woman carried and remarked to my husband, “I bet she has a cute little pair of patent leather mary janes to put on once she gets where she is going.” 

He responded, “maybe not,” and immediately, I could see the possibility that she might be a different sort of person altogether, someone too sensible to bother with shoes that would grow uncomfortable as the evening drew on, someone who’s smuggling Cool Ranch Doritos in that bag because she can’t trust anyone there to show up with a decent snack. In other words, someone a little more like me.

The fact that we can never know the truth about this woman’s motivations illustrates the point that human behavior is a response to human experience, which is not universal. Today on the podcast, we will discuss how these acts of human behavior which make us stand up and take notice can help us develop characters that come alive for the reader.

See you there,

Jamie

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