lori sizemore

You know I have a GMC spreadsheet.  Fine, here it is.  (Usual rules apply.  Use it all you want, but don’t share it.  Just link back here.  Thanks!)

Okay, so I talked a couple of weeks ago about walking away from the keyboard, listening to music and driving along, and my story becoming.  No other way to describe it.  My characters started talking to me, and everything became clear.  The ending.  The GMC of EVERYONE.  Who the real antagonists were.  Who these people were.  Idiosyncracies, jobs, inside jokes.  All there.

Still, I’d fallen into a rut.  I couldn’t write.  So, I made my writing area less comfy / creative and more workable.  I can still have the pretty, still do.  But the keyboard is lower, perfect for typing–not so much for lounging in the chair and stumbling through websites. I guess I used to think a writing office should be a temple to creativity and reading.  Now, I understand that it needs to be those things… but it also needs discipline.  To remember why I’m here.

And here I am.  I just completely deleted my entire GMC charts.  All of them.  I moved previously written scenes to the discarded folder.  And I am thrilled.  Because I’ve got this story.  I’ve got the people.  And I’m writing.

I received this book from a wonderfully sweet friend, so I’m just getting started.  I’ve had it on my wishlist for a long time, because I think that it’s important to be masters of body language.  I guess this comes easily to some. I am not one of those people.

For one thing, it’ll keep your character from nodding 180 times in 400 pages, just to have some sort of action.  If you can call nodding action, that’s debatable, I think.

I’ll be glad to add a review when I finish, but for now:

In my last writing post, I listed five ideas to write without sitting down and staring at that damned blinking cursor that smirks quietly at you from the top of the page.  However, those suggestions assumed you had extra time and / or money.  So the last five will focus on what you can do with a crazy life and making an average writer’s wage.

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I made reference recently to the acronym B.I.C.H.O.K. (Butt In Chair, Hands on Keyboard). As I mentioned, it’s not always my thing, although I do get that self-discipline is crucial.

From Ninth Moon, a site that’s a virtual goody bag for writers, they have a B.I.C.H.O.K. charm, and that’s my offering today: