What A Week!

This week has been full of unexpected surprises.  It started last Saturday, with the Huntington Library workshop.  I was able to hear information I had always intuitively known presented in a formal way.  I was also able to see that many aspiring writers abound, and that to tell a story is an innate passion within the human soul.  I learned a lot about planning, too!

Then I made my arrangements to attend the annual Romance Writers of America national conference.  I had wanted to attend last year, but didn’t think I was ready.  Now, along with other Dunes and Dreams members, I can’t wait to go!

Onto the tightly crafted on-line workshop with Bob Mayer titled Conflict – The Fuel of Your Story.  This was amazing in its sheer simplicity — identify your story idea succinctly and return to it as a consistent guide throughout your writing.  It’s not as easy as it sounds!  The two on-line workshops I’ve taken so far have really pushed my writing forward.  I can’t wait for the March workshop on Past Life Regression for the Writers’ Soul: A New Approach to Character Creation with Dawna Richard. You can sign up by clicking here or by visiting  http://www.dunesanddreams.org.

 Today, I was supposed to leave for a trip to Dallas.  I get very excited about getting on a plane because it means WRITING TIME!  No phone, no distractions…I was really looking forward to it.  Until the airline called me last night to tell me my flight was cancelled.  So I rebooked for Sunday, expecting we’d all be dug out of the storm by then.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and there was no snow…maybe a little bit of dust.  Since I no longer had to be at the airport, I had planned a glorious morning of staying in bed, wrapped warm in my comforter, then venturing over to the window to see the glittering white winter wonderland that awaited me.  But there was nothing. A day I wasn’t snowbound, sure, but I day I wasn’t on my way to Dallas, either. I thought about this in context of my writing.  How many times do I play out a scene in my head, only to get it on paper and find that it doesn’t work?  All the elements are there, but just like that storm, a mile off course here or there, and it’s not happening.  How many times do I position my heroine to be snowbound and shoveling out when she takes me in a different direction?

The airline called again.  I can’t fly out tomorrow, either.  At first I was bummed, but then I thought,  What would my heroine do now???

Stay tuned.