Delicious Mistakes

One of the things I find difficult about writing is making progress.  I know that sounds strange because I’ve finished projects.  One of my favorites is an MMP publication entitled The Snow Maiden.

However, I make progress in fits and starts.  I tend to go back to correct the mistakes I make as I’m writing instead of writing forward and worrying about mistakes later. 

Several people in my writing group have expressed the same concern: slow progress because of writing while editing. As assistant organizer of a local writer’s group, I discourage this practice, but I admit to engaging in it, too.

I attribute it to detesting seeing my mistakes in print. It’s like a white glove to the face. I’m afraid to answer the challenge. Afraid to fail. So I edit while I write. And make slow progress.

I’ve recently discovered being in my kitchen helps my writing. So I am once again baking.

The result of my efforts was two dozen vanilla buttermilk cupcakes with Tuaca icing.  (If you’re not familiar with Tuaca, find out about its deliciousness here.)

When baking, I’m fearless. I don’t worry about mistakes in the kitchen for three reasons:

-       I can fix the mistake

-       If I can’t, it’s probably delicious anyway

-       A mistake doesn’t mean I’m not a good cook (baker)

  

So when I’m spooning batter into the cupcake liners and see some of the ingredients didn’t fully combine, I scoop it into the pan anyway. (The brown sugar and butter didn’t fully mix with the flour and baking powder.)

And so began my experiment. In two of the cupcake liners, I spooned dark swirls of brown sugar mixed with a lighter whipped honey-colored batter.  Beautifully marbled in the cups.

They imploded.

Or exploded, I wasn’t looking in to the oven at the time. But I did hear a noise.

Once I looked, I had to make a decision: take out the entire pan to remove the not so-perfect cakes at the risk of hindering the baking of the ones I knew were right.

I’ve been baking since I was “knee-high to a duck”. (Yes, I’m a Southerner.) So I knew not to remove the pans. Let the ones that are not-so-perfect finish their time in the oven and deal with the unsuccessful ones later.

The cupcakes finished baking and I took them out of the oven to cool and they were gorgeous frosted. I took them to a friend’s for dinner.

As for the exploded cakes, I scraped off the caramelly sugar-butter crust on the edge of the pan and removed them, too. Fluffy, sugar-crusted, buttery, melty goodness.  They were the first ones to disappear.

So don’t fear your mistakes. Don’t edit your writing as you go or you might sacrifice losing your vision for the whole work.  Or get stuck in an endless editing loop.

Fix it later.

Or don’t.

It might be delicious.

Eden Royce A/K/A The Dark Geisha loves a good ghost story, a good mystery, and a good romance.  Preferably a combination of the three.  Check out her other ramblings at darkgeisha.wordpress.com

When you're smiling....

I love to laugh. I actually love to laugh a lot and if someone can make me laugh they are my instant bestie. When there is a character that makes me laugh, I'm instantly in love. Lately, I've been in a dark place when it comes to writing. All angsty, kill a few characters, deep thoughts kind of writing. Now, I have a macabre sense of humor and can also find funny things in what some find extremely morbid but I haven't even tapped into that lately.

So it was with great surprise that while planning out a story, one little line from a character popped into my head. This was going to be a disposable character that I hadn't taken the time to develop. I was going to use him as a place setter to help flesh out something between the hero and heroine. He was lacking completely in physical description, but then he whispered that line as I was jotting down notes, and he became the sexiest thing I'd ever seen. It was a magical transformation and because of his wit I decided he needed to have a story all his own.

I'm sure some will see this as just transference of my subconscious utilizing a character of my imagination to express latent humor I needed to ground myself emotionally...um that got really clinical. Anyhoo, the point is, it may seem odd that a character I made up could make me desire him more, but tis true and I'm very grateful for him. I'm sure when I finish writing this cheeky bugger you'll be grateful too.

Janet

Seven Questions with Wynelda Ann Deaver!

It's the fourteenth, so it must be time for Seven Questions with Selah Janel! This month, we're talking to author Wynelda Ann Deaver!

SJ: As a writer, what is your absolute favorite part? What's the part that makes you want to hide under a bed and scream? 

WAD: My absolute favorite part is when my eyes go out of focus, the computer, tv, everything disappears and I’m in the story. It’s like living your own movie, and nothing else is quite like it, except perhaps the way children play and are in the action.  Hide under a bed and scream? That would definitely be revision and marketing. Revision because I just want to scream when I do it, marketing only because I don’t know how (that homework is superhard, mom!)

SJ: Is there a character you've written that definitely comes from you and is a part of you? Who? 

WAD: There are two. The first character I wrote, Alex, was who I was and who I wished I was at the time (20 odd years ago). Completely bad-ass, rides dragons, sword fights with the boys, loyal to the end and interested in justice. She was also the heroine I was working with when my mom died, so a lot of the grief, and the hitting and screaming… that came right from me. Other than her, the character I’m currently writing is based loosely on some of my experiences (she had some of the same, but I threw in a few Greek Gods, a magic garden, and well… you get the idea.) So her past is similar to mine, but what’s happening to her now? Not so much LOL.

SJ: Have you ever written any plot point or scene that makes you blush for any reason at all? 

WAD:Any and all love scenes make me blush to write. Always have, probably always will. Since my primary genre is fantasy, I can get away with a lot of fade to black.

SJ: If you had to have a cage fight with a character you've written, who would you choose? If you got to kiss them better at the end, would your choice change? 

WAD: Someone I wanted to hurt, or who I wanted to hurt badly? That would be the Blue Mage (aka Asshat) from Dragon’s Champion. I can’t stand people who feed on the pain of others. Kissing of the boo-boos? Definitely Ares, the hero of my current work in progress.

SJ: What is your biggest pet peeve with yourself as a writer?

WAD: I don’t write enough. I feel as if I should be writing reams and reams every day. Instead, I wake up, get my son ready for the bus, go to work, come home, spend time with the boy, and then possibly write. I’m getting better at it, making sure that I get words down in the story every day. It’s slow, but you know what? I’m not a single college student living with my parents anymore either.

SJ:  What's the author that you hope to live up to someday? Who's your inspiration? 

WAD: There are too many to count! Frances Hodgson Burnett is one of the reasons I wanted to start writing, along with Madeline L’Engle. Their stories transported me. Now, of the writers I currently read, hmm… I love Lynn Flewelling, Mercedes Lackey, Carol Berg… All of who write wildly different tales, set in  fantasy worlds.   

SJ:  Why MMP? What's your favorite part about working with them?

WAD: Let me tell you a story. I wrote a novella in college, and I was offered a contract on it about 5 years later. Well, technically I never even received the contract. The editing “help” I was getting was vague at best, and downright lazy in parts. I grew so frustrated I pulled the novella (which I knew needed work, but I needed help with it). A friend and fellow writer recommended I submit Dragon’s Champion to MMP, and I am so glad I did. Not only has everyone been professional (from getting the contracts, to cover art, to editing)… they’ve also been incredibly kind (helping out, answering a newbie’s endless questions).

Bright, funny Constance sets off to rescue herself when she first sets foot on the Dragon’s Path. Along the way, she’ll encounter a merry band of brigands, a shop full of dresses (and temptation) and a Golden Dragon. Constance will find out that by taking that first step… she just might find her destiny.

http://mochamemoirspress.com/dragons-champion/

Tune in next time, where I respond to Wynelda's writing prompt challenge!

Relax...

I'm normal like most people so I need to take breaks from my writing routine to take care of myself.

I garden. I don't have much space to do it, since I live in an apartment, but we're on the ground floor, which gives me an advantage in that I get to use the soil right outside our windows. I plant in pots so I may bring the plants in during the fall and winter so they survive all year round. Currently, I'm growing bay, sage, basil, pineapple sage, an avocado tree, peppers, Chinese melons, oregano, rosemary, thyme, chamomile, and cilantro. So far, everything is alive. I haven't killed anything yet.

I also live near the ocean, so when the weather permits I walk on the beach. Beach walking clears my head. I run plot scenes through my mind until they work. As I walk through the water, I can feel tension leave my body and my blood pressure drops because I'm so relaxed.

I enjoy reading, especially if I don't have to write a review. I like horror and adventure mostly, and I fill my days with books by Edward Lee, Clive Cussler, Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, James Rollins, and Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Right now I'm reading fantasy - Roger Zelazny's "Amber" chronicles. I'm currently on the first book, "Nine Princes In Amber".

When I'm not doing any of the above, I watch movies, especially horror movies. It's hard to find a good horror movie these days. Most are boring CGI gore fests with cheap shots tossed in to make you jump in your seat, but they aren't all that scary. The last movie I watched was "The Brotherhood Of The Wolf". I like foreign horror movies best of all.

Those are the four main things I do to relax. What about you? What do you like to do in your spare time to replenish your batteries?

-----

E. A. Black

https://www.facebook.com/elizabethablack

http://eablack-writer.blogspot.com

10x10: Swans

Swans, the poem below, is one of my three favorites of my own. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and still do.

 

Her hands were like swans,
crisp, hard angles
perfectly folded
origami.
Awaiting the chance
to take flight,
or perhaps a wrinkle
of character…
a definition beyond
perfection.

 

You can find me at http://wynwords.wordpress.com/ where I blog books, writing and parenting. As an added bonus, I have the other 2 of my poetry trifecta up as pages: Peach Perfection and Beloved Melon Head (neither of which would fit for a 10x10). I hope you find, and enjoy them.


You can catch my debut story, Dragon's Champion ,at Mocha Memoirs Press.